#AND RIORDAN MADE THEM FIGHT OVER HAZEL INSTEAD

[helianthologies]

im pretty sure ill probably not know who you're talking about but id LOVE to hear anyway who you're talking abt in the tags of that knight/jester post. pleaaaaaase bec 🎤 share w us the insanity

it's literally so embarrassing though. im just being really autistic about the percy jackson books rn bc ive been rereading them with my mom..... honestly the connection with that post and the Specific Relationship im thinking of is tenuous at best. but ive been thinking about them (frank and leo) (im deranged) a lot lately

its kind of like... that knight/jester dynamic + also they hate each other and argue constantly bc theyre narrative foils and have diametrically opposed destinies/powers/etc. but also they literally have to work together and trust each other with their lives and they DO but theyre just like. not sure how to be friends??

[cynthiav06]

Percy is a dude from the category of screaming "what the hell did you do!" and solve all the problems in 5 minutes. Everyone would have been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for him.

I have mixed opinions on this. On one hand, Percy is the type of person to wait about for the problem to disappear by itself just so he doesn't have to deal with it. Cause even before he found out he was a demigod, he was 100% done with everyone's shit.

But I do agree that he would be able to solve all problems because through so many books we have seen that no matter how much prior planning Annabeth or the Seven or anyone else does, Percy always does his own thing at the end. And it works out mostly for the better than whatever initial situation anyone else had in mind because Percy thinks almost too well on his feet. Every time.

But Percy has such low self esteem that he sees the fact that he has to make so many improvisations more so as his plans never working as less so as an exceptional ability to adapt. Especially when at times he can easily sense that some titan/giant is too powerful so he maneuvers around a direct fight and ends up defeating them by pure strategy and still ends up thinking of himself as "Oh shit I seriously had no plans. I am so reckless and stupid".

His whole character arc could have been evolving into a more confident and self assured but still the usual sarcastic laid back version of himself who no longer doubts his own abilities and becomes the great leader he showed many signs of being. But no, Rick had to ruin it all because, for some reason, 10+ books later and almost all the characters are still the same, just decorated with even more trauma. Rick being Rick, and instead of showing characters working out their traumas and insecurities, he just slaps a relationship on them, and lo and behold, all is better again somehow.

I am kind of disappointed that we never got to see Percy or any other members of the Seven do any solo missions(aside from Annabeth in MoA) . She almost had the very quintessential realization about she needs others and how her hubris will ruin everything if she doesn't keep it in check only for whatever she was doing in the later parts House of Hades and all of Chalice of the Gods to take away even that little bit of character development.

And cause solo missions working out perfectly well for Percy while most other demigods struggle a bit to make it work might finally make him realize that his plans don't suck and he is actually a really really good strategist and somehow an even better manipulator. (Though more on that and his observational skills later).

Or make characters like Frank and Leo whose unique abilities and perspectives on combat could have been shown off more, making them all become more self-reliant.

And even so we could finally get proper idea of limits of certain characters like Piper (cause charmspeak isn't going to get her everywhere) or Hazel (we so need more scenes of her surprising demigods and monsters with not only her unique jewel abilities and her magic.) Plus Nico's combat limits, Jason's stamina limits (no I am not considering that part of canon, you can't tell me it's true, I refuse to stand by it), Thalia's character development as well as her honing her powers and combat abilities more.

So yeah, we really should have gotten a few solo missions instead of so many short stories and all. And a bit more cross-over highlighting the power levels between the Norse, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian demigods/magicians/Valhalla residents/Valkyrie and so on.

To sum it up, tons of missed opportunities by Riordan and even more tragic and terrible progression of previously great characters who just needed a well-made character arc or even some favoritism. (I am looking at Grover and Rachel, who both could have done so so much if Rick had only realized the awesome potential they had).

I have said it many times that it's #percy jackson supremacy. So hell yes everyone would be dead without him, and he is arguably the best protagonist out of any other fantasy action book series. All hail Percy Jackson, the master of sass, and the most beloved but somehow still the most misinterpreted character in the fandom. Really liked this ask, would love more of these regarding Percy or any other characters.

[perceabeth]

Would you be willing to elaborate on why you think hoo broke the rules of the world? I didn’t like the series bc of what it did to the og character arcs but I never caught onto it breaking the rules. No pressure to do so I’m mostly just curious

lol it's okay! WEEEEEEEELLLLLLL where to begin?

Big Three Kids!

The whole point of PJO was that there was nobody like Percy. That they were rare and were destined to be hunted to death because they weren't meant to be born. So then, of course, you assume they don't exist! The ones who are alive each paid a heavy price- Bianca and Thalia died, Thalia chose immortality, Bianca and Nico each lived in a weird universe where they missed out on their own lives.

There was no real reason for Jason to be a child of Zeus other than to put him in a position of leadership, but the thing about New Rome is that they have a different system about these things anyway with their cohorts and stuff and him being Thalia's sister adds so little to anything it was just a really stupid move imo.

I get what Riordan was trying to do with Hazel by circumventing the rule-- but it feels cheap and tacky. ESPECIALLY because Hazel's powers are so badly plotted out that she could have just as easily been a child of Hecate lol.

The most baffling one, though, is FRANK who is for some reason a legacy of Poseidon? I would have thought that was cool-- like being a legacy and so many generations before you having lived out their lives despite being demigods? SUPER cool. In that case. Why is he also a son of Mars?

It feels like too much is being packed into too little and when you don't have the time to explore these things, they just seem like he's saying hey. I know I said it's rare for demigods to grow old. But that's GREEK demigods. The ROMANS are super cool and super fun and they don't stand by the same rules!

2. The actual powers themselves.

Leo, son of Hephaestus and brother of Charles Beckendorf who died in a fire- now has control over fire! Piper can basically brainwash anyone because she's got Charmspeak but wait! There's more! Her sister Drew ALSO has Charmspeak!! Both of them are, of course, sisters of a girl who was manipulated into betraying all her friends <3 Hazel's a daughter of Hades? She's magic. Also she has power over gems and knows her way underground (I cannot even begin to think of WHAT made him decide the black girl needs to play ANY of these roles but I digress). Frank's just an average son of Mars who can turn into any animal he wants, which is totally cool and normal!

Do you remember how special Percy was in PJO? How hard other demigods had to train in combat because they would be killed if they didn't learn it? Remember how absolutely rare it was to see demigods with that kind of power, to the point where Chiron didn't want Percy and Thalia to be near each other because he feared they'd destroy everything? Not anymore <3 Super Powerful Demigods can now sit together on a ship and face no consequences at all, even when they have minor disagreements because they all come together very organically !!

3. Character arcs

I know you said it, but I can't talk about HoO and not bring up Nico di Angelo. Tell me why he went through his arc TWICE in two series? Here's the reason: because Mr. Riordan didn't want to make any of the main cast gay <3 He did it for woke points, so he was like hey hold on what if. Instead of any combination of the FIVE new characters I introduced being gay... I can retcon my Straight Series so it looks like I'm far more inclusive!

Great job, Mr. Riordan. You have raised a bunch of rabid fans who like Nico now because he's Gay and not because at one point he was an innocent boy who loses everything and fights to find his way back home. His story in PJO was a large part of the Great Prophecy, and yet... all of that was washed away in order to make him Gay Gay Gay.

Percy and Annabeth, we know-- it's a travesty. Stupid Percy and Robot Annabeth we've been through this a thousand times fuck that shit but it's so disappointing because as readers WE know these characters. We know them from PJO where they were each their own person and they had some good moments but HoO effectively wiped off the super strong friendship they already had going.

4. A HALFBLOOD'S LIFE!!!!

WHY has that been cheapened to the point of a joke!! It's literally so insane like the first series is about how difficult it is to be a half-blood. Greek and Roman mythology are not as different as Greek and Egyptian, see, so TKC ad MCGA can afford to change up the rules but HoO can't. That's like. The whole point!! So to randomly say hey actually this group is perfectly fine and the reason they're living so well is because the Greeks aren't as organised is so offensive to the reader because up until now all we had was the Greek camp! He flips it over and then somehow blames US for being stupid enough to think that's the only way to live.... and still decides to give the Roman camp child soldiers?????????????????????????????????????????????? make it make sense im begging

5. The bloody GODS

What did HoO do. Like. What did it do.

Because I can tell you what PJO did. PJO was about the gods learning to hold themselves accountable for the lives they create, drew a parallel between mortals, demi-mortals and immortal beings and dissected the value of life. It was a learning curve for everyone involved: for Luke, for Percy, and for the gods he so unwaveringly served. That was the point. That Luke was right, that the gods were primarily to blame because they don't care enough about human life. That they don't even care about minor gods. They swore to change.

And HoO is like aha I know I made it a whole thing and it was a huge sacrifice on Percy's part because he was offered immortality in place of the gods being held accountable-- but sike they haven't changed, even ONE YEAR down the line.

It makes the ENTIRE first Great Prophecy a TOTAL joke. Like what was the point of ANY of that happening if the gods were jut going to revert to being the exact same???

6. Harrowing realities of war

According to the wiki, there were forty campers fighting at the Battle of Manhattan. Forty. That's how many demigods there were. Yeah, the Hunters helped and the party ponies also came in- but it was a small team of campers. Between BotL and TLO, I can think off the top of my head about Lee Mitchell, Castor or Pollux (whichever one) Charles Beckendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard who died. A lot of these characters have been mentioned before as well! And they died. Because children shouldn't be fighting a war, actually, and yet here they were, dying before they could apply to college. The finale was just this horrible moment when Silena dies and Kronos attacks Chiron and everything seems so bleak and it's when Annabeth loses faith that you know everything is going to change.

Meanwhile HoO is the most absurd final battle, I think, because if I'm being honest, I don't even know who the enemy is. First they're fighting giants then the gods arrive and Fix it for them and then they're fighting Romans and Greeks and then there's monsters in their armies? And SIKE it's actually Gaea who's the Big Bad and defeating her fixes everything as though ANY of that makes sense!! So what, then? All the work that they did in PJO- the friends they buried and the enemies they spared-- that is stupid, right, when you can just get some girl to come and scream "please stop fighting"? What is the point of the war then?

Just because it's more complicated.... doesn't make the writing good.

7. What Theme.

Percy Jackson is about finding your place in the world. It's about home and it's about hope and it's about knowing that you're never alone. That love is always the answer, that faith and belief are the only motivators and that all darkness can be defeated with light. Someoe tell me what HoO is about. Earth Bad, Teenagers Good? It's not even about bridging the gap between the Greeks and Romans which is what it ostensibly claims is the core of the series. Makes it feel like PJO was dumb to have a theme at all. <3

Look at the time lol

In summation,

PJO is a story. HoO is a bunch of scenes sewn together where every scene is designed to be more insane and also to consistently undermine everything that happens in PJO. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[1heartfanfics]

Do you remember somewhere in Blood of Olympus Percy gets poisoned by that underwater guy I cant remember the name of? If you do, can you do a story where someone unlikely takes care of him? If you don't, I completely understand😊

Yes omg, another example of Rick Riordan being one of us because after that incident he talks about Percy having to go throw up several times. It was Kymopoleia and Polybotes who poisoned him.

 Side note though, I kind of hated that scene because Riordan made Percy so useless even though he was in his domain while Jason, who was very much out of his, was the hero. I’m not saying Percy has to be the hero all the time (although he is the main character really so like kind of) but I love the way he was always written as being so powerful (near water especially). Like at the end of House of Hades Nico says that Percy is the most powerful demigod he’s ever known, so I just felt like it was dumb for him to be rendered useless so easily in that scene. 

Anyway, enough of my rant. Here’s the part you came for:

TW: spoilers for blood of olympus I guess and depictions of vomit

“Percy are you okay?!?” Jason yelled, darting over to him once the poison dissipated. 

“Gah, yeah I think so,” Percy coughed and sputtered, stumbling around in the water.

