I thought it would be fun to write a series of articles comparing some very different stories and seeing which comes out on top. I’ll start with two stories that people have tried this with many times: it’s Harry Potter Versus The Lord of the Rings today!
If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, you probably know which tale will emerge victorious, but it should be fun to compare them nonetheless.
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the story of a boy who finds out he’s really a wizard and is whisked away to a magic school. There he plays sports and prepares for the coming war against the man who killed his parents.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is the story of four hobbits who make a perilous journey to destroy a magic ring. Even as the Ring moves closer to the one place it can be unmade, it begins to take hold of its bearer.
WatchMojo
Some time ago, a YouTube channel called WatchMojo made several videos comparing these two works. The first of these was Harry Potter Versus The Lord of the Rings. The second was Dumbledore Versus Gandalf.
If you know anything about WatchMojo, you’ll know that they put out quite a few videos every day. With that sort of schedule, it’s impossible for their videos to be anything but rushed. WatchMojo’s videos, for the most part, feel like the musings of a soulless board of directors.
WatchMojo’s comparison of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, for example, tries to pander to both fanbases. The result is a watered-down non-analysis intent on keeping up the pretence that there’s a valid comparison to be made. Unfortunately, this leads to WatchMojo downplaying one story’s strengths so the other can keep up.
Harry Potter Versus The Lord of the Rings
The WatchMojo comparison begins by comparing the fantasy worlds, in which they judged Middle-earth to be “the more vibrant and breathtaking of the two.”
Second came their comparison of Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins, where they decided that Harry was “the more interesting protagonist.”
Third, they pitted the stories’ supporting casts against each other, ending in The Lord of the Rings’ favour.
The fourth part compared the villains, and they couldn’t help but “bow our wands to the performance of Ralph Fiennes as the dastardly, misshapen, and terrifying Dark Lord.”
With the stories tied for points, WatchMojo’s tie-breaker was the special effects, and the point obviously went to The Lord of the Rings. This means that The Lord of the Rings won, but it was more of a pat-on-the-head sort of victory.
This all reeks of WatchMojo having thrown the video together in a matter of hours, as is the case with all their videos. There is little or no real analysis here; only an attempt to appease both fandoms so that the video will make money.
The stories’ themes are never brought up, and often WatchMojo’s videos said things that are simply not true. I don’t expect my comparison to be perfect, but I did spend more time on it than WatchMojo did, and I intend to look a lot deeper than “Harry rose up and completed his destiny.”
The Protagonist
I’m going to get this out of the way right here: Frodo Baggins is a far more interesting character than Harry Potter. However, I’m not going to compare the two of them here because Frodo’s not really the protagonist of The Lord of the Rings.
Frodo’s what we might call a deuteragonist: the character who’s second in importance to the protagonist. According to Tolkien himself, the “chief hero” of the story is actually Samwise Gamgee, so it’s time to see which of the two is more interesting: Harry or Sam.
Backstory
Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings have very different approaches to characters. Harry Potter grew up abused by his aunt, uncle, and cousin until a half-giant named Hagrid told him of his true identity as the wizard chosen one: the Boy Who Lived. His parents were murdered by the Dark Lord, whose name is Voldemort.
Samwise Gamgee was the youngest son of Bilbo Baggins’ gardener Hamfast. Bilbo taught young Sam how to read, and Sam developed a love of poetry and elves.
He followed in his father’s footsteps and became Bilbo’s gardener—Frodo’s after Bilbo left the Shire.
Eventually Sam learnt of the Ring from his friend Merry, who persuaded him to spy on their friend Frodo. When Gandalf catches him eavesdropping, the wizard enlists Sam to protect Frodo on his quest to take the Ring to Rivendell.
Quidditch
Now attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry discovers he has a talent for a magical sport called Quidditch, in which all the other kids play for 10-point goals while Harry tries to catch a ball worth 150 points.
I don’t think it’s hard to see the problem with this game: J. K. Rowling clearly designed it so that everything rests on Harry’s shoulders—so it’s always Harry who single-handedly wins the game.
I’m Going With You!
After they barely survive a journey to Rivendell, Samwise again eavesdrops on Frodo. When Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mordor and destroy it, Sam refuses to be parted from Frodo and follows him on the road to Mordor.
Verdict
Harry Potter, as a character, is very much a blank slate for the reader to project themself onto. He’s loyal, brave, and every other positive trait you’d expect of this kind of hero. He’s also a Chosen One with a great destiny, which protects him from all sources of danger except Voldemort himself, damaging the stakes in most scenes.
Near the end Harry returns from the dead as a literal metaphor for Jesus, and then he’s even more annoyingly perfect.
Samwise Gamgee is also loyal and brave, but he has negative qualities, too. He’s by no means the wisest hobbit around, for one thing.
Worse, when Frodo spares Gollum’s life, the chief hero of The Lord of the Rings doesn’t understand, interpreting this show of mercy as a sign of weakness.
