I don't hate Drizzt. I actualy like Drizzt. I hate the legions of fanboy clones, and I hate the legion of bandwagon Drizzt Haters. It bothers me when the most some people can say about Drizzt is "He wins". Wow. Gee. I guess thats something totaly new amongst the 'heroic' main character of a book. I have no problem if you just "don't like" him, or if you think you have legitimate reasons to not like him... but drek answers like that rub me the wrong way.
Anyhow, a couple points to Kengar's post:
1) Actualy, in Forgotten Realms, there does seem to be a slow-but-steady "racial" change taking place in the drow... Witness the growing number of good drow living on the surface. There are a number of possible reasons for this I suppose, but I certainly wouldn't discount it being "in the blood" in some way or another. Remember, these aren't humans were talking about... it's entirely possible they have some semblance of "genetic memory"... its not an unprecidented concept. And very likely he DID pick up some of it from Zaknafien... I don't remember the exact age, but he was too small to pick up a halberd (As described in the book) when he was basicly given over to Zaknafien... and before that, he had been raised by Zaknafien's daughter, who seemed to have some semblance of the "goodness" of Zaknafien in her, even if it was much repressed.
2) Actualy, Drizzt DID work hard. Admitedly, they basicly glossed over that section of his life, but he trained from a VERY early age, for a considerable length of time, waking to sleeping, under Zaknafien and then in the academy. And just because they don't preface every chapter by saying "And then Drizzt practiced some more when he awoke that day." doesn't mean he DOESN'T keep practicing... in fact, its pretty much said he does in a couple of places. The "coin toss" thing wasn't demonstrating skill, by the way, it was demonstrating potential. I still didn't like that particular scene very much, but when he caught those coins, he still wasn't a fighter of any skill. He simply showed he had a high DEX score.
I'm hardly the first person to sing the praises of Drizzt... I don't much like Forgotten Realms in general... but a bit of recognition of the fact that, until he started living with Bruenor's people, basicly his entire life from aroung age 10-ish has been spent either training, fighting for his life, or both, is I think in order here. And we aren't talking five or ten years here... Drizzt is, what... around 80-100-ish? I don't know off hand. I know he's young for an elf, but he's not a kid by human standards. He does has some tinsy-weensy bit of "right" to be "good".
On a similar note, drizzt doesn't ALWAYS win, and when he does win, a lot of times it's not through his own skill. How many fights has his cat saved him? What about the fight with the Balor where he survived basicly by a lucky sword hit from a magical sword? Or when he was taken as a slave by the Illithid? Or when the Zombie-Zaknafien commited suicide, rather than continue the fight (Which wasn't going well for Drizzt)? Or when Entreri KILLED him? (Granted, AE cheated, but Drizzt still lost)... Let's face it, Drizzt is the "star" of his books... He's not going to loose battles left and right to minor foes, any more than a couple of Nazi's would threaten Indiana Jones, or a couple of guys on motorcycles would kill James Bond. But do you loathe THOSE characters with the same level of intensity as you do Drizzt? I doubt it.
