Line #4 YMMV/RealmoftheElderlings


1	!!''The Farseer Trilogy'':
2	* AccidentalAesop:
3	** When your homeland is being invaded, the only real solution is to create weapons of mass destruction to unleash upon not only your enemy’s soldiers, but their cities too.
4	** Urbanization is the real evil. After all, not a single person in the Mountain Kingdom is the least bit corrupt or unsympathetic; it might as well be a paradise compared to Buckkeep or Tradeford!
5	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
6	** Is Patience really that weird, or is it ObfuscatingStupidity?
7	** Chivalry's motives are a mystery, but it's not WildMassGuessing to assume he set up a ThanatosGambit in case he didn't survive the DecadentCourt. Patience is a GeniusDitz who wouldn't get a second glance from Regal's assassins, but could hold down the fort when the chips were down.
8	** Molly seems trapped in a tragic cycle of excusing the flaws of men with drinking problems. She made plenty of excuses for her alcoholic father, becomes Fit'z star-crossed lover while never really addressing his drinking, and ultimately [[spoiler:falls for Burrich, despite him being a much heavier drinker than Fitz]].
9	%% Regal isn't a CompleteMonster because he loved his mother. That's enough to disqualify him.
10	* FridgeBrilliance: Fitz being a MasterOfNone becomes this when you realise just what a Catalyst is supposed to do - not act as a hero, but to enable heroism in others. Fitz's wide variety of mediocre skills makes him a sort of universal sidekick, capable enough to lend a hand in just about any situation but not so good that he outshines anyone.
11	* HarsherInHindsight:
12	** ''Fool's Fate'' reveals that [[spoiler:there is a way to restore those who have been Forged: destroy the Stone Dragon into which they were fed. Unfortunately this is much too late for the hundreds or maybe even thousands of innocent Six Duchies citizens Forged during the Red Ship War and [[MercyKill mercy killed]] by Fitz and others during the first trilogy.]]
13	** The Fool's initial dismissive view of Starling as someone who can't understand when a man looks at her without desire [[spoiler:now seems terrible when Fitz learns that she was raped; first by the Raiders, then by Burl's men.]]
14	* HoYay:
15	** Between Fitz and the Fool, which starts at a small scale in ''Royal Assassin.'' But the smaller moments in ''Royal Assassin'' turn into much bigger and obvious instances in ''Assassin's Quest''.
16	*** Most obviously when they see each other again. The Fool practically falls over himself to hug him since he's just so glad that Fitz is alive. For a while after, the Fool isn't so teasing to Fitz either, and also gets more protective of him.
17	*** It doesn't help that Fitz is apparently "the Catalyst" [[spoiler:and the Fool is the White Prophet, and is determined to follow him.]]
18	*** Starling outright says that the Fool is in love with him. [[spoiler:She also says that the Fool is a woman, so their relationship could be ShipTease instead. Maybe.]]
19	*** Fool complains of Fitz's scars because of how beautiful he was.
20	** Also Burrich and Chivalry, since Burrich was completely devoted to Chivalry.
21	* {{Squick}}: [[spoiler:Verity taking over Fitz's body for the sole purpose of sleeping with Ketrricken to give her an heir, which Verity still considers his child.]] Fitz washes himself intensely afterwards out of disgust. This gets downplayed in later books, as Kettricken reveals she'd figured it out and was okay with it, and Fitz also seems to have come to terms with it.
22	* TheScrappy:
23	** Starling is presented as a strong, independent, EthicalSlut, and the [[BettyAndVeronica Veronica counterpart]] to Molly. She's an arrogant {{Jerkass}} who's interested in Fitz mostly for the legend she can write about his actions [[spoiler:so she sells the information of the daughter that he desperately wanted to keep away from royal politics, just so she could follow him on his search for Verity.]] She stays [[ItsAllAboutMe enormously self-centered]] until a good way through the Tawny Man books.
24	** Molly herself, for some, comes as selfish and [[spoiler: lied about not being pregnant]]. She constantly complains about Fitz having a life outside of her, overreacts to him whenever he drinks (understandable given she had an AbusiveParent, but she's still really antagonistic about it) and later treats [[spoiler: Nettle]] poorly [[WhatTheHellHero until Burrich calls her out on it.]]
