Green Brick Commentary

[mara_dienne459]

 And here we are, the final chapter. The final installment. This is it. It's finito after this. Now I'm gonna have to figure out what I'm going to do next. T'was fun while it lasted. Maybe I'll get onto my rewrite of this next. Or another sporking. The options are limitless.

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Leave-Taking

 

A week goes by since last chapter, I guess, and it’s full of fun times and singing and long walks on the beach and whatever. Eragon takes Roran, Katrina, and Ismira sightseeing, and Saphira shows them her project from Book Two, and Arya takes them around the city showing off the elvish gardens. We’re told Eragon and Saphira would be happy to stay in Ellesmera for another few weeks, but Furry Rape Elf contacts them and says they’re ready to go. They don’t want to admit it, but it’s time to go. Then Arya and Firnen announce that they’re going to travel with Eragon and Saphira, which makes them super happy. Katrina decides to stay behind but Roran goes with them, saying he wants to see what the far side of Alaglaglag looks like, and traveling with Eragon and company is far faster than traveling there on horseback. So they say goodbye to Katrina while Ismira sucks her thumb, and they finally get underway. After two and a half days, they finally see Ardwen Lake (not to be confused with Arwen, the princess of Rivendell and wife of Aragorn) and the elvish city of Silthrim, which neither of our heroes has visited before. And there’s a long white ship with a single mast. Eragon tells us he knows that ship, it looks exactly like he dreamed it to look like, and he knows this silly thing called fate is finally coming true. He says something about how this was always meant to be.

 

Well, it really didn’t have to be, but someone couldn’t figure out how else to end this story without rendering the prophetic dream from Book One null and void.

 

Anyway, they spend the night in the town, and while they rest the elves load everything up into the ship, the eggs, the dead dragonballs, and supplies and stuff like that. The ship’s crew is comprised of twenty elves who want to help raise the dragons and help train future Riders, as well as Furry Rape Elf and his buddies, save for two, who elect to stay behind for some reason.

 

In the morning, Eragon modified the spell that kept the eggs hidden above Saphira and removed two, which he gave to the elves Arya had chosen to safeguard them. One of the eggs would go to the dwarves, the other to the Urgals, and hopefully the dragons within would see fit to choose Riders from their designated race. If not, then they would swap places, and if they still did not find Riders for themselves ... well, Eragon was not quite sure what to do then, but he was confident Arya would figure something out. Once the eggs hatched, they and their Riders would answer to Arya and Fírnen until they were old enough to join Eragon, Saphira, and the rest of their kin in the east. 

 

What would be hilarious to me would be finding out Eragon gave over two of the eggs that were designated to be wild dragon eggs. Of course, we never find out what happens to these eggs, if they ever hatch, who they hatch for, or if these two eggs ends up staying with the elves because the elves are selfish bastards. I mean, Eragon wouldn’t know. The eggs could just as easily end up with elven Riders rather than with Riders from the respective races they’re to be sent to, and all the elves would have to say is “well, we were traveling to these people, and the egg just hatched on the way” or some shit like that. It isn’t like Eragon puts a spell on these eggs to ensure that they reach their destinations, nor does he deliver them himself, which is probably what he should’ve done instead of wasting time in Ellesmera partying with his cousin and sister in law. But then Eragon was ever about himself, and not so much about his responsibilities. So no, I’m not surprised that Eragon just pawns these eggs off on others and doesn’t even bother to ensure that these eggs reach those they’re supposed to reach. I also find it amusing that the new Riders are beholden to Arya. In would think it would make more sense to send the new pair to Eragon first and then send them to Arya for polishing. But that’s just a minor nitpick. And I don’t know what the narration means by “old enough”. Looking at the current Riders, they’re all old enough to take care of themselves. Even if a dwarf child were to be picked, that child could’ve been alive for a few decades, and they could be set in their ways. The Urgals, too, are set in their ways. Beyond that, there’s no guarantee that the dragon would choose a young child. They could pick a teenager or an adult. I get that Riders were typically chosen at age ten, but what’s happened in this story just proves that age is irrelevant. It’s just that the younger the chosen were, the easier they were to manipulate.

