The following essays are taken from http://www.anti-shurtugal.com/:

Star Wars

By Arget Hackslayer

Warning: Spoilers for both series below.

There are two main parts to this argument, and they are:
--Plot
--What an archetype is and how Inheritance goes beyond it

This article intends to lay out in a very simple manner the arguments that Anti-Shurtugal has concerning these two points; it is also the intent of this article to address the common counterarguments we have heard.

Plot

Read the following plot summary:

A boy of foggy origins lives with his uncle in a remote place of a vast empire headed by an evil Emperor and his right hand man, who was once prominent in an ancient order of guardians with mystical powers.

Through fate or luck, depending on your point of view, this boy comes into the possession of an object vital to a rebellion against the Empire; this object was inadvertently sent to him by a princess in the rebellion, who had attempted to send said object to an old man who once belonged to the same order of guardians as the Emperor’s right-hand man.

This boy seeks the old man to learn of the ways of this ancient order, but eventually has to return to his uncle’s farm, which, the boy finds, has been destroyed by fire, and his uncle killed. The boy then sets off with the old hermit, who also gives him a sword which belonged to his father. As they travel, they train. The boy meets up with a rogue who is full of surprises, but turns out to be fiercely loyal, for all his proclaimed selfishness. The boy also begins "seeing" a beautiful woman imprisoned and in need of help.

The boy decides that he needs to rescue her, even though he doesn't know her; further, he thinks of her only as beautiful (Luke's first words are, "Who is she? She's beautiful?" Eragon can't stop thinking about her beauty). Long story short, the old hermit dies to protect the boy, the boy and the rogue help the beautiful damsel escape.

They then set off to the rebellion to give important information and return the object which the princess had sent the boy. They were followed by the Empire, and prepare for a giant battle that will either save the rebellion or annihilate them.

The boy proves his worth with heroics during the battle, but his crowning achievement is his destruction of a noun of much power that has the ability to destroy lots of things. The boy is aided in this by one of his friends, who arrives at precisely the right moment.
The boy is lauded a hero.

The boy has a hallucination of a powerful master who can teach him more of the ancient order. The boy travels to the powerful master to learn the ways of the ancient order's mystical power. While there, he grows very powerful. While he is away, the Rebellion regroups in a new area.

Just when the boy is on a roll with his training, and has grown very powerful, he has a vision of his friends in great danger. He decides he must go to help them. His master warns him not to go. The boy promises that he will return. He leaves.

He finds his friends just in time and is able to distract the enemy so that his friends will remain safe. He finds out that his father was the right-hand man of the Emperor--his father was the one who betrayed the ancient order and helped kill them.

The boy is shocked and ultimately defeated, but not killed. He finds out that someone dear to him has been taken by evil people, and promises to find this person.

Now, is that the plot of Inheritance, or StarWars?

The fact that we can create such a detailed outline of the plot and it fits both works should speak for itself, however, many people don't seem to hear.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Inheritance Trilogy reads like Paolini took a plot outline for StarWars, wrote in his own names, shuffled things up slightly, and slapped his name on it. It isn't just the plot--characters in Inheritance remind me of those life-size cardboard standups of movie characters at the movie theatres; they resemble the ones from StarWars closely, and yet they have none of the depth present in the real thing.

People will argue that it doesn't matter if the stories are similar; stories have been borrowed since the dawn of time. In addition to pointing you in the direction of the Originality section of Anti-Shurtugal, I would like to say, here and now, that stories are unique in the way they are told. Concepts may be shared, but details comprise the story and make it worth reading. So, in its most basic form, StarWars is a story about a hero who comes into his own and restores peace to a corrupt government. That story can be interpretted so many different ways. For example:

Meet Dallen. He is a young man--twenty-two or so--who is the son of a senator. His father is killed when the king dissolves the Senate and claims complete control. Rumor has it that the king is crazy, and rumors only escalate when he raises taxes and initiates a draft. Dallen is unwilling to comply with either decree, and so flees to the western mountains, where he crosses into a no-man's land, hoping to find a place where he can live without the king's oppression. He meets a small group of rebels against the king who have been secretly resisting him for years; when the Senate was dissolved, they fled the country and have been regrouping ever since. Dallen joins them and begins rising through their ranks. After years of hard work, Dallen has attained a position of some power within the rebel group. They have gained much support the last couple of years as the king's tyranny has increased. Then, after several hard skirmishes, the rebels plan an attack on the king's castle, relying mostly on stealth and good tactics than strength in numbers, which they don't have. They depose the king via assassination whilst their ragtag group creates several diversions in key places.

Does that sound like StarWars to you? The very basic story is the same.

Instead of spending a few extra minutes on creativity--because that's all it took to come up with that plot--Paolini took the quick and easy path. In being "inspired by" something, he took more than he needed to. Details matter, ladies and gentlemen, and derivative work should not be excused.

Archetypes and Beyond

"An archetype is an idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated.

The term archetype is sometimes broadly and misleadingly used to refer to a prototype, a stereotype, or an epitome. It may thus indicate a type of person, e.g. a mother, a father, a hero, a warrior, or a martyr." - http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

StarWars follows one particular archetype, known as the Hero's Cycle, or the Hero's Journey. For a detailed explanation, see this website:

http://www.cerritos.edu/fquaas/resou.../HeroNotes.htm

In perusing that website, it is evident that there are certain things--known as details--which makes StarWars a unique story. For instance, the Hero's Journey does not state that the hero must be a farmboy; nor does it state that the hero/farmboy must live in the remote reaches of an evil empire. It also says nothing about the hero being the son of a major villain. And so it goes.

The problem with the Inheritance Trilogy isn't that it follows an archetype--it's that it follows StarWars. The details which sets StarWars apart are also present in Eragon and Eldest. Again, I point you in the direction of the plot summary above. It is detailed--far more detailed than any archetype, and yet it fits both Inheritance and StarWars. Coincidence? I think not.

In closing, I would like to submit for your attention several other stories which follow the Hero's Journey, and let you judge whether they bear more than a passing resemblance to StarWars--the way a distant relative may turn out bearing your nose or something:

--The Matrix
--The Lion King
--Harry Potter
--Dune
--Chronicles of Prydain