Eragon: Chapter Eighteen: Revelation at Yazuac (Part I)

[pangolin20]

Chapter Seventeen (Part II) | Chapter Eighteen (Part II)

Content Warning: Description of quite some dead people, including a baby.

Corneille Noire: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to Eragon! Last time, Saphira was caught in a highly implausible thunderstorm… and that was about all that happened.

For the reader post, Epistler notes on the previous part that Saphira’s ancestral memories ought to have helped her during the storm. That is certainly true.

Now for the method of dealing with the self-published edition we mentioned last time. After some thought, I have decided that it might be best to have someone else do just the comparisons during the chapters. So here is the Humanised Inquisitive Shy Common-Moorhen (HISC)!

HISC: Hello there. I will do the comparisons, and so, I will only be here via writing.

Corneille Noire: Let me begin, then.

Chapter Eighteen: Revelation at Yazuac

I think I know what Paolini refers to with this… but I do not think it qualifies as a “revelation” in any way. We will see.

The chapter opens on the 29^th of December. Brom and Eragon apparently managed to refill their waterskins in part during the storm, but they drink the last water that morning.

HISC: The self-published edition notes here that Saphira asks to drink for the first time since they left the Anora (which would be just under four days) and nearly empties their supplies. The horses drink the rest.

I doubt that we needed that, and this also says that Brom and Eragon already finished the water (since that is what I would think of with “they”) and that the horses did so again. This was rightly cut.

Corneille Noire: Indeed. Eragon crunches up the waterskin (which is now called a “water bag”, a term which never appears in this series again)—

PPP: 770

—and says that he hopes they are going in the “right direction”. After all, if they do not reach Yazuac that day, the lack of water will become troublesome. Um, why do you wonder about that? You are on a road, after all? Yes, in the previous chapter, Saphira is noted to “crawl up the road” after she recovered. So just keep following the road and you’ll get there.

Granted, they might have chosen the other road to the south, but I very much doubt that Brom would not have noticed after four days. I think this is supposed to be Eragon doubting if they are going right and being told to trust Brom on this, but Eragon’s doubt it so ridiculous that it ruins the effect.

Ill Logic: 283

Brom is rightly not disturbed.

HISC: In the self-published edition, he says that they will get there, “trust me”.

Corneille Noire: Brom has gone this way before, and he knows they will be able to see Yazuac before dusk. Hmmm, how far away would they be then? Since they are mounted, I will assume they are at about 2,5 metres height, which gives me a horizon distance of 5,64 kilometres or 3,5 miles. (I will need that result soon, so I already calculated it.)

That aside, did he actually take four days to get here the previous time he went along here? Did he only go at five miles a day, too? I also note that 3,5 miles is more than half of the distance they might be expected to have covered in a day. If they have covered less than that distance by dusk, I would think they still are in trouble. Good to see that Paolini messed up with the map again.

PPP: 771

Eragon “laugh[s] doubtfully” and says that maybe Brom sees something he does not. Yes, like that you are on a road, maybe. And, he asks, how can Brom know it when “everything looks the same for leagues around”? Well, Eragon, maybe that is because he came this way earlier, which he literally just said. And not everything looks the same way, because you are on a road!

Ill Logic: 285

To be fair, Brom may not have had the same travel times back then, but I might expect him to know some landmarks on the route.

Also, I note that 3,5 miles translates to 1,17 leagues. If Eragon were to see for two leagues… he would have to be at a height of 7,3 metres above ground. Good luck getting that on a horse. Yes, this might be nitpicky, but the horizon formula is not exactly hard to find and everything surrounding it clearly had no thought put into it, either, so…

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 45

Finally… if you want to know if Yazuac is there, ask Saphira! She is flying above you, so she should be able to spot it first! But no, neither of them thinks to ask.

Ill Logic: 286

Brom says that he knows because he is “guided not” by the land, but by “the stars and sun”.

HISC: The self-published edition has “not guided” here.

Corneille Noire: So this edition has more archaic wording? Good to know.

