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nightbloomwitch · 3 years

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Inspirations for the Darkling: Dragonlance Legends: Time of the Twins - Book 1, Chapters 12-14

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Welp, looks like I made this week’s deadline after all. Might fiddle with it a bit more later.

Warning: Very Long. Unlike the previous installment which was a scene-to-scene comparison, this time I’m back to showcasing the totally opposite approaches taken to the depiction of various types of concepts in each text.

I’m glad I could spend my time doing this instead of queuing for Endwalker like every other person on the planet. EmetWol was a revelation from a higher plane, but Raistania was my first love, so Hades and Azem are just going to have to wait their turn.

“The Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth had been, for centuries, the last outpost of magic upon the continent of Ansalon. Here the mages had been driven, when the Kingpriest ordered them from the other Towers…None could enter who did not belong, none came to it without invitation. And so the mages protected their last bastion of strength, guarding it well from the outside world.”

From Dragonlance: Towers of High Sorcery (2004)

The persecution of the mages we will cover in more detail in a few chapters’ time. I think the automatic assumption these days is that any story about the oppressed magical minority that has to hide for its own safety must be derived from Harry Potter, but the trope is certainly older than that (and older than Dragonlance), and the situation in Ravka bears a bit more resemblance to historical Krynn than it does to the HP Wizarding World.

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Worldbuilding with Light and Darkness, and consistency of meaning in symbolism

(tl;dr at the end of this section)

“...the Tower was open day and night. They could come and go as they chose – Black Robes, Red Robes, White Robes.

Though far apart in philosophies – in their ways of viewing and of living with the world – all the Robes met in peace in the Tower. Arguments were tolerated only as they served to advance the Art...It was the one thing that unite them all. It was their first loyalty – no matter who they were, whom they served, what colour robes they wore. The young magic-users who faced death calmly when they agreed to take the Test understood this. The ancient wizards who came here to breathe their last and be entombed within the familiar walls understood this. The Art – Magic. It was parent, lover, spouse, child. It was soil, fire, air, water. It was life. It was death. It was beyond death.”

Notice the repeated emphasis on opposite qualities and natural cycles – night and day, young and old, the stages of life, the four elements, life and death.

The philosophy of magic in Krynn is centred on maintaining balance and unity in people, in nature, and in the three divine orders – Good, Neutral and Evil.

The three moons of Krynn – White, Red, and Black - which are the source of magic for wizards of each alignment, are (probably) based on the three aspects of Graves’ theoretical Triple Goddess who rules over all the stages of human life and death, represented by the three sacred colours:

“I write of her as the White Goddess because white is her principal colour, the colour of the first member of her moon-trinity...the New Moon is the white goddess of birth and growth; the Full Moon, the red goddess of love and battle; the Old Moon, the black goddess of death and divination.”

- Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (1948)

The colours of the goddess are also found in TGT, Alina (white-haired in R&R, identified as a “moon-maiden” by Zoya), Genya (red-haired and red clothed, the beautiful lover who transforms into the battle goddess of “ruination”), and Zoya (the most powerful in magic), although the connection isn’t so obvious because the three women never clearly form any sort of power triad beyond being ‘the three female characters’.

Unfortunately Dragonlance is a bit hobbled when it comes to discussing the nuances of morality because it’s stuck with using the rather loaded terms ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’, which are D&D staples.

In an extraordinary feat of both-sidesing, D&D’s 3x3 grid alignment system was invented by adding the metaphysical dynamics of Tolkien (who contributed the Good/Evil axis) onto the original linear alignment system, which was based on the works of Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock (who, inspired by Anderson’s novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, developed his own Lawful/Chaotic multiverse specifically as a rejection of Tolkien’s worldview, which he saw as mawkishly sentimental, elitist and fundamentally misanthropic due to its basis in conservative Christianity).

As the original two Dragonlance trilogies are about the return of the gods to the world, the story is much more interested in the Good/Evil axis than it is in the Lawful/Chaotic axis, because it’s the Good/Evil axis that dictates a character’s faith (e.g. Lawful Good, Neutral Good and Chaotic Good characters are all adherents of Paladine).

‘Good’ (or light) characters are expected to be altruistic and work cooperatively in service of others, whereas ‘Evil’ (or dark) characters seek self-advancement at the expense of others and have a habit of cannibalising one another (not usually literally).

As we recounted in the Chapter 8 post, the races of Krynn were created by the gods, and each of the original races naturally shares the alignment of their patron god.

Humans are in a unique position because they were created as the designated Neutral race – they can have both Good and Evil traits in different measures without losing their humanity. No one disputes Raistlin’s humanity because he has converted to Evil, and as we saw in the previous chapter, Crysania scolds herself for imagining him as anything other than human. By contrast, Dalamar is an elf (the ‘Good’ race) who has forsaken and been forsaken by his people because he switched alignments. From Chapter 8:

“The dark arts impressed him most, and thus, when he was discovered wearing the Black Robes that no true elf could even bear to look upon, Dalamar was cast out of his home and his nation. And he became known as a “dark elf”, one who is outside of the light.”

When Crysania meets him in Chapter 11, she is shocked to find such a thing possible:

“An elf!” Crysania gasped...”But, that’s not possible,” she began in confusion. “Not serving evil--”

For those such as humans who are born with a dual nature, the importance of exploring one’s inner light and inner darkness in order to find personal balance has already been thoroughly hammered into Dragonlance readers prior to Legends, because the central conflict of Chronicles revolved around Tanis - the product of an unwilling union between an Evil-aligned human and a Good-aligned elf - needing to come to terms with both halves of his nature.

Tanis’ conflict was manifested throughhis love triangle where he has to choose between the shiningly pure elf woman Laurana and Kit, the human champion of the forces of darkness - a choice that he wouldn’t make until the very final chapters of the trilogy.

Laurana deservedly wins her man and closes off their story by telling him

“I love you now because I understand you. I love you for the light and the darkness within you.”

Weis & Hickman knew they were onto a real winner with that plot, so they recreated it in Legends,only this time it’s Raistlin who has to choose between his love for Crysania and the evil philosophy of the dark goddess Takhisis, whilst Crysania has to choose between her duty to holy Paladine and her desire for Raistlin.

Other than that, Caramon starts off Chronicles as Lawful Good (note I don’t agree with this, but that’s canon for ya), and Raistlin starts off as True Neutral. They’re forced to stick together due to their mutual weaknesses but they’re not in accord for most of the story, and it’s only in the end once Raistlin has switched to Neutral Evil that they’re ‘balanced’ in the sense that they’re able to accept one another for who they are and go their separate ways in peace. (Until the sequel, of course).

