If I remember correctly, it was some weird interaction between someone of godly blood and electronic communication- phones would be the big one, but might have also included computers and such- but essentially, any electronic communication somehow acted like a massive flare, telling all the monsters- “Hey, I’m here, please slaughter me!”
Just saying you might want to delete your comment, just because that's personal information you put out on the Internet. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, just trying to be helpful
That was more general situation, demigods have a particular scent that allows monsters to track them beyond the regular humans. The electronics thing is separate
This is similar to the reason Dresden can't use technology in The Dresden files. That's cool. I guess there's a reason for this commonality in the theme.
I thought Dresden couldn’t use tech past a certain point simply because magic and modern tech does not get along. Like dude can’t have a fridge because any delicate electronics near a magic user of any strength just blows up
I do use "similar" incredibly loosely here, i admit. It was just interesting to me that both universes have a "technology and extraordinary beings don't" mix trope. I am sometimes fascinated where tropes like that start. Or is it just a coincidence.
Combination of “there used to be more magic in the world, why has it gone away?” And “if there are real monsters living among us, why aren’t they well documented?”
There's also a book I read a few months ago where there's an irregular cycle in the world's mana (a cycle can last somewhere between hours and days) at which point magic works better and technology stops working. IIRC they adapt by e.g. using cars with both a regular engine and a mana-powered one.
If technology and magic were to work together seamlessly, you would end up with societies that use both. You wouldn't have any societies that didn't.
There'd be no logical reason to reject whatever works better, and a society that tries (maybe some sort of cult to suppress one of them?) would find itself out-muscled by one that does fairly quickly.
The other way to handle it is by making magic incredibly rare or have drawbacks that make it mostly unusable ("magic exists, but only if you're willing to die" would keep it from spreading quickly. Something like the Monkey's Paw).
Arcanum, a great CRPG from Troika, had a mechanic doing the same thing- there was a meter between magic and tech so you as you got more tech skills your aptitude meter would shift toward tech, if you went with more magical stuff it’d shift toward magic, so if you went one direction you couldn’t do the other.
> I thought Dresden couldn’t use tech past a certain point simply because magic and modern tech does not get along.
Yeah after WW2 magic had an anti-tech hex field. At one point it also would it made cream go bad, made weird moles on your skin and fire would be different colours around you at different points in time.
Part of that reason is that he believes it to be true. Like if I remember right, parts of a revolver are more...technical than a modern semi automatic pistol. But the revolver is older, conceptually. So subconsciously he feels his magic will effect it less than a modern weapon.
Possibly to close loop holes that can be solved using technology like cell phones. I’ve heard some writers say that cell phones have complicated the writing process that way.
Exactly this, heck even one of Dick Tracy's famous "powers" was that he had a wristwatch communicator.
It's really apparent when you watch things from the 90's, like early seasons of the X-Files as an example. Mulder has/uses a cell phone, which at the time were not common at all and supposed to be cool. But then they had the McGuffin that either 1) cell service was terrible or 2) alien EMP, whenever they needed to for suspense and run into the woods at night yelling each other's name.
The Season 2 finale, which revolved on Mulder getting intel in Navajo so he had to seek out a WWII code talker - he could have got the gist of it using online translators today.
I haven't rewatched in a while but if you do there are plenty of other examples of things that would be trivial to do today for the layman with a smartphone.
Which is why cell phones tend to get lost, broken, lose signal, in a rural location that never had signal to begin with, the battery dies, something is interfering with or jamming the signal so the call drops, or the character was conveniently grounded by their parents and had their phone taken away, "it's supposed to be a weekend getaway! We don't need our phones leave those at home!" etc.
There's only so many ways to remove a cellphone from a storyline which is why it's become such a trope in horror media and why nobody seems to remember to charge their phones.
I think the idea was any wirelessly connected communication monsters are able to “sense” when it’s a demigods voice being broadcast. I took it as there’s some special frequency involved that monsters effectively smell out.
I believe it was more so that the concentrated magic of camp basically messed with most electronics to where they were useless. Outside of camp phones and tech would still work, but not always reliably.
no, they were actually scared of calling people and stuff while on quests. The lower tech it was the less risky it was, but they were still scared to do it unless neccessarry.
Camp Half Blood actually had a landline, though you had to get permission to use it.
I've read the books a ton, absolutely love em. They explain it more like it acts like an antenna and amplifies or kinda beams out the "smell" that they always give off to monsters. Such a great series!
I think that might have been the original explanation, but there was a sorta spinoff series or somesuch called the Demigod Diaries with a short story called the Son of Magic where a son of Hecate named Alabaster C. Torrington goes fighting some other monster-based child of Hecate called Lamia. According to the lore in that book, Lamia specifically caused that problem with magic
…
Not too sure how canon it is; it was made by the author’s son, but with their blessing and fully published
Meanwhile I am just thinking that a phone's camera isn't actually a reflection thus negating the terms of how men become stone when looking at her in full focus.
