We've read so many pages that give these annoying descriptions of the DL characters. I swear, they'll have something like "Caramon: Brother to Raistlin, big and strong, a warrior. Palin's father". Are they a dictionary? Would we be looking up DragonLance if we didn't know who someone as fundamental as Caramon was? I don't think so. Anna and I are far more interested in other people's views. (ie, did they find Kitiara as slutty as we did? Do they like Tanis? Do they find Gilthanis' pointed ears endearing?) Well, we can't figure out what they think, but we can tell you what we think. And, if you're willing to sign the guestbook at the bottom of the page, you can tell us and the rest of the world what you think of various characters.
Warning: At least for our comments, we're doing them for humor value, in part...therefore, we'll be saying nasty things about your favorite characters. Deal with it, or leave us a nasty little guestbook signature telling us why you think we're wrong. Things in the guestbook weren't put there by us, so we really can't account for them, but just remember if you do sign...others may be watching.
Raistlin: Julia's view: Raistlin's a great character, obviously. Interesting, intelligent, mysterious, duh. That's what every site on earth says about him. I don't completely get it on a rational level as he's ugly, mean, nasty, scary, vicious, a brute, and a sort of psychopathic evil that none of the other characters manage. But, on the other hand, I do find him interesting and there's this part of me that just wants to sit by him and watch him as he does whatever it is that Raistlin does. I don't get it...I just accept it.
Anna's view: Raistlin is a fascinating character, (otherwise why would we all *like* someone who is ugly, mean-tempered, unhealthy, evil, and misanthropic (people-hating)). I don't know why, I think one part of me keeps wanting to find the one little bit of goodness in him or something. It's very strange. I just can't admit to myself that he's completely evil. What I think it works out to is all women want what they can't have, and Raistlin's about as ungetatable as a person gets. Plus, can you imagine what it would be like to have someone who could become a god in love with you. On the other hand, the marriage bed might be absolutely painful. Also, he's one of the few truely unique characters ever created in a fantasy book. For that alone, he's one of my favorite characters.
Caramon Both: We really like Caramon. After all, he's big, strong, nice, good with kids, just about a perfect guy. I even still hold to the idea that he's not stupid, just slow and has been around Raistlin and Kitara (both of whom are brilliant) for just a little too long to ever consider himself of any real intelligence. (Poor guy.) After all, we do know that he has self esteem problems. Weis and Hickman just don't appriciate him enough, for a guy who's incredibly gorgeous, relatively smart, and nice. I mean, he's soooo perfect and he should be the hero of any book. It's really not fair that all the attention is changed to the (sorry Anna) psychopath Raistlin or to the "conflicted" Tanis...
You see, we figure that Caramon is smart. It's just that around Kit and Raist (geniuses) it didn't matter that he's bright enough to lead an army (sounds better than most GATE students), he's still dull in comparison. Poor guy. But, aside from the low self esteem and dependancy, he's incredibly nice, sweet, normal, gorgeous, smart, and oh so muscular. They really should have done more with him.
Tika She's cute, she's smart, she deserves to be smarter than she was portrayed (after all, she runs a sucessful resturant and made it through a traumatic childhood without being too screwed up). She's also the only normal girl in the books, and thus the only female character who could possibly have a large number of women identifying with her (sure, we've got a few Ushas, Kitiaras, Lauranas, and Jennas, but most of us are Tikas, Julia excepted, as always). Therefore, it seems like she really deserved, like Caramon, a whole lot more time in the books, and a lot more sympathetic portrayal. After all, wouldn't we, when confronted by an elven princess, feel the tinsiest bit insecure?
Kitiara I love Kitiara, but with a few qualms. She's a strong, powerful female. She's an evil villian, but unlike most, you can actually understand her motives. (After all, who wouldn't love to have lots of boy toys, own half the world, and be able to cut your enemies to shreds? Yeah, this is Julia talking.) Unfortunately, though, Kitiara is done rather crudely, almost like a cartoon. She takes too much glee in killing, has a few too many lovers (promiscuity is one thing, but a couple of new guys every night is just too much), and never really gets much in the way of emotional depth. It's a real pity, I think, as it would be great to have a strong, female, DL character who acts like a real human.
