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[sideyeing-riordan]

Allow me to introduce myself

Hey! This is Tasha. This blog is created as a safe haven for people exploring criticisms of Riordan's works, including the og series.

My ao3 handle: help_me_calliope

Lite version of this blog for occasional posting: @oocontext-sideyeing-rr

[sideyeing-riordan]

It's genuinely such a weird experience to be an "ex" Perseus Jackson fan; when you're young there's a lot of attachment to him, but as you gain more media literacy and re-read the original series, it all fleets into the ether and you're left thinking to yourself - "hey, how is this guy still underwritten for someone who's supposed to be THE main character after five whole books of page time?"

[bolting-for-the-door]

The PJO Fandom Has A Disgusting Troll

[Screenshots]:

This person has been sending such disgusting comments across posts, especially targeting queer women of color. A few of my friends had also received such remarks (they were so much more vile and worse that I can't even put it here). We have all blocked the blog and filed reports, but unsurprisingly, the staff hasn't done anything against the user - we'll need a lot more than just a handful I suppose, which has allowed them to harass other fans.

This leaves me with no choice but to prompt an en masse report in an attempt to have this blog terminated. Please take a moment to report @peabodysautobodyrepair. DO NOT bother engaging with them, they're vile.

[sideyeing-riordan]

One of these comments was on my post. I blocked them but forgot to report. Guess it's never too late to make ammends?

Can Y'all also report please? I think we should be kicking out bigots more often.

[sideyeing-riordan]

When I was reading the Battle of the Labyrinth for the first time, I was genuinely taken aback when I read that Kellie was a senior empousa. I thought "Hey, why is that monster portrayed similar to black girls in appearance?" but I just pushed it aside, assuming that I was over-reading. But now that I've developed a lot more media comprehension, there certainly is a very objectionable pattern in the original series with respect to people of color:

Writing Harriet Tubman as a daughter of Hermes was just a big no. Her parents were Harriet "Rit" Green Ross and Benjamin Ross (also known as Ben Ross) - black people who had been enslaved, and later freed. Making her a daughter of Hermes was such a problematic choice on so many levels. It low-key felt like sidelining their stories.

Circling back to Kellie, the empousae are female monsters preying on young men. It's got a lot of connotations considering the fact that black women have often been portrayed with a lot of racial prejudices, a popular one being the 'Jezebel' stereotype where black women were portrayed as hypersexual and even creepy in that sense. It really doesn't help Riordan's case when Kellie is atleast about a thousand years old ("no demigod has bested me in a thousand years" - something like that was what she said once) and implied to be in a relationship with Luke who was about 23 when he died. Then we also have this:

Yikes, Richard.

Ethan Nakamura, one of the few significant PoC characters is a villain.

Charles Beckendorf, the only significant heroic PoC character is killed off.

Hmm. Interesting. Oh, and this man has a degree in history by the way.

Now I'm not saying he's a horribly vile monster, but he has a lot biases which need unpacking.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Never shut up about May Castellan - her character is a cacophony of bad writing, misogyny and ableism.

She's written like the typical "crazy woman next door", serves little to no purpose outside being a plot device - merely an appendage to Luke' story. If that's not enough, after the oracle curse is lifted, no one bothers to check on her. It's outright pathetic how that lady was left to fend for herself all on her own - Dionysus can help cure insanity in a heartbeat as we see, but she's never helped?

It would've been interesting to explore who she was, how Hermes met her, what prompted her to pursue embodying the oracle's spirit etc. but since she serves no purpose outside being a plot device for the male character - Luke, she's forgotten by the characters and the narrative by the end of the og series.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Richard-

(Context: This came up when Chiron was talking to Annabeth and Percy.)

a) Harriet Tubmann is a black woman, how did he just and

b) the whole bit about "used many mortals" is...oh the entire excerpt elicits such a visceral reaction sometimes. Nevermind the fact that the underground railway was used to help slaves escape.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Please, y'all just be for real here.