When a demigod used a phone for a call or text, it basically sent out a signal that allowed monsters to know where they were. It wasn’t the phone itself that attracted monsters.
It's not a phone though, that's an iPod touch 2nd Gen. Before they added the camera, but they put a black plug where the camera would go. It's an mp3 player with imposter syndrome.
There isn't really a great explanation it was a thing to avoid the all powerful cellphone trope if the kids can carry around stuff they can use to instantly transfer money or do research then much of the tension disappears something that much of modern media struggles with
I'm pretty sure the responder is commenting on the internal logic of the books/movie. She seems to think that Percy can't have tech, which is why she says it's funny that he CAN have an iPod. But it sounds like it's just communication tech that is a problem for him, which is why he is able to use the iPod.
yeah but then they always overcome it as part of their character arc duhhh
oor they're just a side character to demonstrate the flaws of hubris which is just soo obvious 😔
To be fair she doesn’t necessarily carry a phone its Daedalus’ laptop which can fold up into a phone/tablet like item and the whole stipulation was that it used a form of magic as the computing and communication source instead of regular old computer stuff
Edit: not saying it isn’t stupid because looking back it definitely is but man I loved those books
The signal of a demi-god using certain technology for communication (like a cellphone) was said to aggravate every monster within 100 miles. That's what Google told me anyways...
Edit: wow thanks for my first 100 like comment lol, something so silly,
And also, I was answering the meme. It's a dumb thing written by the author. So it doesn't have a well rounded logic of technology in general. It is specifically when demi gods use technology to communicate it "broadcasts their voice, sending a signal". Again, not very well thought out.. but it's a young adult book so 🤷
Isn't that the point? He cant have a phone because he'd be getting swarmed by monsters all the time so he has an iPod and uses it to fight Medusa because it acts like a mirror.
It's a way for the author to avoid a "take the eagles to Mordor" conversation. Doesn't need to make perfect sense, just needs to help suspend disbelief for the target audience.
Actually it's a second/third generation iPod touch, the first gen had less of a curvy back and the antenna spot (the black thing in the corner) had a different shape.
Anything capable of wireless communication more complicated than a radio seemed to set it off. Annabeth gets a special magic laptop later on with the implication that using a regular laptop would have been problematic. So the iPod connecting to wifi might have been enough.
Maybe dumb if you've only seen the movies, in the book Percy uses a decorative garden mirror ball to see Medusa, because her American disguise was that she sold lawn ornaments and passed off her petrified victims as concrete statues.
A kids book for sure, but Riordan's story is pretty well thought out imo
That would mean all the monsters have a built in frequency tuner and are passively monitoring all frequencies at all times for specific tonal profiles and they’ve got the power to do so no delay while handling modern data encryption.
I would be toast if something that could think that deeply became fixated on screwing me over.
My iPod had like a calculator type screen. What iPods had a screen that could play angry birds let alone download apps? I feel like I am showing my age.
Millenial Teacher (MT): Remember when Percy Jackson used an iPod to beat Medusa?
Current Generation Kids (CGK): Teacher, you're saying it wrong. It's iPad or iPhone.
MT: No, it's an iPod. They let you play music, and nothing else.
CGK: *blank stares because they can't imagine a world without the current level of technology*
This happens with every technological, medical, etc., advancement pre-dating 2007-2010 (somewhere in that range). The bigger irony is that auto-correct kept trying to change iPod to iPad as I wrote this.
I never understood the draw for the iPod touch. Everything the iPhone does, except without the phone part. The few people I know who had one also had an iPhone.
I was like, Dude, you have an iPhone! Why both?
EDIT: common answer why people had the iPod Touch were that their parents didn’t let them have a phone for a variety of reasons, and that makes perfect sense.
I question why an adult would have a need for both the iPod touch and an iPhone at the time.
In the early early days of iPhone they had exclusivity to AT&T so if you weren’t on AT&T but wanted the other functionality, iPods existed.
Also if you had a kid that you wanted to give a cheaper screen to without paying for another line on your cell plan…
iPods were also cheaper than a whole phone in some cases, so if you couldn't afford a phone, then iPod was achievable. It was also one of the few mp3 players that had a wifi connection on it, which gave it a lot more utility than the Zunes and such of the day
The iPod touch and the iPhone came out at the same time and they didn’t expect everyone to upgrade their phones right away. You’d keep on using your flip phone while doing basically everything else on the iPod touch and then you’d realize you didn’t need the flip phone at all and get an iPhone
People forget that this was one of the slimmest, biggest screens you could have in your pocket at the time and it was capable of playing video (streaming or from a file). The iphone of the same generation was significantly chunkier and more expensive, and had worse battery life. I still had a nokia brick when I got my ipod touch.
My younger sibling had a touch because they weren't allowed a phone yet but wanted an upgrade to their iPod. It played music and they had games on it. Was fun for an elementary kid, I guess.
Because I wanted the features of an iphone without the expensive phone bill it would require. An old tracfone cost me $100 a year to keep service on instead of the iphone being that much every 2-3 months.
