
Since people started creating stories there has been fantasy. Whether it is reading Harry Potter as a kid or watching Lord of the Rings at the theaters. J.R.R. Tolkien is considered by many as the best fantasy writer of all time and the creator of modern fantasy. He created eucatastrophe, a sudden favorable event for the main character, and its opposite dyscatastrophe, a sudden change in events that does not help the protagonist. No matter what happens though his climaxes always ended with eucatastrophe. Many great fantasy stories, whether TV or book, have followed this model and been successful. George R.R. Martin, writer of the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) which has since been used to create the hit TV series the Game of Thrones, has broken Tolkien's mold and been successful. The loved protagonists of ASOIAF story often suffer dyscatastrophe with no eucatastrophe to save them. So this begs the question after 100 years of people enjoying Tolkien's version of fantasy why do people now love this new fantasy created by Martin with so much uncertainty and unpredictability. ASOIAF actually changed fantasy similar to the way Tolkien modernized high fantasy from works like the Iliad, Odyssey and Beowulf. These three stories/books created fantasy. These stories used heroes with extra powers going on adventures with happy endings. Tolkien built off those general concepts but created more back story and simply made his characters go much larger adventures. For the last hundred years fantasy writers have copied Tolkien's world. For example Harry Potter uses a great wizard to mentor the little guy into fighting the dark lord. Martin has created the next blueprint for high fantasy. His fantasy world is more unpredictable than Tolkien's, there are no defined good and bad guys, and even main characters aren't safe from death. All of these things has created a story so loved that it has millions of followers; with over eight million people watched Game of Thrones most recent finale, the most torrented TV show on the internet and New York Times best seller for all of Martin's books.   

Homer's epics the Odyssey and the Iliad where two of the first ever fantasy stories written. Those two stories along with Beowulf, one of the first English fantasy novels, where the unofficial creators of the fantasy genre. They were the first to fight fake wars (the Iliad), the first to have hero's go on long adventures (the Odyssey), and the first to have the main character fight evil monsters (Beowulf) (Gottschall 1). These books and concepts are what Tolkien built off of, Tolkien made their small fantasy worlds massive and epic, creating more complex characters, larger worlds and new fantasy monsters. Homer created the original fantasy story, Tolkien made the basic ideas of homer into a major epic, and George R.R. Martin has continued Tolkien's major epic but added realism to a fantasy based world.

According to Stanley Kranc, professor at Penn state University, if you are reading high fantasy, "chances are the author is (or has read) J.R.R. Tolkien. (Kranc 1)" Opinions like Stanley Kranc's are what has caused people to either say J.R.R. Tolkien is the creator of high fantasy or the greatest fantasy writer ever. Even though Tolkien is not the creator of high fantasy he has created the modern blueprint for writing high fantasy. Proof of this is in just about every new fantasy novel. Good and evil wizards, small guys saving the day, simple but reliable best friends, dark lords, giant spiders, dangerous forests and ghosts are all regulars to fantasy stories but where all somewhat new when Tolkien wrote them into his epic high fantasy Lord of the Rings (Snerdley). Since then just about every fantasy series has one or more of those characters. Some of the most obvious instances of other authors copying Tolkien are Eragon, the Sword of Shannara and to a lesser extent Harry potter. The ASOIAF series also has similarities to Tolkien's adventures. They both take place in a Middle Ages type world, they have dragons and other little things. They both have an in-depth history and have dynamic characters that change throughout the story. Even though they are similar in many ways George R.R. Martin has also changed up some very important plot points. First the ASOIAF series has no true good or evil. Instead wars are fought over politics, religion and geography. It is much more like the real world in this instance. Another plot point that is much different in ASOIAF is that being a main character does not make you immune from death. The biggest differences between the two series and what makes ASOIAF the new blueprint for fantasy is how they use dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe.

Dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe are both terms created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Eucatastrophe meaning a sudden and favorable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending, and Dyscatastrophe a sudden turn of events in which the protagonist does not benefit (Johnston). Tolkien used dyscatastrophe to make stories interesting but rarely had a character die because of that event. Usually a Eucatastrophe came soon after creating for a fun but predictable adventure. George R.R. Martin did not follow this part of Tolkien's blueprint. Most people first realized this about ASOIAF or Game of Thrones when the main character throughout the first book and season, Eddard Stark, was unexpectedly executed without someone coming to save him. Martin's world is more realistic because he does not automatically add a Eucatastrophe after a dyscatastrophe. Because of this the plot is usually only advances every time an important character is killed. Compared to Tolkien's world where there are curtain characters that cannot be killed because it would hurt the overall plot.  

In ASOIAF there is no expected finish, where in Lord of the Rings everyone knew that at some point either the dark lord would dominate the world or the good guys would defeat him and even then everyone knew that the good guys would win. This is one of the biggest differences between Martin's model and Tolkien's. In ASOIAF there are multiple characters that you do not have POV's from. These characters such as Tywin, Varys, Littlefinger, Howland Reed and Doran Martell know more than George R.R. Martin would like you to know. They all have secret plots and know the answers to questions that readers and TV show watchers want to know. This adds a level of mystery that really is never a part of the Lord of the Rings. The closest thing ASOIAF gets to an ultimate evil is the White Walkers, a mythological creature that even most of the main characters do not believe in and has the ultimate goal of killing people. But when comparing the White Walkers to Sauron, the dark lord in Lord of the Rings, they are much different. In Lord of the Rings Sauron is known as the evil and every character in that world knows that and either wants to defeat him or join him. Sauron's past is known and some characters have even seen him thousands of years ago. Where in ASOIAF most characters do not even know the White Walkers even exist. The reader does not even know what the goal of the White Walkers are. Another way ASOIAF feels different compared to the Lord of the Rings is how history and geography is viewed by characters. In ASOIAF characters have a blurry view on history and geography only kind of knowing what happened thousands of years ago or what is on the opposite side of the world, similar to Middle Ages Europe. In the Lord of the Rings Tolkien creates characters wiser than humans are (elves and wizards). Because of this these higher level beings the main characters have a better understanding of their world whether it be what happened in the past or where something is. 

Ed Power of the Boston Globe believes most people go too far when estimating J.R.R. Tolkien's impact on the Fantasy genre. Powers writes, "Harry Potter owes more to Peter Pan than to Bilbo Baggins. The moral and political complexity of "Game of Thrones" -- both the TV series and the George R.R. Martin books on which they are based -- didn't exist in Tolkien's universe. (Powers)" Powers continues on saying, "Tolkien may overshadow other fantasy writers in name recognition, and his high-handed purity and saintly protagonists may define fantasy in the popular imagination. But the real strengths of modern fantasy, what makes the genre increasingly popular, are qualities that come from other sources entirely." This concept could mean that most modern fantasy is not all based of Tolkien's world. That would mean that George R.R. Martin did not create the new blueprint for fantasy but instead just created a high fantasy epic rivaling The Lord of the Rings. Even if this counter argument that J.R.R. Tolkien's works are not the blueprint for many modern fantasy novels is taken into account it is still impossible to not see major similarities between all recently written fantasies and Tolkien's. Even if Harry Potter is more based off of Peter pan than Frodo, characters such as Dumbledore and Ron still have several similarities to Gandalf and Sam. Ed Power still has points that we do give Tolkien to much credit. No matter how you look at it Tolkien cannot be the father of fantasy if fantasy novels and poems where created thousands of years before Tolkien.    

George R.R. Martin's new "blueprint" for fantasy starts and ends with a more mysterious and darker story than any novel following Tolkien's model. First Martin adds religion and politics to the dynamics of what can affect the path of the story. Second there are no static characters that are always good or evil, but instead dynamic characters that change throughout the story. The characters are all complex and act more like real world humans than the characters Tolkien creates. Third everyone's favorite characters are not "safe." This keeps readers on the edge of their seat with many people praying that their favorite character does not make a mistake that could end there life. Fourth, there are no higher level beings. No characters such as elves or wizards that are smarter than humans. Finally Martin adds the mystery of not having a defined ending point. In ASOIAF you are along for the ride following curtain people during the time period of that world.

