no one talks about how rick riordan literally scammed disney
dead ass pjo was that seemingly “normal” kids fantasy series with a seemingly white straight kid saving the world and it’s a fucking success. percy jackson? iconic! ppl fucking love percy and his character and then hoo comes out? everyone is pumped bc everyone is in love with that world. the first book? two main bad ass poc characters. the second book? two more bad ass poc characters! the fourth book and there’s literally a gay character and it’s not like disney could say no. hoo ends and then there’s magnus chase and ppl are fucking pumped bc that’s annabeth chase’s cousin and in the first book there’s a muslim girl and by the second book there’s a transgender and genderfluid character. trials of apollo? a main gay couple in a happy relationship and a fucking bi character. could disney say no? no. literal 10 year olds are reading books with heaps of representation all published by disney. rick riordan played the game. you step in thinking ur just gonna get white cishets and you walk out surrounded by different cultures and rainbows.
tldr; rick started out with the basic pasty white and straight series which got hella successful and used his success to pusblish more books and allow only one (1) cishet and only one (1) white
i doubt he planned it but deadass it would be so funny if that’s what happened
I saw him speak on /writing in the UK right before (or early in on when) his series hit it big. Planned. Definitely planned.
Thousand percent planned. Also Percy? Has a learning disability. RR’s son inspired him to write bc he is ADHD and dyslexic. This was all planned. He is all about inclusivity and representation.
He also makes his books incredibly funny, which is rather rare for YA and makes them more accessible to kids who don’t really like to read. In addition to having loads of POV character who have trouble reading themselves.
For those who’ve been living under a YA rock, this is Rick Riordan:
(this was the gay character in the second series)
(and the trans character in a later series)
Let’s not forget that he has an interest in the mythologies of other countries, but instead of writing them himself promotes other writers through his “Rick Riordan Presents” publishing imprint to do so!
Percy: So now I’m supposed to do anything that Annabeth does? What if she jumped off a cliff?
Chiron: If Annabeth were to jump off a cliff, she would have done his due diligence regarding the height of the cliff, the depth of the water, and the angle of entry. So, yes, if you see Annabeth jump off a cliff, by all means, jump off a cliff.
“Now I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, no. Percy’s in a cage. How did this happen?” Well, sometimes you have to get captured just to get a straight answer out of something. It’s a long story. Basically, I’m a bit of a hero. See, I’ve fought some monsters, saved the planet a couple of times. That’s when I came across a path of death, and destruction. Which led me all the way here into this cage…where I met you. How much longer do you think we’ll be in here?”
— Percy Jackson, before the camera reveals he was talking to a skull all along. Its jaw falls off.
remember the Son of Neptune book where Hazel describe Percy and he was so RIDICULOUSLY powerful and beautiful and terrifying she thought he was god and my son is honestly so strong and must be a horrific enemy and a force to be feared
…but we forget because we know his inner dialogue is 50% “fuck fuck fuck AHHHHHHHHH well shit” and the other 50% is “I have no idea what’s going on but let’s just roll with it and hope I survive”
And honestly Percy Jackson is 10/10 the most relatable fake adult millennial to ever bluff his way through life. A true icon. The hero our generation deserves.
“maybe my dad wasn’t always there maybe he never knew how to care but maybe that’s life and life ain’t fair and i know right now things are less than fine but i think my dad may have thrown me a line and better late than never, i finally get a sign i’m the son of poseidon”
Let’s face it though. If you don’t think Nico already knows about every other god in the PJO universe, you’re insane. Of course, he knows magicians exist. His dad and Osiris/Julius literally play cards once every week. Persephone’s been showing Anubis her flowers all the time because the Underworld can be hella boring in either place and sometimes Anubis just wants to be surrounded by calm pretty stuff vs graves.
Yeah, he knows about the Norse gods. He accidentally stumbled into one of the realms when he was shadow travelling and still has no idea how he got there. I mean, Nico di Angelo fucking met God in an alleyway after ten cups of coffee and two hours of sleep and he’s only like 5% sure it was a hallucination.
He literally just straight-faced ask Thanatos if other gods existed one time and the man just went “where else would mortals come up with these myths, y’all aren’t that smart” before pushing Nico onto some other deity of the dead so the kid would leave him alone.
Ya boy’s met fucking Kali and thinks she’s awesome and has her damn card. If you ask any god out there about him, chances are they’ve met him or heard of him through conversation with a god who has met him. “Sweet kid,” they’ll say. “Kinda quiet but nice. Real helpful if you need it.”
Nico’s been known all this bullshit. The first time he meets Magnus, he’s not confused or shocked. He just looks him over and then just plainly asks “so how’d you escape?” and literally everyone else in the room is completely shocked he knows, when of course he knows.
He just can’t be bothered to talk about it if it’s not important to anything at stake or doesn’t require his assistance. The world ending’s because some wolf is gonna do something stupid apparently? Great, not his mythology, not his problem. If they need his help, they’ll ask.
u ever like cry about how percy uh became friends with tyson and defended him from bullies even though like tyson was kinda dirty and didn’t smell great and cried a lot and percy’s own reputation directly suffered from being friends with him…..and he met him at the subway at the same time every morning so tyson wouldn’t get agitated and stands guard by his stall so tyson doesn’t feel uncomfortable changing for PE and even after he gets publicly humiliated by poseidon claiming tyson he’s embarrassed but he still defends tyson so much that he yells at annabeth for badmouthing him………and then u find out that tyson PRAYED for help and poseidon just uh sent percy and didn’t even have to tell him to do anything bc percy is just so Good and cares So Much that it’s instinctual for him to defend people who need help….:
what i do is not up to you 