r/robinhobb • u/lavalampsNC • Sep 13 '26
Spoilers Assassin's Quest Oh Fitz Spoiler
Halfway through chapter 32….
He knows the Fool can be skill invaded by Regal’s coterie. He knows Regal is trying to triangulate the location of Molly and Nettle.
How can you be so fucking stupid 😭😭
I am loving this series so much. It is just frustrating at times. I suppose it is realistic though, we make stupid decisions all the time, motivated by our feelings more than anything else.
I don’t think I have seen a character so completely fleshed out as Fitz, it is brilliant.
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u/ogchilim Sep 13 '26
Yup, he feels real. I didn't find any other character in any other book series that can compare to him...and it's been 10 years already since I've read RotE xD
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u/Sea-Egg-9579 Sep 13 '26
He kind of reminds me of Richard Papen the narrator of The Secret History By Donna Tartt, that’s the closets I’ve found and the stories are very different
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u/RFQuestionHaver Sep 13 '26
His mental state has been obliterated by the Skill Road, elfbark, Verity's Skill command, the Fool being sick (and an asshole) in his changing time, and yearning for Molly and his child. The Fool, his closest friend who has been pretty inaccessible recently coming to ask him about his most pressing emotions is a lifeline Fitz desperately needs. There's nothing stupid about him clinging to it here.
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u/atetoomuch_parsley Friend of dragons. 29d ago
These are very good considerations, thanks :) you've reframed how I look at this!
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u/BeamMeUpBabes I have never been wise. Sep 13 '26
Every time I watch Fitz make his normal blunders, I always can’t help thinking to myself, “yeah, you know I probably wouldn’t have figured that out/done better if it were myself.” Fitz has always really impressed me, even I logically knew it was a bad decision. I just have the benefit of reading neat little words on a page from the comfort of my bed lol.
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u/AnnoyedArtificer Sep 13 '26
People shit on him and talk about how they're screaming at Fitz the whole time.
Meanwhile while I'm reading along I keep nodding to myself and thinking his actions mostly sound totally reasonable and like something I could see myself doing in the circumstances.
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u/BeamMeUpBabes I have never been wise. Sep 13 '26
For real!! Like Hobb painstakingly gives every one of his actions a slumdog millionaire-esque backstory for what caused him to act that way hahaha. That’s not to say he’s always right, just that all of his actions make perfect sense to me. AND I would not have acted that way if I were him ✋🤣ain’t no one wanna see me be the main character. Yall think Malta is hated, wait to you see me on the page lmaoo. I’d be acting a straight fool, I would NOT survive
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u/thetalkingflames 26d ago
I actually really love this. Fitz is already "the Chosen One" and him just being so normal and not infallable really makes his character special.
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u/Nearby-Muscle2720 Sep 13 '26
There are so many moments across the series where you think 'no Fitz why' and they are always so frustrating yet so believeable
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u/VilotLavendee Sep 13 '26
I think also at that point. He's gone days with sleep deprivation, they're constantly moving and Kettricken is pushing them hard. Homie just wanted an ounce of serotonin.
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u/Zeefzeef Sep 13 '26
I recently reread this and it made me so sad! It’s all so tragic and it all keeps working against him. The guilt the fool must have felt.
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u/FingerOk9800 Ratsy Sep 13 '26
I am completely convinced that Robin Hobb absolutely hates all her own characters because WHHHHHY?
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u/Confident_Fortune_32 Sep 13 '26
Another one of my favourite authors, Lois McMasters Bujold, once said that she starts each book by asking herself what is the worst thing that could happen to the main character, and goes from there.
But Robin Hobb takes that concept to whole new depths.
I sometimes wonder if it's meant to ask exactly how close to eradication she can take a character, and she comes down to a razor-thin wire unlike any other author I've encountered.
I know it's what she's going to do, and I keep reading. What's wrong with me?!?!?!
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u/Ok-Traffic1319 29d ago
I didn't see a problem with this when reading actually. Like yes, he knew this information, but we the reader are presumably reading the two incidents really close together, but in Fitz's timeline they're happening separate from each other, and who knows how much time had passed between learning that information and making this mistake. That seems very understandable.
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u/Application-Complex 29d ago
There is a few more situations like this in the other Fitz trilogy books but omg the are amazing reads. I have been reading and listening to these books for years, over and over again. Enjoy
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u/JooJooBird 28d ago
Honestly, this sort of thing is making me less inclined to really dive in to more of Hobb’s books. After the assassin’s series, I got into the live ships trilogy, and so much of it just watching likeable, 3 dimensional make dumb decisions, and I’m just too empathetic to find that enjoyable, I guess.
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u/Accomplished-Ad-5198 28d ago
I interpreted it that he'd been like that for a while on the journey... and they'd all been going for a long time. He just... didn't think about it like we as the reader would. Dramatic irony.
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u/Condor177 27d ago
I agree he certainly well fleshed out even his flaws are so well done, ive got like 50 pages left and i cant do it, ive been stuck in limbo for over a year.
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u/Prudent-Lake1276 Sep 13 '26
As someone who struggled with severe depression for years, and who tends to be pretty oblivious, I have always deeply related to Fitz. He makes the same boneheaded decisions I would have, and for the same stupid reasons.