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

[KeyIsland]

Just because this one was called "endings" ish i was hoping someone could remind me and refresh me of what happends in the end of Assassins Quest I read them close to 4 years ago now and i lent them to a friend whos reading, she is keeping me updated but I was pretty sure that *spoilerish* fitz "died" in the end of it right? but I really cant remeber so if anyone could help me out that would be awesome!

[Farseer]

G'day KeyIsland - great to have you back with us!

From what I can recall, this thread was mainly to allow those who were unhappy with the 'ending' of the Tawny Man trilogy (I wasn't one of them!) to vent their spleen. Still, I'm happy to outline the end of AQ for you and knowing that some others here (fool-ish?) have not long finished a re-read, they may be able to accurately pitch in too.

As well as here, you can always take a look around the wiki but beware, there will be spoilers for all of the other books as well. I think I recall that you have read the LST series but all of the other books, including those in the Rain Wild Chronicles, appear in the wiki info. Erk! Just had a look and there's lots still to be added even for major characters such as Fitz. I think an overview of each book in the 'book' section would be handy too. Will add those ideas to the wiki thread.

Be back soon with my outline...will work on it in a Word doc first so I don't lost it all here!

[Farseer]

Sorry, in a bit of a rush so the tense is all over the place etc.

So...the end of AQ...here's what I'll call PART ONE as I doubt I'll be able to post it all at the one time. I'll be back soon to copy and paste the rest....just have to cook my family and the men some dinner!! Feel free to correct me as I could have written anything in here!

PART ONE

No, Fitz didn't die then. He died toward the end of Royal Assassin and then spent the early parts of Assassin's Quest separating himself from Nighteyes and returning fully to his human form. Of course, it was only Verity, Chade, Burrich and Nighteyes who were aware that Fitz still lived. All others believed him dead after time in Regal’s dungeon.

Once he came back to himself, he argued with both Burrich and Chade who then left him alone to fend for himself in the hut that he had formerly shared with Burrich and Nighteyes. While there alone, Fitz decided to leave and kill Regal but was attacked by Forged Ones, one of whom steals and wears his shirt that bears his pin from King Shrewd. Later, after Fitz flees the area and heads to Tradeford to kill Regal, Burrich finds this Forged One dead at the hut and, upon recognising the shirt and pin, believes the body belongs to Fitz. He mourns Fitz as dead and takes this information back to Chade. He also takes the pin and gives it to Molly who he has been caring for, unknown to Fitz.

When he and Nighteyes reached Tradeford, Fitz attempted to kill Regal but he was unsuccessful. At one point while he there, he was surrounded in a room by guards and Will etc but scored his arm with what he believed was a knife that still held poison on its blade. After that, Verity blasted all in the room with the Skill, allowing Fitz to escape, and also imprinted a Skill command on Fitz to “Come to me”. Fitz had to obey the Skill command and so made his way immediately to the Mountain Kingdom, just as Verity had on his quest to find the Elderlings.

Fitz met Starling along the way and then also Kettle, who was travelling with the Pilgrims making their way to the Mountain Kingdom to seek the White Prophet etc. While making a river crossing, Fitz and Nighteyes are attacked. Nighteyes escapes badly injured (thrown into the water) but Fitz is taken captive. While in prison at Moonseye, Starling and Kettle help Fitz to escape and much of the town is destroyed. Not long after his escape, Fitz and Nighteyes separate themselves from Starling and Kettle to prevent Regal’s guards from tracking them.

Later Fitz realises that a Witted One has been used by Regal to track him and, after receiving an arrow in his back, he stumbles his way into Jhampe where he comes across the Fool (who does not recognise Fitz immediately).

Over time he is reunited with everyone again and learns that Verity and Kettricken’s child has died and thus his and Molly’s child, Nettle, will have to inherit the Farseer throne. Kettricken and Chade wish to accomplish this by pretending that Nettle is Verity and Kettricken’s child. Fitz is upset and vows that not only his Verity alive but that he will find him (which he must do as the “Come to me” Skill command is still strong within him).

During this time, the arrow is taken out, Fitz heals and he, Kettricken, Kettle, Fool, Starling and Nighteyes make their way up the Skill Road to seek Verity.

Along the way, Fitz visits a city via a Skill pillar and it was there that he was able to draw a map that would lead him to Verity. Verity had previously visited the same city and had also drawn a map. In this visit, Fitz fulfilled a part of the prophecy as written by White Damir - “Come the Catalyst, to make stone of flesh and flesh of stone. At his touch shall be wakened the dragons of the earth. The sleeping city shall tremble and waken to him. Comes the Catalyst.” Starling also reveals her belief that Fool is a woman who is in love with Fitz.