Thou Art Well Come: 3

I also do not know why he specifies the stars when they have been only travelling at day, but alright. He says they will not “lead [them] astray”, then tells Eragon to come and be off. It is “foolish to conjure up woe where none exists”, and Yazuac will be there. I appreciate the rousing speech, but finding Yazuac hardly seems like a problem large enough to warrant this. We have had literally no indication they would not find it, after all.

HISC: The self-published edition has Brom say that it is “fruitless” rather than “foolish”. I like the former a bit more, as he is now effectively saying that Eragon is being stupid for doing so (which he is, but still). Also, you are simply not stupid for worrying about things! If this is how Brom thinks, he sounds like a quite unpleasant person to be around.

Corneille Noire: Well seen! We are then told that his words “proved true”. I think this is omniscient narration. Well done, Paolini!

Forgot the Narrator: 43

Saphira spots Yazuac first.

HISC: The self-published edition notes that it is while she is flying. Thank you for that.

Corneille Noire: Hmmm, when could they have seen it first? From the exit of Palancar Valley? The height needed to look for twenty miles turns out to be about 81 metres, and I do think they descended further than that. (Oh, I use the formulas d = (2hR)^1/2 and h = d^2/2R here, where d is distance to the horizon, h is height and R is the radius of the Earth.)

But could Eragon and Brom have seen Yazuac from that distance? Using this calculator and some math, and disregarding the effects of height… it seems that the smallest things they could have seen from that distance would be around 18,7 metres. Saphira has sharper eyes than Eragon or Brom, and I am quite sure that Yazuac is larger than 18,7 metres, so I would say that she ought to have spotted it right then. Also, it would be quite noticeable as the only village for quite some distance. In conclusion, I have to say that this makes no sense again.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 46 (it was possible to spot it long before now)

Even if she could not have spotted it then, for whatever reason, she has flown on three more occasions. On each one Yazuac would have been easier to spot than the previous one, and I do not believe that she never thought to look at their destination, if only for fun.

Also, Brom could have pointed it out to Eragon back then, if he wanted to.

Well, it is not “until later in the day” that Eragon and Brom can see it as “a dark bump on the horizon”. That tracks quite well with our estimate of five miles per day! Still… the buildings of Yazuac are not level with the ground, so they should be able to see them quite a bit earlier… but then, if I am to take this literally, they might only see the buildings as a “dark bump” from closer by, so I will not complain about this. What I will complain about is this:

Yazuac was still very far away; it was only visible because of the plain’s uniform flatness.

I do not think that 3,5 miles counts as “very far away”. Yes, I see that the horizon will be a bit farther away than that, but it still will not change it to “very far away”.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 47

The second bit does not make sense, either. I get that Paolini meant “Yazuac is only visible because there are no hills or such in the way”, but then he should have written that. What we get simply does not make sense. What if the plain slopes down to Yazuac from here? Then it would still be visible. What if Yazuac were set on a high hill? It would still be visible.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 48

That was quite some nonsense. Eragon and Brom ride closer and see “a dark winding line” appear on both sides of the town, which disappears into the distance. Brom points at it and says it is the Ninor. Well, that is the resolution of the water problem, then.

Eragon has Cadoc stop, and he says that Saphira “will be seen” if she stays with them much longer, so should she hide while they go into Yazuac? I would say no. What will the people of Yazuac do, after all? Why would they try to hurt Saphira? After all, they cannot report her to the Empire before the Ra’zac do.

Brom thinks a bit and then indicates “that bend in the river”.

HISC: Eragon nods here, which would work quite a bit better if we saw it.

Corneille Noire: Wherever this “bend” is, Brom says Eragon should tell Saphira to wait there. It is so far from Yazuac that “no one should find her”, but it is so close that she will not be “left behind”. (And no one will be there to see her and later report that to the people of Yazuac? It is possible, but not entirely guaranteed.) They will go through the town, get what they need there, and then meet up with her.

HISC: Brom says here that he ought to make sure that Saphira does not “fly straight there”. Is that because she would fly too close to Yazuac, then? I cannot say, as we do not know where the “bend” is.

