History Literature / TheFifthElephant

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Scone of Stone, [[spoiler: or at least the one that Dee destroyed, is not the ''original'' scone. That was created more than 1500 years ago, and even the best dwarf bread only lasts about 300 years before it starts to crumble]].

* ReplacedWithReplica: The twist is that [[spoiler:The [[ItmakesSenseInContext Scone of Stone]] [[{{Pun}} seat]] of the Dwarf Low-King has been switched out with a fake copy and the original destroyed. The even bigger twist is that the dwarf kings have been pulling this switch themselves for centuries and the conspirators in the book only think they have a new scheme.]]

** Colon is now Head of Traffic, a job that Vetinari created for him and Nobby at the end of ''Literature/{{Jingo}} (as a reward for their 'help') and is first shown getting speed cameras set up.

* ContinuityNod: Detritus talks about the splendor the Ankh-Morpork Opera House, which he saw firsthand in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}''

* WerewolvesAreDogs: Discussed at length. Good Cop Sam Vimes, as well as several other characters, all muse that it is impossible for a creature that is half wolf and half human not to have a little dog in it somewhere. This is played for laughs when various werewolves are seen to visibly cringe at the mention of a B-A-T-H. [[spoiler:Comes to a head in the climax when Vimes dispatches Wolfgang Von Ubervald who has been stuck in a sort of mid-transformation and is acting on instinct by firing a flare gun just over Wolfgang's head, causing the monstrous creature to jump up and catch it in his teeth.]]

* StopOrIWillShoot: Very consciously [[AvertedTrope averted]]. Vimes makes it a point to do it by the book and spell it out crystal clear to a perp he's in hot pursuit of: He is armed, and will respond with force if the perp continues to resist arrest. Vimes thus gives him ample time and opportunity to surrender. [[spoiler:Wolfgang doesn't. Vimes shoots him, having never expected him to take him up on it for a second. If he hadn't done it by the book, though, it would have been murder.]]

* SavedByThePlatformBelow: Vimes has an old wooden stair fall out from under him while climbing out a pit, he is saved by landing on the stair of the flight below before that too gives way, and he lands on the flight below even that one; however it is lampshaded that while ''in theory'' that is a survivable way of getting back to the bottom, most of the falling stairs have taken out a lot more below him and he better start considering other options really quickly if he wants to survive.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: After Wolfgang's disappearance, Vimes explains to Sybil why he keeps his guard up by describing Wolfgang as "bottle covey" - someone who does not quit no matter how soundly he has been trounced. Sybil remarks that it sounds like someone she knows well. He only cottons on to this later.

* DarkhorseVictory: How Rhys got the job of Low King in the first place. Dwarve society was torn between the old-school fundamentalists and the progressives, with the dwarves in Ankh-Morpork not exactly giving a toss about either, and Rhys was just a quiet sort from Llamedos neither side really objected to.

** The blurb on the back cover of one of the editions is also extremely misleading, with statements like "It's up to the dauntless Vimes ... to solve the puzzle of the missing pachyderm". The "fifth elephant" is mentioned in the book as an Uberwaldian phrase meaning "something that is not what it seems", while the back cover makes it sound like Vimes is actively looking for the literal fifth elephant.

* BettyAndVeronica: Hinted at with werewolf Angua, who has run away from her human life with good, dependable Carrot and joined up with a "good friend" Gavin, a true wolf who is implied to be an old flame. She seems undecided as to whether she is going to return to Ankh-Morpork afterwards.

* AxCrazy: Wolfgang. Partly because he doesn't bother trying to control his violent nature as a werewolf and partly because he has been brought up by a family of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Fantasy Nazis]].

* ArcWords: ''[It is] the thing, and the whole of the thing.''

* WerewolvesAreDogs: Discussed at length. [[LawfulGood Good Cop]] Sam Vimes, as well as several other characters, all muse that it is impossible for a creature that is half wolf and half human not to have a little dog in it somewhere. This is played for laughs when various werewolves are seen to visibly cringe at the mention of a B-A-T-H. [[spoiler:Comes to a head in the climax when Vimes dispatches Wolfgang Von Ubervald who has been stuck in a sort of mid-transformation and is acting on instinct by firing a flare gun just over Wolfgang's head, causing the monstrous creature to jump up and catch it in his teeth.]]

** Near the end of the book, the words [[spoiler:"''I'' can't!"]] turn the nature of the EvilPlan on its head. In that one short sentence, it shows that while the conspiracy was perpetrated by traditionalists, it also showed that [[spoiler: ''jealousy'' was a significant factor too]].

* SkewedPriorities: Colon, thanks to pressure and insanity. He believes if he sorts of who's stealing those sugar cubes, everything else will fall into place. He also demands shiny breastplates, and sees nothing wrong with the Watch suddenly suffering a serious lack of manpower.

* BoomerangBigot: [[spoiler:Ideas Taster Dee. Dee hates the fact that there are dwarfs who are openly female. The primary reason is that ''she's'' jealous they could do it while ''she'' can't]].

* WerewolvesAreDogs: Discussed at length. GoodCop Sam Vimes, as well as several other characters, all muse that it is impossible for a creature that is half wolf and half human not to have a little dog in it somewhere. This is played for laughs when various werewolves are seen to visibly cringe at the mention of a B-A-T-H. [[spoiler:Comes to a head in the climax when Vimes dispatches Wolfgang Von Ubervald who has been stuck in a sort of mid-transformation and is acting on instinct by firing a flare gun just over Wolfgang's head, causing the monstrous creature to jump up and catch it in his teeth.]]

* TheUpperCrass: The werewolf clan of Uberwald are a family with titles, they have a castle and estates, but the sort of social graces you might expect from people who spend at least half their time in a canine form. The patriarch has spent, by choice, so much time as a wolf that he is losing the knack of how to be human, a situation his rather snobbish wife calls him out on, a lot. And younger members of the family tend to sprawl in front of the fire in wolf form; a visitor takes them at first to be rather large and boisterous dogs of the Alsatian type. ''Thud!'' takes the idea a step further: werewolf Angua von Uberwald feels inadequate, cloddish and condescended to in her interactions with vampire Sally von Humperdinck, who, being a vampire, carries nobility lightly with all the expected grace, style and confidence. Angua feels like a Dung Age peasant next to Sally, even though both are on the same social level as minor titled people.

* WerewolvesAreDogs: Discussed at length. GoodCop Sam Vimes, as well as several other characters, all muse that it is impossible for a creature that is half wolf and half human not to have a little dog in it somewhere. This is played for laughs when various werewolves are seen to visibly cringe at the mention of a B-A-T-H. Comes to a head in the climax when Vimes dispatches Wolfgang Von Ubervald who has been stuck in a sort of mid-transformation and is acting on instinct by firing a flare gun just over Wolfgang's head, causing the monstrous creature to jump up and catch it in his teeth.
* One of the early ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books has a werewolf that turns out to be good and ends with the main character playing fetch with him.

%%* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Subverted

--> '''Vimes:''' Make a sudden move and [[GroinAttack neither are you]].

* JustFollowingOrders:
** Played straight by Tantony, who gives this excuse [[spoiler:to Vimes after he let Sybil go with Serafine]].
** Vimes immediately answers by [[SubvertedTrope Subverting]] this: he orders Detritus to shoot Tantony, knowing that Detritus will tell him to shove it.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by actual wolves, which are ''not'' doglike at all, to the extent that Gaspode's usual street-dog repartee fails him entirely. Gavin non-verbally defies the trope by catching a stick Carrot tosses solely so he can ''very slowly'' bite it in half while staring directly at him.