#also fun fact there's a non zero chance that Alison is named after 1 of Rick's students mentioned in the tlt acknowledgements

[artemx746]

(Just copying this from my frustrated-with-the-pjo-fandom induced ramblings on the ta server + al lot more more shit than I expected to write)

I think the main pjo fandom has such a misunderstanding of why Alison might be bad for the show

It's not because she's a new character, I honestly think a new character could be good for the show, but it's because the pjo show team has already shown a fundamental misunderstanding of what pjato should be at its core (that being disability). Alison will most likely only prove what we already knew: that being the show not actually knowing what to do with pjo

Gonna be straight up here, I don't think any of these arguments against Alison are really about the fact she's a new character, season one had plenty of changes that a lot of people were fine with despite them not really making sense (why was Annabeth there for Luke's betrayal). They're because she's a new ta character and that'll either lead to the fandom confronting the fact that they've had a bias against the ta characters for literally no reason (Percy destroyed a bridge and blew up a boat, chb also had child soldiers) or their deep rooted sexism against barely morally gray women without stripping them of their agency.* The only fear I kinda get is that Alison will end up replacing one of the ta characters but unless you're a diehard Kelli fan I don't think there's really much to worry about, I'm not saying she'll replace Kelli as a Luke love interest but rather an 'evil bossy woman' type so they don't need to animate Kelli's hair.

The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of disability. I've rambled about this before on the ta server** but Alison is most likely going to be a child of a minor god, and while I do want more minor god kids, the minor god's kids represent a very important part of the disability metaphor, that being disability hierarchies specifically being detrimental against people with physical disabilities and people with stigmatised mental illnesses (npd bpd schizophrenia etc) . Alison has an open casting, and while that would usually be fine for any other character I doubt they'll cast someone with a physical disability and I highly doubt they'll cast someone with a stigmatised mental illness. So you either have: an abled bodied person acting like they have a disability OR a ruined metaphor and Ethan's eye was lost for nothing.

Ta server ramblings under the cut

*Me: considering how this fandom treats women I do not wanna see them if Alison is in the book. They can't handle Silena without stripping her down to "UwU poor manipulated girl" I do not wanna see them with Alison

making it out that Silena was just in love with Luke and he manipulated her is a) reaffirming the sexist stuff about aphrodite kids and b) robs Silena of her agency to make decisions that she ends up regretting

**Me: Honestly hate when people act like it was just Percy who got the minor gods cabins, buddy did the metaphor go over your That Much. The reason it had to be Percy was because he represents people who already have resources speaking out for those who don’t because they’re more respected. That applies to both Percy and Luke. Percy was not the reason for it it was Ethan,

There is a Reason why Ethan was the first named demigod child of a minor god and he had a physical disability, it has a mythic reason like all of the others but it is still a disability. Ethan represents the metaphor in the minor god demis, that being hierarchies in disabled communities

(this is another reason why I'm scared for Alison in s2 because she's probably going to be a child of a minor god)

what I'm really worried about is they either: make Alison physically disabled and kill her off (killing off all* your physically disabled characters rick how fun)

OR

make her able bodied and the metaphor is lost unless they explicitly say she has another stigmatised mental disability which they will not

*I don't count the kid from toa since he's a background character mentoned once and hephaestus was pretty much disabled in the myths so not rick's

okay end of ramblings jesus christ