We're also, considering Kit's promiscuity, a tad confused about how she never gets pregnant (aside from the obvious case) or STDs. Could she bottle it? Now, maybe there are no STDs in the DL world, but if she got pregnant once, the argument for Kit being infertile can't be followed. So, either she's using some crude form of birth control (which we can't see, considering Kit's impetuous nature) or backstreet doctors, backstreet doctors (ouch!). For more on DL birth control, see Jenna.
Tanis Julia's view: By the Gods who govern Krynn, if that damned man whines one more time about "who do I want, Kit or Laurana, Kit or Laurana" I'm going to hurl all of my DL books into the fireplace, set it on fire, and never read them again. Ever! OK, fine, he does develop into a real character later on, but at least in the first triology, he exists as an adolescent male fantasy of "Guess what? I'm an outcast, a real individual, and a natural leader. I'm a warrior, wise, brave, but with a few carefully crafted bad qualities, like my inability to keep my pants on (sometimes even in public) around anything female. I have two gorgeous women after me, one an elven princess (Note, there exist no ugly elven princesses.) and a gorgeous, exotic, sexually motivated, warrior woman who controls half the world." Has no one ever asked why either of them would even be interested in this vascilating twit? All the girls are after him, when they should be looking at the gorgeous and brawny Caramon. It's so annoying! They could have tried something like changing the two girls' identies to make them slightly less cliche (prostitute he got pregnant but feels indebted to versus the girl he's now in love with) or at least given Tanis an personality, but no! He's the sterotypical fantasy hero right down to the enchanted sword and slaying of dragons. Plus, what sort of idiot would turn down Kitara?
Anna's view: Okay, I like Tanis. Admittedly, he can be a little annoying, but he's brave and strong and a good leader and handsome and half-elven (pointy ears are so sexy and that has *nothing* to do with Star Trek). And think about it, he keeps Kit interested for a good long time, so he has to be absolutely fabulous in bed. (Shut up, Julia, I don't type *that * slowly). And the confliction is kind-of cute; I kind-of want help him through it, so that he realized that really, I'm better than either of them.
Chris: I want to add that there is a stupid leader guy like Tanis in every fantasy book. And they always have the same stupid conflicting views of "Should I be saving the world or not?" Tanis just has a stupid elven part of him that basically makes him have no personality.
And this is from an adolescent male. Ouch. There goes Tanis.
Laurana How many ways can I say "whiny, privilaged, bratty, twit"? Sorry, I just don't like Laurana. Why does she get to be the Golden General? Tika would have been *so* much better. (And a nice egalitarian move to boot!) Plus, there's just something about a girl who chases endlessly after a guy who says again and again "I don't want you" that just chills my blood. Does she have no self esteem? She ought to, after all, she's an elven princess and, though I don't really like Laurana, I do think that she deserves better than Tanis. (Anna may disagree as she thinks that Tanis is too good for her. See above.) She reminds me of all the cheerleaders in high school the, "we're so great, we're so great, we vomit up our meals and can't function without a boyfriend". Sick...scary. I really prefer *all* of the other types.
Alhana Anna: I *hate* Alhana. She's a snotty, proud, arrogent bitch and I wish she had died in Tarsis like she should have. I mean, someone offers her some help and she's rude because he's human. And then, when she realizes that she's in love with him, she won't admit it, because it would be degrading to herself and her people to love a non-elf. You realize she's got a Nazi mentality there. The Silvanesti deserve to die out. I want her corrupted or humbled and not in the dignified way it happens. She should suffer! (Julia alone: but at least she's a stronger character than Laurana.)
Gilthanas He's cute, he's smart, he's got a good physique (well, he is a dual class magic user-warrior), he's from royalty. (Anna: This is the guy I'm in love with. I have good taste, no?) Except for the family, what's not to like? His head injuries are sort of cute, and despite his reputation for snobbishness, he really isn't that bad for an elf. (Think about it, would you want your sister marrying Tanis? He's a philandering idiot...not to mention, if the pictures prove true, a hair ball that looks more half-ogre than half-human.) Anyway, he's certainly likable, other than that any normal human would tower over him (I like to think of the elves as tall and thin, but let's be realistic here. We know what the books say.) Anyway...great guy, except for his falling in love with the dragon-slut, Silvara. (Anna: He's *mine*!)
