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Shurty did an interview with CP with questions people submitted, and they posted it here.
I was very surprised by a couple of things, most notably by him saying he knew about the Eldunari all along. So he didn’t just throw them in for giggles, he just wrote it so it appeared to be thrown in for giggles.
I don’t buy it.
Well, I take that back. He probably got the idea around when he was finishing up Eldest.
Woah, a new interview with reader questions? Are people interested in audio commentary again, like last time?
Wasn’t an audio interview, ahh.
Text commentary isn’t out of the question, you know.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll be doing. :P
Link fix.
The plural of “Eldunarí” is, in keeping with the rules of the ancient language, “Eldunarya”.
Oh so sorry! Pardon my ignorance as to the ancient language! </end sacasm> This guy is so annoying…
The image of CP dancing is just so beautiful. Do you think he does the Highland Fling?
Seriously, every time you say he dances around an issue, I get this image of him on his tippy-toes.
The fact that there are so many unanswered questions… SMeyer has a lot of questions about everything to do with Bella and Edward etc. thrown at her. Is this a hallmark of bad writers? That they have to answer questions outside the books? Or was it just a huge coincidence that I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that?
It was straneg how some things were given real names but others described.
I did think that the description was a good way of showing how dragons identify things without names, though.
The fact that there are so many unanswered questions… SMeyer has a lot of questions about everything to do with Bella and Edward etc. thrown at her. Is this a hallmark of bad writers? That they have to answer questions outside the books? Or was it just a huge coincidence that I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that?
Bad writers are bad at controlling their worlds. Good writers know to only reveal detail that advances the story, so there really aren’t any unanswered questions that the reader thinks are relevant.
Hmm, that’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure. I was going to mention Tolkein’s A History of Middle Earth, but I didn’t know if that was related or not.
...I really need to get around to reading LOTR...
Yeah, that’s what I’ll be doing. :P
oooo I want to participate. Of course, if I don’t get to, I’ll just spork it here on this board.
Bad writers are bad at controlling their worlds. Good writers know to only reveal detail that advances the story, so there really aren’t any unanswered questions that the reader thinks are relevant.
Or to put it another way, better writers know not to pain themselves into a corner and try to leave outs for them at every turn. (that’s one thing I’ve learned from reading comics, how to give yourself room to breathe)
Wow… Just saw this on the shurtagal site.
Is that wise Paolini & fans? You really want to pick a fight with Meyer & fans? (on the other hand, we should encourage this)
Now I want to make a shirt that says: “Dragons? We have REAL CHARACTERS!”
That would be a hilarious flame war!
That would be a hilarious flame war!
I want to vote for both mangled and killed
Well since SlyShy’s not getting back to me, I’m sporking it now.
Is it possible that we’ll see a chapter written in Murtagh’s point of view? Keeping with the POV theme, Jack asked: Will we be reading through Saphira’s point of view again in the books or was that exclusive to Brisingr?
Christopher: Anything is possible. I will be switching points of view in Book Four, as I did in Brisingr and Eldest. When possible, I try to write from Eragon’s point of view, since he’s the main character, but if he can’t be present at some event, I use Saphira’s POV, and if she’s absent, Roran’s, then Nasuada’s, and so forth.
So CP is admitting that there’s a POV hierarchy in his stories? In other words, the only way we’ll get Murtagh’s point of view is if Eragon, Saphira, Roran, Nasuada, Bob the guard, Solemnbum, that one Dwarf or any random Elf are unavailable. Why doesn’t he just come out and say it: “Sorry fangirls, you’re only seeing his POV if he was the last person on Alagaësia.
Will an Eldunarí from a young dragon grow along with the dragon, or will it remain the same as when it was coughed up?
Christopher: As for whether an Eldunarí will continue to grow after being disgorged: no. And that’s another reason why dragons were reluctant to give up their heart of hearts while they were still young, before they had achieved the main part of their growth.
Would there be a time when dragons are NOT reluctant to give up their heart of hearts? Seems like something you really wouldn’t want to part with, regardless of how “grown” you are. That’s like saying, “I don’t want to be a zombie because my voice hasn’t dropped yet!”
