Holy cow, it's back! And what better way to return than to another short, pointless chapter in which absolutely nothing happens! Well, actually, there are lots of better ways, but that's what we're getting, so buckle up and dust off those desk pillows, people.
We pick up an indeterminate amount of time after the audience with Grimrr, as Eragon whines that he's hungry while sitting against Saphira and watching other people clear up the rubble and bodies in the courtyard. How heroic. Bloody and some more of the nameless elves are standing around, and everyone continues not to make the connection that he caused all of the Varden deaths in that courtyard when he went that gratuitous extra yard in killing the enemy spellcaster. Roran drops by with Angela, whose "yarn [was] flapping in the air, *" which is an odd image.
Eragon tells Roran that he fought well, which is out of place. "You did well," is the kind of general compliment given to an amateur, someone who needs reassurance that they did indeed do well at something they're unfamiliar or inexperienced with, but Roran is neither of those things. Roran has been fighting in life-and-death battles since Eldest, and been a front line soldier and even officer of the Varden since Brisingr. It comes across as very impersonal, which is at odds with two characters who grew up like brothers and supposedly are still as close.
Roran is off to "secure the city, *" which means he's going to do some more fighting, while Eragon is going to go get lunch.
Excuse me, which one of them already lost consciousness once today after nearly being crushed to death by a collapsing building, and doesn't have the benefit of unnatural stamina granted by a magical transformation and a ring full of virtually endless amounts of free energy again?
Angela refuses to explain her bird noises from the last chapter, and has to get going to check on a potion she left brewing (isn't it rather dangerous to leave something like that unattended?), but more importantly she hopes to find Solembum's mother among the werecats, so expect to see her pop up eventually. Angela has been knitting throughout this entire conversation, too, which I suppose is meant to be part of her quirky charm, but I just find it incredibly annoying. Angela is less of a character and more of vehicle for various quirks, and she gets right under my skin because I can imagine just how annoying it would be to have to deal with someone like her in real life. Put down your damn needles when I'm talking to you, dammit! This probably wouldn't bother me so much if she weren't doing something quirky every time she's on the page. Her entire character is built around the fact that she's quirky, and if the quirks don't entertain you, she falls completely flat.
Everyone in the courtyard stops what they're doing to watch Saphira take off, although I would think that most of them would be used to it by now seeing as Saphira has been with the Varden since the end of Eldest with only a few days' absence, and was making routine flights for the sake of appearances every day. But of course, no one ever gets tired of seeing Saphira, because she's Just That Beautiful.
They fly through a layer of smoke that symbolizes the city's "hurt, anger, and sorrow, *", and that single sentence is all the acknowledgement we'll get of the damage the Varden has done to a city whose only crime was being geographically located between the Varden and Galbatorix, because it's immediately replaced by how beautiful the approaching thunderstorm is. With a chapter title like "Aftermath," I would expect this sentence to have been the tone of the entire chapter, a focus on the tragedy and horror that the Varden are experiencing and, in fact, inflicting upon others in their quest to overthrow Galbatorix. And yet, this sentence (and yes, I mean a single sentence) and the bit at the start about bodies being cleaned up are the only somber moments of the chapter, and they're past in the blink of an eye. This chapter might as well have been called "Afternoon" for all the relevance of "Aftermath" to what actually happens here.
Eragon holds onto one of Saphira's neck spikes while they're maneuvering, not for the first time, and I wonder just how big those spikes are, also not for the first time. Are they big enough that Eragon could impale himself on them if he were thrown forward? Or that Saphira could skewer him if she reared her head back? This seems like pertinent information, especially considering that Eragon then immediately gets thrown forward by Saphira's heavy landing. I ask again, why are Saphira's landings so heavy? The sentence before the impact she's hovering practically still over the ground, so why the heavy drop? It just reads as if Paolini isn't thinking Saphira's physics all the way through.
Katrina immediately appears, "auburn hair swirl[ing] about her face, *" and her pregnant belly starting to show. Keep in mind that Elaine, our other pregnant woman (pregnant since the first book, no less), still hasn't delivered at this point. She apparently felt that Roran was in danger about the time the castle fell on him, but Eragon assures her that her husband is fine before gorging himself on meat and mead.
Yes, Paolini actually used the word "gorged*" here. So much for:
This is a pretty damn big jump, as if the above quote from Brisingr wasn't a Wall Banger in its own right. The above quote shows Eragon's ability to rationalize his way out of commitments he made in the past because he doesn't want to be beholden to them anymore merely by deciding to be more "moderate," and this meat gorging shows that he doesn't bother trying to hold himself even to those laxer standards once he has decided he doesn't want to be restricted anymore. What the hell was the point of all that angsting and pseudo-philosophical waxing about the morality of eating living things back in Eldest if we're just going to pretend it never happened now? This is a result of Eragon being an Author Avatar rather than an independent character: because Paolini had a sudden interest in vegetarianism when he was writing Eldest, Eragon became a vegetarian; because Paolini is no longer interested in vegetarianism, Eragon is eating meat unhindered by moralistic issues again. If Eragon were a real character in his own right, he would either have stuck with the vegetarianism, or at least his return to carnivore status would have been as explored and developed as his taking to vegetarianism was. But because he is an Author Avatar, he simply picks up and drops interests as Paolini himself does, and so we close this chapter with meat juice dribbling down Eragon's chin as he munches blissfully away on pork roast, the bloody flip-flopper.
