Sometimes I just get struck with how young Kotoko is. She appears very mature and put together. She acts like an adult who has everything situated and a plan for anything. She's physically stronger than 60% of the people she's with. She speaks calmly, confidently.
It's easy to dismiss Fuuta's actions as immature because after all, he's just a kid with naive thoughts about justice and heroes. It's easy to villainize Kotoko for beating up the others because she seems like she should know better, so she must be cruel and coldhearted in order to do that.
But they're the exact same age!! She is just as blinded by a very black-and-white, underdeveloped sense of justice!! They both imagine themselves as leaders of a righteous group/pack bringing violent justice to the world!! I think it's so easy to fall into the trap of viewing Fuuta as naive/immature and viewing Kotoko as cruel -- it can't be overlooked that their outward confidence is the only major difference between them. Just because Fuuta is scared and Kotoko is willing to get her hands dirty doesn't mean she's any more mature or experienced than him.
It just makes me sad because she's just another character in Milgram who tries to convince the others they're older and more mature even though they are definitely struggling with age-appropriate things and receiving no support for it :(
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...Has anyone else noticed that everyone defending Will"s characterization in this book. Hasn't actually hit upon any of the things people are upset about? I keep seeing people talking about how he always was portrayed with anxiety and, yeah, we're not contesting that; I'm upset about how he inexplicably won't let Nico shadow travel despite the fact that he shadow travels with Nico all the time, and I'm upset that the book fails to differentiate between constantly trying to "fix" Nico and trying to get him to rest because he was literally going to die that one time.
I honestly did not at all get the feeling from this book that Will was supposed to have an anxiety disorder. As someone with an anxiety disorder. When we're in Will's head it... doesn't feel like an anxiety disorder. Ever. Maybe some normal level anxiety at best? But it literally just feels like dread and apprehension because they're going on a quest to literal superhell. Not an anxiety disorder.
I definitely agree that Will constantly trying to "fix" Nico is incredibly annoying, and is one of my major gripes too, especially since the narrative keeps trying to prove Will right and validate Nico being in the wrong constantly. And yeah I totally agree the mischaracterization of Will fussing over Nico when he's literally one foot in the grave in misinterpreting that to be Will never allowing Nico to use his powers (and conversely, when Nico attempts to do the same thing paint it as Nico being harmful and not knowing what's best for Will, despite Will apparently being entirely in the right for Nico according to the narrative. The book just can't stop infantilizing Nico and making him completely helpless. grrrr.)
The main mischaracterization issue I take with Will is that they made him an asshole. Just an absolute insensitive huge asshole. This isn't even like low-empathy/autistic Will not realizing he's being rude, it's him actively being mean and the narrative never showing repercussions of that, only validating him. Will is a complete and total asshole, particularly to Nico, and the book says he is right about it. Which is HORRIBLE. And this is completely atypical to how we've seen Will in the past! In TLO, Will is serious but empathetic. In most of HoO, he's chill and lax and helpful. In TOA he's both. The only time Will is somewhat rude is in BoO when he's actively trying to keep Nico from keeling over and also this is the first time we see them interact significantly, so we can chalk up this discrepancy to just them trying to find their footing talking to each other. It's absolutely not the kind of dynamic they'd have one year into their relationship (especially not when we literally never see this in TOA). The book also completely retcons the fact that Will actually has an incredibly strong stomach due to being a medic, if not actually finding typically "gross" stuff kind of amusing. The closest acknowledgement we get to that in TSATS is Will liking true crime podcasts, but that honestly just feels like more of a joke poking fun at millennials/gen z kids being really into true crime. At every other point he gets so easily off-put, disgusted, and revolted by absolutely everything. I mean, heck, there's the whole bug house thing - Apollo is literally the god of midges and locusts! That's not a joke, that is a legitimate thing. He's also the father of the god of bees. Give me Will seeing the bug house and going "Oh shit that's epic." We should have gotten Will stumbling through the entire Underworld going "Oh, gross! I love it!" (I've heard others also compare Will's disgust towards the Underworld as feeling coded like someone refusing to respect their partner's culture, which I think is also a very accurate comparison and particularly notable given Nico canonically immigrated to the United States).
Besides the anxiety disorder thing, heck, I asked the PJO discord if anyone could check their ebooks/pdfs and it doesn't seem like the book even references ADHD/dyslexia, which is the literal foundations of the entire series. And throughout the entire book we never get any notes about it, or do Will or Nico ever show any traits of it. The closest we get is Will bounces his leg like one time. They couldn't even get that much right. Not to mention them referencing Nico's eating disorder at the beginning of the book and then immediately forgetting about it and it being implied to be "cured" by the end, and them only remembering Nico's autistic traits when it was to infantilize him, and in general them handling PTSD and depression extremely poorly. Basically the only neurodivergence/mental health topic they touched upon that actually seemed to be done somewhat well was Will have a very overt seasonal affective disorder metaphor/coding. And admittedly, it's kind of hard to fuck that one up with how they coded it.