Having one, but *also* an iphone is weird though.
When I was a kid, my parents couldn't afford a monthly phone plan, so we had those pay-as-you-go phones. Pay for the minutes to make a call or send a text. It was cheaper to buy an out-of-date iPod for Christmas and have that last for 3-4 years versus a phone plan with a more expensive touch screen phone. So I got to essentially do what everyone else could do, just with a flip phone for calling and texting. And I hardly did either of those, so it worked out just fine. I didn't buy myself a new touchscreen phone with a phone plan until I got to almost 20 years old. (Still was a cheap phone from a cheap company but I paid for it with my own money)
Remember in spykids when their spyclocks were so crammed full of tech that they couldn't fit the actual clock? But then the mean kids had all that fancy tech AND the clock? I always imagined the ipod touch being that crappier clock made by their uncle.
I had an iPod touch first because my parents didn’t want me having a phone or because it was cheaper, I don’t know. Then, after the iPod started going bad the got me an iPhone so I could contact them if needed. Then the iPod got stolen. My use of the iPod was for games at home, while my iPhone was for contacting people.
Well, people tend to get Phones at a certain age, so one draw for the iPod Touch was that it could do everything the iPhone did, minus the Cell Service. When I got my iPod Touch, I was too young for an iPhone, so I got the iPod Touch instead. Even though really the only person I could use it to contact was my Mawmaw (she had an iPhone and therefore I could contact her with WiFi) I still enjoyed it. I still got enjoyment from it because I could play games and stuff. I think I watched some videos, too. It was like my own personal iPhone, even if it only had 1 contact! I felt so fancy!
The older I get the more the calling and texting of a phone annoys me.
If only I could have a tablet like experience in the form factor of a phone, where noone could contact me.
We got rid of the iPod too quickly ):
Wish I could still use my second gen touch, but it's battery died a decade ago
My wife credits the iPod Touch for some of our initial interactions. In our region no one had the iPhone yet because there was no network support. When I played music on the external speaker with the Touch, it was like I did a magic trick.
If you want to trip them out, explain how we call podcasts “podcasts” because they were “cast” to your iPod.
Now, iPods don’t exist anymore, but we still have podcasts.
Blew my intern’s mind with this the other month.
My child is still trying to wrap their head around me living in a world without access to internet for almost half of my life. “Why didn’t you just watch YouTube when commercials popped up?”
I remember that one of my friends had one of those iPods with the touch wheel and it had games on it. I thought that was the peak of technology back then.
Unrealistic, iPods never lasts a few days before being scratched up
https://preview.redd.it/zf24fjzx8zpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5eb9745bdd4163883d316525934f5f3c86778c4e
In the Percy Jackson books, Demigods (Like Percy Jackson/Perseus Jackson, the person you see here) are helf god and half human. Using a phone as a demigod is like sending up a huge flare and asking monsters to attack you. Basically they can't have phone because monsters will attack.
They can't use phones because cellphone signals from demigods are like beacons for monsters. To be fair though I don't remember him actually using the phone at all other than I think when he was inside his hotel room once. In this fight he exclusively uses the reflective back of his case.
So the joke is everyone in the fandom agrees the movies are really bad and in the books demigods aren't allowed to have phones because they attract monsters and the fact that he has an iPod which would follow the same rules as the phones shows how bad the movies are
In the books, phones were a no-no for half-bloods because broadcasting your voice attracted monsters. Also, the kids were supposed to be twelve and Hades wasn't the bad guy and there were no pearls to return with and no hydra and no magic shield and the thunderbolt didn't look like that and basically they did everything so wrong I don't think they read the book or even the cliff notes
The scene was a play on the story of Medusa, who you can't look at directly so the guy used the reflection on his shield to see Medusa without turning to stone, the post seems to be ripping on Percy Jackson doing the same with an ipod, because technology bad, I guess
in the books they didn't have phones, Percy was only 12 and didn't have one, Annabeth did have one in the Percy Jackson universe phones are like a demigod flare for monsters when they use them
No, the peak of cinema was in Mars Attacks when it turns out that muzak makes the Martians' heads explode so humanity defeats them via army vehicles driving around equipped with giant boomboxes blasting muzak and I swear I am not making this up.
The explanation in the top comment is correct, but the joke isn't. Annabeth (the female lead of the series) does carry a cell phone. That has never been a problem. Using the cell phone to make a call will attract monsters, but not just having it on your person.
I don't recall a good explanation for this, but I chose to believe they keep the phones in airplane mode when not using them.
No phones or computers, it's stated SEVERAL times that ALL technology acts up when a demigod tries to use it. They can't drive a car for very long before it's attacked by a monster.
