#entreri my boy!

[ratsetflummi]

entreri, the entire first part of servant of the shard: i hate the drow so much. if they force me to go to the underdark with them i'll just kill myself. oh great, jarlaxle's gone fucking insane and is gonna get all of us killed

drizzt: aw, look at them being friends

[princefleabitten]

I read R.A. Salvatore’s critique on the Catholic Church (Legend of Drizzt: Road of the Patriarch)

[tiny-huts]

The legendary rivalry between Drizzt "Swift kick to the dick" Do'urden and Artemis "Pocket sand" Entreri

[dicaeopolis]

“You are owed some prize,” Entreri grits out, wishing mightily to end this encounter. “I am aware my life is forfeit.”

“Okay,” says Drizzt.

Despite himself, Entreri tenses slightly. He hadn't actually expected the drow to agree. He glances up to meet Drizzt's lavender eyes, but can't parse the emotion there.

“But,” Drizzt adds, “not here.”

(4.5k of drizzt and artemis not killing each other)

[exiledfrommars]

*High Water by Sleep Token starts playing in the background*

[petalpierrot]

Listen, Artemis is a Calishite man who shouldn't have been whitewashed in the first place. It was upsetting enough when he first gained the pallor from a combat encounter. That was a choice made by the author and it's so disgusting. To continually see this 'white Artemis' "trend" is so upsetting.

[rakkikuroba]

I have to read 6 whole books before Artemis comes back :(

[defnotjarlaxle]

Inktober Day 19: Plump

[petras-drizzt-corner]

well the Legacy is done

And boy do I have words Spoilers below, friends!

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five out of five for me! This book was pure gold!

Okay, I've got a lot to say! So let's start with the little things. First off, I will forever mourn the loss of Jarlaxle/Dinin. They would have been SO DARN CUTE but NOOOOO Vierna just had to turn him into a drider!! Next, Thibbledorf Pwent. OMG I LOVE HIM!!! He was such a fun and silly character amid all the deep, heavy content of the story, and he made a great reprieve from the sadness in the plot. I love him and hope he sticks around for a long, long time! And okay Jarlaxle I love you but how you gonna let Drizzt show you mercy and then immediately snitch on him to Matron Baenre??? Like dude cmon. And also- NOOOOO COBBLE!!!! THAT MAN WAS EPIC!!! Yeah I'm never getting over him either.

Now, let's move into some of the bigger things I have.

Like can we talk about Vierna's death? That was such an emotional scene, and I felt like I was standing watching it. Vivid descriptions and probing sentences that really made me think. The scene was wonderfully crafted, and it was wonderful to see how Drizzt has matured in the ways of dealing with grief.

Speaking of grief, let's talk about it and Wulfgar. I've always felt that while Salvatore's writing is all-around beautiful, there's one thing he excels at- writing grief. He somehow manages to balance writing such a fun and compelling fantastical storyline while also bringing to light deep, heavy emotions and situations that really do tug on your heartstrings. Reading about the utter loss both Bruenor and Catti-Brie felt was bad enough, but the way he describes it, man! I'm not a very emotional person when it comes to fiction, but I felt that despair and shared it with the characters deep in my soul. It's truly his best stuff right there. And on a side note, like I know Wulfgar is in other books, but like he's officially dead?? I dunno but like whatever he kinda was mid.

And like same with Artemis??? I know he's in further books but there's no way he's surviving FALLING DOWN A MOUNTAIN. TWICE. Like I know his plot armor is thick but not THAT thick so like there goes Entreri I guess.

And okay, my final note. Let's talk about Regis. So I know last time I said he'd changed, it was because that was actually Artemis in disguise. And when Drizzt found Regis, after being tortured, he really did seem the same- scared and dependent on others, but overall still good. However, then I got to the ending of the Legacy, where the companions are all in mourning of Wulfgar... except, it seems, for Regis. He seems detached from the whole situation and instead ends up seeking out Artemis to rob him and send him on his second scenic mountain tumble. And while I think his intentions were good, he acted so cold the entire scene. This could just be because it's Artemis, a man who's caused great pain to both Regis himself and his friends. Or maybe, he's just been through too much to hold onto who he used to be. I don't know yet. But I'm eager to see what else is going on with our halfling friend, and I'm so pumped to be starting Starless Night.

Well, that is (finally) all for me! What are your thoughts on the Legacy? -Petra !

[too-many-blorbos]

hi, i just had a thought, and you were the first person who came to mind, so... fuck, marry, kill: drizzt, entreri, and jarlaxle. go!

Hoo boy... I'm kinda aroace and also abstinent for religious reasons, so I don't want to screw any of them, but-

Jarlaxle may have a kiss from me, because he's the only one who'd appreciate it

Drizzt, I would wed: he'd be a great provider and partner for life and I can brush his hair and rub his shoulders and tell him he's doing a great job at life. Plus, it makes me co-owner of a giant kitty!

