#and I think she tells Percy more so the audience can know?

[ampresandian]

My (unofficial) PJO season 2 episode 5 script part 4/4 (part 1 | part 2 | part 3)

The last part! Thank you for reading I just couldn't get the vision for this episode out of my mind and had to write it down.

Images of script and copied text (bc I'm lazy and don't want to write out alt text) under the cut, just in case I didn't tag enough spoiler warning or people aren't interested <3

Annabeth Tries to Swim Home

CUT TO: INT. DARK VICTORIAN HOUSE – NIGHT. 

Continuation of first scene/flashback. CYCLOPS is grinning at YOUNG ANNABETH menacingly. Behind him, the fire rages, and LUKE, THALIA, and GROVER are tied up in the corner. Annabeth’s attention is taken up by the large monster speaking to her. 

CYCLOPS: (in her father’s voice) Annabeth. How nice of you to join us. Now, Annie, don’t you worry. 

Annabeth draws her knife. As he speaks, the Cyclops approaches her. 

CYCLOPS (CONT): I love you, Annabeth. You can stay here with me. Don’t worry. You can stay forever. 

He reaches out for her. Annabeth stabs him in the foot, keeping hold of her knife as he reaches forward and grabs the door in shock. She runs around him towards her friends. 

The Cyclops rips the door of its hinges and throws it across the room with a roar. 

Annabeth reaches the older kids. 

THALIA: Annabeth! Thank the gods you’re okay.

YOUNG ANNABETH: (determined) Hold still.

Annabeth cuts the ropes around Thalia’s arms and legs. Thalia takes up her sword and stands defensively in front of the others. 

THALIA: Cut them free, Annabeth. I’ll hold him off. 

Annabeth turns to Luke and Grover as the Cyclops roars behind her. She saws at their ropes as Thalia goads and fights the monster. 

THALIA (CONT): Come on, ugly! Can’t you take me?

She slices at him with her sword. Now free, Luke can barely stand, Grover supporting him. They all turn to watch Thalia defending them against the monster. 

Suddenly, the Cyclops roars, and Thalia’s sword can be seen buried in his eye. As he rears back, she pulls it out, turning to her friends. 

THALIA (CONT): Come on. We have to go.

Annabeth leads the way through the house, back the way she came through the servants kitchen into the orangery. They escape through a side door, standing in the storm. 

Sirens and howls can be heard, the sounds of the monsters they have been running from closer than before. 

THUNDER rumbles as they look around desperately in the dark. Grover sniffs. 

GROVER: Come on. This way.

They walk away from the house. The Cyclops roars again from within. 

CUT TO:  EXT. POLYPHEMUS’ ISLAND – DAY.

SHEEP hooves/underbellies walk across the screen as POLYPHEMUS calls them. Under one of them hangs PERCY. 

ANNABETH: (invisible) Just don’t let go! 

Polyphemus drags aside the boulder sealing the cave. He addresses each sheep as they pass. 

POLYPHEMUS: (patting each sheep) Hasenpfeffer! Einstein! Widget! Widget? Heavier, huh? 

WIDGET stops in front of him, Percy clinging to her wool. 

POLYPHEMUS (CONT): Soon you will be big enough to eat! Go on, Widget!

WIDGET enters the cave, followed by the rest of the flock. 

ANNABETH: (invisible, from outside) Hey, ugly!

POLYPHEMUS: (looking around wildly) Who said that?

ANNABETH: Nobody! 

POLYPHEMUS: Nobody! I remember you!

ANNABETH: You’re too stupid to remember. But Nobody remembers you!

Polyphemus throws a boulder, aiming for the invisible Annabeth. 

ANNABETH (CONT): Your aim hasn’t improved!

POLYPHEMUS: Come here! Let me kill you!

ANNABETH: You can’t kill Nobody! And you’ll have to come find me!

Polyphemus yells, running down the hill to find Annabeth. Percy drops off Widget, glancing back outside at the island and the Cyclops before moving further into the cave. 

CONT: INT. POLYPHEMUS’ CAVE – DAY.

Percy moves through cavernous hallways, turning a corner into a dead-end room of sheep memorabilia. He backs out, going back the other way and turning right instead of left. 

He turns corners through a set of “rooms,” something that might be a bedroom, a room full of bones, and another room full of sheep memorabilia. He turns a corner and trips, catching himself against the cave walls with his hands. 

Righting himself, Percy looks around, breathing heavily. He looks back and forth, choosing a hallway and running into another room, full of wool and smelling of sheep. He covers his nose as he looks around the room, faced with three separate doorways. 

Percy makes a choice, going through the left opening. Down the hallway, he finds a room with a spinning wheel and loom. GROVER and CLARISSE are inside, trying to undo Clarisse’s ropes. 

CLARISSE: It’s no good. You’ve been working at it for hours!

They spot Percy. 

CLARISSE (CONT): You’re supposed to be blown up!

PERCY: Yeah, good to see you too--

GROVER: (hugging Percy) You came!

PERCY: Yeah, of course, dude. Now, Clarisse, hold still. 

Percy takes Riptide out of his pocket and cuts Clarisse’s ropes. 

CLARISSE: (rubbing her wrist) Where’s Annabeth?

PERCY: You’re welcome. She’s outside. 

CLARISSE: Great, come on.

PERCY: Wait. Was... It was just you in your lifeboat?

CLARISSE: Yeah. Everybody else... I didn’t even know you guys made it.

Percy looks down at his sword. 

PERCY: Okay. 

GROVER: Come on, guys. We need to go help Annabeth. 

They move back through the cave, Grover guiding them. As they come back into the first room Percy ran through, they hear a loud crash.

Annabeth screams. 

POLYPHEMUS: I got Nobody!

Percy, Grover, and Clarisse move to the doorway, peeking through to the main room. Polyphemus is standing at the doorway, holding his arm up. He shakes his fist, and ANNABETH’S CAP flutters to the ground, revealing Annabeth, hanging upside down from his hand. 

FADE OUT. THE END

#yes in the book Annabeth tells Percy the whole story #but I feel like she really wouldn't think it's that big of a deal #and I think she tells Percy more so the audience can know? #besides I think it is exactly the kind of story Thalia would tell Percy on their quest together #and that interaction would help to characterize them and their relationship? idk if that makes sense #thank you for reading! #first draft #first screenplay #playing at screenwriter #my writing #&thoughts #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv show #percy series #sea of monsters #pjo #percy jackson spoilers #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson sea of monsters #pjo spoilers #annabeth tries to swim home

[cheeseforlife]

Changes in the PJO TV show:

Let me tell you, the changes made in the Percy Jackson series (episode one and two) are amazing and continue to surprise me as a long-time fan. There are some changes that I don’t understand which I will also mention.

(Spoilers below)

(+)

• Percy and Grover trading parts of their sandwiches. That’s the level of friendship I aspire to have.

• Grover lying to the principal to help Percy. This was interesting because I initially didn’t see the purpose but this added the sacrifice Grover has to make, this isn’t his only lie and the way Percy react is justified. It also gives Grover his moment in the next episode to disobey Mr. D and tell Percy the truth.

• Percy and Sally racing to the cabin. In the midst of the craziness and drama in the rest of this episode, seeing this innocent example of them interacting is just the best.

• Sally telling Percy about his father and Camp Half Blood. This was great to think about because you know Sally wants to take care of Percy because of this, and the comedy potential with her talking to Grover is great.

• Percy having dreams about Kronos talking to him rather than the image of Poseidon and Zeus fighting. The conflict between them can be explained by Chiron but with Kronos we get the sense of a bigger evil and later understand how Luke was communicating with him.

• Luke leading Percy around camp instead of Annabeth. We actually don’t have much of Luke in the first book and making him be the one to provide Percy with a home and guide him, the audience is way more reluctant to believe he wants to hurt Percy.

• Percy’s offering of the blue candy. Having him say his prayer away from everyone else was a great way to get his thoughts in, and then it emphasizing that the blue candy was the food he’d miss the most.

• Annabeth figuring about Percy being the son of Poseidon before anyone else. Because of this we know just how smart she is and there’s no obviousness of who his parent is that the rest of the camp seems to be oblivious to as in the book. As well as this, her pushing Percy into the lake was just amazing.

• Luke saying Annabeth’s his little sister. This adds to how when Luke asks Annabeth if she still loved him, it wasn’t about romantic love, but familial. Really, him saying this just makes it even more depressing when he fights her.

