#anti hoo

[ofswordsandpens]

Riordan: And the grand lesson that Percy needed to learn over the course of hoo, the culmination of his character arc of this series, the moment where the fate of the world hangs in the balance because of a single decision he has to make... is realizing when he needs to take a step back :)

Me:

[cynicalclairvoyantcadaver]

The thing about HOO is that it's either egregious, or amazing, or just......really plain and boring.

It retcons and ruins Nico and Percy's relationship. It ruins Percy's characterisation in PJO. Piper and Leo are 15 and haven't been attacked by monsters or brought to camp yet.

It depicts Piper and Hazel in a racist way (light hair and eyes to make them more attractive, both Hazel's parents have dark hair and eyes and no one else in the Aphrodite cabin has Piper's kaleidescope eyes)

It has a 14 year old date a 16 year old (Frazel).

Reyna calls Percy dumb in front of a whole group and Annabeth laughs and agrees with her.

It has Nico's acceptance arc be smashed to pieces. It has Nico be forcibly outed.

It has Frank's fatness magically disappear after being given the blessing of Ares.

It has Percabeth be abusive (Annabeth making Percy promise not to use his poison powers again when it could save them, not accepting them even though they're a part of Percy, her laughing at his trauma when he says Tartarus smells like Gabe, her bringing up Rachel to make Percy nervous, her agreeing with Reyna in front of an entire damn crowd that Percy is dumb and couldn't find his way out of a paper bag without her apparently).

It doesn't release Calypso from her island when in TLO the gods swore on the Styx to do so.

And it puts a millenia old goddess in a relationship with a teenager, and Rick even depicts Calypso herself as a teenager while saying that she romanced adult men.

It has a wolf goddes who eats children who aren't good enough according to her standards, when those children could be amazing at something else instead of just physical training and survival.

And I do NOT know how HOO wasn't a YA series based on the last one alone.

But there are also those moments with characters where they really accept themselves, like Piper growing out of her internalised misogyny, or with Jason and Leo, or with Frank learning about and using his abilities to be a badass magical warrior, or having a nice moment with Reyna and Nico. Or how it shows Clarisse and Coach Hedge's relationship and Hedge's backstory and his understandable fear and concern for his wife.

And then it's just kind of boring at times. Jason is an underdeveloped character (with SO MUCH POTENTIAL MIGHT I ADD!!!) He should've been able to wipe the floor with Percy, Nico, Hazel and Thalia. And then his relationship with Reyna was barely expanded on. And Octavian, while initially set up to be an interesting character, was reduced to an absolute clown. Gaia could have been such an interesting, morally gray character, possibly the most complex in the Riordanverse, and Rick could've sent a message about environmental pollution and how we need to do something about it, which would definitely impact a lot of people, seeing as PJO is one of the most if not THE MOST popular book series globally. But she was just made into a cartoon villain instead. And Jason and Thalia's meet up was........dryer than the Sahara Desert, if I dare say so.

This series had so much potential-since the millenia long abusive systems are broken, why not have the camps discover each other after the Titan war? I will always mourn what HOO could have been.

[aetsiv]

What do you think about Percabeth or Perachel?

hi, thanks for the ask!

i personally prefer perachel over percabeth. my main reasoning for this isn't that i absolutely despise percabeth, i in fact think there was a lot of good potential in the ship and richard just messed all up. i could get by some of annabeth's treatment to percy in the early books since they were still rather young but i feel she just didn't mature that much throughout and kept calling stupid and what not and generally not showing much appreciation to him.

once again, i don't believe annabeth to be a bad character but instead a product of riordan's shitty writing for female characters. i honestly won't even get into the whole judo flip scene and everything percabeth had going in hoo because there were so many problems with it-- if you want to see anything relating to problems on hoo relating to percabeth, I'd recommend checking the "anti percabeth" or "hoo crit" tags as there are tons of posts relating to that. the most i'll say about percabeth on hoo is that i feel like annabeth generally got somewhat more abusive and possessive, starting treating percy even more so like he's stupid, percy's character was for the most part reduced to him being annabeth's boyfriend.

like i already mentioned, i much prefer perachel. i mainly enjoy it because rachel and percy's relationship both platonic and romantic is so healthy. percy enjoys being around rachel and feels like he can relax around her, doesn't have to worry all the time about what she'll think if he says or does something. rachel sees percy's intelligence and doesn't constantly berate him for small things, shares things in common with him (unlike annabeth and percy mainly only bonding over being demigods), and sees him as more than a demigod. they also have a well developed friendship and have actual bonding time unlike percabeth who only bond when they're forced to go on quests (i.e. them going to the beach).

i don't have anything against percabeth shippers (unless you think the judo flip was cute and romantic) and i think people should be able to ship whoever they want since it doesn't affect anyone else. i'm really sorry if this is a bit incoherent or has mistakes in grammer and sentence structure, i'm pretty tired right now so i'm not exactly thinking straight.

[my-pjo-stuff]

20. Part of canon you found tedious or boring (choose violence ask game)

The entirety of HoO. Genuinly I cannot get into it, got stuck on SoN and have not read more since then.

