#octavian ableism

[pineconepie]

How would the yanparents react to a little whos an meduim or high support autistic but feels guilty about it because of past ableism they faced

Getting too close to home (half-joking LOL ^^;

I did my favorite yanparents to write for this ask!!

Octavian couldn't possibly understand why you'd feel guilty, he doesn't even consider that's a possibility because he thinks guilt should never come with things like this. He's pretty perceptive, so he'd be really sad when he finds out you feel guilty. He'd do absolutely everything in his power to tell you that you could never be a burden to him <3 he loves you for you, and he doesn't want you to change!!

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Vincent would also not even consider that you might possibly feel guilty until you talk to him about it. He'd sit you down and tell you all the many reasons he loves you even if you can't see or comprehend them, and then say if anyone is ever ableist to you, let him know so he can deal with it :)

.

Seradiel knows of your trauma with ableism, so each and every day he reminds you that he knows you need this, and he's more than happy to provide you with the care you need. He reaffirms a lot that you should never feel guilt for something you need, especially not with him, because he wants you to rely on him.

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Ellis is also pretty perceptive, he figured something was up. He'd go on a rant about how amazing you are, and how even if you weren't high support, he'd still want you depending on him, because he loves you. He loves everything about you, including your autism <3

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Hugo has good intentions, even if he may be a little clueless how to go about it. He'd go on a similar rant to Ellis, but it'd be a little more lighthearted. He'd list off how he loves your special interests and other traits that come with your autism, and he wouldn't have you any other way!

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Cecil thinks you're kidding at first, because why on earth would you feel guilty for such a thing?!? He can comprehend it the least. He'd be genuinely baffled for a moment, and then basically bombard you with affection and praise. His doting would go extra for you, because he wants you to know he doesn't mind in the slightest, and anyone who says anything even slightly rude will have their lives ruined!

[plushieslayer]

when nico shows signs of mental illnesses he’s a ball of fluff that needs protection,but suddenly when octavian shows signs of cluster b disorders and psychosis he’s annoying?

We know Nico has a mood disorder,and as a person with both a mood disorder and multiple cluster b disorders I can say that ALL mentally ill people can be manipulative and “annoying”;you fail to romanticize what’s unconventional.Nico is not “edgy” or “emo” (besides his music tastes),he is MENTALLY ILL and severely TRAUMATIZED.Stop romanticising mental illnesses.And stop stigmatizing mental illnesses.

Nico was just as manipulative as Octavian,but when he is he’s justified.When Octavian is manipulative he’s the MOST HATED character in the saga,even more than characters who did worse.Will calling Octavian an “anemic loser” even became an iconic line like are you guys ok?Will and Nico letting Octavian die became an iconic scene and this upsets me.Octavian wasn’t unreedemable.You guys even fail to comprehend what living in Camp Jupiter even means.Also the fanbase constantly making fun of Octavian’s physical appearance and everything he does like as if it isn’t his fucking job lmao.Some people even refuse to understand that Octavian was sick,due to his poor writing.People are for mental health unless it comes to NPD (and other disorders)coded/characters.Also Octavian was shown to be in a psychothic state near before his death.Also I’ve seen people creating WILD scenarios like “octavian **ing annabeth”LIKE WHAT THE FUCK.As a ** victim myself I hate you.I hate you people who HC characters you don’t like as assaulters.And as a victim I don’t even want to describe what I felt seeing people HCing my special character as an assaulter.Us mentall ill people deserve therapy,you ableists deserve to burn in hell.Have a good day stay safe guys.

I hope you guys cry realizing that the octavian fanbase is unironically the healthiest side of the fandom.

[synticity]

3 papers to read in Deaf & disability studies within linguistics

I was compiling a to-read list for another purpose anyways, so I thought I might as well drop this here! These 3 papers are at the intersection of Deaf studies, disability studies, and linguistics. Jon Henner, Lina Hou, and Octavian Robinson are all scholars to read in this area.

Henner, J., & Robinson, O. (2023). Unsettling languages, unruly bodyminds: A crip linguistics manifesto. Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 1(1), 7-37. The paper is here, and there's also this lovely podcast version read by Vagrant Gautam.

Hou, L., & Namboodiripad, S. (2024). Manifesting a Crip Linguistic Theory through a Critical Disability Raciolinguistic Perspective. A preprint of the paper is available here.

Robinson, O. E., Sheneman, N., & Henner, J. (2020). Toxic ableism among interpreters: Impeding deaf people’s linguistic rights through pathological posturing. Honouring the past, treasuring the present, shaping the future, 14-41. The paper is here.