(-)

• Gabe really isn’t as cruel as he is in the books. When he takes Percy’s money, trashed his room, and bosses around Sally, you can tell he doesn’t care about either of them. In the show, his ‘argument’ with Sally is more playful. I just hope they show this later, because it won’t make sense later of Sally literally murdering him if their relationship wasn’t to that level.

• Grover not being knocked out in the car. This is more about the Council of Colven Elders plus the pressure Grover has to succeed on their quest so he can search for Pan. They showed the Council (it was beautiful, btw) but not them telling him of how he’s failed. Maybe in a later episode Percy and Grover will have a conversation about it. This is also important to the story of Thalia and their journey to camp so crossing my fingers.

Even though there are some things that don’t make total sense, these are just the first two episodes and it’s just so great to see this series on screen.

#percy jackson #pjo #pjo spoilers #pjotv #percy jackson spoilers #god i love this show #grover underwood #luke castellan #annabeth chase #sally jackson

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

How do you feel about Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, and why should we throw Leah a huge parte for being the annie we always deserve but never got much of

HELL YEAH ARE YOU KIDDING ME LEAHBETH IS THE BEST THING THATS EVER HAPPENED TO ME THIS ENTIRE YEAR OH MY GODS AND GODDESSES im fully self aware that "i look like i would have been an annabeth kid" and its because i FOR SURE WAS WHY WOULDNT ANYONE BE she is The Character the MOMENt the ICON of the AGES and leah is adapting her energy to screen so ???? perfectly ?????? like did rick just shake the book and she fell out ??????? what sorcery is this?? ??????

no but in all seriousness leah is killing it as annabeth and its super clear that she did her research and understands the character (in interviews she talks about how she read annabeth povs in later books and did research on greek mythology and athena so she could understand the lightning thief not just from percys pov but from annabeth 🥺🥺 she so annabeth coded irl i adore her) and it genuinely shows like ive microanalyzed all her expressions because her facial acting has so much DEPTH and LAYERS and OH MY GODS leah deserves all the parties and we are so privileged to have her as our annabeth chase <3 imagine being that talented at like 13

im super excited to see what additions she makes to the character in this adaptation!!! already i think she's really highlighting annabeth's battle strategy smarts over just booksmarts which EVERYONE ALWAYS FORGETS ABOUT SHES NOT JUST A BOOK NERD SHES A FUCKING GENERAL HEAD OF THE ATHENA CABIN MOST FORMIDABLE DEMIGOD AT CAMP AS A 12 YEAR OLD the duality is giving me LIFE and i love how she gets to boss around percy and grover (leah also talked about loving to get to be in charge and competitive as annabeth which shes SO REAL FOR THAT shes such an annabeth type) BUT ALSO YOU ALREADY GET TO SEE HER VULNERABILITIES AND INSECURITIES AND THE WAY SHE CARRIES HERSELF THAT MAKES HER SIMULTANEOUSLY COOL BUT ALSO IS A REFLECTION OF TRAUMA AND POOR EMOTIONAL COPING yeah basically shes not just giving us annabeth shes giving us annabeth but MORE and its making me understand her character BETTER and in a NEW way (and if you have anything to say about her portrayal in the show i will genuinely pull up with a full ass powerpoint slideshow because IF YOU MEDIA COMPREHEND FOR TWO SECONDS AND KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER CHARACTER IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE AND ITS SO JUICY AND JALKDJFKBL)

i think about that shot of her looking at percy using medusas head through the screen porch ALL THE TIME. and her delivery of "grover can you tell your friend to pull himself together" LIKE THATS WHEN SHE TURNS TO HER PROTECTOR FOR HELP AND IT HAS A LITTLE BIT OF A SASSY IM-BETTER-THAN-YOU-PERCY VIBE TO IT BECAUSE SHES HIDING THE FACT THAT SHES SCARED AND UNCOMFORTABLE TO TALK ABOUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER UNAVAILABLE MOM (and percy sees right through that just as she sees right through percy and oh my gods if i get started on percabeth ill never shut up)

anyways thanks for giving me an opportunity to go on a mini rant about leahbeth i could say so much more because when i say ive analyzed every frame my girl is in i am NOT joking

but ill just end by saying that anyone who is upset by show annabeth being black literally did not understand her as a character or the percy jackson books in general so they can stfu and get their little butthurt wrong opinions out the door bc they dont belong here anyway <3 rick and becky also talked about how they hired black sensitivity readers to help write annabeth's blackness more authentically into her character in the show so very much hoping that they do that well! and im overall just super excited to see what changes they make to adapt my favorite character to a new era, a new medium, and a new audience!

go treat yourself to some leah interviews because i actually adore her and will protect her and annabeth (though arguably theyre one and the same) with my life <3

#god i coudl talk for hours but ill stop #sorry for hte long ass post but honestly whats the point of tumblr if not for me to be autistic on main about annabeth chase #omg i still remember the moment they announced annabeth and grovers casting #i litearlly slapped and hand over my face and was like no way no way no way THEY FUCKIGN DID IT OH MY GODS #ltierally thank the gods every day that we got the perfect trio based on actual voice and personality <333333333 #anyways bestie i will talk leahbeth w you anytime we should throw her a party because she is actually eating up this role #the sass #the emotiosn #the Generaling #will never get over her in her armor THAT IS MY QUEEN RIGHT THERE THAT IS THE ICON I REMEMBER FROM MY CHILDHOOD #they ltierally just stole annabeth from the books but made her better #and by that i mean like rick has a chance to rewrite her for the modern era and make her characterization cleaner and tighter #esp becuase APPARENTLY people missed the point the first time #annabeth haters actually make me so fucking mad if think about it too long ill explode #BUT WE DONT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THEM BC WeRE GETTING A TRUTHFUL ADAPTATION OF ANNABETH AND THE TRIO AND THEY CAN CRY ABOUT IT #YIPPPEEEEEEE #time to rewatch episode three #im not going to survive the tunnel of love #or the discussion in the vegas truck if we get that #leah sava jeffries #SHES TRENDING!!! #leahbeth #annabeth chase #leah jeffries #annabeth #percabeth #percy jackon and the olympians #i love the mispelled tag #pjo <3

[autism-alley]

now that the show is over, i’m slowly revisiting things that are less fundamentally dysfunctional and more symptoms of the overall problems. one of those is hephaestus. the way his disability is so… reduced is. almost incredible. like, they started off on the right foot casting a disabled man, i appreciate that, but the way they utilize hephaestus’ disability, or rather don’t, leaves a lot of room to be desired.

first off, allow me to be annoying by saying he is not there in the book—but i don’t think the decision to add him is inherently a poor choice. it could work.

in the lightning thief, the way the kids get out of his trap is through annabeth’s intelligence in an action-packed scene. in the show, i was alright with the fact they changed the trap—foolishly assuming they were going to actually make something different of equal craftsmanship—but the end result is one of many instances of sacrifice way too early in the series, and an utterly underwhelming solution to that sacrifice—annabeth literally just asks hephaestus to free percy and. he does? i thought she was going to figure out how to reverse the throne’s trap; while she’s not a child of hephaestus, you’d think a child of athena with a passion for architecture would have some understanding of mechanics. it would have been different from the book, maybe not the best approach, but still emotionally satisfying. but alright, we’re… making an emotional appeal to hephaestus. putting aside my feelings about her rant of what exactly it is that makes percy different and worth freeing, why is the show’s hephaestus… so generally underwhelming?

my man was tossed from the fucking heavens by a parent—in pjo it’s hera—they could have visually used that to show hephaestus, like annabeth, does not want to repeat his mother’s cold and selfish ways. but he’s just. alright, first just look at these two guys.

before we get to the meat and potatoes, tell me which of these two guys look like they’ve spent a millennia in a workshop? the guy covered in grease and sweat, dressed in a stain-littered apron, tool belt at his side, muscle built for lifting heavy parts and swinging a hammer century after century? or the man with a neatly brushed, trimmed, washed beard and head of hair, clean hands, remarkably unstained sweater and flannel, crisp, new overalls, and academic-looking glasses? which looks to you like the embodiment of blacksmiths and the flame of the forge? yeah. but that can all be lumped in with my other wardrobe complains of the show, now we get to the section of this post where i would like to tread lightly.

i want to start by saying not all disability is visual, or even overtly visual, but hephaestus’ is and that visual is important to his character and the story. as a disabled person, i love that they cast a disabled actor, but based on how it was handled in the show, i had no idea this man was disabled. i thought he was an able bodied actor, and i am so sorry i came to that conclusion, but i really see no other one i could have come to based purely on what was in the show itself. i had to google who timothy omundson is to know he’s disabled and with what disability (he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side in 2017 and has been in recovery ever since—godspeed my man, i hope it helps where it can). i am so glad it was a disabled actor and not an able bodied one, but he’s still not hephaestus. while obviously no mortal has fallen from the heavens, i think they could have made it work, but a man who’s had a stroke and a man who’s had his body crushed are not the same. i am not here to belittle this man’s experiences or say one is more severe, i am saying they are different, and not interchangeable.