“Alright, come on, lets get back up there. Hopefully the Argo II is okay,” Jason said. He could feel the air getting thin. His wind storm was thinning. 

“Could we, uh, maybe not mention exactly what happened down here? The son of the sky god saving the son of the sea god underwater thing?” Percy asked. 

“Yeah, sure bro,” Jason nodded, smiling sympathetically at his friend. He understood where Percy was coming from. They were supposed to be the leaders of this quest, but Jason seemed to just keep getting knocked unconscious, needing rescued. He’d felt useless many times along their journey. 

“Great. Thanks,” Percy said, still sounding out of breath. Normally he could breathe underwater just like it was air but he seemed to be struggling right now. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jason asked, “You’re looking a little green,” he said. He was sure it was more than just the tint of the water that was tinging Percy’s face. 

“Mhmm, fine,” Percy mumbled, stroking upwards to swim toward the surface, but his limbs weren’t coordinated enough so he didn’t go anywhere. Jason reached through his air bubble to grab Percy’s arm, willing the winds to take them to the surface before they ran out of air. 

Jason gasped for air as they reached the surface, not having realized just how shallowly he’d been having to breathe. He managed a few deep breaths, finally filling his lungs, before Percy suddenly gripped his arm. 

“Jas-” Percy said frantically, before his body convulsed and he vomited into the water.

“Oh Gods, okay,” Jason muttered to himself, kicking forward to move behind Percy. He wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him afloat while he brought up his stomach contents. Jason knew Percy had looked pretty green. 

Percy was limp against him, which worried Jason. Normally he could keep himself afloat just by willing the water to support him, but he was clearly in too bad of shape to even use that power, which was concerning. He didn’t seem to have it in him to even keep himself up the normal way, by kicking. Percy slumped forward of Jason’s arm, almost pitching into the water completely. 

“Ookay, come on. We’ve gotta get you above deck Perce,” Jason said, pulling Percy back against his chest until his head was resting on Jason’s shoulder. He kept one arm wrapped firmly around Percy’s waist, using his other arm to swim toward the boat. 

He managed to get them over to the Argo II, which took a lot longer than he’d expected. It hadn’t looked that far, but with Percy’s dead weight it felt like miles, and he was exhausted. 

“Gonna need a little help here,” Jason panted as they reached the ladder. His muscles were aching and his breath was coming in gasps. 

Thankfully, Percy seemed to have recovered some, because he was able to grab the ladder, hauling himself out of the water. Once he climbed to the top he leaned over and offered Jason a hand, pulling him the rest of the way to the deck, where both boys collapsed. 

Immediately, all of their friends rushed over. A myriad of hands pulled them both up off of the deck and into chairs. Percy forced his eyes open, wincing as his vision swam (pun intended), making him feel dizzy and sick all over again. 

“What in Hades happened down there?” 

Percy blinked a few times, taking some slow deep breaths until the worried faces of his friends came into view. He forced himself to focus on the calming motion of the waves below him, trying to settle his stomach, which was still churning queasily. 

“It was the goddess Kymopoleia. She was working for Polybotes. But we got her to turn against him and help um, help us kill him. But Percy got poisoned. My uh, my venti cloud protected me from it I guess,” Jason explained, still breathing hard. 

His friends all murmured a collection of sympathies and sighs of relief, but Percy couldn’t focus on any of them. He still felt too sick. 

“Where’s Annabeth?” he croaked. 

“She’s helping Leo man the wheel while he does some repairs,” someone answered, Piper maybe. 

“Maybe someone should go switch her out,” Jason said, glancing worriedly over at Percy. He needed his girlfriend right now.

“No,” Percy said quickly. “No don’t worry her,” he shook his head. 

“Are you sure?” Hazel asked, placing a hand on Percy’s arm. Jason was right, he really didn’t look so good. 

“I’m fine,” Percy insisted, although his ashen complexion said otherwise. “Could someone just help me to my room?” he asked weakly. 

“I will,” a small voice spoke up from behind the rest of the group. Nico?

Everyone parted for him to come forward, looking surprised. He didn’t really speak all that often. In fact, they often times forgot that he was even there, lurking in the shadows. 

“Come on, let’s go,” Nico said, stepping in front of Percy. He grabbed Percy’s wrist, pulling his arm around his own shoulders to prop him up. Although Percy was still a handful of inches taller than Nico, he was stronger than he looked, so he began to half drag half pull Percy down the hall toward the below deck quarters. 

“You doing okay?” NIco asked when Percy let out a soft groan, leaning even more heavily on Nico. 

“Not feeling so hot,” Percy shook his head.

Nico realized how chalky Percy’s complexion had become, mouth hanging open slightly and his eyes unforced. He had his free hand clutched to his stomach, hunched forward over it slightly.

“Are you going to throw up?” Nico asked, putting the pieces together. Percy nodded miserably, rubbing his hand back and forth across his stomach.

“Okay, come on,” Nico began dragging Percy again, this time with the destination of the bathroom instead of his room. 

“Ohh my stomach,” Percy moaned. His hand moved up to cover his mouth, fighting back nausea.

Nico pushed their way into the bathroom, lowering Percy down onto the floor in front of the toilet as gently as he could. As soon as Percy’s knees hit the ground he lurched forward over the toilet and heaved up a mouthful of seawater and green sludge. The poison, Nico thought, wincing. 

“You’re okay,” Nico said, crouching down behind Percy and placing a hand on his back. He was surprised to find that Percy’s clothes were wet, which he’d failed to notice before. He must really be feeling bad if his powers couldn’t even keep him dry. 

Percy continued to pant over the toilet, clutching the rim with white knuckles. Nothing happened, though, so Nico pulled him away from the bowl to lean against the wall behind them. 

“Let’s get you into some dry clothes and in bed,” Nico said, positioning Percy’s arm around him again so he could get him up.

“Nooo,” Percy groaned, shaking his head, “Feel nauseous.”

“Yeah you were poisoned Percy, might take a while to wear off. I’ll put a trash bin beside your bed, okay? You need to get some rest,” Nico argued, hauling Percy’s limp body off the ground with some difficulty. He was all dead weight now. 

Nico and Percy managed to slowly limp their way down the hall to Percy’s room, which he had to admit, instantly made him feel a bit better, Just to be surrounded by his things. 

“Here, get changed,” Nico said, tossing Percy a dry t-shirt and a pair of shorts. While Percy got out of his wet clothes, Nico pulled the trash over to sit beside Percy’s bed, laying a towel underneath it just in case his aim was off. 

When Percy was finished he helped him climb into bed, pulling the covers up over him to still his shivering. This poison had really done a number on him it seemed. He watched as Percy closed his eyes, clearly exhausted. 

“You need anything else Percy?” Nico asked, leaning against the wall. Percy cracked an eye open to look up at him with an expression Nico had never seen on him before, fear. 

“Could you-? Could you stay? Just for a minute,” Percy asked quietly, averting his eyes. He sounded so young, despite being almost 5 years older than Nico. 

“Yeah. Yeah of course,” he said, moving to sit at the edge of Percy’s bed as he closed his eyes again. 

Nico had a feeling that Percy and Jason hadn’t exactly been honest about what had happened on their underwater adventure. Whatever really went down, it had clearly shaken Percy up pretty good. As much as Nico looked up to Percy, it made him feel slightly better about his own life to know that even someone as strong and as brave as Percy Jackson had his vulnerable moments. 

[melancholyicedtea]

Rick Riordan could totally make Percy the villain in a future book series

Think about it, if he spent more time acknowledging that Percy is really big on revenge and likes to inflict inhumane amounts of pain to anyone who slightly threatens the people he loves, and in some instance LAUGHS as he watches them suffer.

It was first mentioned in SoM that his fatal flaw is fatal loyalty and that’s what lands him in Tartarus.It gets to points when he goes overboard and genuinely scares the people he is fighting for (annabeth taking a step back from him when Percy chokes a monstress with her own poison in HoH). Or how when him and his mom literally KILL his abusive step dad in TLT, he is really happy about it but he regrets not being the one to have given the final blow to finish Gabe off for good.

Or how during SoN when he’s traveling with Frank and Hazel through the north west to get to Canada, Rick made the point that they weren’t bothered by gangs while going through those rough neighborhoods because Percy was just THAT threatening.

The reason why Percy fights for camp half blood is because it’s his found family there. He could care less about saving the world if it didn’t really affect him, even though he would most likely not admit it. He could care less about quarrels between the Gods, but him and his friends keep on getting wrapped up in it.

With the people he trusts it's easy to see him in his happier, goofier, joker side. But with strangers and people he doesn’t know, he has this blank almost angry expression. You know how cold and intimidating Percy was to like Leo, Piper, and Jason until he understood that Annabeth trusted them and he decided their his friends in MoA?

He’s a little overpowered being the son of The Big 3 as well and keeps on pushing himself to unlock new abilities that get more frightening as he grows into his powers. When he says “why” when Apollo shows up at his door isn’t really meant to be played for laughs, it's just that he’s so DONE and so ANGRY at the gods.

As he grows up, he starts to align more and more with the radical ideologies that Luke had. Luke and Percy aren’t that different after all with what they think about the Gods. Luke was just willing to betray everyone who trusted him and kill his own found-family to achieve his revenge. If Percy wasn’t doing all he could to protect what he loved, nothing would stop him from being able to rip apart Olympus with his bare hands.

I’m just saying all it really would take for Percy to completely snap is to go overboard and accidentally scare away/hurt someone he loves, or have one of them die and have him be unable to save him, the most impactful examples being; annabeth, sally, his little sister, and possibly Grover (a lot of people overlook their friendship :c ) So yes, Percy just needs a little push to send him over to him embracing his dark side.

I predict that when he finds about Jason’s death he’ll be really upset and blame Apollo, one of the Gods who keep on ruining their chances of a normal life (remember Jason was just trying to pass his classes and stuff until Apollo came and asked for his help.) Jason is similar to Percy in power and leadership, but Jason agreed to help because he believed it was the right thing to do and he was raised at camp Jupiter with the values of honor, duty, and serving the Gods. Percy would have said no, and he DID say no in TOA book one.

Because he doesn’t do what he does because it’s the right thing to, but because in saving everyone he gets to save the ones he loves as well. He made the decision he would rather to let the world be taken over by the giants instead of letting annabeth fall to Tartarus on her own. He didn’t think they would survive. He just wouldn’t leave her. This has been my dark!percy analysis, thank you for coming to my ted talk

[alextriestowritestuff]

Blood Of Olympus Read W/ Me

This was the worst book of the series by far. I almost didn’t finish it. I think my thoughts are going to be rather short but they’ll still be below the cut for spoiler reasons. There will also be Trials of Apollo spoilers so I highly suggest not reading this if you haven’t caught up with those books! Let’s get into it.

I’d like the start by saying what I like: Nico/Reyna POV. I loved their relationship (which I didn’t see coming at all) it was very big sis-little bro vibes. I love that Nico finally found a place and his budding relationship with Will. What’s funny is though I knew Will would be his love interest (You can’t avoid them in fanfic at all) I thought he’d be more like super sunshine/super happy and that would contrast with Nico’s emo nature. But he was just chill and was like Nico, stop being a dumbass, we’re friends. I think fanfic gave me a different impression of what he’d be like (Granted I never read the fics, just summaries) and I was surprised that he was not like that. It’s not bad or good, just pointing it out. 

Oh and Nico telling Percy he liked him and Percy just being like ‘say what?’ I didn’t expect Nico to actually fess up to that one but Percy’s reaction was gold. 

The best moment in this book is Reyna taking down Orion by herself. She was that BITCH. Correct me if I’m wrong but the only other person who defeated a giant by themselves was Percy right? In the Battle of Labyrinth when he fights Antaeus? I think Antaeus was a half-giant though because Percy, a demigod, managed to kill him without the help of a god. Anyway, Reyna was everything in that scene. Oh I lied, he took down Polybotes too. They’d be unstoppable together (though I love Percabeth). She was about to sacrifice herself too!! What a queen. I respect the crap out of her. UM Jason you really picked the wrong girl lmao. 

