#I've been reading the lightning thief at school

[wanderingmind867]

I get why Annabeth didn't want to go on the thrill ride of love with Percy. Although Percy complains she's just making things complicated, she's really not. I'd have the same problem. Not everybody can live care free and not worry about being judged by others. I get why she didn't want to do it, is what I'm saying.

#I've been reading the lightning thief at school #And I've been making these notes #I guess so I remember what I thought as I read #So I'm sharing them here #i have some others I plan on writing too #but I haven't gotten to them yet #percy jackson #rick riordan #pjo #riordanverse #pjo hoo toa #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson series #annabeth chase #asd #autism #neurodivergent #autistic #adhd

[jq37]

Over the summer I was the artist in residence at a summer camp and every night we had a big night game. Wizard capture the flag or Vampires vs. Werewolves--Whatever the activities director came up with that day.

One day the activity was Greek Mythology murder mystery. All the counselors were gods or heroes and Achilles was the victim, killed by an arrow to the chest. The cause of death hadn't been announced for 2 seconds before kids started yelling, "That's wrong! Achilles can only be killed by his heel!" Not just the teens. Elementary school kids too. I'd read the game doc before and knew that was supposed to be the mid-game twist and they got there in seconds.

These kids were exactly the target audience for the Percy Jackson show and so tapped into all the lore. Like, I saw a ten year old walk by me and say to her friends, "OK, if Achilles is here, where's Patroclus?" I was a total Greek Mythology nerd at that age pre the series existing and I don't even think I knew who Patroclus was.

Anyway, my point to all this is there are several moments in this new adaptation where a character calls out a trap before they walk into it (like the Medusa's lair or the Lotus Casino) whereas in the book they just kinda walk in even though it seems like they should be a little more genre savvy. I don't think any of these characters are infallible/impossible to trick (even ones like Annabeth who are super smart) but I really get the sense that Rick and the writers were writing with kids like the ones at that camp in mind. Kids who would watch kids walk into an obvious Greek Mythology trap and think ok well I've read the Oddesey, so why haven't they? When Rick wrote the books it was a pre Percy Jackson world. But even my brother who hates to read at least read The Lightning Thief. I feel like they felt that if my brother was savvy to Medusa, they couldn't credibly claim that Annabeth who's been immersed in the culture since she was in single digits wouldn't also be on top of things. There's a sense of almost...audience management if that makes sense.

#percy jackson spoilers #percy jackson #pjo tv spoilers #pjo tv series #pjo tv show #pjo tv #spoilers #(meanwhile one of the campers who was playing demeter nudged me mid game to ask me what dionysus was the god of. it was so funny) #anyway this is a neutral observation #this has been my ted talk #in case you're curious the actual cause of death was snake bite to the heel #and aphodite did it for reasons i can't currently recall

[nerdyvocals]

9 People to Know Better (except I'm not tagging 9 people)

I don't normally do tag games, but I got tagged in this twice (by @jealous-kippen and @remmixx, my beloveds <3) so here I am! (also as I'm writing this out I am realizing that while both posts were titled the same way, it looks like they had different question prompts??? So I'm just gonna combine the two)

Favorite Color: Purple! Any shade will have my heart but I am partial to more red-toned purples. (PV, if that means anything to anyone who sees this other than me, you know who you are)

Currently Reading: Three things! In terms of actual books, I've been slowly making my way through the Riordanverse since my university did The Lightning Thief in my second year (first school in my state to do it once the rights were released!) since I somehow never got into Percy Jackson as a kid, and I'm currently on Son of Neptune. I'm also one like my third or fourth re-read of Eurydice by Sara Ruhl, since that's the play I'm designing the costumes for for my senior project. And in terms of fanfic, I woke up to a notification about this yesterday and Actually Screeched.

Last Song: Dial Drunk by Noah Kahan (ft. Post Malone), which was a bit of an accident. I use siri to request music while I'm driving and I asked for Dial Drunk and was singing along until I got jumpscared by the slight difference before Post Malone's verse. Although if you look at my spotify, the ROTPL album has been on repeat for weeks.

Currently Watching (Series): I've been hyperfixated on ROTPL and have watched it over a dozen times at this point, which is probably not healthy, so I put on NCIS last night for background noise while I ate dinner and accidentally watched like six episodes.

Currently Watching (Movie): Saw the Barbie movie the night before the actual opening with my coworkers (We don't cross picket lines people! I was not asked nor invited by any company, and I paid full price for my ticket. There's a one-screen theatre in the town where I'm doing summer stock, this relic from the 50's, and they were able to get access to the film a day early and did a special first come first serve premiere.) and we all sobbed the entire way through.

Current Obsession: Rise of the Pink Ladies. Full stop. I'd seen clips of it when it first aired in April but I was iffy on it in spite of how good it looked. Like most, I'm a little tired of reboots and remakes, and while I did clock Cynthia as being queer within two seconds, (I believe my exact words were "That's either a very butch lesbian or the eggiest egg to ever egg.") I was Convinced it was a queerbait situation. Plus I was nearing finals and didn't have time to get into a new show. But then Crushing Me was trending on tiktok and I realized this was not queerbait, so I put it on to have something playing while I packed for summer stock and it's been the only thing I can think about since mid May. It got me writing fanfic again for the first time in years, if that tells you anything. Speaking of,

Currently Working On: A follow-up to my previous fic, Steady, Steady! I wanted to have it up this week, but it is a behemoth. I'm a little over halfway through my plot outline and I'm at 10,441 words. Fun fact, this will be my longest single-chapter fic so far. Not just in the fandom, not just on AO3, but ever (so far!)

No-Pressure Tagging: @merely-a-player, @penguin-writes-books, @el-fandom-birb, @marley-barnes112, @isweartheyregayyourhonor, and @look-at-those-niceass-rocks (since I've already dragged you back to tumblr kicking and screaming)

#tag game #this was fun #and also longer than I expected

[corruptioncrow]

⚠️ Percy Jackson Lightning Thief spoilers ⚠️

Ok I want to preface this by saying that I'm loving the Percy Jackson tv adaptation thus far, I've been a fan for years and I love seeing the story getting the appreciation it deserves. I think they've done an amazing job with it.

But I think we lost what Gabe meant as a Character.

I've always appreciated that part of the story and the "lesson" it taught. Gabe's character was abusive and horrible and his death was essential plot-wise in proving two points. 1 Percy couldn't fix everything for Sally and he had to trust her to handle herself, and 2 not everyone deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is not always what's best for the people involved in a situation. Gabe's end in the Lightning thief was symbolic of the Jackson's taking their lives back into their own hands and standing strong against the wills that pushed to control them.

Now on to why I think we lost this in the show. Gabe seems like a normal dude, he and Sally's fights seem like normal unhappy couple bickering and I can't see him having the same impact on the plot as the book version did. I know this isn't the most essential part of the story in any way, but it's something that I remember valuing in the book when I first read it in middle school.

#rant post #percy jackon and the olympians #the lightning thief #percy jackson series #percy jackson show #pjo series #pjo #pjo fandom

[soaps-mohawk]

What got you into writing!?

