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.
Whats book (s) do you think did Percy the most justice and which books do you think characterised him horribly?
every single word written about percy jakckson in the heroes of olympus series is an unparalleled masterpiece. i could write a 30 paragraph love letter analysis about hoo percy. in my opinion, it’s the best writing of percy jackson that rick has ever produced and i will defend that till the day i die
wrath of the triple goddess makes me want to vomit. i read it once, went through the 5 stages of grief, and vowed to never read it again. that is NOT the same percy. he degraded before our eyes. 90% of his character growth throughout 2 different 5-book series? erased within a 288 page marketing cash grab. it actually makes me sick, especially since chalice of the gods (it’s series predecessor) was actually good and i really liked it.
Yeah i LOVE percy's characterisation in hoo (ESPECIALLY SoN and HoH) even more so cus we could see him from and outside perspective! like we got some good narration about how truly terrifying and badass percy is without his unreliable narration. like we got a quote from every almost character to show us just how much he "dorkifies" himself
"Percy is the most powerful demigod I've ever met. No offense to you guys but it's true." - nico
"What would Percy be like if he wanted to act scary?" - piper
"He had the good looks of a Roman god."- hazel
"his glowering expression made her want to leave the ship as soon a possible" - piper again
"Part of their problem was Percy. He fought like a demon, whirling through the defender's ranks in a completely unorthodox style, rolling under their feet, slashing with his sword instead of stabbing like a Roman would, whacking campers with the flat of his blade, and generally causing mass panic." - frank
"The way Percy had looked at him made him feel the same as when Jason summoned lightning. Leo’s skin tingled, and every instinct in his body screamed. Duck!" - leo
and ofc the whole tarturus thing-
meanhwile in wrath of the triple goddes
'i tried to think, but it was hard without annabeth too 90% of it'
*percy being described as scrawny several times* (where did this :good looks of a roman god go)
the whole alleyboy thing
wetting himself in the opening chapter (like youre telling me that mr. faced kronos multiple times, blew up st.helens and killed a whole army of hades men while LAUGHING and poisioned a goddess peed his pants from seeing hecate and getting a slightly intimidating speech WHICH WAS NOTHOING COMPARED TO KRONOS OR GAEA
his EXCESSIVE negative self-talk (yes hes very self decapriating but it was WAY too much in wottg like every other line
and apparently having zero muscle despite being considered one of the greatest warriors alive
in relation to the last post, the entire plotline is poorly executed.
annabeth's reaction to percy in tartarus is normal, like, not good, but normal. percy's not only challenging the laws of the world, he's indulging cruelty. being afraid is a normal reaction to have. despite that, it's still a conflict that needs to be resolved...and it's not.
immediately afterwards it's like ok back to normal! the jagged edges of percy's soul smooth over and annabeth is back to business (which immediately begets the question: why did rick write that then? which is never answered. the point? missing*). like, the actual issue isn't even addressed. before turning the poison onto akhlys, percy is being tortured w it (and nothing annabeth tries stops it). percy isn't doing this bc it's fun and exciting. he's doing this bc he was feeling so angry, so hurt, so scared, so traumatized that he resorted to hurting someone to make himself feel better. this is literally never addressed.
even in boo, annabeth's arc isn't abt learning to not be afraid or to trust percy again, it's to allow herself to be afraid. w piper. away from percy. and she never confronts percy directly, she never reconciles her fear w percy, they never address how this changes their relationship. also piper is there bc annabeth is so freaked out by percy that now piper is freaked out by percy. which is. a separate issue that is only an issue bc once again it never gets resolved.
and then w percy obviously he has his suicide attempt. like, he thought what he did in tartarus was so unforgivable that he not only believed that he deserved to die, but deserved to die slowly and painfully from something that he could easily prevent. like. that's the thing. percy's powers come easily to him. do u know how low he would have to be to not even subconsciously try to save himself? and the only response is a "i think i get it" from someone who's perspective does not properly convey the severity of the situation (ppl read this scene without even realizing it's a suicide attempt). once again, percy and annabeth do not confront this conflict together. percy tries to kill himself and the narrative is like...anyway.
