Honestly... Words Can Not Describe How Much Rick Riordan's Books Have Meant To Me And Continue To Mean

Honestly... words can not describe how much Rick Riordan's books have meant to me and continue to mean to me, including the man himself.

He's not performative about his allyship, and it shows in his books. These vast fantastical worlds of gods and monsters and mythology and adventures, with characters who just ARE without the narrative focusing on their identities, if you feel me. A hijabi valkyrie, a gay demigod, a trans viking, a jewish legionaire in the most recent book. Immigrants and third culture kids and the blatant bisexuality of the major Greek god Apollo, not to mention the depiction of kids with ADHD and dyslexia as their own brand of heroes that modern society just refuses to see. And uncle Rick handles it so well; he acknowledges the pain and hardships that these things evoke in a euro-centric world, but the pain is never who they are, and they always rise above it, and it's always depicted as these beautiful parts of these characters that make up a part of their complex 3-dimensional personalities. Apollo's attraction to everyone regardless of gender in ToA is described with sophisticated opulence in flashbacks to his godly days and now he's a blushy fumbling pubescent teenager. When Magnus asks Sam how she juxtaposes her faith with being a valkyrie for Norse gods, she tells him that it reinforces her faith because it shows her how wonderfully complex and beautiful Allah's world is. Frank Zhang in the HoO series explores what it's like to have one's cultural heritage clash with their cultural upbringing, and the issues that immigrants face in the west, combined with his own issues of inferiority and self-doubt implied to stem from these factors, and yet he zoomed through the ranks to the very top faster than anyone the legionaires had ever seen before.

And Alex? Alex is special to me. Alex was the first transgender character I encountered that wasn't trauma porn for cis people, and it made me realize how bad our representation is in the media. I kept waiting for the ball to drop, for some sort of "hoohoo actually it's a phase/actually they're evil/actuALLY-" narrative to play out, but it never did. No one questions their genderfluidity, and I thought making them a shapeshifter was brilliant. My own and a lot of other trans folks' fantasies have involved making ourselves shapeshifters so we could take charge of our own perceptions, and Alex lives out our power fantasy.

Because that's what Rick's characters are. In a world where the media tells us we're inferior and that our lives are nothing but hardship and trauma, Rick said "I disagree. Also, fuck you" and gave us all power, respect, prestige, healing, happiness, longevity, prosperity, and everything in between in his world of fantastical adventure and mythical trial. And I'm so, so happy that kids of these walks of life today get to see themselves respresented in a way that I never got to. Because if I had Alex to see myself reflected in, I wonder if I would have felt as isolated and alone as I did. I wonder if I had been able to cope at least a little bit better.

I know they're kids books, I know they're written on a lower reading level than what I'm capable of, but they'll always have a special place in my heart, and I'll never stop reading them. Because Rick Riordan really is the ally and pseudo-mentor that I wish I had.

More Posts from Pomegranateworlds and Others

pomegranateworlds

6 years ago

Alright. So, how do I explain this

My country is deeply controlled and manipulated right now. There is anti-lgbt propaganda everywhere you look, from giant banners in the streets, flyers, to adds on the internet and most tv channels.

I’m from Romania. One of the poorest countries in Europe. It is deeply christian, on the orthodox side, and the church now has control over the political and social situation. Our “politicians” are so corrupt they are making laws to make corruption legal, looking out for their friends who already got into delux prisons and hoping they won’t get there as well.

A few years ago, the church created this “union”, and they named themselves “Coaliția pentru familie”. In english it means “The Coalition for the Family”. They have created a series of rules, and these include

1. Writing in the Constitution that marriage can only be between a man and a woman (because i suppose it wasn’t clear enough in their opinion), and making it so it can never be changed.

2. Making abortion illegal. No matter whether it was from rape, incest, or if it meant the death of the mother or/and the child.

3. Making any contraceptive means illegal.

4. Stop women from going to work, making them dependable on their male counterparts/family members. And no, i’m not exaggerating that is actually what they wrote

5. Honestly there are so many more these are just at the top of my head

And, in 2016, the Coalition got approx 3 million votes.

