#PJO Critical

[azural83]

The recent wave of movies/shows that go on a "tell don't show" route because people behind them think consumers are too stupid to understand a thing on their own makes me appreciate arcane more than I did before

#stop exposition-dumping us for 5 minutes ffs #atla #natla #avatar #avatar netflix #netflix avatar #atla netflix #netflix atla #netflix #pjo critical #percy jackson critical #arcane #atla live action #live action atla #atla remake #avatar live action #avatar remake

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

One of things that really turned me off of the pjo world among lots of other things was that all the titans and primordials were portrayed as purely evil with no nuance or variety in morality. In the books, even Iapetus, who is labelled a "good" titan, was pretty much brainwashed into being benevolent.

Nyx was such a loving and devoted mother in mythology that she scared off Zeus when he tried to harm her son Hypnos. Prometheus went through excruciating pain on a daily basis just for humanity to have light and heat. Leto was described as kind and gentle and was the titan goddess of motherhood. Phoebe gave Apollo, her grandson, the oracle of Delphi as a gift. Oceanus, in some myths, helped Zeus overthrow Kronos by giving him a potion that would induce vomiting and release his siblings and he and Tethys pretty much raised Hera during the titanomachy. Helios was a loving father to Circe and all his kids and even saved her when a giant attacked her island. Etc, etc.

#greek mythology #mythology #pjo #anti pjo #pjo critical #pjo criticism #anti percy jackson #percy jackson critical #percy jackson criticism #anti rick riordan #anti rr #rick riordan critical #rick riordan criticism #titans #olympians

[hermesmyplatonicbeloved]

Someone mentioned that Percabeth fans are usually Annabeth fans, while anti-Percabeth ppl are usually Percy fans and while for what I've seen this isn't entirely true (anti-Percabeth fans are more in touch with the source material and think more critically) there is an element of truth to it.

A lot of Percy stans see how Annabeth treats Percy

Calling him seaweed brain continously, even when theyre adults in college which means stupid (confirmed by Rick Riordan himself)

Hitting/punching/judo-flipping Percy as punishment, not in play or sparring or joke which might excuse it

Talking down to Percy like he's dumb and stupid instead of dyslexic (because Percy is not stupid, contrary to popular opinion, and that is supported by canon)

Controlling Percy's friend network and lowkey isolating him

Playing mind games to keep Percy on his toes, constantly trying to be on his "best boyfriend behavior"

And they're just... really uncomfortable with it. Like yeah sure, Percabeth has a few sweet scenes... but that doesn't take away from any of this. An abusive relationship is still abusive if the couple have a few good moments together. That's part of the strategy the abuser uses to keep the victim in the dark about what they're doing, and to keep them in that relationship.

Percy is still getting hurt, and worse, believing that he deserves to be treated that way and believing that he's lucky he has Annabeth. This may not alarm Annabeth fans because they're not looking at Percy, but it does alarm Percy stans because they are paying attention to Percy, more so than Annabeth.

It takes a critical mind to recognize it and even more so to realize that women can be abusive too. Men are not always the abusers in relationships. Abusive relationships are more about control than they are about how many bruises the abuser is leaving on the victim.

#anti annabeth chase #anti percabeth #pjo #percy jackson #hoo #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #rick riordan #percy #pjo critical #hoo critical #pjo hoo toa #percabeth critical #annabeth chase critical #percy jackson defense squad #cotg #cotg critical

[cratercowboy]

I mean people are allowed to critique the show. Especially when it’s so bland. Disney is a multi million dollar company, Rick was directly involved in this project, and yet so many changes were made that don’t seem to fit the characters or completely change their motivations.

And on a production level, things like character’s clothes and setting feel lifeless. Not to mention, watching scenes in complete darkness.

