Welcome back to the Dragonlance Reread!
Last week, Raistlin showed up draped in black velvet and used the dragon orb to save everyone (but not before toying with Caramon, of course) while Laurana turned her back on Tanis. But now we’ve reached the big, epic, Michael Bay-sized conclusion, so let’s get on with it!
“Kitiara.” and “The end. For good or for evil.”
Summary
Tanis follows Laurana out of the scrum and into one of the Temple’s many antechambers. Still dressed as a Dragonarmy officer, he’s largely unmolested as he blunders along, trying to find her. The Dragonarmies are all in disarray as well—the disappearance of the Queen of Darkness is sinking in, and no one knows what will happen next.
Tanis stumbles around, weary, alone, and steadily realizing that he’s in serious trouble. He’s ambushed by… Laurana. Who kicks his ass yet again, then, recognizing him for, uh, him, lets him off the hook. She’s still damn chilly though, and is keen to send him on his way.
Tanis takes this moment to confess his love (sort of—mostly he sort of talks about himself, because, Tanis). But they’re interrupted by Kitiara. She gives a much better speech than Tanis did. Everything hangs on a knife’s edge… and then Lord Soth approaches. Tanis valiantly offers to protect Laurana (which is funny, as she’s clearly the better one right now), but Kit shoos them away instead, saving their lives.
Our heroes flee. Soth stops to chat with Kitiara, and remarks that Kit is clearly still weak with love for Tanis. Kit gives another quality speech, this time pointing out that, as always, she’s won. Laurana will have to spend the rest of her life knowing that Tanis is hers because she allowed it. So really, we all live in the shadow of Kitiara’s glory. And Soth helps—he’s found the Crown of Power, and Kitiara is now the undisputed commander of the remaining armies.
Still, Kit’s pact with The Dark Side is not all roses and power-crowns. Soth gives her the undead version of a nudge-and-a-wink, and Kit sees the full unholy glory of the DAAAAAAMNED. That’s something to look forward to.
Tanis and Laurana sprint through the corridors. They sort of half-look for the rest of the party, but Tanis gives up quickly. Laurana tries to pour out her heart, but Tanis shushes her, because apparently this isn’t the time or the place. #irony
But, maybe he’s right. The Temple is in bad shape, and we’ve got earthquakes a-go-go. When the ground settles, the pair continue their mad dash. They find the corridor where Tas and Tika fell, and stop to mourn at Tas’ scattered treasures. Laurana makes a sensible comment about ‘evil devouring itself’ (see also: our earlier write-ups), and Tanis, who now has found the time-and-breath for speeches, gives a solid A+ frothing rant about how the gods have abandoned them. But, wait, what is this? As he pokes through Tasslehoff’s goodies, he finds his ring—their ring—the one that he and Laurana had shared (and, incidentally, has a transformed dragon curled up inside). This, apparently, restores Tanis’ faith in the gods, because Tanis lives apparently in a world where the gods destroying half the world and all of his friends is balanced out by them restoring to him a piece of his jewellery.
Spoiler: Tanis did not come off well in that chapter.
Caramon, Raistlin, Tas and Tika have made it outside the city, with a draconian escort, no less. Caramon wants to go back and help Tanis, but Raist says that the half-elf’s fate is in his own hands. (Or Laurana’s, Kit’s and Soth’s, tbh).
There’s a shining light on a hill (metaphor!) and Raistlin says that Fizban is waiting for them. He’s not so keen to renew an acquaintance with the old wizard/god, so it is time to make their farewells. He casually zorches the draconians and, after taking a moment to make of everyone, has his dragon brought around. Cyan Bloodbane (editor’s note: wooo!) drops by and scares the bejimminy out of everyone. Raistlin saddles up, and Caramon offers to go with him. Raistlin is all, “r u serious?” and then “zomg, u r”. But points out that a) he is off to do Dark and Terrible things and b) it is damn time that both he and Caramon had lives of their own and c) kthxbai. He and his AWESOME NEW FRIEND Cyan go flying off.
Tika, understandably, is a little horrified by all of this.
Tanis and Laurana are somehow already with Fizban, and are delighted to be reunited with the other three. Laurana, we are reminded, is still beautiful.
Tas and Fizban share a lovely moment. Tas is sad that he’s now lost two friends: Flint and Fizban. Fizban reassures him that Flint is well-happy in the afterlife. And, equally importantly, that he and Tas will always be friends, even if one of them is an all-powerful deity.
