Across the Sky In Stars

“you should be at the club” Brother I should literally be sent to the seaside for my health

Knowing how Hades is in the show now it’ll be really funny to see him and Nico interact bc Nico will be all Dark and Depressed in the underworld and Hades will just be like “son… please… you’re killing the vibe”

I've said it before and i'll say it again: THAT IS NOT A FUCKING METAPHOR, JOHN GREEN

Thanks for tagging me in this. I agree that what Gus thinks is the metaphor is not the metaphor in The Fault in Our Stars, but I do think there is nonetheless a metaphor lurking there.

In The Fault in Our Stars, Gus is indeed engaging in classic teenage attention-seeking by putting a cigarette in his mouth but not smoking it, and he justifies this by claiming it's a metaphor for his agency, for his control over what happens to him. "You put the killing thing between your teeth but don't give it the power to kill you." As if you have the power.

But of course, the reader knows this is not a good metaphor. This is not how power or agency work--you don't actually have control over what happens to you, and (as Gus eventually realizes at the very end of the novel) you don't have any say in whether you get hurt in this world.

The actual metaphor is that despite our furious attempts to establish a feeling of agency, we never actually have it. And so of course Gus is wrong when he says, "It's a metaphor." The actual metaphor is that when Gus desperately needs to express his agency over what happens to him, he's not even strong enough to buy a pack of cigarettes, let alone make a choice about whether to smoke them. That's the metaphor--Gus thinks the cigarette stands for the control individuals have over their fate; the actual metaphor is that the cigarette stands for the control we lack, for the fault that is in our stars.

can we talk about percy uncovering luke’s true intentions and luke coming clean about wanting to recruit percy as a powerful ally and percy obviously refusing despite sympathizing with the cause because he’s just better than that leading to them dueling, with luke about to strike percy down when annabeth’s blade, the one luke gifted her, the same cursed blade that’ll reap his soul 3 years from now, sealed with the promise of family and new beginnings, knocking into backbiter in luke’s hands, and luke turning to stare at her with the most heartbroken, torn expression on his face and annabeth staring him down with more venom than any pit scorpion could’ve had.

can we talk about annabeth standing in the clearing watching the only man she loves, someone who made a promise to protect her and always have her back, someone she’s known for 5 years, looming over a boy she met mere weeks ago, someone who, despite a godly rivalry getting in the way of their initial friendship, fought for her and saved her and chose her over himself time and time again…can we talk about how the defiance in her gaze made it very clear to luke that the person he’s closest to would choose percy over him every time

Season 1 Trivia | PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS

Percy “I am impertinent” Jackson really looked Zeus dead in the eye and said “Your family is a mess”

why is it always Aurora Borealis and never Aurora Australis though she's beautiful too

I'm serious. look how magnificent they are!!

Aurora Australis in Argentina

Aurora Australis in Australia

The southern lights exist, the south hemisphere exists, we exist.

Be careful, Seaweed Brain.

actually I do want to talk about Sally Jackson a tad more because one criticism I've been hearing about her book counterpart more recently is "book Sally is one-dimensional: the perfect mother with no flaws" and that just has me biting my cheek because one part of her book counterpart that I always thought was ripe with discussion and didn't make it to the show is that Sally states that it was selfish of her to keep Percy close. It's one of the last things she says to him before she's "killed" by the minotaur.

And there's so much that we don't know about Sally because we view her from Percy's eyes. From his perspective we know that she's exceedingly kind, she never raises her voice to him or even Gabe, and she endured a horrible and abusive relationship to protect her son from monsters (of a different kind).

But there are things we can piece together from the text: Sally has known about CHB for a long time, apparently since before Percy was even born because Poseidon told her he wanted to send Percy there; she was told that it was a mistake for her to keep Percy close - who told her that, we're not sure, she only uses the phrase they; she's been in contact with Grover through out the school year; she knows that she can't cross the camp boundary line, which means either Grover or someone else (Chiron? Poseidon?) told her that, and that she understood that there was place that Percy would be safe from monsters.

And all of these little details are so interesting because it does make you wonder just how much she did or didn't know. Was her self assessment right? Was it selfish of her to keep Percy close?

On one hand, she kept him close because she loved him, alongside the fear that if she sent him to camp, she would be saying goodbye for good -- so is it even fair to call the act of keeping him close selfish? Or perhaps, much like Chiron, she assumed keeping Percy in the dark would be safer?

But on the other hand, Percy had been attracting monsters all his childhood, she understood camp was a safe place from monsters, and she had apparently been told explicitly that it was a mistake for her to keep him close.

And then adding in the factors of: Percy is her only family in the entire world, she's been suffering with Gabe for years, sacrificing so much in order to keep Percy safe when he's at home... but even that has a touch of sad irony because when we meet Percy in tlt, its at point when he's not really home at all -- he's been regularly sent off to boarding schools, so much so that he's internalized it as his own short-coming.

And all of this isn't to say "Omg Sally is actually horrible" or to assert definitely that she is selfish... but more to speak to the fact that in the books, she's not an all-perfect 2-dimensional mother. And her self-assessment of selfishness is something that is really interesting to explore and debate given the implications of what she apparently did (or did not) know about the godly world. I feel there's even an argument to be made that Sally being "selfish" could be a reflection of Percy's fatal flaw.

The Fifteenth Doctor's new Sonic! ⚡️

goodbye 2023👋hello 𓏏𓉔𓇋𓋴 𓇌𓅂𓄿𓂋 𓇋 𓅃𓇋𓃭𓃭 𓎼𓅂𓏏 𓄿 𓅓𓅲𓅓𓅓𓇌 𓃀𓅱𓇌𓆑𓂋𓇋𓅂𓈖𓂧 𓅓𓄿𓇌𓃀𓅂 𓉔𓅲𓋴𓃀𓄿𓈖𓂧 𓇋𓆑 𓉔𓅂𓂕𓋴 𓎢𓅱𓅱𓃭 𓅃𓇋𓏏𓉔 𓏏𓉔𓄿𓏏

my egyptologist friend says this is a (very poorly) phonetically transcribed english phrase "this year i will get a mommy boyfriend"

okay you werent supposed to know that

Hi Bob. Nice to see you.