#and Eragon really said: THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

[ace-and-ranty]

The entire series we've been told, over and over, that Galbatorix is stronger than Eragon. It has been really, exhaustively stablished that Galbatorix's power is god-like at this point, and Eragon doesn't stand a spitting chance in hell of overpowering him.

We've also been told he doesn't need to. The key won't be to overpower him, but to outthink him. Eragon has to find something he didn't account for. He has to attack the one way Galbatorix didn't predict.

And it was just, empathy. The one thing Eragon had that Galbatorix didn't. The only way he's better and stronger. Eragon cares about the people who got hurt, and Galbatorix doesn't, so he never thinks to protect himself from their grief.

It was the power of fucking love.

[saphira-approves]

Don’t Compare My Boy To K*l* R*n: In This Essay I Will—

okAY I’m talking about it

So I can’t find the post right now, but a few days ago I saw a post on my dash comparing Murtagh of the Inheritance Cycle to Kylo Ren of Star Wars, citing parallels for their similarities.

Since we all know this blog is really just a poorly-disguised Murtagh stan blog, I decided I’d share my thoughts on this comparison. I’ll be discussing character backgrounds, character roles, character motives, and character actions.

Part One: Character Backgrounds

Murtagh and Kylo Ren are both descendants of the “previous generation.” Their mothers were both prominent rebels, their fathers were both considered handsome and rogueish, and both sets of parents eventually separated. But that’s about where the similarities end.

Kylo Ren’s—or rather, Ben Solo’s—parents loved each other and loved their son. They may have been flawed in the way they showed it, but then again, the only account we hear of Ben’s childhood (as I recall, anyway, and I’m not rewatching those movies just for a tumblr post) is Ben’s, after he’d been groomed and manipulated by Snoke for many, many years. Han Solo died believing he was helping his son; Leia Organa died saving her son; at the very least, they both loved him enough, even while he was serving the Dark Side, to give up their lives for him. 

Murtagh’s parents, on the other hand, were a mess. From Murtagh’s account of their relationship, Morzan didn’t care much about Selena except for her usefulness as a weapon; he was happy to manipulate her and her emotions, but I highly doubt he actually loved her. He certainly didn’t give a damn about Murtagh, throwing a sword at his own three-year-old son. Selena, meanwhile, although she obviously loved Morzan at first, loved Murtagh even more, and clearly recognized that Morzan didn’t care for her the way she had once cared for him—when she recognized an opportunity to work against him, she took it. 

Kylo Ren despised both of his parents, but that hatred seemed hollow, shallow—it had no real reason. They led busy lives, perhaps didn’t make enough time for him, but their actions revealed that they did, truly, love him despite his mistakes, and Kylo’s loathing reveals itself to truly be the manifestation of a spoiled child’s anger, magnified tenfold. Murtagh, conversely, had very good reasons for his complicated view of his parents: he loved his mother, but she was kept from him (and him from her), and she died—possibly in front of him, though he never says, and, unbeknownst to him until much later, having just hidden his brother in Carvahall. There was no love lost between him and Morzan, who was in the best case just an angry drunk, worst case—and more likely—an abusive father, and the only thing Murtagh ever expected to receive from him as inheritance was his sword (which is by itself another whole post in the making). 

Part Two: Character Roles

Both Murtagh and Kylo Ren played the role of foil to the protagonists of their stories. 

Murtagh and Eragon were very similar in many ways; I’ve mentioned before the many “subtle” hints Paolini gives to their true relationship (”a pair of matched blades” and “brothers in arms” come to mind off the top of my head). Their differences clearly highlight their different upbringings: Eragon thinks in the moment, with his heart and his compassion, while Murtagh thinks ahead, makes plans and contingencies—this difference is most clearly seen when Murtagh kills Torkenbrand and Eragon's strong moral code makes him protest, even though killing the slaver was, objectively, the best course of action they could take. Yet Murtagh is not only Eragon’s foil in action, but also his foil symbolically: they are both sons of Selena, which binds them, and yet the sons of opposing fathers, which others unwittingly use to pit them against each other (yes, this is also a whole other post in the making. like i said, poorly-disguised murtagh stan blog). Murtagh’s foilness to Eragon is deeply interwoven into their friendship and their parallels, showing up in many subtle and unsubtle moments throughout the series.

