Farseer Trilogy - Blog Posts

In my medieval era again send help

I've been thinking about this non-stop for a week while re-reading rote, and I agree, it's f-ing brilliant.

Even just from a character perspective, not looking at the commentary on the world as a whole, it immediately creates these unspoken dynamics between characters' personalities and virtues, the expectations placed on them, and the true meaning of these words they've been tied to.

Is Regal failing to live up to his name, or is regality on its own not a virtue rulers should aspire to? Is it a shallow, egoistic concept by nature?

The honest, true-hearted character that leads Verity to take on the most thankless tasks of ruling, causes those same, deceptive tasks to eat away at his mind, body, and self-image.

FitzChivalry spends the first trilogy haunted by the specter of his father, mimicking and yet failing to live up to him at every step. He's caring and empathetic, but too traumatized to show it completely. He fights to defend the people he loves, but without any outward appearance of "honor" (a beserker and an assassin, not a knight or soldier). He's a caring, morally righteous kid serving his family, but quietly, often through underhanded murder. He's more than a bastard, but not quite the image of chivalry either.

there's something so endlessly compelling to me about the naming system in rote. it really casts the whole thing into a metaphorical, mythological light. chivalry is dead. verity is gone,

and it's patience who rules in buck keep. it's patience...