Fizban also does a little—cryptic—enlightening. He shares that Raistlin is now Fistandantilus (remember that name?) and is the ‘master of both past and present’ (as hinted by Astinus). He also tells Caramon to, essentially, get over it. Caramon seemingly agrees (and even gives Tika a cuddle), but his eyes stray to the night sky…
Tanis is then all, “yay! Good wins!” (hypocrite), but Fizban corrects him. The “pendulum still swings freely”. There are dragons about, plus dragonarmies. And frankly, Good winning ain’t all that great: remember the Cataclysm, after all. With that, he brings Pyrite back, dons his senile old man outfit, and the god and his dragon fly off (in a slightly less stately way than Raistlin did).
There are some goodbyes. Tanis and Laurana are headed to Kalaman. Remember, the Forces of Good have no idea what is going on, and assume that Laurana is still being held hostage. Caramon and Tika are going back to Solace. Tas is going back to the land of the kender, because, why not?
Tanis and Laurana finally take a moment to speechify at one another, and, much to Tanis’s shock, she chucks the ring off into the darkness. They’re starting over, together. It is actually quite sweet.
They camp out for the night and watch a few pyrotechnics: first the Temple explodes, Michael Bay style. Then, dramatically, the two missing constellations—the Queen of Darkness and the Valiant Warrior—both return to the night sky. For now, at least, balance is restored.
Notable Quotes
“[Tanis] wondered if [Laurana] had been at all cognizant of her surroundings when they brought her in, and if she had any idea how to get out. And then Tanis realized that he himself only had a vague idea of where he was.”
This made me laugh. Tanis’ first impulse: “poor Laurana, clearly helpless and lost!”. Then the dawning realization that he, who was fully cognizant and completely aware of his surroundings (and a freakin’ ranger), is totally helpless and lost. That’s our Tanis! (laugh-track)
“Kitiara vanished into the darkness as completely as if she had been consumed by it.”
That, MFA students of the future, is called “heavy-handed”.
“Perhaps someday I will give you another ring and I will accept yours.”
Go Laurana!
Monster(s) of the Week
As before, all of them.
Special shout-out to Cyan Bloodbane, who is, by far, the most gangsta of all dragons.
Jared’s Take
OK! Plots resolved:
- Queen of Darkness is back. (BANISHED) (Book 1)
- Dragonarmies are conquering the world. (DEFEATED) (Book 1)
- Berem is something something something gemstone quest. (SORTED) (Book 2)
- Tanis’s love triangle with Kitiara and Laurana. (CLEARED UP) (Book 2)
- Laurana has been kidnapped by the forces of the enemy. (FREED) (Book 3)
Huzzah!
Plus, on the mystery front, we’ve figured out:
- Who is Fizban? (GOD)
- What happened to Raistlin? (OFF BECOMING A BADASS)
- Something something Berem? (HE’S THE MACGUFFIN WE NEED TO BEAT TAKHISIS)
Which, as far as I can tell, tidies things up pretty nicely. There’s one Very Large and Deliberate cliffhanger, as to “wtf is up with Raistlin and the prophesy and such”, but, you know, we still have an epilogue to go. Plus another 239 books. So who knows.
It was really last week that most of this happened, to be fair. It had action a-plenty. This week was more… explaining what we just saw, and the significance. Raistlin and Fizban do all the plot-related exposition while Tanis and Laurana take turns downloading the complete history of their feelz.
I think we’ll conclude in a separate concluding post, but, despite my (gentle?) teasing, I’m not dissatisfied. Not in the least. As Fizban notes (and Raistlin implies), this isn’t the triumph of Good—this is jamming the reset button after your computer goes wonky. Things aren’t going to perfect, but they’re no longer crashing towards the Abyss. Tanis and Laurana’s relationship is, I suppose, a microcosm. It isn’t a fairytale ending, but they’ve already tried—and failed—for that sort of soft-focus-romanticism. They’re both grown-ups now, and their love is of a different, more tempered, shape.
Mahvesh’s Take
I can’t quite believe we’ve come this far, and it’s almost…neat? Sure, I know not all loose ends have been tied up tightly, given the open endings all the character arcs have had, but it’s still pretty neat and tidy and I love it. Last week was a lot of action, this week we’ve had a nice little settling of the dust, as it were, after the explosions and the madness. Jared’s wrapped things up so well, so I won’t repeat that but yeah…I’m not dissatisfied either, at all.
