ladies of olympus

pjo/hoo blog. icon by minuiko. header by cinders art.

[connabeth]

percy saying he’d burn olympus down if it meant saving annabeth: yes. obviously. of course he would. annabeth’s wide eyes were really cute. BUT the show is allergic to subtext. this is the kind of thing that’s supposed to be understood over time, not said out loud this early. in the books you realize percy would do that because of how he acts, and then athena spells it out for him at the end of book 3. he would also never have the balls to announce it to her like a vow. the most romantic thing this guy had the guts to say to her before they got together was “If i was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head, I’d pick you.” it’s like the show is trying to make up for the loss of percy’s narration so they’re turning his thoughts and innermost desires into dialogue rather than letting his actions speak for themselves, which in turn makes him a lot more emotionally brave and competent than he really is.

[connabeth]

the way they are removing annabeths emotional soft moments AND her badass fighting moments is sending me. love leah but WHAT is going on in that writers room

leahbeth deserves way better than what they’re giving her because she naturally has a very expressive disney princess face! her emotional moments are quiet and not very dramatic, most of it being lingering in the silence of something percy said. they place too much emphasis on her being a composed leader and forget that she’s a 13 year old girl who’s going through some traumatic stuff. and why does percy get all the cool fight sequences?? if they cut the part of the final battle in tlo where she’s a beaten, bloody emotional wreck with a broken shoulder and she’s somehow still holding kronos at a blade-to-blade standstill…i will show up at rick’s house the very next morning.

[beckendorph]

someone said the pjo tv show is so good when you don’t have a bitch in your ear telling you it’s bad and it’s soooo true!!!!

[annebethchase]

'Cause all I know is we said hello And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name And everything has changed

[colchiansiren]

One thing which genuinely bothers me is Annabeth's perception in the fandom. How she's seen as this cold, stoic, emotionless, reserved and intimidating girl. When in reality, she's a character full of love.

Annabeth, who immediately cried and felt attached to Cerberus after playing with him for a few minutes because she wouldn't get to play with him again.

Annabeth, whose deepest desire, which the Sirens lured her with, is saving Luke and having a good relationship with both her parents.

Annabeth, who believed in Luke's goodness, even after all the countless terrible things he did simply because she had faith in his humanity.

Annabeth, who cried in Percy's arms before entering the labyrinth and refused to reveal the last line of the prophecy because it said to lose a love worse than death and the idea of losing any of her friends is too painful, heartbreaking and worse than dying.

Annabeth, who kissed Percy before parting with him in St. Helens because if he's going to die, she at least wants him to die knowing she loved him.

Annabeth, who took a poisoned knife for Percy during the war because she'd rather die herself than let him die.

Annabeth, who convinced Luke to switch sides by reminding him of the promise of family he gave her. Which in turn, influenced Luke's decision to end himself to destroy Kronos. Hello, she saved the world with the power of love.

Annabeth, who spent months after months losing sleep and searching desperately for Percy when he went missing.

Annabeth, who kissed Percy to eternity in public at their reunion, not caring what anyone is going to say or think. An asteroid could've hit the earth, and she wouldn't have cared.

Annabeth, who told Percy “I love you” when falling in Tartarus because if she was going to die, she wanted them to be her last words.

Annabeth Chase is a sweetheart, who has always felt things deeply and she's so full of love. And I think it's time we let go of the “cold-hearted annabeth” headcanon because it's not true, that's not her.

[bayetea]

pjo s2 spoilers below - (you should block out the "pjo tv spoilers" and "pjo tv crit" tag if you want to avoid spoilers and criticism)

look I'm not gonna lie sometimes the way people discuss percy's protection of tyson makes my skin crawl - "aww percy is SO sweet and amazing for being kind to smelly crybaby homeless tyson. percy is SO amazing for fighting back against people who use slurs against a kid with down syndrome/developmental delays. people like tyson are SO hard to love and be nice to and percy does it anyway" etc. we don't need to talk about tyson as if he exists as a pitiful vessel for percy's moral goodness and nothing else, especially since tyson is just as brave as percy and protects him from harm just as much percy protects him (notice how little people discuss tyson sacrificing himself for everyone on clarisse's boat? notice how no one cares about tyson's accomplishments independent of percy?). tyson is not percy's dumb little baby with no personhood or agency - he's an exceptional blacksmith, a protector, a fighter, a kind person, and a hero with or without percy

but percy being a character who stands up for marginalized, underprivileged groups is so crucial to the plot of pjo it's not even funny. why would you want to sacrifice valuable moments of percy fighting back against bullies who target innocent and vulnerable groups? you'd think that the first two episodes wouldn't have already dug som's own grave but they've readily abandoned the opportunity to represent tyson's discrimination by humans and demigods alike. this is an issue of characterization and major thematic consequence. is this supposed to be the same percy jackson who protects the ophiotaurus when all "logical" reasoning indicates that killing it would be the safer option? is this the same percy jackson who chose not to pollute the river with waste in botl even though that would have been the easy way out? if you can't see the problem with omitting the ableism allegory then you obviously have no understanding of what pjo is really about and that's just plain devastating. and for rick to be complicit in the omission of that storyline is a total betrayal of his own writing and to all of his readers who saw themselves in tyson. you SHOULD be upset about this and you SHOULD talk about it!