Sturm Oh, gods no! Not the man who can't say much of anything other than "My honor is my life" (whatever that does mean) like a broken record. Not only is he boring, he's *so* cliche, a danger to the party, and one of those irritating people who can't recognize the diffrence between when your code of conduct is good and when it needs to be changed with shifting circumstances. Funny how Tanis is the only member of the party who actually likes him. Notice that? The main attraction to Sturm is "could I corrupt him?" It would just be *so* much fun. (Admit it, you were glad when you found out Kit had, uh, deflowered him, especially upon hearing how upset he was and how he begged her to marry him. Ha ha.) Anna: On the other hand, there is something vaguely appealling about someone who is so dedicated to honor that he'll follow it even when no one else will, and end up dying for it. He should have been done so it wasn't cliche. And he shouldn't have fallen in love with Alhana. He deserved better than that! (Julia wishes to ask that Sturm just be omitted and that Alhana didn't really deserve the heartache.)
Flint Cliche character, but we like him anyway. Nice guy, old, adds a nice bit or practicality to the whole thing. My favorite part is how he argues with Tasslehoff. (How cute!) But then, there's just not that much to say about him. We only have to ask, how can he like Tanis? (Anna objects to the last sentence.)
Tasslehoff One of the best characters in the entire set of books, if not the best. Honestly, the idea of making an entire race of klepto-midgits was just sheer brilliance. (Except for the sociological rule that they would have been killed off because they're annoying and another species. Humans don't like that. But we'll figure divine intervetion. By my guesses, elves and kender would be dead, gnomes well hidden, and dwarves either enslaved or kept in their mountains to be traded with. Ogres would be hunted, but impossible to exterminate (like rats), the same with gully dwarves, but hey, what do I know?) (Note, Anna has a slightly better opinion of human nature, but Julia's noticed that the Irish and the English can't stand each other and they even look the same, speak the same language, worship a similar God, and whatnot.) Tas is necessary comic relief and we love him. After all, he's a close personal friend of Paladine. He and Fizban make a great comedy team, and we really need more of them. After all, that's the only reason Julia read through the entirity of the first three books.
Goldmoon I love Goldmoon in her short story. She's an arrogant (believes that she's a goddess and does everything she can to support that view), self-centered, horny bitch. Unfortunately, we don't see *any* of this in the books, which is sort of a pity, because the cardboard cut out lyre player just isn't all that much fun. I guess that she is sort of necessary to the plot, but I refuse to see her as more than an NPC.
Chrit is annoyed because she is honorable as all hell for no particular reason. Sturm at least has a purpose, Goldmoon is just annoying.
Riverwind Do you really think that he's capable of speech? Riverwind is like a rarely used appendage of Goldmoon. It's sort of sad, really, to be an NPC to an NPC. Needless to say, we have no respect for this poor guy, although we do wonder, at times, what he's thinking, and, given his history, he should be more interesting. (Pity.) However, as he appears, he is walking furniture. Chris would give him even more pity as the only lines he gets are in talking to Tanis.
Wait, Julia has a theory! Maybe Riverwind never learned Common well and that's why he never talks! It works, it works! Of course, he's still boring, but there just may be something here...
Crysania Julia: OK, I agree. Crysania's an annoying, whiny, bitch. She's aggravating and I can't stand her any more than most people can. On the other hand, she's a great character. She's the only sort of person who Raistlin could win with, and her naieve idealisms are such a great contrast to Raistlin's worldly cynacism. I would have prefered it if she wasn't so beautiful (notice, no ugly girls but Bupu) and a noblewoman, but she does make an interesting character as you think "what sort of mind lies behind that naievity?" She develops well, too, eventually learning from her mistakes and becoming a fairly interesting sort of person. I know that everyone hates her and I agree, I hate her...but she's *interesting*...much in the way that Raistlin is interesting. (Plus it's interesting to wager exactly who won between the two of them.)
