so today and yesterday was really boring so I was wondering what to write about, until I realised that this is my blog and I can exercise free will, and write about whatever I want. I don't even have to write regularly if I don't want to. So I'm going to inform everyone of my very interesting opinions on Percy Jackson instead of going into detail about my very boring life.
One thing I've always felt about the series is that Rick Riordan can't really write female characters. I understand that he's trying to make strong role models for little girls, which is great and wonderful, but all the boys have distinct personalities while the girls all seem to be the same, except with a slightly different light shone on them. And Rick Riordan also rejects femininity in a lot of ways. For example, everyone in the Aphrodite cabin was portrayed as shallow and vain and horrible, and only Piper was shown to have any depth, and that's because she hated everything about makeup and dressing up. I also understand that this is a way to show growth within the Aphrodite cabin, but this also could have been a way to actually show a diverse range of female characters. With Calypso and Leo, Leo hates Calypso at first, and that's when she was sweet and feminine and liked "girly" things, and as soon as she starts wearing jeans and rejecting femininity, that's when Leo starts liking her. It's completely fine for Leo to like girls who wear jeans and fix cars, but Calypso basically changes her whole personality for Leo, and that's when she's presented as a desirable love interest.
I also feel like the Calypso and Leo arc was rushed and wouldn't have been written if the series was written at a time where it was acceptable to have a character without a love interest. A theory I have that I am sure Rick Riordan would veto immediately, is that Calypso deliberately changed herself to win over Leo. If I was stuck on a magical island for thousands of years, and my only hope of escaping was getting whatever man that washed up to fall in love with me, I would do anything I could to make that happen. Plus, usually a man comes only once every thousand years, while Leo came only a few years after Percy. If I was Calypso, I would have taken that as a sign from the God's telling me that I've failed too many times to get a man to fall in love with me and that this is my last chance. If I was her, I would also change my entire personality to get Leo to fall in love with me as quickly as possible. In Trials of Apollo, it was mentioned that Calypso and Leo started having relationship problems as soon as she got off of the island. Maybe that's just because it's hard on the relationship to go on a quest as a new couple, but I wouldn't be surprised if Calypso realised that Leo would expect the Calypso he fell in love with, and thought she could probably make a quick escape. If that's not the case, than I just feel like that whole thing was really rushed and that there were ways to give both Calypso and Leo a happy ending that didn't involve romance.
I ALSO feel like that if Percy Jackson wasn't a children's story it would be regarded as a huge fantasy epic. Ever since I reread the series I can definitely spot a lot more flaws with the story than I did before, but it's still a really good series. It was kind of cheated like that. I literally sobbed when (spoiler) Jason and Silena died. While I'm talking about Silena, I should probably say that she was an Aphrodite camper that held depth past being a typical vain, shallow, mean popular girl.
If Percy Jackson wasn't a children's story, and we actually take way the story and adventure and character development and sense of community and all of that, these children are literally being abused. The Gods bring their children into a world where they know that they'll struggle, be shunned by the rest of the world, be raised by one struggling parent, be continually attacked throughout their life, experience great trauma, watch their friends die, fight wars that the GODS should be fighting (during the battle of manhatten the gods literally did nothing until Nico called them down (or maybe they did it's been a while since i read that one but STILL)) and not because they want children, but because they just can't keep it in their pants, and then still reject them and never claim them. While I'm on that, I'd hate to be an unclaimed camper, because what if you date another camper and find out you've been dating your brother. But, like, everyone's trauma is so overlooked.
And I also think it's really cool how Rick Riordan showed Franks struggle with his body, but it REAALLLYY tested my loyalty to Leo when he kept making comments on Franks body that would obviously make him uncomfortable, and constantly pointing out their size difference. I hate it when people do things like that, like it's so unnecessary. But in that sense it's cool that Rick Riordan shows how that before they're demigods they're just teenagers.
I have more points but I'm in english right now and I actually have to do work do.
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