Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,612
edits
mNo edit summary |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (added more to new trope, fixed trope alphabetization) |
||
(22 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
[[File:Paul Kidby Discworld.jpg|frame|[[
{{quote|''Stories are important. People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way round. Stories... have evolved... The strongest have survived, and they have grown fat... Stories etch grooves deep enough for people to follow... A thousand wolves have eaten grandmother, a thousand princesses have been kissed... Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats.''
Line 15:
In addition to the main characters, there is a large cast of recurring characters, including dodgy street trader [[Honest John's Dealership|Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler]] and [[Anti-Villain|benevolent tyrant]] Havelock Vetinari ('benevolent' in the sense that he's a much ''nicer'' tyrant than his predecessors). Villains have included sociopathic geniuses, [[Eldritch Abomination]]s, and the Auditors of Reality, [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|cosmic bureaucrats]] who consider life too untidy to be tolerated.
As of [[Fan Nickname|Pterry]]'s death in 2015, there were fourty-three books in the series, six of them marketed as young-adult and another two marketed toward children, as well as several short stories. With the destruction of his notes in 2017, it is unlikely that there will be any more.
As of October, 2011, there are thirty-nine books in the series, five of them young-adult, as well as several short stories. There are also [[Spin-Off|Discworld calendars, diaries, maps]], [[Universe Compendium|compendia]], three [[Video Game]]s,<ref>Four if you include the ''Colour Of Magic'' 1986 text adventure</ref> three [[Board Game]]s,<ref>One based on the Watch, one based on a power struggle for Ankh-Morpork, and the [[Defictionalised]] chess-analogue Thud</ref> and a pen and paper [[RPG]], each with [[Word of God|additional background information]] about the Disc. All the books have been adapted for the stage, two have become animated series, and three (technically four, as ''The Colour of Magic'' and ''The Light Fantastic'' were filmed as a single story under the former title, but the second is a direct follow-on) have become live-action [[Made for TV Movie|Made For TV Movies]]. A ''cop show'' based around the Ankh-Morpork Watch is in the works. Yes, really.▼
▲
See also the [[Discworld/Characters|character sheet]] for details on the more major of the series' [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], and the fan-run [http://www.lspace.org/ L-Space Web] for [http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/index.html quotes] and [http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html annotations] (which unfortunately haven't updated since ''Going Postal'', from 2004). There is a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120419204136/http://discworldfanatics.co.uk/discworld/reading-guide/ reading order guide] for those who would like to go through the books by internal series.
Line 27 ⟶ 29:
Brackets denote date of UK publication and main character(s) - standalone indicates that it is not currently part of a series.
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
# ''[[
'''Illustrated novels:'''
* ''[[
* ''[[
'''The young-adult Discworld novels:'''
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
'''Children's books:'''
* ''[[
* ''[[
'''Short stories:'''
Line 97 ⟶ 99:
'''Other:'''
* ''[[GURPS]] Discworld'' [[RPG]] and ''GURPS Discworld Also''
* ''[[
* ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook''
* ''The Folklore of Discworld''
Line 116 ⟶ 118:
** ''[[Discworld MUD]]''
{{tropenamer}}
* [[Fertile Feet]]
* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]
* [[Klatchian Coffee]]
* [[Lies to Children]]
* [[Stranger in a Familiar Land]]
* [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]
* [[Thunderbolt Iron]]
* [[Überwald]]
* [[Un-Equal Rites]]
* [[Vetinari Job Security]]
* [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma]]
{{franchisetropes}}
'''Tropes that are not specific to one character (or group of characters) ''and'' appeared in three or more books (anything else should go in those pages, since otherwise five
== A-E ==
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: Death's scythe and sword, Carrot's sword, and Inigo Skimmer's palm knife. Especially Death's scythe, which is described as "proverbially sharp" and can [[Painting the Fourth Wall|cut the dialog]] ''in the book'' when it's swung. It exudes an aura of sharpness that extends several inches from the actual blade- ''because it is that sharp.''
** Carrot's sword is also very interesting. It is one of the very few swords on the Disc without a single hint of magic in it. Instead, it is a long and very sharp piece of metal designed specifically to cut through man, horse and armour. IT is also an extremely old sword. This makes sense, given its implied origin.
Line 124 ⟶ 140:
* [[Addiction Displacement]]: all Black Ribboner vampires turn to a particular obsession (coffee, photography, politics, et cetera) as a psychological substitute for craving human blood. Sam Vimes also replaces alcohol with cigars.
* [[All Witches Have Cats]]: Nanny Ogg has Greebo; Granny Weatherwax eventually has You.
* [[All the Myriad Ways]]: Mentioned and discussed in ''[[
* [[All Theories Are True]]: Especially the morphogenic field, and anything involving the word "quantum".
* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: The trolls are actually made of stone, instead of turning to stone. They sometimes go dormant for long periods of time and are mistaken for rocks.
Line 135 ⟶ 151:
* [[Amusing Alien]]: The Luggage.
* [[Angels, Devils, and Squid]]: Gods, demons and the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. The first two groups are more similar than they'd like to admit ("[[God and Satan Are Both Jerks|the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters]]"), while the Things just want the light and shape of our reality and would kill us without even noticing if they ever got through. That's without mentioning the Auditors and other weirdness.
