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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:Lords-and-ladies-cover_4171.jpg|frame]]▼
| caption =
| author = Terry Pratchett
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Fantasy
| franchise = Discworld
| preceded by = Small Gods
| followed by = Men at Arms
| publication date = 1992
}}
'''''Lords and Ladies''''' is the 14th [[Discworld]] novel and the third or fourth in the 'witches' theme. According to [[Word of God|Terry Pratchett]], this was the moment where the character of Granny Weatherwax finally reached her full supremacy.
Following on directly from ''[[
{{tropelist|page={{SUBPAGENAME}}}}
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: The elves (and related creatures like unicorns) are vulnerable to iron, especially magnetic [[Thunderbolt Iron]]. This is because they have a sixth sense that lets them 'see' in terms of magnetic force lines, and this is so emphatically their primary sense that removing it causes [[Glamour Failure]] and pain.▼
▲* [[Achilles Heel]]: The elves (and related creatures like unicorns) are vulnerable to iron, especially magnetic [[Thunderbolt Iron]]. This is because they have a sixth sense that lets them 'see' in terms of magnetic force lines, and this is so emphatically their primary sense that removing it causes [[Glamour Failure]] and pain.
* [[All the Myriad Ways]]: Ponder tries to explain this to Ridcully, who gets the wrong end of the stick as usual: if there's an alternate version of him who married Granny, how come he was never invited to the wedding?
{{quote|'''Ridcully:''' You'd think I'd think of '''me''', wouldn't you? What a bastard!}}
** He later uses this version to justify a million-to-one chance of survival. 999,999 of him would die, but they were jerks anyway. "[[Brick Joke|Serves 'em right for not inviting me to their weddings]]".
* [[Alternate Universe]]: Ridcully "mishears" 'parallel universe' as 'parasite universe' when Ponder tries to explain it. The narration then notes that there are indeed such things as parasite universes, and the elves' country is one of them: little scraps of reality lacking a past or a future, trying to latch onto real timelines and suck them dry. (Which also explains the elves' immortality and [[Creative Sterility]]).
* [[
* [[Animal Motifs]]: Bees and wasps, with the occasional sideline about [[Cats Are Mean|cats]].
{{quote|''Only one queen in the hive...''}}
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: {{spoiler|Magrat, after [[Took a Level
* [[Badass]]: Granny Weatherwax really comes into her own here, as does {{spoiler|Magrat, what with her elf-chopping rampage and ''tackling'' of the Elf Queen}}.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: {{spoiler|Magrat.}} Holy shit, {{spoiler|'''Magrat.'''}}
{{quote|
** In a lesser example, the [[Odd Job Gods|god of prey animals]], a little rabbity thing who's been a bit of a [[Running Gag]], sneaks up on a group of elves [[Kick the Dog|torturing a bunch of baby rabbits]] and bites one's leg to the bone.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: {{spoiler|Ponder and the Librarian when they take out sniper-elves in the trees that were outnumbering Magrat.}}
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: At the beginning of the book, Jason Ogg re-shoes Death's horse Binky and keeps the old horseshoes. Later we learn that iron hurts the elves but cannot cross the boundaries of the stones into their realm (presumably due to magnetism). But {{spoiler|Nanny takes one of Binky's horseshoes and brings it with her to an elven realm to threaten the King of the Elves, because Death can go anywhere}}.
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Similar to the above [[Chekhov's Gun]], Jason Ogg can shoe any animal brought to him, the only price of this skill being that he ''has'' to shoe any animal brought to him. {{spoiler|Granny Weatherwax uses this ability to have him shoe the unicorn with silver shoes and nails, permanently freeing it from the Elf Queen's control.}}
* [[Continuity Nod]]: At least two. Ridcully and Granny briefly discuss Archancellor Weatherwax from ''[[
* [[Covers Always Lie]]: The first American edition bizarrely managed to confuse Morris dancing with football in its synopsis.
* [[Creative Sterility]]: The elves, as Granny demonstrates in her [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]:
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* [[Decoy Hiding Place]]: {{spoiler|Magrat hides under the bed to make an elf think she hid in the garderobe.}}
* [[Delicious Distraction]]: How Pewsey is tricked to interrupt the witch contest.
* [[Dreadful Musician]]: Taken to new levels with Nanny Ogg. As it turns out, when she sings during her annual bath, the already unnatural notes she hits are amplified by the washtub to the point of being a village-wide [[Brown Note]]. Even ''animals'' know to be afraid of it.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Elf Queen comes pretty close. {{spoiler|From what Nanny Ogg says, the King is far closer to this. He even looks the part.}}
* [[Ermine Cape Effect]]: Played around with both Verence and Magrat.
* [[Eye Scream]]: At one point, an elf peeking through a keyhole gets a crossbow bolt to the eye.
* [[The Fair Folk]]: See the page for that trope for the quote in which this book deconstructs the idea. "No-one ever said elves are ''nice''..."
* [[Fish Out of Water]]: Poor Ponder does not adapt well to being in the countryside.
* [[Gag Penis]]: The Elf King's lair is below the Long Man, two round and one long earth mound, along with an inscription that says "I Have A Great Big Tonker." It isn't exaggerating.
** [http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/lords-and-ladies.html A reference] to the real-world "Long Man of Wilmington" and/or the Cerne Abbas Giant, both chalk figures rather than mounds, but with the same impressive measurements.