regardless, a disability that is visual is no less than one that is invisible and timothy omundson’s paralysis is visual, but it was hidden. it was NOT clear to the audience timothy omundson is paralyzed, or that he is disabled at all. the gods can appear however they choose, but it’s a point that hephaestus generally does not, or his disability is implied to be such a hindrance on him, no matter how he chooses to appear, he cannot escape his disability, how glaringly visible it is. his body itself is a story of how the gods betray each other, how they literally eat each other alive and are so hypocritical about it. think of how impactful the visual of hephaestus is—has a parent ever rejected your existence so violently, your divine body is broken and disfigured for all eternity? it is a brutal establishment of the godly norm as ruthless, cruel, and petty abuse. and the show, for all its talk of how the gods are awful, just did not highlight his disability and its origins it at all.

again, i think including hephaestus in this scene could have worked, but not how the show went about it. imagine. annabeth, desperately fiddling with the throne’s inner workings, makes her emotional appeal to hephaestus. he’s partly obscured by shadow as he stands, watching from afar on the balcony, but we see a gnarled hand grasp the railing. annabeth, still pulling back the machine’s inner workings, tearfully describes how her mother punished her for embarrassing her. as she does, we receive a few close up shots of hephaestus, still leaving him mostly in the dark, but providing peeks at his disfigurements, and a hesitant but pained look in his eyes tells us he is reliving painful memories—a conflicted bead of sweat runs down the side of his face. it wouldn’t cost any more run time to use these shots while annabeth makes her plea to him, and the disability is in the spotlight, the parallel between athena/hera and annabeth/hephaestus is clear as a younger, more hopeful version of this emotionally broken man begs him to help her be different than both their mothers.

free my friend, she says. and for a moment, he just shakes. he opens his mouth, and annabeth—and the audience—lean forward to hear his reply. but then his face crumples with regret and resentment. he is still apart of the same wheel that crushes everyone in their path—if he, a god, could not escape, why would a demigod? why should a demigod?

no, the god of the hammer tells annabeth, you cannot escape.

annabeth, in her hubris, replies, maybe you can’t—and we cut to her hands, tearing away a gear to reveal a switch—realization flashes across her face, and she grasps the trap’s mechanical release. percy is free, and hephaestus, in his misplaced anger, unleashes more of his creations (mechanical spiders!!) after them, mirroring the book as the kids use quick-thinking to escape waterland.

it’s not perfect, but that would work. instead, they finally show a god rather than just talking about them and it’s so underwhelming. and yes, this hephaestus carries a cane, clearly the potential to show front his disability was there, but you cannot throw me table scraps and tell me my frustration at not receiving the feast i was promised is unfounded. it’s laughable. most of the time it’s on screen it’s not in use and there isn’t even reference in the show as to why he carries a cane. casual viewers unfamiliar with the books or greek mythology might mistakenly assume this is just how this god chose to present himself and he doesn’t need this cane, and not that disability is at the core of who this divine figure is. it is NOT clear to the audience this is a disabled character played by a disabled actor. it is, indefensibly, a watered down depiction. what in the book needed to be ‘fixed’ with hephaestus—? this is a disabled god, you dare not give him to me in all his disabled complexity? you dare not show him as he is?

one of the most insulting things you can do to a disabled person is reduce our disability and the show has done it to the greek god of disability, with such a cheap payoff. if they did not want to be true to hephaestus, to his actor, they should not have shown him at all, and maybe—i don’t know, stuck to the book whose narrative makes sense in this scene?

#this is a loooong post i cannot tell if i articulated all the points i wanted to as i wanted to but alas. posting #the fact that they cast a literal disabled man and it was not clear at all that he or his character are disabled is #yeesh #if your audience—including your disabled audience—reads your disabled actor and character as able bodied you have a problem #add it to the list of ways the show that promised to highlight disability proceeded to erase it at every opportunity #disability is as close to the heart of pjo as its humor and whimsical charm i take no criticism on that #and yes i think it would be more impactful for hephaestus not to help the kids—the Point is it’s a cycle of abuse #that hurt people hurt people #but even if they went about it another way what we got in the show was So disappointing #pjo show crit #hephaestus pjo #annabeth chase #ris raves #percy jackson #pjo show #percy jackson and the olympians

[chase-ingjackson]

A few reasons I like and dislike the the new Percy Jackson show (and why I think the musical is better) - initial reaction

To start, I think this new PJO show is a million times better than that dumpster fire of a movie (though I love logan lerman <3). I like that it is quite faithful to the overall arcs and major plot lines of the book. I love the diversity and high caliber of actors (though I def have some Viria-art inspired character images in my head that are god-tier). I love some of the characterizations/portrayals, especially when it comes to making the character more complex (I really appreciate TV Sally for being a real person with complex emotion, though of course book Sally is my fav). And I love that it's so high budget and hgihly-anticipated (great marketing) that it is bringing this beloved story to a greater audience, especially the younger generation and older generation (as parents/grandparents) than those of us who grew up with the series.

I can boil down all of my dislikes of this show into one overarching but very essential part of the show: I don't like that it is a drama. The characters are way too serious and too every-other-moment-we-need-an-instense-heart-to-heart. What I think this show should have been is a comedy adventure with drama/melodrama sprinkled in. In the books, it's all about the banter. And the TV show does some good one-liners, but it's always so serious. I think the best part of the book is that the characters can stay light-hearted and fun despite the horrors and terrors they face. In the show, the gods spoon feed the trio most of the answers, so when they do have a good realization (SPOILER: e.g. Kronos being the orchestrating force) it kind of comes out of nowhere. TV Annabeth is so serious (I know in the first book she is her most serious, but not to this degree) and a lot of the moments when she has time to use her smarts are gone or approached differently. Percy, too. He's not just self-sacrificing (which they really lean into in the show) but he's also incredibly smart and silly. In the books he's kind of a surface-level himbo with great critical thinking, but in the show he's kind of left in the dark and doesn't get opportunities to make his own plans (also, he doesn't seem to know how to control his power (by the 7th episode); whereas in the book he def did at this point. Then there are just dumb changes to make the show more "serious" like not mentioning that cell phones attract monsters or that monsters just smell demigods and not have a 6th sense for them. I'm finding that by trying to change these small details to make it something more exciting or interesting, it's distancing us existing fans by not letting us relate to the small details that really don't matter. For the cellphones, they still use Iris messages rather than getting a payphone or something, so that's kind of a plot hole in the show that is answered by the book.

Anyways, those are my main takeaways. Now, when I say "the musical" I refer to The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical by Joe Tracz and Rick Rokicki which first premiered in 2014 but got revamped and redebued in 2017 (which is when it came into my life). I got to see it live in Toronto in 2019 with my middle school best friend, but have been an avid listener of the soundtrack since 2017 (the day it came out on streaming platforms).

The musical in my eyes is a nearly-perfect adaptation of the book. It's soo funny - def the action comedy I'm after, but does have the meaningful emotional moments (ballads, which are essential in musicals). The show itself if the full package; however, even just listening to the soundtrack gives you the whole gist. Here's a link to hte soundtrack on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFwX6FWeUFQ&list=PL0hK1fYMaqXbtZ0Fhm48TYcLJl7ikNX7Q&ab_channel=TheLightningThief%3AOriginalCastAlbum

Anyways, I want to hear more thoughts and pls tell me what you think of the show (and the musical!!)

#hoo #pjo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #the lightning thief #the lightning thief musical #percy jackson musical #grover underwood #pjo tv series #pjo tv show #pjofandom #sally jackson #review

[grace--le--domas]

PJO- Some Show Recommendations for the showrunners if s2 is greenlit

Season 1 was kinda...boring? Honestly, that is the last thing I expected a PJO adaptation to be. The books aren't perfect, but they are fun! There is friendship, adventure, humour, all while still the characters grapple with some pretty serious stuff. The show (except for the first two episodes and the finale) feels stiff.

Show is too exposition-y, the pacing is off and it of course breaks the cardinal rule of show- don't -tell.

