You know, I've found the fact that Rick Riordan chose to make his main black character, who is also a girl, the youngest demigod of the Seven an odd choice.
Of course, Rick done effed up with Hazel's representation, and this is my critique on her age and why she didn't need to be thirteen.
Hazel Levesque is actually fourteen years old in Son of Neptune. But many readers think that she's thirteen years old because she states that she was thirteen when she died and she never acknowledged that she was fourteen years old.
But if we fit the pieces together-Hazel was thirteen and a half when she died. She came to Camp Jupiter a month before Jason was taken, which meant that by the time Son of Neptune happened, 8 months had passed, making her fourteen years and two months old.
But as I said before, we never get explicit confirmation from Hazel or any other character that she is fourteen, leading most of the readers to think that she is thirteen years old. We must fit the pieces together ourselves.
If Rick himself didn't bother to outright say that Hazel was fourteen, then he must have written the Frazel dynamic to make a 13 year old BLACK girl date a 16 year old boy. Because why wouldn't Rick have Hazel state that she was 14 years old? Why would he just have her state that she was thirteen when she died, but not make her state that she had since turned fourteen? Nothing about her fourteenth birthday?
If he intended to make Hazel fourteen and have us know, then he would have stated that she was fourteen, but he never does, which means that he was actually writing Frazel to be a 13-16 year old dating. Wow. Just.........wow.
In fact, I personally believe that Rick was writing Hazel and Frank to be 13-16 BECAUSE HE LITERALLY HAS HAZEL SAY THAT FRANK IS 3 YEARS OLDER THAN HER. HE NEVER ARGUES AGAINST THIS EITHER.
HAZEL BEING 14 WAS 99.99 PERCENT ACCIDENTAL ON HIS PART.
If there is actually a sentence saying that Hazel is fourteen years old, please tell me and I'll change this post. But I need explicit confirmation.
(And do not get started on that Hazel is confused crap. Rick was confused-Hazel is a fictional character who has no autonomy. If Rick had truly intended her to be fourteen, he would have made her say it at some point in the series.)
All right, I'm going to tell you my thoughts about Frazel. I'm going to summarise my opinions and then elaborate beneath.
1) The Frazel age gap is controversial. Hazel is 13 and a half while Frank is newly 15. It's one and a half year (correct me if I'm wrong, please). While some accept this, to others, it's not a good age gap and the maturity levels are different
2)They feel forced and rushed. We know that they knew each other for 8-9 months, but we don't see this, so it's rushed and forced to us. They skip the pure platonic friendship and jump straight to the romance-the Frazel moments in SON were heavily streaked with romance, not just platonic feelings
3) BEHAVIOURALLY SPEAKING, however they're the best couple in the PJO universe. Better than Percabeth, Caleo, Jiper and Solangelo
4) Frazel could have been one of the top ships of PJO if Rick had made Hazel older and if he had given us more memories and reminiscences of their time at Camp Jupiter
I don't understand why Hazel had to die at thirteen years old. Why not make her die at fourteen or fifteen? It would change nothing except making Frazel acceptable regarding the age gap.
See, Frazel's age gap is controversial. I mean, if Hazel was thirteen and Frank sixteen, it would've been taboo entirely, but since she's fourteen and he's sixteen with a 1 year and few month age gap, some people like it and others don't.
And when scrolling through the Anti Frazel tag, I see that most of the posts have the age gap as their main argument, which further cements the fact that Frazel's age gap is really what makes most people dislike it in the first place.
Technically, if Hazel turned 14 in December and Frank was still 15 but turned 16 in June, this makes their age gap one and a half years, which is very weird to some people but acceptable to others.
Hazel and Frank met at 13 and a half and 15 years old respectively and started to gain feelings for each other, which is very, very odd to some people but ok for others.
But if Hazel had died at 14 and been brought back, then she would have turned 15 in December and would be biologically half a year younger than Frank, which would push it from controversial to acceptable by all.
And in case you're thinking about the Great Prophecy in the OG PJO series, Hazel died before it came out, and she could have died at 14 and it still wouldn't have come out. Hell, she could die at 16 and it wouldn't have come out. It came out after WWII ended which is in 1945, and Hazel would turn 16 in 1944 because she was born in 1928.
2) They're way too rushed.
