Eragon: Chapter Sixteen: Therinsford (Part I)

[pangolin20]

Chapter Fifteen | Chapter Sixteen (Part II)

Kerlois: Welcome back to Eragon, everyone! Last time, we watched Brom make a saddle for Saphira, and nothing much happened. Now for the reader post:

On part I of chapter 6:

Maegwin notes that it makes no sense for me to complain about potatoes and tobacco if this story is set in a North-America-like setting, so…:

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 92

PPP: 616

On part II of chapter 6:

Chessy and Maegwin note that five years is not all that long for a very bloody war.

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 91

Chessy also rightly points out that in the kind of story I used as an example there, the protagonist takes care of the animal because they care for it, while Eragon I did this to prove a point.

And, of course, do read her fic here.

I would also like to note Aikaterini’s nice analysis of Brom’s tale.

On chapter 15, Epistler notes that it is highly unlikely for Brom to be able to make a saddle without using much tools.

This Cannot Be: 43

My guess is that he was using magic to speed the process. It does make Eragon and Saphira look very silly for not wondering at how Brom could possibly do this so fast.

Ill Logic: 233

Manual Patch Job: 68

Let me also tell Brom’s backstory here, since I promised that earlier:

Brom became a Rider at the age of ten, and was bonded to the dragon Saphira. They were apprentices in Ilirea, alongside Morzan and Krovogon. During this time, Brom ostensibly developed a friendship with Morzan, though it seems more like a one-sided crush to me. When the Fall of the Riders came along and Brom learned of Morzan’s “betrayal”, he vowed to destroy Morzan’s life. Saphira was killed during the battle for Vroengard.

In the years after that, Brom formed the Varden, which he soon left to engage in various anti-Galbatorix activities. During that time, he managed to kill three of the Forsworn. Some twenty years before the beginning of this story, he set his sights on Morzan. He got the position of a gardener on his estate, and set about seducing Selena, who was married to Morzan then. (So he might even have raped her. How charming.) Eventually he revealed his identity to her and she began giving him secrets for the Varden.

Around this time, Brom got involved in a plot to get Saphira’s egg out of Galbatorix’s control. After a lot of trouble, he confronted Morzan and managed to kill him along with Krovogon. During the time that Brom was gone, Selena had gone to Carvahall and left Eragon (her and Brom’s child) behind, after which she went to Brom’s estate and died there. Brom arrived back at the estate just after she died. He questioned around and guessed that Selena was pregnant, so he went to Carvahall and found Eragon there. There, he took up the mantle of storyteller and stayed there until the present.

That is also how he came to have Zar’roc: he stole the sword from Morzan once he was dead.

Finally, for some housekeeping:

I have decided to throw out Thanks for Explaining, because that is barely used. And Some Father You Are will also disappear, as that is a little redundant, in my opinion.

And, given how very slow the beginning of this story has been, I will give it this:

Get to the Point Already: 70 (+50)

 

Let me turn this over to Fumurti, then.

(Fumurti comes in)

Fumurti: Well, about time for me to do something more substantial, I’d say.

Kerlois: Good luck! (leaves)

Fumurti: It may have been quite a while, but we have finally reached the point where the adventure begins in earnest! This might also be a nice point to step in if you haven’t been keeping up with this very much.

 

Chapter Sixteen / Seventeen: Therinsford

A nice chapter title, as we will indeed be visiting Therinsford, though not yet in this part of the chapter.

We open on the morning of the 24^th of December. The dawn is “gray and overcast with a cutting wind”. The forest is quiet. Eragon and Brom have a “light breakfast”, and then douse the fire and put their packs on as they prepare to leave. Eragon hangs his bow and quiver on his pack so he can easily reach them. I get the feeling Paolini’s rushing a bit here. If only he’d done that earlier…

Then we get this: “Saphira wore the saddle; she would have to carry it until they got horses.” It does make sense, because she is simply better suited to carrying it than Eragon or Brom, but it still feels like they are treating her as nothing but a “steed”.

What Dragons?: 292

Eragon also ties Zar’roc on her back. He says the sword is useless there, “but he [does] not want to carry the extra weight.” Paolini, again, swords are not that heavy.

