There's already a super good Piper McLean rant from Autumn (Quotev), so check that out too (I already provided a link in a previous chapter)! They've got multiple rants about her and they're all pretty good. I wanted to give you my reasons as to why I hated Piper so I decided to make my own rant (also because I've just been holding this in for a while and I needed to let go 😌)

WARNING: Piper-fans, read at your own risk.

Have you guys read the chapter "Strong Female Characters" yet? If you have, then you're probably aware of how much I love actual strong female characters and hate the false "strong female characters". Unfortunately, Piper's one of the fakest "strong female characters" I've ever read about.

Piper is not a strong female character, you guys. She's a failed attempt at it. Here's an excerpt taken directly from my "Strong Female Characters" chapter, and I've also put check marks on the traits that Piper has:

When people say "strong female characters", some dumbass authors seem to think that means:

- OC hates dresses, skirts, and the color pink ✔️

- OC hangs out with guys instead of girls ✔️

- OC hates shopping ✔️

- OC is the type to wear sneakers with dresses because they're ✨quirky✨ ✔️

- OC isn't afraid to eat fattening foods (but doesn't gain any weight, wow)

- OC cusses like a sailor because they're "bADaSs"

- OC can kick ass ✔️

- OC is bitchy and sassy ✔️

- OC doesn't cry because they're not WeAk ✔️

- OC thinks girls who are feminine are either slutty and/or pathetic ✔️

- Other characters like her for being "DiFfErEnT" (but if she were a person irl, she'd actually be very unlikeable and quite annoying to deal with) ✔️

People seem to be making the horrible mistake in thinking that making a "strong" female character is making them the exact opposite of femininity.

See what I mean? PIPER IS NOT A STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER! SHE'S A TERRIBLY WRITTEN ONE!

"But author, I thought it was okay for characters to have negative traits!"

Yes! That is totally true! Except Piper's terrible traits were never actually called out in the book by other characters! THE READERS WERE THE ONES WHO NOTICED THEM! That's not a good thing, you guys!

Rick wanted to make a daughter of Aphrodite character who broke the stereotype, but he went about it the wrong way. He made Piper the exact opposite of what Aphrodite represents, he made her hate femininity! Piper literally has internalized misogyny! But is it ever called out? NO!

It would've been fine if some other character went "Piper, you have internalized misogyny" because that's making it a real flaw, but nobody did. Her real issues were not addressed at all, except by the readers. IT IS NOT OKAY TO DO THIS! Flaws have to be called out, or else more impressionable readers are going to go around thinking these sort of traits are okay like "Oh Piper's so cool, I wanna be like her! *then proceeds to gain internalized misogyny without even realizing it because it was never spoken about in the books*"

And she's so hypocritical too! She looked down on girly-girls for being feminine and boy-crazy, yet thought about Jason 99% of the time!

Oh my god, her relationship with Jason is just—🙄 🙄 🙄

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Look, I get that she was given fake memories of them dating by Hera and all, but the second she was told they were fake, she should've stopped at that. Instead, Piper kept pursuing Jason. Let me repeat that for those who like to say "Hera/Aphrodite forced her into a relationship with Jason!":

PIPER WAS TOLD THE MEMORIES WERE FAKE.

SHE KEPT GOING AFTER JASON ANYWAYS.

Do you guys fucking get it now? So stop with the goddamn "hErA fORceD hEr!"

Piper literally even talks to herself multiple times about how her relationship with Jason was just fake Mist memories. She was 100% aware that they were never real. SHE CONTINUED TO TRY AND GET JASON ANYWAYS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE WAS STILL STRUGGLING WITH AMNESIA! That alone was fucked up!

She was also very much aware that Jason had a life before her and that he might even have a girlfriend or someone who liked him or someone he liked. BUT SHE DID NOT CARE. SHE WENT AFTER HIM ANYWAYS. She literally manipulated him into continuing their "relationship". THAT IS SUPER FUCKED UP, YOU GUYS.

Autumn brings this up in their rant, and I think it's also fucking brilliant. Here's a quote directly from The Lost Hero, chapter 52:

Drew backed to the door. Even her closest lieutenants didn't follow her. She was about to leave when Piper said, "Oh, and Drew, honey?"

The former counselor looked back reluctantly.

"In case you think I'm not a true daughter of Aphrodite," Piper said, "don't even look at Jason Grace. He may not know it yet, but he's mine. If you even try to make a move, I will load you into a catapult and shoot you across Long Island Sound." Drew turned around so fast, she ran into the door frame. Then she was gone.

Yeah Drew's a bitch, but at least that's been talked about by other characters. After Piper literally threatened to kill Drew (over a DUDE no less), characters still thought she was super kind and great. Like no, guys, she openly exposed herself on how boy-crazy she is, why is nobody talking about it?!

