History Literature / Jingo

''Jingo'' is the 21st ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel and the fourth in the City Watch theme. It's written as a criticism of war, with particular reference to the Falklands Conflict and the first Gulf War of 1990-1. And a few {{Shout Out}}s to R'yleh of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.

* ForeignQueasine: Played with; the Klatchians don’t actually eat the sheep’s eyes but offer them to gullible travelers. Vimes refuses, and is praised for “seeing further than most” ([[LiteralistSnarking ”So does this food”]]) and given proper rice and sheep afterwards.

** An Ozymandias-like statue in the ruined Ankh-Morporkian outpost bears the inscription ''Ab Hoc Possum Videre Domum Tuum'', which means [[ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere "I can see your house from up here."]] (In this case, this doesn't mean "Look, that's where I live!" but the veiled threat of "[[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive I know where you live]].")

* PaperTiger: Ankh-Morpork is the greatest city on the Disc, with a reputation as a economic powerhouse and the former centre of a vast empire, but it is woefully ill-equipped to fight a real war. It's standing military was disbanded centuries ago, and hardly anybody has any serious military knowledge. The city government itself is almost broke due to rampant tax evasion, so they can't afford to raise a new one or hire mercenaries, and must instead rely on inexperienced private regiments raised and led by [[UpperClassTwit upper-class twits]] who operate on [[HollywoodTactics Hollywood tactics]]. They have no allies due to said history of imperialism, along with the fact that most other nations are in debt to them and would love to see them fall. And to top it all off, the city's merchants and industries are all unabashed profiteers. Ankh-Morpork's situation is so bad that [[spoiler: in an alternate timeline in which Ankh-Morpork fights a purely defensive war, the city is completely overrun in a matter of days!]]

* RainOfSomethingUnusual: During the magical storm it's raining bedsteads, coal-scuttles and cake. And sardines - in tins.[[note]]Rain of fish is apparently otherwise quite normal on the Discworld.[[/note]] Constable Visit [[DiscussedTrope gives other examples]] of the trope, including the "[[ShapedLikeItself supernatural rain of rain]]", while Reg Shoe tries to offer [[AgentScully rational explanation]] for all of them.

* RevealingCoverup: See FalseFlagOperation

* {{Anaphora}}: A parody of the song that brought us the modern meaning of Jingoism, "By Jingo". The story has "We have no ships. We have no men. We have no money, too.", in refernce to the original line of "We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too"

* AuthorityInNameOnly: Apparently the D'reg's don't expect their leader to do much besides give the order to charge, and the job is fairly ceremonial.

** Near the beginning, Nobby and Colon notice a man painting "''Pride of Ankh-Morpork''" as the name of a ship has forgotten to include the 'e'. Later on, Lord Rust is dismayed to learn that one of his ships is named the ''Prid of Ankh-Morpork''.

* CannotTellFictionFromReality: While talking about other massively lopsided battles, Rust starts including ones from children's stories. When this is pointed out, he says "Are you calling my nanny a liar?".

* ContinuityNod / IronicEcho: the line "the night is always old" is one to Literature/{{Hogfather}}, where [[AC: Death]] says it in an attempt to be dramatic. Played very straight here.

* ForeignMoneyIsProofOfGuilt: Played about with the "clumsily set up to look like it's Klatchian-funded" assassination attempt. [[spoiler: Actually, in a double bluff, it actually ''is'' Klatchian-funded.]]

* ForWantOfANail: The Dis-Organizer's very creepy alternate timeline.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: In the dunes in Klatch, when the Klatchian soldiers cut off Reg's arm he hits them with it until they run away screaming. (He's a zombie, so it's not as bad as you think). Detritus also attacked people by hurling other people.

* ISurrenderSuckers: An unusual variation, in that the "surrender" is done not to execute another attack but to humiliate the other side. Vetinari knows that Leshp will sink back into the sea very soon, so he writes up surrender documents that, crucially, say the surrender has to be ratified ''on'' Leshp...in a week. By the time the deadline comes up, the island has sunk once more, so Vetinari ''hasn't'' committed any offense by surrendering (as it was never ratified), and Prince Cadram ''has'' made himself look a fool by accepting it (as Vetinari handed him a piece of useless rock under the sea.)

* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: The Bursar locks himself in the Unseen University safe and takes the key with him. "It's not even as if there's a keyhole on the inside".

* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: The last person who tried making a printing press, despite the wizards and engravers having serious views on such matters, was founding having committed suicide. Definitely suicide, since he even left a note behind ''explaining'' it was suicide. Very considerate.

* StoppedDeadInTheirTracks: This happens to Lord Vetinari when he believes the useful conversation with his scientific advisor Leonard of Quirm has been completed. Vetinari is partway through the trapped corridor around Leonard when what he said about visiting Leshp ''several years ago'' hits him and has to rush back to ask for more detail.

* StoppedDeadInTheirTracks: This happens to Lord Vetinari when he believes the useful conversation with his scientific advisor Leonard of Quirm has been completed. Vetinari has just turned to go when it belatedly occurs to him that Leonard has just said something surprising about going ''underneath'' an island out in the Central Sea. He stops in his tracks, turns, and applies a little more careful listening. Which establishes that Ankh-Morpork has a submarine at its disposal.

** Carrot mentiones that he received a book called ''The Perfumed Allotment, or, The Garden of Delights'' from a Klatchian bookseller, and he thought it was about gardening, but it was about something else entirely. This is a reference to ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfumed_Garden The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight]]'',a famous medieval Arabic sex manual.