Eldest part twenty one

[kippurbird]

Chapters The Obliterator, Narda



Summary

What we have now is the training montage. Eragon is learning how to control energy which he excels at for "he possessed the talent to judge nigh exactly how much strength a task required and whether it would exceed that of his body." (page 390). Now aside from the use of the word "nigh" I would like to point out that Eragon has continually shown that he does not know how to do that because he's constantly drained himself to the point of collapsing. Yet apparently now he knows how to do this. And not only that he has a talent for that. It would be nice to have been shown this before hand. But, this isn't important because Eragon has to be that good at the most difficult thing. Yoda continues to try and kill Eragon with the excuse of teaching him how to detect and neutralize poisons. He's been poisoning his food. Eragon has to neutralize poison, go hungry or get sick. He gets sick several times, but unfortunately Yoda heals him.

He learns all about the magic of the elves including the fact that they can alter their bodies. In fact Yoda says that this is their greatest weakness, they're vain. And they use their magic to make them look like they want. Now, earlier, Yoda mentioned that not all the elves have magical abilities and those that do have it in negligible amounts. Barely enough to heal a bruise. But they have enough power to change their bodies to reflect their personalities. Yet, they all seem to look the same, from what we've been seen. But we're told that some elves alter there anatomy to various environments or seem more animal than elf. Funny how we haven't seen those sorts of elves before.

Eragon also becomes a voracious reader. Which now can excuse any sort of dictionary and thesaurus abuse coming from him. He learns about alternative ways of thinking which "challenge his beliefs and reexamine his assumptions from everything from the rights of an individual within society to what caused the sun to move across the sky." (page 392). Looking at this sentence I would like to remind us that Eragon's beliefs in the rights of the human individuals in society is rather similar as ours. IE that people have the rights to live as the wish and that slavery is wrong. Which then begs the question what is it that the elves believe and what were on these scrolls that made him change or challenge his beliefs. Does he now think that slavery is a good thing?

Another thing that he does learn is that elves do not believe in marriage. "but rather they took mates for however long they wanted, whether it be for a day or a century." Not only is this a conformation of my belief that the elves are hippies, but this free love ideal is also a conformation that this is Paolini's perfect society. After all he can love who he wants when he wants and for as long as he wants. It's all free love and sex. Something that any young man would desire. No commitment necessary. Which of course goes in the face of his idea of their being a true love. But this contradiction isn't important because it's what Paolini wants and the convention of the fantasy genre. Human and elves don't generally inter marry but when it did happen mostly it happened between the Riders. But for some reason the Immortal forever young riders grew old and died while the elves do not which caused the relationships to end. I'm not sure how exactly that works. The only thing I could begin to assume is that it's supposed to be a warning for Eragon that he and Arya won't work.

In any case they train. And Vanir continues to dislike Eragon. So do his cronies. They all like Saphira, but dislike Eragon. Eventually Eragon loses his temper and attacks Vanir with magic. Vanir beats the shit out of him again with magic, but without saying a single word.

Eragon asks him why Vanir dislikes him so much, it's because he's human, like Galby and a cripple. But before Eragon could wallow in misery, Saphira tells him that Vanir is wrong and that she picked the right person. Thus eliminating any potential self doubt that he could have.

When he goes to Yoda, he's told he shouldn't have let his temper get the better of him. After that, Eragon asks how did Vanir do magic without saying anything. We then learn that the ancient language isn't how magic really works.

"Sound has no control over magic. Saying a word or phrase in this language is not what is important, it's thinking them in this language." With a flick of his wrist, a golden flame appeared over Oromis' palm, then disappeared. "However, unless the need is dire, we still utter our spells out loud to prevent stray thoughts from disrupting them, which is a danger to even the most experienced magic user." (page 398)

To this I ask, what dire circumstances were there for the queen when she made flowers appear out of nowhere without saying a word?

"Now Oromis smiled. "Why indeed? I must point out that we ourselves are not the source of magic. Magic can exist on its own, independent of any spell, such as the werelight in the bogs by Aroughs, the dream well in Mani's Caves in the Beor Mountains and the floating crystal on Eoam. Wild magic such as this is treacherous, unpredictable, and often stronger than we can cast.

