professorhayforbreath

[professorhayforbreath]

anyone can write a Smart character who walks around showing off how plot savvy and Smart they are, but it doesn't make for an interesting and dimensional character. 'she's the Smart One so she should know everything (and subsequently spoil scenes that are supposed to play out as mysteries)' is just plain shallow character AND story writing. the book already managed to avoid this but the show dove headfirst into it, which i find to be a disappointing regression in quality

i think the musical is a good example of an adaptation that isn't a direct replica but still communicates the same point as the source material without stepping on its toes. it saw the trio failing to recognise medusa not as a flaw of the writing (because it wasn't!), but as an opportunity to reveal character

the show has made me really appreciate the musical's choice to not only have annabeth fail to recognise medusa, but to make her ANGRY at herself for not picking up on it, then using that as a segue into her desire to prove herself to her mother, her insecurities and her dreams. it works really well

what's funny about the discourse on whether or not annabeth should've known it was medusa is that in the book she acknowledges outright that learning about the myths and applying it to the real world are not the same thing: 'at camp you train and train. and that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. that's where you learn whether you're any good or not' (pg 170)

annabeth who desperately wants to prove herself via the quest, but who falls short because she has mostly theoretical knowledge she hasn't yet applied to the real world and is frustrated with herself because of it is, to me, far more compelling and realistic than annabeth who just knows everything because 'she's the daughter of athena and that means smart'

[professorhayforbreath]

I drew Asian percabeth lol

Every time some racist loser complains about how my Percy and Annabeth “aren’t book accurate,” I will design a different version out of spite (and bc it’s fun 🥰)

So fuck it, Annabeth’s Indian and Percy is Korean

[professorhayforbreath]

I wish I could be optimistic about the second pjo season, I really do, but every time I see that hopeful sentiment of "maybe the show runners will listen to the complaints about season 1 and fix it going forward!!" it reminds me of another notable time that RR's work received a not insignificant amount of criticism (the Blood of Olympus), and in response he wrote a passive aggressive one-shot wherein the seven literally just sit and verbally justify everything that happened asdlfksdjfsdf

[professorhayforbreath]

Richard wrote misogynistic portrayals for most pjo women into his books, then went off and repeated it onscreen but worse

literally. girlbossified and fucked up sally's character, athena is unnecessarily villainous (while poseidon is sanitized...coincidence I think not!), frederick's actions are blamed on his new wife (and they literally didn't address that whole annabeth having regrets thing but I have a feeling it was about annabeth not reaching out to her dad...it's not the child's responsibility to reach out and try to mend the relationship...like richard's handling of their relationship was already bad enough in the books), thalia adding onto annabeth's trauma and "making her work for it" like wtf was that, annabeth getting stripped of her personality and turned into the stoic child soldier smart girl who struggles with emotions because how dare she act like a 12-year-old girl, percy "saving" her from her incorrect worldview and Showing Her The Way and how to act like a human (BOOOO annabeth is literally his mortal point, what reminds him of his humanity! she is the idealist! she's the one to not give up on luke, not him! like no the point is not that he's always been Not Like Everyone Else; percy spends the whole pjo series building up his worldview which is the accumulation of all of the lessons he's learned from all of the other characters and his experiences throughout the series. but ofc in the show he just shows up with it. I'm sure he'll be talk no jutsuing everyone soon enough ughhh), no goddess appearances, etc etc. and to think they thought they ate with that medusa redemption...athena is criticized for her actions and yet poseidon is never really scrutinized for assaulting her and is redeemed to be a loving caring father...

[professorhayforbreath]

People using “it’s a kids show!” as a defense for the PJOTV show makes no sense to me for many reasons, and one of the reason is that if the show’s questionable quality is a result of it being for children, how then do you explain or justify the removal or weakening of so many elements that kids enjoyed about the books in the first place?

You know one thing kids like? Cool action scenes, and yet most of the action scenes in the show were pretty lackluster. They were over within seconds, and largely replaced by conversations and exposition.

You know one thing kids like? Cool outfits and cool costumes, yet the costuming for the characters, especially the gods, was extremely bland, uninteresting, and devoid of any charm or personality.

You know one thing kids like? Humor. And yet the humor in this show was also very lackluster, especially in the way of Percy, who’s supposed to be a funny, snarky, and witty protagonist, and yet this depiction of him was incredibly dry.

You know one things kids like? Relatability. And yet you watered down or even straight up excluded so many of the character’s relatable traits, especially the depiction of ADHD/dyslexia, Grover’s shyness and cynical yet funny remarks, or Annabeth’s crush on an older friend figure or hear tearing up when it was time to leave the dog, or her grabbing Percy’s hand when they first get in the Underworld because she was scared.

You know one thing kids like? Bold personalities. Yet, so many of the gods are missing the elements that made them bold and memorable, and they just seem like nothing more than a bunch of grumpy adults.

