honestly most of the second series characters were made incredible by fanon and fics and whatnot. piper was nothing but a stereotype(hello, why the fuck would you make your only native character the kleptomaniac and make her wear sacred feathers in her hair), jason was just a dick with potential, leo was sidelined up until he could be a convenient love interest for a plothole that was forgotten about, and honestly? canon willxnico is like. gross. their toa interactions made them seem like they fucking hated each other
Fanon Leo and Solangelo are the bomb. Canon Leo and Solangelo is…hm
literally yes. all of the second series had incredible potential, the character friendships could have been iconic, but instead we got two interactions between certain characters and none between others, characters who seemed ooc despite that being how they were always written, and a really weird ending
Canon Leo felt like a side character in a book where he was part of the main trio. And it'd be nice if Will and Nico had like….any interaction before getting together in the final book. I get that RR probably wasn't allowed to do much with them given when the book came out, but still.
also i still think echo and leo as a ship or friendship was the cutest thing ever
YES. I was disappointed when they never came back to Echo
Really hammering in the fact that I haven't read the last HoO book and maybe even the second to last. And have no memory of the one (two?) and a half ToA books I read lmao
wasn't hazel actually like thirteen when they got together?
but also, i will still give props to rick for frank's scene with losing his childhood home and his grandmother
Like, you can have a good finale without any major character deaths, but no one even suffered like…lasting consequences?
I've read some good finales with no major character deaths that are still satisfying since there's a shift in the status quo, but I didn't feel like that happened in HoO.
wasn't hazel actually like thirteen when they got together?
Ew maybe, it's been a while since I read them
Also what made the series so good in the first place was Percy's narration style, so much of the personality of the original series was gone with the third person POV. Although I do love the scene where Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus and facing the consequences of their actions via the dying curses.
I feel like he could've gone in more depth with the "demigods usually have ADHD" because it kind of felt like he didn't do much beyond "they move and do bad at staying in school". It's not really something I noticed as a kid, but knowing more about it now, he didn't really include stuff like RSD. I get that it's not a contemporary story about getting diagnosed or something and it's not the main focus, but imo it shouldn't be that hard to include that stuff especially since you're writing it with your kid in mind. Even just some "dam do they really like me o no help" moments in the slower moments would have been nice and iirc there weren't any
Not to overuse the word "also" but the fact that Rick was balancing 7 leads meant that none of the side characters really got any page-time, unlike in PJO or HP where yes, the leads don't die but you still lose side characters that you got to know. Silena's death was super well-done, and she was a minor character that we liked and sympathized with.
YES. I have ADD and like…looking back, the Demigods only really had token ADHD, with honestly pretty minimal side effects
YES. I have ADD and like…looking back, the Demigods only really had token ADHD, with honestly pretty minimal side effects
Which is surprising, given that RR's son's ADHD was the inspiration
Although I really enjoyed how it shows that having dyslexia doesn't make you inherently dumb, since I see that trope too much.
I think Rick's ideas were good but at the end of the day, there was just way too much for one sequel series
I think Rick's ideas were good but at the end of the day, there was just way too much for one sequel series
Yeah, basically. It felt like he was trying really hard to do something bigger and badder than the Titans for villains, but the Giants never seemed like (or ended up being) as much of a threat as the Titans did.
YES. I have ADD and like…looking back, the Demigods only really had token ADHD, with honestly pretty minimal side effects
I feel like it was at least a little less minimal with their dyslexia because at least there were moments when Percy was like "wait. I can't read. I forgot you can't read that. WHO'S GONNA READ THIS" even though it was over something insignificant and Grover was right there. And the whole "they're dyslexic because they're wired to read Greek" was weird but ig it kind of made a little sense But….shouldn't you put some effort into including negative aspects that people feel when they have these things, especially since you're writing so your son can see himself in your characters? You can do that and not bog down the story.
I get that it's a fun adventure kids book so he probably didn't want to bog everything down with heavy mental health stuff (plus mental health books weren't really as big back then) but it would've been nice.
taking notes for my current project that has six leads and some wide characters, and a future project that has roughly sixteen leads? I think? fuck I lost count
folks has anyone ever read 17776? i just basically finished it in 12 hours and oh my god. truly one of the most impactful pieces of media i've ever consumed. "three sentient satellites watch people play football for eternity" doesn't sound like something that would interest me let alone both soothe + exacerbate my ongoing existential crisis but good lord wow
I thought Rick Riordan represented ADHD really well. And the reason he made it ADHD instead of ADD is because it was the demigods nautral instincts to want to battle, so it was the more physical one instead of the more mental one. Rick Riordan is a really good person and he clearly cared alot about making kids feel welcomed and included, even if he doesn't do a perfect job. Being a more popular series doesn't make it worse, just that people nitpick it more.
nobody said it was worse. a large handful of us have adhd/add, which he actually I believe said are both found in demigods. people have done much worse representing it, but those who have the disorder are allowed to mention that it could have been shown better
I loved the series. I loved seeing heroes I had something in common with. but looking back I also know that it wasnt shown, just mentioned
also as hard as he tries, he isn't great at actual representation sometimes. he needs to research more
as someone who grew up Muslim I kinda have a problem with Samirah's whole arranged marriage thing
and a lot of his characters are just, cliche in a not good way
