The ending doesn't make sense? Spoilers Farseer & Tawny Man

[maulkin]

Just some random (somewhat geeky) thoughts on Fitz and Molly. The Fool refers to Fitz as a catalyst. In a chemical reaction, a catalyst lowers the energy required for the reaction to take place, often by bringing the participating components of the reaction together and hence making a specific change more likely to occur. However, although it promotes change, the catalyst itself is not changed. It emerges from the reaction in exactly the same state in which it entered it. Perhaps, this is what Hobb was aiming for in Fitz's story. At the end of Fool's Fate, various momentous events have occurred and history has shifted into a new cycle but Fitz has been returned essentially to where he started, before he met the Fool.