 

Then everyone else boards the ship and they set out. We’re told the ship is named the Talita, which apparently is also the name of a red star in the eastern sky. This ship is so magical it only needs a few inches of water to float. It’s also so magical that it makes no sound while moving and it doesn’t need steering, since it just seems to know where its helmsman wants it to go. They travel for days through the forest, across the lake and then down the river, and they get cussed out by squirrels. Eragon mostly keeps company with Arya or Roran and only flies with Saphira on rare occasions because she’s too busy getting it on with Firnen. Eragon talks about how the days make the forest gold and hazy and the nights have brightly twinkling stars and the moon provides enough light to see. Eragon feels like he’s in a dream the entire time. Eventually the forest ends and they sail out into the fields. The river turns south and they enter another lake, and then a storm crops up. Everyone’s miserable, but you know since the wind is at their back, their progress is sped up tenfold. From the lake they enter the Edda River and sail past Ceris, you remember that place from Book Two, right? After that, they’re completely out of the forest and on the river proper. At this point Eragon expects Arya and Firnen to leave, but they don’t say anything about departing, so Eragon’s happy not to ask their plans and remind them they have duties back home.

 

South they go, across more empty land, and Roran mentions it being rather desolate. Even though the population of Alagaesia is so large you’d think there’d be people settled here. Anyway, Eragon agrees with this. They finally arrive at the easternmost settlement in the land, which is a dwarvish settlement called Hedarth. We’re told - again - the dwarves built this place to trade with the elves and that’s the only reason why they settled this place. There’s nothing of value in the area except for herds of deer and wild oxen. We’re reminded that Eragon, Saphira, and Arya had passed through this place but going in the opposite direction, when they were heading to Ellesmera in Book Two. So Eragon tells us he knows what to expect when he sees the village. But he’s shocked to see hundreds of dwarves waiting for them at the end of a makeshift pier and he’s suddenly happy as he recognizes Orik. Orik cries out and says he wouldn’t let Eragon leave without a proper goodbye, and Eragon gets all giddy. So they dock and everyone gets off except for Cuaroc and Furry Elf and two other elves who stay behind to guard the dead dragonballs. We’re told that the water is too rough for the ship to moor comfortably, so they cast off and sail downriver to look for a better spot. We’re told that Eragon’s shocked to see yet another veritable feast waiting for him, which are the carcasses of four giant boars. They’re basically having a pig roast. And then Orik says:

 

“I killed that one myself,” Orik said proudly, pointing to the largest of the boars. 

 

And hopefully he didn’t insult the clan Nagra while he was at it. This is what I don’t understand; you have these clans that are named for something - like clan Nagra - but then you also have the animal that clan is named after, which hunted as some sort of trophy. And back in Book Two, when Eragon has that feast in Tarnag, Orik told him that the dude was willing to risk falling out of favor with the clan Nagra because he killed one of the wild pigs the clan was named for so Eragon could have something to eat. I guess Orik felt the same way? Risk the disfavor of a clan all so he could give Eragon a farewell feast? Beyond that, it seems like he’s pretty proud that he killed one all by himself, which I would think would be a slap in the face to that clan. Your ruler just killed the thing you were named for. How would you feel about something like that? But then the rules and previous things mentioned in this story change so fast that it’s hard to keep them straight, much less bother trying to find rhyme or reason to the change, except for that it’s convenient to the author at the time.

 

Along with the piggies, Orik’s brought along three wagons of the dwarves’ mead, specifically for Saphira. She makes Firnen drink along with her, because one drunk dragon isn’t enough, I guess, and we go through the whole song and dance of Orik eating first so he can tell everyone it’s awesome and not poisoned, and everyone feasts yet again and Orik brings out a cask of gold and jewels for Eragon. But Eragon’s not the only one Orik has a gift for.