This Cannot Be: 44

He then wonders what he would do with it, as it would be “no better than a club” in his hands. So why did Brom give it to him before he has received any training, then? As a symbolic gesture? Either way, the self-published edition notes that they crawl out through “the briar tunnel” and come out of the “blackberry thicket”. Both editions note that Eragon felt safe inside the thicket, but now that he’s outside, “wariness [creeps] into his movements”. That is a nice touch to have and a quite understandable reaction. (I’m not entirely about tearing this book down, after all.)

Saphira takes off and “circle[s] overhead”. And so she will be gone for most of the day, because of course she is. Then we have this: “The trees thinned as they returned to the farm.” This has nothing to do with what came before, but it is still in the same paragraph. It makes this bit feel quite disjointed.

PPP: 617

Cut to Eragon looking at the ruined farm. He “insist[s] to himself” that he will see it again, and that it “cannot, will not, be a permanent exile”. Nothing wrong here, except that this thinking just feels… rushed to me. Yes, the thoughts are there, but the feeling’s not, and it just feels flat. And it’s not that I don’t feel anything with this; I can imagine what he would be feeling. But that should not be my task, it should be the author’s task.

Also, I would personally switch “cannot” and “will not”. He thinks further that he will return “[s]omeday when it’s safe”. But… safety is not the problem, I thought? He is mainly leaving to get revenge in the Ra’zac, not because he is in much danger himself now. Yes, I get that he would only want to come back when it’s safe, but the thought still seems off to me.

Ill Logic: 234

In the self-published edition, he thinks more:

It may not be until the Empire falls, but if Brom is right, my life may be long enough to see the end of time itself….

Let me see… Why does he think that the “Empire” (I think I’ll just call it the Verdant Kingdom, because it’s simply not an empire) will fall? I mean, it will have to fall anyway, but still, why does he think this specifically? It feels like he’s read ahead in the book.

And yes, he might live long enough to “see the end of time itself”, but I doubt Carvahall would survive that long, and he can still die. I get the thought, but it’s not thought through well.

Anyway, he shakes off the thoughts, and in both editions, he throws back his shoulders and “face[s] south and the strange, barbaric lands that [lie] there.”

FYRS: 47

“Strange” I would give you, but “barbaric”? That is simply a bit racist, and there is no reason to have this in here. Why would Eragon even think this? Would he not have met people from those “barbaric lands” via the traders and know that they are not? Because we don’t hear about anything from Surda and the like that I’d call “barbaric” from his perspective.

Forgot the Narrator: 30

Well, next paragraph Eragon and Brom are walking. Saphira flies west “toward the mountains and out of sight”. Bye bye, Saphira! Eragon feels “uncomfortable” while he watches her go. He explains a bit:

Even now, with no one around, they could not spend their days together. She had to stay hidden in case they met a fellow traveller.

Yes, what a good way to hamstring the “boy and his dragon” conceit of this story, is it not? True, this makes sense in the context of the story, but it’s still a quite persistent problem with this book, and Murtagh as well: the protagonist is in a populated area, so the dragon has to stay hidden.

I wouldn’t mind it as much if there was an actual point to it, if Saphira was at risk of detection while hiding outside of Therinsford, for example. But that simply doesn’t happen.

I also wouldn’t mind as much if Saphira could still contact Eragon and so still have a presence, but in most cases, she can’t or won’t.

So what we have is that Saphira will be effectively written out of the story in at least six occasions in this book (once for every city/village they visit). And if you’re going to write her out so often, why bother to have her in this in the first place? It’s just so very frustrating!

And I think this could have been improved by not going with Brom, because then Eragon could fly on Saphira, and they could go outside of the main routes more easily. That would also have meant that Paolini couldn’t write about Eragon and Brom’s interactions, so there’s be less stuff to compete with the Eragon and Saphira interactions.

For what it is now…:

What Dragons?: 297 (+5)

At least it will never become this bad again in the sequels…

Well, we get a new paragraph and a new topic with it. We are told that footprints of the Ra’zac are faint “on the eroding snow”, but Eragon is not concerned. He says it is unlikely that they would have avoided the road, which is the “easiest way out of the valley” for the wilderness. That… is true enough, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they did go into the wilderness, either. After all, we know they can jump very high, so the mountains would be much less of a barrier for them.

