hi originally posted this at the end of a long thread of back and forth, here’s the og post if you want full context but i feel like this needs to be its own post especially bc i keep seeing this argument being made—the argument that the kids (in this case it was annabeth) SHOULD just know the monsters are monsters and who they are and how to defeat them before ever encountering them, that it’s a problem if they don’t.
the problem is not if 12 year olds should recognize a trap when they see one, even if they’re smart 12 year olds, and if that’s realistic. that is entirely beside the point.
the problem is rick riordan wrote a book series whose formula is bringing myths to the modern age and he’s not sticking true to that in the show—percy jackson and the olympians’ Shtick is taking these classic, ancient threats and giving them a new face. these traps work because these kids are not walking into a cave marked with Get Out and getting ambushed by monsters—the monsters are disguised as harmless mortal human beings, in harmless mortal human being places (for the most part) and i think we—and more importantly, the show—are all forgetting the mist, the magic involved here. it’s not just that medusa is a “creepy lady with her eyes covered” it’s that there is ancient magic at work here, magic that, like the systems of abuse pjo exists to criticize, has been evolving and continuing its malevolence for millennia. it’s formulaic, that’s the point. it’s the same trap you’ve learned about all your childhood, the same trap a thousand children before you learned all their childhoods, and still, it works. you fall into the trap. because that’s how generational abuse works. it’s a trap. it isn’t enough to learn monsters exist, what they look like from a second hand story that originated thousands of years ago. if you want to escape alive, you have to adapt as quickly as they do, recognize their face, and ultimately, beyond any individual trap, the game itself has to change. real, generational change.
so. the problem is rick riordan wrote a series with a formula for action that perfectly captures the overarching, systemic conflicts he was commentating on, and then threw that formula out in the show because it was “unrealistic”. i don’t give a damn about realism when it works to the detriment of the story. this is a story about generational abuse, yes, but it’s told through ‘a tale as old as time’ and that’s why it works so fucking well. and when it comes to basic storytelling, if your characters know the threat before they even walk in and you do practically nothing to then make up for the stakes you have removed, that’s a flaw. now you’ve lost the entertainment value for your audience, on top of also lessening your themes.
something else that is so. honestly soul-crushing as a writer and a creative, is that to me this is reflective of the way we are now afraid to tell earnest stories. stories where we care not for listening to the people who want to pick apart fictional, mythical, fantasy stories for not being “realistic” instead of aligning with our target audience who acknowledges reality is not what makes a story. think of your favorite movie, show, book, comic, what have you—has the reason for your favoritism ever been because it is the most reasonable, the most grounded, the most practical out of any you’ve seen? or is it because of the emotion? the way it speaks to you, to your life and the person you are? the journey it takes you on? is the percy jackson and the olympians book series so good because it’s inherently realistic?
the secret to storytelling is, very simply, focus on your story. everything else is secondary. if it’s written well, it doesn’t matter to me that the characters walk into a trap that, to the audience, is obviously a trap. because i can understand how the characters don’t know it, and how the story falls apart if the narrative just tells the characters it’s a trap from the jump. that’s what dramatic irony is—first used in greek tragedies! this is literally a tale as old as time in every sense except for the end—where it’s happy. and it’s not earned if we don’t first see, over and over, the status quo as a tragic trap.
it’s not about if annabeth (or the other kids) is “smart enough” to not walk into a trap, or about if she’s just too prideful to not walk into what she knows is a trap (or any reason that could apply to the other characters), it’s that annabeth, at the end of the day, is a character. she is a storytelling tool for the messages of the narrative. that doesn’t make her any lesser. in fact ignoring it reduces her, because it reduces what she represents. it’s about how rick riordan, or whoever else at disney, has fumbled the storytelling bag so ridiculously hard that they can’t take the simple, effective formula outlined from start to finish (by good ol 2009 rick himself) and adapt it to the screen without answering the most unimportant, derailing, anti-story questions.
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im gonna be honest although i obviously have a lot of respect for andrew and love a lot of his work the amount of worship the fandom gives him (and often ONLY him) is. annoying at best. even with him as the lead writer for a lot of fandom-favorite books (bloodbound, blades 1, crimes 1 to name a few) the writing of things is still a group effort. he's not the only one writing these stories. all this worship just sets him and players up for nothing but disappointment if any of his future endeavors doesn't adhere 1:1 with the sky-high expectations people are giving him, as well as dismissing the contribution of other writers in the writing room (many of which are queer and/or poc, compared to andrew who is a cis white man!)
and like i get it - a lot of people didn't find blades 2 and crimes 2 as good as the originals and it just so happens that andrew wasn't the book lead for these projects. to some point, i agree, because i personally found the pacing of these stories to be weird in comparison to the first. but to act like these stories are completely irredeemable and that andrew is some messiah that could've "saved" these books is ridiculous and dismissive of the other great writers in the room.
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I'm getting the feeling that I'll be seeing a lot of Zionists' comments on my posts unfortunately, but I'll inform everyone about them if you want to block and move on
This was off my strike posts earlier
If you missed the last one I had posted
Let's not forget that Israel refused HAMAS's deal to release hostages, by the way.
And just the other day, I found out that Israel's always had a plan for ethnic cleansing and recommend everyone to look into what's known as Plan Dalet created back in 1948.
Peace was never in Israel's plans -- genocide was.
Reminder: Bisan has called for marches for Ceasefire between today to the 20th, and there is an ongoing strike that started today extending to the 25th.
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the devil sitting on my shoulder: dont get too complicated with it. its just a fanfiction, its not like anyone is going to examine it for deeper meaning or anything. stay simple or else youre going to alienate people who just want to have some mindless fun.
the angel sitting on my shoulder: make it weirder. use denser prose. remember that fucked up metaphor you came up with yesterday? use that. if people dont like it then who give a shit. they can write their own fanfiction. your readers are smart, theyll understand the Themes. And if they dont, then you can have fun playing with your Themes yourself
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I started reading EragonxRed QueenxFrom Blood and Ashx--oh, shit sorry.... 4th Wing today, because everyone in my reading group said I had to, and... I'm 7% of the way through and I'm already so tired. Did no one edit this book? Did no one... read this book out loud?
Me currently finishing chapter 1 and going through the 5 stages of grief because I know this whole experience is going to RUIN my reading for 2024.
Anyway, I'm writing a whole ass review that is pretty much line by line my thoughts XD If I make a google doc of it I'll let people read it. Might be more entertain than the book. 🤷🏼♀️ plus I'll only put like 0.1%-1/4 of it on Goodreads so think about what you might miss out on (me being upset and cranky and rutheless (((: ) Updating that doc might actually help me get through reading it faster.
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