History WMG / InheritanceCycle

In Inheritance, we hear about the Hall of the Soothsayer. [[spoiler: While Nasuada is being tortured to bring into service, Galbatorix mentions that it was built to house a soothsayer, or 'fortune teller', because of the fact it released a gas that allowed a person to see into the future. In this, the soothsayer dreamed of what happened and what will happen.]] Now, it also told this soothsayer and her attendants left. This doesn't sound important until you come along a little later in the book, where it's mentioned that a hermit devised a spell that allowed [[spoiler: Eragon to carry the Eldunari]]. It's also mentioned this occurred hundreds of years ago. Tenga is a hermit, specifically a very smart and very powerful one. He is shown to be adept at using magic. Angela mentioned that she was his apprentice for an unfortunate number of years, and knows more about basically everything that occurs than even most of the elves. Her sword, Tinkledeath, is thought to be diamond by Eragon. She knows of a way to use energy to strike at a near-instant timing.

To further illustrate her power, her prediction from the first book is true. All this makes me believe that Angela, is in fact, [[spoiler: The Soothsayer]].

* [[spoiler: Additionally, Angela could be a rider that somehow survived, with Tenga as her shapeshifted dragon, and Tinkledeath is her rider sword.]]

Why? There's Arya mentioning "the Lonely God." There's also Solembum talking about the strange thing's he's seen in Alagaesia, most interestingly "rooms biggerontheinside than they are on the outside." The TARDIS, perhaps? Or just a bit of JustForFun/TimeLord technology? And then there's this little gem near the end of Inheritance:

* Search your feelings. You know it to be true, and it would all fit together in a crowning moment of Awesome. (Or a related Fantasy-equivalent SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome moment.) [[spoiler: The Evil Ninja hath spoken. For the record.]]

[[WMG: Galbatorix is trying to get ultimate power using the true name of the old language ]]

* The [[spoiler: last Ra'zac]] also mentions Galbatorix being close to finding the name of something, presumably the true name of the Ancient Language.

* [[spoiler: Confirmed in book 4 where Galbatorix reveals this is his plan.]]

[[spoiler: In order to defeat Galbatorix, Eragon will stoop to his level and and force the Eldunari of Dragons he obtain (from the Vault of Souls or some other odd place). He will defeat Galbatorix, and then either he or Nasuada will become king/queen. They will abuse their power, and the cycle will continue. Eragon will not die, however. It was [[AllMythsaretrue fortold by Angela ]] in the first book that Eragon would leave and never return, and obviously he will leave... you know the rest. ]]
** Partly {{Jossed}}. [[spoiler: Galbatorix is defeated, Nasuada becomes queen, and Eragon does leave. He also takes the Eldunari with him, just so they won't be abused.]]

[[WMG: Urgals are a race of [[ALoadOfBull minotaurs]].]]

* Search your feelings. You know it to be true, and it would all fit together in a crowning moment of Awesome. (Or a related Fantasy-equivalent RealityEnsues moment.) [[spoiler: The Evil Ninja hath spoken. For the record.]]

[[folder: Book WMG]]

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[[folder: Author WMG]]

[[WMG: George Lucas stole everything from Christopher Paolini.]]
There was time travel involved.
* Wait... does this mean George Lucas is a Time Lord?
** Guys, guys... They are both ripping off Film/TheManWhoSavesTheWorld

[[WMG: Everything written by Christopher Paolini is lifted from Star Wars; therefore, TheReveal [[spoiler:that Brom is Eragon's father has implications about the real relationship between Luke and Obi-Wan]]]]
C'mon, it's obvious. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. And Anakin suspected as much in ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* No
** I think you mean NOOOOOOOOOOO!
*** I think you mean DO NOT WAAAAAAANT! It's an interesting idea, a possibility this one was wondering about after being introduced to the idea of Vader metaphorically killing Luke's father.


