***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.)
***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:
He can’t accept his limitations with the Skill and is throwing off the vibes of the entire coterie.
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.”
***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through the end of Golden Fool.***
We have made it to the end. It wasn’t the loudest finale, but it wasn’t lacking impact. People are moving and shaking, and we are setting up for setting out… on a quest!
We close Golden Fool with a fair amount of Witted political negotiation. Admittedly, this isn’t my favorite storyline in RotE (I’d put it on par with the struggling serpents). But it feels like crucial groundwork for Fitz’s eventual return to a more public role. He can’t be relegated to lurking in secret tunnels with ferrets forever; the climate around the Witted needs to shift. I also have to imagine we are setting up for a future where Prince Dutiful can be an openly Witted Farseer king.
We get an infusion of new characters and shifting roles with the arrival of the Witted contingent. Most prominent is Web, the odd man out among odd men out. Web is a friendly, happy-go-lucky sort of fellow, who arrives unmasked and ready to build bridges. I was immediately put off. We don’t get any indication that he is not genuine, and by the end he has charmed Queen Kettricken, declared his intent to stay at Buckkeep, and even secured a coveted spot on Dutiful’s dragon-slaying expedition. My unease probably says more about me than him, but he was just a little too amiable for my liking.
Then there’s Civil Bresinga, stepping into what appears to be a more central role. Up until now, he’s mostly been lingering in the background – friend to Prince Dutiful, reluctant tool of the Piebalds, and Fitz’s ultra-boring spy subject. He’s involved in most of the main plot machinations so far in Tawny Man, but we don’t really spend much time getting to know him (probably because Fitz is very wary of him and his feline inclinations). But during the Wit summit, with a sense of nothing to lose in the wake of his mother’s suicide, Civil publicly declares himself as a Witted nobility of the Six Duchies. In doing so, Fitz recognizes something of himself in Civil for the first time, stating:
“I blinked and saw myself at fifteen, plunged into intrigue far beyond my ability to manage.”
Just how many metaphorical mirrors is Fitz going to be forced to confront in this tale?
Civil also joins Team Slay the Dragon. I’m a little worried for Civil. Not everyone is going to make it back to Buckkeep unscathed from this quest, and he’s on my watch list.
Finally, we get to Swift – Burrich and Molly’s son. He shows back up; this time with a letter from Dad basically saying: I’m done, he’s your problem now. (Yikes! A pretty wild turnaround from the Burrich we saw earlier. Vibes must have deteriorated fast!)
So what’s to be done with a young boy on his own at Buckkeep? Of course, hand him over to the Patron Saint of Parentless Boys: Fitz! Chade delivers the news:
“He’s yours, now, Fitz. Make something of him. And teach him the axe.”
Which gives us this priceless reflection from Fitz:
“I wondered if Burrich had regarded me with as much dread as I did his son. I considered it probable.”
Fitz has major reservations. He’s already practically solely responsible for holding the entire world together, so that seems like enough responsibility for one man. And taking on Burrich and Molly’s son seems fraught. But ultimately he has to agree that given Swift’s Wit and vulnerability, he’s the best option. Fitz won’t see the boy mistreated.
“It was that I could not bear the thought of someone else taking him and being cruel or ignoring him. Such is the conceit all men have once they have been parents. One becomes convinced that no one else is better suited to the task.”
It’s not surprising that Fitz would have a soft spot for a boy on his own. And of course, there is something poetic in Fitz taking in Burrich’s son, with Chade even pointing out:
“I think the symmetry of it pleases Kettricken.”
Same, girl.
Burrich wasn’t a perfect guardian, but it’s hard not to think how much worse things could have been for Fitz without him. I have a hard time with the idea of Molly and Burrich disowning their child, but I am excited to add another charge to Fitz’s roster. He’s inadvertently becoming the Antonio Cromartie of Buck Duchy.
But of course, the real showpiece of the finale was Fitz’s conversation with the titular Fool. Fitz goes to mend things before departing, and he’s had enough of the Lord Golden mask. He tells him it’s fine if he’s angry, but at least be himself.
The Fool: “Be myself. And who would that be?” Fitz: “I don’t know. I wish you were the Fool. But I think we have come too far to go back to that pretense. Yet if we could, I would. Willingly.” … “You are not Lord Golden to me. You never truly were. Yet you are not the Fool anymore, either.”
I love how this echoes a sentiment I shared earlier: how I, too, felt unmoored by the Fool’s identity, with neither façade quite fitting the current reality. Hobb nails the ability to let the reader’s confusion mirror the characters’. In Fitz’s uncertainty, though, comes clarity. He recalls the Fool’s words from the beginning of Fool’s Errand, when he told him what he could call him:
“You said once that I might call you ‘Beloved,’ if I no longer wished to call you ‘Fool.'” I took a breath. “Beloved, I have missed your company.”
Holy shit, Robin. That moment took my breath away. The seed was planted so long ago, and here it blossoms. When their distance was beginning to feel insurmountable, Fitz uncovers the key. The nature of their bond is irrelevant. “Beloved, I have missed your company” is seared into me forever. Pure angsty perfection.
