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.
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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.