Powerless: What the Plagiarism Debate Reveals About The Modern Take On Fantasy

Shasini Muthuraja Vijayalakshmi

Note: this article contains spoilers for the following novels: the Powerless series, Red Queen and
The Hunger Games, so continue at your own discretion. The views discussed in this article are
purely opinions of the author and are not allegations against any entity.

Powerless by Lauren Roberts took the internet by a storm when it was first published on January 30th 2023, and was subsequently followed by the sequel Reckless on July 2nd 2024 and the finale Fearless on April 8th 2025. The first novel in the series is currently rated 4.16 stars out of five on goodreads, which is averaged out of hundreds of thousands of ratings. However, was its originality that made the readers so invested in the series? Perhaps not, as many people have noticed the parallels between Powerless and other successful YA novels. But is it coincidence or copying?

The Powerless trilogy takes place in the fantasy world of Ilya, where the people are divided into two: the Elites and the Ordinaries. This division occurs due to the Plague, which happens prior to the time frame of the series, and causes genetic mutations among the survivors; such as traits like brightly colored hair, but are also responsible for the Elites’ supernatural powers. The main character, Paedyn Gray, is an ordinary posing as an Elite, who steals to support herself and best friend Adena so that they can survive the slums of Ilya. However, one day Paedyn decides to steal from a man who is “making it difficult to look away”, who by the end of their interaction also gives her money for saving his life. This leads to a series of events that puts Paedyn in a position of danger, since now she must act as an Elite or she will be killed.

Copy, Paste, Repeat

Where do we draw the line between inspiration and imitation? Lauren Roberts has said on her Tiktok that Powerless reads as if Red Queen and The Hunger Games had a baby that looked nothing like its parents. Suggests inspiration, does it not? But when reading the novel, some of the similarities are just… too close.

We have all at some point in time heard about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, especially with the latest adaptation of A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the newest novel, A Sunrise On The Reaping. The Hunger Games is one of the main series that was published around the 2015 dystopian craze, and follows the main lead, Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss and Paedyn do not have any direct similarities, except for their exceptional skills with a bow and an arrow. Katniss learned how to shoot when she was younger, and uses it to hunt to help sustain her family, and this leads to it being her niche. When people think of Katniss, most people will think of her as an archer, and it makes sense due to the plot and the context behind it. With Paedyn however, it is randomly thrown that she is really good with a bow, and the thing is, Paedyn has her own niche with her father’s dagger, which adds sentimental value but also makes sense for the plot because that is the weapon she uses to keep herself safe in the slums. 

Aside from that the more prominent similarity is the way both works approach the “games”. The main fantasy plot of Powerless is surrounded around The Purging Trials, which in itself is not highly similar to The Hunger Games, but the way the media is surrounding the trials and how the participants are seen as entertainment is evident in both works. Those similarities can be seen as mere coincidence and just inspiration since they are not too similar, but the same cannot be said with Red Queen. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard was also published during the 2015 dystopian era, and here is the premise of the novel: 

The Red Queen quintet takes place in the fantasy kingdom of Norta, where the people are divided into two, the Silvers and the Reds. This division is due to evolution that caused genetic mutations among some people, and gave the Silvers their supernatural powers. The main character, Mare Barrow, is a Red who finds out she has powers, and ends up posing as an Elite, and steals to support herself and sister Gisa so that they can survive the slums. However, one day Mare decides to steal from a man, who by the end of their interaction also gives her money after she gets caught. This leads to a series of events that puts Mare in a position of danger, since now she must act as a Silver or she will be killed. 

Sounds familiar? That is because that is the same paragraph as the description for Powerless, just with the nouns changed and some minor details swapped, and it does not stop at the plot. The writing, down to the well-known recurring sayings in the novels are the same:

    “Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other.” - Red queen

    “And where there is a flame, there is always a shadow.” - Powerless

This is what makes it imitation and not inspiration; when reading Powerless does not remind

you of Red Queen, but is Red Queen.

Trope This, Trope That

One of the main issues with how the media currently views literature, especially YA and fantasy, is the tropification of absolutely everything as a marketing tool. If you log into any social media platform and search for book recommendations, you will most likely get a post that goes along the lines of “books if you like *insert trope*”. 

However, recently this has also led to new releases being solely based off of these tropes, since they work so well on the internet, Powerless being a great example of this. When reading, you can tell that the author is trying to add a bunch of tropes to the novel so that it does well on the internet, and this ruins the pacing since it is just one trope after another constantly for 500 pages. Here is a list of some of the tropes in Powerless: 

• He is a ten, but so is his brother
• Enemies to lovers 
• Knife to the throat 
• Who did this to you? 
• Love triangle 
• Forbidden love 
• Unknowingly royalty 
• Grumpy sunshine 
• Slow burn 
• Misunderstood villain 
• Beauty and the beast (this one is taken WAY too far) 

I have read many other novels where their whole premise is a specific trope or two, but Powerless takes that to a whole new level. I mean, come on, Paedyn does not need to threaten Kai with a dagger every 20 minutes. We get it. Moreover, the focus we as a community have on tropes has reduced creativity, since this leads to different works having almost the same exact plot, and is in a way, another form of plagiarism. 

Personal Thoughts

I have read all the books in the Powerless series (minus the new novella) and all the books in Red Queen, and you would not even have had to have read Red Queen before to see the parallels between the two works. However, many authors do take inspiration for other works that have done well, and this can also be seen in the recent rise of fanfiction and the many novels that are being released that have a very similar premise to books that are already released. So I would say that it is acceptable as long as it is inspiration, and not a direct copy with a slight difference (sometimes there is not even that).

When it comes to my personal thoughts about the series itself, I ended up giving the first novel three stars and the sequel and the finale two stars out of five. I will admit, I am not the intended target audience for this series and it further shows how well tropes work as a marketing strategy. This series reads more like a romantic fantasy than a fantasy romance, which is absolutely fine, except I thought I was getting myself into the latter.

My main issue aside from the hypothesized plagiarism, was the writing style. The novels are not particularly long, however they are longer than necessary. Many sentences have excess details that do not add anything to plot, here is an example:

    “I'd never thought about what my favorite color was before. It never seemed important. Not until I looked into a pair of ocean blue eyes and realized that perhaps drowning was a beautiful thing.
       Not until I looked into a pair of fiery blue eyes and realized that perhaps burning was a painless thing.
    Not until I looked into a pair of sky blue eyes and realized that perhaps falling was a peaceful thing.
    I'd never thought about what my favorite color was before because I hadn't seen one that was worthy of the title. Until now, that is.
    "Blue," I say, my voice low.”

All of that for him to say that his favorite color is blue because Paedyn’s eyes are blue. That paragraph could have been easily condensed to 3, at most 4 sentences. This is the same issue with the sequel, where all 400 pages are about Kai hunting Paedyn. Once he finds her, he stabs her, and then loses her again even though she is bleeding out and he has a whole team at his disposal.

Then there is also the more… questionable dialogue:

    “His eyes finally flick to mine, causing my heart to hammer against my ribcage. Stupid, stupid organ.”

    “A forget-me-not, since you always seem to be forgetting who I am.”

Be serious. How am I supposed to read this with a straight face?

Overall, Powerless by Lauren Roberts has sparked controversy regarding the possible plagiarism of the novel Red Queen. This is due to their characters, plot and details that are just too similar to be a coincidence. Additionally, this controversy can be seen as an influence of the online reading community’s focus on tropes, which leads to the production of repetitive literature.