#There’s so much trauma being ignored by Riordan

[notseaweedbrain]

^^^

again i say to you

if this man would just let the percy series mature and dig deeper into the emotional arcs he presents in chalice and wrath instead of hopping from one kooky adventure to the next and undermining any story depth with fart and piss jokes and blatant flagging to the disney+ audience, we could have had a very good set of stories on our hands

but NO

percy's rage issues, grief, trauma, and just the general angst of being an older teenager on the cusp of a huge life change are all there and every time the story touches them, it's like RR gets electrocuted and told to get back to Conflict Free Therapy Speak zone before things get too messy

additionally, the third act upping the stakes to Oh Shit We're Gonna Die doesn't work if we already know 1) everyone lives and 2) PERCY GETS INTO COLLEGE at the end of this. the whole point of the series has already been decided!! there are no stakes with your main plot or any of the bullshit mini quests! the opportunity to go for a deep dive character book is there and waiting and ready

but NOOOOOOOOO

gotta make sure all of our main characters have been peed on instead, it's fine

[maxarat]

Rick Riordan is a cishet white goyische man. We knew this. But you can see this in his writing, no matter when. Yeah, he's grown, but he didn't grow astronomically.

In this post I'll be talking about how history, women, queer people, and POC are handled in Rick Riordan's YA novels. I'm Jew-ish, very queer, and was socialized as a girl, but I'm white so POC tell me if I overstep or get anything wrong and feel free to add!

Also this is long af, way longer than I intended, so under the cut it goes!

The Pact and Wars

I think I've talked about this before (cannot find the post) but the way history is handled is so racist and antisemitic. Wars are not because of their real reasons, but instead conflict. WWII is made to be because Hades, Zeus, Poisiedon, and their kids had another spat, instead of the fascism and racism that really caused it. The Civil War, instead of being about racism, was made to be about a fight between the romans and greeks. The wars we see in series have no connection to real world events, why couldn't the old ones be the same? It also deminshes the accomplishments of real people. For example, Harriet Tubman is said to be a daughter of Hermes. To me, this says a black disabled woman can't do great things without great blood in a world where that exists

Annabeth

Annabeth is a girl boss, and this would be great, if her writer wasn't a cishet man. Being strong is equated to being mean, physically and verbally. When she thinks Rachel likes Percy, a guy she isn't even dating, she gets pissy at them for even hanging out! She constantly demeans Percy and hits people who anger her, including Percy, and this is treated as cute and quirky. And then her trauma is dismissed and diminished by a boy who went through similar treatment. Sorry Percy also was hurt by who his author is, but it makes things worse with Annabeth's portrayal. Also she once says people don't take her seriously because she's blonde. During HoO. With Piper and Hazel right there

The Hunters

The Hunters of Artemis, in mythology, are a group of women and sometimes men who joined Artemis to escape the deeply misogynistic culture at the time, and there are sapphic undertones to much of their myths! In the books, they're portrayed as man hating, romance hating, and functionally aroace. Hippolytus is completely ignored. Zoë is constantly talking down to Percy without giving him a chance and makes probably the dumbest decision by choosing Bianca for the quest in Titan's Course. Jo and Emmie were kicked out for finding love. I'm aroace. I love aroace rep. I'm overly weary of (cis white) men. But the way the Hunters are written is so similar to how angry anti-SJW youtube saw feminists

Nico

Nico is forcibly outed in one book and in the next gets a boyfriend with literally no personality or relationship with him up to that point. The drawbacks of shadow travel so clearly align with disability. He's also obviously depressed and deeply traumatized. Yet Will gives him no medical autonomy, something we disabled folk have to deal with all the time that's really very ableist. I love Nico, but the way he's portrayed just isn't great

Sadie and Carter

Sadie and Carter are biracial and look wildly different. This is good representation from what I've heard, but not how it's different or some incidental stuff. Carter, the boy, has dark skin and dark, coily hair, while Sadie, the girl, has pale skin, striaght blond hair, and pale eyes. This plays into colorism where darker people are seen as more masculine, as does Carver being the host to the god of war. Sadie is also a young girl who's put into a relationship with a god who kinda bullied her at the start. Carver is also in a relationship with a person who was hostile, but she gets better so I'll let is slide

Leo

Leo is latino, and stereotypical at that. Je is constantly flirting with everyone and looked down upon. As a Leo who is not an astronomical Leo, he deserves better especially when you consider c//leo

Piper

"I'm not like other girls" girl who's hailed as absolutely gorgeous. She was born on a rez that didn't exist at the time which just goes to show the lack of research. Her eyes are kaleidoscope, which is a trait none of her siblings, or her mom, have. She's cut off from her culture enough to not know the significance of feathers but has plenty of memories of her grandfather who lived on the rez. Also, she's a cleptomaniac. I love Piper, I like how she's representation for a person who was cut off from her culture and longs to know it despite living with her bio family because I and a few friends are the same, but Piper is still a stereotype. I also feel like the veganism plays into the whole spiritual nature stereotype, but I'm not sure so don't quote me

Frank

The only confirmed greco-roman demigod without dyslexia is also East Asian. I think the stereotyping is obvious it doesn't help that the only two Asian characters before him, Ethan and Drew, were antagonists. He was infantalized while fat and then had a magic glow up for... no reason, really, but that matters less here. Also he's dating a seventh grader as a tenth grader basically and I'm trying to not spoil stuff but the end of the Tyrant's Tomb is bullshit from a lore perspective imo

Hazel

She's a black girl whose parents both had very dark eyes and hair, yet her eyes are gold and her hair is paler than her skin, and both of those last two are described as looking like foods. Again, she is the age of a 7th grader. See Frank. And this may be the fandom's fault, but it seems she's always either infantalized or adultified from what I've seen

Will

All we know about Will Solace in BoO is that he's attracted to men and a medic son of Apollo. I bet you didn't remember he was at the Battle of Manhattan or that he's counselor because all his siblings died. And that's a lot of kids. Also he calls Nico nicknames he doesn't like. See Nico for further criticism of Will

Alex

Alex is called the adjective form of a slur multiple times. I could talk about how the grammar of that sucks, but *gesturs vaguely.* She gets transphobia from nearly everyone and disowned. I thought fantasy was supposed to be escapist, personally

Other stuff

Samirah is a hijabi, but we see under her scarf at least once and that feels really disrespectful, especially considering how observant she is of other stuff. Only women or close family (brothers, direct descendants, or direct ancestors) can see a hijabi's hair. Even if Magnus, Hearth, and Blitz are like family that usually isn't enough. She should have gotten a regular valkyrie's cloak imo. Some stuff feels off about Hearth but I'm not D/deaf so I'll hold my tongue on that as I'm not sure. Lavinia could use more yiddishisms in her speech and I'm curious to know what sect she was if her rabbi wasn't cool with her being a lesbian, but they do exist so *shrug.* There's probably something I missed with Reyna and Hylla, I feel like there is, but I can't remeber so it just gets an honorary mention

@afrolatinozuko

[tayananyx]

So I read Percy Jackson:Chalice of the Gods and…let me just get this out of the way: IT WAS FANTASTIC!

From the very first line of the book I was transported back in time to middle school where I walked the halls with my face buried in a PJO book. I missed Percy and his point of view so much that I literally started crying the moment his sarcastic inner monologue uttered its first words. This novel was like a fantasy to me with the return of the golden trio and following their wacky hijinks as they try to do quite possibly one of the hardest things in my opinion: Graduate high school and get into college. 

This book is instantly a five star in my opinion, but there is an aspect of it that really caught my attention and made me think on a deeper level. 

Rick Riordan has never once sugar coated the olympian gods or their ways. He has had to gloss over many details due to the fact that he was writing a middle grade series, but now that Percy and his audience is a little older he is now getting into the fact that the gods are very much morally f’ed up beings. Like I said, he never shied away from this fact with Luke Castellan waging a war against the gods for being so negligent with their children and Percy having to literally ask them to pay their child support as reward for literally saving the damn world. 