Corneille Noire: Then we cut to Eragon having explained the plan to Saphira, who I guess has come in to hear it? She says she does not like it, and that it is “irritating” to have to “hide all the time like a criminal”. Hmmm, I am of two minds about this.

First, if we assume that she believes what Eragon and Brom said, that they are all in danger of being found out, this sounds very stupid. She is “irritated” that she needs to be hiding from the evil Empire? What, would she want to be captured?

Ill Logic: 286

Well, at least she recognises that it is necessary.

Of course, given that she does not have to hide, her comment makes quite some sense. This treatment makes no sense, and she has every right to be irritated at it. Either way, Eragon replies with this:

You know what would happen if we were revealed.

Again, these people cannot reveal you before the Ra’zac do! Also, what is supposed to happen? Oh, is this what Eragon was thinking about in chapter 5, where he was certain the Empire would kill him, Saphira, and the Empire unless they joined it? I fully agree with Kerlois on that; it makes no sense that Galbatorix would want to throw away his chance at getting a new Rider as a servant just like that. I would have thought Eragon to have thought of that in the meantime, but apparently not.

Ill Logic: 287

I especially like that Brom will give us that argument later in this very book.

Saphira gives in with some complaining and then flies away “low to the ground”, I presume so she will be harder to spot.

HISC: Eragon now watches her go and asks how long it will take to reach Yazuac. Brom says it will be “no more than a few hours” and puts Snowmane into a canter. They cover the distance in “good time”.

Corneille Noire: Well, they keep a “swift pace” because they believe they will soon enjoy food and drink. As they near the “small houses”, they can see “smoke from a dozen chimneys” (keep that in mind) but there is no one visible, and there is an “abnormal silence” around Yazuac. That does not bode well.

They stop before the first house, and Eragon’s first remark is… that there are no “dogs barking”. Yes, that is clearly the weirdest thing about this situation and it must mean that something is amiss. It cannot possibly be that the dogs of the village were all silent at the same time or, to come up with something more far-fetched, that the people of Yazuac simply do not have dogs. And this is clearly weirder than the absence of any and all signs of life from the village.

Ill Logic: 288

I do wonder where he gets this idea from... We did not see any dogs in Carvahall to my collection, so why would he see this as such a staple of villages?

Brom confirms this, and Eragon, to his credit, says that it does not “mean anything”. Hmm, I will leave the point, as it still does not make much sense to note that as the first thing. Brom agrees again, this time with some hesitation. Eragon then says that someone ought to have seen them by now.

HISC: The self-published edition has “they” here. I think the Knopf edition is an improvement, as not the whole of the village has to get involved.

Corneille Noire: Brom agrees again, and Eragon asks why no one has come out.

HISC: The self-published edition also has “they” here, which leads to Eragon asking why the village did not come out. Well, maybe that is because two travellers do not warrant the entire village coming out? At least this was properly patched.

Corneille Noire: Brom squints into the sun and says they could be afraid. What would the people of Yazuac be afraid of, then? I have no idea. Eragon agrees with that and is quiet for a bit. He then suggests that it might be a trap set by the Ra’zac.

Yes! Well done, Eragon! He is completely justified in thinking this; after all, the Ra’zac were supposed to get Saphira’s egg, and it is reasonable to think they would spring for the chance to get Eragon, Brom and Saphira. He also knows that they have mind-control powers, and that they came here a few days ago, so if they played it smartly, they could have set up the villagers not to intervene or to help catch Eragon and Brom! I just like seeing a legitimate Red Herring.

Brom says they need “provisions and water”. Eragon says there is the Ninor. Brom says they would still need provisions.

HISC: The self-published edition has “food” instead of “provisions” here. I do not see why that was changed, as we have not heard about them needing “provisions” of any kind.

Corneille Noire: Presumably it is to give them a better case to enter Yazuac, but, as you said, I do not know what they need outside of food. Well, Eragon agrees, looks around for a bit and asks if they will go in.