I wonder though…can we see Tanis and Laurana relationship as a microcosm to the entire story so far? I think Jared makes a really good point. They’ve tried, they’ve been together, apart, with other people (sorta) and they’ve grown (well, she has. Him, not so much) and they’re now seeing each other from a new perspective, each trying to figure out if there’s room for the other in their new lives. Caramon and Raistlin too, are re-assessing their need for each other (well, Raistlin is done with him, but you know what I mean). Basically, everything is okay…for now. And that’s okay by me. For now. Maybe for ever. But as Jared said, there’s a gazillion more books to go. Who knows what else may come our way? Dragons, for sure.
A deeper evaluation of the Chronicles to follow, but for now, a deep sigh and maybe a nice, relaxed tankard of ale.
Mahvesh loves dystopian fiction & appropriately lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She writes about stories & interviews writers the Tor.com podcast Midnight in Karachi when not wasting much too much time on Twitter.
Jared Shurin is an editor for Pornokitsch and the non-profit publisher Jurassic London.
Jared Shurin
I hope you guys continue with the DL reread. I have enjoyed this series, looking forward to your posts each Friday. Most of the other DL books aren’t worth touching but I assume the other ones from Weis and Hickman–Legends, Lost Chronicles, Dragons of Summer Flame– are probably worth a shot.
I would further recommend the Legends books, which are far more coherent and focused. Plus: more Raistlin! Plus, plus: very little Tanis! The books are mostly Raistlin, Caramon, Tas, & a new character we meet.
Tanis lives apparently in a world where the gods destroying half the world and all of his friends is balanced out by them restoring to him a piece of his jewellery.
Alrigh, I’m all aboard your Tanis Hate Train here, but no. They have a means of escape. That’s why he now thinks they gods may be with them.
Tanis and Laurana are somehow already with Fizban,
SOMEHOW? They flew on a giant gold dragon.
Alrighty since this is Laurana’s last chapter in Spring Dawning lots of thoughts incoming.
I really didn’t get how Laurana could disguise herself simply by removing her silver armor and replacing it with draconian armor. Laurana has a veritable river of very shiny golden hair flowing from her head and a face that is probably the most beautiful face on all of Krynn, so suffice it to say she is going to be extremely visually memorable. As such unless she obscures her hair and her face in some manner isn’t she going to be instantly recognized by whoever sees her no matter what kind of armor she is wearing?
And I have to assume that Weis and Hickman forgot all about the elves having special night vision as they have Tanis and Laurana not being able to see each other in a darkened room even when they are standing right next to each other and then they have Kitiara somehow prove able to sneak up on both of them which makes no sense at all.
I was rather dissatisfied by the final Kitiara-Tanis-Laurana confrontation here. We already had a perfectly good resolution to their triangle back in Chapter 10 when Tanis made it clear to Kitiara that he only wanted Laurana, Kitiara seemingly accepted that, and Laurana asserted herself against both of them. This scene thus fills unnecessary and even worse it feels like a regression for all the characters.
Laurana barely even gets to be in the scene with the narrative basically treating her as little more than a toy that Tanis and Kitiara are fighting over.
Nor does it make sense that Kitiara would go to all this trouble to track down Tanis just to make the same offer to him (rule the Dragonarmies together) that he has already previously rejected. What does Kitiara think has changed that would now make Tanis be willing to accept such an offer when he has already rejected. Kitiara actually has much less leverage now than she had earlier (since Laurana is now armed and free rather than Kitiara’s prisoner) and the prospect of ruling the Dragonarmies is much less attractive right now (since they have lost their goddess support and are in the middle of destroying themselves.) I suppose she could think that Tanis might be more open to her now given that Laurana shoved him off a platform a short while ago, but just the fact that Tanis chased after Laurana strongly suggests that he isn’t holding a grudge over that, so I really don’t get Kitiara’s motivations.
But the character the worst served by this scene is Tanis who, after finally showing signs of moral growth back in Chapter 10 when he seemingly rejected Kitiara for good, is right back to trying to finagle a way where he gets to be with her (while cloaking it as a sacrifice on his part so as to assuage his own conscience).
Now you might say I am being too hard on Tanis here and that he truly is only offering to stay with Kitiara so as to insure Laurana’s safety, but that explanation just doesn’t fly when we look at the exact sequence of events in the chapter. Tanis offers to stay with Kitiara before he has any idea that Lord Soth is coming. And that means Tanis was offering to stay with Kitiara even when Laurana wasn’t actually in danger. (Yes Kitiara was present, but she was there alone against both Laurana and Tanis, and given that Laurana had already demonstrated she is perfectly capable of defeating Kitiara in a one on one fight, Laurana and Tanis together would have been able to easily take down Kitiara if they had to.)
