#COME ON PEOPLE

[drachis917]

Okay fellas I know we're all super hyped from Grian's announcement. Them all recording something next week that's gonna be wild sounds awesome, but I feel the need to remind people:

If the new videos are not Life Series related, we should not get mad and complain in their comments.

Yes, I fully acknowledge that we'll probably be a bit disappointed if it isn't that after all the hints, but the creators are allowed to do what they want. It's their content, and we shouldn't be demanding things from them. If you can't be supportive, at least be respectful.

[rosabell14]

The hunters of Artemis, Reyna, and Asexuality in Riordan's writing

I kinda started thinking about this since Reyna became a hunter. I could never articulate why I hated this Choice. I was asexual after all. Shouldn't I be happy about this rep? We Ace people barely get any after all. Then I realized that it's because I just didn't like the hunters as ace representation. And I didn't need to be grateful for mediocrity.

You want to know why the hunters of Artemis suck in general? And as Ace rep specifically? Because Riordan did not write them with that mindset.

Like people are so busy hailing this man as the king of representation in literature(blegh) that they forgot how heteronormative and white(sometimes racist) the original series was. Y'all really think this man was thinking about writing asexuals in the year 2007? Get real. What Riordan was doing was a white man trying to write feminism and failing (there's a reason most of his female characterization of female characters boils down to tough "not like other girls" characters who are dicks to the boys around them yet also to the girls around them if they're jealous)

Now onto the hunters.

The hunters when first presented in TTC are not a group of asexuals but rather religious celibates. Fantasy Pegan nuns if you may. The first problem arises when their ages are brought up.

"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen..."

Remember, before ToA gave us Emmie and Jo, the hunters WERE all young girls. Now why in the world are they so young? Especially when in the actual myths, the hunters could come from any age whatsoever? Well the reason is a doozy.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh… a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" I asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

Hooo boy. What a way to phrase it. Going astray. Losing themselves. This kinda confirms that the reason why Artemis goes after young girls specifically is because she only wants girls who have yet to finish puberty. Girls have yet to discover their own sexuality. Now I'm not a representative of Asexuals everywhere, but I'm pretty sure most of us don't discover our sexuality at the age of ten. Let alone have the maturity to decide to become celibates about it. And let me reiterate: celibacy is not sexuality. Sure asexual people CAN choose to be celibates but it's not the same thing at all. In fact Zoe and Thalia are big cases for this. Both of them had liked men before(herakles and luke) but joined for their own reasons. Thalia to escape the prophecy and Zoe out of heartbreak. Hell, Bianca herself is mostly swayed by the idea of having no responsibility and a new family.

Now Rick does another thing that goes against the myths. The exclusion of make hunters. Artemis frequently hung around or taught male hunters who respected her. Daphnis, Scamandrius, freaking Hippolytus whom Artemis greatly cared about. Oh but we need to come up with bullshit reasons why Nico can't just join the hunt with his sisters so the hunters of Artemis are all: Ewww men. Also note how at no point does Riordan mention people who fall in love with women.

Now the next point is the oath itself. Artemis says this:

"What oath?" I said.

"To forswear romantic love forever," Artemis said. "To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally."

When I tell you that Emmy and Joe were retcons . Rick was freaking INSISTENT on the hunters being kids. Also note the three points: to never fall in love, to never get married, to stay a maiden.

I mean I think I don't need to explain why obsessing over the virginity of young girls is creepy. Does Riordan think girls older than fourteen can't keep it in their pants? And let me be adamant here Riordan only cares about the virginity Clause here. He mentions falling in love and marriage because he sees them inherently intertwined with sex.

Now onto the wording of the oath itself:

'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'

I mean you might be able to interpret men here as mankind and therefore excluding women as well. But I have many reasons to believe that Riordan didn't even CONSIDER women as a possibility(someone inform this man that lesbians existed smh 😞). Also note that falling in love is not mentioned in the actual oath but maidenhood is.

