25 November 2014

Top Rick Riordan Cliches (I Need Your Help!)

Hello, readers! Today I'll be doing something a bit different: Lakshmi commented on my review of Blood of Olympus suggesting I put together a list of the top Rick Riordan cliches, and I decided to do it. As you can see in my review, I loved the original Percy Jackson series but have been pretty disappointed in the Heroes of Olympus books. Don't jump all over me for hating, I just want to poke some gentle fun at the cliches Uncle Rick likes to lean on.


And without further ado, let's get started! Here are a few I thought of:

1. Love stories. With angst. Cause someone's always wondering if their girlfriend/boyfriend really likes them as much as they say.

2. Land ship. Fight monsters. Leave. Repeat.

3. This can't possibly get any worse. Oh wait, it just did!

4. Every character has to have some kind of internal fear/something they're hiding from the team. If not related to cliche #2, these fears usually turn out to be really important to the plot

5. There's a prophesy that seems horrible, but in the end we discover a different way to intrepret the prophecy, and now no one has to die.

6. The gods. They're SO USELESS, except for when they're vital to the plot.

What are your top Rick Riordan cliches? Leave them below, and I'll add them to my list! I'll post the full version on December 2, unless we need more time.

Edit 12/5/14:
This is now closed. I will post the final list of cliches next week. Feel free to continue posting cliches on here, as I will keep monitoring it for comments. If you post before my list is up and running, and I have time, I will add your cliche(s) to the end of the list.

Edit 1/6/15:
I just realized I should add the link to the final list. Here it is!

4 comments:

  1. I really like this idea! I love Riordan's books, but he does tend to repeat himself sometimes.
    My suggestions:
    1. Characters who suddenly have mysterious, special powers (like how Leo can summon fire and Frank can change into animals.)
    2. Characters who have dead parents. (Frank, Hazel, Leo, etc.)
    3. Underdogs who always turn out on the top.
    I hope this helps!

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    1. Thanks, Tessa, those are really good! They're definitely going on the list. Check back on December 2 for the full list, and feel free to post more if you think of any in the meantime.

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  2. Oh, this is fun. It would be more fun if I'd actually read the books.

    3. This can't possibly get any worse. Oh wait, it just did! - I think a lot of thriller style structured books have a moment like this.

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    Replies
    1. You're right, that's a pretty common cliche in these kinds of books. Riordan relies on them particularly heavily: this sort of situation occurs three fourths (or more) of the times they encounter monsters.
      If you like humor and fantasy, I'd recccoment Riordan's Percy Jackson series! It's one of my favorites. He uses many of the same cliches in the books in the first series, but they come off a lot less cliche-ish in the original books.

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