History Literature / GuardsGuards

* AdaptationalBadass: Lupine Wonse is a little bit of a SmugSnake/[[spoiler:out of his depth BigBadWannabe]] in the book. The Atlanta Radio Theatre put on a production where he was voiced by BadassBaritone Creator/JohnRhysDavies of all people.

Preceded by ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'', followed by ''Literature/{{Eric}}''. The next book in the Watch series is ''Literature/MenAtArms''. ''Very'' loosely adapted into the {{Point and Click|Game}} AdventureGame ''VideoGame/{{Discworld}}''. Aspects of the plot were adapted into ''Series/TheWatch2021''.

Preceded by ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'', followed by ''Literature/{{Eric}}''. The next book in the Watch series is ''Literature/MenAtArms''. ''Very'' loosely adapted into the {{Point and Click|Game}} AdventureGame ''VideoGame/{{Discworld}}''.

* AffluentAscetic: Despite being one of the wealthiest women in the city, Sybil doesn't live a particularly extravagant lifestyle. Near the end, Vimes also meets a group of scruffy older ladies wearing first-quality clothing, and he identifies them all as dragon breeders. One of them chats with him and hands him a grubby, worn out card, revealing she's the super-rich Dowager Duchess of Quirm. Sighing, he acknowledges that there's a kind of poverty only the ultra-wealthy can afford.

* AnimalEspionage: When imprisoned, Vetinari somehow manages to make an arrangement with the rats after being imprisoned. In return for him helping them, they bring him news as to what’s happening, both in terms of papers and gossip. It's implied that they were a result of the Unseen University's experiments, which is how they are so useful.

* TheBigGuy: Carrot not only manages to take out the entire clientele of the Mended Drum at once, but beats ''Detritus'' at the same time. For those who don't know, Detritus is a troll, and therefore made of ''solid rock''.

-->Five minutes later the Patrician was striding the length of the Oblong Office, fuming.\\

* [[DefeatMeansFriendship Defeat Means A Little More Than Friendship]]: [[spoiler:Errol manages to knock Her Majesty out of the air and through a few houses, before they go off to live happily-ever-after together]].

* DragonHoard: The dragon that takes over the palace of Ankh-Morpork demands all the gold for its hoard. Since Ankh-Morpork is a VestigialEmpire of gilded treasures and heavily diluted coinage, there's a lot of ugliness before the dragon is satisfied.

** When the Supreme Grand Master is trying to explain how installing the king will happen, a couple of the Brothers suggest that maybe the real heir to the throne ''is'' going to turn up, which would be... a million-to-one chance. The Master shouts them into submission, but it turns out they were onto something long before the Watch tried delibereately gaming the probability.

** The noble Dragon gives a short blunt speech to [[spoiler:Wonse]] on this, noting that despite its savage nature and demands for virgin sacrifices, it still considers itself to be morally superior to humanity as a whole because it never tries to justify the horrible things it does as being 'good' in order to live with what it does. The citizens of Ankh-Morpork getting on board with [[spoiler:having the dragon as a king]] and looking for suitable sacrifices to spare themselves its fiery breath only supports it's views, something both Vimes and Vetinari grimly note during a private conversation.

-->“'''I'm not bloody well going to have it, understand?'''” Vimes shouted, shaking the ape back and forth.\\

--> ''We were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape: [[EvenEvilHasStandards We never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.]]''

-->'''Vimes''': Listen, if anyone ever sets fire to this city, it’s going to be ''me''.

** The dragon burns down a large portion of Ankh-Morpork and kills several people in the process, yet it ends up [[spoiler:getting a happy ending with Errol]].

* LaughingMad: Vimes has a tiny mental breakdown after Errol and the Dragon have their first fight.
* LawfulStupid: Carrot obeys the letter of the law to the nth degree even when it's obviously a bad idea, although the fact that he can knock out ''trolls'' means there's not much the hardened criminals can do about it. He wises up in later books, but finds it useful to keep pretending he's like this.

* MonsterProtectionRacket: the Brethren's scheme.

* MouthOfSauron: What [[spoiler:the Dragon-King]] ultimately reduces her summoner [[spoiler:Lupine Wonse]] to someone whose only job is to have her speak through him. The experience is ''extremely'' painful for him, bordering on MindRape.

* ObliviousAdoption: The novel provides the page quote for that page: it's not easy to explain a six-foot tall young man how exactly he is ''not'' a dwarf.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Wonse is the Supreme Grand Master]] and [[spoiler:The Place Where the Dragons Went is actually the human imagination.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:the noble dragon is a female, and Carrot is the actual lost heir to the throne but doesn't actually want the job.]]
* RightfulKingReturns: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by the plan of the Grand Supreme Master. [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] heavily by the Elucidated Brethren in general, providing the trope's page quote. [[spoiler:Subverted with Carrot.]]

* WeakBossStrongUnderlings: Sam Vimes is first seen as a hopeless alcoholic shunted sideways into commanding the Night Watch, a laughable RagtagBunchOfMisfits in the City Guard. Vimes ends up [[TookALevelInBadass taking several levels in badass]], but not before he recruits the terrifying troll Detritus and the very keen Constable Carrot, a man who can knock out a troll in a fist fight. When Vimes is menaced by two of the much more reputable Palace Guards, he considers and says "You're right. This is not a scary uniform."
--> ''[Constable Carrot steps forward]''\\
'''Vimes:''' This, on the other hand, ''is'' a scary uniform.

