my-pjo-stuff

[my-pjo-stuff]

Hot take, but I lowkey hate when people call characters like Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse "Greek" and other characters like Jason, Reyna and Hazel "Roman" because they are demigods of the respective pantheon. Because they aren't. Percy isn't Greek, he's American. It means something to be Greek. Just like it means something to be Roman. The words "Roman" and "Greek" are tied to places of birth, culture and home. They aren't labels you can just slap on, Percy isn't a Greek demigod- he's an American Demigod. Because he is from America, not Greece. He's a Demigod of the Greek gods. And Jason is not a Roman Demigod either- New Rome isn't Rome. It has no traits of current, modern day Rome. Saying he's Roman because he is from New Roman or from the Roman God Jupiter would be like saying someone from New York is from York. Neither of those cultures are even remotly similar to eachother. Jason is American too, or perhabs New Roman, but certainly not Roman.

I honestly think this is such another pointer towards Rick american-ness. Because the way he treats the terms of "Greek" and "Roman" is exactly the way americans treat other nationalities too. You know what I am talking about, when Americans call themselves "Irish", "Scotish", "German" or whatever else they want because they discovered some of their ancesors were? Despite never having known anything or ever having interacted with the culture they claim to be from? And then ontop of that pick out the most insulting, surface level stereotypes and aestethic of their chosen culture to use??? Yeah. This is exactly what I think happened when Rick started calling his characters "Greek" and "Roman".

[my-pjo-stuff]

You know something that I hate? Most of the fandom seems to randomly blame Luke for all the deaths that happened during the Battle of Manhatten like he personally sliced everyone's throat outta nowhere, despite Luke being canonically posessed by Kronos and having no agency in any of that. Yet people treat Percy helping to blow up the Princess Andromeda and killing hundrets more than the TA ever could like a huge W or they just ignore it. Talk about hypocricy.

[my-pjo-stuff]

What do you think Thalia and Luke's relationship would have been like if they had met under different circumstances?

I can't stop thinking what their entire connection was based solely on the fact that they became each other's first friends at a older age; the first (it seems?) demigods they met, and the need to defend themselves against monsters together. But it seems to me that if Luke hadn't desperately wanted someone else around, they would never have become friends. Maybe good acquaintances at best.

Honestly I am not really sure. From how Luke talked about her and the short snippet we see in The Diary of Luke Castellan we know she was reasonably diffrent from her acts after returning. She was much less fanatic and seemed more sceptical of the gods, and her personality to me seemed more rebellious too. So honestly, if we talk about pre-tree Thalia I do think there would have been a reasonable chance for them to become friends had they met at, let's say, Camp Halfblood or school.

Post-tree Thalia however? Oh hell no, Luke would have hated her guts. Like- acctualy, genuinley despised her. She is an all out fanatic vying for the gods' love and fighting in their honor and name. A glorified attack dog, really. And dogmatic as shit. Luke would hate her because Thalia would be the stand in for everything he hates, and I'm convienced the only reason he didn't in canon was because he was sentimental and emotional about her. So yeah, it's really a 50/50 based on what "type" of Thalia he meets, imo.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Guess we can haunt this fandom together then, eh?

Okay, let me be a whiney lil' bitch a little: I hate this joke about

Luke: You can't force the gods to do anything.

Percy: Bet.

Cause it became possible only cause of Luke's actions! This assholes don't understand anything but force and they were almost razed!

And they're still broke the oath almost immediately.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Sometimes you like the fandom favorite and that's annoying because you have to see all the wild takes that do not interpret them the correct way. Other times, you like the fandom's least favorite and that's annoying because you still have to see all the wild takes that do not interpret them the correct way.

[my-pjo-stuff]

No but you know a very specific thing that fucks me up? The fact that due to language intricasies, Luke never once says "goodbey" in the German PJO books.

To elaborate a bit, German as a language doesn't really have a "goodbye" in the sense English does. Instead, solely looking at official German at least (so we ignore regional dialects and slang) we have phrases that mean goodbye or are used as goodbey, but lit. translate to something different. The two most popular "goodbeys" being "Lebe wohl" and "Auf Wiedersehen." Which respectively translate into "live well" and "Until we meet again/I hope we meet again".

So now just imagine stuff like the pit scorpion scene at the end of TLT or Luke dying- but instead of him saying "goodbey", he instead looks to Percy and says "live well, Percy." Or, "I hope we'll meet again, Percy."