Kylo Ren’s foil status, on the other hand, is… complicated in a different way. For one thing, he’s not just a foil to Rey, he’s also a foil to Finn—in fact, I’d argue he’s more foil to Finn, and more just a complete opposite to Rey. He’s the experience to Rey’s raw talent, he shifts toward the Light while Rey shifts toward the Dark, but with Finn, their stories of pulling away from the Empire could have been fantastic foil stories. Wasted opportunity. And I’m so mad about it but this isn’t a star wars blog so—

Part Three: Character Motives

Of course, both Murtagh and Kylo Ren’s motives change over the course of their own stories, so we’ll be looking at what they are and how they change.

Kylo Ren starts his story in TFA as a ruthless, power-hungry fanboy who cherry-picked his history lessons and simply ignored the fact that his oh-so-esteemed Darth Grandvader was actually redeemed in the end because Luke refused to give up on whatever scrap of good was left in him and I hate hate hate hate hate Luke’s sequel characterization UGH and so Kylo is “emulating” a false image of what he thinks Vader was: the power, the presence, the mask and modulator aesthetic, the “I’m on the Dark Side because it’s fun, and I get to do whatever I want consequence-free.” Which… no! So, at first, what does Kylo want? Power! Sure, he’s serving Palpatine’s Smeagol puppet Snoke, but eventually he’s gonna be the most powerful person in the galaxy. …well, but then eventually starts getting a little boring, so in TLJ Kylo ups his timetable, tries to get Rey on his side after torturing her for information (OF HIS OWN VOLITION! BECAUSE HE’S A JERK! He did not CARE about even trying to convince her at first, he asked the few questions necessary to justify meeting her resistance with a Force mind-rape), and then when she doesn’t join him on the Dark Side he fights her, again and again and again until he nearly DIES, and then HIS MOTHER DIES TO SAVE HIS UNGRATEFUL ASS, so now Kylo’s priorities switch from “power” to… uh… what, again? Redemption? By… how? Sacrificing his life for Rey?

Oh, now he remembers how his Darth Grandvader history lesson ended.

he’s still a copycat though

Murtagh’s motives, conversely, actually make sense for his situation. When we meet him, he has in the last few months run away from Urû’baen and lost his mentor and father-figure. His two priorities: keep himself and his horse alive, and see what the deal is with the new Dragon Rider he’s heard so much about. He meets Eragon and Saphira by saving their lives from the Ra’zac, and he’s there when Brom dies, and Eragon loses his own mentor. Having just recently gone through that pain himself, Murtagh gets attached, and joins Eragon on his adventure/vengeance quest against the Ra’zac. Murtagh doesn’t reveal his parentage, but he and Eragon find that they have a lot of similarities and get very close, sparring and bantering and becoming “a set of matched blades” and “brothers-in-arms” and other such friendly roles that are not-so-subtle hints at their true relationship, and even when they fight—notably when Murtagh doesn’t want to go to the Varden, because they might kill him, which would be actively violating his first priority of staying alive—Murtagh still agrees to help Eragon because he’s a nice f*cking person okay. And then, through shenanigans, Murtagh ends up getting kidnapped, assumed dead by his few new friends, and then 

TORTURED AND MIND-RAPED FOR AT LEAST THREE OR FOUR MONTHS.

And Murtagh’s will never broke! Not until Galbatorix gave him a dragon egg, and that dragon egg hatched into Thorn, and Thorn bonded with Murtagh, and Galbatorix threatened Thorn.

Murtagh fought Galbatorix until Thorn’s well-being was put into danger. 