It’s only after carrying the Ring himself that Sam feels any compassion for the wretched creature, but it’s that compassion that saves the world in the end.
While Harry Potter was born with a heroic destiny as the Chosen One, Samwise Gamgee actually has to overcome his own greatest flaw and grow as a person in order to save the world. Harry never had many flaws to begin with.
Supporting Characters
Both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings succeeded in getting large numbers of readers invested in each story’s characters.
At Hogwarts, Harry meets a group of friends to share his adventures with. The first of these is Ron Weasley, who devolves into a thoroughly unlikeable character in later books.
Harry’s other friend Hermione starts out with a good deal of personality and then becomes less interesting with each passing book.
When we meet Headmaster Dumbledore, he’s witty, eccentric, and likeable. But like Ron, Dumbledore degenerates into a secretive manipulator who treats everyone else like pawns. Severus Snape is the most interesting character in the series—until you realize that his motivations make no sense.
The Fellowship
When Frodo and Sam agree to take the Ring to Mordor, Elrond sends seven more companions with them. Gandalf the wizard joins the Fellowship as its de-facto leader.
Representing humans are Aragorn—the heir apparent to the throne of Gondor—and Boromir, the son of Gondor’s ruling steward.
Frodo’s relatives Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took refuse to be left behind. There’s also the elven prince Legolas and the dwarf Gimli Glóinson, who initially hate each other but eventually form an unbreakable friendship.
Names and People
Most of Harry Potter’s friends from Hogwarts are just names, and the ones with personalities usually lose them by the end.
Even if we could ignore that, a good chunk of what these supporting characters do consists of praising the Boy Who Lived. Harry’s the star here; it’s his world, and they’re just living in it.
By contrast, the deuteragonist Frodo Baggins is deeply flawed—Tolkien himself drew a parallel with Neville Chamberlain in the text—yet he’s always relatable. And despite Gandalf literally being a divine entity, he still acts more like a real human being than Dumbledore. Harry Potter’s increasingly-bland entourage can’t compete with dynamic characters like Frodo, Boromir, or Pippin.
The Fantasy World
Like many fantasy stories, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings each take place in a world of the author’s invention, but which world is better developed?
If there’s one thing J. K. Rowling is really good at, it’s evoking a magical British boarding school through quirky little details.
Hogwarts’ Great Hall, with its invisible ceiling and floating candles, is a truly memorable image. The Sorting Hat and the Four Houses are a perfect metaphor for the sort of cliques children form in schools. It’s these details that formed the heart of what Harry Potter meant to its readers.
The Lord of the Rings is set in J. R. R. Tolkien’s world of Arda, on the continent of Middle-earth, at the end of a time period called the Third Age. From the hills and rivers of the Shire to the abandoned Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm, there’s no shortage of charming details. But there’s also a feeling of depth to Tolkien’s universe.
Myth and Wonder
This isn’t to say there’s no depth to Rowling’s world, because there are some interesting concepts. Unfortunately most of those concepts are abandoned in favour of a mostly uninteresting battle between the Dark Lord and the Chosen One.
By the fifth book, all the charm of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is forgotten. Instead, we have the corrupt Ministry of Magic, where our heroes sneak about because they need to steal something or other.
Where Rowling’s Wizarding World exists within our own, Arda is (for all intents and purposes) a world unto itself.
There was so much more that Tolkien needed to do to make his world feel alive and complete, and the amazing thing is that he did it.
In the end, the charm of Hogwarts just can’t match the grandeur of the ultimate fantasy world. Middle-earth wins.
Villains
Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings have each given us at least one villain who’s recognizable to almost anyone. But which story tackles the concept of evil better?
The main threat faced by the Fellowship of the Ring is Sauron, the eponymous Lord of the Rings. Sauron was once a divine being called a Maia, but he became the Dark Lord Melkor’s lieutenant and eventually a second Dark Lord.
Though he cannot take physical form without the Ring, Sauron is joined by the power-crazed wizard Saruman.
Learning of the overwhelming power of Mordor also drives Denethor, the Ruling Steward of Gondor, completely insane—I’m counting him, too. Perhaps the most interesting is Gollum, a hobbit who bore the Ring for five centuries.
Death Eaters
During the seven years that make up the series, Harry Potter repeatedly faces his parents’ killer: the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Among Voldemort’s followers are Harry’s high-school nemesis Draco Malfoy; triple-agent Severus Snape; and an assortment of wizards and witches with names like Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback, and Corban Yaxley.
One Ring to Rule Them All
What is there to say about any of J. K. Rowling’s villains? Aside from Severus Snape and maybe Draco Malfoy, each of Harry’s enemies is just a name and perhaps a face or one defining trait. Rarely do they affect the plot, and even then they’re all interchangeable.
Even relatively interesting characters like Snape and Draco fall short of Denethor’s madness or Saruman’s charisma. And while the description of Voldemort’s face is memorable, Harry’s monologuing—almost moustache-twirling—nemesis can’t match the terrifying seduction of the One Ring.
