Alice, I Guess

and id dare say this could also make fans themselves have much lower standards when finding new books and series to read. so many people in this fandom excuse rick of every single thing he does, which not only lets him get away with more, but also make those fans not actually care about well-written stories that care about whats being written this also could go hand-in-hand with how many books nowadays are promoted by only using tropes and eye-catching things that are usually only talked about in the fandom and fanfiction, instead of giving us anything about the actual plot, again, letting creators get away with more because a lot of fans only focus on the ‘fandom worthy’ parts of the books and what they can make fanfiction out of, instead of focusing on what any of the book is talking about- if theres anything in the book even to talk about looking at the way a lot of these authors write.

and this collection of Frank being grumpy, cynical, & sarcastic:

& then I think everyone knows about his Peak hater era in MOA, but here are some gems from House of Hades:

Like, in Greek mythology, Aphrodite and Apollo are essentially the divine standards for feminine and youthful masculine beauty. And while Percy definitely notices that they're physically attractive (quite often, might i add, my bi king), the details he remembers most aren't really about perfect faces, but about aspects that have more to do with their personality.

With Aphrodite, he obviously describes her as stunningly beautiful, but then immediately afterwards he also says this:

She really was beautiful. And not just because she had a pretty face or anything. She believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel giddy when she talked about it. (Titan’s Curse, Chapter 13)

Like, I love the fact that one of the things Percy considers most beautiful about the literal goddess of beauty isn't her appearance, but her genuine love for love itself.

And with Apollo, while Percy also repeatedly describes him as very handsome, the detail he keeps coming back to is specifically the way he smiles:

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, and for a second, I had the uneasy feeling it was Luke, my old enemy. This guy had the same sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. But it wasn't Luke. This guy was taller, with no scar on his face like Luke's. His smile was brighter and more playful. (Titan’s Curse, Chapter 4)

Despite the battle scars, the Titan’s face was handsome and strangely familiar. Percy was pretty sure he’d never seen this guy before, but his eyes and his smile reminded Percy of someone (…) He remembered the name Leto: the mother of Apollo and Artemis. This guy koios looked vaguely familiar because he had Artemis’ cold eyes and Apollo’s smile. (House of Hades, Chapter 61, Percy)

I just think that's really endearing.

When Percy describes the two gods who literally embody ideal beauty, the qualities that leave the biggest impression on him aren't things like symmetrical features or perfect physique, but the things that reveal personality...

Casual racism that is brushed off as “an innocent mistake” or “they didn’t mean it” and then everyone pretending like it didn’t happen and moving on with their day (repeat)

Speaking over fans of color about issues that pertain to them specifically

When fans of color speak out about something that makes them uncomfortable or why that don’t interact with it (usually because of the racial/ethnic bias) they are accused of being anti’s or pro-censorship

Characters of color being used as scapegoats/bashed/plot devices 

Characters of color never getting happy endings/real development

Backlash against characters of color if they do anything other than be a white character’s side kick/best friend

Actors of characters of color being harassed for something their character did or didn’t do

White characters/actors getting all the attention/credit despite the fact that they are a side character to a POC or on the same level as the POC

Fanfic authors patting themselves on the back for writing a “realistic” character of color and it’s just a bunch of stereotypes

Being told that they should be happy they were even included when they call out the above people

White fans crying about persecution/exclusion because their fav character/trope/kink/ship isn’t loved by all 

Fan artists re-imaging characters of color as white/lightening skin tone

Everyone rushing to a white fans defense after a well deserved call out while the fan of color receives hate

Never having a safe fandom space and always having to be on guard with new people/fandoms/chats etc because they’ve been burned before

- (re)writing characters of color as abusive and/or violent to infantilize white characters

Frank’s transformation powers, for example, work best when he knows the animal well, when he’s in imminent danger, and don’t work when he’s wounded. He also tells Leo that it’s like bench pressing your maximum weight to turn into a dragon - it’s dangerous, exhausting, he could hurt himself. Those are some pretty strict limitations.

Piper’s charmspeak (and charmspeak in general) is said to work best when the person is attracted to her (gross! So gross! But that is canon unfortunately) and when she really believes what she is saying. It also has a built-in weakness that it’s a fairly common power and doesn’t work on anyone else who can use it or who is just… manipulative (Medea, Circe, Drew, Khione, empousia, etc). This is nowhere near to consistent across all the books and imo her powers are the least thought through (both in the frankly horrifying implications of them for both Piper and the people she uses it on AND for how successful they are). Unfortunately this power does truly just seems to show up as “beautiful women are inherently manipulative and sexually entice their victims” and like WOW do I hate that lol it’s pretty horrifying. But technically that is another problem, the point here is that it was at least set up to have some built-in limitations.

Hazel’s control over metal (at least in SON) is difficult for her to use. She has been practicing it, but she has to concentrate a LOT and she doesn’t have precise control over it. So the question of “why doesn’t Hazel simply deflect everyone’s swords” is pretty simply answered: it’s not easy for her to do, and without precision, this could be just as dangerous as just letting fights continue without interference. Yes, she is able to steer the unicorns by controlling their horns, so maybe she could do something similar with an army - but it seems the herd was stampeding in one direction and all she did was direct them back to the stables. Obviously this is not the same thing as controlling swords that are all going in different directions. Also yes, in theory she could crush people inside their armor, but the only antagonists who consistently wear armor in this series are Romans, whom Hazel does not want to injure and certainly not to kill, and again, a lack of precision could make this disastrous if she attempted to do something simple like "halt person wearing armor in their tracks." Personally, I think what would make it even better is if Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold were especially difficult for her to control, like maybe twice as hard as regular gems and metals (sort of like how Percy's powers are much more effective in salt water). As for her Mist powers......... yeah I dunno I think these are WAY over-powered lol and it is frankly LUDICROUS to me that Hazel isn't included more in the 'most powerful demigod' conversation lol. I really don't think she needed any more powers as hers were already demonstrated to be some of the strongest in the universe as it was, but alas.

Jason is easy - sure, he can fly, but he experiences altitude sickness (actually wild Rick nerfed him so so badly with this lol) and he can't even technically fly, he needs the "support of the wind" or whatever so it's not as reliable as it would seem. Also it is demonstrated to be EXHAUSTING for him to do this so it really does make sense that he doesn't do it more often. And lightning same thing - like sure, if you hit your target it's great, but if you can't control it, which he doesn't seem to be able to precisely, it's probably smarter to avoid it, especially in the chaos of a battle.

Percy & Nico same thing - their powers are EXHAUSTING to use. Percy in particular is wildly OP in the sense that he's the only one who can actually get healing and energy from his power source - so long as he's in water he's not getting tired or drained, but obviously this is a geo-limited power and so not an option a lot of the time. But again, if Percy is not careful with his powers, then they do more harm than good and he has quite literally almost killed himself in the past from overusing them. & Nico has a very limited amount of dead-summoning and shadow-traveling uses in him before he needs to recharge, reminds me of a video game lol. and again he's shown to almost kill himself if he overdoes it.