But that is only the tip of the iceberg of things the olympians have done. Take the storyline of Chalice of the Gods for example: Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods had his almighty goblet stolen and if he does not get it back before Zues notices he is dead. When you look at Ganymede, the first thing you think is that ‘Oh, he has such an easy job, just pouring drinks and he gets to be immortal on top of that. Who wouldn’t love that?’ And then you look at him closely and see that he literally has trauma and PTSD from when Zues abducted him and forced him to become the gods cupbearer. He spends his time in Zues’s shadow being in constant fear of him and being sneered at or ignored by other gods. No one cares about his opinion of whether he wants to be there or not because they think as long as he gets to be immortal, why wouldn’t he love it. 

The main villain of the story, Geras (god of old age), even goes as far to blame Ganymede for becoming immortal as though it was his choice anyway. And lets be real for a second, when the options are either be my immortal servant forever or die, I don’t exactly blame him. Don’t even get me started on Hebe and her childish games. It just sounds like world class victim blaming to me. And Zues was just so slimy to me in the few scenes we saw him in this book. With his inflated sense of ego at a banquet that was supposed to be for his mother and the way he openly leers at Ganymede in front of his wife and other gods was just disgusting. But we all knew he was always a pig

The way the gods acted in this book had my skin crawling and the way they used Percy like he was nothing but their personal errand boy had my blood boiling. He was blamed for his own birth and made to make it up to the gods by getting recommendation letters just so he can get into college with his girlfriend, his father barely offered him any help besides using a sea nereid to outsource actually being a parent, and he was used and abused the whole time by these immortal scum without so much as a ‘sorry’ or ‘thank you’. 

At this point Percy should be allowed to cuss all of them out and Rick Riordan is SICK for continually putting Percy through the wringer like this. In that same vein though, I love it and will be patiently waiting for the next installments of Percy trying to get into college.  

[heavilykaffeinated]

Okay I’ve had a good day to contemplate this shit- let’s do this. I’m going to start with the fact that I found tsats aggressively disappointing- if you have an issue with that, leave now.

Addressing the highly debated concept of Will and Nico being incredibly OOC- I 100% agree. That doesn’t mean that teenagers don’t change, but they took away so much of both Will and Nicos personalities. Will genuinely lost so much- he used to be a very fun and honest enjoyable character even under stress, but we didn’t get any of that. While I like the concept of Will being rather uninformed and having a really hard time in the underworld, it was overdone and Shoved Down Our Throats from the beginning. That whole scene when Will was talking to Persephone??? (That’s an ENTIRE other post lmk if you want that) He just kept being like ‘ew this place that’s clearly special to you? Yucky.’ He insisted on going on a quest with Nico (which other people were clearly more well suited for,) then proceeded to insult Nico’s second home quite often. It’s like Riordan and Oshiro squished his character and made him two dimensional.

As for Nico, he’s missing a lot. I understand coming to terms with some trauma and your personality changing, (which is literally what the entire book is about) but it’s so extreme. They took the Nico out of Nico. This boy would never come out to an entire camp in some huge display to ask a boy out. Come on.

Uhm PERCY AND ANNABETH??? Bruh what was that scene??? Though the whole page 69 thing was amusing- they were just like Oopsie Poopsie We Fucked Up but you get to deal with it have fun 🤩. (Again, that whole scene was really OOC and an entire other post)

Uh oh the big one- the really weird queer rep. Before y’all come at me, I’m gay as hell, this shit isn’t new. Anyway, it felt really forced. The queer rep in ToA was amazing because it was casual and normal- this was not that. Why were demons coming out to them. Tf. The acceptance subplot is amazing in theory, but again, it was Shoved Down Our Throats. It’s like they slapped a rainbow sticker on the book and suddenly it’s supposed to be amazing. It felt shallow and artificial.

What on earth was Will doing down there??? Think about it- we have Hazel, Reyna, and a few other characters who were either not mentioned or barely mentioned who would have been better suited to the underworld.

Will and Nicos relationship felt really toxic and superficial- I get that it’s their first relationship and it’s not going to be perfect, but they were arguing the whole time, they had no chemistry, and they seemed like they hated each other.

On a similar note, this book lost the whole Acceptance thing from the other people Nico loves. HAZEL??? REYNA??? APOLLO??? They were all left out, and any mention of them felt like a rushed afterthought.

Another big one- the trauma motif. (Again speaking as a biatch with ptsd) Nico was scarily self aware- this whole book is supposed to be about Nico growing and being a kid, yet it was always Trauma Trauma Trauma Childhood Trauma, and he was aggressively self aware- there was no growth there. Things like that take time- and that wasn’t represented. It was like somebody snapped their fingers and Nico became a really angsty self aware therapist.

The conflict of the book felt half baked. Literally why did Nyx care. I don’t know. Does she? There wasn’t much action. (except for the dream sequences, those were good.) Tartarus didn’t feel dangerous or scary. I liked the idea of the Cocoa Puffs, but that also felt half baked. Instead of being like ‘these are literally you’ Nyx was like ‘these are your children lmao 🫃👶👶👶’ that storyline had so much potential but it didn’t really work out.

The whole damn thing read like fanfiction. It felt like Twitter fan service

Also Will was ignored??? This book was supposed to be about Nico and Will, but it ended up being just Nico. I wanted to see anxiety Will :(

Rick Riordan has done really well creating engaging middle reader books in the past, but this felt very Fourth Grade Learn About Gay People And Trauma.

Overall, there were good parts to the book, but I didn’t like it. The entire thing felt half baked and two dimensional. I’m going to reread some of Riordans work, and read some of Oshiros books to try to find the disconnect.

[my-pjo-stuff]

For the Great PJO Ask Analysis event: (ask no. 6)

You've got a topic in PJO you'd like for me to analyze? 

Riordan's representation of the gods' and how they are tied to their respective domains.

Want to share YOUR analysis of stuff with me and my followers?

Characters such as Luke and Alabaster demonstrate that there could have been other rebellions from demigods prior to the events of the series. Luke starts a war based on his childhood trauma and his experiences of being at Camp Half-Blood. Alabaster, though introduced after Percy Jackson and the Olympians, wants to continue the war Luke started because the war was being fought for the right reasons, Percy is remembered as the saviour and the gods' massacred the remaining demigods. Thoughts?

Want to hear my take or shares yours of different characters and aspects of the PJO universe?

The show is a good book adaptation but not necessarily a good show. Pacing, characterisation and reliance on knowing the book series hinders its potential. The films, on the other hand, were not just bad book adaptations but also bad films: the saving grace being the actors' and actresses' performances.

However, both adaptations highlight issues with the original books. For the films, most of the characters (Percy, Annabeth, etc.) have few traits and little personality, making them bland. For the show, worldbuilding issues glossed over in the books are more obvious such as the gods' system of control, Camp Half-Blood's organisation which has potential to create major issues later on. Thoughts?

Riordan's representation of the gods' and how they are tied to their respective domains.

I don't really have much to say on this one, as my main talking points were already all brought up in your previous asks about the gods and how they act and work as character, so I'll be skipping questions like that about the gods since I genuinly have nothing more of worth to say. Sorry.

Characters such as Luke and Alabaster demonstrate that there could have been other rebellions from demigods prior to the events of the series. (.......) Thoughts?

Classic case of "History is written by the victor". Fact is that to the gods (and most the fandom) Percy is the saviour. Rightful gripes with the system are pushed out of the mind as Percy get's glorified. Luke and other TA characters and their good aspects are ignored. Or if they are talked about then their role in the TA is minimized. Most fans don't even know Alabaster or the true numbers of the Battle of Manhatten, considering how they behave. (Like for you guys, only 16 kids of CHB died in that battle. Yes it was horrid but stop acting like those were world war level losses). They just simply never read Demigod Diaries. The show is a good book adaptation but not necessarily a good show. (........) Thoughts?

Same as above, I already said everything about the books and show I want to say that has any worth.

[blurrycow]

Hargreeves analysis (5/7: my lucky number!)

Tagging the gang: @jbd302020, @conchshell, @stupidcanofpeaches, @assaily, @kdangerfblog (I know you wanted to be added to my tag list- this isn’t the fic but here)

Five Hargreeves

My playlist with the songs I think go with him and his vibe are on my Spotify! It’s called Sunbow (my at home account) and _Sunbow (my school account.) Both post playlists and update them consistently. They are also basically the same.