[sideyeing-riordan]

People headcanon percy as poc because of his potential coding for it. Obviously he was written as a white man and is intended to be one so it isnt a canon reading, but regardless I don't understand the dislike for it. It's only detrimental as, like you said, when its favoured over characters who are actually poc within text but they can coexist, and usually it's the poc people in fandom who like and post about both anyway. The coding for poc percy mostly comes from tlt but it's throughout the books- these factors can be explained by his neurodivergency or socioeconomic status etc because as stated before he was written as a white man but many poc like myself find commonalities- like how he is negatively percieved and disrespected by authority figures, institutions and adults for having a 'troublesome aura', framed by the media as a terrorist, lived in the neighborhood nicknamed spanish harlem, and in general his story is about marginalisation that children face and how he dismantles systemic abuse so the poc coding adds to this layer in his writing

I understand where you're coming from, but there's a plethora of arguments which can be made against this.

Percy receives a lot of privilege and preferences - from the narrative and the characters too. He gets away with a lot - the fact that he blew up the mount St. Helen's and causes displacement and distress? Not even a slap on the wrist. Sure, he gets framed as a terrorist but it doesn't translate into any long-term tangible effects.

With regards to the authority part - he gets away with disrespecting the effin gods - THE AUTHORITY FIGURES on multiple occasions. As far as I know, people of color, especially black children are often unfairly punished under the premise of "disrespecting authority", even when they're simply standing up for themselves. It's very well documented in fact.

Lastly, I wholeheartedly disagree with the fandom perception of Percy "dismantling the status quo" - I'd wager that the overarching status quo wasn't about the children of "minor gods" - that wasn't even a plot point until Botl - the main status quo was gods using their children as weapons for their work (*cough* the quests *cough*), which was upheld by Camp half-blood.

At the end of the day, as I mentioned in that post too, you are entitled to your headcanon and opinion. But to me, a well-rounded reading of canon suggests otherwise.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Episode no. ? of the original series having ableist undertones...

-Battle of the Labyrinth

Ok. Yikes. As far as my memory serves, Hephaestus had no such complex over his disability.

In fact, one could wager he had a somewhat "twisted" sense of self-respect, seeking vengeance against Hera in certain mythical versions.

Just, why would you add this Richard?!

[sideyeing-riordan]

"Percy jackson as blac-" as if he isn't THE REASON why pjo is often called a white male power fantasy.

As a woman of color myself I'm genuinely puzzled by how pjoblr will take characters like Percy or Jason "All American Boy" Grace whose writing very much caters and falls into common white portrayals, slap a poc label onto them in shallow ways/for aesthetics and completely turn a blind eye to the racist ways in which actual PoC characters like Hazel, Frank, Piper and Leo were written...

Like yeah, you are entitled to your headcanons, good for you. But c'mon PJOblr, are we for real here?

[sideyeing-riordan]

Percy's fatal flaw being personal loyalty could've been excellent in the original series - if Riordan had actually allowed there to be some room for conflict of choice between the people he loves and the "Everything Else at Large". But that doesn't happen, because Riordan doesn't allow it!

In the lightning thief, saving his mother - Sally and retrieving the bolt align very well

In the Sea of Monsters, retrieving the golden fleece and rescuing Grover also align once again.

Similarly, in the Titan's curse, rescuing annabeth, as well as the Ophiotaurus + goddess Artemis plotlines lie in tandem.

This pattern follows for the other two books as well. Everything just works out so well for Percy, that we never get the chance to see and learn more about his fatal flaw in action, and Percy doesn't get to grow as a character and person in that department. What a shame, it could've been amazing, and Percy could've been a great character.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Lmk if im wrong but I don't think the rachel representing entirely mortality is wrong for percy? I think in the beginning one of the many functions of the love triangle was formed to represent Percy's choices for his future, how rachel and calypso both offered him an escape [rachel just offered him a holiday but ykwim] that he was tempted by, but then he forgo them both for his duties as a demigod whereas he fought alongside annabeth and faced his duties to fight for home, that's why the series ended with them running to camp halfblood together, and for once percy didn't look back. We spend the entire series of percy (rightfully) questioning his identity and his place in the world but we end it on a hopeful note, until hoo of course. Like Percy even mentions how he hangs out with rachel because of how stressed he is with the war and he wants to remind himself of the mortal world, and with calypso he frequently notes it as his biggest what if, an escape from his burdens, which is again very symbolic to this three choices he has. But the metaphor is temporary as rachel finds her way into the demigod world and forges her own destiny and breaks the cycle by becoming the oracle. I think there is truth to the reading but as mentioned its just one of the temporary symbolism that the love triangle represents and there's certainly a lot more to it as there can be multiple reasons for it's writing that I cannot fit in this ask, so apologies for it being so long lol