if rick didn't know how to handle this, or even if he just didn't want to write it, he didn't have to write it. any of it.
but it's not that rick doesn't know how to handle this situation bc he writes the same thing in boo and handles it a million times better. nico and reyna have a very similar situation to percy and annabeth and the inclusion of both of these scenes and the difference in how they're handled ends up vilifying annabeth in the narrative.
reyna and nico have known each other for less time. they have built up less trust. and yet. when nico challenges the laws of the world and indulges cruelty in a way that reminds reyna of her extremely traumatizing backstory, she comforts nico. she doesn't treat him like he's dangerous. hedge tells him "we all get angry" and reyna vehemently agrees. nico is given explicit support even before he can start spiraling. and when nico is told to not use that power, it's bc of how it affected him, not how it made them feel, not that it's unnatural.
this shows that there was a correct answer. annabeth didn't have it, and suddenly her "normal" reaction looks bad in comparison. but instead of addressing this in any meaningful capacity, we're going to ignore it and send p*rcabeth to college. #relationshipgoals.
it's such a narrative failure. and rick could've just. not written it.
Some of y’all can’t seem to comprehend that the show isn’t the books, and it was never trying to be.
Loving the books SHOULD NOT EQUAL hating the show and vice versa. Because they’re not the same, and that’s the point.
They’re different stories that take place in different times, different mediums, and different universes. It always intended to deviate from the source material. This was mentioned several times during the press tour.
If you’re mad that your favorite line, theme, or moment from the book isn’t there, you are not here for the show. You are here for the books, and that was your first mistake.
The show is flawed. I know. It has problems.
But if you want to criticize the show, ask yourself if your criticism still stands without comparing it to the books. If it can’t, ask yourself why it matters. Then get over it.
“the show is good, the writing is just bad, and the pacing is terrible, and the actors are struggling to stand out, and the plot deviations don’t make sense” do yall hear yourselves
I HAVE BEEN REMINDED OF SOMETHING i think i've made a post about it before but maybe it's just sitting in my drafts. idk, whatever, I will ramble again. Said thing that reminded me was a tiktok by madison_murrah about how the PJO TV show doesn't get the balance between mundanity and magical correct for pjo and I want to expand on that cause while a.) it totally is a problem in the show and i take issue with it, b.) it is also a problem in later books and i ALSO take issue with that too and i would like to elaborate on it
this got long so ramble of the day below the cut:
so the thing is that PJO is actually pretty unique in it's approach to hidden world modern fantasy. like, hidden world modern fantasy is a decently established genre with a ton of examples, but there's a reason why PJO stands out so much, and that's because technically it's NOT "hidden world." There is very intentionally no distinction between the mundane world and the mythological, at least in first series. They 100% overlap. And you do not necessarily need to be "special" to see the "mythological world-" some mortals are totally naturally clear-sighted, a lot of kids are clear-sighted, and it's like 50/50 for if mortals can become clear-sighted. In fact, most demigods aren't immune to the effects of the Mist, all that really matters is if you're actually thinking about being able to see through it. And there's a reason for that!
In general, this format of the "hidden world" modern fantasy serves two purposes: One, as the series is meant to introduce people to Greek mythology and explain why it is relevant and how it can be relatable in modern contexts, it intentionally juxtaposes myths against modern concepts: Medusa runs an apparently average garden statue store. Procrustes runs a mattress store. The entrance to the Underworld is in LA at a record store. Circe lives on an island paradise that's secretly dangerous. Hydras are like chain donut stores that seem to pop up on every corner. Perseus and his mother struggle in Perseus' childhood but get a happy ending. Calypso has an island paradise where the challenge for the hero of our story is being tempted to leave behind his goals. The plot of Sea of Monsters is blatantly the Odyssey, and it's about Percy trying to get to his best friend (who he shares a literal psychic link to) who is in danger of getting married to someone awful (a literal monster) to help you understand Odysseus trying to get back to Penelope and how important to each other and in sync they are. Battle of the Labyrinth is Theseus and the Labyrinth and it's Percy/Theseus trying to protect his home and his people and fellow kids (like Nico) from the dangers in the maze. These are all supposed to help us understand what is actually going on in those stories.
