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Originally Posted by Iridal
I don't remember Fitz ever abandoning Verity. I mean, he walked all the way to that Elderling place to help him with his quest. It's true that he's divided between his loyalty to his King and Molly at first. But he leaves Molly because he thinks there's another man in her life and he wants her to be happy. Not because he chooses his King over her. And I think in the end he was loyal to both Verity and Molly. He helped his king. He decided to leave Molly alone so she could be happy with Burrich.
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Yup.
He's very loyal to Verity. He wants to help Verity but he's asked to stay behind and take care of Kettricken and others instead (since it's obvious to Verity that Regal would do her in). Kettricken is principled, too principled for the kind of nasty court intrigue that Regal is practicing. Fitz helps her navigate the court intrigue - without him, she'd have been isolated and alone (and doomed) in short order. Fitz is left behind to help her, also so that Verity can stay at home via Fitz's skill link as long as possible.
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I think this is pretty apparent in the Assassin trilogy as well. Chade, Burrich, Molly, Kettricken, the fool (of course). They all love him dearly.
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Yup. He's a good kid at heart. He tries to do right - but he screws it up a lot because he's stubborn, and a bit of a hothead. He has trouble believing that people won't hurt him. He's an abandoned youngster, and he's never really given a new family. Burrich takes care of him, but he's a toddler with no parents. How do those kids often turn out? Fitz does alright for himself. Like Burrich says though, he makes decisions like a kid, without fully thinking through the consequences, and often refusing to acknowledge that the older folks might have some wisdom behind their decisions. Sounds like a teen to me.
He's kept under Burrich's thumb and away from the kids in town, so he's not so hot at making friends. He's thrust into a role of killing and sneaking, not because he wanted it, but because he is told to do it.
He's loyal to King Shrewd also, ever since he gives him his pin. If you read the book it's apparent all he really wanted was his grandpa to say he loves him, and he'd do anything for him. Instead, Shrewd makes a deal with him.
As far as Molly - he does his best by her, sort of (as best as you can expect for a teen) but King Shrewd will not OK him getting married to her. It's his first love, but he's a bastard...and marrying for love not so cool with the folks in charge.
In the same way, Burrich is full of contradictions like Fitz. He did kinda raise Fitz after all. He's very loyal, maybe too loyal, like a dog, as he often compares himself. He's stubborn like Fitz. And he's an alcoholic - maybe a functioning one, but still - he's got a big problem with drinking. He also had the same sort of thing happen as Fitz - he wanted to marry his love (Patience) but it didn't work out how he wanted.
The reason I love these is it isn't really traditional heroic fantasy. It's more a story of court intrigue and of flawed, realistic characters than anything else.