 

Then Orik went to Saphira and, with a twinkle in his eye, he presented her with a gold and silver ring that she might wear on any of the claws of her forefeet. “It is a special ring, for it will not scratch, nor will it stain, and as long as you wear it, your prey will not hear you approaching.” 

 

You know, a few things could be construed any this gift - one, Saphira sucks at hunting, and little wonder, considering the evolutionary path Alagaesian dragons seen to have taken. Sparkly scales and wings that produce thunder when flapped don’t necessarily make the best tools for a flight predator. Therefore, Saphira is only successful at hunting when the prey is cornered and can’t escape. Therefore, giving her this ring would only make her a more successful hunter because she’s essentially cheating. Two, of course, is that Orik is just being nice and trying to help Saphira in his own way, because not only is she going to have to deal with all these little dragons that aren’t hers, but she’ll also have to contend with her own little dragons, as Paolini said in an interview that Saphira was pregnant when she left Alagaesia. It’s just that there’s no mention of her having nested by the time the WormFork book comes around.

 

This ring makes Saphira super happy and she makes him place it on her middle talon of her right foot, and Eragon keeps watching her admire the shiny. Orik insists they stay they night so they do, and Eragon wants to leave early the next morning, but Orik invites everyone to breakfast. After breakfast, they start talking, and they go see the rafts the dwarves used to float the pigs down the river for the feast, and before long it’s dinnertime again, and Orik convinces them to stay for one more meal. I get the feeling he doesn’t have to try very hard. So they feast again and Orik tries to convince them to stay one more night, but Eragon declines this time, saying they have to go, and if they wait any longer, they won’t ever leave. So Orik lets them go, finally, and this happens:

 

They embraced, and then Orik had horses brought for them—horses the dwarves kept stabled in Hedarth for the elves who came to trade. 

 

Wait, horses? I thought there weren’t any horses, but donkeys. Horses were too big for dwarves to ride, so they didn’t bother. That’s what it said in Book Two when they first arrived at this place. I went back and looked it up, and it said that the dwarves only keep donkeys in Hedarth because horses are too big for them to ride, and Arya refused to return to the elves on the back of a donkey, so she ran the entire way. Why do they suddenly have horses here? The dwarves have no use for them, and there’s no way that the elves would leave their precious horses in the hands of the dwarves. This is just for author convenience, or he really forgot what he wrote two books ago about this place. In could see elves bringing their own horses, but I really doubt they would leave them behind. This is just a retcon that comes in for pure convenience.

 

Eragon waves goodbye to Orik and they all head off yet again down the game trail away from the village. Nobody really talks, rather just enjoying everyone’s company. Everyone knows it’s almost time for the final goodbye, so everyone’s just kind of taking their time and doing nothing important. They soon arrive at the top of a small hill and see the ship below, and Eragon knows the ship is going to be there, because it has to be. So we’ve come full circle, where Eragon starts living his dream from so long ago, and he and everyone else head down the hill to the pebble beach by the ship. Eragon gets off his horse, as does everyone else, and the elves line up in two lines, one facing the other, and they plant the end of their spears in the ground and just stand there. Eragon looks at them and his throat gets tight. Saphira says now’s the time, and he says he knows she’s right. Eragon takes the cask of gold and jewels off his horse and gives it to Roran, who says this is where they part. Eragon nods and says he gets to have the gold and jewels, because he’ll make better use of it than Eragon will. Use it to build the castle. Roran says he’ll do that, and then he gives Eragon a hug. He tells Eragon to be safe and calls him brother, and Eragon calls Roran brother and tells him to keep an eye on Ismira and Katrina. Roran says he will.

