#but i like to see TSATS as a book about getting better

[kaleidoskuls]

"it was so bad" "nyx was defeated too easily" "one of em should've died" shut the fuck up im begging you

[somewhereincairparavel]

Dam being a Jason Grace stan in the fandom is a fucking tragedy lol. Not only do we have to deal with him being screwed over by uncle Rick, but we have to deal with the fandom hating him aswell lol, i feel like Jason Grace slander wouldnt affect me half as much if his character had gotten a happy ending. I just saw an Instagram reel about a "character's povs you skipped through'' and the comments were flooded with Jason Grace just like I'd expected lol 😭 like blud has no mercy there.

It took all my will power to not defend him under a comment that called him "homophobic", I cannot believe that comment had 4 people agreeing aswell like- did we read the same books? Did they completey skip over the coming out chapter in HOH where jason was literally the first person to tell Nico not to be ashamed of liking guys and that no one would judge him? the guy is legit one of the least problematic characters and does nothing mean, how is he even CONSIDERED in the homophobic area anyway? (he also gets slandered for being "too nice" aswell lol) so seeing him wind up in such a contradictory accusation just screams tone deaf and anti-jason bias tbh, Nico legit said he considered jason as one of his first friend/supporter (apart from his sisters) in TSATS :') its like ppl keep throwing in these false stuff bc they WANT to find a reason to hate him. (dont take this as me saying you are not allowed to hate him or something cuz that would be quite hypocritical of me, wouldnt it? i just hate that ppl make up problematic hcs of him and push them as canon, it would taint non-reader's perception of him because of false info, what if a non reader stumbled across that comment and immediately figured that jason was indeed homophobic even when he wasn't?)

Also, can we please normalize NOT judging a person for their character preferences? I like jason and i am aware that its an unpopular take, but that doesnt make me any less of a pjo fan. The fandom seems pretty aggressive when we dont follow the popular opinion. i have seen multiple ppl pretend to hate jason simply bc they WANT to fit in and "look cool", since the fandom has a tendency to use Jason as a punching bag to insult like "he's a knockoff percy" or "he thinks he's so cool but he's not". or smth, so when people do claim jason as a favourite, a huge chunk of the fandom start belittling them and go like "really? Out of all characters, why jason?" Or "Percy/Leo is better, I don't understand why you like Jason"

okay thanks for coming to my ted talk. i am aware that i was yapping here. unfair Jason Grace slander does that to me.

[sunflowergraves]

Unpacking Will Solace’s Character

I’ve seen a lot of Will Solace hate since TSATS and it’s really starting to bother me. As a person that relates heavily to Will’s character, it’s upsetting to see him get bashed across the internet, especially considering we’ve never actually gotten to know his character. Personally, I feel like a lot of people are basing his character around headcanons and fanfiction (which I am guilty of) and were disappointed when he wasn’t who we saw him as. 

It doesn’t help that the only time we got to see Will’s POV it was short and through the eyes of others. He’s also not this big hero like all the characters in the PJO universe. His powers aren’t that strong, he’s not a prophecy child, and his talents are mediocre. Will is the most human demigod we’ve ever been introduced to. I can understand why his character doesn’t feel multi-dimensional compared to everyone else, but in my opinion, he was fleshed out very well. 

Yes, there are a few things I was disappointed by. I wish they talked about Will’s past more and his grief over his dead siblings. I wanted him to have his own weapon, even if it was an old bow he never used or a lyre like Apollo used in TOA. But I will always love that they changed him from the calm, collected counselor healer to an anxious, depressed, self-doubting person because it fits him so well. How could he not feel these things after losing friends and family? After being abandoned by everyone around him? Or being forced to take on the caretaker role of the entire camp because he was the only one left? 

I’m going to continue this down below, so if you don’t want major spoilers for TSATS, don’t continue reading. Also this is long as hell in case you just want to skim. 

Every time Will was mentioned in the books, it was from someone else’s POV and it was a few lines at best. 

Will has always been described as the cool, relaxed, go-with-the-flow type of guy. He was the person with a level head and knew exactly what to do. But guess what? Underneath that cool exterior was an anxiety riddled people pleaser who threw himself at every problem because that’s what he was told to do. The Apollo cabin was always the head medic team. After Lee and Michael died, Will was basically thrust into that position of power. He was trusted to take care of his younger siblings, trusted to take care of the entire camp. If he let them down, it was going to cost lives. Of course he’s going to be scared and nervous, but he can’t show that. Would you want a doctor with shaky hands and sweat running down their neck? Would you want to be taken care of by a person who doubted and second guessed themselves out in the open? 

As someone who was given a lot of responsibly and forced to grow up at a young age, I completely understand this. You want to try to make everything better for others around you, you get scared when you fuck up, and you HATE when people can’t rely on you. That’s why you will never show how scared you are to fuck up. You will never let people get inside your head because if they can’t rely on you, what good are you? Breaking out of the role that everyone else gave you because they trusted you is scary and hard. 

Nico is probably the only person who knows what Will really thinks. Will trusts Nico with his anxiety and overthinking because he’s comfortable enough around him to show that side. He knows he doesn’t have to Mr. Hero in front of Nico and that’s such a precious and important bond to make with someone. 

Will was valid for being whiny and irritated for most of the book. 

First, Will has ANXIETY. If you don’t know what it’s like to live with anxiety, count yourself lucky. It feels like your thoughts are attacking you constantly. It’s like an uphill battle between rational thought and absolute chaos. I can’t get in my car without thinking of all the ways I could die before I buckle my seatbelt. Imagine going to SuperHell for the first time in your life! Not only that, but people told Will constantly that as a child of Apollo he was basically fucked. The three strongest demigods that made it back almost went insane! Of course Will is going to be upset, irrational, irritated, and uncomfortable. 

In TOA, he voiced several times how he thought it was a bad idea and that he really didn’t like it. This is not a new thing for Will’s character at all. For him to be willing to cross a line he had made concrete shows that he loves and cares for Nico. But that shouldn’t mean he isn’t allowed to be uncomfortable. 

Second, for anyone saying he could have stayed at camp instead of going has never sacrificed their comfort for someone else. There are so many instances in my life where I went way out of my comfort zone because I knew my friends/family wanted me there. Did I complain? Hell yes. Did I still do it? Hell yes! If Will had said, “Nico, I can’t do this and I refuse to at least try,” I would have lost so much respect for his character. Instead he sucked it up, even when he was already practically dying before they got there. 

Three, Will was worried about Nico. He’s never experienced Tartarus, he’s never been to the Underworld. While Will has definitely faced his share of demons, he’s never stood in Nico’s shoes. So when his boyfriend is having vivid nightmares and hearing voices, he’s going to try and rationalize it for Nico because that’s what he has done his entire life. Will is the “healer.” He is supposed to fix things, not let them traipse off to hell like it’s a vacation spot. 

Four, this is a 15 year old. Fuck, even now at the ripe ole age of 20, I’d still be shaking in my boots terrified at the thought of going somewhere that is practically a jailhouse for the worst creatures in creation. Will has little to no experience on the field (He ran from six guards without even trying to pull out a weapon. The worst thing he’s ever said to his enemies was “anemic loser” and didn’t even want to kill Octavian. Every battle before that he had an older sibling to look up to and care for him). So yeah, I’d just be a tad bit nervous and annoying.  

Will asking Persephone how to love someone from the Underworld was honest and raw. 

This scene broke me in ways I can’t even describe because of how real it felt. If you’ve ever been in a deep and caring relationship (friendship counts) you should understand. Like Persephone said, love is something you choose and it’s complicated and messy even for people who were practically made for each other. For Will to ask how to love someone from the Underworld shows that he is actively choosing to understand and love Nico. 

I get that most people interpret Will’s lines as “How do you love someone so filled with death?” but really he’s asking how do you love someone who acts like he doesn’t want to be loved? How do you love someone that pulls away from your light no matter how desperately you try to give it them? How do you love someone who hides parts of themselves from you? 

