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QUOTE (Kryptikk @ Sep 23 2008, 04:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nasuada has always had quite a bit of power being the leader of the Varden and Eragon's liegelord, but never really "abused" that power.
In Brisingr, however, she kind of took it a little too far in my opinion. For example, even though she is Eragon's liegelord, she has never really relied on ordering him around, but rather would request things from him on the basis that they were the right things to do(which Eragon mostly agreed with in books 1 and 2). In Brisingr though, she orders him to seperate from Saphira to visit the dwarves, and generally makes more use of her command than on previous occasions. I was alright with her actions up to that point as I agreed that although it was questionable, her orders were probably the best way to go.
After that though, when it came to dealing with Roran's insubordination, I was very upset with Nasuada. Not only did she make the mistake of putting Roran under the command of an inept captain, she had to also have been the one to promote that captain in the first place. Then she sends this company of 250 out to fight against one of 700 (another mistake, no matter how shorthanded the Varden are) a battle that they should have by no means won. Then Roran saves her hide by ignoring orders that would have got their company killed, and instead leads them to an extremely improbable victory, slaying nearly 200 mean by himself.
Think of the situation Roran saved the Varden from. If he had followed orders, they would have most likely been killed. 250 soldiers, including a good magician (Carn) as well as a warrior of Roran's caliber dead. The company they fought would have suffered casualties, but still would have been able to go about wreaking havoc throughout Surda in the time it would've taken Nasuada to send yet another group of soldiers out to take care of them.
So how does Nasuada go about rewarding Roran for covering her multiple mistakes? She has him whipped fifty times in front of the entire Varden. I get that there were certain precedents that are normally followed in cases of insubordination, but you would think those could be overlooked in this type of case. Not to mention it had to be bad for the morale of the troops seeing Eragon's cousin whipped (and even worse for the morale of those in the company who had their lives saved by Roran and witnessed his epic battle).
In Brisingr, however, she kind of took it a little too far in my opinion. For example, even though she is Eragon's liegelord, she has never really relied on ordering him around, but rather would request things from him on the basis that they were the right things to do(which Eragon mostly agreed with in books 1 and 2). In Brisingr though, she orders him to seperate from Saphira to visit the dwarves, and generally makes more use of her command than on previous occasions. I was alright with her actions up to that point as I agreed that although it was questionable, her orders were probably the best way to go.
After that though, when it came to dealing with Roran's insubordination, I was very upset with Nasuada. Not only did she make the mistake of putting Roran under the command of an inept captain, she had to also have been the one to promote that captain in the first place. Then she sends this company of 250 out to fight against one of 700 (another mistake, no matter how shorthanded the Varden are) a battle that they should have by no means won. Then Roran saves her hide by ignoring orders that would have got their company killed, and instead leads them to an extremely improbable victory, slaying nearly 200 mean by himself.
Think of the situation Roran saved the Varden from. If he had followed orders, they would have most likely been killed. 250 soldiers, including a good magician (Carn) as well as a warrior of Roran's caliber dead. The company they fought would have suffered casualties, but still would have been able to go about wreaking havoc throughout Surda in the time it would've taken Nasuada to send yet another group of soldiers out to take care of them.
So how does Nasuada go about rewarding Roran for covering her multiple mistakes? She has him whipped fifty times in front of the entire Varden. I get that there were certain precedents that are normally followed in cases of insubordination, but you would think those could be overlooked in this type of case. Not to mention it had to be bad for the morale of the troops seeing Eragon's cousin whipped (and even worse for the morale of those in the company who had their lives saved by Roran and witnessed his epic battle).
ok think about this all strageticially and politically. when they sent rorans troop agianst the enemy they didn't say it was going to be 700 they said it would be an overmatched fight in favor of the enemy but the reports were false. but the captain thought they could take on the enemy.
with nasuada forcing the whipping of roran the reason is all about being able to trust her troops. if everyone finds out that just because he feels its the right thing to do you should do it. yes roran did the right thing but even then it was all from perspective, but when you get someone who doesn't have a good perspective well he could say that killing an innocent women that he THOUGHT was lieing but had no evidence would prove horrible. so she had to iron out that wrinkle. and roran completely understands that. that captain she belived to be a good captain after the attack though she realized her mistake and removed him from rank.
now with eragon this is completely not worthy of her attention. the dwarves are a vital assertation to the varden. and obviosully eragon could have not obeyed orders and ran away but he knew the orders were good. saphira realized that to. yes it was hard for them but they knew they had to give up and do it for the good of the varden.
if this doesn't help you then im sorry but im not going to be hard headed about this conversation
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