I think it was just a way to get the thoughts and ideas out of my head so I wouldn't forget them.

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Literally since childhood. I remember in 6th grade planning out this whole long fantasy book series that I was going to write. (It was super dumb but I was eleven years old so 🤷) That was the same year that I started writing my own fanfiction. We read The Lightning Thief in class and my teacher had us for our final assignment write ourselves as campers and pick which cabin we'd be in and write out a little scenario with us interacting with the characters and such. That sort of opened the door to the thought of maybe I could write fanfic. (I'd been reading it for quite a while before that point. I know shame on me lol.) My first fanfic was a PJO fanfic, and it was bad, as most of my early fanfics were.

I was always a big reader, my parents were big into reading and I learned really early how to read and write and those were always my strongest skills in school. I've just always enjoyed writing and I loved it when we were assigned creative writing assignments in class and eventually it just grew into a full time hobby and then a sort of release for all of the things that I get pent up in my head. I put a lot of emotions into my stories because that's how I process my own emotions and things that are happening to me in real life. There's been times where I didn't write much (most of which while I was in college because eww why does school take so much time and energy) and periods where the writers block and inspiration was really low. It always comes back, though. So I'll just keep writing until it doesn't. 💚

#this was probably way longer than you expected but oh well #i'm a little delirious so sorry if this makes no sense #answered

[thegapbetweenmoments]

New Muse Ideas!

So here is my consistent conundrum: I like writing things with what I like to refer to as notable supernatural elements. This could be a vampire character (Alicia), a necromancer (Diana and kind of Belle), a time mage (Tom), etc.

The problem with this is twofold. One issue is simply that many people aren't super interested in fantasy based things, which is 100% fair and fine, and why most of the time I just write without the supernatural bits unless otherwise specified.

The other is that even when people do want to write supernatural-ish things, sometimes the vibes don't line up with whatever it is that I made for my characters, which is why it takes a while for new characters to be made even at times like this when I'm relatively active.

SO!

Below is a list of character ideas I've come up with that I'm currently considering. If you see any on the list and go "Ooh! That sounds cool!", please let me know, because that kind of input is super helpful for this process. Doesn't matter if you're a mutual, nonmutual, never interacted before, etc (though more weight will be given to mutuals/people who've interacted before). Just drop a little response and that will give more weight to the idea. Once one or two have been figured out, I'm going to make a new post about FCs, because tbh I suck at picking those, but that is a thought for later!

The list of thoughts (under read more so that I don't take up the whole dash):

Half-devil lawyer (Honestly, this is a character I actually did use for one thread and I enjoyed a lot. I may make this one even if people don't want him, but weight and priority will likely be given to things people actually want. I've always enjoyed devil contracts as plot devices, and he might be just a smidge lawful evil)

Freed djinn nurse (General concept is that she has pretty significant powers that only work if she uses them in response to a wish. She wouldn't have to respond to every wish, and like more nefarious djinn she'd probably try to use the wording of wishes in order to bend things to work how she wants, even though she as a person is not trying to harm anyone. Job as a nurse is essentially so that she can hear wishes that are inherently more benevolent and grant or bend those to do good things)

Rune mage tattoo artist (Essentially, the thought behind this is a guy who can write a long, complicated series of glyphs as a sort of magical sentence on something and activate it to give whatever it's written on an effect. Take this to its logical conclusion and with enough time, this can be used to give magical tattoos to people that give them some type of ability or effect)

Air mage pilot (I mean the usefulness of the power is kind of obvious, but also I think she'd likely own a smaller plane of her own and generally be a bit more chaotic/daring than most of my girls on here, which is a lot of the fun behind this idea for me personally)

Blood Mage Butcher (I like when characters have these powers with crazy amounts of evil potential, who then use them for completely mundane, neutral-to-good aligned things. I think this guy is just passionate about meat and grilling. Probably early to mid thirties with wholesome dad vibes. Maybe not the route most people would go for characters they want to write with, but certainly one I find amusing)

Lightning Mage Art Thief (I'm thinking she shorts out cameras and security fixtures, then just walks up to an expensive piece art and swaps it with a replica, possibly with a nearly invisible hidden signature. Some real heist movie bullshit. Then, she goes back to some incredibly mundane or wholesome day job. Maybe an elementary school art teacher who steals to buy art supplies for class)

#OC ideas #open rp #feel free to let me know! #Thank you in advance for any input offered

[sunnytastic-and-the-olympians]

Wooohooo!!! I just finished The Sea of Monsters!!!

Man, this book is such a fun read. I love, love, love that the plot had Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson traveling through water because it really gave Percy's nautical powers a chance to shine. None of the other books return to the sea as much as The Sea of Monsters does, which makes sense for the over-arching plots, but it is a bit of a loss. Placing the Son of the Sea God in a Sea of Monsters really just is the perfect setting and it makes for a really fun plot.

Reading The Sea of Monsters is definitely the most fun I've had with reading in a long time. The last time I felt this excited to read was a couple of months ago when I reread Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by oldpotatoe on AO3 (it is an absolute banger of a fanfiction. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially Zukka fans, but truly, it's good enough for anyone to enjoy). Before that, I hadn't picked up a book in months.

But now? I feel so excited to keep reading that it's taking everything in me to not immediately dive into The Titan's Curse. But alas, I have school and responsibilities, etc. (Blah, adulthood is the worst. Please transport me back to the time when I was so eager to read, that I would constantly get in trouble for reading in class).

But the important thing is, my love for reading has returned. Reading is pure magic. There are words on paper that transport you to a different realm where there are rainbow fish-horses who can talk, sirens waiting to tempt you to your doom, and a magical golden fleece powerful enough to bring a girl back from the dead.

I realized in my blog post about The Lightning Thief, that I didn't mention Luke. While this was just forgetfulness on my part (I was writing it at 5 am. This time I am writing it at the very reasonable time of 11 pm), I'm actually glad I didn't write about him because Luke has a much more active role in The Sea of Monsters.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Luke is the definition of a sympathetic villain. Every time he's in a scene, I can feel the hurt radiating off of him, and I understand how he was so easily manipulated by Kronos. The Olympians have done nothing but torment Luke. How can he be expected to resist the temptation to replace the Olympians with a new reigning power- one Luke has been misled to believe will be fair?

I suppose this is where the hero aspect comes in: Percy has every reason to hate the Olympians as much as Luke- Hades held his mother captive as bait, Ares tricked him into possessing Zeus' Lightning Bolt, Poseidon fails to show up for him- but Percy stands strong against Kronos' evil anyways.

However, Percy's automatic refusal to consider if the Olympians are worth fighting for is naive, and it fails him as a protagonist until The Last Olympian. If I remember correctly, Percy doesn't truly understand Luke's perspective until the final battle, but when he finally does, he is so moved by it, that he finishes advocating for Luke's cause when he demands the gods take responsibility for claiming their children.

