Headscratchers / I Shall Wear Midnight

• Why does Tiffany tell Roland she will marry him? I get that she does as the officiant, but why did she say it in the first place? I wasn't aware that First Sight and Second Thoughts led to rattling out prophecies.
  • Because she sort of actually wants to marry him, as in, be his wife. That's my guess.
  • Not normally, but this is a very abnormal situation. Granny Weatherwax had problems with remembering the wrong pasts in Lords and Ladies, Old Mother Dismass has a detached retina in her Second Sight that causes all sorts of temporal confusion, a kelda can listen to all the keldas that have been and will be born, so knowledge of futures/pasts that do/never did/might exist are well established on the Disc. Throw in Eskarina and an older version of Tiffany herself running around mucking with time and a premonition slipping through doesn't seem out of the question.
• Why was Tiffany so dismayed when she realized Granny and the others showed up as a failsafe in case the Cunning Man got her? Granny and Miss Tick told her pretty much the same thing after she fought the Hiver and she took that with far less dismay.
  • That was after. It's one thing to be told that if you hadn't succeeded your friends would have had to kill you. It's another to be told that if you don't succeed your friends are going to kill you. Especially when you don't actually have a plan yet.
  • Having other witches do something that suggests they thought you might fail is also a lot more offensive when you're a teenager with your own steading than when you're an eleven-year-old novice insecure about your own worth.
  • Plus, you know, I imagine that few people actually like being told that they're going to be killed if they don't succeed in their current task. It's not exactly the sort of thing people actually like to hear, even if it has happened before.
  • The last time Tiffany got possessed by a dangerous entity (the hiver), some of the other witches learned what was happening, but did whatever they could to help her regain control and recover. Presumably, when first informed that the Cunning Man intended to take her over also, Tiffany assumed that they'd do the same, so realizing they wouldn't even try was a shock.
  • If the Hiver had defeated Tiffany, there wouldn't have been any Tiffany left for the other witches to kill: it would just be a husk of a body they'd be fighting, possessed by the entity that actually had killed her. If she can't stop the Cunning Man, they'll eliminate the lure that's drawn him back to the world, even though the lure in question would still be Tiffany. Destroying the creature that just annihilated your psyche is very different from destroying you.
• When The Kelda tells Tiffany that Amber should receive witch training, Tiffany protests that Amber's too old for it. This would've been a perfect opportunity to bring in Agnes as a rebuttal. Not only does Terry Pratchett not do this, she's absent when the other Lancre witches show up. What the hell, Terry Pratchett?
  • In The Shepherd's Crown, it's stated that Agnes is touring the Disc as a much-acclaimed singer. So Agnes may not have heard, may not have been able to make it, or have been too far off for a message to reach her. With both Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg in the area, Agnes likely wouldn't have seen any reason to go rushing off, either. Also, the Kelda likely wouldn't have known such details about "bigjob" witches, unless said witches were personally known to the clan.
  • The books actually seem a bit confused about this. Thief of Time suggests Gytha Ogg started in the craft at about sixteen, and Esme doesn't appear to be a witch in the flashback sequence in Lords and Ladies. And when Tiffany gets introduced, it's suggested that a nine year old witch is a bit unusual, before A Hat Full of Sky introduces an entire coven the same age. Agnes's backstory appears to have disappeared into this gap, but either way, Tiff should surely realise that a girl with Talent needs to be trained, or she might become anything?
  • This is Tiffany's steading, so they will hold back on stuff like this. Her area, her rules, let her make her own mistakes and be ready to haul her out if she asks for it (or truly needs it). Plus, so a witch that is opinionated and bit prejudiced. Totally unprecedented that. Also Thief of Time raises those questions and answers them. Time got shattered (twice) and all the bits got jammed back in any old how, some of that must have included witch training ages. Most people would only really remember that there was nearly always a pointy hat bobbing around, the exact age of the wearer and number of them is probably a bit extraneous when you've just chopped off your own thumb, or the prize pig is coughing up the green wobbly bit. Bit of room for nicking a couple of years there, surely.
  • Does Agnes even own a broomstick? Magrat didn't entirely swear off witchcraft, she just took up Queening along with it, so she may not have left Agnes a means to travel to the Chalk with the others.
  • Perhaps the other Witches thought Agnes wouldn't be able to bring herself to kill Tiffany, and didn't tell her they were going?
    • I think there's the implication that Agnes is off with Oats in Uberwald somewhere, especially in the latest main novels dealing with the goblins.