#The darkness thing… who started that? #why am I being robbed of sight #sure just have voices floating around #pjo ep 6 #pjo ep 5 #pjo adaptation #pjo tv show #pjo tv crit #pjo critical #annabeth chase #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #percy series #the lightning thief

[litiyerses]

calypso having an emotion-centered character and being viewed & getting treated as the ‘evil woman’ is actually a reflection of how every woman's emotions are villainized when they’re shown vividly and are a main part of their character in popular media.

in general media and riordanverse specifically, women with emotions are always looked down upon because showing emotions is regarded as a dramatic act so when a female character shows and acts on their emotiotions they get degraded and instantly despised because of it. this is done with every single female character while male characters who show emotion are treated like saints and found worthy of self redemption. this happened with annabeth when she didn’t want to believe luke was the bad guy and wanted to try bring him back because she was manipulated by him her entire life, meanwhile luke, who did batshit crimes like causing hundreds of innocent deaths, manipulating little girls by flirting with them, admitting his crush to a 16 year-old at his ripe age of 23, is remembered as a hero and considered ‘redeemed himself’ after sacrificing himself while annabeth was called insufferable when she didn’t believe he was evil in the first place. let’s not forget piper, who’s a lesbian that was forced into a relationship with a man by a goddess and thought she was in the wrong for not feeling right with jason. during the entire relationship she was experiencing a very hard comphet and couldn’t figure herself out because of the fake memories, everybody was bashing her when she was acting confused, when she was, in fact confused. i have a longer post about this specific topic, so if you guys wanna check it out it’s right here. 

 coming back to calypso, first we need to clear out the misconceptions about her curse on percy that affected annabeth. she wasn't blind nor was personally attacking annabeth, her curse was to make someone feel like how she was feeling all time and that’s why percy and annabeth couldn’t reach out to one another while being right next to each other. annabeth’s blindness came from the titan she defeated in the sea of monsters and is actually the first curse to be put by the arai on them, so it has nothing to do with calypso. the curse was affecting annabeth because she happened to be the person percy loved and was right next to him. if percy was there alone either percy would feel alone and abandoned or the curse wouldn’t affect him at all, since there’s no person he can go back to save. and the curse itself wasn’t even a death wish type of curse she just wanted to be heard, be acknowledged and wanted free off her island. not to forget the curse wasn't harming or killing any of them yet it’s still demonized more than by literally every other thing that happened in the books. nothing luke has ever done is seen as evil as her curse just because it was by her and i’m pretty positive if something like this was shown in pjo by luke it would be glossed over and romanticized in the fandom. further proof of how a male character's actions get brushed off and forgiven easily but soon a female character does something even slightly questionable they get villainized on the spot.

she is also despised because she doesn't let everyone's favorite man get away with his misogynistic stuff. calypso doesn't treat leo any worse than he treats her. whenever she starts arguing it is a response to something leo has said or done, which in the most case she's in the right but leo gets so much slack from his past and being fandom favorite to be held accountable for the way he treats people. he's always been written as a misogynist, he never treated any women with any respect. he always had some sort of disrespect for every female character he seems have some sort of closure with like piper, hazel, calypso, the list goes on, but yet calypso is always expected to be more 'tolerable and understanding' bc of his trauma, as if every single character in the series isn't written upon a single trauma they had and have their character built on it. and he always had a problem dealing with others and their emotions and instead of expecting him to be working to change that, calypso is expected to adjust his manners.

oddly enough, she's also expected to show some gratitude towards leo for saving her, when she never asked him to do so and not for a second believed that he was actually going to come back when he said he would. is she grateful that he came back and freed her? yes. should she feel any obligations to make him feel greater because of it? NO. everything leo did for calypso was his and only his choice and nobody else's. calypso is happy that he did so, but expecting her to tolarate every single thing he does solely because of that is wrong.

#this is from the drafts but nevermind #seeing luke apologists withbthe shows airing makes me so mad #'if villian why cute' what if i hanged myself rn #pjo #hoo #heroes of olympus #calypso pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo disney+ #pjo tv show #pjo tv series #luke castellan #annabeth chase #piper mclean #pjo critical #walker scobell #leah sava jefferies #jason grace #nico di angelo #will solace #toa #caleo #hoo crit

[heliomanteia]

The issue is that some fans look at the show as "something Rick made" rather than "a show" and then turn around and look at the movies as "something that Rick did not make" rather than "the movies". Like, we're never going to have a good conversation about what makes a good adaptation unless you kill the author and leave him in the ditch.

