what feels distinct to me about Terry Pratchett work is even though he’s a comedy writer and he’s more or less poking fun at things all the time, he also knows how to let his characters be sincere and to respect their emotions when the story requires that

like, oftentimes he shies away from writing big dramatic emotion and tends to pull back instead, but you don’t get the sense that the character isn’t allowed to feel it, but rather that the narrative voice is, idk, giving them privacy

i often don’t enjoy comedy writing because it’s hard for me to envision the characters having fully-fleshed-out relationships and emotions apart from the jokes and the humorous antagonism, because it’s not presented as happening on page without there being a punchline attached, but I don’t feel that way about Discworld