  • It's been stated that the Bursar enrolled in UU at a time when new students were admitted around playgroup age, whereas Simon or Ponder started their studies around ten or so. There are fashions in wizards' age-of-recruitment over time; why not among witches, too? Granny and Nanny are of a generation that began their training later than Tiffany's peers did, that's all.
  • Tiffany doesn't know many trainee witches, and those she does know are roughly her own age. She also knows that Miss Tick recruits potential witches while disguised as a traveling teacher: a role that's suitable for identifying witches-to-be who are still children, not adults. She's probably just assuming that witches "have" to start young.
• I can't remember very well the first book he appeared in, but was it ever mentioned before that Wee Mad Arthur was blue?
  • Feegles are blue from tattoos and paint, so he probably wouldn't be.
    • Actually isn't it said they just *look* like they've been tattooed blue? I'm pretty sure I've never read that their skin isn't blue naturally, only phrases like the one just mentioned (or, for even more confusion, that the skin is blue and has been tattooed - apparently in a different shade of blue). I've reread the Tiffany Aching books many times and every time I watched like a hellhound for clearing up the question "Are they blue? Are they not blue and just tattooed in blue ink? Are they tattooed in blue ink and have blue skin? Or are they tatooed with another color and have blue skin) - it gets... confusing. Terry Pratchett would probably tell me to just relax :)
    • They're tattoos. Wee Free Men mentions the old Kelda being the color of a walnut. So unless walnuts regularly grow blue, I'm going with tattoos.
  • Miss Tick's description in Fairies and How to Avoid Them says that their skin is turned blue by a combination of woad and tattoos. Check the introduction to A Hat Full Of Sky, it's right there.
• The Duchess not being an actual Duchess - in fact, being a dance hall girl - seemed like a bit of a cop-out, too easy of a way to deal with the character. It's also very redundant of Monstrous Regiment.
  1. It was pretty heavily implied that The Duchess got her title via marriage. Therefore, she is an "actual" duchess.
  2. I'm sure what the second complaint is all about? There's not exactly a One-Steve Limit in Discworld. That would be like saying that The Old Barron was ripping off from Witches Abroad
     • I know she's an actual Duchess by marriage, but it was building up to a sense of "Yes, she's infuriatingly blue-blooded, but even so she has her good qualities," and "She's completely faking her aristocracy as far as her bloodline is concerned" feels like a cop-out. And this is not about the One-Steve Limit, this is the fact that in both Monstrous Regiment and Midnight, a big plot resolution is solved with "Blackmail the people who would get in your way! Here's some convenient blackmail."
     • Well, Terry has cited the Rule of Fun many times, and just doing the same conclusion twice doesn't seem particularly fun, so...
     • In the afterward of the book, Terry Pratchett reminds us of the importance of remembering your roots, and I feel this applies here. The Duchess is reminded of her roots in the end, and becomes noticable... softer, for lack of a better word. Let's not forget how insistent she is on her servants being taken care of, now! Part of it is blackmail, yes, but not out of (much) malice, and done to pull people out of bad states rather than knock them down. It's controlling people, but not in a bad way, more like a shepard. That's part of witchcraft.
     • Also, she was softening a bit even before Mrs. Proust got a hold of her, crying and talking about how Letitia is all she has and that she hopes Letitia will think her mother gave her what she needed to manage safely through the world. Mrs. Proust just gave a firm nudge to help keep her that way after the tears and wine wore off.
     • I thought the Duchess *was* nobility, but that her whole family died, along with her fortune, and she was forced to become a dancing girl until she married her Duke. Letitia mentions it when she's in the library with Tiffany.
     • Letitia also says in that scene that her mother took all of the books on noble genealogy out of the library and keeps them locked in her room. Added to the later revelation about her past as a dancer, the most likely reason for keeping the books locked up is so no one can find out her very convenient story about her family is a lie.
     • Parents do lie sometimes.
  • I kind of get the point about "too easy of a way to deal with the character." I had expected a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
    • Pterry already took that approach in Nation, if you'd prefer to see how that option plays out.
  • Don't forget, having her turn out to be common-born wasn't the only way that the Duchess's attitude was dealt with. Roland slapped her down over the spinning wheels, her own daughter grew more of a spine, she was introduced to a witch Queen off-camera ... implications of blackmail were the least of the factors that got her to back off, and one that the Duchess herself invited via her "spill words", no less.