Will is a healer, he fixes things. It’s not until this scene that Will realizes the only thing Will needs to fix is his perspective on Nico. That darkness and hurt and trauma is okay. It’s also a scene where Will realizes he doesn’t have to force down his own trauma anymore. 

Will loves Nico and it’s so obvious he scared to lose him. He thinks he’s weak and broken and incapable of helping Nico escape his trauma. His insecurities shadow him and he’s confused about how to navigate this relationship because he thinks he needs to be the leader. How can he lead if Nico won’t let him? How can he help when he doesn’t know how? Persephone’s scene was Will’s chance of finding guidance from someone who could understand exactly what he’s thinking

People in their late 40′s still can’t get relationships down. Why are we pushing unrealistic relationship ideations on a 15 year old who doesn’t even know who he is yet?

Will was not useless. 

Sorry that the relationship duo isn’t Mr. Badass and Mr. Badass 2.0. Will not being a fighter is refreshing to see because honestly I’m quite tired of seeing badass couples in every book/movie. Not everyone is strong and powerful and super awesome. Will is a nerd that likes healing people. Why isn’t that enough? 

“He’s described as having muscles,” “He’s a field/combat medic,” “He fought in the wars,” “He carries people all the time,” “He trains with the Apollo cabin.” Okay and? I was raised to work hard and protect myself. I work out and I know how to use a bow and knife. Does that mean I want to? No. 

I’d also like to point out that almost everyone in camp is described as having muscles. You kind of have to when your life motto is Try not to die or get eaten. Also they train on lava walls, jump eight foot pits, and weapons. I get a little bit of muscle going on my silly little walks, I’d be fucking jacked if I was actively training. 

Second, Will has never once been described fighting monsters/demigods. I don’t doubt that he’s had a few encounters, but the boy practically specializes in RUNNING AWAY. He’s a feral little animal that finds injured demigods and sprints them away to the medic center while occasionally bashing monster heads in. He’s strong because he needs to be, not because he wants to be. Strength also doesn’t equal battle prowess. 

Not to mention, he hates killing! He didn’t want to kill Octavian despite Octavian being the actual worst. He runs away as a distraction even though he had weapons on him. He got upset when Nico threw Sherman Yang out of the chariot in TOA. Monsters are different, but monsters are also scary. Will is terrified of demon pigeons, you really think he’s willingly gonna go one-on-one with anything bigger than his pinky? 

I’ll admit, I hated that he didn’t have a weapon in Tartarus. I thought it was really stupid and out-of-character because my anxious ass would have loaded up. Still, it was kind of funny when they described Will bashing rocks over monster’s heads during their fight with Nyx. 

My final point for this: Will was Nico’s support system and that was the point. Will knew he wasn’t going to throw hands with anyone. He went because he knew Nico needed him even when Nico told him to stay. Will was going to trek through SuperHell with the love of his life and hold his hand to remind him that he was loved. Will wanted Nico to know that he’d literally go to Hell and back for him and that’s what mattered. 

Nico didn’t ask Will to be the Hero. Nico states several times that the reason he loves Will is because he wants to heal and he’s so stubborn to find the good in everything. And that’s exactly what Will did. He offered support, care, and reminders. He was going to understand and love Nico, even through the darkest parts of his life. 

Will is one of the best support systems in a PJO couple duo. 

It makes me incredibly sad to see people call Will toxic when he gave his entire life to support Nico. I won’t deny that he complained a lot and said hurtful things and that he occasionally belittles Nico’s feelings. But Will didn’t know he was doing those things. He thought he was helping Nico navigate his PTSD. How is someone who is still emotionally developing his own character supposed to know how to take care of someone else’s? 

Will also clearly showed love and affection towards Nico. He met all his friends and was polite to them even when they looked scary. Will risked his life several times before they got to Tartarus and still insisted on continuing. Built a Minecraft house for his boyfriend and left him a KitKat bar because he knew he would feel fatigued (also Will brought KitKat bars, meaning he was already thinking of Nico’s health beforehand). He tried to be useful by scouting ahead because he felt like he was being a burden on Nico. He kissed him, called him silly nicknames, hugged him, respected his boundaries (asking to hold him instead of trying to comfort him immediately), and oh yeah, went to Tartarus when he was obviously quaking in his flipflops. 

He also helped Bob when he had no idea who/what he was, comforted Nico when he was beginning to lose hope, acknowledged his mistakes and admitted he needed to try harder, realized he didn’t need to fix Nico and that his boyfriend was perfect the way he was, and learned that Nico wasn’t going to leave him. 

Love is complicated. Love is something you choose. And Will chooses to love Nico. Also for everyone saying a year is long enough to learn/realize these problems already and have them solved, you need to take the rose tinted glasses off. I’ve been with my partner for almost four years, and I’m still learning things about our relationship. We argue, we don’t always meet eye-to-eye. Our own trauma and experiences surface and it gets difficult. But do we just call it quits and throw everything into the trash? No. We talk, we problem-solve, we come back and try to understand each other even if we don’t know how to do that. A year is nothing. A year is puppy love and excitement. It’s like your favorite movie on repeat. All the problems are ignored because you don’t want to see them yet. 

So for a pair of 15 year old's who just came to terms with their sexuality, I think that they are doing pretty damn good at this love thing. 

Anyway, that’s all I really wanted to say. Even though we’ve had Will for years, we’ve never gotten to know his true character until now. It’s raw and weird and doesn’t fit the mold of Will Solace, son of Apollo we all created him to be. You can still hate his character or whatever, I’m not going to try to change your mind. But don’t hate on everyone else who loves him and loves this book. 

[aroaceleovaldez]

random question but i came across a post of yours where you talked about how mark oshiro sort of erased an aspect of nico's ADHD by making a joke about how he only liked mythomagic cards because he's gay and there are hot guys on the cards, and then TSATS also seemed to really downplay the themes of neurodivergence in the series. and it made me wonder if you have any thoughts on how the show has portrayed the demigods' ADHD and dyslexia so far? i've seen some people say that the show also downplayed it a lot, and i'm inclined to agree... which feels really weird considering that rick's own son's neurodivergence was specifically a major inspiration for him writing the series. but if i recall correctly a lot of scenes showcasing that in the first book were taken out of the show.

Oh absolutely, a lot of scenes and general discussion about adhd/dyslexia were removed in the show (and some of the disability-coding in general - i appreciate the change they made with making Chiron disabled based on his mythos rather than just using a wheelchair as a disguise, but i wish they had kept Grover's crutches in a similar manner honestly) - I've made a couple of posts discussing it: here, here, and this reblog is relevant to my opinions about the matter. There's probably some other stuff in my pjo tv crit tag.

I think the main sentiment i have regarding it - which i've seen a couple of other people mention as well - is how much the show ignores or outright removes and downplays Percy's personal struggles with his disabilities to instead emphasize Sally's experiences instead, particularly in manners of her taking out her stress on Percy - which alongside being completely antithetical to Sally's role in the books, is pretty ableist and why I continually compare show!Sally to Autism Speaks Parents. Autism Speaks tends to make an emphasis on the struggles of the parents of autistic children rather than treating autistic individuals like a person experiencing their own struggles. One of the major points of Sally's character (and later Paul) in the books is that she's an incredibly accommodating parent and works hard to make sure Percy is supported when he's struggling with his disabilities, because he's not been able to find that accommodation elsewhere. That's part of why Sally is such a great mom in particular, and is intentionally supposed to directly contrast Annabeth's home life struggles with her parents having difficulty navigating how to provide that same level of accommodation to help support her (and how Annabeth finds that accommodation at CHB instead, because that's the metaphor that CHB is supposed to represent - an appropriately accommodating system they can rely on, and then exploring how that's still a flawed system and looking at how disabled kids/demigods fall through the cracks and how to change the system to better support them).

