this years 25th of may thought is about vetinari once again
vetinari who, after spending the entire book concealing himself in the scenery by forgoing the traditional but impractical black and camouflaging himself in greys and greens, who definitely used that unorthodox stealth to get INTO the palace, enters that ballroom in the very black assassin garb he kept on saying he wouldn't want to be caught dead in, literally. who enters that room with intent to kill a tyrant in the bright light, where everyone can see it. who, when asked who sent him, says "i come from the city".
after he did the deed, lady meserole and her allies covered it up, and the common people never get to know how winder died. getting him into that room required the whole of ankh-morpork's upper class to strategically look away at the right moment. in particular it is ankh-morpork's rising bourgeoisie, not the old nobility, who does all the backroom dealing to make the assassination possible. enterprising minds, merchants and guild leaders, proto-capitalists even, got rid of an inconvenient ruler to enthrone (what they thought was) their pet candidate, someone who would help businesspeople do business.
vetinari knows this, and that knowledge is what gets him into power later down the road. but he enters the room in a way that ensures he's seen, and he comes from the city, and he wants justice done in the light, the assassin in that moment not a rich idiot who does other rich idiots' killing, but an executor in the name of the people of society. and later, he's at the last barricade, in a street fight, killing with his hands to protect a handful of poor people who don't know him and the ghost of the people's republic, lilac blossom clutched in his mouth. how many perfectly unremarkable lives of the lilac baricadeers did he save in that fight? it says so much about vetinari's ideals and how they come through despite his cynicism about his lived reality