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Limiting the discussion to the sources on our list, the Grishaverse’s attitude towards light and darkness and the way that attitude is expressed in the worldbuilding and the character dynamics has much more in common with the multiverse of Stephen King (which has no official name, so henceforth I will call it the ‘Kingverse’) and Scott’s Legend than it does with Dragonlance.

The Kingverse is huge and sprawling and maddeningly convoluted (like many of the horrors that inhabit it) and will be the subject of many, many thousands of words at its destined time, but suffice to say for now: as an isolated conceptual decision, prioritising Legend and the Kingverse over Dragonlance was fine, however it did result in a certain amount of awkwardness when trying to combine elements of the characters, setting and themes of those stories (where darkness is an inherently corrupting, invading, destroying force that must be fought against at all costs) with elements from Dragonlance (where darkness is a necessary aspect of the natural balance and the world will be destroyed without it).

All of the epic stories on our list feature the heroes of light battling against the encroaching forces of darkness, but the desired outcome is different in each case:

In Legend and the Kingverse, the darkness and all its agents must be destroyed as thoroughly as possible so that humanity can restore itself (hopefully to a better world) in the interval before the darkness inevitably returns and must be faced down again.

In Dragonlance, the darkness naturally strives to overreach and must be kept in check, but never too harshly reduced. Dark mages and dark creatures must be allowed to exist in equal measure to light mages and light creatures. (Remember in the Chapter 8 post we discussed how the artificial dark race of draconians were allowed to continue existing after the war in Chronicles).

In Dragonlance, the world and its people continue to exist because of the darkness; in the Kingverse, the world and its people exist in spite of it.

In Dragonlance, darkness is, as said in the quote above, a way of life. In the Kingverse, darkness is the end of life, or even worse, un-life, the domain of the undead and of extradimensional creatures beyond human comprehension.

Obviously the Grishaverse takes the latter road in the case of each comparison given above. We will delve more deeply into the mechanics and symbolism of the Shadow Fold at a later time, but in brief:

The main goal of both Ravka series is to eliminate the Shadow Fold (the physical manifestation of darkness)and in both cases the Darkling must be sacrificed – not saved – in order to do this. Likewise, the volcra cannot be healed and must be made extinct.

Ravka struggles to exist in spite of the Shadow Fold which divides it and devours its people, and its use as either a barrier or a weapon against their invading enemies is thoroughly decried by the narrative.

The dark power of the Fold is so antithetical to life that in RoW it is described as ‘vampiric’ and continues to crumble everything in its vicinity into inorganic matter, even after the visible darkness has been dispersed; it is also confirmed to be a location that exists outside of linear time and is linked to the interdimensional void. The Darkling’s powers are not limited to ‘shadow’ as in ‘the dark area behind an object blocking light’, but are also often associated via imagery with the vacuum of outer space.

Fora related example, consider the recurrence of the ‘night sky’ image mentioned in the previous post. In the first instance, Alina cannot see the stars, but only the “endless reaches of darkness between them”, because she feels powerless. Several times in S&S and R&R, Alina looks at the sky and is dazzled by the stars, desiring their power, but she no longer sees the darkness. In the final use of this imagery in the series, in RoW, the Darkling, now known as The Starless One, wishes to reverse the image again, so all the people of Ravka will ignore the stars in favour of the darkness:

“But people didn’t turn their eyes to the heavens in search of the dark. It was the light they sought.

All that will change, he vowed.”

Constantly in TGV, light and darkness do not complement one another but are instead a mutually exclusive binary, each battling to overwhelm the other.

There’s no moment anywhere in the series that makes use of even the most obvious platitude – that the dark of night is needed for the stars to be seen. More on this in the eventual Shadow Fold post, but I think that classic metaphor is present in the text, but only in the sense that ‘a great evil is needed to give rise to the goodness in the hearts of men’; which works in a purely hypothetical sense, however when the dark and the light are personified in characters of a story, the natural conclusion is that if the darkness dies, then so does the light (which is to say, Alina’s powers - Alina’s metaphorical life force), and this should not be presented as a good or deserved thing.

It’s anyone’s guess how this Kingverse-style worldbuilding is supposed to relate to the bafflingly opaque fantasy religion of Ravka. In her interview with The Atlantic of 20 June, 2012, Leigh described the religion as follows:

"...I never get specifically into Christianity. That was really important to me. There is no Christ in this world. The religion that is in the world is much closer to the kind of pagan tradition that was in Russia pre-Christianity, and even that grew out of the influence of Christianity, but that couldn't tamp down these local mythologies."

So, it’s not Christianity, but it’s a pagan tradition that grew from Christianity, but also the Grisha are fantasy Jews, so not actually Christians at all, then.

The best sense I can make of this is that the state religion headed by the Apparat is equivalent to the Russian Catholic Church (minus JC); the peasants still follow their ancient pagan ways, but the deities and folk heroes (actually historical Grisha) of the peasants have been reinvented as Saints of the church, as was the real-life custom. The Grisha follow their own non-spiritual tradition of the Small Science, and were considered heretics or witches by both the state church and the peasants before the formation of the Second Army.

I’d like to know her sources on Slavic Paganism, which is one of the least-documented traditions in the world. Given the difficulty of accessing trustworthy resources (at least in English?), I don’t think it’s fair for a non-expert to judge which concepts she did and didn’t at least attempt to represent without knowing what research she was working with.

“There was a hot, barbaric quality about the lessons for Easter Day which had nothing at all to do with pussy-willow and lemony floss chickens, although it might possibly have related to forgotten druidic atrocities. The lesson from Exodus was about the Paschal lamb and the god who flew over in the night and slaughtered the first-born men and beasts...the English mind was secretly horrified by glassy sea, crystal walls, white wool, brass feet and throne of the New Jerusalem where Spring would never come again because there was neither grass nor winter.”

- The Virgin in the Garden, A.S. Byatt (1978)

The above is about English Protestantism but the point still stands.

Stephen King built his world to suit his own nonconformist Christian beliefs - in his preface to the complete edition, he describes The Stand as being a “long tale of dark Christianity” - and while he mixes it up with lashings of any number of occult traditions, Lovecraft, Poe, Robert Chambers and 70’s rock’n’roll, I always feel like he knows the forces he’s meddling with, and the images fit together and overlap in ways that make sense. You categorically cannot deny that the man has done his research – he believes in the power of rock’n’roll about as much as he believes in the power of God, and anyway, he doesn’t use his mythos to tell stories about atrocities committed against historical minorities, he uses it to horrify (mostly) whitebread working-class Americans like himself. (The characters! I mean the characters!)