** The dragon's eye was the size of an enormous eye...

* ShapedLikeItself: A description of the streets of Ankh-Morpork at night: "Assassins assassinated, thieves thieved, hussies hustled. And so on."

*** BoringButPractical: Which is why Carrot's sword is implied to be the genuine article. It was made when kings earned their crown the hard way -- by being better at fighting and killing than any of their contenders.

* CanisLatinicus:
** "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC" the modern-day motto of the Night Watch. [[note]]It's actually gibberish, but Fred Colon thinks it means "To protect and Serve" and Vimes thinks it means "[[Film/DirtyHarry Make My Day, Punk]]". The old motto was ''Fabricati Diem, Pvncti Agvnt Celeriter'', which means "Make the day, the minutes pass by quickly", but most of the mural wore away. Another possible reading (from a reader's point of view, though not explicitly given in the book) is "Built in the year dot", appropriate to the Watch House's extreme age and dilapidation.[[/note]]
** Interestingly, the Vimes family's motto is ''Protego et servio'', which means "[[StandardPoliceMotto I protect and serve".]]

** DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:The dragon literally is this: at the beginning of the story, Wonse controls it. ''Then'' it gets control of ''him''.]]
** BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Lupine Wonse]], who ''wanted'' to be TheManBehindTheMan but winds up as this ''at best''.

** Dwarf genders. While this book is the first one to set up the idea (in a footnote), that gender is "more or less optional" among dwarves, its treatment is nonetheless different than in later books, with Carrot using female pronouns for both Minty, his mother, and mums in general. However, later books make it ''very'' clear that, in Dwarven society, ''male'' is the default gender, and anyone publicly identifying or presenting as a woman is considered taboo. It could be explained that perhaps Carrot's mine is more liberal, but in "Feet of Clay", Carrot himself displays confusion over the concept of a female dwarf.

-->"But there's the footprints, sir," said Vimes doggedly.
-->"We're close to the river," said the Patrician. "Possibly it was, perhaps, a [[RunningGag wading bird]] of some sort. A mere coincidence," he added, "but I should cover them over, if I were you. We don't want people getting the wrong idea and jumping to silly conclusions, do we?" he added sharply.

* WakingUpElsewhere: Vimes falls unconscious after jumping off the roof of the Watch House to escape a dragon attack. When he wakes up, he takes the bed and presence of a ceiling as possible evidence that he's not dead. The presence of [[TheGonk Nobby Nobbs]] is less conclusive. When he asks the obligatory question ("Have I already said 'Where am I'? Did I get an answer?") Nobby leeringly informs him he's in Lady Ramkin's boudoir.

* TimeTravel: How the Librarian eventually discovers who stole his book. He is able to do this because all libraries are interconnected through L-Space and he is able to find the paths connecting the Unseen University Library to any other... ''including'' the Unseen University Library of ''two weeks ago''.

* PaintingTheMedium: The sections from Captain Vimes' point of view, while he is drunk, are as incoherent as one would expect from a drunk person.

* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: The Watch end up being superfluous during [[spoiler:the Dragon's takeover of the city, and it is implied that Vetinari was already aware of Wonse's plot. How much control Vetinari had is debatable, however, as Vimes does save him from Wonse's attempt to kill him]].

* AnimalEspionage: When imprisoned, Vetinari somehow manages to make an arrangement with the rats after being imprisoned. In return for him helping them, they will bring him news as to what is happening, both in terms of papers and gossip. It's implied that they were a result of the Unseen University's experiments, which is how they are so useful.

** Carrot's sword. It hasn't got a name, it has no jewels on it; it's just a long piece of metal with very sharp edges. But in a magical land like Discworld, Carrot's sword is unique for ''not'' being magical at all. It is so non-magical it's realer than most of the Discworld. It's one of those things, like Death, where it simply is. Since most of Discworld is magical, and the sword is not, it's a hot knife through butter.

*** Oddly, two of these are real words in Roundworld too - a gaskin is part of a horse's leg (whither 'Leggy Gaskin', probably) and ''moules'' is restaurant-French for 'mussels'. A welchet doesn't appear to be anything, though.

** Dwarf genders. While this book is the first one to set up the idea (in a footnote), that gender is "more or less optional" among dwarves, its treatment is nonetheless different than in later books, with Carrot using female pronouns for both Minty, his mother, and mums in general. However, later books make it ''very'' clear that, in Dwarven society, ''male'' is the default gender, and anyone identifying or presenting as a woman is considered taboo. It could be explained that perhaps Carrot's mine is more liberal, but in "Feet of Clay", Carrot himself displays confusion over the concept of a female dwarf.

* MillionToOneChance: A [[InvokedTrope hilarious attempt at invocation]], where the Watch try to make the odds of [[AttackItsWeakPoint shooting a Dragon in its "voolnerables"]] exactly a million to one through various means such as blindfolding the archer, putting soot in his face and making him stand facing the wrong way on one leg while singing the Hedgehog Song -- but end up with some other, non-specified, incredibly low odds instead, which isn't improbable enough and thus predictably fails. Then played straight (and lampshaded by the narration) immediately after when the annoyed dragon retaliates: Their chances of surviving that turns out to be ''exactly'' a million to one.

** Various royalty-centric FairyTales are alluded to by the populace scraping together all they know about kings.