The Dreadnought books are about a normal traumatized girl who stumbles across the world’s greatest superhero, who dies in front of her after giving her his abilities.
She spends a lot of time experimenting, failing, and succeeding before learning how to use them.
Then Star Wars went all "midi-chlorians!" So... great, your superpowers are because an alien parasite's in your blood? ew. Star Trek was always about common races learning to work together for the better. I'd rather live in the Federation than have to be a Rebel.
and the misogynistic fans who have a freaking stroke when some stormtroopers might be female, or a female character becomes a General after being a princess.
Compared to each new ST series going "how can we be even more diverse in a gigantic UNIVERSE filled with life?"
Anytime I see someone critical of Discovery or Lower Decks I am never surprised it is a cis white person complaining about how it is not like the old stuff. Like Star Trek wasn't constantly evolving as a rule. TOS to Animated to the first two films alone show that evolution in a big way.
One of the very few things I actually liked about the Last Jedi was that they went with Rey being a nobody, the implication being that anybody could become a Jedi... and then of course they retconned all that in the Rise of Skywalker
There's also some stories where a crazy uncle/aunt winds up adopting the kid after tragedy or family bs, and it turns out said aunt/uncle is an elite wizard and teaches the kid how to be a wizard.
Im trying to remember a book i read as a kid where the uncle had a magic piano that was also sassy and he, his neighbor friend and said kid would make spells on the fly? I think it was by the same author as the Phantom Toll Booth?
I didn't see it on wiki. I hope my grandma still has the book. It was definitely a bit of a short book, but it was such a cute whimsy spooky book and I loved it
I wonder if that phenomenon correlates positively to the weird "Blahblah was the Real Villain (TM) of Forrest Gump" discourse in the current zeitgeist.
Y'all, if you're recommending good stuff to me, tell me if it's a book or show, and hopefully where I can find it. I'm always making TBR or To Be Watched lists. Someday I'll get through them, ha ha.
Edward Eager was fantastic because his books were all about normal kids having magic adventures for a few months because they found a magic coin or checked a magic book out of the library or something. (Those two are my favorites.)
I was just trying to explain this to my wife. Starting a new series I’m reading to my 7 year old. And she asked how it was and I said “I’m only 10 chapters in, it’s the exact same book I’ve read 10 times, you’ll have to ask me in a few weeks.” Couldn’t fully articulate it. But this is it.
It's funny I never realized this because I skipped straight from books meant for young readers to books meant for older readers. I didn't read much YA growing up.
I remember reading an article about when Nickelodeon launched and initially had shows about kids who were prodigies or born special or whatever and the feedback was “no please just show us normal kids like us” and it was good for us weirdo kids tbh
If I was a conspiracy theorist I would say it’s almost like the elite who control book publishing are trying to prime kids to believe that only super special people can change the world and if you aren’t special then you shouldn’t try to challenge your betters.
One could also look at it from a decline of class mobility and that the only way people feel like their kids will have a chance for a better life is if the kid is somehow born special or different.
I think that's the most likely reason. Star Trek is an interesting example. Old Kirk worked hard his whole life to work his way up to starship captain at the age of 34. New Kirk is a slacker who goes to the Academy because he's told it's his destiny & is just handed command still in his 20s.
I liked A Wrinkle In Time, which had the message that you can be a normal person totally out of your depth with situations beyond normal human understanding, and still get what you want if you're willing to stand up against the forces of the unknown.
And that’s the character that I grew up reading the most: regular person thrust into extraordinary circumstance, rises to the occasion to become the hero
The most impactful book for me as a teen was Jerry Spinelli's "Star Girl" and I'm glad it doesn't fit this trope. Through it might have fed the manic pixie dream girl trope though, eh
It may not be fair to treat every kid with loser-dork tendencies as a fascist techbro waiting to happen, but it’s also unhelpful to suggest to kids that the universe is Oprah saying “YOU get a redemption arc! And YOU get a redemption arc!”
Tempted to get back into writing just to write the anti-YA novel where all the main characters are slightly smarter than average shitheads that manage to succeed simply because they are tough and willing to go way further than anyone assumes they will.
This is a big reason why I loved early Winx seasons. Sure Bloom realises in 1st ep she has Super Special Fairy Powers, but all the students in Alfea have powers, the winx girls simply decided to stand up & not let the Trix bully their friends
It's an Italian cartoon about a group of teen fairies who go to a fairy school & fight against evil witches ^^ You can watch the entire thing on yt :) They're gearing up for a new season & Techna's (short pink hair) new transformation animation is just too cute!
The Ranger's Apprentice is a really good book series that has the mc actually work to become the hero of the world. Good fantasy read, I highly recommend it
it's hard because on one hand I can see how some authors were sorta trying to help kids feel better about their weaknesses/challenges (like Percy Jackson with his dyslexia --> mind actually wired to read Greek) but it quickly just became... chosen one softcore eug*nics
Percy Jackson still had a bit of a theme where your special bloodline ended up hurting you as well. 'Being a child of the gods kind sucks' is like a running gag in the books.
to be fair, a lot of Greek demigods didn't have the best of times, that's pretty old. I was mainly going with the "one parent is a god so you're special compared to everyone else" stuff.
That's true! I do wish tho more of these YAs would seriously subvert the trope. The 'big bad hates me' isn't a weakness, it's plot. I wanna see more authors write stuff like 'your special skull makes you special but congrats it also gave you epilepsy' type vibes. Make the hero resent their role lol.
Comments
She spends a lot of time experimenting, failing, and succeeding before learning how to use them.
Does that count?
Star Wars with eugenics and marginalizing everyone that is not a white half god unless they are somehow already exceptional and sometimes winning...
Compared to each new ST series going "how can we be even more diverse in a gigantic UNIVERSE filled with life?"
https://www.butajape.com/comic/young-adult-protagonist/
“Cool! Guess I’ll fistfight God now.”
Calvinist predetermination BS.
Here's the link to the 1st season - the official channel has A Lot of playlists 😅
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8emVvNIujHioWpdEDkzZCATUO0wqeLL8&si=YsY0dYi0yVln6kP3
Even so, he wasn’t actually the hero the prophecy mentioned. The details of fate can be changed based on people’s choices.