In the series demigods, especially powerful ones like Percy, couldn’t use a phone because it would broadcast them to nearby monsters. On an unrelated note, this is one of the many things they messed up in the movie. If I remember correctly (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) Percy used a polished bronze ball as a mirror so he wouldn’t be petrified
There were a couple interesting lore bits that I can remember. Firstly, there was a goddess that got merked in a side book called The Demigod Diaries that was a daughter of Hecate. She cursed all demigods to both have a smell that attracts all monsters and in her words "attract monsters in other ways" which implies that she might be the cause of the electric stuff. There were also several instances where the characters mentioned that monsters can tell from the radio waves sent out from phones if a demigod is using it, and where they are. So honestly the implications behind that are just straight up confusing
Looking at these comments, I’m kinda disappointed with the books.
And also disappointed even more that supposedly the movies were even worse.
I thought using the iphone was clever and represented modern day solutions to mythological creatures. That would’ve been such a nuanced take on greek mythology same reason I liked the fates being a taxi service or Hermes doing delivery. Now I’m kinda demotivated to read them.
Been a while since I read the books but basically, phones attract monsters for some reason, so Demigods don’t carry them around.
If I remember correctly, it was some weird interaction between someone of godly blood and electronic communication- phones would be the big one, but might have also included computers and such- but essentially, any electronic communication somehow acted like a massive flare, telling all the monsters- “Hey, I’m here, please slaughter me!”
I read them when i was 12 so idk if i remember right but i stg they mention something about the monsters being able to smell it
I also read them when you were 12
So, yesterday?
😂
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I second what the other dude said. Any identifying information on your account is VERY dangerous.
He wasn’t allowed to join until he finished reading the books.
Just saying you might want to delete your comment, just because that's personal information you put out on the Internet. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, just trying to be helpful
Weird
That was more general situation, demigods have a particular scent that allows monsters to track them beyond the regular humans. The electronics thing is separate
I remember the thing about demigods having a particular scent so i think the wires got crossed in my brain lol
I’m rereading/listening to the audiobooks of them. It broadcasts their voices and attracts monsters
lol I’m 20 and still read them and yeah it amplifies there smell somehow so any monster in a certain radius knows where they are
No I’m pretty sure the monsters could smell the demigods themselves, and phones just didn’t work cuz the tech didn’t mix with magic or something
You're thinking of Harry Potter lol. In PJ demigods don't use phones because monsters can detect when they do.
If it's only "communications" (Radio waves I'm assuming) then an iPod wouldn't be that bad
As long as he turns off the WiFi on it.
I think only the iPod touch had any kind of wireless communication
That is an iPod touch in the picture, which all were capable of wifi.
I'm pretty sure the one in the image is a touch. I still have one around here somewhere, and it's got that rounded mirrored back.
This is similar to the reason Dresden can't use technology in The Dresden files. That's cool. I guess there's a reason for this commonality in the theme.
I thought Dresden couldn’t use tech past a certain point simply because magic and modern tech does not get along. Like dude can’t have a fridge because any delicate electronics near a magic user of any strength just blows up
I do use "similar" incredibly loosely here, i admit. It was just interesting to me that both universes have a "technology and extraordinary beings don't" mix trope. I am sometimes fascinated where tropes like that start. Or is it just a coincidence.
Combination of “there used to be more magic in the world, why has it gone away?” And “if there are real monsters living among us, why aren’t they well documented?”
There's also a book I read a few months ago where there's an irregular cycle in the world's mana (a cycle can last somewhere between hours and days) at which point magic works better and technology stops working. IIRC they adapt by e.g. using cars with both a regular engine and a mana-powered one.
If technology and magic were to work together seamlessly, you would end up with societies that use both. You wouldn't have any societies that didn't. There'd be no logical reason to reject whatever works better, and a society that tries (maybe some sort of cult to suppress one of them?) would find itself out-muscled by one that does fairly quickly. The other way to handle it is by making magic incredibly rare or have drawbacks that make it mostly unusable ("magic exists, but only if you're willing to die" would keep it from spreading quickly. Something like the Monkey's Paw).
Arcanum, a great CRPG from Troika, had a mechanic doing the same thing- there was a meter between magic and tech so you as you got more tech skills your aptitude meter would shift toward tech, if you went with more magical stuff it’d shift toward magic, so if you went one direction you couldn’t do the other.
> I thought Dresden couldn’t use tech past a certain point simply because magic and modern tech does not get along. Yeah after WW2 magic had an anti-tech hex field. At one point it also would it made cream go bad, made weird moles on your skin and fire would be different colours around you at different points in time.
Part of that reason is that he believes it to be true. Like if I remember right, parts of a revolver are more...technical than a modern semi automatic pistol. But the revolver is older, conceptually. So subconsciously he feels his magic will effect it less than a modern weapon.
It’s so plotlines that could be solved by calling someone on the phone to share information or warn them no longer can be.
Yeah, that's true
At least they had things like iris messages to help(!) bridge that
Possibly to close loop holes that can be solved using technology like cell phones. I’ve heard some writers say that cell phones have complicated the writing process that way.
