Molly

[Koopa]

Originally Posted by rune

We didnt know Molly had ran off with Fitz adoptive father at the time that Kettricken conceived.

yes we did, verity grants him his request, and in that skill'dream' they see molly giving herself willingly to burrich. in her defense, she believed him death, nonetheless, fitz was believed death for less than a year. wich is rather short, even if she was in difficult circumstances.

[Rahl Windsong]

Every single time I read this topic I am inclined to read that series again from start to finish! God I loved Nighteyes! Favorite fantasy character of all time for me.

[LyannaWolfBlood]

I also didn't like Molly much. I couldn't believe it when they ended up together in the Tawny Man - evidently I'm not much of a romantic, 'cause I had her definitely pinned down as his first love and assumed he'd move on. Like you, I think their relationship wasn't really based on substance, more on physicality.

[Koopa]

That is important too, also she was his sanity. (though this is perhaps a bit too strong a word.) He has always admired her, and he wanted a normal life.

I liked that he got back with Molly, much better then some new woman. Just as i liked the fact that he never got to know his mother, even after meetng her as a little boy on the market afterwards.

[LyannaWolfBlood]

Originally Posted by KiwiBird

Just as i liked the fact that he never got to know his mother, even after meetng her as a little boy on the market afterwards.

Good point - we don't need a tearful family reunion in every story.

[ratsy]

I am really surpised by how many people actually think that Fitz should have ended up with the Fool. There was not a moment in any of the six books where I felt that Fitz felt anything romantic at all for him. He was his "childhood friend" as he called him and was as close to a brother that Fitz had. He loved him, that is for sure but not in the way readers seem to have wanted. I think that Fitz really loved Molly, even though she did drop out of the picture for most of the books.

[Alexa]

What really bothers me in the relationship between Molly and Fitz, is that Molly was an ordinary woman. Instead Fitz was since his birthday anything but ordinary. I'm disappointed Fitz didn't end with Kettricken.

[Koopa]

What is wrong with being ordinary?

[Alexa]

Nothing, in the real world.

[Conan]

I think it would have made ALOT more sense if Fitz ended up as he started, lonely. The marriages made me want to scream, he should have stayed with dutiful, Chade etc. or travelled with web and swift, or set out on a journey.

[Reerr]

I was unsatisfied, ultimately, with the ending. Frankly, I didn't see any basis for molly's attachment to fitz. In every situation, she seemed let-down, disgusted, or angry. It was never fleshed out, in the text, what it was that made molly 'love' fitz in any of the grand, sweeping ways that the ending tried to imply. Sure, Fitz loved her, that was crystal clear. There were even good reasons for it, though many of them were just memories of a time gone. But we never saw why molly loved Fitz.

Many have pointed out that her actions spoke more to her need for stability (something she was apparently to provide for Fitz) in seeking out Fitz, marrying Burrich, and then accepting Fitz again. I agree, but how did Fitz provide that for her? Burrich was there, for 15 years, when she needed/wanted someone special. What is Fitz, to that? This is never elaborated.

Many have sought to appeal to some aether realm of love, an abstract yet unshakable bond, to which they finally return to at the end. This, for Fitz, was developed ad nauseum, but for molly? She grieved, certainly, but shortly fell in love with Burrich. She proceeded to build a life, and a rather substantial family, with him. She clearly loved him. The question begs itself: would she have left Burrich for Fitz had Burrich not perished? Would she leave Fitz for Burrich if HE were to return, as Fitz did? I think the answers are clearly 'no' and 'yes', respectively.

I think it makes more sense for her to find the man she wanted, or in Burrich's words, "the better man for her", in Burrich. She had one child by Fitz, in a fit of youthful coupling, but spent fifteen years bearing and raising seven children for the man who stood by her side, and finally gave his life in a noble, and public way, in service to the realm. Why is this not a more compelling love story? Fitz has done so much more, but Molly either doesn't know, or what she does know of, doesn't approve of.

Many have said that this is a touching tribute to the unwaivering devotion, to still retain such a bond after so many years apart and so much hardship. Truth be told, it strains my credulity. Fitz endured hardship, of a sort and scope that beggers anything Molly could have dreamed possible, and yet he allows himself to be strung out to dry by the woman he loves.

That is love, from him, but it is an empty thing.

Why does she love Fitz?

