i cant believe i havent asked you this yet but tell me your thoughts on Drizzt Do'urden (unless you're just not into the forgotten realms setting, in which case, what IS your fav dnd canon setting?)
Of pre-established D&D settings I donât know that I have a favourite, tbh. Iâm more than passing familiar with Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Golarion, and Arcanis and think each of them has their strong and weak points. FR in particular is exceptional at a more bombastic high-fantasy than Greyhawk, more tightly focused on fantasy than Golarion and Eberron, and more black and white than Arcanis. And those are all good things if and only if thatâs the sort of thing youâre in the mood for - and a bad thing if not, you know? So I definitely donât have any real fave canon setting, just ones that I like more for some things than others.
As for Drizzât . . . I have a lot of complicated feelings, but most of the ones I have about him specifically are positive. Itâs only when you get into the weeds of setting elements around him and the fandom surrounding them that negativity starts to creep in. Under a cut because it got Long. I apparently have way more to say than I thought and may need to reread some of these books and possibly get more.
The thing is, R.A. Salvatore writes two things particularly well - fight choreography and complex/compelling spiritual journeys. His writing is at his best when it focuses on the latter interspersed with the former. Note that The Crystal Shard - the first Drizzât book written -Â is all about those kinds of conflicts. We get more than just Drizzâtâs conflict over trying to cast off the (justified) hatred of his evil kind and live a free and wholesome life on the surface. We also get Burenor and Cattie-Brie struggling with the cultural difficulties of a dwarf raising a human child, Wulfgar seeking a way to honor the principles of his people and ancestors without falling into cruelty, and even Akar Kessel struggling both for dominance over Crenshinnibon and with his own inferiority complex as a mage.
Salvatore writes all of these narratives well both in isolation and weaving them together, having each characterâs journey in proximity to each other impact their perspectives and influence the way they think about their own struggles. Drizzât is a very compelling character for the Companions of the Hall (and their enemies - Artemis Entreri in particular) to revolve around. The problem is that these sorts of conflicts can become stale if they go on perpetually and never resolve, but if they do resolve the character must necessarily change with their resolutions or else they fall flat.
Now bearing in mind that I have only read up through the Sea of Swords before my childhood money ran out, but for my money at least up to that point Salvatore does a good job resolving old conflicts and creating new ones. But by the end I was getting the sense that, because those internal conflicts are what he is best at, he was hitting a point where heâd have to either keep messing up his characters internal lives in new and increasingly contrived ways or else let them resolve conflicts for a while and have to hang his books purely on fight choreography and his weaker external conflicts for narrative development, which would not be nearly as compelling.
I wish, dearly and deeply, that âLegend of Drizzâtâ could be allowed to end, not because I donât like it, but because I found the Cleric Quintet to be an order of magnitude more powerful and satisfying an experience than any Drizzât series because of the finality and closure Cadderly was able to reach in his spiritual journey. And it isnât as if closing the book on Drizzâtâs series would mean the end of him - Cadderly shows up as a supporting cast member in at least one or two Drizzât novels where he is able to use his completed character journey to provide advice and wisdom to Drizzât and others still on theirs. Moving the focus away from Drizzâtâs story would still allow him to be around, but would also enable him to become a more mysterious and mentor-like figure to other protagonists, which we know from earlier Drizzât books is a role he fits well into.
I feel like this is part of the frustration some elements of the fanbase have with him. His internal arcs are what draw people to him, but after a certain point that becomes impossible to sustain and keep a character recognizable. Like I said, I havenât read far enough to know if Salvatore manages to walk that line or if he falls into exhausting character arcs or empty external conflicts as things go on, but even in the best case scenario of him nailing it and having Drizzât continue to grow and change as a person as time goes by . . . this means a ton of fans are going to eventually lose the character they fell in love with because he has grown into an entirely different person. And if Salvatore didnât nail it, well then itâs easy to flanderize and dismiss him due to the botched development and as a result tarnish memories of the past.
