#and too speculative since i lost all my citations and sources

[parcai]

okay so like tartarus sucks to me? I'd rather it not have been described at all but since it was, let's see 🤔 one of the biggest points was that annabeth and percy couldn't breathe the air because it was toxic and needed to drink from the phlegethon often. this makes sense but it rendered annabeth nearly useless? which was good because her pov was exceptional during those parts but also??? most of tartarus was percy and annabeth being carried by bob. do you think they would've survived without him? 🤔

actually it did a pretty well job of establishing how hard annabeth needed to try without her weapons and usual items, while oppositely bringing up the op powers of percy (that's for a later post tho)

anyway, the imagery that tartarus was alive and the monsters bubbled up like pimples was so icky enough that it was perfect. however it seemed very empty 🤔 like idk, don't monsters LIVE there???? it was a wasteland but not apocalyptic enough, i suppose 🤔 they could've interacted more with the world!!!! the hermes shrine seemed like such a cheap cop out 😖

anyway talk about tartarus clown 😑 these are my thoughts, do with it as u will. tell me why tartarus specifically (not the entire underworld yet) is cool and why you like it 😤💕

anyway idk if you saw but basically what i wrote about this got deleted so :/ there will not be as much fervor as i write again the second time, plus i will have forgotten 90% of the things i said since i wrote so much

addressing your thoughts: okay so annabeth’s pov was fabulous, and you’re so right for that. also i totally agree that the description of tartarus in itself was so good, but i just wish there was more of it. it was super cool how tartarus was a living, breathing environment in hoh, just like gaea, like you mentioned with the gross description (and this also makes me think about ouranos and his is still alive or will be eventually since he’s not really “dead”...) honestly in general, i feel that if rick had stopped dicking around with the tom foolery, it would’ve been so much scarier and effective in general. like i understand that it’s a children’s book, but rick also made it very clear that hoo was intended for an older audience (bc he realized that his fans had also aged with pjo and he was trying to appeal to that audience), and i think it would’ve been better if you wrote it 🙄 also i definitely agree that the hermes shrine was a major cop out, and just in general tartarus did not live up to expectations.

i feel like percabeth was mostly just...hiding during tartarus lmao?? like i understand why they have to and it could’ve worked if rick had established the stakes that way, but he didn’t. it felt more like a result of him poorly planning out the worldbuilding for such a crucial subplot, which is the crux of my issue with rick’s tartarus, but i digress. these shortcomings, however, set up for something that was actually one of my favorite concepts of tartarus of all time (and i am most irritated got deleted): the mansion of night.

(i should preface this by saying that tartarus is the least understood aspect of ancient greek mythology, that based on the Greek ancient sources, information of tartarus as a god is limited since most people considered the term to represent a hell-pit. a lot of what i know about it is from spiraling into the strangest resources as a kid bc the tartarus concept resonated w me so much DJKFDSJF. that said, here’s what i think):

for background, i’ll paraphrase the wiki (linked above) and the scene from the book: basically annabeth and percy barely escape akhlys by jumping into nyx’s territory. there, they trick nyx and all her horrendous children by asking nyx who she thinks is her favorite child, and in an effort to prove themselves, her children accidentally create so much darkness that percy and annabeth have a second to escape, and they run into the mansion of night. (this is also what i’m talking about with the tomfoolery. nyx and all her children shrieking like idiots really diminishes the stakes of tartarus and makes it unbelievable that there is any real, imminent danger at all. ridiculousness, all of it lmao) they run through it with their eyes closed because annabeth says that the horrors in the mansion would be worse than seeing the face of medusa,  and so the million dollar question in my mind is, of course, what would they have seen if they opened their eyes?

here’s why the mansion of night is so fucking cool: “As the beat got louder, she smelled smoke and heard the flickering of torches on either side. She guessed there would be light, but a crawling sensation across her neck warned her it would be a mistake to open her eyes.” if you listen closely, you can hear me LOSING MY SHIT. GOD, this is just absolutely fucking genius. right off the bat, that description is fucking sick. like on god, i absolutely love the mansion of night scene. THE LIGHT ASPECT. the reason why this is so fucking interesting is because of the light aspect. it’s so brilliant, really, that percabeth was so afraid to move further into the darkness and toward the pits of chaos bc they were afraid they would see the worst of the worst, and the irony, the irony that the great greek primordials invented, is that the worst of the worstmonsters reside in the light, and THIS is where it gets especially cool. the mansion of night is tartarus’ heart, no doubt about it. this scene occurs about midway through their journey to the doors of death, the doors of death are the escape so they’re probably traveling downward, and the beating is so prominent in annabeth’s pov in this scene. (“In the distance ahead of them, Annabeth began to hear a throbbing sound, like her own heartbeat echoing back, amplified so powerfully the floor vibrated underfoot. The sound filled her with dread, so she figured it must be the right way to go.”) my theory is that the heart is where tartarus resided, one of his forms, probably his core, worst, true form, the one thing even the gods have never lay eyes on, the form that would demolish annabeth and percy on sight. if they had opened their eyes, they would’ve seen tartarus.

