Vimes catches up with 71-hour Ahmed and has, by this time, figured out that Ahmed is a fellow policeman.

Arriving at Gebra they discover that Carrot has convinced the two armies to get together and play a game of football ( he has an inflatable football in his backpack for just such an emergency ), Vimes is preparing to arrest the Klatchian Prince and Lord Rust for various breaches of the peace ( such as being prepared for war ) and 71-hour Ahmed is supporting him.

Sam Vimes is informed that Vetinari has been " reminded " that the old rank of Commander was the same as the old rank of Duke.

In the end, Vetinari has recovered completely, Dorfl is sworn in as a watchman, Vimes gets a pay rise, and the watch house gets a new dart board.

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 British actor Pete Postlethwaite.

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.

For three centuries afterwards, the memory of " Old Stoneface " has lived on in infamy and, as his descendant, Vimes has frequently endured suspicious mutterings from the aristocracy.

It is mentioned in Men at Arms that Vimes has been in the Watch for 25 years, making him 41 at the time of that novel.

This insult to Vimes ' sense of justice, together with his being naturally knurd and other events, ( it has been claimed he was " brung low by a woman ", which is an interpretation of the anthropomorphisation of the city, Morporkia ), led towards heavy drinking.

Vimes is all-but-shocked at Vetinari's disturbingly cynical ( and probably disturbingly accurate ) view of the world, he in turn has been called " the most cynical bastard that ever walked under the sun " ( in Going Postal ).

In addition, Vimes ' office at Pseudopolis Yard has " everything that his ingenuity could devise ", including sharp ornamental railings, " which are pretty, and make the house look nice, but are, above all, spiky.

Vimes has also managed to evade, beat off and ' kill ' ( at least, temporarily disable ) werewolves ( in The Fifth Elephant ), 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, during a version organized by Angua's brother Wolfgang ; Wolfgang insists that the werewolves would just have " nasty headaches later on.

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.

Though he sometimes has to call in a plasterer when Vimes is particularly angry, Vetinari doesn't worry about it — a sign that he intentionally angers Vimes so as to goad him into a desired action.

It has also been noted that, in personality and mental setup, Vimes bears some similarity to Granny Weatherwax.

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.

Despite having competent subordinates, including Captains Carrot and Angua, and Sergeant Detritus, Vimes finds it difficult to delegate, and is frustrated by the fact that the growth of the Watch has left him with less and less time for actual policing.

Recently, Vimes has seen involvement with:

Terry Pratchett has commented that Vimes has made setting a story in Ankh-Morpork very difficult as it is almost impossible to create a story involving any sort of crime or politics without it rapidly becoming a Watch book.

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.

Vimes once conjectures that if they so-conspired, they could run the world, if they don't already do so.

Vimes ' involvement in preventing a pointless war with Klatch in the novel Jingo led to his being once more rewarded with an unwanted title, in this case, Duke of Ankh.

" Vimes also once had to ' remind ' Detritus that " When Mr safety catch is not on, Mr Crossbow is not your friend.

His father was abusive, and broke his leg at least once ( Vimes notes in Night Watch that Nobby used to have his arms broken by his father too — and in Hogfather, Nobby claims that he never got anything in his stocking ... except once, when his father vomited into it ).

He was apparently inspired to join the Watch after meeting with Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel ( and alternatively, due to time travel, Sam Vimes ), who once gave him a spoon ( which his father subsequently stole upon being released from prison ).

Meanwhile, Nobby and Sergeant Colon have been recruited by Vetinari and his pet inventor, Leonard of Quirm, on a secret mission of their own, unknown to Vimes.

It is mentioned in Jingo that Sam Vimes ' father, Thomas Vimes, had been a watchman prior to his death.

His mum told him that the man had been run over by a cart, but Vimes suspected that if this were true at all, then it was probably a brewer's cart, which had ' run him over ' a bit at a time for years.

In his expanding international and diplomatic role, Vimes appreciates the fact that police officers from Sto Lat to Genua have been trained to salute him, and remain in unofficial contact across the Disc.

Vimes was made aware of this by a young female student from the guild, who had been tasked with merely getting a glimpse of Vimes at his home ( after she had fallen into one of the " eventually lethal " traps ).

At the end of the events of Snuff, Vimes was also genuinely amazed to learn that a new book, " Pride and Extreme Prejudice ", had been dedicated to him.

Shortly after, Vimes is imprisoned in the same cell as the Patrician, who has been leading a relatively comfortable life with the help of the rats he uses as spies.

The Librarian helps Vimes to escape and he runs to the aid of Sybil, who has been chosen as the first virgin to be sacrificed.

The Assassins ' Guild no longer accepts contracts on the Patrician – he is the only person besides Samuel Vimes to have been taken off the register.

Dwarfish courtship is an incredibly tactful affair, primarily concerned with finding out which gender the other dwarf is ( this may have been retconned by the time of the novel, ' Thud ', where it is stated that Samuel Vimes, a human, has picked up a knack for judging the gender of dwarfs, making it likely that they are able to tell amongst themselves ).

It has been said that Granny Weatherwax bears some similarity to Sam Vimes, and Susan Sto Helit.

Following Acting-Constable Cuddys ' funeral, Vimes suggests that the coffin was heavier than expected, which Carrot agrees may have been the case.

Vimes ' wife has been taken to the castle of Angua's werewolf family so the commander and his entourage set out to save her.

He awakens to find that he has been rescued by Miss Palm ( whom Vimes knows in the future as Mrs Palm, Head of the Guild of Seamstresses – seamstresses referring to prostitutes ).

Vimes tolerates this, because it is useful that coppers all over the plains have been trained to obey him.

Most of his officers rationalize his bias as simply not being particularly fond of anyone ; initially, Vimes is jokingly described as fond of rural dwarfs and wizards, primarily because most do not cause crimes relevant to him.

Revealed in the events of Thud !, after years of night-time patrols, Vimes ' mindscape is described as the city of Ankh-Morpork-itself, streets and all, in the dead of night, whilst the rains are bucketing-down over your head.

Although knurdness is a state usually only obtainable by drinking Klatchian coffee, Samuel Vimes, one of the Discworld's most notable characters, is described in Guards!