It's just...it feels like such a cheap cash grab! The OG plot of PJO with Kronos and the TA was actually a very interesting hook, with realistic antagonists talking about genuine systemic issues. Meanwhile HoO is about *checks notes* Mother Earth being angy.

And from what i have heard they barely dive into any of the consequences of the of five books either! It's just so weird and such a disconnet.

Atp I may aswell just burn my physical copy of TLH and SoN and get at least some use out of then if I won't get entertainment.

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

What turned me off of pjo was just how hoo handled Gaea . It also didn't help fans of the series weren't took kind about my objections to it.

Exactly. Gaia could've been such an interesting and complex character but no. She had to be the villain.

Yeah, the fandom of the series can act like real maenads when it comes to anyone criticising their precious series. 🤣

[darkcrowprincess]

one of the many reasons why I don't like the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series:

How I see them: Hades would no way ever cheat on Persephone(yes I ship them and ONLY follow the myths and versions where they are in love and devoted to each other, ONLY EACH OTHER. Meaning I don't like or read any other myths that says otherwise) Not for anything. Hell NO! I love Nico and Bianca Di Angelo as characters, but I hate what their existence means to Hades and Persephone's relationship. I would love Nico and Bianca if they immortals who were kidnapped and turned into mortals/demigods. But yeah this is one of the many reasons why i never finished the series and don't like the books.

(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you)

[busysavingtheuniverse]

just got rudely reminded that some people don't like percy because they don't think his entire characterization in hoo was wildly ooc and are thus acknowledging how he treated nico as canon

[muiltifandomnerd]

Trials of Apollo is pretty bad as well for many reasons as well.

Best to leave it at Heros of Olympus and even that is mid

Okay, people, can we just all stop collectively losing it over Rick's recent shitty characterizations and writing in wottg and tsats and so on? For our own mental peace and happiness , let's just collectively agree that anything written after Trials of Apollo is non-canon and loosely based on the orignal lore and full of inconsistent characterization and unnecessary dilution of the same plot.

In not so polite words: Everything after that is a bloody abomination of the original work that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, but it does give me the urge to strangle Rick for ruining a masterpiece.

Everything before that more or less has to be canon cause then we would have nothing to go off of. Even though characterizations begin to be inconsistent ever since HoO and Blood of Olympus is dodgy as hell but let's give it a pass. Everything released after Trials of Apollo, though? Absolutely not.

Also also one exception from Trials of Apollo: Jason's death is non canon and done by Rick for no plot or character development reasons at all and was an entirely unnecessary and illogical move.

So everything after ToA, along with Jason's death, is non-canon. That's it. That's the new canon.

We just have to do that, at least for all our collective sanity and mental peace. I wasn't even on posting schedule today, but one of the wottg excerpts made me so mad that I just couldn't stop myself. Come on, people, let's just agree on it for our mental peace.

[massiveladycat]

leo shouldve learned how to cope with his trauma and his need for validation instead of rick slapping a girlfriend on him and calling it a day. in this essay i will-

[poppitron360]

Jason Grace, consistently telling Leo he is awesome.

Name one other character that does that. I dare you.

[asp3nreblogs]

why I don’t like CaLeo.

first of all. Their relationship in a whole I dislike.

Calypso is a multi thousand year old goddess older than Apollo himself.

and I’ve seen people say before if I have a problem with the age gap then I should also dislike SolAngelo.

but Nico is mentally his age, physically his age. He was born in 1930s but he’s not actually that old other then in technical terms.

calypso is only in a teenagers body. She lived all that time. She’s SA’d a middle aged man (Odysseus) she’s really damn old. She’s a goddess. That’s pedophilia, at least in mental age terms.

then, Leo shouldn’t have gotten in a relationship. He still has to work on himself. He shouldn’t need a relationship to feel valid.

and neither should calypso. She also needs to learn how to work on herself. And not fall in love with every man she’s met on her island.

that’s why I dont like Caleo.

thanks for reading.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Most realistic fanfic I have ever read! 10/10 please make more. The characterization was SPOT ON.

I read a fanfiction where Percy turned against the gods and challenged them to a war (and somehow won)

So here ladies and gentlemen is my realistic percy vs the gods fanfiction:

Percy opens his mouth dosent even get a word out before Zeus shoots him with lightning!

The end!

[willthespy]

annabeth being piper’s sapphic awakening?? anyone???

lesbian visibility week is almost over so i had to post this draft…rip piper mclean you would’ve loved chappell roan and kissing girls

[lavenderfairiez]

I just finished ToA last night and here are some things I don't see nearly enough people talking about, specifically about the end of ToA so if you haven't read it this is your spoiler warning!!!

• Apollo not feeling right in his godly form and uncomfortable around the other olympians (not including Artemis)

• LEO CALLING JO "MOM" 🥺 (and Emmie and Jo in general) BUT HE HAS TWO MOMS NOW I LITERALLY STARTED CRYING ABOUT THIS LAST NIGHT

• Apollo visiting Percy and Annabeth in New Rome!!!

