Poll: Whats better; Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter?

[Bloodstain]

I read both The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and all Harry Potter novels.

I agree that TLotR is way better. I just admire the universe Tolkien created.
Everyone, read the Silmarillion! Although it's very slow-paced and difficult to read, it's pure beauty.

Enjoy both series alot, but LOTR is way better in my opinion.

Should have had a poll with LoTR vs Star wars instead.

Oh god, it would either be epic flame wars or everybody going "I don't know, I like both".

 

[krashash]

"Lord of the Rings was instrumental in creation of the modern fantasy genre, but I couldn't get through the books. I think it was in Return of the King, when I realized that I needed to know all of the history for about 60 characters and an entire fantasy world, that I stopped. Lord of the Rings gets too bogged down in its own mythology.

This isn't an easy direct comparison, though. LoTR is mostly high fantasy (concerned with worldly affairs); Harry Potter is mostly heroic fantasy (concerned with the protagonist's affairs)."

- This. Reading high fantasy is awesome, but it takes a real commitment to really enjoy it.

 

[Lt.Snuffles]

never read the lotr books so ill go with hp

You really should read them, it is worth it.

 

[Alex Cowan]

For me, it has to be Lord of the Rings. The sheer depth and detail is staggering, especially if you read some of Tolkein's other novels. The Silmarillion, whilst being fairly dry in terms of storytelling, contains a world so detailed you would seriously think you were reading about a real place. He even created at least 2 complete languages!

For people complaining about accessibility, there is always The Hobbit, written with a younger age group in mind, with relatable characters and a faster plot, whilst still keeping a sense of the deep universe behind it all.

 

[The Night Shade]

Lord of the rings why? the 3 movies have an awesome cast and a very good story.While Harry Potter has more stories none of them were really that good,the cast is ok but the problem is with Harry Potter 4,5,6 those movies were based on harry getting laid with a lot more annoying things that we don't care and the special effects alone were the one only thing to watch them.

The books well..... i read all of lord of the rings and only 2 of Harry Potter but i think lord of the rings is better by far

 

[Gabanuka]

Both are really good, but I'm gonna say LoTr. Its just beautiful to read.

 

[Macgyvercas]

If you go by the box office, Harry Potter (Harry Potter is the highest grossing film series worldwide as of June 2010. Lord of the Rings is 4th).

My personal opinion? Lord of the Rings. Sauron > Voldemort

The hp series did better because it has more movies. there arent any other 8 movie series out that i can think of. but how is this even a fucking contest, hp is slightly childish, and has a number of plot holes, small ones i admit, and LOTR defined the f-ing genre. his world was incredibly complex, there is a reason that almost every fantasy series in the world has similarities to LOTR and why elves shoot bows and commune with trees, and dwarfs have braided beards and use battle axes. without tolkein elves would be equely qualified to sell cookies and dwarves would be hired by lucas films.
cookie for the reference?

I do prefer Lord of the Rings over Harry Potter.

I just feel the need to drag numbers into everything.

Also, the number of movies doesn't make that much difference. Believe it or not, Harry Potter beat James Bond at the box office and there are 22 Bond movies.

 

[pwnzerstick]

Lotr, gets major points out of the gate for not having all of its fans be 5th graders who run around with horrible brittish accents, waving wands at each other. Also Lotr is amazing.

 

[Zarokima]

Thankfully you specified novels. I'm sorry to the Potter fans, but honestly I think it's an insult to Tolkien to compare him to Rowling. The man was a literary genius. Rowling's work is nice, but this is like comparing Rent to Hamlet.

For the movies I do prefer Potter, though.

Also in terms of legacy, damn near the entirety of modern fantasy has roots in Tolkein's work. No comparison whatsoever (though to be fair, HP is much newer).

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

I read both The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and all Harry Potter novels.

I agree that TLotR is way better. I just admire the universe Tolkien created.
Everyone, read the Silmarillion! Although it's very slow-paced and difficult to read, it's pure beauty.

You should try reading The Children of Húrin since you've done pretty much the rest of the mythos.

Just don't do it if you're feeling sad. Because this book is no pick-me-up.

 

[Ickorus]

Lord of the Rings by far, Harry Potter is ok but it just doesn't have the depth LotR has.

 

[The Night Shade]

Sorry for double-post,hey first time i do it

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Also, the number of movies doesn't make that much difference. Believe it or not, Harry Potter beat James Bond at the box office and there are 22 Bond movies.

Part of that has to do with inflation. Of all three film franchises (Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond) HP has the largest inflation advantage. If you feel like determining which is best quantitatively that is

 

[GameGoddess101]

Everyone, read the Silmarillion! Although it's very slow-paced and difficult to read, it's pure beauty.

I agree. I read the LoTR books BEFORE the Silmarillion and, even though the first chapters are Biblical and tricky, all after that feels like other LoTR books. The Hobbit is a pretty good starter in the Tolkienverse.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Does Harry Potter have the battle of Helms Deep?

Didn't think so.
However, Harry Potter has been a very good thing in general. It's gotten millions upon millions of people into reading and suddenly made it okay to be interested in fantasy again. But it's still not as good as Tolkein's Epic of Epics.

 

[masher]

Most definitely Lord of the Rings. I never liked the rules in Harry Potter's "fantasy", their realm. I'll always prefer the rules and ideas set by such minds like Tolkien or Gary Gygax.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Also, the number of movies doesn't make that much difference. Believe it or not, Harry Potter beat James Bond at the box office and there are 22 Bond movies.

Part of that has to do with inflation. Of all three film franchises (Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond) HP has the largest inflation advantage. If you feel like determining which is best quantitatively that is

I believe the numbers were adjusted for inflation. The best highest grossing in North America list ws not though. This was worldwide.

 

[Locko96]

I love HP. Heck, I've basically grown up with it. However, I can literally recite 90% of the lines in the LOTR movies on site. That has to count for something.

 

[no oneder]

Neither is great, they are both awful.

If I had to choose, it would be Harry Potter. It's better written, it is actually part of my childhood (I read 1 and 2) and because Lord of the Rings is a total nerdfest.

 

[traineesword]

Harry Potter- loved by kids and will be forgotten in a few years

Lord of the Rings- One of the greatest works of fiction ever written and all but created the modern fantasy genre.

Without Harry potter there would be no Harry Potter.

Without LOTR there would be no- DnD, Warhammer (and Warhammer 40.000 by extension), Warcraft, pretty much every fantasy series ever.

without harry potter there also wouldn't be that really crappy cartoon called ... big magical book or something... basically, it was a cartoon that ripped so hard of Harry Potter that it wasn't even funny, i don't even get how the writers got away with it. It must have run dry quick though, because in order to make it watchable for kids, the voldemort equivalent guy would have had to be defeated every episode.

anyway, that wasn't a point in Harry Potter's favour. but here is, at least Harry Potter doesn't have a song on every other 2 pages. thats probably my only dissapointment in the Lord of the Rings books, and i know i'm probably missing something by skipping most of them.

still, Lord of the Rings is a brilliant collection of fantasy novels.