I Honest-to-god Want To Set Up Two Similar, Open-question And Open-structure Interviews With Rick Riordan,

I just want to say thanks for all of your anti percabeth takes. I never really shipped percabeth and I always felt sort of weird about them but I never realized why until I starting reading your posts. I think Rick is way better at setting up ideas and concepts of a relationships than he actually is at writing them. Like the idea of a Percabeth is great but the execution falls flat. There are so many non-canon Percy ships that have great potential and could be much better than canon Percabeth but this fandom is really against shipping non-canon ships (especially if it involves not shipping Percy and Annabeth)

Thank you! Yes, you are absolutely right-Percabeth's concept is amazing, but in the end, the result is honestly less than desirable. There are many moments between them that do not belong in a healthy couple, much less a golden standard one (though you couldn't make me call Percabeth the golden standard at gunpoint).

Ok, I am once again wondering why Rick didn't just put PIPER in DREW'S PLACE.

Piper could have been the head counsellor of cabin 10-exhausted, burnt out, and she and Silena could have been the ones to have charmspeak, which would give them an extra special bond as the only ones who had it.

And when Piper gets really emotionally intense after the Titan War II, she just uses charmspeak on her cabin members. Of course, she feels guilty afterwards, but they still start to be scared of her.

And this way, we can learn more about what happens at camp, because maybe she could be a year rounder so as not to harm Tristan, but she could still have her trauma from her younger days.

Just another example of wasted potential in PJO, which is surprisingly easy to come by.

MY THEORY ON WHY HEROES OF OLYMPUS WAS TERRIBLY WRITTEN

So I was searching up Rick's book's publishing dates and I've found something interesting-

TLT was published on June 28, 2005.

SOM was published on April 1, 2006. This is just 10 months including the final draft and rereading it again and again and finally publishing it, so it must have been a little rushed, hence perhaps why many people say that it wasn't the best book in the series.

TTC was published on May 1, 2007. This is over a whole year.

BOTL was published on May 6, 2008. This is a whole year.

TLO was published on May 5 2009. This is a whole year.

Now I want you to keep in mind that these were thin books, thinner than the HOO books, which were hella thick.

TLH was published on October 12, 2010.

SON was published on October 2, 2011. This is a little less than a whole year and likely a very rushed process, especially for such a thick book.

MOA was published on October 12, 2012.

HOH was published on October 8 2013.

BOO was published on October 7, 2014.

Rick was churning out books THESE THICK in one year max. He had also just finished a series before this, and with how well Percy Jackson was received, was most likely under immense pressure to write a better series this time.

Hang on now. There's more.

The Red Pyramid from the Kane Chronicles was published on MAY FOURTH, 2010. And The Lost Hero was published on OCTOBER TWELFTH 2010.

Rick wrote and published The Red Pyramid in less than a year, then wrote and published The Lost Hero a few months after that.

The Throne of Fire (the second book) was published on May 3, 2011. SON was released in the same year.

And finally, the Serpent's Shadow was published on May 1, 2012. And MoA was published on October 2, 2012.

This means that Rick was writing The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus AT THE SAME TIME.

And considering how fast he released those books, one a year after the other, it's likely that he had tons of deadlines to meet, which pressured him too much.

And if we take how well the Kane Chronicles are written to how poorly the majority of HOO was, I think that Rick was more focused on writing The Kane Chronicles.

And considering that loads of people say that House of Hades was the best book in HOO, I think that the pressure was lifted from Rick and that he was able to write a better book after finishing The Kane Chronicles.

My take on why HOO was so terrible was that-

Rick was writing this series after releasing a massively successful, bestselling first series. There was going to be tremendous pressure on him to write an even better second one.

Rick was writing another series at the same time that he wrote HOO, which was why his attention was so divided.

HOO and TKC books were released barely a year after the ones before them came (May and October of every year).

This happens with Magnus Chase and The Trials of Apollo too, though both are nicely written unlike HOO (with some exceptions, because there always are, unfortunately).

Not to get political or anything, but is anyone else wondering how our beloved fictional characters would react to everything that's going in America and consequently the rest of the world right now?

You know, it frustrates me to NO END that Rick keeps churning out these useless novels when he has two goldmines in Percy Jackson.

Said goldmines are-

a) MORTAL PARENTS IN PJO?

And I'm not talking about the Seven's parents and Reyna's and Nico's.

I'm TALKING about Dionysus and his two children Castor and Pollux. What about their mother? Who is she? How did Dionysus get to know her when he was at CHB? Did he date her before or after his punishment? He does say that he has a century to complete before he can go back to Olympus..........