Ok, we get one book with them, and that too, they've already jumped to the romance. They were friends, but now they both romantically like each other but don't know that the other person likes them.
There's no platonic friendship here, only crushes. And a ship needs to have platonic friendship and development to be a proper ship that's accepted by the fandom, otherwise many readers will think that it's boring.
As I said above, my only bones to pick with Frazel is that I think that the age gap is weird and that they were too rushed. In the end, that's all.
3) BEHAVIOURALLY SPEAKING they are the best couple in the PJOverse hands down. No other ship compares.
All right so Percabeth is toxic. Search it up. Annabeth's behaviour towards Percy is toxic. Search it up. I do not need to tell you, it's too long for this post.
Caleo? I don't need to tell you how Calypso yells at, belittles and hits Leo, thus chipping away at his already crumbling self-esteem.
Jiper? Piper literally claims Jason as hers in front of the entire Aphrodite cabin WHO WILL MOST CERTAINLY TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS without Jason's knowledge or consent. And she's jealous when he brings up another girl, even his sister. And while she may not be physically abusive, she's still manipulative, and that's very bad.
Solangelo? Will Solace victim-blames Nico and literally tells him that he knows what's best for his health even though Nico can and has taken care of himself. There's also jealousy written terribly that's supposed to be a cute moment that never gets resolved.
Frazel, though.........they're behaviourally amazing for each other. No physical, verbal or mental abuse. No dismissing the other's intelligence. They're sweet to each other and aren't possessive of each other.
Of course, Frank gets suspicious when Hedge makes that comment about Hazel and Leo, but the way it was worded was bound to make Frank misunderstand. Also, Frank and Leo make it up and Frank does not use Leo on Hazel like Annabeth uses Rachel and the others on Percy.
Frank understands where they went wrong and accepts it. The others don't.
Of course, they're also a biracial couple where both of them are POC, so this is also a huge win. Best couple in PJOverse is also biracial POC couple. YEEEEEESSSSSSSS (Even if Rick fucked up while representing their ethnicities)
PS: I'm not anti Frazel
I've already said that Percy Jackson's Greek Gods is a terribly book at times and that you shouldn't take it too seriously, but one thing that really appalls and surprises me is that Percy calls Gaia a psycho for telling her children to overthrow Ouranous, who locked Gaia's children and the Titans' siblings in Tartarus.
Ouranous, who hated his children, locked them away in the Earth as a prison, essentially leaving Gaia to raise them, to raise them as a single mother while he did nothing.
Gaia who raised them lovingly and told them how to overthrow their abusive father and free their siblings to have a better fate.
Gaia and her children are overthrowing an abusive, neglectful father and Percy calls this..........psychotic?
This is VERY ironic, considering that Percy and Sally literally murdered Smelly Gabe for being abusive. They overthrew an abusive man, and a decade later, Rick writes a mother who wants to overthrow an abusive father and husband and free her children as insane and psychotic.
Coupling this with how he writes Gaia in HOO...........oh Gaia, wanting to overthrow an abusive father and husband for the sake of your children..........killing an abusive, domineering patriarch who abuses your children and then being demonised for it by another man.........how, oh all the women understand you. Oh, how they suffer too.
Ok, so, the OG PJO series is amazing for a lot of people. I mean, it's almost as famous as Harry Potter for a reason. It has an immersive world which is escapism which is really nice for a lot of people including me..........
But the series could definitely have been rewritten to be better. Such as not making Annabeth hit Percy so often (only playful hits, no so hard) making Ares love his children, making Artemis NOT SO PREDATORY-
But the thing is, even if the series was rewritten to exclude these.........
The very foundation of the Percy Jackson series is problematic.
The foundation of the Percy Jackson series is about overthrowing an abusive system and making the abusers pay attention and listen, and I'm not saying that that's a bad concept. It's actually one of the best concepts, but-
But it's what Rick Riordan used as an abusive system that's really wrong.
He used the Greek gods as abusive parents when in the myths they were the furthest things from it.
Excuse me. Zeus was not an abusive father to Apollo. He genuinely loved him. He only punished him when Apollo needed to be punished and deserved it. Zeus was a loving father to Artemis as well. He gave her what she requested and let her live in the wild as she pleased. Zeus also stopped Athena from practicing divination at Apollo's request. Zeus would not leave two children with an abusive alcholic mother.
