Im Sobbing

I’m sobbing

We’ve finally finished the lightning thief in my English class, now we’re watching the first movie to compare with it; wherein I also get to see the Peter Johnson movie for the first time, we were given like papers to compare with the book and movie while we watched the movie; I was seated over in the back in the class, and I was working very hard to write down my thoughts… which turned into a very biased hypercritical (I think?) note taking session on things I didn’t like about the movies. I apologize for not putting a transcript down for the pictures below, but it was a long period of just yelling into my paper and silently apologizing to my braincells that had to be subjected to the movie, I mention in the photos what I consider bad writing (and several times I think I scribble out show don’t tell) and to note that I’m not a like writing genius that knows movies, but they kind of just… word vomit things at the viewer in like a 5 minute speed round that is like fact after fact and I was sitting there still thinking about the Mrs. Dodds scene, and they make the gods very involved? If that’s the right sentiment, if you get what I mean,

Old books And Ye olde Camp Jupiter

NOTE!! The actual stuff about PJO is about 5 paragraphs in; so if you want to slip my bad rambling about two very old epics, I have it headed)

I’ve been reading the Iliad (just finished it, still try to spell it with two L’s 😎) and I’m working on the first books of the Odyssey (with Telemachus doing his thing) and I’ll say; first it was an actual joy, a riot, a rollercoaster, to read the Iliad. There has been very few books where I’ve laughed as much in character dialogue interactions (that sounds so funky but I genuinely did giggle about it) and it was just so silly goofy and fun, and I have it annotated so I can start talking about certain things

And I’ve just started the Odyssey; which it certainly does feel like a sequel (that sounds mean, but it feels the same way that reading daughter of the moon goddess and then heart of the sun warrior; amazing books by the way, go pick them up)

And it’s really fun to consume some version of the original stories and Epics and comparing it to media created with it (I say that like I’ll talk about more than just PJO and the literary choices Rick made on how to interpret and use the gods and stuff. I still am getting around to reading TSOA but it scares me man)

But, I really don’t know what I’m trying to get at

Just that the books are fun and it is generally super fun and interesting to read and even though the first few books of the Odyssey are feeling a bit like a Jason or Piper chapter; I’m pushing through to read Odysseus and his journey; and so I can eventually get to the Aeneid and annoy my friends even more with fun things about Rome and giggle in my classes;

Where the Pjo starts)

Along with that! I’d want to talk more about pre-modern CHB and CJ; seeing as my history class is going through the slog that is colonial history currently and I need someway to stimulate my brain other than writing facts about Mainz Gladius while people are talking about the Salem Witch Trials (my class is feral and gross and they have a big lack of nuance and maturity to think and process the events without being absolute idiots- that sounds mean but they’re annoying and I need to vent)

But I’d like to say there are things we know basically about sides that Greeks and Romans sided on; and because I apparently allergic to discussing Greek demigods at the moment, I’m listing Rome :3

We know that in PJO Roman demigods and the Roman side tends to want to side with rising empires almost inherently; or just rising… things. *cough, cough, the Confederacy, cough, cough*. But aside from that; we can base the ideas that,

1) we can probably confirm that there was a drop in Greco-Roman demigod participation in wars out of the Americas after it (the pantheon and the majority of the demigod groups) moved; though we can probably confirm until after North America became a Economic powerhouse that if following Riordanverse canon; that the Gods moved to New York (if we want to push it, they probably were in Massachusetts in the late 1600s the earliest in America; though I’d say they hadn’t moved until America started like doing good in like what post WII? I think-?)

*A note that is for my Re-imagining, I am seriously considering not moving Pantheons from their native lands; since that leaves a kind of bad taste in my mouth and it makes the Gods and Olympus almost… too accessible for demigods; in the most likely case I’ll pull the Greek Pantheon back onto Olympus in Greece (and I will probably make a point that American demigods can and usually when they need to get to Olympus on their own, can access Olympus through the Olympic mountain range in Washington; I am in Washington, and therefore biased, along with that being the OLYMPIC mountain ranges, I mean, it’s RIGHT THERE guys; how could I not capitalize.) and I might possible move CJ over to being in Italy (though I like the Idea of having CJ just being right there in the Bay Area; before reading tLO and just hearing about them, I thought they were located in Italy, and this all depends on what I do once I start storyboarding Re-imagined) anyway, back on topic,

2) that I’d assume for the most part, as we see that New Rome likes setting Camps up 1) in the west, and 2) near rivers (and we can probably infer it would be somewhat closer to the Equator, or a warmer area). That I think the most likely place that in the Colonial Americas, Romans settled could be,

(This is all using names from Colonial times of Colonies)

A) in British Honduras (Belize); along the Belize river. As we know that Romans supported the British during the revolutionary war, it follows my criteria of being in a warmer climate, and near a river; though it isn’t exactly west, though in proportion to where the early Greek settlers would be, it certainly works, but it puts them far from the revolutionary and just USA so probably not; it’s the middle choice.

