History Characters / DiscworldCityWatch

* SarcasticDevotee: To Vimes. They're basically VitriolicBestBuds, with Vimes trusting Wilikins implicitly. They're pretty much the same age, and both ran in feuding street gangs as kids. Vimes is rather annoyed that there's a class distinction standing between them, while Willikins [[ServileSnarker abuses his servant-hood for all its worth.]]

* CrazyPrepared: By ''Night Watch'', his home is liberally strewn with booby-traps to catch any Assassin trying to carry out a contract. The effectiveness of these traps is one reason why the Assassins' Guild keeps raising his contract price--right up until they take him off the register entirely as essential to the city's functioning. They do still send overconfident students on simulated missions against him to knock them down a peg.

** While Vimes claims to be prejudiced against non-humans, it's really more a matter of mistrusting everyone, ''especially'' his fellow humans. He'll force himself to give pretty much ''anyone'' a chance to prove themselves, no matter his kneejerk reaction.

** After ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', Blackboard Monitor Vimes might as well have replaced the bogeyman for dwarfs.

* FantasticRacism: One of Vimes's most disagreeable traits is his prejudice against other species; he clings to his hatred of vampires the longest, but he also starts out with negative views of dwarves, trolls, and golems as well. He tries his hardest from the outset to not let it affect his work however, and most Watch books have a theme of him confronting his inner racism against one group or another and overcoming it bit by bit. He has, however, claimed not to hate other species any more than he hates humans. Except vampires - and that is explicitly tied more to his loathing for the aristocracy (which vampires are the ultimate expression of) than anything else.
* AFatherToHisMen: Most strongly with Colon and Nobby, who are ''worthless'' cops but have been his companions through dark times. But it's true of any member of his force: criminals try not to injure a Watchman because [[ImplacableMan Vimes might take it personally.]]

** As a measure of how much he loves his wife, Lu-Tze tells him in ''Night Watch'' that in all the various alternate universe versions of the Discworld, there is not a single reality in which he has ever killed her. [[note]]Lu-Tze went on to clarify that there was no reality in which Vimes ''as he is now'' had killed his wife. This carries with it the implication that if Vimes doesn't fulfill Keel's role as his mentor, and his younger self falls under the tutelage of less scrupulous people, this is a possibility. Lu-Tze is performing here the role usually enacted by Vetinari, in which someone winds up Vimes before letting him go.[[/note]]

** Vimes also has a very low opinion of his own intelligence and has an inferiority complex with regards to the fact that he never had a formal education. However, he's got a surprisingly broad knowledge base and vocabulary, being able to translate the Discworld equivalent of Latin off the top of his head (albeit a little slowly) partly by working off etymological roots, he's extremely cunning, and very good both at reading people and thanks to decades of police work and observing Vetinari, manipulating them - the latter to the point where his ability to play a suspect impresses Moist von Lipwig. To be fair, several other characters (including Vetinari, 71-Hour Achmed, and Moist) note that Vimes ''is'' slow on the uptake but once you get him started he picks up ''fast.''

* LivingLegend: After getting tangled up in international politics in the latter half of the series and beginning to export Ankh-Morpork-style policing all over the continent (and to a few others too), Vimes has become pretty FamedInStory, to the point that his reputation as an incorruptible force of nature starts to make him a smidge uncomfortable since no one knows better than Vimes himself that he's a fallible human being and sobered up alcoholic who couldn't've gotten where he is without a lot of good people around him and a series of lucky breaks.

** People of Ankh-Morpork call Watchmen the "Old Sam". Watchmen from Ankh-Morpork who move to other places are called "Sammies", even if the locals have never heard of Sam Vimes. The Watch bears ferocious loyalty to Sam, and when the Watch includes the uncrowned King of Ankh-Morpork, huge trolls, tenacious dwarfs, unbreakable golems, zombies, vampires, vicious wee men, a werewolf, and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Nobby Nobbs]], you had better watch your back.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Gives himself a title like this by accident to the dwarves. In Fifth Elephant, he jokingly adds his schoolboy title of Blackboard Monitor to his legitimate pedigree, which includes both a Knighthood and Dukedom. However, as dwarves consider writing sacred, the concept roughly translates to ''Destroyer of Words''. No points for guessing which title the dwarves use to hold him in awe for the rest of the series.

