#mine: rr crit

[curseofdelos]

I finished re-reading TLH recently, and I want to talk about the common fan interpretation of Piper as a pick me girl for a sec (let me preface this whole post by clarifying that while this is ultimately a defense of Piper as a character, it is also a critique of how Rick wrote her, Drew, and the rest of cabin 10)

The way cabin 10 is written in the books has never been great. Very early on in TLT, Rick makes a point to establish that Aphrodite had both sons and daughters:

Take note of how Rick explicitly genders Aphrodite kids in this paragraph, but uses the gender neutral "kids" to refer to the children of every other god. This is a very deliberate writing choice, and I can't think of any reason why he would have done this other than to (initially anyway) avoid associating womanhood with vanity/interest in personal appearances.

...And then in every book after this, cabin 10 heavily skews female, and traditional femininity becomes the butt of almost every joke about them.

Cabin 10 doesn't get any real focus until TLH with the introduction of Piper, Drew, and the rest of Cabin 10, in which Rick spends a lot of time establishing how different Piper is from the rest of her cabin because she rejects traditional femininity. Piper cuts her own hair, she doesn't wear makeup or care about fashion, she hates dresses etc. This is in direct contrast with Drew who's often described as wearing heavy makeup, having perfectly done hair, manicured nails etc.

Note that Piper's description of Drew's appearance is fairly neutral. Her problem with Drew is not in how she chooses to dress, but in her behaviour.

This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that every time Drew's appearance is described, it is directly preceded and/or followed by her doing something heinous. She insults and degrades Piper's appearance within seconds of meeting her, and we see this again in the Cabin 10 scene where she bullies and manipulates their siblings - kicking them out of the bathroom mid-shower, dumping a bin filled with used tampons on the floor and making them clean it up, etc.

Piper and Drew are in direct competition throughout the entirety of TLH. Piper strongly disapproves of the way Drew runs the cabin, they have differing opinions on Silena Beauregard (despite the fact Piper doesn't actually know her but I digress), and they're both interested in pursuing Jason romantically - Piper out of genuine attraction, and Drew out of the desire to break his heart for the Aphrodite Rite of Passage.

The narrative at every turn pits them against each other. Piper's intentions are always painted as pure and kindhearted while Drew is consistently characterised as a stereotypical mean girl who hurts others simply because she can. Drew is never given any motivation for acting the way she does, and her sole role in the story is to act as an obstacle for Piper to overcome so she could become counsellor (which is kind of pointless considering Piper never interacts with her cabin again after this). She's flat and two-dimensional, and never gets any real character development. Her sole personality trait is mean.

The result of all of this is that traditional femininity gets associated with shitty behaviour, while the rejection of traditional femininity gets associated with kindness and generosity. It should be stressed that Piper herself doesn't actually think that she's better than Drew because she doesn't wear makeup etc; Piper's issues entirely lie with Drew's behaviour. The worst Piper ever says is calling all of cabin 10 "shallow" which is no different to how the other characters talk about them (which is still a problem to be clear; it's just not a problem with Piper specifically, but how the narrative characterises cabin 10 as a whole). It's the narrative that paints femininity as lesser because of the way it positions tomboy Piper (the protagonist) as a better person than highly feminine Drew (the antagonist).

In fact, the most explicitly we ever see the book paint Piper's appearance as preferable to Drew's is in Jason's POV - not Piper's. After Piper gets claimed and Aphrodite changes her appearance, Jason spends several chapters going on and on about how much more beautiful and desirable Piper is when she's not dressed up or wearing makeup.

Because of all of this, it's not difficult to see why so many people in this fandom have interpreted Piper as a pick me 'not like other girls' type girl. The narrative constantly presents her as a better person than the more feminine Drew, and Jason (the boy they're competing over) chooses her at least partly because of how naturally beautiful she is without trying.

However, even though I do understand where this interpretation of her character came from, I do want to push back on it for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it is explicitly stated several times in TLH that the reasons Piper doesn't wear makeup and cuts her own hair is because (1) she doesn't like being the centre of attention (see the first screenshot of this post), and (2) she's rebelling against her father.

Piper's entire character arc in TLH centres around her initially being insecure at the start of the book to becoming more confident over the course of their quest. It is stated on several occasions early on that Piper doesn't like being the centre of attention, but by the end, she feels more comfortable in her own skin. She goes from being embarrassed/hurt by Drew's comments about her to laughing them off and standing up to her by the end.

The term "pick me girl" refers to girls who do things for external, mostly male validation. This is the exact opposite of why Piper doesn't wear makeup or conform to traditional femininity. She does this precisely because she does NOT want to draw attention to herself. The only male who's attention she is trying to get is her father's, and she's doing this by acting out in ways he doesn't approve of. Piper does want validation from her father, but she's not cutting her own hair to get his validation; she's so starved for affection that she wants any attention from him, even if that attention is negative.

Similarly, a major point of conflict for Piper is whether or not Jason is attracted to her, but she is not rejecting feminine things because she wants to impress him Jason does find those qualities in her attractive, but Piper held these opinions long before they even met. It was Jason/the narrative that paints those qualities in Piper attractive, not Piper herself. (Side note: there's a lot more to be said about how their relationship was written in TLH, but that isn't relevant to get into that here.)

The other reason why I want to push back on the interpretation of Piper as a pick me girl is that she's a queer woman. In a straight patriarchal society, women (women of colour especially) are often expected and pressured to perform gender in particular ways - wearing makeup, dressing femininely, being attracted to boys and exclusively boys. In much the same way that Piper's coming out now makes it possible to read her relationship with Jason as compulsory heterosexuality, it's also possible to read her discomfort with traditional femininity as discomfort with being a straight girl. It's possible to retroactively read Piper's dislike for feminine things as her feeling uncomfortable with heterosexuality but is too closeted at this point to realise it. She does, after all, cut her hair very short at the end of TBM while she is the process of exploring her sexuality.