Poseidon was not abusive and neglectful. In the myths, he punished Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus. And he let Sciron do as he pleased in the ocean, though Sciron was a terrible person.
Aphrodite frequently came to her son Aeneas' aid on the battlefield of Troy. She loved him very much and even told him to give up LOVE to fulfil his own destiny of becoming a king.
And it also depicts Athena and Hades as having demigod children, when in the myths, Athena has no children at all and Hades is faithful to his wife Persephone, only cheating on her with TWO people in only a few variations of the myths, while other myths have Hades loving Leuce and Minthe before Persephone.
It's problematic for Athena to have demigod children, even brain children, because she was a virgin goddess who had no children in the myths. Ancient Greece associated marriage and having children with losing your virginity.
It was symbolic, so Athena having children, even brain children, makes her lose her virginity.
And about Hades being faithful-he's stated to have had multiple children with women when Persephone goes to her mother, which is why she's so unhappy.
This is incorrect and terribly wrong.
But if Athena and Hades didn't have children, and if the Greek Gods weren't abusive parents, then this series wouldn't exist. These problematic themes are essential to the story, which is why PJO is so problematic itself.
Not to mention the whole 'flame of the West' crap that is a big collective forehead smacking moment.
So even if Percy Jackson could be rewritten, it'll always be problematic in one way or another.
(Not saying that you shouldn't enjoy it. I have a love-hate relationship with it).
You know, one thing that makes me unhappy about Percabeth in WOTTG is that Percy feels like he has to be the perfect boyfriend for Annabeth and feels pressured around her.
Because you shouldn't feel like you have to please your partner all the time. You should be able to relax and be yourself with them. If they're really your partner, they'll accept you, flaws and all. If you're with strangers at a party, uncomfortable, and they walk in, you should be able to light up and relax with them.
The way Percabeth is written, Percy would freak out and stress out even MORE about Annabeth being there because he'd want to impress her too much.
But I'm not blaming Annabeth for this-because I don't know if she knows what Percy's thinking.
Has Percy ever told her that he feels like he has to be the perfect boyfriend for her and always please her? Because if he has, and if she hasn't shot down that ridiculous notion, then it's bad writing on Rick's part-
But if Percy HASN'T told her that, then how can we blame her?
In the end, I blame Rick Riordan and his terrible writing.
But can someone please tell me if Percy ever told Annabeth about wanting to be the perfect boyfriend for her? Has he ever told her about ANY of his insecurities?
Ok, listen-
If there is one thing that is unrealistic about Juno and Jason in PJO, it's that she wanted him to be her champion.
That is one of the most unrealistic things about Hera/Juno. In reality, she would most likely kill Jason painlessly if he was lucky, or she'd kill him painfully if not, or she'd turn him into an animal or something.
She would not take him as a champion. It's explicitly stated that Hera sees her husband's mistresses and bastards as embarassments and threats to her status as Queen Consort. She wouldn't just take one and make him her champion and give her glory.
If we were talking about real Hera/Juno-she wouldn't let Jason survive at all.
Heracles was named after Hera to appease her and it did not work. His name literally meant 'Champion of Hera' and she still cursed him pretty badly. Jason being named after Hera's last champion, who was cast out of her good graces because he did not keep his word of marriage to Medea and offended her, was not going to help him. It was never going to help him.
There's nothing wrong with liking PJO Juno and PJO Jason, just wanted to say this.
Have you noticed how both Percy Jackson and Cardan are often characterised as dumb and Cardan weak because they love their significant others? I think this is some weird sort of misogyny because 'only weak men will love these women' when that's simply not true!
Tell me if I'm crazy lol
You're not crazy. This is a real phenomenon that needs to stop.
The PJO fandom tends to dumb down Percy a lot and hype up Annabeth, when in reality it is Percy who comes up with brilliant strategies and fights very well. It seems to me that people think Percy is foolish and/or impulsive because he doesn't communicate his plans very well.
It's frustrating to read canon PJO and then go to the fandom PJO and see how much Percy is dumbed down. Even canonically, Percy is put down a lot-unfortunately, I think this is because Rick is influenced by the fandom, which he should stop.
In fact, Annabeth would have died without Percy. LOTS of people would have died without Percy.
Thankfully, there are many people who DON'T dumb Percy down, like @cynthiav06, @hermesmyplatonicbeloved and other people-I forgot the blogs, tell me if you want to be tagged.
