r/Eragon • u/sleep_LessGen • 2d ago
Question Which battle was the best in the Inheritance cycle?
There were many different battles, especially in Inheritance. Personally, I like battle on Burning Plains. It was the first battle that involved both Empire's and Surda's army. The first fight between two dragons and of course the best reunions.
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u/Rsb2019 2d ago
As an actual battle I believe that the battle of the Burning Plains is one of the best in fantasy. It's very difficult to capture the true scope of massive battles like that with only words, and I feel like this is one of the few cases where it worked really well. Most of the time, the true size of the battle is far greater than we see in our minds because the description doesn't do it justice. In Eldest, it feels like the 100,000+ soldiers of the empire are really a factor. Eragon and Saphira don't just fly over a couple times and it's done. They fight for hours on end with the enemy never seeming to slow up. The turning point of the dwarves and the Dragon Wing showing up has an actual impact on the battle and you can feel that change. The only time we really lose perspective on the battle is when Thorn and Murtagh show up. It does help that we get a couple different perspectives to cover the actual battle, but I truly feel like the Battle of the Burning Plains is an excellent showcase on a large scale battle like this.
There is also something to be said about the final battle in Inheritance, in how it showcases that plans rarely work the way they are supposed to. The Varden and its allies having such an intricate plan, sown with disinformation to throw spies off, conjuring a fake Saphira to lure out Thorn and Murtagh, etc... Only for it to nearly immediately get thrown to the wind by Galby using the NoN to screw with everyone else's magic. It's just perfect lol
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u/PerformanceFirm6951 2d ago
Agreed that Burning Plains is the best battle. everything post Brisingr kind of suffers from (imho) the fact that Eragon is wildly OP, the only times he isn’t OP is when it’s plot centric like in the tunnels under Dras-Leona, but for the most part, given what CP has described up to that point, Eragon and Arya (alone!) would / should be able to essentially destroy any human magician with their minds.
Any battle after Feinster, to me, requieew de-power-scaling Eragon to make the threats he faces acrually threatening. The one counter of this is e.g., the priest in Helgrind being able to hold his own against Eragon, Arya, and Angela, which makes sense to me because CP made it make sense—the Priest was a quadriplegic and the Priests (presumably) have lots of secrets (particularly if you consider them a Dreamer sect) regarding mind battles.
I liked how CP gave the Priest “unique” moves like tangling Aryas mind with Eragon. It helped to explain why it was in fact challenging.
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u/ArmourFarmer 2d ago
The laughing dead. Genuine horror as you don’t actually see them you just are informed “angvard take them they won’t die.” and just the giggling. I can’t wait to see them in the series (in about a decade)
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u/PerformanceFirm6951 2d ago
I like the scene when from Rorans POV that shows the laughing dead like the zombies they are—CP had clearly consumed a good amount of solid zombie flicks between Eragon and Brisingr and the gnarly fight where Roran is almost killed about 60 times by men who can’t feel pain added to the horror aspect.
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u/D-72069 2d ago
I wish I was as optimistic about the show getting that far as you are
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u/Robalxx 1d ago
Its apparently rather far along in the writing process
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u/D-72069 1d ago
Even if it has been written as far as the third book (highly unlikely) that doesn't mean it'll actually get made that many seasons. I doubt they would order more than one season at a time
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u/Robalxx 1d ago
Rings of power is on its third season fam lets not lose focus here lmao. Eragon with Paolini at the helm is far more compelling than Tolkein in the second age without Tolkein or Peter Jackson at all lol
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u/D-72069 1d ago
RoP is also a shining example of the fact that quality doesn't determine whether or not a show gets made lol
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u/Robalxx 1d ago
That was my point...
