History YMMV / Dragonlance

* TheScrappy: Tasselhoff has all the hallmarks of one of these, but somehow manages to be genuinely likable despite (or because) of his annoying habits and constant meddling in the story. However, other stories with {{Expy}} Kender characters usually fall head over heels into this trope.

** Then there's [[HeterosexualLifePartners Flint and Tasslehoff]]. They even shared a house while living in Solace. Tasslehoff is utterly heartbroken at Flint's death and is only comforted when he learns that Flint is in his own private {{Heaven}} which he [[HeartwarmingMoment reserved to share with Tas when he dies]].

* GrowingTheBeard: ''Chronicles'' is a solid but unspectacular HighFantasy epic. ''Legends'', the next trilogy, is a character-driven drama about family, the nature of evil, and TimeTravel that cements Raistlin as one of the best [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastards]] in modern fantasy literature. Easy to see why it's considered the high point of the whole saga, and one of the classics of the genre.

* MagnificentBastard: Raistlin Majere.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans consider any of the novels not written by the original three creators as out of continuity stories.

*** I don't think he cares about being bullied as a kid, anymore. Not as much as [[FateWorseThanDeath the other thing]], at least.
** Thankfully averted with Tas. On the rare occasion he does angst, something is seriously wrong.
* WhatTheHellHero: Par Salian, head of the order of White Robes, the supposedly do-gooder mages, curses Raistlin and gives him "Eyes of Decay", for lack of a better title. Not only does he look like a freak due to having hourglass-shaped pupils, but everything he sees is crumbling and decaying as he watches, so he can't see a building, but only an ancient ruin, and living beings are nothing but ambulatory, talking, rotting corpses. This was intended to make him more compassionate- instead, it's implied that this only furthered his disassocation from humanity and pushed him towards his dreams of [[AGodAmI attaining divine power]]. It's also implied that it was his decision to add an illusion of Raistlin's brother Caramon being a wizard of even greater power than Raistlin to The Test, which resulted in Raistlin jealously murdering his brother... an act that was witnessed by the real Caramon. Seriously, What is wrong with you? Hell, even his best magely friend called him on it...

** Lord Soth. Even Margaret Weis has said she has to use him sparingly in order to resist the temptation to let him take over the story.

* EvilIsSexy: Kitiara. At least Tanis (and a bunch of other guys, including one who's quite ''dead''), seems to think so...

* BrokenBase: Fandom tends to be divided on either side of the ''Dragons of Summer Flame'' novel. On one hand, you have the old schoolers who generally refuse to accept anything that isn't connected to the original [[TrueCompanions Heroes of the Lance]] and the original ''Chronicles'' and ''Legends'' trilogies. On the other hand, there are those who consider the Fifth Age a bold and innovative step away from the original characters and consider the first group to be hopelessly clinging to the past. For their part, the first group considers the Fifth Agers to have discarded everything that made the series popular in the first place. Both groups, however, almost universally revile [[GodModeSue Mina]] and her [[CosmicRetcon Cosmic Retcon Army]], which over the course of a single trilogy managed to systematically destroy everything even remotely connected to the Fifth Age and return it to the status quo. Old school fans were slightly mollified, though even they were struck by the [[DroppedABridgeOnHim sheer meanness of it]], reading between the lines that the entire War of Souls was an AuthorsSavingThrow writ large.

* GodModeSue: If you don't think Mina was following this trope like a checklist, you've been reading the wrong book. A rare example of this trope [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as she had a god on her side, [[spoiler: later revealed to be Takhisis, with no other gods to keep Takhisis' powers in check. And then it turned out that Mina herself was a goddess.]]

* MarySue: Mina is arguably a deconstruction.
** Subverted by Usha. She ''is'' unusually beautiful, but most of the other reasons people think she's special are either misconceptions or outright deception, and she has very little innate magical ability.
** Invoked InUniverse with the ogres. Essentially, given free reign to make their own new species, the Gods of Evil created a MarySue race, with a 2500 year lifespan, ridiculous magical power, unearthly beauty, song language etc. [[AndManGrewProud It didn't turn out well.]]

* VillainSue: Raistlin in ''Legends'' is a good example of this trope. He and the Kingpriest are the only two mortals to ever challenge the gods and win, in an alternate timeline at least, although the outcome is not exactly what Raistlin wanted.

