Talking about Percy Jackson and the Riordanverse
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- I feel like some of you haven't overthought this the way I have.
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0:00 - Intro + Magnus Chase
17:05 - Riordanverse 
Развлечения
Rick Riordan’s writing kids books and he’s giving Marvel a run for their money with these expanded universes.
If you like this kind of thing you should check Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere.
It’s not on any level as MCU. But ok.
@@nagendrapercy9510 It's not meant to be lol I personally find Percy Jackson more interesting than MCU but I prefer Marvel over it because I grew up with Marvel but Percy Jackson rocks and the series is amazing.
@@maxmacraft6614 I love percy Jackson too.. but thinking pjo universe is more interconnected than something like Marvel is just .. I don’t wanna say stupid.. it seems offensive.. well it’s just wrong.. all that’s connecting riordan erase is the brief cameos and mentions atleast as of now.. while I love those books very much.. it’s expanded universe is nowhere near something like MCU.. or even cosmere imo.
@@riley8385 highly second this. And much more complex and compelling plots too. You can start with mistborn trilogy and then go on to stormlight archive, warbreaker etc.
To be fair, Loki does the "gender change" thing quite a bit. So Loki being Alex's mother is essentially just another Tuesday. As is Alex inheriting this kind of ability.
Loki did give birth to Sleipnir after all
@@V2ULTRAKill He kinda give birth to every mythological, mega-dangerous monster, including The World-Serpent, and giant-wolfie boy. (Which you may have mentioned, but I cannot remember their Norse names for the life of me)
@@master0fthearts894 Jörmungandr 🐍 and Fenrir 🐺
@Elise Schureck I mean, if you inherit shapeshifting abilities, it kinda is haha.
Imagine being constraint by gender when you can literally be any sentient being at any moment.
@Elise Schureck This may seems a bit weird, but changing sex doesn't means that the gender have to be changed, haven't it?
Loki makes a lot more sense as a villain than Hel or Jormungandr. They're both living pretty decent lives, while Loki is in his own personal hell. He has the most to gain from the world ending out of anyone in the position to end it.
So if Jesus is real in this universe then when are we getting the book about crusaders going into hell to kill Satan
God of War 7 (2029)
Eh, it’s a roll of dice if Jesus would actually be comfortable with allowing his followers to try and murder someone, no matter how bad. Although, that *could* be the internal, group conflict in a story like that, where the main character has to go against direct orders to do what he thinks is right/necessary.
Wait, did I just write 1/4th of the story for one of the later books?
Going by what we know, Jesus wouldn't be a big fan of the Crusaders at all.
@@evaar5231
Agreed.
Corruption, adultery, pedophilia, murder, persecution, purposefully mistranslating Bible verses (Revelations 22:18-19 even describes your punishment if you do this to Revelations), etc
Lots of things against what Jesus taught.
That's Already come out. Its called Montero by Li'l Nas X
At the very end, in Magnus Chase it is implied that the Norse gods spent basically the entire last book preparing for Ragnarok instead of trying to prevent it. The reason they did that was because they have a very fatalistic outlook. They all know how and where they are going to die so why fight it, is basically their thinking from how i remember interpreting that last book.
@Babba Yaaga I'm pretty sure in the mythos Odin tried to prevent it by locking up Fenrir.
I think that's a rather dull way to look at a culture whose implicit driving force was not to fatalistically accept the inevitable end, but to face the end with courage. Not saying your interpretation of the books is wrong, just that if that is indeed what the writer did to them, wow. Hopefully the main heroes will show them their roots.
@@Tracker947 just my opinion, a universe where fate is confirmed, like the Gods literally know their destiny, like to the degree that they know where they're gonna die and who is gonna kill them, I think fatalism is just the norm. So they know how their story ends, after knowing it for so long, it would probably make them apathetic like, ya just end it already. Only cuz others want to delay ragnarok does it actually get delayed
Yo, can we talk about how Riordan has the most hilarious chapter titles?
“I do mighty combat with eggs.”
“I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher.”
“I chopped these onions,
with my ex-godly hands,
*you better eat them.”*
“Phil the Potato meets his doom.”
It’s not only funny and hilarious, but it also makes you think: How in the world is the author going to incorporate making combat with, of all things, *eggs in his story!?!?”*
The ridiculous chapter titles are one of the best parts of his books, I was sad that the Heroes of Olympus books didn’t have them but those books do have more chapters than most of his other stories because of all the perspective switching (which is another great thing about that series) but it’s a shame nine if those books had any chapter titles aside from a number and the POV character’s name
@@LordPyro25 I love the detail that every Trails of Apollo chapter is a poem! :D
@@LordPyro25 As for the lame chapter titles, I think a good compromise between the two would be to have the characters name pop up for the most part, but for there to be an interesting/hilarious chapter title every ten chapters. I don’t blame him for doing it to minimize the workflow, especially because it’s very densely packed, and the writing quality is so great, but on the next “Avengers” series of the Riordan-Verse, (Yes, I think HOO is like an Avengers movie, because team up- big threat in Gaia [Fairly certain I got the name wrong] and in the god-giant combos, with an expansion into Roman mythology, it’s basically Phase 1 of the Avengers in the Riordan-Verse) if there is enough extra time to squeeze in some hilarious, brilliant, and downright stupid chapter titles every 10 Chapters, I’m happy. 😀
“Thalia torches London” or whatever
@@onelonelypotato7204 Someone make that a solo book.
there are three cross-over books between the kane chronicles and percy jackson. they weren't as popular but they are out there! they explore how the two worlds interact and bring up some stuff about historically when greek/roman/egyptian cultures were mixed in alexandrian egypt.
I agree though, definitely missed an opportunity to do more with that idea
if I'm honest the way percy/anabeth/nico fit with carter/sadie in the traditional 5 man band structure always made me think mixing them together was the original idea, but that it never took off or something
@@EFO841 that I think would honestly be better than the heroes of olympus we got.