[my-pjo-stuff]

Hey, I know you don't like Hermes and you're not fond of Percy. However, what is your opinion on the Hermes and Percy friendship in PJO?

When I just got into PJO fanon, I wasn't invested in their friendship fics. However, when I began to read the books for the Luke (&Hermes) scenes, I found it kind of cute.

However, I am thinking about it some more. Isn't this friendship kind of weird? With how much Hermes is supposed to love Luke, why would he be so friendly with the guy who was determined to kill him? Why isn't Hermes at least somewhat jealous of the bond between Percy and Poseidon? Why isn't he angry that Percy is basically taking all his son's glory? I also don't understand why fandom is more interested in writing Hermes & Percy fics vs Hermes & Luke fics.

Not sure if your bias against both of these characters makes you a good person to ask, but I am really getting confused.

Honestly I think the answer to all of your questions are: Percy is the fandom's golden boy. Litteraly that's it. The fandom generally hates Luke, which means fics about him are already not written often. Percy in the meantime is the favourite; the fans love propping him up with all kinds of things. And saying he's BFFs with a god? The father of the "bad guy with daddy issues" no less? That's pretty funny, all things considered. And also very easily allows them to go "Lmao Percy is so cool, even Hermes likes him more than his own son XDXDXD!"

The reasons your concerns are never brought up is because it would involve Luke in either a positive or atleast neutral light. And it would not involve/take away from Percy. That's my opinion atleast. The reason these plot holes exist and are ignored are the same reasons Percy Overthrows The Gods Fics exist- people choose to ignore them and pretend they don't exist. It simply what you get when everyone obsessed ove their favorite self-insert and overblow everything about him.

I'm really sorry if this answer seems somehow short or too simply for your questions, it's just that's that honestly all I have to say to it. And that this is all there is to it if you ask me. Either way, thanks for the ask nonetheless!

[my-pjo-stuff]

Maybe it’s just me but like, I feel like we don’t talk enough about how Luke was raised

Like yeah we know Luke was raised with May, she was insane and blah blah blah

But at the same time, if we took a deeper dive kinda, that’s like- the start of Luke being forced in a parental role.

Because there was no way May could’ve cooked good food that was healthy or not burnt for Luke, so Luke probably learned to cook for the both of them. He also probably learned to clean, bath himself, learn by him self

I feel like, Luke was always very independent, and not in a good way like ‘I don’t need anyone’s help, but it’s nice to lean on someone once a while’ independent way, I mean in like a

‘I never had anyone to show me how to do anything so I learned everything my self and feel scared to rely on anyone’ type of way.

Sorry if this doesn’t make any sense, kinda just want to talk about how Luke was probably shoved into a parental role from a very young age and never learned how to ask for help/never had anyone to lean on

No need to apologize, but also YES. You are SO spot on, and this is also why I hate it when people want to act like Luke somehow had it better than Percy or was priviledged in any way.

Like yes Luke was a handsome cishet white boy who's Momma props had hella cash. But it's not like any of those privileges ever helped him or played a role in his life EVER in any way???? Like???

Luke litteraly never once had a reliable adult figure and always had to be one himself. Always a caretaker, never the one taken care of. He had to (most certainly) care for his mother in some way. When he ran away, he had Thalia and Annabeth to look after. And in Camp not only did the "safe place" reveal itself to be not save at all, he had kids in the Hermes cabin to see to. Not to mention that even later on during the TA, he STILL had those demigods to keep track of.

Everyone is always suprised how Luke has such shitty decision making skills/is seemingly so "quick to lash out" (as most ppl still treat his revolution as a temper tantrum) and I'm like--- No wonder? That boy was litteraly parentified all his life. He always had to be responsible and good and smart and was never acctualy taught how to handle anything. Not his emotions, his struggles or his worries. He was thrown into the water and told to swim or sink, and somehow y'all are mad at him he came out emotionally volatile?

Friendly reminder that Kronos with his manipulation, was probably the closest thing to fatherly Luke ever experienced.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Honestly that really shows how fucked up the fandom is, we litteraly have three diffrent "reasons" for why Thalia died. Only one of which blames Luke (for "picking fights with monsters" mind you, which is already a dubious reason considering they are well...monsters. And he was a kid.) Yet the one most the fandom seems to go with is the one blaming the fourteen year old traumatized boy. On what? The words on an obviously unreliable narrator who we know dislikes him equally and in spite of the two previous (and longer established) explanations having nothing to do with him? 'Cause you have another reason to hate him now? Not to mention the fact that it talks about Rick's quality in terms of writting.

