History Literature / MonstrousRegiment

* ArtisticLicenseOrnithology: Vimes uses a buzzard to intercept carrier pigeons. At least in Roundworld, buzzards usually hunt ground creatures such as rabbits; to catch a pigeon on the wing, you'd be better off with a falcon.

* TakeUpMySword: A literal example. [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum has been grooming Polly to take over from him throughout the book and, at the end, passes on his cutlasses (and a book full of handy blackmail material, and contact details for William de Worde) to her.]]

** While the Borogravian army itself owes more to the Crimean era British army, General Froc, described as lean, handsome, and clean-shaven, with sharp, cold blue eyes and a stern attitude, is a dead-ringer for Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington. [[spoiler: Except for the part where Froc is actually female]]. Added to the relationship with an unconventionally influential and exceptionally skilled soldier who came up from the gutter and saved their life, one who is otherwise effectively uncontrollable, there are strong parallels with Bernard Cornwell's depiction of Wellington in the ''{{Literature/Sharpe}}'' books.

* CrapsackWorld: Or rather Crapsack Nation, an uncommon trope for Pratchett. Even the main cast of local Borogravians understand that their homeland is just about one of the dumbest, craziest, and most backwards places on the Disc.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: The Duchess evidently became this after her death, as people stopped praying to Nuggan and prayed to her instead. [[spoiler:Wazzer ends up channeling her at a critical moment.]] This isn't really that hard to imagine in the Discworld, though, where ''any'' concept which receives a sufficient amount of faith and/or worship is capable of manifesting in this way. Unfortunately for her, and for Borogravia, they imagined her as an intermediary between them and Nuggan. Since Nuggan is ''dead'' (possibly at the hands of the Bard in ''Literature/TheLastHero''), it makes her utterly useless and implied to be why Wazzer says she's often crying - she hears all these pleas for help from her people, but she can't actually ''do'' anything about them.

** Ankh-Morpork involved itself in the war when Borogravia, without warning or provocation, attacked and destroyed the clacks towers of A-M. [[note]] This is reminiscent of Poland's fabricated attack on Nazi Germany's radio towers, which gave Hitler an excuse to invade.[[/note]]

* ExcessiveMourning: The Duchess has been secluded in mourning for decades following the death of her husband. People are beginning to wonder if she's even still alive. [[spoiler: She's not. She died, and ended up trapped as an impotent demigod/glorified ghost, and is understandably very unhappy about it.]]

* FemaleMisogynist: When thinking about the belief that WomenAreWiser, Polly thinks it's stupid. She knows that women can be just as cruel as men, especially the women who help in oppressing other women such as the ones who report other women for violating Nuggan's abominations and eagerly take the front seat in watching whatever punishment is given to those women found to be in violation. [[spoiler:It comes to head when roughly a third of her country's military high command are women who pander to the attitudes of men and were willing to punish Polly's troop for being women in the military]].

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Maladict(a), to the point of having Igor be ready with a stake if she snaps.

* GeniusDitz: Blouse is a genius when it comes to [[GoodWithNumbers anything that deals with numbers]]. He even figured out the clacks system in five minutes flat without ever being ''near'' a clacks tower and suggested algorithms to improve it so good that they're on the cutting edge of Clacks development, as well as figuring out both a light clacks and how to trick the other observer. Unfortunately, he is without a clue when it comes to anything else.

* GladYouThoughtOfIt: Polly tries to get Blouse to "suggest" the idea of sneaking into the keep disguised as a washerwoman. He does so but assumes he's the only one with a chance of pulling it off. [[spoiler:Amazingly, he ''is!'']]

* GodWasMyCopilot: Everyone thought Wazzer was delusional, but apparently the Duchess had been guiding her footsteps the whole time.

* HideYourLesbians: An in-character example; Polly discovers Lofty is a woman, and believes her to be following her love, Tonker. When she discovers Tonker is a woman too, Polly is rather confused and eventually decides not to think about it. [[spoiler:Even Blouse clocks it immediately when Polly reveals the truth about the squad, expressing similar confusion by the fact that ''both'' Tonker and Lofty are girls and is advised "don't go there."]]

