As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- The troll is noted by Dread Lord Harry for being very stupid, as befits evil henchmen. But when you remember that they're so far above the snowline even the heroes feel the cold, and that Discworld troll brains work best in extreme cold, you realize how exceptionally stupid this particular one is. Even in a place where his silicate brain should be working at its best, he's still thicker than a ton of bricks.
- Cohen himself probably didn't realise it, but any way he cut the dice in half, it would have given him a seven. The opposite faces of a six sided die always add up to seven.
- Well, you have an equal chance to roll anything. It just happened to be 6/1.
- Sheer chance is still involved, as either or both halves could've still landed with their cut face up, which would presumably count as "0" instead.
- The disappearance of old school Barbarian Hero-figures from Discworld isn't just literal: when the priests gather to discuss the situation in the Temple of Small Gods, it's mentioned that the ceiling features paintings of gods and heroes. At the novel's end, Leonard re-paints the Temple ceiling with images of the Disc and its natural wonders, displacing the heroes (who are fading) and the gods (who are becoming less relevant over time).
- Throughout the series as a whole, Discworld has been becoming less of a world of high fantasy and more of a place where true-to-life people live, work, and make progress without divine assistance. Both Leonard's re-painting and the title of The Last Hero, itself, are timely events for a series that's long since left its traditional fantasy roots behind and moved cheerfully into Urban Fantasy.
- The moon dragons are an in-universe Fridge Brilliance; Unlike Disc-born dragons, the moon dragons emit fire from their, ah, other end. But, as the narration said, this made sense once you stopped sniggering. If you lived in a low-gravity environment, would you want a propulsion that pushed you backwards?
- Swamp dragons are implied to be descended from moon dragons, and are flightless sickly things because they can no longer eat their original food. Errol, the weirdo dragon from Guards! Guards! who learns to fly by firing from the "other end" in the climax, is likely a genetic throwback.note
- As the Discworld runs on the Theory of Narrative Causality (everyone lives according to the story/fairytale conventions and tropes), this novel represents an unusual development: Cohen and the Horde realize that their lives were set out and planned for them by the gods, and their final fates are of them breaking away from the Discworld and its controlling narrative and running free across the universe, free to write their own adventures and destinies.
- It’s a fitting end for these characters: as fantasy adventurers who realize their world was becoming more urban, they decided depart it in search of more adventures.
- It’s heartwarming too for the above characters: for Cohen’s Horde, times may change but adventure will never be outdated or obsolete. It’s heartwarming in a different way for Rincewind: the world changing means less trouble for him and a quiet boring peaceful life.
- At the end of the story, Vena points out that in olden days exceptional heroes were set in the stars by the gods, in honor of their great deeds. The Silver Horde heads off into the stars, on their own terms. But if there was any divine intervention it was probably to get them off the Discworld as soon as possible. It's not a big stretch for the Discworld pantheon to do a move like that.
- Basically, Twoflower is a Grand Vizier, and so bound by the narrative laws of Discworld to become an evil, betraying Grand Vizier that seeks to usurp his monarch. He is also a very nice person by nature, the sort that honestly would never think to actually do that. So, to reconcile these two contradictions, the theory of narrative causality made things happen so that regardless of Twoflower's nature, he would betray his monarch: namely, by telling the heads of state of Discworld that Cohen was on his way to do something that would destroy the world. Twoflower acts a bit like an Evil Vizier would, while at the same time still being, well, Twoflower.
- The standoff at the climax represents the clash between two generations of Discworld heroes. You have the Silver Horde, who represents the rugged defiance of pioneers braving the wilds and destiny. At the other end there’s Captain Carrot of the New Guard, who represents civilization, law and order, and the skills of diplomacy, tact and cunning where needed.
- Rincewind, while he isn’t part of the above clash, represents a third class: the reluctant hero, someone dragged into the affairs and has to do the best he can to fix them, except that in this case he’s chosen to get in there and fix things.
- Evil Harry Dread is the last evil overlord because heroes don't follow The Code any more and block the overlord's escape route before even starting to storm the lair. When facing Carrot, Cohen and the Horde think "without the Code, without the rules, you were nothing but a thug in a loincloth". That is brilliant in two ways: 1) every villain in other Discworld books was genre savvy, regular Joes, like psychopathic murderer Carcer, evil nobles (like Lord Hong, prince Kadhram, Lord Rust's son), frauds, corrupt businessman and such which is a type that requires thinking far more complex than "storm the evil lair, cut the villain's head off" of classic heroics 2) those villains didn't follow The Code either so they don't get away to try again. Every villain who didn't strictly adhere to the Code would get killed by The Hero who did or the "hero" who didn't, every villain who did adhere to the code would get killed by the "heroes" who expected them to not follow the code. Its damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for villains.
- Boy Willie having to masquerade as God of Being Sick Again as there is already a Goddess of Being Sick is brilliant for multiple reasons:
- In real world mythology, the gods who are famous for being healers are usually also known as being able to give sickness as part of their portfolio. For example, being struck by Eros's arrow meant somebody fell in love (or broke up, depending on the arrow). Being struck by ("He Of The Silvery Bow") Apollo's arrow meant somebody got the plague.
- Discworld has the concept of Oh-Gods, which are the gods somebody prays to by begging them to be left alone. Such as Oh-God of Hangovers or Oh-God of Indigestion.
- Presumably some people would occasionally pray for the sick day, such as a student not wanting to go to school because of a test or a worker wanting to be just sick enough to stay home.
- Discworld logic of crime: For slightly less crime to happen, police has to work a lot more and guild of thieves has to work slightly less. So legalize thieves guild! You can get robbed in your home and later show any other thief that you already paid your dues to the guild. Presumably, same goes for other unpleasant things that are part of life like getting sick or having a ladle stuck in your drawer.
- Even gods can get sick sometimes, with Hughnon Ridcully as high priest of Blind Io reporting to Vetinari that Blind Io had cold last month but has since recovered. Who else could make a god sick but another goddess? Which is another parallel to Eros, because not even gods were immune to his arrows.