The reason Percy is unwilling to consider Luke's point of view is because of Luke's betrayal, and yet without Luke's betrayal, there wouldn't be a serious point of view to consider. Though, this is where I am going to end my discussion on Percy and his relationship with betrayal. I have decided I will analyze it after The Last Olympian, and then again after The Mark of Athena, specifically so I can talk about Nico's betrayal because I believe Percy's interactions with Nico afterward provide the best material for understanding Percy and his attitude towards betrayal.

Oh, and speaking of Nico, I miss him so goddamn much. I didn't notice in The Lightning Thief, probably because the story focuses so much on world-building rather than character development, but I did notice Nico's absence in The Sea of Monsters. Perhaps it is my affection for him (he was the first character who made me feel like it was okay to be queer), but the Percy Jackson World feels a little incomplete without its gay brooding anti-hero. The good news is he shows up in the next book, The Titan's Curse!

Speaking of side characters, Annabeth is a much more fleshed-out character in The Sea of Monsters as compared to The Lightning Thief. In particular, I think the Siren's Bay scene is a major turning point for her character. She now has her own motivations, beyond just wanting to do good and help Percy, and the audience learns about her fatal flaw. She feels real, not just a prop to help Percy on his adventures. I'm very excited to see her character continue to grow and develop.

Another side character I really liked is Clarisse. I will always empathize with a character who is pressured by her parents to succeed at all costs. It was very satisfying to see her get her hero's ending.

Ok, I definitely think this counts as a blog post about The Sea of Monsters, even if there was a fair bit of future The Last Olympian analysis too. I'm excited to continue my adventure of reading the Riordanverse. The Titan's Curse is next!!

As always, TLDR: The Sea of Monsters is fun, Percy and Luke are narrative foils, and Annabeth and Clarisse have great character development.

Oh, and in case anyone is interested, this post is about 950 words. Brain zoomies will have you doing the silliest things sometimes.

Links to the other posts in the Isa Rereads Percy Jackson series:

The Lightning Thief

The Titan's Curse

#percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #the sea of monsters #isa rereads percy jackson

[girlwithherheadinthestars]

OK PJO FANDOM I NEED HELP

i need you guys to tell me if i'm crazy or not.

see when i was a kid i read the lightning thief and i have this really clear memory of this one part right before capture the flag where it's like describing the different groups and what they're doing and it says something like the aphrodite kids were by the lake sunbathing or flirting or something and the hades kids are sulking. now i know that sounds crazy because there were no hades kids at camp. but i swear to god i saw it.

i've been so bothered i literally went to the lower school's library to find the book there (it's the old edition that's like silver with a letter from chiron on the back) but then i saw that they got the new edition and that line wasn't there. obvi uncle rick could have corrected it in a newer version.

but i need to know i'm not crazy does anybody else remember seeing that in the old version 😭

#help #the need is great #dire situation #pjo #pjo fandom assemble #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #bookblr

[ghost-in-cyberspace]

Percy Jackson and The Olympian's Season 1 vs The Lightning Thief.

Hi everyone,

I'm back again and planning on doing regular blog posts.

Now, since I've read a lot of Rick Riodran's books, I've decided to start my regular blog posting spree again, by doing a comparison to the TV series vs the books, whilst hoping that the books are better than the tripe that they called movies. And the Olympians and Nine Muses must have heard my prayers.

Now beware spoilers and a very long blog posts. In fact I might be finding out if Tumblr has a character limit.

Now I'm not going to go into too big a deal over character looks. This is more about comparing story events and characterization etc.

Series wide there's 3 things.

Percy's knowledge of myths: Now this one isn't too surprising nor is it unwelcome. In the books, Percy wasn't too knowledgeable about the Greek Myths he's end up fighting. Most of the time it's Annabeth or Grover etc, who explains things to him. The most he knew was about Perseus (his name sake).

Grover's abilities to smell monsters, and empathy: This one made less sense to me to cut out. Satyrs are sent out to gather demigods, cos like monsters they can smell them. And Grover seems to be the best out of all the Satyrs at doing just that. Some spoilers for Book 3, but he finds a couple more powerful demigods there. But Satyrs can also smell monsters in the books, unless they're underground (Underground air smells like Monsters). Satyrs are also capable of detecting emotions. In fact their psychic empathy talents play a big role in Book 2 Sea of Monsters.

Demigods understanding Ancient Greek: Again another alteration that doesn't make too much sense to me. But Greek Demigods have dyslexia because their brains are hard wired to understand Ancient Greek, but in the TV series that hasn't been mentioned yet. (Fun fact but the reason Rick Riodran wrote them like that was because his son was diagnosed with the double whammy of ADHD and dyslexia as well. Knowing his son would have a difficult time learning to read, Mr Riodran read to him Classical Myths to help him learn. When he ran out of stories, his son encouraged him to make up his own, and Mr Riodran gave them those 2 learning differences so they'd be like his son).

Now I don't seem to have hit a limit yet, so lets continue on to the episodes:

Episode 1: I Accidently Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher

Chapters adapted:

I accidently Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting.

BTW guys I'm British. If I typed Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants trust me, that would raise my eyebrows.

So the first episode is based on the first 4 chapters. Which more or less introduces Percy, and therefore you to the whacky magical world he's part of.

Now the sequence of events for both are:

Percy ends up vaporising his teacher, Mrs Dodds, aka the Fury (Or Kindly One) Alecto. He gets kicked out of his latest school, Yancy Academy. He goes back home. Goes to the beach cabin, in Montauk Long Island, NY with his Mum. Where during a storm, Grover shows up in full Satyr form and then the Minotaur shows up and chases the three of them, first in the car, then on foot when a lightning bolt blasts the car causing them to crash. Sally Jackson sacrifices herself trying to distract the Minotaur. And Percy kills it with it's own horn.

Some of the differences are:

Percy playing with Mythomagic cards. Okay I added this for laughs as in the books, Percy never played it. That was the obsession of Nico Di Angelo whose introduced in Book 3: The Titan's Curse. Though I do like that during that scene they kept the fact that Percy hates bullies with how he tried to go after some that messed with Grover. (Percy always was unpopular in schools as he befriends the outcasts).

Percy's other expulsions and odd things in childhood, which I assumed they left out for pacing, but Percy has been kicked out of every school he's ever been in. Yancy was his 6th school in as many years. Usually he got kicked out after something strange happens during a school trip, hence his nerves for the Yancy trip to the museum. Highlights from the books include: Some how blowing up his school bus with a civil war cannon, hitting the wrong lever on a catwalk, so his class got dunked into the shark tank during a visit to an aquarium. Strangling a snake in his cot at nursery, and a cyclops stalking him on a playground.

Also Percy got to keep his sword, Anaklusmos (Ancient Greek for Riptide) a lot sooner, and also isn't named in the TV series. In the TV series he was given the pen after his pencil breaks in the museum. Another side note, I love how they showed his dyslexia there, and he kept it since. But in the books, he was thrown the sword during Mrs Dodd's attack, and Chiron reclaimed it afterwards. He wouldn't give the sword properly and permanently until Percy goes on his quest.

