Thud!: Difference between revisions

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The 30th ''[[Discworld]]'' novel and the seventh in the Watch theme.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: A.E. Pessimal previously appeared as a humble [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] in a short story, but is elevated to [[Beware the Nice Ones|Beware The Boring Ones]] here.

* [[Badass Boast]]: One brilliant yet simple one from {{spoiler|the Guarding Dark}}.

** And an unexpected one from {{spoiler|A.E. Pessimal}}: Come on then, if you think you're hard enough!

* [[Badass Creed]]:

[[Implacable Man|Him who sun him stop him no,]]<br />

Him who hammer him break him no,<br />

** A.E. Pessimal is similar -- although he's a Battle ''Bureaucrat''... wannabe. {{spoiler|At the end of the book, Vimes makes him a watchman with a desk job, but stipulates he needs to go onto patrols two nights a week to make sure he understands the job fully. This is the stuffy, short office worker's dream come true--although Vimes is quick to point out that anyone who would go after a troll ''bare handed, quite literally tooth and nail'' to protect his commander has ''earned'' his place in the Watch...as well as the right to call His Excellency His Grace Commander Sir Samuel Vimes "Mister Vimes".}}

* [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]]: The Summoning Dark vs {{spoiler|The Guarding Dark, Vimes' inner Watchman.}} ''Quis custodiet ipsos custodes'' indeed.

** Also therefore a rather literal example of [[What You Are in the Dark]].

* [[Berserk Button]]: {{spoiler|The Summoning Dark searches for these in its victims to use as a portal into the world. See above for what happens in Sam Vimes' mind when it tries the same thing on him.}}

** Mr. Pony is mentioned briefly as the head of the Guild of Artificers, quite a step up since ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]''

* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Vimes refuses to become this, and it is ''awesome.''

* [[De Fictionalisation]]: There are now official 'Thud' rules and boards available. Well worth a look.

** They were around at least a year before the book came out.

** When Vimes thinks of those guilty of the murders, he says "When I catch up with them, ''and I will'', I hope there's someone to hold me back." {{spoiler|That's exactly what happens.}}

** This exchange between Vimes and Vetinari:

'''Vimes:''' I do that, too. }}

* [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]]: Sally, seemingly just trying to get along in the Big Wahoonie, but {{spoiler|is subsequently found to be a spy for Rhys Rhysson, Low King of the Dwarfs... which Vetinari knows already, and Vimes suspects from the beginning but can't prove, in the usual wheels-within-wheels fashion of most things relating to Vetinari.}}

* [[Full-Frontal Assault]]: Blink and you'll miss it, but during the climax, Sally uses her "turn into a cloud of bats" ability during combat, which has the abovementioned drawback.

* [[Fur Against Fang]]: Werewolves and vampires do ''not'' get on.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Indeed, how ''did'' Bashfullsson know Vimes would be going {{spoiler|to Koom Valley}}? Was it the power of story, or {{spoiler|the Summoning Dark}}?

* [[I Never Said It Was Poison]]: Vimes calls out the troll Chrysophrase during their talk. {{spoiler|Chrysophrase knew there was a troll club found at Hamcrusher's murder scene. Chrysophrase dismisses the accusation by claiming that he has merely overheard Dwarf gossip. Which is probably true, as Brick hadn't yet told anyone what he'd seen when Chrysophrase met with Vimes.}}

* [[I Know Karate]]: {{spoiler|Bashfulsson dispatches Ardent with some sort of dwarf martial art:}}

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]

** Though Vimes is a [[Deconstruction]]: the reason he is incorruptible is his constant vigilance against his dark side.

* [[Innocent Swearing]]: Sam Vimes reads his son his own version of ''[[Discworld/Where's My Cow|Where's My Cow]]'' with the [[Catch Phrase|Catch Phrases]] of prominant Ankh-Morporkians instead of animal noises, including Foul Old Ron's "Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!" The next day Young Sam announces "Buglit!" to his nanny, and from then on Vimes sticks to the written version.

** Judging from the audiobook, the issue seems to be not so much that Vimes can hear the difference between Mr. Vimes and Mister Vimes as that in the original manuscript, Brick accidentally called him Missus Vimes, and somewhere along the line an overzealous copyeditor "fixed" the "typo."