@@EFO841 Who knows why, that'd be cool as hell. I've kind of moved on from books like Percy Jackson. Going from reading the Wheel of Time and Stormlight Archive to Percy Jackson is a mindfuck. Books are simple, meant for kids so duh but yeah. I'd still read something like that though. It would be fun. He still can! And should!
I kinda wish he did the same thing Harry Potter did and grew up with the audience a bit. He could have changed genres with different series set in different mythologies.
I’ve always referred to Jack as his own character, ngl.
I think jack would be really offended if you didn’t
@@august1837 tru tru (i guess jack now has a grudge on james??)
@@juliannechen9094 Yeah, Jack is too much of a stand-out to *not* be a character.
James talked about how the limitations aren’t great, but he forgot to mention the limitation that Magnus would have to deal with Jack all day, lol.
@@eslidrummond7645 Rest assured, he is.
The fact that Jack always wanted to have the attention. Like as if they are in a relationship or something. I mean with his "blades before babes" thing. Also, dude is horrible at sing and obnoxiously annoying. ;^; He's still fun though.
Unironically, Nico helped me realize that I was gay. I still remember Zephyros saying “Yes I fell in love with a Dude, Jason Grace.” And when Nico, a character that I had always related to, said that he had a crush on Percy, that caused a little introspection and a realization. Needless to say I might be biased towards Heroes of Olympus.
Thats not bias, but good taste
That went over my head in 4th grade (don’t question why), but I’m real glad that this kind of representation is present in books directed to kids
It was a nice touch I agree, but in Trials of Apollo I think Riordan was pressured into incorporating LGBT characters in the series. It felt kinda forced but idk that's just me
MemzStuff HT I only read the first book in that series because I eventually stopped reading at the time. But never got that impression. Some people will use that as an excuse to never have gay characters, gay characters must never bring it up even in the gay equivalent of what straight characters do to signal to their heterosexuality, they must be ten thousand times as coy. Obviously this is because we want gay CHARACTERS not GAY characters(nvm the fact that this is often just used as a bludgeon against feminine gay men or characters who are open about who they are and I truly detest this sentiment “gays I respect vs gays I don’t” that old meme.). But that’s a trend I’ve noticed ‘forced’ is so easily used as a subtle vessels for homophobia and just regressives who don’t want gay people to exist in media. Although, I do think that some ineffectual liberal shows that want both gay and homophobe money and queerbait the fuck out of their audience when the representation is the only thing keeping people watching your stupid show and ignoring the bullshit need to fuck off. I’m afraid of talk of forced because if I’m not careful I accept the framing of my various foes who want to move the goalposts to not even allow gay characters at all. I was watching a RUclipsr Rowan Ellis, or Council of Geeks, and they showed a clip from a show where a man was very concerned about the safety of the other man after what I assume to be an accident who says how worried he was and the other man walks up and embraces and kisses him to assuage his worry. Gods I want more of that. If by forced you mean the tendency for us to be portrayed as nothing but the status symbols and pets of straight women I’ll gladly agree. Fuck the gay character who we never meet their boyfriend(Paranorman), honestly there’s another trope I hate called “last minute gays” (aka oh good the series is in its final episode we’ll confirm the gay characters on that one while we could have done it in season 2 or even 1, allowing them all the romantic and cute moments and escapades that the straight characters experienced, but no we do it on the last episode.) (Double honestly, I feel the same way about vampire stories where they become one in the last book, like fuck twilight would have been better if Bella became a vampire in the first book, or her depression becomes a rage that she already showed she possessed in the first book, and armed with the knowledge of the volturi and more accurate knowledge of vampires to get their serious attention and her yet to be discovered status as a shield could be leveraged to join the volturi. Though Edward x Beau is so much better and cuter than the straight version.
@@alephanull1953 I think it’s hard to force anything like that…. Mind explaining what you mean cause I don’t get that lol
The interesting thing about the villains (at least from PJO and HOO) is that if the villains just left the Mortal World completely and didn’t hurt the Half-Bloods, I could see no one bothering to stop them.
yeah trials of apollo was refreshing imo, apollo's perspective as a literal god is pretty entertaining
And also his realisation of him being an absolute asshole
@@cuddlycuttlefish5674 c h a r a c t e r d e v e l o p m e n t
@@yoongitrash2699 the character development is INSANE. How Apollo goes from annoying and insufferable to a character that I want to hug and protect is insane. It's so hard to make annoying characters naturally grow away from that and you can literally watch as he develops a conscience. I could go on about it forever but damn those books were good.
Ok, there are so many things I can comment about in this video. But there is one thing I feel so strongly about.
I’m so dam tired of the comparisons to Harry Potter, even going so far as to calling Percy Jackson a Harry Potter clone. I agree. The similarities are there. The the character arc outline. The plot of just the first book. The character archetypes, though the only similarity there is hermione and Annabeth, and in truth, literally the only thing they have in common is being smart. And Grover and Ron are so unbelievably different. The only thing they have in common is being the main characters’ male best friend.
But honestly, the similarities to Harry Potter in terms of plot die by the second book. Yes, we have a prophecy, but it actually makes perfect sense to have a prophecy in Percy Jackson because of the influences from Greek mythology. And at the end, it is explicitly said that Percy was never the hero of the prophecy, so that breaks the formula.
Even though Percy and harry somewhat have the same character arc, they are very different characters. I think the first sentence of each series is enough of an indication of how different these series actually are.
I can ramble about this all’ day, but I will stop.
Sorry if this comes off as angry. I’m just tired of hearing this
Thats why he refers to it as a good "clone": it clearly takes inspiration from HP, but it also manages to be its own unique story that stands on its own feet. Calling Percy Jackson a clone is a bit derogatory, but I think most viewers understood that he was being facetious
That’s a dam nice way to put it
I'm also very tired of the harry potter comparisons. If anything, the first series was an obvious nod to the Odyssey. The books are based off great myths, of course they would mimic epic poems. Harry Potter is a mess comparatively.
