Battle of the Burning Plains

This is the largest, most important and decisive battle the Varden have ever fought. Defeat will be too disastrous to contemplate. This battle, if possible, is even more important than Farthen Dur. And it is, if possible, even worse.

Before the battle even begins, several major issues with the Varden must be considered. This army is poorly organized, poorly prepared, and poorly led. First and foremost, the matter of succession. Within the first few pages of Eldest, Ajihad is killed by Urgals. After an excessive funeral, Nasuada, completely out of the blue, becomes leader of the Varden. This is just too much to swallow. It’s completely random. She is the daughter of the General. His Second-in-Command, Jormundur, is the man who should succeed Ajihad. This is just how armies work. Even worse, when Nasuada seizes power, she is not even challenged. Do the men trust her? Has she ever earned their respect? Jormundur should be outraged. Is he some sort of permanent Second-in-Command, who remains so no matter the leader? In fact, the soldiers would no doubt not approve of Nasuada either. I do not think this is entirely fair, but the fact remains: in Ancient Times, women did not fight. They did not lead armies. In reality, the soldiers would scoff at Nasuada and turn to Jormundur to command. Or maybe some, for any bizarre and unlikely reason they might have, would join Nasuada, while others would join Jormundur. This power struggle might actually have added tension and real plot to Eldest. Instead, not even a confused hand is raised when Nasuada is declared General of the Varden. So, the Varden are led by an inexperienced, untrained, untried and untested, daughter of a General who has never been on a battlefield. I’m going to wish you guys good luck, shrink slowly back into the shadows, and desert this army.

So let’s review the facts about the Varden. It can be assumed they are poorly armed and armored compared to the Empire’s soldiers, for the simple reason they have less money, less supplies, and less suppliers. They are also outnumbered, which was proved when Roran asked his Captain about their group being outnumbered, and he responded, “It is always so with the Varden.” Paolini has said the numbers were roughly 100,000 Empire soldiers against about 50,000 during the Battle of the Burning Plains, but this is unbelievably higher than what the reader was led to believe in the book, seeing as no actual numbers were given, and no adequate description of the ranks was either.

These disadvantages lead the reader to expect the Varden to win battles with a combination of strategy and heroism- especially in one as climactic as the Burning Plains. Most unfortunately, they do not. Armies look to their Generals and leaders for orders, so it is up to them to orchestrate the victory. But Nasuada simply is not the right person to do that. And when the Varden face the Empire’s forces, it shows.

The preparations for battle are a bit odd, and disproportionate to the amount of men. For instance, Angela the Witch prepares perhaps a cauldron of magic poison, proceeds to infiltrate the Imperial camp with ease, and tops it off by poisoning thousands of soldiers.

If I thought Paolini never picked up a book on warfare before this, I’m convinced of it now. I mean, yes, Angela is a powerful witch. But the Empire also has many magicians, and anyone would have put magical sentries as well as regular ones on duty. Keep in mind, this is a camp of thousands. It would be impossible to penetrate so deep to get into the kitchens and poison the food. And it would be even harder lugging a cauldron of poison around. This, incidentally, would not have been enough to poison the Imperial Army, of, yes, thousands.

Next, the Varden begin their opening maneuvers, positioning the army on the Burning Plains. Before I begin on the complete atrociousness of this maneuver, I have to note that the Varden muffled the sound of their army by stuffing rags into their armor. Yes. I’m not kidding. They stuffed rags into their armor. What this would do to muffle the sound of 50,000 marching boots on hard ground, I have no idea, how they would get enough rags for 50,000 men, I have even less.

But the maneuver itself was random, pointless, and downright suicidal. The Varden had a secure, fortified encampment before the plains. Earlier on, Nasuada had sent for help from the dwarves, who could arrive any hour. The logical course of action is obviously to hold the position, and wait for the dwarves before making any serious engagement. The fact that they are outnumbered only makes it even worse; in a direct conflict, in an open plain, it will make an enormous difference, the numbers would be more desirable in a siege.

