Murtagh Spork: Part 2 Chapter 10 - Softly Creeping...

[ultimate_cheetah]

 

Hello, everyone. This chapter is quite short.

The chapter starts with Murtagh lying awake at night. He uses his mind powers to check if everyone is asleep, and then creeps to a chest, using the word for quiet, Maela, in the ancient language to make sure the lid doesn’t creak. He then gets his sword and other things out of the chest. He leaves behind the guard uniform because he doesn’t feel comfortable wearing it, although he admits to himself that it could help him avoid attention. We don’t get any clue why he doesn’t want to wear the uniform, let alone why that reason is strong enough to make Murtagh do something to make the mission harder. 

He then sneaks out of the barracks. There’s a tense moment where he trips over a cot in the dark and a guard stirs, but he makes it to the archway leading to the tunnels without incident. 

He does not use an invisibility spell. Maybe he doesn’t know one. But he also doesn’t use Maela to muffle whatever noises he could make, which is something we know he can do.

 Murtagh goes down some stairs and gets to the tunnels, which he thinks are made by humans instead of elves, which is what a minor character had said earlier. He sees a secure door that’s guarded and realizes that’s where he has to go. He needs to get past the guard, though, and the guard is warded against magical attacks. He uses the Name to get past the guard’s defenses, and then puts him to sleep. He catches the guard, but the pike the guard was holding falls on the ground. 

Murtagh does not use the quiet spell at this moment either.

He pauses to see if the noise got attention, though no one comes. He watches a spider as he waits at one point, looking at it in disgust. Why he even notices a spider on the wall is a mystery to me. Anyway, no one from the barracks is coming. Given that Murtagh descended an entire set of stairs to get to the tunnels, I wouldn’t be too worried. I do wonder why there aren’t any more guards in these tunnels, though. If I was keeping werecat kittens in a creepy basement, I would definitely make sure the entrance was well-guarded.

Murtagh goes to the door, and it doesn’t open, because it is locked. Murtagh’s about to use magic, but decides to search the guard for keys instead, and, sure enough, the guard has one. I find it funny that he’s an untrained magician, but jumps to magic for mundane things. He opens the door and goes in. The chapter ends. 

I don’t really have anything else to say about this chapter. It should have been incorporated into the next one. I don’t really know why this had to be separated out. Also, if I were Murtagh, I would be using the quiet spell everywhere. I can excuse him not using the invisibility spell, since he may not actually know it, but after the first tripping incident, come on. 

The chapter also managed to be repetitive, even with this small number of pages. Twice, Murtagh accidentally makes a noise, and waits to see if guards come/anyone is awake. Twice, nothing happens. Makes him seem kinda clumsy, honestly. Also, that’s a moment that kind of needs to be used sparingly. Once was plenty. 

Also, there's an elipsis in the chapter title for some reason. It isn't necessary.

Anyway, next up is The Door of Stone with Snarkbotanya

Comments

[pangolin20]

Yeah, I think that Paolini put a bit too much effort in Murtagh's arachnophobia.

[epistler]

I probably find it extra lame because I'm Australian and not the least bit afraid of spiders. They're all over the place here and most of them are completely harmless. The really big ones with the long legs you see in memes about how scary Australia is? Yeah, those are huntsman spiders. Big, yes, but their venom is not harmful to humans and they're actually huge wimps who will run away from you when cornered.
So seeing brave hero Morontagh here being all "ew spiders" just reads as incredibly pathetic and uncalled-for to me.

[pangolin20]

Not Australian myself, but I'm completely used to them, too, and not afraid either (I've even had a tarantula on my hand once!). That said... arachnophobia is certainly a legit thing, and I've got family who is afraid of spiders, and I don't find them "pathetic" or anything, so I can't say rightly the same thing about Murtagh.

Come to think of it, its "resolution" is indeed pathetic. Thorn at least "gets over" his claustrophobia, but in Murtagh's case, he goes on killing spiders, but without being disgusted by them? It's absolutely not an improvement!

[epistler]

This isn't arachnophobia anyway. Phobia implies fear. Morontagh isn't showing fear; he's just being a nasty, prissy little bitch sneering in contempt and disgust at a perfectly innocent small creature. And as you say, when he "has" to fight the giant spooders at the "climax" he isn't afraid then either; he just blithely hacks them to pieces.

Thorn at least "gets over" his claustrophobia

In the cheapest and most offensive way possible. Phobias don't just magically go away when it's convenient to you. Or rather, convenient to the stupid asshole who just led you into seven chapters of even more torture.

[pangolin20]

I could see him go into the cave... but the whole experience, and especially the collapse of the cave, would not help him at all, and probably worsen his claustrophobia (and this would not have been that hard to find out).

[epistler]

There was no reason for Thorn to have claustrophobia in the first place because there was no reason for Galby to keep him in that tiny cave in the first place! Just how long did the guy waste on pointless torture when he could have been getting them trained and ready to send after Eragon and Saphira? I mean think about it - Eragon's training with Oromis lasted for how long? A month or two? Certainly less than five. And we don't know how long it took the Twins to get Murtagh to Uru'Baen (and going on the flashback we got, they weren't exactly hurrying). Then when they got there Thorn hatched and then the torture started. Getting up to that point probably took a month or two of travelling since they weren't using boats and didn't have a dragon, so if my rough estimate is correct Eragon was already training while Murtagh was being flogged and chained up and whatnot. Then Galby wasted even more time by making Baby Thorn fight wolves for no reason. So when did he get around to teaching them how to fly together, how to fight from dragonback, how to use all that impressive-sounding magic Murtagh boasted about when he showed back up at the end of Eldest?
And yet somehow Murtagh is better trained than Eragon by this point.

