Blue Brick Commentary
Jul. 21st, 2020 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mara_dienne459 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
antishurtugal_rebornChapter Eighteen: Revelation at Yazuac
The chapter opens with a description of everyone being thirsty. Despite the fact that they were somehow able to only partially refill their waterskins during the storm. It’s now... Day Four (because remember, Brom said Yazuac was four days away from the head of the trail) of travel and they’ve completely finished off their water. Apparently they don’t know how to ration. Eragon, unsurprisingly, complains about being out of water. Brom doesn’t seem to care, and says that he’s been this way before, and the Yazuac will be within sight before nightfall.
Eragon laughed doubtfully. “Perhaps you see something I don’t. How can you know that when everything looks exactly the same for leagues around?”
How can you not know this, great hunter? The stars aren’t any different out in the plains than the mountains, and the sun rises in the same place all the time.
Brom says he uses the stars and the sun as guideposts, and reassures Eragon that Yazuac will definitely be there.
His words proved true. Saphira spotted the village first, but it was not until later in the day that the rest of them saw it as a dark bump on the horizon. Yazuac was still very far away; it was only visible because of the plain’s uniform flatness. As they rode closer, a dark winding line appeared on either side of the town and disappeared in the distance.
So the river surrounds the town? How does it not flood the village out? Unless the village is on high ground, this is extremely poor planning.
Brom points to the river, which is the Ninor, and Eragon’s reaction to that is to complain that Saphira will be seen if she stays with them much longer. So Brom says she should go hide in the bend in the river and they’ll go in, get what they need, get out and meet her. Saphira, of course, doesn’t like this idea, and Eragon says that Something Would Happen if they were seen. I’m not sure what, because the village is in the middle of nowhere, and I can’t see anyone outrunning Brom to go warn the nearest garrison of a dragon. Which, I believe, is Gil’ead, if I’m reading the map right. Anyway, Saphira gives in and goes to do what Eragon tells her to do. Meanwhile, Brom and Eragon continue toward the village, already anticipating spending their gold on food and drinks. As they get close, they can see smoke from chimneys, but they don’t see any people. Eragon says that there aren’t any dogs barking. Maybe the people of Yazuac are cat people. Brom and Eragon go back and forth about there not being any people and how it may not mean anything but someone should’ve seen them by now. Then Eragon says:
“Then why hasn’t anyone come out?”
Just because there are strangers hanging out outside the village doesn’t mean they’re gonna stop what they’re doing and have a welcome party for you.
Brom suggest they could be afraid, which is legitimate. Then Eragon, for whatever reason, foreshadows that it’s a trap and the Ra’zac might be waiting for them. Instead of just erring on the side of caution and just moving on and foraging stuff to eat on the trail, they decide to go in to the creepy village. Of course, they decide not to use the main entrance and instead go around to the side because no self-respecting villain would put an ambush on a side entry. Brom draws his sword and Eragon strings his bow - in the saddle, I might add, which I’d like to know how he did - and nocks an arrow.
So they go into the village and find it Resident Evil levels of creepy. Empty streets, dark houses with shattered windows and doors, and yet nothing’s on fire, despite the fact Eragon states he saw smoke rising from chimneys. And then they reach the center of town.
A mountain of bodies rose above them, the corpses stiff and grimacing. Their clothes were soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it. Slaughtered men lay over the women they had tried to protect, mothers still clasped their children, and lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death’s cold embrace. Black arrows stuck out of them all. Neither young nor old had been spared. But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby.
Okay, first of all, what’s the point of piling the bodies into a mountain? It serves no purpose, because the village is in the middle of nowhere and no one is going to come see it. And what’s the purpose of highlighting the dead baby? All this scene serves is to show “evil”. How evil the urgals and Ra’zac are. How evil Galbatorix is. None of this is necessary and just serves as shock factor. First of all, what purpose does this serve? Destroying a village of people for what reason? There’s no reason for this. The Ra’zac know they’re being pursued, so they’d try to make their trail as hard to follow as possible. As for the urgals, who are being controlled by Durza, they have no reason to do this either. What point does this make, other than to show how super evil the League of Evil is? It’s excessive and unnecessary. Also, herein lies another example of women being weak and unable to do anything without a man. The men are killed protecting the women, who died anyway, and mothers are clinging to their children, rather than showing any sign of trying to protect their children. No woman is armed, and I’m sorry, in a remote village like this, a woman is going to know how to defend herself, whether it’s with a carving knife or a frying pan.