Going back to when Eragon and Saphira coaxed the Menoa tree into giving them the Brightsteel – does the momentary pain in Eragon’s stomach have anything (or everything) to do with what the Menoa tree wanted from them?
Christopher: Whatever the Menoa tree did or didn’t do, her plans are as long, intricate, and slow-moving as her consciousness.
By jabootu, he’s threatening us with 43 more books! I warned you! I warned you all!!!!
How did Brom defeat Morzan and his dragon? Were there other factors to Brom’s success than his quick thinking? Did he have help from his friends’ dragons’ Eldunarí? Could his sword, Undbitr, play any role in Book 4?
Christopher: Brom was a formidable opponent, due to his long study of fighting, both physical and magical. We didn’t see as much of him in the first book as I would have liked, but if Eragon were to spar with him now, he would still lose. Brom was good.
Whoa! Wait a second here! What was that one line from book 1…. Someone help me find it.
Also, if we didn’t get to see Brom as much as you liked you could have – oh I don’t know – kept him alive longer.
It’s not that he was stronger than everyone else, or faster, but that he studied how his enemies thought and behaved and then exploited their weaknesses. As for his various fights with the Forsworn, including Morzan and his dragon, I can’t do justice to them here. I would need to write an entire book about Brom to really explain how and why he prevailed over all but the Ra’zac.
Nooooo! Please stop threatening us CP!
I pray that these are idle threats.
Onto more of the interview:
Eragon is Brom’s son and both were Riders; Murtagh is Morzan’s son and both were dragon Riders. Is it common for a Rider’s child to become a Rider as well?
Christopher: It wasn’t that common. Eragon and Murtagh are both fairly exceptional.
There is way I can express “no duh” strongly enough.
Dragons like symmetry and balance, and they have a strong sense of poetic justice. Choosing the son of the first Forsworn (Morzan) and the son of Morzan’s greatest enemy (Brom) would have appealed to them a great deal. It may not have been a conscious decision on the part of the baby dragons, but after being around Galbatorix and the Varden for so long, Thorn and Saphira would have acquired a strong, if general, understanding of the most important happenings in the land. This is also why Saphira sometimes seems older than she appears.
Hmmm…. there’s something there that I swear is Paolini ripping off Naomi Novik a 2nd time. And I don’t know why that angers me even worse than his rip offs of Tolkien and Lucas.
I think that Thorn would have been overjoyed to finally come into contact with someone, anyone, who had a spark of honor and decency in him. Because, whatever else you might say about him, Murtagh, didn’t willingly choose to serve Galbatorix.
...
Also, Thorn was sick of just waiting in his egg for so long.
This is another way that Paolini’s dragons SUCK! What they can’t hatch without a rider? Why couldn’t Thorn hatch, pretend to bond to someone and then dump them and go feral at the first opportunity? Again, reading through Naomi Novik’s dragon stories just really points out how bad Paolini really is.
In Eldest, shortly after the Blood-oath Celebration, Eragon wondered if Oromis resented the fact that the magic exacted the night before did not heal his wounds. Although Eragon “discounted the thought,” thinking that “Oromis would never be so petty,” how did Oromis actually feel?
Christopher: Oromis might have felt a twinge of resentment, but he had already made peace with his condition. Moreover, he would have agreed with the dragons that healing Eragon and giving him the strength of an elf was the best thing to do, given the ongoing struggle against Galbatorix. If the dragons had healed Oromis instead, Eragon wouldn’t have been able to fight for the Varden, because of the pain from his back, whereas Oromis could still be of some use in battle, even with his disability.
I feel sorry for Oromis that he apparently had less of a disability than Eragon’s back pain. Too bad Paolini didn’t want to rip off House M.D. and decided to make Eragon a grumpy vicodin addict. That could have been interesting.
Christopher: To expect two such miracles at once is unrealistic. Also, the dragons don’t always have control of their own magic. They did what they could for Eragon, but it was Eragon, not Oromis, who inspired them to cast the spell they did. I’m sure that they would have helped Oromis if they could have.