 

Finally they part and Eragon heads off to join Arya where she’s waiting for him by the elvish rows. They stare at each other, she says his name, and he notes that she’s drawn her hood up so he can’t see much of her face. He says her name and he asks her to stay, whereupon she says no, and he finishes his line by asking her to stay until the first curve of the river. So she nods and he holds out his arm, she takes it, and they walk like this onto the ship and go to stand by the prow. The elves follow behind and lift up the gangplank, and the magic ship magically moves away from the shore. On the beach, Roran watches them go, then throws his head back and roars because apparently he’s saddened by this loss. Eragon and Arya stand next to each other in silence and they watch the first curve approach. Finally Eragon turns to her and pushes the cowl away from her face so they can have their first and last romantic moment. He says her name and then her true name, making her shiver. She says his true name in response and he shivers. He starts to speak again but she stops him with three fingers on his lips, and then she steps back.

 

She says goodbye and Firnen comes and snatches her off the deck. Eragon says bye and he watches her and Firnen fly back to the shore where Roran’s waiting. Then Eragon finally starts to cry and he cries for a long time, and Saphira cries because she’s sad to leave her boyfriend, even though she stated that dragons don’t mate for life and therefore she shouldn’t be acting this way. Eventually they both stop crying and Eragon gets control of himself. He wonders what they’re going to encounter out there and he wonders what kind of life he and Saphira are going to have. Saphira says they’re not alone, and Eragon smiles, and the ship sails onward.

 

And it’s finally over. The story is done. It took a long time, but it’s finally over. I was afraid this was going to be a story that wouldn’t end because there was so much going into tying up loose ends and fooling around, but lo, it’s finally finished. Yay.

Comments

[epistler]

Then everyone else boards the ship and they set out. We’re told the ship is named the Talita, which apparently is also the name of a red star in the eastern sky

It's also the name of Paolini's mother, if I recall correctly.

At this point Eragon expects Arya and Firnen to leave, but they don’t say anything about departing, so Eragon’s happy not to ask their plans and remind them they have duties back home.

What does the elven queen even do all day anyway?

Beyond that, it seems like he’s pretty proud that he killed one all by himself, which I would think would be a slap in the face to that clan. Your ruler just killed the thing you were named for. How would you feel about something like that?

Sounds like they have what basically amounts to a totem animal, which reminds me of a story someone told me when I was a kid. A white guy was driving along in a truck with some Aboriginal women riding in the back, when he spotted a red bellied black snake on the road. Because this was during the time period when the automatic response was to do exactly this when you spotted a snake, he got out and beat the poor thing to death with a stick. Whereupon the Aboriginal women riding in his truck all started crying and wailing in horror because that snake was their peoples' totem animal and killing one was an unspeakable crime.

In other words, you don't take that sort of thing lightly.

But then the rules and previous things mentioned in this story change so fast that it’s hard to keep them straight, much less bother trying to find rhyme or reason to the change, except for that it’s convenient to the author at the time.

Yeah, no kidding. 🙄

and everyone feasts yet again

Do these characters have no concept of how to have a good time without gorging themselves?? And right when the country is likely having problems with massive food shortages thanks to all the destruction of farmland the Varden caused, no less.

Then Orik went to Saphira and, with a twinkle in his eye, he presented her with a gold and silver ring that she might wear on any of the claws of her forefeet. “It is a special ring, for it will not scratch, nor will it stain, and as long as you wear it, your prey will not hear you approaching.”

But they'll still see the ridiculous sparkly scales from a mile off, so the One Ring probably won't be that much help in the scheme of things. At least Saphira's finally gotten a special shiny accessory of her own at last?

This is just a retcon that comes in for pure convenience.

...you know, again.

so everyone’s just kind of taking their time and doing nothing important.

Because they totally didn't spend most of the Cycle taking their time and doing nothing important, cough.

He tells Eragon to be safe and calls him brother, and Eragon calls Roran brother

This despite the fact that they spent the entire series up until point acting like they barely know each other bar maybe two or three token scenes.

and tells him to keep an eye on Ismira and Katrina. Roran says he will.

And the moment either of them makes him angry, off comes the belt.

On the beach, Roran watches them go, then throws his head back and roars because apparently he’s saddened by this loss.

Even though he didn't act that remotely upset about Eragon leaving. This is a moment that could have worked if the two of them had a believably close relationship, but as it is it just comes out of nowhere and is cheesy as hell.

