Discworld: Difference between revisions

** Though since the Assassins Guild is not fond of freelancers, in a very short time most of them wind up as plain old ''dead''. The Assassins seem more or less indifferent to those who are [[Axe Crazy]] for free, but if they start ''making money'' from it...

* [[Catch Phrase]]:

** Rincewind: "Oh shit I'm going to die!"

** Moist: "Trust me."

** [[The Igor|all Igors]]: "Yeth, marthtar."

** 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 ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]''. He gained sapience and speech by eating a rat who had, in turn, also eaten some magical garbage.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]] - Pterry is evidently a huge fan of these. If it's not in a footnote, then you can put good money on that aside bit of characterization, world-building, rule, or so forth to become vitally important near the end of the book.

* [[Chess with Death]]: Although he prefers Monopoly.

* [[The Chosen Zero]]: Nobby Nobbs is {{spoiler|almost certainly falsely}} revealed to be the Earl of Ankh and the successor to the throne of Ankh-Morpork. The rich and powerful citizens who want to dispose of Lord Vetinari see Nobby's claim to the throne as a stroke of luck (he is a useful idiot and will make a good puppet ruler). The nobility of Ankh-Morpork couldn't accept Carrot because he was intelligent and a good person. The [[Big Bad]] couldn't accept Carrot because he's dating a werewolf.

** And Nobby wouldn't accept the job because "Vimes'd go ''spare''!"

** A closer allegory may be [[Transgender]] people's plight in the real world. Since the Dwarves are (at least on the surface) a [[One-Gender Race]], any Dwarf identifying as the "wrong" gender gets about the same reaction as people beginning transitioning do in real life. There's even a case of "self-trans panic" in the books, wherein {{spoiler|the villain turns out to be a closeted "female Dwarf" who had a mental breakdown due to a combination of stress and cognitive dissonance -- she was a prim and proper dwarf, but prim and proper dwarves don't have dreams of wearing leather skirts and flowing chainmail dresses -- brought on by the growing Dwarf Femininity movement.}}

* [[The Don]]: "Legitimate Businessman" Chrysophrase the troll. Harry King fits the type as well, but he's not a criminal (though ironically, he is literally in the recycling business).

** Also the motto on Sto Helit's coat of arms, befitting a house that passed to Death's apprentice and his and adopted daughter - "Non Timetis Messor".

* [[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.

* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Corporal Carrot '''IS''' this trope, though [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] has its uses.

* [[The Good King]]: Shows up rather often; King Verence of Lancre, Rhys Rhysson the Low King of the Dwarfs, and Mr Shine the Diamond King of the Trolls all care for their people and want whats best for them. Carrot may qualify (see [[I Just Want to Be Normal]] below) but prefers his position in the City Watch while Vetinari governs Ankh-Morpork. In Carrot's defense: Vetinari does an excellent job of running the city while Carrot believes he can serve it best as a copper.

* [[Guile Hero]]: Moist, Vetinari (although his position on the hero-villain continuum is complicated), Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, all in different ways.

* [[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.

* [[Outscare the Enemy]]: A frequently recurring joke, showing up independently in ''Interesting Times'', ''Lords and Ladies'', and ''Jingo'', among others.

* [[Overly Long Name]]: Sir Pterry is fond of these. Vampires, Nac Mac Feegle, and a number of others can have very long names. Even Nobby. And, eventually, {{spoiler|His Grace, His Excellency, the Duke of Ankh Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, Blackboard Monitor and King of the River}}.

* [[Parodied Trope]]

* [[Phrase Catcher]]: The Auditors tend to provoke talk of 'malignity'.