The Hobbit. Legend of Zelda. Discuss.

Something feels familiar here.  Anybody know of a connection or influence? 

Comments

[Anil Dash]

Every story with trolls and swords and dragons and wizards is the same. True fact.

[Adam Rice]

Sure -- Tolkien distilled European folk mythology into a vision that has been the foundation of basically every work of fantasy to come since.

[nataliepo]

Link lives alone in a hut in a forest, as does Bilbo. If I were to guess what Link was, I'd say he's an elf because of his pointed ears, and the only physical characteristic I know about Hobbits so far is that they're portly and hairy, so this may be an overlap.

Adam is probably right that all fantasy storylines are derived in one way or another from this book. This just makes me feel like an individual destroyed by my own generation's culture. (Future blog post, obv.)

[Anil Dash]

I will begin the Joseph Campbell drinking game now.

[Adam Rice]

I don't think there's any doubt that Natalie has crossed the first threshold and is squarely in the belly of the whale at this point.

[Rob Drimmie]

Not just the fantasy setting, either. Both very closely track the monomyth.

[Eric]

"This just makes me feel like an individual destroyed by my own generation's culture."

Word.

[Adam Rice]

"an individual destroyed by my own generation's culture"

I don't understand what you mean, but it sounds very sad.

[nataliepo]

Adam, in many ways, I've already read what I'm reading, but I can't directly align this plot from the larger collection of the derivatives I've seen. I can't decide if I feel cheated or overwhelmed, but the feeling of a culture in a decayed state is strong.

[David Jacobs]

Natalie, you mean derivative, not decayed, right?