#Anti pjo show

[hellisanhonourstudent]

Is there anyone else who found the new PJO show disappointing and bland? My main problem is that it got so sanitized and generic. Most of the characters in the first saga were hardened in some way,but their show counterparts don't transmit the same vibe. At the same time,the books had a delightful whimsical feeling about them - there was humour,weirdness,colour. The show,on the other hand,feels more like a generic fantasy show.

[autism-alley]

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

[justaneedle]

“How Disney+ changed Luke for the better”

Me: spat

[anotherlibrocubicularist]

Pjo movies: exist

Pjo fans: the movies are shit for inaccuracies like the actors' ages, Percy and Annabeth's romantic chemistry too early on, Annabeth's hair colour and many changes in scenes and plots from the books

Rick Riordan: hates on the movies (despite him never having seen them in the first place) and promises an adaptation more faithful to the original source material

Pjo fans: thrilled

Pjo series: exists

Some pjo fans: the actors look nothing like the characters we grew up with (and with the pace things are going, will be way older than the movie actors should the series continue beyond s2), there are Percabeth romantic scenes added in the first season that weren't there or weren't romantically charged in the books, Annabeth isn't blond (and with the way the fans treated the movie actress I am side-eying that not more people were upset Leah didn't go blonde), and many things were changed from the books

Rick Riordan: I'm the author, these are my decisions, deal with it.

Other pjo fans: the changes are great, just stop watching if you don't like it.

Some pjo fans: stop watching show

Pjo show: ratings go down, won't make it past s3 or 4 (my prediction, but still)

This is a more or less humorous take on what I've witnessed in the pjo fandom when the series ws announced to when it aired. Personally, I think Rick shot himself in the foot when he hated on the movies for not being faithful to his work and got the fans' hopes up for a more book accurate adaptation that he ultimately failed to deliver. He would've probably received less backlash and the fans would've been more open to changes if he hadn't hated on the movies for exactly that, changes to his source material.

[the-oddest-inkling]

The best sentences i've read all day:

"The Percy Jackson show is not like the books, but who the fk cares."

My brother in christ. Y'all have been giving anyone who even uttered that they liked the movies absolute HELL the last couple of years and now y'all can't accept that the show is absolutely inaccurate and the casting sucks?

Y'all have bullied Alexandra Daddario into dying her hair blonde for the second movie. But now it's all fine and dandy that not a SINGLE character looks like their book counterpart?

GIVE ME A BREAK!

[ladydeath-vanserra]

love that I made a video complaining about PJO incorporating the MMC model into the Grey Sisters and some Wiccan told on themselves

jsyk Wicca is full of racism and cultural appropriation at its core foundations and was created in the 1950s by a white British man where he shoved a bunch of celtic traditions and other traditions from around the world into one new age religion where there is also rampant compulsory heterosexuality

the MMC model is ripped off from celtic traditions and Mythos regarding triplicity goddesses such as The Morrigan and Brighid and has absolutely nothing to do with greco-roman mythology

[thesebloodydays]

So, I’ve watched the first three episodes of the pjo show and I’m really not feeling it. They just gave me confirmation that I’m over these books/the franchise. Oh well.

[hellisanhonourstudent]

#!! all of this#i have a lot of thoughts about the fact that they're stripping annabeth of all her characteristics except her intelligence#(and her hubris i.e. her fatal flaw)#in tandem with the fact that they have cast a Black girl as annabeth#the adultification of Black girls in media and real life is PERVASIVE#and i don't think the pjo show is necessarily replicating that intentionally#i honestly think they have an opportunity to criticize this expectation!!#b u t#that would require them to be aware of this societal expectation (and its consequential literary trope)#they have at least one Black woman in the writing room tho and that does give me hope#i really hope they allow annabeth to grow and make mistakes and demonstrate a wider range of emotions#instead of relegating her to being solely the smartest of the group who isn't allowed to slip up or have vulnerabilities#or be a young girl#give us more like the candy scene!!

My biggest beef with the way Annabeth was written in the show is that I think Rick fell into his own trap. Like his whole thing with Annabeth is that just because someone doesn’t look smart doesn’t mean they aren’t. And while it’s about their literal looks for both the show and the book, book Annabeth also sometimes acted in ways that people wouldn’t stereotypically associate with “smart” because I think we’ve all be condition to think bbc sherlock no emotions genius is the only way to be smart. Book Annabeth acts super flustered around Luke because she's a kid and she has a crush on him, she's afraid of spiders, and wanted to see the arch just because she thought it was cool. In general book Annabeth is allowed to be sillier and have a wider range of emotions than show Annabeth without it detracting from the fact that Annabeth is smart. I find this whole "stoic genius" idea is often used to put down teenage girls for being dumb and superficial just because they show emotions and the only way to beat it is to be cold, calculating, and emotionless and most people just aren't like that.