The show also almost completely ignores Percy's ADHD/dyslexia experiences in general after the first episode. I was honestly really happy with, in the first episode, how clearly Percy's poor experiences in the American education system, particularly relating to his neurodivergence, have informed his reaction to situations such as people trying to tell him he's a demigod in coded language. It was essentially the perfect update to something i've discussed in the past here, about how the original "all demigods have adhd/dyslexia because it's secretly SUPERPOWERS" thing was presented as the basis for the series and why that teaching/parenting style fell out of favor. We see Percy in e1 acknowledge how dismissive of his struggles it is to constantly just be told he's "special" - and we even get explicit acknowledgement of how that description is used aggressively and for ostracization (from Nancy), which is extremely true to the experiences of kids who grew up with that teaching/parenting structure. But then we get to episode 2 and... all the acknowledgement of ADHD/dyslexia/etc is gone. We get at most a one-off acknowledgement from Luke that demigods are all neurodivergent and that's it. Pretty much nothing else for the entire rest of the season, save for flashback scenes that only emphasize Sally's experiences, not acknowledge Percy's. No further acknowledgement of Percy's dyslexia, or Annabeth's, or anything about their ADHD, or even Percy's completely removed PTSD (which we know for sure because of both writer commentary [see: that second post i linked about the LA Times article] and Percy's total lack of reaction to Mr. D). Nothing.

It was extremely disheartening to say the least, having such a strong start and it evaporating completely, and I fully agree with you.

[lelet-draws]

After Chalice of Gods ends and if Rick still wants to write Percy Jackson books, I think it would be cool to shift the focus and have Nico as the protagonist. Something like a Camp Half Blood next generation.

The thing about Nico is that he has a pattern in every series of always getting a confirmation that things will get better for him. And it isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that it never leads to a proper closure.

Percy staying with Annabeth and going to New Rome feels like an appropriate closure, since Percy’s whole goal through the books was to survive and hopefully live a happy life with the ones he loves.

Nico getting together with Will however, doesn’t seem like a proper ending, it feels more like a new beginning for a character that spent most of his life suffering without having any control.

And Nico is literally one of the most interesting characters. He is the only kid of the big three who is alive and didn’t have a support system or a place to call home until very recently. He struggles with the way he sees himself and even shows some signs of disorder eating. He can and has traveled the world through shadow traveling. He was frozen in time and lives in a completely different era, where he finally can be accepted as a gay person.

The thing I liked about tsats, was how Nico managed to work through his trauma and accept it, finally gaining control over his own life. But now that he has the control, what will he do next?

I think having a Nico centered series would be really cool, cause there are so many things that could be explored.

What will he do now? Will he go to school? Will he stay in the camp?

How is he adjusting to the modern world? What friends will he make along the way? How will he interact with the other campers?

How will he find his passion/goal in life and achieve it? How will his boyfriend help him?

There are just so many questions about this character that need to be answered. A series about Nico finding himself, learning how to adapt to the world around him and work through his trauma would be just amazing.

[ssasides205]

had a realization that's making me insane but we as a fandom weren't angry enough abt sunshades

also, this is entirely related, so I'm dragging them here too, but the voltron fandom was not angry enough abt Shiro's sudden gayness

now, the similarities are these:

both were retconed gay during the second half of their series

both were given their "endgame" romantic interest at the very end of their series (yes I know TOA exists now, but it came out in 2016, 2 years after BOO)

both fandoms became really weird abt those who dared to have shipped the character with a girl (Nico was canonically gay for longer than Shiro was in their respective media, so it's very rare to see those old ships, but they exist all the same)

both fandoms were all too happy to start extreme shipping them with their last minute love interest (the voltron fandom latched to Adam so hard it makes the sunshades seem tame, Curtis way less so)

the differences:

the voltron fandom should've been angry bc Shiro hadn't had any buildup as a gay character (whatever shippers saw notwithstanding), the problem being that if the show had gone with it's original Shallura plans (I saw this in like a commentary on how the show got made), they would've had to make someone else queer (for bait reasons), and they couldn't make hunk queer cause they did the whole thign with Shay, and Pidge was the youngest so like,,, they couldn't make keith queer cause he's the only "white" character and therefore has to be the token straight protag, and if they made Lance queer without makign klance happen I think something would've exploded.

so last minute gay shiro, burry your gays trope included! but oh, don't worry, he gets married to this random two seconds background character in the end!!

the PJO fandom, on the other hand, went through more than half of HOO watching Nico and Jason be like thatTM and then just, acepted will? the same ppl who tell you valdangelo wouldn't happen cause they had only one interaction? those ppl??

what, they just took the 1.5 bit at the VERY END of BOO and ran with it? I know lack of representation was a lot worse back then, but if that thing came out now I don't trust y'all to call it out like you should

like, I remember spending that whole scene being like "who the fuck's this guy" cause I didn't register background characters unless they were plot relevant, and nothing about that scene was all that romantic either

it makes me so angry, and when they announced the show I hoped they'd make it as close to the books as possible bc then maybe more ppl would see it two, but apparently Riordan added to the first series post-fact? and the tv series is already making changes?? and they'll probably work sunshades into it earlier bc of TSATS but gods, even if they don't it might still not happen, bc y'all just settle for scraps.

anyway, sorry for the rant, I jsut wanted to get it off my chest, and sorry if I offended y'all, I just think you deserved better.

[an-exasperated-hades-kid]

Ranking pjo ships cause why not :

1.Percebeth: 9.5/10

They're so cute, and I loved watching their relationship develop through out the percy jackson series like they have the I don't like you to ig we're friends now to besties who have obvious crushes on each other to lovers like this is the only slow burn that didn't make me wanna pull out hair. I love that these two would do anything for each other and are mostly supportive of each other and the seaweed brain and wise girl nicknames that went from insults to terms of endearment and I also love that they're not afraid to call each other our on their bs like I've seen stuff where percy doesn't say shit to annabeth and like have we Been reading the same books cause in MoA and HoH percy stands up for what he believes and even before that he doesn't bend to annabeths will and wishes like in botl and literally all the time in tlt like bro stands up for himself and expresses his opinions and so does annabeth and I love that ?? It's a balanced relationship in which there are years of getting to know each other and then getting together like they are bffs before lovers

But it has some issues, tho like they're wayyyy too codependent on each other which isn't that healthy but this is my opinion and I could be wrong

2. Solangelo: 8.75/10

I love them ok they're so cute like they're all about balance , acceptance, and understanding which is something nico needs in his life he doesn't need someone who'll worship him or sugarcoat stuff for him he needs someone who will be real with him about stuff like will has always been real towards nico and he has always taken care of nico wether you like it or not. Nico has always had issues that people are creeped out by him and afraid of him and will is someone who has never been afraid of nico and has treated him normally like he jokes with him and isn't walking on eggshells around him and makes him realize that not everyone hates that he can find a home in chb and nico says this tsats and even before that you can tell how nico feels and is extremely supportive of him and reminds nico that he's safe and is extremely understanding of nico . In tsats, we see that they complete each, like nico is the warrior and will is the healer, and both roles are important like nico protects will from physical harm and will patches up nicos wounds and protects him from mental and emotional harm. It also shows that no one is perfect, like Will isn't always able to understand nico so he asks for advice and this shows that trying is the best you can do for someone you love , trying to understand them and support them . They also have alot of potential in general as we've only seen them in their honeymoon stage and their developing stage we haven't gotten the established stage and sure tsats isn't perfect in the adventurous sense but the point of this book was to show healing , moving on and making peace with stuff and it did that pretty well .