This is the post in question:

Again, it's based on a very superficial reading. Even if she did somehow bury herself in mortality, there's no way she's escaping her gift of prophecy, or her clear sight. "Simple Mortal Worries" - no I don't think so.

Also, my even bigger issue here is how Nico is supposed to be a love interest in the first series, because

a) love interest often implies mutual feelings.

b) it's anachronistic, because in the original series, Nico was not written as having a crush on Percy; it was a very late retcon.

I love metaphorical readings but this is a tad off, you know. Cuz Percico was never on the cards (saying this as someone who really enjoys Percico when they're well into their adulthood).

[sideyeing-riordan]

What did you disagree with about their content? They have some good readings of canon to me

(this is with regards to the other ask about the aroaceleovaldez blog)

There was one regarding Percy’s love interests and what they represent, they said something along the lines of Rachel representing the mortal side/life of demigod ways, which is a very poor reading considering the fact that Rachel gets dragged straight to the center of demigod adventures. In fact, a central part of her character is how she doesn’t fit in with most other mortals because of her sight. Then there was another one about Nico’s functions in the narrative, where they mentioned how he could be a damsel in distress (understandable) but failed to read that he also embodies the “empowered damsel” and “knight in shining armour” functions on numerous occasions, so yeah I could go on.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Hey. Just wanted to know what you think of the aroaceleovaldez blog.

Oh my 😳

Why would you ask this?! Went through their blog since I was curious and all I'm going to say is that I couldn't disagree more with a lot of their takes, so I have them blocked; nothing personal really.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Alright I might Percy Jackson fan who genuinely does like Bianca however I have one critique of her character (no I don't, I can't critique something that doesn't exist)

I am sorry to say this (mainly to the people who like Bianca) but canonically the way Bianca is written reeks of misogyny no I'm not insane because something something having the elder sister die and become a martyr to establish her little brother as a stronger character is iffy and plays into troupes that I personal feel conflate femininity with martyrdom.

I mean why did Bianca have to be the one to die? Nico could have died instead? It wouldn't change much about the plot because ultimately Botl's moral is Hades' child accepts that death is forever whether they like it or not.

It is choice on Rick's part to kill Bianca and the daughter being the martyr is playing into a patriarchal stereotype whether or not it's intentional or accidental.

This is a part of my wider belief that the Big three's daughters are only being written in to play second fiddle to their sons and that has misogynistic undertones.

Yes.

[sideyeing-riordan]

Saw someone trying to glaze pjo!Annabeth as a character, so here goes nothing:

Her viewpoint regarding Luke doesn't change in the ways it should've. She tries to defend Luke quite a few times because of her unhealthy attachment to him. It would've been very compelling for her to understand that it's unhealthy, she should let go of her puerile idolization of him. But since he eventually played a major part in "saving" the world, aka clearing his own mess, he was honoured as a hero of sorts by others (of course, we as readers can question this). So she didn't have to change her opinion in major ways, which could've helped her character.

It's interesting how a central part of her character in later books was that weird Percy-Rachel-Annabeth love triangle and her jealousy towards Rachel. That was...quite the writing choice.

Anyways, I'm not done with my Annabeth criticisms, but these come immediately to my mind.

[sideyeing-riordan]

I'm never shutting up about how Rick decided to make Hera, a goddess who was swallowed by her own father, had a husband who constantly cheated on her, navigated interesting and complicated realation dynamics with her step-children (for eg. Athena and Hercules) etc. fond of only 'perfect families' in the original series.

The demonization was so stupid.