Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Three Way Comparison: Why the Harry Potter Series is Superior

SPOILER ALERT: This post will contain spoilers for the following 3 books series: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight (not that there's much to spoil there). If you read something the spoils any of these books, I don't want to hear it. I warned you.


First off, the is all completely my opinion. I'm open to thoughts, comments, and other people's opinions if you so desire.

Okay, I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Yes, I'm a little biased. But I do read a lot, so I feel like I have a little room to make some comparisons here. I'm choosing to compare these 3 books series because I recently read The Hunger Games series (which I highly recommend and would urge people who haven't read the books yet to not read any further) and as I read, I found aspects of those books that seemed as blatantly similar to things is Harry Potter and Twilight that it bothered me. So, there comparisons came about.



Dianna's Required Elements for a Good Book:
-excellent character development
-a clear protagonist and antagonist
-detailed and clear plot
-a unique and interesting main character




Twilight
-decent character development, get to know the Cullens, Bella, Charlie, Jacob, and select other character pretty well
-protagonist: Bella, antagonist: Mean vampires? Edward because he was mean and left Bella? Jake because he tries to break up Edward and Bella? The Volturi? Any other non vegetarian vampires? Werewolves? Everyone who's not a Cullen?
-NO PLOT WHATSOEVER
-Bella Swan could literally be any teenage girl her age. She is pretty plain and boring. The only thing that makes her interesting is Edward.
1 out of 4 elements


The Hunger Games
-great character development for a good number of characters, including main characters, District 12 occupants, other tributes, Capitol citizen involved in the main plot; this book gets the reader feeling much closer to many characters in 3 books than even Harry Potter did in it's first 3 books
-protagonist: Katniss, antagonist: the Capitol, mainly President Snow
-very clear cut plot, the end of nearly every chapter has the reader dying to keep reading and find out what happens next; constant action and events occurring
-Katniss Everdeen is unique to any other character I've ever encountered. She is fierce, powerful, intense, harsh, yet loving and compassionate. She is extremely unlikeable, but this doesn't hurt the books in any way. She uses people so that she can keep her family and close friends safe. She doesn't want to start a revolution but she hates the way she lives under Capitol. I call her the "anti-Bella" because the last thing she's worried about from day to day is which guy she's going to end up with.
4 out of 4 elements


Harry Potter
-absolutely amazing character development, get to know so many characters in so many different ways, know Harry extremely well despite the fact this book isn't written in first person (like Twilight and THG); two words: Severus Snape
-protagonist: Harry, antagonist: Lord Voldemort and his posse
-plot is so detailed I can't even begin to describe, everytime I reread the books I pick up on something new that connects
-Harry Potter is a unique and interesting character. He is selfless to the point that I don't believe anyone is actually like that, but it's a results of the circumstances of his life. When it comes right down to it, he would have died from day one if it could have saved everyone else, even people he's not close to. He is as loyal as a person can be. His history makes him interesting when he's introduced, but as the books progress, his personality development is a huge reason why he had the ability to kill Lord Voldemort.
4 out of 4 elements






I know I hate on Twilight a lot, but the writing is actually pretty good. Stephanie Meyer is a gifted writer, but let's be honest, these books were basically a dragged out love story, a love triangle, an oops baby, and a lot of building up to a battle that NEVER EVEN HAPPENED.

The Hunger Games book have a very interesting concept and a lot of unique characters, but Suzanne Collins has obviously read and stolen ideas from HP and Twilight. She compares President Snow to a snake so often that I feel like Voldemort is back again. The Katniss, Peeta, Gale love triangle has such a Bella, Edward, Jacob feel that I'm afraid one of them is going to turn into a werewolf. There's even a scene when Katniss is half asleep and hears Gale and Peeta discussing her, just like that scene in the tent when Jacob and Edward talk about Bella as she drifts off. Don't get me wrong, I really really liked these books. I just have my issues with them.

Harry Potter. The books with characters and plot and details that fit together is such an intricate way that I'm simply amazed the JK Rowling planned it all out so accurately. Not only that, she created this magical world from nothing. There are not enough words to describe how much I love these books. I'm truly blown away at how detailed the plot is. Let's not forget these are children's books. The writing level is less than that of THG and Twilight, but they're supposed to be that way. I don't feel like the HP phenomenon will go away anytime soon. I'm not saying there are no flaws in the books, but the good far outshines the bad.


But once again, I'm biased.

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