As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- At the very beginning, Death watches the birth and wonders if that's what the problem was, or what the solution is going to be. The following exchange occurs: "Squeak." "Quite so. You may very well be right." Only during the second reading, one can understand what the Death of Rats meant: "Both."
- This in itself is Fridge: Time is both the creator and the destroyer of the universe every second, so naturally it, or rather he, is both the problem and the solution as well.
- It's also Fridge Brilliance that Death only saw Wen fetching Nanny Ogg, not the actual birth. Not only does this conceal the fact that Lobsang and Jeremy are the same person, but it also hides how Death, himself, can't actually see Lobsang.
- And Death's inability to see Lobsang is Foreshadowing, because Lobsang was never fated to die at all: rather, he was fated to merge with his other self. Presumably Jeremy would've been imperceptible to Death as well.
- How do Susan and Myria/Unity kill Auditors by the score? Chocolate. You might consider it, even, a genocidal tactic. Back in Soul Music, what did Susan's inner monologue name as her mother's favorite dish? Genocide by Chocolate.
- Meta-example: When you read Night Watch, then go back to Thief of Time and realize that the entire section which occurs while time is stopped was happening simultaneously with Vimes' and Carcer's jump back to the past.
- Lu-Tze claims that the word "ninja" is Agatean for "the Passing Wind". In other words, they're silent but deadly.
- Lu-Tze and Lobsang can still see when they're time-slicing, even though they're moving fast enough that light in front and back of them is shifted towards the ends of the color spectrum. In an earlier book, it's mentioned that Discworld also has something called "meta-light", which allows darkness to be seen; perhaps that's what lets the pair of them see even when they're outrunning the normal light around them.
- Death uses a Tablecloth Yank to explain to Susan how History Monks manipulate the time of the universe to resolve problems. When Susan points out that he spilled the salt and there are still stains left on the cloth, Death takes pride in the effectiveness of the metaphor: manipulating time isn't an exact science, and it leaves subtle signs and inconsistencies behind that people can notice if they're paying attention (and most ordinary folks on the Discworld aren't paying that much attention).
- If you read Reaper Man and recall that how Death deliberately throws off a dart game to endear himself to the villagers, it becomes apparent that Death specifically pulled the cloth such that the salt would spill and everything else would be fine. The knocked over salt shaker was actually supposed to happen as part of the analogy.
- Not to mention the signs and inconsistencies in question are actually a meta explanation for some of the Discworld's Continuity errors, which, indeed, are usually only noticed if the readers pay attention.
- If you read Reaper Man and recall that how Death deliberately throws off a dart game to endear himself to the villagers, it becomes apparent that Death specifically pulled the cloth such that the salt would spill and everything else would be fine. The knocked over salt shaker was actually supposed to happen as part of the analogy.
- When Miss Tangerine, one of the Auditors who created human bodies for themselves, tries to prevent more confusion in their ranks, caused by very... contradictory and, sometimes, existential signs, she starts to refer to these signs as "bloody stupid", therefore, not to be obeyed at all. Now, a human could recognize a cuss word, but how would a literal-minded Auditor? Easy. Before, the worst word she could think of was an "organ", because of their messiness and untidiness, and she used it as a heavy expletive. But blood is also a part of biological processes, in fact, a very important one. So, she used "bloody" to swear not as a human would, but because she was generally disgusted with human bodies and all that made them tick.
- The title of the book: Not only is Lobsang the titular "thief of time," it can also refer to how the Auditors are scheming to break the universe and steal everyone else's (life)time. Plus, Death plays a big role in this book. And one of his titles is "Thief of Time," as well. Brilliant.
- Once this novel has revealed that, in the Discworld universe, the handiwork of Time is to constantly destroy and recreate everything non-stop, it's easier to understand how the largely-mundane filmmaking of Moving Pictures could've threatened to destabilize reality. By assembling fictional narratives in sequence and projecting those sequential images in real time - click click click click click - to audiences willing to believe them, the filmmakers of Holy Wood were unwittingly supplanting the proper moment-by-moment progression - tick tick tick tick tick - that keeps the universe going.
Fridge Logic
On the headscratchers page.