* OnlySaneMan: Vimes feels like this on most days.

** Despite his loathing of the nobility, Vetinari foists increasingly-impressive titles onto Vimes against his will, both to wind the Commander up and to annoy the city's entrenched nobles.
** It used to be that he had an increasingly elaborate set of booby traps strewn around his mansion's rooftop, shrubbery, railings etc to foil the numerous Assassins sent to kill him (a sign that he was angering powerful people and therefore doing the right thing). He has since been taken off their registry after proving to be invaluable to the running of the city (but uppity student Assassins are assigned to his mansion as punishment).

* SmarterThanYouLook: While he has a low view of his own intelligence, and the general oft-repeated view is that he's not all that bright, with his main threat being that he's as honest as a Midsummer Day is long (and thus incorruptible - when the possibility of bribing him is brought up in ''Literature/TheTruth'' by the New Firm, who're new to Ankh-Morpork, Mr Slant observes that the last person to try and bribe Vimes still hasn't regained full use of his fingers) and unbelievably persistent (he's known as 'Vetinari's Terrier', something noted by a number of characters and used as a threat). He also comes off as a thug - [[spoiler: young Vetinari]] explicitly describes him as such in ''Night Watch'', saying 'his muscles do the thinking'. However, he also goes on to note with astonishment that in ''every single moment,'' Vimes overrules them - and that's before one gets into his surprisingly broad and eclectic knowledge base, which includes the ability to translate phrases from the local equivalent of Latin off-hand and fluency in Dwarfish (the Ankh-Morpork street version, anyway, which is informal and full of slang). Moreover, his street smarts, knowledge of human nature and decades of experience as a copper mean that in an interrogation room he's capable of [[ManipulativeBastard playing a suspect]] with such skill and deftness that it leaves master con-man Moist Von Lipwig absolutely astounded and deeply impressed - and those skills aren't confined to the interrogation room, either. He might be a little slow to get going, but once he does, you'd better watch out...

* TinyGuyHugeGirl: ''Tiny'' is overstating it but Vimes isn't a large man, especially as he seems to have been half-starved in his youth. Sybil looms over him and is far heavier.

* {{Tyrannicide}}: Suffer-not-Injustice "Old Stoneface" Vimes, ancestor of the current Vimes, chopped off the King's head after he was sentenced to death by a tribunal for his [[PaedoHunt horrific]] [[ColdBloodedTorture crimes]]. He was the only one with the balls to do it. He was later executed, his body getting the [[AnArmAndALeg Osiris treatment]]. His [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten bad reputation]] was so ''powerful'', his descendants ''many generations later'' are still being bugged about it. Vimes often grumbles that it was just one king, "it wasn't as if it was a habit."

** Repeatedly mentioned in Monstrous Regiment, as despite being a duke and leading a large coalition army, he's dressed as a City Watchman. Polly sees him early and thinks he's a random guard who slipped into an important meeting.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Before ''Guards! Guards!,'' Vimes was shackled by political restrictions and drinking himself into an early grave. In the course of that novel he gains the support of Carrot (an unwavering and efficient lieutenant) and Sybil (a wife eager to supply both affection and discipline), resulting in a startling change in his personality and rocketing him to an internationally famous figure.

* CombatPragmatist: An odd version. Instead of taking advantage of any''thing'' she takes advantage of any ''shape''. She's a werewolf, where it's inbuilt to change shape as much as needed to take advantage of any given situation. Watching a werewolf fighting another werewolf will make you very dizzy.
* ChronicSelfDeprecation: Downplayed, but still very noticable. Especially in her earlier appearances, it gets clear that Angua does ''not'' like herself very much. She's so used to the FantasticRacism directed towards her that she's kind of bought into it -- as such she'll both greatly pity herself for all the hardships she goes through ''and'' think that she totally deserves those hardships for being a werewolf in the first place. She gets better post-''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', but it never entirely goes away.