SORRY FOR THE SELF ADVERTISING! On with the analysis.

Ah, my favorite number. My lucky number. Too bad my lucky number has been through some… stuff. Very unlucky number.

Hoooooo boy. Five. What to do with you, man. Five is definitely the absolutely most traumatized, most overlooked one of the siblings (Vanya is a close second, Klaus lagging in third).

Boy, I knew about five before I even watched TUA. My friend, @chickadee634, writes fanfic for him, so she showed me some of that and that’s really what got me into it. I have great memories of sitting with my friends, watching a small fifteen year old murder grown men.

By now, you’re getting tired of my mindless rambling, so let’s just go.

Nobody ever takes him seriously. We clearly see this in season two when his pleas to help save the world are collectively ignored by his “loving” family members. Honestly it makes me very sad to see, because he tries so hard, and his siblings can’t see the fact that if they don’t get their shit together, there will be no social life to get to.

Five can easily be summarized by this line [about Nico DiAngelo] by Rick Riordan, from the excellent book The Tower of Nero:

“He looked like a person who had been hit not once, not twice, but so many times over the course of many years that [he] had lost sense of what it was to feel not in pain.”

(Apologies if it’s incorrect! I am going from memory here.)

Five has… not had any relax time in more than forty five years. In the long, lonely apocalypse, his only companion was a mannequin that is consistently ridiculed in the series by his siblings. Eventually he has to give her up, and then when he finally gets her back, he has to give her away again. He gets a shrapnel wound to the gut. He gets a concussion Flynn Rider style and falls in a pile of bricks. He’s rewound time more than once on no sleep. He has a bullet wound.

Basically, what I’m saying is, Five is a fucking champ.

He has been through so much shit- isolation, manipulation, being ignored, dna changes, the trauma of killing people, leaving behind the love of his life, finding the love of his life again and then being forced to leave her again, ptsd, malnutrition, growth stunting, anxiety, depression, torture, so much more, and GOD, I want to give this boy a hug. He’s been through so much and his family members (although I love them, they’re kind of ignorant bitches to Five) don’t see the fact that he’s struggling until he’s literally passing out.

Let’s talk about Five’s relationships with his siblings.

Five loves his family. They are his one motivator. He can’t admit it because he doesn’t want to tell them how much he’s been through for them, because he sees it as a weakness. It kind of is! Anyone could make him do anything for them.

Time in the commission:

Five spent YEARS- YEARS- in a place that objectified him for his powers (“you’re a legend!” etc). He spent SO LONG in a toxic place that sent him to kill millions of innocents, a place that ALTERED HIS FUCKING DNA to make him feel LESS GUILTY ABOUT BEING A MURDERER.

anyway poor guy can’t catch a break

And he’s still so impacted by Reginald! (I.e., the scene where he’s in the closet and Reginald is outside of it and Reggie steps forward and Five steps back, which is a symbol of defeat and submission in most animals, signifying that his father still has a great impact on his choices, and still intimidates him.) His father is his greatest abuser (actually, he has a lot of abusers- the Handler, AJ, + his father).

Five has been spiraling through space and time for so long that now he doesn’t know what’s the past, present, or future, and before he can even get adjusted to space lag, he’s thrown into an apocalypse, which is quickly headed up by another apocalypse. He’s confused, and he needs a break. Plus, I think the only thing he’s eaten since he got back from his 45 years was a fluffernutter sandwich.

Conclusion: Five Hargreeves has been through A LOT OF SHIT (fault of Gerard Way) and needs a fucking break. Petition to let this lil guy take a nap in s3!

Alright, only two left! Let’s see how we can pick apart Ben Hargreeves next.

[tsigililimclean]

Hey! First of all, thank you for being so understanding to the rest of this fandom! I agree SO much with how everything canonical about Piper has some tones of racism or stereotyping. If you don't want to answer this then it's totally okay. But I would like to hear your thoughts on Tristan's relationship with Piper and her abandonment issues.

thank you for your kindness and appreciation 💕

as for piper and tristan's relationship canonically, i dislike how they're written- quite frankly, i'm very VERY tired of seeing parents of color written as neglectful or abusive by white writers because it feels exploitative. i also just. dislike how tristan is written because the "i hate being a native" schtick coming from the white man who wrote his native girl character as a walking talking stereotype is fucking gross. piper being upset over him not wanting to play the roles of native characters in movies such as tonto pissed me off because lone ranger is fucking racist, not to mention native actors are often made to play characters who are racist caricatures- like why the fuck would she be upset about him turning down those roles? she should be more pissed about him playing roles meant for actors of other ethnicities lmao. if tristan were trying to make it big in hollywood or even if he were just trying to make ends meet, it would be highly likely that he would have taken on some particularly shitty and stereotypical roles before making his big break, and after that, it would be much more understandable that he would never want to work those kinds of roles again, but of course rick riordan has no fucking idea how to give characters of color ANY kind of depth in relation to their identity. not to mention it's horribly ironic that piper, a character who lives and breathes native stereotypes, is pissy with her dad for not wanting to play a stereotype- it's like rick riordan was so so close to understanding and yet so incredibly far. in regards to their relationship, it's fucking sickening to me that rick thinks that tristan ignoring his daughter and having her be looked after by jane and sending her off to fucking boarding schools because he couldn't handle her or whatever was an intelligent plot move. HELLO! does this man have any fucking idea the kind of trauma that native people in america have towards boarding schools? tristan would NEVER have WILLINGLY sent piper to a boarding school, not when his own father or other relatives might've been children during the time of which native children were being tortured and assimilated in indian residential schools. it would make more sense if there were outside influences (COPS) forcing his hand, but willingly sending her to a place like that? fuck no. it honestly makes me nauseous to think about. in my head, tristan is a much more complex and well written character, and he and piper have a very nuanced but loving relationship, but in canon? the lost hero made me want to rip my hair put everytime piper talked about her dad, ESPECIALLY in regards to tsalagi culture because the way rick talks about our culture is so fucking distorted and disconnected because he did the bare fucking minimum of research and didn't bother having a cultural consultant or a sensitivity reader. he has a pattern of writing parents and guardians of color as bad parents and it's really fucking telling to me. obviously tristan didn't get the worst of this kind of treatment (because rick seems to hate women of color even more than men of color, as proven by how he wrote marie levesque and leo's tía rosa), and his and piper's relationship is better towards the end of toa to my knowledge, but tristan and piper's writing overall is what bothers me, not just in regards to their relationship, but their individual characterization.

[crushing-on-nico-di-angelo]

This is kind of a random question but...

Do you know why people hate Rick Riordan?

I just have no information, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff lately talking about how he’s problematic.

hi!! yes, I've seen things about this as well. I can list the reasons I've seen. I don't agree with all the points made, but its just what I've seen and I think it may answer your question. I also recommend going through the tag #rr crit, as it will give you a lot more and detailed information regarding him (beware: there are quite a few buzzwords. I recommend taking the facts and forming your own conclusions). I also think it's important to note that many people don't hate him, but they acknowledge that since he's a cishet white man there's things he didn't handle well and he needs to listen to critisicm.

Completely mishandled Piper's native American heritage. From the feather in her hair, to her dad being from a reservation that doesn't exist in Oklahoma, to having kaleidoscope eyes (some say that it suggests brown eyes aren't beautiful enough for aphrodite, more on this in the next bullet), to being a kleptomaniac, her character is, ignorantly or purposefully, chock full of stereotypes. having a cornucopia being her weapon. when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

not giving female characters chances to be young, or not have a boyfriend or be unconventionally attractive. if they do get to not have a boyfriend, they're thrown into the Hunters of Artemis. their eyes are anything but brown (I do disagree with the eye thing but it's important to note), suggesting that having brown eyes should be considered less than. Sadie got a 1000 year old boyfriend when she was 14. 13 year old Hazel had a 16 year old boyfriend-- that could be a seventh grader and a junior or a freshman and sophomore depending on how you look at it (and I LOVE frazel, don't get me wrong. the age gap is just,,). in fact, the only female non-hunter without a significant other I can name is Meg, and she's 12.

