It's funny really; he exaggerates everything to a ridiculous degree... except for the timeline of the main series, which is instead ridiculously compressed. If you look at Game of Thrones (the TV series mostly since the book series is still incomplete), by the time that story of world-changing events is over something like a decade has passed or implied to have done so given that all the child characters are now adults. Given how long it takes armies to move around on foot and how long sieges can last and so on, it makes sense. Here, it feels like everything happens over a couple of weeks. (The movie even more so; you see maybe two or three DAYS pass and that's it).
You know what I find the worst thing? He may have changed physically, but Eragon and his shimmering-blue steed remained static.
That was one of the most disappointing parts, really. Eragon and Saphira don't change. The narrator and other characters occasionally claim that Eragon has changed (Saphira goes ignored as usual), but it's simply not so. He doesn't grow or mature or have his horizons broadened, or suffer from genuine trauma thanks to all he's been through, he doesn't gain any actual insight into himself or the people he knows. It's as if all the supposedly big amazing events he lives through never happened. Does Paolini seriously think getting superpowers is the same thing as character development? Because newsflash - it isn't. It's frustrating to me because seeing your characters develop and change is one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of writing a novel or a series of novels. I've had two of them in different stories who went from only particularly caring about their own personal concerns (jobs, relationships, etc) to maturing towards greatness after circumstances change and they have to start fighting for a greater cause and put others before themselves.
Eragon doesn't do this. From beginning to end his goals remain shallow and selfish. He doesn't spare so much as a thought for the lives of the people he's supposedly fighting for, instead behaving as if his imagined status as "the champion of the people" is some sort of personal privilege or trophy to wave around (he flat-out calls himself that despite at no point having been hailed as such by anybody). If it's not about personal power and privileges and getting more of them, he doesn't think or care about it. Some hero.
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Date: 2020-04-02 03:46 am (UTC)That was one of the most disappointing parts, really. Eragon and Saphira don't change. The narrator and other characters occasionally claim that Eragon has changed (Saphira goes ignored as usual), but it's simply not so. He doesn't grow or mature or have his horizons broadened, or suffer from genuine trauma thanks to all he's been through, he doesn't gain any actual insight into himself or the people he knows. It's as if all the supposedly big amazing events he lives through never happened. Does Paolini seriously think getting superpowers is the same thing as character development? Because newsflash - it isn't.
It's frustrating to me because seeing your characters develop and change is one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of writing a novel or a series of novels. I've had two of them in different stories who went from only particularly caring about their own personal concerns (jobs, relationships, etc) to maturing towards greatness after circumstances change and they have to start fighting for a greater cause and put others before themselves.
Eragon doesn't do this. From beginning to end his goals remain shallow and selfish. He doesn't spare so much as a thought for the lives of the people he's supposedly fighting for, instead behaving as if his imagined status as "the champion of the people" is some sort of personal privilege or trophy to wave around (he flat-out calls himself that despite at no point having been hailed as such by anybody). If it's not about personal power and privileges and getting more of them, he doesn't think or care about it. Some hero.