** ''[[
* [[Anthropic Principle]]: One of the series' major themes: Discworld is a world of stories. The world often conspires to get the people in the stories to play their roles, no matter what the consequences. The people often aren't happy with this.
** One book mentions the Unseen University Professor of Anthropics, who has created the Extreme Anthropic Principle: the theory that the universe is here solely for the Unseen University Professor of Anthropics. It is further mentioned that everyone, with a few changes of the Insert Name Here variety, secretly believes the same thing.
Line 153 ⟶ 169:
* [[Bad Guy Bar]]: The Mended Drum (originally the "Broken Drum", you can't beat it).
** Also, 'Biers', the bar for the differently-alive including vampires, zombies, werewolves, bogie-men, ghouls and various others too weird to fit in anywhere else. Also Mrs Gammage: nearly blind old woman who no-one has the heart to tell her the bar is no longer the Crown and Axe.
* [[Battle Butler]]: Quite literally, with Sam Vimes' butler Willikins. Both in the sense that he temporarily leaves the household for military service in ''[[
{{quote|Willikins: A cap with sharpened pennies sewn to the brim.
Vimes: You could take an eye out with that!
Line 181 ⟶ 197:
{{quote|A bolt of lighting lanced through the clouds and hit Dorfl's helmet. There was a sheet of flame and then a trickling noise. Dorfl's molten armor formed puddles around his white-hot feet.
"I Don't Call That Much Of An Argument" }}
* [[Brainless Beauty]]: [[
* [[Brawn Hilda]]: Vimes' wife in ''[[
** Vimes' wife right from her first appearance in Guards! Guards! In that one, some Palace Guards come to take her to be eaten by the dragon. She takes exception to being dragged off by a load of guards...with a broadsword. It doesn't work out for her, but two of her pets (Sam Vimes and a most peculiar young male swamp dragon) rescue her later on.
** It is noted on several occasions, as recently as 'Snuff' that Sybil is descended from the kind of old aristocracy that kept its place by being more than able to defend themselves. Hence why even in Night Watch a younger Sybil grabs a ornamental sword (or something else long and metal?) to defend herself when (stranger to her at that time) Vimes comes to the door.
*** There were previous references to the martial activities of Sybil's male ancestors, usually in the context of her even tougher female ancestors looking after everything else, including caring for whatever portions of their male relatives made it back from battle. As well, given the later references to the family apparently never throwing anything away if it could possibly have any use, there's no reason to think that sword wasn't entirely functional. (Given how badly she handles a sword in the chronologically later events of ''[[
* [[Brick Joke]]: Happens quite often, even across books in the form of [[Continuity Nod]]s. As one example, in ''[[
** Also, a bar called The Broken Drum (You Can't Beat It!) burns down in the first book. It appears rebuilt subsequently throughout later books as The Mended Drum (You Can Get Beaten).
** Bloody Stupid Johnson's handiwork constantly appears around Ankh-Mopork. See [[Bungling Inventor]] for more.
** In ''[[Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'', it's detailed that the Klatchian Foreign Legion is where people go to forget their lives ([[Laser-Guided Amnesia|in the literal sense]]). This is mentioned again as a throwaway line in ''[[Going Postal (Discworld)|Going Postal]]'', '''12 books later'''.
** In ''[[
*** Though in ''[[The Fifth Elephant]]'', we're told that most true wolves don't have names so much as descriptions. Gaspode attempts to translate one of these for the rather prudish Captain Carrot. They eventually settle on "Bum," which Carrot can choose to interpret in the way common in the US (vagrant, tramp, hobo) while remaining at least somewhat similar to the more precise translation {{spoiler|"Arsehole"}}.
** Another one crops up in ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'': In ''[[
** A character introduced in a book published in 1987 finally makes a second appearance... in a book published in 2010.
* [[Bungling Inventor]]: Bloody Stupid Johnson, whose works tend to warp reality when they're not outright useless: the Colossus of Ankh-Morpork, which fits in a pocket, an exploding sundial, a [[Portal Network]] apartment complex, a tower built with quicksand (it'd be built faster), several pipe organs, a shower that combines with a pipe organ and a geyser, a mail-sorting machine that receives letters from alternate universes...
Line 202 ⟶ 218:
*** A maze so small that people get lost looking for it.
*** Crazy paving that has committed suicide.
*** The 'Ho-Ho', which is like a [[wikipedia:Ha-ha|Ha-ha]] (a ditch that hides a fence) but much,
{{quote|''"To Bloody Stupid Johnson, scale was something that happened to other people."''
''"If you wanted a small ground-to-air missile, you just asked him to make an ornamental fountain"'' }}
** And, quite impressively, he managed to create an explosive out of nothing but sand and water.
** Completely inverted with Leonard of Quirm (who invents, among other things, incredibly destructive siege engines as intellectual exercises, including cutting instructions and parts lists) and Goldeneyes (one client tore them out to prevent him from making any works greater for anyone else) Silverhand (hand cut off for similar reasons by ANOTHER client) Dactylos, the Discworld's greatest engineer (who dies near the end of the first book, killed by his LAST client, same reason).
Line 219 ⟶ 233:
** The Death of Rats: {{small-caps| Squeak.}}
** The Librarian: "Ook."
* [[Cats Are Magic]]: Death is very fond of cats and gives them all nine lives. That said, the only cat who is really magical is Maurice, from ''[[
* [[Cat Stereotype]]: Granny Weatherwax's cat You is a pure white kitten, full of purity and innocence. Nanny Ogg's cat Greebo, on the other hand, is grey, and is older, wiser, and pure malevolent evil.
