**SPOILERS**
Well, after all that has been said it seems that there is no more to add. Yet...
As most of you do, I too strongly believe that by the end of the second trilogy its pretty clear that the Fool is male for many of the mentioned reasons (especially Teir's).
I'll just add that the encounter with the Pale Lady creates a comparison between her (with all her very prominent feminine physical traits) and the Fool, that leaves little doubt regarding the existence of clear gender differences. Moreover, she, who knows Beloved since his 'school days' (when he was certainly not pretending), refers to him by his real name and as MALE... She also says to Fitz, while trying to seduce him, that she (with her fertility and feminine body) can be for him what the Fool cannot.
However, (and if you're still with me I truly adore you
- cause now comes the interesting part ===>) Robin Hobb did something unbelievably frustrating, annoying, and even a little immoral
.
The thing is that until the very end of the story she made us (readers) believe that the Fool is a
woman:
* Starting from the Farseer trilogy in which Hobb planted doubt regarding the issue, when clearly asserting that the gender of the Fool is unknown. Thus the mystery began. Later Starling believes that the Fool is female (in that book her opinion in general proves to be very reliable- one cannot deny).
* In the Tawny Man Hobb again and again strongly implies that he is indeed a woman. There are repeated remarks about how the Fool acts womanly (hugs like a woman- when meeting Fitz at the beginning, screams like a woman- when Fitz heals his scars, and so on). These seem to me (because of their frequency) not only as presenting a character's feminine side but as Hobb's actual preparation of the reader to such revelation.
* Then, of course, there is Amber- if you had any doubts regarding this subject, this event put the gender issue in spotlight. The Fool as a woman was no longer a vague idea but an existing character.
* Now, it was already mentioned, and should be mentioned again, that the Fool holds the blanket (or whatever) over the chest when showing Fitz the tattoos- I'm sorry but I cannot understand why a man would ever do that. Moreover the
illustration on my book cover clearly shows a woman figure with the tattoos on it (Hobb probably confirmed that illustration...)- what can you say to that??
* When you add to all that the fact that the Fool's love for Fitz is not platonic (a discovery that causes their big fight in the second book), well it kinda make you develop hopes for (not to mention an attachment to) this "couple".
O.K. After all these fascinating arguments let me conclude (Hallelujah!). I hope
.
Forgive me, but I believe that what was so appealing in the combination of Fitz and the Fool (what made readers fascinated with them throughout three long books) was the sexual tension between them (and the possibility that it will manifest sometime). Hobb wonderfully managed to keep that tension both hidden and revealed. She did this while offering a sense of morality by creating the possibility (that seemed at times like a fact) that the Fool is a woman. I didn't like her doing this to me.
After all they've been through together, and with all the love between them I expected that Fitz and Beloved (the woman) would end up together (this expectation, I think, was based on the plot as it was presented by Hobb). With all the respect, the happy ending (with Molly) could have been ideal for the first trilogy. But now I say- Molly who?
Moreover, when looking at Kettle's words in the end of the "Assassin's Quest" it seems that Hobb herself intended the story to go in a different direction: she tells Fitz two things- that he doesn't want to remember his mother because he feels she abandoned him, and that he and Molly had grown too far apart (and maybe he never really loved her). This seemed at the time outrageous but later on perfectly acceptable.
I feel that Hobb has nurtured a promise that she eventually didn't keep. The Fool was used and discarded as an old clothing to an even more lonely, pathetic, and depressing situation (life) than Fitz has been in the end of the first trilogy.
Well, I'm tired, and you are probably asleep
The End