"Eons ago, all magic was thus. To use it required nothing but the ability to sense magic with your mind - which every magician must possess - and the desire and strength to use it. Without the structure of the ancient language, magicians could not govern their talent and, as a result, loosed many evils upon the land, killing thousands. Over time they discovered that stating their intention in their language helped them to order their thoughts and avoid costly errors. But it was no foolproof method. Eventually, an accident occurred so horrific that it almost destroyed every living being in the world. We know of the event from fragments of manuscripts that survived the era, but who or what cast the fatal spell is hidden from us. The manuscripts say that, afterward, a race called the Grey Folk -not elves, for we were young then - gathered their resources and wrought an enchantment, perhaps the greatest that was or ever shall be. Together the Grey Folk changed the nature of magic itself. They made it so their language, the ancient language, could control what a spell does... could actually limit the magic so that if you said burn that door and by chance looked at me and thought of me, the magic would still burn the door, not me. And the gave the ancient language its two unique traits, the ability to prevent those who speak it from lying and the ability to describe the true nature of things. How they did this remains a mystery." (page 398)

Now besides this being a long and pointless info-dump on magic, it also resembles the Charter in Garth Nix Abhorsen series. There was wild magic and then some great people beings got together and tame it making it only safely usable by means of signs or words. But it's still possible to use the untamed magic, but it's more dangerous that way and definitely not recommended. It's also considered the greatest work of magic known. However a big difference between the Abhorsen series and this, is that we learn about the charter and how it works through it being shown while learning bits about its history through out the three books. We never learn exactly how the Charter was created or why it was created, but that's not important to the books. Here we learn who created the magic why it was created and sort of how in a large boring chunk of "You're not supposed to know, but I'll tell you anyway" info dumping. This adds nothing to the story except giving Eragon the ability to do wordless magic. Which is kinda like wandless magic in the Harry Potter fan fictions. Even if he's ever drugged again and unable to think of the ancient language he can still use magic. Because magic doesn't depend on the ancient language. In fact, according to this, you don't even need the ancient language to do magic. It's all about the intent.

Eragon doesn't lose his temper ever again at Vanir and his back starts to act up more frequently. But no one does anything about the pain. Or looks at his back. Or tries to figure out how to break the curse. They just let him fall about in pain. Which is really not how you want to have your savior. If these elves were really were interested in his welfare they would have healers around the clock trying to figure out how to fix it. Instead they have him just deal with it.

Obviously they really want him to die.

Then we have this ridiculous scene:

One morning as he clung to a spike on her neck, Eragon said, I have a new name for pain.

What's that?

The Obliterator. Because when you're in pain, nothing else can exist. Not thought. Not emotion. Only the drive to escape the pain. When it's strong enough the Obliterator strips us of everything that makes us who we are, until we're reduced to creatures less than animals, creatures with a single desire and goal: escape

A good name then.

(page 400)

This is where we get the title of our chapter from. However, I would like to point out, if he had any brains, he would be looking for a way to fix it, instead of suffering these continuing bouts of pain. Which proves that he's a masochist after all, if he really wanted the pain to stop, he would have done something about it. That and his tendency to torture and kill random people means that he's sadomasochistic.

So, Eragon is now a sadomasochistic sociopath. Such a lovely role model for our children.

Eragon suffers some more pain while with Yoda and tells him to shove the yoga. Yoda tells him not to abandon hope and that he stands between the light and the dark. "Ignorance, fear, hate" are their enemies and he should deny them with all his power. And that sounds an awful lot like the Jedi code. Eragon listens to him and gets up. Afterwards they take a bath in a stream.

Meanwhile, back with Roran, the village of Carvahall has reached Narda. It takes them a month to get there. It took Eragon and Brom less than a month to travel further than that. Though this could be explained that they were on horseback and Carvahall had a lot of people on foot. Roran continues to mimic Perrin by growing a beard.

Surprisingly they've had very few losses in the travel over the Spine. Three old people froze at one point and someone drowned in a glacier stream. Oh and a child broke his arm. These people are extremely lucky. Especially since the Spine is supposed to be so evil and dangerous that lots of people died horrible deaths when they went in there. To equivalent this to real life, the hardest part of the journey on the Oregon trail was crossing the Rocky Mountains. Now their wagons put them at a disadvantage but they still suffered the most losses in the mountains. The village had no experienced mountaineers no trail to follow. And they only lost four people and had one accident. This is unnatural luck. Unrealistic even.