Then we have this:

Once outside the valley, however, the road divided in several places. It would be difficult to ascertain which branch the Ra’zac had taken.

Um, how does Eragon know this? I guess he might have learned it from the traders, but it should really say so! Now, it just feels like this is omniscient narration.

Manual Patch Job: 69

PPP: 618

About how difficult it will be… well, I’d say that using logic to deduce it might help, too. It’s also too distant to have much impact.

They travel silently, “concentrating on speed”. Eragon’s legs are bleeding “where the scabs [have] cracked”. That reminds me… weren’t his legs bandaged earlier? Yes, Gertrude put them on. So I guess Paolini forgot about them.

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 92

As for what happened here… we have had quite good tracking of what Eragon did earlier, and there’s been no mention of the bandages being removed in chapter 12, so I guess he pulled them off yesterday? That also means he had them on for two whole days, and ~somehow~ suffered no ill consequences of them.

Manual Patch Job: 70

I get why Paolini might miss this, but that is why this book ought to have gone through a few extra rounds of beta-reading, or why the self-published edition ought to have undergone more treatment than “cut down, cut down”.

The self-published edition notes that there’s not enough pain to keep him from walking, but it does make it difficult. In both editions, he decides to take his mind off the pain, so he asks Brom what dragons can exactly do, as Brom said he “[knows] something of their abilities”. Oh, this will be interesting. (I do find this a somewhat clumsy lead-in, but never mind.)

Brom laughs, and we get a note that his ring flashes as he gestures. He says that it is “a pitiful amount” compared to what he would like to know (and I don’t think that current conditions are helping especially). Eragon’s question is something that people have been trying to answer “for centuries” (try millennia), so what he tells Eragon “is by its very nature incomplete and fragmented”.

And why is that the case? Oh, I guess he was trying to say “the answer to this has still not been found after centuries, so I can only tell you fragments”! What he gets, though, is “any question that people have been working on for centuries can never be truly answered”, which is utterly ridiculous.

PPP: 619 (this is so easy to fix!)

He further says that “[d]ragons have always been mysterious, though maybe not on purpose”. I… get what he is trying to say, but I also don’t. Why does he feel the need to clarify they might not have done so “on purpose”? Why the “maybe”?

PPP: 620

Thinking about this a bit more… Yes, of course the dragons would not want to reveal their abilities to the Riders, so I would absolutely say this “mysteriousness” was on purpose. And the Rider dragons would probably not even know about certain abilities, so they wouldn’t be doing it on purpose, so it does check out.

Manual Patch Job: 70

The thing is, that’s not how Paolini would have meant it, and I’m still wondering why the dragons would be mysterious not on purpose… Maybe because they’re supposed to be “alien”? I guess that’s it. It really ought to be clearer, though.

Brom continues talking, saying that before he can answer Eragon’s question, Eragon needs “a basic education in the subject of dragons”. It is “hopelessly confusing” to begin in the middle of a topic like this without “understanding the foundation on which it stands”. My, something I and Brom can agree on! What a wonder!

He says he will start with “the life cycle of dragons”, and if Eragon is still interested then, they can go on to something else. Hmmm, I see that he is once again not answering Eragon’s question directly, though I can understand his motivation here. It’s not as good as I’d like, but I can’t really complain, either.

As for the “life cycle” of dragons… I cannot complain about that, either. Yes, they are immortal, but, as we will learn in Inheritance, older dragons slowly become less and less active and eventually spend all their time dreaming, in which state they will presumably die. So I’d say there is a life cycle, from egg to hatchling to grown dragon to dreaming dragon. (And even if this weren’t here, I’d still have noted this. Just look at this group, and Ormuva in specific.)

The self-published edition notes that Brom collects his thoughts and begins talking quickly, “forcing Eragon to concentrate on memorizing the rush of information.” Because he can’t be bothered to actually think about what Eragon might want. It also doesn’t fit with his speech in the rest of the paragraph. This edition says the Brom starts with the “most basic facts”, which, in both editions, are “how dragons mate and what it took for their eggs to hatch.”

