YMMV / Inheritance Cycle

Tropes A to C

• Accidental Innuendo: Paolini's accidental erotica is infamous.
  Murtagh: Death will take me before I'll expose myself to their probing!
  Narration: When they finished, Eragon flopped on his blankets and groaned. He hurt everywhere — Brom had not been gentle with his stick.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: If not a case of Accidental Aesop. Depending on how you read it, the Inheritance Cycle can present an Aesop along the lines of "People will ultimately follow in their parents'/predecessors' footsteps whether they like it or not, and no matter how hard they try to change it". ^note  Eragon ends up becoming a dragon rider who lives in exile almost completely alone, separated from his loved ones forever, just like his father Brom. Arya never wanted or aspired to be queen, but gets elected queen anyway, as her mother Islanzadi was before her. Nasuada is elected the Varden's leader the same as her father Ajihad, then later becomes ruler of the Empire in essentially the same way as Galbatorix; it's even hinted she may end up being a similar ruler if she's not careful. Roran gets a peaceful family life, but is separated from his cousin - who is like a brother to him - and will probably never see him again, much like his dad Garrow and his sister Selena. Murtagh, despite going to extraordinary lengths to avoid it, ends up becoming Galby's lieutenant (albeit not by choice) and ends up hated and feared by everyone, like his father Morzan (though luckily he's able to get free eventually and helps take down the king... not that this really changes most people's opinion of him). Also, like his mother he's forced into committing evil because his boss harms and threatens his loved ones, no matter how much he loathes it.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Anti-fans of the series love to find new interpretations that subvert the good/evil conflict. So far, sites such as anti-shurtugal.com have concluded that Eragon is a sociopath, the Varden are terrorists and the original Dragon Riders were a racist military junta.
  • Eragon: An Ideal Hero who always strives to do what's right? A flawed and increasingly ruthless, yet fundamentally good and well-meaning Pragmatic Hero? Or a borderline-sociopath who only thinks he's a hero and uses this to justify all his actions?
  • Murtagh: A Jerkass reveling in his new power, or someone making the best out of his situation?
  • Arya: Badass Lady of War and Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or arrogant Jerkass?
  • Galbatorix: Evil tyrant, but to some, a Draco in Leather Pants, trying to run his kingdom in the face of constant terrorist attacks.
  • The Varden: Idealistic freedom fighters or ruthless terrorists?
  • The elven Lord Dathedr gets a few of these - despite being nothing more than an adviser to Queen Islanzadi in the series, some fanfics have portrayed him as an elf behind the she-elf, Magnificent Bastard type who is manipulating events for his own ends. On the basis of a somewhat over-flowery compliment he pays Eragon (which some have argued is sarcastic), some anti-fanfics have portrayed him as an Only Sane Man, Surrounded by Idiots. Bizarre, given he has perhaps ten lines of dialogue across the whole series (although he does pierce Galbatorix's anti-scrying spells, which is a Moment of Awesome in itself).
  • Similarly, Eragon/Arya romantic fanfics often portray Faolin (Arya's mate who is killed at the very beginning of the series) in a negative light, for obvious reasons. The series itself says little about the character, except that he and Arya had been kindred spirits.
  • Is Nasuada a courageous, charismatic and visionary leader who keeps her position on her own merits, or a short-sighted, egotistical and inexperienced leader who only has the position due to being friends with Eragon?
  • Is Galbatorix really just a power-hungry Evil Overlord, or is he more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain, who genuinely wants to create a strong, peaceful and orderly empire that will benefit his subjects, and resorts to rather ruthless methods of achieving this? The Broddring Empire seems like a pretty decent place to live overall (there are mentions of things like poverty and slavery, but those are basically inevitable things in any realistic medieval society, and furthermore we see little to no evidence of this and the people who mention this are the Varden). The majority of citizens seem uninterested in joining or supporting the Varden (those gain most of their financial support and housing from factions outside the Empire, such as the independent state of Surda and the dwarves and elves), which could indicate that the majority of people don't feel they're suffering all that much under Galby. This, in conjunction with Galby's plans to restore the Dragon Riders to defend the Empire, could support the interpretation that at least part of him wants his realm to be successful.
  • Selena, Eragon's mysterious mother, is subject to a lot of this even in-universe; she's been dead for over a decade at the start of the series and many details about her life are shrouded in mystery, so we can only rely on accounts by other characters, some of which are quite contradictory in nature. In particular, Brom and Jeod both present very different versions of her as a person.
    • Brom depicts her as being a very kind and giving person, who would go out of her way to help others and risked her life to spy on Morzan and the Empire. Of course, Brom only met her after she gave birth to Murtagh and her relationship with Morzan went south, and he also [[spoiler:fell in love with her, also potentially prompting her True Name to change, so he could be seen as biased.
    • Jeod describes her as being utterly cold and ruthless, scaring him more than Morzan and willingly committing or being party to various atrocities out of love for her demented husband, whom she served as a spy and assassin. Like Brom, Jeod may be biased, though in a different way; he admits he never met Selena in person and only knew of her by reputation.
    • Oromis suggests that Selena was blinded by love for Morzan and didn't fully realize his true nature until they were already married; he further suggests that becoming a mother for the first time changed her as a person, but that she was unable to leave Morzan's service, as he kept Murtagh away from her and used him to keep her obedient. Oromis also points out that regardless of what she did as Morzan's Black Hand, in the end she chose to serve the Varden and risked everything to ensure Eragon was safe and cared for. This still leaves a fair bit of room for different interpretations of her, such as whether she switched allegiance to the Varden out of genuine support for the cause or because she saw it as an opportunity to get herself and Murtagh away from Morzan's abuse, and so forth.
• Angst? What Angst?
  • Eragon in Eldest. It is revealed to him that his father was The Dragon to the Big Bad, and to put it lightly, not a nice person. He gets over this in three paragraphs (although, in fairness, he does revisit it later). He does, however, angst when his uncle dies (for a few chapters, after which he gets over it), when he is told that his father was really his mentor, Brom, and when Murtagh joins the enemy.
  • At the end of Eldest, Roran is informed that he has another cousin he never knew about, who has been magically enslaved by the Big Bad. While at the time he does have other things on his mind, such as his girlfriend being kidnapped by the Ra'zac, overall he doesn't react much to this revelation and never really thinks or talks about Murtagh.