The only bad points about it is that one scene in boo which shows that will had good intentions but bad execution in expressing his pov and I want them to talk about it cause what he said wasn't nice and it was quite rude ik he didn't intend it but still it was not OK . Next, I want nico to set up boundaries for himself because Will isn't a mind reader and can not know what to not do unless he's told . I want rick to tell us more about Will as a person like we know more now, but still I want rick to flesh out as a character even further

3. Jasiper: 6.5/10

They weren't well developed, and it was kinda forced by hera even tho I know that at one point they truly loved each other but it wasn't well executed and they were bad as showing it I honestly wish that they had more time to understand themselves and then into a relationship like it would have been much better that way yk

4. Frazel : 8/10

They're cute together, they make each other happy they're comfortable around each other and they trust each other hence they're a good ship

I don't see why the age gap thing is a problem because it's just 3 years and where I'm from, that's a pretty normal age gap between lovers like my grandparents have a 10 year age gap but they're happy and love each other but ill add it since some people see it as problematic. They're underdeveloped and kinda rushed, and whole I get that they knew each other before SoN but still

5. Caleo : 4/10

It came outta nowhere dude like they were together for 2 chapters and then kiss kiss fall in love like wth 🤦‍♀️ but they have potential to be good ship ig I'm being generous with 4 because of that also the age gap thing isn't a problem because mentally and physically calypso is like 15-16 but if you see it chronologically calypso is older than apollo who is 4 thousand five hundred years old and that's 🚔🚨👈😄

6. Valgrace : 7/10

So so much potential they would have been soo cute and the most un problematic 🤧

7. Percico : 3/10

No, just no percy literally strangled nico when he was 12 even though he knew that nico didn't mean to betray him and honestly just wanted to know about his mom which percy should have understood because his mom means the world to him and it was clear that nico didn't expect hades to double cross him and percy had a right to be mad but strangling nico is too far . Bro also implied that nico doesn't belong in chb at the end of botl, and bro was silent during the negotiation of whether to save nico or to let him suffocate inside a jar which un excusable he also kept giving nico responsibilities like dealing with hades's wrath which could result in death during tlo and then the whole doors of death thing when nico was extremely weak. so yeah, no, they'd be toxic asf oh and I forgot mention percy never apologized for anything and never thanked him ( from what I remember, it's been a min since I read tlo ) also nico had a case of hero worship crush on him which would make a power imbalance in that relationship soooo

8. Jasico : 5/10

I see them as bros and so does rick and it's written in a way that people would see them as friends like it's clear that nico doesn't like jason like that and in tsats it's said that he missed the feeling of Jason's protective arms around him because he trusts jason and if he was to say something about Reynas hug it would be the same thing or even hazels hugs because that's how he sees them In a platonic/ familial way ( not saying that jason is his brother here ) and he also said something like a part of him died when jason died and that's because he cared about jason like he was his 1st actual friend and he felt him die so this is understandable he's allowed to grieve his friend and miss him . Also, jason is kinda unfortunately dead 😕 😔 so it's outta the question. And if he ended up with jason the whole I can belong thing wouldn't happen because it was will who made him realize that he can have a place in chb jason tired to tell him that but nico didn't really believe him . But hey, I understand the jasico shippers and respect the ship. I don't ship it, and I never will, but I can see why people like it because jason does care about nico and nico cares about jason .

Wait, I think it's canon that nico heard the sevens debate on whether he should be saved or not in his dreams, and if it is canon, then nico saw jason vote for him to die in a jar sooo

9. Jercy : 6/10

I don't ship it ship it but it's a fun thing to think about. It's my crack ship, but I could not see it happen in Canon at all

10. Pipebeth : 6/10

Annabeth was definitely pipers queer awakening, but same as jercy, it's my crack ship

11. Reyna with anyone is not my thing because rick said she's aro/ace, but if you ship theyna or jayna, you're cool because her sexuality isn't confirmed in the books, so you can interpret it in anyway you want

12 . Nico x any girl is ew because he's gay it's confrimed in the books and multiple times by rick himself and if you ship him with any female gtfo

13. Valdangelo : 2/10

I don't know how leo views nico now, but when we do get his pov, he always has something bad or rude to say about him and as much as I love leo it makes me wanna hit him

I'm sorry for the typos and mistakes. I still don't have my glasses, and if I'm wrong about something, please correct me

[puffins-studio]

Jason Grace ⚡️

I think the reason am so excited now for the Percy Jack and the Chalice of the gods, is I think it seems like it a chance to experience Percy Jackson in the moment. I been in the fandom for a bit, even tho it seems like it just me in my little corner when the books come out. But I got into them when the Apollo trials were being released. And this is the first time for me me a book is going to come out that has Percy as a main character. So my brain is just making it randomly special. Last minute I decided I wanted to post something, and I have the 7 made plus two mystery people, so I decided to post one of them and I thought what better why to celebrate then with a joke. As aren’t you wondering ’where’s percy?’

I do love Jason, he deserved to have lived. It why he lives in my headcannons

Hazel

Percy & Annabeth

Nico & Will (tsats spoilers)

Leo

Many Jason headcannons below as I love headcannons and love sharing them.

[ID: The picture is a felt doll that is the shape of a gingerbread men with a big circle head he is Jason Grace from Percy Jackson. He have light skin felt, blond short hair, Gold rim glass, and a little scar where a mouth would’ve be. He have on a yellow shirt, tan jacket, that have a purple, orange, and yellow bead for pins. He in light blue jeans that are cuffed, and a chain hanging on his right side. He in black converse like shoes. He have a bracelet on this right that is a braid of purple,blue, and black. And another that is an asexual color one, black,grey,white,purple. He have a camp half blood necklace with a purple and a yellow bead. And he have a white round bead that is supposed to be a stand in for a moon theme necklace.:ID]

Jason headcannons

Surviving

Either Hera was watching and was mad that Zeus’s punishment for Apollo would get her champion killed and give Apollo some of his healing powers or saved Jason from the killing blow. Kinda to also show the gods can be cruel but also kind. Or Artemis save him as she save Apollo and Jason is also like a brother as Thalia convince her. It also as he had plans to build the temples so maybe one of the minor god healed him as he maybe for Storm to fall, Jason just need to let go and fall a get high. Lol like god level trust fall.

Pants

Jason had a hard time trying to find pants that would fit and when he finally found pant that fit his waist they were too long in the leg. He was going to hem them but he keep forgetting so he just cuff them and Will sees and ask Nico about it and Nico is like should I tell him- no this is funny. And it just Jason doing a ton of bi things without knowing

the chain, Nico and Jason do activities together as they both have memories parts, and Nico take it upon himself as a favor for Thaila, to show him the way of being a punk. Just imagine the first day of this, Nico just clip the chain to his pants and he just “look at you, already looking the part” and the black shoes are a part of this. Thinking he may try to paint lights bolts on them or something.

Jacket

power wise with Jason’s flight a aviator jacket is better for him when flighting but he doesn’t want to copy Nico’s look in case it upset him (it won’t, Nico would just tease him about it) but so he gets this coat and Nico end up teasing him as it an old man jacket and Jason tease back saying if course Nico knows this as he is an old man. (When trying to find a reference picture i didn’t know what this jacket was calls and so typed old man jackets and it popped up

Pins I kinda can’t remember as I forgot to note it down, but I think it the two camps, and some random lighting pin Nico, or Leo found, or they can just be pins the 7 found that made them think of Jason so he have something that reminds him that he is someone.

Bracelets

Going with Nico’s adventure with the Apollo bracelet making. He makes Jason and Percy matching bug 3 bl as they always joke they are brothers and just Nico leaving them in their cabins as he doesn’t want to make a scene, but Jason and Percy find one of them in cabin 1 when Percy was hanging out together and they are like wait and run to cabin 3 to find Percy’s and they put them on and go run over to find Nico and they make a big fus about Nico does love them and Nico is like no thr purl for heazl, black is for him and he likes the color blue but they just ruffles his hair.

And he have a ace bracelet from Nico too. He the first to get a pride bracelet from Nico and he help Nico put on his as he helped him get to this place where he could be proud so Nico wanted him to tie it as like a sign of trust.