[hellisanhonourstudent]

How will you change the pjo show?

First of all,I'd wipe out all the official stuff and make it animated;

The animation style would be a mix of Gargoyles (it's a pretty cool Urban Fantasy cartoon TV show set and made in the 90's,most of it happens in NYC - therefore there are strong "concrete jungle meets the supernatural" that PJO also shows often) and AtLA(colourful,whimsical,fluid). And make it a mix of the 2D and 3D styles - Nimona did it,the second Puss in Boots did it,Into the Spiderverse did it,Klaus did it. Of course,Disney would be able to replicate the success;

Be mostly faithful to the books(especially when it comes to keeping the weirdness),but do away with the "Internet and telephones attract monsters". I've always found that stupid,high-speed comunication is part of the 21st century,no need to do away with it. "But such means of communication would make things easier for the demigods!" Not much,IMO. A big point of those books is the fact that half-bloods are mostly isolated and/or outcasts. Not to mention how most mortals can't be counted on to deal with the divine;

Speaking of the 21st century,make the TV show "modern but timeless" - Rick had many bad ideas,but this is a good one. Technology and culture can be a melting pot between the 2000's,2010's and 2020's. Flip phones,Blackberries and all sorts of smartphones can be seen on-screen,there are some vague pop culture references,the kids will wear outfits from all that time... You get my drip;

Easter eggs. When the TLT trio is at the casino,show a couple of Italian siblings,have a Tristan McLean post somewhere;

Also,there will be no "All the Athena kids are grey-eyed blonds that look serious". There's no reason why they would look like that. In fact,I'd make them diverse in terms of gender,race,personalities. However,they'd still all have "resting scheming/overthinking faces".

[bluecrocss]

Adult PJO fans: "I can't relate to her if she doesn't look like me" "this is disrespectful to book!Annabeth" "I can't see her as the same character if she's black" "blonde, white women are soooo underrepresented in media. No one else can understand 😫"

Meanwhile, the actual demographic the show and books are for:

(@/walkersriptide_ on TikTok)

-

Caveats in the tags.

[justaneedle]

Okay, I don't like learning about shit that Rick, or his editors, or his wife, or fucking Disney, or whoever but Haley doing. Haley is the best thing that ever happened with pjo.

Fuck their don't need bible, using fanwiki, trying fit new books to a fucking TV series or whatever this bitches doing.

Cause I don't even want anymore giving HOO the second chance. The potential of this universe died for me with the Titan Army and Luke.

[hellisanhonourstudent]

#PERCY IS ANGRY SPECIFICALLY THIS SPECIFICALLY THIS#i dont think they understood how ANGRY these kids were. clarisse was angry too. luke was angry. percy was angry. these kids were angry#and these kids weren't alright#i wish throughout the episodes. theyd always have this palpable anger brewing underneath#i wish there'd be this sense of urgency because throughout the books everything was going so fast and like. it felt like ur hands were shak#shaking. from how intense the scenes were#i wish they'd kept that in the show#i wanted to see luke's bitterness in the way he spoke about camp#i loved the fact that the reason clarisse hated percy so much was because he did something better than her but i wished theyd expressed tha#in a more agressive? way . i guess#but also whatever#i may just be slightly insane#i guess

ok i really really really enjoyed watching the first two episodes and i think the show is already so faithful to the books in ways the movies wished they were BUT i’m gonna be a bitch just because i can and rant about a few insignificant but at the same time very important Things the writers didn’t Understand:

percy is angry.

and i know this is seen with his anger towards poseidon in the show, but i’m talking angry. as in, generally speaking. when he’s with grover and they’re talking about nancy, percy says something along the lines of “we should fight back,” and grover’s like “noooo we can’t stand up to bullies.” and then percy stands up to her and blah blah blah…but in the books percy’s first line is “i’m going to kill her” after she throws a sandwich at grover. grover talks him out of it because he’s already on probation.

with just this scene we know percy stands up to bullies, and that’s partly why he has so much trouble at school! in the show, he stands up to nancy, apparently for the first time, and gets kicked out because of it! sorry but as someone who worked in a school, i know for a fact that kids can get away with so much more before they’re actually kicked out lol. it would’ve made sense, like in tlt, that he’s already at risk of suspension so him “pushing” nancy is the final straw. it’s just very weird, considering it could be only a line of dialogue that makes percy’s anger and the connection between his outburst and him getting kicked out more clear.