“—but most of all I hate Rick's bad writing.”

/The Lightning Thief/

/The Sea of Monsters/

/The Last Olympian/

[my-pjo-stuff]

Crack AU where Kronos, realizing Luke had stabbed himself and that he is about to lose, decides to unleash a final burst of his power in some petty "if I die y'all will too" typa move. But instead of killing everyone in that throne room all he does is catapult them back in time a bit. Enter: 16y/o Percy, Annabeth and Grover all waking up shortly before the start of TLT. And deciding the only reasonable thing to do is kidnapping Luke before he can start shit.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Honestly I think the anything Roman would have led to viva la revolution 2.0 so fast. Because, like- yeah CHB is bad? But Camp Jupiter!? The camp where demigods are canonically trained by a wolf goddess first who eats and thus kills whoever she considers weak? The straight up military consisting of kids who have their arms branded like cattle? The place where we have some actual, crazy nepotism going on aswell as demigods who are treated even worse? Where a whole unit/cohort is actively treated as less than???? And, not to mention the most daming thing- THE PLACE THAT HAS A FULLY FUNCTIONAL CITY OF ADULTS YET STILL USES A CHILD ARMY AND WHO FORCES THEIR KIDS TO FIGHT!? Yeahhhhh no. Luke would have gone mental so fast. Like "pissed off" is an actual understament of what is indescribably justified rage. Olympus would NOT have been saved had Luke been aware of New Rome.

People saying Luke would have liked New Rome University but I think he'd have hated it because of the entry requirements lol. Like wdym as a demigod you grow up:

1) constantly in fear of being killed and/or eaten, and

2) neglected by your godly parent who probably doesn't remember you exist half the time,

only to be told when you're finally at the age for uni that the requirements to enter North America's only demigod-friendly university is to get reccommendation letters from 3 separate gods???? It'd be viva la revolution 2.0 for him so fast

But normal uni though? He'd like that for sure — he deserves to be that uni fratboy who's somehow president of a billion societies *and* top of his class

[my-pjo-stuff]

Happy Pride! Luke so tried out men once.

[my-pjo-stuff]

@ pjo fandom

[my-pjo-stuff]

How come that pjo fans always bring up how it's a kids' book when we give criticism to stuff like Annabeth's treatment of Percy or the implications of the worldbuilding. Yet are perfectly happy to say Luke's canonically a pedophile/groomer/fascist/*insert bad kind of person here* even though that also would not be something typically found in a children's book???

Like. Make it make sense please. PJO is a book for kids, so reading into it and wanting to have darker themes like it's adult media is illogical and wrong. Because obviously that stuff "doesn't belong there". Yet at the same time one of the most important characters being a pedophile and groomer in their eyes is perfectly in accordance and fine with all of that? Really shows how most of these arguments are really just delflections to avoid actually confronting the issues. Or stuff they throw out bc they don't want to critically examine their fav piece of media and/or themselves.

[my-pjo-stuff]

honestly those fics always gave me the vibe of "the army is actually rly cool and you'll make lots of friends there!!!!" typa propaganda.

Ever so often I dream about a universe where PJO wasn't a kids book or better written and acctualy adressed the intrinsic horror of demigod life.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Whenever I see someone reply to any rr criticisms in terms of him not exploring the severly fucked up implications of PJO bc it is a "kids book", all I can think about is...wow someone never watched Avatar: The Last Air Bender or Star Wars:The Clone Wars.

Both of them being shows for kids in the same age range as the PJO books are, who tackle topics including but not limited to: -war and it's consequences -genocide -political intrigue -corruption of power -corrupt power systems -child soldiers -propaganda -people being misled by their false sense of honor -moral greyness -revenge -kidnappings and torture -corrupt upper classes causing harm -revolts and revolutions And much, much more! Like, I get that there are limits to what Rick could have done. But that certainly doesn't excuse questionable writting decisions or just straight up ignoring stuff. And even if he couldn't have tackeled it in the og 5 books, he could have let his story grow with his readers and tackle it in later books such as HoO or TOA. We all know that the vast majority of his fans atp probably aren't even kids anymore.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Ever so often I dream about a universe where PJO wasn't a kids book or better written and acctualy adressed the intrinsic horror of demigod life.