We also still see how Greek mythology influence shapes and influences western culture in general in their world (which is supposed to be our own and so uses real-world examples) - in government, in architecture, in pop culture - Mythomagic is clearly supposed to be your standard TCG like Magic The Gathering. And in general there is no distinction between where the mythological ends and mundane begins - Camp Half-Blood is both a magical training space for demigods and your run of the mill underfunded summer camp, complete with cheesy camp songs and t-shirts and crafts. Olympus is located on top of the Empire State Building which is operating completely as normal except for when a demigod asks to go to a non-existent floor. Your best friend with a muscular disease in his legs is secretly a satyr. Your brother with down syndrome is a cyclops. Your teacher in a wheelchair is secretly an immortal centaur. Your crappy algebra substitute is a literal fury. But also they're still your teachers. The satyr is still your best friend, the cyclops is still your brother. And that brings me to the second aspect of all of this (which i have talked about before [here] and [here]) - the other purpose it serves is that it is an extension of the overarching disability themes that form the core of the series.
The entire reason that meshing of mundanity and magical is so intertwined is entirely because it's part of the disability metaphor, specifically inspired by early 2000s parenting/teaching concepts for children with disabilities, particularly learning disabilities, as trying to reframe disabilities as "superpowers" to empower kids (and still exists in some more modern forms - like referring to disabilities as "being differently-abled") (I talk about it in my previous post on the subject but this generally fell out of favor due to many kids/students finding it belittling of their struggles) - this is why we get the description of ADHD and Dyslexia being framed as "demigod superpowers." In the series this structure is intentionally made to encourage kids to reframe how they view disabilities in general as not something negative but something interesting and fantastical that they may be more open to engage with - and PJO does this in a really nice way where a lot of the disability struggles are still acknowledged and treated sympathetically. Kids still get bullied, Percy and Annabeth struggle in school or with reading/spelling, they grapple with both internal and external ableism. The entire reason for the titan war in the first series, at least from the demigod perspective, is criticizing flawed systems meant to support disabled people that don't do their job effectively or let too many people fall through the cracks. The Mist "hiding" the "mythological world" from mortals (and even some demigods) is about how most abled people (and some undiagnosed people) don't recognize disability struggles until it affects them personally. None of these things are glossed over! It's handled with nuance and care! The series says "you can be disabled and you can be like these fantastical heroes - not in spite of your disability, but alongside it. Neither negates the other." The series was explicitly made so Rick's disabled son could see himself in a hero and learn about mythology for school. Those are the two pillars of the entire franchise: Disability and learning about mythology.
