TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The Hunger Games is too similar to Battle Royale

Go To

Yuanchosaan antic disposition from Australia Since: Jan, 2010
antic disposition
#151: Mar 26th 2012 at 7:52:17 PM

@L Mage: My reading list is already enormous - I fear it may crack under the strain of so many volumes. Besides, life is too short to intentionally read mediocre books.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#152: Mar 26th 2012 at 7:56:11 PM

Yeah, unless something we've said has REALLY gripped you, prolly best to move on. Or...watch the movie, I suppose.

Read my stories!
LMage Since: May, 2011
#153: Mar 26th 2012 at 7:58:44 PM

@Yuan

The movie is much better then the book in many ways, a little worse in some, equal in others.

Anyways I was reading that spork and it was annoying me a great deal, the author seems to always be focusing on the worst possible way to take anything and seems to willfully ignore a great deal so she can make the books look inadequate, their are easy answers to many of her complaints that she either skates around or straw-mans. I wouldn't go by the sporking forming your opinion on the book.

edited 26th Mar '12 7:59:07 PM by LMage

MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#154: Mar 26th 2012 at 8:05:38 PM

Well, some people in this thread enjoy both sporking and story. It's why I prefaced with judging the book on how she reacted. What you said was one reaction I had already accounted for and explained.

It's very nitpicky at first, so I'd reccomend reading more than one entry, but if the criticisms they have resonate with you, don't read it. If you're like wtf-who-cares, you should be fine. If you're more of "well, I would have never noticed that without you pointing it out, but you make a valid point..." read for a few more chapters, and then make a decision.

edited 26th Mar '12 8:07:49 PM by MrAHR

Read my stories!
SoloWingPixy Since: Sep, 2009
#155: Mar 26th 2012 at 8:05:49 PM

I had never heard of sporkings before Mr.AHR mentioned it, I find it funny. Sort of like watching one of my big brother's MST 3000 dvds, but with a book instead of a movie.

edited 26th Mar '12 8:06:31 PM by SoloWingPixy

UltimatelySubjective Since: Jun, 2011
#156: Mar 26th 2012 at 8:11:13 PM

The spork annoyed me because of a couple of times the writer's logic didn't seem to inherently trump the author's (of course it was written as though it was).

So yeah, trying to hard maybe? If you can get past that, it's still okay for pointing out things I didn't even think of. Admittedly I didn't get far.

Firebert That One Guy from Somewhere in Illinois Since: Jan, 2001
Vidaman Mister B from Rainy, Oregon Since: Mar, 2011
Mister B
#158: Mar 27th 2012 at 11:40:26 AM

I've read both novels, and I can say that Hunger Games is at least SLIGHTLY more optimistic in tone compared to Battle Royale. On the other hand, this isn't very hard: Battle Royale instead of being about a fictional culture, it takes a society barely removed from our own and does the very same thing, and then spends the whole book exploring exactly HOW far an average person is willing to go to save themselves over everyone else in extreme situations. And in the end of Battle Royale, the heroes survive, but they change NOTHING. They've beaten the system, but the game goes on, and it's pretty explicitly stated that they escaped based almost purely on luck: the next game that happens will probably kill all but one of it's contestants, as they're intended to do.

MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#159: Mar 27th 2012 at 12:27:36 PM

For me, I suppose that was what made BR powerful. It was an experience. To me.

Read my stories!
LMage Since: May, 2011
#160: Mar 27th 2012 at 12:33:41 PM

Personally I think that BR is more unrealstic then Hunger Games.

terlwyth Since: Oct, 2010
#161: Mar 27th 2012 at 2:07:37 PM

What fans have you been talking to? The ones I know either:

A) Loved the original,and only the original

B) Loved the original and Catching Fire,but Mockingjay Jumped the Shark (That's where I stand personally,that's where Katniss becomes a full-on sociopath,Gale gets the negative Character Development when it could've been the other way,oh and it takes a very JK Rowling approach to conclusions)

C) Loved them all

Never heard of anyone who hated Catching Fire but loved the other two.

edited 27th Mar '12 2:07:59 PM by terlwyth

MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#162: Mar 27th 2012 at 2:11:00 PM

Terl: Those are the people I know. In real life.

Read my stories!
Psychobabble6 from the spark of Westeros Since: May, 2011
#163: Mar 27th 2012 at 5:13:09 PM

Me, for one. There was so much wrong with Catching Fire...

edited 27th Mar '12 5:15:23 PM by Psychobabble6

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.
LMage Since: May, 2011
Psychobabble6 from the spark of Westeros Since: May, 2011
#165: Mar 27th 2012 at 5:55:52 PM

Well, if you ask.