(To be clear: I'm not arguing that this is what Rick had always intended for her - I assume he expected Jason/Piper would be endgame at the time he was writing TLH - but I do think there's a 'death of the author' interpretation available here that her hatred of dresses etc is an early sign of her being a closeted queer woman who is beginning to explore her gender presentation and sexuality.)

I feel that sometimes, in their efforts to (rightly) criticise the way femininity gets treated in this series, some people act as if makeup is in intrinsic part of womanhood and that Piper is a misogynist for not wanting to wear it. This is not true. It is not inherently misogynistic for a woman to dislike it - especially when that woman is queer, and especially in today's society where many women are pressured into wearing makeup to be taken seriously. Piper disliking makeup is not the problem.

The problem with Piper's story in TLH is that the narrative consistently presents her as a better person than the more feminine Drew, and a more desirable option for Jason because of how beautiful she is without trying really hard like Drew and the other Aphrodite girls do. Because every highly feminine character is either a villain (Drew) or a joke (Valentina in TOA), the result of Piper and Drew's rivalry is that femininity gets demonised by the narrative. Again, it's not that Piper herself thinks she's better than Drew for hating fashion; it's the way the story puts these characters in opposition to each other that results in femininity being framed as lesser.

I think a writer with a better grasp of women's issues (and queer women's issues especially) could have written a great story here on gender as a performance, and an exploration on conforming (Drew) VS rebelling (Piper) against gender norms! How there really is no winning and women get harassed for being too feminine AND for not being feminine enough (See: the jokes about Clarisse in PJO not being a girl/being manly because she's violent and rough around the edges)! What we got instead was a story that carries the deeply unfortunate implication that girls who don't care about their appearance are kinder and more desirable than girls who do.

It's not Piper that's the problem; it's the narrative. I think a lot of people have been conflating the two, and have been unfairly pinning the blame onto Piper's characterisation when the fault lies with the plot, and with Drew's characterisation as a flat two-dimensional mean girl stereotype. I think if Drew had been given a redemption arc like Clarisse, or some amount of depth that explains why she hates Silena and acts the way she does, or even if she and Piper had learned to respect each other despite their differences, then we would be having a very different conversation.

#piper mclean #drew tanaka #rr crit #meta #mine #just in case it isn't clear I do actually like Drew I just wish she wasn't written Like That #also sorry this post is so long I had a lot to say lol #also also I have zero interest in having a debate about makeup make your own post if you disagree

[jasontoddssuper]

*Egg cracking noises*

@cottoncandyteeth @disdainfolly

#percy jackson #persephone jackson #annabeth chase #lesbiannabeth #he/him lesbian annabeth supremacy #nonbinary annabeth #platonic percabeth #percabeth brotp #(this is intended as found siblinghood so please don't tag as ship) #pjo #hoo #toa #rr crit #transfem #transmasc #transmasc/transfem solidarity #💌 #letters from summer #edit idea was mine but the work was by my bestie @vambirezz!!! #trans positivity #transgender

[hueninqkais]

rr crit. masterpost

seen rick riordan criticism and ever wondered what the big deal was? maybe you saw some people talking about how much they disliked a certain aspect of his books and just thought that at least he gave us this diversity in the first place. 

either way, this post is for you! i’ve compiled a list of meta and explanations from across tumblr that actually come from people who are able to speak on his representation in novels and this will help shed some light on why specific parts of rick riordan’s books are criticised!

preface: i’ll clarify that i am not trying to hate on rick riordan and i’m not making this as a post to start drama or to complain! i’ve always loved his books since i was young and read pretty much all his series! but there is really no excuse for a privileged white man to mess up this badly :/

but as humans in an everchanging society, we’re witnesses to change and to growth!! and our perception of media can affect how we empathise and treat the plight of others who are less fortunate in mainstream society. even if you don’t seen the problem in these criticisms or aren’t affected, please do not speak over those who are!! i’ll put the list under the tag <3

poc representation

medusa + middle eastern representation by @moontheapollocamper ↳ you might remember medusa from the first book in the percy jackson series, this piece covers what was problematic about how she was written and what stereotypes she enforced.

brazilian representation by @ellakay69 ↳ this is a very detailed and easy to understand post on why paolo’s character in trials of apollo is a terrible example of brazilian representation

on samirah’s arranged engagement in the books by @kubo ↳ perpetuating a harmful stereotype when many have been harmed is incredibly problematic

on the dehumanisation of poc and the dismissal of their experiences by @mustwealwaysbepredictable ↳ an important post to read as it breaks down the issues with riordan’s casual and problematic depiction of certain poc

paolo’s character in trials of apollo by @fan-dot ↳ another good post to help understand why paolo was thoughtlessly characterised just to fill a representation slot

poc characters and their families by @ellakay69 ↳ op made some excellent points here on how the poc families and their experiences are treated

adultification of black girls by @literateleah there have been many professional studies done on how black girls are always portrayed as more mature, and ‘adult’ and hazel fell into this category

physical appearance 

riordan’s portrayal of acne by @skatersuki ↳ a quick summary on why rick’s descriptions of acne were hurtful especially since his books are meant to cater to young teenagers who might be going through the same experiences

the depictions of piper and hazel by @howelljenkins ↳ would definitely recommend if you want to understand how piper and hazel’s coloured eyes (something glorified in fanarts) is problematic

on mixed race sadie by @goth-hazel ↳ this is an incredibly broad issue but it should be understood and this post is a good start!

lgtbq+ representation

riordan’s portrayal of reyna as an ace woman by @michaelyew ↳ breaks down the stereotypes that riordan made reyna’s character enforce and why this representation of asexuality is problematic nico’s coming out by @earthlyruins a brief but important take on why nico’s coming out was probably one of the worst ways to portray the coming out of a character onto impressionable young people

there’s a lot more to unpack here and i’ll continue to edit this post and add links!