@@gates6444 true! the sea of monsters is literally The Odyssey [Teenagers Edition]
Is there a forum where people can ramble about PJ all day long? Cuz I could too
Magnus is a supporter as a character since hes useless solo in combat, also Magnus having all this cool shit is balanced be the fact that every other character has cooler shit.
I've always liked the idea of the protagonist having power more along the lines of support than combat.
Yeah I like the idea that he is not a fighter
I found it really refreshing to have an actually kinda lame protagonist. Magnus Chase was my bread and butter as a preteen, and even now 4 years later I still love it and find myself thinking of the characters
I also had a big, embarrassing crush on Alex so there's that I guess.
yeah he’s definetly not OP he’s either incapacitated or having someone else do the fighting for him, or just being very bad at it. it was really nice to see
Magness has cool powers but he’s also a coward who can’t fight.
Overly Sarcastic Productions might have some words about that statement of Loki being the villain of Norse mythology
Yeah, but OSP also said that mythology is of it’s time, so...
@@master0fthearts894 Yeah but the religion doesn't exist anymore. So all we can do is make fanfic of the mythology. The religion is gone so in that sense the stories have just stopped developing.
@@whiterabbit7147 Not really, I wouldn’t really say that it “doesn’t exist.” I mean, there’s probably *someone* out there who still worships Norse gods or the modern-day Norse Gods, and with God of War, Riordans Books, the MCU movies, and a bunch of other content that I likely haven’t noticed. It may not be worshiped as it was at the time, but the stories haven’t stopped developing- if anything, they quadrupled.
I mean, a lot of religion is based on it’s effect on day-to-day lives, and movies are used to inspire people, spread messages to the masses, repeatedly used for marketing, and is one of the biggest forms of communication. In a way, we can say that fiction is a religion based in the effect it has on our lives...
I’m so sorry for opening this huge can-of-worms, I’ll be looking forward to watching people wrapping their heads on the statement that fiction = religion.
@@master0fthearts894 I retract my statement that the stories have stopped developing. But I wouldn't say that fiction = religion. We don't worship or look up to works of fiction. Typically with religions you believe in the stories to some extent, and while fictional media is used to spread messages and for metaphors, that sounds more like folk tales rather than a religion (We do sacrifice things for them though, like our time and emotional stability)
@@whiterabbit7147 there straight up are people who still believe in Norse myths.
James says he finished the book in three days.
Me, who gave up food, drink and sleep to finish it in one: Weakness disgusts me
Me who finishes a novel of that size in four hours or less: what were you giving up sleep for?? XD
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me
@@leahdavis9434 same lol. Speedreader gang
@@leahdavis9434 1 or 2 hours for me as well. Depends how motivated I am though.
I usually finish them in about 4-5 hours total. I probably read to fast for my own good tho
I read PJO when I was 14, I had never read HP. I loved those books. I'm 26 and I still enjoy them. I own every book.
I gifted first PJO book to my stepbrother when he was 10. He fell in love with reading because of these books. I'm so proud of him. Now at 13 he has started to study English and I just borrowed him every single Riordan book I own in English and he has read all of them in half a year. I'm hoping to get him to read Sanderson in a couple of years 😀
My sister also started reading pjo when she was ten, and she likes it more than Harry Potter, which she started reading before, but give up on. I'm very happy that she enjoys this series, it's very cool and it's still one of my faves
Favorite moments
They all team up and take down Jesus idea - 32:32
James based as always - 27:10
Hell yeah colorado - 30:18
Existential dread - 9:30
I don't trust teenagers - 28:06
Bye - 37:16
These could be Riordan chapter titles
Of all fiction I've read riordanverse reads most like a TTRPG. oh and if you want to see the expanded universe. The Kane chronicles and Percy Jackson did a crossover mini-series. Son of Sobek, Staff of Serapis and Crown of Ptolemy. I got them in Ebook form I've never seen them in bookstores though
You can buy all three as a single hardcopy. :)
@@ESPHMacD I have
It prolly reads like a TTRPG bc many of those games (like D&D) are based on medieval Europe and their myths, which are derived from things like the Romans and Greeks. So they've got very similar source material!
I'm from Germany and I see them in Book stores all the time 🤔
I found the way in which Riordan brings locations in the US or other places to life (even if I haven't been to most of these locations) in his books great and also really like the roadtrip aspect of it.
I feel like that's why I loved American Gods so much when I read it much later, it feels like the grown-up equivalent, even if Riordan and Gaiman have very different writing styles and the books tackle mythology in vastly different ways.
yea fr the road trip vibe is so fucking good
The reason why Loki is the villain in modern fiction is because he often is that in real norse mythology, as well as he's more relatable than jörmungandr or hel, who are basically only evil
Aztec's were also implied in one of the smaller side books, along with another one that I won't mention because of spoilers.
@@scratchsoft2347 yes. I precisely remember saying that he wouldn’t be surprised if his other cousin was the son of an ancient Aztec god.
@@Isai314 at one point in time, he was joking about jumping into Ginnungagap if his second cousin was the granddaughter of Quetzalcoatl.
Funny thing is that a fan made a trilogy in spanish for the Aztec Gods. And it really feels like a Rick Ryodan book
teaming up to defeat jesus? i havent read riordanverse in a while but id come back for that
I disagree with Magnus being an "overpowered character" for 7 reasons:
1.) As I was reading the books, Magnus, to me addlest, wasn't really a fighter like Percy. To me, he was the heart and the healer, he was what kept the group together.
2.) Jack is his own character, to me he used Magnus as a battery and only listened to Magnus because he was nice to Jack. Also I would like to point out that in the Second book, it was mentioned that without Jack, Magnus was terrible at sword fighting.
3.) Unlike Percy, Magnus' Dad-Frey- wasn't a popular Norse God like Odin or Thor; again in Book 2, Magnus mentioned that most people didn't know who his dad was because so few of his children made it to Halhala. He only ever got street credit from the dickhead light elves.
4.) His backstory made him more compelling and tragic, despite losing his mum at a young age and was forced to live on the streets, he still did the right thing ( unlike some characters *cough* Luke *cough*) Also his backstory made him a very compassionate and empathic person because he met different types of homeless people.