Leigh doesn’t talk about her beliefs except that she’s non-practising of Jewish descent. Regardless of whether she has first-hand knowledge of any of the traditions she claims are the basis of the Grishaverse religion, it doesn’t feel well-considered to me because the way she uses elements from eclectic sources often confuses what the meaning is supposed to be.

For example, the matter of the Darkling’s personal emblem being a solar eclipse. Upon learning this, my immediate assumption (along with seemingly everyone else’s) was that the eclipse symbol was in reference to the alchemical marriage of the sun and moon, which was described in the prologue post. Surely he has been waiting for the Sun Summoner so that together they can fulfill the transcendent marriage that will grant them both ultimate power and allow them to save the world. This makes sense because in real alchemy, the transformation of the mundane elements (i.e. lead into gold) is known as the ‘Lesser Work’ (or Small Science), and the transformation of the spirit which grants immortality to the master practitioner is the ‘Great Work’ (the equivalent of merzost). His words to Alina (when he tells her that she is his “balance” and so on) are in accordance with the alchemical interpretation, but apparently we are supposed to understand his traditional use of the image as yet more ‘manipulation’, and the actual meaning of the eclipse is the Biblical meaning – the extinguishment of the light of sun (and often moon) which is often mentioned in connection with the God’s wrath against the sins of man, and the end of days.

"And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst."

- KJV Luke 23:44-45

According to Leigh’s blog post of 16 March 2014, in answer to a submitted question, Leigh confirmed that the sun being blocked by the moon would reduce Alina’s powers:

“A solar eclipse would have no effect on the Darkling, but it would make it harder for Alina to summon.”

That is to say, the Darkling’s symbol is intended to show his own dark power not marrying and complementing, but rather suppressing Alina’s powers.

Some of the Biblical allusions are good, really! The kefta being the colours of the priesthood’s robes in Exodus? Brilliant. The Shadow Fold as the (shadow of the) valley of death? Awesome! The nichevo’ya as a plague of locusts? Love it.

But her use of imagery isn’t consistently precise enough that I can trust anything to mean anything.

The other obvious head-desker here is the cosmic quince tree which is one of the major setpieces of RoW. The reason I included the quote from Byatt above was the line about the “hot, barbaric quality” of Biblical tradition.

One of the recurring ideas we’re going to explore in much greater detail in several of our later inspiration texts is the idea of deserts as a place of fear and loathing, oppression, dark magic, and apocalyptic revelation. The Shadow Fold inherited all these traits from the deserts of its forebears.

In the Bible, the desert (often translated as ‘wilderness’) is used both figuratively and literally to represent sin, privation and suffering – the 40 years of Exodus, and Jesus’ trial and temptation in the desert are just the two most famous of many examples – but of course the Israelites of the Bible could not escape or leave the desert even if they wanted to, because ‘desert’ is the biome of the vast majority of the SWANA region. In order to express feelings of safety and relief,the Bible is littered with passages about places of respite from the harsh heat and dry – wells and shady oases. Although ‘darkness’ in the Bible is the shade of evil, shadows, far from being evil, are often used as symbols of peace, comfort and protection, and of course this is one Biblical image that Leigh never capitalises on.

“As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”

- KJV Song of Solomon 2:3

Note that ‘apple’ has historically been used as a placeholder translation to substitute for any fruit. The Biblical apple – including the apple of Eden - is actually a quince, as what we now know as ‘apples’ did not grow in the region. The singular, supreme ‘apple’ tree in Song of Solomon is poetically linked to the Tree of Life in Eden, where God walks “in the cool of the day”, i.e. in the shade of the trees.

I’ve no doubt that Leigh knows this, but she chooses to ignore those parts of her traditional images – the eclipse and the quince tree – that might cast any sort of positive light on the Darkling. If the idea of the tree sequence in RoW was that the Darkling has protected Ravka under his shadow by merging with the tree, then that certainly wasn’t clear.

Leigh doesn’t always use her imagery in the same way as her source texts, either – as I said in the Chapter 7 post, the dark hound (or wolf) metaphor is consistently associated with the ‘Darkling’ character across all texts, including The Stand, but on the other hand, the full moon in The Stand is used in similar context but means something totally different to the full moon in R&R. There’s an obvious link between (dark) ‘wolf’ and (light) ‘full moon’ (wolves howl at the moon) which ties the metaphors together in The Stand (and in Jane Eyre), but that link is broken in TGT because Leigh changed the meaning of one but not the other.

Tl;dr:

Dragonlance = Good (light) and Evil (dark) must co-exist in balance, lest the world shall end

Grishaverse = Good (light) must destroy Evil (dark) whenever it arises, lest the world shall end

Neither approach is inherently ‘bad’ however the transference of story elements from one to the other was confusing e.g.in Legends, if Raistlin and Crysania can truly fall in love, they will be ‘balanced’ and redeemed; in TGT the Darkling tells Alina she is his ‘balance’ but (according to Leigh) this is a manipulation tactic and if she falls for him she will become corrupted

From our list of sources, the Grishaverse worldbuilding is most like the works of Stephen King and Scott’s Legend

Leigh uses a lot of imagery about light and darkness from other sources such as the Bible, classical alchemy, and her inspiration texts, but not in a way that’s cohesive or consistent

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Alright, let’s hear it:

“He wants to become a god,” Dalamar answered softly. “He will challenge the Queen of Darkness herself. That is his plan.”

my goodness, I never would have guessed that, how shocking

In their defense, 'world's most powerful wizard must be stopped in his attempt to overthrow god' wasn’t quite such a well-worn plot in 1986 as it is today.

This particular brand of evil wizard scheme is one we’re going to see again much later on in another book. Surprisingly, the Darkling’s plan to control the world with the Shadow Fold in TGT is never clearly framed in this way (perhaps because there’s no existing god to overthrow), even though it’s implicit since the plan involves the use of the god-like power of creation merzost, and later Elizaveta’s plan to resurrect him in KoS is:

“We will not be rulers. We will be gods...We will hold dominion over the world.”

I don’t want to dwell on this too much now, because Raistlin isn’t here and he should be allowed to tell us the finer details for himself. The important thing to consider in these chapters is not what the plan is, or even why the plan is, but the reason the characters (and thus, the story) propose for why the plan must be stopped.

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Dalamar is Raistlin’s apprentice, not by his choosing but by order of the mages’ Conclave. In Chapter 9, Raistlin revealed that he has known all along that Dalamar was assigned to spy on him, and he sends Dalamar back with a message to show the other masters just what he thinks of that:

“Slowly, Raistlin lifted his hand and laid it gently upon Dalamar’s chest, touching the young man’s black robes with the tips of five fingers.

