Originally Posted by TheHero
Originally Posted by Blackheifer
So I wanted to jump back to a question I proposed initially. The Article discusses how - after a backlash - Salvatore decided to do the right thing and add in additional material showing that the Drow were not inherently evil.

So if the Drow deserve this sort of re-write, why not Orcs, or Goblins? Is there an underlying factor that would favor one of these groups over the other two?

Is it just because the Drow are so popular?

Drizzt is his breakthrough Character, which might explain why hes talking bout new books with those other Drow Races to show what actual studies in real world came up with.
People who read books identify themselves in the reading process with characters. And as Drizzt is the most important one and is black, you can guess why its about Drow.
Thats why other Races are not in the Talk, but we can assume its the same for other races and Drow is our example Race

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With that in mind its totally possible to imply that Mr. Salvatore learned about those studies and wants to reflect this in his new books.
Kickstarted maybe by his Fanletters from people who are not so happy that even Drizzt has changed to be a good person all other Drows are seen inherently evil.
And him (Fan) beeing a human, with how do i say this "colored, black skin tone" (like Drows are described), his experience in life is that f.e. black colored humans have suffered a lot
and prejudices against black people arent gone from this world yet, makes him sad.

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Mr. Salvatore "grew" and as he had influenced/inspired a lot of us Fantasy/Scifi fans its good to take responsibility as an author.
Future books from Mr. Salvatore will still inspire, but they will surely less inspire you to learn how to make racist tropes just by having read his books.
Which never where books to be misused for learning racism. They where books with good characters and story and all what happened to write about for a story.
But in that time when those books where written, our Society and language / wording was not ready yet to be an important part of leaving behind prejudices, racism, etc you name it.

I think what I am getting at is I do NOT see the Drow as ever representing any POC (people of color) group. I would argue that the Drow don't represent ANY race - or if they do they represent a subset of Caucasians. From my observations and reading they seem to represent Neo-fascism and Nazism with some modifications to make it a little less obvious to some.

They have flipped the standard Nazi, and Italian neo-fascist movements gender roles to create a society that is female-dominated.

Lolth can be seen as a totalitarian dictator composite of several figures.

Additional proofs:
-The Drow practice eugenics and racial engineering with the goal being superficial beauty markers that dictate social class and give advantage against others.
-Economic and social participation is sanctioned by the church.
-Duty, elevation and conquest are central to the Drow which is lifted straight from La dottrina del fascismo (The Doctrine of Facism)
-Drow society rejects the individual and individualism.
-The Drow routinely mutilate, torture, murder and enslave those they consider enemies of the state and unacceptable lesser races.

Again, this is just my analysis - other people may come to different conclusions but I don't think I am wrong. A lot of people point to Drizzt having black skin as the only proof needed, but Drow in general have a range of skin colors from whitish purple (Viconia and Minthara) all the way to dark purple. The Drow as POC assertion feels like a superficial analysis based only on a subset of skin colors and nothing else.

So given this very strong possibility.

If the Drow do indeed represent Neo-fascism how does that reflect on the actions of R. A. Salvatore?

Blackheifer