@@victoriaweasley1115 Psych set in a fantasy world is not something that I ever thought I would need but now that you put the idea in my head I definitely need it!😂
As an author, something that immediately comes to mind rather than a trite genocide story is an unbalanced power flip story. If you had a ruler who suddenly declared that all the people who suddenly had magical superpowers were to be the nobility, imagine how that would flip a world. You would suddenly have ordinary nobles who had experience governing for generations thrown out onto the street and their manors and stations given to people with no experience. Imagine if a former street ruffian with a chip on their shoulder was given that authority, how they could potentially abuse it and become corrupt so quickly, all because they can shoot fire from their hands and have no other qualifications. Something like that could cause so much drama and conflict, but heaven forbid that we get smart stories.
Would have been a lot more logical if it were a revolution story. Statistically more plebs would have got powers. The world would have been ripe for a revolt or at least a resistance.
I would read a book about how a group of characters deal with the consequences of a failing government after the monarch wipes out a significant percentage of the population.
“The EVIL Prince Hotnsexy said “I’m just a poor wounded bird inside” as he gutted an innocent peasant right in front of me. …..He wouldn’t lie. He’s so hawt. So I believed him. Someone so hawt couldn’t ACTUALLY be evil. Did I mention he’s HAWT? I love him. Sure his chronic need for murder might be a downer but I can fix him. It’s just a phase “. I feel like this unironically happens and the wording is eerily similar.
This is basically most romance novels writen by women by women. Like sure, they might not show the grotesque murder, but wtf do you think a vampire does on the regular? What about a pirate? Women really love psychotic Patrick Bateman murderers. The reasons are complex, and it's not really even about the murder, but for example the idea that "someone so dangerous would protect me."
@@amaranta8650 They’re generalizing, but it’s sort of true. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be worshipping Cameron Herrin, Ted Bundy, Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold, etc in a romantic way.
Because god forbid an author actually COMMITS to the idea of the main character being at a disadvantage power wise and using their cunning to win instead of brute force.
you didn't get that completely right: anime is not just written for 13 year old boys, but also for exhausted working-class men with a desk job who fondly look back on their childhood as the only good time in their life.
I tried to write a book with an A.I. generator once, but got annoyed that the A.I. had no sense of pacing and kept trying to deviate from my idea so I just scrapped it and wrote the whole garbage myself
As a viewer whose only watched 1 min of the video my comment is just as valid as all the other comments who have watched the full thing. Also I have blue eyes and brown hair. I can tell because of the beautiful moonlit lake im staring into. Im a professional unicorn wrangler. You know how much i love unicorns. I've spent my whole life with them. As you know, I never eat breakfast just slurp up coffee. You can tell because I mentioned it. Everyone says Im to kind and my punctuation is so naturally gifted itmakes sense.
@@sandcat2383 I have completed the video therefore I have finished my grammar arc... character arcs? You can tell because I said it. And I even looked at the dictionary so I even put in so much work to be a better commenter.
This whole villain talk just reminded me of kylo ren. Never made sense why he was evil, commits patricide on screen, aids a billions of lives crime against humanity super weapon, and then because he’s pretty and Rey likes him. Like there’s no reckoning for the billions of lives? Alderan was one planet and it galvanized the rebellion and people 100% were never going to forgive Vader or the emperor. Kylo blew up multiple planets in basically the same position of public enforcer as Vader, and the movies genuinely acted as if we shouldn’t notice the fact that he just committed a super war crime.
i'm always mad about kylo ren bc i feel like - especially at that moment in time - he could've been a GREAT character to explore the rise of neofascism with, especially in his canonical role as (essentially) a school shoo*er (idk if youtube will censor that). like - he feels as though he's entitled to power and special treatment, and to rey, bc of the status of his birth, and he gets resentful of luke for trying to teach that there isn't some heirarchy of superiority within the new jedi bc he believes he SHOULD be more special bc he's descended from vader/the skywalkers/whatever. but, not in small part due to the huge amount of kylo ren fans and/or reylo shippers and/or the backlash towards finn and the other characters of color, he ends up getting a kind of half-assed redemption arc and 'getting the girl' and so on. the rise of the new order or the neofascism that you could have explored as stemming from some of the discord that comes with the fracturing/dissolution of a fascist state doesn't really ever get actually explored. idk man, i just think star wars when it isn't afraid of politics or having something to say is better, and the sequels hugely dropped the ball there.
I wonder when people will realize that a lot of women are actively attracted to monstrous, murderous men, so long as they're also hot. Perhaps we need a few hundred more well-beloved-by-women movies and books featuring such men before people catch on.
@@taylor6528 This is why I wish there was more sequel trilogy criticism that isn't just calling it woke. Its genuine failings are so much more fascinating than dumbasses complaining about the "agenda" a billion times.
@@PosiWritesStories exactly!!! there's a lot to be said about where it went wrong - the BIGGEST factor of course absolutely being that there wasn't a cogent/thought out plan for them. a lot of other problems abt it kind of stem from that i think, because if you don't have your story already dictated, there's honestly no way you CANT do what ended up happening by reacting to fan responses in the next movies.
@@PosiWritesStoriesright? You can only complain about Rey being a Mary Sue so many times without diving into the actual bad writing. Being woke is a hilariously weak criticism considering some of the best things ever put to screen were "woke" as hell, considering the actual definition of the word.
We are the same lol. I adore romance as a genre but there are surprisingly a lot of romance books which aren't actually very romantic? Like boom, ml did something vagually nice, they fucked, and no they're desperately in love and would die for one another. The actual romance but doesn't exist. The audience is meant to fill in those blanks and it's so LAZY😭
It's like reading Bakunin and thinking "no, if the working class disappeared, the rulers WOULD be able to survive!" It would make more sense if the ordinaries where made slaves or something
lol having managed not to hear about this book yet, I was fooled by James's expression in the thumbnail into thinking "He ... he actually found one he likes!! Wow, it must be great!" Then the rainbow background and cheery tone quickly became sarcastic as every plot point felt like deja vu from the Red Queen video ... like "this sounds hella familiar, like I've even heard these exact points described by the same person ... oh it's because I have." idk if the humor will land with everyone, but it got me pretty thoroughly. A long-winded way of saying I appreciate how you scripted this one!
@@TobeyFairre7861 make a list of all the tropes people hate in YA so you never forget to include all of them. Extra point if you can't find a way to incorporate a trope organically into the story so you just shoehorn it in unceremoniously
Yup, the second I heard “forced into the desert” I was like “oh so we are doing Armenian genocide apologia now??? Don’t let Turkish nationalists see this book!”
At some point, you're going to end up like that one scene from Clockwork Orange. Eyelid held open, strapped to a chair, forced to read thousands of terrible books until something snaps. God bless ya, man.
22:30 in the wise words of crow caller, “that is too bad for a boy to be!” (in reference to a bad boy love interest who literally committed human trafficking)
Regarding the legal definition of genocide: Genocide is not exclusively a legal term. The sense in which the term was originally coined more closely resembles the broader “cultural genocide”. The UN definition was created by committee with the input of many countries parallel to Lemkin’s meaning of the term. The UN’s legal definition of genocide does not require killing people. Different countries have different individual definitions of genocide. In Latin American countries like Argentina, mass killings such as the disappearances with no ethnic or religious element are considered genocidal.
also it's agreed that Francisco Franco's Spain committed genocide. How? By actively separating Republican fighters from their children. This wasn't a genetic attack but an ideological one.
I would not said that mass killing during the argentinian dictatorships are called genocides, the term usually used is state terror*sm and crimes against humanity
Also a "fun" fact: the Soviet Union lobbied to tie genocide to killing ethnic groups. This was done because the Soviet Union didn't want its tendency to make intellectuals disappear be labelled as genocide.
Look at roy mustang from fma:b specifically: he was ordered to do a genocide and so dedicated the rest of his life to overthrowing the leadership that asked him to do that as a means to prove his life was worthwhile after committing atrocities. Thats a way you could have a flawed character complicit in a genocide but still even have them be the hero of the story. He did as much as he could to try and redeem himself. Sounds like with kai they were just like "oops lol sometimes a dude commits genocide"
idk i got a similar idea of some guy under's a warlord's command as a death commando unit where after engaging in brutal acts of sending multiple people into the gulag and killing dissenters in the worst way possible this guy decided to just leave proxima b and come back with supplies for multiple rebel facions while hidden
"B-b-b-but I've gotta have the Lancer character in the Team, because the Five Man Band is the only important composition of hero teams according to TV tropes!" "Ok, can you convincingly write a character that's a foil to your main hero without either A) failing by making them the same or B) making the foil character just be an asshole and that's why they're opposites to the main hero?" "... Looks like we're doing a Power Trio."
