#so many footnotes

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

[bibliosims]

michaela addison

[sketchy-tour]

Perhaps the minatour was in the friends we made along the way.

[enbysiriusblack]

auto mechanic!sirius who shocks his customers by his random knowledge of everything. a lit teacher brings his car in and as she makes small talk, he talks about dostoevsky and cervantes and the differences he found in reading them in the original language versus english. a biologist comes in and he wows them by talking about various theories in detail and bringing in articles he had read by other biologists on the matter.

[baellielurk]

as a child i really thought this was just clever worldbuilding 💀

[wolvesofdeltora]

Another day. Another illustration. This fic by RiaTheDreamer has been a windfall for my creativity. This one comes from chapter 54 of "Are We Meant to Read the Footnotes?" By RiaTheDreamer on AO3.

The drawing is ink on multi-media paper and it took me roughly 30 hours from start to finish.

[lyssq]

If I had a penny for every book about a boy of noble birth who watched his whole family be killed in front of him and narrowly avoided death himself, ran away and hid in an orphanage before someone unaware of his true identity recruits him into the regime that murdered his family (said regime presents the idea of everyone being equal while in reality being deeply flawed) and now has to work alongside people who would likely kill him if they knew who he really was, I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[wanderer-clarisse]

... for the sorrow and the strife in the house of Finwë is graven in the memory of the Noldorin Elves. (The Silmarillion)

[riathedreamer]

Let us pretend it is not past midnight, and that it is still the 29th, so I can celebrate the anniversary of Are We Meant to Read the Footnotes? It has been a year since the first chapter was posted, and 400k words later, the mystery is still being uncovered.

While I knew the tale I wanted to tell would be long, I did not realize what a big project it would be. Nor did I realize I would create a community. I am so grateful for my supportive readers, and I still cannot believe how lucky I am when I look at all the fanart, the comments, the comics, the huge server with all its lovely people, the speculation, the book club, all the talk of projects people want to do for this story. It blows me away, so from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for all the love this story has reveived.

We still have a way to go, but we will get there together. And when the world grows dark, let us think of the stars we have not seen yet.

Thank you ❤️

[sketching-shark]

Starting Journey to the West assuming its the story about a silly goofy monkey going on monster-of-the-week adventures with his friends:

Reading about Sun "was-definitely-a-warlord" Wukong smashing the upteenth person's head into a meat patty but a few chapters in:

[wingsforthewicked]

fastest train of thought i've had, but i realized that this wing knowledge can be applied to so many things...

aka, in exactly 15 seconds i got thinking of fluttershy, and since i like when events and The Plot leave a visual mark on characters, i also got thinking about flutterbat and how that might've changed fluttershy after, as is seen at the end of the episode that she still had the fangs,

and then i thought of the oilbird, which is a noctural bird and the singular member of it's genus, fruit eater, that uses echolocation and has some Weirdly looking wings—to me—but flies fairly well ? (read somewhere else they werent good fliers too so i'm not sure, i got a skill issue on researching stuff at times orz)

this mf—

utterly fascinating little guys, and i was just thinking maybe fluttershy lost the webbed wings after coming back to just being a pegasus, but what if her wings changed to the ones like this dude.. (and maybe got little claws where the alula should be... for spice)

[averlym]

"one day, i cut him an apple. when he saw it, he laughed" (click for better resolution!) ,,, tag from @elliotly

[strugglingatart]

That one tiktok that had every bi/pan/queer girl I saw be like I too want two boyfriends that are also boyfriends to each other but it's Mazey, Fabian and Gorgug... that's it that's the post

[dustyspines]

gang i love you yann fredericks i love you karl jenkins i love you polly chapman i love you cbj i LVOE you i have missed writing these guys sOOOOOoOO much

[callingallcars]

academic paper cited in chicago format but for repeating footnote citations instead of “[reference] ‘ibid.’” i write “[reference] ‘prev tags’ ‘prev prev tags’ ‘prev prev prev tags’”

[vonlipvig]

i finished reading terry pratchett a life with footnotes

i don't think i have the words to explain how i feel after that but i am sobbing and i'm unbelievably sad and i feel so happy that i somehow stumbled upon the work of such an inspiring and extraordinary man and that it and he will live forever and ever in my heart.

so yeah. GNU terry pratchett. ♡.