Sunrise[]
Here lies the last chapter of Brisingr. The final chapter. The ending. The summing up and preparing us for the last book (hopefully). This is it. Done. Done. Done. No more. And you can't make me go back.
I dun wanna.
Lady Lorana gets to live. Why? Because .... she's the leader. And... um... well.. You know... she has to be treated with dignity and respect even though she's the enemy.
Before we get to that Eragon's party of elves show up, they were worried cause they heard Saphira's 'lament' for Oromis and Glaedr. Eragon tells them about the death and they are shocked. They want to know everything but Arya tells them to "Keep [their] sorrow hidden within [their] hearts until we are safe and secure."
Eragon apologizes for running off like he did to his elf keepers. Saying that the battle made him over confident and foolish. Of course, fuzzy elf says that he doesn't need to apologize becuase they too made mistakes. And not only that but "from now on, we will fight alongside you and the Varden without reserve." Soooo... they haven't been doing their job this entire time? What have they been doing and why haven't they been doing what they're supposed to do.
Not only that, but by admitting that they were in the wrong and being less than zealous in their duities, they make it so that Eragon was more in the right because at least he was doing his job willingly and putting in the entire full effort. There for he's okay and the elves have to go to the corner of shame.
The Varden take Lady Lorana in custody, as mention before, after this. She is told that they -the Varden - are still civilized men. She wants to talk to Nasuada about what will happen with her people and thanks Eragon for killing the Shade and that he's very brave and has a lot of prowess. What prowess?
Apparently Nasuada wants to talk to Lorana too. Which is nice except that if I were the Lady and I was under an oath of fealty to Galbatorix, which made me loyal in a sense, I would think that there might be some sort of "if you get near Nasuada kill her" clause. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, all the way at the end of the book. Didn't Galby need to know your true name to make you swear oaths of loyalty? And wasn't he making everyone swear oaths of loyalty to him? So, basically the reason why he hasn't been doing anything evil is because he's had to find every single soldier's true name before making them swear an oath fealty to him and having to have every solider swear that oath by binding them through their true name.
Yeeeah. That's not practical at all.
But it's too late for that to be thought of now. We're at the end of the book.
Eragon, Arya, and the elves go looking for Nasuada. They find her and tell her that they want to talk to her in private.
They find an abandoned house, protect from eavesdroppers.
Then Eragon tells her that Oromis and Glaedr have died. She figured that they - as in a dragon and a rider - must exist to teach Eragon. Tears come to his eyes as he tells her that they are dead now and that Galbatorix used Murtagh to kill them.
Nasuada reacts as if she's known them all her life.
The excitement drained from Nasuada's face, replaced by a dull, empty expression. She sank into the nearest chair and stared at the cinders in the cold fireplace. The kitchen was silent. At last she stirred and said, "Are you sure they are dead?"
"Yes."
Nasuada wiped her eyes on the hem of her sleeve. "Tell me about them, Eragon. Would you please?"
See, now, if I were Nasuada, I would say, "I'm sorry for your loss, but we have other things we need to work on now. We have wounded and dead to deal with, prisoners and trying to figure out what to do next. Now isn't the time to discuss your mentor."
Nah. Instead, let's have them kill an entire half hour to talk about the life and death of Oromis and Glaedr. Someone that has no effect currently on the immediate situation of Oh Hey we just finished a battle and need to clean up and do important things like that.
This is just to try and make their death have more of an impact than it does. It would have had more of an impact if, for example, he had died over the Varden's battle and Eragon had failed to save him. Then people would have seen the dragon and have something to wonder about. But then again, if Glaedr did fall in battle over the Varden then people's spirits would be crushed. Which is probably why he went with the elves. Can't have the Varden losing moral, now can we?
Eragon tells them about the dragon's heart of hearts which I believe was supposed to be kept secret to prevent 'low minded scoundrels' from stealing them and using them to their advantage. Something that only dragons and their riders should know. But... it's less dramatic that way. Anyway, they agree that if Eragon had known about the heart of hearts they would have been more prepared when he fought Murtagh. and other things.
Blah, blah.
