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justaz · 2 years

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listen. i love percy jackson. i love the series, i love the characters, i love it. right? but something i would’ve loved to see more of is percy’s fatal flaw.

under the cut bc it’s kinda long. also sorry if this doesn’t make sense or if it’s all over the place. i’ll try to make it make sense lmao.

first off, you can find an example of what i mean/what i’m getting at with the relationship between percy and ares. ares betrayed the gods and wanted to start a war and percy fought him but they still argue, even in son of neptune. percy’s fatal flaw causes him to hold onto this anger and resentment years after the argument/altercation happened. that’s kinda what i want to see with these characters. percy just holding onto this anger and resentment even if they were manipulated (like ares) or had a change of heart.

okay so going in order with charcters from tlt to tlo:

chris rodriguez

it sorta seemed like percy just kinda welcomed him back? idk i feel like, even if he didn’t know him personally, percy would’ve been kinda peeved at the fact that he betrayed camp and joined luke/kronos. i feel like his distrust for chris could’ve caused a rift between him and clarisse, giving them something to butt heads over. he just can’t understand how she welcomes him back and is dating him when he’s a traitor. she is pissed that he can’t understand that chris had a change of heart, that he realized he was on the wrong side of the war. it would’ve been a solid tangible thing for them to argue over or be antagonistic towards one another rather than a duel percy won when he was 12.

quintus/daedalus

so. tbf. i haven’t read the battle of the labyrinth in a hot second so i could be wrong here but. if i remember correctly it kinda seemed like percy just welcomed him back during the battle. like he was literally working for luke and was seeing if their camp was “worth saving”. like bro that’s a bunch of kids, some of which are related to you. wtf do you mean. so i feel like percy wouldn’t have been completely chill about him strolling on in. i feel like they should’ve gotten into some kind of argument or fight or something, yknow? like. fatal flaws were said to have been the undoing of many great heros (by either athena or annabeth idk) so have his be somewhat the undoing of him. like have them argue a bit and in that time with the labyrinth still existing have a couple more monster pour out a kill another kid. make someone step in and tell percy to chill so quintus/daedalus could kill himself. have that kids siblings be peeved at percy or have beef with him. let him carry that guilt around.

nico di angelo

nico lured percy into the underworld to hand over to his father for his own gain (of information about his past but still i feel like the war and subsequent war hero should’ve been top priority) and percy even said he was pissed at nico and that he wanted to sic mrs. o’leary on him. percy did choke him out in the dungeon and was harsh to him at the river, but that trust he held in nico is gone at this point so during battle, i don’t think he should’ve sent mrs. o’leary to get him to bring his father and them to fight with kronos. and i feel there should’ve been a price to pay for that. the monsters not cowering at hades’ presence so they kill more demigods and after kronos ducks into the empire state building and lowers the magic,, maybe with the monsters not being distracted,,,, maybe they….yknow…….overpower paul. anyways-

silena beauregard

percy wouldn’t have hailed her as a hero. beckendorf was his best friend and he’s dead bc silena was feeding luke information, so many campers have died bc silena was a spy. she and annabeth were friends and was dating beckendorf so percy and her knew each other personally and maybe they were friends idk but that betrayal cut deep. maybe he saw how distraught annabeth and clarisse were over it and decided not to say anything about her being a traitor but when travis and connor mention it he wouldn’t have disagreed. i think he would’ve just talked over them or ignored it completely. giving him and clarisse another thing to butt heads over. and him and annabeth. like maybe she brought it up or he opened up about his feeling about it idk but have them get into a huge argument over it and have it be something they have to work through. same thing with luke but that’s for later.

ethan nakamura

not only did ethan betray camp, leave them in the labyrinth, and join kronos, he also stabbed annabeth with a poisoned dagger. percy does not like him one bit. during the meeting with prometheus, percy asked him why they should respect his mother and ethan made his case about balance and respect. i feel like percy should’ve used that in the throne room. and it would’ve been interesting to have a sorta dark!percy even here. have percy manipulate ethan instead of trying to reason or get through to him. have percy undo kronos’ manipulation and then manipulate him into fighting kronos himself. have percy watch as he gets impaled with his own blade and fall through a fissure in the floor and feel nothing. no remorse, no guilt, nothing. he wouldn’t hail him as a hero either.

