History Headscratchers / InheritanceCycle

** No, scars don't change shape as a person grows. If one received a 10cm scar on his/her arm when s/he was a child, the scar will have the same length when s/he is a full-grown adult. Only the depth of the original injury is important. If the injury was deep enough to cut the muscle under the skin, it rarely heals well and causes the skin surrounding the scar tissue to stretch, restricting movement; he presented that perfectly with Roran's injured shoulder. Maybe he was going for RuleOfCool with Murtaugh's [[GoodScarsEvilScars scar]]. [[/folder]]
** If memory serves, Murtagh got his scar from Morzan carelessly throwing Zar'roc, a Rider sword, at him. It's possible that the enchantments on the sword make the scars it makes work differently. But its name means "misery," and Morzan seems like [[TheSadist the type of guy who'd want anyone who survived his attacks to remember the pain he caused]]. Maybe Zar'roc specifically has a custom scar-enhancing enchantment ForTheEvulz.

*** Wards against scrying exist, yes, but Eragon had no problems scrying Arya when she was imprisoned. Barring some kind of unmentioned protagonist priviledge in play that let him bypass those wards without even trying or meaning to, that would mean that there were no anti-scrying wards in place.

* In the first book, it is stated that Arya [[spoiler: is ambushed near Osilon]]. Later on, it is also said that outsiders (like Durza and his henchmen) cannot penetrate very deep into Du Weldenvarden. From this, it seems like Arya was taking the egg from the Elves to the Varden when she was attacked (she must have been quite far south of Osilon to be close enough to the forest's edge to be attacked). This bugs me. If she is taking the egg between the elves and the Varden, why does she need to go near Gil'ead - surely they could use the secure route Eragon uses in ''Eldest'' - up Az Ragni and the Edda River, via Hedarth and Tarnag, and a whole Hadarac Desert away from Galbatorix's flunkies?

** I chalked it up to a SecretTestofCharacter, seeing if he'd really go through with a deal with a tree, no matter how absurd it is to even say it. Supported in that [[spoiler: when he goes back to fulfill his end of the bargain, the tree just laughs and sends him away scott-free.]]

* One thing that bothered me in the last book was [[spoiler: The nuclear yields and efficiency of the explosions. Just doing the easy e=mc^2, the expected yield is three times that of all real nuclear initiations combined, whereas what was depicted was a explosion that was, on the nuclear scale, a very small sparkler firework (86 Kg of TNT equivalent), and a off-screen one that was the size of a smallish tactical device. For a spell that allegedly converts a person into energy, it's pretty lousy. What I personally would try for is a spell of fast-neutron emission, one that compressed things REALLY FAST, combined with one that extracted deuterium from water and lithium-6 from raw lithium ore and combined them into lithium-6 deuteride and formed that into a sphere. I would run the lithium-6 deuteride generator/shaper, then set off the fast-neutron spell in the center of the sphere. A couple of microseconds later, you have tritium, then set off the compressor and you have thermonuclear fusion! I think that this method, once worked out, would be faster, easier, and have higher yields than the depicted spell. It's also 5 times more complicated, but better!]]

* Early on in ''Brisingr'' Eragon keeps moaning over the fact that [[spoiler:he doesn't have a sword]] and that he could do a lot better if he had one. But didn't he just leave an army behind? Wasn't said army just victorious on the field of battle? What exactly was stopping him from [[spoiler: picking up an extra sword]] there?

* Some pretty heavily spoilery stuff for the denouement of ''Inheritance'' ahead. Be ye warned. [[spoiler: So what the crap is with Eragon's leaving Alagaesia at the end of ''Inheritance''? Specifically, leaving friends, family, and love interests behind forever? Sure, he has to raise the dragons, and I understand why he chose where he did, but there is no reason to never see anyone again, especially Arya. Since Arya was now bound as a dragon rider, shouldn't she have reason to go visit Eragon over at his new hangout? Likewise, if the order will be close enough to help Alagaesia during ''skirmishes'', how hard could it be for Eragon to return to Alagaesia to visit people. Sure, he has to keep an eye on dragons, but when they're older, and especially with other riders there to keep an eye out, why can't he go out for a little while to visit his cousin's family, or maybe have a nice romantic evening with the elven queen? If the hideout will be in easy flying distance (relatively, 3-4 days from the nearest livestock or so, I'd imagine, based on Eragon's reasoning). Likewise, it's in Arya's best interests to visit the Rider hideout every so often to train more in being a rider (I can't remember if she kept any eldunari with her, but if not, all the more reason), so even a two-week flight made bi-annually would be worth it. All of those bitter "final farewells" were hard to read through, not just for the emotion, but because the emotion ''wasn't warranted!'']]

** In the 4th book, Galbatorix' remaining egg hatches and chooses [[spoiler: Arya]] as his rider, so the series now has at least one (living) female rider.

** [[spoiler: It is Arya, but it's only an afterthought that serves to leave Alagesia with at least one Dragon Rider after Eragon leaves.]]

** He is also engaged with more important things than Eragon, like [[spoiler: Trying to find the True Name of Magic, or subduing more dragon souls to gain their power]].