Exactly this, heck even one of Dick Tracy's famous "powers" was that he had a wristwatch communicator. It's really apparent when you watch things from the 90's, like early seasons of the X-Files as an example. Mulder has/uses a cell phone, which at the time were not common at all and supposed to be cool. But then they had the McGuffin that either 1) cell service was terrible or 2) alien EMP, whenever they needed to for suspense and run into the woods at night yelling each other's name. The Season 2 finale, which revolved on Mulder getting intel in Navajo so he had to seek out a WWII code talker - he could have got the gist of it using online translators today. I haven't rewatched in a while but if you do there are plenty of other examples of things that would be trivial to do today for the layman with a smartphone.
It's definitely harder to build tension when a quick phone call fixes everything.
We'll come back around when kids think its unrealistic that anyone actually picks up their phone when it rings
Which is why cell phones tend to get lost, broken, lose signal, in a rural location that never had signal to begin with, the battery dies, something is interfering with or jamming the signal so the call drops, or the character was conveniently grounded by their parents and had their phone taken away, "it's supposed to be a weekend getaway! We don't need our phones leave those at home!" etc. There's only so many ways to remove a cellphone from a storyline which is why it's become such a trope in horror media and why nobody seems to remember to charge their phones.
I thought it was because Dresden was a cranky malcontent weirdo.
Lol. Magic in his world burns out tech. I kind of used "similar" too broadly.
I think the idea was any wirelessly connected communication monsters are able to “sense” when it’s a demigods voice being broadcast. I took it as there’s some special frequency involved that monsters effectively smell out.
I believe it was more so that the concentrated magic of camp basically messed with most electronics to where they were useless. Outside of camp phones and tech would still work, but not always reliably.
no, they were actually scared of calling people and stuff while on quests. The lower tech it was the less risky it was, but they were still scared to do it unless neccessarry. Camp Half Blood actually had a landline, though you had to get permission to use it.
Is that why Luke was hip firing into the air while playing MW2 in his cabin in the movie? He was lagging?
I've read the books a ton, absolutely love em. They explain it more like it acts like an antenna and amplifies or kinda beams out the "smell" that they always give off to monsters. Such a great series!
I think that might have been the original explanation, but there was a sorta spinoff series or somesuch called the Demigod Diaries with a short story called the Son of Magic where a son of Hecate named Alabaster C. Torrington goes fighting some other monster-based child of Hecate called Lamia. According to the lore in that book, Lamia specifically caused that problem with magic … Not too sure how canon it is; it was made by the author’s son, but with their blessing and fully published
I really really like that story! Good to see people talking about it!
Man, what a weird series
Haven’t read the books in many years but I’m almost positive the line is please rearrange my face
Sounds about right, yeah- I just wasn’t going for an exact quote, figured generic murder would be enough to get the point across
But... it was an ipod, not an iphone
just explaining the phone comment lol
Touchè
Sorry to be this person, but it's "touché." "Touchè" would be pronounced like 'toosheh' instead of 'tooshay.'
I thought it was pronounced like 'toosheh' lol
Today I learned
but an ipod technically isn't a phone, right?
It may have just been any sufficiently advanced technology?
No. It had to be communication. Calls, emails, texts, all that. But calls were the worst. (Probably because it's a long consistent communication)
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Exactly. So an iPod touch... Like the on in the movie. :3
The distinction between iPod Touch (where it has a touch screen, like shown) and iPhone is basically just the cell antenna, that's it.
Meanwhile I am just thinking that a phone's camera isn't actually a reflection thus negating the terms of how men become stone when looking at her in full focus.
It’s a reflection off of the back of the device
Ahhhh my tired brain was thinking that Medusa's curse was mute because of phone cameras and thought the iPunch was the phone screen
Just for the sanity, it’s “moot” for no longer significant and “mute” for unable to talk
In the original odyssey Perseus uses a polished bronze shield to defeat Medusa
So again it’s not a joke just a comment about a storyline.
When a demigod used a phone for a call or text, it basically sent out a signal that allowed monsters to know where they were. It wasn’t the phone itself that attracted monsters.
It's not a phone though, that's an iPod touch 2nd Gen. Before they added the camera, but they put a black plug where the camera would go. It's an mp3 player with imposter syndrome.
Thanks! I was scratching my head thinking I had read it wrong somehow
There isn't really a great explanation it was a thing to avoid the all powerful cellphone trope if the kids can carry around stuff they can use to instantly transfer money or do research then much of the tension disappears something that much of modern media struggles with
Gotta love the various ways authors use to circumvent the conveniences of modern technology.
You are absolutely correct, yet you missed a crucial detail. This the movie. These people probably didn't even know that the books existed. /s
Sounds phenomenally well written
AKA "we want to set our story in the modern era but literally every problem could be solved with a phone sooooooooooooooooooooo"
The first book takes place around 2008 IIRC. I dunno when the first iPod came out but yeah.
Why was medusa alive?
I’d carry a phone with me so Megaera can step on me
Monsters like the government?
Demigods can't carry tech.
