kalinara: An image of the robot Jedidiah from the 1970s Tomorrow People TV Show (Default)
[personal profile] kalinara posting in [community profile] i_read_what
So last time in the Crystal Shard, I ranted a bit about the lack of female presence in the book, and we saw some pretty creepy aspects to Bruenor and Wulfgar's relationship.

We were also teased with the idea of Wulfgar meeting and learning from Drizzt, something that may have some initial tension, given that Wulfgar is inexperienced and seems prone to ignorant judgment and apparently hasn't been told that Bruenor's friend is a renegade drow.

However, instead of actually seeing that meeting this chapter, we're back to the fucking wizard and his fucking shard again. Fuck my life.



So we're in fucking Cryshal-Tirith's throne room, and I still think that's an awful name because I feel like I'm misspelling "crystal" every fucking time. Akar Kessell is talking to a frost giant and giving him orders. The frost giant is enthusiastic.

The demon Errtu thinks that Kessell shouldn't have sent the giants because they'll be really fucking noticeable in a community of dwarves and humans. Which, fair point. Kessell thinks that Biggrin (because that's the giant's name. Of course it is) is a wise leader and will know to keep the troops out of sight.

Um. Isn't Icewind Dale a fucking dale? Meaning a broad valley? And isn't it surrounded by tundra and the like? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE GIANTS GOING TO HIDE???

Apparently Creshinibon and Errtu are in agreement: humans would have been better, but Kessell is a flipping dumbass who doesn't like being questioned. I sigh yet again at how much more interesting these sections might have been if someone with actual intelligence had gotten the shard. Like one of the stupidly named wizards from early on, or even Errtu. I can buy them being dangerous adversaries. Kessell is just pathetic.

Errtu remains patient, keeping in mind its long term goals. It reminds Kessell that the shard has existed since the dawn of the world and orchestrated many campaigns.

Kessell actually does realize this, but apparently chose the giants to prove that he commands the shard, not the reverse. I kind of understand that motive, but it's also basically self-sabotaging. Kessell also has decided he wants to create ANOTHER Cryshal-Tirith, why, I'm not sure. Errtu warns that it will drain the relic's power.

We're also told that Errtu offered to kill Kessell and take over but Creshinibon refused. Basically letting Kessell soothe his pride with stupidity is easier than actually fighting with a strong willed demon that knows what he's doing. Fair enough.

We switch scene then to Heafstaag, who has indeed survived his battle with Drizzt, but has apparently run afoul of the shard's magic. He's now summoned to Cryshal-Tirith and he hates it. He hates the magic in general (of course he does, it's not like the real world nomadic tribes that the Barbarians are best on had any kind of traditions of shamanism, medicine, scholasticism or anything like that. Magic = book learning = bad.)

He really hates Kessell for being incredibly weak by his standards, which fair. And he hates that he can't disobey the shard.

We get to see Kessell's audience chamber through Heafstaag's eyes, and we see that even granted the Barbarians' sexism, they've got a sense of decency:

The barbarian king threw aside the dangling, beaded strands that sectioned off Akar Kessell's private audience hall on the tower's second level. The wizard reclined on a huge, satin pillow in the middle of the room, his long, painted fingernails tapping impatiently on the floor. Several nude slave girls, their minds bent and broken under the shard's domination, waited on every whim of the shard's wielder.

It angered Heafstaag to see women enslaved to such a puny, pitiful shell of a man. He considered, and not for the first time, a sudden charge, burying his great axe deep into the wizard's skull. But the room was filled with strategically located screens and pillars, and the barbarian knew, even if he refused to believe that the wizard's will could deny his rage, that Kessell's pet demon wouldn't be far from its master.


See, this is kind of the thing I was ranting about last chapter. Up until last chapter, these poor brainwashed sex slaves were the ONLY female presence in the book! WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?

Anyway, Kessell invites Heafstaag to share the riches of his table, and Heafstaag is repulsed, but forced by the shard to acknowledge verbally that he owes fealty to Akar Kessell. Kessell lays out a map and wants to hear about Heafstaag's defeat at the Ten Towns.

This is a shame really. The barbarians were by far the most three dimensional and interesting villains in the book. There is actually some complexity to their culture and their goals. Granted, a lot of it is still stereotypical fantasy barbarian machismo shit, but there was something resembling a layer or two. And they had tactics and posed an interesting challenged. They forced the Ten Towns to do something they'd never done before.

Now they're mind controlled underlings. Which granted will give Wulfgar at least some personal stake in defeating Kessell, but still.

Actually, I'm rather disappointed that Heafstaag hasn't mentioned his missing son yet. Though I suppose he has bigger issues right now.

Date: 2019-02-22 09:32 pm (UTC)
copperfyre: (dragon architecture)
From: [personal profile] copperfyre
I have never before wished so much that the machismo power fantasy barbarians were more major characters. I like them as antagonists! They had goals! They had conversations! They provoked characters to adapt!

Instead we get this boring evil crystal thing which we keep going to spend time. sigh

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