Similarities in Fiction

[ShindoL Shill]

Last night two of my friends got in a small argument about who is better: J.K. Rowling, or J.R.R. Tolkien (i think its Tolkien btw). anyway, i started thinking about their most famous works (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings respectively) and then my brain did a thing and came up with reasons that they are surprisingly similar.
1. They're both about people who, in there societies, are 'coming of age' (Harry gets invited to Hogwarts at 11, like all wizards, Frodo turns 30, which is hobbit equivalent of 18).
2. They focus on two main groups on one side of a fight of good vs evil.
3. The first group, who are all at the 'coming of age' time are the following:
-The main character (Harry/Frodo)
-His best friend (Ron/Sam)
-Two other friends who are friends with the main character, and have a blood relative to one of them (Hermione&Ginny(who is Ron's sister)/Merry&Pippin(Merry is related to Frodo)
4. The second group are older, wiser professionals:
-A fighter who dies early on (Sirius/Boromir)
-Another three who dont, one who has a beard, (Lupin, Hagrid, Arthur/Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas)
-Led by an aging powerful wizard

Spoiler

who dies but still guides the group

(Dumbledore/Gandalf(the Grey/White)
5. Another wizard who is an ally of the leader but betrays them (Snape/Saruman)
6. The enemy is led by a powerful being with control over many people with dark magic (Voldemort (using the Imperius Curse)/Sauron (using the 9 Rings of Men).
7. The dark enforcer corrupts someone with his magic who tries to win over the main character, fails and turns evil and tries to stop them (Wormtail/Gollum)
8. A person who joins the main character to guide them (Dobby/Smeagol)

Tell me what you think of this, or post another similar situation.

 

[Arsen]

"The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King and "Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien.

1. Quest to make it to the Dark Tower/Quest to make it to Mordor
2. Arthur Eld's guns/Narsil
3. Descendant of King Arthur/Isildur
4. Roland has a vision of ...SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

Susan burning in the Charyou Tree when holding Maerlyn's rainbow

/Pippin see's a burning tree when holding the...black orb (another similarity)
5. The main villain's insignia is a crimson eye/Sauron's insignia is the same
6. Marten Broadcloak is a treacherous wizard/Saruman
7. Mordred Deschain can transform into a spider/Shelob

There are more but I can't think of any at the moment.

 

[wolf thing]

eragon and chronicles of pern

-dragons choose there riders(so to speek)
-when a rider dies as does the dragon
-dragons and there riders have a boned by which they can talk to each other via telepathy

and eragons story was just star wars

 

[Kolby Jack]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes and... wait for it.... The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

In both movies, a lab chimpanzee gains super intelligence through a fictional formula. Both apes grow resentful of their treatment by humans and come to see themselves as superior. In their ultimate plan, they use the same formula that gave them their intelligence and use it on hundreds/thousands of other apes and monkeys, making them super-smart as well and causing a massive revolution against humanity.

Hell, Mojo Jojo even declares himself "KING OF THE PLANET OF THE APES!" If super-powered kindergarten girls show up to save the day in RotPotA, I would not surprised.

 

[Nouw]

If you say anything about Starcraft, Halo or Warhammer 40,000 I will nuke you miles away.

 

[willofbob]

ahem. TVtropes, that is all.

 

[Esotera]

Two authors in the same genre have similar storylines and similar stereotypes for characters? Shocker

I'd say you could apply pretty much any book to this formula if you make it generic enough. Most fiction since Ancient Greece has been about an underdog protagonist who has to go on some quest to prove himself, and in the process discovers something about himself, whether this is superpowers, self-esteem, etc. Of course he's going to be good...barely anyone has made a successful novel where the main character habitually commits war-crimes.

Reading this back, most of what you've said also applies to Star Wars.

 

[Superior Mind]

I don't think there's much similarity between Tolkein's world and Rowling's. They use similar things, like fantasy creatures, (wizards, trolls, even elves,) and magic but I think they're significantly different. I don't doubt that Rowling took some inspiration from Tolkien, few fantasy writers wouldn't, (I do give Rowling credit for coming up with a vision of elf different from the Tolkien tree-talking arrow-slinging variety,) but I think the similarities you pointed out are purely coincidental and all are weak at best. That's not a criticism, I'm just saying that if you're looking for links you can arguably find them but really there isn't a lot to go on here.

 

[Frybird]

Iron Man and Batman both are rich industrialists (who stand in the shadow of thier now-deceased Industrialist fathers) haunted by a life-changing incident in thier past that turned them into vigilantes, hunting criminals in custom-made high tech gear. Also, both have sketchy love/hate relations with goverment institutions.

Event Horizon and Dead Space both are set on a huge space vessel that, after coming in contact with something otherworldly, turned the crew insane and then dead. Both Stories begin with the crew of a much smaller vessel answering to a cryptic distress call and expecting a routine mission. In both stories, this smaller vessel gets quickly destroyed in order to trap the crew on the ship and both end with the protagonist hallucinating about a dead character turned monster, but are ambigious about whether they are actually a hallucination.

Both Titan A.E. and Treasure Planet are 2D animated movies with lots of CGI Effects about a young sort-of-outcast character ending up on a spaceship and looking for a mysterious treasure in a very broad sense and end up being betrayed by whom they thought to be thier closest ally.

