So, I've been thinking, and I really think that Will should've strongly and firmly advised Nico, but never ordered him. And in case you're wondering what I mean, just read this-
Will blew out a breath. 'Nico.......listen, can I tell you something?'
Nico frowned at the healer. 'What?'
'I'm a healer. And when I touched your hand........well, I've never felt so much darkness.'
Nico raised his eyebrows. 'And?'
'And, simply put, in my medical opinion-' here Will held up his hands, palms facing Nico, '-you're in no shape to shadow travel anywhere, much less that tent. One more shadow slip and you'd never come back. I strongly advise you not to shadow travel anymore as an experienced healer and probably the best camp medic.'
'But the camp is about to be destroyed. My powers are necessary to defeat the Romans!'
'We can stop the Romans without your powers. I'm pretty sure of it. We can do it our way-Lou Ellen can control the Mist. We'll sneak around, do as much damage as we can to those onagers. I very, very strongly advise you not to travel shadow again in the next few hours. Literally.'
Nico snarled. 'Are you ordering me not to use my powers?'
Will Solace glared daggers at him.
'Nico di Angelo. Don't ever say that to me.'
His tone make Nico stop and stare.
'I'm a healer. I'm a combat medic. And I give great medical advice. But one thing that I'm never supposed to do is order someone not to do something. Patient consent is always necessary, and doctors aren't allowed to do something that the patient doesn't want even if they're at the risk of dying. So I can give you very strong advice that I think you should follow, but one thing I'll never do is demand that you follow orders. I don't even know the extent of your powers, but right now I'm pretty sure you couldn't summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness, but if you think that your powers will help us? By all means go ahead. Please, just remember.........keep yourself safe out there. And you're not the only fighter in Camp Half Blood. There are more experienced fighters and magic users than you are, and we're all working overtime to defeat the Romans. You're not the only one fighting this battle.'
Nico stared at Will Solace. He'd never imagined that Will could be like this-sure, he had seen him in action, the best combat medic in Manhattan, but he'd never thought that he could be so firm or even say something that was actually true.
Nico wasn't the only one fighting this battle. There were Hecate kids, and even Clovis could make people fall asleep in battle, which was more dangerous than it sounded. There were so many magicians and fighters both on the frontlines and back in the camp, and all of them were doing their part too.............
The thing is, it's important to show the readers the development of a ship for them to really accept it properly.
If you stick two characters together with barely any prior development, then, well, the readers aren't going to ship them.
This is the reason why Percabeth is the most popular ship in the fandom-they got 5 whole books of development and they were friends first with no romantic feelings at all (no, I'm not going to accept the statement that Rick made regarding Annabeth falling for Percy when she was 12-she was always his friend first and went on the quest only for her own glory).
This is the reason why ships like Jiper and Caleo always fail.
Now, we as the readers know that Solangelo had 6 whole months together. They presumably spent a lot of time during these months with each other and as a result got to know each other quite well and start a romantic relationship.
We know that they had development.
It's just that Rick never bothered to write it for us, so we were left to create our own development, and while it can be absolutely awesome to do that, it would be so much better if Rick had given us Solangelo development, because many people still don't care for Solangelo as it barely had any on-page development.
And yes, on-page development is crucial for a romantic ship. If there's no on page development, it doesn't matter if they spent months or years together. If we as the readers could not read about their development, we're barely going to ship them.
It's the truth. We need to read it to see it. Fanfics are nice, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't write them, but a lot of people, especially gay people, want actual proper development written in canon books, not just slapped on rep that's expanded on in fanon.
But! You say. But Solangelo's the second most popular ship in the PJO fandom!
That's because they have a grumpy/sunshine dynamic which is so alluring to readers, and they're opposites attract, and they were the first real gay rep in a time period where there wasn't much gay rep, so queer people really clung onto this because it was very special to them. And honestly, I can't blame them.
But it's time to demand proper development for LGBTQ ships. Not just slapped on rep for brownie points-we need to demand more characters who are gay, but whose sexuality isn't their whole personality, and we need to demand about more people discovering their sexuality.
