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hollisxwrites · 3 months

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heyy

i was wondering if u could write a percy jackson x reader ??

flowers in your hair

(percy jackson x child of apollo reader)

thank you for the request today guys! please keep requesting, i'll keep writing (lol)! thank you for all the love on "as long as i'm with you, hero"! again, please keep requesting, i'm loving doing these! see my introduction and who i write for here!

tv! percy jackson x child of apollo! reader (I think the reader remains gender neutral throughout the fic)!

i do not own this gif or the song!

word count: 2.7k

warnings: mr. d is kinda an asshole, kinda a mention of violence, a few swear words, some slight angst and jealousy, percy is a sweetheart, a few mentions of the l word 🤯 (love), making out, possible innuendos, idk how to write warnings.

summary: based on the lumineers song flowers in your hair. percy and the reader fall in love over time spent together in camp halfblood, but they refuse to admit it in order to keep their precious friendship, until one day the reader finally cracks. this is on the longer side! sorry!

I was twelve years old when I first came to Camp Halfblood. I was scared, cold, and completely alone, running from a horrific monster that was something out of my worst nightmares. The cold pellets of rain showered over me as I ran, until suddenly, the monster wasn’t chasing me anymore, the rain stopped, and I was in the middle of a clearing, staring directly up at a house, a big, sky-blue house. It was beautiful, to say the least. Close to the house was what looked like a... volleyball court? Down the path a little, I could make out the shape of smaller houses built with Greek architecture. I was intrigued, but also frightened. Had I come across some cult? My hair was drenched and I’m sure my shirt was see-through due to the peltering rain, but when I thought about it, the rain had stopped when I got within feet of the house. Curious (and desperate for someone's help), I walked up to the door of the big blue house and knocked on it. Minutes seemed to tick by until suddenly, the door burst open and a man, about middle age, holding a set of poker cards, came to the doorway.

“What the hell do you want kid? Can’t you see I’m busy? You know Campers aren’t allowed out past nine P.M. Now I would suggest you get back to your cabin before I kick your...”

Suddenly, the scary man was pushed aside by an even scarier man, a man with a horse bottom-half and a man-top half. I blinked once, twice, three times, and the man was still a horse. “Mr. D! This is not one of our campers! I told you to be kind.” The horse-man said to who I guess was Mr. D. “Come on in, young one. It looks like you may be a new camper.”

Mr. D took me into the house and gave me a change of clothes, black pants and an almost nauseating orange colored shirt that said ‘Camp Halfblood’ on it. I was still interested in finding out what this was all about, but I was even more worried about my safety. These random scary men were taking me into their house in the middle of the woods after being chased by a scary monster. What else could go wrong? I was gestured to sit by the fireplace, and the horse-man explained everything to me. I was in disbelief. The gods of the Greek myths are real? I was only able to access this camp because I was one and I was in danger? My mother slept with a Greek god? My life, at this very moment, was altered forever. It finally made sense why my mother hated me. I was, not only, the result of her ‘dumb teenager decisions’, but I also was the result of her being with a god?

The horse-man, who I found out was named Chiron, after explaining everything to me, took me to one of the cabins I had noticed earlier, and he told me it was Herme’s cabin, which is where I would stay until my godly parent claimed me.

When I entered the cabin, most of the kids were asleep, because it was gods know what time of night, except two boys, one with dark curly hair and a scar running down is face who I assumed to be at least sixteen, and one with the prettiest blonde curls and green eyes that I have ever seen who seemed to be about my age. The boys were sitting on a window seat looking out to another large, Greek looking structure, discussing something that seemed to trouble the younger boy. Chiron called the two boys over, and they came to meet me. Chiron introduced the older boy as Luke Castellan, Herme’s cabin counselor, and the younger as Percy Jackson, another new camper who has only been here for a day. Percy and Luke shook my hand, and Chiron left them to help me navigate the cabin and find somewhere to sleep.

“Nice to meet you, {reader}. It’s not every day we get a new camper, but when we do, I am always excited to meet them!” Luke Castellan said. He scared me a little, with his scar, and his height. His overall demeanor was slightly frightening, but I liked him all the same. He seemed to be welcoming and kind enough.

I smiled at him, trying not to catch the eye of Percy, who seemed to be looking at me a lot. “Nice to meet you too.” I said in a monotone voice. I didn’t realize how tired I was until this moment. “I’m sorry, I’m so tired, getting chased down by a monster and finding out I’m some god hybrid thing that sends demons out to get me all within two hours. Where am I supposed to sleep?”

Percy giggled. “I know how you feel. I watched my mom get killed by the minotaur last night, and here I am, not able to sleep cause of the nightmares. I should get some sleep too.”

Luke glanced around the cabin. “I’m not sure where you’re going to sleep. All the cots are occupied, unless you want to sleep on the beanbag chairs over there.” He pointed to the pile of frumpy beanbag chairs in the corner of the cabin.

“No, no. They can take my bed. I doubt I’m going to sleep anyways, y’know, nightmares and all.” Percy chimed in, probably noticing my disparity to sleeping on an uncomfortable looking beanbag chair.

I shook my head. “No way. You were here before me. It’s okay, I can take the beanbags, you take your space. I hope my dad claims me before too long, so I can take a couple nights.”

“I’m not letting you; you look too tired.” Percy said, in a voice that sounded almost threatening. “We can switch out if we’re both here for a while. I mean...if you want to.”

I smiled at the boy. He seemed kinder than anyone else I knew, even though that wasn’t saying much. I didn’t know many people. I did take Percy’s bed that night, and that developed our friendship that would eventually become the most invaluable thing in my life. I sat with Percy at every meal, he showed me around the camp to the best of his ability, and we decided to train together, as we were both new outcasts to the camp. Even after he was chosen to go to the Poseidon cabin through the game capture the flag, and I was chosen by father to go to the Apollo cabin, our bond only grew closer, and we still managed to find time in our busy schedules to spend time with each other.

One day, several months later, in these rare moments we were both free, I was lying on the ground in the strawberry fields that became my favorite part of the camp with Percy. We had a long day of training and decided to bask in the warmth of the camp, savoring the warm late summer days. I was picking dandelions out of the strawberries and weaving them together the way I used to do with my older sister. I was slowly making a crown out the buds, and it was turning out quite beautiful. It kept my easily distracted mind focused on what Percy was saying. He was going off on some tangent about Grover and his disloyalty to the camp and to Mr. D, something that Percy found alarming, as he was worried about his best friend’s safety.

“I’m just glad I have you, {reader}. You really have been a good...friend all these months at camp.” Percy said, grinning at me through the strawberry bushes.

My eyes twinkled when mine met his, and I placed the now completed dandelion crown in his blond curls that drew me to him the moment we met. “I’m glad I have you too, Perc. You made me feel a little less crazy.”

He smiled at me, the dandelion crown slipping down his face. “You’ll always be in my heart.” He blushed a little, as we are not usually this compassionate for each other.

“So will you!” I said, moving to put the flower crown back on the crown of his head. My fingers tingled under the small touch to his face, but I didn’t realize that it was love, at the time, at least I didn’t realize it was romantic love. That’s something I know too well now.

...

Five years later, Percy and I have not grown farther apart with age, we’ve grown closer. He saved the world, and I was always by his side through everything. He only grew more beautiful with age, too, his hair growing a little longer, eyes getting a little darker, scars from battles littered his arms, legs, and chest. He was always attractive to me, but now, it was even more so. He had also grown more physically affectionate towards me, brushing my hands with his, leaning on my shoulder during campfires, and even going as far to giving me kisses on the cheek when I saw him first thing in the morning and late at night when we left for the day. Sometimes, he snuck into my cabin or I into his if we had nightmares just so we could be with each other. His smell of sea salt and something else I couldn’t quite name (probably the blue candy that he ate daily), and it always comforted me during hard nights.

All of this to say, though, we were just BFFs. Best platonic bros. Nothing more, nothing less. I loved him, I had realized over the years, loved him a little too much it was unbearable sometimes, but he was rumored to be with other people all the time, even though I knew he wasn’t. He would tell me, right? Right? He spent pretty much every waking minute with me and every minute asleep most of the time, too, so I would know. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t jealous of every person he came across. I loved him, and he was my sea boy, and I was his sunshine.

That’s why, when we found ourselves in a very similar predicament to what we did all those years ago, during our first couple months at camp, I made a very risky move.

I was sitting, face angled up to the sunlight, weaving a dandelion crown in my trembling hands. Percy had grown, so the flower crowns I made him now were twice the size of the ones I made him all those years ago. I delicately made a pattern with the dandelions again, and I looked up at Percy from time to time to nod or make a comment on whatever he had to say, but it was mostly silent, him humming and picking at the ground below us, and me, weaving my crown.

Percy paused his picking at the ground and looked at me. I could feel his gaze on my face, and it made my cheeks heat up. I prayed to the gods that he thought it was just from the sun. “Do you remember when we did this, what, five years ago now? I would say we’ve grown a little, and we know more than we did then.”

“What do you know now that you didn’t then?” I said, eyes not leaving the project in my hands.

I assumed he shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I know more about the gods, about the world, about you.”

Laughing, I finally tore my eyes away from the completed crown and I moved to place it on Percy’s head, settling it gently in his curls, careful not to mess up my handiwork. I let my fingers linger longer on his face than I did last time. “You know more about me, sea boy?” I asked him teasingly, finally meeting his eye that hasn’t left my face this entire time.

“I guess I do, I mean, I feel like I do. I feel like I’ve barely spent a minute away from you since that day.” He leaned into my hand that was placing feather-like touches on his face. “I mean, I know that your favorite color is yellow, you love the same music I do, and you hate when I call you sunshine.”

“You do know me, don’t you, Perc?” My hands dropped away from his face, and he pouted at the loss of contact even though our legs were centimeters from touching. I could feel electricity buzzing on my skin where our limbs were about to meet. That was something I always felt when I was close to him. I always assumed, back then, that his love language was physical touch, and so he was just being a good friend by how affectionate he was to me. How delusional I was.

“I sure do.” He flipped his body so that he was no longer facing me, instead he laid himself down on my lap. My hands instinctively went to his pretty hair, making sure to be mindful of his crown. “Y’know, I think I love you, {reader}.”

My heart, in this moment skipped a beat, but then shattered at the same time. He loved me, but in a friendly way. “You don’t mean that, Perc. At least, you don’t mean that the way I want you to.”

His head shot up from my lap, nearly slinging his flower crown from his head, and he turned back to face me at an alarmingly quick rate. “What do you mean, the way you want me to?” His hands met mine that were laying in my lap. He interlaced our fingers, and my entire body felt alive.

I blushed and looked back up to the boy I have loved since we were pre-teens. “I love you, Perc, but I love you, like in a romantic way. I hope it’s not too late, cause you’re so damn attractive. You have always been to me, always will be. I think I’ve just been scared. I value you so much as a friend that I didn’t want to lose you.” I refused to look up from our intertwined hands, embarrassed and saddened by my confession. I was half expecting Percy to scoff and walk away, kicking pebbles up at me.

Instead, he unclasped our hands and pulled my face up to look at him, his eyes shining in a way that I’ve never seen them shine before, his face glowing with a humongous grin. “I never thought you’d say that. You know that I have loved you all this time, too?”

My heart skipped several beats this time. I’m not kidding; I was about to go into cardiac arrest. “Are you kidding? You’re pranking me right now.” I hid my burning face on his shoulder.

His laugh vibrated underneath me, making me giggle, too. “I guess we’re both idiots.”

I hesitantly pulled my face off his shoulder and asked him the scariest question I have ever asked someone. “Can I kiss you?”

Our faces were inches apart when he whispered, “I thought you’d never ask.” The kiss was everything I could have ever asked for. At first it was gentle and loving, our noses bumping into each other, until eventually my hands found his hair and his found my waist. It was warm, and passionate, and everything I could’ve dreamt of.

He slowly pulled away from me, both of us panting, foreheads touching. “That was...perfect.”

I smiled. “Just like you, sea boy.”

His face met my neck now, and he pressed warm kisses to my exposed skin, his hair tickling my jawline. I squirmed under him, trying to suppress a groan. He lifted his head up, his eyes met mine. I thought he never had looked better. The flower crown I made him was lopsided now, diagonal across his head, his lips were red and bitten, his face was perfectly flushed, and his pupils were blown out. “How did I get so lucky?” He said to me.

“I am asking myself the same damn thing.” I smiled, keeping eye contact with him. He connected our lips once again, and that’s when I knew I was a goner. I had been all those years ago, but we have grown a lot since then. Percy being in my eyes and in my heart all the time harbored the feeling that I have been carrying, and now I get to express.

Years from now, I hope he still gets to be in my heart, and I in his.

#percy jackson show #percy jackson #percy pjo #percy jackson x reader #percy jackson x you #percy jackson x y/n #percy jackson fluff #percy jackson angst #percy jackson x child of apollo! reader #percy jackson imagine #song based fic!

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canyourfavesurvivecastledracula · 3 months

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Can Percy Jackson survive Castle Dracula?

To cut to the chase: Yes. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that he is *insanely* well prepared for this encounter.

First off, Dracula did not invite young Mr. Jackson to the castle. Percy took a wrong turn and stumbled in there by accident while on some other quest to recover a magic doodad or stop the evil whatsit, because that's what he does! (I love that the PJO books really take the "greek adventurer wanders around and has unconnected adventures" structure to heart.) But once he's in there, Dracula is delighted to take him in as a guest--canonically, halfbloods smell delicious to monsters. Taste delicious too. Percy is exactly the kind of snack he'd get excited about.