You know one thing kids like? Mystery and suspense. And yet every chance this show had to build some, it was killed on arrival by the insistence that the characters needed to know everything.

You know one thing kids like? Funny references and fun twists. The Underworld was supposed to be set up like airport lines. The entrance was supposed to be a record studio named DOA (Dead on Arrival). Chiron was supposed to be in a fancy Italian suit and shoes. Each of the cabins and thrones on Olympus was supposed to be uniquely constructed and colorful to depict each god’s domain. And yet all of that got eliminated.

You know one thing kids like? Places and adventures that feel grand and magical. And yet, when it was time to show off grandeur at the Lotus Casino, we took away all the sky diving and reverse deer hunter games and replaced it with exposition, and activities that don’t seem magical in the slightest. And we didn’t even get to watch the characters play and be kids.

So how, just how, do y’all get off saying that we should go easy on the show because it’s “just a kid’s story”, and yet the show neutered most of the elements that endeared kids to this story in the first place?

[professorhayforbreath]

making myself ill trying to figure out how Nico's supposed to play off of show!hades

[professorhayforbreath]

oopsie doopsie Disney, you've screwed yourself over by having all your thrones look like shit so now we can't have this

[professorhayforbreath]

need to free charlie bushnell from the clutches of pjo tv……. he’s too good.. they do not deserve

[professorhayforbreath]

tv “making this difficult” sally vs

book sally

[professorhayforbreath]

How is it that such a popular book series can have a 2 films and a tv show and the best adaptation is still the musical with such a low budget but so much love to give

[professorhayforbreath]

"pick a side" is really that song like you've got ruegard bickering, silena threatening to pulverize someone, clarisse hyping her up, and luke telling his dad to get fucked. it's all there.

[professorhayforbreath]

there's a tree on the hill up on half-blood hill that protects us all, and always will

[professorhayforbreath]

Criticisms of show!Sally’s character do not have anything to do with how realistic she is. PJO TV is not a standalone TV production. It is sold as and marketed as an on-screen adaptation of a preexisting primary source. The criticism is about how well-adapted she is.

Sally Jackson was not written from scratch for TV. It doesn't matter if she's realistic or not.

Sally Jackson, introduced to us through the primary source of the books, is a character with a set of personality traits, the major ones of which do not track on screen.

Book Sally: is explicitly said to never raise her voice Show Sally: very much raises her voice when she's stressed out

or

Book Sally: is explicitly said to make Percy feel safe, secure, and comfortable Show Sally: leaves silently when Percy asks if she’s getting rid of him; consistently does not explain to Percy the situation, leaving him doubtful and scared

The character in the show isn’t Sally Jackson. She’s a realistic depiction of a particular kind of a mother but that isn’t Percy Jackson’s mother.

P. S. Book Sally is also a realistic character. I know that most people are familiar with the on-screen version of parenting but there are parents who do better.

[professorhayforbreath]

i blame the mouse for the deradicalisation of luke castellan

[professorhayforbreath]

the Riordans: the show will highlight more Annabeth and Percy’s dyslexia.

The show: taking the mentions of dyslexia from it (them not really being able to read Auntie M’s sign, the zoo truck etc..) kinda giving up about it after one episode

"the show will highlight Percy and Annabeth's dyslexia"

[professorhayforbreath]

ik it’s been forever in internet time but i’m gonna die mad abt the way the live action atla show got a good amount of backlash and criticism from the fanbase meanwhile the pjo show was THAT horrendous and the fanbase treats critics like they’re out to kill their mother. as someone in both fandoms am i crazy bc i keep fucking seeing people say yes 💀 like!! these shows, whose original series were both about a 12 year old boy born with godlike powers going on quests with his friends to save the world, released in the 2000s, and had a shitty movie adaptation, now reboots released within weeks of each other, both committed nearly identical crimes of character assassination, exposition dumping, dumbing down their source material, sanitizing “problematic” elements (that the characters originally had to overcome), and wasting actor potential (also at least live action atla had good action scenes CANNOT say the same for the pjo show)—and i’m seeing like mainstream(ish) social media coverage of new atla show critique by people with millions of followers all across different sites, but nothing even close to that for the pjo show?? if that coverage exists for the pjo show somebody fucken send it to me bc like!! the pjo series is Not an unpopular series, i get it’s a book series and not a tv series so i didn’t expect the popularity to be exactly the same, but Damn! i feel like i need an hours long video essay comparing the two audience reactions to these series’ first season releases bc they were WIDLY different

[professorhayforbreath]

every time i get curious and go into the tags of more recent riordanverse installments i'm happier with my choice to disregard everything after the last olympian because holy SHIT rick riordan just doesn't know when to fucking quit. maybe like, 8% of hoo is canon to me. i never finished toa. i barely remember mcga. and i never intend to read tsats or cotg. rick riordan never published anything after the last olympian, what are you guys talking about haha