1) I’d say those are the “first facts”, not “the most basic”. Well, at least the Knopf edition got rid of this.

2) What’s up with the tense shift here? And why have it only in one part of the sentence? That feels strange to me.

PPP: 621

3) For the content… I like how we don’t get any further descriptions of how dragons mate, only that they do. The book has to be PG-13, after all! (Picture me rolling my eyes here. After all, we will get onscreen dragon sex in Inheritance, so it comes across as a bit hypocritical.)

And now we get an explanation of how the eggs work that I want to show in full:

Both editions: “You see,” he said, “when a dragon lays an egg, the infant inside is ready to hatch. But it waits, sometimes for years, for the right circumstances. When dragons lived in the wild, those circumstances were usually dictated by the availability of food.

S: However once they formed an alliance with the elves, that changed to some degree. The dragons still had to hunt for their own food, but each year a certain number of their eggs, usually no more than one or two, were given to the Riders.

K: However, once they formed an alliance with the elves, a certain number of their eggs, usually no more than one or two, were given to the Riders each year.

Both editions: These eggs, or rather the infants inside, wouldn’t hatch until the person destined to be its Rider came into their presence—though how they sensed that isn’t known. People used to line up to touch the eggs, hoping that one of them might be picked.”

(My apologies for the large quote. It is an information bit, after all.)

My problem with this paragraph is that it is mainly nonsense. After all, in Eldest, we will learn that the wild dragons had nests, which to me says quite clearly that the hatching of the eggs depended on an incubation period, rather than on “availability of food” or whatever.

And in that same book, we will learn that the Riders put a spell on the eggs to prevent them from hatching, so the infants don’t choose to hatch then.

Nothing of this is mentioned in Eldest or later, so I guess that Paolini realised he’d messed up here and retconned it. That’s… certainly fair. I can respect it better than if he’d chosen to go ahead with this mess. The only problem is that he also seems to have retconned out that Eragon ever heard this. But that’s a problem with Eldest.

For now, let me go through this quite extensively.

“You see,” he said, “when a dragon lays an egg, the infant inside is ready to hatch.

What about the “nests”, then? Why did the wild dragons have nests if they did not need to incubate the eggs? See, this doesn’t fit at all.

Only taking into account what we’ve already seen, it still doesn’t work. If the infant were ready to hatch, wouldn’t it be born without an egg? Why would it have to plough its way out of a quite sturdy egg, then? I just can’t see how this would evolve, as it seems like a prime way to have the dragons die of exhaustion while trying to get out.

This Cannot Be: 45

But it waits, sometimes for years, for the right circumstances.

Um, how can they do that when they are “ready to hatch”? Because when they are, that means that they’d have used up their yolk… Wait, does Inheritance contradict this? No, it doesn’t. So they’d starve eventually. Also, how would they know these circumstances from inside their eggs? Some elaboration would be very nice to have.

Missing Puzzle Pieces: 58

This Cannot Be: 46

When dragons lived in the wild,

What are you talking about? Dragons always lived at least partially in the wild while the Riders were there! In fact, you can deduce this from something he says in this same paragraph! This is ridiculous!

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 93

Also, he lived during a period when this would have been the case! How can he possibly say this? In fact, this whole bit is very out of place, and I’m frankly more confused than anything.

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 94

those circumstances were usually dictated by the availability of food.

(I would say “prey”, but never mind.) I can see what Paolini was going for here, but he missed the mark. After all, if the hatching is “dictated” by the abundance of prey, that means that many eggs will hatch when there is much prey, and then the young dragons could eat quite a lot of the prey. Like, this system might work, but it would need quite some supervision by the dragons. You could get lots of parent dragons laying eggs in/moving eggs to an area with much prey to get them to hatch sooner, which could then cause the prey population to crash, which would impact the hatching of the dragons.

It might be neat to have if it actually fit in, but I think Paolini ought to have thought more about it.

S: However once they formed an alliance with the elves, that changed to some degree. The dragons still had to hunt for their own food,

K: However, once they formed an alliance with the elves,

Ah yes, because it certainly was an alliance.

