[Boons]

As you may have noticed a debate over Inheritance and Twilight broke out in this thread.
To keep the other thread on topic yet continue the debate, I have created this thread.
Feel free to debate here.

--

I will throw my two cents in now. Hopefully I won't appear too biased.

Firstly, I will point out negatives of both stories:

Inheritance Cons:
- Derives plot ideas from Star wars.
- Setting reminiscent of Lord of the rings.
- Predictable at times.
- A fair amount of 1 dimensional characters.

Twilight Cons:
- Main character is extremely unlikeable.
- Each book follows similar formula. (Enhance love story(slowly), Throw in villains at last minute, heroes win, End of book).
- Predictable at times.
- Large amount of 1 dimensional characters.
- Little character development of anyone besides 2 main characters.
- Derives plot ideas from numerous Romantic Vampire novels.
- Most chapters appear to be nothing more than a way to stretch out a story with not much happening in it.

Secondly, I will point out positives of both stories:

Inheritance Pros:
- Despite derivative nature of plot, characters develop out of the derived nature after time.
- Chapters are used to progress plot. Not stretch it out.
- At least one character can be related to/liked by anyone. Sometimes more than one character.
- Interesting plot line.
- There is never a moment where you think, "Why is nothing happening?".
- CP's writing skills are well on par.

Twilight Pros:
- Some likable characters (The Cullens, Jacob and perhaps Charlie).
- Quite descriptive at times.
- Story is somewhat original. Despite thousands of other books of similar genre and storyline.
- It made a better movie than Eragon.

Well I tried not to sound biased, but give my honest opinion. I probably ended up sounding a bit biased. Ahh well.

Debate away!

[China Oolong]

Oh, yay! I was waiting for this. Thanks.

My vote is Twilight - while being really, really irritating, I enjoyed it more than Inheritance.
(Brisingr bored me so much I considered burning my copy as soon as I got past the Trial of the Long Knives or whatever the hell it was.)
But that was probably only because I loved Alice. Haaah.

[Celtic Ash]

Inheritance. Any day of the week.

The plot of the book just holds my interest more than Twilight. I know exactly why this is, though; I love fantasy books and loathe romance ones.

[godunleashed]

Inheritance for me. Stephanie Meyer is worse than Paolini.

I'm not a huge fan of either series, I just think that Inheritance is the lesser of two evils.

This post has been edited by godunleashed: 07 January 2009 - 11:00 AM

[Yeerk Slayer]

I don't know how anyone could say Inheritance. Why don't you go watch Star Wars and save yourself time pointlessly reading a seven-hundred-page book? Why don't you watch LOTR for the same reason? Twilight, at least, has more originality. And I beg to differ when you say:

- Despite derivative nature of plot, characters develop out of the derived nature after time.
They don't develope. They're cardboard cutouts of already-made characters.

- Chapters are used to progress plot. Not stretch it out.
Yeah, 'cause I'm sure that a chapter where Saphira describes some clouds really pushed the story along.

- At least one character can be related to/liked by anyone. Sometimes more than one character.
Mind naming them? The only good characterdevelopement was Murtagh's. Then CP ruined him by turning him into an evil, emotionless robot.

- Interesting plot line.
Go watch Star Wars. It can't be interesting if you've seen it already. It's impossible.

- There is never a moment where you think, "Why is nothing happening?".
Um, have you read Eldest? "Ooo, some ants!" "OMG, I'm not eating bunnies!" ... Excuse me? Why the Hell is nothing happening in the entire book?!?!?!

- CP's writing skills are well on par.
You think that taking ideas from other authors gives somebody writing skills? So I should write a story about a teen witch who goes to a school of magic, and when she goes there she finds there are portals that take her to different worlds that she has to save from an evil demon called Saint Derik? That sound original to you? A complete rip-off of Harry Potter and Pendragon? Makes me have writing skills?

Now, go watch Star Wars and LOTR and come back and say the same things about Inheritance.

[Celtic Ash]

LOL

I don't know how anyone could say Inheritance. Why don't you go watch Star Wars and save yourself time pointlessly reading a seven-hundred-page book?

No thanks. I'd rather read the book.

Pretty much every point... no wait, every point you mentioned there, YS, can also be applied to Twilight and its successors.