HISC: I note here that this segment is quite different from usual. We have had mostly dialogue here, with quite many speaker changes, and Brom’s replies are unusually short for him. It is not bad, but it does stand out.

Corneille Noire: Indeed… Brom says that they will go in, “but not like fools”. Good luck with that! They are now at the main entrance, so if there is an ambush, it will be along there. “No one will expect us to arrive from a different direction.”

Yes, because no one could follow that path of logic and set up an ambush on the side. Or maybe the Ra’zac were very smart and set up the ambush in the centre of the village, so they would catch you as long as you went through the village? Or maybe, if they used their mind-control powers, they put sentries to watch every entrance? Or maybe they set up an ambush at the point where you would leave the village toward the Ninor?

In conclusion, Brom does not know that the ambush will be along the main entrance.

Ill Logic: 289

Eragon asks if they will go the side, which Brom confirms. Brom pulls out his sword and Eragon strings his bow and nocks an arrow.

HISC: Here it is noted that Eragon holds three extra in his hand.

Corneille Noire: It is good to see they have the sense to keep their weapons at the ready, at least. They quietly go around the town and enter it “cautiously”. We get a description, which is a generic spooky deserted town. The streets are empty, with only a “small fox” on them who quickly darts away. The houses are “foreboding”, and their windows are shattered. Many doors “[swing] on broken hinges”.

HISC: This edition notes that the doors show nothing of the interior and that there is a “sense of expectation” in the air.

Corneille Noire: (stage whisper) Yazuac is a ghost town… (in usual voice) I just could not resist. Well, the horses “roll[] their eyes nervously” and then Eragon’s palm “tingle[s]”. He resists scratching it. Presumably it is the one with the gedwëy ignasia then, since he is probably right-handed. (Yes, this will be relevant later.)

They ride into the centre of town, and Eragon grips his bow tighter, “blanching”.

HISC: He then whispers “Mother above”. So Eragon believes in a mother goddess now?

Corneille Noire: In the Knopf edition, he says “Gods above”, so I think this was something that Paolini did not plan out well and fixed later. As for why Eragon says this… see for yourself:

A mountain of bodies rose above them, the corpses stiff and grimacing. Their clothes were soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it. Slaughtered men lay over the women they had tried to protect, mothers still clasped their children, and lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death’s cold embrace. Black arrows stuck out of them all. Neither young nor old had been spared. But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby.

HISC: “Gods above” is certainly appropriate for that. I would not even know where to begin with that.

Corneille Noire: Well, let me begin with noting just how edgy this is. The whole of Yazuac has been killed, everyone has been piled together, there is blood everywhere, the people died protecting each other, and there is a baby on a spear.

Edgy Equals Mature, Right?: 9 (+5)

After this, while it will be referenced, it will mainly be to show how evil the Empire or other groups were for doing this. And, as we will see in the other part of this chapter, that was probably the goal of this: showing just how evil the people who did this are. There is also no real thought for the people of Yazuac and how tragic it is that they have all been killed; they are just an example to use for why the Empire is bad. It is just so cheap and disrespectful and blatantly manipulative (especially the dead baby).

Let me go through this paragraph bit by bit, then.

A mountain of bodies rose above them, the corpses stiff and grimacing.

If this is truly a “mountain of bodies”, how come they did not see it before now? I presume that both the main entrance and the side entrance curve instead of leading directly to the centre. Even then, should Saphira not have seen something weird in the centre of Yazuac and alerted them by now? She may have flown “low to the ground”, but I think she would still fly higher than the houses in Yazuac. This is just because Paolini wanted a “dramatic reveal” and it shows.

Also, how can these people be “grimacing” when they are dead? I am quite sure that a grimace would not hold if they died, and even if it did, I doubt that their grimaces would stay that way when they were dragged into the pile.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 49

Even if those objections did not hold… why were these people grimacing when they died? Is that all the reaction they had? “Hmm, could you please not kill me? It’s really inconvenient.” This is ridiculous!

Their clothes were soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it.

Not much to say here, except that this, along with the stiffness of the corpses, indicates that the slaughter occurred quite recently. Maybe they would do good to be on guard?

