History Literature / InterestingTimes

** Cohen is a bit literal-minded. He is told a number of times, "I would rather die than betray my Emperor!" and immediately grants what he misinterprets as a request.

* FunWithForeignLanguages:

** [[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} "I accuse the High Priest of the Green Robe in the library with the double-handed axe"]]

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial:

''Interesting Times'' is the 17th Literature/{{Discworld}} novel, and the first since ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'' which returns to Rincewind as the central character. However, thematically it's much more a look back at the first two Discworld books, ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' and ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', and how much the setting has changed since then.

Preceded by ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', followed by ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}''. Preceded in the Rincewind series by ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'', followed by ''Discworld/TheLastContinent''.

* BarbarianHero: As before, Cohen and his similarly ancient friends are a deconstruction - they've all had years of experience in not dying. They also turn out to be the last heroes left in the world, a point which will form the plot for the later work ''Discworld/TheLastHero''.

** Twoflower mentions the belief that history goes in cycles, which reminds Rincewind of a drawing he'd seen in one of Leonard of Quirm's notebooks. Presumably he's thinking of the ''motor''cycle sketch which inspired the Librarian to build one in ''Discworld/SoulMusic''.
** Putting on the boots he found in One Sun Mirror's tomb, Rincewind recalls how UU's experimental SevenLeagueBoots didn't work out so well. One of the wizards who'd chased him and Twoflower in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' suffered a serious accident with such boots.
** This isn't the first time Rincewind has successfully talked up a creepy threat to intimidate enemies of himself and Twoflower: he did the same when he told Weems about the Luggage in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''.
** Cohen deals with a group of samurai (see CombatPragmatist below) using the same sort of trick he'd pulled on some red-star loonies in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''.

** One of the few books which mention the events of ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}''. This is explained by saying that the wizards are all uncomfortable about what happened and try to pretend that ''they'', personally, were nowhere near the University at the time, something that was first mentioned in ''Eric''. It also further explains why they made Ridcully Archchancellor: he really wasn't there at the time.
** There's the revival of the joke from ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'' -- "Lord Snapcase was hung up by his figgin", which is apparently 'a small currant bun'; "either the meaning of words has changed over time, or there really is some horrifying aspect to suspending a man alongside a teacake".
** Somewhat unusually for Discworld, it accounts for the current Emperor being ancient when the last time we saw the Emperor as a boy in ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'' by saying this Emperor murdered his nephew to gain the throne. Usually this sort of discrepency is just attributed to 'alternative pasts'.

* EndOfAnAge: The old tradition of barbarian heroism and adventuring is dying out as the Disc becomes more civilised; even the (comparatively) young Hrun, the mighty warrior and adventurer from ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' has settled down and taken a steady job... as a city watchman, no less.

* FantasyGunControl: Played pretty straight - the Agateans' Barking Dogs are primitive cannon (which the wizards understandably [[Discworld/MenAtArms fail to recognise]]) yet they lack handheld firearms, which it didn't take the real China long to discover. Lord Hong himself ponders whether Barking Dogs might actually be more reliable if the Empire selected its gunsmiths based on practical metallurgical skill, rather than the ability to write poems about dew-dappled flower petals.

** Or at least its introduction in fully functional form; early experiments in ant-powered computing appear in ''Discworld/SoulMusic''.

* {{Retcon}}: In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', Twoflower got his Luggage from TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday and had apparently never seen one before. Here, they're a fairly common commodity within the Empire.

** It turns out that self-professed cynical coward Rincewind really, really doesn't like the idea of matyrdom for a cause, going on a fairly vitriolic rant about how pointless it is to sacrifice yourself for a cause.

* OddNameOut: Partly due to [[RetCon Retcons]], almost everything Agatean introduced in ''The Colour of Magic'' (the character Twoflower with no space, the city of Bes Pelargic) doesn't fit with the more Chinese-like naming system used here.
** The Five Noble families that fight for control of the Agatean Empire are the Sungs, the Tangs, the Hongs, the Fangs, and the McSweenys. This is LampShaded by alsomost everyone who hears them, as seen under RunningGag.

* WeHaveThoseToo: Rincewind and the local Dibbler equivalent: since Ankh-Morpork is much less xenophobic than the Empire ("We hardly ever kill foreigners, it makes it much harder to sell them stuff"), they have the edge in almost everything.

-->''It is possible for money to legitimately belong to other people.''

