Just a heads up. I am not bashing minorities, be it ethnic or otherwise. I'm just explaining how you don't write them.

I have recently started reading Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series. It's about a homeless kid, who goes to Walhalla, goes on missions and meets figures of Norse mythology.

It is interesting, funny and shows a wide range of societal issues, such as homelessness, prejudice and discrimination.

For the most part, Rick writes them excellently.
The muslim daughter of Loki, the presumed big bad of the series, struggles against prejudice because of her ethnicity and parent.

There's a dwarf, that's a social reject, because of his desire to create clothes, not work as a smith.

An elf who was rejected from his family for being deaf, among other things.

And he does an excellent job of making us care for them and their struggles.

Now, you may be wondering why I give such examples of good writing. It's because he dropped the ball in the second book when he introduced the genderfluid Alex Fierro.

From the moment Alex was introduced, he/she was absolutely unlikable. She punched a beloved character in the face for saving her.
She attacked Magnus's floor buddies for no reason and trashed her room (which belonged to a former comrad)
She basically threatened the main character with violence if he doesn't use her pronouns.

And that's it. That was the character until half-way through the book.

Rick also spends almost an entire chapter having two characters talk exposition about genderfluid people. How Alex is probably upset that he/she is now stuck in this body. How Alex probably got kicked out of her home for being that way. How everyone has absolutely no problem with it.

And here lies the problem. Rick doesn't write how Alex experienced it. The information is given by other characters who speculate. They talk about the problems of a demographic, not those of an individual. That means that Alex in basically introduced as a token trans person.
What also doesn't help is that it's written in the most generic way possible. Even the question of how someone can feel as one gender one day and the other the next is met with "LOL I don't know" and "I'm me and I'm just trying to be me." As such, Alex is almost a walking talking stereotype, if Rick didn't also sprinkle some character quirks into the mix, like her being another child of Loki, how she likes pottery, the snarky to aggressive nature, the bad fashion sense (which some chould argue is also stereotypical)

But another problem arises. These other, more interesting characteristics are almost never in the fore front. Whenever Alex is in the focus of the scene, her gender identity is also pushed into the fore ground. And I'm only halfway through the book.

Rick has used the time he usually spends to establish a character and give the reader reason to care for their struggle that comes later, to give a half assed attempt at diversity and no reason to care.

We've only ever seen glimpses of him/her despising Loki (and an honestly good reason to) and Loki wanting to use Alex for something.

I have hope for the character, since Rick downplayed his aggressiveness he has genuinly been more likable in the recent chapters, but I still want to know more about the character as a person. Not as a demographic.

True, it does get better in the third book if memory serves. I also like how the Muslim valkyrie rationalizes the she's basically the daughter of, and chilling with, Norse gods. There's an actual school of belief in certain monothestic religions that, to simplify things, allows for the existence of other deities, except they are not gods, just powerful spirits others misconstrue as gods

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I loved that part where she explained that stuff to her fiancé.

Just a question, is the third book the last one, or can I be excited for another one?

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I think its the last one. I really enjoy Rick's work. He's actually kind of sort of collabing with another author to do a series on Hindu mythology. https://www.amazon.com/Shah-Time-Pandava-Novel-Book/dp/1368012353 Hmm, Pandava, Ajurna, Karna.....wonder if they'll show up.

But yeah, I just love how kind of chill her fiancee is about this. I also like how, unlike in other arranged marriages in media, they actually DO like each other