Viria

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Fan
Name: viria
Alias(es): vira13, Viktoria Ridzel
Type: fan artist
Fandoms: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Haikyuu, Disney, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Genshin Impact etc.
Communities:
Other:
URL: viria at Tumblr, viria13 at DeviantArt , Society6
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Viktoria Ridzel, known online as viria, is a well-known artist who creates content for a number of fandoms. She was particularly influential in Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus fandom.

Fandom Activity

Harry Potter

viria's DeviantArt account started in 2010 with some PJO content, but primarily Harry Potter art. She had a particular focus on the marauders era and Jily. In 2023, she is still drawing Harry Potter art, including drarry.

Percy Jackson & Heroes of Olympus

From around 2011 to 2012, Viria was arguably the most significant and prolific fantartist in PJO and HOO fandom, particularly for Percabeth. Much of the fandom's content was edits of her art. When other PJO fanartists gained traction, they would sometimes receive comments that their interpretations of the characters were not "accurate"; these comments were largely from fans of Viria's art. Others point out that Viria's character designs are strongly reminiscent of Burdge's PJO art. Viria's art was frequently shared with Rick Riordan on his social media.

Viria's art started a number of trends and tropes that gained minor popularity in the fandom, such as Punk!Percy and Girly!Annabeth. She also made lyrics comics which fans turned into videos.

Around 2013 to 2014, Viria slowly began to move away from Heroes of Olympus fandom. She, like many others in the fandom, felt that The Mark of Athena had been disappointing. She became more interested in Haikyuu!!, a fandom which was experiencing a boom in 2013, and drew art for PJO more and more infrequently. PJO fans consistently sent her asks requesting that she draw more PJO, with Viria responding that she would draw what she was interested in. Viria was also unhappy when a fan, against her wishes, sent the link to her NSFW side account to Rick Riordan. Some PJO fans expressed resentment toward HQ fandom, despite having no familiarity with it. Over time the requests she received became more insistent, and Viria became more annoyed, eventually stating that she would be deleting any asks related to PJO requests.

Viria's NSFW side account, viriassecrets, was the subject of some controversy. For a time, she was posting art of het couples in intimate situations and various states of undress on her main account, while all gay content, event SFW kissing, was posted on the side account. She also drew Aged Up NSFW art of underage characters.

Viria did not begin regularly posting PJO art again until 2017/2018. This around the time when she was commissioned to do official character portraits for Rick Riordan's website in 2017. She continued to draw future official character portraits for PJO and Riordan's other series, such as Magnus Chase. However, around this time, due to hate over her NSFW blog as well as hate over the way she drew characters (where she was accused of racism). Later, she made a statement regarding this, saying:

And they really do have their impact guys. Even though by loving Haikyuu!! I haven’t stopped loving percy jackson people were suddenly calling me a traitor, saying I don’t deserve the love and followers I’ve gotten from pjo fandom, saying I HAVE to draw pjo and stop drawing Haikyuu because they happen to not like it.

And as much as I love percy I can’t exactly make myself do anything for the fandom, because I’m still really disappointed even though I have made enough of pjo drawings for a lifetime.

tumblr

Overall, Viria's work has had a huge impact on PJO and HOO fandom and is recognised for it [1] [2]

Haikyuu Fandom

Viria helped popularize the trend of girl Haikyuu Teams of OCs.

Genshin Impact

Viria has a few iconic fanarts, particularly of Childe and Chilumi.

Fanart

PJO art

Harry Potter art

Haikyuu art

Art Gallery

Viria-Percy.jpg

Fan Response and Fandom Prevalence

References