Look, I didn’t want to complain about yet another Percy Jackson adaptation.
If you’re reading this because you think Disney+ did a wonderful job, my advice is: close this post right now. Believe whatever happy and joyous feelings you’re having about finally getting something better than those Gods-awful movies, and try to lead a normal life.
Seeing flaws in everything is dangerous. It’s annoying. Most of the time, it will let you down in painful, nasty ways. If you’re a petty Percy Jackson fan, reading this because you think a rant might satisfy your equally disappointed soul, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to get some satisfaction out of my complaints. But if you adore the new adaptation or have no idea what it’s about – if you haven’t seen Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Season 1 or devoured The Lightning Thief yet – stop reading immediately. You might not be ready for what you’re getting yourself into. And once you start delving into this chaos of a review, it’s only a matter of time before you encounter unfavorable opinions and major spoilers.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Source of image: https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/pp_disneyplusoriginals_percyjacksonandtheolympians_hero_27730b1e.jpeg?region=0,0,640,480
To say I was beyond excited that we were getting a new Percy Jackson adaptation was an understatement. After eleven-year-old Naemi randomly picked up a copy of The Lightning Thief from her school library, with no clue whatsoever as to what it was about – Gosh, thinking about how nobody had even heard of the book back then makes me feel OLD! 😅 – she became obsessed. For years, I’d rush to the nearest bookstore to get my hands on the books as they came out, saved myself a considerable amount of studying for Latin classes because, thanks to Percy, I had quite a bit of mythology down, and wished that, since Hogwarts had apparently failed to deliver my letter, I could at least go to Camp Half-Blood. Next to Harry Potter, Warriors, The Underland Chronicles, and The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson was probably THE defining series of my late childhood and early teenage years.
Which means I was obviously incredibly disappointed when we finally got an adaptation back in 2010 and I hated it! Not that I wasn’t already used to thinking adaptations of my favorite books were a bit subpar – I’ve never really liked the Harry Potter movies much, either, especially the latter ones – but Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief managed to be a million times worse than my lowest expectations. Somehow, they’d turned one of my childhood comfort books into a romantic action movie, where the characters were at least twice as old as in the source material??! The fact that filming was abandoned after The Sea of Monsters, and that not just I, but every single person I’ve ever talked to, despises those movies, is probably very telling.
So, of course, I was thrilled when I heard that Percy Jackson & The Olympians would be getting a second chance as a TV series. That would leave so much more room to explore the world and its characters, and besides, Rick Riordan himself would be involved! There was no way we’d get a repeat of the movie fiasco this way, right?
To be fair, I don’t think we did. Disney’s adaptation of The Lightning Thief was certainly miles better than what those movies gave us, and a lot of my favorite moments from the book actually made it to the screen this time around. Still, even though I had fun watching the series and thought it was decently entertaining, it just doesn’t, in any way, live up to the books for me. Considering what I think it could have been, it left me really disappointed!
Before we get into the negatives, though, let’s start with the positives. Because this adaptation did a lot right, too!
For starters, I appreciated the attention to detail and thought that had clearly been put into everything. I liked how the episodes were structured around central chapter titles from the book, how key events from The Lightning Thief were all featured, and how much attention had gone into the costumes and set design. Seeing Camp Half-Blood come to life on the screen, with all of its cool temples, Thalia’s tree, the lake, the oracle’s attic, and activities such as sword fighting or capture the flag, immediately hit me with a wave of nostalgia and had me itching to go there just as much as when I was an eleven-year-old kid reading the books for the first time. Everybody’s orange shirts, the bead necklaces, Riptide, the blue food – everything was exactly like I’d imagined it, and it really made me happy to see that the show had paid attention to those little things. Details like that just add so much character to the world! And, apart from its tendency of jumping on the apparent current lighting trend of keeping half of its scenes in semi-darkness, I think the show really used its cinematography to its advantage in fleshing out the world and its characters.
The acting, in my opinion, was decent, too. I liked how Walker Scobell nailed Percy’s snarky comebacks, how Aryan Simhadri portrayed Grover’s adorably loyalty and nervousness, how Leah Jeffries had Annabeth’s no-nonsense attitude down. Jason Mantzoukas’ pathetically pouting Mr. D. and Charlie Bushnell’s seemingly trustworthy Luke were also excellent.
In fact, I was perfectly happy with most of the technical aspects of this movie and how the script had been brought to screen. It was more the writing itself and how certain characters came across that bothered me. So let’s get into why!
Overall, my biggest problem with the adaptation was how the plot was adjusted and the characters were portrayed.
Which, just to make this perfectly clear, had nothing to do with the actors not looking like their counterparts from the book! Sure, would I have liked every single actor’s appearance to have sprung directly from my imagination? Yes. But that’s an issue hyperphantasic me has with every single adaptation ever made, and I am perfectly capable of loving a movie or show despite a protagonist looking nothing like they were portrayed in the book. The Hunger Games is a prime example – I loved Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, even if she wasn’t the olive-skinned, slight, grey-haired girl I will forever be picturing in my head. So, yes, even if part of my brain was complaining that Percy had the wrong hair color and that Annabeth was not the blonde-haired kid I had identified with a ton as a preteen, that wasn’t what made the series such a disappointment to me.
Instead, my issue was with the protagonists’ personalities and the lack of suspense these resulted in. Even though the actors put a ton of emotion and character into their scenes, I feel like Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in particular came across as rather bland and one-dimensional compared to their literary counterparts. Which, in my opinion, is due to the writers trying so hard to cut anything that could potentially be considered as problematic or offensive about The Lightning Thief out of their script and to rewrite it in what they considered to be a more “modern” and “sensitive” way that several characters lost their defining traits.
Perfect TV-Percy is far cleverer than book-Percy, and as a result, TV-Annabeth is degraded to a rather quiet, unquestioningly-loyal-to-the-Gods sidekick who comes across as way less excited about knowledge and learning than book-Annabeth. TV-Grover is almost fully reduced to being “the loyal comic-relief best friend”, with his passion for nature seeming almost secondary to his hopes of acquiring a searcher’s license. And, since TV-Percy is a hyper-aware mythology nerd, the TV-plot is also a lot blander than the book-plot. A ton of important information is dumped on viewers before they get the chance to learn about it organically within a scene – and let’s just say that monsters aren’t really all that scary when the protagonists fighting them give you an in-depth analysis of their weaknesses beforehand.