problematic plotlines

why rick riordan’s ‘world war two was caused by the big three’ is a terrible storyline by @jewishpercy ↳ this was a well written and an eye opening text post for me because it was something i had never considered before and it definitely helped me understand why this particular point was actually quite gross :/ on the topic of rr saying that children of hades were nazis by @luke-x-percy ↳ good points are made here and this post points out the disgusting insensitivity that riordan portrayed when he brought the holocaust into mythology

serious events brushed by riordan by @hazellpjo ↳ you can see how serious issues were used for plot points by riordan when they really shouldn’t have been

how mallory’s death was incredibly insensitive by @sapphic-ace-reyna ↳ again, another piece that helped me understand something that i had never thought about and well written!

other opinions to give you something to think about

stereotypes pushed by riordan’s books by @canarhys on the topic of poc names and nicknames by @rowansdamisch the problems with riordan’s characters in heroes of olympus by @housemartius what to consider when these criticisms are brought up by @knuffled on the portrayal of mixed race sadie by @howelljenkins a overall criticism of the mythology in the pjo books by the @theatomicboom on buff girls in media by @macsi sadie and uh the age difference by @spoopy-elliot

#rr crit #pjo crit #rr critical #riordanverse #rick riordan #hoo crit #tkc crit #mcga crit #anti rick riordan #anti rr #mine #mine: rr crit

[ethannku]

never going to get over how calypso should have joined the hunters. like? immortal goddess leaves her island, afraid that she might lose her immortality. she also wants to travel the world. she also was cursed to always rely on men, so why would she continue to do that after she’s left her prison? 

her joining the hunters would’ve completed her character arc, and i will stay mad that rick just shoved her with leo and called it a day.

#anti caleo #calypso #leo valdez #pjo #hoo #toa #rr crit #im gonna write meta about this at some point #but not rn #just gotta get the idea out there rn tho #mine #500 #1k

[cranberrykissel]

GUYS I UPDATED THIS! (27.O9.21) i've seen some posts about Alex being unnecessary mean, caricatured, inaccurate, and as genderfluid person I agree with a majority of them as Riordan clearly messed up big time with her lack of character development, but think about why she's acting like this, why she's so defensive. guys, gals, and all nonbinary pals, it's victim blaming because

mcga is incredibly transphobic. it's ~everywhere~

a quick study of the case of alex fierro

and here a long post with me picking a few examples (there's more)

The amount of transphobia which definied Alex's whole live (her father threw him off the stairs, rings a bell?? and the man got away with child abuse, Rick?), ultimately forcing her into homelessness. Only to it not being properly adressed, no- while no one tries to (on-screen; we don't get to know what happened while she was homeless) assault him after her father, calling her names... continues? Argr means so much more than "unmanly". The characters are clearly aware (!!!) of this:

‘Literally, it means unmanly,’ Mallory said. ‘It’s a deadly insult among big loutish Vikings like this guy.’ ‘Bah,’ said Halfborn. ‘It’s only an offence if you call someone argr who isn’t argr. Gender-fluid people are hardly a new thing, Magnus. There were plenty of argr among the Norse. They serve their purposes. Some of the greatest priests and sorcerers were…’

According to this logic, calling a cis person a tr**ny is bad but when it's a trans person, that's fine? It's justified? Alex rebukes them for it numerous times, and they act like Alex feels offended for no reason ("was not an Alex-approved term"), as they had done nothing wrong. She's misunderstood and, what's worse, ignored. That's not how you treat your friend (trashtalking, insulting each other a day after first meeting as a love language?) And Magnus, who has had met many non-hetero-normative peers before, and knows how abuse works, does nothing to stop his ignorant neighbours?

Even Jack, who has been there for the longest, says this:

‘I LOVE argrs!’ Jack somersaulted with glee, nearly slicing off my nose. ‘Frey’s Fripperies! We have an argr across the hall? That’s great news.’

...Did Riordan just turn historical trans folks into comedic relief? Trying to be supportive? Try walking around telling everyone how you loves tr**nies because that's what Jack did... also Halfborn, who we know isn't as open-minded as he claims, straightway sexualizes gnc ppl while being portrayed as straight:

‘You know, Frey’s priests were very fluid. During the harvest festival, they used to wear dresses and do some amazing dances–’

TJ's story of a transgender person he met in the past begins the narrative that a transgender person must prove their worth to compensate being somewhat "flawed", which Riordan continues to drag through the story over and over; in his narrative gender non-conformity and fluidity is strongly associated with being untrustworthy, tricky, coward, weak, not suitable for fighting, and incapable of heroism- which Alex have to break through and prove wrong on a daily basis.

"[...] [Loki] He’s fluid, unpredictable, untrustworthy – I don’t want to be like that.’

"[...]You can’t trust an argr in combat."

"[...] They serve their purposes. Some of the greatest priests and sorcerers were…’

‘I still don’t trust an argr to do this job–’

She has to be something extra in order to be accepted.

‘Not only that,’ Helgi added, ‘but such heroism from an argr!’

‘Ow!’ Halfborn complained. ‘You hit hard for an argr.’

‘The larger point,’ Thor butted in, ‘is that you’re not even a proper girl! You’re an argr!’ The air became still, like the moment before a thunderclap. I wasn’t sure which possibility scared me more, Thor attacking Alex, or Alex attacking Thor.

To note, canonically there hardly are any gnc people at Valhalla- suggesting that these stereotypes had been real in the past. She impresses everyone at Valhalla because they don't expect her to be able to such brave acts, treating trans (fem) people like a different human species. Magnus too, is fascinated with her because he finds it

hard to believe that a few hours ago those same delicate fingers had taken down a dragon – and cut off my head – with a wire.

And guess what, she's not the only trans character introduced! Here comes Loki- together they play GOOD TRANS vs BAD TRANS. Loki is like every negative trans stereotype introduced incarnated, no jokes. Good trans has to be nice (looking at u fandom), brave, sass, and help the main character. Bad trans tries to kill the main character, mind controls his kids, and tricks people to bed them.