The pain was excruciating. Dalamar’s face turned white, his eyes widened, he gasped in agony…

...Dalamar collapsed upon the floor, clutching his chest, moaning…

...In a frenzy of pain, Dalamar ripped open his robes. Five red, glistening trails of blood streamed down his breast, soaking into the black cloth, welling from five holes that had been burned into his flesh.”

This is broadly equivalent to the Darkling’s mutilation of Genya as punishment for Genya’s half-hearted betrayal of him in favour of Alina. But what’s more interesting is what happens when Dalamar faces up to the Conclave and the horrified archmage Par-Salian tries to bail him out:

“Upon my return tomorrow, he will leave.”

Par-Salian raised his head. “Your return?” he asked, shocked. “But he knows you for what you are – a spy, sent by us, the Conclave, his fellows.”...”No, young Dalamar. You are very courageous, but I cannot allow you to return to what would undoubtedly be tortured death at his hands.”

“You cannot stop me,” Dalamar said, and there was no emotion in his voice. “I said before – I would give my soul to study with such as he. And now, though it costs my life, I will stay with him.”

The Darkling only wishes he could inspire such loyalty. Now, this is not to say Dalamar is entirely happy about this – he is bitter that Raistlin has “ensnared” him to such an extent, because those of Evil alignment hate to be subservient to others, but he seems earnest when he says that the unhealing wounds are “no more than [he] deserved,” for his betrayal.

As we saw in the previous discussion about the relation between sacrifice and magic, and the above section about magic being ‘life, death, and beyond death’, Dragonlance does consider magical power to be something worth pursuing even at enormous personal cost. The story respects Dalamar’s choice to adhere to his own philosophy, refuse Par-Salian’s protection and risk his life in the pursuit of power; he’s certainly no victim.

---

The conversation continues – Dalamar tells the Conclave of Raistlin’s discoveries of the unprecedented powers of the legendary Fistandantilus, Caramon doesn’t understand any this pretentious magic talk (some things never change) and demands answers, Par-Salian tells the story of Raistlin’s Test again (mostly for the benefit of the readers), and then we get some new information:

“His magic was powerful enough to defeat death itself. He moved to another plane of existence, a plane far from here, yet not far enough. Constantly he watched, biding his time, searching for a body to accept his soul. And he found that body – your brother’s.”...”Who knows what deal the two made during the Test? None of us, probably.” Par-Salian smiled slightly. “I know this. Raistlin did superbly, yet his frail health was failing him. Perhaps he could have survived the final test – the confrontation with the dark elf – if Fistandantilus had not aided him. Perhaps not.”

“Aided him? He saved his life?”

Par-Salian shrugged. “We know only this, warrior – it was not any of us who left your brother with that gold-tinted skin. The dark elf cast a fireball at him, and Raistlin survived. Impossible, of course – “

Oh, well it’s all different now, isn’t it? Raistlin isn’t evil, he’s possessed! By the most fearsome dark wizard who ever lived!

“Let me get this straight,” Caramon said, glowering at the white-robed mage. “This Fistandantilus...took over Raistlin’s soul? He’s the one that made Raistlin take the Black Robes.”

“Your brother made his own choice,” Par-Salian spoke sharply. “As did we all.”

“I don’t believe it!” Caramon shouted. “Raistlin didn’t make this decision. You’re lying – all of you! You tortured my brother, and then one of your old wizards claimed what was left of his body!” … “I’m going to get him back,” Caramon said finally, tears gleaming in his eyes. “If he can go back in time to meet this old wizard, so can I. You can send me back. And when I find Fistandantilus, I’ll kill him. Then Raist will be...” He choked back a sob, fighting for control. “He’ll be Raist again. And he’ll forget all this nonsense about challenging th-the Queen of Darkness and...becoming a god.”

Raistlin disappeared from the story of Chronicles at the end of Chapter 5 of Book 1 of the third novel, Dragons of Spring Dawning. He seemed to be dead – he specifically had a “dying breath” – but he was still holding the Dragon Orb “in a grip stronger than death”. (Magic lasts ‘beyond death’, remember?). He didn’t return until near the end, Chapter 11 of Book 3, after he had converted to Evil, and Caramon immediately saw that his brother was not the same:

“And your voice, it’s stronger, different. Like you...and yet not like you...”

We the readers, have yet to enter Raistlin’s POV in the novel. All his chapters so far have been from the POVs of other characters. Who knows what really happened,not just the first time Fistandantilus helped Raistlin to cheat death, during his Test, but the second time as well, and who knows how much of Raistlin’s mind is still his own?

“None of us, probably.”

Par-Salian doesn’t look good in this chapter. He’s seriously on the defensive, because he’s just revealed to the rest of the Conclave that he made his snap decision that Raistlin was the chosen one without consulting the rest of the masters, and it was that decision which allowed Fistandantilus and Raistlin to strike whatever bargain they did, which now has led to the whole world being in danger. Par-Salian seems very keen to blame Raistlin in order to divert blame from himself. His grim determination that he did ‘what had to be done’ regardless of anyone else’s feelings on the matter, and regardless of Raistlin and Caramon’s lives, casts doubt on his words and erodes the readers’ trust in him, thus pushing the reader towards buying into Caramon’s hopes, even though we know he has a history of blindly defending all of Raistlin’s worst behaviour.

---

Crysania is still laid out, but she manages to get in a word for her man when Tas tells everyone about the contents of a letter she wrote to Elistan, which Tas ‘found’, which is to say ‘borrowed’ (which is to say ‘stole’):

“In the letter, she said she was more – uh, how did it go – ‘firmly convinced than ever, after my talk with Tanis, that there was good in Raistlin’ and that he could be turned from his evil path. I must convince the mages of this –'

…

”I said I could tell her lots of stories about Raistlin, if she wanted to hear them. She said she’d like that a lot, so I told her all the stories I could think of. She was particularly interested in all the ones I told her about Bupu--”

“ ‘If only I could find the gully dwarf!’ she said to me one night. ‘I’m certain I could convince Par-Salian that there is hope, that he may be reclaimed!’

…

“I know I always thought Raistlin looked much better in black – with that golden skin of his and all. I certainly don’t believe everyone has to be good, of course.

...

Fizban said that there had to be a balance in the world, that we were fighting to restore the balance. So that means there has to be Black Robes as well as White, doesn’t it?”

(Note: Fizban is the god Paladine)

Tas is the in-canon captain of the good ship Raistania and I’m saving the in-depth discussion of him for a later chapter; suffice to say for now that Tas has no malice against Raistlin and would be thrilled to have him back regardless of alignment.