I'm new to reading in this topic, so I may do another post with another set of papers in the future when I have read more deeply! If you know other papers that talk about Deaf and disability studies in linguistics, please feel free to drop links and citations Check out my 3 Papers To Read tag for other linguistics recommended reading

[wanderingmind867]

There's something ableist about rick riordan's writing sometimes. I really don't think he does it intentionally (because i've read stuff where he writes intros for other books, and he seems like a funny and decent human being there), but there is still some small undercurrents of ableism in his work. Or I think it's ableism. It may just be themes of forcible body changes, in such a way that it reads as discriminatory (or at least uncomfortable). I need to try and explain this, so i'm gonna stop reading for a while. I have to write something dissecting this problem.

Let's start off by going over my two main cases: Magnus Chase and Frank Zhang. Frank Zhang starts out very heavier set and almost overweight sounding. But when Mars/Ares blesses him in the House of Hades, he suddenly has a ginormous growth spurt that makes him become something he hadn't been for the last two books. It feels uncomfortable to read about. It feels like they're implying the change makes him look better and cooler, and that really, really gets under my skin. I don't think it was done intentionally, but it still really bugs me.

Also, Magnus Chase has this same thing happen to him. And Rick Riordan namedrops Captain America when he mentions the changes. Now, you already know I hate Captain America for his eugenics based super soldier serum story. Imagine how I felt learning that Magnus lost all his old attributes when he died. A scar he had on his hand from cutting himself as a kid? Gone. His chest? Suddenly full of definition. His whole body got an "upgrade", and the good people of Valhalla expect Magnus to be thankful for it. Thankfully, Rick Riordan has him get upset about it. But Magnus still gets stuck with it, so really… what's the point anymore? If all your weak, frail characters have boosts to make them not frail anymore… surely you're just refusing to give representation to people with bony bodies and thin, frail forms.

So this might not count as ableism, but it definitely counts as something messed up. I can't say I really like it too much. I also can't say I approve of how one of the only really thin, frail characters we got was Octavian (and Octavian got bullied relentlessly). So some bad decisions feel like they were mad, writing wise. And I really don't think I get the logic or reasoning behind them.

PS: Ableism probably wasn't the right word. But I just wanted to try and articulate myself. I still like Rick Riordan's writing. I just had these uncomfortable moments i needed to vent about. So please don't be too hard on me.

[realredbanana]

I regularly think about the fact that ‘anemic loser’ was used as an insult in Heroes of Olympus.

Like, is that not just blatant ableism???? Why is ‘anemic’ being used as an insult as if it isn’t a legitimate condition/disability?????????

I get that it’s supposed to be a way of conveying “Will’s a medic, and Octavian looks pasty and weak”, but there are so many better ways of conveying those things???

[zazzander]

Hello! you can call me sei. And i really love your post's! And just recently i've been posting your Post's on reddit, and don't worry i credited you. but today i posted your post on how you believe Octavian is Autism coded, and i've got a little hate, many people disagree with me and some are calling it Ableism. Here are some of the comment's: @ Striking_Landscape72:

As Benoit Blanc would say, sometimes an onion is just an onion.

I understand liking the villain, there are some villains I really like too. But, honestly, is a bit offensive to see this fandom trying to use autism or transexuality in a attempt to make Octavian look good. And, in the process, end up throwing a bunch of ableist trash around.

Social Cues and Facial Expressions

He seems off even when he's being honest, perhaps because he isn't being honest? It's pretty clear he backstabbed Gwen, so off course he isn't showing the correct facial expression, he doesn't really care or feel sympathy for Gwen.

Special Interest

This right here is just ableist. Neurotipic people can have interests without being signs of neurodivergence.

Masking

This is just, so what? This is just the cracks in his manipulations, not any sign of autism.

Caring about fairness

And yet Octavian is using or supporting nepothism all the time. He's willing to put a murder back at the legion as long as he has his family support. Heck, he's throwing his name and his influence all the time, like when he blackmails Hazel to win votes. Was that fair? He was only complaining about Percy because he wanted that position for him.

Coping Mechanisms

Spending time alone doesn't means autism. This is just more self diagnose.

The Teddy Bears

Percy was caring a teddy bear and he wasn't mocked by the book. He's actually quiet upset when Octavian murders his support pillow animal.

Octavian’s Empathy

He does not. He simply doesn't.

Emotional Regulation

Neurotipic people get stressed all the time, this doesn't mean autism. He was ahving an emotional breakdown because his plans went sour. If having a third act breakdown meant autism pratically all villains in fictions would be autistic.

