#tyrant's tomb

[valzhangism]

this might be a controversial opinion but whenever i'm reminded that hazel is praetor now i cringe a little. i just don't think it's a meaningful part of her character. maybe i would like it if it were explored more, but as it is it's just a handwave of "oh yeah and hazel's praetor now! which is cool because being praetor is cool as long as you're not reyna!" and not related to any established aspect of her character. it's not that i hate it, it's just such a nothingburger of a writing decision. and becoming the leader of an entire camp doesn't feel like a change that should be a nothingburger.

frank becoming praetor is a good, fitting tie-in to his character because his arc is about building his own confidence and taking charge instead of lying around being self-pitying and insecure. but hazel's not frank. i don't know why she's being made praetor and why that's important. maybe i'm just overthinking it and "not everything has to be a huge deal"—after all, realistically, when they're electing praetors it's not like they're thinking about whether this decision is personally fulfilling to an individual's backstory and inner conflict, lmao. and in that sense, yes, it's fine. i think hazel would be, at the very least, a capable leader.

but in a meta sense, i just wish it meant something. the most connection i can think of is that hazel used to push away people because of her curse, but now has stopped worrying over that by accepting a role as a leader in camp jupiter. which is sweet, but... it's something that has already, for the most part, been resolved. it's been mostly resolved since the end of son of neptune. and even if you want to expand on it there are many different ways to do this compared to just making her praetor. like maybe showcasing her relationship with other campers and demigods a bit more? and making her... relevant, even? mayhaps? pretty please?

i don't know if i'm just being too much of a critic and a cynic. again, i don't exactly hate or even dislike this. i'm just not sure what it's supposed to do for me, the reader, or for her, the character. if you really liked this writing decision: if you want to give your two cents, i'd love to hear why.

[spencerreidswhore187]

Meg? Lester?

[lavenderfairiez]

I just finished ToA last night and here are some things I don't see nearly enough people talking about, specifically about the end of ToA so if you haven't read it this is your spoiler warning!!!

• Apollo not feeling right in his godly form and uncomfortable around the other olympians (not including Artemis)

• LEO CALLING JO "MOM" 🥺 (and Emmie and Jo in general) BUT HE HAS TWO MOMS NOW I LITERALLY STARTED CRYING ABOUT THIS LAST NIGHT

• Apollo visiting Percy and Annabeth in New Rome!!!

• AND they talk about Jason!!!!!! Annabeth cried herself to sleep

• honestly Apollo's whole battle with Python that shit was so cool

• obligatory fuck Calypso

• REYNA CALLING LEO "HERMANO" 🥹

• Meg standing up to Nero in his throne room!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH

• Rick's infallible ability to put EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. CHARACTER. in a relationship 💀 PEACHES HAS A LOVE INTEREST NOW???????? LET CHARACTERS BE SINGLEEEEE

• HAZEL'S CURSE IS GONE AND SHE CAN JUST LIKE USE HER JEWELS NOW!!! and Frank wants an engraved diamond necklace that says "H+F Forever" I love him so much...

• while we're on the topic of Frank!! WHY DOES NO ONE EVER TALK ABOUT HIS SACRIFICE AT THE END OF THE TYRANTS TOMB??? Like I knew that he would be fine but I still started like tearing up

• THE ARROW OF DODONA!!!

• how completely unaffected Zeus is by Jason's death??? Fuck you Zeus.

• Apollo's new kids at camp!!!

[windwwhy]

toa is hilarious

[astraeajackson]

the "trials and tribulations of apollo"?

nah more like "let's see how long apollo can go before his crazy ex burns america down to the ground all because of That One Time™ circa three thousand years ago when apollo may or may not have drowned said ex in his own bathtub"

[seagull9111]

yeah yeah jasons death was the most heart breaking thing ever. BUT TALK ABOUT DON THE FAUNS DEATH

so so so sad. we watch him die, then he tells a joke and apollo is holding his hand, a lavinia is there.