Check out the blogs I mentioned above if you want Real Percy, not dumb Percy who's not even real.
And this happens with Cardan too.
All right-I will say it again and again.
REAL CARDAN IS NOT A DUMB, HELPLESS UWU POOKIE!
HE IS POWERFUL. HE IS SMART. HE IS CUNNING AND CAN RUN AN ENTIRE KINGDOM WITHOUT JUDE OR MADOC.
I think most of the TFOTA fandom forget that Cardan did, in fact, run the kingdom without Jude or Madoc between and at the beginning of The Queen of Nothing!
And he's no helpless pookie. Does ANYONE remember the scene in TWK where the sea mermaids and their retinue come and read the poem that's a threat in disguise?
Does anyone remember how Cardan reacted? I DON'T THINK THEY DO!
He did NOT whimper or look to Jude for help. Jude DID NOT step up and deal with things directly.
Cardan dealt with it. He gave a clever response and effectively dealt with it while remaining powerful in the eyes of his subjects. Jude herself notes how powerful he looks in that scene.
And his meeting with Orlagh? He looks and feels regal and intimidating, like a true ruler. He saves his kingdom from war, literally threatens to encase Nicasia in a tree to keep Orlagh in check like a true boss, is prepared to fulfil his theat and calls up AN ENTIRE ISLAND. AN ENTIRE NEW ISLAND, LIKE THE THREE ISLES, EXCEPT NOW IT'S THE FOUR ISLES.
And he also comes up with a smart plan for Jude's safety, thus ensuring that she can come back when she wants to. It's not his fault that she interpreted it differently and chose to ignore the real meaning when she finally found it.
And in The Prisoner's Throne when he saves Jude from the knives? 100 percent amazing scene. He really has a heavy regal ruler aura there. My favorite scene of Cardan.
Yet fandoms need must girlbossify the females and woobify the males to make us see that the females are oh so powerful and the males need them for everything apparently.
The fandoms make the males characters that are entirely dependent on the females and don't exist without them. And I can't emphasize how frustrated this makes some of us.
Annabeth is smart on her own without Percy and vice versa.
Same goes for Jude and Cardan. They deal with threats in their own effective ways, though said ways are different-but those ways still work for both of them.
This is a reverse form of misogyny that is still sexism to both males and females and this really needs to stop. Whenever a couple get together, people tend to not see them as equals-either the male or the female is dominant, and if it's the female, she has to be oh so strong and muscular and dark and serious while the male has to be soft and submissive to her at all times, oh noooooooooo.
Not to say that muscular and masculine women CAN'T be dominant, but please remember that this is not always the case. Submissive partners are not always soft and feminine, and dominant partners don't always need to be commanding and aggressive.
Being equals in a relationship is a big charm, and that's why Percabeth worked so well for a lot of people. That's a huge part of their charm. To take that away would be to push what made Percabeth good into an abyss and watch it disintegrate.
TFOTA fandom members, please remember that Cardan is a person on his own without Jude. Same goes for Percy and Annabeth, PJO fandom members.
So anyone who's read about Greek Mythology probably knows that Athena is a virgin goddess-and Ancient Greeks considered marriage and children as losing your virginity.
Ancient Greek were also taken very seriously. In fact, if you lose your virginity whether consensual or not, you were executed. Even MoA says this-you die in a horrible way if you lose your virginity, which is why the Romans ignored Annabeth so much.
So............Athena did not need to have children. Even brain children formed from her's and her lover's thoughts, because they're still children.
But! you say. But Annabeth!
Uh, let me speak, please. Some silence is required. Yes, thank you.
ANNABETH SHOULD'VE BEEN ATHENA'S CHOSEN, HER CHAMPION, NOT HER CHILD.
Let me explain about this.
So, Athena fell in love with Frederick, right?
Well, let's change it to she platonically liked Frederick and was impressed with his intelligence and wit, so she told him and his wife that as a gift, she could bless their daughter Annabeth with demigod powers, a chosen champion of Athena-
but she warns them of all the risks that'll happen, and tells them that Annabeth will be turned into a demigod directly, and she tells them how to raise Annabeth in the right environment.
And have Annabeth's parents be thrilled because both of them can fully see through the Mist. And honestly, they didn't think that it would be so hard to raise a demigod!
