I am all in a sea of wonders

Terry Pratchett really knew how to make het ships, huh?

refs under cut

Re-reading all the Watch books right now, and I am so struck by something I never noticed before: the parallels between Vimes and Angua. Vimes may have ‘put words in Carrot’s head’, as Angua thinks to herself in Feet of Clay, but it’s Angua who is his closest equal in the Watch, and his natural successor as the City’s guardsman. Carrot fulfils just about every destined leader trope there is, but Angua is an equally determined investigator, positioned as a leader within the Watch, and she’s the one we see getting into the weeds on investigations as much or even more than Carrot (digging around in Thud, stowing away onboard ship in Jingo). Angua is in many ways the face of the new Watch that Vimes built, as much as Detritus is, and in some ways more so because she’s an immigrant and Detritus was raised in Ankh-Morpork: a member of a minority who made it good in a Watch that upholds the law, one law, one public law for everyone. She doesn’t always seem to feel like she belongs, but neither does Vimes in the later books, as he settles into a commander’s role and learns that he has to delegate. The Watch is still her home, and she always returns to it.

There are a lot of personal parallels, too. Like Vimes, she has a craving she has to fight constantly even after years of abstinence - though there’s the obvious difference that Angua craves blood because she’s undead, and Vimes craves alcohol because he’s maintaining sobriety and even after many years that takes effort - and it never leaves her. Her love for a personification of the city, her suspicious nature, the prejudices they work to overcome, all echo Vimes. They have a close professional bond and often seem to understand each other better than they understand Carrot, who’s operating on a different, destined plane. People try to insult Vimes, or compliment him, or at any rate describe him, by calling him Vetinari’s terrier, and he doesn’t know if he hates it or owns it or both - and then there’s Angua, who repeatedly alludes to wolves that follow humans being dogs and means herself, and clearly doesn’t know if she hates it or owns it or both. They have a vexed relationship with their own selves, and a sense of duty you could break rocks on: they’re constantly working to live up to the people that they need themselves to be, creating red lines in their own heads that they are just waiting to see crossed. Carrot’s destiny pulled him to Ankh-Morpork. Angua and Vimes took one look at their respective destinies (werewolf noblewoman scrapping for power with unhinged brother, drunken copper sinking beneath the surface into bitterness and bad noir fiction) and put the damn things under arrest.

Angua von Uberwald for Commander of the City Watch, is what I’m saying.

Also Carrot doesn’t want to be in charge. He’s said this before, when Vetinari made him Captain.

 'Yes. I accede to all the requests, except the one involving Corporal Nobbs. And you, I think, should be promoted to Captain.‘ 

 Ye-es. I agree, sir. That would be a good thing for Ankh-Morpork. But I will not command the Watch, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I could command the Watch. Because … people should do things because an officer tells them. They shouldn’t do it just because Corporal Carrot says so. Just because Corporal Carrot is … good at being obeyed.’ Carrot’s face was carefully blank.

Carrot would never consent to being Commander of the watch, but he does like being second of Command, he likes being able to do the paperwork and knowing everyone’s names, and if Angua were Commander, he would be able to do that just as well. 

An excellent point, thank you for adding this!! Carrot knows himself.

here, have some more discworld ships

[ID: text reading “‘D*mn!’ Said Carrot, a difficult linguistic feat.]

This is probably adjacent to the “legally not allowed to say fuck” meme.

Pratchett was such a master of mixing his comedy with significance. This metaphor just comes WHAM out of left field and there it is, there's everything you need to know.

feet of clay  :3

(few little fanart sketches…I have no time for proper drawing thanks to school :P )

some Carrots for Jess ! Carrot(talking about historic sight of Ankh- Morpork and wonders of dwarf bread ♥ ) on date with Angua and Carrot babysitting little Sam :3