I'm finished finally I'm empty inside now lol. I wasn't as upset at the ending as I thought I would be, tbh i liked the whole Fitz building a dragon thing. I think the actual concept of Fitz being on the verge of death and instead pouring all of himself into a stone wolf and being joined by the Fool and Nighteyes is pretty good, it was sad but felt like an appropriate mirror to the first series and a tying up of all the times it was made clear that Fitz and the Fool fit together as one being.

The thing I didn't like is what happens leading up to that. Fitz and the Fool have sometimes done this thing before where they fight but then things are resolved due to extenuating circumstances forcing them back into trust and understanding rather than the two of them actually discussing things and coming to a new agreement. This has been like a minor annoyance to me previously but is usually not a huge deal as most major conflicts get real resolution. But i felt like in comparison to previous books their arguments were more bitter and targeted and loaded here, and deserved a full resolution. Instead we had them in conflict for the majority of the voyage from Kelsingra with no real closure to any of the issues they had because suddenly everything started happening and then Fitz was dead and dying and it wasn't an issue.

And the thing that like bites at me is that the exact same thing happens between the Fool and Bee--as soon as Fitz is gone she takes over his role in having this antagonistic and fraught relationship with the Fool but without any of the underlying love and affection that held Fitz and the Fool together despite their differences. I feel like there shouldve been an opportunity to hash out the stuff with Fitz and especially the stuff with Bee (even if it's just her and the Fool gaining a mutual understanding of their shared loss rather than her suddenly seeing him as a father which seems unrealistic). I feel like it made this book hard to read because there's all this tension tension tension in the interpersonal relationships that feels like it will build to something but the resolution, where there is any, is very sudden and all at the end.

And also just personally I feel like I enjoy things better when there's happy or hopeful moments interspersed with the tragic ones--the closest we got to that was with Bee Fitz and the Fool sitting together while they cleared out the bricked-up tunnel, but otherwise the downtime especially towards the end of this book felt either like periods of (as Nighteyes put it lol) boredom, or periods of depression between really sad things happening. Which turns things into a slog rather than highlighting all the sad and bittersweet moments that come later. And because I love him I also really just wanted the Fool to have at least one moment of happiness here and I don't think he even gets that much due to on a character level the constant conflict with Bee and Fitz and then just everything about the entire plot.

Overall I did like the like...raw building-block plot points to this book but I think it could've been more satisfying if it hadn't ground everybody down constantly--like you need a moment to breathe in order for sad things to have their full impact, and you need some hope or joy for things to qualify as bittersweet and I'm not totally sure we got there with this.