Truly though, Poseidon went soft after the Odyssey. Luke Castellan had the audacity to piss off Poseidon's only living Demigod son and then LIVED ON A BOAT AND POSEIDONS JUST LIKE "hahaha yeah cool bro." When the Odyssey is actually just a thing that happened historically in cannon. Odysseus is in Elysium with Penelope FUMMING when Luke walks in and tells him his story "THAT SON OF A BITCH LET ME DRIFT AT SEA FOR 11 YEARS AND HE NEVER EVEN ROCKED YOUR BOAT A LITTLE???" (Non of yall should be surprised I got into Epic)
Pjo AU, but the plot stays more or less the same, the only difference is that pjo!ares is replaced by myth!ares
So onto the differences:
Ares is a girls girl. He goes to feminist protests and pro-choice protests. Is the kind of person to beat up a guy who tried to drug a girl. Will pretend to be a girl's husband if sees her being harassed by a creepy dude, after the guy leaves calls an Uber for the girl.
He's a girl dad, despite having very few daughters over the last couple of centuries. Clarrise, and everyone in camp, know that she can ask him to become a goddess and he will make her one. Because she usually gets mistaken for a golden child some new campers think she's weak and is a counselor because she's Ares' favorite. They quickly find out that she can, and will, beat your ass if you try mocking her.
And don't think that just because Ares is a girl dad he doesn't love his sons. He's the kind of dad to have pictures of his kids in his wallet and tell about their achievements to anyone who'll listen.
He has a tradition of hosting a party for his children's birthdays(which he remembers) and he gets them gifts.
At some point after tlt he learns what Sally did to Gabe and immediately starts fangirling after her. They become friends. He's her maid of honor at her wedding with Paul.
Clarrise also has beef with Percy in this AU, but not why you think. Annabeth tells Luke she thinks Percy might be the son of Poseidon and this idea spreads among the counselors and gets back to Clarrise and she's mad, because she knows the story of Alcippe and Halirrhothius and automatically doesn't trust any children of Poseidon, so she has beef with him in the beginning, that goes down the same way, and that's why Ares has beef with Percy later on.
Because he's friends with Sally, at some point, after her and Paul start dating but before she tells him about the whole "my ex is a greek god" thing, she gets Ares and Aphrodite go on a double date with them, because in her eyes there are no better judges for her new boyfriend then the goddess of love and the god protector of women.
god. hades saying, "ask me for sanctuary" after percy talks about kronos hits like a truck when you remember that he tried to do the same for maria, bianca, and nico.
Truly though, Poseidon went soft after the Odyssey. Luke Castellan had the audacity to piss off Poseidon's only living Demigod son and then LIVED ON A BOAT AND POSEIDONS JUST LIKE "hahaha yeah cool bro." When the Odyssey is actually just a thing that happened historically in cannon. Odysseus is in Elysium with Penelope FUMMING when Luke walks in and tells him his story "THAT SON OF A BITCH LET ME DRIFT AT SEA FOR 11 YEARS AND HE NEVER EVEN ROCKED YOUR BOAT A LITTLE???" (Non of yall should be surprised I got into Epic)
“why don’t they ever suspect Luke why don’t they realize it’s Luke why are they so quick to suspect Clarisse and not a Hermes kid”
guys, Luke is the perfect child. Thats the whole point! He gave his offerings he said his prayers he went on his quest he proved his loyalty to Chiron, to the gods, to his dad. And he did it all with a smile. They have no reason to suspect luke! Luke is the best of them!
Ares could’ve come to that meeting waving a big sign that said “LUKES THE LIGHTNING THIEF” and they still wouldn’t have believed him.
Because they also don’t want it to be Luke.
They love Luke. Luke takes care of them Luke protects them Luke is everything they want in an older brother. It doesn’t matter how blaringly obvious the writers get about who the real thief is. They will ignore every sign, every red flag, every warning, until Percy is dying of poison deep in the forest and Luke is gone.