I read a bunch of tiktok books because I wanted to feel like a young girl again. But I think it just made me feel like a jaded, bitter old woman who can’t relate anymore. I felt betrayed with every recommendation. I felt like there was something wrong with me. I felt…powerless. Nah but I’m needing to read some good literature soon, before I forget it exists. Booktok marathon broke something in my brain.
6:12 I now want to read or watch a story Where an evil dad has to deal with the aftermath of all of his children being killed or crippled during a ridiculous trial he forced them to participate in
am i stupid or did we all not know that barbie princess and the pauper was like kind of based on a mark twain novel, i just assumed she came up with that
@@Ellisephasame this is where I was at. I had a vague inkling that it was likely an adaptation of an existing story, probably an old one or a fairytale, didn’t know specifically that it was a Mark Twain story.
My jaw actually dropped when you explained Kai threw the ordinaries into the desert because I immediately thought of the Armenian Genocide lol. Then you mentioned it and I was like THANK GOD someone also thought about that. actually gross how the author didn't think about how awful that still sounded 😭
One book series that has really opened my eyes as to how FUCKING SHIT the fantasy genre seems nowadays is The Locked Tomb. Yes, technically it's SciFi, but to me the first book felt more like fantasy, but in the far future. The writing is fun and clever (I swear, Tamzyn Muir is a master of setting up subtle clues and slow reveals), it has close to none of the annoying tropes that are seemingly everywhere, no love triangle, and most importantly, interesting characters who are very, very fucked up. I swear, no matter whether you like fantasy/scifi or not, give Gideon the Ninth a try. Worst it can be is a pallet cleanser, but to me it was like a breath of fresh air.
'There is not many popular books on tik tok, there is one popular book on tik tok' hits SO HARD. Especially as an author, I am find harder and harder to find good works being published and advertised. Its sad!
@@Juel92 "What do you mean homelander is a bad person!? He's strong, cool and handsome! Bad people are weak, lame and ugly!" -Certain The Boys fans probably
@@Juel92 I suspect a lot of viewers who idolized Homelander where mad at Season 4 because it showed that Homelander isn't a Magneto-style extremist wanting to make America "great" again, he's just an arsehole. The right-leaning show-viewers were OK with being cast as villains, as Homelander's henchmen, but the show instead casted them as his victims, and they hated that
@@Melissa-sx9vh I've been avoiding HoN vids because I don't want anything to potentially ruin my enjoyment of it. I haven't watched his video on it for that exact reason.
@@spiralphoenix9839 read the first book of shadow and bone and it just fell so flat compared to the authors other work.. it's a shame because i think she's a very talented writer
I love it when bad books have concepts I really like. The idea of people without powers being cast away could've been a thematic takedown of ableism, and I adore fake psychics like Shawn Spencer and Olivia Moore.
This is why I was obsessed with My Hero Academia. The promise is absolutely boiling at its premise-a hero fanboy but he’s part of the rare part of the population born WITHOUT superpowers. He’s discriminated against in ways that frankly make no sense, but makes perfect sense to a society that holds anti-powerless bias. The series instead, is a pro-cop eugenics story lol. Not on purpose. On accident due to terrible understanding of biology and society. But it’s that all the same lol, much like Powerless. It’s so crazy too, because their universe is one where a Batman character is ENTIRELY FEASIBLE. And tech beyond our wildest dreams is even utilized by heroes on the regular. And yet, everybody is together under the belief that to be a hero, you need to be born with a superpower. INCLUDING the audience. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve pointed at the INSANE tech of their world and the feasibility of a Batman type of superhero, only for a fellow fan to say “but to be a superhero you need a quirk!” “Quirk” being the in-universe way to say superpower. This is - on the face of it - literally buying into in-universe propaganda and bigotry. Like, it’s obvious if you ask them “can Batman be a hero without superpowers,” they’d say yes, but the instant you ask “can Deku be a hero without a quirk,” and suddenly they’re bringing up semantics like “heroes are legally defined as using quirks.” Lol Like that’s just ableism. Systemic ableism. Yes, Deku might need technological aid to assist his work, but he would still be doing the job lol. The fact that the laws define heroes by their quirks is a sign of systemic injustice, not a true reason why he couldn’t be a hero. It honestly fascinates me when in-world propaganda bleeds into out of world audience understanding. It’s like if people came out of Zootopia thinking Judy Hopps couldn’t be a cop lol Like how the Hunger Games originally made the love story as a sign of an escapist media ignoring war crimes, and then the real life media made the hunger games out to be a love triangle story and totally ignored the war crimes except as entertaining bloodsport lol In the case of My Hero Academia, however, this is entirely the fault of the author, who just… believes in ableism lol. Again, he wouldn’t see it that way, because he’s not the brightest at stuff like societal issues or biology. He probably didn’t realize the nuances of the metaphysics of creating a social category like “hero.” He also didn’t realize that most of his souped up biological explanations for quirks is just eugenics lol. My favorite is the idea that quirkless people genes are dying out because they’re unevolved, like does he not know about red heads? If humans are not naturally selected, how can you call a group of people less evolved? Like what, a mutation does not make someone more evolved, especially when they wouldn’t ‘die out’ bc we don’t have selective pressures like that, as we exist now. Blue eyes is a mutation, but they’re not “more evolved” unless you wanna be a eugenicist about this lol. And other stuff too, like his idea that quirkless people dying out wouldn’t be a horrifying thing, the way people naively assume a utopia would have no disabled people-not realizing that the only way that’s possible is eugenics Like at first you think he’s writing all this to make a point about ableism. But as the series goes on, it becomes abundantly clear that he just… genuinely thinks this is correct and that we shouldn’t question this because the MC gets powers through a mcguffin. Like “oh boy, I’m so glad I’m no longer an unevolved hero wannabe! I can finally stand on equal ground with you all.” Um… wow Lol and Quirklessness gets never brought up again in the main plot except by backwards bad guys, the theories of evolution and quirk eugenics never get challenged beyond the basic “people should be treated like people,” while kind of portraying eugenics as successful despite it being immoral (which is INSANE bc eugenics in real life just leads to incest or no difference lol), and plot importance is defined by how powerful your quirk is. That’s not even getting into the infeasible theory that quirks are getting stronger with each generation, which again is just eugenics lol. Like why make all these plot points about genes and evil eugenicists and evolution if you so baldly know nothing about it T_T There’s a reason superhero comics don’t really lean into that sort of thing. Instead of genes, just make it magic and inexplicable GOD DAMN. And I’m so surprised at the lack of discourse about this, like why is nobody talking about how eugenics the show is???? Like this author should’ve just wrote a story without all these complicated social issues aspects, but he needed an easy route to an underdog so he went “let’s make him marginalized so that way it’s not his fault that he’s not skilled.” The same way romantasy authors make the MC a leader of a rebellion to a corrupt regime, even when it makes no sense and ends up excusing g*n0c1d3s. He gets that the premise embodies the social Justice angle and therefore will include their aesthetics, but doesn’t understand them and then inadvertently recreates the exact debunked arguments against social Justice because he doesn’t realize that storytelling tropes apply poorly to real life social issues/allegories. Reminds me a lot of the debacles with white writers trying to write about colonialism or racism but failing due to applying tropes ignorantly, like the way GOT promoted a white savior narrative or the way RWBY made marginalized people into terrorists lol.
@@allyli1718 what's also interesting is that the Todoroki family came about because of eugenics, like Endeavor specifically wanted children who could have the strongest balance of a fire and ice quirk and his kids who did not get an equal amount of both he deemed failures. admittedly I stopped watching the show years ago so idk if this is ever really touched on again specifically (other than obviously Dabi's whole hatred of Endeavor thing) but I think you're right in that the story seems like it should be a critique of eugenics and then weirdly ends up supporting it? imo the story ought to be about realizing how eugenicist hero society is and making amends to support the people who are deemed a detriment or dangerous to society because of their quirks (like basically everyone in the league of villains including Himiko and Shigaraki) which they obviously can't help because they're literally born that way, as well as quirkless people who are also looked down upon. but then the actual story is just not about that at all and you're supposed to root for the heroes who uphold this society, and despite most of the villains being sympathetic, it's pretty clear they are not going to win and will pretty likely die from the way it looks like the manga is wrapping up so like. lol.
