I too am indifferent to Drizzt, but I do own a lot of his books, and have read 8 of them, so I picked love him.
Too many people complain he's a Mary Sue. But after reading the first 8 books, I can say I've seen him in some prickly
.
Now it's easy to look at it now that there are 30+ books out there and be like, "Okay, he survives. I know he'll get out of this." But if you look at it as if it were the time the book was released, you had no idea.
, it's only book 6, he might die.
I've read about Drizzt falling, breaking an ankle, losing the skin on his hands, becoming a slave for (
years? It was a while since I read that one), kidnapped, etc... Yes, he finds a way out, but that is the point of the main character, they're supposed to survive. And on occasion, it's not even him saving himself, it's someone else.
Now Bob does try to solve most of Drizzt's problems with his incredible speed. So much that he thinks Drizzt could beat Conan (
laughs). I'm sorry, Bob, but Conan is only a hair slower than Drizzt, and a hell-of-a-lot tougher. He'd eat them hits and just... oh, wait, I went off topic.
I have no problem with Drizzt. He was the first good documented dark-elf that emerged from the fantasy explosion. I think most people have a problem with other people copying this concept with their own character, and trying to claim it original.
I only voted "worst" because I had a drow in 1st edition - created in '85 or '86 that was a dual wield - back when dual wield was a drow thing, not a ranger thing. He was good, rasied by dwarves, named Obsidian.
Then the books came out and everyone thought I copied Drizzt. Grrr..
Pretty petty, but there you go.
I can relate to this. I don't mean in a I have a good dark-elf kind of way. But in general. I've done/thought of something, and years later somebody else does it, gets recognized, and it's as if I never thought of it a while back.
Though, admittedly I did have a Drow Ranger main bad guy named Nar'Dier whose primary weapon is a bow, but in melee he dual wields. I almost gave him a snow leopard named Snow for an animal companion. This was before I knew of Drizzt. Then I discovered Drizzt and removed the Ranger identity and the snow leopard.
P.S.
Elves dual wielding, I think of Legolas in LotR when I see that. In fact, some of Bob's earlier books reminded me of LotR in certain parts.