Sadie Kane and the fanart he boosts of her. he frequently shows her looking completely white, despite saying she "stood out in class for being mixed." It honestly wouldn't surprise me if a white girl were cast to play her in the Netflix movies.

treatment of characters with invisible disabilities. this can range from the coment of "You anemic loser" targeted at Octavian (as someone with an iron deficiency, I don't see anything wrong with it, but cmon. kids can see that, rick. you can't control anemia) to Clovis' chronic fatigue being treated as a joke. invisible disabilities are hard and just as painful as physical ones. it doesn't help if you treat them like that.

too much misogyny to list all of it, but we can start with young girls being expected to be, and acting, more mature than they are; the strong female characters portraying the "I'm not like other girls" trope; the entire way Hera was treated.

The way Nico's outing was handled (this is one I especially disagree with, and this post said it best, thanks ghost). A violent outing by the God of love taking place before Nico was ready, according to some, was not what younger gay people needed to see. he should have had a loving environment and, at the very least, it should have been from his own point of view and not Jason's.

anti-acne and fat phobia: Apollo having a deep hatred towards his acne and Frank's glow up including severe weight loss (not being a cuddly teddybear anymore, getting taller) isn't the best thing for kids who have acne or are fat to see.

Samirah al-Abbas: "reversing the stereotype (Rick's words)" of an arranged marriage by having her be in love with a distant cousin is... not reversing the stereotype at all actually. it just falls into it. Having her take off her hijab around floor 19 because they feel like family is also not great, because, to my understanding as a non-hijabi and non-muslim, that is not how being hijabi works. similar to the piper situation, when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

ANTISEMITISM, ANTISEMETISM, ANTISEMITISM. this is one of the ones I agree with the most. Having Hades' children be Nazis, having a plot point revolve around one of the most traumatic events in world history, ignoring the fact of generational trauma and ignoring the fact that It Didn't Matter That It Took Place In World War Three, it could have not had any correlation to the death of over six million Jewish people. it legitimizes evilsurrounding Hades and death, and -- well, this one makes me so mad, I can't explain all of it so here is a post explaining more in depth

Slavery issues: similar to the holocaust, Rick Riordan made one of the most terrible issues in American History into a fight between demigods. this lowers the legitimacy of the issue, makes it seem fictional, makes Camp Jupiter seem terrible and awful, except it doesn't. because camp Jupiter isn't terrible. but the confederacy was. if children, especially white children, learn about the confederacy through camp Jupiter, it makes it seem way less bad than it was.

again, I don't agree with all of this, it's just reasoning as to why. in my eyes, Rick Riordan is a man who has grown in his telling of his stories. he started with a canonical all white, all straight, all cis cast. he has now a series featuring a latino genderfluid queer person. This Post said it better than I ever could.

I know that it's impact over intent in so many situations. and this isn't to say I disagree with all, or even most of his critisim. I just think that he has good intent, and I hate him for absolutely none of it.

I am gay, I am Latino, and I am trans. that is all I can speak on, and I think his rep for that was great. I hope this answered your question, dear anon. again, I encourage you to do your own research and form your own opinions. I only touched on a few issues that Rick has had and there's a lot more to be talked about. I would say to keep in mind his intent and his growth. thank you for the ask, thank you for directing it to me that made me feel happy lol. ily I hope you have a good day

if anyone else has anything to add, by all means please do!!

[your-mom-friend]

Riordan Characters That Deserve More Attention

 - Alabaster C. Torrington. Do ANY OF Y’ALL remember this child? Son of Hecate that fought for Kronos? Introduced by Haley, Ricks’s SON?? From Son of Magic in the Demigod Diaries???? I need to know what happened to him! Actually, I need to know what happened to EVERY character in Son of Magic because I haven’t seen it addressed ANYWHERE. How are he and Claymore doing??? Claymore DIED and hangs out with the kid now what are they up to? Who even was Hecate praying to? Gaia? Some other deity? Did Al here ever find peace and return to Camp? Did he decide to become a neutral party that acts for what he thinks is right like some kind of vigilante? Is he ALIVE??? What about mistforms? We don’t hear much about them later. Burly Black too.

- Halcyon Green. On the subject of the Demigod Diaries, why doesn’t anyone talk about Hal? The cursed son of Apollo doomed to live in his childhood home with voice emulating monsters for the crime of trying to help a girl? His story is literally the one that introduced Annabeth to Thalia and Luke! What about Zeus’s magic nursing goat Amaltheia??? Did Luke and Thalia ever talk about Hal when Luke would try to bring her to Kronos’s side???

-The ENTIRETY OF KANE CHRONICLES. Y’all are SLEEPING on this series. Rick’s first really racially diverse book series and y’all SLEEP on it. Do y’all remember Jaz? Cleo? Felix? Bes?

-Gleeson Hedge?? I don’t see people talking about him much. Especially his FAMILY. Mellie? Chuck? Who are they?? Fandom doesn’t seem to know

-Tristan McLean. Yeah people add him in fics and stuff to explain why Piper knows certain people or whatever, but does anyone actually talk about what happened to him in The Lost Hero? Or the literal conspiracy against him by his whole company that made the circumstances for him and Piper to have to leave?

- Buford the Wondertable! Leo’s lovely little mechanical table that ran away because he wasn’t treated to his favorite cleaner! What an amazing little thing but you don’t see him in fanart and I feel sad for him so sue me.

-Leo. I know I know the fandom is OBSESSED with this wonderful science child but HEAR ME OUT. Y’all focus too much on how sad and traumatized he is and make the joke about him being slow in situations. Don’t get me wrong his trauma shouldn’t be minimized and it’s important but that is NOT his whole character. He could solve COLLEGE-LEVEL equations in like third grade. He pranked a nurse by making something to scare her out of the display at the doctor’s office. He stopped Camp-Half Blood from blowing up. He repaired Festus. He BUILT the ARGO II. He created it from a DRAWING of a ship he made when he was stull in Primary School. It isn’t fair to his character to reduce him to making fun of Frank, playing pranks and being sad.

- The Zhangs. Come ON guys the Zhang family history is literally so interesting if anyone bothered to look. Frank’s descended from Periclymenus, the Prince of Pylos who joined the Argonauts as their resident shapeshifter! That’s like, pretty huge dude. Also the Kane siblings were descended from Narmer, the first Pharaoh of Unified Egypt; and Ramses II. Again, HUGE DEAL. They have some of the most important ancestry EVER. The Chases are descended from Swedish Kings. No, I’m not going to get over the fact that these histories are ignored.

- Meg’s other siblings. Look at these KIDS! They’ve been manipulated, controlled and abused their ENTIRE LIVES. I sincerely want more love for them. I want to adopt them. They deserve a loving home. I like the “Gardening with Meg” thing. They deserve to have their lives returned to them.

This is all I can think of at the moment but feel free to add more. I know I missed a bunch.

[takaraphoenix]

Hey, I’m already warning that it’s Angst! So, what would Nico, or even most of Camps and Percy’s family and friends do if Percy die? This after the Giant War and he dies in a quest. What would they do?

I know this is a weird question but I need to know! I’m writing a story about this. But I wanted to know your opinion since your PJO stories inspire me to write!

Well, first of all, I'm very flattered that I spird you to write and I wish you good luck with your writing! <3

Then mh. Generally, I try to avoid death fics, both in reading and writing.

But in this fandom you can find great ways to work around it. So the real question is, where do you want to go with it?

Percy who dies, but due to his heroics in the past earned himself godhood and now his family and friends have to cope with the fact that he is dead and a god.

Percy who dies, but Nico says "fuck this shit", storms the underworld, grabs ghost!Percy's hand and does the second jail break because let's be real Thanatos owes Percy one for saving his life so he'd turn a blind eye and Hades doesn't even dare to speak up because Nico's been annoying him about Percy Jackson's pretty eyes for years now and if he doesn't allow Nico to steal the soul back, he will never hear the end of it.