And it just angered me that..people still hate octavian, even with all the proof of smth. how would you respond?

Hi thanks for reaching out.

I don't post things on Reddit for a reason 😅 They all hate Octavian and aren't usually interested in seeing a different pov.

I'd recommend, and prefer tbh, you simply summarise my stuff (with credit) and add your own arguments / comment. That way, if you'd like, you can respond to the comments.

I personally won't, as people have their opinions and changing their minds isn't my goal. I just wanted to break apart my blorbo and look at all his pieces.

Have a great day sei!

[algumaideia]

An analysis of Octavian

This post was actually going to be an explanation of why I think Octavian is an antagonist, but not a villain. But it ended up being an analysis of his character. 

SPOILERS

And as always feel free to disagree with me, just be respectful. 

Sorry, because it wasn’t well-written, I’m incapable of writing good texts. 

Backstory

I think it is important to say that since we don’t have any information about his backstory most of the thing said in this part of the review are what I think is his backstory. It is a mix of the facts stated in the books, the way Octavian acts and my interpretations. Besides the things I’ll make clear that were said in the books, the rest is not canon. And you don’t need to agree with me that this was his backstory.

His family is one of the richest of New Rome- In the books he also seems to act without fearing the consequences while taking the privilege/money of his family as garented. Octavian acts like someone that is seeking attention. It is so weird how he just do whatever he wants without fearing consequences when his family is right there in New Rome. For that to happen I think or his family neglects him or they are those kind of people who think the children can do no wrong and are all my baby didn’t do that. But I think that if they were the latter, they would be more present in Octavian’s life, but they are never there. 

He is an augere and feels very proud about it. I don’t think there is too much to add about it besides that I think he likes to be an augere because it makes him important and necessary.

No one likes him and this isn’t something new. In Son of Neptune, Hazel says half of the camp hates Octavian and most of his friends are bought. So, Octavian is a lonely child. And he is aware of this. He is a bad person, people dislike him for a reason. But it seems people have been disliking him for some years and he is a child. According to his wiki he was 10 years old when he came to Camp Jupiter for the first time, and he spent his tweens and teens years in a place where people did not like him. I don’t think this was a good place to grow up.

He is really smart and manipulative. I think that those traits are a little inconsistent. Because in the beginning of the SoN Percy says how Octavian is really good at manipulating people with words, but then in the ending of the book and in MoA everyone is shutting Octavian up. Isn’t he this kind of master of words, how he isn’t answering people back? 

We also know he’s been at camp jupiter for quite sometime. I’ll talk about it in another part of the post.

He is anemic and mentally ill. I’ll talk about those things in the Camp Jupiter, Treatment and Ableism parts. 

Other thing that I would like to say is that this post is not an attempt to ignore the bad things Octavian did and pretend he is not a bad person. It is just me trying to understand his better and show why in my opinion the fandom hasn’t treated him fairly.

Camp Jupiter

Camp Jupiter sucks and it does for a lot of reasons. Some of them being the fact they have a city full of adults and most of them were demigods trained in the camp, which means they have trained adults but instead tweens and teens are the ones who fights. Hazel said that if Percy dishonored the legion they both would be executed. Hazel also says that sometimes people die in the war games. There is also the fact that people are dying all the time in missions/wars. The Camp Jupiter also expects perfect behavior for its demigods, to them all know the rules and to do not commit mistakes and I don’t have adhd but this doesn’t seem to be a good place to people that has the disorder. There is too much preassure to do not do any wrong, apperently no emotional support and the punishments seems to be crazy. It’s not a healthy place to a chldren grow up.

Other point is how they value physical strenght, hand to hand combats and offensive approache more than a lot of things. Frank said how he wasn’t treated well because he was an archer, and this was seem as cowardice. Octavian is anemic, he doesn’t have physical strenght or energy to be able to fight. The only way to be respected in Jupiter's camp is to be a good fighter, and he cannot be that because of his illness. As I said Octavian is someone that is often seeking attention and validation by his peers, and I think that this is why being an augere is something so important to him. He cannot make himself important in the traditional way and by being an augere he is necessary to the camp. People cannot just dismiss him. He buys friends, he manipulates people, he becomes a centurion, he is always dominating the senate. He makes himself impossible to be neglected. 

Yes, Octavian is power-hungry. Yes, he is bad. But a lot of things he did during Heroes of Olympus was just Roman things (he was also mentally ill and his mental health was getting worse in each book). When Hazel says that Octavian will kill Percy if the greeks atack New Rome, but in the next sentence she says that Romans take oaths very seriously. However it is all written like it is Octavian being a horrible person. But it is not. The Romans are very harsh with their punishments, they seem to be violent, physical. When Octavian says the Romans should fight the greeks, he is just acting like a Roman, like someone who was raised in a enviroment that encouraged violence responses.