"H-hey, Apollo. Got any... spare change?" i cried so so so hard

and so did apollo.

then he goes to tell another joke and he is smiling and then his chest stops moving and then he turns into a laurel which was daphnes tree which probably hurt like hell for apollo

and then he gets planted and hes a hero

he is a hero

he is my hero

[thehighqueenofhiraeth]

okay another reason I get upset when people refuse to read trials of apollo is because no one talks about Camp Jupiter. Spoilers ahead for the series, obviously. We all know about Camp Half-Blood being a fraction of its former size after the Titan War, but no one talks about how the battles with the emperors at Camp Jupiter do the same thing. Frank compares the losses to a decimation (which refers to the killing of every tenth legionnaire) at the beginning of the fourth book, and there is another huge battle at the end of that book that leaves the entire legion and entire remaining population of New Rome itself able to fit inside their Senate building. THAT'S INSANE. THAT IS AN INSANE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE KILLED IN THAT ONE BOOK WHICH NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT BECAUSE THEY REFUSE TO READ TOA.

[dissonantharmony]

finally read the tyrant's tomb today

[the-eclipse-is-in-me]

Apollo quote

They just keep getting better

[demigod-shenanigans]

Re: Reyna joining the Hunters and why I think it’s actually really depressing

So for a variety of reasons I’m not a huge fan of Reyna’s arc ending with her joining the Hunters of Artemis. Part of that is rrverse characters should be allowed to be single without joining the eternal celibacy club, but that’s not a problem exclusive to Reyna. I also think handling asexuality in the context of celibacy by choice is… messy by default, especially if it’s your one confirmed ace character.

Beyond that, though, there’s a bunch of context surrounding Reyna’s life and personality that just make that choice seem really sad to me?

I’ll split this into three thematic subsections and put the second and third one under the cut because this got pretty long

Reyna and her sense of duty:

I highly suspect Reyna’s fatal flaw is her sense of duty. This is never explicitly confirmed (because no one except Percy and Annabeth has confirmed fatal flaws), but duty is the theme her entire character revolves around. Basically from birth she’s raised to believe the fate of New Rome lies on her shoulders. A lot of her actions in the books explicitly link back to her sense of duty.

She runs herself ragged trying to find Jason and trying to manage a job made for two people on her own before Son of Neptune.

A lot of her conflict stems from the fact that what is necessary to protect her home (leaving her post and following Jason) inherently clashes with the rules of that home.

Reyna also actively chides others (like Lavinia in ToA) for leaving their posts and not sharing that same sense of duty.

Because of this, like Jason, Reyna is never really able to be a kid.

Joining the Hunters sort of does a good thing in that it allows Reyna to gain some distance specifically from New Rome, which her fate and also a lot of her trauma regarding her upbringing revolves around.

But it doesn’t allow her to be a kid any more than being a praetor at Camp Jupiter did. Potentially less so, actually, seeing as the Hunters are basically always on the move doing something important while at Camp Jupiter you probably have regular days off and a city to visit and relax in always right around the corner.

Reyna lays down one duty and immediately commits herself to the next one. She doesn’t grow and learn that she doesn’t have to carry the fate of the world on her shoulders. She just trades one burden for another.

—————————

Reyna and her emotions:

The timing of Reyna’s choice to join the Hunters seems really off. New Rome is mostly destroyed and just suffered a catastrophic amount of losses. Reyna absolutely has a right to step down as a leader, but this seems like an odd time for her to do it, especially considering she just completely up and leaves instead of at least sticking around to help rebuild her home and then join the Hunters after. As someone so fundamentally defined by her duties and her loyalty to New Rome, why does she spend half a day off-screen and then suddenly decide actually she’ll leave her destroyed home and all those grieving people for someone else to deal with? It just seems really out of character for her.

This begs the question: is Reyna really making that choice because she figured out it’s what she wants, or is it because she can’t deal with what happened? Because looking at all the destruction and attending all the funerals—deaths that happened while she was technically in charge but unable to be present, people she was supposed to protect—reminds her of every way she’s failed her home?

Also, Jason just died.

Jason was Reyna’s best friend for years. He was the first person she allowed herself to grow close to after her sister left her, and very possibly the first person she ever fell in love with. She never properly got to make up with Jason. Very likely they were both afraid to be hurt again. They both thought there’d be time for it later. But there wasn’t. There isn’t. She only got her best friend back in a coffin, and even in death, returning to New Rome (to her) wasn’t Jason’s choice.