Not only that, but the location the Varden moved to was simply ridiculous. The Burning Plains are described as vast, scorching deserts of hard ground, with underground fires that occasionally erupt at the surface, enough to scorch a dozen men. Which really makes it the desirable terrain to hold during a battle, right? The Varden seizing this ground is reminiscent of many risky gambits taken by real Generals. Especially in more Ancient to Medieval Times, when victory on the field was everything, commanders often risked victory on a throw of the dice: rushing to take the high ground, or giving it away to force the enemy into a trap, as Napoleon did at Austerlitz. But in the Varden’s case, it’s reminiscent in the action, but certainly not in the result. The Varden have risked their fortification, connection with the dwarf reinforcements, all in the goal of obtaining a position in desert which will occasionally scorch their troops to a crisp, in the open, as their position to fight against a larger force. Did I mention I was deserting?

Now, as the battle begins, things become very odd. For instance, I was given the impression that the Varden were attacking the Imperial Camp by surprise, what with the rags, and the surprising maneuvers. It’s implied they will now storm the camp, and slaughter the Empire’s soldiers as they sleep, or before they can grab their weapons. A cruel, dishonorable plan, but nevertheless one which allow the Varden to obtain a huge victory in the easiest way possible. But it’s strange… this doesn’t happen. Somehow, the Imperial Army, in full battle gear, in full formation, comes marching against the Varden. This means that either Paolini intentionally messed up the rags in the armor, as an excuse for the Empire to be tipped off, or he just doesn’t know what a surprise attack is.

Seeing as Paolini has never admitted a fault in any of his characters, I’m going for the second. This, however, brings up more questions. Assuming this was meant to be a surprise attack, how exactly did Nasuada plan on stopping her army from being ‘Scryed’? I know if I had a dozen magicians at my disposal, I would be observing the enemy’s movements constantly. There are a dozen ways for the Empire to know about the Varden’s movements, giving them adequate time to form up before the Varden arrive, but since none of them are even barely implied, I have to reason Paolini simply wanted this battle to be two squares marching against each other, and the last one standing wins. This is pretty much what happens.

It seems the Varden don’t learn from their mistakes. In Farthen Dur, where they should have lost, they made the mistake of not taking advantage of time, and just as bad, letting an enemy that outnumbered them form up and attack in an organized way. Here they make the same mistakes. Nasuada decided to move the entire Varden to the Burning Plains. But she didn’t have any plans for the battle other than charging the Empire, who, once again, outnumbers them. I mean, come on. Not even a little flank attack with Orrin’s cavalry? How about harassing the enemy’s advance and destroying their supplies with it? But there’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing from the Varden, nothing from the Empire. They both just charge at each other, in large blobs, since it is clear by now Paolini doesn’t know what a formation is, and hope to win. For the Empire, this is excusable; they have the larger force, but really Nasuada? Not even a charge of cavalry in the front?

As the battle starts picking up for real, the two bodies of troops engage, Eragon takes to the sky on Saphira. His strategy is to find enemy magicians and kill them with magic, then kill all the men they were protecting from the ‘Seven Words of Death’. This is a good plan, but when I stop and think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Killing the enemy magician magically is the same as overpowering his magic, right? So… why did Eragon have to kill him in the first place? Just shove through his puny human magical barriers, and kill all the soldiers with your Elfish powers! But, he doesn’t think to do that. Instead, Eragon finds it easier to pinpoint each and every Empire magician to kill them magically, and then kills the troops. What he does in the meantime actually made me laugh.

While he’s not magically killing other magicians, Eragon is observing the battle. Yes. He’s flying around in circles over a vital battle. Like a complete moron. Wasn’t Eragon’s intelligence supposed to be heightened by the Agaeti Blodhren? Instead of decreased…? I think Eragon needs some clarifications on his position.

Eragon! You are riding a DRAGON! She can breathe FIRE! Do you know what this means?

It means Eragon should take Saphira over the enemy lines, and scorch everything to a crisp. At this point in time, the Empire has no Dragon Rider to oppose Eragon. This is a mind-bogglingly huge advantage. This is the equivalent to two modern divisions of infantry fighting against each other, but one has a Fighter/Bomber and the other doesn’t. What’s that Fighter/Bomber going to be doing? I know! Flying circles and observing the vital battle!