@@allyli1718i used to like bnha until deku started getting more and more quirks, rendering his arc and the quintessential question of the story useless. At that point he's just helping the system instead of breaking it. You're also right about the author justifying ableism in his work. Man, what a bizarre thing.
@@allyli1718 about RWBY: in volume 2 Blake claimed she was born in a place where you need to fight to survive. Turns out she's the rich daughter of a politician, lived on a tropical island without humans and joined the White Fang to bang Adam, also she never actually helps other Faunus like Velvet 😑 How the writers thought that was a good idea?
To those curious a out 21:25. The _Volksstrum_ was the group created at the end of WWII where the Nazis mass conscripted most males between the ages of 16-60 to desperately shore up manpower. The _Einsatzgruppen_ was the paramilitary arm of the SS that did the stuff they didn't have enough time or manpower for, notably systemic mass murder and genocide. The former is something the people didn't have much choice in. The later was recruited for and far more deliberate in intent, both in presentation and action.
isn't this book's map just the one from shadow and bone reskinned? it looks so incredibly similar i have to wonder if the author had *that* little originality that she's limboing in hell
You know a James Tullos video is going to be good when the it opens with dripping sarcasm and has the word "genocide" on the thumbnail. OF COURSE THE PRINCE IS NAMED KAI
I just know the author really felt like they did something by titling the book Powerless… “Do you get it guys!?! Because she doesn’t have powers and FEELS POWERLESS!!!!” 🙄
my biggest question reading the book was why did kai have to torture that 1 guy to death for information when a few chapters before he told paedeighn the king had mind readers working for him .-.
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Kai is actively involved in genocide when they are adults (meaning he kills the ordinaries himself) and only sends them through the desert when they're children. And that's supposed to be him being a good guy because he wouldn't kill children. But obviously it's all super terrible.😊
“Powerless delenda est” Powerless must be destroyed in Latin, from “Carthago delenda est.” Delenda is the feminine nominative singular gerundive form of deleo, so literally translated, “delenda est” means “(she) is to be destroyed.”
I saw this book at my town library, read the summary on the inside flap, and thought, "I don't need to check this out. James Tullos or someone else will review it for me." And I was right. Thank you btw :)
You know, I've been having a bit of self-doubt with my own writing. Holy shit I didn't need to worry, this is SO much worse. Also, as an aside, another way to go about the "genocidal maniac protagonist" thing that isn't dogshit (and the way I've been going about it), is making the antagonist even fucking worse by several magnitudes.
People need to support new ideas, And not just a fancy cover art book. Tiktok is full of paid promotion from tiktokers . Dont trust their opinions I dont.
Good video, as always: and an especially good point at the end there on expanding your horizons. I've found so many incredible books, and developed a greater appreciation for literature as a whole just by going out of my way to read books by people who look different than me. It's humbling, sometimes, to realize just how big, just how varied this world is.
My great great grandmother was a survivor of the "death march" (that's what they called it). She lost all her siblings and both her parents due to starvation out in those deserts. I cannot for the life of me imagine a scenario where you would go "yeah that sucked, but he hawt doh". What??? This is the first time I'm hearing 'that' being the content of the book. Actually disgusting.
So, I'm currently working on a story about a sovereign who at first was accepting of magic and its users (so long as they don't use it for evil or harm). However that changed when some decided to use their magic to wreak havoc on his realm. He started to fear magic and eventually decided that magic nor its users have a place in his realm. (there's more to it then this but is the short version of it). His fear turned into hatred and he made both his people and son believe that all magic users were evil and dangerous. He, at first, only went after those who betrayed him but fear got the better of him and he believed that no user could be trusted. At first his son goes along with his father's ideology (mainly due to not knowing much about magic nor how it works) however, throughout the story, he slowly starts to realize that his father's ideology is not only not fully true but also extremely harmful itself. (Btw: magic itself is neutral, it takes many years to practice it, and only a few were able to fully master it.) The MC hates the sovereign and believes that his son will be just as terrible as him once he becomes the new ruler ("how can he be different from the monster that raised him?") bur after spending time with him, she realizes that he's heavily misguided but, unlike his father, is open to changing his viewpoint. There's more to the story then this, but this the very condense version of it. While watching this video and the one where he tries to fix the problems with fantasy, I was wondering if there's something that I should change or add to this?
I don’t think I can pinpoint any issues with just a summary like this, other than it being very similar to BBC Merlin. I believe the theme you are going for is about the danger of preconceived notions, and how people often hate what they’re ignorant of. This is all good, but it’s been done in media many times before. My only advice is try to think of ways you could explore the topic that haven’t been done before. What do you have to say about all this other than “hatred bad”? Anyway hope this helps, good luck.
Maybe the son is the main character, and meets the original main character makes him turn to the good side? It can be refreshing to see a MC that is kinda bad at the beginning, and it can be a very sucky thing for somebody to take responsibility for one’s actions
@@marianatheschizoid5912 Thanks for the advice and I understand that it has been done multiple times before. What you said is part of what I was going for but I also wanted to the message to be that there’s power in both our voice and words and that we can make a change with this power and even if the change is small, it can still be significant (this is something that the MC learns).
Can we talk about American fantasy authors naming their characters with the hwitest names imaginable. Kai and Paedyn (nice try, that's just Peyton) do not spark joy. I guess they wanted the characters to be relatable for some teenager in Iowa to read. I demand to see characters called Vlać and Šochi.
After hearing about this book and the fact its basically bootleg Stormlight Archives, I have a lot more appreciation for the incredible writing of that series. When the perspective shifts between characters, it is impossiblento confuse one for another because their minds and internal dialogues are all so different
James saying how its bad to generalize a genre and then proceeds to generalize the whole of anime, which isn't even a genre, its a medium. Like, I get most of the shonen stuff is trash (tho take into consideration that its written for an audience of young boys), but there is plenty of well written animes out there.
Eh, I agree with James. There are well written anime for more adult audiences (as he said), but I truly find most anime to be entertaining trash. Anime culture has a bizarre need for self-indulgence, to the point where fans get mad at the idea that it shouldn’t pander to them, that it’s not made for wish fulfillment, that the girls/guys aren’t made for fanservice, etc. I’ve seen so many people mad about people arguing against fanservice bc they can’t fathom that a camera pandering to them could possibly be bad. Because it feels like an encroachment of the one safe space where they can escape and fantasize/openly be themself. “Themself” being a creepy pervert or an anti-social shut-in a lot of the time. It extends to other things like moe or waifu culture, which extends to things like common character tropes/archetypes. And like, this has a lot of origins in the history itself-the way it was brought up as a niche of horny guys animating bunny girls lol. Even well-written influential anime talk about this cannibalistic escapist tendency, such as Evangelion. I used to watch anime a lot as a kid, and I still do, but I’ve realize I really have to lower my expectations A LOT because most anime indulges very narrow group of people. Even when escaping to different genres that are not Shonen, I simply cannot escape wading through trash that people highly recommend 😭 It reminds me a lot of how-although western animation is a MEDIUM-most western animations fall into the crude adult comedy category or kids animation category. There are rare exceptions, but our culture of looking down on animation perpetuates this typecasting. Like how there are great fantasy books out there, but for some reason right now all the ones we get pushed are these stupid “A ___ of ___ and ___” romantasy like powerless. Ugh, it’s an apt comparison in my opinion
As someone who can literally not enjoy any anime that doesn't feature gross sexualization, you're wrong at that. Bad animes have crossbred so much that its overtaking the good. Fundamentally it doesn't matter if there are good anime if what gets popular and adaptations are the cringy, high school anime with hot waifus
@sandraswan9008 He said most anime is trash... That's not talking about the tropes and cliches of anime. Its ok, you can disagree with James, he ain't gonna eat you.
@@Veles_Rayou are quite literally generalizing books based on whether theyre popular on booktok, and you take an issue with generalizing anime? Lol, weird and hypocritical.
as a long-time watcher, thank you for mentioning the nakba! the palestinian plight is being obscured and normalized through ignorance; and, just a silver of reference to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of palestine is so so meaningful!
honestly you can blame hamas and the free palenstine extremists who rips hostages posters and try to justify why attacking cvilians and people who dont belive their side is okay, they ruined palenstine's reputation and make the problems feel like propaganda. which is not. both should be condemned for violence against civilians
After so many videos where you suffer for our entertainment, and having spent quite a bit of time with other long suffering reviewers, I can say this much: enjoying dog shit is genuinely fine, we all like dog shit every once in a while, what's the problem. The problem is trying to pretend that a pile of dog shit is actually a pile of diamonds. It is possible to find diamonds in a pile of shit, but it doesn't change the fact that *it is a pile of shit*. Recognizing the difference seems to have become quite the thing to ask of people, and to point out the smell of shit is becoming more and more tiresome. Mediocrity for the win I guess.
