goo lagoon hq

one day we will talk about and bully the people who rudely & stupidly comment on people’s personal interpretations of famous characters... like why is black percy bothering you??? because he’s cooler and much better than white percy??? bc y’all can’t stand a Man Of Color succeed??? please stop annoying artists who spend their time & do shit as a labor of love and give your unnecessary & unwanted comments... add on to the fact y’all have TRASH usernames and the most HORRENDOUS takes like... just log off and don’t come back babe <3

reminder that black percy is literally just as fanon as white percy, so consider why seeing him darker annoys u

guess who

anyway. this plays into both a riordan problem and a fandom problem.

→ riordan should've just let hazel be black and have black features. there was no reason to give her that hair or eye color. the only black girl in hoo doesn't even look that way? weirdo.

→ fandom should've just let hazel be black and have black features. black features aren't just white features painted dark. this straight up looks like a minstrel show. it's actually horrendous to see

and before any of you say 'oh this is old, blah blah, probably some kid who doesn't know better," the artist was 27 and this was created in 2019. fandom crit and riordan crit isn't a new subject and has been going on for years. when you don't listen? it creates something truly disgusting to see

ok not to stir up old discourse but

annabeth stans claimed that being the most powerful has...nothing rly to do with power and, rather, the respect you command over others and the power you have over them. with this criteria, they claim that annabeth is the most powerful demigod.

the problem is, annabeth still does not take the seat of the "most powerful" using this logic.

if we were to take anybody with actual powers (who was a player in the first place lol) out of the equation, this leaves us with annabeth and reyna.

(no i do not consider reyna's power of giving away her strength a combative advantage)

reyna is a year younger than annabeth. she was praetor at 16, one of new rome's highest leaders at 16. when jason disappeared, she was doing that alone (even if the praetor isnt the highest).

reyna had the same responsibilities as annabeth and even MORE. reyna had so much to deal with at such a young age. if we consider her age (the biggest factor in this), then reyna technically has had less years of training than annabeth has.

reyna commands more respect from the romans than annabeth does from the greeks. annabeth isn't even the leader of the greek demigods, when have we ever seen her step into such a position?

(dont forget that i am using THEIR logic of what "the most powerful" means. don't get it twisted, this is the criteria of annabeth stans)

reyna has done more than annabeth, she has overcome more, all while being 1 year younger and equally traumatized.

so why is this fandom so reluctant to let reyna be the most powerful demigod using their own logic? why do they insist on propping up a cishet white girl to a pedestal she is not right for to the detriment of a younger (practicaly powerless) latina who has done so much more?

to put it in simple terms: it's white favoritism. it will always be white favoritism. it has always been white favoritism.

annabeth stans insisted on changing the criteria to something that benefits annabeth (a fictional character btw. she's not gonna give you ten bucks for deepthroating her boot). then they simply ignored the criteria THEY created to benefit a white charactr and effectively ignore characters of color that fit that mold more than their white fave.

they dont only do this in the "power" thing either.

they do this with leo. they refuse to let leo be known as "the smartest" and, instead, push that role onto annabeth. they refuse to even register how it might possibly be harmful to put down a mexican american boy to make a white girl look better.

let leo be the smartest. it reverses more harmful stereotypes than letting a white girl be the genius of the group. leo is the smartest in the 7, in all ways, shapes, and forms.

and hazel will always be the most powerful demigod. i do not understand why yall HAD to change up what it means to benefit a white girl. you all saw black people being happy and "this black girl is the most powerful demigod! 😃" and said "...my white fave isn't being glorified??? um, something is wrong here....😕"

reyna means so much to so many latines everywhere. if you're going to switch up what "powerful" means, apply it to every character. using your criteria, reyna is the most powerful demigod. if we're not going to go by that stupid explanation, then hazel is the most powerful demigod.

TL;DR - Annabeth stans have a very nasty and vaguely racist habit of changing the definition of phrases such as "most powerful" "smartest" or "strongest" to benefit Annabeth and to the detriment of characters of color. They usually start this as a response to seeing a character of color (usually Hazel or Leo) praised as the "most" of something. They literally cannot stand to see characters of color praised for something. It's disgusting and I'm kind of sick of it.

WHY. WHY MAKE YOUR CHARACTER BIRACIAL IF YOURE JUST GOING TO DISRESPECT HER LIKE THIS

this is official btw

I AM SCREAMING

She’s white-passing. It’s an important aspect of her character as it makes her feel othered from her family (while making it harder at first for Carter to relate to her) and also illustrates the different way that people speak to her versus her brother. The books are very clear about this and use it pretty well.