5.) Having a protagonist that is very powerful is very up keeping with norse mythology (read any Thor myth, he practically hits all his problems on the head with his hammer)
6.) Magnus isn't even the most powerful member of the group-
a.) Hearthstone can do rune magic, which solves most of their problems
b.) Samirah al-Abbas was a skilled
Valkyrie who was trained personally by Odin
c.) Alex Fierro was a powerful shapeshifter
d.) Jack, the Summer Sword
7.) Throughout the series, most of the major conflicts weren't solved by fighting.
Book 1 they used Jack to tie Fenris
Book 2 they had to stop a wedding and were banking on Thor and his buddies to help. They ended up failing and Loki got away.
Book 3 Magnus defeated loki by boosting up his friends and causing Loki to shrink into a walnut.
Yeah, also reminder how his "overpowered all doing sentient sword" literally dropped dead mid-fight with a magic assassin (or was it somewhere else) becouse "everytime is good for training, Jack is truly his own special character.
^This right here is why Magnus is my favorite protagonist within the Riordan-verse.
Jack is so entitled that he felt that the battles in Valhalla are beneath him and doesn't help Magnus. Truly, I don't see him as not a character.
James: “All the other pantheons team up to take down Jesus”
Me: I👏 Am👏 Dead👏
They’re all just really salty that Christianity is the most popular. They’re not even doing it for the sake of good, it’s just pure vanity, and it would’ve been *grrreeeeaaaatttt!*
@@master0fthearts894 makes sense considering how vain the gods are depicted as being in universe lmao
@@Dell-ol6hb Yep, that’s why I came up with it! 🤣
So basically Dr Manhattan vs DC universe
Demigods vs crusaders, alright!
I wonder if part of the Fantasy hero archetype includes: Dark messy hair with green eyes.
The earliest green eyed hero I know of is Paul Atriedes from Dune. All those adaptations of Dune but his eye color wasn't brought up,Dune Fans can teach other fanbases on how to not be hung up on appearances.
"Trials of apollo, which I haven't read" -you and every early PJ fan
damn so it's not just me
@@lettuceprime4922 I started reading the first book in my most recent reread but for some reason I never finished it. I feel like it's weirdly common for the original fans not to finish ToA? It's weird lol, I'd love to know exactly why
@@inkynewt i mean i read pjo as it was coming out (iirc Titan's Curse had just released) about 14 years ago now. in my case i'm just not a kid anymore. the books are excellent, don't get me wrong, but i stopped keeping up after House of Hades. i have Blood of Olympus but i never got around to finishing it lol.
@@lettuceprime4922 I think my experience was similar. I loved the original series but I'd aged out by the second one and definitely never got into any of the spin offs. On my most recent re-read I remember liking ToA a lot but also feeling pretty burnt out by the series at that point. (I'd read both original Greek/roman series in half a week each, and rolled right on into Trials of Apollo), so that's probably why I didn't finish it this time. I was really exhausted and half of what I was reading for at that point was gay representation in a media source that didn't make the characters being gay their whole point. (Not saying ToA wasn't good for that, just that at that point my adult brain was losing focus on the somewhat episodic nature of the series' structure. Also there's something to be said for the fact that these books weren't MEANT to be read back to back to back over a single week.)
@@inkynewt - I just don't read as often as I should anymore. I used to devour books in afternoons, but I haven't really been able to get into anything unless it was for a class (although I can still read memoir pretty quickly so 🙏). It's definitely been a long-ass time since I've reread any Riordan series - or any series from my childhood - in its entirety.
I did read Kane Chronicles as they were coming out. I think another symptom of being an old PJO fan out of the saddle is feeling like those books have been erased from history, to hear most people talk lolol. I remember really enjoying them until about the last one.
I would LOVE a review of the Heroes of Olympus series
Just wanted to mention a thing about Ragnarök, which you spoke of at around 9:40-ish. Ragnarök isn't actually about the end of the world, just the destruction of the current world order, and some people actually survive to start anew, like Baldr and his brother, and two humans. It's more like wiping the slate, out with the old and corrupted and in with the new and pure, and it being seen as a horrible apocalypse was a later occurrence. The unknown people who wrote the Poetic Edda, the oldest surviving text detailing Ragnarök, lived after a majority of Scandinavia had already been christianized. And no sources from a pre-christianized Scandinavia describing Ragnarök exist, so the best image we currently have of Norse mythology is one after the people who believed in it had mostly died, been converted to Christianity or not had the ability to write it down, so take even the Poetics Edda with a grain of salt. Also, Loki isn't evil.
Edit: Snorri Sturluson wrote the Proes edda, not the Poetic edda, I apologize for my mistake, I have corrected it.
TL;DR
Ragnarök in the actual mythology isn't the horrible apocalypse people think it is
I don't know how far I would trust the writings of ANYONE named Snorri...
Yeah, but it‘s definitely the event with the *highest* kill-count in Norse-Mythology.
@@azurastar3223 This may come as a surprise to you, but back then, names like those were pretty common, especially with Vikings.
That of course depends on your interpretation, but I'd say Ragnarök is an apocalyptic event. After all Hinduism also has the world be reformed after its destruction and in Christianity Earth becomes the Kingdom of God after the apocalypse. Also Snorri wrote the Prose Edda, the Poetical Edda is an anonymous collection of pre-Christian poems
@@jaojao1768
Oh sorry, I named the wrong author, I'll fix that right now
“I’ll be talking about the movie at some point this month”
*Rubs hands together*
Trials of Apollo is AMAZING! I HIGHLY recommend it! Apollo's character development is GOD TIER(pun intended), Solangelo, and what happened in the Burning Maze!
And the character deaths are the best in this!
There's a book that's made up of three short stories, where percy, anabeth, carter and sadie team up to fight a threat (being vague in order not to spoil it.) I have never heard of a show called american gods, but theres a novel by neil gaiman with that title that I can definitely recommend.
