Eldest part thirty four

[kippurbird]

Feeling better. Still nauseous, but up to writing. =D

Chapters Eldest, Inheritance

SummarySaphira and Eragon return from seeing Roran, Eragon angsting about how Roran seems to hate him. And then a sword bounces off Eragon's greaves. This means that either a) Saphira if flying awfully close to the ground or b) the guy threw his sword or c) he'

Comments

[papier]

Yeah, I guess Eldest refers to Murtagh being the eldest son. What a lame, contrived reveal. Paolini's a plagiarist d*ckhead. :(

[kippurbird]

And it's -while not telegraphed - totally guessable because it's following the Star Wars plot line so closely.

[reverie_shadow]

See, like I said, two titles out of the series seems to be based off of what Murtagh says: Both that he's the eldest, and that the sword is his inheritance. I really don't know why this book was called "Eldest" unless if it had focused on Murtagh a little bit more, but then again that would take away the tension of the Big Reveal. I...guess....

Alas, poor Henry. We knew thee...kind of.

[karma_kalisutah]

Wouldn't it be fucking awesome if it turned out that that Murtagh is the Hero and Eragon is the Villain?

Or, I should say, wouldn't it be awesome if Paolini figured that out? Because we already know it.

[reverie_shadow]

Speaking of Eragon being the villain, I think this image has been permanently embedded into my mind when I think of Eragon now (and he doesn't even have to be possessed by "evil spirits", as the artist mentioned in the comment. Eh).

[kippurbird]

It could have focused on Murtagh without taking away the big reveal that they're siblings. Unless you're talking about him being alive?

[spoofmaster]

I nominate "How can you justify causing so much suffering on the basis of a madman's ravings?" for Ironic Sentence of the Week, seeing as the violence and bloodshed was instigated by Eragon when he decided to go on a rampage for the next few years.

At first I thought this could get cool, with Murtagh convincing Eragon to join the Empire and realize that Galby is a pretty good ruler and was probably right to kill the dragon riders, but then he's probably just going to angst and either free or kill Murtagh in the end. Probably kill him, since Eragon's a sociopath.

[kippurbird]

Or the Varden when they started rebelling against the King.

The confrontation between Eragon and Murtagh could have been very interesting, but instead it was just whine, whine, whine.

[christinaathena]

and the day passes into late afternoon, when two chapters ago it was starting to pass into evening. I think that line two chapters ago actually meant that the sun had reached its zenith, and was beginning its descent towards the western horizon. In other words, it was around noon and he wanted to be all fancy about it instead of saying "The sun passed its zenith" or "the noon hour came and went" or something more clear.

Saphira starts yelling at the dragon, "Traitor! Egg breaker, oath breaker, murderer!" (page 640) which is silly because this dragon, like herself, had nothing to do with the destruction of the dragons and is no more an oath breaker than she herself is. This dragon has not broken any eggs (except for its shell) and as far as we know, killed anyone. Probably just generic insults, I would guess. Like calling someone a bastard, whether or not their parents were married.

Then he thinks, "Still, whoever he might be, the new Rider certainly was not Galbatorix, whose dragon was black." (645) This is a line that should have

[karma_kalisutah]

Saphira starts yelling at the dragon, "Traitor! Egg breaker, oath breaker, murderer!" (page 640) which is silly because this dragon, like herself, had nothing to do with the destruction of the dragons and is no more an oath breaker than she herself is. This dragon has not broken any eggs (except for its shell) and as far as we know, killed anyone. Probably just generic insults, I would guess. Like calling someone a bastard, whether or not their parents were married

My theory is that those insults are a result of the oft-forgotten mind-meld between dragon and rider. This is exactly the same sort of logic that Eragon uses when he accuses Murtagh of being "just like" Morzan.

[kippurbird]

I guess that's what Eldest means? *shrugs*

That's the general theory.

[karma_kalisutah]

"Zar'roc should have gone to Morzan's eldest son, not his youngest. It is mine by right of birth."

BWAH! I WAS RIGHT! Elder, Paolini. The book should have been called Elder. Unless, of course, there's a middle brother. Which... I really, REALLY hope there isn't.

Is it just me, or is it really cheap to have Murtagh forced into serving Galbatorix? Now his eventual (and inevitable) redemption is going to be meaningless, since he was one of the good guys from the start. I think this is the result of Paolini trying to make Darth Vader's story make sense in a world of Cowboys-and-Indians morality.

Oh well. Murtagh's still totally hot.

[berseker]

Oh well. Murtagh's still totally hot.

I´ll second that.

[christinaathena]

Eh, that's rather pedantic. In contemporary usage, -er is only used in combination with "than". "Morzan's elder son" would just sound weird to me. In fact, were I to read that, I would assume it was a typo for "elderly".

[karma_kalisutah]

Contemporary usage also includes things like textspeak and wanton cruelty to the common comma, apostrophe, hyphen, period, ellipsis, and other punctuation marks. I don't feel like supporting any of those any more than I do improper comparatives, and I suspect Karma feels the same way.