Everything-ornothing-aboutme - A Bit Of Everything

i think something that elevates the hunger games franchise is not just the quality of writing but the integrity of it. tbosas isn’t just a cash-grab by suzanne collins in the age of sequels and reboots (though i won’t pretend that didn’t play a part), it’s a character study of the main antagonist with a different structure than the main trilogy. and importantly, it doesn’t just re-hash the same old themes and beats the main trilogy had, it expands on not just the world of the hunger games but the themes as well, it actually has something new to say about the trilogy’s themes about class, capitalism, power, and control, in a way that couldn’t be explored with the main story because the protagonist of that story simply did not have access to the world that’s being explored in tbosas.

i understand the people who call for books/movies to be made about haymitch, finnick, johanna, different years of the games — we love those characters and want to see more of them! i’d kill for a novella on finnick’s days mentoring tributes, or katniss’s parents falling in love. but at the end of the day we probably wouldn’t be very satisfied with those stories being fleshed out if they had absolutely nothing new to say about the world, they’d be enjoyable, but not as interesting and engaging as tbosas has been.

you know what would have been a real power move? if rick had kept the whole ‘words have meaning’ thing going. with the gods being all over the place in hoo, it would be even more important not to say their names in order not to attract their erratic energy

also the ‘numbers have meaning’ thing. the ‘only three people may go on a quest’ rule. the only time it comes into play is when the group is too big in ttc, and sure enough, bianca and zoe die. i’m pretty sure they even say that the number five is weird at one point.

the prophecy of the seven being the prophecy of the seven should have been an indication that, from the beginning, it was a near impossible quest. a suicidal mission. it should have been an indication of how, even after the gods pledge to try to be better to their kids, they don’t have any problems with a prophecy that should kill four out of seven demigods, if the number three were to be respected. 

this tension builds throughout hoo. they’re trying to pull off this intercontinental stunt with no help, feeling more abandoned than ever, and they can’t even shit talk their unfairness in fear of retaliation for saying their name. this all culminates in the climax of the last book, when for the first time in heroes of olympus we hear demigods say a god’s name not in whispers, but at the top of their lungs: it’s when jason and percy march into battle together, having managed not to kill each other, mending the rivalry not only between jupiter and poseidon (if briefly) but also between camp jupiter and camp half blood. so they call out their parents because it’s finally safe. and that’s how the battle against gaea is won - demigods and gods seeing eye to eye for once, fighting a battle bigger than their flaws

I've enjoyed episode 3 the most so far, but I think the show is still struggling to find a good balance between taking itself seriously and the absurdist humor that RR writes with. My main takeaways:

The Fight Scenes (or Lack Thereof?)

It seems very peculiar to me that the show is just speed running through its battle scenes. Again, it feels very much like the product of Disney trying to sanitize anything that's too extreme?

The trio fleeing from the kindly ones in the book ended with Percy taking control of the bus and then crashing it. It explodes. They lose all of their stuff (money, food). In the show, they simply bail out the back window. No true panic. No tension. Just, okay :) we're leaving now :)

The Medusa Scene. I'll speak more to this later, but in terms of the fight we get to see... well we get to see nothing. Apparently this fight required us to view it through the lens of the invisibility cap (ie. not at all),

I understand this show is intended for a younger audience, but the books are as well. Even the movies, which are pg, came up with better ways to show things without necessarily showing things. As a result, it feels like anything that might induce the slightest bit of tension or fear are sanded down and its honestly doing such a disservice to the books and the audience.

Medusa

I actually really liked this portrayal of Medusa. The 1950s housewife vibe landed well for me. And I loved the actress's voice -- very soft and soothing but always sounding as if she were just about to cry.

Also, I really liked her dialogue. Her digs at Athena and Poseidon were perfectly tragic.

That being said, I really prefer the trio's arrival to the emporium in the book. In the books, they've been wandering the woods and are lost and exhausted and hungry because of the battle/bus crash where they've lost all of their stuff. It almost feels like the emporium popping up "out of nowhere" was more of it finding them.

Meanwhile in the show, Grover finds it through scent on a satyr path and they immediately know its Medusa, which imo takes out so much of the fun of it all??? In the books, they dont know. Grover's just like, freaking the ever living fuck out, and clearly Percy and Annabeth have let him take sole custody of the shared brain cell, cause they're more concerned about getting some food than anything else

Just... RIP dumbass shenanigans

And honestly, I'm not really sure what necessitated the change here in the show (of them not being tricked). It would have been one thing if they were going to change Medusa entirely to not wanting to harm them at all, but imo, I think its arguable/evident that show Medusa was looking for an excuse to petrify Annabeth and Grover (at minimum) regardless of anything.

