He spent 9 years in college hopping between majors until he was forced to graduate. They looked at his credits and said the only thing he qualified for was a BA in English. Here's to finishing things on time!

Hey guys,

I'm reading the first book, The Name of the Wind. I think it's well written and the pacing isn't bad either.

The main character is a complete narcissist though, with sadistic tendencies, and the fact that nobody in the book seems to notice it makes me wonder whether this is actually intentional or whether the author simply doesn't realise what kind of person he has written.

What bothers me most is the recurring pattern whenever Kvothe feels humiliated or challenged. He doesn't just defend himself or prove someone wrong — he has to completely reverse the power dynamic and punish the other person in a way that feels wildly disproportionate.

The street bully is probably the most obvious example. Yes, the guy beats him up, but Kvothe's response is to destroy his possessions and then literally set him on fire. With Hemme it's similar: Kvothe could easily demonstrate sympathy without hurting him, but instead he deliberately burns him and then goes even further by threatening him through the sympathetic link. None of that is actually necessary.

And the weirdest part is that the book barely questions any of this. The people Kvothe hurts are usually established as assholes first, so his revenge is framed as satisfying or deserved. To me it feels less like normal teenage arrogance and more like a recurring narcissistic power fantasy: Kvothe gets humiliated, then proves that he is smarter and more powerful than everyone else, and the other person has to suffer for not recognising his greatness.

The women in the book are crap too. It's so full of sexism and dumb or strangely written female characters that it's giving me a headache. What makes that even more irritating is that the book clearly wants us to dislike characters like Hemme for being sexist, while Kvothe's own attitude towards women is hardly ever treated as a problem.

Maybe all of this is deliberate and the series eventually tears Kvothe apart for exactly these flaws. If that's the case, fair enough. But at the moment it feels like the narrative itself is completely on his side.

Am I completely off here?

Edit: I get why some people try to believe in the "unreliable narrator" thing. Except it doesn't change when we look at the present: Kvothe is the same "perfect" person at the inn. He fights off the evil creatures with ease. He stops bast and the Chronist in the blink of an eye. And there is never ONCE mentioned that bast or the Chronist have a doubt in the reliability of his Narration regarding his "perfectness". IMO This unreliable narrator thing is something people tell themselves who read the book years ago and don't want to admit that it has aged terribly.

Not sure if this will be on everyone's radar / scope of interest, but Pat has a little cameo as a "fool" at the 1:19:30 mark. A bit of a weird world's colliding crossover moment.

For those not aware, the Elephant Graveyard produces satirical, Adam Curtis-style long-form video essays that skewer the modern comedy scene and its interface with politics and big tech.

There's a big focus on grifters, liars and charlatans, so naturally Pat is in great company!

The most obvious silence was the lack of a third book. It was all good things coming in threes with a one and a two. It was a massive thing that weighed on the hearts of millions. A story untold. If there had been a book there would have been the slow quiet sound of flipping pages and the murmur of Audiobooks. Even if the first Kickstarter first chapter was out there might have been small gasps of delight.  If there had been a release there would have been cheering . . . But no of course there was no release. In fact there were none of these things and so the silence remained.

Inside his house a large bearded man sat at his desk. With the ease of long experience he opened a document on his computer titled "doorsofstoneeditofeditofeditfinal.1'122.5" he deleted a comma and then added it back, a slow tapping of keys that made almost the smallest tep against the keyboard. Such a sound seemed as if it should be loud, but in doing nothing it added a small second silence to the first. 

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened long enough you might be able to feel it in the words of the first two books or the rambling of introductions. It was in the footfalls of happy sons, and the wrinkled brow of the great bearded man who sat editing. His eyes were dark and distant with the resigned air of someone who has long ago given up all hope publishing. 

The Kingkiller Chronicles were his just as the third silence was his. This was appropriate as it was the greatest silence of the three, holding the others inside itself. It was deep and wide as the plot of the books. It was the heavy knowing that no matter what he wrote someone wouldn't like it. It was the patient cut-flower sound of someone waiting to publish posthumously.