Mrs Dodds attack is a bit different in the show as well, as she just straight up pounces Percy as soon as he accidently uses his hydrokinetic powers to pull a bully, Nancy Bobfit into the nearby fountain after taunting him telepathically (something that monsters seem able to do here). But in the books, after she witnessed it, she lures him into the museum first. Also there's no telepathy, but she just demands that Percy returns what he stolen. Percy, who of course nicked nothing and knows nothings, is confused and then terrified when Mrs Dodds' attacked, and then Chiron throws him the sword.

Also the attack happened during the spring time in the books. And was actually the start of a difficult time for Percy in school, as Chiron had tried to fool him with the Mist, like the other mortals, but Percy had started to awaken to his heritage, and could remember it. He might have accepted the fact he was hallucinating except for the fact that Grover is a terrible liar, and would flinch whenever Mrs Dodds is brought up. So Percy started picking fights and acting out in class in the books, out of the stress and fear of that incident until the headmaster expelled him near the end of term. In the tv series, it was just for shoving Nancy into the fountain, which Grover stitched him up for, so he'd get sent to Camp Half-Blood before the attacks get worse.

So the three old ladies knitting the socks of death straight up don't show up here. They show up in a later episode. But here, that's one of the reasons that Percy ditched Grover in the books. As the two of them, on the bus ride back to Manhatten, spot the Three Fates themselves. Percy, of course, doesn't know what that means, but Grover does and freaks out when Percy witnesses the Fates or Moirai (specifically Atropos) cut the thread of life. The reason for Grover freaking out is because what Percy just witnessed was an omen of death. But Grover's freaking out meant that Percy ditched him at the bus station to go home alone. Which led to the following events.

So coming home, not much difference there, except Smelly Gabe is definitely unemployed and earns through online gambling, instead of being a manager of an electronics store and not going to work. Also Sally Jackson is more explicit in standing up to him. In the books although she's still stubborn (she does keep her maiden name in both) but she charms and persuades Smelly Gabe.

Not much changes about the Minotaur attack. The storm in the books arrives in the night as a freak hurricane, which was mentioned a few times as a series of odd weather phenomena that mortals noticed but was due to the fighting between Zeus and Poseidon. And Sally wasn't planning on sending Percy to Camp Half-Blood just yet, she was considering whether or not to try another boarding school as sending Percy to camp might mean she'll never see him again. In the TV series, she obviously was and Grover's arrival was a surprise to her as he came EARLY. But other than that the chase sequence plays out the same until the crash, as Grover was knocked out in the books. So he got to witness the fight, first between Sally and the Minotaur, and then Percy killing it. But in the books, Percy didn't have a weapon. The storm had boosted his strength so he could break the horn straight off, and use it to stab the monster. In the TV series he uses the sword first, then the horn. Finally in the aftermath in the books, Percy dragged the unconscious Grover to the Big House in camp. In the TV series, the campers came out to find him and Grover collapsed on the ground.

I hope you all enjoyed this Blog Post. I'll cover the other episodes soon.

#the lightning thief #books vs show #percy jackson tv show

[creative-hanyou-girl]

My PJO Story: 10+ Years in the Making

It's so crazy to think that we are less than 2 days away from the Percy Jackson premiere. I've been waiting for this series for 2 years from the second I heard about it. If I'm being honest, it was only some months ago that I actually finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for the 1st time before moving on to HOO. Yet, even before then, I've been reading The Lightning Thief book over and over again since I was 11 or 12.

When I was younger, it was the movies (ugh, I know) that convinced me to read the Percy Jackson books. I had already seen them around school in the library and around my peers, but I personally felt no urge to pick the books up myself. I was DEEP in my Warrior Cats obsession at that point and believed no other book series could top it for me. But then we watched the Peter Johnson movies in class, and I'll be honest, I ended up really liking them. I know, I know. They are awful adaptations and still not the greatest stand-alone movies either, but I enjoyed them at that age since I hadn't read the books and knew Jack-shit about real Greek mythology at the time. And even now, while I'm no longer blind to how bad those movies are, there are still a few visuals from the 1st movie that still stand out in my mind to this day, like Percy's water trident.

But the greatest thing the movies did for me, and the reason I have to give them the obligatory 1 ⭐star, is that they finally convinced me to pick up The Lightning Thief and give this series, that was all the rage amongst my friends and peers, a chance. My mom got me the entire boxset for Christmas that year, and I got to reading. And I fell in love! I was blown away by the humor and fun I had reading The Lightning Thief. And it felt amazing to see a main character have a disability and use it as their superpower. I don't have ADHD or dyslexia, but I did have a stroke as a baby which affected me physically AND mentally, so in some ways, I could still relate to what Percy and other characters in the book were going through, at least a little bit.

Once I finished TLT, I was eager to start on The Sea of Monsters, and I even started reading into that book, too. But in a bizarre twist, the 2nd book disappeared one day from my nightstand. I looked EVERYWHERE for it, but I never found my copy of the 2nd book. I was so upset and embarrassed that I lost it, and I was worried to tell my parents for fear they'd think I was irresponsible for losing a book, so I just....didn't. And because I was convinced that I could still find my personal copy of the Sea of Monsters, I refused to check out a copy from my school library. And so because of my embarrassment and stubbornness, I would not continue the rest of the PJO series for years to come.

But that didn't stop me from rereading The Lighting Thief periodically throughout my teenage years going into adulthood. I read it for enjoyment, to refresh myself on the story and what happens in it, and especially when we'd go on vacation to the beach since, you know, it's the perfect summer beach read. This is just my opinion, but while TLT did set up groundwork for SOM, it could also be read as a stand-alone book, too. And for years, that's how I treated The Lighting Thief. I always planned on buying a new copy of The Sea of Monsters as well, but stuff would happen and I just wouldn't get it for one reason or another. And to be honest, I think part of it was a sentimentality thing with me. I was so sentimental about The Lightning Thief since it was the only book from PJO that I read fully, that part of me was worried about the other books overshadowing it.

So for years, that's how it went. Until, in late 2021, I found out that Percy Jackson was being made into a TV show. And my mind was blown; I DID NOT expect a book series that was close to 15 years old and after 2 failed movies to get a TV show made after it. In fact, I thought it was a joke at first or that there were people trolling the series on the internet. But then when I looked more into it, and especially when I saw that the author, Rick Riordan himself, was heavily involved in the project, the reality of this news finally started to sink in.

And I was ecstatic!

But it also gave me the reminder that I had yet to read the rest of the series past The Lightning Thief, and I wanted to go into the TV show having read the books beforehand. And so, after literal years of not telling them, and because it was right around Christmas and my mom was practically begging me to tell her what I wanted that year (I usually don't want much for Christmas), I told her I wanted Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters for Christmas that year.

And I finally got it.

But because life happens, I wasn't able to actually start my planned binge reading of the Percy Jackson series until this past spring going into summer of this year, 2023. But once I had a free couple days to spare, I finally sat down and read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for the 1st time, starting with exactly the same old copy of The Lightning Thief I've had and loved since the age of 11 or 12.

And it was AMAZING!

This series truly is something else, and it's no wonder its maintained its popularity throughout the years. Its funny, sweet, action-packed, crazy, and just all around fun to read with lovable characters. It's one of my absolute favorite book series of all time and I'm so excited about the show dropping in less than 2 days now.

