#some people really just want to see him as a token character with stereotypical mexican hobbies

[theyjusthowl]

I'm not about to jump onto someone's post to hate dump but somehow it has become a popular opinion on my feed (?????) that if something happened to Chris Eddie would go full blown helicopter and drown in his guilt and like. No. We are not Eddie understanders, not with that headcanon.

He's the undisputed king of gentle parenting we've literally seen him on the sidelines kicking and screaming internally but he always lets Chris do his thing. He never ever has and never will put him in a gilded cage or let his unresolved teenage angst bleed over his son. Eddie Diaz is a Good Dad TM and a big chunk of that is recognizing his own fears should never cripple or shape his son's opinions and desires.

Be so fr right now I know a lot of people hate Eddie and they try to conflate him with his trauma like they can't exist separately in the same universe and they like to think that Eddie is boring when he's not brooding.

That's not Eddie. Eddie is a goofball. He's sassy, and opinionated, and hot headed, and he has such a strong will to persevere and find the good things in life because he's on a healing journey. He's not torturing himself because he's undeserving of love ffs, he might have a somewhat skewed set of rules and self expectations he wants to fulfill because it's The Right Thing To Do, and that ultimately has to do with his parents' shortcomings, but that right thing has included loving and being loved from day one y'all, if there's one thing he's looking for it's love, not approval.

Some people are just opposed to seeing Eddie in a positive light because they dislike him. It's okay, you can say so instead of writing essays on Eddie's many flaws and why he's not right for Buck etc etc. They don't have to be right for each other I mean have we seen each other's love interests? They couldn't have been more mismatched if they'd tried.

Whoever these people think Eddie is, he's not. They're fundamentally misunderstanding my good friend Eddie Diaz, and it shows.

[i-did]

Do you know when the racism and ableism accusations against Nora started? Because back when I was active in 2016/2017 and don't think they were a thing, or were very low-key. Was it something she said or are people just basing it off the things she wrote in the books?

From what I remember, the first time I heard the blanket statement of “Nora is racist/fetishizes gay men” blanket statement was early fall 2019 (which is so ironic for the fandom to say on so many levels lmao). There wasn’t a catalyst or anything, just she went offline 2016 and no new content was coming out and the aftg fandom is such an echo chamber that… an accidental smear campaign happened.

 Before then, I would see occasional “Nora used ableist slur” which… is funny (not that ableism isn’t serious) to me people care more about that than Seth saying the f-slur. IMO this is because with Seth, it clearly shows the character thinking it and not the author who is writing about what will be an end game mlm relationship. 

But anyways! Long story short, it's the fact that she’s an ace/aro woman who wrote a mlm book, and based off of the events in canon. There is no “Nora called me/someone else a slur” it’s “Nora wrote a book where slur(s) are used” and “the Moriyama’s are Japanese.”

Below I put my own opinion on these claims and go into more detail:

CW for discussions of: racism, ableism, mlm fetishization

Fetishization: (and mentions of sexism at the end)

To one question in the EC about her inspo for aftg she jokingly responded how she wanted to write about gay athletes. On other parts of your blog you could see she was a hockey fan and an overall sports fan (anime or otherwise) but I've seen this statement taken out of context and framed as “she's one of those BOYXBOY” shippers. Considering how… well-developed both Andrew and Neil’s relationship is, and it takes them until like the 3rd book and there is a whole complex ass plot going on around, you can see how that's just. Not really true. And considering the fandom is like… 85% women (queer women but still women) and I've gotten into a discussion with someone who is a woman and called Nora a fetishizer and was ignoring my opinions as a mlm, and I really just wanted to say “well what does that make you?” it's a very ironic high horse. She didn’t write 3 all 3 books to put Neil in lingerie pwp or crop-top fem-fatal fashion show, fandom did. 

Also, I talked to an ace/aro friend about this, and she talked to me about how AFTG spoke to her very much so as an ace/aro story. Neil is demisexual, Nora didn’t know of the word at the time of reading it, but she did get an anon asking if Neil was demi after, and she said “had to look it up, and yep, but he doesn't really think about it” (paraphrased). Obviously it would have been cool if andreil were canonly written as wlw by Nora instead, (which would have increased the amount of wlw rep and demi rep) but tbh I don’t think tumblr would have cared about it nearly as much and everyone would just call Neil a cold bitch–like people do with Nora’s other published book with a main character who's a woman. Plus they're her OC’s, not mine. 

The fact is that 50% of all LGBT+ rep in literature is mlm, mostly white mlm, and not written by mlm. I’m not going to hold her to a higher standard than everyone else, she already broke a shit ton of barriers in topics she discusses that otherwise get ignored. I’m grateful to these books for existing even if it's a mlm story written by a woman. I still will prioritize reading mlm written by mlm–and vice versa with wlw– in the way I prioritize reading stories about POC written by POC. But credit where credit is due, this is a very good story, and a very good demi story. 

Ableism:

To me, AFTG is a story about ableism and how we perceive some trauma survivors more worthy than others. Neil and the foxes using ableist language shows how people actually talk. Neil thinks shitty things about Andrew, like the others do too, and thinks he's “psycho”. The story ultimately deconstructs this idea and these perceptions of people. Wymack, someone who says the r-slur (which is still not known by the general population as a slur even in 2021 much less the early 2000s when the book was beginning to be written and what the timeline is based off of) is a character who understands Andrew better than most of the others do, and gives him the most sympathy and understanding despite using words like the m-slur and r-slur. Using these words isn't good, but it is how people talk, and this character talks. Wymack is a playful “name caller” especially when he’s mad, the foxes think Andrew is “crazy” and incapable of humanity and love because of it. They call his meds “antipsychotics” as an assumption and insult in a derogatory way, when really antipsychotics are a very helpful drug for some people who need them. Even Neil thinks these things about Andrew until he learns to care about him. All the foxes are hypocritical to am extent, as people in real life tend to be. Nora herself doesn’t use these or tweet them or something, her characters do to show aspects of their personality and opinions and how they change over time.