And once Annabeth is blessed, they keep pushing her-they think that she should be smart enough, but they don't put her in a proper environment for all of this because they're unable to get one because 1) It would be difficult to get tons of books in Ancient Greek
2) They didn't realise the actual consequences of having a child with ADHD and dyslexia because they were too excited with Annabeth becoming 'magical' as they put it, so they thought that she'd be insanely smart even though Athena warned them against this, and they keep pushing her, they're disappointed that she's not in middle school by only seven years old.
3) And by then, the monsters start coming and the spiders start coming too and they realise how difficult it is so they blame her for it.
And so she runs away and then everything else happens, and Athena feels guilty and angry about making Annabeth her champion when she was just an infant, so she guides her and helps her.
And then Annabeth could be isolated at camp without anyone in her cabin, because Athena's demigods aren't 'real' demigods-they have two mortal parents and are only blessed by Athena, so the camp doesn't treat them like demigods and kind of looks down on them.
So Annabeth feels the need to prove herself and this also makes her cling to Luke more. Also, she finally finds a real friend in Percy, which makes more sense, because how come she just makes friends with a random guy at camp, even a son of the Big 3, when she's been there for 5 years?
This makes Annabeth more relatable because there are people who's parents didn't think twice before having children and there are people whose parents pressure them academically too much.
And now you're probably wondering about Malcolm.
Yeah, what about Malcolm?
He's barely there in the original PJO series. Once in BOTL where he walks in on Percabeth hugging? Well, have another demigod walk in for another purpose.
Malcolm in TLO? Change it to another cabin. Simple.
BOO when he's attending the meeting? Have it be Clarisse.
TON when Apollo interacts with him? Have it be an Ares camper (Sherman Yang, maybe) who's gathering information, because Ares campers aren't just violent dickheads, they can gather information too. Information gathering is a part of war, and Ares campers don't just fight.
When he's mentioned coming out as gay because of Nico? Put another camper there. Whichever one you want.
Malcolm Pace lovers, I'm sorry about dissing Malcolm-I don't hate him, it's just that he's not even that important. If you took all the children of Athena (ruling out the historical ones which can be cut out) then Annabeth Chase is more important than all the other three combined. I'm not even sure if Zane is canon or not.
So, in the PJO series, Rick makes Ares hate his children. Or, if not hate, at the very least ignore them and be abusive to them like all the other gods.
And I've always found this an odd choice, because in the myths, Ares really loved his children more than the other gods. He killed his daughter's rapist, who was a son of Poseidon, whom we also know loved his children, and so of course Ares probably knew that Poseidon would retaliate, right? And Poseidon is more powerful than Ares and he could definitely hurt him if he wanted to.
And Ares still kills Poseidon's son anyway, because he raped his daughter Alcippe, knowing that he would most likely be punished for this and he still does it. That just speaks volumes of love when he could've ignored his daughter for his own safety.
He also gives Hippolyta a magical belt that makes her stronger because she's the best out of all the Amazons, implying his pride about it.
He tries to avenge his son Cycnus when Heracles slays him-and Cycnus DESERVES IT, he literally stole Apollo's sacred grove and his offerings, and Ares still tries to avenge his death (they were even riding chariots together when Heracles encountered them, do what you will with that).
And a lot of people say that Rick made Ares neglect his children for the sake of the plot, but here's my counter argument-
Rick should've made Ares love his children TO STRENGTHEN PERCY'S BELIEF IN FIGHTING FOR THE GODS.
Imagine not knowing if you're even fighting on the right side. Imagine wondering if Kronos really was right, does your godly parent care about you?
And then imagine seeing Ares come down and talk to his children and encourage them.
And you're envious that they get to see their parent and you don't, but you also feel that fighting spirit come into you. This man, right here, he's showing that the gods can change, that they're not all bad, that there's something worth fighting for on their side.
(Also cue the angst and comedy of Ares and Percy hating each other and Ares being a good parent to his kids and actually being there for them while the whole Poseidon and Percy shebang goes on).
