#book crit

[lizzie-dude]

I've been trying to figure out why I didn't like the sun and the star for a while now and I think I finally get it, so here are my useless ramblings.

Rick Riordan's books have always been silly and full of jokes, and they've always had cute fluffy romance moments, but there have also always been sacrifices. In the first five books, people die. A lot of people. You obviously know that camp half-blood is going to win the titan war, but while reading it you're worried about individual characters, because it's been shown that important characters can die. There are stakes. The heroes of olympus had a lot less death, but they were equally full of depressing moments and serious topics. Leo remembering his mother's death, what happened with Frank's grandma, Percy and Annabeth being separated for six months, what happened with Reyna's family, Percy and Annabeth falling into tartarus, Nico's scene with Cupid, Bob being left behind, and probably a lot of other things I'm forgetting. There was tragedy, there was sacrifice, the books could be serious when they wanted to be. Even in the trials of Apollo, which were much more full of jokes and references, tried to balance it out with Jason's death.

To me, tsats didn't have any moments like that. I knew throughout the whole book that Will wouldn't be left behind in the underworld and that Bob would be rescued. It didn't feel like there were any stakes at all. Not only was there no sense of loss, or even the possibility of loss, but it practically erased some of the tragic moments from other books. I can't feel the same sense of tragedy rereading Bob's sacrifice now, because I know he just gets taken home and none of it mattered anyway. That part of House of Hades was emotionally impactful because you thought he was never coming back; Bob gave his life and his freedom for his friends and that's what made the moment beautiful. But all of that is just...undone. So is Nico's trauma. I get that Rick was doing the whole "your problems will always be a part of you, but you can still learn to live with them" thing, but the way Nico's issues were resolved still feels incredibly shallow to me. To take years of pain and loneliness and heartbreak, to take the feelings of a kid who lost his mother and his sister, who's dad never truly loved him, who was ostracized from the only society he knew, who only found company among the dead, who had feelings he had been told all his life were wrong, who loved someone that could never love him back, who faced the depths of Tartarus, who lost his closest friend after he had only begun to heal, to take that kid's feelings and turn them into cute little fluffy balls feels so freaking insensitive I can hardly put it into words. Trauma can be healed, it can be recovered from, it can be lived with, but it can't just be turned into something sweet and wholesome.

Idk if I explained all of this right, I was trying to articulate how I felt. You can agree or disagree.

[miracumess]

i don't think some of y'all understand how significant it is that annabeth chase, the leading lady in an IP/brand as big as percy jackson, is played by a black girl. she is not some sidekick or comic relief. THEE annabeth chase, one of the wisest, intelligent, brave demigods and love of percy jackson's life, is played by a BLACK GIRL!!

but you're so hateful and caught up with book inaccuracies and changes that you can't even offer a sliver of hope for things to improve in continuing seasons, and instead immediately resort to wishing the show gets cancelled because they didn't do that specific thing in that specific scene in the books. makes me think there might be another underlying reason as to why you want it to fail.

and before someone starts, this isn't to say you can't have criticism, but if you really love percy jackson, why wouldn't your hope be for things to get better?

"i hope this show gets cancelled" yeah girl fuck you

[ofswordsandpens]

I do think the gateway arch being a secret Athena temple or whatever is interesting but I will always hold a place in my heart for the book reason as to why they went to the arch which was simply "Annabeth really likes architecture and wants to see the Arch really bad so we're going to take some time away from our high stakes, time sensitive quest to do so."

[everchased]

half orc flirting next level

[professorhayforbreath]

also sorry but i'm not sold on "they only have 8 episodes" as a defense for why the show is falling flat as both a show and an adaptation. 8 episodes is roughly 5 hours. that's 3 hours more than most movies lol. that should be plenty of time to adapt all the most important things, they're just not using their screen time as well as they could be. sorry i don't think it should actually be this hard to fit the essential core of the lightning thief's story and characters into 5 hours. the movie and musical were both 2 hours give or take and they still did certain things better. skill issue

[helpallthenamesaretakenblog]

In PJO, the main antagonist's primary villainous motivation was the injustice of the toxic cycle that was repeating itself through centuries. the same cycle of neglectful parents, and kids that tried too hard to please them, when they never cared, only putting the innocent kid in harm. the main antagonist wanted to rebel against this vicious cycle after his own traumatic experiences in the system.