---

In order to help Crysania with her quest to convince the Conclave that Raistlin can still be redeemed, Tas agreed to fetch the gully dwarf Bupu and bring her to testify to the mages.

Gully Dwarfs are barely considered to be people and are widely regarded as the most disgusting race on Krynn, in both a physical and a moral sense. They are a cowardly people of low intelligence who live in slums, garbage dumps and sewers, they hoard filthy ‘treasures’ such as rotten food and animal corpses, and they eat anything.

“It happened back during the war, when we were in Xak Tsaroth. The only ones who knew anything about that city were gully dwarves. But most wouldn’t help us. Raistlin cast a charm spell on one of them – Bupu. Charmed wasn’t exactly the word for what it did to her. She fell in love with him.” Tas paused, sighing, then continued in a remorseful tone. “Some of us thought it was funny, I guess. But Raistlin didn’t. He was really kind to her, and he even saved her life once, when draconians attacked us. Well, after we left Xak Tsaroth, Bupu came with us. She couldn’t bear to leave Raistlin.”

Tas’s voice dropped. “One night, I woke up. I heard Bupu crying. I started to go to her, but I saw Raistlin had heard her, too. She was homesick. She wanted to go back to her people, but she couldn’t leave him. I don’t know what he said, but I saw him lay his hand on her head. And it seemed that I could see a light shining all around Bupu. And, then, he sent her home. She had to travel through a land filled with terrible creatures but, somehow, I knew she would be safe. And she was,” Tas finished solemnly.

This is a summary of events from the first book of Chronicles. Raistlin’s odd relationship with Bupu is used in both trilogies to expose his deep insecurities and fear of vulnerability. Bupuis the one person he can rely on for the kind of unconditional love he craves – unlike his symbiotic attachment with Caramon, Raistlin is confident that he is in full control of his relationship with Bupu, and he need not be jealous of her, because she is a creature weaker and more wretched than Raistlin perceives himself to be.

Raistlin’s true affection for Bupu seems to remain in Legends, when in Chapter 8 he gently smiles upon her and reminisces about their previous adventure while he uses her as a conduit for the spell that makes Crysania appear to be still alive.

This is the best indication in the novel so far that the old (mostly) non-evil Raistlin is still here. On the other hand, when he “charmed” Bupu into falling in love with him that first time, it genuinely was an accident. But since then, he has known that his magic is so potent that this is what it does to people, and he uses the same spell on Crysania regardless. The street magic tricks he performs for Crysania’s amusement in Chapter 11 are the same tricks he used to play for Bupu as well, which comes off as faintly degrading to a reader who remembers the previous trilogy.

Crysania’s resistance to the Charm spell is higher than Bupu’s – her natural resistance to the spell’s attempt to control her thoughts is what causes her headache in Chapter 11 – but she’s obviously still quite strongly susceptible to it, which is why she keeps swooning all over the place.

The mage Conclave doubts Tas’ story, and Par-Salian deliberately provokes Bupu to anger in an attempt to break Raistlin’s spell over her, so that they can be “certain of the truth”.

“Me know nothing ‘bout big, powerful wizards,” Bupu waved a grubby hand. “Me know nothing ‘bout no charm spell.”

…

...Bupu stared tearfully at Par-Salian. “The others – the big man, the kender – they laugh at Bupu. Thy look at me like some sort of bug.”

Bupu rubbed her eyes. There was a lump in Tas’s throat, and he felt lower than a bug himself.

Bupu continued, speaking softly. “Me know how me look.” Her filthy hands tried in vain to smooth her dress, leaving streaks of dirt down it. “Me know me not pretty, like lady lying there.” The gully dwarf snuffled, but then she wiped her hand across her nose and – raising her hand – looked at Par-Salian defiantly. “But him not call me ‘creature!’ Him call me ‘little one.’ Little one,” she repeated

For a moment, she was quiet, remembering. Then she heaved a gusty sigh. “I-I want to stay with him. But him tell me, ‘no’. Him say he must walk roads that be dark. Him tell me, he want me to be safe. Him lay his hand on my head” – Bupu bowed her head, as if in memory – “and I feel warm inside. Then him tell me, ‘Farewell, Bupu.’ Him call me ‘little one.’” Looking up, Bupu glanced around the semi-circle. “Him never laugh at me,” she said, choking. “Never!” She began to cry."

The only sounds in the room, for a moment, were the gully dwarf’s sobs. Caramon put his hands over his face, overcome. Tas drew a shuddering breath and fished around for a handkerchief.

…

Par-Salian laid his hand on Bupu’s head, his face was drawn and tired, but he appeared exultant. “Maybe we did not fail, maybe he did learn some compassion,” he murmured. Gently he stroked the gully dwarf’s long hair. “No, Raistlin would never laugh at you, little one. He knew, he remembered. There were too many who had laughed at him.”

Dragonlance is really good at affording dignity to its most insignificant people. Instead of shaming Bupu for being Raistlin’s helpless victim, the writing diverts all its scorn onto the other characters for thinking so little of her and they are made to feel chastened.

Other than adding another person onto Raistlin’s crowd of advocates, the point of this scene is to confirm that the effects of the Charmspell can be overcome by strong emotion, thus ensuring that Crysania is not perceived as completely disenfranchised and creating ambiguity of how much of her rapidly-developing love for Raistlin is true and how much is magically-induced. The spell is the equivalent device to the pleasure afforded by touching an amplifier in TGV – it introduces a hint of magical dubcon into the story which is tense and exciting and gives the otherwise unlikely romance a running head-start.

---

Par-Salian confirms (via Tas) that Crysania wants to save Raistlin because she loves him. He asks Caramon one final time:

“Do you love your brother enough to undertake this perilous journey? To risk your life for him, as this lady has done? Remember, before you answer, you do not go back on a quest to save the world. You go back on a quest to save a soul, nothing more. Nothing less.”

Of course Caramon assents, and Par-Salian announces that he will send Caramon and Crysania back in time (where her soul can be released from stasis) to face down the sinister Fistandantilus and hopefully save Raistlin, despite the dissent of the rest of the mage Conclave.

The pretense up to this point has been that Raistlin’s hitherto unknown evil plan must be stopped, because defeating (or maybe even weakening) Takhisis will destroy the world by upending the balance of Good and Evil, but the real emotional core of the story is that Raistlin must be stopped because attempting to destroy Takhisis will destroy Raistlin, and anyone who doesn’t try to stop him will be themselves destroyed with guilt. This is a fight he can’t possibly win. Even if he does somehow win and become the new god of Evil, he’ll still be forever lost to those who love him. The gods of Krynn can incarnate into human form – Paladine himself was a party member for most of Chronicles – but considering how determined Raistlin already is to cut himself off from everyone, only permitting contact from those he needs to further his plan, if he becomes a god it’s unlikely he’ll be dropping home to visit. Not to mention the spiritual damage that becoming the god of Evil will inflict on his soul.

