Jude And Madoc Oneshot (From Madoc's POV)

'Reyna doesn't owe Nico anything and she is free to do what she wants with her life and join the Hunters' and 'Nico can be distraught at Reyna joining the Hunters and have flashbacks and be negatively impacted by it' are two statements that can and should co-exist.

Can we talk about how much the Aphrodite kids are a wasted/lost potential? How RR made them vain, vapid, mean and only useless pretty faces until Piper came? (Which is one of the characters I dislike in the books for all her internalized misogyny and the way she judged her siblings and cabinmates before even getting to know them properly). Aphrodite was worshiped as a goddess of war in her own right. Give me children of Aphrodite who are as beautiful as they are deadly, they wield their beauty both as a shield and as a sword. Give me Aphrodite kids that are so deeply loving and loyal towards each other, willing to move mountains and brave the harshest storms to keep their loved ones safe. Give me cabin 10 members being the ones that other campers go to because they know there will be no judgement there.

Can we talk about how much the Aphrodite kids are a wasted/lost potential? How RR made them vain, vapid, mean and only useless pretty faces until Piper came?

Aphrodite was worshipped as a goddess of war in her own right. Give me children of Aphrodite who are as beautiful as they are deadly, they wield their beauty both as a shield and as a sword. Give me Aphrodite kids that are so deeply loving and loyal towards each other, willing to move mountains and brave the harshest storms to keep their loved ones safe. Give me cabin 10 members being the ones that other campers go to because they know there will be no judgement there.

Exactly! Your vision for them is amazing. Of course, if they had had a writer who actually cared about fleshing them out, they could have been amazing, but unfortunately, Rick is too much of a misogynist to think past 'pink, pretty clothes, concerned about looks' = 'vain, shallow, conceited'.

The fact that his main female characters are able to look good without trying is such a cliche. A girl who looks good because she takes care of herself and is concerned about her looks (though not to the point of vanity) is much more interesting than 'Effortless Without Trying'-which is present ad nauseam in 2000s YA literature.

A son of Aphrodite would be extremely interesting to read about. How would he deal with his feminine side when he was a boy? How would others have seen and treated him? We all talk about masculine girls and feeling uncomfortable in masculinity, but talking about a feminine boy and his feminity would have been so interesting, especially in the PJOverse where Aphrodite is seen as weak. How differently is he treated from his sisters? Do they expect him to be tougher or weak just like them? How does he feel about his heritage and his mother?

Wasted potential, though we have fanfiction, discussions and headcanons, so there's that.

(Piper is one of the characters I dislike in the books for all her internalized misogyny and the way she judged her siblings and cabinmates before even getting to know them properly).

I do think that it's unfair to dislike Piper for that because she was raised in Hollywood, where it would be easy to take on such a mindset and lose yourself in it. Besides, the girls that were bullying her (both at the Wilderness School and Drew Tanaka) were all pink and feminine, so it would be easy for her to dislike them and think that they were shallow and stupid.

I'll have to reread the Lost Hero to look at her arc and how it was handled, so I'll add my thoughts after this happens.

On an unrelated note, I wish that we had gotten Piper and Drew making up. The fact that two teenage girls of color fight over a white guy and presumably don't make up again is just so aggravating to me, because female solidarity and platonic relationships are absolutely wonderful to read about.

Jude doesn't always think of Cardan

I saw a comment saying that everything and everyone that Jude thought about would tie back to Cardan every single time.

That's.......not true.

I'm not going to deny that Jude thinks about Cardan a lot and that their relationship is definitely a core part of the books. There's a reason why it's the number one thing the fandom talks about.

But she doesn't think about him all the time and she's certainly not obsessed with him as some people make her out be.

She has thoughts about Vivienne and her relationship with her, Taryn and her betrayal, Madoc and their complicated relationship, Oriana and Oak and even Dain and the Court of Shadows. She reflects on her past, present and future and her life in Elfhame, not all of which includes Cardan.

Even in the second book where their relationship picks up, she has thoughts about her family, her bio parents, her adoptive parents, her siblings, the Court of Shadows, Grimsen, her failed relationship with Locke, Vivienne's friendship with Cardan and she even thinks about Heather and also. There are plenty of moments without Cardan where she doesn't think of him.

And in the third book when she reunites with him and their relationship is official, she does think about him a lot, but not all the time. She thinks about her mother, her father, Madoc (her second father), Vivienne, Grima Mog, Heather, Taryn and Locke, etc. She even has moments with the Roach, the Ghost and the Bomb.

None of this ties back to Cardan. And it's true that their relationship is definitely present in each book, this just seems like another attempt to put romance above platonic relationships, which is exasperating. Seriously, let Jude have her platonic relationships without bringing Cardan into them!

Ok, I need to tell all of you something.

Even if your posts don't get notes, that doesn't mean that someone is seeing them.

People are looking at your posts, they're reading them again and again, even if they're not nothing them.

I've read truckloads of posts that I have not noted. I've read them again and again. I haven't noted them, but I still read them.

Don't think that your posts aren't noticed if they're not noted.

Share this with people, ok? They need to know.

Misinformation about real Greek Mythology in Percy Jackson, fork spotted in kitchen

Hold up hold up hold up

I was just reading The Hidden Oracle and Apollo says that Calypso is very beguiling, and that Odysseus stayed with her for seven years before returning home.

I-WHAT?