and that’s fucking INSANE to me that they walked right past him/in him (?) and they’ll forever have to wonder what they saw and never know it/drive themselves mad theorizing about it. because the ancient theory is that tartarus founded the Light and the cosmos. without darkness, there exists no light, and so without tartarus, there is no goodness. and ik that in the riordanverse, good is good, and bad is bad, and there is no nuance, but that’s not how it is in traditional ancient greek mythology. there is great nuance: tartarus founded the light bc, as i mentioned in my nico post, the darker gods and forces respect balance. tartarus founded the light, and the olympians rely on tartarus for all of humanity and good and evil and pandora’s spirits to exist, and everything must coexist, and the greatest fear, in this point, where annabeth feels the most dread, where annabeth feels this false sense of security and safety with torches casting light on her skin in the darkest part of tartarus, they stood in the presence of tartarus himself.

... i will not be okay for the next two hours ty v much

and then THAT whole au sends me absolutely spiraling like a madman. annabeth is such a curious being, and i can’t help but imagine how cool that could’ve been written if annabeth had let that curiosity get the best of her and opened her eyes. she would’ve seen him and died, ofc, but IMAGINE the fucking possibilities. imagine rick ending that chapter midsentence and we just have to come to the conclusion that in that moment they both died. imagine just wrapping up the book with the rest of the seven and percabeth’s end is implied but never explicitly stated. imagine how creepy and incredible it would be...oh my god...

i think that’s enough about the mansion of night. i forgot what else i said about it earlier lmao rip.

would they have died without bob? yes, no question about it lmao. mainly it’s because they were already injured and drained from fighting beforehand with arachne and whatever the argo was doing before saving annabeth (i forget exactly what), but if nico, child of hades, just barely managed to get out (and that was because he was captured and taken out, mind you), they would’ve been destroyed. annabeth is rendered almost useless in tartarus (which i actually like), and percy is sensitive to anger and lack of control. it brought out the worst in both of them. they were sloppy. they let the empousai corner them when the empousai are such miniscule monsters in the upper realm. they drank fire and poisoned themselves just to survive (which is also such a cool concept, the idea of slowly killing yourself and drawing out your punishment to live longer in hell mm). they were weak and tartarus was playing tricks on their brain. without bob and his immeasurable kindness, they would’ve had nothing to ground them, and they would’ve wasted away, perhaps not in as interesting as a way as i would’ve liked (like the mansion of night), but definitely eventually.

also, as i explained in your ask about percy closing the doors of death, i’ve said before that this would make a lot more sense than them surviving. it passes the torch onto the lost trio and the new generation of heroes. it opens up for new characters and arcs. unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), richard is a major pandering kinda dude and a wuss, so this was never even plausible, but alas, it’s still fun to think about.

miscellaneous (and memory loss):

idk i forgot what i said here, but there was another really cool point i made about tartarus being alive and something about his heartbeat and power and the difference between his primordial being, tartarus the place, and how hades plays into all of this, and now i don’t remember. all i could remember i rewrote in less cool phrasing 🤷

also there was something about moros, the greek personification of doom, older brother of the fates, and child of nyx. i don’t remember how it tied into tartarus (and it’ll probably come to me again later, but this wasn’t a theory i had in the back of my mind for a while like the mansion of night one, but rather something i realized while writing the mansion of night section the first time), but basically the premise was something about zeus being unable to kill moros. moros personifies doom, which is inherently linked to destiny. if zeus destroys moros, he would still be following his destiny, which leaves moros alive, and creates this incredible paradox. by killing moros, zeus allows chaos to reign, and that had something to do with pandora’s box.

i’m only writing this here bc i might remember later so i might as well put down what i remember 😤

anyway. sorry. lmao

-

bonus: “Smart boy, Annabeth thought. She used to tease Percy for being dumb, but in truth his instincts were usually right on target.” okay this has nothing to do with anything lol, but it’s cute and from the mansion of night scene, and also it proves my point about percabeth so 😎

[donnerpartyofone]

So I’m going to assume that this all is from the same irritatingly coy Cigarette Smoking Anon who, mostly during the election, would send me copied and pasted mid-stream chunks of Wiki Leaks or conspiracy-obsessed far right op eds from unknown sources (often about people like Clinton who I’d never even mentioned), as if this would spontaneously obliterate my naive little grip on reality, and I’d have to faint into the arms of Alex Jones or somebody for reprogramming. I have so many questions about this. And I mean, we can even skip the questions about why, if people like anon believe that all “non-western” men are clit-chopping baby-raping nightmare people, they don’t seem to give shit #1 about legal aid or shelter or health care for these women and children to whom they’re supposedly so sympathetic from refugee countries of origin. My questions are mainly about why trolling randos on social media is a better, or any kind of good use of anon’s valuable time and superior intellect.