Thankfully, the concerns are easily remedied. Coming of age stories are a dime and dozen, and I think that the showrunners could actually learn from the TV shows and movies of past. So, I compiled some recommendations for them :) Read on if extensive analysis is your thing :)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer- Honestly, this is theee coming of age story. It follows Buffy (the chosen one), as she navigates high school, college and eventually adulthood, along with slaying vampires. And instead of a sullen main character, we as an audience are treated to a sassy, take-no-prisoners variant of the chosen one trope. There are so many similarities between Percy and Buffy- both are loyal to a fault, sarcastic and stubborn. They understand that they cannot escape their respective destinies, but they'll be damned if they don't see things through their own way. Both are brave to a fault, and adore their found families. The writers could take some inspiration from BTVS and Buffy's character arc (to an extent). Bonus- BTVS has great examples of melding humour in serious situations.

2. Mission Impossible Series- This one might be a bit controversial, but hear me out. I know most people consider the MI films popcorn flicks-and they are- but most the movies in the series are paced excellently. There is a sense of urgency in MI films- which was severely lacking in the PJO show. Have a deadline, let me feel anxious for these kids.

MI also has some excellent action scenes. And before you say, well PJO is not an action series, I would like to say that I agree- but the beauty of adaptating something is that you get to change things. Well paced action sequences, even if they are about a minute or so, are necessary break up the exposition dumps. It breaks the monotony. It makes you feel afraid for these kids, who are running from one dangerous situation/monster to another.

3. Dune (2023)- Thematically, Dune is vastly different from PJO. I am including it in this list for several reasons- editing, cinematography world building and sound editing.

To put it bluntly, I don't feel connected to the world of the PJO series at all- which is a shame because it is an incredible world! Greek mythological creatures co-existing with the modern world! Modern myths! Greek gods!. But it is all introduced in the most boring, exposition-y way possible.

The cinematography doesn't shine until the last episode. I want interesting shots, fluid camera movements- just anything that breaks the monotony of scenes. For example- I loved Poseidon's introduction, why wasn't this type of cinematography present in the rest of the series. Shoot the gods differently, make use of different camera compositions. Experiment a little for god's sake.

Coming to sound, yeah this one was the most disappointing of all. There are no memorable sound motifs, which is a shame because sound can convey so much more than words in certain scenes. I say Harry Potter music and you instantly think about the charcteristic symphony. This is missing sorely in the tv show.

Sidenote- I would have chosen Nathan Barr as the music composer (missed opportunity Disney). Look up his work, and you'll understand why I said this.

Coming to editing, yeah the editing is clunky at best. That is all I have to say about that for the moment.

Let me know if anyone wants a part 2 :)

#percy series #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson and the olympians #PJO #PJO tv series #pjo spoilers #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #disney #percy and annabeth #pjo #disney plus

[snixxlixx]

can we talk about the taxi scene for a second?

this scene is everything, and one my favorite moments from season one — not only because it's adorable and so perfectly captures the dynamic of book one percabeth, but also because it's subtly setting up a wonderful "rule of three" pattern that we'll (hopefully) revisit in seasons three and five!

the rule of three is a storytelling device often used in writing, film, TV, comedy and other mediums, where a story is told three times: the first two instances establish a pattern, but the third instance diverges from the established pattern with the intention of surprising or amusing the audience.

it makes a lot of sense for the pjo writers to use this scene as the first instance of a rule of three pattern; not only is the number three important in this series and throughout greek mythology, but the book series has two more scenes that can perfectly complete this trifecta.

here's how i think the show will apply the rule of three to the recurring pattern of "demigods attempting to operate moving vehicles" (spoilers for the titan's curse and the last olympian ahead):

percy drives a taxi (season one)

percy tasks himself with driving the taxi out of the lotus casino, and it's an absolute disaster. he crashes into multiple walls, goes straight through the boom barrier and almost gets t-boned twice. it's a miracle (or, more likely, whatever magic is controlling hermes' taxi) that they make it to santa monica in one piece.

2. thalia drives apollo's sun chariot (season three)

in the titan's curse, apollo picks up percy, thalia, grover, nico, bianca and the hunters from westover hall in his chariot-turned-flying bus. despite her protests, apollo makes thalia drive it from maine back to long island — and as we later learn, thalia is terrified of heights, so it was a disaster waiting to happen. while attempting to control the vehicle in a panicked state, she freezes over the new england coastline, sets it on fire and then crash-lands into camp half blood's canoe lake.

3. annabeth lands a helicopter (season five)

at this point in the series, we've had two instances that establish a pattern: when demigods are tasked with operating a moving vehicle, it goes terribly and almost gets everyone killed. so in the third and final instance of this, annabeth defies our expectations and completely flips the pattern on its head.

during the battle for olympus, rachel flies back from her vacation in a helicopter to tell percy the message she received in a dream. unfortunately, she doesn't know about the sleeping spell morpheus cast over manhattan, and the pilot falls asleep as they begin to descend into the city. as the helicopter starts to spin out of control, percy and annabeth fly up on a pegasus to rescue rachel. annabeth manages to grab onto the side of the door, and rachel pulls her into the helicopter.

now, this is the moment where we expect everything to go wrong. previously, percy and thalia — children of the big three, two of the most powerful demigods alive — were comically awful at driving vehicles, so based on the established pattern, this should also be a disaster; but this is annabeth "you're better at this than me" chase we're talking about, and she gets her elle woods moment.

annabeth swaps places with the pilot, and when the helicopter is seconds away from crashing into a building, she manages to control it and safely land it in the middle of fifth avenue.

at sixteen years old, she lands a helicopter in manhattan. in the middle of an active war zone. with zero helicopter-flying experience.

what, like it's hard?

this is the perfect scene to round out the rule of threes, because the audience goes into it with a preconceived notion that we know how it will end: with a demigod's comical incompetence at operating a moving vehicle. instead, we get the brilliance of annabeth chase on full display, beautifully diverging from the pattern and proving that while she may not be a child of the big three, she has distinct abilities that they don't have, abilities that make her just as strong and capable and powerful as percy and thalia.

in conclusion: the taxi scene is not just a cute percabeth heart eyes moment, but could be setting up an incredible subplot across the five seasons of the show.

#percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #thalia grace #pjo tv #pjo series #pjo spoilers #pjo 1x06 #if anyone actually read all this i love you #i've been thinking about this for weeks and needed to get all my thoughts down #i love this show and these books and these actors and this story and i have FEELINGS about it #pjo thoughts #pjo theory

[thetimetraveler24]

Okay. Might be a hot take. But…

Episode 7 was the biggest let down and probably the worst episode of PJO so far.

Crusty was so underwhelming. Why did they know who he was right away? Why didn’t I get Percy cutting his head off? An iconic scene the movies robbed us of and now the show has done that too.

The bathtub line with Charon. And the Italian suits and the pay raise. Where was that? Another iconic scene we were robbed of.

Cerberus was… fine. I guess. Not what I was expecting with Annabeth’s obedience school stuff in the books. It was clunky and random. And Grover losing the pearl in Cerberus was stupid. It would have been way more painful if it rolled into Tartarus instead. (And could provide amazing angst material when Percabeth fall into Tartarus and come across the pearl that could save one of them but neither will leave the other and they lose it once again anyways because angst).

Hades was not Hades-ing. He is supposed to be irritated about infrastructure and overcrowding and Charon demanding more pay. None of that was there. I honestly cannot see this man being the cold father that tells an eleven year old he wishes he died instead of his sister. This Hades is not cold and detached. This Hades is chill and laidback. The Actor looks like how I imagined Hades but he doesn’t embody the character at all.

Why was Poseidon answering Sally’s call? Why? The gods don’t do that. He’s not supposed to even acknowledge the Jackson’s.

Why does Percy know everything? He’s not supposed to know Kronos is involved yet, but he does now? Listen, I’m all for recognizing Percy’s smarts. He’s not dumb. But he’s also not Annabeth. Now if Annabeth was the one working it all out, I’d believe it. She’s book smart, Percy is street smart. We all know this. Percy does not tell Annabeth what’s going on unless he’s coordinating a fight strategy in the heat of the moment. Annabeth is supposed to be the one name dropping monsters. She’s the one who figures this stuff out. I know Percy works it out eventually in the books, but not just based off of what little he knows in the show.

It’s just so so so disappointing. I really want to love the show and I do. Sort of. I love most of the scenes. I love the cast. I just… I’m really struggling with the writing. It’s so clunky and there’s not a good balance between showing and telling. There’s way too much telling and not enough showing. If that makes sense.