While Sadie is in fact white passing, it does not mean that she is caucasian. The art pictured and art Riordan has commissioned and approved in the past have shown Sadie with pale skin, straight blonde hair, and Eurocentric features, which are prominent is this art, but also in both rounds of official art, done by artists Viktoria Ridzel, who is more commonly known on tumblr as viria, and Antonio Caparo. 

Now, if we take a mosey on over to the official wiki page for Sadie, we see a few things. First of all, take a look at two of the pictures that Riordan himself okayed and allowed to be published and represent his work. From left to right we have Ridzel, Caparo, and the artist for the graphic novel, Orpheus Collar’s depiction of Sadie. 

Do we see a problem? Personally, for me, it’s glaringly obvious. Sadie looks completely white. 

This ties back into an important thing to be aware of when consuming media. While these artists might have gotten the go ahead from Riordan, Riordan’s go ahead is racist. Riordan’s depictions of Sadie as a white woman are violently racist. 

Throughout literary history, protagonists have always shared features with their mothers. This adds a nurturing element to character, one where we, as the readers, subconsciously understand and connect that the protagonist shares the same, loving traits, as their parents. We see it with in J.K. Rowling’s world-recognized work, Harry Potter, with Harry’s green eyes constantly being compared to how he looked like his mother’s. 

With Sadie, her eyes symbolize the only connection, other than a few blurry pictures, she has to her mother. Personally, I have an essay to write on Paradis Bleu and the symbolism of blue and how it shows loneliness, so I’m not going to sit here and explain that for tumblr and not for my degree. 

But what can be taken away is this: some things are done for symbolism. Some things are racist. Rick Riordan refusing to admit that Sadie Kane has a black father and therefor, because of punnet squares, will have black features, is racist. Rick Riordan forcing this image of a white woman, who bears more resemblance to a white woman than her own brother, down the faces of thousands of mixed children who are searching for representation, is racist. It is violent, it is knowing, and it is damaging. No one here is innocent. We all read the same books. We all understood and fell in love with the same books. 

We cannot excuse racism, especially the racism of a man who claims to be diverse and claims to be an ally. 

I’ve also found some video essays that relate to this topic. There are so many good TED Talks relating to this. 

The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History by David Ikard (for discussing white washing), Why English Class is Silencing Students of Color by Jamila Lyiscott (how aave and diversity are tokenized and how we must engage in our texts), No. You Cannot Touch My Hair! by Mena Fombo (tw: sexual assault, unwanted touching), Punnet Squares, and Punnet Squares (Khan Academy). Lyiscott’s speech is my personal favorite. Please take the time of day to look over these TED talks, YouTube does allow for you to watch things at faster speeds. 

percabeth’s nicknames

a common critique i keep seeing is that seaweed brain is a horrible insult and extremely abusive. and sure it started like an insult, but i think there’s a lot more to both their nicknames than most people remember:

initially both seaweed brain and wise girl are meant to be insulting. yes, even wise girl. in tlt it’s actually clarisse who calls annabeth that first and percy notes that it hurts her. annabeth is first called wise girl by percy after she tries to force herself into the quest and it’s as soon as she calls him seaweed brain. it’s not capitalized. the only other time he calls her that is at the end when they’re parting ways and it’s clear the intention behind the name has changed.

for seaweed brain, annabeth uses it 5 times in the first book total: trying to force herself into the quest, right before explaining how they’re supposed to hate each other because of their parents, and finally at the amusement park. here it becomes capitalized and becomes a nickname. fourth is in the vegas truck after she explains that she’d fight on percy’s side no matter what her mom chose, and fifth is at the very end of the book in a teasing manner.

as the books progress all through hoo, the terms clearly begin those of endearment. i think even percy says at one point that it means something different when annabeth calls him that. it’s also important to note that annabeth almost exclusively uses the nickname when it’s just the two of them. she doesn’t use it to publicly humiliate him or hurt him. it’s an intimate nickname with roots that go way back.

and thus this is a small but key feature of percabeth that fanon has yet again ruined. in fanfiction and otherwise, people throw around the nicknames so loosely. percy hardly calls her wise girl at all, and seaweed brain is used very deliberately in canon. the use of capitalization is perfection to depicting the shift in their relationship.