Racism:

As for the racism, I've seen people talk about how racial minorities being antagonists is inherently bad, which I think lacks nuance but overall isn't a harmful statement or belief. However, Nora herself said she wrote in the yakuza instead of another gang or mob because she was inspired for AFTG by sports anime, (which often queer-bait for a variety of reasons). I haven’t seen a textual analysis acknowledging the racist undertones surrounding the Moriyama’s as the few characters of color who are also major antagonists, but instead just “Nora is racist”. Wymack having shitty flame tribal tattoo’s is just… a huge 90’s thing and a part of his character design. Her having a character with bad taste in tattoo trends doesn’t mean she's racist. There is the whole how Nicky is handled thing, but that's a whole thing on it’s own. The fandom… really will write Nicky being all “ai ai muy spicy, jaja imma hit on my white–not annoying like me–boyfriend in Spanish. With my booty hole out and open for him ofc.” and as a Mexican mlm I’m like … damn alright. 

I think there is merit to the fact that she writes white as the default* and unless otherwise stated a POC a character was written with the intent to be white is another valid criticism, as well as the fact that the cast is largely white, but everything Nora is accused of I've seen the fandom do worse. That goes to the debate of, is actively writing stereotypes for POC more harmful than no representation at all? And personally I prefer the lack of established race line that lets me ignore Nora’s canon intent of characters to be white and come up with my own HC’s over the fandoms depictions of “zen monk Renee with dark past” “black best friend Matt who got over drugs but is a puppy dog” “ex stripper black Dan who dates Matt” vague tokenism. I HC many of the upperclassmen as POC and do my best to actively give thought behind it and have their own arcs that also avoids the fandom colorism spectrum of “darkest characters we HC go to the back and fandom favorites are in the front and are the lightest.” 

*I however won't criticize her harsher or more than… everyone else who still largely does this in fanfiction regarding AFTG as well as literature in general. This isn't a Nora thing, it's a societal thing, and considering the books came out in like 2014 I'm not gonna hold her to a higher standard than the rest of the world. She's just someone who wrote her personal OC’s and self-published expecting no following. I don’t know her race and I’m not gonna hold her to a higher standard than everyone else just because. 

The criticisms I've seen have always been… ironic IMO, and clearly I have a lot of thoughts on it. I think most people say those things about Nora because they heard them, and it's the woke thing to say and do and don’t critically analyze their actions or anything, but just accept them. 

[angeloncewas]

I saw someone say that Quackity has internalized racism for playing Mexican Dream, which like I don’t think you should say? Because you don’t know him? Mexican Dream is supposed to be an exaggeration of stereotypes, making fun of those stereotypes, and when the community oversteps themselves in actually believing/perpetuating these stereotypes (because they can), they are usually shot down by Quackity or the large community as a whole. He even stopped the character eventually. They compared Quackity to King Bach but Quackity is not at his level at all Imo. They also called the POC members token POC, which.. yeah no I don’t think it’s ok to call real people who are friends with these people and streamers in their own right “token pocs”

I've seen some similar takes too - just stuff about Quackity putting up with too much or needing to stand up for himself more (I'm paraphrasing, so sorry if that's a bit off) - and while in a sense I understand where they're coming from, I agree that I don't think it's our place to speak on that stuff. (I mean, I am now, but in the presumptive sense, if you catch my drift.)

I know what it's like to have internalized issues about your own minority status and use that as a sort of pick-me in conversations with people who mock/belittle you (with everything from stupid shit to straight up racism). It's a pretty common experience and I wouldn't be surprised if Quackity has come to terms with that at some point in his life. But that's not for us to know unless he chooses to share it, and it's especially not for us to speculate on in regards to his friendships/professional decisions (of which Mexican Dream technically is). He's been very quick to call out racist portrayals of him in fanwork (from what I've heard) and - something I think a lot of people forget - he has these peoples' contact info. If one of his friends says something out of line, yeah maybe he won't call it out on stream, but that doesn't mean he doesn't sit them down afterward and explain not only that it was a problem, but why. Quackity's a grown man (albeit a young adult) and he doesn't need us to fight his (perceived and potentially fabricated) battles for him.

Discussions about poc on the DSMP have been around for a long time and while generally there's room to argue either side (or somewhere in between) I'm just not a fan of the "token poc" stuff. First off, do you want more diversity or not? Because if a creator was added simply for their race, then they really would be a "token poc" and I'm just not a fan of that path. Second - like you said - that's once again really presumptuous on our part as fans. Both in the sense of their real life friendships, and the "defense squad" that forms sometimes around a creator for no reason. Streaming is a lot of these creators' careers and they have more than enough knowledge and experience to know how to handle themselves and to recognize when their race is being used for tokenism or something similar. I get the concern and I know it's hard to see a situation that you feel is unfair and stand idly by, but we very rarely see the full picture.

[millenniumfae]

hi fae! i was wonderng if u could give me some advice as an ace poc on this other ace poc character im writing. its for an urban fantasy series w/ 4 main characters, 3 of whom are non white. the character im concerned abt is korean/american and demisexual. ive read a lot of discourse about asian characters being desexualized in media and as a white woman i want to avoid reinforcing those stereotypes, but also keep ace rep. other characters def perceive him as attractive and hes also not my (1/2)

ace character (the other is a white sex indifferent girl). truthfully the story is more about interpersonal relationships and found family with dashes of action than about any of the characters identities. im ace myself and this character is someone i feel i can really get ppl to identify with. do you have any tips about staying in my lane/what to avoid?

