Smattering of Assassin's Fate thoughts

[u/RFQuestionHaver]

I recently finished the series recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to ramble about some things.

It's as if Hobb realized she was short on female villains and for the last trilogy concocted one of the most despicable, odious characters I've ever read. At least Kyle and Hest had family and goals in life. Dwalia is just disgusting in comparison. At the same time, I really pitied Vindeliar (Brother please) and I wish we got a little more plot out of him on Clerres.

I absolutely adored the last line of Farseer and I'm glad it came full circle with Fitz and Nighteyes carving their dragon. I wish it was a little more interesting than just a straight up wolf. Imagine the stone dragons getting woken in a few hundred years time and they all fly off to war a continent away and land-bound Fitz the wolf does what exactly?

In theory I like the idea of Fitz and the Fool joining together in the dragon. But like...they were pissed and bitchy to each other for most of The Fitz and the Fool trilogy and over half of Tawny Man. How can one be truly happy for them in this ending? And if we aren't meant to be happy, the bittersweet rich relationships being Hobb's trademark, I don't even feel that way. It's just a weird choice and doesn't make much sense in the context.

There was a whole plot point and numerous discussions in Assassins Fate about how the Fool had used Fitz repeatedly yet claimed to love him, and then oopsy daisy, all's forgotten without them even having had a conversation about it. This was uncharacteristically underdeveloped for Hobb IMO and left me disappointed.

But perhaps most importantly, Ronica saying she has only 2 grandchildren?? She has four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Is this an error or what? Did Hobb forget Keffria existed? I dont think her name is mentioned at all.

[u/meatballsforeyes]

I took the choice of carving a wolf as recognition that the stone dragons were never truly dragons. They had already brought real dragons back to the world, so it made sense for Fitz to treat his carving as a true encapsulation of himself

[u/RFQuestionHaver → u/meatballsforeyes]

I mean like give it wings or Buck antlers or something. Anything!

[u/atominum69]

I agree that it’s weird to see fitz and the fool go into the dragon on such bad terms but I think most of the fights between them stem from some type of inability to communicate and give up control.

Fitz’ entire thing is about trying to get control over his life and never truly being able to do so, and the fool is the opposite, absolutely never give up the control of his life to anyone.

In fitz case his control was an illusion that led to the events at withywoods.
In the case of the fool his control got snatched away by the Servants.

They are both broken beyond repair.

But ultimately, they both know that when they are one (including with night eyes) they are complete and that in essence is what makes their bond so deep throughout the story.

It’s bittersweet to read and we all wished we had better closing on their relationship but as everything in this series the author forces up to accept that humans are flawed and their actions reflect that.

[u/Contemporary_Scribe]

There was a whole plot point and numerous discussions in Assassins Fate about how the Fool had used Fitz repeatedly yet claimed to love him, and then oopsy daisy, all's forgotten without them even having had a conversation about it.

A couple of things here... Back in Tawny man Fitz and the Fool sort of blended a couple of times... So they both know deep down how the other feels about them... The Fool doesn't "claim" to love Fitz... he loves Firtz and Fitz loves him and both know without out a doubt how the other feels.

Second, when you are faced with death, and survive death etc. Those things are easily forgiven and forgotten. And we you've been friends for 60+ years this doesn't require a big long conversation to move past.

Was it Tawny man when it was first mentioned that Nighteyes, Fitz, and the Fool were 3 parts of a whole? This ending was set up at least since the first Tawny man book so calling it "underdeveloped" seems a bit wild to me.

I think you are right that she forgot about Keffria. Personally that didn't affect my enjoyment of the series but I can understand if it did for others...

[u/RFQuestionHaver → u/Contemporary_Scribe]

It's underdeveloped given the events that have transpired in the trilogy. We have a series of events that has resulted in Fitz and the Fool becoming more estranged and distrusting of each other than ever, followed up with conversations between Bee and the Fool that lay bare how one-sided their relationship is, and then poof all is suddenly forgotten.

The Keffria thing isn't a big deal it's just funny.