    • And those "spill words" do go a long way towards humanizing the Duchess, explaining her abusive misbehavior as desperate overcompensation rather than pure arrogance. She's not mean from inborn snobbery or nastiness, she's terrified of having her pretense exposed.
• Just how old is Granny Weatherwax anyway? She was there when Eskarina was born in Equal Rites, middle-aged at least at the time. Esk turns up white-haired in I Shall Wear Midnight and Granny's still kicking - and even allowing that Esk's been mucking around with time, her legend has certainly spread among the younger generation. Is Granny just that determined not to die?
  • Time Monks.
  • There is something floating around about Black Alyss Weatherwax, who is hinted at never dying, despite being over 120 years old. Perhaps the Weatherwax women have a habit of not dying until they are killed?
    • Black Aliss wasn't a Weatherwax. Her last name was Demurrage. You're probably getting her confused with Alison Weatherwax, whose age and ultimate fate remains unknown. Also, reference Miss Treason who was 111 113. For a witch as powerful as Granny, living a long time should be nothing, but in any event, it's pretty clear that it's not a matter of Granny living a long time, it's a matter of Eskarina "mucking around with time". Maybe she spent all her time in the past learning about the Cunning Man and suchlike.
  • For all we know, Esk's hair grew in white after her close encounter with the Dungeon Things. It's the kind of thing that happens in Discworld, particularly when tons of magic are involved. And some people just go gray early; the Miss Smith whom Tiffany meets could've still been in her 40s, chronologically.
  • Don't forget Granny Weatherwax has done her own share of mucking around with time, particularly in Wyrd Sisters.
    • Esk was out of the kingdom when the witches moved the kingdom 15 years into the future. You can add that on before we even start thinking about the Time Monks and her own temporal perambulations.
• I understand that it is necessary for a Witch Hunt metaphor that is the Important Lesson of the book, but why would witch hunts go exactly the same way in the Disc as in our world? For example, here in our world witches are generally trafficking with the devil and such-like, explaining their malevolent intent, but why would "travelling preachers" have any more reason to hate witches than, say, wizards, when witches don't actually do anything? Yes, the book talks about how witches are feared and set apart as much as they are respected, admired, and consulted, and yes people can be small-minded and prejudiced against those that are different, but the fact remains that in a world where magic is a talent rather than something you sell your soul for, why are there Puritan Witchfinders running about acting exactly the way you'd expect them to? When did you last see a Discworld witch hiding what she was among the people? Do Witchfinders only crop up where there aren't any witches and no one knows jack about them? I think I'm sounding more vitriolic and angry than I actually feel, and I apologize. It didn't ruin the book or anything, but this Just Bugged Me.
  • Because, as it was said, people fear what they don't know. And they hate how witches seems to be so above it all, instead of seeing it as them simply using their talent.
    • But why would there be a concerted effort to ferret them out from among the populace when Discworld witches never make the least effort to hide what they are?
    • Because they used to. It's explicitly stated in Carpe Jugulum that there had been times when it was wiser for a witch not to advertise the fact. Presumably the Cunning Man is inspiring the sort of witch hunts he was familiar with, and that the people would have heard of.
    • Because the witches still hide what they really are in areas where they are unpopular but needed. Miss Tick goes around the Sto Plains disguised as a teacher because witches are held with suspicion there, and sometimes even actively persecuted. Likewise, there are officially no witches in Ankh-Morpork, because as cosmopolitan as the city is, it still doesn't feel quite at home with the profession. As such, the witches in the city pretend to be pretenders. The one place where witches are highly respected and revered are the Ramtop Mountains, where coincidentally most witch-stories have taken place, so it's understandable that the readers might not understand that this isn't the common state of affairs elsewhere, but reading the Tiffany Aching-books really should teach you otherwise.
    • Because no matter where you are in the multiverse, this is the way the stories have always gone.
    • I understand the complaint, but Small Gods already introduce the idea of religious inquisition, so we know that happens on Discworld too. The above-mentioned narrative imperative should also be taken into account. But, personally I think it's natural that it would be the preachers objecting to witches. Note that witches have a huge power over the people in their steadings, which is something the priests aim at, and therefore they are direct rivals. Plus, a witch isn't usually religious, her power comes from herself, her devotion to duty and knowing what's right and wrong - which is undermining the preachers' point that you need gods. Of course they want to get rid of them, at least some religions.
    • One could look at this rather cogent argument as the struggle of Gnosticism vs Hierarchism.
