Inheritance Spork: Chapter Fifty-Three: A Question of Character

[pangolin20]

watersheerie wrote in Antishurtugal, 2012-11-09 19:33:00

MOOD: accomplished

Inheritance Spork: Chapter Fifty-Three: A Question of Character

Chapter Fifty Three: A Question of Character

Sorry about the delay, but we’ve had a pretty hectic week. I think we can all agree, whether you were pro-Romney or pro-Obama, it is relief to not have to deal with those damn political ads filling up every little bit of media.


Previously in Inheritance…

Nasuada, leader of the Varden, captured! Roran smashes cities! Murtagh has a change of heart! Brom is still dead! And Eragon is still a moron!

When we last left our brave heroes, they had journeyed across the sea to find the secret to defeating the evil king Galbatorix. Eragon and Saphira must open the Vault of Souls to receive the deus ex machina that will allow them to defeat Galbatorix and restore peace Umlaut-Land! But uh oh! Looks like Eragon and Saphira forget the Super Secret Password to the Vault of Souls!

Will they ever figure out how to open the Vault? Will they find a way to destroy Galbatorix? Will Eragon finally get to bang hot elf Arya? Find out next in INHERITANCE!!!!!

Sorry, I had to lighten the mood a bit, because laughter is what keeps me sane as I do this. At any rate, the little opening here proves a point. The pacing of Inheritance is simply terrible. It’s not just the filler and the CP’s love of using a hundred words when ten would suffice, it’s the fact that CP also seems to devote an inordinate amount of time and pages to the most inane moments of Inheritance. The more important details that should get more attention are often neglected.

Let’s compare this chapter and the last. Last chapter focused on Nasuada’s torture. It was roughly 9 ½ pages. This next chapter features Eragon and Saphira trying to figure out their true names. It is about 16 pages. See, we had a 9 page chapter about an evil king trying to mentally torture one of the main characters. Now we have a 16 page chapter where Eragon and Saphira will sit around and think really, really hard about what their true names are. I’m not kidding. I think this is part of the reason the last chapter flops, in that CP didn’t want to spend all that much time on the mental torture, and instead cheats by cutting corners and having Nasuada telling the readers what has happened after the fact. Rather than showing us, which would have had more impact, but also would have taken longer. And God forbid CP spend too much time away from his most favorite part of these books: Eragon.

So now CP is going to describe in loving and excruciating detail, Eragon’s quest for his true name. Which isn’t really that exciting. Seriously, the chapter opens with Eragon slipping in mud and falling on his ass. I guess Eragon’s super man-elf reflexes only work when it is convenient, unless CP is trying to hint that Eragon’s kryptonite is mud. Eragon: he can cure cancer, fall through midair to attack one dragon, punch straight through one guy’s armor and chest, yet mud makes him slip.

Eragon and Saphira had decided to hang around the Rider island (I refuse to use CP’s stupid names when I can help it), in hopes of opening the Vault of Souls/deus ex machina. Because you know, it’s not like they have anything else to do. They are hedging their bets on the notion that Solem-‘rumpabump’-bum isn’t lying to them. Which we know he isn’t, CP wouldn’t allow one of his good ‘cool’ creatures to be liars. So they stay and sit around, talking to one another, trying to figure out what their name is.

Let me just say that I don’t have a problem with the idea of ‘true names’ in literature. I don’t believe CP really stole this particular bit from le Guin, as the idea of magical soul names is a very, very old trope. It pops up in a lot of various fantasy pieces, it’s nothing new. My beef with CP is how he’s handling the whole thing, mainly with this one chapter.

In the beginning, three books ago, CP introduced the concept of true names into Umlaut-Land. Everything has a true name in the ancient language, if you know said true name you can control someone with it. Nothing new there. CP goes on to add that his special race of Sues, the Elves, are born knowing their true name. Which is kinda of a cop out, not to mention, what exactly does this mean for the Elves? I mean, a true name is supposed to be the essence of who you are, it is essentially a label and description for your soul. Now imagine being born knowing exactly who you are, down to the core, and growing up with this knowledge. Self-discovery, self-reflection essentially don’t exist for the Elves as they are already born knowing who they are. I think a better writer could have done something awesome with this, instead this is just another Sue trait.