Treatment

Octavian wasn’t treated nicely by the narrative and other characters. I mean, this guy was the centurion of the first cohort and an augere. But no one seem to respect him. No one enters the legion without him saying yes (I know it is acording to what he sees) but he is treated like he isn’t important. He is the one that is responsable of saying what the gods wants, but no one seems to have problems mocking him. I mean fi he decides to give you a wrong information about what a god want you are dead. 

Hazel said how “obsessed” with the sibylline books Octavian and it was framed as him being irrational and dumb. But in the end he was right, if the legion listened to him Ella would have been save way sooner. But no, it is just Octavian being  “obsessed”.

Percy acts like Octavian doesn’t have any prophecy powers, but he saw the lighting in the Jupiter Temple. Then when Octavian is mad because there are three preators he acts like he is overreacting, and Jason and Reyna do nothing. And this is weird because it was made very clear that rules are very important to Camp Jupiter. 

When he decides to attack Camp Jupiter he is always villified and not seem as a mentally ill boy that has been getting worse doing the Roman thing. 

He is always dismissed, mocked, villified, ignored.

And the fact Luke was treated with sympathy, but Octavian not. Luke, who tried to kill Percy, a childre, a lot of times. Luke, who used Annabeth feelings and emotional attachment to manipulate her. Luke, who was 19-22 years old and groomed Silena, who was 14-18 years old. Luke, who poisoned Talia’s tree. Luke, who had no regards for Grover, the satyr that saved him. Luke was treated with sympathy. But not Octavian. Not the mentally ill child who was losing the touch with reality during the series. Not the guy who was just doing what he was raised to do. 

I mean, I don’t even like Octavian and I cannot stand it.

Gwen

Guys, Octavian did a lot of bad things but killing Gwen wasn’t one of those thing. It is so no sense for a lot of reasons. 

As we talked before he is anemic and he is also smart. This intelligent man, that is full aware of his physical limits, thought it would be a good idea to get in the midle of a chaotic fight? I don’t think so.

Some pages before that Percy hit Octavian and he fell like a straw man (according to the text, the first time I read it I thought he fainted). 

Octavian always makes things because of a purpose, he isn’t just being mean because. He does bad things because his actions will give him something. Killing Gwen wouldn’t help him with anything.

Frank for some reason decided to look to Octavian during that mess and that doesn’t make any sense. He is in the camp for a month at this time the guy should’ve already known that Octavian doesn’t battle, he only commands. He saw Percy fighting for a couple of seconds during the war game and was already able to say how he fought.

Octavian was without his knive, but just minutes before he fainted, he could have lost it when he fell.

Frank said that Octavian seemed interested and not worried. But this is not enough to blame the guy, this is not enough to assume anything execpt that maybe Octavian has low empath. 

Greeks

Octavian was a roman. To the romans the greeks didn’t exist anymore, and they were the enemy. 

So, a random greek shows up, spends some days at the camp, becomes preator, and two of your most important gods appear and give a lot of attention to this greek. This is really suspicious. This greek also says that the romans should work with the greeks so they can defeat Gaea. And why you should trust this dude? He doesn’t show respect for the Roman culture. Then this huge war ship appears and this suspect greek guy says that they all come peace and the romans should not attack. Obviously you don’t believe it, and what happens they attack! As the good roman you are, your answer is to attack the greeks back. 

The romans answers things with violence. This is why Reyna asked if Annabeth was a roman after the judo flip. This is why Hazel said she and Percy would be executed if he did a mistake during his period of probatio. Octavian was being roman. He was trying to protect and revenge his Camp against a long time enemy. 

Not saying everything he did about it was logical, but this is because of his upbringing and his mental health. 

Goals

I think it is really interisting the fact that Octavian main goal was to be a hero, not more powerful. Apollo didin’t say Octavian would become preator, he said Octavian would save New Rome. 

I mean, since Octavian wanted to be preator and then became the pontifex maximum, so the logical think it would be to him wants more power. But no he wants to be a hero. A hero is someone that is respected, admired, liked and even loved. All the thing Octavian isn't. Don't get me wrong, Octavian is a bad person, there is a reason people dislike him. But he is also a lonely child that is hated by most of the camp.