• Ass Pull:
  • The series features a big 'un in the shape of previously never-mentioned magical elf twins and their dragon spirit, who cure Eragon's achy back scar, allowing him to fight properly again - the only implication is that it's one of the dragon's 'inexplicable' pieces of magic, specifically a physical manifestation of the Rider-Dragon arrangement. It's also later revealed that the specifics of the event that healed Eragon were done by the hidden Dragon Eldunari, when otherwise nothing might have happened at all. They turn up once more in the fourth book so Eragon can make it so Dwarfs and Urgals can become Riders as well, thus solving all racism forever.
  • Arya becoming queen of the elves at the end of Inheritance can come off as an contrived excuse for her to not leave Alagaesia with Eragon to maintain the Starcrossed Lovers angle; orginally, they going to leave together. A lot of readers think Arya isn't a good choice as queen; she is alienated from most of elven society due to her work as an ambassador and has no experience in leadership roles. She has no interest in ruling, even coming up with around a hundred reasons why she shouldn't be queen, and dislikes being confined to the elven capital. Elves have an elective monarchy so she's not duty-bound to rule them even though her mother was queen. It also contradicts Eragon's argument that dragon riders shouldn't be rulers because it's too easy for them to abuse their power and that they should serve all people. For this reason, he himself declines the throne and removes himself from Nasuada's service, but apparently it's fine for Arya to rule over the elves even though she's a dragon rider, too. Paolini addressed the issue of Arya's isolationist tendencies and dislike of Ellesmera by stating that as a rider, she'd spend most of her time travelling anyway, but this seems like another point against her being queen.
• Awesome Art: The original cover art for the novels, each depicting a portrait of a different dragon, ^note  Saphira for Eragon, Thorn for Eldest, Glaedr for Brisingr and Firnen for Inheritance are quite pretty and are some of the most memorable things about the books to more casual readers of the series.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Nasuada, following her decision to have Roran whipped for insubordination in Brisingr - by her own admission, his deeds are to be praised, and yet precedent/tradition give her little choice, and to break with this could have larger consequences. The question is: is this justified, or not?
  • Eragon himself is rather divisive. Some view him as a decent and relatable protagonist, others find him okay but rather bland compared to other characters, and then there are readers who interpret him as a complete Jerkass and Designated Hero. One moment that proved to be particularly contested amongst readers occurs in Brisingr, where Eragon rather coldly kills a young enemy conscript, who is actively begging for mercy and trying to flee, and justifies it as being 'necessary' as the soldier could potentially pose a threat later. Readers get into quite a few debates on whether this was really justified and what it means for Eragon's character.
• Broken Base:
  • To this day, the Cycle fanbase is polarized into two parts: one part that thinks that the series is an unoriginal ripoff of much better series, and one part that thinks that it's a good story despite these influences.
  • Nasuada sentencing Roran to be whipped fifty times after he disobeyed an incompetent commander, thus saving many lives and ensuring the mission's success. Some people think this was harsh, but necessary to discourage others from subverting the chain of command. Others think that under the circumstances, it was bang out of order, especially considering being whipped that many times seriously injured him and could potentially have killed him. Some readers sit more in the middle, agreeing that Roran should've been punished to some degree, but that receiving fifty lashes was disproportionate and unnecessarily brutal.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • It's extremely obvious that Brom is a former Dragon Rider and that his dead dragon's name was also Saphira. Among other things, Brom clearly knows the Varden, knows how to do magic and knows lots of detailed information about dragons and riders. Despite the mountainload of clues, Eragon never manages to put two-and-two together and is gobsmacked when he finds out. The movie adaptation actually has Eragon figure this out himself relatively early on, rather than Brom revealing it later on his deathbed.
  • Arya is the noblewoman whom Eragon is destined to have an "epic romance" with. Especially considering he never pays attention to any other woman in the series (save maybe Trianna, though that's sunk very quickly).
  • The evil dragon rider in Eldest is the Not Quite Dead Murtagh, who has been missing since the start.
  • The Reveal that the green dragon egg would hatch for Arya for many readers, especially considering Paolini stated the green rider would be someone we’d already met. It would probably have been a great deal more unexpected if it wasn't Arya.
• Cliché Storm: One of its most common criticisms. The first book in particular is often derided for being very predictable and derivative, such as the main protagonist being a Farm Boy-turned-hero who is secretly The Chosen One and has Mysterious Parents, the villain being a one-dimensional, bog-standard Take Over the World guy with thinly etched motivation, the hero having a wise Old Master for a mentor who dies saving the hero about halfway through, the hero turning out to be the son of one of the villains and the brother of another and features stock fantasy races such as elves, dwarves and orcs (or ''urgals'', as they are called), which are pretty much ripped straight off Tolkien. Critics have also pointed out that the plot of Eragon is so similar to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, it's practically A New Hope recycled in Middle-Earth. The cliches do actually die down more in the sequels, though, with the characters and whatnot becoming more fleshed out.
• Common Knowledge: The oft-repeated 'fact' that Christopher Paolini was just fifteen years old when he wrote Eragon. This isn't entirely true; while he did write the first draft of Eragon at fifteen, the final version of the novel wasn't completed and published until he was nineteen. Which is still pretty darn impressive.
• Critical Backlash: While most people would agree the Inheritance Cycle is far from a masterpiece, some readers don't think it's as legendarily terrible as it's claimed to be and that the amount of vitriol directed at it can get excessive. At least some of the initial criticism came from disappointment and/or frustration at how much the series was hyped up as "the next Harry Potter" and failed to live up to that, so nowadays people can be a bit more objective in their criticism. It's also not uncommon for people to point out that for a debut book series written by a teenager, the Inheritance Cycle is a decent effort.

Tropes D to J

• Dancing Bear: The first book was sold on the basis of having been written by a 15-year-old.
• Death of the Author: The Inheritance Cycle was presumably intended to be a classic high fantasy good-vs-evil tale, inspired by The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. However, as you may well have seen elsewhere on this page, there are many readers who instead interpret it as a darker tale of two flawed political factions duking it out for control of the land.
• Designated Hero:
  • As you may have seen elsewhere on this page, a number of fans actually perceive Eragon as a villain and Galbatorix as an antihero.
  • Some readers feel that Nasuada and Galbatorix are really Mirror Characters. Between Nasuada's arguably questionable leadership skills and the issues people have with the Varden's methods, as well as the fact they both seize power by being backed up by dragon riders and both plan to put restrictions on magic, the only real difference between them is that Nasuada isn't criminally insane (that we're aware of at any rate) and disapproves of slavery (though beating your volunteer soldiers within an inch of their life is apparently fine). Nasuada also apparently has no issue potentially persecuting magic users for "the good of the many" (unless, of course, they're using enchantments to protect and benefit her), to the point where even Eragon is disturbed by her plans, calls her out on being no different from Galbatorix and it seemingly being one of the reasons he chooses to leave Alagaesia in the end to re-build the Riders in a remote place.