Well, let’s be very specific; it’s some Asian men that suffer desexualization in the given term. Largely, when we discuss the Asian experience, we are talking about objectification - the removal of a voice and autonomy in their sexuality. 

Desexualizing Asian men often occurs when they’re in comparison to ‘real men’ and ‘real male sexuality’. It’s a quick way to ‘emasculate’ the partners of Asian women, and tell these women that they deserve better than men who can’t fulfill their little womanly desires.

But in my experience, Asian men are much more likely to be objectified alongside Asian non-men, than they are to be desexualized. Because we’re not just talking about your given straight cisgender frat boys in State, we’re taking about any and all sexual individuals who have their own misconceptions of Asian people, and how Asian people relate to their sexual desires.

In my own experience of being aspec and Asian, the primary reaction (upon someone knowing that I am both) is an immediate reduction of my worth as a person. I was invited to this party to stand there and be sexy, not because I’m an actual guest. Insert-fellow-college-student-here will never ask for my peer opinion again, because why bother talking to me at all? Date #1 asks me if I know what ‘asexuality actually means’ and orders me to imagine an erect penis, date #2 turns into a therapist with an obvious intent to ‘cure my trauma’ so they can continue the night as planned, date #3 gets dangerously angry and is seconds from having a meltdown because they ‘don’t appreciate being lied to’.

So as you can probably guess, I’m very much not impressed with the sudden interest in telling Asian people that we could NOT be asexual, and having that movement couched as progressiveness. 

It’s more than ‘enforcing stereotypes’. It’s about the lack of real-life Asian voices regardless the material. AKA, a lack of paychecks paid towards us, a lack of media attention, a lack of autonomy over our creative endeavors. 

Writing characters of color is a discussion in itself. We (and by ‘we’, I mean both white and not) will most likely encounter characters of color that engage the audience like the audience is white. Or, at the very least, not of their own race and culture.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it can be carefully justified. A good example includes Raul from Fallout New Vegas - one of the companions the player can recruit. Raul is voiced by a famous American latin-american-speaking actor, Raul’s spanish words are not translated in the subtitles, Raul makes several allusions to his life in Mexico as a Mexican man.

Raul is no token Mexican stereotype, he is a character with strong Mexican backgrounds and stands on his two feet as a character of color. He talks to the player in a way that implies that the player is shoehorned into being not Mexican themselves, but it’s only a slight suspicion and you can also say his outsider’s opinion on the player’s background can instead be attributed to his age - he’s nearly 200 years old, and talks about the world pre-nuclear apocalypse. 

Is Raul ‘obviously’ written by a non-Mexican writer? You’d have to talk to someone who’d be more familiar with that, but there’s enough on Raul’s benefit for me to claim that he’s a passible example of a fictional man of color.

So what’s a character obviously written by white people, for white people? Continuing the Latin route, Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Reyes Vidal is… hhhhhh. His face is a white model spraypainted tan, instead of having different hairlines or a differently shaped nose and mouth and forehead and etc. He’s voiced by a white british actor who does an atrocious job at faking some sort of spicy latin accent. He exists primarily as some sort of captivating, mysterious Sexual Being - every interaction with Reyes involves dates, or otherwise hints at sexual histories. Any moment that doesn’t, it’s about his failure as an honest man.

He’s obviously meant to be a sexual interest. That itself wouldn’t be a problem, but add in the fake ‘latin’ accent and spraypainted white model and lack of any indicator of him as someone from an actual culture and society? Very not good. 

Reyes is what happens when you take your default white character, and decide to spruce him up for spiciness points. Raul, on the other hand, is someone who was built from the ground up as having that very specific of color experience.

The mistakes that gave way to Mass Effect’s Reyes is what I see most primarily, and it’s what I encourage all to avoid. 

So lets consider your goal of writing a Korean man, and compare the worst case scenario versus what you’d want to aim for. So you, under pen name Cassandra Blair, introduce Yoosung Baekhyun (named after your favorite dating sim character and kpop member combined into one), and he’s a lily-delicate elven boytoy when he enters the room. By chapter five, it’s clear that our exotic ricefairy has neither interest nor knowledge of sexuality, leaving him completely out of any sexual discussion - and therefore by extension, he has little voice in any written development in bodily autonomy.

Everything about Yoosung Baekhyun is to be pliant under the hands of an outside force. If he doesn’t have neither an interest nor a voice in sexual discussions, that leaves a big empty hole where anyone could fill it with whatever, should they wish. His lack of voice and autonomy makes him into an object for the purposes of your other characters. 

Instead, let’s say that Yoosung has a voice. A large one. He’s got that Jughead sarcasm when it comes to dealing with sexuality, and gets to both start and end these discussions. Suddenly, this Korean man gets to control the flow of the story, and he’s not just a prop to be used. 

That’d probably be more accurate, anyways. Aspec people love to talk about their asexuality. I know I do.

There’s very little I can tell you without actually reading the story. Criticism of literature should (and sometimes do) have a huge emphasis on justice-driven portrayals of the marginalized. Thing is, criticism is a paid profession that is useless in small doses. From one artist to another, I say unto you - write your story, but get more voices of color to give you their honest opinion. And then change, and change often. Your efforts will never be perfect, but you can do much to avoid the worst.

[freebooter4ever]

I've never seen it but now I want to watch The Magnificent Seven. But I have to study. Rip me.

