hyllaarellano - Tumblr blog

[hyllaarellano]

i'm working on a pjo rewrite AND i'm hyperfixating on the iliad...let's make iphigenia a huntress of artemis that we meet in ttc babeyyy

[hyllaarellano]

So Percy Jackson trailer has me brainrotting again so I decided it is once again time for me to throw my Riordanverse playlists out onto the aether because like,,, I think about them too much they consume so much of my brain at all times-

[hyllaarellano]

i'm unfortunately hyperfixating on greek mythology and riordanverse again...ik it's been over 3 years since i used this blog...but what if

[hyllaarellano]

this isn’t even a fandom problem at this point, this is a serious issue about all of some of yalls morals. the way some of yall don’t care disgusts me

[hyllaarellano]

no more talking about how rick is better than jkr or whatever tf you white bloggers wanna say in support of him

let's talk about how y'all made it impossible for poc to feel comfortable in fandom. how i have literal anxiety attacks every time a post of mine blows up bc i know someone is about to say stupid shit!!

let's talk about how y'all want to ship girls of color with people older than them consistently despite the sexualization we go through!!! y'all wanna defend shipping fr*zel as if hazel isn't 13 and as if black and indigenous girls are more likely to be murdered, assaulted and r*ped solely bc of their ancestry and skin tone.

y'all are so quick to explain what racism is to me as if I haven't spent my entire life living as a black girl, being called "fast" and "inappropriate" just bc my tits and my ass grew faster than the rest of my friends. as if my mom doesn't worry that every time i walk out the door, that i might not come home and she'll have to go down to the police station to give a statement or to the morgue to identify my body.

i am so tired of this. you say that you stand with us, and that you care for us, but you don't. you only care when it benefits you. I'm done at this point.

[hyllaarellano]

some of you guys honestly got way too comfortable positively comparing riordan to rowling and don’t want to admit that he’s a multimillionaire white man in his 50s, who doesn’t need your fucking defense.

the only reason so many of us are so heated is because we love his characters too! but that doesn’t excuse his poor treatment of his characters of color and you need to stop offering him excuses. we, as white people, don’t get to accept his apologies. that’s something people of color get to decide to do—or not do. we need to be good allies and stand aside and amplify the voices of people of color that he’s hurt, again and again.

[hyllaarellano]

bad representation in the pjo-verse: a masterpost

racism

samirah: arranged marriage , hijab , general issues

hazel: fr*zel , white/lightwashing , “golden” eyes , eurocentric features , hair type , general issues + this, bonus: fancasts/faceclaims/art references

piper: general issues (a masterpost) , cornucopia , art references , art tips

sadie: white/lightwashing + this + this + this + this

leo: abuse + this , stereotyping

reyna: this + this

latino rep

eastern asian/southeastern asian rep + this + this

antisemitism + lavinia

the gods and dna + this

general racism + this + this + this + this + this 

cultural appropriation + this 

white supremacy

anti-lgbtq+

nico’s romanticized forced outing

lesbophobia + this

transphobia + this + this

ableism

big age gaps

annabeth and luke , black characters , female characters

misogyny + this + this (+ lesbophobia)

fatphobia + this

[hyllaarellano]

can somebody help me find the post explaining all of rick’s mistakes with his characters of color i need it for twitter reasons 😫🙏🏻

[hyllaarellano]

hey uh @ the people talking about how people need to be ‘nicer’ with how they’re criticizing rick riordan? maybe stop and think about why you feel the need for bipoc voices to be palatable and kind and respectable even after they’ve had to bear generations of racism and trauma ok someone being angry and ‘rude’ doesn’t make what they’re addressing and the points they’re making any less important

[hyllaarellano]

on piper and feathers

this was definitely not something that i loved waking up to, but i feel obligated as a cherokee reader to break down rick's response to concerns about stereotypes in piper's character. so let's go through this point by point.

let's get one thing straight first of all. these questions and concerns are coming in majority from native readers. not some randoms on twitter. every native reader i have ever met in the heroes of olympus fanbase has had something negative to say about how piper is written, especially in regards to the cultural aspects of her character, and as a cherokee, i can easily say that their concerns are mine, because i'd be hard-pressed to find anything about piper's character that accurately portrays cherokee girls today. so let's not gloss over the fact that the readers in question are in large part native, and are otherwise people who are not native, but who have listened to our opinions on why we think piper is bad representation and are repeating what we have been trying to say for years.

second, piper is not half cherokee. she's cherokee. blood quantum is a colonial farce made to further the genocide of my people by tracking our bloodlines like dogs. being native is about more than blood, it is about culture and community. don't say she's half cherokee.

third, i was one of those kids who first read the heroes of olympus and rejoiced over piper's character. i was also 11, incredibly depressed because i had been taken away from any connection to my culture at a young age, and desperate for any kind of representation. i saw myself in piper from the unique perspective of a cherokee kid who was disconnected and struggling, just like she was. i'm not saying this is the experience of every native kid who read these books, but what i am saying is that kids don't typically view the media they're consuming with a critical eye. when i was a child, i watched the movie pocahontas, and i liked it. i thought it was good because i wasn't old enough to understand how dangerous that kind of depiction of a native woman is, or how disney had bastardized the story of matoaka. looking back on the movie now, i refuse to ever watch it again because it disgusts me. critical thinking is something you develop as you grow up.

