Garion was set up by Polgara and Belgarath as a puppet king.
Garion is raised by Polgara on Faldor's farm, and spends most of his childhood doing menial tasks. Now, while this does make sure he never develops a sense of superiority, and it makes him a very sensible person (both valued virtues in a king), he was also continually kept in the dark by Polgara on nearly every subject, and this makes him totally dependent on her, because as a very sensible person, Garion isn't going to try tackle a problem he has no idea how to handle by himself, he'll just call his Aunt Pol. This gives Polgara the ability to continually interfere in the workings of the Western kingdoms so she can make sure that the events of the Prophecy happen. Once Garion grows up and gets the hang of the job, he isn't dependent on Polgara any more - but she raised him, so mostly, what he does will be what she wants, especially since he loves her and admires her and has put her on a pedestal. Belgarath, in the meantime, is there to serve as another figure for Garion to depend on, while serving the same goals as Polgara. While Polgara and Belgarath do care for him, they care for the Prophecy even more.- There is just three problems with this theory. One, in Polgara the Sorceress, she states that the reason she never tells Garion anything is so he will believe fully that he is who is, just an ordinary farm boy. After all, why force him to pretend he is ordinary when you can just keep him ignorant? It's less effort on Garion's part. During her time raising the Heirs to Rivan Throne, she always only told them who they were when they became adults, which Garion isn't at the time The Belgariad starts. The one time she did have to tell the Heir the truth at a young age, it backfired in a big way, nearly getting him put under the thumb of Chamdar/Asharak. Secondly, no leader tackles a problem that they have no idea how to handle by themselves. Unless they are a dictator, all leaders have a board of advisor's who they ask for advise. And if you happened to know someone who had over 3,000 years of experience handling such matters, wouldn't you call them for advice on the big issues? And thirdly, both Belgarath and Polgara are so respected in the Alorn Kingdoms, that they don't need a puppet King. Most of the Kings do what they tell them to anyway.
- Alorn kings, but what of the other monarchs? They hold less reverence of the two, but are bound to follow Garion as Overlord of the West. Then there is the issue of her keeping him ignorant. It goes beyond just not telling him of his heritage. She went so far as to not even planning to teach him to read. He learned from Ce'Nedra while on their journey. And you cannot say she knew that would occur as they were all surprised as hell when Zedar stole the orb starting the entire journey in the first place. She fully intended to keep him total ignorance all the way up to his coronation and beyond.
- Both the main series and the prequels show that Belgarath and Polgara get the various monarchs to do what they want whether they're Alorn (Sendars included) or not - the Arends defer to Polgara in particular (who also terrifies the various Salmissras because they know she's eventually going to do something to one of them), Belgarath gets on well with most of the Gorims, and both of them are pretty adept at handling the Tolnedrans, despite the fact that the latter disbelieve in them on principle. They also leave Garion be almost as soon as he's defeated Torak, save for magical or personal matters. Plus, not only does Garion come to the throne at 16 (so he'd definitely need a lot of advice to begin with, even if he was trained in court politics), it's implied that the authority of the Overlord of the West is mostly one acknowledged only when things are either extremely serious (e.g. Torak, the Bear-Cult, Zandramas) or when it's convenient (Garion's internal complaint that the various monarchs like to save the really difficult problems for him, and his announcement of support for Porenn's regency to make Drosta think twice).
- There is just three problems with this theory. One, in Polgara the Sorceress, she states that the reason she never tells Garion anything is so he will believe fully that he is who is, just an ordinary farm boy. After all, why force him to pretend he is ordinary when you can just keep him ignorant? It's less effort on Garion's part. During her time raising the Heirs to Rivan Throne, she always only told them who they were when they became adults, which Garion isn't at the time The Belgariad starts. The one time she did have to tell the Heir the truth at a young age, it backfired in a big way, nearly getting him put under the thumb of Chamdar/Asharak. Secondly, no leader tackles a problem that they have no idea how to handle by themselves. Unless they are a dictator, all leaders have a board of advisor's who they ask for advise. And if you happened to know someone who had over 3,000 years of experience handling such matters, wouldn't you call them for advice on the big issues? And thirdly, both Belgarath and Polgara are so respected in the Alorn Kingdoms, that they don't need a puppet King. Most of the Kings do what they tell them to anyway.
