The assumption as to Fitz parentage is shaky at best ...
All the WAGs are shaky, man! It's the nature of WAGgery.
Don't rain on the parade.
... why would Fitz even be in Chicago?
It's often the nature of young wolves to go wandering for a period, when they first leave their mothers. And it's the nature of humans -- particularly those who never knew one/both parents -- to be curious about their origins & parentage.
... Why hadn’t the curse manifested by ghost Story ...
Dunno. Maybe it doesn't "hit" until a certain age, or a "blood moon" lunar eclipse, or somesuch. Hands can be waved, excuses can be found.
... why would he be named Fitz in the modern age?
Tera West is hardly one to observe such passing fads.
Or maybe Fitz himself claimed it, in a fit of being a young male drama-queen.
... You all also appear to be applying it incorrectly it is a patronymic applied to both legitimate and illegitimate heirs
"We all" are working off the notion that
Jim himself subscribes to the "Fitz means bastard son" notion.
(despite it
technically just meaning "son of," it became widely-used in the Stuart era to denote bastard sons, and the connotation has been pretty strong for 400 years now)
In fact: by ignoring the WoJ that this
is the intended usage of "Fitz," you are the one "incorrectly" applying it...
... The important part isn’t the Fitz part of his name, but the part we are not given Fitzwhat? Who is he the son of? ...
Yes indeed! Fitzwhat, Fitzwho?
You've cut to the very heart of the matter!
... Since when has Jim turned down the opportunity to cause Harry pain?
And there is the
other side of the matter!
When we ask, "Fitz
who?" we should ask, "
who in Harry's past would cause the greatest complication & pain for Harry, should their Fitz arrive on-scene?"
I think that Fitz is actually most likely a scion, maybe a Changeling. Remember Ronald Ruel had been dead several years by Ghost Story, so he would not have been around to look after him, especially if his father died around the same. Fitztalos perhaps? The claimed child of Marshall Talos of Summer who dies in Summer Knight.
Reuel wasn't a faerie, though -- no scionage there! The whole point of the Knight-mantle is that it brings the Court a Mortal agent (mortal agency & free will).
I don't think Talos was ever a sympathetic-enough character to fill the role of Fitz' papa in the books.
MacFinn ticks several boxes, there -- victim of a Curse, good-hearted philanthropist, ripped prematurely away from his true-love Tera. I think he's a better candidate (tho FAR from the only one!). Given the call-out of Fitz' eye-color, I think Tera West is the parent for whom we have the most Watsonian evidence (slight though it is); and MacFinn follows by way of Doyle. Plus, this makes Fitz a latent loup-garou. MacFinn is a good fit, overall!
Up-thread, I mentioned the idea of Justin DuMorne's son; the "but why Chicago?" objection applies even more-strongly, there! Still...
But how about Victor Sells' bastard son?
++Bastardy because Sells was married at the time.
We know from the Beckitts that Sells was actively pursuing "sex magick."
Harry's first (on-screen) kill, and we
know how Harry feels about orphans! Sells' son...
so.
much.
guilt.
For Doylist use, I like this one a LOT.