[[WMG: Christopher Paolini is humanity's greatest literary mind.]]
The truth is, he's just ''so good'' that us regular folk can't understand the sheer magnitude of his genius. The reason his stuff seems so trite and [[PurpleProse purple prose-y]] when we read it is that his vision is so vast, our tiny minds can only pick up on little bits and pieces of it at a time, and, of course, individually they won't seem very good. Such is the width of the man's vision. In fact, only three people can grasp the godliness of words that is ''The Inheritance Cycle'': Paolini himself, and [[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg two gods of cinematography whose greatness is equally lost on us laymen.]]
* Don't forget [[Creator/UweBoll zee only genius in zee entire fucking business]]!
** Oddly, Creator/UweBoll's films ARE awful. It's just he's the world's greatest critic when he can be objective on a subject.
* Also, don't forget [[strike: [[FanDumb God]]]] [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Stephenie Meyer]], [[FanDumb THE BEST WRITER IN THE WORLD!!!]]

[[WMG: Christopher Paolini isn't a hack writer...]]
He's an incredibly intelligent real life troll, who is purposely writing an epicly awful piece of god-moding GaryStu fiction in order to appeal to the LowestCommonDenominator. Look at [[FanDumb Twilight fans]], look at the fans of this. Shit sells, and he knows it.
* Except Twilight's nothing short of disturbing and boring dreck while Inheritance, at least, has decent prose and is entertaining.
** Which is just evidence of his actual skill leaking through...
** Except that his prose does get awfully, horribly [[PurpleProse purple]], especially in the later books. He was covering up for the fact that he’s already murdered StarWars and has nothing left by slaughtering his own literary voice.

[[WMG: ''Eragon'' is [[ThePlan actually an attempt to save literature as we know it]].]]
'''THINK ABOUT IT.''' Not even the ''Twilight'' books generate the amount of sheer 'I could write better crap than this hack!' as the ''Inheritance Cycle''. Paolini didn't write the stuff; he's a figurehead paid to take the heat by the secret society of Quality Writers who dread the end of all good books as a result of mass-marketed tripe. The idea was that all the people offended by the Eragon series would take pen to paper (or keys to keyboard) and start turning in manuscripts, increasing the chances of finding awesome novels among the chaff. Unfortunately, that seems to have backfired...
* Not so fast. Christopher Paolini is the pseudonym of an unknown author who wrote a terrible series of books that sold well and contained nearly everything wrong with fantasy in preparation for the unveiling of his magnum opus, a truly original series of books that will both be critically acclaimed and rejuvenate the fantasy genre for another thirty years. Even if it doesn't sell well, he already had boatloads of money from his crappy first series.
* Also, I think we're overestimating the hatedom of Eragon a little. Yeah, it's not a great series, but I'm pretty confident that majority of the people who dislike the series have more the "'''[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb I have an intense, burning]] [[SoOkayItsAverage indifference!]]'''" sort of attitude to the series than an actual hatred.


[[WMG: Paolini intentionally wrote Eragon as a {{Jerkass}}.]]

He painted out the old generation of riders as pretty corrupt people, maybe Eragon's general displays of evil and jerkassery are supposed to represent the failings of the riders as a whole. Hopefully people will eventually decide they don't need the Riders and all the dragons will be slaughtered... and made into bacon, with that unhatched egg on the side... and maybe orange juice could be involved...

[[WMG: The Inheritance Cycle is part of a plan to fade out Star Wars from existence. ]]
Whether you are a fan or hater, you probably the these books do have simalarities to Star Wars. Paolini is being manipulated by anti Star Wars people into writing these books. Once the books are done, they will slowly begin destroying copies of Star Wars movies and books, hijack servers with info about it on them, and so on. Their descendents will then represent these books to the public so that they can make massive profits.

[[WMG: Christopher Paolini is a DaydreamBeliever]]

It's no secret that the character of Eragon is based on himself. He's said it many times, including in that interview where he admitted that his character has brown hair because he himself has brown hair. To this, add the fact that he says he "daydreamed" about riding dragons and saving beautiful elven maidens. Then there's the biggest piece of evidence of all: he actually includes his characters in the "acknowledgements" pages from his books. I rest my case.


[[WMG: The whole series is an elaborate scheme to highlight MoralDissonance in fantasy.]]