** Borogravia is losing the war. Everyone knows it, they just refuse to acknowledge it out of stupid stubbornness and overdriven patriotism. [[spoiler:In fact, the only reason the other various countries haven't just rolled straight over them is because they'd just rather not - though Vimes' internal narration implies that part of it is a lack of coordination among the Alliance as just what to do, and while the Borogravians can't retreat, the Alliance forces aren't large enough to advance into Borogravia and hold the Keep (and they can't advance into Borogravia with the army at their back), leading to him estimating that all the Borogravians have to do is hold on to score a draw, if [[PyrrhicVictory a Pyrrhic one]]. The Borogravian high command are incapable of bringing themselves to surrender until the Duchess ''tells'' them to.]]

* JeanneDArchetype: A woman dressed like a male soldier and guided by a higher power to lead their nation? Well, the first [[spoiler:applies to all of them]], but the rest are all Wazzer all the way. The rest of the squad spend most of the book thinking she's delusional.

* LivingLegend: Sergeant Jackrum of the Borogravian army has fought in every single war for at least forty years. The Sergeant knows everyone. Everyone knows the Sergeant. The Sergeant's reputation is such that generals will leave the room at the Sergeant's request. [[spoiler:Though that also might be because some of these generals are actually women who Jackrum can blackmail via knowing this.]]

* MadGod: Nuggan and his weekly growing list of Abominations. [[spoiler:It turns out he isn't mad, he's ''dead''. His worshipers are just so tied up in their constant fear of The Other that their own anxiety is being reflected back in random abominations.]]

* ModernMajorGeneral: Blouse plays with the idea of TheStrategist, as his knowledge of tactical manoeuvres is shown as not very useful on actual battlefields. However, he does make up for it with his other abilities. Justified in that he was a paper-pusher, where he was apparently very skilled if underutilized until the army ran out of real field officers. Basically, the impression is that he'd be a downright brilliant Signals or Intelligence Officer, but field command is the complete opposite of what suits him - though he's still a slightly beleaguered ReasonableAuthorityFigure who's AFatherToHisMen and under it all has NervesOfSteel (he's the only one who really stands up to Jackrum - and gets the better of him, twice) and as Captain Horentz [[spoiler: a.k.a. Prince Heinrich]] finds out the hard way, an inventively nasty streak when provoked, when he has the Zlobenian dragoons stripped naked and shackled together.

* NobodysThatDumb: Shufti is the least worldly of all the characters, having disguised herself as a boy to look for her fiance who'd left her pregnant. She's repeatedly shown to be painfully naive, like believing the guy had been mislaid when she'd given him a sixpence to split in half or the Double Entendre of a Bawdy Song flying right over her head. However, she does get a moment once the squad is captured and claiming to be women by showing her privates to the officer, something none of the others even considered. Polly then asks the officer with icy politeness if he needs the rest of the squad to strip down as well, and they're quickly left alone out of sheer embarrassment.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Polly has given a lot of attention to most of the details of how to pass as a man, even down to the masculine way to use the privy. However, there's no discussion at all of what she or anyone else would have done about certain feminine functions, which would presumably have to be dealt with at ''some'' point.
* NothingIsScarier: The ''very'' little we hear about how the Girls' Working School treated the girls who were locked up there is twice as terrifying as a detailed description would have been. As a specific example, Polly met a local priest who worked there and seemed harmless, if kind of stodgy. Tonker replies, without going into any further detail, that "He was good at seeming."

* {{Realpolitik}}: Ankh-Morpork's involvement in the war is entirely for self-interest. As Vimes puts it, it's less because Borogravia touched their stuff, and more because they don't ''like'' the idea of a bigger Zlobenia (which would be much bigger than all the countries around it), especially not if it's going to try and be a rival to them. Polly's internal narration at the end suggests that she's planning to exploit this, on the grounds that "little countries could be useful to big countries with plans of their own."

** They're uncommon enough in Discworld that Blouse sticks out as one. He's got the good sense to let Jackrum handle the things he himself isn't suited for (i.e. most things, but not as many as you might think), is the first to cross-dress his way into the fortress (his subordinates see this as a suicide mission), and has the perspective to take his platoon's cross-dressing... more or less in stride. Not only that, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark but he flatly turns down an offered 'solution' that would paint him as a hero and the squad as the plucky gels who helped him out]], and consistently shows his steel when he perceives any of them to be in distress.

** The Duchess, from beyond the grave. She's protective of [[spoiler: her vessel, Wazzer, instructing everyone to be kind to Wazzer afterwards]], tries to help out in whatever small ways she can, she promotes Jackrum to Sergeant Major (with a dry back-handed compliment) after previously hinting at how he can get his happy ending, and shames the High Command into doing the right thing - both by the squad and by Borogravia.