Literally the only reasons I can think for them characterizing Will as they did in this book are:
a.) They completely mixed him up with Michael Yew, aka basically the only other Apollo kid with a fleshed out personality (and that personality is "asshole")
b.) the book was blatantly going for a Percabeth 2 dynamic, and so tried to make Will some awkward fusion between Percy's snark and Annabeth's stubbornness and know-it-all attitudes, resulting in him just being a Huge Jerk
c.) Solangelo had too healthy of a dynamic in previous books and to create conflict that would inevitably be overcome within the book they had to completely change Will and Nico's characters to insert it into the story for narrative purposes
or d.) they were entirely drawing upon popular "fanon" for solangelo, particularly back from pre-TOA (circa 2014-2016), and because Will in that era was usually characterized as somewhat of an asshole due to his behavior in BoO and everybody was still trying to figure out what to do with him, that interpretation of his character was put into the book.
Whatever the case, it's definitely disappointing and they really didn't succeed in trying to code Will as having an anxiety disorder at all.
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new oc batch ready! 8 more of these guys lol. the whole deal with this set is they’re from the artisan guild- lunar flair! intentionally spelled like “flair” as in “style” or “a flare for ____” rather than “flare”
basically all the members of the guild are different kinds of artists with different niches (and varying degrees of diva-ness). it’s pretty easy to tell who does what based on the everything about them, but if you want more info their bios are still under the cut!
Name: Jupiter
Name Origin: The planet of course
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 52
Guild rank: Guildmaster
Weapon: Lightning rods
Ethos (Power): Gigantomachy. He can make himself (even more) giant
Flaw power is based on: His overly protective nature, especially where the guild is concerned.
Notes: Literally the nicest guy ever until you provoke him though
Name: Erinome (Erin)
Name Origin: A moon of jupiter, the exact meaning of it’s name is murky but it can refer to grace or purity
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 13
Guild rank: 2 star
Weapon: A Book.
Ethos (Power): Poetic Imagery. Illusions cast forth by his her poems that change the appearance of the physical environment
Flaw power is based on: Her escapist indulgence in fantasy
Notes: You know, like, the pen is mightier than the sword and all that.
Name: Pictor
Name Origin: The constellation meaning “painter”
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 23
Guild rank: 3 star
Weapon: Giant paintbrush
Ethos (Power): Ardor. He can create three-dimensional things with his paintbrush. However they are not animate or alive.
Flaw power is based on: His conceited nature in regards to his own work.
Notes: Goes to museums to talk about how he could probably do it better anyway
Name: Oberon
Name Origin: A moon of the planet Uranus, it gets it’s name from the king of the fairies in Renaissance literature. Notably in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 29
Guild rank: 5 star
Weapon: Rapier
Ethos (Power): Fantasia. An illusion of changing his own appearance.
Flaw power is based on: His theatrical nature, of course
Notes: Why is he ourple?
Name: Syrma
Name Origin: A star in virgo, it’s name refers to the train of a garment (Typically worn by actors in tragedies)
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 25
Guild rank: 4 star
Weapon: Giant needle
Ethos (Power): Binding threads. She can create stitches on any solid objects and bind them to each other. Including people- The stitches are manifested energy and do not hurt.
Flaw power is based on: The dependency she often has on bonds- i.e. threads that bind people.
Notes: She makes and models all her own clothes.
Name: Parumleo
Name Origin: A star in Pisces, it’s name means “small lion”
Pronouns: They/he
Age: 19
Guild rank: 3 star
Weapon: Microphone bardiche
Ethos (Power): Persuasion. If they can make you laugh you’ll temporarily have to follow his orders. Though it’s too weak to call full-blown mind control, and fairly easy to snap out of.
Flaw power is based on: His desire to be liked by others.
Notes: They’re like a lolcat. They can haz cheezburger.
Name: Leda
Name Origin: A moon of jupiter, the name means swan.
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 28
Guild rank: 4 star
Weapon: Duel ribbons
Ethos (Power): Poise. Complete and utter weightlessness.
Flaw power is based on: Her carefree and utterly absent-minded nature.
Notes: You guys know swan lake right? Well, there ya go.
Name: Styx
Name Origin: A moon of pluto that gets it’s name from the river of the underworld. Yeah it’s also a rock band.
Pronouns: She/they
Age: 20
Guild rank: 3 star
Weapon: Axe-guitar.
Ethos (Power): Vibrato. Powerful soundwaves cast by her axe-guitar
Flaw power is based on: Her brash and blasé attitude
Notes: Calls everyone “baby” or “babe” because they’re a cool rockstar.
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