Now onto the next big issue. Percy Jackson's Greek gods and its chapter on Artemis. It basically confirms all of my problems.

"IT’S NOT THAT ARTEMIS HATED ALL MEN, just most of them. From the moment she was born, she knew one critical fact: Guys are kinda gross."

No mention of girls. In this chapter Percy(Rick) brings up Artemis' disdain for dudes over and over again.

“Let me be a maiden forever, Father,” Artemis said, twirling her finger in Zeus’s beard. “I never want to get married.---- But you can grant me a bunch of followers: ocean nymphs, river nymphs, wood nymphs—what the heck, how about mortal girls, too? Any girls who want to join me can become my followers, as long as they remain maidens like me. They should probably make the decision when they’re about nine years old, before they get interested in boys, because after that, they’ll be all distracted and of no use to me.”

Yikes yikes yikes. Ladies and gentlemen the age has been lowered to 9. Freaking 9. Also I guess girls older than that don't need Artemis' protection then? (the real problem is that older/married girls should be out of Artemis's jurisdiction and under the protection of other gods like Hera, Hestia, and Ares. But Hestia is barely there. Hera is terrible and the Amazons also suck)

Now when I tell you that Artemis' big point was about virginity, I mean it. This actually has mythological evidence.

The myths actually DO mention what happens when female hunters fall in love. Rhodopis and Euthynicus were two hunters who offended Aphrodite by choosing a chaste life so she had Eros make them fall in love. However note that they weren't booted out of the hunters for falling in love, but rather after having sex in a cave. THAT was what Artemis took offense to.

Another myth is the story of Aura. A huntress who offended Artemis by comparing their breasts(Greek mythology am I right?). Saying that her breast were better than Artemis' because they were smaller and hey maybe that means that Artemis isn't actually a maiden. Artemis punishes her by making her lose her VIRGINITY. She goes to nemesis for revenge. Nemesis goes to Eros who makes Dionysus fall in love with Aura and when Aura refuses his advances he ties her up and... Yeah you can guess where I'm going with this.

But hey! Those myths aren't in the Greek gods book. You know which myth is? The myth of C(K)allisto. And this one angers me so much I want to chew on the drywall.

The way Riordan writes it. Zeus turns himself into Artemis, brings Kallisto's guards down with the disguise, gets close to her and then when Kallisto REJECTS Artemis' supposed advances, forces himself on her. I need to say this again. Kallisto does not fall in love, she isn't seduced, she does not break her oath. But we still need a reason for her to be yeeted out of the hunters so her lack of maidenhood it is

“You were my favorite,” Artemis said. “If you had come to me immediately, I could have helped you. I would have found you a rich, handsome husband and let you settle into a new life in the city of your choice. I would have allowed you to retire from the Hunt with honor. You could have gone in peace. Zeus’s assault was not your fault.”

Kallisto sobbed. “But I didn’t want to lose you! I wanted to stay!”

Artemis felt like her heart was breaking, but she couldn’t show it. She had rules about her followers. She couldn’t allow those rules to be broken, not even by her best friend. “Kallisto, your crime was keeping the secret from me. You dishonored me, and your sisters of the Hunt, by not being honest. You defiled our company of maidens when you were not a maiden yourself. That I cannot forgive.”

I want to slap this man so hard he flies to the opposite side of the universe. We are not here to blame victims of assault guys! Except we are! But with extra steps. If you get attacked, it's not your fault, but If you are too scared to admit the truth then you deserve to lose your only safe space and turn into a bear. Oh nooooo Kallisto DEFILED Artemis' company by being an icky non virgin. The moment you lose your virginity even if it's not your fault you get punished. But not because I'm gross but because YOU lied. How terrible! And he expects us to feel for ARTEMIS???