What is supposed to happen when a person performs this kind of trolling? My most reasonable assumption is that I’m expected to work myself into a liberal frenzy where I pompously hurl invective at the invisible xenophobe who nervily tramples the rose garden of my utopian world view, until I exhaust myself, thusly making myself out to be a big stupid asshole with no self-control or real confidence in my beliefs. If that’s definitely the intention, I have a lot of questions about THAT too–mainly, what’s the point of it? Bear with me, if you feel like it.

Taking the anon’s perspective: If I thought that I knew for a fact that every human being from outside of the US and Western Europe posed a violent threat to everyone else, my priority action would probably NOT be to go around starting flame wars with random private internet citizens whose defeat would make not the slightest ripple in the universe. I would probably see the most important thing, well, other than full participation in my government and organized demonstrations for what I believe to be right–after that, I would probably see the most important thing as helping to eliminate dangerous ignorance through effective and direly needed education.

Let’s be specific: I use the word “education” to mean the spread of verifiable historical fact, and strategies for interpreting it critically. I do not mean, shouting at strangers like a lunatic with a doomsday sandwich board, vacilating between hyperbolic insults and paranoid grumbling about vast coverups.

(Like, whoever sent me, with zero context, that random sound bite about how the minimal Swedish news coverage of a violent rape attempt represents a vast conspiracy to protect refugees, is like…who in their right mind could even begin to believe that the dark inner workings of government or mass media, which are notoriously swayed only by power and money, actually serve to protect disenfranchised asylum-seekers from wartorn countries? I mean we would just live in a really different world if that were the priority of people powerful enough to orchestrate a “coverup”…)

This is behavior that seems HILARIOUSLY unlikely to change the perspectives or political behavior of random passersby, right? In fact, the more likely result is that the audience thinks, “Wow, I hate this guy. He’s calling me a piece of shit and he talks like a fucking crazy person. When I hear opposition to my ideals come out of this guy’s mouth in this maniacal way, it makes me feel even more assured of my preexisting beliefs than ever, and it makes me even less likely than ever to listen to anybody spouting the same type of bullshit.” But, for whatever reason, this seems to be a very popular method for far right bigots to surface their ideas. Surely there is some way in which this behavior contributes to the strength of their party and the success of what they see as justice, or why would they do it? I guess I’m just too stupid and shortsighted to derive from this anything other than a bunch of disorganized, childish raving that increases the confidence and political activity of their enemies, if not the sheer NUMBER of their enemies. Fun fact: my #1 inspiration for reblogging that antifa master post of thoroughly cited data regarding refugees in Sweden, was conspiracy anon sending me speculative fiction about how migrant crimes are hidden by a coverup. Good job anon, what an effective way to create change

But about my intellectual deficiency and my tragically limited perspective…what is supposed to be the value of harassing me? I mean me personally: Someone with a tiny little Tumblr that has a higher number of asks than followers, someone whose public political activity is (as far as Tumblr has any idea) limited to reblogging petitions in support of Chelsea Manning or Standing Rock, none of which remotely makes me an “influencer” of any kind. Maybe Alt Right Deep Throat Anon thinks this is grassroots campaigning, maybe they think that every big change has to begin with one small step, and that in the long run, people like them sending nasty insults and citation-free “news” to people like me represents a means of positive transformation into a better world for everyone.

I mean, the alternative is that anons like this are actually chronically frightened bigots who are easily led by anyone who attempts to justify their amorphous fear of brown people with foreign accents, thus relieving them of the scary responsibility to learn about and take action toward the protection of anyone other than the rich white scumbags who they droolingly invite to dominate them. Or maybe anon doesn’t even believe anything they’re saying and this is all a big joke–I mean, they don’t have the conviction or courage to attach their actual identity to any of these ideas, so I have tacit permission to just assume that none of this is “real” and there’s no reason for me to spend a single moment thinking about what “they” are trying to say to me, since they’ve unburdened themselves of any subjective individuality. But, as these mean anonymous messages suggest, I’m just a pinko liberal white feminist idiot who thinks everyone should hold hands and sing Kumbaya, so I’m only capable of assuming that anon is just and sincere, and their potent wisdom about how to change people’s minds is just lost on a tiny little dinosaur brain like mine. Sorry, try next door.

TL, DR: Anon’s methods of educating and debating are garbage, they undermine whatever point they’re trying to make if there even is one, and they will never have the slightest effect on anyone other than the choir to which they already belong.

Meanwhile, if you’ve actually read this far and you know anything about identifying and/or blocking anons, hit me up! I really don’t want to turn off anon, or alienate other anons, because I enjoy them. Even the unfunny performance artist anons and the sexually frustrated anons who need me to know that they think I’m ugly–yes, even you are valid (insofar as you are grist for my comedy mill). But I don’t need this shit on my blog. Sociopolitical issues rarely even make an appearance here, and I’d love to be able to keep it that away, with some stronger gatekeeping in place than me just learning to ignore specific kinds of trolling better.