* DistaffCounterpart: In her cynicism, fears of her inner monster, ruthless CombatPragmatist tendencies, feeling that she's with someone far too good for her, sense that she's out of place (neither one thing nor the other), and being implied as someone's dog, she's very much like Vimes. This is tacitly recognised by both of them, with Vimes being the one person she outright confesses the dog comparison to in ''{{Literature/Jingo}}'' - after all, he's known as Vetinari's Terrier for a reason.

* FantasticRacism: Both against her and on her part towards {{golem}}s in ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' (because she's technically undead, but they're unalive), and vampires in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' (which is more to do with [[FurAgainstFang the colossal cultural inferiority complex werewolves feel around vampires]]). She works hard to get along with them if they're fellow watchmen, but it's always an effort.

* HeadTurningBeauty: Described as an ash-blonde with a generous figure: attracts a lot of male attention, to the point where her taking her helmet off and ShakingHerHairLoose in ''Men at Arms'' gains attention from a dwarf and a ''troll'' (trolls, it should be remembered, are made of ''rock''), but hardly any of them make a pass at her. Something about her eyes seems to put them off.
* HeelRealization: Happens a few times. Angua has a tendency to be ''very'' judgmental, but when she discovers she's been unfair she'll usually feel bad about it and try to adjust her thinking.
* InsecureLoveInterest: Despite her stunning beauty, she has trouble with Carrot's [[UnderstandingBoyfriend endless wells of peaceable acceptance]] before ''Literature/TheFifthElephant''. Even in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', though, when she and Sally are both forced to wear [[{{Stripperiffic}} literal stripper clothing]] thanks to losing their clothes via shapeshifting, she keeps thinking that her dress doesn't work on her at all and being jealous of Sally's [[VampiresAreSexGods instant ability to make hers look good]]... while getting lots of male attention that implies she's got nothing to worry about and even rendering her lover speechless.

* ItsAllAboutMe: While Angua certainly isn't an unsympathetic person by nature, and it definitely ties into her self-loathing, but she has a tendency to think about her own problems and worries as ''much'' worse and ''a lot more tragic'' than anything anything else could go through.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Angua is very often harsh and judgmental, even towards people who haven't done anything other than be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or be the wrong species (or in Nobby's case, being an undetermined species). She can get downright ''mean'' to people who accidentally get on her wrong side, she has a tendency to get caught up in an ItsAllAboutMe mindset, and on the whole is ''not'' one of the kinder or more understanding members of the Watch. But, despite often thinking she's a bad person, she really isn't. She's aware that she's too quick to judge people and will feel bad and try to make amends if she finds she's been unfair. She has a soft spot for the little guy and can be very sweet towards junior members of the Watch who are still struggling and learning.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Although she's different from most of the Discworld werewolves as well -- her lupine form looks less like a pure wolf, and more like a cross with an [[strike: Afghan]] Klatchian Hound.

* SuperpowerLottery: At least on paper Angua is absurdly powerful -- very little is made of it in the books, but she can actually [[HealingFactor regenerate]] from near death unless silver is involved, is insanely strong, [[TheNoseKnows has a canine like sense of smell]] and a nigh unbeatable combat form. Oh, and she can speak dog. And is very beautiful. However, because it's common knowledge that the Watch has a ''werewolf'', [[KryptoniteFactor silver and peppermint bombs]] [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere have almost become routine for criminals]].

* WonderfulWerewolf: A werewolf who is a good person and mostly has control over her wolf side.

* OddFriendship: With the very religious Constable Visit, though it makes a little more sense given that they share many moral principles Dorfl is open to discussion on religious matters and Visit a) loves religious debate, b) talking to someone who doesn't desperately try and escape the conversation and actually reads his pamphlets.

