#i started thinking way too hard abt this while listening to the ttt audiobook

[leefletcher]

is it an unpopular opinion if i say i don’t like lavinia

my first read-through, i couldn’t really pin-point why but after my like fifth read-through, and factoring my oc into the story, i think i’m starting to understand

her character feels extremely unfocused and, is at times, downright irritating (though i admit that second part is more subjective)

the scene when she talks about terpsichore’s shoes really sticks out to me and i think really sours my view of her. i understand that this is a middle-grade book, so rick needs to balance the realism of being a demigod with the humor and light-heartedness you’d usually want for a book for middle-graders, but i think rick really flails in toa bc the stakes are higher

she scolds apollo about the shoes and it’s like “oh i’m sorry, i was extremely traumatized and had to watch a young teen boy die right in front of me. but you’re right, let’s talk about shoes. that’s definitely more important.”

and then later, she’s acting weird. getting into arguments with nature spirits. going to secret meetings with nature spirits. supposedly sneaking around (tho we know meg kinda knows what lavinia is up to). and apollo assumes she’s going to desert the legion. he even comments that she didn’t seem fit for a place like the legion--that it was too strict for her personality

and then we get several sucker-punches: she’s suddenly leading a bunch of nature spirits to sneak onto caligula’s yachts to sabotage the missile weapons. but oh wait, she did it so she could get the shoes? and also she’s now fifth cohort centurion even tho it really seemed like she didn’t like how strict the legion is?

as an aside: the fact that her thinking place is above reyna’s, and the way lavinia treats reyna after the truck crash rubs me the wrong way in so many ways, and i wish i could fully articulate why. like i cannot explain it. the first one is all lavinia’s characterization. the second is some of that, but also it really feels like rick needed a way to get reyna to interact with the hunters before she makes the decision to join them--even tho consistently writing letters to thalia so much so ppl think they should start dating is definitely enough--but couldn’t figure out how to do that naturally, so all of it was shoe-horned it. it could very well be my own biases, but that scene just irritates me so much

but anyway, like maybe you could attribute this character confusion to apollo being an unreliable narrator, but 1) he’s only unreliable when it’s about himself and 2) the text, the subtext, is just all jumbled up. even if you have an unreliable narrator, you still weave narratives of truth through subtext. unless your narrator and narrative don’t call for that. and the types of narrative’s rick writes don’t usually go into that territory, and if it does, he lays breadcrumbs and foreshadows things. but in ttt that really falls flat and the writing really only makes lavinia feel extremely unfocused

does she only care about the shoes or did she actually help the legion in her own roundabout way?

is the legion too strict for her or can she hold a position of leadership within that very strict system?

did she do all this just so she could get with poison oak???

like i don’t care if she’s really that self-centered, but for fuck’s sake pick one or the other man!!