* [[Chronoscope]]:
Line 225 ⟶ 239:
*** The problem, it is revealed, is in STEERING the damn things. They tend to start out with random viewing coordinates, so it's very hard to see anything in particular with them. Most of them end up being used as shaving mirrors because almost everywhere they might look is effectively featureless space.
** Also from the Science of Discworld books, Hex is able to treat our entire universe as one of these. Fast fowarding, or rewinding to see specific spots in human history (our universe canonically exists in a snowglobe on a shelf in the Unseen University, a wobbly shelf).
* [[Cerebus Rollercoaster]]: The series has gotten darker and more mature over the years, all without quite losing its sense of humor. And yes, Pratchett even plays with this trope, contrasting the dark ''[[
* [[Chalk Outline]]: Invoked rarely, and only for laughs. For example, the Ankh is the only river in the world you can draw a chalk outline on. Also, one of the previous postmasters spied into the sorting machine, and [[Nightmare Fuel|his outline was all over the sorting office]].
** In ''[[The Truth]]'' The probably human Corporal Nobbs drew a chalk outline of a victim, which is all fine and normal for a copper, except he did it in colored chalk, and felt the need to add a pipe and draw some clouds and flowers.
* [[Chameleon Camouflage]]: Susan Sto Helit, Granny Weatherwax and her apprentice Tiffany Aching have powers to do this. The young Vetinari learns this in ''[[
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Remember when the The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork was obese? Or when Death seemed to actively cause people to die rather than merely collect their souls? Both have gotten excuses, one of which is that Death changed character after Mort, the other that it was a different Patrician. [[Word of God]] denies the latter, admitting it is this trope.
** Keep in mind, knowing Ventinari it does not seem out of place that he would have acted that way or gained weight just for some mind game to further his goals.
Line 245 ⟶ 259:
* [[Classical Movie Vampire]]: Usually subverted, but played straight sometimes.
* [[Common Tongue]]: Morporkian, fitting the city's cosmopolitan influence.
* [[Conservation of Ninjitsu]]: Narrativium pretty much guarantees this. For example, in ''[[
** Pratchett explains this phenomenon by reasoning that the side with numbers has to think before hitting, whereas the hopelessly outnumbered side can just attack anything nearby and be pretty much sure it is an enemy, thus giving them an advantage. This makes sense in Discworld logic.
** In ''[[
** These same barbarians back off when faced by the single threat of Carrot in ''[[
** The Nac Mac Feegle take a mass-based rather than numbers-based approach: they are described as having all the strength of a normal-sized person compressed into six inches...and like most things when compressed, they have a tendency to explode. They like big enemies because there's more of them to hit, and they're so small and fast it's almost impossible for said enemies to hit them back.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: Pterry generally tries to acknowledge continuity. The events in ''[[
* [[Corrupt Politician]]: Subverted by Ephebe. They have the only elected politician on the disc, a new one is elected every five years on the basis of honesty, and they call him [[Genius Bonus|The Tyrant]]. It's his actual title.
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Commander Samuel Vimes has set up numerous traps at his home and office to deal with those pesky Assassins, to the point that some of the more mean-spirited instructors have begun sending out students to do "mock assassinations". If they can draw a bead on him with a crossbow, they pass. Good luck.
Line 276 ⟶ 290:
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The earliest books are quite different in tone, the characterization is different, things like troll biology are wildly different, all sorts of things. Sir Pterry spent some time building a plausible demiphysics based on the nature of the disc (eight seasons, a tropical belt at the edge and polar hub, etc), a mythology founded on that (the number eight, [[Eldritch Abominations]]) and so on. Except for the occasional reference to the eight day week and the eight seasons of the year, most of that is dropped in favor of wicked good character pieces and archetype development.
* [[Eat Dirt Cheap]]: Trolls eat rocks.
* [[Element Number Five]]
* [[Eternal Hero]]: Parodied in ''[[
** Cohen and his henchmen ''do'' fit the trope. At the end of ''[[
*** Death, in a manner of speaking, comes for them all right, in the form of a crew of Valkyries. Whom they promptly horsejack and proceed to ride off to further adventures.
* [[Excuse Me, Coming Through]]: An important element of the Law of Narrative Causality, complete with [[Lampshade]] and two guys carrying a pane of glass.
* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: In a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] world populated by Anthropomorphic personifications, golems, gods, and wizards you should expect plenty of this. The golems are one of bigger examples: given that they're made of rock and effectively unkillable. [[Time Abyss|Anghammarad]] is an extreme example; built over 20,000 years ago and still functioning, remembering times, events, places and languages that nothing else on the Disc does. Several of the vampires who pop up get in on this, too. The Count de Magpyr (the old, traditional one, not the trendy new one) recognises the names of several of the peasants in the mob at his castle and makes mentioning of remembering their grandparents.
== F-J ==
* [[Fallen-On-Hard-Times Job]]: Is [[Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler]] selling sausages? Then another stupid moneymaking scheme has just blown up in his face.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: dwarfs versus trolls; humans versus trolls in some places; just about everyone versus goblins.
Line 290 ⟶ 306:
* [[Flat World]]: People, fish, and sea monsters continually fall over the rim.
