While no detailed description of his physical appearance shows up in any of the Discworld novels, Pratchett says in the companion work, The Art of Discworld, that he has always imagined Vimes as a younger, slightly bulkier version of late British actor Pete Postlethwaite. Samuel "Sam" Vimes is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He occasionally finds the opportunity to do some police work. Despite his distaste for nobility, he becomes a Duke and an ambassador. On rare occasions, Sam Vimes has been described as completely happy, even if it's only for a brief period; such occasions include alone time with his wife, the birth of his son, and whenever a case has reached a satisfactory conclusion. When he witnesses a crime occurring, he abandons everything and chases the miscreant. His participation as a young copper in handing people to the Unmentionables has surely left him also with a deep feeling of guilt and shame, after witnessing the results in their headquarters. His son's welfare is one of the few things Vimes is willing to cross even his wife about, such that he insisted that they hire a nursemaid, Purity, to attend to Young Sam over Sybil's objections. Family information They might not have money to buy more than day-old bread and stale cheese, but you could eat it off a spotlessly clean floor by the gods. [14] In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes managed to evade, fight off, and 'kill' part of a pack of werewolves in "the game", a werewolf tradition of chasing a human back to civilization that humans did not often win. When he is returned to the past in Night Watch, he uses this ability to locate a group of monks he needs in order to return to his present. They have a son, The Honourable Samuel Vimes II . ), and Vimes' own sense of justice being so strong that, in Thud!, it was even able to fend off the attempts to possess him by a 'quasi-demonic thing of pure vengeance'.[16]. He is the Commander of the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork. Samuel Vimes was born in Cockbill Street, the Shades, Ankh-Morpork into a poor family. It is depicted as being so poor that there was little crime, though Sam was part of a street gang (The Cockbill Street Roaring Lads) with Lupine Wonse (who later became secretary to Lord Vetinari). Both are effectively 'good' characters, who nevertheless both secretly fear the darkness inside themselves, and constantly strive to control the darker sides of their nature. National team caps and goals, correct as of September 23, 2022. While no detailed description of his physical appearance shows up in any of the Discworld novels, Pratchett says in the companion work, The Art of Discworld, that he has always imagined Vimes as British actor Pete Postlethwaite. CONCACAF Gold Cup. Sam is somewhat baffled by the overtures, but as he is already used to an imperfect lifestyle, he is generally appreciative of the sentiment. The Vimes spot shows the aforementioned Night Watch captain struggling to get through a hard day's work, while the Sybil promo highlights her passion for justice. Artist Paul Kidby, who has collaborated with Pratchett on several works, portrays him as resembling Clint Eastwood. charging high rent from the poor people living in slum properties). Guards! At the age of 16, he enlisted in the Night Watch, because his mate, Iffy Scurrick, had joined the year before and told him that there was "free food and a uniform and you could pick up the extra dollar here and there". She also supports The Sunshine Sanctuary For Sick, Abused Or Abandoned Swamp Dragons, which is run by her friend Rosie Devant-Molei. Samuel 'Sam' Vimes is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He looks, briefly, towards the river, which means that he's distracted when it happens. He started off as the captain of the Night Watch in the first book that features him and eventually progressed to Commander of the Watch. Guards!, she is a rather imposing Wagnerian aristocrat, but also a kind-hearted and compassionate person, embodying the positive aspects of aristocrats, who are otherwise depicted unflatteringly in Ankh-Morpork's population. Terry Pratchett's daughter, Rhianna, told The Guardian: "Vimes's musing on how expensive it is to be poor via the cost of boots was a razor-sharp evaluation of socio-economic unfairness. He is also mentioned, although not by name, in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. On one side, there is Vimes, however rough and pessimistic he may seem, defender of law and order, and the other side is a Vimes who would kill for revenge and make his own law. Example. Guards!, he is the Captain of the (useless) Night Watch. The Watch showed their worth by stopping a dragon from taking over the city. While the Summoning Dark had trespassed into his mind, needing a host in order to track down the Deep-Downer Dwarves, would try to enter through one of the doors that opened when Vimes became angry, only to be pulled away at every time. Vimes also began a romantic relationship with Lady Sybil Ramkin, one of the wealthiest women in the city. BBC America's The Watch is gearing up for action.. This meant that when he hadn't been drinking, he was beyond sober--he was