(and just to point out, if you're trying to have a conversation about an issue in good faith, don't say "but THESE natives said they were happy with my writing and that this character is really important to them." because it feels like you're trying to absolve yourself of full accountability.)

finally, i don't care that you read a bunch of books about cherokee culture back in the day. james mooney is not our keeper. i don't even care that you read a couple books about our culture by cherokees. that's all well and good, for background information. what i care about is the fact that the thought of having a cherokee today read over your work didn't even cross your mind. yes, history is important, and having these cultural resources helps to preserve us as a people, but they don't offer any incite on the modern day life of a cherokee girl. point to me a cherokee girl who casually wears eagle feathers, which are sacred and are meant to be used in medicine or worn in ceromonies, in her hair. point to me a cherokee girl who casually wears real feathers in her hair period, or any native girl who would do so for that matter. now, i'm sure they're out there. i don't doubt it. but for one, it's not very common, at least where i'm from in the southern appalachias, and for another, there are other, more appropriate ways to go about showing piper's connection to her culture than by trying and failing to subvert a stereotype because you are a white man writing about a native girl. you can't subvert a racial stereotype as a white writer. piper is not real, but we are, and perpetuating stereotypes is harmful to us. g-d knows how many times i've come across gross fan depictions of piper, or how many white fans have clawed at my throat for telling them that they're being racist for adamantly defending these stereotypes just because it's canon. other native fans who have spoken out about the issues with piper's character in the past have been endlessly harrassed. pretending that this is a non-issue that can't be fixed isn't going to get us anywhere.

obviously, you can't just go back and rewrite the books, but can you promise you won't utilize these stereotypes in future books and adaptations? how about in future official art, if you ever commission new art? does it end with this statement, or do you go right back to ignoring to inherent racism in your depiction of native girls? let's get off the subject of feathers for a second. did you know that natives are often stereotyped as thieves? that we have one of the highest victim rates of police brutality due to the racial profiling that is rooted in stereotypes such as this? if so, why did you make piper, a brown skinned native girl, a kleptomaniac? why did she steal a car? was it necessary? did you know that eurocentric beauty standards demand light eyes and complexions from women of color, and have determined our dark eyes and complexions to be ugly? why do piper, and let's not forget hazel, have light eyes? why are the other women of color in your books, such as reyna and drew, who have dark eyes, seen as cold, or mean? did you know that 4 out of 5 native american women are affected by violence, and that our murder rates are 10 times higher than the national average? that 94% of native american women will, without question, experience sexual assault in their lifetime? why was piper grossly sexualized in her claiming? are you aware of the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis? just this week, i've seen two posted calling for oklahoma natives to be on the look out for two missing sisters, both cherokee. do you think piper is unaware of the dangers she faces as a native girl in america? that, realistically, it would explain her aversion towards femininity or even towards her own culture? do you understand the gravity of which all this implies? do you understand that the problem doesn't begin and end with feathers? do you understand why native people have an issue with how we're being represented by you in your work?

the bottom line is, listen to native people. do better.

[hyllaarellano]

FUCK riordan and his performative wokeness. people criticizing his work for being racist is not bullying! he needs to get over himself—if he’s not going to take criticism seriously when it comes to the minority characters he writes, then he needs to stop claiming that he is a progressive writer.

[hyllaarellano]

I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE POSTING ABOUT RICK AND HOW MUCH HE SUCKS all the praise hes getting on social media rn is KILLING ME

lmaooo i hate him so much. like i’ve been a pjo fan since fckn 2008, i was really active in the tumblr fandom in 2016-2017 and i remember his bullshit!! stop acting like he’s progressive! he’s an old ass cishet white men who’s a typical lib that likes to tout diversity without actually living up to making it well done and we do NOT stan 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[hyllaarellano]

Nico and Percy’s dynamic in BotL is honestly the funniest fucking thing because Percy’s this emotionally exhausted 15 year old who is the sole person concerned about this feral 11 year old street urchin that wants to kill him…Chiron and the rest of the camp are just like ‘sometimes, children are homeless and they die. what can you do😔‘ and Percy’s just like ‘no???? we need to make sure he’s eating???? and that he’s not captured by an army of monsters???’ and Nico keeps trying to plot Percy’s downfall except he can’t actually come up with a plan because he’s Eleven or whatever and it’s just….remember when you were 15? remember what that felt like? now imagine being 15 and trying to wrangle an 11 year old that’s hissing and kicking your shins into brushing his teeth. imagine trying to tell this little asshole to go to bed before 10pm and he pulls out a fucking sword. how is someone supposed to handle that??? Percy surely doesn’t know! there’s a scene in BoO where Nico’s like ‘I don’t want to eat anything, but I know Percy would annoy the fuck out of me to force me to eat if he was here ugh’ sfkjsdfkj Percy literally had to CONDITION him into acting like a functioning person…and Percy’s inner monologue half the time is like ‘Yes I would kill for Nico di Angelo. Yes he is the worst person I know and I Will strangle him to death one day.’ like he doesn’t even completely like Nico as a person but everyone else is just chill with letting him run around by himself so Percy somehow ends up having to pseudo-parent this goth brat when he’s 15 and Barely Holding His Own Shit Together like….objectively an incredible dynamic lmao

[hyllaarellano]

oh sure what you intended doesn’t matter when it comes to percy being bi but when people see reyna as a lesbian you make sure to tell us that you would never make her a lesbian

fuck you riordan

[hyllaarellano]

the way we all looked at salt and pepper haired lil man of rage rick riordan’s representation of drew tanaka as shallow and vain and Bad and were like “that’s a big lovely autistic femme lesbian if i’ve ever seen one and i love her Dearly now” and rick was like NO SHE MEAN!!!!!!! and we were like that meme of the girl leaving with a guy on her lap but it’s us with drew. our minds. i love that for us.

[hyllaarellano]

it’s actually so considerate of luke and kronos to wait until summer each year like they just knew that sally wouldn’t let percy save the world when he had algebra homework due

[hyllaarellano]

i love how percy nico and thalia all canonically look like emo skater kids…. solidarity <3