~TranscendentalMoon

...is the stuff you find on the cereal box.

[eases into The Fifth Elephant mode]
When Vimes meets dear old Wolfgang von Uberwald, he thinks "good gods, this guy is a down-and-dirty bastard."

Later in the book, he's talking to Sybil and says, "the only way to take 'em down is to take 'em out." And Sybil says, "Yes, I think I recognize the type," in apparently a very ironic way. This is because she is talking about Vimes himself. He is a self-admitted dirty no-good down-in-the-gutter bastard.

He and Wolf aren't the same, though. Vimes is more contained. He's set limits that he absolutely cannot cross, and he uses his badge as a shield...

...to guard him from The Beast.

And in philosophical BS mode, Wolfgang is The Beast personified. He's Vimes unchained and looking to kill.

Is it just a coincidence, then, that Wolf is a werewolf? A beast?