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can i just like vent for a second? i just saw an anti percy take that just pissed me off so bad bc i forget not everyone separates percy's real characterization (pjo books and son) and throw out the very terribly written one boo and post hoo books like i do. percy antis can only speak of his character from the text where rick decided percy needed to suddenly be this horrible character and friend (to this day i hate that the narrative genuinely blamed percy for bob and calypso) and the nico thing gets so misinterpreted and was a total retcon to percy and nico's canon progression in the og books. everyone is allowed to have their opinions obviously but there's this thing in the pjo fandom where everyone wants to take a single moment in which the author's writing was so weak and turn it into an actual real character moment when all prev texts in past books show that it's simply just character assassination
You are not the only one, anon. Thankfully, all my mutuals are of similar opinion, so I rarely am alone in my frustrations over this. I have made posts on most of the points you mentioned, but I swear the reading comprehension the fandom has is akin to a bottomless bag. No matter how many facts, rational explanations, and canon examples you feed in, it will all just fall down in vain. The same old incorrect takes and terrible biases will keep circulating and spawn even worse, zero comprehension takes, and "headcanons." I would say you could play a drinking game with it, but you will be dead not even quarter way through all the misinformation.
At this point, my media literacy test in pjo fandom is the opinion someone has on Percy and Nico's relationship. At least Nico has the excuse of being a literal hurt child for him lashing out at Percy and misplacing his anger on Percy, but I wonder what's the fandom's excuse. I have disproved everything I believe wrong about that take in my post here.
What I think has happened is everyone in the fandom has read these books years ago and hasn't bothered rereading the source material properly after when they got older or have only reread their favorite "shipping scenes." And during this time everyone in the fandom has been over indulging themselves on fanfics and now there is a large disconnect between the actual character in the books and the fanon version everyone has affixed in their heads. And no amount of external feedback will convince anyone to rectify and authenticate their version. Same with the ships. Especially with the ships.
Throw in some childhood nostalgia and a bit of projection, and you have a bunch of extremely single-minded opinions from people who would rather resort to death threats than actually acknowledge any other point of view exists. And gods forbid, an alternative ship exists, and people don't like their ship; the fandom which claims to hate itself is perpetuating its own miserable condition. Either way, my advice? Stick to tags you like. Try and ignore the monopoly in the fandom. Find a circle that shares your niche interests. And you will have fewer frustrations to deal with, at least usually.
As for Percy, he has become such a face of iconic and epic character and obviously the heart of the series that Rick thinks for any other character to be good, they somehow need to be better than Percy in some way or that he needs to put Percy down in some way to uplift others. And he has been doing that post Son of Neptune till today, and Percy is still the absolute fan favorite. Imagine the author and half the fandom doing everything they can to soil a character's arc and achievements and still not succeeding, hah.
I recommend you 'Percy jackson supremacy' or 'Percy jackson defense squad' tag on tumblr. At least half your frustrations will settle down. I recommend the first tag personally. I use that tag so often in my own posts, and it's the one Percy tag page where I am sure the posts will not disappoint. Those two tags with a side of powerful Percy jackson and smart percy jackson are the only fandom tags worth scrolling. Take my advice on it.
The monopoly in the fandom is so bad that if you block percabeth tag, then almost three quarter's of fandoms content is inaccessible. I checked into this and realized that posts that have absolutely nothing to do with shipping or even Percy and Annabeth are tagged with it for the sake of larger exposure. It's absolute bullshit. So now you need to check every percabeth tag post so see if it's actual ship content or just general content tagged that way.
I have no delusions of changing anyone's mind in the fandom. But a few years ago this place was even worse and death threats were almost a common situation for everyone outside popular takes and only now is there a relative safe space for new blogs to make anti posts about popular media in the fandom and not get absolutely flayed for it. Just trying to contribute to that circle. Cause I didn't have to deal with the absolute worst of the fandom because of older blogs that kept on making enough content for there to be a community by the time I joined two years ago. Would like to do the same to some extent. Cause here if you are in any unpopular branch of the fandom, then you will have to make your own content for it. That's just how it is.
Most people now however are getting more and more into alternative opinions and ships and rightfully criticizing Rick for not only character assassinations but the stereotypical things he perpetuated by selling them in the name of diversity and representation.
As I said, the fandom has more problems than it has people, lol. But you just need to find one niche group that fits with you and see if it lasts. By the looks of it, I am not going to be too active in this fandom for very long either. Doesn't seem to be worth it. But you can vent on here anytime about anything. It's definitely the sort of space for that. And I like seeing people finally vent out their frustrations, so you are welcome anytime.