IRL Denna did such a number on him that he deflected harder than any human has ever deflected before.

Really interesting to hear how he came up with Denna without actually hearing about how he came up with Denna.

It'll be real cool to see what Sanderson does with Denna when he finishes the series for Rothfuss.

"Man book three sure is taking awhile." Patrick: "I started writing this book in 94." Me: Sees book 1 was released in 07. Me: "Ah."

As someone who went to Madison for college: we still talk about Tunnel Bob.

Obviously, Denna is a crossdressing Haliax.

I loved the ways he did not answer the question...

random dude: " What woman screwed you over so badly that you came up with Denna?" Pat: "lemme tell you about the man in the tunnels"

Alot of Kingkiller does genuinely make me wonder "What the hell did you go through in your life to put THIS in a book.... And make it feel real!?!?" Nice to hear Patrick poke this.

Thats crazy. Used to interact with Tunnel Bob all the time. He’d come into the student union all the time and buy a cream soda. Basically so he was considered a customer and wouldnt get kicked out. He was very friendly, and this description is spot on.

I live in Madison and i know exactly who he’s talking about with Tunnel Bob, the guy is a literal legend

"He didn't answer the question!" Except that he did, just not directly. The entire point of Tunnel Bob/Auri story is about how they may share some key characteristics, but they are completely different people. The woman Denna is based on (who he confirmed exists) is not Denna, doesn't act like Denna, and for all we know is his wife. If he said who it was, people would assume that she was Denna and would contact her with the intention of "white knighting" for an author they barely know.

Great to know my beautiful daughter Auri is named after Tunnel Bob XD.

This randomly appear in my recommendations and i have no idea what this is about

I KNOW TUNNEL BOB!!! I go to school in madison!! I've served Tunnel Bob at Work!

"But the Third Hour, that's Tunnel Bob's time."

Basically a round about way of saying "you don't wanna open that can of worms."

Auri is one of my favorite characters in all of fantasy. Knowing Rothfuss' inspiration for her is a real person... I wish I could meet "Tunnel Bob."

LOL, you are exactly correct... now let me tell you about a character that I prefer to talk about

The acrobatics he pulled getting around that question, there must be a chandelier in that hall...

He really does not like talking about Denna, I've seen people ask him about her inspiration and her character arc several times and he never answers. It's like he has some kind of geas that keeps him from talking about it.

A lot of people seem to hate Denna and it baffles me. All I see is a hurting, confused person whose life is a tragedy, whose interactions are botched. The idealisation that Kvothe has of her reminds me of myself in my early teenage years, where you kind of forget that the counterpart is a real human being, flawed and all. To finish this train of thought, Denna seems to be a trauma-survivor of some sort. Her actions are frequently self-destructive, she has trust issues, and has a very low self esteem. Why people find it in themselves to hate such a character, I don't want to know.

Don't you worry, Tunnel Bob is still creeping around Engineering.

It really says a lot about Rothfuss' character that he didn't name names in this rambling story. The closest he came was repeating the name that the townspeople gave to a local eccentric that liked to cosplay as a mole. It'd be easy to accidentally say too much and then 1 or 2 crazy fans would take things too far and start stalking some random woman. A woman that he might not have seen in years and may not even remember that she once knew Rothfuss, or that her odd mannerisms have been morphed into a character from his books.

"and his payment was coke" Rothfuss 2016

“Project!!” he sounds like my theatre teacher....

Amazing that Tunnel Bob has reached a legendary status. I had met him once, sitting down. The man definitely stands out in a crowd.

No woman is obligated to fall in love with you, and it's the hardest lesson every man learns.

Seven and half minutes of not answering the damn question. This guy should become a politician.

Rothfuss: Oh you wanna know about Denna's real life inspiration? Me: YES! Rothfuss: Well, you're guess on her having real life inspiration is spot-on! Now, let me tell you an interesting story... ... ... ... And then, bam! Ari! Me: Wow, cool... Wait, wait what about-! *Video ends* Denna? I look away for one minute and he's talking about Ari. -_- Well played, Old Man... (Not that old, I was joking, sorry!)

PR's Dad: "Well they call him Tunnel Bob, but I always think of him as my little moon fae." PR: "I own that now."

"Whenever I see something cool in the world, I'm like, that's mine, now" Meeee

The whole thing with wearing the tunnels out is actually a really funny way to explain low Wisdom in D&D. You'll get it; just not right away.