He wonders what they’re going to encounter out there and he wonders what kind of life he and Saphira are going to have.

Spoilers: Eragon spends most of it pissing and moaning about being expected to handle paperwork, bawwww.

Well that was an utter disappointment. The Cycle, that is. Your commentaries were excellent! Were you planning to do WormFork next? I really really hope so, because so far the only detailed take we've had on it was mine, and I do love a second opinion! 😄

[mara_dienne459]

I am indeed going to do WormFork at some point. I have it ready and raring to go, along with my solo re-sporking of the Space Brick, and a few other stories that I’m gonna see about sporking. I just have to work my way to them. Currently I’m trying to finish a fanfic to Consequence, but nobody feels like cooperating there, so it’s taking more time than I thought it would. After that… we’ll see how it works out. :)

[pangolin20]

What does the elven queen even do all day anyway?
Write really bad poetry, sing to plants all day, and stare into space?

Yeah, no kidding. 🙄
It's a sad day when your readers can create a much more coherent and exciting canon than the author can.

But they'll still see the ridiculous sparkly scales from a mile off, so the One Ring probably won't be that much help in the scheme of things. At least Saphira's finally gotten a special shiny accessory of her own at last?
Reminds me of the Ring of the Enchantress: another shiny acessory, which is completely useless in the end.

Because they totally didn't spend most of the Cycle taking their time and doing nothing important, cough.
Like most of Brisingr didn't consist of that.

And the moment either of them makes him angry, off comes the belt.
Yep. And given that I'm picturing Ismira as half-Icarii (because of her growing so quickly), I think it's only a matter of time before Roran becomes Hagen 2.0. *shudders*

[ignoresandra]

Well, it really didn’t have to be, but someone couldn’t figure out how else to end this story without rendering the prophetic dream from Book One null and void.

A quick rundown of other ways to end this book without rendering the prophetic dream void:

Murtagh leaves Alagaesia with Thorn to seek happiness outside the land where everyone judged him solely for his parentage and not his actions. Eragon is the only one who sees this as a tragedy, so he wails. Granted, the characters would have to be pretty different but still.

Arya leaves Alagaesia with Firnen because she wasn't elected as Queen and she's so, so, so tired of dealing with the politics of the people who abandoned her for most of the formative years of her life and knows that if she remains in Alagaesia at all she and Firnen will always be under threat of being used like a pawn by different elven factions.

Eragon leaves Alagaesia with Saphira, not in glory but in defeat. Saphira and Thorn are the last dragons, the green egg was destroyed when Galbatorix went nuclear and there was no secret Rider egg stash. Thorn wants nothing to do with Saphira because of how much of a bitch she is and nothing anyone can say can change that. There's no point in Eragon's mind to remaining in Alagaesia as such a total failure. So Murtagh & Thorn leave in hope to meet the future as it comes, Saphira & Eragon leave clinging to a past that is gone and won't ever come back.

This particular ship is visibly destroyed in fighting earlier - while Eragon doesn't comment on it, it's clear to the audience that the choices Eragon & Saphira have made have changed their fate. We've already been exposed to the idea that the future isn't written in stone in this setting. Eragon & Saphira don't leave in the ending though they discuss the idea.

Murtagh, as the only real "Man of conscience" in these crappy novels, allows Eragon to leave Alagaesia and then returns himself to liberate the people from Nasuada's cruel reign.

Beyond that, there’s no guarantee that the dragon would choose a young child. They could pick a teenager or an adult.

I sometimes wonder how Arya & Eragon & the elves in general would react if a dragon egg didn't pick a young child who could be abused, manipulated, and controlled but instead picked an adult with a strong sense of self. I feel like that adult Rider would not be part of the order as established by the elves for very long without being accused of something that would "justify" their execution.

Like, I can't imagine the elves tolerating a Rider who was proud to be human/dwarven/urgal and insisted on not mindlessly adhering to elvish cultural norms. To the extent where they might refuse to communicate in the AL if the elves never spoke their own language.

