14 comments on “Star Lord of the Potter Rings Wars”

1. Robert February 18, 2015 at 5:49 pm Reply

   I have sat and watched the three series over and over and thought about compiling a video that shows the many similarities. Then I thought- what if someone already has? This is most impressive! I have thought of some items I’d like to add, and a few I would conjecture. ( I did not visit any of the other sites with “related articles”, so forgive me if I repeat any)

   Protagonist “Follows in the footsteps of an older relative.” Harry Potter is told pretty much entirely through the movie series how he is just like his father or has a penchant for causing trouble, was a seeker, doesn’t get along with Snape, was in Griffyndor- that enough? I think this counts.

   Protagonist “Disguises himself in enemy uniform to sneak through enemy territory”- Harry (and Ron) take pollyjuice potion and dress as Slytherin students to infiltrate their house. Maybe not “the villain”, a.k.a. Voldemort, but definitely, not considered an ally.

   Protagonist: “Sees a vision of his friends being tormented, so he springs into action to save them.” Harry dreams of Mr. Weasley being attacked by a snake and then has a vision of Sirius Black being tortured by Voldemort. He reports these acts to Dumbledore.

   Villains: “Returns from dead to regain his power.” If I interpret the ghost images of Anakin, Kenobi and Yoda to mean that they have returned from the dead to help their hero, then at the end of Jedi, this would indeed be true of Vader/Anakin.

   Other Characters: “A large, hairy, and lovable sidekick to the heroes” Remove “large” and you’ve got Gimli, too.

   Settings: “Underground tunnels where a fight occurs” The fight against the Rebels and Empire on Hoth also takes place undergound in the rebel base. Rebels are chased out by the invading Empire.

   Now on to some of mine:
   ALL THREE: Heroes fall/jump down something harrowing.
   ALL THREE: A ceremony takes place that honors the heroics of the main characters.
   ALL THREE: Feature a monstrous beast of epic proportions.
   ALL THREE: Feature ghosts or spirits that interact with the living.
   Wars and Potter: Depict the young villain as exceedingly bright or talented
   Rings and Potter: Feature creatures who initially wished to remain neutral, but decide to aide the heroes.

   I should have been writing more of them down as I noticed them- but I’m sure they’ll come up again as I continue to watch my favorite movies of all time. Thanks again, Jamie.

2. trashboat January 22, 2015 at 10:33 pm Reply

   Really great comparisons here, these are probably my three favorite stories ever so I obviously have a type when it comes to what movies I like. A few nitpicks though-

   In Harry Potter, Harry does see a vision of a friend being tormented and springs into action to help. In Order of the Phoenix Voldemort makes him see a vision of his godfather Sirius being tortured and the its purpose is pretty much identical to what it is in Star Wars- to lure the hero into a trap by going to help.

   Also, both LOTR and Star Wars feature the characters meeting the secondary hero in a bar/pub- Aragorn in LOTR, Han in Star Wars. Also both characters are sitting in a dark corner of the bar and seem shifty/untrustworthy at first. You did mention about plot points taking place in pubs but I thought this one was too close to overlook- I’m pretty that scene in Star Wars was based on the Prancing Pony in LOTR but maybe I’m reading too much into it and I need to go outside more? Who knows.

   I am aware that this article is almost 3 years old.

3. alec96 May 22, 2012 at 12:29 pm Reply

   Really cool post here. I have one small thing though. You said that Harry Potter didn’t discover any new language. Not sure if this counts because it’s not an entire race. But some people do speak Parseltongue. Hey, I was wondering witch your personal favorite one was?

   • Jamie Helton May 22, 2012 at 1:28 pm Reply

     You’re right in pointing that out. I didn’t think Parseltongue was an actually language that someone created, but apparently Dr. Francis Nolan, a specialist in phonetics and phonology (the science of talking on the telephone?), and was hired by the Harry Potter producers to develop actual syntax. In the book, Parseltongue was just described as hissing sounds, so I assumed some sound designer made the sounds. I’ll change that.

     The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings came about because J.R.R. Tolkein was a linguist who invented the Elvish language and then came up with the history of Middle Earth to explain the existence of the language. Of course, Star Wars had to create languages for various creatures and aliens that did not speak English. Sound designer (and later film editor and overall magician) Ben Burtt created most (if not all) of them.