Percy who dies and just... hangs out in the underworld. It's chill, honestly, he finally gets to bond with Nico who lives down there and they get together that way (I think I literally wrote that fic before. Or a Hades/Persephone/Percy fic. Or both. Unsure).

Percy who dies and becomes a ghost. New Rome is full of ghosts in canon, isn't it? Percy could just decide to hang out with his friends. Still painful, but they adjust to it.

Percy who dies and gets reborn and like 15 years from now, his friends get to meet him again, in a new body and have to cope with that.

Percy who dies and is just... gone.

Sooo, before you can really work on "What would they do?", you have to pick what you do. Where do you want Percy's death to go, because depending on the route taken, the reactions would vary.

Obviously, everyone grieves in their own way. So keep in mind how the characters act in canon. (Which, quite frankly, in the case of Nico really only leaves the "fuck this shit" Orpheus and Eurydice version, considering he tried to bring back Bianca for years and successfully revived Hazel.)

And "What would they do?" also depends on what you want them to do. Because if you stick with canon, most of them would just be sad for a bit and then move on, if canon's anything to go by. Annabeth in HoO never even mentions Luke or her grief for her first big crush slash mentor who had died just a few short months before. I refuse to touch ToA but from what I gather no one attempted to bring back Leo and they were all just kinda sad until he returned on his own. Jason's dead too now and I don't think anyone tried to bring him back either and Piper's already smooching her new love interest from what I've heard. And "camp" as a large entity wouldn't do much; all of them have lost so many siblings in the war and they moved on from it. They'd burn a shrout for Percy and move on from it, though he is our protagonist, in the general picture of a war riddled society with child soldiers who have lost dozens of siblings in the past few short years already, his death is not that much more significant than any of the others.

You can go with the route closest to what is considered "in character" by orienting yourself on the way these characters have been shown in canon to react to character deaths.

Personally, I think Riordan was a coward who vastly downplayed the PTSD, survivor's guilt and grief these characters should have been going through by the time HoO rolled around and I think that you should make the judgment call yourself. You've read the books, you have a feel for how they acted, how they felt, how they reacted. What do you think would be their appropriate reaction?

Sure, you could give me a list of characters you want involved in this and the scenario you want to go with and I can directly answer the question you asked and tell you how I think they'd react. And that can be a good guideline if you are unsure yourself. But at the end of the day, this is your story and it must feel like yours. You have to be the one who, when reading it, is satisfied by the reactions and behind how they acted. And that can easily be derailed by looking to others for guidance. That's not meant to be me declining your answer; if you do want to know what I think specific characters' reactions would be like in a specific scenario, then come back to me with that and I'll offer you my opinion.

It's more meant to be encouragement for you to look into yourself and test your own grasp on the characters and go with whatever reactions you think would be most satisfying; they don't necessarily have to be the most in character. Not just because sometimes, as above mentioned, "in character" can be dissatisfying and deliberately play down emotions a real person would be feeling in certain scenarios (often due to the author's own lack of knowledge about the specific scenario, deliberate ignorance or ratings; it's tough to sell a kids' book series if you genuinely confront the trauma that comes with the reality of being a child soldier), but also because sometimes, being more "out of character" is just... more fun, sometimes things are thought experiments, sometimes you want the extreme reaction because it makes for a better or more entertaining read.

Since this turned, uh, longer than anticipated, to sum it up shortly: Decide what Percy's death is supposed to mean in the larger context of the story and where you want to go with it, then decide which specific characters' reactions you're looking for. In some cases, you can easily compare to how they have reacted to a similar scenario in the past and then see for yourself if you want to stay in line with that reaction, or if you feel like a different reaction would be more appropriate, or just more fun to write/read.

You read the books and, I assume, enough fanfiction to know the characters and find your answer yourself, even if you're unsure about it right now. And if you do want more detailed input, you are free to come back to me with specifics, or message me in private and we can talk certain scenarios or particular characters you're struggling with through and I'll see if I can help you. ;)

[rickriordanfandam]

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear 

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were  thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing 

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes 

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below) 

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/ 

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture 

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry 

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong. 

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up.  the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more 

[arse-crack-thistle]

10 characters, 10 fandoms, 10 tags

okay so yay i was tagged in something!! (thank you @overwhelmed-blueberry-muffin!) but i’m not super involved in fan culture like i was in high school (the exception being mcquiston books obvi) so this is just my favorite people from the first ten things i could think of! :)

henry fmw - rwrb - i almost picked alex bc he helped me realize my own sexuality, but it’s henry for me. i just connect with his character on a completely different emotional level than alex. (and i’m a sucker for soft boys.)

percy jackson - pjo/hoo/toa - it’s nearly impossible to pick a favorite character from riordan bc there are so many, and choosing percy might be sooo basic, but this boy right here got me through middle school and makes me laugh out loud during every reread, so as much as i love nico and reyna and lester, i gotta go with my main man percy.

christina yang - grey’s anatomy - i love this woman with my whole heart, and she never had a bad episode. knockout after knockout one liners too oh my god. beautiful and brilliant. 10/10.

calum hood - 5sos - i used to run a 5sos blog in high school, so i thought it only fitting to include the band that got me on tumblr. calum keeps to himself and does what he does. respect for a king living a quiet life with his dog. also he’s a bassist so it’s a given.

catherine howard - six - dudes, her song live just kills me. like i jam out to the cast recording, but watching her live is so emotional. if i ignored the message at the end of the show, catherine would win the “saddest life” competition imo.

peeta mellark - hunger games - he’s a soft bread boy. what else is there to say?? (fun fact: my longest piece of writing to date is a hg fanfic i wrote on wattpad when i was 15 lol.)

blair waldorf - gossip girl - it’s queen fucking b. who else am i going to pick?? (but fuck chuck tbh. did not deserve redemption imo.)

zuko - atla - not to steal one from blueberry muffin, but i can’t ignore a perfect character arc. let’s here it for our boy who recognized his trauma was not an excuse to terrorize people and worked to redeem himself. honor restored, zuko. love ya, buddy.

summer roberts - the oc - this girl had me going for a second there in the first season but then kicked me in the stomach with how amazing she was! my opinion of her at the end of the show was a complete 180 from the first few episodes. we love an environmentally conscious queen who uses her privilege for good!!

galleria - the cheetah girls - i’m talking specifically about the second one when this boss ass bitch wanted to win the festival, and her flakey friends complained about her hard work. are you kidding me?! not only did she write killer songs but she slayed every outfit she was put in. like strutting down the streets of barcelona in heels?! living her best life...living my best life tbh. and she was chubby which made 8-year-old me and makes 22-year-old me feel seen!

idk who my mutuals are since this is technically a secondary blog, so here are the first 10 people that came up: @henrygeorgeedwardjames @allthoughtisfeedback @sonecta @obsessed-bisexuwhale @bi-disaster-fsotus @claremonts-diaz @hufflepuff-ass-bitch @fucking-eyelashes @twohomessidebyside @gwen-stacey

anyone who wants to do it, feel free! (and tag me if you want to!) :)

[diverse-writing]

Pt. 1-Hi! I'm a Black woman writing a Fanfiction for an anime series called Food Wars and I'm creating a sister and brother who are half-Lakota (Itazipcola Band) and half-Black American. They're going to a Japanese Culinary High School, the same school their great-uncle (Kiowa) went to when America was in Japan, post-WWII for a few years as his father was in the army. It's a very competitive school with diverse characters and cooking styles/types. They both want to travel and see a new country.

