Percy Jackson's Foundation Is Problematic

People who say that Hades and Persephone are the best couple in Greek Mythology sound ridiculous to me.

Have you never heard of Perseus and Andromeda?

Hades kidnapped Persephone and tricked her into eating pomegranates to stay with him for half a year; Perseus saved Andromeda from a sea monster!

Also, there are versions where Hades and Persephone both cheated on each other with Minthe and Adonis respectively. These are versions, they don't always have to be used, but they still exist.

Perseus and Andromeda? Never cheated on each other.

Hades kidnapping Persephone was symbolic, but we're taking this literally, right? And we're writing about the beginning of the story, where he kidnaps her, and that doesn't exactly sound like a great premise for a love story.

Perseus rescuing Andromeda from a sea monster on the other hand? Her marrying him? Them loving each other and never cheating on each other?

Solid love story premise right there.

You know what Rick should have done to make Athena more sympathetic?

Simple. Make Frederick ask Athena for a child so that he can have an actual demigod to raise and observe, rather like a science experiment or something (which makes him a bad parent, treating Annabeth like a project instead of an actual child, that Rick could've gone into later).

She's unsure, because he doesn't seem like the type to be able to raise a child, but he insists, so she gives him one. INSTEAD OF THE WHOLE NONCON WEIRD MENTAL THING WE GOT.

And then Frederick finds out that hey, kids aren't always the way you picture them, surprise! So he just kind of leaves Annabeth alone and then we get the whole stepmother plot and it continues in canon.

There are definitely parents like that in real life, so it would be more realistic and I think that more people might be able to relate to that.

And Athena guides her daughter and is angry at Frederick for not helping the child enough and with herself not to see how bad he would be at parenting, because she is the literal goddess of wisdom.

Solangelo is not Grumpy x Sunshine

One thing that's puzzled me about Solangelo is the grumpy x sunshine dynamic and how everyone thinks it's true.

Excuse me, did we read the same PJO and HOO?

Because in PJO and HOO, Will Solace was never sunshine.

In TLO, we see him heal Annabeth. He smiles and it's exhausted from running around healing everyone. Exhausted and tired and rueful.

And when Connor Stoll says that he's willing to steal, Will glares at him and gives him sharp orders.

In TLH, Will yells at Annabeth for destroying the chariot and scowls at her. Later, when he gives Leo a tour, he looks as if he finds the idea of a sword disturbing. And in the tour scene, he's helpful to Leo (he pats his shoulder too, which is a nice gesture).

In BOO, he calms Clarisse down and prevents a fight, which is good. He tells everyone that his prophetic cabin mates' powers have been affected too. Nico describes him as nonthreatening but brave under fine and Will is insecure about the fact that he's just a healer.

Will helps multiple times by using his taxicab whistle, when defeating soldiers and stopping the Greeks and Romans from fighting. A great example of him being competent on page.

From what we've seen of him so far, he's competent in war and in general and cordial with other people. He's good at diffusing tense situations as well as being insecure about the fact that he's just a healer (though he states that he has a few musical abilities as well, like his piercing taxicab whistle).

This is good enough (especially good material for a future character which was unfortunately botched) but there's nothing to indicate that he's sunshine.

Later, when encountering Nico, Will, who doesn't understand any of Nico's abilities, forcefully orders him not to shadow-travel even when it could possibly save the camp using the phrase 'doctor's orders'.

(This is an example of Will abusing his doctor's authority).

He also says that Nico won't be summoning skeletons again without Nico's permission. You might think that Nico was doing horribly, but even so, Will literally talked for him without his consent. That is not good-it's never good. You shouldn't do anything for someone without their consent, especially not when they're conscious and standing right there.

And then we come to where Nico says that he's leaving both camps.

At this, Will is furious for some unstated reason and then proceeds to victim blame Nico, telling him that he was the one who pushed everyone away. And even if Will was tired and terrified right then, he doesn't apologise later. He just calls Nico dense.

We've literally seen in nearly everyone's POV (Frank, Piper, Leo, Jason and Annabeth-even Percy tells them terrible stories about him that warps their view of him) that Nico is creepy as hell to them. Then how do you expect us to think that the people at CHB actually welcome Nico?

And in TOA he's nice, yes, but by then people were already shipping Solangelo and reducing them to this sunshine x grumpy dynamic.

None of this paints Will as sunshine. Will isn't sunshine just because he's white, blond and a son of Apollo. Stop being so quick to stereotype characters based on their physical traits and parentage.

And Nico isn't grumpy. He's creepy to some people and he has a sarcastic sense of humour. He's quiet, tired and frustrated sometimes, but not grumpy in general.