[dreamereternal]

Ok so I kind of want to use this to post to clarify my thoughts on how I think people miss how the show kind of reinterprets these themes you are saying are just completely missing and also somewhat directly address some of what you take issue with.

I think a lot of the argument you are making about how in getting rid of the sequences at school as representative of a Percy who as a character stands up for marginalized and underprivileged groups is maybe missing how those same character traits are established in a different way for this adaptation. I think the show largely uses Sally and the lessons she imparts as demonstrations of who Percy is as a person to establish those same ideas. Take the opening sequences in the Jackson apartment. Sally utters our main theme of the season "that being a real hero means standing up for others." This is the same idea that informs Percy Jackson as a character who stand up against bullies who target the innocent a vulnerable. What the show does instead of the book is allow us to infer how Percy being raised as he is would give him a keener sense of what's right and touches back to the larger idea that Percy opposes all the godly nonsense because he has a sense of what is really important and at stake that being raised by Sally established. It's nature and nurture reflective in Percy. I also think that the show has in no way lost the discrimination of Tyson by demigods and humans alike? In fact it is very clear that he is still an outsider and that no one likes him. The montage at the school which establishes the same sort of tension that becomes prominent in the later camp sequences in the book are also indicative of how humans treat him and those moments when they do get to camp where everyone tries to kill him, he is kept in confinement in the Poseidon cabin immediately in a way Percy isn't and the names the other Aries camper yells at Tyson during the chariot race scene all do the same thing and can be used to infer his status. (And then we get it explicitly laid out in episode 2 during Luke's evil campaign speech! Where Luke notes that with them " Tyson will no longer be treated as a problem to solve") Also, it's been long enough since the mid 2000s that I don't think we need cartoonishly evil bullies to inform all these ideas and that a tv adapation allows set dressing and what's on screen for watchers to get the same sense that Tyson is an outlier and unwanted at camp and by what we think are his peers at school.

And since none of these issues of characterization are missing but instead demonstrated in different ways the thematic consequences remain the same. Tyson is in fact being used by the show to come back to the overarching series them established in season one of "not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster." We see that theme directly addressed when Percy and Tyson are walking down the street and Percy apologizes for calling Tyson a monster and Tyson says that it is fine because Percy has other monster friends. The themes of monstrosity, of what is and who is a monster, and the blurring of these lines when it comes to demigods and humans that is already established in the main book series (shoutout Monster Donut pod for a really excellent discussion on these overarching ideas!) are the same ones that come to light in all the examples you listed. A Percy who questions what a monster is, who has Sally's wisdom's in his head is the same Percy "who protects the ophiotaurus when all "logical" reasoning indicates that killing it would be the safer option?" and "the same percy jackson who chose not to pollute the river with waste in botl even though that would have been the easy way out?"

I can agree however that while ableism is a main theme of Percy Jackson, it's not the only one and often seems to disappear in the later books. I think the show does fail on that point but I also think that's a consequence of focusing on other major themes and the transition to a tv fantasy series. Which is deeply unfortunate and if that's a dealbreaker for you than it's a dealbreaker!

Overall, though TV!Percy and Book!Percy have a lot of the same core character traits but the ways in which they get there and how they are established are just different. I think that is true of the show as a whole honestly and I think that's why a lot of fans who have been entrenched in the pjo fandom are struggling against it. The show often takes the bones of scenes and reinterprets them to get characters and plots to the same place emotionally and motivationally but uses different sequences of events or changes up one moment even when it pulls the scenes otherwise entirely from the text. There are often direct pieces if dialog pulled or sequences just placed at different point and at different times and that set against the expansion of the world and fleshing out of minor characters into three dimensional individuals (hello Sally Jackkson and Clarise La Rue) I think feel jarring for a lot of people. But to say the show as an adaptation is a betrayal of it's own themes and writing, to ignore the ways in which the show does very much pull on the spirit and heart of PJO as a series, and not aimed specifically at anyone but what seems to be indicative of some PJO fans unwillingness to take the show on it's own merits as an adaptation meant to expand upon and update the series for a new generation which by it's nature comes with changes to the source, is perhaps the least generous way to approach something that you personally might not jar with. I think it's every fans right to just not like it but I take umbrage when something like "the themes that have major thematic consequence are no longer there and these core character traits are missing" are stated as fact and not just opinion especially when the text of the show proves it's not true.

Anyway, again mostly using this post to clarify my own thoughts on what the series is doing!