Boring old humans/muggles have to work for their true names. Maybe an Elf might tell them, (because Elves love humans), but for the most part it is hinted that discovering someone’s true name is basically a quest. You have to earn it. So Eragon, of course, pulls out Sloan’s true name from his ass. And now he’s going to do it again with his own.

CP is going to drag it out, but the end is inevitable. Oh, and we get this delicious moment, where Eragon muses on how he wants to be the one who finds out his true name:

…because he did not want Glaedr or Saphira to figure it out for him. If he was to hear his whole being described in a word or phrase, then he wanted to arrive at that knowledge on his own, instead of having it thrust upon him. Pg. 534

So instead, Eragon will thrust such knowledge upon others, but he does not want for one to thrust upon him. Only Eragon is allowed to do the thrusting.

Oh, hey! We’ve gone about a page without over-wrought descriptions of the scenery. Time for to shove a bunch of adjectives into a paragraph. Come here thesaurus, it’s thrusting time.

Embedded within the transparent material were swirling blades of color that formed an abstract design of dizzying complexity. Pg. 534

Everything is ‘dizzyingly’ complex to you, Eragon.

Water dripped from the ends of vines to fall into shallow, misshapen puddles, and the sound of the droplets striking echoed throughout the building, a constant, irregular beat that Eragon thought would drive him mad if he had to listen to it for more than a few days. Pg. 534

Thank God you’ll figure out your true name before that happens. I guess this is the tension here, the risk of Eragon going insane before he finds out his true name. Because there is nothing else driving this chapter. They literally sit around doing nothing. I thought that snail chapter was bad, but I should’ve known that CP would outdo himself. He is the master of mind-numbing boredom after all.

CP lampshades the fact that it is kind of odd that Eragon was able to figure out Sloan’s true name, but doesn’t know Saphira’s. You know, the partner of his heart, the one he has known from the moment of birth and has shared minds with ever since. Yeah, the butcher in town that he hated and barely talked to was the person he knew more intimately. But this is only mentioned in passing, as an ‘oh that is weird oh well’ moment. These books tend to have a lot of those.

Shit gets real when Eragon and Saphira tell each other their flaws. Hey, did you know Eragon had flaws? OMG, I thought he was so perfect and wonderful. Again, we’re just lampshading here. I feel as if CP is aware of the criticisms and cries of ‘Sue’ and decided to throw in this. Look you guys, he has flaws, so he isn’t a Sue. Yet the way he handles it is so Sue-like.

It had been a humbling exercise. Pg. 535

Yes, Eragon, you are truly a saint to ‘humbly’ recognize your faults. Wanna bet that one of his failings was the whole Sloan incident? No? What about the way you slaughtered that one young man who had been forced to serve Galby and only wanted to return home? Oh wait, that was a good thing too? So we only get some vague mentions of arrogance and anger and ‘other shortcomings’ as being his faults. This is some deep introspection shit here.

Glaedr channels Yoda, there’s some more description of stuff I don’t care about. Eragon navel-gazes, more lampshading of these elusive faults and blindness that Eragon supposedly has. It’s raining, because there’s nothing CP likes more than describing the rain. Apprently the floor of their camp is made of glass, allowing for CP to really break out the adjectives here. Thrust that thesaurus hard, CP. Eragon decides to fast until he finds his true name, again the tension is mounting. Will Eragon go mad from the sound of rain before finding his true name? Or will he simply starve to death?

I’m starting to miss the snails.

And then Saphira discovers her name. It is as anti-climactic and dull as you can imagine. She glows and bit and CP waxes poetic about how grand and majestic her name is. Apparently her true name also describes her as the last female of her kind. Wait…what? Cause we’ve all read ahead and know what’s in the Vault O’Souls. We know that technically, she isn’t the last female…so her being the last female is a lie…how can her true name hold a lie…I’m giving this way more thought than CP did.