• AND they talk about Jason!!!!!! Annabeth cried herself to sleep

• honestly Apollo's whole battle with Python that shit was so cool

• obligatory fuck Calypso

• REYNA CALLING LEO "HERMANO" 🥹

• Meg standing up to Nero in his throne room!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH

• Rick's infallible ability to put EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. CHARACTER. in a relationship 💀 PEACHES HAS A LOVE INTEREST NOW???????? LET CHARACTERS BE SINGLEEEEE

• HAZEL'S CURSE IS GONE AND SHE CAN JUST LIKE USE HER JEWELS NOW!!! and Frank wants an engraved diamond necklace that says "H+F Forever" I love him so much...

• while we're on the topic of Frank!! WHY DOES NO ONE EVER TALK ABOUT HIS SACRIFICE AT THE END OF THE TYRANTS TOMB??? Like I knew that he would be fine but I still started like tearing up

• THE ARROW OF DODONA!!!

• how completely unaffected Zeus is by Jason's death??? Fuck you Zeus.

• Apollo's new kids at camp!!!

[ruegarding]

so. percy's arc in boo (learning to step back, allowing leo to sacrifice himself despite his loyalty/fatal flaw) sucks. for many reasons.

for one, percy yielding is such an integral part of pjo. all of pjo. but even if u somehow missed it in the first four books, tlo explicitly spells it out. "sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding" hestia says to percy. "i yield when necessary. can you do this?" and then this is the climax of the story. "you are not the hero...it will affect what you do." percy has spent the last five books being told that he's the super powerful chosen one able to save or destroy the world, and he still chooses to yield to someone that has done nothing but betray him. "the line from the great prophecy echoed in my head...my whole world tipped upside down, and i gave the knife to luke." hoo acting like this is a lesson percy needs to learn is an affront to reading comprehension. percy lives bc he yields. and then he does it (yielding) again when he surrenders godhood, and power, to choose other demigods instead. this is not subtle writing.

for two, percy has rejected power, and his title, for the entirety of his story. percy doesn't even fully recognize how powerful he is until the volcano in botl. and he had to be told directly that it wasn't a fluke. then in son, percy immediately rejects the power and status offered to him. repeatedly. reyna offers him praetorship, he turns it down. frank is abt to let percy climb the wall first in the war games, percy says it was frank's claim. percy doesn't even want to go on the son quest but relents bc frank asked him. in moa, percy never demands that he lead. instead, he includes frank where he probably wasn't necessary, supports hazel, encourages annabeth, follows leo and piper's lead, and strategizes w jason. he isn't acting as a leader, but rather as part of a team. percy didn't need to "step back," the writing for the other characters needed to step up.

for three, percy had to be kidnapped and manipulated to be on this entire quest. he's not there bc he has a hero complex. acting like he has to learn to step back when he was quite literally shoved into place is wild.

for four, an integral part of percy's character is freedom, autonomy, and he extends this to the ppl he's loyal to. this is pretty explicitly established in tlt: "you're enough like me to understand," sally says. "if my life is going to mean anything, i have to live it myself." percy respects ppl's decisions. this is one of the first lessons he learns when he becomes a hero and an integral part of pjo: percy has to let sally save herself. percy has to let tyson go to the boiler. percy has to let bianca defeat talos. percy has to let nico walk away. percy has to let annabeth fight. if he loves them, he's going to let their lives mean something. even in hoo, percy still lets annabeth go on her quest alone, despite hating it, despite disagreeing w it, bc it's not his place to tell her what she can and can't do. this is her life. she has to live it. so this plotline doesn't even work it we ignore all of pjo and focus solely on hoo.

this theme of autonomy is especially important bc pjo is abt disability. one of the first things ppl try to take away from u when ur disabled is ur autonomy. the fact that percy vehemently defends it not just for himself but for others is essential to the narrative. percy advocates for other demigods, other disabled kids, and tyson, and he does so while maintaining their autonomy. it's why he's the leader, it's why he's the protagonist, it's why there is a callback to it in every pjo book. trying to act like he wouldn't respect someone's autonomy is a bastardization of this entire theme. which is actually fitting for hoo considering it bastardizes the rest of pjo anyway.

[astraeajackson]

leo deserved better. he deserved so, so much BETTER. i mean, he fucking sacrificed his LIFE to save the world, and yes, even though he was always meant to come back, there was always that lingering chance the plan WOULDN'T work out.

but what did he get when he finally made his way back home? hugs? maybe a huge welcome home party? NO. instead, everyone got into a fucking LINE and proceeded to hit him, WITH FULL FORCE, immediately upon his arrival back home.

and then there's the issue with calypso. i just HATED the way she treated him in the dark prophecy. like, he was the only dude who BOTHERED to come back for her. he gave her the chance for a new life. but instead, she COMPLAINS about how leo "treats every problem like a machine" when he's working SO hard to fix things.

then later, at the end of the series, we find calypso has become counsellor for a band camp pretty far away, and we learn that part of the reason was "so she could take some time away from him". i mean, what the hell is up with THAT?!

leo's done so many amazing things for so many people, but just how many times do you hear him praised? like honestly, he deserves someone who loves him unconditionally, someone who showers him with love, someone who can fill up the gaps his mother's death left in him. and that someone is NOT calypso.