Related to the "real life troll," "intentional Jerkassitude," and "SurprisinglyImprovedSequel" theories above. Within a book or two, Paolini will abruptly switch the POV, providing a brutally clear proof of the fact that Eragon is the most evil character in the series. The fact that his relationship with Safiria is clearly abusive will be shown, and the obnoxious elves will finally be shown from outside as TheFairFolk. This is likely to upset anyone who actually thinks they series is remotely good, so the terrible writing and plotting are part of a BatmanGambit to make sure that the hatedom is larger than the real fans.

[[WMG: Christopher Paolini actually has the potential for great writing talent.]]
He may still be in the Marty Stu phase, but let's face it, not many young adults could write a book of DoorStopper length that's at least readable. Unfortunately, thanks to ProtectionFromEditors and the unexpected success of the series, Paolini's probably not going to learn to write better and become an even more SmallNameBigEgo.

[[WMG: Related to the above, the series is a 'History is written by the victors' tale of a sociopathic war criminal.]]
Suggested to this troper after she (finally) finished reading Brisingr and celebrated. It certainly makes sense of why Eragon's treatment of Sloan and his murder of the young soldier, as well as any number of other plot holes.

This comes in two flavors: the Deliberate and the Accidental.

Deliberate: Related to the 'Genius', 'Troll', and 'Eragon's a Jerkass' theories above, Paolini is laughing up his sleeve at us and deliberately making the series have all these plot holes that only make sense if you look at Eragon as a sociopathic asshat. A reveal at the end of the fourth book is optional, and if it does happen is likely to catapult this theory into the 'Fourth Book is gonna be AWESOME' theory's territory. In this case, Paolini is almost definitely a LyingCreator.

Accidental: Paolini really doesn't realize that what he's writing has gaping plot holes you could drive the Millennium Falcon through that only make sense if you look at them this way. The way the series is written just got this way entirely accidentally, and he just doesn't ''get it''. Paolini is honest, but incredibly blind because frankly, this kind of thing would be a, different, and b, AWESOME.


[[WMG: He's making it up as he goes]]
Eldunari seem like a big enough deal that there should have been a reference to it earlier on. That he came up with a weapon to stick beneath that tree was just because he remembered the prophecy he'd written and slapped something together for it really fast.
* Further supported by the four-book "trilogy." If he had the series as it was published planned out in detail before he started writing, he would have know there would be four books. Instead, he had no idea how it would end, and realized he couldn't end it in three books while writing the third book.
** He had the story planned out, but merely didn't take length into account. As the third book came out TOO LONG (even for his tastes), he had to turn the Trilogy into a Cycle.

[[WMG: Literature/InheritanceCycle is the story of a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign where the players are {{Munchkin}}s]]
''Brisingr'' is when the DM realises that their GameBreaker abilities keep sending things OffTheRails and tries to fight back by making [=NPCs=] arbitrarily immune to them.

[[WMG: Alternatively: the Literature/InheritanceCycle is the story of Creator/ChristopherPaolini's Dungeon and Dragons campaign.]]
His character was given all these powers because he was [[DungeonmastersGirlfriend dating the DM at the time]] (or he was the DM, and had a {{GMPC}}). When his parents forbade him from taking part it in anymore, he decided it would make a good story. His parents decided that was a better use of his creative energies and encouraged him just because [[NewMediaAreEvil it wasn't those silly dice ]]. Well, can't say it hasn't turned out well for him...


[[WMG: The reason the fourth book is taking so long to come out is because Christopher Paolini has gone into hiding.]]
It has finally hit him that he isn't much more than an amateur thrown in the ring a bit too early and he is so ashamed that he has gone into hiding. His editors are desperately maintaining the illusion he is still here by extracting DNA from shed skin and creating a clone.
** We can safely [[{{Jossed}} Joss]] this one, the fourth book's out.

[[WMG: Everything is as it seems. The Inheritance cycle is NOT a rip-off of star wars, (or the other way around) Eragon is good, Galbatorix is Bad and he is alive and everything he seems to be.]]

