While Luke's death was a 10/10 in terms of plot(the foreshadowing,the prophecy,how it had this simple elegance about it),it only reached a 7 in terms of character (that event was a good finish for his arc,explained his motivations,but I feel like Luke dying was the thing that interrupted his redemption arc,or stopped him from having a real one. If Rick focused more on the tragedy of this, rather than using Luke's death as an atoning act on itself,I'd grade it higher. Besides,Luke still had plenty of history potential,IMO. Imagine if Luke had escaped the Underworld, getting to be one of the seven,the angst while dealing with rejection from the camp,the regret).
I have once again let an ask collect dust for a month (and a half. . .), I am so sorry about that.
Anyways. I mostly agree with you, in that I think Luke's death is a pretty perfect ending to TLO, with a giant fucking asterisk.
That giant fucking asterisk's name is Heroes of Olympus.
The original series has a very open ending, and that's very much on purpose—for the first time, Percy has his whole life ahead of him, there is hope that demigods are going to live longer lives, that the gods can change. As such, Luke's death is super fucking important. Here's a guy who's had his faith in a better world, in creating good change that isn't enforced by the most nightmarish of violence, destroyed.
And he dies for that faith in a better world, on the word of one of the two people left that could possibly convince him to do so. It's a pretty good death.
*Winces* . . .and then the sequels happened.
Luke's absence from the narrative—something that I've talked about before, how it should have haunted the plot, and Percy and Annabeth and Piper in particular, I think—is, ultimately, an absence of a larger problem.
The consequences from that war should be deafening. Like, you should not be able to swing a dead cat without hitting a consequence in TLH (And SoN. Especially SoN).
Mostly, I think it would've been fascinating, with Gaea pulling out "mythology's worst villains" from Tartarus, with Medea and Minas and so many others, to have her also pull out the most high-profile demigod villain in the last millennium.
Like, you wanna sow chaos in the ranks? You wanna make Percy Jackson, who's approaching the very same age Luke was when he first heard from Kronos, doubt his every move?
Yeah, bring Luke Castellan back from the dead and bring out the popcorn.
(I don't think Luke would stay on her side for very long, considering he likes the world's existence, thanks very much. But he'd be a helluva wild card)
The worst thing though, as awesome as that could be, is that the lack of him or the second war permeating everyone's characterization is. . .it really runs counter to TLO?
The point was that these demigods had been dismissed as not mattering. That they were inconsequential. These weren't the rare children of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, being thrown aside and refused rightful recognition.
These children of minor gods, of Olympians whose kids often didn't have much power of their own, being tossed aside and left for dead, when all they wanted was a sign that their parents loved them, thought they mattered.
And when they couldn't do that, Luke—son of Hermes! No powers in particular, one of a dozen kids of an even larger cabin, counselor of the place housing the unclaimed when no one else would—mounted a rebellion to prove them wrong and make their regret of ignoring their kids the last thing they did.
Percy's intervention gave a happy ending to that tale, considering the fact that Kronos was in the driver's seat, and left the ending of TLO with the feeling, that, yeah, Luke was right about the need for change, but he wasn't right in how, but he was able to give Percy the leverage needed to do things right.
It's the son of Hermes, the son of Nemesis, the daughter of Athena, a mortal, who all decide the day. Percy has to let go of being the hero, Nico is trapped down below in Manhattan, and Thalia is literally immobilized by a statue.
Luke and the unclaimed were important. And then HoO just. . .does away with all of that.
Kids are going unclaimed, divisions are alive and well, the gods once again don't give a fuck when the world is ending and their kids are being tossed around and manipulated for their parents' ends. Silena and Luke are barely spoken of (Ethan getting a mention? Don't make me laugh).
Which. . .says a whole awful lot. About everyone.
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