B) in New Spain (specifically the portion of California); along the Sacramento River. As Spain was a rising empire at some moment, it is along a river, warm climate, and certainly west. The fact that the Romans would have to be in American territory to still fight in the civil war; so this would be one of my more outlandish concepts.

C) in North Carolina (or just Carolina depending on the time) along the Cape Fear river. This puts them along a river, warm climate, not west but it would be in the direct opposite (as I’d put Greek demigods hiding out amongst the northern colonies or the middle colonies even) and it puts them both in a heavily loyalist (or a colony that supported being part of the British empire) colony; where it would be fitting for them to fight on the side of the Brits, AND a colony that would be in the Confederacy; meaning that they would be in prime position for both wars; I am quite proud of this, and if I needed to put a direct town as example for an area for Romans; I’d say Fayetteville, I’d put the legions settlement across from Fayetteville- in that strip of land between the main Cape Fear river and the river breaking off called south river I think. I am very proud of this one

But yeah! This post originally was going to be about the Iliad and the Odyssey; but I got side-tracked so there are some of my Colonial New Rome ideas, uh, I hope people see the sort of effort I put in for figuring out geological locations for ideas of Camp Jupiter; I might make a post of just a timeline for where Camp has been located through the years- it’s a fun little thought experiment, id also say pre- really big colonialism of the Americas, that the Romans temporarily were first with Spain (I didn’t chose Portugal despite the fact that during that time they had the whole seafaring empire thing, but the Greeks would totally be supporting them) then the Romans go with the British Empire, briefly go down to the confederacy, then stick with America.

I ❤️ Sally Jackson.

Also I haven’t posted anything in a while but that’s because I’m working on a giant post about a Camp Jupiter Map. That’s all, we love Mrs. Jackson.

Bryce Lawerence

Okay! Okay, I’m actually writing this. I spent my time walking to school about how much HoO doesn’t really use this character that I think would be great, but let’s start,

(P.S VARUS WILL GET HIS OWN POST)

Bryce Lawerence

If anyone needs the reminder; Bryce Lawerence is a character from BoO that tracks Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge down. He’s the one that like Nico turns into a ghost and drags to the underworld.

Bryce is canonically a legacy of Orcus with very potent powers- or like, he is very explicitly shown to be able to use many (not something that we see with many other Romans in HoO that aren’t the POVs)

We are told that he comes from a very high up family from New Rome (the only reason Reyna says he wasn’t executed was because his parents like paid off the senate or jury or whatever-)

And Bryce is shown to be sadistic, we are told that he tortured cats, caused chaos in the forum and supposedly killed his Centurion- despite the… dubious representation on possible mental disorders/ illnesses that could be placed on him. Rick wanted to imply that he was ‘psycho killer’ despite the stereotypes used to portray him as such.

Anyway Bryce is one of my favorite characters to emerge from HoO, which is a shame because literally like 3 other people care about him and everyone else only talks about him when in relation to Nico. But I personally think that -like many of the other members of Camp Jupiter/Romans- there was a big ball just dropped on how potentially interesting he may be! And I have concepts/headcanons/ whatever that I want to share on him :]

But Bryce Lawerence, i have to concepts for him. Personally I like the concept that (in my Re-imagining) he is the legionnaire that caused Gwen’s almost death. Though everyone decides to assume it was Octavian because apparently the POVs just want to hate him- I think it would be more interesting if it’s Bryce. Maybe before this give one of the POVs some interaction with him, or a passing thought/comment that ‘you don’t wanna hang around him Percy’ or whatever. Because that could lead to good setup to make Bryce a re-occurring problem/threat or at least give the readers a ‘OH THAT GUY!’ moment when he shows up in BoO. If we align it with how Id want a Camp Jupiter POV; like actually in CJ, love Hazel, Frank, Reyna, and not really Jason but kinda Jason but an actual character in Camp Jupiter that could give a show into what’s going on there, whether that be camera behavior OR to have actual Character; expand and help the overall characterization of CJ and it’s legionnaires, while possibly making Bryce more of a threat (Idk if that whole thing made sense)