(continued) They live in Sioux Falls, SD after moving from the Cheyenne River Rez years ago. The family owns a Catering company with Native, African, and American Southern food (Mom is from VA) that does Showcasings, Chef Demos, and feeding the people within both communities while mentoring the youth. Annie (Older sis) wants to be a Pastry Chef as Andrew (little bro) does mostly savory, especially BBQ. Annie was on a kid's baking show as Andrew won kid's BBQ competitions. Both siblings want to help their communities by spreading awareness about poverty, suicide, and other stuff. They are active in their Native heritage. I did research in Natives in Japan, and I found that it's a bit mixed. Some people don't know about Natives, or that they do but only through the news and old western films. There's this one guy who went to a tribe to learn about the culture and he went back to Japan to teach his students about how the Natives truly lived. There's a Native jewelry store in Tokyo So some Japanese do know about Natives, I want to write a few small scenes where the Japanese students ask questions that are stereotypical about Natives and Black people, but they learn from the siblings. Annie begins to have a crush on a boy who is mixed indigenous (Ainu/Saami), but isn't connected to those cultures, because of his Ainu dad dying and Saami mom leaving him. He was adopted by a rich Japanese/Danish family. I want him to learn more about his heritage after falling for Annie and begins to heal from his past through learning about the Saami. Before he didn't want to do anything with them due to his mom. Andrew falls for a Japanese girl who does Medicine Cuisine. He's a expert in Nutrition and tries to help his people's health issues. They have a cute relationship. I thought of these characters just like any other person. I'm Black and I don't like seeing stereotypes. Annie and Andrew love music due to their dad formerly being in a band with only one album. They're both crafty with the Arts due to their grandparents on both sides teaching them. Annie is more outgoing, goofy, and blunt than Andrew but she enjoys the simple stuff in life and loves fashion (Vintage 60s/70s and Punk) Andrew is more quiet and shy, but not antisocial. He just likes doing his own thing while teasing his sis on her shortness and crush. He likes comfy, Punk clothing. I was just wondering what is offensive and not. I want to show their food and aspects of culture, like Powwows (I've been watching videos on Lakota Powwows) and I've been wondering if there's a coming of age ceremony. I don't want to show it just mention it. Is this where people get their Lakota name? I don't want to do religious ceremonies since that's sacred and also I'm not really religious, but what if I want to allude about it? Sorry that this was way too long!

Okay, this is a huge question but I’ll do my best to answer it with the GIANT caveat that I’m not indigenous and am only answering to the best of my knowledge. If any indigenous followers--particularly those with experience in Japan/with Japanese culture, though of course all are welcome--have thoughts or feelings, as always feel free to add more information and/or correct me!

A few observations that jump out, based on your description of your narrative framework:

Their food. Okay, while I know absolutely nothing about the food cultures you describe, I’m a huge fan of connecting with your culture through your food (and your stomach!) so I love this framing. That being said, to my knowledge African American food is fairly distinct from African food, with the former more likely to be in their cultural background given your description (obviously, in this situation you’re the expert on Black culture so feel free to totally ignore me here). 

Andrew’s food interests. Related to the previous bullet point, based on my understanding Medicine Cuisine and Nutrition would be super interesting focuses for him given his cultural background. It’d be super cool to seem him integrate his various cooking specialties and heritages into nourishing food to support his people. 

Knowledge about Native Americans in Japan. I do think it’s likely accurate that unless someone in Japan has personally done research, the average Japanese citizen probably knows very little about indigenous Native Americans in the same way the average American knows very little about Japanese indigenous ethnic groups. 

Relatedly, I think it makes sense for their Japanese classmates to ask stereotypical questions, but you should steer clear of just plain offensive questions. As you likely know, answering stereotypical questions about your identity and heritage is exhausting and should be treated as such within the narrative. Your characters are in school to educate themselves, not to educate their classmates, so while the latter may occur sometimes I don’t think it should be their focus. So while the intent of the questioning scene may partially be to help answer readers’ questions about Annie and Andrew’s heritage (and Black and Lakota culture to an extent), remember that the ultimate goal of representation is not to educate others but to help people within those demographics see themselves on the page. And more likely than not, Black and Lakota readers won’t want to see characters representing themselves having to answer the same repetitive questions they face down all the time.

I know you only mentioned him in passing, but I have a lot more thoughts specifically about Annie’s mixed Ainu/Saami crush. I don’t want to tell you *not* to write him but I do think there are several pitfalls you need to carefully avoid moving forward.

His Saami mother. There’s a big stereotype around POC abandoning their children, being absent or flighty parents, or otherwise just failing to properly nuture their children. While I’m unaware of any specific stereotype regarding indigenous  parents, I would tentatively say that doesn’t mean those stereotypes don’t exist, so tread carefully. That being said, I do know there���s a stereotype about indigenous people being alcoholics, so you should absolutely avoid characterizing his mother as such because as an outsider, you don’t have the power to subvert that stereotype. 

His relationship with his heritage. I would also be very cautious while writing his arc of reconnecting to his heritage. While reconnecting is unfortunately a very real (and very under represented) process for indigenous people, it’s an extremely difficult and personal process that I don’t think outsiders are qualified to write in-depth about. Though I don’t think you should necessarily gloss over his reconnecting process, I do think it should perhaps be a side character arc, rather than his defining character arc. For example, he might mention to Annie that her passion for her heritage has inspired him to research his own family, or else maybe he’s pictured buying a book on the Saami language. (The current discussion around Rick Riordan’s portrayal of Piper’s imperfect reconnection to her Cherokee heritage makes some really good points, so I’d check that out if you’re familiar with his books. I’d be happy to link you if you’re curious.)

His adopted family. I have to admit--as the daughter of a transracial adoptee in a family full of transracial adoptees, this framing makes me very wary. While I know transracial adoption parents likely have only the best intentions, the adopted child themselves often end up hugely disconnected from their birth cultures. It’s often an extremely stressful and traumatic event, especially in cases where the adopted parents don’t learn about their child’s birth culture themselves and/or only teach the child their own cultures (in this case, Japanese and Dutch). Honestly, with all due respect, I have yet to see any fictional narratives that properly address the trauma of transracial adoptions and given everything else going on in your writing, I’m not sure how well you would be able to write about it. More in the next bullet point.

His extremely mixed heritage. While I don’t want to come across as rude, I do have to ask: what’s your intention behind making a single side character with four different cultural backgrounds, especially backgrounds that you the author don’t share? The reality is that, no matter how much research you may do, these four cultures--Ainu, Saami, Japanese, and Dutch--are very rarely found in combination, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find any #ownvoices accounts from similar scenarios that you could hypothetically draw on to write more accurately. As a result, you’d know very little about how these different cultures meld together, and you’d have almost nothing to go on to write about his mixed multicultural background and the tensions that come with it. While I understand you may be attached to his parental setup and his backstory, I would highly advise simplification to avoid straying into territory you neither understand or are qualified to write about. Given your focus on his reconnecting, I would probably recommend keeping his Ainu father alive and cutting his adopted family. That way, you cut the number of unknown cultures in half and you can truly dedicate yourself to writing his Ainu heritage and his reconnecting process well.

With regards to your actual question about Lakota religious ceremonies, as a non-indigenous person I’m definitely not qualified to answer specifics about Lakota coming of age and naming ceremonies. That being said, I know this: Native American ceremonies, rituals, traditions, and lore are often closely guarded and not shared with outsiders. And I don’t just mean outsiders don’t share in the ceremonies themselves--outsiders often can’t even learn about the ceremonies because the knowledge itself is guarded. (This information is secondhand from my Blackfoot professor last year. If I’m wrong or if any indigenous followers have more accurate information, as always I’m open to critiques and suggestions!) As you continue researching this, I’d definitely be mindful of the source; if it comes from an official Lakota or indigenous source, it’s likely okay to share or discuss, but if all you can find about Lakota religious ceremonies is from, like, someone’s blog or Facebook post or something, then that information likely wasn’t approved to share and you shouldn’t write it into your story. Given that this seems to only be a character detail mentioned briefly, you may be able to simply mention the characters’ Lakota names in passing without referencing the ceremony itself.

Sorry for the long response, and I hope at least some of this information helps!

(Also, if you read this post, this is a good example of a really well researched and thought out ISO Sensitivity Reader question. Obviously, I’ve provided what information I can and this individual seems to have done lots of research, but the execution comes down to... well, the actual execution.)

[carelessgraces]

🖋 heartbreak

HEADCANON PROMPTS ( ACCEPTING )

- heartbreak doesn’t often happen to astoria? she’s very good at detaching herself from messy emotional situations, and so when things start to look like they’re going south, she typically separates herself from any real emotional connection.