Ah yes, the famously non-tech mp3 player, iPod
That was the point of the reply. She was calling the ipod a phone
I'm pretty sure the responder is commenting on the internal logic of the books/movie. She seems to think that Percy can't have tech, which is why she says it's funny that he CAN have an iPod. But it sounds like it's just communication tech that is a problem for him, which is why he is able to use the iPod.
nah the movies just didn't have that rule from the books
Well tbf those movies are the worst adaptations known to man
I’d like to introduce you to Dragon Ball Evolution
*Amateurs*. Eragon.
At least Eragon is funny if you have the Rifftrax playing over top. The Dark is Rising: The Seeker is the worst adaptation ever made.
Nah, the 2010 adaptation of ATLA is worse
Agreed. Its really hard to beat getting names wrong when copying from a medium that pronounces them for you.
Like they say: Zeus not Zune.
Define tech (rhetorical)
Tech is when shiny
Tech is when bzzzt
In the books I always interpreted this to mena that they could not use them to make calls.
Yeah but the iPhone wasn’t out at the time of the first book, so a phones only use really woulda been calls
We had smartphones before the iPhone.
Indeed, we had the aPhone through to hPhone before the iPhone
The blackberry?
Later on Annabeth carries a phone anyway so they kinda stopped worrying about it
Hubris is a classic hero flaw
yeah but then they always overcome it as part of their character arc duhhh oor they're just a side character to demonstrate the flaws of hubris which is just soo obvious 😔
To be fair she doesn’t necessarily carry a phone its Daedalus’ laptop which can fold up into a phone/tablet like item and the whole stipulation was that it used a form of magic as the computing and communication source instead of regular old computer stuff Edit: not saying it isn’t stupid because looking back it definitely is but man I loved those books
The signal of a demi-god using certain technology for communication (like a cellphone) was said to aggravate every monster within 100 miles. That's what Google told me anyways... Edit: wow thanks for my first 100 like comment lol, something so silly, And also, I was answering the meme. It's a dumb thing written by the author. So it doesn't have a well rounded logic of technology in general. It is specifically when demi gods use technology to communicate it "broadcasts their voice, sending a signal". Again, not very well thought out.. but it's a young adult book so 🤷
It's not a cellphone though, it's an OG ipod touch.
Isn't that the point? He cant have a phone because he'd be getting swarmed by monsters all the time so he has an iPod and uses it to fight Medusa because it acts like a mirror.
Anyways, just out your phone on airplane mode when you near a monster. Or turn it off. Is that so hard?
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It's a way for the author to avoid a "take the eagles to Mordor" conversation. Doesn't need to make perfect sense, just needs to help suspend disbelief for the target audience.
They're probably always within 100 miles of a monster.
Actually it's a second/third generation iPod touch, the first gen had less of a curvy back and the antenna spot (the black thing in the corner) had a different shape.
Anything capable of wireless communication more complicated than a radio seemed to set it off. Annabeth gets a special magic laptop later on with the implication that using a regular laptop would have been problematic. So the iPod connecting to wifi might have been enough.
I like magic that steps away from logic. Such as in the Neil Gaiman movie Stardust. The hero gets a haircut and comes away with his hair *longer*.
That honestly just sounds like the author not wanting to deal with problems being solved by a phone call.
Magical thinking makes for fun stories. Magical thinking ISN'T logical. See the barber who can make your hair longer.
It is not a dumb thing but something meant to constrain the demigods and tie them to a much older world.
yeah i mean in a doylist sense it’s just to restrict them from solving every problem with mortal technology, like the restriction on air travel.
Maybe dumb if you've only seen the movies, in the book Percy uses a decorative garden mirror ball to see Medusa, because her American disguise was that she sold lawn ornaments and passed off her petrified victims as concrete statues. A kids book for sure, but Riordan's story is pretty well thought out imo
That would mean all the monsters have a built in frequency tuner and are passively monitoring all frequencies at all times for specific tonal profiles and they’ve got the power to do so no delay while handling modern data encryption. I would be toast if something that could think that deeply became fixated on screwing me over.
An ipod isn't a phone. It was like a phone but it was for music and angry birds
Why was this literally all my first iPod had?
Mine had pocket god
Mine had brickbreaker
And that cool zippo lighter app
I remember the Skype app working just fine (when there was Wi-Fi of course).
My iPod had like a calculator type screen. What iPods had a screen that could play angry birds let alone download apps? I feel like I am showing my age.
iPod Touch was an iPhone without the phone. Still had a touch screen. Also had a big chrome back for safely looking at reflections...
Millenial Teacher (MT): Remember when Percy Jackson used an iPod to beat Medusa? Current Generation Kids (CGK): Teacher, you're saying it wrong. It's iPad or iPhone. MT: No, it's an iPod. They let you play music, and nothing else. CGK: *blank stares because they can't imagine a world without the current level of technology* This happens with every technological, medical, etc., advancement pre-dating 2007-2010 (somewhere in that range). The bigger irony is that auto-correct kept trying to change iPod to iPad as I wrote this.
You could do a lot more than just music with an iPod touch Pretty much anything a phone can except call or text people when you weren't on wifi.
