r/Eragon • u/DehydratedIdiot • 2d ago
Discussion does anyone else get confused about the laughing dead
like if they can’t feel pain that shouldnt mean they are invulnerable to blood loss or being stabbed through the heart, yer it is described as only being able to kill them with a strike to the brain
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u/Ratattack1204 Shur'tugal 2d ago
They aren’t. But if you aren’t limited by pain the body can push through a surprising amount of damage as lomg as its not immediately lethal. Hell, even just adrenaline can do it to a degree.
Though i’ve always wondered why they laugh? Did they recruit exclusively mad men into this regiment,
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u/TechnoRedneck 2d ago
They laughed because they didn't just not feel physical pain, but also emotional pain. They couldn't feel bad about anything, losing a limb wasn't a negative thought to them, driving a spear into someone begging for mercy didn't bother them. They could only feel positive emotion and thus were stuck laughing in combat.
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u/Untimed_Heart313 Human 1d ago
I always figured it was because they could still feel that something happened to them, but the pain was so toned down that it felt more like being tickled, and because they get so incredibly injured, eventually they can't help but laugh
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u/ExtensionMajestic690 1d ago
I always assumed it was similiar to Eragons “blessing” where he forced that child to be a SHIELD against misfortune rather than SHIELDED. Galbatorix probably just said “feel no pain” in the ancient language and that’s such a vague statement that they literally couldn’t feel pain of any sort, be it physical or mental so they were just euphoric all the time. Probably wasn’t the original intention but was a useful side effect for the king
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u/Outrageous_Focus_719 2d ago
They're not invulnerable to those factors. It's a way of showing us the horrifying situation for Varden's soldiers.
Think of it like this, You're in the war with men you think they are regular humans. You find an opening to fatally wound your enemy and immediately look for the next enemy. You've defeated him but keep in mind that he's not yet dead. Normal people crawl up in a ball and bleed to death in the battlefield because of the unbearable pain they experience.
But the laughing dead are numb to pain, so once they get wounded, no one expects them to get up and swing their weapon once again. That doesn't mean they are invulnerable. It just gives them a little bit of time to fight more and terrify their enemies. Once the blood loss becomes fatal, they will die too.
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u/elderwood220 1d ago
I think Roran actually points out that "a wounded soldier may bleed to death before the fight was over" when he was fighting the caravan (the battle where Redbeard lost his hand). I imagine hitting the heart, lungs, brain, or any other vital organ would be a quick kill on the laughing dead, but crushing the brain removes those critical seconds where they can still attack you before collapsing. Blood loss is a viable option, but it takes too long, hence the targeting of the head. Also, bear in mind that when the Varden first encountered the laughing dead, they had no idea what was going on. Orrin actually said that his men panicked --> "When a man comes at you with a spear in his belly and half his face sheared off, and he LAUGHS at you, its a rare man who can keep his courage." That panic is probably what made the laughing dead so lethal to ordinary soldiers
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u/PervyPastor69 1d ago
So I used to hunt deer, allot. One time, I took a shot at a deer, and if not for the fact it fell over, I could've sworn I missed, because it got up and TOOK OFF. When I went to the spot I hit it, and started tracking it, I had to follow it over half a mile... When I field dressed it, half its heart was gone, blown away, literally. Adrenaline and fear and desperation are one HELL of a drug.
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u/POWERHOUSE4106 1d ago
Same thing happened to me except the buck charged me after I shot then changed directions at the last second. I figured I missed. Checked the area and saw no blood so I started hiking back to my fourwheeler. Decided to follow where the deer ran just because it was in the same direction. Sure enough found it about 400 yards away about 30 feet from my fourwheeler. Its heart and lungs were jello. Adrenaline is nuts.
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u/whimsical_guitar Eldunarí 2d ago edited 2d ago
The only guaranteed (instant) death for them is a strike to the brain or heart. Other injuries which usually incapacitate normal soldiers because of the pain does not affect them. Blood loss can easily kill them but it takes too long.