   • Jamie Helton May 22, 2012 at 6:52 pm Reply

     Oh, as for my favorite, no other movie had the impact on me as the original Star Wars did. Lord of the Rings probably has the most consistent quality, though there are only three films in that series. I enjoy all three of the series, but would have to go with Star Wars as my favorite.

4. Andrew May 18, 2012 at 2:59 pm Reply

   Nerd alert: three points of contention I have. One, Frodo’s scar doesn’t hurt when evil’s near; it just hurts. (Though he does have a sword that glows when Orcs are around.) Two, he doesn’t have a psychic connection with Sauron; the ring is the only bridge he has between himself and the Dark Lord (though Palantirs clearly let other characters link up with him as well). And three, well, it’s hard to look at the dark hooded figures as something that LotR shares in common with Potter instead of as something that Potter adopted from LotR.

   Just nerdy nitpicks. That’s all. Very exhaustive list you’ve got here, so applause for that. I think, though, that what you’ve done here underscores just how easy it is to relate separate stories to one another; when you boil away the details that make these stories unique, they do sound an awful lot alike, especially when speaking in broad terms (e.g. “involves an epic story”) or when referring to logical climactic beats (e.g. “has a battle with the villain during the climax of the series”).

   And all of that comes back to the idea that there’s a limited number of stories archetypes to be told. Inevitably there’s going to be some overlap. But I think activities like that are useful because they let us see that overlap in a way that ultimately impels us to contextualize them. In the end, seeing the way that these properties are alike is healthy, because it leads us to suss out the ways that they’re different and valuable on their own merits.

   • Jamie Helton May 18, 2012 at 3:12 pm Reply

     You make fair points. I love all three of these series, and it is easy to find broad similarities as well as fine points, as you said. Since Lord of the Rings was the first of these to be written, both Star Wars and Harry Potter takes inspiration from it. I love the breakdown that someone did comparing the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film to Star Wars.

   • trashboat January 22, 2015 at 10:40 pm Reply

     In the LOTR movies it implies that Frodo’s scar hurts whenever the Witch-King who stabbed him is near (not sure about the books as I can’t remember- I need to read them again). In Harry Potter, Harry’s scar hurts whenever Voldemort, the guy who gave him the scar is near. So yeah I’d say those two were pretty similar.

5. ruth May 17, 2012 at 12:23 pm Reply

   WOW, this is a comprehensive breakdown, Jamie. It’s interesting that the protagonists in this film all have this trio of similarities: an orphan, lives with uncle an has humble beginnings. I never thought of that before but yeah! That’s very astute of you. Great post!

   • Jamie Helton May 17, 2012 at 12:41 pm Reply

     Thanks! A lot of the info came from the sites I linked at the bottom of the page, but there was a lot of research that went into this.

6. le0pard13 May 16, 2012 at 11:27 pm Reply

   Love these common breakdowns of film, Jamie.

   • Jamie Helton May 16, 2012 at 11:41 pm Reply

     Thanks! As you can see in the links at the bottom of the page, a lot of people have done similarities between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, and a few of Star Wars vs. LOTR, but I didn’t find any three-way comparison.

7. rich May 16, 2012 at 9:31 pm Reply

   if the mythology does not predate the actual story, then it’s not mythology. it’s this weird thing we call – religion.

   • Jamie Helton May 16, 2012 at 11:39 pm Reply

     I’m not sure if this applies to what you’re meaning, but if you’re referring to the point under the story category that the mythology that predates the hero’s birth, then what I mean is that there is a back story that goes back years before the main character was born. For Lord of the Rings, the back story was established in The Hobbit; Star Wars had the history of the Clone Wars and Anakin turning to the dark side and killing the Jedi, which was talked about in the original trilogy before the prequels were made; and Harry Potter had to deal with the ramifications of Voldemort having killed his parents when vying for power and fighting the teachers in the past, and his whole history is eventually revealed.

     Of course, Star Wars now has its own religion, as I mention here: https://filmverse.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/may-the-fourth-be-with-you/