About the huntresses of Artemis. So, I said in this post that Artemis' Huntresses never grew up and always remained immature children and that in the mythology, her companions aged normally and weren't immortal. And I know that Rick made Artemis' hunt a fun, immortal band of girls just hunting monsters together, which could have been nice, but the way he wrote them, the result was way worse than intended. And I have a solution to fix it (not that he'll ever see this): Make it so that when women join Artemis, they age normally, so that they're not stuck at one age all the time. And if they want to become immortal, they can, but if they want to stay mortal, then they can stay mortal too. It's shown in PJO that Artemis has no problem giving her Huntresses immortality and also taking it away, so this would be no problem for her. And they can be frozen in time at a proper age where they're fully mature. Also, let them be able to go away when they want to-let them try the hunt out, not just have to stay forever and possibly regret it. Let them try it out and see if it's right for them, and them be able to leave. But then how will Thalia be able to avoid the prophecy, you ask? Well, simple. Artemis freezes Thalia in time like she does to her older hunters, making her a 15 year old forever-and when the prophecy is done, then Thalia starts aging normally again. Simple! I just think that it's really weird how Rick wrote the Huntresses of Artemis, having them be literal eternal children hunting monsters which is quite dangerous.
I GUARANTEE you that if Rick didn't make Athena have children, he would also have made her be a child somehow.
Ok, but when have we actually SEEN a good LGBTQ ship being DEVELOPED AND WRITTEN PROPERLY?
Like with Percabeth, you can see their development over the course of the series. WHEN HAVE WE SEEN THAT WITH GAY MALES OR LESBIAN FEMALES? I've never seen it (if you have, though, tell me please.)
We almost never get gay characters as major characters. Sure, Piper Mclean is bisexual, but we never knew it until the literal END of Trials of Apollo even though she was a major character in HOO and even starred as a side character for Trials of Apollo. Was her POV in HOO about discovering her bisexuality and coming out? No. Piper's representation is so shoved in that it barely counts, TBH. Though that is just my opinion on this matter-no need to agree with it.
And Nico di Angelo is gay, but his rep was handled terribly. A forced coming out with no closure and being paired off with a random side character to 'prove' his gayness. Also, Will being a terrible partner for Nico (sharing his medical information without authority, and being someone's doctor and boyfriend is problematic for boundaries. Nico could have had another doctor. Seriously, are there no Athena kids in the infirmary, or no trainee Apollo kids?).
I'm just saying that I'm not sure if Solangelo is good representation because we don't really get any development and whatever development there is on Nico's side is somewhat deteriorated. We don't even get much of Will as a character. No development at all.
And with the lesbian couple, Jo and Emmie, in ToA? No development-plus they got kicked out of a supposedly safe space for being lesbians. Very problematic.
And Piper and Shel? NOTHING. No page time. None whatsoever. No development or good writing.
Lavinia and Poison Oak? We're told, not shown. We don't even see Poison Oak.
Fierrochase is the only developed ship, and even then, it's a little rushed. (Just my opinion).
Ok, I am once again wondering why Rick didn't just put PIPER in DREW'S PLACE.
Piper could have been the head counsellor of cabin 10-exhausted, burnt out, and she and Silena could have been the ones to have charmspeak, which would give them an extra special bond as the only ones who had it.
And when Piper gets really emotionally intense after the Titan War II, she just uses charmspeak on her cabin members. Of course, she feels guilty afterwards, but they still start to be scared of her.
And this way, we can learn more about what happens at camp, because maybe she could be a year rounder so as not to harm Tristan, but she could still have her trauma from her younger days.
Just another example of wasted potential in PJO, which is surprisingly easy to come by.
Ok, ok, LISTEN. THIS IS IMPORTANT. I HAVE LITERALLY NEVER HEARD ANYBODY TALK ABOUT THIS, AND I WOULD LOVE IF EVERY PJO FAN COULD SEE AND TALK ABOUT THIS! Does ANYONE ever wonder what Camp Half-Blood was like in the centuries before the 21rst? What about the 15th or 16th century-where did they go then? The concept of a summer camp is very modern, so what was Camp Half-Blood like? Did more demigods stay there? Did more demigods SURVIVE to adulthood because there was no technology? Was Camp Half Blood a sanctuary of some kind-how many demigods stayed there for a full year? And what were the cabins like? Did boys and girls have separate cabins or something? How were Christians and other Abrahamic people affected knowing that the Greek Gods existed? What did girls and boys DO in the camp? How did Chiron manage all of them-how many children filled up the Dionysus cabin?
And Camp Jupiter, what was it like there?