I heartily reccommend it my dear anon! I was super hesitant going in and reading reviews that were like “the minority characters were flat and tokenized” . and I mean like you read the summary and goody is a ex confederate marksman and theres only one native american role so thats like ugh why but the key here is that this is a western directed by a black man with a black male lead playing the role of that mysterious righteous sexy cowboy archetype usually reserved for white dudes in the 60s. I also read complaints that the lack of racism wasnt “historically accurate”, but damn it if white cowboy movies got to rewrite history and tell noble self sacrificing but ultimately Hopeful and Good and Happy stories  about the brutal american wild west, so can this one. My one complaint is that there is a heck of a lot of religion in this movie, but its done in a spiritual way and the native religious traditions are treated with equal reverrance/romantic cheesyness, and mostly it only adds to how Noble the overall movie feels, so I kinda liked it. Racism warnings and stuff under the cut because I know theres gotta be other people who are hesitant watching things

I also take issue with the claim that the main characters dont experience racism. Because they do, except in this story every instance of that racism is not only shown as bad and gross but also is overcome. I dont want to give spoilers, but the first badass moment Sam’s Suave Cowboy gets is the bartender refusing to serve him while the rest of the all white clientele watch. bar tender gets what he deserves and Sam proves his skill and superiority with ease in smooth cowboy style. It is badass and I got all fangirly. There is also a moment at the end where Sam’s motivation is finally revealed, and it is intense, but again Sam proves that he is a force to be reckoned with and ultimately, is the better person for overcoming the racism and getting his revenge (this is the one moment where sam almost loses control). Also, most of the white dude characters serve as foils for sam’s character, like Sam forgiving and befriending Goody, who clearly deeply regrets his role in the civil war, is used to show how much pain Sam has gone through and how he now is the one with the upper hand - its sams choice to forgive if the man EARNS Sams forgiveness and goody works really hard to do that. Or how Chris Pratt’s characters goofy bumbling drunkenness is shown in stark contrast to Sam’s steady, wise dignified old cowboy persona - that is straight out of western tropes, I have seen bits and pieces of enough of my step dads shitty old john wayne movies to know. And Sam is Always the leader, like there is never any question. And yeah, maybe this is what people mean when they say it doesnt feel historically accurate because our society cant imagine a black man being a leader immediately after slavery, excet for the fact that Sam proves his leadership abilities again, and again, and again, and there are logical reasons for all these six men to accept him as their leader. And even if that wasnt the case, again, wild west movies rewrite history, the director should be able to just give us a black leader without question lol.

The other minority characters fall into some tropes, which leaves a little to be desired, but not in a totally horrible way. Billy nearly crosses the line into model minority, stern silent Asian fighter stereotype but like he has so many badass scenes, its hard to be bothered by that too much. Also the movie makes it clear that Goody uses his white privilege to diffuse situations between racist assholes and Billy. The Mexican character is…well almost as flat as the white trapper character. He was charismatic and had a debonair sense of honor and definitely gave back as good as he got but theres not much for the actor to work with. I dont even remember the poor dude’s name. Same with the Comanche character, who is again used mostly as a foil for Sam, to show Sam’s sympathy for Native Americans and Sam’s ability to act as peacekeeper/leader even across cultures. It would have been great to see more of the native characters, and have them be less magical but honestly the representstion is leaps and bounds better than say that norman reedus flick “Sky” which was just plain embarrassing. This comanche character clearly has his own agenda and motivation, and he is given quite a few “woah!” fight moments. If anyone can find a good critique of the movie by a socially aware critic, I’d love to read it!

Oh, also the female roles were non existant but this falls under the LOTR type sexism where like…women arent really there much or relevant to the plot at all so you dont need to put blinkers on to watch it lol. Theres a throwaway female character and shes super beautiful and gets her crowning moment at the end but mostly shes just there to look pretty. They put her in the most impractical revealing outfits like lady if you are traveling across country on a horse under the hot desert sun dont wear a dress that exposes your shoulders and the tops of your breasts to sunburn lol. Kinda funny that they werent historically accurate with that but they did decide all the people doing the fighting had to be male becsuse men did war back then and women just hid under floorboards. Except the female lead becsuse shes Special.  lol. At least no one is gross or sexist to her, that was refreshing.

BASICALLY haha for someone like me who hates the politics of westerns but loves the aesthetics and the desert vistas and the adventure feel and the damn catchy music, this one feels like a breath of fresh air and i’d watch it ten times in a row like i did with the 3:10 to yuma remake when it came out haha.

[fandomsandfeminism]

Rick Riordan's books just keep getting better (and more diverse!) Transcript

Part 1

Part 2

Transcript Below the Cut:

Rick Riordan. So, I've wanted to make a video about Rick Riordan for a while and with  The new Trials of Apollo book just coming out, I’m really hyped about it. So I wanted to talk about why I like his books, or at least some of the things that impress me about them and keep me consistently excited about them.

Rick Riordan, if you don’t know,  is the author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson series, and today I want to talk about his books, especially how his representation of minorities has improved over time.

So, a few quick things: First, I’m not going to talk about ALL of Rick Riordan’s work, especially his ancillary and tie in material like the Demi-God Files or all the cross over stories, mostly because I haven't read all of them.

And second: Spoilers. Just, big old spoilers for basically everything. I’m not going to go into big plot points much, but I will be talking about some of the characters in depth. I’m going to move through his ouvre in roughly chronological order. So, you are warned.

Lastly, this video hinges on the premise that well done, well executed, fully fledged representations of minority characters in children and Young Adult media is good and important.  I’m not really going to argue this point. It is the assumption we are beginning with. Diverse media with diverse characters is  good and important.  