Ableism

Octavian is often described as crazy, mad, insane. In his first appearence Percy said Octavian had madness in the eyes, and this was the way of the narrative warning us he was one of the bad guys. He is obviusly mentally ill, his mental health is obviusly getting worse, but everyone ignores it. Everyone ignores it, execpt when they are describing how insane his laugh is, how crazy he looks, how intense his gaze is. Everyone ignores it, until they need to remind us he is one of the antagonists. 

Ending

The ending was terrible. 

Octavian was obiously having a psychotic break, he was stumbling, laughing “in an insane” way, and he didn’t realize his jewelry was in fire. And then what happens? Michael Kahale, the person he most trusted, his problaby only friends appeared, saw the situation and did nothing.

Octavian didn’t kill himself. He didn’t know his clothes were tied in the onager. It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was an aciddent. 

Nico stopped Will Solace who was trying to warn it because some “deaths are inevitable”. Nico, also a mentally ill character saw Octavian in the vulnerable state he was and did nothing to help him. And when Nico was seeing Octavian lunch himself to the sky he thought that this was a relief. No one was sad, no one thought this was a tragedy, no one cared. Octavian was dead and that was a relief. 

The guy was so desperate to be the hero and no one even cared about his death. It is horrible.

Another sorry for the weird tense of the text.

If you want to read this is my post about Octavian and Azula and how their mental illness were treated differently.

Best regards,

Me. 

Ps. We need to start talking how the way Bryce was written was ableist.

[ocdjason]

Okay since my crits on rr's ableism (on another blog) have been getting notes I want to make this one (which if you liked/rbd those, I ask you to please read through):

when I had a special interest in pjo/hoo, my whole kind of brand I Guess was that my favourite character was octavian. and while I don't even really think about pjo anymore I suppose he still is. the reason why is because I saw myself in him, more specifically: I, a mentally ill person, saw my symptoms in him. canonically.

im not going to say what I did when I was 14-15 and try to convince nyall to like him, what I will say is that regardless of anyone's thoughts he leans into ableist stereotypes that make him a harmful villain. hes canonically said to have delusions- in fact, delusions of grandeur are stated specifically (which you could throw away as "oh rick didn't mean it ~actually~ but hey? using mental illnesses or their symptoms as just throwaway ways to make a character seem worse is... still ableist)

theres more eplicitly said stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head that certainly hit wrong when I was big into pjo and some other more minor stuff that made me feel how I did (like him being described as looking sicky and sleep-deprived) so I'll end with this:

as a kid with schizophrenia, seeing a character with my symptoms not only as a villain, but with those symptoms being used to try and show why he's a villain was harmful. it was like being looked in the face and being told "you are bad and dangerous because you are like this", and in a children's book series too

listen. I dont want people to like octavian, I want nonpsys to address that the way hes written is one of the shitty ableist things in his books because its the ableism crit other people tend to ignore. there are more examples of ablesim against psychotics (malcolm getting visions and saying he knew something was wrong bc he was too smart and logical to get hallucinations or wtvr, apollo not wanting ppl to know about the talking arrow bc "oh no ppl will think im ~crazy~", I could get into psycho/psychopath being slurs, there'd be a lot more if I reread I bet) but I want to keep this post to one main topic and well its already longer than i meant

[sentient-cloud]

Okay I'll bite who is Octavian?

Shjzjsjz uh. Octavian from Heroes of Olympus. I do have a lot of thots about the amounts of ableism in his writing and characterization and also just my genuine feelings on how I do feel he should have gotten a redemption arc idk man.

[kid-in-the-back-of-class]

Everyone @ Octavian.

disabled person: hey the way this character was written is ableist ppl, inevitably: um?? stop VICTIMIZING him he’s PROBLEMATIC who gives a sh it if he’s disabled he’s just some Wh ite Gu y stop ROMANTICIZING HIM

[mudstoneabyss]

i’ve been seeing a lot of autistic hcs which as an autistic person...nice and i wanted to join in and if you’ve seen my blog at least once you know what’s coming

ok so octavian was diagnosed with autism when he was p young

he was very insecure about it because that’s about the time his parents started treating him like a disappointment; his family had been in new rome for years, and every new generation seemed to spawn the ‘perfect’ roman, which they were very proud of. but an autistic child didn’t fit into their idea of ‘perfect’

he!! hates!!! loud noises. he hates meals and parties because everyone’s so loud. he hates training because the clashing of the weapons is The Worst

he has meltdowns a lot because there’s always!!! so much noise!!!!