** The defense counsel the squad gets during their tribunal, who does everything to try and get them out of what is blatantly skewed against them.

* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Major Clogston has some sort of blood sugar regulation problem and can't miss meals. So "leaning against the wall eating an apple" after helping round up Shufti's feckless ex probably isn't a deliberate show of contempt toward the ungentlemanly fellow... probably.

* SupportingProtagonist: Polly reflects at the end that this was actually [[spoiler:Wazzer's story]], when all is said and done. Even aside from that, Jackrum carries most of the action. Polly is pretty much stuck as a point-of-view character because she is the OnlySaneMan and is not privy to any of the major twists in the plot - [[spoiler:Wazzer]] and Jackrum, both settle down, AndTheAdventureContinues for Polly.

* TakeUpMySword: A literal example. [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum has been grooming Polly to take over from him throughout the book and, at the end, passes on his cutlasses (and a book full of handy blackmail material) to her.]]

* TakeUpMySword: A literal example [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum has been grooming Polly to take over from him throughout the book and, at the end, passes on his cutlasses (and a book full of handy blackmail material) to her.]]

* CorruptQuartermaster: 'Threeparts' Scallops is in charge of the limited supplies. When the squad accuses him of having sold off the equipment he complains that there was never any to sell.

** Polly discusses her situation with another disguised woman and admits she's kept a memento of her old life that could give her away, and the other soldier suggests that if it's discovered she could claim it's a keepsake of her girl back home. Much later, [[spoiler:Polly learns that Jackrum carries a locket with a portrait of a girl in it, which Jackrum implies is his girl back home, but Polly realizes it's actually a portrait of Jackrum before she disguised herself and joined the army]].

** Throughout the novel, Jackrum mentions that he see's a lot of himself in Polly, remarking that she'll make a good Sergeant and that he can trust her like he trusts himself. [[spoiler: It's implied that he was aware that his career was nearing it's end and he was grooming Polly as a replacement. In the end he passes on his cutlasses and a book full of sensitive information about high-ranking officials on to her.]]

* KleptomaniacHero: Apparently the Ins-and-Outs have a reputation for this, leading to their other nickname: the "Cheesemongers". It comes from a BawdySong of a soldier of the regiment making to hook up with a dairy maid, but instead, uh, using her services, he steals her cheese and runs off.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: To ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Blast_of_the_Trumpet_Against_the_Monstruous_Regiment_of_Women The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment]]'' ''[[spoiler:[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Blast_of_the_Trumpet_Against_the_Monstruous_Regiment_of_Women of Women]]]]'', a polemic by Scottish Protestant reformer John Knox against women ruling countries (partly because he was a sexist, but mostly because both England and Scotland were ruled by Catholic women--[[UsefulNotes/MaryTudor Mary I Tudor]] and [[UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots Mary Stuart]]'s regent Marie of Guise).[[labelnote:*]] Note that "monstruous regiment" in the original context meant "unnatural rule" rather than "terrifying army", although Knox may very well have seen women as exactly that.[[/labelnote]]

** The reason so many {{Sweet Polly Oliver}}s, not to mention non-humans, manage to get into to the army.

* ModernMajorGeneral: Blouse plays with the idea of TheStrategist, as his knowledge of tactical manoeuvres is shown as not very useful on actual battlefields. However, he does make up for it with his other abilities. Justified in that he was a paper-pusher, where he was apparently very skilled if underutilized until the army ran out of real field officers. Basically, the impression is that he'd be a downright brilliant Signals or Intelligence Officer, but field command is the complete opposite of what suits him - though he's still a slightly beleagured ReasonableAuthorityFigure who's AFatherToHisMen and under it all has NervesOfSteel (he's the only one who really stands up to Jackrum - and gets the better of him, twice) and as Captain Horentz [[spoiler: a.k.a. Prince Heinrich]] finds out the hard way, an inventively nasty streak when provoked, when he has the Zlobenian dragoons stripped naked and shackled together.
* MoodSwinger: Tonker, in her own words, doesn't have "middle gears". The quickest way to find this out is to threaten Lofty. (Could also be NoPeriodsPeriod rather painfully invoked.)