** As indeed does ''the sea'', but [[Word of God]] says "arrangements are made" to prevent it all draining away.
* [[Flip Personality]]: Altogether Andrews, first introduced in ''[[
* [[Fluffy Tamer]]: Lady Sybil Ramkin and her dragons. Nanny Ogg and Greebo. [[Badass|Granny Weatherwax]] and You the cat.
* [[Footnote Fever]]: They show up in most of the books to provide often-humorous clarification or deeper history on some topics.
* [[Freudian Trio]]: The Lancre witches (Magrat: ego, Granny Weatherwax: superego, Nanny Ogg: id. Very, very id)
* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Thank goodness for [http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html the Pratchett File].
** Also counts as a [[Genius Bonus]] in many cases. Only the most widely traveled of readers will get most of them, let alone some of the more obscure ones
* [[Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire]]: All the members of the League of Temperance, who only drink animal blood taken from slaughterhouses.
** Or switch to something completely different. Coffee, anyone?
Line 314 ⟶ 330:
* [[Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook]]: The "learning to commit more serious crimes" variety is parodied when the Ankh-Morpork Thieves' Guild, an entirely legal organisation, runs official classes in the city's main prison, the Tanty.
* [[Happily Married]]: Commander Vimes and Lady Sybil, Fred Colon and his [[The Ghost|unnamed wife]], and King Verence and Queen Magrat of Lancre.
** And Mort and Ysabell
** Detritus is said to be Happily Married to Ruby in Thud!, though they lack Babies Ever After.
* [[The Hat Makes the Man]]: The king's crown and the archmage's hat both influence their wearer's personality.
Line 322 ⟶ 338:
* [[Horse of a Different Color]]: Vermine, "a more careful relative of the lemming" with black and white fur much prized by royalty and nobility for [[Requisite Royal Regalia|lining their robes]].
** Its fur is also much prized by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather than let go of it.
** There's also the [[
* [[Hold Your Hippogriffs]]
* [[Humans Are Leaders]]: Not too surprising as humans appears to be the most populous species. But in Ankh-Morpork, dwarves, trolls, and vampires are factions that Vetinari and the Watch deal with like another guild.
* [[The Igor]]: An entire family of them that does henching and [[Mad Science]] professionally. They also pioneer surgical techniques and do it almost recreationally; when an Igor is said to have his father's eyes, it's probably not a figure of speech. They may have been handed down through the generations (a good pair of hands are worth hanging onto as well). One of them has a pet dog made up of the pieces of many other pet dogs; he isn't too broken up about it when Scraps gets killed off, because it's only a matter of time until the next thunderstorm.
** It's important to also note that the male Igors are [[Kavorka Man|Kavorka Men]] and considered quite the prize for young women, whereas the Igorinas are [[Cute Monster Girl|cute monster girls]] mixed with [[Hello, Nurse!]]
*** When we finally get an on-screen Igorina (in ''[[
* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Susan Sto Helit desperately wants to lead an ordinary life, which is complicated by the fact that she's the daughter of Death's adopted daughter and his former apprentice. And she's a duchess. Rincewind also hates being forced into dangerous quests to save the world, and would like nothing more than to be bored the rest of his life. Carrot Ironfoundersson may also qualify, as despite the fact that he <s> is</s> probably is the heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork, he prefers to be a copper.
* [[Incredibly Lame Fun]]: Trolls gamble by tossing something up and then betting on whether or not it will come down.
** This is the Discworld. [[Heads-Tails-Edge|It might not.]]
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Incredibly Lame Pune, or Play on Words]]: Common, though often subtle.
* [[Instant Book Deal]]
* [[In the Local Tongue]]: Discussed several times. For example, Mount Oolskunrahod in Skund, which translates as "Who is this fool who doesn't know what a mountain is?"
** The above is found in a forest named "Your finger, you fool," after an explorer pointed and asked a native "What's this?"
* [[Jerkass Gods]]: Most of the gods are fairly weak and mundane, but some of the more powerful ones view human life as a game for them to manipulate.
* [[Just Following Orders]]: Subverted, inverted, played with, deconstructed, and generally given hell from (at the very latest) ''[[
** ''[[
== K-O ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Just about every book not only includes a lot of [[Playing with a Trope|Trope Play]], but a lot of [[Genre Savvy]] characters who will know just what's going on, and will be in no way shy about stating it.
* [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday]]: Pops up in quite a few books, including ''[[
** Lampshaded, and then nearly [[Subverted Trope|subverted in the latter]] but [[Zig-Zagging Trope|played straight]].
* [[Living Crashpad]]: Multiple examples.
** In ''[[
** Vimes believes it doesn't really count as killing someone when you fall off a roof and it's even odds who ends up on bottom when you land.
* [[Living Legend]]: The Discworld runs on narrative causality and its characters are all archetypal, so it's no surprise that there are many living legends.
Line 365 ⟶ 383:
* [[Magical Library]]: The library of Unseen University leads to other dimensions thanks to the sheer weight of accumulated knowledge distorting the space-time continuum. This is known as L-Space. The library itself is pretty much a universe of its own with all the magical books, library creatures such as the [[Grammar Nazi|thesaurus]] and lost tribes of research students inside.
