#RICK RIORDAN IM TALKING TO YOU

[lilislegacy]

percy, holding out his fist in his palm: ok wise girl. rock paper scissors time. if i win, i get to pick the movie for date night

annabeth, doing the same: fine, but if i win, we move back across the country to that house in westchester that i love

grover, looking over in alarm: what?! how is that even—

percy, nodding firmly: deal. rock pap—

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[incorrect-riordanverse]

the problem with all these white authors like rick riordan who are revealing their stances on the israel-palestine apartheid is that they barely do anything but virtue signal when they claim “i’m on the side against war” “i’m anti-violence” “i abhor terrorism.” zero people are going to disagree with you. zero people believe what hamas did is justified. zero people think israel shouldn’t have a right to defend itself against terrorism. but that isn’t what israel is doing when they collectively punish all of palestine, who doesn’t even have an official army. when rick riordan says some wishy-washy bullshit about the violence suffered on both sides of the conflict, and words his whole dumbass blog post like it’s violence that is in any way equal, that literally helps no one. in fact, it’s so damn negligent of the 75 years of violence that palestine has suffered and been oppressed for. yes, there are innocent civilians in israel who are suffering, no one is disagreeing with you. that doesn’t erase the fact that israel is a disgusting state that has used state-sanctioned violence on a systemic scale since its conception, and the oppressed people have responded to that in violent retaliation (because OBVIOUSLY they would). israel is built on the subjugation of palestine, there is no equal suffering between the two.

[liberty-barnes]

me looking at everyone hating on tsats like yikes

sorry you couldn't see that this book was literally about nico learning to accept that his trauma is part of him but doesn't control him and he can live alongside it without shoving it down or letting it take the lead

sorry you didn't realise that the underworld was literally killing will and just overall being a physical manifestation of everything he was taught to fear, hate, and fight against but he still managed to do a complete 180 and accept his own darkness as well as nico's because he wants to be better

sorry you didn't realise how the mere fact that this book, part of an extremely popular franchise read by children everywhere, will help literally thousands of kids accept themselves and their identity by constantly showing us non cishet people and couples and talking about the struggles of being queer but showing that it's very much possible to achieve happiness

sorry you can't see how amazing this book is

couldn't be me

[greencarnation]

countless palestinian/arab/poc percy jackson fans: here is why what rick riordan has said and done is harmful, and here is why it is zionist

the fucking imbeciles up in my notes: NOOO HES NOT HE WOULD NEVER!!!!

[all-this-panic-still-no-disco]

honestly reading the magnus chase books again as an adult is 10/10. there’s a lot of sneaky mature jokes stuck in there.

[godofstupidsentences]

Asking for fellow teen wolf and pjo/greek mythology fans! I need some help figuring out the godly parent of some (many) tw characters, anyone interested in talking a bit about it?

[skull-ishcloud]

I think my biggest problem with RR is that I love the idea he has but not the execution.

Like, nice ADHD guy who uses humor as a coping mechanism. Nice, war between Greeks and Romans. Nice, Poseidon and Athena children couple. Nice, gender fluid badass character. Nice,

Then you realize the ADHD guy doesn't get much deeper than that. That, the war was caused by some flat ass character with no personality aside from killing panda plushies and superiority complex. That the A and P's relationship was kinda forced and toxic. That the said badass character is only gender fluid bc of her mom.

[cepheusgalaxy]

Everybody!

Just sit down and listen because my The Sun And The Star book just arrived yesterday and I just finished it so you guys are gonna hear me freaking out about this

So,

Nico and Will 😏

Oh, well, my dad bought TSATS in july (because portuguese version was just ready this month while for you guys it was up on may) and it arrived at thursday. And then! when I came home from school I just found it here at the table, my dad gladly smilling for me like "yo here's the book you were freaking out about last month" and I just freaked out some more.

I startes to read it and oh dam

I need to say I loved the concept

And the implications

"You cannot cut your past off, but it's a part of you"

And also "There's no light without darkness, just as there's no darkness without light"

I loved it because was also a golden key to nico's character arc

He dealt with really bad stuff in this book

And ofc character's bad stuff is good stuff for us

But really,

All his demons were shown for everybody to see in this book (like, literally, and i loved this part), and Will was at his side all time.

I loved this too: Nico and Will's relationship has no problems at all, but their understanding of each other was so limited. Will saw Nico's darkness as a bad thing, a thing he had to heal from. And Nico tried to flinch away everytime someone tried to help him, we already knew that.

