how did we three way tie

next project to focus on based on title only

more stuff about becoming a god being inherently dehumanizing pls

I forgot ab this 😭

next project to focus on based on title only

next project to focus on based on title only

I think that hazel would have a burn on her hairline from hot comb usage. or on her ear. bc yeah.

2nd Annual Red Queen Fanfiction Awards

We are back and it's awards season on the Norta Event Council blog! After the success of last year's, the 2nd Annual Red Queen Fanfiction Awards are back, and with a new categories and batch!

Same with last year, nominations and awards will be posted in batches, and all of these batches correspond with each other.

Crown Awards: Best Fanfiction, Best Author, Best Multi-Chapter, Best One-shot, Best Incomplete/Ongoing

Genre Awards: Best AU, Best Fluff, Best Smut, Best Angst, Best Platonic/Gen

Ship Awards (based on top ao3 ships): Best Marecal, Best Mareven, Best Evane, Best Thomaven, Best Farley/Shade, Best Rarepair

Other Fan Works (NEW!): Best Artist, Best Original Character, Best Creator.

Best Artist: For all fan artists Best OC: original Characters made by fans, no matter which form they take!   Best Creator: non-fanart and non-fanfiction creators of playlists, memes, mood boards, web weaves, analyses, etc. 

Timeline

Nominations are open until May 5th

Nominations will be posted by May 8th

Voting will be from May 13 to May 20th

Winners will be posted by May 22nd

Follow @nortaeventcouncil or track the tag #rq fanfic awards 2 for updates!

Nomination Form Below! Please Include links whenever possible

frankenstein's monster & friends

☆ for @drewtanakaweek riordanverse flash fic fridays: reunion, free write

She finds out three days after, shirt soaked with the tears of his older sister. Comes to the realization that neither Grace will age past sixteen.

Reyna, Jason, and the question of The Ship of Theseus.

inspired by this post by @aroaceleovaldez

words: 593

#i've had that same thought about Mitchell so thank you for this#And I love the point you make about Michael Kahale and masculinity VS Drew's femininity#new gender binary just dropped are you a child of aphrodite or a child of venus#and you make a good point on the association of violence/war/etc with masculinity#like clarisse is the subject of 'not a woman' type jokes because she's violent and more war-like #but we also see that with the characterisation of the Demeter cabin and how they're perceived as weaker and all the named kids are girls#because their powers revolve around plants and flowers (stereotypically feminine interests) and are largely non-violent#Meg subverts this to some degree but even then her sickles were the result of her relationship with Nero NOT her relationship with Demeter#which is especially wild considering (to my understanding) Demeter is one of the oldest and most powerful Olympians#so characterising them as weak and making all of the characters female because they're less violent is. A Choice.#and only reinforces the whole 'fighting is masculine and not fighting is feminine' thing#i'm getting off topic at this point so I'll stop here but yes good post op via @curseofdelos

"#new gender binary just dropped are you a child of aphrodite or a child of venus" <- I'm very tempted to make that a poll that tag took me out LMAO

but I really of love your point of Demeter kids bc obv those gender dynamic does not just exist within cabin ten, and is a greater issue bc of rr's writing. the thing about meg's sickles being a result of her past and not being a Demeter kid... that is literally Piper too, her relationship with charmspeak was formed because she sought attention from her father, not that she was an Aphrodite kid, and that does say a lot about where these female characters get their agency from (male figures in their life). Ultimately, is another piece of evidence to celebrating masculinity and belittling femininity in rr's writing

So i was scrolling through the drew tanaka tag as one does and found this post by @curseofdelos that i was like !!!!! about, and i read through it and I was like. Yes, but also… 

So this is my also. I suggest reading the post first as it does very well in explaining the issues with Piper and Drew’s writing and why that’s harmful. 

But I’d like to take it a step further and extrapolate to the bigger picture of cabin 10. 

What about the boys? 

TL;DR: There are a lot of in-text and meta negotiations of masculinity versus femininity that occur in /influence PJO/HOO, and that leaves boys in the Aphrodite Cabin in an awkward limbo. 