A native of Omnia, Corporal Visit is the resident ultra-religious member of the watch. He and Dorfl disagree of the existence of God, but this is more of an intellectual dispute than heated rivalry, and he's generally one of the nicest and most moral members of the Watch. Vimes considers him an excellent copper (largely due to his abilities at keeping the peace)

* SelectiveObliviousness: Normally, Sybil is an extremely good judge of character, save for one person: She is convinced Nobby is not a horrible, repulsive, devious reprobate. No-one's quite sure why.

* FormerTeenRebel: Ran with a street gang in his youth that even a hardened streetfighter, like Vimes, he is considered to be a bunch of tough bastards. His weapon was a cap with sharpened pennies sewn into the rim. Is now a butler.

* [[EveryonesBabySister Everyone's Baby Brother]]: The entirety of The Watch are extremely protective of Young Sam. They will literally hold up traffic throughout the entire city to the point it threatens the economy of several nations if it means that Captain Vimes can get home to read 'Where Is My Cow?' to his son on time.

* SuperpowerLottery: At least on paper Angua is absurdly powerful -- very little is made of it in the books, but she can actually [[HealingFactor regenerate]] from near death unless silver is involved, is insanely strong, [[TheNoseKnows has a canine like sense of smell]] and a nigh unbeatable combat form. Oh and she can speak dog. And is very beautiful. However, because it's common knowledge that the Watch has a ''werewolf'', [[KryptoniteFactor silver and peppermint bombs]] [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere have almost become routine for criminals]].

* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: A.E. doesn't stand for anything. He was only ''initialed'', not named.

* BeardOfSorrow: By the time Angua and Carrot return to Ankh-Morpork at the end of ''The Fifth Element'', Colon's grown one of these.

* NiceGuy: Apart from his TheNeidermeyer and RacistGrandpa moments (which are, well, ''moments'', not habits or tendencies) he pretty much can get along with ''everyone''. Also he has a tendency to make tea for people in bad situations (Nobby when he's near-catatonic after people accuse him of being an earl - ItMakesSenseInContext - in Literature/FeetOfClay , and Vimes when he was just dead overworked in Literature/GuardsGuards).

* PretendPrejudice: Colon expresses some not-very-enlightened opinions about Ankh-Morpork's non-white citizens, but continues to eat in his favourite curry restaurant which knows to make their food bland enough that he won't think it's "foreign", and is friendly with the proprietors. In fact, it's pretty clear he was jumping on the national mood against Klatchians only, as it was pointed out by Nobby (who, via ObfuscatingStupidity, neatly pokes holes in every mindlessly regurgitated prejudice) he had no problem with other non-white people, such as the 'pretty brown' Constable Visit, lending credence to his characterization as amicable to most people as a rule.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Her name actually is Cheery, but she spells it as the more feminine "Cheri", as part of her defiance of Dwarven tradition.

* TheBigGuy: Being a troll, and big and tough even by troll standards, makes him not only ''huge'', but able to intimidate ''assassins'', since nothing they have works on geology. He's also Vimes's go-to troll whenever an obstacle needs to be cleared in a hurry. Finally, being made of silicates, there was nowhere upon him to pin his sergeants badge; so he simply had it chiseled into him. Doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

--> Jus' say "[=AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH=]"

* PoliceBrutality: [[PlayedForLaughs Played for laughs]], he nails a troll drug dealer to a wall, by his ear, no less, and later remarks to Cheery in a very matter-of-fact manner that he has [[HideTheEvidence to hide a hammer]].

* GreekChorus: In many a non-Watch-centric book, a couple of Watch officers show up to act like this. Nobby is almost always one of them. Fred Colon is usually the other, but some books pair Nobby up with someone else (such as Corporal Visit in ''Hogfather'' and Detritus in ''Maskerade'').

* LovableCoward: "When the call came out, it would not find Nobby wanting. It would not find him at all". It's even mentioned that he served as a soldier during his younger years and his superiors would keep an eye on which uniform Nobby was wearing to know which way the battle was going. However, he can actually fight and fight very effectively if he has to.