And this point is, weirdly, kind of controversial. In fact, in the vast majority of children and young adult media most of the cast will be white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children or young adults with an unstated or vague religious affiliation. This last bit, about the unstated or vague religious affiliation is one we don’t often think about, but really, having a character with ANY stated religion is really rare. Most will, maybe, practice a sort of secularized Christmas maybe? But that’s about it.

The rationale you’ll hear for this is that this makes books more accessible and thus marketable. I would counter that if you really want your book to appeal to as many different people as possible, wouldn’t you want to have as many different types of characters as possible? But that comes with the assumption that outright bigots wouldn’t refuse a book because one of the secondary characters is in a wheelchair, I guess.

So, yeah. Most children's lit and young adult lit  will be white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children or young adults with an unstated or vague religious affiliation, even if it gets absurdly, massively popular. Popular enough to take risks and work outside the box. I’m looking at you, JK Rowling. Looking at you.

This fact, this lack of diversity, does not bother some people. And we are not going to argue this point in this video. We are beginning with the assertion that this situation is not ideal, and that added quality, well written diversity is a positive. And we are going to look specifically at how Rick Riordan improves in this specific aspect of his writing over time.

--

Ok, so, Uncle Rick is a San Antonio , Texas native, and as someone who was also born and raised in central Texas, I love this fact. He went to MY alma mater, UT, and became a middle school teacher. We’re basically the same person.

Now, Percy Jackson isn’t actually his first book series. In the 90s he wrote a detective series set in San Antonio called Big Red Tequila. There’s like 7 books in this series and I have read none of them. I’m sure they’re great though. How could they not be with a name like that?

Our story really begins in 2004-ish. The story goes that he was telling his son Greek myths as bedtime stories, and when he ran out of myths (or at least child friendly myths I assume), he started to make one up. He invented a story about a boy named Percy, a son of Poseidon, who goes on an adventure to return Zeus's missing lightning bolts.  His son told him that he should turn it into a book, his dad had published books before after all. So, Rick did just that. He then took his rough draft to his middle school students and used their feedback to revise.

He then sold this book to Miramax Books for enough money to retire from teaching and focus on writing. God damn. Rick was living the dream here. Life goals.

So, yeah. If you’ve never read the first Percy Jackson books they are...fine. They’re ok, good even. Definitely like, children’s books. But if you like bad puns and greek myths they are fun. I read all 5 in like...one weekend when I was in high school. I personally think the books really pick up in the third one: Titan’s Curse, mostly because we meet my favorite character, Nico. There’s some good world building in that book, and it really feels like Rick had figured out how he wanted to end the series by that point, so the plot feels more focused.  Maybe that’s just me.

So, remember how I said that Children’s lit will tend to be filled with white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation? Well, Percy Jackson and all his friends are...mostly, white, straight, cis, able bodied, children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation who have ADHD and Dyslexia.

Because Rick Riordan’s son has ADHD and Dyslexia, and Rick wanted these heroes to be like him. So, yeah. The diversity isn’t AMAZING here, but the intent to provide representation for minority children was present from the very beginning. And ADHD and Dyslexia are, like, super powers here, proof the children are demi-gods, are side effects of their brains and bodies being ready for amazing quests.  And there’s this great diversity in the characters with ADHD and Dyslexia and how it impacts them. Annabeth is depicted as super smart and studious. You have Percy who has always struggled in school. And so on.

Now, how you feel about this representation of ADHD and Dyslexia will vary. Some people really like it, others think it isn’t very well done or plays into some iffy tropes. I think we can safely say that the intent was very positive, but your milage may vary on the execution.

There’s also a movie adaption of the first 2 books which are…..bad. Logan Lerman was 18 when he played Percy- who should be like...12? And they made Hades the bad guy? And like..Persephone? Is? In? The? Underworld? In? Summer? Which….ugh. Like, they made Grover black, which was a cool choice, an attempt to address the lack of racial diversity it seems.  but still these movies are not good….maybe if you haven't read the books, you’ll like them. I don’t like them. I didn't even watch the second one honestly. .

Alright so we will look at the rest of Rick Riordan’s books in part 2 of this video. I wanted to cut it here to keep it from getting super super long. So I will see you guys over on Part 2 to finish up

CUT --

Welcome back to my look at all of Rick Riordan’s books and how they have improved over time. We are going to jump right in where we left off at the end of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Ok, so after Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan started work on the Kane Chronicles. If you haven’t read the Kane Chronicles, I don’t blame you. They are kind of the forgotten half-siblings of the Percy Jackson universe, but you should read them. They are really good, and they feel like a really experimental time for Rick. Not only is this the first time we see him play with a split First Person narrator, where different chapters are from different character’s Point of View, but he also really tackles race in these books.

Carter and Sadie are biracial, and deal with all kinds of race issues- Sadie being white passing and Carter not, the books looks at  how that impacts them and their experiences with others, their family, and their heritage. Plus all the Egyptian shit is really cool.

But even if you skipped this book series (seriously, go back and read them.) you can see this evolution in Rick’s writing in his sequel to Percy Jackson- Heroes of Olympus. These books actually came out at the same time as the Kane Chronicles, with The first Kane Chronicles book coming out in May 2010, then The first Heroes of Olympus book coming out in October 2010, and back and forth. And it’s clear that his new skills in Red Pyramid were influential on Heroes of Olympus.

Not only do we see the return of the Shifting narrator, now a Third Person Limited Point of View that follows different characters in different chapters, but where the first series was overwhelmingly white, these books seem to make a real effort to avoid that. The first two books- The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune take place, more or less concurrent and independent of each other. It’s not until the 3rd book when all the new characters meet up. But in those first 2 books, we get 5 new MAIN characters- Jason, a white boy; Piper, a Native American girl, specifically Cherokee if I remember; Leo, a Mexican American boy; Frank, a Chinese American boy; and Hazel, an African American girl. We also get Reyna, who isn’t a main character at first, but I would argue becomes one in House of Hades, and she is Puerto Rican.

