One of the more important characters in the Dragonlance books relating to the Heroes of the Lance.

After starting in on magic when Raistlin was young, he moves on to being a powerful mage with red robes.

Even later he dons the black robes with his smiting of Fistandantilus, eventually challenging the Dark Queen, Takhisis.

Character in DragonLance saga.

Raistlin is twin brother to Caramon Majere and half-brother to Kitiara uth Matar. From the beginning, he was very weak; the midwife suggested that he would be best off left to die, but his sister Kitiara decided to fight and save him. She always referred to this as "my first fight was against Death, and I won".

Although Raistlin was, according to Margaret Weis, based on character made up on fly by Terry Phillips for D&D session, he was built to a stereotype of modern geek at worst. Raistlin was highly intelligent yet shunned by peers due to his appearance, nasty nature and, of course, his intelligence. He got bitter, and after few more attempts and normalizing his life were crushed, he vowed to "show them all".

And, like all bitter and lonely kids wished to be, he lived up to his plan. He love-hated his brother, was jealous to him due to Caramon's popularity, and sheltered himself from the society by making himself believe he is above everyone. Abusing the aid from his brother and his brother's friends who followed him, Raistlin gained power until he could stand on his own, after which he abandoned without a word of thanks those who had helped him to continue his plan to "show them all" - to ascend to godhood. In the end, as he was about to succeed, he gave up just in time as he saw what the results would have been, and saved mankind with his sacrifice instead.

Although sympathetic may not be the first word to associate him with, countless nerds and others have taken up his name or variation of it in honor of Raistlin (and possible hopes of becoming like him). I believe his story was made by Margaret with similar intentions to those of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Ikari, to create a prototype of certain type of people, to show them where their attitude would eventually lead them.

What I feel makes Raistlin such a popular character among many Dragonlance fans is the way he is an anti-hero, a creature filled with cunning, ambition, pride and hatred, but yet having streaks of goodness show through the dark exterior, making us wonder if what lies within him is really as evil as he seems to be.

For example, his friendship with the gully dwarf, and the way he treated her far better than any of the other Companions. Where the people we would consider the embodiment of Good were poking fun at what they perhaps considered beneath them in status, he considered her a fellow being and was not condescending in his manner at all.

Of course, as we progress through Legends, we find Raistlin getting more and more evil, and perhaps begin to hate him somewhat. But interestingly, in me at least, the feeling was that of losing hope in him... right from the beginning, I could feel that he was not a villain; that he could become a great person. And so, seeing his slide to the black robes evoked a feeling of being betrayed, perhaps how Caramon felt as well.

In the end, however, we find out that our hopes on him were right after all, and he becomes one of the greatest Heroes of the Lance, because it is one thing to fight an enemy and defeat it, and another to fight against yourself and finally break through to give the ultimte sacrifice.

Perhaps we see some of Raistlin in all of us... nobody is perfect, and Raistlin is as imperfect as you can get. The dark urges that go through all of our minds exist in him too; he is no righteous paladin who is always virtuous and never selfish. Raistlin is an example of a flawed person who has human desires and urges, a hero we can easily relate to.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.