The only thing I didn't like about this episode was the choice to make Lord Byron a coward. I mean, he was of course an utter arsehole, so I'm completely on board with how they depicted that, but he died by signing up for a war he had absolutely no obligation to be in. That's not exactly an act of physical cowardice, so the lack of accuracy there did irk me.
To be fair, UNIT is supposed to be reasonably good at dealing with alien problems, when that really wouldn't have worked with the story they were going for here.
The idea of someone being such an egomaniac that mind-altering magic had no effect on them because they couldn't be shaken from the idea that their world view is the right one was so inherently great to me that I couldn't help but include something similar in a novel I'm writing once I read it here.
I like that Tiffany thinks to explain empathy and cooperation through a self-centred lense. It would be by far the easiest way to get the essentials of the ideas through to an elf.
I've come to the conclusion that a completely good blending of old traditions and progressive values can only really be done on an individual level, or extremely small groups. Anything larger will have too many moving parts (Eg; People with wildly different values and personalities) to work as well as we'd hope. Of course, I myself don't have much in the way of sentimentality regarding tradition or culture, partially because I've seen the dark side of holding on to it that's already been brought up, so I might be missing something.
I suppose the Low King arriving on a symbol of progress might add a touch of gravitas to the proceedings.
Though I do like the trainspotter idea about Pratchett, I think it may be he just respects it when people are truly passionate about the things they enjoy. We saw something similar about football back in Unseen Academicals, or music in Soul Music. I know I respect people like that, even if I don't always know how to deal with them.
I love how much of Moist's character development can be traced back to the moment when he realized Adora Belle, a woman he'd been falling for, was one of his prior, accidental victims. Suddenly, all the background people weren't just background dressing for the adventure that was his life, they were real people.
And Moist and Adora Belle are my favourite couple in this series for the reasons Mark outlined, and they are up against some stiff competition.
I think it most likely they just had to take time to learn a new language.
I have come to the conclusion that, considering the lifestyle he has chosen, he fully expected 25 to be the middle of his life.
To be honest, it seems to me Brexit was formed by people who *think* they thrive in chaotic and impossible situations, when in fact they've just repeatedly gotten lucky.
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Thingamajig