I’m re-reading the City Watch series via the new audiobook (pro-tip, listen to them at 1.2x-1.3x - I really disliked them when I listened at 1x, but speeding it up a bit really improved them). And I can’t help but feel like STP went into the series with an entirely different expectation of what he was going to be writing about.
I’m talking, of course, about Carrot. Now obviously, anyone whose familiar with Sir Terry Pratchett’s writing style knows that Carrot was never going to be crowned King of Ankh Morpork. His story was, right from the get-go very clearly supposed to be a subversion of the old “Long lost king from humble origins saves the city and comes into his crown” trope.
I still do get the impression though, that Carrot was planned to be the main protagonist of the series, and that Pratchett just fell in love with Vimes as a character early on and pivoted. It sure seems like the original plan was for Carrot to eventually wind up as the commander of the City Watch, with Vimes retiring, which would play into the theme of Carrot’s character that he can do the most good for the city by not being King.
But it reads as though along the way Pratchett saw the potential in Vimes and had so much fun writing his character that he changed his mind. It would explain why by the final few books in the City Watch series, Carrot goes from having one of the largest shares of “screen time” to being a barely present side-character.
Thoughts?
Side Note - anyone else catch the multi-layer pune (or play on words) for Carrot’s name?
A Carrot is an orange (see hair color) vegetable that grows underground until it is plucked out from underneath the soil to fulfill it’s true purpose
And
Carat as in diamond, as in diamond in the rough, as he’s a King living amongst “commoners”
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how Pterry intended it. I don’t remember where I read it so take it with a pinch of salt, but Pratchett himself has confirmed this, pivoting to Vimes as main character for the City Watch when Carrot was intended to be the one.
And I’m glad. Carrot is a great side character to compliment Vimes, but I feel he’d be fairly one-note as a main character. In Guards, Guards! we kind of need Carrot to introduce the situation to us, but Vimes has so much depth that I’m glad he became the MC.
I also like that it makes Carrot more mysterious. We’re never quite sure what’s going in his head, and that makes him much more interesting.
Edit: It’s in The Art of Discworld:
Vimes was never intended to be a major character; I began the first draft of Guards! Guards! with the assumption that Captain Carrot would be the lead. He was, in a way, but only in the sense that Zeppo Marx plays the lead in a Marx Brothers movie; technically he sometimes did, but no one ever went to see a movie just because Zeppo was in it. I needed a head to get into, and Vimes’s was empty at the time, so suddenly we began to hear his thoughts…
Can’t say for sure but I don’t think so. Carrot was sold a bit too hard as the true chosen one and regardless if the Watch was intended as a whole series or not from the start, it wouldn’t have worked with him as the protagonist. He’s a true Mary Sue but with better hair. Anything with him as the lead would have been boring after a couple of the same old jokes and other watchmen doing faces. Besides, Pratchett loved his long running jokes and Carrot as the king that never would was one of his best ones in the early Watch.
Not a bad idea! It’s also likely the Watch series was going to be a one-off, like some of the earlier books.
I’m glad he chose Vimes, however. My boy Sammy is an excellent MC UwU