[Warqueen]

anyone want to guess who Fiddler is?....He plays the deck of Dragons and what he deals out comes true....the Tanno spiritwalker gives him a song....and when he plays the fiddle somehow everyone can hear it.....and he gets those bad feelings...This is not just a sapper...so where does he fit in?

[Aptorian]

Maybe he's a veteran malazan sapper with a sixth sense that among other things gives him an affinity for the deck and playing fiddles... but I can't be sure, I'm just guessing.

[DurhangAddict]

Soldier - High House Life.

I think...

[Optimus Prime]

Warqueen;299088 said:

anyone want to guess who Fiddler is?....He plays the deck of Dragons and what he deals out comes true....the Tanno spiritwalker gives him a song....and when he plays the fiddle somehow everyone can hear it.....and he gets those bad feelings...This is not just a sapper...so where does he fit in?

He's a crazy sapper who happens to have a touch of natural talent for divining and such....not every character has some super secret past or alias.

That's why Fiddler's so great. He's an average Joe overachiever

[Warqueen]

I'm not saying he even knows himself why he can do what he does...but I don't think simple is right....I think that small group of Bridgeburners have been chosen to do some big things...and I think they will be pushed into them instead of being ask nicely..

[Dancer+]

REAPER'S GALE SPOILER RELATING TO FIDDLER'S TALENT.

Spoiler

Fiddler has the deck of dragons in his head as commented by Beak just like Kruppe.

[chthonian]

The assassin who's sent to kill Banashar mentions that a "tingling of the spine" and other such things like that that signify something bad is about to happen states that its a basic form of Mockra, as considering Mockra doesn't require training, this makes sense to me.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Yeah, Mockra's confusing cause it seems everyone has it. Without being a sorceror, i mean.

Fiddler is one of the best characters. I like how he doesn't really know it, but he's a great sergeant, and good at keeping his people alive.

What if SE had swapped roles so hedge went to 7C and joined the 14th instead of Fid? Would it be any different? Yeah, hedge probably would have blown himself up when taking on the soletaken dhenrabi/killing the Gral horsewarriors/etc.

[Mentalist]

Hedge was made out to be certifiably insane pyromaniac. Fiddler was just a risk-taker, but he stil had common sense. It'd have been quite different

On topic--The fiddle that was heard all over Malaz city is probably a backlash of the Tanno touch, imho
Fiddler has a skill as Reader of the Deck, mayhaps even a Reader Extaordinaire, but I don't think it goes byond that

[chthonian]

i see fid's skill at reading the deck similar to tattersail's skill. they both just see patterns form that others don't.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

I've got the best one!!!!

Fid is Jekyll, Hedge is Hyde.

This is a picture of Fiddler:


His beard's too big though.... and his face is too fat. But otherwise, it's our wise-cracking, bomb-laying, fiddle-playing friend.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Spoiler

He' s the last great sapper left alive, probably the greatest ever along with Hedge , he was the first(with Hedge) to use Moranth munition and their ways of using them are universally accepted by all sapers.

This spoiler tells a bit of Fiddler career as we learn in RG

[Aptorian]

BauchelaintheEvil;300156 said:

Spoiler

He' s the last great sapper left alive, probably the greatest ever along with Hedge , he was the first(with Hedge) to use Moranth munition and their ways of using them are universally accepted by all sapers.

This spoiler tells a bit of Fiddler career as we learn in RG

I don't really see a need for spoilering the above, while it's a comment from RG, it's not a spoiler just an opinion one of the characters have.

I don't like the idea that Fiddler is supposedly the last great sapper. I think it's nonsense. There's bound to be hundreds of expert sappers around in the empire. The lucky ones who learned the tricks before they blew themeselves to bits. While Fiddler may have developed some tricks, do you really believe no other sapper out there learned to improvise and developed lethal new tactics? unlikely. It's merely Crumbles reverent adoration.

[Aptorian]

what ever

There is a guy named crumble though, right? or was that crump? or crumple? dame all those names....

[Kalahinen]

Crump was the mad sapper from Mott Irregulars, I think. Nowadays with the Bonehunters.

[Mentalist]

he also digs great holes

on topic, though, with Hedge confirmed dead, and the 14th being the last of the Empire's good armies, it stands to reason why Cuttle would think that--Fiddler may think that--Fiddler's the last survivor the veterans who learned the tricks of Sapping and spread them to everyone else.
Of course, that's excluding Spindle, who as we know once commanded an entire company of sappers--but then again all the BBs are supposedly dead..

[Ain't_It_Just_]

kud13;300390 said:

he also digs great holes

on topic, though, with Hedge confirmed dead, and the 14th being the last of the Empire's good armies, it stands to reason why Cuttle would think that--Fiddler may think that--Fiddler's the last survivor the veterans who learned the tricks of Sapping and spread them to everyone else.
Of course, that's excluding Spindle, who as we know once commanded an entire company of sappers--but then again all the BBs are supposedly dead..

Not to mention he is proficient at pissing on QoD altars.

I wonder where Hedge will end up? Surely he won't go in Fid's squad, i mean, come on, he's still got 7 and Gesler's squad has 5 or so....

Yeah, Fid can't be the only very good sapper. He's fuckin awsim but sorry, some have been in the business about as long as he has.

[Mentalist]

lol, true...
I am actually really looking forward to seeing more of Spindle in TtH. The whole "sapper/mage" combo idea is just too tantalizing not to be explored further...

[Dancer+]

The days where there used to be whole mage and sapper cadres must have been scary for Malazan Empire's opponents.
The Sapper's must have been a danger to everything including themselves, I can see why they died down to become a coherent function in a team of people. The mages would have been awesome but I don't think there would have been a lot of similar abilities, I would imagine this to be an assortment of random and sometimes primative magic wielders.

A sapper/mage combo could be a reasonable idea, as long as they throw the sapping equipment before opening their warren, I can easily imagine a high death toll for Sapper mages - it seems very risky.

[Kurt Montandon]

Dancer;300536 said:

The days where there used to be whole mage and sapper cadres must have been scary for Malazan Empire's opponents.
The Sapper's must have been a danger to everything including themselves, I can see why they died down to become a coherent function in a team of people. The mages would have been awesome but I don't think there would have been a lot of similar abilities, I would imagine this to be an assortment of random and sometimes primative magic wielders.

A sapper/mage combo could be a reasonable idea, as long as they throw the sapping equipment before opening their warren, I can easily imagine a high death toll for Sapper mages - it seems very risky.

There's plenty of commentary in MoI on this. There was actually a whole company of sappers, but they blew themselves up on the march.

And Spindle, remember, was a sapper and a mage, and typically opened his warren while tossing munitions (which didn't quite jibe with GotM's whole "warrens attract munitions" business that QB brings up during the battle with Raest, but oh well ...) Of course, he was also a bit nuts, but that's to be expected. Oh, and Bridgeburner, so we can't expect he was a normal case (the BBs seeming to have a lot of exceptions to the norm, after all).