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***Spoilers for Fool’s Assassin through chapter 10. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, and The Rain Wilds Chronicles are fair game, too.***
If Bee’s birth was a fulcrum in the story – a turning point that demanded a reaction – then certainly Molly’s death qualifies too.
Eda and El.
One may occasionally toss out hyperbole like, “this story is going to kill me.” I’m certain I glibly remarked somewhere along the way that Nighteyes’ death made me want to die.
But Molly’s death scene came close to actually accomplishing the job.
I have a knack for encountering the most emotionally devastating moments right before I plan to shut my eyes at night. But in this case, I was on the treadmill, chugging along at a hefty twelve-degree incline, as Molly abruptly collapsed and was gone.
When I tell you my throat was literally closing with grief as I read her death unfold…
How does Robin do it? Just like with Nighteyes, she’s been building to this the entire book. I said in my last post that I didn’t think Molly was long for this tale. And yet her death still managed to catch me completely off guard.
Maybe that’s partially because I was still reeling from having my entire world rocked by the shift into Bee’s POV. (I believe this is the first time we’ve left Fitz’s perspective in a Fitz-centered book.)
And if I thought experiencing Fitz’s reaction to Molly’s death would be difficult from his own perspective, I was not at all prepared for how heartbreaking it would be to witness it from someone else’s.
And Mistress Hobb – clever, clever woman that she is – makes sure we aren’t entirely bereft of Fitz’s thoughts through the ordeal. No, we still glimpse his mind through Bee’s Skill-link with him.
“All their lives she had remained that girl to him, that wondrous girl just a few years older than he was, but so worldly wise, so female to all that was so male in his life.”
It almost surprised me how emotional this scene made me. Which is ridiculous, because if there is one truth in this world, it’s that Robin Hobb can deliver a stunningly haunting death scene. (Unless we’re talking about Chade. She can’t seem to quite find the words for that one.)
And Molly is such an interesting character. We get relatively little time with her and Fitz together, but she looms incredibly large over his entire life, even through the long stretches they’re apart.
I’ve always been fairly #TeamMolly. Even if she’s not the most exciting character in the realm (she’s not out here correcting the course of time or conversing with dragons), it’s what she represents that matters. She anchors Fitz’s identity outside the Farseer machine – who he is beyond the castle walls.
And while she may not have obvious “magic” (I mean she did host a two-year pregnancy), I would argue her strengths are the quieter, but no less vital, kind.
She kept bees. Made honey and candles. Knew plants and scents. She was hardworking and steady. She raised eight children. She was strong-willed, yet forgiving. Fitz loved her, and she loved him.
And I am so grateful for the time we got with them at Withywoods.
We obviously couldn’t stay there forever. Which is only further confirmed by this section’s closing line, Bee sharing the poem from her dreams with a bereft Fitz:
“When the bee to the earth does fall, the butterfly comes back to change all.”
Make way for the Fool!
Just as the Fool had to depart at the end of Tawny Man to make space for Fitz’s life with Molly, we now come full circle. That chapter of his life is closing.
Beloved, get in here. Our boy needs you.
One quick thought before I pivot to musings and then hurry back to my mission: I’m so impressed with how fresh this story feels.
I think some part of me worried that returning to a third Fitz trilogy might feel a bit stale. We have seen Robin use similar plot structures before (quests, etc.) – always executed beautifully, no complaints – but I’m thrilled this feels different.
The switch into Bee’s perspective genuinely stopped me in my tracks. And honestly, the entire Bee of it all is so unexpected. If you had told me we’d open the trilogy with Fitz and Molly having a daughter, I never could have imagined it unfolding like this. (Probably why Robin cranks out masterpieces and I’m writing shitty reaction blog posts.)
And I still have no clue where things are heading.
Ok, just wanted to get that off my chest.
Musings!
Everything with Bee is pretty fascinating. I won’t go through her whole strange childhood, but she is certainly unique, and consider me intrigued.
What I’m most anticipating is the development of Bee and Fitz’s relationship. In entry no. 54783957984735 of Fitz getting fucking shafted, he once again comes heartbreakingly close to having a wish fulfilled, only to have it ripped away.
To finally see a baby come into the world, only for him to be unable to hold and care for her as he longs to, is brutal.
“…my Wit showed me no sense of pain from her, only alarm. Alarm that her father would try to hold her. Is it possible to express how painful that was for me?”
His inability to connect with his infant daughter is incredibly sad… but, admittedly, a blessed mercy on my ovaries.
So I’m incredibly excited to see their bond develop as she grows and the Skill issue becomes clearer (just going out on a limb that that’s where we’re headed).
Fitz is such a steadfast man- undeterred by disappointment, and so deeply deserving of love. Being in his own (very self-critical) head gives us full access to his complex inner world, warts and all. But I have no doubt in his ability to step up to the plate.
(Egads- the more optimism I pour into the future of their relationship, the more terrified I become of where this could actually go).
Excuse a brief moment of self-indulgence, but there are two delightfully specific words Robin has used that really stuck with me: eeling and treed. (I even wrote a whole musing section on treed.)
So it absolutely delighted me to come across them again:
“…small, lithe figure came eeling through the gate to the herb garden…”
“For a time they had me treed…”
I always love her use of language, and while these may be small details, they’re incredibly effective.
Well, well, well. If this isn’t immediate vindication for my long-standing feelings about Chade.
After a relatively kind opening to the series for him, it was only a matter of time before he showed his ass. And this time? He’s sending an assassin trainee/spy into Fitz’s baby’s nursery. Classy.
I will admit, though, I did enjoy watching Fitz slip back into sexy competent assassin mode.
“I smiled and cautioned him with a wag of my finger. Then, a flip of my wrist and a knife sprang into my hand.”
Speaking of daddy, I also quite enjoyed the return of wolfish Fitz.
With Bee’s birth, his protective, pack instincts snap into place.
“I slept across the door, on the floor, like a wolf guarding his den and cub. It felt right.”
And then, at Molly’s death, when the estate workers arrive and go to take Bee:
“’No,’ he said, and in that moment he claimed me as his. ‘No. She is mine now. Cub, come here, to me. I will take you in.'”
Oh, to be pack.
Side note: I know we are a very long way away – if ever – from Fitz pursuing any sort of romantic engagement. I mean, he won’t even consider a new post-Nighteyes Wit-bond, so I’m not holding my breath for him to move on from Molly.
But I wouldn’t mind getting to see Fitz on the prowl one more time.
As we bid farewell to Fitz’s true love, I want to leave you with one of the most powerful Fitz moments to date:
“Molly was as I had never seen her, so calm and competent and focused as a mother. It healed something in me, a gulf I had never known existed until she filled it. So this was what a mother was!”
Heartbreaking and beautiful.
And I think that just about sums up the RotE experience.
🫡
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