doing the auguries is like the only way for him to get away from it

tight clothing is Hell he feels so trapped in them and they leave almost no room for movement or breathing

his main stims are pacing, chewing (mostly on his clothes), petting stuffed animals, and squeezing the plushie stuffing

he’s very sarcastic, but he doesn’t understand other people’s sarcasm. whenever someone says something that seems nice but is actually sarcastic, he’ll genuinely believe they’re being nice to him because they like him!!! but he’s so wrong and he doesn’t understand why the people who are “nice” to him look at him weird and tell him to go away when he tries to be with them

he doesn’t understand that what he did was wrong. he was told by “apollo” that the greeks were bad and would hurt people and camp jupiter always taught him conquer or die so why are people upset that he’s conquering??? it’s what he was supposed to do wasn’t it????

just ahh my poor baby boy this wasn’t supposed to be angsty or not that angsty at least i need to save this post

ok so au where he lives

he’s fucked over by the whole situation and still doesn’t fully understand what happened

after a while he begins hanging out with leo because they hung out once before shit went down maybe he likes him??? even though octavian still didn’t understand that leo didn’t choose to attack cj, he feels like maybe since both leo and him did bad things that they can get along

leo was kinda confused by this but after they hung out a lot and began talking about personal stuff tav told him about his neurodivergency and he was like “yeah my guy i get it” cause leo is also autistic

leo makes jewelry for octavian to stim with, they’re usually things like shiny chewy bracelet or spinning glittery ring and listen tavi loves them

they infodump all the time which leads to octavian’s new interest in engineering and leo’s sudden knowledge about ancient rome

did i mention they’re boyfriends they’re boyfriends

when they’re low on spoons they tend to communicate through morse code and they’ve also developed a way to communicate through nuzzling and kissing when talking is too hard how fucking gay of them (it’s basically like a small kiss or soft neck nuzzle is ‘hello’, a longer kiss is like an ‘i love you’ a longer nuzzle is ‘let’s cuddle’ neck kisses are “yo pretty boy fu ck me” obviously)

[algumaideia]

The fact that every autistic coded character gets treated like shit (especially Octavian) doesn't sit right with me

Hi nonnie!!!

Yes, this infuratese me!!! Tyson, Leo, Nico and Octavian were all autistic coded and were all othered by other characters. Tyson is often seem as dumb or not intelligent by other characters. Nico and Octavian are both seem as creepy. Their different ways of communicating are seen as simple/dumb, weird, creepy or unsettling.

And this is so wrong, specially when you consider this series was supposed to be for neurodivergent folks. It is so wrong to treat the autistic coded characters like that.

Rick also treated Nico and Octavian coded chronic illness in a bad way. The way he describes their appearence as something to show how creepy they are is so bad.

He also didn't have respect for Octavian's mental problems and is always forcing Nico to suffer more and more trauma and then Nico is seen as a potencial bad guy or not completly trustworthy because of how he copes with the trauma Rick doesn't stop forcing upon him.

I'm not the best person discuss the amount of ableism on the series since I'm not disabled, but it does bother me a lot.

Best regards,

Me.

[kyerinell]

Thoughts on the Codex Alera

Spoiler alert, there are a few things mentioned below.  I’ve tried to call them all out ahead of time in the text, though.

It was the series that introduced me to Jim Butcher, so I owe it a lot of nostalgia, especially since I read my first one in middle school.  I missed a lot because it was the fourth book, but even then it made me pick up the others.  As I grew older, the ridiculous sexualization got a bit frustrating, but that’s one of the only things about it that I can really complain about.  I mean, I wish the combat was a little more realistic, but it is a fantasy book, and even then the tactical and strategic moments redeem it greatly.

But more than anything else, I love the characters.  In it you meet some people who embody the greatest and meekest of humanity.  Time and again, it shows that it isn’t strength, money, status, or power that ultimately changes the world, but will. Like the Lord of the Rings, it shows the smallest of people throwing into disarray the plans of the mighty. The main character embodies everything that made Rome (the empire) great.  I don’t mean the strength that conquered land, or the grandiosity that intimidated entire civilizations, but the ingenuity, professionalism, and uniformity that made it into a truly terrifying engine.  Neither does it shy away from the morally repugnant aspects, such as women being second class citizens, if they were even granted that honor, and institutionalized slavery.

But back to the characters. While the main character is certainly compelling, he is simply a hero.  While he does have struggles and growth, he as a person is not nearly as compelling to me as others.

Spoiler alert:  If you haven’t finished them yet, skip this section.