Fortunately, Percy would be on his guard pretty much immediately. The whole "monster pretends to be a gracious host and then tries to imprison and eat you" stunt gets pulled on him about every other week. Plus he's armed with a celestial bronze sword, which is specially forged to vaporize monsters. I dunno that Dracula would follow greek myth monster rules and vaporize per se, but I think it's reasonable that Riptide would be an effective weapon against him. And crucially, Dracula can't take it it away from Percy, since it is enchanted to always reappear in his pocket no matter how it gets lost. (And extremely useful trait for an ADHD teen that I wish my belongings had.)

But it gets better. Let's go into the specifics:

The Crucifix: Percy would accept it. He's used to receiving seemingly nonsensical gifts from people that save his life later at crucial moments. Plus he knows that gods and supernatural beings are real, even though he's not christian-religious, I think he would recognize the woman's sincerity in her belief that it would protect him.

Shaving: He's too young to shave! No confrontation here.

Going exploring: He 100% would. Percy never follows directions when someone says "don't go there." I could list at least 10 examples right now of him wandering off when he's explicitly told to stay put.

The Girlies: Percy has been known get distracted by hypnosis by female monsters before, but he's pretty good at snapping out of it. I think he's likely to clock 'em as enemies pretty quickly and get his sword out, at which point he should be able to fend them off.

Climbing the wall: One of the standard training activities at Camp Halfblood is a rock wall that undergoes earthquakes and pours lava on you. I think he'll be fine.

Wolves: Small beans compared to other monsters he's fought. Plus, Percy has an empathy link with his satyr friend Grover that allows them to communicate through dreams, especially when one of them is distress. If Percy is stuck at the castle long enough, then I think by the time he gets to facing the wolves there would have been enough time for Grover to get the memo and come help him--and Grover can talk to animals! So there's a good chance he can just talk the wolves down and not even have to fight them.

But I don't think it would come that. No, I think the biggest issue Percy would face is that he would force a confrontation with Dracula MUCH soon, probably within the first few days of entering the castle. Percy isn't particularly polite, and he has a bad habit of talking back and picking fights with powerful supernatural entities that already want to whoop his ass. (He picks a fight with the God of War as an eleven year old, and that's how the series starts.) Add that to the fact that he'll already be on high alert for monsters, and I think he'll be in a flat out combat with Dracula before the roasted chicken has cooled on his plate.

Fortunately, Percy is quite the accomplished swordsman. As mentioned, I think celestial bronze would be an effective weapon against Dracula. Unfortunately, Percy won't have access to one of his biggest advantages--water! Being a son of Poseidon would be very useful given vampires' aversion to running water, but I don't think there are any sources close enough to the castle for him to call on. In extreme situations, Percy does have an Ultimate he can use to call forth the sea from within his own body, but it wipes him out pretty thoroughly, and if he used that I think he would be at risk of dying in the woods after unless his friends showed up to get him somewhere safe. But even without water powers, I think Percy would put up a very good fight against Dracula and have a good chance of making it out alive.

...there's one more wildcard which might get played in his favor, which is that the greek gods love jumping in on his quests at the last minute with some divine intervention. So even if things go south fighting Dracula, I could see some kind of literal deus ex machina showing up at the last moment to give him the last push to victory.

So yeah. Castle Dracula would end up being just one more pesky side quest. XD

Aw man I was actually going to answer this one. Buuuuut I've had all week and I didn't so I can't complain.

N.B. I have not yet seen the new TV series, so hereinafter we will be talking about the books.

I think you're absolutely right about Percy stumbling haplessly into Castle Dracula, which is a bummer because it robs us of the Calèche ride, which is our only real opportunity to have Percy use his Poseidon powers by talking to the horses. I want to see Dracula's horses chatting with each other about the fresh meat, being nervous about the wolves, changing their tone in a truly disturbing way as Dracula calms them ... and Percy sitting in the back listening in like "I'm in Danger 🙃." He may not speak Romanian, but he might well be adequately warned by the horses.

One place where I am going to disagree with you a bit is the Celestial Bronze. Monster in this setting is a technical term - a species, really. Dracula is not a Monster in the Greek Mythology sense - he's just a guy. A human born to human parents who then got upgraded. So Percy's sword isn't going to turn him to sand and return him to Tartarus, because he is fundamentally not a creature of Tartarus. Now, does Dracula count as human for Celestial Bronze purposes? Will Riptide pass harmlessly through him? Maybe not. Maybe it's still at least a long sharp piece of metal and can be weilded as such. (Of course, if he goes after Dracula at night, it'll still pass harmlessly through him, but for unrelated reasons).

I agree that he will clock the Girlies as enemies immediately - as you say, this kind of thing happens to him all the time. I am less confident than you are that he could simply snap out of a trance, something that happens neither in the novel Dracula nor, to my recollection, in the PJO books. Usually iirc he is rescued from hypnosis via some sort of outside influence - much as Jonathan is woken by the baying of dogs the second time the Girlies come after him. I feel like Percy would give us some self-effacing narration to the effect of "now you're probably thinking - why did you just lie there!? You know they're vampires! And you'd right, because I was thinking that too! But for some reason I just couldn't seem to move. Man, I hate being hypnotized." That said, attacking something that can dissolve into moonlight with a sword is a good way to get dead, so it's just as well.

I agree that he will be able to manage the wall, and yeah, once he gets outside the castle, he's a good candidate for divine intervention or just another wacky encounter. He's so good at being rescued and/or nursed back to health by things. And the more I think about it, the more the wolves being organized by Grover as a rescue is exactly the kind of thing they would pull. "Oh no, I'm being ripped apart by woooooolves~~~"

Despite his battle reflex and excellent skills, I'm not convinced Percy could best Dracula in a direct fight, but he might be able to match him well enough to fall or jump out the window and escape. Alternatively, do Percy's demigod powers let him control Dracula while in mistform?? If so, Dracula will NOT be pleases.

As for general pugnaciousness, I dunno. He does pick fights with Ares but I don't know that he'd start something with an extremely scary dude whose house he is trapped on - unless he's deliberately trying to provoke him for some advantage. He does go in for the "get the other guy so angry it makes them stupid" approach quite a lot. But I don't know if he's try that on Dracula. He might well go for the "keep your head down and try not to get murdered" approach.

Percy's Fatal Flaw (tm) is his devotion to his friends, but since they're not here that's unlikely to be a problem. His ordinary flaw is that he's stupid (affectionate) - but again that might work to his advantage here. Because he is genuinely very stupid, no one ever expects him to be clever, and he's clever enough to lean into that. If he can play dumb and keep his anger in check, he might well last long enough to escape. And as you say, Dracula has an interest in keeping him around, because he smells delicious.

So on I guess precisely opposite reasoning, Perseus "Percy" Jackson, half-blood son of Poseidon, can survive Castle Dracula

#percy jackson #pjo #avatars and demigods #children

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gracexthoughts · 3 months

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Okay, I have a lot of thoughts about the Percy Jackson show and the discourse I have been seeing about it. This is going to be long and possibly all over the place but I just want to share. If you disagree, that’s fine. Just don’t hate because you have a different opinion. Deal?

I want to start this by saying I am a new fan. I did not read the PJO books when I was a kid. I watched the first two episodes when they came out in Dec purely out of curiosity and was just immediately in love with the world. So in true ADHD hyperfixation fashion, I devoured Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus books and I am currently on Book 1 of Trials of Apollo. And maybe it's because I am a newer fan but a lot of the gripes I see about PJOTV just don’t make sense to me and I feel like they really are just rooted in nostalgia. Watching the show and all the interviews of the cast and crew, it is clear to me they wrote this season with the intention and hope that they would get to make all 5 seasons, and possibly even further. I can see how all the changes make sense when looking at the narrative as a whole. They are really setting up this world and this story in a way that I think lends more to the future of this narrative better than The Lighting Thief book does.

I also want to say I have yet to find a book to screen adaptation that is beat for beat accurate. So much of what works in novels, especially novels told in first person, just does not translate to third person screen adaptations. Ultimately, literature and film/TV are art forms and what works for one may not work for another and the creators are allowed to make changes, especially when it is for the overall good of the product.

To start, the exposition dumping didn’t really bother me that much although I agree it is there and noticeable. Now, I watched the first two episodes before reading the books but after reading the books, I think the exposition is just as noticeable in the books as it is in the show. Percy walks into this world without knowing or believing in any of it. In the book, he learns about this world through the people around him explaining it in dialogue. It is just condensed a little more in the show which makes it feel a little heavier. Nonetheless, fantasy tends to have a lot of exposition because there are a lot of things you as a reader/ viewer need to know at the start of the story. It is part of the nature of the genre, especially when it is intended for a younger audience. Exposition that seems clunky to an older viewer is probably not going to feel the same way to a younger audience member (which is the target audience).

The biggest complaint I see, and disagree with, is that the kids are “too smart which ruins the suspense.” Annabeth has been at camp since she was 7 and it is clear, both in the books and the show, she is determined to prove that she is strong and capable and intelligent. She has been training to go out on a quest since she was 7 years old. Annabeth would have been studying these monsters and these myths so of course she can figure out the traps. They aren’t that hard to figure out, even for someone who isn’t super knowledgeable about Greek mythology.

Grover’s job is a protector of demigods. It makes sense he knows these myths like the back of his hand. I imagine that after Thalia, Grover would have studied and worked so hard to prove he was ready for another chance. Grover in the books also fell a little flat in The Lighting Thief to me because it seemed like most of his personality was just to be scared and funny until later books. I love what they did with Grover in the show because he feels like an actual character with his own goals, intelligence, trauma and authority.

Now onto Percy… I have so many thoughts about Show Percy so bear with me.

While I was reading the books, I was confused as to why Sally didn’t teach Percy about Greek mythology. Book Sally seemed to just hope Percy being attacked by monsters and going to camp isn’t going to happen or just assumes that when it does happen, Percy will figure it out. Sally always knew what would happen to her son, at least to some extent, so why wouldn’t she do everything in her power to prepare her son for this life she knows is inevitable? I loved the addition of her teaching Percy about Greek Mythology and Ancient Greek because it makes so much sense because I never saw her as a just “sit back and wait” kind of character. Percy is her son, her baby, her miracle. She is terrified for him (which we see in EP 7 in the flashbacks) and, to me, it makes sense she would do everything in her mortal power to prepare him in a way that doesn’t scare him or reveal to him who he actually is. (It is also such a beautiful call back to Rick telling his son these stories as a kid, like I just think that is beautiful).

While on the subject of Ancient Greek, I saw someone complain how Percy doesn’t inherently know Ancient Greek in the Olympus scene in EP 8. “Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. Father.” - The Lightning Thief, page 343. This moment was literally pulled straight from the book! Percy talks about Annabeth tutoring him in Ancient Greek in the book (The Lighting Thief, page 107) and I loved how the show changed it to be his mom that taught him because of the previous reasons I gave above.

In general, Percy is an unreliable narrator. We see that in The Last Olympian when Rachel painted him defeating Antaeus. Percy is shocked at how he looks. We also see this in Heroes of Olympus where he is constantly talked about as this powerful and sometimes scary person whereas Percy never describes himself as anything other than kind of mediocre. Percy is constantly underestimating his intelligence and power in his POV because at his core he is still an insecure kid who was bullied and uses humor as a defense mechanism. But no matter what he thinks, he is smart and powerful and capable and I love that we get to see that in the show because it isn’t in first person.

In the books I was constantly frustrated that they weren’t seeing the traps. Aunty Em’s is so clearly out of place and weird and creepy but the Book Trio just ignores it? Also the Medusa story change was beautiful and needed and added so much depth to what was a very simple scene in the books. The Crusty’s scene was jarring at first, but in hindsight it didn't bother me either because Hermes told them about the entrance. Why wouldn’t he tell them about the trap too? The way Hermes is portrayed, I get the sense that he really wants Percy to succeed, in the books and show, and that he is holding onto hope that somehow, someway, he can still save his son. Why would he send them somewhere just to lead them into a trap that does not benefit Hermes in any way? (And us not seeing that conversation happen is showing and not telling BTW)

Also, the overall claim that Percy, Annabeth and Grover know everything is just… wrong. (@pareiwheeler made a post about this that really made me realize this so go read their post too: https://www.tumblr.com/pareiwheeler/740600563986808832/theres-know-mystery-or-suspense-they-know) They know the small things but the big things? They didn’t think Luke was the thief, they didn't know it was Kronos, they didn’t know they would lose the fourth pearl, they didn’t know the casino would mess with time, they didn’t know the shoes were a trap, etc etc. They walk into these situations thinking they are prepared, thinking they know everything they need to but they DON’T And that is where the suspense lies, in the overarching storyline that is the driving force of the plot. Not in these moment to moment scenes that are not the main conflict.

Now onto the smaller changes that, in my opinion, benefit the overall narrative of this story.

Missing the solstice deadline: Not only is Percy choosing to continue the quest despite missing the deadline such a great character moment for him but this ups the stakes so much!! Zeus and Poseidon are currently at war for the last two episodes of the show and even if they don’t talk about it much, that knowledge is still there in the characters' heads and in the viewers’. Every moment they take in the Underworld, you are watching with the knowledge that war is raging above. And it's a great way to show the kind of hero Percy is and what he will become. Percy doesn’t care he “failed” because he didn’t come all this way just to run back to camp with his tail tucked between his legs because that is not Percy. Percy sneaks out of camp twice to go on quests he was not invited on because he will not let someone’s rules get in his way while he is protecting people he cares about. Percy doesn’t want war to happen so with even the slightest chance he can stop Zeus and Poseidon, he takes it! Also the addition of Poseidon stepping in and saving Percy from Zeus was beautiful.

I also loved that Poseidon gave them 4 pearls instead of 3 because such a small detail shows how Poseidon cares about Percy and Sally. And, plot wise, it didn’t change anything. Percy still left the Underworld without his mom. But starting with 4 pearls gives them hope that they actually can complete the quest AND save Sally. Percy leaving the Underworld without Sally is so much more impactful in the show than the books because of this tiny detail change.

