History Literature / Maskerade

* LovePotion: The chocolate sauce recipe Nanny Ogg uses in one scene has ''interesting'' effects on some of the people who try it. There's nothing magical about it, though, it's merely a powerful natural aphrodisiac.

** Salzella (pronounced like “salt seller”) is a reference to Italian composer Antonio Salieri whose surname means "seller of salt"

* MundaneUtility: Borrowing is one of Granny's greatest skills in witchcraft, the ability to ride in another being's consciousness, see what it sees, and hear what it hears. At one point, she borrows Nanny Ogg... so she can see herself as she puts her hat back on and adjusts it. Nanny then questions why she doesn't just use a mirror.

** Granny Weatherwax's observation, on arriving at Mrs. Palm's house, that Colette is wearing some very interesting earrings is an allusion to a prominent Pratchett fan, Colette Reap, who once attended a signing event wearing Ankh earrings.

** Mrs Lawsey would rather be at the music hall listening to Nellie Stamp sing "She Sits Among the Cabbages and Leeks". This is a reference to an urban legend that Marie Lloyd had a song which was originally "She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas", but was changed to "Leeks" when MoralGuardians objected to the double meaning (but not, you will note, to actually remove that meaning in any way).

* OneSteveLimit: Averted, since the story has a major character named Henry Slugg and a minor one named Henry Lawsy. [[spoiler:As it turns out, this isn't a coincidence -- it's revealed at the end that Henry Lawsy is actually Henry Slugg's ''son'' (whom he never knew he had) and was named after him, although his mother had always told him his dad was Mr. Lawsy the eel juggler.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Walter Plinge seems to be written as such. Besides the tangled-up way his brain works (see ArcWords), he also has odd inflections in his speech (he never uses commas and always uses an exclamation point) and doesn't move normally (like he's being dragged around by his head). [[spoiler:His identity as the Opera Ghost doesn't count as ObfuscatingStupidity, since moving between the two requires a conscious shift in personality instead of just "dropping the act."]]

-->''"After you'd known [[BrainlessBeauty Christine]] for any length of time, you found yourself fighting a desire to look into her ear to see if you could spot daylight coming the other way."''
* {{Inversion}}: Black Aliss went so mad that she turned people into gingerbread and had a house made out of frogs.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Christine, [[SelfishGood not because she's a bad person]] (she appears to be fond of Agnes/Perdita) but because thanks to her chronically short attention span/lack of brains, [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid she can't really comprehend anything more complex than her own immediate interests]]. This leads to a strange dichotomy with her being able to pick up stage-tricks like conveniently learning to faint in a dramatic pose whenever something "operatic" happens, but limits her ability to realize that Agnes is pretending to be her voice:

* MakeMeWannaShout: Frustrated and finally sick of the hypocrisy of the opera house, Agnes lets out a scream so high she breaks glass, splinters wood, distorts metal and just generally does a good deal of damage to the building. At which point, Nanny remarks that it's now all over - as in, "it's not over until the fat lady sings."

* ProbabilityPileup: The concept is {{conversed}} in regard to human nature. Seemingly impossible feats will be first done by the best of what humanity has to offer. Once they've been proven feasible, even grannies will be capable of reproducing them.
--->''And [one universal law] is that, no matter how hard a thing is to do, once it has been done it'll become a whole lot easier and will therefore be done a lot. A huge mountain might be scaled by strong men only after many centuries of failed attempts, but a few decades later grandmothers will be strolling up it for tea and then wandering back afterward to see where they left their glasses.''

* BornInTheWrongCentury: It's said that Agnes was born 20 years too late, rather than back when your voice mattered more than your looks and everyone had a build like her; indeed, every one of the greats had names that were puns for how fat they were.

** From [[Literature/LordsAndLadies four books ago]]. In preparation for his wedding to Magrat, Verence tried to get a book on "[[TheTalk marital arts]]", but ended up with one on ''martial'' arts instead. Apparently he has since succeeded, since Nanny found such a book in the castle and spent a few minutes [[MustacheVandalism drawing moustaches]] on all the illustrations.

** [spoiler:Walter Plinge's alternative personality known as The Opera Ghost]] is not a bad person. But he's also brutally honest, and when Granny and Nanny use headology to give him that personality all the time, he's perfectly willing to go along with picking Christine over Agnes.

* DudeWheresMyReward: This is Agnes' reaction at the end of the book. Nanny and Granny don't seem to sympathise with her ver much, but they've been in the exact situation many times before and Agnes is going to need to learn that LifeIsntFair if she's going to be their third witch.

* GoodOlWays: Nobby Nobbs complains about modern policing, where you have to do things like ''detect'' and ''catch people'', rather than the old days where you just let criminals run away and didn't try too hard to catch them.

* {{Corpsing}}: [[invoked]] A blink-and-you'll-miss-it subversion towards the end, when [[spoiler: Andre, the Cable Street Particular who'd been investigating the goings-on at the opera house, mentions that Salzella's cooling body needs to be dealt with]].

* {{Corpsing}}: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it subversion towards the end, when [[spoiler: Andre, the Cable Street Particular who'd been investigating the goings-on at the opera house, mentions that Salzella's cooling body needs to be dealt with]].

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Unlike the other witches books where there is some sort of overt great magical threat, like TheFairFolk in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' or Lily in ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', ''Maskerade'' is a murder mystery more akin to the watch books.

* BrutalHonesty: One the Ghost's [[spoiler: (or more accurately, Walter's as the Ghost)]] defining character traits, with responses to questions tending to be along these lines. He's not doing it to be cruel, but some of his responses can be absolutely ''vicious'' in their accuracy, particularly in his response to Agnes (pretending to be Christine in the dark) when she says [[ButHeSoundsHandsome (correctly) that "Perdita" is much better than 'her' (Christine)]].

* BarehandedBladeBlock: Granny pulls this at the very end [[spoiler: when she blocks Salzella's sword, but it carries a price--she has to allow the hand to become injured afterward]].