This series includes perhaps my favourite character out of any from any series.  Valiar Marcus/Fidelias ex Cursori.  This man is one shown at various times as monster, loyal agent, pure soldier, duty incarnate, and will given form.  He is a traitor, who betrayed one he respected for the nation he loved, murdered civilians to protect the multitudes, and risked his life for men and women without any rancor or thought of reward.  He does these at times simultaneously.  And yet he does not believe the ends justify the means. He doesn’t believe himself a hero. He thoroughly believes himself unredeemable.   He has taken on the sins of the many, until he feels that his soul itself is black from the filth that he has committed.  And yet he asks no mercy, begs not for clemency or for consideration of work done.  And yet when he meets Octavian, and from then onwards, he stops caring about the damnation and pain.  He becomes more than merely loyal.  He seeks not redemption, and yet he finds it anyway.  To sum him up:  “It was then that Fidelias realized that not only was he following Octavian down the Leviathan’s gullet, unarmed and unarmoured, he was sprinting.”

Secondly is the women throughout the series.  While I don’t believe they are completely free of objectification by any means, we see women who are far more compelling than most of the male cast.  We meet Kitai, who lives by her own rules and faces everything on her own feet, Lady Placida who is as fierce and capable as any of her male compatriots, and Isana.  Isana was the woman who lost everything but herself, and still stood firm. She brought a dead man back to life (Araris), and while she was being used as a token used the power from it to do real, effective good.  She campaigned against slavery, assisted refugees, healed everyone she could, and fought one of the strongest men in the world in a duel to the death to open his eyes. Furthermore, she is not beautiful. Unlike almost all women given power in most series, her body is not given a huge introduction and described in a painfully sexual way.  And yet she married possibly the most powerful man Alera had seen, and birthed a son even mightier.  And she protected him better than any legion might have, even though it hurt them both with the lies she told to do it.

Spoilers done.

Basically, while the story itself is fun and compelling, the reason I love this series is that it not only fights against some conceptions, it rages against them.  It uses a strictly hierarchical system and shows the rise of a(n) (apprentice) shepherd without any power to become far more.  It takes a society that embraces sexism, ableism, racism, xenophobia, and slavery, and uses not moral arguments (well, not overtly), but rather human ones, by showing examples of those affected, to combat them.

And it does it all in a mere six books, with entertainment and poorly done jokes.

[algumaideia]

[ID: three comments by @sentient-cloud

It’s honestly gross, especially considering the autistic coding and his anemia and stuff. Like hes always compared to as lesser than our great heroes in ways that just. Are bad on Ricks part

That and his autism coding being used to make him creepy and evil seeming and the like. “Scary” deterioration of his mental health like…. Rick stop

Not to harp it does suck we get an autistic coded character like Octavian who’s constantly dehumanized and yeah, compared to “faking” being human. Rick did Octavian so dirty

/.end ID]

The way octavian is referred to as a 'scarecrow' so often is actually pretty dehumanising because it's like he's only pretending to be human, like a scarecrow. He fools the crows, but not the heroes.

[algumaideia]

The writing would have been better if Octavian was written as a serious threat, rather than an annoyance to joke about and belittle

[algumaideia]

In this prompt Octavian acts more like a jerk than I normally write him as. Also CW: ableism.

...

Octavian wondered what Reyna wanted to talk with so much urgency. Couldn't she wait just a little more? His leg was still hurting a lot because of the injury Fulano caused on him in the training.

He hated the attention his limping brought to him and how he could not stop it. At least, he was being able to hide how much pain he was feeling.

He passed in front of some people from the First Cohort.

"Yeah, my dad is really proud of-" Fulano saw Octavian and smiled with malice "Got hurt in the training again, Octavian? Are you sure the legion is the place to you? I mean, you cannot even fight a fake fight."

Octavian did the best to ignore, but he was full of rage. It was Fulano who hurt him and he still was there making fun of him.

...

It was time to deal with that situation. Octavian stood up, ready to go to talk with Fulano. He had all the conversation planned on his head.

The only problem would be getting into where Fulano was. He was problaby in the forum and that was a little too far from where Octavian was. The fact he was limping didn't help the situation.

When Octavian got to the forum, he leaned against a wall and closed his eyes before entering it. He waited his breathing to calm down, he didn't want to look weak.

It took Octavian some minutes to go look after Fulano and some more time to find him. Luckly Fulano was sitting alone on a table.

When Octavian sat down he immediately made eye contact. He knew this could make people unconfortable.

"Wow. I cannot believe you were capable to walk all the way to the forum. Or should I say limp?" Fulano laughed a little "Now you're not even capable of walking right"

Octavain tried to look bored.

"Fulano. Please, enlighten me. You are the legacy of what god? I don't remember it quite well"

Fulano frowned his eyebrows.

"Mercurio... why do you-"

"And this is from your mother side or father side?"