Roran and a group of people go into Narda. At the gate they're asked what they're doing there. They lie and when one of the guards asks what Roran's hammer is for, he says for cracking glaze, cause he's a potter. Once inside, the guards swallowing that lie, they discover wanted posters for Roran and Eragon. The reward for Roran is 10,000 crowns. For Eragon they're going to get an earldom. They're both wanted for treason.

The group splits up and Roran, Hurst and Baldor go looking for a boat to transport the village to Teirm. Roran stares at the ocean and somehow knows what a sea gull is, but not a pelican. The only thing they can find is a guy with three barges. Which they agree to charter, even though they don't have the money. Our good future's king's solution? Steal the barges or incapacitate the owner and the crew. Apparently he's never heard of bargaining. They don't even try to bargain with the barge owner. They just take his price and then decide to not pay him and steal from him. Once again this is an example of the slip shod morality that is being applied to Paolini's heroes. It's okay to do wrong things because they're good and it's necessary for the greater good. But taxes? Nope, automatically makes you evil if you're Evil.

Of course the best part of this chapter, and term used loosely, is when the villagers discover that they have to take barges. One of them declares, "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges!"

Yes, Paolini just dropped a movie reference into his book. In fact if I didn't know any better, I would have said that the entire reason he has the barges is so that he could use that one line.

All argument to the barges is dropped when Roran declares it's the barges or walking.

Comments

[prototypical]

He's twisted the Charter now! Can I suggest the use of a few appropriate bells we could use to get him to stop this insanity?

Err, excuse that. I'm up to my reread of Abhorsen and remembering just how awesome that entire universe is.

Someone needs to make a hippy elves icon, though.

And you have a broken italic tag somewhere. That or you just forgot it.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. Perhaps they could be used on yea old zombie horses.

Icon: My fandom has budding, stoner, hippie elves?

*fixes tag*

[the7bells.livejournal.com]

Ah! Happiness of bells! *spazzes, flails, then fades*

[(Anonymous)]

"he possessed the talent to judge nigh exactly how much strength a task required and whether it would exceed that of his body."

It took me three tries to read that and not skim straight over "nigh". The word "nigh" has NO place in that sentence. >.>

What I get from the whole magic infodump is that some random mysterious person did some indistinct foo-foo that made things bad, after which some random mysterious race did some indistinct foo-foo that made things good again. Um... hoorah for them? 9_9

Roran and a group of people go into Narda

*stares pointedly at the ceiling and refrains from going "coughTolkiencough"*

What is "We don't want no stinking barges" from? It made me think of The Simpsons. :D

[cazrolime.livejournal.com]

Uhh, sorry, that was me.

And I forgot to say: you missed closing an italic tag after the random conversation about an X-men villain a wrestler pain.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Apparently the barges line is from some old movie with Mexicans? I dunno. More recent vintage would be Blazing Saddles.

[thelittlebudgie.livejournal.com]

How can you do something "nigh" exactly, anyway? Exact=/=close to exact, after all.

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

Google says the "We don't need no stinking ---" line is from Sierra Madre, or more recently Blazing Saddles.

Totally out of place here, though. Ugh. It was bad enough when Paolini was just stealing plot from everyone, but to throw in direct quotes...

[thelittlebudgie.livejournal.com]

He learns about alternative ways of thinking which "challenge his beliefs and reexamine his assumptions from everything from the rights of an individual within society to what caused the sun to move across the sky."

*gag*

Why is there an Earldom up for grabs? I don't remember hearing about any nobility outside of Galby being the Emperor. So... where's the Earldom? Or is it going to be created, like (apparently) Wellington was.

Still, with Paolini-logic, you can't create Earldoms. If you create Earldoms, then you can create other -doms, and if you just create them out of nowhere, how can the OTK/OTE/OTL come and make it all better?

One of them declares, "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges!"

That reminded me of the Weird Al movie UHF. Except it that case, they were badgers. And it was brilliant.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Why is there an Earldom up for grabs? I don't remember hearing about any nobility outside of Galby being the Emperor. So... where's the Earldom? Or is it going to be created, like (apparently) Wellington was.

