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Reflections on "Raistlin's Farewell"	By : Moongirl Category: A through F > Dragonlance Views: 2411 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the book(s) that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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A Reflection on “Raistlin’s Farewell”

“Caramon, the gods have tricked the world
In absences, in gifts, and all of us
Are housed within their cruelties. The wit
That was our heritage, they lodged in me,
Enough to see all differences: the light
In Tika’s eye when she looks elsewhere,
The tremble in Laurana’s voice when she
Speaks to Tanis, and the graceful sweep
Of Goldmoon’s hair at Riverwind’s approach.
They look at me, and even with your mind
I could discern the difference. Here I sit,
A body frail as bird bones.
This is easily Raistlin’s reaction to those around him. But it’s interesting to note he only mentions the women, not the opinions of men, and how they gain the attention of the men they are attracted to. Tika “looking elsewhere” is a reference to her looking at his brother when he wanted her attention. “Even with your mind” means it doesn’t take much to see the difference in how he’s regarded by them. It’s also interesting ho he still puts himself down. He knows the women look at him with pity, and he echoes it in his depreciation of himself.

In return
The gods teach us compassion, teach us mercy,
That compensation. Sometimes they succeed,
For I have felt the hot spit of injustice
Turn through those too weak to fight their brothers
For sustenance or love, and in that feeling
The pain lolled and diminished to a glow,
I pitied as you pitied, and in that
Rose above the weakest of the litter.
Here he states because of how he’s been treated by others, he did learn compassion. He spent most of his life doing just that (gully dwarves – notably Bupu, a poor Solamnic boy, for examples). But he has the compassion for the outcasts and the downtrodden; only for those that went trhough the same rejections as he did. Reading through the series, he was the only one that felt compassion for the rejects of society, and in doing so, he became better than those that were fighting the war on the side of Good.

You, my brother, in your thoughtless grace,
That special world in which the sword arm spins
The wild arc of ambition and the eye
Gives flawless guidance to the to the flawless hand,
You cannot follow me, cannot observe
The landscape of cracked mirrors in the soul,
The aching hollowness in sleight of hand.
He reiterates that Caramon can’t go where he’s going because their worlds are too different now. He enforces the fact that his brother’s talent is in the sword, drawing the picture of how easily he can work the blade. Raistlin feels that he can compensate the emptiness inside with true magic, and his brother can’t understand what he really wanted in life. Yes, his brother loved him, but that wasn’t the love he was looking for. “Cracked mirrors in the soul” is the shattered remains of his heart, knowing the women he mentioned before would never look at him the way they look at the other men. “Hollowness in sleight of hand” can, on the surface, mean that simple parlor tricks mean nothing to him. Or, on track with his theme through this letter, he’s been feigning indifference at the women’s rejection of him. It did hurt him.

And yet you love me, simple as the rush
And balance of our blindly mingled blood, .
Or as a hot sword arching through the snow:
It is the mutual need that puzzles you,
The deep complexity lodged in the veins.
Wild in the dance of battle, when you stand,
A shield before your brother, it is then
Your nourishment arises from the heart
Of all my weaknesses.
He knows that his brother should act the same as his friends, but doesn’t. Raistlin presents the love Car has has for him is nothing more than instinct, to protect his weaker other half. He presents that this instinct has become the purpose in his life, instead of finding his own place in the world. I love his imagery of sword play. It’s like he could see the beauty in how a sword is arched by a proficient hand. It shows he had an appreciation for such skill, but it’s not a skill he could obtain for himself.

When I am gone,
Where will you find the fullness of your blood?
Backed in the heart’s loud tunnels?
“What would you do if something were to happen to me? I’m your only purpose in life. What do you do when everything in your life is gone?”

I have heard
The Queen’s soft lullaby, Her serenade
And call to battle mingling in the night;
This music calls me to my quiet throne
Deep in Her senseless kingdom.
Could he be foreshadowing his own ambition of conquering Takhisis and taking her place in the Abyss? If he wrote this during the time when he was in the Dark Queen’s army, it could be said that he was seduced into the darkness. But reading it, one can only guess that he means he has felt the power of a god, and that is what he truly wants to feel fulfilled. He did slam the door in Her face after all at the end of the war. I don’t think he would be praising the god that he thwarted. Though I’m sure when others read this (the Companions) they read it as the former reason.

Dragonlords
Thought to bring the darkness into light,
Corrupt it with the mornings and the moons –
In balance is all purity destroyed,
But in voluptuous darkness lies the truth,
The final, graceful dance.
Here he states the purpose of the war – to bring evil into power. He also states that the others didn’t fight so that good would win over, but to bring back the Balance which the world needs to survive. The truth in darkness could mean that no matter what you do, the “final, graceful dance” is death. His, possibly, to the world.

But not for you:
You cannot follow me into the night,
Into the maze of sweetness. For you stand
Cradled by the sun, in solid lands,
Expecting nothing, having lost your way
Before the road became unspeakable.
Caramon is incorruptible. There is too much good and love in him to be able to survive what Raistlin must do to achieve his ambition.

It is beyond explaining, and the words
Will make you stumble. Tanis is your friend,
My little orphan, and he will explain
These things he glimpses in the shadow’s path,
For he knew Kitiara and the shine
Of the dark moon upon her darkest hair,
And yet he cannot threaten, for the night
Breathes in a moist wind on my waiting face.
Seems even Raistlin cannot put into words what comfort he found in finding his path in the world. He instructs his brother to have Tanis explain the lure of the darkness because he’s been tempted by it through their half-sister. If Tanis was to become angry that Raistlin turned to the darkness, his protests would be in vain. Seems that he must have felt some respect for the half-elf, and knew that he would try to do something to deter him from this path. He wouldn’t listen to pleas to come back, because he found his lover in the dark magic.

I hope you enjoyed this interpretation of one of the more touching letters written in the Dragonlance series. It easily shows proof to the caring and loving side of Raistlin as he tries to explain his decision to leave and follow the path that accepted him. This letter can be found at the end of “Dragons of Spring Dawning”.
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Reflections on "Raistlin's Farewell"