And Tanis comes off even worse here when we consider Tracy Hickman’s note about this chapter in the Annotated Chronicles. As Mr. Hickman states, in response to Tanis claim that “My decision was made a long time ago”:
This is only partially true. I believe that until this moment in the story, he really had not fully made the decision between Laurana and Kitiara.
Lets just consider the ramificaitons of that. Tanis already knew even before coming to Neraka that Kitiara was a Dragon Highlord who:
1) bragged about killing men for declining her sexual advances;
2) had nearly killed him;
3) had killed Sturm; and
4) had lied to and kidnapped Laurana.
And just within the last hour or so of novel time he has directly witnessed Kitiara:
1) nearly cause Laurana to suffocate to death;
2) physically manhandle Laurana; and
3) try to have Laurana tortured to death after which her soul would be given to a death knight.
Since Tanis supposedly cares about Laurana, you would think that seeing Kitiara treat Laurana like that would be a deal breaker for Tanis. Yet now we find out that (at least per Mr. Hickman) none of that mattered to Tanis. He was still considering Kitiara over Laurana even after all of that and only finally gave up on Kitiara after she made it absolutely clear that the only way Tanis could be with her was if he stood by and let her murder Laurana (and then give Laurana’s soul to Lord Soth.) This makes Tanis look absolutely horrible and is really unfair to Laurana (who deserves a lot better than a man who settles for her only because he wasn’t willing to become a murderer just to get the woman he really wanted.)
Thus I really don’t know why this scene was included as this plotline already had a perfect resolution back in Chapter 10.
At any rate the takeaway from this scene (and the following scene between Kitiara and Lord Soth) is that Kitiara had in fact won the war for Tanis and then managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory due to her own fear.
Tanis (as described above) clearly wanted to be with her. All Kitiara had to do was let him have his fig leaf justification that he was staying with Kitiara for a good cause, and he would have happily given himself to her. But Kitiara was too afraid to do so because of her own feelings of inadequacy versus Laurana. Just consider Kitiara’s words from back in Chapter 6:
“I don’t want his love.” Pulling off her gloves and unbuckling her armor, Kitiara laughed shortly. “I want him! As long as she lives, his thoughts will be of her and of the noble sacrifice he has made.”
Now personally I think Kitiara was wrong about Tanis there. (I think a Tanis who was staying with Kitiara as a “sacrifice” would have given himself completely to Kitiara as long as she didn’t try to make him do anything evil.) But what this scene shows us is that Kitiara did not think she could compete even with the memory of Laurana. And thus Kitiara’s own fear kept her from accepting Tanis’s offer, since she was too afraid to accept him unless he first let her kill Laurana (which would be the only way Kitiara could ever truly be certain that Tanis had truly chosen her over Laurana), and as messed up as Tanis is even he isn’t that messed up, so basically Kitiara made it impossible for Tanis to be with her. (Which fits in well with the whole evil being self-defeating theme of the Chronicles as Kitiara).
As for the idea that Kitiara has somehow poisoned Laurana’s relationship with Tanis, that would only be true if Laurana was as afraid of the memory of Kitiara as Kitiara was afraid of the memory of Laurana and that’s clearly not the case. (Just the fact that Laurana proves willing to consider a relationship with Tanis despite knowing Kitiara is still out there shows that Laurana is not afraid of the memory of Kitiara). Thus far from being any kind of victory for Kitiara, all her actions here accomplished was to provide further proof that Laurana is a much stronger person than she is, since Kitiara was plainly afraid of Laurana while Laurana was not afraid of her.
Moving on, the Laurana-Tika reunion scene was sweet, but it does feel kind of unearned. After all the last time we saw Laurana and Tika directly interact was all the way back in Autumn Twilight, and there’s been absolutely nothing between them since then save for one brief mention that Tika really, really likes Laurana’s skin. Tika also seemed rather blasé about Laurana being captured, what with her being more upset on the way to Neraka about her own romantic difficulties rather than the fact that her friend was being held prisoner by an army of psychopaths, so I wasn’t aware the two were that close.
And ugh I really hate Fizban’s little speech at the end especially when he calls the Kingpriest a “good man”. I’m sorry but if you are leading a totalitarian empire that practices religious persecution, slavery and genocide you are not a “good” man by any sane definition of the word “good”. I also don’t really see the elven nations as a convincing example of excessive “goodness” since I don’t recall them doing much in the way of altruistic actions in the story and isn’t that the prime requirement for being “good”?
(And of course the Legends trilogy goes on to establish that Laurana was right and Fizban was wrong about the need to finish off the Dragonarmies.)