Anna: I really can't comment, since I read the Twins books on the plane to and from Washington DC and I get altitude sickness, so all my memories of the books are tinted with feeling headachy and nauseous. I think I agree with Julia, but I don't really remember. If I get time to reread the books, I'll post something new. I do remember that I really wanted her to get Raistlin, if just for a little while. It would have been so good for him.
Chris: Julia is right. She could have had Caramon and she didn't take him. She's an idiot.
Dalamar I'm not really sure why everyone thinks that he's so wonderful. After all, he's arrogant, self-centered, jumpy, excitable, and annoying...and that's just what they say in the book outright! OK, yeah, he is wealthy and gorgeous and intelligent, but is that really enough, particularly considering that Dalamar is a wanna-be evil munchkin? And let's not debate the evil. We all saw what Dalamar did to the Tower of Palanthas. Raistlin left the place as a perfectly decent scary, evil tower. Then Dalamar redecorated it in (I'm quoting) "muted florals", and "more furniture than she'd ever seen in one place in her life"...not to mention the knick knacks (you didn't go to Halmark, please Dalamar, no!!!!)...then he brings in a dozen or so apprentices and makes out with Jenna on the couch. No wonder Raistlin wants to kill him and will mention it periodically to Palin.
Dalamar's essentially an adolescent and doesn't appear to emotionally age. After all, he still throws temper tantrums and has to be yelled at to shut up (and not rip his shirt off) by almost-father-in-law Justarius, and sulks (without eating or sleeping...weird) for so long that Jenna gets rid of him. And even she, who strangely admits to loving him, admits that he can be a tad trying...not to mention arrogant, self-centered and, as Tas points out, "jumpy". (And note how little she seems to like admitting that she's with him or worse, that she loves him, then defending her emotions. Ouch, Dalamar...even the character who was made for him, doesn't want to admit that she likes him!) And then we can add in the masochistic tendancies, absolute fear of Raistlin, and weird affair with Kitiara. (And does it make you worry a little that Dalamar's first thought on Kitiara, right before he sleeps with her is, "Wow, she looks just like Raistlin"...I don't even want to *think* what this means! But you can add into it the muted florals, the delicate features, the lisp, and the love of knick knacks, gardening, and decorating...but what does that say about Jenna? And when you think about Raistlin's feelings about depending on other people, it seems sort of odd that he'd take on an apprentice...something he refused to do until a handsome, young, strong, gorgeous, elf who was trained as a servant was offered to him...hmmm...)
The sobbing over Kitiara and Silvanesti is also of great amusement, as is the "I won't wear a color other than black because I look good in black" tendancy. (I swear, he says something like this to Tanis!) (Black is very slimming.) He also helps the good guys and seems to think that he's good friends with Tanis (although Tanis sometimes disagrees).
On the other hand (this is Julia), he is gorgeous...(although pitifully short according to his stats which ought to be wrong), smart, and sucessful. And his regular critical injuries are sort of cute, and his pouting is sort of amusing as well as his deluded belief that he's evil. His tendancy to be obnoxious whenever allowed would need to be trimmed, but he might not be completely terrible...and a regular temper tantrum isn't necessarily the worse thing, especially considering that you could probably make him stop it by threatening the matched set of china plates that he'd been collecting. (Or maybe by threatening to make him sew back his own robes...."You ripped them, you sew them.") He'd certainly be *interesting* to fall madly in love with...
Regardless, though, for a character who could easily be omitted in the books and who fills very little space, there is reason that Dalamar's memorable. He's given a fairly complex and interesting character (at least by Weis and Hickman) of a guy who's nerdishly obsessed with magic, deluded into believing that he's evil, and terrified of the other evil villians who pick on him. I personally think that he was created when Weis and Hickman got his bio and went "Drow apprentice to Raistlin with perfect stats? We think not...he he...lets make him a nerdy little wanna be evil collector of plant prints who has a nerdy crush on Princess Alhana that he continues sort of into adulthood (provided that you can refer to Dalamar as "adult", a debated point)"...or something like that. Regardless, though, he's one of the best characters in DragonLance despite how little time he gets in the books.