Sigh

But it’s not until later on that the real fun begins. This is when the Empire rolls out the heavy artillery… the trebuchets. The siege engines, meant to knock down castle walls. The imprecise, slow, awkward things that throw large stones. Oh, enough of this. Damaging an army with a Trebuchet in the middle of a battle is the same as trying to injure a cow with a pebble. And the accuracy is the same as if you flicked the pebble at the cow with a plastic spoon. There’s no reason to have brought out the Trebuchets- there’s as much a threat to the Varden as to the Empire itself. But Eragon, being the little Elfish genius he is, decides that this enormously dangerous threat cannot continue to exist. So, he comes up with a plan to destroy them.

First, Eragon decides to invade the mind of a foot-soldier. He pushes through his mind barriers, and has the man inconspicuously sneak towards the heavily guarded siege engines. Quickly, the man is forced to pull out his sword and hit the thick, tough rope with it. Finally, one Trebuchet has no more rope on it. Now, to repeat the process for the other heavily guarded siege engines…

Or he could’ve, you know, GONE OVER THERE AND SCORCHED THE WOODEN THINGS!

I think I need to get some cold water… * Hobbles away *

But, unfortunately, we get no relief from the utter outrageousness of it all when a dragon appears, flying out of the horizon, with blazing red-colored scales. This raises several questions. First of all, where was this dragon all this time? Why did he not come to defend the ground troops from Saphira, when any half-wit would know she should’ve cooked half the Imperial Army ‘Well Done’ by now. And… it’s not Galbatorix, because the dragon is red, not black. Great, he has an apprentice! Why didn’t he come to? It’s becoming a habit for Galbatorix to throw away essential battles. Had he come, Eragon would now be either dead or his second apprentice, and the Varden Dwarves, and Surdans would all have been annihilated by one magic word, backed up by his Eldunari. Yet, this lazy couch potato prefers to stay in his dark, evil tower and do… something or other, than win this war on which his survival, incidentally, depends.

But I digress. After killing Hrothgar, Murtagh contemptuously defeats Eragon’s magical resistance, and pretty much forces him to blubber and beg for mercy. Which is, I’m not even kidding, pretty much what Eragon does. Our hero is actually begging the villain. But as this is happening, the cavalry arrives! Roran and Co. appear on their ship, giving great hope to the Varden. Next, Paolini further proves he doesn’t know what siege weapons are when Roran operates the ballista on the ship to decimate the Empire’s troops. But, in any case, this whole passage is completely ridiculous. A ship like the Dragon Wing could hold two hundred people, at a generous estimate. Two hundred people will not tip the balance of a battle where both sides have tens of thousands of troops!

But, away from Eragon and back to the battle for a moment. Throughout this entire time, the Varden and Empire are still hacking at each other as huge blobs with no order, formation, or for that matter, leadership. This goes for both the Varden, with Nasuada as their general, against an army whose Ultra-Powerful leaders didn’t even bother to help until halfway through the battle.

This is a real Clash of the Titans, right here.

As soon as the Dragon Wing arrives, so do the ‘Twins’: two powerful Empire magicians. They may be powerful, but in Eragon, it was well emphasized that for humans, magic was very limited by their physical impotence. The Twins are, quite clearly, human. As such, how are they decimating the Varden again…? Eragon, a Dragon Rider, almost died after killing a few soldiers without Saphira, in Gil’ead, before the Agaeti Blodhren. The Twins may be a little more powerful, but still.

But even more ridiculous is Roran’s way of killing the two. He strolls across the battlefield, to the center of the Empire’s horde, without being noticed, then walks up to the Twins, surrounded by Imperial guards, and kills them with his hammer. This is…stunning.

But, back to our real hero, Eragon. Softened by Eragon’s pleas, Murtagh decides to spare him, despite being loyal to Galbatorix. And then he leaves. He just leaves. He abandons his troops, he abandons the incredibly important battle, even as his soldiers are starting to flee and he can easily turn the tide of the battle. He just leaves. This is beyond the bounds of reason. If I thought the Varden were doing everything they could to lose, boy, was I wrong!

