A couple of weeks ago, I finished The Wise Man’s Fear and posted a scattered reflection. I was broken, but my own Fulcrum had been found. Founded. The answer is yes, I’m still reeling from the hangover it left. So, as in tradition with hair of the dog, I picked up his novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. After setting it down a second time, my appetite still wasn’t sated and I made a mistake—I delved into fan theories about Rothfuss’s work. Come on, I’m hungry for more.

Most theories panned by fans are ludicrous, but, shifting though hours of other’s research and making notes of my own, I found that many of Kvothe seem to fit.

In fact, Captured in Words posited that—if you hadn’t guessed already, spoilers abound—the knowledge of Kvothe’s Lacklass blood is canon at this point. I know, it’s daring. Bold at the very least. But it’s also probably correct, because a lot of these things just make sense. Tally them up, love, because here comes another one.

Considering this to be true, something donned my thoughts, nose-deep in fan theories. The trilogy is coined the Kingkiller Chronicle, right? But mention of any king beside the High King himself has been lacking, and Modeg’s Rule has only been mentioned in passing. Based on Pat’s style, doesn’t it make sense that if the title of his trilogy is based on a certain action, as in the murder of a king, then the action would have been hinted at far before the third installment? It seems entirely too sloppy, considering what we’ve seen Rothfuss do in the past.

Then it struck, and my head still vibrates with the reverberations. What if we have seen the King? What if we’ve been alongside him since day one? I know, this is getting a little sketchy, but if Kvothe ends up having Lackless blood, there might be the small chance that he comes into inheritance of the throne, or, at least Lacklass lands. Kvothe’s every reader knows that he wouldn’t accept the responsibilities of the former.

But Kvothe kill himself? “Not possible, He’s alive to tell the story!” you scream at me, your tomatoes bouncing from my forehead.

Well, yes, in a way he is still alive, but he isn’t the Kvothe we’ve grown beside. He has become Kote, has presumably changed his true name and become someone entirely different. A form of death and rebirth, and a behavior that Elodin suggests is abhorrently dangerous in The Name of the Wind. (There’s our mention from the beginning, our foreshadowing, if you will.) What if he changed his name and effectively killed the king he was supposed to become?

This, in reality, only leaves me more dumbfounded. What did you do, Kote? Why have you thrown away everything you’ve built? And where the hell is Denna? Please stop beating us with your walking stick, Pat. It’s grown old.

Also, watch this:

Kvothe – Kote = VH

VH are missing. His voice and his hands. What just happened?

I have one last: We might actually have a release date for Doors of Stone. Check out this wonderful ruby.