Not sure what I mean? Don’t worry – I’ve got plenty of examples. So let’s take a deep dive into some of them!
#1 How “Perfecting” Sally Jackson’s Parenting Took Away Suspense and Dumbed-Down Annabeth
Even in the books, Percy has always idolized his mom, who, despite all the misfortune flung her way – her parents dying in a plane crash, being raised by an uncle who barely acknowledged her, being forced to drop out of high school and give up her dreams of becoming a novelist, getting her high school diploma on the side while single-handedly raising a kid who wasn’t always the most well-behaved -, never gave up and always made sure to show her son how deeply he was loved. Sally Jackson is one of the most unassuming strong characters I’ve ever encountered, and, like Percy, I’ve never doubted that she was a wonderful mother.
Source of image: https://collider.com/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians-sally-changes/
But I guess some people must have? Maybe they started asking questions as to why a parent who cared about her demigod son’s well-being wouldn’t make sure he was incredibly well-informed about Greek mythology to prepare him for potential monster encounters. Maybe they figured no mother in their right mind would ever subject their child to someone as abusive as Smelly Gabe, even if he did provide a safe haven from dangers of the mythological world. Because, for some reason, the show decided to “fix” these glaring oversights of Sally’s.
While still awful, TV-Smelly-Gabe has nothing on book-Gabe-Ugliano – and as a result, the entire “everyone thinks Percy is a convict” storyline is added as such an afterthought that it could have been left out altogether. We’re missing Gabe’s attempts to tarnish his stepson’s image and push himself into the limelight at every possible opportunity, and although he still comes across as extremely pathetic, he just can’t compete with the abusive, poker-addicted stepfather whose profoundly trashy human scent was able to hide Percy’s demigod smell for years and who immediately tries to use his wife’s “death” to his own advantage. In fact, the sacrifice Sally Jackson made for her son, the quiet fortitude she showed in putting up with Gabe so that she could keep Percy safe in her world just that little bit longer, barely comes across. The show might minimize the severity of Gabe’s abuse, but instead of Sally seeming like a better mother because of that, you’re mostly left wondering why she would’ve married Gabe in the first place.
Similarly, TV-Percy has unknowingly been perfectly prepared for demigod life by his mother and knows pretty much every Greek myth out there by heart – but far from making the show better, it just takes away a ton of suspense and character depth. Because, of course, Percy immediately recognizes all monsters and mythological dangers he, Annabeth, and Grover come face to face with. Every encounter – be it with a monster or memory-loss-inducing lotus flowers – is preceded by Percy spelling out the danger ahead because he knows all about it from some childhood story. I don’t know about you, but that kind of contradicts my idea of suspense… And it also leaves nothing to do for his camp buddies except tag along. Annabeth’s role of cautiously thinking things through, of recognizing potential danger by cleverly piecing together clues with the aid of her encyclopedic knowledge becomes superfluous because Percy instantly recognizes everything anyway. Which means that instead of providing evidence that Annabeth is smart – something the books do aplenty – the show only TELLS us this and instead lets us watch Annabeth stare wordlessly at Percy as he figures stuff out.
Add to that that almost everything that gave us more background on Annabeth’s interests was cut – Like, come on, why did the Gateway Arch suddenly have to be a temple of Athena?? What was wrong with the trio visiting it because of Annabeth’s passion for architecture??! – and that most of her deeper conversations with Percy were reduced to her most iconic one-liners without including the context surrounding them, and Annabeth just felt really, really bland. I mean, sure, hearing her tell Percy about how he drools in his sleep is still epic, but it’s not as epic as it would have been if we’d also had Annabeth introducing him to how Camp Half-Blood works and rolling her eyes over how the first thing he asks the Hermes cabin kids is how long it’ll take for him to be “determined”. We don’t get Annabeth iconically asking Percy to be on her team for capture the flag after he has drenched her in toilet water because the drenching never happens. We don’t get her calling Percy out for sexism after he assumes her dad is a god. We don’t get her theorizing over Percy’s dreams with him, or a long, extended zoo truck scene where they two of them really start to understand one another. Instead of the self-confident nerd whose courage, intelligence, and leadership skills have earned her the loyalty and admiration of her fellow campers, we get more of an outcast who only talks when she has to and lacks any sense of humor. Snarky and quick-witted Annabeth is shoved aside in order to let Percy shine, and I don’t like it.
Especially since I enjoyed the less perfect version of Percy we got in the books! Sure, TV-Percy is still sassy, but some of his even sassier, rasher nature is nevertheless taken away in favor of making him a more knowledgeable Annabeth 2.0. Like, I always liked that Percy was a bit of a hothead who got into trouble because he was curious and had his heart in the right place, but didn’t always consider the consequences of his actions. Percy being expelled from his schools because he accidentally set off a cannon or took his class for a swim in the shark tank is just so much more endearing than him being shunted to specialists because he’s seeing pegasi on the roof of his school. Especially because we get to see Percy mature so much from the accidental ADHD troublemaker he is as a kid to the leader he eventually becomes. I didn’t want him to be perfect straight off the bat!
#2 How the Rushed Beginning Diminished Demigod Struggles, Cancelled Any Sense of Mystery, and Changed the Dynamic of Percy’s Friendship with Grover
Speaking of Percy’s perfection – there also isn’t a whole lot of time in the show where we see him struggling at school, especially when he becomes distracted by everyone’s Mrs. Dodds amnesia and the lurking suspicion that his best friend is keeping something from him.
“I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class”
– The Lightning Thief, p. 17 –
I think it was paragraphs like this one, where you get to see the school system’s failure to deal with kids like Percy and where you can really see Percy feel like an outcast and struggle because everyone around him is behaving bizarrely, with no apparent recollection of an event Percy knows was real, that really make you understand Percy’s plight as a demigod and show why he feels so at home at Camp Half-Blood immediately. For a kid like Percy – a kid who struggles at school but whose attempts to improve are continuously ignored because their teacher has already labelled them as the “bad kid” – so much of this must feel really relatable. And by giving people the chance to identify with this type of protagonist, one that isn’t all that common in fiction, The Lightning Thief offers a powerful message: That, sometimes, the world can be unfair, but that you should never stop believing in yourself just because you’re different from the idealistic box society tries to squeeze everyone into. Because being different can be an asset. And ignoring your instincts to blindly go with the masses can be the wrong decision, too.
