paper-nihilist

[paper-nihilist]

Frank: I don't know what's worse.

Frank: The fact that I used to think I was related to Octavian,

Frank: or the fact that I'm related to Percy.

Percy: *drinking pure lemon juice* Why is that a bad thing?

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Gotta be honest, the popularity of blond Percy thanks to the pjo show is driving me insane because every time I see pjo fanart, I have a crisis over what little blond boy is being depicted

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My Special Boys

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marine biology is so scary because it’s such a small field. i was giving a talk on cetaceans and afterward a woman approached me with her husband and she said, “you did very well. [husband’s name] actually pioneered the research and published the first paper on that. We were very impressed by you.”

Which is such a scientific interpretation/public education win I will cherish forever but also for the rest of my life any time I give a talk I will be haunted by the knowledge that the world’s leading expert who literally discovered/invented the topic might be in the room,

which is like, the opposite of what you’re supposed to do for stage fright. In fact I never used to experience stage fright but now I will.

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It connects, okay!

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would love it if the last god/goddess percy has to do a quest for is hestia. and all she only asks of him a simple, easy-to-do, done in two minutes task. and then that's it. no tricks or double meanings. and he just sobs into her shoulder at the end of it. and she just holds him and tells him that he's all done. he can go live his life now.

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remember when nico told jason "yeah i had a crush on percy back then, but i was young and impressionable, i already got over it"? brother in christ you're still, like, thirteen, why are you talking about your elementary school crush like he's your ex-wife whose betrayal made you vow to never love again

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Underrated Percabeth moment. A reminder that Annabeth doesn't just tolerate Percy's humor, she loves him for it. At their most desperate, when they're close to death, when everything seems hopeless, he can still make her laugh.

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thought I’d do a greyscale drawing for once ft. Percabeth

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It’s time we accept that Percy Jackson is an unreliable narrator. He’s not dumb. He’s just insecure. He’s not clueless about his and Annabeth’s feelings. He’s just in denial. He’s not clueless about Rachel’s feelings. He just doesn’t want to do anything about them. His mother isn’t perfect. He just loves and respects her more than anyone in the world. That boy contradicts his own inner monologue all the time. Do not trust him!!

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the batman (2022) is my favorite piece of media so don’t trust my opinions on media

[paper-nihilist]

i’m starting to think that no pjo adaptation will ever be good enough for this fandom.

i’ve seen people complaining that the show “lost the meaning” of the series. the series that retold greek mythology by changing and adapting it to modern situations now can’t handle having its own author change stuff to tell a story in a shorter amount of time and in a better way.

there is simply no way that any pjo adaptation can include everything from the book; that’s the nature of adaptations. i was bummed that disney decided to go with only eight episodes, but that seems standard for disney’s originals; it’s not them just targeting pjo. so, they had to cut stuff, the same way that the movies, and the broadway musical, and the graphic novels all had to do. jesus christ, that’s why we have the original books in the first place, to have all the detail and nuance the show will never have the ability to touch on.

but more importantly, the changes to the plot all make sense. the st. louis arch episode now foreshadows the ways that Athena treats Annabeth and all of her other kids in MoA. Poseidon actively saving Percy by reaching out with the water fixes a notorious plot hole AND adds depth to Poseidon’s character.

(I am writing this before ep 8 comes out so i have to admit i might be proven wrong about plot changes making the show better. grover loses one of the pearls in ep 7, which absolutely felt stupid and like a throw away plot point. Having posidon give percy four pearls is a change that adds depth to Poseidon, but it makes sense that a pearl had to be lost somehow. it just seems rushed in how they lost it. i’m hoping that they follow through and do something with that set up in ep 8, in which case, the rushed aspect of the set up could be forgiven. but if the show runners don’t do that, rip me)

Also i can write a whole separate thing about sally jackson but every change and addition to her character makes sense and adds to percy’s background. for example, i think that percy being kept away from camp makes more sense with this sally and her stronger attitude against the gods’ way of doing things. i think people don’t like her because her additions take up run time, but i think that her scenes make the show more accessible to an older audience by making it relatable. pjo is suppose to be relatable for neurodivergent kids, so why shouldn’t it more heavily focus on the struggles that our parents make, especially considering the author is one. the show isn’t told in percy’s pov, and this allows for new perspectives to be explored that add to the overall meaning.

ultimately, does the show feel rushed in places? absolutely. i’d argue that some of that rushedness is from how many focuses the show wants to take. the show focuses much more heavily on the attitudes and motivations of the gods and how that effects their kids than anything else. the fun Quest Scenes necessarily take a backseat to setting up the rest of the series. the mattress store chapter should not take precedence over Sally struggling with parenting a neurodivergent child. i think one of those adds more in the limited run time of the show.

in a dream world, the pjo series would be 24 episodes per season and pay homage to every detail possible. but that’s never going to happen and this disney plus show is already more than any of us ever expected and is a really good show in its own rights. it first and foremost focuses on how Being Different is good and challenging existing unfair systems is good and i think that is the spirit of pjo. the book was not a well thought out masterpiece and changing plot points to save time or to more explicitly show themes should be applauded. yall will just never be happy.

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tv sally jackson show haters can’t handle that she’s portrayed as a woman and not an angel

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"Don't worry kid, you're dad had plenty of kids he stopped helping out when he lost interest"

Theseus, who was helped by poseidon multiple times, but in the end was thrown off a cliff by the citizens of Athens and drowned. Drowned in the ocean, the very domain of his father.

Kymopoleia, who was neglected by Poseidon once he found her to be too violent, left to wander his abandoned palaces, given up as a war prize to man she didn't even want with no choice at all.

Bellerophon, who was given the pegasus to tame as a gift from Poseidon in some myths, dying by falling off of it on his way to Olympus.

I'm just saying, that line wasn't a random throwaway line by Ares, he means it.

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hades 🤝 hephaestus

unproblematic kings who are legitimately chill dudes, are often used as scapegoats, and are sick of their siblings shit

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New hc: The thunder was a reminder to Poseidon that Zeus could easily do to Sally and Percy what he did to Maria Nico and Bianca.

[paper-nihilist]

and so it begins