I appreciated the Thalia cameo (because again, I didn’t re-read the Lost Hero so I haven’t seen her since the last time I read the PJO series) and the mention of Zoe. I hope Kenzie didn’t really die though, I liked her. 

And that’s all the good I have to say about it. Now for the bad...so much bad.

So after thinking about it, I realize that what makes HoO so different from its predecessor series is that there’s no consequences. The closest we got to consequences was Annabeth and Percy falling into Tartarus because they weren’t saved in time. No one important (protagonist/good guys side) died. Leo was resurrected (And I looked it up and found out that he came to Camp in the Trials of Apollo series so everyone knows he’s alive). Even for the Tartarus one, we didn’t even get a PTSD arc. It would’ve been helpful to have Percy or Annabeth’s POV in this book to wrap up that subplot. Instead we get two lines about their time in Tartarus and when Percy brings it up, Annabeth tells him not to mention it. So no PTSD arc. Got it. But we can just casually mention that Octavian committed suicide (which I don’t care for that ending at all).  Right.

The HoO books are boring because there’s no consequences. I never felt true fear apart from Percy/Annabeth being in Tartarus. In the Last Olympian, mortals were put to sleep, Annabeth was gravely injured, Silena and Beckendorf died. Luke and Ethan died. There was no magical save for them. Blood of Olympus had NO stakes, coupled with a weak, slightly developed new characters made it a bad series imo. It also doesn’t deliver on the questions posed in the book.

Hazel’s curse is still active, no descendant of Neptune has taken it away. I read the wiki summary for every book of the Trials of Apollo (The last one isn’t out yet) and there’s no mention of her curse being lifted. I think Frank’s stick is resolved imo being that it’s safe in the fireproof pouch but for some readers, they don’t think that’s resolved. Kym told Percy he’d have to face his fatal flaw. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t feel as though he did. Percy also never helped Leo find Calypso but Ig that’s null because he never got the chance to. Also is Black Jack, Frank’s grandmother, Hylla okay? Orion said Hylla got away but I was hoping for another cameo. 

Let’s talk about the villains/the entire quest of the Seven. The quest was boring, Nico/Reyna/Hedge’s quest was 100x more interesting and they were transporting a freaking statue. The quest of the Seven was fight this minor god/villain who is working for Gaea who promised them something (Even Jason has a line where he makes fun of this), outsmart/fight them, get to Athens where all the monsters are. Percy and Annabeth’s blood awakens Gaea. The gods come down which makes me angry because most of them weren’t helpful throughout the series. Poseidon wasn’t in this series at all. He didn’t even send a symbol or talk to his son who went missing. I’m pissed that the battle against Gaea wasn’t even in Athens! I’m pissed that they got slapped to New York, like what? The gods really couldn’t poof them back there, they gave some excuse but it was still bs. But I guess Rick needed Argo II to get back to NY so Leo can turn festus back into a dragon. But anyway, the gods come down, the demigods work with to defeat the giants in less than two pages. The giants that were poised as a massive threat for four books straight. Defeated in mere minutes. We don’t even get a cool battle description, they just hack and slash at them and they’re dead. Huh? 

Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank were reduced to background characters and I understand they don’t have a POV but I never felt that characters who didn’t have a POV in a certain book were ever forgotten/not utilized. They didn’t really get to do anything. 

We also don’t really see the Roman and Greek gods all that much. I know they’re the same people, different Greek and Roman personalities. But like I thought their Roman side could be seen a bit more but they were having difficulty maintain one persona throughout the whole series. I can tell you what the Greek gods are like and how they interact w/ each other based on the throne room scenes/anytime they help demigods in PJO/HoO. But Roman gods as whole? I can’t tell you how they even interact with each other. 

But wait, it gets worse. There’s not even a formal recognition thing like there was at the end of the Last Olympian (where Percy is offered godhood and Annabeth is given position of architect) there’s a little meeting with the gods and the Seven in which Jason is like give minor gods shrine and the gods aren’t really all that interested in what he has to say. There’s no thank you demigods. No, thanks Annabeth and Percy for literally going through Tartarus and Hazel for sacrificing yourself at 13 back in the 1940s. And the rest of them sacrificed something too. Like damn, no wonder why Luke was always like the gods don’t care about their kids. 

Gaea was built up to be a big bad (honestly not really, she talked trash the entire time/sent people to do her work) and the woman is easily overpowered by the three demigods. She’s not even awake for 20 minutes and she goes down. WHAT?? 

Overall, it was anti-climatic and totally did a 180 on everything else established in this series-the fact that Gaea was such a major foe and turned out not to be (that SEVEN demigods had to take her down, not just 1 like Percy’s prophecy) and the giants were to be feared too but they get taken down. At 200 pages in, I dead ass wanted to DNF, it was so boring. I gave it a one star because although the good I mentioned was really great, it doesn’t save the book. So for me, this series had every book be 3 stars or under except House of Hades. 5 books and I only really was able to like one and get through it easily and it still had issues. Like what?

Lastly, I want to touch on Jason. I still think he’s bland though I appreciated him giving Nico a hug at the end there. Again from ToA/being spoiled over the years, I learned that Jason died and I won’t be reading ToA but I read the summary of the book where he died and um, wow. I don’t feel anything for his death but the fact that he and Piper broke up sent me into a laughing/anger rage. Laughing because they really said ‘I love you’ at the end of BoO and they didn’t even make it a year lmao. And the fact that PIPER, miss always insecure in her relationship with him, McLean broke up with HIM. WOOOOOW. But it made mad because I listened to her complain/fawn over Jason for 4 freaking books (not counting tSoN) for NO REASON cuz they ended up breaking up. Overall, I appreciated what Jason, Hazel, Frank, and Piper did in the HoO series because they were helpful but I couldn’t connect with their characters. I’ll admit that in BoO we got a little bit more bonding between characters which is what I asked for in my last read with me and I like the Percy/Jason scene underwater and Piper/Annabeth scene from the beginning. I do think some relationships were summarized when they could’ve been shown--i.e. Annabeth/Reyna/Piper friendship but they have potential. 

The bonding was good, it was just too late. It should’ve happened in MoA/HoH as well. Random but I also hate how Leo was treated (esp. by Jason and Piper) throughout the series and I’m glad he got out of that mess. He was reduced to a deus ex mechanic and that wasn’t cool. The Seven wouldn’t have been able to do this quest without him. 

Sooo I guess this is it. I don’t think I’m going to read another Rick Riordan book again unless I hear something drastic happens to Percy or Annabeth/Any of the PJO characters and Reyna. I’m strongly reconsidering removing him as my fav author. I still love the PJO series but this one was not it. I don’t know if Rick was on a tight deadline for these HoO books but it was just poorly executed. I don’t regret reading the series, I think reading HoH was worth all the time I spent reading this series. I wish I had just read a summary of tSoN and MoA, especially because I already read them years ago and knew I wasn’t into them from my first read. I wasted my own time by doing that. So if I had done that I would’ve gotten to just read HoH and then only be disappointed by BoO as opposed to three books. It is what it is. It’s nice to be in the loop because I always see these things about HoO characters and spoilers so now I know how it went down. 

But that’s it guys, thank you for reading this entire thread and the ones before it. I have a lot of opinions and I don’t think I’m in the minority by saying I didn’t like this series overall. I will get back to my writeblr content and I will leave you guys with my final ratings for the series (My rating system may seem generous compared to my read with me thoughts but I personally don’t give less than 3 stars to books that plot wise made sense. It may not be the most compelling plot or have the best characters but if it made coherent sense, I have to give it at least a 3.) :

The Lost Hero: This score is based off of my original reading in 2012/2013 and my thoughts on the main characters in that book, I give this a 3/5 stars

The Son of Neptune: 3/5

The Mark of Athena: 2/5

The House of Hades: 4.5/5

The Blood of Olympus: 2/5 

Worst book of the series: Mark of Athena (Blood Olympus is a close tie but the Nico/Reyna really saves it from this spot) and best book- House of Hades. 

[clovis-enthusiast]

Little thought about The Tyrant’s Tomb. [SPOILERS!!!!]

oKAY, so I’m gonna start off by saying that, as usual, Rick Riordan’s writing style never fails to impress and draw me in to keep reading and not stop until I’ve devoured every last word. I was DESPERATE to read this book because it took me longer to get it than usual, and I was trying to go into it spoiler free (aside from reading the snippets that Uncle Rick posted on his Twitter every now and then.) I pretty much managed to do so, and it made the experience that much more emotional for me. I went into The Burning Maze KNOWING that Jason was going to die, but I had absolutely no idea what I’d be facing in this book.

Camp Jupiter

I’m just gonna flat out say it; I was never really all that interested in Camp Jupiter in the beginning. I didn’t like the majority of the characters (aside from Dakota who is my legal son) and the camp structure (though accurate to the Romans) seemed too strict and harsh to me. The ranking systems confused me, and it all in all just did not appeal to me the way Camp Half-Blood does. However, the more I read, the more attached I grew, and although I still MUCH prefer Camp Half-Blood and would choose it in a heartbeat when choosing between the two camps, it still became an interesting place to read about. I ADORE the idea of New Rome and the sharp contrast of silly demigods like the fifth cohort vs. the strict rules and upbringing of the camp.

When Jason died in The Burning Maze and the next book was set to take place surrounding Camp Jupiter, I grew excited. I REALLY wanted to meet more of the demigods of the Roman camp and explore them more (mostly Dakota but I digress.) Although I knew reading about everyone’s reactions to Jason’s death would be hard, I fought through it and was somewhat surprised by the lack of grieving that was presented. I mean, the ENTIRE first few chapters were ALL about Jason’s coffin and Lester and Meg grieving and trying their best to get it to camp but when it actually got there there really wasn’t that much of an uproar. At first I thought that was strange but looking back at it the Romans are brought up to be strong and not let emotions take over them, and people like Hazel have to show absolute strength. Besides the camp was already in mourning over DOZENS of other campers at the time.

That was another thing that sort of bugged me. I was absolutely ITCHING to meet some new characters and granted I got a few, but the majority of the ‘newer’ characters had already been killed and served only as the undead army.

THAT WAS SO FUCKED UP. It was one thing that I think Rick did a really good job with in upping the deep and darkness of the Riordanverse series. Can you imagine fighting your undead comrades and friends?? Like holy shit, that was emotional. I was super worried I spoiled something for myself on Istagram bc I read a post someone made about Jason trying to get the undead Romans to follow him instead or direct them away from camp, but I should have known it wasn’t true since he was literally burned.

Frank

Speaking of burning, I ACTUALLY thought Rick killed Frank off. Up until this book, I hadn’t really realized how much I loved this man. His character is just so well-written and likable and when he sacrificed the wood, I was like NOOOOOOOOO. I was SO grateful he came back in the end because I was sure Rick would never hear the end of THAT one if he allowed it to really happen. On the bright side, my baby boy can now enjoy his life with a little bit more vigor and less fear now that the stick is gone for good.

New Characters

Lavinia Asimov: Okay, Lavinia is a REALLLLLLLY weird character to me. She reminds me a lot of Lou Ellen to be honest, but for some reason, she doesn’t appeal to me as much as Lou Ellen does. (Maybe it’s just because I tend to prefer minor characters) Her rebelliousness seemed a little too... forced at times?? And her whole thing with the dryads and fauns was kinda weird too, but I guess since she likes Poison Ivy, it makes sense. However, she kinda did grow on me, I suppose, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her.