* MuggingTheMonster: The madam of the girls Jackrum takes the squad to tries to knock him out and steal his money. He just knocks her out instead and makes off with ''her'' money (most of which was already his to begin with).

* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler:Tonker and Lofty]] a.k.a. [[spoiler:Magda and Tilda]]. Polly pegs them as a couple easily [[spoiler:once she discovers Lofty is a woman, while still believing Tonker to be male]], before becoming briefly confused when she discovers that [[spoiler:they're actually both women]].

* OrphanageOfFear: The Girls' Working School, which did a number on Tonker, Lofty, and Wazzer. It's not ''specifically'' for orphans, though. You don't have to have dead parents to get sent there. You only need to be declared Bad Girl.

* OverlyLongName: Maladict needs the entire sign-up sheet to write out his full name. Vampires have long names.

* PedophilePriest: Possibly. While nothing ''definite'' is said about Father Jupe, who Polly remars seemed decent if stodgy, Tonker says he was "good at seeming." Horrors can be read into that, especially with the explicit confirmation that Lofty was raped. Plus, given that those from the Girls' Working School are still relatively young, it's very likely they were underage when they encountered Father Jupe, and if he did what was implied...

** There's also [[spoiler: Maladicta, the vampire]]. Who has everybody, including the various cross-dressing women, convinced that she (or he) is male, then eventually claims to be Malidict''a'' -- but so late in the game and in such circumstances that they wonder if he (or she) is telling the truth, or what exactly they meant, with the upshot that nobody's quite sure what pronouns to use for them. It doesn't help that Polly is so ''done'' with the whole business at that point that her response is just "you're you".

** A more minor example happens earlier: [[spoiler:The recruits, all-girls pretending to be boys, are immediately found out when they try to sneak into a fortress dressed up as washerwomen. The sergeant presiding over the checkpoint outright said their body language was entirely masculine and had no hope of getting through. Ironically, ''Blouse'', the only one in the regiment who's not a woman, slips in with ease.]]

* BittersweetEnding: At the end of the book, [[spoiler:Prince Heinrich of Zlobenia clearly hasn't learnt his lesson and is poised to invade Borogravia, bringing the country to the brink of war yet again. However, the squad have all survived and Polly is preparing to rejoin the army armed with a book full of blackmail material to [[HopeSpot hopefully bring things to a more satisfactory conclusion]], an easily manipulated and very intelligent friend in high places in Blouse, and the contact details of William De Worde along with the savvy of how ''this'' time, Ankh-Morpork can be persuaded to side with Borogravia as it can be "useful to big countries with plans of their own".]]

* BorrowedCatchPhrase: At the end of the book, ''Sergeant'' Polly Perks re-enlists in the Borogravian army, and quotes Jackrum when she tells two recruits-who-are-really-girls-in-disguise "You are ''my'' little lads, and ''I'' will look after you."

** [[spoiler:Corborundum--or rather, Jade]] says they joined the army to meet "erotic people". Everybody assumes they meant [[{{Malaproper}} exotic]]. [[spoiler:Later, when she meets other trolls, it's very clear that she did mean "erotic"]]

** "You are ''my'' little lads and I will look after you".

* CrazyCulturalComparison: Very nearly causes a problem near the end. When Polly, Jade, and Maladict are going to deliver [[spoiler:the request for a truce]] to the Ankh-Morpork army, Jade picks up a rock and hurls it at one of the AM troll soldiers. Weapons are raised before Maladict steps in and points out that's a troll's version of blowing a kiss.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: The Duchess evidently became this after her death, as people stopped praying to Nuggan and prayed to her instead. [[spoiler:Wazzer ends up channeling her at a critical moment.]] This isn't really that hard to imagine in the Discworld, though, where ''any'' concept which receives a sufficient amount of faith and/or worship is capable of manifesting in this way. Unfortunately for her, and for Borogravia, they imagined her as an intermediary between them and Nuggan. Since Nuggan is ''dead'' (possibly at the hands of the Bard in ''Literature/TheLastHero''), makes her utterly useless and implied to be why Wazzer says she's often crying - she hears all these pleas for help from her people, but she can't actually ''do'' anything about them.

* FemaleGroinInvincibility: The protagonist, who's pulling a SweetPollyOliver, gets bitten in the crotch by an ill-tempered horse to the horror of all the onlookers. Justified as she was wearing a wadded-up sock down the front of her pants.