The fact that the pearls take them to the east coast rather than the west coast works well too. I loved that they returned to the cabin because of how important that cabin is not only to Percy and Sally but also to Poseidon.

Hermes being added to the Lotus Casino and bringing in Luke’s background earlier on was beautiful and Lin Manuel Miranda’s performance was one of the standouts for me. It is such a beautiful moment and you can see the anguish in Hermes at his feeling powerless and I think it sets up Percy learning about Luke’s family in The Last Olympian in a great way. This is one of those moments where you can tell the writers and showrunners are playing the long game with this series.

Last but not least, the change in the betrayal scene. I love it. I do. Not only in the changes in the way it happens but how they characterized Luke. Luke clearly does not want to hurt Percy, he wants Percy to help him and to come with Luke because he cares about him. The prophecy states “You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend” and Luke in the book didn’t really seem to care about Percy or view him as a friend at the end of it. But Show Luke? He cares about Percy and he is heartbroken that Percy doesn’t side with him. Also the addition of Annabeth hearing Luke’s betrayal first hand was brilliant, in my opinion. Not only were Walker, Charlie and Leah ACTING but it was so much more impactful that Annabeth sees Luke turn and chooses Percy in that moment. And I don’t think it will change much of Annabeth’s actions in the future because you can see how hurt she is and how desperately she still wants him to come back and be good.

Anyway, I think the show is brilliantly done. That isn’t to say it doesn’t have its faults but nothing is perfect and if you were expecting this show to be 100% perfect then I think you just set your expectations too high because that is not realistic.

If you made it to the end of this, I love you. The Percy Jackson brain rot is real and if we don’t get an S2 announcement soon I’m going to riot

#percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo tv show #pjo fandom #pjo series #pjo spoilers #pjo #pjo disney+#pjoverse #percy series #annabeth chase #grover underwood #poseidon #sally jackson #percy jackson and the olympians spoilers

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heliomanteia · 3 months

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did u delete ur latest post regarding rick giving leah a lackluster script?

Hi! Yeah, it needed rewording & more examples but if you don't mind I'll use your ask as a reason to talk about it! Annabeth is my favorite girl and I feel very passionate about how easily she could be dealt a better script.

Under read more because I go on a tangent.

I genuinely think Leah's script was mediocre at best and it's in no way the actress' fault. Many people pointed out that she's way "more Annabeth" within mediums not controlled by Richard & Co: interviews, promotional material, her personal interactions with the cast, and such.

My beef with Richard is that he very obviously "used", for the lack of a better word, Leah as some sort of a shield against any sort of criticism and then sort of really failed her - and I believe Leah to genuinely like her character & do her best.

I. I feel like there's a Lack of Annabeth in the camp scenes as an educator/guide.

Chiron wasn't alone in showing Percy around in the book, Annabeth did it with him. That's how we are first introduced to Annabeth as someone who knows so much of the Camp as she lived there so consistently. She also was the one to teach Percy Greek alongside Chiron. I feel like this positioning of her as someone with high degree of knowledge suffers greatly in the show: we aren't really shown that Annabeth is really knowledgeable, we're told that, and that's all.

II. I feel like Percy overtakes a lot of Annabeth's role as a character.

He offers exposition, explains the myths to HER in the Amusement Park episode (why is he the Wise Boy?), and overall "does her job". I wouldn't mind it as much if Annabeth was given a different archetype in return for that exchange, but she's left hollow. It's just Percy doing the thing and her trotting behind. That's... not how their dynamic works.

III. I think Leah!Annabeth is written off as a "Strong Woman" not allowed to show childlike qualities.

She is so serious and it makes her character very single-faceted. Annabeth is serious and focus-oriented, yes; but she is also silly, she is so geeky, she is adorably passionate, and she's so human. Feels like they reduced this in Leah's script by a lot and I don't get why. It would literally cost nothing to let her rant about architecture or let her passionately tell others myths.

IV. I believe her backstory is sort of forgotten about.

Many people spoke about how weird it is that she is presented as the one who needs to reach out to her neglectful dad, to do the emotional labor despite being a young neglected girl. It feels weird that it was Leah who was dealt such unfair treatment of her character.

Annabeth canonically didn't leave the camp much, she isn't familiar with the world outside; it'd be nice to see that aspect of her too. Also, her bond with Thalia is sort of there but her bond with Luke is nonexistent, it's just spoken about. Again, this strips her off so much of her humanity as a character. Without these little things showing that Annabeth can be fragile, vulnerable, sweet, funny, loving we just end up with an arrogant, angry girl. Not a good look for Richard tbh.

V. The show fails to objectively narrate Leah!Annabeth.

The Disney+ adaptation - for the abovementioned reasons - ends up presenting Annabeth to us as Percy's future love interest first and as her own character second. It wouldn't work even if it was Percy's POV because Percy sees her for the girl she is first.

VI. I think Richard fucked up the premise of the character.

Book Annabeth was one of the examples of deceitful appearances: the "dumb blonde" that actually was insanely witty. This "she's not what she appears like" trait was sort of taken away from Leah and I don't get why? I fail to believe that there are no stereotypes regarding presumed lack of intelligence that could be played off with a Black actress. Sounds like Richard and Disney didn't really think about it.

VII. I hate how she was cut out of Tartarus scenes.

That was such a BIG moment for 'beth, she was the one talking to Hades! Because Grover was scared to death and Percy was impulsive and with no filter! He doesn't know how to talk to Gods, he's been a halfblood for so little and Annabeth has been one her whole life! She's the brains, she's the negotiator. The show leaves her in the forest of regrets and sort of forgets about it after.

So, I do think that the script for her sucked bad. And the worst part is, it could be better SO easily. Leah deserved better imo.

#🏛️#pjo show crit #pjo tv crit #rr crit #Throwing to the sharks:#percy jackson #annabeth chase

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crisisreading · 3 months

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Now that we’ve reached the halfway point of the PJO TV series, I want to recap my thoughts so far (as someone who first read the books back in 2010 as a fifth grader)!

I will share another post with my dislikes soon.

Likes:

- Having Sally tell the Greek myths to Percy throughout his life is SO smart. Sally has very little agency to protect her son, but this was the one way she could prepare him to be a hero.

- I love how Luke’s mentorship towards Percy is emphasized in the show. This is Percy’s first positive male role model and the first person to make Percy feel at home in the demigod world. This strong foundation really sets up these two boys to be dramatic foils.

- I like the fact that Percy is NOT the best fighter yet. We watch him stumble and struggle during his fights with Alecto, the Minotaur, and Clarisse. You can tell when his instincts kick in and even he is surprised at what he is doing.

- Having Echidna and the Chimera catch up to our heroes at the Arch because Athena ALLOWS it was brilliant!

- And the change from Percy jumping from the Arch and praying for his father’s help in the books, versus resigning himself to death and falling instead perfectly captures where Percy is in his hero’s journey. Why would he trust a god who he’s never met, and has done horrible things?

- Honestly, the contrast between Annabeth defending Athena and being forsaken versus Percy forsaking Poseidon and being rescued, is peak television!

- I am so so so relieved that the show has maintained the plotline of the gods being flawed and even cruel beings. I was certain that Disney would whitewash this aspect of the story, but I’m glad we see the heroes doubting their parents, and the gods acting weird at best or murderous at worst. After all, this is a family story and the entire Titan war is started because demigods felt abandoned by their parents.

- Finally, I was so impressed by the show’s adaptation of Grover! The way Grover was able to use his abilities as an empath and his people skills to read and manipulate Ares himself was genius! And it really shows why satyrs are trusted to guide demigods on quests.

Please let me know your likes!

#annabeth chase #percy jackson #pjo #heroes of olympus #hoo #percabeth #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo series #grover underwood #pjo tv adaptation #pjo tv series #pjo tv show #pjo fandom #percy jackson and the olympians

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raaorqtpbpdy · 3 months

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Why Are Seers Always Cursed? (2)

Wesley Weston is a son of Apollo with the rare gift of prophecy.

Written for @crossoverdanuary Week 2024, Day 3: Percy Jackson | Lake

This takes place shortly before Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia arrive at Camp Half-Blood, and while Wes is still in middle school, meaning it's set before the primary canon events of both series. You can also read it on AO3.

Chapter 2: Camp Orientation

Previous | Next

[No Warnings Apply]

New York City was nothing like Amity Park. If Wes thought the buildings back home were pretty tall, the skyscrapers here were gargantuan. He was half worried they'd fall over at that height, like a Jenga tower. It smelled worse than Amity Park too. Maybe it was just because of the steadily increasing heat, but the place smelled like sweat and garbage.

"Come on Wesley, no time to waste," Melvin said, ushering him onto the shuttle out of the airport.

"I told you, it's just Wes," he repeated for probably the sixth time. "So how far is this Camp Half-Blood place, anyway?"

The two of them had had the chance to talk on their flight, and Melvin had explained everything. Wes hadn't wanted to believe it at first, but after listening for a while, it started to make sense.

"You mean Apollo wasn't a stage name?" Wes had asked. "That was the real, actual Apollo? No way, that's ridiculous."

"When he sent a message to camp asking for a searcher to go get you, he said that you had inherited the gift of prophecy," Melvin had said. "Haven't you ever felt or seen things before they happened? Had dreams or visions that ended up being true?"

Wes' mind had instantly gone to how he'd known that his mother was going to meet Apollo again. But then he'd started to remember other things. That time his dad had gotten fired, and he'd used his saved-up allowance to buy a consolation cake on the way home from school, even though he couldn't have known until he got home and his dad told them about it. Somehow, he'd just known that something bad had happened and his dad would need a pick-me-up.

He'd thought about how he always somehow knew when there would be a pop-quiz at school. Even about how, when he was little, he never lost a game of Guess Who. How he hadn't been surprised when he'd learned his dad wasn't really his dad, how he'd almost been expecting the news. He'd known when Easton's college acceptance letter came in the mail, and when Kyle was going to eat it and break his arm during a skateboarding competition.

All this time, Wes had attributed it to coincidence, or lucky guesses, but... could it really be prophetic knowledge?

"I can see by your expression you know exactly what I'm talking about," Melvin had said. "But prophecy is a rare and highly coveted ability. Honestly, Apollo should have called us to pick you up years ago. You're just lucky you never made the connection before, because if you knew, they'd be able to smell it on you."

"They?"

"Monsters," Melvin had clarified. "The ones from the Greek myths, harpies, cyclopes, basilisks, all them. They're all real. A demigod with the gift of prophecy like you is in even more danger than most. I mean, any demigod is in danger of being attacked and killed by monsters, but you? You they might keep alive as a prisoner, using you for your ability, and that's arguably worse."

Wes had swallowed, suddenly a bundle of nerves.

"Don't worry, though, once we get to camp, you'll be fine," Melvin had said. "There, you'll learn how to fight and protect yourself, and you'll be protected, too."

"Right...."

Wes was jumpy as they took the shuttle to the city and then the bus to Long Island. After Melvin had explained the mist to him, he looked at everything and everyone like they might be out to get him. He'd never been so paranoid in his life. But him being a demigod explained more than just his apparent precognition.

Back when he was in grade school, he could have sworn on his life that their neighbor's huge quote-unquote "dog" was not a normal dog. It's eyes glowed sometimes, and out of the corner of his eye it always looked to have horns, but they would disappear when he looked directly at it. It always growled at him when he passed, and one day, he took the long way home and snuck in through the back door because he somehow knew that if he took his usual route that dog was going to attack him.

The day after that, the neighbor took her dog and moved out suddenly. He never saw either of them again.

How many other monster-dogs and monster-people had he missed because he didn't know he should look for them? How many times had he narrowly avoided death because he had a gut feeling that made him take a different route home or fake sick to get out of school?

"Stop that," Melvin whispered.

"Huh?"

"It's good to be vigilant, but if you assume everyone is a monster, you'll drive yourself crazy," he clarified. "Our stop's coming up, and from there is a bit of a walk, but it's usually pretty quiet. Just try to stay calm. We're in the home stretch."

Right.

Trying to stay calm failed spectacularly. Wes spent the whole walk from the bus stop to the camp more anxious than he'd ever been. He felt like every shadow, and even the wind blowing through the trees was going to come after him. Melvin was right. It was driving him crazy.

"You know, this is going really smoothly," Melvin said after a while. "I mean, I said the walk would be quiet, but usually we searchers find demigods because they're being attacked or something. It's not often that a god actually comes by camp to tell us to pick up his kid and gives us an exact address.

"Of course, it's not often a demigod inherits the gift of prophecy either. In fact, I think the last one was born in the 1890s, if I remember right. It's almost as rare as a child of Hephaestus being able to control fire. I guess I should have expected your case to be different—it was certainly better planned and scheduled. I would have expected more danger though."

Suddenly, Wes felt a hot feeling shoot through him. "Wait," he said stopping in his tracks. He looked around, scanning what he could see of the horizon. "We should go a different way."

"Why? Did you see something?"

"No I felt..." Wes suddenly felt silly again. There was no reason to change course because of a feeling. Then again... he did supposedly have the gift of prophecy. Maybe it wasn't just a feeling after all. "I felt like I was standing next to a bonfire for a second. I think if we keep going this way, we'll get burned."

"It could be more dangerous if we stray from the path but... who am I to argue with a seer," Melvin said. "We'll go this way."

With that, Melvin led him just past the trees that lined the road. After about thirty minutes, they heard a distant roar in the direction the road would have been, and Melvin stopped to smell the air.

"Definitely a monster," he said.

A plume of fire shot into the sky.

"A drakon, I think. It would have been bad if we'd run into it." He looked down at Wes, a little incredulously. "I'll be damned. Did you know?"

"Not exactly," Wes said. "Like I told you, I felt fire, and a strong sense that it was related to the direction we were headed. That's all."

