Tiffany Aching - Tumblr Posts
Tiffany couldn't quite work out how Miss Level got paid. Certainly the basket she carried filled up more than it emptied. They'd walk past a cottage and a woman would come scurrying out with a fresh-baked loaf or a jar of pickles, even though Miss Level hadn't stopped there. But they'd spend an hour somewhere else, stitching up the leg of a farmer who'd been careless with an axe, and get a cup of tea and a stale biscuit.
It didn't seem fair.
“Oh, it evens out,” said Miss Level, as they walked on through the woods.
“You do what you can. People give what they can, when they can. Old Slapwick there, with the leg, he's as mean as a cat, but there'll be a big cut of beef on my doorstep before the week's end, you can bet on it. His wife will see to it. And pretty soon people will be killing their pigs for the winter, and I'll get more brawn, ham, bacon and sausages turning up than a family could eat in a year.”
“You do? What do you do with all that food?”
“Store it,” said Miss Level.
“But you-”
“I store it in other people. It's amazing what you can store in other people.” Miss Level laughed at Tiffany's expression. “I mean, I take what I don't need round to those who don't have a pig, or who're going through a bad patch, or who don't have anyone to remember them.”
“But that means they'll owe you a favour!”
“Right! And so it just keeps on going round. It all works out.”
“I bet some people are too mean to pay-”
“Not pay,” said Miss Level, severely. “A witch never expects payment and never asks for it and just hopes she never needs to. But, sadly, you are right.”
“And then what happens?"
“What do you mean?”
“You stop helping them, do you?”
“Oh, no,” said Miss Level, genuinely shocked. “You can't not help people just because they're stupid or forgetful or unpleasant. Everyone's poor round here. If I don't help them, who will?”
"A Hat full of Sky" - Terry Pratchett
Welcome to the KIDLIT QUEEN COMPETITION!
inspired by greats like @best-childhood-book and @best-kids-media-adult, this tourney pits the literary heroines of our childhood against each other in an all out brawl, searching for the greatest girlboss in the genre. Rounds will last one week, and submissions open TODAY! Submit HERE!
RULES:
YA doesn't count as kidlit- characters should be from anything middle grade or below. This includes picture books!
Girls only! trans girls allowed/terfs explode ect, you know the drill.
Comic books/graphic novels allowed, but still should be kidlit! For example, a character from Hildafolk would be allowed, but a character from the Sandman wouldn't.
Side and minor characters allowed
Characters don't have to be human but they do have to have to be girls. Sometimes a girl is also a computer or a train or an alien or something, and that's cool too!
No harry potter characters.
Bracket will be capped at either 32 or 64 characters depending on submission numbers, and then be determined by popularity.
Maximum 2-3 characters per series/fandom/author. If I get more I'll run qualifiers, because I know some have basically infinite characters- looking at you, Warrior Cats & Rainbow Magic.
things that were books first will be favoured over novelisations of movies, games, ect.
Everybody have fun!
This blog used to be fictional-train-fight (masterpost to be updated) and science-lesbian-swag-showdown (masterpost to be added). If you're looking for those posts, check their links!
I have one mod bias entry this time:
Junie B. Jones!
tagging for reach:
@chapter-title-tournament, @namedafterflowerstournament, @platonic-pals-punchout, @redwalltournaments, @fantasybooktournament, @childr3ns-book-bracket, @bookfirstlinetourney, @older-sister-death-match
I want to see the White Horse at Uffington again so much that I will rent a car and risk driving on the wrong side of the road. Maybe keep this in mind if you're driving anywhere between Bath and Uffington during the last week of September.
“All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!”
- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men
I was re-reading some Discworld books, and it really struck me how different the endings of The Wee Free Men and Harry Potter were.
Harry Potter is all about how death is a nice thing, a good thing, that it's ok to lie down and die. And that is a good thing to know. But. But The Wee Free Men takes such a different approach.
Tiffany fights to live. It's a very selfish thing, and that's ok. That's the point. You have to want to live, so want. And the Discworld books don't make you fear death. Death is a major character. There is an entire book on why Death is important, is needed.
But when JK Rowling teaches children to die for other people, Terry Pratchet teaches kids how to live for themselves. And that's important.
In case anyone didn't know yet (don't feel bad, i only found out this week) a band called Steeleye Span did a whole album on Tiffany Aching books 1-4 called Wintersmith. Not only was this a like thing they had permission for, the song The Good Witch has Terry Pratchett literally just reading the passage from Wintersmith about cackling being a sign of moral/mental degradation in witches. I've not heard all of it yet, but both (that's right, two) Dark Morris Dance songs are amazing
Spoilers for The Shepherd's Crown, the last published Terry Pratchett/Discworld book (Other than a few short story collections)
In that book, the Elf queen loses her station, and begins a redemption arc. She does well! This vicious bastard of a conquering monarch tries her best to be nice, and it works!
Until her former second in command kills her.