I think thereâs also an issue where, because Salvatore is so good at writing those internal conflicts, you get people wanting to play that sort of thing in games. And itâs really hard to write that in a fun and compelling way if you have absolute narrative control and a way to peek inside a characterâs head. In a tabletop game where the dice can dictate narrative beats and you canât share internal conflict easily without rambling to people about your character it becomes even more difficult to land that kind of story without being at least a little grating to your friends.
This is where the whole âthe entire race of drow are made up of chaotic good loners trying to escape the reputation of their universally evil kinâ snark comes from - frustration with players who earnestly want to tell what could be a very compelling arc but are not great at doing so, at least within the complex narrative confines of a collaborative dice-based game and so default to doing it with more traditional narrative trappings that make things all about them and bog down play time.
I feel like a lot of (though definitely not all) the criticism thrown at Drizzât is projected frustration with players who want to play that story but wind up frustrating their fellows. More of it is usually some frustration with some aspect or another of the drow as a concept and society, which I could talk about for probably as long as this post so I am gonna say anyone who wants that can send another ask because this is long enough.
So yeah, thatâs . . . most of my rambling thoughts on Drizzât, which were way more fun to talk about than I would have guessed, so thanks! Apparently I can infodump about all kinds of tabletop minutia if prompted.Â
Sidenote, if anyone reading this liked aspects of Drizzât novels but wished for a final conclusion like I have for so long I cannot recommend the Cleric Quintet highly enough. Cadderly has a different path trying to find and move away from his ancestral evil and come to terms with his spirituality, but it is still one of the most powerful journeys in fiction I have ever read. And even if you havenât read Drizzât anything, if you are someone religious or spiritual struggling with any aspect of your faith or spirituality and can tolerate high fantasy tropes, again you really should give it a look. I canât say itâs likely to solve any of your own internal conflicts, but I all but guarantee it will make you feel heard and less alone by the epilogue.
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Honestly why I even picked up the Legend of Drizzât books again Iâll never understand.
My last trek into this series ended with âStarless Nightsâ because the trend of promising drow characters being killed effortlessly got so annoying. And especially because of Dininâs fate. A character Iâd have loved to see elaborated on a bit, maybe if heâd gone to the surface alongside Jarlaxle at some point which I guess will be what the mercenary ends up doing?
âCause what I wanna see is drow having to deal with the surface, learning more about their options and the realizations and conflcts along the way.
But hey, we need to tie that cardboard tasting Entreri to Jarlaxle, so letâs just offhand kill this kinda interesting drow so Entreri can be his right-hand man instead.
But I crave more knowledge about my favorite race so two years after the rage quit we continue with Siege of Darkness that introduces this kinda cool a bit different weaponsmaster who is built up to be amazingly strong.
Still kinda one-sided though, so his death wasnât unexpected. But the lame way it was done was such an anticlimax. Just near effortlessly killed by a joke character? For fuckâs sake Salvatore, why canât you do this well? You build the drow up to be so dangerous, but the moment theyâre faced by even the smallest goodly character they might as well be made of paper.
So I kind of end up hoping for this other drow character whoâs been in the series for a long time and who is actually alive at the end of the book. But knowing whatâs likely to come, I decide to look this up because Iâm seriously doubting if I should hold even the slightest glimmer of hope for this series.
Nope. Dies later on. By the cardboard-tasting human no less.
Why is every drow not named Drizzât so fucking expendable? Salvatoreâs got a race of potentially interesting individuals who could have all sorts of depth if they were given a chance by the writer. But no, Drizzât is the only one who can have more than one dimension. Well, him and Jarlaxle I guess but his connection to Entreri is eating away what interest I have in him too.
And the worst part is thereâs nothing else to turn to. No books about less than saintly Drizzât, about drow that arenât just born goodly, no redemption, no growth, no shades of anything between white and black as far as the drow are concerned.
I really wish I could find a book or two about Eilistraeeans and/or Vhaeraunites, at least then Iâd get different flavors of drow.
... sorry about the rant, but this has been burning in my system for a long time.
So, I found out that the next two seasons will involve... drow! Just like this season. Too much drow crap. I feel like I'm hanging with the Drizz't fanclub. NOOOOOOOO!