Nico and Will were already in a romantic relationship in ToA and TSATS, so we missed out on all the development and jumped immediately to the cute romantic moments which are nice, but if I'm being honest, barely have any weight WITHOUT PROPER DEVELOPMENT.
I made a similar post here saying that we needed development for LGBTQ ships.
I'm not anyone's anti, pro, fan or stan. I really just said something that needed to be said, and I think that a lot of people will agree with me.
Hello! I saw your post abt Annabeth and how she was born, and I was wondering if I could get your permission to make it like “canon” in some fanfics I’m writting, giving you the credits of course
Sure!
So people are going to notice that a lot of my complaints aren't just in PJO but extend to media portraying Greek Myths in general. But I want to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media, so I'm going to focus on Percy Jackson and not other media.
Starting off.................
The way Rick portrayed the Greek Gods was important because PJO was the most read book series that heavily centered around Greek Mythology he pretty much destroyed their images at the time.
There's an entire anti Percy Jackson tag as well as an anti PJO tag for you to scroll through to see how Rick Riordan portrayal of the Greek Gods was terrible. Be my guest and treat yourself to it. Search it up.
There are also people like @alatismeni-theitsa, @margaretkart and @katerinaaqu to ask for correct information on Greek Mythology. So be their guest too.
Today, we have PJO fans running around having incorrect perceptions of the gods and flinging hate and abuse at the real Greek Gods while Greeks have to suffer through all this bullshit.
The torture is REAL. Just ask them.
I mean, you have people claiming that they are the CHILDREN of VIRGIN GODDESSES.
Artemis, Athena, Hera and Hestia don't have any demigod children. They can't have any demigod children.
If you really want to, call yourself their chosen champion. Not their child. It's disrespectful to Greek culture and religion to do otherwise.
Rick Riordan read about and taught Greek Myths in school, so he must have read the actual versions of the myths.
And knowing these, he decided to twist them into his terrible, inferior, crappy versions.
That man literally wrote Hephaestus, a rapist, as a poor guy trying to get a girl, oh, he's so sad and pathetic, and Athena's such a mean bitch for not accepting his advances even if she doesn't want it!
I'm not joking.................and I don't have words for this. I just don't.
Riordan doesn't really have any tact, does he? None at all.
And no, Greek people cannot get away from these horrible portrayals, because there are too many Percy Jackson fans clogging up the Greek God tags with their Rick Riordan written PJO versions of the gods, which is kind of terrible for people who just want to read about real Greek Mythology, not Percy Jackson. And this happens in real life, too. I mean, people using PJO as a substitute for real Greek Mythology.
Pro tip for PJO tumblr users: if you're typing about a god, use the Greek God PJO tag, like PJO Apollo or PJO Aphrodite, not just Apollo or Aphrodite, ok? Thanks for reading this.
There are many common misconceptions about Greek Mythology due to Percy Jackson. So, if you're not sure about something, please search it up on verified academic websites or ask real people-you can do this online too.
Now I am aware that Rick has the creative license to portray Greek Gods however he wants-
Now, to name another shockingly appalling writing choice-
Yes, that's right-Rick Riordan, beloved author of a bestselling franchise for children and adults alike, reduces WW2, one of the most bloody and complex conflicts in history with a multitude of a reasons for its existence, to a fight between fictional demigods of the Big Three simply to have a reason for the Big 3 not to have children.
Do you actually know how serious this is?
Millions of people even today are affected by the WW2 due to generational trauma and abusive parents. WW2 killed millions of soldiers and civilians alike, and the Holocaust was so horrible that some people would faint just reading about what happened. I will not go into the bloody, gory details here, but if you still don't believe this, go search up WW2.
To have Rick Riordan portray it in such a callous way, to make a literal Greek God sire war criminals in modern history, when there were other methods he could have used to intertwine the mythological world and demigods and history.........it makes you wonder what was running through his mind at the time.
