...and fail to attract Muckmaw’s attention by dangling the scale into the water by the shore, so Murtagh rubs some dirt on his face to look like a peasant and heads back into the city to gather information.
Why didn't they just try multiple locations? Or travel around the lake, moving the scale?
Squatting, Murtagh dug a handful of moist dirt out from under the grass and rubbed it into his hands and onto his face. He hated the feel of the grime, but it would help age him and make him look more like a commoner.
Maybe I'm being unfair, but somehow I suspect this will make him seem like a nobleman trying to be a commoner.
Hell, it doesn’t even really make sense for his Murtagh! Why is he only now the kind of person others need to be afraid of? Murtagh was a capable fighter from well before the moment he was introduced!
He even beheaded a slaver to Eragon's consternation! (Slavery, by the way, which never comes up again and only seems to exist in Dras-Leona.)
Murtagh immediately realizes this is Durza, though obviously he doesn’t say as much, instead taking a moment to give some recap for any new readers. Durza joined the boys in watching the fish suffocate until there was only one left. Then he picked up that one, put it back in the lake, and told the boys it would torment them from then on for being such little shits.
While others may disagree, I don't think that this goes against Durza's established characterization. He only was characterized as cruel, sadistic, and a traitor to Galbatorix for some reason. He doesn't seem above doing cruel things just for the sake of it, so I can see him seeing an opportunity to mess something up and taking it. Saying that it is the result of the boys' own actions only adds to the cruelty.
Of course, there's a bunch of issues with Muckmaw: how it got the energy to grow so big if it hadn't been gorging on humans the entire time, why no one in the cycle used the trick to rejuvenate wards if that was possible, why a fish is a threat to Murtagh when he could hold his own against a bunch of things much more powerful, and when he has Thorn with him, etc.
I honestly can’t even with this. One of those kids threw pebbles at you for beating up their dad. That’s not the act of a child who’s scared of his father, but one who loves his father. Is the father a bad influence on them by roping them into his mugging schemes? Absolutely, that’s a bad thing and he should indeed be a better father and a more honest person in general.
This is so messed up. Now those kids are going to be even more traumatized. Disarming him and threatening him would have been more chilling, honestly, and more in character.
But with a new year coming in and a new book apparently in the works, it’s high time to ramp this up.
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Date: 2025-01-03 09:15 pm (UTC)...and fail to attract Muckmaw’s attention by dangling the scale into the water by the shore, so Murtagh rubs some dirt on his face to look like a peasant and heads back into the city to gather information.
Why didn't they just try multiple locations? Or travel around the lake, moving the scale?
Squatting, Murtagh dug a handful of moist dirt out from under the grass and rubbed it into his hands and onto his face. He hated the feel of the grime, but it would help age him and make him look more like a commoner.
Maybe I'm being unfair, but somehow I suspect this will make him seem like a nobleman trying to be a commoner.
Hell, it doesn’t even really make sense for his Murtagh! Why is he only now the kind of person others need to be afraid of? Murtagh was a capable fighter from well before the moment he was introduced!
He even beheaded a slaver to Eragon's consternation! (Slavery, by the way, which never comes up again and only seems to exist in Dras-Leona.)
Murtagh immediately realizes this is Durza, though obviously he doesn’t say as much, instead taking a moment to give some recap for any new readers. Durza joined the boys in watching the fish suffocate until there was only one left. Then he picked up that one, put it back in the lake, and told the boys it would torment them from then on for being such little shits.
While others may disagree, I don't think that this goes against Durza's established characterization. He only was characterized as cruel, sadistic, and a traitor to Galbatorix for some reason. He doesn't seem above doing cruel things just for the sake of it, so I can see him seeing an opportunity to mess something up and taking it. Saying that it is the result of the boys' own actions only adds to the cruelty.
Of course, there's a bunch of issues with Muckmaw: how it got the energy to grow so big if it hadn't been gorging on humans the entire time, why no one in the cycle used the trick to rejuvenate wards if that was possible, why a fish is a threat to Murtagh when he could hold his own against a bunch of things much more powerful, and when he has Thorn with him, etc.
I honestly can’t even with this. One of those kids threw pebbles at you for beating up their dad. That’s not the act of a child who’s scared of his father, but one who loves his father. Is the father a bad influence on them by roping them into his mugging schemes? Absolutely, that’s a bad thing and he should indeed be a better father and a more honest person in general.
This is so messed up. Now those kids are going to be even more traumatized. Disarming him and threatening him would have been more chilling, honestly, and more in character.
But with a new year coming in and a new book apparently in the works, it’s high time to ramp this up.
ANOTHER ONE??!?!!