...do you think a publisher find someone like Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan passed to finish the story?

Would you read it?

I like happen to live in the small WI town where Rothuss is from and is a bit of a reclusive local celebrity. I haven't read much in the fantasy genre and I'm just kind of curious if I should read what exists now.

This post is to address some of the deflections the KKC community entertains. I wrote it to save me (or you) some time in the future since I see similar exchanges happening in the comments in KKC-adjacent subs over and over.

TL;DR: I don't care much about book 3 or the chapter at this point, I care about people trying to whiteknight for Rothfuss.

The book 3

He doesn't owe you book 3

Well, he (kinda) does:

• He has told multiple times in his early interviews that his trilogy is already written and the whole thing was supposed to be published around 17 years ago in full, so people can buy his books without fearing to never see the ending.
• He has an actual contractual obligation before his publisher to write book 3 and even one more book (exact contract details unknown).
• It's kind of expected from professionals (when they call themselves professionals) in general to finish their work within a reasonable timeframe.

Anyway you're correct from the legal standpoint - even if Pat has lied "exaggerated the readines of the trilogy", he has no legal contractual obligation before me to produce book 3.

U angry about a book some guy did not deliver? That's childish and petty

I've already came to terms with the fact that the book will most likely never be published and who Pat really is at this point. It never made me angry, it does not make me sad anymore.

What strikes my nerve is people who try to project Pat's image as an honest nice guy writer by parroting the same deflections over and over, trying to paint "the haters" unreasonable, while ignoring (or genuinely not knowing about) Pat's words and deeds.

The charity chapter

It's just a chapter, the money went to charity, u angry about donating to charity?

• It wasn't "just a chapter", there were more stretch goals that are still unfulfilled almost five years later, which shows that the issue is not just with writing/editing the chapter.
• People are not angry about Pat making them donate. People are angry about Pat not holding up his end of the deal. Again. With no apologies or amends. Again. And no new deadlines or any real updates on his broken promises over several years. Again.

But the promise was in good faith, he really did want to do the thing

It was most likely not (IMO). It seems that he never expected for the twitch stream fundraiser to hit the goal before he killed that dragon and his "ready-to-go" chapter was just as ready as his "ready-to-go" trilogy.

People started to suspect he actually got no "ready-to-go" chapter he promised when he tried to weasel out immediately after hitting the goal (even tried to offer a refund to "those who donated solely because of the chapter"), you can read some comments here: https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/rcsxxl/we_won_the_wager_gg_everyone_thanks_to_everyone/

Some people said back then that "you never asked when I will deliver it, so..." and "double or nothing" were kind of jokes and Pat just being playful, however now, almost five years later with no results, I believe those were just panicked attempts to get off the hook.

But it was for a good cause and he never actually pocketed the money

It surely makes this a lot less reprehensible from the moral point of view, however the mentioned point is irrelevant in general - it does not cancel it in any way the fact that:

• He got money from his fans with his promises
• He failed to deliver on his promises
• Five years later he still has not even commented on his broken promises properly

But he apologised / explained / updated on chapter

If you're referring to this https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/176o58u/pat_gives_an_update_on_the_charity_chapter/ , then you should rewatch it to refresh your memory:

• He does not apologize / say he's sorry. He says he feels bad about the situation.
• He never clearly explains why is it impossible for him to put out "a wad of text" he "definitely had/has" (which was his initial promise). If the original chapter was in such a bad need of editing, then there was no sensible reason to sell it as "ready-to-go". If it was in good condition even back then, then there is no problem with publishing it now (as promised), then voice-acting the mega-fully-edited-for-VO one later.
• He never states any new deadlines or comments on his ability to ever finish "editing" the chapter. The only thing he says in that regard is "I'd like to finish it sooner rather than later" which is a form of his regular "I'm working on it, but it takes time" he was using for quite a bit already.

But it was a charity donation and donations are freely given gifts

On one side there was a donation to Worldbuilders' fundraiser dedicated to Heifer. On the other side there was a wager with Pat about him beating the dragon in minecraft before the goal is reached.

Donations being freely given gifts has nothing to do with Pat losing the wager and refusing to pay up in full.

If it weren't classified as "a wager" by Pat (which was "you win = I give, I win = I do nothing"), it could've been classified as an "incentivized fundraiser" which is pretty much literally "giving people something in exchange for their donations".

P.S.: Phew. That was long. I guess ranting is my new hobby. If you see inconsistencies or smth else that needs fixing (aside from my life) - please do tell.

Somewhere in the multiverse, we’re watching the trailer right now. God, I hate this timeline

It was the year 2007 that Rothfuss was interviewed about his first book and in one of the questions, he was asked:

"What can readers expect from the two sequels and the trilogy that will follow this one?"

So he answered:

"Well.... I've already written them. So you won't have to wait forever for them to come out. They'll be released on a regular schedule. One per year."

Many people mentioned how Rothfuss could have had issues regarding the plot, subplots, suggerences from his editors, corrections... But, as an aspiring writer and from my experience, I cannot understand how he is managing to take so much time for just one damn book, not even mentioning just one chapter.

When you finish a trilogy, you expect your characters to be developed, the plot finished or at least finished in a way that, if your feel like it, continue it in an hypothetical future. Maybe some subplots can end up unresolved just to create a sense of mystery or an upcoming sequel or spin off, maybe just to leave it open to the reader's interpretation.

I detected several points that make me believe Rothfuss had just written one, or at least, two books (being the wise man's fear just a draft). The first one is that the wise man's fear barely makes the plot continue, it is just Kvothe going to the university, being good at everything and "making love" with several girls. (Rothfuss' definition of "fantasy" in this book is kind of weird).

The second one is, obviously, a four year delay in the publishing scheme. Wise man was expected for 2008, not 2011. People can say that he wanted to change something, but in this kind of trilogy where everything appears to be connected, you are risking to remove subtle details from book 1 that can be later understood as "fake clues" or some kind of "cut content/lost media". Obviously, you have to change book 3 if those supposed subplots have some kind of relevancy in book 3. And when you are someone like Rothfuss who inspects and reviews very meticulously his writing, I do not see how he would decide to suddenly change an important part of the writing when book 1 was already published. His book became really popular, he was not a wattpad writer who could say "I hope none of my ten readers noticed this" but someone whose books were read and reviewed by hundreds of thousands of readers, I guess.

Maybe he was sooner than expected "hooked" on fame and popularity and forgot a bit about what made him famous and this is why the pacing of wise man appears to be so slow and "off topic". So later you arrive at the third and final book and you are expected to finish Kvothe's story cause "you wanted to write more stories in this universe" and Kvothe's story was just "the prologue of Temerant".

So, in my humble opinion: Rothfuss did not have the books finished. He did not know how to finish his story as many people consider you will need at least a book 4 to finish the story (although it may still feel "rushed"). Also, he mentioned in a Youtube interview book 3 was meant to be shorter than wise man. It is like if you needed to pack all your things for travelling and you just have a handbag.

I do not want to be pessimistic, but after 15 years and no chapter... I think he simply does not care anymore.

Feel free to write down your thoughts and feelings.

If you own the cards and are willing to sell them, shoot me a message! I'll make it worth your while.

Pretty self explanatory poll I think.

Fresh off the first red rising trilogy, how does this compare?

Still rocking this tee too. Allegations been out there for well over a decade man.

Hey all, I wrote this piece on TNoTW and Patrick. I go a little deep on Jungian psychology, be forewarned. I think these books are a really good impression of some of our society's dynamics back in 2008 when they were originally released, and they also have a lot of Patrick's personality in them, which I talk about.

It is an interpretative opinion piece with the information I currently have which isn't all of it, so take it with a grain of salt.