With the recent news that Disney is adapting Christopher Paolini‘s Eragon book series, my initial reaction was excitement. Aside from Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Inheritance Saga (then just a trilogy) was among my favorite books in middle school. Its adaptation history is less stellar. A great cast (for the most part) and immense budget, however, was not enough and all we got as fans was that cursed Fox movie adaptation in 2006. Because Disney owns the rights and Paolini is more than excited for a proper redo, they’re taking a jab at it again.
Now that I’ve made it clear I’m a fan, I have to be honest and say that if the studio is going to pick this text over all the other great ones that have come before and since, it’s going to need a lot of work. Paolini started writing the first book in the series when he was fifteen, and it shows. I’ll defend it all day as a fun story and worth adapting (not necessarily more than others, but still). However, the critics are right to point out the heavy inspiration (heavier handed-words are out there) he took from predecessors like J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and Akira Toriyama. I’m leaning on it being unintentional, but there’s a lot there.
The unoriginality is core to the text, but Paolini, now two decades older, with a diverse team of fantasy and TV writers, could make an adaptation that expands upon and is maybe better than the original text. Age doesn’t make you wiser or even a better writer, but he’s spent more time developing the world in the last decade, and his science fiction novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was fairly well-received. The quickest way (albeit the trickiest) way to further develop the world is to elevate the importance of characters around Eragon and Saphira.
Casting & Point of View
I know I said deemphasize Eragon in the story, but we should talk about his casting. Considering the big family reveals plus Sloan’s hateration for Eragon’s family, it would make sense for Carvahall (the boonies of AlagaĂ«sia, considering how isolated it is and the population is under 500 people) to be a fairly mono-ethnic town, but for Eragon to played by someone Arab, white Latinx, or half white. Eragon is able to blend into the town, but he and others feel uneasy about the circumstances of Eragon’s birth there.
For Eragon to be from a rural valley town that finds peace only in the forest away from stares would enrich his experience when he leaves for the first time ever with Brom and Saphira. Also, it would make his obsession with Arya a little less weird (from an optics standpoint) if she were to be played by a person of color, which I am 100% advocating for. Regardless of if they keep Eragon white or not, more characters beyond two Varden leaders should be people of color. Because of pre-existing racial tropes within media, they would need to be racially conscience and not risk a “color blind” approach.
As far as bringing in characters and their stories earlier before they meet Eragon, if possible, Nasuada and Arya are my more obvious picks. I know Nasuada and Murtagh have more parallel stories as the books move along, but her life of duty and desire to prove herself pairs greatly with Eragon and their stories could be told almost simultaneously. Like I’m talking about episode two. Because the book stays really focused on so few characters, there are lots of scenes while under Brom’s care that Eragon is just kinda learning and thinking where we could be getting the perspective of Brom or Jeod. Additionally, Galbatorix must be introduced much sooner in the series, just not as goofily as it was done in the movie.
There are some characters that become much more important in Eldest that could be given more screen time in the first season, too. (I’m trying not to spoil anything.) As for fan favorites Angela and Solembum, I don’t want more of them because their aloofness and mysteriousness were just enough in the original text.
(featured image: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
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