Why Eragon is NOTHING like ____________

[Just Some Guy]

To anyone familiar with popular fantasy works published in the past 50 years are quite aware that Eragon borrowed liberally from many, many sources.  A friend once told me "Good writers create; great writers steal," but I think he overlooked the fact that incredibly crappy writers steal a lot from as many different sources as possible.  So, what "homages" did you notice in the movie?

Just to cover the most obvious source, there is Jackon's film version of The Lord of the Rings.  I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that things were borrowed from the novel (and I'll give the original author credit and recognize that they have at least read some fantasy rather than just watching the popular movies) but so much of the film is clearly taken directly from Jackson's film.  Certain scenes and effects especially stand out like the "not Balrog".

The telepathic dragon riders are taken from Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern series.  No threadfall for them to fight, though.

[RobtheBarbarian]

I noticed a lot of Dragonheart-like moments, but that might have been unavoidable what with the material.

What the whole movie reminded me most of was a bad game of D&D. You know, new characters literally dropping out of the sky, unoriginal evil wizard overlords, fruity impractical clothes and armor (though that's common to most sword and sorcery movies)... all it needed was the voice of the DM playing over the movie like a narrator, saying things like "Make a will save ... ok, your character is struck down by a spell the evil wizard put on you while you were in prison."

[Hobbit]

The book's much better, but it still borrows a lot.  The world, like most any fantasy worlds, is Tolkeinesque, as Tolkein invented modern fantasy, and the plot, at least of the first book, is very much Star Wars, just in a different setting.

Think about it.  A long time ago in a galaxy fantasy world far, far away, there were these guys known as Jedi dragon riders who used the force dragons and magic to be the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic whatever they had before now.  Then, an ambitious young Jedi rider named Anakin Galbatorix decided that the others were holding him back and, in a quest to gain power, overthrew the old order and hunted down and killed nearly all of the other Jedi knights riders, then started his evil galactic empire.  Flash forward a bit.  Princess Leia Aria is carrying the Rebellion's Varden's last hope, the stolen Death Star plans dragon egg on her starship horse when she is ambushed by agents of the Empire and is forced to send it away on an escape pod with magic into the middle of nowhere, where it is stumbled upon by a young boy named Luke Eragon, who is a poor farm boy who lives with his uncle, since his parents are both gone.  Before long, stormtroopers not orcs come looking for the droidsagon and kill Luke's Eragon's uncle to find them.  Then, the wisened old sage, who was once a Jedi rider himself, takes the boy on a journey to deliver the plans dragon to the rebels on Alderaan Varden in the mountains.  Along the way, they run into a jack-of-all-trades loner scoundrel guy, who helps them save Princess Leia Aria, killing Obi-Brom Kenobi in the process.  Then, when they go find the rebels on Yavin Varden in the mountains, only to find that they have led the Empire there.  Then, an epic battle ensues, in which Luke Eragon must use the force magic and his dragon to defeat the Emporer's ultimate weapon, the Death Star a shade by hitting a small, thermal exhaust port, right below the main port his heart.  The rebels Varden win, and we go on to the sequel, because the Empire's still alive and well.

[mantis in my pantis]

  Jawohl!

[Principal_Skin-trade]

I think this movie reminds me more of Quest for the delta knights.... but funny thing is I thought that movie was godawful... whilst I thought eragon was simply... mediocre.

[Indomitus]

Great shot, Hobbit, that was one in a million!   

[Principal_Skin-trade]

Great shot, Hobbit, that was one in a million!   

The ring will be with you... always.

[Tyrant]

  Hobbit, I've decided you're the most brilliant person on this forum. 

  I've always wondered if it's possible to write anything without copying from something else to some level. People who are accused of ripping off are usually just the ones who didn't cover it up as good as others. It'd be interesting if someone were raised in an environment with absolutely no media stimulation at all to see if they could come up with something truly original.

[Bartender]

I am actually an Anti-Shurtugal member, or Anti. So I am well versed in all of Eragon's flaws.