Anyway, her name is all sorts of beauty and adjectives, and they all orgasm over it. Now Eragon has to find out his true name, by himself. He decides to go on another stroll, and leaves his sword behind.

You cannot learn what you are made of if you rely on anyone or anything else to help you. Pg. 540

Shut up, Glaedr. I swear to God if you vomit out one more bit of fortune cookie wisdom I’m going to scream. No wonder the Riders fell so easily if this was one of their teachers.

“Hey, uh guys…we’re being attacked by another Rider who’s gone ape-shit.”

“Leave your swords. Weapons will not help you when you must fight what comes from within.”

Eragon goes running, throws rocks around, cavorts in the meadow with one of those giant snails. He then climbs a pillar, an immense pillar, and the climb is long and arduous. I’m imagining that as CP wrote this he had some epic scene in mind, grand music swelling in the background as Eragon pulls himself up the rock, like one of those Nike commercials. Anyway, given the detail that CP has put into this, I’m guessing that the rock is where Eragon will find his name.

How can I include everything I am in just a few words? Pg. 545

How about Jackass? One word, short, concise, has a nice ring. Eragon the Jackass. If you want we can throw in ‘thrusting’. Eragon the Thrusting Jackass. I didn’t even have to climb a rock to do it.

More navel-gazing, Eragon is no longer the man he used to be. Yeah, figure that out when he was turned into a man-elf. Dawn approaches, CP is really setting the stage here. Eragon is on a really tall rock, facing the horizon as the sun rises, and thus his true name will come to him. I…I just can’t imagine how CP could have crammed any more clichés in there.

For the sky is hollow and the world is round…Pg. 546

I’m wondering if this is another sci-fi shout-out from CP. There’s a Star Trek Original Series episode titled titled "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky." Decent episode centered around McCoy 'Bones.' I could be reaching here, but either way it's a stupid line. We get it; Eragon is so deep and intellectual. Christ, he's like the fucking hipster of Umlaut-Land. I just imagine him saying to people, "Yeah, I knew the world was round before it became mainstream."

Eragon reaches the grand epiphany that he wasn’t who he was. This is it, the climax of his epic journey of self-discovery. Eragon has changed and shit, and doesn’t want to go back to his old self. How deep.

The music swells into a crescendo, light fills the scene, and Eragon stands up and spreads his arms to the sky, laughing and crying. And CP cries over the majesty of his writing. This is the climax of this chapter, the moment of discovering his true name and all that he is, and there is nothing. Really. What we got was 16 pages packed with melodramatic clichés, purple-prose and filler. Look at this. Eragon climbs to the top of a rock and as the sun rises he discovers his true name. The focus is on the setting, the scene, rather than the inward journey that the hero is supposedly on. Even the navel-gazing doesn’t count as true introspection. Eragon spends most of that either lampshading stuff from critics (we know you are aware of us, CP) or he reminisces about stuff we already know and things that have already happen.

Then, as light spread through the ruined city, he hurried back toward the nesting house, eager to wake Saphira and tell her and Glaedr of his discovery. Pg. 547

What discovery? What did he really learn here? That he had changed and wasn’t the boy/man he used to be? Really, this is it? Something that has been repeated over and over again through the books. I really can’t count how many times a character has noted how Eragon has changed, or Eragon talking about how he has changed. This isn’t a mind-blowing epiphany here. God dammit, CP, you had naked Elf chicks do a magic dance that turned him into an uber man-elf, we get it. He’s changed.