Further on their journey they encounter a plaza where Fitz and Fool are joined by the Skill and together witness the announcing of the flight of Realder’s Dragon. It is here that Fitz sees Fool as a woman with golden hair, wearing the Rooster Crown. Fool collapses after that and then awakens reinvigorated, believing that he and Fitz were not only when they must be and where they must be but also who they must be.

As they continue making their way to Verity, they come across the Stone Garden filled with stone dragons (simulacra). Fool recalls one, Realder, from his dream and Fitz and Nighteyes feel him with the Wit.

Past the Stone Garden, the party come across a quarry where, after first coming across Girl-on-a-Dragon mired in stone, they eventually find Verity carving his own dragon. Here Kettle reveals her true identity (that she was actually Kestrel, a member of a past coterie but had the Skill burned out of her and was banished from the Six Duchies after killing her twin sister, Gull, with the Skill). Linked together, Fitz, Fool and Nighteyes unlock her Skill, by allowing her to forgive herself for her murderous act, so she then assists Verity in the carving of his dragon as Verity cannot complete the task alone.

At some stage here, Verity takes Kettle to the Skill River where she lathes her arms silver with the Skill, just as Verity had done (as we witnessed via a previous Skill link/dream with Fitz). Fitz, on the other hand, does as Verity asks and returns to the Stone Garden to attempt to rouse the simulacra. He believes he’s unsuccessful but Verity confirms that he did, indeed, rouse one.

PART TWO coming...

['thul]

These beings will answer your question. Note that this may spoil stuff... trying to keep this purely at level of spoiling farseer books, and not anything from tawny man.
This wont be as detailed as the long work of Farseer.

Spoiler

At the end of the farseer books, the role of "prince FitzChivalry Farseer is dead. Though the person having that role is alive, he cannot return to court under that name, due to the hatred many six duchies folk have of the magic of the Wit. He was scheduled to be executed by the usurper prince Regal, but due to a herbal trick combined with the wit, his mind was stuck temporarily in his wit companion, thus most people thought him dead and buried. Should he return in the guise of "fitzChivalry Farseer, he would be executed in rather intense fashion by a mob.
The persona "Tom Badgerlock", which he created for himself, retired at the end of those books to a small cottage somewhere not too far from buckkeep.

[fool-ish]

There really is nothing I can add to that Despite my recent re-read, I couldn't have set it out as Farseer did! It's all there and our Fitz is certainly not dead

['thul]

was these beings' short text decent for a rough summary of Farseer's long one?

[Farseer]

I think that I've said it before but 'concise' has never been a strong point. Starting Monday I am setting (and sticking to!) my goal of 3000 words a day, even if the doing of the deed saps every night of my life for the next year...and I believe that that should help limit future lengthy posts, letters and emails that I tend to indulge in!

Off to fix some things for PART TWO (so much good stuff happened in there! ) but I am coming back, and I apologise for the delay!

['thul]

do not forget that quality is oft more important than quantity. These beings could probably write thousands of words each day for their story project, but most of that would be useless dribble.

[Farseer]

^ True...better three hundred useful words than three thousand useless ones!

I had planned to return earlier but life really does have an annoying way of getting in the road of good intentions.

So, here's PART TWO, and there's a higher likelihood that there will be something amiss herein than there was in the first part:

At one point, while assisting Verity with the grooming of himself, Fool gets some of Verity’s silver Skill on three of his fingers. Thereafter he describes them as being “sensitive”, is able to know details of whatever he touches (eg know the history a spoon, who made it, where it came from etc, and the same for the bandage that covered his fingers) and he is able to work stone and other materials such as wood. He is drawn to Girl-on-a-Dragon and so feels compelled to often use his Skill-imbued fingers to carve and release her from her mired state.

Verity and Kettle put all they have into the dragon but it’s not enough. Verity asks for Fitz’ life (as Fitz had offered it earlier to Verity in lieu of his daughter’s as he did not want her life made forfeit to the Farseer throne) and, believing he is going to die, Fitz begs Verity to allow him to see Molly via the Skill one last time. It is then that Fitz witnesses the love that blossoms between Molly and Burrich (both of whom believe him dead) and his heart is broken. Verity and Fitz then swap bodies as Verity believes that all he needs is a night of youthful passion to provide the emotions/memories needed to finally complete his dragon. Verity makes love to Kettricken and she conceives a child – Verity knows this via his Skill.