fanon doesn’t understand percabeth’s dynamic, despite how much it praises and posts about the couple. fanon can’t even use the nicknames correctly, forget any other aspect of their relationship. seaweed brain and wise girl, as cringy and middle school as they are, are staples of the ship, and it’s really a shame that it’s misused like it is, thus perpetuating inaccurate portayals of percabeth.

fanon’s percabeth mistakes a whole:

one main effect of improper use of percabeth staples (like their nicknames for example) is that it completely alters the interpretation of percy and annabeth separately, and therefore the interpretation of them together as well.

aang lost his people, his home and culture was burned, the air nomads were wiped out and he was the last one for over a hundred years yet some of u have the audacity to say aang was self absorbed?? apparently didnt appreciate other cultures bc he clings to his own?? are u serious??

They also claim he didn’t suffer or struggle enough and that things came/worked out too easily for him...

Being an Asian ATLA fan acc is so tiring bc a lot of the takes the fandom as a whole has are..pretty wrong actually and people praise it for being amazing Asian rep when it’s really not and disregard how the show appropriated South Asian culture and had little to no South East, South, South West, West, and Central Asian rep, and the rep they did have of them put them in a negative light or was a straight up caricature and also the fact that the ethnicities of the characters (specifically the earth kingdom and esp the fire nation) are pretty fucking unclear but whenever Asians talk abt this people fucking say that we’re “contributing to cancel culture” or get harassed and it’s infuriating, and this isn’t even getting to the constant whitewashing, the “lol the characters are white!” jokes, the fetishization, the demonization of Brown characters, the ignorance to current events, etc.

people really still pretend that aang is weak simply for not killing ozai? did any of u actually watch the show or

Ok but for real though. Why is not killing someone considered weak? I don't think some people understand the gravity of taking a life it not something taht should be taken lightly. He was not weak! He decided to not go with the "easy" option and find a better solution. You can't fix a wrong with another wrong.

Me: *checks my watch* Oh, whaddya know, it’s appreciate Katara o’ clock.

(every hour is appreciate Katara o’ clock but right now i was feeling extremely appreciative of her)

this can seem like a stretch if you want it to I dont really care but I feel like the need to place annabeth at the center focus of everything isnt really bc shes a main character but bc shes an angry white girl and ppl feel like that is the best shit ever currently and that's where you get things like annabeth is the strongest demigod or annabeth was actually completely okay for thinking shes oppressed for being blonde

There's obviously nothing wrong with appreciating annabeth as a character, like she is one of my favorite characters she has been there since the beginning. But I also think it's another one of those things where fandom can focus solely on the white character at the expense of characters of color. And that's where the whole annabeth things come into play because, really it's like are you pulling that from serious examples or is it because of white favoritism from your subconscious

i know a lot of people will read this and scoff but if you really take the time to consider it you might realize how often this happens. the most obvious example to me is through the treatment of intelligence amongst the characters. leo valdez is canonically almost unbelievably intelligent as he was doing college level math as a child. however, he is also a character of color written to be an adhd goofball. when that is juxtaposed against annabeth and her mother being athena—the goddess of wisdom—annabeth is the one who is called a genius, meanwhile leo is written-off as being a total idiot and his intelligence is completely ignored and/or forgotten.

trust me there are issues with leo’s character, i know. but praising the white girl for being a “girlboss” and assuming she’s some intellectual prodigy because of her mother, ignoring the fact that she literally hasn’t been in school since 2nd grade, while disregarding the fact that leo, a poc, is smart is insidious and reeks of racism.

and this isnt to say education = intelligence because thats simply not true. my point is that leo has had a natural talent for math since he was really young and built a literal warship almost entirely on his own yet his entire character get summarized as the hyperactive class clown, meanwhile annabeth who has only really been shown to know riddles is considered the smartest demigod in the entire series because she’s a white girl and leo is not.

also like. r*ck’s favoritism when it comes to annabeth compared to the female characters of color is glaringly obvious and all the traits that are celebrated in annabeth are shown to be undesirable in characters like reyna, hazel, piper, and drew

when annabeth is smart and/or aggressive, it’s made clear that this is a positive trait, and riordan flexes his feminism. when reyna is smart, it’s scary, it’s conniving, it’s intimidating.

when annabeth is mean or jealous— which she is, all through botl— it’s played off as funny, and her flaws are softened by the wealth of characterization we have that shows that that meanness is not her whole personality. when drew, on the other hand, is mean or jealous, it is the only thing we know about her— she’s a bitchy asian girl. okay!

