Parting is such sweet sorrow…
***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.”
Cheers to finding new ways to fuck things up! 🥂
See you in Fool’s Fate!
wizardwordship 