The two biggest failings you can have as a sequel are (1) spending too much time following up on the events of the first book without introducing anything new and (2) rehashing the original plot. Catching Fire did both.

As my sister pointed out, Katniss spends a lot less time being a survivalist and a lot more time hefting around the Idiot Ball. Plus, you probably could have gotten from The Hunger Games to Mockingjay in a hundred pages - Catching Fire was, essentially, unnecessary. My sister's main complaint is that it was primarily "filler", to use her word. Not to say there weren't good things. The new characters were pretty interesting, and Wiress is probably the only character in the series with a focus on humor. Plus the concept of the Games was very, very cool.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.
Nothingtoseehere Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#166: Mar 28th 2012 at 5:29:59 PM

[up] I'd have to agree. I liked the details of Panem added (more info on the other districts, more muttations) but felt that as a whole, it was worse than the other two.

Autumncomet from the hive Since: Jan, 2011
#167: Mar 28th 2012 at 10:30:51 PM

I liked the worldbuilding details added by Catching Fire. Mockingjay was okay up until the end when, argh. I think the Hunger Games as a series is okay; I mean, it's one of the better YA books out there. tongue

That sporking was good in parts but was trying too hard in others. Hilarious though.

One Piece blog Beyond the Lampshade
MarkThis Since: Jan, 2012
#168: Mar 31st 2012 at 9:26:39 AM

I'm at chapter 20 and boy is this girl pissing me off. I've seen people be Oblivious to Love, but this girl deserves a freaking slap to the face!

Krentz Since: Dec, 1969
#169: Mar 31st 2012 at 9:28:57 AM

envydei said:

The Battle Royale movie has a ludicrous reason for the games which I always try to ignore when I watch it. The totalitarian government is not really mentioned, instead everything is run by the BR organization, which really does raise the issue of what sort of government would allow this, and because the totalitarianism of the book is largely absent from the movie, I see no reason to believe there is a totalitarian government at all.
That's one of the reasons why I think the movie is extremely overrated. The premise is just unbelievably stupid and absurd. There is no way a country with such a serious demographic crisis would sacrifice random children for shits and giggles (which would also further reduce birth rates by making people unwilling to have children). They'd also be completely shunned by the rest of the world, and would have to deal with resistance movements and such. In exchange they would gain absolutely nothing.

edited 31st Mar '12 9:29:45 AM by Krentz

MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#170: Mar 31st 2012 at 9:29:28 AM

Mark This: Yeah, the romance subplot is rather...forced like that.

Read my stories!
MarkThis Since: Jan, 2012
#171: Mar 31st 2012 at 9:37:47 AM

No, I mean I perfectly understand being on the recieving end of unreciprocated love, and all the feelings of guilt, repulsion, and worry it can give you, especially if you genuinely like and esteem this person. But her constant denial and her extremely cynical (yet naïvely simple, should I say "smugly stupid"?) outlook on everything that isn't a Morality Pet is truly REVOLTING.

I also understand being at the other end of that kind of love, so, well, tough shit, man. Kid's really got some bad luck, falling for a girl like her.

SnowyFoxes Drummer Boy from Club Room Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I know
Drummer Boy
#172: Apr 1st 2012 at 2:28:37 PM

So I thought at least a few of these might be amusing.

The "Attractiveness of Bakers" one annoys me. My main character was a baker before this hype, dammit!

-turns in not-a-hipster card-

edited 1st Apr '12 2:28:52 PM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
MarkThis Since: Jan, 2012
#173: Apr 1st 2012 at 6:40:13 PM

I am finally done with the first novel.

I pity everyone.

All of them fools, all of them hopeless, helpless, and utterly lost in their own shit.

Not a bad book, it reads a lot like the earlier parts of Project Horizons, with a first-person protagonist that was brouht up to ignore their own sense of morality and who, through the overcoming of moral-dilemma-rich battles, achieves actual moral personhood and begins to barely glimpse how the people around them actually feel. But then why have I had to pay for it, when Project Horizons was better, and available for free (though the author does take donations... thus cutting the middle man of editorial process... brilliant, isn't it?)

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#174: Apr 2nd 2012 at 1:57:06 AM

[up][up] If i might have been tempted to go into the movie, or the midnight premiere as that, i somewhat doubt i would've been allowed to take my bow with me :p

70" recurve bow and 30" arrows might intimidate some people

"You can reply to this Message!"
TiggersAreGreat Since: Mar, 2011
#175: Apr 2nd 2012 at 12:43:28 PM

Well, Battle Royale is considered the grandfather of the genre of kids fighting to survive. Fictional works like The Hunger Games, Lord Of The Flies and others could be considered descendants of B.R. So I think similarities are inevitable.

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

Total posts: 265
Top