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

[n00854180t]

So, I read all the way to the end of Fool's Fate, and was absolutely blown away by how the ending was handled. And not in a good way.

I can accept that Fitz might prefer to go back to Molly, but for a start it seems like he hasn't learnt anything at all: once again, he is retreating back to relative isolation just like after the third book instead of dealing with his problems, and passively shrugging and laying about rather than thinking "oops once again I have given someone the impression I am dead, maybe I should do something about that". He was a rather likeable character even though he was prone to melodrama and laziness at times, up until the ending which made him seem like a complete moron.

The way the Fool is basically just given a "he disappeared and I never saw him again" handwave at the end is dreadful, especially since Hobb seemed, through all the books, to be setting up a specific ending involving him. The Fitz/Fool relationship is specifically compared to the Fitz/Nighteyes relationship, which makes sense considering the link and the life span issues. But Fitz has also specifically stated that he did not regret having the bond with Nighteyes, even though it may have in some ways hurt them both (Fitz by having Nighteyes die long before him, and Nighteyes by not being able to live a natural wolf life). So the Fool saying he doesn't want that sort of relationship to exist and Fitz just accepting this as some sort of wisdom doesn't make any sense. What about 'tis better to have loved and lost'? A complete retraction of the skill link and any contact seems like a childish "if I can't have it all, I won't have any at all!" response, which is out of character.

In addition, I think I may have missed something here but wasn't it also shown that the Skill, which Fitz definitely has, can be used to prolong your life? I think I might have missed some kind of conversation where it was revealed that doing this has horrible consequences or something. Can someone explain this to me?

(P.S. i don't think that many people actually use this forum but uh, i wanted to vent)

Honestly I think the entirety of the reason Fitz let the Fool go so easily is because he at some level agreed that they were now living in a timeline that existed after he and the Fool had altered events to be on the better course that they envisioned, and for the Fool to continue influencing Fitz' decisions could have caused irrevocable change to said timeline (very similar to the reason that the black man was reluctant to help them).

I think Fool's Fate is a book that needs to be read several times before all the pieces start to fit together.[snip]

The Elderlings books are some of the few books I've ever read more than once, partially for this reason.

About the Skill and prolonging one's life... I don't think any horrible consequences were mentioned. Actually, I'm not sure how it works. At first we were shown that Nighteyes seemed offended by being Skill-healed and later on Fitz seems to feel that his own healing was a bit odd too (doesn't he go and put back the outer side of his scars?) If I remember correctly, Fitz also seemed to think that Skill-healing somehow burned reserves, that it might actually shorten his life?

My impression was that drawing from one's own reserves to heal oneself would indeed shorten overall lifespan, and that "overhealing" could do so as well (as was done to Fitz when he nearly died and the coterie was formed). As for the life extension, that seems more a matter of adjustments to mitigate cell-repair functions within the body than large scale trauma fixing.