SUSAN STO HELIT

'Susan Sto Helit' (also spelled 'Sto-Helit'), sometimes called 'Susan Death', is a fictional character who has featured in three of Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' novels: ''Soul Music'', ''Hogfather'', and ''Thief of Time''.
She is the daughter of Ysabell, Death's adopted daughter (introduced in ''The Light Fantastic'') and Mort, who was briefly his apprentice (in ''Mort''). At the end of ''Mort'' they leave Death's domain and become Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit. Susan is their only child.
She is first introduced as a sixteen-year-old pupil at the Quirm College for Young Ladies in ''Soul Music'', shortly after the death of her parents (Death could not save them, only grant them eternal life at his Domain, which they refused). After graduating — and despite technically being the current Duchess of Sto Helit — she begins a teaching career, first as a governess (in ''Hogfather'') and then as a schoolteacher (in ''Thief of Time'').

Contents

Personality and traits

Role

Relationships

Appearances in other media

External links

Personality and traits

Susan is tall and thin; in ''The Discworld Companion'', Pratchett describes her as "attractive in a skinny way." Her hair is pure white, but with a streak of black running through it from end to end. It tends to rearrange its style of its own accord depending on her mood or actions. Her age is uncertain, though as of ''Thief of Time'' she is probably in her early to mid twenties. Despite her relative youth, she projects a sense of great age. Susan also possesses a birthmark that shows itself only when she blushes; it consists of three finger-like marks that were left on her father when Death slapped him. She also has a Look (always capitalised), which can be rather disconcerting.
Despite her lack of a genetic link with Death, she has inherited certain of his abilities: She can "walk through walls and live outside time and be a little bit immortal." She also has the ability to use her grandfather's voice (Indicated, as Death's is, ) to command or intimidate others.
Her most obvious character trait is being sensible, an attribute carefully cultivated by her parents as a counterbalance to the influence of her grandfather. Initially, this manifested itself as a refusal to admit the supernatural side of the world (beyond basic magic) even existed. This upbringing has instilled in her a certain lack of romanticism; her personal appraisal of "a poem about daffodils" is, "''Apparently the poet had liked them very much.''" Latterly, however, she accepts she is part of the same world as the Hogfather and the Tooth fairy. She just wishes she wasn't. She can be relied upon to keep her head in a crisis, something she tends to view as a character flaw.
As the novels progress, Susan proves to be quite good at handling small children, a skill that is attributed to her sensible and practical nature.
This could also be due to her approach to children's problems. When a child complains about a monster in the cupboard or under the bed, most parents would go to great lengths to carefully explain to the child that there is no monster. Susan, on the other hand, simply hands the child a suitable weapon with which to assault the monster, or goes and does it herself. Monsters from a wide area have come to dread the fireplace poker she uses for this task, although as word of Susan has quickly spread among the city's resident monsters, she lately has only needed to deal with newcomers.
Her practical nature is very similar to Granny Weatherwax's ''Headology'', though the two are used in different fashions.
Her approach in other areas is also unusual. For example, in her role as a governess she has found that her charges' reading progress has been greatly enhanced by using interesting books which are slightly too difficult for them, and which therefore present something of a challenge. Parents may, however, have reservations about her choice of General Tacticus' ''Campaigns'' as a reader, since it may be argued that the ability to spell 'disembowelled' is not necessarily needed by children under ten.
As a schoolteacher she is sufficiently successful to have parents clamouring to have their child included in her class. Her approach to history and geography, often subjects which children find rather dull, has particularly captured her class's attention. The occasional need to remove from their children's clothing dried-in bloodstains or ground-in swamp mud is generally seen by parents as more than compensated for by the broad education being received - a child's description of one of the classic battles from Ankh-Morpork's long history, for example, might be sufficiently vivid and detailed to make the parent think that the description could not have been improved upon if the child had actually seen the battle at first hand.

Role

Susan is one of the ''Discworld'' series's principal protagonists; she is a main character in ''Soul Music'', ''Hogfather'' and ''Thief of Time''. As the granddaughter of Death, she is frequently (and reluctantly) forced away from her "normal" life to do battle with various malign supernatural forces or, barring that, to take on her grandfather's job in his absence. Death tends to employ her in his battles against the Auditors of Reality, particularly in situations where he has no power or influence (For instance, since children have no concept of death, he cannot enter the Tooth Fairy's castle, which is constructed from the imaginations of children).

Relationships

In ''The Art of Discworld'', Pratchett describes Susan as "rather chilly." She has yet to demonstrate much affection for others, though her relationship with her grandfather, once strained, improves over the course of the series.
Though Susan was previously infatuated with rocker Imp Y Celyn (''Soul Music''), ''Thief of Time'' ended with an unspecified "perfect moment" between Susan and Lobsang Ludd, the new anthropomorphic personification of Time.

Appearances in other media

In the Cosgrove Hall animation of ''Soul Music'', Susan was voiced by Debra Gillett. In the Sky One live-action adaptation of ''Hogfather'' the character was played by Michelle Dockery.
She also appears in the computer game, .

External links

★ Discworld & Pratchett Wiki