There were so many other ways he could have portrayed the prophecy-make it so that Big 3 children were constantly causing natural disasters and fictional wars in the mythological world, not the real world, and constantly dividing the cabins at CHB. Maybe they had their own war parallel to WW2. There were so many ways to do this- and none of them had to do what was ultimately done.
What makes this even WORSE is that during World War II, the Greeks were in fact part of the ALLIES.
The Allies were fighting against the Axis powers, the latter of which contained Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan.
When the Nazis invaded Greece-well, it's never a good thing for a country to be invaded by enemies during a time of war.
At least 250,000 people died during the Axis occupation. And the country's economy and infrastructure were ruined quite horribly.
And generations of Greeks are traumatised because of this, even today. Not just Greeks-thousands of people. Millions of people all over the globe are still traumatized from this war, be it direct experience or generational trauma.
And to make ANCIENT GREEK GODS responsible for WWII is simply, totally and absolutely unforgivable on Rick Riordan's part.
To make the Greeks' enemies the sons of their ancient gods........no. Just no.
And yes, Hitler is a son of Hades in canon. Rick later changed it because of the backlash. He's absolutely disgusting.
Now.........the Greek Gods are in the USA!
But..........they're Greek, right, which means that they should be in Greece! So why now are they in the USA?
Well.........here's Rick's explanation for it.
Apparently, the Greek Gods started with the fire of the Western Civilisation and then moved onto other places.
'Flame of the West' crap my ass. Search it up-there's this great article called the Whitening Thief. Read that.
Apparently, without the flame of Westernisation, there would be only darkness and chaos. As someone who's not part of a Western country, this is pretty racist to countries like mine and I'm pointing it out.
@margaretkart
@alatismeni-theitsa
@katerinaaqu
These are all good blogs to disillusion yourself with Percy Jackson and learn about what really happened in Greek Mythology.
And I just want to say-Percy Jackson is an ok start for venturing into Greek Mythology as long as you've read up some basic background beforehand, but-
But-
Do NOT, under ANY circumstances whatsoever, take RICK RIORDAN'S portrayal of the Greek Gods as the REAL Greek Gods.
Never do that. That is the one thing that must not be done.
Hera doesn't just love perfect families. She literally lives in the most dysfunctional family to ever exist. And she loves you if you try. She really does.
Hades would not threaten to eternally torture literal children just because of what their parents did to him. His literal job is to uphold justice in the underworld, and sending a child to Tartarus just because her father angered him and he couldn't punish the father isn't justice now, is it?
Ares loves his children and as for why Rick made him hate them-
Rick has a hate boner against the war god, that I will swear on. Read this post and the explanation for why Rick shouldn't have done it.
And the gods are actively depicted as cruel, neglectful, abusive parents, when in the myths they are quite the opposite.
Real Aphrodite loves her son Aeneas and frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield. She also tells him to not marry a woman (TO GIVE UP LOVE, HER LITERAL DOMAIN) so that he can fulfil his destiny of becoming a king.
Real Ares loves all his children. He tries to avenge his son Cycnus when Heracles kills him with good reason for being a cruel tyrant-and they were even riding chariots together when Heracles came across them. He avenged his daughter even at the cost of being punished by Poseidon and Zeus, neither of whom liked him.
Now, what I want to tell you is that the PJO Greek Gods are Rick's interpretation of them.
An interpretation of a Greek God by a modern author (who isn't Greek, by the way, please take note) is not the same as the real Greek God. Please understand this and accordingly adjust your views.
This also goes for Madeline Miller, Rachel Smythe, etc.
And lastly, one of the most ironic things is that though Richard uses the Greek Gods in his books, he has never ever added a single Greek character in it.
I'm talking about a modern Greek demigod who comes from Greece. Imagine them teaching the other demigods Modern Greek and Greek culture, language and traditions!
It's very ironic that he includes Chinese, African and Native American culture in his works and then turns around and pretend that Greek culture doesn't exist.
