#Rr crit

[bassiascoparia]

I keep thinking about Piper and Hazel, the girls, being the ones who have unique eye colors and not Frank and Leo, the boys, who are allowed to have normal eye colours.

It's intersectionality-they're girls of color, so they have to be prettier, but the boys of color don't have to be as good-looking because they'e boys.

[bvckbiter]

my pjo fan red flag is that literally the only way i could be assed to care more about hoo is if its plot and conflict and character arcs and themes were in fact congruent/continuous from tlo + the rest of pjato

[justaneedle]

And just because I think it's need do be said: I hate when people criticizing Annabeth for her care about Luke, and defending Percy being a bitch about that.

Like, I don't really buy her care about him cause of Rick being an inconsistent bitch, but! no, you can't shame her for that.

Especially if you're criticizing her because of the reaction on Rachel. That's not about the object, that's about their attitude towards each other! Percy being an asshole, considering Annabeth literally trying not to talk about Luke, despite she's going through grieving completely on her own, *because she knows Percy would be a bitch towards her feelings (literally the same thing people rightfully bashing her for).

The two times when she brings up her worry about Luke it's the moments when something obviously wrong, and she's right!

[edains]

Rick Riordan constantly trashing the movies for not sticking to his books then releasing a show in which he rewrites everything and loses the spirit of the books entirely

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

remember when percy used to just casually bribe people? and then target their insecurity to manipulate them to get what he wanted? because i do. every day.

[wanderingmind867]

Having Heimdall agree with Sam that the Aesir aren't real gods… that bothers me. I feel like that's almost having your writing bend over backwards to please the monotheistic readers of your book. Really, Heimdall's portrayal as a selfie loving, obnoxious lout really makes him unlikeable. And that's a shame. Some of the other gods have been obnoxious too, but Heimdall is the first one who I really don't love. Largely because he seems to be used just as a way for Rick Riordan to make the gods look silly and say: "look, these guys aren't real gods! There's something bigger than them!" And I hate that. It's just something that continually grates on me.

[helenofsparta2]

Having the whole plot between Nico and Percy be resolved simply with “You’re not my type” in Blood of Olympus was such a huge disservice to both characters

They are pivotal parts to each others journey. No person in PJO influenced Nico as much as Percy did, aside from Bianca, and no person represents Percy’s guilt and the responsibility he had to shoulder more than Nico does. The writing for both characters really suffers through this lack of a real satisfying resolution.

First to talk about what Percy represents for Nico:

Percy, first of all, represents Nico’s introduction to the mythological world

He is the first demigod Nico ever came in contact with

He saved him and Bianca from the manticore (somewhat)

Nico stated in Blood of Olympus than Percy had reminded of the heroes of his mythomagic game come to life

Nico wholeheartedly believed that Bianca would be safe, if Percy was with her and created this image of the perfect hero in his mind, putting Percy on a pedestal

2.

In Nico’s mind Percy is irrevocably intertwined with Bianca and everything that happened to her

Despite Nico naively believing, that Bianca would be safe if Percy were around, he was instead the last person to ever talk to her, and present when she died

Percy informed Nico of her death (Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn’t believe nobody had told him yet. Then I realized why. They’d been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person, Titan’s curse)

Nico turned him into the scapegoat for her death, so that he could let all his grief and anger and bitterness out on him

Bianca sent Iris-messages to Percy, so that he would find and help Nico (“Percy has been worried about you, Nico. He can help. I let him see what you were up to, hoping he would find you.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Her ghost only appeared to Nico when Percy was with him

Percy is the only person Nico knows of, who also grieved for Bianca (“Bianca,” I said. My voice was thick. I’d felt guilty about her death for a long time but seeing her in front of me was five times as bad, like her death was fresh and new. I remembered searching through the wreckage of the giant bronze warrior she’d sacrificed her life to defeat, and not finding any sign of her. “I’m so sorry,” I said. Battle of the Labyrinth)

3.

Percy is the person who protected and cared for Nico more than anyone else in pjo

Tried to convince Bianca to think more deeply about her decision of joining the hunters, especially thinking of him (“Biance, this is crazy,” I said. “What about your brother? Nico can’t be a hunter.” (Titan’s curse)

Searched the woods in the dark for hours after he had disappeared (Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.)