* ShoutOut: The [[spoiler:user interface for the golem army]] resembles the user interface of ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}''. Pratchett confirmed this was intentional, and in fact said this about the game:

** Pretty Butterflying being able to converse fluently with Rincewind, and mentioning she was one of the first to see "What I Did On My Holidays" makes a little more sense [[spoiler:when she turns out to be Twoflower's daughter.]]

** Lord Hong promises an informant that he will [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness never write or speak an order for his execution]]. He then folds an origami figure of the man... but doesn't have quite enough paper for a head.

* CommanderContrarian: Ridicully, showing the typical nature of a wizard when poking at the lit Barking Dog, ignores Stibbon's polite attempts to start saying "I don't think you should do that", mainly ''because'' Stibbons is saying things like "I don't think".

* {{Jerkass}}: Pretty Butterfly, who manages to oscillate between this ''and'' WideEyedIdealist. She insults Rincewind and threatens him with potential knife-related death if he doesn't do what she says, but seems oblivious to the idea she and the revolution are being set up to take the fall until Rincewind helps her recognise it.

* LeastRhymableWord: Two Little Wang was promoted to Master of Protocol while trying to find a rhyme for "orange blossom".

* MortonsFork: How Rincewind gets "volunteered" into going to the Counterweight Continent - he can be sent to somewhere filled with people who almost certainly will want to kill him, or not go, in which case his title of wizard will be revoked (and if he tries claiming he's a wizard, Ridicully assures him he'll suffer the usual slow and painful fate of people what try claiming they're wizard in Ankh-Morpork).

* ShelteredAristocrat: The Emperor is a very dark take on this trope. Because he was isolated from birth and no one has ever contradicted him, he ends up as a [[TheCaligula sadistic Caligula type]] who has people horribly tortured to death or rewarded based on a whim.

* TranslationConvention: As per FunWithForeignLanguages above, all of the dialogue in the Agatean Empire scenes is written as it is heard by a native speaker, including the various foreigners' attempts to get the pitches correct.

* [[OldWarrior OldSoldier]]: The Silver Horde are all octogenarians (one of them is even in a wheelchair), but they still remain the most skilled warriors in the world, and easily win any fight they're in.

* BadassGrandpa: Several characters note that a barbarian hero who lives as long as the Silver Horde did must be a ''very'' good barbarian hero indeed.

* Imperialchina: mercilessly parodied and taken UpToEleven.

* AssassinOutclassin: Lord Hong.

* BaitAndSwitch: When Rincewind and Mr Saveloy are talking about being a teacher versus being a barbarian hero.

* CallBack: Twoflower mentions the belief that history goes in cycles, which reminds Rincewind of a drawing he'd seen in one of Leonard of Quirm's notebooks. Presumably he's thinking of the ''motor''cycle sketch which inspired the Librarian to build one in ''Discworld/SoulMusic''.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler: ''Twoflower'', of all people.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: The punishment for putting up revolutionary posters? Getting your hands and feet cut off. If you're lucky.

* JadeColoredGlasses: [[spoiler: Twoflower, to some extent, after Lord Hong's men killed his wife. ]]

* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: One Sun Mirror. When Rincewind finds the Terracotta Army, the only other thing he finds is a plaque, with just a name. The implication is pointed out: If you knew the name, you knew '''''everything'''''. To not know the name "One Sun Mirror" meant that all of his works, and everything based on those works, no longer existed on the face of the Disc....

* ShapedLikeItself: Cohen accuses a group of mooks of "milling around like a lot of millers".

* SmolderingShoes: How [[spoiler: Lord Hong]] ends up.

* UnfortunateNames: Two Little Wang. (Because, of course, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Two is a very unlucky number.]])

* PrettyButterfly: Even battlefields, although the ensuing thunderstorm caused by the flapping of the wings is less so.

* TooDumbToFool: One Big River. "I think I rather live". He is noted to be a guard instead of a ''tsimo'' wrestler because he failed the entrance test by not eating the table.

* SplitHair:
** The split-a-piece-of-silk variant appears, when a samurai attempts to intimidate Cohen the Barbarian.
** Cohen then subverts it by throwing up a bogey-covered hankie, and decapitating three of them as they look up before they realize what's happening.

* AerithAndBob: The noble families of the Agatean Empire: Hong, Sun, Fang, Tang, and [=McSweeney=]. ([[RunningGag Very old-established family]].)

** This is likely a ShoutOut to TheMikado: