Heartwarming / The Fifth Elephant

• Gaspode tries to stand up to a wolf pack to defend a sleeping Carrot.
  • And what happens next:
  Gaspode: Oh well, here goes. He stood in front of the unconscious Carrot and barked at the wolves Mine, Mine!
  A paw came out and pinned him to the ground.
  Mine, snarled Angua.
• Gaspode tries to help Gavin out during the wolf's last fight. And what happens afterwards.
  • After Gavin's death, Gaspode stays near him, even commenting that it isn't fair that Gavin is left down there all alone with him. He then throws back his head and howls in mourning for him, sending up a series of howls across the mountains. This is how word eventually gets back to Angua, who screams in despair.
  • The fact that Carrot accompanies Angua to bury Gavin. He even digs the grave and buries Gavin with a great deal of genuine respect for the fallen wolf.
• Very subtle example: when Gaspode tells Carrot that hunters in the next town have caught a wolf, and Carrot (who's been searching for Angua) says: "Killed it?" Seems innocuous enough—until you realize that it's the only time Carrot has ever raised his voice out of sheer, unbridled emotion, not just to make sure someone can hear him. If Angua'd heard that, she'd have no more doubts about how he feels.
• The scene where Vetinari is talking to Leonard about Lady Margolotta. It's not very long and quite oblique in some places, but then again this is Vetinari we're talking about here. It shows that Vetinari does have a heart after all; grey and bleak though it may be.
• The scene in the embassy when Sam and Sybil are trying to sleep, and keep getting woken by Igor removing the animals, with them guessing the animal before going back to sleep. I found it very heartwarming when they both woke up to a 'thunk-AIEE-twawawang', guessed "swordfish" at the same time, and then both went back to sleep. They're just so perfect for each other.
• Igor gets one towards the end of the book. After he's attacked by Wolfgang and near death Igor tells Vimes which parts of his body are still in good shape so that the other Igors can use them to help people, specifically mentioning an old woman who could use his hip. He dies once Vimes assures him he'll pass the message on. The Igors may squick some readers out but they're some of the most compassionate people on the Disc.
• Vetinari's soft spot for Vimes and the Watch is about as blatant here as it gets with him. During his meeting with Colon, despite the man acting like a blithering idiot the entire conversation, the only time Vetinari becomes visibly irritated is when Colon starts insulting Vimes. Later on, when the watchmen are all on strike, Vetinari orders cocoa and buns to be sent to them anonymously.
• King Rhys's honoring of Vimes, Detritus and Cheery is certainly a nice example, but it's topped by the exchange between Detritus and Cheery, that follows immediately afterwards:
  Detritus: I never shook hands wid no king before. No dwarf, either, come to dat.
  Cheery: You shook hands with me once.
  Detritus: Watchmen don't count. Watchmen is watchmen.
  • Earlier in the novel, during a conversation in dwarfish no one can understand, he pulls the Piecemaker when he hears one of the dwarfs calling Cheery a gender-related slur and forces all of them to back down.
    "I know dat word he said to her," [Detritus] announced to the world. "It is not a good word. I do not want to hear dat word again."
    • To reiterate: a troll, that can one-hand a weapon that, later in the same book, has the implied capability of gutting a castle stands in support of a fellow Watchman....
    • Also, the fact that this is a troll standing in support of a dwarf. Watchmen are watchmen, indeed.
  • Similarly, when Albrecht uses the same slur towards Cheery in Vimes's presence, the commander instantly makes it very clear that he will not tolerate that sort of treatment towards her, either.
• After two books of Angua insisting that Carrot would always choose Ankh-Morpork over her without a second thought, when push comes to shove and Angua does leave the city... Carrot immediately tries to resign and follows her. He loves her more than the city after all.
• When Vimes gives Detritus an order to kill an unarmed man (knowing he'll disobey, in order to make a point), Detritus respectfully tells him to shove it.

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