Discworld/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


These things about Discworld are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: There is quite a substantial group of fans who hold the view that Carrot is evil and/or The Chessmaster. It helps that he is almost never the POV character - we get to hear what Vimes or Angua think about him but hardly ever see Carrot's actual thoughts.
    • He has also set up Vetinari Job Security several times: the most obvious is in in The Fifth Elephant when he leaves to pursue Angua and Fred Colon is left in charge, the watch falls apart. Not surprising given that it's Fred Colon, but Vetinari lampshades that as everyone knows Vimes and Carrot will be back soon, no criminals take advantage of the Watch’s self destruction for fear of their wrath. The book ends with Carrot very politely bullying the collapsed watch back into shape by reminding them they swore an oath to the king to do their duty.
    • When Vetinari has trouble reading your motives, says things like "You drive a hard bargain, Captain." and you reply "I wasn’t aware I was driving a bargain at all, sir." and live you have to be The Chessmaster, albeit probably a benevolent one.
  • Archive Panic: There are 41 books in the series, not counting the various canon supplementals.
  • Complete Monster: Mr. Teatime, Carcer, Captain Swig, Vorbis, Wolfgang, and The Duchess all qualify.
  • Crazy Awesome:
    • Despite Vimes' almost suicidal urge to be normal in a World Full Of Crazy, he often does things that fall under Refuge in Audacity, such as arresting the military leaders of both Ankh-Morpork and Klatch under charges of Behaviour Likely To Cause A Breach Of The Peace in Jingo.
    • AE Pessimal. Attacking a troll, of all things, with your teeth is pretty insane, especially when you remember trolls are living rocks.
  • Creepy Awesome: Mr. Teatime.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Granny Weatherwax started out as a supporting character in Equal Rites, but basically took over the book from the real protagonist by sheer force of awesome and ended up being the focus of the rest of the books set in Lancre.
    • Same with Vimes and the Unseen University taking over the Watch series and the Rincewind series.
  • Iron Woobie: Despite being the perpetual Butt Monkey, Verence always tries to do his job: be a fool and advisor to his king; an enlightened king to his people; and a husband to Magrat.
    • Magrat herself has a lot of this, as does Agnes Nitt.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Lord Vetinari, a former best assassin, who manages to organize the Wretched Hive Ankh-Morpork into a wretched, full of crimes, but prosperous and multicultural metropolis, makes most of crime organizations, legal by arranging them into guilds and makes sure to manipulate and intrigue against one another to avoid disasters. He also has a very good spy system, which allows him to no about anything.
    • Granny Weatherwax is a chief witch not because of her magical power (which is still very good), but because of her brilliant mind and using of Headology (magical psychology). She solves all of her problems by applying this and slight use of magic.
    • Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax's best friend, with whom Granny constantly fights and snarks at, who is pretending to be a silly old fool, but just as sharp as her friend, is heavily implied to be stronger in magical power than Granny, and uses her abilities to keep her friend in check. Without making it clear.
    • Lady Margolotta, who is also a Bastard Understudy. In The Fifth Elephant Vimes initially assumes she taught the young Vetinari, but turns out it was the other way around.
    • Moist, Magnificently self-Lampshaded:

"I wonder... am I really a bastard or am I just really good at thinking like one?"

  • Marty Stu: Carrot is something of a parody of this, with lampshade hanging by other characters who have trouble believing someone so perfect can be real. More specifically, he's royalty, and has all the tropes of the Royal Hero coming from humble beginnings behind him... except he just wants to be a watchman.
  • Nightmare Fuel:

"They're Vampires! Death’s too good for them!"
"And that’s why she didn't kill them, I expect."

    • Mr. Teatime (pronounced Tee-ah-Tim-eh).
  • Stoic Woobie: Without a doubt, Death is the best person for his job, but it clearly takes its toll on him at times.
  • Ugly Cute: Mr. Nutt.
  • The Woobie:
    • All graduates of the Guild of Fools are "sad, beaten young men".
    • This is one of the reasons Magrat is attracted to Verence. He's even more wishy-washy than she is, and that's no mean feat.
    • Rincewind.
    • The Bursar.
    • Otto. William describes thinking of not hiring him as like kicking a puppy.
    • Mr. Nutt. Of the iron variety. Despite his past and how people treat him when they discover his species, he continually seeks worth.
    • Brick, before Detritus took him under his wing.
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