So, when you mess with that "hidden world" structure, the entire thing falls apart and it immediately doesn't feel right, because it's no longer serving either of those two purposes when it needs to be fulfilling both. Late-series Riordanverse has a tendency to compartmentalize the mythological and keep it entirely sectioned off from the mundane. Think about first series and even TKC versus later series - how many mortal characters are there? what do they do? are they just in the background or do they interact with the main cast frequently? are they more than just family or an extension to the main cast? First series we see Percy's classmates frequently, Percy talks about his mundane experiences at school, multiple mortal parent characters (and other mortal characters like Rachel) are active participants in and vital to the plot. We even see a lot of background mortal characters. In TKC, not only are all the magicians technically mortal, but also Sadie's completely mundane best friends help her out. Now think about HoO, or ToA, or even MCGA. Think about the mortal characters in those series. How important are they? Out of the important ones, how much are they in mundane situations versus being almost entirely involved in something mythological? How many aren't related to any of the main cast? How many aren't actively working for a god? The answer is basically zero! Why is that? Because Rick stopped letting the mundane exist. The entire draw of the main series is that Percy does continue to live this mundane life and that adds to his mythological life and makes the balance and meshing between them interesting, but basically all mundanity ceases to exist by HoO. Camp Jupiter is an isolated entirely magic town. Percy and Jason's schools are full of mythological beings as basically the only people they interact with. The Tri's headquarters is an entire giant building in New York City that they completely control that just so happens to ALSO be directly across the street from the local Oracle's house, because even where Rachel lives isn't allowed to be mundane anymore. Why is Olympus just at the top of the Empire State Building versus the Tri having an ENTIRE building? That feels weird and unbalanced, particularly given the difference in importance between those two! Because one is playing into that balance of the meshing of mundane and magical and the other isn't! The show continues this trend. It doesn't allow any of the mythological to exist within mundanity like it functions in the books, which creates a completely different atmosphere and doesn't allow those spaces or scenes or characters to serve their actual narrative purposes, either making it easier to understand mythology contextually or what disability metaphor or representation is occurring there.
It's part of the problem with show!Percy being too mythologically-savvy - Percy is supposed to be the mundane lens unfamiliar with mythology that the audience is learning by proxy through. That's the entire point of the series! If you have Percy already know everything because he's already too ingrained into this mythological environment from the start, and he just exists in this entirely magical world where he understands everything immediately then the literal target audience of the entire franchise (students being introduced to mythology) is left behind! That's part of why the pacing of the show feels so bad! It's rushing through every scene that's more or less the same as the books, particularly anything mythological, because the show is assuming you've already read the books and already know enough mythology to know what it is and what happens and that you don't want to see it again, so it rushes through. The show doesn't explain things that it presumes you already know - worldbuilding, character decisions, basically any mythology, etc, so it doesn't even bother with it.
Later books in the franchise do this too - as long as it's tangentially Greco-Roman mythology, or if it's anything to do with the main series like a reference in TKC or MCGA or etc, it's not going to elaborate much if at all. HoO speeds through Jason's introduction to CHB, and the only reason we get much introduction to Camp Jupiter is because it's actually new. We're no longer trying to contextualize or learn about mythology, it just all becomes set-dressing and references thrown at you rapid-fire as filler. By late HoO and into TOA and TSATS and such, we're not longer even within the realm of pretending like we're adhering to mythology at all. Why is Iris a vegan? Why is Rhea a hippie? Dunno, don't care! Literally doesn't matter! Why are the pandai panda/elephant-monsters and the troglodytes frog-monsters when that's not part of their actual history at all? Well a.) literally just word associations and b.) possibly a little bit of racism (they're supposed to be humans from India and northern Africa, and you made them monsters. cool. okay. and their plotlines totally aren't horrible within those contexts. awesome. please try thinking literally at all next time, thanks). We're not even bothering to look at mythological instances anymore for a basis, a lot of it's written like we're just going based on the first results on google (hi Menoetes and the cacodaemons - the latter of which is not even spelt correctly once in the entire book - which is weird because they do say "daemon" so they know the word. Not that the cacodaemons are mythologically accurate at all because then they would be humanoid. Instead they seem to just be inspired by the things from Doom). None of it serves the purpose of the narrative at all; we're literally just making random choices, some of them quite distasteful! In large part due to refusing to acknowledge the actual contexts of the myths and how that might translate into something similar or equivalent a modern setting to help conceptualize it - something the first series did inherently by design. And we need this! A.) So that you're less likely to make bad decisions because you are inherently thinking about the historical and cultural contexts of these things and how to compare/explain it, and b.) because the audience for later books/the other series and the show is going to be the same as the first series! Those nonsensical references may be at best cameos to people who are already familiar with them, but if your intended audience is new to mythology then making references like that is just going to leave people out of the loop! You don't shift your target audience in the middle of a franchise!