knurd and saw reality, stripped of the benefits of fuzziness and mental illusions. Due to his authority in Men at Arms, when he finds himself in possession of the Gonne, he struggles between his sense of justice and the Gonne's twisted desire to use him to kill in the name of justice. He had the smallest tuft of brown hair. Take boots, for exam. Vimes often has to go to report to Lord Vetinari, although most of the time he keeps a poker-face and answers very simply to avoid Vetinari's probing questions. Sybil Ramkin (Wife)Sam Vimes (Son) [15] This meant that when he hadn't been drinking, he was beyond sober - he was "knurd". The original article was at Samuel Vimes. As part of an equal-opportunities drive required by the Patrician, the Watch under Vimes eventually took on extra staff in the form of a werewolf, a dwarf and a troll (and later a gargoyle, a gnome, a golem, an Igor, a zombie, and a vampire). sam vimes knurd grown ups 2 ronnie . The pattern of Sam and Sybil's marriage was set the moment he turned away from his wedding to chase an assassin who had just made an attempt on the Patrician's life. Vimes's ranks and titles rise over the course of the series: This is not the full list; he almost certainly had others during his early Watch career, and he had none prior to joining the Watch. Carcer robbed and killed the real John Keel, and Vimes had to replace him in order for his role in history to be fulfilled. Guards! Young Sam (full title: The Hon. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? It was around this time he was taught all he knew by Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel, which is where his cynical outlook on life and his firm belief in justice comes from. But he doesn't just fall in love and craving a drink suddenly disappears. Vimes was educated at a dame school, where he was once blackboard monitor for a whole term, before he had to drop out and concentrate on learning about life out on the streets. In attempting to carry out justice, Vimes has arrested sons of Ankh-Morpork nobles as well as city dignitaries, all the way up to Lord Vetinari. Sam Vimes was born in Cockbill Street, in the Rimwards part of the Shades (the poorest area in the city). [17] Her hobby has left her with her natural hair singed off and she wears a wig in nearly all circumstances. In the latter case, you have to consider that a dwarf stirs deliberately his anger, and the Dark Guards attempt later to assassinate not only Vimes, but also his wife and his fourteen-months-old son, using flamethrowers. He states that he was born and raised in the gutter and perhaps should have died there, but didn't. Sam Vimes is the lead captain of the City Watch for Ankh-Morpork. Ironically, the one title Vimes holds with genuine pride (as of Snuff), aside from Commander, is "King" .. as in, "King of the River", an honorarium awarded in recognition of his role in saving the riverboat Wonderful Fanny from piracy and flood. His body does not produce any "natural . Samuel Vimes nature makes him naturally knurd, with other members of the city Watch estimating that he is about two drinks below par. In every book in the series, the fee for his assassination has risen until he has been removed from the Guild register, meaning that contracts on his life are no longer accepted (this was initially literal, as no assassin wanted to take the contract). In Night Watch, the timeline was altered and his future self ended up impersonating John Keel for the duration of the Revolution, teaching him the same lessons instead. His reform of the City Watch has been so successful that by Night Watch, Vimes-trained policemen are in high demand in cities across the Disc. Human Lawn has since founded the Lady Sybil Free Hospital. was adapted for BBC Radio 5 in 1992 and starred John Wood as Vimes. Real Name: Samuel Vimes. Guards! He accepts members of ethnic minorities in his Watch, has personally trained some of them, and is quite proud of them. Presumably this is also why the protective flame-baffles between the Vimes residence and Sybil's dragon stables are much, much sturdier in Thud! Members of the Watch earn the privilege, and it is a privilege, of calling him "Mister Vimes" only after very long association (i.e. Guards! Guards! Dormer's character, Sam Vimes, is the captain of the city's police force that's known as the titular Watch. It is possible that he uses police work to escape the social life of "Sir Samuel Vimes, Duke of Ankh". In The Art of Discworld, Pratchett explains that Vimes protects himself from the Beast with the symbol of his own badge, which prevents him from becoming the criminal he despises, at least in his own mind. The character is based off the character of the same name in Terry Pratchett's hit Discworld novels. Vimes joined the Night Watch shortly before the birth of the Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road during the Glorious Revolution. The new policemen trained in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and then hired elsewhere, though they haven't seen Vimes in person much, are called Sammies (perhaps a nod to the "bobbies," so-called because of Sir Robert Peel). When there is an important occasion on which crime is anticipated, for