Eragon’s so struck by the sight that he starts to cry. He also wants to look away but it’s the train wreck theory - he just can’t because of how horrific it is. Then a random crow flies in and lands on the dead baby and starts eyeing what is, to the crow, a feast. Eragon immediately stops crying and fires an arrow at the crow, killing it. Jerk. He has the wherewithal to draw and nock another arrow before he pukes. Brom gives him a “there, there” pat on the back and asks if he wants to wait outside. Eragon says no, he’s a big boy, he can handle it. But he wants to know could’ve done something like this. Brom answers “Evil. Evil does this.” Then he dismounts and inspects the ground and is somehow able to make out through the blood and viscera and trampled earth that the Ra’zac passed this way, but they didn’t do this. The spear is urgal work, Brom says, and he’s also somehow able to tell that a company of them came through here. Then Brom notices a strange footprint and goes into panic mode, jumps on Snowfire’s back, and yells at Eragon to GTFO.
So they do, and before they get out of the village, Eragon’s smashed out of his saddle by a giant fist. He flies off Cadoc and smashes into a random wall. But don’t worry, he’s fine. Maybe. Eragon finally sees his first urgal. He’s described as “tall, thick, broader than a doorway, with yellow piggish eyes”. So a bargain-bin orc. There’s a strange sentence where Eragon says “behind him”, which technically is “behind the urgal”, Eragon sees Brom try to turn around to get to him, but then there’s a second urgal and shit gets real. Since Brom can’t help him, Brom channels his inner Gandalf about to be pulled down into the darkness by the Balrog and yells “Run, you fool!” So Aragorn - I mean, Eragon - takes off running, but not after he nearly gets his head cleaved off by his current opponent’s sword.
The Urgal pursued him, heavy boots thudding. Eragon sent a desperate cry for help to Saphira, then forced himself to go even faster. The Urgal rapidly gained ground despite Eragon’s efforts; large fangs separated in a soundless bellow. With the Urgal almost upon him, Eragon strung an arrow, spun to a stop, took aim, and released. The Urgal snapped up his arm and caught the quivering bolt on his shield. The monster collided with Eragon before he could shoot again, and they fell to the ground in a confused tangle.
So... they’re on the ground... wrestling? Why didn’t the urgal just squash Eragon under his weight? I mean, the urgal’s got at least four-hundred pounds on this kid, so if they collided, Eragon would be crushed, or at least have a few broken bones and the air knocked out of him. This has got to be the equivalent of a car’s windshield hitting an unlucky bug. It would be splat, not a fun game of Twister.
Eragon manages to disentangle himself from the urgal - it doesn’t say how Eragon manages to do this, or that he killed the urgal and then wriggled his way out from under the weight of the body - and runs back toward Brom, who’s still fighting his opponent from Snowfire’s back. I should mention that Snowfire isn’t a trained warhorse, isn’t trained in combat of any kind. Snowfire is incredibly calm for being in a stressful situation that should technically cause him to bolt like his ass is on fire rather than just standing there nonchalantly while Brom and the urgal exchange blows right next to him. Eragon has enough wherewithal to frantically wonder where the rest of the urgals are in a clear concise sentence and if these are the only two in Yazuac. Then there’s a loud smack and Snowfire finally freaks out. Brom doubles over, bleeding from his arm, and the urgal howls in victory and prepares to save Snowfire from a life of obscurity.
A deafening scream tore out of Eragon as he charged the Urgal, headfirst. The Urgal paused in astonishment, then faced him contemptuously, swinging his ax. Eragon ducked under the two-handed blow and clawed the Urgal’s side, leaving bloody furrows. The Urgal’s face twisted with rage. He slashed again, but missed as Eragon dived to the side and scrambled down an alley.
Yes, you read that right. Eragon charges this monster and uses his fingernails as a weapon. Just runs up and claws the Urgal in the side, and then runs away. Like... is this real? Is this actually happening? In every action movie I’ve ever seen, when the little guy charges the big guy, the big guy always wins. Either he grabs the little guy by the throat, or he becomes the immovable object to the little guy’s forward momentum. Never have I seen the little guy get away without injury when he gets in close enough to be snatched.
Eragon concentrated on leading the Urgals away from Brom. He slipped into a narrow passageway between two houses, saw it was a dead end, and slid to a stop. He tried to back out, but the Urgals had already blocked the entrance. They advanced, cursing him in their gravelly voices. Eragon swung his head from side to side, searching for a way out, but there was none.
How does Eragon know they’re cursing him? For all he knows, they’re asking him what the weather is or where’d he get the nice horse.
