#Ethan pjo

[percexe]

wild ethan sighting

[knightofthenewrepublic]

The Battle of Manhattan didn’t go the way the Fandom thinks it did; we need to address the “massacre” of the Titan Army!

The Battle of Manhattan is the most pivotal event of the first series. And we see the entire thing exclusively from Percy’s point of view. He takes us through the thickest of the fight from one end of Manhattan Island to the next, and shows us a desperate fight of good against evil.

But we have another point of view for the battle, one that comes from the demigods of the Titan army, and one that informs us of a far different, darker side to the conflict. One where an entire army of children is massacred by the victorious Olympians, without a thought or even a care. It’s a shocking, confronting side of the struggle that most fans don’t seem to be aware of. 

But it’s also completely inaccurate. 

Now I love Alabaster; he’s one of my favorite characters, and I want nothing but the best for him. But he’s a demonstrably unreliable narrator. I don’t even mean that he’s intentionally dishonest; but he’s very badly misinformed about what actually happened. And that gives the fandom three major misconceptions that need to be cleared up. 

Alabaster gets the casualty ratio for the battle wrong (the Olympians had more than he thinks).

The Titan army has far fewer demigods than most fans think (not much more than 50 at the most).

Alabaster does say that there was a “massacre” at the end of the battle, but most of the TA demigods had deserted before that!

Part 1) The Olympians Have High Casualties

“It was a massacre. If I remember right, my mother told me that Camp Half-Blood and its allies had sixteen casualties total. We had hundreds.” (pg 219)

This is the only time we get a specific number for Olympian casualties, but it just doesn’t match up with what actually happens in the books. Looking back at all the deaths we do see:

Charlie Beckendorf -1

one [Hellhound] got hold of an Apollo camper and dragged him away. I didn’t see what happened to him next. I didn’t want to know. (pg 182) -1

Michael Yew -1

A young dragon had appeared in Harlem, and a dozen wood nymphs died before the monster was finally defeated. (pg 203) -12

“We lost twenty satyrs against some giants at Fort Washington,” [Grover] said, his voice trembling. (pg 203) -20 Giants smashed through trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. (pg 243) -1< Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch. (pg 244) -1  Too many of our friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing. (pg 257) -1< The flagpoles were hung with horrible trophies –helmets and armor pieces from defeated campers. (pg 282) -1< The Drakon lashed out, swallowing three californian centaurs in one gulp before I could even get close. (pg 288) -3 Poison spewed everywhere, melting centaurs into dust along with quite a few monsters, (pg 288) -1< The Drakon snapped up one Ares camper in a gulp. (pg 291) -1

Silena Beauregard -1

Leneus -1

a body covered in the golden burial shroud of Apollo’s cabin. I didn’t know who was underneath. I don't want to find out. (pg 303) -1

Oddly enough, we actually miss the moment that was probably the worst for the Olympians, the final push by Kronos that breaks through their line. After Clarisse slays the drakon and the monsters are driven back again, Percy and co. take the opportunity to go up to Olympus. Percy gives Pandora’s Pithos to Hestia, and then contacts Poseidon via his throne. It’s just as he finishes that Thalia comes up and tells them that Kronos is coming again, but they miss the fighting.

By the time we got to the street, it was too late. Campers and Hunters lay wounded on the ground. Clarisse must have lost a fight with a Hyperborean giant, because she and her chariot were frozen in a block of ice. The centaurs were nowhere to be seen. Either they’d panicked and ran, or they’d been disintegrated. (pg 312) -<500

And finally, Kronos does kill some people on Olympus itself.

A few minor gods and nature spirits had tried to stop Kronos. What remained of them was strewn about the road: shattered armor, ripped clothing, swords and spears broken in half. (pg 322) -1<

The specific deaths we have mentioned during the battle amount to 48 at the very least; and that is an extremely conservative estimate that only includes the deaths Percy has the time and presence of mind to witness in all the carnage. Considering how many others must have happened, factoring the sudden disappearance of the 500 centaurs in particular, it was likely in the hundreds. And most of the centaurs probably ran at the end, but even that would have involved heavy casualties.

It’s true that actual demigods were a smaller fraction of Olympian forces, and so would have made up just a fraction of losses. The number 16 might actually make sense if it were just the number of campers lost, but that’s not what Hecate said, she said total.

It might be significant that Hecate is the actual source of this misinformation. Would she have reason to lie to her own son, or might she herself be out of the loop. Right now, we just can’t know. 

