YMMV / Snuff

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The series-long running gag of Nobby Nobbs's questionable humanity may possibly be explained by him being a half-goblin. Vimes suspects, but doesn't conclude anything.
• Anvilicious: The message about accepting goblins into society is far from subtle.
  • When discussing how Ms Beedle's mother was beaten any time she lapsed into speaking goblin language, she talks about how people do terrible things for religious reasons, even though religion wouldn't necessarily play a part in humans wanting to raise a human girl as human and going overboard. It comes across as Pratchett, a known agnostic, being hostile to religion just because he can.
  • Pratchett wasn't agnostic, he was a self-described "atheist of the old-fashioned, angry with God for not existing kind". He also had a pretty nuanced view of religion; the hero of Small Gods is the only actual believer in the book. But historically, people who force other people to live a certain way have often been motivated by (their interpretation of) religion. (The Discworld Wiki compares it to the Christian missions that went to "civilise" Indigenous Australians.) Ms Beedle's position isn't that religion's bad, it's that religion can provide a justification for "good people" to do bad things.
• Don't Shoot the Message: This line theoretically supports gay and lesbian rights, but it manages to be very unkind, and the fact that the gel being described is one of the book's villains only worsens the effect^note This is actually a pretty good verbal description of literary lesbian couples in the early 20th century, and may well be a direct reference to Virginia Woolf and her great love Vita Sackville-West
  ... Frankly, if a gel wanted to go around with another gel who wore a shirt and tie, trained horses, and had a face like a bulldog licking vinegar off a thistle, then it was entirely her business.
• Ho Yay: "Your friend told you to take your trousers off as well..." Also, just what was the deal with Stratford and Flutter's conversation that couldn't be revealed while Constable Upshot was listening?
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Stratford's attempt on the life of Young Sam.
  • Gravid Rust and the Magistrates are revealed to have crossed it three years ago by selling goblins to slavery. Gravid Rust's MEH selling goblins to slavery and laughing at their plight is so terrible that the book ends with Vetinari implying that he's going to send assassins after him even though everything has been sorted out. Normally, Vetinari's actions have practically constructive results, whereas here he has already got everything under control and is considering taking revenge anyway, purely out of disgust for Gravid's actions. You know you've gone too far when Vetinari is willing to sabotage (albeit in a minor way) a nicely wrapped up solution in order to exact justice. Although resolving the situation as he's implied to does mean that Diamond King of Trolls won't be quite as upset with Vetinari for not turning Gravid over to be executed for smuggling Crystal Slam. A formal trial would be preferable as an example to others, but at least the drug-pushing bastard is still dead. Unfortunately it doesn't come across as very satisfying for the reader to see Gravid get his, mostly because he is The Ghost and thus not really a character which makes it difficult to hate him personally and get much emotional impact from his downfall.
• Squick: Depending on what your sense of humor is, Vimes' son's obsession with poo is either this or hilarious. Though anyone who has ever been in the presence of a small child would not be remotely surprised.
• Values Resonance:
  • The story of Felicity Beedle's mother being "rescued" from living with goblins and then raised in an environment where she was beaten if she even spoke in goblin language is very similar to the situation in Canadian "residential schools" for natives which has risen to the public discussion in early 2020s.
  • When Felicity started teaching goblins the alphabet beginning with "A is for Apple", she says she first had to bring them an apple to see and explain what it is. This neatly works as an introduction to discussion about the problems in trying to apply educational materials and methods developed in one culture in a completely different one, which can easily result in poor results not because the students are less intelligent, but because the education presumes knowledge of cultural reference points they lack.
• Woobie Species: The whole goblin race.

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