Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Star Wars --> Harry Potter?

Summer vacation = watching lots of movies. Paul and I first watched the Back to the Future Trilogy, then the Star Wars Trilogy (the original ones, so the 4,5,6 ones... it's so confusing! and I still haven't seen 1,2 and 3). We're now onto Harry Potter 1 through 7 Part 1. And I noticed (or maybe Paul mentioned it) that Star Wars and Harry Potter are oddly similar. Case in point (oh and maybe spoiler alert for those of you who have not read or seen the entirety of these movies):

1. Both take place in imaginary yet realistic worlds.
2. Axis of good and evil is clearly defined.
http://io9.com/5522961/geek-love-his-and-hers-star-wars-t+shirts
3. Awkward love triangle in both, where the second main character (Han Solo / Ron) is convinced the other two are an item, but in reality they have a brother & sister relationship. They (Han & Ron) end up getting the girl in the end.
4. The hero (Harry Potter / Luke Skywalker) has a strange relationship with the villain: hate them but are similar to them in certain respects. Darth Vader is actually Luke's father and ends up having some sort of sympathy because he doesn't kill him. Lord Voldemort and Harry's wands are made of the same core (phoenix feather), Harry can speak parseltongue thanks to Voldemort and both are orphans.

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/lord-voldemort/images/17773462/title/harry-potter-voldemort-photo


So, if you'd like to write a smash hit, incorporate these elements and you've got yourself a winner! These seem to be the main points that make an adventure story work. I haven't studied comparative lit or anything, so don't judge me if this is horribly of-course, this is just my own opinion. What do you think? Are there more of these epic stories you can think of?

PS - Every time I go to write Star Wars, I accidentally write Star Wards... weird.
PPS- If you love Star Wars and Harry Potter, you might want to read about Bob here: www.smacksy.com


1 comment:

  1. I live in fear that I am going to have to learn Parseltongue to communicate with my own son.

    Could happen.

    xoxoxo L

    ReplyDelete