Later books in the series and the show are failing to understand what the first series was actually doing narratively and how it was approaching these subjects and its audience. When you fail to do that, it completely messes up the general worldbuilding and the core themes and intentions of the franchise as a whole. Once you lose touch with that you might as well just be writing a completely different franchise. You need to approach it from the same lens or else it will feel completely off, because otherwise you've lost all base touchstones that make the series what it is.
One thing which genuinely bothers me about 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.
Richard wrote misogynistic portrayals for most pjo women into his books, then went off and repeated it onscreen but worse
literally. girlbossified and fucked up sally's character, athena is unnecessarily villainous (while poseidon is sanitized...coincidence I think not!), frederick's actions are blamed on his new wife (and they literally didn't address that whole annabeth having regrets thing but I have a feeling it was about annabeth not reaching out to her dad...it's not the child's responsibility to reach out and try to mend the relationship...like richard's handling of their relationship was already bad enough in the books), thalia adding onto annabeth's trauma and "making her work for it" like wtf was that, annabeth getting stripped of her personality and turned into the stoic child soldier smart girl who struggles with emotions because how dare she act like a 12-year-old girl, percy "saving" her from her incorrect worldview and Showing Her The Way and how to act like a human (BOOOO annabeth is literally his mortal point, what reminds him of his humanity! she is the idealist! she's the one to not give up on luke, not him! like no the point is not that he's always been Not Like Everyone Else; percy spends the whole pjo series building up his worldview which is the accumulation of all of the lessons he's learned from all of the other characters and his experiences throughout the series. but ofc in the show he just shows up with it. I'm sure he'll be talk no jutsuing everyone soon enough ughhh), no goddess appearances, etc etc. and to think they thought they ate with that medusa redemption...athena is criticized for her actions and yet poseidon is never really scrutinized for assaulting her and is redeemed to be a loving caring father...
overall i agree but to go on a perhaps pedantic tangent, i dont think annabeth having those regrets or thalia "making [annabeth] work for it" are necessarily misogynistic tidbits. should annabeth be responsible for fixing her relationship with her dad? ofc not, but this is a 12yo kid who puts too much pressure on herself. should thalia be so hard on annabeth and force her to like, earn her keep essentially? obv not. but she was a 12(or smthm)yo kid living on the run surviving on scrap; shes gonna have some fucked up mindsets. i think those two bits are easily attributable to kids taking the wrong lessons from things and maladaptive belief formation amid trauma. i could be wrong, it could be a thing of "the narrative blindly accepts this as right and puts no effort whatsoever into having it be challenged" or "a parcel that might not mean shit on its own, but cumulatively helps paint the damning picture". idk. i just like talking about writing shit.
now why annabeth got rooted in regret and not fucking percy? or GROVER??? and then just haAaAad to use the pearl to escape to safety, now that is rather damn suspect imo.
I agree that annabeth having regrets/guilt makes sense even tho it's not actually her fault. what I have an issue with is RR's history of acting like these feelings are correct. the issue with thalia is that she was never like that in the books. she was just as welcoming as luke towards annabeth, but in the show it was only luke and thalia made her "work for love and acceptance" or whatever they said so it's like wth.
and yeah I don't get how annabeth was somehow the only one with regrets like isn't grover supposed to be feeling all of this regret and guilt over how things went down with thalia? wouldn't percy be feeling some regrets about his mom or something so why just annabeth? I heard there was a scheduling conflict but still it's like can you be any lazier?
