rachel elizabeth dare rights

so they switch powers whenever they touch as a side effect of the prophecy and their whole connected through fate thing (we already covered this lol)

so that first high five leave jason and leo totally bewildered during the dylan fight because jason shoots fire and he goes ???? and leo thinks "THERE'S ANOTHER PERSON LIKE ME?" and they touch again and swap powers so both of them are now just ??????

anyway this causes all sorts of mayhem during their quest lol. they just keep swapping powers accidentally or they dont have the right powers at the right time

like leo fighting the cyclops and going "ah fuck i got sparky fingers dont i 🙄" and sprinting toward the unconscious jason to avoid getting barbequed. his mind is still quick in general, but he's lacking the fireproof-ness

this is INCREDIBLE though when they work together, like you cant even tell who does what anymore, its just so fluid how they switch and fight

them facing khione again and leo just going "uhhhhh TAG" and jason slapping back "no u"

jason screaming "FOR ROME" expecting a lightning bolt and getting the most pathetic puff of smoke fhdjdn

this makes catching each other falling sooo much harder cause jason catches leo but has to make sure hes not touching skin or else they'll drop by the sudden switch

wow the calypso scene where leo keeps sparking and messing up the archimedes sphere so he just gets frustrated, but jason is thinking about how his prolonged time with fire is further distancing himself from his dad

"to storm or fire 🤔" "yeah im fire and ur storm jason" "wait thats wrong" *highfive* "okay now im fire and ur storm, glad to have that sorted out"

anyway this is basically all leading up to a new ending moment where leo loses control of his fire and sees jason hurting and then swaps powers with a kiss so jason now has fire immunity and leo is burning instead 😳 to storm or fire bro

here is an article on doxxing. i’m not linking it because it might happen, but instead for everyone to be informed. doxxing is different than pulling some phone numbers or a mailing address, so if someone threatens you with doxxing, they’re either a serious threat you need to report or a complete liar (the latter, it’s the latter).

here is tumblr’s harassment policy. i post it with a grain of salt because we know how this website runs.

@gaykatniss made a post about statcounter. they are absolutely right and if you are being consistently harassed i suggest getting an account; you can try it free for 30 days. of course a system like statcounter is designed to aid you and give you peace of mind, but if you are gathering information that way and the situation has turned severe you can report it to law enforcement.

people come on the internet for a variety of reasons, so i understand bringing what is happening online to irl is not an option for everyone. but if you need to and that is the route you have to take, here are articles on reporting online harassment.

again i want to stress not to deal with this alone. the people behind these horrible inbox invasions thrive on getting you alone, making you angry, and scared. it is absolutely normal to feel that way, but lean on the community as much as you can. these attacks are clearly racially-charged and are targeted towards minors, so it’s already like textbook crime. 

A masterpost of resources & posts on how to respectfully draw and represent Piper McLean as a Tsalagi/Cherokee character, and a few posts on the issues with her canon depiction. I am not Native, but a majority of the posts linked here are by Native people.

Note: if you are not Native, you do not get to decide what is or isn’t racist against Indigenous people, no matter how much research you do. Listen to Native voices on Native issues.

Note #2: please do not bombard the creators of these posts with questions unless they say they’re comfortable with it. They are not google. If you have questions, direct them at me or just google them.

some tips on drawing Piper 

+ checklist of what not to do when drawing Piper

How to Draw Native Skin (Tutorial)

General How to Draw Native People (Tutorial)

General How to Draw Dark Skin (Tutorial)

color picks from Piper fanart vs photos of actual Indigenous people

on representing dark eyes & Piper’s eyes (archived)

on Piper and feathers

refs: some photos, more, this blog, you can also look through the Piper tags of my blog, piperisgay, tsiligililimclean, finding-my-culture, etc.

further research on indigenous rep: @indigenousfantasy, @writingwithcolor (particularly this!), justin’s (Plains Cree native) representation wishes, rep for dark skinned Native folks, etc.

why piper isn’t good rep: long post on topic, Rick didn’t even research Cherokee land, also check the rr crit tags, etc.

only saying this because i will see (white) people talk about a racist writer, acknowledge that theyre racist, and still praise their writing skills.

think about the implications of a stereotype. stereotypes are one dimensional. thats why theyre harmful: because they reduce minorities and opressed groups to one single trait instead of acknowledging us as humans with. yknow. complexities. its dehumanizing to be stereotyped. it degrades you down to a single personality trait and refuses to acknowledge the res of your personhood.

now think about writing. im a writer. im aspiring to be a published author. and the hard and fast rule is that if your characters can be reduced to one simple personality trait or feature: theyre shittily written. if you can reduce your asian character to smart, your gay man character to effeminate, or any character to any one thing: youre a bad fucking writer.

the thing is that stereotypes dont mean that no one is those things. im asian: i consider myself traditionally intelligent. im a lesbian, i fall under a lot of lesbian stereotypes. but the thing is that im a real actual person with more to me than being a smart dyke. 

like. its this simple you guys. if an author you like has a stereotype in their book: theyre not good at writing. because you can have a character have a feature that is considered stereotypical without reducing them to that. you can have a smart, or cold or pragmatic asian character, and they wouldn’t be a stereotype if you werent a bad writer.

the fundamentality of a stereotype is that they reduce you to less. if all your “faves” knew how to write characters: they would be able to build a personality that didnt revolve around a single (stereotypical) feature.

this post is specifically about rick riordan, actually. hes not a good writer. im nostalgic for pjo too but you guys need to face the fact that hes exactly like jkr: hes white and hes lucky. those are the two things you need as a white author to be successful in the publishing industry. his writing isnt good because he reduces his characters (of color) to one feature. thats bad (AND EXTREMELY FUCKING RACIST) writing. 

complex characters are a hallmark of good writing. characters that have multiple facets and features that combine into one holistic personality are a hallmark of good writing. the opposite is also true. simple characters reduced to one thing are a hallmark of bad writing, and in rr’s case, theyre racist too.

