***Warning: Spoilers for Eragon and Eldest ahead. You have been warned!***
Mr. Rochester recently finished reading the first two books of the Inheritance Trilogy and he remarked how much they mirror Star Wars and LoTR.
Below is a guest posting by Mr. R which lays out the similarities of the original Star Wars and Eragon & Co. The comparisons do give away plot points of the books so please stop reading if spoilers make you cry.
Episode IV: A New Hope – vs. – Book 1: Eragon
Ben Kenobi – vs. – Brom
Old man with mysterious background takes up quiet residence within a farming town and we find out in the second installment that he is keeping an eye on the son of his best friend turned enemy.
Luke Skywalker – vs. – Eragon
Simple, young, farm boy barely out of adolescence who has no knowledge of his parents and has been raised by his uncle and aunt. Something the evil empire wants falls into his backyard and, when the empire comes looking for it and can’t find it, they kill his uncle and burn his home to the ground. The boy then leaves his home and follows the mysterious man through the empire as the old man trains him in the ways of a mysterious power.
The mentor dies. Boy meets up with loner who plays by own rules (Han Solo – Murtagh). The boy saves the princess (Arya) who had been captured by the empire. Boy joins the rebel forces. Boy is involved in huge battle in which he gives the killing blow that decides the outcome of the battle.
Episode V: Empire Strikes Back – vs. – Book 2: Eldest
Yoda – vs. – Oromis
Boy journeys to hidden place where an old teacher exists unbeknown to the empire.
Side story about a “sibling†and their struggle to escape the empire while the rebellion tries to regroup. In the end, the boy battles with another of his kind who reveals to the boy that his unknown father was the man who betrayed the old order and helped the emperor gain control.
The second in command, the right-hand man and the executor for the empire, turns out to be a blood relative of the boy. The boy is wanted captured alive to take before the Emperor but is allowed to escape the clutches of the second-in-command.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – vs. – Book 3: ???
Farm boy and “sibling†work together to recover the “sibling’s†loved one.
Defeat the empire.
Teacher dies?
Turn the second in command to the good side?
–Mr. Rochester, now do you see why I married him?
I noticed that you did not warn readers about spoilers for Star Wars. Believe it or not, there do exist people that have never seen the movies. You might be surprised that they are even living amongst us.
Wow, that’s really weird. I just finished reading Eldest this summer. I just can’t wait for the third book. Amazing as it may seem, there really are people out there who haven’t seen the Star Wars movies. I’m one of those people. I might have seen Star Wars IV once, but it was a really long time ago and I don’t remember a thing about it. But lucky for you, I don’t cry because of spoilers.
Try reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Campbell…that will explain a lot. 🙂
I also notices the similarities in the first one there is also that elf chick(can’t remember the name) which is alot like Laya(spelling wrong) from Star Wars also Luke/Eragon descover them through vision/ projection(kind of similar) wouldn’t it be crazy/creepy if she was Eragons sister.
Not to mention how in the second one after the big battle in the first book/episode the rebellion change the location of there base because the other is known at the beginning of the second movie.
Also Eragon and Luke leave their training early because they need to help some one.
I think the funniest one is that the second book ends with “I am your brother” second episode of Starwars ends with I am your father
True, Star Wars did rip off a Japanese fairy tale. But that doesn’t make Eragon any more original. Lots of stories are rippofs, but Eragon goes far beyond any ripoff I’ve read/watched.
Even the prologue of the first book is an exact copy of A New Hope’s opening scene.
(Princess and her guards transporting important object for the rebellioin. Emperor’s right hand creep attacks them with his minions. Kills her guards. Princess manages to get rid of the important object, so it can land in hero farmboy’s backyard, and then she gets captured by the right-hand creep.)
Eragon is a cute story and I like some of the characters. But it also SUCKS.
PS. The only “Longshanks” is Aragorn (LOTR). There was no excuese for that either. Man, I’m just an 18 year old kid and I can come up with more original stories and nicknames than this guy can! Don’t believe me?
