Latest Posts by bassiascoparia - Page 3

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.

Happy Ides of March!

Percy doesn't deserve godhood-not because he's too weak for it, but because it's too horrible a thing to wish upon him.

He's already gone through so much-why would anyone give him another catastrophe to deal with?

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.

Of course she's not a lifeless strategy making machine! She's so much more than that. It's a shame how she's reduced to some cold-hearted girl when she's often the opposite in the books. Flanderisation and misogyny at work again.

Your point regarding her history and trauma is valid.........I think that this is a case of respectfully agreeing to disagree.

I think that something interesting to do would be to have her realise that Percy's powers WERE useful while maintaining her discomfort and having her explore this.......this isn't really a response to your reblog, just my thoughts on how it could be more interesting.

I think I do vaguely remember Piper saying that Percy was dangerous and disliking him, though it's been sometime since I've read the books so I could be wrong about that. I'll search for it later.

If I'm being honest, I'm not sure if Annabeth actively wants to control him, but there are a lot of moments in their relationship that aren't very healthy. Percy is scared of her at times (at the beginning of TLO, in the Staff of Hermes, in the TKC and PJO crossover-he literally said that he had a healthy fear of her) and she herself said that she likes to 'keep him on his toes' which is not healthy at all, so I think my assumption is coming from there.

No offense meant! I'm glad you don't any. It feels like I come off as rude sometimes when I really don't mean to.

you'd think that Annabeth would be grateful for the many times Percy saved her life in Tartarus (falling after her, slowing their descent with the river, killing Arcahne, guiding her when she was blinded, scaring off Akhys, carrying her over the river in Nyx's mansion and protecting her at the doors of death) but nooo she's too angry about the fact that he scared her - by being strong enough to protect her :/

Annabeth's gut punch isn't toxic or abusive per se, but in the larger context of their relationship, it's just another incident and showcase of her toxicity towards Percy.

You did NOT just compare Annabeth and Gabe to each other.

I swear to god you anti Percabeths are the dumbest, most incomprehent people I've ever met. I seriously think you should just kys honestly the world would be a better place off without you.

No I don't think it's wrong you're anti Percabeth so yeah

I did, in fact, compare Annabeth to Gabe!

I don't think that Annabeth is as bad as Gabe (nope nope nope) but I do think that she's very toxic and that she hurts Percy. I think that they need to break up and heal alone. Her lack of character growth is very frustrating.

The lack of specificity in your death threat is annoying. If you do want me to kill myself, you're going to have to be more particular-the necessary tools, how long it'll take, how painful it'll be, etc. I take painless methods only.

I do think that not much would be changed in the world if I killed myself, but it would probably be a somewhat worse off place without me because I have people who love and care for me and I'm not doing anything bad to the world, so there's that.

When I came into this fandom, people told me that Percabeth stans would be rabid and hateful, and I don't think that's the case for the majority of them, seeing as that period already passed and they seem more mature now (or maybe it's just Tumblr) but you seem to be an exception. I wonder if you're the same anon as last time? I'll never know.

In any case, I'd like to thank you for your use of better grammar than the last one, though your not adding a period at the end of the last sentence irks me. I'd also prefer it if you didn't use the abbreviation of kys and said kill yourself. I dislike it when people use bad grammar, though that's just a personal preference.

Your morality is interesting-I forget the exact term for it, but you think it's bad to tell your side to kill themselves but have no problem telling the opposite side to kill themselves just because..............they're your enemies. Which is a terrible reason. Not surprising from a hardcore Percabeth stan, though.

I don't tend to think of people whom I disagree with as automatically bad people-that is a very harmful mentality to have. I have fought with some people, but they're not bad people-we just disagree on certain things and I know that they produce great content and have good morals just like me. Please adopt this mentality and the world will be slightly better, because every change is a change, no matter how big or small.

Anyway, I will be the bigger person and I hope that you sleep well tonight! Au revoir!

I've seen this post before, and I wanted to argue against it.

Now, bear in mind that this is supposed to be a friendly debate and I don't want to offend you.

With that being said, let's look at the bullies that Percy's called out.

The teachers and students who bullied him at his old schools for his learning disabilities, Nancy Bobofit, Gabe, Dionysus, Tantalus, Ares, Hades (yeah he qualifies, he made Percy feel bad and Percy stood up to him. Go Percy, boss moment honestly) Clarisse, Matt Sloan and his gang.

These are people that Percy heavily dislikes (well, Clarisse is an exception, but at the time she bullied Percy, he heavily disliked her.) This makes it easier to call out their bullshit.

Annabeth is someone he likes. It's difficult to call out the bullshit of people that you like-very rarely can people can do this.

And we're forgetting that Percy's fatal flaw is loyalty. He's loyal to the people he loves and blind to their flaws, so he is the exact opposite of a person who'd be fair with both their friends and enemies.

Take Sally Jackson, for example. Sally herself admitted that she was selfish and kept Percy with an abuser so as not to be attacked by monsters instead of dropping him off at Camp where he would have been safer, especially with Poseidon's influence. Logically speaking, Percy should have resented her for this a little bit, right?

Now, for the morons who'll come to this conclusion, I am not saying that Sally Jackson is the devil incarnate. She was a struggling single mother stuck in between a rock and a hard place-there was no completely good option for her to choose here.

But she still chose to marry an abuser to keep Percy and herself safe. She knowingly married him knowing that he'd make Percy's life terrible and that Percy would be affected by this. This was definitely not a good choice on her part and it doesn't make her a good person (though she still is a good person, just not as good as one would make her out to be).

But Percy doesn't even think about this-he just idolises her (understandable, considering the circumstances, but still) and he never thinks about the situation from this point of view.

And Grover in Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Percy calls him out, but Percy later feels guilty for the stupid reason of Grover thinking he's going to be lonely when they (Percy and Annabeth) go to college, which is why Grover almost ruined the quest. Percy literally says that he should have been thinking about what Grover felt (Grover, who is responsible for his own self, Percy is not responsible for Grover) instead of, you know, thinking about himself and his future.

This is complete malarkey. It's a terrible reason for Grover's terrible actions. And what does Percy do?

He shoves it down, takes the blame, forces himself to be calm even though he should rage. This is another example of Percy not wanting to call someone's bullshit out because they're a loved one.

And Percy loves Annabeth. She's his friend, she went on his first quest with him, she's saved his life and she has a lion's share in his view of the mythological world since she was pretty much the first demigod that he really knew (discounting Luke who left after the first book).

All of this makes it pretty difficult for him to call out her bullshit-especially when she hates being called out on her bullshit, which she does.

Of course, he called out her bullshit during TLT and SOM regarding himself and Tyson respectively, but this is when they're not really friends. In the later books, where they're better friends and he likes her more, he doesn't do it.

And also, Percy has called Annabeth out on her bullshit, but she doesn't listen to him, so he becomes resigned to it.

Her calling him Seaweed Brain? He says that he's gotten used to it in TTC, meaning that he didn't like it but she didn't stop, so he just became used to it.

He says in TLO that he wanted to argue with Annabeth regarding his cabin inspection marks, but no good would come of it, so he just resigned himself to his marks.

He says that he wouldn't argue with her because she would beat him up.

Annabeth yells at Percy and blames him for leaving even though they both know that he was kidnapped. Does he call her out on this, tell her that she was wrong? No.

Annabeth makes Percy feel scared every time she brings up Rachel. This makes Percy feel bad and he does not call her out on it.

All of these are examples of Annabeth not listening to him and bulldozing her way over his protests, so he becomes resigned to it.

That's a common abusive tactic that I've experienced myself-don't listen to the victim and bulldoze your way over them until they become silent and resigned.

Now, I don't want to go so far as to call Annabeth abusive, but she is definitely pretty toxic towards Percy at times. I know that she loves him, I'm not denying that, but you can love someone and be toxic towards them.

Again, I don't want to be disrespectful and I respect your opinions. I'm just providing valid arguments as to why I think your statement was wrong.

when you say that percy is stuck in an abusive relationship with annabeth, you are not only insulting annabeth, you are erasing one of percy's best character strengths: how he is NOT afraid to call out people's nonsense and stand up against bullies no matter how bad or insecure they make him feel

Am I the only one indifferent to Percabeth who doesn't ship Percy with anyone?

There are blogs that love Solangelo and Percabeth

There are blogs that hate Solangelo and Percabeth

There's a blog that likes Percabeth and hates Solangelo

Now find me a blog that loves Solangelo and hates Percabeth and my life will be complete

I honest-to-god want to set up two similar, open-question and open-structure interviews with Rick Riordan, one with a girly WOC and another with a straight cis white man to study the results of both.

I think that Sophie Foster should finally die so she can get some much needed peace and quiet.

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

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

Have you ever received any death threats?

So, just curious to know, have any other anti Percabeths ever received any death threats?

You don't have to answer if you don't want to, just asking.

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!

One thing I feel that isn't talked about enough is that Athena helps Penelope by giving her sleep.