Entreri must perish by my hand. I take no pleasure in this- I hated him once, but my Tumblr mutuals have changed my mind. Knowing him, he'll probably shrug off death anyway. And then we can laugh about it later (well, Jarlaxle will laugh, at least)

[vspin]

I know they are the Tumblr favs...but right now I low-key hate Rai Guy and Kimmuriel for their treatment of my boi Entreri.

#Entreri4Eva

[ratsetflummi]

drizzt said it's entreri's turn on the redemption arc

which is great, because i've been rooting for an entreri redemption arc since halfway through the legacy

[princefleabitten]

The risk they took was calculated, but… (Legend of Drizzt: Lolth‘s Warrior)

[tiny-huts]

People talk about if Drizzt was a visual medium on here a lot and as much as it's cool to think about I think we should all be thankful that it wasn't because this fandom is old as balls so you know that there would have been so many Artemis Entreri AMVs set to three days grace songs and idk if I could handle that emotionally

[papermonkeyism]

Me age 13: "omg, this is the best book ever I love it so much!"

Me age 20: "ugh, this is the worst book I've ever read, I hate it."

Me age 36: "this is a DnD campaign."

So I made it through the second book of the Icewind Dale trilogy, Streams of Silver, in my nostalgia trip.

And yeah. It's a game of DnD.

Specifically, it's a bunch of Tolkien fan boys having fun playing a fantasy fighting game and being awesome, and, yeah, it does its job.

It's still lacking in things I like in stories, but I can see where this is coming from. I prefer characters with more emotional depth and them having more natural feeling interactions, and deeper world building. But this is a game for people who like feeling awesome in a traditionally heroic way, and experience similar stuff as with their favourite books.

The characters are more archetype-ish/stereotypey, because they're written as player characters instead of complex people. There are A LOT of bad guys and evil creatures that the heroes have to fight, because DnD is a game built around a fighting mechanism, and campaigns are built with Random Encounters so the players can engage with the mechanics of the game they're playing. So this area has orcs in it, that will fight you. This bit here has human barbarian tribes that will fight you (and have some Unfortunate Implications about "noble savages" and their belief system being built aroud this monster creature from another plane of existence and other fun eighties tropes, but it's not like they get mentioned again after the encounter.) You failed a persuation roll to let this one town's guards let you pass because your elf hails from an evil elf race even if he himself is a good individual, and him having black skin marks him as dangerous to people (no wonder many modern depictions of drow have them more purple or gray than flat out black), so you are forced to take a detour through this swamp area that's full of trolls that will all attack you. And there's a giant snake that will attack you. And so forth.

And the Tolkien really shows! You could probably make a drinking game out of spotting all the Tolkien references, just the amount of times the word "mithril" gets thrown around could be one on its own.

So one of the main characters is a dwarf king of a lost underground dwarf kingdom, the Mithril Halls, who's ancient home got taken over by a shadow dragon which drove them to exile, and the Main Quest is to go find it and take it back (Hobbit). (None of his other clan mates from the Icewind Dale seem to remember or care enough to join their king in his search, but that's not the point, because you only got four players and they all picked different races. It's a game, your supposed to build it for them to play, that's the whole point.) Once they get to the place, there's a kinda "Mines of Moria" feeling scene of them wondering how to open the door, though the solution to it is more DnD feeling than that of Lord of the Rings. Though, speaking of Moria, remember how awesome the Gandalf vs Balrog scene was? Good news! We liked it too, so much so that we did the whole "beloved hero falls to a 'certain death' in the depths of the mine while fighting a bad guy/evil being" thing TWICE! Oh, and did your players like Galadriel? You have a nice GM who gives you a magical queen NPC (who's name even rhymes with her), who comes to the heroes' aid by giving advice and helpful items, except even better, because what if she also had a crush on your favourite character?

Sprinkle in a group of evil rivals, with a nemesis for the favourite character ("narrative foil" kinda feels like an understatement, though, as Entreri gets introduced as a dark mirror for Drizzt with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer), couple evil wizards, a fun and quirky family of good wizards for a fun interlude for your players, and few other fun and magical encounters, some cool loot, and a classic damsel in distress (though I do give credit for Catti-Brie actually having a role in this book. I hated the way she got kidnapped and damselled when I read the book last time, but on a re-read now, I do see her being clever and using her situation to sabotage her kidnappers, even if teenage me was very disappionted in how she didn't pick up a sword and do the awesome battle stuff herself).

(Okay, so this is just me theorizing, and I don't really have any factual basis for this, but I kinda get the feeling like Wulfgar was originally planned as the "young hero protagonist" of these books, but Drizzt ended up a lot more interesting of a character, and the stories just gravitated to focus on him instead as the author's fave. Not that a similar thing would have ever happened to me or anything, haha...)

Like. This book still isn't my thing, really. I very much prefer deeper and more rounded character writing and more thought out worldbuilding, but I must admit, realizing that this book was basically a game of Dungeons and Dragons kinda made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. Even if I spent the entire time reading thinking about the players of the characters instead of the characters themselves as people, but still.

You made the story out of reshuffled Tolkien tropes but edgier, put in some whimsy nonsense that makes no logical sense, and had tons and tons of really flat enemies that kept spawning and aggroing your party like video game mooks. Aww, sounds like a fun campaign, your players must have had great time!

