Something something

Like, Clarisse? Not Kronos? Not Luke? Seems weird that Clarisse here is the scapegoat.

Clarisse didn't start the war. It was Kronos and Luke. Clarisse didn't kill other campers. They were killed by the titan army.

So, may I present you, my favourite characters of all times:

Clarisse La Rue from Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Ruth Langmore from Ozark

Raffaella "Lila" Cerullo from the Neapolitan Novels

I've waited over 10 years for him to write more about Clarisse!

And more about the Ares cabin as a whole, more about camp without Percy, more about Camp Half-Blood in the fall, more focus on year-rounders like Clarisse, Stoll brothers and Silena.

Clarisse is a year rounder but she has a relationship with her mother and visits her occasionally in Phoenix, Arizona. I think that she is a year rounder because of monster attacks, problems in school and neglectful home life.

Clarisse turns 15 years old in September and that's why Ares tells her to take his chariot for a ride.

When Annabeth says that Chris was found "last summer", it wasn't actually summer but it felt like summer because Clarisse was in Phoenix, there was so warm and nice in the camp too! Chris was found in September, so before TTC. Silly Annabeth, you made everyone confused!

So for her birthday, Clarisse goes to visit her mother in Phoenix for a couple of weeks.

It's Clarisse who goes to hiking and finds Chris there in the desert, wandering and babbling about the string.

Clarisse takes him to her mother's house and it's okay to Clarisse's mom, she knows this boy (I have headcanon that Clarisse and Chris are both from Arizona and have been occasionally in the same class at various schools).

Clarisse and Clarisse's mom try to nurse him back to health at first by themselves. Chris is not as mad, it feels like he had just got a bad concussion and maybe a sun poisoning.

But in couple of days Clarisse calls Chiron and Chiron comes to interview Chris (and Clarisse gives him ice tea and tour in her Arizona home, how sweet!)

Chiron stays in Arizona for a few days, he tries to heal Chris and talk with him. He realizes that Luke is investigating the labyrinth and trying to get to camp that way. He goes with Clarisse to the desert near by where Chris was found and they together find the entrance to the labyrinth.

Clarisse, Chiron and Annabeth start to brainstorm about ideas and theories about how to distroy the entrance they found (it's near Clarisse's home, it's dangerous and explains why she gets attacked so much more than her siblings!)

Clarisse's stepfather lends them a wrecking ball and Clarisse practises first with a building (so much fun, Clarisse and her stepfather grew to like each other more during this activity!!)

Clarisse tries to distroy the entrance with wrecking ball but it really does nothing.

Chiron and Clarisse come to the decision that Clarisse needs to go explore the labyrinth. Chiron takes Clarisse back to camp to prepare herself, they leave Chris at Clarisse's mom, because he is insane but he eats, drinks, is manageable. Chiron tries to hide his scent with mist so the monsters would leave him alone. Manipulating mist like this is very hard and tiring for him, but it buys him more time to think what to do with Chris.

This is all during like late September to middle/late October.

In camp Clarisse and Annabeth study labyrinth together for a couple of weeks and Clarisse trains with Chiron for her solo mission. This is during late October to start November and then Clarisse leaves for her mission.

At first she seeks the entrances. She always goes a little way to the tunnels but Chiron told her not to go too far because it's so dangerous. Only to get an idea of her whereabouts and then she reports to Chiron what she saw. Chiron and Annabeth gather this information and try to make something out of it.

After about two weeks she goes missing, as the labyrinth swallows her. She stuck and forced to go deeper. She almost dies a few times. Chiron tries to contact her but labyrinth doesn't allow it. To her she's only in there for a few days but when she comes back it's been a month, it's late December. She contacts Chiron and Argus drives her back to camp. Sherman is relieved when his sister comes back, looking ragged but alive and well!

Clarisse spends Christmas in camp as she's too weak to go back home but she goes to spend new year with her mother and at the same time Chiron picks Chris to camp, arriving at night. At camp Chris goes wild and flees to basement, becoming more insane and depressed. Too bad Mr.D just went to for his mission...