Both Red Dwarf and Futurama have a slacker being accidentally ending up in a far distant future due to being frozen and befriend a robot with a very human psychological disorder.

Both Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evangelion are Mecha Animes from Gainax and feature a very reluctant hero in a not-entirely-robotic mecha eventually gaining almost omnipotent powers.

And both "A Knight's Tale" and Samurai Champloo are set in a historic period, with stories told with rather modern sensibilities without being overly anachronistic, but have a very modern and anachronistic soundtrack as thier most defining features

 

[Nouw]

Spoiler: Sci-Fi comparison of a sort

=

=

You see Wolfenstein 3D did it first for shooters, like Lensman for Space Marines. However Doom did it later and was much more popular and successful, just like Starship Troopers. Doom really helped the FPS genre, like how Starship Troopers helped Space Marines. However ST didn't share the same amount of glory and is hardly recognized.

ahem. TVtropes, that is all.

Site was down...huh.

 

[Cazza]

Thats why they are in the same genre. Every genre has its standards everyone likes to use.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

If you say anything about Starcraft, Halo or Warhammer 40,000 I will nuke you miles away.

Starcraft's setting is basically 40k with the best bits torn out and a thin coat of paint covering it.
However, Starcraft has a shitload more than just it's setting going for it, and it's major plot points (the massive exodus from Earth, the Terran infighting for instance) are very unrelated to Warhammer 40k anyway. But there's no denying a solid chunk of it is essentially 40k stuff, though of course 40k probably isn't the most original thing in the world either. Whatever, they're both pretty awesome.

I dunno what you mean about Halo. I can't see it having a whole lot of resemblance to other Sci-Fi stuff, aside from the primary things like FTL travel, shitloads of colonies, focus on humanity, big war, alien precursor species and whatnot that pretty much every form of Sci-Fi has.
As much as I dislike admitting it, Halo is pretty original, especially in the design of the Covenant species and their vehicles, armour and whatnot.
But what throws me about the Halo universe in general is that there seems to be a ton of inconsistencies and a lot of things which just don't make sense, and the games never even come close to making it seem anything like the 'Big epic war for humanity's survivulz' that it's supposed to be.

ST didn't share the same amount of glory and is hardly recognized.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. While it doesn't quite seem to be recognised as the major original of the idea of Space Marines as much as it should, it does seem to be widely accepted as the origin of the whole infantry power armour thing.

 

[Nouw]

ST didn't share the same amount of glory and is hardly recognized.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. While it doesn't quite seem to be recognised as the major original of the idea of Space Marines as much as it should, it does seem to be widely accepted as the origin of the whole infantry power armour thing.

Well compared to Doom anyway

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

If you say anything about Starcraft, Halo or Warhammer 40,000 I will nuke you miles away.

Ummm, one is good, one is overrated and one is garbage?

 

[StBishop]

Last night two of my friends got in a small argument about who is better: J.K. Rowling, or J.R.R. Tolkien (i think its Tolkien btw). anyway, i started thinking about their most famous works (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings respectively) and then my brain did a thing and came up with reasons that they are surprisingly similar.
1. They're both about people who, in there societies, are 'coming of age' (Harry gets invited to Hogwarts at 11, like all wizards, Frodo turns 30, which is hobbit equivalent of 18).
2. They focus on two main groups on one side of a fight of good vs evil.
3. The first group, who are all at the 'coming of age' time are the following:
-The main character (Harry/Frodo)
-His best friend (Ron/Sam)
-Two other friends who are friends with the main character, and have a blood relative to one of them (Hermione&Ginny(who is Ron's sister)/Merry&Pippin(Merry is related to Frodo)
4. The second group are older, wiser professionals:
-A fighter who dies early on (Sirius/Boromir)
-Another three who dont, one who has a beard, (Lupin, Hagrid, Arthur/Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas)
-Led by an aging powerful wizard

Spoiler

who dies but still guides the group

(Dumbledore/Gandalf(the Grey/White)
5. Another wizard who is an ally of the leader but betrays them (Snape/Saruman)
6. The enemy is led by a powerful being with control over many people with dark magic (Voldemort (using the Imperius Curse)/Sauron (using the 9 Rings of Men).
7. The dark enforcer corrupts someone with his magic who tries to win over the main character, fails and turns evil and tries to stop them (Wormtail/Gollum)
8. A person who joins the main character to guide them (Dobby/Smeagol)

Tell me what you think of this, or post another similar situation.

But Lupin dies.

 

[Bobbity]

All fantasy is based on Tolkien's works, to some extent or another, because he essentially created the genre. That said, I think that Harry Potter is actually pretty damned original, and (mostly) avoid's Tolkien's ideas - which is more than a little unusual for a fantasy work. Admittedly there are similarities, but those are either unintentional, have an interesting twist, or coincidental.

Now something like Eragon... well, don't even get me started...

 

[Altanese]

I'm just going to go ahead and say it:

When you break it down, of course you're going to find similarities between pretty much any work of fiction. Some are easier than others, granted, but it's all superficial and coincidental. For tens of thousands of years storytelling has followed the same basic premise for about two or three different kinds of stories. That and the fact that everything has been done before.