Poison Ivy: I REALLY wished we could have met her even just once. Lavinia would not shut up about her and was CONSTANTLY rebelling against the rules in camp just to see her, so I wanna know just what kind of a character she is. I’m sure she would have been very interesting and sassy to have been Lavinia’s love interest lol

Pranjal: He’s a good boy!!! Not quite sure how to pronounce his name properly, but his appearance is adorable and I LOVE the fact that he’s a son of Aesculapius because he’s one of my favorite gods soooo... I really wish we could have seen more of him!! He’s kinda like Clovis in the way that he has like one important part, gets mentioned like two times afterwards and then never again :^/

Aristophanes: he’s a cat,,, i love him,,, 

Harpocrates: This was SO interesting and out of the blue to me having gone in spoiler free!! He’s earned a new spot up in my favorite gods list because of how interesting and mysterious he is. His concept was great and although i was sad to see him sacrificed, I hope that he and Sibyl are together wherever they are bc that was damn cute and made me so emotional afgkjldg why did Apollo have to be such a dick as a god,,,

New names with little to no info: Carl (Roman demigod,) Reza (Roman demigod,) Reginald (faun,) Felipe (faun,) Harold (faun,) Lotoya (dryad,) Buster (unicorn,) Muffin (unicorn,) Whagadoodle (unicorn,) Shirley (unicorn,) Horatio (unicorn,) One Eye (pegasus,) Small Ears (pegasus,) Boost (pandai,) Ida (Roman demigod,) Caelius (Roman demigod,) Thomas (Roman demigod,) Colum (Roman demigod,) and Terrel (Roman demigod)

Lester/Apollo

MY BOY HAS GROWN!!! He’s so human now, and I’m so proud. He doesn’t even second guess sacrificing himself or humiliating himself to save his friends. I just... I have a lot of feelings over his character development. Rick handles him SO well, and I just,,, I love him,,, i am,,, in love with him,, i would date lester papadopoulos

Meg

She’s grown to be such a doll!! I was SUPER annoyed by her in the first books, but now she’s my daughter. I love that she’s actually expressing emotions other than ‘annoying 12 year old’ now. Like I wanna protect her.

Reyna

She was a pretty good character in this book and her leaving the camp was a HUGE surprise to me. I kinda wish she was still praetor because idk Hazel just doesn’t rlly seem as fit for it as Reyna was, and I like Reyna a lot, but idk i guess it’s coolio. I was also glad Rick cleared up all the romance discourse about her too though the way he did it was kinda weird (she literally was using the word ‘ship’ out loud like wh-- and i don’t remember the venus thing at all so maybe i missed it from a different book? idk it came out of nowhere to me)

Ella and Tyson

I actually like Ella a lot now!! I used to find her quite annoying, and her relationship with Tyson felt forced, but now that I had the time to get used to her and figure out her character a little more, I do like her. She sort of treats Tyson weird, but I think towards the end, I fell for their relationship more. Tyson was literally excellent, show-stopping, breath-taking, amazing,,, like YESSS KING I LOVE YOU AND YOU PEANUT BUTTER-SMELLING SELF (that one scene where he just started dancing and apollo didn’t know if it was for the ritual or just bc he felt like it killed me)

Character Deaths

Dakota: I AM NEVER GOING TO GET OVER THIS ONE FOLKS. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY TIMES I HAD TO REREAD THE SAME SENTENCE TO MAKE SURE THAT I WASN’T HAVING A NIGHTMARE. I PHYSICALLY CANNOT BELIEVE THAT RICK KILLED HIM OFF. I’M STILL EMOTIONAL OVER IT, AND JUST AJSDHF;AMNJ ‘;  NOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS THE SECOND SIBLING POLLUX HAS LOST IM GOING TO  S C R E A M  HE WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS AND HE DESERVED BETTER DAMN IT I’M LITERALLY IN SHOCK LITERALLY DO NOT TALK TO ME LIKE I’M STILL IN SHOCK FROM CREST’S DEATH IN THE LAST BOOK TBH AND NOW THIS??? NOW I’M SCARED CLOVIS IS GONNA DIE JSDKLFKS the only thing that gives me comfort is that Jason can be with his friend in Elysium now fuckkkk,,, rick why did you do this to me,,, I LITERALLY CANNOT EXPRESS HOW UPSET I AM I WILL  N E V E R  HEAL

Don: Don was sort of a comic relief character in SoN, and it was very sad to see him go. He reminded me a lot of Grover, and his death scene with Lavinia ACTUALLY made me tear up. THIS BOOK MADE ME SO EMOTIONAL GOD DAKOTA AND DON WERE LITERAL BABIES RICK GIVE THEM BACK

Bobby: listen,,, we never even met this kid rlly and i was still super sad when lavinia had to kill him again and hannibal is without him and just ughhh whyyy

Julia’s mother, father, AND foster parents: HOLY SHIT RICK WASN’T THAT KIND OF OVERKILL??? I felt so bad for the poor girl, especially cause she’s like six??? But it’s very sweet that Terminus adopted her. I really liked that.

Jacob: AAHHHAHA this one made me sad too!!!! he was such a minor character, but he reminded me of Damien White and Ethan Nakamura (if he were allowed to actually be a kid,) so I think that’s why I was sort of partial to him. The way he died was SUPER horrid too, so I just,,, im big sad for him (on a good hand, he went down F I G H T I N G)

Mentions of anything relating to Hypnos or his children

Yes, i am keeping track, sue me. Somnus was mentioned one time in this book as one of the gods Apollo briefly considered summoning to his aid, and it is presumed he has some sort of tribute at Camp Jupiter had he not before. You’ll make another appearance someday Clovis, I know it :’^D 

Final Thoughts

I literally CANNOT wait for the next book (which I presume is the last one.) From what it seems, we’re returning to New York, so Camp Half-Blood will be present. I can’t wait to see my babes again, and I’m REALLY hoping more minor characters will be allowed to shine (cough clovis cough) but like i KNOW some will die and just,,, im sad,,, dakota’s death has wrecked me,,, but on the side note, the new book is coming out in my last year of school!!! i’m so excited because this series holds emotional value to me like i’ve literally gone through my high school career with trials of apollo like it was with me the whole time and it’s one of the only things that keeps me going. i just,,, i have no words to express how much this series and all the others mean to me...

thank you so much for keeping me going, uncle rick. i can’t wait to see how this all ends :^) <3 

[canarhys]

jason shouldn’t have lightning powers.

hear me out. look at nico and hazel. they are both aspects of the same god, hades/pluto. nico has the death aspect (dead summoning and contact, shadow-travel, banishing to the underworld) while hazel has the wealth aspect (gem summoning and manipulation, mist-control?, cursed gemstones). the only things they have in common are that they could consume persephone’s pomegranate seeds and go into death trances, and they are huge targets by monsters. it’s creative and fun to see different kids of the same parentage.

but then there’s thalia and jason. thalia is amazing, as she summons lightning and electricity, the thunder side of zeus. it’s also great to see that she is acrophobic, and is unable to fly or summon the wind, because that totally breaks the thought that demigods aren’t scared of the things they can control.

then we have jason.

he has the whole package without consequences. he summons lightning and the wind, he can fly and electrocute, and he is totally fine on land, sea, and air. what? that’s a major problem that i have in riordan’s writing - jason’s powers are generic for a son of zeus/jupiter. sure, it’s possible that a demigod can have all the aspects of their parents, but it doesn’t work for jason. riordan made him sound too perfect, too much of a percy 2.0 and less Character with a Personality.

i’m not saying that i hate jason, because i love him so much. but he seems to be like a character who’s just...a hero. that’s it. no flaws, nothing. so i’m just going to go forth with my ideas for how jason should’ve been:

first, he only has aerokinesis. don’t even try me. think of how amazing that would be. when he first arrives at camp jupiter, a lot of people make fun of him for only having the wind side of jupiter. in theory, they think that a child of jupiter without lightning power is a child not worthy enough to be named a kid of the big three. to them, wind is just the breeze on the back of your neck. he doesn’t seem all that powerful if you think about it, despite his cold blue eyes and a wolfish stare. they called him airhead all the time, and say he’s only good at flying.

jason, at first, is angry. he hates that he’s unable to control lighting, the thing that zeus is most famous for, and he hates it - that is, until he accidentally causes a tornado around him when he is being teased again. he watched as the wind picked up the guys surrounding him and threw them several feet away. then came his drive, which drove him to, instead of sulking about the powers he doesn’t have, develop the powers he does. and he becomes an absolute beast on the battlefield.

spectators watch in shock as jason releases a massive column of air from his mouth, blowing back enemies at alarming distances. they watch him fly over the land like some kind of eagle, finding his next prey and striking. his mere presence could make it hard to breath. one time on a quest jason fucking swooped down like an eagle and massacred a whole battalion of monsters. and that doesn’t even count the one time while fighting krios that he summoned a goddamn hurricane.

next, he’s seasick. i got the idea from a post i saw on tumblr (i’d credit you but i forgot who you are, sorry!). he hates the ocean. it scares him to the point where he will fly to get across the atlantic, even if it kills him. his biggest fear is drowning, which almost happened to him once - worst experience of his life. he bonds with hazel over this, and they both try to ease other’s phobias (and throw up over the side of ships together).

as a bonus, i kind of feel like jason would be sorta afraid of thunder? he doesn’t like how it just happens at random - there’s no warning, and suddenly there’s a giant boom and he wakes himself up at night and he can’t tell anyone because he’s supposed to be a natural leader, not a wimpy teenager.

three, he has anger issues. it’s common for children of zeus, and jason, like thalia, is no exception. sure, he looks patient, but his patience is as low as the earth’s core and he gets angry easily - especially if someone won’t take him seriously. if he thinks you’re slacking off, he’ll correct your behavior gently at first, but if you manage to make him lose his resolve (which is half-hard, half-easy), you are absolutely fucked. also don’t mistreat someone in his presence, or you’re equally - if not more - fucked.

but the it’s to the point where he will lash out a bit more severely than you’re supposed to. it’s not his fatal flaw, and wrath isn’t his strong suit. but when he gets angry, the winds drop and you can see lightning in his eyes and he becomes so intimidating that you can’t even stare into his pupils anymore.

he has a giant pet eagle, fuck you (tempest was just riordan’s way of making percy 2.0).

finally, his fatal flaw is ambition. this is the same as thalia’s flaw, and i feel like it fits for jason too. he wants to be a strong leader and noble warrior, and he pressures himself to be absolutely perfect in order to achieve his dream - to be the person everyone can look up to. he doesn’t want them to feel abandoned, to feel like they’re useless and stupid and worthless, and he wants to be an example that: “hey, if that guy could grow from being abandoned at a young age and having zeus’ weakest power to being a hero, why can’t i?” he has the need to be perfect, to be a shoulder to cry on, a person who rose from nothing. he doesn’t want them to feel like him when he was left in lupa’s hands. when he was being downgraded just because he wasn’t a lightning boy.

but that means he criticizes himself severely and doubts himself a lot. and i mean A LOT. to the point where he makes himself train and train and fight and fight till his body falters to become the hero he strives to be, to be known. sometimes he worries that he isn’t enough. he shouldn’t be a leader, and he feels like a failure a lot. he pushes himself too far and gives everything his all. even if he passes out in the end. he wants to be a hero. he wants to protect all the kids he’s ever known and let them know that they are worthy, they are able.

he just wants to be someone for them.

[jflashandclash]

Traitors of Olympus IV: Fall of the Sun

Forty-Four: Reyna

I Ride a Cat into Battle[1]

              Seeing her comrades almost overwhelmed made Reyna’s throat constrict. For a moment, Reyna remembered her old nightmares, about the earth overtaking New Rome and the villas and temples of her bloved home crumbling. When Axel punched through the earth that the Plague Bringer’s voice had weakened and she saw the destruction of Camp Half-Blood, Reyna had to wonder if this was Percy’s version of that nightmare.

           While riding on the green avatar’s shoulders, she could tell Thalia and Calex had tensed at the sight of the camp. Despite seeing Kaos and everything else they had been through, she wondered if either of them was prepared to see their home in rubble. From their height advantage, they could see everything.

