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By-Tor, Knight of Darkness


mrvander
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By-Tor - Knight of Darkness, Centurion of Evil, Devil's Prince

By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell. Snow Dog is victorious. The land of the overworld is saved again.

 

So clearly he's the bad guy here. I mean he had ambitions of leaving hell (across the river Styx) and doing some evil upon the overworld. Snow dog stops him at the gate (who may not be the good guy cause his eyes were shimmering with hate after all.)

 

So then why is By-Tor the GOOD guy when he fights the Necromancer? Being the Necromancer, did he summon By-Tor who he could not control and By-Tor defeated the Necromancer (whose wraith flew away to darken other lands.) So By-Tor perhaps helped these three travelers unwittingly - just a summoned demon who the necromancer could not control? Did the Necromancer loose the Knight of Darkness on the overworld after all despite Snow Dog's earlier victory? Are these stories reversed chronologically? Perhaps By-Tor was summoned by the Necromancer, then defeated by Snow Dog?

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I think of him as being a bit like Darth Vader.... Vader was first good... then bad .... then good again :)

 

Something happened in between his battle with Snowdog and when he saved the three travelers from the dungeons of The Necromancer. The other missing parts of the story are how he became bad in the first place (no one is born bad), and then what turned him back to good.

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I think of him as being a bit like Darth Vader.... Vader was first good... then bad .... then good again :)

 

Something happened in between his battle with Snowdog and when he saved the three travelers from the dungeons of The Necromancer. The other missing parts of the story are how he became bad in the first place (no one is born bad), and then what turned him back to good.

Maybe, like the "Fear" trilogy, the stories are in reverse order, and By Tor actually turned bad.

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There's a chance that I'm just making this up, but I think I read in some interviewy thing somewhere that 'The Necromancer''s 'By-Tor' was used simply because the name sounded good, fit, and was familiar. I took that it wasn't necessarily a continuation of the By-Tor legacy from Fly By Night's 'By-Tor'....

 

There is an obvious error of continuity, and if By-Tor's name was just thrown around for fun, there's a big fanbase that's scratching their collective heads over it!

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When asked about this on "Rockline," Geddy said something along the lines of, "He saw the light."

 

Neil commented, "I guess he's like all of us - sometimes good, and sometimes he's bad!" in the December 1985 Backstage Club newsletter.

 

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There's a chance that I'm just making this up, but I think I read in some interviewy thing somewhere that 'The Necromancer''s 'By-Tor' was used simply because the name sounded good, fit, and was familiar. I took that it wasn't necessarily a continuation of the By-Tor legacy from Fly By Night's 'By-Tor'....

 

There is an obvious error of continuity, and if By-Tor's name was just thrown around for fun, there's a big fanbase that's scratching their collective heads over it!

 

By-Tor and the Snowdog were nicknames for a friend's dogs, perhaps Ray's. It grew into a joke and Neil decided it was perfect for the song.

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There's a chance that I'm just making this up, but I think I read in some interviewy thing somewhere that 'The Necromancer''s 'By-Tor' was used simply because the name sounded good, fit, and was familiar. I took that it wasn't necessarily a continuation of the By-Tor legacy from Fly By Night's 'By-Tor'....

 

There is an obvious error of continuity, and if By-Tor's name was just thrown around for fun, there's a big fanbase that's scratching their collective heads over it!

 

By-Tor and the Snowdog were nicknames for a friend's dogs, perhaps Ray's. It grew into a joke and Neil decided it was perfect for the song.

 

Yeah, I'm sure i read that somewhere, too - I think maybe Howard was involved as well. The big, white dog being nicknamed as 'Snow Dog'... I'll have to dig around and see if I can find the reference....

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There's a chance that I'm just making this up, but I think I read in some interviewy thing somewhere that 'The Necromancer''s 'By-Tor' was used simply because the name sounded good, fit, and was familiar. I took that it wasn't necessarily a continuation of the By-Tor legacy from Fly By Night's 'By-Tor'....

 

There is an obvious error of continuity, and if By-Tor's name was just thrown around for fun, there's a big fanbase that's scratching their collective heads over it!

 

By-Tor and the Snowdog were nicknames for a friend's dogs, perhaps Ray's. It grew into a joke and Neil decided it was perfect for the song.

 

Yeah, I'm sure i read that somewhere, too - I think maybe Howard was involved as well. The big, white dog being nicknamed as 'Snow Dog'... I'll have to dig around and see if I can find the reference....

 

"By-Tor & the Snow Dog" was inspired by Rush roadie Howard Ungerleider's story of him staying at Anthem records manager Ray Danniels' house, where Danniels' German Shepherd growled at him, and a tiny dog also owned by Danniels tried to jump on him. Ungerleider told Rush about it and they thought it was hilarious."

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By-Tor - Knight of Darkness, Centurion of Evil, Devil's Prince

By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell. Snow Dog is victorious. The land of the overworld is saved again.

 

So clearly he's the bad guy here. I mean he had ambitions of leaving hell (across the river Styx) and doing some evil upon the overworld. Snow dog stops him at the gate (who may not be the good guy cause his eyes were shimmering with hate after all.)

 

So then why is By-Tor the GOOD guy when he fights the Necromancer? Being the Necromancer, did he summon By-Tor who he could not control and By-Tor defeated the Necromancer (whose wraith flew away to darken other lands.) So By-Tor perhaps helped these three travelers unwittingly - just a summoned demon who the necromancer could not control? Did the Necromancer loose the Knight of Darkness on the overworld after all despite Snow Dog's earlier victory? Are these stories reversed chronologically? Perhaps By-Tor was summoned by the Necromancer, then defeated by Snow Dog?

 

Was the T-Rex the good guy at the end of Jurassic Park when he attacked the raptors thus allowing the people to escape?

 

Could it be possible that By-Tor remained evil and defeated the necromancer only because he caught a lucky break, and didn't give a shit about the 3 travellers?

Edited by JARG
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There's a chance that I'm just making this up, but I think I read in some interviewy thing somewhere that 'The Necromancer''s 'By-Tor' was used simply because the name sounded good, fit, and was familiar. I took that it wasn't necessarily a continuation of the By-Tor legacy from Fly By Night's 'By-Tor'....

 

There is an obvious error of continuity, and if By-Tor's name was just thrown around for fun, there's a big fanbase that's scratching their collective heads over it!

 

I think this is probably right.

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