Star Wars is better than The Lord of the Rings.

The resolution, "Stars Wars is better than the Lord of the Rings" taken on it's own would produce a very subjective and nebulous debate. Fortunately my opponent identifies specific criteria to address this issue, and once I have addressed his I will other my own. Creativity My opponent states that Star Wars is more creative and that "No one can disagree that Lord of the Rings is simply ideas from Old Norse Scriptures compiled with Ancient Mythology," However according to Wookieepedia (The Star Wars Wiki). "The Star Wars story employs archetypal motifs common to science fiction, political climax and classical mythology, as well as musical motifs of those aspects. " . http://starwars.wikia.com... The Setting My opponent states that, "In actuality, however, Middle-Earth is just another name for Midgard- The land between Heaven and Hell. " I am not convinced that this is an accurate portrayal of Midgard, in addition though Tolkien was inspired by Midgard LoTR makes no reference to key features of Midgard such as Jormungandr, the bifrost bridge linking the world to Asgard etc etc. My opponent needs to substantiate this point. In addition the Star Wars Universe is in simple terms simply a rehash of preexisting science fiction. My opponent needs to explain what in the Star Wars setting is original compared to what was already present in the genre. Droids, aliens, vast space empires, the battle between good and evil, even the Jedi have all in one form or another been done before. With reference to 'species' my opponent states, "did you know that "Orc" is simply another word for an enemy in Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon? With this, we could understand another reason why Peter Jackson did not comprehend Tolkien's writings - As far as I'm concerned, Tolkien's depictions of Orcs, or Orqai, may have been simply from the viewpoint of the Men, these "creatures" could have been human-like and not disgusting zombie-things like in the trilogy. " The Tolkienesque Orc is not simply taken from the old norse, though there is a eytomological linkup. In addition though it is debatable that Peter Jackson's interpretation was the same as Tolkiens version my opponent is not actually aware of what the original version was envisaged to be, ugly replusive and flesh eating. In addition Tolkein's Orcs has inspired the fantasy genre, they have given inspiration to numerous writers and subgenres. Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Morgan Howell etc etc. . http://en.wikipedia.org... Conversely Star Wars has failed to create one enduring alien race that has been celebrated or reimagined by any later science fiction writer. It has hower created the Gamorreans, or rather stole the concept of Orcs from Tolkien and passed it off as its own. Please compare Orcs here, . http://www.google.co.uk... With Gamorreans . http://www.google.co.uk... Elves are inspired by norse mythology, very much so. However it is only through the power and quality of Tolkiens writing that the Norse-Tolkienesque elf has become such a popular staple of the fantasy genre. Starwars has not created, or brought back a single fictional race so loved or enjoyed as Tolkiens elves, dwarfs, and orcs. The Nazgul: The dreaded Nazgul, or Black Riders alternatively are the Wraiths of Lord of the Rings. A Wraith is a demonic ghost or spirit; Which is what they basically are. There are 9, they were once all kings and received rings but couldn't wear them or touch them. .. eventually they became overcome by greed and envy and were transformed into these hideous abominations. Does anyone think "King Midas" here? ! I fail to see the connection here. Though Tolkien was inspired by norse mythology, George Lucas has 'created' numerous two dimensional alien races, frequently with the assistance of paid empolyees and are generally based around a lazy racial stereotype. Twi'leks, are simply arab traders in space. Watto, (a toydarian) was created by a team and criticised as an antisemitic parody. . http://en.wikipedia.org.... Ja-Ja Binks faced acusations of 'blackface' amongst others. . http://en.wikipedia.org... My opponent states that, "In The Lord of the Rings, there is magic much like any other fairy tale. There are Wizards and Witches and Bad Wizards and Bad Witches. .. but it's all pretty typical and not too impressive, maybe it would be if Tolkien would've explained magic in LOTR a little better - Like, certain people are born with it or it stems from a source. .. or something. But Nope, Johnny (i. e. Tolkien, no disrespect btw) leaves us with nothing. " Likewise George Lucas fails to explain the nature of the force and his failure to do so creates inconsistencies that cause confusion. For instance the Dark Side derives it's power from death, it is however part of the force, the force is derived from life. Why should a powerful user of the Force, which is derived from Midi-chlorians suffer from physical decay, such as Palpatine or King Onderon. It makes no sense. In addition certain creatures without a bloodstream are also capable of using the force. . http://starwars.wikia.com... My opponent states of the Expanded Universe that "The Movies did a very good job of detailing the main species of Star Wars, but the EU is just fascinating. You could explore for hours and hours or days and days. .. And you could never know all the species, and planets, and crime lords. . etc. " However the Expanded Universe creates inconsistencies, for instance in the films Palpatine states that the Republic has not fought a major since it's founding. In the expanded Universe we have the Stark Hyperspace war within living memory, the Hyperspace War, the 100 years of Darkness, the wars of Darth Revan, the Mandalorian wars. In addition hundreds of people have contributed to the expanded universe, LoTR is mostly the creation of one man. My opponent extols the virtues of the Starwars universe in the same way that he attacks what he perceives to be the failures of LoTR. (Some of which I have already addressed but I'll go over what I have missed). The Setting "This Universe contains so many different things it would take a lifetime to name. The Planets are all original with a different history and different natives - From Hoth to Tatooine" This is true, however the Star-Wars Universe is vast, it is also devoid of any real development. For instance what is the constitution of the Republic, what are the powers of the Chancellors, how many have been impeached, are there term limits, are there political parties, what are the major religions of the galaxy. These key details are ignored. At least we can gain some sense of culture from Tolkiens Gondorians and the riders of Rohan, the Star Wars universe is a vast but lazy construction. I have address the issue of species, George Lucas has populated his universe with superficial two dimensional constructs, no depth, no characterisation and generally racist caricatures. Do Hutts worship? Are Rodians anything but hired killers? Tolkien even went so far as to develop an entire language for the elves, a simple description of a single interesting alien race with actual depth is beyond Mr Lucas. PS: I have addressed my complaints with regards the force. In conclusion Stars Wars, which is the creation of many people, is utterly unoriginal, has added nothing to the science fiction genre and is a poorly developed setting without depth. LoTR the creation of a single person, Tolkien in in effect revered as the father of modern fantasy.