Stop calling him grumpy just because he's related to death and Will is related to life and healing. This is just flanderisation to fit into stereotypes, and it's sad.

But of course the fandom ruins everything and Rick follows suite.

HOW RICK PORTRAYED THE GREEK GODS AND WHY IT WAS SO IMPORTANT

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 and Hellenistic Pagans 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.

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 and Hellenistic Pagans 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 the Hellenistics who just want to be able to read devotional things about their gods and other 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-

but let us as educated people all be aware of the fact that we should not always take portrayals of the Greek Gods in modern media depicting them seriously and if you want to read up on the actual gods, then read the myths and the Odyssey, Iliad etc.

Now, to name another shockingly appalling writing choice-

In the very first book, WW2 is atrociously used as a plot point

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 know how serious this is? Do you actually know how bad this is, though?

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 and Holocaust torture and treatment of Jews and other minorities as well.

Jews today still have gaping holes in their family trees because of it. And 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.

PJO WWII IS THE ULTIMATE INSULT TO THE GREEKS

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 its Jewish community was pretty much killed off. 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.

WHY THE HELL ARE THE GREEK GODS IN AMERICA?

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.

What's meant by Chiron's explanation is that apparently Greece is too bad for Greek Gods now, which is terrible, because that's literally where they originated. And their explanation for leaving it and coming to America is extremely half-baked and just reeks of white American superiority.

@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.)

RICK DOESN'T USE GREEK CULTURE OR RELIGION AND IN FACT INSULTS GREECE IN HIS WORKS

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 and 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.

What the Greek Gods do is supposed to be symbolic.

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 and you'll be surprised at the results. I'm serious.

The problem here is that we're trying to moralize divinity.

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.

CONCLUSION

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. It's cultural appropriation, that's what it is. Do not condone it.

Ah, sorry, not conclusion-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. I hope that other authors will do better handling the Greek Gods than Rick Riordan.

(Side note: If you think anything I've said is wrong, tell me. I'll correct it immediately.)

@fandomloverangel

In case anyone is having a bad night:

Here is the fudgiest brownie in a mug recipe I’ve found

Here are some fun sites

Here is a master post of Adventure Time episodes and comics

Here is a master post of movies including Disney and Studio Ghibli

Here is a master post of other master posts to TV shows and movies

*tucks you in with fuzzy blanket* *pats your head*

You’ll be okay, friend <3

Have you noticed how both Percy Jackson and Cardan are often characterised as dumb and Cardan weak because they love their significant others? I think this is some weird sort of misogyny because 'only weak men will love these women' when that's simply not true!

Tell me if I'm crazy lol

You're not crazy. This is a real phenomenon that needs to stop.

The PJO fandom tends to dumb down Percy a lot and hype up Annabeth, when in reality it is Percy who comes up with brilliant strategies and fights very well. It seems to me that people think Percy is foolish and/or impulsive because he doesn't communicate his plans very well.

It's frustrating to read canon PJO and then go to the fandom PJO and see how much Percy is dumbed down. Even canonically, Percy is put down a lot-unfortunately, I think this is because Rick is influenced by the fandom, which he should stop.

In fact, Annabeth would have died without Percy. LOTS of people would have died without Percy.

Thankfully, there are many people who DON'T dumb Percy down, like @cynthiav06, @hermesmyplatonicbeloved and other people-I forgot the blogs, tell me if you want to be tagged.

Check out the blogs I mentioned above if you want Real Percy, not dumb Percy who's not even real.

And this happens with Cardan too.

All right-I will say it again and again.

REAL CARDAN IS NOT A DUMB, HELPLESS UWU POOKIE!

HE IS POWERFUL. HE IS SMART. HE IS CUNNING AND CAN RUN AN ENTIRE KINGDOM WITHOUT JUDE OR MADOC.

I think most of the TFOTA fandom forget that Cardan did, in fact, run the kingdom without Jude or Madoc between and at the beginning of The Queen of Nothing!

And he's no helpless pookie. Does ANYONE remember the scene in TWK where the sea mermaids and their retinue come and read the poem that's a threat in disguise?

Does anyone remember how Cardan reacted? I DON'T THINK THEY DO!

He did NOT whimper or look to Jude for help. Jude DID NOT step up and deal with things directly.

Cardan dealt with it. He gave a clever response and effectively dealt with it while remaining powerful in the eyes of his subjects. Jude herself notes how powerful he looks in that scene.

And his meeting with Orlagh? He looks and feels regal and intimidating, like a true ruler. He saves his kingdom from war, literally threatens to encase Nicasia in a tree to keep Orlagh in check like a true boss, is prepared to fulfil his theat and calls up AN ENTIRE ISLAND. AN ENTIRE NEW ISLAND, LIKE THE THREE ISLES, EXCEPT NOW IT'S THE FOUR ISLES.

