History Literature / TheTruth

* ReincarnatedAsANonHumanoid: Tulip at least gets a happy existence as a contented woodworm, Pin becomes a potato and gets fried.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GenderBlenderName: Gunilla Goodmountain is an interesting variation. The name Gunilla was traditionally used for women, but this one is [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame a dwarf]], and dwarfs come off as a OneGenderRace to humans despite having two biological ''sexes'', because everyone has a beard, wears the same style of armor and does the same work. They also have a custom of not ''revealing'' their sex except to their prospective spouse, so even if Goodmountain is female, only Boddony would ever know.

* BuxomIsBetter: Sacharissa apparently has "a well-crafted supply of other features that never go out of fashion at all", and believes that a corset and a plain dress will tone those endowments down. They do not.

* ChekhovsGag: The the man who keeps begging William to publish pictures of his humorously shaped potatoes is by initial appearances just an ordinary RunningGag. Near the end of the book however, [[spoiler: the man brings a potato that looks like Mr Pin, and is in fact his reincarnation, and the potato is going to fry for his misdeeds in defiance of Mr Pin's previous declaration that he ''won't'']].

* [[invoked]]NamesTheSame: There are brief mentions of two characters named Hermione (one a homeless beggar's dissociative personality, the other a daughter of a [[WeBuyAnything waste management businessman]]). The fourth Harry Potter book was just coming out as this novel was published.
** And the waste management businessman, a product of a life spent up to the elbows in, er, waste, is called Harry...
** There's also Foul Ole Ron "Bugrit! Millennium hand and shrimp!"

->''A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on.''

* OffOnATechnicality: Technically, William did assault Angua [[spoiler:with a scent bomb]], but because [[spoiler:she was in wolf-form, and thus unable to be properly identified as a watchman, and they don't want to officially confirm who is actually the werewolf on the watch,]] he is saved from the wrath of Vimes.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Wlliam had started out in charge of the Times in the hope that it would get peoples' attention about the truth and they could do something about it. Sacharissa points out to him that life doesn't work like that. However, William makes a pretty good counter-point - someone has to care, because not caring won't save them if someone far worse than Vetinari (i.e. most of the likely candidates) ends up in charge.

* ContinuityNod: William's oafish brother managed to be one of the only casualties in the war with Klatch, which was the subject of ''Literature/{{Jingo}}''.

* SympatheticPOV: From William's point of view, Vimes and the Watch are antagonists obstructing free speech, whereas in most previous Ankh-Morpork novels they've been the protagonists.

* WordSaladHumor: Foul Ole Ron can always be counted on to provide examples of this, like exclaiming “Thatch and trouser!” Or trying to advertise the newspapers by yelling “Squidaped-oyt!”
** Likely inspired by Evening Standard sellers in London slurring the name of the paper to things like "Eeninstanat".

Building on the the themes of change started in the previous book ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', another of the Disc's previous MedievalStasis principles is broken: no movable type. There's a rumour that dwarfs can turn lead into gold - and they can, by making the lead into typeface and undercutting the engravers. William de Worde, a young scribe who makes his living writing for the illiterate and sending letters of news to distant nobles, encounters the dwarfs and ends up writing the first newspaper, ''The Ankh-Morpork Times'' for them, with the help of engraver's granddaughter Sacharissa Cripslock and the photography-obsessed vampire Otto Chriek.

* YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX: Mr. Windling, one of the tenants at the boarding house where William lives, likes to use this phrase; William [[RantInducingSlight eventually gets fed up with it]] and angrily demands Windling tell him who "they" are and what it is "they" say.

* RealityEnsues: Wlliam had started out in charge of the Times in the hope that it would get peoples' attention about the truth and they could do something about it. Sacharissa points out to him that life doesn't work like that. However, William makes a pretty good counter-point - someone has to care, because not caring won't save them if someone far worse than Vetinari (i.e. most of the likely candidates) ends up in charge.
-->'''Sacharissa:''' What's true for most people is that they need money for food on the table at the end o the day. Look at Mr Ron and his friends, they live under a bridge, what's the truth worth to them? I get letters from a bird competition judge who complains that budgies and parrots aren't the same. It's dull, but it's important to ''him''. He can't control what happens in the city, but he can make sure budgies and parrots aren't lumped together. It's not anyone's fault, it's just the way things are.

Meanwhile, a plot against the Patrician takes shape. The shadowy organization from ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' returns, now named as the Committee to Unelect the Patrician. They've obtained a lookalike for Lord Vetinari from Pseudopolis, and hired [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Mr Pin and Mr Tulip]], the "New Firm" of hired thugs, to help them achieve their devious ends. It's up to William de Worde, with the help of Gaspode the Wonder Dog, to get to the bottom of their nefarious plot.

* KissTheCookApron: [[ProfessionalKiller Mr. Tulip]], after killing a thief who tried to rob [[ThoseTwoBadGuys him and his partner Mr. Pin]], acquires a barbecue set with a "Kill the Cook!!!" apron which he promptly dons - this is remarked upon by two other characters later in the book.

* MisterXAndMisterY: Tulip and Pin, as befits ThoseTwoBadGuys (as noted below).

[[caption-width-right:240:The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret.]]