Asexual

I feel like a headcannon a lot of Percy Jackson characters as ace but we deserve it. As also like sex repulsedace son of Jupiter/ Zeus kinda funny in my book. Like Dad is basically known for hooking up and Jason is like nope. Him and Nico being two confused aces together as like Nico trying to explain it to him and Jason like isn’t that how everyone feels? And once Nico knows what he feeling has a name, he runs to Jason to tell him too.

I headcannon Artemis lets any gender join the hunter they just have to sworn off sex and be loyal to her (if you like that took then look up the myth of hippolytus by Overly Sarcastic Productions. I love that channel too!). And each time the hunters visit campus they ask if anyone want to join. One time when they come around when Nico and Will got together, before Nico tells Thalia about them, she ask if he wants to join as she thought he still didn’t feel like he has a place and he like no I think if found a place with the help of Will, Jason, and everyone here. and then she also asked Jason if he want to join them. and he thought about it for a moment and realized he already been through a lot, does he really want an immoral life of it, and what sold him on not joining is he happens to looked over to where Nico was watching him and he saw Nico’s worry eyes, a look basically pleading him not to go. And that night Jason and Nico have a sleepover in the hades cabin, with Nico may or may not having saying that he wants Jason to be his brother and he will be his brother in return.

The necklace is also like a thing for Artemis/Diana (for if she the one who save him), the hunt/his sister, and ace pride. I feel in his look for his identity, finally realizing one part of himself that makes him him, he would just be happy about it, and full embrace it.

Random

Him and Percy dare each other to do stupid things like when Jason meet a new camp just hit himself with lightning and act as if nothing happens

Am going to add another headcannon here as I like it and I need it.

Being hit in the head

Jason with actual brain damage from all his concussion . I want him with a TBI, him having memory problems, having a harder time spelling and reading. As someone with a TBI I want a character with a brain injury that isn’t a vegetable, who just get angered every 10 minutes or just walks it off. Him talking with Will/Chiron about concussions and stuff and him being a bit worried about hitting his head again, him and Nico talking about memory issues. Give him a bit of a speech impediment or sensitive to lights and sounds. Jason and Nico hanging out in the dark hades cabin when they have migraine days. Jason asking Will for help for a talk to the camp about being cautious about any type of brain injury. As the brain is important and weird and it can behave differently for everyone, and healing magic can’t heal it completely, so they need to be careful.

[yonemurishiroku]

Jason died cause he boring. He literally an all American boy someone who would have been popular in the 90s. Compare all main characters first chapter to Jason and you can tell he bland like white bread. Jason lacks the popularity of Percy cause if Percy was dead expect a riot plus we already had a better Zeus contrast with Thalia. Apollo is the more interesting character and Apollo son is a better contrast to Nico. Had he not had a GF maybe he could have been Nico love interest but Rick decided on Nico being gay extremely late he said it himself and what does it look like having a guy break up with his GF (poc) to be with Nico(white emo kid) in a kid series. Will was convenient no weird background no known relationship and the complete opposite to Nico and people get mad but it work you don’t get a solo book if the fanbase wasn’t big. The

There’re so many points at once in this ask and I don’t think I’m comprehending them right so I guess I’ll just post my reactions upon reading this.

- Jason’s bland like a white bread -> Good news! I like white bread. I think white bread is a perfect canvas to add all of your favorite toppings to make the best meal for you. ☺️😋😋

So if Rick really did kill Jason only bc he’s bland then he’s a coward solely bc he can’t figure out what color to put on Jason’s canvas.

- Apollo’s son is a better contrast to Nico -> This is subjective so I’ll leave it for any day. Though it got me thinking. Why, exactly, should the contrast matter?

Because fun fact! Jason and Nico have many working parallels that can be great materials for relationship development. Ask a random Jasico fanfic writers and they’ll give a thesis.

On the other hand, to be honest?, we already have Percabeth as the opposites-attract/bantering/significant annoyance trope. I ngl can do without another similar one. 🤷‍♀️

- Err i’m not American so I don’t think I’m in any position to talk about the poc girl vs white emo boy thing but if anything, I find it’s valid. Smh shame

Edit: Haise pointed out that Nico is not white, he’s Venetian and has olive skin. I honestly don’t know what it makes this…

- You don’t get a solo book if the fanbase isn’t big enough -> This is undeniably true.

HOWEVER

Pal. My friend. Mate. Listen. Just wait until I show you how many people absolutely despite the existence that is TSATS——

I’m all for letting people enjoy things. Though, if you ask me - me, who came to PJO solely for Solangelo and binge read TSATS in like 2 nights and cried a river on my pillow, I would say TSATS is Rick’s poor attempt of:

1/ milking the franchise (which is understandable. Capitalism you know bla bla bla)

2/ giving a half-heartedly made closure to the fandom’s favorite (which is sort of fanservice? Idk)

3/ and along with it solidifying the foundation of his gay love story, which didn’t have the… err prettiest start? (which I reckon accounts for a lot of the franchise’s popularity).

And yeah it’s easy to see that Nico being gay is a late decision with how Rick worked it out lmao.

[goldrushenthusiast]

I’m gonna be honest, while TSATS was very fulfilling in terms of Solangelo, I feel like it kind of disappointed in…everything else?

Like I had so many hopes for this book! And while that may be a factor as to why it was a let down, I’m still gonna share them.

More Lester/Apollo content! More anyone else content!! We did get a small snippet of letting us know he’s ok (I think) but it would’ve been nice to have more of him, especially considering the prophecy mess and his own complicated relationship with Will. I felt like there were a lot of golden opportunities to at least mention him and the impact it all had on Will that weren’t taken advantage of.

More revenge, or commentary, on what happened to Nico with Cupid. Now, what we did get is ok, and I’m not criticizing that, but that kind of thing can really mess a person up. The fact Nico didn’t tell Will about it, and the fact that that whole thing was just…another part of his trauma? I’m not sure how to put it, but it seemed blander than it should have been.

More other ghost content! For heavens sakes, they’re in the underworld! I get the whole thing with not being spotted by Hades, but come on. Nothing about Jason’s ghost, that weird thing with Bianca (which is saved for #4), or an opportunity for anyone else who’d previously died was used. How cool would it be to see Micheal Yew’s ghost, and how that would help Will? It’d be great, and it felt like the underworld was just another place when it would have been better if they thought about the fact people they knew that were now dead there, were there.

BIANCA!!! BIANCA, BIANCA, BIANCA! I thought the whole grey part that Rick advertised, or at least part of it, would have been about Nico’s time in the labyrinth and Bianca’s death. It wasn’t. That’s kind of it for how I wished Rick would have shared more about her death and how it affected Nico, but now the whole ghost-remanent thing. Honestly, it was kind of weird. I liked the idea, I thought it was nice, but also, it was kind of weird. I just didn’t like it.

Other campers? I get that they had to wait a while to go to Tartarus, but we barely got to see any of their normal life at Camp Half Blood. We didn’t get to check in on Drew, or Meg, or anyone else from any of the series besides Will’s siblings. I thought it was kind of a letdown tbh.

Last one, and the most unrealistic, I thought it would have been cool to either touch on the fact that other religions exist and have Nico and Will meet Alex and Magnus. Not just because both relationships are queer, but kind of because, but also because we don’t know much about them now. Idk. I just hoped for other characters from other series, ig.

Anywho, sorry if this was so negative! I still liked the book a lot, but I just wish there was more. Of everything. As always, feel free to debate in the comments, or remind me of things I’m forgetting that would have helped.

[readerwithsalt]

Does anyone think the concept of tsats would have been better if instead of going to save bob or whatever the book was just set in camp the whole time. Like maybe during those six months Jason had been alive and our favorite characters were still at camp.