"Father. But-"

"But" Octavian got closer to Fulano "you are not a legacy of Mercurio, are you? No. You are his son." Octavian opened a mischievious grin "Your mother cheated on her husband"

Fulano's eyes were wide open and his breathing was becoming faster.

"It... it is not that simple. She-"

"It would be a pity if her husband discovered that, wouldn't it?"

"You cannot do that!!"

"I? I would do nothing. That is just the way secrets work. They spread really fast. But lucky you. I'm really good and keeping secrets, well... secret. I just need you to do something for me in return."

"Forget it. I'm not going to do shit for you!!!"

"Be careful there you don't want to scream your secret to everyone on the forum, do you?"

Fulano looked like he would punch Octavian. Octavian liked it. He could use the other emotion to his advantage.

"But are you sure about your answer?"

"Of course I am. I-"

"You know in Portuguese fire can be two words. Fogo and incêndio. Fogo is that fire you can get with matches, stoves, etc. It is manageble. You can control it. Incêndio is the opposite. It is the fire that spreads and burns everything on its way. You can't just turn it off. It is out of control. It is fire that can destroy an entire house"

Octavian smiled with his last sentence.

"There is a reason why secrets are often compared to fire. In the moment this secret is like fogo. Only four people know. Your mother, Mercurio, you and me. But how much time until it becomes an incêndio? How much time until other person discovers it? How much time until the number of people who know the secret doubles? How much time until the number of people who know about it becomes ten times bigger? Twenty? Thirty? How much time until it is not a secret anymore and everyone knows it?"

Fulano wasn't looking for Octavian anymore, he was starring the table. But Octavian? Octavian was paying a lot of attention on Fulano's face and expressions.

"How much time until your stepfather discovers it? How much time until he knows everybody knows it? He can find out in the begining of the fire or way later. Personally, I don't know what would be worse."

"You cannot-"

"I am very interested to know how he will react. Will he continue to provide to you after being that humiliated?"

"My father..." Fulano's voice was cracking "My father loves me"

"Stepfather, not father. And that might be true, however how much strenght do you think he has? Does he have the strenght to endure the fact that the child he provided and loved for so long is not his child? Does he have the strenght to deal with the fact he was lied to for years? Does he have the strenght to deal with the public scrutiny? You know well how people here can be mean. Does he have the strenght to look weak? Because that's exactly how he will look like if he does nothing about you and your mother. Especially when your image is so important around here."

"I... he..."

"You know what I think? I think that no. Your father doesn't have the strenght to deal with all of this. And I also think you agree with me. So imagine your stepfather, the man you love so much, dealing with all this. Imagine your poor mother suffering, because she feels so sorry and everyone is being so mean. I mean, she was so young and it was a big mistake. She deeply regrets cheating her husband, why should she pay so much for this? Imagine you, without your home, your friends, your family. With all of that in mind, what do you say about my deal?"

He didn't worry about the silence that fell between them. He knew he had won.

"What do you want me to do?"

"First, stop hurting me on purpose on the trainings and to respect my physhical limits. Second, due to your family, or should I say your stepfather's family you have some influence over the Second Cohort. Besides you also get along with them pretty well. What I want is to you convince them to support me on Senate Meetings."

"How am I supposed to do that? They hate you!!! It will be impossible!!"

"Yeah. Years of bullying made me well aware of how much the Second Cohort hates me." Octavian's voice was harsh "But I guess this makes out deal fair. We both have impossible tasks to do. You need to make the Second Cohort support me and I need to keep a secret a secret."

Octavian stood up.

"I'm going. Just would like to say that it might be better if you don't talk about out deal to anyone. It is easier to deal with only one secret. Have a nice day!"

When he was in the exit of the forum Octavian met Jason.

"What were you and Fulano talking about? He seemed really angry."

"Oh. I just covinced him that my plan to the War Games is way better than his. Maybe I was a little too mean."

"A little? He look furious!!"

"Well, that is on him. He started it all. I'm just answering his endless bullying."

"Bullying? Don't you think you are exaggerating a little Tav?"

I don't know Jason, ask that to my limping leg.

"Yeah. I actually meant teasing. But I forgot the word."

Jason giggled discomfortably.

"This happens with me all time. I really dislike it."

"Me too. Anyway, I'm going. I'm tired."

"Okay. Congrats for having a better plan."

"Thanks Jason."

...

Octavian liked the way things ended up. But he wasn't satisfied, it took him too much time to deal with the guy. And there was also most of the second cohort that he needed to handle. Too much work and he wasn't as near to end it as he would have liked.