In my opinion, the real tragedy was the end of Assassin's Quest, when the final thread of hope for Fitz and Molly was snipped by the content of that skill vision. It wasn't written as a marriage of convenience, that would have been bearable, perhaps. But what made it so soul-wrenching was the insight it gave Fitz into their expressed feelings towards one another. All other things aside, she loved Burrich. Since Fitz was still alive, while she may not have been aware of it, what the reader felt was the sting of double betrayal. Not just a fling; full on devotion to another man, and his pseudo-father at that.

Any attempts to recover this were, as I suspected after closing the final pages of Assassin's quest and confirmed after closing Fool's Fate, ultimately futile, hollow, and un-fulfilling.

I would have vastly preferred a situation such as in Magician Master, or The Wheel of Time, where as the protagonist grows, he realizes that the childhood sweetheart was only that. That he could never be content with being 'content', he would need someone who understood and accepted him completely. Not just what he was in her mind, but what he has endured, sacrificed, and become. Love, as it is often said, is a two-way street. Any other woman in his life had a deeper connection with him than Molly.

[Ais]

I agree with Reerr, it was too unlikely that Fitz and Molly would end up together in the end. It reminds me of what Kettle says in Assassin's Quest, "If you look back on it, you will see there were fully as many quarrels as there were good times." She warns him that Molly was only his childhood sweetheart and that they've outgrown each other. This is true on both counts, Molly and Fitz had very few happy times, they were mostly miserable together, and they'd each come too far to ever go back to what they did have.

This is especially true by the end of the Tawny Man trilogy, it's insulting to the characters and how far they've come to throw them back together again. They weren't even right for each other in the beginning! Fitz never seemed to love her, he loved what she represented to him, which isn't the same thing.

Also, I'd like to add. Jinna said when she first read Fitz's hand in Fool's Errand that he'd had a young love, but that it died when he did. She went on to say that aside from that, he had another love, one that winded its way in and out of his life, and that this love would return to him soon. It's not long afterwards that the Fool shows up at his door. I don't think that Fitz and the Fool could have ever had a sexual love, but Fitz certainly loved him more than anyone else in his life, and he was the only one he trusted as well.

[rafar]

Totally agree
Burich and MOly had 20 kids together,
I think that about sums it up, MOVE ON Fitz
Well regardless it was all good until he came over to Moly's room and begged her to take him back, god i couldnt believe what I was reading
But that's just like Fitz character so I guess that would suit him

[Fitzchiv]

Molly and Fitz was the product of youthful passion and infatuation. Her presence in Fitz's thoughts throughout the series is the link between how damaged/weary he had become and that purer time.

You never forget your first love, and frequently view them through tinted spectacles - almost in love with the context as much as the person.

**SPOILER**

The fact they ended up back together was Robin's gift to the character in my opinion. Molly was such a huge part of the tragedy of Fitz that he could only really "rest" with closure on that subject.

It's the main reason I strongly doubt Robin will ever bring him out of retirement (although I desperately hope she finds a way)

[#Requin]

I am really surpised by how many people actually think that Fitz should have ended up with the Fool. There was not a moment in any of the six books where I felt that Fitz felt anything romantic at all for him. He was his "childhood friend" as he called him and was as close to a brother that Fitz had. He loved him, that is for sure but not in the way readers seem to have wanted. I think that Fitz really loved Molly, even though she did drop out of the picture for most of the books.

Also, I'd like to add. Jinna said when she first read Fitz's hand in Fool's Errand that he'd had a young love, but that it died when he did. She went on to say that aside from that, he had another love, one that winded its way in and out of his life, and that this love would return to him soon. It's not long afterwards that the Fool shows up at his door. I don't think that Fitz and the Fool could have ever had a sexual love, but Fitz certainly loved him more than anyone else in his life, and he was the only one he trusted as well.

With the passage of years, i've come to completely agree with this. The fool not Molly was Fitz his one true love. Even if they where never fysically together.
It's the fool that winds his way in and out of his life. It's the fool he shares everything with. Whereas Molly never really left (skilldreams) and he never really shares everyrhing with, constantly holding himself back. (e.g. among 1001 secrets his band with NightEyes). With Molly he feels content in the believe that he got what he always wanted out of life, with the fool he instinctively feels that life is as it should be. That now that the fool is back he's whole again.