In HOO, the main antagonist's primary villainous motivation was the fact that she couldnt wake up but she wanted to.

Both can be equally relatable, in different circumstances. One arc takes place as you mature in life, another takes place on Monday morning

[jeeaark]

Never seen an illithid recoil so fast when trying to give it smooches. Turns out there's a very good reason for it!

Wanted to draw my guardian boi one last time. First time the Emperor suggested it, got a lil affronted

Like, Squid bud, you don't think Greygold 'gets it'? You don't think Greygold had a bit of the 'don't belong's? the not-be-yourself-to-fit-in? Greygold gonna accept the shit out of you, buster. Gonna figure out dat squid biology one comedic lesson at a time.

Also. dat hair. I like to imagine when the emperor saw what would instantly gain Greygold's trust, the illithid was like-This is....Way too dreamy. Had to tone it down, Clark Kent dat Hunk-orc up with a hair-bun.

[420technoblazeit]

i KNOW the gomens tv show has a different version of crowley and aziraphale and it's not really fair to compare it to the book one-to-one but every time i see ineffable husbands referred to as a grumpy/sunshine ship with aziraphale being the sunshine i take at least ten points of psychic damage

[aroaceleovaldez]

It's honestly wild to me that ToA went through so much trouble to emphasize the fact that Will did not magically fix all of Nico's problems and was explicitly not Nico's only doctor.

Only for TSATS to have Will fix all of Nico's problems and have Nico be entirely reliant on him the entire book and literally helpless without him and LITERALLY have Nico's problems be magically removed.

[ruegarding]

the entire point of the blue food was that it was the only way sally could consistently rebel against gabe without getting her or percy punished. sally is not and never was submissive in the books. percy himself says sally has "a rebellious streak, like me." however, sally and percy were under threat of serious abuse from gabe and therefore had to pick their battles. blue food was sally's way of telling percy "i am here and fighting with you" and "there is hope in the world still."

[hamletthedane]

This play is truly the gift that keeps on giving

[quincywillows]

like i remember the vitriol that came out when the mere PREMISE for ballad of songbirds and snakes came out bc it was “about the villain” and wasn’t instead a novella of one of the many cute likeable faves of the masses. i remember how fast people were to tear down the book before it even came out (and still do now). and it’s like look, i get it, suzanne created so many interesting characters that it would be incredible to learn more about and get more content for. but her choosing to write about snow for a prequel isn’t like Romanticizing The Villain or whatever bullshit y’all are claiming as hot takes on twitter -- ballad fits right into the common themes and tone of the series in that its not a romanticization but a reflection on how snow became what we know him as in the original series. both in how he already had some less than charming or healthy traits (just like katniss does -- suzanne is always clear that people are not inherently good nor evil and parallels were drawn between how snow and katniss view the world and think strategically, etc, from the second book), but also in how society and the choices of the greater community in panem created snow. like ballad is a really interesting piece of lore and history and worldbuilding for an already rich and elaborate setting that suzanne created, allowing us to see how that world even came to be and the kind of toxic impact it had on the people surviving in it while still pointing out that those people are human and that everyone has humanity and yet can still cause unfathomable harm to one another based on circumstance and need to survive and pressures of all kinds and like i have lost the plot here now but suzanne is one of the best authors of our time who actually gives a shit about creating layered, nuanced characters and worlds rather than black and white good and evil and unfortunately the hyperpolarization of our hot takes social media culture nowadays just can’t handle her anymore. suzanne im so sorry we don’t deserve your storytelling. anyway i’ll be seated for this movie y’all can skip and keep giving lukewarm takes on twitter to make urself seem so smart for hating a book you probably didnt even actually read

[wishesofeternity]

I find it so very convenient that Nettles’ appalling erasure in HOTD S2 means that the showrunners probably won’t have to confront the fact that Rhaenyra – who they have textually glorified as divinely ordained to rule and the 'rightful' heir to the throne – was canonically a racist, entitled piece of shit who tried to sabotage and murder her own ally purely out of spite and jealousy.

[ofswordsandpens]

Okay compiling my most critical opinions on the pjo show so far (episodes 1 & 2)

The Gods' Conflict, Foreshadowing, & Big Three Kids

The show has seemingly dropped a lot of the foreshadowing and threat regarding the gods impending war over the theft of the lightning bolt. In the book, Percy remarks about how the weather's been inexplicably weird and extreme. When he gets to camp everyone is on pins and needles about something and they don't want to talk about it but its still very present. By the time he's claimed as a son of Poseidon and everyone's like "oh fuck" and then Chiron finally explains to Percy that the gods think he's the lightning thief, everything clicks into place for the reader. It all makes sense why everything seems so wrong... because things are wrong. Meanwhile in the show, that doesn't carry through as much, so the reveal of the conflict between the gods and why that's a big deal falls flat in comparison imo.

They dropped/stalled the foreshadowing of the fates and the cutting of the string. They could very well include this in future episodes, and probably will, but I think the timing of it - Percy seeing this before he even knew he was a demigod - again carries some hefty significance and helped set the foreboding tone of things being wrong even from the beginning.

They did drop Zeus's attack on Percy in the minotaur battle completely, which does disappoint me. In the book, its lightning that blasts the car off the road. In the show, Sally seemingly loses control of the car. That change is pretty significant, because it's again losing the power of RR's foreshadowing in the book. The attack on Percy outside the camp borders was a duel attack from Zeus and Hades.

Finally, I don't like the changes they made to Percy's claiming scene, namely, the reaction from the rest of CHB. Percy being a son of Poseidon is a huge deal. When Percy's claimed, the attitude is very much begrudging reverence paired with genuine fear of what it means and what he represents. In the book, Percy is claimed. People gasp. Everyone kneels. Annabeth says, "This is really not good." In the show, Percy is claimed. People... stand there? Annabeth smiles - she's going to get her quest. The only person who has the most outright negative reaction is Luke. I won't go so far to say this is out of character for Annabeth, but it is focusing on an entirely different aspect of her character in the moment, and what the audience gets from Percy's claiming scene here, the tone, is now different from the book. Basically, the reverence and fear don't really carry across to the show, which I think is important.

The phrase "forbidden child" slaps tho.

2. Gabe's Characterization, Sally's Characterization, & Why the Changes do Make a Difference

I'm going to say this with great care: The show has absolutely depicted an abusive relationship between Sally and Gabe. The show has shown Sally to be a strong woman who would do anything for her child. The show has shown Gabe to be a controlling, toxic man.

What they have depicted in the show does not read like the characters and dynamic in the books.

Book Gabe is a violent, menacing drunk. He is so disgusting and vile that monsters avoid him. This is overwhelmingly apparent from the second Percy gets home in the book, even before he is aware of the physical abuse Sally has been facing. Percy has already been dealing with physical abuse from him, amongst other things (edit to be more specific: this is including verbal, emotional, & financial abuse). I've already spoke to it here, in-depth, so I'll try to keep it short but all of this has not been translated accurately to the screen. (Is this to say that a person must be overtly abusive to be abusive? No. But does this character on-screen feel like Smelly Gabe? No.) These things have shaped Percy (and Sally) in very specific ways. As others have mentioned: Percy cannot stand alcohol. He meets Dionysus and is reminded of his step-father. He gets to Tartarus and the air reminds him of Gabe.... The character on screen, while abusive, does not share this presence at all, and that makes a difference.

Edit: To emphasize once more, I am not saying that the show has not depicted a realistic portrayal of abuse. It has (verbal, emotional, & financial so far). It has also distinctly changed the tone and Gabe's presence from the book, to the extent that it no longer feels like the same character and that does have a rippling effect on the dynamics he shares with both Sally and Percy.

3. The Lack of Annabeth

Annabeth in the show is just like... really not as present as she is in the book so far, and I'm just kinda like, why lol?

