Talk:Death (Discworld)

Davis Jason

In the article, it says David Jason plays death in the Hogfather. I am pretty sure that isn't true! But at the moment I can't remember the real person who does. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.105.112.169 (talk) 18:31, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

It actually said that Albert was played by David Jason, but since the "he" was a little confusing, I've updated it. -- WORMMЯOW  00:34, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Picture

That is a god-awful picture. Can we get a Paul Kirby picture in there? It'd look a tad more professional & less like something whipped up in MSPaint for some kid's Deviantart page. It really does no convey, the character's personality at all.

67.163.7.141 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 02:17, 26 November 2008 (UTC).

I agree. I shouldn't be that hard to find an offical picture of Death. Anyone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.192.60.128 (talk) 02:03, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Appearances

April 12th: I've just read Going Postal, and I couldn't find Death anywhere in there. Anyone able to confirm this?

I believe Death appears to Anghammarad after he is shattered during the fire. Gtg204y 19:33, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Did he appear in Making Money? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.228.110.180 (talk) 22:52, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

The article says that Death has appeared in all the Discworld novels but one. Which one wasn't he in? Jon Hart 18:24, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

the wee free men Tekana | Talk 18:47, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Death's collecting

Is it just me, or whenever Death collects a soul, it varies from book to book. In Mort I believe he took the soul in a pouch (or did he eat them? Can't remember, but I think it's the pouch), in The Truth there was a process where he looked over the life of the dead person and decided what happens to their souls, in Soul Music Susan had to snap a lifeline before the soul could leave. The list goes on. Should this be mentioned? Crimson Shadow 23:29, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

In fact, in Mort it is described the same way as you mention it to be in Soul Music: the 'blue line', or soul of the person, needs to be separated from the body by Death's scythe, or, in the case of royalty, his sword - as we learn when Death teaches Mort this when collecting the soul of the Klatchian king. I cannot recall any kind of pouch, but Death does take the lifetimers of the souls to be collected with him when 'doing the Duty', which he keeps in his robe. As far as I know the process of looking over lives happens just once, in The Truth, and then only because of narrative considerations: recall that Pratchett needed to find a way for Mr Tulip to reconsider his actions and be truly sorry for them, hence Death showing him the 'highlight reel'. It was simply neat storytelling for this also to happen to Mr Pin. All in all, though, I think the process of severing the life-line is pretty consistent throughout the books: I think in Hogfather he even cuts the line of a small deep-sea creature (with a suitably miniscule scythe, of course). TheSuperunknown 20:20, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Copyright debate

Original Page removed for copyright suspension, not sure why. Source believed infringed is detailed info. Post was basic character info about character which is common knowledge to fan of series. Rewrote temp page keeping basic information already listed but added extra character and misc info. If post is in fact deleted, this temp page should not have problems.

Regarding copy vios, usually the temp page is moved into the main page once the main page has been deleted to remove the copy vio from the history. Burgundavia 08:25, Jun 27, 2004 (UTC)

?

Wait a minute, if Quoth has a Wikipedia entry, and so does Igor, why doesn't Cheery Littlebottom have one? Or the Bursar? Cheese 17:47, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Cheery has a section on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch article. It's always the way with minor characters in popular series - due to the nature of wikipedia unless someone's made an effort to standardise entries there will always be variations in how minor characters are referenced. PaulHammond 23:37, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Regarding Albert's remaining time on the Discworld: It is mentioned in 'Mort' as well as in 'Reaper man', how much time he has left. I didn't have time now to run through 'Mort', but I found quickly the passage in Reaper Man, where it says Albert'd live almost two months upon returning to the Discworld. --Ouro 13:02, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Albert (Discworld) contains the answers! violet/riga (t) 20:42, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Over the top?

why are there so many links in the Personality section? surely we don't need links to such subjects as eating and visibility? (unsigned comment by Vimescarrot)

Because it's funny. Wikipedia is not a joke book, but occasionally it's nice if an article's style reflects its humourous content. Maybe it should be altered to a more formal style, but I'm not going to do it! :-) --Urbane legend 02:32, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

err...ok. Neither am I, but if the humour should reflect that of the article described, it should do it in a similar way, no? do terry pratchett's books have hyperlinks in them? (Then again, it can only be a matter of time...) Vimescarrot 12:21, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, Discworld novels do have footnotes sometimes! Anyway, would you have ever read the article on visibility if it hadn't been linked there? --Urbane legend 15:01, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