This ship is so magical it only needs a few inches of water to float. It’s also so magical that it makes no sound while moving and it doesn’t need steering, since it just seems to know where its helmsman wants it to go.

This is just so excessive. No wonder the elves are frigging helpless without their magic if this is the norm they're used to. Goddess forbid the elves have to possess any skill in the art of ship handling.

This ring makes Saphira super happy and she makes him place it on her middle talon of her right foot, and Eragon keeps watching her admire the shiny.

This is the last chapter, so I have to get one last dig in at Eragon for not knowing his "Partner of heart and mind". Like, he's never considered getting Saphira a gift of any kind. I mean he doesn't have to, but it's fairly normal I think to at least consider what sort of thing someone you're close to might like.

Spitefic - The Biggest Asshole Dragon Meets the Biggest Asshole Dragon Rider:

The final moment arrives and Eragon & co crest the hill to see the ship...only to find it in little pieces scattered over a quarter kilometer, and the bodies of the elves crewing it scattered in the water and land around it. Shock travels through the party and as they investigate, the wind picks up. A roar splits the sky and then a dragon lands abruptly on the opposite shore. Her body is angular and spiky and shiny but grey, the grey of polished steel. She seems inclined just to sit and watch the sky.

One of the surviving elves, covered in bruises and cuts from being thrown many long meters, indicates the strange dragon as the culprit. That she destroyed the ship, killed several elves. His words are hard to make out over the roaring wind. Saphira is overjoyed to meet a wild dragon, and she does not stop to consider how different this other dragon is. She flies over the river to playfully tackle the new dragon...who interprets this action as a threat and a challenge to her territory.

The battle is horribly one-sided. The steel dragon is faster than Saphira, and even when Saphira's claws score a hit they are deflected by some kind of armor of roaring wind that clings to the other dragon's body. So Saphira fights in flight and with fire, it's what she was always best at. But the steel dragon doesn't seem to burn, and responds to Saphira's flight by taking flight herself - rising from the ground, wings extended, strictly vertical as a tornado that stretches up into the sky forms underneath her.

The sudden, strange wind currents in complete defiance to any natural event Saphira could know about or have experience with threatens to rip her from the sky as a storm did once before, on approach to Ya'zuac. But Saphira has learned since then, and though she cannot maintain her attack she can stay in the air...until the steel dragon takes a deep breath and blasts Saphira with a massive bolt of compressed air. It would be laughable, if the force of the attack didn't shatter several of Saphira's bones. She falls from the sky then.

Eragon intervenes, of course. As does Arya, the remaining elves, and Firnen. None of it matters. Physical attacks are deflected by either the steel dragon's winds or bounce off her armored hide, which does seem to somehow be made of steel itself. Fire breath has difficulty reaching her against the deific windstorms and even when it does, metal does not burn easily. Mental attacks quickly discover that the steel dragon is intelligent, very intelligent, and while she does not have language and cannot reach out with her mind she is more than able to defend herself from even the combined might of two dragon riders and a bunch of elves.

Eragon haughtily casts a spell designed to kill the steel dragon - a vicious spell that would cause her to bleed out internally. And that moment is when the fight changes. Before, the steel dragon was focusing on throwing elves around, breaking bones, forcing them to cower in the face of hurricane strength winds. But when Eragon lashes out, seeking blood and an end to the fight, the steel dragon seems to instantly understand that the stakes have changed. She creates a tornado over the splinters that remain of the elven ship, and suddenly her windstorms flay flesh.

Eragon dies, never considering the difference between raw power and smart tactics. It is perhaps an irony that if the elves had been willing to engage in base displays of magical power - flashes of light, bolts of lightning - these would have been effective.

The fight ends soon after that. The dragon lands. Some intuitive sense of hers links Eragon to Saphira, Arya to Firnen, and the dismal state of the dragons to the fragile hunters they are bound to. Satisfaction, then, at the lifting of burdens from slave dragons. She considers the hunters - this was new. What subspecies of hunter has so little fear of her kind to enslave them? The answer is wordless - impressions of fear and submission and of proper places in a great chain - but it roughly translates to "hunters who have forgotten that dragons are gods".

