Sep 5, 2025
Tricking the romantasy girlies into reading Discworld by telling them truthfully if not honestly that there's orc romance in Unseen Academicals
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Tricking the romantasy girlies into reading Discworld by telling them truthfully if not honestly that there's orc romance in Unseen Academicals
Brb I just made myself emotional remembering that Oats says he'll "take light into dark places" and then, 14 books later, we meet Nutt quite literally lighting candles
When Nutt's upset he shrinks and I'm obsessed with that
Who's the better one-off character? (Round 4)
Josh Exley (played by Jesse L. Martin in "The Unnatural")
Holman Hardt (played by David Manis in "The Rain King")
Mr. Nutt (played by Michael J. Anderson in "Humbug")
Josh Exley: says something really special about love and humanity
Holman Hardt: I always love when emotions are tied to powers, also this moment where Mulder chides him and he makes a face like its a sitcom
Mr. Nutt: Michael J. Anderson was born on Halloween and has worked for both David Lynch (Twin Peaks!) and Nasa. And he plays a hilarious hotel manager here!
Don't like this propaganda? Reblog it with your own or send some in my askbox
To jog your memory, here are the episodes they're from:
The Unnatural: While working in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, a young cop, Arthur Dales (the brother of the Arthur Dales who started the X-Files) stumbles across Josh Exley, a black baseball player who is actually an alien with a love of the game hiding among humans.
The Rain King: In a small town plagued by drought, Mulder and Scully come upon a man who claims to be able to control the weather—at a hefty profit. Yet the agents discover a force of nature at work even more powerful than the weather, and just as unpredictable.
Humbug: Mulder and Scully must find the paranormal among the abnormal when they are sent to investigate a long standing series of ritualistic killings which match no known patterns. The latest of which was the death of the "Alligator Man", just one of many sideshow acts around which the town of Gibsonton, Florida, is built.
Glenda: no Trev don’t take the little uberwaldean goblin to the game
Nutt: Oh mein Gott zees is ein shove full of footen-ze-ball!
OH!! OKAY!!!!! I FEEL REGULAR
Reread Unseen Academicals recently and I've been thinking about that scene towards the end between Nutt and Ladyship and Vetinari. More after the break because there are spoilers.
So, Nutt's an orc. Everyone knows that orcs are savage beasts that tear people's heads off, and Margolotta is desperately trying to make sure he comes up "civilized". Thematically, there's links to the Uberwald League of Temperance, which was at least partially her project, since Margolotta's taking a non-human race famous among humans for being evil, dangerous, and generally bad news and trying to reform it. Her instruction for Nutt to "teach [the remaining wild orcs] civilized behavior" follows naturally from her attempts to do the same with vampires.
And then Nutt fires back with, "And who would you send to teach the humans?"
He earns a "brief outburst of laughter" from Vetinari, which is usually reserved for Vimes. There's no mention of Margolotta's direct reaction, but for the last few lines she's been described as "taken aback" and "[saying something] coldly", so she can't be too amused by this comment. But why is she so unimpressed with Nutt's asides about humans?
It's because, for all she tried, his situation isn't actually like the Black Ribboner vampires. In that case, Margolotta more or less succeeded in making her the vampires into reasonable facsimiles of humans, although with a few weird habits. In the quest for acceptance, Margolotta believed it necessary to emulate humans, to redirect entirely the thirst for blood and control into other passions. But Nutt? He's been raised to be a human orc, to be part of the civilized world, and how does he find true acceptance and happiness?
By accepting himself not as human, but as an orc.
Nutt's comment about "teach[ing] the humans" isn't just a funny aside about human nature. Deliberate or not, it's a slap in the face to everything Margolotta's worked for since at least The Fifth Elephant. For her, humanity is a goal to aspire to; for Nutt, who's lived among the people of Ankh-Morpork and seen their moods, their mobs, their stupidity and even their kindness, humanity is an amusement.
Thank you for taking the time to read my rambling thoughts, and good night.
Lady Margolotta: I've given Nutt worth
Glenda: you've fucked up a perfectly good orc is what you've done. Look at him, he's got anxiety