And, as is his habit in battles, Paolini pulls victory out of the blue. He pulled the solution of poisoning, of moving thousands silently, of having an incompetent enemy, all out of a hat, with no foundation whatsoever. But, in this contest of sheer numbers, because that was what the Battle of the Burning Plains was: two blobs shoving against each other, the higher numbers winning, the Varden won. Randomly. They were outnumbered, and won a contest of numbers. With not a hint of strategy- in fact, there were several instances of sheer stupidity.

A far better ending would have been for the underground fires to all erupt, and kill everyone. Then, there would be no more Varden… that would be great.

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Comment

  1. Danielle on 1 March 2011, 15:35 said:

    Have you ever considered copyrighting these articles? You could use them in a college course called “Idiotic Battle Strategies 101: How Paolini Teaches Us to Lose a War.” Because seriously, these are brilliant. Well-researched, well-thought out, and witty.

  2. SlyShy on 1 March 2011, 15:54 said:

    Danielle, anything you publish is automatically protected under copyright. So yes, The Cat does have a copyright to his writing.

  3. autumnfey on 1 March 2011, 16:01 said:

    About Nasuada being named leader . . . I could have bought it if we knew more about the sociocultural system of Alagaesia/the Varden/whatever tribe Ajihad and Nasuada were supposed to have come from, and what the position of women in that society was, how inheritance of power worked, etc. I don’t have a problem with seeing a woman in a position of command in this sort of setting, to be honest (there are historical instances of women being involved in warfare, though they aren’t the norm). It’s just that overall the appointment makes no logical sense whatsoever. Tactical knowledge is not a hereditary trait and there’s no evidence Nasuada ever had extensive training or experience with warfare. Why did Ajihad even have a second in command when they disregard him so completely?

    “But it’s not until later on that the real fun begins. This is when the Empire rolls out the heavy artillery… the trebuchets. The siege engines, meant to knock down castle walls. The imprecise, slow, awkward things that throw large stones. Oh, enough of this. Damaging an army with a Trebuchet in the middle of a battle is the same as trying to injure a cow with a pebble.”

    This made me laugh. Reminded me of playing Age of Empires/The Conquerors and trying this tactic. It was utter fail.

    Once again, a very interesting read.

  4. Leafbreeze on 1 March 2011, 16:26 said:

    Saphira was so freaking USELESS in this battle. Either she flew around watching everything or else she was fighting ON THE GROUND. That’s like rolling a bomber plane around on the ground in a battle instead of flying it.

    Every time I look at this battle, its sheer stupidity rises by 100 points.

  5. The Cat on 1 March 2011, 17:18 said:

    Wait… this is copyrighted? That’s pretty cool. Didn’t know that.

    BTW Danielle, thanks for considering these worthy of being published for real! :)

    And Autumnfey, I agree with you about Nasuada; I based my arguments off of real history, since there isn’t much in Inheritance. And Age of Empires is an awesome game. Do you know Empire Earth? It’s very similar, made by the same guy, but there are a dozen more Epochs. It’s quite fun, if you want to check it out.

  6. Sweguy on 1 March 2011, 17:48 said:

    I’m pretty much amazed. You make things seems so obviously clear! Wonderful, love it. I just hope I’m not as deluded at creating battle-scenes as Paolini is xP

  7. SlyShy on 1 March 2011, 18:44 said:

    Well, the bottom of the page does say “© 2008-2011 ImpishIdea and The Cat, all rights reserved.” That statement should be clarified though. The article is copyright to The Cat, the parts of the page and design are copyright II.

  8. The Cat on 1 March 2011, 18:44 said:

    Thanks Sweguy! I’m considering taking a break from this series (there are only so many battles in Inheritance), and write an article on how to write warfare in a novel. Hope it helps, if you check it out!

  9. Snow White Queen on 1 March 2011, 22:15 said:

    I’m considering taking a break from this series (there are only so many battles in Inheritance), and write an article on how to write warfare in a novel. Hope it helps, if you check it out!

    Ooh, that should be a series, Cat! I would definitely read it.

  10. Kilgore on 1 March 2011, 22:30 said:

    I look forward to it Cat! :D

    IIRC wasn’t the Empire using Ballistae?

    Trebuchets are large and immobile like you said, however they were pretty accurate.

    As for the battle. Wince

    Where the heck are the formations? Where are the Cavalry charges? Where are the-

    Oh never mind.

