#but i hope i got my point across

[lyss-butterscotch]

The rule is simple @ressioo . You hurt my sunstone, i hurt yours. Because hurting them is my job dammit. I apologize to anyone caught in the crossfire.

If it'll ease the hurt to anyone...

I was in a call with friends while making this and they suggested i make an amogus brush. So yeah i made this entire comic with the amogus brush.

[wildissylupus]

@exploringplayagain

Ok I did not explain myself well in this post but in my defence I was tipsy and I wrote that at like, 2am. Probably still not going to explain this well cause now I'm a bit hungover but bare with me-

Basically what I meant by that post is that I think all the rat grinders are spiralling and Jace is taking advantage of that fact. Kipperlily getting the worst of it because of her pre-existing hatred for the Bad Kids, specifically Riz.

And I'm not justifying what Kipperlily did to Buddy, what she did was fucked, I'm just saying that I'm seeing people treat her and the other Rat Grinders as pure evil when that is not the case. Mostly because I highly doubt that Brennen is the type of DM and writer to make kid characters who foil other kids, pure evil.

Again I didn't explain that well, that's on me.

I'm not trying to absolve any of them of crime, especially if it turns out they did purposely kill Lucy because she didn't want to go along with the plan. As I am running off of the theory that Lucy's death was genuinely a tragic accident.

Hell my biggest want for this season is for Kristen (and the other Bad Kids) to show how much she cares by absolutely loosing her shit on Kipperlily and the other Rat Grinders. Especially if my theories right and they tried to emulate the Bad Kids by trying to revive a dead God.

Cause Kristen would get pissed about that. Kristen went into trying to revive Cassandra knowing the dangers, knowing that she could die, and she did die, but because of her experience, because she cares.

I do think everything that the Rat Grinders do is out of jealousy and a lack of understanding that the Bad Kids earned their spots. Something I think some of them are realising, hence Oisin's apology.

All the Bad Kids are in the positions they are because they care, the Rat Grinders are in the position they are because they didn't. Or at least they didn't care about the right thing. They cared about proving themselves, they cared about getting one over on the Bad Kids, fundamentally, they cared about what is most likely a petty high school grudge.

And because of that they lost someone close to them.

Because of that they are all spiralling down a path that is likely to end in most or all of them dying.

[werchezdeeno]

this is kinda out of nowhere, but i was looking through the anti rooster teeth tag and wanted to say something

separating art from artist is important, but actively participating in activities that rooster teeth can profit off is something to avoid and also unjustifiable (as in streaming and buying merch). do not, by any means, give this shit company any profit what so ever.

and it’s not like you can’t watch rwby??? you can pirate it, like you might have to wait a bit, but you can pirate it. ive watched the entire show pirated lmao (dailymotion, youtube)

like enjoy the show, have fun, but do so without giving rooster teeth profit.

[navree]

Lowkey hate race swapping sometimes. Now hear me out!

I don't mind when people race swap chatacters I just hate it when changing their race would totally change the entire story or have a lot of implications to the story.

I don't mind when fictional charcater race are changed but I hate it when they change a characters race who are suppose to be a certain race for a reason. When they chnage those types of characters a lot of time it changes the narrative of the story and their actions.

Same with historical show or documentaries. If this real life figure was another than they were we would have completely different story on our hands. Like please open a history book.

Listen, when it comes to fictional characters "racebending" means nothing to me unless it's whitewashing (Titans casting a white actor to play Dick Grayson and the MCU casting a white actress to play Wanda Maximoff when they are both literally canonically Romani both ethnically and culturally is my villain origin story) because fiction is fiction, and honestly you can tweak a story to make a character's journey adapt to the new inclusion of them being a member of a minority class so long as you're talented enough. Most writers aren't, and that's why a lot of "oh we made X character a POC in this adaptation" moves tend to ring hollow, but it is possible.

But I have a genuine bone to pick when it's about history.

For one, it's just such a lazy move. "Oh we made Bess of Hardwick Chinese!" fantastic but you do know that Chinese people existed in the late 16th century right? Like, China was a country with a lot of people in it and a thriving culture and way of life and plenty of influential people living there. Why aren't we telling stories about a Chinese woman living in that time period, it's not like that period of Chinese history was dull or as if no one ever mattered or nothing ever happened there. Like, for God's sake, it's just a way of showing that you aren't actually interested in learning about other parts of the world, or decentering Western history, specifically European history, as the only history worth learning about, you just want brownie points for being diverse without actually putting in the work to learn about the vibrant world that existed outside of Europe for the vast majority of human history, aka doing anything to actually explore different non-Western narratives and how the world moved outside of the European bubble.

For two, like you said, a lot of the time "racebending" doesn't really include attempts to accommodate how the history would change. Bridgerton is a wish fulfillment fantasy show so I don't often care about how it deals with history (even tho I do think the Charlotte was black theory is complete bunk and I refuse to engage with people who think it's real) but its whole "and now England is desegregated" thing falls very flat when you remember how involved England was in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, how reliant it was on slave labor, how invested it was in capturing and buying and selling slaves, including the royals. It puts a lot of onus on characters that they've made POC without doing any of the work, and oftentimes deals in a lot of harmful stereotypes. This was seen most egregiously in the 2021 Anne Boleyn show that cast Jodie Turner-Smith as Anne. @duchessofferia discussed this much better than I will, but relying on the same old lazy tropes that have defined Anne Boleyn with a black woman playing her turned into genuinely harmful racial representation. Having Anne be sexually aggressive and domineering and harsh in her mannerisms, especially when compared to Jane Seymour, isn't new, but having a black woman be looming over a small white woman and being sexually aggressive with her feeds into harmful stereotypes about black women and their femininity, and by having George Boleyn also be black, painting him as a sexual deviant and adding a plot where he abandons his responsibilities as a father turns him into the "absent black baby daddy" trope that still does a lot of harm to black men today. Not to mention, changing George Boleyn's race but keeping the rumor about Jane Boleyn lying on the stand to incriminate him turns a "wife turns against her husband for unknown reasons" story into a "white woman accuses a black man of sexual inpropriety that his society would frown on for the purpose of getting him executed by the state" story, which has a long and incredibly dark history in the United States (it's basically the Scottsboro Boys but Renaissance now). I mean, it's basically my primary issue with Hamilton, that the show really wants to capitalize on the whole "America then as told by America now" thing without delving into what it means to have literal slaveowners portrayed by black men and to have the character of Thomas fucking Jefferson call Sally Hemmings by a pet name in that show without any introspection into the fact that she wasn't his girlfriend but, you know, a woman he full on owned and repeatedly raped. It's all surface level and generally causes a lot more problems by refusing to alter the history to deal with these new changes, because it's history and you can't really alter it without creating a host of problems.

With Cleopatra specifically, I mentioned it before but the Ptolemies were total fuckups and literal colonizers in and of themselves, and turning them from a Macedonian dynasty into actual people of color for some kind of narrative (like there aren't any other important women of color in history, or even that time period) while not attempting to even examine the history of that dynasty and that queen in particular doesn't sit right. Like, congratulations, you've now created a story where a woman of color's most important contributions in life were her relationships with white men who held significantly more power than her and over her country, and fucked up to such a degree that her country wouldn't even be considered its own country until the 1950s. How absolutely groundbreaking. Next you're gonna tell me it's subversive to paint Livia Drusilla as a scheming, conniving bitch who manipulated everyone around her, instead of a sexist and tired trope that exists only to demonize one of the few women of actual importance in Augustan Rome because she was half a decade older than her husband and was able to keep her own power after he died. It's not just a lack of intellectual curiosity or good storytelling, but a fundamental misunderstanding of why people want to see stories about people of color, and how Hollywood itself thinks so little of their audience that they think we'll be content with a simple coat of "hey this person's a minority now!" paint over a subject without any attempt to really look into things or understand why the world works the way it does or how these people shaped their lives or the lives of those around them, never mind the new messages you're sending now with these changes.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. There's a lot that can fuck up with historical representation in media, and representation of people of color in media in general can always be so incredibly fucked that giving people anything is oftentimes a win in and of itself. But I honestly think that focusing on the same Euro-centric stories and just switching around Pantone skin swatches to do the bare minimum is lazy and insulting. You want me to care about historical stories about people of color? Great, give me historical stories about actual people of color. Let me hear more about ethnic Egyptians, about their lives and their culture and how they influenced history, not ahistorical trash that causes more trouble than its worth and certainly isn't doing anything new or interesting with the subject.