After that, Murtagh’s priorities are skewed; he’s forcibly sworn to Galbatorix’s will, which sucks, but he’s also given fantastic power, which is great; but he and Thorn still get tortured as punishment for messing up, which also sucks. And then Nasuada, someone Murtagh actually likes, is captured and brought to Urû’baen, and Murtagh tries to hide his face behind the silver mask when Galbatorix forces him to torture Nasuada (physically, because Galbatorix never forces Murtagh to attack Nasuada’s mind) because he doesn’t want to torture his friend. In fact, he does everything in his ability to help her. And in the end, he cares about her so much that he realizes hang on a minute, I would actually put SOMEONE ELSE’S health and well-being over my own, which means something in me has fundamentally changed, WHICH MEANS I CAN DEFY GALBATORIX, and so what does he do? He gets rid of Galbatorix’s wards and lets Eragon finish him off. He gives up the Eldunarí to Eragon and Saphira, which were a huge source of his power, because in the end, he’s not a power-hungry maniac, he’s a nice person that shitty things happened to.

(And if Murtagh is a nice person that shitty things happened to, then Kylo Ren is a shitty person that nice things happened to)

Part Four: Character Actions

If you don’t believe me, then perhaps we’ll let actions speak louder than words.

Kylo Ren: In his first appearance, he orders his troops to kill an entire settlement. From there, he tortures Poe for information, obsessively pursues the protagonists who have the key to Luke’s location, becomes obsessed with Rey, who seems Force-sensitive, attempts to torture Rey the same way he tortured Poe, kills his own father even as his father apologizes and tries to help him, chases Finn and Rey (again) into a snowstorm on a planet that’s imploding in on itself because of a lightsaber; and then he’s chasing the Resistance—including his own mother—across the galaxy, killing Snoke and calling himself Supreme Leader (yeah, totally something a secret good guy would do), cornering the Resistance on Crait with the threat of DEATH. STAR. TECH. (miniaturized, but like. what’s the miniature of a planet-killer???? half a planet killer??????), and then ALLYING HIMSELF with PALPATINE (the stupid crusty meatsack didn’t even have to groom this one, he got a new apprentice for FREE), while also PLANNING TO DOUBLECROSS… PALPATINE… and continuing to chase Rey across the galaxy, trying to get her to join the Dark Side, and he only stops when his mother gives up her life to save his. 

His mother… who, just recently, he THREATENED WITH DEATH STAR TECH. 

All this to say, his “redemption” arc is hollow and stupid. Dying while doing “good” is not redemption, it’s a cop-out. Vader was ruthless not because he took pleasure from killing, but because it was efficient; he was redeemed because he found out he had been lied to, manipulated, used, and abused. Kylo Ren was fully aware of his situation, an abuser himself who took pleasure in his power and in killing people; and he was not redeemed by a kumbayah force-life-transfer BS or for turning on Palpatine, WHICH HE WAS PLANNING TO DO ANYWAY. 

Murtagh: Helps Eragon, helps Eragon even when he could get captured or tortured or killed, helps Eragon even though he’s surrounded by people who would suffer no regret over killing him, helps Eragon even though he will get tortured for it later, helps Nasuada because he doesn’t want to torture his friend (let me repeat, he DOESN’T. WANT. to TORTURE. his FRIEND. And he even ends up sneaking into her cell, AT RISK OF PUNISHMENT WHICH WOULD INVOLVE TORTURE, to talk to her and heal at least some of her wounds, and give her a way to tell reality from illusion when Galbatorix does try to force his way into her head), helps Eragon kill Galbatorix in the final battle, helps a little girl he’s only just met and gives her an enchanted fork, because why not, and only waits to rejoin Eragon and Saphira because he recognizes his own need to heal, to take time for himself and Thorn, and later, if FWW is anything to go by, probably to redeem himself by helping people, and fighting whatever threat he’s hearing rumors about in the north. Murtagh doesn’t take pleasure in hurting people, and he goes out of his way to do good things, even at risk to himself, as much as he’d hate to admit it.

Murtagh is hardly perfect; on the one hand, I fully agree with his decision to kill Torkenbrand because what else were you gonna do with him, Eragon, but on the other, yes, he’s flawed. Notably, there’s the moment of him killing Hrothgar, which I’ve discussed, his anger issues, his potential alcohol issues, and his general tendency to put himself first (which… yes, but also, he really doesn’t). Best thing about this, though, his his enormous potential for change, because we’ve already seen him change! And it saved the whole war! One tiny thing, one small moment of self reflection and realization—he changed himself, without any outside influence except for finding someone to care about. 

