#aromantic reyna

[lesbiantrish]

if one more person pairs up reyna with someone romantically im going to punch thr wall

[thearoacefromspace]

She’s literally the most aromantic coded character ever

what will forever flabbergast me is that reyna isn’t canonically aromantic....

LIKE ?? HAVE YOU SEEN THIS ??

THAT JUST DESCRIBED HOW I FELT BEFORE I REALISED I WAS AROACE !!

[rosabell14]

The hunters of Artemis, Reyna, and Asexuality in Riordan's writing

I kinda started thinking about this since Reyna became a hunter. I could never articulate why I hated this Choice. I was asexual after all. Shouldn't I be happy about this rep? We Ace people barely get any after all. Then I realized that it's because I just didn't like the hunters as ace representation. And I didn't need to be grateful for mediocrity.

You want to know why the hunters of Artemis suck in general? And as Ace rep specifically? Because Riordan did not write them with that mindset.

Like people are so busy hailing this man as the king of representation in literature(blegh) that they forgot how heteronormative and white(sometimes racist) the original series was. Y'all really think this man was thinking about writing asexuals in the year 2007? Get real. What Riordan was doing was a white man trying to write feminism and failing (there's a reason most of his female characterization of female characters boils down to tough "not like other girls" characters who are dicks to the boys around them yet also to the girls around them if they're jealous)

Now onto the hunters.

The hunters when first presented in TTC are not a group of asexuals but rather religious celibates. Fantasy Pegan nuns if you may. The first problem arises when their ages are brought up.

"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen..."

Remember, before ToA gave us Emmie and Jo, the hunters WERE all young girls. Now why in the world are they so young? Especially when in the actual myths, the hunters could come from any age whatsoever? Well the reason is a doozy.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh… a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" I asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

Hooo boy. What a way to phrase it. Going astray. Losing themselves. This kinda confirms that the reason why Artemis goes after young girls specifically is because she only wants girls who have yet to finish puberty. Girls have yet to discover their own sexuality. Now I'm not a representative of Asexuals everywhere, but I'm pretty sure most of us don't discover our sexuality at the age of ten. Let alone have the maturity to decide to become celibates about it. And let me reiterate: celibacy is not sexuality. Sure asexual people CAN choose to be celibates but it's not the same thing at all. In fact Zoe and Thalia are big cases for this. Both of them had liked men before(herakles and luke) but joined for their own reasons. Thalia to escape the prophecy and Zoe out of heartbreak. Hell, Bianca herself is mostly swayed by the idea of having no responsibility and a new family.

Now Rick does another thing that goes against the myths. The exclusion of make hunters. Artemis frequently hung around or taught male hunters who respected her. Daphnis, Scamandrius, freaking Hippolytus whom Artemis greatly cared about. Oh but we need to come up with bullshit reasons why Nico can't just join the hunt with his sisters so the hunters of Artemis are all: Ewww men. Also note how at no point does Riordan mention people who fall in love with women.

Now the next point is the oath itself. Artemis says this:

"What oath?" I said.

"To forswear romantic love forever," Artemis said. "To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally."

When I tell you that Emmy and Joe were retcons . Rick was freaking INSISTENT on the hunters being kids. Also note the three points: to never fall in love, to never get married, to stay a maiden.

I mean I think I don't need to explain why obsessing over the virginity of young girls is creepy. Does Riordan think girls older than fourteen can't keep it in their pants? And let me be adamant here Riordan only cares about the virginity Clause here. He mentions falling in love and marriage because he sees them inherently intertwined with sex.

Now onto the wording of the oath itself:

'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'

I mean you might be able to interpret men here as mankind and therefore excluding women as well. But I have many reasons to believe that Riordan didn't even CONSIDER women as a possibility(someone inform this man that lesbians existed smh 😞). Also note that falling in love is not mentioned in the actual oath but maidenhood is.

Now onto the next big issue. Percy Jackson's Greek gods and its chapter on Artemis. It basically confirms all of my problems.

"IT’S NOT THAT ARTEMIS HATED ALL MEN, just most of them. From the moment she was born, she knew one critical fact: Guys are kinda gross."

