#orrin larkinsson

[du-sailarar-nerilia]

I swear, the sheer amount of dumbassery in the Inheritance Cycle starts making much more sense when you consider that Eragon, Roran and Orrin are all descended from Palancar and presumably all share the last sane braincell that the ol' Mad King left them.

[gangseyboi]

Sometimes your circle of friends is a king, a leader of a revolutionary group, a dragon, the dragon rider who would really rather not have to deal with diplomacy, and an elf princess

[eastern-lights]

OMG a fellow Ra'zac enthusiast AND you also like Orrin? Let me hug you, I thought you didn't exist

Hugging you right back! Please, have a very tired and hastily drawn Orrin

[eastern-lights]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I would choose hanging out with Orrin over Roran any day.

The trouble with Orrin is that he's a man with an immensely strong moral code doing a job where that is a weakness. He's repeatedly painted as naive and incompetent from the POV of Roran and Nasuada because he, what, refuses to allow the men to rob innocent imperial farmers?

Everyone is nice to the people they care about

There’s an idea that, in terms of judging someone’s behaviour, it doesn’t really matter if they treat the people they love well because almost EVERYONE does that regardless. It’s more revealing how they treat people they don’t have any particular obligation or bond to, doubly so if they’re enemies.

And, well… This reflects poorly on the main cast and most supporting characters.

Everyone in the main cast I can think of, and much of the supporting cast, are pretty brutal towards people they aren’t friends or family with. I think they’d have been much more sympathetic if they had moments where they were genuinely magnanimous or merciful. The ones I can think of who avoid this most are (ironically, considering they’re medieval rulers) Nasuada, Orik and Orrin, who variously react with disgust and horror to some of the more unsavoury scenes in the series while at the same time being broadly honourable (since we don’t see any particularly brilliant politicking from Orrin or Orik, Nasuada IMO seems to be both more dishonest and the better politician of the three, with several scenes showing her making decisions for Orrin or trying to exclude him/setting Roran up for failure to hamstring a potential rival/create a martyr).

Thoughts?

[du-sailarar-nerilia]

The stag does not win by fighting the wolf. No, his victory lies in avoiding the wolf and keeping his herd safe. May the gods grant you victory, as they did me.

- King Larkin of Surda, in a letter addressed to Crown Prince Orrin, enclosed in the King's last will and testament

[du-sailarar-nerilia]

[du-sailarar-nerilia]

Several months after their enthronement, the Queen and King of the newly reunited Broddring Kingdom are starting to realise that perhaps their well-practiced public facade of a harmonious marriage need not be a mere facade...

[du-sailarar-nerilia]

I've been thinking about what Orrin's childhood must have been like. How do you even raise an heir, knowing your kingdom can be annihilated any day, and even if you live to die of natural causes, he will likely not?

I think King Larkin must have been preparing his son for the eventuality of dying in a hopeless fight against Galbatorix ever since Orrin was old enough to understand the concept.

Have you ever noticed how often Orrin mentions the god of death in the books? He's been brought up to expect horrible death any day, of course he invokes Angvard at every opportunity.

Imagine a nine year old prince, getting sat down by his father every evening and being always asked the same question:

"What do we say when the foul usurper tells us to kneel?"

And the boy dutifully replies:

"We commend our soul to Angvard and say 'sons of Marelda do not kneel before tyrants and cowards.'"

And then he becomes King at like 20 years old, knowing full well that now, there is no escape. He will either die along with his country, or be lucky enough to live long enough for the stress to kill him like it had his father.

That's why he seems such a ditz when we meet him in Eldest, it's not that he's trying to shirk his duties - conducting his experiments might be the only thing keeping him sane.

Whenever he says "none of you understand what I've been through", it's painted as him being petulant and childish, but he may be actually right.

Literally none of the main cast of characters seem to understand (or try to) where he's coming from.

Nasuada might come the closest, but ultimately, the Varden are a military force, one that can move, retreat and hide. Being responsible for them is not the same as with Orrin and his people, because Orrin can ultimately do nothing to protect Surda. He can just do his best and pray.

Orrin must have been through some severe trauma even before the events of the books is all I'm saying and I'm still sad that the implications of his life and duties are never explored.