And another thing. I know Crusty getting guillotined was probably cut for the same reason as Medusa’s head was unseat when getting chopped, but this show is for the same audience as the books right? So if you don’t think the age group the books are for can handle a couple heads getting cut off, why is it marketed to them? I just don’t get it. It doesn’t have to be graphic or anything. The sword can be clean of all blood. I know that’s normal for kid stuff. But middle schoolers can handle Medusas head. They can handle Crusty’s head. And Crusty could have even happened off screen. Just a shot of Percy swinging the sword and a thud and squelch sound effect. Like… come on.

Also, thanks show runners for totally tricking us into thinking the Ares fight would happen this episode. I don’t know why it didn’t. There’s literally no reason it shouldn’t have. I feel like everything with Luke will feel more rushed next episode now. But honestly almost all the fights have seemed so rushed that I’m not very hopeful about either the Ares fight or the encounter with Luke.

#riordanverse #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #walker scobell #leah sava jeffries #aryan simhadri #percy jackson disney+ #percy jackson series #percy jackson show #percy jackson spoilers #hades pjo #charon pjo #cerberus #pjo #rick riordan #hot take

[burr-ell]

🤍, 🖤?

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

So this is gonna seem contradictory to my reblog of blorb's post; this is not intended to be read as a counter to it, but as a complement: Percy.

If I'm being honest, one of the things that kinda bothers me about C1 group fanart is when I see everyone else in the party at their fully developed state, maybe even with their Vestiges, and then Percy's out here...with Orthax. Whom he expelled from himself with a natural 20 wisdom save, for the record, in episode 35. He spent more time without Orthax than with him!

It is objectively true that Percy invented the gun knowing what harm it could do but did it anyway. He once permanently maimed an innocent boy because he wasn't giving the answers he wanted. He gave Grog a cursed sword and didn't tell anyone because he didn't want it to be his responsibility and he thought Grog could handle it. It is also objectively true that he expressed doubts about what he was doing even during the Briarwood arc and admitted he was scared of who he was becoming and outright asked the group to stop him if they thought they should. He publicly apologized to Desmond and admitted his wrong and assured him recompense in both money and job security. He participated in a resurrection ritual for a child he didn't know who got caught in the crossfire of a battle. He fought to provide the people of Westruun a safe haven in their city, while still encouraging people to leave if they wished, because he wanted to honor the fact that what they had built there was important to them.

I think Percy is one of those characters that people view as either a silly little Human Disaster™ or as Vox Machina's Token Evil Teammate (the audience who projected onto him as the Facts and Logic guy seems to have dissipated after it became clear that he was. very much not doing that), and neither of those things are true. When Laura remarked that she looked at Percy and said "I can fix him", it was very clearly a joke, but I think people take that seriously and think Vex is the only reason he's not Lawful Evil or something. (Taliesin once said that without Vex's influence Percy could potentially have turned out Lawful Good—Laura's reaction was "eugh".) Percy didn't believe he could EVER be worthy of Vex and never once intended to act on his feelings; the change in him between episodes 35 and 68 was because he personally chose to be better, over and over again—even through several instances of him having Fucked Up Big Time—for its own sake. His forgiveness of Ripley is what inspired Vex, and I don't think people acknowledge that enough.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

I kind of alluded to this in the ship question but to be clear at the outset, I think Vax is a good person*, but I also think his flaws tend to be overlooked. He gets Soft Boy'd a lot, and while I don't think characters who operate on emotion are bad or stupid by default (my favorite superhero is Starfire), I think fandom tends to assume people who operate on emotion are good by default. Vax does a lot of reckless things that he's repeatedly called out for by everyone in the group, and he generally lets it roll off him because his metric for success is "but did you die". He saw a kid that he thought needed some tough love, and his first response was "bludgeon him over the back of the head and instantly knock him unconscious". He ran into a trap that nearly got Cassandra killed and never once apologized to her. He ran after Raishan and attacked, an action that actually did get Vex and Scanlan killed, and not only did he never apologize to them, he openly said in front of them that he didn't regret doing it (after being rightfully angry with Percy for getting Vex killed and having seen some proof that Scanlan might not be doing great!).

Like, to be clear, again, none of those things make him a bad person; I think overall he's a good person, and I think they're good character choices!* What I'm saying is that he has some genuine rough edges to him, and I think a lot of that gets ignored or sanded down in fanon to make him "the nice twin" or a perfect YA Hero love interest for a Keyleth who is being projected onto, and that simply isn't the character Liam played.

*I wouldn't normally put in that kind of good-person caveat—I don't think the end-all be-all is whether or not a fictional character is a good person—but a) this is a question about morality and b) some folks are weird about Liam.

unpopular opinions asks

#percy is someone who falls down over and over again because of HIS OWN flaws and bad choices and still gets back up to do the right thing #and i don't think i quite realized how much that resonated with me until now #cr meta #asks #also STAN STARFIRE YOU DONT HAVE A CHOICE

[nico-di-owgelo]

What I don't understand is the need to have made Percy know all of the myths. It's unnecessary. A familiarity makes sense, he studied it in school, and having Sally tell him stories is sweet, but that doesn't mean he can't be confused? In the books he mentions he struggles with some myths and names because his dyslexia makes it hard*, some names can be similar but are completely different figures. It's also mentioned that the more a demigod knows about the mythical world the easier they are to find. Percy's ignorance makes sense, and is important for his safety (hence why he's lied to by Brunner and Grover about Mrs Dodds). When comparing the wide breadth of myths covered in the books, not knowing exactly who someone is makes more sense than immediately knowing exactly who and what is going on.

A main theme in the books is that intelligence comes in many different forms, especially because the protagonists are both neurodiverse in more than one way. Being book smart isn't the end all be all of intelligence and both Annabeth and Percy show how clever they are in different ways. Book Percy was never made to seem stupid because he didn't immediately know about the Lotus hotel or Procrustes for example. Even Annabeth was fooled by them. That's how the myths worked in the pjo verse, they're modernised and there's the mist it's perfectly fine for them to be tricked. Hell, in universe the monsters want them to be tricked, that's the point. Percy's intelligence and quick thinking are shown not via immediate fact retrieval, but through how he manages to manipulate the situation for the better. He's perceptive, and is good at figuring things out**. He's still incredibly intelligent, it's just shown in a different way.

One of the joys of the original series was learning about the myths alongside Percy. The mystery and the unique modernisations of the stories. So it's a bit of a slap in the face to have the show's narration behave like everyone would know what any myth, that it's so obvious they don't need to explain how or why the protagonists know exactly what's coming before it has a chance to. Again: I'm aware that Annabeth has been at camp for years, but there's a massive amount of myths to know and they have adapted to the modern day. They might not be immediately recognisable, or the mist might be too strong etc etc. Not knowing something doesn't mean you're dumb.

The show, however, doesn't give the kids chances to mess up. They know everything immediately, or far too quickly. There's no room for learning or acknowledging the complexities of the pjo-universe. Them recognising Medusa straight away, fine, she's a pretty well known myth, and Percy is named for Perseus, the familiarity makes sense. The lotus hotel, less so, it's not that well known of an aspect of the Odyssey, but they are looking for a god so being suspicious of their surroundings is fair enough I guess? (Though coincidences can be coincidences. The only similarity that the island and the hotel have is a lotus, a very common flower?) There are so many things that happen in the Odyssey that not specifically remembering this tale would've been fine. But Procrustes? Immediately? Really?

What purpose does it serve to have the kids know who they're facing straight away? To the plot. Considering that the myths are intertwined with the modern, it would make sense for them not to know things, or at least not immediately recognise them as monstrous/magical, because not everything is?

I don't know, I just feel like taking the opportunity to learn away from both the audience and the characters cheapens the story and makes it less interesting. (Representations of intelligence aside. Because if I talk about that I'm going to call someone Ableist and I don't want to get into that right now. I will say though that even the movie had more overt dyslexia and adhd rep so...)

Not only that, but narratively, it's not working. There are no stakes to the situations the kids get into, or there are but certainly not to the same degree. It's just. Odd.

All that to say that the decision is a weird one and one that doesn't serve the plot to boot. That is all.

Anyways have pictures of my copy of TLT for support, please ignore my dissertation tabs.

* / **

#pjo tv crit #I got into pjo bc I was neurodiverse and into myths and I still learnt about myths I didn't know ?? I'm just genuinely so confused by this #the show has made a lot of weird decisions #none of which I think serve the story on a base level #if they had changed it but it still worked narratively I don't think I would have cared as much but it genuinely doesn't work so..:

[tommarvoloriddlesdiary]

“I’ll admit,” Percy Weasley starts. He’s hardly paying attention to anything outside the documents he’s perusing, throwing occasional glances at the small, constantly updating graph shimmering in the air beside him. “When Granger came to me with this idea, I thought she had finally gone mad.”

