An Incoherent Dragonlance Fantasy Rant

This isn't actually comic book related...well, maybe it is, it depends on if there has ever been a Dragonlance comic, but my knowledge base is pretty much solely based on books. But I feel that I have to get something off my chest. (Be warned, this, as most of my rants is incredibly incoherent.)

I hate Raistlin Majere.

And it's not a "love to hate" thing either, like my thing with Professor Xavier, Hawkman, or Nightwing, I just generally and genuinely dislike and am utterly disinterested in my character.

He's not awesome. He's not compelling. He's not sympathetic. He's a half-assed villain at best. He's just really fucking irritating.

This apparently is a rare opinion in Dragonlance fan circles but I can't help it. He just sets my teeth on edge.

I think my biggest problem is that he's not grand enough to be an awesome villain. He's petty. He snipes at characters, is passive aggressive, and sighs irritatingly over the fact that his oh-so-nifty-hourglass-eyes see everyone aging and dying in front of him.

You know what? That's not actually an excuse to be a dick. And moreover, while my adolescent self might have been sympathetic toward the whole "Constantly overshadowed and disliked in favor of my stronger, nicer, more attractive twin" thing, my adult self would counter that with "Well, maybe they like him more because he's actually a better person than you! Make a fucking effort rather than stewing in your own bitterness!"

I suppose that part of it is simply that, while bitterness, jealousy and inadequacy are certainly realistic flaws and certainly lead to negativity in the real world, they don't compel me to think of a character as particularly awesome.

I think part of my problem is that Weis never really seems to allow him to embrace being evil. I think a measure of being a good villain is grandioseness. What does Raistlin do in the main/original trilogy? He...is vaguely nice to a gully dwarf and a disguised god, and gets a book. And...that's really it, that I recall.

I'm sorry, but to be an awesome villain type character, you actually have to DO something! Kitiara? Awesome. Soth? Awesome. Raistlin? Half-assed at best.

Okay, granted, he does eventually go off to fight Takhisis. But you know what? STUPIDITY DOESN'T EQUAL AWESOME. The rest of the time he either seems to fluxuate back and forth: "Oh noes! He's mean to Caramon and Dalamar. But wait! He tolerated Tasslehoff! Oh and he gives his staff thing to his nephew!" The whole evil being with a bit of fondness for a good character could be interesting, but you kind of need to be a decent villain FIRST. (c.f. Kitiara's thing with Tanis and her brothers. THAT is interesting.)

Maybe it would have been better if he were black robed at the start. Or if his change to black robes were a bit more dramatic than him showing up one day with a new set of duds. There might have been something to build up the awesome villainness.

I guess what annoys me the most is that I really do think that the Caramon and Raistlin relationship has the potential to be genuinely compelling. I like stuff that involves relationships that aren't cut and dry. There's a way to do that complex love-hate relationship right. But the Dragonlance books really don't DO that.

There's a fantasy series by Sarah Monette that features at its heart an incredibly fucked up set of sibling dynamics. The characters are so incredibly damaged by their lives that there's no real hope of anything resembling a normal and healthy sibling relationship. One sibling is both thoughtlessly and deliberately cruel to the other, who usually just sucks it up and takes it because, heck, it's better than nothing. But for all that logic insists, "hey, someone should get these two as far away from each other as possible" I'm invested in the relationship and the incredibly unrealistic hope that some day the beleaguered sibling will stand up for himself and assert boundaries and the older sibling will finally realize what his downward spiral is doing to everyone including himself.

I'm invested in the relationship, because I believe the emotions involved. I believe the characters really do, deep down, love one another. I think that they have no real idea how ELSE to interact, the patterns are so ingrained. I appreciate however, that the characters actually manage to make an effort, not always successful, but enough of a visible attempt to give a little bit of hope. There's one book left to come. I don't know if there'll be a resolution. Or if the relationship will finally crumble. Or if it will stagnate as it has been. I do know I'm going to plop down 30+ dollars for the hardcover as soon as I possibly can to find out.

Raistlin and Caramon could be like that for me, but...I don't buy it. It's too one-sided. I like Caramon. I believe Caramon loves his brother and feels a filial duty toward him, while simultaneously disliking the man his brother is becoming and trying not to think about that and focus on the good points that only he seems to see. But Raistlin? The narrative TRIES to tell me that his emotions for his brother are complex and that he possibly does love and admire him even in the midst of all the jealous resentment and irritation. But I don't buy it. I don't buy that there's anything at the core of that resentment, inferiority and jealousy but more resentment, inferiority and jealousy of being faced with someone generally better than you are.

Which could be cool. But the story needs to embrace it! Stop trying to convince me the character is even remotely conflicted about his actions unless you mean it. Show him making an effort! Show a trace of guilt or conflict! Yeesh.

I suppose I could look at it another way though, and admire Margaret Weis for creating a character that is just a petty, ungrateful, dislikeable and irredeemable human being without giving him really any redeeming or sympathetic qualities and without making him an awesome grandiose villain. Which really is interesting.

Except I don't think the writing reflects this. Not being a mind reader or close friend of Ms. Weis, I can't claim with any certainty as to her intentions, but the impression I get from the story is that she thinks he's as awesome as most of his fans seem to!

The writing would have me think he's the smartest of their little crew. But what does he do? He gets and uses a book by a dead evil wizard against all wise advice, and then decides to go and take on the fucking goddess of darkness. The rest of the time, he spends bitterly snarking and insulting the very people he's relying on for pretty much anything. That's not smart to me.

The writing would have me think he's got some sympathetic qualities. But being less of a bastard to one gully dwarf doesn't change the fact that we have, as far as I recollect, never seen the twerp expend even the slightest effort to be less of a bastard to the people who are putting up with his ungrateful ass for most of the journey. You want me to find him sympathetic, how about having him turn to his brother and team and say, and mean the words "Thank you."

The writing would have me think that he's tragically marred from the Test, and that looking at people and seeing them constantly age and die is a hardship. Fuck it. As misfortune goes, that's pretty easy compared to some of the crap that's happened to his colleagues without the increased power to go with it. And if the Test's revelation was so fucking traumatizing to him, why not actually SHOW it?

There's a clear disconnect between me and the story here. Certainly other people see it differently. But I really hate the worthless waste of space of a character, and felt the need to express it. Now I feel better. :-)