I was guessing you would choose Laurana. I think she is under appreciated and deserves more recognition for her story arc and growth as a person. When the original DL trilogy was written back in the 80s it really wasn’t all that common to have female characters be so complex and experience that much growth. Superficially she can be mistaken for the stereotypical “beautiful elf princess” that mostly exists as a personification of the male hero’s ultimate prize. However she is not a superficial character at all but arguably the character that experiences the most personal growth in all of DL. She starts out spoiled, naive and with very little agency (and the agency she does have she uses to chase a man) but she grows, learns, starts to see the world beyond herself, she gradually starts taking more and more responsibility, overcoming her fears and learning to be brave, to fight for others while also maturing in her understanding of what love is. She doesn’t discard her love for Tanis but rather she becomes more mature, more reflected and nuanced. She ends up breaking down gender barriers - not because it is her right as a princess, not because she is so beautiful that the knights can’t help but to accept her into their organization, but rather because she proves herself, her courage and her competence. She defies her father, she defies tradition when it is backwards and u productive, she takes action and she fights for what she believes in; ultimately becoming the Golden General and being one of the main reasons that good prevails in the war of the lance. I think that is pretty darn progressive for any story written in the 1980s and even more so for a fantasy story.
100% agree! Laurana is amazing! My all-time favorite fictional character. I particularly love the duality in her in how she becomes such a fierce and capable warrior while still being so loving and compassionate. She really was everything a hero should be.
@@bwg4608 And I can attest to your love of Laurana; ready to craft many a reasoned paragraph on her behalf haha! ;) She is pretty awesome though. Her galvanizing speech during (spoiler)'s funeral is one of my favorite moments in fiction.
Congratulations! 1,000 IS a huge number! I know tons and tons of channels that never make it to that mark. Continued success and I enjoy this channel's content, cheers!
I did think of a personal question if you don't mind. I started reading the original Dragonlance Chronicles with my 11 year old son for his first time. He does not like reading so we are doing so together and alternating reading pages to each other. It's going well so far - he seems to be enjoying it, which is exciting as it's MY all time favorite book. However, I'm nervous how to approach the few riske sections of the book such as Gilthanas and Silvara (if you remember). As you read the book at a young age, if I recall, i was curious if you felt the age level was appropriate or, if not, how to handle those sections. Thanks!
This is probably going to be a very long answer that all boils down to you will have to judge the age appropriateness for yourself based on what you feel is right and based on how mature you think your son is. Hopefully my overall thoughts will help you in making that decision. It has been several years now since I read the first three books (last time I read them was for the videos on the channel), so I might not remember the details of the riske parts as well as I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what I remember, the scenes do have some details, but not enough to be super graphic or overly mature. So, I do think that a younger reader could be okay reading it depending on the maturity of the child. I know my parents read these books to me when I was 12 or 13, so I was in middle school. They didn't skip these scenes for me and had no problems with me rereading the series again right after they finished reading it to me. I do know, in general, my parents have always considered me an older soul, so they obviously thought I was mature enough to read those portions. My advice to you is to reread the scene before you two get to it and then consider some of these questions: do you think this is content (in the manner it is written) that you feel comfortable, as a parent, exposing to your son? Also, do you think your son is mature enough, or old enough, to handle the topic in a more serious fashion? Lastly, are you comfortable with answering questions if your son asks them or doesn't understand what is happening? If you decide you don't think it is appropriate for him to read those portions of the book, then I think you should be honest with your son and explain why you are skipping those pages of the story. One thing I always really appreciated about my parents is how they always explained to me why they made decisions or told me no about something. They were always honest and open about all decisions. And, that is how I would handle it with my child. This is a very long response, and I'm not sure if it is very helpful. LOL I hope that it at least helps a little. I feel this is the kind of question that doesn't have a straight yes or no answer since every child is different and every parent has to follow their own priorities and principles.