And ALL of these characters and their racial identities are handled really well. Like, they are fully fleshed out and genuine characters. This doesn’t feel like shallow, lazy tokenism. Their heritage plays a part in who they are, but is not the ONLY thing about them. Piper, for example, has a father who refuses to play Native American roles in movies because he wants to avoid being stereotyped or type cast and Piper carries that struggle to connect with her heritage with her. Hazel’s experience as a black girl, and a black girl from the 1930s at that, impacted how she was treated growing up and makes up a big part of her backstory. But they aren’t solely defined by these experiences like shallow stereotypes.

It’s well done ,is that I’m saying

-

So at this point, we could say that while Rick had a good grasp on racial diversity and neuro-divergence representation. Most of his characters were still straight, cis, able bodied, children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation. (Seriously, did none of these kids have like..faith in a religion before?)

Now, here is a true, fun fact. On June 30th, 2013, 3 months before the release of House of Hades, I went on Tumblr and wrote an Open Letter to Rick Riordan about how he should really include LGBT+ characters in his books. He had written. Like, 11 children’s books at this point, and despite my headcanons, every character had been portrayed as assumed straight and cis. So I wrote a letter. How much I liked his books, but really, could we have some LGBT+ characters, this IS Greek mythology after all.  I don’t think he ever saw this letter, despite me tweeting it at him.

Among other things in this letter, I go on to list several possibilities for LGBT+ representation in his books, including:  quote: maybe Nico feels an unrequited crush on Percy. A headcanon I had since book 4, Battle of the Labyrinth.

And so, I want my moment, just to say: I. Was. Right. And I told you so.

House of Hades came out in 2013, and well, so did Nico. My favorite character came out of the closet, or, well, was outed and it was heart wrenching. The fandom kind of lost its shit over this. Anyone who had shipped Percy and Nico was throwing a party, homophobes were throwing a fit, it was very emotional. I was gloating a lot.

And let’s be clear- Nico’s sexuality in House of Hades is not...handled the best. It’s better than nothing certainly, and it’s better than Word of God reveals post publication. Rowling. But, by itself, it’s...well...single sad cis gay boy pines over unrequited straight crush hits some stereotypes. None of this is malicious, but it by itself is only so-so representation.

But Rick wasn’t done there, because we still had one more book- Blood of Olympus. Nico gets a super cute boyfriend in the form of Will Solace, and gets some closure with Percy. Now, your mileage may vary with that particular scene. Nico smugly telling Percy he “isn't his type” feels, well, a little out of character and, I dunno, corny. But it’s nice to see Nico get this happy relationship with Will, and I’ll forgive Rick for any stumbles in the exact execution to avert that sad-single-gay trope.

- -

Ok. So, now at last, we get to the 2 series that are still in publication: Gods of Asgard and Trials of Apollo. These two series are publishing concurrently, and  because the Gods of Asgard started publishing first, let’s talk about it first.

I love Gods of Asgard. Truly. These might be my favorite of Riordan’s books. Part of that might just be that after 10 Greek and Roman books, a focus on Norse is refreshing, but I just love it. I love Magnus, I love the Annabeth cameos, I love Sam. Ok, so, the first Gods of Asgard book: Sword of Summer hits two important notes when it comes to minority representation.

Hearth is deaf and mute and uses sign language. This is the first time we’ve had a main character with a clear disability other than ADHD and Dyslexia. Which is really cool. And The consistent use of sign language throughout is neat.

Our second is Sam. Who is muslim and wears a hijab. Like, truly, how many stories do you know about a hijabi muslim valkyrie girl kicking all the ass.

Book 2, Hammer of Thor…well. Remember when I said Nico is my favorite character? Nico might have to fight Alex Fierro for my heart. Alex Fierro. A trans gender fluid child of Loki. I love Alex. Some people cried SJW Gay-Agenda bullshit over Alex like, being trans and gender fluid and, actually mentioning it more than once, but those people are unhappy assholes and I ignore them. I like Alex. Alex is an interesting, complicated character and I can’t wait for the next book.

Also, am I the only one who thinks Magnus and Alex are being set up for some romance? Just wishful thinking? Feels like romance. I ship it. I’ve been right before.

So ok, so We now have racial diversity, representation of multiple kinds of disabilities, a gay character, a gender fluid trans character, and a muslim character. -

Let’s talk about Trials of Apollo.

These books are really fun. If for no other reason than Apollo might actually be the most loud, entertaining narrator we’ve had yet. He’s funny, he’s an asshole. He’s also very loudly and clearly bisexual. Which, duh. How else would you even write Apollo if you have any understanding of Greek mythology?  It’s mentioned a couple of times in the first book, and then even more in the second, where his prior relationships have plot relevance.

The second book also introduced us to Jo and Emmie, a biracial lesbian couple who used to be hunters of Artemis who are now raising a daughter together.

And this is kind of the joy of really GOOD diverse representation. Like, Apollo has faced hardship because of his relationships, with both men and women, but his sexuality itself isn’t a problem with him. Alex is very secure with who they are, but has clearly faced a lot of transphobia. Nico was very closeted and seemed to have a lot of pain tied up in his sexuality and is only just now healing from that with Will. Jo and Emmie clearly faced issues with their relationship, having to leave the hunters, but have built a new life together. We get this great array of experiences, rather than just one prevailing narrative.