Quick sort of related to the whole ‘when does Bryce murder his centurion’ If I remember it correctly; the book (BoO) seems to imply that it was Reyna having to deal with the trial all by herself because Jason was gone- I don’t know if I’m Misremembering but that places the fact that Bryce has (in the canon timeline) around like what, eight months to murder his centurion, get tried, and exiled before SoN? Unless we assume that he was still there while Percy was at CJ and he simply wasn’t mentioned- if so that would feel a little like a missed opportunity, and puts a remarkably short time to when he’d have to get exiled between MoA and HoH, when Reyna implies that he’s been gone for a looong time.

Which of course leads to the second concept and the probably more Canon idea. Bryce killed his centurion sometime during the second Titanomachy (Second Titan war? I don’t know what terminology we’re using at this point in time) but; this is a good way to both make it believable that the Jury, senate, whatever, would let him off with an Exile for the murder of a officer or whatever. BUT it also maps onto the implication Reyna has that its been a long time since she’s seen Bryce. Along with that what I was talking about at the beginning of this bullet point; I think they say that his Centurion was murdered during the war games but I’m not 100% on that info- but he could’ve easily had planned this to murder them during the Siege on Mt.Tam, or whatever battles there was on the Roman side. It means they’d have to rely on much more circumstantial evidence (that we’re told was already the heap of their information for the canon trial) and it could easily be taken in tandem with his family influencing his sentencing to be a exiling(?) and I think the idea makes more sense- and if we place the trial happening during TLH, it still has Reyna as the only Praetor to like do the thing.

I like giving Bryce traits like being overprotective, awkward, he attaches to people quickly, a hot-head, etc, etc. I just like giving him character traits that help give him depth- or something of the sort, in what I’m imagining it would add more of a sense of worry and dread when Bruce is friendly and seems genuinely okay, a little weird and awkward, but okay. And then a colder calculating, sadistic side. He always is sadistic I’m not saying this is like a ‘oh he snaps’ type of moment, but more of a- there are occasions when the facade slips, or times when he just does. I add poor impulse control onto lists of things that I characterize him with- either that’s out of the blue buying a new sword, or full force slamming someone into the wall.

I also consider the Lawerence family to be currently on their third generation of Demigods- or legacies? God-related. And Bryce has a younger sister. It’s not very relevant because I haven’t expanded on the concept a lot but he has a little sister that’s like 6 and they have a surprisingly good relationship.

Okay I currently feel like a sickly Victorian child on my last legs- so I’m going to wrap this post up quick, let’s hope I work of the Varus one.

I live!

Aaaa- okay, I haven’t posted in.. a while. And that. Is probably because I’ve generally been a little unmotivated, I’m gonna stop making the maps for a little because they are draining and I’m not very interested in it for a moment so they can be put on the back burner. What I will be doing though, is working on the ranking revamp- it’s a (very unsurpsing) shocker that Roman military ranks are a little confusing (I’ve had to re-read some articles like 15 times and I’m gonna first try and find some diagrams that will present me with an easy place to begin branching).

But I have been halting my posting for a bit because I have been, pretty busy. Just got to quarter 2 of school, and a lot of work. We had to write a narrative so I tried out my cool character for a spin and was working on integrating my Re-imagine of CJ inside it- I got to mention Fontus so that was a pretty rad day.

And I love Thomas Jefferson JR From Magnus chase. When I read the books know that he will be the main reason I will read. Live, laugh, love TJ Jr.

But sorry- I have a lot going on. And a lot of people don’t really read this stuff for super transformative content, but I still feel a little bad for not putting things out-

Anyway, next thing that I pinky promise I’ll work on is talking about Bryce Lawerence. He’s only mentioned in BoO and I have strong opinions on him. He’s also my 6th favorite character; don’t come for me.

And maybe after that or inside it- a Michael Varus thing. Since I made my main OC directly related to him there’s no doubt that I do really like him, and I’m a little sad they like- kind of fell short with the opportunity to use him and stuff (Most of my HC are just my fabrication because we know actually nothing about him!!)

Plus here’s some art of updated (my OC) Mercury 👀,

I live-!