Moreover, Alex has the ability to shape into any sort of animal, which is fine (and cool). But only given to transgender characters? Poor choice at best- it leaves the door open for headcanoning a trans character shape-shifting to solely fit society's mold of what a woman or man looks like. I've no problem with him being very gnc in appearance in terms of clothing, but "petite", "delicate fingers", "sharp and beautiful facial features" (Magnus is smitten I get it)... raise the bar pretty high for trans ppl as a representation, which is what I'm not 100% okay with. And-

Her genderfluidity and shape-shifiting are very strictly connected, believed to be hereditary (like how!! why it's canon!) and have some sort of a cause-effect relationship? Samirah looks down on her own shape-shifting (and why it's wrong- 'Oh no, fluidity is bad, makes you treacherous'):

‘Magnus, true shape-shifting isn’t like my hijab’s camouflage. Shape-shifting doesn’t just change your appearance. It changes you. Every time I do it, I feel… I feel more of my father’s nature trying to take hold of me. He’s fluid, unpredictable, untrustworthy – I don’t want to be like that.’

We don't really get to know about Alex's human form. Has she any control over it? When introduced everyone assumes she's a boy when she's clearly a girl. Even the (unfortunate) pronouns dialogue suggests she can't:

‘But you’re a shape-shifter,’ I said. ‘Can’t you just… you know, be whatever you want?’ Her darker eye twitched, as if I’d poked a sore spot.

But then she drops this:

"I can look like whatever or whoever I want. But my actual gender? No. [...]"

Rick, you tell me Alex can shape-shift into a different person but never does it for some reason? Have you ever heard of gender dysphoria? Does this mean she's probably able to voluntarily appear male while being a girl and vice versa, or can she take the shape of Magnus/Samirah/anybody? (Why didn't she make use it during the "suicidal bridal mission"?) Magnus notices his hair seems longer when he's a boy. In "9 from nine worlds", he noticeably "sounds male" to Amir (and that isn't impossible, voice manipulation is a thing)... This feels like a middle finger to trans people who don't have any control over their physical appearance/anatomy. Shape-shifting is cool but I'm tired of lazy storytelling where character's supernatural abilities validate their trans identity.

Again, looking at you fandom- stop shaming Alex for being confident! A tRaNs PeRsOn wOuLdN't CoRrEcT tHeIr PrOnOuNs LiKe ThAT my ass. Sometimes it's self-harmful to remain humble, patience is virtue etc. If she wasn't 'strong' enough nobody would ask and respect her, because, apparently even nordic undead warriors and gods are assholes: and that's what living as transgender person taught her, first in her own house (!!) and then on the streets. Her rough attitude is a coping, defensive mechanism. Guys, victims come in all shapes as everyone deals with trauma differently. She literally DIED and STILL gets misgendered. She owes them nothing. There are times when she appears unnecessary rude and defensive- which made me dislike her during my first read (internalized transphobia, self-hate, jealousy over her confidence, etc.):

‘Call me she? I’m gender fluid and transgender, idiot. Look it up if you need to, but it’s not my job to educate–’ ‘That’s not what I meant.’ ‘Oh, please. I saw your mouth hanging open.’

It's called 'defensive offence'. She assumed the worst based on her previous experiences, and decided to strike at Magnus. Despite of being unwilling and uncomfortable with this, till the rest of the story Alex's treated as a living dictionary because Magnus doesn't take time to look it up, and neither does Halfborn, TJ, or Mallory. Coming to her gender identity, Alex's her own prosecutor, judge, and defendant. Unfortunely, it comes out as a "trans person will eat you alive if you misgender them" trope.

Rick clearly didn't try to contact anyone to check his facts or look over imporant Alex's lines, as if he understood how it works. Maybe he 100% unironically listened to Alex (and thus his own advice, jokes aside) and looked it up himself, huh? Here's the comedy peak of his ignorance (Alex's pov in "9 from the Nine Worlds"). I'll never end cracking up over this:

Now I returned to my wheel. As I worked the slick spinning clay under my fingers, I felt myself undergo a subtle shift. I’d been identifying as male when I was with Mallory and Halfborn, and earlier, when I was with Samirah and her fiancé, Amir. Now I was female. And yes, the change really is that simple sometimes. Hence the term gender fluid. I was deep into my new pot when Jack suddenly leaped up from his stand. The runes running down his blade pulsed an alarming red. “Señor! Señor!” he cried. Then he paused as if looking at me. Again, hard to tell because of the whole no-eyes thing. Regardless, he picked up on my gender change. “Sorry. Señorita! Señorita!”

Now not only Magnus but also a talking sword can miraculously pick on Alex's gender without exchanging a word with her. "Undergoing a subtle change." ... WHAT. Can't say for other genderfluid folks but personally I've to be very self-focused and on time to be able to immediately tell something has changed (there were like two times in my entire life when I was hyper-aware when it happened (and it blew my mind). Most of the time it's a itchy feeling when I incorrectly gender verbs, and that's due to my native language) And you know what's wrong? Alex is treated as a trans representation, making it her main. character. trait. when canonically she's not comfortable with educating others, and does it out of necessity- as many trans people have to in real life, suffering from the pressure of a constant need to be prepared to defend their existence. Don't shame ppl for knowing their worth.

UPDATE: I said we don't know how Alex was treated outside of his home, where he was verbally and physically abused by his father. In fact, we get an idea of what it was like: that's what Magnus expects to see when he heals Alex. Last time, it was exactly what he saw as the most 'relevant' memory (showing how deeply hurt Alex was because of this, as a lot of time has passed since this). (Magnus remembers this, and 'gets' that Alex's been hurt and mistreated, which tbh tells a lot about his empathy.)

I steeled myself for more painful images. I was ready to face her awful father again, or see how badly Alex had been bullied at school, or how she’d been beaten up in the homeless shelters.

But what Magnus finds at the top of Alex's memories? Himself acting dorky. It's a hopeful moment, and leaves me with a thought maybe that's how Alex heals and makes peace with his past.