Plot
What about the story itself? Both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings follow protagonists on a quest to destroy a Dark Lord.
Harry Potter spans seven books, with the longest being Order of the Phoenix. In the first few books Harry foils Voldemort’s attempts to return from the almost-dead.
This all happens in and around Hogwarts, with Harry’s school-life taking much of each book.
In the fourth book, Voldemort finally succeeds in gaining a new body, and the last three books follow Harry as he works to defeat the Dark Lord.
The books remain structured around Harry attending Hogwarts until the last book: Deathly Hallows, at which point the genre shifts yet again.
Don’t the Great Tales Never End?
The Lord of the Rings consists of six distinct “books,” despite being published in only three volumes.
Book One concerns the four hobbits’ journey to Rivendell and spends a good deal of that time just developing the main characters.
After the Council of Elrond at the start of Book Two, the story begins to move more quickly, with the Fellowship beginning their journey to Mordor.
Book Two ends when the members of the Fellowship go their separate ways at Amon Hen. The third, fourth, and fifth books detail the War of the Ring and the quest of Frodo and Sam, with Book Six following the hobbits in the years after the Ring’s destruction.
Fluff and Literature
Despite each book roughly spanning one year, Harry Potter suffers from some shortcomings when it comes to the plot.
Perhaps the most jarring are several abrupt changes in genre, which see the story go from mere children’s fluff to children’s fluff that thinks it’s for adults.
The way Rowling handles the issue of slavery is particularly childish, expecting us to find humour in the idea of slaves being forced to harm themselves. The pacing also has some major issues, with the longest book consisting almost entirely of filler.
Much of The Lord of the Rings was plotted down to the hour. It’s clear that Tolkien knew exactly what each of his characters was doing at any given time, and this attention to detail shows in every plot point.
Although its tone is different from that of The Hobbit, it still feels like it’s taking place in the same world. The Lord of the Rings explores the sort of themes that were relevant during and after the World Wars: themes ranging from the nature of evil to the importance of mercy and kindness.
The Lord of the Rings wins.
The Ending
The Lord of the Rings has thus far beaten Harry Potter in every category, but an ending can make or break a story. Let’s see how they compare.
The Scouring of the Shire
After Sam shows Gollum mercy, leading to the Ring falling into the Cracks of Doom, Frodo and Sam await their deaths as the mountain of fire explodes. Gandalf saves them, however, and they wake up in Ithilien. Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, and everything seems well. But when the four hobbits return to the Shire, they find it conquered by the last remnants of Saruman’s army.
The hobbits of the Shire fight a bloody battle only for Saruman to be killed on the doorstep of Bag End. Only by Sam’s box of elven soil is the Shire healed somewhat.
Sam later marries Rose Cotton, and they eventually have a daughter named Elanor. Frodo, bearing wounds that will never fully heal, leaves Middle-earth with the elves, leaving Sam to return to his family. The book ends as Samwise arrives home:
He drew a deep breath. “Well, I’m back,” he said.
The Return of the King
The Flaw in the Plan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ends rather differently. After searching for magical relics that Dumbledore believed would defeat Voldemort, Harry learns that his final task is to let Voldemort kill him, which will destroy the Dark Lord. He walks out into the forest where Voldemort’s army has made camp and stands still as Voldemort kills him with his signature curse.
This lasts about a minute, as Harry wakes up in a white train station where he meets Dumbledore’s spirit before choosing to return to life.
The now-resurrected Harry has become a purified Christ-figure who tries to save Voldemort’s soul.
Voldemort refuses to be saved, but because of a somewhat confusing twist, the Dark Lord’s curse backfires, and he dies. Not great, but a mildly serviceable ending…
All Was Well
Cue the epilogue! Nineteen years later we see that Harry married his high school girlfriend Ginny and had lots of children, one of whom he named after his least-favourite teacher.
Indeed, it seems that everyone except Draco married their high school sweetheart, too. But don’t worry; Draco’s happily married to someone we’ve never met! I think I’ll puke…
Harry’s son is going to Hogwarts for the first time, and he’s afraid he’ll be put in Slytherin House—the same house all the villains were in, because Slytherin House still exists for some reason. This is emblematic of a greater problem with this ending: the corrupt magical world still works just as it did before, complete with slavery and fascist fraternities.
Harry gives his son a talk about how Slytherins aren’t necessarily bad, despite the fact that the story has shown definitively that all Slytherins are evil. He sends another of his children to the school with the highest mortality rate short of the average American school, and the story ends with this inane line of narration:
All was well.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Winner: The Lord of the Rings
There’s no comparison this time. The ending of The Lord of the Rings ties together the themes of the story, leaving the reader on a bittersweet note.
Harry Potter is the opposite, answering none of the questions readers actually cared about. Instead, Rowling ends with a putrid, saccharine epilogue where we see that everyone lived happily ever after (except all the people who died to save Harry).
The line “All was well” is a terrible line to end a book with, not least because—in the case of Harry Potter—it’s a blatant lie.
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