Also: I am once again asking -for your financial support- you to review Qualityland.
The show is based on the book and actually fairly decent.
About Magnus, I fully agree that the Norse gods, at least those who are shown, come out more silly than intimidating, specially Odin, which doesn't really come off as an idiot but more like a "he do things his own weird absurd way but they still work so... meh" guy, one big issue about Magnus is the way Rick portraid him through the books: in Sword of Summer, his mother makes a statement that he is a very intelligent guy, but the more the books goes on he get more and more dull, and not in a "ignorant of the new magic world he just fell in" urban fantasy type of dull, just dull as concrete some times... which is a shame since the Norse Books are my personal faves (aknoledging their flaws, but they still touch my inner strings... plus Magnus is a very important pansex icon for me...). I also think that Loki, as overused as he is, is still the better choice for the main villain since he is the symbol of how the gods (Odin in particular) condemned themselves to Ragnarok with their own hands and how our heroes in the end are but a faction of a greater war, theme that is shared with Percy Jackson. And a reason as to why both MC and KC feels weaker that PJ is simply becouse the Greek (and Roman) Books had more books and time to be developed both worldbuilding wise and character wise; I really hope for a MC expansion since in "Ship of the Dead" he thinks about pending matter left undone like his mother's soul in Hell.
If you didn't red ToA I'd rather not spoil anything but...:
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the books are filled with constant "cameos" and reference to others pantheons and religion, both known and new, with ints at African and Native American's deities up to the last book where there is A BIG ASSUMPTION of a future crossover of the series, even tho I'm curious to see how Rick will use Percy since he stated that he wanted to let him enjoy his victories while still making him do small cameos like in Magnus Chase.
much as I'd love to see an Avengers Endgame style epic crossover between ALL the Heroes, honestly the Riordanverse feels played out. He is clearly done with it and has nothing set up to continue it on, he would have to handwave a lot of bs, which he already has to do, to even make it possible
I like the idea of an expanded, interconnected Riordan-verse but I just feel it wouldn’t work with how publication and how books are marketed. Especially because Rick writes for a middle grade audience and isolating a lot of readers by implementing a whole new set of books into a single series wouldn’t really be a good move (sorry if I’m not explaining it well, I just think marketability and overall readability would get in the way of the overarching story idea). But I do think he has implemented some fun ideas in that vein (Apollo, in his book, makes some jokes and references to other gods).
Also you said that they never really say “gay” in the heroes of Olympus books and I think that’s because Riordan publishes under Disney. Imo he was able to get off with saying the lgbt-word in later books because those books were made later and were given less attention. Sadly the effects of the Hayes codes are still felt on the media but it was nice to hear you touch on the diverse reputation in the books. I think what really perfected the potter formula was riordan’s willingness to go with a new younger audience and how he writes them to be relatable and ever-changing. I’m glad that a new generation of kids had the opportunity to see such a diverse picture in the media they consume.
They say gay in Trials of Apollo, and I don't know if Riordan worked with Disney at the time of Heroes of Olympus
I heard that it didn’t say gay because they wanted to publish the books in countries where the lgbtq+ is banned
Please read trials apollo! It's really good, plus you might be getting your Pantheon collision wish, because in the last book it's mentioned that chiron is talking to God from other pantheons! I think Rick is working on another series that he hasn't told us about yet but I think all of the pantheons are going to collide one of these days soon so you really should read the trials of Apollo they are amazing not my favorite at all but still really good
i thought i read an article that he’s done with the riordanverse and is starting a new book
@@Alice-gr1kb if he done with the whole universe, or just done with the theory set in camp half-blood? Because frankly the way he ended the tower of nero does not feel like a serious conclusion, it feels like set up for something else!
@@lahlybird895 I heard he just completed a degree on Celtic mythology so I guess that'll be the next installment in the Riordanverse.
@@poankiyu7664 ooooo, that would be cool
The next one is probably gonna be celtic methodology from what I heard
I think the whole "it uses as much energy as it would take for you to perform an attack" would feel a little more balanced if there was a time when Magnus passes out and someone straight up gets injured of dies because he isn't around to protect them. The trouble with him passing out after fights is that the fights are almost always over anyway when he does or else he just uses willpower to keep going. It doesn't feel like a drawback because enemy's don't take advantage of it
This was a great video about my childhood!
I personally like the Magnus Chase series the best
genderfluid person here, you were showing a little hesitation about "male day" etc to describe alex so i figured i should say its totally fine (and probably the most common way of doing it? i think?)
also we are as confused about ourselves as others are about us lmao
I feel that last sentence on a personal level lol
thank you for explaining, i wasn’t sure how it worked either
time to see how you deconstruct my childhood bro
Great video made me laugh a few times. Love riordan verse and Percy Jackson is also very nostalgic
I just started the video, of you say a single slanderous thing about PJO... I’ll still like the video and keep watching your channel lol.
The chad lad and his chad topic 👌
We need a battle to the death between Rick Riordan and Cassandra Clare to see who gets to continue to use a character named "Magnus." Too confusing otherwise.
I think he dedicated the Sword of Summer to Cassandra Clare for that exact reason XD
I really think you should give Trials of Apollo another shot. It's a little slow near the beginning, but once you're in, the series gets amazing.
I'll be the first to admit, the conflict is a bit weak compared to the other series. But it really shines in the way it uses what's already established, while also introducing new elements to the world. And the Character Development. I've read series that are longer than Trials of Apollo, and yet, fail to do as good character arcs as that of Apollo in this series.
Plus, the humour is top notch in this series.
It's probably the most grown up series Riordan has written, and for good reason. You'd have grown up reading atleast ten of his books before this series.
I’m so glad someone appreciates this series as much as I do. I’ve heard some people say that Apollo is the weakest of Rick’s protagonists, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, the conflict is a bit weak, but this series really places focus on characters. Apollo is the most notable. His arc is absolutely incredible, and he is easily the most complex protagonist rick has ever written. But we also get a focus on meg, Jason, piper, frank, and reyna. This series also helps tie together some loose threads from HOO.