* CompleteMonster:
** [[BigBad Takhisis, Queen of Darkness]], is the head of the Pantheon of [[GodIsEvil evil deities]]. Unlike her fellow evil gods, who may [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes have people they care for]], Takhisis cares only for her lusts, greed and power. After mothering the second generation of Chromatic dragons, Takhisis brutally killed two of them solely to make a point to the others. Takhisis threatened the world multiple times, ending her armies out to commit a host of atrocities with her servants enslaving whole countries in living nightmares. Takhisis betrayed all her gods by stealing the world of Krynn at the conclusion of the Chaos Wars against Father Chaos after she abandoned her followers and forced every soul of those who died into an army of the dead.
** Maladar the Faceless is the cruel emperor of Taladas. When the series begins, Maladar has been dead for centuries and is remembered in terrifying legends. Flashbacks reveal Maladar was TheCaligula of the old empire who conducted ethnic cleansing, invented torturous deaths for thousands (he was particularly fond of impalement) and kept a slave boy he molested until the boy managed to poison him. After death, Maladar's influence lived on, as his soul was trapped into a small statue of his likeness. After he's revived he spreads his influence to modern Taladas, inciting brutal wars to create enough bloodshed to prepare his resurrection. His initial choice of vessel is an innocent boy, but he simply bodyjacks the boy's father instead and enslaves goblin races to send them to their deaths as a cover for him to awaken his army and conquer Taladas anew.
** Malystryx, one of the first and mightiest dragon overlords, is a titanic and brutal monster who carved out territory by simply incinerating anything in her way. After settling in Krynn, Malystryx hunted down and murdered other dragons, taking their skulls and inciting a dragon purge . Using the skulls as a sinister totem, she mutated the land around her into a hellish wasteland and allied with barbarians and ogres to destroy and enslave any innocents left. Malystryx killed her own mate to complete her totem and proceeded with a genocide of the PluckyComicRelief race, the kender, only prevented by the HeroicSacrifice of the warrior Riverwind. Establishing herself as a brutal tyrant, Malys would occasionally attack random targets for her own amusement, delighting in the instinctive fear she spread. Without doubt, Malys was the most evil dragon ever to set foot in Krynn.

* ValuesDissonance: Par Salian, head of the order of White Robes, the supposedly do-gooder mages. He curses Raistlin and gives him "Eyes of Decay", for lack of a better title. Not only does he look like a freak due to having hourglass-shaped pupils, but everything he sees is crumbling and decaying as he watches, so he can't see a building, but only an ancient ruin, and living beings are nothing but ambulatory, talking, rotting corpses. This was intended to make him more compassionate- instead, it's implied that this only furthered his disassocation from humanity and pushed him towards his dreams of divine power. It's also implied that it was his decision to add an illusion of Raistlin's brother Caramon being a wizard of even greater power than Raistlin to The Test, which resulted in Raistlin jealously murdering his brother... an act that was witnessed by the real Caramon. Seriously, What is wrong with you? Hell, even his best magely friend called him on it...

** Thankfully averted with Tas. On the rare occasion he does angst, something is seriously wrong.

* MoralEventHorizon: From Raistlin, [[spoiler:"Farewell, Revered Daughter. I need you no longer" Or, before that, agreeing to let the dark dwarves have his brother's head. Or before ''that'' leaving his brother to die on a ship.]] Guy seems to do this a ''lot'', at least until he [[spoiler: dies to keep Takhisis locked up]].

** The races of Kender, Gully Dwarves and Gnomes are often this. All are intended to be PluckyComicRelief races, but many instead find them just annoying for the traits that are supposed to be funny -- Kender are a race of childlike, CuriousAsAMonkey kleptomaniacal {{Fearless Fool}}s, Gully Dwarves are dity, ugly, slovenly, and so stupid that they can't count past two, and Gnomes are {{Motor Mouth}}ed {{Bungling Inventor}}s who fail to grasp concepts such as [[RubeGoldbergDevice simplicity in technology]] and actually prize ''failure'' over ''success''. Kender are particularly hated amongst the tabletop gaming sect because their racial description gives them borderline carte blanche to be played as ChaoticStupid.

** Paladine [[spoiler: Fizban.]] He managed to manipulate Heroes of Lance into becoming them, thus saving the world indirectly, and in Legends storyline he seems to be pulling the strings too, which ended in Reistlin's HeroicSacrifice DeathEqualsRedemption.

** Fistandantilus, especially in the Kingpriest books. It's harder to see in the main storyline, because [[EvilVersusEvil Raistlin is better at it]].

* AdaptationDisplacement: The ''Chronicles'' Trilogy were originally just meant to be [[TieInNovel Tie-In Novels]] to the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' gaming modules, but thanks to the ''Chronicles'' Trilogy's massive popularity, even more novels were written by both Weis & Hickman and other authors as well. Now it has gotten to the point where there are quite a few Dragonlance fans who have no idea there is even a game tied to the novels.

* RonTheDeathEater: In canon, Kender are treated as an always-good race, with many of the sourcebooks chatting up their [[IncorruptiblePurePureness pure hearts and innocence.]] However, years of [[ChaoticStupid "borrowing" the wizard's spellbook and the cleric's holy symbol]] has led to them becoming, in fanon, a despicable blight of inconsiderate thieves who are either brain-damaged or playing dumb. On some boards, killing Kender is considered to be PokeThePoodle-level evil at worst, as opposed to canon, where it's treated with about the same weight as [[WouldHurtAChild murdering children]]. This is primarily because a Kender's more distasteful traits in canon are because they truly don't know any better, whereas the player sitting across from you with a smug grin on his face most certainly does.