Didn’t tell Chiron about Nico’s parentage to protect him from the Gods. (I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—") Titan’s curse)

Decided to completely commit to the prophecy, solely so Nico didn’t have to bear that burden and go trough any more suffering(It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it. "I can't let Nico be in any more danger," I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I… let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more." ) Titan’s curse)

Searched for Nico in the months after Titan’s Curse (Now, six months later, I hadn’t even come close to finding him. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Battle of the labyrinth, chapter 3))

Saved his life on Geryon’s farm. (“Either way, you get my friends,” I said. “But, if I succeed, you’ve got to let all of us go, including Nico.”)

Always offered Nico a place at camp half-blood to the best of his abilities (“We missed you at dinner,” I said. “You could’ve sat with me.”“No.”“Nico, you can’t miss every meal. If you don’t want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the big house. They’ve got plenty of room.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Invited him to join him on his birthday (“Is that… is that blue birthday cake?”He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. I wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he’d ever been invited to one. “Come inside for cake and ice cream,” I said. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot to talk about.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Reminded him that he was still a child (I smiled. “Maybe it’s okay to still be a kid once in a while.” I tossed him the statue, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Helped him to get the sword of hades back to impress his father (Then I looked at Nico. Unfortunately, I recognised the expression on his face. I knew what it was like wanting to make your dad proud, even if your dad was hard to love., Sword of hades)

Acknowledged everything Nico did in The last Olympian and is one of the main reasons why Hades has a cabin at camp. ( “But your children should not be left out. They should have a cabin at camp. Nico has proven that.”)

4.

Percy was Nico’s first, and after Will, his biggest love

Nico had feelings for Percy, which didn’t leave him for around 2 1/2 years, and accompanied him throughout the most challenging parts of his life. 

Feelings, which were so deep, the god of love personally acknowledged them.

Favonius even called Percy, the person Nico cares about most in House of Hades.

This was more than just a mere crush

Percy is so completely intertwined with most aspects of Nico’s character arc, in both PJO and Hoo, be it his feeling of ostracism, his relationship to Bianca or him coming to term with his own sexuality, that them not having a final interaction, makes his writing feel shallow and unfinished. Especially Nico coming to terms with his crush on Percy opens up the opportunity for a really heartwarming conversation and a moment of character growth and maturity for both of them, instead of it being wasted on one throw-away line.

And it’s the same the other way around. Nico is also a huge part of Percy’s journey.

He especially represents Percy’s biggest failure.

The first five Percy Jackson books are characterized by Percy having to take up responsibility and him being afraid of not being able to fulfill them. Be it responsibility for camp, the world, Bianca’s death, the prophecy, his friends, teh unclaimed demigods, or everything else. Most of the time, Percy was able to make sure everything turned out fine. He saved camp, he saved Olympus, he finished his quests, made the right decision for the prophecy, and he made the gods swear upon teh styx. But there’s one exception. And that is Nico.

Percy did everything in his power to make sure Nico would be spared any more hardships. He took up the burden of the prophecy, explicitly, so that Nico doesn’t have to go through any more hardships

He searched for him after Titan’s curse, kept his identity a secret and even risked himself, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson dying if it meant saving Nico

Still, Nico is one of the characters, if not the character, who has suffered the most in PJO and Hoo, even partly because of Percy (though, of course, Nico having a crush on him was not Percy’s fault at all)

He lived alone at 11 years old on the streets and in the labyrinth, while getting manipulated by an ancient evil spirit

He was isolated and ostracized at camp half-blood

He experienced the horrors of Tartarus completely on his own

He got captured by the giants and slowly suffocated to death in a small jar

He had to deal with internalized homophobia and his complicated feelings regarding Percy

He has been a vital part of two wars at only 15 years old

Had to admit his crush involuntarily in front of Jason, etc.  

One of the things Percy battles with in Heroes of Olympus is this overwhelming sense of guilt. He blames himself for almost everything that went wrong over the last few years. Be it for Iapetus, Calypso, or especially Nico. Having Percy acknowledge this complicated relationship he has with him during House of Hades, but not allowing the two of them to talk it out is genuinely baffling to me, and one of the (albeit many) reasons why I really don’t like most of Percy’s writing during Heroes of Olympus, despite the fact that he is my favourite character by far. This could have led to a moment of character growth, where Nico helps Percy to aknowledge that he feels guilty for things he had little to no control over, while Nico himself realizes how important he actually is to Percy.

