Noodle Incidents
Nov. 17th, 2011 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdNoodle Incidents.
I was thinking this morning about Mary Poppins, the Disney film. In the musical number "Step In Time" with the chimney sweeps. When they end up going back into the Bank's home the head housekeeper screams 'Not again!" when she sees all the sweeps dancing around the living room. This makes you want to know 'what the hell is she talking about? What happened before that apparently involved dancing chimney sweeps in the living room". It's never explained, but... yes. Apparently at some point in the past the head housekeeper had to deal with dancing chimney sweeps in the living room. This is a noodle incident. Here's the TVTropes entry on what a Noodle Incident is. The thing about noodle incidents is that there something that happened in the character(s) past that we the readers/viewers don't know about, but clearly was something they don't want to talk about, regret or well, you know it is kinda funny now... but it wasn't there.
They're a way to give history to the characters, giving them a life before the story takes place. It's a "remember that time when..." or "You promised never to bring it up again" or "Oh great... not again.."
And I bring this up because I realized, upon further thought, there are no noodle incidents in the Eragon series and there should be some. There is the "Sloan doesn't like the Spine or things that came from it" but that's explained away. There are no character mysteries. Roran and Eragon should have tons of them since they grew up together as siblings.
Roran never says anything like "Hey, this is just like the time you got dunked in the horse trough" or "At least this time she didn't slap you". Eragon never teases Roran about that time he made a complete ... why did you just kick me? incident.
Saphira and Eragon don't have any.
Arya and the other elves don't have any. You would think there'd be one for the blue furred elf whose name I've forgotten and can't be bothered to look up. I mean, he's a blue furred elf. And no one mentions it beyond, "Oh yeah. We're elves. We think anything can be beautiful. God is he sexy." I mean, we the reader want to know why he looks like that but there's no hint of an explanation beyond, "Oh he felt like it".
The closest we get to it, I think, is the two random women heroes who show up and ask for Eragon's blessing and then are told "their story doesn't intersect with yours".
Everything of interest in the books happens once Eragon gains Saphira. Then we meet people, then things start happening, but there's never really references to things in the past that have to do with weird every day life memories.
Also, I realized that Eragon doesn't have any friends back in the village. There didn't seem to be anyone he was friendly with, a girl he was attracted to. There wasn't anyone he regretted leaving behind when he fled with Brom. He doesn't worry about Roran because Roran is gone. He has absolutely no history beyond 'angst' in his home village.
His life doesn't begin until Saphria shows up. Which makes him an empty and soulless puppet. But we already knew that, didn't we?
I was thinking this morning about Mary Poppins, the Disney film. In the musical number "Step In Time" with the chimney sweeps. When they end up going back into the Bank's home the head housekeeper screams 'Not again!" when she sees all the sweeps dancing around the living room. This makes you want to know 'what the hell is she talking about? What happened before that apparently involved dancing chimney sweeps in the living room". It's never explained, but... yes. Apparently at some point in the past the head housekeeper had to deal with dancing chimney sweeps in the living room. This is a noodle incident. Here's the TVTropes entry on what a Noodle Incident is. The thing about noodle incidents is that there something that happened in the character(s) past that we the readers/viewers don't know about, but clearly was something they don't want to talk about, regret or well, you know it is kinda funny now... but it wasn't there.
They're a way to give history to the characters, giving them a life before the story takes place. It's a "remember that time when..." or "You promised never to bring it up again" or "Oh great... not again.."
And I bring this up because I realized, upon further thought, there are no noodle incidents in the Eragon series and there should be some. There is the "Sloan doesn't like the Spine or things that came from it" but that's explained away. There are no character mysteries. Roran and Eragon should have tons of them since they grew up together as siblings.
Roran never says anything like "Hey, this is just like the time you got dunked in the horse trough" or "At least this time she didn't slap you". Eragon never teases Roran about that time he made a complete ... why did you just kick me? incident.
Saphira and Eragon don't have any.
Arya and the other elves don't have any. You would think there'd be one for the blue furred elf whose name I've forgotten and can't be bothered to look up. I mean, he's a blue furred elf. And no one mentions it beyond, "Oh yeah. We're elves. We think anything can be beautiful. God is he sexy." I mean, we the reader want to know why he looks like that but there's no hint of an explanation beyond, "Oh he felt like it".
The closest we get to it, I think, is the two random women heroes who show up and ask for Eragon's blessing and then are told "their story doesn't intersect with yours".
Everything of interest in the books happens once Eragon gains Saphira. Then we meet people, then things start happening, but there's never really references to things in the past that have to do with weird every day life memories.
Also, I realized that Eragon doesn't have any friends back in the village. There didn't seem to be anyone he was friendly with, a girl he was attracted to. There wasn't anyone he regretted leaving behind when he fled with Brom. He doesn't worry about Roran because Roran is gone. He has absolutely no history beyond 'angst' in his home village.
His life doesn't begin until Saphria shows up. Which makes him an empty and soulless puppet. But we already knew that, didn't we?
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