annabeth is powerful. so is hazel. and according to the laws of the narrative that riordan wrote himself, hazel should be more powerful than annabeth, but she isn’t, because, uh...

annabeth has a complex relationship with femininity and that’s okay; but piper’s aversion to femininity, on the other hand, is written soaked through with riordan’s own misogyny to the point that piper’s “internalized misogyny” has become a common topic of discussion in fandom.

i would just like to say that i don’t begrudge other woc for liking annabeth more because, let’s be real, riordan made it clear in hoo that she was the only female character he actually cared about.

you guys don't even care about hazel, whenever you talk about the trauma of the hades kids, you're almost always referring to nico, as if hazel wasn't born at an awfully shitty time for a little girl like her and she wasn't literally crushed to death. both nico and hazel are kids who went through traumatic shit but only one of them gets talked about... and even then, nico is blatantly out of character and evolved into less of a character and person and more of a ball of trauma when he never acted as such in canon

How did the fandom collectively use the same skin tones for Carter, Piper, Leo, Hazel, and say that was okay.

yeah, so i never went into it but like, tan and brown skin tones have different shades?

like, not all brown people are the same color? there are warm and cool undertones, shades and tints, reds and blues? you'd probably avoid something washed out and grey, but different browns exist!!!! its hard enough to get brown characters in media, but it's incredibly frustrating when all the characters of color end up looking like cardboard

can we talk about racism in fantasy character designs? SO MANY fantasy stories have characters of color with either eurocentric hair/eye colors or entirely made up ones while white characters are given natural color palettes—despite how common brown eyes and black hair are in real life, they’re shockingly rare in a lot of fantasy. authors are fine with blonde/brunette/redheaded characters and blue/green eyes but they’ve decided that the natural coloration of most people of color is simply too “boring” to be included. it’s so frustrating to have to have this conversation in so many different fandoms—yes this is about avatar, it’s about voltron, she-ra, the dragon prince, percy jackson, rwby, whatever you’re thinking of. this trope wouldn’t be racist if it were just a small handful of characters but it’s EVERYWHERE. please stop doing it.

i don’t know why people keep commenting about how there’s an in-universe reason for the racist eye colors in atla. who CARES if there’s a reason? do you want to know the real reason that so few atla characters have brown eyes?? it’s because white people decided that brown eyes were too boring to include (at least for their main characters). the atla nations have color-coded eyes not because it’s an immutable fact of the world, but because the white writers sat down and made the decision to put those eye colors into their world of asian characters. it ~just so happens~ that three out of those four eye colors (blue, gray, and green) are far more common among white people, and the third (yellow) is a fantasy eye color—it’s especially ridiculous because earth, in particular, isn’t even green, it’s brown, but the white writers are so allergic to the idea of people of color with brown eyes that they decided to give the earth kingdom green eyes instead. it was a bad decision. stop trying to justify it.

I’m gonna say it. The reason Aang is one of the most unpopular characters in the fandom despite being the protagonist is bc he doesn’t fit in y’alls “Hot Teenage Saviour” trope and it shows.

society has passed the need for orange haired hazel no more orange haired hazel

This is a direct message to the artist @blogjoehaze  since they won’t answer asks like the coward they have proven themselves to be. Lack of a response and/or choosing to block me will further prove that you’re racist, immature, uneducated and God, I can go on. Don’t bother direct messaging this account. You can instead message an apology to all the people tagged in this post.  

You can claim that your artwork is for yourself all you want but your recent Instagram and Tumblr posts prove otherwise. If your art is truly for yourself, keep it to yourself. Understand that recent events have nothing to do with you. Yes! People don’t actually give a flying fuck about who you are! I know, it’s hard for someone as egotistical as yourself to believe but bear with me for a moment. 

We’re concerned about the lack of proper representation of Indigenous people in today’s world. Not you. We want to eliminate racists and racist beliefs from our fandom and the world. That includes you in case you once again couldn’t comprehend my plain English. I figured since you answer some English asks in Russian ( an immature and remarkably rude gesture btw) you sometimes were unable to speak and/or understand English or how to use Google translate. I’m sorry, that makes it seem like you’re mental, doesn’t it? Oh well, moving on!

You know what you’ve done but let me clarify since your inability to understand has become apparent in recent posts and asks…

You posted artwork of Piper McLean from the Percy Jackson series in a Pocahontas AU. Your mistake was you whitewashed and misrepresented a Native American character. Reasons for why this is apparent are listed below. 