the show is downright sloppy in every way it can be and seems to go out of its way to treat the women worse. how this man wrote the pjo series i love and cherish? bruhv im not even sure
the only thing that mattered to me is annabeth getting her cerberus moment and they presented us with a half baked version of it where she uses the ball to distract cerberus and has him go fetch it except she isn’t portrayed as the big fucking softie for animals that she is and she doesn’t cry about leaving this three headed demon dog behind because no one else will play with him and he’ll be lonely without the company and so yet again she’s nearly devoid of personality outside of grit, loyalty, cleverness, and bravery
just caught up on the pjo show and tbh Grover's interaction with Ares was hilarious but VERY (like, completely) ooc for him, tbh
grover in general just feels like a very different character than he was in the books, I'm a little (okay more than a little) annoyed
honestly as much as I'm enjoying Aryan's portrayal, as the show progresses the less and less this feels like a depiction of book Grover. Like, did I think master manipulator Grover playing Ares was funny? Absolutely. Did it feel like something book 1 Grover would have done? Not particularly.
And I think I would be vibing with these changes more if the show wasn't also removing Grover from scenes where he was either: extremely helpful, made the right call, or actively saved Percy and Annabeth.
Like in the book, Grover made the initial correct call about Medusa and then actively battled her to the best of his ability. In the show, his correct call is given to Annabeth and he can't control the shoes so he's removed from the scenario so Percy and Annabeth can talk about it. Then he accidentally crashes into the boxes which distracts Medusa. This is the extent of his "help" to them.
Then he's removed from the Water Land parts entirely. In the book, he saved Percy and Annabeth from either death or at minimum extreme bodily harm from crashing into the asphalt, but in the show he's forced to stay with Ares as collateral. And then the show did attempt to give him something to do by manipulating Ares and I promise, I do understand the intent behind the scene, but again, since I find it very unlikely that Grover's going to correctly identify the lightning thief in the next episode, he didn't really get anything valuable for the team.
And just to be clear: it's not that I'm upset that show Grover's going to be wrong, because I do think it's important for characters to be able to make mistakes, make wrong calls, etc. It's just that as of now (episode 5) you could have removed show Grover from the quest and it would have hardly made a single difference.... That's not good. And you cannot say the same for book Grover at this same point in time.
Then the show's also removed Grover's personal stake in the quest from the book: his last chance to redeem himself to get his license, and his consequent motivation to one day search for Pan.
Book Grover also feels exceedingly guilty and perceives himself as a failure, and the show's barely touched on at it at all, and sure, we have a few more episodes to circle around to this but we still should have had more seeds of this sewn by now. It's more impactful for it to be carried through the plot rather than exposition-dumped in the final hour.
So I guess here's to hoping that in the last three episodes, the show will allow Grover to do more in the trio beyond providing conflict management and comic relief. And actually provide concrete and useful help.
what do you think could’ve been done better regarding camp half-blood besides spending more time there/pacing? i’d love to hear your thoughts!
!! okay I know you're specifically asking for things that could have been done better beyond spending more time at CHB, but straight up that one issue is really the crux of everything. -- The time we spend at CHB before the quest in the show is half the time we do in the book. (And for a different frame of reference, the book is aprox. 40% over by the time the trio is leaving camp borders.)
And since the show runners halved the pre-quest chb runtime, as a result we lose quite a bit of content that helped to establish context, tone, foreshadowing, character dynamics etc.
Because we have to prioritize Percy and Luke's relationship in the show, it forces the rest of the relationships that were established in CHB in the book into the foreground, (or simply makes them none existent):
We have pretty much only ever been told verbally about Luke and Annabeth's bond by this point (episode 5). They have a two second interaction at camp that's not particularly noteworthy and that's that. Imo that's not particularly compelling story telling lol. We'll likely (hopefully) get something from episodes 6-8, but I maintain we still should've gotten something more substantial between Luke and Annabeth at camp. I've said before, at bare minimum the show should have had Luke see them off at Thalia's tree like he did in the book.
I've mentioned this before but Annabeth and Percy's dynamic had a much greater establishment in chb in the book because she's the one that's his guide at camp and she actively seeks him out more. In the show, we have to give this role to Luke and while I can give this change between book to screen more leeway because, yes, we have the entire quest to build Percy and Annabeth's dynamic, I still didn't like that it pretty much forced Annabeth into the periphery in the show. As a result, it made her seem a lot more distant and aloof than she ever was in the book. (Shoutout to Leah's armor strap improv, she's doing more for Annabeth than the show runners are).
