I Was Just Thinking About How In Later Discworld Books, Even As Its An Unspoken Understanding Among Everyone

i was just thinking about how in later Discworld books, even as its an unspoken understanding among everyone in Ankh-Morpork that Carrot is the King of the city and he's probably the last descendant of the original ruling line, not only does Carrot avoid pushing the narrative to exploit it unless absolutely necessary, but it never de-emphasizes the fact that he's a dwarf by adoption

Even in later books Carrot is still regularly writing letters to his family in their mine; he thinks of himself as a dwarf, he is CONSIDERED to be a dwarf by all except the most hardliners of dwarf society (and even they can't outright deny him dwarf status, the best they can do is say he is an anomaly); he might USE his narrative status as the One True King, but in his heart, to himself, he is still the child of the Ironfounderssons.

His human heritage is functionally irrelevant to him unless he needs to make use of it, much like his ancestral sword. And it occured to me, what if he actively chose to distance himself from his human heritage because he learned about them in later books and found nothing worth acknowledging?

Carrot is in a weird place because he is the One True King, a narrative status that makes him the good and wise king who knows only truth and justice and comes bringing goodness to all, and this is quite a contrast to the ACTUAL kings of Ankh-Morpork, who were universally at BEST a bunch of horribly useless and inept absolute rulers that are living embodiments of 'the aristocracy are dumber than a sack of doorknobs' the series leans into, and at worst are implcitly some of the most horribly sadistic and cruel people in the setting.

One particular example is Lorenzo the Kind, the last king of Ankh-Morpork, whose name was deliberately ironic; he was so horrifically sadistic that he spelled the end of the kingship because he's the one who was killed by Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes, who because no one was willing to judge him because kings were considered Special, just dragged him off his throne, cut off his head, and the surviving family members were exiled from the city.

Lorenzo is the last member of Carrot's biological ancestry we have definitive information on, off the top of my head, and he paints a dark, horrific image. He's painted as the absolute nadir of horror from the ruling classes, and is heavily implied to have been a sadistic pedophile with a penchant for torture (at the very least Carrot and Vimes both note that he was apparently fond of children and was painted with a lot of them nearby at all times, discussing it in a way that suggests a DEEPLY uncomfortable topic neither of them wants them to address, and later in Feet Of Clay Vimes points out that Lorenzo had unspecified but horrific machines in the basement).

Carrot is very strongly implied to, at least starting from Men At Arms (in which he discovers he is the king), have investigated his ancestry, and he's able to elaborate on their actions and history, and this also marks the point where he carefully but firmly emphasizes his dwarf heritage for the rest of the series.

He found out who his ancestors were, and discovered they were horrifically evil people, and that Mister Vimes was fully justified in being proud of his ancestor putting them down like rabid beasts, and it leads to him firmly emphasizing that his family are the Ironfoundersson dwarfs.

Do you remember?

Heres a little video i put together of making this drawing.

As always, tips appreciated ♥️

lol

tamora pierce books are a hug

i’m rereading some right now — at first to refresh because i want to write a daja/kel fic — but i forgot how these books soothe my soul. the way she writes friendship and growth is so important so chefs kiss.

i love how she writes character arcs — both negative and positive. like everyone has the capacity for change (wyldon of cavall) but not everyone will, and sometimes people get worse (joren of stone mountain). in will of the empress berenene has multiple chances to stop being The Worst and gets Worse — but in a way that is understandable, believable, and human. it adds such texture to the books. and some people like king jon in keladry’s books are protagonist and antagonist.

the adult mentors are so real and varied: niko, frostpine, rosethorn, vedris, lark, myles of olau, sir raoul, wyldon. they joke, they laugh, they make mistakes — like real people instead of caricatures.

and tammy’s stories build on each other like stone after stone in a foundation — like when kel is going to scanra to save her people it is so believable that all of her friends ride after her because kel has four books worth of proving she is the type of leader people would do that for. tammy understands her characters and their motivations so well.

also owen of jesslaw plsss i would die for him

in conclusion: i genuinely think reading these books as a kid was so vital to me and they should be required reading for everyone