History-Rewriting Narrator: 54

Also, why does Brom say that the wild dragons “still had to hunt for their own food”? There is nothing in the previous conversation to contradict that.

S: but each year a certain number of their eggs, usually no more than one or two, were given to the Riders.

K: a certain number of their eggs, usually no more than one or two, were given to the Riders each year.

Hmmm, I get the feeling that Paolini shot wrong with his worldbuilding once again. To start, the Riders must have had for more eggs than that in the early years in order to build up a decent fighting force. Then again, that might be covered by the “usually”.

For a more substantive complaint, I get the idea that Paolini means for the eggs to come only from the wild dragons. And that simply does not work. After all, I am quite sure that the Rider dragons would have regular offspring, too, and I see no reason why those eggs could not be destined to be bound to Riders.

In fact, let me compare getting eggs from the wild dragons versus those from the Rider dragons…

How easy is it to get the eggs?

Rider dragons:

This should be quite easy, as the parents would probably be willing or even expect the eggs to be given over to Riders.

Wild dragons:

Quite a bit harder, since they would not want to relinquish the eggs, and threats would probably be needed to get them to cooperate.

How good are the eggs at making Rider dragons?

Rider dragons:

No problem, since their parents would already be Rider dragons.

Wild dragons:

Quite a bit harder, as they would lack the adaptations of Rider dragons (I guess?).

So yeah, I really don’t see why the wild dragons would be the main source of eggs.

This Cannot Be: 47

I can, however, see why the Riders would want to get eggs from the wild dragons: intimidation. Abducting the wild dragons would be a good way to show off the power the Riders had over them and they might also have used it against dragons they found troublesome. Also, since we do not hear about a separate class of Rider dragons descended from wild dragons, and since Saphira (child of a Rider and a wild dragon) doesn’t seem to have any wild dragon traits, I’d say that they also ensured the eggs would grow up to be Rider dragons.

Manual Patch Job: 71

So, all in all, that would come down to some 2600 to 5200 children, and possibly more, that were abducted from the wild dragons, and a part of those went on to be Rider dragons. Needless to say, no one ever thinks that the wild dragons “giving their eggs” might be a little messed up, not even in the later books.

Look Away: 408 (+25)

It’s just… the Riders would be the perfect set-up for an evil order, but instead we’re supposed to see them as misguided, but ultimately good. Especially with this, the disconnect is very large. (Seriously, it just makes my skin crawl to think about…)

These eggs, or rather the infants inside, wouldn’t hatch until the person destined to be its Rider came into their presence—though how they sensed that isn’t known.

Why the sudden switch in number here?

PPP: 622

Also, it is not exactly “the person destined to be their Rider” who they hatch for; that is determined by the spell put on them, after all, not by “fate” or anything.

Resistance Is Futile: 5

And how it is “unknown” how they know that after millennia? Would no prospective Rider ever have thought of touching the mind of the unhatched dragon to find out what it was thinking? This is just outright nonsensical!

This Cannot Be: 48

For what it is worth, I would say (as seems to be the consensus among the people I know have gone through this series) that the unhatched dragons mentally sense the people who come along and decide who they want to be bonded to.

Manual Patch Job: 72

People used to line up to touch the eggs, hoping that one of them might be picked.

And where and how and when did this take place, then? Please give us more details, Paolini! I mean, if people were lining up in the hope that “one of them” might be picked, I think this would be a community in relatively bad shape, which hopes that someone can become a Rider and help improve their circumstances. Or that might just be me.

Anyway, that was Brom’s information here. I’m left wondering why Saphira, the actual dragon, couldn’t have told him at least part of this. That would probably have made her too relevant or something. /s

What Dragons?: 298

Well, what that over, let’s look at Eragon’s reaction:

“Do you mean that Saphira might not have hatched for me?” asked Eragon.

Um, since when did Eragon think this? I don’t recall him thinking before now that Saphira would have inevitably hatched for him, so it might have been nice to establish this first.