#mcga #rr crit #cw: transphobia #cw: child abuse #cw: rick riordan #that should be a tag #long post #magnus chase #riordanverse #the scene where alex tells others about her grandfather and tj cuts in to tell smth about the other trans person he knew #i hate when ppl do that #also her meeting with thor #alex fierro #rick YOU HAD ONE JOB why did you make FLUID a synonym to TRAITOR and then have a GENDERFLUID good™ character strive for approval #cw: victim blaming #transfemme alex fierro but that not the point #it kinda is because she suffers from the same treatment as many riordan's female characters #also samirah 'my sibling's gender is the least PROBLEM of mine' bruh

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

It's very sad knowing that I'm more passionate about Magnus Chase than RR ever was.

#/hj #mcga #rr crit #he really didn't care!! he didn't have a set plan going into it and he didn't care! #but I do. I care a lot. I've grown so attrached to these characters that their blood mixes with mine.

[narcissuscore-archive]

i can’t believe this has to be said but fans of color telling a 56 year old cishet white author with a net worth of $56 million that his representation is racist is not bullying. bullying is when people send hate to fans of color because they dared to speak out about racism, especially when the fans are minors or young adults

#mae.txt #mine #fandom crit #pjo fandom #rr crit #anti rr #fr guys you are talking to literal children #bullying #i’ll reblog this later when more people are active #1.5k #hall of fame

[jewishpercy]

why “ww2 was caused by the big three” is a shitty plotline!

tw for discussion of the holocaust, holocaust denial and antisemitism under the cut

i’ve mentioned before about why i think rick’s use of ww2 as lore in pjo is not great and i just wanted to talk about it in a bit more detail

i’m going to start with the implication that hitler is a child of hades

in the last olympian, hades says this to nico:

When you and your sister were young, it was a bad time to be children of Hades. World War II was brewing. A few of my, ah, other children were leading the losing side.

from this we learn that in the pjo universe, not only was world war 2 caused by conflicts between demigods, leaders of the axis powers were demigods. in rick’s universe, hitler, mussolini and hirohito (or at least one or two of them) were children of hades.

(of course, this also implies that roosevelt, stalin and churchill were demigods as well, which is weird on its own but whatever)

it’s almost explicitly confirmed that hitler is a son of hades (or pluto). when percy meets hades in the lightning theif:

The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.

when hazel meets pluto:

His tie was black with platinum stripes. His shirt was tombstone gray. His face—Hazel’s heart nearly leaped out of her throat. His skin was so white it looked almost blue, like cold milk. He had a flap of greasy black hair. His smile was kind enough, but his eyes were fiery and angry, full of mad power. Hazel had seen that look in the newsreels at the movie theater. This man looked like that awful Adolf Hitler. He had no mustache, but otherwise he could’ve been Hitler’s twin—or his father.’

right there! pluto “could’ve been hitler’s twin—or his father”. 

so what’s wrong with hitler being a son of hades?

well, i hope this is something you already understand, but here i go!

1. it legitimizes his evil. if hades is the god of the dead, it’s a logical step that his children be associated with death. 

2. it makes it seem like the holocaust was part of hitler’s “power” as a demigod— obscuring the fact that the holocaust was a meticulously premeditated genocide, and the fact that it was carried out by regular human beings

3. hitler was the absolute scum of the earth. literally evil incarnate. he was a violently antisemitic, racist and xenophobic war criminal and dictator who ordered the murder of 11 million human beings and who caused the deadliest war in history. his evil was on him. his life had nothing to do with greek mythology. 

now, you probably already understood that before i spelled it out, right? that’s because you’ve probably already learned about the holocaust, and you’re probably over the age of 12 or 13! however, percy jackson is a childrens/young adult series with a target audience of 8-12 year olds. i went to a private jewish day school and we were not formally introduced to the holocaust until the second half of third grade, when i was 9 years old (though me and most of my class already knew about it beforehand). if jewish day schools are not introducing the holocaust until third grade, when are public and non-jewish private schools introducing the subject? in my public school district, the holocaust is introduced in 7th or 8th grade, when kids are 13-14 years old. in some places the holocaust isn’t introduced until high school. 

fiction effects reality. if your first introduction to hitler comes through a fantasy book as a child, you’re going to look at hitler and the holocaust through a veil of disbelief. you’re going to be more susceptible to holocaust denial. the holocaust will be linked to greek mythology in your mind, at least for some period of time.

even beyond those issues, the holocaust was a tragedy. it killed 2/3 of the jews in europe (also 1/3 of all of the jewish people in the world) and 25-50% of europe’s rromani population. it has no place in a fantasy book like this. it’s so incredibly disrespectful to victims and survivors, to have their pain and suffering turned into some stupid plot point. it’s fucked up, really. and it hurts to read, as a jewish person. i remember reading these parts for the first time and having to put the book down because it was so disturbing to me. i have chunks of my family tree missing because of the holocaust. the towns my family called home for hundreds of years were burnt to the ground because of the holocaust. the holocaust almost completely wiped out the yiddish language. it had real, human consequences. it wasn’t caused by the greek gods, it was caused by human beings, and it’s disgusting to paint it as anything else.

#yeah im. Really Mad. #rr crit #holocaust tw #antisemitism tw #hitler ment #it's messed up that i have to put these triggers on a post on my pjo blogs #mine #jpjo

[buoyantsaturn]

for a former teacher, it's amazing to me how much Rick is against sending his characters to high school

#shouldnt you want to give kids thr best tools to succeed in life? 🤔 #its probably because he knew he wouldn't want to deal with those kids in his own classroom #and he didnt want to put another teacher through that. fictional or otherwise #mine #rr crit #idk if that really counts as rr crit or not but w.e #pjo

[annieisyourfavourite]

seeing people talking about wanting a lesbian clarisse for the pjo show 😶 who's gonna tell them rick hates lesbians

#mine #pjo #rr crit #I'm genuinely impressed w his statement in support of the annabeth actress #but like. u guys. the reyna & twitter stuff was NOT that long ago #saw someone say #'clarisse and silena were an achilles and patroclus paralell! #so why weren't they gay!' #like my friend. u know why #also it was the mid 2000s but like. also bc he doesn't like lesbians!! #like his lesbophobia is so hurtful it's gross and really intolerable for me

