I've been thinking about the way robin hobb writes complex trauma and it's. I think so many authors focus more on the Thing That Happened. the Big Event that explains why the character is the way they are but with fitz especially she demonstrates so well that the Thing isn't nearly as important as the person it's happening to. the thing that makes fitz such a sad character isn't that bad things happen to him, it's that he never had the tools or the support system to be able to process it. it's not tragic because of The Events it's tragic because you see exactly how it affects fitz and how these things stay with him throughout his entire life. trauma compounds and the things he went through as a child become the things he tries to protect himself with as an adult. it's isolation and denial and not giving others the chance to hurt him and not giving himself the chance to hurt others. he's so viscerally human and with ever poor decision and every person he's hurt you get to see exactly what led up to him making those choices. there are no therapists in the six duchies