Why do you love/hate Drizzt?

[Kae'Yoss]

Razravkar, my NE drow wizard/nightcloak/abjurant champion, will purge the scourge of double-wielding purple-eyed freaks from the land. It's magic time!

Keep your fingers off him. He might be some angsty goth freak, but he killed more than his share of spider kissers, and that is deserving of the highest praise.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Maybe it is true that the Drizzt clones are so much worse than the others (though I never saw a single Drizzt clone in my life), but I think it's really a very simple thing: People love to hate Drizzt.

I think it's like (Psi)SeveredHead says- the reason it's probably a bit more annoying (or a reason), is that the Drow are a traditionally evil race, so to have all the Drizzt clones running around- good drow- kind of flies in the face of that.

I think it has a bit to do with the traditionally "black and white" presentation of good and evil in the TSR days and fantasy fiction in general- something that isn't quite as prevalent nowadays, from my observations- both in fiction and in D&D. If the drow hadn't been always, from their inception, portrayed as utterly evil, and with more nuances of actual behavior, it might not standout as starkly as it does.

Of course, if that were the case, Drizzt might not have become so popular in the first place as being such a unique character, either.

 

[Set]

Why do I hate Drizzt?

***** owes me money.

I very much enjoyed Salvatore's depictions of Menzoberranzan, 'though. I like the evil Drow way more than Drizzt. I've always been more impressed by someone who can draw within the lines and paint a compelling picture, as opposed to those who insist on playing something against type and calling it 'creativity.'

It ain't 'creative' or 'original' or 'fresh' if all you do is play 'the one exception,' yanno? There's only so many 'good assassins' or whatnot before it is also a cliche.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

And that annoying assassin, Enteri or whatever his name is, kept coming back from pointless escape to pointless escape.

I used to love Entreri- from his first real appearance in Streams of Silver, I enjoyed the contrast between him and Drizzt, and the way they were pitted against one another. Salvatore really should have left their last encounter as the fight in the sewers underneath Calimport, though. That was really all that needed to be said about them- he'd done the contrast of nature vs. nurture, good vs. evil, free will vs. predestination, and showed Drizzt to be the better man in every way.

Like you said, though, he kept having him come back- which was kind of what got old to me. The same plots and stories with different window dressing, getting rehashed time and again, when he'd already done them (and done them, IMO, brilliantly) once already.

Which isn't to say that I wouldn't have liked to see Entreri again- I love the fact that he survived that battle in the sewers- I think killing him off would have cheapened the encounter. Having him survive made it all the more of a defeat for Entreri and a victory for Drizzt, because now Entreri had to live with that forever.

He was still a pretty awesome villain- one of the classics, IMO. But I'd have preferred to see him in his own stories, never crossing paths with Drizzt again. (And I may actually pick up the Sellswords trilogy one of these days, just to read about him in his own stories. I'm just a little leery of Salvatore's fiction anymore, as much as I love the Crystal Shard trilogy.)

 

[Cthulhudrew]

No one but Dantrag or Artemis really could (those are the only ones I recall who fought Drizzt by themselves and didn't instantly die).

Did Jarlaxle and Drizzt ever fight? I can't recall offhand (though my gut tells me that fight never came to be). That might be an interesting fight.

On another note, there was one later Drizzt story (post- Crystal Shard and Dark Elf trilogies) that I quite enjoyed- the short story about Drizzt and the good goblin from one of the Realms anthologies.

 

[Nikroecyst]

Elves are elves. Dress em up in dark skin, and a brooding demeaner thier still gonna be sisy elves. Now gimme a One Eyed Orc and I'll show you true destruction.

 

[Oryan77]

Honestly, I hear people whine about how Drizzt sucks & that there's all these Drizzt fanboys much more than I hear about Drizzt fanboys saying they want to play a Drizzt clone because Drizzt is so darn cool.

It always amuses me when I hear people annoyingly being vocal about what they find to be annoying.

For anyone that dislikes Drizzt because he's so popular, why do you like quoting Monty Python so much when hearing about shrubberies is so popular? Cause I guarantee you're the same Monty Python fanboys that can't help throwing in a Holy Grail passage whenever the opportunity presents itself

 

[JVisgaitis]

Did Jarlaxle and Drizzt ever fight? I can't recall offhand (though my gut tells me that fight never came to be). That might be an interesting fight.

They did briefly. I can't remember what book, but Jarlaxle basically just threw daggers at him. They never really crossed swords.

On another note, there was one later Drizzt story (post- Crystal Shard and Dark Elf trilogies) that I quite enjoyed- the short story about Drizzt and the good goblin from one of the Realms anthologies.

I think that was called The Dark Mirror though I hardly remember much about it. I do remember that for some reason Drizzt had Cattlebrie's bow. I do remember liking it though...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have to say, I enjoyed most of that six-book mostly-evil drow series. A few drow were neutral, but none were good.

I hated the Eilistraeen part, but they finally broke her "converting Spider-kissers" streak, at least.

Did Jarlaxle and Drizzt ever fight? I can't recall offhand (though my gut tells me that fight never came to be). That might be an interesting fight.

Jarlaxle and Entreri fought. Entreri won his sparring match, but Jarlaxle used the Crystal Shard to cheat.

As stated above, there might have been a brief clash. However, Jarlaxle was too smart to face Drizzt. He wouldn't face that big strong del'Armgo guy, so he wouldn't face Drizzt, at least not without so much backup that it wouldn't be fair.

(Then again, Jarlaxle is too smart to fight fair.)

On another note, there was one later Drizzt story (post- Crystal Shard and Dark Elf trilogies) that I quite enjoyed- the short story about Drizzt and the good goblin from one of the Realms anthologies.

I haven't read that one. Hmmm... I did read a ridiculous Entreri short story, where Entreri was about twelve. (I haven't read the one where he became a half-shade, or whatever the rumor is.)

 

[WarlockLord]

Keep your fingers off him. He might be some angsty goth freak, but he killed more than his share of spider kissers, and that is deserving of the highest praise.

Goth freaks must DIE!!!!!

On the plus side, he's not Jar Jar Binks. [insert expletive-filled rant here]