Hunt Of Artemis - Blog Posts
I think that it would be infinitely funnier if Rick had made Artemis and her Hunt be clueless (also somewhat wary) and have a superiority complex about being separated from men and living in the wild and turn it into a comedy.
'Men do THIS? No wonder you're so behind! We in the wild do (something completely absurd and simply undoable in modern society that can be done in her Hunt because it's timeless and magical and in the wild and she's also a goddess). Far superior.'
HOW RICK PORTRAYS ARTEMIS
Now, before I start on the nasty pile of shit that is Rick Riordan written PJO Artemis (NOT the real one, NEVER the real one) let me give you some links to posts talking about her portrayal in PJO which you should most certainly read.
You should most certainly read these posts-they talk about the subject of this post magnificently. Especially the first one.
THE HUNT OF ARTEMIS IS TERRIBLE AROACE REP
Rick makes her and her hunt aroace and depicts them as radical feminist misandrists.
This is misogynistic and aphobic, as it makes the narrative and by extension the readers think that hey, aroace women actually hate all men, which is not the case for every one of them!
Also, Rick writes Artemis as usually liking to appear as a young girl and never assumes a form older than twenty. And she always appears as a child in PJO. Never any other age. Also, the Hunters are apparently literal CHILDREN who are called immature and misandrist while also being aroace.......hmmmmmm.........aphobic much?
Yeah, do you see how aphobic this is?
People usually view aroace people as childlike and immature due to the fact that they don't want to have sex or romance when they can be just as mature or even more mature than non aroace people.
Also, the two hunters who've left the hunt, Emmie and Jo, are 'growing out of it'. Also, they fall in love and aren't as 'childish' anymore. This implies that aroace people are just 'late bloomers' and 'oh, you'll grow out of it!'
Which is not the case. It's never the case. They never 'grow out of it' because they don't feel attracted to it, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Romance and sex do not determine an adult's maturity. And they sure as hell don't determine Artemis' sexuality.
Also, Artemis kicks wlw hunters out-lesbians being kicked out of a safe space for women just for romantically liking women, does anybody hear this?-and calls romance a plague.
What the hell? Aroace people don't always think like this. And sex and romance are to different things. It's possible to be an asexual lesbian too.
This is lesbophobia, which is awful, because men are often violent towards queer women, so this could have been a good form of rep for queer women-queer female solidarity.
Now, I'm aware that Rick is allowed to portray Artemis as aroace. I'm simply pointing out the aphobic and misogynistic tropes that he fell into.
This isn't the only virgin goddess that Rick has turned into a child. Rick also turned Hestia, a former Olympian in PJO, into a child for no reason, most likely because she is also a willing virgin goddess. This is also extremely aphobic and unnecessary.
Artemis usually appears as a young woman in her statues and paintings. If Rick really wanted to make her young, he could've had her be in her late teens or early twenties. There was no reason to make her look like a child.
Also, the major huntresses of Artemis that we know of-Thalia, Bianca and Zoe-joined because they were traumatised from their past.
Thalia because Luke 'betrayed' her, Bianca because she thought she had to take care of Nico, and Zoe because Hercules also betrayed her. They're all traumatised and are frozen to become eternal children. And Reyna is also heavily traumatised.
Do you see this shit, my liege? This implies that all the aroace people are traumatised and that's why they suddenly become aroace and join the Hunt. Absolute nonsense.
Also, not all Hunters of Artemis are aroace. Taking a vow of virginity is not equal to aroace. I get that you want to have your representation, which is fair, but you need to know this.
PJO ARTEMIS IS CREEPY AND PREDATORY
So, we know from the Titan's Curse that Rick Riordan written PJO Artemis recruits girls between 10 and 14 into her hunt.
She says that girls that are older than 14 usually 'go astray' and 'leave their senses, running after boys all day'.
She makes her huntresses take oaths of virginity and celibacy. Why would anyone make a child take a virginity and celibacy oath?
She recruits girls who are too young to know if they want to date or have sex or grow up and pursue something else instead of just hunting all day.
She calls romance a plague and kicks out all lovers from her Hunt, be it mlm or wlw, which is terrible, because she was a sapphic icon back in the day.
And she promises young girls nice things and twists her word, not actually telling them about the bad things of the Hunt until they're actually in and can't get out again.
Do you know how terrible this is? And how terrible it is for the real Artemis and her worshippers?
This is very predatory-and extremely OOC for Real Artemis. She's the protector of girls-she doesn't take them on monster hunts.
REAL Artemis is the protector of children, especially young girls-she would not freeze them biologically forever and pull them out of their lives and take them on monster hunts, thus harming them and endangering them. She would take young girls into hunt, but she would educate them and train them to defend themselves and only take them on monsters hunts when they were fully mature, consenting adults.
Let me fill you in on info about the REAL Artemis' hunt-
If Real Artemis accepted girls into the hunt, they would age normally, and they weren't immortal. And she wouldn't make them hunt monsters. They'd hang around at camp, dance, sing, pick flowers and worship Artemis, like the original nymphs in the myths, who, by the way, were adults.
Also, Real Artemis' huntresses didn't always stay with her. They stayed for some time and left-actually, being a companion of Artemis was a popular title for heroines of Greek Myths, like Anticlea, mother of Odysseus, who hunted with Artemis when she (Anticlea) was young or Beroe, who was also a hunter before becoming a lover of Poseidon or marrying him.
Real Artemis' followers must be virgins or they cannot join her, but they are free to leave, and after that, they may lose their virginity.
Real Artemis' followers are not immediately granted immortality-they must earn it. Artemis grants Britomartis immortality after the latter jumps off a cliff fleeing from King Minos. In some versions, she turned Iphigenia into a goddess as she was sacrificed for Artemis.
And I get that it was a fun concept for Rick to make Artemis' hunt an immortal sisterhood band-and I'm not saying that it's a bad concept.
I'm just saying that the concept was horribly executed. It's absolutely horrible that the girls are frozen forever in time and never get to grow up and be more mature and educated. It would also help their muscle mass and strength, effectively making them better hunters. I've made another post about this.
And Rick also makes Artemis not interact with men because.......her first few interactions with men failed?
This is hilariously terrible. Oh no, Artemis doesn't like men because apparently a few of them failed her and her interactions with them went terribly wrong, so no men now!
And also, she kicks lesbians out of her hunt.
Read this post. It'll detail all the bad things about my last sentence, and in the meantime-
This is terrible, because Real Artemis was heavily associated with lesbianism back in Ancient Greece or before that. Also, Rick's hunt was supposed to be a safe space for girls. So many little lesbians thought that they'd been seen-only to have Rick throw this back into their face. And you know what's even more horrible? He could've made the hunters ace lesbians, because yeah, you can romantically love women and not want to have sex, it's entirely possible.
PJO Artemis is ultimately 'redeemed' by helping Percy and his friends and voting against his death, but her portrayal in such a popular books series will be an eternal tragedy.
And I've heard some people say that he turned Artemis into a radical feminist because it was popular at the time, and let me tell you-
You don't get to do that. You don't get to use a culturally, religiously and ethically sacred goddess as your experimenting ground for humour and modernity mixed with magic.
You don't just get to ignore all the myths and then reduce a sacred belief and way of life to something so horrible as what Artemis' hunt was in PJO-predatory, creepy, cult-like and abusive.
It isolated girls from the outside world and fed them one source of information.
It tricked them into joining by lying to them, promising them happiness, not telling them about the bad things, and then it did not let them leave when they wanted to, making them regret it eternally.
So many people actually worship this goddess-imagine how horrible they feel about this portrayal.
@fandomloverangel