           When Reyna saw her scattered troops succumbing to the chaos here, she had to hope Calex and Thalia could stick to their plan as they and Euna had hopped off.

           Now, after calling out to her troops and commanding they keep their resolve, she couldn’t think about Euna’s, Thalia’s, or Calex’s fight. She had to focus on her own.

           “Hold on,” the two-toned voice of Axel and the goddess said.

           Reyna wanted to hang on to the avatar’s neck for stability, but couldn’t. She needed to keep in sight of the Romans. She had mustered what was left of her strength and courage to spread it to the others below. Her tattoo burned. They needed to see her as a symbol of power and hope.

           Instead, she crouched, clutching on to the wide collared necklace that stretched across the avatar’s shoulders.

           Axel—Reyna decided she had to think of the female avatar as Axel still and no one else—lunged a step forward. She dug her fingers into the jewelry, feeling the rush of air whip her hair and cloak about. Despite the size, Axel pounced with the same agility that he normally did. Only, this time, he smashed a line of ghosts that were descending on her troops in the strawberry field.

           A cheer started from below.

           “Thank the gods! It’s on our side!” one Roman called.

           A relieved smile touched Reyna’s lips when she saw Hazel with a handful of Romans.

           “Praetor Reyna has a new pet!” another laughed.

           Reyna wondered if they would have the same enthusiasm had they known the Leonis Caput was inside.

           She also wondered if Axel would appreciate being called her pet.

           “I am no one’s pet,” Axel and the goddess said. The goddess continued with a savage grin in her tone, “Though, I do enjoy hunting a nest of mice.”

           Axel leaned down, making Reyna brace again. He wracked the massive saber-like claws through the next line of ghosts. The glowing green blades shredded through the ground and destroyed a dozen ghouls along the way.

           “Romans! To the barracks! We regroup now to make a defense!” she called.

           The Romans rallied by Axel’s feet, following the order with continued cheer. Between the reinforcements and her imbuing them with hope and courage, the Romans quickly turned the tide in the mayhem.

           A piercing whistle echoed throughout the camp. Two figures, looking like distant comets, blurred across the camp’s boundary line. Reyna almost shouted a warning into Axel’s ear until one of the approaching figures slowed down enough for Hazel to throw her arms up around it.

           Arion—her amazing horse—had arrived. Hazel mounted and she and Arion crossed the battle field to help a rather groggy-looking bear fend off several ghouls.

           Axel took a careful step forward, toward the barracks. With another sweep, he slashed a dozen more ghosts. The distance to the barracks, which had seemed so far and bulging with violent spirits, now looked easier than one of Frank’s training exercises.

           Although Reyna had been skeptical to accept help from the foreign goddess whose avatar Axel wielded (especially considering Axel was typically paranoid and hateful towards any gods—he had trusted this one with suspicious ease)[2] Reyna had to admit she liked the Egyptian cat goddess’ style. Slapping enemies into oblivion? A+

           Another cry of joy erupted from below as the troops by the barracks met up with the stragglers from the strawberry field.

           Before they got too distracted by their minor victory, Reyna shouted, “ORBEM FORMATE!” Her troops followed instruction, the archers forming a line behind the loose circle of infantry. There must have been one or two Greeks down there, as some of her soldiers shoved a confused demigod into the proper formation.

           Somewhere down below, she heard a scream of rage.

           About twenty feet away, the goddess of Ghosts, Melinoe, stumbled to her feet. Whatever ghost she had mimicked now melted away to reveal her creepy half-charred corpse, half-mummy body. Axel must have swept her aside without realizing he’d even tossed a goddess.

           At Melinoe’s cry, the chaotic mess of ghosts formed a line near her. They stumbled away from the rest of the Greek encampment, flooding towards Reyna’s troops.

           Further in the distance, Reyna heard a squawk-like squeal from one of the giants battling on the edge of the strawberry field.

           “I need to help my brother,” Axel said, “I cannot sustain this form much longer.”

           Despite his size, Reyna could hear a tremor in his voice. Axel might have been nervous—he hadn’t been around Pax much since Axel had almost killed his little brother. Or, maybe, this form took more energy out of him than he let on.

           Reyna sucked in a breath. She would be fighting the ghost of her father again. Melinoe would inevitably call upon him, or turn into him; she wasn’t sure what the goddess’ power entailed. But, she would rather it be her burden than that of her troops. At least she’d faced down her father before. She could do it again.

           “Go,” she said, “We can show them the skill of New Rome.”

           One of his hands—almost the size of her body—lifted to her foot height. Reyna jumped onto it, grabbing hold as he knelt and gently lowered her to the ground.[3] Her archers covered their movement, taking out a few scattered ghouls that were making their way over. With his free hand, Axel flicked another one, sending the ghoul flying through the air.

           Once Reyna stepped off, he used a finger to gently caressed her cheek—quite alarming considering any mishap in pressure could decapitate her or knock her over in front of all of her troops. Plus, the avatar’s giant cat head made the interaction really weird. She was scared Axel would pick her up and lick her, a motion that might have been cute if he were normal cat size, but would just leave her in a gross, slobbery bath.

           Instead, Axel rose to his feet and cracked his neck—did the avatar’s neck crack too?

           “The glamour of Rome better not disappoint,” he teased.

           Then he lunged towards Eris and Pax, taking out five or six ghosts with each step.

           Reyna accepted a sword from Butch, one of the Greeks who had joined her troops. She turned to face the oncoming Goddess of Ghosts, watching Melinoe’s features twist into those of her father: Julian Ramírez-Arellano.

           Reyna forced herself not to shake. Her troops would be nervous now that their giant cat mascot was gone. She channeled her calm and courage to the rest of them, feeling the tattoo on her forearm burn with a harsher intensity. “FOR ROME!” Reyna cried.

           She and her troops charged forward.

 Hey everyone! Thank you for reading! After this chapter, the battle should smooth out and be a little easier to follow. (I promised myself that I would do a big battle at the end, a la Riordan, but—uh—you might have noticed I’m shaky writing them T.T) Thank you for your patience with it and I hope you’ve enjoyed regardless! I hope everyone is enjoying summer break :D Stay tuned next week for Euna’s chapter, A Dream Catcher Would Have Been Easier.

Footnotes:

[1] Meow?

[2] Mel betacomment, “What? Can he say it’s a cat thing? XD” Jack response, “Cats know to be suspicious of each other. The ones that don’t get side-tackled. Why do you think cat owners are so paranoid?”

[3] Mel betacomment, “AWWW! What a gentleman!

Thalia, in the distance, “COULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT FOR US CAT BREATH!”

Jack response,

Calex, “Thalia! Quiet! They’re having a moment!”

[takaraphoenix]

Can I just say something, Hazel is not v. realistic. Like I'm 13 and i can't say the same for all 13yolds but neither me nor my friends dream of growing old w/ a husband and like rick makes her and sammy to be soulmates and that's not how a 13yo's mind functions. Also, she shouldn't be completely dependant on her. And as someone who has experienced racism its v wierd that she only experiences in her schooling rather than also w/ her mum and even in new rome. 1/2

2/2 : And Rick just randomly makes the chracters diverse but then he forgets that race is a part of character. I mean Hazel was living in the 40s as an African American and now when she’s resurrected we hardly hear anything about her experiences w/ racism. It’s not realistic. I’d expect her to maybe have some centering as a character on that. I just think that Rick cannot display characters out of his perspecitve at all and im just very annoyed. idk what do u think on this all

When I was thirteen, we all didn’t quite think past the point of high school graduation - our life was in the now. We definitely did not think about growing old and picket fences.

But yeah, I said it in a post before - many posts by now - but Riordan writes only what he himself experiences. And that is the life of a fifty year old white CIS het man. And while I can’t attest for the CIS part because I’m not reading that one series that features the genderfluid character, you can feel every other aspect of that list very strongly.

You can feel the “fifty year old” when you read about literally every single teenager dreaming about the white picket fence.

You fan feel the “white” when you read Hazel, Reyna, Piper and Leo.

You can feel the “hetero” when you read the clumsy coming out of Nico at the end of Heroes of Olympus. And actually also in Will’s flippant attitude when talking to Nico about it, because in my experience as a fledgling lesbian, older and more experienced gays and lesbians were being very gentle and welcoming and not like “LOL that’s why I was trying to talk to you for so long because I’m gay too!”. That was just to retcon in that Will was also gay; had Riordan actually cared about the gay sub-plot before, then we would have had interactions between Will and Nico in PJatO.

You can feel the “man” at every female POV in the Heroes of Olympus series. Every. Single. One.

Gotta admit, as a white girl from Germany, I do not know how things are for black people in the US (you know, beyond the generic news coverage online and the police propaganda in cop shows), but nowadays with things like Black Panther, Black Lightning, Dear White People, Timeless (seriously, the part that I adore most about that show is how it dives into the female and black history, the kind that’s brushed under the rug), also gotta mention One Day at a Time here for the Latinx representation, I realized just how very… white-author the Heroes of Olympus characters feel.

Especially with Hazel it infuriates me because she comes from a different time and to include how her experience is, how things have changed - and worse yet, how things haven’t changed - would be so incredibly interesting. How she experiences everything.

I mean, seriously, Percy got shunned for being a son of Neptune because Neptune was feared - but so was Pluto. Just how awful must it have been for the black daughter of Pluto in New Rome…?

But oh no, worry not, the black girl from the 40s with no knowledge of the modern world perfectly integrated into New Rome in 2010. No issues here at all.

We live in a time and age where not everyone can be straight and white.

We live in a time and age where representation isn’t just asked for, we demand it, because the world isn’t straight and white.

So the author of the book series where every single major character was white started sweating. (Beckendorf and Ethan were the only non-white characters and oh look, both got killed off.)

So he… he literally just looked around what there is to represent and just slapped a label on each of his characters, like a check-list.

We need A Black Character - Hazel, check.

We need An Asian Character - Frank, check.

We need A Gay Character - Nico, check.

We need A Native American Character - Piper, check.

We need A Latinx Character - oh, let’s be generous on that one; Leo and Reyna, double check.

I didn’t notice that back then, when I first read the books. But by now…?

I’m not saying I could do better - heck, unlike Riordan I also have the disadvantage of living in Europe and thus not even second-hand witnessing what the American Experience might be like for people of color - but if you decide to write a major book series and represent something you are not familiar with - may it be being gay, or from a different cultural background, or being a woman - then you should at the very least put the research into it to back it up.

Or, the easier cop-out, stick to what you did before.

And I don’t mean that as “just write whites”.

It really would be less of an issue if Heroes of Olympus had still been only from Percy’s perspective. Because we would have only gotten to meet the characters through Percy’s eyes - and not their own.

Because then we wouldn’t have had those flashbacks to Hazel’s past, we wouldn’t have to question how it came that those characters didn’t think about certain things or complain how they all seemed to think about other things collectively. And literally no one would have complained about a lack of POV changes, because PJatO didn’t have those - it was all Percy, so no one would have questioned if the sequel had also all been Percy.

It’s one thing writing about characters, but it’s different writing as characters. And in my personal opinion, Riordan shot himself in the foot by making HoO a POV split between this very diverse cast of characters, without having the actual background knowledge to flesh them fully out.

Not to mention the part where I generally think that going from one POV up to three and then to seven and nine different POVs had already been too much of a jump, but if you do that with so many different characters, who should also all have a different feeling to them, that only makes a difficult task that much more difficult.

Now, obviously, having the Seven all be white males would have been a disaster and also the wrong choice.

There are different things that could have been done though.

Like I mentioned, keeping it Percy’s POV, which we all would have been used to and no one would have questioned (heck, even if he had just done it a Jason and Percy POV due to Lost Hero).

Doing actual research for the things you write about. Also an option.

Or dialing down on the unknown. Let’s not forget, he wasn’t just juggling seven characters who represented something he wasn’t personally familiar with (also including Annabeth, because girl), out of the total of nine main characters all but three were completely new and had to be introduced.