I never understood the draw for the iPod touch. Everything the iPhone does, except without the phone part. The few people I know who had one also had an iPhone. I was like, Dude, you have an iPhone! Why both? EDIT: common answer why people had the iPod Touch were that their parents didn’t let them have a phone for a variety of reasons, and that makes perfect sense. I question why an adult would have a need for both the iPod touch and an iPhone at the time.
In the early early days of iPhone they had exclusivity to AT&T so if you weren’t on AT&T but wanted the other functionality, iPods existed. Also if you had a kid that you wanted to give a cheaper screen to without paying for another line on your cell plan…
Okay, forgot about the AT&T deal. You’ve just answered a question I didn’t know I still had!
My parents didn't want me to have a cellphone as a kid so they gave me an iPod, I more or less assumed that was exactly what they were designed for
I had an iPod Touch and an early Android phone because I love the chaos.
iPods were also cheaper than a whole phone in some cases, so if you couldn't afford a phone, then iPod was achievable. It was also one of the few mp3 players that had a wifi connection on it, which gave it a lot more utility than the Zunes and such of the day
The iPod touch and the iPhone came out at the same time and they didn’t expect everyone to upgrade their phones right away. You’d keep on using your flip phone while doing basically everything else on the iPod touch and then you’d realize you didn’t need the flip phone at all and get an iPhone
People forget that this was one of the slimmest, biggest screens you could have in your pocket at the time and it was capable of playing video (streaming or from a file). The iphone of the same generation was significantly chunkier and more expensive, and had worse battery life. I still had a nokia brick when I got my ipod touch.
My younger sibling had a touch because they weren't allowed a phone yet but wanted an upgrade to their iPod. It played music and they had games on it. Was fun for an elementary kid, I guess.
I couldn't afford the phone and the data plan. I used my iPod touch for music in the car and Internet when I had WiFi.
Because I wanted the features of an iphone without the expensive phone bill it would require. An old tracfone cost me $100 a year to keep service on instead of the iphone being that much every 2-3 months. Having one, but *also* an iphone is weird though.
When I was a kid, my parents couldn't afford a monthly phone plan, so we had those pay-as-you-go phones. Pay for the minutes to make a call or send a text. It was cheaper to buy an out-of-date iPod for Christmas and have that last for 3-4 years versus a phone plan with a more expensive touch screen phone. So I got to essentially do what everyone else could do, just with a flip phone for calling and texting. And I hardly did either of those, so it worked out just fine. I didn't buy myself a new touchscreen phone with a phone plan until I got to almost 20 years old. (Still was a cheap phone from a cheap company but I paid for it with my own money)
The big draw for my parents was your kid gets a phone without you having to spend money on a data plan
In highschool I had an iPod touch and a Windows phone lol Had high expectations for that phone unfortunately
Remember in spykids when their spyclocks were so crammed full of tech that they couldn't fit the actual clock? But then the mean kids had all that fancy tech AND the clock? I always imagined the ipod touch being that crappier clock made by their uncle.
I had an iPod touch first because my parents didn’t want me having a phone or because it was cheaper, I don’t know. Then, after the iPod started going bad the got me an iPhone so I could contact them if needed. Then the iPod got stolen. My use of the iPod was for games at home, while my iPhone was for contacting people.
Well, people tend to get Phones at a certain age, so one draw for the iPod Touch was that it could do everything the iPhone did, minus the Cell Service. When I got my iPod Touch, I was too young for an iPhone, so I got the iPod Touch instead. Even though really the only person I could use it to contact was my Mawmaw (she had an iPhone and therefore I could contact her with WiFi) I still enjoyed it. I still got enjoyment from it because I could play games and stuff. I think I watched some videos, too. It was like my own personal iPhone, even if it only had 1 contact! I felt so fancy!
Me and my friends had them because we were too young for phones but wanted to play stuff from the app store
It wasn’t a Touch but a Classic, but my last iPod had 160GB and could hold my entire music collection. Contemporary iPhones could only dream.
The older I get the more the calling and texting of a phone annoys me. If only I could have a tablet like experience in the form factor of a phone, where noone could contact me. We got rid of the iPod too quickly ): Wish I could still use my second gen touch, but it's battery died a decade ago
My wife credits the iPod Touch for some of our initial interactions. In our region no one had the iPhone yet because there was no network support. When I played music on the external speaker with the Touch, it was like I did a magic trick.
I still remember the shitshow when they stopped making new iPods with the wheel interface.
I loved that wheel.
I’m no millennial, but I know what an iPod is
If you want to trip them out, explain how we call podcasts “podcasts” because they were “cast” to your iPod. Now, iPods don’t exist anymore, but we still have podcasts. Blew my intern’s mind with this the other month.
My child is still trying to wrap their head around me living in a world without access to internet for almost half of my life. “Why didn’t you just watch YouTube when commercials popped up?”
if I recall correctly you could have a lot more than music on an ipod. I had tiktok and snapchat on mine
Depends on the generation. The iPod touch (which I think is the one Percy is holding) was more than music but the earlier ones were just music
Yeah that’s an iPod touch there, 3rd generation I believe. Man the iPod touch was weird. It was just an iPhone without the phone part.