I know, this post is very mean, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s the consequence to your actions. Now, most people know to take accountability for your actions. It doesn’t seem you do. Having hundreds of people tell you the same thing proves your racism. Pushing people of all ages (many younger than you) to explain your mistakes show how incompetent you can be. 

Keep in mind, people only started threatening and cursing you when you ignored them or responded negatively to their feedback. By negatively, I mean by outright refusing to make any altercations to your art as well as not even attempting to see things from the perspective of the people you hurt. Again, as an artist posting to a social media platform, you have a responsibility to create art that is not offensive or hurtful in any way. It’s not catering to the fans. It’s understanding something from another’s perspective.

You weren’t being attacked because people didn’t agree with the skin tone. You were being attacked because you repeatedly offended indigenous people. But hey, you’re right, we can just block you. But, here’s thing, blocking you won’t help eliminate racism and misrepresentation nor would it force you to own up to your mistakes. Asking me to just block you is asking me to become a bystander to racism. I was a bystander when my friends went marching off to protests. I won’t be anymore. This single act is nothing compared to what my friends have done. 

Since you will probably ignore this post like the idiot you’ve acted as, I’m tagging people who hold the same beliefs as me. These people, like me, believe you are a racist asshole and don’t deserve the privilege to own a blog on this site and to also be apart of the pjo fandom. 

If you’re truly not racist, you’d take everyone’s comments into account and delete this post. The following people have already explained all of the above to you. You just ignored them.

To my comrades in the pjo fandom, feel free to add on to this post, in case I missed anything or in case you have something you want to say. Tag anyone I may have missed and thank you for calling out racism. 

Let’s play a game since we’re all here. In the tags, put down your favourite character, book series, tv show and anime (if you watch anime). Thanks for playing!

@kleetus-conner @kingoffandoms @dew-drop-of-honey @cartoonfantic8 @thaliaisalesbian @mcgonamum @shinythingyoufoundinthedirt @i-will-decide-my-own-username @setmybuttocksablaze @freckledmutt @sundrenchedgay @lucia123456780 @traditionallymodern @susane-jackson @panini-the-bird-killer @truth-lies-hidden @bibaipercy @chironshorseass @anxiousbookenthusiast @uhohmymistake @i-take-your-hand-brother @wordsversesandmore @l-mythical @levesqt @thepencalledriptide @andsotheylivedhappilyfor300years @madimoo31 @fanvergentwithexistentialcrisis @pjo-memes @selfship-loving @nicosanemicloser @apolloartbox @maniawaffle @thoseinfiniteskylines @damdemigodishness @tigerlilyfm14 @max–er @gaysubplot @creating-a-username-is-hard @rorydinosaur @protectwoc @thetwentycommittee @schadenn @musicclover5 @noimalive @victory-of-the-angels @seaweedbrainchild @ghsyking @dykeblight @di-maitka @bookstantrash @slorpjuice @aesthetic-wannabe-hoe @ellainferni @nancybobofit @godqueer @infinitywar @corpsefaking @deafeningcrusadeduck @drratboygenius @thaliagrace @royharper @hitachiintwinss @foulrhetoric @the23bestfriends @pearlseleganciess @space-traveler @riptide-the-mighty-pen @adamussutekh​ @the-camo-wolf​ AND MANY MORE 

Every comment is deeply appreciated and only furthers the importance of prevalent racism and misrepresentation. Please also appreciate the time I took to create this post by posting it to Instagram and reblogging it on here. I didn’t tag so many people for only a few notes, keep in mind. I did this because I am passionate about spreading the message and eliminating racism. I understand that some of the things I said was offensive and I intended it to be so. I will take full accountability for it, unlike this artist. Please spread this message. 

@bunkernine @jalebi-babyy @hazelmagix @justadashoffantasy @imaheartbrekker @lunarprincesswinterhayle

@sunapollo @theworst-pirate @thewesternairtemple @perseusjackkson @redhoodpercy

@a-nnabethchase @percysjacks @percysskateboard @riptidethesword

Actually let me continue. Big blogs in this fandom think they're hot shit and when told rightful criticism, getting defensive should not be the immediate reaction.

Rather than reading and reflecting on their past actions they'd rather create a show out of it. Then their followers can look on and get mad on their behalf and that shit wont fly.

You may be emotional in the moment but that's only a better reason for you to log off, get your shit together, and then come back online to handle the criticism properly.