In my personal opinion, he should have carried more characters than just Percy and Annabeth (and then later on also Nico, but not important enough to be one of the Seven) over into this book-series.

Clarisse, for example - she is over twenty, she is an experienced fighter and hero. That’d be a female character to be fully explored, but who has already been introduced (and would have made more sense than Frank, Hazel, Leo and Piper on terms of them literally having been introduced to the demigod world barely months prior with a total of one quest of experience before going to war).

Chris Rodriguez, who while never explicitely stated to be Latino as far as I remember, the name does imply and Riordan could have doubled down on that and included him. Hermes is a very diverse god, considering how much Riordan played with the powers of not overly powerful gods like Bellona or Aphrodite or Hephaestus, he could have done the same with Chris. It’d also have been fascinating to see the former traitor work hard to earn back his place at camp and to explore the mental strain put on him in the Labyrinth.

You would not have to start from scratch if you take characters you already have established. It makes everything easier, both for you as the writer and also for the readers, who don’t have to familiarize themselves with half a dozen completely new main characters.

And it takes away that edge of it being utterly ridiculous that, despite both camps having veteran heroes who fought in the Titan War and are around 20 years of age, they decided to send four kids who are essentially total newbies and of whom one is 13 and two are 15.

But yeah, those are just… personal picks on how he could have handled it better. Me, I simply wouldn’t have written about a prophecy of seven because this is a damn war. Seriously, the quest for Atlas, a minor stepping-stone on the way to the Titan War, already featured five main players with Percy, Thalia, Grover, Bianca and Zoe, only two less than this entire freaking war needed according to the prophecy.

Have it be the Giant War. Feature all of those new characters, but also your already established ones. Keep it first person Percy POV and show them fighting together, instead of singling only seven demigods out in something that is supposed to be an all out war against Mother Earth.

Neither of those are be all end all kind of answers to the problem, but suggestions on how it could have been handled differently.

The important thing would be growth and as someone for whom HoO was just too much, I can not judge that. Because everyone makes mistakes and everyone grows as a writer. So if Riordan saw what he did and learned from it - I know one of the Magnus Chase mains is a Muslima, another is mute, I think, and one is genderfluid, so if all of those are handled with more respect, research and dedication and it shows that he learned from the past, then that’s good and okay, because nobody is perfect and it’s all a learning curve, but if those are also just cardboard cut-outs put in place to be Representation, then that’d be… sad, I guess. And disappointing.

But, well, due to not having read that - and not planning on reading that - I can’t attest to it. I can just hope for the best for the readers who seek representation and got giddy about the prospect. I hope they didn’t get disappointed in that.

And I hope he will continue to learn from mistakes and grow as a writer, because yeah I generally don’t wish anyone anything bad and I truly, truly loved Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He hurt himself by trying too many new things in the sequels and if he learns to handle that and return the writing to the quality of PJatO, that’d be pretty amazing.

[thelonelyrdr-blog]

Thoughts on the Heroes of Olympus series (Part 1)

(Warning: The below review is brimming with spoilers.) Before I begin my review of the Heroes of Olympus series, I feel the urge to wax poetic about how gorgeous the covers of Percy Jackson books always are. I’m not an artist, so I can’t get too specific with my reasoning, but the colors and amount of detail in the book jackets above create an outstanding effect. (The artistry doesn’t surprise me, considering that the series is published by Disney Hyperion.)  As for the series itself, I’ve forgotten more thoughts and feelings about it than I’ve had about other books. Therefore, in an attempt at cohesion, I’m going to review the series first by book and then as a whole.  The Lost Hero The Lost Hero serves its purpose of establishing the villain and principal heroes of the series, but it didn’t grip me. I had to force myself to continue reading at some points, which I never had to do with the original series.  However, the book still contains Riordan’s trademark humor, which I always enjoy(ed), as well as a novel approach to a frustratingly overused trope. In any other book, children’s or adult, when Piper revealed to Jason and Leo that she had been grappling with whether or not to betray them to save her father, they would’ve responded to her confession with anger and distrust. Here, though, they’re...sympathetic? An idealistic reaction, maybe, but also less cliché than the alternative, and what’s so wrong with idealism, anyway, particularly in a children’s adventure story? Their show of support to Piper, their friend, fellow hero, and companion on their quest, is, aside from being damn refreshing, consistent with the emphasis placed on friendship both in this book and throughout the series.  The Son of Neptune I have the least to comment on in The Son of Neptune. Of the five books in the series, it is the least memorable to me, perhaps because it is, admittedly by necessity, a rehash of The Lost Hero, but with Percy in the role of amnesiac instead of Jason. It introduces Camp Jupiter and two more POV characters, Frank and Hazel, but that’s about all that’s significant about it. The Mark of Athena I’ve always appreciated Annabeth’s character for the fact that she’s neither the archetypal intelligent female nor the archetypal female hero. Not only do her interests lie in architecture rather than in the humanities, but her physical strength also certainly does not equal her cerebral strength: although she fights with her dagger occasionally, her wits are her primary weapon, and in The Mark of Athena, perhaps to an even greater extent than in the original series, they prove as effective as, if not more effective than, the other heroes’ more traditional methods of defeating villains. Then, of course, there’s her physical appearance. Annabeth is not a mousy brunette insecure about her looks, like most brainy female characters: she is, in fact, blonde and pretty, which, in addition to challenging the typical media depiction of teenage blondes as vapid, allows her to use it to her advantage in a squeal-inducing scene with Octavian by the dock in South Carolina. I’m sorry, but, spoiler or no, I have to share it: Very slowly, using only two fingers, Annabeth drew her dagger. Instead of dropping it, she tossed it as far as she could into the water. Octavian made a squeaking sound. "What was that for? I didn't say toss it! That could've been evidence. Or spoils of war!" Annabeth tried for a dumb-blonde smile, like: Oh, silly me. Nobody who knew her would have been fooled. But Octavian seemed to buy it. He huffed in exasperation. "You other two..." He pointed his blade at Hazel and Piper. "Put your weapons on the dock. No funny bus--" All around the Romans, Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. When the wall of seawater subsided, the three Romans were in the bay, spluttering and frantically trying to stay afloat in their armor. Percy stood on the dock, holding Annabeth's dagger. "You dropped this," he said, totally poker-faced.  Annabeth threw her arms around him. “I love you!”  Earlier, we get an equally amazing interpretation of her character, this time from Leo’s POV:  He had no idea where the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes came from. Ever since he'd met Annabeth at the Grand Canyon last winter, when she'd marched toward him with that Give me Percy Jackson or I’ll kill you expression, Leo had thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous.   All I can say is, YES! FINALLY. I literally grinned when I read the above two passages, which is worth mentioning because normally I - like most people who read on their commute, I’d wager - have no visible reaction to what I’m reading. It may have taken until 2012 for someone to challenge the “dumb blonde” stereotype in a meaningful way in children’s literature, but at least it’s been done at last.  The Charleston scene also constitutes one of my favorite interactions between Percy and Annabeth, because it showcases how well they’ve learned to read each other and work as a team, and hints at the reasons why they’re well-matched as a couple. There is some discussion, in this series, of how Percy needs Annabeth to keep him balanced: without her influence, the other characters argue, Percy’s raw, awesome power and tendency toward impulsiveness would become dangerous both to him and to others. I never perceived Percy as needing to be reigned in before, perhaps because the original series was written entirely from his perspective, but this view of his character and his relationship with Annabeth makes sense, given how powerful he really is: remember, Percy is a son of one of the Big Three, who so impressed the gods in The Last Olympian that they offered him a place among them. (Aside from being logical and adding depth to his character and his relationship with Annabeth, the other characters’ concerns about Percy also serve to lightly foreshadow a rather dark scene in The House of Hades. More on that scene later.)  The last comment I have about this book is: oh man, that cliffhanger! It takes a lot for a book, movie, or TV show to surprise me - ask my ex-boyfriend: I predicted most of the plot twists in Gravity Falls with only minor hints and without even actively trying - but this one surprised me for some reason. I’m not sure why, what with Percy and Annabeth constantly vowing not to be separated again and Percy’s “fatal flaw” (which never ends up being fatal, either to a hero or a quest, but I digress) of being unwilling to abandon his friends even when it would be the more practical choice, but I just never would’ve expected Percy and Annabeth to fall into Tartatus together. I expected Annabeth to succeed in convincing Percy to let her fall, which would lead to him spending the next book annoying the rest of the group with his determination to rescue her even in instances where his goal conflicted with the main quest. Though, in retrospect, the above outcome is inconsistent with his character, it would have happened that way in most other stories. I liked the alternative much, much better. Reading over what I’ve written, it occurs to me that this review is already my longest yet and it’s only half-finished. With that in mind, I’m going to stop here and resume with The House of Hades in my next blog post.  Stay tuned! 

[lesbianrewrites]

Blood of Olympus - Chapter 51

*disclaimer* This is a project done for fun, and none of these characters/works belong to me. I do not claim to own any of the material on this page. This is a Lesbian edit of The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. Chapters will be posted every day at 10am EST. Google doc version can be found here. The chapter can also be found under the cut. Enjoy!

SO MUCH FOR A TENDER FAREWELL.

The last Jessica saw of her dad, Zeus was a hundred feet tall, holding the Argo II by its prow. He boomed, ‘HOLD ON!’

Then he tossed the ship up and spiked it overhand like a volleyball.

If Jessica hadn’t been strapped to the mast with one of Lorena’s twenty-point safety harnesses, she would have disintegrated. As it was, her stomach tried to stay behind in Greece and all the air was sucked out of her lungs.

The sky turned black. The ship rattled and creaked. The deck cracked like thin ice under Jessica’s legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.

‘Jessica!’ Lorena shouted. ‘Hurry!’

Her fingers felt like melted plastic, but Jessica managed to undo the straps.

Lorena was lashed to the control console, desperately trying to right the ship as they spiralled downward in free fall. The sails were on fire. Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air. Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees.

Wider cracks opened in the deck as Jessica staggered towards the hold, using the winds to keep herself anchored.

If she couldn’t make it to the others …

Then the hatch burst open. Frances and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they’d attached to the mast. Piper, Annabeth and Penny followed, all of them looking disoriented.

‘Go!’ Lorena yelled. ‘Go, go, go!’

For once, Lorena’s tone was deadly serious.

They’d talked through their evacuation plan, but that slap across the world had made Jessica’s mind sluggish. Judging from the others’ expressions, they weren’t in much better shape.

Buford the table saved them. He clattered across the deck with his holographic Hedge blaring, ‘LET’S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!’

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away.

Frances changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, she was now a dazed grey dragon. Hazel climbed onto her neck. Frances grabbed Penny and Annabeth in her front claws, then spread her wings and soared away.

Jessica held Piper by the waist, ready to fly, but she made the mistake of glancing down. The view was a spinning kaleidoscope of sky, earth, sky, earth. The ground was getting awfully close.

‘Lorena, you won’t make it!’ Jessica shouted. ‘Come with us!’

‘No! Get out of here!’

‘Lorena!’ Piper tried. ‘Please –’

‘Save your charmspeak, Pipes! I told you, I’ve got a plan. Now shoo!’

Jessica took a last look at the splintering ship.

The Argo II had been their home for so long. Now they were abandoning it for good – and leaving Lorena behind.

Jessica hated it, but she saw the determination in Lorena’s eyes. Just like the visit with her father, Zeus, there was no time for a proper goodbye.

Jessica harnessed the winds, and she and Piper shot into the sky.

The ground wasn’t much less chaotic.

As they plummeted, Jessica saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others he couldn’t even name – surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

Giant eagles circled Jessica, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Frances the grey dragon flew alongside with her passengers.

‘Hazel!’ Jessica yelled. ‘Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don’t merge with the rest of the demigods –’

‘On it!’ Hazel said. ‘Go, Frances!’

