Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voss" data-source="post: 4151414" data-attributes="member: 57593">Except, most of the time, he doesn't actually lead.  At best, he's pulling a 'we will go that way, because, yeah, that sounds like a good idea'.  Other times, he's just guilt tripping the party into following along. 'Let's go to Tarsis because I don't like being trapped in a mountain' isn't a command decision, and most of them go because they don't want to be stuck with the dirt farmers.  Combat leadership is even more vague, but thats the style of the books more than anything else.  Except in situations like Xak Tsaroth, when a half-arsed (as opposed to their non-existant good plans) plan predictably goes badly, or 'sneaking' into the evil army headquarters on good dragons, which would have been a total disaster if Paladine hadn't personally come down from the heavens and put a stop to it.However... he utterly fails at 'keeping them together'.  Repeatedly. They weren't together all that long before they separated for 5 years (the twins in particular, simply aren't old enough), he can barely control minor party conflicts, and ultimately the party is torn apart.  And then he snits at everyone for the first half of the last book, then leaves them in prison for the second half.  I'm not seeing a lot of leadership there, just a pack of idiots that don't have the brains (or, in Raistlin's case, the motivation) to find someone better.Inner conflict isn't a leadership ability.  Its a flaw. It could be interesting, if done right, but other than repeatedly telling the reader that its 'some big conflict between human and elf blood', there really isn't one.  He's just a weak-willed little nithling with a boot fetish.  He's the ultimate average, really.  Not stupid, but not that smart.  Not a great warrior, but not a bad one.  Not a horrible leader, but not a good one.  He's just sort of there- not atheistic, but not devout, even in the face of actual divine manifestations, which is kind of funny for someone who supposedly went looking for signs of the gods. I've really had deeper personal conflicts over eating a bran muffin.</blockquote>

Verification