Chris: I think that Dalamar has a love hate relationship with Raistlin. He saw how Raistlin was cool and wanted to be just like him. (Julia wants to note that his first thought upon seeing Kit was something about how much like Raistlin she looked. Think about it psychologically. It's kind of gross. After all, he's terrified of Raistlin and if he has any sense, he's also terrified of Kitiara. And they both cause him pain and try to kill him.)
Jenna Jenna's the best character! OK, stop complaining she's my (Julia's) favorite character, and I know that this is weird. On the other hand, she's high on the list of favorite female characters, so it's not that weird. After all, she's intelligent, a sucessful business woman, beautiful, and, despite her reputation for arrogance, she's not really that bad. (If you want to dispute this, remember how much her hired help likes her.) And, anyone who taunts elves deserves a medal. It's sort of sad that she's best known for her relationship with Dalamar (especially since she denies it), but she's a very sucessful career woman in her own right, even if most of her current success in Palanthas happens to be due to her more than cordial relationships with the Knights of Neraka. (And, in this, we can accept that she just might have some form of magical and/or chemical birth control, thus making it logical that like Kitiara she never gets pregnant. Tika's realistic in getting pregnant 6-9 times, Jenna's probably good with birth control, but we'll still curious about only 2 kids for Usha and 1 for Kitiara.) She's like a modified version of Kitiara to make her more realistic. After all, Kit can't exist in the real world, Jenna does...just not much. Regardless, though, I applaud any sort of strong DL female character.
I'm still not sure about her origion. You can tell that she was made to be completely unimportant and yet, for some reason, she takes up a fair amount of book time and most people know of her. But then, she has the dominant sort of character personality that she may just order to be in books and people sort of shrug and add her. Plus, like Dalamar, she's an incredibly minor character and yet was so well developed that she has a genuine personality despite her NPCdom.
Just a few questions: 1) Why do we never get a clear description of Jenna, just of her clothes? 2) What exactly is in that store? And why does Jenna keep large amounts of gross things hanging about all parts of her home? 3) Why is Tasslehoff so fascinated by her cream cheese puffs? What did she put into them? We want to know.
Chris: I want to know whether people actually like Jenna or if she's just the least hated of the female characters.
Palin Julia: He's cute! He's intelligent. He's attractive. He's easily corruptable. He does what he's told to do like a good boy. He's even got great in-laws. What's a girl not to like? He's just so cute, and his succumbing to peer pressure (getting drunk with his brothers) and mindless obediance are just adorable. Of course, I still don't get his thing with Usha, but, whatever. And you have to admire his tenacity. After magic fails, he's the one who manages to bring it back (sort of). OK, admittedly he's a weenie and he's so annoyingly lawful good that it hurts, but since he technically eventually does believe that he's evil, I find it possible to believe that he could be nicely corrupted into the right sort of man. Call me hopeful.
Anna: I am not in love with Palin. (Julia is a freak. But Julia wishes to point out that she at least doesn't like everything with pointy ears.) He's irritating and saccharine and a nerd. His brothers are much better characters. He's stupid, too, and even dumb enough to tell Raistlin that he'll do anything that he's asked to do. I had no sympathy for him in Fallen Sun (Well, I didn't either, says Julia.) lots of people have gone through worse things without feeling the need to pretend that they're evil.
Chrit: I think that Palin is what Raistlin would be except that Palin had Caramon as a father. I feel that Palin would turn to evil with any push, and the only reason that he ever was good is that he was surrounded by lawful good people like his brothers, his father, his mother, etc. He's easily manipulated and I think that he would have turned over to the black robes for Raistlin except Caramon had already manipulated him to be good.
(Doesn't he sound like great fling material, asks Julia? He'd do *anything* you told him to.)
Usha Whiny twit just doesn't sum it up well enough. Usha's annoyingness goes far beyond that. OK, we do pity her. After all, she lands in a foreign place, is promptly arrested, is bailed out by Jenna, and then is sealed in a room in the Tower of Palanthas with Tasslehoff (is there a worse punishment possible?...maybe only having to hang around Jenna and Dalamar) for a few weeks before marrying Palin and going through marriage from hell, but she's still more annoying than nails on a black board. (And she only gets worse in Fallen Sun.) Of course, if you take the theory that Jenna and Palin are or were more than just friends, maybe she has a point...particularly considering that divorce does not seem to be common on Krynn...(Still grateful that she didn't turn up more in the Fallen Sun triology, though...)
