#Caramon the Gladiator

[dcoolettes]

Raistlin in Fandom

Starting this off right away, I’ve had many a thought about Raistlin in the past. “Percy, isn’t your favorite character Tasslehoff?” YES! HE IS! However, I do still have like, actually complex thoughts on Raistlin. Specifically his handling within fandom. Now, most of my feelings had grown when I was posting more consitently within the dragonlance fandom, but even now I still harbor these feelings. Raistlin is a very complicated character. He’s arguably one of the best written characters in the series, but.... Fandom has a tendency to woobify characters who do terrible things simply because they suffer. For newer folks, woobification means to water down, or to essentially “baby” a character despite what canon says. Raistlin fits this to a T sometimes! While obviously it's a vocal minority, it’s still something I’d like to mention. It’s... not great! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying characters who do bad things, or who are morally gray, even corrupt. Like I said earlier, Raistlin is one of the best written characters within the series. However, we also need to take into account what exactly a character has DONE before we try to excuse their actions. Raistlin ended the world. Yeah, it was one timeline, but he singlehandedly lead to the death of the entire planet. That’s kind of a big one. Arguably the worst thing for me, however, is his treatment of Caramon in “Time of the Twins”. Caramon had done nothing but help Raistlin, and yes, in “Dragons of Spring Dawning” Raistlin had “cleared his debts”, but...not really. Caramon got severely screwed over by Raistlin, LITERALLY being forced into a gladiator position because RAISTLIN BOUGHT HIM AND TASSLEHOFF AT THE FUCKING STANDS!  Additionally, his treatment of Crysania. It’s just terrible. I genuinely gagged at how he treated her in the Test of the Twins. 

Raist is a sad character. He’s tragic. He can be hilarious. But I think it’s also insanely important to recognize his wrongdoings, particularly how he treats others, before just going “oh my sweet boy.”

#dragonlance #tis my rambling #I AM NOT LOOKING TO ARGUE ON THIS POST THIS IS A RAMBLE

[oldschoolfrp]

“The Arena”, or “Caramon the Gladiator” (Larry Elmore from the 1987 Dragonlance Calendar, via The Art of the Dragolance Saga, TSR, 1987)

#D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #Larry Elmore #Dragonlance #minotaur #arena #Caramon #dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Dragonlance calendar #D&D calendar #TSR #1980s #The Arena #Caramon the Gladiator

[therealkrynnsub]

#Katniss Majere #The Arena #Gladiator #Caramon #Thanks a lot Raistlin #dragonlance #the last trial #последнее испытание #raistlin #meme #The Hunger Games

[meldelen]

Dragonlance Legends - A (not so brief) Review

"- No pretendía lastimarme - justificó a Raistlin en respuesta a la expresión severa de su gemelo. - Es lógico que el dolor le convierta en una criatura díscola. No podemos reprochárselo. ¿Qué es nuestro sufrimiento si lo comparamos con el suyo? Tú, mejor que nadie, deberías entenderlo. Sus esotéricas visiones lo capturan hasta tal extremo, que no es consciente del daño que causa a los otros. (...) - Es más que consciente de lo que hace - replicó el guerrero para sus adentros.- Y estoy comenzando a vislumbrar que siempre lo fue."

Let's see if I can review this trilogy without getting emotional.

Remember when I said that Dragonlance Chronicles hadn’t lost one iota of the original charm I found so many years ago, when reading them for the first time? The same can be said of Dragonlance Legends, which are, without a doubt, a trilogy not only superior, but probably the best in the Dragonlance universe. The same person who recommended Chronicles told me that Legends bested the original trilogy at all points. Skeptical at the beginning of the reading, I had no doubt when I finished that this was true. For many reasons, which we’ll see now. Before we begin, a warning: those who complained and whined about Game of Thrones’ painful ending - meaning the TV show, of course - should experience reading Legends to find out what real pain is, always concerning the ending.

Where’s the key to Legends’ success? Firstly, they follow a structure on its own, original on the  part of the authors, now free of the corset model of Dungeons & Dragons; that is, more novels than role-playing games. Secondly, they’re focused on the best character in Dragonlance universe; the mage Raistlin Majere, Margaret Weis’ masterpiece - with Haplo’s permission, but that’s another story. Thirdly, the trilogy, rather than exploring great axioms or cliches of fantasy, focuses on developing something as simple as human feelings - love, hatred, blood ties, perversion and redemption. And finally, the authors don’t give up on any resource, however extravagant it may seem, to develop these topics. Time travelling? Of course. Raistlin’s horny and not in the arcane sense? Why not? A saintly priestess gets seduced by the villain? Well of course! World's end? Gladiators in the arena? The death of the gods? A kender visiting the underworld? Caramon finally using his brain? The sky's the limit!