He snorts to himself and flips to another page, “It’d be about time, honestly. Dating my brother really should have done her in sooner. But Granger is smart. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. So, even though I thought the time had finally come to declare the one sane addition to my family, insane—I gave her the benefit of the doubt.”

Someone off camera clears their throat, “Mr Weasley, could you clarify what idea Ms Granger had that you’re referring to?”

Percy looks up with furrowed brows. He tilts his head and asks, “What do you mean? It’s obvious.”

“It’s obvious to us but not to the audience.”

“Ah,” Percy nods sagely. “I understand. Right. I am referring to Hermione Granger’s idea of filming a documentary about life inside the Ministry of Magic in an attempt to raise recruitment across various departments, of course.”

-

“The ministry gets a bad rap,” Hermione Granger says while walking briskly down the halls of Level One. “People think we’re secretly dark. They think that underhanded things are happening in the underbelly of our ministry. As Junior Undersecretary to the Minister, I oversee many finer details of our departments here. And, lately, overall interest to work for the ministry has suddenly declined.”

She pauses before a door, one hand on the knob before she turns to address the camera head-on, “Each year, more and more students graduate from Hogwarts. The wixen population in England has flourished, but we’re not seeing an influx of resumes.”

A paper bird flaps its folded wings and lands on her wrist, pecking at her sleeve for attention. She glances down at it and plucks the bird, her magic smoothing out the folds until all that’s left is a small piece of blue paper with a brief note.

She reads it as she continues, “That’s where you all come in. PR is Percy’s job, but with the Minister’s upcoming reelection push, he hasn’t got the time to spare. So I’m counting on this inside look on the ministry to soften our public image and make us more approachable….” She pauses.

Her head lifts slowly and carefully. “As an aside, please do not speak with the Head Auror until further notice,” she stresses and enters the doorway leaving the crew behind.

-

The Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Head Auror Harry Potter, stands casually in a training hall, overseeing the strict regimen for the sparse few new Aurors. His robes are draped over his shoulders and not quite worn in accordance with uniform regulations. But no one has the guts to tell him.

He replies to the quietly asked question simply, “Hermione doesn’t want you speaking with me because she thinks nothing shifty is happening in the ministry and wants this documentary to go off without a hitch.”

Before he continues, Harry carefully shrugs, “Whereas, I’m the opposite, really.”

Silence lingers before someone is brave enough to ask, “The opposite, Head Auror Potter-sir?”

Harry catches the eyes of the cameraperson who spoke up—they flinch with the intensity of his stare—but he just smiles and says, “Yeah. And Harry is fine, please.”

There’s a brief moment where it looks like Harry is contemplating how to word his following sentence, but his straightforward attitude seems to win out. “Our Minister is a Dark Lord in disguise, clearly. So anyone with half a brain cell would be smart to keep away. And if we’re going to have a whole documentary trying to prove otherwise, I plan on doing everything I can to stop it.”

The camera still zooms in a little on his pleased face even though no one knows what to say for a long, long while.

-

Ron Weasley adjusts himself in the tall folding chair the crew set up for him in the Auror Break Area. He’s holding a small bag of crisps and slowly makes his way through it before straightening up in his seat.

He looks very concerned and a touch manic when he says, “Harry is obsessed with the Minister.”

-

The Minister for Magic is yet to be available for an interview.

-

#eventual #tomarry #tomarrymort #harrymort #my fic #fic: life inside the ministry of magic #mockumentary au #i started this and have no idea if i should finish it because it's a little odd

[canichangemyblogname]

In the book Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Percy is attacked by a hellhound after his face-off with Clarisse. Just before the attack, Annabeth had asked Percy to come forth from the creek where she watched his wounds heal from the water, having already put two and two together regarding Percy’s godly parent. And, immediately after Percy survives the hellhound attack, Poseidon claims him.

The new Disney+ show, however, got rid of this scene, and I do not mind that at all.

In the book, the hellhound scene served several purposes. It reinforces that Percy is special and that powerful forces want him dead. It also establishes— very early on— that there is someone within Camp HalfBlood who wants him dead. And, it makes the audience suspicious of Hades as the bad guy. But, there are several other plot devices throughout the book that also establish these things, including Luke’s shoes, the scorpion at the end, the fact that Percy is a “forbidden child” of the Big 3, the Minotaur, the Furies, the fact Hades was suspect in the theft of the lightning bolt, and the prophecy that tells Percy a friend will betray him.

I think that cutting out the hellhound scene makes the fact Percy will be betrayed all that more a mystery. In the book, Percy had already been betrayed before he had ever heard the prophecy and before he had ever set off on his quest.

Cutting that scene also gave the episode the opportunity to show the audience what Luke had already told us: Annabeth is always 6 steps ahead of everyone else. She had worked out who Percy’s godly parent is. My guess is that she figured it out or began theorizing the night before, after the toilet incident. To test her theory the next day, she sets Percy up as “bait” on path to the lake (rather than creek). After he had defeated Clarisse and the two other Ares’ kids, she had Percy in the most opportune spot to test her conclusions. This prompted her to push him into the water, which would visibly heal him and solidify her theory that Percy has a special connection to the water. It would be at this moment that Poseidon claims Percy.

I think this was a good way to show the audience that Annabeth put two and two together before everyone else. She’s smart, strategic, and analytical, and it’s great we get to SEE that. And, quite truthfully, I think the fact someone figured it out could have forced Poseidon’s hand. Imagine the embarrassment of *everyone* knowing this kid is your kid because the Pride of Athena, a 12 y/o kid, was astute enough to put it together, rather than you just claiming him. She would have told Chiron and Mr. D. She might even tell her mother. And, as she’s not bound by the same rules as the gods, she could have told Percy, too.

Personally, I think the Hell Hound scene came too early. For it to work would mean that Luke knew who Percy’s father was before he was claimed, so someone would have had to tip him off. Which meant a non zero number of free actors in camp knew definitively who Percy’s godly parent was before capture the flag (as opposed to “I have a hunch, but I need to test it out”). I always guessed Kronos told Luke, but that also confused me because I knew that the deities operated by different rules. Zeus, for example, couldn’t come down from the sky, point at Percy and say, “This is Poseidon’s bastard. Great. Now that’s established, can I kill him now” even though he already knew Poseidon is Percy’s father.

The original hellhound scene also left several questions about how Luke was able to call a creature from Hades’ realm, under Hades’ domain. It also seemed to conflict with future in-universe means of calling a hellhound. When I was younger, the scene and subsequent lore surrounding hellhounds led me to assume Nyx, Cerberus, or Hades had allied with Kronos and was allowing Kronos’ forces to call hellhounds at their discretion. But that was not the case.

#Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Percy Jackson #Annabeth Chase #Luke Castellan #the lightning thief

[violetren]

Controversial opinion but, Gabe's level of crappy was well adapted actually.

I think the fact that the maintenance guy felt the need to apologise to Percy because Percy had to go into the house with a freshly annoyed Gabe, and the fact that Percy "my mother is more important than the gods" Jackson was surprised that Gabe has been answering her phone implying that its a breach of privacy and not a thing Sally would normally allow if is she knew, and just a few other things in general do work well as subtext that Gabe can be a lot worse than we got to see of him so its weird for me seeing everyone be like "idk man its probably gonna feel bad when the medusa him like the books, he's just kind sucky."

Like it's a live action disney show made for CHILDREN, there are a lot of things they are never going to get away with showing. Like showy domestic abuse. Violence only flies if its fantastical or if it is in small doses by people in the same peer group, like kids fighting kids, adults fighting adults. There isn't as much wiggle room as in say animation where its easily stylised to be less confronting, or in text where its all theatre of the mind.

Just because a lot of the original fans of the series are adults now doesn't mean the show was made for us, and would go in on those darker themes. It was made because its popular children's franchise that has the potential to get a whole new generation of viewers, they aren't gonna get by today's ethical standards for a children's show by making Show!Gabe more overtly like Percy's descriptions Book!Gabe.

Also do you know what actions we get from like the dozen or so lines we get of Book!Gabe at the start of the story when you strip away Percy's internal monologue about how awful he is? We get an entitled man child who sits on his ass playing poker for most of the scene and cares more about having cash to gamble than Percy or Sally's happiness. A loser who is placated into leaving the scene and becoming irrelevant by being offered food he likes.

