Friday, May 21, 2010

LOST and Harry Potter, or, I'm a wicked big geek.

So, did you know that literary sensation Harry Potter and television sensation Lost are EXACTLY THE SAME THING?!

You didn't?? Well, neither did I until I drank a little too much wine before the usual Tuesday night tradition of squeeing over Lost. Squeeing, or yelling at the writers. Or crying. Or all three. I mean, what the fuck. Sun and Jin?? What a terrible, heartbreaking and awesome scene. I mean, Jin was on my "Characters I want to survive the whole series" list. Yes, that was an actual list. And it happened when I was reading Harry Potter too. Obvi, Dumbledore had to die at some point. And at least one of the Weasleys, because that's just statistics. But no matter what, Ron and Hermione had to live. Harry was expendable. No offense mate.

See? First similarity right there. Weird list making. And blog posting....anywhoodle.

The thing is, they really do follow the same similar story arc. Our hero (Harry/Jack/other character who is way cooler than either of these guys) is flung into an unfamilar world (Hogwarts/The Island) where things are not quite as they seem (Voldemort and Death Eaters/The Others, Smokey, all that weird shit). In the end, a battle is fought between good and evil (Jacob/Jack vs The Man in Black/Locke). Since Lost hasn't ended, I can't say for certain, but let's assume that in the end, Good wins out. Tada, they're the same thing!

What? That's the plot of like, everything ever?
Sigh. Fine. Let's continue.

As Maria once said, let's start at the very beginning. Season One, Book One.

Oceanic flight 815 lands on Craphole Island, and suddenly Jack is thrown into the role of hero. Everyone expects him to be making decisions, which he does. He's kinda of a tool, but people seem to like him. When Harry discovers he's a Wizard and gets to Hogwarts, he finds out that he's actually super-famous. He's the JoBro of the Wizarding world. People think he's a hero. Neither Jack or Harry wanted to be a hero, but they end up fulfilling that destiny. Like all heros, they have adversaries. Jack finds himself up against Locke, and ocassionally Sawyer neither who like the way he's running things. Professor Snape hates Harry (for a multitude of reasons) but especially hates his little hero persona. If I was a geek, I'd throw some quotes in here as reference, but I am clearly too cool for that.

There are some other characters in there as well. Fred and George and Hurley are pretty good at providing comic relief and (spoiler alert!) end up becoming pretty important characters. Everyone, especially Boone, seem to hate Shannon but eventually we know it's just because he loves her and after that stupid French translation, she was almost useful sometimes. Oh hai Hermione and the troll! Hermione also was a totes stuck up bitch, but eventually she grew on us, and people loved her. Including Sayid. No, wait. He loved Shannon. They're so similar I'm getting confused!

In the first season of Lost, we find out that the camp has been infiltrated by an Other, Ethan. He seemed like a good dude, who just occasionally smelled like Garlic...what up Quirrell! No one suspected him until Hurley found out that he wasn't on the manifest/The Dark Lord popped out the back of his head. But after his terrible act of kidnapping Claire/trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone (Yes, I'm using the Brit wording so I sound more legit) he got his comeuppance and was killed. Vegence is beautiful!

Oh, and we found out that everyone has daddy issues. Yes Harry, that means you too. Jack and Harry, your dads are dead. Just...let it go, okay?

(to be continued...)

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