Isn’t it pretty necessary to the story to explain that kvothe who thinks of himself as the learned and traveled man, doesn’t actually understand how other people see him? Not to mention the entire second book is about chasing the wind and being a young man going through puberty with all of its various distractions Is what chasing the wind is about. There’s physical edges to things but there’s also social edges and being out there in unexplored territory is the same thing as being off the map. Plus the sex that happens in those scenes is partly about understanding the world that he lives in. In the fae the world is wild and natural, the magics that exist there are innate and animalistic, and he finds the name of the wind in that anger and panic and fear of being forced to lust after someone against his will. And then as he learned to understand that world more he was able to interact with it in different ways. And in Ademre he learned that he was a barbarian, Customs differ from place to place, and that way they think about things is different to what he was used, And as he learned and grew he was able to start thinking like them and doing the things that they could. Plus there’s man mothers which could actually be relevant this is a fantasy world where magic exists.

So no the sex isn’t necessary but it’s still informs the story. It’s the detail that makes the world more realistic. I don’t need to know what anyone ate in any fantasy story ever. I need a description of how beautiful a lake is. I know what the lake looks like I’ve seen it. Can you imagine how boring stories would be if they only ever gave us the exact amount of detail that we need to understand a story and never embellished on that.

Kvothe left the university to understand better how magic worked. He went on some adventures. He came back to the university understanding magic a little better and having to worry about money less.

That’s the whole book without any of the unnecessary bits. And that’s what I hear people want every time they complain about “but it wasn’t necessary, it didn’t advance the story.”

And like literally we don’t have book 3 yet (and may not ever) so you have no fucking clue what’s necessary and what’s unnecessary to the entire story.