With that thought, the Steel Dragon, the Tempest herself, the Kushala Daora takes flight bound for Alagaesia - to remind the people there that Elder Dragons are godlike forces of nature that cannot be bound or controlled.

[pangolin20]

As you say, there are so many better ways this dream could have come true.

Murtagh, as the only real "Man of conscience" in these crappy novels, allows Eragon to leave Alagaesia and then returns himself to liberate the people from Nasuada's cruel reign.
Basically what I imagine. I think he and Thorn leave Alagaësia for a while and seek out the remaining wild dragons to launch an assault on Nasuada.

This is just so excessive. No wonder the elves are frigging helpless without their magic if this is the norm they're used to. Goddess forbid the elves have to possess any skill in the art of ship handling.
Or basically in any non-magic area.

Loved your spitefic! Is the dragon maybe related to another fandom?

By the way, I'm quite imagining someone like this. She's called Elera, and she's a white dragon who is two thousand years old. She is also very knowledgeable in the ways of magic. She lives overseas in the land that was called Alalëa by the elves. Back in the day, she was the one who quite destroyed that land.
For she saw the Lethrblaka as a great threat to dragons in particular and the world at large in general. So she decided to kill them. The Lethrblaka fought back, with phyiscal power and magic, and the conflict quickly escalated, with Elera drawing on the aid of more and more obscure beings.
Finally she loses control, and reality is nearly torn apart, loosing loads of strange and sometimes malevolent beings on Alalëa. Nearly everyone flees, with the Lethrblaka forming the rearguard. Elera stays behind and spends hundreds of years repairing the damage, and overseeing the recovery of the region.
When she finally turns her attention to Alagaësia, it is to see the aftermath of the Fall of the Riders. Appalled at the slavery the dragons had been living in, and her inattention, she decides that she must make up for it, and so she decidedes to make Alagaësia into a paradise, a place where no one will ever suffer again.
To that end, she intervenes in the happenings in Alagaësia, first via Úmaroth, later by herself. Her main goal is setting up a puppet ruler, which happens to be Nasuada. Elera takes over the Varden and changes it into her personal army, and finally succeeds in taking over. Her next step will be taking Eragon, Saphira and Úmaroth as apprentices, after which she will come bodily to Alagaësia.
Her main goal there is the enslavement/genocide of mammals, as she believes they cause unreasonably much harm and by subjugating them, the world will be the better. After this has happened, she can begin rebuilding Alagaësia as a paradise.

[ignoresandra]

Loved your spitefic! Is the dragon maybe related to another fandom?

The dragon is a Kushala Daora from Monster Hunter World. In that setting, dragons are basically gods, and while Kushala Daora (And most elder dragons) isn't exactly evil (That'd be Fatalis) Kushala Daora is a massive asshole during hunts.

Kushala Daora:
-Likes to fly, A LOT. So she's often out of reach of melee weapons
-Likes her breath weapon, A LOT. So she's often making ranged AoE attacks...usually from the air.
-Has skin made of steel, so weapons bounce off of her body unless you hit her on the nose.
-Controls/is associated with wind and windstorms, which makes up her breath weapon. Her presence causes an entire region to be consumed in a massive windstorm.
-Most of the time, her already armored body is protected by a sort of localized centimeter-thick windstorm that physically deflects ranged projectiles from arrows to bolts to bullets unless you shoot her in the nose. The intersection of this barrier and a person's body knocks that person down.
-Any time Kushala Daora takes off, she creates a tornado under and around her that she isn't affected by.
-Any time Kushala Daora flies, the area beneath her is battered by winds that force people to have to make an effort to keep their balance.
-If Kushala Daora creates a tornado on top of some kind of environmental surface (Snow, sharp crystals, fire..) that environment is picked up by the tornado and everything becomes so much more dangerous.
-Kushala Daora inadvertently destroys human creations by virtue of the wind she brings with her, but she never starts fights.