Some of you probably don't think that that's anything that's worthy of attention, but that's just not true. What Athena did for Penelope was amazing.

Do you know how torturous it is to toss around and constantly worry about something? Especially what Penelope was worried about?

Do you know how relieving it is to just go to sleep and banish these worries from your mind, at least for a short while?

It's absolutely wonderful. Athena was so sweet for giving Penelope sleep when Penelope was extremely distressed. It's a great example of a woman helping another woman that people should use more.

Thank you for this criticism of my post. It's helped me a lot.

I'm embarrassed at the way I thought that Hellenistic Pagans only worshipped Greek Gods and I apologise for that. I've changed my post to correct that.

I've also deleted the part about Jews. I was only stating facts, but I see how you think I used them as canon fodder to appeal to my audience. Your irritation is valid.

I also get your point about how the gods were not only and never Greek and their creation and being passed down.

I never stated that Rick was only allowed to use one version of a myth in my original post, I only criticised the way he rewrote the myths and expressed my annoyance. I never intended to say that there was a correct or canon version of mythology, but I see how I might have fallen into that trope.

But the rest of your post is wrong.

They are quite literally saying that Americans own Greek Gods out in the open on Twitter. I said so in my original post.

The way Rick Riordan justified the Greek Gods was saying that without Westernisation, there is no culture, only chaos and darkness, and it is extremely racist to non-Western countries. I have every right to criticise that. I should have made this clearer in my original post, which I will edit to reflect this, and I'm also stating it here.

I'm not saying that non-Greeks can't write about Greek Gods, but there's a line between respectfully writing about them and disrespectful, and Rick Riordan has definitely crossed that line.

In the original myth, Hephaestus tried to rape Athena and she only defended herself from him. Rick is allowed to rewrite that, but the way he writes it is that Hephaestus is a sad, pathetic man who only wants a girlfriend and Athena is terrible for not comforting him when she just doesn't want to deal with Hephaestus' nonsense.

That reeks of using 'nice guys' and putting girls down for just not wanting to be a guy's participation prize rebound. Hephaestus literally got up on her and ejaculated on her thigh. That's a severe violation of boundaries. Athena had every right to be disgusted and defend herself. And even in PJO, Hephaestus keeps bothering her when she doesn't want to deal with his BS and he actually buries his face in her thigh. Athena had every right to kick him away.

As someone who didn't want to deal with a nice guy like that and got put down for it when I was just tired of dealing with his bullshit, I'm angry about that, and I rightfully can be.

I took comfort in this story knowing that I could try to fight off someone if they try to rape me, just like Athena. I looked up to her for this, and reading Rick's rewrite was extremely aggravating. People like me-and trust me, there are hundreds just like me-have every right to criticise it.

I did say that he was allowed to portray the Greek Gods however he liked in the name of creative license and I stand by that, but I'm also allowed to criticise his portrayal of them and how he rewrites the myths.

Athena is an unmarried virgin goddess for a reason. Her domains are strategic warfare, wisdom, intelligence etc. If she falls in love with men and has children with them, she can no longer be a goddess of those domains, because love would cloud her judgement.

Athena wouldn't randomly dump a child onto a man without preparing him to raise it and form it without asking him for consent. It's cruel, and she has no reason to be cruel. Other gods might do this, but not Athena-she's the goddess of wisdom.

She knows better than to do what she did in Percy Jackson, so it doesn't make sense for her to do such a thing. She would only do it if she wanted to be cruel, and she doesn't want to be cruel to Frederick and her other lovers. Why would she?

The way Percy subtly dropped comments about Athena that were malicious and also unnecessary shows us Rick's dislike for her. When Athena says that she has a plan for a fair competition between her and Poseidon for the honour of being the patron of Attica, Percy says that it was typical and she always had some sneaky idea. There's literally nothing sneaky about this-it's just another malicious comment designed to subtly turn us against her.

I'm not saying that there's a canon basis in Greek Mythology that Rick Riordan has to use. He can use whichever version of a myth that he likes. But like I said before, there's a line between being respectful and disrespectful when portraying the Greek Gods, and Rick ran over it long ago.

People who worship Greek Gods sacrifice a portion of their food in honour of the gods. Rick Riordan turns this into something that they're required to do and they don't like. In his show, he says that the gods like the smell of begging-that is, the children sacrifice the food to the gods so that they can get attention.

This isn't true. People sacrificed food to the gods to honour them. By turning this sacred practice into a derogatory begging ritual, Rick dishonours it. It's not ok.