Like since Riordan pretty much agreed to it for fanservice and bc people wanted him to, it would’ve been WAY more interesting and satisfying to watch how Nico lives within the camp now. What friends he’s made on his own outside of Wills cabin. What he likes to do now at camp, like training other kids with weird techniques that no one’s ever really seen, him making strange looking clay sculptures in arts and craft, therapy sessions with Dionysus etc…

We could’ve read about those things Jason had wanted to do with him at the end of BOO, like eating together in the palivion, sleepovers with that creepy Zeus statue in Jason’s cabin watching their every move, playing capture the flag and for the first time ever people see Hades symbol appear across the fabric when Nico gets it to the top of the hill (instead of Athena or ares).

We could’ve seen the Stoll brothers remembering him from TTC when they’d tried to get him into poker and now they keep trying to keep him to do a bunch of illegal stuff and pranks on the other cabins because he can be the ‘getaway driver’ and shadowtravel them away. We could’ve seen Clovis helping Nico with some of Nicos dream magic he displayed in BOO and helping Nico navigate even some of his worst recurring nightmares.

We could’ve had Hazel visiting and having adorable sibling moments. We could’ve had the hunters visiting and Nico being kinda distraught about Reyna joining them but they talk about it and patch that up. Also with there being four big three kids at the camp at one time (Nico, Hazel, Percy, & Jason) camp half blood FINALLY wins a game against the hunters for the first time lol. With Hazel and Nico being the ones to get the hunters flag lol.

We could’ve had a scene of Nico babysitting baby chuck and being strangely very good with babies and his gentle and sweet side coming out and it makes some of the campers see him differently.

The progression of Solangelo could’ve been wayy smoother as well. With Will nonchalantly revealing being open about his bisexuality, and Nico realizing how many other kids were out in camp as well and finally gaining his own confidence by seeing kids his own age being themselves.

We could’ve had Will thinking Nicos darkness is cute in a way and it’s revealed embarrassingly by Kayla that all Wills past crushes have always been, like, hella goth.

We could’ve had scenes with Nico helping Will with gory injuries and Nico being delighted at the many colors wounds can take on (flashback to little Nico talking about Percy’s wound in ttc “ooh, it’s green!” Nico said with delight.’) and Will thinking it’s cute how Nico keeps commenting on the fluids leaking out of someone’s dismembered leg and the patient in question just screaming in pain while Will makes heart eyes.

We could’ve had a scene where Percy and Nico talk about Nico having that crush on him and Percy always forgetting about him and calling on his help but never truly appreciating it and they make up satisfyingly for once. (But Percy’s still a bit miffed about how much better Nico’s friendship with Jason is than with him lol)

We could’ve had another chariot race but this time with Nico and Hazel in one and everyone thinks they look terrifying. BECAUSE THEY DO.

Like, honestly we didn’t need this kind of book about the most lethal place in their universe but then have it practically only talk about couples therapy and how to like the person you’ve literally been dating for a year…. 🙄😒

Like sometimes less is more if you know what I mean.

[nicoappreciation]

Thots on wottg

non-spoilery general review: overall, i liked the book. the reasons why i liked it are the same reasons why i liked cotg. it’s just a silly low-stakes adventure for our main trio peppered with some sincere heartfelt moments. if you liked cotg, you’ll probably like this book too. it’s nothing life changing, but it’s fun.

i’m getting into spoilers under the cut:

okay i’m gonna start with the stuff i didn’t like:

1. NO NICO. okay i know i’m the nico guy so i’m very biased but that aside it genuinely baffles me why nico didn’t even make an appearance. they had a problem involving ghosts and didn’t even think about asking THE GHOST KING for help. it annoys me when authors make their characters ignore a glaringly obvious solution to their problems just for the sake of the plot.

i completely understand if rick doesn’t want nico to be a major character in any more books considering he literally got an entire book about him (and despite his fan-favorite status, he is still a side character), but at LEAST establish a reason for why he wouldn’t be able to help out with raising an army of ghosts from the dead. maybe he’s at camp jupiter visiting hazel. maybe he’s at a mythomagic tournament. SOMETHING.

at least he was mentioned unlike in cotg 😔

(EDIT: i wrote the above section before tsats 2 was announced. given the circumstances, i have officially forgiven rick for this specific transgression)

2. i wasn’t a fan of how annabeth was kind of getting “mom friend”ed. there were a few moments that came off like “percy and grover are just dumb boys and annabeth is the smart capable girl who keeps them in line” which is not an interpretation of their characters that i enjoy. but these moments were mixed in with others that showed them all working together as a cohesive unit with equal contributions from everyone, so it’s not like the entire book follows this thinking.

3. kind of related to the last one, there were quite a few “percy is dumb” moments in the story. or at least percy implying that he’s dumb. now to be fair, percy canonically does not think very highly of himself. it’s entirely believable that he just sees himself as some doofus and is surprised when people tell him that he’s smart. but idk, kinda rubs me the wrong way.

4. why so many pee references. like at some point it’s just excessive.

5. i will always be a hater of rick’s modern pop culture references. i think it’s an established fact that i’m not a fan of his decision to set his books in the “modern day” of whatever specific time they’re released. i just think the worldbuilding would be a lot better if he stuck to a time period.

6. of course, the typical rick riordan inconsistencies and continuity errors. at this point they’re so common they don’t bother me that much anymore, but they can still break my immersion sometimes and it’s just a tad annoying when there are multiple in one book. bro either needs to reread his books or find a better editor lmao.

okay, now for the stuff i liked!!

1. i really liked the cute domestic moments with the trio. i love that we get to see how close their bond has gotten over the years and how comfortable they are with each other. THEY ARE FAMILYYYYY

2. i thought a lot of the book was quite funny, especially with percy’s narration. his commentary with his classic snark and sarcasm really breathe life into the story. rick has always been very good at first-person narration and it’s still one of his major strengths as an author.

3. i like how the story is addressing how big of a deal leaving new york will be for percy. but it’s true that he’s not leaving home, he’s just expanding what “home” means to him. it really fits with the whole “we had one home, now we have two” idea from boo.

4. annabeth growing to be more silly and carefree as she’s gotten older means so much to me. this poor girl has been through so much and was forced to grow up so quickly so seeing her cracking jokes and being a little reckless is so nice to see. she’s healing :D

5. i liked the moments where the story slowed down to allow percy to have a heart-to-heart with grover. we don’t get nearly enough just percy-and-grover moments so the ones we do get are worth appreciating. it’s a great reminder that they have been best friends since the beginning of all of this and they truly care deeply for each other.

6. related to the previous one, but the moments where the plot slowed down in general and allowed percy to demonstrate his emotional intelligence were really great. he was the one who was able to get through to hecuba and gale because he was able to put himself in their shoes and make them feel understood. percy’s empathy is a huge part of his character that so many people in the fandom ignore so it was very nice to see it on display here.

7. like cotg, this was a fun and wacky low-stakes adventure, which is a welcome change of pace. it’s fun to see what everyone is like when they’re not in constant “save the world” mode all the time.

8. the story kind of builds off the message of cotg (“growing older is not only not a bad thing but it’s something to welcome and cherish”), because now that percy has embraced his future and growing older, he needs to figure out what he wants that to mean for him. a change in scenery, a change in people, these are all things that everyone needs to consider as they transition into adulthood. it’s scary to leave the familiarity of your old home and friends, but you’re not TRULY leaving if you put in the effort to maintain those connections. as a young adult starting to move into the next phase of their life (about to graduate, hopefully find a full-time job, might begin to consider moving out of my childhood home), this is a message that resonates a lot with me.

soooo yeah. it was fun, it was sweet, not groundbreaking but not necessarily trying to be. idk how often i’ll return to this book but i don’t regret reading it. peace and love on planet earth.

[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.

