#rick riordan sucks

[apollos-forgotten-flower-bf]

(Sorry in advance wolfy, this is a pjo rant, and as well as the people reading this; I'm not exactly great with words but I'm trying)

I came across this again after looking through my own account and while it has been months I would like to branch off of this by the mention of her appearance in pjo and as well as hoo;

In the Sea of Monsters, we see Percy go through the same challenges as Odysseus in the Odyssey; Polyphemus, Scylla, Charybdis, the sirens, as well as Circe (another character classifiable as a rapist.)

My big problem with this is how in pjo, we see Circe as a villainized obstacle for Percy, while when Calypso makes her appearance first in BoTL, it is another instance in which we, the readers, as well as the MC (being Percy, then later Leo) are meant to sympathize with her, just like Epic, and pretty much any other thing relating to the story of Calypso. Lonely, stuck on an island for thousands of years, cursed to fall in love but never have it returned. While she is also, alongside Circe, someone who could very well be villainized just the same, if not for her appearing as more 'gentle and weak'.

Now, I'm not saying I expect Riordan to include mentions of rape in a CHILDREN'S BOOK. That's honestly the last thing I want, EVER. But I find it kind of ridiculous to have these two (Circe and Calypso) both be written into this story, even as minor characters, with one being seen as a villain and the other as a love interest. Really???

And, ignoring the whole Calypso-is-a-rapist thing, it's still fucking creepy. Because Calypso is canonically (within the Riordanverse specifically) OLDER THAN APOLLO [mentioned in ToA book 2, the Dark Prophecy]. And she's dating a 15 year old (Leo)???

"But Ogygia is in a time warp like the Lotus Casino so she's actually 15 too🥺" nuh uh. It has never said that, only that the passage of time is difficult to calculate due to Ogygia being such remote island. She is still chronologically and mentally older than Leo. And also she just sucks as a girlfriend. While (a point from a now taken-down tiktok by @/comet_fire, what I originally had started this rant in the comment section of,) Nico had not aged physically, mentally, emotionally — anything besides chronologically whilst in the casino. He was 10 when he went in, 10 when he was out.

Anyways, what I think would have made not only the story but the lesson taught within the books better should have been you don't need a romantic interest to be valued. This is something I think could've worked really well, especially with Leo's character; obsessed with girls, constantly feeling left out by his friends, the 'third wheel', 'seventh wheel', all that. Instead of landing on Calypso's island and falling in love with her, he could have learned that just because he isn't romantically involved doesn't mean that he isn't worth love, be it platonic or romantic. He could have learned, while also teaching the readers, that being in love shouldn't define who you are, and that there is just as much value in friendships and self-love as there is in dating. Hell, you wouldn't even need Calypso to be involved at all.

Unfortunately, it's painfully obvious that Riordan himself fails to understand that with how the relationships and books are written...like, seriously. Even Tyson — who was supposed to be a baby cyclops iirc — ends up with a love interest. Are you kidding me??? And, while I'm not extremely vocal with my general dislike towards Riordan, this is a big factor as to why; he is way too invested with the romances in his stories to bother with developing any other relationships. I could write a whole separate rant on that later.

TL;DR, Riordan sucks at writing anything besides romance, Calypso is a mythologically 'canon' rapist and is a pointless love interest + overall character in the Riordanverse, and I hate caleo.

Once again, sorry if this is all over the place, I hope I got my point across well enough.

May I ask what you don’t like about the Calypso song snippets?

Love in paradise is fine, it comes across creepy enough and you can tell Odysseus doesn't want to be there.

