40k impressions and 1.1k likes? F*** it. I'll do an analysis of...
Isaac Young@HariSel57511397
29 views
Feb 06, 2026
~2 min read
Advertisement
1
40k impressions and 1.1k likes? F*** it. I'll do an analysis of Eragon. One major caveat I want to get out of the way is that I'm aware of Paolini's extraordinarily young age when writing these books, and none of my critique is meant to reflect badly on the artist. /1
Isaac Young@HariSel57511397
I immensely respect Christopher Paolini for not fumbling in 2011. Fantasy Star Wars at least had an ending, which was better than George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss.
2
In fact, I would say assembling a fantasy series of this length and coherency is a downright achievement, regardless of anyone's gripes. Now that that's out of the way, the most interesting thing I find about the Eragon series is how derivative it is. /2
3
You can immediately see all the influences, and it's clear Paolini grew up a huge fan of a lot of fantasy classics. It's a work where an author has mastered all the basic fundamentals, but I'm always interested in what separates *tropes* from *originality* /3
4
Many deride Eragon as "Fantasy Star Wars" but really that's a whole genre of fiction. Authors used to be able to put derivative but enjoyable works. TradPub used to have real success stories. Nowadays, it seems our culture is paralyzed by tired tropes and nothing feels fresh. /4
5
If I can speculate an explanation, it's because each generation of artists are borrowing more and more superficial understandings of story concepts. Paolini had dragon riders, but he had little to say about dragon riders. He had elves and dwarves and magic, etc. etc... /5
6
But he didn't have a grasp of what those symbols/literary devices connected to or meant. And when did, nine times out of ten he defaulted to a vanilla interpretation. It's a very materialist story where all the superficial elements are organized neatly enough, but... /6
7
The reason fantasy has these mystical things is not for the sake of the dragons or the dwarves or the elves. The author is supposed to be using them as symbols which connect to higher truths. Elves in Tolkien's world was a view of unfallen man. /7
8
In Eragon's world, dragons are a fantasy trope. Elves are a fantasy trope. Dwarves are a fantasy trope. It has some of their original meanings, but it's mostly rejected in favor of their forms and not their essence. Enjoyable, yes. But you get everything on the first reading. /8
9
Originality is derived from language and symbols. You can't make an original story if the language itself is shallow. In many ways, Eragon was doomed to be only as good as it was because the language of fantasy is itself now a husk. /9
10
I don't know how you can fix this issue. I don't know how you can reinvigorate dead symbols. But this is the fundamental problem facing RW art. We've cycled way past Eragon and are now stuck in an ocean of tired garbage. You need to have something new to say about dragons. /end
