hero enabler (spoilers all books)

[Farseer]

I was busily cleaning the house yesterday, washing, vacuuming, polishing etc, and thought to myself something along the lines of, "Nobody would even notice that I did all this today. To everyone else, it's just the way it is/was, the way it's always been. It's seemingly insignificant in that my contribution in this could go unnoticed indefinitely, until the day that I wasn't here to do it."

Self-pity, you ask? No, I am appreciated by my family in all things. I was rather thinking about this thread and how the main two heroes of the RotE, Fool and Fitz (as this generation's WP and Catalyst), go mostly about their business unnoticed as well, as we have already noted, but that lack of acknowledgement doesn't lessen their task OR their contribution.

Certainly, if they were not present to create change and enable others to be heroes, what condition would the world then be in? Fool gives us a snapshot of what would have happened in his "stain down the shirt of the Six Duchies" vision. Not a good future by any definition!

And yet, for all of the sacrifice, changes made and the many heroes they enable, Fool, in all of his 'facets', suggests that while their task together is to change the course of the world, the ultimate goal is to have it so that the citizens of the realm say, "This is the way it has always been." In this, their significant contribution will be seemingly insignificant because life will actually appear unchanged.