Powerless, by Lauren Roberts, was first released in 2023 and was instantly loved by readers. This is a fantasy series about an ordinary girl living in a kingdom while everyone around her has magic powers. The king held three trials and the winner won honor, prestige, and a luxurious amount of money. This series appealed to audiences because of the romance, the fast pace, and the banter between the two main characters.
Despite the popularity of this series, most people have accused the author for plagiarizing from other popular books like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. There have been reports of similar scenes, quotes, and plot points. Fans of the Powerless series argue that Roberts was young when writing this series and she was just using these plots for inspiration. Despite this debate, there is no official confirmation of plagiarism, as Roberts hasn’t spoken up about the allegations.
Let’s take a look at some of these similarities.
For starters, let’s start with Red Queen. They both have a caste system where both the female main characters (FMC’s) are powerless in a kingdom full of powerful people. In Red Queen, people that have silver blood are considered powerful due to the powers that they inherited at birth while people with red blood are considered ordinary people. In Powerless, people that have powers are called Elites while people that don’t are called Ordinaries. The only difference is that the Powerless caste system does not involve blood, but the idea behind it is very similar. Both books also have a corrupt king who is obsessed with power and the separation between the powerful and the powerless. However, I don’t believe the corrupt king counts as plagiarism or inspiration. Does it make sense for there to be a village with powerful and powerless people living together and having a king who lets them live in harmony? That doesn’t add up to the purpose of the caste system. Therefore, there was bound to be a king who hates the powerless, or else there would be no purpose of writing the book. However, the castes being very similar is oddly suspicious.
Another similarity that readers have noticed is that the FMCs in each book first meet the male main character (MMC) when they were stealing from him. The only difference is that in Red Queen, the MMC (Cal) shows mercy to the FMC (Mare) and offers money to her and her family while in Powerless, while the FMC (Paedyn) gets caught, she continues to steal from the MMC (Kai) while trying to keep his focus off of his pockets. Personally, I’m not sure if this counts as plagiarism, but Roberts could’ve thought of another way to make Paedyn meet Kai while including the banter instead of having her steal from him. Considering the way the scene differed from Red Queen, I’m pretty sure Lauren used that scene as inspiration. But I also think she could’ve thought of another way for Paedyn and Kai to meet instead of having her steal from him. However, it makes sense because Paedyn is really slick with stealing, but did Lauren do that on purpose so she could copy that scene?
There were a bunch of scenes after that which were…suspiciously similar. The FMC’s from both books are invited to the king’s castle, although it is for different reasons. They both have a resistance group from the lower caste to fight for equality, however I think that element was bound to happen to show justice in an elitist kingdom. Both MMC’s go to the FMC’s room in the middle of the night to give her dance lessons before the royal ball. During the end of both books, the FMC has to fight in an arena, which the resistance groups attack, giving the FMC’s a chance to escape.
But the similarity that angered fans the most was the quote, “They broke her sewing fingers.”
Both books don’t have that quote word for word, but the idea is very similar. In Red Queen, Mare’s sister, Gisa, attempted to steal from a Silver, but she got caught and the guard broke her hand with his gun. The exact words written are, “Her eyes are on mine as he brings the butt of his gun down, shattering the bones in her sewing hand” (Aveyard 37). However, in Powerless, Paedyn’s best friend, Adena, was sent to the dungeon to be a victim for one of the trials. The guard broke her fingers before she was sent to the middle of a maze when she got stabbed with a branch. When Paedyn finds her bleeding and notices her broken fingers, she states, “They are bent at odd angles, bleeding, bruised. Those small and slender hands are mangled, a mockery of what they once were, of what they could do. Before death, the thing that made her feel most alive was taken from her. Her sewing hands. Her talented fingers. Broken” (Roberts 445). Roberts never copied that specific quote, and the atmosphere is completely different, but the wording of both quotes are the same. They both contain the words “her sewing hand” and show the rage that the FMC’s felt. The only difference is that Gisa remains alive, while Adena dies.
However, Red Queen isn’t the only book that Powerless allegedly stole from. Readers have noted similarities with The Hunger Games as well.
There were no specific quotes or scenes that are similar, but rather the ideas. In both books, the FMC’s are forced into deadly trials for TV purposes. The protagonists also have similar backgrounds: Katniss and Paedyn both live in poverty, face starvation, and they both provide for their sister/sister-like-figure. The society is also similar with the deadly trials and the participants, however the reasons behind them are different.
In The Hunger Games, the Capitol only has these trials to punish the Districts for a past rebellion, showcase the Capitol’s dominance, and to prevent rebellions to happen in the future by making families watch their children die. And participants are chosen because each citizen had their name entered at least once for a mandatory lottery and the Capitol purposefully didn’t provide enough food for the citizens so they could request for more food, but that means they would have to put their name into the lottery per request.
In Powerless, these trials exist because the kingdom wanted to celebrate the Elites’ supernatural abilities. Participants are chosen through the king’s choice, the public interest, and Elites who are known to be the most powerful tend to be chosen.
The main difference between these two books is that Powerless tends to focus more on the romance between the main characters while The Hunger Games focuses on the authority of the government. However, the similarities between the two books are…interesting.
I would call this inspiration, but the only thing stopping me is how similar the governments of the two books are. Both governments have kings/presidents that are so focused on showing dominance over the lower caste and the trials look to kill off the powerless. It’s as if without the huge focus on the romance in Powerless, the stories would have almost been identical.
Overall, given the amount of controversy and the similarities between Powerless and other major works, plagiarism seems to be the right term for these similarities as Red Queen and The Hunger Games were published well before Powerless. Although Powerless focuses more on romance while Red Queen and The Hunger Games focus on social inequality, the atmosphere in all the books are too similar. Roberts hasn’t confirmed anything, she only stated that she took inspiration from Red Queen and The Hunger Games, but the similarities are too close to be considered inspiration. And Lauren normally deletes any comments on social media that speak up on the plagiarism allegations so that already sends a message.
