#and also! the narrative doesn't infantalize him for his disabilities! which is nice!

[aroaceleovaldez]

yknow what i was reminded of this and it’s been sitting in my drafts for awhile:

i feel like Nico is a very unique disabled character particularly for a YA fantasy series because he’s one of the few instances where I’ve see a character who becomes disabled gradually over time rather than having a pre-existing or sudden new disability, and he has an invisible disability, and it’s actually acknowledged and discussed to some degree in-text.

Most of Nico’s disabilities we see through the lens of Nico’s powers, but not exclusively. In the first series, Nico’s powers are extremely dramatic - he’s able to create large rifts in the ground, generate building-sized slabs of black marble, direct armies of skeletons, summon and control large groups of ghosts at once, and accidentally shadow-travel halfway across the world with very little drawback.

But over time, contrary to what we’re told of how demigod abilities work (becoming more powerful over time), Nico’s abilities decrease as the series progresses, particularly after he goes through multiple traumatic experiences and physical injury. In HoO and TOA, we see he never fully recovered from the neglect to his health over time and injuries he’s received.

I feel like it’s really important to acknowledge that Nico is an instance of a disabled character who gradually loses the ability to do things to the same degree he used to before, which is an important disabled experience.

#pjo #percy jackson #nico di angelo #meta #this isnt going into the specifics of his disabilities #but the use of his powers to highlight his disabilities is really interesting in the narrative context of demigods #to me at least cause it highlights the shift in his abilities really well in the universe of the series #and also! the narrative doesn't infantalize him for his disabilities! which is nice! #my brain is mush rn [typing these tags] so i cannot get into my full thoughts on this atm #but i have Many Thoughts on Nico's disabilities #disabled nico