Ned Coates didn't die (at least in the altered timeline).
He was still alive a moment before Vimes was sent back to the present. We don't see him die, so he might still be alive.- It's also possible that he died in the original timeline (hence the grave with his name on it), but not the altered one. To avoid a paradox, the History Monks sent him to Fourecks, which had a messed up timeline anyway.
- Would that make him the "Tinhead Ned" who'd occupied the jail cell before Rincewind?
- Vetinari mentions that the fighting continues for a time after Vimes/Keel and Carcer disappear into the present (during which time he, Vetinari, kills four men). It's possible that Ned was killed during that time, or that he was injured earlier and the wound proved fatal.
Carcer is still alive.
Think about it. He was sentenced to hanging. Now let's see, which other characters were sentenced to hanging? There was 1) Rincewind, in The Last Continent. Escaped and saved the country. 2) Moist von Lipwig, in Going Postal. The hanging is faked by Vetinari, because he is useful, and he ends up as head of multiple large business organizations. 3) (I'm not completely sure about this one) Owlswick Jenkins, in Making Money. Is rescued and then secreted away by Vetinari, presumably to make something artistic that is very necessary, somehow.Now, who else has gotten the angel treatment? Moist von Lipwig, the incredible thief. Reacher Gilt, expert swindler and crooked business man. Owlswick Jenkins, stamp forger. So Vetinari only does it for normal thieves, not murderers, right? But doesn't it say, in the book, the whole "Would you let a murderer go for a thousand dollars?" passage? It's the same thing. What are Carcer's skills? Firstly, he's charismatic. He is said to almost be able to convince you that he is innocent. Secondly, he's super-sane. That's more or less the whole point. Why the hell wouldn't Vetinari take him?Remember, Vetinari is compared to a little old lady who collects pieces of string, because they might be useful. Every time throughout the book he comes up, he counsels towards the perfect arrest. In the second scene, he asks that shouldn't Carcer be taken in by the book, and says "and ask questions later." He knows Vimes perfectly. He knows that Vimes just wants to kill Carcer. He is subliminally convincing hhim not to kill him. In the graveyard scene, there are three hints. One, on the same note, he congratulates him on a perfect arrest. Two, there is the "What could I prove? And to what end would I prove it?" He is telling Vimes not to pursue this line of inquiry anymore. Vimes's life as Keel is over, and Carcer's life as Carcer is over. Thirdly, "The Job they had to do." Vetinari needs Carcer for something, and he will make him do it. I don't yet know what it is, but I feel like he will come up again. We never see him die. All we see is that he is sent to the gallows... and disappears.- Except that sparing a cop-killer who'd threatened his family is probably the one thing Vetinari could do that would make Sam Vimes turn against him. He's not going to waste an invaluable asset like Vimes just to acquire the services of an unsteerable psychopath.
- Agreed, Moist, Jenkins, Leonard, et all are kept alive because Vetinari knows the buttons to push to keep them under control. Carcer doesn't have those buttons, like The Joker he just wants to watch the world burn. He's the sort of person that when sent on a mission to kill Colonel Condiment, would take time out to stomp on kids tea-party, slice the throat of of someone who looked at him funny, and then burn down a water-balloon factory all on the way. And not understand what he did wrong, or even there was a difference between any of those acts. Vetinari would have no use for such a man.
- Also, Moist et al. are essentially good people. Carcer is not.
- On top of the practical reasons outlined above, there's also the fact that Vetinari wears the lilac. We've seen how seriously those who were there take the remembrance of the Glorious 25th of May. Even Vetinari wouldn't be coldhearted enough to allow the man responsible for 6 of those 7 graves to walk free, and on May 25 at that.
- Also, Reacher Gilt was offered the same angels' chance as Moist, but refused to take it, insaed opting for the open door. Too bad for him that it led to a deadly drop.
Carcer isn't really a psychopath.
He's just Wrong Genre Savvy. He believes that he is the hero and everyone trying to stop him is just a Mook.- Which makes Vimes/Keel Carcer's Big Bad, naturally.
Reg Shoe died instantly from the first arrow shot.
He became a zombie immediately, but was so carried away by the intensity of the battle that he didn't even realize this had happened. He only lay down when the number of Annoying Arrows made movement difficult even for one of the undead, at which point he succumbed to a Heroic BSoD. Hours later, after someone from the Embalmer's Guild had pulled all the arrows out and buried him, Reg realized that just lying around wasn't accomplishing anything and dug himself up.- The idea of a zombie (a discworld zombie, anyway) being weighed down by arrows doesn't seem likely. It's been established (in Reaper Man) that they can easily smash their way out of a wooden coffin and dig their way out of the ground.
- It didn't have to completely immobilize him, just hinder him enough to make him notice he'd been arrow-riddled and keel over from the shock of it.
- Vimes does note this pretty much as a fact...except for the movement part. He only 'laid down' after he consciously realized that he SHOULD be dead, having so many arrows in him.
- This might even help explain Reg's later habit of going to graveyards and trying to convince the completely dead to quit lying around: he never actually experienced an interruption in consciousness when he died himself, so assumes they're just as continuously-conscious and are simply being apathetic.
It's no accident that Vimes has been taken off the register by the Assassins' Guild at this point.
Given what we've learned about Wilikins in later books, it's a safe bet that the moment he learned Lady Sybil was expecting, he quietly dropped the Guild a hint that if anything happened to the father of Her Ladyship's child-to-be, their Guildhouse (which Vimes owns) would immediately be foreclosed upon and either converted into a new Watch House, or sold to Harry King as an in-city sewage-processing plant. Together with how Carrot would tear the city down around their ears to find whomever harmed his commander, it just wasn't worth it at any price to keep issuing commissions against him. Captain Swing's parents were Omnian refugees
His first name, "Findthee", sounds a lot like the common abbreviations of Morporkian translations of Omnian names ("Visit-the-Unbeliever" and the like). And given Omnia's history of religious persecution and belligerence, it stands to reason that a lot of people who got on the wrong side of the Quisition would flee to Ankh-Morpork.- Of course, given both the rather fuzzy timelines involved all around and Swing's skillset, former employees of the Quisition after their fall from favour would also be possible.
Vimes gave the New Cable Street Particulars, from Maskerade, their name deliberately.
And part of the training to be a member is you have to learn all about what the first Particulars did. He also makes sure that they know what's the fate of watchmen who act like that. There may be a need for watchmen who aren't dressed in armor, but Sam Vimes makes damn sure that they still wear the uniform. That way he makes sure that none of his people are ever like that again. It's also why that Vimes requires the new breed to have their badges with them, at all times.