And the humor is amazing. All of Rick’s work is funny, but this series has at least three laugh out loud moments in each chapter, not to mention the chapter title themselves.
This is an unpopular opinion, but this just might be my favorite Riordanverse series. I can talk about it all day
I really loved this series i hope James reads it
@@august1837 I think all the trials of apollo books are great except for the fourth wich Lavina asimov significantly degraded.
@@yko_7313 I admit. The forth is probably my favorite, but that’s completely my opinion. Reyna is my favorite character, and her presence in this book really elevated the experience for me. But yeah, this book would have been much better without Lavinia. You’re actually the first person I’ve heard say something negative about her. It really frustrates me how she became a fan favorite, and how she was painted as the hero at the end of the book. I would have given anything to spend all of her page time with reyna instead before she joined the hunters
@@august1837 the fourth is really a mixed bag for me because Reyna's arc was amazing but Lavina to me as a Jewish guy was very close to trash.
i'd just managed to erase the pj movies from my memory....
Those movies are so terrible that even without watching them, they are still somehow burnt into my brain
There are no persy jackson movies in ba sing se.
I mean loki, it would be more interesting and show the god as flawed like they were terrible flawed, loki was the guy pointing that out, and there is a prophecy, but the gods actually bring about the conditions, and ragnarok is implied to be a new start too. Its just, he doesnt need to be evil, i think an actual reconciliation between the god facing their flaws and they did loki and his family dirty, and him learning to forgive them and him making up with them. And that prevents ragnarok. That would be a nice even kidfriendly story kinda with character growth for everyone. And the characters get to be counceler. Like shaman king did.
Or dont have loki as villain, have the gigants. But that is hust a rant, dont make loki a villain just because, marvel even got that right, aside avengers.
Recomment the video of ocean keltoi about 8 puppers in norse mythology. Its good. And puppers,yay. And aliakai does good researched videos on hellenistic paganism and the mythologies behind them, very interesting.
Hi from Brazil 🇧🇷
Hi.
Oh no, Tullos is going to Brazil!
How is the Brazilian variant doing ?
There was a crossover series called demigods and magicians between the Kane chronicles and the Percy Jackson Series. It interesting that nothing else was done with this concept
I HAVE WAITED FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THIS SERIES
Trails of Apollo is sooo goood! I listened to it as an adult, and I think it does a great job with what it sets out to do.
Yo! Congrats on 100k subscribers my guy, you've definitely earned it over these past few years
I’ve been waiting for this one
Man I love your videos, I was just thinking about these books the other night! Also big ol congrats on 100k subs man
finally some books i've read
LETS GO IM SO PUMPED.
this video really came out at the height of my regression back to being obsessed with riordanverse.
Great video, James. Now I want to read all those books
I love these videos, I binged like all of them since I found James. James, could you do a review of the Hunger Games prequel? I want to see how you see it along with the original trilogy. Congrats on 100k!
Congrats on 100k, idk how long you’ve had that but good job.
On the subject of American Gods, the show and the book are two very different beasts. Reread the book a few times but only watched like the first 4 episodes of the show. It has really clever and funny writing and the characters...damn those characters. Every time I read about gods in any other book I start comparing them with the ones from American Gods. And I tend to be disappointed.
As a former hater of the Trials of Apollo series, I have a very similar story. I read the first book when it came out, didn't think much of it, and never read the rest of the books beyond reading the wiki pages to keep up with the Heroes of Olympus characters. This changed for me when I read the final book, the Tower of Nero, in preparation for The Sun and the Star, and it BLEW me away. I went back to read the middle three knowing how it ended, and appreciated it much more. You really have to stick it our for the first two books, but the last three are incredible and have some really compelling and thought-provoking scenes even compared to adult literature I've read. I'd definitely give them another shot if you haven't already!
Okay, so, Magnus. I wouldn't have commented if you hadn't talked about Magnus 😂. He's my favourite of the protagonists. And it makes sense for him to have all that "overpoweredness" because his dad is not a War God, and he isn't either. So Jack makes sense in universe, because Magnus can't fight. And there are limitations on his power of stopping a battle, as in it doesn't happen all the time. And even with all this, they still lose people and suffer loss. It's not like there are no consequences to the battle because he can do pretty much anything.
The problem with an infinity war type thing would be that you would have to choose an end all be all villain from all mythologies, which doesn’t make much sense cause they all deal with creation and destruction myths. Also there was a short story where the brother from Kane chronicles and Percy interact. It was an extra in one of the Kane books. Real short and it doesn’t achieve what you want, but it is some interaction between Greek and Egypt mythos.
read the dang trials of apollo dude it's cool
i love magnus a lot as a protagonist mostly because of his differing role in the group and what most people would brush off as his ‘weaknesses’
unlike percy and jason, magnus isn’t a fighter. in book 3 the group was protecting him when the bad guys were targeting him because he’s the healer and supports the group. he rarely uses jack as an actual weapon and more as a friend-helper, which makes sense cause the boy cannot sword fight (or fight at all) to save his life. i mean, if he was it wouldn’t make sense. he almost wasn’t accepted into valhalla since frey is a vanir god and not aesir. he’s not MEANT to be a fighter. as for his powers, i wouldn’t say he’s overpowered. he only uses the peace of frey twice, in books 1 & 3. i think the healing was pretty standard. him taking on the burden of their injury would’ve been cool, but i think it was fine the way it was. healing. yes. good. understood. if anything, i think some of his power was underused. like he only did the finding sunlight thing once or twice, which i thought was pretty cool when it happened. he gets out of most situations by his wit and the help of his friends, which is fine too. he says most people don’t even know who frey is when he says that’s his dad, and is literally the only descendant of frey both at valhalla and alive (sort of). unlike percy, who is the only demigod son of poseidon, people aren’t like GASP when they hear he’s the only son of frey. as magnus said, it’s more like “who? oh vanir. meh”
from the outside looking in, magnus isn’t this crazy scary powerful guy. no one is impressed by his parentage besides the dickhead elves. he’s overlooked since no one cares about frey since he’s the sunshiney summer god. but that’s exactly what i love about magnus’ character. fuck i mean alex and sam are WAY more scary to me than magnus. especially alex. but alex is also constantly saying that magnus should appreciate the powers he has; he’s the healer, the kindness, the warmth, and that’s just as important to the team. plus magnus just isn’t an intimidating guy, he’s warm and friendly and compassionate (not to say percy isn’t, it’s just more cemented in magnus’ character). he’s just a little different than your standard protag. and that made him a really enjoyable character for me :)
i’ll defend magnus with my life, that sweet little idiot
There are also a small group of small stories with the Piercy group meeting the Kanes.
