Brisingr Part Fifty Two

== Blood on the Rocks pt. 2 ==
Eragon has lunch in a public dinning hall.
There Eragon dined on sourdough bread, fish with white meat that the dwarves caught in underground lakes, mushrooms, and some sort of mashed tuber that he had eaten before in Tronjheim but whose provenance he had yet to learn. Before he began eating, though, he was careful to test the food for poison, using the spells Oromis had taught him. 
Provenance *snigger* Oh throw out the thesaurus will you? Provenance is a word that some sort of stuck up English Noble Twit would say. Not only that but it completely destroys the flow of the sentence.Eragon is a farm boy he shouldn't be using words like that. Hell, who in their normal every day elocution utters such a combobulated word? (Sorry) While it is an impressive word it sounds down right stupid in that particular sentence. So Neeeeeh. 
Some more things:
One. Eragon ate fish. A living thing. Apparently all pretense at the vegetarianism is off. My guess is that he only ate it so that Paolini could mention it was fished in underground lakes and isn't that awesome?
Two: The dwarves don't seem to have any commerce in the city. They have a public dinning hall, Eragon doesn't have to pay for the food. There are no mentions of markets or shops to buy wares. It's not really a city but more like a large commune. When Eragon walks around Tronjheim he only sees corridors and not homes or businesses. It's like a giant palace.
In Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series there is the People's Palace in the land of D'Hara. The palace is so big, it's like a city unto itself. And inside this palace there people selling and buying goods. There are people living there. When Richard first goes there he's amazed at the amount of people who work and sell there. While there are restricted areas,guards and Mord Sith running around, in some parts it seems like a giant mall. Tronjheim on the other hand is just dwarves walking from one place to the other, none of them on any seeming business or errands. They just wander around like roaches.
Well, no, even roaches have things to do and places to go.
Lemmings. Like from the lemmings game. That's what the dwarves wander around like. And Eragon too.
Sadly, they don't have the self destruct function.
Orik shows up with ten guards to talk to Eragon. The guards make sure that they can see everyone to protect Orik. Eragon casts some spells to prevent eavesdropping so they can talk.
Deliberations are being deliberations. IE, dull and boring. Orik says that Eragon needs to stop showing his frustration at the proceedings because it shows weakness. A dwarf shows up and gives Orik food. Does Eragon check it for poison?
Nope.
Wouldn't it be prudent to do so? After all Orik is up for being king and all, so he would just as likely, if not even more so to be poisoned. This is another point where we see that Eragon thinks only for himself and not others. For him, Orik is just one possibility. Their friendship doesn't mean much if Orik won't support the Varden. So it doesn't matter that he gets poisoned dead. There are other dwarves around. Maybe one of them would be more receptive to Eragon's desires.
Orik is a lot happier about the situation going on in regards to the clans. They did some things with taxes... WAIT OHMIGAWD ONE OF THE CLANS HAS TAXES THEY'RE IN LEAGUE WITH GALBY BECAUSE TAXES PEOPLE!!!! AND SO THEY ARE EVIL!!!!! ERAGON MUST GO OUT AND KILL THEM IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THEY KILL EVERYONE ELSE BECAUSE THEY TAX PEOPLE!!!!!!! CALL OUT THE TEABAGGERS WE MUST GO AND PROTEST THESE DWARVES FOR TAXING PEOPLE FOR TAXING IS BAD AND CLEARLY THEY ARE NIGERIANS PRETENDING TO BE REAL DWARVES AND WEREN'T ACTUALLY BORN IN A DWARF CLAN AND WE MUST GET THEIR BIRTH CERTIFICATES!!!!!!!
...oops. Too many exclamation marks. >.> I'm not crazy. Honest.
*whistles and wanders off *
Ah-hem.
They did political things and Eragon is Blah Blah Blah, but did anything important happen, like getting closer to choosing a new king?
A thought: the dwarves are clearly getting along fine without a king. They have their council and are deciding important clan things. They are getting things done. What exactly does a king add to this? What is it that the king will do for the dwarf clans? Or is it just that they have a king because every fantasy culture requires a king or a king analog? It'd be interesting if they didn't have a king and Orik had to convince the other clans to go and support the Varden. Nothing really would be changed so far in the "plot" as we move along. He's still looking for support and everything.
Just a thought.
Eragon continues to run about like a chicken with its head cut off screaming about how the sky is falling because Galby might attack any day now. And there's a mixed chicken metaphor if I've ever written one. Orik continues to be calm and thoughtful saying that he's going to try and get one dwarf clan leader over to his side that night, because he's wavering.
Impatient, Eragon wants to know if they could seize the throne by force. I think that would be staging a coup, but there's no one on the throne to seize.
I think becoming a dragon rider means you become blood thirsty. Look, Eragon is acting more and more like Galbitorax with each passing sentence. He wants it done , but instead of doing it lawfully, - a week or two at most, Orik says they have left- he wants to go ahead and attack people. People he wants to be his allies. If Orik were to seize the throne they wouldn't support him and instead they'd be caught in a civil war.
Another thought: It would be interesting if being bonded to a dragon actually made a rider blood thirsty. If they are so mentally connected it would make sense that one's perceptions would color the others right? Which is what Paolini purports they do. Dragons are hunters, they don't sit around and talk, the find their prey and attack it. They're violent creatures. What if dragon riders were vegetarians not because they feel all life is sacred (as opposed to every sperm) but to stave off the blood lust. As a conscious decision to say that they are still human. They are not their dragons and their dragons were not them. This would be a constant struggle for them and it could be suggested that Galby gave into the blood lust, that's why he went and attacked all the other riders. As for Eragon, as he doesn't have a mentor to help him with it he's constantly falling into it without realizing it.
Orik tells him that he's an idiot -not in such words - but that it wouldn't work and it's a bad idea. Eragon actually has the... well..
“Couldn’t you seize the throne by force? I know you don’t have that many troops in Tronjheim, but with my support, who could stand against you?”
Orik paused with his knife halfway between his plate and his mouth, then shook his head and resumed eating. Between mouthfuls, he said, “Such a ploy would prove disastrous.”
“Why?”
“Must I explain? Our entire race would turn against us, and instead of seizing control of our nation, I would inherit an empty title. If that came to pass, I would not bet a broken sword we would live to see out the year.”
“Ah.” 
Yes, Eragon has to ask why.
Continuing on, Orik says that one of their problems is that the dwarves are afraid/hate the dragon riders because of Galby and Murtagh. The two of them have managed to wipe out everything that the dragon riders have done for thousands of years. It shouldn't be dragon riders they fear/hate but just Galby and Murtagh , with the idea that they are besmirching the dragon rider's good name. However it has been mentioned before that dragon riders and dwarves never really got along (I think in Eragon), so that could be a more legitimate concern than just placing the blame on Galby and Murtagh cause they're Evil.
Category:Brisingr
Category:Inheritance Cycle