Well in Paolini's pseudo-Medieval society there have to be Earldoms. Because that's what you have in fantasy.

That reminded me of the Weird Al movie UHF. Except it that case, they were badgers. And it was brilliant.

In the Weird Al movie it would have been appropriate because Weird Al is satire and he's referencing them movie in a humorous context. The scene that the barges comment happens is not humorous, but the line throws the scene into satire. Also Weird Al is, as you say, Brilliant.

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

... I was thinking about checking Eldest out of the library just so I could see how badly it was, and how truthful you were being. Because part of me is in denial that it could really be that bad.

I'm taking it out just so I can see that one fsking line.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I'm always truthful in my dealings with literature. If I think it's good, I say it's good. If I think it's bad, I say it's bad. If I think it's fsking ridiculous I say that too.

That line is truly special. It'll make you want to throw the book at the wall.

[dryaunda.livejournal.com]

He learns all about the magic of the elves including the fact that they can alter their bodies. In fact Yoda says that this is their greatest weakness, they're vain. And they use their magic to make them look like they want [...] to reflect their personalities. Yet, they all seem to look the same, from what we've been seen. But we're told that some elves alter there anatomy to various environments or seem more animal than elf. Funny how we haven't seen those sorts of elves before.

I will now join the ranks of those disrespectfully referring to Paolini as "Pao Pao", for he squanders this wonderful concept in favor of writing hack work. Why does he focus on that entitlement-bitch psychopath Eragon instead of Mystique-like elves?

[berseker.livejournal.com]

You know, I don´t know if I really got the Pao Pao thing. Does it means something?


(not my first language, so there, I have an excuse)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Pao is a very silly man. And he focuses on Eragon because He's Eragon and everyone should love him just like he loves him.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

I think this is his major flaw, when it comes to Eragon. See, clearly Paolini can pilfer come up with semi-unique ideas. But he doesn't know how to insert them organically. And if it weren't for his gaping hole of a Marty Stu, then he might have focused on some of those other ideas more.

This is why Mary Sues suck so much. They warp, destroy, or cripple anything else interesting around them (not necessarily within the text itself, as actual actions on the part of the character, but within the author's mind, before it can ever reach the page) so that they can remain, supposedly, the most interesting thing in the story. That's how I see it, anyway. :I

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

What I like is how Paolini continually rewrites how the world works. Because he doesn't really know how to use foreshadowing. (And because he can't go back to rewrite anything he had in the first book.)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

And the lesson you should take from this is "Make sure you know the rules of your world before you start writing. And if you come up with a new rule, make sure the previous text fits it or GO BACK AND REWRITE!"

[reverie-shadow.livejournal.com]

I just ran the "stinking barges" quote through Google, and came up with this Wiki page. I am still confused as to why Paolini would have bothered with it, of course. I suppose he's trying to make a point that he's, erm, cultured, and can pay homages properly? I have to admit that that is probably the only homage that actually feels like one and not just another act of plagiarism. But I could be wrong, of course. But at least it clears it up.

The name Eragon gives "pain" is dumb. The Obliterator? I suppose that is meant to be a moment of deep meaning and philosophy, but to me it just doesn't really cut it right. And, of course, Saphira agrees. Because if she didn't there would be conflict. Although it would be interesting if there was actual conflict and disagreement between Eragon and Saphira at some point.

There are so many holes in his rules of magic it's not even funny.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Saphira only disagrees with Eragon when the plot calls for it. Like about flirting. ;P

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

No commitment necessary. Which of course goes in the face of his idea of their being a true love Probably more like, in Paolini's view, when you have Twue Wub™, commitment comes naturally, with no need for sacrifice or hard work.

Because magic doesn't depend on the ancient language. In fact, according to this, you don't even need the ancient language to do magic. That's not how I read it. It said that the ancient language was, today, the only way to use magic, it just wasn't necessary to say it out loud, you could think it.

So, Eragon is now a sadomasochistic sociopath. A genocidal sadomasochistic sociopath ... Maybe "Eragon" is actually his language's version of "Adolf" ;-)

Once inside, the guards swallowing that lie, they discover wanted posters for Roran and Eragon. The reward for Roran is 10,000 crowns. For Eragon they're going to get an earldom. I wonder, have the books ever given any hint about the value of the local currency? What can you buy for one crown? At any rate, assuming a crown has any significant value, you'd think the guards would make sure they knew his face in case they saw him.