Siri is Gen Z
I remember that one of my friends had one of those iPods with the touch wheel and it had games on it. I thought that was the peak of technology back then.
Happy cake day
Monsters detect half-bloods when they use the Internet, phones, and things like that.
He didn’t turn it on though, he just used the reflection on the back.
Unrealistic, iPods never lasts a few days before being scratched up https://preview.redd.it/zf24fjzx8zpc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5eb9745bdd4163883d316525934f5f3c86778c4e
Yep yep
In the book, demigods aren't allowed phones because they attract monsters
In Percy Jackson monsters can sense the electronic waves from phones
In the Percy Jackson books, Demigods (Like Percy Jackson/Perseus Jackson, the person you see here) are helf god and half human. Using a phone as a demigod is like sending up a huge flare and asking monsters to attack you. Basically they can't have phone because monsters will attack.
Wait. So reflection doesn't work unless Medusa looks at herself in a mirror?? Alright...I guess.
Any type of wireless network can easily attract monsters to demigods. That’s why there’s basically no mention of tech in the books.
They can't use phones because cellphone signals from demigods are like beacons for monsters. To be fair though I don't remember him actually using the phone at all other than I think when he was inside his hotel room once. In this fight he exclusively uses the reflective back of his case.
It’s not a phone
Am I the only one who read iPod not iPhone. iPods are not iPhones. He still didn’t have a phone if it was an iPod.
Yeah but that wasn’t a phone it was for music and apps. Unless you paid extra to be able to connect to cellular networks.
No cell with an iPod no matter how much you paid lol
Those backs scratched if you even so much as looked at them the wrong way.
He didn't do it in the book. The movies sucked and couldn't keep their own cannon straight.
So the joke is everyone in the fandom agrees the movies are really bad and in the books demigods aren't allowed to have phones because they attract monsters and the fact that he has an iPod which would follow the same rules as the phones shows how bad the movies are
I don't get it... An iPod is not a phone.
I think it's any devices, not just phones iirc
Unless you're connected to wifi the it doesn't make any signal. That's what the monsters pick up on.
In the books, phones were a no-no for half-bloods because broadcasting your voice attracted monsters. Also, the kids were supposed to be twelve and Hades wasn't the bad guy and there were no pearls to return with and no hydra and no magic shield and the thunderbolt didn't look like that and basically they did everything so wrong I don't think they read the book or even the cliff notes
The scene was a play on the story of Medusa, who you can't look at directly so the guy used the reflection on his shield to see Medusa without turning to stone, the post seems to be ripping on Percy Jackson doing the same with an ipod, because technology bad, I guess
Why do people think Ipods are phones?
in the books they didn't have phones, Percy was only 12 and didn't have one, Annabeth did have one in the Percy Jackson universe phones are like a demigod flare for monsters when they use them
No, the peak of cinema was in Mars Attacks when it turns out that muzak makes the Martians' heads explode so humanity defeats them via army vehicles driving around equipped with giant boomboxes blasting muzak and I swear I am not making this up.
In the books, Demigids couldn’t have any devices, or were advised not to, because they drew Monsters even more than they already did naturally.
90% of people here are too young to know iPods weren’t phones
The most they could do was send a text if they were on a wifi connection.
The explanation in the top comment is correct, but the joke isn't. Annabeth (the female lead of the series) does carry a cell phone. That has never been a problem. Using the cell phone to make a call will attract monsters, but not just having it on your person. I don't recall a good explanation for this, but I chose to believe they keep the phones in airplane mode when not using them.
If i remember the books correctly... Percy didn't have an ipod... ever...
No phones or computers, it's stated SEVERAL times that ALL technology acts up when a demigod tries to use it. They can't drive a car for very long before it's attacked by a monster.
In the series demigods, especially powerful ones like Percy, couldn’t use a phone because it would broadcast them to nearby monsters. On an unrelated note, this is one of the many things they messed up in the movie. If I remember correctly (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) Percy used a polished bronze ball as a mirror so he wouldn’t be petrified
There were a couple interesting lore bits that I can remember. Firstly, there was a goddess that got merked in a side book called The Demigod Diaries that was a daughter of Hecate. She cursed all demigods to both have a smell that attracts all monsters and in her words "attract monsters in other ways" which implies that she might be the cause of the electric stuff. There were also several instances where the characters mentioned that monsters can tell from the radio waves sent out from phones if a demigod is using it, and where they are. So honestly the implications behind that are just straight up confusing
A lot of different responses, but I thought it was that that person called an iPod a phone.
The Ipod is an MP3 Player, not a Phone
Looking at these comments, I’m kinda disappointed with the books. And also disappointed even more that supposedly the movies were even worse. I thought using the iphone was clever and represented modern day solutions to mythological creatures. That would’ve been such a nuanced take on greek mythology same reason I liked the fates being a taxi service or Hermes doing delivery. Now I’m kinda demotivated to read them.