consequently, percy arrives at his appartment and gabe is just a general (still admittedly abusive) jerk instead of a drunk, violent (also abusive) man. when we meet gabe, it makes a lot of sense why percy has so much trouble with his anger. it’s easy to see that connection. literal child + alcoholic abusive father figure = there’s bound to be some trouble….that’s not really the case in the show, especially in the way that sally easily stands up to him. people have said a fair bit about this topic already, so i’m not gonna expand on that, but i really wish the writers had focused more on percy’s internal anger, as it’s such an important part of his character and affects the way he reacts to things throughout the books; it just worries me that in the first episode it wasn’t as established. i. e. he hates dionysus on sight because he reminds him of smelly gabe, he hates the gods—is angry at poseidon—because, where was he when my mom and i were suffering at the hands of smelly gabe? ok i’m not gonna talk about more of this or of sally because other people have said it and i could write a four page essay of what the show got wrong plus i want to talk abt other things before this gets too long:

the monster scenes.

the mrs. dodds being a fury reveal felt sooo…weird? even the movie version did it better lol. it felt super rushed and strange how percy’s just standing there and the next he’s on the ground, but he had riptide with him so he just impaled her and then she turned to dust??? in the books, not only does she get percy alone, but grover tries to stand up to her—which is a big deal since he knows what she truly is and shows how much he cares for percy in that moment. percy has time to be genuinely terrified bc he’s alone with a literal monster and he’s about to die…and chiron throws him riptide just in time, but then he too vanishes so percy’s left wondering if he imagined everything. but no, in the show mrs. dodds comes out of nowhere and attacks him, and it’s so fast that percy doesn’t have time to dwell on wtf happened. the situation doesn’t seem as serious as it does in the book; in the book she tries to interrogate percy bc she thinks he’s the lightning thief, and when she doesn’t get her answer, she attacks him. this is another thing: the stakes. they don’t feel as high in the show because there’s no annabeth trying to ask percy what was stolen, no hellhound, no fates cutting a string, and no alecto/mrs. dodds interrogation. there’s not much of a lead up to the quest, really.

theeen the minotaur scene, which also feels super weirdly paced and there’s just not that same sense of urgency. again, other people have talked about this, so i’ll just stick to another main concern of mine: grover’s role in the scene. it was so strange how in the book he’s semi unconscious and in the show he’s fine (so fine that sally does something completely out of character and makes grover swear to keep percy safe? she would never put that much pressure in a child???) ok so he seems fine in the show, but then when they’re running percy’s holding him as if he can’t walk???? they’re not even fully sprinting, given that a monster is chasing them lol. (the problem with the stakes; i mean with the way they run and have an entire talk with sally makes it feel like they’re not in any real danger).

back to grover: he was perfectly fine, and he got percy back safe. not at all like in tlt, where percy has to practically carry him back, after loosing his mom and killing the minotaur. THEN percy passes out and later wakes up at the big house. this is important, bc grover’s entire THING is being percy’s protector, and he couldn’t do that properly bc he was indisposed. he felt awful. of course he did. his character arc is overcoming the guilt and insecurities—that he’s not a proper protector and therefore can’t search for pan; his main character motivation—by successfully completing the quest and helping percy retrieve the master bolt.

these are just little seeds that needed to be planted in the first two episodes of the show…so that the rest of the show feels cohesive and makes sense with what happens in tlt. if these character traits and scenes are looked over and not given proper importance/not replaced with something similar, then the show will have a different tone than it does to the books. i don’t think it’s necessarily bad, but it is disappointing that the details sprinkled in the source material are lost in translation. they may have seemed insignificant to the writers, but not to meeee!!!!!!

[the-oddest-inkling]

For all those people who still defend this hot garbage of an adaptation. Even the movies didn't change that much!

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

me, when someone doesn't like percabeth: okay no problem 😁 we all have our own different ideas of what makes a good ship, I respect you don't like mine 🤝 uh huh? perachel? cool i love rachel ✨ good day to you, my friend

me, when they start talking about how percy's suicidal tendencies were increased because of annabeth and hate annabeth for not knowing about the BOO drowning incident when percy never even told her about it: ok 🫵 get out 🤬 eww eww eww 😭 do not come within a mile radius of me please 🙏 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋

[greencarnation]

[erenfox]

hades is a fucking joke in the show. like, excuse me, richard? what happened to hades being an intimidating, creepy god who has probably been the first ever olympian to ever scare percy? no hate to the actor, but the way they made him say oKeY dOkEy made me cringe SO HARD because there's no way - NO FUCKING WAY - hades would be the one to say okey-dokey. hermes and apollo are literally the only gods i can think of who would say okey dokey.

tldr: they ruined hades as a character in riordanverse with literally his first appearance. smh.

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