I'm on this discord server with like 20 other people who all play DnD with the same GM. Dude runs at least 3 campaigns at all times, he's a beast of a GM, but that isn't the point.
Point is, it's also a fun little community of DnD nerds but we do have a couple of people who occasionally comment that they hate Kender and Tasselhoff Burrfoot in particular.
If you don't know what a kender is, and you don't know Tas, I have no idea why you would be reading this but I will fill you in. If you do, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
Kender are a humanoid race in the "Dragonlance" fantasy novels. They are shorter than humans (or elves or dwarves) but typically slightly built. They are a lot like hobbits, except that kender don't feel fear and have no sense of property rights. They just steal stuff, not because they're greedy, but almost as a compulsion. They don't think about it, they just absentmindedly pick pockets or shoplift or whatever. Tasslefhoff Burrfoot is a character in the Dragonlance books. He's a kender, so he tends to "find" a lot of items that other people "lost."
So the typical complaint is that Tasslehoff is a joke character, that kender are an annoying race, and that the whole thing should have been dropped kicked out of the franchise and thrown into the sun. Because people see the "you must have dropped that" part of Tas and they don't see anything else.
This is an extraordinarily shallow reading of the character, of course. I would argue that in the original series, no character goes through as many changes as Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Here's an example quote of how his worldview changes:
Something had changed inside Tas. He would never again be like other kender. Through grief, he had come to know fear; fear not for himself but for others. He decided right now that he would rather die himself than lose anyone else he loved.
Okay. You see that, right? This character changes so much that a part of him will be forever separated from his home, from the culture he grew up it. These are young adult books, coming of age stories. Tas is the one who comes of age.
So if people think the character is shallow or one-dimensional, it's because they just can't see past that one dimension. They are stuck seeing kender the way that most people in the world of the books see kender: as lazy, thieving pests.
Some strong feelings towards fantasy races is pretty common. For example, I'm pretty annoyed by JRR Tolkien's elves. They're just so... perfect. They live forever, they're smarter than everyone else, better looking than everyone else, and they know it. They think they are better than other people because they are better than other people. Gross.
But, you know, give me a specific elf and I'll judge that elf on the basis of their behavior, not on the shape of their ears. Legolas is a great character and I would happily buy the man a beer at The Prancing Pony.
We have a word in the real world for people who can't see people as themselves, but can only see them as stereotypes based on their origin.
When it comes to kender, and especially to Tasslehoff Burrfoot. This really, really bother me. Much more than it should. I mean, what do I care if other people like or don't like a character I like or don't like? I'm not the character.
Except I sort of am, in the case of Tas. Because to me, his kleptomania is a standin for my neurodiversity. His trouble was my trouble.
Because remember, Tas doesn't steal because he's greedy. Kender don't have much of a property sense. They really only own what they're wearing and their sling-staffs. Kender don't lock their doors, they consider it impolite to be protective about mere things. He doesn't consciously lift things, he just does it. Most of the time, he doesn't know what he took or who he took it from. He never tries to keep anything that someone asks for.
Tasselhoff tries. He tries to follow these rules but he can't internalize them, they never become second nature. So if he isn't constantly vigilant over his behavior, he'll act normally (for a kender) and that will cause trouble and then someone will yell at him.
If you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.
What's even harder is that sometimes his friends want him to pick a lock or a pocket and while he's happy to do so, it's pretty clear that there are times when it is okay to be a kender, and times when it is not okay to be a kender... and he has trouble knowing what the difference is.
Again, if you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.
And I guess that's the thing that really bothers me about all the hate toward kender in general and Tasslehoff in particular. It feels personal. They're saying it isn't okay to be a kender, but I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be neurodivergent. They say it isn't okay to be Tas, and I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be me.