Honestly, I would have had the show loosely play it out as: book arrival (they dont know its Medusa), keep the dumbass energy and banter, the trio figures out it Medusa while they're eating, Medusa is the more sympathetic version we see in the show, regardless it still ends with the battle.

Also, I do mourn the book battle. The panic and absurdity is just handled better imo. Annabeth shoving them off the bench, Grover flopping all over the place with the shoes but actively getting a good few hits in, Percy having to use to the reflection to behead her... the #TeamWork was emphasized a little more there to me.

Characterization

I think the show is absolutely nailing certain parts of the characters.

They've gotten Percy's anger and his derision towards the gods down. But, I think they're actually underscoring some of his, idk, sincerity? His kindness? It was the line "she met a pinecone's fate" that just rang off to me. While undoubtedly funny, it's just such a stark difference from his reaction to Thalia's story in the books, where he was unsettled by her fate and felt a sincere sympathy for her. The line in the show I assume is meant to criticize the gods, but still, it feels like it comes at the expense of the sensitivity that he has.

They've gotten Annabeth's bluntness, intelligence, pride, and superiority down cold. No question about it. But I feel like they just need to let her be more of a 12yo kid?

Like. In canon she and Percy banter and argue over the silliest of things. She plays hacky sack with Grover and Percy. She blushes and hyperventilates when Luke interacts with her. Episode 3 is like the first time we've gotten to see her do something remotely childish (buying all that candy) and I'm just dying for more of that!! She's not the "mom" of the group and she has her canon dumbass moments. I'm hoping more of this is captured moving forward. They've gotten a good start on the banter, but let Annabeth be more silly! Cause she is!

(Absolutely none of my personal qualms about the characterization are Walker or Leah's fault. They've done amazing. It's the writing/directing I'm side-eyeing).

OH! And I'm sorry but Percy being like "Annabeth we're going to bury medusa with your hat on" would have never ever flown with Annabeth. In no world.

But Grover eating them up at the end? Iconic. Good for him.

If you're feeling like writing some percabeth, I would love to see the “Are you really going to leave without asking me the question you’ve been dying to ask me?”. Thank you in advance, love your writing!!

“I’ve missed you,” Annabeth murmurs, burying her head into Percy’s soft sweatshirt, trying to reconcile this warm feeling with what’s left of a memory from months ago. It’s been too long. 

“Me too, Wise Girl. Me too,” Percy says back to her, “I’ve missed you more.”

“I missed you most!” Annabeth leans back from the embrace, smirking at him and sniping at him competitively.

They laugh together. 

I can get used to this, Annabeth thinks. 

Even as they sail towards their next challenge on the Argo II, she feels fortunate. After not seeing him for so many months -- months of crying to Sally and torturing herself with what-ifs -- Annabeth can finally hold him in her arms. 

The only thing she has to do is to try her best on ignoring the voice in the back of her head, taunting her about her solo quest and the eventuality of what other horrors that can bring.

“Hey,” Percy says, drawing her back to the present, “we can talk more tonight. I know you wanted to check with Piper, Jason, and Leo to see how they are getting along with Frank and Hazel. Go ahead, I know we don’t have too much time before dinner. Frank wanted to run something by me, too.”

Annabeth nods, and looks wistfully at Percy as she moves to leave. When she glances back by the door, he is staring at her, smiling weakly. 

“What?” she asks, suddenly self conscious. Did she have something on her face?

“Nothing,” he says.

Just when she was about to turn back, Percy blurts, “are you really going to leave without asking me the question you’ve been dying to ask me?”

Annabeth is taken aback, briefly. She wonders if he knows which specific question she really is dying to ask, because there are so many. 

Did he really remember her all along? 

If he did, did he try his best to find her (as she did to find him) in all those months?

Did he get a chance to talk to his mom yet? Does he know how she and Sally had cried into each other’s arms for months when he disappeared?

Is he resentful for this world and all that it’s brought them?

So many questions flitted through her brain, but the one that makes it to him is, “you nicked your chin when you shaved.” 

“Oh,” Percy says, touching a hand to his chin, certainly not expecting this observation. 

Annabeth wants to scream into the heavens, on how unfair it is that they missed so much time together. Percy didn’t even used to shave regularly the last time they saw each other, the fall after they defeated Kronos. 

“Your invincibility -- it’s gone,” Annabeth explains, patiently waiting for Percy to tell her what happened. It hurts, more than a little, to know that the link between Percy’s mortality and her was severed.

He sighs and tells her about The Little Tiber. 