I love it, and we’ve come so far from that first bedtime story about a boy trying to find some stolen lightning bolts. - -

So, what’s in the future for Rick Riordan? Well, he hasn’t announced any new book series for after Gods of Asgard and Trials of Apollo wrap up. However, we do know that he is starting his own Publishing Imprint with Disney Hyperion.  Rick will only work as a curator it seems, focusing on having minority authors write fantasy/mythology based books from their native cultures. There are 3 books signed right now,

Jennifer Cervantes’s Storm Runner, which is about a boy having to save the world from a Mayan Prophesy.

Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time, about a 12-year-old Indian-American girl who unwittingly frees a demon intent on awakening the God of Destruction

And Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl, about a teenage fox spirit on a space colony.

All of which sound AMAZING and I will preorder as soon as Amazon let’s me.

Look, Rick Riordan is not a perfect person or a perfect writer. Some people take issue with him because he has said some rather insulting things about the small number of people who still worship the greek gods. That he took these stories and was dismissive of the people who still value them religiously. Now, The majority of those comments seem to come from blog posts back in 2006, and he did have a brief apology for offending Hellenists on his facebook back in February. and one would hope that this interest on letting minority authors tell stories from their own culture in the future is evidence that he has learned and grown since then.

And not everyone will like Rick Riordan’s books no matter what. They are for kids. They are corny and have bad puns and sometimes meander or forget about important characters for long stretches of time. Sometimes the ideas he has are better than the execution. It happens.

But when I look at his books as a whole, I see Middle school teacher from San Antonio who started with a fun idea and never stopped growing as an author with a dedication to minority representation in his novels. And I certainly appreciate that, and look forward to more of his work for as long as he decides to produce it.

[ranty9000]

A chronicle of me watching the film "white chicks"

okay so It started with two black fbi agents disguised as racist Mexican stereotypes. They failed a bust regarding ice cream bent code for cocaine and busting actual Ice cream guys

Why do comedies with little to no white characters think they can be even more racist than the white people they accuse of doing so

It’s like “the nutshack” all over again.

Here’s the “chief getting mad at the cop hero’s incompetence” trope. He’s Gonna put them on assignment in Iraq cuz their fuck up. Another duo consisting of a white dude and an ambiguously light Brown guy make fun of them with bad ice cream incompetence.

The girlfriend the one of them (I don’t know which one because I barely know either of them or even their names and so far their both bland as unflavored oatmeal) is upset because he was two minutes late to getting home and thinks she’s cheating on him.

“What could I possibly do anything so fast in those two minutes?”

She gives him a stare implying that’s how fast he is in bed with her, and no sound of laughter passes my lips.

This overbearing girlfriend and beaten down boyfriend cliche isn’t done to death At all. Oh and this ones name is Marcus

More ice cream jokes from the antagonist duo, our “heroes” make a “joke” about holding each others balls when they pee (what? That’s not what you hold when you go pee) and which one wipes (wouldn’t it be the other guy while one is on the John? This joke is bad in premise and execution)

The antagonist duo is working on the “Socialite kidnapping” case where someone has threatened to kidnap the daughters of the head of a local college. The “hero’s” are volunteered to pick them to set up a trap

Why is this a comedy again?

Oh Marcus called other one who’s name they haven’t said yet “blackie-chan” (WHAT-)

Oh Marcus is lactose intolerant, that totally isn’t a checkovs gun

So the girls arrive and despite being in their early 20s they greet the agents by saying “we already gave to the United negro fund”. I’ve never heard a rich young white chick call a black man a “negro” in the 21st century. I get they’re trying to make them shallow and shit but that’s unrealistic- oh now they gave the dudes the bags after they said they were going to the girls to the car.

Girls like this aren’t THIS kind of racist!

They can’t be from silicone valley and have the values of a stereotypical Texan yokel! They don’t fit!

Oh good… they have a Pomeranian…..

I’m only 15 minutes in? Oh good Lord. I’ll keep to highlights now.

The dog is out the window now oh no

Oh no they didn’t die from being hit by a truck

They just narrowly survived a horrible accident let’s make it humerous

She’s going to a self proclaimed bitch fit

They keep the girls in a room by saying they wouldn’t want anyone to see their “scars” (a light scratch on ones nose and the others lip), but they cant get them to the area where the trap is

Marcus says he is going to hang himself before the chief gets to him, sadly he doesn’t follow through.

The one that isn’t Marcus is lying to the chief over the phone coz one more screw up and it’s off to Iraq. The one that isn’t Marcus grabs marcus’ balls to stop him from admitting the truth

No laughs here

Okay so the disguise team (i think? They don’t say is gonna make them look like the girls now

I’m glad it’s more than sticking paint on their face and melons in their shirt but the guy freaked out when he felt the fake tits being put on him for some reason

“He’s right, make em bigger” says the head guy as i slowly die inside.

Oh Wait no it IS painting them white okay

The make up is somewhat decent, but here is where the “real humor” starts. So put on your hazmat suits.

The antagonist duo has to watch over the “girls” disguised as hotel staff and they take advantage of this by “mistaking” the ambiguously light brown guy for Mexican. Are they just racist to mexicans?

Haha their boobs are so big and knocking over things ha ha ha

They use plastic surgery to excuse their masculine facial features as well as make excuses for fake crabiness, actually decent writing here.

This is fleeting as guys are already planning to tap dat ass

Is that the chick who played lindsay in arrested development?

Are we doing a “your mother” competition right now. This film is sucking the humor out of me.

Another groin shot and mexican bashing.

Oh no one is getting attracted to the black publicist.

Oh good toilet humor and fart humor thanks chekovs gun

Lactose intolerance doesn’t work like that my family has two that are

Terry crews why are you here no….