[yenvengerberg]

PERCY JACKSON & ANNABETH CHASE 'Clarisse Blows Up Everything'

[golden-wisegirl]

imagine the wonders but also the pressure this line must’ve had on annabeth like.

one single choice can tear everything apart no matter how careful everyone is in carving their own path. he thinks she’s special, and that no matter the decision she makes they can still beat the odds. then, the single act of losing the thermos in the midst of chaos is what apparently marks the end of tyson’s life. meaning annabeth is not only going to still feel guilty about the first step that led to thalia’s last stand, but also for taking away someone who’s important to percy.

i wonder how they’re gonna develop this concept in the next episode 🧐

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

Something about Percy explaining Thalia's tree and the significance of her sacrifice to Tyson in such a gentle and respectful way, while never taking his eyes off of Annabeth. Giving Annabeth time to grieve and watching her carefully because he knows how hard this must be for her, and acknowledging Thalia's importance and bravery, while also making sure Tyson doesn't feel out of the loop.

[sunsetsovermonroeville13]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[bheska]

"Percy, you know who you remind me of most? Thalia. You guys are so much alike it's scary. I mean, either you would've been best friends or you would've strangled each other."

[beckendorph]

Tbh I’m now over Taylor swift

[beckendorph]

no way the show got a season 2 ? like stay in your bag but what

[lamiafemme]

I’m a Piper McLean lover until I actually have to sit down and read her chapters cause girl WHAT are you talking about

[pjobrainrot]

shes HORRIBLE in heroes of olympus oh my god piper girl i am so sorry for what this white man has done to you

[beckendorph]

Lastly who would’ve thought I’d be sitting here lowk stanning the Percy jackson movie in 2024 but even simple scenes like “this is a pen. This is a PEN” and Percy defeating Medusa through the iPhone reflection and the Minotaur fight and the Gabe scenes in the movie are infinitely better than their counterparts in the show.

Certain parts of the show that are so critical and scary in the book just do not have the appropriate level of fear and bewilderment. In the show the Minotaur is literally chasing them, Grover is a goat, Percy has no idea where’s he’s going and nobody in the car looks appropriately stressed or scared at all. Like WTF

[connabeth]

immediately, percy walking into crusty’s water bed palace saying “i know who you are. you’re procrustes. son of poseidon, murderer of travelers” and “i know the beds are a trap” and “i know there’s a secret entrance to the underworld here” and i know this and i know that is making me want to rip rickald to shreds and gnaw on his bones. so they know about medusa before they enter her lair. so they know about the lotus casino before they go inside. so they know everything about everything and there’s no real element of discovery and revelation because he’s somehow armed with allll this knowledge he’s not supposed to have, drastically reducing the stakes and excitement of one of the most naturally exciting plot lines ever, completely slamming a wrecking ball into the fact that he’s a 12 year old on his first quest who has to learn that everything is a trap and reality is never what it seems. so now instead of the three of them running unknowingly into procrustes’s creepy business as they’re trying to escape a gang of LA street bullies (bc surprise surprise the real world is where the monsters also are), he just fucking walks in and knows everything with a plan already hatched, courtesy of annabeth. how are you going to make me hate the episode five seconds in?

[connabeth]

this. literally exactly this. it’s not an adventure or a journey, it’s a school field trip.

[beckendorph]

I honestly feel bad for the actors in the show bc I watched the making of the show bts special on Disney and all the actors were being guided by the directors… they aren’t bad but there’s only so much they can do with the script, particularly the trio. The pacing, dialogue, and plot was in fact Bad and I can’t get over it.

And it’s crazy bc the bts special dedicates like 10 minutes to talking about and showcasing the natural chemistry between the trio and then when you watch the show it’s nearly completely void of personality, humor, and childlike wonder……. Behind the scenes they had It but fumbled bc of the poor direction and script……

AND part of what makes the book so captivating and fun to read is thag perch is literally always the last to figure out what is going on and that the reader is just as clueless as he is because of the first person narration. When they walk into a new scene or meet a new character, everything seems fine but slightly off and they slowly put clues together to reveal the challenge or the monster. In the show they literally have the trio walk up to the monster and SPELL OUT what is going to happen like "oh percy youre a demigod and your father is ____." “oh you’re (insert monster hete.) im going to fight you. then we will do (insert task)" LIKE WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT??? literally made the entire show so incredibly boring and predictable it pissed me off so badly

Them not hinting at annabeth’s crush on Luke but RANDOMLY inserting scenes where Leah’s been cold towards Percy the whole time then hugs him suggestively or when they wrote in that God awful joke of Luke calling Percy and annabeth an old married couple. Literally insane.

[beckendorph]

The way Rick complained and shaded 20th century fox for 10+ years and then finally got executive producing and writing power to bring his life’s work to life and then fumbled his own bag on one of the best and most iconic stories ever……………..

[edains]

Rick Riordan constantly trashing the movies for not sticking to his books then releasing a show in which he rewrites everything and loses the spirit of the books entirely

[thesungod]