another Eragon spot post(longer than originally intended, cuz Murtagh rocks)

[meganbmoore]

Aaah, Murtagh, I am loving you more and more.  Eragon, shut up and listen to Murtagh...you'll live longer and pick up some more survival skills.  Murtagh just gave his origins(incidentally, unless Paolini is setting up a huge red herring, he may as well write "they're brothers" all over the margins in big block letters) and why he doesn't want to go to the Varden, and pointed out that onething most fantasy heroes tend to forget...overthrow the evil emperor, yes.  But can we please not completely overthrow the government so we can avoid the total chaos and anarchy thing?

And, of course, Eragon with his rose colored glasses on isn't listening, even when Saphira agrees with Murtagh.

And then there was the testing when, after clearing Eragon and declaring him off limits for killing, the dwarves want to poke around in Murtagh's head, and the sumary of his reaction is "hell no.  You can't kill him so you have no leverage, nd you can't beatme in battle, so screw you, I'll take my chances."  Hint to silly people:  Take care of the meaner looking guy who looks like he could and would kill you all BEFORE declaring his friend to vbe safe...heck...take care of him first, period.  Silly people...

Sigh...I'm finding it harder and harder to read without thinking how great it would be if it were about Murtagh instead of Eragon.  Because, it's a good book, a really good book.  But combine the story and history and make the most interesting character, who could easily carry the book, the lead and it'll be great.

Unfortunately, I can pretty clearly tell that Murtagh is going to be made bad so that Eragon will be "right"(though, frankly, in every disagreement so far, Murtagh's been right and Eragon's been a naive kid who needs to be smacked upside the head and have reality shoved down his throat) leading to either Eragon killing im being the major event of the series, or Eragon's "saving" him.  Which will make me like Eragon less.  Mind you, I was liking him fine until he started whining and lectring Murtagh for keeping them alive andtrying to keep them out of trouble.

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Eragon is an enfuriating book. Paolini can write things very competantly sometimes, but most of the time he can't write to save his life.

I love Murtagh though. In Paolini's world of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, Murtagh is an actual character with dimension. I feel for him and I actually care about him. I love the scene where he beheads the slaver simply because Murtagh is RIGHT in doing what he does. Ruthless, yes, but as a warrior, he was acting in a smart manner and even the dragon agrees with him. Eragon would be dead in two seconds flat in a real fantasy world if he hadn't lucked out, stumbled over everything he needed, and been written as a Gary Stu who is perfect at everything he tries and radiates light from his eyeballs. Murtagh wouldn't though. Murtagh survives because he's tough and independent and smart.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Eragon would have been dead countless times if not for Murtagh, but he lectures him every time.

I think my favorite scene from the entire book is when the twins want to read Murtagh's mind and he basically goes "So, you can't kill me, and you can't kill my friend, right? You got noghtin' so screw you and keep out of my head." Because, really, how often(outside a Simon Green book) does a character just flat out call another on their bluff and grandstanding like that?

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I think the reason I like Murtagh so much is that he IS so practical. How many characters do you see recognize that though killing the evil emperor might be GOOD, having no government is BAD? Or that practice the "you threatened me, time to kill you the fastest way possible" method? Many Bond villians could learn from that. Chop his head off NOW and he won't come back to haunt you LATER. I appreciate Murtagh's practicality.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Countless heroes and villains alike could learn from Murtagh. His sheer practicality is unlike anything I've seen in other fantasy books, outside of Simon Green(where he'd be the guy the heroes asked for help because the people they either wanted to intimidate or to fight would be scared silly of him, because he'd be sheer badass)

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I think that's why I was so disappointed with the movie because I liked Murtagh so much and he could have been such a cool character on the screen, but a lot of his outstanding stuff has been delegated to other characters. I just love him to death though. Such a cool character and with such depth.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The fact that, from all reports, Murtagh was reduced to basically being little more than an extra is the main reason I decided to wait for video on it.