no a nico di angelo blog

[lazycranberrydoodles]

i've been wanting to show off my crown prince design since november of last year lmao / follow for more xianle epic fail compilations

[so--whoonos]

I constantly forget that exy is played on a courts the size of soccer????

Like its a hardwood court so my brain says its the size of basketball that is incorrect

"Exy was a bastard sport, an evolved sort of lacrosse on a soccer-sized court with the violence of ice hockey"

There are 10 people for soccer + goalkeeper

Exy is 5 + goalkeeper AND there are movement restrictions.

This beggs so many questions

How does anyone get cose enough to check how do they cover any ground when they only take ten steps? Even with passing its so far.

How high is the plexiglass?? How can Andrew smack the ball down the court its so far it would have to be hit like a bullet and have a high arc.

Realistically its more the size of an ice hockey rink with field hockey marks.

This doesn't even adress if the stadium is indoor or outdoor and weather there is actually like a net or goal with depth.

I need everyones thoughts

[deadliestpieceontheboard]

Tbh I think she just wanted it to sound even more insane like. Now Neil and Kevin having to run up and down the court without subs sounds way more impressive than it being basketball sized. (Yeah, i agree that the field hockey size is the ideal to meet her halfway)

For the last few questions: after the TKM acknowledgements you have like five pages of Nora explaining Exy.

The plexiglass walls and roof are 10 yards (9 meters) tall.

The goal is just a box painted on the wall, so there's no net depth. There's also a box painted on the floor around it and the goalie is the only one who can be inside it, so players can't shoot 30 centimetres from the wall.

And the court is most definitely indoors like basketball or hockey, probably with no ceiling opening, going from Neil's description of the foxhole court and that they don't worry about the game when it's raining.

Hope this helps :))

[writingpuddle]

this seems as good a time as any to show off the project i started last summer (since stalled because i moved and no longer have access to a free university 3d printer).

its a scale model exy court based on the dimensions given in the books. 1 cm : 5 yards (forgive the mixing of units). the players are arguably a little too large by this measurement, but since they are only toothpicks and im not much of an artist there is a limit to what i can achieve precision wise

a few additional shots, including the (incomplete) 3d printed stadium

incidentally, if you assume andrew hits the ball at roughly 1 m height, in order for it to fly all the way across the court and hit the goal wall without smacking into the ceiling (assuming air resistance negligible, which is a stretch at those speeds), the ball would need to be moving at a minimum of 36.8 m/s. Thats 82 mph for the imperial crowd, or 132 kph for metric folk. literally highway speeds.

anyway, baseball players regular hit balls faster than 100 mph, but thats with a solid bat, not a net. lacrosse players have been known to throw a ball over 80 mph so. plausible but barely.

so for the most part, its actually totally functional for andrew to consistently hit the ball halfway down the court to neil. but those poor players better have insane cardio because they are going to be running a LOT

[readerwithsalt]

Sun and the Star Review: (With snippets from the book)

Since I just finished The Sun and the Star I’m just gonna say the first thing I have a problem with is the TELLING and NOT SHOWING.

• And I was wondering if anyone thought that they made Will super lame and ooc compared to previous cooler depictions of him. Like he’s supposed to be Super Chill under pressure and the Calm Dude but he’s so WHINY the entire book. He’s constantly complaining, judging, screaming, crying or sleeping. The cool, chill vibe Will had before is gone which was one of the things I liked about him before.

• Like he tells Nico in TON that he’s just as capable of survival as Nico (which I snorted at cause no) and then is the hugest burden I’ve ever seen on a quest EVER in a riordan book. Like Nico tries to lift Will up every time he passes out from ‘lack of sun’ (which is so stupid btw) and Nico can’t lift him up cause he’s not strong enough so he’s constantly WAITING on Will. And when Nico tells him he can still turn back at a certain point and he just snaps out a ‘no’ and then proceeds to complain in future chapters about how hard everything is?? I was expecting that since they weren’t giving him any weapons that he would be like the athletic guy that could show off without a magic item. But no.

• the whole ‘role reversal’ caretaker thing made Will look completely useless. Nico did 80 percent of the work and Will was sadly very annoying. They didn’t give Will a character weapon (even Piper has one and she doesn’t fight that much. Neither does Leo and he at least uses a hammer) they made him exhausted the whole book so he didn’t have his normal physical strength, his backstory was also pretty boring.

• and Will keeps randomly getting irritated at Nico bc Nicos irritated at him. Like?? Your shitting on his underworld home every chance you get. I’d be irritated too.

• in previous books he’s described as an archer. Even tho Leo calls him ‘the archer dude’ in TLH he suddenly doesn’t know how to use a bow AT ALL. He only said he wasn’t as good as his siblings not that he was complete shit at it. Previously he used a bow and had a dagger in BOO. Also will randomly says he never wanted to be a fighter and loved healing but in previous books he’s insecure about just that. Also the book forgets Will is a BATTLEFIELD MEDIC. Like he can fight and heal just like Apollo.