- part of this is that she’s experienced a lot in terms of trauma? and one of the things that happens when you’ve been traumatized like that, particularly when you’re young, is that you develop as a defense mechanism an ability to shut down the part of you that gets really attached to things. it’s bitter and disappointing, but it doesn’t break you the way it might otherwise.

- part of this, too, is just astoria’s personality: she’s clever, and cunning, and she’s very good at keeping a measure of control over herself. everything is a performance for astoria, and so there’s always a level of detachment.

- the verse where she’s really defined by her heartbreak, and where she really can’t remove it, is the verse where she lies to @ofexaltations‘ shaw and hides until after the battle at denerim that she asked riordan to join her. because of that lie – her continuation of the lie especially – there really isn’t much he can do with her; he can’t rely on her, he can’t trust her, and he’s understandably angry. so when it comes time for the wardens to leave, he sends her to orlais – she was joined by an orlesian warden. she’s an orlesian warden.

- astoria serves her time in the wardens, then, under clarel, and for the first six or seven years she’s in the emprise du lion. she’s separated from her home – she can’t go back to antiva, and because she did this with no warning, the succession in seleny is thrown into question. her grandfather is furious with her, and so is her mother; her grandfather doesn’t speak to her for years, ignores her letters, only writes back when he starts getting sick. she’s separated from her family in ferelden, too, and while she can see them occasionally, it doesn’t happen much. more than that, she’s separated from everyone in the origins crew, and the person she wants to see most wants nothing to do with her.

- the heartbreak here happens early and it lasts for a decade, at least. she knows it’s her own fault; she knows that if she’d just been honest, if she’d gotten over herself and told him the truth, none of this would have happened. so this heartbreak tends to manifest as anger: anger at shaw, first, for sending her away, then anger at riordan for not surviving; then anger at her family for not keeping i touch. finally, she settles on anger with herself, and that anger-heartbreak combination makes her really self-destructive.

- she doesn’t stay in regular touch with anyone from the origins crew besides alistair and oghren. she refuses to ask about shaw. she and leliana will occasionally encounter each other or exchange letters, and zevran comes to see her for a while after things in antiva have settled and to bring her some things from seleny, but she’s a wreck, and so friendship with her is difficult.

- she becomes close to clarel, and ends up transferred to adamant, where she and clarel become closer, and where she is, unofficially, expected to take up some of the absent constable blackwall’s duties.

- the one time she writes to shaw, it’s when she starts to hear the calling. she doesn’t expect an answer. 

- so her heartbreak manifests through this: recklessness and relative isolation. she’s close to clarel because she knows that clarel finds her more useful when she’s being reckless, because this means astoria is willing to do things that other wardens won’t. oghren doesn’t often express concern. alistair expresses concern, but he understands the dangers of being a warden, and so he won’t judge. 

- it also manifests in her spending less and less time in prayer; she doesn’t care too much for the maker these days. 

- by the time here lies the abyss rolls around, she’s connected with elissa hawke – and the both of them are pretty broken, so they make for good company. when evie trevelyan chooses elissa to remain in the fade, astoria is furious – in part for losing her friend, in part because she became a warden to die and nobody will let her die when she’s ready. the wardens are her family; she should be the one to die for them.

- going from adamant to weisshaupt is difficult mostly because she’s going with shaw, and because this requires her to start to face the fact that she’s going to live for a while yet, and it doesn’t have to be reckless, and she doesn’t have to be hurt while she’s living. this is especially true if they go looking for the cure. 

[bewitchthequeen]

Caleo Makes Me Cringe And Here’s Why

Yet another Heroes of Olympus anti list for your asses so prepare your butts because I’m about to blow ‘em clean off.

Note: Usually things apply. If you like Caleo and don’t care to hear counter opinions and that makes you aggressive and mean then this isn’t something you’re interested in, I’m going to have to ask you to move along :D I’m entitled to my opinions as you are yours. Any aggression targeted at me because I don’t ship what you ship will be treated with demeaning responses

You have been warned

Side Note: I have nothing but love for Rick Riordan, these are solely my opinions, which I’m entitled to have.

If you have anything to include, feel free to add your own thoughts.

I’m putting this under a Read More so people who don’t want to see this doesn’t have to.

1. To the people who say that Caleo is the best ship because “it’s not incest”. You are wrong. Calypso is Atlas’ daughter, Leo is Hephaestus’ son.  In Riordan verse, Atlas is Iapetus’ son, Iapetus is Kronos/Cronus’ brother, Kronos/Cronus is Zeus and Hera’s father, Hera is Hephaestus’ mother (and in some myths Zeus is his “biological” dad but we’ll ignore this for the riordan verse). If you’re using the incest card, it’s still incest as all gods and titans are related in some way as they all came from Gaea in some way, shape, or form. So kissing cousins apply here and that makes your argument invalid. Claiming it’s the only “healthy” or not gross ship is a lie or you could go along with Rick and his “genetics are a human thing”. The choice is yours.

2. They started out hating each other but skipped the whole tolerating/friendship stage and basically went straight into romance which doesn’t work for the short amount of time they were together. It was a weak build up and even now Leo looks like a lovestruck little boy while Calypso seems to be rather aloof and disengaged from the relationship. Kind of like now that people are around to see them she doesn’t want to be seen romantically with him? At least, that’s how it looks to me. This is my perception.

3. Calypso seems very angry still and I feel like it would be better for her to work on that solo rather than be in a relationship where she needs to kind of take it a lot slower than she would if she was alone. She has to take another person’s feelings into account so that’s not the best for someone with so much pent up anger. Take it from someone who has had something like that.

4. What would have been a more powerful story line for both of them would have been Leo realizing he doesn’t need to be in a relationship to feel validated and cared for. That being the 7th wheel isn’t a bad thing unless you perceive it that way. It’s a flaw with most books like this and young adult books. All the main characters simply have to be in a relationship. It seems like it’s a must and it’s not. A fair amount of people go through high school without dating. I had two boyfriends, one that lasted for a month (and he gave me fucking panic attacks) and then one that lasted about six months (before a tragedy), but I had friends who had been dating their S.O. since freshman year, some who chewed through boyfriends like no tomorrow, some who didn’t want to date, and some who just never dated. For what seems to be every young adult book ever, there are couples even if feelings don’t bloom until the very end of the book. So imagine my disappointment at how unrealistic these are becoming? It seems literally everyone in PJO/HoO/ToA are in a relationship even background and minor characters. I feel like it’s because people suspect this out of Rick now, and it makes me feel bad that he feels he needs to pair everyone up. I can’t imagine how stressful that must be. He shouldn’t have to do that. There’s this wonderful thing called fan fiction; you can read it, write it, and explore it. You don’t need to make that poor man feels like everyone needs to be in a relationship. It has negative affects/effects on people that age who reads them because then they feel like they need to be in a relationship to feel validated (like Leo) and could possibly end up in a bad relationship or feel like there’s something wrong with them for not being in one.

5. For Calypso because #4 was so long. Calypso’s story would have been a lot more powerful had she learned to love herself and the boat come for her. It would have been a real strong hit like “You don’t need someone to save you” and “You can save yourself” and self love promotion. (Honestly, both of their storylines could have done that but those opportunities were missed unless it gets horrendously retconned). In this day and age, I definitely feel like promoting self love is more powerful than Caleo unless you’re looking at it through rose colored glasses, like most shippers do. I’m guilty of this myself. I love Leo and I love Calypso, I just feel like there was a missed opportunity here.

6. Leo saving Calypso kind of made Percy look bad. This is a no-no. Making one character look bad for a relationship is a no-no. Percy usually keeps his promises. The only one I’ve seen him not keep was Bianca and even then I’m not 100% that was a promise? I don’t know. I just don’t like that Percy just “forgot” and basically made him like the other heroes that landed on Calypso’s island. I’m confident that’s not something that Percy would just “forget” but whatever. There’s a lot with HoO that I don’t like when it comes to Percy but that’s a post for another time.