The demigods are in Athens, but for how much time before they go back to America? Barely any at all. And nothing learnt about culture while they're there.
(No hate to his already shitty representation. I'm merely making a point that there should have been a Greek character in a book that heavily centers on Greek Gods and their children, even if it's in America.)
So, if you've read the title, let me tell you something-
Do you know that Greek Gods are still worshipped?
Some of you do, some of you don't, but let me tell you, they are still worshipped.
And accordingly, you must respect them and their worshippers, just like you would do for Christians. You cannot maliciously ridicule and condemn Hellenistic Pagans who worship Greek Gods just because they are a minority.
And if you've read the myths and think that the Greek Gods being cruel......
They're not, actually. I mean, yes, you think they're cruel, but most of the myths aren't taken literally by Hellenistic Pagans who worship Greek Gods.
Hades kidnapping Persephone symbolises death ripping children from their grieving parents' arms. It's an explanation for the seasons and it finally represents the fact that daughters could be given away by their fathers with the mother having no say in it whatsoever.
Demeter's grief and her actually being able to do something about her daughter's marriage and Persephone being returned to her is supposed to be a comforting tale for grieving mothers who have lost their daughter.
Artemis' cruelty towards certain people? It represents the cruelty of nature towards humans and what it will do to humans if they provoke it.
Zeus' infidelity and abuse of his power? Well, it represents what kings do. Zeus represented the kings of Ancient Greece, and kings abused their power and had many mistresses besides having a wife.
Many Greek kings also claimed to sons of Zeus or descendants of the gods, so it the idea that Zeus had many affairs with ladies and princesses of royal lineages was conceived.
The link above provides many good reasons for why the Greeks wrote Zeus having many affairs with mortal women, so check it out.
Also, Zeus is symbolic of storms. Storms are volatile and raging, and so was Zeus at times. He was a god of storms and as such symbolised them.
Hera punishing the mistresses and children in a jealous rage to bother Zeus? That's what queens did back in the day since they couldn't directly punish their husbands.
Dionysus being charming and fun but also being mad and wild? Well, he represents breaking away from social norms and going fully wild. Also, wine can make people fun and charming, but at the same time, it can turn people into mad, raging creatures.
The point is, most of what the Greek Gods did was symbolic to their domains. And no, contrary to popular thought, Greeks did not live in fear of their Gods striking them down every moment. In fact, many of them genuinely devotionally loved their gods.
And Greek Gods themselves are very kind and benevolent to their devotees, even today, as long as you don't provoke or seriously insult them. Just ask Hellenistic Pagans who are their devotees and you'll be surprised at the results. I'm serious.
According to the Greeks, gods weren't humans. They were modelled after humans, but they were above humans and human flaws.
And the Abrahamic gods do terrible things too, but do we mock them? No, we don't, because their worshippers say that they are above humans and human flaws, so similarly, the Greek Gods are above humans and our flaws.
And no one cares about the fact that a guy is objectifying and making money off a culture all the while removing its significance and turning it into a joke.
Even though Greeks have a millennia old and rich culture, people are always bastardizing it. Non-Greeks really must stop doing this. It's very culturally disrespectful.
I've also seen grown adults saying that the Greek Gods are American so they're allowed to do what they want with them now, and that's absolutely disgusting. They literally stated that the Greek Gods were American now, right out in the open on Twitter.
Let me add one last thing here.
Rick Riordan has a series called Trials of Apollo in which Apollo is cast down to Earth as a human for the third time to defeat Python.
What I want to talk about here is Apollo's human name-Lester Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos is a common Greek Christian surname that means 'son of a priest'. One of Apollo's domains in prophecy and he has many priests, so maybe this is a reference to that.
But what is most upsetting is that this name is used for comedy.
It's belittled, laughed at and ridiculed for its longevity and hard pronunciation when it is in fact a very normal Greek surname. Even if it's not an American surname, even if it doesn't sound normal and sounds ridiculous to you, it's not ridiculous to others and you should respect it.