I feel as though Kai bringing these people to the Scorches would work if he had some support system to go along with that plot line. If he were to bring them there and give them supplies as well as some safe route with a 100% to 90% survival rate then a lot of our issues would be non-existent. I wanted to love Kai, I really did, but I was practically ripping out my hair to continue reading once I reached 35% into the book.
I realized something. We might just wemt full circle. Years ago or so there was some critique on Pixar and Disney that they keep associating uglyness with being bad - like prince charming vs old witch. Then came stories showing that it might not be true were Shrek is good example. Now were in 2024 and since few years we've got book showing that even the cruel mob bossed or sadistic tyran-kings are good if they're good-looking.
It seems strange to me that having examples of powerless characters in worlds full of people with powers (like Deku from MHA or Reigen from MobPsyco100), and characters who started from the evil side but had redemption arcs (like Zuko from Avatar or Thorfinn from Vinland Saga), still end up making flat and poorly developed characters. Also, have you ever seen Monster from Naoki Urasawa? That anime is a gem.
My favourite line "powerless is just red queen with a few scenes in different spots! And also it's done worse... and Red queen wasn't very good to begin with." Summed up exactly how i felt about this book
My guess was that he hid them somewhere obvious and they were found and killed and you were being hyperbolic about the genocide thing, but nope. Is he aware that being left in the desert without supplies is not a survivable state? Maybe he's more stupid than evil.
I know this comment is old but oh yeah, he’s 100% aware. He actively remarks on it in his narration and he doesn’t feel remorseful about it, but the book treats it like we are supposed to go “awe, poor Kai, look at all the horrible things his dad is making him do!” His chapters are just unhinged in general. I think there is one chapter that starts with something like “Torture and training always put me in a good mood in the mornings.” He tortures a resistance prisoner for a few chapters and he keeps telling us how much he enjoys it. It’s wild.
my theory about the character development this is like. i feel like authors are just very scared of even coming off as apologetic towards "problematic" behaviour. a phenomenon i like to call twitter brain. where everything is just about performance. but they want the tropey fun of having the "morally grey" character and the protagonist getting together bc like it's hot or whatever. so instead of actually working to develop believable, messy characters who suck but are well-made, they just sort of pick surface level traits and run with it. It's really so boring, more than anything else, which is the worst thing a piece of art can be imo
I am actually laughing uncontrollably at "these people would stan Hitler if he had a K-pop haircut"
The sad thing is, he's right.
Agreed
i vividly remember fancams of kim jong un
don’t forget about the semi-reverse version of this, Radiohead singing in Karma Police: “arrest this girl, her hitler hairdo is making me feel ill” 😅
t-there's fancams of kim jong un..?
"And then she's pulled into some sort of deadly tournament where she fights for her life" I didn't see that one coming and yet I feel like I should've
When he said "fake psychic" and "saved a prince" I thought we were going to get Psych in Fantasy for a glorious second... then he kept talking.
@@victoriaweasley1115 Psych set in a fantasy world is not something that I ever thought I would need but now that you put the idea in my head I definitely need it!😂
As an author, something that immediately comes to mind rather than a trite genocide story is an unbalanced power flip story. If you had a ruler who suddenly declared that all the people who suddenly had magical superpowers were to be the nobility, imagine how that would flip a world. You would suddenly have ordinary nobles who had experience governing for generations thrown out onto the street and their manors and stations given to people with no experience. Imagine if a former street ruffian with a chip on their shoulder was given that authority, how they could potentially abuse it and become corrupt so quickly, all because they can shoot fire from their hands and have no other qualifications. Something like that could cause so much drama and conflict, but heaven forbid that we get smart stories.
Would have been a lot more logical if it were a revolution story. Statistically more plebs would have got powers. The world would have been ripe for a revolt or at least a resistance.
May I copy this idea?
@@timfrank7461 You may have it with my eternal blessings.
I would read a book about how a group of characters deal with the consequences of a failing government after the monarch wipes out a significant percentage of the population.
You'll never get smart stories trending on TikTok. Writers who actually try are doomed.
“The EVIL Prince Hotnsexy said “I’m just a poor wounded bird inside” as he gutted an innocent peasant right in front of me. …..He wouldn’t lie. He’s so hawt. So I believed him. Someone so hawt couldn’t ACTUALLY be evil. Did I mention he’s HAWT? I love him. Sure his chronic need for murder might be a downer but I can fix him. It’s just a phase “.
I feel like this unironically happens and the wording is eerily similar.
This is basically most romance novels writen by women by women. Like sure, they might not show the grotesque murder, but wtf do you think a vampire does on the regular? What about a pirate?
Women really love psychotic Patrick Bateman murderers. The reasons are complex, and it's not really even about the murder, but for example the idea that "someone so dangerous would protect me."
@@jesustyronechrist2330you know you can be critical without being misogynistic?
@@jesustyronechrist2330 aw, did someone hurt you?
@@jesustyronechrist2330true. Ignore esses progressistas norte americanos em cima
@@amaranta8650 They’re generalizing, but it’s sort of true. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be worshipping Cameron Herrin, Ted Bundy, Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold, etc in a romantic way.
I love the way this book reminded me of the wattpad hunger games fanfics about random peoples OCs
One of the lines in this books includes the color scene from the Hunger Games
They are honestly better lol
as a former writer and reader of these those were more fun and interesting honestly than whatever this book is
"Paedyn has no powers."
Calling it right now - Yes she does.
Because god forbid an author actually COMMITS to the idea of the main character being at a disadvantage power wise and using their cunning to win instead of brute force.
@@lunarrobot9714cruel prince does this, and the politics and beauty are explained and are decent. Characters are decently fleshed out and i loved it
No, she doesn't😂the author did pretty good in this book considering its her first one and she's so young.
@@yg1307 omg I looooveee the cruel prince.
@@katgreer6113 really? Not even a "her power is that anybody's power doesn't work on her" power
Remember kids if someone does anything terrible if there hot than it’s fine 😊
a lot of times thats true irl.....
if youre hot youl get away with far more then if youre ugly
Twilight
50 shades
365 days
After
CoHo books
Pen Douglas books
And so many dark romances
@@nont18411also, like, animes. People legit Stan hisoka from hunter x hunter. A literal pedo.
Just look at Wade Wilson right now. And its not Deadpool.
I want to see Arataka Reigen from Mob Psycho 100 trying to survive in the protagonist’s position.
He'd end up as a royal advisor or some shit
@@catsinburg8626 Yeah, he’d just convince the king he hides his aura with his psychic power and he’d be golden.
The thought of reigen and fmc swapping places is horrifying, if only for mobs sake
Reigan has it. He couldn't even see the spirits in his world and he *still* convinced everyone he was psychic.
Him and his special moves would have all the princes in love with him ❤😂
you didn't get that completely right: anime is not just written for 13 year old boys, but also for exhausted working-class men with a desk job who fondly look back on their childhood as the only good time in their life.
Also highly depends on the genre
Some of it is written to make you cry - watch Clannad, Clannad Afterstory, A Silent Voice...
@@viking-astronaut also highly depends on the specific anime
This says a lot about the kinds of anime you watch you know
@@navarog378 the only anime i've watched recently was dungeonmeshi lol
I wonder if there is a factory somewhere churning out all those samey TikTok books. Or maybe some kind of special AI generator.
If you want a 500 or so pages read that's different from all these generic blind followers, I've got Encryption Straffe!
I tried to write a book with an A.I. generator once, but got annoyed that the A.I. had no sense of pacing and kept trying to deviate from my idea so I just scrapped it and wrote the whole garbage myself
nah, it's just ghost writers hashing out the same outline they've hashed out a thousand times before. sweatshop style.
@@prcervi That’s even more depressing to think about.
If people really do that I have tons of story plots and outlines I could sell. To actually writers with talent though. @@prcervi
James's thumbnails and their continued relationship with the German vocabulary is truly something to marvel at.
Did he change the thumbnail?
@@Emily-xl8qw I think it's a Hitler reference
@@TheGrippler09what does it say for you? Because for me the thumbnail is him, the book and a screenshot of the definition of genocide
@@ene66 Yeah, that sounds German.
"I love Powerless", he says, while his dead eyes yearn for the sweet release of death.