After reading the books, Every time I hear "She's always a woman" by Billy Joel I think of the character Denna

It's a fair bet that Tunnel Bob wasn't making soap down there, though he did give consideration to his own slow regard of silent things.

I saw tunnel bob at the union getting ice cream with a police officer a few years ago. He was literally grilling him on situations where it might be okay to go in the tunnels lol

Thank you oh wise bearded man, I have yet learned another masterful art which I will most definitely use a 100% of the time for the remaining years of my life.

This is random, I have no idea who this guy is or "Denna", why was this recommended?

Deflection 100

Why did KZfaq recommend some random comicon talk to me? Who is Deanna, who is Pat Rothfuss?

We have our own "tunnel bob" where I live, and old (presumably homeless) musician called Kid Guitar. Pops up all over town spreading tales, previously in a sticker-covered van and these days in a beat up golf cart.

You can see why he takes so long to finish a book when it takes him 7 and a half minutes to answer a simple question…of course he still didn’t answer the question.

So basically, yeah, Denna is based on someone, but like Tunnel Bob’s transition into fiction you wouldn’t be able to tell who this “Denna” was in real life if set side by side with her fictional counterpart (it isn’t lazy photoshopping). If he said too much more he might get himself into hot water with the real life Denna (or at the very least embarrass her and maybe even himself). He still managed to address the question as much as he could without giving up too much of his own private life to a room and world full of strangers (like us here in KZfaq land). I don’t think we should demand or expect to know all of his private life and how that translated into his books (Wanting it, and demanding/expecting it are two different things).

if he has no plans of releasing the third book he can actually crossover to standup comedy

Denna is not evil as the question suggests. She's a woman who survived alot, the streets, the abuse, and she always walks a fine line (survival) between pride and whoring herself..as she is in a society as a whole clearly patriarcal, and she is economically dependent on men, who say they ''love'' her, but their fascination does not garanty her safety nor dignity, as they quickly think they own her because of that dependence. Her social statue makes any relationship with men start with her at an inferior or weaker position, so she has to mantain a position of control by staying aloof and unatainable and fascinating. Because they already think they own her, but if she becomes a conquest, they'll discard her. Her attitude is of self preservation. she shows her true self to the hero, mostly because socially they are equally poor, and so she does not feel too threatened..and also because, he accepts her dissapearing act and does not act like if he owned her..she also tests him by those dissapearances to see if he'll do like her other men. And at the same time, when she does not find him, she ''pouts''... It's the typical behavior of prideful, strong willed and yet insecure women.

For me Denna is a literary version of a girl that I used to work with that I also once drunkenly slept with. It’s impossible for me to picture anybody else when I read about Denna. Both of them just total enigmas.

A character starts with a conceptual seed. fascinating. i love this guy's writing so much.

There was once a boy with a golden screw in his belly button...

I wonder what piece of armor gave him the extra dodge rating for that question

I'm not sure why KZfaq recommended this to me... but I'm glad it did.

I love Denna. She has her own magic secrets. I can’t wait to see what she does in book 3! Denna isn’t a bitch to Kvothe, Kvothe is just an idiot who thinks he knows more about Denna than he does.

Tunnel Bob is doing something super sketchy in that 3rd hour

I love Patrick. In many ways, it's the pain that denna brought to him that gave a story which gives such joy. That has to be respected.

Rothfuss is about as good at finishing answering Q&A questions as he is at finishing books.

Denna. Yes, please. Many hate her. I love her. My favorite character amongst dozens of great characters.

The story is clearly heading to an epic scale catastrophe.

I think people really misunderstand denna she is nearly exactly like Kvothe but since she's a girl she is seen completely different it's actually pretty interesting

Patrick is a fine storyteller for a crowd, probably because he used to be a teacher

It took Michaelangelo 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel... 10 years and counting for Rothfuss.

"I wrote this song in 94." -tupac from chappelle skit

Ah, another day of trying to figure out what Fandom this random youtube recommendation was for

I think the way Denna just appears everywhere Kvothe goes is not natural. For a while I homestly thought she was sent by the Chandrian to keep an eye on Kvothe, but then I realised that it didn't make any sence. If they thought he was a threat to them, they would just kill him...

I think I get what he's trying to say. Even if it wasn't directly transferrable he still amalgamates interesting experiences into interesting characters. So even if he never had a Denna he would still make a Denna because she's an interesting, dramatic and identifiable component that fits the story.