The movies function great as movies. The show functions as shit as a show.

Not to even mention the weird ass cult of personality around Richard Riordan in the PJO and adjacent communities. People constantly and rightfully critique him for being shit at writing queer stories without turning them into 2023 Tumblr post, being horribly stereotypical at writing POC (and especially WOC), being biased as hell in writing women (which became even more obvious now that the show is out), being really weird about the cultures he chooses to "represent" (read: appropriate from and profit off without giving back), as well as his overall views, whether they are in the books or surround his space as a writer. Riordan isn't your kind Uncle, he's a millionaire that genuinely does not give a fuck about you. It's unhealthy to have such a strong parasocial tie with a straight white rich man that has in some way failed nearly every community he tried to write about (aside from the "community" of straight white people).

Whoever Riordan was when he wrote the first five books (hint: he was Not Rich), he no longer is. He lost fucking track of what made his books good because he barely writes his own stuff anymore because he's no longer putting in the effort. He doesn't need to, he's rich. He knows there are countless of fans that will "read it anyway" and "watch it anyways" and otherwise engage without considering pirating.

Media that has the least input from him (the movies, the musical) score as being better at capturing the spirit of his own books, and that should tell you something.

P. S. The first five books hold some sort of place in my heart, but I consider the rest of the franchise money-grabbing, clout-chasing trash. Mysteriously enough, his best post-PJO books are (likely) ghostwritten.

#🏛️ #pjo critical #rr crit #pjo tv crit #pjo show crit #I am grieving and being angry is the best way I go through it so get off my back. #Hey guys thank you so much for good reception. I will throw it to the sharks now: #pjo #pjo tv #pjo show

[zipadeea]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I genuinely do not understand the hateful posts about the show that I’ve been seeing. Like, did we even watch the same show? It was wonderful and fun and obviously created with so much care and thought and love, and I really truly love it. Was the show perfect? No! But few things are in this world, and the show was FUN and I know from the bottom of my heart twelve year old me would have been obsessed with it. And to the people saying the movies were better?! The movies?! Sorry but you’re just wrong.

#pjo #percy jackson #disney #pjo tv show #pjo series #pjo critical #lol why would you be like that #the show is good #it is great #be kind #they’re kids #making a kids show

[boneskullravenriver]

I'm gonna say something that's been bugging me a bit that I've been seeing worming its way into y'all. Just a nugget that's been bothering me. And y'all might not like it.

I've seen this new attitude of "if you don't like X from the show, you're just dumb and you don't know what you're talking about!" And thinking that anyone being critical of the show is being against the actors themselves or that you're just a bitter movie fan™.

I could give less of a SHIT about the movies. It is not about that. Matter of fact, let's pretend it doesn't exist. Shove it out of your mind whenever you see someone being disgruntled over the show.

But there are things about the show I dislike, and what I've seen others dislike and we're allowed to voice those opinions. We don't have to praise it to high heaven because it's not perfect. Honestly, I'm starting to lean into the side of it being mediocre. (Where are all the fun bits that were in the book? The pacing being too fast?? The episodes being way too short!)

And there's nothing wrong with people who prefer the books. And certainly there's nothing wrong with people who still draw fanart of the characters as they were described in the books. So don't fucking send harassing hate messages or be snarky that's absolutely not cool.

#pjo #pjo critical #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo tv adaptation #pjo tv show #pjo tv crit #pjo tv series #just my two cents #i will say that one thing i liked about the last episode was how they made poseidon more sympathetic

[platonicsoulmatesstobin]

I've seen a lot of posts talking abt how the trio in the pjo show know too much and hpw everyting went too quickly but we have to remeber that they were given EIGHT episodes. Only eight. They didn't have as much time to make mistakes like in the books. With the show being renewed, they'll probably be given more episodes and more time to do things wrong.