I did though really like the final conversation between Laurana and Tanis. Especially since Laurana explicitly rejected the idea (previously advanced by Gilthanas) that she was right to leave her army to go to Tanis. Up until this point the Chronicles had been seemingly pushing a rather disturbing “Love conquers all” message, so it was good to have the most consistently heroic character in the novels shut that down and make it clear that there are times when one’s duty must take precedence over one’s love.
And of course Laurana throwing away Tanis’s ring at the end was absolutely perfect.
I do think though that Laurana was way too hard on herself in characterizing her earlier love for Tanis as a “petty love.” Yes, that one time in Kalaman her love for Tanis got her into trouble, but at other times in the Chronicles her love for Tanis was a source of strength and comfort for her that inspired her to be a hero and helped her get through some of the hardest times of the war, and by being the original motivation that got her to follow the Companions that love pretty much directly saved the world.
Laurana, we are reminded, is still beautiful.
Hey, we had to get one for the road since if you push on into the Legends trilogy, I don’t think we get another Laurana beauty reference until Test of the Twins.
@1 & 2: Thanks! I’m a big fan of the Legends series too, which, iirc, really are legit good books (less burdened with game tie-ins, more about characters, so yay!). I’ve never actually read Summer Flame or any of the next generation stuff (outside of some of the short stories). Mahvesh and I are discussing plans and proposals and will chat with the Tor Highlords, but I suspect that – at the very least – there will be a bit of a break. Y’all have been amazing for sticking with us for so long! Thank you!
@3: That never dawned on me. Did they? How did Tanis and Laurana get the dragon out of the ring? Your point makes a lot of sense, but somehow completely passed me by – I just assumed that Tanis was happy because, you know, ring o’ love and all that.
@@.-@: Completely agree that the Kit/Tanis/Laurana triangle is one resolution too far – we’re sort of at climaxes upon climaxes here, and there’s a lot of romantic speechifying that’s a little redundant. Also, as you list, if Tanis has taken until *now* for it to click that Kit’s not a very nice person, well… good lord. Or, perhaps ‘not nice’ doesn’t matter – he’s not bugged by Kit being overtly evil, it was just when it impacted Laurana?! It is a little silly.
The Tika/Laurana relationship is a weird one. Sort of like… awkward sisters-in-law more than anything else. They’re not particularly close, but, hey, if you’re running into someone in Neraka, probably better one another than… more draconians or such.
I do like that we get, say, 80% of the last few chapters of love-triangle-resolution from Tanis’ inner monologue, and 20% from Kit’s *outer* monologue. But, ultimately, the decision winds up with Laurana, who surprises both of the others. And does the right (in a mature, 21st century) thing by saying, ‘maaaaybe, but we’ll take it slow’.
As to the Kingpriest, again, agree. A definite problem with a world with fixed, actionable alignment. The Kingpriest is Good, and according to the actual physics of Krynn, he was. Even though his actions were utterly reprehensible, and he, on the whole, did more little-e-evil than the dragonarmies. (On a smaller note, although who knows what he did off-screen, Raistlin is now certifiably Evil, but did more little-g-good than any other hero in the last few chapters.) D&D worlds are so weird, but if you’re going to create a universe where is alignment is real and measurable, I guess you have to stick to it!
@5: That never dawned on me. Did they? How did Tanis and Laurana get the dragon out of the ring?
Why would that be difficult? The dragon is just curled up around the ring, so all they would have to do is gently pull him off the ring and then prod him awake.
(On a smaller note, although who knows what he did off-screen, Raistlin is now certifiably Evil, but did more little-g-good than any other hero in the last few chapters.)
I have to disagree with that. Defeating the Dragonarmies was just as important for the good of the world as banishing Takhisis (after all it doesn’t do any good to banish Takhisis if her armies conquer the world anyway), so Laurana accomplished just as much little-g-good for the world in these last few chapters by setting off the Dragonarmy civil war as Raistlin did by betraying Takhisis.
D&D worlds are so weird, but if you’re going to create a universe where is alignment is real and measurable, I guess you have to stick to it!
The irritating thing is that there probably is a legitimate argument to be made that excessive (genuine) goodness can be a bad thing. Excessive charity could foster dependency, excessive mercy could end up encouraging evil acts (by reducing the consequences for evil conduct), etc. But instead the story just seems to be warning against the dangers of excessive order and equating order with Good.
@bguy Elvish night vision
That vision was counteracted by magical means though, as we saw when the Black dragon of Xak Tsaroth cast a darkness spell. I can see something like that in play here.