No mention of girls. In this chapter Percy(Rick) brings up Artemis' disdain for dudes over and over again.

“Let me be a maiden forever, Father,” Artemis said, twirling her finger in Zeus’s beard. “I never want to get married.---- But you can grant me a bunch of followers: ocean nymphs, river nymphs, wood nymphs—what the heck, how about mortal girls, too? Any girls who want to join me can become my followers, as long as they remain maidens like me. They should probably make the decision when they’re about nine years old, before they get interested in boys, because after that, they’ll be all distracted and of no use to me.”

Yikes yikes yikes. Ladies and gentlemen the age has been lowered to 9. Freaking 9. Also I guess girls older than that don't need Artemis' protection then? (the real problem is that older/married girls should be out of Artemis's jurisdiction and under the protection of other gods like Hera, Hestia, and Ares. But Hestia is barely there. Hera is terrible and the Amazons also suck)

Now when I tell you that Artemis' big point was about virginity, I mean it. This actually has mythological evidence.

The myths actually DO mention what happens when female hunters fall in love. Rhodopis and Euthynicus were two hunters who offended Aphrodite by choosing a chaste life so she had Eros make them fall in love. However note that they weren't booted out of the hunters for falling in love, but rather after having sex in a cave. THAT was what Artemis took offense to.

Another myth is the story of Aura. A huntress who offended Artemis by comparing their breasts(Greek mythology am I right?). Saying that her breast were better than Artemis' because they were smaller and hey maybe that means that Artemis isn't actually a maiden. Artemis punishes her by making her lose her VIRGINITY. She goes to nemesis for revenge. Nemesis goes to Eros who makes Dionysus fall in love with Aura and when Aura refuses his advances he ties her up and... Yeah you can guess where I'm going with this.

But hey! Those myths aren't in the Greek gods book. You know which myth is? The myth of C(K)allisto. And this one angers me so much I want to chew on the drywall.

The way Riordan writes it. Zeus turns himself into Artemis, brings Kallisto's guards down with the disguise, gets close to her and then when Kallisto REJECTS Artemis' supposed advances, forces himself on her. I need to say this again. Kallisto does not fall in love, she isn't seduced, she does not break her oath. But we still need a reason for her to be yeeted out of the hunters so her lack of maidenhood it is

“You were my favorite,” Artemis said. “If you had come to me immediately, I could have helped you. I would have found you a rich, handsome husband and let you settle into a new life in the city of your choice. I would have allowed you to retire from the Hunt with honor. You could have gone in peace. Zeus’s assault was not your fault.”

Kallisto sobbed. “But I didn’t want to lose you! I wanted to stay!”

Artemis felt like her heart was breaking, but she couldn’t show it. She had rules about her followers. She couldn’t allow those rules to be broken, not even by her best friend. “Kallisto, your crime was keeping the secret from me. You dishonored me, and your sisters of the Hunt, by not being honest. You defiled our company of maidens when you were not a maiden yourself. That I cannot forgive.”

I want to slap this man so hard he flies to the opposite side of the universe. We are not here to blame victims of assault guys! Except we are! But with extra steps. If you get attacked, it's not your fault, but If you are too scared to admit the truth then you deserve to lose your only safe space and turn into a bear. Oh nooooo Kallisto DEFILED Artemis' company by being an icky non virgin. The moment you lose your virginity even if it's not your fault you get punished. But not because I'm gross but because YOU lied. How terrible! And he expects us to feel for ARTEMIS???

But rosabell! This is how things go in the myths. What was uncle Rick (bleghhhh) supposed to do? I don't know... Choose a different version of the story? There are versions were Zeus/Hera are the ones who transform Kallisto into a bear. There are versions where Kallisto actively CHOOSES to sleep with Artemis. Granted it's still assault because she's being lied to but at least then, she'd have a degree of autonomy in the events. At least Artemis could rightfully accuse her of breaking her oath. But noooo, Riordan doesn't know lesbians exist. He actively makes Zeus into a canonical Ra*ist. Why is he on the throne again?

