Fool's Assassin spoiler thread

[BrilliantFarseer]

I'm currently struggling my way through Fool's assassin. I'm not sure yet whether I like it. Bee is a great character, but for the rest I haven't found anything really interesting yet, and I'm about 2/3rd in the book (Shun just arrived, and Lant is on his way).

Shun when Fitz first meet her and Shun when she arrives in Withywoods seem two completely different persons, and I'm not sure that one poisoning can change a person that much. She's also completely unlovable, but perhaps she's a Malta in disguise.

Not the first to make that connection, but I don't want to like her as I came to like Malta. There doesn't seem to be much redeeming about her. With Malta, even Reyn knew she was completely selfish but he made us see that as a positive in that she would fiercely defend her husband and child.

[HollyRose]

Hi all
Some really interesting theories here.
My original thought while reading was perhaps FitzVigilant is Bee's catalyst and like it was mentioned earlier in the thread that he is also Chade's get, along with Shun.
I might be getting a bit too 'Game of Thronsey' but if Lant & Shun wind up in a love affair only to realise they are siblings, i wouldnt be surprised lol.

[Valarya]

....towards the end of the book we see that Bee gets sometimes two chapters in a row. I think this plus Bee's dream of the "end of [her] time" and

Fitz's stone wolf dragon

shows that Fitz will eventually....

Having just finished a re-read of the first three books (literally just finished the last page of book 3), I would love to go back and find this part about Bee's dream of Fitz's Wolf-Dragon. How could I not have seen that when I read Fool's Assassin just a few weeks ago? It is more sharply noticeable and shocking to me now since book 3 ends with him and Nighteyes both dreaming of carving their dragon.

I believe I mentioned it before, but I always wanted Fitz to travel back to Kelsingra and see real Elderlings... but perhaps he'll just make a trip to the Pale Isle, get his kid back, then make a wolf dragon with the Fool. One can hope.

[BrilliantFarseer]

Hi all
Some really interesting theories here.
My original thought while reading was perhaps FitzVigilant is Bee's catalyst and like it was mentioned earlier in the thread that he is also Chade's get, along with Shun.
I might be getting a bit too 'Game of Thronsey' but if Lant & Shun wind up in a love affair only to realise they are siblings, i wouldnt be surprised lol.

That would be a little sick, but Hobb has done some awful things to her characters. So, I suppose this wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, but I really would prefer to stay away from incest in these books.

[joost]

I finished last week. I'm still not sure whether I like the book or love it. The last chapters definitely lifted the book above the 'like' level however.

[Carrickstoneamy]

I think that Hobb played the " I'm too dumb to see the obvious" card too much. Fitz is a bleeding assassin. How could he not realise that Bee was a white. He knows of all the fools child hood stories, read the scrolls etc. Why did he not notice her skill ability for sooo long? He still hasn't spotted her wit.
Apart from that I really enjoyed the time spent with Fitz being a family man, enjoying his wife and child.
Bee sees Fitz as an old man. So I think he'll survive awhile, but the fool, Bee and her wit beast hound will survive longer and their story could continue . I hope they do. I love this world. Robin is the queen of; real, loveable and detestable characters, who grow and change. I love her complex descriptions of cultures, society and environments.

[hermoine]

I think that Fitz did not realise that Bee is a White because he thinks of her only as his and Molly's daughter, and it does not occur to him that there may be White lineage in either of their family trees (and I suspect that the person who said that his mingling with the Fool's essence being responsible for this may be on to something). Secondly, his knowledge of Whites is based on his experience with the Fool, and although he acknowledges the similarities Bee has with the Fool in terms of her dreams, there are important differences too. For example, the Fool does not show up on Fitz's Wit radar, Bee does. Bee's eyes are blue, and although fair-skinned, she is not colourless. And thirdly, when she was born, Fitz Wit-scanned her looking for deformities - we know that Whites differ from humans in their anatomy, perhaps there were no White-indicative features for him to notice, because Bee is not a full White (not even the Fool is).
As for the Skill, he knows she is sensitive to it, but probably doubts her ability to wield it, being under-developed as she is at this stage. This is probably the excuse he makes to himself so that she does not have to go to Buckkeep for training, or become a tool in the Farseer arsenal.
Regarding the Wit, Bee has never really had a chance to manifest it, since Fitz has kept her away from animals to a large degree - not allowing her to have dogs or kittens for example. I think he suspects, but does not want it to be true, because with her small size, unusual colouring and precocious intelligence, Bee is already attracting enough negative attention without adding Farseer, Skill and Wit to the list.