So this is it. The chapter that should show us something new about the hero, the chapter that supposedly features a deep inward journey of introspection, the chapter that should shake up the hero’s preconceptions and beliefs…instead rehashes old shit that’s been done before. Nothing new happens here. And the sad thing of it is, Eragon really hasn’t changed. Sure he’s got a new body, fancy clothes and a sword, and a pretentious name. But the change CP is striving to write here, the change on the inside, hasn’t happened. Eragon is pretty much the same as he was in the beginning. Sure, CP tells us he’s changed, but we never see it. Yes, I can see Eragon standing on a rock, laughing and crying because he’s discovered his true name. But I can’t see the change that has led to this, and thus the moment that is so lovingly described in great detail by CP, is meaningless to me.

I’m just going to pretend that Eragon the Thrusting Jackass is his true name.

38 comments

[1]

mage_apprentice
November 10 2012, 05:42:41 UTC Edited: November 10 2012, 06:35:46 UTC
So instead, Eragon will thrust such knowledge upon others, but he does not want for one to thrust upon him. Only Eragon is allowed to do the thrusting.
Come here thesaurus, it’s thrusting time.
Yeah, the butcher in town that he hated and barely talked to was the person he knew more intimately. But this is only mentioned in passing, as an ‘oh that is weird oh well’ moment.
I’m just going to pretend that Eragon the Thrusting Jackass is his true name.
I think I understand now. See, Eragon likes to be the giver in his relationships and once pursued Sloan while he was at Carvahall to the point of becoming Sloan's stalker. Why else was Eragon, a farmer, so obsessed with buying Sloan's meat? It's because Sloan rejected him (due to how young Eragon was and the fact that he's married) that Eragon now hates the man's guts and that's further prodded at due to Sloan not taking Eragon's shit and making that very clear. Afterwards, Brom and
Murtagh would fill in that role and let Eragon give instead of receive (except for times when Murtagh bested him in sword practice and got to be the giver for once). This is why Brom's death and Murtagh's betrayal hit him so hard and why he knew Sloan so intimately. He had a casual fling with Roran but that doesn't count for Eragon. Then with Arya, he sees the challenge Sloan and Murtagh gave him and someone who, in his mind, would always "receive" from him. In that sense, Arya is the perfect plaything for Eragon, which explains why he only starts seeing her as a person by the last book.

[2]

predak123
November 10 2012, 05:47:52 UTC
"Self-discovery, self-reflection essentially don’t exist for the Elves as they are already born knowing who they are. I think a better writer could have done something awesome with this, instead this is just another Sue trait."

I don't think this idea is awesome necessarily, but I had an idea. There's an idea in the Bible (where 90% of literary themes originate from) and in The Last Unicorn that I like seeing toyed with, and it's the idea that being immortal is more than just living forever. The unicorn could not feel regret nor love until she became mortal, and Adam and Eve could not experience shame or good or evil until they ate the fruit. So my idea with Elves and true names would be that they are unchanging beings. They know their true names and their true names would never change, because they exist in a different state than mortal humans. There would have to be tradeoffs. The Elves would have very little ambition, and would take pleasure in merely existing as opposed to innovative and constructive humans, who at least at some level are conscious of the fragility of life. You could play around with that a lot and have a lot of fun with it, making the Elves basically unfallen humans and contrasting them with humans. It'd be especially interesting, as the dynamic humans wouldn't have the same sort of static true-names an Elf would.