He divorces the Greek gods from their homeland using the racist excuse of flame of the Western Civilisation and also says

Rick Riordan also used WW2 as a rhetorical prop and a plot device just to justify why the Big 3 couldn't have kids anymore. He literally made Greek Gods of an ancient culture the fathers of people who caused one of the most horrible wars on Earth. His books said that Hades was the father of Hitler and he only changed it later to avoid backlash.

Using ancient gods from an ancient culture to blame for GODDAMN WORLD WAR TWO? I'd say that's pretty fucking disrespectful.

There are multiple people other than me who are angry about this, especially Greek people, because it's the ultimate insult to them to make their gods be the fathers of their enemies, that too ones who caused WW2? Nope.

Listen, I'm really sorry if I offended you and I understand that some of my takes in this post were incorrect and I've changed them. However, I'm also criticizing Rick on his portrayals which I am allowed to do.

My last message is to emphasise that Percy Jackson is not part of Greek mythology and Rick Riordan is not a source of information on mythology like Homer or Hesiod or Apollodorus are and I'd like people to recognise this. They wrote their writings with respect to the gods and culture in mind, and he didn't do this.

Do not equate Rick Riordan or his works with the poets and playwrights of Ancient Greece.

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

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.

Apollo WOULD NOT let Will go to Tartarus

I don't know if Apollo made an appearance in TSATS, but if he did, he was probably butchered too, because Apollo WOULD NOT let his children go to Tartarus.

If he heard what Will and Nico were up to, he'd kidnap them and put them safely in his sun palace. He'd be like, 'OH MY GOD. NO YOU'RE NOT GOING. LEAVE THIS TO ME.'

He'd try to talk to Hades about rescuing Bob, but if he learnt that Hades was the one who sent the message?

Boy oh boy....................RUN FOR COVER.

Los Angeles wouldn't just have an earthquake, it would be decimated entirely. Apollo would not hold back, not even if Hades was one of the Big Three. Multiple gods would have to intervene, probably.

'WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SENT YOUR OWN CHILD TO TARTARUS YOU ABSOLUTE (REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED). AND MY SON WAS GOING TOO? YOU LITTLE (REDACTED)-'

Apollo would not let Will or Nico go Tartarus. No way in hell.

If the Real Greek Gods met their PJO counterparts, WW3 would definitely happen.

Artemis is supposed to be the protector of young girls, not trick them into joining an eternal hunting/death cult, take them to witness wars and punish them if they want to leave. She would not isolate them from society and freeze their biological development. She would not kick lesbians out of the hunt. If Real Artemis met PJO Artemis, she'd hunt her down ruthlessly and slaughter her as painfully as possible.

If Real Zeus met PJO Zeus, he'd be throwing him into Tartarus. What do you mean you're a bumbling, incompetent king that can't be bothered to take care of his own kids and doesn't let the others see them? Tartarus for you, asshole!

If Real Apollo met PJO Apollo, I think that he'd be disappointed. Kind of mad, but mostly disappointed. Apollo seems to be a good dad, but he's still vain and narcissistic when Real Apollo isn't really like that.

If Real Hades met PJO Hades, he'd be roaring at him for breaking justice by sending monsters after a twelve year old girl for no fault of her own just because of what her father did to his lover. He'd be screaming at the way Hades sent his son down into Tartarus of all places for no good reason. Honestly Hades would also throw PJO Hades into Tartarus.

If Real Hera met PJO Hera, she'd be disgusted by her. Liking perfect families only? Beefing with literal children who aren't even Zeus' bastards? Leaving a hero to wander the streets when said hero saved Olympus? No gratitude at all? No, honey, straight into Tartarus for you too.

If Real Ares met PJO Ares.........oh boy, the fight would destroy most of New York, I should think. It would kill millions of people and animals. Real Ares would be rearing to rip PJO Ares apart.

If Real Athena met PJO Athena, she'd be horrified at how Athena treated her lovers and children. She would literally fight her and make her swear on the Styx to never dump babies on men without their consent. Actually, she'd use her wits to throw PJO Athena into Tartarus.

I'm thinking about Justin Duarte seeing Madoc and immediately deciding to cut him down with an axe.

He didn't even try to apologise and talk it out. Of course, he thought Madoc would be angry and though that killing him would do the trick, but did he literally consider the fact that his daughters were there at the time? Did he actually think that Madoc was so dangerous that killing him right in front of 3 little girls was better than trying to talk it out and apologise?

Of course, we know Madoc's an honourable person, but Eva and Justin did dishonour him by pretending to die and then running away with Madoc's child, no less (Though Eva and Justin were also her parents. They raised her for 9 years).