So no, we didn't see him asking for Percy's change from the cab fare but we also didn't see Percy get a cab. And no, he didn't make some shitty comment about the money for the trip coming out of Sally's clothes money, but we did get him answering Sally's phone without permission and telling Percy he better take his shoes off in the car implying that Gabe sees his boundaries and belongings as sacred whereas theirs aren't. Gabe was only ever just kind of a pathetic jerk who had to prompt his so called friend twice for the guy to get in on jeering at Percy so honestly it makes sense that a modern version would only play online because he wouldn't have the charisma or attitude to get an in person table.

Book!Gabe only seemed more hardcore because we had Percy's internal monologue adding layers that couldn't have been put into adaptation without adding an extra 10mins of run time or using a voice over technique that wouldn't mesh with the rest of how they have constructed the show and would have come off as cheap. And arguably even with the internal monologue the only reason his death still feels justifiable as an adult is because we've been steeping Percy's (aka the heroic audience surrogate protag that our young minds all latched onto) satisfaction at his death in nostalgia for almost two decades.

So yeah, he seemed pathetic and kinda manageable in the beginning, but the reason abusers can be so prolific is that a lot of the time they do look pathetic, or manageable, or if you're especially unlucky they can even seem charming, and attentive, right up until they aren't.

For the adults and older kids that know the character that means we know what he is under that pathetic facade, for those that don't some red flags were dropped, and for the kids he's just vaguely a jerk compared to Sainted Mother Sally Jackson and that might be enough of a hand wave when they have much cooler fantasy shit and other characters their age to be more busy sympathising with.

Obviously we don't know how things will play out, maybe because they "scaled him back" they'll drop the medusa statue approach. Maybe we'll get flashbacks or conversations about Percy growing up that will show Gabe's more sinister side to justify it happening anyways. Maybe we'll see nothing but when Percy and Sally will arrive home and Gabe will blow up at them for having to sit through the big game alone and without his sandwich completely ignoring that they were missing for over a week beyond how it inconvenience him, and make it a moment of self defence. Maybe it will be played for cheap laughs or a cheaper girl-power™ moment.

My point is for what the show is and who its aimed at, Gabe was an acceptable level of crappy, and its too soon to make a judgement call on whether he deserves his book death since we don't know if they'll have scaled that back to match his new incarnation. It was funny and felt kinda like justice in the books, but it wasn't a major plot point, it was just a loose end being tied up. They could end the season evoking much of the same emotion just by kicking him out of the apartment with nothing but his wrecked car and a sandwich that doesn't even have peppers in it.

#chirping wren #pjo #gabe ugliano #disney percy jackson

[adaineabernantsfrog]

Sweet Satine

BASED ON @romeoandjulietyouwish 's BROADWAY AU. THIS STARTED AS SOMETHIGN SMALL.

Keyleth had never felt like she was more unsuited to a role than fucking Satine, of all of them she had ever played this one was so far out of her comfort zone. It’s not like she was doing it alone, though. Percy was Christian and Gilmore was Harold, and Vax was Toulouse, which made Nature Boy a lot more emotional. She had Vex as well, with a scene in the show where their two characters described each other as ‘sisters’ in. And she couldn’t fucking breathe. She was gasping for air through her warm-ups and her rehearsal today, and was sure Percy had noticed it. The door opened and in rushed Gilmore, who had his hands around her waist in the next second. Thank god her entrance was not until 15 minutes in. 

“Gilmore, hack,” She said, curling into him. 

“I know they talk about method acting, but this is too much darling. You need sleep.” Keyleth shook her head, but still curled closer into Gilmore. “I’ll make you some tea, yes?” She nodded, “Save your voice, no talking until you’re out on that stage. If you’re still bad at the end of act 1, you’re leaving.” Keyleth could do nothing but nod, and hack above her dressing table. “Oh dear, your lipstick has smudged. Here.” Gilmore took a make-up wipe and gently reapplied it. “Let’s go.” 

From the stage, Keyleth could hear Vax beginning his song. 

“I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh.”

~

Keyleth had always been afraid of heights. She coughed gently into her elbow and looked at the swing in front of her, sitting down. It was, arguably, the best entrance in the show. If she could hold off her coughs for a little while, she could get through it. Her legs swung and she felt herself lower. Hundreds of people were expecting the diamond. She could show them Keyleth. 

“Diamonds are forever,” She began, letting go of the grip of one of the handles, she continued the song as her feet landed on the ground, and if slightly less effort was put into the notes so she could do Crazy Rolling extremely well later? That was a secret only she got to know. She was, mostly, fine. 

~

Something was wrong with Keyleth. Vex didn’t know her as well as her brother did, but she could still tell something was off. There were too many well-placed coughs in the show where there weren't before, and it took a little extra effort to pull her off the floor during Sparkling Diamond. “Vax.” She said, backstage. A risk she was willing to take, because the audience may have been able to see her. 

“What on earth are you doing, Stubby?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper. 

“Something’s wrong with Keyleth.” Vex said. “I can see it when I get behind her. She’s slightly weaker.” 

“Oh no the exits not a good…” Vax, in his panic, looked back to his sister, who was already gone before she could elaborate and he was making his entrance. He was supposed to look at Keyleth, Satine, anyway, and when he did there was no way she wasn’t ill. “Idea.” Even under the thick stage make-up, he could see dark circles under her eyes. When the three boys went away to argue, she coughed into her arm. 

~

The second the curtain fell on act 1, Keyleth collapsed into Percy’s arms and started coughing a little too violently. Percy held onto her as she coughed and prayed nobody in the audience could hear her. Method Acting was going a step too far with Keyleth tonight.

“Keeks.” He said. “Are you sure you can keep going?” Keyleth coughed some more in response and looked up at him. She was panting for breath. “Actually, don't talk. Come on, let’s get you sat down.” She leaned on Percy all the way to her dressing room, where she sat down on her chair and had a blanket draped over her shoulders and handed her a notebook and pen. Vax came in immediately after that, still in costume, closely followed by Vex. 

“I think you should go home.” Vax said, “When does Pike’s show finish? Maybe she can take you home.” Vax was always like this when any member of the group got sick. “Vex can go on for you.” Keyleth began to scrawl in the notebook. 

I’m fine. She coughed off to the side again, Check my temp. Percy raised an eyebrow. 

“If it’s raised too high, you’re leaving.” He said, “We’re calling Cass.” It always looked strange seeing Vex with the blonde Nini wig on, Keyleth thought. Not many people knew that her natural hair colour was a deep, dark brown. She nodded at Percy, who went to fetch the kit, and Vax bent down next to her.

“What’s wrong, love?” Keyleth touched her throat. “Voice hurts?” She nodded, “Want me to go on for you?” She tried not to laugh, and spotted Gilmore in the doorway. She waved him and Scanlan in. “What, I have great sexual tension with Shaun and Freddie.” 

“No doing well then, Dove?” Gilmore asked, and Keyleth nodded. Vax had launched into an intentionally bad rendition of Firework. “Vocal rest would be the best thing for you.” 

“Want me to call Kaylie?” Scanlan asked. “She could get here in ten minutes.” Keyleth rolled her eyes and wrote something in her notebook. 

I don’t want to delay the show. Vax was still doing his bad rendition, but he was doing the choreography to Chandelier with it. It made a complete mess of the song, but Keyleth was smiling. Percy and Vex returned with the thermometer, and Keyleth allowed the momentary discomfort of it being shoved in her ear before it beeped and Percy read the temperature. 

“It’s fine.” Vex said. “But-”

“No buts.” Keyleth croaked out. “If it was fine. I could stay.”

“You sound like you’re dying.” Scanlan pointed out. 

“Method acting.” Keyleth shot back. 

“Sing for me.” Gilmore said, and because Keyleth could not hold her tongue, she launched into Christine’s run from Phantom of The Opera. It sounded fine. It wasn’t going to get her any crazy standing ovations, but it sounded fine. “Well. No more talking until you’re on that stage, yes?” Keyleth nodded again. One by one, they filed out of the room until it was just Keyleth and Vax. 

Vax leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, and then he was gone too. 

~

“You need a doctor, Ke- Satine.” Vex (as Nini) insisted after almost messing up the line and during the scene that Nini and Satine shared after Satine had revealed her illness to the other members of Moulin Rouge. She had to notice that Keyleth’s breath caught in her throat, which only made her cough more. Vex was by her side in a second. 

“I am fine, Nini.” Keyleth said, “I will open the new show and- hack.” That wasn’t in the script. Keyleth could not stop coughing. Whatever she did next had to be in somewhat character until they could get the show back running, but her chest was so tight and the coughs were so violent and she didn’t know whether her microphone was on or off. 

