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i_read_what2022-07-03 01:08 am
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2022-07-03 01:08 am
Exile - Chapter 4
So last time, we had a confrontation between Drizzt and two of his siblings. Drizzt won, of course, seeing as how this is a prequel series and he's still alive. Don't worry, he can still angst about it.
Meh, we're back with Drizzt. Too bad. I'm considerably more interested in seeing the reaction of House Do'Urden to their failure. But that's for later, I guess.
Drizzt himself is emotionally coping with the events by going through the motions of his daily routines. But as mentioned, there's still angst. Kind of inconsistent angst though:
If the constant rituals of the day warded away the pain, Drizzt found himself unprotected at day’s end. The encounter with his siblings haunted him, stayed in his thoughts as vividly as if it were recurring every night. Inevitably, Drizzt awoke terrified and alone, engulfed by the monsters of his dreams. He understood—and the knowledge heightened his helplessness—that no swordplay, however dazzling, could hope to defeat them.
Drizzt did not fear that his mother would continue her quest to capture and punish him, though he knew beyond any doubt that she certainly would. This was his world, far different from Menzoberranzan’s winding avenues, with ways that the drow living in the city could not begin to understand. Out in the wilds, Drizzt held confidence that he could survive against whatever nemeses Matron Malice sent after him.
...so what's the problem then? If you're not afraid of your family, then why awake terrified and alone?
I mean, if this were P. N. Elrod, I'd take this as an indicator that Drizzt is an unreliable narrator and specifically repressing/denying his genuine fear. Mr. Salvatore's not quite as deft though, so I'm not sure what he's aiming for.
Drizzt did, thankfully, get over his guilt over the fight with Briza, correctly rationalizing that his siblings had been the one who forced the issue. But, don't worry, we're also told: Still, Drizzt realized that he would spend many days finding answers to the questions his actions had raised concerning the nature of his character.
Because he's raised navel-gazing to an artform, I guess. But...I don't know:
Had he become this savage and merciless hunter because of the harsh conditions imposed on him? Or was this hunter an expression of the being Drizzt had been all along? They were not questions that Drizzt would easily answer, but at this time, they were not foremost among his thoughts.
...okay, so, this bit bothers me. It's not poorly written, it's not even poorly conceived, but, like a lot of the conflict in Homeland...it doesn't really fit. Drizzt has grown up in one of the most monstrous places on Faerun, and he's starting to realize that. The idea that Drizzt might fear his own nature is fair. But again, he was raised in MENZOBERRANZAN. He took part in a surface raid that murdered countless innocent civilians. He was part of another raid that mained and massacred gnomes.
Whatever monstrous tendencies that Drizzt fears he has wouldn't come from his exile. They'd come from the city of his birth. And I feel like Drizzt is introspective and honest enough that he should realize it.
I do like this next bit though, where Drizzt thinks about his siblings' voices. That was the first conversation that he's had in ten years. And he keeps replaying them in his mind so he doesn't feel so alone. Now THAT is an angst that works for me.
Anyway, he contemplates summoning Guen. It's been a while. He tries to figure out how long based on the marks he made on the wall, then realizes that it's been a long time since he made a mark. Time, like company, is something of the other world.
I like this angst too. Drizzt's isolation is damaging, not because it's turning him into a monster, but because he's so very alone. When the narrative focuses on that, it's excellent.
There's a moment that I find darkly funny, when Drizzt drops his dagger in a melodramatic "what does it matter" gesture, which sends him into a traumatic episode. He starts to feel like the cave is closing in on him, with leering faces in the cracks and shape of rock, that mock and belittle him. He tries to flee the cave and he TRIPS.
I mean, this is kind of a big deal because I remember Drizzt's stats from the Menzoberranzan computer game and he had like a 19 dexterity when maximum player level is 18. (That actually might not be true. It's been a long time since I played the game. But I liked the joke so I'm keeping it in.)
Frantic, freaking out, Drizzt calls for Guenhwyvar. He doesn't know if she'll come, considering how they parted last time. But true love doesn't die so easily. Of course she comes, and we get a very sweet moment:
Drizzt relaxed as the mist took form, using the sight of it to block the evil hallucinations in the stones. Soon Guenhwyvar was sitting beside him and casually licking at one great paw. Drizzt locked the panther’s saucer eyes in a stare and saw no judgment there. It was just Guenhwyvar, his friend and his salvation.