And then their values were crushed off

Will learns about darkness; about the dephts of the Bad Things; about Nico; about how not everything related to the dark is bad

And Nico learns about himself; about his needs; about his motives; about his strenghts; about his heart and about his health

And really

I think it was a particulary Hot TakeTM that the Percy Jacksom fandom just shouted and pleaded "NICO DI ANGELO!" and rick riorsan gave us fucking nico di angelo

And also

(the quote may be not accurte here because again, my version is portuguese's, and im having to translate it here)

"Will let the anger power him and searched inside himself for darkness. He knew loneliness, like the nights he spent in the corner of a show house while his mother sing for the crowd. He had felt fear. He had felt envy. He was son of Apollo and, because of that, with all his feelings flowing, Will focused on his dad's power and did something he has never did in his entire life.

He gave his enemy an allergic rhinitis attack"

THIS HAD ME LAUGHING SO HARD MY BROTHER STOPED PLAYING ROBLOX AND ASKED ME "ARE U OKAY"

The first page also just MADE MY HEART MELT

And their stories for Gorgyra appearing beetwen one chapter and another just had me--

I LITERALLY READ THE FIRST PAGE ONCE AGAIN AFTER FINISHING THE LAST PAGE

here, have a photo

So yea, i loved it ❤

[unripe-lemon]

Since i know no one will see this:

1 note and i will email my therapist

ok so for this one,, like since then i have emailed my therapist?? that counts right????? tbh i dont even know what to talk abt anymore, but i do have a session with her so dw

2 notes and ill put my laundry away

ugh….. stupid. internet.. making me do things that will make my life easier…. gugh yeah i put my laundry away!!!!! everyone clap now

5 notes and ill try to brush my teeth more often

ok so like for this one i found this video https://youtu.be/pvutTiPY7q8?si=PASnBmUXZ0xiHzWM imma sing this song to myself every tike i dont feel like brushing my teeth

6 notes and ill try to put on cream for my dermatitis (anxiety hives!!! yayyy!!!!) more often

just did it hehe :) tho it is getting a little worse and my kitten scratched me on top of it 😭

10 notes and ill attempt to learn my timestables

11 notes and ill study for my exams

my exams are over!!!! so idk what to do for this one? maybe ill go do my homework instead

20 notes and ill try to go one day without using my pc/phone

30 notes and ill vaccum (more bc we just adopted kittens) my room entirely

40 notes and ill try to explain my depression to my mom again

50 notes and ill clean my locker out at school

imma do this tmr!!!

i forgot 😭 someone remind me

80 notes and ill fix the posters that are falling off of my wall and are probably going to rip soon

doing this rn! taking dinner break

100 notes and ill REALLY unpack everything with my therapist

maybe tmr?

we talked about medication and kittens, also exams so like success??

200 notes and ill ask my mom if we can go to my go and get! me! medicated!

ill discuss w therapist tmr

discussed with therapist, we are now getting the conversation started with my mom and are going to see what my gp says after that!! :) ty to everyone in the notes rooting for meds

300 notes and ill re organise my bookshelf

400 notes and ill clean all of the mold off of my wall

damn 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 ion wannaaaaaaaa

this is a weekend activity tbh, and idk if its even going to BE this weekend :P

500 notes and ill clean the mold off of my roof

600 notes and ill try sewing some new clothes

i crocheted a scarf!!! does that count?

700 notes and ill buy some new shoes

800 notes and ill check out dnd club at school (im scared)

900 notes and ill come up with more goals

edit: bro……. 😭

so im gonna take my time w these bc there is a lot to go thru!! i will try my best to remember to update!!! ty for notes :)

- random internet stranger

edit 2: WTF 1000 NOTES GUYS CHILL

ok so like i have to come up with more goals now???

1500 and ill start taking study notes with a study method (rb with study method that is your fav eg cornell method)

1700 and ill attempt to hype myself up enough to eat at school (long story, germs)

2000 notes and ill start whatever book wins this poll:

[latinoperce]

rick riordan you became the thing you swore so much to destroy. why change some of these things in the show??? the thing im most angry about is that the changes are either purely nonsensical or just done poorly

theyve completely eliminated the books sense of urgency, like theres no stakes on anything. you can miss the deadline and everythings fixed with a little talk with zeus. you recognize medusa and crusty and the lotus hotel right out of the gate, and obviously the only conclusion is that kronos is behind everything even though hes supposed to be locked in the deepest part of tartarus and youre a 12yo who just got thrown into this life and is just learning that monsters are real. fights are over in 30 seconds and theres no injuries or consequences except for an off screen comment on how you lost your bag or maybe a new stain on your shirt. theyre 12 but also they know everything there is to know about the greek myths.