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I first want to establish that masculinity is not femininity. Which like, duh, but that means that anything that is not masculine can and will be considered feminine. Point blank, no nuance (There is a literature backing, but I think its a bit too much, so I’ll just put it at the end if you wanna find the article I’m referring to). 

And that’s what Rick is operating on, while you can’t deny it is a spectrum, at the time of writing TLH and such, there was a general societal understanding of masculinity as being macho and strong and rejecting softness for hardcore or whatever. And this positioning is where femininity comes in, and where we can begin to talk about Cabin 10. 

Rick writes Cabin 10 as inherently feminine, thus attaching “beauty” to this narrow idea; best shown through describing the cabin as a Barbie house and Piper's claiming ordeal. It is a place where there is nothing “masculine,” leading to the stereotype of Aphrodite kids not being able to fight, since war is masculine and thus out of their purview. 

This does deconstruct with Silena and then Piper, but the existence of Drew proves that it is still upheld and important enough to the story. 

I do believe that Rick tried to have his “oh you can still be feminine without being hyper feminine!” moment with Piper & Drew’s conflict, however, he failed to give Drew enough agency to make it seem like there was a genuine conflict rather than just “mean girl v girl-next-door.” (again, @curseofdelos explained it very well, go read!). 

Now with the girls out of the way, the boys are kinda… lost in the sauce? The only Aphrodite boy we get is Mitchell and it is very telling that a lot of people hc him as gay… which again is the posturing of masculinity vs femininity and whatever is not masculine is therefore feminine. And being gay is being attracted to masculinity and this feminine etc etc (according to societal norms). The fact that he is the only male Aphrodite kid rep is again, telling and really affirms the inherent femininity of Cabin 10. 

“Hey! He’s not the only ‘Aphrodite’ Kid! What about Michael!” And Michael just further proves my point! He’s the son of Venus, and Roman counterparts are considered as more “warlike” than their Greek ones. War being considered masculine and a rejection of femininity, as established earlier w/ Cabin 10 kids not being warriors. Now, Micheal exists as a (hyper) masculine counterpoint to Drew’s (hyper) feminine, making the Roman Venus a direct opposite as the Greek Aphrodite. 

This is actually, kinda commendable in terms of plot, since it helps reinforce the differences between Greek and Roman and how extreme they were. Great storytelling device, bad everything else. 

One more thing I want to touch on is the vilification of femininity, and why it must be rejected in the pjo/hoo. You can only fight if you adopt masculine traits, and therefore not fighting and still surviving means that you are doing something dishonorable like, abusing charmspeak (Drew) or using magic (Circe, Medea, etc) or even spying (Silena). Which is a very masculine idea, of how things should be solved by violence ( i mean, look at violence perpetrated by men compared to women in our society…) I think I’ve said this before, but in Piper’s arc, there needs to be an antagonist to prove how she doesn’t “fit in” at CHB, and create that tension of her either choosing to save her father and betray or continue the quest as is; and that antagonist ended up being Drew, and that makes sense bc Cabin 10 is against what Piper is characterized as, and she just is a rejection of that femininity. 

Anyways, let me not get away from myself. Basically, within the story, there is no real opportunity for the characters to reject gender stereotypes without falling into others. And Rick wrote himself into that hole. 

Literature Referenced: Shippers, Mimi. “Masculinity and Femininity, Theories of.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2016. Edited by Nancy A. Naples. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The 2nd Annual Red Queen Fanfiction Awards are just around the corner! Announcement and nomination form comes Sunday at 11:30AM EST

look, i didn't want to be a riordanverse fan. being a riordanverse fan is scary. it's dangerous, and most of the time it just gets you heartbroken. if you think about becoming one of us, step away while you still can. read whatever lame book your mom or dad suggests, and try to live without it. because once you start reading, you'll get stuck. and your favourite characters will start dying in front of you.

don't say i didn't warn you.

frankenstein's monster & friends

☆ for @drewtanakaweek riordanverse flash fic fridays: reunion, free write

She finds out three days after, shirt soaked with the tears of his older sister. Comes to the realization that neither Grace will age past sixteen.