In case anyone had any lingering doubts that Eragon was a Sue. I swear that’s not enough and Paolini is trying to make Eragon into the patron saint of Mary Sues.
How can the sapphire in Aren contain so much energy? It was stated in Eldest that the perfect diamonds on the Belt of Beloth the Wise would be saturated after only several days of being given energy. How can one jewel hold so much?
Christopher: Ah, this is something that I actually discussed in Brisingr, but the section got cut during the editing process.
Wow, there is an editing process and things do get cut. Let THAT thought keep you awake at night.
I’m hoping to include it in Book Four instead. Suffice it to say, Aren was crafted by one of the elves’ greatest artisans and is a unique and highly valuable artifact.
Ladies & gentlemen: we now have the silmarils.
Have half-elves (human/elves or otherwise) ever existed? If so, do any exist now?
Christopher: They have existed, although most weren’t able to have children of their own. As for whether any exist now . . . let’s just say that if they do, they would have become very, very skilled at blending in with whatever race (elves or humans) they had chosen to live among. Half-elves, half-humans have much-extended life spans, but they aren’t immortal like full-blooded elves.
Mike: Interesting answer!
No it isn’t! Why do they have to bother blending in at all?
Maybe that’s the tragic love of Eragon. Arya is a half-elf by Eragon’s father or mother (I forgot the facts of who’s who) so the two of them are really half-siblings.
Morzan is Eragon’s father (teh ebul #2) and Selena is his mother (teh ebul spymaster).
Betcha the crazy witch is a half-elf.
Morzan is Eragon’s father (teh ebul #2) and Selena is his mother (teh ebul spymaster).
No, supposedly it was revealed that Brom is, in fact, Eragon’s father. Maybe he got it on with an elf? (or maybe Eragon’s mom did, she doesn’t seem to be picky at who she shares a bed with)
Dragons like symmetry and balance, and they have a strong sense of poetic justice. Choosing the son of the first Forsworn (Morzan) and the son of Morzan’s greatest enemy (Brom) would have appealed to them a great deal. It may not have been a conscious decision on the part of the baby dragons, but after being around Galbatorix and the Varden for so long, Thorn and Saphira would have acquired a strong, if general, understanding of the most important happenings in the land. This is also why Saphira sometimes seems older than she appears.
Hmmm…. there’s something there that I swear is Paolini ripping off Naomi Novik a 2nd time. And I don’t know why that angers me even worse than his rip offs of Tolkien and Lucas.
Dang. I thought that was a decent idea. I liked the idea of Thorn being somewhat aloof from human affairs, and just screwing around for the fun of it. D:
We should start a game: find an original idea Paolini’s had.
Would make a nice change from “This character is GOOD! This one is EVUL! There is nothing else that matters!”
Meh, if you look hard enough at anything, you can find something earlier that had the same thing… like Lord of the Rings = Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.
But that was kind of Tolkien’s goal with Lord of the Rings. Besides, there’s also differences between doing new things with old themes (like the book “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies” sure all those elements have been done before, but not together that I’ve heard of) and repeating something from a contemporary.
Besides, if you’re here on this site you should know better than to make the ‘it’s all been done before’ defense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn’t mean that. What I meant was the whole “find a single original idea” thing. While the overarching story may or may not have been “borrowed” from someone else (and to be perfectly honest, I still don’t think he deliberately plagiarized off Star Wars), nitpicky little details probably weren’t. So just because Thorn hatched for the lulz doesn’t mean CP stole it from someone else.
nitpicky little details probably weren’t. So just because Thorn hatched for the lulz doesn’t mean CP stole it from someone else.
How big/small we going to define “nitpicky”? (yes I’ll admit, maybe the map of his world is original)
Still, a MAJOR dramatic plot point of Temeraire book 3 is the hatching of an egg at an inappropriate time. Let me quote from the Temeraire wiki:
Once the egg is sufficiently mature, usually indicated by the hardness of its shell, the dragonet inside is able to understand what is being said around it. Care must be taken at this point. For example, if the dragonet is frightened in the shell by what it overhears, it will often turn out to be a timid dragon. The dragonet’s interest in the conversations it overhears, combined with the complete lack of interesting events inside the shell, gives the dragonet motivation to hatch.