I'm not sorry for loving you is a bit iffy to me. You can sort of tell there's meant to be a gaslighting sort of undertone to it but that's only if you've read the Odyssey/know the story. The comments on the snippets are full of people who sympathize Calypso and go "omg poor Calypso 💔". I also am very wary of the line "I love you, but not in the way you want to" which I Get might be him trying to placate her, but according to the snippet it's like a last word kind of thing. Like he says it and then he leaves, Calypso singing after him in despair. So it doesn't really feel placating, more like a confession

I get that he might not want to make the musical as dark, which is perfectly fair, (and it probably won't come across well to a modern audience that hey. All the enemies he comes across on his journey are either monsters, gods, or evil magic women) but well. Calypso is Very much a rapist and it feels weird to have her be viewed as sympathetic by so much of the fan base. (This is also my problem with her pjo)

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

i hate how sometimes people make out rachel to be this tragic heartbroken mess. WELL FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT

she was the one who dumped percy in the first place

and the scene after that she said "I don't have to tell you what you have to do now, right?" with the next scene being percy confessing to annabeth

she genuinely CHOSE to be the oracle, if she was really serious about percy she would have not have gone along with the whole thing without being a tiny bit sad about not dating percy

she flat out admitted percy was just a vehicle for her to be involved with the greek world

she is not august by taylor swift. she is not driver's license by olivia rodrigo. she did not care less about percy once he didn't reciprocate pls 😭

[serious-goose]

The way I want Percy Jackson to come back with a vengeance... The way I want it to make JK Rowling green with envy at Rick Riordan's success. I want a whole new generation of little half-bloods...

[sevsalio]

Waiting for you.

[unhinged-romione]

ok pjo fandom, reblog if you want to see this diehard romione shipper live blog reading the series and........possibly replacing my TWENTY YEAR otp with percabeth 😬

[batcavescolony]

What ever you do don't think about Percy reading Estelle a little kid version of 'The Odyssey' because that's what Sally read to him but he doesn't want to scare her. Don't imagine Sally looking on with guilt in her eyes cus she HAD to read him the real one so he knew what to expect. Don't think about Sally looking down on her little girl with tears in her eyes cus she doesn't need to worry about snakes in her bed or teachers being Cyclopes. Don't think of Sally seeing Estelle with Paul and having to leave the room cus when Percy was that age they had Gabe. Don't think of the unimaginable guilt that Sally must feel for being relieved that Estelle's biggest battle at 16, is her Dad being her teacher. And whatever you do don't think about Percy feeling like an outsider in his own family even though he gets constantly reassured that he's part of it and loved.

[kitkats-and-kittens]

Spoilers for Pjo.

You know I feel like people should acknowledge how fucked up camp halfblood is more often.

Like everyone always makes fun of New Rome for being uptight and sticklers for the rules, but low-key living at camp halfblood sucks.

The barrier wasn’t even up for a decade before it was broken and before that literal children were sent out to fight monsters despite being promised safety (Ik Talias protection made it slightly better, but still) and during sea of monsters they are once again required to fight as literal kids!

Unlike New Rome there’s no university for the Demigods to go to. Year rounders get tutored by Chiron (presumably) and then what? They have no actual credentials or any records of them graduating from school. Since no one knows about Camp they technically don’t have an address either which sucks if your parents are dead or don’t want you.

We see hardly any adult demigods around camp and I don’t know if they choose to leave or not, but either way they are set up for failure. Chiron tells Percy about the success stories, the people who go on to be Olympic athletes or celebrities due to their half godly nature, but it’s more than likely those are far outweighed by the failures.

Those who died hungry on the streets with no way to get a job and no home to return to. Those who were torn down by monsters without the protection of the camp. Even those who made it constant live with the terror that one day they’ll be found and killed. And what if those people have family’s? Will the monsters hunt them too? And what happens when they get too old to fight?

That’s not even mentioning the trauma they’ll be stuck with their entire lives.

No wonder so many end up joining the Emperors in ToA.

And you know what. Chiron need to take some damn accountability for being a shit mentor. He fucked off for most of the books but even when he talks to Percy about how much he cares he does quite literally nothing about Luke. How did a child manage to manipulate an immortal centaur for years without anyone catching on?

And he doesn’t improve after the war either. Will is made Head of Apollo Cabin at 13. He has two younger siblings and is essentially expected to act as their parent despite still being a child himself. Not to mention he’s the camps head doctor. He’s performed surgery! Which is exhausting and long and something no child should be dealing with. Especially since we know Chiron must have some healing abilities since he literally raised Asclepius.

