A question for dubs - Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? Which can u watch?

by truthseeker 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Kymegg

  I might be completely wrong, not being a sci-fi fan or interested in either Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but I was told that the problem with Harry Potter was not about the spell casting, but the fact that power both good and evil came from the same source. I have no idea about the Lord of the Rings, not having read the book or seen the movies. Maybe someone with more knowledge of either could verify or deny that claim. I'm a "when in doubt don't" kind of gal, but those movies have not been an issue for me since I am not at all interested in them.

  My husband watched Harry Potter and wanted to let my daughter watch it. I objected only for the fact that it wasn't something she needed to do and the only reason she would have been interested in the first place is because of all the media hype. She might have watched half of it and gotten completely bored and wanted to do something else. I was also a little concerned with the violence. I thought it might scare her.
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  Momofmany

  We grew up with LOTR and almost everything Tolkien wrote.My mother bought Harry Potter movies for my children. At the hall I was told I am letting spirts in my home by owning them.My mother, in her wisdom, told me to say I got rid of them, and she woud tell them I did too.
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  Mysterious

  Neither if you listen to my mother.

  I read the HP books, they were recommended to her and she brought them home for me not realizing what they were about. I did, I read them, I loved them. She found out and I was of course properly remorseful for having read them..can't wait to get my hands on the next one that I haven't read. Of course after all this there is no way I could watch the movie (not that I dont want to). I tried to make it seem like the movie was much worse than the books since mom was more aghast over my "sin" when she saw the previews..

  I also read the LOTR books, but I found them boring. I never got to see the movie and after it was condemned (along with HP) at a convention there is no way I would be allowed to see it either.
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  ChileanRick

  LOTR and HP are films and books containing a lot of supernatural facts. The Bible contains some topics in the same way. I mean, it doesn't matter if is Jehovah God, Satan or others who are making somethings out of natural, or containing some violence...... imagine, a serpent "talking" to a woman, a pair of swords closing the paradise, a profet taken away by a wind with a fire chariots, Jesus walking on the water, Moses and the 10 plagues and others....... so, I think the only difference between the Bible and secular books is the name of the author.

  ChileanRick
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  Pork Chop

  I watched both, and so did several other people that I know. No one in my areas has said anything negative that I've heard.
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  Mysterious

  Chilean Rick you are SO right. Even the violence in the Bible is whitewashed, and what about scaring little kids over Armageddon? There is no difference except who they say it all comes from.
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  jwbot

  JW friends of my family, the holier-than-thou types, they saw the first LOTR, walked out of it (in typical JW fashion) and were all like "its a bad movie"...then what do they do? See the second one, and again, walked out of it...um DUH! Idiots. My elder father and pioneer mother are huge fans and finally got over the "what will others think" crap and bought the movies and LOVED them. Poor things have to keep them in the special movie section where its not out in the open. And my mom is planning to see the 3rd one in the movie theatre. Movies and JW's is a sore spot for me...it bugs me how much they try to control this "conscience matter" hah!
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  Oxnard Hamster

  Actually, you could argue Harry Potter takes place in the fantasy world too, because a great deal of it takes place in Hogwarts, which is supposedly an invisible place nobody can find except the wizards.

  But yeah, I think more dubs would watch LOTR, because when they make reference to magic, they make specific reference to Harry Potter and tear it down. They never specifically mention LOTR though.
• 

  seattleniceguy

  Thinking back, I remember the huge amount of time spent discussing the watchability of movies of this type. The classic touchstone, if you will, was Star Wars, because virtually everyone but the really hardcore stonebrains had seen it and talked about it without remorse. So people would get in these discussions that sounded like Supreme Court deliberations:

  "Well, I don't think the setting must explicitly be mythical. For example, Star Wars takes place 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.' But presumably it is still our universe. We do accept that it is a fictional setting, however."

  "You make a good point. Still, the concept of a wizard is something that does exist in our world and is tightly connected to actual demon activity. Star Wars power is said to derive from a force of nature."

  ...ad infinitum. I wonder what the combined total of hours spent annually discussing this kind of thing is for Witnesses worldwide. You could probably light New York for a year with all the energy. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a more valid instance of:

  You strain out the gnat, but gulp down the camel!

  SNG
• 

  Enishi

  The pickiness witnesses displayed when it came to movies, especially movies with magical themes, used to drive me crazy. I've always loved fantasy, so this was a no small source of consternation for me when growing up. What really made me angry was when ultra-holy mothers would condemn a film when they barely knew anything about it. I wonder if other fundamentalist groups are that uptight...