* [[Ironic Echo]]: When Vimes first gets an audience with a grag, he mocks their belief that light is evil and blinds you. However, some dozens of pages later, Vimes talks about visible shades of darkness, and recalls the memory of when he stopped using the lantern in the Night Watch.

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]

* [[It's Not Porn, It's Art]]: Spoofed in both directions: Colon reasons that a picture's in a museum and has an urn, a plinth, or a cherub somewhere in it, it must be art; Nobby rationalizes Tawneee's job as "artistic."

* [[The Men First]]

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: In-universe, Vimes quietly thinks this of his butler. He defended himself against an assassination squad in the cellar using an ice knife. A knife used for cutting foot-wide blocks. It's a foot and a half of steel.

* [[The Nose Knows]]: One of Angua's main contributions to the Watch, but here Sally's ability to sense heartbeats continually threatens to one-up her.

* [[Not So Different]]: Mr. Shine invokes this subtly on Vimes when the latter questions his concern for Brick:

'''Vimes''': "Because [[Knight in Sour Armor|somebody has to]]!"<br />

'''Shine''': "Exactly! Good day, Mr. Vimes." }}

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Sally could have passed for 16, but is actually 51, though by vampire standards she's of "no age at all."

* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: There are some instances, but mostly:

'''Vimes''': Captain, you've lost me again. What are Devices and why do you pronounce the capital D? }}

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Vimes does ''not'' react well to the thought of his son being in danger.

** The unsanitary game of "Poosticks" (referenced in a footnote) seems to be a shout out to "Poohsticks" from [[Winnie the Pooh]]

** [[Dracula|"I do not drink ... wine."]] Subverted by Sally and Angua after a night of what Sergeant Colon terms as a night of minge drinking, as Sally is throwing up in a corner.

'''Sally:''' Oh ha ha. I am perfectly fine with ''sarcastic pause'' "vine" thank you! }}

** A double shoutout, to the American Civil War and the song "War" comes from Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs:

'''Fred:''' Absol--well, okay. }}

** "The Battle of Koom Valley" is based on [[wikipedia:Cyclorama|similar pictures in real life.]] More specifically, it's an allusion to the Civil War cyclorama, famous for being the 'Largest Painting in the World', painted in the 1890's

* [[Some of My Best Friends Are X]]: {{spoiler|Mr Shine}} is explaining how humans came to view trolls as mindless monsters.

* [[Stock Phrase]]: "It's a dwarf/werewolf/vampire/married couple/female thing."

* [[Stolen MacGuffin Reveal]]

* [[They Call Me Mister Tibbs|They Call Me Mister Vimes]]

* [[That Wasn't a Request]]: Carrot is attempting to investigate the death of a prominent dwarf community leader, but is being stymied by another dwarf:

'''Carrot''': ''It wasn't a request.'' }}

* [[This Is Sparta]]: {{spoiler|[++ [[It Makes Sense in Context|That!]] [[The Promise|Is!!]] [[Unstoppable Rage|Not!!!]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|My!!!!]] [[Ax Crazy|Cow!!!!!]]++ ] }}

* [[Unstoppable Rage]]: "'''They will ''burn''.'''"

** Subverted in that {{spoiler|Vimes does, in fact, manage to stop it when it comes to the moment of glowering over the cowering dwarfs with an axe in his hand. Far more awesome than it sounds since in stopping himself he was putting a ''lot'' of strain on his body, as in he was tearing himself apart. Thank whatever gods look out for coppers that Angua was about.}}

* [[What You Are in the Dark]]: Vimes finds himself alone in a cave with the dwarfs who have instigate the entire mess. {{spoiler|Egged on by the Summoning Dark, he nearly kills them... but his own will to ''not cross that line'' overcomes it}}.

* [[Who Watches the Watchmen?]]: Vimes claims that they watch each other. But when he's alone {{spoiler|his own inner watchman, the Guarding Dark, watches him}}.

* [[You Say Tomato]]: The peculiarly "posh" pronunciation of words used by the Arts Curator draws a lot of comment from Nobby and Colon particularly, complete with its own lampshade and characteristic merciless mocking. Leads to plenty of exchanges like this:

Fred Colon was impressed. You could barely understand the man, he was that posh. }}

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