* In Brisingr, Galbatorix is shown to have to the ability to posses Murtagh and Thorn [[spoiler: When they are facing Oromsis and Glaedr.]] Why isn't the ability used when they meet in Dras-Leona? Why isn't is used when Murtagh invades the camp? Why doesn't Galbatorix just have Murtagh and Thorn fly over the Varden then possess them and destroy them?

* When [[spoiler: Murtagh says the name of the ancient language]] to remove Galbatorix's wards, why didn't Eragon just say one of the death-words there on the spot?

* So...[[spoiler: If Galbatorix had said the name of the ancient language before using his magic self destruct spell]], would it have been enhanced?

* How come the [[spoiler: Eldunarya]] in the Vault of Souls didn't do more to help Eragon? For example, heal Brom's wounds and saving his life.

*** Considering that they pretty explicitly state that there's a lot of land outside of the maps we're shown [[spoiler: when both Eragon and Murtagh decide to leave for parts unknown and off the map]], it's probable that the wild dragons just legged it. Er...winged it.

* Why is [[spoiler: Murtagh]] treated like such a terrible villain? He is being ''magically coerced'' into serving Galbatorix, and the first time he fights Eragon, [[spoiler: he lets him go, despite the fact that he knows he will be punished for it.]] I honestly don't understand why Eragon hates him so much after that, when he should be ''pitying'' him.

** On the other hand, during their first fight [[spoiler: on the Burning Plains, he kills the Dwarf King without so much as a second thought, beats the crap out of Eragon, and steals his sword.]] It's still bad characterization, though. If we saw him kicking a few dogs or executing a helpless soldier[[note]]Who would be forced to oppose Eragon if he was taken prisoner, or forced to report to his superiors about the whole incident, letting everyone know about where Eragon was.[[/note]] ''like Eragon did at one point'' he'd be better portrayed a villain, which with his being an unwilling servant would have pushed him into AlasPoorVillain territory.

*** Maybe he was trying to get in Galbatorix's good books in order to [[spoiler: save Nasuada, as he did in Book 4]]. Taking the initiative and disposing of a powerfull enemy will go a long way towards achieving that; sadly for him, he went back to zero points after sparing Eragon.

*** We are never given Glaedr's age. He could easily be less than two hundred years old. And Saphira isn't really 8-12 months old, considering her size, her language skills, and her general knowledge. (And no, I am not going off the movie on this.)
*** Oromis stated that he was born "several centuries ago," and that Glaedr hatched when Oromis was twenty, so he's definitely much older than two hundred years. As for Saphira, she was explicitly stated to be "barely eight months old," right before she met Glaedr for the first time, but she's been in her egg for at least a century (as Galbatorix looted it during his conquest of the Riders).

*** The way I understood this was through her comparison, What is time but Motion, and what is Motion but Heat, She compared Time to Motion, the forward movement, and the constant progression of the river of time, motion is just a level of heat on an atomic scale, the warmer an atom is, the faster it moves, if I understood it correctly at least, she could have acted in either of two ways, the super-speed theory above, Or the idea that all she did was essentially Super-cool the area around her, slowing everything to the point that even time was "So cold" that it couldn't flow. That theory would also kind of help with the theory that Angela was one of the race that bound magic to words, among other evidence, if she were part of that race, I'd think her knowledge of magic would surpass everyone else's, and this kind of feat would be feasible for her.[[/folder]]

** The way This Troper remembers it (and it's been a few months so forgive her if she's way off here) is that it was a test of your willingness to sacrifice yourself for the good of your group. You can either hand over control to someone who you think will do a horrible job, or prove you will do whatever it takes to make sure who you believe is best for the job (in this case yourself) has it. A good leader is supposed to be able to weigh the good of the whole over the good of one... Even if that one is themself.

*** I don't think that she slowed down time. Her physics jabbering linked time to motion, motion to heat, and heat to energy. Afterwards, she seemed weakened and said that she wouldn't be able to do it again today. Magic is CastFromHitPoints, specifically physical stamina and energy. Simply speaking, she compressed and expended a great deal of her energy in order to move much faster for a short period of time. She wasn't freezing time, it just ''looked'' that way because she was using temporary SuperSpeed that is much greater than what even elves and riders normally operate on.
*** The way I understood this was through her comparison, What is time but Motion, and what is Motion but Heat, She compared Time to Motion, the forward movement, and the constant progression of the river of time, motion is just a level of heat on an atomic scale, the warmer an atom is, the faster it moves, if I understood it correctly at least, she could have acted in either of two ways, the super-speed theory above, Or the idea that all she did was essentially Super-cool the area around her, slowing everything to the point that even time was "So cold" that it couldn't flow. That theory would also kind of help with the theory that Angela was one of the race that bound magic to words, among other evidence, if she were part of that race, I'd think her knowledge of magic would surpass Everyone else's, and this kind of feat would be feasible for her.[[/folder]]

** In ''Brisingr'', there are a few moments where Eragon does comment on the pity he feels for Murtagh, who was a good friend and ally before being forced into servitude. Eragon also knows that while he's capable of mercy, hesitating against an opponent who is going to kill you, compelled to do so or not, is grounds for dooming the last resistance to Galbatorix's rule. He forms a more nuanced opinion of Murtaugh once he has calmed down.