[[WMG: The Inheritance Cycle is an allegory for Paolini's struggle with his repressed homosexuality.]]
* Witness the long, lingering passages in ''Eldest'' and ''Brisingr'' where Eragon, Paolini's AuthorAvatar, admires Oromis's lithe body & hairless groin, and compares scars while nude with his musclebound cousin Roran. But of course Eragon doesn't act on his obvious homosexual tendencies, and throws himself at Arya instead... who is always a little standoffish, because she knows that somehow they're really not suited for each other. Meanwhile, Eragon has dedicated his life to overthrowing and destroying the main BigBad of the story, the evil King '''G'''a'''LB'''a'''T'''orix...
** [[BrainBleach Cannot unsee]].

[[WMG: It's all self-indulgant fan-wank.]]
* Because that was the idea from the start


[[WMG: Inheritance is just playing with various loved tales, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, Doctor Who, and the song Starlight, by Muse]]
* Star Wars and Lord of the Rings shouldn't need explaining, but as for the Princess Bride, when Eragon is [[spoiler: imprisoned in Gilead]] he asks [[spoiler: Durza]] "Who are you?" to which he replies: "No one of consequence." Westley and Inigo Montoya share an identical exchange. Doctor Who has very easy to find ones, if you look hard enough. The last [[spoiler: Ra'zac]] tells Eragon that Galbatorix "has more heartsss than you do" (yes, it did have that many s's) JustForFun/TimeLord 's have two hearts. The Lonely God poem, "Adrift upon the sea of time, the lonely god wanders from shore to distant shore, upholding the laws of the stars above." And later: "The trickster, the riddler, the keeper of balance, he of the many faces who finds life in death and who fears no evil; he who walks through doors." Not to mention Eragon's main source of power and transportation is old, new, stolen (borrowed), and blue. As for Starlight, As Eragon is about to depart for [[spoiler: Du Weldenvarden]], Nasuada informs him that "our hopes and expectations" rest on your safe return. Did anyone mention black holes and revelations???
** Galbatorix is a time Lord? YANA indeed. Oh, the Doctor will be so happy to hear this--until, of course, he reads the books.
** And then there are the runes on Angela's hat, see below.





[[WMG: Angela is actually Christophers sister Angela]]
By the way, does someone know if her last name is Paolini, too? Would be logical, but you never know.
Well, at some point in the future, Angela will become a companion of the The Doctor. Some incident, probably with the TARDIS, will make her immortal (it happend before). The Doctor visited the old Alagaësia, became a legend there and left Angela for some reason. They met again at least once, when Solembum was already travelling with her. She has either seen or been to a future Alagaësia, maybe she even met a future Eragon, or, alternatively or additionally, she actually was [[spoiler: The Soothsayer]], maybe only having been able to become this because she was already changed by the TARDIS.



[[WMG: Christopher Paolini is a troper]]
Explains why the last two books were so much improved - he read the criticisms and took them to heart. That's probably why Eragon gets called out by different characters for the ''exact same'' things that detractors do.
* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/4i0tf1/hey_reddit_im_fantasy_author_christopher/d2uimdm?context=3 Confirmed.]] At least the title of the WMG.

[[WMG: The InheritanceCycle is a hopeful setup for crossovers.]]
As many have pointed out the similarities of this series to other popular ones (namely Franchise/StarWars, Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings, Franchise/DoctorWho, etc.) and the possibilities of this series sharing a universe with them, it isn't farfetched to think that maybe Paolini was hoping to someday bring all the major fandoms together in a collaborative work. The first step was to throw in some EasterEggs that a softcore reader wouldn't pick up on, but a hardcore reader would. But due to the box office failure of the movie, his plans have been halted.



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It's not hard to imagine the kid as an IdiotHero who happened to have a massive amount of power fall into his hands. [[OurElvesAreBetter The elves]] mainly are manipulating him by making him admire them. [[OldMaster Brom]] was making him overconfident and, together with Saphira, lied through his teeth about how dragons work. His entire journey was deliberately engineered for unknown reasons; his adoptive family is caught in the middle and probably still a high priority to wipe out or sufficiently deceive. [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame The dwarves]] are ''not'' in on it. As for the goal... Darned if I know -- I just make these theories.