Clarisse comes back to camp after a couple days with her mom. She is worried about Chris, visits him often in the basement and tells Annabeth and Chiron more about her time in labyrinth. She and Annabeth try to make sense about what she saw there.

Then Chiron comes to Clarisse with a bunch of books in his hands, looking serious. "You need to go back to your schoolwork! You've missed almost all of first semester. At this rate you'll miss all the summer fun."

Clarisse is so tired during BotL. She's had her own quest. Her driving test. Her scouting mission, getting lost in the labyrinth. She's traumatized about the labyrinth, had nightmares about it. She's been taking care of Chris. Worrying about Chris. Training hard, so hard that Percy notices. Training others. Being head councellor. Studying 10th grade in just a couple of months. Trying to be better person when her first instinct is still violence so she could make friends.

She can feel the upcoming war but she's not excited. She's exhausted. She's supposed to train campers and follow her own schedule too, but she just stays with Chris. Chiron can see her pain but he can't take it away. All he can do is order her back to her regular schedule, order her back to normal summer camp life, to move her body, to get something else to think about.

(And that exhaustion and disappoinment is the reason why she's so petty in TLO. It's not really about the chariot it's about respect and validation she - or her cabin - truely doesn't get. Clarisse is still 17 year old ADHD girl who doesn't have the words to express her feelings - her instinct is still to go for her knife and choose violence and hate. Yes, she's a better person but she is still flawed. She doesn't know how to say "I need to feel validated and that you all care for me and my siblings, that our actions and sacrifices for this camp are seen and valued, that WE are valued and loved in this camp, that we are not just some toy soldiers to sacrifice to this war".

- Clarisse is born around September/October 1992 since my headcanon follows the original timeline when the books were released (Percy being born 1993). I think her birthday near the Stolen Chariot short story since she's doing a test usually ment for Ares' sons when they turn 15 and that sets between SoM and TTC. So Clarisse is 13 going on 14 in TTL, 14 going on 15 during SoM.

- Clarisse's mother is a beautiful, restless woman who had her when she was 22 years old. She used to have terrible taste in men - like Ares and bunch of other overly masculine outlaw motorcycle club kind of guys. With this one guy she got involved into some shady business (drugs or fraud, I guess) and got caught and send to prison for about 5 years. This was about a year before Clarisse went to camp and is the main reason why Clarisse is a year rounder.

- Clarisse's mother is loving towards Clarisse but she was emotionally immature and somewhat neglectful when Clarisse was younger, often leaving Clarisse alone at home, going clubbing, heavy drinking, chasing shitty men. She got out of the prison before SoM but Clarisse chose to stay at camp year-round.

- So Clarisse's childhood was pretty chaotic and lonely.

- Clarisse still loves her mother and visists her and her grandparents about twice a year. Her mother is more mature after she gets released. Her grandparents didn't want her living with them because she's so troubled. Clarisse's grandparents are dentists and little stuck up (somewhat like Emily and Richard Gilmore).

- Clarisse was wild, violent and extremely ADHD kid, who was constantly in trouble, changing schools and being evaluated, medicated. She was in children's home before couch Hedge brought her to camp. She was 10 years old at the time.

- One of the entrances to the labyrinth is near Clarisse's home and it caused regular monster attacks. This is the second reason why she's year rounder. Clarisse's mom moves back to the same neighbourhood when she's released - that's why Chris is found near her mother's home.

- There are three other girls in Ares cabin but for many years Clarisse was the only girl who stayed year round. After BoTL a new daughter arrives who also stays year round, she's 9 years old and Clarisse is very protective towards her. Clarisse isn't that close with her other sisters but they get along.

- She has three brothers who stay year round. She's closest with Mark who's around the same age as her.

- Clarisse is suprisingly good with children when she grows up. She has small cousins from her mother's side and she takes good care of her younger siblings at camp. She wasn't an easy child and she was mostly left alone to struggle with her feelings, so she understands kids very well and wants to be there for them.

