(Mis)hap Starling

[Koopa]

This has been in my mind for years, but no one else seem to have ever mentioned it so i'm going ahead and ask:

Does anyone think Mishap may actually be Starling own kid.

Reasons:
1) Starling was raped by a forged one and got pregnant by it.
2) Apparantly Starling seemed incapable of of having another child after having bled profusely through an earlier ordeal. My mind is fuzzy about the reason for her bleeding out being because of the anti-birthing potion gone bad, or by difficult childbirth.
3) The name of the child. (Mishap)
4) The fact that she is the one to give the child to Fitz. (Like she owes the boy something, but can't bring herself to help out and look after the boy on a daily basis for various reasons.
5) On her visits she seems to take note of the boy, brings him stuff, takes him to town, ... .
6) The boy has an instinct for trhe minstrel ways (voice, instruments) maybe taking after his mother in this.
7) Starling teaches him , even letting him alone sing some of her own repertoire, as if he is her heir.
8) Starling, Mishap and Fitz form in a way something of a disjointed family of their own. With Starling hinting that she does has some feelings for Fitz, and that in their own way the two of them were perfect for each other. (Whom other to raise your kid, but the one man you actually seem to care about, perhaps the only one she came to care about during that timespan in her life (right after being raped - years before her marriage).

 

[Mouse]

God I need to read these again. I have no memory of Mishap whatsoever. I remember Starling.

 

[Perpetual Man]

I was about to say the same as Mouse then cottoned on, Mishap - that would be Fitz' adoptive son, Hap...

And it makes a lot of sense KiwiBird! Good catch.

 

[Koopa]

Anyone remembers wether Starling aborted or not?

 

[Perpetual Man]

Now that is going to start stretching those grey brain cells a bit... I'll have a think.

 

[Forgetthename]

Hap could not be Starlings child, because the timing would not match. Hap was born around the time Verity finished the Red Ship War, or possibly a year before that, since his age is said to be 15-16 in the Tawny Man series. At the time Starling was coming back from the journey she had been on with Fitz and Kettricken. It was only 6 years later she discovered Hap on the streets of a random town and felt sad for the abandoned child, and took him to Fitz so he would have someone to live with.

 

[Fitzchiv]

Agree with Forgethename on this one

 

[Koopa]

Hap could not be Starlings child, because the timing would not match. Hap was born around the time Verity finished the Red Ship War, or possibly a year before that, since his age is said to be 15-16 in the Tawny Man series. At the time Starling was coming back from the journey she had been on with Fitz and Kettricken. It was only 6 years later she discovered Hap on the streets of a random town and felt sad for the abandoned child, and took him to Fitz so he would have someone to live with.

Thing is she got pregnant during the red ship war. then went along with Fitz. So it does fit within the one-year difference. That said she probably did shake her unborn child from her body. After all by the time she met Fitz, she showed no outward signs of having been pregnant. I think.

 

[hopewrites]

i've only just finished reading the last book of the first series (OMG RH is my new i-love-this-author) and am finding the rest of it so I can read it too.
she tells Fitz about being raped on two different occasions, and seems to sleep with anyone she fancies. The excessive bleeding was from a second abortive potion as the first didnt work, and the healer who finally got it to stop said she would probably never have children because of it. She took that probably as definitive and used it as her excuse to sleep around. Fitz did ask her if the child was theirs and she told him no. (not to say she didnt lie, just saying she told him no, I'll have to read more to make up my mind on that one).
I hardly think she would have been cruel enough to name her child Mishap, and (for now) believe the story she gave Fitz about his being turned out by his aunt after his mother died. I dont doubt she cares for Fitz, and felt she was doing them both a favor by placing the boy with him.

 

[darksilklips]

I actually quite agree with Koopa on this one.

It is true that Starling's promiscuity does seem to lend credence to the idea that an abortive potion had irreparably (to her knowledge at the time, anyway) damaged her reproductive system.

With that said, she does not use her inability to conceive as justification for sleeping around; rather, she says that being raped has made her want to be able to _choose_ her partners.

This post assumes Starling is lying about successfully aborting her child, a believable prospect as Starling has amply demonstrated her inclination toward deception if she feels it is necessary -- for example, if she did not want to admit that she had abandoned her own son to go on a minstrel's quest. She could certainly be taking herbs for birth control (or using a hedgewitch charm against pregnancy?) while sleeping around.

The timeline doesn't seem to match, but again, the timeline itself relies on the word of one person: Starling. Hap could be a year older than he is stated to be, with only Starling the wiser. Hap must have been conceived nine months before he was born, and during the time the ships were still actively raiding (so pre-Verity-as-Dragon). I think even using Starling's explanation of events, one could still argue that he could plausibly be her child.

Personally, I think she foisted him on someone who later died, leaving him an orphan. She felt responsible on some level, but couldn't bear to raise him herself because of the painful memories (and possibly because of her position at court and later, Dewin).