I feel like a big part of Heroes of Olympus was influenced by audience reaction.
I don’t think I’m grasping at straws here. I genuinely just don’t get why some decisions were made if this wasn’t the case.
The plot of the books themselves has always felt very muddled to me and that’s why it always feels like it’s supposed to be a story about characters and relationships, but it just kind of isn’t. Sure, on a surface level, yes, and we get some very lovely character dynamics, but it also feels slightly artificial in a way? The plot was built first and the characters thrown into it, but there wasn’t much thought given too how the characters should be with each other. Even the romantic ones.
Though I feel that I could tie this idea into pretty much every part of the books, there are two things that I personally think of the most while discussing this idea.
For one, there’s Octavian’s entire character.
I have always been confused as to what exactly Riordan wanted from Octavian. He really feels like a plot device most times, made solely for the purpose of stirring conflict between the Greeks and Romans. He as an individual never really mattered. Now, there are some very cool people on this website that have managed to squeeze a decent character out of the scenes we got, but with the way he was written, that in itself is a challenge, as post SoN, it feels like the only intent behind his character was to make him as unlikable as possible. He really was a real character in SoN, despite weird decisions here and there (The killing Gwen scene for example was purely to establish that the doors of death weren't working, and to make Octavian unlikable, but Octavian himself really didn’t have any motive for the killing. It benefitted him in no way.)
In SoN, Octavian is manipulative and well spoken, but after that, he is portrayed as some sort of dim witted idiot, clouded by his desire for personal glory.
The only way I can rationalize this shift in character is in the truly visceral reaction the then fanbase had to his character. They loathed him, taking not a second to rationalize his actions, but simply hate. It also made it so Octavian became the but of a lot of jokes. Those jokes characterizing him as his idiot and megalomaniac that it he shown as in Mark of Athena, House of Hades and Blood of Olympus.
I always suspected Octavian was supposed to serve some sort of grander purpose, or his role in HoO was supposed to be at least a little more dignified or dare I say sympathetic, but there really was no turning back with how hated he was, making Riordan embrace it rather than giving him actual human qualities.
Then on the other hand, there’s also Leo and his relationship with romance in general.
I’ve touched upon it in my Caleo essay (That I kind of wanna redo with more points and evidence to back up my claims, because I am unhappy with certain aspects but I still stand by all I said) that Leo is a character that was written in such a way that getting a romantic partner before resolving certain things would actively detriment the development of his character, including healing from his trauma. The way he was written was just not meant for romance and I will take this to my grave. I’m not saying there was no room for romance, but the way they went about it was... very bad. (A girlfriend will fix my problems. That is his mindset. But he doesn’t grow out of it. Instead he gets a girlfriend. A girlfriend that he treats as a fix to his problems when she is not. A girlfriend that is bad to and for him in so many ways.)
But it is very interesting to note, that especially after Mark of Athena, the speculations and demands for Leo’s future girlfriend went absolutely crazy. I can’t speak from experience but from the tweets from Riordan and fanarts from that time that I've seen it was at least to the point that he took active notice of it.
Besides Nico and Reyna, there weren’t really any other characters just lying around to pair Leo monogamously up with (I doubt Riordan be willing to make any characters besides Nico explicitly queer at the time and then in the next book he decided to pick up one of the background characters and said, you will do, when pairing Nico up with someone. )
There are many more examples I could go into. The universe suffered in many ways from this. Sure, it’s not the only problem that were detrimental. I believe Riordan had a plan from the beginning with all the main plot points of the series, but I feel he didn’t exactly know where he was going with the characters besides the basics. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the HoO characters. That is why I spend so much time talking and thinking about them, but the issues with the series and characters are so many that it’s borderline ridiculous.
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Fuck it Friday!
I was tagged by @wikiangela @disasterbuckdiaz @cowboy-buck @daffi-990 thank you 💜💜💜
Imma be honest, I opened the most recent document, scrolled down a bit, and just copied an amount that made sense lol, so have this bit of the eddie begins fic where they are being soft in the hospital while waiting for test results lol prev snippet
"Hey, no sleeping," Buck says, shaking him gently, and Eddie blinks, slowly looking around to find out they're alone again.
"Sorry," he mumbles, eyes finding Buck again, "on the bright side, I don't feel like I'm freezing from the inside out anymore."
"That's good."
"Yeah," Eddie yawns, and Buck's eyes widen with worry while looking at him.
Were his eyes always this blue?
"Okay, am I gonna have to be annoying to keep you awake?" He jokes, but his smile doesn't reach his eyes.
"You're never annoying, Buck," he says, blinking against the sleep that's now threatening to take over and something flashes on Buck's expression but it's gone before Eddie can figure it out.
"Not what it seems like when you throw pillows at me in the bunk room," Buck jokes, poking his arm and he chuckles.
"That's just to remind you that we're there to sleep."
"A pillow to the face is supposed to get me to sleep?"
"One can hope," Eddie mumbles, shifting around trying to get comfortable without being too comfortable, before looking back at Buck, worry creeping up his spine, "you know I don't mind the talking, right? I feel bad falling asleep on you, so if you're talking I'm not going to sleep, hence the pillows," he says and Buck's expression circles through multiple complicated emotions before he nods.
"It's just harder falling asleep on the bunks sometimes," he shrugs and Eddie chuckles.
"I know."
"But I will have to annoy you into staying awake for now," Buck says, adjusting in his chair.
"You're not annoying."
"You know what I mean."
"Still not annoying."
"Not even this conversation?"
"No."
"You sure?"
"Positive."
no pressure tagging <3: @bucks118 @eddiebabygirldiaz @honestlydarkprincess @watchyourbuck @captain-hen @giddyupbuck @try-set-me-on-fire
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Im ✨high✨ rn and thinking about ✨them✨
So may I present you with,, high rambles about
Spideypool
A thread.
I might turn any of these into drabbles/one shots/fics
To begin:
Peter being the person who actually Listens to Wade, and encourages him to keep talking. (I made a post and a Drabble about that)
Them tag teaming puns together against not just supervillains but like,, everyone. Petty criminals, other supers, the Avengers
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