Evan thought for a moment. "Well, what is your true name?" he asked.
Gianna smiled. "Kiuta," she said softly, and as she breathed the word, her being seemed to glow with an inner light. "I've always known it. It is who I am. I am called Gianna, but Kiuta is me."
"You've always known it?"
"Yes. I had to learn 'Gianna,' but I knew my true name, before I was even able to form the word." She smiled at some long-ago memory.
"But how do humans know their true names? The only name I've ever known is 'Evan,' or maybe 'dung-boy,' if you asked my older brother." He made a face, and Gianna laughed.
She thought for a while, looking Evan up and down. "It is. . .a curious thing, for mortals," she said slowly. "For Elves, our true names are. . .are a ringing note, pure and true. It never changes; it does not need to, as we never change. Kiuta I was, Kiuta I am, and Kiuta I will always be. For mortals. . ." she sighed and kicked her feet in the air. "For mortals, it is not a note, but an endless song. You grow and change, not day to day but from moment to moment. To place a name on you would be to name a single moment in time." She turned her head toward him, and Evan suddenly realized that though Gianna appeared his own age, she could have been decades--centuries--millenia old. "I am a stone," she said, pointing to a weathered boulder a short ways off. "A little smoothed around the edges after countless winds pass over it, perhaps, but still the same stone. You," she said, tapping him on the shoulder, "are a tree. You change with the seasons, growing, bending, reaching for the sunlight as best you can."
They sat in silence for a while. "I think I prefer being a tree over a stone," Evan said, "even if it means I don't have a true name like yours."
Gianna snorted. "A rock does not have to fear a forester's axe, or lightning, or a wildfire, or termites."
"I suppose not," Evan said, "but a rock cannot become more than it is."
For only an instant, Evan thought he saw a look of pain on Gianna's face before it was replaced by her usual countenance, full of mischief and secrets. "Come. I wish to show you something."


""For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky." Decent episode centered around McCoy 'Bones.' I could be reaching here, but either way it's a stupid line. "

Well, if you're reaching, then I was reaching too. I came to the same conclusion and got rather
emotional about it, here.

[2A]

angel_renoir
November 10 2012, 07:42:20 UTC
Nice bit of writing there. Did you just throw that together in a whim or is it part of a bigger writing you had?

[2A1]

predak123
November 10 2012, 18:56:00 UTC
Thanks! I just threw that together. I started getting ideas reading the sporking for this chapter. I might write something bigger around the concept someday--maybe when I'm not taking Biochemistry. XD

[2A1A]

torylltales
November 10 2012, 22:13:16 UTC
I want to read the rest of that. It is seriously good. The characterisation is strong and sharp (i.e. each character is well defined and individual), the dialogue is economical and biting, and the concept is so fascinating.

For only an instant, Evan thought he saw a look of pain on Gianna's face before it was replaced by her usual countenance, full of mischief and secrets.

This is far better than anything Paolini has ever written, in the way it develops both of the characters deeply but subtly.

In short: I want to read more. Now.

[2A1A1]

predak123
November 11 2012, 05:18:20 UTC
Oh, gosh, I think I'm blushing.

"In short: I want to read more. Now."

Definitely blushing.

I might seriously come back to this idea, once I have more free time. Between schoolwork, church, and the myriad of other projects on my to-do list, writing gets bumped pretty far down the priority list, unfortunately. But this concept is one I quite like and would enjoy playing around with.

[2A1A1A]

torylltales
November 11 2012, 09:57:03 UTC Edited: November 11 2012, 10:15:21 UTC
I would love to expand on the idea with you - what if the story had a side-arc wherein Gianna gets increasingly frustrated and angry at Evan's blatant and unrepentant human-ness, and then discovers that by learning to envy Evan she has changed something about herself, and in the process nullified her original True name?

Ooh! Ooh! What if she discovers that by changing something about herself, she has effectively made herself mortal? If immortality is marked by an existence external to or independent of time, anything that happens to alter the status is something that exists in time, thereby dragging the individual into synchronisation with the progression of time, at least for a moment.

No, I don't know why my parrot just shrieked "Lúthien!" at me. Or why my owl hooted "Who?" immediately afterward.

I like birds, okay? Also I'm a wizard. From the tropics.

[2A1A1A1]

predak123
November 12 2012, 02:01:31 UTC
Well, if you'd like to spitball ideas, you can always shoot me a PM.

"No, I don't know why my parrot just shrieked "Lúthien!" at me."

Sounds like you have a pretty well-read parrot. And a pretty typical owl; they always seem to be terrible with remembering names.

[2A1A1A1A]

torylltales
November 12 2012, 07:56:15 UTC
Don't mine the tiny owltie and fez, the owl has a cold.

I haven't been properly creative for a long time (because life and work), so I'd be happy to spitball ideas at you. Great sopping wads of ideas, dripping and oozing with potential.

