One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath …
rereading.
I just realised this is immediately after ToT and right before monstrous regiment in time - which would mean that Vimes got sent to Borogravia right after young Sam was born, poor man. Night Watch already made it clear that A-M news media took the position that Borogravia invaded Mouldavia, and thus made Vimes side with Borogravia (x), so this is consistent with the report of Times on the war; A-M's attitude also had some impact on general view of who to support in this war.
I am not very certain about what is vimes's (pterry's) attitude towards the lilac lads. He thought what they did was very heroic things; he also didn't want any more people to get inspired by them and try to be heroic. I suppose there is a ... necessity, maybe. In some situations, you are involved, or you feel really necessary to get involved as it is your duty, you go and do the job that's in front of you and by the way do the heroic thing, it is fine. It is not fine to just sarcrifice unnecessarily and look for fight everywhere without thinking for better options. I am guessing. I am guessing he's saying, there's a time and place.
This time I realised, vimes always called his old self young Sam. That's why in later books his son is also young Sam. Young Sam here is …
finished rereading.
I am not very certain about what is vimes's (pterry's) attitude towards the lilac lads. He thought what they did was very heroic things; he also didn't want any more people to get inspired by them and try to be heroic. I suppose there is a ... necessity, maybe. In some situations, you are involved, or you feel really necessary to get involved as it is your duty, you go and do the job that's in front of you and by the way do the heroic thing, it is fine. It is not fine to just sarcrifice unnecessarily and look for fight everywhere without thinking for better options. I am guessing. I am guessing he's saying, there's a time and place.
This time I realised, vimes always called his old self young Sam. That's why in later books his son is also young Sam. Young Sam here is already a watcher to keep himself always in line. It is his conscience, and it is his legacy. Ah but now I really see how important that sentence of I'll teach him to walk I'm good at teaching people to walk is, it is all what Vimes is about.
I also see more about the meaning of the machine this time. Before, they hoped that if they changed the Patrician, it would be different. But the Machine was broken. Whoever they put on top was just going to go down the same path cuz it was the way the world worked and it is easy to not change anything esp. it's sth they can benefit from. Possibly they hoped Snapcase would change the machine, but he didn't. He just used the machine for himself. Possibly Vetinari saw that so he changed it. Rebuilt the system, built the guilds, built the panel of guild heads, built the post office and other facilities I haven't read. They had a working machine thirty years later because they built it since then. The Machine probably is the same as the badge that holds it all and stops it from breaking down.
