SPOILERS Tiffany Aching Character Discussion

[Tonyblack]

I completely forgot to post a new character discussion on Monday, so this one comes a little late.

This time we are going to discuss Tiffany Aching.

An unusual side of Discworld characters is that we get to see Tiffany going from a very young girl to a young woman. We see her grow up while still keeping her basic character - what I'm saying is that Terry was very consistent with his portrayal of Tiffany, while allowing her to blossom into possibly one of the greatest witches on the Disc. Her adventures along with the Nac Mac Feegle are often funny, sad and even scary. Terry succeeded in (with arguably an exception in the last book) to increase the threats that Tiffany has to deal with.

I'm very interested to hear what you all think.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I think the last book would have been a lot better had Terry the time to finish it the way he wanted, but sadly he had a publishing timeline schedule that was set by the ONE WHO SPEAKS IN CAPITALS to which there was no extension given.

 

[Tonyblack]

I actually loved the last book - I just think after the previous foes, the Elf Queen and her minions were somewhat tame. However, I do think the elves were more of an existential threat to the Disc rather than to Tiffany herself. The fact that she was able to dominate the queen, but instead chose to show her mercy and a chance to change, said more about the person Tiffany had become.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Hmm. I actually thought the Elf Queen and her minions were a fitting end to the Tiffany arc in TSC. People like things to finish similarly to as they started. So, having battled against the Elves during "The Wee Free Men" (and triumphed), it's appropriate that the last of Tiffany's battles should be against the elves again. (Note small-e elves - their threat has certainly diminished).

The eventual battle is a bit of a walk over, of course. What's important in this novel is the fact of Tiffany's growth: she is wary of confronting the elves because of her history with them, but she knows she must. Even the facts that she also must take care of two kingdoms now (the Chalk and Lancre), and that she faces an invasion on two fronts, doesn't scare her.

It's also important to note that the Elf Queen, at last, is given in to doubt and introspection, at least by the elf standard of "we will always conquer humanity, because we are superior." Peaseblossom, who ejects the Elf Queen from Fairy Land, fails to learn this lesson and eventually pays the price.

It's also true that Terry wanted to make TSC longer or better. From wiki:

In the afterword, Rob Wilkins states that Pratchett wrote The Shepherd's Crown's "pivotal scenes while he was still writing Raising Steam", and that "it was, still, not quite finished as he would have liked when he died" and that "he would almost certainly have written more of this book."

Neil Gaiman has said that Pratchett had originally planned to end the book with the revelation that Granny Weatherwax had temporarily placed her consciousness within You the cat, and that Death would only collect her in the epilogue, after she says "I am leaving on my own terms now". However, Pratchett's health deteriorated too quickly for him to be able to write this scene.

So who knows what could have been?

 

[raisindot]

I know I may be in the minority here, but to to me TSC was a horrible disappointment. While the first thirty pages were excellent (won't get specifically into the one major event that was the last example of beautiful writing by Pterry), the rest of the story basically recycled the plotlines of Lord and Ladies and Wee Free Men with the older Tiffany playing a poor substitute of Granny Weatherwax in the former and the young Tiffany in the latter. I still believe (even though it's not backed up by evidence) that someone other than Pterry wrote the last half of the book, perhaps based on rough chapters or notes. The plotting, dialogue and narrative are so unPterry-like that even at this stage I find it hard to believe he'd let something as bad as this be published.

That said, all the other Tiffany books are marvelous and she is one of the best characters Pterry created. While they're marketed as YA books, I'd say that the first four books could easily be marketed as regular DW books.

 

[Penfold]

You're not alone in your opinion there, Raisindot, and even Jacqueline Simpson expressed a similar view. I think I would have preferred that TSC had not been published at all, tbh.