I know it says that I started this back in 2023, but all I really did was make a cover. I didn't start making any chapters until a few months ago hehe.

BUT ANYWAYS YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT! I am making a reaction/reading the books/watching the movies fic for Arsenic Blues!!! In this case, it will be ror reaction to pjo

(This started off as me just giving you some info about Cerulean Cyanide, but then I ended up ranting about how much I loved the pjo show lol, soooo if you haven't watched it, don't go down)

First off, THIS IS MY FIRST TIME MAKING A REACTION FIC! I've read a lot of them, but I have no experience in actually making one. I'm kinda nervous ngl 😅

Secondly, I've already started... somewhat. I've copied all chapters of The Lightning Thief into a google doc and made necessary edits, but I haven't written any reactions... YET. I want to include the ror gods AND humans as members of the audience, and since I haven't written about the ror humans as thoroughly yet, I won't be writing the reactions until act 2 of Arsenic Blues, since that's when the ror humans are introduced. This is important for me because I don't have their characterizations down yet, and won't until I actually start writing about them and their dynamics with Percy. Same goes with Cú Chulainn, he's a literal love interest but won't get introduced until act 2!

Thirdly, because of what I said up there ^, Cerulean Cyanide won't be published until act 2 is finished to avoid spoiling what happens during Ragnarok and the God's Apocalypse.

Fourthly, IT WILL BE INTERMIXED WITH THE TV SHOW!!!! I fucking LOVED the show and (most of) the changes that were made, so I'm totally going to add them into Percy's past that the ror characters will be reacting to.

So what elements of the show should you expect to see? Glad you asked!

POSEIDON 💙

Poseidon in the books is great, but I looooove the new stuff they put in the TV show. In the books, we're mostly told that Poseidon loves Percy and there are times where it's shown, but it's kinda hard to pick up since the books are written in PERCY'S POV, and since Poseidon is literally restricted from interacting with him, it's hard to notice how much he actually loves his son when he's not even allowed to be AROUND the dude who's perspective takes up the whole series.

But in the TV show, it's not just Percy's perspective that's explored! That little moment Poseidon had with Sally told us SOOO MUCH about how he actually felt for the both of them. And when he and Percy finally met??? THE ANGST AND LONGING THEY BOTH SHOWED ASHFAHSV I LOVED IT SO MUCH

AND THE FACT THAT HE NOT ONLY SAVED PERCY FROM ZEUS BUT ALSO SURRENDERED??? HE GAVE UP HIS PRIDE AND PRIDE IS SUCH A HUGE AND IMPORTANT THING FOR GODS, BUT HE GAVE IT UP WITH NO HESITATION AHHHHHH 😭

So yes, expect to see a lot of the Poseidon scenes from the TV show.

HERMES BEING AT THE LOTUS CASINO

I actually really like the fact that Hermes was shown in here instead of the next season. Some people were confused as to what the point was for having him in the casino and why he tricked the kids into staying at the casino longer, but I found this post on Tumblr that explains why he could've been there: 

In The Last Olympian, we (and Percy) find out that Hermes knew all along what Luke's fate would be; that he would rebel against the Olympians, bring forth Kronos, become his host, etc. He knew ALL OF THAT. But he was never allowed to tell him (ancient laws), so he tried to CHANGE Luke's fate in order to save him even though he knew it was pointless.

We get a bit of that in the TV show. Hermes was there because he wanted to change Luke's fate. He tricked the kids into staying at the casino longer so they would pass the deadline. War would come, and Luke would get away with his thievery and nobody would know it was him because they're all too busy trying to kill each other. But ofc, like always, it didn't work because you can never change fate.

I love how the show showed us that Hermes was trying to change his fate in the first season whereas in the books, it only started in the second book where he was introduced for the first time.

THE GODS' CRUELTY AND THEIR LOVE

The gods' cruelty and apathy was much more obvious in the show's first season compared to the first book. In the first book, most of the gods shown were jerks at best, but the TV show really showed us how horrible of a family they are (most of them at least) to each other and their kids.

Like what show!Ares said, his family loves to stab each other in the back, they love to hurt each other to get a higher leg up; they're not really a family. The audience and Percy becomes VERY aware of that unlike in the books where it's more sugar-coated at the start.

We're shown very early on that they're not good people, but at the same time, we're shown that some of them DO care.

Hephaestus was abused and mistreated by his family, but he refuses to be like them which is why he released Percy from his trap; because he realizes that he and Annabeth are good kids (ending the cycle). Hermes loves his son and desperately wants to change his fate despite being told over and over again that it's pointless. Poseidon loves Percy and wishes to be a proper family with him and Sally, but isn't allowed to.

There are some good gods out there, which is why Percy decided to stand by them instead of taking Luke's offer to bring it all down. He's been shown that some gods ARE good. Unlike in the first book where you don't really meet any decent gods, so book!Percy honestly didn't have much of a reason to defend them, yet he did anyway when Luke left camp. The show gave him (and us) a better reason to actually defend them.

In the show, he's exposed to the gods' cruelty, but he sees that it's not as black and white as he once thought "oh all the gods are bad and none of them care for their kids >:(", he sees the good in some of them and it's enough to make him want to save them instead of letting them crash and burn (like Luke, who's blinded by his anger and hatred *cough cough* fatal flaw!!!!! *cough cough*).

LUKE AND PERCY'S RELATIONSHIP

SHOW!LUKE WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN BOOK!LUKE IMO.

Book!Luke was trying to kill Percy very early on and was pretty much pretending to be his friend the whole time. Yes his intentions and character get fleshed out as the books go on, but his relationship with Percy... didn't offer much.

Then there's show!Luke who genuinely liked him and wanted to recruit him rather than kill him (that's why there's no scorpion scene). His betrayal was more personal and painful for Percy. The fact that Annabeth was there to watch it all happen was even better (not for her though LOL).

(And don't even get me started on how show!Luke didn't hate Grover like in the books. The genuine fear in his eyes when he found out that Percy gave the shoes to him and the way his eyes got all misty??? He fully blames Thalia's "death" on him and him only THE ANGUISH WAS SO 😭😭😭

AND I THINK THAT MIGHT BE ALL?

So yes, these are some of the changes you should expect to see!

I wanna really contrast how different things are between the ror and pjo verse. Ror gods are very close and tight-knit whereas the pjo gods are... well, a "mess" as Percy so eloquently put it.

Ror gods aren't forced under the tyrannical rule of Zeus, their Zeus is chill and just wants to have fun. They have no restrictions to follow and their divine laws aren't as oppressive.

Whereas pjo gods are under the tyrant rule of Zeus and can't even interact with their kids.

Ror gods are independent while pjo gods have to rely on the preservation of western civilization to stay alive and use demigods to break rules, etc etc.

Pjo gods (some, at least) are kinder and have no issues falling in love with humans and loving their demigod children while ror gods are cruel assholes who commit genocide against humanity despite being teh ones to create them.

And etc etc.

ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE AS HYPED UP AS I AM!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 Can't wait to start writing reactions for the first time ever 🫨