* [[Magical Society]]: Unseen University serves this function, and is implied to be responsible for the fact that there aren't any magical wars any more, since all the wizards are busy with bureaucratic politics and enjoying the comforts of their station. (It is noted that in the bad old days, "the plural of 'wizard' was 'war'".) Witches, on the other hand, are much less organised, and many of them seem to like it that way.
{{quote|The basic unit of wizardry is the Order or the College or, of course, the University. The basic unit of witchcraft is the witch, but the basic ''contiguous'' unit, as has already been indicated, is the cottage.
* [[Magitek]]: Due to his job before writing, Pratchett likes to compare magic to nuclear physics, hence the High Energy Magic Building and Ponder's staff talking of splitting the thaum. And then there's...[[Magical Computer|Hex]].
* [[Master Poisoner]]: Lord Downey, head of the Assassins' Guild is rumoured to be this. There is no record of anyone Lord Downey may have wanted to inhume ever being poisoned, however. Which may just indicate that he's really good at it.
Line 376 ⟶ 394:
** Subverted in the case of dwarfs, as they tend to keep tidy homes no matter what sex (if any) they admit to be. Nor do you ever find rats or cockroaches infesting their houses, so long as the residents can hold a frying pan.
* [[Micro Monarchy]]: Lancre, and some of its neighboring kingdoms which are even smaller.
* [[Million-to-One Chance]]: Invoked whenever someone needs a long shot to happen. Most notable in ''[[
** They miss because any attempt to purposely invoke this trope results in only a 987,000 to one chance, not attracting The Lady's favor.
*** That, and they had a 0% chance to hit the very specific target, due to reasons discovered later.
** Fortunately, {{spoiler|[[Lampshade Hanging|surviving the ensuing chaos]] was an exact [[Million-to-One Chance]].}}
* [[Miraculous Malfunction]]: The best-case scenario of allowing Bloody Stupid Johnson to build anything.
* [[Misfit Mobilization Moment]]: The reformation of the <s>Night</s> City Watch, particularly in ''[[
* [[Mother Nature, Father Science]]: Well it's magic for both sides, but male (wizard) magic is shown in a more scientific light and tends to be about bending the forces of nature to the spellcaster's will. Female (witch) magic, on the other hand, tends to be more psychological and more about attuning yourself to nature.
* [[Modest Royalty]]: Carrot is the last living descendent of the royal line. He denies it to anyone who asks, perhaps due in large part to Vimes's influence, but he does make use of near-supernatural royal charisma and occasionally drops by Vetinari's office to make gentle suggestions that are surprisingly often accepted.
* [[Monster Modesty]]: Trolls (except Detritus, who wears Watch uniform, and Chrysophrase, who wears a suit) mostly just wear a loincloth "to conceal whatever it was that trolls found it necessary to conceal". This is so much a part of their culture that male trolls will go to clubs to watch female trolls put on clothing. There's usually a riot by the second overcoat.
* [[Morphic Resonance]]: Discworld has played a big part in popularising the phrase. Probably its most significant example is the law of magic that no shape-shifter, not even gods, can transform how their eyes look—so their eyes always provide a clue to their real identity or nature.
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Usually [[Werewolf|Angua]], but has happened to others enough that the robber at the beginning of ''[[
** Also, Casanunda makes a cameo in ''[[
** Members of the Assassin's Guild also get this in a book or two.
*** Zebbo Mooty, Thief Third Class.
** Wee Mad Arthur (in ''[[
* [[Mundane Utility]]: Wizards. All the time. It goes hand in hand with their disdain for work.
* [[National Weapon]]: Dwarfs consider their battleaxes cultural artifacts, and will not part with them even when circumstances require them to bequeath all other weapons (at a diplomatic function, for instance). In ''[[
** We also get to meet some of the Low King's most elite soldiers. While some soldiers bristle with weapons, they bristle with one weapon.
* [[Never Mess with Granny]]: It can be safely said that Terry likes his women strong. For every three women introduced in this vast series, two and a half are old ladies (whether little or otherwise) that can stop a running bull, and the rest are just like them, but younger. Of particular note are Granny Weatherwax, who put a demon in his place with a few threats, and Mrs. Cake (a medium, bordering on small), whom High Priest Ridcully compares to the things from the Dungeon Dimensions.
Line 405 ⟶ 423:
** Nutt
** Death
* [[Nude Nature Dance]] : Alluded to, and then ''firmly'' averted more than once in the '''Discworld''' novels starring the [[The Hecate Sisters|three witches]]. [[Life of the Party|Nanny Ogg]] is probably game, but... no. Just no.
** Mustrum Ridcully, Moist von Lipwig and Nanny Ogg have practically made careers of it.
* [[Oh Look More Rooms]]: Death's Domain. The initial hallway is intimidating enough, but several of the rooms along it open up into cavernous chambers filled with books or hourglasses.
* [[One-Gender Race]]: The dwarfs were literally a one ''gender'' race, as they culturally made no distinction between the sexes. Later books show some dwarf women liking the idea of being female.
* [[One-Hour Work Week]]: William de Worde before starting The Times. Also seems to be all the wizards get up to these days, which is a pity since that would be Victor Tugelbend's dream job. Colon and Nobby are technically on duty as much as the next watch officer but often call it quits sooner rather than later.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Played oddly with the Unseen University head faculty introduced in ''[[
* [[The One Who Made It Out]]: Lancre is "the place people come from to become successful somewhere else" (usually Ankh-Morpork). Opera singer Enrico Basilica grew up in Rookery Yard, in the Shades, where "you could fight your way out, or you could sing your way out" ([[Metaphorgotten|or you could get out by going through an alley into Shamlegger Street]], but no-one came to anything going ''that'' way).