Suddenly I'm in the mood for some ouzo. Funny how ideas can pop up like that based on nothing more than a shallow linguistic similarity.

Wouldn't it be cool to write a wizard duel where one of them suddenly thinks "nachos!" or something. But I don't think human wizards in Alagaesia use drugs. At least not as much as the elves.

[2A1B]

amanda_sheree
November 10 2012, 23:23:03 UTC
It's very impressive. I'd love to read more.

[2B]

lady_licht
November 11 2012, 04:26:00 UTC
the Bible (where 90% of literary themes originate from)
Only because the bible is a giant robbers' cave 90% filled with themes that were known and popular at the times its texts were written.
But generally I agree. More and better authors than Gtesch were inspired by the bible and other scripture.

Before those shameless flatterers flatter you to death: It is an interesting approach. It reminded me that some stones have learned to sing.

[2B1]

predak123
November 11 2012, 05:08:01 UTC
"Only because the bible is a giant robbers' cave 90% filled with themes that were known and popular at the times its texts were written."

Well, yes, in a way, but we still say things like works are derivative of Tolkien, even though a lot of Tolkien's work isn't zomg-100% original. Modern fantasy still links back to LOTR more than it links back to Norse and Celtic mythology, and in the same way, literary themes link back to the good old standby of the Bible.

"It reminded me that some stones have learned to sing."

I love the poetry of that. "Some stones have learned to sing." It just sounds. . .it sounds right.

[2B1A]

lady_licht
November 16 2012, 06:23:47 UTC
That's completely off topic, but do you know Aeolian harps?

[2B1A1]

predak123
November 16 2012, 23:20:52 UTC
Not personally. ;)

But I did end up reading "The Eolian Harp" for my British Literature class. I preferred "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" personally.

[2B1A1A]

lady_licht
November 17 2012, 11:35:41 UTC Edited: November 17 2012, 11:36:26 UTC
Wind-harps are something you should try to get to know personally. There are recordings floating around in the Internet, but they just don't compare to the real experience. One of my neighbors had a small one and sometimes you had to watch it in order to believe it was really only the wind playing the strings.

What is it about?

[2C]

emrlddragon
November 11 2012, 12:02:49 UTC
90% of literary themes come from the Bible? Yeah, I think not. There are works far far older that contain every theme found in the Bible in one form or another. Just check out Mythology, any culture will do.

[2C1]

mage_apprentice
November 11 2012, 23:47:25 UTC
To add an example to your point, the Gilgamesh has some similar themes to the Bible and that's only due to the fact that the Old Testament and Gilgamesh came from similar cultures.

[2C2]

predak123
November 12 2012, 01:08:43 UTC
"90% of literary themes come from the Bible? Yeah, I think not. "

Dude, relax. It was mostly a joke, anyway.

[2C2A]

emrlddragon
November 12 2012, 01:59:13 UTC
*pulls open shirt and looks down* Nope, still not a dude.

Also, this is a sporking site, don't use literally unless you actually intend it to be taken at it's meaning.

[2C2A1]

predak123
November 12 2012, 02:06:36 UTC
I use "dude" ubiquitously, regardless of gender.

And I didn't use the word "literally." I used the word "literary." Using the word "literally" wouldn't have made sense there.

[2C2A1A]

torylltales
November 12 2012, 07:59:06 UTC Edited: November 12 2012, 07:59:17 UTC
Always have to make sure you know where your literally themes are drawn from. I means, it's, like, literary a sin to not look these things up.

Why did I just read that in a racist Japanese accent.

[2C2A2]

lady_licht
November 13 2012, 01:16:01 UTC
"Bedeckt Euch, Dame!", Herr Heinerich, ruft, "nehmt meinen Mantel als Kleid!"
("Cover yourself, my lady!", Sir Henry exclaims, "take my coat for a dress!")
Couldn't resist. Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqhgQOTe5k

I think we know Predak well enough to tell roughly how she means what she brings up.