I was guessing you would choose Laurana. I think she is under appreciated and deserves more recognition for her story arc and growth as a person. When the original DL trilogy was written back in the 80s it really wasn’t all that common to have female characters be so complex and experience that much growth. Superficially she can be mistaken for the stereotypical “beautiful elf princess” that mostly exists as a personification of the male hero’s ultimate prize. However she is not a superficial character at all but arguably the character that experiences the most personal growth in all of DL. She starts out spoiled, naive and with very little agency (and the agency she does have she uses to chase a man) but she grows, learns, starts to see the world beyond herself, she gradually starts taking more and more responsibility, overcoming her fears and learning to be brave, to fight for others while also maturing in her understanding of what love is. She doesn’t discard her love for Tanis but rather she becomes more mature, more reflected and nuanced. She ends up breaking down gender barriers - not because it is her right as a princess, not because she is so beautiful that the knights can’t help but to accept her into their organization, but rather because she proves herself, her courage and her competence. She defies her father, she defies tradition when it is backwards and u productive, she takes action and she fights for what she believes in; ultimately becoming the Golden General and being one of the main reasons that good prevails in the war of the lance. I think that is pretty darn progressive for any story written in the 1980s and even more so for a fantasy story.
100% agree! Laurana is amazing! My all-time favorite fictional character. I particularly love the duality in her in how she becomes such a fierce and capable warrior while still being so loving and compassionate. She really was everything a hero should be.
@@bwg4608 And I can attest to your love of Laurana; ready to craft many a reasoned paragraph on her behalf haha! ;) She is pretty awesome though. Her galvanizing speech during (spoiler)'s funeral is one of my favorite moments in fiction.
Well done. Those Larry Elmore dragon lance covers are amazing.
Congrats! And many more! Cheers!
🤠👍
Great video, Amy! Lots of interesting questions. Your personality really came out in this video.
Way to go Amy!
Congratulations! 1,000 IS a huge number! I know tons and tons of channels that never make it to that mark. Continued success and I enjoy this channel's content, cheers!
Congratulations!
I did think of a personal question if you don't mind. I started reading the original Dragonlance Chronicles with my 11 year old son for his first time. He does not like reading so we are doing so together and alternating reading pages to each other. It's going well so far - he seems to be enjoying it, which is exciting as it's MY all time favorite book. However, I'm nervous how to approach the few riske sections of the book such as Gilthanas and Silvara (if you remember). As you read the book at a young age, if I recall, i was curious if you felt the age level was appropriate or, if not, how to handle those sections. Thanks!
This is probably going to be a very long answer that all boils down to you will have to judge the age appropriateness for yourself based on what you feel is right and based on how mature you think your son is. Hopefully my overall thoughts will help you in making that decision.
It has been several years now since I read the first three books (last time I read them was for the videos on the channel), so I might not remember the details of the riske parts as well as I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what I remember, the scenes do have some details, but not enough to be super graphic or overly mature. So, I do think that a younger reader could be okay reading it depending on the maturity of the child. I know my parents read these books to me when I was 12 or 13, so I was in middle school. They didn't skip these scenes for me and had no problems with me rereading the series again right after they finished reading it to me. I do know, in general, my parents have always considered me an older soul, so they obviously thought I was mature enough to read those portions.
My advice to you is to reread the scene before you two get to it and then consider some of these questions: do you think this is content (in the manner it is written) that you feel comfortable, as a parent, exposing to your son? Also, do you think your son is mature enough, or old enough, to handle the topic in a more serious fashion? Lastly, are you comfortable with answering questions if your son asks them or doesn't understand what is happening?
If you decide you don't think it is appropriate for him to read those portions of the book, then I think you should be honest with your son and explain why you are skipping those pages of the story. One thing I always really appreciated about my parents is how they always explained to me why they made decisions or told me no about something. They were always honest and open about all decisions. And, that is how I would handle it with my child.
This is a very long response, and I'm not sure if it is very helpful. LOL I hope that it at least helps a little. I feel this is the kind of question that doesn't have a straight yes or no answer since every child is different and every parent has to follow their own priorities and principles.
That WAS very helpful and makes a lot of sense. I appreciate your thoughtful response!
I’m glad I could help! I hope you and your son continue to enjoy reading the books together. 😊