They are also so similar in terms of who they are and what they’ve been through, that even if you ignore their history with each other, it seems insane, that they didn’t interact in any meaningful way:  

Both were ostracized at camp half-blood because of their parentage, and so far are the only two half-bloods we know of with that experience

They are (together with Hazel) the most powerful demigods in the Riordan verse, and have feats which far surpass anyone else’s

Both are in some way afraid of their powers

Both went through Tartarus

Both have relatively similar relationships to their godly parents

Both have gone through immense trauma and loss

And if you read heroes of Olympus, it actually very much seems to build towards a final resolution of their relationship

Percy and Nico were, aside from Frank, the two people closest to Hazel; both saw her as a little sister, and Hazel treated them both like her brothers

Nico was the first person Percy met from his old life

Percy was the one, who received the visions of Nico being captured

From everyone present, Percy trusted Nico to lead the others to Greece in his moment of greatest desperation

They both had introspections about the other in house of Hades, Nico having to deal with his crush and Percy with his guilt in Tartarus

But, in the end, after they met again, nothing happened. The only scene we really got was the “You’re not my type” line and Percy being surprised by it for a couple seconds. That’s it.

We saw no meaningful conversation between the two of them, no acknowledgement of what they’ve been through together, no lasting feelings. Nothing.

In regards to their relationship, Percy acknowledging everything that Nico has been through led to nothing. Nico acknowledging his feelings for Percy and finally letting go of this pedestal he had placed him on led to nothing. You could argue that their entire relationship, which has been built up since Titan’s curse led to nothing. And considering that they are so important characters for each of their character arcs, their characterization very much suffers from this writing decision.

The two of them, together with Hazel, are my three favourite Riordan verse characters by a long shot, but some very important aspects of both of their characters fall so flat to me through this lack of a satisfying resolution.

 Both of them deserved so much better.  

They are the friendship with the most missed potential in the entirety of the Riordan verse and probably the most fleshed out and nuanced relationship Rick ever wrote.

R.I.P.  Nico di Angelo, and Percy Jackson, you will always be brothers in my mind.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Honestly if we did get more of Will I don't think I would have wanted Solangelo to really be a part of it? I'd want him to be having father-son bonding time with his dad lmao, especially post TOA.

Apollo loves Will so much and thinks so highly of him; they're such a genuine rarity among Olympian-child relationships that I'd love to see more of them. You're never going to get that out of Nico and Hades or Percy and Poseidon or Thalia and Zeus. Any of the Seven at all- except maybe Leo?

I do think we could see a similar dynamic out of Nico and Hades, at least later in the series as their relationship heals, but I 100% agree - if we're going to get more of Will, I'd really love to see more of him as an individual character outside of his relationship and have that expanded upon. Cause as a former background character he has so little character in general and then he suddenly slingshots to being a major supporting character with very little in-between and we're still left with so much undetermined about him. And TSATS is so disinterested in exploring his character, especially outside of Nico, that even when we get stuff about him in that it's barely anything and it cares so little about his character that it bulldozes almost all the pre-established canon for him.

We got that exploration plenty with Nico over the franchise as a minor/secondary character already, as much character assassination as it is that he's now being reduced to his relationship/token gay boy. He at least has some kind of established character and got to be explored independently. Will doesn't get that and since he was so late in the game in the first series and is so minor in HoO he doesn't get anywhere near the same level of exploration we get for other background/minor characters like Clarisse, Silena, Beckendorf, etc. Especially as later series stuff becomes even less interested in that level of depth in the characters.

Deep sigh. u_u Anyways, put those boys back into minor character status. their poor characterizations are suffering. also richard PLEASE stop reducing characters to their relationships. sir you're so bad at writing dating. please.

[lady-menrva]

'Reyna has the right of choice to join the hunters of Artemis, she shouldn't be bound by her friendship with Nico' and 'Reyna joining the hunters was a bad writing decision' are 2 statements that can and should co-exist.

