Did Brandon Sanderson rip off of a Children's novel?

[otock]

So last night I was reading a book the familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson. Now I get to this part the main characters encounter a cave troll, when I start to notice some very strong similarities between this part and the part from Words of radiance were Calidan and Shallon hide in from the Chasm Fiend. So first we have a minor detail Calidan in Words of Radiance says that the Chasm fiend moves with speed that shouldn't work for a creature that big. Then to quot the book the familiars "It scooped up a chunk of rock and hurled it with amazing speed and force at the four legged trespassers." so very minor detail but it gets better. in Words of Radiance Calidan and Shallon hide from the Chasm fiend in a small crevasse in the wall, well in The Familiars the characters hide in a crevasse in the cave wall. Also please note that The Familiars came four years before Words of Radiance. to quote from The Familiars "'Over here' called Skylar, who was hiding in a hole in the back wall of the cave. Her fellow familiars darted inside joining her in the tight space." So as you can see this is a bigger hint of a ripoff, but you just wait. In Words of Radiance the Chasm fiend claws at the wall to try to get to Shallon and Calidan, and yet agian here come The Familiars with a likeness to it that it makes Brandon Sanderson look very suspiciously close to a ripoff. To quote The Familiars again "The troll reached for them, but its hand was too wide to fit through the hole." hmm well now makes think doesn't it. In The Familiars to beat the troll Skylar needs her satchel to cast a ILLOSION SPELL well in Words of radiance Shallon needs her satchel to use her surge binding to create an illusion. Now if that's not a ripoff I don't now what is.

[Lunamor]

The trope of “characters hide in small space that monster is too big to get to” is fairly common, if I’m not mistaken. Especially with T-rexes  Illusion spells used to trick bigger/not very smart enemies are common as well, from what I’ve seen.

[Chinkoln]

No, not a rip off. These are common tropes and arcs that Brandon has used and adapted for his own purposes. Many authors have used similar scenes. I can see why this may be concerning at first glance, but don’t worry, Brandon has done nothing wrong. This is still an original work, created with Brandon’s ingenuity.

[Voidspawn]

You should probably use spoiler tags for this stuff... some people who are in this section looking for Mistborn stuff (or something like that) might not have read Words of Radiance.

[AonEne]

I've read The Familiars (really fun kids' book series, do recommend it) and yeah I'm pretty sure it was just a similarity of cliches, as Lunamor and Chinkoln have said.

I have also moved this thread to the SA forum.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

I would argue that even if Brandon had read the Familiars and either consciously or unconsciously used that scene for his book it doesn’t make it a “rip off”. 
 

it would be using a neat idea for something that fit nicely into the world he had already crafted in The Way of Kings (chasms, chasm fiends, Light Weaving, etc). Or even an homage to a piece he enjoyed. 
 

“All art is theft” is a common idea in many/all forms of art. Picasso and TS Eliot are widely quoted as talking about this concept. Shakespeare lifted whole plot lines from people. Search for “John Williams stoke Star Wars music” sometime for the million YouTube videos we n that topic. 
 

interesting review paper of a Cambridge Press book on the subject of Intellectual property from 2008 that touches on this topic if only briefly: http://www.dklevine.com/papers/b_l_review.pdf

Edited December 29, 2020 by Green Hoodie Mistborn