• Will whines constantly. And it’s grating and annoying to read. Either about the lack of sun (you knew what you were getting into dumbass) or the dead people walking around or about Nico’s horrible ‘darkness’ that he has to heal. It’s like he never thinks of Nicos feelings when he says stuff. And there little ‘fights’ end unsatisfactory.

• The vibe of Camp-Half-Blood is nonexistent. It does not feel like camp at all. It feels like we’re in a 12 year olds fanfic mind. ALL of the campers are gone even though it’s been established MANY are orphans and we see no beloved background characters and background chaos that makes us smile like in the past books. It made me surprisingly more depressed than I thought it would.

• it’s also missing the mystique of a quest. Like going up to the big house to have the quest recited around a table full of cabin counselor demigods all fighting to be the third member to prove themself a hero (mostly the area cabin) no matter how important a quest in pjo was for Percy Chiron ALWAYS enforced certain rules. Even if they broke later on.

• Loose Ends. Reyna is. Not. Mentioned. Once. It never comes up how Nico feels about his big sister friend joining the hunters like his other one did even tho in BOO he tore apart a courtyard cause they took her. The girl whose shoulder he cried into, the girl who was with him during his last quest. The girl who thought of him as a little brother and tucked him in her cape and said he resembled his surname as he slept.

Hazel is mentioned… once. He mentions his beloved little sister who was the actual first light in his life (don’t know why the book says Will is) in a long time only once and it’s because he can’t remember something and thinks Hazel would?? It’s weird that he iris messages Piper at the end instead of Hazel. I thought that’s what he was going to do and then it was just a big cringe fest of Piper shoved in at the end.

And It’s never stated that Nico finds out where Jason is even though HE SHOULD KNOW. He literally talks to Beckendorf and Luke when they die in pjo to find out where they went but he can’t figure out where his best friend is??

Every other relationship of Nicos is thrown away so he can admire Will Solace. Who’s kind of a loser in this book tbh…

• it broke my heart that Nico gave his SKULL RING to Will. The last gift from Bianca Nico ever got and he gives it to someone that doesn’t even appreciate his element

• Will asks Persephone how he’s SUPPOSED TO LOVE NICO. Like I almost blew up my house with me in it at that part. It never feels like Will is as attracted to Nico as Nico is to him. Nico instigates every kiss. It seems Will likes to look at others a lot because one of Nicos insecurities were of him staring at fucking Paolo. Like Nico deserves so much better. I would’ve appreciated Nico and Ghost Jason way more than this shit. At least Jason described Nico in a better light and they weren’t even dating. And I liked Solangelo before this. Will never describes physical attributes that he likes about Nico, like Nicos inky dark eyes and baby bat winged hair, and his smile that is apparently like winter sun breaking through snow flurries, and his hair smelling pleasantly of rain against stone (I think Apollo is more attracted to Nico than Will is). But Nico has to call Will hot every five min.

• Also I simply don’t understand the idea that Will being away from the sun would drain him to the point where he can’t keep up with NICO’S WALKING PACE within a couple hours. Like the super athletic, physically strong character that can lift Nico over his shoulders and run with him (and Rachel in TON) walks into the underworld and has to be healed by a stupid portable night light within five minutes.

• Don’t even get me started on his JUDGINESS. I always pictured Will as the guy at camp that thought Nicos powers were cool and stuff, right? And now he just judges every ‘dark’ thing nico does like darkness is synonymous with evil. And only his light can heal him. I HATED that trope and honestly thought they would make him more original. But I have to say it: he was so boring. Like in a way that made my stomach hurt.

• Wills kind of a jerk in this. Like it’s weird to read.

• The PACING. It was off the whole book. The only part i enjoyed was the part where they didn’t know they were dreaming (that part got me) but that was it. But like gorgras scene keeps overlapping with the rest of the story and I kept forgetting my place. The fact that riordan or oshiro or whatever 12 year old fan wrote this put the words FLASHBACK & DREAM SEQUENCE over the chapters gave it SERIOUS fanfic vibes. The pacing is simply not suspenseful enough for a place like Tartarus.

• And do NOT get me started on Tartarus. Okay I’ll say it anyway: it wasn’t scary AT ALL. LIKE ANY OTHER QUEST. Actually it seemed easier than other previous quests which is a big nope. Hades might as well have sent him to Target.

• And about the fact that is was HADES who gave him that prophecy is SO OOC of him. He loves Nico. Nico is probably Hades most favorite child ever as of right now and he sends him horrible nightmares, and a prophecy respouted 12 times to get him to save Bob (whom Hades could care less about btw) and go back to a place that he knows haunts Nico every day MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE!

• Maria and Bianca MAKE NO SENSE! How in the hell is there any piece of thier souls left when Hades gave Maria ancient rites and was the one soul Nico was not allowed to see and Bianca reincarnated. WHICH WAS FORGOTTEN BTW. NOW SHES BACK IN ELYSIUM?? Like?? Like maybe I could see Hades letting Nico see a piece of Maria but Bianca is literally GONE forever.