For George R.R. Martin to actually have the next blueprint of fantasy first it must have a massive following and people have to actually like the series. ASOIAF massive following can be easily proved by looking at just how many people watch the TV show the Game of Thrones on HBO or torrented on the internet or by how all five for George R.R. Martin's books have been New York Times best sellers. According to Alice G. Walton of Forbes magazine people like Game of Thrones because, "It's the best "world-building" there is, It's ridiculously smart: Your brain has no choice but to stay engaged, You can't bank on what's to come, Character complexity makes the concept of "good" and "bad" moot, and The show uses "medieval" fantasy to point out modern-day reality (Walton).  All of these reason for people to like Game of Thrones according to Walton are the things that make Game of thrones and ASOIAF so much different from Tolkien based fantasy. Martin's world building is only rivaled by the Star Wars franchise and the Lord of the Rings world. The show being "so ridiculously smart" has to do with two things, Martin adding in religion and politics to the dynamics and because the future of the series is so uncertain. Adding the realness of our world to the amazing world created in the Middle Ages is another thing that makes his series so much different. 

David Halek argues that the ASOIAF series is so much different from Tolkien-based fantasies because it is not actually a fantasy series. Halek says, "Tolkien's books are sometimes spoken of as the archetype of modern fantasy fiction as it contains many of the aspects of what is today defined as fantasy  --  magic, various races and creatures, the fight of good powers versus the evil ones and the ultimate victory of the good forces. In addition to that, LOTR goes further. It is set in a fictional world (Middle-earth is just a part of a greater continent (Arda) with history, religions, faiths and various nations. Martin's books are not that simple, though. They, too, are set in a fictional world but it does not contain the basic elements of fantasy fiction which are the struggle of good and evil and the element of magic is reduced to the absolute minimum" (Halek 6). Halek is arguing that the core concepts of fantasy is the struggle of good vs evil and the use of magic. Since ASOIAF does not follow these concepts the series is not part of the fantasy genre. The counter argument to Halek is that there are also other components to fantasy that Martin uses, such as mythical creatures and that magic does in fact impact the ASOIAF world. Just because the people that live in Martins world do not believe in magic does not make it any less of a fantasy series it just makes it different and new. So despite the fact that Martins world is more influenced by politics and religion instead of good vs. evil it still has way to many aspects of a fantasy series to not be considered one. 

Both George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien are two of the best writers in the high fantasy genre. Tolkien is considered by most to be the creator of modern high fantasy, writing the hobbit and the Lord of the Rings starting in nineteen thirty seven, which includes mythical creatures, good vs. evil, Dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe twists and turns, major world building, and a set journey. Many books, TV shows and movies follow these concepts including Harry Potter. George R.R. Martin created a new version of fantasy starting in nineteen ninety six, sixty years after Tolkien created hobbit. His Fantasy included politics, religion, an unknown ending, characters are not static or defined as good or evil. Martin's new version of fantasy has created millions of new followers for a show and book that has won several awards and critical acclaim. ASOIAF added so much to Tolkien's blueprint that some people such as David Halek believe that it is no longer even part of the same genre. Martins new season of Game of Thrones and ASOIAF book will both be coming out soon with new twists and turns adding to the overall plot. In conclusion George R.R. Martin's ASOIAF series has created the next blueprint for high fantasy as shown by the amount of success that both the book series and the TV show have had. 

Going by the categories on the research paper rubric I passed out in class (and which I posted on Blackboard), this paper is low A quality work. 

Its stronger categories are Thesis, Content and Development, and Research and Support

Its weaker categories are Language, Mechanics & Voice, Formatting, and Improvement

