Who's your favorite Harry Potter character?

[nevilleweasley]

Whats your favorite, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Lord of the Rings, hands down. It's not even a fair comparison. Better to compare Harry Potter to something like the Twilight series.

 

[nevilleweasley]

i think both are good, but i am definately an HP fan. what makes it better in your opinion? my reasoning is that the characters seem more real, and i also love the community it created and all the other things that came from it(i.eodcasts, chats friendships, and the people i have met on forge in my HP themed guild

 

[The Lady Redneck]

I like both but would compare HP more with The Hobbit or C.S Lewis Chronicles of Narnia. As they were penned as children's stories. Where LOTR was aimed at and Adult audience.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

i think both are good, but i am definately an HP fan. what makes it better in your opinion? my reasoning is that the characters seem more real, and i also love the community it created and all the other things that came from it(i.eodcasts, chats friendships, and the people i have met on forge in my HP themed guild

What makes it better? Pretty much everything about it. The characters in LOTR are just as "real", they're just set in a completely imaginary world rather than a slightly altered version of our world. LOTR has a moral to it, which I have not heard claimed about HP. (Incidentally, so does the Narnia series. In fact, the moral message is the point of the Narnia series.) As far as community and such, LOTR has had that since long before the Peter Jackson movie versions came out. JRR Tolkien also penned many other works based on the world of which Middle Earth is part, including a rather exhaustive "historical" work (The Silmarillion) which was edited by his son, Christopher (for whom he wrote The Hobbit.) I first came across LOTR in the early to mid 70s when I was a teenager. It had a huge influence on how I look at life. The lessons on friendship, love and sacrifice, as well as the cautionary lessons from characters like Boromir, Saruman, Gollum and others are hugely applicable to living in this world.

 

[nevilleweasley]

thanks, for your opinion. all is true, and i think LOTR is a fantastic series.

 

[PJS299]

Same as JBG, LOTR beats HP.

I remember reading the HP books, and I remember reading LOTR, and I feel like I got more out of LOTR. Percy Jackson is good too, and I feel like I prefer that to HP too. LOTR has a great lesson, and I like reading something that takes place out of this time. But I do love J. K. Rowling's story, the rags to riches. I haven't ever read Twilight though...

 

[PJS299]

What about Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner?

All have similar messages, but I like HG the best. I feel like Divergent is just a copy of HG...
I guess I'll start a new thread

 

[nevilleweasley]

ive never read hunger games, divergent, or maze runner, though i have heard of all three. percy jackson is pretty good. i feel the same way you do with HP as with LOTR, i just felt i got more enjoyment out of HP

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

I think the most complex and 'interesting' character in the Potter universe is Severus Snape,
In the LOTR Gandalf

 

[nevilleweasley]

severus isn't my favorite, but he certainly is interesting. my favorite LOTR character is Samwise

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Samwise is certainly a great character, as is Gandalf. I think my favorites are Faramir and Eowyn.

 

[Jackshat]

Never saw any of the HPs. Saw one of the LoTRs where that spider nailed a hobbit. Regarding "Twilight"...just shoot me! Thoroughly disappointed with how they portrayed lycan. The bella character was unbelievably dull and I was hoping to hear news a lycan whacked her so I could stomach trying to watch another one.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Never saw any of the HPs.

I saw the first one and one or two others, mainly because my wife read the books and wanted to see the movies. She saw the others with her daughter, I think. I just found them boring and most of the characters obnoxious.

Saw one of the LoTRs where that spider nailed a hobbit.

I read the books as a teen and watched all the LOTR movies multiple times. You didn't start with the first one, so it probably didn't make much sense to you. (And the Hobbit got rescued from the spider...by Samwise.)

Regarding "Twilight"...just shoot me! Thoroughly disappointed with how they portrayed lycan. The bella character was unbelievably dull and I was hoping to hear news a lycan whacked her so I could stomach trying to watch another one.