Nico was ooc. Like not too badly but still bad. But the fact that Will didn’t let Nico shadow travel even once irks me. The fact Will didn’t let him summon Jules Albert irks me. The fact that Will kept brushing off nicos feeling about the underworld irks me. The fact that Will called Persephone the most beautiful PERSON he’d ever seen right in nicos face and then asked his (insecure) boyfriend if he was jealous irks me. The fact that Will is BORING AS FUCK irks me

•the nicknames are extremely cringe. Little ball of darkness is used to much and it made me itch. I think Will simply calling him babe or something would’ve been simpler and made them seem more like a real couple instead of a caricature of light and dark.

• ‘he’d always been the demigod who WOULDNT eat.’ ………..what the actual fuck is this. Nicos always been naturally skinny but being starved in jar is what messed up his hunger. Not that he WOULDNT eat. Why is everything always his fault in this book?

• the references are BAD. Out of touch bad. Unfunny and the joke never becomes a joke. It’s never explained how a kid from the 1930s knows how to use the internet and look up lil nas x in a camp that doesn’t use any technology. Doesn’t explain how Nico knows about Care Bear powers (I didn’t even know that) and the beginning scene with the Star Wars ‘joke’ set a weird tone for the book and wasn’t even funny.

• I hated the cocoa puff demons coming to live with Nico. Like I was fine they got created ig even tho it was weird and kinda dumb but the fact that Nico is so keen to have his worst memories sleep in bed with him makes no sense once again.

• Also Will STILL insists it’s Nicos fault he wasn’t accepted??

Also Micheal Yew was simply never mentioned again. Neither was lee fletcher. If they were I missed it.

There were a COUPLE of cute parts but really this is simply too weird to be canon to me. This book is just not canon. I see it as fanfiction from a random author that riordan probably let write the entire book or at least most of it. I think sadly riordan put his name on this for money and diversity points because the writing is first draft material.

[ace-artemis-fanartist]

Happy book birthday to The Sun and the Star!

Here’s the Underworld siblings!

[bright-eyes-strawberry-lies]

At least when solangelo breaks up they can fuck each other's parents. 😂

Will's going to go after the most beautiful person he's ever met - Persephone. And Nico's gonna bask in the affection Apollo rains down upon him.

[bright-eyes-strawberry-lies]

I bet they did that because Persephone is the goddess of spring and Will is a son of the sun so it's poetic.

[ghosttie-ghosttie]

Nico with asphodel flower

Inspired by Joaquín Sorolla's painting - Italian Girl with flower 1886 🌼

[pthalomars]

IN MY DREAMS I ROCK AND I RULE THE WONDERLAND

Keep reading

[rowan-r-ridley]

*bombastic side eye*

[aroaceleovaldez]

Shout-out to both Nico and Hazel, immediately after their character introductions, explicitly cussing/telling another character to shove it. It runs in the family.

[dandelion-roots]

no hurry guys, it's not like they're getting DEVOURED over there

[id in alt]

[fmd-art]

💘

[aroaceleovaldez]

i like to think that the week Nico was at CHB before he ran away, the like ten or so campers present (and probably Chiron hoping really hard) assumed Nico was a Hermes kid because they had no reason not to.

Super energetic kid? Already fluent in ~4 languages at age 10? Interest in card games? All sounds pretty Hermes to me! Potentially an unusually powerful demigod? That can happen in any cabin. And if the Titan Army had a particular interest in them, the di Angelo siblings being half-siblings of Luke would make that add up. Heck, even if he’s a little spooky, Hermes is a psychopomp! It makes sense that you’d get a more chthonic Hermes kid every once in awhile. Even more, “Angel” is derived from the Greek “Angelos” which MEANS “MESSENGER,” and demigods usually have pun names! Why would they not look at little hyperactive Mr. Of Messengers, Card Game Enthusiast And Near-Polyglot and not go “Hey, I think that might be a Hermes kid”

aaaand then they’re all wrong. turns out he’s a Hades kid. whoops.

[brigwife-deactivated20240426]

The Trials of Apollo would be an amazing videogame actually

[brigwife-deactivated20240426]

"Press X to flirt with Nico"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[pichirobi]

and at last, i see the light 🏮

[munchy-k]

[fmd-art]

[huaenrose]

mxtx really introduced xie lian into tgcf by taking the initiative to jump off a building in a perfect imitation of a god descending into the mortal world. the whole crowd impressed his grace: at just 17 years old, even before he ascended, he already looked like a god.

but not any god.

acting out the script written, he dressed like the heavenly emperor, he reproduced a feat of the heavenly emperor, he wore a heavenly emperor mask, everyone saw him as the heavenly emperor.

but he was not jun wu, he was xie lian, and confident in his own ideals, he deviated from the script written for himself to ensure personally that the life of a child of his people would be saved: that was the precise moment when the mask with another person's face fell, revealing his own face, just as his attitude revealed who he really was. this is the tale of his highness who pleased the gods: for the ideals in his heart, he would dare to displease them.

thus, her invitation was made without us noticing: for us to observe how many times her protagonist would descend from the heavens on his own initiative, how many times he would be dressed by others as someone he was not, and how many times he would decide to deviate from the script written for him in favor of who he really was, only for the mask of someone else's face placed on his always fell in the end.