“That’s what I’m talking about, a skinny white girl with a black ass”

Terry please no

Terry please god no

TERRY PLEASE NO

Did they do a “king king/ gorilla” joke to Terry and think since it’s really a black dude it’s okay.

Oh no

“Making my way downtown, walking past, and I’m home bound BENNA BA BENNA BA BENNA”

OBLIGATORY N-WORD AND RAP JOKE I REPEAT IT’S A CODE 19 EVERYONE GET DOWN.

Oh good dressing up tiiime and sex jokes greeeeaaat.

What is happening right now

I have no words, i think the Movie is having a stroke?

Oh no wait i think it’s me?

The antagonist duo is talking about what which older celebrity they’d bang as they keep an eye before they come back

And now not marcus Is trying to get her purse back coz it has the badge and gun, she ran fast and got it cuz I guess chicks like that can’t run fast???

There’s a subplot involving the guys that wanna tap that a girl looking like a she’s on cocaine coz Nose powder that’s all you need to know.

I wanna die

They’re doin the auction girl for charity thing and TERRY IS BACK OH GOD WHY

Oh wait it’s marcus wife and not girlfriend? Wtf

Oh good a sleepover

The black guy as a white girl is giving one girl corn rows OH NOOOO TUMBLR ALEERRRT

Oh good sex humour with dildos

I’m dead inside, like there’s nothing left… and there’s still another HOUR?! Children I’m not gonna make it…..

Oh good back to the dudes and banging celebs that have yeast infections- OH GOOD THE KIDNAPPING FROM BALD LACKIES oh they’re just strippers acting like kidnappers

“It’s part of their act”

Sadly it’s statistically a common kink of women for some reason

Beach scene now

Haha he’s actually black and throws football’s hard

Terry is too oiled up I’m scared OH GOD THAT’S HIS BULGE

“Swartzinegro”, that is all

Romance subplot with the publicist or whoever she is again no one cares and nothing super horrible or unfunny

AND ANOTHER SUBPLOT WITH THE WIFE THAT’S THE NAGGY BLACK GIRL TROPE AGAIN THAT’S GREAT

TERRY CREWS BEING ROMANTIC TO MARCUS WITH SAXOPHONE

TERRY LIKES THE SONG! MAKINH MY WAY DOWNTOWN, WALKING FAST, FACES PAST AND I’M HOME BOUND BADA BA BADA BA VXAGBCSG

STOP SINGING I’M THE DAD OF THE SWAMP CASTLE NOW

Oh good he did

I’m going to cry silently while this foot fetish shit is going on

Oyster is metaphor for pussy

More bland romance with not Marcus with awkward humor that’s just awkward

Same for Terry and marcus

Oh no mean doggo. Doggo mad. Doggo bite. Doggo please kill

Terry please stop I’m eating a carrot I’m gonna vomit

Oh he’s a basketball player OF COURSE HE IS

AND MORE FART HUMOR THANK YOU FOR THAT I STILL HAD A SHRED OF SANITY LEFT

More bland romance with not Marcus.

Make it end

She called the dog “nigga” as it’s funny coz it’s a black chick

Antagonist duo being creeps and finding out they’re dudes.

Drinks named after sex.

Terry putting drugs that arent roofies in the drink and my psychotic break is now complete

She switched them and pulled a “princess bride” tho

Eye candy skank sexy dance off I’m going to die this suddenly turned into a those dance movies with the cheerleaders and is just to fill time and the smut quot

Lol all black dudes can break dance you guys and it’s totally not stunt doubles

It’s 1 am right now and terry is high and ready to rape

Girl is spilling her guts litteraly and figuratively

High dog fucker and high Terry crews, wait wasn’t that shot from “it’s always sunny” with the glow sticks

Terry and high guy fucked

Marcus wife Subplot is back oh no.

Koolaid joke hahaha kill me

Why are the wives of black couples in comedies always so mean? I feel like that’s a stereotype that no one has acknowledged and is it’s just as bad as other tropes

The antagonists thought the real sisters were the fake and they were stripped and they were punched and it’s funny and the cheif knows and fired them and marcus is rightly leaving cuz is friend is an ass but he’s apologizing so let’s do the stupid plan and the identity of the bad guys is shown but I don’t remember who they are supposed to be.

The “heroes” are bringing the antagonist duo in cuz they were fired too and the “who’d you rather fuck” thing ISN’T FUNNY

TOKEN FLAMBOYANT GAY GUY RUNNING FASHION SHOW WHO IS CONFIRMED GAY HAHAHAHAHAHA THAT WASN’T OLD EVEN BEFORE THE GAY REVOLUTION NOT AT ALL

FAUX MEANINGFUL MUSHY GIRL SHIT

THE WIFE OF MARCUS AND HER FRIEND WITH NO NAME ARE STILL HERE.

TERRY GO AWAY

SWITCHAROO HUMOR HAHA

IT’S THE SWAN DRESS BOIIIIII

PRATFALLS AHAHAHAHA

The two bad mean got red paint splattered on them and it’s seen as visionary while they are embarrassed.

Oh good china is in the mix of racial insensitivity

Oh boy theyre fighting the bad guys now and she said you hit like bitch

The wifes friend calls backup their names are keisha, nay-nay, and laquonda

Yes really

Oh the dad of the mean girls is the bad guy okay

Is terry dead

No

Terry only cared that marcus wasn’t white and he goes “negro please”. Did they use up their n-bombs?

The romance plot wraps up (“this some jerry springer shit”) and both duos get their job back cuz it’s a cop movie trope.

Why does Marcus want this chick again.

“And they all stayed friends the end”

It’s been a two hour movie and i lost all sanity but the late time is also a factor

Let this be a warning not to let history repeat itself