Source of image: https://screenrant.com/percy-jackson-olympians-grover-betrayal-fates-luke-book-scene-change/
But the TV-show glosses over those aspects of Percy’s personality. We never get to see his academic struggles or him acting out at school because he continuously feels different and misunderstood. Instead, we’re shown a perfectly well-behaved kid who gets in trouble for circumstances completely outside of his own control – which, instead of making Percy unique and relatable, turns him into a bit of a Gary Sue.
Furthermore, since Percy is immediately expelled after the Mrs. Dodds incident thanks to Grover betraying him to the principal, the show has way less time to build up suspense regarding Percy’s future or to explore Percy’s pre-Camp Half-Blood relationship with his best friend. TV-Percy doesn’t overhear any secret whispered conversations about the summer solstice, he doesn’t question why his Latin teacher and best friend are discussing him behind his back, and, perhaps most importantly, he doesn’t unquestioningly believe that Grover has always got his back. While book-Percy complete trusts Grover despite his suspicious late-night conversations about kindly ones, TV-show Percy keeps him at an arm’s length and immediately thinks the worst of him when he contradicts Percy’s story of what happened to Nancy. Sure, book-Percy isn’t always the nicest friend to book-Grover – I mean, he ditches him at a bus stop because all of Grover’s nervous fretting is driving him insane – but he never doubts that Grover is a true friend to him. And, similarly, book-Grover never lets book-Percy down, even if it’s only in a fake betrayal scenario that was meant for Percy’s own protection. And he NEVER voluntarily lets the demigod he is supposed to be protecting out of his sight.
Changing this, in my opinion, takes some of the depth out of Percy and Grover’s friendship. And it also fundamentally changes who Percy and Grover are as people. Again, some of Percy’s flaws are taken away – we don’t get to see his slight arrogance in thinking he knows better than his friend and that he has always been the one unilaterally protecting Grover – but so, in this case, are his strengths. One thing I’ve always loved about Percy is his fundamental trust in other people and his willingness to see the best in them. It is this trust, among other things, that eventually allows him to defeat Kronos. But TV-Percy is way more paranoid, and he also takes the Oracle’s hint at betrayal way more seriously – thus choosing Annabeth and Grover as his quest companions from a totally different standpoint. Because he doesn’t think they’re his friends at first, not really. And TV-Grover’s passion for getting his assigned demigods to camp safely just doesn’t come across as much as it does in the books, either. Because, unlike book-Grover, he doesn’t display an annoyingly endearing tendency to try and stick to Percy’s side no matter what. And, since he’s obviously had in-depth discussions with Sally behind Percy’s back, it’s kind of hard to see him as Percy’s friend first and Percy’s assigned satyr just doing his job second.
#3 How Medusa’s New Portrayal Doesn’t Actually “Deconstruct the Patriarchy”
It’s not only the changes to the protagonists that made the show weaker than the book, though. In general, I often had the feeling that the writers were trying so hard to be more understanding and inclusive that they attempted to provide a broader discourse surrounding any plot points that could potentially be considered offensive.
At first glance, this seems like an honorable endeavor. The problem is just – if you try to hastily rewrite scenes to provide more social commentary, but don’t consider that these changes should probably have a ripple effect on your entire plot, you’re not actually improving anything. You’re just making the story confusing and drawing dangerously close to mocking the injustices you’re trying to speak out against.
The trio’s encounter with Medusa is a prime example. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we learn from Percy’s namesake Perseus that Medusa was turned into a snake-haired monster by Athena after she caught Poseidon raping Medusa in one of her temples:
excipit unus / ex numero procerum quaerens, cur sola sororum / gesserit alternis inmixtos crinibus angues. / hospes ait: ‘quoniam scitaris digna relatu, / accipe quaesiti causam. clarissima forma / multorumque fuit spes invidiosa procorum / illa, nec in tota conspectior ulla capillis /pars fuit: inveni, qui se vidisse referret. / hanc pelagi rector templo vitiasse Minervae / dicitur: aversa est et castos aegide vultus / nata Iovis texit, neve hoc inpune fuisset, / Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutavit in hydros. […]’
Next one of the many princes asked why Medusa, alone among her sisters, had snakes twining in her hair. The guest replied, “Since what you ask is worth telling, hear the answer to your question. She was once most beautiful, and the jealous aspiration of many suitors. Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair: I came across a man who recalled having seen her. They say that the lord of the seas violated her in the temple of Minerva: Jupiter’s daughter turned away, and hid her chaste eyes behind her aegis. So that it might not go unpunished, she changed the Gorgon’s hair to foul snakes. […]”
– Ovid: Metamorphoses, Book IV, V. 790 – 801 –
Though Medusa is often portrayed as a monster who cruelly turns everyone she encounters to stone, it’s hard to read Ovid’s account and not see her as the true victim of the story. Not only did Poseidon rape her, but Athena happily resorts to victim blaming, condemning the once beautiful girl to an appearance so horrible that she can no longer enjoy anyone’s company – her companions can’t even look at her without dying.
Source of image: https://screenrant.com/percy-jackson-medusa-story-explained-star-creative-team
Rick Riordan, however, didn’t take the Ovid angle in his books. Instead, Annabeth gives us the following story:
“Medusa was Poseidon’s girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother’s temple. That’s why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That’s why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She’s still sweet on your dad.”
– The Lightning Thief, p.185 –
And, even if this version can also be found among Ancient Greek and Latin texts, I do kind of see why – when Medusa today has become symbolic for many rape survivors – Rick Riordan might want to change it. The arguments his team gave in favor of revising that scene make sense to me:
Rebecca Riordan, who is married to Rick and executive produces the TV series, says that “the only reason Medusa is not more fleshed out in the books was that it was Percy’s narrative and we don’t have her perspective,” as the books are written in first-person. “As a 12-year-old boy in 2005, I don’t think he had the bandwidth for deconstructing the patriarchy,” adds Rick. “He was looking at it as, ‘This is a scary woman who’s trying to turn me into stone.’”
But that changed upon entering a TV writers room, where other perspectives become essential. “It was one of the first things we talked about, how to not have a patriarchal lens,” Rebecca says.