Piper's so crazy possessive over a dude that she doesn't even know (like seriously guys, she knows nothing about Jason, all she really thought about were his looks because she literally didn't care about anything else)!

Her possessiveness would've been totally fine... IF IT WERE CALLED OUT. But none of the characters stopped to say "Hey Piper, no offense but you're acting a little fucking crazy" or "dude, you're obsessing over some guy you don't even know".

It really is fucked up you guys. I'm sorry to my Jasper/Jiper shippers, but it is NOT a healthy ship if you really stop to analyze their relationship throughout the books. It's super fucking toxic.

I love dark romance and all, but this ain't it. In dark romance books, the characters are very much aware of their toxic traits. Jiper/Jasper was (poorly) written with the intention of being "cute" and "pure", so they already fail at being a 'dark romance' couple. They are an unhealthy pair (mostly thanks to Piper), but again, it was never called out so you can't even call it an actual dark romance.

They don't love each other either. Again, they've only known each other for less then a year and all they've thought about is how good looking the other is. They rarely ever talk about their feelings, their life, etc. It's just their appearances. Their relationship is purely based on sexual attraction, not love. Sorry, guys.

(And Shelper... I'm sorry, there was literally zero hints about Piper being bi, and Shelper was so sudden and random and so unnecessary. Jason literally DIED right in front of her and suddenly she's over that and dating a girl now???)

As if things couldn't get any worse, Piper's also a Mary Sue...

I've already written a chapter about Mary Sues (titled "Mary Sues 🤮") so I'll use that as a checklist of sorts.

NAME: Piper's name is normal. Thank god.

❌

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: She's unnaturally beautiful, but that's okay since she's a daughter of Aphrodite, so of course she's gonna be hot, but...

She hates her beauty??? What??? Who on earth would hate being pretty? That's so unnecessary. I'm pretty sure Rick only wrote it like that so she could be "not like other girls 🤪"

She's also got the unnatural eye-color down. Girl literally has color changing eyes, omfg 😩 It even says it here on her wiki page:

"Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope, going from brown to blue to green"

Rick, dude 😂 😂 😂 😂 WHAT WAS THE REASON????

✔️

BACKGROUNDS: Piper's really rich. Or at least her dad is, but whatever. And she apparently... hates being rich too? Why?????? Who hates being rich??????? Wtf girl??????

Piper's also got the happiest home life out of literally every fucking demigod... but she complains about it the most. There isn't even any trauma so don't tell me "you can't compare traumas author!"

Her only issue is that her dad doesn't pay attention to her. Like yeah, it sucks, but he has a job as an actor... Whatchu expect girl 💀 💀 💀

Also, there's many scenes about her and her dad together and he seems to be a pretty decent dude. He's obviously trying his best to spend time with her whenever a break comes up so we know he's not an abusive parent. He's not even a bad one, he's literally just busy.

She's got a pretty awesome life if you think about it (just that one minor downside), but she seems so ungrateful though! I get that she feels neglected, but I really wished she'd stop complaining about it so much. Not even the other, actually traumatized characters complained about their lives so much. They talked about it, but never complained. There's a difference.

✔️

SKILLS: Oh her skills are super unrealistic dude. She's been using Charmspeak without realizing it before she found out she was a demigod, so we know she's got some sort of experience with it... but she suddenly becomes a master???

She literally stayed in Camp Half-Blood for like... a day or two before being sent off on the quest to save Hera. And in those one or two days, she did NOT train, you guys. Yet she was able to out-Charmspeak Medea???

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON WHEN SHE CHARMSPOKE FESTUS! OR WHEN SHE CHARMSPOKE JASON BACK TO LIFE! I WAS LIKE

Piper was never shown how she became that strong/powerful. It just happened. There was no scene of her training, no scene of her progress, nothing. And while she was on the Argo II she apparently got sword-fighting training from Hazel for a few days and became "really good" at it??? There was no scene of that training session, it was just mentioned.

And then during that super short and super lame battle against Gaea, she charmspoke her too?!?!?! Gaea's literally a Primordial being omfg, if all they needed to defeat her was some charmspeaking then the gods coulda just had Aphrodite or Hecate go in to handle her smh.

The Heroes of Olympus series only takes eight months, you guys. That's less then a year. That's not enough time for Piper to become such a master at her skills. She was just good on the get-go with no warning whatsoever. It would've been fine if we were actually shown her practicing, but we weren't. She was just tossed into the quest with zero preparation and bam, she's already just THAT good.

✔️

PERSONALITY: Like I said, Piper's got a shit ton of terrible traits. She's obsessive, possessive, manipulative, extremely judgmental, extremely jealous, BUT RICK WROTE THEM AS IF THEY WERE GOOD TRAITS TO HAVE.

