Q&As with Christopher: Problems and Solutions

By Mike Macauley April 10, 2010 Christopher Paolini, Shur'tugal 155 Comments

Having now gone through questions for the sixth Q&A with Christopher Paolini in preparation for the actual interview, our staff was presented a challenging dilemma: the amount of askable questions for this Q&A, as well as our previous one, has gone declined. We’re not sure if fans just haven’t been around to ask the right questions or if people are feeling as though they’ve started to run out of questions, however, what we were sure of is that this is a problem. We’re going to present our possible solutions to you after the break (as well as a preview of the questions we pulled from the group that we felt are good enough to ask) and we want your feedback on what you’d like to see us do to solve the problem!We’ve seen a decline in quality questions being submitted to the Q&As each time we call for them. Most people seem to be content with submitting questions we explicitly ask to not be submitted: questions on deaths, key plot points, etc – all which we are positive will not be answered. After we filter through those questions, we’re left with questions that have already been asked and answered, okay-but-not-really-Q&A-worthy questions, and then a few great questions.

Here’s what we dug up for Q&A 6:

  • KVSDheeraj -Who were the three fighters who could defeat Brom, he mentioned in Eragon when Eragon beat him while sparring near Dras Leona?
  • AryaxEragon-in Eldest Oromis said that Brom came from a family of illuminators. What is an illuminator?
  • Tulkas-Where does the energy that Wards Du Weldenvarden come from?
  • Many people ask- when Arya and Eragon were returning to the Varden after Eragon left Helgrind, a soldier said, ‘Unless we be searching for Murtagh. You heard what Morzan’s spawn said well as I did.’ What did Murtagh say?
  • Is Longshanks Jeod’s nickname or surname? Few people interested in this

Did you see any questions in the comments for Q&A 6 that were better than these questions? Let us know in the comments here.

Possible solutions for improving the quality of our Q&As:

  • Limit Q&As to once every two months. Collect questions and show them to the fans like we did in this post before asking Christopher. Offer one last call for better questions to be added before our interview with Christopher.
  • Continue with lower content Q&As. In our eyes, this is the worst of the two options.

Have any solutions of your own? Let us know in the comments below!

We’re going to be closely monitoring the feedback you guys leave in the comments before making any final decisions as to how we proceed with future Q&As. Any ideas, comments, suggestions, feedback, etc. that you have to offer is welcome in the comments!