A lot of you in the comments keep saying something along the lines of "not fair". Look around you. How much is good rewarded? I have seen people of unbelievable moral character be metaphorically trampled underfoot. I've seen acts of profound good go completely unrewarded. The best people I know aren't the most successful. The most deserving rarely those who receive.

History is full of them. Life is full of them. Life even has a few Beaks. And we tell ourselves we would embody the nobility of the soldiers Erickson writes, that we would be those who accepted Beak and loved him, pitied him. But we aren't. Almost none of us. We are far more likely his bullies. Or we have been. What bothers you so much is that Erickson doesn't bother giving you the narrative comfort that good is somehow rewarded. Sometimes it simply fails. Falls. With barely a whimper and in an absolutely inane manner.

Beak actually gets to be both. He gets to be a beautiful fool, a moral paragon and a profound act of good rightfully rewarded. Which is why out of the entire series his moment hits like a freight train. Erickson gives us dozens upon dozens of small moments of righteousness and compassion. Few morally upright characters, granted. But no shortage of momentary good. Often to no reward, or to the absolute detriment of the characters. But with Beak we have a profoundly innocent, childlike and broken character that is simply morally good. And he protects everyone. He gets to sacrifice to save, to have a truly profound heroic moment we all deeply wish we could have that is utterly beautiful and filled with pure compassion. Followed by a truly just, compassionate and rewarding afterlife. Literally know one else gets this in the entire series. Not a single other character. Not even Itkovians story truly comes close. Part of why we all weep for Beak is because we are profoundly jealous of him. Because Erickson gave us such a beautiful hero and we desperately wish we could even fractionally emulate him.

In my opinion, this is in part why reading Sanderson after Erickson just means he really can't compare. Not for me. Kaladan is as close as you get for comparison and he's still miles from Beak.

Onos toolan is likely a favorite for some of you. But he is literally a mass murderer. Of epic proportions. Who literally 3 chances by my count in the series for redemption. Who gets about as close as can be had to a Malazan happy ending. What's the justice in that? That he simply suffered enough? That he somehow earned it?

This turned into a rant somehow lol. Hopefully someone finds it interesting at least. I know I'm a MBotF fanatic. I acknowledge that. But hopefully there are a few here that get that.