The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents: Difference between revisions

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The 28th ''[[Discworld]]'' book, and the first written for young adults.

 

Rats that fight...

 

 

But when they reach the stricken town of Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes down the drain. For someone there is playing a different tune. A dark, shadowy tune. Something very, very bad is waiting in the cellars.

 

It's not a game any more. It's a rat-eat-rat world down there. And that might only be the start...

* [[Arc Words]]: "And you can always trust a cat to be a cat."

* [[Badass]]: Darktan, the Clan's trap-disarming expert {{spoiler|and eventual leader}}.

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: What do you get when you [[Mind Rape]] intelligent talking cat that is terrified sh*tless for the reason of being surrounded by hundreds of VERY big rats? When you mind rape it so hard that there's no mind left any more, that all the traces of intelligence and even common sense completely disappear? Answer: "A clever cat, but still... Just a cat. Nothing but a cat. All the way to the forest and the cave, the fang and the claw... Just a cat. [[Arc Words|And you can always trust a cat to be a cat.]]", indeed. Cue [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: ''Keith''. He was going to put rat poison in the rat catchers' tea before Malicia though of a better plan.

* [[Body Horror]]: Keith's description to the Ratcatchers of Number three rat poison. {{spoiler|It was only laxative they were given, but the effects of the poison are real and no less horrifying}}.

* [[Blood Sport]]: Hamnpork is thrown into a ring with a terrier. This does not go as expected.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Dangerous Beans dealing with the fact that Mr Bunnsy, a children's book where animals are less animal, is fiction.}}

* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Maurice is very annoyed to be afflicted with this.

* [[Cats Are Snarkers]]: Maurice

* [[Cats Are Superior]]: Oh, Maurice.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Darktan, especially in the fight against the terrier. {{spoiler|In particular, biting its testicles.}}

* [[Con Man|Con Cat]]: Maurice is the brains of the operation.

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Oh, you wacky Malicia.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The street sign the rats made looks an awful lot like...

* [[Do Not Go Gentle]] / [[Don't Fear the Reaper]]: Darktan manages to combine both of these tropes in his [[Rousing Speech]] to the rats: death in itself is not something to be feared, but the [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Bone Rat]] will only pass you over if you can look him in the eyes. Given that it's the Disc, he's likely not speaking figuratively.

* [[Fake Ultimate Hero]]: The Piper.

* [[Fat and Skinny]]: The rat catchers. Lampshaded by Malicia, who assumes that since they're the bumbling villains, there's a [[Man Behind the Man]].

** {{spoiler|And Hamnpork.}}

* [[Hive Mind]]: {{spoiler|The Rat King.}}

* [[I Have a Family]]: One of the ratcatchers try this. It doesn't work.

* [[Inexplicably Identical Individuals]]: Sergeant Doppelpunkt and Corporal Knopf (German for "Colon" and "Nobbs").

* [[Intellectual Animal]]: Dangerous Beans and Peaches in particular.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Often by Malicia, occasionally by Maurice, most of all by both together.

'''Maurice''': Everyone's got to know ''something'' }}

* [[Laxative Prank]]: Malicia puts laxative powder in the Rat Catchers' tea, then tells them they've been poisoned and holds the antidote hostage until they do as she says. {{spoiler|The "antidote" is laxative powder too.}}

* [[Loveable Rogue]]: Maurice.

* [[Monster Protection Racket]]: The educated rodents make themselves known and the stupid-looking kid gets paid to lead them out of town and into the nearest river. People never check whether the rats are good swimmers...

** The Ratcatchers themselves have a variant going, extorting money from the town to "get rid of" a plague of rats that don't exist, except in their own rat-breeding cages.

* [[No More for Me]]: Seargeant Doppenpunkt, {{spoiler|after seeing two rats band together and attack another rat. ''And then give him a salute''.}}

* [[Oblivious Guilt Slinging]]: Maurice swears he will never eat prey that can talk but is afraid he learned to speak by eating one of the intelligent rats (who had a speech impediment).

* [[One Last Job]]: Bad Blintz was going to be this.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: Darktan and his fresh wound.

* [[Running Gag]]: Don't eat the green wobbly bit.

** The large medical kit and the small medical kit come from [[Tomb Raider]] and probably other similar games.

** Malicia suggets the perfect time to go solve a mystery...

* [[Smarter Than You Look]]: Keith. He may be stupid-looking, but it doesn't mean he's actually stupid.

* [[Swarm of Rats]]: [[Played for Laughs]], at first.

* [[Theme Naming]]: The rats are all named after random bits of food label they found in the wizards' garbage pile.

* [[This Is My Human]]

* [[Unfazed Everyman]]: The stupid-looking kid (real name "Keith").

* [[Unfortunate Names]]: Well, that's the kind of name you might end up with if you learned how to read off food labels, and chose names based on how you liked the sound. Dangerous Beans in particular deserves special mention.

* [[Waif Prophet]]: Dangerous Beans.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: By Maurice's standards, it's a rat that can't talk.

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: Malicia thinks she's the hero in a Plucky Children On An Adventure story.

* [[You Dirty Rat]]: [[Deconstructed Trope|Taken to itty bitty pieces.]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Young Adult Literature]]