TL;DR Don’t insult my boy Murtagh. Come back when Kylo Ren gets some actual character development.

[thebookwyrmsnook]

Fate: A Winx Saga

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting for this one. It’s a fine enough story with the Winx name slapped onto it. It’s somehow exactly what you expect, when you finally look past what you originally thought it would be.

More below~

If you grew up watching the fairy fable like I did, you know that Winx was a product of its time. Like many early 2000s shows aimed towards girls, it was all glitz/glamour, boy crazes, magic and overall girl power. It was by no means groundbreaking, but it stole a special place in my childhood’s heart.

So, when I heard through the grapevine that they were going to do a live action show, I was interested to see what they might do! Sure, it would no doubt lose some of it’s glittery charm, but the show had plenty of good characters and themes to latch onto, right?

Well, not quite. When the trailer dropped, the smile I had from the cool logo slid completely off of my face. What I saw was exactly what every other reboot/live action remake seems to do. It was darker, edgier, a very “not your parent’s show” type of thing. Immediately, I knew that Winx had somehow gotten the Archie/Riverdale treatment. 

So how was the actual show? In truth, not bad. Once you looked past the fact that they shamelessly slapped familiar names (both in it’s title and a few of it characters), the story is fine. It’s a fish-out-of-water-protagonist-who-finds-out-they’re-the-powerful-chosen-one story. It’s Harry Potter, it’s Star Wars, it’s Eragon and all those stories we have seen before. I honestly think that that is the show’s biggest strength, and it’s detrimental flaw.

We’ve seen this all before. We have the fish out of water chosen one, we have the snooty popular girl, we have the hot guy that the two previously named girls fight over, we have the cool hipster type that uses music as a personality, we have the sweet and innocent one who finally stands up for herself, and we have the “everyone has secrets” theme. This show is just a million common tropes for young adult media smushed together, but this one is fairy themed~

So what’s the storyline? Well, like the cartoon, Bloom is a fairy who was placed on earth and discovered by someone (in the cartoon it was Stella, establishing their friendship quickly) but in the live show, I don’t think they said who found her. She goes to Alfea to learn magic, and the adventure begins.

Alfea is a magic school set in the “Other World” which are now countries, instead of planets like they were in the cartoon. Also in the cartoon, fairies’ magic attacks were based on specific attributes (fire, sun, nature, technology, music etc);  however, all of the girls seemed to be able to do basic other spells/hexes. In Fate, however, it seemed like there were the three elements (water, fire and earth) with a few exceptions (one electricity fairy, a few mind (mind readers basically), Stella, and whatever the headmistress was). And that’s all they could do. Disappointingly, the show about magic, didn’t properly explain or explore the rules of magic.

But Alfea also houses the Specialists, a group of non-magical fighters who team with the fairies to fight the monsters and evils of the world. In the cartoon, that was a separate school for boys only, and where the main love interests for the main girls lived. In the live action show, however, the Specialists are open to both genders. Which makes sense, since the show writers had to condense their stories down (including cutting the witches out) into 8 hour long episodes. So if they weren’t world building, what were they doing?

They were delving into the social ecosystem of our main characters. All five of our leading ladies got their own arc, no matter how rushed that made everything feel. Aisha went from Bloom’s protector to a roadblock in her way. Terra (Flora’s little sister?) was the sweet girl who finally stood up for herself. Which I can appreciate, since it’s nice and an easy story to have going on in the background. Plus Terra easily had some of the best dialogue in the show. Musa (now a Mind fairy) had it the worst. She kept pushing people away, and we find out pretty quick that she’s an Empath that doesn’t know how to to tune out her magic, except when she’s listening to music. Which makes sense, and I was ready for that to be her entire thing, especially since that worked really well. But then, in the last episode they threw something else in completely, and ruined it all for me, personally. Stella’s had really good potential. Her mother, the apparent ultimate Queen, had high expectations, and taught Stella in a results-driven way; giving way to anxiety and lack of proper control for Stella. Which is a great story, but this show isn’t really her story, it’s Bloom’s. So, it got pushed to the side.

