#live blogging pjo

[fandumb-thoughts]

This whole fucking page

[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.

[crystalskyz]

Finally did some pjo art!!

[greenconverses]

I will protect small baby percy with all my might

[thedemigodsguide]

What do you think of Mr. D as a dad?

🤫 Okay, don’t tell Mr. D I said this, but he’s actually a great dad!

A while ago, I was talking with Pollux and he said that Mr. D goes and picks up all of his kids personally. First off, 👏👏👏 Let me give him a round of applause, because that’s more than just about any other god or goddess does (yes, I am aware there are sometimes situations out of their control).

And I used to see Pollux and Castor hanging out with Mr. D sometimes. Usually, it would be in the Big House, but sometimes I saw them out in the strawberry fields or at the beach. I’ve even seen Mr. D genuinely smile around them. And when they’re around Mr. D, they always seem comfortable compared to other demigods with their parents.

Mr. D tried to hide it, but he took it really hard when Castor almost died.

For those of you who don’t know, Mr. D used to be a demigod, like us. I’ll spare you the details for now, but eventually, he was granted immortality, became an Olympian god, so on and so forth. Fast forward a couple millennia, and he ends up here at Camp Half-Blood as a punishment from Zeus.

Camp Half-Blood is supposed to be a punishment. He’s not supposed to like it here. And I’m pretty sure that for a while, Mr. D really was angry about it. But he’s spent years here, and has seen all the stuff we go through. And like I said earlier, Mr. D used to be a demigod, too. He’s been through a lot of the same crap we have.

So, yeah. He cares about us, but he can’t let people know. Sometimes that even includes himself. Like all those times he gets names wrong. Plus, he’s the god of mental health/illness. He understands how parenting (or lack of) can affect kids.

Ultimately, because of his background, I think Mr. D is actually the best dad out of the gods, both to his own kids and to the campers.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any other questions for me or anyone else at either camp, just drop it in the Q&A! And you if have any suggestions for a better name for the ask box, feel free to drop that, too!

–Kally

[notsoprocreations]

The show really reignited my childhood pjo fixation at the worst possible time <3

[awesome-shoes-with-wings]

Rereading Battle of the Labyrinth, Chapter 9: I Scoop Poop

Percy is a complete badass in this chapter, and I can't believe I forgot this chapter even existed. So decided to write a post to remind everyone who might've forgotten as well.

He needed to clean out the stables of the flesh-eating horses, and went down to the river. He met a naiad, who was not happy with Percy's plan because of the ecosystem complications. Percy immediately backs down, and the naiad decides to give Percy far too much power in the form of secret knowledge.

Basically Percy learned how to turn seashell fossils into pure ocean water, and cleaned the horses and the stables with geysers. He stopped the water from reaching the river, and he was exhausted. Makes sense because Percy just summoned the power of ancient oceans to help him clean some stables.

But even so, he ran all the way back to the ranch house before sunset and proceeds to hand Geryon's ass to him by shooting an arrow right through his three chests. Kid's a beast. Apollo and Artemis, you two are amazing for responding to Percy's prayers so quickly, but I fear he has too much power now.

[onomonopetabread]

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

TURN IT UP 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

[velveteenbard]

Lmao for some reason I was expecting Olympus to just be a room like in the movie, not an entire city.

[fandumb-thoughts]

They are the same brand of dumbass ❤️

[sochilll]

I think Clarisse may be my fave character in PJO actually she is so full of rage and she will also die to protect her home……… what else could u ask for

[connabeth]

they’re so old married couple, all attuned to each other’s emotions and faux grumpy, i love them so much

[v-is-for-vendetta]

VENDETTA PARELIUS﹒15﹒DAUGHTER OF NEMESIS, LEGACY OF APOLLO

EQUILLIBROKINESIS ;; CONTROL OVER EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL BALANCE. FORTUNEKINESIS ;; ABILITY TO TAKE FORTUNE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE AN EXCESS OF IT AND TRANSFER IT TO THOSE WHO HAVE LESS.  ANIMAL COMMUNICATION ;; ABILITY SPEAK TO GEESE. WINGS ;; ABILITY TEMPORARILY SUMMON A PAIR OF BLACK WINGS. THEY LAST FOR AN HOUR AT MOST. PESTILENCE ;; ABILITY TO CONTROL PLAGUES, DISEASES, AND PESTS.

LIVES AT CAMP HALF-BLOOD YEAR ROUND﹒CLAIMED﹒CABIN 16

OOC INFO

MAIN :: @thel1ghtningthief

FINALLY CAVED AND MADE AN OC RP BLOG... THIS IS LIKE MY FIRST SERIOUS ROLEPLAYING ENDEAVOR SO SORRY IF IM NOT THAT GOOD 😓

TAGS

✦﹒eye for an eye ⚖ — in character shitposts

✦﹒living peacefully is the most destructive revenge ⚖ — in character or ooc lore

✦﹒kallie yaps ⚖ — ooc yapping (not lore)

✦﹒ooc ⚖ — general ooc tag

[thedemigodsguide]

Hey, demigods! Good news! Mr. D hasn’t killed me yet! Just wanted to let you know!

[stars-and-birds]

my beloveds…

[thetrickstersdaughter]

I’m totally supportive of the emo, Nico DiAngelo style of clothing but it is going to be almost 90 degrees in Knoxville so PLEASE drink your water and get your electrolytes, especially if you insist on wearing a sweatshirt, hoodie, jacket, fleece blanket, etc. etc.