melpomelody

pocket full of psoies getting a semi-consistent update? pls don't up your expectations of me for this one; it won't happen again
          	
          	https://www.wattpad.com/story/343084078-%C2%B9pocket-full-of-posies-p-jackson

melpomelody

thing is, you, by all technicalities, do not have to write show!annabeth. however, that said, when fic writers use a lot of other elements from the show - and exclude show!annabeth - that is ... interesting. 
          
          like, i've had people get upset with me for "cherry-picking" from the show's casting (it is for the luke castellan fic - i swear i'm gonna write it!! ... one day - and used show!luke as i'm anti blondxblond ships and the fem!oc is blonde lol). but that's - like - the only element of the show i've used, so, even then, it's not really comparable (esp. considering the vitriol annabeth's casting was met with, and other characters like luke, grover, or clarisse didn't receive).
          
          (and i am bitter about that cherry-picking allegation 'cause i've been writing poc grover and annabeth since royal cries, way back in 2021 - way before the show was a thing!! it was a fan canon back then!! GIVE ME MY CREDIT!!)
          
          i think, on one hand, for half of the fandom to be so anti-anything-but-show!annabeth (as i feel it only gives the show, and i've made it clear i'm not a fan of the show, more hate, but also brings hate to leah as people are mad they're being told what they can & cannot do). on the other, more detrimental, hand, it's just racism at play in a lot of these fanfictions. because there can be solely book-based pjo fics written these days (are they hard to find? perhaps, but hell, that's mostly what i've been writing, minus house of cards and *maybe* melancholic hymns, as i haven't decided how much of the show i'll include for those fics). and you can use book!annabeth when writing the book-based fics; however, it is quite telling when a lot of other show!characters are used ... minus show!annabeth.

Br3adb0tter

@melpomelody GENUINELY!! I exit out of a fic now if they don’t have a black faceclaim as Annabeth.  Leah has changed how a lot of people picture Annabeth (whenever I reread the book, I get jump scared by the old fanart).   I find it very odd that her being black is now being erased.
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melpomelody

this message may be offensive 
@LavenderSugarplum , the pjo fanbase is so unbelievably weird and, frankly, down-right hostile. this is not exactly in line with the conversation, but the number of people who have genuienly fought with me about things i've written in my pjo fics, and post-2023, the fics not being show-based is actually diabolical. and if i wasn't already so invested with pjo the way i am prior to 2023, i would not engage with the fandom i do these days. and the fandom is hostile in more ways than one, like the show or book debate that will probably be going til the end of time. 
            
            like, coming from someone who's just not a fan of the show, i (1) do my best not to engage with the show or show-based content, and (2) don't really read show-based fics. but people are so far from don't-like-don't-read mindset - including pjo and beyond pjo - that they can't just ... not engage. so when they engage with things, such as a fic using show-based descriptions in fics, they're just ... so hateful. when it would be easier to just not click off and find a book-based fic.
            
            and it's also just so surprising to see the pjo fandom the way it is, as the one thing i'll give riordan his is efforts at inclusivity (granted, the quality of the inclusivity is debatable). so it becomes almost fascinating (for a lack of words) to see such a deeply bigoted fanbase stem from an author such as rick riordan. granted, i did not join the fandom until - like - 2018, so he could fostered some weird things prior to that time and it has just continued to this date, despite him trying to - so obviously - roll back on the bigotry in this fandom. and it's not even just the racism, either; a lot of PJO fans hate queer people, despite baby-girl-ifying the fuck out of nico di angelo and will solace (mainly nico). they hate women. i mean, look at the way even book!annabeth is treated - she's a slut and a bitch, or some variant of that.
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LavenderSugarplum

@melpomelody The Grover thing also becomes really weird when you realize there’s history behind him being seen as POC. Because even in the movies, he was portrayed  by a black actor and the only complaint that people had about him was that he was too “sexualized and cool.” And even before that, you would have people making posts about how they never saw Grover as white and always saw him as POC or black. And that just further confirms my thoughts about the pjo fanbase having always being weird and their racist rhetoric really coming to light when the castings got revealed for the show. Even weirder when you see Disney’s history of turning their POC characters into animals throughout most of the movie, which contributes to the history of marginalized communities being compared to animals throughout history.
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melpomelody

i'm always so baffled when i see people of color (much less women of color, especially black women) as hardcore republicans, to the point it's maga-adjacent ... like, this is such a crude way of saying it - but you're next on the chopping block.

melpomelody

the tiger will, eventually, run out of prey and it will look to who's hiding behind it - and it will be any marginalized community, not just people of color, who supported everything trump is doing. 
            
            maybe they're doing it to protect themselves, but, more likely, it's because those marginalized people have deluded themselves into thinking they're better than the "others" of their personal identity, be race or gender or something else. 
            
            candace owens is the perfect example of it, honestly.
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melpomelody

asking for advice rn? opinions? 
          
          with me finishing the rewrite/edit of PFOP and working on OTSD's rewrite, i've been debating rewriting royal cries (and subsequent fics) since i started PFOP's rewrite - and i still don't know what to do! i've thought about leaving royal cries as is and just having a "redo" of royal cries, just a plot and writing i'm happy with these days. but there are things i really, really dislike about RC (the early stages of elisa and percy, or the stuff with brian anders, etc.) as i just (1) handled it poorly and (2) was not there as a writer to properly, and with care, write what i did include. it's not harmful, i don't think, and i provided appropriate enough trigger warnings for those who may be deeply affected by it - but i was wishy washy while writing, and could have just not.
          
          but i also, frankly, don't want to go through the effort of rewriting. like, if i edit RC and make the changes i want to make, i would then have to edit/rewrite olden crown and kingdom come (and i'm not even halfway through kingdom come yet) ... so it's just not worth it? then again, i was 16/17 at the time of writing RC, and while a lot of things don't stand the test of time to me ... it's still kinda cool to have that time capsule of 16/17 me.
          
          so now i'm debating having the "redo" of RC, but i'm also feeling like ... that's milking it. i also feel like, if i write that "redo," it could get boring for anyone who read RC and goes to read the "redo" (even tho i plan on starting the redo with abilene and in TLT rather than with elisa in TTC, but have elisa in TTC). 
          
          i guess the question is: should i rewrite RC (and subsequent fics), or keep it as is and write the "redo?" depending on the answers (if any), i'll post a draft reveal!!
          
          all of this could also be me shooting at the moon because, off the top of my head, i can think of two other fics starting at TLT and going into HoO - and i may never write the "redo" of RC and those two other fics.

melpomelody

*deleted and reuploaded original post to edit some things!
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