Reyna, Jason, and the question of The Ship of Theseus.

inspired by this post by @aroaceleovaldez

words: 593

So i was scrolling through the drew tanaka tag as one does and found this post by @curseofdelos that i was like !!!!! about, and i read through it and I was like. Yes, but also… 

So this is my also. I suggest reading the post first as it does very well in explaining the issues with Piper and Drew’s writing and why that’s harmful. 

But I’d like to take it a step further and extrapolate to the bigger picture of cabin 10. 

What about the boys? 

TL;DR: There are a lot of in-text and meta negotiations of masculinity versus femininity that occur in /influence PJO/HOO, and that leaves boys in the Aphrodite Cabin in an awkward limbo. 

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I first want to establish that masculinity is not femininity. Which like, duh, but that means that anything that is not masculine can and will be considered feminine. Point blank, no nuance (There is a literature backing, but I think its a bit too much, so I’ll just put it at the end if you wanna find the article I’m referring to). 

And that’s what Rick is operating on, while you can’t deny it is a spectrum, at the time of writing TLH and such, there was a general societal understanding of masculinity as being macho and strong and rejecting softness for hardcore or whatever. And this positioning is where femininity comes in, and where we can begin to talk about Cabin 10. 

Rick writes Cabin 10 as inherently feminine, thus attaching “beauty” to this narrow idea; best shown through describing the cabin as a Barbie house and Piper's claiming ordeal. It is a place where there is nothing “masculine,” leading to the stereotype of Aphrodite kids not being able to fight, since war is masculine and thus out of their purview. 

This does deconstruct with Silena and then Piper, but the existence of Drew proves that it is still upheld and important enough to the story. 

I do believe that Rick tried to have his “oh you can still be feminine without being hyper feminine!” moment with Piper & Drew’s conflict, however, he failed to give Drew enough agency to make it seem like there was a genuine conflict rather than just “mean girl v girl-next-door.” (again, @curseofdelos explained it very well, go read!). 

Now with the girls out of the way, the boys are kinda… lost in the sauce? The only Aphrodite boy we get is Mitchell and it is very telling that a lot of people hc him as gay… which again is the posturing of masculinity vs femininity and whatever is not masculine is therefore feminine. And being gay is being attracted to masculinity and this feminine etc etc (according to societal norms). The fact that he is the only male Aphrodite kid rep is again, telling and really affirms the inherent femininity of Cabin 10. 

“Hey! He’s not the only ‘Aphrodite’ Kid! What about Michael!” And Michael just further proves my point! He’s the son of Venus, and Roman counterparts are considered as more “warlike” than their Greek ones. War being considered masculine and a rejection of femininity, as established earlier w/ Cabin 10 kids not being warriors. Now, Micheal exists as a (hyper) masculine counterpoint to Drew’s (hyper) feminine, making the Roman Venus a direct opposite as the Greek Aphrodite. 

This is actually, kinda commendable in terms of plot, since it helps reinforce the differences between Greek and Roman and how extreme they were. Great storytelling device, bad everything else. 

One more thing I want to touch on is the vilification of femininity, and why it must be rejected in the pjo/hoo. You can only fight if you adopt masculine traits, and therefore not fighting and still surviving means that you are doing something dishonorable like, abusing charmspeak (Drew) or using magic (Circe, Medea, etc) or even spying (Silena). Which is a very masculine idea, of how things should be solved by violence ( i mean, look at violence perpetrated by men compared to women in our society…) I think I’ve said this before, but in Piper’s arc, there needs to be an antagonist to prove how she doesn’t “fit in” at CHB, and create that tension of her either choosing to save her father and betray or continue the quest as is; and that antagonist ended up being Drew, and that makes sense bc Cabin 10 is against what Piper is characterized as, and she just is a rejection of that femininity. 

Anyways, let me not get away from myself. Basically, within the story, there is no real opportunity for the characters to reject gender stereotypes without falling into others. And Rick wrote himself into that hole. 