Source: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/percy-jackson-change-medusa-book-rape-myth-1235850337, DOA 19/03/24
BUT: If you want to get rid of patriarchal lenses, is it really better to have Percy, Annabeth, and Grover fully aware of who Medusa is from the get-go, so that we can get her tragic backstory before the trio beheads her? Let’s just say I’m doubtful. Somehow, the kids cold-bloodedly killing a rape victim whose curse is to be blamed on two of their parents and then having no scruples about it afterwards seems even worse than portraying Medusa as Poseidon’s girlfriend… Like, despite being completely new to the world of monsters and despite having shown sympathy for Medusa, Percy shows no remorse about murdering her and seems to forget all about Medusa the minute he leaves the Garden Gnome Emporium! How is that better in terms of respecting rape victims? That’s basically showing that fates like Medusa’s don’t matter in the long run! Just mentioning the rape backstory in passing, doing nothing with it other than portraying the killers of the victim as heroes, and ultimately blaming the victim anyway does not get you any brownie points!
And once you realize that this change doesn’t make the Medusa scene more feminist and empowering, the pacing and character issues that result from it become even more glaring. Again, Annabeth gets reduced to a useless sidekick because, unlike in the book, she isn’t the first to realize who “Auntie Em” truly is. Again, Percy’s openminded willingness to give people second chances is glossed over because despite knowing what his father did to Medusa, he kills her anyway. Again, the plot isn’t very exciting because we know during that entire scene who Medusa is and what she’s capable of. All of the creepy, eerie atmosphere that came with a nice lady with a yard full of statues inviting the kids inside for lunch is gone, just so we can get a “Look how understanding we are!” victim backstory that the show does absolutely nothing with.
#4 How Amping Up the Olympians’ Daddy Issues Removed Nuance from the Story
Similarly, I think the writers had good intentions when they decided to delve into Percy’s relationship with his dad and the Olympians’ general messed-up family ties more than Rick Riordan originally did in The Lightning Thief. Percy’s doubts about Poseidon’s intentions, his anger at his father ignoring him his whole life, his sympathy with gods like Hephaestus for how badly they were treated by his family? All of those feelings felt very natural and valid, and provided an interesting background to Luke’s impending betrayal. After all, Kronos was able to gain power precisely because the gods were such shitty parents. Luke had a point.
Source of image: https://screenrant.com/percy-jackson-season-1-episode-6-nereid-poseidon-pearls-explained/
The thing is, though, that in making the gods’ self-centeredness so much more prevalent and Percy’s anger at Poseidon so much stronger, the show failed to convince me of something I never questioned in the books: Why Percy would side with the gods in the first place. Everything Kronos was offering sounded pretty damn decent, particularly since the show didn’t focus on many positives of demigod life or give examples for Kronos’ cruelty. And – considering that we got an overly sentimental and very un-Greek-god-like meeting between Percy and Poseidon at the end of the series – the gods’ behavior towards their children just seemed even more strange. If Percy’s dad loved his son in such a human-like manner, why didn’t the other Olympians, too? What was stopping them from showing that love? Why did the demigods still respect them? And – most importantly – why the heck was Poseidon so different?
I mean, I get it. Percy needs a reason to fight for the gods in the end. But I actually liked the books’ way of going about this way more, where Poseidon was one flawed god among many. A god who – as an immortal – just didn’t have the same kind of relationship with his mortal family as other parents might, but was still trying to keep the world from chaos and protect it. Who cared about Percy in his own, godly way, just as the other gods cared about their children, too. And I liked how it took Percy a span of several years to realize that, even if Kronos was way worse, the way the gods were dealing with their children was wrong.
“From now on, I want to you [sic] properly recognize the children of the gods,” I said. “All the children… of all the gods.”
The Olympians shifted uncomfortably.
“Percy,” my father said, “what exactly do you mean?”
“Kronos couldn’t have risen to power if it hadn’t been for a lot of demigods who felt abandoned by their parents,” I said. “They felt angry, resentful, and unloved, and they had a good reason.”
Zeus’ nostrils flared. “You dare accuse -“
“No more undetermined children,” I said. “I want you to promise to claim your children – all your demigod children – by the time they turn thirteen. They won’t be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive. […] No unclaimed demigods will be crammed into the Hermes cabin anymore, wondering who their parents are. They’ll have their own cabins, for all the gods. And no more pact of the Big Three. That didn’t work anyway. You’ve got to stop trying to get rid of powerful demigods. We’re going to train them and accept them instead. All children of the gods will be welcome and treated with respect. That is my wish.”
– The Last Olympian, pp. 352 – 354 –
A big part of Percy growing up was him realizing that you can support a system that you think is flawed because you firmly believe that it is the best alternative out there – but that you don’t have to sit there silently and endure what is wrong with it, either. Seeing Percy grow from a sassy, seaweed-brained twelve-year-old to a self-confident leader willing to stand up to the gods and demand respect for all demigods out there is a huge part of Percy’s character development throughout the series, and I just don’t see it hitting in the same way when the show already has Percy having and overcoming a relationship crisis with the gods in the first season. I wanted this plot to be dragged out; for there not to be a simple fix by having Poseidon be a great dad after all. Because this tension – the imperfection of the Olympians – is something at the very heart of this story that can’t be resolved within a few conversations. I didn’t want a black and white resolution, and I didn’t want gods who appeared too human or perfect. The problematic godly nature of the Greek gods is precisely what fascinates me about them!
Furthermore, by choosing to focus so much on the Olympians and their messed-up family ties, the show neglected the characters that were actually central to it even more. I’ve already complained about how I just didn’t think Annabeth, Percy, and Grover had as much depth as they did in the books, and that that was partially due to the writers changing key aspects of their characters, but that’s just part of the problem. The show characters also just weren’t given as many chances to interact with one another and strengthen their relationships as the book characters were because, oftentimes, the protagonists seemed more like an afterthought to the “issues” the writers apparently felt they needed to explore.
Source of Image: https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Waterland
Take the Waterland scene. In the book, I love it. It’s chaotically adorable – we have Grover, Annabeth, and Percy stealing ugly amusement park clothes, Annabeth bringing clueless Percy up to speed on the whole Hephaestus-Aphrodite-Ares drama, Annabeth and Percy being incredibly awkward about going on the Thrill Ride of Love together, Annabeth freaking out over mechanical spiders, Percy having an idea to get them out of the situation, and the two of them bickering over whose plan is the best, only for Annabeth to be right in the end and Percy being slightly annoyed about it.