But rosabell! This is how things go in the myths. What was uncle Rick (bleghhhh) supposed to do? I don't know... Choose a different version of the story? There are versions were Zeus/Hera are the ones who transform Kallisto into a bear. There are versions where Kallisto actively CHOOSES to sleep with Artemis. Granted it's still assault because she's being lied to but at least then, she'd have a degree of autonomy in the events. At least Artemis could rightfully accuse her of breaking her oath. But noooo, Riordan doesn't know lesbians exist. He actively makes Zeus into a canonical Ra*ist. Why is he on the throne again?

(the fact that this book came out AFTER HoH y'all 😭)

Once again, Riordan sees maidenhood(virginity)/love/marriage as intertwined. This is NOT what being on the aroace spectrum means. You can fall in love but not have sex. You can have sex but not fall in love. You can have sex AND still be an asexual. You can be married and still be a "maiden". Riordan doesn't get to claim to be such a progressive ally for retconning the hunters in 2017, TEN years after he first introduced the hunters because he suddenly remembered that lesbians exist.

Or more like because he doesn't know what to do with his female characters. The hunters more than anything are Riordan's heroine dumping ground. If you don't want it put them in relationships, either kill them(Bianca whose main purpose is to die) or make them eternal virgins(the hunters, Rachel). The fact that some people genuinely think that Calypso should have joined the hunters astound me. Girl suffered for years because of the gods and you all think that the best thing outside of Leo for her(not that I like Caleo) is to become a servant to the gods? Because you can't perceive a female character doing anything else if she's not in a relationship. Like with Thalia, this at least made sense on a strategic level because she didn't want to reach sixteen. Oh but we also don't know what else to do with her so she needs to want to be a hunter after the war is over so we give her a half-assed argument with Luke and now she can be all: wah wah Zoe you were totally right about boys. And the cherry on the cake is that she doesn't even get to be in the final confrontation with Luke or say goodbye to him because of a freaking STATUE. And after pjo her personality becomes Zoe 2.0 and her and Jason get ONE measly meeting.

When I first spoke of not liking Renya joining the hunters this is what I mean. Riordan had so many options with Reyna. Why did she have to leave her esteemed position which she worked so hard for? Two boys rejected her? Why couldn't she go reconnect with her sister more then? She could have joined the Amazons. But nooo Riordan was so allergic to the fans asking him wether she could be Bi or a lesbian. For the stupidest reasons too? Oh Reyna being a lesbian would come off as stereotypical because she got rejected by two guys beforehand! My dude, do you think people don't say the same thing about us who are on the aroace spectrum? That we say we are aro/ace because we got rejected before? Come up with a better excuse next time.

My brother in Christ couldn't even allow Reyna to talk about her sexuality and whatnot. It couldn't even be fully about her. No. He had to turn Reyna into his own mouthpiece admonishing the EVILLLL fans who may have shipped Thalia and Renya. He literally had her say the word "shipping". How cringe can you get? And then he had the audacity to admonish the fans by saying: Why does a strong friendship always have to progress to romance?

It's a sentiment I agree with but coming from this man, it's extremely hypocritical? I don't know Richard maybe because YOU are obsessed with shipping? No character can escape your shipping hands unless they're eternal virgins or dead. You literally turned the Argo2 into Noah's ark2. So much attention focused on shipping that the seven barely felt like friends.

Why does Reyna need to join the hunters? She can choose to not relationship without having to become a servant to female Peter pan.

This is actually a really adequate metaphor when you consider that Emmie and Jo say that they have not met Artemis in YEARS and Apollo mentions that the two of them were lucky she let them LIVE. god can you imagine joining Artemis when you are 9? At an age when you have still not finished maturimg cognitively and therefore shouldn't be trusted on taking a freaking celibacy vow(were you even given the talk yet that age) and after 70 years you decide you want to leave? If you're lucky Artemis will part with you on good terms but SIKES every person you probably knew before joining is now dead. Where is THAT angsty Bianca fic?

Speaking of Bianca. How she was handled also angers me. In another post, I've already talked about how the hunters barely gave her adequate information before letting her join.