luke castellan

he’s not a hero. percy lost everything when he was 12 and annabeth was antagonistic towards him and grover is a satyr? he lied to percy for months and is part of some magic world that he hid from percy. mr. brunner/chiron is also a part of this magic world and also lied to percy about it for months. but luke was nice to percy and welcomed him and was like a true friend to him. until he tried to kill him in the woods. then he was a manipulative killer who was killing percy’s friends and causing a war and trying to bring about the end of the gods which would also yknow end the world (or civilization to be more specific). that betrayal ran deep which is why he and annabeth butted heads growing up. luke betrayed percy and percy was angry and hurt. luke betrayed annabeth and she believed she could save him. (loyalty and hubris. their own fatal flaws respectively) i feel like in the end, in the throne room, this fight could’ve gone two different ways.

one is percy refuses to give the knife to luke bc he doesn’t trust him, he insists that luke just tell him where the spot is so he can kill him himself. maybe luke tells him where it is and percy kills luke in front of annabeth. she has to watch as percy kills luke, which may cause a rift between them. another thing for them to get over to talk about. which would mean they wouldn’t get together right after they watched a bunch of their friends die in a war and go sing campfire songs. it could be something they have to discuss which puts off them getting together until they can both move on from it. same with silena.

two is luke insists on doing it himself while percy insists on doing it himself. luke never tells percy and kronos takes over again. and maybe juuust maybe grover jumps in to protect percy and kronos just flings him aside and fatally wounds him. have luke/kronos staring at grover uncomprehendingly and then gazing over at annabeth who is just sobbing uncontrollably with blood running down her face and all over the floor and luke breaking thru again, begging percy to just do it and raises his arm and points at the spot so percy can kill him and as grover succumbs to his wounds the empathy link takes percy with him. it’s a fatal flaw for a reason.

anyway let’s assume scenario one happens so i can go over heros of olympus el oh el

leo valdez

percy was loyal to camp jupiter by the time the argo ii came around, i feel like he would’ve clashed with leo a lot more during the quest for firing on new rome. i never understood percy and jason fighting over being like the best of the best bc that just doesn’t fit percy’s character imo. i feel like he and leo should’ve argued more. like i know he was pissed at leo in moa for it and understood it was bc of the eidolon but (again haven’t read moa in a hot minute but) he and leo could’ve argued more or had it be subtext like percy is hesitant to come to leo’s aid and if it’s a choice between him or like piper he’s going to help piper or he’s kinda doubtful of everything leo says and it causes this rift in the seven. or even more since he’s loyal to frank and picks up on the triangle there, maybe he acted like uber protective over hazel whenever leo was around or would side with frank over leo about anything. and that should’ve had some kind of toll on the seven and their quest but i can’t remember enough of the books to give an example.

taking it even further (even tho i don’t like caleo it is canon so) have percy be pissed at leo when he comes back hand in hand with calypso. like he’d also be pissed at her but i’m focusing on leo rn. not only did leo die then come back but he never told his friends about his plan (i don’t think anyways) so he just left them to grieve and then came back hand in hand with this chick who hurt annabeth in such a deep and personal way (considering annabeth’s own trauma) while he watched. he and leo (while i also would’ve loved to see them bond especially over similar backgrounds and trauma and behavior) would not have been friends.

calypso

writing leo’s part reminded me of her so i’m sticking her here. even tho she and percy had that Thing in botl, it was over before it became an actual thing yknow. and percy and calypso both understood that it was her curse and there was nothing either of them could do about it especially considering the war that’s brewing so percy left. then to watch as your girlfriend who you love with every ounce of your being stumble around blind and sobbing bc she thinks you left her? to not be able to do anything to soothe her or protect her from potentially falling off the cliff and dying or being torn to shreds by the arai? percy would never forgive calypso, he would never welcome her back, he would barely even look at her when she came back.

idk i just would’ve loved to see his fatal flaw be an actual fatal flaw that makes him pay some kind of price by either deaths that could’ve been avoided or lost friendships idk just something. it would’ve been interesting if it was explored in the way it’s set up to play out.

edit: i guess you could argue that his love and care for characters he’s loyal to overcame the pain and betrayal the other characters inflicted on him so things turned out differently and yes i’m all for that but this is just an interesting little au that would be fun to read i guess

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