Christopher Paolini threw quite the curve-ball our way during interviews, panels, and chats at Comic-Con. Those of you who have already listened to part one of our Comic-Con Interview with Christopher Paolini will know that a very interesting fact from Book 4 was shared during the interview: Christopher left off writing Book 4 to head for Comic-Con at a point where Eragon was hanging bloodied from manacles and killed a character. However, the instance in which this was brought up during the interview was brief and incomplete. Many people have asked us how we knew this and what it means… so we’d like to share that with you! Keep reading! This news post is a re-post of our former article, re-posted due to viewing errors.
Let’s jump right in!
The Actual Facts
The direct quote from our interview with Christopher went as follows:
Mike Macauley: Well, you left Eragon hanging bloodied off of hooks—
Christopher Paolini: Manacles, not hooks!
This comment stemmed from Christopher’s note that he had very recently killed a character in the Book 4 manuscript. The above comment was a direct result of Christopher’s revelation that he killed the unknown character.
Many fans have pointed out that my comment: “Well, you left Eragon hanging …” seems to indicate that I had prior knowledge of this due to the fact that it was not mentioned previously in the interview. This would be correct. At the time of this interview, we had gotten together to record a series of interviews: two for Suvudu (neither of which has been released) and “three” (one broken into three parts) for Shur’tugal. Christopher had revealed Eragon’s interesting predicament in his interview with Suvudu, which took place directly before ours. Christopher had also mentioned the fact at his panel at Comic-Con and in conversation after that.
Christopher offered two points of knowledge connected with this fact:
- Eragon is hanging in captivity, bloodied and confined by manacles
- The dungeon Eragon is in is not Galbatorix’s dungeon
Fun with Theories and Connecting the Dots
Lets have a bit of fun and connect the dots between this revelation and two others that Christopher made during Comic-Con: the recent death of a character (reference) and the fact that Christopher is “nearing completion” of Book 4 (reference).
- Unknown character is killed
- Eragon is captured (presumably) and tortured
- Christopher Paolini just wrote both of these events
- Around the same time as stating that he wrote these events, he also noted that the manuscript is nearing completion
From this, we can assume:
- The character’s death and Eragon’s capture were written near each other or as part of the same event.
- Could the death be related to Eragon’s capture?
- Could the death be a result of a rescue attempt or escape attempt?
- With Christopher stating that he recently wrote these parts of the manuscript and is nearing completion, we may assume that these events take place near the end of Book 4
- The key events in the Cycle (Galbatorix’s death or Eragon’s death) would happen at the end of Book 4
This information and the way it could connect makes for some really interesting theories and opens some major questions. Who captured Eragon? Who died? Who killed the character that died? If Galbatorix didn’t capture Eragon, who did? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Remember, the only confirmed facts in this article are direct quotes from Christopher stating that he killed a character, Eragon’s predicament, and that he is nearing completion of Book 4. The rest of this article is pure speculation!
**It was also speculated that because of my website and my upcoming book, I’ve had access to the Book 4 manuscript. Let me be the first to say that I, like all of you, am a devout fan of the Inheritance cycle and would love to get my hands on a very early copy of Book 4. Sadly this is not the case. I’ll read it for the first time when all of you do: the midnight release!