How Zoe was the main reason for her death. Zoe KNEW that at least 2 people might die in the quest she was given and yet she decided to bring the least experienced girl to the quest and couldn't even watch her properly.

But you know what else pisses me off? The fact that THEY should have been the one to tell Nico about his sister's death. I've always hated how Chiron made Percy the CHILD tell Nico the other CHILD about his sister dying. But more than anyone, it should have been the hunters' responsibility. Bianca was THEIR responsibility. She died in a quest to save Artemis. The least they could do was tell her remaining family of her fate. The Doylist reason of course is that we need to kickstart Nico and Percy's complicated relationship and have Percy discover that Nico is a son of Hades. But in universe, the fact that they immediately fuck off from the camp upon regrouping makes them come off as extremely selfish. We don't even know if Bianca was given a funeral by them or not. We see Artemis being upset about Zoe but we never see her react to the news of losing Bianca.

[movietimegirl]

There are already people angry that Billy is looking for Tommy and not Wanda 🤣

[dairy-godmother]

Hi. Here’s a message to all RTC fan artists:

Cw: Swears and ranting so much ranting I’m so mad

Me when I try to enjoy ride the Cyclone fanart in here but people keep drawing constance like a FUCKING TWIG as if it’s hard to draw chubby people. IF YOU CAN NOT DRAW OVERWEIGHT CHARACTERS:

LEARN

GOD ITS SO HARD TO BE FAT AND ENJOY MEDIA WITH FAT CHARACTERS WHEN NO ONE PORTRAYS THEM AS FAT

WHY. BECAUSE THEY WILL DRAW THE OTHER CHARACTERS EXACTLY THE WAY THEY ARE USUALLY DRAWN AND THEN CONSTANCE AND OCEAN AND JANE ALL HAVE THE EXACT SAME BODY TYPE WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE WHAT THE HELL.

And some of the art is incredible too. Artists with WONDERFUL art styles and REALLY COOL STYLISTIC CHOICES

Representation has always been important to me and I’m not saying there aren’t other problems with RTC fanart but COME ON

yes. Depending on the production, Constance may not be chubby, but if I can tell that you’re going off of the og cast? If you’re drawing Lillian like that?

I SHALL SMITE THEE DOWN WITH THE POWER OF A MILLION ZEUSES. NONE SHALL BE SPARED FROM THE WRATH OF AN OBESE WOMAN SCORNED!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

[valkyrieslut]

Because y'all love selective reading...

Nesta doesn't care about anyone but herself.

refusing to leave Cassian as he dies in ACOWAR

"What I care about is making sure no children-fae or human-are harmed."

Staying by Cassian's side as he dies in ACOSF

Staying behind so that her friends could survive the rite.

"She would save him, save them, even if it took everything."

Nesta needs to acknowledge what Feyre did for her/how she treated her!

"But beneath the wall, I witnessed children-entire families-starve to death. Were it not for my sister...I would be among them."

"It consumed me so much that...that I let Feyre go into that forest and told myself I didn't care."

"Wished someone would smother the voice that whispered every horrible thing she'd ever done, every awful thought she'd had, every person she'd failed."

"You loved me when no one else would. You never stopped. Even when I didn't deserve it, you loved me, and fought for me."

"I swallowed my shout of pain as Nesta's arms went around my neck, and she embraced me so hard it snatched my breath away." "Her body shook, shook as she sobbed, and said over and over and over, thank you."

Nesta didn't experience enough trauma to act the way she did!

girl, bye be so fr

comparing trauma is gross, and if you think you have any right to do so, you won't fit in on my page :)

Nesta thinks she is superior to everyone around her. 

"I am worthless and I am nothing. I hate everything I am, and I am so, so tired. I am tired of wanting to be anywhere but in my own head."

"You're right to hide your children from me, I am the monster you fear."

"She had been suffering, and he'd had no idea how much it consumed every facet of her life. He'd seen her self-loathing and anger-but hadn't realized how much she'd been away of it. How much it had eaten her up."