Being cornered, Eragon has very little choice about what his next moves are. So images start flashing behind his eyes - the dead villagers and the baby. ...That’s it? Just the dead villagers and the dead baby? Uh, okay, sure. Not any feelings of his own helplessness, of his revenge being cut short, of Roran never finding out what really happened, or of Saphira being on her own? And I’m just throwing this out there that he hasn’t once called for Saphira since that first initial call and she apparently hasn’t sensed any of his panic and fear through their link because there's no mention of her presence growing in Eragon's mind. How far away did she go? All right, fine. We don’t need Saphira anyway, right? Anyway, Eragon feels a strange power growing inside him and there’s only one way to get that power out. It apparently burns away all his fear, because he raises his bow and sights down the arrow. The urgals laugh at the silly human and raise their shields. A word pops into Eragon’s head and without thinking, he just releases the arrow, and screams “Brisingr”.
The arrow hissed through the air, glowing with a crackling blue light. It struck the lead Urgal on the forehead, and the air resounded with an explosion. A blue shock wave blasted out of the monster’s head, killing the other Urgal instantly. It reached Eragon before he had time to react, and it passed through him without harm, dissipating against the houses.
Okay, wait, let’s back up. Eragon is facing the urgals. He fires the arrow at the urgals. The arrow hits the lead urgal in the forehead and the shockwave blasts out the back of that urgal’s head to kill urgal Number 2 instantly. The shockwave could not possibly turn back on itself and reach Eragon at that point without defying every law of motion and inertia there is. It would keep going beyond that second urgal into infinity until it dissipated or it was stopped. Eragon would never feel it! This doesn’t even happen in real life! Something moving away from you cannot suddenly reverse direction and come back at you, unless some other force acts upon that thing and redirects it. This does not happen in that scene! Second, if a shockwave bursts out of that first urgal’s skull, the entire head would be obliterated and that second urgal would be thrown backwards by the force of that blast. It’s likely the second urgal would survive, unless the shockwave was so powerful it crushed every bone and ruptured every organ in the urgal’s body. This clearly does not happen. It’s not even implied. It’s just “aup, dead now, lol”.
It would make far more sense if the arrow went through the first urgal’s skull and pierced the second urgal’s, and then the second urgal was blasted by the shockwave or even immolated. Or if the arrow missed the second urgal entirely, but the arrow hit a house beyond the urgal, and the shockwave rebounded back toward Eragon and the urgal, thus killing the urgal and allowing Eragon to see the shockwave.
Eragon notices his hand is glowing, but it soon fades back to normal. He suddenly feels tired, and the chapter ends with him collapsing against the wall.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-22 12:16 am (UTC)Oh my god this chapter
Date: 2020-07-22 01:24 am (UTC)Well, you do have to do initiation to get your member card. It's kind of like hazing. The Ra'zac are VIP Gold Members, Durza is VIP platinum, and Galby is honorary diamond (since he has justification to wipe out the Riders). The League is quite exclusive, but it does have perks. For example, Mondays are always buffet nights, Wednesdays are always sleepover nights (sometimes hosted at the palace, but usually hosted at Helgrind, because of the Evil chic decorations), and Fridays are always entertainment nights (which can be rampaging, stealing, torture, or seeing a play or a concert).
Also, herein lies another example of women being weak and unable to do anything without a man. The men are killed protecting the women, who died anyway, and mothers are clinging to their children, rather than showing any sign of trying to protect their children. No woman is armed, and I’m sorry, in a remote village like this, a woman is going to know how to defend herself, whether it’s with a carving knife or a frying pan.
I know! This is so sexist. Also, this is overly contrived, like Paolini just wanted to say: LOOK AT THIS! HOW HORRIBLE! My books are totes deep. Mythcreants even has an article referencing this scene. They call scenes like this "grimdark sauce". I recommend you read the article: https://mythcreants.com/blog/why-storytellers-fail-at-grimdark-and-how-to-fix-it/
How does Eragon know they’re cursing him? For all he knows, they’re asking him what the weather is or where’d he get the nice horse.
urgal 1: Hey buddy, sorry about knocking you off your horse. I was showing my friend here how I in fact could throw a decent punch and got carried away.
urgal 2: Yeah, we didn't mean to scare you, but seriously, you have sharp fingernails. Oww.
urgal 1: That guy you're with though, he looks shifty. Nod if he's kidnapped you.
Eragon: OH NO! They're vicious. Don't kill me! I'm not delicious!
urgal 2: [to other urgal] I don't think the little guy can understand us.
urgal 1: Poor thing must be frightened. Look how much he's squeaking.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-22 08:43 am (UTC)