(the fact that this book came out AFTER HoH y'all 😭)

Once again, Riordan sees maidenhood(virginity)/love/marriage as intertwined. This is NOT what being on the aroace spectrum means. You can fall in love but not have sex. You can have sex but not fall in love. You can have sex AND still be an asexual. You can be married and still be a "maiden". Riordan doesn't get to claim to be such a progressive ally for retconning the hunters in 2017, TEN years after he first introduced the hunters because he suddenly remembered that lesbians exist.

Or more like because he doesn't know what to do with his female characters. The hunters more than anything are Riordan's heroine dumping ground. If you don't want it put them in relationships, either kill them(Bianca whose main purpose is to die) or make them eternal virgins(the hunters, Rachel). The fact that some people genuinely think that Calypso should have joined the hunters astound me. Girl suffered for years because of the gods and you all think that the best thing outside of Leo for her(not that I like Caleo) is to become a servant to the gods? Because you can't perceive a female character doing anything else if she's not in a relationship. Like with Thalia, this at least made sense on a strategic level because she didn't want to reach sixteen. Oh but we also don't know what else to do with her so she needs to want to be a hunter after the war is over so we give her a half-assed argument with Luke and now she can be all: wah wah Zoe you were totally right about boys. And the cherry on the cake is that she doesn't even get to be in the final confrontation with Luke or say goodbye to him because of a freaking STATUE. And after pjo her personality becomes Zoe 2.0 and her and Jason get ONE measly meeting.

When I first spoke of not liking Renya joining the hunters this is what I mean. Riordan had so many options with Reyna. Why did she have to leave her esteemed position which she worked so hard for? Two boys rejected her? Why couldn't she go reconnect with her sister more then? She could have joined the Amazons. But nooo Riordan was so allergic to the fans asking him wether she could be Bi or a lesbian. For the stupidest reasons too? Oh Reyna being a lesbian would come off as stereotypical because she got rejected by two guys beforehand! My dude, do you think people don't say the same thing about us who are on the aroace spectrum? That we say we are aro/ace because we got rejected before? Come up with a better excuse next time.

My brother in Christ couldn't even allow Reyna to talk about her sexuality and whatnot. It couldn't even be fully about her. No. He had to turn Reyna into his own mouthpiece admonishing the EVILLLL fans who may have shipped Thalia and Renya. He literally had her say the word "shipping". How cringe can you get? And then he had the audacity to admonish the fans by saying: Why does a strong friendship always have to progress to romance?

It's a sentiment I agree with but coming from this man, it's extremely hypocritical? I don't know Richard maybe because YOU are obsessed with shipping? No character can escape your shipping hands unless they're eternal virgins or dead. You literally turned the Argo2 into Noah's ark2. So much attention focused on shipping that the seven barely felt like friends.

Why does Reyna need to join the hunters? She can choose to not relationship without having to become a servant to female Peter pan.

This is actually a really adequate metaphor when you consider that Emmie and Jo say that they have not met Artemis in YEARS and Apollo mentions that the two of them were lucky she let them LIVE. god can you imagine joining Artemis when you are 9? At an age when you have still not finished maturimg cognitively and therefore shouldn't be trusted on taking a freaking celibacy vow(were you even given the talk yet that age) and after 70 years you decide you want to leave? If you're lucky Artemis will part with you on good terms but SIKES every person you probably knew before joining is now dead. Where is THAT angsty Bianca fic?

Speaking of Bianca. How she was handled also angers me. In another post, I've already talked about how the hunters barely gave her adequate information before letting her join.

How Zoe was the main reason for her death. Zoe KNEW that at least 2 people might die in the quest she was given and yet she decided to bring the least experienced girl to the quest and couldn't even watch her properly.

But you know what else pisses me off? The fact that THEY should have been the one to tell Nico about his sister's death. I've always hated how Chiron made Percy the CHILD tell Nico the other CHILD about his sister dying. But more than anyone, it should have been the hunters' responsibility. Bianca was THEIR responsibility. She died in a quest to save Artemis. The least they could do was tell her remaining family of her fate. The Doylist reason of course is that we need to kickstart Nico and Percy's complicated relationship and have Percy discover that Nico is a son of Hades. But in universe, the fact that they immediately fuck off from the camp upon regrouping makes them come off as extremely selfish. We don't even know if Bianca was given a funeral by them or not. We see Artemis being upset about Zoe but we never see her react to the news of losing Bianca.