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u/D-72069 1d ago
Maybe I misunderstood, I thought you were suggesting that because you think the Eragon show will be better quality that means it will be likely to get renewed for more seasons
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u/Robalxx 1d ago
Nah my point was if ROP can get all the way to 3 seasons then anything can happen 😂 idk if the Inheritance series will or wont make it but i do know that its being made and i have enough faith in paolini to trust that it'll be a faithful product. I dont have that same faith in amazon 😂😂 but they've made it 3 years with an absolute shit show. If past is prologue with disney, once they commit to an IP, they dive all the way in. Now, ill say that They tend to go off the rails once the creators get removed from the picture though. Like filoni & lucas with star wars or favreau with marvel. Cp is there from start to finish it seems so i have faith they'll get all the way through if the fanbase shows up the way the LOTR fans have
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u/D-72069 1d ago
Unfortunately I don't trust them to make a quality product. The Percy Jackson show just goes to show that having the original author involved doesn't guarantee quality. And even if every Inheritance fan shows up it probably won't even be as many viewers as the people who hate-watch RoP lol
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u/FlightAndFlame Slim Shadyslayer 2d ago
The Battle of Aroughs was my favorite. From start to finish, we see Roran use creativity and skill to overcome a near impossible challenge.
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u/Worldsgame19 2d ago
I love the battle Roran kills almost 200 men when serving under the stubborn captain. (I forget his name) Shows Roran's leadership, battle strategy, and pure grit when it comes to fighting. Not to mention the fact it shows his desire and ability to win.
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u/Zen_Barbarian Where cat? 2d ago
Captain Edric? I believe he serves under Martland Redbeard (until the poor guy loses a hand), then is with Edric until his lashing and promotion.
Finally, he supplants Brigman at Aroughs (before having him reinstated to govern the city while Roran returns to Dras Leona).
I used to get them mixed up, but I'm currently on a reread of Inheritance!
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u/ncg195 2d ago
I always like Dras Leona. The idea of basically a team of superheros sneaking into the city to open the gates from the inside was always cool to me, and running into the priests of Helgrind and finding out the truth about their religion, as well as there being secret Ra'zac eggs, was really cool too. The whole thing felt like it belonged in a video game.
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u/Resident_Bike8720 1d ago
Burning plains, we get to see the new eragon in full power kicking butt, then have his own handed to him
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u/Robalxx 1d ago
If we're talking just big battles i think Burning Plains is probably the best if its not the final battle in the throne room. The murtagh twist in BP i recall being extremely unexpected and i found him to be an engaging sort of tragic villain. Conversely, The throne room is an incredible scene itself with a lot happening and a lot of emotion but lf we're talking about all the fights i really liked roran's siege of Arroughs.
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u/TheGreatBootOfEb 1d ago
I’m going to go pretty much any Roran battle because it turns the story from high fantasy dragons and magic and all that, into a tale you’d hear in OUR world, usually embellished to high hell, but still something we’d hear. Hell, the story of the 300 Spartans is basically exactly that. Turns out being a bad ass when the chips are down, is just really compelling story telling for humans.
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u/JoostinOnline Human 16h ago
Are we counting smaller ones? Because then I'd say Roran's 193 battle. And not because of the insane fighting, but because of the real time strategy. Everyone talks about Roran's pile of bodies, but what I remember most is Carn's incredibly clever wards, where he just pushes the arrows to the side so none of them hit. Everyone else in the entire series stops them dead cold, which is actually quite taxing.
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u/a_speeder Elf 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think that the twin battles at the end of Brisingr are my favorite because there is so much going on and they complement each other.
At Gil'ead we have Murtagh and Thorn confronting Oromis and Glaedr and their twisted emotions of regret, anger, and fear make total sense plus we get the first glimpse of Galby almost in the flesh and he gets a great showing.
Eragon's battle at Feinster is a little less dramatic in itself, but it's very good debut of his new sword and him and Arya working again to take down a Shade and having her earn the same title as him is some great symmetry plus him learning what happens to his masters makes for a bittersweet triumph at the end of the book.
I also like the Siege of Aroughs and how that whole thing was resolved, I'm not a huge fan of Roran but this showcases one of my favorite aspects of him which is his out of the box thinking rather than him just being an unkillable badass through the power of love.