** Notably, Lancre has produced a quite disproportionate number of notable (and not so notable) wizards. There's not usually a whole lot of entertainment in the evenings, particularly in the winter...
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Most protagonists have moments of this, but special mention should go to Ponder Stibbons.
* [[OOC Is Serious Business]]:
** Death is generally a calm and collected speaker, so whenever ''he'' loses his temper (at, say, New Death in ''[[
** Vetinari plays [[By-The-Book Cop|Sam Vimes]] like a fiddle and gets him to do the best job possible, but mainly by pissing him off first. Usually after such a meeting, Vimes would punch the wall outside Vetinari's office. [[Heroic BSOD|Until one day he doesn't]]
** An upset Nanny Ogg is bad to see, as Agnes notes in [[
* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: Swamp dragons are unstable, [[Ugly Cute]] little runts which manufacture volatile chemicals in their insides for firebreathing purposes and are prone to exploding violently. Noble dragons are your typical fantasy dragon, but have all disappeared for some reason.
** They seem to have retreated to fantasy but can show up under certain circumstances which always involve a lot of belief and/or magic. Examples are the Wyrmberg and ''[[
** Though never stated, the implication seems to be that the dragons left due to the lessening of magical energy on Discworld, possibly due to the lack of Sourcerors.
* [[Our Better Is Different]]: The dwarfs use "lower" as a synonym for "better" where humans & co would use "higher". For example, their ruler is known as the "Low King".
Line 434 ⟶ 452:
* [[Overwhelming Obsession]]: This is the dwarfs' racial attitude toward gold. In more than one novel, it's made clear that their sorrow after a mine cave-in isn't caused by the loss of dwarf life, but rather by the loss of a seam of gold that hadn't been completely mined out yet. As for keeping the gold once they've dug it out of the ground:
{{quote|Dwarfs are very attached to gold. Any highwayman demanding 'Your money or your life' had better bring a folding chair and packed lunch and a book to read while the debate goes on.
|''[[
== P-T ==
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: Death {{small-caps|who talks like this}} has his own font, as do Golems in some books; Carrot's letters and their "ballistic approach to grammar"; the Auditors talk outside of dialogue (One thinks, one speaks like this); particularly odd looking signs might actually appear in the books as poorly drawn handwriting; etc etc. Pratchett doesn't as much paint the fourth wall as much as he uses a nice wallpaper and hangs an attractive painting off it.
* [[Parodied Trope]]
* [[Phrase Catcher]]: The Auditors tend to provoke talk of 'malignity'.
* [[Pimped-Out Cape]]: The wizards wear very fancy robes.
* [[Pimped-Out Dress]]: Naturally, ladies of stature will wear one when appropriate. Four notable examples are the vermine-trimmed coronation dress [[Everything's Better with Princesses|Princess Keli Sto Lat]] wears in ''[[
** Wizards in full regalia probably count, as well. They are likened to what would happen if you found a way to inflate a Bird of Paradise covered in glitter.
* [[Playing with a Trope]]: The creator's ''entire body of work'' does this.
* [[Power Limiter]]: The [[Wizarding School|Unseen University]] of the Wizards is full of bureaucracy, bickering, eating, lazing around and pointless activities in general - all of which are found to have been '''very''' necessary when the system is temporarily overturned in ''[[
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: Vetinari does not actually rule his realm with an iron fist. He has the novel idea of maintaining control by making people actually ''want'' to keep him in charge, or at the very least, make removing him from power an unsavory prospect. See [[Vetinari Job Security]].
** The problem is that the Guild leaders and nobility all hate each other too much to support any other candidate. There's also the fact that virtually every other Patrician before Vetinari has turned out to be insane, or has become insane once they've taken the position.
* [[Pretty in Mink]]: When some characters want to glam up their appearance.
* [[Psycho for Hire]]: Some of the villains, especially [[
* [[Public Execution]]: Occurs in ''[[
* [[Puny Humans]]: If anything this is played straighter in the '''''Discworld''''' books than in most fantasy. Most sapient races are flat out ''better'' than humans: dwarfs are tougher, stronger and live longer, trolls and golems are near indestructable and incredibly strong (and trolls are incredibly intelligent when in cooler temperatures), vampires have all their standard strengths and can even learn to replace their lust for blood, as noted above werewolves are extremely capable in combat and have fantastic regenerative capabilities, pictsies are unbelivably strong and ferocious (gnomes are described as being as strong as a human despite being the size of a Barbie doll), Igors (if they count as non-human) are all brilliant surgeons and also great healers and orcs can only be called superbeings.
* [[Real Dreams Are Weirder]]: A stock joke, appearing in ''[[
* [[Recruiters Always Lie]]: Touched upon anytime armed forces jobs come up, most obviously in ''[[Monstrous Regiment]]'' where one of the markers that the war is going so poorly is that the recruiting party can't even be bothered to try.
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: The eyes of golems glow an unnerving red. A subversion since they're not evil.
* [[Red Herring]]: Pratchett uses this trope a LOT. You see it at least once in every Watch book, and in some of the others as well.