[lilislegacy]

us all referring to rick riordan as “uncle rick” is actually the most fitting thing ever. because you know how everyone has that uncle who they love so much but also just get so annoyed with sometimes? like personally, i adore both my uncles because they’re both so sweet and absolutely hilarious. they’re family! i always can’t wait to see them. but then the fam and i are with one of them, smiling and joking around, and he’ll do/say something that’s… horrendous. like, are you kidding me right now? and then the fam and i are all awkwardly looking around at each other thinking the same thing: did he just say that? or, jesus why the fuck would he do that? so then i’ll be annoyed with him for a bit. but also, he’ll be making everyone laugh and being the uncle i know and love 2 minutes later.

anyway, that’s how i feel reading rick’s books lately. it’s just constant “uncle rick i love and adore you so much and you’re so silly and amazing and— wait… what was that?” 😭😭

[mydarling2016]

WE COULD HAVE HAD GOOD DAD ARES?!??!?

A potential reason for why Rick didn't make Ares love his children, and an explanation for why he should have

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).

[ruegarding]

these books are written for disabled children. percy has, since tlt, been very outspoken when ppl put his intelligence down. there is a constant reminder that the ppl who treat him like he's stupid are not correct bc these series are specifically written for ppl w disabilities. that's why percy clarifies "i'm dyslexic. i'm not stupid." in the tenth anniversary edition of tlt. percy's insecurities do not affect the overall message that ur disability does not make you stupid bc percy himself is constantly challenging the ppl treating him like he's stupid.

conversely, wottg is constantly making digs at percy's grades and percy's ability to think without annabeth without keeping the theme that your disabilities do not make u stupid. annabeth is acing all of her classes. give me one example from wottg that detail how her disabilities negatively affect her or how she is accommodated to overcome them. and now think why it might be a problem that percy, someone who is written specifically to represent children w disabilities, is being treated as stupid, doing poorly in his classes, is being overworked, is constantly disparaging himself, and is never once standing up for himself, like he did in tlt.

[poisonpercy]

Still not done reading wottg, but here are some of my thoughts as memes:

[justaneedle]

Am I the only one who's often "🤨" about people defending Hermes while shitting on Luke? I mean,people can hate and love whatever character they want,but the sympathy people feel for Hermes is kind of odd,IMO.

100% my honest reaction. Like, I'm pretty fine with some of them, but Rick's side characters just don't make my heart feel anything, so not Hermes with his ±zero personality, too.

Which… interesting, cause I love pulling such characters out of the authors and build their character, backstory, and in general, they are now MINE, because the author cannot do them justice. But not with Rick's characters. Literally the only two exceptions are Bianca and Ethan. Otherwise, I'd rather invent my own.

[bluerazberrysoda]

anybody who doesn't think the frazel age gap is weird either is

too old

too young

has feelings for somebody more than two grade levels above them

has feelings for somebody more than two grade levels below them

homeschooled

a freak

[bayetea]

truly one of the biggest letdowns in piper's writing in hoo specifically is how it doesn't dig deeper into charmspeak and what a disturbing thing it is to have the power to control someone's mind. like I swear this is interesting stuff and more people would get into piper as a character if this were explored a bit more in the text. you definitely see piper disturbed by her own power and hesitant to use it (and note that like many other characters, i.e. leo and hazel, her powers have always been a source of trouble in her life - like how she got in trouble for stealing a car even though all she did was ask for it), but in my opinion the books spend way too much time in piper's perspectives on other stuff when charmspeak is such an unusual and fascinating and terrifying power that offers so many interesting avenues of character exploration

and I really wish the books would have talked more about the canonical fact that charmspeak is more effective against people who are (or could be) physically/sexually attracted to the user. this is a power that children of aphrodite have - a power that is implicitly tied to sexuality as a defense or offense. like this inherently necessitates that piper weaponizes her sexuality against monsters and deities and giants and any other antagonist that want to harm her. which is crazy. especially because she's a teenager and especially because piper is initially characterized as an underconfident girl who goes out of her way to downplay her appearance (do you guys remember how much harassment piper goes through in the books and what little gravity is afforded to those moments... like she has dangerous characters aggressively flirting with or expressing attraction to her A Lot, and she has to play into that attraction to save herself or her friends no matter how uncomfortable it makes her)

I think there's such a dark undertone to all of this that's worth investigating. we know that piper doesn't like herself, doesn't like her powers, and doesn't like demigod life. hoo has her on a journey to become more confident in herself as a person and as a daughter of aphrodite but it's always going to be fucked up that part of her role in the prophecy seven is becoming confident enough in herself that she gets better at weaponizing her ability to violate the free will of others - and her ability to use her sexuality as an armament of war