Can you imagine how Greek people with that last name read the books and felt bad about their last name? Or felt furious. I know that I would be FURIOUS if my last name was used like that.
And the fact is that Papadopoulos isn't even that hard to pronounce! It's literally just 5 syllables that you can repeat a few times until it doesn't twist your tongue.
And if you can't repeat this simple name, then you need to go back to kindergarten. Hell, go back to preschool even.
And there are people who have the audacity to say that the Greek Gods belong to America and are American. Grown adults, actually, on Twitter, no less. Tweeting it for the whole world to see their absolute foolishness and audacity.
They're pretty tactless, huh?
The Greek Gods were and always will be GREEK. Foreigners are not their rightful descendants-the Greeks are (Greek immigrants included). I mean...........this is bizzarre.
To conclude, (really conclude this time) though it's a series heavily entwined with Greek Gods, the only Greek thing about the series is the Gods. There's no Greek culture, religion or language, and even the Greek Gods are heavily Americanised, which is pretty disappointing.
(Side note: If you think anything I've said is wrong, tell me. I'll correct it immediately.)
@fandomloverangel
So, we talk about Vivienne not being there for her sisters in Elfhame and letting them get bullied by the other children of the Gentry, but I raise you this-
Vivienne WANTED to go back to the human realm, but Jude and Taryn wanted to stay in Elfhame, and when they were actually able to finally go to the human realm, Jude and Taryn hated it and wanted to go back, which broke Vivi's heart and immensely saddened her, because have we ever considered what Vivienne wanted?
Jude also recalled how angry Vivienne was when she and Taryn finally 'gave in' to Elfhame. I think that Vivienne thought that by choosing Elfhame, Jude and Taryn didn't just choose its perquisites, but also its perils, so one side of her mind decided that she didn't need to protect them so that they could learn a lesson. The other side of her, however, felt guilty that she wasn't protecting them, so she stayed for them. And so this cycle continued-angry one day, guilty the next. Just a theory of mine.
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..........
Off topic but it frustrates me to no end that religious people always attribute my actions and achievements to God.
'Oh, you're so lucky, God answered your prayers-'
Noooo no no no no no no, NO.
I am the one worked hard to achieve my goals and I will not have them automatically assigned to a higher being that's nonexistent for me. No sir or ma'am, no I will not.
'Oh, but we need God to be humble-'
Maybe your pea sized little brain needs him for that, but my hulking cranium can take the weight of the fact that I can say that I'm good, great, amazing even at something and not start claiming that I can find the cure for cancer.
Seriously. If you meet an atheist, do not automatically say that everything they've achieved is due to God.
One of the most incorrect yet common takes on Bianca di Angelo is that she should have gone to CHB and made sure it was ok for Nico before leaving with the Hunters.
I'm sorry, did you not read TTC properly? You need to go back and reread it if you think that this is true.
Artemis only told her hunters that they would stay longer at CHB after Bianca became a Hunter.
Bianca did not know that the Hunters were planning to stay at CHB. In her POV, she could either join the Hunters or stay with Nico and not get a second chance at joining what could possibly be a chance for freedom (in her POV).
Bianca did not know that the Hunters would stay at CHB until after she became one. She was scared of losing her only chance at freedom (in her thoughts) and made a rash decision. Stop blaming her for it. And stop with this moronic take. Please stop it.
I hope you get raped until you bleed and die, fucking TERF bitch
.
Magnus Chase, The Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson all should've been set in separate universes.
It's just, the mythology is all so tangled up. How does Rick justify the beginnings and endings of the world, seeing as some of them don't really have an ending (like Greek mythology) and some of them do (Ragnarok).
So why not set them in universes? Something like Daughter of the Deep and Percy Jackson-neither are in the same universe, but they're both written by the same author. So do that for MCGA, TKC and PJO.
And Percy and Annabeth definitely could have been written out with some assistance. The crossover literally didn't have to happen.
(Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it, I think all the pantheon gods interacting with each other could be a fun concept, but I don't care for this particular concept, though that's just my opinion).