Even those who don’t deeply love Raistlin still have reasons to believe him worth saving. When pressed as to why he chose Raistlin for that terrible destiny:

“I had my reasons,” Par-Salian said gently. “Some of them I cannot explain to you, not even now. But I can tell you this – he was born with the gift. And that is most important. The magic dwells deep within your brother. Did you know that, from the first day Raistlin attended school, his own master held him in fear and awe. How does one teach a pupil who knows more than the teacher? And combined with the gift of magic is intelligence. Raistlin’s mind is never at rest. It seeks knowledge, demands answers. And he is courageous – perhaps more courageous than you are, warrior. He fights pain every day of his life. He has faced death more than once and defeated it. He fears nothing – neither the darkness nor the light. And his soul...” Par-Salian paused. “His soul burns with ambition, the desire for power, the desire for more knowledge. I knew that nothing, not even the fear of death itself, would stop him from attaining his goals. And I knew that the goals he sought to attain might well benefit the world, even if he, himself, should choose to turn his back upon it.”

Magic in Dragonlance is permitted a good old sensawunda that it isn’t in TGV, because in TGV the desire to learn powerful magic – for any reason, even the ‘good’ reason of saving the world – is associated with greed and corruption and must be punished. Dragonlance mages are allowed to do powerful magic justfor the sheer thrill of it, just to see ‘what happens’, just to test their own limits, and knowledge is its own end.

The loss of Raistlin is not just a loss to those who love him, but to the whole world, because of the boundless talent and potential he has to further the development of the Art of magic. (This is more in accord with Dalamar’s reasoning for supporting him).

---

There is no scene like this anywhere in TGV.

At first I had meant to examine the handful of scenes in S&B where Genya (half-heartedly) and Ivan defend his actions, but those scenes don’t serve the same purpose, because the point of those scenes is not to show that they care for him, but rather how much control he has over them, to the point where they feel they must enable his evil actions to ensure their own survival.

The plot of TGT is as simple as Alina’s need to overcome her magical and emotional weaknesses in order to destroy the Shadow Fold and the Darkling because he is evil, and no consideration is ever given as to whether any attempt can or should be made to redeem him, whether for love or even just for utility.

In KoS, Yuri argues with Nikolai, Genya and Zoya that the Darkling’s actions were justified and that he will return as Ravka’s savior, but those conversations aren’t equivalent either – Yuri is clearly not a new hero but an antagonist, and his beliefs are thoroughly ridiculed by the returning heroes as dismissed as foolish idealism, in contrast with their lived experiences of the Darkling’s abuse.

The only TGV scene that can even begin to be compared with these chapters is the Kangaroo Court at the very end of RoW, where Alina, Genya and Zoya debate whether to attempt to save the Darkling from his eternal punishment within the quince tree, but the scene still isn’t about the Darkling’s personal worth or anyone’s compassion for him.

“I’m not certain we can just leave him there.”

Genya crossed her arms. “No?”

“Not if we want to rule justly. Not if the future is meant to be better than the past.”

“Do you have a fever?” Genya asked.

But Alina’s expression was knowing. “You’re afraid you’ll become him. You’re afraid you’ll be the avalanche.”

Immortal and unstoppable, another tragedy to befall Ravka.

“What are we meant to do?” Genya said. “Free him? Forgive him?”

“Grant him death,” said Zoya.

Genya stood and walked to the mantel. “Does he deserve it?”

“That’s not my choice to make,” said Zoya. “Not on my own.”

Alina rested her head on the back of the couch. “Why are we even discussing this? From what I understand, the Darkling knew the bargain he made.”

…

There was a long silence in the room. At last Genya reached for Alina’s glass and took a long sip. “I don’t believe the Darkling has earned forgiveness. I don’t know how many years of pain buys that, or when we become the monsters and he becomes the victim. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life doing that math. If there’s really a way to accomplish it, let’s be rid of this burden once and for all.”

“All right,” said Alina.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Zoya rang for a servant to fetch Nikolai."

The reason for the decision to attempt to rescue the Darkling is solely so that Zoya and Genya can alleviate their guilt; there is no mention whatsoever of anyone loving him or wanting to redeem him or believing that he has anything to offer to the study of magic, and in fact the vague proposal of what to do with him once he’s retrieved seems to be to give him a trial possibly resulting in his execution. The eventual decision is so begrudging that Zoya nearly changes her mind about it anyway.

Unfortunately there’s no hard conclusions that can be drawn about this scene since it’s the very end of the series as we know it, and there’s no confirmed sequel on the horizon. It is, technically, entirely possible that the alleged ‘heroes’ will suddenly learn a lesson about compassion and forgiveness in the next installment, but after five entire novels (and two short story collections) devoted to nothing but hatred of this man, somehow I doubt it.

---

So, to summarise, Raistlin has on his team:

Dalamar (wants to learn from him, remains loyal even after being tortured)

Caramon (self-destructively codependent, will burn down the world for his brother)

Tas (a lifelong loyal friend)

Crysania (madly in love with him, wants to redeem him to fulfill her divine mission)

Bupu (a formerly magically-compelled servant who remains loyal after regaining free will because Raistlin is the only person who has ever been kind to her)

Kitiara (lingering big sister instinct, wants to rule the world with him, sends Soth to kill Crysania so Raistlin can’t get himself killed trying to fight a god)

In the early chapters, Tika never complains that Caramon still loves Raistlin, and she never says she doesn’t want Raistlin to come home to Solace and live with them. She complains that Caramon is destroying himself, but she doesn’t blame Raistlin for ‘manipulating’ him. We won’t see Tika again until the very final chapters of the trilogy, when once again it’s hinted that she wouldn’t have objected to Raistlin’s return so long as Caramon was healthy again.

Just about the only (named) person you can say is against him at this point is Par-Salian (see below section for the rest of his development in these chapters), and even then, Par-Salian goes from self-absolution to devastating self-blame in the course of three chapters, wishes he could believe in Raistlin, and still aids Caramon’s attempt even though he thinks Caramon has no hope to succeed.