• Designated Villain:
  • Murtagh in particular is seen as a Designated Villain from Eldest onwards. A lot of readers have criticized the fact everyone treats him as an evil traitor, despite the fact he wanted nothing to do with Galbatorix and is only fighting the heroes after being kidnapped, Mind Raped and magically bound to Galbatorix, meaning he has no choice about serving him and no way to escape. He is inarguably a victim, but everyone treats him like he just decided to turn evil one day. He's often a jerk to Eragon to when they clash, but that doesn't automatically make him evil.
  • Many readers feel Galbatorix suffers from a case of this in the first three books, as he doesn't even show up in person until the fourth book. It's lessened there as it's made pretty clear he's an evil psycho, but before that we only had second-hand accounts of his character and all his evil acts were committed off-page, or were carried out by others. As a result, we really only have the Varden's word that he's an oppressive tyrant. We see little evidence that the Broddring Empire is suffering under his reign and it's even acknowledged in-universe that Galby's apparent Ax-Craziness rarely touches his subjects. Almost all of Galby's most despicable actions revolve around him fighting back against the Varden, which could arguably be justified as him taking harsh but necessary measures to protect his kingdom from terrorists. Wiping out the Dragon Riders is treated as being a huge atrocity, especially as it led to the near-extinction of the dragons, but again we only have the word of the Varden or former Dragon Riders that they were good. Galby also expresses regret over this and aspires to rebuild the Riders, albeit under his control to police his empire. Up until Inheritance, the only things we really know about him is that he can be a Jerkass and is occasionally ruthless, but is otherwise a reasonably competent monarch and not really any more brutal than the Varden themselves. As a result, it's not hard to see why some readers think Galby ain't so bad or outright root for him.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Amongst antis, Galbatorix tends to be quite popular, to the point where some readers actually think he should be seen as the real hero / antihero of the story. Some people overlook the fact he's clearly not a very mentally stable dude, destroys innocent villages, uses magic to enslave people and brings back regular slavery too, while others acknowledge this but feel the other side aren't much better.
  • Murtagh. He's described as being very handsome, has a Cool Sword and a dragon, and generally has the whole 'bad boy with a tragic past' thing going for him. It also helps that many readers have argued he's actually not that evil in the first place.
• Ending Fatigue: Inheritance, which has a total page count of 860, takes another 150 or so pages to wrap things up after the Big Bad is defeated...and it still leaves some plot threads unresolved.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Murtagh is a Badass Normal Anti-Hero (at first) who calls out Eragon on his more What the Hell, Hero? moments, is good-looking and pragmatic, and comes complete with a Woobie backstory and discrimination from the anti-Empire forces who think he's just another stooge for the Big Bad like his father. Even after his Face–Heel Turn many readers still preferred him to Eragon. The latter part may be because some fans left the series at his Face–Heel Turn, since he was the Ensemble Dark Horse of the first book and it seemed like an attempt to get more fans behind Eragon. He's generally thought of as a considerably more interesting character than Eragon, to the point that even some of the anti-Eragon fans like him.
  • Roran holds this position, too, largely due to many people finding his parts in Book 2 to be more enjoyable than Eragon's parts. The fact that his Badass Normal status was ramped up to eleven to in-universe Memetic Badass levels certainly helps.
  • Carn from Brisingr and Inheritance is fairly popular too, due to his nature as a Deadpan Snarker with extremely creative spells.
• Escapist Character: Eragon could certainly qualify. He starts out as a simple Farm Boy living in a small, insignificant village. Then, within a few years, he becomes an incredibly powerful mage, master swordsman and Dragon Rider, gets a Cool Sword that magically bursts into flame, is a prominent member of the Varden who is looked up to by thousands, kills a Shade and earns himself the moniker Shadeslayer, becomes an elf-hybrid that makes him more attractive, removes his scars and gives him superior strength, speed and agility as well as immortality, becomes an honorary member of a dwarf clan, becomes one of the few people to discover the true name of magic which makes him even more powerful, gets offered the throne (but turns it down because he thinks he is ill-suited to the position) and is set to rebuild the Dragon Riders. All before the age of 18. In fact, pretty much the only thing missing is that he actually doesn't get to hook up with the hot elven warrior princess he's in love with, though they do leave open the possibility they will get together in the future. That and rebuilding the Riders involves him having to leave his home and family probably forever and live in relative isolation for a long time, but it doesn't exactly undermine all the awesome stuff that came with it.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Downplayed. There was a bit of a rivalry with Harry Potter, but that died out when people noticed that it was entirely manufactured by the marketers. These days, Inheritance Cycle fans and Harry Potter fans seem pretty amicable or neutral about each other (not quite Friendly Fandoms but not noticeably hostile either). Some Harry Potter fans have even mentioned picking up the Inheritance Cycle while waiting for the next Potter book to come out, or moving onto it after finishing Potter, and enjoying both.
  • Some fans of Dragonriders of Pern think this series is a rip-off of their favorite series, while others actually don't mind it or even enjoy both. Anne McCaffrey herself seemed to have favorable views towards the Cycle, being quoted on the original hardback edition of the first book.
• Fan Nickname: "Galby" for King Galbatorix, and "CP" for the author.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Nasuada with Murtagh, since they seem to like each other. Following the release of Inheritance, which deals with their relationship directly, it became even more Fan-Preferred, especially as Nasuada becomes a Morality Pet to Murtagh and it's strongly implied he is able to change his True Name and throw off Galbatorix's control completely because of his feelings for her.
• Franchise Original Sin: The film adaptation of Eragon is often criticized for being a bland, cliched fantasy story that's been told dozens of times in better ways. The first book itself isn't exactly super original and borrows a lot of characterization, plot beats and so on from other fantasy works. A big difference is that the book also has some original or interesting elements, like the Montana-inspired setting (as opposed to Europe) or the culture of the dwarves and elves, etc. Unfortunately, the movie strips out lots of these elements to focus on the bare bones of the story, thus removing anything fresh or unique about the tale and leaving it feeling forgettably generic.
• Fridge Logic: Late during the climactic battle in the second book, Eragon is flagging and refuses to take energy from the surrounding people unless he can take it from enemy soldiers, who are currently protected by magic wielders. If he'd been thinking, the first time he took a magic user out, he could have used the energy of the group of soldiers protected by that one to fuel a spell, aimed at another group of soldiers. This would almost certainly kill the magic user protecting them, as happens to the mages protecting the Dwarf king when he's struck down by a spell that overwhelms their shields. Rinse and repeat, and the enemy are at a major disadvantage.