7. Okay this is just because I seen a post from a pro caleo blog (and I’m not going to tag cause I don’t want to start a fight since this is a personal opinion and they made it clear they’re going to “defend caleo till they die”. I’m not trying to talk anyone out of anything. I’m stating my opinions, but claiming things about other ships without acknowledging your own ships faults is a no-no. (that’s the reasoning for the first reason on here). Here’s my defense (despite the fact I don’t really ship any of the canon ships but unfair attacks are unfair attacks) alright so here we go.      a. “ Percabeth = Incest.” See #1 because Caleo is also incest and I explained it above making this a useless excuse to ship Caleo.      b. “Tysella = Furry.” Okay, but Ella is a harpy and Tyson is a cyclopes. I don’t understand why furry is being claimed here but okay. You’re entitled to your opinion, but harpies were never considered animals as they are mythical creatures and I, personally, don’t include mythical creatures as furries but aiight. Furries have fur, not feathers. I haven’t seen any furries/fursonas with feathers. If I’m wrong all I ask is that you prove it without being vulgar.       c. “Grover/Juniper = Furry” Okay. Grover is a satyr which doesn’t really strike me as Furry since it’s humanoid, same with Ella, so it’s not furry as furry are completely animals? And anyways Juniper is basically a fucking nature spirit? It’s basically similar to how a dog likes rolling around in the grass? Whatever though       d. “Jason and Piper = Incest” again so is Caleo. skip Frank and Hazel because nothing was really said on this.       e. “Paul and Sally = Sally’s probably traumatized by Gabe beating the shit out of her” Okay, what does that have to do with Paul and Sally? That’s completely irrelevant to Paul and Sally’s relationship especially since there’s no hint at Paul being abusive to Sally? Sure, Sally is probably traumatized, but I would think she’s working through that since she seems to have a functioning relationship. But what does Sally’s trauma have to do with Paul? Weak excuse.       f. “Solangelo = Not only is Nico 85 while Will 14 but he’s possessive etc, etc”. Okay, but Nico is technically 14 himself? I mean, yes, he was born way back, but if we’re looking at age here Calypso is thousands of years older than Leo. And with possessive, I’m pretty sure Leo got mad at Percy about Calypso and was even kind of mad/jealous of Jason while he was trapped on the island because of Calypso not being interested in him and basically calling him scrawny or something like that. And Nico is in the body of a fourteen year old, he has the mind of a fourteen year old. He is a fourteen year old. He is in the mental state of a fourteen year old. Do you know how unsettling that would be if he dated someone “his own age”? His growth, mentally and physically, have been stunted thanks to the Lotus Hotel, so Nico di Angelo is a fucking fourteen year old. Let’s be clear that I don’t ship Solangelo, but after the shit that kid has been through he deserves to be happy. He lost all of his family, was forcibly outed by his sexuality by an asshole god, went through Tartarus by himself, and had to deal with feeling lost in a world that he didn’t feel accept him even among his peers/the people who should have understood him the most. If anyone deserves to be happy. It’s him. Fucking drop it.       g. “Chris/Clarisse” we’re back at incest and I’m back at Caleo being incest.       h. “Charles and Selena” again with incest because their parents are married. Atlas is Hephaestus’ great uncle so that’s seriously your kid dating your cousin. But Caleo isn’t creepy or incest. Okay thanks. Beckendorf and Silena are a ship that I actually enjoyed because they gave a shit about each other and loved each other despite parentage and then they died and it broke my heart. Honestly, if you find this creepy, a mother and daughter dated a police officer and his son in the Scream TV Series. That I found weird especially since that was all biological. Rick already said that genetics and gods aren’t a thing. The fact that I’m saying this more that once is exhausting. Just because your parents are married doesn’t mean it’s incest. To make this less creepy, Hephaestus and Aphrodite never had children and it’s a bullshit marriage anyways so. Whatever.

Honestly, if you’re going to be biased, at least know your facts. 

That’s all I got now, feel free to start a discussion.

[dogbearinggifts]

OKAY. Now I am home and off mobile, and I can give these responses the attention they deserve. I’m going to do it all in one post and tag people, to make it a little easier. 

I think the dreams work as well as they do in the PJO series because Riordan is explicitly drawing on the Greek and Roman tradition regarding the importance of dreams, i.e. that they’re messages from the gods and should be treated with care and reverence. (Many ancient cultures across the globe regarded dreams in a similar way, though.) Since it’s established early on that dreams are not to be ignored because they’re messages from the gods, and messages that could possibly contain life-saving information for a dangerous quest, it makes sense for the demigods to have vivid, detailed dreams that they can recount perfectly later on, and for those dreams to have crucial significance in the plot. 

That sort of treatment wouldn’t necessarily work in a more slice-of-modern-life setting, because we’ve drastically changed our view of dreams. Some faiths hold that dreams can have prophetic value or contain messages from deities or spirits, but not all adherents will espouse that opinion. By and large, modern western culture sees dreams as the mind’s way of making sense of the things that happened throughout the day, or of difficulties the dreamer is currently facing. So in a settling like that, I think a dream would be expected to be more symbolic than mystical, leading itself more to psychoanalysis than to plot speculation. 

And therein lies the problem. It’s so easy to overdo Deep Symbolism and Surreal Imagery. In a more non-magical setting, dreams can be a fascinating peek into a character’s psyche and how they’re processing things—but it’s easy to get caught up in adding a symbolic referent for every. single. thing. they’re facing at the moment. When this happens, it tends to come across as…kind of melodramatic, in my opinion. But if there’s not enough detail, the entire sequence comes across as pointless. There’s a fine balance, and I’m honestly not sure if it’s possible to draw the line anywhere in particular. Like you pointed out, there’s a lot of factors to consider, and what works in one story might not work in another. 

@jojowing​

Maybe I’m weird, but I tend to like bizarre dream sequences used for comedic effect. Like the one in Inside Out, where Riley’s brain cells put on a nightmare about her first day and Fear sits there rolling his eyes at how cliched it all is—until Bing Bong and that clown crash the dream? That was hilarious—and it moved the plot along. Lost did a funny one too, back when it was still a good show, but I digress.

A handful of details usually works well, in my opinion—but then, I usually err on the side of “less is more” when it comes to disturbing imagery. Leaving most of what happens to the imagination is a large part of what made the violence in The Dark Knight so unsettling, in my opinion—but TUA has some pretty explicit gore, for a TV-14 rating, and it works just as well. I guess the number of details you share depends on what you want to do with them. 

@god-shuffled-his-feet​ 

Yeah, dreams tend not to resemble memories for a lot of people. If you dream you’re back at your old middle school, you’re more likely to run into a teacher who turns into the Balrog and demands you pay tribute in gummy worms than you are to relive that embarrassing fall dance moment-for-moment. I think trauma is a good exception for that rule—in TUA, we see Klaus having nightmares about being locked in the mausoleum and reliving that memory through flashbacks, which clues the audience in that both his nightmares and flashbacks are the result of PTSD. For other memories, I think flashbacks tend to be more effective. 

And once again, there’s that question of how much to show and how much to leave out? If this part sticks with the dreamer, will it stick with the reader too? It’s a question that’s a lot harder to answer than it seems, because I don’t think there’s a single hard-and-fast answer for it. 

Thanks, nonnie! ^_^

Nightmares can definitely be effective at building horror and suspense, and they can show how deeply something is affecting a character (see: Klaus and his nightmares about the mausoleum). But then there’s still that same question of how much is too much, and how much is too little? How surreal do you go with the details, and how much do you stick to reality? 

Maybe part of the problem with finding these answers is that no two people—no two characters—really process things the same way. Some people might stick with a problem and examine it in full until they’ve hit on a solution; others might keep distracting themselves and coming back to it until they have an answer. Some might avoid it entirely and make nightmares the only time they think about it. Maybe it’s so tricky to write an effective nightmare sequence because what’s frightening for a character might not be frightening for everyone in the audience; and symbolism that fits the character might fall flat with the audience. Dreams and nightmares are so individualized that I think it’s difficult to give them broad appeal and make them effective for everyone reading. 

Thoughts on dream sequences?

If a character has a nightmare, do you think it’s more effective to show the whole thing or to just mention the most pertinent details? Are dream sequences overdone or underutilized?