But it's the fact that we will be seeing the 1st book specifically, The Lighting Thief, come to life lovingly and faithfully first, that has me the most excited. For so long, this was the 1 book in the series that I read. It was the 1 book in the series that always stayed with me when I couldn't continue reading past it. It was the book that introduced me, and many others, to all these amazing characters and the world of Gods and Goddesses.

So while it is true that the later books in PJO are objectively better, it will always be The Lighting Thief specifically that will always have a special place in my heart. And I am thrilled that this first book of Percy Jackson (and hopefully the later books) is FINALLY getting the adaptation it deserves, and that I'll get to revisit the 1 book that has been with me since childhood in a new light!

Long Live Percy Jackson!

(Also yes, I made that bookmark)

#now on to rereading TLT tonight and tomorrow so the plot is fresh in my mind once again!!!! #this book means so much to me #the whole means so much to me but especially this 1st book #also can you tell that this copy of TLT is old? #I wasn't kidding when I said I still have the same old copy of TLT I got when I was 11/12 #I've given it lots of love. but I think its still in good condition all things considered #the other books from the same set as this TLT copy are not nearly this worn down. #that's what happens when you don't read or even touch the other books for over a decade bc you lost the 2nd book #they're be worn down in time now that I've got the SOM don't worry #I actually also have hardcover versions of the PJO series coming in a few days for when my paperback set gets too old and worn down #and they have the OG 1st edition covers too since I love those covers #reminds me of old style fantasy book covers that had that grainy but mysterious water color painting-escue look to them #but I still love the book covers for my current bookset. i love that they all match #my PJO origin story #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #percy jackson books #percy jackson tv show #The Lighting Thief #percy jackson book 1 #percy jackson series #rick riordan

[thecasualauthor]

When you get this, reply with your 5 favourite fics that you've written. Then pass it on to five other writers. Spread some self love.

Oh gosh okay here goes. Thanks for the tag @celestemagnoliathewriter !! This was a bit hard, but I think I've picked a few good ones!

1. Nine Hands

I love this one. It's a story that I wrote for the Ladies of Harry Potter fest back in May. Molly Weasley has always been a beloved character for me, and I wanted to examine her mindset during the second wizarding war. This story is about her clock with nine hands that shows her where her children are and how they are doing.

Here's a little snippet:

"Nine hands.

Count them, she thinks. One, two, three, four…

Nine hands on the face of the clock, each one representing a member of Molly Weasley’s family, each one pointing in the same direction, showing they were all at the same place. Words written in lovely cursive that read, mortal peril. There were a number of other destinations, of course, such as home or school, or even prison, but given these times– well. It only made sense for them to be pointing towards mortal peril."

(There is a worse option for what can happen to one of the hands, but she doesn’t dare consider that possibility.)

2. I will follow you (into the dark)

This one was fun to write! It's a short-ish fic about Percy and Annabeth taking place during The Mark of Athena, before Annabeth is to go on her solo quest. I wanted to write a scene where we could truly see Percy's love and devotion to Annabeth, and this was the result! Here's a small little sneak peek:

"I'll follow you. Anywhere."

Percy's words are barely a murmur into Annabeth's lips, and they make her throat catch. She squeezes her eyes tighter, willing herself not to cry. Because she knows it. He would follow her to the end of the earth if she were to ask him.

"I know," She says, failing to keep her tone even. "I know."

"So let me," Percy says in a pleading voice. "I don't care if it's dangerous, Annabeth. Please. I don't want you to have to face it alone."

3. When No One Else Was

Ah ha this one is one of my pride and joys. I came up with the idea back in 2020 but didn't write it until last year. It's a story about Remus Lupin after the encounter with Harry at Grimmauld Place in DH. He's quite literally visited by a ghost from his past. Here's a little bit of the story:

Remus froze in his tracks.

He had made sure, absolutely sure that no one had followed him. He'd been checking and double-checking the entire time that he'd been alone on his journey. He'd taken back alleys, muggle trains, had disapparated at random to places he'd never been. He was sure he was alone. He had heard no one approach him from behind, either, but that was the least of his worries.

What frightened him was that the owner of the voice had died nearly twenty years ago.

4. We've Grown Up (but still haven't changed)

Another favorite HP one, this time about the three sisters of House Black. Andromeda gets a letter from her estranged sister Narcissa to meet in the dead of night at the old family home. I'm in love with it! :') Here are two of my more favorite paragraphs:

"She knew it was a stupid idea, that it was likely that Narcissa (who Andromeda heard was now engaged to Lucius Malfoy of all people) had been fully invested in the “pureblood movement” now, and was merely using this well written civil letter to get her home to have Bella accost her or something.

But curiosity and recklessness got the better of her as always, and so now, here she was. Standing in the back garden, admiring the various plants and statues and fountains surrounding her.

5. Take The Weight (From My Shoulders)

I'm a sucker for Tartarus aftermath fics, and I wanted to write one myself. It was inspired by a YouTube comment on a deleted song from The Lightning Thief musical. I loved writing this, and I hope you guys enjoyed writing it!

"A lump rose in her throat, guilt eating at her, tearing at her insides, and before tears came, she hugged him tightly. “We made it out,” she said abruptly. She felt Percy stiffen for a brief moment, but then he wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her close to him. Annabeth breathed in his scent, relished the cool breeze on her face, and gods, she was just so glad to be out of the nightmare that had been Tartarus. But then the thought came again, repeating in her head over and over– your fault, your fault, your fault, your-"

Okay, now it's my turn to tag some amazing authors! No pressure of course!!

@clawedandcute @ohmygodshesinsane @charmsandtealeaves @natabeth @turanga4

#fic self-rec #tag game #fic rec #casual convos #my wrtitng

[wanderingmind867]

I'm glad I started with Rick Riordan by reading the Heroes of Olympus series. Because I've been rereading the Lightning Thief in school, and I don't love it that much. There's a few reasons why this could be, so let me try speculating:

My current difficulties in life makes me hate Camp Half-blood: This very well could be. I'm 18 now and dealing with my fears of being independent and alone (something I know I couldn't handle), and Camp Half-blood is a place where kids are seperated from their parents. I know that's an extreme way of putting it, but for someone with my present fears, an environment like that sounds awful. I'd be having non-stop meltdowns because I need my Dad.

I don't like Percy Jackson as much as I like some other characters: this could be it. Based on the characters in the rest of the series, Percy Jackson isn't my favorite character (I think Nico is). Or at least that's how I felt today, for whatever reason. Doesn't help I can't relate to him going from school to school. I've had school problems, but I've only gone to one elementary school and one high school.

For that matter, the location is hard to relate to. I have never been (and I refuse to ever go) to NYC, so I barely know what places the story is describing sometimes. To quote a Jim Croce song: "New York's Not My Home". Hard to visualize a place when you both dislike the place and don't know much about it.

Note: All of this stuff could change as I keep reading, but the key point is the same: Heroes of Olympus is better than Percy Jackson and The Olympians. A subjective opinion perhaps, but one I am standing by.

#percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #random thoughts #my thoughts #pjo #hoo #autism #asd #rick riordan #riordanverse

[eolewyn1010]

Reading Percy Jackson TLT was an ordeal for me 1 - Writing

Now, as a disclaimer in the name of fairness, I only ever read The Lightning Thief and none of the Percy Jackson series beyond that, so my experience with Rick Riordan's writing is limited (and I'm not planning to change that). It's also a distorted experience because I didn't read the original - I read a translated version, and I often noticed that it wasn't the best translation. For example, whoever was responsible was apparently incapable of translating an imperative mood, crippling quite a lot of dialogue. So I'll give Riordan that: I have probably not seen the best of his work.

That said, I massively disliked this book. Yes, even within the boundaries and rules of Kids' Fantasy. I won't tag this to the fandom because it seems nigh impossible to find anyone who so much as tolerates negative criticism of Percy Jackson. I've been called brain-damaged for not liking it, which is certainly a mature take. But I will feel better listing it all down that one time, getting it out of my mind, so here we go.

These dialogues are weird, these people are weird

I constantly catch myself thinking, "no one talks like that??" Even taking the translation aspect into account, a lot of the dialogue sounds just stilted. After the bus crash, some of the passengers are described by Percy as literally running in a circle yelling "We're gonna die" - no one behaves like that. It's a funny, over-the-top imagination that would fit in a cartoon, and it completely breaks with the serious tension of the preceding scene, and with my suspension of disbelief. People, even hysterical people, don't do that seriously. It feels like a scene in a theater play.

It appears equally forced when Annabeth apparently mutters to herself as she walks away from Percy: "Mission... Poseidon? ...[some cussing]... need a plan..." And I sit there like: Really? You mutter that to yourself? I can believe that you mutter a curse to yourself, but this "shreds of sentences" thing? Why would she talk to herself in the first place? So Percy can randomly hear some incomplete thoughts? No. It's to tease the readers. Riordan, you shouldn't make me aware of the author's presence all the time. Annabeth never talks to herself otherwise. It isn't even a character thing for her. And made out like this, it's so unnatural.

Same goes for Percy talking in his sleep... apparently very clearly and comprehensibly, so that Annabeth can piece together what he's been dreaming of. Except. People who talk in their sleep? They mumble. They hardly get a cohesive sentence out. How am I supposed to believe that this is playing in the real world? These people don't behave like people.

And one more thing that struck me as odd: A description of Grover with "his eyes narrowed; there was fear in them." Hm. Have you ever tried to look afraid with your eyes narrowed? It isn't actually that easy. When people are scared, their eyes widen. Tell me when you can narrow your eyes and get your expression not to look angry, not distrustful or doubtful, but afraid.

Is this plot ever going anywhere?

So, it's one thing that this structure of quest-hopping isn't how I personally like my books. A bigger problem seems to me that it's lacking coherence. Most of the kids' stops on the way and monsters to slay have nothing to do with their mission. Why is all of this so disconnected? Did we learn anything new from the Medusa adventure, from the episode with Echidna?

And at times, it feels like the plot is artificially prolonged. This is really bad in the beginning when no one can be arsed to tell Percy what the hell is going on. Neither Chiron nor know-it-all Annabeth can just give him a straight answer to anything. Which, Chiron comes off as plain gaslighting Percy at his human school when he denies that Percy just fought for his fucking life, and Annabeth? Percy even lampshades it; at one point he's like, "as if I was supposed to already know all that." Well, HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WHEN NO ONE OPENS THEIR FUCKING MOUTH? And the one time that Annabeth actually wants to tell Percy something, she gets interrupted by a random outside occurence that isn't even important. Can anyone get this shit moving already?

The worst foreshadowing since Stephenie Meyer

I wish Riordan would stop slapping me over the head with Dead Herrings (aka Red Herrings that don't work the way they should). Telling me something very specific and then going "Nooo, it's couldn't possibly be that highly specific thing!" will not redirect my thoughts the wrong way; it will just make me wait jadedly for the moment when, oh, such surprise, it turns out it was exactly what you thought of first.

"Oh, Percy can do funny things with water and the only thing he's good at is rowing - who could possibly be his father!"

"This lady is surrounded by scared-looking statues and we can't see her eyes - who could she possibly be!"

"This statue looks like my uncle - what a weird coincidence!"

"Dude keeps telling Percy to put on the flying shoes - wonder what he's on about!"

Honestly, it feels very condescending. My friend said the book is written for 12-year-olds, but does Riordan know that 12-year-olds aren't idiots? It's not a good idea to treat your readers as being dense.

Inconsistent worldbuilding

Do we ever get a reason for Grover eating literal garbage? Oh, I know, the extra-diagetical explanation is a joke I'm not in on and that frankly enrages me (later more on that). But in-universe we are never told how he's capable of chewing tin cans without cutting himself to shreds. We're never told how he can digest that shit. If you have to make this a thing, Riordan, at least make it work!

Camp Half-Blood is... eh. Okay-ish? Riordan doesn't know the first thing about Ancient Greek architecture, and it comes back to bite him with Annabeth. But for now, I have questions about the strawberries. How are they growing so well when they never have rain over the valley? Like. Plants do need water. And there's no reason why Dionysus and his kids should be able to make them grow well, none. Dionysus isn't and has never been a god of nature, ever since he separated from Pan (and Pan IS a separate character in this book). The only plant he has a connection to is fucking grapevine. I can buy that he can make grapevines grow, but everything else should be under the jurisdiction of Demeter and her children. Who are allegedly largely unimpressive, but we'll get to that. Also. All strawberries? Nothing but strawberries, ever? Monoculture is ruining the soil, y'know. That camp should be on dead ground within a decade or so.

Then again, Percy also claims he hasn't eaten anything unhealthy ever since he entered the camp. And then counts, "grapes, bread, cheese, lean barbecued meat." No strawberries then? Anyway, my point is: This isn't healthy. It's a very reduced diet - a balanced diet for 12-year-olds, still growing and physically very active 12-year-olds, requires more than that! How do the kids in the camp not all have deficiency symptoms?

I'm not sure how the disappearing monsters work. Body parts can just randomly stay behind as the spoils of war? Who decides which parts? Riordan wanted Medusa's eyes to still do their work after Percy slays Medusa, because the eyes still working is part of the Perseus myth that he's processing, but that really doesn't roll with "the body just disappears when the creature is slain." Like, what. Why wouldn't her head just disappear with the rest of her; it's a part of her body? Can just the head disappear instead and randomly leave the body behind? What are the rules here?

And there's the bit with "does this actually play in the real world?" again. Because when they wander the forest, Grover complains that they cannot see the stars because of the pollution. Which. This red sheen over the sky shouldn't be a thing in the middle of a forest. This is not how light pollution works, unless they are close to a city, in which case, why are they sleeping in the forest? Or is Grover trying to tell me that there were no clouds before environmental pollution? (Granted, I don't know why they went into the forest in the first place and didn't just sleep at Medusa's shop...)

