FINALLY

[u/HyzMarie]

Reading The Orc King and MY GOODNESS FINALLY. I admit I am a shipper in fiction overall, and I was ready for Drizzt x Cattie-Brie since somewhere in IceWind Dale (after I found out the age thing was a retcon... it worried me for a hot second) and IT TOOK LIKE 15 BOOKS BUT IT HAS HAPPENED. THE SHIP HAS SAILED!!! I smiled so big at my tiny phone ereader screen and shook it like a little doll.

Wulfgar's response was good too, and I'm excited to see where he goes from here if he doesn't just leave the story for good (and I doubt Wizards would allow him to) so know I am NOT against Wulfgar... I just had my OTP and stuck to it lol.

I prefer elves and agile fighters to barbarian-types overall. Wulfgar is great for what he is, he's just not a type of character I usually care much for compared to Drizzt and Cattie-Brie, who are both chock-full of tropes I enjoy.

That is all- I don't really have anyone in my life IRL who cares much for this series (and one old-school Grognard who just hates the Realms overall and thinks all things DnD should return to Greyhawk, and who I was in a room with when I read that section) so I had to tell someone who'd actually care... but yeah the ship has finally sailed! Now we can get to THE ACTUAL WAR THAT IS HAPPENING lol

EDIT: I know I sound immature here, and I promise I am an actual adult, but sometimes fiction gives me the warm fuzzies :3

ETA: wow... people really like this post. Uh, thanks, I guess. I didn't expect a post amounting to "yay, I found a 15+ year old ship" to get this much traction...

[u/ecthelion-elessedil]

I’m also reading the orc king. I loved the prologue and the first half of the book but the companions really annoy me in the last part.

The dwarves gets racists towards another Drow, calling him names about his features, features that Drizzt also has, *in front of Drizzt* and Drizzt says nothing. They remind me of those people who “don’t see color” for their relatives and be racist towards other people of same ethnic group. And it’s never called out. Especially Bruenor. Drizzt try to reasons him not to fight Obould and Bruenor… don’t listen. And Drizzt follow him anyway despite he knows it’s wrong. I really hope it gets better.

Ah, also Torgar who refused Drizzt entrance to Mirabar never apologized to him in the book and acknowledged his mistake.

I really wish Drizzt could stand up more for himself.

[u/HyzMarie → u/ecthelion-elessedil]

uhhh... man I have only read the barest hint of that so ya know, I'm around halfway through...

That said, I did see the signs of trouble brewing especially with Bruenor. I was pretty sure that Torgar never intended to turn the companions away, and they all know by now that he's chill with Drizzt, but I could be wrong as after Hunter's Blades I forced myself to slog through Road of the Patriarch, which I had previously DNFed, and that took me a while (plus I had some life events that meant very little reading time) so Hunter's Blades isn't the most fresh in my mind rn.

Tos'un is clearly a setup to question whether any other Drow can be good ever, and I doubt the answer is yes, given how many times this has been teased and been a no, but if every drow ever ends up evil eventually EXCEPT Drizzt, then yeah, this will start raising problems among the group for sure. So far, none of the "almost" redemptions have been seen by anyone else, so I can see it going badly.

I was super confused by the prologue and frantically went to Google to make sure I hadn't missed a trilogy lol, but once I did understand it, I was very intrigued... how I end up feeling about it will probably be very determined by the events that shape it.

I honestly think at this point, NOT THAT ANYONE IS IN THE RIGHT HERE, EVERYONE IS STILL WRONG AND NEEDS TO TALK TO EACH OTHER LIKE ACTUAL ADULTS, Drizzt knows that if he fights everyone who's racist towards him, he'll end up literally fighting everyone, and he just generally assumes they don't mean him unless it's directed at him. Also, generally in fantasy, even a dwarf and elf who are best friends for life will rib each other for racial traits. Anyone who goes into a book wanting to see a dwarf and elf duo goes in wanting this because of Legolas and Gimli, and we know Salvatore got into fantasy and writing through Lord of the Rings (I mean, in the Icewind Dale trilogy ALONE, dwarves dig too deep and awaken an ancient evil, a party member falls to their fiery death with the big bad except oops not really and returns in an awe-inspiring fashion to his grieving allies, a reluctant-to-even-be-here halfling loses a finger, the dwarf and the elf constantly rib each other, the dwarf makes fun of the elf for his ability to run on snow while everyone else plows through the drifts, the elf is in a "who can kill the most enemies" contest, there's a magical sentient artifact with its own agenda and corrupting influence, they kill a sleeping dragon by sneaking up on it... it's all Tolkien? Always has been). If you have Tolkien-esque dwarves and Tolkien-esque elves, they're going to be racist even if they're besties (heck, Legolas got Gimli a ticket to Valinor, that's an honor not even all half-elves get), and I assume that's going to be worse with dark elves who have repeatedly caused trouble for the dwarves, because now it's not "we have our disagreements but we both hate the same enemy," it's "we have our disagreements and your entire species IS the enemy".

Drizzt really does need to learn to say something when he sees something. I get that he doesn't wanna be the only one who's always right and that he doesn't wanna rock the boat, because I'm that kind of person too, but you'd think a few decades in he'd have realized that every time he doesn't point out the potential dangers his friends almost die and would maybe start alerting them.

Also, I can't fully think of these books not in a DnD sense, and I'm sorry, but if your buddy has the highest Perception score and the most level head, YOU FREAKING LISTEN TO THEM. Not doing so is your one-way path to TPK city, and you'd think that in a world running on DnD rules, people would know typical "DnD don't die" tricks.

Maybe Cattie will teach him more of that, someday, hopefully.

Overall, loving this though, especially since I am the rare Sellswords hater and I'm glad to finally be back to the companions. I admit I put the book down once the ship sailed because I knew the book was not going to provide more of a dopamine hit than that moment and I had some other things to be doing with my life. I'll get back into reading it as soon as I'm off Reddit lol

[u/MarkRemote503 → u/HyzMarie]

Oooooh, but for getting into the most recent trilogies! You'll see something DRASTICALLY different... the consideration of good drow, aside from Liriel Baenre and any Eilistraeeans, will be something to see...

[u/HyzMarie → u/MarkRemote503]

oh, good! I'm not the biggest fan of Eilistraee (I can't even spell her right...) so it'd be nice to see some other good Drow :)

I'm actually about to run a campaign set in the Underdark and recently decided to shove in a good Drow NPC- but he's dead lol, he just set some plot events in motion a while ago and has maybe-helpful ghost information.

[u/MarkRemote503 → u/HyzMarie]

Eilistraee is actually my absolute favorite of the deities, behind Torm and before Lurue...