Meanwhile, in Verity’s body with its Skill-imbued arms and hands, Fitz helps Fool finish off Girl-on-a-Dragon by offloading many of his bad feelings etc into her (of Molly, his mother, his time within Regal’s dungeons etc) but still what he places within her is not enough for her to rise or ‘quicken’. I’ve just had a thought but that thought’s for another thread!! It is during this off-loading that Fitz discovers the story behind Salt, the girl within G-o-a-D and how she had chosen to keep herself separate from the dragon aspect during the carving process.

In the meantime, Verity and Kettle complete their carving, go into the dragon and the dragon (Verity-as-Dragon) quickens. With Kettricken and Starling climbing on his back, Verity-as-Dragon flies off to Buckkeep where he offloads both ladies before ‘Lady’ Patience then demands that he rid her harbour of the Red Ships and Raiders. Thus began “the Cleansing of Buck” and the end of the Red Ships War.

Meanwhile, back in the memory stone quarry, Girl-on-a-Dragon is completed and quickened after Fool bleeds onto her and Burl, a member of Galen’s coterie (who was serving Regal alongside Will and the other new members of the coteries that Regal himself had created), bleeds and dies against her following an attack from Nighteyes. G-o-a-D then flies with Fool seated behind her (he had previously fled up there to escape Burl) and together they begin hunting Regal’s troops within the vicinity of the quarry.

Regal uses Will as a Skill puppet during a confrontation with Fitz but then, with blood and the Wit (initially Skill strength fed as Wit), Fitz and Nighteyes wake the ‘sleeping’ simulacra, starting with Realder. Each of them then follows Fool and G-o-a-D in flight to Buckkeep to assist Verity-as-Dragon. Verity-as-Dragon has cleansed Buck by the time they all reach him there much later and so they, and Verity-as-Dragon, make their way northward through Bearns and the Near Islands (Fool and G-o-a-D venture down to the coasts of Rippon and Shoaks) and then on to the Out Islands. It is while this cleansing takes place that blocks of huge memory stone are discovered aboard a White Ship which has been captured (two had been sunk), and it is realised that the blocks contain the anmas/lives/feelings etc of those who had been Forged by the Raiders. It had been the intention of the Outislanders, led by one Kebal Rawbread, to create a dragon of their own to do to the Six Duchies what had been done to them during the time of King Wisdom.

Again back in the quarry, Fitz comes across Will who is almost near death. Using the Skill, Fitz finds a pathway into Regal’s mind through Regal and Will’s Skill connection and, rather than killing Regal as he’d always planned, he imbeds a Skill command in him that ensures his fanatical loyalty to Kettricken and the future Farseer heir (mirroring the Skill imprint that had long ago been placed on Galen). This causes Regal to tear down the King’s Circle and replace it with the Queen’s Gardens, recall troops from the Mountain Kingdom, give Patience back the rubies Chivalry had given her and return himself, stock, goods and Skill scrolls/books etc back to Buckkeep. Not long after that, Regal is found dead, killed in his bed by some creature that was reputed to have been a large river rat but was, in fact, Small Ferret exacting his revenge (we earlier learned of his intentions to kill Regal in such a way when he had once warned Fitz and saved him from capture).

After all of this, Fitz and Nighteyes decide not return to Buck and, as such (as the ‘thul beings said), all who had known him before believe him truly dead except for Kettricken, Chade, Starling and, of course, Fool. For all intents and purposes, FitzChivalry Farseer is dead but Fitz himself remains alive, having permanently taken on the name that Patience had long ago given him, ‘Tom’, and using ‘Badgerlock’ (for the white streak in his hair) as his surname.

Once they leave the quarry, he and Nighteyes spend a year or so in the Mountains and then a similar amount of time again with Black Rolf (learning the Wit) before journeying to places such as the Near Islands, Chalced, Bingtown and even part-way up the Rain River. Finally they return to Buck and settle in a hut not far from where Forge was once situated.

In the end, Fitz shares with us that Starling had brought him a boy, Hap, whom he adopted and who now lived with him and Nighteyes in the hut. He was constantly unsettled by the Skill, Regal’s coteries had all been disbanded because there was no Skillmaster for them, Patience had moved from Buckkeep to Tradeford, Kettricken had given birth to a son (Prince Dutiful), Chade had gone from operating within the walls to being Kettricken’s adviser and Molly and Burrich were happy with Fitz and Molly’s daughter, Nettle, and their own son whom they had named Chivalry…as well as having another baby on the way. Fitz had not seen Fool for many years and he missed him, and he and Nighteyes dreamed of carving their dragon.

I think that's about it...feel free to tell me otherwise!

['thul]

between the posts made by these beings and Farseer, it seems most has been covered. The rest can be found by reading the books again. No clear factual errors in your posts at least, farseer.