As a viewer whose only watched 1 min of the video my comment is just as valid as all the other comments who have watched the full thing. Also I have blue eyes and brown hair. I can tell because of the beautiful moonlit lake im staring into. Im a professional unicorn wrangler. You know how much i love unicorns. I've spent my whole life with them. As you know, I never eat breakfast just slurp up coffee. You can tell because I mentioned it. Everyone says Im to kind and my punctuation is so naturally gifted itmakes sense.
This sounds like this was written by ai and I love it, it's perfect
@@sandcat2383 I have completed the video therefore I have finished my grammar arc... character arcs? You can tell because I said it. And I even looked at the dictionary so I even put in so much work to be a better commenter.
@@nicole7884 Better character development than the book
@@sandcat2383 Haha there's tea all over my laptop thanks to your comment.
@nicole7884, and there's the sudden 3rd act tragedy, this is such a great story!
This whole villain talk just reminded me of kylo ren. Never made sense why he was evil, commits patricide on screen, aids a billions of lives crime against humanity super weapon, and then because he’s pretty and Rey likes him. Like there’s no reckoning for the billions of lives? Alderan was one planet and it galvanized the rebellion and people 100% were never going to forgive Vader or the emperor. Kylo blew up multiple planets in basically the same position of public enforcer as Vader, and the movies genuinely acted as if we shouldn’t notice the fact that he just committed a super war crime.
i'm always mad about kylo ren bc i feel like - especially at that moment in time - he could've been a GREAT character to explore the rise of neofascism with, especially in his canonical role as (essentially) a school shoo*er (idk if youtube will censor that).
like - he feels as though he's entitled to power and special treatment, and to rey, bc of the status of his birth, and he gets resentful of luke for trying to teach that there isn't some heirarchy of superiority within the new jedi bc he believes he SHOULD be more special bc he's descended from vader/the skywalkers/whatever.
but, not in small part due to the huge amount of kylo ren fans and/or reylo shippers and/or the backlash towards finn and the other characters of color, he ends up getting a kind of half-assed redemption arc and 'getting the girl' and so on. the rise of the new order or the neofascism that you could have explored as stemming from some of the discord that comes with the fracturing/dissolution of a fascist state doesn't really ever get actually explored.
idk man, i just think star wars when it isn't afraid of politics or having something to say is better, and the sequels hugely dropped the ball there.
I wonder when people will realize that a lot of women are actively attracted to monstrous, murderous men, so long as they're also hot.
Perhaps we need a few hundred more well-beloved-by-women movies and books featuring such men before people catch on.
@@taylor6528 This is why I wish there was more sequel trilogy criticism that isn't just calling it woke. Its genuine failings are so much more fascinating than dumbasses complaining about the "agenda" a billion times.
@@PosiWritesStories exactly!!! there's a lot to be said about where it went wrong - the BIGGEST factor of course absolutely being that there wasn't a cogent/thought out plan for them. a lot of other problems abt it kind of stem from that i think, because if you don't have your story already dictated, there's honestly no way you CANT do what ended up happening by reacting to fan responses in the next movies.
@@PosiWritesStoriesright? You can only complain about Rey being a Mary Sue so many times without diving into the actual bad writing. Being woke is a hilariously weak criticism considering some of the best things ever put to screen were "woke" as hell, considering the actual definition of the word.
I love slow burn stuff so the unwillingness of most authors to write it is a bit sad lol
I haven’t failed you, but my book is only half done.
Jokes on you my 300 chapter enemies to lovers slow burn is in my drafts begging to be edited. (Book 1)
We are the same lol. I adore romance as a genre but there are surprisingly a lot of romance books which aren't actually very romantic? Like boom, ml did something vagually nice, they fucked, and no they're desperately in love and would die for one another. The actual romance but doesn't exist. The audience is meant to fill in those blanks and it's so LAZY😭
if you haven’t already you should check out the war of lost hearts trilogy!! the slow burn is perfect and the plot actually has substance
@@joyc.e.7511 right? Where's the chemistry buildup if everything happens right away
It's like reading Bakunin and thinking "no, if the working class disappeared, the rulers WOULD be able to survive!"
It would make more sense if the ordinaries where made slaves or something
The real magic of this world is that it makes Ayn Rand's worldview actually feasible.
Or make the powered people the enslaved and the ordinaries in charge, because sudden change wouldn’t be excepted in a world like this
@@BigElbows or make labor camps?
lol having managed not to hear about this book yet, I was fooled by James's expression in the thumbnail into thinking "He ... he actually found one he likes!! Wow, it must be great!" Then the rainbow background and cheery tone quickly became sarcastic as every plot point felt like deja vu from the Red Queen video ... like "this sounds hella familiar, like I've even heard these exact points described by the same person ... oh it's because I have." idk if the humor will land with everyone, but it got me pretty thoroughly. A long-winded way of saying I appreciate how you scripted this one!
I'm gonna have to try really hard if I'm gonna write the world's worst YA novel. I mean books like this exist!
I'm rotting for you, bud!
@@TobeyFairre7861 make a list of all the tropes people hate in YA so you never forget to include all of them. Extra point if you can't find a way to incorporate a trope organically into the story so you just shoehorn it in unceremoniously
Literally how the Namibian Herero people are displaced into the deserts
Just like how the British did their practice round on the Irish, the Germans did their practice round on Namibia.
@@pufffincrazy5275 Germany has other overseas holdings, but the atrocities indeed began in Namibia
Yup, the second I heard “forced into the desert” I was like “oh so we are doing Armenian genocide apologia now??? Don’t let Turkish nationalists see this book!”
@@Kaanfight Armenia and Namibia! We doing all the "it's not me, it's the times"
At some point, you're going to end up like that one scene from Clockwork Orange. Eyelid held open, strapped to a chair, forced to read thousands of terrible books until something snaps. God bless ya, man.
22:30 in the wise words of crow caller, “that is too bad for a boy to be!” (in reference to a bad boy love interest who literally committed human trafficking)
Yay! Someone else that watches Crow Caller😊
James should read sweet evil, it would be wonderful
Regarding the legal definition of genocide:
Genocide is not exclusively a legal term. The sense in which the term was originally coined more closely resembles the broader “cultural genocide”. The UN definition was created by committee with the input of many countries parallel to Lemkin’s meaning of the term.
The UN’s legal definition of genocide does not require killing people.
Different countries have different individual definitions of genocide. In Latin American countries like Argentina, mass killings such as the disappearances with no ethnic or religious element are considered genocidal.
another term for cultural genocide is ethnocide.
also it's agreed that Francisco Franco's Spain committed genocide. How? By actively separating Republican fighters from their children. This wasn't a genetic attack but an ideological one.
I would not said that mass killing during the argentinian dictatorships are called genocides, the term usually used is state terror*sm and crimes against humanity
Also a "fun" fact: the Soviet Union lobbied to tie genocide to killing ethnic groups. This was done because the Soviet Union didn't want its tendency to make intellectuals disappear be labelled as genocide.
Which genocide happend in Argentina?
Look at roy mustang from fma:b specifically: he was ordered to do a genocide and so dedicated the rest of his life to overthrowing the leadership that asked him to do that as a means to prove his life was worthwhile after committing atrocities. Thats a way you could have a flawed character complicit in a genocide but still even have them be the hero of the story. He did as much as he could to try and redeem himself. Sounds like with kai they were just like "oops lol sometimes a dude commits genocide"
idk i got a similar idea of some guy under's a warlord's command as a death commando unit where after engaging in brutal acts of sending multiple people into the gulag and killing dissenters in the worst way possible this guy decided to just leave proxima b and come back with supplies for multiple rebel facions while hidden
It's been a while since I read those books, but iirc, he and Hawkeye also planned to have themselves executed for that once their work was done.
How many of these writers treat TV Tropes as a how-to guide?
"B-b-b-but I've gotta have the Lancer character in the Team, because the Five Man Band is the only important composition of hero teams according to TV tropes!"
"Ok, can you convincingly write a character that's a foil to your main hero without either A) failing by making them the same or B) making the foil character just be an asshole and that's why they're opposites to the main hero?"
"... Looks like we're doing a Power Trio."
I read a bunch of tiktok books because I wanted to feel like a young girl again. But I think it just made me feel like a jaded, bitter old woman who can’t relate anymore. I felt betrayed with every recommendation. I felt like there was something wrong with me. I felt…powerless.
Nah but I’m needing to read some good literature soon, before I forget it exists. Booktok marathon broke something in my brain.
6:12 I now want to read or watch a story Where an evil dad has to deal with the aftermath of all of his children being killed or crippled during a ridiculous trial he forced them to participate in
Kinda Neon Genesis Evangelion, in a way?
