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antishurtugal_reborn2023-11-11 05:18 pm
torylltales) wrote in antishurtugal_reborn2023-11-11 05:18 pm
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Murtagh Throb Test
There's a running joke among antis that Paolini has a bad habit of misusing – and over-using – the word 'throb' (and "crimson", "orb", and "thrust"). So I decided to search my ebook copy of Murtagh to see how he does.
13 throbs. Which is lower than Inheritance, if I recall, but higher than many other fantasy authors. And here's the list:
- throbbing embers
- A warning throb
- a throbbing headache
- the bone beneath the old cut throbbed '
- His veins throbbed
- His knee throbbed
- his right elbow throbbed
- His left knee throbbed
- the throbbing in his left wrist
- His eyeballs throbbed
- his throbbing temple
- The world throbbed
- a throbbing rhythm
...
84.
EIGHTY FOUR uses of the phrase "sense of".
I'm going to need a coffee before we start this spork. Or a wine. Or several wines.
GROUP SPORK NEWS
Snarkbotanya has asked me to remind you that she will be posting the chapter list soon for you to choose a chapter to spork. Keep an eye out for that, and get in quick with your chapter requests!
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If they'd been asked to do it because the scale was necessary in order to bring Glaedr back from the dead or save the land from a dire threat, then okay, I can understand Murtagh being prepared to do it despite how traumatic it should have been. But nope.
He committed one of the worst crimes possible in order to catch a fucking fish. And barely even complains about it. And no, I don't give a shit how big and mean said fish was. You're a Dragon Rider with the Name of Names at your command. There is no earthly reason why you should have gotten your ass kicked by a fish.
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1. Because the bloody Muckmaw breaks canon and simultaneously drops the IQ of all involved parties.
Seriously, if we have to consider true the Children & Durza Lake Adventures and by narrative logic we have to, then we have to consider that in this already abused magical system it is possible to power up, in a matter of minutes if not seconds, a fucking FISH to make it live for decades and to make it impervious to any type of magic let alone the fucking WORD itself and to make it so powerful that it is basically unkillable and--
War horses? War dogs? War eagles?
WHY HASN'T ANY FUCKING BODY EVER USED THIS SPELL TO POWER UP THEIR OWN ARMY? Gil'ead in book 1 should have been a pit hole of cerberi bigger than Saphira ready to rip her pieces if Durza can do this.
This is the type of magic you can't pull in post-canon. You can't justify why it wasn't a thing before. It's ridiculous.
2. If Thorn and Murtagh felt so guilty, why didn't they take a scale of Thorn's? Even if he didn't have a loose one, I don't care. Rip a scale out.
If the protagonist character prefers robbing a grave than losing a scale, well, sorry but you have some screwed morality in this story and the protagonist doesn't feel as guilty as you are trying to make me believe!
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And what the hell is even powering the stupid fish and keeping its FUCKING WARDS up and running?
If I recall, Thorn even says "as long as it's not one of mine!" Callous much?
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Murtagh actually asked that, and it was never answered!
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I mean- that doesn't really paint Thorn in a good light, does it?
If I had killed someone I allegedly respect so much, I wouldn't put my scale above desecrating their grave to get a literal piece of their corpse.
no subject
I didn't see the graverobbing as that big of a deal for the desecration part, partly it read to me as more of someone digging up a grave to steal a necklace or something, rather than to steal a body part. If Murtagh took Oromis's head or something though, that would have been really messed up.
How did the werecat know, is my question? It's not like people were dropping dragon scales into the water.
Second, Thorn could've literally dipped his tail in there, and then flung the fish out of the water.
Also, if the grave robbing quest was eliminated, and Thorn did the above, the book would've been shorter, to no detriment.
no subject
Because mumblemumble something about being drawn to enchanted things. Um, dude, your sword is enchanted. You have magic powers. You can place an enchantment on whatever the fuck you like.
Plus Thorn would actually get to, you know, do something.
no subject
But it should be a big deal to the characters. This is someone Murtagh killed, after all, and thinks of as totally awesome and wise and whatnot.
In what we've seen in Alaglaesian culture, yeah. Murtagh does feel guilty about it, and someone sees him do it so he can have more angst.
I don't know why Murtagh sees Oromis this way. Whatever opinion Paolini has, the good characters have.
Because mumblemumble something about being drawn to enchanted things. Um, dude, your sword is enchanted. You have magic powers. You can place an enchantment on whatever the fuck you like.
Exactly! Dipping the sword in the water would be a way to try to kill the fish quickly. And, if the fish grabbed the sword and took it to its lair, that would be a good reason for a chase scene and all that, instead of Murtagh getting almost killed because the fish knocked him into the water.
I wonder why it's drawn to enchanted things anyway. Durza literally created it to mess with people, so why not have it drawn to boats it can attack or something? Does it eat and absorb the energy from those enchanted objects? That's the only explanation I can think of that it's survived for so long.
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Which is the only reason why he did it in front of witnesses like a fucking idiot.
And especially given that Murtagh personally witnessed the guy throwing a toddler temper tantrum right before snuffing it. Plus as Murtagh himself pointed out at the time, "why didn't you show yourselves sooner; you could have helped us!" I for one would remember the pair of them with nothing but withering contempt.
And if so where is it finding them with enough consistency to stay alive?
no subject
Which is the only reason why he did it in front of witnesses like a fucking idiot.
He could've stood back like 50 feet away and no one would have noticed.
And especially given that Murtagh personally witnessed the guy throwing a toddler temper tantrum right before snuffing it. Plus as Murtagh himself pointed out at the time, "why didn't you show yourselves sooner; you could have helped us!" I for one would remember the pair of them with nothing but withering contempt.
Me too! Murtagh has pretty good reasons to blame Oromis for Galby and what Murtagh went through as a result.
And if so where is it finding them with enough consistency to stay alive?
And if it needs that much energy, it would have eaten its way through the entire lake ecosystem by then.
I do have a funny image in my head of Durza coming by and tossing magical objects in the pond to "feed" the fish.
no subject
Or waited until the middle of the night when everyone has left. Or, I don't know, used the goddamn invisibility spell?? Right now he's sneaking around the barracks at night and I'm silently screaming at him because WHY DIDN'T YOU MAKE YOURSELF INVISIBLE FIRST YOU IDIOT?!
And when they talked to Glaedr's Eldunari at the end, Glaedr continued to be a jerk to them.
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Thorn does do more in than Saphira in Eragon, which shows that Brom should have been removed as a character, because he interferes in Eragon and Saphira interacting with each other. But aside from interacting he: