Angela the Hebralist

[edward9]

I'm new to the internet and just posted something on Alternatehistory.com. Dear God, never again. I would like to thank the moderators and community for making this a polite respectful place. I have read a lot of sporks but no one has ever called out Paolini on Angela. First unless she is a Anglo-Greco lass... I am not even going to get started on Paolini's non existent language skills. Rip off Patricia Wrede much, Paolini? If I still had my Dealing with Dragons series I could probably prove you ripped Morwen off word for word. Renaming Amberglas (from the seven towers)Angela and making her stupid and obnoxious is not original or homage. It is plagiarism. Comparison in the comment section.

Comments

[edward9]

Amberglas is an extremely powerful and mysterious sorceress. She works with everyone on all sides, except the main bad guy, and has her own agenda the main characters know nothing about. She deflects people showing to much interest with vague or "quirky" comments. It has been a while (decades) but I think she heals people with herbs and can tell fortunes. She is respected by everyone and no one wants to mess with her.

A few differences. She is not obnoxious and not rude to anyone. She does not go all war criminal weapon of mass destruction sorceress on the barbarian army. She is working with both sides to try to prevent bloodshed. She does not like killing and does not do it casually. Even though she is extremely powerful and likely in no immediate danger she is still at risk because she can fail to prevent bloodshed and failing to prevent others from dying provides tension since it will hurt her and she will fail at her objectives even though she is personally rarely in danger. Plus a decent human being can empathize with wanting to avoid mass killings so the reader has a bit o an emotional investment in the outcome.

By comparison Angela is clearly never in danger from anyone or anything. When she shows up randomly killing people with weapons I don't care. I know exactly how it will turn out. There is no tension only boredom. And why I a herbalist using weapons at all? Why is such a powerful magic user user using melee weapons? This would be like a SEAL sniper doing karate on the battlefield. A rifle is a better choice for this man. Angela is so powerful there is no tension for her character which is an epic author failure. The only goal I know about is helping Nasauda install a magical police state which is I goal I would prefer to see fail. So I don't care if she fails which is another author failure. Patrick Mac Manus in his writers guide said "don't ever raise questions without answering them or your reader will hate you forever."
Angela fails this advise continually. These three major author failures are embroiled in the scene with the Helgrind priest. First the heroes are completely helpless but Angela is no where to be seen. No one believes she is dead and since she is the only out the best thing to do is skip the scene until she shows up since nothing in between matters. Secondly I would prefer to see the heroes killed. Finally the priest is a scary guy. He is the only thing in the world capable of threatening Eragon and his band of psychos and actually stops them for a bit. He cuts off his arms and legs and is a religious fanatic. Clearly not afraid of death, pain or torture. Angela whispers her name and this guy, who cuts off his own body parts by choice, screams in terror. An unanswered question or rather two. What could be possibly be afraid of? Why does Angela's name inspire terror much less terror in him. I suppose what is her name is a third question but I really don't care. What is the reader supposed to think she said? All I can come up with is she said "I am Satan and will torture your soul in Hell for all eternity." I can literally think of no other reply that fits the scenario. Since the author introduced the scenario he forces the reader to think about it and he leaves the question unanswered. Even though I don't care about Paolini's stupid reasoning I am still bothered by the unanswered question because that is how the human mind works.

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently, Angela is the name of Paolini's sister, and the character is based off of her, so the name seems coincidental.

Also, in the book, Angela is against Nasuada's 1984 plan, as seen at the end of Inheritance and in Jeod's letter, so she has even less goals than you thought.

[edward9]

Yes, Angela is his sister. My criticism of the name is from his habit of mixing languages between different cultures which drives me crazy. It is even more infuriating from someone who claims to be a linguist which I don't. I rant a bit about this in response to Ultimate-Cheetah's spork of the Letter. I read his author's who inspire me list and Wrede is on the list. Furthermore some of what Angela says is directly plagiarized either word for word or slightly rephrased from Wrede. His claim Angela is based on his sister does not hold up although although I am happy to give her credit for some of the more stupid dialogue. I am hoping someone who has read Wrede will chime in because to me it is really obvious.

[ultimate_cheetah]

Wow. Thanks for pointing this out. I really can't believe how much Paolini plagiarized. Also, yes, Angela is way too obnoxious, and terribly overpowered. It would be much better if she used her herbs for healing. Furthermore, the High Priest, the Priests of Helgrind, and the Ra'zac were interesting, but they were way too easily gotten rid of. They could've been interesting if actually explored. And as for Angela's name, Oblakom came up with a good explanation.

[edward9]

Angela is the angle version of the greek aggelos meaning angel hence the joke about anglo-greco. What is Oblakom's theory?
You mentioned you read Swankivy in another post. If you recall the things she liked or made her laugh section Angela's line about how she is present because she likes to know what is going on and other people take to long to tell it or leave things out is straight plagiarized probably word for word. If I still had my Wrede books I would throw up a few quotes. From what I remember his plagiarism of her were the most blatant in the whole book although I have not read Dagon Riders of Pern or Earthsea and others say those are pretty bad.

[ultimate_cheetah]

Oblakom's solution is that Angela was taken over by an evil dragon named Raine who started a war in the previous land, so Angela said "I am Raine." But the plagarism in the IC is off the charts. I don't know how someone hasn't sued Paolini yet.