In a similar vein, why is the police looking after Percy as a criminal suspect and not as a missing child? When a 12-year-old disappears, who in their right mind goes, "he could have murdered his mother"?? Why isn't the reaction, "something really bad happened to them both; we need to look for them both!", but "we need to look specifically for this kid because he has definitely done something terrible to his mom"? What is that for an outlandish approach to a missing kid?

This is a Very American Perspective (and it doesn't work)

Now, telling me that the USA are the center of Western civilisation is obviously extremely subjective, and as a non-American, I'm probably not supposed to agree. That Chiron goes on to declare the nebulous future "fall of Western civilisation" this huge, apocalyptic catastrophe and in the process sounds like a whiny rightwing politican - okay, that's me being cynical. But this really fails as soon as the Olympus and the Greek gods get in on the equation. I cannot imagine any place in the world that's less into pagan polytheism than the USA. The Greek gods aren't revered there, or if they are, it's by very small groups.

So, if Riordan's train of thought is "they are revered by whatever name; they may have different names, but it's always the same gods", then we get into a real conundrum with the multitude of pantheons in various religions. Because the gods in different religions are very incongruent in what functions and personalities they have. It already fails with the Greek-to-Roman transference - close as these two mythologies may be, they don't work in 1:1 accordance (something which Riordan heavily misrepresents, but I'm not going into that here). So, if the modern USA are so central to Western civilisation that the gods moved the Olympus and the Underworld and everything there, how did the gods' personalities and powers not massively shift over the millennia; how did gods not disappear and appear and merge to fit more contemporary notions of God / gods? Are they completely unperturbed by mortal developments and mindsets? Then why would they ever change anything, including their location?

Speaking of Greek and Roman gods... I really enjoy the action scenes. Riordan is good at writing action; it's fun. So. It ires me that I got completely ripped out of the scene by Percy randomly spouting Latin curses. Why Latin? What does that have to do with his prodigious propensity to Ancient Greek? Why. Why does Riordan keep mixing up Roman with Greek mythology, one language with the other? They are very distinct!

Chiron at one point describes the cooperation of gods with mortals as "the dawn of the Western civilisation". This is funny, as Western civilisation hit a real low after the fall of the Roman Empire (and yes, I'm focussing on Europe in this part of my argument - there was no Western civilisation in America before the late 16th century). And it stayed like that throughout a large portion of the middle ages. The civilisation on a roll until about the 11th century was what we'd today sum up under "Arab". They were the big scientists, the big architects, they dominated the trade, they spread all over the place; it was a whole thing. Yet of course gods of Western civilisation cannot be worshipped in Fez, in Tunis, in Granada, in Baghdad, in Alexandria - so where were they in the meantime? How did they not disappear while Christianity became a thing? They were not being worshipped anymore; the majority of people alive in the Western world weren't aware there had ever been other religions in Europe than Christianity because translating the old texts into modern languages was something Arabian scholars did early on, but it was a late fashion to Christians.

"The Second World-War was a war between the children of Zeus and the children of Hades, and the losing side (aka the Nazis and their allies) were the children of Hades." ... There are certainly ways to help kids approach the very complicated layers of politics and social aspects regarding the World Wars. This isn't one of them, and I curse Riordan in the tongues of a thousand historians for the paragraph in which he summed it up like that. This is how you're explaining fascists? "Oh, they're the children of Hades, so I guess they're just born evil." This is just vile.

The weird implications of fantasy creatures being treated as animals

Percy doesn't want to walk behind Chiron because he thinks the dude would just randomly take a literal shit on him. Toilet humor is funny, you guys! Except this isn't a horse, no matter how often Percy calls him one. The nymphs aren't trees. Grover is not a goat. It's one thing to integrate features of these because we're talking fantasy mix creatures, but they are still sentient and sapient on a human level! In case of Chiron, he's hundreds of years old and a wise guardian and teacher to Percy and others. Why are we always accompanied by the implication that they are, in some capacity, animals? That's just plain old Fantasy Racism. Stop dehumanizing people you yourself have established as people, please?

Grover is the most present non-human character in this book; so he's the usual victim of this. I cannot count the times Percy calls him a goat boy, or just plain a goat. He is not. A goat. He's a person. I'm supposed to believe he is Percy's best friend. Why does Percy talk to or about him like he's holding him in contempt half the time? Why does Annabeth? She's been living with intelligent non-humans since she was seven! They make fun of him, they dismiss his warnings and instincts as "whining", even though he turns out to be right. They don't treat him seriously, they aren't friendly, they hardly do more than scold him, boss him around or roll their eyes at him.

We still get the other side of the coin

Despite the former problem, Riordan manages to be contemptuous of humans, too. People inside the camp, Annabeth most of all, but Chiron (in a softer way) as well, and eventually Percy and Grover keep talking down at humans. Chiron says the reason why Percy's sword can't kill humans is because "mortals aren't important enough." You know, I would have been fine with "it's to protect humanity" or something; I didn't need a complicated justification for how this sword works. But it would have been nice to not get the most disparaging version that makes icky humans out to be a lower class of life! "Not important enough"? With all his talk of the precious Western civilisation, Chiron should know that mortals are vital to the immortals. No humans, no gods.

Funny thing is, Annabeth repeatedly describes mortals als blind and stupid because they don't know of the mythological goings-on. I thought that was the Mist(TM)? So, what is it? You are magically protected from being perceived as being and doing supernatural stuff - then it isn't the humans' fault, is it? - or people are just stupid and self-censor in their heads. Then why bother with the Mist. The Mist existing and being explained makes me wanna yell at Annabeth to stuff her high-and-mighty attitude. Granted, the Mist isn't too internally consistent. It hides centaurs randomly galloping across the landscape in plain sight of humans, it hides the furies, but it doesn't hide Echidna and the Chimera. I would have liked an explanation for that.

Harmful stereotyping

So. Riordan really hates dog owners, doesn't he? What was with the pink poodle? I mean, I got it; the owners are terrible - that's why he has an unfitting name and why he ran away. But Riordan has to hammer me over the head again. They dyed the doggo pink. Oof. And then Echidna. Here's wondering if Riordan ever depicts a dog owner as a decent person who treats their dog well.

But I take a vastly bigger issue with his consistently hateful depiction of step-parents. Now, Evil Step-Parents(TM) are a well-worn fairytale trope. And Riordan just... never questions it. Personally, I hate it. If it's a step-parent, they're abusive; no exceptions. Percy's stepfather is beating his wife, Annabeth's stepmother treats her as a freak and isolates her from her siblings; it's all very on-the-nose. Only once, I wanna read an acknowledgment that step-parents are just people, and they are as likely to be good people as everyone else. In fact, someone who decides to take a partner who already has a child usually has to internalize that fact at first and accept that this child is going to be a part of the relationship in some capacity. Can we not shit on non-biological parents all the time?

In that context, Annabeth's biological father being a lousy parent as well looks odd, granted. It's definitely something different than Percy's angelic mom. Is Riordan telling me that Athena just has a bad taste in men? Or is that more shitting on humans?