"I guess that's all we needed," Melvin said. "Huh...." The look he fixed Wes with next was curious, almost hungry. It made the redhead squirm. "Anyway, camp's not much farther now. If the drakon's heading that way, we should warn them."

A few minutes more, and they reached the crest of a hill.

In the valley on the other side was a summer camp. Wes could see an amphitheater, a large blue farmhouse with a wraparound porch, a cluster of maybe a dozen cabins, give or take, and a little ways away a place with about a dozen long, white picnic tables. Campers ranging from about seven-or-eight to their late teens were scattered about doing an odd mix of normal camp activities and intense-looking combat training.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," Melvin said brightly. "Come on, we should warn Chiron about the drakon."

Melvin led Wes down to the blue farmhouse, where he met the camp director, Mr. D, and a centaur named Chiron, who apparently was the actual camp director. Melvin quickly introduced Wes to both of them as the child of Apollo who could see the future, and then told them about the drakon they'd avoided on their way there.

"Thank you, Mr. Barkley, I'll take him from here," Chiron said, and he led Wes toward the cabins.

"Another one for cabin eleven?" A wiry-looking girl of about sixteen asked.

"Sorry, Robin, this one's been claimed by Apollo already," Chiron told her. Then he looked back at Wes. "Robin is the head counselor of the Hermes Cabin. Since Hermes is the god of travelers, that's where campers who haven't been claimed, or who were claimed by a god other than the twelve Olympians stay. We know who your godly parent is, so you'll be staying in cabin seven, the Apollo Cabin, along with the other children of Apollo.

"Apollo's head counselor, Archer, will show you around camp," he finished as he stopped in front of a cabin with the number seven hanging over the door. "Now, please excuse me, I must inform the Ares Cabin of the potential threat."

Wes waited for him to leave before knocking on the cabin door.

"If that's you, Robin, fuck off!" a voice called from inside.

"It's not!" Wes called back awkwardly.

A few seconds later, a boy about the same age as Kyle answered the door. He was about average height and build with brown skin and dark brown hair tied back into a short ponytail.

"Who're you?" he asked.

"Uh... I'm Wes Weston," Wes answered. "Chiron told me to come here."

"You're a son of Apollo?"

"I guess."

"Archer Gutierrez," he introduced. "I'm head of the Apollo Cabin, nice to meet you. Sorry about the language. Come on in."

Inside, there were bunk beds on either side with a cot in the middle of the cabin for some reason. It smelled of clean linen and dried sage. Rough wooden beams ribbed the ceiling and the white plaster walls were mostly bare, except for a few hooks, even though there were paintings and wall hangings all over the floor.

"Sorry, Robin keeps breaking in and taking everything off the walls for literally no reason," Archer explained. "We have set so many traps and stuff to stop her, but she keeps getting past them somehow. Either we're gonna have to escalate to putting in landmines like the Ares Cabin, or just stop hanging stuff on the walls altogether, because this is ridiculous. I mean it's basically harmless, but it's super annoying. Can you put that bow back up over there?"

"Are the Apollo and Hermes cabins, like, rivals or something?" Wes asked, lifting an intricately carved bow off the floor and resting it on a set of hooks Archer had pointed to.

"No, not really," he replied. "It's just Robin. I think she's still pissed that I broke up with her a couple months ago. She said she was cool with it, but she still keeps breaking into cabin seven to make a mess, so I don't know."

"Weren't you in school a couple months ago?" Wes asked. "I thought this was just a summer camp?"

"Some of us stay here year round, if we don't have anywhere else to go, or if we don't want to go," Archer answered with a shrug.

The two of them finished hanging everything back up in relative silence, broken up only by Archer's humming and Wes occasionally asking where something was supposed to go. Once they were done, Archer took him out for the grand tour. The cabins, the dining pavilion, the camp store, the forge, the amphitheater, the arts and crafts room, the archery range, the music classroom, the infirmary, the arena.

He mostly focused on the places where Apollo campers tended to hang out, unsurprisingly. Apparently Wes would be expected to help out in the infirmary sometimes, since Apollo was the god of medicine, even though the most Wes knew about medicine came from Kyle bribing him to help patch up skateboarding injuries before their dad found out.

It seemed the camp and camp activities were pretty much completely divided based on godly parent. In the dining pavilion, they had to sit at their godly parent's table, and weren't allowed to sit at someone else's. They did camp activities in groups with other people who shared their godly parent. They weren't allowed to enter cabins that weren't their own—though obviously that didn't stop Robin. The way Archer explained it made it sound like these rules were pretty strict though.

Then Wes saw something out of the corner of his eye. "Huh?"

"What? You have a question?" Archer asked.

"No, I just thought I saw... nevermind. Must've been a trick of the light." For a moment, Wes thought he saw a large pine tree at the top of the hill. But there was obviously no pine tree there.

"Come on, I'll show you the volleyball court."

"I prefer basketball."

"I'll bet you do," Archer snorted. "Apollo cabin has pick-up games from time to time. It gets pretty intense. The record for farthest score is 165 feet from the hoop."

"Really?" Wes said. "That's amazing. That's more than a full court shot. That's almost two courts."

"Everyone knows Apollo kids have the best aim. That was two year ago, though, and no one's been able to match it yet, not even the guy who did it."

Wes stopped in his tracks. The hot feeling had returned, this time on the back of his neck. He turned around and saw the camp border directly behind him.

"It's coming here," he said.

"Huh?"

"What do you guys do when a monster attacks?" he asked instead of clarifying.

"Ares cabin usually takes the front lines with the other cabins providing backup," Archer explained. "Apollo cabin grabs our bows and arrows and retreats to high ground to lay down cover fire."

"You should get ready to do that, then."

"Huh? Why?" he asked, cocking his head in confusion. "We can't know when a monster will attack until it does, so there's no point freaking out about it, ri..." he trailed off when he caught sight of the entire Ares cabin fully armed and armored and heading up the hill. "That's strange, usually they only send a few guards at a time to act as lookouts, but I haven't heard the lookouts say anything."

Just as the rest of Ares Cabin reached the top of the hill, the lookouts started to shout.

"Drakon approaching!" They screamed as loud as they could.

"How did you know?" Archer asked Wes, not moving.

"Shouldn't you get your bow?"

"Right, but this is not the end of this conversation!" He started running to tell the other Apollo campers to get ready.

As Wes looked back up to the hilltop, to the Ares campers charging down at the monster, for a moment, he saw that pine tree again, stretching up toward the heavens. Then he blinked, and it was gone. It hadn't been there in the first place.

#dp #dp x pjo #dp crossover #danny phantom #fic #wes weston #pjo #things i wrote #crossover danuary week 2024 #crossover danuary week #chapter two #why are seers always cursed?

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annonniiiiieeeee · 1 year

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Ok, you and that anon that threw the Payche and Eros AU at you have me curious. I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology - hyper-fixated on it during MS and HS, ironically not because of the Percy Jackson series - and want to know how you’d work a Hades and Persephone AU with Leosagi? Because I have an idea of if it was a Draxum raised Leo kind of deal (and yes, I’m totally implying Leo as Persephone in that thought), but I wanted to know how you’d work it?

Hades and Persephone is one of my favorite myths.

I’m bring it in two flavored today.

2003 Leosagi

Usagi is Persephone.

He lives in a world where he can walk around and have a normal life. He is a samurai and is well known and well liked.

He meets Leo and the two fall for each other.

But they are from different worlds.

Everyone wants Usagi to forget about Leo. He is a ninja which means he is dangerous and he is from a ‘dark world’ (New York is so dark in that cartoon)

But Usagi so stubborn and goes after him any way. The two eventually start dating but Usagi can’t stay forever, he has duties in his own world.

Cue the six month arrangement.

Rise Leosagi.

Leo is Persephone.

The magic powers, the bright happy city, the loving but over protective family.

Accidentally opens a portal into Usagi’s world.

Stumbles into him. The two fall in love but Leo’s family don’t want him galavanting in another worlds.

Maybe Leo accidentally gets cursed and has to stay in Usagi’s world for 6 months.

Rise leans it self better to the boys having powers

You could also just make the rise boys into full gods with different powers and abilities.

Leo could easily be spring, Mikey summer, Donnie fall, and Raph winter. You could have a lot of fun with this very quickly.

Bonus flavor

2003 reverse

Leo is Persephone.

Over protective parent that shields them all from the world.

The brothers sneak out one day (maybe they live in Usagi’s world already or maybe Donnie built a portal machine “dad said no to the surface not other dimension.”) but they run into Usagi.

They are all extremely wary of him at first but he does a good job at trying to make them feel safe and comfortable.

Splinter eventually comes to fetch his sons and he forbids them from going to Usagi’s world again.

Cue Leo and his brothers sneaking out to see Usagi.

Leo and Usagi fall in love and Usagi starts looking for a way to allow Leo and his family to stay in his world. (Maybe their is no battle nexus and he has no way to follow them to their world) and he comes across the pomegranate.

He tells Leo his idea and of course Leo wants to stay but he would never let his brother try a potentially dangerous plan without him doing it first.

This is how Leo eats the pomegranate seeds and now has to remain in Usagi’s world for six months.

The brothers are a little peeved as they don’t like the idea of Leo being trapped but they always follow him there any way.

I have a lot of different ideas for this. But mainly it depends on the version and how heavily you want to actually base it on the myth. New York being hades is so funny to me.

#leosagi #2003 leosagi #asks #future oneshot #myth mixup

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 3 months

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Percy Jackson Series Review (Spoilers for Whole Season 1!)

I finally watched the finale for the Percy Jackson series and figured I'll write a review for the whole season. Overall I think it was a good season, there were some really great moments and I think the cast did a really good of capturing the characters and the relationships from the books. However for me there were a few issues with the first season. So before getting into it, these are my own thoughts and opinions and there is a spoiler warning in effect from here on out, you have been warned. I'm going to start with my critiques first to get them out of the way and because I think its better to end on a good note. If you are someone who loved the show, believe it could do no wrong and don't want to hear any criticisms, feel free to skip over this section. For me personally though my critiques were enough of an issue for me that it did effect my enjoyment of the show at times which is why I want to talk about them, this wouldn't be an honest review if I didn't. But don't worry as long as my critique may be, my list of things I loved is even longer.

Critiques

Ok I'm sorry but I hated how whenever the heroes would show up at a monsters lair, eg medusa, the lotus casino and crusty's, they would instantly announce whose lair it was and how they trap their victims. To me this was just boring. In the books part of the fun was that they wouldn't immediately know but there would be little clues as to who they were dealing with. It added suspense, a sense of stakes and danger to those scenes in the book because you knew it was likely connected to a greek monster and you were waiting for the reveal, if you were a reader who knew greek mythology it was also fun to try and guess who the monster was before the reveal as well. But none of that was transferred over to the show. I have seen the argument made that well Sally taught Percy Greek Mythology in the series and Annabeth knows about Greek Mythology from camp so it makes more sense that they would know instantly and yeah doesn't stop it from being boring, sorry. For me I would rather something be suspenseful and exciting and have build up and have to adopt a bit of suspension of disbelief than have something that is technically realistic and makes sense and be boring, for me the worst crime a show can commit is to bore me. Besides them knowing Greek Mythology would be what allows them to figure it out just in the nick of time. After all the whole point is that these monsters have disguised themselves within the real world so that they can trick demi-gods etc, what would show these kids skills is them figuring out and defeating the monster just before they fall victim to them unlike the monsters other casualties. I guess what I am saying is there was a better way of showing that these kids were myth savvy and smart whilst still keeping the suspense and sense of danger. The way they did it made me feel like the characters were just hitting pause on the scene then going hold on let me just give the audience the cliff notes of this particular greek myth and then we'll get back to our regular scheduled viewing. It felt out of place, the dialogue was awkward to me and it was just the epitome of telling and not showing. The first time it happened I was a little disappointed but I shrugged it off, but as the season went on and it kept happening over and over I just got more frustrated with it, to the point that when Percy walked into Crusty's and announced 'I know who you are' I just rolled my eyes.

So the next criticism I have is the whole Lotus Casino scene. This scene was just a huge disappointment to me because once again it was boring. It started with our usual cliff notes break down of who the lotus people are and how they trap people with food (lotus flower) and then it was just them walking through the casino. Again in the book this scene is fun, the whole point of the casino is that it is so fun, so intoxicating that it distracts our heroes from their quest. They get taken in by it all and just become twelve year old kids, like that moment in the finale where Annabeth talks about how her dad wants to take her to Disneyland and Percy replies 'just be a kid' well the casino was supposed to be disneyland ok. It was supposed to be the fun place that every kid dreams of going and the place where a kid can just lose themselves in the fun and the wonder of it all. Instead in the show it was just lacklustre and underwhelming. Don't get me worng the scene with Hermes was amazing and I will talk about it more later, and I get the whole idea they were going with by having Annabeth and Percy not forget each other because they were together but Grover does forget because he was alone, I love that idea, it was a nice sentiment and good lesson but again I feel like it could have been done in a more exciting way. Percy and Annabeth could still have been distracted from the mission and had fun at the casion but maintained their memory of each other because they were together, they could have broken out of the 'spell' because they weren't alone and they could have had it so Grover finds it harder to break out of it because he was alone. Same message but whilst still keeping that sense of child like fun and wonder and excitement. I know many will hate me bringing the movies into it but in my opinion the movies did the casino scene better and I do wish the show had kept that level energy and excitement that the movie had in that scene, I do wonder though if part of the reason why they didn't go the route of showing the heroes having fun was because they didn't want there to be any comparison to the movie scene, like they wanted it to be so different that you wouldn't be able to make any connection between the two, but that's just me speculating.

