The important part of the Vimes theory of monarchy is that it actually applies to every power structure, every organization
Is the person at the top good?
What about their underlings? They all have to be good too
It’s why Carrot never actually outs himself as the king, but it’s equally important to every other part of the watch series and Ankh Morpork itself
And Vetinari is its strongest adherent
See, Ankh Morpork only works the way it does because of the presence of four key players:
(You could make an argument for Colon and Nobby too but I digress)
Without all four of these people, and their interpersonal reactions, the well ordered and prosperous city we see later on couldn’t exist
You can tell, because it very literally didn’t until Carrot arrived, and a dragon showed up to coincidentally introduce Vimes to Lady Sybil
Ankh Morpork was a mess and a hotbed of crime and fuckery, and you never saw many species other than humans; always one or two, but as thriving subcultures? As the influential business owners and captains of industry dwarves and trolls became?
Vetinari, the man on top of the pile, couldn’t finish shaping the city into a neat and well running machine without an additional stabilizing force; something outside the guilds to keep the law, and he did not have that in the alcoholic Vimes
Vimes could not reform first himself and then the watch without the combination of optimistic ideals and muscle to back them up (physical or social) that Carrot and Lady Sybil brought; without them, the watch was something to step over
Carrot couldn’t grow to understand the complexity of the city or the moral problems of control without a cynical, experienced Vimes to show him just why kings don’t solve everything
And Lady Sybil never had a reason to push for the betterment of her city until she directly met someone who wanted more, and would do anything to get it
If any one of them hadn’t stepped up and done their own thing, in their own way, none of it would have worked
By Men At Arms, the second watch book, Vimes is already seeing how many doors Lady Sybil opens for him. He can demand entry to the Assassin’s Guild because he owns the fucking land it’s built on
Lady Sybil knows Vetinari by his first name, and her little address book is the strongest tool in the arsenal of persuasion on the whole Disc
Sam Vimes persuades her the goblins need to be cared for, but Sybil Ramkin persuades the world
Sweet, uncynical Carrot arrives in Ankh Morpork believing you stop thieving by arresting the head of the thieves’ guild - and then fucking does it
It doesn’t work, because he doesn’t understand the mechanism yet, but it makes a point
Carrot is a narrative force that the flow of the Discworld curves around, just like Granny Weatherwax (and he was raised in the Ramtops by Lancre, they probably met)
He’s got the strength of ten because his heart is pure and his muscles thicc and finally, finally, Vimes has met someone who can actually back up all the ideals he’s left to rot in the bottom of a bottle
With Carrot in the watch, why can’t they arrest a dragon? Who’s going to stop them? He’s not just a brick shithouse, he’s a likeable brick shithouse and everyone wants to see what he’ll do next
Carrot? Carrot cares about people, about all people
He’s ready to speak for the people with no voices, and more importantly he’s ready to shut up and listen to those people about what they need
He’s the idealistic core of the modern watch
Lady Sybil pours in funding, respectability, power, and woe betide a single noble in the city who wants to talk down to her husband’s watch
She’s the backbone that gives those ideals staying power
Vimes has already seen what happens when they fail, and seen enough of human nature not to trust a damn thing, and knows how important it is to have true accountability
Compared to Vetinari, he’s almost as idealistic as Carrot, but he has the taste of reality
He’s the determination, the unshakeable core of militant decency who, if he can, will always stand
Vetinari likes to think that everyone is utterly awful all of them time, and often he’s proven right. But he knows the power of narrative, the power of a true Good Man, especially one with the right support
He knows what people need to thrive, and how to best use their potential
He’s the shepherd of it all, the city and watch combined, and any shepherd will tell you the difference a well trained sheepdog makes
That’s why it never works that way in real life
“Organized crime” means something very different in the real world, and we need a lot more than just four good people to hold society together
It only takes one corrupt person and the result is cronyism and worse
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