#ramble ig #I agree it went to fast #but I just think we are focusing too much on it #percy jackson #percy x annabeth #percy jackson series #annabeth percy jackson #percy and grover #percy and annabeth #percy jackson tv series #percy jackon and the olympians #percy series #pjo show #grover pjo #percy pjo #pjo fandom #pjo spoilers #pjo tv series #pjo critical #percabeth #smartwater

[doevademe]

What do you think of Annabeth as a character ? Letting aside the fact that she's the protagonist's love interest I mean. And what would have been more interesting to do with her?

Oof, this is a hard question because... I love Annabeth, but not in the way the PJO fandom loves her. Most people think she's a great female character, strong and brave and even a feminist icon (which, lol). Me? I just want to study her under a microscope.

I think she's plenty interesting as she is, but the narrative just needs to lean in on her flaws that are already on the text and really explore them, even if that makes her not suitable as Percy's love interest anymore.

Because Annabeth is so messed up, and it's all so consistent with who she is as a character, but I don't believe that was the intention when writing her.

Like, looking at her backstory and how she acts (like she knows everyone and everything best, like she can't do no wrong, how she treats people as being beneath her, even when she loves them) paints a very consistent picture of a damaged young woman with very bad coping mechanisms.

Annabeth has abandonment issues, and that's why she's a strategist. She needs to plan ahead of everything, control every variable, keep tabs on every minutiae, and that checks with her backstory of feeling left out by her father's new family, of losing Thalia, of losing Luke to Kronos, of her estrangement to Athena. She believes that if she's in control, people won't leave her.

This need for control extends to her relationships. We see how she strong-arms Percy into being what she wants. She punches him for not getting that she wants to dance with him, she insults his intelligence so she can be "the smart one", she judo flips him when he leaves, even if it's not by his own choice, because him leaving is her worst nightmare thanks to her trauma. She becomes codependent once they start dating.

We see how every girl who could take away Percy is a potential enemy for that reason. This tracks with how she might blame her step-mother from taking her father away. She hates on Rachel, she thinks Reyna and Hazel may be after Percy. She's a bit of a misogynist because she's that afraid another girl will come and take her relationships away from her.

She also idolizes Chiron and Athena. Chiron was a parental figure to her, one that never left, but Athena... she wasn't present, and Annabeth desperately copes by thinking she must have had a reason, that in her perfection (a perfection reflected in her) she knew she could be great, she just needs to prove herself.

Her fatal flaw is hubris, but that hubris presents itself as a deep insecurity over not being the best, and a fear of being left alone, and that's very interesting. Honestly, if she was real, I would stay miles away from her, because on top of all that, she doesn't want to be fixed, she doesn't think she needs fixing. But in the realm of fiction that makes for a fascinating, layered character. I wish her flaws were actually explored, acknowledged, and eventually overcome rather than just swept under the rug so she could be the Smart Love Interest to Percy, because honestly? Both of them deserve better.

#ask #anonymous #long post #like really long #character analysis #unpopular opinion #rick riordan critical #kind of #pjo critical #annabeth chase

[hella-hound]

we’ll have to see what they do in episode 6 with the lotus hotel but so far episode 5??? Where is the silliness?? where is annabeth, adamant that she will not enter the tunnel of love with pErCy JaCkSoN??? WHY was annabeth so nasty with Ares in the beginning? annabeth stealing waterpark clothes and percy being like, “uhhhh is that allowed??” the spiders, her showing (not life or death) fear! i’m ill over these changes. even in her most rational moments, she’s still 12!!!

