Regarding Terry Pratchett's Discworld, it has often occurred to me that the Patrician was grooming Vimes to take over for him. Certainly, no one else in the aristocracy seems to have any amount of Vetinari's respect. Vimes's use as Vetinari's hound in diplomacy seems to be quite well suited to expanding Vimes' appreciation of what it takes to keep Ankh-Morpork running.
But it now occurs to me that, given the Patrician's early remarks about Vimes' intelligence, that it may be more likely that his primary role is as Vetinari's stick. Get in line, stay in line, goes the message. Keep the city running or you'll get the Vimes.
And, of course, one of the things that makes Vimes so very effective as the stick is that he comes with his own Carrot.
(Of course, the Patrician has more than one stick. But Vimes turns out to be an unexpected and very broadly effective one. Vetinari must be very pleased with himself.)
Posted by Greg at July 15, 2007 6:44 PM
I think it's possible that by the later Night Watch books (that is, after Vetinari makes Vimes a Duke), he's grooming Vimes, but I think Vimes' main usefulness to Vetinari is keeping Carrot in the Watch and out of the Throne Room.
When the time comes for Vetinari to step down, it's probable that the only way to keep Carrot off the throne (via revolution of the huddled masses) is to make Vimes the new Patrician. He's probably the only person that Carrot is satisfied to be subordinate to, and more than anyone in the City, Vimes doesn't want to see the City restore the royalty.
At the same time, Vetinari (much like Alton Brown) loves a good multitasker. Hence Vimes' use as a stick.
(Caveat: I haven't read all of the Night Watch-centric books, so if anything to seriously change the status quo happens after, say, the midpoint of "Thud!", I don't know about it.)
Thud! is the most recent Night Watch book, and I think it may be the most recent book period.
I think that Carrot would resist being crowned pretty strongly. We've seen the Patrician step down temporarily on a couple of cases (particularly the lackluster Jingo) without any particular hue and cry for Carrot to step up. Carrot and Vetinari seem to have something of an understanding about Carrot's proper role.
You're right, in that Carrot wouldn't take the throne after a popular revolution; he could stop a revolution with a football and a disappointed look at the ringleader.
But if the need was strong enough (say, if the struggle for the Patricianship caused too much damage to the people of the city), I don't doubt that he'd step up and convince everyone that putting him in charge was a great idea. As long as there's a better alternative (i.e., Vetinari or Vimes), Carrot's happy being captain of the Watch.
At least, that's the impression I got from the conversation between Carrot and Vetinari at the end of "Men at Arms".
Carrot is the natural head of any royalist opposition, so as long as he's happy Vetinari needn't worry about that. And Vimes is the natural head of any populist/Cromwellian opposition, so the same goes there.
Meanwhile, I suspect it's actually Moist who's getting groomed as the real successor.
I tend to doubt Moist. As we saw in Going Postal and as implied by the next one being about the Mint, this may just be how Vetinari staffs up.
With just Going Postal, sure. But if you take someone who's successfully running one cabinet-level office and put him in charge of another one, you're either trying to set him up for a career-ending failure or you're grooming him for something. And since Vetinari has more direct methods of dealing with his enemies...
(And when it become 3 offices even later (Pratchet has mentioned a third Moist book in the future, Raising Taxes), the case becomes stronger.)
Oh, I didn't realize the Mint book was a Moist book. I didn't realize there was a Moist series at all!
Yeah, that's different.
The most recent Disc book is Wintersmith, which is a Tiffany Aching/Witches of Lancre novel.
The thiong about Vimes is that he doesn't want to be in charge. Carrot wants him to be in charge, and the Patrician wants to keep Carrot happy. Now, Vimes has become useful, but at the start most of it was keeping Carrot happy. Moist is an interesting character, but I don't see him as a successor to Vetinari, mainly because I don't there being a successor to Ventinari. There are apparent successors, just as Tiffany is the apparent successor to Granny Weatherwax. When we've seen successors actually appear in the book, such as with _The Truth_, they have mainly been puppets to show how bad the guilds are.