But let's not digress. The plot at first glance might seem very hackneyed: after the Lance War, which was closed with Chronicles, Raistlin, now the world's most powerful mage, doesn’t settle for that and wants more: to become a god. To achieve this he needs to defeat the other gods, starting with Takhisis, the Dark Queen. If he wants to access the Abyss where she dwells, he needs the cooperation of a cleric in the service of Paladine, the god of Good. Although such a possibility seems very remote in the mentality of those who designed this requirement, Raistlin will find a way to do it: seducing, in all aspects in which a person can be seduced, the proud priestess Crysania, to open the way to his final destination.

This plot, which may seem very simple, opens a trilogy that keeps you in suspense throughout the three volumes (Time of the Twins, War of the Twins and Test of the Twins). It cannot be read without having previously read the Chronicles because understanding the characters and their motivations is basic, and we already met these in the previous trilogy, except for Crysania, who’s new.

Time of the Twins. Cover art by Matt Stawicki.

Raistlin being absolutely fascinating is not new, and it’s in this story where he reaches a total degradation on the moral plane - from sociopath to psychopath, to summarize it quickly and badly - you start to wonder, like Caramon, if he really has been always evil; or if the sufferings, abuse and mistreatment to which he’s been subjected since childhood made him wicked, the loneliness, the rejection and the misunderstanding of others, the sick jealousy on his healthy and attractive twin; or if he’s simply a desperate person who had nothing left but magic and any sinister objective it could provide to keep his ego afloat. Undoubted villain of this story, the reader relates to him nevertheless. We empathize with him because we know where he comes from and what he has gone through, and following him in the accumulation of horrors and cruelties he intentionally commits produces almost physical pain; because it’s impossible not to feel compassion for him, even though there is practically no action of his that we can defend or justify; in the way he manipulates and brutalizes the people around him - particularly the woman who loves him and the brother who still believes in him - to achieve his goals. 

The important thing about this story, however, is that the authors do not fall into villain apologizing, or elevate him to the rank of antihero, or even draw a false equivalency between him and other characters who, being also imperfect, choose a very different path. This painful journey has an agonizing end when, at the last moment of his life, Raistlin becomes aware of what he has done - or rather, what he is about to do - and uses his last energies to undo, or prevent consolidation of his evil plan. And so the villain, through his spectacular sacrifice, redeems himself in a second, leaving us all as if slapped in the face for hours.

War of the Twins. Cover art by Matt Stawicki.

I don’t need to convince anyone about the masterful writing of Raistlin’s character, but what about the others? Because Caramon's development is also spectacular. In the Chronicles we met him as the handsome twin of the mage, a powerful, brainless warrior, but successful in life, in friendships and in love; truly, the opposite of Raistlin. Very cliche and uninteresting. In the Legends we attend his transformation, going through a brutal arc whose key is the slow, but sure, assumption of the awareness that his twin is a perverted and perverse person, condemnable, and that nothing can be done to change him - as long as he doesn’t change himself. It is also the rupture, extremely painful, of all the ties that unite him to his brother, blood ties that, he now realizes, have always had to do with physical dependence and emotional abuse rather than with the brotherly love that should have existed between them. And by breaking those ties he will finally find a reason to live for himself.

Finally, I will speak in favor of Crysania, that third character so dismissed for being considered, in most reviews and fan debates I have read, as a mere extension or instrument of Raistlin, a lady in distress, an used, brutalized and discarded tool. I consider these visions to be misogynistic, and surely not even applied had she been a male. I recently had to reply to a reader who called Crysania an absurd character, without agency, purpose or interest, added only to give "sexual tension" to the story. Not so at all. 

Time of the Twins. Cover art by Matt Stawicki

Crysania is a priestess, and she has a very clear agency: to redeem Raistlin, to save him from the damnation to which he willingly casts himself. At the beginning, her motivations are merely selfish: in her pride, the priestess wants to prove to the world, to her co-believers and to her god, that her faith can do everything, even saving the soul of a doomed man. So she agrees to cooperate with him to reach this goal: destroy the evil goddess and bring the mage to the light. Eventually she ends up falling in love with him - if she wasn't already - but I don't think it's correct to dismiss the character simply because in addition to religious pride, love also prompts her. 

Not all female characters have to be brave warriors or magical creatures. Crysania is the symbol of a proud Church that for the sake of good believes it can achieve anything, blind in her privileged entitlement; and then, already in love, she believes that love will do what mere faith or apparent goodness have not achieved. 

The authors grant her a masterful catharsis when confronted with her own hypocrisy. Used, tortured and abandoned by the man she loves and whom she believed she was going to save, Crysania reaches the end of the story being aware of her own pride and emptiness. Far from punishing and liquidating her because of her mistakes, neither turning her example into a cautionary tale - "it's your fault for falling in love with the bad guy" - the authors will grant her a second chance, and like Caramon, also inner peace.

Test of the Twins. Cover art by Matt Stawicki

I'm not saying anything about Tasslehoff, who really is the key to events taking not one, but several unexpected turns - like a butterfly that flutters in the middle of chaos theory - because he defends himself, he doesn’t need me at all. And after this devastating ending, all that remains is to wipe away the tears and move on. Because there is more, luckily - or unfortunately, if you are one of those who think that the authors should have left it here. 