Nesta can never allow anyone to love her.

"Nesta leaned forward until their brows touched. And despite all that brimmed in her heart, all that flowed through her body, sure and true, she merely whispered, thank you."

"I love you, too, Feyre whispered to her sister, and smiled. Nesta didn't stop her sob as she launched herself onto Feyre and embraced her."

"I didn't know how long my sisters and I lay there together, just like we had once shared that carved bed in that dilapidated cottage. Then-back then, we had kicked and twisted and fought for any bit of space, any breathing room. But that morning, as the sun rose over the world, we held tight. And we did not let go."

[shitpost-factory]

Something something Charles said he felt the kiss with Crystal ‘up here’ in his head but after his hug with Edwin in the last episode he put his hand on his heart because maybe he felt it there

[lover-of-mine]

"It's just cheap and lazy and bad writing and completely ooc with the rest of the relationship. Buck was supposed to be out of the hamster wheel. They were literally being written as so compatible until then. This came out of nowhere. What was the point of masks then?" Is it? Is it really? Or did you get blinded by the this is queer googles? Or did overlook the way the relationship was presented with the same issues as every single relationship Buck has been in because this time it was with a man? Or did you convince yourself this time it meant more even though the show didn't really give you anything at all to base that on except for the fact that two men kissed?

[witchesoz]

Okay, I will say it... It absolutely INFURIATES ME that people say they want to make (or start making) a project about Oz - as in the literary Oz, the original Oz, the Oz books, right?

And then... then they say "Oh yeah I never read any of the books outside of the first one, and I don't intend to. I'll just use Wikipedia articles and various Oz adaptations".

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU ARE YOU LITERALY SO LAZY? I mean... you do an adaptation of a specific material that was overtly overshadowed and ignored, is surrounded by misinformation and misadaptation, and with more than half of its content not found on stuff like Wikipedia... And you don't even bother reading it to know what you are getting into?

If you want to do something based on the MGM movie, it's fine. If you want to do something based on Wicked, it's fine. If you want to do something based on the friggin' anime series it's fine! But don't start claiming you want to do based something on Baum's original book when you clearly don't want to!

Because you know what the worst offense is?

Not only are Baum's books books for CHILDREN which means they are quick and easy to read... BUT THEY ARE IN PUBLIC DOMAIN! Which means not only you can find copies of them everywhere... THEY ARE ALSO EVERYWHERE ON THE INTERNET! THERE'S TONS OF WEBSITES with ALL of Baum's books available for free to read any time you want, at any speed you want, with no effort to bring!

You have all of this material at your fingertips, ready to grab, and you just... "Nah, I say I will use the Oz books but I only read one and the rest comes from adaptations". GRRGRHRHFTHRAAAAAA

[poisonedfate]

bbc merlin - 04x11 The Hunter's Heart

gaius, please, he needs reassurance that the person who he knows needs him actually really needs him

[maritteknewtheenemy]

The three quotes about propaganda that are the foreword of SOTR are the strongest condemnations of it present in the novel btw and they aren't even SC own words

[the-way-astray]

i genuinely feel like people forget that keefe was a mere t h i r t e e n years old at the very beginning of the series. like people say so many strange things about keefe that make me wonder if they'd still say that if they realized he was thirteen at the start

“keefe has definitely kissed someone he lied to sophie in nightfall” he was thirteen

“keefe has done drugs in the foxfire bathrooms sometime before the series started” he was thirteen

“keefe has half the school crushing on him at the start of the series” he was thirteen

"keefe is one of the hottest guys in school" he was thirteen

“people” includes shannon. if you even care. he was thirteen . . . you expect me to believe anyone in this school gave half a shit about him . . . ?

[the-sky-the-stars-the-sea]

*violently shaking* They. They. They are all canon your honor.

[based-bobcat]

i'm feeling salty this week

[aroaceleovaldez]

what do i have to do to convince the fandom to draw more Hazel fanart

[ohyka]

this:

vs this: