They have my heart <33

Say cheese!! 😋

Last art of 2023: Here’s to the book series that got me through this year.

The Locked Tomb

A Hannah Waddingham and Sheryl Lee Ralph reunion!

I think that what the PJO TV series is doing, at least so far, is impressing just how dangerous monsters are to young demigods and how lucky our main trio is in surviving this long. The books did this too, of course, but when comparing them to the TV series and the minor changes made when adapting them and being able to fully realize that yes these are 12 year old kids facing ancient terrors ready and willing to murder them, they accomplish slightly different things. Namely, in TLT, the Disney+ adaptation shows us the dangers of the world demigods live in, while the books communicate, sometimes unintentionally, just how strong Percy is and how much potential he has.

For instance, the Furies. Mrs. Dodds is the first monster Percy faces in both, that stays the same. However, in the books, Alecto takes Percy away to a secluded place, interrogates him, then tries to kill him. In the series, for simplicity's sake, we skip the seclusion and jump straight to the interrogation. Percy, scared and confused out of his mind for good reason, stumbles and falls over, and manages to stab Alecto before she reaches the killing stage, taking her by surprise. IN THE BOOK, Percy immediately starts fighting for his life. He dodges a godsdamn Fury, catches a pen out of the air, and then does 'the only thing that [comes] naturally': SWINGS THE SWORD and KILLS A FURY. A reminder that Furies, in the original myths, were ancient creatures of violence and destruction that Athena herself had to pacify, thus earning them the moniker 'Kindly Ones.' And Percy, a 12 year old child, kills one with no training. Like, yes, she clearly didn't expect him to be armed, but she's older than the Olympians. She and her sisters hunted Thalia down, too, so it isn't like she's out of practice or something. Percy just has killer instincts and intrinsic talent to match. This sets a little bit of a different tone going forward: where in the show, Percy survives purely by catching Alecto off guard, showing the full danger of the world and the monsters and gods within it, in the book, he beats a Fury with just about every disadvantage imaginable. He's still terrified, and it effectively communicates just how much danger a demigod is in at any given moment, but it also shows that Percy is ridiculously dangerous in his own right.

The bus encounter takes this a step further. Whereas the book places Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in imminent danger, the show takes a different approach, instead opting for the Furies' goal to be somewhat clear, to the point of Alecto talking to Annabeth and proposing a deal. Annabeth, with all the skill of 5 years of training, distracts a Fury and lands a knife throw, but even as the trio escapes, Alecto is largely unconcerned. She lets their diversion play out, allows them to run, and confronts them at Medusa's lair knowing full well that she has the upper hand. She's not distracted, she knows every trick each of the questers could pull out. To her knowledge, there is absolutely no way they can win as they are, and the audience recognizes this by the way she acts. The only way they beat her is by, once again, taking her by surprise. Medusa's severed head made invisible is something Alecto never expected, and thus the danger of the world and the luck and genius of our trio is reinforced. The bus scene in the book, though, continues with the trend of making Percy an inexperienced threat to the status quo. Upon revealing himself, the Furies hesitate. Dodds wraps her burning whip around his hand, impeding him and making his hand feel like it was 'wrapped in molten lead', but Percy is still able to fend off both of her sisters at once, knocking one away and killing the other. Again, these monsters are older that the Olympians and wildly dangerous. Annabeth and Grover both take on Alecto, and in the time it takes for them to restrain her, Percy kills the third Fury and has a moment to tell Dodds to eat his pants in Latin. It's a tense encounter, and the risk posed to all three heroes is felt throughout, but once again, Percy is shown to be a force unto himself, taking out two Furies with his sword hand not at full capability.

The books definitely aren't always the most accurate in terms of in-universe power balancing, but I think we can look at The Lightning Thief like this. Book!Percy is an example of why Big Three children were forbidden. With no and minimal training, and very little in the element of surprise, he manages to amass kills on all three Furies. The world is deadly, and the books and his narration definitely get that point across, but it also gives us a glance of what Percy has the potential to be, if he survives long enough to grow into it. The series, with the visual of three literal children on a quest while being hunted by terrors, some older than anybody they know, including Mr. D and Chiron, shows us exactly why Camp Half-Blood's population is so sparse and young, why Thalia never made it to safety, why Luke's quest was the last until now, and why the gods ignoring their children is such an issue, aside from the obvious of making their kids feel unloved and unwanted. Their world is hazardous, and the demigods are in constant danger outside of Camp. The Furies are relentless, only able to be beaten when caught off guard and largely unconcerned by the heroes they face. Monsters are forces of nature, overcome with a combination of luck, surprise, and skill. The danger is pervasive, even in media made suitable for kids, and the alternative perspective this medium is able to take is going to make the progression of the series so satisfying.