2. We don't really get see the effects of Percy being claimed as Big Three Kid at camp:
Yeah, Percy moves into the new cabin in the show but then almost immediately after he's off on his quest. Meanwhile in the book, Percy's claimed as a big three kid... and then we see how it ostracizes him.
He misses being in the Hermes' cabin. Campers avoid him. He sleeps and eats alone now. He has to have solo lessons with Luke because the others are scared. He's miserable! And none of those experiences were translated to screen.
Again, they told us that big three kids are taboo, but have not shown that impact.
Like the difference in reaction during the claiming scene between the book and the show pretty much sums up this discrepancy.
3. General loss of foreshadowing and tone:
Because we don't get as much Annabeth, we lose how in the book, she had been aware that something was wrong with the gods and surmised that something was stolen long before the quest. She shared this with Percy. It was a great showcase of her intelligence. It helped set the tone that something was wrong before the quest even stared. And all of it just, didn't really make the cut.
The hellhound attack also didn't make it and its just another loss of foreshadowing. Luke was straight up trying to kill this kid from day one. Percy was not safe even at camp. Things weren't okay ever.
The weather! Yes the boundary keeps the weather mild at camp but in the book Percy remarks on the huge storms that surround them at one point. Before he leaves there's a storm so bad approaching that the campers are nervous. Even before he got to CHB there were "inexplicable" storms all the time. I wish this had been maintained in the show even beyond the camp. The gods, Zeus, they aren't happy.
Also, I tried rewatching the episodes to find this convo but I couldn't so please let me know if it's there somewhere but I don't think Luke conveyed anywhere in the show that his quest "messed things up" for anyone? Like, sure, they could include this at the end, but I think it's more impactful when we see more hints of his bitterness early on.
4. Minor Nitpicks + More things I miss:
Annabeth should have gotten soaked by Percy's Supreme Lord Bathroom moment like she did in the book. Percy had flooded the entire bathroom and she wasn't speared. In fact, Percy was the only person who wasn't wet.
The self-filling goblets in the book + the blue Coke moment.
I wish the show had Percy like, white knuckling his minotaur horn refusing to let it go. In the book he saw it as the last souvenir of his mother, refused to let anyone else hold, and was afraid it would be taken.
i admire the work you and your mutuals are doing by criticising the pjo show because i've seen a few people on tiktok saying that the show is a rewrite rather than a faithful adaptation and they got TORN APART by the comment section, like seriously kudos to you for fighting off the piss poor reading comprehension crowd
it ain't much, but it's honest work....
