Save The Uc Server From These Sa Excusing Folks

One of the most problematic characters in The UC series is Zeus, imo, and the way the author writes his character.

Zeus was born to Rhea and Cronus and then given away by his mother to the Nymphs, where he was raised in a cold, unfeeling, cruel society. He grows up, he rescues his siblings from Cronus' stomach realm, and brings them to live with him and train them up for war against the Titans.

In the series, Zeus is a serial r*pist. It's an established fact. He's portrayed as someone who is obsessed and "in love" with Hades as if that's any excuse to SA him for centuries. In LOTU, Hades comes off as any other SA victim, unable to even stand the presence of his abuser, his own brother. His presence disgusts Hades and makes him react viscerally. Then we meet Zeus in Genesis, Joxeia's book, where in the second half of that book, it becomes abundantly clear that Zeus is his love interest.

Keep in mimd the Jo knows everything about this man, and he still pursues and establishes a relationship with him.

Zeus shows no remorse or regret throughout the book, and series, never once apologises to any of his victims, and eventually starts having Sunday lunches with Hades to show his "redemption".

Zeus' character is treated like he's redeemed when we see no evidence of this in the books, ever. Somehow his redemption was getting into a relationship with Joxeia, which is astounding to me because I've seen people saying that they "love" Zeus after Genesis as if his backstory story was anything but flimsy and his behaviour was anything but unrepentant for his crimes.

There are only three times I felt any empathy for that character and one was when Apollo dies (briefly), when Jo pretnds to r*pe him to scare him and when he's returned by Atlan and was vaguely mentioned that he was SA'ed.

It seems to me like Zeus was victimized to make him likeable, while everything awful he'd ever done was then glossed over by the victimization and then subsequent relationship with Jo.

I don't understand how Hades would ever willingly go have weekly lunches with his abuser, let alone trust that man to babysit his look alike grandson, Hadrian, or that Ambrosius, who also looks a lot like Hades and has felt creeped on before by Zeus, and knows full well what Zeus has done to his father, would ever let that man anywhere near himself or his children. It simply does not make sense .

I made a post last January, essentially mourning the downfall of one of my favourite authors, rotXinXpieces aka Rotty and compared it to the grief I felt when I lost my respect for JK Rowling when I found out she was a TERF.

I have spent the last year distancing myself from his fandom, while slowly slipping into the role of a silent reader, reading the books in hopes that they would improve over time and in hindsight of the stir and chaos my post caused in said fandom. I want to point that the post garnered a fair bit of attention as well as a fair bit of abuse, both because I dared to criticize the books, and the author's literary choices, but also, because I made the grave error of badly wording the comparison of my grief over losing respect for JK Rowling to losing my respect for Rotty. I have since edited it to read better and included an apology to Rotty and my trans siblings, because I truly never meant to compare a trans author to a TERF of all people, that is unimaginable to me.

With that said, I would like to point out that my criticisms were shoved aside and to the back while this poor choice of wording on my part took center stage in this arena of hatred that was being hurled at me by the fandom. I found that certain fans manipulated this particular mistake to draw attention away from the majority of the criticisms I made. I stand by my post and I have not deleted it, because it is the truth. It has been over a year since then and I find this happening all over again, and I don't think people realise what has actually happened in the last week, or the last month if we really want to go back.

There was a post made on Rotty's message board once again by a fan, I will not name them here, but the post and subsequent supportive comments criticised Rotty, and basically called him out for the gross overuse of SA in the books, the lack of resolution, the lack of repercussions for the r*pists and justice for the victims.They pointed out that the overuse of SA was starting to look like a sick fetish on the author's part, where the author was vicariously living out a fantasy via their books and the readers were their unsuspecting victims. Rotty acknowledged the post and promised to do better, citing his own traumas and how he was drawing from them.

He did not do better, Recently, he posted another chapter in his book Broken, whose protagonist Three’s love interest Tricho began toeing the line into SA territory, which then immediately led to another post being made on the message board by a reader, asking if we could please not have any more SA and that it was getting really exhausting. They further stated that they loved the books but that they were disappointed that the series was declining rapidly. They mirrored the previous post, saying that the blatant overuse of SA was starting to look like a fetish and that they felt that they were being forced to engage in it without their consent, with some commenters supporting them with similar messages and a few comments with unsavory language.

(Screenshot of the post below:)

Another post was made immediately after, stating that if people thought the SA in the series was *not so bad* that they should check out the following list. The list consisted of the books named in chronological order with the names of the characters that were SA’ed to some degree or the other or in some way adjacent.

(Screenshot of the list below:)

Rotty reacted to this by saying that he would take down the books and fix this. Following which, he did so without so much as warning the fans, which then led to a weekend long of hatred, anger and bullying.