Will is not paid either. None of them are. He doesn’t get a salary, so free child labour (cough cough exploitation) and after he leaves camp he’ll have no way to prove his medical training to anyone and no way to pay for medical school or even to get in without the appropriate documents.

I don’t like to rant about books but Rick Riordan did not go dark enough with this series and I will say this about his books until the day I die. The light comedic writing style means fucked up shit like this simply slips through the cracks.

There’s still so much I haven’t touched on.

What about the Hephaestus cabin and their curse. How did Chiron just stand by and watch as these kids continually blew themselves up?

Fighting in two wars?

The Romans are a little more fucked up there because we know there are adults who can fight and are simply choosing to send children in their place.

Octavian being quite literally brainwashed into dying for his land.

Jason’s entire backstory.

The fact that most demigod children probably die before ever reaching camp is very much not touched on and it should be.

The fact that camp halfblood is hidden with the mist means that no one knows where the year rounders are. Which is weird when you think a lot of the reason people become year rounders is too many monster attacks or horrible home lives which further implies out in the real world there are genuine missing posters for these kids. Some might even be considered legally dead so what happens when they rock up in their early 20’s attempting to rejoin society?

In conclusion Camp Halfblood is fucked and Chiron is not some innocent fun loving centaur dude. His lack of action had a very big and very real impact on these kids.

[helenofsparta2]

I really want to like Zoe Nightshade, but it gets harder and harder the more I reread Titan’s curse and remember that she was thousands of years old and had a one-sided beef with a fourteen-year-old boy, who just watched his best friend fall down a cliff, simply because he was male and reminded her of her shitty ex, who left her almost 3000 years ago.

[xixovart]

isnt it so incredibly fucked up?

how when thalia--a twelve year old whose very existence was a threat to olympus at the time--died, zeus immediately preserved her soul as a monument and protection for the camp

and then when jason--a soldier, a hero of olympus who fought solely for jupiter, for jupiter's honor, for jupiter's glory--was dying, jupiter just sat back and did nothing? why? because jason was defiant.

jupiter, the youngest son, who murdered saturn and took his throne, like his father before him. and here was jason, jupiter's youngest son, standing against him, defending his brother apollo. dont you think jupiter fully believed fate had caught up to him? that it was his turn to be cut into pieces? of course he let jason die.

[dax-enfinity]

One of the few good things about the PJO fandom on AO3 IMO

[iwannascreameurekaa]

headcanon that the lost hero trio loves cheezits but different kinds

Leo likes the extra cheddar/regular ones

Jason likes the white chedder ones

and pipers favorite is (surprisingly) the hot and spicy cheese ones

[1800-lemon-boy]

I will never forgive Rick riordan for making Leo and calypso get together but not Biltz and Hearth.

I will forever hate Caleo

But BLITZSTONE?!?!

CRACK

I LOVE THEM

BLITZ LEARNT A WHOLE ASS LANGUAGE FOR HEARTH

I’m very passionate about this.

This is coming from someone who read Magnus chase before he ever read Percy Jackson btw.

I’m still not over it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk x

(I know that their actions can be platonic but just read the books and you will understand)

[k-is-bored]

hot take, movie Gabe was better. I know this series is for kids, and disney wanted it to be less scary, but Gabe should've been more hateable.

[poppitron360]

Lest we forget that Percy Jackson played a game of rock paper scissors against a guy with 100 hands and won.

[literallyadonis]

Socializing is hard I can't

! Spoilers for tower of Nero ?

I dunno but this is the part I stopped at because my heart strings need a break lmao

[wanderingmind867]

Even Thalia admits Jupiter is better than Zeus! Make that another point for the Romans! To quote her: " When I was about seven, Zeus started visiting mom again. I think he felt bad about wrecking her life, and he --- different somehow. A little older and sterner, more fatherly towards me". You hear that!? Jupiter is a better dad than Zeus! Christ, why did the romans just take most of the things the greeks did and improved on them a hundredfold!

This post has been reposted by me like 5 times. Because every time i post it, it ends up with zero notes. And that's getting to my natural sense of insecurity. So i keep reposting it, hoping it'll get more notes. Idk why, but i have a deep insecurity about my posts getting zero notes.