Something something professional artist jargon something something insert art knowledge here—whatever I want to talk about the book covers
So you’ve got Eragon, with a 3/4 portrait of Saphira; she’s giving a benevolent side eye with almost a Mona Lisa smile, she’s got that gleam in her eye, she’s looking at you but not head on—listen, this was the whole reason I picked up the book in the first place when I was eleven, she was so clearly full of life and personality and I just really wanted to meet her. It’s a really good glimpse of her character before even opening the book. She’s engaging you, but also maybe judging you a little bit, and she has a lot of thoughts but she’s going to keep them to herself for right now, thank you.
We’re skipping Eldest for right now because I have a point to make. Shush.
For Brisingr, we get a perfect side portrait of Glaedr, the grumpy old man. He’s not even side-eyeing the viewer like Saphira does; he is eyes forward, goal-oriented, noble and regal and, unless you’re worth his time, not really going to bother with you because he has Important Business to attend to. He is The Last of the pre-Fall dragons, his Rider is The Last of the pre-Fall Riders, he represents a bygone era that will never fully be resurrected, but can still inspire the present to fight for the future; he is no longer fully his own dragon, but a Relic, a Memory, a Symbol. He’s not anxious about it the way Eragon or Saphira might be; he has grieved for a century, he couldn’t be anxious about it if he tried. But he knows that keeping his integrity intact is important, and so this is how he presents himself: Noble. Regal. The Survivor. The Last.
Fírnen graces the cover of Inheritance, bookending the original series by almost perfectly mirroring Saphira—and seriously, it is so satisfying to line the books up with these two at the ends. Though he’s got a 3/4 profile like Saphira, Fírnen is much more reserved. No Mona Lisa smile, no mischievous gleam in his eye; he simply looks at you, and you look back, and you wonder what he’s thinking. He is, in fact, a lot like Arya—anyone who’s read the previous three books up to that point and hasn’t been spoiled for the ending might be able to guess, just from this portrait, who the final egg would hatch for. It’s also a perfect expression for the Final Book, with the fate of Alagaësia and the dragons hanging in the balance: what world does this mysterious dragon emerge into? A war-torn apocalypse? A hard-won victory? What does his future entail, and thus, what do the futures of our favorite characters entail? You ask him so many questions, but all he will ever do is stare deep into your soul with his somber, too-knowing gaze.
And now for the main event:
My beautiful precious son, the red-scaled Thorn, staring you down from the covers of both Eldest and Murtagh. I have loved the cover of the second book ever since I first picked it up, and my appreciation has only grown with time; needless to say I was very excited when the Murtagh cover dropped, and I got to see both of my favorite characters in one place. For both of these, Thorn takes the same stance: a full-frontal combative position, looking You, The Viewer directly in the eye, daring you to judge him, daring you to get in his way. I’ve always had my own opinions about what lay behind this show of force, and the context we get in Murtagh does not disappoint. He may be terrifying, he may be the scourge of the war, but underneath all that, Thorn is terrified. He’s traumatized, he’s claustrophobic, his body is too big for his age; he is painfully young still, and yet treated like a dragon ten times his age because that’s how he looks. He’s also sweet, and playful, and cares so much about his Rider, and wants desperately to keep Murtagh safe and happy. Just like Murtagh, he hides all of that—the fear and the softness both—behind a visage of ferocity, playing into the fears and preconceived notions people have of him, warning enemies away so they can’t get too close to what will actually hurt him. He dares you to try. He’s terrified you will try. He will fight tooth and nail if you do try.
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Sometimes it really does get me. The very last living villager of Kul Elna was murdered in the same place as his predecessors by the son of the king who reigned over the massacre. Children repeating and re-enacting, in small-scale, the violence of their parents and the state that raised them.
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I have to say I am hooked on your anti-peggy metas and with every single one, I just say out loud "You're absolutely correct and you should say it!"
Everything that I've read so far is exactly what I've been having trouble articulating for years, and I'm so glad to find another great blog that shares the exact same sentiments.
Oh wow Anon, this is a lovely message to get!
I know just how you feel, too! Nothing better than going from wondering if you're mad for seeing this obvious thing nobody else can (like you've taken crazy pills), only to discover there are a bunch of other people who feel the same way.
Thank you for telling me. 🥰
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i keep thinking about how olive green's whole murder plan is also a kind of test.
because she didn't know her fiance was murdered. she didn't really consider the possibility of murder until she heard soseki talking about his gas leak. perhaps she suspected something beforehand- "i'm going to buy strychnine" is a pretty big jump to make from "my fiance died in an accident"- but if she hadn't overheard soseki, she probably would have accepted the explanation that duncan's death was an accident, and left it at that.
she wasn't sure. she was setting up a plan to murder a man and she still wasn't sure if duncan's death was an accident or not.
like, she sends the letter to william shamspeare, but the letter specifically says, "i have information regarding duncan ross's death." if shamspeare hadn't been involved, he might not have heeded the letter- he might have brought it to the police, or the landlord, or just ignored it. he might not have left his apartment at all.
he does, though. and when she goes to briar road, his flat is empty. but that's not confirmation- maybe he was scared he'd be hurt if he didn't follow the instructions, or maybe he didn't know what else to do. she doesn't know for sure.
so she executes a murder plan that will only kill him if she's right.
she wanted the truth. but she wanted revenge, too, for her and for duncan, and the two are inextricably linked- the crime committed against her, and the crime she committed in order to know what had happened. she set it up so that her revenge would give her the truth- if shamspeare died, then she knew she was right.
but then she fails. she loses both: shamspeare survives, and she now knows the truth but she's made it unusable. she can't come forward with the knowledge that her fiance was killed, because the only way she can prove she knows that is to admit to her own attempted murder- and who will believe her then?
(and she and duncan are poor. she's not wealthy enough for the police to care- what are the chances that they would have discovered her murder, thrown her in prison, and stopped there? her murder was a lot more clear-cut than shamspeare's, so it's likely that her crime would be discovered first, and no one is going to bother investigating the claims of a poor woman already arrested for murder.)
we've seen people commit murder in the name of vengeance before. ashley graydon does it in 1-5, and we'll see it again with enoch drebber in 2-3. but i think olive green is the first person we see to tie truth and vengeance together- to make "getting revenge for the loss of a loved one" and "finding the truth behind the loss of her loved one" one and the same. and it backfires on her, in the end- but it was the only way she could see forward, to actually find closure for what she'd lost.
(hey, kazuma. remind you of anyone?)
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when you mentioned that talon takes up sex in the comic w/o elaborating much i immediately understood it was an instant gratification/desire for a quick touch without getting involved in the "mess" of love bc i did a similar thing with my oc and its genuinely SO cool to see someone else do it and mention specifically because its out of a deep seeded fear of getting too attached but still wanting some sort of touch bc they literally like. cant live without it for too long. i love it im chewing on talon
YEAS....im considering rewriting/reuploading that whole panel because in my need to not be a weirdo and unnecessarily go into depth on a characters abuse, i ended up being rly vague in the parts where I couldve explained more, but Im glad someone understood even before my clarification ^_^
(harder with talon as no matter how much he tells himself he'll never risk losing anybody again, he's very quick to get attached. Desperate for a home, a family, to curl up around something warm and kind)
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