Odysseus didn't stay WILLINGLY. Calypso FORCED him to stay there and literally sexually assaulted him for years before she was forced to let him go by the gods.

This makes it sound like he WILLINGLY stayed with her. Rick didn't need to write that. This is a children's book, yes, but he didn't need to include that sentence at all. Not. At. ALL.

Guys I swear-please never take Percy Jackson as an accurate source of mythology. If you're unsure about something, search it up on Wikipedia or Theoi.com or ask actual Greek people who know.

My partners friend went missing if you all could signal boost this!

Percy Jackson's foundation is problematic

Ok, so, the OG PJO series is amazing for a lot of people. I mean, it's almost as famous as Harry Potter for a reason. It has an immersive world which is escapism which is really nice for a lot of people including me..........

But the series could definitely have been rewritten to be better. Such as not making Annabeth hit Percy so often (only playful hits, no so hard) making Ares love his children, making Artemis NOT SO PREDATORY-

But the thing is, even if the series was rewritten to exclude these.........

The very foundation of the Percy Jackson series is problematic.

The foundation of the Percy Jackson series is about overthrowing an abusive system and making the abusers pay attention and listen, and I'm not saying that that's a bad concept. It's actually one of the best concepts, but-

But it's what Rick Riordan used as an abusive system that's really wrong.

He used the Greek gods as abusive parents when in the myths they were the furthest things from it.

Excuse me. Zeus was not an abusive father to Apollo. He genuinely loved him. He only punished him when Apollo needed to be punished and deserved it. Zeus was a loving father to Artemis as well. He gave her what she requested and let her live in the wild as she pleased. Zeus also stopped Athena from practicing divination at Apollo's request. Zeus would not leave two children with an abusive alcholic mother.

Poseidon was not abusive and neglectful. In the myths, he punished Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus. And he let Sciron do as he pleased in the ocean, though Sciron was a terrible person.

Aphrodite frequently came to her son Aeneas' aid on the battlefield of Troy. She loved him very much and even told him to give up LOVE to fulfil his own destiny of becoming a king.

And it also depicts Athena and Hades as having demigod children, when in the myths, Athena has no children at all and Hades is faithful to his wife Persephone, only cheating on her with TWO people in only a few variations of the myths, while other myths have Hades loving Leuce and Minthe before Persephone.

It's problematic for Athena to have demigod children, even brain children, because she was a virgin goddess who had no children in the myths. Ancient Greece associated marriage and having children with losing your virginity.

It was symbolic, so Athena having children, even brain children, makes her lose her virginity.

And about Hades being faithful-he's stated to have had multiple children with women when Persephone goes to her mother, which is why she's so unhappy.

This is incorrect and terribly wrong.

But if Athena and Hades didn't have children, and if the Greek Gods weren't abusive parents, then this series wouldn't exist. These problematic themes are essential to the story, which is why PJO is so problematic itself.

Not to mention the whole 'flame of the West' crap that is a big collective forehead smacking moment.

So even if Percy Jackson could be rewritten, it'll always be problematic in one way or another.

(Not saying that you shouldn't enjoy it. I have a love-hate relationship with it).

Some people I talked to think your criticism of PJO is being overly sensitive because Percy Jackson got so many kids into Greek Mythology. What can you say to disprove that?

Well, there are always going to be people like that. They don't like criticism because it cuts into their nostalgia and forces them to lift their rose-coloured lens and look at where it went wrong.

Listen, there's absolutely nothing wrong with getting into Greek Mythology for Percy Jackson. I'm serious! I know plenty of people who've done that.

But there are too many inaccuracies and misconceptions of the Greek Gods due to the series and someone has to call it out. I'm just one of the many people who dislike the way he portrayed them and I'm criticising it.

Also-he did disrespect Greek people by taking their gods and putting them in America and using the pathetic excuse of 'Oh, America is a great civilisation now, so the Greek Gods are going there instead of staying in tiny, boring old Greece'! That is downright disgusting.

Not to mention all the racism and sexism and the fact that he didn't even bring one Greek person in it despite him trying to add different cultures (and no, Zoe and Apollo don't count, I'm talking about an actual Greek demigod who could inform us about Greek culture and traditions and modern-day Greece.)

Also, the way he made fun of Lester's name was disrespectful. If you can't pronounce Papadopoulos, please go back to kindergarten.

The way he wrote their gods was just disgusting. I mean, this has probably been repeated ad nauseam, but it's true. You can find plenty of posts criticizing their disgusting portrayal (including my PJO ultimate, though don't take my posts only.)

If we look at the criticism of PJO overall, mine isn't different-it's just the same. There are people who are far angrier and more intense than I am, actually. You can like something and also be critical of it. Multiple people do that and it's actually better than just blindly bowing down to it and refusing to accept that it has any flaws, which is a harmful stance.

I really don't understand why Thalia had to fight the monsters and sacrifice herself for Luke and Annabeth RIGHT ON THE BORDER OF CAMP HALF BLOOD.

Literally WHERE were Chiron and Dionysus? They knew that getting Thalia to camp was very important-hell, why didn't Chiron himself search for her instead of letting an inexperienced satyr guide her?

Just another one of Rick's terrible writing choices that make no sense. This has been bothering me for a long time..........

Now that I've lost my dad, I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed about next year, which is important for me. I thought he'd be there to help me, but he's gone. It feels scary honestly. I don't know what to do.