Htom Sirveaux (post: 1455964) wrote:the Inheritance books tend to attract more venomous hate than any other series I've seen discussed here.
Atria35 (post: 1455888) wrote:There's already a thread for this:
http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=54914&highlight=inheritance
Atria35 (post: 1456147) wrote:Well, yes. But since I posted the link, there's been a good deal of discussion. Enough to maybe warrent reviving it.
....although this thread might die again very soon, so it won't matter too much.
In any case, I'm not fond of them. I went ahead and read up to the third books. The story is okay, but it's very poorly written. I wanted to desperately to take my pen to it and mark it up, but I couldn't- they were library books. It would not get a passing grade in any college English course.
Aspects of his behaviour also disturbed me a lot, most prominently in the third book. I wasn't sure why exactly I didn't like what he was doing, especially with Sloan. I really hated how Eragon/Paolini treated Sloan. And then I came across http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2009/01/21/brisingr-sociopath , which put a lot of things that I had noticed or hadn't really jived with me into focus.
Lynna (post: 1456164) wrote:I also was unsatisfied with the conclusion of Sloan. I admit I really didn't understand how his character was that way, and I don't see why Ergon couldn't have disscussed these things with him before hand. However, it was also because of Sloan that their village was betrayed, and if Eragon was really evil, he would have done what Arya---who I was rather dissapointed with---would have done: killed him on the spot. Ergon also ensured that if he reached the elves he would recieve care, and told him of a way he could escape. It's not what I call an amazing future, but from what I could see, Ergon did the best he could.
Atria35 (post: 1456172) wrote:You're right, if Eragon were truly evil he would have killed Sloan, but at the same time the actions he did take weren't necessarily right or heroic. It still wasn't his duty or right to become judge, jury, and executioner- as the article states, and I very much agree with.
Eragon may also say that he hates killing, but his actions don't always line up with that belief- for instance, kiling the boy soldier. That was completely unnecessary and could have been avoided. But Eragon does it anyway. Actions speak louder than words.
Atria35 (post: 1456186) wrote:As per the soldier- that was also addressed in the article, but it's worth repeating. The boy was young, crying, saying that he'd been impressed into the army and only wanted to go home. They didn't have to kill him, since they could have altered his memories or put him asleep for five years.
So why couldn't Eragon have let him go and, when Arya demanded why he hadn't killed him, Eragon could have said that he hated killing? I think the readers would have understood. I mean, do you really feel unsympathetic to a denfenseless (remember, his sword had been lost or knocked away, so he was no threat to Eragon at that point) young boy who's begging for his life?
Letting him go would have sent the message that Eragon hated killing.
You're right in that real people aren't always heroic, but that particular action is protrayed as heroic, and I've met enough people IRL and online who have claimed that particular action was. Which means that the idea that it presents, that that type of justice is being spread around as okay.
Lynna (post: 1456193) wrote:Interesting. It's funny: I and my younger brother were discussing what they could have done instead, and my little brother said " they could have used magic to change his memories":bang:
Letting him go would have sent the message that Eragon hated killing, but It wouldn't have sent the message that sometimes killing might be necissary, which is what the author was trying to say.
As I said, it wasn't very well done. In the end, the magic in alageasia can solve a great variety of problems that people otherwise have to struggle through on their own, which is a fault of the books.
hmmm...well, it's true that Paolini didn't particularly represent the action as being unheroic. It was obviously something he didn't have a problem with. not a good thing, and not something I agree with, but I disagree with a lot of peoples ideas of justice, so I'm not surprised I disagree with his.
Atria35 (post: 1456196) wrote:Your brother was on the ball! Eragon had used his powers to do that before, he could have done it then. I hate saying that "it's the fault of the books". It's like it's making an excuse for bad writing and a poor way of sending a message. So I'm going to outright say it- it also shows the view of the author at the point that he was writing. Even if he was trying to send that message, he thought that killing a defenseless boy was an okay way to send it. That's not good.
I think there's something in Western mentality that likes the idea of vigilante justice, and that's why people don't think critically of justice and what it means and the responsibility it brings. We aren't so far removed from the Wild West, after all. So that might be why they feel like they do about Sloan's punishment.
Atria35 (post: 1456196) wrote:Your brother was on the ball! Eragon had used his powers to do that before, he could have done it then. I hate saying that "it's the fault of the books". It's like it's making an excuse for bad writing and a poor way of sending a message. So I'm going to outright say it- it also shows the view of the author at the point that he was writing. Even if he was trying to send that message, he thought that killing a defenseless boy was an okay way to send it. That's not good.
I think there's something in Western mentality that likes the idea of vigilante justice, and that's why people don't think critically of justice and what it means and the responsibility it brings. We aren't so far removed from the Wild West, after all. So that might be why they feel like they do about Sloan's punishment.
Warrior 4 Jesus (post: 1456234) wrote:Oy vey. It sounds like Paolini's abandoned the medicore generic qualities of his first two books and with his third book has gone for more originality but amoral mediocrity instead. And Christians have more issues with Harry Potter?
Lynna (post: 1456209) wrote:I was The article you gave is trying to say Eragon is a sociopath, and I'm saying the scene with the soldier wasn't supposed to show anything about Eragon's character.
The thing is though, even if anyone can think of other ways at that moment, From what Eragon said to the soldier, he seriously believed he had no other option. The author could have created an option, but he didn't want too. He was trying to say war is terrible and if you fight in one you will have to do terrible things, or at least, that was my interpretation of it. And I'm also saying that the author didn't do a good job of it, but I don't think he was trying to say killing was okay. Also, although this doesn't matter much, I don't think the soldier was younger than Eragon, because the book, in all it's often-too-much detail, didn't specify that. I also think a scared kid wouldn't have been able to make so long arguments to Eragorn as too why he should live (although maybe he was a brave kid, who knows)
So What I'm saying is I agree that the author did a bad job, but I don't think he was trying to say that killing is okay.
Davidizer13 (post: 1456292) wrote:Of course, I like my theory that he's a pawn of the oh-so-perfect elves, who are using him to weaken both the Empire and the varden and take over the world.
Davidizer13 (post: 1456292) wrote:The optimist in me thinks that this sociopathy that's appeared in Eragon in the last book is going to be a plot point in the end of the series: one theory I read is that it'll be a sign that he's unfit to rule, a bit like in Fullmetal Alchemist where [spoiler]Roy is this close to killing Envy, but the other characters realize that he's let his vengeance consume him and pull him back from the brink[/spoiler] only with the opposite outcome: because of it, he realizes that the time for violence (and for the Riders, even) is at an end. The world has moved past that, and Eragon will have to come to grips with that fact.
Of course, I like my theory that he's a pawn of the oh-so-perfect elves, who are using him to weaken both the Empire and the varden and take over the world.
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