#pjo #pjo tv #i can’t even accurately describe my disappointment #it’s so visceral like i feel it in my chest #episode 4 had me so hopeful and i think that it episode 5 washed that shit down the tunnel of love drain #if annabeth is supposed to be so level headed why is she antagonizing Ares in the diner?? #you let her do that to show some childishness of her but don’t let her cringe at being alone with percy? #whyyyyyyy the fates !!!!! #that part was so important for percy to see!! he thought about it for YEARS afterwards!!!! #percy jackson #pjo critical #annabeth chase

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

I will never forgive Rick for whitewashing Poseidon, a petty, spiteful jerk and r*pist into this 'uwu soft boy who loves his son and is a "cool" and "nice" god 🥺' whilst turning Ares, who was a complex, feminist guy who sincerely loved his children, especially his daughters, into this one note caricature that makes war his entire personality and hates everyone, including his own children.

#greek mythology #mythology #anti rick riordan #anti percy jackson #anti pjo #rick riordan criticism #rick riordan critical #percy jackson critical #percy jackson criticism #pjo critical #pjo criticism

[hermesmyplatonicbeloved]

unpopular opinion but i think the tv show has passed the point of redemption. those writers don't deserve a second season. lets take a few years off and then try again with someone else at the helm (a fan that appreciates PJO and recognizes the flaws in HoO and onward).

#pjo series #pjo tv show #pjo tv show critical #pjo tv crit #pjo critical #rick riordan critical #pjo #pjo adaptation

[hollytanaka]

Jessica Parker Kennedy is a Zionist???

Hi, anon! Yes, she's a Zionist and married to the Israeli actor Ronen Rubinstein, who has been spewing a ton of pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian garbage, especially since October 7.

I mainly learned from these tweets, so kudos to the folks on Twitter making sure we don't slip up 👇🏽 Feel free to engage with those tweets on there to boost them too, so more people learn.

***

Edit: I also wanted to add that apparently Medusa has a very orientalist description in the book, with Rick/the narrator/Percy describing her as looking like "a tall Middle Eastern women" wearing what they describe as a burqa. Strange choice, especially since Americans post-9/11 love to cast women with burqas as "scary looking." Ironic.

Here is a full post critiquing this representation:

#messages #Anonymous #pjo #pjo tv #jessica parker kennedy #anti zionism #islamophobia #pjo critical #rick riordan critical #palestine

[southasianpercy]

i’ve been wondering for a while now if ppl were ever going to acknowledge how rick made it to where percy is a very shallow character. we only get the surface aspects of percy’s character but nothing that shows us his interests and what he likes to do outside of camp. it’s kind of sad.

i know he likes physical activities but that seems more pertained to camp rather than during his free time away from camp. and yes, he likes blue foods (which seems more like a comfort thing rather than a personality trait that a lot of ppl in the fandom like to treat it as). and yes, he’s loyal and smart and sassy. but what does he like to do? even whenever anyone comes up with anything he likes to do they always try to associate it with his father or something from camp or something that was briefly mentioned in passing in the series once or twice.

like, whenever people talk about what job percy would have when he’s older they always say something associated with water, which is a bit dumb in my opinion. percy’s character doesn’t revolve around his father, or at least it shouldn’t. and he’s never seemed interested in water or sea creatures, he only ever just interacts with those things when convenient for him. i feel like if we were to stay true to what little exists of his character, it’d make sense for him to either be a camp counselor or a writer/author. but he’s never even shown interest in writing…the only thing we get are the books in the pjo series being written from his perspective. sometimes it feels like rick just created a hollow main character that almost comes off as a (unintentional) self-insert for readers and he just picks up what majority of the fanbase agrees on and sticks it to percy even if it doesn’t make sense.

also percy’s never shown an active interest in school. he always treated it as something required of him. so the fact he’s willing to go to college all the way across the country away from his city, mom, and beloved camp makes no sense either. what would he even major in?

#percy jackson #pjo #rr crit #pjo critical

[lastoneout]

Tbh I already didn't hate them as much as everyone else did but the more I see certain PJO fans AND it's creator shit all over the movies for even the smallest of issues the more I want to start unironically being a fan.

#I loved the books havent seen the tv show yet #pjo critical #I guess??? #anyway I actually thought the second film was pretty good and I refuse to apologize for that