* GentlemenRankers: Sergeant Jackrum and Corporal Strappi both express surprise that someone like Maledict, wearing such fancy clothes and carrying a sword, and a vampire who are assumed to be aristocrats, is signing up with them instead of becoming an officer. No answer is forthcoming, then or ever.

* TheVietnamVet: Parodied in Maledict's "flash-sides", which have him experience nightmares from our world, specifically Vietnam veterans. Everyone is confused.

* TheButcher: Borogravian propaganda refers to Vimes as "Vimes the Butcher", but neglects to make up any crimes he's supposed to have committed to back it up. Vimes himself finds this rather pathetic.

* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler:Tonker and Lofty]] a.k.a. [[spoiler:Madga and Tilda]]. Polly pegs them as a couple easily [[spoiler:once she discovers Lofty is a woman, while still believing Tonker to be male]], before becoming briefly confused when she discovers that [[spoiler:they're actually both women]].

* OrphanageOfFear: The Girls' Working School, which did a number on Tonker, Lofty, and Wazzer. It's not ''specifically'' for orphans, though. You don't have to have dead parents to get sent there.

* AmbitionIsEvil: The Prince of Zlobenia started the war because he wants to annex Borogravia and make Zlobenia like Ankh-Morpork. Or at least, the bit where his country's big and powerful and no-one dares attack them. The bit about being a shining (if grubby) beacon of multicultralism and progress... not so much.

* HopeSpot: Subverted. During the court martial Sergeant Jackrum tries to use their blackmail material on the the third of the army high command that are women pretending to be men. This seems to be a normal hope spot when the only effect this seems to have is to lessen their punishment. The war is going to continue. And then we find out that Wazzer had The Duchess guiding her the whole time and The Duchess possesses her to give the Generals a huge "The Reason You Suck" Speech. It works.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Played completely straight, though with a certain amount of {{Foreshadowing}}. At the climatic point, Wazzer suddenly channels the Duchess, who reveals the secrets of the ruling council and essentially forces them to give the story a happy ending. While one could argue that this doesn't resolve everything, we never see Borogravia again in the series, so it might as well have.]]

* ProbabilityPileup: The main character [[SweetPollyOliver is a woman]]. However, it is gradually revealed that apparently so is ''everyone'' else in her squad, with the exception of the nebbishy lieutenant, and including [[spoiler:the extremely auspicious Sergeant Jackrum and a third of the high command]]. Given that there's explicit divine involvement, and while that semi-divinity can only move 'small things', she's also capable of running a very effective GambitRoulette through TheOnlyBeliever - and how large are thoughts?

** The earlier book ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' sees a Vampire clan trying - and failing - to take over Lancre. One of the younger Vampyrs in the clan, who may have realised coming up against Lancre witches is not going to end well, is named ''Maladicta''. He/she is seen falling off the drawbridge, having been splashed with holy water. Does this reformed and regenerated Vampyr then choose to join the Army in order to forget?

* JeanneDArchetype: Wazzer.

* SpoilerTitle: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Blast_of_the_Trumpet_Against_the_Monstrous_Regiment_of_Women Here's]] Website/TheOtherWiki article for those interested.
** More of a shout out, as the article on Website/TheOtherWiki is about a mid-1500s political work from which the title of the book itself is taken as a HistoricalInJoke.

* GentlemenRankers: Maladict[[spoiler:a]] is an example. Sergeant Jackrum and Corporal Strappi both express surprise that someone wearing such fancy clothes and carrying a sword, and a vampire who are assumed to be aristocrats, is doing signing up with them instead of becoming an officer. No answer is forthcoming, then or ever.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: The insane abominations of Nuggan (including chocolate, rocks, ears and babies) are a send-up of other extreme religious prohibitions such as the "abominations" of Leviticus or the Taliban.

* PovertyFood: Horse Bread, a hard tack containing vegetable bits that's usually considered only suitable for horses, and which has been Borogravian standard fare for some time. The situation is so dire that even ''this'' is too scarce to eat, and for most of the book the recruits have to subsist on a watery horse meat gruel called Scubbo, which is somewhere between this and ReducedToRatburgers - and according to Scallot, that's the next step, as Rat Scubbo.

* FailedState: Borogravia is expressly based on the [[TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and, like its Roundworld counterpart in 1918-19, is collapsing from the inside. There are shortages of everything, religious extremism has risen, and what will turn out to be the very last draft of new Army recruits is on its way to the front lines.