Small, random questions about RotE that still bother you (spoilers all RotE books)

[Sylve]

Hello! I recently finished the RWC and I've been wondering for a while about some inconsistency between the Livetrader books and the Rain Wild Chronicles. More specifically:

1) I think I remember Malta's hair being dark brown/black, like all the Vestrits. Yet in City of Dragons, Reyn mentions "the gold in her hair". So I blamed it on the elderling changes, maybe there were gold streaks among the black. But then in Blood of Dragons they clearly described her hair as gold, which left me confused. Did her changes include her hair colour?

2) Tintaglia's color. In Ship of Destiny she is described as blue, yet when light changes she could as well be silver. Sintara however is described as azure blue. Yet in Blood of Dragons (I don't have the page, it's near the end somewhere) they describe Tintaglia as "blue as the sky". So either they know a different sky than I do, or we confused some dragons here?

3) Sylve's eyes were in Dragon Keeper described as "Her eyes were coppery brown, probably on the turn tu pure copper", though in Dragon Haven, Sedric observes "The light caught briefly in her eyes as she did so, showing him a pale blue gleam." Again, it was right after Mercor began changing her, so it could be blamed on the changes.

They're minor things, I know, but they've been bugging me, so I came to this thread. I briefly browsed the other threads, I don't think any of these possible inconsistencies have been mentioned anywhere before.
If you can enlighten me, thanks in advance!

[Nonsense]

Hello! I recently finished the RWC and I've been wondering for a while about some inconsistency between the Livetrader books and the Rain Wild Chronicles. More specifically:

1) I think I remember Malta's hair being dark brown/black, like all the Vestrits. Yet in City of Dragons, Reyn mentions "the gold in her hair". So I blamed it on the elderling changes, maybe there were gold streaks among the black. But then in Blood of Dragons they clearly described her hair as gold, which left me confused. Did her changes include her hair colour?

2) Tintaglia's color. In Ship of Destiny she is described as blue, yet when light changes she could as well be silver. Sintara however is described as azure blue. Yet in Blood of Dragons (I don't have the page, it's near the end somewhere) they describe Tintaglia as "blue as the sky". So either they know a different sky than I do, or we confused some dragons here?

3) Sylve's eyes were in Dragon Keeper described as "Her eyes were coppery brown, probably on the turn tu pure copper", though in Dragon Haven, Sedric observes "The light caught briefly in her eyes as she did so, showing him a pale blue gleam." Again, it was right after Mercor began changing her, so it could be blamed on the changes.

1: I think it's safe to say that hair color changed with the other dragon-inspired changes. I seem to recall one of the dragon keepers described as fairly monochromatic head to toe.

2. I always thought Tintaglia and Sintara were the same color. But that aside, I just did a Google Image Search for "azure sky" and a number of various shades of blue appeared, so they might both be described with the same words but not be the same color.

3. Pretty confident eye color is something that can change on dragon-related people. One of the things I remember from the introduction of the Khuprus family is their glowing eyes.

[Sylve]

1: I think it's safe to say that hair color changed with the other dragon-inspired changes. I seem to recall one of the dragon keepers described as fairly monochromatic head to toe.

2. I always thought Tintaglia and Sintara were the same color. But that aside, I just did a Google Image Search for "azure sky" and a number of various shades of blue appeared, so they might both be described with the same words but not be the same color.

3. Pretty confident eye color is something that can change on dragon-related people. One of the things I remember from the introduction of the Khuprus family is their glowing eyes.

Thank you for your reply! I want to draw them, so I'll consider if it's before or after the changes.

[Buckkeep's Majordomo]

Sorry if this has been already discussed but:

Who pulled Dutiful and Fitz out of Skill trance when they were on the treasure beach?
Was it Nettle?

Follow up question:

Who or what were stange creatures that attacked Fitz&Dutiful when they were escaping from the Beach through the Pillar?

And yes the following question, I'am very curious:

Why (really!) Fitz was so reluctant to have some "adventure" in the bed with Starling, but had absolutely no reservations to having the same pastime with Jinna?
Is Starling not to Fitz's liking, she seems to be very attrative from the description in AQ and FE.

[Bananafish]

I want to know about the dragon Althea found with the wizardwood arrow sticking out of it on the island where they harvested the sea bears. Was it a real dragon or a stone dragon? She found it before the events of the Tawny Man trilogy. So did Amber hear of the wizardwood arrow from Althea and take a wild guess and give one to Swift? Or had he already seen that Swift would slay the stone dragon with a wizardwood arrow in a vision? Are real dragons even vulnerable to wizardwood arrows?

