how to totally undermine your main character's previous characterization as a somewhat intelligent, reliable guy who's a decent leader in a few easy steps.

your guy, disguised as a member of the enemy army in an attempt to move freely around town, runs into the leader of the army. it's his girlfriend that he hasn't seen in five years and now she's leading a massive chunk of an evil army dedicated to conquering the world and preparing it for the return of the dark goddess she's suddenly started working for.

you would think he'd talk her out of it, kill her, or find a way to slip away and escape.

instead she takes him to her inn room and they spend the next three days boinking like rabbits. then she announces she's going to leave to wipe out an army that their friend is a part of.

you'd think that, knowing his friends are going to be there, he'd stop her.

instead, he lets her go and decides to rendezvous with his party.

You'd think that he does this silently and wordlessly, taking care not to be seen.

instead, he writes her a multi-page breakup poem explaining that she's evil and he's good, and also he's hooked up with his childhood girlfriend in the five years they've been away, then has a chat with the innkeeper, then allows himself to be followed back to his inn.

(meanwhile, she's murdering her childhood friend and his adventuring companion up north)

so he meanders back to the inn where his party's been waiting, without word from him, for three days because the storm's so bad that they can't sail away.

You'd think that he drops the bomb that the sister of two of his party members, his girlfriend, and one of their former companions is evil and working for the evil army that wiped their home off the map and is reshaping the face of the world through murder, fire, and torment, while maybe hiding that he spent the last three days making up for lost time.

instead he claims that he was captured by the enemy, has no clue who the leader was, but found out their plans and they must leave as soon as the weather breaks.

And doubles down on this when called out on lying by one member of the party who wheedles it out of him before everyone else is there.

gj

What even is this

Rereading Dragonlance to see if it sucked as badly as I remember. We were doing pretty well, mostly it wasn't, but then... this.

Put the book down when they announced that the evil chick and her horde of dragons were chasing after the party 'cause I just saw the rest of the chapter coming and maybe I'll pick it up in a few weeks when I stop thinking "This is so dumb, why would he even do that?" whenever I look at it.

But probably not. Two terminally stupid viewpoint characters is more than I can stomach.

I genuinely never got half way through the first dragonlance novel and said to myself "I bet this is dragonlance"

I felt like the first two books weren't bad (save for some rough spots and whenever the kender did anything), but this really just ground all of my momentum to a stop

Like, they weren't amazing

but they weren't bad

This, though, is like. They made her evil for shock value, I guess?

But then you really find yourself wondering why this guy who's obviously a Good guy would be so hot for a lady who thinks potential genocide's just tops.

And he doesn't act like this is a new attitude for her.