Compare this to what is said of dragon eggs on the Inheritance wiki:
When in the wild, these eggs would hatch only when the conditions were satisfactory to a baby dragon’s survival. However, when the dragons and elves made peace and established the Dragon Riders, a few eggs were given to the Riders each year. The Riders then cast a spell on the egg to allow it to only hatch when the dragon inside chose a human or elf who touched it. If the dragon accepted the person as his or her Rider, the egg would then hatch. Afterward, the person who first made contact with the dragon hatchling (ideally, the one the baby dragon chose as his/her Rider) would be connected to the dragon forever, linked in both the mind and the body. The person had no choice to become connected.
What does the rest of the site say? Too much of a coincidence?
He also fails at not making slave comparisons. The dragons are forced to wait in their eggs until they pick a Rider? Overgrown horses.
Maybe the dragons survive through magic channeled into the egg somehow by the parent or rider?
Although the unpredictable nature of dragon magic would make that very unlikely.
Maybe through light/heat absorption or something similar? Dragon eggshells could have speshul properties that let them do that.
I’ll confirm Temeraire’s details later Empress but you are right to an extent. In the Temeraire series, it is more realistic as dragons will have to hatch at some point. Though they do have some control over when they will hatch, there is a theoretical “max”.
And yes, Inheritance dragons are supposed to be magically suspended for YEARS before hatching and only then in the presence of their rider.
Which makes PaoPao’s claim that Thorn hatched because he was bored so much more suspicious if not contradictory.
I thought it was that they could chose who was their Rider*, rather than being ULTIMATELY FATED.
Edit: *and thus able to pick someone because they’re bored.
Jeni makes a good point and reviewing the tidbit from the Inheritance wiki made me think of something:
The Riders then cast a spell on the egg to allow it to only hatch when the dragon inside chose a human or elf who touched it. If the dragon accepted the person as his or her Rider, the egg would then hatch. Afterward, the person who first made contact with the dragon hatchling (ideally, the one the baby dragon chose as his/her Rider) would be connected to the dragon forever, linked in both the mind and the body. The person had no choice to become connected.
So why didn’t Galby get Murtagh to force the egg to hatch but then have someone else touch the dragon first? (forcing that person to become a rider) Yes there are some uncomfortable rape parallels here but that could be interesting.
Man I now pity the Inheritance dragons.
Wow, I never really realised before just how much Inheritance dragons fail.
I did. Saphira is the saddest excuse for a dragon in fiction yet.
But she’s so BLUE! And WISE! And… drunk?
Eldest pg.51
She is really pretty, I’ll give her that. But I think her wings are wrong.
And yes…drunk. D: That is so pathetic.
I didn’t like Saphira in what little I saw of the movie. And I laughed my guts into spasms at the baby dragon thing. I wasn’t laughing WITH them, either.
I kind of liked Saphira in the book. For some reason, Paolini’s writing deficiencies don’t bother me (although they would if I was editing him, for sure!). The only thing I don’t like is that his writing is a little stilted.
Meh, everyone hated the movie. Even people who never read Eragon hated the movie.
Except for Garrett Hedlund, he’s hot. Someone needs to make a new version of the movie with nothing but shots of Garrett Hedlund.
Not much of a movie.
Your right, it needs sparkles :D
O mi gosh, YESSSSS!!!
Although apparently they reckon the sparkle CGI failed epically.
Except for Garrett Hedlund, he’s hot. Someone needs to make a new version of the movie with nothing but shots of Garrett Hedlund.
And Sienna Guillory for the guys. She’s 5 kinds of hotness.