[zhangsfrank]

me: thinking book 5 jason is going to deal with death, the inevitability of the prophecy, being hera’s lynchpin, etc

richard riordan: does the equivalent of shoving a pair of glasses on my face but poking me in the eye instead

#nearsighted? NEARSIGHTED??? #I just can’t take it #jason grace #rr crit #or whatever #mine

[bunkernine]

I hate it here 🙂🙂🙂

(Also i wanna hear your thoughts cos you always have something interesting to say and something good to contribute)

(Also also sorry this is so random we're not even mutuals or anything but the toa fandom is back on their bullshit so yh jabbsjhs)

mmm yeah so, if someone wants to be pro-riordan, I'm not going to stop them. i don't really care what people do when it comes to that. it really just speaks to comprehension and empathy, but like, for the most part because it doesn't bother me and my mutuals, then i don't care.

the only thing that annoys me is when people trash others who are rr-crit... that's misguided energy, and you're yelling at some regular dude on the internet because you didn't read an entire post or try to understand where they're coming from. it slowly does become, 'why do you waste your energy protecting a man who is never going to see this'. in general, say what you want, but what do you gain from lashing back at your own fandom? those are the people i have little issue with responding to.

(the other thing that annoys me is when people judge [affected minority] for having their crit about [displayed rep of that]. like for instance, adhd kids talking about how none of the characters feel adhd (this isn't true, some of them do, but it's only like. 4 characters 😖). and then someone sees that post and goes 'well actually on page-' or 'k but i had a friend who had adhd so-' but since this isn't the problem here, i'm not getting into it.)

as for this post in particular, i kind of just shrug. i agree and disagree. i think there are some points where the rr-criticizing is a stretch, but it's rare and i also don't make a post about it because I don't really care. but i also think people should be allowed to be objectively angry about an aspect about the books they dislike. like, the books do not have feelings, and riordan probably does, but he's not reading this stuff and after years of crit, it doesn't seem like he even cares. in most rr-crits, there's a seed of truth.

anyway, that poster wants to support riordan? great, don't really care. i think it's funny they made a mission statement about it tho 💀 like that's so funny to me, i've been giggling everytime i scroll up. but idk. reacting too much to it proves their point, and frankly it doesn't at all affect me as someone who understands rr-crit's role in fandom.

tl;dr (not particularly about this post but in general) if you want to be pro-riordan, that's weird but don't laugh/yell/dismiss at rr-crit people.

#alexa-lettuce #😶 i know who posted that theyre like... an adult so its just funny how childish that seems but like its their tumblr not mine djdjdjdj #anyway i never articulated it but thats that #the adhd example was the best one for me to choose so i didnt have to bring up more debated topics 😩 cause its like too early on a sunday #for that #nvm its 1 pm 😭 #rr crit #asks #pro-riordan #also u can send asks 😭 it just so happens that the people who do are mutuals but this isnt a mutual only ask box 😭

[gecktonurite]

Rick writing about how Samirah al-Abbas doesn’t shower during Ramadan and how she’s been engaged since she was 12 years old:

#before yall come at me i am ACTUALLY muslim #pjo #mcga #samirah al abbas #rick riordan #magnus chase and the gods of asgard #mine #rr crit

[aerobicide]

white pjo fans be like: i can excuse racism but i draw the line at criticizing rick

#pjo #hoo #toa #percy jackson and the heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #pjoverse #riordanverse #pjato #rr crit #bellecesca #mine

[ididntwanttobeahalfblood]

Sorry, I only have room in my heart for Percy Jackson and all the Asian characters RR doesn’t treat well.

#percy jackson #pjo #hoo #rr crit #dis mine tho

[the-kiwi-is-not-a-pewee]

Emmy.

This is a callout post about discord user emmy, known for now as @eurydices-flower on tumblr, and her nasty behavior regarding her joining and then leaving a specific Riordanverse fan discord server. I don’t usually make callout posts but this needs to be addressed since she has vagueposted about my friends and been rude to them over DMs. I don’t believe she should be allowed to run around and make accusations, especially with people not able to find part of the story due to it being over private messages. So, with the permission of the friend whom she sent DMs to, I will outline her brief stay in the server and the aftermath.

It’s time you heard our side of the story.

Emmy (which is how I will be referring to her for the duration of this post), joined the Trials of Apollo (ToA) server on July 6th, 2020.

For the sake of chronicling how we know that she is also @eurydices-flower on tumblr, she says as much in her self-introduction in the #introduction channel of the server.

Emmy was in the server for less than 24 hours, before leaving voluntarily with seemingly no explanation. Naturally, we were confused and one of our own reached out to emmy on her tumblr blog to ask why she left. I blacked out the profile picture and url of my friend’s blog for the sake of their own privacy.

Let us go over this, piece by piece.

“yeah i’m alright i just realized constant negativity wasn’t rlly my game at the moment and i don’t necessarily have the headspace to ever deal with that.”

That is fair, she is encouraged to look after herself and her own mental state first. If she felt like leaving was the best course of action to take for the sake of herself, then she should not be judged for that. And it’d be perfectly fine if she left it at that! But, of course, I wouldn’t be making this post if she did.

“everyone’s entitled to be everyones own opinion but to bash other people you don’t even know for having opinions was too much for me to handle. a lot of those blogs are good friends of mine and it truly is disrespectful to harp on anyone for having different opinions but go around and spread negativity when others don’t agree with with that opinion.”

Regarding the first part, “everyone’s entitled to be everyones own opinion but to bash other people you don’t even know for having opinions was too much for me to handle”, there’s nothing wrong with this statement as it is on the surface-level. She is expressing that she personally does not want to partake in that particular kind of discourse. That is fine, she is not obligated to in any way, shape, or form. Though I do have a comment or three about the statement before we move on.

She could have muted the specific channel where that kind of discourse was taking place, which as far as I’m aware she never did. The ToA server has 2 specific channels for pjo discourse because members were uncomfortable with it being spread sporadically throughout the server, thus those two channels were made to contain discourse. If she was truly made uncomfortable by what she stated, she could have rectified that problem herself instead of leaving. But, after all, it was her choice to make in the end.