“On my mark,” I said.
“No! On my mark!”
“What?”
“Simple physics!” she yelled, “Force times the trajectory angle -“
“Fine!” I shouted. “On your mark!”
She hesitated … hesitated … then yelled, “Now!”
Crack!
Annabeth was right. If we’d jumped when I thought we should’ve, we would’ve crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.
– The Lightning Thief, pp.239-240 –
The scene provided ample opportunities for Percy and Annabeth to bond and bicker, to learn more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, to, just generally, grow closer.
The show, though? Instead of giving us lighthearted entertainment where Annabeth and Percy revealed actual details about themselves – like Annabeth’s fear of spiders or Percy’s ability to think fast under pressure – it launches into a super dark, melodramatic scene where Percy nobly decides to sacrifice himself to a chair, Annabeth saves him through argumentative skills that are nowhere near as impressive as book-Annabeth’s physics prowess, and then we get another socially critically moment as Hephaestus delves into his tragic past… Like, sure – if the show wants to add a bit more god family drama, I don’t really mind. But it better not do it at the expense of not letting Percy and Annabeth get to know each other and learning that they like one another and want to be friends. They can’t just go from nothing to nobly wanting to sacrifice each other for each other within a matter of minutes. It’s annoying! Without development, there really isn’t any way to enjoy the payoff!
#5 How Some of the Really Cool Stuff I’d Been Looking Forward to Just Wasn’t There
And – let’s face it – sometimes I was just there for the fun. I wanted my ridiculous Valentine-y Thrill Ride of Love being broadcast to Olympus. I wanted Crusty and Percy to debate over how far Annabeth should be stretched. And I wanted the Lotus Casino in all of its epic glory. Like, seriously, in the TV show, the trio even knew about the dangers it posed – because, of course, this information would be revealed in advance to get rid of even more suspense 🙄 – and yet they were still intrigued enough by it to stay despite it having NOTHING on what was described in the books?
Source of image: https://www.tvinsider.com/1118904/percy-jackson-episode-6-lotus-casino-taxi-walker-scobell-leah-sava-jeffries-aryan-simhadri
While the TV-Lotus Casino looked like your standard casino – at least, as far as I can tell from movies and TV shows; despite numerous insistances that every math teacher should’ve visited a casino at least once, I’ve never been to one 🙃 -, book-Lotus Casino is nothing short of epic. It has every kind of food imaginable, epic games, a waterslide, luxurious rooms… And, again, it provided us with opportunities to get to know the characters!
I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing – where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn’t think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.
– The Lightning Thief, p. 261 –
Compared to those descriptions, TV-Lotus Casino was incredibly boring. It had none of the amazing 5-star experiences that would lure unsuspecting travelers in and didn’t provide gradual clues that all of its offers were too good to be true – we got that warning in advance. Which was even more annoying because keeping the original Lotus Casino vibes in the show would’ve given it ample opportunity to provide the social commentary the writers so desperately seemed to want to shove in everywhere else! In the book, the casino provides a mirror to our own consumerist lifestyle, to our addiction to social media – don’t tell me you’ve never wasted hours on some stupid game like CandyCrush, only to wonder where all the time went -, to environmental issues out there. It was all there for the taking, but I guess the writers were so into changing the plot at this point that they didn’t even consider including it…
Anyway, there are other examples I could name, but I think you get the point. In my opinion, the makers of the show just tried a bit too hard to modernize it and rashly made changes to the plot without fully thinking things through and considering how it would alter the perception of the characters and the overall trajectory of the story. While there were a handful of changes I enjoyed – Dionysus pretending to be Percy’s dad got a laugh out of me, for example – I was mostly really disappointed that this “second-chance” adaptation hadn’t stayed truer to the source material and tried for more depth rather than surface-level wokeness. Without context, even blue food and fan-favorite one-liners can only do so much.
Still, I suppose it could just be me. I’m so nostalgically attached to my favorite books that I’m probably always going to hate anything that doesn’t adapt an author’s work word-for-word… Kids who aren’t super into the Percy Jackson books might actually really like this adaptation. From a storytelling perspective, it’s certainly much stronger than the previous one, and if you don’t know what you could be getting, it’s probably even very engaging?
I don’t know… if you’ve seen the series, please let me know what you think! Am I being too petty? Should I just stop watching adaptations if I’m never satisfied with them? Or do you agree with any of my points? If you’ve actually made it through this monstrous essay of a post – Trust me, I’m quite sick of writing it at this point! 😂 – I’d love to hear your opinions!
A Book Owl's Corner 
Compared to that video from Friendly Space Ninja, you’re being very kind to this show, probably too kind from what I’ve heard 😅 So here is my opinion on a show I haven’t watched: As soon as I saw Riordan was going to be this involved in it, I knew it would be bad and I didn’t need to watch it. From what I hear, this show has the exact same problems as the three books I read in Heroes of Olympus – perfect characters, too much exposition, no excitement whatsoever. I swear, Riordan is the most overrated author in this community. I also think his involvement made sure that this “surface-level wokeness” was unavoidable. He spends too much time of social media to create anything that isn’t completely safe because we wouldn’t want the internet warriors to be mad.
And brace yourself because I’m dying on the hill that says the movie is good and infinitely better than the show. I don’t need to watch it to know that. The movie was one of my favorites as a teen! It was just a well-made action adventure – It was fun! I will never understand why an adaptation has to be exactly like the book. They can change whatever they want as long as they make a good movie/series. That’s the point of adapting books. Projects that set out to make the same thing in a different format usually fails because what is the purpose of that? They’re supposed to show how the story could be different in a visual format.