25	* SpoiledByTheFormat: Do you really suspect Fitz successfully killing Regal early in the third book?
26	* StrangledByTheRedString: Fitz and Molly, since he is apparently in love with her because they played together when he was ten. You get the impression it's not so much a ChildhoodFriendRomance as Molly was the only girl Fitz knew for the majority of his childhood years. Not to mention Molly gets a lot of CharacterShilling from Burrich, Nighteyes and Patience, with the former two calling her an excellent mate and Patience claiming she is "smart and diligent, full of wit and spirit", which is more than the reader gets to see of her. It can get frustrating since Fitz won't give any other woman a chance because he's "madly in love" with Molly despite not really knowing much about her and Molly constantly complaining that Fitz doesn't spend enough time with her.
27	* TheWoobie: Wow, who isn't in this trilogy? Regal, probably.
28	** IronWoobie: Fitz, poor Fitz, who probably suffers the most during the whole trilogy. [[spoiler:He's nearly killed at fifteen, then again when he's barely eighteen (he fakes it) for possessing forbidden magic; both experiences rob him of his youth and vitality, and at the end of the series, he doesn't even get the girl. This is still not including all the other crap he has to trudge through during the trilogy.]]
29	** JerkassWoobie: Sure, Starling might just be interested in writing a song to make her famous but she lost her brother and [[spoiler:since she's barren from a botched abortion, she's only interested in making sure she can take care of herself when she's older, knowing that she won't have any children to do so.]] Also if you read between the lines, there are hints that Starling was in love with Fitz all along but was just too scared of rejection to admit it, and much of her Jerkass behavior is due to her knowing that he'll never return her feelings.
30	** Other special mentions for Woobie-ism are Burrich, Kettricken, and Verity.
31	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Fitz’s mother. Who was she? Was Fitz having [[SuperBreedingProgram both the Skill and Wit]] an accident or a planned event? Why did she send Fitz to Buckkeep and why can’t he remember her or anything before that event? The end of Tawny Man finally explains that Fitz can't remember her because he fed his memories of her to Girl-On-A-Dragon; he finally recovers them and learns that his given name was Keppet.
32
33	!!''The Liveship Traders'':
34	* ArcFatigue: Althea and Brashen's WillTheyOrWontThey can get really tedious as the books go on, namely because they keep dancing around their feelings, miscommunicating, sleeping with each other and then storming off over a misunderstanding, pine over each other when they're parted, etc, repeated several times over the trilogy.
35	* CatharsisFactor: While Kyle wasn't as bad as some of the other villains in the books, it can be very satisfying to learn that he's been tortured by his former slaves and reduced to a pathetic shadow of his former self, then casually and accidentally killed by a stray arrow.
36	* HoYay: A ''lot'' between Kennit and Wintrow - Kennit treats Wintrow much nicer than he does anyone else, including his "woman", Etta, muses about Wintrow's beauty and there are times Wintrow seems drawn to Kennit as well. In fact, Kennit's attraction to Althea later seem to stem from the fact she looks ''just like Wintrow'' and later [[spoiler: he rapes Althea because his own sexual abuse means he is reluctant to rape Wintrow as it reminds him too much of what he went through, but he's fine doing it to a woman who looks just like the priest.]]
37	** Fitz and Fool even make it into a trilogy without Fitz! Amber recarves Paragon into Fitz's likeness, giving him the face of "someone you could love".
38	* MoralEventHorizon: Kennit seems to divide the fanbase. According to some, he's already irredeemable. According to others, he stays on the very edge for quite some time, but then he [[spoiler:rapes Althea]] and blows all his chances of redemption.
39	** WordOfGod is that Kennit was supposed to be an [[spoiler: "irredeemably evil villain".]]
40	* TheWoobie: Poor Wintrow. And Vivacia. And plenty others, even if Wintrow and Vivacia take the cake.