“but to bash other people you don’t even know for having opinions was too much for me to handle”Uh, welcome to tumblr Emmy? I don’t know if Emmy meticulously vets her tumblr experience so that she literally never encounters people bashing other people they don’t even know for their opinions, but it makes it a rather ironic statement considering tumblr’s reputation and that she has a tumblr blog. Heck, it’s not even unique to tumblr, it’s more of a social media thing. I can only postulate that maybe it made her more uncomfortable in a more confined and private space like a discord server, but I cannot be sure. Given she joined at the height of the Ace! Reyna discourse and the “opinions” she’s referring to are likely the aphobic rhetoric spouted by people who were astonishingly upset that Reyna was not a lesbian, I personally am rather uncomfortable that she dumbed it down as if it were merely “having an opinion” and not an attempt to invalidate ace representation in a mainstream media book series just because they were upset that they hadn’t gotten exactly what they wanted.

She retrospectively made herself a hypocrite. I’ll put a pin in this for now and we’ll come back to it.

“A lot of those blogs are good friends of mine and it truly is disrespectful to harp on anyone for having different opinions but go around and spread negativity when others don’t agree with that opinion.”

There’s quite a bit to unpack here just in this one sentence. First of all, no one in the server knew she was acquainted with any of the blogs we were discoursing about. She never stated such at any point prior to this point. We didn’t know, and thus we could not even consider accommodating her before she left in this regard.

I’ve already expressed my own views on her dumbing down people spouting aphobic rhetoric to them merely having “different opinions”, but the server was not “spreading negativity” unless you define “negativity” as calling out people for their aphobic rhetoric and frankly disrespectful treatment of Reyna as a character as a whole. It’s not as beautiful and simple as “others don’t agree with that opinion” when said opinion promotes aphobia and tries to claim that lesbian Reyna somehow cannot peacefully coexist with asexual Reyna.

“I mean no disrespect to anyone in that server when saying that or this but i just truly hope you all emotionally grow as people one day and learn to be more respectful <3 <3”

This… whole line has the basic energy of “No offense but *proceeds to say something offensive*”. Emmy basically went, “I mean no disrespect but *proceeds to say something disrespectful*”. It’s especially rude that she told us that she hopes we “all emotionally grow as people one day and learn to be more respectful <3 <3” when she was the one that came into the server in the first place. Furthermore none of us owe our respect to the people that got so mad over a fictional character not being exactly what they wanted that they have to belittle and attempt to downplay ace representation. It’s not Emmy’s place to tell us to “emotionally grow” and “learn to be more respectful”, especially when in the aftermath she doesn’t put her money where her mouth is.

“Blacked out user: Ah I see. If I may ask, what differing opinion were you being bashed for?

Emmy: not me personally but to see the rr crit circus chat (Note: one of the discourse channels) filled with other people doing it to people not even IN the chat was what bugged me”

Has emmy never been in a discord server with a discourse channel? This is a legitimate question, because this is not behavior unique to the ToA server. All of the servers I’ve seen with channels specifically for discourse have done this. This isn’t some kind of uniquely shitty thing that the ToA server does that we should be morally ashamed of, especially when something similar goes on with people on tumblr posting screenshots of tweets.

“but also when i entered and said i didn’t have opinions on litpollo or medea and i was immediately kinda made fun of for it didn’t make me feel good, as well as saying i was ace and ppl going “oMG the LESBOPhObIa. again i hope y’all just grow emotionally and mentally <3”

Here’s what happened (different colored bars mean different users):

Now, despite the fact that the “r u human” in response to Emmy saying she doesn’t ship litpollo and the “i bet u r not ace u r just LESBWEEN CODED” are jokes, I do understand why those statements made Emmy uncomfortable. Emmy was a newcomer and not acclimated to the sense of humor of the server and to basically shove her the butt end of it was not fair to her. The latter joke especially would be difficult to swallow if Emmy didn’t know that an inside joke of the server at the time was mocking the people who insisted that making Reyna ace was a lesophobic act on Rick’s part despite Trials of Apollo as a series having three lesbian major characters (Emmie, Jo, and Lavinia). 

In simple terms, I agree with my friend’s reply and the apology they gave on the server’s behalf. Emmy did deserve that apology. Doesn’t make the “i hope y’all just grow emotionally and mentally <3” any less rude or unwarranted though.

As far as any of us were aware, this was the end of it. Emmy was a bit rude but we had our closure and as far as any of us knew the ToA server and Emmy had parted ways. And then this happened.

This post has since been deleted by Emmy herself, but before it disappeared it was archived by myself and other friends reblogging to respond to it.

It doesn’t name myself or any of my friends directly, but since we were quite vocal about calling people out for their aphobia when Reyna was revealed to be ace, it is assumed we were the target of the post or are at least part of the group that is the target for the post. If it is indeed the former it seems Emmy is vagueposting about us. Even if it’s not specifically about us, it’s not a good look for Emmy. Let’s parse this apart.

“funny how the people yelling aphobia when it came to Reyna were dead silent today when Rick went on twitter and was blatantly racist and disrespectful”

There’s several reasons why people weren’t addressing Rick’s tweets that day. Some of us don’t use twitter/don’t follow Rick on twitter. Some of us don’t check the #rickriordan tag or other tags like it. Some of us have other main fandoms that are not pjo. Some of us don’t follow blogs that reblogged the tweets and the responses to the tweets, or hadn’t reblogged them yet. Some of us might want to first watch the responses to the tweets because we are not Cherokee, Muslim, or educated enough about those topics beforehand and not dig ourselves into a hole. Just saying, just because we didn’t give an immediate response doesn’t mean we didn’t care.

“funny how they only care about representation when it applies to them and them alone”

Does Emmy know that plenty of non-ace people were defending ace Reyna? If she wants an example, I’m a bisexual woman and I’ve been vocal in my defense of ace Reyna. So her logic that “they only cared when the rep applied to them and them alone” falls apart.