[nateriverswife]

okay so I figured out why I don't like Light's character so much, other than him being evil.

to me, he doesn't have anything interesting outside of being Kira.

without Kira, he's the most boring ass character, and it bothers me.

like, imagining him as pre-kira in different scenarios is so... bland. he doesn't add anything.

L, Near and Mello have so much to give. Even Matt, and he didn't appear that much. They stand alone, without the death note/kira case.

On the other hand, Light alone is nothing worth noting.

Light blends in the background and if he didn't have the death note or to deal with the kira case as memoryless!Light, everything he would do would be like those npc that have three or four interactions lines. so annoying.

his whole personality is literally interconnected with being kira. he doesn't have anything else to give.

that's why I also find it weird that people say that L and Light would have been great friends, if it hadn't been for his ego and being kira, while Light's whole character is just that. So why would L care about Mr. Perfect Guy with the Perfect Life?

Pre kira, he didn't even use his intelligence in fun ways, like

I just think about it and it's like do something, create something, you must have some ideas, make them real, c'mon, you don't have any passion? what happened to your tennis thing? where did it go? use that big brain of yours and show us something, anything, I'm begging you at this point, what are you? a porcelain doll? stop it. don't be so sterile.

as pre kira, he's literally the default settings before any type of customization.

I would be bored too if I was this fucking dull.

[me1-atonin]

ok so i didn’t really like first kill and didn’t finish it HOWEVER it was wlw rep which is severely needed in tv shows since most of them keep getting cancelled or ended.

my best friend (a straight girl) even realized this a couple of months ago when i was talking about reading rwrb and said “even in a community that’s supposed to be about diversity it’s still mostly about men” which is true.

i’ve watched/read more mlm media than wlw media simply because of that and the fact that i’m also not interested in a lot of wlw books bc a lot of it is fantasy and/or doesn’t feel very relatable.

it’s weird how the only wlw characters i relate to on a higher level is luz and amity and that’s in a show about witches and demons. meanwhile i can relate to loads of mlm characters so much more.

anyway that’s my little rant on how shit wlw rep is in media and it’s just super frustrating that whenever we do get some good rep it’s cancelled/sidelined

[broadwayfangirl222]

I don't ship Vox and Alastor but I adore the idea of it as this one-sided thing. Like Vox is, on some level, low key into Alastor. That his side of the rivaly, outside of the obvious old vs new debate they have, is kinda like that old, stupid stereotype of the asshole kid pulling on their crush's pigtails (as well as just being pissed off 'cause he got rejected) Meanwhile for Alastor, he just genuinely hates Vox and has fun messing with him

[quillpokebiology]

//You know how the pokemon world doesn't have animals (anymore), but still calls pokemon things like "the fox pokemon" or "the owl pokemon"? My headcanon for that is that those names are specific genuses the pokemon fall into, not actually just a specific animal. Like, how owls are called Strigiformes, but everyone just says owl instead. So in the world, people would look at pokemon like hoothoot and say, "Oh, it's an owl!" but referring to its genus, not so much its species. You understand?

[pasteilian]

Do you have a recommendation when designing a black character? Or tips, or maybe pages you visit for references?

Suck at explaining stuff but I’ll try

‼️ Ethnic Features ‼️

So, the art world is in a very weird place when it comes to ethnic features. The conversation was about how using POC ethnic features as an insult in media was damaging and needed to stop, and that somehow morphed into people being scared about drawing people with those features.

