YMMV / Night Watch (Discworld)

• Ambiguous Situation: Terry Pratchett demonstrates how Fred Colon feels about the wearing of the Lilac by someone who wasn't there, but for an author that often gives his opinion on things in his narration, he doesn't this time.
• Complete Monster:
  • Carcer Dun is a sociopathic Cop Killer initially wanted for murdering three of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, who is sent back in time along with Sam Vimes after feigning surrender and temporarily blinding him. Murdering John Keel, forcing Vimes to take his identity, Carcer enlists with the Unmentionables and teaches them a new torture trick, later threatening to kill "Young Sam" to destabilize time further. Escaping from an assault, he threatens to torture a child and uses the information obtained to force two unwilling commanders of the army into a full-frontal assault on the Treacle Mine Road barricade, in a deliberate attempt to maximize casualties and spite Vimes's attempts at damage control, which escalates into dozens of deaths and injuries. Once promoted to Captain by Lord Snapcase and ordered to lead a death-squad on "Keel", Carcer defies orders and orders he and Young!Vimes be taken alive while instructing his men to kill anyone else, including Reg Shoe who posed no threat. Upon returning to the present, Carcer vandalizes the tribute to Keel just to spite his rival and makes a final attempt on Vimes's life for no reason but his own amusement.
  • Captain Findthee Swing, the leader of the Cable Street Particulars, is the reason his time period is so corrupt and oppressive. Swing is a Tautological Templar obsessed with craniometrics, using people's head measurements arbitrarily to decide whether someone is good or bad in his eye, even taking on Carcer Dun as his sergeant. Responsible for ensuring Homicidal Lord Winder's dominion, Swing has any suspected dissidents disappeared to his cells and sent his men out to incite violence against the city watch and militias on and around the Glorious 25th May, sparking several riots. Upon entering the Particular's headquarters, Vimes discovers a dungeon full of people who Swing had physically and mentally tortured into confessing to his accusations; one person so broken that he does not resist when Vimes kills him without hesitation. Murdering his own torturer to destroy the evidence of his crimes, Swing attempts to kill Vimes even as his headquarters burns.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The book is a fan favorite:
  • In terms of characters, the villain Carcer has quite the following for someone who didn't have much page-time. He seems about as popular as Hogfather's own charismatic psychopath Teatime, himself an ensemble darkhorse. Neither character outlasts their debut book, but in the case of the latter Teatime was at least a character whose story we spent a lot of time with in that book. Carcer only really pops up a few times in person, though his presence is felt through his actions. Why he is a significantly more popular villain than, say, Wolf Von Uberwald or Edward D'eath is slightly mysterious.
  • Ned Coates, a badass watchman who stands up to Carcer and is implied to be a genuine revolutionary, also turning against his more corrupt colleagues.
  • Jocasta Wiggs, a cute clumsy assassin apprentice who only appears shortly at the beginning of the book.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Vimes at one point remarks that even Assassins think wrist knives are an idiot's weapon.
  • The book about police says that some people, like butchers, can do a lot of damage to someone with the tools of their trade, like cleavers, and disdains the idea of weapon confiscation to reduce crime (at least in Ankh-Morpork). A few years later, the Regents Park Police became a laughingstock for confiscating ordinary tools in a weapons sweep. ^note While it is possible to stab someone with a screwdriver, and scissors can be turned into shivs, one must wonder what assaults they expect people to commit with pliers or a rasp.
• Iron Woobie: Vimes, oh, Vimes. He gets trapped back in time and just wants to go home, but he grits his teeth does the job to the end. Then he finds himself in way over his head, trying to change history and save the people he knows will die even if it means changing the future he wants to go back to. Then when he fails...
• Love to Hate: Despite being an utter bastard, Carcer is an Ensemble Dark Horse for the entire series, possibly because he's such a bastard. Contrast with Captain Swing, who is a Hate Sink.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Carcer's easily changeable nature, meaning he goes from charming and joking to snarling and threatening bloody murder. This applies to anyone, regardless of whether or not they're a child.
  • With the wizards having been more comedic in nature for the last couple of dozen books, it's understandable that Vimes thinks they'd be willing to help. Lu-Tze has to remind him that this is not Ridcully's bunch and instead the amoral bastards that thrived pre-Sourcery, who'd sooner zap him than tell him the time of day.
  • The Cable Street cellar, where people are tortured to the point that Vimes opts to Mercy Kill some of them immediately.
  • Making it worse is that Sir Pterry explicitly describes some bits, like how the floor is practically caked with blood... so when he stops describing it, your mind is left to its own devising as to just what could be worse. Nothing Is Scarier.
• Squick: What they find in the Cable Street cellar. Not much description is given beyond the very good soundproofing, the smell of blood, and a single tooth lying on the floor, but young Sam's reaction when he sees inside the cells is scary enough.
• Too Cool to Live: Like Inigo Skimmer before him, Ned Coates is a badass who lives for all of one Watch novel. The only one who can stand up to both Carcer and Vimes unflinching. His grave is mentioned along with Keel's at the end. He's also too cool for us to see him die. We left him talking to Vimes and fine. Then we get his grave mention.