Dragaera

conclusion of _ Dragon _

David Silberstein davids at Kithrup.COM
Tue Mar 23 16:56:54 PST 2004

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote:

>
>--- Jim Millen  wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Jerry Friedman 
>> > Sent: 18 March 2004 21:42
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Spoilers for _Dragon_...
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ...is this considered necessary, by the way?...
>
>I think so.  Some people may join the list without having read
>all the books.
>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ...wasn't sure, but thought I'd best preserve space...
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ...that should do it.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> > I enjoy _Dragon_ a lot, partly for the reasons you describe.  
>> > I also like the sabotage, the battles (though why aren't 
>> > there more bows?) and the dreamwalk and the scene with the 
>> > Necromancer.  I didn't enjoy the postlude with StY, though.  
>> > I guess Aliera's a Dragon, so it makes some kind of sense 
>> > that she fights to bring about the exact bargain that she had 
>> > just refused.  But you have two people fighting with swords, 
>> > and StY's will turn into a Great Weapon when confronted with 
>> > a Great Weapon, which Vlad recently took great care to avoid. 
>> >  Then he summons somebody specifically with a Great Weapon. 
>> > Then somehow StY ends up unconscious, but apparently not 
>> > bleeding heavily or suffering from a collapsed lung or 
>> > anything--how did Aliera and Morrolan do that with swords?  
>> > And StY's sword does turn into Pathfinder--why doesn't it do 
>> > her any good?
>> 
>> I always got the impression in this section that either Aliera or
>> Morrolan would be a match for StY in a one-on-one fight, as Vlad
>> mentions at various times that they are both extremely good swordsmen,
>> and StY has been known to overestimate her own abilities from time to
>> time.  So I assumed the scenario would go as follows:
>> 
>> Aliera and StY commence duelling.  Vlad contacts Morrolan, asks him to
>> teleport in,
>
>But why, and why not ask him *not* to bring Blackwand (or to leave
>it sheathed)?

Vlad can be an idiot, but given suffiecient clues, he can figure stuff
out.  I think he put 1 + 1 + 17 together, and got the requisite 19.

So Vlad deduced that (a) the "weak Morganti greatsword" was really
something else (or rather, Something Else), and that (b) Fornia had
*wanted* to bring it in contact with Morrolan's Great Weapon, and, in
a burst of intuition, Vlad decided to handle the whole "Dragons
fighting in his living room" problem by getting Morrolan to do what
Fornia had wanted to do, and bring the Morganti greatsword into
contact with Blackwand, in the hopes of settling the matter.  I don't
think he *cared* who got the resulting GW, but I think he thought that
exposing the GW would end the fight, one way or the other.  Also, his
thinking was probably that Sethra-t-Y might cut Aliera with the
Morganti weapon - Vlad would not want Aliera to suffer Napper's fate.

I don't think Aliera (or Morrolan) sapped Sethra-t-Y, though.  I think
that either the magical shock of Pathfinder throwing off the extra
metal disguising it knocked her out, or alternatively, Pathfinder
itself smacked her a good one once it was released because she, Sethra
Jr., was *not* the proper bearer of Pathfinder.  Or maybe both. 

Vlad was probably unwise to bring this about given that magical
fallout can cause collateral damage, but he & Cawti lucked out on this
one.