It’s only been a day or two since I’ve posted; but that’s just because I’ve been doing school things and all that jazz; but I feel like there’s some cool things I should share; because really I think people just like having an unspoken community and support of other people who like writing for Octavian- and I love him too, but there’s only so much I can say about him without talking about my OC (who I love talking about, but no one really cares lol) however what I am going to do; seeing as I’m reading,

The Iliad; almost finished with it, and I’ll probably say some things (for any specifications I’m talking about the penguin deluxe version; translated by Robert Fagles)

The Odyssey; haven’t started yet, but I’ll do more update and post as I read versus the sort of retrospective I have to do with the Iliad

The Aeneid; I’ll read it after the Odyssey, and I’m excited because Rome is one of my special interests :] (it’s the best way I can put it, but Rome and the PJO franchise are my special interests) and I’m excited to just read a like good Segway into more older literary readings!

My class is also reading the first PJO book (tLT) and I’ve been annotating my personal copy (just sticky note flags) and I’ll probably talk about it (and just generally re-visit the OG series and see how my opinions have changed; if Luke still gets to be the favorite from the first series) so I’ll probably talk about that (Chapter 17 and Chapter 20 are my favorites and I get to read them!! Along with Chapter 21 which is rad too B])

TSOA; I’m holding off on reading The Song Of Achilles (mostly because I’m too scared to pick up my copy and actually read) but when I do work up my courage I’ll report back (just begging Thetis isn’t as bad as people tell me they interpreted her as)

ToA; wild I haven’t read Trials of Apollo I know; but I had to pause it to read the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid- so I’ll get back to that and I’m really excited to, because of the Emperors and my (personal) favorite Emperor shows up (it feels weird to say I have a favorite Roman Emperor, but he’s really the one I like reading the most on, because I find him interesting; and no, I won’t be admitting it at the moment)

All of the companion books to PJO/HoO/ToA; not any of the spin-off series, but things like the guide books, Demigod Diaries/files, Greek Gods, Greek heroes, those ones :]

tKC(?); the Kane Chronicles, I’ll probably end up reading Magnus Archives first (because guys I heard Pansexual representation in Magnus and I need a new character to giggle about and I really wanna see Alex and TJ. Jr (feels like such a random and specific character but I’m just excited to see the silly)

Magnus Archives; as I said instead of talking about the Kane Chronicles (I might have to read the Graphic novels for those because the first chapter book could not hold my attention span but the first graphic novel did)

Also Sun and The Stars; I totally didn’t forget about this because I genuinely have an irrational dislike toward Nico; even though I love him I still disagree on a character level for him to kill off two characters I really like (one of which only gets like 2 pages of screen time) but I’ll try because I want more Bob content and I want it now! Also my friend marked all the Mr. D pages for me and that’s very nice

That’s all the books I can think of at the moment; then I have some projects too-

Lorica Hamanata(?); I’m too lazy currently to go look up the spelling, but I am working on making the Chestplate and I’ll probably fill people in while I do so

Cardboard Riptide; I’m making Riptide out of Cardboard! Haven’t worked on it in a while but I am :] I’ll show pics when I’m done

The Camp Jupiter/HoO/Maybe-just-Pjo/HoO/ToA re-imaging; uhhh, im working on it; I don’t know how many people want to see some random internet users re-imaginings of things like this- but I like having it down someplace

Probably more Octavian Sillies; I’ll probably write more on Octavian; he’s my favorite fictional character in general, I relate to him probably a little more than I should and I just like talking about my thoughts on him!

Calliope- my OC that got some posts that only my friend saw; she is probably a bad character but I love her and I think publicly showing her process is a good way to just improve my writing skills; which segways nicely to,

The Nine Au/HoO Au/ me and my friend arbitrarily shove our OCs into the seven and I try to make it make sense with their narrative arcs/ we also put a bunch of our different Ocs in there as background characters so there are minor characters; pretty much what I just said; my friend runs a mainly art-blog, but just know we both are working on this, and I do really want to talk about this because we put hard work into it and I want to share it

Okay; you (random audience I’ve decided that I apparently have) probably don’t care, and just like seeing me go ‘hehe this is Octavian, I like Rome :3’ and I also like doing that- but these are things I genuinely want to do and use my blog for!

(I’m also going to make a post about my headcanons on Camp Jupiter kids fatal flaws hc soon👀)

Anyway, byeeeeee!!