For my part, I still don’t have my fair share of sociopathic and ambiguous mages. I'm going back to the origins of evil, to read The Soulforge, for the sake of boring you with another endless review. Thank you for your attention.

#dragonlance #books #margaret weis #tracy hickman #dragonlance legends #reviews #time of the twins #war of the twins #test of the twins #my reviews

[therealkrynnsub]

The Last Trial Retrospective

Song: Gladiator

#1

The beginning was tricky with "talking" being sung. Take the very first line where the notes meander up the scale, ending on a high note:

Raw translation:

"Did you come here to spy, tramp?"

From how it sounded, the best way to adapt it seemed to be as an accusation.

"Miscreant, I heard you were caught for spying!" still lacked something natural about it's quality.

Any accusation against Caramon (spying or otherwise) would be false, so we chose a three syllable word to perfectly fill the space of "бродяга."

The final draft became:

"Miscreant, I heard you were caught red-handed!"

#2 Raw Translation:

"You sank your fighting spirit in a mug"

It would have been nice to make a pun about "spirit/liquor" here, but it didn't work out.

Instead the final draft became:

"In a mug you drowned your renowned valor!"

#3 Sometimes the hardest lines to adapt are the shortest ones. They don't give much wiggle room.

Raw translation:

"Bring the fighter to the arena! To the arena!"

6 syllables/ 4 syllables

In our final draft we saved on syllables by changing "arena" to "ring" and we kept the shortened repetition by shifting the focus to the fighter:

"Bring him into the ring!/

Bring the fighter!"

#4 In this portion, we made an exception and rearranged the characters' lines.

Raw translation:

Raistlin:

"This is your chance!"

Kingpriest:

"In the name of faith!"

Raistlin (quietly):

"And for us."

That allowed us to keep the reference to "Everything in the Name of Faith" (which as you know was renamed in English.)

The King Priest wouldn't say "It's all or nothing" in this context, but RAISTLIN might.

Our final draft:

Raistlin:

"This is your chance!

It’s all or nothing..."

Kingpriest:

"It’s for the Faith"

It became a clever way for Raistlin to give his brother a warning without blowing his own cover.

#5 We included "dear brother" as a sarcastic put down because Raistlin only says "brother" to him sincerely in "Flee, My Brother."

#some songs are talkier than others #последнее испытание #The Last Trial #Caramon #Gladiator #Карамон #Raistlin Majere #Рейстлин

[therealkrynnsub]

KRYNNSUB BEHIND THE SCENES

"Look here, my dear friends./

Raistlin sent my letter back/

It wasn't read... It wasn't even opened

And there it says, 'I have no brother...'

No brother..."

On March 28th, 2021 we realized something at Krynnsub that led to last minute changes in how we saw the word "brother" in the English Adaptation.

Raistlin writes on the returned letter, "I have no brother." We wondered: does he stay true to that sentiment? Does he refuse to call Caramon "brother" in Russian?

After a quick word search, we found that Raistlin DOES avoid the word when addressing Caramon. Instead, Raistlin diminutively addresses him as "братец." He does it when Crysania says, "Your brother was a good guide" and when he accuses Caramon in "Gladiator" of having become fat.

In fact, the ONLY time that Raistin calls him "брат" to his face in the regular show is in "Brother's Reconciliation" when he says (raw translation), "I NEED you, brother, to lead the army." This is important because him using the word is part of their "reconciliation"--Raistlin is winning Caramon over by telling his brother what he needs to hear after having disowned him at the start of the show.

One might argue that Raistlin says "брат" again in "Concerning Love"--but the line it appears in actually serves to expose the previous mentioning of it as the manipulation it was, such that the two instances essentially cancel each other out.

The raw translation reads, "I DON'T NEED anyone--neither love, nor my brother."

Raistlin also calls out for his brother in "Nightmares" but his mind is lost in the past.

In the Alternate Finale's "Battle of the Twins," Raistlin says "брат" as a weapon against Caramon. He tells Caramon that he is acting nothing like his REAL brother.

Finally, the only time Raistlin says "брат" with sincerity is in "Flee, My Brother" of the Alternate Finale. We realize the significance subconsciously, being moved when hearing Raistlin acknowledge Caramon as his brother. "Brother" is IN the title. Thankfully, we noticed its significance early and our line in the English Adaptation reads "Get out of here! My brother, it's not too late."

After this epiphany, we made sure to include "brother" in the English Adaptation of "Brother's Reconciliation":

"That's a real shame. Brother, I thought you'd stay here to help me..."

And in Gladiator, "You've become so bloated and flabby, brother" became the disgusted "Look at you-- so flabby and fat, dear brother!"

#I have no brother #брат #brothers majere #raistlin #Caramon #the last trial #последнее испытание #рейстлин #dragonlance #пи #krynnsub #english adaptation #Behind the Scenes #Food for Thought