And he also comes up with a smart plan for Jude's safety, thus ensuring that she can come back when she wants to. It's not his fault that she interpreted it differently and chose to ignore the real meaning when she finally found it.

And in The Prisoner's Throne when he saves Jude from the knives? 100 percent amazing scene. He really has a heavy regal ruler aura there. My favorite scene of Cardan.

Yet fandoms need must girlbossify the females and woobify the males to make us see that the females are oh so powerful and the males need them for everything apparently.

The fandoms make the males characters that are entirely dependent on the females and don't exist without them. And I can't emphasize how frustrated this makes some of us.

Annabeth is smart on her own without Percy and vice versa.

Same goes for Jude and Cardan. They deal with threats in their own effective ways, though said ways are different-but those ways still work for both of them.

This is a reverse form of misogyny that is still sexism to both males and females and this really needs to stop. Whenever a couple get together, people tend to not see them as equals-either the male or the female is dominant, and if it's the female, she has to be oh so strong and muscular and dark and serious while the male has to be soft and submissive to her at all times, oh noooooooooo.

Not to say that muscular and masculine women CAN'T be dominant, but please remember that this is not always the case. Submissive partners are not always soft and feminine, and dominant partners don't always need to be commanding and aggressive.

Being equals in a relationship is a big charm, and that's why Percabeth worked so well for a lot of people. That's a huge part of their charm. To take that away would be to push what made Percabeth good into an abyss and watch it disintegrate.

TFOTA fandom members, please remember that Cardan is a person on his own without Jude. Same goes for Percy and Annabeth, PJO fandom members.

On ToA: Octavian was Roman. He died when a strategy of his failed, and Apollo was punished. Did I get it right? So, the pjo! gods have both a "Greek" and "Roman" self , "they prefer to keep separate from each other". Now, we see time and time again how that custom / "law" creates a loophole usually working in the pjo! gods favor, but why didn't "Lester" end up in Camp Jupiter? Ok, in English, both of his names may not differ. However, irl, they'd be spelled like this: Apollon (Greek), Apollo (Latin). Even after Octavian's death, there were still "enough" children and legacies to "make suffer for godly mistakes". Why it's CHB that must watch Olympus' raging? I repeat: What does CHB have to do with CJs "hybris"? Can you help me understand ToA (better)? I like the series very much and don't want to criticize something that may not need improvement.

This ask was very interesting.

On ToA: Octavian was Roman. He died when a strategy of his failed, and Apollo was punished. Did I get it right? So, the pjo! gods have both a "Greek" and "Roman" self , "they prefer to keep separate from each other". Now, we see time and time again how that custom / "law" creates a loophole usually working in the pjo! gods favor, but why didn't "Lester" end up in Camp Jupiter? Even after Octavian's death, there were still "enough" children and legacies to "make suffer for godly mistakes". Why it's CHB that must watch Olympus' raging? I repeat: What does CHB have to do with CJs "hybris"?

It seems to me that Rick prefers the Greeks over the Romans, CHB over Camp Jupiter. I'm not sure if he even did that much worldbuilding when plotting out Camp Jupiter-in any case, he definitely knows CHB better than CJ, so that was where Apollo was going to go.

That's the best explanation that I can give-though it would be very interesting to see Apollo at Camp Jupiter and have a Roman daughter of Ceres. Being Roman (with all their strictness and discipline) would also contrast with Meg's wild, free nature which would have been extremely interesting to read about.

Can you help me understand ToA (better)? I like the series very much and don't want to criticize something that may not need improvement.

Oh, trust me, Trials of Apollo could definitely have been improved on and you absolutely should allow yourself to criticise things because everything should be subject to criticism (which is not hate, by the way. Criticism does not equal hate).

Two Hunters of Artemis were kicked out just because they were lesbians, and no, this is not ok. Ace lesbians do exist and love does not equal sex.

Its theme of abuse are amazing and well done, but the ending of it just defeats the entire point of the first series, which was to break the system of abuse.

Also, the way Rick portrays the troglodytes and the pandai is......definitely a choice. Not a good one either.

The way he sexualised Piper (her body was softly curved in all the right places) was extremely disgusting.

You should search up TOA crit on tumblr to get more information. Fair warning that some criticism is really just what the posters wish would have happened or their personal thoughts, not actual criticism of the story, so watch out for that.

Also, if you want to criticise or hate on TOA, then tag it under 'toa crit' or 'anti toa' because people want to look at things that they like about TOA.

