As I said in a previous post, one of the main strengths and virtues of the Belgaria, and what made it such a success at the time, was how it subverted the typical "Tolkien archetypes "that had become prevalent thanks to the LotR copycats. (I spoke about this in my Tolkienesque Renaissance posts).
It showed how you could reuse the "Tolkienesque formula" and the tropes popularize by Lord of the Rings... while still switching, twisting, reinventing what had already turned into cliches and stereotypes. Yes, now the Belgariad series seems like a cliche because we are used to modern fantasy... But you have to put this back in the context of the 80s. The time of the early D&Ds. In fact, comparing The Belgariad and the early stages of D&D is quite revealing - you should try, if you have time.
But just to highlight the way the Belgariad subverts the "Tolkien mold" some highlights (WARNING, spoilers):
The Orb of Aldur VS The One Ring. Both magical items sought after by the God of Evil, and key to his destruction - but the Orb has to be preserved and used against the God of Evil, not destroyed. Both are sentient items of ungodly power that can easily corrupt their owner into becoming world-destroying tyrants... But whereas the Rings willingly corrupts out of evil, the Orb of Aldur is actually just trying its best to please its owner and grant its wishes, simply lacking a sense of scale and not realizing the consequences of its divine powers. (Oh, an army is following you and you want to escape? LET'S SPLIT THE CONTINENT IN HALF, an endless chasm should stop them)
Belgarath vs Gandalf. Both nearly immortal magic-users, who have wandered the earth for a very long time, are some of the strongest magic forces around and appear as elderly, grumpy bearded men who act as a mentor figure to the hero and guide to the protagonist-party. But Belgarath, unlike Gandalf, is a human being, and his human nature is shown in full force. He is far from being perfect - he is notably lustful and a drunkard. He had once a family, and still has a daughter. Becoming immortal and wandering the earth for millenia, seeing empires rise and fall, and the bad guys committing atrocities, and idiots being idiots, left him bitter, cynical and filled with anger and disdain at many things in the world. And his fight against the bad guys is something personal, vengeful and filled with rage.
Polgara vs... no one. As I said in my previous posts, about the Tolkienesque Renaissance and the "woman-wizard", Polgara was one of the first attempts in fantasy literature at the time to subvert this sexist cliche that had installed itself in the post-Tolkien fantasy, and that Pratchett denounced several times (in his article "Why Gandalf never married" or his novel "Equal Rites"). Because Polgara was one of the rare powerful female magic users of the 80s to be A) just as powerful and a full equal to the male magic user ; and B) a good person on the side of the heroes. And it was quite a BIG step to have a literal "female Gandalf" back in the 80s.
Zedar vs Saruman. Zedar is just like Saruman a wizard (sorry "sorcerer" because another Tolkien subversion, in this world "wizard" is an insult) who betrayed his order to follow the local Evil God. But unlike Saruman he is not a great mastermind trying to cross everybody: he is almost a ghost of a character who keeps fleeing in front of the heroes, and when we finally see him, we discover not an arrogant bully, but a broken and sad man who deeply regrets siding with the Evil Overlord, because as it turns out, becoming the minion of an evil deity is like being in a VERY abusive relationship.
The Disciples of Aldur vs The Istari. The sorcerers of the Belgariad are also five magic-users part of an order who all appear as old bearded men... One heroic one, one betraying one, one weirdo an two coming as a package deal. But here, the idea of the Istari is played around: the reason they have their power is because they are human beings who became the personal disciples of the god of magic, and the reason they all look like old bearded men is precisely because Aldur, their god and master, looks like this, and his divine influence ended up "shaping" his disciples in his likeness.
All of the points above are why I personally enjoyed reading The Belgariad. You can literaly take it as a fun take on the Lord of the Rings-copycats. Not high literature, not great literature, unfortunately carries with it some of the problems of 80s American fantasy with it... But you know, for a Tolkien fan, it can always be a fun read as a "spot the differences and similarities, and see through the narrative what the author tried to say or highlight about Tolkinesque cliches".
[And then came the Malloreon which... *sigh*
In all honesty, the only virtue of the Malloreon as a sequel is that it extends and adds to the worldbuilding, and works at fighting the unfortunate trope of "Good White guys from the West vs Evil swarthy Easterns" that the Belgariad inherited from Tolkien and DID NOT THINK OF SUBVERTING. The Malloreon does explore this "evil East", the variety and complexity of its population, shows that not all of them were behind the Evil overlord, that they existed before and after said Evil Overlord came - in fact said God of Evil literaly destroyed a lot of thriving cultures in his attempt at complete continental domination ; and we get to see the various religious, cultural and phlosophical currents making a vast tapestry ot countries.
And that's more exploring of the "evil East" than Tolkien himself ever did, so kudos for that! But unfortunately it has to arrive in what is obviously a very bad sequel series that is badly written half of the time, has the characters reduced to caricatures, has such an obvious plot contrivence and deus ex machinas because the Eddings didn't know how they could logically lead their story where they wanted to, and where the Eddings old-fashioned sexism rears up its head alongside the first hints of the vaguely pedophile-like vibes I got from later Eddings books...]