Wow, I haven't thought about Tunnel Bob in ages.

I haven't ever read whatever books this guy has written, but this definitely makes me want to

Classic Pat. Answer with something unrelated.

Tunnel Bob sounds like a Jim Povolo character.

I always figured he “borrowed’ a lot of Denna from Terry Goodkind’s Denna in the Sword of Truth series, which was written years before he even started this in 1994.

Tunnel Bob. What a legend.

I have no idea who this person is but now I want to read his books

auri is the name of a highly poisenous yellow pigment that got used for wallpaintings for example and could drive people mad. the color is called kings yellow which is interessting for many speculate on her being a princess

2020 needs a boost my brother

Why is it that homeless people always have nicknames? In my town there’s radio randy, he has a discman he’s always listening to.

His payment was coke. Lol. Until he finally said cola, I had forgot Madison is like Mayberry.

This man is so interesting. It is annoying when people are so impatient for a good or great book that they insult the writer.

The most interesting fact I learned from this video is that the KZfaq algorithm is scary. I read the Kingkiller Chronicles like three months ago and have searched some background info about the release of the third book afterwards and got some chuckles from memes about book three being in the works for ages. Also, I read a comprehensive chapter by chapter analysis and mentioned it in the series in a KZfaq comment. I haven't thought about or googled anything about the book afterwards as far as I remember. And suddenly, today, KZfaq recommends this video. I am a little confused and scared and Patrick, please finish book three before KZfaq is bought by Disney and the monopolise fun.

I just love this man's brain

this came out on my recommended and i havent even read the book thanks youtube ill try this book series out then

I found Denna annoying, she is always swinging between "please come and help me cause im scarred" and "Dont come close cause im scarred" and is tiring, specially because we saw Kvothe going through so much shit and then screwing up left and right but he actually does move past his problems... even if he causes new ones, *but he does something,* there are also other women who do stuff to solve their problems, there is Devi who manipulates people and leverages favors to get access to the magic she was denied because she is a woman (but she is a badass bitch so she may as well be lying to hide her actions), there was Kvothe's mom who ran away to leave her restrictive life behind, the aunt who may be misguided but also proactive on her goals of kicking gypsi's asses, or that rich girl who fell in love with Kvothe and made her moves on him but moved on when it was clear he was not interested There are plenty of other characters that are as fucked up as Denna but they do something to get out of it or keep trying, she us just too much of a damsel in distress and Kvothe goes after her cause he has hero syndrome Yeah, thats it, she is annoying because she is passive on her suffering but active on meddling with others, and also hinders the main character's development, she is the character that makes the story drag on

I named one of my cats Auri (other is Devi), and now I know I've been pronouncing her name wrong all her life. Damn

This is fantastic.

We need to get rothfuss to go back to college for inspiration

At the end I would've yelled, "Auri!"

Sounds like tunnel bob was split and we got auri and master archivist

so is this book 3 actually coming out? I had to get a career in the meantime while waiting for this book and now I don't even read fantasy anymore! :D haha kidding, best of luck Mr. Rothfuss, godspeed with your endeavours

I swear Pat is just slowly turning into Alan Moore

My relationship with a woman was quite similar to kwothe and dennas. I knew Pat could not have described it in such intimate detail without having it happen to him!

He started the series in 1994, and I don’t expect DOS until at least 2024. That’s crazy.

I have no idea who this man is but I love him

Patrick Rothfuss in a nutshell. Ask him about a hat and you will get a eulogy on a subway sandwich.

He didn't want to talk about her, he answered yes then proceeded to give an example of another character he made.

I love the change in mentality us kingkiller readers have made, a few years ago all you'd see is "hurry the fuck up Patt, jesus what's taking so long", the wait will only make things so much sweeter.

we are never gonna see the third book are we?

I didn't know the book or the author before looking em up just now. This video was still very entertaining.

Nine years to finish an undergrad explains a lot

7:08 'Seed crystal', huh? Someone been reading Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series? :)

Silent Things. Those were the shows, man.

I like his work in the first book. Sadly, I cannot finish it because there is a romantic subplot in the way. Nothing against the author. Is it a personal problem with romance in any shape or form.

I don’t dislike Denna’s character I just don’t care about that plot line

Haven't read his book so I have zero context for this character.