Mort: Difference between revisions

[[Four Is Death|Four]][[Incredibly Lame Pun|th]] [[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]] book and the first to really develop the character of [[The Grim Reaper|Death]], going from the sadistic murderer of the earlier books to the complex sympathetic-to-humans figure who does his Duty. However, it did build upon themes raised in a brief foray to Death's house in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]''.

'''''Mort''''' follows the story of Mort, a young boy who is chosen to become Death's apprentice.

''Mort'' is one of the most popular early Discworld novels and won a contemporary award for best [[Gothic Novel]] of the year, despite [[Death of the Author|Terry Pratchett's protest]] that it wasn't Gothic.

[[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] at one point was going to adapt ''Mort'' as a hand-drawn animated feature. They had to put it to a close because [[Money, Dear Boy|they couldn't afford the rights]]. However an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYioKHs9gLY online] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140911234248/http://www.petitiononline.com/Mort1234/petition.html petition] has been created{{when}} to [[Saved From Development Hell|bring this back into production]].

{{quote| There was a large crystal ball with a crack in it, an astrolabe with several bits missing, a rather scuffed octogram on the floor, and a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling. A stuffed alligator is absolutely standard equipment in any properly-run magical establishment. This one looked as though it hadn't enjoyed it much.}}

* [[Arc Words]]: "{{smallcapssmall-caps|To tinker with the fate of one individual could destroy the whole world.}}"

** Also, "{{smallcapssmall-caps|There is no justice. There is just me.}}"

* [[Big Beautiful Woman|BBW:]] Ysabell, "eleven stone of womanhood" at sixteen years of age. Her chest has "enough 'puppy-fat' for an entire litter of Dobermans".

* [[Bigger Onon the Inside]] (Death's house)

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Ysabell, who was introduced in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'' as [[Ax Crazy|insane and near homicidal]] has calmed down a lot two books later.

* [[Delayed Ripple Effect]]: The Interface is a variation on this trope, but with the change travelling across space instead of time--thetime—the world as a whole is running on the 'proper' timeline and the pressure on the changed timeline causes it to collapse inwards towards Sto Lat.

* [[Everything's Better Withwith Princesses]]: Princess Keli of Sto Lat

{{quote| "[Customers] don't go in for the fancy or exotic, but stick to conventional food like flightless bird embryos, minced organs in intestine skins, slices of hog flesh, and burnt ground grass seeds dipped in animal fats; or, as it is known in their patois, egg, sausage, bacon, and a fried slice [of toast]."}}

* [[Magic A Is Magic A]]: It's revealed that Albert's presence in Death's country is a result of assuming this too much. Given that the Rite of AshkEnte summons Death and knowing that he was dying, he presumed that performing the Rite ''backwards'' would keep Death ''away'' from him. However, this turned out to invert the spell in a different way--insteadway—instead of summoning Death to him, it sent him to Death.<ref>Alberto Malich knew exactly what he was doing - performing the Rite backwards sent him somewhere where he could not grow a second older and so his life would never end. Mort appears to give Albert credit for exactly this line of thought. The disadvantage, of course, is that being Death's housekeeper is not much different to being in Limbo for all eternity.</ref>

* [[Narrating the Present]]: the books in Death's library write someone's life as a narratitive as it happens. The last scene of ''Mort'' is actually Mort reading that scene from his own book.

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Obviously averted, but pops up in a behind-the-scenes anecdote. Allegedly, a [[Executive Meddling|meddling executive]] trying to make Mort into a movie told Terry Pratchett to "lose the Death angle." Terry Pratchett pretty much pulled out of the project then, because the entire point of the story is Death!

{{quote| Whoever had designed the dress didn't know when to stop. They'd put lace over the silk, and trimmed it with black vermine, and strung pearls anywhere that looked bare, and puffed and starched the sleeves and then added silver filigree and then started again with the silk.}}

** Ysabell later gets one right back at Mort.

{{quote| Mort looked down. "Oh. Who put me to bed?" <br />

* [[Rescue Romance]]: Teased, but ultimately averted, to Death's approval. {{smallcapssmall-caps|Too many young women leap into the arms of the first young man to wake them after [[Sleeping Beauty|a hundred years' sleep]], for example.}}

* [[Shipper Onon Deck]]: Death only brings Mort in so he can marry Ysabell.

* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]: What happens if someone doesn't deal with Death's node charts. (Luckily, Ysabell knows how.)

* [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]: Becoming {{smallcapssmall-caps| Death}} for awhile made Mort a helluva lot cooler and ''scarier.''

{{quote| '''Ysabel:''' Pardon me for living, I'm sure.<br />

'''Mort:''' {{smallcapssmall-caps| '''No-one'''}} {{smallcaps| gets pardoned for living.}} }}

** Mort also later {{spoiler|challangeschallenges deathDeath to one on one combat and calls him a bastard.}}

* [[Twisted Echo Cut]]: At one point there's a cut from Keli telling Cutwell, "I think there's something you ought to know" to Death saying {{smallcapssmall-caps|There is?}} because Mort has just said the same to him -- whichhim—which is immediately lampshaded with a footnote about the technique.

[[Category:{{Discworld (Literature)]]novels}}

[[Category:Mort{{PAGENAME}}]]