#((i wanted to reflect his greek demigod heritage and the greeks seem to have several terms relating to magic.))

[banana-breaded]

Percy has always unfairly villain-ized Nico.

Upon learning he was a son of Hades, he assumed Nico was vengeful and corrupt. In "The Battle of the Labyrinth" he assumed that Nico was out to kill him, when in fact he was going after Daedalus, who admitted himself that it was his time to go. Not to mention, Nico's bloodlust was because of Minos’ corruption, which never would have occurred in the first place had Percy stopped Nico from leaving, which should have been the obvious course of action.

You don’t let a 10-11 year old, a powerful 10-11 year old who would attract massive amounts of monsters and has just sustained serious amounts of pain, go off by themself for quite obvious reasons. Percy obviously doesn't get the memo because he lets Nico slink away twice, in the end of both "The Titan's Curse" and "The Battle of the Labyrinth." The second time he even reinforced Nico’s belief that he didn’t belong among other demigods. For lack of better words, that’s messed up.

Nico will then go on to do some arguably shady things, but never with malicious intentions (i.e. letting Hades trap Percy and not telling Percy who he is in "The Son of Neptune") and always redeems himself from such actions. Percy however, uses these decisions to discredit all of Nico's suffering.

For the entirety of the "Heroes of Olympus" series, he basically views Nico as a morally grey wild card. He even expresses contempt and aggression towards him, only reigning such emotions in out of pity for his condition after being captured by the twin giants. He often reflects upon Nico's actions in a way that leaves out context, painting him in a villainous light. I don't think he once acknowledges his broken promise to Nico regarding Bianca in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, nor does he ever acknowledge how hurtful it was to Nico when Bianca appeared to him and not her brother. Additionally, whenever remembering how Nico got him trapped, he never seems to recall that Nico didn’t intend to do so and that he couldn't have escaped without Nico. Furthermore, Nico had made his father promise not to hurt Percy, but Percy responded to the trickery with violence against Nico, not the actual guilty party (Hades).

Also, did I mention that Nico is 4 years younger than Percy? In the Titan's Curse, Percy is 14 and Nico is 10. That's a large maturity difference in the tween/teen years and will continue to be throught the series. This means that all of the things Percy holds against Nico were done by a desperate, child from the age of 10 to 12, who had no support system, no real home, and large amounts of inner turmoil and canonical PTSD.

I know I keep reiterating the whole Nico selling out Percy situation but I just think Percy’s reaction was incredibly awful. He made a point to never hurt demigods on Luke’s side, but when Nico “betrayed” him (not really) he immediately wanted to strangle/behead him. Despite the fact that Nico clearly wanted to help Percy and only wanted to detain him temporarily in exchange for deeply meaningful personal information, Percy doesn’t give him a chance for a single second.

Even when it’s made clear that Hades is emotionally abusive to him, he still later feels no remorse for choking this emotionally vulnerable 12 year old. And while it was still the right decision for Nico to negotiate his father joining the war effort, Percy mainly told him to do so to keep him at arm’s length, even though he was sending him into a place where he was clearly unwelcome and would likely be severely punished.

When most Olympian parents talk about how they regret burdening their children with their heritage, it usually doesn't mean much. Yes, they have to fight monsters but in exchange they become powerful. When the Greek deity Hades says this, however, it makes complete sense. The only 3 children he ever has end up experiencing horrific things, having to sacrifice themselves time and time again (or just the once, RIP Bianca di Angelo). On top of this, even the most congenial demigods become biased towards them whether they deserve it or not.

It's sad that there's a hierarchy within the camps and that its determined by parentage rather than character, at least until the demigods in question prove otherwise.

#hazel levesque #rick riordan #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #the heroes of olympus #nico di angelo #camp halfblood #camp jupiter #bianca di angelo #pjo stuff #pjo hades #riordanverse #riordan books #read riordan