@@Ellisepha Shinji survives & never received serious physical injuries
And I love you, James "Rizzler" Tullos
J.R.R. Tullos, eh?
am i stupid or did we all not know that barbie princess and the pauper was like kind of based on a mark twain novel, i just assumed she came up with that
Nah, we all know mark twain ripped off barbie.
I didn't know Mark Twain weote that story, I always assumed it was an old fairytale like Snow White or Red Riding Hood.
@@Ellisephasame this is where I was at. I had a vague inkling that it was likely an adaptation of an existing story, probably an old one or a fairytale, didn’t know specifically that it was a Mark Twain story.
Mark Twain ripped off barbie 😔
I knew it was based on a story, didn't know it was by Mark Twain
My jaw actually dropped when you explained Kai threw the ordinaries into the desert because I immediately thought of the Armenian Genocide lol. Then you mentioned it and I was like THANK GOD someone also thought about that. actually gross how the author didn't think about how awful that still sounded 😭
"Well that was a little grim. I prefer my escapism to be full of sunshine and rainbows... and genocide."
You. Are. Amazing.
why is no one talking about how the kingdoms name is literally a russian male name, like imagine calling a fantasy kingdom for example joe
This book is Goodreads Choice Award! 4.26/5. And "Nominee for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2023)". Why am I not surprised...?
I love the Ghost Stories background video lmao. That dub is so unhinged.
@westvirginiaglutenfreepepp7006 it's not the 2000s anymore tho. I was busy not being alive when it came out so it's very funny to me
puting effort in writing a book. i sleep.
writing half a book and repeat everything twice so it looks bigger . Real shit.
I didn't know I had subscribed to Terrible Writing Advice.
It's like some of these authors had read TWA's script and missed the part about terrible.
I guess reviewing JP's book gave him an itch he just had to scratch.
One book series that has really opened my eyes as to how FUCKING SHIT the fantasy genre seems nowadays is The Locked Tomb. Yes, technically it's SciFi, but to me the first book felt more like fantasy, but in the far future.
The writing is fun and clever (I swear, Tamzyn Muir is a master of setting up subtle clues and slow reveals), it has close to none of the annoying tropes that are seemingly everywhere, no love triangle, and most importantly, interesting characters who are very, very fucked up.
I swear, no matter whether you like fantasy/scifi or not, give Gideon the Ninth a try. Worst it can be is a pallet cleanser, but to me it was like a breath of fresh air.
Yes! Such a good series!
'There is not many popular books on tik tok, there is one popular book on tik tok' hits SO HARD. Especially as an author, I am find harder and harder to find good works being published and advertised. Its sad!
The way you talk about the fans of this book reminds me a lot of the "fans" of The Boys who just realized what a big part of the show is about.
Please elaborate
@@nont18411 Where one of the main character is actually clearly a POS yet people don't see it and somehow idolize him?
@@nont18411Also far righters realizing that the show that has always held the far right in contempt holds them in contempt.
@@Juel92
"What do you mean homelander is a bad person!? He's strong, cool and handsome! Bad people are weak, lame and ugly!"
-Certain The Boys fans probably
@@Juel92 I suspect a lot of viewers who idolized Homelander where mad at Season 4 because it showed that Homelander isn't a Magneto-style extremist wanting to make America "great" again, he's just an arsehole. The right-leaning show-viewers were OK with being cast as villains, as Homelander's henchmen, but the show instead casted them as his victims, and they hated that
"Read Vampire Academy or Shadow and Bone" *Remembers how invested I still am in House of Night😑*
Hey, at least it's different.
Shadow and bone sucks
I don't know if you've watched Alizee's videos about HoN but they are amazing!
@@Melissa-sx9vh I've been avoiding HoN vids because I don't want anything to potentially ruin my enjoyment of it. I haven't watched his video on it for that exact reason.
@@spiralphoenix9839 read the first book of shadow and bone and it just fell so flat compared to the authors other work.. it's a shame because i think she's a very talented writer
I love it when bad books have concepts I really like.
The idea of people without powers being cast away could've been a thematic takedown of ableism, and I adore fake psychics like Shawn Spencer and Olivia Moore.
the number of puns in iZombie... Liv Moore. Philmore Graves. Shady Plots. The Scratching Post.
This is why I was obsessed with My Hero Academia. The promise is absolutely boiling at its premise-a hero fanboy but he’s part of the rare part of the population born WITHOUT superpowers. He’s discriminated against in ways that frankly make no sense, but makes perfect sense to a society that holds anti-powerless bias.
The series instead, is a pro-cop eugenics story lol. Not on purpose. On accident due to terrible understanding of biology and society. But it’s that all the same lol, much like Powerless.
It’s so crazy too, because their universe is one where a Batman character is ENTIRELY FEASIBLE. And tech beyond our wildest dreams is even utilized by heroes on the regular. And yet, everybody is together under the belief that to be a hero, you need to be born with a superpower. INCLUDING the audience.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve pointed at the INSANE tech of their world and the feasibility of a Batman type of superhero, only for a fellow fan to say “but to be a superhero you need a quirk!”
“Quirk” being the in-universe way to say superpower. This is - on the face of it - literally buying into in-universe propaganda and bigotry. Like, it’s obvious if you ask them “can Batman be a hero without superpowers,” they’d say yes, but the instant you ask “can Deku be a hero without a quirk,” and suddenly they’re bringing up semantics like “heroes are legally defined as using quirks.” Lol
Like that’s just ableism. Systemic ableism. Yes, Deku might need technological aid to assist his work, but he would still be doing the job lol. The fact that the laws define heroes by their quirks is a sign of systemic injustice, not a true reason why he couldn’t be a hero. It honestly fascinates me when in-world propaganda bleeds into out of world audience understanding. It’s like if people came out of Zootopia thinking Judy Hopps couldn’t be a cop lol
Like how the Hunger Games originally made the love story as a sign of an escapist media ignoring war crimes, and then the real life media made the hunger games out to be a love triangle story and totally ignored the war crimes except as entertaining bloodsport lol
In the case of My Hero Academia, however, this is entirely the fault of the author, who just… believes in ableism lol. Again, he wouldn’t see it that way, because he’s not the brightest at stuff like societal issues or biology. He probably didn’t realize the nuances of the metaphysics of creating a social category like “hero.”
He also didn’t realize that most of his souped up biological explanations for quirks is just eugenics lol. My favorite is the idea that quirkless people genes are dying out because they’re unevolved, like does he not know about red heads? If humans are not naturally selected, how can you call a group of people less evolved? Like what, a mutation does not make someone more evolved, especially when they wouldn’t ‘die out’ bc we don’t have selective pressures like that, as we exist now. Blue eyes is a mutation, but they’re not “more evolved” unless you wanna be a eugenicist about this lol. And other stuff too, like his idea that quirkless people dying out wouldn’t be a horrifying thing, the way people naively assume a utopia would have no disabled people-not realizing that the only way that’s possible is eugenics
Like at first you think he’s writing all this to make a point about ableism. But as the series goes on, it becomes abundantly clear that he just… genuinely thinks this is correct and that we shouldn’t question this because the MC gets powers through a mcguffin. Like “oh boy, I’m so glad I’m no longer an unevolved hero wannabe! I can finally stand on equal ground with you all.” Um… wow
Lol and Quirklessness gets never brought up again in the main plot except by backwards bad guys, the theories of evolution and quirk eugenics never get challenged beyond the basic “people should be treated like people,” while kind of portraying eugenics as successful despite it being immoral (which is INSANE bc eugenics in real life just leads to incest or no difference lol), and plot importance is defined by how powerful your quirk is. That’s not even getting into the infeasible theory that quirks are getting stronger with each generation, which again is just eugenics lol.
Like why make all these plot points about genes and evil eugenicists and evolution if you so baldly know nothing about it T_T There’s a reason superhero comics don’t really lean into that sort of thing. Instead of genes, just make it magic and inexplicable GOD DAMN. And I’m so surprised at the lack of discourse about this, like why is nobody talking about how eugenics the show is????
Like this author should’ve just wrote a story without all these complicated social issues aspects, but he needed an easy route to an underdog so he went “let’s make him marginalized so that way it’s not his fault that he’s not skilled.” The same way romantasy authors make the MC a leader of a rebellion to a corrupt regime, even when it makes no sense and ends up excusing g*n0c1d3s.