* OverlyLongName: Cecil Wormsborough St. John Nobbs

* TakingTheBullet: Carrot almost makes a habit of this trope, having taking a gunshot through the shoulder to protect Vetinari and a silver-tipped crossbow bolt through the hand for Angua's sake.

* UndyingLoyalty: He doesn't take kindly to people speaking poorly of Vimes. In ''Literature/MenAtArms,'' Angua finds Vimes's ledger, which lists a number of female names with dollar amounts. She jumps to the conclusion that he's been frequenting prostitutes behind Sybil's back and wonders aloud how Carrot can respect a man like Vimes. She then notes that the room's temperature has dropped several degrees. Carrot grips her wrist, takes the ledger away and icily has Colon inform her who the women are: namely, widows and orphans of Watchmen killed in action, whom Vimes pays pensions out of his own wages.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: He knows that he's technically the long-lost heir to the throne in Ankh-Morpork. Even so, his adoptive family told him to seek a job at the Watch to find out a clue about his past. Later, he figured it out but decided his loyalty to Vimes outweighed his birthright and that doing the right thing was more important.

* ActionGirl: The best fighter on the Watch and most obviously displayed in ''Literature/TheFifthElephant''. Throughout the book, her brother Wolfgang is presented as a deadly dangerous AxCrazy muscle bound psycho who scares everyone, including his own mother. He goes toe to toe with Carrot, takes two of his best punches - which, bear in mind, have knocked out ''Detritus'' in the past (and he's implied to have got even ''stronger'' since then) - without even blinking, then drops him with several punches to the torso that sound like 'a shovel striking cement'. Even Vimes, who's fought several werewolves with his bare hands by this point and won, just knows that in a straight fight, Wolfgang ''will'' kill him. Angua, however, isn't remotely afraid of him, making casual reference to always being able to send him off whimpering when they fought as children and in their single on-page fight, sends him running. The ''only'' thing about him that frightens her is the likelihood that he'll go after Carrot, because Carrot is hers.

* ChronicSelfDeprecation: Dowplayed, but still very noticable. Especially in her earlier appearances, it gets clear that Angua does ''not'' like herself very much. She's so used to the FantasticRacism directed towards her that she's kind of bought into it -- as such she'll both greatly pity herself for all the hardships she goes through ''and'' think that she totally deserves those hardships for being a werewolf in the first place. She gets better post-''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', but it never entirely goes away.

* KryptoniteIsEverywhere: A {{Justified}} case. As a werewolf, she can rapidly regenerate from any injury not inflicted by fire or silver and has a supernatural sense of smell. The problem is that it's well-known the Watch has a werewolf in its ranks, so criminals make certain to outfit themselves with fire, silver weapons, and peppermint scent-bombs.

** His police instincts are sharp enough that it's practically a form of SherlockScan. As he describes it, a rookie will glance into an alleyway and think there's nothing there; An experienced copper like Carrot or Angua would look harder into an alleyway to see more details; Veterans like Vimes, Colon and even Nobby on a good day only need to glance into an alleyway because they've already seen everything they need to see.
* SmarterThanYouLook: While he has a low view of his own intelligence, and the general oft-repeated view is that he's not all that bright, with his main threat being that he's as honest as a Midsummer Day is long (and thus incorruptible - when the possibility of bribing him is brought up in ''Literature/TheTruth'' by the New Firm, who're new to Ankh-Morpork, Mr Slant observes that the last person to try and bribe Vimes still hasn't regained full use of his fingers) and unbelievably persistent (he's known as 'Vetinari's Terrier', something noted by a number of characters and used as a threat). He also comes off as a thug - [[spoiler: young Vetinari]] explicitly describes him as such in ''Night Watch'', saying 'his muscles do the thinking'. However, he also goes on to note with astonishment that in ''every single moment,'' Vimes overrules them - and that's before one gets into his surprisingly broad and eclectic knowledge base, which includes the ability to translate phrases from the local equivalent of Latin off-hand and fluency in Dwarfish (the Ankh-Morpork street version, anyway, which is informal and full of slang). Moreover, his street smarts, knowledge of human nature and decades of experience as a copper mean that in an interrogation room he's capable of being a [[ManipulativeBastard playing a suspect]] with such skill and deftness that it leaves master con-man Moist Von Lipwig absolutely astounded and deeply impressed - and those skills aren't confined to the interrogation room, either. He might be a little slow to get going, but once he does, you'd better watch out...