41
42	!!''The Tawny Man'':
43	* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad The Pale Lady]] is TheManBehindTheMan for almost every bad thing that's happened in the ''Farseer Trilogy'', as she purchased the skill scrolls from Regal and learned the art of Forging from them. As ''The Tawny Man'' trilogy showed, she relished in the psychological aspects of forging; she loved unleashing mindless Forged ones against their own families and kinsmen. In addition, she would ransom the dead bodies of Out Islanders she'd captured to their families, with the threat that if they didn't pay she'd return them as Forged. She was behind the war between The Six Duchies and the Out Islands, using the Out Island warlord Kebal Rawbread as her [[TheHeavy Heavy]]. It was implied that she may have had her hands in the Jamaillian slave trade. She was a recreational TortureTechnician as well. When Kebal Rawbread [[YouHaveFailedMe failed her]], she chained him to a frozen throne in her ice palace, used magic to keep him alive through what would have been lethal frostbite, and fed him [[ImAHumanitarian body parts]] of other Out Islanders she'd forged. Forging was a process that could be done very slowly over the course of weeks. And she tortured the Fool over the course of days for no reason other than the joy of it. Her sole motivation was [[ApocalypseHow the complete collapse of civilization]].
44	* HoYay: Fitz and Fool again and this time on an even bigger scale.
45	** They share a few kisses in the last book, under the pretense of sharing power and giving back memories.
46	** The Fool gives him the nickname Beloved. [[spoiler:It becomes more HoYay-tastic when the Pale Lady reveals that married couples exchange names, and since Beloved is supposed to be the Fool's real name that means that the Fool is calling Fitz his husband. Fitz even goes as far as calling the Fool Fitzchivalry when he thinks the Fool is dead.]]
47	** And then Fitz and the Fool almost end up together. [[spoiler: Fitz tells him that he will choose him over Molly, but the Fool pulls a IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy.]]
48	* {{Wangst}}: Played for laughs and for drama in the chapter "Elfbark" in ''Fool's Fate''. Fitz is sneaked a massive dose of elfbark, and the drug's effects have him seesawing between bouncing-around hyperactivity and soul-crushing depression, during which he laments that everything he's ever done has been worthless.
49	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Hap isn't the most interesting character necessarily but his relationship with Fitz isn't given nearly as much attention as it could have been given. He is presented to Fitz by Starling at the end of ''Assassin's Quest'', with no explanation of who he is or where he came from, but with every indication that there is something significant about the child. A subplot in ''The Tawny Man'' follows Fitz's attempts to find him a job and stop him from ruining his life via an ill-advised romance, but really, you could completely remove him from the story and it wouldn't affect anything. He is further DemotedToExtra in ''Fitz and the Fool'', being mentioned only a couple of times and barely figuring in Fitz's thoughts, despite being his ''son'' to all intents and purposes, and his only human companion for over ''ten years'' of his life.
50
51	!!''The Rain Wilds Chronicles'':
52	* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler: Hest]] is a vain, arrogant, spoiled asshat who displays precisely zero self-awareness, even after going through his HumiliationConga. So, when his last appearance is [[spoiler: him getting punched twice in the face and then eaten by a dragon]], you’re more likely to feel joy than sorrow.
53	* HollywoodHomely: Alise, with her red hair and freckled complexion, seems to be this.
54	* TheWoobie: Relpda in Dragon Haven's first part.
55
56	!!''The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy'':
57	* HoYay: Fitz and the Fool, even more so.
58	** In Fool's assassin Fitz says of his relationship with the Fool; "I loved that man as I have loved no one else, I do not say that I loved him more than I love your mother. But the way I loved him was different. If you have heard there was anything improper in our bond, there was not. That was not what we were to each other. What we had went beyond that."
59	** [[spoiler: When the Fool comes back to Buckeep, after being horribly tortured (Again).]] The two sleep in the same bed once again. For Comfort.
60	** [[spoiler: Pretty much confirmed in the penultimate chapter of ''Assassin’s Fate'', when, as Fitz pours himself into a Skill-carved wolf statue, the Fool goes with him.]]
61	* OneTrueThreesome: Fitz, Fool, and Nighteyes. Nighteyes is basically confirmed to be alive through the skill and aiding Bee, and then he joins Fitz and Fool in Fitz's statue.

Context YMMV / RealmoftheElderlings