    • It's also rather strongly implied in Carpe Jugulum that the Omnians, at least, hunt witches because somewhere along the line, they mistranslated one of their holy books (the word "cockroaches" mistaken for "witches"). This directly parallels how the King James Bible rendered a word meaning "poisoner" as "witch", with similar tragic consequences.
    • It's also possible that the witch hunts began with people hunting "cacklers" and that eventually got twisted into hunting all witches.
    • Folk beliefs are generally regarded by organized religion as competition, if not a threat. As for A-M, I think this misses the mark a bit: Unseen University is (at least, according to the Archchancellor) the source for magic users on the Sto Plains — those people in Pseudopolis calling themselves "wizards" might disagree, but what do they know, they're foreigners — and witches don't go to UU. Also, witch magic is rural, female, useful, and ground-level, and wizard magic is none of those things, and they disapprove.
    • Note that priests and wizards don't exactly see eye to eye in Discworld, either. Check out some of the incidents that the Ridcully brothers have to defuse, when groups of the two start jeering each other in the streets.

• What I don't understand - or rather, I do, but I wish it was otherwise - is why it was Granny who defeated the Cunning Man previously. I know she is the Wonder Witch of the Disc, and usually I'm happy so see her as such, but this particular enemy seems tailored for Nanny Ogg to defeat : he is (was) just a mortal man, twisted with hatred and rejection and feelings he didn't know how to cope with, and he was destroyed by a beautiful witch. Now, Terry Pratchett is not the kind of man to throw beauty around where it does not belong, and it's indicative of the Cunning Man's shallowness that he only fell for a pretty witch (while young Mustrum Ridcully, for example, very explicitly didn't.) So it seems to me that it should have been young Gytha, a looker who knew what she wanted, had the strength to get it and could wrap men around her little fingers, who should have disposed of him. (I can't believe I'm second-guessing Terry!)
  • Doesn't the fact that the Cunning Man was awakened by Tiffany kissing the Wintersmith imply he is awakened by certain magics? In that case it's far more likely that Granny Weatherwax did something that drew the Cunning Man's attention.
  • Granny isn't exactly ugly, you know. And remember that the Cunning Man was a prudish Omnian, so would probably have been too put-off by a woman who acts as openly-sexy as young Gytha to fall for her. The young witch with whom he became infatuated was probably more like Granny than Nanny; else, she would probably have played along with his crush to save herself and then gotten even rather than laid down her life to punish him, then and there. (Remember, Nanny's the one who'd wanted Agnes to string Vlad along and then kill him in her own good time.)
  • After some thought, I came to the conclusion that while you're right, this does seem the thing for a young Gytha, it's also more about mythic-type magic and headology. Nanny's power lies in people, and knowing precisely how they tick and how to make them do what you want. She could have handled the crowds turning on her, but it's Granny who would be better at confronting the Cunning Man, imo.
  • The real irony to it being Esme whom the Cunning Man went after is that, if he was looking for a "wicked" witch to target, her sister Lily was well on her way to becoming one at the time.

• What happened to Wee Mad Arthur's decision to leave the Watch? In this book, he decides that his un-police-like rage to defend the Feegle mound without restraint means he's no longer qualified to wear the badge, yet by Snuff he's back on the force.
  • He took some time off, it's revealed that he spent that time off with the Feegles, found out about his culture and blew off some steam, probably found out it wasn't really for him. He said that he was a bit too civilized for the other Feegles, so he probably went back to the place he felt where he belonged, the Watch.
  • Feegles in general aren't exactly welcoming towards strange males, in any case. They accept gonnagles because their skills are respected, and a new kelda's bodyguards are tolerated for her sake, but a random newcomer isn't likely to be warmed up to, even if he isn't (Crivens!) a copper.
  • Wee Mad Arthur'd assumed that he couldn't rightfully be a copper anymore, after his Bee People instincts surfaced and he'd felt like killing any man who dug into a Feegle mound without a trial. It's possible that when he returned to Ankh-Morpork to resign, Commander Vimes took him into his office for a private conversation, explained that being a copper doesn't mean not feeling vengeful, it means making a commitment to not act on those impulses ... and showed the little constable a certain scar on his own arm, to prove he knows exactly what he's talking about.
  • He also learned how to control that anger once he knows about it, to the point that by Snuff he's able to restrain himself in a situation where Vimes thinks he personally would have snapped and killed everyone responsible.