Bloom’s was the best timed, given that hers took the entirety of the episodes. Like Bloom in the original show, she was trying to solve where she came from, who she is, and just what her powers were. In Fate, Bloom is just a powerful fire fairy, which kind of killed a lot of the original Bloom’s story (given that there’s a reason she’s that powerful in the cartoon). Not to mention that the teachers kept trying to drill “magic comes from your emotions and positive feelings are better” into both our and Bloom’s mind. Which is immediately squashed by the fact that Bloom’s earth parents were kind of... abusive? Anyways, she wants to know where she comes from, but everyone is keeping it a secret. By the end, when she kind of figures it out, I was elated right there with her... that is until it was thrown in our face that the story she was just told was a lie (we know that, but she doesn’t).

That had to be the second biggest flaw to this show. The writers seemed to be hellbent on trying to pull the rug out from under the audience as many times as they could. We learn to trust nobody, not the headmistress, not the teachers, not her friends (except to change their minds every five minutes but we’ll get to that), there was no one we could trust. Meaning, that we never truly figure out the truth about anything, making the resolution feel hollow and unearned. They leave it open to say “I’m happy where I am but I’m going to keep looking for the truth” when we were hardly two steps away from where we had started.

The story could have progressed if her friends didn’t flip and flop so much. While the audience and Bloom are getting yanked around with promises of answers, her friends only see parts of the truth (cause Bloom keeps forgetting to invite her friends to the party) and so they are constantly flip flopping on whose “side” they are on. I honestly got emotional whiplash for that. I’m all about the “good intentions but misguided friends” trope, but that was not a good execution of that.

Overall, Fate is a fine story. It’s cliched and everything you have seen before in a young adult show/movie. It doesn’t world build fully, and it honestly feels like scenes are missing. It honestly left me feeling a little let down. But, some of the dialogue is snappy (namely from Terra), and some of the characters are great (namely Terra). But the original cartoon, despite it’s cheesy-ness, is the clear winner in my mind. 

[acourtofbooksandmemes]

Books read 2020: February

I’m so slow this year. Like it’s been TWO MONTHS and I’ve only read 3 books??

1. The Red Fox Clan (Ranger’s Apprentice: The Royal Ranger #2) - John Flanagan 🛡

Tied with Eragon this is my favourite childhood series and it was such a nostalgia to read it. This is the 13th book following the events after Will became a ranger, though this is kind of like season 2 following Will’s apprentice Maddie and I can't believe there’s only one book more. I like Maddie, even though I prefer Will’s story. It starts with a chapter from the POV of the antagonist here and GOD I disliked him so much “For thousands of years our kingdom was guided by the law who said that only a male descendant could inherit the throne. It was a good law. It was a fair law. It was a law that respected the Gods will. [..] Women are too weak to wage war against our enemies” (i translated direct from Swedish so it might not be a direct quote) he talked more bullshit and but first of all shut your quiznak you sexist jerk. Second of all, bye. I didn’t know who he actually was during the book but let’s say I had my suspicions. Maddie really has grown as a character. Also our friends from The Brotherhood Chronicles did an appearance and now I really want to start that series too. And let’s be honest, without the ranger horses these books wouldn’t be as good. Reliving Halt and Will’s friendship was the most amazing thing (would really like if we get to see more of theirs POVs in the next book) also Gilan’s wonderful personality.

2. The Bronze Key (Magisterium #3) - Holly Black, Cassandra Clare 🔑

I don’t tend to like to read books in my own language, but I still loved this one a lot! “Captain Fishface” had me laughing for ages, (Kapten Vågskum in my Swedish book, that’s somehow even funnier, I think it’s Whitecap in English). Anyway, I wasn’t disappointed. I really love the idea of this world and if I had to choose elemental powers is what I’d wanted. I love all these characters; Aaron is such a selfless and caring soul I just want to protect him from all evil. Having a chaos-ridden wolf like Call does isn’t something I’m against. And I really like how we are diving more into the core of magic and history. That ending though.. WHAT HAPPENED AND HOW CAN THAT NOT SPIRAL INTO CHAOS YAH I’M NOT OKAY