I'm TALKING about Hermes, Travis, Connor and their mother. She must have been REALLY good for Hermes to come back a second time. There's nothing about her. Nothing. Imagine what Rick could write about her?

I'm TALKING about Clarisse La Rue and her mother. Why was Ares attracted to her mother? What is her relationship with her mother? What about Ares, Ms La Rue and Clarisse? Why is Clarisse a year round camper? Is her mother abusive to her? What about Clarisse, Ares and her mother?

I'm TALKING about Drew Tanaka's father. Was Drew born in Japan? Was her father an immigrant? And if she was born in Japan, what kind of discrimination did she face for being a bastard child? What drew Aphrodite to Mr Tanaka?

All wasted potential.

B) WHAT CAMP HALF BLOOD WAS LIKE IN THE EARLY CENTURIES.

All right, go check out THIS LINK.

So I saw ONE amazing post talking about CHB before and during WW2 that my stupid self did not like for some reason. If any of you know where it is, please link me to it.

Aaaaaaaaaand that's it. No one is exploring this absolutely unused potential, least of all Rick. Huh. WHY IS THE PJO FANDOM SO BORING-

If you know tumblr posts that talk about CHB in the early centuries, please send them to me.

A potential reason for why Rick didn't make Ares love his children, and an explanation for why he should have

So, in the PJO series, Rick makes Ares hate his children. Or, if not hate, at the very least ignore them and be abusive to them like all the other gods.

And I've always found this an odd choice, because in the myths, Ares really loved his children more than the other gods. He killed his daughter's rapist, who was a son of Poseidon, whom we also know loved his children, and so of course Ares probably knew that Poseidon would retaliate, right? And Poseidon is more powerful than Ares and he could definitely hurt him if he wanted to.

And Ares still kills Poseidon's son anyway, because he raped his daughter Alcippe, knowing that he would most likely be punished for this and he still does it. That just speaks volumes of love when he could've ignored his daughter for his own safety.

He also gives Hippolyta a magical belt that makes her stronger because she's the best out of all the Amazons, implying his pride about it.

He tries to avenge his son Cycnus when Heracles slays him-and Cycnus DESERVES IT, he literally stole Apollo's sacred grove and his offerings, and Ares still tries to avenge his death (they were even riding chariots together when Heracles encountered them, do what you will with that).

And a lot of people say that Rick made Ares neglect his children for the sake of the plot, but here's my counter argument-

Rick should've made Ares love his children TO STRENGTHEN PERCY'S BELIEF IN FIGHTING FOR THE GODS.

Imagine not knowing if you're even fighting on the right side. Imagine wondering if Kronos really was right, does your godly parent care about you?

And then imagine seeing Ares come down and talk to his children and encourage them.

And you're envious that they get to see their parent and you don't, but you also feel that fighting spirit come into you. This man, right here, he's showing that the gods can change, that they're not all bad, that there's something worth fighting for on their side.

(Also cue the angst and comedy of Ares and Percy hating each other and Ares being a good parent to his kids and actually being there for them while the whole Poseidon and Percy shebang goes on).

This is probably super late but, Ares is portrayed as sexist and abusive in PJO but he is the only god who hasn’t raped anyone, and he was a great father which you can see when he killed his daughter’s r@pist.

Don't worry how late it is, anon, just send it. I'll respond to it.

AND YES. YES THAT IS WHAT I'M SAYING.

I mean, Percy could have had a great moment in which he acknowledged that his father was less than perfect and bad at times, but no-he had to mock Ares for defending his daughter and say that it would have been awesome if Poseidon had beaten Ares.

I am shaking my head in disbelief. Rick has a hate boner for Ares, I'm sure.

We know that Vivienne, Jude and Taryn left when they were 10 years old-about the same time that Madoc courted and married Oriana.

Do you think that they left home because of this very reason? It's canon that they were worried about it, because Madoc might send them away, so it's a real possibility.

I wonder how he reacted when they ran away and then came back.

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.

We ruined Demeter and Persephone's relationship.

The thing is, Demeter and Persephone had a beautiful relationship. And modern pieces that depict Greek culture simply just……….ruin it. Lore Olympus, Percy Jackson, Blood of Olympus, Hades even. It's disheartening that we're so misogynistic that we can't just let a mother and daughter love each other without complications or trauma. No, we have always have to make Demeter the controlling, overprotective, helicopter mother and Persephone the rebel daughter. It's disgusting, frankly, and I would love to see a piece of media where they simply have a loving, functional relationship.