They were not seen in a negative light. They were never called out. I know I've said this so many times already, BUT FLAWS MUST BE CALLED OUT IN THE BOOKS BY OTHER CHARACTERS, NOT BY THE READERS!

All the other characters just love her. Annabeth, cold, withdrawn, and wary, immediately trusts Piper to talk to her about Percy. They even become friends at an unrealistically quick time even though there was that short scene where Piper nearly had an inner bitch fit about Annabeth comforting Jason. Then there's Reyna, omfg. Piper spent a majority of the series being jealous of her because of how close she was with Jason pre-amnesia. Reyna shouldn't even like this girl since Piper quite literally manipulated Jason into a relationship with her, yet they suddenly become friends??? WHAT???

Piper's got the most fucked up personalities, YET THE CHARACTERS LOVE/LIKE HER. UH, NO, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!

✔️

That's 4/5 check marks you guys, so yeah. Piper McLean is TERRIBLY Mary Sue. The only non-Mary Sue trait she has is that she at least isn't named Piper Princess Gemstone Tomboy Not-Like-Other-Girls McLean. Oh, and she's Native American instead of being white.

Rick is a great author and I'm a huge fan of his works, but I REALLY hate how he wrote Piper. He gave her all these negative traits, but never talked about how they were negative and actually wrote them in a way that readers would perceive as 'cool'. That's why there's so many clueless Piper-fans around. They most likely never realized how awful Piper is because she was written in such a positive light 💀

I'm taking this from my chapter "OOC" from my guidebook, but here:

How Rick thought he wrote her:

- super badass

- she breaks the stereotype for children of Aphrodite because she can fight

- not like other girls

- relatable

- etc

People who like her write her this way, but I feel like they only like her because they haven't realize how horrible she really is. As in, they only read about Piper at a surface level, but never really stopped to analyze her character a little deeper to notice the very disturbing things.

How Piper really is:

- internalized misogyny (she looked down on her own siblings because they were feminine, she looks down on ANYONE who is feminine)

- psychopathic/sociopathic (she only cared about Jason you guys... that's ALL she thought about)

- obsessed with Jason (even after she was told that her memories were fake, she still wanted to "claim" him??? She KNEW he had a life and that there was a chance he could have a girlfriend BUT SHE DID NOT CARE)

- hypocritical ("oh i'm not like other girls cuz I don't care about clothes, makeup, and boys and—" *proceeds to think about Jason 24/7*)

- unrealistic abilities (she had less then a year of preparation yet was able to out-Charmspeak Medea, put GAEA to sleep, brought Jason back from the dead with her voice, etc)

- extremely judgmental (again, considered anyone feminine as weak and looked down on them)

- extremely jealous (got jealous of Annabeth when she tried to talk to Jason even though she knew Annabeth had a boyfriend, got jealous of Khione, got jealous of Reyna before she even met her, etc)

- MARY SUE ("i'm rich and naturally pretty but I hate that about myself :( omg and my dad doesn't even pay attention to me! My life sucks :("

I don't blame people for thinking Piper's cool and all since most of us were probably in middle school or whatever when we started reading about her. Even I thought she was awesome, but I was maybe thirteen at that time and realized how wrong I was. But anyways, HOW PIPER WAS WRITTEN IS VERY HARMFUL!

Impressionable kids are gonna read about Piper and think it's okay to hate the idea of femininity. They're gonna look down on girly-girls, see them as "bitches" or "weak" and that's just NOT okay. God forbid if they end up liking Jiper/Jasper and see them as the 'epitome of romance' or some bullshit like that 😖

Honestly, I would've been totally fine with Piper if her flaws were just called out. You guys know how much I loved fucked up characters, Piper would've totally fit the bill (crazy, possessive, obsessive, etc) for it too. I would've actually adored her! But again, her flaws were never called out so she wasn't even supposed to have those awful traits on purpose, she just ended up like that on accident 😐

So yeah, Piper-fans, I hope I didn't piss you guys off, but if I did... my bad. You guys are free to stop reading my books because, obviously, I'm gonna write Piper how I see her, internalized misogyny, crazy bitch and all. She's not going to like Essie because Essie's literally everything she hates: feminine and proud of it, and she knows Jason (even if it was for a short time, but Piper won't give a shit about that).

Additional warning: Essie won't notice Piper's dislike towards her since she has... other issues to deal with, but Ethan sure as hell will. Ethan will be the one who notices Piper's true face. He's gonna call her out on her internalized misogyny and he's gonna degrade the shit outta her while doing it. If you Piper fans aren't ready for that, then PLEASEEEEEE don't read this book. I don't like Piper and I will write her how she is regardless of your pleas, death threats, hate mail, etc.

Aaaaand yeah, that's it!

THANK YOU FOR READING THE RANT!