Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit is a female literary character who features in Discworld.
Contents |
Biography
Susan Sto Helit was the daughter of Ysabell and Mort making her the granddaughter of Death. Her mother had been Death's adoptive daughter and her father was Death's apprentice.
Overview
Personality and attributes
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 is not surprising, given the fact that her parents had informed her from a very early age that there were no such things as the Soul Cake Duck, the Hogfather or the Tooth Fairy. It has even been suggested that her parents chose to name her Susan specifically because of the sensible and conventional connotations of the name. 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.
Susan has, on several occasions, expressed rather unusual attitudes toward school and education in general. It was mentioned that "She got on with her education. In her opinion, school kept trying to interfere with it". In Hogfather, Susan compares getting an education to having a communicable sexual disease, in that "It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on".
Powers and abilities
Despite being Death's adoptive granddaughter, she has inherited certain of his abilities: She can "walk through walls and live outside time and be a little bit immortal." As well as being able to "remember the future," she can make herself completely unnoticeable to humans if she so chooses. However, some people, such as Albert or Mustrum Ridcully, who are used to such things, are still able to see her if they concentrate. Susan can find anyone she seeks, a talent she refers to as a "family trait." She can see (or rather, is unable to ignore) things which are invisible to most people, such as tooth fairies and bogeymen. Susan also has the ability to use her grandfather's voice (Indicated, similar to Death's, "") to command or intimidate others.
Susan has inherited Death's perfect memory, which includes the ability to "remember the future", and an instinctive knowledge of the nature of Death's work, which gives her considerable assistance during her brief time doing her grandfather's job in Soul Music. In order to keep her from going insane, her mind represses much of the knowledge provided by this memory, but even so, parts of it occasionally permeate her consciousness, generally manifesting as premonitions or intuitive insights into forthcoming events. In Hogfather, she states that the fragmented nature of such foresight makes the power largely unhelpful.
Notes
- Susan Sto Helit was created by appearance Terry Pratchett where she made her first appearance in "Soul Music" (1994).
In other media
Television
Video games
Appearances
- Soul Music: (1994)
External Links
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