Of course all of that torture wasn't just a complete waste of time. Galby is a master of breaking into people's minds! He should have just led with that! Instead he left Thorn with a crippling phobia and could easily have straight-up killed him. How does any of that contribute to making the two of them his useful servants? None of this makes any sense!

Anyway... as you say, the torture in THIS book, followed by the business with the cave, just retraumatises the two of them like crazy. Frankly by this point there shouldn't have been any coming back from it. There's only so much a person can take, however much "willpower" they might have. Morontagh should be fucking catatonic, not just having "a trying night" with some bad dreams.

On a lighter note, here's a joke I recently came across:

End claustrophobia! Santa can get married if he wants to!

Heh.

[pangolin20]

Hmmm, as I've said earlier, I'm reasonably sure that Eragon's training took longer than a few months. I don't have much evidence, admittedly, but Eldest does talk about "the afternoons and evenings lengthen[ing]" during his training, which suggests that it's later in the summer, around August to September. That's in the middle of his training, so I can safely put another month after that, which would put us around the end of September.

And... Eldest says, in the chapter "To Aberon", that it "felt more like summer than spring". That is by the time they come back from his training. From my own calculations, his training begins at the beginning of June, and spring ends, at latest, at 21 June. Unless his training took a few weeks (which it really can't have been), there's no way this can take place in the same year. If he comes back next year, that gives him all the time to train and all the time for Murtagh to train!

(Blegh, Paolini's as inconsistent as MZB when it comes to timelines, and it's a pain to even try to keep track of.)

Of course all of that torture wasn't just a complete waste of time. Galby is a master of breaking into people's minds! He should have just led with that! Instead he left Thorn with a crippling phobia and could easily have straight-up killed him. How does any of that contribute to making the two of them his useful servants? None of this makes any sense!

I actually think he should have led with the illusions he used against Nasuada! If he played it right (show the Twins being punished for their rough treatment of Murtagh, for example), he might well win him to his service without having to resort to breaking Murtagh's mind. Thorn would be even easier to do this with, if he did it from his hatching. That would give them less reason for resentment, and work muuch better than all this (supposed) torture! I guess that wouldn't be Stupid Evil enough, though.

[epistler]

The timeline is basically impossible to keep track of. For one thing it just seems to be spring for the entire thing until after the war, when winter FINALLY bothers to show up. Plus we've got Elain's pregnancy which is wildly out of whack but does at least indicate that less than a year has passed between book one and the early chapters of book four. "Overlong pregnancy" really doesn't tell us anything meaningful.

I mean I tend to get timeline issues too but at least I go back and fix it later! And when I had a pregnant character she gave birth at the end of one of the sequels after being impregnated early in the first book so now we have it confirmed as to how much time has passed. Then time is further marked based upon how old her child currently is.

I actually think he should have led with the illusions he used against Nasuada!

The really sad part is that in many ways torture via illusions and nightmares is WAY more fucked up and if used properly can fuck up the victim ten times more effectively than boring generic whips and hot pokers. And it's a better option if you don't want to accidentally kill the victim, too, because if you do it properly you can convince them they're in agonising pain while leaving their actual body untouched. The worst thing one of my characters went through wasn't being starved and beaten in a dungeon; it was descending into trauma induced psychosis after the fact.

[pangolin20]

Exactly! Given how easy it is to keep track of the timeline is some places, I think the larger time skips could have been covered well, too.

And yes, that'd be much more safe and effective. The part I was thinking of was especially the gaslighting; using it on someone like Thorn from hatching would have meant he had a quite hard time getting out of Galbatorix's control.

[ultimate_cheetah]

That's a good point! I was literally thinking that. From a purely pragmatic point of view, Thorn is worth much less as a fighter if he has a phobia. What if he needs to go into a building and it's too tight for him? What if he freaks out and kills people or destroys things? I know Galbatorix is supposed to be mad, but, at least from his appearance in Inheritance, he had enough sense to keep the kingdom running, and to make a plan to subjugate magic users. Murtagh already has enough trauma; why throw in more?

[epistler]

What if he needs to go into a building and it's too tight for him?

Saphira buries him in rubble under a collapsed building in book four yet this has no effect other than making him angry? Really? He's also fine with being in the Tunnel O' Traps later on in that same book, making it even more obvious that his supposed phobia is just another retcon that did not exist until this stupid book.

What if he freaks out and kills people or destroys things?

Which he does in this book. Not that there are any consequences.

I know Galbatorix is supposed to be mad, but, at least from his appearance in Inheritance, he had enough sense to keep the kingdom running, and to make a plan to subjugate magic users.

He was absolutely in no way mentally ill in any way that was ever shown on the page. He didn't even have the paranoia that most absolute monarchs tend to develop. And other than the pointless Nausea torture the dude was very practical and pragmatic.

Murtagh already has enough trauma; why throw in more?

Because Paolini thinks torture is "OMG SO DRAMATIC" and doesn't believe in trauma. After all, in that interview he did with the stupid hat he laughingly dismissed trauma as "an over-used word", then continued to laugh uproariously while boasting about all the horrors he put Morontagh and Thorn through just because he could. The seven fucking chapters of torture added NOTHING to the story and sure as hell did not need to be even a third as long as it was.