The Darkling has:

Genya (his subordinate; moderately defends him from criticism and follows his orders, whilst also snookering his plans by discouraging Alina from developing feelings for him, then betrays him in S&S to allow Alina to escape, at the very end agrees to the decision to rescue him from eternal pain and then kill him, in order to “be rid of this burden”)

Ivan (his subordinate; properly loyal to the man and the cause, only gets one paragraph at the end of S&B to make his case, which makes no impression on Alina; killed in S&S as narrative punishment for his loyalty)

Zoya (his subordinate, switches sides in S&S, at the very end of the series decides to rescue him from eternal pain and then kill him, in order to fend off her own fears about being an unjust ruler)

Baghra (his abusive mother who claims to ‘love’ him but is also the primary agent of his destruction; only just barely makes the list because she doesn’t consider him “beyond redemption” until he expands the Shadow Fold at the end of S&B)

Yuri and the cultists in KoS/RoW (defend his actions but are thoroughly derided in-story; Yuri’s narrative punishment is to be trapped in his own body as the Darkling possesses him; the other most prominent cultist is murdered by the Darkling)

I don’t count David because the only conversation in S&B specifically about David and the Darkling is after the collar scene, where Genya tells Alina that “he feels terrible” about following the Darkling’s orders. The Darkling does seem to have earned unquestioning loyalty from the oprichniki and the background Grisha, but that doesn’t have much impact on the reader’s perception because they don’t have names, let alone personalities. Out of the characters who are loyal to him, Genya is the only one the reader is encouraged to like, since Ivan and Zoya are both bullies. I think Baghra is supposed to be seen as the only person willing to tell the necessary hard truths, but she’s so cruel to everyone that there’s nothing likeable about her.

It’s not much of a list, is it, particularly taking into account the fact that all of Raistlin’s defenders are the main characters, people who have long-standing and close personal relationships with him and who have already been wronged by him but still look past that to leap to his defense, whilst the Darkling is left with the badly under-developed secondary cast, all of whom change their minds and turn on him once he wrongs them, and in the sequel duology his defenders are the antagonists.

Support for the Darkling is never about him and his worth beyond his immense magical powers, because no one knows who he really is and he doesn’t have personal closeness with anyone. His soldiers who support him are depicted as having been manipulated from a young age, unable to escape their conscription into the Second Army, and/or being desperate enough to compromise their own morals in order to end the wars, and his cultists are victims of propaganda and villains.

TGV (so far) says that anyone who tries to save and redeem the Darkling will end up being tortured or killed, because having compassion for an ‘evil’ person is dangerous and self-destructive.

Legends says that doing everything they can to try to save and redeem Raistlin is the only way the characters can save themselves (and/or achieve their goal), because not having compassion for an ‘evil’ person is dangerous and self-destructive.

---

Back in the Chapter 7 post I mentioned there was a second parallel relationship that foreshadows a better potential future for Raistania than the Soth/Isolde story.

This book was the first appearance of Ladonna, Par-Salian’s opposite number in the Conclave and the archmage of the order of the Black Robes.

“There are no Creatures from Beyond lurking in the corners, Ladonna, I assure you,” the old mage said dryly. “Had I wanted to banish you from this plane, I could have done so long ago, my dear.”

“When we were young?” Ladonna cast aside her hood. Iron-gray hair, woven into an intricate braid coiled about her head framed a face whose beauty seemed enhanced by the lines of age that appeared to have been drawn by a masterful artist, so well did they highlight her intelligence and dark wisdom. “That would have been a contest indeed, Great One.”

“Drop the title, Ladonna,” Par-Salian said. “We have known each other too long for that.”

“Known each other long and well, Par-Salian,” Ladonna said with a smile. “Quite well,” she murmured softly, her eyes going to the fire.

“Would you go back to our youth, Ladonna?” Par-Salian asked.

She did not answer for a moment, then she looked up at him and shrugged. “To trade power and wisdom and skill for what? Hot blood? Not likely, my dear. What about you?”

“I would have answered the same twenty years ago,” Par-Salian said, rubbing his temples. “But now...I wonder.”

Oh my. This flirty banter between the male archmage of the Whites and the female archmage of the Blacks is highly suspect. A couple of pages later, they have a little bit that parallels the Chapter 11 scene of Raistania talking into the fire.

It’s impossible not to read this as hinting at a past romance; although clearly something went wrong between them and the heat has died down over the years, they still have affection for one another and get along well enough and support one another in pursuit of their mutual goals in the oversight and furtherance of the Art. If Raistlin and Crysania can both let go of just a little of their pride and ambition and stop trying to convert one another, maybe they could end up something like this.

Subsequent books would confirm that Par-Salian and Ladonna were, in fact, passionately in love and hoped their union would end the division between the White and Black orders, and they possibly had a child together (there are a lot of ‘maybe’ babies in Dragonlance) before the affair went sour. Decades later, they retired from active wizardry together and hopefully lived out their last days in love, peace and comfort.

---

Most of this chapter is the archmages arguing about the time travel plan, how to stop Crysania from helping Raistlin, how to stop Raistlin from growing more powerful, and so on. They share a shocking vision of Fistandantilus, but what they saw isn’t revealed to the reader. Par-Salian says that sending Caramon back in time won’t change anything that happened in the past.

“Caramon is my redemption,” Par-Salian said without looking up. The old mage stared at his hands that lay, trembling, on the open spellbook. “He is going on a journey to save a soul, as I told him. But it will not be his brother’s.” Par-Salian looked up, his eyes filled with pain. His gaze went first to Justarius, then to Ladonna. Both met that gaze with complete understanding.”

So, Par-Salian lied (a frequent habit of his. ‘Good’ doesn’t mean ‘nice’). He also believes Raistlin is too far gone, but he decides to send Caramon on his rescue mission anyway, in an attempt to make amends in the only way he thinks possible – perhaps he has destroyed one of the brothers, but there is a slim chance he can save the other, by forcing Caramon to face up to the fact that Raistlin really is unfixably evil, and giving him another chance to break ties with his Raistlin once and for all and move on with his own life.

Ladonna leaves Par-Salian with Justarius, the archmage of the Red (Neutral) Robes.

“It is a strange charm Raistlin possesses! You never met him, did you? No. I felt it myself and I cannot understand...”

“Perhaps I can,” Justarius said. “We’ve all been laughed at one time in our lives. We’ve all been jealous of a sibling. We have felt pain and suffered, just as he has suffered. And we’ve all longed – just once – for the power to crush our enemies! We pity him. We hate him. We fear him – all because there is a little of him in each of us, though we admit it to ourselves only in the darkest part of the night.”

I admit this passage annoys me and I would have cut it because it feels like being clubbed over the head; this is blisteringly obvious confirmation that Raistlin represents the Shadow Self (unconscious, repressed aspect of the personality) – in this trilogy he plays the Shadow to Caramon, and the Animus (inner masculine aspect) to Crysania, but as the darkest person in the world, he also serves as a sort of Shadow of the collective population of Krynn, as the world continues to suffer through its post-war and religious trauma.

