* GrowingTheBeard: As stated on the main page, ''Guards! Guards!'' is often considered the best ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book to start new readers on. This was arguably the novel that really ''codified'' the Discworld, particularly its most important setting, Ankh-Morpork, and its most popular sub-series, the fantasy PoliceProcedural stories about the City Watch.
* HilariousInHindsight: A few examples, including the offhand mention of Vetinari's aunt, who says no to being chained up as an offering to the dragon. In ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch]]'' she's introduced, as a brilliant schemer and extremely forceful personality who, among other things, punched Nobby's lights out. In other words, whoever had to ask her was going to have a ''really bad'' time of it. There's also the fact that Sybil's first words to Vimes are "Do you know anything about mating" and he's completely baffled, but they go on to get married and have a son.
* MagnificentBitch: [[DragonAscendant The Noble Dragon]] was at first merely summoned by royal secretary [[BigBadWannabe Lupine Wonse]] to be slain by a puppet king to gain control over Ankh-Morpork, but she quickly grew to have her own ambitions. Using her mental connection to Wonse, the Dragon engineered her own summoning and quickly gained control of the city by roasting the puppet king at his own coronation. A master at coordinated terror, she [[EvilIsNotAToy subjugated Wonse]] into being her mouthpiece and invited the heads of the city's powerful guilds to a banquet to intimidate them into providing wealth and promises of sacrifices. While a terrifying monster herself, the Dragon grew disgusted with the people's almost [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters giddy acceptance]] of her terms. Unmatched for most of her reign, the small swamp dragon Errol stunned her with a sonic boom and earned her respect and love, both then leaving humanity behind to wander the cosmos.
* {{Narm}}: This may be the book where Vetinari first properly takes shape, but it is also the least nuanced about his worldview, something driven home by his incredibly edgy MotiveRant to Vimes at the end of the book. This speech veers dangerously close to making Vetinari out as a StrawNihilist. But then, you consider that this is [[MagnificentBastard Vetinari]] talking. One wonders, in light of later events, whether or not Vetinari was testing him.
* TearJerker: One man with three daughters refuses to accept any of them as fodder for the Dragon King. He gets turned to ashes. This sentence caps off the situation:
--> While the human spirit is, in the right conditions, noble and brave and wonderful, it is also, when you get right down to it, only human.