* UnfortunateImplications: A lot of fans feel that Gully Dwarves are a race made to make fun of the mentally disabled.

** Takhisis, the head of the Pantheon of evil deities. Unlike her fellow evil gods who at least have some redeeming straight to balance them out (her husband, Sargonnas genuinely cares for his Minotaurs and her daughter Zeboim loves her son), Takhisis cares only for her lusts, greed and power. After mothering the second generation of Chromatic dragons, Takhisis brutally killed two of them solely to make a point to the others. Takhisis threatened the world multiple times, ending her armies out to commit a host of atrocities with her servants enslaving whole countries in living nightmares. Takhisis betrayed all her gods by stealing the world of Krynn at the conclusion of the Chaos Wars against Father Chaos after she abandoned her followers and forced every soul of those who died into an army of the dead.
** Maladar the Faceless, the cruel emperor of Taladas. When the series begins, Maladar has been dead for centuries and is remembered in terrifying legends. Flashbacks reveal Malador was TheCaligula of the old empire who conducted ethnic cleansing, invented torturous deaths for thousands (he was particularly fond of impalement) and kept a slave boy he molested until the boy managed to poison him. After death, Maladar's influence lived on, as his soul was trapped into a small statue of his likeness. After he's revived he spreads his influence to modern Taladas, inciting brutal wars to create enough bloodshed to prepare his resurrection. His initial choice of vessel is an innocent boy, but he simply bodyjacks the boy's father instead and enslaves goblin races to send them to their deaths as a cover for him to awaken his army and conquer Taladas anew.
** Malystryx, one of the first and mightiest dragon overlords is a titanic and brutal monster who carved out territory by simply incinerating anything in her way. After settling in Krynn, Malystryx hunted down and murdered other dragons, taking their skulls and inciting a dragon purge . Using the skulls as a sinister totem, she mutated the land around her into a hellish wasteland and allied with barbarians and ogres to destroy and enslave any innocents left. Malystryx killed her own mate to complete her totem and proceeded with a genocide of the PluckyComicRelief race, the kender, only prevented by the HeroicSacrifice of the warrior Riverwind. Establishing herself as a brutal tyrant, Malys would occasionally attack random targets for her own amusement, delighting in the instinctive fear she spread. Without doubt, Malys was the most evil dragon ever to set foot in Krynn.

* DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome: Tanis is practically the poster child for the boring everyman protagonist, so much so that he gets demoted to a secondary character in the SequelSeries which focuses on EnsembleDarkhorse Raistlin as the VillainProtagonist.

* CompleteMonster: Maladar the Faceless Emperor in the Taladas Trilogy. His actions include the destruction of an entire city via tidal wave just because it's ruler ticked him off, the slaughtering of thousands of nobles' sons so he could [[BloodBath bathe in their blood]], and a general love of inflicting pain in all its forms- and that's just in the ''backstory''. The author who created him (who had also written books featuring [[EvilSorcerer Fistandantilus]] and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Malystryx]]) called Maladar the most evil character he had ever written. His [[AndIMustScream final fate]] is well-deserved.
** While most of the other major villains are given some backstory or motivation, Emperor Ariakas has all the signs of being a true psychopath. Of course, he probably got it from [[AbusiveParents his father]]...

** Personally, this troper has to disagree with the original post, as I found Tasslehoff extremely irritating as soon as I got past the original trilogy. The Legends and War of Souls trilogies seemed like they were really meddling in contrivance to get Tasslehoff in as a character, when his actions usually only served to be obstacles for the other heroes.

* AuthorTract: The blatant insistence that the viewpoint "the gods were abandoned by mortals" is right and "the gods turned their backs on mortals" is wrong takes on some rather interesting undertones when one remembers that both of the Hickmans, the creators of the settings and one-half the authors of the original trilogy are devout Christians (well, specifically Mormons).

* CanonDiscontinuity: A lot of things are brought out in one novel, only to then be officially banned from continuity in another. Two of the most famous examples; the short story implying that Raistlin was courted by, and fathered a daughter upon, a female Irda (a member of the Ogre race before their fall to Takhisis), and Lord Soth being a Darklord in {{Ravenloft}}.

* ManipulativeBastard: Kitiara Uth Matar.

** Let's not forget the elves, overall (with a few exceptions, like Laurana). For a race supposed to embody the virtues of goodness they sure are dicks. Figures, considering said gods of good created them.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Happens with the Gods of Evil, and Raistlin.

** Then there's [[HeterosexualLifePartners Flint and Tasselhoff]]. They even shared a house while living in Solace. Tasselhoff is utterly heartbroken at Flint's death and is only comforted when he learns that Flint is in his own private {{Heaven}} which he [[HeartwarmingMoment reserved to share with Tas when he dies]].