Literature Referenced: Shippers, Mimi. “Masculinity and Femininity, Theories of.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2016. Edited by Nancy A. Naples. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

who up for a hoo meta analysis

your url shows what you want most in life

YEAH! I like this comparison with toxic masculinity bc there is a societal standard when it comes it family and how it is used as tool of of oppression, but the silvers suffer from this as well. there is a small section of silvers who benefit from this family structure, but overall it only serves to harm them.

I really want to further explore how much family is an institution for silvers in the rqverse. and how families in general are presented? bc all the families are "broken," whether that be due to them being broken up, for lack of love and relationships. and how that is a systematic consequence. bc family has different importance and impact to both silvers and reds.

family is a means of social and political mobility for silvers; hence arranged marriages, the stress on house name and colors etc. for reds, however, families are for emotional support, and that is wrecked given the conscription and general poor living conditions.

to sum it up, families have different functions dictated by societal expectations.

I really want to further explore how much family is an institution for silvers in the rqverse. and how families in general are presented? bc all the families are "broken," whether that be due to them being broken up, for lack of love and relationships. and how that is a systematic consequence. bc family has different importance and impact to both silvers and reds.

family is a means of social and political mobility for silvers; hence arranged marriages, the stress on house name and colors etc. for reds, however, families are for emotional support, and that is wrecked given the conscription and general poor living conditions.

to sum it up, families have different functions dictated by societal expectations.

BEGGING YOU TO EXPAND UPON FRANKS IDEAL CHARACTER ARC

OK OK umm a short note first though: i don't really like subscribing to the characterization of frank as a sunshiney sweet fluffy teddy bear so if he seems a little out of character in this then... yeah i'm aware lol. some of this is going to be a little self-indulgent

anyway i like to think of frank as... someone who represses his feelings a lot. he has a lot of pent up rage inside him and i think it's not a stretch to say that he's kind of naturally the kind of person who gets angry easily, but he pushes it all down because he hates those feelings. his mother, someone who loved him and whom he loved, was killed by violence and war when he was young; he internalized that and started to hate any idea of it; might have become hyperfocused on the ideology. and i don't think his hatred of it and his upset at being mars' son can just be attributed to him 'being a good person'. the other demigods don't seem to mind the concept as much as he does.

but like, he is naturally a violent person. not just as a result of mars and ares but he's literally just like that (that was his characterization in son of neptune, too, which is before his father started talking in his head). and i think it would have been nice to see that come into conflict more with his personality and who he wants to be. it came up a bit at the end of the chapter where he killed the katobleps, but it was never discussed again, which kind of bums me out. especially with his stated dedication to duty, i think it would be cool to explore.

a classic story idea to expand on this would be to put him in a situation that forces him to use violence - not just against monsters, which he seems to be generally fine with doing, but a human. maybe even a friend or a cohort. or on a bigger scale (which is harder to do as it might require a new book or even a SERIES, but hey) have him encounter more and more moral dilemmas in his time as praetor that'll push him to see war as the only option. it'd call into question who he thinks he is and what he thinks he's better than! idk i think it'd be cool for his character.

one of my most frequently dreamed-about story ideas for him is one in which the demigods who were deemed as 'weak' and eaten by lupa are actually alive and want to destroy camp jupiter. but it wouldn't just be an attack like all other hoo villains, there'd be actual political processes going on, civil meetings and stuff like that. frank is loyal and wants to protect his camp, but on the other hand, the demigods are... kind of right. plus his seeming aversion to war and violence would make him feel massively conflicted over the whole thing! how is he supposed to deal with this big threat without initiating violence, something he always saw as terrible? imo it would be a cool path to take because it both expands on frank's character and also acknowledge the faults with camp jupiter - the fact that it's literally a child military, for one. also the leader of the rebelling demigods is a milf in my mind so that might be why i like the idea so much, who knows

yeah so uh. wow this is long huh! im so sorry i got carried away! to sum it up, i just think it'd be nice for frank's anger issues to come into conflict with his very obvious dislike for violence and his morals. 'son of war who loathes himself' as a character goes crazy but in the story there was none of that crazy and i feel sad about it :(

tl;dr frank's arc is fine, but it'd be cooler with more blood