Black people have big ears, big noses, and big lips. That's not the problem. The problem was that media was using it to make us look like giant ape, monkey, monster creatures. It's okay to give them these defining features.

Also, remember that brown people have lighter pigment under their feet, hands, and bottom lips. 🌸 (didn’t really know where to put this but drawing mix people is basically a spin the wheel we come in all different shapes and sizes and features. There’s really no wrong way to draw a mixed POC.)

‼️ It's Just My Style ‼️

I'm so goddamn tired of hearing this goddamn excuse. A style does not mean you can't properly represent POC. I would even go on to say that if your style is stunting you so grossly that you can't draw a proper black person, you have a bad art style. Sorry—not really.

Media has shown us that style does not stop representation. The only thing stopping that is your ignorance and refusal to improve. Great examples of ranging styles still being able to represent different POC are "Adventure Time," "Disney's Soul," "Proud Family," "Afro Samurai," etc. I'm just saying this because I've seen this excuse be more prevalent in the art world, and it's just better to nip that in the bud.

‼️ Whitewashing + I Don't Know How to Use the Color Brown ‼️

I've seen people make the excuse that the skin color is lighter because they use a pastel style, but they never bring up the fact that the only color in the art that's lighter is the skin tone. 💀

Also, the whole thing about people saying they don't know how to shade and color brown palettes is just completely bullshit. I would even say that trying to shade pale colors is harder than shading darker colors. Additionally, there are multiple artists and tutorials showing you exactly how it's done. You have no excuses other than you just don't want to.

YouTuber Sinix has a great video on painting skin tones!

‼️ Black Hairstyles ‼️

I love dreads. Dreads are a very pretty hairstyle. However, we have more hairstyles other than dreads. If you're going to draw black characters, I would encourage you to branch out and explore beyond dread heads. There are so many unique black hairstyles out there. We need to move on from just focusing on dreads.

YouTuber Ari has two wonderful videos on black hairstyles in video games. I would recommend checking them out.

‼️ References ‼️

I love referencing old black media such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "The Proud Family," and "Little Bill" (before all the Bill Cosby stuff came out). I also appreciate how "House of the Dragon" implemented black people into the lore. Other references include "BOTW/TOTK Rottmnt," etc.

Some artists I reference all the time are Mohammed Agbadi, who doesn't do many art tutorials anymore but often discusses black characters in media, and his art is still amazing. Ethan Becker has a very interesting video on the racist triangle that I recommend checking out.

On Instagram, I love the art of Jojo.Dreamie, Chibichanga12 (holy shit, love their art), Bruniosktch, and Caw.Chan. I also just reference my family a lot. 💀

This is a lot of rambling, but what I’m gonna say is don’t stunt yourself by tricking yourself into believing that your art can’t include POC 🌸🌸‼️💌💖💌💌🎀💕💘‼️🧁

[nikoisme]

My personal take on Patrochilles is that they are both lovers AND friends. You know how a relationship often starts with a friendship first??? Well they never grew out of the friendship part of their relationship. But their relationship is neither romantic nor platonic. They just,,, are. There was never strictly a time where they stopped being platonic and started being romantic - the lines of the nature of their relationship are really blurry - as they grew older they just started displaying affection in different ways. There was never a need to put a label on their relationship. Because like,, why have Achilles lose just a friend or just a lover - when he could lose a lover, a friend, a best friend, a brother, a comrade, a partner-in-crime ALL in one??? Really drives home the idea of Achilles' grief and rage - he literally lost the man who was everything to him.

Long story short: qpp patrochilles (in a way)

[dootznbootz]

that WHO in no longer u oh my GOD

YESSSS

Like, yeah, Odysseus is like "Yandere" (joking but also not) because kills all who even go near Penelope and Telemachus and he's very protective of them AND jealous.

But I think this "WHO?!" is also a desperate plea as to who is this dangerous man who is near his wife? A warlord? A conquerer? A man who would not even care about Penelope for who she is and mistreats her?

