I'm still watching TOS. At the time these movies came out, I had watched STNG but was unable to get my hands on TOS, so this was all I had to get on the first generation. This movie in particular is my favourite, and the reason I was hooked on TOS. You're right, the villain and the last sacrifice are what carry the movie.

Thank you for giving me something else to put against the new movies: the longevity of the friendship. These aren't kids with a few years on the fleet who bitch and moan about the unfairness of life. These are mature people who've been through a lot and have a tried and tested relationship that spans several decades, vast experience in their fields, including Kirk's trademark worming out of tough situations, with a shared code of their own given by said experience and long contact with each other. They're not kids who wing it out of every situation with spunk and a hot headed stubborness against thinking things through. Naq Fcbpx'f fnpevsvpr jnf gbb vzcbegnag gb unir znqr vg fb purnc jvgu Xvex'f cfrhqb "fnpevsvpr" gung tbg fbyirq va yrff guna 2 zvahgrf juvyr Fcbpx jrag ba gb univat ab ybtvp jungfbrire orpnhfr ur'f n ubg urnqrq aba Ihypna. Ur'f abg pneelvat uvf ragver pvivyvmngvba ba uvf crefba be nalguvat yvxr gung. *Rant over.*

The Kobayashi Maru (Being an Xphile, every time I hear that I can't help thinking of Piper Maru) test is a strong theme in this movie and the first instance we have on how Kirk beat the system and became who he is. That's no small feat.

Since I share pretty much most of your opinions on this movie, I'm hoping that the next one you'll like it just as much as I do. Although it's not more than I like this one.

The thing you mentioned about the language or slang used in the shades is simply the language used by people of low socioeconomic standing in an English speaking country, but that one specifically is low class English-from-England language used in every text about England. I don't see what racism has to do with that.

The scene of the robbery is so funny. Somehow I had a glimpse of Granny when a stupid thief tried to rob her.

See? Ask and you get it. This books have everything! Death is my favourite character, followed very closely by the Luggage and the Librarian. Tell me if you don't think they're the best! Now let's see how much you like this Death now that you can know more about him.

I've got a confession to make. I can't read The Book Thief because I'm so used to the Discworld Death that the one in TBT seems lame and it's jarring to my view of what a good Death should be. I don't know how to pass over that prejudice I have to read that book. Do you have any idea on how I can do it?

I am totally with you on the need of a book with the Librarian as the main character and totally about him. The Librarian deserves so much more attention!

And just like you, after reading this book, I wanted to know more about Esk and what she did to the wizards. I guess that's something to look forward to. I hope.

Mrs Whitlow isn't a witch, she's just a housekeeper who wants to think of herself as dabbling in witchcraft. That's made clear by her needing people like Granny to tell her of her future.

I'm sorry but I can't share your notion of equating having fancies to being a bad person. If that was the case, we should shun most of the world for having quirks and fancies we don't like because that must certainly mean they're bad people, right? I know that's probably not what you meant, you were talking about the kind of things people do that hurt other people for their own amusement. In that respect also I can't agree with you. I've met my fair share of people with fancies who always found amusing to try as hard as they could to hurt me just because it was fun to them, like a challenge. When I was little it hurt me. As I grew up I stopped caring. But also when I was little I could see past that when the person changed because it does happen, people does actually grow up and change. If I had crossed out all those who had fun at my expenses throughout my life as Bad People (because that's the way you describe that), I wouldn't know some very good people today. People who grew up and understood what they did and appologised to me when we met again in life. Tell me, does someone's past completely make them irredeemable? I know Bad People the way you describe them, as if they are completely irredeemable, who have changed to become better people.

So I am with Simon, having fancies does not make a person a Bad Person who can't be good. I know you don't like labels and tiny square boxes, so please think about that and see if you can't find in your own experience people who've behaved badly by you just for fun who later on changed and became better people and even appologised to you. Consider whether those people deserve to be called Bad and crossed out from life the way your text seems to imply.

I get where you're going with your rant. There's a line in one of the books that racism isn't a thing in the Discworld because they're too busy with speciesism being a more prominent thing. Maybe you feel that a coloured person is being portrayed as a stereotype. I don't think I'd know much about that, but I believe it was made intentional, to show that same discrimination with opposite qualities. Also, words change their meaning overtime, like the other day I was hearing of how the inverted pink triangle that was given to homosexuals as a brand is now used by them as a sign of pride. I don't know if the word you're describing here went through that kind of conversion, but perhaps in some places it did even though it doesn't for you.

I wouldn't know anymore. I live in a country where the national socialist party has just been made legal. The funny thing is, that was after gay marriage was legalized here.

Now you see the true core of the book. Granny may be very difficult to convince because she must be certain of things to make them work, but once she sees the way, she won't stop until it's done. Esk is very lucky to have her as a mentor.

The issue of misogyny is so well put here. You have to remember that wizards don't actually know anything about women (forbidden and all that from contact with women), or about people in general. They only know how to get their way, not how to understand people and here's a good example of that.

You're still referring to Granny as Esk's grandmother. SHE'S NOT. Everyone calls Granny Granny because she's elder and she's been in the birth and deathbed of at least 3 generations already! It's a Title! It's like saying she's the Grand Witch! Don't you remember that Weatherwax never got married and doesn't hold with those sort of things?

That's one interesting difference there between witches and wizards that's implied. Headology is the witch's weapon of choice, while "jometry", for giving it Granny's word that implies much book learning for her, is the wizard's weapon of choice. What does this mean? Here, it means that a witch can solve a problem or defeat an enemy by understanding the person, while a wizard will achieve the same thing by understanding and controlling his own power. In a case like this, with people trying to scam you, a wizard would actually be weak since his power lies in using magic to solve the problem once it's occured. A witch, on the other hand, will avoid the problem by seeing through the person before they can get the upper hand on you.

This is what I understood here on what they were trying to do to Esk.