History Fanfic / WhyAndWere

* BerserkButton: When Johanna, a [[AmoralAfrikaner White Howondalandian]], [[WhipItGood takes her whip to]] Emmanuel N'Juri, a Black Howondalandian. This confirms [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra all his suspicions]] about White Howondalandian attitudes to black people, and makes him want to kill her, slowly and agonisingly. Ironic, as... refer to ValuesDissonance, below.

* WhipItGood: Johanna's ''other'' culture-specific weapon.

Things are stranger than usual in Ankh-Morpork.

* TrackingDevice:
** Mustrum Ridcully uses a magical version shortly before he subcontracts from Lord Downey to bring about an inhumation with prejudice.

* BerserkButton: When Johanna, a White Howondalandian, [[WhipItGood takes her whip to]] Emmanuel N'Juri, a Black Howondalandian. This confirms [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra all his suspicions]] about White Howondalandian attitudes to black people, and makes him want to kill her, slowly and agonisingly. Ironic, as... refer to ValuesDissonance, below.

Johanna Smith-Rhodes teams up with Angua von Überwald to solve the mystery. And Ankh-Morpork becomes even more of a dangerous place to live as the leopards attract the jaundiced interest of Thieves, Assassins, Seamstresses, Beggars, Priests and Unseen University. And the gods. And Vetinari.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: the A-team is made up of blonde Angua, and redhead Johanna, with the brunette role variably played by key supporting characters Gillian Lansbury (brunette) Davinia Bellamy (mousy), or Emmanuelle Lapoignard Les Deux-Epées (OK, so her hair's black, but nobody is ever ''absolutely'' black-haired; ditto Ruth N'Kweze.) Platinum-blonde hairdresser Conina Cohensdaughter-Harebut, a semi-retired Thief/Heroine who keeps an ear to the grapevine, also comes into the story.

Johanna Smith-Rhodes teams up with Angua von Überwald to solve the mystery. And Ankh-Morpork becomes even more of a dangerous place to live as the leopards attract the jaundiced interest of Thieves, Assassins, Seamstresses, Beggars, Priests and Unseen University. And the gods. And Vetinari.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: the A-team is made up of blonde Angua, and redhead Johanna, with the brunette role variably played by key supporting characters Gillian Lansbury (brunette) Davinia Bellamy (mousy), or Emmanuelle Lapoignard Les Deux-Epées (OK, so her hair's black, but nobody is ever ''absolutely'' black-haired; ditto Ruth N'Kweze.) Platinum-blonde hairdresser Conina Cohensdaughter-Harebut, a semi-retired Thief/Heroine who keeps an ear to the grapevine, also comes into the story.

* TheScottishTrope: the sub-plot concerning the play ''[[Discworld/WyrdSisters Felmet, Pretender King of Lancre]]'', and the improbably terrible things that happen to actors who say the name in full.

* TrackingDevice: Mustrum Ridcully uses a magical version shortly before he subcontracts from Lord Downey to bring about an inhumation with prejudice.

* WhipItGood: Johanna's ''other'' culture-specific weapon.

Vimes swears in a trainee Special Constable of his own recruiting, who he knows is possibly the most knowledgeable person the city has concerning [[PantheraAwesome Howondalandian wildlife]]. She's from possibly the [[TheApartheidEra darkest corner]] of darkest Howondaland, after all. And she runs the [[Fanfic/NatureStudies City Zoo]], to boot.

* BerserkButton: When Johanna, a White Howondalandian, [[WhipItGood takes her whip to]] Emmanuel N'Juri, a Black Howondalandian. This confirms [[TheApartheidEra all his suspicions]] about White Howondalandian attitudes to black people, and makes him want to kill her, slowly and agonisingly. Ironic, as... refer to ValuesDissonance, below.

* ChattyHairdresser: Conina Cohensdaughter-Harebut, who having retired from being an active Barbarian/Thief to run a hairdressing salon, keeps her ear to the ground and provides information to a clientele of professional ladies, whose hair can get a bit mussed up in the course of normal work as a thief, Assassin, Barbarian Heroine or Teacher.

** Ponder Stibbons also uses a thaumometer to pinpoint where the leopards are lurking in the shadows. As Johanna does not want to risk her man in a fight he is ill-prepared for, she hustles them out of danger.

* TheScottishTrope: the sub-plot concerning the play ''Felmet, Pretender King of Lancre'', and the improbably terrible things that happen to actors who say the name in full.

* OurGodsAreGreater: when the Gods of Howondaland turn up at Dunmanifestin, to protest against the perceived fact that there is little ethnic representation of anything other than white-skinned deities from the Central Continent. Offler is dismissed as a token Klatchian, and the other Gods demand their civil rights and an end to divine apartheid. The argument is resolved in the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons time-honoured manner]] with Fate adjudicating. But the Lady still gets to roll the dice...

Commander Vimes is dealing with a series of strange killings carried out by some sort of feral animal. Good evidence suggests it's a species not native to the Central Continent. A good witness, who has the scars to prove it (for now - [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]] heal quickly provided it's not silver or fire) - identified them as leopards, a feral cat native to [[DarkestAfrica Howondaland]].

TheSpymaster: Havelock Vetinari. Who else?

* ShoutOut: to TomSharpe's farces of apartheid South Africa. Two of his chaotically incompetent policemen appear here in their Discworld incarnations: certifiably lunatic secret policeman Liutnant Verkramp and Sergeant de Kok. although de Kok gets a more sympathetic treatment, Verkramp is still the racist paranoid incompetent tumour of Sharpe's [[Literature/RiotousAssembly grimly funny creation]]. The challenge for Johanna and Ambassador van der Graaf is to prevent him making a bad situation far worse in a way guaranteed to draw trenchant sarcasm from Lord Vetinari.

errr... did you design the page so that to click on the link "It’s not just porn. Here are other things quietly censored in Britain" takes you to an error message telling you the page is not available? Was this deliberate? TheSpymaster: Havelock Vetinari. Who else?

* SnakesAreSexy: Johanna Smith-Rhodes is seen handling a pet python with nonchalance and looking as if, in different clothing, she could be seen moonlighting as an exotic dancer rather than a zoologist. She also wrangles poisonous snakes in the course of a day's work, making post boxes safe again for the city.
* TheSpymaster: Havelock Vetinari. Who else?

* MataHari: Ruth N'Kweze is forced into this role. She is pivotal to the denouement of the story.

* ShoutOut: to TomSharpe's farces of apartheid South Africa. Two of his chaotically incompetent policemen appear here in their Discworld incarnations: certifiably lunatic secret policeman Liutnant Verkramp and Sergeant de Kok. although de Kok gets a more sympathetic treatment, Verkramp is still the racist paranoid incompetent tumour of Sharpe's [[RiotousAssembly grimly funny creation]]. The challenge for Johanna and Ambassador van der Graaf is to prevent him making a bad situation far worse in a way guaranteed to draw trenchant sarcasm from Lord Vetinari.

* OurGodsAreGreater: when the Gods of Howondaland turn up at Dunmanifestin, to protest against the perceived fact that there is little ethnic representation of anything other than white-skinned deities from the Central Continent. Offler is dismissed as a token Klatchian, and the other Gods demand their civil rights and an end to divine apartheid. The argument is resolved in the [[DungeonsAndDragons time-honoured manner]] with Fate adjudicating. But the Lady still gets to roll the dice...
* OurWerecreaturesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: The wereleopards out of Howondaland]]
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Angua.