• Gateway Series; A number of fans cite the Inheritance Cycle as being their introduction to fantasy fiction when they were young, in particular High Fantasy.
• Genius Bonus: The Rimgar, the system of physical exercise used by the Elves, is clearly based on real life Yoga, on the note that the first steps Oromis teaches to Eragon are an exact description of the basic yogic sequence of surya namaskar or Sun Salutation.
• Growing the Beard: Brisingr is considered by some readers to be an improvement over the first two books. Inheritance took the changes further, although the third book is widely seen as the series's peak, as it deviates from following the Star Wars formula to develop its own plot, and focuses more on Character Development.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The fact that the Inheritance Cycle is heavily inspired by Star Wars and the second book features a villain telling the hero an Awful Truth about their parents, only for it to turn out in the next installment that they weren't completely correct about that. Murtagh reveals to Eragon in Eldest that they're brothers and so are both the sons of Morzan, but it turns out in Brisingr that unknown to Murtagh, Eragon was actually fathered by Brom and so they're half-brothers through their mother. Virtually the same thing happened in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
  • In Eldest, Eragon regales his teacher with tales of heroic bugs. Ten-ish years later, we have Hollow Knight, which is the story of a heroic insect.
• Ho Yay: The series has plenty of it, especially when it comes to Eragon, even though his obsession with an unattainable elf girl supposedly indicates that he's straight. Despite this, he travels and becomes extremely close to Murtagh who is later revealed to be his brother, and starts getting vengeful and sulky when Murtagh turns out to think he's an annoying little twerp. Additionally he never notices the sexual characteristics (read: breasts) of the she-elf, but he spends a lot of time ogling his master's muscles, "port-red lips" and long flowy hair, and starts staring intently at the guy's "hairless groin" during a naked bath scene. He also ogles the "hard and lean" muscles of his crippled ex-nemesis, and even drops his underwear in front of his cousin to show a very intimately-placed bruise. Oh yeah, and he spends a lot of time fondling, rubbing and stroking wooden staffs, swords, and other fun phallic weapons.
  • Roran and an Urgal strip down and fight covered in oil in the third book.
• Hype Backlash: Before The Twilight Saga got famous, the Inheritance Cycle was one of the biggest examples of this in young adult literature. About when the first two or three books were published, it got hyped up quite a bit, with comparisons to Harry Potter, people pointing out how Paolini wrote it when he was only 15 and so forth. The books were bestsellers and it got a movie adaptation. However, a lot of people who read the books didn't really get what all the fuss was about, particularly criticizing the series' derivative nature, writing and characterization. It spawned an entire online community (Anti-Shur'tugal) dedicated to criticizing the series, although these days the hatedom has significantly cooled down (and Anti-Shur'tugal itself has reformed into more of a general literary criticism community than just bashing the Inheritance Cycle).
• I Knew It!: Most of the fandom accurately predicted that Brom is Eragon's father and that the green dragon egg would hatch for Arya. It also wasn't a big surprise to many that the Vault of Souls contained Eldunari despite Oromis and Glaedr's protestations that this wasn't possible.
• It Was His Sled:
  • From Eragon, Brom dies, Murtagh is the son of Morzan.
  • From Eldest, Murtagh is the red dragon rider and is Eragon's brother.
  • From Brisingr, Brom is Eragon's real dad (combined with I Knew It! for many readers), Oromis and Glaedr bite it.
  • The ending where Eragon and Saphira leave Alagaesia apparently forever is quite well known, especially seeing as it was predicted to happen way back in Eragon.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Sloan, especially in Brisingr, to the point where some readers see him as Unintentionally Sympathetic. Sloan has never gotten over his wife's tragic death in Spine, causing him to detest the place and to be overprotective of his daughter, Katrina, out of fear he will lose her too. In Eldest, he and his family are threatened by the Ra'zac, and Sloan finds out Katrina (who's only seventeen) has gotten engaged behind his back to a man he doesn’t approve of while the village is under siege (Sloan's argument that Roran has no job, money or other means to provide for Katrina comes off as a case of Jerkass Has a Point). Out of desperation to save Katrina, Sloan makes a deal with the Ra'zac, who subsequently double-cross him, locking his daughter up before torturing him, pecking his eyes out and leaving him to rot in a cell, not knowing where Katrina is or if she's safe. Sometime later, he's found by Eragon, who chooses to tell Katrina and Roran he is dead, then Mind Rapes Sloan and puts a spell on him that forces him to walk all the way to Du Weldenvarden to live with the elves, and to never see his daughter and grandchild again (without trial). Sloan may have been a Jerkass and some of his actions were indefensible, but at the end of the day his main motivation is trying to protect the daughter he was never able to make amends with. Considering this and that his life is pretty much one trauma and humiliation after another, it's hard not to pity the guy.
  • Galbatorix in his backstory. Three of his fellow Dragon Riders, their dragons, and his own dragon were killed by Urgals in the Spine right in front of him. The breaking of a bond between dragon and rider in this way is established to be extremely traumatic for whoever survives, and this was exactly the case for Galby, who was left utterly distraught by his dragon's death, on top of the trauma of everything else that occurred. He spent weeks wandering around the wilderness in a delirium, wounded, starving, and coming close to death before finally making his way back to civilization. Desperate to alleviate his grief, he went before his superiors and begged to be given another dragon egg, but the senior Riders refused due to his instability... then apparently just left it at that without offering him further help. The combination of grief over his dragon's death and the apparent lack of sympathy and support from the Riders drove Galby mad, and he eventually became the tyrant he is by the events of the Cycle.

Tropes M to S

• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Sorry", - apologized Brom".
  • Emo Chicken ^Explanation A nickname (mostly used on antishurtugal but also elsewhere) for the Trial of the Long Knives, in which participants have to prove their mettle by cutting themselves until one of them gives up
  • There are numerous memes by fans ragging on the maligned film adaptation, especially ones snarking about all the changes to the plot and characters that would've made adapting the sequels extremely difficult.
    • What Movie? ^Explanation Some fans like to pretend that there was no movie at all
• Narm: Has one of the largest entries on that trope's page. Highlights include:
  • The very first line of the entire series: "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world."
  • The first line of Eldest, currently among the page quotes for Meaningless Meaningful Words: "The songs of the dead are the lamentations of the living." Yes, Eragon, that's pretty much exactly what the songs of the dead are.
  • The description of Eragon post his transformation at the Agaeti Bloedhren as "more beautiful than any man, more rugged than any elf" is somewhat overdone.