There also is a grain of truth to her statement. Authors are inspired by other authors and many were inspired by the stories the bible contains, no matter where they originally came from. From a literary-historical standpoint the bible is anything but original. But so are most books.
I bet there are enough authors who see themselves as inspired by the bible without knowing the bible lifted the themes they liked so much from somewhere else. So, for them the bible really is where their themes originated from.
On the other hand: The fact that The Lord of the Rings is not exactly original, yet a thousand times referred to as inspiration and origin of other stories, doesn't make the claim: "The Nibelungensaga stole from Tolkien!" any better.

[3]

the_bishop8
November 10 2012, 19:38:17 UTC
Apparently her true name also describes her as the last female of her kind. Wait…what? Cause we’ve all read ahead and know what’s in the Vault O’Souls. We know that technically, she isn’t the last female…so her being the last female is a lie…how can her true name hold a lie…I’m giving this way more thought than CP did.

The only possibility I can think of is that since, for some reason, you can say anything in the AL as long as you believe it, then Saphira believing to be the last of her kind is enough. Which would mean that her True Name should have changed when she found out she was wrong.

So I completely agree that CP thinks about it less than other people like you.

I don't think that CP could have possibly written them finding out their True names in an interesting, non-cliched, non-purple-prosed way.

[3A]

mage_apprentice
November 10 2012, 19:55:39 UTC
The only possibility I can think of is that since, for some reason, you can say anything in the AL as long as you believe it, then Saphira believing to be the last of her kind is enough. Which would mean that her True Name should have changed when she found out she was wrong.
Actually, it has to be the Truest of True and Accurate on All Accounts, not just believed to be true. She wouldn't be able to say it otherwise.

And I think Paolini was going for the last living female of her kind. Though, this brings up the question of what defines as "living" since Glaedr could be counted as living.

[3A1]

the_bishop8
November 10 2012, 21:51:01 UTC
When Eragon wrote a poem in Eldest Oromis has this to say:

Oromis: However, I am surprised that you can give voice to it in this tongue. No barrier exists to writing fiction in the ancient language. The difficulty arises when one attemts to speak it, for that would require you to tell untruths, which the magic will not allow.

Eragon: I can say it, because I believe it's true.

^Eragon says it right there. Obviously the poem is not Truest of True or Accurate on All Accounts.

In the book Eragon, when they are in Dras-Leona and trying to find out where the Ra'zac live, then all they would have to do is say "The Ra'zac live in Helgring" in the Ancient Language, and if it were Truest of True and Accurate on All Accounts, then they would be able to say it, and if it weren't, they wouldn't be able to say it. They could use that technique if he wanted to find out if Murtagh were alive or not at the beginning of Eldest, if he wanted to know if Morzan was really his father, and other occasions.

Also, if something has to be Truest of True and Accurate on All Accounts in order for you to say it in the ancient language, then that causes a problem when you try to speak your opinion. An example of that is in Eragon, when Eragon trys to speak to Arya in the Ancient Language, he says "I am a Rider and friend" and a line of reasoning he has after that is:

For all she knew, Eragon believed himself to be her friend, making the statement true for him, though she might not consider him one.

^Again, obviously not Truest of True, and definitely not Accurate on All Accounts.

Another example is in Eldest, when Murtagh says in the AL that Morzan is his father. Do I even have to say it?

Evidence shows that you merely have to believe something in order to say it in the Ancient Language, regardless of whether or not it is true.

[3A1A]

mage_apprentice
November 10 2012, 21:58:09 UTC
Ah, okay then. I forgot about those lines.

[3A1A1]

the_bishop8
November 10 2012, 22:33:31 UTC
All that said, it's really stupid. Kippurbird said it well on the example about the poem Eragon wrotehttps://eragon-sporkings.fandom.com/wiki/Eragon_Twenty_Three. He basically points out that Eragon is delusional if he believes that his poem is true.

[3A1A1A]

mage_apprentice
November 10 2012, 22:45:26 UTC
I need to reread those sporks.

