By: Dukemich

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Finally, I have finished one Harry Potter book. So I figure people often compare the works of J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. I will talk about both The Deathly Hallows and Breaking Dawn which are the last two installments of the series. Twilight was supposed to be the next Harry Potter. Well, if you didn’t know already the comparison is laughable. The closest similarities these books have is the number of pages(Harry Potter 759, Breaking Dawn 756). Rowling’s imagination is much more creative and she leaves no questions unanswered. This whole post is going to be filled with spoilers so if you didn’t read these books and are interested don’t read this post.

I’m going to start with the book covers. The Deathly Hallows has Harry Potter on the cover doing his thing. It’s an understandable cover. I mean I don’t know what Harry’s doing. It looks like he’s trying to catch his last name. Breaking Dawn on the other hand doesn’t make any sense to me. Edward and Jacob don’t play chess for Bella’s love. Nobody plays chess. This leaves only one option. It must be a metaphor but a metaphor for what. The lives of the characters are like a game of chess. The white piece is the queen but who’s the queen? Who’s the red pawn? Is the queen Bella? JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN’T READ THE OPENING PARAGRAPH SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! Is the red pawn Nessie? Anyway it doesn’t make sense to me. I have to give the cover to The Deathly Hallows.

My favorite part of the Twilight Saga comes in the third book but Breaking Dawn was definitely the best. Mainly because things actually happen throughtout the course of the book. However, as far as entertainment goes The Deathly Hallows blows away Breaking Dawn. Things just keep happening even when you don’t expect it. That’s why it makes perfect sense that the The Deathly Hallows will be split into two movies movies. Breaking Dawn has a lot going on but I’m not sure if it has enough for two movies. However, it will most likely happen. Both books follow the same format of things getting worse and worse, then better and better, then triumph. All is well in the end. The Deathly Hallows takes you through hundreds of mind-boggling pages that simply blow your mind. It forces you to take short breaks in between chapters to let it all sink in.

Main Characters

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I like both main characters in both books and as difficult as it is for me to go against Bella Swan Harry Potter is a much better character. It is extraordinary what he is able to do at such a young age. He accepts death after he fought so hard to stay alive. Then after he lived after he accepted death he took down the most feared wizard of all-time. He outsmarts You Know Who(In case his name is still tabooed) with some help from others. Bella Swan’s powers are remarkable but they happen accidentally. She doesn’t really have to figure out what to do like Harry does. She does turn out to be one of the most unique and powerful vampires in the series. She’s able to control her thirst from the moment she becomes a newborn, which was considered impossible. She actually stopped mid-hunt. In the end her power ends up saving everyone. Her powerful shield protects the people she loves from death.

Both would die for their friends and the people they love. They both prove this in the books. Both face people who are more powerful than they are and win. Both remain loyal throughout the series and don’t allow anything to shake that loyalty. However, Harry has to go through more. He actually has to go through more in The Deathly Hallows than Bella does in all four Twilight books.

Supporting Characters

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The best character in Harry Potter is Severus Snape. I find that in the Twilight series you struggle to find someone that you can connect with. The one person who I really like is Bella’s father Charlie Swan. He’s a great guy, a good father, and he’s very human. His responses to the things Bella does are funny yet he’s still a great father who wants to stay with his daughter. He’ll try to protect her from anything and the whole town for that matter. In Breaking Dawn you really see how Bella and Charlie have become closer and it’s great to watch them grow as a family. Charlie also understands the whole situation with Bella and Edward even though he hates him. Billy Burke is great as Charlie too. The connection between him and Kristen Stewart is actually pretty good. However after Charlie it’s really difficult to find a supporting character that you could like. Jacob I could see. Edward’s a no. Carlisle’s ok. Alice is pretty good. I don’t mind Emmett but no other character really jumps out at you. Seth Clearwater is the best werewolf. He’s the only one who really sets aside the diffences between vampires and werewolves so they can work together. He’s also able to defeat a newborn vampire and helps save Bella’s life in Eclipse. She kind of helped him too by cutting herself to make the newborn go crazy.

With Harry Potter it’s truly take your pick of who you can like as a character. Snape, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Sirius, Lupin, etc. Snape’s definitely the best character. As I watched the movies I always thought that Snape would be the evil professor who would eventually come shock everybody and really come up big in the end on the side of Harry Potter. It turned out I was right but my confidence was shaken after The Half-Blood Prince. “Snape!!! He trusted you!!” That’s right Harry. Dumbledore did trust him. Snape loved Lily so much that after she married the man he hated he still wouldn’t give up on her. Then after pleading for her life Snape agreed to protect her child. A child who he constantly saw the James in him. He completed every task that Dumbledore put in front of him. He ended up loving Harry and in the end he deceived The Dark Lord and was partly responsible for his demise. Hermione’s a great witch and a great friend. I like Ron even though at times he could be a little annoying. Dumbledore has the plan to defeat The Dark Lord and guides Harry to success. You’ve got to love Neville and Luna. I know I’m missing a lot but I can go on forever. Harry Potter definitely has the better characters.

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Robert Pattinson’s really lucky to be a part of both Harry Potter and Twilight. However, you have to say that Cedric Diggory is a better character than Eddie. Cedric was a good wizard who helped out Harry in the Triwizard Tournamnet by giving him the clue to the golden egg thing. He even helped save his life when Krum was bewitched. He was co-winner of the Triwizard Cup but you can argue that he would have won it had it not been meant for Harry to win. When a lot of people turned on Harry Cedric never did. Besides Harry’s parents’ death, Cedric’s death was really the first truly sad moment in the series. Of course it takes a back seat to Sirius and Dumbledore’s death. Even though his character was short-lived he’s still a better character than Edward.

