I guess Harry Potter isn’t so original after all…
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God forbid anyone use the heroic arc created thousands of years ago.
It’s a joke. Of course most good stories are based on similar patterns.
Yeah I know, my bad, I’ve just been fed up with the latest internet culture war against people copying Star Trek’s storyline off of Star Wars. Its obvious some of these people never paid attention in High School English.
With a tiny bit of tweaking, it could be morphed into the famous fictions known as “The New Testament”, and “Gilgamesh”, etc…
There are only seven plots, but this does not mean there are only seven books.
To be fair, jedi knights are basically wizards, well wizards with bacterial infections.
Except that if you throw Jedi Knights into a D&D setting as wizards, they completely screw the game balance.
To make this perfect, “John Williams” should be hand-written over a stricken Holst, Prokofiev, or[insert looted composer here].
Except that they both WERE John Williams scores, which underscores the similarity still further, and thus is perfect as it is.
This works with anything if you get vague enough. Even then, there are some parts here that don’t QUITE fit. Still awesome though.
Bahaha, I know, right? Doesn’t matter. Love them both.
Just like I still love the LOTR, even if it’s a rip-off of Der Ring des Nibelungen…
There are no new ideas, only new combinations of ideas.
So when exactly did new ideas run out and how do we know there are not more?
Probably some time before history started getting recorded.
…but I didn’t really mean that as an absolute, exactly. “There are extraordinarily few new ideas” just doesn’t have the same ring.
Well, we can make a lot of numbers with just ten digits, yeah? ;p
There’re probably no new ideas. Stop stop worrying.
I don’t suppose people would be upset if that was put on a billboard or a bus advertisement?
lol
I’ve heard that question before.
eh, it sells, it captures imaginations, who needs new stuff when the old stuff can be recycled and redistributed
Pul-leeze, insert arthur and merlin into the story. They can easily replace the plot for both. Almost all fantasy in western culture is based on the arthurian legends, which has their place in Der Ring de Nibelungen, the Mabinogion and other amalgamations of ancient tales.
Try Beowulf or Homer’s epics. :)
Harry Potter is actually much closer to Neil Gaiman’s Tim Hunter from The Books of Magic, which appeared first. Tim, a 12 yr old English boy, is unaware of his magical ability, but has sometimes used it without knowing. He is destined to be the greatest magician of his time. Strangers come to him to educate him about his powers and possible destiny. The character looks the same; skinny, short dark hair, round glasses and each has an owl. He has a single parent who turns out not to be his own (his mother died traumatically when he was little.)
Neil has said he doesn’t believe Harry was ‘stolen’ from Tim. He believes JK Rowlings was inspired by T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, as he was (among other sources). Neil Gaimen has a real gift of combining existing philosophical and mythological elements into something totally fresh and new. I highly suggest his Sandman series.
And American Gods, Anansi Boys as well…
Star Wars IV = Lord of the Rings in space
Death Star / The One Ring = ultimate weapon that can only be destroyed by going into the heart of the evil stronghold
Luke Skywalker / Frodo Baggins = reluctant young hero fated to destroy the ultimate weapon
Obi-Wan Kenobi / Gandalf = old wise man who is more than he appears, and helps the reluctant hero on his quest
Han Solo / Aragorn = strong young man who is more than he appears, and helps the reluctant hero on his quest; a leader of men
C-3PO and R2D2 / Merry and Pippin = friends of the reluctant hero who provide comic relief and help the reluctant hero on his quest
Darth Vader / Sauron = evil lord
Emperor / Melkor = evil overlord the audience never sees
etc
PS: originality is overrated
Obviously R2-D2 would be Sam, the one faithful companion who follows him even into the heart of darkness…
and who gets to be Boromir?
and who gets to be Boromir?
Lando Calrissian?
Haha, yes. Though I don’t think there is a very good analog for Samwise, or for Leia (Arwen is close, but Leia is a much more central character).
The general structure is the same, the specific structure is merely similar :)
So, wait, would this make The Phantom Menace The Hobbit: “but they’re in space!” or The Silmarillion: “but they’re in space!”?
Oh, and don’t forget that Gandalf Kenobi sacrifices himself in the first movie so that the heroes can escape danger but then comes back in the sequels to provide help from beyond the grave.
…except when the writer decides that Gandalf Kenobi’s help would be too easy, so GK conveniently says, “I can’t help you” for obscure reasons.
I’m gonna post this blog post on Facebook for my Harry Potter and Star Trek fans. Funny!
Wait a minute.
Does this mean Voldemort is Harry’s real father?