PPP: 623

Brom says that she might “[q]uite possibly” not have done so, “if she [hadn’t] liked him”. Well, she doesn’t seem to like him at all and it took quite a bit for her to hatch (25 days, if I recall correctly), so I think it very likely that she didn’t want to hatch for him at all, and that she either settled for him to get out of the egg or was pushed into it by outside forces.

We then get Eragon’s reaction to this, as he feels honoured that she has chosen him of all people in Alagaësia. He wonders “how long she [has] been waiting” and shudders at the thought of being cramped in the dark of the egg. That reminds me… what if the unhatched dragons didn’t find a suitable partner? Were they eventually released from their spell, or were they left to languish? I don’t believe we ever get an answer to this.

Missing Puzzle Pieces: 59

Well, Brom now continues lecturing by explaining “what and when dragons [eat]”. We get this:

A fully-grown sedentary dragon could go for months without food, but in mating season they had to eat every week.

A question: does this cover the biology of wild dragons or of Rider dragons? I guess we are supposed to see the two as interchangeable, but I highly doubt they are.

That aside… this makes some measure of sense, though I have quite a lot of questions here.

“fully-grown”: According to the standards of the wild dragons or those of Saphira? It doesn’t matter for this, but… Well, call me nitpicky, but I’d like to know if “fully-grown” means a few months or a few decades.

“sedentary dragon”: I guess he means “inactive dragon” by this? Like the very old dragons (the one from the WormFork book, for example) who would spend most of their time dreaming. And the WormFork book actually shows they can go months without eating, so I’ll buy it.

“mating season”: I get what he meant, but the dragons are immortal. If they had a “mating season” every year, there would be no way all the dragons would fit in Alagaësia. It also doesn’t fit with Eldest, where we learn of a dragon who had a total of 27 children. That… does not fit with a yearly mating season.

Forgot Your Own Canon Again?: 95

This Cannot Be: 49

So yeah… doing great with this information so far!

We’re now told that some plants can heal dragons’ illnesses, while other can make them sick. Hmmm, that’s not bad, but without any information about the specific plants involved, it’s utterly useless.

PPP: 624

There are also “certain ways to care for their claws and clean their scales”, Brom tells Eragon.

Why is Brom telling this to Eragon? This seems quite specific for a storyteller to me, and if he is so keen on maintaining his cover, he shouldn’t be saying this.

Ill Logic: 235

Also, I’m quite certain Eragon doesn’t end up doing this, so why bother here?

That aside, this and the bit about plants tell us absolutely nothing we couldn’t have already supposed, so this gives us basically no information at all. Like, if you don’t feel like writing this, Paolini, then don’t put it in. Don’t tease us with these things and then give us no information at all! This is just very bad form and I’m quite peeved with it.

PPP: 625

Brom then explains “the techniques to use when attacking from a dragon”, and how to fight one, “whether on foot, horseback, or with another dragon”. Then show us!! This just feels like Paolini’s deliberately hiding this from us, and it plain sucks!

PPP: 627 (+2)

That aside… the phrasing bothers me. Why only explain techniques Eragon can use to attack “from Saphira”? Wouldn’t it be nice to teach Saphira those, too? Yes, she might not be here, but what’s the trouble in telling them to her later?

Ill Logic: 236

What Dragons?: 299

That last point is because I get the feeling Paolini completely forgot about Saphira here. For the last bit… “with another dragon” does not fit right with me. It’s describing the dragon as a tool, as it were, and I don’t like it at all.

What Dragons?: 300

We are finally told that dragons’ bellies are armoured, “[but] their armpits [are] not”.

1) Oh, they aren’t fully armoured? That’s… a bit surprising, because I’m used to both having full armour myself and dragons with full armour.

2) “Armpits”? Does he mean both the shoulder and hip joints here, or only the shoulder joints? This isn’t really clear, and it should be.

PPP: 628

3) Didn’t the Riders bother to breed that out, then? That seems like quite an oversight to me.

Ill Logic: 241 (+5)

The self-published edition notes that Brom goes “on and on”, and that they delve into “specific situations and how to deal with them”. Not that we will know what those “situations” are, of course. (And not that I care, frankly.)