[stygianheart]

its a shame your fics dont have more art theyre so good like if I could draw well id probably turn them into picture books. do you wish you had art?

but besides the point I actually have questions and I wanna ask em.

first up, who’s the back up? luffys mentioned the backup a few times and I cant help but wonder who it is. if thats a major spoiler than you dont have to answer but considering your love for this one guy i kinda think its sabo or the rev army. either that or like traffy. it would be funny if it was sabo though because of koby’s brief jealousy of how luffy was talking about him.

this might be just me as an aot fan overanalyzing everything but I feel like that devil fruit in the beginning was something important and so was the auction in broad daylight.

also ive seen a lot of fics where kobys favorite food is buttered potatoes but i think yours is the first where his favorite food is downright plain butter. the guys a psychopath for that. like why would you do that. where did you even get the idea.

I also have some other questions! unfortunately uh revolving around the second favorite ship brymeppo…

does helhippo realize he likes bryan or no? also i really came into the fic thinking I wasnt gonna give a crap about him but somehow you made me like him a lot so kudos to you. his relationship with bryan is so rivals to lovers coded and thats one of my favorite tropes. I really do hope helhippo lives up to his promise and takes bryan to the symphony. I know that wont happen in tsats but if you could make a one shot of helhippo and bryan going out on small dates that would be amazing 🙏 for us rymeppo shippers #rymeppo shippers unite oh and as much as i wanna see bryan take revenge on elijah for all the things the guys done to him i also wanna see helmeppo smash the guys face in. please. kill elijah. I hate him.

omg sorry that this is so long but I still have some more questions!

kobylu wise, who do you think fell first? koby or luffy? its obvious that luffy likes Koby but why hasn’t he said anything? does he understand how he feels? and after this is all said and done how are they going to stay in contact? it’s not like koby can just talk to luffy whenever he wants since hes a marine and luffys the pirate king.

anyway thats all! I hope i was able to help your creativity in some way :)

I mean, yeah, art would be cool. But when it comes to engagement with my fics, the most I hope for is for someone to simply read it. Besides, it’s self indulgent! I’m just writing the stuff for me and sharing it along the way.

Anyway, questions. *pulls out glasses*

The back up? Well, it’s not Traffy, that much I can say. Considering we (last I checked) don’t know if Trafalgar is alive or not, I just decided to…y’know, leave him out.

Greetings, fellow AoT fan, you are NOT mistaken! I kinda like hiding little things in the fic—not EVERYTHING has a purpose like AoT, but a lot of things are put there for a reason. I like being sneaky like that.

And yes. Koby’s a psycho. He eats straight up butter—and said it tastes better when dipped in sugar. I got this weird headcanon from my bestie who also happens to eat butter sticks. I once saw him dip it in sugar and was so disgusted by it, and he was just like “it’s good for you. Besides, it’s ✨tasty✨” like sir no. What on earth. That’s weird. You do you, but please, not in front of me. Besides the point—for some reason I decided to implement that onto Koby. I have a habit of weirdifying characters.

As for the RyMeppo question… I seriously never expected people to love this ship so much wtf. In Chapter 5, Helmeppo is completely unaware of his very obvious crush on (B)Ryan. He thinks he hates Ryan, when it’s obvious it’s more than that. As of Chapter 10, however, the moron is 10000% aware of how he feels. He and Ryan’s relationship is really fun to write with the constant bickering/flirting. I never intended them to be a romantic relationship, but alas, that’s where it headed.

And the KobyLu questions! Yay! Koby definitely fell first and he fell hard—don’t think anyone could fall harder if they tried. As for Luff: he knows how he feels about Koby. Buddy went to Sanji’s school of flirting and failed the classes spectacularly yet tried showing off his grades to Koby. He’s made it very clear how he feels—Koby, unfortunately, is just too damn dense. Luffy could yell “I LOVE YOU” to Koby and he would probably think Luffy meant platonically. He gets his density from me, of course, I’m the exact same way.

I hope I answered your questions well! Thanks for the ask, it actually did help a bit.)))

[aroaceleovaldez]

Speaking of their depiction of Will's anxiety- the Stymphalian birds were specifically chosen for him, because in the myths they can only be taken down by archery. But they're saying here that Will had a traumatic experience at the hands of monsters who have historically been defeated by archers. And then he didn't dedicate himself to archery at all? For the 5+ years he's been at camp? Reverse superhero origin story where instead of vowing to fight crime as the result of a loved one's death they just never leave the house ever again

Yeah! Or music/sound (which his satyr is specifically noted to be skilled at - Woodrow teaches the music class at CHB in The Hidden Oracle), which Will also doesn't do anything with besides his sonic whistle or healing hymns (which apparently are actually just his mom's songs and not hymns) at all until that gets retconned in TSATS. Like, we know he has a sonic whistle and healing hymns, but it's kind of a specific thing that he's not as musically or archery inclined as his siblings. So why half-retcon half of that, make these birds that can specifically only be defeated by sound and archery a major part of his backstory, and then... we never get any payoff for it? He faces them again, but it doesn't go any better than it did the first time? There's no building of his character there.

Also, Stymphalian birds are actually sacred to Artemis. Yknow. Apollo's twin.

I get that TSATS was trying to cameo a lot of monsters we've seen before, but making Stymphalian birds specifically part of Will's backstory feels kind of weird and doesn't make a ton of sense? Because when we see them in SoM it's implied they were specifically sent to CHB, so why would they try to maim the random kid? Especially a son of the sibling of the goddess they're sacred to?

The only explanation I would accept is that the Stymphalian birds that attacked Will in New York were actually the ones from CHB in Sea of Monsters after they flew away, and Will just got really unlucky. But timeline-wise that actually doesn't work, cause SoM and TTC are the same year, and Nico and Will are the same age, so Will should be 10 or 11 in SoM/TTC (depending on if you accept Nico is 13 or 14 in HoO). And TSATS tells us Will arrived to CHB at age eight, which would mean he's been at CHB longer than Percy has and so the birds couldn't be the same ones from SoM. (Yes I'm still mad about the absolutely broken timeline there.) Also if they're dissuaded by noise, there's no way they're going to land in the middle of New York City of all places.

There's just other monsters they could have picked that would have made more sense. Or even mortal animals! We know from previous books that there's a thing about mortal animals sometimes having vendettas against the children of gods associated with their species for curse reasons or etc! Apollo actually has a lot of those! And it can become enough of a problem even to young demigods that it can require them to come to camp early before monsters can begin tracking them (ex.: Annabeth with spiders - monsters seemed to only become a problem after she tried coming back home the first time). Why not have it be Will being attacked consistently by normal mortal crows, because he's a son of Apollo? Or snakes - in the first book Percy even mentions fighting off two snakes when he was a baby because they were sent to kill him. I mean, Will's from Texas! We can absolutely scrounge up some snakes for him to fight. And it would fit more with acknowledging how he's from Texas specifically, just like how much the book tries to emphasize that Nico is from Venice.

It feels like one of many dropped plot points that make me say I wish TSATS had been worked on longer so that these types of things could have been ironed out and maybe turned into something consistent.

[rayssion]

TSATS, Finally!!

This's a very long post guys...

Idk if I have a natural ability to ignore responsibilities or I'm just genuinely not good at keeping promises. But yes, finally the long awaited review of tsats is here.

So, the general rating for me is 3.5, which is... Really good, considering the book,,

Now you know, points to talk about:

Firstly guys I want to tell you that, unfortunately the sun and the star had me run into a deep reading slumber, which is something I never expected it to happen. Idk if you noticed this but my favourite character in whole Riordanverse is Nico! And Will comes closely after him, so I thought tsats would only be a fast run to me, it's basically a solangelo fanfic just written by the original author. But as I ran the first 100 pages I found myself drained, I was bored, I was tired and we really weren't going anywhere. It was a displayer of Nico and Will's love for each other, and I'm sorry to be that person but!! I dislike it when the ship is just out there living and laughing like I'm sorry but I need them to suffer first then some smiles and laughs at the end would do (insert some offended face).

Yeah, let's talk real. I know we had to go through that introduction to know where exactly the two of them stand in their relationship to be able to observe the change and development later on, but it was very repetitive.

