History Headscratchers / UnseenAcademicals

nobody is forced to be present for ''every'' meal - look at wizards like Ponder, who manage to stay normally slim - but the dining times are there and on offer.
***** (Hi there, dude. It's me, the (more) crazy one) That might be one answer, but it still baffles me what actual reason there is to have 9 meals instead of, well, stretching the availability time of 4 or 5. At my brother's university you can get breakfast from 6 am to 11:30 pm.

*** It's actually mentioned in ''Lords and Ladies'' that when Ridcully had his own unique hat (i.e. the one with a liquor bottle and a fold-out tent in it) made, it "put a stop" to the problem of the hereditary Archchancellor's Hat getting ideas of its own. As Ridcully wasn't at UU during ''Sorcery'', when the Hat first revealed it could talk, and the only wizards who aren't ashamed to discuss those events are the Librarian (who spent that novel hiding out with his books and unaware what was going on) and Rincewind (whom Ridcully hadn't met as of ''L&L''), it's unlikely that he would have known it '''was''' a potential problem unless the Hat, itself, told him.

*** Point taken, though one then could still argue that Vetinari lost his reputation when he initially forbid foot-the-ball for being ''too brutal'' but left the fans unristricted. Even with the new rules, they will remain as brutal as before, jumping each others throats for the colours they wear, etc. Not to mention the former Dean as referee and then NOT have him try to undermine the UU and Vetinari and thereby Ankh-Morpork as total? But that's another question...

* Does anyone have any idea what was with that thing through the end of the book'? Spoilering in case it's spoilery, I don't think it is but since I don't think I get it, better safe than sorry: [[spoiler: Where it has the blank pages with "'''You think this is over?'''" in the middle, several times, and then the last page is something along the lines of "Okay, ''now'' it's over." I assumed it was something like the Summoning Dark in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', PaintingTheFourthWall and all, and it was The Shove, or whatever the tin can was (the spirit of football?) talking, but... it's left totally unexplained, almost like a weak joke that decided to go into BreakingTheFourthWall just for the heck of it. Maybe it was supposed to be a note to readers that this is the last "real" Discworld book (The Tiffany Aching books either not counting, or the plans for ''I Shall Wear Midnight'' being foregone), but that... doesn't sound right. Was it some theme I completely missed, like an expansion on Glenda's repeated mention of fairy tales, that went Meta?]] Did ''anyone'' get that?

**** I'm not sure who Malich is but it isn't uncommon for exploding stuff to later reappear. Cue 'Bloody Stupid Johnson' stories.
***** Remove the last letter from Alberto's name and think of Death.
****** Terry Pratchett is widely read and aware of Roundworld tropes he can work into Discworld as references and sly allusions - he'd be aware, for instance, that the University of Rejkjavik in Iceland was legendarily founded by an actual wizard, whose statue proudly stands at the main gates. With an example like that to refer to, do you think he'd refrain from incorporating it into the Discworld?

*** That would be Josh Kirby, not Paul Kidby, who drew the cover of The Color of Magic (and all Discworld books up to Thief of Time). Kidby is more faithful to the books, so in this case, it's probably a case of DidNotDoTheResearch.

* In the end of Unseen Academicals when Glenda and [[spoiler: the orc]] go to the palace, Lady Margolotta apparently adviced Drumknott to station guards with crossbows in the hall to shoot the two. And she seems rather offended when Vetinari tells his secretary to 'stand them (the guards) down'. Now, we learned that [[spoiler: the orc]] is pretty much nigh-immortal and that the bolts therefore would only harm/kill Glenda, very likely sending him in a near impossible to stop bersekerrage and rampage. Margolotta's ought to be fully aware of that. What the hell was that woman thinking/planning?

*** But we never learn what it took to take them down completely. And, as said, it might be viewed as a bit weird that Margolotta adviced Drumknott to prepare a way of dealing with the two she should have known could easily have ...very negative consequences.

*** ''I'' am fully aware of that. But as said, the text suggests ''she'' adviced to arm the guards with crossbows and ''she'' seemed offended when Vetinari ordered to stand them down. I am not saying that it DOES mean anything, just that it COULD.

**** Over on the L-Space Wiki (to which I contribute and edit) the speculation is (backed by observational evidence) that wizards are offered a meal ina set pattern corresponding to either monastic prayer times, or the sounding of Bells aboard a ship.

http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Unseen_University_Mealtimes

* Does anyone have any idea what was with that thing through the end of the book'? Spoilering in case it's spoilery, I don't think it is but since I don't think I get it, better safe than sorry: [[spoiler: Where it has the blank pages with "'''You think this is over?" in the middle, several times, and then the last page is something along the lines of "Okay, ''now'' it's over." I assumed it was something like the Summoning Dark in ''[[Discworld/TheFifthElephant]]'', PaintingTheFourthWall and all, and it was The Shove, or whatever the tin can was (the spirit of football?) talking, but... it's left totally unexplained, almost like a weak joke that decided to go into BreakingTheFourthWall just for the heck of it. Maybe it was supposed to be a note to readers that this is the last "real" Discworld book (The Tiffany Aching books either not counting, or the plans for ''I Shall Wear Midnight'' being foregone), but that... doesn't sound right. Was it some theme I completely missed, like an expansion on Glenda's repeated mention of fairy tales, that went Meta?]] Did ''anyone'' get that?

** Technically, yes, they'd saved the meals budget when they entered their first proper (non-practice) game. But by the time they actually had to ''win'' one, Ridcully's pride was at stake because of all the dissing by ex-Dean Henry, as was Vetinari's reputation for infallibility. Nor could the [=UAs=] stomach the thought of wizards being publicly trounced by non-wizards.

** Technically, yes, they'd saved the meals budget when they entered their first proper (non-practice) game. But by the time they actually had to ''win'' one, Ridcully's pride was at stake because of all the dissing by ex-Dean Henry, as was Vetinari's reputation for infallibility. Nor could the UAs stomach the thought of wizards being publicly trounced by non-wizards.

** Technically, yes, they'd saved the meals budget when they entered the game. But by the time they actually had to ''win'', Ridcully's pride was at stake because of all the dissing by ex-Dean Henry, as was Vetinari's reputation for infallibility. Nor could the UAs stomach the thought of wizards being publicly trounced by non-wizards.

* Some might hate me for this, but there's a sentence about half-way through the book that states -[...]UU's first football match in decades began-. This brings up the following question: Didn't they fulfil the bequest's conditions right there? We never get an information about the bequest's conditions state they have to play a full match (if that were the case they would not fulfil it anyway in the end). Only that they need to ''enter a team in the game of foot-the-ball'' . Didn't they actualy just do that right there?

*** She probably never intended for them to shoot Nutt himself, but rather, to threaten Glenda if Nutt became a threat. Margolotta knows Nutt and his social insecurities well enough to deduce that any young woman willingly seen in his company is bound to be his LoveInterest, for whose sake he'd back off.