...is the magic flower from Disney/{{Tangled}}.

[[WMG: Eragon is everybody's UnwittingPawn.]]
It's not hard to imagine the kid as an IdiotHero who happened to have a massive amount of power fall into his hands. [[OurElvesAreBetter The elves]] mainly are manipulating him by making him admire them. [[OldMaster Brom]] was making him overconfident and, together with Saphira, lied through his teeth about how dragons work. His entire journey was deliberately engineered for unknown reasons; his adoptive family is caught in the middle and probably still a high priority to wipe out or sufficiently deceive. [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame The dwarves]] are ''not'' in on it. As for the goal... Darned if I know -- I just make these theories.
* No, the dwarves are ''definitely'' in on it! They're the ones who kept Eragon in their city and fed him all that phony information about him being The Chosen One (or whatever insipid variation of the term Chris Paolini used) and the structure of Alagaësian government.

* To add to this, the [[CantArgueWithElves elves]] are to the Literature/InheritanceCycle what the Orcs are to ''LordOfTheRings'', but without the mistake of not having been made supernaturally pretty. The Urgals are just a barbarian species that got hit with a lot of slander and mind control in the past few generations.

* Star Wars and Lord of the Rings shouldn't need explaining, but as for the Princess Bride, when Eragon is [[spoiler: imprisoned in Gilead]] he asks [[spoiler: Durza]] "Who are you?" to which he replies: "No one of consequence." Westley and Inigo Montoya share an identical exchange. Doctor Who has very easy to find ones, if you look hard enough. The last [[spoiler: Ra'zac]] tells Eragon that Galbatorix "has more heartsss than you do" (yes, it did have that many s's) TimeLord 's have two hearts. The Lonely God poem, "Adrift upon the sea of time, the lonely god wanders from shore to distant shore, upholding the laws of the stars above." And later: "The trickster, the riddler, the keeper of balance, he of the many faces who finds life in death and who fears no evil; he who walks through doors." Not to mention Eragon's main source of power and transportation is old, new, stolen (borrowed), and blue. As for Starlight, As Eragon is about to depart for [[spoiler: Du Weldenvarden]], Nasuada informs him that "our hopes and expectations" rest on your safe return. Did anyone mention black holes and revelations???

Why? There's Arya mentioning "the Lonely God." There's also Solembum talking about the strange thing's he's seen in Alagaesia, most interestingly "rooms biggerontheinside than they are on the outside." The TARDIS, perhaps? Or just a bit of TimeLord technology? And then there's this little gem near the end of Inheritance:

* Alternatively, Eragon is Inuart and Murtagh is Caim... which explains why Eragon is so whiny and why Murtagh defected: he was getting sick and tired of having to lug around Inuart. Also, Arya is Arioch minus the propensity for baby-eating (notice the similarity of the names?) and Elva is a budding Manah, being a CreepyChild and all. '''''[[TheDarkId Drakengard!]]'''''

As many have pointed out the similarities of this series to other popular ones (namely StarWars, LordOfTheRings, DoctorWho, etc.) and the possibilities of this series sharing a universe with them, it isn't farfetched to think that maybe Paolini was hoping to someday bring all the major fandoms together in a collaborative work. The first step was to throw in some EasterEggs that a softcore reader wouldn't pick up on, but a hardcore reader would. But due to the box office failure of the movie, his plans have been halted.

[[WMG: The Inheritance Cycle takes place in the Warhammer40000 'verse]]

[[TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. This popped into my head after an image of Murtagh and the imperial soldiers curbstomping the shit out of a varden/Narnian alliance.

[[WMG: The Literature/InheritanceCycle is a LighterAndSofter retelling of {{Drakengard}}.]]

[[WMG: Galbatorix will use the true name of the Ancient Language to create {{instrumentality}}.]]

[[[WMG: Saphira is the reason for Eragons behavior AND Instant exspert.]]