I really love the comedy behind Mr. D and Percy’s first interaction and the way it introduces how Gods and immortals use demigods to do their dirty work that they technically can’t do themselves.
I have to Admit, The fact they changed it, it’s pretty funny. Because ironically enough, It reinforces Annabeth’s cleverness and then Athena who is Goddess of Battle Strategy. But it also rubs the idea that Ares kids are like their father, who is known to sometimes loose and Loose to a 12 year old xD
Thinking about it, I think they changed the Athena cabin’s win streak to reinforce the “Annabeth is six steps ahead of everyone else” thing. Just to ensure everyone knows she’s a genius
I love how they’re putting emphasis on Luke as Percy’s only friendship. We don’t have much time to build their friendship before the quests starts so we can give Percy discomfort towards Annabeth and Grover now so when he’s stuck with only them as company for the majority of the season, we have time to let them bond. I honestly never bought that Luke and Percy had a strong friendship in the book, it felt more like he was a leader at camp so naturally Percy just interacted with him more and that Luke was a nice guy.
I kinda wish the episode had slower pacing, that Percy actually cried during the scenes where he misses Sally and a scene where he and Luke bond over their lost mothers.
I actually really like that grover tells percy that sally is alive. percy figuring that out on his own doesn’t really tell us anything important about his character. He’s smart but remembering instances of people coming back from the underworld from the myths isn’t really a show of intelligence. for grover to figure it out and tell percy shows that he respects percy more than anyone else at camp does. yes he needs percy to go on the quest, but he’s gone out of his way to confirm information that he knew percy would want to know. he doesn’t give percy the motivation, he gives him the information. I think that scene of percy making the underworld connection is more him being like “wait, you want me to go to the underworld?”.
I do kinda see this, my point was that it takes away some of Percy’s motivation by having someone else motivate his decision - if he decides to go because he remembers the story his mum told him (something the show had made a point of making part of his story) it shows his defiance of the gods. He’s not going for them, he’s going for his mum but he’ll make it look like he’s doing it for them
I'm so glad you got me to give the books a chance with your podcast, I wouldn't have become an actual Percy Jackson fan without you, and I wouldn't have been able to enjoy this series on Disney Plus. I am so excited for the fight with Ares and Percy at the end of this season... I think that's in the trailer. As for the Voice over of Chiron I think was essentially supposed to be essentially Percy replaying it as he looks through his new cabin. I do agree about the missed beats in parts but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the scenes. Dionysus was absolutely awesome, I laughed the entire time he was there, I hated him in the first book but he might be one of my faves now. Now I'm rambling.... bleh...
Hey! Glad you love the podcast and yes I’m glad you’re enjoying the show :) I think the Chiron thing you could be right about, very much a “we don’t have the budget to show him as a horse often so find ways around it” sort of thing
@@AHealthyDoseofFran Yeah, that's kinda rough, at least he looks good on screen when they do show him. It read to me as a replay of a conversation. I mean the campers that saw him in the water with the symbol were seemingly awestruck while the VO was happening. As always, great content, can't wait for the remaining episodes so I can hear your full thoughts of it.
AU idea where Mr. D “claiming” Percy was actually binding according to some ancient rules and so Mr. D spends the rest of the series trying to keep up the lie. “Uh, dad? Why can I control water” “umm, you know that guy who turns water into wine? Yeah it’s like that.” Meanwhile Castor, Pollux, Grover, and Chiron know full well Mr. D is struggling to lie through his teeth.