Oh, now we might have a fighting chance of killing him! Nasuada thinks, because if they separate him from the hearts, they'll weaken him. Let us remind ourselves that Galbatorix was able to kill off a lot of the dragon riders, with years of training before hand, without all the hearts that he had. Now, Galbatorix has had a hundred years to learn how to use magic, and use the hearts and maybe he doesn't even need them on him physically any more. Or well... I think that removing his hearts may weaken him, but Eragon a kid who's been a dragon rider for less than two years shouldn't have a chance in surviving in space with nothing on to defeat him. Especially since he hasn't hand any training.
Looking back at Star Wars, it wasn't Luke Skywalker who defeated the Emperor, but, instead Darth Vader. It was Luke's entreaties to Vader that got him to turn on the Emperor. Which would maybe perhaps, make it so that Eragon's entreaties to Murtagh will destroy Galbatorix. Except that Murtagh's been bound to Galbatorix's service and shouldn't be able to turn against him. But the holes in this plan we've already discovered are numerous and Eragon has to be the one who destroys Galbatorix anyway. Maybe with a cry of "THIS IS FOR EVERYONE" blah blah.
Nasuada decrees that Eragon shall do nothing else but look into how to do so. Nothing else is important.
Arya then states perhaps one of the more stupider things in the books (and that's saying something)
"I always wondered," said Arya, "why Saphra's egg appeared to you, and not somewhere in an empty field. It seemed to great a coincidence to have occurred purely by chance, but I could not thing of any plausible explanation. Now I understand. I should have guessed you were Brom's son. I did not know Brom well, but I did know him, and you share a certain resemblance."
Yup. That's right. It wasn't chance that made Eragon a dragon rider, it was DESTINY. DESTINY that brought the egg to Eragon. Because he's Brom's son and though he just found out about it a week ago or so, that automatically means that he's an egg magnet, or because of random chance. Nope there's no such thing as random chance. The egg had to come to him. - Never mind that it was supposed to be going to Brom and Arya over-shot. I mean, how was she supposed to know that he would be in that part of the forest? The only resemblance that they would have is purely physical. Eragon wasn't brought up with Brom, barely knowing him. It was Garrow who he considered his father and influenced his moral structures.
But then again, we've already proven that this world works more on nature vs nurture. Murtagh is evil because his father is evil. Eragon is good because his father is good. It's not experiences that make the man but their genetics. Though, since Saphira has no connection to Brom there's no reason why she would want to go to Brom or make herself go to Brom. She wasn't even stolen by Brom, but instead by some random thief. For all we know she never met Brom so she wouldn't be attracted to him through the egg or be able to mistake him for his son.
It was random happenstance.
And not only that but by taking away the random happenstance it takes away some of the 'well fuck me how did I get into this mess' that Eragon had. He's no longer just that poor farm boy who happened to get swept into this war. But instead he was destined to get swept into the war and never had any choice in the matter. Of course this would have required Eragon having reservations about being a part of this mess and the war. Which he doesn't.
He just accepts it.
Nasuada tells him that he should be proud to have Brom as a father. I don't know why they keep on telling Eragon that he should be proud at having Brom as a father. Eragon is already proud of having Brom as a father. It's not like he's upset about it or whining about how come Brom was his father and didn't tell him and etc etc. But there's none of that on Eragon's end. He's just "Oh yeah, Brom's my dad. Lah lah lah."
Continuing to kill time as if they had nothing important to do, Arya asks to see Glaedr's heart of hearts. Because that's something they need to do right now.
Nothing much is happening in the stone. It's not as bright and shiny as it was when it came out as Glaedr is in shock of losing Oromis and not interested in talking. Even though Nasuada would like talk to him.
Eragon apparently knows that the elves had taken Gil'ead when last we saw them they were in the midst of battle, lost their greatest asset, and had Murtagh flying over them while being possessed by Galbatorix. But obviously they must have won because they're elves and the good guys so they automatically win.
The Varden, Nasuada says, are now going to seize Dras-Leona and go to Uru'baen and take down Galbatorix or die trying.
- looks at map*
They started off at the river... went away from the river to the ocean to take Feinster. Looks like they're going up the river and skipping Belatona. Or did they send people ahead to capture it? I don't know. Or remember. Or care. Anyway, looking at the map it would have been far easier to have headed east in the first place before chucking up north got Uru'baen.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Kippur/?action=view¤t=Mapagain.jpg
As you do.
Anyway, Eragon and Saphira go back to camp to get some sleep. As they walk, they mull on the fact that they are the last free rider and dragon. And they're all alone Eragon actually thinks that they're not ready for this and Saphira agrees, their combined anxiety nearly incapacitating him.