Did Justin really think that Madoc was so angry that he'd kill both of them right there and then in front of 3 little children even if he tried to talk it out?

Eva was already talking with Madoc. Madoc hadn't killed her yet. Did Justin think that Madoc would be angry enough to kill him if he saw him (Justin) because Madoc loved Eva, but he didn't love Justin?

Did he not think at all because everything happened so fast? Did he not think it out properly because the whole sequence of events was too rushed?

We get to know Madoc, but it's through Jude's perception, and that's very different from Eva and Justin's perception. How did Justin and Eva see him? What stories did they hear? How did his interactions with them view their perception of him?

I really wish that Holly expanded on their relationships, because it would make this scene much more interesting.

What are your thoughts?

There's one thing I'm curious to know-

Did the Ancient Greeks view their gods as moral paragons?

Because they did weird stuff, but it was supposed to be symbolic of their nature, and anyway, society had different standards back then so what they did wasn't looked upon as bad.

So did they aspire to be like the gods in terms of morality?

No offense, just a question from me. Sorry if this is odd in any way.

@margaretkart

@katerinaaqu

There are, in fact, people who would bring the sky down for their platonic friends.

Romance is not ABOVE friendship and platonic relationships. It exists on the same level, just in a different color/shape/flavor. People need to stop saying, 'Let's take our relationship to the next level' when talking about romance. Seriously, let's not act like friendship and other relationships outside of romance aren't important.

I’m gonna say it - practically everything Nico ever did getting retconned as “because he had a crush on Percy” is some of the most amatonormative shit I’ve seen in my entire life.

True words. True words.

It's extremely annoying that many people think that a person would move mountains and do impossible things only for someone whom they love romantically. This is just not true.

There are people who would do this for their friends. Menelaus said that he would drive out the people of an entire kingdom just so that Odysseus could come and rule there with his people, and he didn't like Odysseus romantically.

It seems that Rick Riordan cannot for the life of him put platonic relationships before romance-or rather, he can't do this without involving a virginity oath. His heteronormativity is crystal clear when you take a critical look at his books and Nico and Leo's unnecessary romantic relationships.

Holy shit! Are you okay.

I’m so sorry that happened. That Stan is deplorable

Ah, don't worry. I'm completely fine. Thanks for asking, though!

I was surprised, but I didn't really give much thought to it.

Why do people dislike Piper for calling Percy unimpressive?

There's nothing wrong with it. She didn't say that she hated Percy and she didn't slander him. She simply found him unimpressive. That's it.

Characters are allowed to not like Percy. They're allowed to not care about him. They're allowed to not find him handsome.

Stop hating Piper for that.

Bianca di Angelo DID NOT KNOW.

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.

It's been a little while but I want to know : have you read the Bacchae now ? If yes, what's your opinion on it 👀 ?

(yes it's an excuse to start a discussion on this play)

I'm busy with personal stuff, so I haven't read all of the Bacchae yet.

I did however start reading it but had to stop because I'm busy, sorry haha.

However, if you and other people want to discuss it on this post, go right ahead!

I'll read it in a few months and get back to you :D

part 2 of my ask about demigod scents and technology because the previous one would be too long and disorganised otherwise

Anyway:

I highly doubt that Piper, the teenaged daughter of a famous Hollywood movie star, had 0 access to phones growing up. I could see Tristan blocking certain social media apps to try and protect her (cause people are gross online to teenage girls and I don’t think he’s that incompetent of a parent to not care, especially as his fame grew). It meshes well with her backstory as well - Jane/ another assistant/ Tristan himself could’ve handed Piper a phone and expect that to fix her need for parental attention that wasn’t purely monetary, especially since Tristan wouldn’t’ ve known about demigods not being safe near phones

Frank could’ve not been allowed a phone due to his grandmother knowing about the Poseidon ancestry (if I remember right), but he also had the most normal childhood compared to the rest of the 7, as he likely went to a regular school (I remember he mentions participating in spelling bees), so he would’ve been around them for a good chunk of the day

Maybe consistency with his own worldbuilding is too much to ask from Rick anymore

This-all of this. You're right. Frank's grandmother could not be around him and protect him all the time. He would have used some technology-he would have encountered some monsters.

I wish we knew if he was homeschooled or went to normal school. We don't even know that much about his pre-CJ life.

You know that meme where an angry-looking guy yells at his employees for ideas and then he throws the third guy out of the window for suggesting something he doesn't like?

That's Rick and his consistency respectively.