Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

[u/EqualConsistent9623]

Did Nighteyes go into Fitz when he died? In their time with the Old Blood, there were several mentions of Wit partners who had gone on in the other after death. Rolf rebuked that severely but Fitz mentioned that he and Nighteyes had not decided what they would do when they died.

When the Fool visited Fitz at the start of Fool’s Errand, Nighteyes wanted him to tell the Fool of their time with the Old Blood, and I think Nighteyes wanted some validation of what he intended to do. He told Fitz something along the lines of “we think better when we talk to the Scentless One”.

When talking about the woman-deer pair, Fitz said “The wrongness I sensed still crawled along my spine. “Yet.” I struggled to make myself admit this to the Fool. “Yet privately I wondered if any safe those two could fully understand the decision that had been made. If perhaps, despite how it appeared to us, it felt right to them.” (Chapter VIII: Old Blood, Fool’s Errand)

Then later Fitz talks about how Nighteyes had learned to seal himself so Fitz couldn’t feel him at all, though he were behind a curtain.

So my guess is:

1. ⁠Nighteyes didn’t want Fitz to heal him because he intended to go to him after his death and didn’t want Fitz trapped in his dying body. He was worried about Fitz and I think couldn’t let go.

2. ⁠He didn’t tell Fitz so that Fitz could learn to live without him, but at crucial moments and times of danger or great sorrow he came out to give Fitz advice.

3. ⁠He was able to go to Bee and come back again because his consciousness was wholly his and separate from Fitz’s, rather than a meshing of substances like what happened between Fitz and Beloved. Also because Bee was their Cub. She has 3 fathers lol.

4. ⁠There was a story about a woman whose dog had died, but when she was in trouble he went to get help for her by ‘giving dreams’ to another man who I assume was also witted.

5. ⁠Is the idea not that it’s bad for 2 beings to co-exist but that they should not compromise how the other lived, as in the case of Pelladine not allowing the cat to groom or gorge?

6. ⁠Perhaps Nighteyes knew all along that their ultimate end would be inside memory stone and he was preserving himself to go into it with Fitz. Without both Nighteyes and Beloved perhaps Fitz wouldn’t have enough to go into the stone.

[u/DTJ20]

No, this is what black rolf had tried to teach them, how to go on after death without doing that. As Fitz said, nighteyes was better at learning these ways than he was.

What was left behind was more than memories, but less than all nighteyes was. The remaining imprint might have been more than it would have for any old blood because they had been so closely joined but that's just speculation.

[u/GlitteringMiddle3053]

I don't think so. They were both against it, and Nighteyes more than Fitz. He would not go against that. Like another poster said, and I'm pretty sure it explains it in the book somewhere, he was more than a memory but not an existing entity. They had been together for so long that their thoughts, feelings, and logic were intertwined. I believe that's how he came through to Bee. It was Fitz borrowing all the mannerisms and thoughts of their time together

[u/jasalmfred → u/GlitteringMiddle3053]

right same as I still get the voice of my best friend from early adulthood in my head because she was such a big part of who I have become that I know what she would say about whatever situation I wind up in.

[u/EqualConsistent9623 → u/GlitteringMiddle3053]

That more than a memory thing was advice from Rolf and clearly Fitz and Nighteyes did not always agree completely with him.

Fitz mentioned that was what it felt like but he also often couldn’t feel Nighteyes in his mind when Nighteyes was holding himself apart. And he’s also an unreliable narrator.

I also don’t think this more-than-a-memory could move between beings?

[u/MatchlessVal]

I completely agree with your guess, but only got there on my 2nd re-read!

My first read of the final trilogy left me a bit confused on this point, because I always assumed that Nighteyes had let himself end instead of going into Fitz. But I think you're absolutely right.

I feel like he chose to remain with Fitz, but buried so deep so as not to affect his daily life. I mean, how else could he exist as a being to "transfer" into Bee (Wolf-Father) and then "transfer" back to Fitz when he and Bee meet back up @ Clerres?

[u/EqualConsistent9623 → u/MatchlessVal]

That part confused me initially too! If he were just a more-than-memory or essence, I don’t think he could have done that and shared memories of his childhood with Bee? And when he was with one of them he couldn’t be with the other.

Many people seem to think he wouldn’t have let himself live on though. Or perhaps he tried to die completely but Fitz held on too tight?

[u/westcoastal]

This is an interesting theory, but I don't think it fits within Nighteyes' character. When he died, he wanted to go. He even wanted Fitz to come with him. He would not have intentionally stayed with Fitz, let alone have a premeditated plan to do so.

I have talked about this in the past, and I I'll just copy/paste one of those comments here rather than try to rewrite it all from scratch. Apologies for not just writing a fresh response.

A huge theme in the story, and something she has talked about a lot in interviews in the past, is the idea of creatures that spend a lot of time together mingling their essence. Just like how two roses planted next to each other will take on each other's characteristics.

We saw with the Fool and how the many times he and Fitz were intermingled, they were no longer two distinct beings, but rather each retained part of the others essence. The same was true with Fitz and Nighteyes.

The two of them shared a body many times, particularly when Fitz spent a fairly significant amount of time dead and living in Nighteyes' body, and he had to be coaxed and drawn out of it by Burrich and Chade. There was also the skill healing that Fitz did on Nighteyes that he was pissed off about when Fitz repaired his heart.

Not to mention their wit bond, that Old Rolf warned them was too intense and unhealthy.

So the reality was, there was never any chance that Nighteyes was going to be able to die and be freed from his interconnectedness with Fitz. They were simply too intertwined to be separate creatures any longer.

I suspect that when Nighteyes died, he was unable to leave Fitz because they are essentially the same being. Instead he went dormant inside of Fitz, and transferred to Bee when she was born, and did not become fully awake or aware until his cub - because he would definitely be one of her 3 fathers - cried out for help from within the walls of Withy.

When you think about all of this, it is exactly how we would expect Nighteyes to handle such a situation. He he would want to remain with his cub.

And the series ended with the three intermingled beings becoming one in the stone wolf. I feel like that put a big punctuation mark on that entire theme, so I'm always a bit surprised when people don't see that dynamic. The three of them shared essences and shared bodies during their lives and could no longer be separated from one another.

Even the Fool and Nighteyes shared a body at one point, when the Fool entered Nighteyes' body to pull Fitz back out after he healed Nighteyes' heart.