Archetype Does Not Mean Plagiarism, Chris

Yes, I realize that I've touched on this topic before, but it was rather light (I feel), and with the slew of advertisements for both the Eragon movie and video game, I feel it is my civic duty to take up the keyboard once more and launch a bloody assault on the Monster of Montana.

NB: I'm going to try and keep this as civil as possible, but if snide cracks at MM's being homeschooled, his rural, supposedly bucolic location(hick...cough...cough), please forgive me. On the other hand, his writing will be duly and effectively eviscerated. Oh, and something about the Soul Eater (oops, I mean PS3) might sneak in there too.

So, I've already hit on the fact that Eragon is the twisted bastard child of a threesome between StarWars, LoTR, and the MM. Granted, Eledest was a (slight) departure from the starwars theme...but only slightly. We have a recreation of training with Yoda (the only major difference being the presence of the Leia/Arwen hybrid and a strange instance of hot, steamy dragon love turned foul [not to imply that it was not foul to begin with, but you get my point] that was entirely not necesary). Murtagh being possessed or whatever the hell happened to him was slightly interesting, but too little to reverse the flaws in the rest of the story (especially given that his very name was lifted from a Raymond Feist story). Now, I will grant that since he set out to write an "archetypal hero story", there are certain conventions, especially in the realm of fantasy, that can be expected--major character development, outrageously disproportionate odds, some period of training/learning, and usually a love interest to satisfy all of those horny nerds. However, it is not necesary that the main character be a hick (OK, so he's like you, I don't care) on the edge of an all-powerful Empire (could you at least change the name? c'mon!) that has taken over after the fall of a great order of universal knights...Need I go further? I certainly can. Eragon--Aragorn; Arya--Arwen...This is fucking weak. The dwarves' land was kinda interesting, but only slightly, and still locked well within the confines of the expectations of fantasy readers.

Now, granted, I can understand tributes to this piece of writing or whatever, but the bottom line is that Chris did a bad job of concealing the little (and not so little) tidbits that he lifted. Of course, the greatest problem with his stories is that their plot is far to reminiscent of StarWars for my liking.

Perhaps the greatest flaw of the writing, though, is that it fails to escape the conventions established over all of these years since LoTR was written, and which have ossified to such an extent that would-be writers who are well-versed (if not downright drowning) in fantasy are entirely incapable of breaking free of these standards and expectations. It certainly seems to be a problem as the great masoleum of fantasy continues to grow. If only Final Fantasy were more accessible to people outside of the gaming community...I cannot doubt that it would help to shake things up, at least a little. Blending fantasy and scifi is certainly dangerous, but its better than taking the safe route and staying firmly within one realm or the other. So, I blaze forward into the dark with few companions, with no idea whether or not this latest iteration of HiTN/LiZ will actually work. Ah well, it's a hell of a lot more fun than writing pure fantasy, that's for sure.

In other news, the PS3 was released recently, and Resistence, though it looks quite entertaining, seems somewhat disappoiting insofar as there is little story to it. Frustrating, given all of the promise that it showed. I was hoping that we were actually, finally, going to get an intelligent shooter...but alas, it seems that we'll have to keep waiting. There's still Final Fantasy and Metal Gear (oh, did I say we still need a smart shooter? my bad). Despite PA's insistence that buying games that begin with Final and Metal is a bad basis for getting a PS3, as far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty good reason, and Resistence still looks fun. Besides, there's that whole free online play, as well. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, micropayments are not going to be a PS3 exlusive, NEVER NEVER NEVER--they will crop up on the 360 before long as well. The Wii looks like it might remain pure, and I don't think that this will become a widespread problem, either, not on this generation of platforms. But that's why I want the PS3 to be milked for all it's worth, it might just be the last console I buy (excluding handhelds, of course).

I don't really want to talk about MM any more, but I guess that I should just get it out of my system so that I don't have to rant about it again. His writing is basic, simplistic, and generally unamazing. Not that that is a problem, but it's certainly not a merit of the pieces. Beyond that, he comes off as being stuffy, academic, and generally a head-up-his-ass-and-doesn't-realize-it prick. Eh, whadya expect out of some homeschooled brat who's never gotten the shit beat out of him for being a fat-headed bitch.

Alright, there's the condensed version of my gripes about the MM and his twisted children. I could go on and on, but I played FFX for close to 4 hours (yes, it's growing on me) this morning, hockey is going to start soon, and I'm just generally tired.