Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-35304678-20180415140951/@comment-25512094-20180430175335

Lostofme wrote: I have a thing, whenever Riordan is bashing some characters, or most heroes and characters in the books hates 'those' bashed characters, I tended to be love those characters much more.

For example, Ares. Everyone hates him in the books. And thanks to Riordan, he tried so hard to portray Ares as one dimensional, comlete stupid and a jerk. And he became succesful, voilà. But this was back-fired to me and this intention was only made an opposite effect on me. Riordan tried so hard to make Ares disliked by the readers, and he did it. Almost all readers dislike Ares or don't like him. (I'm not talking about Mars, they are different gods.) But, surprise, I liked Ares.

Another example is Hera. Riordan did the same thing with her. Everyone in the books hates her, despise her, even if she is not completely wrong. Riordan went and made her complete straight-up b***. Almost all readers hates her just like they hate Ares. But, guess what? I liked Hera, too. Even If Riordan tried so hard to make Hera as a disliked character. Even if he bashed Hera multiple times, I liked her.

Same with Octavian. Almost everyone hates Octavian in this fandom. And he hated by every character. Riordan bashed him over and over and over again. But I liked him. And Drew, I happened to like her, too. I liked Arachne, even, again, Riordan tried to demonized her in the MoA. Yeah, this was back-fired to me and made an opposite effect. Though, I always loved Arachne. But this 'bashing' made me love her even more. How much I felt sorry for Arachne and how much I understand her. I adore Medea. And I always loved Luke and Ethan, even before they were 'redeemed'.

Personally, I think Rick wanted Ares and Hera to be Hate Sinks that lose whatever made them sympathetic in the slightest and it’s rather sad to see them get dumbed down.