Both editions note that Eragon “constantly interrupt[s]” to ask questions, and Brom “seem[s] pleased” by Eragon’s asking. Oh, so now he doesn’t rag on Eragon for daring to interrupt? Why couldn’t he do this earlier, then? Well, at least he’s being nice now. We’re told that “[h]ours pass unheeded” while they talk.

By the time evening comes, they are “near Therinsford”, though too far away to reach it that day. Wow, we’re actually getting somewhere! That really is a nice change of pace! They go to seek a “place to camp”, and Eragon asks who the Rider who first had Zar’roc was. Brom says he was a “mighty warrior” who was “much feared in his time and held great power.”

Hmm, that’s a more flattering description of Morzan than I’d expect from Brom… though I am suspicious of his claim that Morzan was “much feared”. Yes, I can imagine he was feared by the Varden, but would the common people really have feared him that much? Wouldn’t they rather see him as a hero for leading the Forsworn? And yet we’re supposed to take this as truth.

History-Rewriting Narrator: 55

(And of course we have to note that Morzan was very powerful.)

Eragon asks what the warrior’s name was. Brom refuses to say. Eragon protests this. “[B]ut Brom [is] firm”, and he launches into a speech about this.

Okay, I get that Brom doesn’t want to name Morzan, because that would give away his disguise instantly, but can’t he say “that is a thing from my past, and I don’t want to talk about it” instead of going “I’ll not say”?

ASWLT: 15

As for the speech… see for yourself:

“I don’t want to keep you ignorant, far from it, but certain knowledge would only prove dangerous and distracting for you right now. There isn’t any reason for me to trouble you with such things until you have the time and the power to deal with them. I only wish to protect you from those who would use you for evil.”

No, you absolutely don’t want him ignorant, of course. And you just want to keep him safe from harm. Said every controlling parent ever (figuratively, of course).

And yet I’m quite certain we’re supposed to agree with this obviously manipulative speech. I don’t even know what I’d file this under, so I’ll just put it under this:

With Leaders Like These…: 16

That aside, there’s another, and probably quite larger, issue here: what kind of response is this to Eragon asking for Morzan’s name?! It doesn’t even seem to be that Brom doesn’t want Eragon to find out about him; he really seems to think that Eragon shouldn’t know it was Morzan just because!

Let me just go through this one by one.

“dangerous and distracting”: Yes, it might prove “distracting”, and Eragon might ask you more questions. But then you should either come clean or not tell him anything more about your history, Brom! Like, this is really not that big of an issue.

For “dangerous”… What are you even talking about? How does this put him in any danger?

“time and the power to deal with them”: Tying into the previous point, he doesn’t need to deal with this. Morzan has been dead for fifteen years, and Eragon knowing that Brom killed Morzan… well, he doesn’t need “power” to deal with it, and he’ll have more than enough time for that. Additionally, he’s a Rider outside of Galbatorix’s control. Gaining more knowledge won’t put him at any more risk than he already is.

“protect you from those who would use you for evil”: And who would those people be then, Brom? And how does knowing that Brom has Morzan’s sword drive Eragon to people who “would use him for evil”??

Ill Logic: 246 (+5)

I swear, I get the feeling Paolini plagiarised this from somewhere, given how little sense it makes. (In fact, we’ve already had two plagiarised scenes: Saphira’s naming, from a book named Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, and Eragon dragging Garrow on a board, from the first Wheel of Time book.)

As it is, this is also a prime way for Brom to be suspicious. If he’s giving this speech when asked about who the previous owner of the sword was, there ought to be lots of things he isn’t telling. Not to mention that he isn’t likely to win Eragon’s trust with this.

ASWLT: 16

Ill Logic: 248 (+2)

Come to think of it, we do need a count for stuff like this, especially since it will only get worse later on…

What Is Even Going On Here?: 3 (one for now, one for Brom’s “explanation” of just ago, and one for Saphira’s freakout when hearing of the Ra’zac)

This time Eragon is actually allowed to not agree with Brom. He gets “exasperated” and glares at Brom. He then accuses Brom of “enjoy[ing] speaking in riddles”, which is certainly a fair assessment given the non sequitur of what Brom just said. He says further that he has “half a mind to leave [Brom]” so he won’t be “bothered with them” and if Brom is going to say something, he should say it instead of “dancing around with vague phrases!”