(also swenson, he’s cast to be in Tron 2.0 so… there ya go)
Well, maybe I should make a cut of the movie with nothing but Sienna Guillory and Garrett Hedlund. Hmm… I do conveniently have the movie on my hard drive… (It’s NOT what you think it is, I promise! I was making a trailer for a story, and needed shots of dragons. And the Eragon movie, despite whatever you say about it, does have dragons in it. Rotten dragons, but dragons nonetheless. Besides, I couldn’t think of any other dragon movies on short notice)
(It’s NOT what you think it is, I promise! I was making a trailer for a story, and needed shots of dragons. And the Eragon movie, despite whatever you say about it, does have dragon in it. Rotten dragon, but dragon nonetheless. Besides, I couldn’t think of any other dragon movies on short notice)
Fixed for you.
Also:
Dragonheart.
Reign of Fire
Dungeons & Dragons
Godzilla & company
And soon peter jackson will give us His Majesty’s Dragon. XD
Heh, true. Unless you count the shadow… thing at the end.
If you count that swenson, then you’ll have to count Lord of the Rings too for the Balrog & fel beasts.
When reading LOTR for the first time, did anyone else imagine the fel beasts as giant, bald, leathery parrots?
OK, then. We won’t count it. We’ll just continue to point and laugh at Galbatorix.
“I suffer without my stone.”
I didn’t say anything about any of the ones I listed. Swenson just said she needed movies with dragons in them so i rattled a few off the top of my head.
About the video with nothing but Murtagh… I actually did put one together (no Sienna, sorry, I’ll make another video with just her. Or maybe one with just the two of them). I need music for the credits, though… I don’t listen to mainstream music (much music at all, really), so I can’t think of anything appropriate. Any ideas?
“Why do Birds suddenly Appear” to a photomontoge of Eragon and Murtagh togeather. Add a “dreamy” white border around the pictures, and bam, your done :D
Ugh, I typed “Murtagh song” into Google. Unfortunately all it came up with were music videos of Eragon/Murtagh slash pairings. DISTURBING. Methinks somebody missed the memo on the whole “half-brothers” thing.
Or they received the memo and thought it was AWESOME.
To be fair, that’s the kind of pairing Tolkien would make. See: The Children of Hurin.
Murtagh.
Which one is Garret, by the way?
The protagonist from the Thief video game series. The best video games EVER.
He’s also Isaac’s best friend and the party’s Fire Adept in Golden Sun, the best RPG series of recent years.
IIRC it’s also a kind of corral or something.
@ swenson: Murtagh rocks. I haven’t seen him, but I liked him back when I liked Inheritance. I’m reading Eragon again just to see if he wasn’t trashed by CP.
I think the first time I really started liking Murtagh was after I read a fanfic about him, actually. But it was a really well-written fanfic, and much better than the original… it was actually a Murtrina (Murtagh/Katrina) shipping from before Brisingr came out.
It’s Mur-tah. Hate Paolini, not the messenger. :P
@ Sly:
Oh, man, I hate Paolini. I’m going to ignore him and still pronounce it the Scottish way.
@ RTT:
LULZ
“Papaw, ah fouwn’ a noo shah-ny blew sto-un. Kin ah kip et?”
“Aw-kay, Paw. Iffen ah kin sell et fuh da meet, that’ll be sumpin’. Say, Tray-duh Man. Dija wauna lookie-here et dis dang big shah-ny blew sto-un?”
Ahm shore yew ore.
Should we start a Southern Eragon thread anyway, just for the heck of it? We could probably repost these first bits there. This should not be lost!
Aw-key
EDIT: It’s now up, under the title ‘Eragon moves to Rural Tennessee’...
I’m pretty sure you pronounce the “g” in Murtagh… I looked it up once, and then in the movie they pronounce it “Mur-taug”.
People get it wrong in the movies all the time. I mean, not as often as they get it right, but still…
goes and looks in copy of Eragon
MUR-tag. Ha! But no Scottishism. Dang. Oh well, whatever.
I’m voting for one of those decorative teapots…
I live in Tennessee, thank you very much.
One of the five people who can read that attend my school, too.
Hey CGilga, we’re sorta neighbors!
I wonder who else is sorta neighbors? That would really help me stalk you bring us all closer togeather so I can stalk you! :D