YMMV / The Fifth Elephant

• Alternate Character Interpretation: This is the Discworld book that most stresses the difficult question of whether Carrot is an honest idealist who has the laws of narrative causality in his favor, or more of a Magnificent Bastard / Manipulative Bastard with Obfuscating Stupidity. For instance, his Let's Fight Like Gentlemen approach against a werewolf rather conveniently leads to romantic rival Gavin making a Heroic Sacrifice. Though, it must be noted, Gavin does the wolf-ish equivalent moments later, as if to underscore how similar the two really are.
  • Suddenly fully invoking his charisma abilities when taking over from Colon as well.
    • Could be Character Development as well — he was raised in a culture that doesn't really grasp irony and puts great store by contracts and laws, but at this point he's spent years working with Vimes (who manages to at least hold his own against Vetinari most of the time) and living with Angua (who's got a lot in common with Vimes, personality wise). He's grown up.
• Applicability: Yennorks, werewolves who can't shapeshift, can be seen as a metaphor for anyone who is not "visibly" a member of a group (bisexuals, biracial people who "pass" as one side or the other of their heritage, people with invisible disabilities, etc). Angua stresses that a yennork is not a regular human or a regular wolf but a werewolf, regardless of the fact they can't take on the other shape. However, people often perceive them that way anyway, and they face discrimination from other werewolves for not being "proper" werewolves. (To a lesser extent, this also applies to Angua herself; a significant B-plot hinges on the fact she's very much not a wolf no matter what she's shaped like, and unlike humans, wolves don't get confused about that.)
• Complete Monster: Wolfgang von Uberwald is a sadistic werewolf who is obsessed with the purity of bimorphic werewolves, even murdering his own sister for failing this test. A Serial Killer who savors hunting helpless human prey, Wolf allows them glimpses of hope by fleeing him, only to set upon them and rip them to shreds. Wolfgang does not bother to play by the rules, relishing in the sadistic slaughter of those he hunts. Leading a werewolf conspiracy to plunge Uberwald into war, Wolfgang intends on creating a widespread slaughter more for the fun of it than any true advantage or power.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Inigo Skimmer is an Assassin...with an obscenely dangerous sliding knife attached to his wrist.
• Too Cool to Live: Inigo Skimmer and Gavin.