Line #2 YMMV/MenAtArms


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Carrot's HiddenDepths in this book help create the impression that he is just as competent a manipulator as the Patrician. This includes stopping a riot between dwarfs and trolls by talking them down (a feat noted to have got any other member of the Watch killed) and bluffing the head of the Fool's Guild.
3	** Is the gonne itself somehow alive and actively corrupting its users, or is it all a product of the delusions of grandeur such a perfect killing tool puts into their heads? It seems to talk to them, and they have lucid moments that come and go... but most of them are degenerating mentally, long before they even touch it. It ''does'' fire itself at least once... but then again, that could just as easily be a product of the man in question fiddling around with something dangerous and volatile he didn't fully understand being interpreted differently by other characters later on.
4	* AluminiumChristmasTrees:
5	** The highly flammable nitrocellulose billiard balls? ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrocellulose#Uses Those actually existed.]]''
6	** A possible variation on the concept is the Clown Museum, with hundreds of clown faces (each a registered creation of a specific clown) painted on eggs - what an odd, creepy thing, [[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2046/are-clown-faces-registered-by-painting-them-on-eggs which just happens to exist in the real world]].
7	** The author of ''How To Kille Insects'' is said to be "Humptulips," which is an actual real-life name, albeit of a river and a town in the American state of [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Washington]] rather than a person.
8	** The Gonne is a breechloading repeating rifle with an unusual magazine of reusable metal cartridges. It may sound ridiculously advanced for a prototype early firearm, even one made by a Leonardo da Vinci expy, but most of its features are period-accurate, so to speak:
9	*** Rifles were being made as early as the 15th century, but they were difficult to manufacture (as Leonard of Quirm lampshades), slow to muzzleload, and were quickly fouled by the dirty-burning black powder of the time.
10	*** Breechloaders were also invented early on. UsefulNotes/HenryVIII had one that he used for duck hunting. The problem was that it was difficult to build one that sealed reliably, making them underpowered at best and hazardous at worst.
11	*** Reusable metal cartridges were also used for those early breechloaders, including Henry VIII's.
12	*** Really, the Gonne's most anachronistic feature is its repeating action, and even that might not be as anachronistic as you think as the first repeating firearms were created in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater 17th century.]] The real handicap on early firearms was the state of manufacturing technology, or the lack thereof. While a really skilled gunsmith could plausibly build something like the Gonne, it wouldn't be [[AwesomeButImpractical practical for mass production]], which is why simpler firearms like muskets remained the norm. This is even discussed by Leonard himself, who notes that while it would be possible to create another Gonne, it would be very difficult and the person copying it would need to be very clever.
13	* GeniusBonus: There is a throwaway line partway in the book, when Cuddy and Detrius are chasing the antagonist, that he runs down Grope Alley, which the book explains the origin of the name is "fortunately" lost in the mists of time. This is very amusing if you happen to know that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gropecunt_Lane many streets were renamed to "Grope" from "Gropecunt"]].
14	* HarsherInHindsight:
15	** With the rise in stories about police brutality and shooting innocent people in the 2010s (or depending on how cynical you are, the rise in means to ''record'' these things), the Gonne's effect on Vimes is even more chilling. Ditto the part about how a good person will just kill you.
16	** Vimes's prejudice towards the undead along with Cuddy and Detritus quickly turning into {{Boomerang Bigot}}s behind the badge are largely played for laughs, but much less funny in light of current discussions about deeply ingrained racism in policing.
17	* ItWasHisSled: Angua is a werewolf. None of the subsequent Watch books make a secret of it, naturally, and there's a running gag in the other Ankh-Morpork books that the general populace - told only that there ''is'' a werewolf in the Watch - leap to the assumption that it's Nobby.
18	* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: [[HiddenVillain Dr. Cruces]] is the leader of the Ankh-Morpork Assassin's Guild and the true antagonist once he murders Edward d'Eath and takes [[FantasticFirearms the Gonne]] for his own ambitions. Cruces betrays his student Edward when he tries to return the Gonne he stole, hides his body in the old sewers beneath the city, and plots to use the dead man as a scapegoat for an assassination of Patrician Havelock Vetinari due to everyone knowing the Guild was the victim of Edward's heist. Leading the Night Watch into a trap when they first try to catch him, Cruces only fails in killing Vetinari when Corporal Carrot [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] but manages to cripple the Patrician for life regardless. Caught by Captain Vimes and slain by Carrot during a last stand, Cruces was said to have succeeded in a million universes had a series of [[ContrivedCoincidence extraordinary coincidences]] not allowed the Watch to unravel his plans.]]
19	* ValuesDissonance: Possibly the source of the biggest culture clash between British and American Discworld fans - the book has a very British attitude towards firearms that has caused some heated debate in the fandom.
20	** Which is ironic, given that the attitude towards weapons expressed by Vimes' internal monologue in ''Night Watch'' is more in line with an American one. Of course, Vimes is not Pratchett, and Pratchett was not Vimes, and in any case, Vimes was thinking from a very different standpoint when the City Watch was little more than the Patrician's gang of armed thugs.
21	** Also, the reason the gonne is portrayed as Very Bad within the story is the same reason that sourcery is Very Bad in ''Sourcery'': it's a complete game breaker ''for the Discworld''. (Whether or not, or to what extent, that reflects the real world is entirely up to the reader, and not really relevant in-story.) The point, which is explicitly brought up several times, is that all other forms of power on the Disc have built-in balancers. Magic is capricious and unreliable, and both witches and wizards are inherently resistant to forms of cooperation that don't involve highly-competitive fireball contests; melee weapons like swords require training and expertise (and can only kill from up close, giving a potential victim a chance to survive by fighting hand-to-hand); crossbows are unwieldy, and take both time and strength to wind up. The gonne, however, is instant power unlike anything else on the Disc, at one's fingertips: if allowed to exist in that world it would utterly destroy the balance of power. That's why it instantly corrupts anyone who touches it: it's the effect that kind of power has, especially in a world that runs on Narrativium. Trying to project this moral onto ''our'' world is just that: a projection, and outside the scope of the story. Again, though, it's debatable how much Pratchett intended to imply that.
22	* {{Woolseyism}}: The Swedish translation translates Edward's last [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast name]] "d'Eath" as ''af Lifva'', using the noble prefix ''af'' while punning on ''avliva,'' meaning "to put down" (as in [[DeadlyEuphemism "kill"]]).
23	** The Czech translation similarly translates "d'Eath" as "ze Mřelí", with "ze" likewise being a noble prefix, literally meaning "of" or "from". Of course, the whole thing sounds like "zemřelý", meaning "one who has died".

Context YMMV / MenAtArms