---

On a different note, what do you think of the fact that White prophecies seem to have room for error in terms of the gender of the person in the prophecy? For example, Bee was certain that the person in her Butterfly Dream/prophecy was male, but when the dream realised, the person was female. And the White prophecy of the Unexpected Son seems to refer to Bee, who is a girl (granted, a girl frequently mistaken for a boy, something else about her which is reminiscent of the Fool).

Perhaps gender is not all that important to Whites, or perhaps those in whom White Prophet characteristics manifest, gender is fluid or indeterminate (I realise that the topic of the Fool's gender is already covered in a different thread, not trying to re-open that discussion here).

[reznor]

okay. just finished the book. a few points:

1. definitely my favourite so far. I had to take alot of breaks while reading this book. some parts were so damn creepy (bee's dreams, the messenger in her room, and the way she died!) that I was almost too afraid to go to sleep.

2. Tallman the stablemaster. i am extremely suspicious of this guy being the person who murdered chivalry, after reading the letter from chivalry to burrich at the start of the book.

3. does bee actually have the wit? she talks to that cat, but its been made clear in other books that you dont need the wit to speak to a cat.

4. perseverance. I think this kid is going to be awesome (with a future nickname like tallestman how could he not be). I could be wrong (and probably am) but I think he will have a big part to play in the next books.

[BrilliantFarseer]

okay. just finished the book. a few points:

1. definitely my favourite so far. I had to take alot of breaks while reading this book. some parts were so damn creepy (bee's dreams, the messenger in her room, and the way she died!) that I was almost too afraid to go to sleep.

2. Tallman the stablemaster. i am extremely suspicious of this guy being the person who murdered chivalry, after reading the letter from chivalry to burrich at the start of the book.

3. does bee actually have the wit? she talks to that cat, but its been made clear in other books that you dont need the wit to speak to a cat.

4. perseverance. I think this kid is going to be awesome (with a future nickname like tallestman how could he not be). I could be wrong (and probably am) but I think he will have a big part to play in the next books.

I think it is a neck-and-neck horserace between Perserverance and FitzVigilant to see who is Bee's catalyst. I would say that it is Perserverance except for that dream in which the White child is beaten and FitzVigilant just looks on. That seems to link Bee and Lant.

[badgerclaw]

I just finished and I have to say I was surprised at the cliffhanger at the end. Mostly the other Fitz novels have ended with minor successes so it caught me slightly off guard.

I found this one to be the most emotional, it was very hard to read about Molly's death. I do think that in the opening scene of Winterfest she suffered a minor stroke, which led to her slight dementia and forgetfulness etc. It lines up with her dying of a stroke later on (such a mercy Hobb gave her, I was very well pleased with her life).

I did find that my opinion of Nettle is swaying, but that might be more because of how I imagined her relationship with Fitz going after Fool's Fate. I just saw very little love for her father in this book, even though there were a few moments that she did seem to care about him. Also I thought it odd that she is in her 40s now and still not allowed to marry. Either she has chosen to never marry and love Riddle in all but name or something is going on here...

I think Shun is far more important to the series than is let on, shame she's such a spoiled bitch.

And I loved that we got a lot more insight in the italicized chapter beginnings of Patience and Chivalry.

I think it is a neck-and-neck horserace between Perserverance and FitzVigilant to see who is Bee's catalyst. I would say that it is Perserverance except for that dream in which the White child is beaten and FitzVigilant just looks on. That seems to link Bee and Lant.

I'm not sure about either, but I did have a moment of hope for Perserverance when she had the waking recollection of the bull without horns.