Now, i’m not saying that they faked the votes. They (probably) didn’t. However, i know that most people probably didn’t even know what they were signing. They went in churches and made people vote. My grandmother doesn’t know how to read or write; all she knows is how to make a signature. She goes to church and i wouldn’t be surprised if they made her and people like her vote for things they really don’t understand.

Moving back to 2018. The political situation in Romania is….

Horrible.

On the 10th of August, there was a protest the diaspora organised. They came from countries all around the world back in romania to protest against the horridly corrupt government. The gov got the gendarmerie involved, and so over 450 people got into hospitals, some of them even in critical condition. And nobody is answering, moving the blame from themselves to the protesters themselves. And, amongst all this misery and conflict, in order to distract the people, they decided to have a refferendum. Against gay marriage.

The refferendum is asking whether they should change the constitution in the way the Coalition wants to or not. It costs over 45 million euros, and it’s going to be in 2 different days, 6 and 7 of october. It is very illegal. They complain that it’s not clear enough, but if that were the case it would mean that

a. Gay marriage is already legal, therefore they are depleting people from human rights

b. It’s not legal, making this whole thing absolutely useless.

This is only the beginning. There is no way we can win; the population is still deeply homophobic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, etc etc whatever you can think of, it is. But if this thing passes, then the other “laws” will have a chance too. And so, we’ll be moved back in the eighteenth century.

There is propaganda everywhere, especially in the big cities. These are just a small portion of them:

This internet add hurts a lot. 1918 is a very important year in our history, as it was the year we were able to unify Romania, and it is seen as the wish our people had for hundreds and hundreds of years, and so many people died for that dream. And now, they’re comparing this piece of shit of a refferendum with our nation’s only goal?? On the 100th anniversary????

Newspaper propaganda, where they are comparing gay people to fucking nazis

Tv add

They say “protect our kids” but to be honest with you, i feel anything but protected right now

My hands are shaking as i’m writing this. Our only hope is that people will boicot the ref, but many have been told by their priests that if they don’t go vote, they will publicly be shamed.

Here’s a link to an article that probably explains things better than i did

Romania to hold vote on whether to permanently ban gay marriage | The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/romania-gay-marriage-ban-referendum-vote-lgbt-rights-a8541461.html

If anyone has more useful information, like a petition or something, please do not hesitate to add it. The only goal of this post is to bring acknowledgment to people who aren’t from romania, as it seems that nobody knows what is going on. So please, please share.

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pomegranateworlds

4 years ago

Subway surfers raised a generation to say ACAB

1K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

5 years ago

finally

finally. the little dude

77K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

5 years ago

What If Kimetsu No Yaiba Characters Are Actors! 🎬✨ (with A Rare Footage Of The Water Pillar Drowning

What if Kimetsu No Yaiba characters are actors! 🎬✨ (with a rare footage of the water pillar drowning himself in a cup of water)

33K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

5 years ago

they’re both stupid, they’re soulmates

7K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

4 years ago

*gets the megaphone out*

I’D SELL BOTH OF MY KIDNEYS FOR GANGSTA S2

1K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

4 years ago

Daddy 🥵

5K notes View Post

pomegranateworlds

5 years ago

fuck all romance except whatever that shadowhunter bitch and hot warlock had going on

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pomegranateworlds

6 years ago

Also a Huffleclaw!

is everyone in this fandom a hufflepuff?? fanders reblog this and tag your house, i wanna see if there’s anyone who isn’t a hufflepuff since you’re all sweet little rolls

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pomegranateworlds

4 years ago

trans women donation masterlist

aka for every transphobe i had to interact with i found a link to help donate to trans women. you can definitely send me more because i bet im gonna need more.

trans women of color collective

homeless black transwomen (nearly there)

black trans woman transition fund (23k of 50k)

help a trans woman escape yemen (3k of 12k)

save the gully queens of jamaica (45k of 100k)

memorial fund for bree black (3k of 10k)

trans woman of color seeking housing (nearly there)

memorial fund for chyna gibson (4k of 15k donated)

black trans woman gender affirmation fund (20k of 45k)

transition fund (2k of 15k)

medical funds (tw: r*pe) (11k of 20k)

poc trans woman transition fund (5k of 35k)