Line 457 ⟶ 477:
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Moist von Lipwig's main strategy.
* [[Resurrective Immortality]]: Vampires can be killed in a number of different ways, but will always regenerate when they eventually come into contact with blood. Careful slayers can keep them locked up for hundreds or thousands of years, but sooner or later they'll be back. Thus far, there is no known way to permanently dispatch them.
* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]: Mentioned many times, but especially in ''[[
* [[Rubber Band History]]: There are some instances of time travel: Dios in ''[[
** But also averted in ''[[
* [[Rule of Funny]]: Explicitly mentioned several times - one footnote makes reference to the "new rules of comedy" which state that the droll results of wild shots in the air must be told to the public.
* [[Running Gag]]: "Tiffany Aching was Aching all over", among lots of others.
Line 468 ⟶ 488:
** "Do deformed rabbit, it's my favorite."
* [[Sand Is Water]]:
** The Dehydrated Ocean. Technically not sand, but a fourth state of water that occurs in a high density magical field.
** In ''[[
* [[Sanity Ball]]: Let's just say there are only a few bouncing around.
* [[Security Blanket]]: Weapon of choice against bogeymen. Because of the nature of belief, if you pull the covers over your head the bogeyman ceases to exist... so if you put a bogeyman under a blanket it causes severe, crippling existential questions.
Line 486 ⟶ 506:
* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: In the early novels, Vetinari plays chess. Later, when "thud" is introduced and made out to be the Disc's [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|chess analogue]], Vetinari keeps a rare board in his viewing room and plays a friend by clacks.
* [[Spontaneous Crowd Formation]]: This is often called the official pastime of Ankh-Morpork. No matter what the citizenry are doing, if something interesting is going on, they WILL stop to watch it.
* [[Squirrels in My Pants]]: It's mentioned in a few books that putting Ferrets (or Weasels) down your trousers is a popular rural entertainment. In ''I Shall Wear Midnight'' there is much disappointment when the man who does it doesn't show up for a fair.
* [[Stop Worshipping Me!]]:▼
** The Lady. One of the few examples of this trope in a universe where [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]]. Explained by the fact that everyone believes in luck, even if no one worships it.▼
** The Duchess from ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]''. All the prayers to her have actually turned her into a deity, but as much as she wants to help she's powerless to do anything and just wants to be let off the hook.▼
▲* [[Squirrels in My Pants]]: It's mentioned in a few books that putting Ferrets (or Weasels) down your trousers is a popular rural entertainment. In ''I Shall Wear Midnight'' there is much disappointment when the man who does it doesn't show up for a fair. This is actually a real "sport": http://www.cracked.com/article_16697_the-8-most-baffling-sports-from-around-world.html
** Played somewhat more straight with the Feegles, and in ''The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents'' when the clan fight off a highwayman.
* [[Squishy Wizard]]: All wizards on the disc are this by default. They love food, get winded rather easily, and many of them are also rather old. All of these traits are actually encouraged by wizard culture, and Mustrum Ridcully (Archancellor of the the Unseen University) is considered extremely eccentric for his enjoyment of exercise-heavy activities.
** Averted by Rincewind and the Librarian. The former has spent the majority of his life running away from things, and the latter is an orangutan. Possibly also by Bengo Macarona,<ref>D.Thau (Bug), D.Maus (Chubb), Magistaludorum (QIS), Octavium (Hons), PHGK (Blit), DMSK, Mack, D.Thau (Bra), Visiting Professor in Chickens (Jahn the Conqueror University (Floor 2, Shrimp Packers Building, Genua)), Primo Octo (Deux), Visiting Professor of Blit/Slood Exchanges (Al Khali), KCbfJ, Reciprocating Professor of Blit Theory (Unki), D.Thau (Unki), Didimus Supremius (Unki), Emeritus Professor in Blit Substrate Determinations (Chubb), Chair of Blit and Music Studies (Quirm College for Young Ladies)</ref> who is athletic enough to be the backbone of the University's football team.
** Although he isn't technically a wizard (as he keeps deliberately failing his final exams), Victor Tugelbend also avoids this out of sheer laziness. (He finds it easier not to carry all that extra weight around.)
* [[Stealth Mook]]: If you want to pass your exam in the Assassin's Guild, then you have to demonstrate the ability to be stealthy like this. And yes, per regulations you have to wear all-black. Veterinari as a young assassin was the exception that proved the rule.
** The Assassins Guild has also long stopped taking contracts on Constable Sam Vimes, because he can see through their stealth and it would not be sporting to shoot him on the street. Instead, they send uppity students after Sam to teach them a lesson in humility.
▲* [[Stop Worshipping Me!]]:
▲** The Lady. One of the few examples of this trope in a universe where [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]]. Explained by the fact that everyone believes in luck, even if no one worships it.
▲** The Duchess from ''[[
* [[Subverted Trope]]: One of the major themes of the series. Not only for jokes, but people and situations often go in unexpected directions.
* [[Super Doc]]: See [[The Igor]] above.
* [[Supernatural Sensitivity]]: Strong magic leaves strong residue, to the point that especially strong magic can leave magical fields behind that warp reality and last for centuries. All wizards, and only wizards, have the ability to see octarine.
