April 14th, 2023
14 Apr 2023 · page 1163 of 1306
Uh-huh.
Cast: Harriet Barber, Queen Victoria, Sidney Malik
Comments (50)
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I'd fall over laughing if Sidney just stuck his hand outside the carriage and handed the Queen her crown. :p
When he reached into his coat for the notebook, I thought for a second he was checking to see if the Magpie had somehow put the crown in there!
Abra-ca-bloody-dabra. ;)
Someday I want to write a plot with an abrupt early-story plot cancel like this. "Here you go! The rest of the book is now a sci-fi thriller."
Sounds like a job for Verity Cunningham, the World’s Greatest Hunter.
You forgot the asterisk that means: Only half the time.
Because the natural state of all Englishes is a raging mob, a'frothin at the mouth. Like some sort of rage-filled aspic.
I'm a bit confused about the use of the word aspic, but it makes for a wonderful mental image. I'm going to think of it now whenever I see the phrase "quivering with rage"
By aspic, you mean that, despite agitating a lot, the actual shape of things doesn't really change? Sounds about right for anglophone countries.
So… what you’re saying is that it’s an instrument of oppression by which the ruling class keep The People docile and under control? :-)
'Oppression' is such a harsh word. 'Stability' is much less provocative. Besides, everybody's cleaner, aren't they? Better educated? Plenty of women and PoCs in positions of authority, lots of direct democracy and local control, people are openly able to identify as they please with regard to gender/sexual orientation... if this be the fruits of an oppressive ruling class, perhaps they could shake the tree a few more times. :)
‘ They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today. ' Lord Vetinari
Ha! That was _exactly _the quote I was thinking of.
This Victorian England is way, way more egalitarian and tolerant than the one in our universe. So clearly the People are, as a whole, benefitting from whatever Vicky's lot are up to vis-a-vis stability.
Your comment is perfectly reasonable, but I recently reread a Lodge novel where his character remarks that fiction characters of industrial novel always happen to follow the upper class tray and betray the working class and the poors whenever they have the occasion making this class a background rather than a protagonist, meaning that almost any victorian-imbued work of fiction, sustained surrepticiously by such novels, tend to erase the presence - and the problems- of said class.
While this is true to a point, you can still see many of the problems of the time in historical novels by what things (or people) are missing . And this is leaving aside the work of authors like Dickens, Kingsley, etc who explicitly showed the working classes in order to push for social change. In the Widdershins universe, we see no evidence of those social prejudices that existed in our world -- presumably due to the stabilising magical effects of Vicky's New Hat. If she doesn't get it back sharpish, Widdershins may regress to all the -isms of our own 19thC
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Many people prefer reasonable oppression to anarchy, as long as it comes with a degree of security. The key is finding a happy medium. Moderation in all things, yes? :)
Especially, moderation. Take BIG bites!
That was my first thought too. "So the metaphorical system has one critical point of failure? Fascinating.
I suspect that it projects the image of stability rather than makes things stable itself. It is probably more of a confidence boost than an actual stability generator, and I suspect will turn out to not even be magical at all, the monarch is just told it is!
Stability, eh? Sounds like something the last attempt to get at the fourth anchor was missing ... ;-)
(I wonder, did the RL crown ever leave the UK / the Commonwealth, even if the regent travelled abroad? Can't seem to remember it being worn on photos of state visits ...)
The coronation uses the crown from the crown jewels, which is used only in public ceremony/major state occasion stuff. When not needed for a major ceremony like a coronation, it is kept in the tower of London, generally on display the past century or two. The queen/king has a smaller lighter one for normal public events.
Imperial State Crown The Imperial State Crown is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and symbolises the sovereignty of the British monarch. It has existed in various forms since the 15th century. The current version was made in 1937 and is worn by a new monarch for WikipediaI am now imagining the late Q Liz2 having a closet filled with different crowns, from her "afternoon tea" crown, to the "going to the shops" crown and even a saucy little tiara for nights in with Phil.
Ummmmhh ... 😁
you don't have a monarchy lasting that long or an empire grow that big without accruing some crowns along the way. they're pretty much the classic example of conspicuous consumption.
(Thanks for the pointer, but while Wikipedia confirms that Queen Victoria has indeed been coronated with the Imperial State Crown, it is another crown among the crown jewels, St. Edwards Crown, that is considered "the" coronation crown ... 😉 )
(... wouldn't it be a hoot if the comic's plot were to state that Victoria and her successor were crowned with the Imperial State Crown because the actual coronation crown stayed AWOL for that long, rather than any fussing about its weight? 😆 )
omg I bet you're right and that's why it's needed :o And stability seems to be exactly what all our heroes have finally found for a bit... of course something had to disrupt it all
You're joking, right? That's a riot.
Dumbo's feather, but for a whole country. Is it just me, or is this is a pretty sharp satire of monarchy in general? lol
My thoughts as well, the crown may be what Victoria believes is what hold the country together, but I'm sure it will be revealed that's not how it really works
Well, the Kaiser Chiefs did predict one…
well THAT's a problem
This has interesting implications about the time King John lost the crown jewels in the Wash
Just ate my comment. Anyway, Sid's already on the job, Harry's noticed, and Vicky perhaps doth protest just a touch too much about not knowing anything about magic. I suspect she'll have more actual political power than the one IOT, so she'd be briefed more thoroughly, and more often.
Uh-oh... and the cover of this chapter shows Thea the Sea Witch wearing a suspiciously familiar-looking crown. Who's gotten hold of that magical artifact?
Oh shit you right!!
Good call. That means only another witch can stop her, probably, so the full cast will need to come together for the finale.
In the Widderverse, the waves rule Britannia!
...You know, now that you mention it, that 4th Anchor did seem awfully UNSTABLE when we last left it...
That makes so much sense it hurts. The crown being imbued with stability, I mean.
Cue fifty pages of the team looking for the crown only to realize the butler left it in her desk
Why is Victoria looking aside and not meeting anybody's eye in the second to last panel? Is she, perhaps, being less that completely forthcoming?
"Mal."
"Harry."
"Got a question for you."
"Oy?"
"Witches speak to the dead, right?"
"Dunno, never tried. Who told you that, anyway?"
"Book of Samuel. You up for a go at it?"
"For what?"
"Talking to the dead, Mal."
"Dunno, Harry. ...It's important, innit?"
"I'm here, right? Gotta find the Crown. Quick as I can, too."
"Hold up. THE Crown? Herself's?"
"Yup. Somebody up and knicked it."
"Huh. Well. That doesn't happen every day."
"Only once, and the villain's been dead for centuries. That's why I need a witch to talk to him. See if he's got a clue for tracking it down."
"Well... I can ask Ben, see if that bloody library of his says anything. What's the name, Harry?"
"The name?"
"The name of the dead bloke you want to talk to!"
"...Thomas."
:pawky look:
"...Thomas Blood.
"Yeah. Tell me that ain't ominous, Harry."
Queen Victoria getting sheepish about the subject of spare crowns is really amusing.
I feel like, if your magical Stability item is able to go missing in the first place, it can't be working very well! Did someone forget to replace the batteries?
There are at least... 100 punchlines that follow from Vicky's last line.
I feel like queenie here is overestimating the faith the average citizen holds in the royal family and her family's own importance in keeping the country from falling into chaos.
Tossing this out here...
If an object can become imbued by strong feelings, even if it's seldom if at all seen by people having those feelings, is it absolutely necessary that the object exist at all? Could the feelings of an entire country regarding the idea of some crown be enough to manifest one that's the embodiment of said feelings?
Could the queen then go out wearing a jester's cap and have it appear as a crown because it's The Thing the Queen is Wearing?
ohhhh makes sense