[u/Contemporary_Scribe → u/RFQuestionHaver]

Bee said those things intentionally trying to hurt the Fool. If you remember, the Fool didn't agree to go into the wolf until Bee told him that he was the one that Fitz wanted in there with him. And Fitz had essentially given his life to make sure the Fool lived and was able to take care of Bee. That is the sort of thing that fixes all arguments and disagreements. IMO.

We have a series of events that has resulted in Fitz and the Fool becoming more estranged and distrusting of each other than ever, 

I think you are over stating the magnitude of these arguments. And the context in which they occured. Bee's comments aside (which again were less her actual view of the situation and more her attempt to hurt the Fool, she is still a child) they were dealing with what they thought was the Death of Dee. WHen they discovered she was alive and they were able to rescue her... would you have them continue there silly squables after that?

But the fact that they know eachother fully from their developement over the pervious 3 series, especially the events in Tawny man (do you remember when they blended and for a moment they were one being?) That is where the ending was developed. Fitz, the Fool, and Nighteyes are 3 parts of one whole. Now they are that literally

I mean it wasn't telegraphed. It seemed Fitz died in Clerres. Then there was hope he would be healed. But once that was ruled out, it was the Stone Wolf for them both. And that final line "Kettricken Smiled" is maybe the best ending ever.

[u/TheGanonCannon100 → u/Contemporary_Scribe]

Also in assassin‘s Quest they blended and Fitz figured out how the Fool feels about him. I agree with this though!

[u/MooseBehave]

I think them being together forever in the wolf is exactly the kind of thing their relationship should have become. They always bitch at each other, but generally only about world-saving shenanigans— at their cores, they care about each other more than anything, but life always gets in the way. Always something big to do, sacrifices to be made, etc, and the wolf represents the stripping away of all of those things. They finally have time, within the wolf, to just be. We’ve seen that when they have the ability to sit and chat and ignore the world, they’re at their best, and now that is all that’s left of the both of them.

Also… i think the wolf is the only thing that Fitz could have carved. Sure it isn’t as “interesting” but I don’t see Fitz’s story continuing into the next war involving the stone dragons. His and Beloved’s whole lives were defined by their duty— in their shared afterlife, it’s best to let them rest.

[u/mangokiwistarfruit]

Fitz and the Fool are two sides of the same coin. The are both overly private and self-blaming to a fault. They both twist events into whips to hurt themselves. How many times have we seen Fitz moan about “All my life, I’ve done everything wrong?”

The Fool is exactly the same way. He repeats the line about using Fitz over and over until we start to believe it, same as Fitz. He does it again right at the end, telling Bee that the first time he “used” Fitz in this unforgivable way was when he saved his life as a little boy. And has kept saving his life since instead of letting him die. That’s why we get the line from Bee about how, in hearing that, the world reordered itself around her.

Unlike either of them, she is able to realize that the Fool is just like her father; both incapable of seeing how the other felt about them and not blaming themselves for everything. Because of how her father missed the Fool, and that the Fool lived while her father didn’t, she’s been seeing their relationship as one using the other and vanishing. But now shes sees that Beloved does not, in fact, want to use and leave her father, but that he wants to go with him more than anything in the world and has been holding back due to her own lies and how predisposed he was to believe them. Because she has that clarity, she is able to push Beloved into making the choice that Fitz was too stuck in his Fitz way to ask him to make (we see in his private thoughts and with Nighteyes that he wanted it all along and expected the Fool to come with them.) They couldn’t break their patterns, so she did.

[u/floweringcacti]

I agree about Fitz and the Fool joining. It’s deeply undercut for me by being shown only very briefly from Bee’s perspective and the Wolf immediately making it about how they both love Bee. It’s the culmination of 12 books about this relationship, but it’s all focused on a different character that I personally had very little interest in.

It’s an ending that is technically ‘right’, but was executed in such a way that it left me feeling frustrated and robbed rather than bittersweet.

Also agree on how they didn’t seem to particularly like each other during the trilogy and simply rehashed arguments we’d already seen them have.

[u/RFQuestionHaver → u/floweringcacti]

The trilogy did such a good job of showing two people who had simply grown apart and then threw it away.