Dragon Frances veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, ‘Let’s get ’em!’ and Penny in the other claw screaming, ‘I hate flying!’

Piper and Jessica veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.

Jessica’s heart lifted when she saw Nicola di Angelo on the front lines with the Greeks, slashing her way through a crowd of two-headed men. A few feet away, Reyna sat astride a new pegasus, her sword drawn. She shouted orders at the legion, and the Romans obeyed without question, as if she’d never been away.

Jessica didn’t see Octavian anywhere. Good. Neither did she see a colossal earth goddess laying waste to the world. Very good. Perhaps Gaia had risen, taken one look at the modern world and decided to go back to sleep. Jessica wished they could be that lucky, but she doubted it.

She and Piper landed on the hill, their swords drawn, and a cheer went up from the Greeks and the Romans.

‘About time!’ Reyna called. ‘Glad you could join us!’

With a start, Jessica realized she was addressing Piper, not her.

Piper grinned. ‘We had some giants to kill!’

‘Excellent!’ Reyna returned the smile. ‘Help yourself to some barbarians.’

‘Why, thank you!’

Reyna and Piper launched into battle side by side.

Nicola nodded to Jessica as if they’d just seen each other five minutes ago, then went back to turning two-headed men into no-headed corpses. ‘Good timing. Where’s the ship?’

Jessica pointed. The Argo II streaked across the sky in a ball of fire, shedding burning chunks of mast, hull and armament. Jessica didn’t see how even fireproof Lorena could survive in that inferno, but she had to hope.

‘Gods,’ Nicola said. ‘Is everyone okay?’

‘Lorena …’ Jessica’s voice broke. ‘She said she had a plan.’

The comet disappeared behind the western hills. Jessica waited with dread for the sound of an explosion, but she heard nothing over the roar of battle.

Nicola met her eyes. ‘She’ll be fine.’

‘Sure.’

‘But just in case … For Lorena.’

‘For Lorena,’ Jessica agreed. They charged into the fight.

Jessica’s anger gave her renewed strength. The Greeks and Romans slowly pushed back the enemies. Wild centaurs toppled. Wolf-headed men howled as they were cut to ashes.

More monsters kept appearing – karpoi grain spirits swirling out of the grass, gryphons diving from the sky, lumpy clay humanoids that made Jessica think of evil Play-Doh men.

‘They’re ghosts with earthen shells!’ Nicola warned. ‘Don’t let them hit you!’

Obviously Gaia had kept some surprises in reserve.

At one point, Jill Solace, the lead camper for Apollo, ran up to Nicola and said something in her ear. Over the yelling and clashing of blades, Jessica couldn’t hear the words.

‘Jessica, I have to go!’ Nicola said.

Jessica didn’t really understand, but she nodded, and Jill and Nicola dashed off into the fray.

A moment later, a squad of Hermes campers gathered around Jessica for no apparent reason.

Connor Stoll grinned. ‘What’s up, Grace?’

‘I’m good,’ Jessica said. ‘You?’

Connor dodged an ogre club and stabbed a grain spirit, which exploded in a cloud of wheat. ‘Yeah, can’t complain. Nice day for it.’

Reyna yelled, ‘Eiaculare flammas!’ and a wave of flaming arrows arced over the legion’s shield wall, destroying a platoon of ogres. The Roman ranks moved forward, impaling centaurs and trampling wounded ogres under their bronze-tipped boots.

Somewhere downhill, Jessica heard Frances Zhang yell in Latin: ‘Repellere equites!’

A massive herd of centaurs parted in a panic as the legion’s other three cohorts ploughed through in perfect formation, their spears bright with monster blood. Frances marched before them. On the left flank, riding Arion, Hazel beamed with pride.

‘Ave, Praetor Zhang!’ Reyna called.

‘Ave, Praetor Ramírez-Arellano!’ Frances said. ‘Let’s do this. Legion, CLOSE RANKS!’

A cheer went up among the Romans as the five cohorts melded into one massive killing machine. Frances pointed her sword forward and, from the golden eagle standard, tendrils of lightning swept across the enemy, turning several hundred monsters to toast.

‘Legion, cuneum formate!’ Reyna yelled. ‘Advance!’

Another cheer on Jessica’s right as Penny and Annabeth reunited with the forces of Camp Half-Blood.

‘Greeks!’ Penny yelled. ‘Let’s, um, fight stuff!’

They yelled like banshees and charged.

Jessica grinned. She loved the Greeks. They had no organization whatsoever, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

Jessica was feeling good about the battle, except for two big questions: Where was Lorena? And where was Gaia?

Unfortunately, she got the second answer first.

Under her feet, the earth rippled as if Half-Blood Hill had become a giant water mattress. Demigods fell. Ogres slipped. Centaurs charged face-first into the grass.

AWAKE, a voice boomed all around them.

A hundred yards away, at the crest of the next hill, the grass and soil swirled upward like the point of a massive drill. The column of earth thickened into the twenty-foot-tall figure of a woman – her dress woven from blades of grass, her skin as white as quartz, her hair brown and tangled like tree roots.

‘Little fools.’ Gaia the Earth Mother opened her pure green eyes. ‘The paltry magic of your statue cannot contain me.’

As she said it, Jessica realized why Gaia hadn’t appeared until now. The Athena Parthenos had been protecting the demigods, holding back the wrath of the earth, but even Athena’s might could only last so long against a primordial goddess.

Fear as palpable as a cold front washed over the demigod army.

‘Stand fast!’ Piper shouted, her charmspeak clear and loud. ‘Greeks and Romans, we can fight her together!’

Gaia laughed. She spread her arms and the earth bent towards her – trees tilting, bedrock groaning, soil rippling in waves. Jessica rose on the wind, but all around her monsters and demigods alike started to sink into the ground. One of Octavian’s onagers capsized and disappeared into the side of the hill.

‘The whole earth is my body,’ Gaia boomed. ‘How would you fight the goddess of –’

FOOOOMP!

In a flash of bronze, Gaia was swept off the hillside, snarled in the claws of a fifty-ton metal dragon.

Festus, reborn, rose into the sky on gleaming wings, spewing fire from his maw triumphantly. As he ascended, the rider on his back got smaller and more difficult to discern, but Lorena’s grin was unmistakable.

‘Pipes! Jessica!’ she shouted down. ‘You coming? The fight is up here!’

[lesbianrewrites]

Blood of Olympus - Chapter 54

*disclaimer* This is a project done for fun, and none of these characters/works belong to me. I do not claim to own any of the material on this page. This is a Lesbian edit of The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. Chapters will be posted every day at 10am EST. Google doc version can be found here. The chapter can also be found under the cut. Enjoy!

THE NEXT DAY, THERE WEREN’T MANY ANSWERS.

After the explosion, Piper and Jessica – free-falling and unconscious – were plucked out of the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Lorena did not reappear. The entire Hephaestus cabin scoured the valley, finding bits and pieces of the Argo II’s broken hull, but no sign of Festus the dragon or his mistress.

All the monsters had been destroyed or scattered. Greek and Roman casualties were heavy, but not nearly as bad as they might have been.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for a convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning, Grover Underwood reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother’s presence. Nature was more or less back to normal. Apparently, Jessica, Piper and Lorena’s plan had worked. Gaia had been separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep and then atomized in the combined explosion of Lorena’s fire and Octavian’s man-made comet.

An immortal could never die, but now Gaia would be like her husband, Ouranos. The earth would continue to function as normal, just as the sky did, but Gaia was now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form a consciousness.

At least, that was the hope …

Octavian would be remembered for saving Rome by hurling himself into the sky in a fiery ball of death. But it was Lorena Valdez who had made the real sacrifice.

The victory celebration at camp was muted, due to grief – not just for Lorena but also for the many others who had died in battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Roman, were burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nicola to oversee the burial rites.

Nicola agreed immediately. She was grateful for the opportunity to honour the dead. Even the hundreds of spectators didn’t bother her.

The hardest part was afterwards, when Nicola and the six demigods from the Argo II met on the porch of the Big House.

Jessica hung her head, even her glasses lost in shadow. ‘We should have been there at the end. We could’ve helped Lorena.’

‘It’s not right,’ Piper agreed, wiping away her tears. ‘All that work getting the physician’s cure, for nothing.’

Hazel broke down crying. ‘Piper, where’s the cure? Bring it out.’

Bewildered, Piper reached into her belt pouch. She produced the chamois-cloth package, but when she unfolded the cloth it was empty.

All eyes turned to Hazel.

‘How?’ Annabeth asked.

Frances put her arm around Hazel. ‘In Delos, Lorena pulled the two of us aside. She pleaded with us to help her.’

Through her tears, Hazel explained how she had switched the physician’s cure for an illusion – a trick of the Mist – so that Lorena could keep the real vial. Frances told them about Lorena’s plan to destroy a weakened Gaia with one massive fiery explosion. After talking with Nike and Apollo, Lorena had been certain that such an explosion would kill any mortal within a quarter of a mile, so she knew she would have to get far away from everyone.

‘She wanted to do it alone,’ Frances said. ‘She thought there would be a slim chance that she, a daughter of Hephaestus, could survive the fire, but if anyone was with her … She said that Hazel and I, being Roman, would understand about sacrifice. But she knew the rest of you would never allow it.’

At first the others looked angry, like they wanted to scream and throw things. But, as Frances and Hazel talked, the group’s rage seemed to dissipate. It was hard to be mad at Frances and Hazel when they were both crying. Also … the plan sounded exactly like the sneaky, twisted, ridiculously annoying and noble sort of thing Lorena Valdez would do.

Finally Piper let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. ‘If she were here right now, I would kill her. How was she planning to take the cure? She was alone!’

‘Maybe she found a way,’ Penny said. ‘This is Lorena we’re talking about. She might come back any minute. Then we can take turns strangling her.’

Nicola and Hazel exchanged looks. They both knew better, but they said nothing.

The next day, the second since the battle, Romans and Greeks worked side by side to clean up the warzone and tend the wounded. Blackjack the pegasus was recovering nicely from his arrow wound. Guido had decided to adopt Reyna as his human. Reluctantly, Lou Ellen had agreed to turn her new pet piglets back into Romans.

Jill Solace hadn’t spoken with Nicola since the encounter at the onager. The daughter of Apollo spent most of her time in the infirmary, but whenever Nicola saw her running across camp to fetch more medical supplies, or make a house call on some wounded demigod, she felt a strange twinge of melancholy. No doubt Jill Solace thought Nicola was a monster now, for letting Octavian kill himself.

The Romans bivouacked next to the strawberry fields, where they insisted on building their standard field camp. The Greeks pitched in to help them raise the earthen walls and dig the trenches. Nicola had never seen anything stranger or cooler. Dakota shared Kool-Aid with the kids from the Dionysus cabin. The children of Hermes and Mercury laughed and told stories and brazenly stole things from just about everyone. Reyna, Annabeth and Piper were inseparable, roaming the camp as a trio to check on the progress of the repairs. Chiron, escorted by Frances and Hazel, inspected the Roman troops and praised them for their bravery.

By evening, the general mood had improved somewhat. The dining hall pavilion had never been so crowded. The Romans were welcomed like old friends. Coach Hedge roamed among the demigods, beaming and holding his baby boy and saying, ‘Hey, you want to meet Chuck? This is my boy, Chuck!’

The Aphrodite and Athena girls alike cooed over the feisty little satyr baby, who waved his pudgy fists, kicked his tiny hooves and bleated, ‘Baaaa! Baaaa!’

Clarisse, who had been named the baby’s godmother, trailed behind the coach like a bodyguard and occasionally muttered, ‘All right, all right. Give the kid some space.’

At announcement time, Chiron stepped forward and raised his goblet.

‘Out of every tragedy,’ he said, ‘comes new strength. Today, we thank the gods for this victory. To the gods!’

The demigods all joined the toast, but their enthusiasm seemed muted. Nicola understood the feeling: We saved the gods again, and now we’re supposed to thank them?