The whole perspective about Kushala Daora considering herself (I'm gendering her arbitrarily) above humans is related to the way she carries herself in battle. You can read pride into her movements, particularly in the way she ascends as a tornado forms around her.

The reference to flashes of light and lightning are about Kushala's few weaknesses - something like a flashbang can disorient her badly enough it brings her crashing to earth, and her body conducts electricity extremely well - particularly her nose. I figured the elves in Alagaesia consider themselves "above" the direct utilization of energy to burn or shock in combat so there's no real chance they'd stumble on any of her weaknesses. The ability of Kushala Daora to defend herself psychically is something I added for the purpose of the spitefic - there is no ability even remotely similar to that in Monster Hunter.

Or basically in any non-magic area.

It reminds me of Kreia in SWKOTOR2 talking about how weak Jedi are because none of them know how to survive without The Force.

She's called Elera, and she's a white dragon who is two thousand years old.

Cool character! The setting sorely needs dragons with real agency and power in their own right.

[pangolin20]

Huh. Never heard of it before, but it sounds really cool.

Cool character! The setting sorely needs dragons with real agency and power in their own right.
Amen to that. I'm thinking of the dragons of the Forsworn to expand upon, as they clearly played a large role, but they don't even have names.

[ignoresandra]

It's a cool game. If you like the idea of fighting dragons as a person on foot, it's a great game for that. It's also a lot harder to respect Saphira when I'm thinking of dragons like Velkhana or Kushala Daora.

I'm thinking of the dragons of the Forsworn to expand upon, as they clearly played a large role, but they don't even have names.

The banishing of the names is so disgusting. It's basically revoking the personhood of those dragons.

[pangolin20]

The banishing of the names is so disgusting. It's basically revoking the personhood of those dragons.
Yeah. And no one we see ever acknowledges that it might be very bad. Which is one of the bigger gripes I have against this series: a lot of bad stuff is either rationalised away or stated to be "for the bigger good", or treated with all the levity of a trip to the grocerer. Which I plan to call out in my own commentaries, with respectively THIS IS FINE and LOOK AWAY.

Anyway, most of the dragons still seem to have come off not that bad. I mean, Enduriel's dragon (who was... called Thelhá and was male) basically controlled him (which I like to think was fully consensual), so the dragons can't have all been to messed up. Still most of the Forsworn are implied to have committed suicide, for whatever reason.

My own theory (which is quite out there, but still) is that most of them sacrificed themselves to birds in order to build a place where people could live in peace (kind of like Elera's plan, but without the genocide), and to help the world recover from the influence of the Riders.

[ignoresandra]

I mean, Enduriel's dragon (who was... called Thelhá and was male) basically controlled him (which I like to think was fully consensual)

Thelhá must have thought something like "Why did my rider have to be a sub?"

[pangolin20]

Ha! Good one!

[pangolin20]

Woohoo! Very well done! I really enjoyed your insightful commentaries, and, in fact, am still enjoying them, as I still must read the last ones. I really like your style, too. And I especially liked the new insights you gave on the books. I'm looking forward to your next projects!
And soon you can see my own commentary on this series.

[masterghandalf]

I've been following these commentaries for a while now, though I haven't been commenting on most of the older entries - started in early May, and finished up right on the day you posted the last chapter! Funny how these things work out, isn't it;)? Anyway, I'd like to extend my heartfelt congratulations for making your way through the whole Cycle, and for writing commentaries that were so well-done and thorough! I'll definitely be checking out whatever you do next, but until then, I'd just lake to once more give you a hearty congratulations on a job well done! You've earned it!

[mara_dienne459]

Thank you very much! I did have quite a bit of fun going over these stories with a fine-toothed comb, and I'm sure there are things I missed, and things I may have missed pointing out, but that's what's fun about it. I do have some more projects lined up, and we'll see how those go. :)