Another thing is the whole deadline already passing change. Now the change itself I'm not upset by, I don't need the show to be an exact copy of the book and it was clearly set up to have that scene where Poseidon surrenders to save Percy, which I am definitely talking about that scene later in the things I loved part because that scene was just amazing. But my issue was first off the reaction of Percy and Annabeth when they realise how long they've been in the casino and they later learn that the deadline has passed. There is no sense of urgency or panic, they announce it like they are announcing a weather update, like oh we've wasted a load of time, we've missed the deadline, bummer. I just wish they had put a little more energy and urgency into that scene. Though to be clear I don't think this was an issue with the acting, as I said before I think the entire cast did an amazing job, but I do think there was an issue with direction and writing somewhere. Another issue I had with the passed deadline change is that we don't see the effect it has on the world. What I mean by that is in the books and I'm pretty sure the movie as well, it is made very clear what a war between the gods would look like to the human world, its natural disasters, storms, earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, you name it. In the books and movie, even though the deadline hasn't passed yet we see the effect of the gods merely preparing for war, it shows the stormy seas, the thunderclouds etc. But in the show nada, not even a grey cloud in sight.

Ok so those were my major criticisms, I know its a little long so apologies. The only other critiques I had were much less of an issue, I am a bit disappointed that Percy never spoke to the Zebra. It was a bit odd seeing as they mentioned the Zebra in the title of the episode, so I am not sure why they didn't include it, who knows maybe now that the show is on disney they thought Percy talking to horses and sea creatures was a little too disney princess and decided to remove it, again that's just speculation on my part, but I hope they do include it in season 2 if we get one, let percy jackson be a disney princess and talk to the flying ponies and fishes ok.

I also did feel like the pacing was sometimes a little off in places, it sometimes felt a bit rushed and like they could have added a little more context to some scenes even if it was just a couple of lines of dialogue, but these are very minor issues.

All The Best Bits.

Ok so now the criticism is out of the way lets focus on the good bits because there were plenty of them. First I want to start with the Greek Gods themselves because I really do think the show nailed them. I do think they tried to make them a bit more sympathetic in the show than they were in the books, because in the books it was very easy to hate them and it took a bit to warm up to them, as they were very dismissive and detached. Whereas in the show I think they found the perfect balance between showing their flaws when it comes to their children and in general but also adding some nuance and showing that they do care and love their children and they do struggle with having to stay away from them but also in showing how their absence effects their children. So first lets talk about Hermes.

Hermes

The scene between Annabeth, Percy and Hermes I think was one of my favourites of the season. I loved how when we first meet Hermes there's this fun, laid back feeling to him, he's just chilling in the casino with not a care in the world, but his entire demeanour changes the moment Luke is mentioned and you see how much of an emotional effect it is having on Hermes. The actor played that moment so so well, it really was great.

There was so many layers to that conversation between the three that made it so interesting to me. First it gives us some backstory on Luke and how the last time he saw Hermes they got into a fight but also how Hermes was warned to stay away but didn't listen and in the end made it worse for those he loves, then you've got the reveal that Poseidon was the one that warned Hermes to stay away and the reason why was because its too hard to watch your child suffer and not be able to do anything to stop it, which brings in the whole even gods feel powerless and how hard that is for a god to accept, that even they can't protect the ones they love and how that leads to the struggles of parenting. I mean the whole conversation was just layered with interesting topics and themes that you could spend hours picking apart. It genuinely made me feel so sorry for Hermes, which was new for me, because you could see what he was feeling, you weren't just hearing him say it, you could see how much he loves Luke, you could see how much it hurt him that his son hates him, you could see that he felt helpless to protect Luke and his mum, you could see the guilt he felt that every time he tried to help someone get to the underworld it always ended in them dying and you could see the fear that if his friends died Luke would only hate Hermes more.

I also loved that despite deliberately delaying them and saying he wouldn't help, he still does ultimately help them. He knew that Annabeth had picked his pocket and instead of stopping them he lets them take the car and leaves them instructions. I just really loved what they did with Hermes character and how much they did with his character in such a short scene.

Ares

Ares was another fun character, like he was surprisingly comical, I couldn't help but laugh when he started a fight on twitter and when he's describing the coming war between his father and uncle and he's practically got tears of joy in his eyes, like he is legit giddy at the idea and honestly does seem very in character for a god of war. But despite having those comical moments he was still threatening and terrifying when he needed to be, you still knew that this was a powerful being and that our heroes needed to tread carefully around him and that when he does threaten our heroes that threat is real.

The growing antagonism between Ares and Percy was also interesting to see, its very clear that Percy isn't a fan of Ares and that mutual dislike very quickly grows into hate between them. I loved that scene at the end of ep 5 when Percy says 'You think you know who I am but you don't. And if you're not careful you're going to find out.' It takes alot of guts to stand up to the literal god of war and I think this scene says alot about Percy's character and how he has this defiance and fight in him but also alot of bravery. Also this scene could have come across very silly and cheesy, its very difficult to have a 12 year old threaten a god and not have it come across as a bit ridiculous but I actually think they pulled it off and to me Percy seemed believable and intimidating in the moment.

I also think this scene leads really well to the fight between them on the beach at the end of the season. When Percy first suggests single combat, first blood wins, its understandable that Ares laughs at him. I mean when you look at it from Ares' pov he's an all powerful god of war and percy is 12. Of course Ares thinks the notion that this 12 year old, new demi-god could possible beat him and make good on his earlier threat, is utterly ludicrous. So Ares wasn't careful and then he found out. Course if you choose to fight a son of Poseidon on a beach right next to the ocean you deserve what's coming to you. But I still loved that moment when you've got little Percy being towered over by Ares, this tall muscular god, and then that wave just builds and towers over them both before it takes out Ares, allowing Percy to draw first blood whilst Ares is trying to regain his bearings. That was some top notch imagery right there, 10 out of 10.

Of course Ares doesn't take the defeat humbly and instead announces that Percy has made an enemy of him which honestly not an ideal situation for Percy to be on the bad side of the god of war, I do hope that doesn't have any consequences later on down the road, nah I'm sure it'll be fine, right.

Hephaestus

Another scene I really enjoyed was the scene between Annabeth and Hephaestus in the water park. Don't get me wrong I really loved the original scene in the book, it was actually one of my favourite book scenes and I loved how when all the cameras started recording Percy took a bow and said he hoped they (the gods) enjoyed the show. But I also really love this change they made with the golden chair. Not only did it add more greek mythology to the story it created that scene between Annabeth and Hephaestus. Like the scene with Hermes this scene told us alot about the gods and the kind of rules of that world. Annabeth says in her speech that its eat or be eaten, power and glory and nothing else matters. With just that one line we are painted a picture of a family and a world who backstab each and who only seem to care about how much power they can claim and how much glory they can gain. This ideology is also pushed onto the demigod children. You want your parent's attention well then you have to gain power and glory to get it and if you have to push others down or out of your way to do it then that's just the way it is and the way its meant to be.

You could see that Annabeth's speech really got to Hephaestus. When you think about his backstory, how he was thrown from mount Olympus by his own mother, how his wife is having an affair with his brother and they flaunt it in his face, how he tells Annabeth that despite what his brother may have said he is not a push over, its not surprising that Annabeth's words had an impact on him, he in particular has, quite literally, been injured by his own family and their ways, so it makes sense that he has sympathy for Annabeth. I think you can see this sympathy when he admits that he thought Athena had gone too far in her anger at Annabeth, I think he relates to Annabeth because he has seen her be rejected by her mother the same way he was rejected by his own mother. I also think the fact that he does show sympathy to Annabeth, that he does openly admit that some of the gods, himself included, don't like to be that way and the fact that he lets Percy go when Annabeth tells him that Percy is different, that he's better than that, all tells us alot about Hephaestus and makes him a sympathetic character. I am hoping to see more of him in future seasons and see where they take his character.

Hades

Hades was another one that was fun to watch. I mean you've got to admit he's a great host, he was very welcoming, he offered them snacks and beverages even threw in a few jokes to lighten the mood. He even waits politely for Percy to finish talking about how Hades and Ares stole the bolt before correcting him. I also found he was very relatable when he said that he wanted nothing to do with Zeus and Poseidon's drama over the bolt, my siblings also often get into dramas that I want no part in, Hades just wants to make an honest deal with Percy to get his helm back and then he'll happily return his mum.

What is really interesting though is that shift when he learns that Kronos is on the rise again. He becomes so afraid that he changes tact immediately and now feels like he needs the bolt to protect himself from Kronos. I feel like all these conversations the heroes have with each of the gods adds another layer to the gods. With Ares we learn that the gods like to backstab each other and claim power no matter what. With Hephaestus this is reinforced but we learn that not all of them want to be that way, with Hermes we learn that the gods can feel powerless, especially when it comes to watching their children struggle and with Hades we learn that even gods can fear. It also helps establish just how terrifying Kronos is that even the god of death is afraid of him.

But yeah, Hades was fun to watch, I think he often gets a bad rep in alot of modern media as being this evil villain but actually he's not in most greek myths, so its good that they show him here in a more nuanced light than just a villain, he just wants his helm back and when he does get it back he makes good on his promise and returns Sally. He's another character that I can't wait to see more of in future seasons.

Poseidon

They really teased us with Poseidon's character throughout the season, like we learned alot about him through other characters before we ever met him and it was interesting how Percy and his father's relationship grew even before they meet for the first time. To start with Percy is very understandably angry at his father, angry at his absence and believes that his father doesn't care about him or his mother. Despite that as we see from the way he is so determined to do well at capture the flag and win enough glory to get his father's attention that some part of him is still desperate for his father's approval and attention despite his anger at him. Things shift for Percy though after he falls from the arc and his father saves him and he has that conversation with the nymph or naiad where she relays a message from his father telling him he's there with him and that he's proud, that everything is going to be ok. Also this happens at a big moment for Percy because its the first time he realises that he can breath underwater. At the start of that underwater scene you can see how panicked he is and how he's desperately trying to pull his foot free, the fact that they paired that imagery with the voiceover saying how hard it is for his father to watch him struggle was really impactful, but this moment really shows the audience that Poseidon was not the uncaring and absent father we thought he was, he does care about his son, and in this moment when it wasn't possible to come himself he sent someone to speak for him, to reassure Percy that he was ok that he just needed to breath. For Percy this was the turning point for his relationship with his father and I think that was not just because his father saved him but because his father asked him to trust him and when Percy did he really was ok, he realised he could breathe underwater and was then able to get himself out of the water safely.

I think the fact that his father does care and is looking out for him and that it is hard for him to see Percy struggle is then further solidified when he speaks to Hermes, not only does Hermes repeat what the nymph said about Poseidon feeling powerless when watching Percy struggle but I think hearing the backstory of Luke and Hermes helped Percy understand how complicated the relationship between a demigod and their godly parent really is, helped him understand his father a bit more. I think it only made Percy more excited and eager to meet his dad though and we the audience were also excited that we'd finally get to see Poseidon, because they built that anticipation up over those first few episodes, just like Percy, we the audience were also disappointed when Poseidon isn't there because the Solstice passed.

Despite not physically being there though, the conversation between Percy and Nereid still told us alot about Poseidon as she was speaking his words, and I think it was very telling that the first thing Poseidon wants to tell his son is that its not his fault that he didn't get there before the deadline passed, that he was brave and strong and that Poseidon is still proud of him. I also love that even though he was released from his quest Percy is still determined to see the quest through and that Poseidon waits for him to make the choice himself and then gives him the pearls. I also love the change from the book where there are four pearls, I think they did this to show that Poseidon also cares about Sally.

Speaking of Sally, that flashback scene in ep 7 where she talks to Poseidon was so heartbreaking. Seeing her so broken and feeling like she is failing as a mother really pulls at your heartstrings but then when Poseidon does come he immediately reassures her. I also loved how when she says he doesn't want to know why she doesn't want Percy to go to camp, he still encourages her to tell him because he knows that she needs to get it off her chest and that she doesn't have anybody else to talk to. So even though it'll be painful for him to hear he still bears it for her sake, he allows her to talk it through and helps her come to a decision about their son's future. He doesn't get angry at her when she tells him that she wants Percy to know who he is before his family tries to tell him what they want him to be, he knows that she is right so instead he reassures her as best as he can and assures her that Percy will be stronger for it in the end because she, his mother, raised him well.

The moment when she asks him if he wants to talk to Percy just so he can hear his voice was another heart wrenching moment because its clear how much Poseidon longs to speak with his son. But then there is that rumble of thunder, almost like Zeus is warning him not to dare. But despite not speaking to him in that moment Poseidon says one day, when Percy knows who he is, where he belongs and what his true path is then he'll be right by his side. I think when he says this he is not just making this promise to Sally or to Percy, he's also promising himself it.

One little detail I did notice in this scene that kind of got at me though is that throughout their conversation Poseidon doesn't look at Sally once, it's like he can't bear too, she doesn't look at him either and its like its either too painful for them to make eye contact or like they feel its forbidden for them to look at each other. So instead Poseidon just stares either straight ahead or down at the bar, he doesn't look at her or at Percy. That is until Sally asks that question of does he want to talk to his son and that's when Poseidon looks over to Percy for the first time, he just can't help himself, he needs one glance and its such a simple gesture but in this context it is so emotional and moving, like honestly it was genius writing and the actors really sold it.

So now we are at my favourite scene in the season and that is the moment when Poseidon shows up to protect Percy from Zeus. This scene was just so amazing, like the significance of Poseidon surrendering to Zeus, it was more than just him surrendering the war and giving Zeus victory and glory, in that moment he was laying down his pride for the sake of his son. His son's life was more important to him than power or glory or pride and the significance of that moment is shown by Zeus' disbelief that Poseidon is doing this. For me I think it was a great emotional payoff and definitely worth them changing the plot so that the deadline had passed and that they were actually at war and not just preparing for it, allowing this surrender to happen. I think this moment also really proved to Percy that not only does his father love and care for him but that he is his father's top priority, that he really will do anything for him.

l also love how Poseidon calls Zeus out when he says Percy is forbidden and shouldn't exist, by pointing out that he had Thalia and like Thalia, Percy is a hero who will inspire others.