  • The High Priest of Helgrind, who has no arms or legs, reminded some readers of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Durza, Galbatorix's dragon (his henchman, not his literal dragon) in Book 1, is described as having pale white skin and red hair. Like a certain fast food mascot.◊
  • Galbatorix's name. It's a name you'd expect to find in Astérix, and as a result, a number of people find it hard to take the character seriously. Moreover, if you are a bit into history, you will probably see it as Roman emperor Galba's name mixed with a Gallic one.
  • The Film of the Book gives us Galbatorix's infamous line:
  Galbatorix: I suffer without my stone. Do not. Prolong. My suffering.
  • In the first book's prologue, Durza instructs his Urgals to "Stop whoever is coming...or die" which just comes off as so unnecessary and stereotypically villainous it's hard not to crack a smile.
  • Galbatorix was never the most original and compelling villain ever written, but dear lord is his dialogue in Inheritance cliched. One wonders how can anyone read such three-dimensional lines such as “I shall kill [these kids I pulled out of nowhere] if you dare attack me again... In fact, if you displease me excessively, I shall kill them anyway” without imagining him twirling his mustache. If you've read My Immortal, it's also liable to remind you of its version of Voldemort going, "Kill [Draco], or I shall kill him anyway!"
  • There's an elf who is considered nigh-irresistible to most women...who has also given himself magical plastic surgery so that's he's covered in blue fur (which, among other things, conjures up images of Cookie Monster).
• Never Live It Down:
  • For many antis, some of Eragon's actions in Brisingr - namely his treatment of Sloan and killing of a teen soldier - pushed him over the Moral Event Horizon and/or cemented him as a Designated Hero in their eyes.
  • Many readers (fans and antis alike) can't forget the part where Nasuada had Roran publicly whipped half a hundred times for insubordination... then promoted him because his actions actually won them the battle.
• Padding: In both casual and professional reviews of the series, a phrase that repeatedly comes up is "unnecessary details". Entire paragraphs are dedicated to over-flowery descriptions and superfluous content that adds little to the story, or could be condensed to get the point across succintly; for example, in Eldest it takes thirty-nine words to describe Eragon slowly falling asleep ("He closed his eyes and sank into the warm dusk that separates consciousness and sleep, where reality bends and sways to the winds of thought, and where creativity blossoms in its freedom from boundaries and all things are possible"). The Department of Redundancy Department is also used quite a bit, such as the infamous "Sorry" apologized Brom."
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Some people consider Roran and Katrina's romance as this, particularly in Brisingr, as it takes up a large chunk of Roran's story arc but doesn't really have any significant effect upon the wider story. It doesn't help that Roran's chapters in Brisingr are already considered Trapped by Mountain Lions as it is.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Some anti-fans of the series have a habit of painting Eragon as sociopathic war-monger and the Varden as a power-hungry terrorist organisation, who are actually the real villains of the series, despite the fact that, in theory at the very least, their motivation is to overthrow Galbatorix and restore justice and freedom to the land. Eragon also does have conflicted feelings and guilt over some of his morally-iffy decisions (which a sociopath would be incapable of) and takes steps in Inheritance to avoid abusing his immense power.
  • The original Dragon Riders get hit with this even more, with some antis claiming they were an oppressive and racist military junta, even though Alagaesia was apparently much better under their rule. To be fair, the Dragon Riders reigned around a century ago and all the information we have on them comes from secondary sources (most of whom weren't even alive before they were wiped out) so we know precious little about the Dragon Riders – good or bad – besides the fact they were a bunch of magic people with dragons, who were turned on and destroyed by Galby and the Forsworn.
• Rooting for the Empire: A large chunk of readers root for Galbatorix and the Broddring Empire over Eragon and the Varden. A lot of it boils down to the way both factions can come off in the story; Eragon does some rather morally-questionable things but is generally still treated as The Hero, and the general setting's apparent Grey-and-Gray Morality is treated as Black-and-White Morality. For every morally questionable deed which the Evil Overlord commits, The Hero commits one in return. The Empire slaughters villages? Well, so does La Résistance, around Feinster. The Big Bad uses conscription? Well, La Résistance whips their own soldiers for doing the right thing, to such an extent that Badass Normal Roran seriously thought that a weaker man would die. The Empire tortures people and uses "true names" to force its soldiers to be loyal to it? Well, La Résistance wields chemical weapons—unless Angela was carrying enough ordinary poison to kill hundreds or perhaps thousands of Mooks in a few hours in Book 2.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Many readers weren't happy with the way Murtagh's Face–Heel Turn was handled in Eldest, especially Eragon's reaction to it. In Brisingr, Eragon reflects upon the situation and expresses more pity for Murtagh, acknowledging that he never wanted for this to happen and is a "victim of fate"; he also acknowledges that Murtagh is his brother, whereas in the previous book he'd disowned him. Also, in 2023 it was announced that he's getting his own spin-off book.
  • A complaint of the first two or three books was that Galbatorix, the main villain of the whole series, is so vaguely characterized and so far removed from the events that it could be argued his villainy comes off as an Informed Flaw (as seen on this page, some readers even began Rooting for the Empire). Brisingr and especially Inheritance rectifies this by having Galbatorix get more personally involved in the conflict and Paolini goes out of his way to show that yeah, Galbatorix really is a cruel and violently unstable tyrant.
  • For readers who complained about the constant Character Shilling and lack of criticism the elves got despite their flaws, in The Fork, the Witch and the Worm, Eragon remarks that he's finding the elves rather tedious to deal with due to their stubbornness and superiority complex, and that he's starting to agree with Orik's opinion that they're "best admired from a distance".