“funny how they only cared Reyna was ace because it gave them the opportunity to harrass the lesbians who were hurting”

I don’t condone harassment but calling them out for their aphobic behavior was not harassment. They couldn’t express their hurt without belittling asexual representation and lacking so much self-awareness that they couldn’t realize how aphobic they were being. I’m sorry that they don’t have my respect for that- actually, you know what, I’m not sorry for it. They literally chained themselves to the concept of Lesbian Reyna and would not accept anything else, that’s their own fault. Just because you’re hurt doesn’t give you the excuse to be an asshole to other LGBTQ+ people that did get representation.

"it’s almost,,, almost like you don’t actually care about these characters or color! that you just want the opportunity to clown and be bullies and abusive”

This is a very rich statement considering those “hurting lesbians” she referred to didn’t care about Reyna as a character. They only cared about Lesbian Reyna and nothing else. Some of them mixed up ace and aro showing stunning ignorance on the difference between asexuality and aromance. And now they’re playing victim because they got called out.

“if you want marginalized groups like asexuals to be represented, where’s your energy for pipers representation and characterization? samirah? where’d it go?”

Heroes of Olympus has been out for years. There have already been posts on tumblr before detailing the flaws in how Rick wrote Samirah and Piper, it’s not a new phenomenon. It just had a resurgence recently. Heroes of Olympus is old news so it’s not as fresh and hot as it was when it first came out so of course while discussions over the representation in it are still going on it has mostly calmed down until recently.

“i see you. i’m watching you. you said nothing. not a single word. not even a messy reblog of one (1) post about piper or sam. dead. Silence.”

Emmy gets a little creepy here and slightly stalkery. She doesn’t like us yet she’s watching our blogs? I guess the Blog Police is here. If you don’t reblog discourse posts about how Samirah and Piper were represented you’ll be arrested and pegged as a racist.

No one is obligated to reblog posts about Samirah and Piper. It’s not reflective of their feelings towards Piper and Sam. it’s THEIR blog and they are not obligated to reblog what others want them to. I hate to break it to Emmy but she can’t force people to reblog the stuff she wants to see.

“i don’t care if you think you ‘shouldn’t have a voice in this’ bc ur white or smth. there’s a difference between spreading posts about this terrible situation and trying to butt in with ‘i’m white but here’s my opinion’“

And here we finally circle back to the retroactive hypocrite point I put a pin in earlier. Here’s a refresher: “everyone’s entitled to be everyones own opinion but to bash other people you don’t even know for having opinions was too much for me to handle. a lot of those blogs are good friends of mine and it truly is disrespectful to harp on anyone for having different opinions but go around and spread negativity when others don’t agree with with that opinion.”

And yet she bashes people she doesn’t know and spreads negativity for… possibly having a different opinion than the ones going around right now or not interacting with it for their own personal reasons. Also not everyone who didn’t immediately jump on the Samirah/Piper rep analysis reblogs were white. Assuming people are white will eventually bite you on the ass.

After that post, she continued vagueposting on her own blog.

I seriously doubt she was sent an anonymous death threat because a friend of mine checked her account earlier that same morning she made that post and the Anon feature was turned off. Then, in the evening, she posted about having an Anonymous death threat sent to her without any proof. I’m not saying it’s not possible nor do I condone death threats, but I do have reason to disbelieve her.

IF she is still referring to her brief stay in the ToA server as that “scenario”, then she neglects to say that she did not tell anyone that she was uncomfortable until after she left. We are not mindreaders, we cannot tell when every single person we talk to is uncomfortable. So it can at least partially be held against you, Emmy, for a failure to communicate with us.

And finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

This DM was sent to a friend of mine, the same friend that reached out to Emmy following her departure from the ToA server. I can only assume that the post she is referring to is the one I covered earlier, prior to the “anon death threat” post. Let’s parse through this again.

“hi love! i noticed you unfollowed me around the time i made my post calling you and other’s silence on piper and samirahs blatant mistreatment today.”

Wow, you know what, scratch what I said earlier about assuming that the post was directed at me and my friends, Emmy basically confirmed it from her own mouth. Nice to get the ambiguity out of the way right off the bat. Also she’s seriously DMing my friend just because they unfollowed her? And assuming it was because of the post? She can’t definitively connect the two dots but if that was indeed the reason my friend unfollowed her I certainly can’t blame them. Especially given that this was Emmy’s response.

“i hope you realize you’re blatantly racist and just all around a terrible person for harping on the wlw community for being upset about their bad representationk because you had ace representation but don’t use the same energy for the people hurting that they don’t have native or muslim representation.”

It’s spelled “representation”, Emmy. Also the pjo wlw community was upset that REYNA was NOT a LESBIAN, not that they had bad representation. That was their whole salt. As a wlw myself, being upset about bad representation doesn’t give you an excuse to put down ace representation which a lot of them were doing. They have THREE lesbian characters in Rick’s books so far.

Also I thought the issue Emmy took with us was that we weren’t reblogging posts breaking down Rick’s tweets or pointing out the flaws in Samirah and Piper’s portrayal in the books. And now she’s talking about posting about people hurting because they don’t have Native American or Muslim representation? Which is it Emmy, you are sending mixed signals.

“i hope you educate yourself and realize you and the entire community that kept their silence are truly acting terrible right now. thank you.”

This is… extremely rich coming from the asexual who implied she has aphobic friends. I hope she educates her friends and realizes her and the entire community who bashed the choice to make Reyna asexual are truly acting terrible right now. Though given how she put the wlw on a pedestal and turned a blind eye to how aphobic they were acting I don’t have hope. The hypocrisy when she says that my friend is “truly acting terrible right now” when my friend dared to just unfollow her.

And that is how I will close this. She is still posting about the server on her own blog but that is everything major that has happened so far. On behalf of my friend, don’t harass emmy or send her death threats. I may not respect her, but I certainly don’t condone harassment or death threats. 

She is only 15, according to her own blog, but it does not excuse her behavior towards my friends. Being a minor doesn’t exclude you from being a shitty person.

#pjo #percy jackson #rick riordan #rickriordan #discourse #emmy discourse #callout