First, I need to clarify that yes, Clarisse is a bully, the way Clarisse treats Percy and other people is not okay, yes Clarisse is in charge of her own behaviour. If you don't like Clarisse, you're not wrong.

She's a morally gray character. It's easy just to hate her and say she's an idiot. And considering that this book series is aimed at children and teenagers that would be true, why should I even read this much into this? She can be the villain if you want her to be one.

But to my mind, she's also one of the most ADHD-coded characters in PJO. And as she's around 13-18 years old in the series - still just a child - I have to defend her.

So she struggles most with impulsivity. For instance, we can clearly see her acting without thinking, blurting out information that she should keep to herself, talking when she should shut her mouth and, being impatient etc etc. I feel like her ADHD is seen more "problematic" than tragic and quirky, like Percy the Problem Child goes to Camp Half-Blood and it all "we all have ADHD here, you are not alone anymore!"

But then there's Clarisse and the whole Ares cabin, being the problem children of the camp.

She also has poor emotional regulation, having emotional outbursts, difficulties redirecting once she's upset and, being vefy defensive, as seen blaiming Percy for her own mistake, accusing him of bringing hellhound to the camp, refusing help even when she clearly needs it.

Her social skills are weak. She can't read the room and she bullies others. She can be seen trying to push others and charge at people. In the first 3 books at least she doesn't really have actual friends, even her siblings somewhat dislike her, refusing to help her with the quest and letting her walk with that "You moo girl!" -sticker in her back. Deep down, Clarisse has very low esteem which for sure, can stem from Ares and his expectations but also from her struggles with ADHD!

When the PJO books came out in 2005-2009 there wasn't really this much discussion about ADHD and autism in girls. Now we know better (and Rick Riordan knows better, too). I do think that some of the changes made to her character in the show were intentional, to help people understand her better. In the books she was this disliked bully girl, viewed as stupid and humiliating her was fun.

ADHD isn't always this quirky little trait we sometimes make it seem. No, there are children whose ADHD is so severe, and their behaviour so disruptive that they go in and out of psychiatric wards. It's overpresented in prison populations. I've seen it myself in my work and in my studies, I did 5 weeks of apprenticeship in pediatric psychiatric ward for 6-13 years old and some of them just had a really difficult case of ADHD (and other neuropsychiatric disorders).

I absolutely love Dior as Clarisse, I feel like she captures the very essance of her and she understands Clarisse's motives and struggles very well. I really do like how the TV series has made many new and old fans love Clarisse and understand her better! I've seen how people are surprised that they actually like this version of Clarisse.

But I still have to defend book Clarisse and write this essee of her. Like even Rick Riordan said "I think we are telling the same story but we have the advantage of being able in TV to tell it from different points of view".

Will we ever heard from Clarisse again? Well, have fun in Arizona my baby <3

This is me when I went to Riordan Wiki and yeah:

Here’s a sketch of Clarisse and Chris, the scene where Clarisse’s talking to Chris in the basement. I made this in 2013 or 2014, this scene has always been on my mind because it shows so different side of Clarisse and I had wanted to draw it so much but I have this thing that I’m so scared to draw anything else than portraits because I think I ruin my vision. And believe me, I have a lot of them.

For example, this is “ruined” why I only post it now. I though Clarisse looked too girly and gentle and I hated their anatomy and I don’t like to make backgrounds so ASKSLDGGGJJH ehhh background-too-lazy.

I actually wanted to make a sketchdump of “all” my PJO and HP drawings from 2011-2015 that were in the end so shitty or had so much work or I just never finished them... But ehh. It had so much work and they weren’t that good, even for sketchdump.

Then I’ve been thinking about that I want to make a proper fandom blog. I want to reblog, I want to talk, I want to do everything. Because this is just my tumblr for my fandom-art. And now I have to ruin my drawings with talking bad english like this.

So, I’m going to make a fandom blog.

I want to be part of fandoms I like again.

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