As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance:
- There's a passing mention in Hogfather that pencils in Discworld aren't manufactured, but grown as stems of a type of bush native to Sumtri. Considering how many other utensils started sprouting from the Mono Island vegetation, it's quite possible that this is where that bush's ancestors came from.
- Ponder's and Ridcully's discussion of how stepping on an ant might change the future takes on new depths of irony when you realize that they're only having the conversation in the first place because of a single ant. Specifically, the one that the Lady arranged to divert from its course through Hex's tubing, at the end of Interesting Times, thus causing Rincewind to be teleported to Fourecks rather than back to UU. If not for that one ant, the faculty wouldn't have had any reason to visit the office where the portal to Mono Island could be found, hence would not have time traveled, hence would not had the conversation about changing the past.
- When fleeing from the police in Bugarup, Rincewind is dismayed and amazed by how the pursuing officers stay on his tail. Aside from a very brief sojourn in Interesting Times, Rincewind hasn't been in Ankh-Morpork since the events of Sourcery, so has completely missed the rebirth of his home city's Watch in the wake of Guards! Guards!. He only remembers how lazy and fearful the Watch used to be, and will be quite astonished to see what's become of them once he gets home at last.
- Scrappy says that everything's been wrong ever since Rincewind arrived on Fourecks. While he's exaggerating Rincewind's role in the whole situation, he's not wrong: the continent got in trouble because of the wizards' interference in the past, which happened because they got sidetracked while trying to find a means to locate Rincewind to cure the Librarian. So Rincewind is responsible for the continent after all!
- Back in Equal Rites, Granny Weatherwax told Mrs. Whitlow's fortune via tea leaves, and predicted (i.e. made up) a future in which several young men would vie for her ample favors. Even though she was just telling the customer what she thought Mrs. Whitlow wanted to hear, it seems the only thing she got wrong was the would-be paramours' age!
- Granny might even argue the technicality that the men vying for Mrs. Whitlow's favors were doing so millennia before their own births. You don't get much younger than that!
- The God of Evolution mentions having had believers at some point, as well as experimenting on a cow he wanted to make more inflammable. How could he not know that wizards were humans or not know about the common procedures of mating and reproduction? As demonstrated in Small Gods, gods without belief tend to regress mentally and, among other things, tend to lose memory. So his loss of believers had an impact on his memory.
- It's established that the Fate of Discworld came there from another eventuality, so it's also possible that the God of Evolution is likewise an immigrant to the region. In which case, the followers (and cows) in question might not have been humans, or even organic life forms for that matter: for all we know, they and their "cows" really did reproduce by binary fission.
- Alternately, everyone back then was also far too embarrassed to explain.
- Death states that Rincewind has "certainly had an interesting life". Note the term "interesting": Rincewind's last adventure was Interesting Times, which was named after an ancient Chinese curse: "may you live in interesting times". While the message may be lost to both Death and Rincewind, it's clear that Rincewind's life has been cursed, marked by the actions of others to his inconvenience and doom.
- Death meets Rincewind right when he thinks "There was no justice!" Death once said that "There is no justice, there is just me." Looks like that was too good a cue for him not to announce himself.
- Every region of the Discworld Rincewind has encountered has its citizens out to use/capture/kill him, but the people of XXXX come to regard Rincewind as a hero. This stands out as an alien treatment... but remember, the god of XXXX is an outsider not native to the Discworld pantheon and so not bound by their laws, nor needs to be childishly selfish and playful. While he is still manipulative as a god, he does give Rincewind a fair go by having all the people be helpful to various degrees (even if some don't work out) and having a relative of Rincewind around. And by the end of the story, Rincewind is repaid with appreciation and thanks for his help, as well as Rincewind coming to appreciate the land he's travelled through.
- The two gods that generally toy with Rincewind are the Lady and Fate. XXXX is the old man's realm, and so he takes the role of both Fate and Chance. Rincewind at the start of his quest considers if he was lucky and dismisses the idea, and at the end of his quest attempts to repay fate for the kindness it gave him - it's all the machinations and services to XXXX's god.
- After his encounter with the God of Evolution, Ponder slips into the Almighty Janitor role. Which is a role the God of Evolution manages, as part of his job to keep things running. Looks like that god has an indirect devotee.
Fridge Horror:
- One of the wizards recounts having taken part in an expedition to find the University library's Lost Reading Room. Not only did his party resort to eating their boots to survive, but also the boots of the deceased members of the previous expedition. If the previous expedition's members were still wearing intact boots, then that party of explorers presumably didn't expire from starvation. So, just what the hairy heck killed them? What's lurking in the farthest depths of the stacks, that could take down a whole party of wizards?
- Considering what wizards used to be like before Ridcully became arch-Chancellor? Other wizards. Then again all sufficiently big libraries are connected with each other through L-Space so it could literally be anything.