The conversation between Poseidon and Percy is also really moving, when Poseidon notes that obedience doesn't come naturally to Percy and that the sea doesn't like to be restrained I actually think he was proud to see those qualities in his son, that he very much does have the nature of the sea, like his father. The part when Percy asks if gods dream and if Poseidon ever dreams about Sally was very sweet and even though Poseidon doesn't say anything I think we all know what the answer is.

One thing that did strike me about the dynamic between Poseidon and Percy is that whenever Poseidon appears to Percy, whether that's through Nereid or himself directly, he is always there in a form of protection and reassurance. The first time when Percy falls from the arch, he physically protects him by saving him and then when Percy is panicking whilst trapped he reassures him, in ep 6 when Percy reaches the meeting place too late he protects him emotionally by reassuring him that its not his fault and then gives him the pearls as further protection to allow him to escape the underworld and then in the moment in the finale, he physically protects him from Zeus and also reassures him when Percy admits that he isn't obedient, adding the sir trying to be respectful because he's afraid his father might be upset with him, but Poseidon reassures him by saying that basically its the sea's nature to be untamed and Percy is of the sea. But yeah, I really do think that with Poseidon they really wanted to embody the idea of a Father's protection.

Zeus

Honestly we saw so little of Zeus that I don't have much to say. I think the actor did a good job of making him seem powerful, vengeful and terrifying. It was interesting that unlike Hades he seemed somewhat unbothered by the news that Kronos is trying to rise. I do think that this may have been a bit of a front though because Percy definitely hit a nerve with that line about Kronos coming to put Zeus back in his place and the whole your family only obey you out of fear not out of love.

The Luke Reveal

I'll be honest. I was a little worried about the reveal, having read the books I already knew that he was the true lightening thief and so knew the reveal was coming and my concern was that we hadn't really seen much of Luke or his friendship with Percy so I was a tad bit worried that the reveal wouldn't be all that impactful. But I am happy to say that I was wrong I actually think they did a really good job with the reveal and I would actually argue that it was better than even the book.

I am really glad that they added in the flashback scene of Luke helping Percy with his sword work in the beginning of the episode. Not only did it set up Percy defeating Ares but it also reminded the audience of that friendship between Luke and Percy. I very much got a sibling vibe from them, like Luke was an older brother that had taken Percy under his wing.

I feel like the way the wrote the reveal scene in the show added alot more nuance to it, in the books it was like yeah I betrayed you scorpion attack, but here it seems like both Luke and Percy are more conflicted. I believed Luke when he said that his actions weren't meant as a betrayal but a recruitment and that he was Percy's friend but that the god's were his enemy. It also seemed like Percy partly understood where Luke was coming from and hoped he could convince Luke to change his mind. The whole scene was very emotional and very tense and it went down hill fast after Percy mentioned Hermes and this brought out Luke's rage.

I think adding Annabeth to the scene and having her reveal herself when she did and announce that she heard everything, only heightened that tension and made it even more emotional. Now it wasn't just the betrayal Percy felt but we got to see the betrayal Annabeth felt. Also when Luke sees Annabeth, that look he gives her hits you right where it hurts and only adds to the heartbreak of it all, again the cast just did an amazing job, I don't have a single bad thing to say about any of their performances.

Another interesting detail in this scene though was the lighting. Because of the fireworks going off in the background it really did make some intriguing lighting choices. Like I noticed that as Percy is figuring out that Luke was the one who betrayed him, Luke was mostly lit in a red colour but around Percy the lightening was mostly greens, blues and that same golden colour that nereid glowed. Red associated with blood, war and danger and the blues, greens and golden colours associated with the sea. The changing lights also made it seem a little more creepy, like you are in one of those haunted mansion rides with flickering lights.

The Trio

The dynamic between the trio was also great to watch and to see grow as the season continued. I think each of them had their moments to shine and they worked really well off each other. I particularly loved seeing the friendship grow between Percy and Annabeth and seeing how close they became, their hugs were really cute and the comment made by Luke saying that they were like an old married couple was funny too and kinda accurate. I liked that at the beginning of the quest they were all kind of at odds with each other, Percy and Annabeth didn't particularly like each other and were very much strangers, Percy was still feeling a bit betrayed by Grover after the whole Nancy fountain thing and I think there was still tension between Grover and Annabeth because of Thalia. Having that tension at the beginning made it all the more satisfying to see them work through those issues and become stronger friends come the end of their quest.

Now some might think I am being negative about Grover here but I want to assure everyone that I mean this as a compliment not a slight but one thing that surprised me and that I thought was a great addition to his character is how manipulative and calculating Grover could be at times. And what I mean by that is like when he manipulated Ares into pretty much revealing that he was in on the theft of the lightening bolt, it was a really interesting side to Grover's character and honestly I hope we see more of that side of him in future seasons.

Another that I thought was interesting was Annabeth's relationship with her mother, especially as we never actually see Athena. It is clear that her mother's respect means alot to her and when her mother turns her back on her you can see that it really hurts her. I loved Annabeth's growth throughout the series, at the start she is very much chasing glory and wanting to go on a quest and prove herself, she's living the life the gods want her to live. But I think the more time she spends with Percy the more she sees that it shouldn't have to that way, which is why I love the moment when she chooses to stay after Percy is trapped in the chair and try to get him out, she chooses her friend over the glory she could win by completing the quest and over winning back her mother's approval.

Now when it comes to Percy I just think Walker really brought that character to life, I really cannot praise his performance enough. I loved his sass and his defiance and the fight he had. He had so many great moments throughout the season, I loved it whenever he stood up to the gods, like he knew no fear, they tried to say this is how its going to be and this is what you are going to do and he just said no, I'm going to do what is right, what my mother raised me to do and you're all going to have to deal with it. I mean its not necessarily the smartest move to speak back to god but I still admire his gumption.

Special Effects

I also really loved the visuals in the series, all the monsters looked great and I loved the aesthetic of camp, Olympus also looked amazing. The stand out for me though has to be Nereid. The glow and her seaweed hair, it just looked so beautiful and bewitching, so shout out the the special effects team.

There is probably so much more I could talk about, but this is getting really long so I am going to leave it here, my ask box is always open so if I missed anything feel free to message. Overall despite there being a couple of issues I think they could work on, I mostly really enjoyed the series and I really hope we get a season two, I'd definitely be interested in watching it.

#percy jackson #percy jackson spoilers #percy jackson series #percy jackson review

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peachybro · 5 months

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for a final in my anthropology course, we could write a publishable piece and can post it anywhere! i thought this would fit my tumblr pretty well!

QUEER COMFORT AND DISCOMFORT IN RICK RIORDAN’S WRITING UNIVERSE

Rick Riordan’s writing universe is gigantic and diverse in a multitude of ways. In total, there are just around 30 books that he has written for this universe. He has been anointed as the writer of gods by many people. Riordan’s main theme that he writes around is using the idea that all these ‘dead’ religions may have just evolved and that every single one may exist in our world at once. He writes about children of the gods, called many different names, and their adventures to save the world and to save themselves. His most famous series is the Percy Jackson series, using the Greek Mythology religion to write around. Percy is a child of Posidon who meets Annabeth, child of Athena, and a satyr named Grover. These three go on many different adventures to save the world and eventually end up saving the entire country with a war against the old Titans to replace the Gods. While this series is action filled and based around a couple kids, we get to see the incredible diversity that Riordan has written for us. Within this diversity is my main topic of this paper. One demographic that he has included are queer people. Within this universe, there are a large handful of main characters that do end up in this demographic. While it is a cheery thought, Riordan keeps it real by including the modern comfort and discomfort in his universe.

QUEERNESS IN THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE

As a whole, queer people in this universe are in the open. Riordan runs with the ideas that some of these different gods may be queer in some capacity, either in myths or in modern retellings. A prime example of this is the god of music and medicine, Apollo. In original Greek myths, he is known to have both female and male lovers. This is true in the books as well. His sister, Artemis, and Athena are known as ‘virgin goddesses’. In more modern terms, a lot of people recognize that they are closer to asexual, not being interested in sex. All of these are included in the books as one off mentions or as common knowledge that most of the people know.

COMFORT: A HOME FOR ALL IDENTITIES

Writing about queer relationships can be really difficult when you are not queer yourself, such as Riordan. For quite some time, he had little to no help in writing these relationships since they didn’t center around them. He knew the books surrounded different characters and them having relationships, queer or not, were not the main focal point for most of the books. One that he had written more solo is Alex Fierro. They are one of the main characters in the Magnus Chase series, following the children of norse gods and using norse mythology. Alex is the child of Loki, who is known for their shapeshifting and trickery features. Alex is genderfluid and transgender, and makes this very clear when people are questioning them. In The Hammer of Thor, Alex is a determined character that explains their gender identity in many forms including saying, “Call me she- unless and until I call you otherwise.” (Riordan 2016: 64). Later she says that “I’m gender fluid and transgender, idiot. Look it up if you need to, but it’s not my job to educate-“ (Riordan 2016: 70). Their pronouns will shift along days or hours. Many genderfluid readers have come forward to say that this character is a positive portrayal of their gender identity. Is it perfect? Of course not. Rick Riordan is a white, straight man in his mid thirties. Yet, readers do appreciate the accuracy and seemingly well done research into this queer identity when it was written to allow such a positive and welcoming portrayal.

This sense of comfort and belonging that Alex had brought for readers didn’t stop at just their gender and how they talked about it. In Ship of the Dead, Alex is currently identifying as a male. When going to Magnus’s, the main character's, apartment, they share one of their first kisses together. Magnus started to question his sexual identity, confused on what this makes him. He realizes that Alex is a bit more important than that and drops it. This gave a huge sense of love in the community. Not only was this a great portrayal of not knowing what you identify as and how that doesn’t really matter in the end, this was the first queer kiss that we read about in this universe. Readers loved this moment and still cherish it amongst the sweetest moments of the universe.

DISCOMFORT: THE MODERN ISSUES THAT WE CAN RELATE TO

Many readers will argue that the most popular queer couple that we have in this universe is Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace. This is due to the fact that Nico was a main character for a while and was well loved and we get a lot of content from their relationship. They are announced to be dating in Blood of Olympus, the last book of the Heroes of Olympus series. At the end of the book, they are all back at their summer camp. Nico realizes that this is a perfect time to ‘clear the air’ since they would be around each other much more often at this point. Nico finally speaks up to say, “For a long time,’ Nico said, ‘I had a crush on you. I just wanted you to know.’ Percy looked at Nico. Then at Annabeth, as if to check that he’d heard correctly. Then back at Nico. …‘But it’s cool. We’re cool. I mean, I see now … you’re cute, but you’re not my type.’...See you around, Percy,’ Nico said…Then he walked back across the green, where Will Solace was waiting.” (Riordan 2014: 488). This very heavily implied that Will and Nico were an official couple.

Nico hasn’t had the best run in this series. He has been through a lot; losing his sister, being a child of one of the most powerful gods in their myths, coming to terms of himself and who he is, and so much more. Riordan uses Nico as a storytelling device to talk about modern issues and pressures of being a young gay man. In House of Hades, Nico and Jason are attempting to reason with Cupid to get a scepter to help their friends. Cupid doesn’t give it up until Nico finally admits that he had a crush on Percy. Nico had been trapped in a time stopping place called the Lotus Hotel and, to make things simple and not have this take a page to write, he had been there since the 1940s. He has been out of there for some time and now is steadily aging as if nothing happened. However, he grew up with horrible ideas about being gay and felt as if he really had to hide it. When Cupid finally gives them the scepter, Jason explains that no one would judge him if he came out to the rest of the group but it was ultimately up to him. This is a huge heartwarming moment. With an incredibly dark moment of real modern issues of being gay and the stigma, we find comfort from Jason. Riordan may not have meant it to mean as big as we think, but Nico is a portrayal of how hard it can be to be queer in this world and how we even struggle to accept ourselves.

This isn’t the last we see of Nico and his boyfriend though. Riordan knew that readers loved this couple and wanted to see more of them. However, he doesn’t have the experience that he wanted to write this couple organically and accurately. And so, he had found a coauthor to help him with this journey. Mark Oshiro (they/them) has written books such as Anger is a Gift and Each of Us A Desert. They do a lot of book reviews as well on their blogs and social media. Oshiro is a queer and latinex author who gave Riordan a new experience to write with and another point of view to help him write this young queer couple. To write about this book would take me ages, especially with every idea that is explored and how much they both cover. Throughout this book, Nico finds himself frustrated with his boyfriend. Nico finds the underworld delightful, familiar, and comfortable. But his boyfriend, a son of Apollo, finds it frightening and disheartening. This theme is touched on throughout the entire book and gives them both many reasons to feel disheartened by the quest. They have arguments about small things, Nico feeling like he doesn’t have the ability to be happy and Will feeling like he has to walk on eggshells. While this theme isn’t inherently just a queer problem, showing that they also have the same issues as many other teenage relationships helps people from thinking of queer couples as the ‘other’ and not like themselves.

While there aren't a lot of main queer characters talked about Rick Riordan’s writing universe, the ones that are there, are quite well written. Riordan has written using tropes but then flipping them right on their head. While they aren't perfect, like anything ever could be, they are well written. He talks about modern issues, allowing the reader to feel the discomfort and then showing comfort for them. He gives them a place to exist in his universe yet doesn’t make it their whole personality. Alex is much bigger than being genderfluid. Nico is much bigger than just being gay. Will is much bigger than being bisexual. They have character arcs and other personality traits that make them more 3-D. People matter more than their sexuality.

