Absolute Power and Corruption in the Inheritance Series

The Inheritance Series, by Christopher Paolini, contains an excellent example of how a person or character changes over time due to their capabilities. More specifically, it has many examples of how characters change due to a sudden position of power or gaining uncanny abilities. As these characters progress through their journey, they either learn to handle their power with good intent or they let it corrupt them. Unfortunately, oftentimes these characters are corrupted in one way or another and their goals and perspectives change as a result. For these reasons, the Inheritance series is an excellent example of why no one should ever have complete power.

At first, Eragon is a normal boy who lives with his cousin and his uncle, but he does not realize that sooner or later his regular life will be taken from him. After finding an odd stone in the forest, Eragon receives abilities that make him incredibly powerful. Throughout the rest of the book, Eragon never again acts as he was before. As Eragon progresses through his journey and figures out what the stone truly was and fully understands what he could be capable of, he becomes overconfident in himself. Because of the power that he holds, when his overconfidence ends poorly, people suffer greatly. One good example of when this happens is when Eragon believes he is blessing a newborn baby, but makes a mistake and instead curses them. Because of this, the baby suffers, aging very quickly and being forced to protect others from harm. As Eragon’s story continues, he begins to realize the mistakes that he is making, although the power that he holds still causes problems for him and others. 

While Eragon, the main protagonist of the story, attempts to use his powers for good and still ends up hurting others, the main antagonist ends up fully corrupted by his powers. Due to this, the amount of people who suffer from his corruption is extremely high. Galbatorix, the antagonist, has the same supernatural powers that Eragon does, but is infinitely more dangerous due to his political influence. Since Galbatorix is the king of Alagaesia, very few people can stand up to his corruption.

Supernatural powers such as those that exist in the Inheritance series do not exist in real life, although these powers can be analogized in our lives with political positions in governments around the world. In the United States, political positions are meant to be representatives of the people, and are designed with checks and balances to prevent any one person or group of people from gaining too much power. Unfortunately, in areas of the world less fortunate than us, the governments are not focused on working for the people, but on controlling them. This almost always ends up with people being mistreated and denied basic human rights. Not many people realize it, but it is a privilege we have that the country we live in has a stable government—and it is up to us, the people, to keep it that way.

Another interesting aspect of characters in the Inheritance series is the perspective of who is considered good and who is evil. Eragon is considered the main protagonist of the story and Galbatorix the antagonist, but why is this? Both characters have ended up hurting people, but the main difference is intention. Galbatorix only uses his power to oppress and control people, while Eragon uses his to attempt to defeat those who harm others. This point shows that it is the responsibility of those who have the opportunity to help others to do so. 

Some people might wonder why we need to be concerned with someone gaining too much power if there are already so many systems in place to prevent it. The Inheritance series yet again can give an explanation of why this is important. In the series, before Galbatorix was in power, there was a group referred to as the Dragon Riders whose goal was to keep the peace and prevent corruption. As time went on and no one attempted to overthrow them, they became overconfident and doubted that anyone could become corrupt with them in power. Although Galbatorix’s corruption and will to gain power was so strong that he was able to overpower them. This shows that no matter how many safeguards are currently in place to protect freedom, as long as someone else’s will to gain power is stronger than yours, then everything is in jeopardy. Overall, the themes and ideas portrayed in the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini show that it is important to protect freedom by preventing any one person getting too much power.