Why do you love/hate Drizzt?

[Thad Enouf]

I don't know. I know I probably couldn't do better, but I'm not a writer. What I do know is that those books seem to sell pretty well, or they wouldn't make/let him do so many of them.

That means that a lot of people like the writing as is. I don't say that R.A.S. shouldn't try to improve himself (we all should never stop improving ourselves - the day we stop to get better we stop being good), but it seems to work.

I hear you. I don't presume to be a better writer than Salvatore but I know the writing could be better, was my point. In the same way as I think most writers would like one more crack at something they've written.

I am enjoying the Icewind Dale trilogy but it's a long way from Middle Earth as far as the writing goes...and that's too bad. There are countless epic adventures waiting in the Realms and I think they should be tapped into more.

You are right, of course. The books are good sellers and if the formula works, then the few complaints are not going to change much. Good for him, at any rate. To make a living as a writer is most admirable, indeed.

 

[William drake]

*Important Announcement*
There is no ' in Drizzt! Please refrain from spelling it Drizz't. He's not Graz'zt. (I think you are required to seduce at least six hundred and three-score six mortals to earn your ' in the name *looks at his screen name* )

I read all the Drizzt novels* and I liked them all. Not necessarily the best the Realms have to offer, and not necessarily the best about Drow the Realms have to offer, but I can still enjoy the books. A lot. I don't care too much about character background there, Bob's combat descriptions rock!

*Well, I read all the FR novels except Sacrifice of the Widow, which I'm reading at the moment. That's what you get from being a completionist.

I never really got the urge to play a good drow ranger with two scimitars and a figurine of wondrous power, though. I did play some drow (and am playing one now), and even played one with two scimitars, but that one wasn't good, and he wasn't a ranger, either.



About the hate: Part of it surely is people who just don't like the stories. But I think that's not nearly all: There's a lot of people who got annoyed at all those guys who wanted to play a Drizzt clone, and of course there's some people who just have to hate everything that is successful. The more successful it is, the more people like that appear.



Discworld anyone? There's almost 40 discworld novels now, and I haven't grown tired of them yet.

Drizzt!!!!!!!!! who cares how his name is spelt, I could call him "perfect Drow" and it work just the same.


I hate "Perfect Drow" just like I hate everyother pulp-made fantasy garbage that is spewed out every few cycles. Its simple and ease and filled with way to many verbs, and action-words; and you can't just lump "perfect Drow" in with Conan, because Conana was writen by a few different writers, and only a few of those stories were good as well. The bad writers did the same thing that Salv does: loading your hero down with ego, outcast but in a cool, Im not wrong way, ya know "they dont get me", two swords, DAY WALKER. I think people have issues with when you make a weakenss around a race, and then you make one guy who doesn't have it, and that guy always turns out to be the GOOD GUY...not what youd think. The one evil drow who's not afraid of the light, or hurt by it, soe he instead uses it to kill his rivals and take on those who live beyond his borders. Kill and dominate all humans an dwarves and other races alike.

But it's not just "perfect drow" all of R.A's charcters are the steroytype pulp that people who know nothing else read, its what they except and enjoy. I say that these charcters are 2 dimensions, and therefore, arn't really real, they are as empty as the paper they are writen on. Their pefections and verb-beaten attack combos bore me or shun me away from them to the point that I don't relate or care about them. reading about them is like playing a video game, but in this I'm not playing, I'm just watching as for 200 or more plages the hero wale on anything moving. Now I know there's alot of talking, but I just don't care about it, its typical, and boreing.

But, inspite of it all, I don't Blame R.A, he writes what most D&D players are after: weapons, armor, gold, the powers, and to min-max their heros untill they are perfect mulitraced beings that should crash in on themselves becasue of the amount of reality they is bending around them by theirow existence. These are the characters that reality wishes to spit out or vomit up but the DM won't allow it because the guy whos a halfdark elf, half dragon, with two swords, and four arms, who can fly and breath fire, and is a 20th level wizard is two awesom to kill.

These are R.A's readers, and I have a feeling that he pumps it out becuse readers read it. As for "the perfect elf" I will have respect for him when he dies. Every GOOD hero, needs to die, if they don't, then they lose that bit of tragedy and mortality that follows all great heros. As long as he keeps winning, he will never be good enough for me.