in the books they learn and realize things as they go! its the experiences that change percy and grover and annabeth and things are supposed to be HARD because theyre kids!!! and they were sent on a mission they shouldnt have been sent on, but they get through it with each other and with a sense of comedy because theyre fucking kids! yea theyre gonna almost die and then say hello to gladiola the pink poodle, and play hacky sack on the bus stop, and stuff themselves with cheeseburgers every chance they get bc kids arent supposed all knowing and mature all the time

you cant promise a faithful adaptation of a book and then change the basic things that made the book be loved in the first place

[evanpetersgfhihi]

୨⎯ 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓰 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓭𝓾𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷⎯୧

♡ about me ♡

౨ৎ you can call me elodie (she/her) ^^

౨ৎ 15 yrs old

౨ৎ deer disguised as an insane teenage girl

౨ৎ infp and aquarius

౨ৎ hopeless romantic

౨ৎ married to evan peters, cillian murphy, kurt cobain, tim burton, emma watson, taissa farmiga, mia goth, winona ryder, helena bonham carter, elizabeth grant and brittany murphy

౨ৎ hobbies: reading, writing, girlblogging, listening to music and true crime pods, watching movies and shows, baking and yapping with my very few but lovely friends

౨ৎ books: the bell jar, the virgin suicides, my year of rest and relaxation, christiane f, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, the picture of dorian gray, the silent patient, the secret history, tributes of panem, harry potter, enola holmes, truly devious, the little prince and literally anything by kafka, rick riordan and holly jackson

౨ৎ movies: girl interrupted, black swan, thirteen, american psycho, perks of being a wallflower, jennifers body, pearl, buffalo 66, coraline, dead poets society, léon: the professional, the menu, the craft, my girl, i believe in unicorns, ten things i hate about you and literally anything by sofia coppola, tim burton, david fincher, greta gerwig, wes anderson and studio ghibli

౨ৎ shows: ahs (favs are murder house, coven and asylum), skins, gilmore girls, bojack horseman, stranger things, asoue, obx, heartstopper and ianowt

౨ৎ music: lana, mitski, nirvana, hole, mazzy star, fiona apple, ethel cain, deftones, radiohead, the smiths, fleetwood mac, tv girl, marina, tyler the creator, queen, david bowie, arctic monkeys, the nbhd, ayesha erotica, solya, bambi baker and a lot more

౨ৎ other things i love: art, poetry, cats, deers, swans, iced coffee, dr pepper, trees, old parks, cemeteries, coquette, grunge, y2k, lego flowers, spotify, tumblr and pinterest

♡ about my blog ♡

i'll post relatable girl stuff, my interests, fashion inspo, moodboards, random thoughts and whatever i feel like ^^ everythings mine unless i say otherwise

dms are always open if you wanna talk or be friends <3 i love meeting new people ^^ if you wanna be moots just tell me in my question box! you can also ask anything there, i love answering to these ^^

dni: racists, homophobes, transphobes, fascists, pedos, nsfw blogs, probably forgot some but yeah im a minor and liberal so i think you get the idea of what i don't tolerate

healthy and pro recovery ed and sh blogs without triggering imagery and stuff are totally ok but if you romanticise this shit, (re)post thin$po or scars and dont want to get better pls pls dni or i will report you bc im trying to improve my mental health and that stuff is not helping at all

♡ other socials ♡

other blog (dark coquette aesthetic)

other blog (dark green and gloomy aesthetic)

yap blog (for yapping, reblogging and answering questions)

spotify (it's kinda messy im sorry)

pinterest (i post more whispers there)

⁠♡ ok i hope i did this right byeee angelss ⁠♡

[reahasleftthechat]

Zia Rashid appreciation post because she deserves it

Unlike the Kanes, Zia (in my opinion) is one of the most underrated characters in TKC (other than the Minor characters, I think the most underrated one is Julian because how much content has that guy gotten, Answer: Little to none, but this Ain't about him) anyways, She's gone through the "orphan" route having not only lost her parents to Appophis, she has also Lost her foster father WHILE SHE WAS IN A MAGIC COMA HE PUT HER IN, has casted Numerous Energy wasting spells (example: that one time she was basically eaten in The Serpents Shadow but Bursted her way out) and had to figure out romance without anyone to guide her, remember, she was alone for most of her life as well. And she was also one of the first Arabic People that Rick Riordan ever wrote, so that in itself is amazing (I'm happy about that because im actually an Arabic person) so the rep she carries is a lot.

So Zia Rashid deserves more recognition. and is mostly the best character (in my opinion) Argue with the wall.