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He's terrified of riding horseback, something which he likens to being repeatedly tossed up into the air (if just a little bit) while at the same time going forward at frightening speed. This isn't much of a problem until he marries into nobility, as everyone excepts noblemen to be perfectly at home on magnificent steeds.
* WrongSideOfTheTracks: Despite growing up in a notoriously poor and crime-ridden neighborhood and spending some time in a street gang, where he learned to [[GroinAttack fight dirty]], his street had Standards (buying soap to clean the table is better than putting food on it). He was shamed [[spoiler: by a future version of himself masquerading as his mentor]] out of taking a bribe by the thought of what his mum would say if she knew. This keeps him clean in an era where [[DirtyCop police corruption]] was standard practice.

* TheBore: Loves obscure bits of trivia about the city, the name of the friendly man who onlys that building with the interesting brickwork, and spends his day off at dull exhibits that no one cares about but him. Even when restricting his point of interest to his exciting profession doesn't help because Carrot's favorite parts of being a policeman are the obscure rules and regulations he gets to enforce and the part where he walks around being friendly to everyone. It doesn't help that he can never realize just how dull his favorite talking points are just because he's too much of a NiceGuy for anyone to complain, no matter how many times he drags Angua to the Dwarf Bread museum. All of this stems from his Dwarven upbringing; he's regularly perplexed with what to say in his letters home because while his parents can write him about exicitng things like the latest mining statistics all he ever has to talk about is boring stuff like murders and crime waves.

** It is not so much that he is born lucky (Rincewind is the one who is champion of Lady Luck and he has as much misfortune in life as much as he has good fortune), but that he is born as champion of Destiny or maybe Fate, the opposite Discworld god to Lady. Strangely enough, in "The last hero", the ancient old-fashioned heroes recognize him as someone living by The Code and that, by the laws they have followed their whole lives to survive and flourish, Carrot will win against them, no ifs or buts about it.

* CelibateHero: He originally never noticed he's lodging with the, ''hem-hem'', seamstresses until his encounter with Angua. Apparently his upbringing by a race that thinks of puberty as something that happens in the fifties had something to do with it.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: Or rather embarrassing dwarfish name,Kzad-bhat, or headbanger in Morporkian. In Thud when a dwarf refers to him by his dwarfish name, he insists just Carrot is fine. Meanwhile Angua mentally notes that he wouldn't want this getting back to the lads in the watch.

* HonorBeforeReason: {{PlayedWith}}.

* LiteralMinded: At first at least, and later depending on how one views his ObfuscatingStupidity. Carrot's literal mindedness is the cause of a case of death when Vimes remembered all too late about after ordering him to "throw the book" at a criminal that was backed up to a very harsh drop. Not to mention the book was super-heavy, the rules for being in the Watch.

* AnimalMotifs: Is often likened to a dog and acquires the nickname 'Vetinari's terrier' (though most people avoid saying it his face).

* {{Ambadassador}}:
** In one of his earliest outings as a Duke, he threatened to personally send a hostile ambassador [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown 'home in an ambulance']], which caused the man to redeploy his army so far from the border that it threatened a country on the other side of it. His reputation amongst diplomatic circles has only grown since, and since he treats issues like wars as crimes on a bigger scale (he arrests the generals in ''Jingo'' for "behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace). Vetinari has learned to defuse international issues by simply sending Vimes.
** Vimes has also found that his policing instincts fit quite well in diplomacy, with Vetinari at one point testily remarking that Vimes's understanding of political reality was masterly, but his language wasn't. He has no qualms about provoking heads of states and stirring up controversy to do what he believes is right (like bringing a troll and an openly female dwarf into a still-somewhat-fundamentalist dwarven kingdom). The heads of states, in return, recognize that he's an unbendingly honest and honorable (if not particularly bright - [[SmarterThanYouLook or so they think]]) man, and thus treat him with a great deal of respect, and no small amount of fear.

