#i have very very few followers on twitter

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[dogfruit01]

hi tumblr !! :o3

I’ve been neglecting this blog for so long and I have decided NO MORE !! this site is very nice and I need to get over my reluctance to post on multiple social medias

anyway thank you for being here, I’m gonna be posting a whole bunch of backlogged art over the next few weeks, I hope you’ll like it :o3

p.s. I haven’t checked my tumblr in so so long, if we’re mutuals on twitter and I don’t follow you back on here please shoot me a message if you see this! <3

[barkbarf]

every time i open this account i sigh and a tear rolls down my cheek... I Wish I Could Post My Incest Porn Art On Here!!!

[nakanotamu]

I want to do a podcast again I miss talking about wrestling I just don't miss like. Everything it took to get my ~platform~ to the point where I got to do a podcast though y'know. Or being on twitter at all

[daesungindistress]

[closed]

[nouveaumoon]

ok for the art style thing your art kinda gives “kid with plans of a looney toons saturday morning cartoon marathon followed by prince of egypt and/or sinbad on vhs grew up and the art bangs now”. i was/am?? obsessed with the art direction on those dreamworls movies and your art reminds me of that stylization that had me so mesmerized lol

i will give you credit, it absolutely Feels like this should be correct, but it is only half right. i never have had cable so i never saw looney tunes outside of two visits to my aunt's house when daffy duck was on 😔 BUT i did watch prince of egypt multiple times in my teenage years when i got a laptop of my own. i looooooooooooved the art of that movie. many hours were spent drawing after school trying to imitate the shape language. you got me there

the truth is... i spent most saturday mornings watching sky high, because it was on every saturday on whatever channel was broadcasting it nearby. i feel like that does explain something, namely the bisexuality

[radelenagreco]

i'm #newtoradblr i've spent so much time these past two weeks scrolling through radfem blogs i knew i had to make an actual radfem side of tumblr blog for my own sanity. the way i "peaked" is kinda funny 3-4 months ago i liked a radfem post without realizing and all of a sudden i had other radfem posts recommended to me by the algorithm and i was so annoyed because i was very anti-terf etc but for a couple days i read through a bunch of radfem blogs and it was actually such a relief to encounter FEMINISM not some watered down version of it but i felt guilty due to 5+ years of conditioning (and also because i had a nonbinary friend sitting right next to me in class as i was doing this) and i also didn't like the prominent use of the word moid? but anyway, 3 months later, i'm not sure why but the mra nature of the trans movement has grown so much more apparent to me i have like three mutuals who are trans men on my other blog and i would find myself rereading the few feminist posts i would reblog/write because these people are literally reblogging shit like "don't think like a terf. men aren't your oppressors, they're your friends/neighbors/brothers/fathers. if you think that any man could harm you you have been fooled by terf rhetoric" like actual morons/meninists. anyway two weeks ago i saw a post made by someone i knew was a radfem on my twitter tl and i don't know why i knew i was ready i went through her blog and through many others and now here i am.

[lizeon]

every day i spend on twitter, because that's where most of the starmin are, is a day i wish most of that community would move to tumblr just because the way this site works in comparison would be so much better for it. the ability to tag art and be able to find it later on your own blog no matter how far back it was posted. the way you can add on to each others posts. and also i just like tumblers post format much better. especially for making a vague / simple post and then going into more detail in the tags cuz you don't wanna put all that in the main post but like it's there for anyone that wants to read it. on twitter you gotta put it all in the main body of the post and i. do not want to do that

[compacflt]

val kilmer and marlon brando had a method actor-off on the set of the island of dr moreau and ended up hating each other. val's also like insanely obsessed with mark twain. he's a weird guy. i disagree with you and anon though. i think he's straight but he's just obsessed with the idea of gay people and has done stuff with men because he's an Actor. went to gay clubs deep in character because he's Method. like tom hardy. or damon albarn. his interviews for kiss kiss bang bang are hilarious because he talks about how he made his character gay and requested to kiss robert downey junior on screen and then comments that he has to think about kevin bacon to get into it but rdj's a better kisser than colin farrell. like. okay dude. great example of a guy who is just insanely committed to the bit.

im gonna blow myself up this is so funny

this is what im saying he’s a bit cringe i would rather be a little ignorant

[manesins]

HOW COME NOBODY TOLD ME DAMIANO AND DOVE ARE DATING WTF

[anghraine]

Damn, I was already very unsure about continuing to use Twitter now, but God Emperor Elon's tweets immediately convinced me to nope out. I am generally opposed to deleting my history, so I haven't deleted my accounts, but y i k e s.

[todayisafridaynight]

I gotta be honest I’ve been trying to stay away from rggtwt both because of the unnecessary beef and also because of the rampant whitewashing that seems exclusive to Twitter

Like I know it’s a problem with every fandom but I can’t help but scream every time i see shishido and co lookin absolutely ghostly

funnily enough twitter had been relatively lax on drama as of late, only recently it's been starting up again (tho ig thats cause of the release of gaiden and LAD8 interviews dropping that peple are given reasons to talk bout the games)

[backensicangel0647]

after discussing with qpp like philosophers, im thinking very much abt making a ramble blog (to anyone who cares)

(EDIT, twas in my q) @angeldigital92 hey... its here.. if you even care.... /j

[ryanthedemiboy]

hey coming to say mikey didn’t cheat on his ex lol. they were officially separated. this was also in 2013 both mikey and alicia have since moved on- she’s got a lovely boyfriend now and mikey’s got a lovely wife and two precious daughters :)

Whatever you want to think to help you sleep at night

[13thpythagoras]

sinstagram

[dipstick-university]

i just got the most deranged pitch in my media reviewing inbox and i cant even share it. suffice to say i earnestly wonder if im going to be massively cancelled if i dont give a review slot to this persons media.