Because even in the Odyssey, Odysseus asks about Penelope to his mother.

Tell me of the wife I married. What are her thoughts and plans? Is she still there with our son, keeping watch on everything? Or has she been married                            to the finest of Achaeans?

(Book 11, Johnston)

There's not even much resentment in his question. There could be but Narrator does not say. The use of "the finest of Achaeans" almost is a "Did she at least marry the best man? Did she at least marry a GOOD man?"

In "No Longer You", when he hears of this dangerous man NEAR his wife, he is SCARED. It could be jealousy but I feel it's more of concern. As it is in the Odyssey.

"I understand if she would remarry, it pains me but I did tell her that when Telemachus finally grows his beard, she could. I will love her always but is she at least happy? Is she safe?"

And she's not safe. She's not happy. He is terrified.

Psst. The reason why My Odysseus takes a long time to grow his beard is because of that line. He's hoping that his son will take after him and take forever to grow a beard like he did (as he doesn't really have one even when he first leaves for Troy) because he would try forever to get home. Penelope even teases him that he still doesn't have one so that's a silly request and that's the point. "I will never stop trying to come back to you. He and I will likely remain beardless forever." (it's a little funky for him when he finally grows one by the end of Troy. He's thinking "...Shit. Telemachus, stay baby-faced for your dad please.")

ANYWAYS.

I mean we all know that these two are obsessed with each other in the Odyssey and in Epic. They are likeminded and are so integral to who they are. They mean everything to one another. I think Odysseus genuinely does want Penelope happy. As even in the Odyssey with him simply asking for another bed, shows how much he loves and respects her. He could've been like "get in it" even though she had rejected him at first but he LISTENS BECAUSE HE LOVES HER. Only breaking down into a sobbing mess when he believes she destroyed their bed.

"Heaven made you as you are, but for sheer obstinacy you put all the rest of your sex in the shade. No other wife could have steeled herself to keep so long out of the arms of a husband she had just got back after nineteen years of misadventure. Well, nurse, make a bed for me to sleep alone in. For my wife's heart is just about as hard as iron."

(Book 23, Rieu)

Please note that this is his attempt to insult her in a way and yet he still talks about her being from Heaven 👀 SIMP

But even though he's deeply hurt by her rejection (poor guy would've probably sobbed himself to sleep) He still asks for another bed. After sleeping on the floor and in the dirt since he's been on Ithaca, refusing beds unless it's his own marriage bed, he takes her 'no' because he values her happiness and comfort over his own. He takes a lesser bed so she can still sleep in their own luxurious one.

I mean we know how fucking awful the suitors are. Hold Them Down is a disturbing song. (as it should be. As they are not good men) He does not even know how bad these men are yet. If his future self could speak with his past self, he'd probably be like "Yeah, don't worry about the guy who kills a bunch of people, they had it coming. ;) " or something.

That "WHO?!" is a mix of jealousy AND fear.

[lightwaslaughter]

okay so i dont really know how to word this, but qcharlies conversation with bobby showed that charlie just needed to have an honest heart to heart with somebody.

this man does not know a healthy coping mechanism for the life of him, but as gegg he managed to tell bobby that hes sorry, and bobby genuinely believed it, and wanted charlie to feel better after everything that happened.

qcharlie finally had a real conversation with someone and it was an egg that once hated him

[ailithnight]

DPxDC Prompt? 7

This one is more of a plot point idea vs a full fic idea. It's just something I think would be cool to see explored.

So, we as a Fandom have pretty much come to the consensus that Danny has some sort of healing factor. (It's how we keep him alive when we decide to subject him to tortures that should otherwise kill him.) And because of that healing factor we often have him shrug off any and all injuries.

I think it would be fun to take the Steven Universe approach to Danny's healing factor.