Drizzt curled his legs under him, sprang out to the cat, and wrapped the muscled neck in a tight and desperate embrace. Guenhwyvar accepted the hold without response, wiggling loose only enough to continue the paw-licking. If the cat, in its otherworldly intelligence, understood the importance of that hug, it offered no outward signs.
Cats.
Credit where it's due, the scene is VERY effective. And while I might be amused that Drizzt set himself off through his own melodrama, I am sympathetic too. Isolation is tremendously traumatizing. I don't begrudge Drizzt for not being able to cope with it.
But he's a bit better now. He's staying on the move. He tells himself he's patrolling, but deep down, he knows the truth: he's running. Which is apparently a shameful thing. Even though he's basically got a whole drow House after him. But he equates it with "running back toward the hunter". So yeah.
Eventually, Drizzt finds him back in the region where he'd searched for his lost rothe. He can hear the pickaxes and hammers. Drizzt settles into some benign voyeurism until the svirnebli inevitably head home. This time though, Drizzt ends up deciding to do something other than leave for his lonely cave.
He summons Guen, because he can't not be fucking melodramatic:
Drizzt took a deep breath and forced the words from his mouth. “I wanted to say good-bye to you, my friend,” he whispered. Guenhwyvar’s ears came up straight, and the pupils of the cat’s shining yellow eyes widened then narrowed again as Guenhwyvar took a quick study of Drizzt.
“In case …” Drizzt continued. “I cannot live out there anymore, Guenhwyvar. I fear I am losing everything that gives meaning to life. I fear I am losing my self.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the ascending stairway to Blingdenstone. “And that is more precious to me than my life. Can you understand, Guenhwyvar? I need more, more than simple survival. I need a life defined by more than the savage instincts of this creature I have become.”
Don't worry, he's not committing suicide. He's deciding to take a chance. He's going to the city. And to be fair, they could well decide to kill him, so he did do the decent thing by telling Guen beforehand. But I still think he's a melodramatic dunce-noodle.
So he goes to the door, makes the gesture of truce, and gets surrounded. He even drops his sword belt and scimitars to the ground. He gets searched (and in a nice moment of human error, realizes he'd forgotten to surrender a dagger in his boot, and regrets that it looks like he tried to hide it.)
The only part that hurts is when the guards find and confiscate Guen's figurine. They bind Drizzt and lead him inside. And the chapter ends here.
Meh, we're back with Drizzt. Too bad. I'm considerably more interested in seeing the reaction of House Do'Urden to their failure. But that's for later, I guess.
Drizzt himself is emotionally coping with the events by going through the motions of his daily routines. But as mentioned, there's still angst. Kind of inconsistent angst though:
If the constant rituals of the day warded away the pain, Drizzt found himself unprotected at day’s end. The encounter with his siblings haunted him, stayed in his thoughts as vividly as if it were recurring every night. Inevitably, Drizzt awoke terrified and alone, engulfed by the monsters of his dreams. He understood—and the knowledge heightened his helplessness—that no swordplay, however dazzling, could hope to defeat them.
Drizzt did not fear that his mother would continue her quest to capture and punish him, though he knew beyond any doubt that she certainly would. This was his world, far different from Menzoberranzan’s winding avenues, with ways that the drow living in the city could not begin to understand. Out in the wilds, Drizzt held confidence that he could survive against whatever nemeses Matron Malice sent after him.
...so what's the problem then? If you're not afraid of your family, then why awake terrified and alone?
I mean, if this were P. N. Elrod, I'd take this as an indicator that Drizzt is an unreliable narrator and specifically repressing/denying his genuine fear. Mr. Salvatore's not quite as deft though, so I'm not sure what he's aiming for.
Drizzt did, thankfully, get over his guilt over the fight with Briza, correctly rationalizing that his siblings had been the one who forced the issue. But, don't worry, we're also told: Still, Drizzt realized that he would spend many days finding answers to the questions his actions had raised concerning the nature of his character.
Because he's raised navel-gazing to an artform, I guess. But...I don't know:
Had he become this savage and merciless hunter because of the harsh conditions imposed on him? Or was this hunter an expression of the being Drizzt had been all along? They were not questions that Drizzt would easily answer, but at this time, they were not foremost among his thoughts.
...okay, so, this bit bothers me. It's not poorly written, it's not even poorly conceived, but, like a lot of the conflict in Homeland...it doesn't really fit. Drizzt has grown up in one of the most monstrous places on Faerun, and he's starting to realize that. The idea that Drizzt might fear his own nature is fair. But again, he was raised in MENZOBERRANZAN. He took part in a surface raid that murdered countless innocent civilians. He was part of another raid that mained and massacred gnomes.