One of them declares, "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges!" ... oh, Lords ...

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Probably more like, in Paolini's view, when you have Twue Wub™, commitment comes naturally, with no need for sacrifice or hard work.

I think it's more like Pao wants a world of free sex, because that's something that every boy would like. But he also realizes that a true love is something that is part of a hero's story (at least in cliche land) so he has to have both. He just doesn't try and reconcile the differences.

sadomasochistic sociopath ... Maybe "Eragon" is actually his language's version of "Adolf" ;-)

*snerks*

I wonder, have the books ever given any hint about the value of the local currency? What can you buy for one crown? At any rate, assuming a crown has any significant value, you'd think the guards would make sure they knew his face in case they saw him.

Yes but he has a beard, so that's a brilliant disguise.

[ghostgecko.livejournal.com]

"Nigh" makes me think of The Tick. "I'm nigh-invincible!"

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the Tick used it for great effect. This is just dumb.

The world needs more Tick.

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

He learns about alternative ways of thinking which "challenge his beliefs and reexamine his assumptions from everything from the rights of an individual within society to what caused the sun to move across the sky."

Um. Aside from a very few, very specific number of things that have directly come up (and all I can think of is slavery) do we even know what Eraon's 'beliefs ands [...] assumptions' actually are? This would be rather more impressive a claim if Eragon weren't, by and large, a complete cypher to us up until this point.

Also, since humans appear to have no religion, what would he have originally thought moved the sun across the sky?

We then learn that the ancient language isn't how magic really works.

So first the words alone created magical effects, without Eragon really needing to know what they did; he copied Brom pretty mindlessly and created magical results. Then the words didn't matter, but the intent. Then at the end of the infodump we're back to the words being the most essential element, in that you can be thinking something completely different but the magic words will steer you through. So, my question, then, is this:

Does anyone but me feel like they need a scorecard and flowchart right about now?

Because when you're in pain, nothing else can exist. Not thought. Not emotion. Only the drive to escape the pain.

Gods help this little wuss if he ever ends up with a gom jabbar against his neck and his hand in a box.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Um. Aside from a very few, very specific number of things that have directly come up (and all I can think of is slavery) do we even know what Eraon's 'beliefs ands [...] assumptions' actually are? This would be rather more impressive a claim if Eragon weren't, by and large, a complete cypher to us up until this point.

I don't know what they were, but the were certainly challenged. Whatever they were.

Also, since humans appear to have no religion, what would he have originally thought moved the sun across the sky?

Giant Dung Beatles. What? It's as good a reason as anything else.

Does anyone but me feel like they need a scorecard and flowchart right about now?

I fear for what the flow chart would look like. I imagine something like the Summer's family tree. But at least I can figure that out.

Gods help this little wuss if he ever ends up with a gom jabbar against his neck and his hand in a box.

Or stub his toe. He has an amazingly low pain tolerance.

[the7bells.livejournal.com]

Barges?
Oh my. I would have laughed if I read it, but becasue it was so dumb It's okay to joke about it talking, but not in writing

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Especially since it's a spoken joke. It doesn't go down well in writing.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

>.< Crap. I had a story idea with elves who are so vain they use magic to look 'elven'... really, they look more like ugly little santa elves, but they like being tall and willowy...

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

See now that would be interesting.

[papier.livejournal.com]

So what exactly is wrong with the barges? Did Pao Pao actually come up with a reason for one of the villagers not wanting to take the barges or was it all just for the sake of that one line?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I believe that it's all for the sake of that one line.

[lemon-m.livejournal.com]

The obliterator?...the obli...I'm sorry, wha-?

I'm kind of surprised you didn't comment on how...pointless that paragraph was. Why would you give a new name to pain? It's kind of inconvenient if you are actually planning on using it: "ARGH! the obliterator! it buurns!" "...what?!"

Anyways, I've been reading you annalysis of theses chapters for some time, and they're great! good stuff, good stuff.

And I kind of like the hippie elves, mostly because Paolini's trying to make them perfect and it's totally backfiring. Also regarding the elves, they seem to be pretty emotionless, because that non-marriage, last-for-as-much-as-you-want type of pairing doesn't take emotions at all.