Your shirt is awesome
Btw, for a book that take advantage of and REALLY explore the all gods are real and beliefs and stuff is American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I love the Kane Chronicles and they are probably my second favorite series in the Riordanverse passed only by the heroes of Olympus. But now that you said that I can't think of any names besides the gods in the book. I remember Carter's kinda girlfriend but not her name
I feel like I really missed out with these books. The school library didn’t have them and the public library had a waiting list of over 1000 people with only a couple copies of the book. My family wouldn’t buy them for me so I never got to read them. I’m 22 now so not really the target audience anymore but I keep thinking of borrowing them from my work but I’m worried I won’t like them.
Yo, James, check out The Trials of Apollo, it’s really great. It gets better as it goes on, and a lot of things are very well written, it has gut-wrenching moments, and great character deaths! (Which I *won’t* be spoiling!)
I felt that as the series went on, in each installment the gods and mythical creatures got goofier and I wasnt taking them as seriously. in the original PJO you could respect someone like Dionysus but he did have silly moments. The dry humor and pop culture references also kind of got stale. I love and read the entirety of PJO, HOO, and even Kane Chronicals (which I think is underrated)...but havent got past book 1 of magnus chase or trials of apollo. The characters felt less likable and the formula repetitive...I guess I'd read the rest if someone offered me a free copy but at this point i guess I'm just not the target audience anymore.
I mainly hope that in his next series, the characters get aged up. His target demographic may be middle school but the reality is is that a large amount of his fans are old fans from when PJO and HOO originally came out. I think it’d be fair to throw a bone and do a little aging up for once lol. As much as I still enjoy his writing, the formula can get tiring
@@niyaakbar1098 mostly agree. I think it's easy as adult fans to be a bit protective of the series and feel like oh, why is it all aimed at kids??! But it's important for middle schoolers to have access to this kind of literature and Rick has really found his niche making middle grade books. Plus as a 20 year old I can still relate to and enjoy the OG series as much as i did when I was 12. If the point of aging it up is to make darker and more "adult" content, I feel like that kind of thing doesn't necessarily make a book more mature. A lot of YA suffers from that, something can be lighthearted and non-explicit and still be adult. The nice thing about the OG series is that they did deal with dark stuff like abuse and death in a way that adolescents could handle, and it made for a somewhat universal reading experience for all age levels. But would I like to see more timeless humor, allow the characters to cuss, and other stuff that you can only get in adult fiction, while keeping with the spirit of the original? Yeah, I would.
Still, we do have the original series to come back to and regardless of what new stuff comes out it really can't change how great those were.
Sorry for the long rant. I just wanted to explain my opinion on that 😅
One series that does something interesting with the “All gods still exist as long as humans remember the stories” is the Iron Druid Chronicles. In this universe the gods are much less powerful than they were in their glory days because so many traditions have died out, however pantheons that are well known in modern pop culture like the Greek, Roman and Norse remain near the hight of their power, the Norse actually foresaw the rise of christendom and the age of reason and preserved their history by inspiring the creation of the Poetic Edda and engaging in a campaign of erasing the records of rival pantheons so that they could hold on to their power in the ages of monotheism and science. In fact stuff like Marvel Comics Thor even became his own real and separate entity from mythological Thor because that depiction of Thor overwrote the classical mythological depiction in modern culture.
I think the complaints about Alex are valid, but looking back their and magnus’s story always holds a place in my heart because of how magnus closes with essentially “am I kissing a guy? I don’t care.”
Me as a kid: don’t look at me I’m projecting 🥺
in toa rick finally is brave enought to say the word gay
I mean, his publisher is Disney. I don’t blame him because he could get censored and banned from Disney books.
That shirt is the best part of the video
I feel like the worst part about the movies being cancelled is not getting to see a live action dam scene
Yeah, the Loki villain is overplayed, but I feel like I would love to see a story that makes him more of a hero in his own mind rather than the chaotic evildoer we usually get. If yall watch Overly Sarcastic Productions, she did a video on Loki that pointed out something really interesting: he fits the mold perfectly of the classic prophesized hero myth. He has some magic kids who are prophesized to destroy the world, so world's best dad Odin tries to stop them all by chucking Hela into purgatory, Fenrir into jail, and Jormungandr into the ocean, accidentally making them strong enough to fulfill the prophecy now that Hela commands the armies of Helheim, Fenrir is powerful from repeatedly breaking his chains, and Jormungandr got huge. Loki and his entire family are constantly getting screwed over by the gods and Ragnarok is just as often depicted as creating a better world as it is depicted as wanton destruction, so I'd love to see a more nuanced take on him as an antagonist.
I have a whole book shelf dedicated to the riordianverse. I even repurchased all the books I read as ebooks, because my E-reader broke down. What can I say? These books are my childhood.
Would love to see more like the Son of Sobek shortstory
Loki isn't really a villain, more of a trickster
he helps the Aesir as much as he annoys them (he did kill a god one time, but that's really it)
also: Loki is a shapeshifter, that's why he was Alex's mother
Depends on your interpretation, after all he does fight the gods (and kills Heimdall) in Ragnarök
@@jaojao1768 yeah but the gods did torture him for basically eternity, but I guess it’s because he killed someone
I mean Loki is a mother to multiple "characters," for lack of a better term in the Prose and Poetic Eddas so Loki and Alex being gender fluid characters seems to be sort of an easter egg referencing the mythos
Is it called the riordanverse? I’ve been calling it the percyversey.
