Aug-24-2015, 02:13 PM (UTC)
I'm coming into this after 22 pages and years of discussion so I apologise if I'm bringing up points that have already been dealt with. Mainly I'd like to add in a couple of observations from Fool's Assassin and Fool's Quest.
First of all, unconfirmed or mistaken gender seems to be quite common amongst Whites. Examples being:
The obvious one, Beloved. Not only does he have male and female personas but is often accused of being female while in one of his male roles. Interesting to note that nobody ever thinks that he might be male while he's Amber. Perhaps that's simply because some people are more likely to suspect that an effeminate man is really a woman in disguise.
The messenger that Fitz has to burn. She is the "Butterfly Man" in Bee's dream. Fitz is convinced that it's the Fool before doing a double take and realising she's a woman. Another interesting observation is that Fitz only thinks that it's the Fool because she looks so much like he did when they were at Buckkeep.
Bee. Known to the Servants as the "Unexpected Son". Mistaken for a boy by Shun, Dwalia and even Beggar Fool.
Ash / Spark also brings attention to the Fool's situation. I think the fact that they are such fast friends is telling. Of course, that could be mere coincidence. If Spark and Per develop a relationship it could serve to shine a light on the Fool's issue. Namely, should the gender you are perceived as change how a person feels about you and can you truly be sure that they love you for you and not just because you are the opposite gender?
Fitz makes an offhand comment about Spark to the Fool along the lines of "You should understand her situation" which the Fool responds to with a "more than you know" type answer (I don't have the text to hand for the exact quotes but that's the gist of the conversation).
This ties in with other points that I've noticed over the years. Mainly the Fool's persistent insistence on that last line of privacy and the historical gender pairing of Prophet / Catalyst that others have mentioned. There's one other point that comes to the mind and that's Amber's knowledge of how to bind breasts with a wrap to make you look flat chested which she teaches to Althea for her ship's boy disguise.
I think that all of this added together means that Beloved is female. I also think that he is never going to explicitly reveal that fact to Fitz because he believes that Fitz is the kind of person who will allow a person's gender to change how he feels about them regardless of whether he says it would or not.
There are inconsistencies with this viewpoint. It's extremely likely that Fitz saw all of the Fool's bits when he was dead and when he inhabited his body he must have intrinsically known the Fool's gender. However, we all know that Fitz is at times incredibly dense and absolutely capable of lying to himself to such an extent that he believes what he knows is not the truth.
I like my interpretation, though, because it makes their relationship that much more bittersweet. And if there is any one word that perfectly encapsulates Fitz's life it is just that. Bittersweet.
First of all, unconfirmed or mistaken gender seems to be quite common amongst Whites. Examples being:
The obvious one, Beloved. Not only does he have male and female personas but is often accused of being female while in one of his male roles. Interesting to note that nobody ever thinks that he might be male while he's Amber. Perhaps that's simply because some people are more likely to suspect that an effeminate man is really a woman in disguise.
The messenger that Fitz has to burn. She is the "Butterfly Man" in Bee's dream. Fitz is convinced that it's the Fool before doing a double take and realising she's a woman. Another interesting observation is that Fitz only thinks that it's the Fool because she looks so much like he did when they were at Buckkeep.
Bee. Known to the Servants as the "Unexpected Son". Mistaken for a boy by Shun, Dwalia and even Beggar Fool.
Ash / Spark also brings attention to the Fool's situation. I think the fact that they are such fast friends is telling. Of course, that could be mere coincidence. If Spark and Per develop a relationship it could serve to shine a light on the Fool's issue. Namely, should the gender you are perceived as change how a person feels about you and can you truly be sure that they love you for you and not just because you are the opposite gender?
Fitz makes an offhand comment about Spark to the Fool along the lines of "You should understand her situation" which the Fool responds to with a "more than you know" type answer (I don't have the text to hand for the exact quotes but that's the gist of the conversation).
This ties in with other points that I've noticed over the years. Mainly the Fool's persistent insistence on that last line of privacy and the historical gender pairing of Prophet / Catalyst that others have mentioned. There's one other point that comes to the mind and that's Amber's knowledge of how to bind breasts with a wrap to make you look flat chested which she teaches to Althea for her ship's boy disguise.
I think that all of this added together means that Beloved is female. I also think that he is never going to explicitly reveal that fact to Fitz because he believes that Fitz is the kind of person who will allow a person's gender to change how he feels about them regardless of whether he says it would or not.
There are inconsistencies with this viewpoint. It's extremely likely that Fitz saw all of the Fool's bits when he was dead and when he inhabited his body he must have intrinsically known the Fool's gender. However, we all know that Fitz is at times incredibly dense and absolutely capable of lying to himself to such an extent that he believes what he knows is not the truth.
I like my interpretation, though, because it makes their relationship that much more bittersweet. And if there is any one word that perfectly encapsulates Fitz's life it is just that. Bittersweet.
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