Awesome / Soul Music

• Death borrows a Leather Robe from the Dean (In a coat he borrowed from the Dean. Get it?), then steals the Librarian's homebuilt, steampunk, motorcycle, sets it on blue fire, Ghost Rider style, and blasts out of the library cellar, rides out of town through the solid oak gate, leaving trails of blue flame behind him, with a black rose in his teeth. Made only slightly more awesome by the fact that the Motorcycle doesn't quite make the trip, leaving Death inches above the ground going at an absurd speed on what is a motorcycle of blue light, only to have him smash into a canyon wall and pull himself back together.
  • "I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram, on a silver-black phantom bike... And I never see the sudden curve till it's way too late"...
• A retrospective moment when Albert comments that Susan's father, Mort, was the only one who could ever stand up to Death and say no to him. A long way from the gangly, useless farm boy, eh?
• Susan thinks about her father having been made a Duke, which was meant to be a position for warfare. Except Mort went around talking to all the potential enemies and suddenly there were a lot fewer wars. Once you've stood up to Death face to face, diplomacy must come easy.
• The moment when Death smashes his scythe, takes a shard of it for a guitar pick, "took a stance that Crash would have died to achieve,◊" and plays the chord that will end the universe.
  • It's not time for THAT! Play something else! / I cannot. (and who else could make the statement "I cannot" sound badass?)
  • This is even better when you realise that Death is incapable of playing any music, as mentioned in earlier books. He's being literal.
  • The Guitar of Ultimate Power, silenced with a single sweep of a pick made from the broken scythe of the Reaper. Deathrock indeed.
  • The guy is the poster child for The Power of Rock, after all.
  • Now that's what I call Music With Rocks In.
• The Death of Rats, at the end, being the one who picks up the soul of the newly departed Mr. Clete, who had been an annoying thorn in everyone's side the entire time. He wasn't even worth the time of the real Death! And then the Death of Rats mocks his laugh.
• "And Death stood up"
• A near-literal Crowning Moment, when the Music first takes possession of Buddy at the Mended Drum and a disastrous flop that's got the crowd hurling bottles and axes onto the stage is transformed into a blockbusting concert for the ages, with one paradigm-shattering power chord. Just like that, Buddy is the King of Music With Rocks In.
• Death gets a particularly awesome moment at the end of the story, when he contemplates changing the course of history and saving the musician's life. Another character reminds Death that, when you change the fate of one person, you change the whole world (which was the entire point of Mort, after all). Death responds by saying, sometimes the world needs changing.
• Just the idea that the universe of Discworld didn't just "bang" into existence: it was birthed by a power chord, which is still echoing through its every atom and energy-wave.
• Vetinari continues being a Memetic Badass even in his minor role in the book when being informed of events from the beggar Foul Ole Ron. Ron's smell is so infamous, it's considered a separate person that doesn't just linger, it arrives early and gets comfortable. After he leaves Vetinari's office, Vetinari gives one of his subtle threatening dismissals again, causing the smell to flee.
• The song that won Imp the harp, Sioni Bod Da, described as being a song that "took every man and woman and thing by the hand and showed him or her the way home". The judges of the competition, usually nonplussed by young talent, give Imp a huge compliment saying that with proper training, he could be an exceptional bard.