The majority of the characters in The Belgariad/The Malloreon were set up as deconstructions of the usual fantasy stock characters.
- Take Garion, your traditional 'chosen one who is revealed to be so after labouring in obscurity for x years'. He's a badass, a good king and all- but he's also extremely dependent on the people around him, insecure, headstrong, and rarely thinks things through (remember the potential ice age-causing storm in Guardians of the West?). Ce'Nedra, the 'feisty princess who marries the chosen one' character, is a hypocritical bitch who spends most of her time in books as The Load and often delays and slows the main cast down, until she grows up and actually ends up in a situation when she can be useful (as a figurehead, intentionally so on her part). Polgara and Belgarath, the 'wizard advisors who help the main character and do awesome things a lot' characters, are both extremely manipulative. Belgarath's a drunken, irresponsible lecher and Polgara's a superior, condescending bitch. And that's not even all of them...
- Much of Belgarath's irresponsibility and other flaws are either 1.) caused by his eternal grief over the loss of his wife and fellow disciples, or 2.) an act or exaggerated by him so that people won't think he's Belgarath, giving him a free hand to manipulate people and events to further the Prophecy. The deconstruction comes from just how manipulative someone would have to be to keep up said façade and basically engineer human history to fulfil an incredibly vague prophecy.
- Polgara, meanwhile, is damaged by her father being away for so long when she was young, and being the vessel of both power and her mother's anger at him, plus Belgarath's coping strategies making her genuinely believe that he didn't care. Combine that with losing her beloved twin, with whom she had a mental link, watching Vo Wacune and (technically) Erat fall apart despite all her power, and 1300 years of having to watch countless generations of her sister's descendants, who're the most marked family in the world, grow old and die while being a key part of their lives, all while being led around by the nose by her mother and to a lesser extent, her father, contributing to her controlling and over-protective personality. As for the superior, condescending aspect, she's had to occupy a similar role to her father in several very male-dominated cultures, meaning that to get the same respect, she's had to ensure they wouldn't even dream of seeing her as an ordinary woman - Belgarath can get drunk and muck about. Polgara has wear her queenly mask all the time.
- Silk is an incredibly badass, cunning, snarky superspy; he also has serious family issues (which are implied to be what led to his becoming such a skilled spy, since it's an excuse to spend as much time away from home as possible) and a very casual disregard for crimes up to and including killing. Mandorallen (and indeed all Arends in general, and Mimbrates in particular) is the typical invincible Knight in Shining Armor common to medieval epics, but shows just how stupid - or at least, naïve - one would have to be to have no fear at all, as well as how totally lost they would be when they actually felt fear. Durnik is just your average salt-of-the-earth everyman dragged along on an epic quest, but starts hardening due to the perils they face, several times suggesting or committing very callous acts (asphyxiating Murgos with smog, drowning them with quicksand, etc.), and so on.
Members of the Drasnian intelligence service forfeit their place in any line of succession they may be a part of.
- After all, someone who's going to be traveling all over the world and is likely to get themselves killed before they can produce an heir is not the ideal choice to inherit any sort of responsibility. And to approach it from the other side, the intelligence service wouldn't want their agents to be tied down by obligations back home. Therefore they are automatically bumped to the bottom of whichever line of succession they're a part of when they enter the Academy. This explains why Silk is said to be "in no danger of ascending the throne" despite the fact that as the only nephew of a childless king (at the time anyway), he should be if not next in line then close to it.