So thank you for reading this ted talk. I know it's not actually a ted talk,act like it is.

[devrreader]

one thing that’s always pissed me off was how rick riordan completely changed jason and piper’s storyline in the burning maze for no real reason in my eyes. like what’s the point of bringing up the fake memories thing again when blood of olympus literally ended with them talking about a fresh start? and both agreeing that even if they started their story in a weird way, they were going to create new memories. and it’s not like they couldn’t have fallen in love with each other truly in five (5) books … jason literally saw his future with piper. and i know im not tripping when i say i remember piper telling apollo “i love him”. like ok you wanted to kill him but what was the point of the breakup 😭 and comparing them to percabeth with the line “what? you thought we’d be together forever like percy and annabeth?” was, again, not it for me because they’re two completely different ships. i know not many people care about this because for some reason they’re not a very liked ship but being me it just pissed me off real bad because there was no foreshadowing nor anything. just straight out of the blue.

[archgabrielangel]

things Rick Riordan is a coward for doing/for not doing: a list:)

taking away percabeths grey hair streaks

not making Blitzstone canon in mcga (richard you had one job)

not making leo aroace and having one of his arcs involve him realizing he doesn't need a romantic relationship, could also include an arc for calypso(also i am an active caleo hater im so sorry)

making sadie x anubis canon???? gross dude

not including Grover in heroes of olympus like, at all

not really diving into percy and annabeths trauma after tartarus (i zoned out half way through my hoo reread so I don't remember if their trauma was talked about like at all💀)

not confirming in canon that will solace has a country accent (hc all you want but I need it in writing, I yearn to be right)

not giving Luke more screen time (book time? page time??? im a luke apologist, sue me)

not giving Reyna and Octavian a brother/sister relationship (like, ik we all hate octavian, and rightly so, but dude. they basically grew up together and no matter how unsufferable he is, they have history. they deserve a constantly bickering siblings dynamic)

taking away Annabeths dagger and daedalus' laptop in Mark of Athena (first of all, why? and that dagger was the last thing annabeth had of luke:( besides like, trauma but cmon)

doing whatever he did with my girl Drew Tanaka like dude😭 she deserved way better, it felt like she was only that way to promote pipers not-like-other-girls attitude

not exploring megs interest in piano more. we could've gotten a cute brother/sister moment between her and lester, we were robbed:(

[aroaceleovaldez]

im rick rordian ur right nico is autistic

okay i know this is a silly goofy haha and I could just respond to this "so true thank you rick" but i haven't talked about this in awhile and i feel like it again since this is apparently an under-recognized topic -

Nico is, in the books, autistic-coded! This is not a headcanon thing I personally have, there is textual and contextual evidence that he is purposefully autistic-coded.

The main point for this is that the first series featured a very overt theme about awareness for learning disabilities, particularly in the first three books. Obviously The Lightning Thief focuses primarily on characters with ADHD/dyslexia - Percy and Annabeth (since we don't actually know if Grover has adhd/dyslexia or not). But in Sea of Monsters the scope begins expanding and we have Tyson as a major character, who is very clearly coded as having down syndrome.

Then in Titan's Curse we have Nico, who upon introduction is very stereotypically autistic - He's immediately introduced as having a clear hyperfixation, missing social cues or otherwise behaving socially inappropriately/having difficulty with empathy and emotions, getting easily emotional particularly due to change, relying heavily on familiar things/people for stability, etc etc. And this is clearly described as being different to standard demigod ADHD. Especially given TTC was written in the mid-2000s, this is basically neon arrows pointing at Nico saying "look! This kid's autistic!" except not explicitly saying that, just like nobody explicitly ever said Tyson has down syndrome (or Percy having PTSD from Gabe, or Reyna being ace, or etc etc etc) - because that's what coding is. It's implying it without explicitly stating it. That doesn't mean it's not canon, it's just you have to actually read between the lines of the text to go "ah, okay, this is what this character has going on."

And this isn't just a thing that goes away with Nico's character - it's a basis for Nico's characterization for the rest of the series and into the next two series as well. He continues to explicitly have difficulty with emotions and social cues. He continues to reference having hyperfixations (mythomagic, pirates). Heck, we even get more notes about him having both sensory aversions (touch, potentially implied also bright colors/lights, etc) and being sensory-seeking (wearing oversized layers often, seeking out clothing with specific patterns [skeletons/skulls], etc), and stimming (twisting skull ring) later on.

So yeah, Rick Riordan, I am right, Nico is autistic. Because you wrote it in your books, very clearly. You just didn't explicitly say "autistic." And you didn't have to, because the point is for people to figure it out on their own.