Edward’s overprotective and he just doesn’t make sense in the second book. He’s so different and difficult to connect with. You don’t want Bella to die but you won’t turn her into a vampire so she can live forever and protect herself. The good thing about Edward is that even though he fails to do so in the second book he does protect Bella. He definitely gets stronger and faster whenever Bella is in trouble. He’s a really talented vampire as well. He’s also able to control himself around Bella, which is impressive. He’s really badass when he’s in protection mode. He also truly loves Bella more than anyone including Jacob. All that said Cedric Diggory is the better character.

Villains

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Voldemort is defintely the better villain but that doesn’t mean that Victoria’s a bad villain. Victoria’s pretty smart and an excellent vampire. She constantly able to get around the protection provided by the werewolves. She comes up with a great plan to get Bella and it would have succeeded had it not been for Bella. Victoria gathered a bunch of humans and turned them into newborns. She started a newborn army who attacked the united Cullens and werewolves. Meanwhile, Victoria takes a newborn with her to kill Bella while the others are occupied. If Bella didn’t force Edward to stay with her during the attack in fear that he would die, Victoria would have succeeded because Seth Clearwater and Bella wouldn’t have stopped Victoria and a newborn. The fact that she wants revenge for her mate’s demise leads to her downfall.

Voldemort seemed unbeatable. People were so afraid of him they wouldn’t even say his name. He was in control of everything. His creation of the Horcruxes made killing him that much harder. Despite all this Voldemort did have flaws. He didn’t know love or friendship as Harry pointed out in The Order of the Phoenix. Because of this he turned his back on people who helped lead to his demise. He turned his back on Snape and didn’t care about his lost love. He couldn’t defeat Harry Potter the first time around because of love. He clearly killed the wrong person when he killed Lily. I really liked how the book was able to show that Voldemort was the most feared wizard of all-time yet he was weak. He couldn’t kill a teenager and it made sense why. He wasn’t very smart when it came to the killing of Harry Potter. He just pursued it blindly. Harry and the good guys were smarter and that’s why they won in the end.

Also, Harry Potter knew who the villain was. In Twilight, the main villain dies in the third book and the Volturi become the villains. Harry Potter did it right by focusing on one villain and just building and building on that villain until the end when Voldemort is defeated. Everything comes together in Harry Potter. Everything is relevant. That’s what’s so great about it. There’s no unnecessary detail. It all connects and it’s incredible.

Romance

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This is the only category that Twilight beats Harry Potter. However, Harry Potter isn’t about the romance. Twilight focuses on the romantic aspect. In the Twilight the love is clearly present and you can feel it. You can feel “love’s keen sting(this is actually from Harry Potter but it works when talking about Twilight).” You can feel Jacob’s pain when he gets rejected. You can feel Bella’s pain when she gets rejected. I’ll give it to Stephanie Meyer she covered the romance really well. She connected with her audience of young women and a 19-year-old guy named Joe. There’s just something about the relationship between Bella and Edward that’s fascinating. They shouldn’t be together. He should have killed or the Cullens should have moved. They don’t seem like they connect with each other that well but they just love each other so much. All they have to do is look at each other and they’re happy. When Bella and Edward split, Bella is crushcrushcrushed. People may say well get over it but there’s no getting over it. The world they live in is not the world we live in. She can’t handle it because in that world with the bond they had it’s impossible to break.

In Harry Potter people just like each other for no apparent reason. Gah- gah-ah-ah-ah-ah-roma-romama-gah-gah-ooh-la-la. How did Ginny and Harry fall in love? How did Ron and Hermione fall in love? I know they’re great friends but what happened? There’s no explanation or development of the relationships. Well, Snape’s love for Lily is developed a little bit. Ginny has nice skin so I want to marry her. I’ll ask again how do Ron and Hermione fall in love? Harry Potter’s failure to develop relationships allows Twilight to win one round.

Have I read every Harry Potter book? No. Have I read every Twilight book? No. However through the combination of movies and books I have acquired at least the gist of what the stories are. Harry Potter is above Twilight on so many levels. Harry Potter as I matured. The books and movies grew up. It’s been incredible to living during a time when Harry Potter is around the same age I am. A little younger but still pretty close. He was always close to my age. J.K. Rowling matured the books and made them darker and darker. It’s incredible.

Harry Potter been around for more than ten years. Twilight has been relevant for about two. They’re trying to pump out the Twilight movies as fast as they can so the fad doesn’t die out. Once the movies are finished people will forget about it and move. Harry Potter has stood the test of time and it’s still going strong. Not only is it staying strong but it’s also beating Twilight in the box-office during a time when Twilight is at its peak. Twilight is truly a fad. Harry Potter is classic.

So what did this post turn into? I don’t know. I guess I pretty much compared the entire series of Harry Potter vs. Twilight. Am I qualified to make this comparison(Read The Deathly Hallows, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn)? I don’t know but these are my thoughts.

Is Twilight the new Harry Potter? No they are two completely different stories with different ideas. However, it seems as though Stephanie Meyer read Harry Potter because in The Deathly Hallows you can find the title to every Twilight book among other things.

Which is better? Harry Potter by far. I dissed Twilight in this post even though I like it. However, when compared to Harry Potter it deserves to be dissed. J.K. Rowling has the superior imagination and writing style. No questions need to be asked. Everything connects. The only complaint I can think of is she gets too into herself by packing everything possible into the book. I could see people saying it’s too over the top. However, it’s truly remarkable.

See ya.