If you haven't seen the show, Steven has healing powers. And throughout the 5 seasons of the original series, we see him take all sorts of cartoon level damage and walk it right off. Then the show released a short second series where Steven is older and there we learn that all those hits we thought didn't hurt him actually very much did. His healing powers were just instantly healing the physical damage. It did not, however, negate the fact that he experienced a metric fuck ton of trauma.

Anyway, I'm just thinking about all the hits Danny has tanked and I kinda wanna see the inherent trauma of those injuries leave a lasting impact on him even when the injuries themselves heal faster.

[sunlit-haruka]

I've been trying to find the right way to word this for a few days, but it's a really big pet peeve of mine when discussions of Fuuta and Kotoko and them as a duo that's narratively foiling is watered down to just their crime and comparing which of their murders are more justifiable, which usually leads to the same conclusion of "Kotoko is more right and completely justified in her murder, Fuuta was wrong and bad for his murder, #girlboss #slayhimqueen". And to put it bluntly, I find this conclusion to not only be lacking in nuance, but does a massive disservice to not only 0310 as a duo, but them as respective characters as well, and is missing a huge piece of why they are so fascinating The thing about this argument is that, to an extent, it's right. Kotoko killed an adult man who kidnapped and abused a child with the intent to kill her, and that child is now saved thanks to Kotoko. Fuuta helped lead a harassment campaign against a middle school girl who did barely anything to deserve it (not that anyone deserves to be harassed, but you get what I'm saying), and it led to that girl committing suicide. When you look at their murders side-by-side from that description alone, Kotoko's does seem like the more virtuous murder compared to Mr. Twitter User over here. But that is exactly the point. There is a very good post by @weather-cluddy and very good discussion below it detailing what I'm about to talk about, but to put it shortly: Fuuta is portrayed as a lot more physically violent and unsympathetic than Kotoko is in their MVs. Both are portrayed as physically violent, but the way it is framed through their lense and portrayed to the audience differs from the other. Fuuta is not just portrayed as violent and brutish, he is portrayed as pathetic. Kotoko is not just portrayed as violent and brutish, she is portrayed as cool while doing it (which I mean, she is cool, but that's not the point. Well it is the point but-) Fuuta's violence is aimed towards an innocent child, so it's deemed as repulsive and unjustified. Kotoko's violence is aimed towards a child kidnapper so it's deemed as justified and girlboss. Fuuta is portrayed as a wannabe hero, Kotoko is portrayed as the long-awaited hero. I could go on, but I think you get my point. Fuuta is portrayed in a much worse and harder to sympathize with light than Kotoko is, which also highlights how they themselves feel about their murders (Fuuta's guilt and Kotoko's elation). There is a very big reason as for why Fuuta was not forgiven in Trial 1 meanwhile Kotoko was the most forgiven. Because Fuuta's murder is generally thought to be worse. But here's the kicker: I think people are missing the point by putting focus onto which murder is 'worse', because that's not what makes them so comparable. What makes them comparable is the fact that they share a mindset. A mindset of vigilante justice, of a hero complex, of eliminating the bad people in the world in a faux revolution. And that mindset is exactly the one that got them into this place in the first place. And that's why it irks me when people put so much focus into deciding which murder is worse / who is more unjustified, especially since the majority of people I see this from are Kotoko fans. Your girl is literally doing the same thing you're criticizing Fuuta for in this very prison, and you aren't giving her the same amount of flack for it !!! Like- I don't know. I think putting Kotoko on a pedestal of being "morally better" than Fuuta is not only a really boring way to see things, but it misses a big piece of their characters and why they're so often paired up in the first place.

