Where the Heart of Anti-Shurtugal Rises Again.

As horrible, selfish and cruel as he is, I just recently realised something about Eragon's character which is easy to miss: how completely miserable he is all the time. I think you see him genuinely happy maybe three times in the entire series. The rest of the time he's so relentlessly doom and gloom that you kind of have to wonder. While promoting Eldest Paolini even said "it's better to have a miserable hero". Since when? And it's a trend that's only gotten more pronounced, you will have noticed. I don't think Paolini can tell the difference between a troubled character and one who's just so relentlessly dour and hopeless that you want nothing to do with them and their endless pissing and moaning.