-->''It was [[{{Pun}} gilt by association]]''

* CrushingHandshake: He can do this without even trying, as Moist finds out in ''Literature/RaisingSteam'', comparing shaking Vimes's hands to a bag full of walnuts.

* TheExecutioner: Samuel Vimes's ancestor Suffer-Not-Injustice "Stoneface" Vimes was the only man to step up and execute the last king of Ankh-Morpork Lorenzo the Kind (who is heavily implied to have tortured and raped children to death). [[UngratefulBastard Ankh-Morpork being]] [[FullCircleRevolution what it is]], the citizens soon turned against him, to the point of needing several graves, and is responsible for the Vimes family falling on such hard times until Samuel [[spoiler:became Commander of the City Watch and Duke of Ankh-Morpork.]] One of Vetinari's rewards for Vimes was rehabilitating his ancestor's memory and commissioning a statue of him, it's the only one not graffitied in the city because no one wants to see Vimes's reaction on finding out it was vandalized.

** He's also got shades of another British-created lawman, Judge Dredd of ''ComicBook/{{2000AD}}'', both being feared beacons of law in their respective hives of scum and villainy. Hell, look at the common depiction of Vimes up above, and imagine his guard's helm replaced by a Judge's helmet.

** A significant part of his Memetic Baddassery is the fact that he's a major player in the politics of Ankh-Morpork, quite possibly the most important leader after Vetinari himself, and yet ''remains uncorrupt''. This is explicitly stated as part of the reason he commands such respect.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Gives himself a title like this by accident to the dwarves. In Fifth Elephant, he jokingly adds his schoolboy title of Blackboard Monitor to his legitimate pedigree, which includes both a Knighthood and Dukedom. However, as dwarves consider writing sacred, the concept roughly translates to ''Destroyer of Words''. No points for guessing which title the dwarves use to hold him in awe for the rest of the series

** played with a bit that this opinion doesn't stop him from instantly suspecting that [[spoiler: the clerk Skimmer is a trained assassin, simply by observing how very ''harmless'' the man's way of walking appears. So he lobs an orange at him and he doesn't flinch or dodge the orange, and instead allows it to hit him, hinting that the man had Assassin training to instantly recognize that the flying fruit was no threat. But he still backs it up by sending a runner to check the records of assassins with a description of the man.]]

* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Downplayed. Sam Vimes is average-height but spent most of his life running around half-fed, while Lady Sybil is a massively built woman who towers over her husband, thanks to her descent from true blue warrior nobility.

* BreastPlate: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. She's so heavy-chested that the Watch had to have one custom built.

* CrazyIsCool: Used to be a pest exterminator before joining the watch, his preferred method for cleaning hornet nests was by sneaking his way inside, planting a bomb, then fighting his way out

* WomanWereWoes: her narration often mentions her transformation in the broader context of her being the only woman in the Watch (at least until female dwarfs start openly dressing female) and likening it to Menstrual Menace, but also mentions problems like the nagging feeling she should be wearing three bras.

* FurAgainstFang: Points out that werewolves, like Angua, have certain advantages on vampires - ''they'' can pass for human pretty easily by comparison, and only turn into one thing (one with the same number and kind of limbs as a human), as opposed to hundreds, with an entirely different form of movement.

* WomanWereWoes: mentions that turning into a cloud of bats is more of a problem for her than for a man since she ends up naked afterwards.