Currently obsessed with

Tristan ‘Soft Boy’ Thorn

And Matthew ’Manwhore’ Murdock

I love a post-Trimax AU where Knives lives, perhaps growing out his hair and letting Vash take care of him. They should communicate and bond, yknow?

roman & shiv are never beating the twin allegations i’m afraid

Thinking about how Hero and Kel are both very selfless people but in different ways that really boil down to the fact that Kel is willing to set boundaries that Hero isn't. While they would both do just about anything for their loved ones, Hero is basically "The Giving Tree"—willing to be completely destroyed in a sort of silent martyrdom without setting any boundaries because he's too conflict-avoidant and lacks a certain sense of self-preservation that his brother has. Whereas Kel is selfless, but he isn't a doormat. He doesn't struggle nearly as much to say "no" when he needs to and can prioritize his own needs and self-care when appropriate and necessary (perhaps precisely because Hero was there constantly putting Kel's needs first for most of their lives).

Ultimately, at least on some level, Kel feels his needs matter and that he matters enough to set boundaries, even when he is taking care of other people; however, no matter the situation, Hero will always consider himself last and has trouble believing he has the right to ever put himself and his own feelings and self-care first.

More ramblings under the cut (Warnings: OMORI spoilers and heavy subject matter. Mentions death, grief, trauma, and depression).

This is really showcased in their reactions after Mari's death. Kel eventually reaches this point where he decides that he can't sit in that hurt anymore and needs to carry on living even if he is heartbroken. Despite how much he wants to keep everyone together, Kel starts to worry that all of his attempts to help are just making everything worse, and because he has this sense of self-preservation, he distances himself to protect not only his loved ones who he feels might be better off without him (even though that isn't true) but also to take care of himself and to distance himself from these feelings of failure and of being too weak and too helpless to care for his suffering friends, especially his brother. He does feel guilty about that, but ultimately, he makes the best decision that he can at the time. He never gives up on his friends and on the hope that they'll eventually be reunited (he keeps knocking on Sunny's door even after all these years, after all), and he hopes that taking care of himself and carrying on with his life will give him the strength to be there for his loved ones if/when the time comes that they need him.

Hero, on the other hand, never processes his own feelings, and his trauma and related feelings of guilt cause him to believe that he doesn't have the right to care for himself (even though that couldn't be farther from the truth). He sort of implodes after losing Mari—curling in on himself and spiraling into a deep depression, wallowing in his grief in a way that is all-consuming but understandable. He comes out of that not because he has reached a sense of closure and peace, but because he feels guilty—feels he has burdened and hurt the people closest to him with his problems. He begins to feel that putting himself first and getting the help he needs would be selfish, so he pushes his issues aside and tries to ignore them as if they will eventually just go away, which they don't.

After a year of spiraling in his own grief and misery, he swings to the completely opposite direction: living a listless life of "fake happiness" and pretending that everything is okay when it isn't. He blames himself for Mari's death and for Kel, Sunny, Basil, and Aubrey's suffering and feels like he should have been stronger and taken better care of them, but he also feels his hands are tied and there's nothing he can do. He wants to help, but he doesn't want to cross his loved ones' boundaries, pry into their business, or create conflict so he often chooses inaction and to give his friends space. Meanwhile, his own feelings of grief and guilt are, at times, too overwhelming for him to bear. He has been so beaten down by the trauma of the situation that he feels his own pain, suffering, and needs don't matter, and he can only derive a sense of self-worth from being useful and helpful to others. Caught between a desperate desire to be needed and a crippling fear of conflict, Hero never sets boundaries and feels his only chance at surviving this new life is to shove his own feelings away and take care of everyone else around him, without any consideration to how he may be hurting himself.

Hero and Kel are both incredibly kindhearted and altruistic people, but Hero's manner of “selflessness” can be unhealthy and, ultimately, harmful to him if it leads him to neglect himself and his own basic needs. The truth is he really can’t take care of anyone if he doesn’t take care of himself first. Kel understands this, but Hero does not.

Doodle time!

Idrk what Rosie does as a hobby but she seems like someone who knits. That was obscenely difficult to draw. She's chilling with her bestie while he reads his favorite book.

I love them. <3

Do not tag as ship.

saw a post on twitter about how dark hand gradients are a fun character design feature and went “hey I’ve got that”

PEOPLE DIED

Tommy Lee And Vince Neil ❤️🎶

I’m on my knees for sweet Gortash I’m not into Raphael yet but I’m getting into him and I like sweet him too!

Soft Enver is my end game. He’s my everything. I love him so much

Raph has a soft side too but you have to peel off more layers of hell to get to it I feel like

If you want to get into soft!Raph can I shamelessly plug my own fic, because…?

emily axford and caitlin doughty look like the same person but in a different font

look at this little girl (Eevee)

now look at this BIG girl (Rey)