He gets that the premise embodies the social Justice angle and therefore will include their aesthetics, but doesn’t understand them and then inadvertently recreates the exact debunked arguments against social Justice because he doesn’t realize that storytelling tropes apply poorly to real life social issues/allegories. Reminds me a lot of the debacles with white writers trying to write about colonialism or racism but failing due to applying tropes ignorantly, like the way GOT promoted a white savior narrative or the way RWBY made marginalized people into terrorists lol.
@@allyli1718 what's also interesting is that the Todoroki family came about because of eugenics, like Endeavor specifically wanted children who could have the strongest balance of a fire and ice quirk and his kids who did not get an equal amount of both he deemed failures. admittedly I stopped watching the show years ago so idk if this is ever really touched on again specifically (other than obviously Dabi's whole hatred of Endeavor thing) but I think you're right in that the story seems like it should be a critique of eugenics and then weirdly ends up supporting it? imo the story ought to be about realizing how eugenicist hero society is and making amends to support the people who are deemed a detriment or dangerous to society because of their quirks (like basically everyone in the league of villains including Himiko and Shigaraki) which they obviously can't help because they're literally born that way, as well as quirkless people who are also looked down upon. but then the actual story is just not about that at all and you're supposed to root for the heroes who uphold this society, and despite most of the villains being sympathetic, it's pretty clear they are not going to win and will pretty likely die from the way it looks like the manga is wrapping up so like. lol.
@@allyli1718i used to like bnha until deku started getting more and more quirks, rendering his arc and the quintessential question of the story useless. At that point he's just helping the system instead of breaking it. You're also right about the author justifying ableism in his work. Man, what a bizarre thing.
@@allyli1718 about RWBY: in volume 2 Blake claimed she was born in a place where you need to fight to survive. Turns out she's the rich daughter of a politician, lived on a tropical island without humans and joined the White Fang to bang Adam, also she never actually helps other Faunus like Velvet
😑
How the writers thought that was a good idea?
Wait so this just discount red queen?...
No, Red Queen was just bad. Powerless is gross.
You know how there's always worse imitations of any good book. Turns out some manage to make worse imitations even of a bad book.
@@pRahvi0 this comment hurt
To those curious a out 21:25.
The _Volksstrum_ was the group created at the end of WWII where the Nazis mass conscripted most males between the ages of 16-60 to desperately shore up manpower.
The _Einsatzgruppen_ was the paramilitary arm of the SS that did the stuff they didn't have enough time or manpower for, notably systemic mass murder and genocide.
The former is something the people didn't have much choice in. The later was recruited for and far more deliberate in intent, both in presentation and action.
isn't this book's map just the one from shadow and bone reskinned? it looks so incredibly similar i have to wonder if the author had *that* little originality that she's limboing in hell
I was gonna say "nah, most fantasy maps look like this because they're copying Middle Earth" but oh my god they're exactly the same.
Damn this might be the most brutal review I've seen from James in a while. Totally warrented though by the sound of it.
It’s not even an hour long, pretty tame in my opinion 😂
13:41 This sentence has gotten more play in the last year than it has in decades. Keep spitting James. People do not realize how many genocides happen
9 and half minutes of sarcasm, it has to be a new record 😂😂😂
You know a James Tullos video is going to be good when the it opens with dripping sarcasm and has the word "genocide" on the thumbnail.
OF COURSE THE PRINCE IS NAMED KAI
This feels like the James Tullos/Terrible Writing Advice crossover I never knew I needed
I just know the author really felt like they did something by titling the book Powerless…
“Do you get it guys!?! Because she doesn’t have powers and FEELS POWERLESS!!!!”
🙄
no! it's so deep! I had to sit for hours before I could figure out that the name powerless symbolizes that she is powerless! /j
IM CRYIGN
Truly one of the thumbnails of all time
I hope the sequel is called "Powerful". :u
It literally is
I’m sad that I actually called it…
No fucking way@@iammehowru
@@Arkonu close! The novella is. The sequel is reckless
@@eventuallyfeb3929 Following the pattern, the next installment will be called _Reckful_
Oh geez a gladiator match in a fantasy ya book who who would have thought
this is literally just red queen but rebranded with the armenian genocide
my biggest question reading the book was why did kai have to torture that 1 guy to death for information when a few chapters before he told paedeighn the king had mind readers working for him .-.
The writer forgot or Kai is a sadist
I've been listening to it on audible, just saw it at Walmart an hour ago, and now I'm recommended this video. I fear I've made a mistake somewhere
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Kai is actively involved in genocide when they are adults (meaning he kills the ordinaries himself) and only sends them through the desert when they're children. And that's supposed to be him being a good guy because he wouldn't kill children. But obviously it's all super terrible.😊
“Powerless delenda est”
Powerless must be destroyed in Latin, from “Carthago delenda est.” Delenda is the feminine nominative singular gerundive form of deleo, so literally translated, “delenda est” means “(she) is to be destroyed.”
I saw this book at my town library, read the summary on the inside flap, and thought, "I don't need to check this out. James Tullos or someone else will review it for me." And I was right. Thank you btw :)
I dnf'd this book within the first couple of pages because the main character was wearing a tank top. in a fantasy book.
What if, instead of James Tullos, He woul be called James Freak, and instead of talking about books he was would tak about how to be freaky.
i would subscribe to his patreon if he did that i think
is somebody gonna match his fre ak
You know, I've been having a bit of self-doubt with my own writing.
Holy shit I didn't need to worry, this is SO much worse.
Also, as an aside, another way to go about the "genocidal maniac protagonist" thing that isn't dogshit (and the way I've been going about it), is making the antagonist even fucking worse by several magnitudes.
Heh, my very same thoughts. Why did I feel bad about what I wrote at 15 when it is still better than this but this book got successful?
@l0rf why are these books successful is the greater question?
@@l0rf Yep. I may write cringe but at least I don't write this level.of cringe.
the thumbnail for this video combined with the title.... so unhinged, diabolical, loved it 10/10, great!
People need to support new ideas, And not just a fancy cover art book.
Tiktok is full of paid promotion from tiktokers . Dont trust their opinions I dont.
This book is making red queen shine like a gem
There are many reasons I refuse to touch TikTok. These kinds of books being popular is one of those reasons.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS! Ugh, this is the best gift ever
Good video, as always: and an especially good point at the end there on expanding your horizons. I've found so many incredible books, and developed a greater appreciation for literature as a whole just by going out of my way to read books by people who look different than me. It's humbling, sometimes, to realize just how big, just how varied this world is.
My great great grandmother was a survivor of the "death march" (that's what they called it). She lost all her siblings and both her parents due to starvation out in those deserts.
I cannot for the life of me imagine a scenario where you would go "yeah that sucked, but he hawt doh". What??? This is the first time I'm hearing 'that' being the content of the book. Actually disgusting.
Guys, I think James might not actually like this story.
Ilya, Ky, is this a fucking Guilty Gear fanfic?
I KNOW WHO I AM
THAT MOONLIT LAKE TOLD ME
THIS! IS! WHO YOU AREEE!
MY FANGS ARE SO LOOONG!
So, I'm currently working on a story about a sovereign who at first was accepting of magic and its users (so long as they don't use it for evil or harm). However that changed when some decided to use their magic to wreak havoc on his realm. He started to fear magic and eventually decided that magic nor its users have a place in his realm. (there's more to it then this but is the short version of it). His fear turned into hatred and he made both his people and son believe that all magic users were evil and dangerous. He, at first, only went after those who betrayed him but fear got the better of him and he believed that no user could be trusted. At first his son goes along with his father's ideology (mainly due to not knowing much about magic nor how it works) however, throughout the story, he slowly starts to realize that his father's ideology is not only not fully true but also extremely harmful itself. (Btw: magic itself is neutral, it takes many years to practice it, and only a few were able to fully master it.)
The MC hates the sovereign and believes that his son will be just as terrible as him once he becomes the new ruler ("how can he be different from the monster that raised him?") bur after spending time with him, she realizes that he's heavily misguided but, unlike his father, is open to changing his viewpoint. There's more to the story then this, but this the very condense version of it.
While watching this video and the one where he tries to fix the problems with fantasy, I was wondering if there's something that I should change or add to this?
So basically BBC Merlin?
@@cynthiadoan5173 It's inspired by that however I do plan on making it my own thing instead of completely copying it.
I don’t think I can pinpoint any issues with just a summary like this, other than it being very similar to BBC Merlin. I believe the theme you are going for is about the danger of preconceived notions, and how people often hate what they’re ignorant of. This is all good, but it’s been done in media many times before. My only advice is try to think of ways you could explore the topic that haven’t been done before. What do you have to say about all this other than “hatred bad”? Anyway hope this helps, good luck.
