Disclaimer This website is (obviously) not run by Christopher Paolini, nor does it have any direct contact with him, his agencies, or anyone associated with them. It is not the intention of this website or its webmaster to defame, destroy, or otherwise alienate him or his work. The webmaster does not condone violence, book burning, or the chasing of Christopher Paolini with torches and random pointy objects. The webmaster is not liable for all information on this site, and not all opinions voiced are necessarily those of the webmaster; the website is not liable for any sudden realizations, and does not claim to provide help or counseling. The intention of AE is to educate, inform, and present an opinion without degrading anyone's private life (please see "Personal Note" below); civility must be ever-present in addressing fellow visitors, especially when on the tagboard -- anyone who encroaches on this rule will be banned from the board, and if any type of abuse persists, it will be removed all together.
Personal Note I, Anna Telcontar (webmaster), will be the first to admit that I can get heated when discussing Inheritance. It isn't something which I intend, and I always try to remain civil. However, occasionally, I will get carried away in my own contributions to this site. If a visitor has a particular issue with any wording of an essay, or if they feel that I am attacking Christopher Paolini personally, I would appreciate it if they would email me
(simpleideals@gmail.com) privately; If I agree (and, in the calm after finishing a particularly heated piece, I almost always will), the line will be changed or removed. I am grateful for all cooperation.
Credits Many thanks go to everyone that has contributed, whether or not they know it, and to the fine staff over at anti-shurtugal.com, because, although they didn't know it, finding another Anti-Eragon site gave me the courage to return to working on my own, and without knowing there were people out there who agreed with me, I doubt I would have had the will to finish. Also kudos to Photobucket
and Imageshack
for hosting the graphics, to Alassë at wings-immortal.net
for hosting the site now, as well as Freewebs
for hosting it in the past, to Bravenet
for providing random nice things, and to both Htmlgoodies
and Dynamicdrive
for tutorials in html which have helped me for nearly two years.
Past Layouts: Had I been more forward thinking, I would’ve screencapped them.
Where did the name come from? Arya's Eyebrows. Odd, yes? Chosen because it is not only easy to say, but easy to abbreviate. Primarily, however, AE was named because I realized after reading Eragon that the main character had not gone through any development after hundreds of pages, but that I knew very much what his crush's eyebrows looked like. And because when I was reading the long Arya description paragraph, I literally broke down laughing at the line "He soaked a rag, then squeezed the cloth so water dripped between the elf's sculpted lips. He did that several times and dabbed above her straight, angled eyebrows, feeling oddly protective." (Eragon, page 327). Paolini ends up describing Arya's eyebrows several times, but spends hardly a paragraph describing the physical appearance of his title character. Fansites often name themselves after a prominent character or people ("Arwen-Undomiel, MuggleNet, Queen Lucy, etc), so I took it a step further in parody.
Why are Antis so mean? First off, we aren't. Anti-Eragons (or Anti-Riders), as we are sometimes called, do not intend to hurt anyone. We do not intend to destroy Christopher Paolini's book sales (not that it would matter much, at this point). After being repeatedly told to "shove off" (censored) and to "go find something else to do" (definitely censored), we are tired of it. This website along with a few others (see the links
page) gives a place for “anti-fans” to vent, and a place for neutral or “anti-leaning” guests to form their own opinions without being crushed under repeated "you just dont get it"s and "OMG r u cerius? lotr is nuthin liek eragon; eragon rox!!!!11oneoneone"s.
Why is the site so writer-oriented? I’d like to think that it isn’t entirely writer-oriented, but I know that much of it is and honestly prefer it that way. Inheritance is, after all, a book series, and I am, after all, a writer. Writing and technique are what I know best, so they’re what I feel qualified talking about.
You act like you can critique. Why? Because I can. Everyone’s a critic, after all. I don’t have decades under my belt, but I’ve certainly read a lot and written a lot and learned a lot. I have my opinions and I don’t mind expressing them. I also have some advice which I feel has enough merit to be made generally available for any other young writers who may be interested.
You’re… kidding, right? I don’t know, am I?
Okay, okay, serious, I know. In part, yes. I’ve always meant for AE to be taken lightly because, really, it’s an incredibly light topic. Paolini won’t change the world one way or the other. While points made are often valid, they don’t really mean anything in the long run. I don’t like Inheritance but I do like making fun of it, if only because it isn’t very hard to do. I mean, look at this webpage. Regardless of which layout you’re using, you can’t really think that this is supposed to be a serious site. Many of the essays on general writing I take seriously, but I think that beyond that the apparent sarcasm and well-intentioned teasing can speak for itself.