History Literature / WyrdSisters

* AnimatedAdaptation: Creator/CosgroveHall produced three six-episode animated TV series based on this book, ''Literature/ReaperMan'' and ''Literature/SoulMusic'', with Creator/ChristopherLee providing the voice of Death. The series were largely faithful to the books, keeping the plots and most of the dialogue intact, though there were of course differences.
** In the case of ''Wyrd Sisters'' a few minor characters were dropped, and some characters had slightly different personalities (most notably the Fool, who, while he's still ObfuscatingStupidity and keeping his head down, has a more genuinely cheerful demeanor and seems slightly more enthusiastic about his job).
** They also changed the time-jump to ''18'' years, rendering Tomjon 21 rather than 18 at the climax.
** While remaining faithful mostly to the text and dialogue, the series, particularly in the beginning, switches between scenes and cuts at a lightning pace, and gives the characters approximately half a second between lines. If the viewer is not familiar with the original material, this can make the series very hard to understand, and the jokes almost impossible to get.

** Granny herself pulled out one earlier one, while trying to get pass two guards and one of them being unimpressed by witches. When he reaches for her, she just grabs his arm, twist it ''hard'', and walks by.

* OddJobGods: A footnote mentions a Lancre exclusive god in Herne the Hunted, perpetually nervous god of all creatures whose lives end in a damp squeak.

* OldBeggarTest: Parodied when the witches attempt to advise Tomjon and the troupe while disguised as innocent peasant women. Being the troupe know that if you meet a mysterious old woman in the road you have to share your lunch, or help her across the river, or bad fortune will attend you. There aren't any rivers handy, and Granny and Magrat both turn up their noses at the troupe's humble lunch, but Nanny Ogg shamelessly mooches food, drink, a smoke, and a lift into town.

* RightfulKingReturns: Subverted.
* RoyalBlood: Subverted.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: When the witches bring Tomjon to the Vitollers to raise in safety, the couple admit that their money is already stretched tight, but they'll do their best to look after him. On hearing this, Granny gives them a large bag of money she'd saved up to help them support him. When they comment that it would have been easier if she'd mentioned the money first, she clarifies that she needed to know that it wouldn't be just about the money before she'd trust Tomjon to them. "If I had to buy you, you wouldn't be worth the price"

** The twins in the corridor are a reference to the Princes in the Tower, (allegedly) murdered by Richard III. (Not, as some readers seem to think, to ''Film/TheShining'').
** What Magrat says to a guard she's holding at knife-point bears more than a passing resemblance to something a certain [[Film/DirtyHarry Mr. Callahan]] would say

* SmallRoleBigImpact: An unnamed guardsman with no dialogue, sets off much of the plot when he witnesses the witches taking in the baby (and causing the death of his boss, when he threatened them) and flees back to the castle to tell Felmet before they can stop him.

** When the witches inform the King there's a HiddenBackupPrince, his response is basically BringIt.

* YouJustRuinedTheShot: Granny repeatedly interrupts the play Early in the story (e.g. to accuse the murderer) based on her inability to distinguish it from reality. According to later books she will show up at every performance of any kind in Lancre from then on, just because she enjoys doing this. In later books it is also explained that it isn't because she doesn't understand fiction, but because she deeply dislikes it, and loves to bring out its inconsistencies and issues. All this because she knows that stories have real and serious power that she's bent to fight against.

* ApatheticCitizens: Felmet finds to his annoyance that no one really minds that he's taken over. This is justified by Lancre's long history of kings and assassination: as Granny explains, assassination is just a natural cause for a leader.

** Granny Weatherwax, Magarat, and Nanny Ogg while trying to guide Hwel and Tom-John to Lancre; the coven posing as wood-gatherers.

* BatmanGambit: Granny uses headology for one early in the books, when the soldiers reach them and one of them, unimpressed, challenges her. After many provocations, as a lightning hits a rock next to where he was, he boasts about Granny missing, raises his sword, and falls dead when a fellow soldier stabs him in the back. Granny says he didn't know what she was aiming for.

** Tomjon has a stronger version due to Magrat's gift ("He will make friends easily.").

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Lord Felmet]]

'''Dibbler:''' Well, there's the transport fuel, overhead, etcetera... I, I mean, I'm, [[CatchPhrase I'm cuttin' me own throat!]]

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Granny, while much evolved from her initial appearance in ''Literature/EqualRites'' is still a far cry from the indomitable and unshakeable IronLady seen in later books. Additionally, as the Discworld was still more of a standard fantasy setting at this stage, especially Ankh-Morpork, the Fools Guild is a training school for classic {{Court Jester}}s rather than the school for modern circus clowns it becomes from ''Literature/MenAtArms'' on. Also, this is the only time Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have a proper fight -- in later books, it's mostly restricted to bickering, and Nanny is usually the peacemaker who knows how to work her way around Esme Weatherwax without being confrontational and Granny usually fights with the younger witches such as Magrat and Agnes. Lancre is also portrayed as having a functional, if small, military and palace staff, instead of it consisting almost entirely of Shawn Ogg

* {{Fingore}}: See 'Out Damn Spot' below.

* HappilyMarried: The Vitollers [[spoiler:though the loss of their daughter makes it a rather bittersweet kind of happy]]

* HiddenBackupPrince

* InsistentTerminology: The Fool helps instruct Lady Felmet on how to use this. Don't see it at "cutting down all the stupid trees", but "landscaping developments." Don't see it as "burning people's houses down" but "urban renovation projects" (if people are inside, it's "''aggressive'' urban renovation").

* {{Luvvies}}: In the AnimatedAdaptation, the demon starts off as a GutturalGrowler but when this fails to impress the witches he lapses into a campy persona that resembles the British AlwaysCamp actor stereotype.