- It's hinted a few times that he's still heir, with the Earl of Seline remarking that it would be quite interesting to see what would happen if he became King, and Silk thanking his newborn cousin, Kheva, for saving him from "the ultimate indignity" of becoming King. Perhaps Silk just meant that he thought that Porenn would likely provide an heir sooner rather than later, especially given the advice he was going to get for her from Layla of Sendaria.
The King of Hell caused "The Accident"
It has been established that Demons exist outside of the Necessity's design and influence, and that UL chained the King of Hell in his own realm at the start of creation. It is possible that in the time he was in the Universe, he caused the star responsible for the accident to move to a place "it was not meant to be", thereby being responsible for the series as a whole. The Belgariad-verse is yet another iteration of Instrumentality.
The Orb of Aldur is actually a Gem that has not gained any humanoid form.
Its counterpart the Sardion is also a Gem, albeit a corrupted one. And "The Accident" was caused by three sentient diamond beings creating a bright light that would corrupt gems after a distant planet that they were supposed to conquer was deemed a lost cause after one gem who is also a diamond being rebelled and that one sentient diamond was supposedly destroyed. Wolf is more than what he seems.
At the very end of Polgara the Sorceress, when her thoughts about how Poledra manoeuvred both Belgarath and Polgara into the perfect position to force them to admit their love for one another are ones she thinks a wolf would understand, Ce'Nedra is shocked when Wolf, the lost cub they adopted in Darshiva, seems to react to her and agree. She considers he might not be an ordinary wolf and wonders who or what he is, before deliberately forcing the thought from her mind. This is usually a sign in these books that something supernatural, whether the Voice of Prophecy or a god, is influencing matters... Then, in the very tiny coda at the end, Wolf spends some time watching over the sleeping Geran before thinking to himself "everything was it was supposed to be" and sleeps himself. Considering he's the only supernatural force left with the departure of the other gods, and the safety of Garion's family (and specifically his son, whom he had promised to Garion would be safe from now on) is very important to him, there's a very good chance Wolf might have some connection to Eriond, whether as an emissary, servant, or even an outright vessel for his spirit at times, and thus a special guardian for the heir to the Rivan throne.- It's unlikely that he's a protector, since Unrak is specifically shown to be Geran's protector (having inherited his father's abilities), but it's possible that he's something like Horse, connected to Eriond and keeping an eye on Garion's family.
- Another possibility, possibly more probable given how he joins the party (Poledra says she found him, but we have only her word): Wolf is LITERALLY family. As Polgara learns the first time she shares a form with her mother in her prequel book, Poledra had siblings (littermates, really) and Polgara realizes she has wolf aunts and uncles and cousins she never met. It's entirely possible Wolf is a cousin, several times removed, descended from those relatives, who takes enough after his own Aunt Pol (Poledra, in this case) he would fit in better among the 'man-things' so she made sure he wound up with his family.
Belgarath's heritage
Belgarath documents his own history extensively, but while everyone assumes he's an Alorn throughout both series, he isn't one. He doesn't really remember his mother, he doesn't remember his father, and he doesn't remember which God his people worshipped (though he does know that it wasn't Belar or Torak). His original name, 'Garath', might not even have been the one he was given by his mother, since it just means 'of the village of Gara' and he was an orphan. Also, while all the Gods left an imprint on their people, he was made Aldur's disciple and is repeatedly noted as looking very like him as a result, so there's no appearance to work from. Since it's long before Sendaria and the Ulgos only got a god shortly before he was born (and the Godless Ones would have been cursed to infertility), the options are that he's a Tolnedran, a Marag, an Arend, or a Nyissan - or, most likely, a mix of the above.
- Given that Gara wasn't near a swamp, it probably wasn't Nyissan, and while Belgarath has a certain Marag-like preoccupation with sex, he didn't note anything about there being more women than men (which he'd definitely have remembered), so he probably wasn't a Marag. Even if he was mixed, Marag men weren't all that bright or independent, so if his father was a wanderer, he probably wasn't part Marag.