One last set of musings for the road:
Something about Fitz with the axe brings out the feral she-wolf in me. So when Chade suggests Fitz pick back up the battle axe, he earned a point back in my book.
(I wouldn’t exactly say he totally redeemed himself, but I do deeply appreciate that Fitz is going to be slangin’ that axe around again 🤤.)
I’m going to need to smoke a doobie and return to the Epilogue.
Gorgeous prose alert 🚨
Hobb’s writing is always stunning, but it’s nice to point out a line worthy of appreciation. We get so much fantastic imagery of winter shifting to spring. Exhibit A:
“All around us in the forest, the snow had melted down to thin icy fingers clawing at the soil in the shadows.”
I think we are gearing up for the return of Battle Fitz! Not only do we get the glorious return of his axe, but we also hear the Witted minstrel singing “Antler Island Tower” on their way back to Buckkeep. Fitz, humble king, says he “doubted half the exploits attributed to my axe.” Sir, please. I was there. You were wildin’.
In what should surprise no one, I absolutely loved Kettricken outmaneuvering Chade and putting him firmly in his place. She offers up Dutiful as collateral to the Witted (Kettricken doesn’t play) behind Chade’s back, knowing he would never agree beforehand. When Fitz joins them mid-argument, Chade demands to know how he could allow this to happen, at which point Kettricken delivers this dagger:
“How could he allow this to happen? Councilor, you go too far. For many years you have advised me, and advised me well. But if you forget again your place in this hierarchy, we will part company.”
I’ve been mostly ignoring the “alien” voice that Fitz keeps hearing. We don’t get much to go on, just a recurring, non-human presence. But then we hit a very intense Skill-dream with Fitz, Nettle, and (I believe) that same otherworldly presence having some sort of mental battle. In the dream, a creature appears, transforms into a small blue dragon, and starts asking Fitz about Icefyre. I am presuming this is Tintaglia, signature rudeness well intact:
“Tell me your secret, Dream Wolf! Tell me of a black dragon and an island! Tell me now or I tear her head from her shoulders.”
Ya catch more flies with honey, Tintaglia!
So is the “alien” presence throughout Tintaglia? Could Reyn be involved somehow? We’ve been teased with my #2 boy’s dreamwalking skillz, so I’m intrigued.
I have no idea where this is all headed, but I am very into Fitz getting more mixed up with dragons, anything that gets us closer to Nettle/Molly/Burrich, and more Wit/Skill entanglement.
Robin sends us out on this banger:
“Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.”
***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 24 of Golden Fool.***
Ok, friends! With six chapters remaining in Golden Fool, I’m going to break my reactions into two (theoretically) smaller posts to sufficiently cover all that is sure to be thrown at us. Without further ado, let’s get into the Golden Fool finale, part one:
We have some important things happening in these chapters; namely, Dutiful learns Fitz’s true identity and (almost) all that entails, and we are given some major White Prophet/Catalyst lore courtesy of the Fool. I’m not sure that dissecting lore is my area of expertise (if you’ve been following along, you know my expertise lies in naval strategy and mating strategy), but I’ll do my best 🫡.
The Fool catches wind of Elliania’s back tats (twinsies!), which sets off a big trauma dump to Fitz. He gives Fitz a handy refresher on the functions of White Prophets and Catalysts across time (much appreciated by this blogger) and adds a little more color to their particular turn in the roles. Some of this we already sort of knew or inferred by this point, but here we get things laid out more explicitly, with a clearer picture of where things are heading.
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 21 of Golden Fool. References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders.***
Another day, another Fitz death scene. My man can neither live in peace nor die in peace. I was incredibly moved by this version of Fitz straddling life and death. He follows after his beloved Nighteyes, ready to join the pack of wolves awaiting him in the great beyond. But alas, his work in the realm of the living isn’t finished. Apparently, there is more catalysting to be catalysted.
We are approaching the home stretch of Golden Fool, and I continue to majorly fuck with the Tawny Man Trilogy. I’m not sure if it’s because, as a semi-contemporary of Fitz at his current age, I can relate to him better, or if it’s just the ever-deepening connections to the characters and world. Either way, I am completely immersed. I’ve mentioned before that Fitz is in sandwich-generation hell (me too, just with less stabbing!), and that really seems to be the primary focus of this installment: Fitz trying to establish his authority amidst the varying generations around him.
And if simply being kindly Skillmaster/Lord Golden’s servant Tom Badgerlock doesn’t naturally inspire respect, then killing three grown men and a Wit-feral horse should do the trick!
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 15 of Golden Fool. References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders.***
After a book and a half of anticipation, the moment is finally here: the Bingtowners have arrived at Buckkeep. Admittedly, the envoy we received was a bit of the Liveship B-team. When I saw a veiled figure among the crew, I was positively frothing for a Reyn appearance. But hey, Selden is cool too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about what we got. Selden was being weird, we got major dragon talk, and Serilla was also there. I was absolutely thrilled with the whole event.
This section of chapters was loaded, and there is a lot to cover. One of my favorite subtle plotlines as we get deeper into Tawny Man is Fitz developing a sense of himself as a man at the Buckkeep court. We spent two-thirds of the FarseerTrilogy watching Fitz navigate his boyhood on the fringes of court life. His transition to manhood mostly happens away from the royal seat, but now he’s back- redefining his role and relationship to the Farseer crown through the lens of adulthood. It’s been fascinating to watch him reconcile the courtly life he knew as a boy while trying to carve out his place as a man.
Unfortunately for Fitz, adult life at Buckkeep means fighting with practically everyone…
Buckkeep Fight Night
The keep currently has strong “guests who have overstayed their welcome” energy. Add to that the newly arrived Bingtown contingent, and the castle is a veritable pressure cooker.
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 10 of Golden Fool.***
I went pretty hard into Fitz’s sexcapades in my last post. But honestly, the real foreplay is everything happening in Golden Fool right now, leading up to whatever shoe is about to drop at Buckkeep.
In this section of chapters, Fitz is settling into this new version of life in Buckkeep. I wouldn’t say things are going particularly smoothly – the teenagers are being very teenager-y – but nothing major is happening yet. Teenage dramatics aside, it feels like we are on the brink of something.
For me, there are two (presumably) looming events I’ve been eagerly anticipating:
A Nettle/Molly/Burrich confrontation I noted in my previous post that Nettle nears- she’s making contact in Fitz’s dreams, and Chade (via Thick’s raw skilling) is aware of her and her Skill ability. How long can Fitz remain hidden from those in his past life?
We also had a near miss with Lady Patience earlier in this book. I feel we are due for some kind of collision soon. (Hell, I’d take Hands recognizing him at this point. Throw me a bone here!)
The Bingtown Brigade appearing I am ready for the crossover event. To be up front, I did see the next chapter title: ‘Tidings from Bingtown.‘ So predicting a series collision doesn’t exactly make me Nostradamus. But I have been anticipating the stories to overlap in Tawny Man, and so far, it’s been a very Fitzian tale (no complaints!). We are around the trilogy’s midpoint, so surely the merge can’t be too far off.
Robin certainly has me on tenterhooks waiting for either event.
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 6 of Golden Fool. References to the events of The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders. Also, warning: this post contains adult content.***
Ahoy Hobb Heads! I’m home. My time away to heal from the pain of Fool’s Errand and stretch my baby blogger wings was fun, but sinking back into the comfort of Golden Fool feels so right. And by “so right,” I of course mean Robin immediately rips open my barely-healed heart and plunges me straight back into despair and suffering. Oh, you thought we were going to leave the pain of losing Nighteyes back in Fool’s Errand? Think again.
When I started the Tawny Man Trilogy after our Robin Hobb-imposed sojourn to the Cursed Shores, I remarked that in picking Fitz’s storyline back up, we get the full Fitz experience. Likewise, in returning from my brief, self-imposed exile in Caten, here at the start of Golden Fool we surely get Fitz at his Fitziest. Which also happens to be what I love the most in the world.
He’s pouting, being the saddest of bois, getting used and abused by his loved ones, finding himself outnumbered in precarious situations, absolutely bumbling his way through romantic interactions, and – perhaps my favorite of all – leaving cryptic passive-aggressive notes in the dust on tables. Seriously, “I was here; you were not,” belongs in the Petulance Hall of Fame. I will love Fitz until the day I die. All we need is for Dutiful to leave Fitz a post-it reply:
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through the end of Fool’s Errand . References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders***
I am going to need someone to explain to me how Robin Hobb spent an entire book preparing us for what was coming, only for me to be completely blindsided by Nighteyes’ death. A mere two posts ago, I was over here preaching “Constant Vigilance,” reminding myself that we were back in the Six Duchies, which means certain disaster and heartbreak. And yet, I still managed to let my guard down. After the intensity of the Piebald battle, I let myself be lulled into a moment of comfort, only to have the emotional rug viciously pulled out from under me.
Honestly, I am not ok.
Reading Nighteyes’ death felt like watching a slow-motion horror film. It began so beautifully- wolf and man reunited, curled together, slipping into the shared dreamspace. As the hunting dream progressed, there was a slow, dawning realization of what was occurring. At first, it was just an inkling that something was off. By the time we get to Fitz waking up and confirming that these final dream moments were, in fact, Nighteyes saying goodbye, I felt like I wanted to start moving backward and undo what I had just read. No, no, no… But it was too late.
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 25 of Fool’s Errand . References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders***
Whew! The plot is thickening and the action is actioning. The titular errand seems to be approaching its conclusion, and with a bit more excitement than my typical errands. (Although a trip to the grocery store with both of my children has its share of battles.)
I have to give it up- Robin Hobb’s masterful storytelling is on full display in these chapters. I found myself particularly appreciative of the minor scene with the Wit-bonded deer from earlier in the book. When Fitz is filling in the Fool (and us) on the details of his time with the Witted folk and his learning of the ways of the Old Blood, we get an interlude where he senses a wrongness in a deer. Rolf explains that the human bond-partner of the deer merged her consciousness into the animal rather than die. This is meant to illustrate for Fitz how Wit magic can be perverted, which lays important groundwork for us to quickly catch on to what’s going on with the Prince’s lady-cat seductress.
wizardwordship 