The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[o0Ampy0o]

It's not my fault you were not paying attention when such a huge number of characters referenced Sa as male.

No need to get childish about it.

I will have to go back and dig into the Farseer books again to see where I got the impression Sa was matriarchal in nature.

Besides, a parallel to a god is not a requirement to prove or disprove the hermaphrodite argument.

Well, the parallel to a god is quite a parallel to me. And it was you who said:

The Fool could not be this "sequential hermaphrodite" because Robin Hobb never introduced the concept.

I just argued that it was introduced.

It is quite a stretch suggesting that a god who encompasses male/female energy would be the foundation for the Fool being a hermaphrodite. Every single one of us has varying amounts of both male and female energy within us. Remember, the Fool potentially being a hermaphrodite goes beyond mere male/female energy. The idea was presented specifically referencing the Fool's anatomy.

hermaphrodite: |hərˈmafrədīt|
noun
a person or animal having both male and female sex organs

On the other hand (continue to the next section)...

Posting the text verbatim would help here as I only remember the subject mentioned in the context of White Prophets.

The quote was there in the thread a few comments before mine but anyway:
"At the core of the White Prophet heresy is the concept that for ‘every age’ (and this space of time is never defined) there is born a White Prophet. The White Prophet comes to set the world on a better course. He or she (and in this duality of gender we may see some borrowing from the true faith of Sa) does this by means of his or her Catalyst..."

Initially I was sure you were reading too much into the quoted passage. It does not say any White Prophet was both male and female. It clearly states "he OR she." The part about the "duality of gender we may see some borrowing from the true faith of Sa" could mean many things. It is a wild notion taking those words to mean White Prophets can be hermaphrodites. But after re-reading that part a few times I am less inclined to discount the possibility because it is mentioning "gender" which probably makes it a viable possibility.

Maybe it was as early as the first Farseer book that Fitz mentioned the rumors about the King's fool. He said no one knew the Fool's age or gender. Gender was never brought up again. [EDIT: actually the minstrel believed the Fool was a woman in love with Fitz making her the only character to question the gender validity of any role the Fool was playing at a given time.] When Fitz and the Fool had that confrontation after Jek visited, their words were fitting of a heterosexual man and a homosexual male friend. I don't think Hobb focused enough on the Fool's gender to make it something as attention-getting as a hermaphrodite. I felt the Fool's attraction to Fitz sub-plot was a distraction from their friendship. I now do believe the hermaphrodite idea is a very remote possibility that has received too much attention given its insignificance to the story.

You initially referred to this figure as a "girl" and that is distinct from "woman" used now. "...the legend tells a story of a girl who stayed young for years and years, whose hair was black..."

And I also said that it wasn't an exact quote. By girl I meant a young woman but not a child.

Your paraphrasing suggested the age of the figure on the island.

A girl can be a child but a girl cannot be a woman. From the distance that she was said to have been observed, no one would have been able to assess the figure as that of a "young woman." It takes closer observation to see the subtleties distinguishing a young woman vs. girl or woman. From a distance you would most likely identify a child, kid (girl or boy), adult or elderly person.

It is unlikely that a White Prophet would develop dark hair and still have light skin.

And why exactly do you think that her skin was light?

If you read the sentence within the context that it was presented you might have comprehended the full explanation I wrote out.

Again, the White Prophets darken all over not just their hair. Referring to a dark haired figure instead of a dark figure on the island suggests a contrast in tone. No one referred to Pilkrop as "the dark haired man." He was black from hair to the skin of his toes and was referred to as "the black man" or "dark figure" from a distance. The same goes for The Fool as Amber and Lord Golden. Even his eyes were golden.

I don't remember whether Pilkrop said he continued to receive ideas about things to do but was unable to follow through on them. In his isolation Pilkrop seemed to have lost the opportunity to inject change, at least until Fitz and The Fool arrived.

The continuation of the abstract above:
"I tried. I visited him, I pleaded, I encouraged. But he turned from me to seek death. And that left nothing to me. No hopes. There was only the waiting. For so long, I had nothing. I saw nothing. The future darkened, the chances narrowed. <...> One vision is left to me. A tiny peep... no! A tiny glimpse of what could be. It was not certain, ever, but it was a chance".

Prilkop lost the opportunity to change when he lost his Changer. That is why it is said that a White Prophet is born for every age - before meeting a Catalyst (who is a human and lives not longer than a hundred years) and after their death, a White Prophet is just a prophet with visions of possible future.

Thanks for quoting that text. It supports my feeling that Pilkrop no longer had the opportunities to make changes in the world.

Why do you all call him Pilkrop?

It should not be hard to figure out. I have mild dyslexia, my eyes are tired, my vision impaired, I misplaced an "r" in my memory of his name. It isn't a word I have seen before. Pilfrop is close enough for a discussion.


So maybe there is something to this idea. I think it is a better story with the two characters being friends without any sexual overtones. The speculation alone shows how it dominates a story of friendship. I'd rather they were just great friends and not think about the Fool's reproductive system.