The whiteknights defending Rotty attacked a server from which a few members had commented on the post, and the person that posted the list. But this post is not about a war between two rival servers of the same fandom. This post is about how once again, the criticisms were being brushed aside in favour of the few comments with unsavory language. This post is about how an author needs to take social accountability for the books he writes and publishes. If you look at that list, and you see 22 out of 30 books have SA in them, of which the 30th was still ongoing, and you feel offended for any other reason than how appalling that is, how jarring it is to see and know this is the series you have been following and loved for so long, then you need to look within yourself and think about why that list offends you.

Over this last week I've heard people say that SA is prevalent throughout Greek mythology, that they've forgiven their assaulter, that people have to face their assaulters on a regular basis, and to this I say:

(Screenshot of the two comments below:)

Yes, SA has been common throughout history and mythology, when such abusers were often in a position of power and the victims had little to no way of fighting back and / or seeking justice, if this series is set in a modern universe, which relatively it is, then this should imply that these characters should be held to modern standards of justice and equality, it may not be same in terms of punishment, but it should be in terms of accountability. If a politician or priest is or should be held responsible and punished, then so should these characters.

Granting one's abuser forgiveness is a personal choice, but the implication that forgiveness is perfectly normal or expected is a gross invalidation of a victim's experiences, especially when such experiences often leave behind continuous and deeply painful trauma.

On another note, yes, some people do have to face their assaulters on a regular basis, but that should not be the case and it definitely should not be expected of victims, especially when–

1) The victim has stated or displayed in the past the refusal or inability to be in the vicinity or presence of their assaulter, especially if the contact is unnecessary and avoidable. Sunday lunches for pleasure are not necessary and completely avoidable.

2) Familial relations do not mean a victim owes their assaulter anything, not lunch on sundays, not forgiveness, nor kindness in the face of centuries long of abuse and humiliation, simply because the author decided to give the assaulter a redemption arc, and I use the term redemption arc very loosely here, sarcastically even.

Now, before you hit me with the “An author can write whatever he wants to” and “If you don't like it, just don't read it” or “SA is normal, he's (Rotty's) drawing from his own experiences”, I would like to point out that yes, an author can write whatever he wants, but you cannot say this about works published online for free, on a website like Wattpad, where the books are not being regulated as well as you think and hope they are, and are available to readers as young 12 and 14, whereas when books are published through a publisher, they go through a set of checks and balances in the form of editors and beta readers. This is their social responsibility.

The “don't like, don't read” argument works for fanfiction on Ao3, where there are warning tags, or a book genre where the readers know what they are getting into, like Horror or Dark Fantasy, albeit which come with content and trigger warnings. You cannot say this to fans that love and have loved this book series for a decade, maybe longer, despite everything, when they only hate the gross overuse of SA and how inconsequential and poorly addressed it is, if at all.

SA is a real life issue and an unfortunate fact of life. It deeply saddens me that many people go through this trauma on a daily basis and it breaks my heart that Rotty has gone through this. However, SA should not be normalised, even if the author is drawing from his own experiences, when it is being portrayed to the extent that it is, with little to no justice for the characters, or accountability for the assaulters. SA is not a plot device, or a trope to be used in place as an excuse for lazy writing.

Young minds are susceptible to repeated exposure to such sensitive and graphic topics. These books are being read by pre- teen and teenagers, this will potentially lead to them normalising or even romanticising SA and not even realising it is wrong or bad, these young minds could grow into people that may fall victim to SA, because it has been normalised, or worse, become predators themselves. While victims of SA may read these books as a way to cope with their trauma, others might find it traumatizing or even be angered by the lack of justice for victims and the lack of repercussions for assaulters. And no, the slap on the wrist does not count, not while the character lives seemingly happy ever after with the one of most powerful characters of that world as their lover.

We need to stop sending messages that normalise marrying your abuser, or that dating your best friend's lover's assaulter is alright. We do not need to further fester the wound on society that is SA, by normalising them in books to the extent that they have been. This is why social accountability is important.

Yes, these books are fictional, the characters in them are not real, but their experiences are drawn from a lived reality for many. We live in a world where the SA of women is treated with outrage and demands of justice, where SA is SA whether you are a man, woman or child, whether you are straight, gay, or trans. Would these books be distasteful if the characters that have been repeatedly and brutally assaulted were women instead of men? Or would it just be normal?

It took a lot of heartache to finally admit to myself that there was no going back to her, when my mind had already realised a long time back that she was a dangerous problem promoting a dangerous thought process among the many people that adore her. People still blindly flock her, calling for dehumanising people and taking away rights. I got over that, now its happening again, on a smaller scale, a different issue overall, but the lesson is the same.

