Dragonlance/YMMV

• Adaptation Displacement: The Chronicles Trilogy were originally just meant to be Tie-In Novels to the Dungeons and Dragons gaming modules, but thanks to the Chronicles Trilogy's massive popularity, even more novels were written by both Weis & Hickman and other authors as well. Now it has gotten to the point where there are quite a few Dragonlance fans who have no idea there is even a game tied to the novels.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Ariakan actually dies offscreen as it were but when Steel finds his wound covered body we get a touching scene.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Happens with the Gods of Evil, and Raistlin.
• Broken Base: Fandom tends to be divided on either side of the Dragons of Summer Flame novel. On one hand, you have the old schoolers who generally refuse to accept anything that isn't connected to the original Heroes of the Lance and the original Chronicles and Legends trilogies. On the other hand, there are those who consider the Fifth Age a bold and innovative step away from the original characters and consider the first group to be hopelessly clinging to the past. For their part, the first group considers the Fifth Agers to have discarded everything that made the series popular in the first place. Both groups, however, almost universally revile Mina and her Cosmic Retcon Army, which over the course of a single trilogy managed to systematically destroy everything even remotely connected to the Fifth Age and return it to the status quo. Old school fans were slightly mollified, though even they were struck by the sheer meanness of it, reading between the lines that the entire War of Souls was an Author's Saving Throw writ large.
• Canon Discontinuity: A lot of things are brought out in one novel, only to then be officially banned from continuity in another. Two of the most famous examples; the short story implying that Raistlin was courted by, and fathered a daughter upon, a female Irda (a member of the Ogre race before their fall to Takhisis), and Lord Soth being a Darklord in Ravenloft
• Complete Monster: Maladar the Faceless Emperor in the Taladas Trilogy. His actions include the destruction of an entire city via tidal wave just because it's ruler ticked him off, the slaughtering of thousands of nobles' sons so he could bathe in their blood, and a general love of inflicting pain in all its forms- and that's just in the backstory. The author who created him (who had also written books featuring Fistandantilus and Malystryx) called Maladar the most evil character he had ever written. His final fate is well-deserved.
  • While most of the other major villains are given some backstory or motivation, Emperor Ariakas has all the signs of being a true psychopath. Of course, he probably got it from his father...
• Draco in Leather Pants: Raistlin. Dalamar. Lord Soth.
  • Dalamar may actually be a subversion or inversion, as it's not clear what he's done to be called evil other than wear black.
  • Chemosh's character design in the Dark Disciple trilogy seems to be made to invoke this trope.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Raistlin. Also, to a lesser extent, Dalamar and Kitiara.
  • To say nothing of Kang, Slith and The Doom Brigade, who's popularity lead to an unplanned short story, two novels, and an appearance in Vanished Moon. Slith made a solo cameo in Highlord Skies and Hourglass Mage as well.
  • Lord Soth. Even Margaret Weis has said she has to use him sparingly in order to resist the temptation to let him take over the story.
• Designated Hero: The Gods of Good... really aren't that good, in a lot of ways. See Jerkass Gods on the main page. More than one reader thinks Straw Man Has a Point when somebody like Tanis proclaims that the gods don't deserve mortal worship and that the gods were the ones who abandoned the people rather than vice versa.
• Epileptic Trees: The theory that Raistlin was really a woman.
• Evil Is Sexy: Kitiara. At least Tanis (and a bunch of other guys, including one who's quite dead), seems to think so...
  • Not to mention Raistlin and Dalamar.
  • One Takhisis's forms is the Dark Temptress... although atypically for a female god of evil, it's not a form she appears in very often throughout the series, being more inclined to appear as a five-headed dragon.
  • Chemosh can also make himself to appear quite handsome when he wants to be.
• God Mode Sue: If you don't think Mina was following this trope like a checklist, you've been reading the wrong book. A rare example of this trope justified, as she had a god on her side, later revealed to be Takhisis, with no other gods to keep Takhisis' powers in check. And then it turned out that Mina herself was a goddess.
• Growing the Beard: Chronicles is a solid but unspectacular High Fantasy epic. Legends, the next trilogy, is a character-driven drama about family, the nature of evil, and Time Travel that cements Raistlin as one of the best Magnificent Bastards in modern fantasy literature. Easy to see why it's considered the high point of the whole saga, and one of the classics of the genre.
• Ho Yay: Many possible instances, but blatantly Raistlin and Dalamar - the Master/Apprentice relationship, the fact that they're both scrawny, evil bishounen wizards, the passionate way Dalamar refers to his "Shalafi", and who could forget Raistlin burning his fingerprints into Dalamar's chest to punish his betrayal. Whew.