Then Chiron said, ‘And to new friends!’

‘TO NEW FRIENDS!’

Hundreds of demigod voices echoed across the hills.

At the campfire, everyone kept looking at the stars, as if they expected Lorena to come back in some dramatic, last-minute surprise. Maybe she’d swoop in, jump off Festus’s back and launch into corny jokes. It didn’t happen.

After a few songs, Reyna and Frances were called to the front. They got a thunderous round of applause from both the Greeks and Romans. Up on Half-Blood Hill, the Athena Parthenos glowed more brightly in moonlight, as if to signal: These kids are all right.

‘Tomorrow,’ Reyna said, ‘we Romans must return home. We appreciate your hospitality, especially since we almost killed you –’

‘You almost got killed,’ Annabeth corrected.

‘Whatever, Chase.’

Oooooohhhhh! the crowd said as one. Then everybody started laughing and pushing each other around. Even Nicola had to smile.

‘Anyway,’ Frances took over, ‘Reyna and I agree this marks a new era of friendship between the camps.’

Reyna clapped her on the back. ‘That’s right. For hundreds of years, the gods tried to separate us to keep us from fighting. But there’s a better kind of peace – cooperation.’

Piper stood up from the audience. ‘Are you sure your mom is a war goddess?’

‘Yes, McLean,’ Reyna said. ‘I still intend to fight a lot of battles. But from now on we fight together!’

That got a big cheer.

Zhang raised her hand for quiet. ‘You’ll all be welcome at Camp Jupiter. We’ve come to an agreement with Chiron: a free exchange between the camps – weekend visits, training programmes and, of course, emergency aid in times of need –’

‘And parties?’ asked Dakota.

‘Hear, hear!’ said Conner Stoll.

Reyna spread her arms. ‘That goes without saying. We Romans invented parties.’

Another big Oooohhhhhhhh!

‘So thank you,’ Reyna concluded. ‘All of you. We could’ve chosen hatred and war. Instead we found acceptance and friendship.’

Then she did something so unexpected Nicola would later think she dreamed it. She walked up to Nicola, who was standing to one side in the shadows, as usual. She grabbed her hand and pulled her gently into the firelight.

‘We had one home,’ she said. ‘Now we have two.’

She gave Nicola a big hug and the crowd roared with approval. For once, Nicola didn’t feel like pulling away. She buried her face in Reyna’s shoulder and blinked the tears out of her eyes.

[lesbianrewrites]

Blood of Olympus - Chapter 49

*disclaimer* This is a project done for fun, and none of these characters/works belong to me. I do not claim to own any of the material on this page. This is a Lesbian edit of The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. Chapters will be posted every day at 10am EST. Google doc version can be found here. The chapter can also be found under the cut. Enjoy!

JESSICA HAD HEARD OF someone’s life flashing before her eyes.

But she didn’t think it would be like this.

Standing with her friends in a defensive ring, surrounded by giants, then looking up at an impossible vision in the sky – Jessica could very clearly picture herself fifty years in the future.

She was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of a house on the California coast. Piper was serving lemonade. Her hair was grey. Deep lines etched the corners of her eyes, but she was still as beautiful as ever. Jessica’s grandchildren sat around her feet, and she was trying to explain to them what had happened on this day in Athens.

No, I’m serious, she said. Just six demigods on the ground and one more in a burning ship above the Acropolis. We were surrounded by thirty-foot-tall giants who were about to kill us. Then the sky opened up and the gods descended!

Grandma, the kids said, you are full of schist.

I’m not kidding! she protested. The Olympian gods came charging out of the heavens on their war chariots, trumpets blaring, swords flaming. And your great-grandfather, the king of the gods, led the charge, a javelin of pure electricity crackling in his hand!

Her grandkids laughed at her. And Piper glanced over, smiling, like Would you believe it, if you hadn’t been there?

But Jessica was there. She looked up as the clouds parted over the Acropolis, and she almost doubted the new prescription lenses Asclepius had given her. Instead of blue skies, she saw black space spangled with stars, the palaces of Mount Olympus gleaming silver and gold in the background. And an army of gods charged down from on high.

It was too much to process. And it was probably better for her health that she didn’t see it all. Only later would Jessica be able to remember bits and pieces.

There was supersized Jupiter – no, this was Zeus, his original form – riding into battle in a golden chariot, a lightning bolt the size of a telephone pole crackling in one hand. Pulling his chariot were four horses made of wind, each constantly shifting from equine to human form, trying to break free. For a split second, one took on the icy visage of Boreas. Another wore Notus’s swirling crown of fire and steam. A third flashed the smug lazy smile of Zephyrus. Zeus had bound and harnessed the four wind gods themselves.

On the underbelly of the Argo II, the glass bay doors split open. The goddess Nike tumbled out, free from her golden net. She spread her glittering wings and soared to Zeus’s side, taking her rightful place as his charioteer.

‘MY MIND IS RESTORED!’ she roared. ‘VICTORY TO THE GODS!’

At Zeus’s left flank rode Hera, her chariot pulled by enormous peacocks, their rainbow-coloured plumage so bright it gave Jessica the spins.

Ares bellowed with glee as he thundered down on the back of a fire-breathing horse. His spear glistened red.

In the last second, before the gods reached the Parthenon, they seemed to displace themselves, like they’d jumped through hyperspace. The chariots disappeared. Suddenly Jessica and her friends were surrounded by the Olympians, now human-sized, tiny next to the giants, but glowing with power.

Jessica shouted and charged Porphyrion.

Her friends joined in the carnage.

The fighting ranged all over the Parthenon and spilled across the Acropolis. Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw Annabeth fighting Enceladus. At her side stood a woman with long dark hair and golden armour over her white robes. The goddess thrust her spear at the giant, then brandished her shield with the fearsome bronzed visage of Medusa. Together, Athena and Annabeth drove Enceladus back into the nearest wall of metal scaffolding, which collapsed on top of him.

On the opposite side of the temple, Frances Zhang and the god Ares smashed through an entire phalanx of giants – Ares with his spear and shield, Frances (as an African elephant) with her trunk and feet. The war god laughed and stabbed and disembowelled like a kid destroying piñatas.

Hazel raced through the battle on Arion’s back, disappearing in the Mist whenever a giant came close, then appearing behind him and stabbing him in the back. The goddess Hecate danced in her wake, setting fire to their enemies with two blazing torches. Jessica didn’t see Hades, but whenever a giant stumbled and fell the ground broke open and the giant was snapped up and swallowed.

Penny battled the giant twins, Otis and Ephialtes, while at her side fought a bearded man with a trident and a loud Hawaiian shirt. The twin giants stumbled. Poseidon’s trident morphed into a fire hose, and the god sprayed the giants out of the Parthenon with a high-powered blast in the shape of wild horses.

Piper was maybe the most impressive. She fenced with the giantess Periboia, sword against sword. Despite the fact that her opponent was five times larger, Piper seemed to be holding her own. The goddess Aphrodite floated around them on a small white cloud, strewing rose petals in the giantess’s eyes and calling encouragement to Piper. ‘Lovely, my dear. Yes, good. Hit her again!’

Whenever Periboia tried to strike, doves rose up from nowhere and fluttered in the giantess’s face.

As for Lorena, she was racing across the deck of the Argo II, shooting ballistae, dropping hammers on the giants’ heads and blowtorching their loincloths. Behind her at the helm, a burly bearded guy in a mechanic’s uniform was tinkering with the controls, furiously trying to keep the ship aloft.

The strangest sight was the old giant Thoon, who was getting bludgeoned to death by three old ladies with brass clubs – the Fates, armed for war. Jessica decided there was nothing in the world scarier than a gang of bat-wielding grannies.

She noticed all of these things, and a dozen other melees in progress, but most of her attention was fixed on the enemy before her – Porphyrion, the giant king – and on the god who fought by Jessica’s side: Zeus.

My father, Jessica thought in disbelief.

Porphyrion didn’t give her much chance to savour the moment. The giant used his spear in a whirlwind of swipes, jabs and slashes. It was all Jessica could do to stay alive.

Still … Zeus’s presence felt reassuringly familiar. Even though Jessica had never met her father, she was reminded of all her happiest moments – her birthday picnic with Piper in Rome; the day Lupa showed her Camp Jupiter for the first time; her games of hide-and-seek with Thalia in their apartment when she was tiny; an afternoon on the beach when her mother had picked her up, kissed her and showed her an oncoming storm. Never be afraid of a thunderstorm, Jessica. That is your father, letting you know he loves you.

Zeus smelled of rain and clean wind. He made the air burn with energy. Up close, his lightning bolt appeared as a bronze rod a metre long, pointed on both ends, with blades of energy extending from both sides to form a javelin of white electricity. He slashed across the giant’s path and Porphyrion collapsed into his makeshift throne, which crumbled under the giant’s weight.

‘No throne for you,’ Zeus growled. ‘Not here. Not ever.’

‘You cannot stop us!’ the giant yelled. ‘It is done! The Earth Mother is awake!’

In answer, Zeus blasted the throne to rubble. The giant king flew backwards out of the temple and Jessica ran after him, her father at her heels.

They backed Porphyrion to the edge of the cliffs, the whole of modern Athens spread out below. Lightning had melted all the weapons in the giant’s hair. Molten Celestial bronze dripped through his dreadlocks like caramel. His skin steamed and blistered.

Porphyrion snarled and raised his spear. ‘Your cause is lost, Zeus. Even if you defeat me, the Earth Mother shall simply raise me again!’

‘Then perhaps,’ Zeus said, ‘you should not die in the embrace of Gaia. Jessica, my daughter …’

Jessica had never felt so good, so recognized, as when her father said her name. It was like last winter at Camp Half-Blood, when her erased memories had finally returned. Jessica suddenly understood another layer of her existence – a part of her identity that had been cloudy before.

Now she had no doubt: she was the daughter of Jupiter, god of the sky. She was her father’s child.

Jessica advanced.

Porphyrion lashed out wildly with his spear, but Jessica cut it in half with his gladius. She charged in, jabbing her sword through the giant’s breastplate, then summoned the winds and blasted Porphyrion off the edge of the cliff.

As the giant fell, screaming, Zeus pointed his lightning bolt. An arc of pure white heat vaporized Porphyrion in midair. His ashes drifted down in a gentle cloud, dusting the tops of the olive trees on the slopes of the Acropolis.

Zeus turned to Jessica. His lightning bolt flickered off, and Zeus clipped the Celestial bronze rod to his belt. The god’s eyes were stormy grey. His salt-and-pepper hair and his beard looked like stratus clouds. Jessica found it strange that the lord of the universe, king of Olympus, was only a few inches taller than she was.

‘My daughter.’ Zeus clasped Jessica’s shoulder. ‘There is so much I would like to tell you …’

The god took a heavy breath, making the air crackle and Jessica’s new glasses fog up. ‘Alas, as king of the gods, I must not show favouritism to my children. When we return to the other Olympians, I will not be able to praise you as much as I would like, or give you as much credit as you deserve.’

‘I don’t want praise.’ Jessica’s voice quavered. ‘Just a little time together would be nice. I mean, I don’t even know you.’

Zeus’s gaze was as far away as the ozone layer. ‘I am always with you, Jessica. I have watched your progress with pride, but it will never be possible for us to be …’

He curled his fingers, as if trying to pluck the right words out of the air. Close. Normal. A true father and daughter. ‘From birth, you were destined to be Hera’s – to appease her wrath. You did not ask for this. I did not want it. But when I gave you over to her … I had no idea what a good woman you would become. Your journey has shaped you, made you both kind and great. Whatever happens when we return to the Parthenon, know that I do not hold you accountable. You have proven yourself a true hero.’

Jessica’s emotions were a jumble in her chest. ‘What do you mean … whatever happens?’

‘The worst is not over,’ Zeus warned. ‘And someone must take the blame for what has happened. Come.’