Anyway, I’m glad you finally got this posted, and I still recommend that long video rant 😁
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I’m definitely watching that video sometime today 😇 Considering that I was complaining in about 90% of this post, that rant has got to be truly impressive for you to think I was being really nice in comparison! Although nothing anyone can say will ever make me think that movie was better 🤯😜 I think you’re the first person I’ve EVER heard say they liked it, and even if I try to picture an alternate reality where I hadn’t read the book first, I just don’t see myself thinking it was good 🙈 The whole thing felt more like a video game quest than a movie, and I got zero personality from those characters! Besides, the fact that everyone had been aged up but still behaved like children at summer camp was super weird… 😬
I’m afraid I do agree with you regarding Rick Riordan, though 😅 I also feel like he’s starting to prioritize creating “safe” and “inclusive” stories more and more over putting effort into something with depth that will really get you thinking… I did read all of the Heroes of Olympus books, but haven’t reread them nearly as often as the original series – and, to be honest, I was mostly doing that for Nico, Percy, and Annabeth because everyone else was either super bland or, in the case of Leo, annoying 😅 – and I quit altogether after the second Trials of Apollo book because the stories just got so repetitive and meaningless. But, even if its writing could have been better, I did always really love the original series and thought that, as an author who was very connected to his fanbase and valued his work, Rick Riordan might fight for a faithful adaptation. Apparently, though, I was wrong 😥
I’m still gonna die on the hill that adaptations that stick to the source material are usually the best ones, though 😇 Off the bat, there are only two I can think of where major changes actually made the story much stronger – The 100 and Thirteen Reasons Why – and in those cases, I think it was because the screenwriters built on what the authors had created and fleshed the stories out to give their character stronger arcs and the side characters more personality. But my favorite adaptations – like The Hunger Games or The Lord of the Rings – tend to be the ones that stuck to the script 🥰 Because if you love a story, it’s so exciting to finally see the moments you adore brought to life! I don’t want a different story when I watch an adaptation; I want to see the story I fell in love with interpreted on screen. Why change something that already works really well, especially if those changes mean the plot no longer makes sense? I mean, I do also like seeing more creative takes on books I love, but the first adaptation I want will always be a faithful one! 😇
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That the movie felt like a video game quest was due to the fact that that’s how the book is! They’re going from one monster to the next, all action sequences. That’s the structure of the books which is why the movie went for that action adventure feel that is mainly fun action scenes. It’s a valid interpretation of that book. And I think the characters act their age. Better than have them the proper age and act like adults like they do in the book.
Okay, so what you’re saying about adaptations is that you don’t want them to interpret the material both rather just copy it, and yet you like The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings? Those changed a bunch of stuff; that’s why they work. They perfected what I’m talking about which is adding stuff that enhances the ideas behind the story. They’re not good because they’ve copy-pasted each scene from the book. The Hunger Games became more a story of a revolution because we were allowed to leave Katniss’s perspective and see what was going on in the world around her. I can’t tell you exactly what they changed in Lord of the Rings because I don’t remember but the fact that I did fall asleep watching them meant they changed a lot 😜
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The books might have video-game-like elements in their monster encounters, but reducing them to those like the movies did ignores what made me fall in love with Percy’s story in the first place – I loved the scenes where we just got to explore Camp-Halfblood and see Percy fit in somewhere for the first time in his life, I loved the gentle strength of Percy’s relationship with his mom, I liked the sassiness and random fun that was regularly sprung upon us, and, most of all, I liked seeing the characters have little moments where they got to bond with one another and forge really deep friendships. And, since the movies were more of an action adventure centered around finding pearls in a quest that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, those character moments were largely cut to quickly push a romance between Percy and Annabeth instead. And despite the TV show far from nailing this part, either, I do think it did a much better job than the movie, which is why I still infinitely prefer it. Also, I never felt like the Percy Jackson characters weren’t acting their age in the book! They had to grow up fast due to the constant threat of monsters and war, but, in my eyes, they still very much behaved and talked like kids would.
And I don’t really agree with your perception of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings movies, either, sorry 😜 – especially when you compare them to how faithful other adaptations out there are! Neither of them added any new plot points of their own – everything in those movies can also be found in the books. Like, sure, we do leave Katniss’s perspective and see what’s going on in the districts, but those things ARE mentioned in the books, even if Katniss doesn’t see them firsthand. And that’s what I mean about liking to see how people interpret the stories I love on screen – of course they should make use of storytelling techniques that work uniquely in cinema to flesh something out that we didn’t get to see in that amount of detail on page! But I hate when, for no reason whatsoever, plot points that WORKED in the story are changed. In fact, my one major complaint about The Hunger Games movie is that they made Katniss and Peeta so much older in the bread scene. With older Katniss self-sufficient enough to hunt at that age, it just doesn’t make sense for her to have been in that vulnerable of a position, and it also really changes the dynamic of their relationship because Katniss having felt incredibly indebted to Peeta since they were children, even after she has come really far from the helpless child she used to be, is just an integral part of who her character is and her development. I don’t see why you should change that. And, although the Lord of the Rings did leave out Tom Bombadill, it is also an incredibly faithful adaptation otherwise – everything is taken directly from the books, the only difference being that we don’t have to go through hundreds of pages of forest descriptions because we get to see everything directly rather than through the filter of Tolkien’s language 😂 But that’s precisely what I want from a good adaptation – I don’t expect the actors to sit there and read the book to me, but for the movie to make use of anything it has in it’s cinematographic arsenal to bring the story that’s on the page to life. And if they want to change plot points, they’d better only do it because something in the story is lacking, not because they want to make their own contribution that ends up making no sense within the context of the whole plot and changes the whole feel of the story!
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Oh, and I almost forgot to say this: I watched Friendly Space Ninja’s Percy Jackson rant yesterday evening and had a blast, so thank you for the recommendation! I was basically nodding along in agreement the whole time, except when it came to his take on Percy and Poseidon’s relationship – I thought that was incredibly cheesily done and un-Greek-god-like 😅 But the rest was so spot on and it was such a breath of fresh air to have someone agree with me so much and validate my disappointment! 🥰 (Although I also don’t think he was much meaner than me, either – he also said he thought the series had potential and good acting, and that he had hopes for Season Two, so I’m taking that as a sign that I’m allowed to still have a bit of hope, too! 😁🙃)
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First of all, I LOVED your intro. 😂
Secondly, I do agree with everything, I think. You wrote a lot, so I already forgot some points I wanted to bring up, but that’s okay. 😅 I haven’t discovered Percy Jackson until I was 22 years old, so I don’t have that childhood nostalgia like you, but I am still very much attached to the story. My main complaint overall was that it lacked the humour of the books, it became too dark, too serious, which is so not like the first book. Yeah, it becomes darker as the books go by, but the first at least two books were really goofy and it didn’t take itself too seriously. Which is why I think so many people fell in love with it. It is a kids’ book, which can be enjoyed by anyone, but the show doesn’t really feel like it was made for 11 years old. I totally agree that they tried to modernise and make it more “woke” or whatever, but it just doesn’t feel well executed. They should’ve delved deeper into those issues or stuck to the original story. And the way Percy knew everything immediately! I was actually furious about that, because that’s so not like book Percy, and it made the story so boring with zero excitement and tension. The way they wrote the characters, literally none of them is like in the books, and I’m just sad about that.