  • That was actually played for laughs in this comic.
  • If it weren't for the fact that they're brothers, Raistlin and Caramon would have this in spades. It still doesn't stop some people.
  • Then there's Flint and Tasselhoff. They even shared a house while living in Solace. Tasselhoff is utterly heartbroken at Flint's death and is only comforted when he learns that Flint is in his own private Heaven which he reserved to share with Tas when he dies.
• Jerkass Woobie: Raistlin.
  • Chemosh got some fans feeling genuinely sorry for him in the Dark Disciple trilogy, but he is still a God of Evil who would turn every living soul into an undead creature that serves him if he could.
• Magnificent Bastard: Raistlin Majere.
  • Jaymes Markham from the "Rise of Solamnia" Trilogy and Golgren from "The Minotaur Wars" and the "Ogre Titans" Trilogy may also count.
  • Fistandantilus, especially in the Kingpriest books. It's harder to see in the main storyline, because Raistlin is better at it.
• Manipulative Bastard: Kitiara Uth Matar.
• Mary Sue: Mina is arguably a deconstruction.
  • Subverted by Usha. She is unusually beautiful, but most of the other reasons people think she's special are either misconceptions or outright deception, and she has very little innate magical ability.
• Moral Event Horizon: From Raistlin, "Farewell, Revered Daughter. I need you no longer" Or, before that, agreeing to let the dark dwarves have his brother's head. Or before that leaving his brother to die on a ship. Guy seems to do this a lot, at least until he dies to keep Takhisis locked up.
• Only the Author Can Save Them Now: Against the armies of evil.
• The Scrappy: Tasselhoff has all the hallmarks of one of these, but somehow manages to be genuinely likable despite (or because) of his annoying habits and constant meddling in the story. However, other stories with Expy Kender characters usually fall head over heels into this trope.
  • There are also large sections of the fanbase that intensely dislike Crysania, Usha, and Mina.
  • The races of Kender, Gully Dwarves and Gnomes are often this. All are intended to be Comic Relief races, but many instead find them just annoying for the traits that are supposed to be funny -- Kender are a race of childlike, Curious as a Monkey kleptomaniacal Fearless Fools, Gully Dwarves are dity, ugly, slovenly, and so stupid that they can't count past two, and Gnomes are Motor Mouthed Bungling Inventors who fail to grasp concepts such as simplicity in technology and actually prize failure over success. Kender are particularly hated amongst the tabletop gaming sect because their racial description gives them borderline carte blanche to be played as Chaotic Stupid.
• Seinfeld Is Unfunny: The books are sometimes criticized for being one more cliched sword-and-sorcery series built on the D&D model. This was not the case when the Chronicles first saw print.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: A lot of fans did not like the changes that came with the Fifth Age. Some fans of the Fifth Age books and SAGA RPG did not like the changes made by the War of Souls trilogy.
• Unfortunate Implications: A lot of fans feel that Gully Dwarves are a race made to make fun of the mentally retarded.
• Values Dissonance: Par Salian, head of the order of White Robes, the supposedly do-gooder mages. He curses Raistlin and gives him "Eyes of Decay", for lack of a better title. Not only does he look like a freak due to having hourglass-shaped pupils, but everything he sees is crumbling and decaying as he watches, so he can't see a building, but only an ancient ruin, and living beings are nothing but ambulatory, talking, rotting corpses. This was intended to make him more compassionate- instead, it's implied that this only furthered his disassocation from humanity and pushed him towards his dreams of divine power. It's also implied that it was his decision to add an illusion of Raistlin's brother Caramon being a wizard of even greater power than Raistlin to The Test, which resulted in Raistlin jealously murdering his brother... an act that was witnessed by the real Caramon. Seriously, What is wrong with you? Hell, even his best magely friend called him on it...
• Villain Sue: Raistlin in Legends is a good example of this trope. He and the Kingpriest are the only two mortals to ever challenge the gods and win, in an alternate timeline at least, although the outcome is not exactly what Raistlin wanted.
• Wangst: Plenty of it from almost everyone at some point, but Tanis Half-Elven comes off as the greatest offender, primarily because the thing he whines the most about is his inability to choose between his Betty and Veronica relationships with two stunningly gorgeous women (one a bratty but pure-hearted elven princess and the other a wickedly sensual human warrioress)...while he's leading a party embroiled in an epic struggle for the fate of the world. Priorities, man.
  • Add to it that he's a half-elf but neither of his love interests are and you get extra Wangst owing to Mayfly-December Romance.
  • Raistlin deserves an entrance here too. Yes, his brother was more popular than him. Yes, he was bullied as a kid and has difficulties forming relationships. But still...