Au contrarire. I took pains to point out that he is respected and can take command anywhere under any circumstances. He took command of a tribe of ‘D’regs, he took control of both sides on a battelfield in the middle of a freakin’ war. As a policeman he took control of two of the most teenage streetgangs in the city and had them playing CUb Scouts. He took control of a pack of Uberwald mountain wolves a day after they had lost their leader. He can take control of a riot as it’s happening.
That’s one of the defining traits of the Carrot character: he isn’t affected by circumstances, he fits in, anywhere, at any time. He warps reality around himself. He changes the circumstances, or at least people’s perceptions of the circumstances. And he does it largely unwittingly. The character is deliberately larger than life. He is the archetypal fanstasy king. He is Aragorn and Merlin and Canute and Ceasar and Alexander all rolled into one.
To say that such a character is now resitricted by circumstances, when in the past he has shown that he can immediately assume command under any circumstances, is a major re-write of the character as well as the entire character type.
That directly contradicts all previous represenations of Carrot, where he can extract information simply by saying nothing. The other person then feels compelled to fill in the blanks for him. Most notably seen in his ‘interrogation’ of the Fools guild members, but seen in numerous other sitiuations as well. The idea that a Carrot who is in intimate daily contact with the Dwarf community could have information withheld from him is totally out of keeping with the character as it has been represented so far.
Carrot may not be omnipotent, but he is certainly supernaturally powerful, as are all the fantasy kings he is based on.
It wasn’t the fact that he restrained himself reluctantly, it’s the fact that he restrained himself at all. The same man had no qualms about setting sail for Klatch, and that act was interpreted as the sialingof an invasion fleet and did start a war, and placed AM at a massive disadvantage in that war.
I could believe that he’d restrain himself from brekaing the doors down. But the idea that the same Vimes was willing to concede that a murder investigation take place in the dark after it has been established that he has a right to investigate is totally out of character. If Vimes is doing his job he does it, properly, and in the light where everyone can see it. If it’s politics then he simply passes it on to Vetinari to sort out.
This weak parody of Vimes who is part hard-nosed copper and part politically savvy guild leader/nobleman is just a thug. He has become a charcter who will threaten guild leaders with an axe or burn down a building full of pricelss documents out of pique. But when he has to apply the actual law to people who can fight back he backs down and does a half-arsed, crippled invetsigation of a murder. By that one concession Vimes has become what he once said he despised: he has started aplying the law differentially to differnet groups. He has made the watch into just another gang/guild. No longer is Vimes law applied equally to all. If you’ve got enough axes and are willing to start a riot it won’t be applied ot you at all. But if you won’t start riots and chop knees off Vimes will burn down your guildhouse or threaten you with an axe.
As I said above, I could forgive the character for burning down a guldhouse full of priceless documents. (A point that should have been brought up by the Deep Dwarves since it is common knowledge amongst the AM guilds, and far more serious then being blackboard monitor WRT destroying words). The reason I could forgive such an act was because it was Vimes applying the law to everyone impartially. He would do that to anyone, or die trying. But now we are to believe that if the Heralds had threatened to start a riot he would have walked away and not even bothered with a proper investigation. Vimes is supposed to be a character who will carry out an investigation even when ordered not to, even at the risk of his badge and his life. Now we find out that there is an exception to the at universal: not if the criminals are prepared to start a riot to prevent it. Vimes law applies everywhere: just not this bit.
As recently as “Feet of Clay” Nobby was still a petty thief in all those ways. That was only a few years ago, and long after Vimes had become watch commander. The point being that long after Vimes had the power to stop this petty crime he still tolerated it. Something I could forgive of the Vimes character who was totally straight, applied justice to all and prepared to bend the rules. But a Vimes who will concede to a half-arsed murder investigation because it might start a riot is not nearly so sympathetics in that respect.
Yes, I appreciate the real-politik aspect of the situation, but if Vimes can see the necessities and politics now then there is no excuse for allowing Nobby’s crimes (or his own) because he is a small picture copper, which has always been his defence in the past. This new big-picture, politically expedient Vimes might be a natural character development, but unless Pterry makes damn sure he doesn’t break the law himself as he so often has (and continues to do) then he has simply become a corrupt police officer and Vetinari’s gestapo.
As I said, a few years ago (novels time) he admitted that he would take stuff from any unlocked businesses before he contacted the owner and asked them to lock up. That’s much worse than mumping donuts.
I’m not sure what you mean by “too”. Nobody was killed by the rising water. Several days to a week later Angua and Sally were almost trapped, but only because the area was poorly shored up. Given that it was only a few metres to the airlock door and the shoring had been put in place the day of the murders (presumably witin an hour of the murders) it’s inconcievable that was a worry for the murderers.
Those specific tunnels might have been, but that was only possible because the excavations were already inplace, and had already covered most of the city. That had taken several months, as the nightsoil records showed. Yet somehow Vetinari remained oblivious to this major security risk to his own city. Once again, possible in the real world but inconceivable for the character of Vetinari as it’s been developed so far.
Vetinari has suffered the same fate as carrot in this story. He has been taken from larger-than-life down to high level competent. In the real world he may not have known about the excavation, but the Discworld isn’t the real world, and Vetinari would never be ignorant of such a fact for months on end.
Vime doesn’t like anyone much. He certainly doesn’t like undead. But the point is that he credits himself with treatong al species, especially dwarves and trolls equally. The unthinking unequal treatment given to the dwarf and troll clerics was a really clever bit of writing. Pity it wasn’t capitalised on.
