it was mine and alex's six month anniversary last weekend, and so naturally we decided to celebrate by watching all three lord of the rings in one day. this activity gave way to many unexpected discoveries, including but not limited to the realization that my boyfriend is a hopeless LOTR nerd and can sporadically quote the characters as they speak (not actually that unexpected of a discovery). the most interesting thing i noticed, however, is the unsettling amount of parallels i found between LOTR and the harry potter series. so natuarally, i decided i needed to blog about it.
firstly, and possibly most prominent, is the likeness between harry and frodo. both are dark haired, male protagonists with slight accents who, throughout their respective series, become more isolated, angsty, and altogether obnoxious. harry is unique because he is the boy who lived, and frodo is unique because he possesses the ring. both things are related to something inherently evil, although the protagonists are perceived to be mostly good. through his scar, voldemort has a certain amount of control over harry, and through the ring, sauron has a certain amount of control over frodo. in harry potter VII, when harry wears the horcrux necklace, he becomes more irritable and lashes out at ron and hermione. when frodo wears the ring around his neck, he lashes out at sam. both go on quests because of the thing that makes them unique, and though neither can reasonably do the quests alone, on many occasions their angst surfaces and they try to convince their friends that they must.
sauron and voldemort are both dark forces, highly feared, who have long had much control over the inhabitants of the world within their stories. voldemort has a following of death eaters and sauron has his army of mordor.
merry and pippin are fred and george in many respects. both are pairs always seen together and rarely taken seriously, except for in moments of seemingly random bravery or friendship. in the beginning of LOTR I, merry and pippin sneak into gandalf's collection of pyrotechnics and set off a gaint firework that turns into a dragon and scares the townspeople, before it explodes, and is met with applause. in harry potter V, fred and george set off a giant firework that turns into a dragon and chases professor umbridge, before exploding, met by applause from the students.
merry and pippin also share ron's obsession with constant eating, but sam is more similar to ron's overall character. sam is the faithful best friend to frodo, just as ron is to harry, who insists on sticking by him even when he is being mean and stupid. (both stories also have heavy homoerotic subtext between the friends, at least in the movie adaptations). both ron and sam have moments of weakness in which they become jealous of their best friend's uniqueness, but of course, it all works out in the end in both cases.
also now that i write it out, both 'sam' and 'ron', and 'frodo' and 'harry' have the same number of letters in their name. CLEARLY INTENTIONAL.
although their intentions are entirely different, i found myself comparing gollum to dobby. both are inhuman creatures who follow after the protagonists, calling harry/frodo "master". of course, dobby has all the qualities of unbelievable cuteness and loyalty, while gollum is essentially a slimeball.
gandalf and dumbledore have similar wise and fatherly qualities towards frodo and harry, not to mention their simliar ages and look (gotta love those bushy white beards). both end up battling past friends/partners-in-sorcery: saruman v. gandalf and grindlewald v. dumbledore. both act as mentors to the protagonists in their stories, and both are skilled in aforementioned sorcery. both also suggested to be gay.
frodo's whole troop of loyal (there's lots of loyalty involved in LOTR..) protectors in the fellowship resemble harry's order of the phoenix, who take an increasingly bigger role in the final few novels.
aragorn is the shadowy, faithful protector over frodo and reminds me very much of harry's sirius.
the ending of the stories is much the same, as the leading male characters manage to finally eliminate the main source of evil in their respective worlds, receiving high honors, and you know, ensuring a new era of general awesome and happiness. i feel like considerably more leading and non leading characters die in the harry potter series, but LOTR has plenty of casualties. ultimately, the stories differ in some big ways - mainly, much of the harry potter series revolves around events that take place at hogwarts school, and the actual quest to destroy the horcruxes does not occur until the deathly hollows. within the first hour of the fellowship of the ring, however, the quest is underway, and this becomes the main theme of all LOTR stories.
also, harry potter has more magic. and less hobbits. though i believe there are some hobbits.
what's next for alex and my ridiculous movie marathon weekends? all six of the star wars, over the span of two days. standby for a report. i may have to blog about it.
I love you.
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