[thesmpisonfire]

most of french qsmptwt aren’t mad at Q for speaking in spanish and big french accounts are even telling people to be mindful not to say such things please 😭😭😭 and the french have been patient for moooonths now calling out the issues if we have to hear « be patient » once more we may turn into the joker like can we have the right to be mad maybe

But like. Yall now cant do anything else but be patient and i meant that with all the respect in the world. This aint the parliament or a big tech company, this is a single guy trying to make everything right. The moment Quackity heard what everyone was going through was the moment yalls demands were heard. But now its genuinely IMPOSSIBLE for everything to happen immediately. The timer for yall to demand changes coming from Quackity himself should start now, as only now he's working for these changes to happen

The admins got no warning about the lay off because they were literally LEAKING ever single thing. A decision would happen backstage and then IMMEDIATELY leaked. Imagine how terrible it would be if they got the warning they're laid off and THEY were the ones speaking out immediately about it and making everyone rile up before the official stream about it?? This was a thing they had coming

Guys. You all called out the issues >> and you were heard <<. You guys already won. You guys got a union involvement and yall have all 4 french ccs on your side. You already won. Rilling people up now won't do any better, it actually will just make things worse. Even Pierre himself said today that things were moving and it was for everyone to wait it and see. Ik y'all are mad, and want immediate answers. But this is quite literally all being solved by a single guy. There's no world where you would get the answers as fast as you want, no matter how mad you are

[reuben-7991]

Octavian’s treatment is one of my least favorite things about HoO because it isn’t his character, it’s his lack of one.

We COULD’VE had an excellent character who was a look into what could truly go wrong with blind devotion like Octavian’s, drawing an excellent parallel to Luke’s blind hatred in the original series (Percy even says Octavian reminds him of Luke).

We COULD’VE had a fantastic contrast into a follower’s descent into insanity after making empty promises of power whilst under the influence of a massively elder being, thus leading to said follower’s death.

What makes me especially mad is that Octavian has no backstory. This is a problem with a lot of Roman characters, but Octavian especially. He doesn’t even have a last name. All we know is:

- He’s a legacy of Apollo.

- He used to be sane and probably very charismatic, due to Reyna stating she used to have a crush on him in TTT.

That’s it! One of Rick’s gold stars is that his human characters are just that: human. They have motivations and flaws, deeply personal origins and ideals that affect their actions and their outcomes. None of the villains are just plain villains, evil by birth. They have motives to back up their actions (now weither those motives make sense or not, that’s another story, but they’re still there.) There’s Luke, Medea, Lityerses (who is an entire other can of worms), Circe, Loki, Gunilla, Randolph, hell, even Kronos and Gaea. All of them have reasons for the shitty stuff they did. Octavian is a glaring exception. We know he’s power-hungry, but we don’t know why. We know he’s violent, but we don’t know why. We know he hates the Greeks, but we don’t know why. You may argue ‘oh, he’s a minor character, he doesn’t really get a reasoning’ which is just blatantly untrue on both fronts.

1: Octavian is NOT a minor character in the slightest. He has major roles in the plot throughout the books.

2: Him being a ‘minor’ villain wouldn’t have anything to do with his motivation. Chris from the OG series has stated motivation, and he’s way more minor than Octavian.

Another thing is that Octavian’s insanity is played off almost comically. He’s relatively well put together in SoN, only being super dramatic and reportedly blackmailing Hazel and probably other legionnaires, but by BoO he’s absolutely broken. He’s utterly obsessed with being a hero to the Romans, with being Pontifex Maximus, with killing Gaea and almost proving himself to Apollo (who is utterly disgusted by him), but it’s all either framed as ‘hate this guy more plsplspls’ or brushed away to the side.

I’m torn on his death scene, because it’s a good scene overall but too much of it is humorous in my opinion. Between Will calling Octavian an ‘anemic loser’ (which like. what.) and Leo describing his screams as a little girl’s, it seems almost too light for such a pivotal point in the story. Octavian has truly lost himself to madness, ranting and raving and insisting no, HE has to be the one to kill Gaea, HE has to be a hero.

His death is horrific, yet it’s framed as a silly oopsie.

What the fuck.

Overall, Octavian is a shining example of missed character potential. We could have gotten the Riordan special and made to empathize more with our villain, like what happened with Luke or Randolph from MCGA, but all we get is a crazy blond kid, character so shallow he could count as a tide pool. It infuriates me to no end how in a sea of good, properly motivated antagonists, Octavian is the outlier.

It’s a real shame.