I’ve been reading Pratchett’s novel Hogfather, and something bothered me about Teatime’s behavior. Better spoiler it:
Why did Teatime and the gang need Violet with them to carry out the caper? And once the tooth pile was in the magic circle and doing its work, why did Teatime not dispatch her the way he [del]does[/del] did with everyone for whom his plan no longer had any use?
Open spoilers. If you don’t want to be spoilered, you don’t need to read a thread that addresses specific questions about the plot. That’s what this thread is.
I was thinking it’s because, as a Tooth Fairy collection agent, she is needed to get access to the Tooth Fairy’s realm. But the cart driver is the one who has the magic dust. So that doesn’t work.
As far as not killing her, he was busy looking for the Tooth Fairy. Maybe he thought he might need her to get in? Hmmm.
I don’t recall why he took her in the first place, but as for keeping her alive, a hostage is always a valuable resource, even if you don’t expect to need one. That might have been enough to keep her alive until the job was finished.
He didn’t know for sure what he would find in the Tooth Fairy’s country. It’s not like he’d ever been there or anything, he was going on rumor and legend and brought Violet along to cover his bases in case anybody needed extra persuasion. Once he had her, he didn’t hurt her because she might be useful later.
Besides, Banjo’s Mam said no hitting girls. That’s BAD.
Of course, if you’re going to question taking Violet, you have to question picking up Dave, Banjo, and the rest. Because if he doesn’t need a tooth fairy, he doesn’t need someone like Banjo who would merit a visit from the Tooth Fairy but still be involved with the job.
He needs a way to the tooth fairy home. He uses Banjo’s innocence to meet a Tooth Fairy, which gets him access to the tooth fairy teeth buggy. That gets him the location and means to enter the Tooth Fairy castle.
So by that standard, he only needs Violet until he gets the buggy. Just like he stabs the buggy driver as soon as they get to the portal, he could have killed Violet as soon as they got the buggy.
But instead he kept her around.
He needs the rest of the crew to do his manual labor. The thief to go pick all the locks to find the real Tooth Fairy. The others to gather the teeth, the magician to make the spell. But Violet isn’t useful for any of that. She’s someone they have to keep up with for no reason.
I assumed he needed Violet to get to the Tooth Fairy castle, and once there, it didn’t serve the plot to do her in. Doesn’t seem like an important detail.
Because the author needed Violet around for the end of the story.
We know that, the point is a plausible justification for Teatime’s actions.
It’s the Discworld. That’s plausible justification for any action.