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* [[Lack of Empathy]]: Granny explicitly says that elves have no empathy (though she has problems with the word). "They're cruel for fun, and they can't understand things like mercy. They can't understand that anything apart from themselves might have feelings."
* [[Lady in Red]]: The Queen of the Elves (or, at least, this is the image she projects through glamour).
* [[
* [[Magic Feather]]: {{spoiler|Queen Ynci's armor. Apparently, there never was a Queen Ynci, but Granny and Nanny decide not to tell that to Magrat even after all the fuss has died down.}}
* [[Meaningful Echo]]: {{spoiler|I ATE'NT DEAD.}}
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Parodied. The last names of the members of the Lancre Morris Men are professions, but never ''their'' professions (Carter is a baker, Carpenter is a tailor, and so on.)
** [[Double Subverted]] with Tinker the tinker, who's mentioned only once, in the denouement.
* [[Mind Rape]]: ELVES.
* [[Nice Hat]]: Ridcully's pointy hat is not particularly magical (the wizards learned their lesson with that after ''[[
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: Mrs Scorbic the cook, who hates fruits and vegetables, is named after ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).
* [[Noodle Incident]]: "We are ''not'' doing the Stick and Bucket Dance! I still get twinges in my knee!"
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* [[Remonstrating with a Gun]]: When Magrat gets ahold of an axe.
* [[Rousing Speech]]: Shawn attempts one, and unknowingly fails. His mum steps in and motivates the mob with carrot and stick.
* [[Rubber Band History]]: Following on from the Hitler example, "in fifty years', twenty years', ten years' time, history will be back on track."
** Usually.
* [[Shout-Out]]: At one point, when discussing alternate timelines, the book mentions that conventional directions are useless and suggests some alternatives including "[[Fairy Tale|East of the Sun, West of the Moon]]," "[[The Lord of the Rings|There and Back Again]]," and "Beyond the Fields we Know" (Lord Dunsany, father of fantasy). Also, as in ''[[
** There are also numerous references to folk songs about fairies, particularly "Tam Lin" and "Thomas the Rhymer".
** "There are indeed such things as parallel universes, although parallel is hardly the right word: universes swoop and spiral around one another like some mad weaving machine or a [[Catch-22|squadron of Yossarians with middle-ear trouble]]."
** Not to mention ''[[wikipedia:
** The line about the Librarian taking revenge, "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, especially simian ones. They are not all that subtle" is a parody of the line from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' about Gandalf: "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because they are subtle and quick to anger".
** Magrat overhears the King of the Elves talking to the Queen and recalls it to be "something about meeting by moonlight". This is a reference to Oberon's line from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania", Oberon and Titania being the King and Queen of the Elves.
* [[Something That Begins With Boring]] (The wizards play this during their carriage ride to Lancre)
* [[Speak of the Devil]]: Nanny is unwilling to say the true name of the elves unless she is in a blacksmith's forge surrounded by iron. The euphemistic names used otherwise include "The Fair Folk", [[Title Drop|"The Lords and Ladies"]] and "The Gentry".
** Unfortunately, apparently due to the stretching of the already-stretched fabric of the universe, using even ''those'' terms - near the Dancers - can be bad...
* [[Staring Contest]]: Granny and Diamanda get into a staring contest with the sun. Nanny cheats in Granny's favor, naturally.
* [[The Talk]]: Nanny Ogg attempts to give this to Magrat. {{spoiler|Verence gets his information from [[Casanova|Casanunda]] and [[Bawdy Song|an interesting song sung by Nanny Ogg]]}}. They must have worked it all out in the end, because by ''Carpe Jugulum'', Magrat has a baby daughter.
** Though it seems to have taken them a while. ''[[
** He attempts to order book on marital arts in ''Lords and Ladies'', but unfortunately the 'i' is incorrectly placed... gives Shawn something to do on guard duty, though.
** The fun is in the fact that {{spoiler|Nanny eventually gives up on the talk because Magrat is being helplessly naive about the subject she's hinting at, but it turns out Magrat was doing it deliberately to get Nanny to go away.}}
* [[Thunderbolt Iron]]: In this case, it's actually magnetite.
** Or Hematite, at one point it's mentioned that it's reddish in color.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Unicorn]]: Like the elves, the book uses the vicious version of old, portraying it as essentially a maddened, wild stallion with a big bloody horn it can use to spear people.
** And {{spoiler|they can be subdued by [[Virgin Power|virgins]].}}
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'''Granny''': Of course not! It didn't happen. But the point is, it might have happened. You can't say 'if this didn't happen then that would have happened' because you don't know everything that might have happened. You might think something'd be good, but for all you know it could have turned out horrible. You can't say 'If only I'd...' because you could be wishing for anything. The point is, you'll never know. You've gone past. So there's no use thinking about it. So I don't. }}
** {{spoiler|[[Double Subversion|Double]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Subverted.]] [[Tear Jerker|Enough said.]]}}
* [[Whole-Plot Reference]]: To ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', carrying on the Shakespearean theme from ''[[
* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: After the Lancre Morris Men discover that "Rude Mechanicals" is a phrase used to describe amateur thespians like themselves, one of them thinks this means he has to periodically shout rude words.
** Many of the descriptive terms that now make the average person think elves must be good ("terrific", "glamorous", etc) originally meant something scary ("instil terror", "use glamor-magic against you", etc).
{{reflist}}
{{Discworld novels}}
▲[[Category:Lords And Ladies]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Literature of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Witch Works]]
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