Month: September 2025

Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 14-17

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Bad Trips

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 17 of Fool’s Fate.***

We are in it now, friends. I don’t even know where to start. We’ve got the intense drudgery of traversing the glacier; Fitz getting drugged and tweaking out; a charged Fitz-Fool confrontation; the Black Man of Aslevjal creeping around; a Skill attack; and an awakening Wit-awareness of Icefyre under the ice.

We are just around the halfway point of Fool’s Fate, and I don’t think I could possibly be more excited for the conclusion of this trilogy. I have no idea what’s coming, but that won’t stop me from speculating!

I’m typically more of an in-the-moment sort of reader, but as the glacial expedition got underway, a few things started to click. All of a sudden it dawned on me that of course Fitz would have some sort of Wit/Skill connection with Icefyre that would impact his looming decision regarding the dragon’s fate. And then we get this brief moment after Civil and the Fool’s fight, when Fitz has a flash of clarity about his ability to Skill-heal the Fool:

“I cannot say how I knew what it was I had glimpsed. Perhaps something in that closed circle of touching told me. I drew a shaky breath and reached recklessly toward his face with outstretched fingers.

‘I can heal you,’ I told him, amazed and breathless with the discovery. The knowledge of my newfound power rushed through my blood, hot as whiskey. ‘I see what is wrong, the bits that are broken and how the blood pools under your skin where it should not. Fool, I can use the Skill and heal you.’”

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 10-13

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No. I am your father.

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 13 of Fool’s Fate.***

It’s time to slay some dragons. For Fitz, both the literal and metaphorical varieties. We have arrived on Aslevjal, and our quest has begun in earnest. At the same time, the day of reckoning for Fitz’s past seems to be upon us.

Let’s begin with Nettle, shall we? All my dreams are coming true. After Skilling into a Nettle-Fitz dream interaction uninvited, Dutiful has had enough of the secrecy and demands answers. When he learns of his secret cousin (sister? 😬), he is pissed! I loved the dressing down he gives Fitz and Chade (more so the Chade part, but still). He’s wondering why he’s been left in the dark about an alternate Farseer heir, left to shoulder the entire responsibility of the line on his own. And when Fitz, in his classic myopia, tries to brush it off with a “yeah, I didn’t think it would really affect you,” Dutiful clocks him perfectly:

“You go around making these monumental decisions about what other people should know or not know about their own lives. But you don’t really have any more idea how it will turn out than I do!”

Such a great scene. I see the argument on both sides (both being Dutiful and Fitz, and very much excluding groveling, self-serving Chade), and they do too. Fitz wants to protect Nettle from being sucked into the Farseer machine the way he was. But witnessing Dutiful’s reaction shows how protecting one child has, in a way, cost the other. (Do we consider Dutiful Fitz’s child? Eh, tomato, tomahto.) So while Dutiful’s point about Fitz not knowing outcomes is true, it cuts both ways. Sure, Fitz shouldn’t shoulder these decisions alone, but what else can you expect from an abandoned boy who has never been able to truly trust anyone?

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 5-9

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Dream On

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 9 of Fool’s Fate.***

Sailing is such fun… just ask Thick!

As our characters embark on their Out Island journey, Thick is having a rough go of it- to say the least. It’s not just the physical challenges (which are formidable) he faces at sea, but also his sheer terror of being taken from home and thrust into an utterly unfamiliar environment.

Not to use Thick as a prop, but filtering the sea travel through his experience gives us two opportunities.

First: we get to tap into Fitz’s paternal side.

As a parent, I can really connect with Fitz’s experience (of course in very different circumstances). There are times when we desperately want to keep our children safe at home, tucked in and comfortable, but we know we can’t always do that. We have to navigate the world with kids who are at times scared, unwilling, uncooperative, or sick. Now, none of that is to say that forcing Thick on this sea voyage is humane – and we can debate the necessity of his presence – but it does highlight a very human experience unfolding on the page.

And through it, we see this beautiful side of Fitz: caring, protective, steadfast. He knows what they are putting Thick through is wrong. He feels regret, and he does his best within the circumstances.

Not to keep playing the parent card, but the weariness of caretaking for a sick Thick is painfully relatable.

“I had been on board for two days. Already it seemed like six months.”

I’ll have to check my textbook, but I’m pretty sure this is Newton’s Law of Time for International Travel While Parenting.

(I hope I’m not being insensitive with my comparisons between Fitz’s guardianship of Thick and the experience of raising children. That’s not my intention. I think it’s fair and possible to draw parallels without demeaning Thick. One of my favorite thematic throughlines of Tawny Man is the many father-like roles Fitz is forced to navigate, and his relationship with Thick is a big part of that.)

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 1-4

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Acting a fool

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 4 of Fool’s Fate.***

Hey hey – we are back! I took a week-ish long breather after finishing Golden Fool to gear up for the final installment of our Tawny Man journey. I’m refreshed and ready to tackle Fool’s Fate. Hit me with your best, Robin!

We pick things up right where we left off. Fitz and company are less than two weeks out from the spring sailing for Prince Dutiful’s Out Island frozen-dragon-slaying expedition. There’s a fair bit of checking in and reviewing the main events. It feels a bit like starting a new board game: review the rules, set the board, then embark on this new endeavor. And if the name of the game is Fitz, we already have two competitors vying for control…

Chade

If I could avoid it, I would. But alas, I’m going to start with Chade.

Early in Golden Fool, I predicted Chade would not make it out of Tawny Man. I am holding strong on this prediction. (I keep wanting to hedge, but the more confident I am, the funnier it will be when I’m wrong.) We know we still have the Fitz and the Fool trilogy to come, and as much of a fool as I think Chade is, I don’t see three books of him throwing temper tantrums serving as our capstone series.

Right out of the gate in Fool’s Fate, we get peak petulant Chade*. My current beef with him is twofold:

  1. He can’t accept his limitations with the Skill and is throwing off the vibes of the entire coterie.
  2. He’s power-hungry and wants full control of Fitz as a means to his own objectives.

This all boils over in a pretty intense showdown between Chade and the Fool over Fitz’s loyalty. After the Fool’s departure, when Fitz questions how they can quarrel over him as if he is an animal, Chade doesn’t even deign to hide his dehumanization of Fitz:

“Not a horse or a dog, Fitz, no. I’d never think of you that way. No. You’re a sword. So you were made to be, by me, a weapon to be wielded. And he thinks you fit his hand the best.”

I think I’ve heard enough.

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