Mark Reads ‘Night Watch’: Part 2

In the second part of Night Watch, the Watch tries to capture Carcer. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Discworld.

There’s nothing like a good chase scene.

And look, I get why Vimes thinks that things used to be simpler. Nostalgia is an addictive force, and it’s sometimes easier to remember the past as being better, especially if you’re in the midst of something that is awful. This is not one of Vimes’s best mornings, either. Stronginthearm was murdered by one of the most hated people in Vimes’s life. His wife is due any day now. His life has changed so much in a relatively short span of time. So, yes, I do get why he entertains the brief moment of nostalgia that we get prior to him seeing the Patrician.

But was life simpler back then? Or is it just a matter of perspective? Because as soon as Vimes gets word that Carcer has been spotted, look at what this chase turns into. Corporal Buggy Swires provides aerial surveillance from a heron. Detritus is a tank with his special crossbow. The Watch uses semaphore to communicate almost instantaneously. These are all newer developments, and it allows the Watch to track down Carcer and limit him to a single building. Then, they’re able to communicate to Detritus that he should take a shot at Carcer, and IT’S SO COOL. This kind of coordination never could have happened back when we first met the Watch. Back then, they were… well, they got shit done. Sometimes. It took work, and they found a new motivation to care about the work that they do. Their growth was mostly intentional, you know? They had to care. They had to change their behaviors and the way they were viewed by others in Ankh-Morpork.

So does Vimes really want life to be like it used to be? Or is he merely so far from those days that he forgot what they were really like? Have his filters changed, too, and now he sees the world through a different lens?

AND LORD, I AM UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THAT STORM. What’s happening???

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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