Another question that I've always thought "wouldnt all, or most of the drow, make it a personal mission to kill the one who's turned against them? Wouldn't 'The perfect Drow' be constantly hunted by lords of his ownrace who can equip and train legions of specialzied fighters to track him and kill him, even daylight cant be too much of a prob if you've got all the money to just by all the gear you need to ignore sunlight?"

I keep my list high: Beowolf "and hes not the lame ass barbarian in R.A's stories"
Elric *a real evil elf*
Muad Di`b "from the Dune Series"
and others, just to name a few. R.A's work just doesn't cut it.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Drizzt!!!!!!!!! who cares how his name is spelt, I could call him "perfect Drow" and it work just the same.


I hate "Perfect Drow" just like I hate everyother pulp-made fantasy garbage that is spewed out every few cycles. Its simple and ease and filled with way to many verbs, and action-words; and you can't just lump "perfect Drow" in with Conan, because Conana was writen by a few different writers, and only a few of those stories were good as well. The bad writers did the same thing that Salv does: loading your hero down with ego, outcast but in a cool, Im not wrong way, ya know "they dont get me", two swords, DAY WALKER. I think people have issues with when you make a weakenss around a race, and then you make one guy who doesn't have it, and that guy always turns out to be the GOOD GUY...not what youd think. The one evil drow who's not afraid of the light, or hurt by it, soe he instead uses it to kill his rivals and take on those who live beyond his borders. Kill and dominate all humans an dwarves and other races alike.

But it's not just "perfect drow" all of R.A's charcters are the steroytype pulp that people who know nothing else read, its what they except and enjoy. I say that these charcters are 2 dimensions, and therefore, arn't really real, they are as empty as the paper they are writen on. Their pefections and verb-beaten attack combos bore me or shun me away from them to the point that I don't relate or care about them. reading about them is like playing a video game, but in this I'm not playing, I'm just watching as for 200 or more plages the hero wale on anything moving. Now I know there's alot of talking, but I just don't care about it, its typical, and boreing.

But, inspite of it all, I don't Blame R.A, he writes what most D&D players are after: weapons, armor, gold, the powers, and to min-max their heros untill they are perfect mulitraced beings that should crash in on themselves becasue of the amount of reality they is bending around them by theirow existence. These are the characters that reality wishes to spit out or vomit up but the DM won't allow it because the guy whos a halfdark elf, half dragon, with two swords, and four arms, who can fly and breath fire, and is a 20th level wizard is two awesom to kill.

These are R.A's readers, and I have a feeling that he pumps it out becuse readers read it. As for "the perfect elf" I will have respect for him when he dies. Every GOOD hero, needs to die, if they don't, then they lose that bit of tragedy and mortality that follows all great heros. As long as he keeps winning, he will never be good enough for me.

Another question that I've always thought "wouldnt all, or most of the drow, make it a personal mission to kill the one who's turned against them? Wouldn't 'The perfect Drow' be constantly hunted by lords of his ownrace who can equip and train legions of specialzied fighters to track him and kill him, even daylight cant be too much of a prob if you've got all the money to just by all the gear you need to ignore sunlight?"

I keep my list high: Beowolf "and hes not the lame ass barbarian in R.A's stories"
Elric *a real evil elf*
Muad Di`b "from the Dune Series"
and others, just to name a few. R.A's work just doesn't cut it.

Drizz't understands me and helps me write darque and tragycke poetry on Denny's napkins.

 

[Sejs]

Count me as "Drizz't"ed out, too. I like the character, but there are only so many stories to tell without him changing dramatically that it gets repetitive after a while. Hell, Artemis Entreri had more character development than Drizz't ever did -- he at least LEARNED lessons from his journeys.

Yup, ditto.

Nigh-flawless character, no growth, quickly setting in boredom.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Drizzt!!!!!!!!!

and stuff

Woo, look at the Warlock who just picked up vitriolic blast!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Drizzt!!!!!!!!! who cares how his name is spelt

Well, when your ' key is worn out, don't come to me to complain But I see your crusade against spelling isn't limited to drow names. Why is it that those who criticise other people's writing are often the same who can't/ don't bother to spell?