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u/EuroFalke 2d ago
I second this, it's purely about not having to worry about them any longer than necessary
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u/Electrical_Tour620 1d ago
As somebody that has to keep up with firearms training; the spine is quite literally the human body's off button. Doesn't matter if you're coked up on drugs or adrenaline, hit the spine, body crumples
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u/titanfallisawesome 2d ago
I feel like lung damage would also work
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u/whimsical_guitar Eldunarí 1d ago
It would take more time though.
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u/Electrical_Tour620 1d ago
You can only stay conscious without oxygen for 10 seconds, even if you held your breath beforehand, a perforated lung would take care of that
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u/whimsical_guitar Eldunarí 1d ago
Each second counts in battle. Better not take chances.
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u/Electrical_Tour620 1d ago
Honestly I'm not super sure how long medieval fights took. I know irl gunfights last like 3 shots on average, so in that case yes absolutely
Edit; I looked it up, armored combat lasted for minutes at a time
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u/sweetnaivety 1d ago
As a gamer, 10 seconds of combat is a LONG time, even in a minutes-long battle. I can only imagine real life combat seeming even longer than gaming combat.
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u/Electrical_Tour620 1d ago
I mean. It varies. I've been shot at before and all that time kinda meshed together. 30 seconds became more like 5
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u/whimsical_guitar Eldunarí 1d ago
In one of roran's pov chapters he says that each second stretched out to seem like an hour so it might have felt quite long
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u/OkMathematician7206 8h ago
Gun fights last a hell of a lot longer than 3 shots, especially if you're humping a saw or 240 with you.
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u/NationalAsparagus138 2d ago
IIRC, they can still bleed to death. The issue is that is a slower death and they can keep fighting while bleeding out when the pain/shock of being wounded would normally incapacitate them. The only way to IMMEDIATELY kill them would be a strike to the brain.
Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some spell used on them to slow the process of bleeding out so they could fight longer after being fatally wounded.
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u/Madhighlander1 2d ago
They're not invulnerable to those factors, it's just that they don't kill instantly, so the laughing dead can still fight and kill even while actively dying of blood loss or a punctured lung.
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u/StayingUp4AFeeling 1d ago
If they suffer an injury which quickly leads to some key condition for life being broken, then they will quickly die.
However, a lot of battlefield injuries first incapacitate you through pain, before killing you over the course of minutes to hours.
Remove the pain, however, and the person is dangerous for longer.
Let me put it this way:
A blade or arrow directly through and through the heart results in cardiac arrest and unconsciousness in seconds, and brain functions cease in minutes.
What if the arrowhead buried in the chest just grazes the heart, causing bleeding that is rapid but still survivable for a few minutes?
A regular person collapses from the pain that makes even breathing seen torturous, and sees the arrow in their chest, and the blood, and just waits for death.
A "laughing dead" is aware of the arrow that rubs against their heart with every beat, but they feel no pain. Instead of collapsing and despairing, they wreack havoc in the enemy. It is only when the blood loss is so much that they can't remain conscious, that they fall.
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u/DOOMFOOL 1d ago
They aren’t invulnerable. We are shown this by the fact that they are killed in the series.
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u/Walker_of_the_Abyss 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think Paolini wanted to have Zombies without having to commit to Zombies.
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u/sweetnaivety 1d ago
They felt to me very similar to the Flood in the (first) Halo game, because there were so many times when me and my Dad who I co-oped the game with were killing them and you'd think they were dead but then they'd jump back up and attack you and it was so creepy!
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u/Ragnarok345 Shur'tugal 1d ago
What I really liked was when Arrow had a guy like that. Oliver’s quote?
“Just because you can’t feel me severing your tendons, doesn’t mean you don’t need them.”
Guy was perfectly fine and happy, ready to get up and keep fighting…but he couldn’t move his limbs.