[3A1B]

lady_licht
November 11 2012, 04:29:48 UTC
Where does that leave one's true name? If you believe your true name is Squirpl, it'll be Squirpl? Or does it only work that way if you want to tell someone something, but not when it comes to magic?

[3A1B1]

the_bishop8
November 11 2012, 05:10:28 UTC
You could be delusional enough to believe that your true name is Squirpl but it probably wouldn't actually be your true name, because believing it to be your true name wouldn't make it your true name. Just like how Eragon was delusional enough to believe that his poem was true, yet it wasn't actually true. It's a weird flaw, and the only reason it might work is if the Grey Folk (those people that created the AL and wired magic to it) made it that way. If they made it so that the way it prevents you from lying is based on your own thoughts, memories, and perceptions.

[3A1B1A]

lady_licht
November 13 2012, 01:38:49 UTC
The important question in this whole construct is: What is truth?
Related: Are we even able to pin it down? And does something have to be the truth in order to be true?

All in all lie and truth boil down to human concepts rather than to actually existing things. The only way one could argue is that the Grey Folk had a different idea of what those two things are and thereby making it appear magical and undoubtable to humans. Which would actually be interesting.

[3A2]

lady_licht
November 13 2012, 01:29:30 UTC
Or the last blue female of her kind?
Or as Jaime Lannister would put it: There are no men like me. There is only me.

To be fair, I don't think I could have finished writing this plothole of a bookseries without inconsistencies. I tip my hat to Paolini for not throwing it into a corner and refusing to work on it any longer. At least he ended what he began.

[4]

torylltales
November 10 2012, 22:26:07 UTC
Eragon climbs to the top of a rock and as the sun rises he discovers his true name. The focus is on the setting, the scene, rather than the inward journey that the hero is supposedly on.

I can't find any reference to it at the moment, but I remember an old Bible story that I learned when I was young, of how Solomon the Wise (or perhaps some other wise man) sat on a pillar for a very long time until he had an epiphany, or something. This scene reminds me strongly of that story.

At any rate, I think that's a common problem with Paolini's writing: he's only ever focused on the surface details, he never goes deeper than that. His writing is all about surfaces and exteriors and landscapes, never about internal struggles or hidden depths.

[5]

torylltales
November 10 2012, 22:29:10 UTC
Next Chapters:

Chapter Fifty Four: The Vault of Souls - dibbed by mage_apprentice
Chapter Fifty Five: Lacuna, Part the First - dibbed by scavokretlaw
Chapter Fifty Six: Lacuna, Part the Second - dibbed by distinctvaguens with assistance from 7th_y (second dibbed by scavokretlaw)

[5A]

mage_apprentice
November 10 2012, 22:47:01 UTC
Currently working on it. *sigh* It's a boring chapter.

[6]

lupus753
November 10 2012, 22:54:22 UTC
Brom is still dead!

Not sure if Saturday Night Live reference.

[6A]

torylltales
November 10 2012, 23:45:10 UTC
Considering Paolini's tally of important characters who have supposedly died or been put in siatuations where death is inevitable, only to be miraculously spared in the next chapter, it's probably a useful point to keep track of.

[7]

adder_snake
November 13 2012, 14:07:59 UTC
To me, this was one of the stupidest chapters (and that's saying a lot!). I mean, snails??! Really?! Was this meant to be serious? Was I supposed to be legitimately concerned that Eragon and Saphira would be eaten by a giant snail before they could get away??! (Yes, it would have been a fitting end for them, but alas, not even I could delude myself into thinking it could be!). I mean, the image is ridiculous. It's a snail! You could have made it anything. A giant spider (I'm actually surprised it wasn't a spider, very "subtly" name Shelobtoo) or a snake or SOMETHING SOMEWHAT THREATENING! But no, a snail, one of the slowest animals...at least we didn't get a terrifying giant sloth scene. Yes, I know tat the snail was supposedly moving really fast, but that just sounds stupid. I mean, the mental image I'm getting is ridiculous!