this will be long (trying to make it as short as i can tho!), but at least spoiler-free haha. i mostly agree with you, but this time i have more to add. i generally liked it, but as with the 1st episode, i had some issues. the first one was how the characters were written, because i could see the actors doing their best, when they weren't offered that much script-wise. all luke said was pretty much exposition, which, yeah, was necessary as it introduced the viewers to the world + built his relationship with percy, but because he only explained things, charlie didn't have much to play. to be honest, he didn't sell his luke to me yet. same with leah - she did great with what she was given, but she lacked time and interactions with percy (besides spliting the expositions dumps between her, luke and grover would make it less monotonous). next we have dior, who gave my favourite performance. she showed she is a fantastic actress, but i'm not entirely sure whether i like what they did with clarisse here. to be honest i hated her in the tlt book, because she was just a straight up bully to percy. here she actually had a reason, which felt weird, because bullies don't really have reasons, they're just cruel for the sake of it. and to finish this part, jason was great, the fragment with manipulating percy to get him wine was very smart, but i prefer the bookish, more mean, tired and generally fed up with everything version. my second issue is that camp didn't feel like a place i'd love to go as soon as i saw it. i know that in the books percy goes on a quest rather quickly, so we don't see much of it either, but we see more. and i'm not talking about much - just a 2-3 minutes montage of percy trying different things (e.g. doing pottery, but breaking a vase, trying gardening, but accidentally cutting an entire plant), having the sing-along and generally showing camp as a place you'd long to stay in. it felt more like a random place, not a home for demigods. all in all i think this episode might have been the hardest to adapt because of the massive amount of exposition and they handled it pretty well. i liked it a bit less than the 1st, but still enjoyed and was disappointed when it ended so quickly. thanks for the review! i'd gladly hear your thoughts next week :)
This episode was just as good as the first one if not slightly better because the first episode was kind of underwhelming until the scene with the Minotaur and the one thing i loved is how they introduced the characters compared to the books like I really like the actor for Luke he is totally different and not what I expected when I imagined the character in live action and like you said in one of your live streams Luke is supposed to be somebody that uses his charms and personality to convince people to help him and the Luke in the show feels like somebody that can convince an entire army to fight with him and look good while doing and I like the actress they got Clarisse and I love the energy and fury she brought to every scene because she is how she was in the books but I do have a few negatives I don't like how they kind of did some scenes compared to the books I think the scene in the bathroom where they all get hit with the water in the toilet was done better in the novel and I feel like the way they showed the Athena cabin,s win streak was imo really weak compared to the books because I think they probably did it to emphasize the whole Annabeth is always six steps ahead and show off her intelligence and I think that is kind of a little bit lazy and I'm not a fan of how Percy decides to go on the quest after Grover says his mom is alive because he was doing it in the first book for his mom
oh my gods this episode was just *woosh * so so good. I thought clarise was fantastic and loved the energy she carried in every scene it was just spot on. that initial interaction where she knocks Percy on his butt just so so good. annabeth. gods why couldn't she be in it more? I also really liked the actor for Mr d. that first interaction with Percy was just what I imagine him to be like and that addition of him trying to quest Percy to get him a bottle of wine. *chefs kiss * and I loved the addition of Percy actually struggling with the grief of his mother being gone and his dad not being right there for either of them. that was def missing from the book and this just really humanized the character a lot I really liked the actor for Luke. it's not what I would have thought he'd be but the actor really nailed the friendly with something being off vibe. it felt like he was pushing Percy to do things and the advantage of his grief which to me was spot on for the character I think the story changed that fell apart for me the most was that scene with the council of cloven elders. it just .. I don't understand why they had to have it! just say it happened off screen if it was that important. it just .. was weird. and it used a lot of CGI (I think unless the dryad was practical effects??) it just... I didn't like it I think the whole hellhound being left off was again due to budget issues. I noticed that they shot a lot of scenes with chiron either looking up at the face or seeing the horse backside which seemed to be a real horse! thus saving budget hopefully for the future episodes *spoiler for episode ending * the biggest change was just that rush at the ending. I just... why so much push to get everything there in two minutes? it just... it was weird I would have preferred that it happened the way it did in the book with grover running into the cabin waking Percy up and him hearing that Mr d is upset, Zeus is upset and then stopping it before they actually do all of the quest stuff. that way it could have been paced out a bit better
There are only 8 episodes for the series so that is why they have to rush somethings. A lot of the book is just Percy’s interval thoughts that are being given to the reader so i liked the changes of showing grover going to the council and the next scene having him got to chiron and mr D and tell him what he found & bring percy a reason to accept. We only knew the reason because of Percy’s internal thoughts.
