History YMMV / IShallWearMidnight

* CompleteMonster: The Cunning Man was a [[TheWitchHunter witch-finder]] in life, but persisted as a spirit of [[ThePowerOfHate pure hatred]] after his original body disappeared, and resurfaces every few decades to target new witches after each defeat, killing them if they lose. Cunning Man targets the Chalk with his HatePlague, turning them against [[TheHero Tiffany Aching]] and framing her for the death of the previous Baron, while also making the Baron's son, Roland, turn against her and engineering a situation so a drunken cook falls to her death and Tiffany is blamed. Upon discovering Roland's fiancée Letitia is also a witch, Cunning Man attempts to murder them both multiple times, then possesses a criminal and has it kill its canary for no reason, before making a final attempt on Tiffany, Letitia, Roland and Preston's lives. [[KnightTemplar Seeking to end witchcraft once and for all and uncaring of whose lives he ruins in the process]], the Cunning Man is fueled by sheer malice unmatched by any other foe Tiffany faces.

*** If anything, Mr. Petty may have been intended as a ''contrast'' to the kind of evil the Cunning Man embodies. Yes, he was brutal and stupid and guilty as hell, but he was human enough to recognize his own error and be shamed and horrified by them. And his example shows that, just as the "rough music" embodies a community's unconfronted failings gone septic, so a community coming together to fix bad situations peacefully can spare it such sour outcomes.

* MoralEventHorizon: The Cunning Man crosses it in the readers' eyes (in case you didn't realize how bad he was) with the canary. More importantly, that's when he crosses it for Tiffany. It's the reason she accepts that he's beyond redemption, and no longer human enough for her to hesitate about vanquishing.

* NightmareFuel: The Cunning Man. He is the personification of blind hate and lynch mobs.

* FreudWasRight: [[spoiler: The Disc's only female wizard]] is also the only wizard to realise there's no reason for a staff to have a knob on the end.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Any witch hunt is an allegory for any other, but Pratchett included an innocent victim who had a book of [[{{Qurac}} Klatchian]] poetry to make sure we Get It.
** The nurse who seems to think [[TheFundamentalist prayer is a far superior substitute to actual medicine]]. Although given several characters in other books have gone to ''vets'' as the safer alternative to the setting's doctors she may not be far off the mark.

* RelationshipSue: You have to wonder a bit about Preston, especially the way he shares Tiffany's obsession with words.

* TheWoobie: Amber.

* MoralEventHorizon: Whether Mr Petty managed to crawl back over it or not is up to you.
** The Cunning Man crosses it in the readers' eyes (in case you didn't realize how bad he was) with the canary. More importantly, that's when he crosses it for Tiffany. It's the reason she accepts that he's beyond redemption, and no longer human enough for her to hesitate about vanquishing.

** Indeed, between Amber's [[spoiler: kelda abilities]], Leticia's self-taught skills, Annagramma's fireballs from ''Wintersmith'', and the return of Eskarina, this book may be implying that magic '''has''' no clear boundaries between what's "wizard magic", what's "witch magic", what's "Feegle magic", etc: that such limits are imposed by magic-users' own assumptions, not inherent in magic itself.

** Indeed, between Amber's [[spoiler: kelda abilities]], Leticia's self-taught skills, Annagramma's fireballs from ''Wintersmith'', and the return of Eskarina, this book may be implying that magic '''has''' no clear boundaries between what's "wizard magic", what's "witch magic", what's "Feegle magic", etc.

* DieForOurShip: Would you believe Preston is ''already'' getting this?

* CompleteMonster: The trial of one particular convict apparently dragged on for a while, becase the jury kept throwing up. [[spoiler: Also the Cunning Man, who in possessing the aforementioned man forces him to kill his pet song bird. And somehow, this is the worst crime of all.]]
** See MoralEventHorizon below. The song birds kept by the condemned criminals are symbols of hope and redemption, so killing one is this. (This being Discworld, where all symbols are real...)
** And the Cunning Man is an embodiment of ''lack of'' forgiveness, and thrives when those he manipulates refuse to acknowledge that witches are human beings. Giving canaries to prisoners is society's acknowledgement that the condemned men aren't beyond human feelings, and the prisoners prove that's true by caring for them. The Cunning Man would [[spoiler: make the convict kill his bird]]!

** See MoralEventHorizon below. The song birds kept by the condemned criminals are symbols of hope and redemption, so killing one is quite literally this. (This being Discworld, where all symbols are real...)
** And the Cunning Man is an embodiment of ''lack of'' forgiveness, and thrives when those he manipulates refuse to acknowledge that witches are human beings. Giving canaries to prisoners is society's acknowledgement that the condemned men aren't beyond human feelings, and the prisoners prove that's true by caring for them. ''Of course'', the Cunning Man would [[spoiler: make the convict kill his bird]]!

** [[spoiler: Kelda abilities are implied to be basically another form of witchcraft, closer to Nanny Ogg's methods than the Granny Weatherwax form Tiffany uses. Combined with Letitia's bookish magic (more like Magrat's), it serves to make the Chalk coven a mirror of the original Lancre coven.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Whether Mr Petty mangaged to crawl back over it or not is up to you.

** The nurse who seems to think [[TheFundamentalist prayer is a far superior substitute to actual medicine]].

* AndTheFandomRejoiced: [[spoiler:The long, long, ''long'' overdue return of [[Discworld/EqualRites Eskarina]].]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The Cunning Man. He is the personification of blind hate and lynch mobs.

* TheWoobie: Amber.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: You would think the existence of [[spoiler: a human girl with kelda abilities]] would be a big deal, but it has absolutely zero effect on the plot.

** The nurse who seems to think [[TheFundamentalist prayer is a far superior substitute to actual medecine]].

** The Cunning Man crosses it in the readers' eyes (in case you didn't realize how bad he was) with the canary.
*** More importantly, that's when he crosses it for Tiffany. It's the reason she accepts that he's beyond redemption, and no longer human enough for her to hesitate about vanquishing.

* TheWoobie: Amber.

* RelationshipSue: You have to wonder a bit about Preston, especially the way he shares Tiffany's obsession with words.