He also gets along with Watch Commander Samuel Vimes, despite the latter's legendary dislike of magic, as both of them share the belief that the most important thing about magic is knowing when not to use it.

Vimes then recruits the Watch into his own private army regiment, reasoning that, as an official noble, he is entitled to do so by law and by Lord Rust's command, with the group remaining independent as knights legally fall under command of the king or his duly-appointed representatives, neither of which exist in Ankh-Morpork.

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

Ahmed and his band of Klatchian D ' regs and Vimes army head towards Gebra, in Klatch, where the war is due to start.

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.

Since Carrot is, of course, very much not the King of Ankh-Morpork his reminding of Vetinari is all that is required for Vimes to get his new position and rank.

It is explained that, had Vimes reacted slightly differently in the beginning-staying in Ankh-Morpork rather than attempting to follow Ahmed and rescue Angua -, the whole history of the Ankh-Morpork VS Klatch war would have gone very differently.

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.

Samuel " Sam " Vimes is a fictional policeman from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is ; " His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh ; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes ": When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as " His Excellency ", and is also nicknamed " Blackboard Monitor Vimes ," and " Vetinari's Terrier " ( or hammer ): According to his wife, Sybil, Vimes is recognised by many as Lord Vetinari's right-hand man.

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.

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.

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.

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.

gives the age of Vimes ' son, ( also named Sam ), born during the climax of Night Watch, as being fourteen months, which would put Vimes at a minimum of 47 or 48 years old during the events of the book, however when Vimes discusses his time as a blackboard monitor, he thinks about it being " more than 45 years ago " and that he was six years old at the time, putting his age at least 51 years.

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.

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 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 ).

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.

Although widely differing characters, Vimes and Vetinari can be called similar in that they both have very cynical worldviews, but fairly idealistic aims.

While not as cynical as Commander Samuel Vimes, she balances out Carrot's naïveté ( although she occasionally wonders if he's really as innocent as he appears ).

She is revealed to be a spy for the Dwarf Low King ( and probably lady M ), but Vimes keeps her in the Watch anyway.

On the other hand, the Nobbses have stolen so much stuff over the years that, as Vimes has said, " you could probably prove Nobby was the Dowager Duchess of Quirm.

Commander Vimes notices that the Ankh-Morpork Post Office has issued two different sets of stamps commemorating the Battle of Koom Valley, one in which the Dwarfs are winning the battle, the other the Trolls, and he makes an angry remark about " that pea-brain at the Post Office " ( probably referring to Stanley, the Head of Stamps Dept, who's known to have been raised by peas ).

Even though the famous human Fingers-Mazda ( Thief of Fire ) is usually credited with being the Disc's first thief, Monolith probably predates him considerably (" Troll gods were hitting one another with clubs ten thousand years before we'd even stopped trying to eat rocks " ~ Samuel Vimes, Men at Arms ).

Though he finds being affectionate in public embarrassing and is divided on disliking Sybil's status as a noble, it is clear that Vimes loves his wife dearly ; indeed when he was trapped in the past alone in a world he no longer recognised, the History Monks gave him a silver cigar case his wife had bought him to inspire him to continue with his mission.

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

The Discworld characters are drawn in the same style as Vimes and Young Sam, but the pastel animals are still present, and all three settings ( the world of Where's My Cow ?, the streets of Ankh-Morpork, and Young Sam's nursery ) begin blurring together.

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.

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 has once been described as a speciesist, though only from an " old school " mindset.

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.

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.