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Eragon suffers from a bad case of this. After we're introduced to Eragon and he finds the dragon egg in the first chapter (and following the prologue where Arya teleports away the egg before being captured by Durza) the egg doesn't hatch until the fourth chapter. It then takes ten more chapters for Eragon to find out he's a dragon rider and set out on his quest with Brom, which forms the main plot. And the book has fifty-nine chapters in all and over 500 pages. ^note  the Knopf edition has 509 pages, the Paolini LLC edition has 544 A lot of the content in the first fourteen chapters isn't all that important to the overall plot (mostly describing life in Carvahall and such) and could have been trimmed or cut to move things along more briskly; the thirteenth chapter in particular consists solely of Eragon angsting about his uncle's death and could easily have been merged with another chapter.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Many have noted that the earlier books are essentially Star Wars adapted into a Medieval European Fantasy rather than a science fiction setting, to the point where some refer to it as "Star Wars with dragons"; this is especially true of Eragon, which follows the plot of a A New Hope almost beat-for-beat, while Eldest more loosely follows the plot of The Empire Strikes Back. The backstory about the betrayal and fall of the Dragon Riders is also similar to what happened to the Jedi Order in Star Wars. The later books drift away from this formula, though, with only the early parts of Brisingr resembling Return of the Jedi.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • Some people felt this way about Arya and Eragon's relationship, especially in Inheritance. Eragon is immediately attracted to her and isn't subtle about his feelings in Eldest, only for Arya to completely dismiss them. She makes some good points; she and Eragon barely know each other, she is decades older than him and Eragon's feelings for her come across as a childish crush more than genuine love, considering he's only sixteen when they meet, she's the first woman he's ever noticed romantically, his tendencies to over-idealize her and stubborn refusal to accept her rejection. However, starting in Brisingr, Arya suddenly decides she finds Eragon attractive after all, despite everything she said in Eldest and it seeming rather Out of Character. By the end of the series, they're portrayed as Starcrossed Lovers – to the point of exchanging their true names ^spoilerthis is a big deal, as knowing someone's true name can give you complete power over them – with little explanation for how and why Arya's feelings changed so rapidly. Arya even says she'd consider waiting for Eragon until he's older, which some readers found kind of Squicky more than anything. Others felt it just didn't live up to Angela's prophecy that Eragon would have an "epic romance", seeing as the entire relationship amounts to a teenage boy having a one-sided infatuation with an older woman, who decides at the last minute 'Well, we could maybe hook up once you're old enough to buy alcohol and vote'. Paolini has stated that if he writes a fifth book, he will explore their relationship further, but within the published books, the romance falls a bit flat for several readers.
  • Saphira and Firnen have it even worse. Though admittedly, it's unclear how exactly dragon relationships work in comparison to humans and elves, it still comes across as rather weird and out-of-left-field when Saphira hooks up with Firnen in the last few chapters of Inheritance. At this point, Firnen is only a few months old and they've known each other for about as long.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Galbatorix can be seen as this. While later books established him as being thoroughly evil and tyrannical, his depiction in early books left him looking pretty good for many readers. His rise to power (in which he won humanity's superiority over the elves and killed the all-powerful dragon riders) is portrayed as a Moral Event Horizon, and he wants to stomp out the urgals, a warlike species whose rite of passage is to find something, anything, and kill it. He's done plenty of unsavory things and isn't to be praised, but he's made humanity safe and superior, and even his enemies acknowledge that his batshit insanity doesn't touch most of his subjects. Interestingly, at the end of the fourth book, even Eragon seems to come to this opinion at seeing Nasuada adopting some of the Galbatorix directives about magic and people. And, especially according to anti-fans, he is the established power, with a clear-cut law, as opposed to the Varden, who will gladly accept you into their group provided you A.) follow your flawed and suicidal orders to the letter, and B.) be sure to always shower praise on Eragon, the elves, and your visionary leader, Nasuada. In the end it isn't so much that the Strawman Has A Point, but that the other side is so self-righteous and annoying the reader finds it hard to root for them.
  • Murtagh's view that it's less the Empire itself that's evil as opposed to its leader and his belief that the Varden's methods (including engaging the Empire in open warfare) are just adding to problem are apparently supposed to be wrong. However, some readers think he makes some good points. Most of the Varden's leadership seem more interested in gaining and keeping power for themselves than the greater good (for example, they were willing to make an inexperienced teenager their leader based on nepotism, purely in the hopes of using her as a puppet, rather than electing someone who would boost their chances of victory); the Varden are also just as inclined to use torture and massacre enemy settlements as the Empire. After the Varden win, they pretty much keep the Empire's structure intact and carry on enforcing some of its policies, so nothing really seems to have changed besides who's running the place and the fact that the country is now going to have to recover from a war that caused thousands of deaths, widespread destruction and general societal disruption.
  • Orrin's arguments against Nasuada participating in the Trial of the Long Knives are actually pretty sound. Namely that it was utterly stupid of her to have risked both her life and some random warlord seizing control of the Varden, for no real gain (she earned the loyalty of the Wandering Tribes, but they contribute nothing of importance to the cause; Nasuada straight up admits she doesn't think securing their loyalty was that important and she did it more as an extremely risky publicity stunt).
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: A lot of people say that the second book, Eldest, was the point where the Cycle actually got its first bit of decent ground to stand on, distancing itself from the Cliché Storm that plagued Eragon and creating a more engrossing story and identity of its own, while also putting in the effort to make the characters more interesting and unique.

Tropes T to W

• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: A common criticism is that the series, though especially the first book, is very similar in terms of plot, characters and setting to other fantasy or speculative fiction series, in particular The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Dragonriders of Pern, and The Earthsea Cycle while doing little to add original ideas to these elements. The later books arguably get better about this, but some people still see the Cycle as a blatant rip-off of these other series.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Murtagh, arguably the most popular character in the series, is often thought to have a lot of wasted potential. After the first book, he is essentially reduced to the role of 'Galbatorix's minion' and has little characterisation or role outside this until the last book; in Eldest he only shows up in a handful of chapters at the beginning and end, and is otherwise absent for the majority of the book. Some readers have even expressed the view he could've been the main protagonist instead of Eragon, as he's generally seen as being a more interesting, complex and developed character, while Eragon is often criticised for being a bland, one-dimensional stereotype; not helping is the fact that Paolini has stated that Saphira would actually probably have hatched for Murtagh, had their paths crossed before she encountered Eragon.
  • Despite being set up as a Deuteragonist alongside Eragon, Saphira the dragon ultimately ends up being a Satellite Character to the main protagonist. She has no story arc or real development beyond her relationship with Eragon and some readers even feel she's little more than a glorified war horse/attack dog for Eragon.
  • Selena, Eragon's mother, is one of the most enigmatic characters in the series, especially following the revelation that she was also Murtagh's mother and Morzan's wife and 'Black Hand' - his personal assassin and spy - as well as being a talented mage without being a dragon rider. Just how she went from a simple farm girl, to Morzan's devoted love interest and deadliest ally, to a Mama Bear and double agent for the Varden is only vaguely explained and isn't even brought up until the third and fourth books; prior to that, she's only sparsely referred to and only in regards to being Eragon's mother and Murtagh's. Even the more detailed accounts of her character are sometimes contradictory. Given her reputation, one wonders what the Varden would've thought of Eragon had it been made public knowledge he was her son and how this would've affected Eragon's character (especially considering how they treated Murtagh for being Morzan's son).
  • The green dragon Firnen. Being featured on the cover of Inheritance suggested the dragon would be significantly involved in the plot in some form, but he ultimately turned out to be more of an Advertised Extra. Firnen doesn't even hatch until the main conflict is already over and does nothing of note, save for becoming mates with Saphira and possibly impregnating her. Several readers were disappointed by the green dragon's very limited appearance and role in the series.
