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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 1703528" data-attributes="member: 8461">Weis and Hickman have a history of writing books at the direction of TSR/WotC. I heard that at some point after the first few books, they began to write the DL novels which then were used as the template for the "Dragons of..." adventures (instead of the other way around, which is how it had been at first).Then, as you noted, Dragons of Summer Flame (which they wanted to actually make into a trilogy. Oi would that have gone on forever) for the express purpose of the SAGA system.And finally the War of Souls trilogy, which was written because Peter Adkison wanted to undo all of the damage that Dragons of Summer Flame and the SAGA system had inflicted.Frankly, knowing how much TSR/WotC directed and commissioned their work, it becomes impossible for me to understand then why Weis & Hickman threw such a gigantic hissy-fit when Lord Soth was moved to Ravenloft. I mean, did they not realize that there was more going on here than just their books? Did they forget that the intellectual properties of all of these characters weren't owned by them? It's not like any pet projects of theirs were being ruined by this. Instead, they try and slip this little scene into Dragons of Summer Flame specifically to counteract Knight of the Black Rose, and not only do they fail utterly in that regard, but they also end up making the fans wonder about answers...which leads to TSR firmly and loudly telling everyone that Soth is, indeed, in Ravenloft.The final slap in the face came in Dragons of a Vanished Moon in the scene where [spoiler]Mina asks Soth to join Takhisis in taking over the world, Soth, apparently having come into enlightenment and accepting responsibility for everything he did - in other words, being completely out of character -  refuses, and Takhisis kills him in a petulant fit. The chapter didn't even fit that well into the rest of the story, coming across as more of an aside where the authors decide to kill off the character in a fit of pique for having had someone else besides them use him.[/spoiler]I just can't stomach the level of hypocrisy involved in that whole debacle. They knew it wasn't their sandbox anymore, so they had no right to bitch when someone else played in it. Now that's a serious breach of author/reader contract, IMHO.</blockquote>

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