I agree about the Twilight series...and I actually read the books. The books were better, but that's not saying much. Whatshername was awful as Bella, but then Bella was one of the most boring (and stupid) characters I've ever seen in a book anyway.

The really interesting thing to me is that both Twilight and Harry Potter were written by professional authors, meaning that it was their main occupation. Both LOTR and the Narnia books were written by men who were primarily academics, professors at Oxford (both Tolkien and Lewis) and Cambridge (Lewis). They were also men of faith who definitely infused their works with Christian themes and messages, especially C.S. Lewis with the Narnia books.

 

[nevilleweasley]

(And the Hobbit got rescued from the spider...by Samwise.)

GO SAMWISE!

 

[xivarmy]

I started to watch the first twilight movie once - I'd made it through Vampire Diaries series with mild enjoyment which I figured was in the same camp of soppy sad vampires that aren't the vampires i'm really looking for but are what has to pass for them in pop culture these days

I think I made it 5 minutes into Twilight and then shut it off. As much as Elena in VD pissed me off for being the most boring character in the series that it centers around (she doesn't really do things mostly, everyone else does things and things happen to her), at least she showed emotion - the dead expression of Kristen Stewart was just too much to suffer through.

The harry potter movies were mostly enjoyable except for deathly hallows - even as a two part movie it felt awfully rushed and lacking a sense of continuity. I think they just tried too hard to include everything from the last very large book and in the process everything missed a lot of context. I think the script needed more editing to make a story that flowed well inside their time constraints. Or having not actually read the books, maybe the last book really is just an awfully forced conclusion to an otherwise enjoyable series

When it comes to fantasy series, my all-time favorites have got to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and its spinoff Angel.

In terms of books, I enjoyed the Narnia books as a kid. Never really read LotR - it's one of those things that have been built up so much by reputation that you feel you have to really devote your attention to it if you're going to take it on - and thus end up not reading it at all instead

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

In terms of books, I enjoyed the Narnia books as a kid. Never really read LotR - it's one of those things that have been built up so much by reputation that you feel you have to really devote your attention to it if you're going to take it on - and thus end up not reading it at all instead

I actually didn't read the Narnia books until several decades into adulthood. (Some may say that I'm still not into adulthood, but all I've got to say to them is, "I'm rubber and you're glue! What you say bounces off me and sticks to you!")
LOTR is a long read, but it doesn't feel like it when you're reading it. And it is well worth the time. There are many, many great scenes in the books that never made it into the movies. Fans of the books know that the Tom Bombadil character not being in the first movie was a big disappointment.

 

[The Lady Redneck]

Maybe a bit OT But I find that with every thing I have read the books of first. The movies are always something of a let down. Still good but no were near as exciting or gripping as the books. I had read all Flemings James Bond books before the first Bond Movie was released. Now the Bond movies are so far removed fromtheir origins as to be a parody. I loved The Stand by Stephen King but there were so much left out of the movie that I was really let down on that one. The first 2 Jack Reacher movies were a let down also. mainly because od the total miss casting of the main character. There are others, and am sure y'all have been disappointed by a movie at some time.

 

[xivarmy]

Maybe a bit OT But I find that with every thing I have read the books of first. The movies are always something of a let down. Still good but no were near as exciting or gripping as the books. I had read all Flemings James Bond books before the first Bond Movie was released. Now the Bond movies are so far removed fromtheir origins as to be a parody. I loved The Stand by Stephen King but there were so much left out of the movie that I was really let down on that one. The first 2 Jack Reacher movies were a let down also. mainly because od the total miss casting of the main character. There are others, and am sure y'all have been disappointed by a movie at some time.

Oddly enough, Stephen King is an example of an author that I far prefer the movies. I have not tried specifically to read the Stand, but in general I struggle to make it through any Stephen King book I started - but I love the movies and television based on his material! I find his writing just way too longwinded and slow to develop.

 

[The Lady Redneck]

And I will bring up the Novel of Novels War and Peace. I absolutely LOVE that book. For its Historical accuracy to the love and drama from beginning to end.