Whatever monstrous tendencies that Drizzt fears he has wouldn't come from his exile. They'd come from the city of his birth. And I feel like Drizzt is introspective and honest enough that he should realize it.
I do like this next bit though, where Drizzt thinks about his siblings' voices. That was the first conversation that he's had in ten years. And he keeps replaying them in his mind so he doesn't feel so alone. Now THAT is an angst that works for me.
Anyway, he contemplates summoning Guen. It's been a while. He tries to figure out how long based on the marks he made on the wall, then realizes that it's been a long time since he made a mark. Time, like company, is something of the other world.
I like this angst too. Drizzt's isolation is damaging, not because it's turning him into a monster, but because he's so very alone. When the narrative focuses on that, it's excellent.
There's a moment that I find darkly funny, when Drizzt drops his dagger in a melodramatic "what does it matter" gesture, which sends him into a traumatic episode. He starts to feel like the cave is closing in on him, with leering faces in the cracks and shape of rock, that mock and belittle him. He tries to flee the cave and he TRIPS.
I mean, this is kind of a big deal because I remember Drizzt's stats from the Menzoberranzan computer game and he had like a 19 dexterity when maximum player level is 18. (That actually might not be true. It's been a long time since I played the game. But I liked the joke so I'm keeping it in.)
Frantic, freaking out, Drizzt calls for Guenhwyvar. He doesn't know if she'll come, considering how they parted last time. But true love doesn't die so easily. Of course she comes, and we get a very sweet moment:
Drizzt relaxed as the mist took form, using the sight of it to block the evil hallucinations in the stones. Soon Guenhwyvar was sitting beside him and casually licking at one great paw. Drizzt locked the panther’s saucer eyes in a stare and saw no judgment there. It was just Guenhwyvar, his friend and his salvation.
Drizzt curled his legs under him, sprang out to the cat, and wrapped the muscled neck in a tight and desperate embrace. Guenhwyvar accepted the hold without response, wiggling loose only enough to continue the paw-licking. If the cat, in its otherworldly intelligence, understood the importance of that hug, it offered no outward signs.
Cats.
Credit where it's due, the scene is VERY effective. And while I might be amused that Drizzt set himself off through his own melodrama, I am sympathetic too. Isolation is tremendously traumatizing. I don't begrudge Drizzt for not being able to cope with it.
But he's a bit better now. He's staying on the move. He tells himself he's patrolling, but deep down, he knows the truth: he's running. Which is apparently a shameful thing. Even though he's basically got a whole drow House after him. But he equates it with "running back toward the hunter". So yeah.
Eventually, Drizzt finds him back in the region where he'd searched for his lost rothe. He can hear the pickaxes and hammers. Drizzt settles into some benign voyeurism until the svirnebli inevitably head home. This time though, Drizzt ends up deciding to do something other than leave for his lonely cave.
He summons Guen, because he can't not be fucking melodramatic:
Drizzt took a deep breath and forced the words from his mouth. “I wanted to say good-bye to you, my friend,” he whispered. Guenhwyvar’s ears came up straight, and the pupils of the cat’s shining yellow eyes widened then narrowed again as Guenhwyvar took a quick study of Drizzt.
“In case …” Drizzt continued. “I cannot live out there anymore, Guenhwyvar. I fear I am losing everything that gives meaning to life. I fear I am losing my self.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the ascending stairway to Blingdenstone. “And that is more precious to me than my life. Can you understand, Guenhwyvar? I need more, more than simple survival. I need a life defined by more than the savage instincts of this creature I have become.”
Don't worry, he's not committing suicide. He's deciding to take a chance. He's going to the city. And to be fair, they could well decide to kill him, so he did do the decent thing by telling Guen beforehand. But I still think he's a melodramatic dunce-noodle.
So he goes to the door, makes the gesture of truce, and gets surrounded. He even drops his sword belt and scimitars to the ground. He gets searched (and in a nice moment of human error, realizes he'd forgotten to surrender a dagger in his boot, and regrets that it looks like he tried to hide it.)
The only part that hurts is when the guards find and confiscate Guen's figurine. They bind Drizzt and lead him inside. And the chapter ends here.
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But then again, Jarlaxle is a fan favorite for a reason, so... I always welcome the guy when he shows up.
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