aethersea:

nechrollomicon:

aethersea:

my favorite thing about Corporal Carrot is that he’s a romantic hero plopped right in the middle of the greediest cesspit of a chaotic neutral city ever to debase the pages of literature, and yet instead of having his shining idealism destroyed by an uncaring reality, he makes reality embarrassedly put down the weapons and agree to make nice, and then mutter an awkward “Good morning” whenever it passes him on the street.

It takes Pratchett to write the most surprising and exciting total lack of character development litterature ever whitnessed.

no but see Carrot does develop! that’s what makes it so cool – he does change and adapt to Ankh-Morpork, but not by losing his idealism. f’rexample, a lot of the Watch books deal with discrimination in its many forms, and Carrot, for all his kind-heartedness, is just as prejudiced as would be any nice country boy from an isolated mining community that holds its traditions dear. he’s disgusted by the undead, for all he can be quite civil to Reg Shoe when he mets him on the street. when he finds out Cheery is a girl, he is shocked and horrified and asks plaintively if she couldn’t maybe, you know, not tell anyone about her weird gender nonconformity. Carrot’s forced to confront his learned bigotry just as much as Sam Vimes, we just don’t see it as much because we hardly ever see inside Carrot’s head.

and even the idealism isn’t blind idealism. Carrot’s a cop – he sees more than enough of people’s unsavory sides. he learns a lot from Vimes and the rest about not trusting anyone half as far as you can throw them, and he manages to still believe that people are fundamentally good and just need a bit of a push sometimes.

and – AND! – he recognizes that it’s not right to always be pushing them. because he could, he could push everyone to Be Good all the time. people would do it, at least while he was watching. but he knows that that’s wrong in some fundamental way that’s wrapped up in choice and freedom and the difference between doing the right thing Because It’s Right or doing it Because Carrot Said To. and this takes developing, too – he doesn’t think this way when he first comes to Ankh-Morpork. he falls into the excitement of having a king in Ankh-Morpork just as much as everyone else, and it’s only after much internal conflict (most of which we don’t really see) that he changes his mind.

one of the major themes of the Watch books is “who watches the Watchman?” it’s explored and developed a lot in later books, and of course we get it all from Vimes’ perspective because he’s the one who thinks these sorts of thoughts. he’s the one who worries, constantly, that he’s going to slip up and act like the rotten bastard he knows he is, so he’s always watching himself. but the thing is that Carrot is just as much part of the Watch books and of their themes, and Carrot idolizes Vimes. so he also ends up watching himself, and that’s the thing – Carrot’s a good person in part because he’s constantly examining and reevaluating his ideas about morality and about people.