[pourmercymercyonme]

let virgin godesses/eternal maidens be virgin godesses and eternal maidens !!!!

[mothbii]

aroace kid culture is reading Percy Jackson, and then really wanting to be in the hunters of artemis

[moss-the-irishman]

Good point.

[myhateforcaffinekeepsmealive]

Can the Percy Jackson fandom please stop shipping Reyna with people. I am so tired of aromatic and asexual erasure in fandoms. Like everyone makes a big fuss when characters canonical gay sexuality is changed but when a aromantic and asexual characters is changed no one gives a fuck. Let Aromantic and Asexuals enjoy their representation in peace.

[floof-ghostie]

Collecting them like lucky pennies

[chaotic-gender-fluid]

characters in the riordanverse that I think should be somewhere in the aro/ace spectrum and why

Rachel- she did have romantic feelings for Percy but I think after becoming the oracle she would be aro/ace and I'm pretty sure that's like semi canon

Jason- the only romantic feelings he is shown to have were semi-forced upon him by Hera and he also just woke up to a girl that thought they were dating and had been for a while, so he didn't have a chance to figure out how he actually felt

Reyna - I just think she's asexual I don't really have a good reason for it except that she's a badass girlboss who deserves it

Leo - the whole time he was a seventh wheel who was just expected to fall in love with someone at some point. I know calypso exists but I feel like he did that because it was an engineering problem to solve and they're actually just good friends because he chose to go back for her

everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously these are just a few that could make sense/do make sense in my brain

[censorious-asshat]

I honestly hate how characters who dont like the opposute sex are automatically assumed to be gay. I hate it even more when the character explicitly shows no interest at all in any gender.

for example reyna from hoo was the first fucking aroace coded chracter i ever saw in a book. she was one of the first chracters to finally make me feel heard. i finally felt like there was a chracter i could truely relate to and who understood me. and i might sound like a bitch, but i absolutely fucking hate when people make her a lesbian. thankfully its rare to see her in a hetero pairing. but seeing her in a queer pairing isnt any better.

there are so many other chracters who would work better in queer parings, so why does it always have to be the aroace chracter.

Ive also noticed that its more common for a female aroace chracter to be put in lesbian pairings way more than male ones. correct me if im wrong though.

the aroace rep is so fucking rare anyways, so please stop putting them in relationships. while there are aroace people who want to be in relationships, not all of them want to be in a relationship, and they dont have to be you first pick for one.

im just so tired of seeing aroace chracters constantly being changed to fit ships. this might be very bitchy put for the fucking hell please stop.

[autistic-katara]

does it annoy tf out of anyone else that when a character says smthn like: “i’m not in love with [a male character], i was in love with [female character], it took me a while to accept and i’m incredibly scared telling you please don’t tell anyone” people immediately go “ah yes, canon lesbian, i don’t know how u can’t pick up on that”

meanwhile when a character says smthn like: “i’ve tried for years to force myself into a romantic relationship, thought it would ‘fix me’. but i realise now that’s not how it works, a romantic relationship won’t fix me and i honestly don’t think i was attracted to any of the people i tried to date, im going to swear of romantic relationships for life bcz i don’t experience romantic attraction, later guys ily platonically” 99% of the fans go “oh, ok. so they’re probably asexual but it’s definitely up to interpretation. wtf is ‘a romantic’, yeah they’re a romantic; in a romantic relationship with their ‘best friend’ who i ship them with and is basically canon. very homophobic of the author to make them explicitly state that they weren’t into them like that. they must hate gay people despite the rest of the queer characters in here…”

[thenetherlord]

All The Aromantic and Asexual Characters from Media I could find (Part 2!) (Books!)