These are R.A's readers, and I have a feeling that he pumps it out becuse readers read it.

Please don't insult anyone for the books they read. Or at all. Thanks. I'd like to leave the moderators out of this.

Another question that I've always thought "wouldnt all, or most of the drow, make it a personal mission to kill the one who's turned against them? Wouldn't 'The perfect Drow' be constantly hunted by lords of his ownrace who can equip and train legions of specialzied fighters to track him and kill him, even daylight cant be too much of a prob if you've got all the money to just by all the gear you need to ignore sunlight?"

I guess they have more pressing matters, like killing the enemies that have something personal against them, live less than a mile away, and are actively plotting to kill them. Why would they blow money on some guy who got fed up and left? He's out of the picture now, that makes only 999.999 enemies.

Plus, Drizzt isn't exactly what I'd call easy prey. Chances are that you'd blow money on an assassin that only winds up being killed.

 

[JVisgaitis]

But even worse: the power atavism of Drizzt. With Wulfgar he went against the giants and icing death. He kicked Errtus ass. He survived so many perilous encounters that he has to be very high level up to now. His fighting skills are legendary. He bested the weaponmasters of the drow and did battly with Artemis Entreri for hours and hours while onlookers were dazzled by the speed and precision of their strokes.
But what now? He has serious problems to stand his ground against two orc scouts?

Maybe RAS became bored with Drizzt himself...

This is a problem when you run a series for so long. You either run into the problem of having to forever escalate the threat to something ridiculous or you escalate the power of common mooks. I hate both approaches. I wouldn't say Salvatore is bored. There really just isn't anything he can do so to make it interesting these lowly orcs are starting to be more aware and Drizzt seems like he's slipping up. The fact that the books tie into D&D gives us thoughts of the power level of the characters in the book so we can easily cry foul.

That's why I didn't like the Demon Wars Saga. In the very first book, Elbryan fights the Demon Dactyl which is the uber bad guy of the universe. After that book, he fought those stupid dwarves all the time. He even said in the writing that while the Demon Dactyl was the most terrible evil Elbryan could ever face, the threat facing them now was worse because of all the casualities they took fighting the Dactyl. Lame! Save the BBEG for the end of the series and end it at that. That would solve all these problems.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Another question that I've always thought "wouldnt all, or most of the drow, make it a personal mission to kill the one who's turned against them? Wouldn't 'The perfect Drow' be constantly hunted by lords of his ownrace who can equip and train legions of specialzied fighters to track him and kill him, even daylight cant be too much of a prob if you've got all the money to just by all the gear you need to ignore sunlight?"

You've obviously never read the books as RA goes into this a lot. They've sent legions against Drizzt and his companions before and have been defeated. That's the whole crux of Siege of Darkness and that Salvatore deals with really well. Because the drow priestesses have suffered so many defeats and lost so many of their kind by Drizzt's blades they found it better to leave him alone and rightfully so.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

We meant hate like we hate broccoli.....

 

[atomn]

And personally, I think J.R.R. Tolkien had a brilliant imagination & is one of the most creative people I've read about. But his writing is almost as annoying to read as Shakespeares.

I'm actually surprised to see people saying R.A. is/was a terrible writer. He became my favorite author after reading his novels. I love his writing style. It's easy to read, very entertaining, & keeps you gripped into the story every single page. Tolkien spent too much time describing the color of leaves & how horses pranced around in Rohan. He was very creative, but his writing was all over the place & confusing at times. He also glanced over the good action scenes very quickly so he could get back to telling us how heavy the ring was around Frodo's neck. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Tolkien's story, just not his writing.

I agree, I think R.A. Salvatore is an exceptional writer. He doesn't expand out of the action/adventure genre but in that genre he's in the tops. I think he's excellent at describing action scenes and mastering cliffhanging chapters. I used to like Drizz't when I was younger but he's become more unstopable (and for me, more uninteresting). I still enjoy the new books for a popcorn read but he's quickly approaching the "best of everything, nothing in the world can stop him, which is why he's so awesome" characteristics which make me disinterested in and loathe Wolverine, Boba Fett and Jack Bauer.