We need to stop glorifying authors and putting them on a pedestal. We need to call out our authors for their questionable work. There are may examples of this and I am in a fandom that is currently going to the dogs. The fandom in question is already a niche that most people would eye with judgement, but as a series based on multiple mythologies and taking inspiration from them in its creation, it is understandable to an extent. When I first started out reading The Underworld Chronicles by rotXinXpieces on Wattpad, also known as Izzy or Rotty to his/their fans, I was 14. I was intrigued by the intricacies of the plot, the characterisations, the universe it was set in, I went in with a clear understanding of what I was getting into, religious divergences, the incest that was rampant due to mythological reasons, the fact that the universe itself was one that was very unlike the one we know and live in...yet, very similar. The universe may be different but the stories are the same. Rotty started out with the premise of how SA and PTSD, torture are a common happenstance in the world both our and their fictional creation, the difference being that we hush it up and they don't want to. They wanted to portray the realities of the world. The UC series is very open about homosexuality and very fluid with sexuality, which was fantastic for someone who was part of the LGBTQ+ , community and was reading about characters that were not heteronormative.

The change became apparent with the newest arc in the series, it felt like Rotty completely ruined the original characters in favour to portray that the new gen was fun and better and improved, but in reality the books read as though the new gen characters were being glorified and a bunch of hopeful self inserts, the plot was translucent at best and was stagnating as each book moved on, the original characters seemed to have lost their charm and had turned into poorly written OCs and the new gen seemed to just "know" better despite being literal infants in comparison to characters with thousands of years of experience and knowledge. One example is their book, The Dragon, about Hadrian, one of the "Cousins" he/they are a non binary character who is a dancer, and self admittedly a virgin, overnight Hadrian goes from sexually curious virgin to sex god extrodinare within the span of a single conversation with one of their uncle's who is into BDSM, now Hadrian too is a Dom with no flaws and perfect. They are a warrior that people fear going up against because he is the Dragon. He manages to take down his stalker who's here to abduct him as an important piece in a villainous plot being hatched, Hadrian captures his attacker and sone interesting things go down, while his busy falling in love with this supposed abductor, another one shows up and simply abducts him and he's dragged off to wherever. Just like that, where did legendary dragon go? They escape with a severely SAed and tortured prisoner that leads us to The Prisoner, where our protagonist, Four/Niko just spends half the book fainting every other chapter, which understandable, but then it keeps happening a ridiculous amount of times, Niko also rejects his family and starts touting about how he wants to marry River, this dude with an army because he wants an army to get his revenge, which would make sense....if his parents had literally not been two kings of two different but harmonious realms with very strong armies at their disposal. The book skips a solid 8 months of what was supposed to be his recovery and Niko goes on to push for the marriage regardless, having fallen in love with River. These are just two big examples.

Rotty just published a new one shot in their book of one shots for this series, and it has finally come to a head where every other book is just every other character getting SAed (very descriptively) and having to escape and overcome trauma--- except, not one character goes to therapy, not once. The oneshot portrays two characters that absolutely despise each other and the story of it reads as if one is manipulating the other into a dubiously consensual scene at best, the manipulator in question being a self proclaimed therapist who has extensive knowledge of the others history of being SAed throughout the story. The one shot was supposed to be a "gift" to someone who requested it, and later claimed it as "Not that deep and you guys are acting as if rotty killed your family in front of you, stop hating on it." And "out of all the things that could traumatise you in the series my little sinship (also known as ghostship) is where you draw the line?"

And I don't think people realise that the issue isn't the sinship, but the nature of the one shot itself and how it reads, and like a lot of the series, especially the more recent books, it seems to just be graphic descriptions of SA over and over and over again.

Rotty does not mediate any of the arguments and goes as far as to give off a very odd vibe with his recent replies to readers who question them. Like the fame (which isn't that widespread) and the glory of having authored such a brilliant series has gone to their head and now anyone questioning their odd literary creations is immediately wrong and that they know best. The one shot what originally uploaded and was lacking very important, very much needed conext, When questioned about what the chapter was and why was it non con, Rotty replies with a "well I have more context than you do....and I think I wrote that so I know what I'm saying lol".

They later uploaded the edited version with all the initially removed context which slightly better, but leaves a nagging sensation in my mind as to the change of dialogue.

If the edited out parts were simply added back why did the last dialogue from the therapist character change from "(character name)....you don't need my permission to date (character)" to "Welcome to the family"? I would go as far as to say that a lot of the fandom would reject this nightmare one shot as being a part of canon, this is the cursed child dilemma all over again. Some people like it, while others reject it.

All in all, I fear that this is going to turn into another fandom I have to leave, because the author has let the power go to their head, and readers are still wearing their rose tinted glasses and worshipping them, ultimately, standing up against an author with decent fanbase is not the ideal thing to do, but the reality is that Rotty has turned into the very thing they hated, and the lifeline on this fandom and how much the fans are willing to tolerate a shoddy replica of what use to be a spectacular book series with infinitely great potential before it all goes to Hell in a handbasket is simply a matter of time. The sands of time are running and whether the series can be revived to its initial glory in the pending rewrite is yet to be seen.

(Edited to remove an admittedly unsavoury and ill worded comparison of JKR to Rotty, the only comparison here being that I love the works of both authors but have had to seperate myself from JKR and engaging with most of her fandom and having to seperate from another beloved fandom for DIFFERENT REASONS. )