Mugging the Monster: Difference between revisions

** In ''[[Discworld/Guards! Guards!|Guards Guards]]'' , a crook tries to rob what turns out to be a fire-breathing dragon. It doesn't go well. This trope is also part of why Carrot Ironfoundersson had an uneventful 500-mile journey from the Copperhead Mountains to Ankh-Morpork.

** In ''[[Discworld/Reaper Man|Reaper Man]]'', a gang tries to rob Windle Poons, who is not only an elderly wizard but one who has recently come back from the dead as a zombie.

** In ''[[Discworld/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'', some muggers target a pair of frail old ladies, one of is [[Never Mess with Granny|Granny Weatherwax]].

** In ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay|Feet of Clay]]'', a group of crooks tries to rob The Bucket, the local pub for coppers. They bust in only to find it full of off-duty police offers who don't take kindly to having their boozing interrupted. And then, to top it off, they take [[Action Girl|Angua]] hostage, under the (let's be fair, entirely understandable) belief that the small-ish woman would be a much better hostage than the six-foot-six wall of muscle (Carrot) or the grizzled old badass with such a fearsome reputation that even the Assassins' Guild refuses to go near him (Vimes). Unfortunately, no-one told them that Angua's a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]]. The audience calmly ignored them (apart from a few who made quips to the effect of "Don't play with your food.").

*** Some jewel thieves later make the same mistake about Angua in ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]''—they end up confessing to any crime suggested (even in cases where they have to ''guess'' what was stolen or lie about their gender) while begging to be let out of the vault.

** And in ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men At Arms]]'', members of the Assassins' Guild gather in their courtyard to threaten the Watchmen, or possibly kill them "for trespassing" if Vimes won't back off and leave. Then they realize that one of the Watchmen is Detritus... and their elegantly-crafted stilettos and sophisticated poisons will do diddly-squat to a troll.

** In ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]'', a [[Genre Savvy]] highwayman robbing the coach Keith, Maurice, and the rats are on goes through a sort of checklist to see if there are wizards, witches, trolls, werewolves, or vampires on the coach.<ref>All of which have been the subject of this trope in previous books.</ref> Too bad he didn't check for [[Talking Animal]]s...

** It happens twice in ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]''; first, Casanunda, the "World's Second Greatest Lover", attacks a coach full of wizards. After a display of octarine fire conrol, [[Defeat Means Friendship|the dwarf joins them]], whereupon they are attacked by a band of highwaymen—the leader of which is turned into a pumpkin for his trouble, retaining his hat in accordance with [[Rule of Funny|the Universal Laws of Humor]].

** In ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'', a highwayman tries to rob the visiting Count and his family of vampires, and that doesn't end well. Then his ghost tries [[It Got Worse|to rob Death.]] Death is more amused than anything, complimenting the man on his (relative) vitality in trying to stick to his guns post-mortem.

** [[Those Two Bad Guys|The New Firm]] in ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' end up on both sides of this trope—they're attempt-mugged by a member of the Thieves' Guild, which does not go well for the thief, and later walk the into Biers during business hours and openly try to intimidate a Werewolf to work for them, which does not go well for them.

** In the original past of ''[[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' some thieves tried to rob John Keel; he made short work of them. In the modified past, Carcer claims that some thieves tried to attack HIM -- "at least, they had some money with them". {{spoiler|He was among the thieves who attacked Keel and killed him.}}

** Andy Shank and company trying to beat up Nutt in ''[[Discworld/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]''.

** There's also a variation in ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', where the (relatively) good guys Colon and Nobby try to mug some Klatchians in an alleyway to [[Dressing as the Enemy|get their clothes in order to go undercover]], but the Klatchians get the better of them and they lose their own clothes instead.

** Happens between the Summoning Dark and Vimes in ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud]]''. {{spoiler|A subversion, as Vimes ''unconsciously drives the anicient hate monster from his mind''...In later books, it's his FRIEND!}}

** Yet another one in ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' where Susan Sto Helit stops for a drink in a bar popular among various kinds of supernatural monsters. A drunken bogeyman mistakes her for a human girl slumming among monsters for a thrill and makes increasingly scornful and lewd comments to her, despite the warnings of the bartender, who knows that Susan is only ''mostly'' human. The bogeyman gets an unpleasant surprise both in the bar and later when he hides under the beds of the children Susan is caring for as a governess. Perhaps the bartender should have told him [[The Grim Reaper|whose]] granddaughter he was messing with.

*** Susan's father got subjected to this trope first in ''[[Discworld/Mort|Mort]]''. Lampshaded by the author: ''Three men had appeared behind him ... They had the heavy, stolid look of those thugs whose appearance in any narrative means that it's time for the hero to be menaced a bit, although not too much, because it's also obvious that they're going to be horribly surprised.'' They threaten to kill him. Mort is [[Don't Fear the Reaper|Death's apprentice]]. It goes about as well as you imagine.

** In ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'' Moist von Lipwig is discussing a special mail coach to Genua. The danger of bandits is brought up, and one of the brothers operating the coaches points out that there aren't any bandits on that road any more, which is good. The other isn't so sure, since they never found out what wiped them out. This is the road through [[Überwald]], no less.

== Myths & Religion ==

* Ever wonder why you so seldom hear about Russian diplomats being kidnapped? According to tales it is because when that happens, the Russians simply abduct terrorists and or their relations-and start mailing ''fingers'' to the terrorists who claim responsibility. [[Mother Russia Makes You Strong|You do not want to mess with Mother Russia]]. [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry|You wouldn't like her when she's angry]].

== Visual Novels ==