Very true, but many of those other sources are flawed as well. Perhaps I should have said that we're using Strahd's original story, as can be gleaned from many points of view. I don't believe Strahd's silly "It wasn't me, it was the one-armed man!" shtick, but FtS was written before IS, and IS includes details that have since also been canonized, such as a certain vampire sorcerer who is still entombed up in the Balinoks as of Gaz 1.Rotipher wrote:Just remember that much of "I, Strahd" is his propaganda, not the literal truth. We know from other sources -- sources, that aren't first-person claims by a darklord who's recalling what he's convinced himself happened four centuries back, even when he's not lying outright -- that much of his recounting of events is incorrect; for instance, he really DID slaughter most of the (innocent) wedding guests himself, because we saw him doing so in "From The Shadows".
The truth, I think, is somewhere in between. I find the Tome of Strahd incredibly fishy where it says that Strahd's own guards shot him full of arrows--why would they turn on their master? IS clears this up.
Despite the problems with using I, Strahd, the bottom line was, if you're going to make a Ravenloft movie, you've got to start at the heart of what Ravenloft is, and IMNSHO that's with the words, "I am the ancient, I am the land...." Without that, nothing else really makes sense.