Similarities between Obould (from Drizzt books) and Redcloak [Minor spoilers]

[Zarhan]

I decided on one day to start reading all the Drizzt books from the start. I mean, I loved them way back in high school and kept purchasing them as series progressed, but didn't really ever try to read through them all one go. Finding that the characters and things like drow society are still quite interesting. Although I have to say that when there's a battle scene, I usually just skim it until the combatants either banter (you can just seek until next quotation marks) or when there's some special decisive manoeuver that ends the scene.

Anyway, I then ran into the Hunter Blades trilogy, and especially the main antagonist, Obould. But holy similarities Batman! I kind of had to keep wondering if RA Salvatore and/or Rich were influenced by each other. I mean, these all apply to both Redcloak and Obould. The last book with heavy focus on Obould (Orc King) came out in 2007...exactly around the time when OotS was going through the battle with Azure City.

• Blessed/working in close cooperation with their god, with god-blessed artifact-level equipment.
  
  • Redcloak has...red cloak
  • Obould has Gruumsh-blessed armor and armaments
• Both have epiphanies about just going with We Have Reserves and slaughtering their armies
  
  • Redcloak https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0451.html
  • Obould after direct attack on Mithral hall has failed
• Both (and in Obould's case, their descedant) are miffed about the fact that their kin is still looked down
• Both warm up to the idea of formalizing relationships with other races/countries (Obould actually goes though with it, on OotS we'll probably see something like that in the epilogue)
• Both are working with seriously Chaotic Evil partners (Redloack with Xykon, Obould with a bunch of religious zealots)

Of course, having an orc with a bit more depth than a walking sack of XP is not exactly an original idea, but still found the similarities rather striking, especially considering the timeframe involved.

Also, I liked Obould for the reason that he is the first antagonist ever to win against the Mary Sue-ish Drizzt so the books didn't follow the standard "Drizzt kicks ass in the end"-standard.

[KorvinStarmast]

I mean, these all apply to both Redcloak and Obould. The last book with heavy focus on Obould (Orc King) came out in 2007...exactly around the time when OotS was going through the battle with Azure City.

Orc leaders in Warcraft II. With names. In the 90's.
Orc leaders with more story, and with names, Warcraft III, in July of 2002. (Thrall, among others).
Won't mention the WH 40K influences...so I doubt that Rich's story had any influence.
But you never know...

[t209]

Orc leaders in Warcraft II. With names. In the 90's.
Orc leaders with more story, and with names, Warcraft III, in July of 2002. (Thrall, among others).
Won't mention the WH 40K influences...so I doubt that Rich's story had any influence.
But you never know...

Definitely Obould might be RA Salvatore riding on Thrall’s popularity.