Criticism of the Inheritance Cycle
From The Inheritance Encyclopedia
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- See also: Merits of the Inheritance Cycle
There have been complaints against the Inheritance Cycle. Some of these are listed below:
Contents |
Overview
Paolini has been criticized for simply dull writing. Entertainment Weekly, in fact, gave the book a D+ for being unoriginal and boring.[1] In fact, Entertainment Weekly labelled Eldest the worst book of 2005.[2]
The Cycle deals with serious subject matter such as war and corruption, but Paolini started writing at age fifteen. He shows a lack of understanding of how battles work.[3] He also has shallow knowledge on swords and the care of horses. His books display very little research on armor, as well. [4]
Derivative nature
All stories build on outside influences, but most are not as explicitly derivative as the Inheritance Cycle. The plot is identical to the plot of Star Wars, with very little twists to add originality.[5] Some fans have tried to explain this as being due to both Lucas and Paolini using Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces to plot their stories, but this is not the case. Campbell's work is extremely vague; there is nothing in it that says the protagonist must be a farmboy with a mysterious past who comes across something inadvertently sent to him by a princess helping a rebellion against an evil Empire (Both Eragon and Luke fit this description). The cycle uses Old Norse conventions like The Lord of the Rings, but Paolini uses the myths the same way as J.R.R. Tolkien.[6] Many names from the Inheritance Cycle closely resemble names from The Lord of the Rings.[7]
Under-developed Characters
Eragon
Paolini commits a writing sin: he does not make his characters work to gain power. Eragon is given strength and intelligence through his connection with Saphira and the Blood-Oath Ceremony in Eldest, widely criticized as being an example of deus ex machina. His superhuman speed helps him avoid injury that could be fatal for a normal human. He is immediately forgiven for any mistakes that he might make.[8] Eragon shows very little remorse for the people he has killed.[9]
He is young, adored by the protagonists, has magic powers, and learns at an extremely fast rate; he possesses many aspects of a "Mary Sue"--a character very idealized.[10]
Saphira
Saphira instantly gains knowledge of her species through racial memory (an actual, real-world pseudoscience that has been proved false), which does not allow for her to develop wisdom alongside Eragon. [11] Saphira is technically a main character, but does not feature nearly as prominently as Eragon.[12] She is often viewed as simply a talking plot device with wings, and completely without her own character.
In fact, all dragons in the Inheritance Cycle are treated in this way--they become non-characters without a personality that only exist to fly their Riders, kill enemies, and grant their Riders super-powers. No dragon has a distinct personality--they are merely fiercely protective of their Riders, instead of having traits like selfishness, cowardice, and others that define characters.
Galbatorix
Galbatorix has not appeared in the story, and only has his influence discussed. Readers have no reason to hate or fear him except for being told to. He is a extremely cliché evil character who exists only to act scary and be defeated in the end. He does nothing original that might cause any of the readers to have a hate for him. We are never given an explanation of his actions other than 'he is insane'. This shows poor writing--Paolini could not explain why he did what he did, so he passed it off as insanity.
Arya
Arya physically resembles Arwen from The Lord of the Rings. She has also garnered criticism for being a "Mary-Sue." She is beautiful, smart, strong, arrogant--and has little personality.[13] She is also a very hypocritical character. She claims to be a vegan, but wears leather.
Values
Eldest reveals that the Elves, who are one of the wisest races in Alagaësia, are atheist and vegetarian. Paolini appears to support atheism through Arya's rebuttal to the dwarves' religion. However, one might argue that the elves themselves are being hypocritical--they mock the dwarves for believing in gods, but also believe in fate, which is also an invisible, unprovable force. Most writing includes opinions, but readers have complained about having his religious opinion shoved down your throat.[14] Arya creates a paradox by being a vegan who wears leather.[15]
"Purple Prose"
The books seem to be written in a style which suggests that Paolini wrote with a thesaurus next to him. This is known as "purple prose", a derogatory term used to refer to overwrought writing with too much description, even in action scenes where the prose would work best written tersely. Purple prose tends to bog down the narrative and make it very difficult to follow. The large, pointlessly complicated words make the books seem almost frivolous—they could be substituted with better, simpler words to have an even better effect (e.g. describing raindrops as "translucent cabochons", giving one the impression that Alagaësia has a serious acid rain problem and that the drops are shaped like domes with flat undersides). It can also be noticed that in some instances, the use of flowery description is too much. An example is found on page 2 of Eragon, where Arya's hair is described as black two sentences in a row. In fact, most of Arya's descriptions are laden with purple prose, especially in Eldest.