... I should probably re-read Lord of the Rings one of these days.

[thespacelizard]

kiss in the sand

@fluffbruary day 3! and i am returning to my love my life my light my boys with some Jartemis beach-flavoured fluff. Up on AO3 as well here.

In which Jarlaxle and Artemis hit the beach.

Boots on the sand, a familiar tread; a thud and a huff next to him. A smile crooked the corner of Jarlaxle’s mouth, hidden by the hat set over his face to block the sun. “I take it you are finished being cross with me?”

Artemis plucked his hat away and he squinted in the sunlight. Entreri didn’t quite glower at him, just wore his usual faint exasperation at the world, and Jarlaxle in particular.

“No ridiculous disguise today? Are you feeling quite well?”

“Being myself is a disguise.”

Artemis dumped a handful of sand onto his bare stomach. “Do you ever think about what comes out of your mouth before you open it?”

“Frequently, when I am not talking to you.”

Jarlaxle sat up, brushing the sand off—then cleaned off his palm by ruffling Artemis’ hair. Entreri scowled delightfully and batted him away.

“Bothered by a little sand? What a terrible Calishite you are.”

“Says the drow so addicted to sunlight he is half naked on a beach on the surface.”

“It could be worse, abbil.”

“Could it now.”

Jarlaxle bared his teeth obnoxiously. “I could be entirely naked on a beach on the surface.”

Artemis rolled his eyes and made such a show of getting up to leave it could not have more obviously been a front. Jarlaxle grabbed his ankle and dragged him to the ground, the move precipitating a brief wrestling match that ended with him face down, spitting sand, Entreri’s knee in the small of his back.

“You could at least have taken your shirt off first,” he said. Who had put quite so many grains in beach sand? It was wretched. “Maybe put on some oils. It’s like you do not even care about my needs.”

“I don’t.”

“Liar.”

Jarlaxle relaxed for a moment, long enough to try to lull Entreri into a false sense of security, then surged up, twisting, trying to throw Artemis off. It half worked—now at least he was on his back with a hand free. Artemis had the other wrist pinned above his head, and a pleasant little shiver darted up his spine. He reached up, slowing when Entreri flinched away, and brushed his cheek with the back of his hand.

“Are you still cross with me about the dragon thing?”

Artemis sighed, and Jarlaxle made a happy noise when the human dipped his head and kissed him. Warm lips, warm skin beneath his palms, warm sand, warm sun. What better way to waste an afternoon? His hands started wandering of their own accord, and Artemis sat up.

“Public beach,” he pointed out. Jarlaxle ignored him and ran his hands up Artemis’ thighs, thoroughly enjoying having the human straddling him. He lazily rolled his thumbs back and forth at the highest point he could reach; Entreri’s breath hitched. Jarlaxle let his gaze trail up Artemis’ body, slow and hungry.

“I killed a dragon,” he said.

“You helped kill a dragon,” Entreri corrected. He very studiously ignored Jarlaxle’s attentions, as if doing so would make him stop. “I’ve heard them tell it—you did very little.”

“They would have done far worse without my considerable moral support. And financial assistance.”

“So you are buying your victories now, are you? Get your hands off.” Artemis finally slapped his hands away from where Jarlaxle had gotten his belt halfway unbuckled. He started to get up—Jarlaxle dragged him back down into another kiss. Soft lips, stubble scraping his chin, that familiar, welcome annoyance. Entreri sighed into his mouth, all fond frustration.

Jarlaxle behaved himself, and let him go after not nearly long enough; Entreri rolled off of him and flopped down in the sand. The late spring sun threw lovely pools of shadow in the curve of his neck, gilded the hair on his arms. Calling him beautiful was a quick way to a black eye—or worse—but Jarlaxle thought it anyway.

“Will you stay until the carnival is over?” he asked. He retrieved his hat from where it had fallen and set it back on his head. “I’ve so little to do now that the Grand Game has rather neatly wrapped up.”

“You have enough bed warmers.”

“I am bored of acrobats and actresses.” Jarlaxle knelt forwards. He traced along Entreri’s jaw with light fingers. “I’m in the mood for an assassin.”

His fingers brushed over Artemis’ mouth and Entreri bit him. Jarlaxle flicked his nose, getting a palmful of sand in his face for his trouble.

“I’ll stay,” Artemis said, whilst he was cursing and scrubbing sand from his eyes. “If you can promise me, definitively, that there will be no more dragons.”

Jarlaxle put a hand on his heart. “I swear on my life.”

“Not much of an oath.”

“Very much of an oath, you know how highly I value my continued existence.” He sprawled out next to Artemis and set his hat over his face again. “And if there is another dragon, I promise you can have first chance at feeding me to it.”

“I will hold you to that.”

Artemis slid a hand into his. Jarlaxle squeezed it, glad to have it back where he liked it. “Does this mean you will come and stay on the Eyecatcher with me instead of sulking in that awful tavern?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

Jarlaxle grinned. He’d take that as a yes.