This is the same role that the Darkling performs in TGV – he is Alina’s Shadow (and Animus), but he is also the Shadow of the Grisha and all of Ravka. His common name connects him with Ravkans of all social classes through centuries past and present, and the mark of his personal trauma is laid across the land in the form of the Shadow Fold.

When Par-Salian says he “cannot understand” the effect Raistlin has on people, this is a subtle hint that he is wrongabout Raistlin being too evil to be redeemed, because the only way to become psychologically healed is to accept and embrace the Shadow, not reject it.

Justarius provides the interpretation because he is the master of Neutrality, and thus he has understanding of both the Light (Ego) and the Dark (Shadow) aspects.

As we know, the healing and empowering function of psychological Shadow Work is something Leigh failed to incorporate into TGT, but we’ll revisit to this topic in greater detail in a later chapter.

“Farewell, my friend,” Justarius said gently. “I will wait for you outside the laboratory should you need help when it is all over.”

“Thank you,” Par-Salian whispered without raising his head.

Justarius limped from the study. Shutting the door too hastily, he caught the hem of his red robe and was forced to open it again to free himself. Before he closed the door again, he heard the sound of weeping.”

Par-Salian's guilt is a powerful thing to end the sequence on. This set of chapters provides a harsh account of Raistlin’s history as a serial user and abuser of people. In Chronicles he just barely gets away with it because everything he does is ultimately in service of saving the world, but that excuse doesn’t pass muster in Legends because this time around his plan to save the world again and even better by overthrowing the goddess who inflicts (largely abstract) evil is a thinly-veiled excuse for him to attain ultimate power and control so he will never have to be vulnerable again. Even so, the conclusion of it all circles back around to the fact that the inciting event was the Test, during and after which Raistlin was used to death by Par-Salian, according to the command of holy Paladine (who has been oft-mentioned but conspicuously, almost deafeningly absent in person thus far), and the only way he was able to survive that was to allow himself to be used by Fistandantilus.

Raistlin isn't absolved by this, but the constant return to focus on the complicated chain of events that led to his downward spiral positions him as a tragic figure who, for all his skills and powers, has been bravely fighting a losing battle for survival against the forces of fate.

In Dragonlance, all the characters have known one another for years – many have known one another for their whole lives. They all lived through and experienced first-hand the traumatic events of Chronicles and the preceding years – the Test, the return of the gods, and the war – and in Legends they must come to understand the range of effects those events had on one another, recognise and try to help each other through their suffering.

As we pointed out previously in the Chapter 9/DitW discussion, no one knows the Darkling’s personal history, and so no other character cares or even is able to care about where his ‘cycle of abuse’ started, or how he progressed from the “boy - brilliant, blessed with too much power” to the tyrant he is in the present day, and his downfall is credited to his 'unnatural’ lust for power and use of merzost rather than the conditions of violence and fear under which he was forced to live.

Setting aside DitW and relying on the information given in-story to the characters, the only character (other than Baghra) who knows anything at all about the Darkling’s early life is Alina. In R&R, Baghra tells her the story:

“We moved from place to place, we saw the way our people lived, the way they were mistrusted, the lives they were forced to eke out in secrecy and fear. He vowed that we would someday have a safe place, that Grisha power would be something to be valued and coveted, something our country would treasure. We would be Ravkans, not just Grisha. That dream was the seed of the Second Army. A good dream. If I’d known...”

This very brief account of events from hundreds of years ago fails to make any meaningful impression on Alina, who started out the trilogy being resentful of the ‘privileges’ enjoyed by the Grisha of the Second Army.

No timespan has ever been given for the number of years between DitW and the present, but it must be several centuries and possibly up to a thousand years or more, because (according to his cover story) the ‘current’ Darkling is 120 years old, the Black Heretic was five generations back on his fabricated family tree, and in RoW it’s confirmed that the Black Heretic ‘lived’ several generations of kings after the Darkling created the Second Army. This one paragraph can’t possibly do justice to the number of murder attempts, betrayals, losses of friends (which he once had, according to RoW) due to wars and misadventures and old age, and all the other tragedies he must have suffered during that time.

---

End notes

‘DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT RAISTLIN IS THE SHADOW SELF? DO YOU UNDERSTAND YET?’

Calm down Maggie I GET IT OK

---

YAY we’re a whole one-third of the way through the first book of the trilogy (of the first story on the list ;_;), and it’s only taken me over a month to get this far.

Thankfully the plot of Legends starts to go its own way from now on, so I’ll be able to start skipping chapters and hopefully finish the book by the end of January.

Next time, we go BACK IN TIME.

Cut it here because it’s SO LONG but there was more to say about TGV’s victim complex where anyone who is wronged by the Darkling in any way regardless of reason MUST hate him forever or else they are‘weak’ vs. Dragonlance where everyone is Raistlin’s ‘victim’ but none of the ‘good’ characters care because love is both powerful and complicated, and none of the ‘evil’ characters care because abuse is part of their totally valid religion.

I’m sure there’ll be a time to cover that later

---

Outtakes and opinions:

I remember when the show came out there were all these ‘Shadow and Bone Explained’ articles saying that the Grisha colours were like the Hogwarts houses, way to show your cultural ignorance, there are at least three (3) ways that is wrong.

---

No shade intended towards Kit this chapter. “Kit/Sturm is just superior in every way, she never needed Tanis, he didn’t understand her, and she should’ve been gay anyway” I say, as I ugly cry every time she tells Tanis she always loved him and then dies in his arms, where’s my goddamn musical to fix that.

Kit and Dalamar as Team Comphet in this trilogy was my introduction to the concept long before I knew the word. Dragonlance is very equal opportunity when it comes to endearingly outdated sexual politics

---

Dragonlance: Caramon is Lawful Good, the same alignment as Sturm, the most noble paragon in all of D&D history!

Also Dragonlance: Caramon is described as “selfish guy who cares for no one but his brother” in the dramatis personae

who was responsible for this I just wanna talk

---

The Grisha being historical Ashkenazi Jews but scrubbed of religion really riles me up, I hate it when authors write these worlds full of invented religions but still can’t stand to have religious heroes because of whatever hangups they have with real life. Inej being devout is one of the tiny little glimmers of goodness in the Crows books

---

Michael Moorcock talked about the influence of his works on pop culture (including D&D) in his most recent interview which you can read here: https://screenrant.com/michael-moorcock-interview-elric-melnibone/amp/

He was surprisingly measured about it, he’s mellowing out in his old age.

This absolute titan contributed more to modern SFF than any other single person including Tolkien, I will die on this hill.

Next part --->

#shadow and bone #the darkling #darklina

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