Oh my god, please reblog this! I would like as many fans as possible to see this so we can discuss it! Thanks for reading, and I will DEFINITELY read ALL comments, so don't be shy!
You know what Rick should have done to make Athena more sympathetic?
Simple. Make Frederick ask Athena for a child so that he can have an actual demigod to raise and observe, rather like a science experiment or something (which makes him a bad parent, treating Annabeth like a project instead of an actual child, that Rick could've gone into later).
She's unsure, because he doesn't seem like the type to be able to raise a child, but he insists, so she gives him one. INSTEAD OF THE WHOLE NONCON WEIRD MENTAL THING WE GOT.
And then Frederick finds out that hey, kids aren't always the way you picture them, surprise! So he just kind of leaves Annabeth alone and then we get the whole stepmother plot and it continues in canon.
There are definitely parents like that in real life, so it would be more realistic and I think that more people might be able to relate to that.
And Athena guides her daughter and is angry at Frederick for not helping the child enough and with herself not to see how bad he would be at parenting, because she is the literal goddess of wisdom.
Annabeth stans and Percabeth shippers are talking about how ooc Annabeth is in WOTTG with her thinking Percy is stupid as if she hasn't constantly made fun of Percy's intelligence since the very beginning. As if she doesn't do it in every book, multiple times. Rick's characterization of Annabeth isn't changing, people are finally just growing up and realizing their fave ship when they were 12 isn't healthy. But instead of actually acknowledging that it's a bad ship they just blame the author.
Warnings: This is going to be a rant; bear with me. People from the "take everything as a personal offense" group stop reading. Will give us both the luxury of a peaceful mind.
It's easier to blame Rick, I think, given his series of shit decisions. The Wrath of a Triple Goddess is a complete abomination, and so is Chalice of the Gods in many ways. But at least it has helped readers understand the glaring flaws of Percabeth as a ship. How Percy's character is butchered to hype up Annabeth.
And I am completely exhausted of trying to get any of them to think rationally and in an unbiased manner. I can't make a willfully blind individual see sense after all.
But yeah, Annabeth has many, and I mean many character flaws throughout the series. The number of times I have made a post on Annabeth's flaws or even why Percabeth is incompatible.... At this point, I believe open-minded and careful readers are going to see and make their own conclusions, and the blind shippers will keep doing their own thing. This , I think, was my most recent post and will probably be one of my last ones on a similar topic. Unless I get newer asks that have some different viewpoints that I can actually explore cause, all has been said so far, I think.
I had a feeling that things would get better as they got older, more mature, you know, an Annabeth character arc of some sort. Maybe exploring the positive and negative nuances of Percabeth or even Percy's suicidal thoughts, non existent self esteem and how Annabeth has been unknowingly feeding into those.
She is one of the more iconic characters to people even outside the fandom. One from a very, very , and exclusive pool of actually strong female characters and the way her character is devolving isn't helping anything.
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All of Riordan's characters have such high potential, and the amount of plots he could explore is staggering, and yet he still dishes out the same generic plot again and again. He is in it for the money now, has been for a while, and so there's no hope there.
This might be a very hot take, but I think romance ruined the series. Rick kept slapping romantic relationships on every character as if that would suddenly make things better. Give them a relationship rather than explore their trauma. I guess it's the easier of the two.
But seriously, Caleo? Jiper? Solangelo ? (I can see the hate comments already). Whatever he was doing with Reyna, but at least she wasn't completely butchered.
Rick's problem is that he keeps giving more importance to romantic relationships and makes that the entire personality of a character.
He butchered Percy, even Jason at times, Leo bloody Valdez and Nico more prominently.
The way Percy and Nico's very deep and volatile bond and heavily dynamic relationship was butchered and distorted to feed into Solangelo and Percabeth, and I can't possibly understate how highly that's been going on.
Then Luke and Thalia's relationship was completely butchered for no absolute reason. I have no idea why. They were in love or at least had romantic feelings for each other, and Thalia just woke up and wanted to kill him? He literally gave all the angst to Annabeth even though Thalia had known him longer, and they had a more nuanced bond.
Jason's relationship with Camp Jupiter individuals was completely scrapped, his and Reyna's dynamic completely watered down, or even his and Leo's great friendship discarded all for Jiper or whatever else was shoved at him.
