Comments by "Dino2996" (@Dino23968) on "Top 10 Fantasy Books" video.
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Dana3605 Harry Potter is for children and the grown up fans either don't want to admit it or had just forgotten that they were children when they first got into a series that has been directly aimed at children all along:
-Dobby is clearly a cutesy cartoon character.
-The spell names have childish gibberish(Even "swish and flick" is kind of childish).
-When you looks at the characters' names(Longbottom, Flitwick, Dumblerdore, Wormtail, Buckbeak, Slughorn, Padfoot, Lestrange,etc), I mean, come on, those are clearly names you get from a Disney-ish children's flick.
-The way the books describe a character's actions, description, and dialogue is clearly on a children's book level There's even a talking hat with facial expressions and moving and talking paintings in the castle that act comical.
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Cute as a button Every single one of you
“Boring with too many details”?
The majority of LOTR:An actual exploration into the scope and mythology of Middle-Earth. The books also keep the storyline and extended world-building perfectly intact at the same time which is why it so unique since LOTR was the first of its kind.
The majority of HP:Being stuck in a school most of the time with very few places to explore outside. Plus, whatever HP does good at storytelling also lacks at world building, unfortunately. And this is due to the fact that Rowling was too busy rushing the books due to their growing popularity at the time. HP wasn’t even an “original masterpiece” as everyone claimed it to be. It’s basically the skeletal structure of The Worst Witch mashed up with LOTR and Star Wars(Harry is Luke Skywalker, Hermione is Leia Organa, Ron is Han Solo, Hagrid is Obi Wan Kenobi, Dumbledore is Yoda, Fred and George are C3PO and R2D2, Death Eaters are Stormtroopers, Wormtail is Grand Moff Tarkin, and Voldemort is Darth Vader).
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Cute as a button Every single one of you When it comes to the fantasy world and world building, then definitely Middle-Earth. Tolkien devoted almost his entire life to 30 years of constructing this world that was more than just a world. It was an entirely whole new mythology influenced by both Old English and Scandinavian folklore. It had events such as The War Of The Jewels, The War Of Wrath, The Battle Of Unnumbered Tears, The Battle Of Helm’s Deep, and The War Of The Ring which were all reflected on Tolkien’s experience in the battle of the Somme during WW1. He even created new fantasy creatures of his own and well as old ones. And there are the non-human races of Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and so on which somehow stand as a reflection of us, different nations of the world, based on their different cultures, their different religious beliefs as implied, and above all, the languages. Tolkien created 15 different mythical languages that are clearly detailed in grammar goes that explain how to speak in them. There’s also The Silmarillion, which is literally the holy bible of Middle Earth, which extends 30,000 years of backstory. Not to mention that each depth is plotted with so many countless layers of richness.
What did Rowling create?
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Cute as a button Every single one of you
When it comes to the category of Magic and Religious themes and parallels(mostly Christianity), since religion and mythology share a lot in common, LOTR wins because it is a world where magic is more of a mystery. There’s even an existence of magics that can unmake the world, alter reality, and destroy souls utterly. So we know that magic in Middle Earth is dangerous if used wrongly but it also has a good side such as Gandalf coming back as a more powerful Maia wizard, and that good side of magic comes from the supreme God of Middle Earth, Eru Ilúvatar. So, it sort of creates a spiritual awakening within the reader, and also reminds us Christians that the only true magic comes from God himself.
HP may have good magic but there’s a downside. The fact that HP magic has multiple invincibilities, as if this is man made magic, and what’s probably the most controversial one being Harry using three object to be “master of death,” this is clearly sacrilegious magic, or magic that demeans and is against the nature of God.
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When it comes to tying magic into the lore, definitely LOTR. Sure, HP had good magic tied to the lore, but JRR Tolkien wrote so many endless pages about how his world was built, how gods became demigods, and how races of elves, dwarves, and humans came to be. All the things are so well explained, the magic system is so well understood, and of course it’s foundation in the creation of the world. This is something that unfortunately doesn’t come from many fantasy authors of today, not even JK Rowling. They may build a magic system, but they barely tell us how this all came to be. I know that there are some people out there like “Who cares? Nobody wants to know how this world came to be. I just want a story and not stuff that is boring to us?” Are you kidding? Of course there’s a lot of us who wants to know the history of that world and tying the magic to history and Tolkien did that in such an outstanding way once you give it a chance. Which leads to the problem here:Potter fans take one look at the LOTR or Middle-Earth books and be like “UGH, I can sooooo tell that this is totally gonna be utterly aweful and boring with too much fat written in the pages.” First of all, this is called open world building. Second, of all the books keep the juxtaposition of world building and storytelling in perfect balance. Third of all, the books have a lot written in the pages because this is a fully mature fantasy for real adult audience instead of the kind that are stuck on the juvenile too-trimmed-down-for-easy peezyness children’s fantasy that is HP.
Any comments?
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Asher Ekstein I was looking on this article of possibilities of a proper adaptation of Eragon(along with the sequels in The Inheritance Cycle) by Christopher Paolini, and I thought of this:How about if the author gives the rights to the BBC or any British studio? Think about it:Since JK Rowling, an author of the UK, sold the Harry Potter film rights to Warner Bros, a film studio of the US, then how about Christopher Paolini, an American author, giving the Inheritance Cycle film adaptation rights to a British studio? After all, there are some American studios(if not all) that unfortunately have been known for either screwing up important elements of fantasy books or the entire adaptation itself, while the British have supposedly been excellent at fantasy flicks/adaptations. Also, a lot of these franchises that have an epic mythology(Middle-Earth for example) that are inspired by Irish,Scottish,English, and Celtic folklore, as well as Scandinavian/Nordic folklore and Norse Mythology. But I think the problem is that there are US studios(especially Hollywood-based) that probably don’t know much about those things that the fantasy franchises are inspired by, so they’ll either think of false stereotypes or randomly make their own stuff up(probably for no reason other than hug money-making profits). So maybe the UK could easily understand these mythology-based fantasy franchises and do a more proper adaptation.Seems like a better idea, right?
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Marianne 1)In Harry Potter, good wins over evil because of “love being more powerful.” However, in Lord Of The Rings, good wins over evil because evil doesn’t understand good’s motivations. Now that is a much more powerful meaning.
2)Who cares about the funniness? It’s not a a friggin spoof flick that doesn’t take things seriously. It you’re looking for a real comical fantasy, check out the Discworld series by Terry Prachett.
3)Lord Of The Rings is a more adult and mature fantasy series(unlike Harry Potter which is mostly for 12 year olds)which is why it has extended writing.
4)The Middle-Earth series has a whole lot more deeper meanings than Harry Potter. It has the positive themes of friendship, loyalty, honor, sacrifice, and hope versus the negative themes of corruption, betrayal, and genocide(which is far worse than prejudice).
5)Harry Potter copied Star Wars. Don’t believe me? Look at the evidence here:
Harry=Luke Skywalker
Ron=Han Solo
Hermione=Leia Organa
Hagrid=Obi-Wan Kenobi
Fred and George=C3PO and R2D2
Dumbledore=Yoda
Voldemort=Darth Vader
6)Lord Of The Rings involves an actual journey into the scope and mythology of Middle Earth. Harry Potter unfortunately involves being stuck in a school most of the time with very little places to explore outside.
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