[1][2] In the concluding trilogy, Hobb said that the birth of the character Bee was motivated by her interest in biological magic: "What if something happens when people live alongside dragons for a long time?” What if there is an exchange of genetic material?

Scholars see queer themes in Hobb's portrayal of the Fool, a character who alternately presents as masculine and feminine in different segments of the Elderlings series, and in Fitz's possession of the Wit, a form of magic seen by society as an unnatural inclination.

[12][13] Peter Melville disagrees, viewing the concluding image of Fitz and the Fool trilogy as "confirm[ing] the series' place within the larger history of queerness in the fantasy genre".

The re-emergence of dragons in the series poses a challenge to anthropocentrism, or the supremacy of man's place in the world, with humans forced to re-adjust in relation to a stronger, more intelligent predator.

[15] The Wit, an ill-regarded ability associated with the animal world, is shown through Fitz's perspective as a natural extension of the senses and as an interconnectedness to all living things.

She wrote of Hobb's characters that "their longings and failings are our own, and we find our view of the world indelibly changed by their experiences", and went on to describe the series as transcending the fantasy genre.