One thing that I laugh at is the Dwarves and Elves. Dwarves and Elves of Eragonland (Alawhatsit) hate eachother, why? Wha, wha, wha, wha 'cause they're Dwarves and Elves. Tolkien (who started this trend) at least explained WHY they hated eachother. It was because the Dwarves of the first age stole a Silmaril from the Elves of the First Age. In Eragon? No reason.  Just 'cause.

Eragon has the exact same magic system as Earthsea. It has a VERY similar dragon system to Pern. It's set in Middle-Earth. And it shares a lot of plot with SW.

[Rude]

It'd be interesting if someone were raised in an environment with absolutely no media stimulation at all to see if they could come up with something truly original.

Didn't Joseph Campbell cover that topic in The Power Of Myth?... Or maybe that was Josef Mengele and his experiments.
Hmmm....

-Rude

[Hobbit]

I am actually an Anti-Shurtugal member, or Anti. So I am well versed in all of Eragon's flaws.

One thing that I laugh at is the Dwarves and Elves. Dwarves and Elves of Eragonland (Alawhatsit) hate eachother, why? Wha, wha, wha, wha 'cause they're Dwarves and Elves. Tolkien (who started this trend) at least explained WHY they hated eachother. It was because the Dwarves of the first age stole a Silmaril from the Elves of the First Age. In Eragon? No reason.  Just 'cause.

Eragon has the exact same magic system as Earthsea. It has a VERY similar dragon system to Pern. It's set in Middle-Earth. And it shares a lot of plot with SW.

Yeah, but that wasn't explained in "The Lord of the Rings," and the author of Eragon has yet to write the functional equivalent of "The Silmarillion."

As for the rest of it, I'll excuse him because a) he was only 15 when he wrote the first one and b) at least he's stealing from the best.

[Just Some Guy]

I am actually an Anti-Shurtugal member, or Anti. So I am well versed in all of Eragon's flaws.

One thing that I laugh at is the Dwarves and Elves. Dwarves and Elves of Eragonland (Alawhatsit) hate eachother, why? Wha, wha, wha, wha 'cause they're Dwarves and Elves. Tolkien (who started this trend) at least explained WHY they hated eachother. It was because the Dwarves of the first age stole a Silmaril from the Elves of the First Age. In Eragon? No reason.  Just 'cause.

Eragon has the exact same magic system as Earthsea. It has a VERY similar dragon system to Pern. It's set in Middle-Earth. And it shares a lot of plot with SW.

Yeah, but that wasn't explained in "The Lord of the Rings," and the author of Eragon has yet to write the functional equivalent of "The Silmarillion."

As for the rest of it, I'll excuse him because a) he was only 15 when he wrote the first one and b) at least he's stealing from the best.

Even discounting the Silmarillion, the reason Tolkien had elves and dwarves hate each other was not because another, better author said that elves and dwarves hate each other.

[Hobbit]

Even discounting the Silmarillion, the reason Tolkien had elves and dwarves hate each other was not because another, better author said that elves and dwarves hate each other.

I wouldn't be too sure (except for the better part, because I doubt there's a better fantasy author).  Tolkein and his pal C.S. Lewis both based all of their fantasy creatures off of creatures from ancient myths.  In fact, Tolkein and Lewis had many 'heated discussions' over the fact that Lewis mixed multiple mythologies in the same setting.  Narnia contained both naiads (water spirits) and dryads (tree spirits) which, despite their similar names, come from completely different mythology sets.  It had ettins (Norse) and centaur (Greek).  Tolkein believed in a 'pure' mythology.

[Just Some Guy]

I wouldn't be too sure (except for the better part, because I doubt there's a better fantasy author).

While I'm not a scholar of Norse mythology, Tolkien's major source that he worked his mythos from, I don't recall anything about elves and dwarves hating each other in them.  In fact, I can't think of any time off the top of my head where they interacted.  The enmity between the two races is a modern creation of Tolkien.

[MarkAndrew]

Well, the Rheingold has some groundwork for the whole Elf/Dwarf hate...though that was over a theft as well.