Courtney’s Comments (group member since Jan 09, 2024)

Courtney’s comments from the The Forgotten Realms Fanclub group.

Feel free to drop your own observations!

This is stuff that stood out to me. I'm tempted to do a re-watch with a notebook on hand...

I think the writers made a great decision in placing HAT in "late 1490s DR". It's an unknown and murky part of the FR history, and it saved them from fans like me, who find joy in nitpicking. :)

Using the fanwiki and Wikipedia page against my memory, I found that the movie is more well-done than I initially thought!

Edgin & Holga travel ~2100 miles which would take them a bit more than two months. Fans' best guess at the date of the High Sun Games is sometime in Eleasis, therefore the movie would begin in Mirtul. A feasible timeline given the weather in the movie!

Edgin is a bard.
Unfortunately, it's canon. I liked the fan theories that he was a rogue with proficiency in a musical instrument. Alas, not even one Vicious Mockery on screen. Admittedly, he did have exceptional Charisma. I suppose his speech before the climax of the movie was Bardic Inspiration. In the same vein, obviously Doric's druid class doesn't align with RAW either; we've all heard the Owlbear argument, and additionally, the number of Wild Shape uses implies she's an Archdruid. Her only spell I can recall off the top of my head is the Magic Stone cantrip. Maybe she joined the party for the laughs?
I have yet to read Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid's Call, a prequel centred around Doric, so maybe there's something in there for me to learn.

Elminster Aumar is a black guy and a white guy.
Baldur's Gate 3's depiction of Elminster is a white guy with blue eyes. This isn't necessarily a point against the movie as much as I'm pointing out the discrepancy.
I would theorize that, if Simon had never met Elminster, that maybe this was his own invented depiction of him (given that the vision then becomes his own face). However, it's canon that the man he sees in his attempts to attune is an image of Elminster in the ethereal plane.
I have no opinion on which one is more right than the other! Just that the two depictions don't match up. Both things released in the same year and probably had a similar project timeline, so how would they know to compare notes? I doubt the relevant decision-makers were even aware of each other lmao.

The Red Wizards of Thay were a problem for over a century.
I love a good tie-in.
From 1375-1385, a single Red Wizard (Szass Tam, mentioned by name in the movie) did a coup and Thay fell into a Civil War. Until the movie takes place, he made several attempts to gain more power over Thay. "Somehow" the Harpers snatched his red horn and transported it to the Sword Coast. (Not totally sure why he wanted to take over Neverwinter, on the opposite side of the Sea of Fallen stars. But whatever - divide and conquer I guess?)
I first read about the Red Wizards a while ago when I was looking into the Daggerford's part in the Second Dragonspear War. Ah! It's an ocean of lore and I'm delighted to see that the movie tapped into it!

Xenk is over 100 years old.
Xenk was at the Beckoning Death event in Thay. He's a human, and looks to be, idk, 8 years old? So at the time of the movie he'd be almost 120 years old. "Despite his holiness, Xenk's close brush with undeath left him aging slower than a human otherwise should. This gave him great longevity—he grew to be more than a century old." This is pretty open-ended; "more than a century" gives me the impression that he's nearing the end of his lifespan in the movie.

Themberchaud was a dragon of the Underdark.
Before he moved to Dolblunde (where the party gets the Helm), his lair was in was Gracklstugh, a duergar city. He was a Wyrmsith - the job of young red dragons to keep the forges hot. The duergar "kept him happy, rich, and fat". Historically, the duergar would kill the Wyrmsmith before it got too big and powerful to replace it with a hatchling.
Unfortunately, the only explanation for him being able to move hundreds of miles from Gracklstugh to Dolblunde is that he "somehow escaped his captivity, for he appeared in the faraway ruins of the gnome city of Dolblunde"

Xenk's role was originally going to be Drizzt Do'Urden.
It's not really lore-related. I just like the idea :) Xenk's dialogue would've looked good on him. It probably explains why Xenk is my favourite next to Themberchaud.
Drizzt's character was removed due to the controversy surrounding drow elves. Probably for the best.

I really appreciate how meticulous the team was with getting the details right, or at least inventing details that aren't wrong! The inaccuracies are so inconsequential, and of course I understand that telling a good story sometimes means being a little generous with the specifics.
I think the biggest crime was Doric's character. The Wild Shape debacle was blatant to thousands of people. As good as Wild Shape looks on screen, I would have been more satisfied if the writers had to work around the limitations that I have to as a player.
But, like, who cares what I think lmaooooo. I saw it 3 times in theatres. Obviously my complaints don't outweigh my excitement!

I have sources for all of these quotes and references, but apparently "For the safety of our members, links to other sites are not allowed in comments." Duly noted! Apologies for any hanging tags that I missed deleting.

Bonus: Watch in real time as I realize that I was hella wrong about something:

Holga said the Tribe of the Elk were buried in the Evermoors.
In 1485 DR, the Tribe "lived in peace with [the] citizens [of Ten Towns]".
The Evermoors are 400 miles away... Why would her ancestors be buried there??
Battle of the Evermoors took place in 1400 ohhhhhhhhh my god Holga is from the Elk Tribe not the Tribe of the Elk. I am a fool.

There are a handful, but the one that takes the cake is from EXILE (#2) . We probably all know what I'm referring to.

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The scenario was grim enough as it was. His mind was deteriorating. He would lose himself occasionally, and then with increasing frequency. He accidentally sabotaged his cure by lashing out in anger/fear. Drizzt was willing to risk it all to get into Sorcere. And then it ended so unceremoniously. He was caught unawares and alone. Drizzt was just out of reach. And it was Zak..............................................
My gut? Wrenched. I'm pretty sure I almost threw up. It was so unexpected and horrible. I don't think I'll ever get over it.

What were some moments from the series that have stuck with you?

(Be sure to tag spoilers! eg: "Spoiler: The Legacy (#7)")

Hello fellow nerds! This is the place for introductions.

I'll go first:

I'm Courtney and I live and breathe D&D. When my partner recommended the Legend of Drizzt in 2020, I had no idea the two were related! It was a pleasant surprise. I fell head over heels in love with the series.
I started writing a fanfic when something in the books annoyed me, and since I want to be as accurate as I can, I am up to my eyeballs in the fanwiki.

I'd love to share this space with folks who are also passionate about the monolith of lore!