Reyna leaves the place where they grew up together, the duties they used to share and all the memories—memories that were just hers, no longer his, since he never properly got them back—two days after she watched his pyre burn.

How much of that is her leaving because she wants to, and how much of it is the fact that she can’t keep her walls up and keep herself going in the place that used to be theirs, where Jason’s ghost is staring back at her at every corner? How much of her leaving is her unwillingness to deal with her grief?

Reyna running away from her feelings is an ongoing theme. It makes sense from a lot of different angles why she’d do it.

She was raised by an abusive father who often turned his feelings (what child Reyna would have seen as “love”, but was primarily paranoia/anger) against her and Hylla.

It’s also addressed directly that Reyna worries if she feels nervous or scared, her emotions will cause the camp to worry as well—her power is quite literally to project her own emotions outward, so if she does that with negative emotions (intentionally or unintentionally), it would cause problems. Suppressing them feels safer. On top of that, in her role as a leader, she has to provide a certain sense of confidence and assurance even when she herself doesn’t feel it.

Joining the Hunters instead of facing those feelings is not exactly a great way to heal in that regard.

————————

Reyna and the weight of Bellona’s prophecy:

As far as we’re aware, Camp Jupiter has faced more threats in the few years Reyna was in charge than it has in centuries. First the Titan war (which Reyna must have arrived partway through, depending on how early the Romans even knew about and were involved in what was happening there), then the war with Gaia, then the Emperors.

And obviously that’s not actually Reyna’s fault—Reyna is, in fact, a huge contributing factor to why these disasters weren’t a lot worse and didn’t claim even more lives. But this is all put on the shoulders of a girl who knows her fate is intricately linked to the legacy of Rome.

A girl who is already convinced that her love is fundamentally destructive and keeps other people from being happy. Her father spent her entire childhood suspicious of Reyna potentially betraying him—and, because she ended up killing him in self-defense, it’s very easy for a traumatized ten year old to internalize that maybe that suspicion was totally warranted. Then Circe’s Island gets destroyed. Then Hylla finds her happiness with the Amazons by leaving Reyna. Then Jason leaves her, seeming so much happier with Piper and Leo than he ever was with her.

Everyone she loves always seems to be happier without her.

So maybe the best thing she can do for New Rome—a home that she loves and that has faced so much destruction in the short time she’s spent there—is to leave.

Maybe the best way to keep New Rome safe (because New Rome’s survival is linked to Hylla and Reyna’s bloodline continuing to exist) is to make herself immortal and preserve it that way. Because, unless Reyna dies in battle, she could live centuries—potentially thousands of years—as a Hunter. She can’t ever properly go back to the home she loved, because that’s not how the Hunters work. But she’s still bound to her fate by her blood. She’s still doing her duty to New Rome by living as long as she can.

It’s not something she can ever be free of.

The worst thing about this is I think Reyna choosing to find a fate for herself outside of New Rome could have actually been a great way to conclude her arc, but god do I wish it was executed differently and actually given proper exploration/space to breathe instead of just resolved by taking her off-screen for a few hours and then sticking her with the group of female warriors that barely gets to have any plot relevance outside of conveniently coming to people’s rescue.

[lesterapollogist]

quick reminder that while lester was literally laying on the floor dying, he decided to sing a duet of "sweet caroline" with a talking arrow only he could hear

[churrorat-art]

They are siblings your honor!!

[lavenderfairiez]

more of them bc I just started the tower of nero and I wanted to draw them on the train ☀️🌻🌱

[guardianspirits13]

Apollo, my cringefail loser son,,,

[astraeajackson]

apollo, with meg and reyna: arrow, i think we're lost.

arrow of dodona: verily, i knew that when i first saw you. according to googl- MY PROPHETIC POWERS, if thou signs up for this website, thou shalt receive a free mental checkup with this pretty lady. i know thou likest pretty ladies. shalt i make a call?

apollo:

apollo: he says it's that way-

[amuletx]

sunflower siblings <3