#-if you're gonna make the most perplexing and unnecessary changes ever

[deanpinterester]

having sally yell at baby percy feels so fundamentally wrong. i didn't mind when she got frustrated with him in the pool because that was just one instance of sally losing her temper but now it's like oh. this is just how the show version of her is.

like. idk. one of sally's defining traits was that she never got mad at percy. that didn't mean she was weak. that was her strength. that she could pull through tough times by putting a smile on her face, so that she didn't scare percy, so that she could protect him.

i just feel like it would have been a much more well-defined scene if we got to see how sally manages to talk percy out of the car by. being nice?? coaxing him??? explaining the situation in a way he would understand instead of just saying "there are things i have to do that you don't understand" (if you say that to a kid they are 100% not going to listen to you bc. yeah they don't understand!! so you have to explain it in a way they WOULD understand!!)

if sally had already been dating smelly gabe at this point, she could have leveraged this. she could have put a funny spin on it and said "i'm just trying to get you away from smelly gabe's stinky gym shorts." if she wanted baby percy to not feel like she was abandoning him and separating him from the rest of society, she could have said "the kids in there are just like you." she could have given him a keepsake, to show she will always be with him. there are SO many ways the writers could have spun this and they just didn't. they went the easy way out.

all of these flashback scenes are painting a very unfortunate picture that percy didn't actually have a good relationship with his mom. and i know that's not the vibe the show is trying to go for, but they've got to understand!! that not everyone who's watched the show has the read the books! we don't all automatically know that sally and percy have the bestest mother-son relationship ever! if you only show sally being frustrated at baby percy, we start to think oh dang, maybe this whole time percy doesn't actually have a good relationship with his mom!

#uhhhh me #i think the tag is: #pjo show crit #also i don't think 'it's a character flaw' is a good defense #because sally DOES have a flaw. her flaw is that she bottles up all her problems!! she acts like she's fine but she isn't! #at the end of book 1 this is something she has to overcome when percy gives her medusa's head and tells her it's time to save herself!! #i don't see a need for this to change #i generally don't mind if an adaptation changes things but the change has to make sense and. like. be good?? #and so far all the changes in the show have either been baffling or poorly executed #like idk maybe you shouldn't have marketed the show as the most accurate book adaptation we've been waiting for- #-if you're gonna make the most perplexing and unnecessary changes ever

[lakemichigans]

now i'm curious about your thoughts on the traffic light system

this is gonna be super long but i did warn you jfkjsds

it's fine in real life and i'm never going to judge people for being overly cautious about consent/safety as long as all parties are fine with it but in FICTION there's a tendency to bring up the traffic light system wayyyyyy too often (and in scenarios where it doesn't make sense).

the traffic light system works best in scenarios that involve some sort of resistance roleplay, wrestling, acting bratty, humiliation, etc. any type of behavior that might lead a person to say "no" / "stop" / "i hate you" / "i don't want to" when they really mean "keep going". that's when it's crucial to have words that will either pause play so you can talk something through / switch things up (yellow) or stop altogether (red) (these words mean different things to different people but i would hope you would talk about that first if you're going to be using the traffic light system at all).

but i always cringe when i see the traffic light system in fics because i know it's going to go like this: the dom (who i'm usually supposed to believe is an experienced dom) asks INCESSANTLY, "what's your color baby? 🥺 are you green? do you like that? can i continue? what about now, what's your color? i won't continue until you tell me your color sweetheart 🥺 good boy/girl 🥺🥺🥺 what about now –" i'm sorry but that is so unnecessary. what's the point of having the other colors if you're just going to keep forcing them to confirm they're still good? checking in every now and then is great (especially if you think something might have changed and they aren't telling you) but come on man.... you should be able to trust that your sub will use the words you agreed upon to slow down/stop if they feel uncomfortable. it just reeks of insecurity to keep asking like you don't believe them when they say they're green?? it feels infantilizing and i know that's not the kink the writer is going for lmao. it's always the fics where they're doing the most mild stuff too... i don't think i've ever?? read a fic where the sub actually fights against restraints or acts anything other than receptive, so it's always just perplexing when the dom is asking every 0.2 seconds if they're okay when they have no evidence of the contrary

also there are more immersive ways to check in with someone rather than outright asking "what's your color?" but i'm not gonna get into that because it just depends what you're doing. it is possible though! i wish people would get a little more creative with it

#again i'm only talking about fiction here