hyrg la grarnir

There was a tiktok i saw talking about this a long time ago but I can’t find it anymore. It outlined some of the similarities between Milos story and Zodiac. Heres what I remember from it plus my own observations

- The leaders of Garber’s world are called “Guardians”…

- They are both post-Earth stories although Zodiac isn’t set on Earth, it’s just referenced a lot as having been “destroyed” and the Houses all fled from it with help from some deitic figures

- Both main characters have special knowledge about some secret history of the world; in Zodiac it’s that Ophiuchus the 13th sign exists and in AoS it’s that nonsense about Blaine making the Scorpio Code and getting all the Zodiac Turners killed

- Main characters have to go on a fetch quest to find proof of this secret history and testify in front of the other signs to prove themselves

- Both main characters heavily expo-dump about the worldbuilding of their own universe

- Both main characters are water signs (Cancer & Scorpio)

- In Both stories the main character’s sign is persecuted in some way. For Zodiac, Cancer gets attacked and their planet basically falls into an apocalypse and they have to become refugees.

- Both main characters have a bad relationship with their mom and adore their father (adoptive in Rieka’s case)

- Both main characters have older protective siblings (In Zodiac its a brother though)

- Both main characters’ love interests are Libras (before Milo made Rieka lesbian she and Chase were a thing)

- In both stories there is the ability to somehow change your sign. In Zodiac, if your core personality does not match the sign you were born into, then its possible you may physically change into another sign. These people are called Risers, and they are also heavily persecuted. In the last book (again, 2018) we find out that all of the 13th sign, Ophiuchus, are Risers who can change sign at will, and they were genocided for it. Like Zodiac Turners.

- It is illegal in Zodiac world for any one to marry someone from a different sign. In AoS at least it’s only illegal to marry from a different Union.

- In Zodiac theres the “psy network” which is a collective consciousness people can tap into to communicate across long distances or access the psychic plane. Kind of like AoS Spirit Walking

- Theres a hotheaded Aries girl who bullies the protagonist in both books, in Zodiac she shows up in book 2 though

There are some notable differences:

- Zodiac is a science-fantasy series set in space, each sign has their own solar system that they live in. Then again Milo keeps insisting for no good reason that AoS is somehow also “science fantasy.” So if he wants to claim that genre then fine, it counts to me.

- There’s no ecological themes in Zodiac or a cursed forest

- Bloodlines/family history arent a thing in Zodiac

- Each sign is depicted in different ways and they are in charge of different things

- There was no prophecy in Zodiac, or “trials,” which were in early versions of aos

- There is no 13th sign in AoS

- Chase and Hysan (Zodiac’s Libra guy) are quite different in personality. Hysan is clever and sarcastic while Chase is balanced and bland. But Hysan is also very flirty and vain like Chase, and Chase is similar to the other love interest in Zodiac, Matthias (um… 🤦) who is like a tall stoic gentle giant.

And some other considerations:

- In a zodiac-based story, the ability to change signs is a natural source of conflict that both authors could have come up with independently, also the methods are different, Risers just change on their own vs Zodiac Turners who have to change with magic. No Zodiac Turners means no changing sign. Also in faction genres “forbidden romance” is a given

- Cancer is the author of Zodiac’s sign and Milo’s is scorpio so it could mean theyre both just self-inserting

- I didnt see Zodiac on Milos goodreads list during that part of your video, but its entirely possible he purposely didnt log it on his goodreads if he and Heir were actively ripping elements from it for their pokemon fic and later TZT

I read zodiac as it came out and havent reread it since 2018 but I noticed the similarities right away the more people talked about AoS. I think it af least shows Milo is not the genre pioneering genius he thinks he is. Like oh technology destroyed humanity so now we dont use it/replace it with something else? Great you just described the backstory of Dune, the most famous scifi story ever. And it proves to me he does NOT read within his own genre like he and totes-real-editor Kaitlyn claimed in her q&a. if he did he would have found this book really quick and he should have deliberately tried to make the similarities less obvious.

Hey anon,

I have heard about that theory, too, but since I haven't read Zodiac I can't say how close or different those books are to AOS and I also don't know if Milo read them. If he has, then there would also be a debate to be had about which similarities are inspired by Zodiac and which are common genre conventions (i.e. the 13th sign in Zodiac vs the 13th district in Hunger Games); marriage restrictions are also common genre conventions in fantasy and dystopia books.

But AOS was definetly inspired by other media. The 2020 rewrite of AOS happened around the same time Milo watched She-Ra and there may also be some Dragon Prince. The festival at the beginning may also be inspired by Divergent (which I think was part of his reading list, tho I don't remember that one too well) and Kaia's design is very similar to Katara from ATLA.

the conclusion of my video was indeed that Milo most likely did not plagiarize or even take that much inspiration, precisely because 1) most of the glaring similarities can be explained by other, more benign things 2) Milo Does Not Read. the plainest source of conflict in a zodiac book would be the ability to change sign, and if Milo had actually ripped off the Risers, let’s be real, his magic system wouldn’t be this fucking convoluted. there’s actually not even magic in Zodiac (you can argue the Psy Network is soft magic and i’d agree but meh). Chase and Hysan are superficially similar, sure, but calling Chase a merger of Hysan and Matthias is… generous. Scarlet and Avia are also very different characters in terms of function, and “hothead” is a widespread stereotype of Aries. the “gods” in Zodiac aren’t really gods either and they’re not based on the Sun, Moon, and Stars, so i wouldn’t really compare them. also, the more obvious similarities only show up in books 2–4 of Zodiac and by that point in time, i’d be genuinely shocked if Milo still read books on the reg, especially because Zodiac was a lot less popular by then.

i have reread the series as recently as last year and the two books generally read totally differently—chiefly because Garber is a Harvard alumni and actually knows how to write, and because Zodiac is very plainly science fantasy. there are no instances, to my knowledge, of scenes, sequences, or tropes from Zodiac being copy+pasted into AoS a la Red Queen and Powerless, and most of the major similarities can still be explained by both writers drawing from the same source material (astrology) and both writing within the confines of a very specific genre (y/a dystopia). a secret history the government has tried to cover up, forbidden romance, secret factions, etc. could all be drummed up by Milo without Garber’s book in hand. and it is very much true that AoS has the DNA of tons of other books and shows that Milo likes. maybe Zodiac is where he and Heir got the idea for a zodiac story, but there’s no good evidence honestly

all that said—i also agree that it shows Milo’s ignorance about the industry he apparently wants to be part of so bad that he apparently didn’t know this series existed. it never saw much mainstream success, but it was definitely popular in the 2010s off the back of Hunger Games, and i still see it out on display in local and chain bookstores quite a lot. had AoS ever breached booktok/booktube, i really think the comparison would have been drawn regardless. “oh, you also wrote a zodiac book where the main conflict is changing your sign? how original.” it’s right there, and i do think would be fair to point out, because if Milo were actually book-savvy, i think he would’ve foreseen that and tried a little harder to come up with a less obvious, already-done conflict.

red rising edition? please have a go

This was fun.

I will say the two areas were its like, “ like the design, dislike the character/dislike design, like the character,” i’m understanding it as;

I like what this character added to the story, but i hate that fucking bitch and,

I really enjoyed this character but there was some lacking in rounded character depth im missing out on.

It’s insane that two different bitches with horrendous face scars are both such intense antagonists in different ways. But without them, there is less motivation to this story I believe. Because harmony realistically is what can easily happen to people who have lost their sanity and choose revenge instead of rebirth.