#❪ ⠀ ✦ ⠀ ─── ⠀ takhisis / dynamic × raistlin majere ⠀﹕ ⠀i thought you preferred being alone? ⠀ ❫

[missallanea]

О любви ( Concerning Love ) is one of my favorite songs from The Last Trial. Raistlin and Takhisis really only get a couple of duets ( and Встреча с такхизис lacks the same bite imho ) and I love seeing just how mocking she can be.

And, perhaps in a more romantic show, this would come back as a reprise when Raistlin finally admitted his feelings... but this is not that show.

I also love that it's this exchange that she quotes back at him in the Abyss at the end : "Wasn't it you who wanted to be left alone?"

[9mothsinspace]

Okay! Rant (and spoilers) ahead! It's been some time since I read Dragons of Fate now and I need to put down my thoughts about it. My obsessive bookmarking of scenes must be put to some use! Really, hoarding scenes it my one true dragon trait.

Now. Critique comes first. For one:

Inconsistency problems. I ranted about some of them in other posts as well, but here a few in short: 1. Raistlin is too well-informed about Immolatus. He may have figured out that he's a dragon at some point after Brothers in Arms, but even then, he couldn't have detailed knowledge about his hunting habits from the short encounters he had with him. 2. The Green dragon in the orb is named Viper, not Cyan 3. In the very first scene a gnome appears he finishes a sentence. The a-gnome-never-finishes-a-sentence rule has been broken before but still.

Then. The repetetive and tedious explainations of time travelling. Okay, so the book starts with a chapter that basically retells the last chapter of the previous book to explain where things left off. So far so good, it's a bit unnecessary that the time travelling is spelled out to the reader in such detail and that Sturm is used as the 'ignorant character' device that needs everything explained to him. But then we switch scenes and the same discussion takes place with Dalamar and Justarius. And then again with Tanis (again the ignorant character device) and Astinus! Yes, every character has to be up to date, but the process doesn't have to be described every time. It just feels like the reader isn't trusted to keep up and I would actually welcome some ambiguity here. But maybe that's just personal preference.

Destina. I was actually on bord with the entire Destina plotline in the first book, but in the second one it feels like she has simply been erased, now that the heroes of the lance have entered the stage. And the plot with her love interest... uff. I read somewhere that Dragonlance has a problem with writing love stories and I agree. There is no real distinction between initial attraction and supposed deeper feelings? At least not in this case. There was no time for these two to fall in love and it feels like a plot device.

Raistlin. Now. This REALLY is personal preference but he felt... out of character a bit? How do explain it better than 'he isn't evil enough'? Yes he is still sarcastic and snarky, but it also just set on fixing the river of time without ever even contemplating an outcome that doesn't end with him dead? Of course his memories of his failed atttempt of godhood could have taught him better, but are you really telling me that RAISTLIN MAJERE doesn't have any ambition or shred of selfishness left in him? Especially after he says he doesn't really regret his actions? And I loved the scene in the beginning where he tells Tasslehoff that he is sorry that Mary was never real but it also just felt off.

Now, I ranted a lot about things I didn't like. So here the things i absolutely did (especially in the third half of the book that made up for a lot of the previous bugs I think):

Gnomes!! They were hilarious! Like, in every scene and every dialogue they were what I expected gnomes to be. Chaotic bureaucracy, exploding shit, little self-preservation, that's just awesome.

Magius. I had my issues with his and Raistlin's dynamic at first because it felt like they were set up for being friends just because it serves the plot and Raistlin was more dragged along than making decisions on his own... but the death scene really had me with a lump in my throat. And Magius handing over the staff and declaring that it will be Raistlin's now and in the future - that was actually a mindblowing moment!

The Immolatus and Takhisis dynamic. Now, this was an intriguing and ambiguous relationship. We know that she favours him, gifts him a powerful artifact and makes him a commander of her army, even recruits him again in Brothers in Arms, but he just hates her guts. Why? We got just enough bits to be interested but not enough to make it flat. Nice!

Raistlin and Sturm. Sue me, i ship them and I loved every bit of interaction.

Kitiara and siblings in the dragon army. This... I mean-!!! Again, this is subjective, but I was just always absolutely in love with Kitiara and Raistlin as a team and understood but was saddened when they tried to kill each other half the time. To see them now on the same side in this alternative present and with Caramon at that... this is everything I wanted for them. I know, I know, that's just me, but i'm all in for team evil Majere / uth Matar siblings.

So much from me :) Plz tell me you thoughts if you agree or disagree with any of this.

[missallanea]

In the Abyss, Takhisis taunts Raistlin as he pleads to anyone listening that this was not what he wanted, despite getting exactly what he wanted. While I think the costumes in the tour version of the show are superior, I desperately miss Takhisis mocking "too late!" responses that were removed.