@@floridababe05248 he... never went to the council in the book though. that whole scene was added for the show. the only time he met with the council in the first book was in reference to him getting Percy to camp, which we heard about from him later on.
@@floridababe05248 ok rereading what you're saying is that the scene puts internal thoughts into the real world, which I agree. I just don't think they needed the whole scene with the dryad and the entrance to the council because it didn't really add anything. they still could have had grover give the information to chiron and Mr d saying "I went to the council" etc.
More proof that Sally Jackson is Percy’s actual godly parent with him burning the jelly beans and using it as a time to talk to his mom and not as a sacrifice to make his dad notice him. Seriously though, Percy chooses to get Poseidon’s attention in his own way and uses his traditional sacrifice as a way to communicate with his mom instead. It’s like he gives Poseidon just enough attention to see Percy metaphorically flip him off and show his commitment to his mom in retaliation.
@@AHealthyDoseofFran so far I don’t think there’s anything they added that I dislike. There are some things from the original story that feel glossed over that I think could be retreaded but I’ve liked all the additions.
I am torn on this series. I feel it’s miles better than the movie and I don’t mind a lot of the changes especially given effect that we only have eight episodes. They have a lot to fit in a very short amount of time. HOWEVER I’m…not a fan of what they’re doing with Annabeth. Her actress is fine but I just feel like she’s so much more stoic and blunt than I imagined her to be in the book. She was always that same way, but because she was the one showing Percy around camp, and she was the one who taught Percy that their brains are hardwired for Greek etc. we saw it even though she has this stoic Athena side to her. She is very caring and funny and charismatic. I think because she’s only in a few scenes and she’s very direct when Percy says, are you stalking and she says yes idk I just… the actress is good, but I don’t feel like the writing is doing enough justice too well round out her character. At this point if she were to invite herself on the quest, I don’t think Percy would see himself as needing her. where is in the book she has already proven that not only is she really smart, but she is smart, and willing to help Percy, even if she has her own motives on top of it I also really like the actor playing Luke, but I’m not a fan of the fact that they were letting him explain what happened to Thalia because I feel like it takes a lot of emotional weight from Grover. The only part we don’t know at this point is the Grover was their guide , but we already know that they didn’t make it so without Grover telling the story for the first time and taking the responsibility for it… I don’t know it just doesn’t feel like it weighs the same to the group not to mention the fact that Annabeth has no time to sort of foreshadow Any of that like she does in the book we get the vibe that her and Grover have a connection and in the TV show they don’t even interact. I don’t know I think all of the actors are doing a great job but the relationships between the main three are just not being established the way that I thought they would. I think the person and Sally was fantastic. I think Percy and Luke is fantastic. I love Clarice she’s great, I just don’t see the chemistry between the main trio and that is disappointing, considering that they are about to set off on the quest
I think your concerns were suppose to be how you feel about Annabeth and Grover. I think the point is to present Annabeth as frustrating and annoying so as Percy gets to know her, she opens up. I think giving Luke the exposition that Grover and Annabeth originally do gives us time to highlight Percy’s relationship with Luke as the undisputed only friendship he has. Because we don’t have a ton of time to do that but we have time for Percy to get to know Grover and Annabeth better as they’re going to be the only ones he consistently interacts with for most of the season.
I agree with you, the reduction of Annabeth’s scenes haven’t given her the chance to show her personality and character. Same with grover - it’s a shame BUT we have more of them coming so I have hope
oh i forgot - getting rid of campers kneeling when percy got claimed was weird, because i always thought they knelt not for him, but for poseidon. like when anyone is claimed, the god/goddess shows their presence in a way, and because they require respect, the other campers kneel. or did i misunderstand it? can someone share their thoughts?
I just want to say (not targeted to the creator of this video or anyone in particular) but we need to spread good word and good review for this show so that it at least gets greenlit for a season 2 please. Yes there are minor changes from the books and yes we all need to get our opinions out there but if there is no s2 they will never get a chance to improve from s1. Pleeeeeeaaaassseee