    As for Saphira, here’s a thought Paolini, why not have your Dragon fly to the rear of the enemy formation? That way she could roast people at close range and she wouldn’t have to worry about Kentucky Windage, and on the ground she’d be a virtually unstoppable fire-breathing, heavily armoured killing machine and on the ground injuring a wing isn’t an issue. Forget sweeping aerial battles, the Dragon’s true potential lies in its mobility and its shock value on the ground.

  11. ZeeZee on 2 March 2011, 00:14 said:

    You have to remember, Murtaugh was being forced to work/fight for Galbatorix, so there is a reason for him being so incompetent- he could have been trying to sabotage it on purpose.

    Awesome article, as always.

  12. Rorschach on 2 March 2011, 01:40 said:

    Another excellent article.

    I particularly like your comments about Nasuada. I’m planning on writing an article about her hopefully before too long, and one of the things I plan on beginning with is how utterly moronic and nonsensical her rise to become leader of the Varden is.

  13. Deborah on 2 March 2011, 08:40 said:

    Thank you for this article.
    I could never understand why Saphira ran around on the ground, either. She’s most dangerous in the AIR.
    It seems to me like Paolini just threw together what he thought was cool.
    And there have been women leading armies before, so I’m not really upset about that.

  14. Sweguy on 2 March 2011, 11:22 said:

    The Cat, I think its and excellent idea to write and article on how to acctually write. You easily get into a deppressive writing mode when you only read about what to NOT do. So a little more positive articles are very appreciated.

  15. RandomX2 on 2 March 2011, 12:31 said:

    I could never understand why Saphira ran around on the ground, either. She’s most dangerous in the AIR.

    The rationale is that she would be targeted by a lot of the Empire’s archers, and arrows can still damage her. She’s only visible to a few rows of soldiers if she fights on the ground, and keeping her alive is more a priority than doing damage. If they win the fight but Saphira dies, it’s GG (they have no way to damage Galbatorix). If they lose the battle but Saphira and Eragon escape, there’s always a chance for them to pull off something 100 years in the future.

    Maybe a better strategy would be to fly high directly over the Empire’s soldiers, so that they panic and attack her even if they can’t reach her. Then their arrows fall back on them.

    IMO there’s a hundred equally random strategies they could’ve pulled off with a Dragon on their team, but nothing was really made use of.

  16. Ashley on 2 March 2011, 13:20 said:

    Quick question about the trebuchets (since my knowledge of warfare is minimal at best): Why are the trebuchets a bad idea? I could see that in a close range fight, the guys using the trebuchet would be killed a lot sooner than they could load it, but otherwise…?

  17. Danielle on 2 March 2011, 15:28 said:

    Quick question about the trebuchets (since my knowledge of warfare is minimal at best): Why are the trebuchets a bad idea? I could see that in a close range fight, the guys using the trebuchet would be killed a lot sooner than they could load it, but otherwise…?

    Trebuchets were most often used to break holes in castle walls so foot soldiers could take the fortress, and that is where they were most effective. The reason: walls can’t move, and so are most vulnerable to huge rocks flying at them. Foot soldiers and archers—and even cavalry, really—are a lot more mobile, and if they see a gigantic rock flying at them, they’ll move out of the way, and the rock will crash uselessly to the ground. That’s why the Empire’s use of trebuchets was so moronic: because the Varden didn’t technically have a fortress to defend, and so the Empire is stuck slinging these huge rocks at moving targets.

  18. The Cat on 2 March 2011, 16:35 said:

    “Quick question about the trebuchets…”

    In addition to what Danielle said, in this battle, the soldiers were in a jumbled mess. The trebuchet would have as much chance of hitting a Varden soldier as an Empire one. Plus they’re really vulnerable; they were bound to get destroyed.

  19. swenson on 2 March 2011, 16:50 said:

    As you pointed out, though, the battle never should’ve gotten to the point of two blobs running into each other. Wouldn’t it have made MUCH more sense for the Varden to do everything in their power to avoid an all-out battle? They should’ve focused on things like the Empire’s army’s supply lines. There’s no food or water in the Burning Plains, obviously it’s all coming in from somewhere else, so why not send some infiltration teams to do as much damage as they can? Eragon, Arya, and Angela at least already showed they could sneak through enemy lines with ease.

