Star Wars wannabe?

[lizzy.d]

I recently read a harsh critique on the Eragon series. The critic said it was Star Wars with a dragon instead of a lightsaber. I'm well aware of the glaring similarities between the two storylines and I'm not speaking for or against Christopher Paolini. My question is this:

If I introduce my male hero to a female lead while both are incarcerated and hero rescues said female because she's there and he feels that he ought to, will that peg me as a copy-cat (similar scenario in both Star Wars and Eragon) or is that a broad enough area that it's widely written and acceptable as archetype?

I've been wracking my brain for other ways to introduce them but there are so many details that fit as it already is and nobody wants to cooperate (my characters get a little snarky when I force them to do things they don't want to do.....) and I'd have to re-write so much.

Oh, now I just sound like a lazy whiner. lol

Thoughts anyone? I can provide more contextual detail if it would assist.

Thanks!

 

[JCFarnham]

The useless advice would be ... do whatever your story needs to work.

If you look into Star Wars you'll find that George Lucas has no problem telling people his inspirations. He took a lot of his cues from Samurai films, including a number of character archetypes. The point is that both Star Wars and Eragon each have their fair share of tribute to traditional story telling (I guess one more successfully than the other, but that's opinion really).

So I think you're right when you say your plot premise is archetypal. As long as the writing is uniquely yours, it really shouldn't matter whether its been done before. Told well, any story is good story.

I'm feel a bit bad for giving such a crap answer, but if I think of anything else!

 

[lizzy.d]

No, that's wonderful! I really appreciate your input!

 

[JCFarnham]

And besides, I would never say that being compared to Star Wars is a harsh critique. Paolini is probably loving it haha.

 

[Reaver]

I'd say that the vast majority of fiction uses archetypes and follows a certain course, all of it ending in the apotheosis of the main character, whether in a good way or not. Or maybe the MC doesn't change at all at the end. I've seen lots of great stories like that.

Have you read Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"? If not, I highly recommend it. It'll definitely make you feel better about your work. It definitely helped me. I hope it does the same for you.

 

[Queshire]

Ha~~~ I actually enjoyed the first Eragon books, I didn't even notice any failings until they were pointed out to me, and then I couldn't NOT see them. Let me tell you, that ruined a series that I really enjoyed. -_-

Now, it's important to say don't NOT do something just 'cuz the Simpsons (or in this case star wars) did it. There's very few real NEW ideas, mostly just putting together the parts in different order.

That said, saving the damsel in distress IS one of the oldest tricks in the book, that doesn't make it bad, but it does require you to put more thought into what your doing to make it unique.

Without knowing more about your characters, I can't give much advice, but there's plenty of ways to switch it up, for example;

-The girl rescues HIM
-He goes to rescue the girl, only to find an empty cell, she already broke out on her own.
-For one reason or another, she doesn't want to leave, maybe she just objects to being rescued, or thinks she deserves to be in jail.
-He opens her cell door to rescue her, she attacks him as part of her own escape attempt.

Basically, don't just make her the helpless little girl waiting to be saved by the big old hero.

Without knowing more

 

[Ice Spider]

Absolutely not, that's a different variation on the trope (you can probably find something along those lines in spy stories, though there it would probably be the powerful daughter of a mob boss and the hero would hem and haw about the morality of rescuing her, but ultimately would because she has something he needs, and then ends up falling in love with her). But I don't think it's common enough in fantasy for anyone to accuse you of being cliche.

Besides, the point isn't not to be influenced by anything, or not to show any similarities with older stories, it's to make the experience different enough to be interesting (otherwise, why not just read the older stories?) Plus, the "princess being rescued" is such an old trope that you couldn't really be accused of ripping anyone off (so many people have done it), only of being cliche. But because you're doing a new variation on it, I don't think people will accuse you of that (nor do I feel you deserve to be).

The problem with Eragon wasn't that it was influenced by Star Wars, it's that the first book is basically a step-by step retelling of it. You can replace the names in a summary of Eragon with the names from their Star Wars counterparts (Eragon = Luke, Brom = Obi-Wan, Arya = Leia) and be left with (more or less) the same basic story. Paolini is very open about his other inspirations for the series, but he never mentions Star Wars as being an inspiration (at least not that I've seen). This is pretty telling.

I think that's actually a good self-test to make sure you're not become too influenced by any one story. Write a basic summary, and replace the names with the work you think you're being influenced by. If it's more or less the same, you might want to rethink your work a little, at least the areas that show the most influences. It's nothing to be ashamed of - authors do it by accident all the time. The subconscious is a powerful thing. But if you on't want to be accused of plagiarism, you've got to catch yourself in the act and make so me changes to the story (if necessary).

 

[Phoenix]

As for Eargon's influences you can also see a lot of Tolkien. As for your arch-type, yeah its been used. So what? It'll be used again. Like stated above, do whatever it takes to make the story and just add a few more original and creative ideas. Don't just straight up copy something, but it can be similar. Paloni (don't care if misspelled) might have had a lot of influences, but he didn't strictly put them in his world. I mean Eargon doesn't have a light saber. He can just break swords one handed....

 

[Helen]

I recently read a harsh critique on the Eragon series. The critic said it was Star Wars with a dragon instead of a lightsaber. I'm well aware of the glaring similarities between the two storylines and I'm not speaking for or against Christopher Paolini. My question is this:

If I introduce my male hero to a female lead while both are incarcerated and hero rescues said female because she's there and he feels that he ought to, will that peg me as a copy-cat (similar scenario in both Star Wars and Eragon) or is that a broad enough area that it's widely written and acceptable as archetype?

I've been wracking my brain for other ways to introduce them but there are so many details that fit as it already is and nobody wants to cooperate (my characters get a little snarky when I force them to do things they don't want to do.....) and I'd have to re-write so much.

Oh, now I just sound like a lazy whiner. lol

Thoughts anyone? I can provide more contextual detail if it would assist.

Thanks!

The Artist won the academy award best picture. In the first scene the hero rescues a female (princess) and both escape captivity. So doing this does not peg you a copycat.

If you want to start comparing Star Wars to Eragon you're heading into a minefield, as all stories allegedly root to the same fundamentals: clickokDOTcoDOTuk's Channel - YouTube

To me, it's all about the way you tell it. Just because I've seen it before, doesn't mean I won't like your version.