Oh boy, and he loves him some fatshaming. And no, it isn't just "this fat character turns out to be evil", it is "every single character described as being overweight is a negative character in some way, plus depicted as someone with really poor hygiene, plus just generally physically revolting. Go on, re-read the Echidna scene. Tell me that he doesn't go out of his way there to hammer home just how obnoxious and repulsive she is before she turns out to be a monster. How many unflattering words can he squeeze into one paragraph? Why would a kid care? Why does Percy even look at a complete stranger long enough to study how bad her sense of fashion is? Other big characters include Dionysus (more on him when I talk about Riordan's takes on mythology) who's... not evil, but mean-spirited and grumpy and contemptuous and constantly pissed-off. And Gabe, the stinking, ugly, abusive stepfather who literally lives among trash and is so unsubtle that he complains to his wife's face that he didn't get her life insurance because she showed up alive. Gabe Ugliano, because he's ugly, you see? Rick Riordan is funny. He's also trying to beat me to death with an anvil. And showing his ass, because a lot of domestic abuse is way subtler than that.

Ugly = evil is a shorthand that Riordan keeps reusing - and that his hero has weirdly internalized! And don't even tell me of a judgy 12-year-old as an unreliable narrator - because the narrative keeps proving Percy right. Ares' ugly daughters and the ugly girl at human school are brutal bullies (I mean, Annabeth keeps insulting and bullying Percy, but she's pretty, so it's fine when she does it). That Medusa looks elegant and refined and "must have been a beautiful woman once" makes Percy trust her, but the moment he stops trusting her, she starts looking monstrous. It's really lazy characterization.

Also, a fun little detail from Camp Half-Blood: The phenotype of people with sharp noses? Is associated with troublemakers. Uh-huh. I'm comfy with that. That doesn't sound anti-Semitic at all. ... FUCK THIS. Riordan, stereotypes like this are HARMFUL. Do. Your. Research.

An afterthought

Does Riordan have any faith in his own writing? Because the one time I'm sold on a dramatic moment, he ends up subverting it. I'm all, "Percy's falling towards the river! Monsters! Everything is panic!" And then the new chapter starts, and the moment falls flat. Because Riordan doesn't hold onto the fear Percy feels in that moment; he makes him snark about it in hindsight. It's really not a good idea to set up an emotionally captivating moment and then make fun of it.

#I'm not gonna tag this as Percy Jackson because the fandom would have my head for it #personal opinions #this got way salty #got this out of my system #books

[bookwyrminspiration]

hi! 1. i have been on the road for hours but am finally getting close to home and oh man quil it is so good to see all the familiar landmarks and foliage again, i forgot how absolutely homesick i was but this is such a place to be homesick for, and 2. this is not about found family AND i still haven't. actually finished the entire series really so i don't even know how satisfactory the ending is (or if i've already recommended it haha) but the false prince, which is part of the ascendance series, might be a fun read for you! i remember reading tgl for the first time and the main character's Voice reminded me SO MUCH of sage, the mc from that book, that i had to sit down and check if the authors were the same (they were not). it's abt this orphan kid who gets kidnapped so he can compete w a handful of other boys to impersonate the late prince who had been killed years ago and become a, i think it's called a puppet ruler? for some guy. it is EXTREME amounts of fun from what i remember of it haha--my brother and i didn't know there were other books until like this year though, which sucks because it's like!!!! i think like four other books!!! that's so wild!!! it was one of our favorites!!! so i mean it's your choice if u would ever read the entire series bc i can't guarantee the quality of it but i genuinely love the entire tone of the first book it's just so well done :)

Hello! 1. I am so so glad for you--when I was coming home a couple weeks ago it was so nice to see the streets and know where we were, how the traffic flowed, the kinds of stops and lights you'd find, the way's the streets looked. In CA it was so green everywhere and I was just like. what the fuck where are my Rocks and Dirt and why do we have to take so many uturns. wishing you pleasant dreams back in your own place with your own food and clothes and atmosphere <3

2. !!! I have that series!! I own the first three--though I think my sister's had the first book for a few years, because she borrowed it a while back and never gave it back. same with the lightning thief. and I didn't realize until like a year ago that there's a book 4 + 5 now, so I haven't finished the series either. I actually. Don't know if I ever read past book 1--I think I started book 2, but stopped a few chapters in? I can't say for certain because it was so long ago--I read the false prince almost a decade ago, in elementary school for battle of the books, so I've forgotten nearly everything.

And I remember I really loved the voice as well! I might've even stopped partway into book 2 because the voice didn't feel the same, but again. it's been a while. I remember very little except for the final twist, with the fools gold thing. But I know elementary me was blown off her fucking feet with that I was SO astonished and blind-sided.

But!! Because I own books 2 + 3 but haven't finished them, I do fully intend to reread the false prince at some point in the future so I can read those! on my quest to read all the books I own! so while I can't have any meaningful conversation about any of it (i forgot his name was sage, for example...), I will be able to someday!! i don't know if I've ever seen anyone else talk about or mention the series--and I didn't know that was its name--so very cool that you have!

#the false prince #the ascendance series #but apparently multiple tags are in use that are popping up. huh #quil's queries #soryasongsaa #i cannot say for certain on this either. but my copy of the false prince might be signed...? #i'd check but like I said. it's on my sisters shelf rn #but I do know for certain I've heard the author speak at least once. maybe twice #she visited my elementary school #but I don't know if little me got the book signed or not #alas #i also don't remember anything she said because. elementary school age #long post

[liketolaugh-writes]

your fics are all INCREDIBLE and i've been having so much fun reading them (and i'm glad i went through your blog bc i didn't realize you had the scrapped version of the Constellations sequel up!)

i was wondering if you've heard of the PJO musical! it's named after the first book ("the lightning thief") and it's SO good, if you enjoy musicals in general then you should enjoy this.

all of the songs are awesome but "good kid" would be right up your alley bc it's just percy's song reflecting on his school experiences and childhood

Thank you so much, I'm really glad you've enjoyed them! <3 I've heard of the musical - I haven't seen it, I'm not much of a musical person, but I'll think about it.

On that topic, my absolute favorite piece of Percy Jackson fanart is inspired by that song, and I think about it all the time.

#pjo

[that-one-ace-bastard]

Tagged by @vaya-mernda

Favourite colour: Probably Blue or Green. I've been getting into Pinks more lately and it's been nice :)

Currently reading: I borrowed Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief from the local library but I haven't started it yet. I want to finish at least the first book before the new show comes out.

Last song: "Be My Lover" by La Bouche https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=g8m5Tp7Uqbc&feature=share

My music taste is whatever ytmusic decides I'd like based on looking up my mother's playlist and random Tiktok songs lol. It works.

Last TV show: The X-Files, I'm loving it so far. I am a little sad I can't find any fanfiction saved on AO3. Im having to dive for zines old-school lol.

Sweet/savoury/spicy: Savoury, Give me Potatoes and Vegemite please ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Current project: I just finished a T'pring cosplay but now I'm just working on projects around the house.

Thank you for tagging me Vaya 😌 💚💜

Tag @ anyone who wants to have a go :)

#tag challenge