To be fair to Paolini, the trope of the hero who doesn't know who his father is/was, while the people around him including his wise old mentor who could tell him don't, for flimsy reasons or none at all, is so widespread that he might be forgiven for using it. To take only his obvious rip-off source material: OK, Lars and Beru have a good reason for not telling Luke that his father was any kind of Jedi; you could say that Obi-Wan really never had time to get round to it; but there's no earthly reason why Yoda shouldn't tell him while he was training him on Dagobah.
And while Harry Potter does know who his father is from the outset, JKR has Dumbledore hold on to all kinds of important information about James Potter and his relationships, long after Harry is not only old enough to deal with it but badly needs to know it, with only the flimsiest of excuses. And while some people may well have called her on it, most readers just seem to accept it. It's almost as though people feel you're just Not a Proper Hero if people give you the information you need at the time it would have been logical for them to give it you.
On Star Wars: I always thought the reason Luke didn't get told that Vader was his father was because Obi-Wan and Yoda were setting him up to kill Vader because they thought he was irredeemable. So they actually had a very good reason, from their point of view, not to tell him, and Vader threw a wrench in their plans by doing so. And hey, Dumbledore at least admitted that his lack of communication with Harry had not been a good thing. Even if it was annoying as heck to read because it sent Harry sixty million points up on the angst-o-meter.
This is completely true. On the spectrum of not "Not telling people what they need to know," Harry Potter and especially Star Wars have some sort of justification, while Inheritance has basically zero.
Also, does Luke aunt and uncle even know Vader is Luke's father? Or hell do they even know Vader is a person?
And while Harry Potter does know who his father is from the outset, JKR has Dumbledore hold on to all kinds of important information about James Potter and his relationships, long after Harry is not only old enough to deal with it but badly needs to know it, with only the flimsiest of excuses. And while some people may well have called her on it, most readers just seem to accept it. It's almost as though people feel you're just Not a Proper Hero if people give you the information you need at the time it would have been logical for them to give it you.
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And hey, Dumbledore at least admitted that his lack of communication with Harry had not been a good thing. Even if it was annoying as heck to read because it sent Harry sixty million points up on the angst-o-meter.
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Also, does Luke aunt and uncle even know Vader is Luke's father? Or hell do they even know Vader is a person?
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