They get to the gates and Eragon doesn't want to push through the crowds of people fleeing Feinster. It's too bad he doesn't have a dragon to ride on.
Oh, Wait.
Anyway, suddenly he wants to see the city in the day light. So he runs up a stair case to the top of the walls to watch the sunrise.
They stood together on the battlements for the better part of an hour and watched as the sun rose. One by one, rays of pale gold light streaked across the verdant fields from the east, illuminating the countless motes of dust that drifted through the air. Where the rays struck a column of smoke, the smoke glowed orange and red and billowed with renewed urgency. The fires among the hovels outside the city walls had mostly died out, although since Eragon and Saphira had arrived, the fighting had set a score of houses within Fiinster ablaze, and the pillars of flame that leaped up from the disintegrating houses lent the cityscape an eerie beauty. Behind Fienster, the shimmering sea stretched out to the far, flat horizon where the sails of a ship plowing its way northward were just visible.
I'm not sure the fields would be verdant any more after having an army tromp through them. Nor am I sure how sunlight makes smoke billow with more urgency. Also the description here is remarkably unemotional. There is all this destruction abounding and he's just watching it calmly not upset or feeling sorrowful for all the homes people have lost or how long it'll take before the city was able to function again. Living in Los Angeles, as I do, I have a lot of familiarity with large billowing smoke. It tends to make the air around me choking and hard to breath. The motes that fall around aren't dust but ash. And the smoke should cover the sky so that it's impossible to see anything, like the verdant fields outside the city or the ocean. The columns of smoke should only be visible at a distance. Being so close it should be raining like snow, coating everything in its wake. It should also be very warm. Warm enough that the sun doesn't have to do any warming of Eragon's armor, which it does in the next paragraph. I mean, he's in the bleeding city! That's burning! That's got to be hot! He should be sweating like a mandrake... okay, I don't know if mandrakes actually sweat but that was the first thing that popped into my head. I am ashamed.
Still, the point stands. He shouldn't be waiting for the sun to warm his armor because he should be so warm he'd be wanting to take it off. Anyway, the sun washes away all the trepidation and fears and worries he has. He says that they're not alone they have lots of others like Nasuada and Orik and Arya and many others, sadly Roran doesn't get mentioned but Orik does...? That's silly. Well, I guess Orik had to get some sort of mention again.
This is sort of like the reversal that he had at the end of Eldest where he decided well, Garrow and Brom were more his father than Morzan was, so it was okay. Nothing more to fret or worry about. It just was a momentary lapse of confidence. Not something that should linger over but dispersed with the mists of darkness as the sun comes over the horizon.
Eragon then makes a declaration that Galby isn't invulnerable and they can defeat him. They think that the heart of hearts are his weakness but we haven't seen any proof to indicate that removing the heart of hearts would make him weak enough to kill. But that would cause him worry and you know maybe plot or characterization. Or you know, they could have been trying to find a way to stop Galbatorix the entire book which wouldn't make it a waste of trees and space.
In what is supposed to be a dramatic gesture but is rather silly, Eragon then holds up Glaedr's Eldunari over his head to present it to the sun.
Eragon lifted Glaedr's Eldunari over his head, presenting it to the sun and the new day, and he smiled, eager for the battles yet to come, so that he and Spahira might finally confront Galbatorix and kill the dark king.
As Glaedr is currently deep in mourning and not home right then, presenting it to the sun doesn't do much. But it is a symbolic and bold gesture. The sort that you give at a moment of triumph to greet the new day and give hope to the masses. Or even trying to give Glaedr a bit of hope, see there is a new day and new hope and promise and that with his help they'll destroy Galbatorix.
Notice here too, in this last sentence of the book, we get a hint of Eragon's character. He's eager for the battles so that he could kill Galbatorix. He smiles in anticipation. He's bloodthirsty. He's not waiting for the battles to be over so that they can have peace again. No it's so that he can kill someone. And while he's waiting to kill someone he gets to kill more people. This concludes the thoughts that he is, in fact a mindless killer out for his next kick.
And thus ends Brisingr or the seven promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Sphaira Bjartskular.
I think I've been working on this for over two years now. Wow. Longest spork ever.
To paraphrase Mark Twain: A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But "Brisingr" accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.
Which is the best way to sum up this so called novel.
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