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As opposed to this whole shit show, I loved the relationships in the Magnus Chase series and Kane Chronicles. That was good stuff. Both character relationships and romantic ones even though I am pretty sure he got a lot of diverse representation wrong or so I have read recently.
Then there's the stupid, blind, bigot part of the fandom that just can't help themselves. I mean dumb Percy takes, Annabeth stans ruining Percy's character arcs and overinflating Annabeth's character, which in turn made Rick do the same.Then the boring Jason thing? What the hell was that? It's like everyone missed the point of why Jason is the way he is. I am going to make a post on that soon, but seriously, the shit that's been going on.
Then the shippers. Solangelo stans and Percabeth stans. They have single handedly ruined the ships for me with their distorted ideas of character dynamics. And their blatant and brutal hate against other Percy or Nico ships is just ridiculous and heavily toxic.
It's a fandom, not a monopoly. Everyone can have their own little thing as long as you don't meddle in someone else's own thing. Let everyone enjoy their own thing.
And for all our sakes, at this point, just pick your own version of canon. Choose which books to stop at. Trust me, it's less frustrating that way.
Percy is a dude from the category of screaming "what the hell did you do!" and solve all the problems in 5 minutes. Everyone would have been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for him.
I have mixed opinions on this. On one hand, Percy is the type of person to wait about for the problem to disappear by itself just so he doesn't have to deal with it. Cause even before he found out he was a demigod, he was 100% done with everyone's shit.
But I do agree that he would be able to solve all problems because through so many books we have seen that no matter how much prior planning Annabeth or the Seven or anyone else does, Percy always does his own thing at the end. And it works out mostly for the better than whatever initial situation anyone else had in mind because Percy thinks almost too well on his feet. Every time.
But Percy has such low self esteem that he sees the fact that he has to make so many improvisations more so as his plans never working as less so as an exceptional ability to adapt. Especially when at times he can easily sense that some titan/giant is too powerful so he maneuvers around a direct fight and ends up defeating them by pure strategy and still ends up thinking of himself as "Oh shit I seriously had no plans. I am so reckless and stupid".
His whole character arc could have been evolving into a more confident and self assured but still the usual sarcastic laid back version of himself who no longer doubts his own abilities and becomes the great leader he showed many signs of being. But no, Rick had to ruin it all because, for some reason, 10+ books later and almost all the characters are still the same, just decorated with even more trauma. Rick being Rick, and instead of showing characters working out their traumas and insecurities, he just slaps a relationship on them, and lo and behold, all is better again somehow.
I am kind of disappointed that we never got to see Percy or any other members of the Seven do any solo missions(aside from Annabeth in MoA) . She almost had the very quintessential realization about how she needs others and how her hubris will ruin everything if she doesn't keep it in check only for whatever she was doing in the later parts House of Hades and all of Chalice of the Gods to take away even that little bit of character development.
And cause solo missions working out perfectly well for Percy while most other demigods struggle a bit to make it work might finally make him realize that his plans don't suck and he is actually a really really good strategist and somehow an even better manipulator. (Though more on that and his observational skills later).
Or make characters like Frank and Leo whose unique abilities and perspectives on combat could have been shown off more, making them all become more self-reliant.
And even so we could finally get proper idea of limits of certain characters like Piper (cause charmspeak isn't going to get her everywhere) or Hazel (we so need more scenes of her surprising demigods and monsters with not only her unique jewel abilities and her magic.) Plus Nico's combat limits, Jason's stamina limits (no I am not considering his death part of canon, you can't tell me it's true, I refuse to stand by it), Thalia's character development as well as her honing her powers and combat abilities more.
So yeah, we really should have gotten a few solo missions instead of so many short stories and all. And a bit more cross-over highlighting the power levels between the Norse, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian demigods/magicians/Valhalla residents/Valkyrie and so on.
To sum it up, tons of missed opportunities by Riordan and even more tragic and terrible progression of previously great characters who just needed a well-made character arc or even some favoritism. (I am looking at Grover and Rachel, who both could have done so so much if Rick had only realized the awesome potential they had).
I have said it many times that it's #percy jackson supremacy. So hell yes everyone would be dead without him, and he is arguably the best protagonist out of any other fantasy action book series. All hail Percy Jackson, the master of sass, and the most beloved but somehow still the most misinterpreted character in the fandom. Really liked this ask, would love more of these regarding Percy or any other characters.