    Or what about small, hit-and-run attacks that would wear down the Empire’s army and demoralize them? It’s emphasized several times over that large parts of the army are conscripted, so it seems that after a while, some of those farmers are just going to get sick of it all and desert. Maybe they wouldn’t join the Varden or anything, but at least the Empire’s army would have fewer people in it.

    If this were done properly, I can see the Varden doing all these guerrilla attacks on the Empire. Nasty, low-life things, perhaps, but it would slowly wear down the Empire’s army, finally culminating in a battle where they manage to rally enough to beat back the Empire’s army using sensible and realistic military tactics while Eragon and Saphira provide aerial assistance—not merely reconnaissance, but actual attacks. Things would be going well for the Varden, until Murtagh and Thorn show up, having a very good reason for not showing up until that moment (not sure what that reason is, but let’s pretend there is one) and we know the rest of the story.

  20. TakuGifian on 3 March 2011, 09:31 said:

    Hell, with a setting like those mountains, The Varden should have been playing hit-and-run guerrilla tactics on the supply lines to/from the major cities. If I recall, the Spine goes pretty much the entire length of the country, so if they had small mixed-units attacking the supply-chain for the larger coastal cities like Teirm and Kuasta,they could prevent their enemies from getting a large amount of imported (from where?) supplies though the coastal ports. There was talk of the Empire sinking Varden ships, so why isn’t the act repaid in kind? Isolate the coastal cities and they’ve got the rest of the mostly-desert country at their feet.

    Paolini definitely needed to do some research, although even someone with half a brain and no knowledge of warfare would be able to understand the thought experiment, “a really big guy with big muscles attacks a little skinny guy on an open field. The skinny guy only knows how to punch, and not very well, while the big guy is a professionally-trained boxer. Who will win?”

    It’s really quite sad to see how randomly the Varden won. It’s like they don’t even need swords or armour. They win because they are the Good Guys, not because they wanted to win or had better tactics or weapons or superior numbers or were otherwise better prepared. Not because they wanted it more than their enemies, not because they had determination. Because they were classed almost arbitrarily in the “Good” column by some unknown but clearly-incompetent god.

    If my life worked like that, I’d be so depressed. Nothing they do matters, because they will always succeed at everything no matter how poorly they do. Even if they’re conscious of how poorly they did, they will still automatically win against the odds.

    :(

  21. The Cat on 3 March 2011, 16:00 said:

    Fair point, Taku. It seems like the Varden can do nothing right, yet do nothing but win anyway.

  22. swenson on 3 March 2011, 17:48 said:

    The Varden weren’t in the Spine, though—they were in the other mountains to the south. A hefty chunk of the Empire was between them and the Spine.

    What I always wondered is why they didn’t get some ships from Surda—which, being a coastal country, certainly must have had some—and, like you say, attack the cut-off coast cities like Kuasta. Back in my Eragon fanfic writing days, that’s actually what I was planning, because pushing inland and trying to tackle the Empire head-on is suicide.

  23. The Cat on 3 March 2011, 18:32 said:

    But the Empire could easily win naval battles against the Surdans- their greater resources could allow them to build warships faster… so unless the Surdans had a Lord Nelson on their side, that wouldn’t go so well either.

  24. Swenson on 3 March 2011, 18:41 said:

    Hmm… good point. Still seems smarter than an all-out land attack, but still kinda foolish.

  25. TakuGifian on 4 March 2011, 00:31 said:

    They could at least use ships as farried to transport troops to the hills south of Kuasta, assemble their army there, and attack the supply lines of the city from that point. Look at the map, it’s practically deserted along there.

    Why am I even arguing this? If the Varden wanted freedom, there’s potentially a whole other continent beyond the eastern edges of the map. They could escape there, or arrange for unwillingly-drafted soldiers, slaves, downtrodden massed etc. to be smuggled there, and either plead with the leaders of any Eastern nations out there, or settle a new colony if there is nothing but blank landscape.