  • Trianna, a clever, powerful and slightly morally ambiguous sorceress descended from a family of mages, who leads the Du Vrangr Gata (a group of mages allied with the Varden), is very briefly set up as a potential love interest to Eragon – they even temporarily lead the mages together – and is one of the few people who doesn't automatically kowtow to the Varden's every demand. She isn't given much significance in the series, mostly existing to showcase Arya's supposed superiority as Eragon's love interest and to do Nasuada's bidding. She even gets supplanted as the Du Vrangr Gata's leader by Eragon on the orders of Nasuada, despite the fact she's far more experienced in magic than him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The revelation at the end of Eldest that Eragon's father is Morzan, Galbatorix's Dragon (as in his right-hand man, not his actual dragon). Finding out that his father was a traitorous, abusive scumbag who is still widely feared and hated could potentially have had quite an impact upon Eragon's Character Development in a similar vein to Luke Skywalker finding out his dad is Darth Vader; it could also have been interesting to explore how this affects his relationship with Murtagh and how the Varden would've reacted if they found out especially considering how poorly they reacted to Murtagh being Morzan's son, and potentially how Eragon would've dealt with trying to help the Varden when they now view him with distrust. It could also have been used to create a more personal conflict between Eragon and Galbatorix. In the novels themselves, however, it's barely addressed beyond Eragon internally angsting over it a bit and then it turns out that Morzan wasn't his father after all, so it becomes irrelevant.
  • It's revealed that Roran and Murtagh are cousins (Murtagh's mother is Roran's paternal aunt), but the potential relationship between them is never explored in any depth; they never even directly interact with one another.
  • The green dragon egg. By Inheritance it was the only egg that hadn't hatched and depending on who it hatched for, it could turn the tide of the war for one side or the other, opening up several plot possibilities; the Varden could've tried retrieving the egg, Galbatorix could've been hunting for the potential rider, Eragon could've been tasked with protecting and training a new rider and dragon while still dealing with the fact he's not fully trained himself, and so on. However, none of this comes up in Inheritance and the green dragon only hatches near the end of the book after Galbatorix has been defeated; the only notable thing Firnen does is become Saphira's Love Interest.
• Too Cool to Live: Murtagh, the Ensemble Dark Horse of the first book, is a snarky, shrewd Badass Normal with a mysterious and troubled past. His fans often find him to be a better written and more compelling protagonist than Eragon, who in the first book can come off as a very naive, flat Luke Skywalker expy before his Character Development in subsequent books. Murtagh goes missing at the start of Eldest and is presumed dead...until he turns up in the ending, now serving Galbatorix (and cooler than ever, seeing as he's now a dragon rider as well). Some readers wondered if Murtagh was made a villain in an attempt to avoid overshadowing Eragon. Ultimately, this trope is averted; though he considered it, even Paolini thought that Murtagh was too cool (and had been through too much crap) to kill him off and he gets Redemption Equals Life.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions:
  • Nasuada's chapters in the second book, Eldest, which are primarily centered around solving disputes and economic problems within the Varden while Roran and Eragon follow much more meaningful plots (Roran has to deal with the Ra'zac threatening to invade Carvahall and Eragon is furthering his Rider training in Du Weldenvarden).
  • Roran's chapters in Brisingr can be considered this, as his role and importance are reduced from the previous book; he spends most of his chapters fighting inconsequential battles against small numbers of Imperial forces, wrestling down a troublemaking urgal, and dealing with matters surrounding his newly-wed and pregnant wife, while Eragon is, as usual, doing more important things.
  • The subplot in Brisingr in which Nasuada participates in the Trial of the Long Knives, after being challenged for the Varden's leadership by Fadawar, a chief of the Wandering Tribes. The Wandering Tribes aren't important allies for the Varden and are barely mentioned again afterwards, so the entire plotline has no bearing on the main story.
  • Saphira's chapters are also generally negatively considered by some readers, as they feel they only serve to show how arrogant she is, the fact that she misses Eragon, and that her inner-monologue has a bizarre use of adjectives that never turns up in her telepathic speech.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • For some people, the Varden. They're intended to be a courageous and morally upright band of freedom fighters, opposing the evil and oppressive Empire (a la the Rebel Alliance)...but some readers take issue with their methods, to the point of believing they're actually not much better than the Empire. As mentioned under Rooting for the Empire, the Varden have no issue using torture on prisoners, beating volunteer soldiers almost to the point of death for insubordination (even if their reasons were justifiable), remorselessly killing conscripted soldiers (including child soldiers), using some very nasty weapons to kill/weaken enemy soldiers to gain an advantage etc. It doesn't help that the Empire actually seems like a peaceful, prosperous and well-run place, and has been for around a century. Sure the king might be a dick, but he's apparently good at his job, so to some readers the Varden come across as self-righteous Windmill Crusaders who just want to seize power for themselves. The Varden's leaders tend to come across as sneaky, manipulative and self-absorbed, engaging in Nepotism and constantly vying for power, as opposed to working together for the common good. Nasuada is actually compared to Galbatorix by the end of the series – they have the exact same goals around controlling magic users and making neighbouring countries swear fealty to them; they both came to power in the exact same way too (conquered the previous regime with dragon riders and then declared themselves ruler, without consulting the people about what they wanted and their claim to the throne hinging around 'I have the biggest army and dragons'). The main problem some readers seem to have with all this is that Varden are supposed to unambiguously be the heroes of the story, but their actions make them come across as more morally ambiguous than intended.
  • Eragon's reaction to finding out that Murtagh has unwillingly become Galbatorix's lieutenant and that he's his brother and so they presumably share a father comes off as rather wangsty and self-centered to some readers. While it's understandable he would be upset, he tends to focus less on "How horrible my best friend and brother has been forced into fighting against us" and more on "How terrible this is for me". He even says Murtagh has betrayed him and that he's no different from Morzan, which isn't all that accurate: Morzan freely chose to betray the Riders out of lust for power, while Eragon knows that Murtagh wanted nothing to do with the Empire (to the point of running away) and was tortured into serving Galbatorix - even then, he held out until Thorn hatched for him and he couldn't bear the thought of Galby harming his dragon (which can make Eragon's reaction come across as Victim-Blaming). Considering that Eragon also knows that Morzan was abusive to Murtagh (and is implied to have been abusive to his mother too) and that Murtagh feared being like him, Eragon saying he's "become [his] father" comes off as horribly insensitive to some readers, if not downright cruel. He then privately declares that Murtagh isn't his 'real' brother in the same vein he declares that Garrow was more a father to him than Morzan, once again conflating Murtagh with his father and effectively disowning him over something that isn't his fault.
