Brisingr
I just finished reading Brisingr, the latest book in the Eragon series, and there was one thing that really bothered me.
After freeing Sloan the butcher from the Ra'zac (Katrina's father in case you don't remember him. I didn't), Eragon basically does to him what the king did to Murtagh, enslaving him by using his real name. Now, throughout the two previous books, using someone's real name like that have been described as a bad thing, one of the reasons the king is evil in fact.
But Eragon is never called on it, even after letting several people know what he did. He is praised for not killing the man, in other words setting himself above the law since it wasn't in battle, or bringing him back with him so Sloan could have been given a proper trial, which would have hurt Katrina.
Is it okay for a 'hero' to do the same thing the 'villain' does for personal reason?
I don't think so, but the impression I got was that Eragon doing it = good, the king doing it = bad, which annoys me. Thoughts?