** Kings were often a quick way to get Vimes in a sour mood in the early books, ''especially'' if the possibility of a king of ''Ankh-Morpork'' was raised, believing that kings merely being around tended to mess with peoples' heads and made them act as though the king were somehow inherently better and follow them blindly, despite being no different from them. Given Ankh-Morpork's own history with royalty and its ties to his ancestry, this hatred may very well be ''genetic''. He kinda gets over this in time due to sheer necessity as he gets roped more and more in diplomatic affairs (ironically, several of the kings he meets, including the Low King of the Dwarves and [[spoiler:the Diamond King of the Trolls]] actually rather like Vimes for his honesty and straight-forward attitude), but it's still best not to suggest that ''his'' city could use a King.
** Vampires have also been a sticking point for Vimes for most of the Watch series, even after he began to recruit other forms of undead into the Watch under his command. The reasons for this are quite similar for his reasons for disliking kings, which is that vampires tend to seek to control people and reduce them to something less (the whole "blood-sucking" thing is rather secondary to that in Vimes' eyes, almost to the point of being a non-issue given the myriad other odd races he's had to deal with while living in Ankh-Morpork).

** Kings were often a quick way to get Vimes in a sour mood in the early books, ''especially'' if the possibility of a king of ''Ankh-Morpork'' was raised, believing that kings merely being around tended to mess with peoples' heads and made them act as though the king were somehow inherently better and follow them blingly, despite being no different from them. Given Ankh-Morpork's own history with royalty and its ties to his ancestry, this hatred may very well be ''genetic''. He kinda gets over this in time due to sheer necessity as he gets roped more and more in diplomatic affairs (ironically, several of the kings he meets, including the Low King of the Dwarves and [[spoiler:the Diamond King of the Trolls]] actually rather like Vimes for his honesty and straight-forward attitude), but it's still best not to suggest that ''his'' city could use a King.

* OddFriendship: With Lady Sybil. It's not given a ''huge'' amount of attention, and generally played for laughed at how stumped Vimes is at the whole thing, but despite being at nearly opposite ends of the social ladder, Nobby and Lady Sybil develop a rapport the moment they meet. He's never anything but completely respectful and admiring towards her, and she never has a bad word to say about him. Even Colon doesn't get along with Nobby with such effortless ease.

** Not that this opinion stops him from instantly suspecting that [[spoiler: Skimmer]] is a trained assassin, simply by observing how very ''harmless'' the man's way of walking appears. So he lobs an orange at him.[[note]]Inigo doesn't flinch or dodge the orange, and instead allows it to hit him, hinting that the man had Assassin training to instantly recognize that the flying fruit was no threat[[/note]]

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After first appearing as the best ratcatcher in Ankh Morpork in Literature/FeetOfClay, he essentially takes Buggy Swires' place in Literature/IShallWearMidnight.

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Vimes is a hardened mean survivalist who pursues justice dogmatically... and while he was still a dirt-poor Captain he gave away half his paycheck to the widows and orphans of Watchmen, without saying a word about it. He will always offer a helping hand to those who need it, but will deny it categorically afterwards and may make a good stab at killing you if you try to spread the word around.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: His fighting style, and it usually suits him - he thrashes both sides of a bar fight in ''Guards! Guards!'' and it's later mentioned in ''Men At Arms'' that he's got a punch even trolls - beings made of actual rock - have learned to respect. Unfortunately, he later attempts it in ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'' against Angua's werewolf brother, to disastrous effect. Onlookers wonder if he's attempting to put up a respectable show for the foreigners, while the werewolf in question is more puzzled than anything.

* UndyingLoyalty: He doesn't take kindly to people speaking poorly of Vimes. In ''Literature/MenAtArms,'' Angua finds Vimes's ledger, which lists a number of female names with dollar amounts. She jumps to the conclusion that he's been frequenting prostitutes and wonders aloud how Carrot can respect a man like Vimes. She then notes that the room's temperature has dropped several degrees. Carrot grips her wrist, takes the ledger away and icily has Colon inform her who the women are: namely, widows and orphans of Watchmen killed in action, whom Vimes pays pensions out of his own wages.

* AnimalStereotypes: As the books frequently point out, a proper term for a creature caught between a wolf and a man is also a ''dog''. And Angua herself admits it - though she doesn't like it being pointed out.

** Additionally, he's into folk-dancing and historical re-enactment.