BonfireByTheLake

[bonfirebythelake]

All those people who write stories and post fanfic here, i just love and appreciate them so much. I mean, how awesome is it, that you just share your talents and skills, your time, which ultimately lead to these amazing stories, with the world, just like that. I just want to give you all a big fucking hug ❤️

[bonfirebythelake]

Yeah, this is my circus. But I have no idea how these fucking monkeys have gotten in here. Those are not my monkeys. Somebody get these goddamn monkeys out of here.

[bonfirebythelake]

Gods, i'm in such a Fleabag situation, but the hot unavailable priest is a hot unavailable academic, and I constantly have to stop myself delivering deadpan remarks to a non existent camera.

[animentality]

[bonfirebythelake]

Can't we all use the term 'inhumed' and be more Lord Vetinari about this? #discworld #gnuterrypratchett

[pennzance]

Esmerelda Weatherwax is literature's greatest Witch. And it is not even a little close.

What other Witch could so shrewdly bend the very story she was in to her will? To take the tropes and clichés and to weaponize them against those who were wrong in defense of those who could not defend themselves?

What other Witch, when faced with the Good Fairy Godmother, would rip the story from her very fingers and set things to right?

What other Witch, under vampiric assault, could turn the famous bite around and, instead of becoming a vampire herself, through force of sheer will Weatherwax the vampire? What does that even mean?

What other Witch could give a child a gift so powerful it would override narrative convention and let the long lost prince refuse to take his rightful crown in favor of pursuing his dreams?

Indeed, what other Witch would resist the crown when it fell into her lap?

There have been untold millions of Witches in literature, but not a one of them could sit demurely at a social gathering, doing absolutely nothing, and drive everyone around her to near insanity through sheer nervousness?

No one else could be so proficient at both Magic and People that she would barely need or want to use the former because of how effective and predictable the latter could be.

And all of this, ALL of this, while going against her own narrative nature as 'The Bad Witch'. To resist your own role in the story so completely that you transcend expectations and settle into legend as one of the ultimate forces of righteousness on the Disc? That requires more power, more cunning, and more skill than any, every other Witch. Combined.

And she did it by knowing people. By watching them and knowing things and by understanding, better than their own mothers, how to talk to everyone and precisely pass along knowledge. How to command respect, even if they don't like you very much. How to be indispensable, while dispensing with the pleasantries.

She didn't do it alone, but she wouldn't admit that within earshot of Gytha or any of her numerous brood (So, she would never admit it). She benefitted by her associations with Nanny Ogg, with Magrat, with Agnes, with Tiffany, with Ridcully (allegedly), and even with Death.

Who else would earn time for her candle to flicker in the wind, and a warning by the Grim Reaper himself, for the right she had done in the world.

Right. Not good. Not nice. Right.

She was the vessel Pratchett poured his every indignant thought at the inherent injustice in the world into, and she brandished those white hot notions against every part of the stories that tried to make her into something she did not want to be.

Esmerelda Weatherwax is literature's greatest Witch. What more could possibly be said?

[billiamdoor]

I love Granny Weatherwax so very much, and one of my favorite about her is just that she’s kind of really unpleasant all the time; she’s nosy and critical and stubborn as a mule and a filthy hypocrite and she’s prideful and far too serious and extremely bossy and refuses to admit when she’s wrong, she’s deeply conservative and judgmental and demanding and rude to everyone, no matter who they are. But that never stops her from helping, or wanting to help, she’s going to help and she’s going to insist on helping and she’s going to complain about it every second it takes. Esme Weatherwax is not nice, or polite, but she is good, and I love her so dearly for that

[girl-mercury]

Vimes, in the morning: good lord, I’m a godsdamned manager, I miss being just a plain old copper just walking the beat

Vimes, a day later and thirty years earlier: immediately institutes a prisoner tracking system with associated signed paperwork, assesses promotion potential for every employee, determines which underperformers get put on a PIP and which get shown the door immediately, provides one-on-one mentoring with his younger self and particularly focuses on communication coaching, slots himself into the chain of authority to protect employees and higher leadership from each other, and institutes accountability policies with documented checks

and that’s BEFORE steering the organization through an existential crisis in the following days. Yeah Manager Vimes, I see you, I see how much you ~hate this