Maybe the son is the main character, and meets the original main character makes him turn to the good side? It can be refreshing to see a MC that is kinda bad at the beginning, and it can be a very sucky thing for somebody to take responsibility for one’s actions
@@marianatheschizoid5912 Thanks for the advice and I understand that it has been done multiple times before. What you said is part of what I was going for but I also wanted to the message to be that there’s power in both our voice and words and that we can make a change with this power and even if the change is small, it can still be significant (this is something that the MC learns).
"She's forced to pretend that she's psychic" wait so she's Shawn Spencer?
Can we talk about American fantasy authors naming their characters with the hwitest names imaginable. Kai and Paedyn (nice try, that's just Peyton) do not spark joy. I guess they wanted the characters to be relatable for some teenager in Iowa to read. I demand to see characters called Vlać and Šochi.
Vlad from Sochi?
@@AntediluvianRomance *incomprehensible russian noises*
As a teenager in Iowa… don’t lump me in with these people 😭
Where is my Qinghua and Yuanyuan? Where is my Anirudh and Safiyah? So many Names left ignored
Where are the french names, where are the norse names, the indian names? Why are all booktok popular boys named Kaden, Zaden or Aiden 😭
"There was effort there," is the best endorsement of a mid book I've ever heard.
After hearing about this book and the fact its basically bootleg Stormlight Archives, I have a lot more appreciation for the incredible writing of that series. When the perspective shifts between characters, it is impossiblento confuse one for another because their minds and internal dialogues are all so different
james i genuinely cannot believe you didn't comment on the amount of typos
James saying how its bad to generalize a genre and then proceeds to generalize the whole of anime, which isn't even a genre, its a medium. Like, I get most of the shonen stuff is trash (tho take into consideration that its written for an audience of young boys), but there is plenty of well written animes out there.
Eh, I agree with James. There are well written anime for more adult audiences (as he said), but I truly find most anime to be entertaining trash.
Anime culture has a bizarre need for self-indulgence, to the point where fans get mad at the idea that it shouldn’t pander to them, that it’s not made for wish fulfillment, that the girls/guys aren’t made for fanservice, etc.
I’ve seen so many people mad about people arguing against fanservice bc they can’t fathom that a camera pandering to them could possibly be bad. Because it feels like an encroachment of the one safe space where they can escape and fantasize/openly be themself. “Themself” being a creepy pervert or an anti-social shut-in a lot of the time. It extends to other things like moe or waifu culture, which extends to things like common character tropes/archetypes.
And like, this has a lot of origins in the history itself-the way it was brought up as a niche of horny guys animating bunny girls lol. Even well-written influential anime talk about this cannibalistic escapist tendency, such as Evangelion.
I used to watch anime a lot as a kid, and I still do, but I’ve realize I really have to lower my expectations A LOT because most anime indulges very narrow group of people. Even when escaping to different genres that are not Shonen, I simply cannot escape wading through trash that people highly recommend 😭
It reminds me a lot of how-although western animation is a MEDIUM-most western animations fall into the crude adult comedy category or kids animation category. There are rare exceptions, but our culture of looking down on animation perpetuates this typecasting. Like how there are great fantasy books out there, but for some reason right now all the ones we get pushed are these stupid “A ___ of ___ and ___” romantasy like powerless. Ugh, it’s an apt comparison in my opinion
As someone who can literally not enjoy any anime that doesn't feature gross sexualization, you're wrong at that. Bad animes have crossbred so much that its overtaking the good. Fundamentally it doesn't matter if there are good anime if what gets popular and adaptations are the cringy, high school anime with hot waifus
@@DarwinRoger893 Ok mate. Don't watch it then.
@sandraswan9008 He said most anime is trash... That's not talking about the tropes and cliches of anime. Its ok, you can disagree with James, he ain't gonna eat you.
@@Veles_Rayou are quite literally generalizing books based on whether theyre popular on booktok, and you take an issue with generalizing anime? Lol, weird and hypocritical.
as a long-time watcher, thank you for mentioning the nakba! the palestinian plight is being obscured and normalized through ignorance; and, just a silver of reference to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of palestine is so so meaningful!
everything is obscured by bias
honestly you can blame hamas and the free palenstine extremists who rips hostages posters and try to justify why attacking cvilians and people who dont belive their side is okay, they ruined palenstine's reputation and make the problems feel like propaganda. which is not. both should be condemned for violence against civilians
After so many videos where you suffer for our entertainment, and having spent quite a bit of time with other long suffering reviewers, I can say this much: enjoying dog shit is genuinely fine, we all like dog shit every once in a while, what's the problem. The problem is trying to pretend that a pile of dog shit is actually a pile of diamonds. It is possible to find diamonds in a pile of shit, but it doesn't change the fact that *it is a pile of shit*.
Recognizing the difference seems to have become quite the thing to ask of people, and to point out the smell of shit is becoming more and more tiresome. Mediocrity for the win I guess.
I feel as though Kai bringing these people to the Scorches would work if he had some support system to go along with that plot line. If he were to bring them there and give them supplies as well as some safe route with a 100% to 90% survival rate then a lot of our issues would be non-existent.
I wanted to love Kai, I really did, but I was practically ripping out my hair to continue reading once I reached 35% into the book.
This guy should revive Terrible Writing Advice
I realized something. We might just wemt full circle. Years ago or so there was some critique on Pixar and Disney that they keep associating uglyness with being bad - like prince charming vs old witch. Then came stories showing that it might not be true were Shrek is good example. Now were in 2024 and since few years we've got book showing that even the cruel mob bossed or sadistic tyran-kings are good if they're good-looking.
James calling us lazy pieces of shit is just *chefs kiss* 21:34
It seems strange to me that having examples of powerless characters in worlds full of people with powers (like Deku from MHA or Reigen from MobPsyco100), and characters who started from the evil side but had redemption arcs (like Zuko from Avatar or Thorfinn from Vinland Saga), still end up making flat and poorly developed characters.
Also, have you ever seen Monster from Naoki Urasawa?
That anime is a gem.
Thanks for the recommandation. I stopped after 5 min to avoid spoilers mais you really sold that lovely book!
My favourite line "powerless is just red queen with a few scenes in different spots! And also it's done worse... and Red queen wasn't very good to begin with."
Summed up exactly how i felt about this book
When you were describing genocide, of course I was thinking of what's happening in Gaza now. And then you actually mentioned the Nakba. Subscribed!
You say the things I can't say without being called hateful and elitist (somehow).
The Fifth Sorceress. Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time. a LONG time.
Thank you for this. I needed it.
I wonder if they got the powerless person pretends to be psychic from Talentless Nana (Nana being someones name, not talking about someone’s grandma)
I'm dissapointed that _Talentless Nana_ isn't about a grandma trying to bluff his way across an elite organization of psychics
The character names sound like a millennial white woman's baby names list 😭
Had me worried with the title. Good thing my need for instant gratification was able to hold out long enough
You should read iron widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Hell of a crossover right here.
He'll go insane
As you were reading the plot I thought I was tripping and this was just Red Queen with a different name...
3:39 I’m sorry, is that not literally the exact layout of the map in shadow and bone
My guess was that he hid them somewhere obvious and they were found and killed and you were being hyperbolic about the genocide thing, but nope. Is he aware that being left in the desert without supplies is not a survivable state? Maybe he's more stupid than evil.
I know this comment is old but oh yeah, he’s 100% aware. He actively remarks on it in his narration and he doesn’t feel remorseful about it, but the book treats it like we are supposed to go “awe, poor Kai, look at all the horrible things his dad is making him do!” His chapters are just unhinged in general. I think there is one chapter that starts with something like “Torture and training always put me in a good mood in the mornings.” He tortures a resistance prisoner for a few chapters and he keeps telling us how much he enjoys it. It’s wild.
He’s ignorant!!!! And we’re supposed to find that attractive it’s digusting
I love this new format, spreading positivity instead of hatred 😊
my theory about the character development this is like. i feel like authors are just very scared of even coming off as apologetic towards "problematic" behaviour. a phenomenon i like to call twitter brain. where everything is just about performance. but they want the tropey fun of having the "morally grey" character and the protagonist getting together bc like it's hot or whatever. so instead of actually working to develop believable, messy characters who suck but are well-made, they just sort of pick surface level traits and run with it. It's really so boring, more than anything else, which is the worst thing a piece of art can be imo
Ghost Stories is work of art! Only with English dub, but still.