Tanin and Sturm II The ultimate cool. Why did they kill them off so early? They're the most wonderful characters, Sturm in particular. Tanin's got leadership potential, Sturm's cute, and they'd both add a needed dose of testosterone to the whimpy 2nd Generation group. (I mean, seriously, they've got Palin, Usha, Jenna, Steel, Gilthas, and maybe Dalamar. Ouch. The only guy who even faintly counts as masculine in the group is Steel...and even with Steel, the honor thing is sort of, well...) We need Tanin and Sturm! We want Tanin and Sturm (after all, who else will chuck bread at each other in the Tower of Wayreth to cheer up Palin and discuss killing minotaurs with Dunbar? Whatever happens to him?).
Steel We first find it odd that Sturm accepts him, considering that we find it hard to believe that Sturm would accept anyone evil, particularly since that evil was also the spawn of Kitiara. But then, you never can tell...
After that, we find Steel to be just like Sturm, except evil, which is just annoying as all hell. Besides, he kills Tanin and Sturm, and for that he should be shot! We were glad when he died and have no strong positive feelings for him. He's annoying, aggravating, and stupid (As Jenna points out. Now if only she'd seduced him...wouldn't that lead to some interesting results, especially considering Dalamar's proximity?). What is there to like about this guy? With Sturm, we can at least wonder how he got to be that way. But with Steel, we're told how--excessive brainwashing that leads him to ignore even his noble foster mother, Sarah. (A truly wonderful woman who did not deserve what she got and may have deserved a larger role in the Weis and Hickman novels...yeah, I know she got a larger role in other books, but do those count?) He treats his mother rotten, he's a jerk, and he's irritating. What more is there to say?
Gilthas Anna thinks that Tanis didn't deserve that as a son. I think, "That's what happens after years of inbreeding" and "Well, he sure does resemble Laurana"...I know that they try to make him more interesting in Fallen Sun, but he still resembles, to me, an idiotic young man with no spine. Spineless is the best word to describe this jellyfish. Dalamar made a point about how he didn't want a son of Tanis' on an elven throne as he figured that the guy would be a good leader, strong, and a decent person, hence why he'd be willing to "save" Gilthas in The Sacrifice. It seems that Dalamar had nothing to worry about.
Silvan I figure this character has potential. He's just realized that he's a jellyfish and admits it, he's in love with Mina, and he was raised following mommy Alhana about as she made camp in a burial mound. He's really got potential. He's got "French princling" vibes, but it seems like he may grow up into a lot more...particularly with Mina manipulating him into doing whatever the One God is telling her Silvan is to be used for. And he's going to take it...at least so far it looks as if poor Silvan's just putty in the capable hands of Mina. And he's gonna be really hurt when he finds out that she doesn't return his feelings. Will we get the first suicide in DragonLance? Will Silvan learn better? Will he just pine away endlessly? Oooh...the possibilities...
Mina Mina just keeps getting cooler. She starts off as a mysterious, evil sounding Joan of Arc who can work miracles and is led by the One God. She could even be good at first--at least if you disregard the fact that her God (or perhaps we should use a different form of speech, now?) has no problem killing people, and only really seems to save them to get them to join Mina's side. (Come on, a fully nice God would save people who didn't worship that God, right?)
Beyond that, Mina's ruthlessness is nice--as is the fact that, for once, her love interest is less important than she is. (Yay, Mina!) I like finally having a character who doesn't really *want* to hurt other people...she just does, because it doesn't matter much to her that she's going to make Silvan's life a living hell--provided, of course, that she does her One God's will...
Plus it's just so nice to have a villian who has motives a little more substantial than "Want to take over the world". Mina thinks that she has everyone's best interests at heart. She's bringing back a God, just like Godlmoon did. That's what's important, not what God she brings back, not how she brings them back, not who she kills in the process. And that's what makes her scary, because other people are willing to believe along with her. I'm not sure how they're going to stop her...but it should be interesting to see how a strong and seductive evil is conquered this time...