[HPforGrownups] Re: Fanon "ruining" canon (detailed)

Sat Jan 20 02:26:13 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 9805

> -George Lucas and JKR's similarities have been noted--what would 
> Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to say about the Star Wars saga?  (B. 
> Bennett, *A Certain Point of View*)
> 
Hi! I'm totally new to this egroup. My name is Tanja *feels uncomfortable while everyone says "Hi Tanja"*  I saw that George Lucas/ JKR thing and remembered that weird essay I wrote a long time ago (4 month?:) it's on my site, but since I don't know whether links are allowed or not I'll copy-and-paste it into the message. 

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The Harry Potter books are supposed to be inventive, escapistic, filled with clichs, ground breaking, sexist and generation-defining. Certainly, but wait a minute, haven't we heard it before? Have not a certain movie trilogy got rather similar response?

Star Wars was just as Harry Potter an imidiate success with the audience, but many critics predicted it's death. The time has proved them wrong. Of course, Harry Potter has not even existed for five years, so it is impossible to compare, but as far as we can judge Harry Potter might easily turn out to be the next Star Wars. 

But do the similarities stop on the success? 

Well, of course, both of them happen in a world different from ours, that is based on old faith, philosophy and mythology. Both have overnatural powers involved (The Force in SW and Magic in HP). In both there is a battle between good and evil. But let's look closer at the stories and characters!

  Luke Skywalker, the hero of the SW saga, lives a quiet life with his aunt and uncle (1). When he asks about his father, the aswer he gets is that his father was a pilot, who presumably died in a spaceship-crash. Similary, when Harry asks about his parents, the Dursleys answer that they were unemployed and died in a car crash (2). Both Luke's and Harry's foster families are disapproving of their respective parents' living and do not want the children to follow in their footsteps, but can not miss the fact that both boys are too much like their respective fathers(3).

Taking their first step into a larger world

At a certain point of their life something happens- they both get messages that open an entirely new world. Luke gets R2-D2's hologram, Harry- letters from no one (4). As a result of the message Luke finds Obi-Wan Kenobi, Harry is found by Hagrid (5). Now, are there any similarities between Hagrid and Obi-Wan? Both knew the boys' parents and were close friends with them. But there is another interesting detail- Hagrid was the one who brought baby Harry to the Dursleys, while Obi-Wan brought Luke to Owen and Beru (6).

After the meeting there are two similar things happen, though in different order. Obi-Wan gives Luke a lightsaber. "Your fathers lightsaber" says Obi-Wan. Luke doesn't know it now, but his father is Darth Vader, his enemy. Harry gets a wand and when the wand has chosen him Mr Ollivander mutters "It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather- just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destinied for this wand when it's brother- why, when it's brother gave you that scar" (7).    

 Now, both Luke and Obi-Wan, and Harry and Hagrid go to a big city. What place is the first they visit? "For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby", a description of the Leaky Cauldron fits the Star Wars Cantina well. The reason why old guide-figures in children's books and films are so obsessed with bars is unclear, but somehow they seem to find it amusing to bring young heroes there (8).   

  Here we come to the point when the hero meets more characters. What do we have at the hero's right hand? A sidekick with a pet (9). And if that wasn't enough, Ron and Harry drive to their school in an old, enchanted Ford Anglia that belongs to Ron's family. Compare to the antique, but specially modificated by Han, Millenium Falcon (10). 

Our heroes meet the girl in the story under similar circumstances- when saving her life (Harry and Ron have known Hermione since before, but that was after the troll attack the trio built) (11). Both girls are bossy leader characters, rules- loving, but willing to break the laws for the sake of justice(12).   

 Now we can see that the three main characters of SW and those of HP are more or less the same. We also know that Ron and Hermione will become a couple before the school is over, just like Han and Leia (13). Another interesting coincidence (?) is that Luke's and Leia's names both begin with an "L", while Harry's and Hermione's names begin with a "H" (14).    
 Back to the hero. Now thay have found their place (the Rebel Alliance and Hogwarts). They have to prove themselves and both reveal natural talents for flying. (15). Even in appereance they have their similarities. Glasses, scar, green eyes and jet-black hair ain't fooling nobody. Luke's haircut is an old joke among the fans, and it is widely known that Harry's hair is very scruffy (16). 

   Now, there is another HP character who has the role of Obi-Wan and that is (of course) Albus Dumbledore. Both of them are old, wise and... crazy. "He's a crazy old hermit" says uncle Owen, "I always said he was off his rocker" says Ron, impressed at how mad his hero is (17). But all you Hagrid-lovers, do not get upset about him missing parts of the role, he has another one. Both in SW and HP there is a large, not-entirely-human, strong, good- natured and terribly hairy and scruffy character who speaks funny. Of course I'm speaking about Chewbacca the Wookiee and Hagrid the half-giant (18).  

  There are other characters that are remarkably alike each-other in SW and HP, for instance Professor McGonagall resembles of the female leader Mon Mothma (19), Dudley is fat and mean, which reminds of a certain Jabba the Hutt (20), while the Weasley twins are added for the comic relief, just like the droid duo, C-3PO and R2-D2 (21). Dementor's cloaks resemble Emperor's and Vader's outfits just too much (22)  
  The darkest hour

Let's step back and look at the books and films at a bigger scale. As we know, the Original Trilogy of SW consists of three films (which is rather obvious, I suppose), where the first one is the most simple, sweet light-adventure, the second is deep, dark and serious, and the third film is the most commercial, most mainstream of them all. We still do not have a possibility to count the last three books in, but we have got more than a half, so we can try to analyse the existing ones. 

"A New Hope" and "the Philosopher's Stone" are, without doubt, the lightest and most childish of the films or books. But what is the eqivalent of "The Empire Strikes Back", is it book two ("the Chamber of Secrets") or the book in the middle ("the Goblet of Fire")? Personnaly, I think it is more correct to compare "Empire" to "Goblet", but I must admit that "Chamber" is more dark than both "Philosopher's Stone" and "Prizoner of Azkaban". 

Let's take a look at Dobby, who appears both in "Chamber" and "Goblet" (the suspected "Empire"s). He is a gnome-like character with bad grammar, who comes to our hero with good advise (23). Can it just be a coincidence? Or the fact that a gambling and not very honest person with high political position appears in both "Empire" (Lando Calrissian) and "Goblet" (Ludo Bagman) (24) ?

In "Chamber" Harry breaks his arm and gets all the bones removed. Cut-off arms and hands is a trademark of SW, and as we all remember, Luke got his hand cut off in "Empire" (25).

Also, in "Empire" Luke's life depends on whether he will be able to get his lightsaber in his hand to fight a snow monster, in "Goblet" Harry has to learn the Summoning Charm to get his Firebolt to fight a dragon (26)
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Ok, I know that half of this stuff can be found in any heroic tale in any corner of the world, but I still think it's a lot of fun

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