Works Cited

Riordan, R., 2016. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, R., 2012. Heroes Of Olympus: House of Hades. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, R., 2023. The Sun and the Star. New York: Disney Hyperion.

Riordan, Rick, Author. The blood of Olympus. [Los Angeles ; New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2014]

“The Sun and the Star: Rick Riordan.” Rick Riordan | Welcome to the Online World of Rick Riordan, 28 Sept. 2022, rickriordan.com/book/the-sun-and-the-star/.

#percy jackon and the olympians #rick riordan #pjo hoo toa #magnus chase

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jaunes-hoodie · 2 years

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So something I realized when thinking about PJO vs HoO is how the latter kinda drops a major element from the first series

Early on in Percy Jackson (I believe it's one of the first bits of lore about the world we learn) the idea that "Names have power" is introduced. The basic premise is that if you say the name of an Olympian, a monster, or just any major figure in mythology in this world, they will, on some level, be alerted to your presence.

And in fairness, this does have some precedent in mythology. Some cultures have the idea that knowing the name of something gives you a level of power over that thing. (I.e, in Egyptian mythology, Isis learns Ra's true name and uses this to put her son Horus on the throne)

In The Lightning Thief, Percy is told early on not to go shouting the names of Olympian gods to the heavens, because the heavens might shout back. This, I believe, was a way for Rick Riordan to add some layer of mystery to his world. Even though a lot of the figures from Greek Mythology show up in a similar fashion to how they appear in the old stories, they appear in mysterious ways. So if you DO know the myths going into the books, there's still some tension as you don't know exactly what's around each corner. And if you don't know the myths, well, you're just as prepared for what's coming as those who do.

A couple of examples from The Lightning Thief alone: The Chimera is introduced as a chihuahua, and its owner refers to it as "Sonny". It's later revealed that the owner was Echidna, and that "Sonny" was just her abbreviating "son" because the Chimera IS Echidna's son. (well, one of them). Another example is how Medusa uses the pseudonym "Auntie Em" to trick passers-by, a fact that Percy kicks himself for not realizing sooner.

Some more mundane examples are things like Dionysus being referred to as "Mr. D" by the campers. Percy realizes who he is really early on and Mr. D even warns him about being too eager to shout the names of gods right to their faces. The way Riordan uses this tactic, it allows monsters to take a mundane appearance to surprise the audience, and add mystery and intrigue to his world

But in Heroes of Olympus that...just goes away. Like, characters will just say the names of gods and monsters as many times as they want, and nothing comes of it. The earth doesn't rumble whenever they say Gaea's name, despite how much the heroes really DON'T want her to wake up. And there's significantly less hiding of mystical creatures as mundane things too. Sure, there's still some mysteries to be had, but it feels less so than the first series

Not really a complaint or a criticism, just something I noticed

#percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #pjo #HoO #percy jackson #the lightning thief

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tqsg · 1 year

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hai bbgs im just gonna link a bunch of songies 🙏 no pressure to do them all (this ask is gonna be so long sorry dearies)

(^ solace begging me 🙏 to put it)

(i have my own lil thing on this and i wanna see ur thoughts on it 🙏)

(ALSO HAVE MY OWN THOUGHTS ON THIS ONE)

(THIS ONE STARTED AN AU I LOVE TALKING ABOUT I LOVE THIS AU SM)

(i. i also have my own thoughtsies.)

^ or any other tlo song 🙏 also maybe a hadestown song for ur valgrace i think hadestown au

hello!! here is the first one! i will continue to work on the others :3!!

okay!! so i pretty much immediately thought of percy thinking of octavian,. such lyrics as, “i just really hate your face, though i know that won’t surprise you”. there’s this idea throughout HOO (specifically SoN) that Octavian is just horribly annoying to Percy. when they first met, to my knowledge, octavian didn’t do anything right away, percy just found him HORRIBLY annoying lmao 😭😭,.

HOWEVER!! as the song goes on, i begin to think a different character fits this song more.

i have settled on, instead of percy towards octavian, jason towards octavian. “and if the world was perfect, you would be gone without a trace, but since the world could never be that great, i’ll just hate your stupid face” reminds me of jason because jason is someone who tends to settle for things.

allow me to explain.! percy is someone who fought the god of war when he was 12, he doesn’t let people just push him around. he has pretty much always been someone who has put matters into his own hands, which in my opinion, is part of what makes him such a good protagonist.

jason, on the other hand, lets himself get pushed around. he has always been a rule follower, probably since he first met lupa. yes, he did take matters into his own hands in the sense of the legions, but in some cases, jason just kind of lets things happen. when piper broke up with him, i sensed there was this kind of shrug he did regarding it all. yes, i don’t think he loved piper like that. but i do think he loved her, the way a brother loves his sister. he didn’t want to lose her companionship, but, maybe because he felt there was nothing he could do about it, he just let her go. he did his best to protect her even after that, when he thought the prophecy was about her.

coming back the the lyrics, specifically “i’ll just hate your stupid face”. kind of like what i was just talking about, since jason feels he can’t really do anything about octavian’s existence, he kind of just shrugs at the situation. if my memory serves me, when jason met percy and found out about how he kind of out-ruled octavian, he was surprised. maybe because he didn’t think there was ever anything to do about it, and then something did happen.

“i just really miss your face” ok just here me out ok. no i don’t think jason has a crush or anything on octavian. BUT. i do think he missed octavian. octavian is a kind of symbol of how things used to be for jason. they knew each other for at least a good while, probably years, if i’m being honest here though. i think a part of jason misses how things used to be, before he got his memory erased. i know he loves his friends and all, but i think it can be a kind of double edged sword. he wants to go back, maybe take his close friends with him.

“but since the world denied me one last kiss” meaning he never got to say goodbye. not to anyone, but especially not to the place he grew up in. he never got to return home, he never got to be a hero. (meaning in greek myth, the hero always returned home after the journey.) he never got to even say goodbye to his best friend, let alone his home of so many years.

what i’m getting at here is that perhaps he uses octavian as a reminder of his past. maybe of all he has lost. perhaps even all that he misses.

#asks #music analysis #jason grace #percy jackson #octavian hoo #hoo #heroes of olympus #toa #trials of apollo #riordanverse

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docholligay · 1 year

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As a Children’s Story for Children: Percy Jackson and the Olympians-- #1, The Lightning Thief

Age I was told midge should be: 6-8

Quick review: This one is for the girlies that get into Greek myths when they’re 8, huh? Enjoyable! I would have zero problem with Midge getting into this.

Longer review:

So I was 18 or 19 when Percy Jackson first came out, far beyond reading a book like that, and thus, while I’ve HEARD a lot of people talk about how good it is, it was never something I experienced for myself.

It’s hard, of course, to imagine how you might have experienced something as a kid, but that was in fact the brief for this whole thing. I think I would have loved this in the 6-8 range. It would have been the perfect level of difficulty for me, and I wouldn’t have been canny enough yet for its mysteries to seem obvious.

It was so much fun reading the little drops about who a god was, and laughing because of course to an adult it’s so obvious but it’s set up to be just hard enough for kids that they feel clever if they figure it out. I was rubbing my little goblin hands together and laughing during all the medusa stuff, when Ares came into the diner, all that. Loved it, I think that’s such fun and such a great way to set these things up.

The details of how the Gods are handled is some of the best stuff. Loved the bit with Charon, particularly. I would say that’s where this book really shines, is in humanizing the gods.

Delighted by the fact that we don’t have a woobie Hades in this. I know penudulums are what they are, and I don’t need or even necessarily want full mustache twirling Hades, but I did not realize how fucking sick to death I was of the currently-popular uwu internet take on Hades until I was not forced to deal with it in this book.

Howl laughed at how Riordan literally goes, “Mount Olympus is in the US now, because that’sd where fucking everything is happening and also I’m the author. Deal with it.” King energy. We love it.

I actually AM a little surprised at the positive reception from tumblr given the…anti-ADHD meds bent of the book. Don’t misunderstand me, I was totally fine with it, as I am, myself, a little maybe not quite anti-medication, but annoyed by the fact that it’s often represented as the only option, and my feelings often mirror Riordan’s sense of, ‘They want to medicate you because they want you to shut up and sit down, more than they want you to be happy” I mean literally Annabeth says “Of course they want you medicated, so you won’t notice” Again, not a problem for me! But I was surprised there’s not some kinda wild ass uproar given the very very pro-med vibe online.

As an ADHD girlie myself, I did roll my eyes a little bit at the “ADHD is because you’re the child of a God, and you’re just so special and quick and marvelous” but I remind myself that 2005 was a different time and I’m not sure I ever heard anything positive said about my ADHD back then. Also I love that Annabeth is also brave and impulsive and quick. I love it when women with ADHD are allowed to be that way instead of just being daydreamers or whatever, the number of times I’ve heard ~only boys are hyperactive~ while I’m jumping off a roof just to see how it feels is annoying as fuck to me personally, so, let Annabeth be out of her mind, as a treat.

I was a little frustrated by the end of the book. Ares is being a dick about it, sure, great, and we find out that Kronos was sort of “THE REAL VILLAIN” but it feels very…unfinished? Like I knwo it’s a series, but there was something about the end where it didn’t feel like it tied up at all, but nor was it the sort of thing that felt like the end of a miniseries episode, you know? That sense of, “this story is finished, here’s the first five seconds of the next one” sort of thing. Like the end of The Golden Compass*, is really good at that. This was just a sort of gentle trailing off, to me.

Overall lesson teaching: Other than “don’t be a coward” I’m not sure I mined a lot of lessons for Jewlet to learn from the book. This might be something I’d see on a reread, because the first time you read something is always the most surface, but also I can usually pick up on what I think is being reinforced by a story the first go. It’s a very stock on-rails fantasy hero story in this way: Be loyal to your friends. Be brave. Etc. So it’s not particularly special in that regard.

In all, I’d be happy to have Midge get into this series assuming it doesn’t go completely off the rails or anything! I don’t know if I’d make a special effort ot have her read them, but if she starts getting into fantasy books, I would definitely present them as an option.

*The Golden Compass is a better title than Northern Lights. You can get shirty about it being the American Title so it must inherently suck if you want, but it fits thematically with the rest of the titles far better than Northern Lights and creates cohesion within the series. It also is a more engaging title. Like, I’ll do with you on the Philosopher’s stone thing, but naw, The Golden Compass is right.

#Eight Days 2022 #Jewlet! At the Disco #also me reading this as an adult: oh goddamnit Annabeth and Percy are gonna get together aren't they

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the-indie-owl · 2 years

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I just have to say I REALLY love your designs for the Gods and Goddesses of both Greek AND Roman Mythology if they appeared in SpongeBob SquarePants. And I'm really pumped to see what you have planned for the future ^^

I just wanna say, First of All, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the Love that you really enjoy my own personal takes on the Greco-Roman Gods themselves it really means so much to Me within my Heart that I will keep going on drawing my versions of Neptune and Poseidon's own Families if they would appear in that Universe since I enjoy Greek Mythology a lot as well as any Media's takes on any God and Neptune/Poseidon is one of my Most Favorite Gods ever in all of Mythology. I will keep on trying to figure out which design will suit any Greek God and their Counterpart 💖

As well as figuring out on which Voice will suit on each of them for what I headcanon to what they will sound like if they appeared in the franchise (which I know that will never happened because Sea Gods are only allowed BUT let's just imagine it instead if they did include some Other Non-Water Deities ^^).

Second of All, I have been getting to know the SpongeBob fandom recently since June. Ever since I've cried so hard because of what was happening during the first months this year (lost my Uncle who was one of the Brothers of My Mother (RIP)), I've been through a lot of Pain, Stress, Toxic Fans, and Dramas, I couldn't take it anymore as I instantly quit on that and started a new life (which I am currently in right now as you can tell).

I have re-watched the show and got a chance to watch its Modern Episodes through Streaming (Mostly Amazon and Paramount+) since I haven't seen the Show in such a long time even after I stopped watching it since Season 9. But now that I am currently in it's fandom since it somehow just became one of my main and most favorite medias of all time since I've looked back into it, I even remembered all the good times that I had when I watched the show ever since childhood (Ah, the Nostalgia).

Plus, SpongeBob is a very Good Show that keeps Me calm and makes Me want to forget about the Bad Times that I've been through and even the Fandom around Me is so very Healthy! Not even one single Toxic Fan was bumped into Me! ^^

I of course have watched its Two Spin-Offs despite Stephen being unsure if he wanted to have one (I know that many people say that he didn't want one for his own creation but I heard that there was someone saying that He didn't know IF a Spinoff could work). Kamp Koral is cute (despite on how none of the backstory behind SpongeBob and his Friends were true in the first place) and even The Patrick Star Show is a bit Funny.

If you are wondering on how I got the idea of Greek and Roman Gods being in the show, well, chances are, since we've all know that Neptune has been around in the show since when it was first started around the 90s. He's one of the very few first versions of the Roman God of the Seas as well as being the Counterpart of the Greek God of the Seas himself that we all know. But when I got to watch "Sponge On The Run", I immediately fell in love with their version/take on Poseidon (Neptune's Greek Counterpart). This made Me wonder if perhaps that the series itself somehow takes place in an Alternative Universe where if Gods existed in a Reality where if all Myths and Legends were real (Of course, we do see in Some Media of Gods living in the Modern Era that we are currently in living in our world like Percy Jackson or Lore Olympus).

Considering the fact that I love OCXCanon and have always done that throughout the years, I've put up a big twist behind my version on Salacia (The Roman Counterpart of Amphitrite and Neptune's Real Wife from Roman Mythology) into turning her a Wife of Poseidon as well as still being accurate to her Original version. Needless to say, she's little of an OC and is way more of a personal take on one of the Roman Goddesses.