Petition to legally change it from Riordanverse to Percyversy
I think the reason Magnus story doesn’t have as much time for characters to shine is that it is doing the Kane series 3 book process, but all our characters aren’t as centralized as in the Kane Chronicles.
Since heroes of Olympus came after PJ&TO using a good chunk of characters already pre-established, and the second book having a third of it dedicated to a familiar POV, it feels better.
yes my favorite thing ever
wdym i remember alot of character from cane chronicles
i will make a list:
Anubis (actually female lead's boyfriend that's cool, Anubis permanently possessed Sadie's original boyfriend to save him from dying and their personalities merged into one, basically two people's souls equalled merged and became a new person, in this case, a new Anubis/original boyfriend god who does love Sadie)
Horace (male's leads 'inhabitant' god, he is not inside the MC, he possess the male lead temporarily when he needs help, he can also lend him power)
Male leads' dad (ok i don't remember that well after all, he got permanently possessed by Osiris the god of the underworld and their personalities merged into one, and so the male lead became the prince of the underworld i guess)
Male lead's girlfriend (name starts with 'z' i forgot, also Ra the sun god possessed her for a while, and when a god possesses you he gets your memories and feelings about different people, so I guess Ra is in love with the Male lead now, they did make a scene where Ra showed that he was very affectionate towards the male lead)
Ra
The Chaos serpent (he has alot of swagger that was undermined during the final battle)
Set (the chaos god, who permanently possessed (merged) with the male lead's uncle and turned from an antagonist to a good guy because the MC's uncle has a good personality)
Bast the cat god who was essentially Hermione but more confident and strong
Note: the gods of Eygpt do not have sex with normal people to create demigods, Sadie is literally Anubis' first love interest, the poor god is literally a virgin for 5000 years before he met Sadie
Second note: Egyptian sorcerers do not worship Egyptian gods, they fight them and sometimes even seal them, gods fight back by possessing sorcerers (because they can't manifest themselves in the material world without help, a help sorcerers themselves are not willing to give) the main characters are there to create peace between gods and sorcerers while fighting the chaos serpent who wants to destroy the world and make it return to chaos.
There are books where the percy jackson kids and the kane chronicles kids team up
I'd like you to do a video for authors talking about how to handle side characters
Lmfaooo “take down Jesus or something” 😂😂
It would be cool to see you do a look into the Land of Stories books by Chris Colfer. They're kind of like the Riordanverse where they take something you know fairly well like fairy tales and make it have a super unique world as well as an overarching plot
Trials of Apollo was so wonderful
When you first started talking about the pantheons pulling an Infinity War I was expecting them to team up against Satan, so when you said Jesus I immidiately burst out laughing! I now can't get the image of a malicious Jesus fighting all of the demigods out of my head!
I return, having watched the video from my downloads and comments certainly don't hurt analytics afaik.
Personally these books were my entire childhood and I can confidently say I've consumed the entire Riordanverse apart from the latest ToA books (after like the second one I think?). I agree with this video, one point I also insist on is that I think RR rushed the Magnus series to a close in order to work on ToA. Ship of nails to me felt unsatisfactory and I so wish they developed more of the background characters, Magnus and Alex's relationship (which was important to me since it was around the time I realized I was neither cis nor straight) and definitely Samirah's relationship arc as she was my favorite character. Embarrassingly I don't remember much of the original PJO series, but what I can say about HoO is that it was probably my favorite of them all. I fell in love with probably every character and I actually think that was what got me into art as a serious hobby (4 years going strong!). They felt super diverse and I think the way that each child's parentage affected them, magic-wise and the perception that the others had of them, was really cool to read about. The arcs and especially that cliffhanger where Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus were really strong. I don't think any kids overthought them the way this video analyses everything, but it's fun to go back and think about the worlds you were so into as a kid while still enjoying them. Absolutely need to go make Frank fanart now
Imagine all of the pissed off Christian moms if all the pantheons teamed up to take down Jesus. That would be hilarious.
In the Kane chronicles they do mention the PJO series kinda! I think it was in the first book, but they said something about staying away from Manhattan. Cause the series takes place in Brooklyn
Uncle Amos tells Carter and Sadie that Manhattan has its own problems and gods and looks at the Empire State Building, implying that he knows about the Greek pantheon.
Magnus chase:
Every character in the main group believed in a different religion and while it was obvious that was supposed to be a really big thing, that never happened. The main character was an atheist who got reincarnated as an einherjar Viking warrior, his friend was a Muslim girl Valkyrie, the other two were a dwarf and an elf respectively, and we get nothing from that.
Magnus was supposedly designed as the support of the group yet he takes the show for...some reason? I think designing the game so that we're forced to rely more on other characters possibly even more than the guy we're getting all of this stuff from is a great idea.
The ending of the final book...well, apparently if you can end a major conflict by telling your bullies you aren't afraid of them, Percy should have taken notes on how to deal with Kronos. Why did we need an ocean of monsters besieging the entrance to Olympus when we had the power of friendship?
Heroes of Olympus: Needed more time. Needed more care.
Kronos is a paranoid individual so nothing anyone says will sway him any way.
Would you ever do the Micheal Vey series ?
I would highly recommend the American gods book to anyone who enjoyed Percy Jackson but wants something directed at a more adult audience. It is a take on the whole belief sustains gods thing that does play around with different religions interacting and has a similarly good way of describing lots of different locations. I haven't seen the show so can't say if it holds up.
Have you read the three books that connect the Kane Chronicles and PJO? (Son of Sobek and the rest?) Those three are amazing!
Which are those?
@@fraydizs7302 The Son of Sobek, The Staff of Serapis and The Crown of Ptolemy
"all of the other pantheons tryna take down jesus" i wheezed
32:35 there's sequel bait in the Apollo books
THAT’s how you say ‘Riordan’ ?? man i need to get out of the south 😧