Oh, so Eragon’s bothered by Brom “speaking in riddles”? When did we see that apart from now? Yes, he’s been secretive, but he has mostly talked in platitudes then, and that is not “speaking in riddles” by any means. So what is Eragon going on about?

Ill Logic: 249

But of course that’s the whole point of this: to make Eragon’s complaint unreasonable so we won’t side with him.

Sparkly Damsel: 23

Brom responds with this:

“Peace. All will be told in time,” Brom said gently.

Just shut up already. Eragon grunts at this, and, to his credit, he is “unconvinced”. But he won’t be allowed to leave Brom because that would get in the way of the plot.

Well, after this scene, they find a “comfortable place to spend the night” and they set up camp. As “dinner is being set on the fire”, Saphira joins them. Well, it’s nice to see her again, but a pity that she spent the entire day away. Eragon, the silly boy, asks her if she had time “to hunt for food.” I think an entire day should be enough for that. (Also, no asking how it was? Only if she had enough time to eat, something that wasn’t even mentioned before now? It’s not point-worthy, but it still feels… empty to me.)

Saphira “snort[s] with amusement” (I get it) and says that if Eragon and Brom were any slower, she would have time to make a round trip across the sea without falling behind. Oh, that’s actually nice teasing here. (And also please do fly across the sea, Saphira. Then we might see more of the setting.)

Eragon does not take well to this:

You don’t have to be insulting, he grumbled. Besides, we’ll go faster once we have horses.

But she wasn’t insulting, Eragon! You just noted that she snorts with “amusement”, and her statement was clearly hyperbolic to make it funny. It was a joke! So this comment is quite rude and uncalled-for. Couldn’t you just let her have some fun?

Best Partners Ever: 214

And, of course, Saphira is not allowed to say anything about this.

Sparkly Damsel: 24

Oh, she “let[s] out a puff of smoke”, but I’d hardly say that counts. Instead, she focuses on the other thing Eragon says by saying that they’ll “maybe” go faster. (Why? I mean, we’ll learn some reasons for that soon, but it’s still a little clumsy.) She wonders if it will be “enough to catch the Ra’zac”, as they are several days and quite some distance from Eragon, Saphira and Brom. She says that, though the Ra’zac can’t know they’re following them, she’s afraid they may suspect it. After all, why else “would they have destroyed the farm in such a spectacular manner”, other than wanting to “provoke [Eragon] into chasing them”?

Oh, what a mess this is. Well, as I’ve already explained, the Ra’zac have most probably not deliberately done this. After all, why would they bother to torture Garrow when they’d hide him from sight be blowing up the farm? Come to think of it, if they wanted to destroy the farm, they could easily have dragged him out and laid him on the road or something. As we’ll see, they’re more than strong enough for that. That they didn’t do so tells me that they meant for Eragon and Saphira to find him in the unscathed house.

Manual Patch Job: 73

And the problem is that Saphira’s argument presupposes that the Ra’zac blew up the farm, an assumption that will never be challenged. Come to think of it… that deserves a count of itself, given how often such assumptions will crop up…

Stick the Dogma Over Facts: 1

Even if we do assume that this is true, it still doesn’t really work. What other evidence does she have for this? The Ra’zac haven’t slowed down to let Eragon and Saphira catch up with them, nor have they led them off the path yet. Also, why would they do this? Why would the Ra’zac think that Eragon and Saphira would decide to hunt them down when they both know that the Ra’zac have mind-control? Them doing such a foolish thing would be an unlikely occurrence, not the most likely thing to do!

Ill Logic: 250

This logic is just completely unsound, and I doubt anyone will be surprised when (~spoilers~) it turns out that the Ra’zac are not actually doing this. It feels like something Paolini threw in just to create tension, without thinking about it further.

Eragon gets “disturbed” and says he doesn’t know. Saphira curls up next to him and the self-published edition says she “let[s] him think about it in silence”. Is Paolini really pretending that that mess is worth considering? Well, in both editions, he leans against her, “welcoming the warmth”.

And there I would like to cut off, as I’m about a quarter of the way through the chapter. Until next time!