[tsibeyantiger-deactivated202604]

I sincerely think the Watch series, especially "Night Watch", should be mandatory literature at every police academy* in the world

*some countries might need to HAVE police academies in the first place, though**

**and many might need to teach their cops how to read first

[charlemane]

one of my favorite things about Sam Vimes’s character arc is that it’s literally your classic “gruff cop with ideals gets worn down by reality, descends into cynicism and booze” journey in reverse. 

I mean, it happens the normal way around the first time, but we don’t really see the first time- in Sam’s first introduction, he’s literally lying in a gutter. He’s already been chewed up and spat out, already seen the ugliness of the world and bent beneath it.

And then every book from there on out has him getting back up. It’s not a straightforward road, but he takes it anyways, and sure, he’s still cynical and still worn down, but he’s still got his ideals (though I’m not sure he’d like to call them ideals- maybe standards would do) and he cleans himself up and bit by bit, he works on cleaning up the world around him, too. He gets a family. He learns to accept others more openly than he had before. He still sees the ugliness in the world, but he confronts it instead of accepting it as just the way things are. Because there’s a way things should be, and he cares about it.

Sam Vimes, gruff cop with standards, ascends from cynicism and booze, starts wearing down on reality.

[thememedaddy]

[tiruvenkadu]

the older i get, the harder this line hits.

[bonfirebythelake]

#glorious25th #what a gut punch #gnuterrypratchett

[gooselordsupreme]

pretty please draw Angua, I love her! or Susan, I love her too :))

I’ve had some other Angua requests so she’ll be along shortly! But here’s Susan!

[bonfirebythelake]

Amazing art

[bonfirebythelake]

So I just had a realization that kind of helped me with my dark thoughts and mental health, and ofc it's linked to Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Because sometimes, around 2:17 AM, my mind turns into the Ankh river: grim, swirling, toxic, and full of god-knows-what floating past. The usual thoughts, such as: you're a failure, everyone hates you, and you forgot to send that one important email back in 2019.

And then I often feel like I'm broken and I don't deserve anything, and I'm being a burden for everyone I know.

But then I thought about Vimes, and how he would just light a cigar and grunt that the river's always been like that - and the real point isn't to clean it, it's to keep building the city around it anyway.

And about Vetinari, who would raise an eyebrow and remind me that the river is essential - and irrelevant all at once.

Because the citizens of Ankh-Morpork don't waste their lives waiting for the river to run clean. They build bridges over it, while trying not to fall in, and live their rich and difficult lives anyway.

And I'm not just the river, I'm the whole bloody city of Ankh-Morpork. And I fucking love that city.

[bonfirebythelake]

Joy is not made to be a crumb

[bonfirebythelake]

I know there is not much point now in hoping. If I were a knight of Rohan capable of great deeds… but I’m not. I’m a Hobbit. And I know I can’t save Middle-Earth. I just want to help my friends. Frodo. Sam. Pippin. More than anything… I wish I could see them again.

[bonfirebythelake]

Ónen i-Estel Edain. 

Ú-chebin estel anim.

[bonfirebythelake]

I'm a Tumblr lurker, mainly because of all the amazing BG3 fanfiction and fanart other awesome people create and post here. Before 2024 is done, I really want to let the void in which this post will probably disappear know that I love and appreciate them all so much.

Of course because of the countless hours of fun times they've given me. But also because I learn so much from them. I'm not a fiction writer myself, but I am currently writing my dissertation. I sometimes apply writing tips I find on here to my academic writing, and I love how it helps me to make otherwise lifeless sentences sing, even when it's about pretty abstract or complex stuff. Recently, I've gotten a few compliments of my colleagues on how people find my research articles actually readable, understandable and enjoyable (!) - a rare thing in academia 😅.

So yeah, thank you for creating and helping me create. I wish you all the best in 2025 ❤️