Slaughtered men lay over the women they had tried to protect, mothers still clasped their children, and lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death’s cold embrace.

And this is quite bad. Of course the men need to protect the women; they could not possibly do so themselves, right? And of course there is no woman protecting a man like this. It is misogyny, plain and simple.

No-Wave Feminism: 62

Further, of course the mothers are holding their children. It is not like they could have sent their children to run away and have a chance at surviving, or that the fathers might also want to protect their children. After all, clearly the “image” Paolini is going for should take precedence over logic.

Finally, of course the lovers are all shielding each other, because they would all be each other’s absolute first priority and they were all close enough together to do this. I thought not.

There is also another quite big problem with this: why would the people who killed them put them on the pile like this? Would they really bother to put the men in positions to protect the women (which… is not what their culture would value), put the children in the arms of their mothers and put the lovers together? After all, if they dragged everyone into a pile, these people would not stay all together, and they would have had to put them together again.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 50

Also… why bother to put these people in a pile to begin with? The news of the slaughter would get around eventually either way, and I do not think that the added shock value of piling the bodies would outweigh the trouble of piling them together.

Ill Logic: 290

Come to think of it… I actually think it makes more sense if the people died on this pile, which would fix the issue of how they can shield each other and such. I guess the killers drove the people into the centre of the village bit for bit and the people they can see were the last to die. I doubt it is what Paolini meant, but it is probably what happened.

Black arrows stuck out of them all. Neither young nor old had been spared.

Ah, black arrows. Given that we saw Durza’s Urgals use them in the prologue, I think it is not exactly a spoiler to note that the Urgals who did this are connected to Durza, and that the migration of Urgals we heard about in chapter 3 is also related to this. Also, if all the bodies are full of arrows, I am quite sure the Urgals would have had to get them from elsewhere, so…

Well, at least we know that the “migration” is a quite severe problem now. I do wonder why they went with shooting these people with arrows… it seems unnecessarily involved to me.

But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby.

And there it is, of course. The height of this edge: the baby on the spear. This means that one of the Urgals went to the trouble of bringing this baby to the top of the pile and impaling them on a spear… for what? Would the rest of it not be enough already? This is so clearly only here for the edge.

Well, let me go a little further. Eragon begins to cry and look away, but he just has to look at the “dead faces”. He stares at their eyes and wonders how “life could have left them so easily”. …Because they were faced with an overwhelming group of Urgals with weapons? This phrase just feels a bit out of place; I expect it rather with an accidental death. It also does not help that the objective of this attack was to kill the villagers; if they had kept living, they would only have suffered more, so it feels like a somewhat odd sentiment to me.

HISC: Here the self-published edition has quite a bit more. Do you agree to let me tackle this and let you do the comparison?

Corneille Noire: That would be the least messy option, to be sure. Go ahead.

HISC: Eragon gets to thinking and wonders what one’s existence means when it can end “like this, to rot and be forgotten”. Well, Eragon, you could decide not to forget these people, so I doubt it is as clear-cut as you say. As for the question itself… I would say that the end of one’s existence does not define it. One might be forgotten after one’s death and still have a lasting impact, so maybe the meaning can be found there?

Eragon goes on to say that they had “names and hopes and pains”, but “all was for naught”. They did not have those “names and hopes and pains” to achieve something, as those are a natural consequence of living for them, so I do not know what this “all was for naught” is doing here. Then, a “wave of hopelessness” comes over him, and he thinks about how petty “our troubles” are in the face of this. Still, if the “hopes and pains” of these people were important, yours should be, too.

And that is it. I note that Eragon mainly uses this to indulge in more edgy thoughts, without exactly caring about the actual people who died.

Corneille Noire: Exactly what I thought. The Knopf edition cuts this down to Eragon wondering what existence means when it can end “like this”, without anything further, and him getting hopeless. I think that works a lot better, especially since it is shorter.

Either way, I would like to stop here for the time being. Next time, we will see Urgals again and Eragon uses magic. Until then!