Inheritance characters are cardboard cutouts? Check. Except in Twilight the're granite cutouts is some cases...

Nothing happens in Inheritance? Check for Twilight. At least in Inheritance there is a general goal to the series, that being the deposition of Galbatorix, the big, bad evil in the series. What on earth is the point in Twilight? Nothing actually happens! Its, in essence, a story about a girl who moves to a new town.

Nobody relates to characters in Inheritance? Check, yet again, for Twilight. If you do happen to relate well to a character from Twilight (except Emmett) I'd strongly advise you to phone up your local insane asylum and enquire as to vacancies...

Lack of interesting plotline? Check for Twilight!
Inheritance: Find a dragon egg and become one of your boyhood fantasies, saving the kingdom from a tyrant. {Interesting}
Twilight: Mom re-marries, move to a new town, fall in "love" (see what I did with the quotation marks there?) with a sparkly vampire who loves the smell of my blood. {Not interesting}

There is never a moment where you think, "Why is nothing happening?". Lack of these? Check for Twilight.
The entire series of Twilight books is like a flat-lining heart monitor (about as annoying, too).

I won't even comment on authors writing skills, save for the fact that you, on SM's side, are criticising the writing skills of CP is simply laughable to me.

[Black hole]

I voted Inheritance. From the point of view of whether it deserves real respect or not, the fact that it has very little, if anything, original counts strongly against it. But to be honest, i dont find it too bad reading something that is literally a basic Star Wars outline with a lot of differences and extras thrown in. Unoriginal? Definitely. Entertaining? Yes, it is that too. Even if i am rolling my eyes and calling it Star Wars in Lord of the Rings, it still is fairly enjoyable to read.

This post has been edited by Black hole: 06 January 2009 - 08:24 AM

[Yeerk Slayer]

Still, then. I'll take is upon me to revise the pros and cons the way they should be:

Inheritance Cons:
- Derives plot from Star wars.
- Setting reminiscent of Lord of the Rings.
- Takes ideas/chapters from multiple other authors like Eddings and McCaffery.
- Down right predictable.
- All characters are 1 dimensional and don't develope.
- Uesless chapters that don't progress the story.
- No characters can be realted to.
- Most chapters are nothing more than a way to stretch out a story with not much happening in it.
- Has no writing skills at all, is forced to take entire chapters from other authors.

Twilight Cons:
- Main character is extremely unlikeable.
- Each book follows similar formula. (Enhance love story(slowly), Throw in villains at last minute, heroes win, End of book).
- Predictable at times.
- Large amount of 1 dimensional characters.
- Little character development of anyone.
- Derives plot ideas from numerous Romantic Vampire novels.
- Most chapters appear to be nothing more than a way to stretch out a story with not much happening in it.
- Has lack of writing skills, but doesn't blantantly plagerise someone else's work.

Inheritance Pros:
-

Twilight Pros:
- Some likable characters (The Cullens, Jacob and perhaps Charlie).
- Quite descriptive at times.
- Story is somewhat original. Despite thousands of other books of similar genre and storyline.
- One or two characters can be realted to.


Fixed! Now it's accurate. And yes, I did fill in what I needed to for the missed cons of Twilight. Check. Fixed the pros, too, for both.

This post has been edited by Yeerk Slayer: 08 January 2009 - 07:51 PM

[Farsala]

The two main characters in Twilight developed? When did this happen?

[Yeerk Slayer]

Bleh, sorry. I was going to get rid of that, but I was in a bit of a hurry for school. Fixed it now, though.

[Farsala]

I thought it might have been an editing error.

[potter573]

The one thing I sorely missed in twilight was the lack of anything happening. Apart from that it was a good read.(Hey don't start jumping on my nerves,okay)
But I have to say that I liked IC more than twilight. And it isn't all copied off from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. It just has some strong parallels.

[Yeerk Slayer]

Maybe not. But try reading Charles' post in this topic.

[Farsala]

Was it the one about the stuff plagiarized from David Eddings? If so, holy sh*t! I didn't realize the IC was that much of a rip-off.

[potter573]

Maybe my friend. But there are things that can be said to be borrowed from other books in twilight. Can you present me with a book without even a hint of your so called plagiarism. Maybe no. You can always relate a scene to another one. But using the same idea isn't plagiarism. It is just being not creative. Not that I say that CP hasn't done this.