Off The TBR Dragons of Autumn Twilight Read Along discussion

Last week we had a good discussion of Goldmoon and how she was presented compared to other characters in the book, especially as she was the only female character in the group thus far. Any new thoughts about her now that she's taken on a new role (character class)?

I think Cleric is a good class for her. At times she seems to struggle with being a leader, but I'm interested to see how she does with her new role!

I definitely liked Goldmoon's portrayal more in this section. We see some of her background with Riverwind, start to grasp a bit of what she's been through, and we see her step forward with courage and calm in the face of things that terrify the other, more experienced, members of the party. It's great!

I'm probably going to be odd woman out here, but I'm kind of bummed she's alive. I honestly can't remember any of this book from my previous read, so when I read her sacrifice scene, I was kind of imagining this was about to take a Boromir turn and we'd lose one of our number "for the greater good." This has already dealt so well with other mental health issues, and was even starting to discuss death/suicide, which I can't recall ever having read in a book before, that I was really eager to see it handle grief firsthand.

I don't WANT Goldmoon dead, but there's a certain kind of element that losing a character adds to a story. It ups the stakes. Right now, I don't feel any stakes whatsoever because she's fine, they made it out of the city, and we still haven't seen this great big army. And now she feels untouchable. You can't hurt her if she's already escaped death once, so I've almost stopped worrying about her.

I actually think one of the weak points of this section is the inability for the good guys to die. Riverwind gets brought back/uber healed. Goldmoon. It begins to have the feel of...welp. If a good guy gets horribly injured and/or killed, no worries. They're coming back.

So Calvin...you're feeling better about Goldmoon's portrayal now? Does her finally having a character class make that happen or is it something else?

I too felt the resurrection of both Goldmoon and Riverwind seemed like too much of a pass for the group at first. But as I thought about it the situation with Riverwind shows the power of Mishakal and the staff to the party in a time of deep dispair and the situation with Goldmoon is kind of a statement and response about her faith and how it has developed. For Goldmoon I think it is more directly a statement about her faith in the gods and Mishakal that becomes a model for others and a way of saying things have changed...here's what is returning to the world. So maybe both were necessary and not just an easy do over. Or I could be stretching things too far.

I think it would be better to say that, after her initial introduction which amounted to "female, beautiful, princess." We've now seen her character fleshed out in some more satisfying directions. She's probably the best leader in the group, other than Tanis. And she is finding faith in a way that is interesting and convincing. That sort of relates to her character class (cleric), but I think it's actually separate from it.

That's a fair way to look at the resurrection stuff. I can agree that it serves those purposes. But it also makes it feel like the group has a pass on lasting harm, a side-effect, maybe, but still something that I think lessens the dramatic tension.

Great discussion about the pros and cons of killing off a character. I like the idea of ‘upping the ante’ but also see value in keeping the crew together.