“Deep breaths, love.” Vex said, so close to her character Keyleth could not tell whether she was faking, “Harold will understand.” Vex found the pocket of her costume where they kept the tissue, and handed it to Keyleth. 

“Nini- I can’t breathe.” Keyleth said, falling over and into Vex. Vex, in all her good grace, picked her up and carried her off stage. People were talking all around her and she was vaguely aware of orders being yelled by the stage manager and an announcement of a brief show stop. 

“Vex, go get on for Satine, Vax-” 

“I’m staying with Kiki.”

“I know. I’m telling you to make the both of you sparse so we can use this area for make up.” Keyleth was aware of strong hands by her side and Vax gently lifting her up and towards her dressing room. She didn’t have a car and neither did he, so they’d have to get the subway back to Keyleth and Pike’s tiny apartment, unless they signalled a cab. 

~ Keyleth woke up the next morning to a post from Moulin Rouge’s official twitter account and more replies under it than was natural. Vax was asleep on the floor next to her as she scrolled through the replies. Percy had once called this ‘doom scrolling’, but she couldn’t help herself. 

@MoulinRougeBway: For the remainder of tonight's performance, Satine will be played by Vex’ahlia De Rolo and Toulouse-Lautrec will be played by Kynan Leore. We thank you for your patience. 

It was calm, it was reasonable, it was professional, it was everything that the official account for their job should be. The responses were always rough to get through, but Keyleth did it anyway. 

@BellaSmith: WTF?? Came all this way to see Keyleth and she can’t even do the show. 

@NCDR: Calm down Bella. 

@Cheffery: Wishing you all the best Keyleth! So lucky to get to see yours and Vex’s Satine in one night…You both bring something good to the role. 

@Strongjaw: Get well soon Kiki!!!!

Her phone was covered by a hand and pulled out of her grasp by Vax, who had woken up.

“How’re you doing?” He asked, and she hadn't tried speaking yet. “We need to get you to a doctor, yeah? Satine is emotionally and vocally demanding. I know you don’t want to think about it but better safe than sorry, yeah?” 

“Vax-” Keyleth’s voice was still cracking at every single chance it got. “-Fine. I’ll go see a doctor.” Vax kissed her on the forehead again. 

“I love you. Please don’t kiss me, I don’t wanna get sick.”

#vaxleth #legend of vox machina #vox machina #keyleth of the air ashari #vax'ildan #vex'ahlia #percy de rolo #will this make very little sense unless youve seen moulin rouge #yes #did i have fun with it

[restlesssinner]

Things I noticed watching Bullet Train a second time at home so my family could see the movie too (spoilers):

Tangerine tells lemon to wear a vest to protect his chest and lemon says it gives people a false security cause you can still get shot in the neck; lemon gets shot in the chest and lives BUT LATER tangerine gets shot in the neck and dies

The first time I watched it my heart was shredded by Dominic Lewis’ cover of bubbles that plays when lemon finds tangerine’s “corpse” (I’m DL’s #1 Spotify listener, he also worked on OSTs for violent night and spirited this year) but the song also plays when the brothers are counting their kills in its original form and in a rock cover when they slow-no walk to find the thief

Ladybug has bad luck but not only does little prince constantly talk about good luck but her father does too, seeing how he keeps forcing and winning Russian roulette on his enemies

Ladybug has long hair and a beard, looks homeless and is forced to face all the misfortunes of the world so that others can rest in peace, and for once it’s nice to see a Jesus allegory that isn’t shoved in our faces by the movie

The elder and the white death both worked under the same boss, both lost their wives, both have two descendants one of which is affiliated with crime and another which is kidnapped to get to their parent; the prior spent most of the movie in the same scenes

“He shot my brother” “you shot my son” both of these where also caused by little prince manipulating the shooter into thinking they’re the victim

The nurse that kills the child’s assassin is in the background of every shot showing the assassin

Almost no one in the movie is known by their real names but by symbolic nicknames: even agent carver alludes to an assassin with butcher-like instincts

In the bottle flashback you can see lemon and tangerine changing clothes from their countdown scene to the ones they wear on the bullet train

First ladybug pretends to be tangerine’s twin and later lemon taunts him as not being a replacement to his brother

Lemon says Logan Lerman’s character looks like a “Percy” alluding to his famous PJO role

The wolf’s envelope is shown earlier when ladybug searches his coat for a gun and has to exes to represent cartoon dead eyes and two suspects that were at the wedding undercover: ladybug and hornet. The contrast between these two is shown by how one kills the conductor to steal their clothing whilst the other pays bisexual icon Channing Tatum to exchange clothes

I might be dumb but I realized that the Wild West stand off between hornet and ladybug was also her waiting to see if he succumbs to the poison in thirty seconds

Lemon tells an old lady she is fucking excused and ladybug later tells the same lady to eat a bag of dicks

Tangerine is at first suspicious of little prince because he knows all the seats were sold out by the white death but that knowledge dies with him

I still don’t know how the elder psychically knows his son is fine can someone please tell me if they know

I swear this is my favorite movie after EEAAO there’s so much rich detail even it has to remind the audiences by re-showing earlier scenes it literally made me forgive Brad Pitt for straight washing Troy I watched it in cinemas just cause I didn’t feel like waiting for the movie I went to watch without planning it and I hope this artistic masterpiece is never forgotten in the corridors of cinema history if there’s anything more you can think off feel free to add your thoughts

#bullet train #lemon and tangerine #ladybugs #brad Pitt #dominic lewis

[candy-corn-slut]

I’ve been saying a lot that the show is not going to have a great first season bc tv shows rarely do. It takes time for the writers to find their footing, the actors to settle into the characters, the set design and all the various pieces to start to come together and be incredible. However. I believe the shows ability to improve will rely on the writers ability to take (good faith) criticism and make improvements. Whether the next seasons are better depends on a few things:

1. Timing, the kids already look much older than they did during the filming of season 1, if they put it off too long, the show runs the risk of stranger things-ing, a phenomenon where child actors become adult actors before their child characters become adult characters. We need walker to not be 25 when the last Olympian films (if it films). Disney will have to move quickly to renew and start filming season 2 to avoid this

2. Pacing. Maybe Disney will see the complaints about length and give the future seasons more/longer episodes. If not, the writers have got to account for that and they have got to be willing to make sacrifices. No one wants to see plot points dropped, but it’s not much (if at all) better to see all the plot points poorly carried out. The audience needs time to breathe. We need time for the points to sit. We cannot maintain this agonizingly quick pacing whereby one thing happens and we move on immediately to the next. It kills tension!

3. Tension. This show lacked tension badly. Almost every reveal was disappointing (when, as someone who has read the books so many times I can practically recite them from memory, in the books they are not). They are figuring things out so. quickly. And for what? To immediately move on to the next thing. Obviously there is credence for them knowing about the myths, percy being taught by his mom, annabeth studying this stuff since she was 7, but the tension in the books isn’t from a lack of knowledge, it’s an inability to immediately identify the danger because it looks different in the modern era than it was in the original stories. The lotus island was an island, it wasn’t a casino, it should have been harder to spot (even with the name), Procrustus (or however it’s spelled) wasn’t a fucking bed salesman. There is nuance. That’s part of why the books are so magical. They reframe old stories for the modern world. This is so lost in the show.

4. Characterization. Annabeth is so stoic. Percy isn’t very quippy. Grover is so sure of himself. None of these things are true in the books. Annabeth is geeky, percy is sassy (all the time, not just occasionally, I need more seaweed brain moments, him trying to place the myth), Grover has been badly burned by the ordeal of taking annabeth, luke, and Thalia to camp; by losing Thalia. The council doesn’t trust him, he sees himself as a screwup. His growth comes in the form of forgiving himself and becoming more confident. More willing to stand up for himself and his friends. (If you can’t tell I’m the most irritated by Grover’s thing). Sally has these moments where she (obv accidentally) makes percy believe she doesn’t want him??? Percy is so loved by sally, he has never once doubted that his mom cherishes him, even though he often believes he doesn’t deserve that, because he wasn’t a “good kid” (by his own metric)

If the writers are willing to tackle these (and other) issues, I think the show could be really great, even if it won’t be a beat for beat recreation of the books. But if the writers (Rick) stick their heads in the sand and insist that they know best and that every critic is unreasonable? The show won’t improve. It’ll be mediocre, and I doubt I’ll watch it.

#I can’t wait to reread the first book again #seriously #ugh it’s gonna be so good #percy jackson #pjo spoilers #kinda