- Most likely, given the description of the landscape (rural farmland), and his personality, he's part-Arend, part-Tolnedran. In the latter case, he's both unabashedly greedy and an unashamed thief (he's even got a particular magical ability to find gold, and pauses his prequel to go and examine his gold pile), while also being bluntly pragmatic. Meanwhile, despite his derision over Arendish melodrama and feuding, he's a dramatic storyteller and a self-admitted showman by nature, and he holds some truly epic grudges.
- How does this explain Belgarion telling Zakath to use his eyes and see that Polgara is obviously an Alorn in ever way bar blondeness? Given where she set up (outside the Vale), it only makes sense that Poledra took the form of an Alorn woman to fit in. It's also noted that she shaped the twins in the womb for their roles. Since Beldaran was going to be the first Queen of Riva, and Polgara was going to spend most of her very long life dealing with Alorns and over 1300 years concealed among them, it makes sense that both were made to look the part.
Polgara's apparent age
Elsewhere on this page it's noted that Polgara's apparent age ranges from late twenties to 'hasn't aged since she hit her thirties'. Belgarath believes that it's because aged men are considered venerable, but aged women are considered crones, and Polgara wasn't putting up with that attitude. He's undoubtedly right about that. But what if there's another factor to it? Beldaran gives birth to her son at eighteen (Polgara is informed by Poledra that Beldaran's pregnant on their eighteenth birthday), and Daran is eighteen when he becomes Regent, after his mother dies and his father becomes incapacitated by grief. That makes Beldaran thirty-six at death; given Polgara's a sorceress with at least some Healing Factor, and doesn't have the issues of weathering or hard labor to age her, she could very well look quite a bit younger. What if Polgara stopped aging when Beldaran died? In her grief, she might very well have subconsciously decided that physically, at least, she was never going to leave her twin behind.
Taiba has a phobia of being touched
At first sight, Relg and Taiba have very little in common (she is an attractive woman who is frank about sexual matters, he is a repressed fundamentalist), and may seem like a case of Opposites Attract. However, consider what Taiba has been through. She definitely has Rape as Backstory. As a slave since birth, she's certainly experienced harsh corporal punishment, and moreover, the complete lack of bodily autonomy that comes with slavery. All this makes it possible that she's developed a phobia of physical contact that matches Relg's religiously-motivated aversion. Moreover, when Relg rescues her from the collapsed mine, she is described as terrified and crying; maybe simply from the (apparently traumatic) experience of being phrased through rock, but it could also be because he is carrying her.
If this theory is true, it would make their relationship even more heartwarming: both will always understand how the other is feeling, and never try to push them to more intimacy.
- Except Taiba repeatedly touches people impulsively, or in Relg's case tries to, and finds Relg's aversion ridiculous. She admits (as openly as possible in a PG-13 book) that she likes sex, views pleasure as a good thing that brings happiness, and for a bit even enjoys that just trying to touch him makes Relg recoil and therefore gives her something she's never had: power over another person. Nothing suggests she has any objection to touching or being touched, and she thinks Relg's problems (which are viewed as such and as something silly he needs to get over by other characters, even by the God he says he's obeying in this) are irrational. And of course, Mara needs her to do a lot more than touch another person to rebuild the Marag race, while UL specifically requires Relg to do the same because Relg must father the next Gorim. The Mallorean makes it pretty clear Taiba has no problem at all with intimacy and Relg's gotten over himself and then some.
Polgara's abusive behaviour towards Garion (and other young people) is informed by the authors real life beliefs and behaviour
David & Leigh Eddings saw nothing wrong with locking children in cages and physically abusing them, obviously believing that adults have the right to discipline children any way they saw fit. Polgara isn't physically abusive, but in a way her emotional abuse of Garion is even worse - cruel, dismissive and manipulative are good words to describe her behaviour. And while Ce'Nedra is a brat, tricking her into putting on a magical artifact she can never remove, regardless of her motivations, is a dick move.