example, that a foreign dignitary may be attacked during a public appearance (in Jingo), Vimes likes to personally check suspicious places such as an abandoned building that an assassin might use. In The Art of Discworld, Pratchett explains that Vimes protects himself from the Beast with the symbol of his own badge, which prevents him from becoming the criminal he despises, at least in his own mind. [11] The conflict within Vimes is between his virtuous nature ("the Watchman") and what he calls "the Beast". For this, Vimes is awarded with yet another unwanted nobility title: Duke of Ankh. Sybil bears this divided loyalty with some grace; nearly every Watch novel concludes with Sam making some form of amends to his neglected wife, either a delayed honeymoon, or simply time alone with their new baby. The Night Watch were reduced to patrolling the streets, ringing their bells at night and half-heartedly chasing criminals. Keel taught Vimes several important lessons, such stopping him from taking bribes at a time when such behaviour was widespread in the Watch. His rise from alcoholic policeman to respected member of the aristocracy, and the growth and development of the Watch under his command, have together been one of the major threads of the Discworld series. Vetinari likes to use Vimes as a diplomat, and while more often than not Vimes is the cause of diplomatic incidents, these seem often the intention of Vetinari. Vimes is depicted in the novels as somewhere between an Inspector Morse-type 'old-school' British policeman, and a film noir-esque grizzled detective.His appearances throughout the Discworld sequence show him slowly and grudgingly rising through the ranks of both police force and society. [12] He eventually did actually kill Wolfgang (with a firework, it having been previously established that werewolves can be killed by fire as well as silver.). His full name and title is His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel "Sam" Vimes is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Male As other noblemen might ride horses, wear laces, ruffles, and plumes, Sam Vimes walks the city on endless patrols and wears his old battered Watch armor and leather shirt and jerkin, with the standard sword and truncheon. Vimes' firm grasp of basic human nature, and of the Ankh-Morpork psyche in particular, led to him spending some years as a drunk, and the Watch believe that this was because his body didn't produce any "natural" alcohol. The main events of Night Watch, set only a few weeks after Vimes joined the Watch, are stated as occurring more than thirty years prior to the present from which Vimes came, this makes Samuel Vimes at least 46 years old at the time of the events of that book. Guards!. This horrifying state of mind caused Vimes to try to balance it out through drinking, but he would get the dosage wrong and end up drunk. Title(s) During his first appearance in Guards! Vimes's immediate reaction is 'Me'. His feathers are soggy and limp and his cloak is becoming heavy with water. He is a secondary character in The Truth and Monstrous Regiment and has cameos in The Last Hero, Going Postal, Making Money, Unseen Academicals, I Shall Wear Midnight and Raising Steam. Height: 5'10" Weight: 160 lbs. They estimated that Vimes was about two drinks below par. He fears he may be a bad person because he knows what he thinks rather than just what he says and does. Though he sometimes has to call in a plasterer when Vimes is particularly angry, Vetinari doesn't worry about ita sign that he intentionally angers Vimes so as to goad him into a desired action. He is married to Sybil Ramkin, the richest woman in the city. He first appeared in the novel Guards! Most of the nobles and government officials that he sees at such social occasions, he considers stupid or obnoxious. [3] It has been suggested that Sam's father was a watchman in Jingo and he is a descendant of Suffer-Not-Injustice "Old Stoneface" Vimes, the Watch Commander who instigated the rebellion against, and subsequently beheaded, Lorenzo the Kind, the last king of the city, a sadistic torturer described as "very fond of children." The book features a City Watch commander named Capt. This has become such a point of pride that he now has nightmares about not being home by 6 p.m. So he tries to act like a good person, often in situations where the map is unclear. Early in his career, while he is still a nearly-impoverished Watchman, Vimes reflects that he can only afford ten-dollar boots with thin soles which don't keep out the damp and wear out in a season or two. Death himself is unsure whether Vimes should die or not in these cases, citing "quantum" as an explanation. His years of practical experience give him a foundation of hard-headed realism on which he bases much of his more idealistic beliefs. An upright and honest man whose appointment to the despised Night Watch - regared by all sensible people as a completely useless appendage to the running of the city - may have been the cause of his drinking problem. He never completely loses control, and always manages to restrain himself (or have someone around to restrain him) in the end. 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