Could Not Have Said This Better - Tumblr Posts
I think what more people need to understand is that the pjo cast were cast with the intention of matching the reasoning behind their book appearance, rather than just how they were described. Luke, for example, was described in the books as a blond, muscular surfer kind of guy. At the time of publishing (2005), that was your generic attractive character, and he was described like that to make you trust him more so the betrayal was more unexpected. Now, almost twenty years later in the show, he looks like a tiktok fuck boy because that’s what people now tend to like more. On the other hand, Annabeth was blonde in the books because that was what made people doubt her intelligence, which isn’t something as common now. However, racism is still very real (as proven by people’s responses to Leah being cast), which makes people underestimate her, giving way for the same character arc. This concept works with the rest of the castings as well. Grover still gives the vibes of a lovable loser. Percy looks ready to sass a ninety year old man. Chiron looks appropriately wise and the Ares kids look ready to fuck you up.
The only character that I would say is different is Clarisse. In the books she’s described as big and muscular and ugly, as it was quite common at the time to say ugly = bad which is something that has not aged well at all. Dior’s casting goes against those negative attitudes and ties into the theme of “not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster and not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero”
And at the end of the day, everyone in the cast perfectly captures their characters’ personalities regardless of their appearance