[Mervi]

It's been too long since I've re-read LST, but I always thought it was the same arrow? I don't remember a scene where anyone goes to retrieve it (but I could be wrong!) and of course Lord Golden would have the means to have someone do that job for him. So I have no facts to support this theory, just a hunch!

[yeoldemathshoppe]

Hi,

I signed up for this site just to ask this question:

Would Fitz and the peoples of the Six Duchies by considered "Black" by Earth standards? They are described as having dark skin, dark features, and Kettricken sticks out amongst them for her light features and mikly white skin.

However, all the artwork I see of Fitz show him as a white man.

thanks for any input.

THE FARSEERS ARE DEFINITELY DEFINITELY BLACK!!!

Robin Hobb has 0% input on the cover art. On the last RotE book, Fitz doesn't even have curly hair!!! The cover art is irrelevant. THE FARSEERS ARE ALL BLACK!!!

[mistrali]

Hi,

I signed up for this site just to ask this question:

Would Fitz and the peoples of the Six Duchies by considered "Black" by Earth standards? They are described as having dark skin, dark features, and Kettricken sticks out amongst them for her light features and mikly white skin.

However, all the artwork I see of Fitz show him as a white man.

thanks for any input.

THE FARSEERS ARE DEFINITELY DEFINITELY BLACK!!!

Robin Hobb has 0% input on the cover art. On the last RotE book, Fitz doesn't even have curly hair!!! The cover art is irrelevant. THE FARSEERS ARE ALL BLACK!!!

Sorry for necroing. But I always imagined the Buck people to be more Caucasoid (e.g. like Afghans, North Indians and others from S Asia) than Negroid. However, although it can be safely said that they’re darker skinned than Anglo-Saxons, I would hesitate to definitively classify them as black (in the sense of African American), since we don’t really know that they were. I’ll have to reread to check, but I don’t think we’re given enough information to really be sure.

Since Fitz‘s mother [SPOILER] was of the Mountains, he is likely to have lighter skin than your average Buckman (Starling, I think, mentions that he blushes more easily than people from Buck). Also came across these passages:

1) “But above the bright garments, my face was thin and pale, making my dark eyes too large...”
2) “It doesn’t matter if your face is pale, or if you can barely walk after a day in the saddle. You move as Chivalry’s son should.”
3) “shaved in the glass Burrich had left me, and then stared at the face there. Tanned brow and pale chin.”

I can’t remember Fitz ever having curly hair - where’s that mentioned?

[Mervi]

The only textual reference to (young) Fitz's potential curls I could find with a quick search was that when he compares himself to Regal in RA, he says Regal's hair is curlier than his. On the other hand, elsewhere there are mentions of Regal scenting, oiling and curling his hair, so how much of it is natural is a bit unclear. Also there's the bit where Starling helps him shape his moustache and beard on the journey to the Mountains where it's mentioned that "a substantial amount of curly black hair fell to the floor" (this is before she also cuts his hair to better blend in with the Farrow folk).

Interestingly, John Howe seems to have originally pictured young Fitz with curly hair too (although he also made it dark brown instead of black). UK advance reader copy of AA features a bigger version of his first Fitz illustration, which is only a small vignette in the final version of the first UK edition of AA.

[mistrali]

The only textual reference to (young) Fitz's potential curls I could find with a quick search was that when he compares himself to Regal in RA, he says Regal's hair is curlier than his. On the other hand, elsewhere there are mentions of Regal scenting, oiling and curling his hair, so how much of it is natural is a bit unclear. Also there's the bit where Starling helps him shape his moustache and beard on the journey to the Mountains where it's mentioned that "a substantial amount of curly black hair fell to the floor" (this is before she also cuts his hair to better blend in with the Farrow folk).

Interestingly, John Howe seems to have originally pictured young Fitz with curly hair too (although he also made it dark brown instead of black). UK advance reader copy of AA features a bigger version of his first Fitz illustration, which is only a small vignette in the final version of the first UK edition of AA.

Thanks Mervi! I've always pictured Fitz with dead straight hair, maybe because of these covers, which are what caught my eye on Goodreads: https://www.overdrive.com/media/335796/royal-assassin