Nico is made from darkness, Nico had so much darkness, Nico lives in the shadows, Nico doesn't think he deserves love, Nico doubts Will's love, Nico feels he's not enough for Will. It all goes in circles and I didn't like it. Nico I know you're emo and such but I just think the narration focused too much in it on expense of getting good Will expressing.

And this coming from a big Nico di Angelo lover, I feel like we don't quite exactly know Will even after this whole book, there's yet so much to unfold about him, his mother, his life at camp, his feelings after all toa happened like his father was a teenager just like him and was the biggest loser ever (lol, I just love Lester), how come we didn't discuss that? Nico is a character we all know, we lived with him, we experienced every feeling he went through, he wasn't new to us which is not the case with Will. What's the difference between us and the troglodytes? All we know that he's a son of Apollo, a healer and Nico's glow-in-the-dark boyfriend.

I just felt the need to summarise because I felt that what I wrote could be compromised in better wording: the narration was too repetitive and too focused on Nico and his dark past™ which is not necessarily a bad thing but I just feel it'd be better if cut it a bit shorter and clear the stage for Will, because -surprise surprise- Will also has some dark parts (although not much like Nico, and yes I know the book touches the topic later on but it'd have been way better if we were introduced to it from the start thus it'd grow on us and would be very convenient later on. Tbh the book just goes "oh, Will also got a dark side, he must share it with Nico..." But what I'm saying is, we never were exposed to it, what's the darkness within Will? Those pigeons? His mother performing and him staying backstage? I feel like we could explore it much better) anyways, it'd also be really great if we got to experience Nico's dark past yet from Will's point of view more often, that way the whole communication arc would be better, because we will know that Will already had a solid image of Nico in his head (yes his lovely little emo boy with miserable history but we'll get to know what he knows about the Nico and also the flaws he had picked up in him) and as the time goes we'll get to experience that image altering.

I know someone will think "but it's a Nico di Angelo adventure!" Yes I know, but don't you think getting to know Nico, our adored character, from his boyfriend perspective would be much interesting? Come on guys, see the potential.

Let's rewind a little bit, so 100 pages, I'm bored I stopped reading for three days then picked the book yet again and..... Stopped after 50 pages ;-;

I'M SORRY BUT I REALLY WASN'T FEELING THE VIBES OKAY I KNOW IT'S TOTALLY MY FAULT AND I'M SORRY GUYS.

And picked the book for the last time today and finished it.

Oh yes, another thing that felt off for me is how Chiron and Dionysus are portrayed here, idk they felt so out of character and the whole "dO wE hUg nOw?" I'm sorry, that was cringe, dw it's on me guys.

And there were points where the writing was so inconsistent, I never read anything of Oshiro's work before, but it's so painfully obvious when his and Rick's writing styles clashes (ugly clashes) that it makes the book really obviously written by more than one author, and other points where idk if Rick is trying water down his style or Oshiro is trying to level the work up to the satire and sarcasm Riordan's books are known for. Anyways, it could use some editing (and it's definitely edited but not enough to mask every hole, because if a dumb person like me speed reading the book was able to pick all that then it's obviously not enough).

Also Nyx was stupid. Yes, that's my statement. Iget it you refuse to change but I hate how dumb her plan was. First of all, why leave Bob without guard? I mean you obviously have better chances in luring Nico and maybe killing Will if they don't have a Titan with them?? But yeah this's not about her.

I also hated we lost originality here, I already told you guys it read like a fanfic, but it really was a fanfic, every fanservice they could include they did include. For example the Hades allowing Bianca and Maria to talk to Nico once again, look I'm not complaining (as you'll read later) but really WHAT THE FUCK??! Weren't they reincarnated or whatever? How the fuck is that possible?

Also isn't Tartarus like, beyond the powers of the gods?? Then how is Hades going to retrieve whoever-was-his-name-centaure-satyr out of it? And just because Nico asked nicely?

Another thing, I know that you can issue a quest (just like what Percy and Annabeth did to rescue Grover in SOM, and like what Ares did in SON) but how the fuck do you send a prophecy?? Isn't this also too much of a godly power? Like Apollo (the god of prophecy himself) stated that they're way above him then how can Hades send one???

So we mentioned the narration, we've done the character portrial that I didn't like, now we're off to good stuff!

A big point! A huge point! For solangelo's relationship, I loved how they often had fights, disagreed with each other, hid things from one another, had miscommunication yet still managed to figure it out as mature humans whom are much better than half of adults nation. I loved how quickly one apologise once they realise they were wrong, I loved how they stayed by each other's side and how they supported each other, like bro it seems like they can't stay angry at each other more than five seconds and I love for it!

This's actually Rick's trademark (along with having Percy in everything he writes) that he always sets a good example for kids, younger audience who read his books have a good exposure to an excellent functional relationship not like some other booktok authors whom I'm not naming (totally not about you Colleen Hoover, you do you honey🙂).

Hiss-magisty and oh boy how much I love them! They were so cute I really liked how they looked up to Will, especially that the boy needed such encouragement because of the whole child of Apollo, underworld, tartarus things going on. And yet another point to tsats for representation (never forgetting Epiales).

Nico, Hades, Maria, Bianca!! You just have to love them!! They're literally my favourite family in the whole Riordanverse, yes I'm so madly in love with Sally and yes I love Percy but the Hades/di Angelo family?? That's where my discussion ends.

And speaking about family, can we have a moment of appreciation for Persephone like I truly loved her back from mythology (which I know nothing about, like she's Hades wife, that's it, yet I still loved her because she seemed nice, and she's nice!) This whole journey won't be if not for her, girl single handedly opened Will's eyes and her love for Nico??? Told you that's my family right there.

Lol I just remembered when Demeter was lecturing Persephone for not marrying a doctor and now I just know she loves solangelo, so yeah even grandma is an icon, I stan by it, that's my family.

Okay I also wanted to talk about the concept of grief and ptsd and how it was represented. This actually deserves a major applause because that's really how you write a good deep psychological analysis of losing someone and having to cop with it, especially that part when Nico tells how he just shunned all his memories away, how in his mind Jason just went to a quest and someday he'll return to camp half-blood as if nothing happened, because surprisingly it's the same method my brain took when my mother died, it's like all these years had been deleted and I was just brought to world after her passing, a lot of times I try to remember some particular incident from the time but I just can't wrap my mind about it, sometimes I became alert because for a minute there I couldn't recall her name, it was like all the pain associated with her just disappeared, it is locked far away in my brain and I still can't get access to it. So yeah, away from this pity party, I love how it was represented here, with Nico really suffering the trauma and how he eventually learned to let it go. (I cried at that mention and also when he was reunited with his family for that little amount of time).

Can we name the cocoa puffs?? Because I just adore them so much and I feel like Nico and Will will name them such cute adorable names and I can't stop thinking about that. Lol, percabeth are yet to get engaged then married and solangelo already has kids.

Ps actually but the pet names??? OMG NOTHING SWAYS MY HEART LIKE PET NAMES. I was pretty much hooked when I read "Noble McSacrifice" SSKFHIDJ

Another ps. I liked the whole Gorgyra thing as a way to show us their memories like a breeze amidst the flames every couple of chapters. At first I was like "wtf is this, did it happen or is it gonna happen or is this an alternate universe??" Don't blame me I was sleepy.

Yet another ps. I hated the "DREAM SEQUENCE" that just comes in the middle, like bro the boy just went to sleep of course I'd know this's a dream no need to point it out every time it was so annoying.

I think I covered all of the points I wanted to talk about, I was going to say "yay, first review with me having actual time to write it and think it through!" Yet auntie barged in in the middle and everything seems all over the place now.

It's like a characteristic in me now, heh. But yeah, sorry for the long wait, sorry for this shitty review, but bear with me please.

I totally adored this book once I figured out how to keep up with it ").

I'm yet to read a bunch of books all by Rick, hopefully I'll start with the chalice of the gods and come for a quick chat later.

Until then, eat, sleep and take care of yourselves♡!!