no but thank you lol and honestly I have such respect for people criticizing the show on tiktok or twitter of all places, at least on tumblr there's a slightly higher tolerance for criticism in general (not much, but more)... I could not imagine trying to put some of these opinions on tiktok just to have the top liked comment be like "actually the show is perfect" and then only have like 150 characters or whatever to expand on anything. I've also seen a creator on tiktok criticize the show, and despite them articulating their criticisms really well alongside their compliments for the show (and giving a tw for opinions lmao) they consistently get ripped to shreds in the comments :/
“The changes are what Rick wanted so if you don’t like it, it’s on you.” This is literally a reply on a comment that I left on a tiktok that was explaining what someone did and didn’t like about the latest pjo episode 🙄 Rick can’t even remember what happens in his own books and has been butchering his own characters since the creation of heroes of olympus, that’s not the comeback you think it is. When a show is marketed as a faithful adaptation when it is more accurately a rewrite, people have a right to criticize the show. You aren’t getting a gold medal for liking the show in its entirety. Get off your high horse and let people discuss the show
Another person called me a nerd 💀. People are allowed to be critical of media. It’s not the end of the world. Some people need to go outside and touch grass fr
No fr, the people are being so mean to op in the comments for no reason. Like op wasn’t even mean. All they just posted their opinion and explained their reasoning. They weren’t calling people dumb or stupid for liking the show like people in the comments are doing to those who are critical. Also, I saw that one person that said I was nerd commenting like crazy. I don’t know why people are taking criticism so seriously! If you like the show and have no complaints, that’s great! If you don’t, that’s also fine. That’s just how life works
“The changes are what Rick wanted so if you don’t like it, it’s on you.” This is literally a reply on a comment that I left on a tiktok that was explaining what someone did and didn’t like about the latest pjo episode 🙄 Rick can’t even remember what happens in his own books and has been butchering his own characters since the creation of heroes of olympus, that’s not the comeback you think it is. When a show is marketed as a faithful adaptation when it is more accurately a rewrite, people have a right to criticize the show. You aren’t getting a gold medal for liking the show in its entirety. Get off your high horse and let people discuss the show
Another person called me a nerd 💀. People are allowed to be critical of media. It’s not the end of the world. Some people need to go outside and touch grass fr
“The changes are what Rick wanted so if you don’t like it, it’s on you.” This is literally a reply on a comment that I left on a tiktok that was explaining what someone did and didn’t like about the latest pjo episode 🙄 Rick can’t even remember what happens in his own books and has been butchering his own characters since the creation of heroes of olympus, that’s not the comeback you think it is. When a show is marketed as a faithful adaptation when it is more accurately a rewrite, people have a right to criticize the show. You aren’t getting a gold medal for liking the show in its entirety. Get off your high horse and let people discuss the show
Another person called me a nerd 💀. People are allowed to be critical of media. It’s not the end of the world. Some people need to go outside and touch grass fr
Yeah tv Percy being afraid of the water is confusing to me. I actually really liked that movie Percy had a connection to the water from the beginning since that wasn’t really mentioned in the books as far as I recall.
I'll say it with my chest: I think the show making young Percy, a son of Poseidon, scared of the water was silly, stupid, dumb.
Like I don't care if its a metaphor for his rocky relationship with Poseidon, or if it was simply the vessel they chose to showcase his dynamic with his mother and to be a parallel to the underwater scene where he breathes for the first time, or just whatever, it doesn't make me like it. Especially since they could have accomplished all of that without making young Percy nervous of the water.
And you're right, in the book I believe the most we know about Percy's connection to water before he knew he was a demigod is that he loved Montauk, even if "most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in" but idc you cannot convince me that young Percy was not obsessed with water. That if Sally had taken him to a pool, that she would be hard pressed to get him out rather than get him. That he would not be "inexplicably" lapping every other child in his swim lessons.
Then Percy's later, canon fear of drowning is something that is only developed due to a traumatic event where he nearly suffocated. This fear also had a metaphorical interpretation as well, but imo the moment where he nearly suffocated in SON really disturbed him because he's always felt so safe and at home in the water. And that was like the first time he didn't.
"it doesn't make sense for Annabeth to..." To be human? To be 12? Where the fuck is the Annabeth that got embarrassed and ran from Percy when he woke up? Where's the girl that needed a hug from her friend because she was overwhelmed? She's too smart and too emotional! That's what makes her a good character, Richard!
no its exactly this! Yes Annabeth is super intelligent but she's also super 12. She's silly, she gets excited, she gets flustered. She's going to make mistakes because its her first quest and all of her knowledge so far has been largely theoretically and has not been applied. She's going to get tricked by monsters or not make the right call and that's good! None of it detracts from the fact that she's super competent. She's not infallible. It's what made her well-rounded.
And the fact that RR has apparently decided that Annabeth (a child who had never been on a quest before) not immediately picking up on the fact that the nice woman offering her food and shelter after she had been lost in the woods for god knows how long was Medusa is now something that "doesn't make sense" or whatever makes me want to throw something.
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