Annabeth swears that after all this (if there is an “after,” she isn’t quite sure), she will do whatever possible to leave the world of the gods behind.

when you grew up as a lonely uncool girl it will never stop haunting you by the way. you will meet a cool person at a bar or the train station or at a friend's party and you can wear your most stylish outfit and striking eye makeup and you will swear that they can see through all of the facade and see the lonely terribly insecure teenage girl you used to be who desperately wanted to connect and you will swear that they know that there is like an insurmountable gap between you. this will happen forever

changes in the pjo show that are better than their book counterparts (from a chronic over analyzer who has been obsessed with this series since age 12)

sally working morality lessons and her own opinions into explaining the greek myths to percy (sally is amazing any details included that allow more of her character to be shown are fine with me i love learning more about her thought process. i also think its a really interesting and more subtle way to show that the mortal parents of demigods are also impacted negatively/are victims of the gods actions.)

stating outright that luke sees annabeth as his sister (bc luke seeing annabeth as anything other than his sister defeats the point of the series in a lot of ways. it makes him irredeemable and is disgusting which overshadows all of his valid arguments and the way percy mirrors him. it's like when an author makes a morally gray character commits some vile act that is out of character but is so bad readers can't ignore it in order to turn that character into a "true villain".)

BRINGING UP THALIA (thalia is one of my favorite characters in the whole series so of course i'm ok with any mention of her, but it sets up future events so well. we understand characters motives sooner, its probably a way that luke can gauge whether a demigod will join the titan army based on their reactions to the story, WE SEE HOW DIFFERENTLY IT EFFECTED LUKE AND ANNABETH)

the medusa and annabeth parallel (that change shows the truth of the gods in one parallel. it sets up annabeth's change in mind set that we get to by the last olympian. i can't explain how much i love this parellel.)

annabeth being the one to watch luke's string be cut (he is her family, it will be her dagger, it is only fair she be the one to see it. that is all i have to say about it.)

GROVER MANIPULATING A GOD (i love this so much bc i think it shows his desperation in a way. he knows how much is riding on this and after finding his uncle and percy falling from the arch he is willing to do anything to succeed. no more thalias.)

there's probably more but that all i can think of atm

it has always been so cute to me that even tho a war has just happened half of camp is destroyed or dead that the campers still thought it would be fun to bully percabeth

like did we ever learn why all of camp was just there when annabeth and percy kissed ??

like did annabeth recrute ppl to help ??

like maybe annabeth got malcom to help with the cupcake and he started the wildfire that was “annabeth and percy are sitting really close ALONE together for his birthday” so everyone went to eavesdrop or smth

or actually tyson definitely did that by accident now that i’m thinking abt it like he just told ppl who asked and everyone was like “thanks for letting me know >:)”

i always kinda thought maybe clarisse knew it was percy’s birthday and was planning on being a menace but when they pulled up annabeth was already there then the kiss happened and everyone was like “holy SHITTTTT”

like maybe the plan was to dunk percy in the water but they couldn’t find annabeth so they showed up late just to witness the kiss some kids probably cried a little but clarisse was like “sick now i can dunk BOTH of them” so that’s what they did

to me i always loved that clarisse was the one to be the head of that bc throwing them into the water to celebrate wasn’t for her - personally i don’t think clarisse could give two real shits abt percabeth actually dating or not (not that she doesn’t think they should- it’s just not her buisness) but yk who did ?? selina

there were probably long talks where all selina talked abt was the percabeth tea

“i have insanely hot gossip right now. >:)”

“ooo really?? >:)”

“yeah and it involves your two favorite people >:3”

“oh…really…… :|”

i like to think that was for her and i love that

At this point I would like to thank all the people out there who write fanfiction. I love reading stories about my favorite pairings and try to write some of my own. You are the reason why my expectations of men and women are so high and I wouldn't have it any other way. 😊❤️

Something that is confusing me is how many people are defending the changes Rick made and defending Rick himself in regards to the show.

He lied to us.

He got the entire fandom to hype up the show, got the show made on the basis of getting a book accurate adaption. This was supposed to be something accurate to the books, including the book characters, the book scenes, the book stakes- we were supposed to get to see our favorite moments in the books on screen.

And then he went and rewrote the book.

This adaption isn't the book we read. The characters aren't the characters we read. Grover's personality was wholesale replaced. This is something entirely new-

And whether you like it for itself is a different matter entirely, but the point is that... this isn't The Lightning Thief that we read years ago.

He lied to us.

the “lgbt community” isn’t based on “love and acceptance” it was forged out of necessity for survival. it’s not a club you join for funzies. we are not required to be nice people on account of us being lesbian gay bisexual and transgender.

community is about resources and solidarity. there is power in numbers. we’re meant to support each other in the wake of material oppression we face because we are lesbian gay bisexual and transgender.

y’all don’t fucking get that which is why most of our “communities” are disintegrating under the weight of these weird “actually EVERYONE is lgbt if you squint a little” arguments they deny any autonomy or agency to lgbt ppl who are anything but deferential about it, and all you have to show for it are like. flags that are impossible to print and seven thousand labels to labor over every time you have an existential crisis.

it’s so infuriating.