  • Some readers don't much care for the elves, due to the extreme amount of Can't Argue with Elves present in the story. Besides borrowing very heavily from Tolkien, elves are constantly shilled (especially by the main character himself) as being superior in every way to humans and other races while also looking down on and being very critical of other races. They tend to come across as rather arrogant and self-righteous, and are rarely called out on their more questionable traits or beliefs; if they are, the person doing said calling out is usually depicted as being wrong and ignorant. ^{For example} Arya criticizes human women for 'running and hiding' when faced with danger, saying elf women such as herself would stand and fight...but seems to forget that unlike most human women, she-elves have greatly enhanced physical abilities and magic at their disposal. It's not a very fair comparison and kind of smacks of Real Women Don't Wear Dresses. Elves are also so assured that there are no gods that Arya straight up picks a fight with a dwarf priest over his 'primitive and unenlightened' beliefs...but then on one occasion, Eragon witnesses firsthand what does indeed appear to be one of the dwarven deities, making elves seem like Flat Earth Atheists. Most elves are vegetarians because of "their strong connection to the surrounding world, which causes them to realize the sanctity of all life", but they have no qualms about killing humans, including innocent civilians, and also hunted dragons before realizing they were sapient. The elves also do little to actively help the Varden fight the Empire until it directly affects them; Queen Islanzadi was ready to withdraw all support after Arya was captured, even though they both knew the risks and Arya willingly volunteered (in comparison, the dwarves go out of their way to help, even offering their city as a base). Overall, a lot of readers just dislike having to read on and on about how awesome the elves are compared to everyone else, when they have a tendency to come across as pretentious and hypocritical jerks.
• Unpopular Popular Character: In-universe, Murtagh isn't really liked or trusted by anyone save for Eragon and Nasuada; after Eldest, he's pretty much universally despised. Amongst both fans and antis, he's one of - if not the - most popular characters in the series.
• Vindicated by History: Played with - for awhile, the series was one of the poster childs for Hype Backlash. Paolini was often portrayed as a Small Name, Big Ego author who didn't know any better and only got published because his parents ran a publishing company and knew others. It turned out that Paolini himself is actually quite the opposite of what the hatedom portrayed, and some people simply thought that it actually did good by encouraging aspiring authors to try and "Do it better". (With Paolini himself even encouraging others to write something better than Eragon)
• Wangst:
  • Eragon's reaction to finding out Roran is leaving home is a bit over-the-top. While him being upset because he'll miss Roran is understandable, Roran is an adult (about nineteen) while Eragon is fifteen, so he knew he was going to move out some time. It's also not like Roran's moving far away and they'll never see each other again (he's moving to the next town over and says he'll be back in spring to help out on the farm). Yet when Roran announces he's going to become a miller's apprentice and thus earn enough money to marry his girlfriend, Eragon goes off to Rage Against the Heavens, punches the ground and generally acts like his cousin is gone for good, instead of just being happy for Roran.
  • Nasuada angsting about the scars she got in the Trial of the Long Knives can come off as this. She has a total of nine self-inflicted scars on her forearms. She harps on about how terrible it is that her beauty has been marred this way and men might be put off by it, which really just makes her come off as rather vain. The scarring isn't somewhere more noticeable and disfiguring like her face and scars have also been known to fade with time. If she really felt that self-conscious about it, she could just cover them with gloves or long sleeves – which Orrin actually suggests and she adamantly refuses to do – and this isn't even going into how a guy who would reject her purely for having scars is probably not worth her time anyway. And just minutes later, she shows off the scars as proof to Orrin that she would do anything to help the Varden, so one wonders why she doesn't take pride in the scars as a physical symbol of her devotion and courage. Not to mention, they're in the middle of a war. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are probably getting maimed and injured in horrible ways every day, and yet Nasuada is bemoaning a few scars on her arms?
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series is considered young adult literature, which most people interpret as 'teenagers', although many younger children are fans of the series; it can be found in the children's section of libraries and stores, and in primary/elementary school libraries. This is a series where, in the first book alone, there are one or two references to sex (nothing too explicit but still present), rather graphic descriptions of injuries and the after-effects of torture (Arya being a standout example, with at least a paragraph dedicated to detailing her extensive wounds) and the aftermath of a village massacre, including a baby impaled on a spear.
• The Woobie:
  • Murtagh. Also an Iron Woobie and Jerkass Woobie. His father was physically abusive, his mother was distant, by the age of five both of his parents were dead, he grew up in the shadow of his father with Galbatorix possibly expecting him to become Morzan 2.0, and this was all before he was eighteen. When he finally escaped Galbatorix's clutches, his mentor/friend was killed, he was beaten up by Urgals, dragged halfway around Alagaesia with Eragon, imprisoned, captured and misused by the Twins to the point where he was happy to watch them die, tortured by Galbatorix, forced into swearing allegiance, and unwillingly molded into the person Galbatorix wanted him to be. And this is only the first two books. Notably, even Paolini himself came to feel so sympathetic about what Murtagh and Thorn had gone through he changed his mind about killing them off in the final battle, instead letting them make a Heel–Face Turn and get both life and freedom.
  • Thorn: Forcibly born and magically enslaved, then subjected to massive amounts of rapid-growth magic. He probably isn't very comfortable in his body, to say the least.
  • Eragon at the end of the series. At around 16, he's facing complete isolation for years, having to explore a vast new continent that is extremely difficult to reach, and establish a new order of dragon riders there virtually by himself. He does not expect to see any of his loved ones alive again (which a certain prediction makes explicit), and has given up all thoughts of romance or pleasurable company. Kind of harsh for a band of grown men, let alone a single teenager.
  • King Orrin - after years of busting a gut for the Varden (in Eragon Orik flat out says: "The Varden couldn't exist without Orrin,"), living in terror that Galbatorix is going to roll over and crush his kingdom and enslave his people, and sheltering the Varden's noncombatants, he is completely supplanted in La Résistance by Nasuada, insulted by Roran and seems destined to spend the post-war period as a "second-fiddle" nation to the Empire. No wonder he takes to the drink.
  • Durza - Carsaib never wanted to become a Shade.
  • Shruikan has been forcibly enslaved so long that he's gone stark raving mad. When Elva gets a look at him the only thing she can come up with to help him is to Mercy Kill him. By the time of the story he's little more then a being of insane rage and would burn all creation to ash purely out of spite if he could.

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