* [[Take Over the City]]: Many villains desire to conquer Ankh-Morpork
* [[T-Word Euphemism]]: Lots, from the vampires' refrain of "the B-vord", Mr. Tulip's repeated use of "---ing", Quoth the Raven's "N-word", and Moist Von Lipwig's tirade against Reacher Gilt in ''[[
** The K-word, the L-word, the T-word, ''both'' S-words, the V-word and the Y-word.
** 'Murdering conniving bastard of a weasel' is acceptable, however.
** Don't forget to NEVER, EVER use the M-word near the Librarian of the Unseen University.
* [[Talking Animal]]: Usually due to the magical equivalent of radioactive waste.
Line 507 ⟶ 529:
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs.
* [[Title Drop]]: Several of the books contain their title phrases at least once.
* [[Too Dumb to Fool]]:
*
** Brought up in ''[[Making Money]]'' when Vimes sends troll guards to the bank. Moist comments that they're not too smart, but you can't talk them over to your side either.
** Also Fred Colon, acting in his role as cell warden. He's stupid, but he's not an idiot. He keeps the keys in a tin box in the bottom drawer of his desk. He also ends up wandering into investigating the key to one of the mysteries in ''
*** Due to this Colon is one of the few people Lord Vetinari finds hard to deal with, because he is so used to dealing with people who treat words as a form of warfare that virtually ''everything'' he says carries multiple connotations, implications, innuendo, traps and suggestions. All of which reach escape velocity over Colon's head, making him nigh invulnerable to being played, tricked, warned or helped.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]:
Line 521 ⟶ 544:
** A young Granny Weatherwax "might have been called handsome by a good-natured liar".
** Vimes is described in ''Guards! Guards!'' as a "skinny, unshaven collection of bad habits marinated in alcohol".
* [[True Sight]]: Wizards and witches can see what's really there. Susan also teaches this in her class in ''[[
** Children seem to have this. Even when Death makes himself known, most adults won't even notice that he's a skeleton, because everybody knows that skeletons can't walk around and talk. Children don't know that, though, and they see Death as he really looks. Not that it bothers them at all.
== U-Z ==
* [[Unusually Uninteresting Name]]: The Patrician's scary secret service goes by the name of ...Clerks.
** Well, everyone calls the
* [[Victorian London]]: Ankh-Morpokh of the later books seems to be this due to a functional modern police force, vibrant minority communities, telegraph analogue (clacks), newspapers, postal system, and paper money off the gold standard.
** You mean "paper money based off the '''''GOLEM''''' standard," don't you?{{context}}
** [[Word of God]] states that the city is a pastiche of Tallinn, Prague, London, Seattle, and New York City.
** The running joke about the river being nearly solid is only ''barely'' an exaggeration.
Line 532 ⟶ 557:
* [[Watering Down]]: Several jokes about this.
* [[We All Die Someday]]: It's widely acknowledged that Death meets everyone, sooner or later. But to note:
** In ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'' the conversation between Vimes and Lu-Tze:
{{quote|'''Vimes''': I've been talking to people who are going to die today. Do you have any idea how that feels like?
'''Lu-Tze''': Of course. Everyone I talk to is going to die. Everyone you talk to is going to die. Everybody dies. }}
** In ''[[Lords
{{quote|'''Ponder''': Graveyards are full of people who rushed in bravely but unwisely.
'''The Librarian''': Ook.<ref>Sooner or later, graveyards are full of ''everybody''</ref> }}
Line 542 ⟶ 567:
No great rush! }}
* [[Weirdness Censor]]: It's pretty ironclad as when anything that doesn't fit into what people consider "normal", it is actively ignored. Check the trope page for examples.
** Additionally, especially [[Genre Savvy|savvy]] characters can exploit this to their benefit. One example comes up in ''[[
*** Mind you, that WAS Detritus the Troll they fooled with that gambit, who was guarding the Opera House against theft, not the CONTENTS of the Opera House.
* [[Wiki Walk]]: Leonard of Quirm, the wizards of the university, and some many other characters are fond of these.
Line 559 ⟶ 584:
** Agnes Nitt desperately tries to acquire some cool by (briefly) assuming the name [[Awesome McCoolname|Perdita X Dream]].
{{quote|"But everyone just ended up calling her 'That girl Agnes who calls herself Perditax."}}
** Dr. Hix of ''[[
* [["You?" Squared]]: The bar brawl version is known as the "Double Andrew", and is worth quite a lot of points. Bar brawls in Ankh-Morpork have become somewhat formalized.
** 'Somewhat formalized' doesn't begin to cover it. There are formal scoring rules, judging, official teams, and extensive brawl planning. They even have an Igor on standby to stitch back on anything that happens to get cut off (and they recommended having your name tattooed on extremities to make sure he stitches the right bits back on you).
* [[Your Vampires Suck]]: An entire book on this trope, before it ends with "Classic vampires are awesome". Mostly because they intentionally form a symbiotic relationship with their villages—they get blood and a mostly safe place to live, tourism (one is even mentioned as having a ''gift shop'') and give the local community something to feel good about. Namely, having beat a ''vampire'' (or, in the case of the ladies, having been beautiful enough to be kidnapped by one).
{{Discworld novels}}▼
{{reflist}}
▲{{Discworld novels}}
{{Discworld Franchise}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Notable Quotables]]
[[Category:Comic Literature]]
[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]
[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:Young Adult Literature]]
[[Category:Buddy Cop Show]]
[[Category:Existentialism]]
[[Category:GURPS Settings]]
|