He basically woke up this morning and was like  😎 🖕 to literally all native fans and anyone that’s ever called him out on anything lol

He made this blog post this morning, in an effort to justify everything anyone has ever said to him about Piper, and the very harmful stereotyping he contributes to regarding the feathers in her hair, and other issues, and openly admits that his primary source on it was another white dude. These are some great posts in regards to specific issues people have with this. I don’t feel it’s really my place to speak on it, as someone who’s not directly affected.

@charlesbeckendorf @kubo @blackjacktheboss @tsigililimclean @meclusa and @annabethchasy all have said quite a bit on the subject, and are really good resources for critiques on not just this particular issue, but the subject material in general.

The additional issue at hand, is his response to critiques in general. 

Can’t really respect a middle aged multimillionaire claiming to be bullied by people half his age  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

This and this are really good posts on the subject, and this is ultimately my feeling on the matter. If all you can do is make excuses as a middle aged multimillionaire, and not even apologize to the countless people who have been harmed from the stereotypes you are perpetuating and are from the populations you yourself are trying to represent, I got nothing for you. And ultimately, even his supposed “support” for #ownvoices stories is incredibly dismissive, as additionally pointed out here.

I myself am just really tired. Between good ol’ Rick and JKR trading off weeks to be horrendous, and SJM ignoring literally every critique, and the fanbase ignoring every problem for the most part, the world is exhausting.

But, at the same time, in a world that has a desperate need for more #ownvoices stories, as is the issue with SJM, plenty of white authors are also criticized for NOT including rep. And even if you do all the research in the world, plenty of people will always disagree with you. Even if you’re not a white person, even if you’re writing an #ownvoices story, I think it’s ridiculous to claim that that one person speaks for all people of that group. The most recent and relevant example of this is probably the current issue with Goya Foods.

Like, the fact that he felt the need to talk about the uwu nice Native kids who were just so happy to get any sort of representation as a juxtaposition to the mean and angry Natives who are bullying him >:( was ridiculously unnecessary.

But literally the whole thing was him talking about books he read that were overwhelmingly written by white men and were all about the past. He makes absolutely no mention of talking to Cherokee people directly or even reading anything from modern Cherokee people. It was all just “look at these books I’ve heard! How dare anyone call me uneducated!”

And everything he said he read about feathers was about how they were worn in specific circumstances and for specific ceremonies and in specific ways. He didn’t try to pretend like there’s Cherokee people, especially young girls, running around with eagle feathers braided in their hair, and yet he used that information from the books to defend writing a character that. Directly contradicted everything.

And then he ended it with claiming that it was Piper’s choice to purposely misrepresent her own culture and to try to reconnect to it and show off her heritage in such an inappropriate and ignorant way. He posed it as an act of defiance, acting like he (a rich white man) knows how disconnected and reconnecting Natives feel and think and act better than actual Natives in those positions. As someone who grew up assimilated and is now reconnected, I would NEVER wear an eagle feather or any feather like that, and I don’t know anyone else who would either. Because we’ve done our research, we’ve spoken to our communities, and we have too much respect for our tribes and our cultures and our heritages to do something so disrespectful.

And, of course, there was absolutely no mention of the other issues with Piper’s characterization, like her kleptomania or “kaleidoscope eyes” or her father’s racism or Riordan completely making up a fucking reservation.

This was just. Self congratulatory bullshit, a way for him to pat himself on the back and shut down Native critics and get praise heaped on him for his “thorough research” and the “thoughtful response” he’s giving to the “haters and critics” that’s been “so patient with”, the same shit that’s happened literally every time he’s deigned to respond to any sort of criticism.

The behavior Rick Riordan has displayed not only over the past few days, but in the duration of the journey of his books, speaks to how little he cares about passing these three things onto the youth that consume his content. Instead of actively seeking credible sources, he relied heavily on his own racism, bias and fetishization of minority groups and hid it behind “I had a Muslim student once who told me this was all true”. Now, this is not saying the experience of middle school children, the demographic that Rick Riordan teaches, is invalid, but it is saying that middle school is a rapid period of growth and identity searching. Middle schoolers should be allowed to explore this without a middle aged white man, who is in the position of being their teacher, taking what they say as law. Not to mention: it is one source. Successful research utilizes a multitude of sources, stories, and people. Children, teens and adults who live and breathe that culture/religion.

Diversity isn’t a checklist of races and cultures you check off every time you sprinkle one in. Rick Riordan doesn’t get a pat on the back for having diverse characters because in the end they perpetuate harmful stereotypes to younger generations; thus continuing the cycle of racism and implicit bias against Poc. Bad representation is not representation. In his letter, he blatantly disregards the voice of the groups of people he should be listening to the most, which not only shows how little he actually cares about Poc besides gaining clout from using them in his stories, but is also dangerous for the young people that hang off his every word. If he doesn’t listen to Poc, why should they?