WHY RICK WHY

Rereading BOTL and when Annabeth says the Hera is the one who doesn't belong-

I'm like-

ANNABETH AND PERCY ARE YOU FUCKING DUMB OR WHAT

THIS IS THE QUEEN OF THE HEAVENS. GODDESS OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

ANNABETH WHAT ARE YOU DOING GIRL YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART AND STRATEGIC AND WISE

WHY ARE YOU INSULTING THE QUEEN. THE FUCKING QUEEN. THE ONE GODDESS YOU DON'T WANT ON YOUR BAD SIDE

If that was the real Hera she'd have blasted them to pieces.

Ok maybe not Percy, but definitely Annabeth, and she'd send cows to bother Percy.

Rick what the hell are you doing. Richard what did you do

I’ve been thinking about demigod’s scent and the no phones rule when it comes to piper, frank and leo

out of story, it makes sense why Rick would implement these things. Demigods scents explains how our heroes keep encountering monsters and why camp doesn’t give them a map with the locations of monsters, and the no phones rule means that the characters have to think on their feet and not just Google how to defeat x monster and copying that method

that’s all fine and dandy, until you get to HOO

prior to the beginning of HOO neither of the previously mentioned characters mention encounters with divine monsters, and I just have to ask how?

Both piper and Leo aren’t related to the big 3, but they both have extremely rare and powerful abilities that they were showing from a young age, that surely would have bumped up their scent more than your average demigod. And while Hera did mess with their memories, they seemed to have no issue remembering their backstories so I feel like one of them encountering a monster either before or during wilderness school would have been mentioned when they got to camp

Frank is very distantly related to the big 3 (and while you could argue that because it’s so distant it wouldn’t affect his scent, but I’d argue that his family being blessed with shapeshifting for so long would make them tasty to monsters & being a son of Mars)

I just need an explanation why Annabeth, who has no demigod powers, attracted more monsters at the age seven than piper and Leo did at 15 (when demigods are canonically a lot more on the monster’s radar

sorry if none of this makes any sense

This does make sense, don't worry.

Honestly, the best explanation for your last paragraph I can give is Rick's inconsistency and him not remembering his previously established lore. There are multiple examples of this throughout the series.

I'm don't remember charmspeak, shapeshifting or pyrokinesis bumping up their scents-that's never stated in HOO (if it is, please tell me which book exactly). So that's incorrect.

But you're absolutely correct about them not encountering monsters contradicting previous lore. They're way over twelve years old, and they should definitely have encountered monsters by now, multiple in fact.

You could argue that Leo was on the run, but even then, he was still over twelve and should definitely have encountered monsters, because there are multiple monsters all throughout America and even other countries. They don't need to be around him for a long time before attacking.

Piper doesn't have much of an excuse. She's fifteen, has been to multiple schools and should definitely have encountered multiple monsters by now-as a teacher or a guidance counselor or janitor.

Frank also doesn't really have an excuse-you could argue that his family mansion was protected and his mother and grandmother wanted to protect him, but they couldn't have protected him all the time-he definitely should have encountered at least one monster.

Of course, none of them knew about the mythological world, so their scent would be weaker, but the other demigods who are 12 don't and they're still attacked by monsters. So this argument doesn't count.

In the end, it's just another case of Rick Riordan botching his own writing.

How would you write PJO and HOO?

What makes Percy Jackson so interesting-being set in America-is also what makes it problematic. Any excuse given for moving the Greek Gods out of Greece and to America would have been bullshit, but combining ancient mythological creatures and modern day culture and technology can also be a really funny gag (Rick Riordan can write comedy pretty well).

I do think that it could be set in Greece and still be interesting, though, so if I rewrote PJO, I'd do a lot of research and set it in Greece and I wouldn't make fun of the culture. Also I would add the children of Greek immigrants.

I'd definitely get rid of the weird sexism surrounding Aphrodite's daughters and cabin in the books.

I wouldn't make Artemis and her Hunt hate men, I'd make them be clueless about men and turn it into a comedy (men do THIS? No wonder you're so behind! We in the wild do [something completely absurd and simply undoable in modern say society that can be done in her Hunt because it's timeless and in the wild] Far superior).

If I could rewrite HOO, I'd get rid of all the sexism and racism entirely. The characters could actually travel over the world and it would be more impactful to focus on how pollution is affecting the world.

OR, to make it an entertaining and intriguing fictional series-FOCUS ON THE POLITICS. HOO is supposed to be for older audiences, for teenagers, right? Well, plenty of people get into politics at 15-16, so focus on introducing them to politics! See my post here (it's not fully finished but it's better than nothing).