blah blah blah

[kippurbird]

Words of Wisdom


I'm not exactly sure what sort of words of wisdom are supposed to come from this chapter, I'm just glad it's short.

It actually begins promisingly enough. Eragon has bumped the bowl he's using for the scrying conversation he's having with Nasuada as she's trying to congraulate him. He realizes that she can't see the ripples because he's looking in water at her and she's looking through a mirror at him. Which is actually sort of interesting in regards to the way the magic works. It's kinda like how two people are on cell phones and one person is going "I can't hear you, can you here me? You're breaking up?" and the other person is, "I can here you just fine." THOUGH! I could have sworn the scrying spell only lets you see a person and not actually talk to them or anything. Mayhap that was a different spell or... something?

Anyway, Nasuada tells Eragon that he's a wonderful person for getting Orik elected king, even though he had to get attacked to do it. Because, you know, Orik couldn't have done it himself. And that it was Orik who took advantage of the circumstances and did something intelligent. Nope. Eragon gets all the credit.

Nasuada then wants to know when Eragon can get back. Three or four days?

Eragon is kinda... iffy on that whole return thing. See, he wants to go back to the elves and learn more. Nasuada wants him to kill things, or at least to hold off people who could kill them. Eragon wants to go and learn how to kill more things.

While they're having this conversation, Nasuada is constantly interrupted by things happening off screen.

But honestly the entire chapter is:

Nasuada: I want you to come back and help.

Eragon: But I need to go learn more.

Nasuada: But if you don't come back we'll all die

Eragon: But if I don't go learn more we'll die even more because when we get to Galby I won't know enough.

Nasuada: Well... fine. But come back here as quickly as possible. Four days is best even though you said that it'd take a week to get there and who knows how long it'll take you to do your lessons and things.


Oh, sure there's some talk about siege engines and stalling the battle, but honestly that's the gist of the chapter.

Also, Roran's back.

Comments

I've had an epiphany maybe...

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I don't think they actually need Eragon. They just need better training for their "soldiers", like adding in scouts and assigning better commanders (Roran doesn't count; I refuse to consider him better just because of an encounter that was pointlessly stupid on both sides.) And maybe a better leader to replace Nasuada.

But Eragon won't give them any of those things. He can kill a crap-ton of people at once, sure, but if he's going to do their work for them, why bother having soldiers at all? I honestly think the whole resistance group is a useless farce that Paolini would've been better off without. NOTHING changes if the entire group is ditched. The books just get a lot shorter. >:(

Re: I've had an epiphany maybe...

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Why would you think that? (Other than it maybe being under 50,000 words or however much is the smallest definition of the term.) Do you feel you're not giving enough focus where focus is due or do you worry that the plot doesn't seem complex enough? :)

I personally look at it this way these days; I'd much rather read something short and sweet than something long and tedious (hence why I haven't read the bricks. I'm also not the kind of person who forces myself to finish something for the sake of completion either, so that probably factors in as well.) Not to mention, some of the novels that I've read, which I felt had the most beautiful sense of prose, were actually quite short. (I love Ursula Le Guin and Peter S. Beagle's descriptive capabilities.) So even description doesn't need to add a lot to the length of it just to be good.

I'd say not to worry about it now and just give it a tough, critical eye once you're done with a draft or two, to see if your worries were well-founded. Not that I'm experienced in these matters, but those are my thoughts. XD

Re: I've had an epiphany maybe...

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I see. Yeah, that is annoying. I think you have the right idea though. :)