YMMV / Equal Rites

• Anti-Climax: The climactic fight between witch and wizard was given quite a bit of build up, but it happens mostly unseen and what Esk does see only takes up about a paragraph.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Esk remained popular with some fans despite the fact that her story 'ended' and she was unseen at Unseen University (sorry) from then on... until I Shall Wear Midnight, roughly thirty-five years later in-universe and about twenty-five years later in Real Life.
  • Granny Weatherwax was so beloved that she promptly became one of the main faces of the Witches books and one of the most popular Discworld characters of all time.
• Fridge Horror: Cutangle and his reforms are never seen or mentioned again after this book, but given the Klingon Promotion nature of the position of Archchancellor he was almost certainly killed before the events in Sourcery.
  • Cleaning the wizards' lavatory, Esk briefly stands between two mirrors, and glimpses one of the receding infinity of her own reflections waving to her. Cute, right? Now go read the other witch novels, and consider what happened to Lilith...
• Harsher in Hindsight: Granny's insight that Esk hasn't been using the staff, it's been using itself and using Esk, seems innocuous enough ... unless you've read Sourcery too, in which we see a staff that similarly uses its bearer, and is an insane world-threatening villain.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Granny's awkwardness in giving The Talk to Esk, given that she's later confirmed to still be a "maid" herself.
• So Okay, It's Average: Widely regarded as the most "middle of the road" Discword book. Its considered better than most of the early ones, but is a very weak start to the Witches stories.