YMMV / Pyramids

• Fridge Brilliance: Stephen Hawking mentioned that space affects time, and high-gravity areas slow time. He mentioned pyramids create gravity wells that slow time around them minutely (due to their density in location and build).
• Genius Bonus:
  • Zeno and Ibid testing out the paradox of motion with an arrow and a tortoise slams together two different paradoxes that were proposed by the actual Greek philosopher Zeno.
  • In a side anecdote, it's mentioned that the land of Djelibeibi is so poor as to only be able to afford a plague of frog, singular. In Exodus 8:2, when Moses is warning Pharaoh about the plague of frogs, he does in fact warn Pharaoh about the plague of frog, singular.^note To be specific, the Hebrew word used is "tsefardeah," which is singular, not "tsefarde'im," its plural form. For those curious, this is discussed and explained in tractate Sanhedrin 67b of the Talmud.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Teppic recalls that Ephebian gods sometimes turn into animals to win the favors of women, then finds Ptraci feeding a tortoise. Teppic "gave it a suspicious look, in case it was a god trying it on. It did not look like a god. If it was a god, it was putting on an incredibly good act." In a later Discworld novel, Small Gods, a god gets stuck in the form of a tortoise.
  • The whole "having to spend billions on making the pyramids" is suddenly much more funny, now that research has revealed that much of the labour done in Ancient Egypt wasn't actually done by slaves, but by actual workers.
  • The Assassins' Parkour-like final exam. Then came Assassin's Creed...Made even better now that there's an Assassin's Creed game set in ancient Egypt.
  • The climax where all of Pteppic's reanimated ancestors climb on top of each other to form a living ladder and scale the Great Pyramid sounds a lot like the way World War Z zombies attack the walled safe zone.
• Magnificent Bastard: High Priest Dios is the true power behind the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi and is secretly as ancient as the land itself. First awakening 7,000 years ago when the Djel River magically appeared on the Discworld, Dios has been guiding the countless generations of pharaohs to rule as divinely appointed puppets to rule the kingdom to his particular views of normalcy. He has them buried within time warping pyramids, often against their wishes, to slow down time to keep Djelibeybi in constant stagnation while fabricating a complex religious system to keep the people enthralled by faith. Upon the coronation of the more worldly and rebellious Teppic, Dios is able to wear down the young man and maintain control, while also building the largest pyramid ever, until Teppic rescues a young woman from sacrifice. The great pyramid then breaks down reality and puts the kingdom in a pocket dimension where all the gods are real and the pharaohs rise from the grave. At first left nearly catatonic at these events, Dios bounces back by outwitting a treacherous young priest and holds back the gods long enough for Teppic to return the kingdom to normalcy. Dios himself is sent back in time to the kingdom's birth to repeat the cycle again and again.
• Memetic Mutation: The confusion over P/Teppic's name is why Terry Pratchett was nicknamed Pterry.
• Nightmare Fuel: Pteppic's father rises as a mummy... and is forced to reach into the canopic jars containing his eyes to put them back in his face. Later on, he says how much he hates pyramids, which basically are the reason Djelibeybi's spiraled into utter chaos. A much older mummy coldly comments it's not hate he feels. Pteppic's father retorts that yes, he's fairly sure he hates pyramids. The other mummy only says, "But you do not. What you feel is mild dislike. When have lain in one for a thousand years, then you will begin to know the meaning of hate."
• Tear Jerker: The fact that Dios is in a Stable Time Loop. He's doomed to forever experience the same sequence of events over and over again, remembering and forgetting, only to realize at the last moment what has happened, and not be able to stop it...
  • Considering what Dios is like, though, that may not be such a horrible experience for him.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Pratchett wrote the whole assassin test sequence with no idea where he might take the story afterwards. As a result, this is one of his favorite books in the series as he actually got to surprise himself.