We don't really get much Poseidon and Amphitrite versions like Hades and Persephone but even though Poseidon cheats on his wife, I bet Amphitrite doesn't care cuz she still loves her Husband (I wonder why she is never shown towards being angry at him).

Thirdly of all, this is going to surprise you one bit but my personal take on Greco-Roman Gods wasn't really the first time that I've used Gods in an AU story of a Certain Media. The First One that I did was a SMG4 AU of Mine and I even wrote a story about it on Wattpad (which had my own Arc that involved around Marine Cultures of Sea Life since Splatoon is another one of those Beach/Ocean themed Media of Video Games). I even had Greek Gods in my that Other AU of Mine (I haven't been in an SMG4 mood since and I'm still doubting about wanting to remake it like maybe change my own SMG4 AU Arc up a bit and maybe take out the Greek Gods away OR just only keep one of them like Zeus for instance just so that I would keep focusing on my true Take on Greco-Roman Mythology which is in My Own SpongeBob AU for now on).

So yeah, I would just probably have to remake my SMG4 AU just so that people wouldn't be confuse by my other AU which also has Greek Gods in it (Little Reminder that just because I have been using Gods in my AU stories doesn't mean I'm gonna keep using the Greek Gods in ALL of my AU stories because that would be very boring and overused a lot so I would just only use them only for a Single AU of Mine). I would just have to probably remove the Greek Gods for my SMG4 AU and keep them only for my SpongeBob AU since Neptune and Poseidon are around (which means I could perhaps re-write my own SMG4 Arc).

I have been recently thinking that maybe I could also add in the Other Water Deities from Other Mythologies as well as adding in Other Non-Water Gods with them. It would be like on how if SpongeBob SquarePants was like a Disney's Hercules 2.0. (Adding in Other Mythologies including both the Other Foreign Water Deities and The Non-Water Gods all together), quite similar to yours when you design what the Other Gods would look like if they were in Hercules ^^

I'm somehow unsure if Hillenburg himself was ever a Mythologist on Ancient Greece and Rome. Perhaps he was somehow fascinated in Poseidon and that's how his own personal take on Neptune was born (I dunno, just a little guess ;^^).

I know that the Show itself isn't all about Mythology but just only imagine if they ever did on personal takes on Other Gods (then Neptune and Poseidon wouldn't have to be the only ones). I've been a Greco-Roman Mythologist for a very long time ever since I got into Lore Olympus since 2018 and it has really made Me love Greek Mythology and all of its Personal Takes on it (either in Movies, Shows, Books, Video Games, ect.) I'll never hate on any adaptation of Greco-Roman Mythology, no matter on how the Gods are portrayed differently from their Mythical Names.

Anyways, I just wanna say, Thank You for your Kind Compliment, it really warms up my Heart. It's very nice to see on someone who loves my own versions on Greek and Roman Gods as separated people, as well as being accurate to what they would look like in the Franchise's Style! 💗

#I'm also planning on doing my own take on a SpongeBob spinoff prequel of Neptune and Poseidon as well as giving my very own SB Next Gen #indie text #spongebob squarepants #the spongebob movie sponge on the run #sponge on the run #but anyhow MANY THANKS TO YOUR KIND WORDS! 💕#greek mythology #roman mythology #greco roman mythology #ask answered #violetrose-art #this one just made my heart filled with joy 💘#the spongebob greek roman prequel project #clash of the deities #ancient times before spongebob

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bookswithsav · 9 months

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Book Information

Title : Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Author : Rick Riordan

Series : Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book Five)

Rating

Was the story engaging?

The Last Olympian is the last book and grand finale in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, and does not disappoint. Like all of the books before it, The Last Olympian follows Percy along on his journey through perils beyond our standard world, challenging both him and the audience with new issues to face at a quick and exciting pace. The Last Olympian does a wonderful job at wrapping up the overarching story that takes place throughout the series, doing the difficult job of keeping readers on their toes while also answering long-held questions.

Rating: 5/5

Were the characters enjoyable/developed well?

Something that I’ve mentioned before about the characters in this series is how they may not be consistent with their previous characterizations or that they were not developed enough considering their impact on the other characters and overall plot. However, I’m beyond happy to say that I believe that the characters in The Last Olympian are beautifully polished when considering their characterizations. The characters are placed in an incredibly stressful situation, causing both their worst and best traits to become apparent throughout the story - though this time, the way in which these negative traits are handled seem incredibly accurate to previous characterizations (at least in my mind). Additionally, without spoiling too much, previous gaps in characterization and characters’ pasts are filled within The Last Olympian, creating further meaning behind actions.

Rating: 5/5

Was the plot developed well?

The plot for The Last Olympian was delivered exquisitely. Considering The Last Olympian as an individual story, the pace and quickness at which the events occurred throughout Percy’s journey were incredibly appropriate considering the circumstances that he had been placed under. The interactions between characters played a helpful role in moving along the plot of the story as well, allowing for little to no time to become restless. However, The Last Olympian most definitely needs to be considered for its role in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which is the final book. Something that is generally difficult to accomplish is answering all questions within a story. With the intertwining of the world as we know it and the world of Greek mythology, as well as the intertwining of good and evil, there were many questions that appeared throughout the course of the series. The way in which the plot was developed and moved from situation to situation not only seamlessly answered those questions, but also provided an incredibly intriguing read and ending for those who have been on the wild ride since the beginning.

Rating: 5/5

Was the audience kept in mind?

The audience was definitely kept in mind throughout The Last Olympian. As I mentioned (somewhere) above, it can be tricky to answer all of the audience’s questions while maintaining the velocity and course of the plot, however, this was done seamlessly. Questions that remained for the last book of the series were answered through engaging events within the story and allowed the world of Percy Jackson to continue being built. Characters were reintroduced with a familiarity that would not annoy returning readers, and the situations that took place were explained well despite frequently being chaotic. As always, Rick Riordan does a wonderful job at creating a story where the world we know and the world of Greek mythology are wonderfully connected in a way that can be understood - those who don’t have the prior knowledge will know what they need to know, and those who do have the prior knowledge will be able to see ancient myths revealed in a new light.

Rating: 5/5

Would I recommend the book?

I would absolutely recommend The Last Olympian. It’s incredibly fast paced and interesting, leading from one thing to another in a way that is engaging but not too frantic. The story that is told throughout The Last Olympian does an absolutely amazing job at creating a new adventure for the characters that we have grown to love while also wrapping up Percy’s story. The Last Olympian is an absolutely wonderful ending to a series that has captured, and continues to capture, the hearts of many.

Rating: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

Review

Warning: Spoilers!

As I’ve disclosed before, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is most definitely at the top of my list of favorite books. They’ve been some of my favorite stories since I was in elementary school, and have managed to maintain their spot years later, after hundreds (maybe thousands) of additional books have been read. That being said, I want to disclose that there is probably a level of bias I have when considering these books.

The Last Olympian is the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and does not disappoint. Throughout the series, the audience has grown fond of the different characters as they joined Percy on his many adventures, seeing them grow and learn from their experiences and the time that has passed. The Last Olympian follows Percy on his most dangerous adventure yet as he faces Kronos, the Lord of the Titans, in battle as Camp Half-Blood works to defend not only Olympus, but New York itself. The gods are busy elsewhere, fighting Typhon as he continues his path of destruction across the United States, leaving Olympus relatively defenseless. The way in which Olympus’s forces are spread out leaves the situation seemingly hopeless for Percy and his friends, making the audience anxious from the beginning. It’s a wild ride, full of risk and heartbreak as lives are lost, trust is broken, and questions are treacherously answered.

I’ve mentioned before that I felt as though some of the characterizations within the series were not necessarily consistent across the books, but this is not the case with The Last Olympian. Previously, I had mentioned that I felt as though Annabeth’s characterization was inconsistent in The Sea of Monsters, with her sense of logic failing to lead her when considering her relationship with Tyson. In The Battle of the Labyrinth, I mentioned that the way she approached Rachel seemed outwardly mean, though it had fit the previous characterizations that we had seen from Annabeth. In The Last Olympian, Annabeth still isn’t very fond of Rachel, but it’s much more discrete compared to before, leading the audience to realize that while Annabeth views Rachel as a threat to her and Percy’s relationship, she still feels the need to protect her friend’s friends. In my opinion, this is much more consistent with Annabeth’s character that we’ve seen throughout the series, as she has thrown aside her feelings to assist others as needed time and time again. Additionally, Grover’s characterization is wonderful throughout The Last Olympian, as he has taken on the responsibility of protecting the Wild and uniting nature spirits to help protect Olympus with a sense of Grover-like determination. We’ve seen Grover grow in many ways throughout the series, and we truthfully see him stand by the determination and goat-like bravery that we have seen since the beginning.

The demigods fighting to protect Olympus have been placed in an incredibly stressful situation, seemingly completely alone regarding defenses and far outnumbered. It only makes sense that they would all be on edge, finding comfort in what and who they can and snapping when it all becomes too much. There’s an excellent balance between these two extremes within The Last Olympian, as we watch Percy and his friends become anxious and crestfallen after a quick moment of laughter. These demigods may be battling the end of the world as they know it, but they are still children. They have training and encouragement, but they shouldn’t have to deal with the weight of the world (callback to The Titan’s Curse). This mixture of anger and fear with the joy of being with friends is something that continues to make the characters human in times of great peril.

Let’s talk about Rachel and Nico for a second. Since Rachel was introduced into the series, it could easily be inferred that she would play a huge part in the story somehow, though it had not necessarily been clear. Rachel was a huge help in The Battle of the Labyrinth, being a mortal blessed with true sight, and continued to be a help to Percy even when she wasn’t guiding him and his friends through the Labyrinth. Rachel’s visions and anxiety regarding Percy’s situation further deepened her importance as a character, as she was the one who informed Percy of information that would later lead to him saving Olympus. Allowing Rachel to become the Oracle was truthfully the best situation for her, as it allows her powers of sight to be fully revealed while also allowing her to assist her friends in the ways she can as a mortal. Nico also had a lot going on in The Last Olympian, as he desperately searched for his past while trying his best to assist in saving the future. Despite being misguided, Nico did what he could to help protect Olympus, not only facing his father but also coming up with the idea that, arguably, allowed Percy to defend Olympus for so long. If it wasn’t for Nico pushing Percy to take on the Curse of Achilles, it’s incredibly unclear how well Camp Half-Blood would have fared in the battle - if they would have survived at all - as not only did it allow Percy to become invincible, but also allowed Camp Half-Blood to realize what steps Kronos had taken to prepare Luke’s body. Both Nico and Rachel played an incredibly important role in defeating Kronos, leading Percy to understand the situation enough to lead Olympus to victory. What’s also super neat is that Nico and Rachel’s fates were directly connected to each other due to the curse Hades had put on the previous Oracle. Without Nico’s acceptance into camp, Rachel would have been absolutely shattered mentally like May Castellan had been, leading both of their actions to allow for both of their futures at camp.

The Last Olympian also did something really incredible in that it allowed the audience to truthfully understand Luke: his actions, his thoughts, and his feelings. Not only that, but it also allowed the audience to feel sorry for the gods in a way that we hadn’t before. While what Luke did was evil overall, his reasoning was rooted in a lot of pain. Loving someone who isn’t there anymore can be incredibly difficult, and having to experience that as a young child would be absolutely heartbreaking. Both Percy and audience begins to understand Luke’s past in a way we hadn’t before as it’s realized that Luke truthfully means it when he says the gods have abandoned him - he’s not just talking about unclaimed campers or unanswered prayers, he’s talking about his father looking him in the face and denying him the knowledge of his fate that continues to break his own mother. Luke’s actions become understandable (not excusable) as Percy begins to understand what has happened to him, eventually leading to Percy’s ability in the end to give up his quest to Luke in order to save Olympus. Hermes’s involvement in this situation also provides an incredibly new and important view of the gods, as it is revealed that Hermes truthfully loved Luke but could not intervene due to the ancient rules. It is also revealed that Hermes still actively takes care of May Castellan, continuing to love her despite her broken mind. This is one of the first times that we see a god truthfully heartbroken over the fate of their own child and family, and it creates a sense of humanity that was not previously seen within the gods throughout the series.

Annabeth’s involvement, too, was incredibly important. While we’ve seen Annabeth and Percy work as a well-oiled machine before, the way that they work together in The Last Olympian is on an entirely different level. Without Annabeth’s knowledge and expertise, there were many times where the battle may have taken a turn for the worst. Despite going to varying levels of heartbreak, Annabeth consistently did what was beneficial to the cause, continuing to carry herself with a sense of responsibility that continuously saved the day. She also served as Percy’s anchor to the mortal world, becoming someone much more to him throughout the battle. If Annabeth had not intervened, Percy would have been killed earlier on in the battle, leaving Camp Half-Blood’s defenses significantly weakened. We also see Annabeth’s feelings play an incredibly important part in saving Olympus, causing something that she has been battling with to become her savior.

Annabeth’s struggle throughout the series is her ability to feel safe and loved by her friends and family, fearing the possibility of becoming abandoned. Despite Luke switching to Kronos’s side, Annabeth still believes that the Luke she knows and cares about is still hidden somewhere. While this infuriates Percy and causes Annabeth to become a potential weak link due to her possible reluctance to fight Luke, it actually saves Olympus in the end. Without Annabeth’s trust in Luke to still care for his friends to a certain extent, Luke wouldn’t have been able to fight Kronos and Percy wouldn’t have been able to allow Luke to inflict the final blow. Annabeth’s trust in her friends, despite their actions, led Olympus to victory even though it had been a huge struggle for her throughout the series.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian was an absolutely astounding way to end a wonderful series, creating a fully built world and group of characters while managing to keep the readers on their toes through heartbreak and relief. Like the rest of the books within the series, The Last Olympian continues to have a special place in not only my heart, but within the hearts of many.

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