  26. autumnfey on 4 March 2011, 03:03 said:

    “And Autumnfey, I agree with you about Nasuada; I based my arguments off of real history, since there isn’t much in Inheritance. And Age of Empires is an awesome game. Do you know Empire Earth? It’s very similar, made by the same guy, but there are a dozen more Epochs. It’s quite fun, if you want to check it out.”

    I loved Empire Earth as well! Unfortunately I think the CD broke years ago, but I certainly have fond memories of it. It’s difficult to find strategy games that good, anymore.

  27. The Cat on 4 March 2011, 15:54 said:

    “Why am I even arguing this? If the Varden wanted freedom, there’s potentially a whole other continent beyond the eastern edges of the map. They could escape there, or arrange for unwillingly-drafted soldiers, slaves, downtrodden massed etc. to be smuggled there, and either plead with the leaders of any Eastern nations out there, or settle a new colony if there is nothing but blank landscape.”

    That always puzzled me too. You’d think that in a world with three races, all fighting each other (this is far before the Rider Pact thing) one would get tired of it and settle beyond the desert, which, while large, is circular and can easily be avoided.

    “Unfortunately I think the CD broke years ago,”

    NOOOOOOOOOO! :(

  28. autumnfey on 5 March 2011, 14:40 said:

    NOOOOOOOOOO! :(”

    Ha, that’s what my siblings and I get for being irresponsible with CD’s as children. At least we still have copies of Age of Empires and Lords of Magic.

    I wonder if Paolini ever played strategy games, or studied historical battles or anything. If so, his work so far doesn’t indicate it.

  29. The Cat on 5 March 2011, 21:58 said:

    I wonder if Paolini ever played strategy games, or studied historical battles or anything. If so, his work so far doesn’t indicate it.

    Indeed… especially Age of Empires, as that’s when you can get Varden-ish troops.

  30. falconempress on 24 May 2011, 17:53 said:

    Great article. Very detailed, very well thought – out.

    You are absolutely right about Nasuada having no right to military command at all. She could be a political leader, but as far as warfare – related matters are concerned, she should be totally dependent on Jormundur. Although I am not quite sure just what the heck kind of a political system the Varden are supposed to have. The bit about nobody raising a hand made me giggle:

    Nasuada: Now that my father is dead, with a heavy heart, I accept the burden of leading the Varden and into this battle! Let us fight with honor! For freedom! For justice!

    Random Soldier: Um, excuse me. Yes, down here. Er, not to be a killjoy or anything, but – what makes you think you can lead an army? Do you have any kind of experience with such affairs?

    Nasuada: I am to carry out the legacy of my father-

    Random Soldier: Yes, that is all well and good, but have you ever had to orchestrate and entire armed encounter before and ended up being on the side that does not have to send the soldiers back to their homes in wooden boxes? As in dead?

    Nasuada: Eeeeh… I fired a bow in a fight once. Or twice.

    Random Soldier: I see. Well, I will be off then, see you around!

    And the rest of the army leaves with him.

    I completely agree with Saphira being absolutely wasted in this fight. One might argue that Eragon and her circling over the battlefield may provide intel on just how many troops Teh Empire brought along, what formation are they, how many magicians, how many siege engines, etc. – but he does not even do that! He flies off to say hello to his cousin instead! True, he murders a handful of enemy soldiers, but that is like having the Fighter/Bomber you mentioned drop rocks, when its belly is filled with state-of-the-art guided missiles. Ridiculous.

    And as far as Galbatorix is concerned, my money is on him spending all this time locked up in the basement of his tower, orchestrating Pokémon battles with the Edulnarí and only shouting at his mom when he runs out of cheetos.

  31. Emma on 5 January 2012, 18:52 said:

    And as far as Galbatorix is concerned, my money is on him spending all this time locked up in the basement of his tower, orchestrating Pokémon battles with the Edulnarí and only shouting at his mom when he runs out of cheetos.

    So, this is the best alternate character interpretation of Galbatorix I’ve seen in a while

  32. Far Voyager on 28 May 2014, 15:50 said:

    I guess he included the siege weapons because he thought they were the medieval equivalent of artillery (artillery using HE shells against soft targets, I mean). But unfortunately for him, rocks are <i>not</i> HE shells.