I won’t continue with the second season, I had enough disappointment to last me a lifetime. Will you try it?
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Haha, making that intro work gave me a tremendous headache – it’s surprisingly challenging to fit what you’re trying to say into a predetermined sentence structure 😂 – so I’m glad it’s being appreciated!
It’s also reassuring to hear that you first having read Percy Jackson as an adult doesn’t change your views on the show – sometimes, it’s hard to tell which part of my indignation is due to genuinely bad storytelling or to general changes to something I’m nostalgically attached to from childhood! But yeah, I really missed the humor and lightheartedness from the books, too, and agree the show didn’t feel like it was made for kids. It was more the characters summarizing events from the book before they even happened in infodumpy speeches so that we could then rush through them and shed light on some dark societal issue that was nonetheless never fully explored? It’s like the show simultaneously tried to include topics that are relevant to adults’ political discussions, but also dumb down everything so much that you were wondering if they thought their audience had the mental capacities of a three-year-old… Like, seriously, why did Percy have to overexplain everything??!? You’re right, the resulting tension was nonexistent, and I just don’t understand what the point of not allowing viewers to piece together what was happening on their own was…
I do still see myself trying the second season, though. Like, I’m definitely not rushing to Disney+ first thing it comes out, either, but I am curious if things might get better with more exposition out of the way? And it’s not like I have any super high expectations that could be disappointed anymore anyway 😅
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This was a LONG post and i thoroughly enjoyed it!! I was really hyped about the pjo show but i’ve only watched one and a half episodes of it. It didn’t ‘click’ with me as i thought it would. The overexplaining things might be one of the biggest things that made me stop watching – this is a problem i have with the ATLA live action adaptation too. I can’t comment much because i didn’t really watch the show, (except for random clips and edits and reactions on twitter. which makes me really confused because. did CLARISSE steal the lighting bolt or did i make that up?).
perhaps it will be better in future seasons (the sea of monsters is one of my favourite books from the five, and i think i will watch it) but this one was not it.
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The length of this did get a bit out of control 😂 I thought I could easily finish it by the beginning of March, but then the post just kept getting longer… I’m glad you enjoyed it anyway, though, even if I’m sorry to hear the show didn’t really do it for you, either! The overexplaining really was incredibly annoying and only got worse as the show went on, so I don’t think you missed out on too much. Although, lol, no, Clarisse didn’t steal the bolt – Percy just thought that at one point in the show 🤣 They really would’ve had a plot problem if they’d changed the lightning thief’s identity, I think.
Your thoughts on the new Avatar adaptation also don’t make it sound all that enticing 😬 So far, I’ve avoided it because I loved the original as a kid and didn’t want my memories tainted – I’ve heard several unfavorable things already – so I think I’ll stick with that decision…
I’m with you on keeping my fingers crossed for a better Sea of Monsters season, though!
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I read half of your post on Saturday but when I realised I actually had to watch the show to understand what you mean, I left it there. Call it coincidence or whatnot but I fell terrible sick today and what better way to recover than binge watch a show?!😂
And then I came and the whole of your post and found myself agreeing to the whole of your opinions. Okay, I first want to ask you, how do you remember the tiniest details from the books!?! Its probably been around 3-4 years since I first read Lightning Thief and I barely seem to recall who did what😂😂
Talking about the show, I think it was a good effort, obviously. It’s loads better than the movies anyway..in which as you said, Percy is so much older than a normal 12 year old.
But I think the only thing the movies did better was with Annabeth. I’m honestly disappointed with the show’s depiction of Annabeth. Glossing over the fact that she didn’t have “stormy gray eyes” nor dirty blonde hair, I was furious when they didn’t have ONE proper portrayal of her intelligence!
I almost gagged (in my mind ofc) when she calls Percy “seaweed brain” and he calls her “wise girl” JUST for the sake of it. It appeared so artificial they could’ve just left it altogether from the show.
You hit the nail right on the head when you said the suspense was missing. I was left wondering throughout the show why it didn’t feel thrilling as the books even though they did a great job with the cinematography.
To be honest, I remembered much of the book after reading your post. I swear, the awkwardness of Percy and Annabeth in the amusement park was one of the finest parts that I enjoyed reading and the show left all of it out😭
Similarly, I agree with you on the Lotus-Casino scene. They didn’t do justice at all.
This might sound silly, but I kind of expected them to show the strawberry fields which is the sole reason I find Camp endearing😂, so that’s another disappointment.
But apart from that I think because I couldn’t remember much from the books hence leading to not comparing the books and the show, I found it quite fun!! I’m looking forward for Sea of Monsters!
OMG I totally forgot to mention, the absolute disappointment was the lack of Percy’s humour. It’s such an integral part of the series, I can’t believe they missed that out. I think if the show had been more from Percy’s POV, his narration and inside thoughts, it’d have been much better!
Anyway, let me just say, you did a wonderful job with this review, I can’t imagine your precision and attention to detail, like a true daughter of Athena😂💕
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So sorry to hear you’ve been feeling sick – I hope a day of relaxation has helped you get back on your feet! 💙 – but, obviously, I’m thrilled you took the time to watch the show so that I have more people to discuss it with – especially since I’d already given an unfavorable opinion and really didn’t expect anyone would binge it based on that 😂 It’s so nice to have someone agree with me, although I’m also sad that you didn’t adore it, either.
You’re so right that Annabeth was the character who was ruined most! Seriously, how did those writers manage to take all of her intelligence and personality away and turn her into a superficial, brooding brat??! 😤 I’ve seen the actress in interviews and she has Annabeth’s personality down to a T there, so why didn’t they let her use that potential when everything else needed was already RIGHT THERE in the book?? And the same goes for Percy’s lack of humor and the huge infodumps we got instead of action… Why change all of that when they already had a working blueprint?? (And, yes, the strawberry fields would’ve been a nice touch, too 🍓 And nectar and ambrosia. And the magical food. Just generally all of the fun stuff that made camp cool!)
