In the annals of fantasy, two series loom large above all the competition: The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Anyone writing or reading fantasy has to contend with the oversized shadow that these two franchises cast over the genre as a whole.
These two series of novels, enormously successful on their own, have also generated two titanic screen adaptations. How do they stack up against each other, though? Fortunately, the internet is here to help with a variety of hilarious memes that point out the similarities, and the differences, between two of the most popular fantasy franchises of all time.
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Insulting the Final Season
The heat in this meme is as hot as Drogon’s fire. There’s no question that the final season of Game of Thrones was by far the weakest, with plot holes that you could ride a dragon through. It was very clear that Benioff and Weiss had pretty much checked out of the series and were moving on to bigger things.
The brilliance of this meme lies in its ability to twine together the weakness of the final season of Game of Thrones with the essential weakness of mankind, which allowed them to be seduced by the false promises of the Dark Lord Sauron.
Who Did It Better?
This one is a tough one, as it brings together several iconic moments in both Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. It shouldn’t surprise us that so many of the images look so similar. After all, they are both sprawling fantasy epics, and George R.R. Martin has been open about the fact that his books are a commentary on Tolkien.
However, it seems pretty obvious that The Lord of the Rings did it better. Sure, some of its effects haven’t aged so well, but it’s important to remember that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and it’s pretty clear that Game of Thrones is the one doing all the flattering.
The Question of Quality
Whew. The fan outrage over the shoddy writing in the last season of Game of Thrones is truly a thing to behold. It’s understandable that a lot of people feel frustrated, especially after spending so many years investing time in a show that it’s easy to love.
As this meme points out, one of the biggest differences between The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones is the act that the former kept its quality until the end. It’s a good thing that no one mentioned Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films, though.
A Horse of a Different Color
This rather ingenious meme takes the popular meme of a horse drawing that gradually gets worse the closer that it gets to the head and shows the gradual decline in the quality of the writing in Game of Thrones. Once again, the internet shows how well it excels at roasting a show that had clearly checked out of its own audience by the end.
The Lord of the Rings, by contrast, shows how Jackson’s masterwork only grows stronger and more thoughtful as it builds to its conclusion. It may not be an entirely fair comparison—since LotR was filmed all in one go—but it goes to show how much antipathy there is toward Game of Thrones.
The Charge of the Death Brigade
This meme draws attention to one of the most important parts of an epic film or television show: the climactic speech right before a battle. Here, we see Theoden’s call to his warriors before their attack on the army besieging Minas Tirith, juxtaposed to the battle for Winterfell against the forces of the Night’s King.
This is one of those cases where the two scenes are equally powerful but in very different ways — even if the speeches don’t quite share the same level of quality. The charge of the Rohirrim is moving in a very old school and epic way, while the doomed charge of the Dothraki at Winterfell is haunting, as their flames gradually die out.
What’s in a Book?
Another common theme in various films and TV shows is the presence of a book. There’s just something evocative about the sight of words on a page as they appear on screen, a sense of both timelessness and authority. After all, nothing is really official until it’s been in a book.
As with so many of the other memes on this list, though, this one seems to have some skepticism toward Sam’s book in Game of Thrones. Perhaps it’s because the appearance of the book at the end is a bit heavy-handed, a too-neat tying up of the various plot threads that the series tries, unsuccessfully, to resolve satisfactorily.
The Eyes Have It
Here we see juxtaposed two very different forms of omniscience. On the one hand, we have the Eye of Sauron, the personification of evil in Jackson’s cinematic universe. On the other, we have Bran, a young man who eventually becomes the vessel through which all knowledge of past, present, and future flows.
Of course, their fates are very different. The Eye of Sauron goes down in a blaze of defeat after the destruction of the One Ring, while Bran, in one of the strangest and least plausible twists, ends up becoming King of Westeros.
Finish Him!
What makes this meme so great (and hilarious) is the fact that it draws on a bit of arcane lore from the universe of The Lord of the Rings to make its point. The looming figure is none other than Morgoth, the first Dark Lord and master of Sauron.
Of course, the meme maker can’t resist the opportunity to show how the bad writing and slipshod character development of the final season of Game of Thrones has cast a definite shadow over their creative reputations. It remains to be seen whether they will ever fully recover from it.
Faramir’s Quality
There’s a certain irony in this meme, which once again shows how a lot of people disappointed with the way that Game of Thrones ended have turned to The Lord of the Rings in an attempt to feel better about their lives. The irony is that the dramatic change made to Faramir’s character in The Two Towers ended up being one of the most divisive moments in the entire film trilogy, since it was such a departure from the way that he was portrayed in the books. Turns out that time really does heal all wounds.
Yet Another Drake Meme
It’s amazing how flexible the Drake meme is. Here, we see yet another comparison, this time between the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the Battle of Winterfell. Of course, it’s not an entirely fair comparison, considering the fact that one of them is a film with an enormous budget and a big screen and the other is made for television (though also with a large budget). Or maybe, it’s that somehow the battles in Game of Thrones got less impressive towards the end of the series. However, there is no question that the Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of the most heartbreaking battles that has ever been put on film.