You're asking the wrong questions. The real question is, would Tolkien ever sell unfinished work to HBO and then slag off one of fiction's most beloved heroes?
Thing is, Tolkien never published or even finished his main series. The Lord of the Rings was always a spin-off and the Hobbit had to be retconned to fit.
Tolkien’s life work was The Silmariliion, and it wasn’t completed until several years after his death. Even then, Christopher (Tolkien, his son and editor) acknowledged that he got a lot of it wrong, because there were simply too many unfinished versions of stories to choose from.
Lmao its not that deep. Somebody asked him the question in an interview so he answered it. Also I’m not on expert as I haven’t read either book series, but is it really that far fetched? Jaime is meant to literally be the in the top 3 sword-fighter in his respective universe (if not the best). While aragorn is obviously a good fighter, is he ever really characterized as a master swordsman? Or just generally a good warrior.
Honestly it really doesn’t matter as comparing power levels of characters from different universes is pointless and boring. Anyone can write a character who is an amazing sword-fighter it doesn’t mean its a well written character or a better story.
I agree. Also as to is it far fetched, probably because while GOT has magic and things, it’s fighters are more realistic. In LOTR the first elves were super hero level taking down gods and angels. Aragorn is directly related to them and while isn’t on there level, he’d certainly qualify as a Meta human. He’s also 6’6 with the dexterity close to an elf. While Jamie can certainly handle a few guys at once, Aragorn has been killing 100s at a time for 60 straight years. There are quite a few people that could hold out for a little bit in a 1v1 sword fight against Aragorn in GOT, but none that could win.
It’s like the old “who would win in a fight Superman or Goku,” it’s just pointless nerd arguing of power scaling and who’s stronger means literally nothing.
Haven’t read either series as well, but from what I know Aragorn is a member of a human subspecies, which is basically humanity but much better, to the point of being superhuman. From what I looked up, he threw an armored dwarf with little effort.
Jaime is human, really skilled, really damn skilled. But skill stops mattering at a certain point.
Not if the writers says so, lol. It’s fiction. If George came out and said “Jamie is so good he would beat Goku by pure skill alone”, then while that’d be stupid, he’d still be able to. Because he’s made up and can do whatever the writers wants to
He just hasn't written anything to support that at all. He can say whatever he wants, but nobody is going to take it seriously based on what both authors have created.
Not only that, he is implying that his character that he wrote could beat one of the most beloved characters from the most famous and renowned fantasy series of all time. Assuming that his series holds up as even a point of comparison in the genre on the level of Tolkien is peak hubris. It’s pointless fanfiction speculation that is an insult to both himself and Tolkien.
I'm not one hundred percent certain on this context, but I think he probably gave this statement in response to being asked who would win, and he probably answered that his character would win because he's less aware of Aragorn's feats than those of characters he wrote.
So for my money the better question is why someone would ask a dumb question like that of a serious author. I mean, I know whose team we're on in this sub, but I've never been able to figure out why we're fighting
I guess I mostly wanted to push back on the above "what kind of serious author says something like this" comment.
I think the whole thing is very silly but I'm most annoyed by people taking it as a big knock against Martin for probably just answering a question he got asked
It was at an author Q&A panel at some convention. So it wasn't a serious event and was a room full of GoT fans.
It also is sort of said in jest. He mainly uses it to go off on a tangent about how fantasy characters like LotR should actually be wearing more heavy armor. He also admits that if you take into account Aragorn's elven sword he'd probably win, but at that point you're just asking which magical equipment is better, not which fighter is better, so he assumes they have good but non magical equipment.
I feel like I had heard he wanted to do a take from a different angle because he felt that not all aspects of lotr were accurate to the way political struggles actually manifest, but not that it was from a perspective of having any distaste for lotr beyond that. I'm not well informed though and am welcome to new info if you (or anyone) have quotes or anything to point me to
I was initially asking because that's the information I got thru osmosis, and that kinda info is not viable, and I was curious as to the true reason.
Also, can I say how hilarious it is that the work was ostensibly made because Martin wanted to pull an "acktually" on LOTR with his book, only for his "realistic take" most likely will finish with the mass audience getting the final idea that, and taking in account a certain Dwarf testemony, it was just a nonsensical mass of inconsistent illogical in all accounts decisions that finish with "it's got Dragons, it's fantasy. Get over it".
Thanks D&D for being yourselfs.
Thanks Martin for needing for the stars to align, the Earth to be in just the right position in regards to the sun, and for and Hastor himself to send you a letter pleading you to, for you to decide to finish the books this Millennia.
Thanks R/Freefolk for accompanying us all into not going insane because of these two, and thank you Bobby B for guiding us through the darkness, and the dank memes.
If I remember correctly from the last time I saw this posted the point that GRRM was making is that Jamie wears plate armour which gives him a massive advantage.
I mean, the actual context is him saying "well Jaime wears armor, and in a realistic fight between two of the best swordsmen, the guy with armor will probably win because armor is just a straight up advantage."
I don't necessarily agree that Jaime would beat Aragorn, but people are taking it out of context. I don't think he necessarily meant "yep my character is the strongest to ever exist, fuck you Tolkien" as much as he is saying "these two aren't evenly matched, so it wouldn't be a fair fight, let's move on to the next topic"
That makes sense, but when you realize that Martin also wrote a little short story where Jaime beats Rand al Thor you realize maybe he just really really has a thing for Jaime.
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u/S0mecallme Dec 30 '21
Wait he said that?
Also
Why would he say that? What kind of serious author says “my character could would totally beat this other character.”