Ok…on the spot…I’ll make up a character who is…an archiologist who went into the profession so she could find her lost family tree…cuz she’s an orphan…and she finds out she’s related to Hitler…which sucks cuz she’s a Jewish liberal. And I’ll call her Cerberus (dog-god, cuz she likes to dig up bones) and her nickname can be Cerb Searcher.
I’m not pranking you. I did that in four minutes, at 1:49 am. Oh, and I’ll CREDIT the people I stole ideas from; thanks to George Lucas, becasue my archiologist idea came from Indiana Jones, and thanks to JK Rowling for giving me the idea to use Latin names.
Why don’t you try, Paolini. Making up your own story can be kind of fun.
couldnt agree more with this analysis I am always spotting parralells between LOTR and star wars and Eragon/Eldest
I also noticed similarities to Star Trek in the Inheritence Trilogy, particularly Eldest. The Way the dwarven system of throne-inheriting works is very similar to that of the Klingon Empire, and the elves being vegetarians and always showing the logical way, doesn’t that in the very least remind you of Vulcans?
Have any of you read Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series? I think Mr. Paolini did an excellent job of weaving alot of sifferent fiction/fantasy into his own tale.
Okay, that’s ST, SW, LOTR, and HP all ripped off by Eragon in one fell swoop? I wish Eragon would die!
Durr, Me love Eragon. It So Original. Durrrr
Hey, I loved both. Most fantasy borrows from the greats. It is not a bad thing!
Well, you see, borrowing from other sources isn’t a necessarily bad thing. However, the thing you have to do when you do that kind of thing is to change it so it’s not so strikingly obvious, such that people view it as your work not somebody else’s. Granted, Paolini started writing the series when he was 16, so give him a break. It’s very good for his age when he was writing it. However, I do hope he’ll gain experience (which I’ve seen in Eldest, there aren’t so many similarities after a while)
Oh, another way Eragon ripped off Star Trek is the Kull from Eragon are super-warriors used by the enemy who can go days without food or sleep. The Jem’Hadar in Star Trek were a race of super-warriors who did not need food or sleep, and they were used by the bad guys as well. Doesn’t that hint at ripping-off?
lol, Babylon 5 rules!
Here are some similariies I picked up between Star Trek and Eragon.
Star Trek–Superwarriors called Jem’Hadar are used by the enemy and need no food or sleep. Are primarily used as shock troops
Eragon– Superwarriors called Kull are used by the enemy as shock troops, and can go days without food or sleep and still be ready for batle.
I love the Inhertiance trilogy but he didnt mean to rip off them. Besides his books are one worl not a galxay like star wars. Plus star wars has all these clone war books.
Does anybody know when book 3 in the trilogy comes out? oh and keep your eyes open for a book called Zaraglen its gonna come out in at least 7 years form now.
There is a excerpt from the third book if you create an account here:
http://www.alagaesia.com/index.php. I could not find a release date.
Picking up on what Supernerd said, I noticed something interesting. The Breen in Star Trek look like the Ubese in Star Wars. I wonder if the next Eragon book will have characters or races that look like that?
Florida Teacher…you’re not so bright for a teacher. I just read those books and they are almost nothing like Eragon. I don’t know what you read but they are not similar except for the dragons…
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I grew up with starwars, but I didn’t notice the similarities when I first read Eragon and Eldest…until I watched starwars again. I actually felt…betrayed. These great stories were just ripped off from a real genius.
In Paolini’s defense, tho, he was just a kid when he wrote Eragon.
I’m a kid who likes to make up stories too, and I’ll admit I’ve borrowed parts of other books/movies but to make it that obvious…
i m a big star wars fan and i couldnt help draw parallels with CP’s books but thats wut attracted me towards them!! star wars set in middle earth….. to me that is a very appealing interpretation.
The story line is certainly a copy of star wars but its still well written so i look forward to the next one.