That's probably the single character across those forty something books I despise most, because he ruined redemption.
the concept and idea of “you can always start trying to be a better person” is extremely important to me both in media and irl and i continue to be deeply deeply disturbed by the trend on this site pushing that these ideas in media are bad writing or even morally reprehensible
because theyd rather someone stay terrible or just straight up die than become a better person
from a compassionate point of view it’s deeply distressing and from a pragmatic point of view it’s outright frustrating
it’s fucked up.
If I try to think about how it works, it doesn't work.
Tiffany Aching, I Shall Wear Midnight; Terry Pratchett
A Hat Full of Sky
Best viewed in 3D on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/oDOIH
"...the sky was midnight black, shorn of stars. This was the landscape of Tiffany Aching’s mind.”
"On top of a round hill was a four-wheeled shepherding hut, with a curved roof and a chimney for the potbellied stove. Inside, the walls were covered with the yellow and blue wrappers from hundreds of packets of Jolly Sailor tobacco."
I discovered Terry Pratchett's Discworld ~ a couple of years ago. Not sure how it took so long, since I love fantasy and magic.
Truly, better late than never. These books helped me through a lot of the last year. I swallowed a good chunk of the Discworld series, starting with Guards! and Tiffany. Since then I’ve carried in my own mind an image of granny’s shepherd hut as it existed in Tiffany’s head, her hat, and witch herself. This personal work / fanart took a few months, on and off, to realize.
EDIT:
Of course I don't notice the last image is hot garbage quality until its been reblogged a few hundred times. 💀 Replaced, futile though that may be.
Thank you all, I'm very happy you like it!
One of my favorite characters! I love how you captured all the details—the dress and the boots and the frying pan! And Rob Anybody! Nice job!
Colored it!
Tiffany Aching deserves her own animated series
More great Tiffany Aching art!
Here she is!!! I really like how it came out, she looks like she’s gradually becoming a real witch (she’s also growing into her boots)
*angry Scottish noises*
drawing the Feegles is fun
Tiffany would do really well in a Studio Ghibli style movie, change my mind
I sometimes feel very tired and alone...
I am right now requesting copies of the permits for a concert I do vulenteer work for because they had us working with polluted dirt ( lead, mercury and cyanid... yum ) and gave the wrong equipment and info to the workers...
I am also pushing my workplace to have a checklist for setting up test hardware installations that can KILL YOU instead of relying on random people around sorta remembering how to do it safely hopefully
And I keep thinking "why me. Why is it always me who have to kick and push for basic kindergarten safety while surrounded by people who have just been accepting this shit for years"
And then I quote Tiffany Aching from the Terry Pratchett books and get on with it
"All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!
I am about halfway through the first Tiffany Aching Book and it feels like The Chalk. It surprised me when I realised it but then I realised, The Witches books Feel like Lancre, the City Watch Feel like Ankh-Morpork. It truly is incredible. You get a sense of the environment from those who live in it.
Wow. The Chalk prevails. I don’t know why, I was not expecting that to be this good but it resonated with me, my introverted bookwormish self. Damn.
I hereby name my Mushroom:
“Not as big as Medium sized shroom but bigger than wee shroom shroom”
I love my fidgets
But baby this one deserves
A name from my heart
All witches are selfish, the Queen had said.
But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!
I have a duty!
—-—
Sir Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men
Tiffany couldn't quite work out how Miss Level got paid. Certainly the basket she carried filled up more than it emptied. They'd walk past a cottage and a woman would come scurrying out with a fresh-baked loaf or a jar of pickles, even though Miss Level hadn't stopped there. But they'd spend an hour somewhere else, stitching up the leg of a farmer who'd been careless with an axe, and get a cup of tea and a stale biscuit.
It didn't seem fair.
“Oh, it evens out,” said Miss Level, as they walked on through the woods.
“You do what you can. People give what they can, when they can. Old Slapwick there, with the leg, he's as mean as a cat, but there'll be a big cut of beef on my doorstep before the week's end, you can bet on it. His wife will see to it. And pretty soon people will be killing their pigs for the winter, and I'll get more brawn, ham, bacon and sausages turning up than a family could eat in a year.”
“You do? What do you do with all that food?”
“Store it,” said Miss Level.
“But you-”
“I store it in other people. It's amazing what you can store in other people.” Miss Level laughed at Tiffany's expression. “I mean, I take what I don't need round to those who don't have a pig, or who're going through a bad patch, or who don't have anyone to remember them.”
“But that means they'll owe you a favour!”
“Right! And so it just keeps on going round. It all works out.”
“I bet some people are too mean to pay-”
“Not pay,” said Miss Level, severely. “A witch never expects payment and never asks for it and just hopes she never needs to. But, sadly, you are right.”
“And then what happens?"
“What do you mean?”
“You stop helping them, do you?”
“Oh, no,” said Miss Level, genuinely shocked. “You can't not help people just because they're stupid or forgetful or unpleasant. Everyone's poor round here. If I don't help them, who will?”
"A Hat full of Sky" - Terry Pratchett