History Literature / TheFifthElephant

* EvilReactionary: Albrecht Albrectson is an ultra-conservative dwarf whose first line of dialogue on-page is a slur, and it's implied he's from an old dwarf political family trying to keep things the same forever. [[spoiler: Subverted in the conclusion, where it's revealed that Rhys actually [[WorthyOpponent respects him enormously and thinks of him as a fundamentally good person who just happens to be a bit behind the times]]; he ultimately supports the Low King and the Scone's authenticity because he ''does'' value dwarf society even if he's not a huge fan of the direction it's going. This judgement is further proved true in subsequent books, where the differences between Albrecht and the ''actual'' reactionaries within dwarf culture are stark, and he ultimately manages to get past his problems with openly-female dwarfs in part out of disgust for the way the reactionaries talk about them.]]

* EvilReactionary: Albrecht Albrectson is an ultra-conservative dwarf whose first line of dialogue on-page is a slur, and it's implied he's from an old dwarf political family trying to keep things the same forever. [[spoiler: Subverted in the conclusion, where it's revealed that Rhys actually respects him enormously and thinks of him as a fundamentally good person who just happens to be a bit behind the times; he ultimately supports the Low King and the Scone's authenticity because he ''does'' value dwarf society even if he's not a huge fan of the direction it's going. This judgement is further proved true in subsequent books, where the differences between Albrecht and the ''actual'' reactionaries within dwarf culture are stark, and he ultimately manages to get past his problems with openly-female dwarfs in part out of disgust for the way the reactionaries treat them.]]

* TheUpperCrass: The werewolf clan of Uberwald are a family with titles, they have a castle and estates, but the sort of social graces you might expect from people who spend at least half their time in a canine form. The patriarch has spent, by choice, so much time as a wolf that he is losing the knack of how to be human, a situation his rather snobbish wife calls him out on, a lot. And younger members of the family tend to sprawl in front of the fire in wolf form; a visitor takes them at first to be rather large and boisterous dogs of the Alsatian type.

** The town of Bonk. (This [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage is funnier]] in UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish[[note]]"bonk" being a fairly harmless word for "have sex with"[[/note]]) It cuts both ways, though: in the Uberwaldian language, "Morpork" means "an item of ladies' underwear" (Vimes wonders ''which'' item).

* VampiresAreRich: Lady Margolotta

** The moment when Sybil gives up on HintDropping and just straight up tells Sam [[spoiler:she's pregnant]] certainly has this effect on ''him'' even if the reader caught on much sooner. Also doubles as a hilarious narrow aversion of NotListeningToMeAreYou.
* WorldOfPun

* AppealToNature: Colon says he doesn't approve of unnatural things (meaning sonkies) and Vetinari pointedly asks him "So you eat your meat raw and sleep in a tree?"

* AtTheOperaTonight: Vimes and Sybil attend a truncated version of the famous dwarf opera, ''Bloodaxe and Ironhammer'', which depicts the origins of the Scone of Stone. Sybil knows it very well and Vimes is hung up on which partner was which (it's a love story, and they're both ''dwarfs''.)

* BerserkButton: Werewolves with certain words, like "bath" and "vet." Vimes enjoys needling Angua's family by mentioning Lord Vetinari and the hot baths they have at the embassy.

** Detritus talks about the splendor the Ankh-Morpork Opera House, which he saw firsthand in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}''

*** Given the near theocracy of the Dwarves, and the time period the book was written, it's far more probable to be a Western dependence on Arab oil is the target

* DressCodedForYourConvenience: Subverted with Margolotta. She dresses like a [[TheFifties '50s]] mum but is probably one of the most dangerous and manipulative characters in the book. ([[MagnificentBastard Lord Vetinari]] is implied to have taught her a few tricks).

** Wolfgang's chosen symbol is a wolf's head biting a mouthful of lightning bolts. [[spoiler: He is later killed when he bites a powerful firework -- not lighting, but close.]]

** [=BCBs=], or "Burnt Crunchy Bits," are impurities in the fat -- possibly a ShoutOut to [=PCB=]s (polychlorinated biphenyl) a persistent organic pollutant that is, fittingly, highly soluble in fat.

* GreatOffscreenWar: The last time dwarfs went to war over a Low King, fifty year ago. Vimes realises it's hard to notice a war that takes place almost entirely underground.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: After Wolfgang's disappearance, Vimes explains to Sybil why he keeps his guard up by describing Wolfgang as "bottle covey" - someone who doesn’t quit no matter how soundly he’s been trounced. Sybil remarks that it sounds like someone she knows well. He only cottons on to this later.
* NoTrueScotsman: Explored, with the deep-downers declaring dwarfes who are not, in their eyes, sufficiently dwarfish not ''proper'' dwarfs, which is actually more serious than it sounds at first blush. Not being a proper dwarf means becoming an outcast, not being allowed to go home or be buried with your family, which is ''very'' serious business for dwarfs.

* ShroudedInMyth: The titular Fifth Elephant and the Scone of Stone, even several of the political figures of Uberwald.

* StolenByStayingStill: Nobody knows where the Scone of Stone has vanished to, despite being guarded in an underground lake round-the-clock by guards behind a system of locks and pressure plates that guarantee no one can enter or leave the room undetected. Vimes proves it's possible for someone significantly taller than a dwarf to leave without setting it off, but [[spoiler:the people plotting to remove the scone and depose the current Low King simply crumbled it to dust much like the fine sand of the cave floor, intending to use a plaster replica to intronise their own candidate.]]

** "Down there it's the Lore, but up here it's ''[[{{Film/Rambo}} me]]''."

* VillainousBreakdown: At the end, [[spoiler: Dee is confirmed to have done it all specifically because of the growing Dwarf Femininity movement in Ankh-Morpork]]. Anyone who has been around a [[spoiler: Trans]] person when they're first realizing what's going on inside them [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything could probably have quoted significant chunks of that discussion and the one that came afterward.]]

* FantasticRacism: One of Colon's problems is that he's always been a low-level one of these, but on being put in charge of the Watch he starts mouthing off every possible slur against non-humans and the undead there is. Often right in earshot of those he's insulting.

** She's also the one who discovers Sleeps' secret room, because she wanted to re-carpet the embassy as a kindness for future occupants.

* ReplacedWithReplica: The twist is that [[spoiler:The [[ItmakesSenseInContext Scone of Stone]] [[{{Pun}} seat]] of the Dwarf Low-King has been switched out with a fake copy and the original destroyed. The even bigger twist is that the dwarf kings have been pulling this switch themselves for centuries and the conspirators in the book only ''think'' they have a new scheme.]]

Preceded by ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', followed by ''Literature/TheTruth''. Preceded in the Watch series by ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', followed by ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld''. Not to be confused with ''Film/TheFifthElement''.

* ChekhovsGun:
** In the empty clacks tower, Vimes finds a mortar flare and reads the instructions, "Light fuse. Do not place in mouth." He also explains why it is a stupid weapon since it can't be aimed. Both of these come into play at the end of the book.
** AtTheOperaTonight turns out to be important later, although Vimes himself hadn't been paying attention to the plot.

* CombatPragmatist: Huge parts of the book read like a love letter to this trope. Both [[BadassNormal the hero]] and [[DirtyCoward the villain]] show different shades of how it can work.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Albrecht Albrechtson is firmly opposed to Rhys being crowned Low King but [[spoiler:still claims the faked Scone is real and supports Rhys' coronation to avert civil war. He may not like the direction the ship is sailing, but he's not about to start drilling holes in the bottom.]]

* InterspeciesRomance: It's implied that werewolf Angua and the ordinary wolf Gavin ([[IntellectualAnimal for the given value of "ordinary"]]) were once romantically involved, despite the oft-repeated point that werewolves and wolves are entirely different species. For that matter, Carrot (human/really tall dwarf) and Angua (werewolf) also count. Angua even compares Gavin and Carrot to each other by their admirable qualities.

* JustToyingWithThem: Wolf and his cronies like to play with their food. As Angua points out, not even Vimes would have stood a chance if they'd just rushed him at once instead of giving him a "lead" and harassing him one at a time. Luckily for Vimes, they didn't know he had reinforcements coming. Of course, the hunt is explicitly a game; according to Angua it's supposed to winnable for the human but Wolf was cheating.

* NotListeningToMeAreYou: While discussing the upcoming trip to Uberwald, Sybil throws in a comment about packing the alligator to test whether Sam is paying attention.

* HeyCatch: A variation. Vimes throws a small, harmless object (an orange) at Skimmer, who just lets it bounce off him rather than catching it or ducking. He repeats the test later with Cheery, who ducks.

* OverlyLongName: Introduces the running gag of vampires having them. This novel features one whose name is Lady Margolotta Amaya Katerina Assumpta Crassina Von Uberwald -- "in the short form".

* TheUpperCrass: The werewolf clan of Uberwald are a family with titles, they have a castle and estates, but the sort of social graces you might expect from people who spend at least half their time in a canine form. The patriarch has spent, by choice, so much time as a wolf that he is losing the knack of how to be human, a situation his rather snobbish wife calls him out on, a lot. And younger members of the family tend to sprawl in front of the fire in wolf form; a visitor takes them at first to be rather large and boisterous dogs of the Alsatian type. ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' takes the idea a step further: werewolf Angua von Uberwald feels inadequate, cloddish and condescended to in her interactions with vampire Sally von Humperdinck, who, being a vampire, carries nobility lightly with all the expected grace, style and confidence. Angua feels like a Dung Age peasant next to Sally, even though both are on the same social level as minor titled people.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Scone of Stone, [[spoiler: or at least the one that Dee destroyed, is not the ''original'' Scone. That one was baked more than 1500 years ago, and even the best dwarf bread only lasts about 300 years before it starts to crumble; there have been several 'one true Scones' over the centuries with a select few dwarves knowing the truth. Rhys even admits that a new Scone would have been needed in about 50 years anyway]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Scone of Stone, [[spoiler: or at least the one that Dee destroyed, is not the ''original'' scone. That one was baked more than 1500 years ago, and even the best dwarf bread only lasts about 300 years before it starts to crumble; there have been several 'one true scones' over the centuries with a select few dwarves knowing the truth. Rhys even admits that a new scone would have been needed in about 50 years time anyway]].

** When Vimes is reading about Überwald's history and the former Unholy Empire, there's mention of one warlord nailing a man's hat to his head. This is (allegedly) what UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler did to a Turkish messenger who refused to remove his turban.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Scone of Stone, [[spoiler: or at least the one that Dee destroyed, is not the ''original'' scone. That was created more than 1500 years ago, and even the best dwarf bread only lasts about 300 years before it starts to crumble; there have been several 'one true scones' over the centuries]].