Every so often I see posts saying things like “Molly was the most important relationship in Fitz’s life” “Beloved was the most important relationship in Fitz’s life”
NO. WRONG. YOU’RE WRONG.
Fitz was taught “a horse cannot wear two saddles” and that was WRONG. and he spent his life tearing himself apart over which calling was the real one - the Wit or the Skill, the wolf or the prince, Badgerlock or Farseer, assassin or scribe, straight or queer, Molly or the Fool - because he cannot accept for most of the books that all those things are equally part of him. the man who taught him that, Burrich, tore his own life apart by being unable to accept that he loved both Chivalry and Patience and they both loved him and each other.
The Fool, Molly and Nighteyes all call him out on this consistently. he’s cutting off parts of himself and then they come back suddenly and hard and break things because it’s not honest. he doesn’t love Molly and the Fool in totally different ways or at different times or one more than the other. He loves both of them in every way that matters, they are boththe love of his life, you don’t have to pick which prevails bc as long as he’s having to choose parts of himself to deny he’s continuing to make terrible self-destructive decisions.
I’m frurstrated at the ROTE fandom’s frustration regarding the absence of a sexual component to the Fitz/Fool relationship.
Whenever Fitz puts into words what Beloved is to him, he could not be any clearer - he loves him with all that he is, his entire life and canonical fate is clearly wrapped around the Fool’s, they are inseperable in a way that he is only with one other person, and that’s Nighteyes.
However, he very much does not want to bang him (nor does he want to bang Nighteyes!), even when he finds out that the fool presents as female in other parts of the world because he simply is not attracted to him that way, even though he would die for him, live for him, they have a child together, and he very clearly is the love of his life. They are inseperable even in the very end, beyond their mortal existence.
How much closer can you get to a person and why do people read all of that and still think that things would just be better if they had banged at some point?
We’ve got this beautiful, complex, genderbending masterpiece of a character and he’s in love with his childhood friend and it’s so inconceivable to everyone that said childhood friend can place such value on a friendship though Fitz is not sexually attracted to the Fool? Some relationships just are THAT important without sex being involved. It’s extremely tragic that this relationship is so mismatched in its expectations, but such things do happen.
It’s just so frustrating to always have this expectation that for any relationship to be considered valid and close, sex must occur, ESPECIALLY in this one, because there is ALL of these other things going on.
<3
OP is absolutely right and even Robin Hobb said something along these lines.
But I think some of the frustation from the fans comes from a different place, not just from placing weight on the sex component: parts for the Tawny Man trilogy can be easily read in a way that Fitz is attracted to the Fool and he is definitely jealous of the Fool’s potential bedpartners. Fitz lies all the time, especially to himself, so it’s easy to be skeptical when he says he wouldn’t sleep with the Fool. I’m not arguing that it should have happened tho. Their relationship is the most beautiful and heartbreaking lovestory I’ve ever read, and sex is not needed for this.
“You could have been someone. Regardless of how you were born, they gave you every chance of making something of yourself. You could have mattered. But this is what you chose. Remember that. You chose this.”
Starling having the audacity to act like Fitz is the one in the wrong for breaking off their affair after learning she had married is some pretty breathtaking shit
“He was intrigued by some wild story that Bingtown was hatching dragons and that soon towns could buy a Bingtown dragon for a watch beast. I assured him I had seen real dragons, and that such tales were not to be believed.”
Woah Starling is now Fitz’s lover? I guess with the people he’s closest to all gone from his life he’s going to seek out comfort from someone he is fond of
I assumed Fitz would give in and go back to Buckkeep with Chade, but it looks like him and Nighteyes are going to travel the Skill Road back to the Elderling city in the mountains instead. Having learned who the Elderlings really were in Liveship Traders, Fitz could be putting himself on a much more consequential path than he realizes
Fitz as skill master of Buckkeep training has a lot of dramatic potential given his traumatic experience with Galen. In many ways, what happened to him there was what sent him on the path to becoming the broken man he is now
“‘And Prince Dutiful?’ ‘As like his father as he can be,’ Chade observed, shaking his head. I watched him closely, wondering how much the old man intended the remark.”
It continues to be very fucking weird that Dutiful was conceived with Fitz’s body while Verity was occupying it, and I wonder if Chade is subtly commenting on that
I reread Assasin’s Fate recently and got inspiration to draw Fitz and the Fool (and Nighteyes) again. That’s a pretty young looking Fool though. I guess it’s kinda their ideal selves.
So I rarely paint AUs for anything, it’s usually not my thing. But then I found this old sketch, and I just thought that modern AU Fool with the undercut was so cool so I decided to actually colour it.
Fitz: “I totally didn’t get what you just said about your gender.”
Fool: “You don’t have to immediately, as long as you get that I do.”
![[XII] Fitz.](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e52cfff5161eaebcd0378b1049d9792f/tumblr_of27tsomN91td30h9o1_1280.jpg "[XII] Fitz.")