But yeah, fingers crossed Sea of Monsters will be better because the potential is definitely there!
Haha, and as for the details, don’t be too impressed – I reread my favorite books A LOT, so I must’ve read The Lightning Thief at least ten times by now. And I had my copy on hand to fact check stuff, so that also helped 😉 However, maybe you shouldn’t be too envious on the account of me remembering stuff because I’m pretty sure I’d also have been less disappointed by the show if I hadn’t had such a loud voice in my head screaming, “But that’s not how it was in the books!” 😅😂
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Okay, so this is my first ever comment on WordPress, having recently made a blog myself and trying to navigate the platform. (I actually read your post last night and I’m writing this almost 24 hours later!)
I have to say – I usually don’t like reviews because they’re very commercialised. But I really liked your review and agree with almost everything.
I was very taken with the idea in the beginning when it was announced there was going to be a TV Show. The casting news didn’t bother me, because as you mentioned, as much as it would be AMAZING to see the characters exactly, the world moves on.
Was reassured too by the fact that Rick Riordan had a hand in making it, and I don’t remember exactly but the trailers looked pretty good too.
Off the bat however, I felt a very sombre tone in the first episode. And I know (having read the book over 30 times) that it is not the correct vibe to be expected from Percy Jackson.
They did do a lot of things justice and it was loads better than the movies, and I agree with everything you say about Annabeth being dumbed down, Percy being this all-knowing-perfect person and Grover being comic relief.
They over-explained stuff and the most distinct thing to me was the abject absence of HUMOUR – apart from the bits here and there.
Two things I really missed from the book – 1. Percy being a fugitive and his whole fake drama to the media that his stepfather would give everyone an appliance from his store. I loved that bit – the manipulative but loveable side of Percy.
2. The poodle. The part in the book where Annabeth goes „I said hi to the poodle. You say hi to the poodle“. In my opinion, these (like the Waterland scene in the book) are crucial Percabeth moments.
Would I watch the second season? Yes. Because honestly I can’t not watch it.
I do think the Harry Potter movies are one rare case where the screen adaptation is acceptable if not good. The books remain superior, but the movies are quite magical and there’s a reason they have their own fanbase.
I don’t know what magic (pun intended) the Harry Potter movie creators used, but any other adaptation has never come close to the books.
I’m glad to have discovered your blog so early on in my blogging journey!!
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Gosh, I feel incredibly honored to be the recipient of your first ever comment! 🤗💙🤗 Thanks for stopping by, and welcome to the community! I’ll definitely be checking out your blog, and if you ever need any help with that navigation, feel free to ask – I definitely didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I first started out. (Although whether that has changed by now is also questionable… 😂🙃)
It’s also so relieving to hear that people agree with me on the show! I thought I might just be being petty because I ALWAYS have something to complain about when my favorite books are adapted… I’m afraid I’m actually in the minority who isn’t a huge fan of the Harry Potter movies 😅 In my opinion, the first one is pretty good, two, three, and four are okay, and anything after that cut out so much from the story, changed so many details (I mean, the Burrow burning and Ginny feeding Harry that cookie?? 😬🙄), and generally also went so much down the “let’s make everything super dark and sombre” train that I can’t help but be incredibly disappointed every time I decide to give it another chance… I’m glad you love the adaptation, though, and I’m hoping the rest of the Percy Jackson show will be able to convince both of us even more! Like, seriously, with more humor and character moments instead of all of the annoyingly over-explained exposition, this could be so good!!
And OMG, that poodle moment!! YES! That’s exactly the kind of stuff I want more of – just Percy and Annabeth bickering over the little things. Percy being sassy but Annabeth still being able to get one in over him. Fingers crossed The Sea of Monsters will live up to that! 🤞🏻 (Because I swear, it messes up the epic dynamic between Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson… 😭)
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okay, i love this post and your thoughts on everything! i love how detailed you were!
i’ll be honest: i never reread the percy jackson series despite loving it. i had borrowed them from a library i was part of and later, since i quit the membership, i couldn’t borrow it anymore and just didn’t think about it again. i can borrow it from a friend now and i really should.
it was glaringly obvious that i need to reread the series when i watched the show. it’s been.. 12-13 years since i read the lightning thief so i’ve forgotten a lot of it. watching the show was weird because, on one hand, it seemed okay due to my ignorance. but the part of my brain that remembers the lightning thief being this EPIC book that made me immediately want to be a demigod knew that the show was just.. off. it didn’t feel right. it felt entertaining enough but something was missing in every episode, you know?
the most telling about how the show is is the fact that i FORGOT about it when i finished it. it was not memorable. and that’s the worst! sure, they modernized the show and made required changes but that removed the essence of the story that made it so loved.
”if you try to hastily rewrite scenes to provide more social commentary, but don’t consider that these changes should probably have a ripple effect on your entire plot, you’re not actually improving anything. You’re just making the story confusing and drawing dangerously close to mocking the injustices you’re trying to speak out against.” — THIS. the medusa episode was disappointing and the casino did not seem memorable or addictive at all.
the characters were reduced to a single layer and, hence, so was the story. i don’t think they thought about how these changed would snowball into the entire story being different, especially if the series continues for more seasons. the character and relationship growth that we loved won’t exist anymore.
yeah, i’m going to read the books.
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I definitely think rereading the books is a good call! If one good thing came out of me being disappointed by the show, it’s that I got sucked into a huge Percy Jackson rereading spree because I just needed that epic and funny nostalgia the show wasn’t giving me…
And OMG, the forgetting thing! 🤣🙈 I thought it was just me but I literally had to go back and rewatch parts of some episodes while writing this because my memories of them were so vague that I wasn’t 100% sure if the examples I wanted to use for my arguments had really gone down exactly the way I recalled them. Everything had been blanded-down so much that my bored brain deleted half of it upon perception, it seems 😅 So you’re definitely not alone there!
Also, it’s nice to hear you agree with me on the social commentary and character changes – I really wish the writers had put a bit more thought into how it would affect the story overall 😥
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