Exile - Part 2 (Interlude)
Jul. 25th, 2022 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatNow as is tradition (read: laziness), I always make Drizzt's journal entry interludes their own chapter. Mostly because Drizzt tends to actually be fairly tolerable in this trilogy, if you just read the chapters themselves. He hasn't had time to become a pompous git.
The journal entries tend to showcase the Drizzt that he will become. So yeah, I like to keep them separate.
So Part Two is called "Belwar", which implies that Drizzt's attempt at a verbal recommendation letter will go positively. That's fortunate, because it was always possible that the trauma of the experience could have made Belwar remember things very differently.
I would mock and say that of course Drizzt's sanctified presence would be easily recognizable to someone in distress, but that's not really fair. It's also not true. I don't remember Belwar, but I do remember someone ELSE from Drizzt's past who genuinely didn't understand what he was doing, and therefore remembers him as cruel and scary. But that's for a much later story.
So we start with Drizzt pontificating about friendship and what the word means in various cultures. Drow "friendship" is unsurprisingly transactional. Secure as long as both parties are better off for the union. But if someone starts thinking they'll do better off without the other...well, we saw that in practice.
And I realize with his whole "loyalty is not a tenet of drow life", Drizzt is giving us another clue as to a particular character's fate. One that seems unfair on its surface but makes perfect sense when we look at the values of drow society. But that's for later too.
But then there's this bullshit:
I have had few friends in my life, and if I live a thousand years, I suspect that this will remain true. There is little to lament in this fact, though, for those who have called me friend have been persons of great character and have enriched my existence, given it worth. First there was Zaknafein, my father and mentor, who showed me that I was not alone and that I was not incorrect in holding to my beliefs. Zaknafein saved me, from both the blade and the chaotic, evil, fanatic religion that damns my people.
Not the Zak part. Zak's a good dude. But the dude has a SHITLOAD of friends. He has friends coming out of the wazoo! The "Companions of the Hall" is a thing! Hell, even in the Icewind Dale trilogy, we saw that he won himself acceptance in more than one of the Ten Towns.
And I feel like he ends up banging Alustriel at some point, and when you are banging one of Ed Greenwood's local elf demigoddesses, you really can't call yourself a brooding loner anymore. Yeesh. Fine. Whatever, Wolverine. Let's see how many teams you've joined this month.
Just in case we had any real suspense about Belwar, Drizzt tells us outright what happens:
Yet I was no less lost when a handless deep gnome came into my life, a svirfneblin that I had rescued from certain death, many years before, at my brother Dinin’s merciless blade. My deed was repaid in full, for when the svirfneblin and I again met, this time in the clutches of his people, I would have been killed—truly would have preferred death—were it not for Belwar Dissengulp.
Did Drizzt really SAVE him? I...GUESS. But I don't know, I'm leery of claiming heroic credit when you're part of the invading force to begin with. But it is true that Dinin would have happily killed Belwar, given an excuse. So fair enough.
Drizzt also tells us that he really liked Blingdenstone, which is nice to hear:
My time in Blingdenstone, the city of the deep gnomes, was such a short span in the measure of my years. I remember well Belwar’s city and his people, and I always shall. Theirs was the first society I came to know that was based on the strengths of community, not the paranoia of selfish individualism. Together the deep gnomes survive against the perils of the hostile Underdark, labor in their endless toils of mining the stone, and play games that are hardly distinguishable from every other aspect of their rich lives.
He finishes by telling us that "Greater indeed are pleasures that are shared."
...I wonder if I'd find Drizzt less pompous if he'd just stop writing the word "indeed" so much.
But we will never know.
The journal entries tend to showcase the Drizzt that he will become. So yeah, I like to keep them separate.
So Part Two is called "Belwar", which implies that Drizzt's attempt at a verbal recommendation letter will go positively. That's fortunate, because it was always possible that the trauma of the experience could have made Belwar remember things very differently.
I would mock and say that of course Drizzt's sanctified presence would be easily recognizable to someone in distress, but that's not really fair. It's also not true. I don't remember Belwar, but I do remember someone ELSE from Drizzt's past who genuinely didn't understand what he was doing, and therefore remembers him as cruel and scary. But that's for a much later story.
So we start with Drizzt pontificating about friendship and what the word means in various cultures. Drow "friendship" is unsurprisingly transactional. Secure as long as both parties are better off for the union. But if someone starts thinking they'll do better off without the other...well, we saw that in practice.
And I realize with his whole "loyalty is not a tenet of drow life", Drizzt is giving us another clue as to a particular character's fate. One that seems unfair on its surface but makes perfect sense when we look at the values of drow society. But that's for later too.
But then there's this bullshit:
I have had few friends in my life, and if I live a thousand years, I suspect that this will remain true. There is little to lament in this fact, though, for those who have called me friend have been persons of great character and have enriched my existence, given it worth. First there was Zaknafein, my father and mentor, who showed me that I was not alone and that I was not incorrect in holding to my beliefs. Zaknafein saved me, from both the blade and the chaotic, evil, fanatic religion that damns my people.
Not the Zak part. Zak's a good dude. But the dude has a SHITLOAD of friends. He has friends coming out of the wazoo! The "Companions of the Hall" is a thing! Hell, even in the Icewind Dale trilogy, we saw that he won himself acceptance in more than one of the Ten Towns.
And I feel like he ends up banging Alustriel at some point, and when you are banging one of Ed Greenwood's local elf demigoddesses, you really can't call yourself a brooding loner anymore. Yeesh. Fine. Whatever, Wolverine. Let's see how many teams you've joined this month.
Just in case we had any real suspense about Belwar, Drizzt tells us outright what happens:
Yet I was no less lost when a handless deep gnome came into my life, a svirfneblin that I had rescued from certain death, many years before, at my brother Dinin’s merciless blade. My deed was repaid in full, for when the svirfneblin and I again met, this time in the clutches of his people, I would have been killed—truly would have preferred death—were it not for Belwar Dissengulp.
Did Drizzt really SAVE him? I...GUESS. But I don't know, I'm leery of claiming heroic credit when you're part of the invading force to begin with. But it is true that Dinin would have happily killed Belwar, given an excuse. So fair enough.
Drizzt also tells us that he really liked Blingdenstone, which is nice to hear:
My time in Blingdenstone, the city of the deep gnomes, was such a short span in the measure of my years. I remember well Belwar’s city and his people, and I always shall. Theirs was the first society I came to know that was based on the strengths of community, not the paranoia of selfish individualism. Together the deep gnomes survive against the perils of the hostile Underdark, labor in their endless toils of mining the stone, and play games that are hardly distinguishable from every other aspect of their rich lives.
He finishes by telling us that "Greater indeed are pleasures that are shared."
...I wonder if I'd find Drizzt less pompous if he'd just stop writing the word "indeed" so much.
But we will never know.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-25 03:14 pm (UTC)Also, I feel the only character that can get away with the overuse of Indeed is Teal'c from Stargate. Then again, that guy's awesome in general so... yeah.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-25 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-25 03:49 pm (UTC)