Since ya'll sent me a whole load of characters, here's a part 2, with no images tho cuz that would be too long :(

Novels:

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet - Jen Fergusen

Demisexual Rep - Lou, a Métis Indigenous Canadian teen

Percy Jackson & Other Companion Series - Rick Riordan

Asexual Rep - Thalia Grace, an American Hunter of Artemis Lieutenant

AroAce Rep - Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, a Puerto Rican Hunter of Artemis and past Praetor of the Twelfth Legion in Camp Jupiter

AroAce Rep - Artemis, Greek Goddess of the Hunt

AroAce Rep - Hestia, Greek Goddess of the Hearth

Asexual Rep - Athena, Greek Goddess of Wisdom

Sal & Gabi Duology - Carlos Hernandez

Asexual Rep - Sal Vidón, a Cuban teen and self-proclaimed magician

The Foxhole Court Series - Nora Sakavic

Demisexual Rep - Neil Josten, an American striker for the Palmetto State Foxes Exy Team, who is probably bisexual

Demisexual/Asexual/AroAce Rep - Andrew Minyard, an American goalie for the Palmetto State Foxes Exy Team, who is gay

Loveless - Alice Oseman

AroAce Rep - Georgia Warr, a young adult going through university

Asexual Rep - Sunil Jha, a young adult going through university that is homoromantic

Aromantic Rep - Jess, a young adult going through university who is bisexual

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

Demisexual Rep - Aled Last, the creator of a hit fantasy podcast, who is gay

Solitaire - Alice Oseman

AroAce Rep - Tori Spring, a teen going through high school, and a young adult later in Party Girls by the same author

Tarnished Are the Stars - Rosiee Thor

AroAce Rep - Nathaniel Fremont, the son of the Commissioner

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls - Cherie Dimaline

Asexual/Demisexual Rep - Winifred, a Georgia Bay Métis teen, who has an affinity for the undead and has befriended a ghost, who is some flavour of queer

Graphic Novels/Manga:

My Hero Academia - Kōhei Horikoshi

Demiromantic(?) Rep - Mina Ashido, a Japanese student training to be a Pro Hero, with an Acid Quirk

Is Love the Answer? - Isaki Uta

AroAce Rep - Chika, a young adult going through high school and college

Our Dreams at Dusk - Yuhki Kamatani

Asexual Rep - Dareka-San, a person of indeterminate gender who uses any/all pronouns, who also appears to magical

Across a Field of Starlight - Blue Delliquanti

Asexual Rep - Lu, a non-binary mechanic who is in a relationship with Fassen

Asexual Rep - Fassen, a non-binary ex-soldier who is in a relationship with Lu

I will make a part 3 soon with characters from TV shows and movies!

[the-one-and-only-aroace]

Reyna and the love stories she’ll never have

Ribs, The Crane Wives//Tongues & Teeth, The Crane Wives// Never Been in Love, Will Jay//Tongues & Teeth (for the last 2)

All book excerpts from The Tyrants Tomb by Rick Riordan

[assorted-fans]

In honor of pride month here is a non exhaustive list of the characters i have chosen to be aro and/or ace. some are canon and others are not

Riz Gukgak (fantasy high)

Adaine Abernant (fantasy high)

George Cubbins (lockwood and co.)

The 10th doctor (Dr. who)

Reyna Avilla Ramirez Arellano ( Heros of Olympus)

Thalia Grace (Percy Jackson)

Leo Valdez (Heros of Olympus)

Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)

Natasha Romanov (MCU)

Yelena (MCU)

Bea Fox- Mountchristian Windsor (Red, White,and Royal blue)

Toph Beifong ( Avatar: the last Airbender)

Isaac (Heartstopper)

Tori Spring (Heartstopper)

Georgia (Loveless)

El (stranger things)

Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games)

Leon (BBC Merlin)

Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)

Nifty (Hazbin Hotel)

[holly-natnicole]

It's canon that Reyna is asexual!!

Personally, I like to canon-compliantly headcanon her as aromantic too due to certain moments in 'the Heroes of Olympus' (2010) and 'the Trials of Apollo' (2016).

Which makes her aro ace in my rewrite Alternate Multiverse timeline of the 'Percy Jackson' (2005) franchise.

[aromantichc]

Aromantic Character of the Day (26/7/24) is....

Reyna Ramírez-Arellano (PJO) !

@albi-bumblebee headcanons her as aroace!