Annabeth in the books is already way more involved in Percy's life. She was in the infirmary feeding Percy ambrosia after the attack (ulterior quest motives lol), she's the one who lead Percy around camp and re-explained godly parentage to him - and its a moment where she's very sincere with him, and even trying to help him! Instead these moments are given to Chiron and Luke, which I do get the merit of, but still, these were her moments!

Annabeth in the books had already surmised that the gods were fighting, something was stolen, and the something bad was going to happen, all before Percy had even been claimed. And she shared that with him! Again, the loss of foreshadowing and little bonding moments has me :(

I'm a little worried how they're going to deal with her crush on Luke because its pretty central to her character in the books! It helps Luke to manipulate her and also keeps her from admitting he's done something wrong. Also, it was very sweet and funny reading her get flustered - It drove home the point that she was just a kid with a crush that she didn't know how to handle. But in the show Luke spoke to her and I was expecting there to be some sort of reaction to it and there just... wasn't? (This is not something I'm laying at Leah's feet btw! Only the writers/directors!) We're only two episodes in tho so maybe we'll see it some more moving forward.

4. The Minotaur Battle

Again, I've already spoken about this in depth here but !!

The lack of Zeus's lightning strike, them all coming to a standstill and just chatting instead of running for their lives, Grover being awake and just sort of off to the side watching the fight, Sally being like "Promise Me Grover Swear it"... it all just doesn't ring right to me

I wanted more panic, more terror, more urgency. Higher stakes. I wanted Grover unconscious, I wanted to see Percy drag him into camp, and I wanted to see more of Percy's grief alongside his rage. Like the book did.

The pacing in the show here, and just overall, is weird

5. Other Stuff

Mrs. Dodds fight kind of fell flat too. It was honestly too sudden and Percy killing her in the show seemed even more accidental than in the book lol. Like, accidental impalement vs intentional swing of the sword.

They really had show Grover throw Percy to the wolves and not just gaslight him, but low-key have a part in getting him expelled? Not sure how I feel about it tbh.

More New York. I wish we had gotten the part of Percy taking the bus home with Grover included cause like? Him ditching Grover was funny, but it would have been the perfect opportunity to show Percy traveling through New York and establish it has his home. Shots of him looking at the city, walking the streets, interacting with people near his building.. yeah.

More Montauk too tbh. Like more shots of him and Sally on the beach rather than just the cabin.

Nectar and Ambrosia! Unless I missed it, which I might have, why have we still not gotten an onscreen depiction of it yet lmao.

[noahmullariii]

the rage I feel when reading Blood of Olympus chapters 45-56 is almost equivalent in magnitude to the absolute joy I experience when reading The Last Olympian chapters 1-23.

remember when percabeth was good? when they meant the world to each other but had other people they cared about (nico, for one. both of them. so much), other worries and other storylines aside from their romantic plot? and when nico's completed arc wasn't repeated for no reason other than to dump more trauma on the youngest character in the series? when background characters were included in the story not for all the unnecessary last minute romantic subplots but because they were fun and fascinating to learn more about? and were actually friends with main characters? remember when grover was percy and annabeth's best friend forever? and antagonists were actually interesting and intimidating and had compelling goals? and the story revolved around friendship and family and loyalty? and death was definite and loss was palpable and battles were thrilling?

yeah. good times.

[helpallthenamesaretakenblog]

ok but the health effects of tartarus on percy and annabeth are SO underplayed? according to house of hades, their skin was full of blisters and rashes. they had extremely high fevers. the air was SULPHUR. probably extreme a lot of physical trauma. covered in dirt and grime and blood. completely starved and dehydrated. and they came out of tartarus, and their friends only reaction was "omg hi guys 🤩😍hugssss🥰 welcome back from deepest darkest of hells 💪💪 let's have lunch 🤪😋" and they all have lunch together laughing. and then percy had a minor wheezing problem once in blood of olympus and that's it?? no one bothered to treat (or bring up) their skin conditions....and respiratory problems ..or high fever? how was their body adjusted to food and water after eating only monster soup and hell fire for days and weeks? wait we won't know because there were no percabeth povs in BOO--