I didn't. But I will now! Vimescarrot 15:06, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Removed some links as it was a prime example of an overlinked article. Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Collection by death

Just my thoughts, but I think in the books it only says that kings and other important people must be collected by death. The way I read it is that other people can be collected by death (instead of a lesser collector), but it is not guaranteed. I think in one of the books (mort?) it does actually mention about death collecting certain "unimportant" ones to maintain the balance (it was all about the nodes). Hellfire83 13:21, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

From what I recall, early in the series it mentions unimportant people being collected by "helpers" (I think Famine or someone comes for Rincewind at one point), but this is never mentioned again. In later Death novels, it says that Death only has to appear personally for some deaths, to make sure everything is going alright.--Agent Aquamarine 22:50, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I must agree, yet clarify: Rincewind specifically refuses to let go when hanging off the edge of the world (the "cliffhanger", ahaha, at the end of the very first book) because he claims "no one dies of scrofula", thus disappointing said entity who was sent out to collect him as (Death is busy with a plague, I believe.- Jabberwoch 20:26, 13 December 2011 (UTC) ). It is indeed a common practice of Death to appear in person for "unimportant" people - though I forget his reason for doing this. It might be for balance, but I believe one book explains he appears personally for people in whom he has some sort of special or personal interest. It is indeed one of the features that distinguishes him from the "new Death" (in Reaper Man) who has no interest in the "client". --Lindblad 06:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

The Grim Squeaker

Isn't the death of rats' nickname the Grim Squeaker? If it is, it should probably be noted

Incorporated, thanks. Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

What about Quoth?

Someone must write something about Quoth the raven as an associate of Death.RSido 05:28, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, the article does mention Quoth as an associate of the Death of Rats. Is this enough <humor>Death by association</humor>? --Kevinkor2 05:53, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

always there

in all. and i mean all disckworld novels death aperears somewere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.220.102.253 (talk) 16:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

New Infobox Image

I have replaced the old infobox image with a much better one. I hope people agree that this is an improvement. Blurgle Fragle 18:26, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:DeathDiscworld.jpg

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BetacommandBot 02:55, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Concerning his first appearences

The article mentions he was a moderately malicious character in "The colour of Magic". Has it been confirmed that this was actually him as opposed to the demon thats after rincewind (Scrofula was it?). 172.159.142.69 (talk) 22:45, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Noted in the article, thanks. Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Gender

Should Susan's use of the word 'Granddad' be notable as at least an opinion on Death's gender? Such an example of this use can be found on Page 78 of Hogfather. Dr dozzy (talk) 16:44, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Incorporated, thanks. Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Making Terry Pratchett a Featured Article

This is a call to arms to make the Terry Pratchett article a Featured Article. It will greatly help the cause if all the side articles that link from it are of a reasonable standard. Terry Pratchett has around 40 side articles (ie the ones relating to his work) - I don't think they are all expected to be GA (Good Article) standard for TP to become featured, but certain basic elements will be looked at for sure.

A full list of the sub articles is here on the TP talk page: I'm posting this comment on the talk pages of each article on the list. Editors reading may also like to help with the TP article too?

The main issue, especially with smaller articles, is often a finding reasonable amount of citations, and prose can sometimes be a little POV too. Coverage of the topic is probably less important, but of course it needs to be reasonably good. --Matt Lewis (talk) 15:14, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Introduction style

Most of the article is quite adequate, but certain passages in the introduction could be rewritten or removed. The tone adopted seems a little too literary (e.g. "Death [...]Rides a white horse called Binky. Likes cats.[1] What more need be said?") and I suggest someone edits it for style. Also, I feel the introduction is too long and some of its content could be transfered to the main body of the article.The Nouv (talk) 18:06, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Had a go at it. Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

In-universe tone edits

As part of the Discworld WikiProject, I just edited the article a great deal for in-universe and unencyclopedic tone, over-linking, repetition, organization, and formatting. However I don't think it is done, and in particular:

• I think there is still too much in the Intro section
• Much the information about Death's home and Albert should probably be moved to the "Other Dimensions of Discworld#Death's Domain" and "Albert (Discworld)" articles respectively if the info is not already there
• The sections on Binky, Death of Rats, and New Death should possibly be differently formatted
• The quotes should be removed to Wikiquote and replaced with a link (box)
• It might still be overlinked, and I am not sure "tesseract" is the proper thing to link "bigger on the inside than the outside" to, but it is what was there and my knowledge of physics is insufficient to judge

So if anyone else wants to give it a go... :) -Sketchmoose (talk) 20:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism?

I just got a message saying I'd been warned for vandalism for pointing out that Death also sometimes uses block capitals. In the earlier books, he does - how's that vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.148.252.74 (talk) 15:37, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

It looks like your edit was reverted by someone using Huggle, a counter-vandalism tool. It automatically warns the user whose edit is reverted. Your edit was clearly good faith, but I think the all caps was mistaken for vandalism, as vandals frequently use all caps. You can ask the user who did the reverting at their talk page here. -Sketchmoose (talk) 17:34, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Picture Update

I've replaced the picture with one from the GURPS Discworld cover. It does feature Death but it is rather inadequate. I've done my best to try to get consent from Mr. Kidby (which was essentially an email to him via his homepage information). If someone could provide another image, or should I upload a new copyrighted image and get that set up with the proper documentation? Aergoth (talk) 02:50, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I've been bold and uploaded one of the images from the art of discworld, but it's a very small version, and I'm fairly sure the fair use is reasonable. I wasn't happy with the GURPS one, as I'm not 100% sure fair use applied - as the article is not regarding GURPS. Anyway, it's not hard to swap it back and delete the one I've uploaded if I'm wrong! -- WORMMЯOW  08:07, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm changing the image back to the freely licensed one that used to be in the article. Under our rules we cannot use a copyrighted image when a freely licensed one is available. Exxolon (talk) 01:48, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Just one query though, this appears to be a fan drawn representation of Death, and there's little or nothing to tie it in to Discworld. The one that was replaced was a fair use version from the "official artist" who illustrates the covers all the Pratchett books in the UK, and is featured in one of the books. Is this an acceptable compromise? -- WORMMЯOW  07:55, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

(Unindent) Hmmm - this might not be as clear cut as I believed. Normally free content absolutely trumps fair use. However there are pertinent questions here

1. - Does the picture accurately represent Death as envisioned by the author?
2. - Does the depiction of a copyrighted literary (as opposed to characters copyrighted in a visual medium) character automatically invalidate the free license?
3. - If the answers to either of these questions invalidates the use of the picture on the article can we use a fair use image?

I'm not certain what the answer is. Exxolon (talk) 21:12, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Me neither! I certainly prefer the one I put up, but I'm a fan of Kirby, and therefore biased. What's more, as you say, this is hardly an aesthetic decision. However, I'd say there's no real need to change what we've got (the free license one), as it does have all the hallmarks of discworld's death, hourglass, scythe and most importantly blue eyes, so in a totally OR manner, I'd say it's a reasonable representation. -- WORMMЯOW  07:43, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Binky's Color

As a Milky White horse, which is different then normal 'gray horses' is most likely because he was not born a 'commen color' any horse can be born with a graying gene which make some horses 'go pure white'. If one parent is a gray horse. So he's most likely what's known as a cremello with or without a gray parent which gives him his milk white look. Or he could be a true white horse

71.132.219.23 (talk) 10:39, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

I've heard that horses with two white alleles die :O So probably Binky has two lol.--91.105.112.169 (talk) 18:29, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

References

Formatting a quote obviously written in the character of Death

There is an ongoing discussion about the tweets mentioned in Death (Discworld)#Internet culture, specifically whether we should render the all-caps part in small-caps or in caps-and-small-caps, since it is obviously intended to be Death speaking to Terry Pratchett. I'll apply the consensus arrived at there to the quote in this article as well. Please join in. Pathore (talk) 22:02, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Black robe

"Like most Grim Reapers, he is a black-robed skeleton usually carrying a scythe", says the article, next to a picture of Death in a purple robe. ;o) 92.13.50.188 (talk) 09:26, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

This is one of my favorite articles because it involves Discworld's Death, who is one of my favorite characters. Besides the luggage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.42.195.195 (talk) 01:48, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Who wrote the twitter message after Terry's death?

This Death article states that it was Terry's daughter, but the main wiki page for Terry Pratchett seems to have a clearer source claiming it was his assistant, Rob Wilkins, who sent the tweet. Should this be changed?

Source: "How did Terry Pratchett tweet after his death?". https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-31859675 BBC News. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FurbyFubar (talk • contribs) 00:35, 12 March 2021 (UTC)