And she might be underestimating Titan Army losses too. Considering how many times a wave of several hundred monsters tear into Manhattan, and get thrown back by the Olympians only to return later with no discernable drop in numbers, until the army is finally routed entirely, it wouldn’t surprise me if the TA actually took a thousand or more casualties. But those would be overwhelmingly monsters, because:

Part 2) Less Than Fifty Demigods Were Even In The Titan Army

To prove that there could not possibly have been hundreds of TA demigods killed at Manhattan, we need look no farther than Alabaster's own account.

“There was a war between the gods and titans last summer and most half-bloods–demigods like me–fought for the Olympians.” (pg 218)

So the TA could not have had more demigods than the Olympians; and they had about a hundred. There are forty campers to start with, who are quickly joined by the Hunters, who now have thirty members. Then, in the last hours of the fight, they are finally joined by the Ares cabin, which brings another thirty (jeez Ares, you animal!). So Olympus has an even hundred demigods. (The Hunters aren’t necessarily all demigods by birth, but I don’t think Alabaster would make a distinction based on that.)

So the TA has less than a hundred demigods, significantly less. I would argue they probably had no more than fifty because that lines up with the only solid numbers we ever get for them. And every time the TA is described, demigods are a clear minority. First, look at the foes Percy encounters when he infiltrates the Princess Andromeda:

I saw monsters patrolling the upper decks of the ship–dracaenae snake-women, hellhounds, giants, and the humanoid seal-demons known as telkhines . . . . . “I don’t care what your nose says!” snarled a half-human half-dog voice—a telkhine. “The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!” “Meatloaf sandwiches are good!” a second voice snarled . . . . . a telkhine was hunched over a console . . . . . a half dozen telkhines were tromping down the stairs . . . . . past another telkhine . . . . . And in the fountain squatted a giant crab . . . . . a couple of dracaenae slithered across my path . . . . . As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down . . . . . Laistrygonian giants filed in on either side of the swimming pool . . . . . demigod archers appeared on the roof . . . . . two hellhounds leapt down . . . . . The crowed of monsters parted . . . . . Giants jeered. Dracaenae hissed with laughter . . . . . throwing monsters off their feet . . . . .I knew him, of course: Ethan Nakamura . . . . . two giants lumbered forward . . . . . Panicked monsters surged backward . . . . . one of the dracaenae hissed . . . . . I pushed through a crowd of monsters . . . . . Monsters yelled at me from  above.

That was a quick summary of all the enemies Percy and Charlie encounter on the Princess Andromeda, I’m not crazy enough to try and write the whole chapter. But it’s pretty clear there are only a few demigods amid dozens of monsters. We hear the same thing from Poseidon later, that “there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship”; we might question whether or not Poseidon is a trustworthy source, but the evidence does back him up.

When we finally get to the battle, the disparity of demigod numbers in the TA is again evident:

The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speed boats raced through the dark water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armor. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind. I’d never seen that design before, but it wasn’t hard to figure out: the battle flag of Kronos. “Scan the perimeter of the island,” I said. “Quick.” Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbor. A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals. At first I thought they were dolphins. Then I saw their doglike faces and swords strapped to their waists, and I realized they were telkhines—sea demons. The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of the way as it rumbled into the tunnel. (pg 167)

Here we see the first wave of the Titan Army as a three pronged attack (which Percy says on the next page collectively numbered at least 300) and only one of the units has demigods. It’s the one that Kronos leads, so it’s probably meant to be a more elite unit, at least at first. 

We don’t know for sure how many there are. Speedboats are usually made to carry 4-6 people so a dozen would be possible 48 to 72. Considering Alabaster says there were significantly less demigods in the TA than the Olympians, I would guess it’s on the lower end; and that does match another number we see in a moment.

This fleet never reaches Manhattan, since Percy bribes the East River to swamp their boats. Those who say many TA demigods were killed in the battle might point to this as Percy causing a bunch of kids to drown; but Alabaster never mentions a mass drowning in his narrative of the battle, and he would have been on one of those boats, so it’s safe to say they just went for a swim.

(And Kronos was with them, which means that a very angry titan lord was suddenly pitched into the river and had to swim with the rest of them. That’s not really relevant, I just want everyone to know that.)

Percy is then immediately told that “Another army is marching over the Williamsburg bridge.” This fourth prong of the attack, led by the Minotaur, also has no demigods in it.

An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead . . . About a hundred more monsters marched behind them. (pg 182) More monsters surged forward —snakes and giants and telkines—but the Minotaur roared at them, and they backed off. (pg 186)

But more monsters keep advancing because by the time Percy kills the minotaur and the demigods charge and rout the whole group, it had grown to 200

Finally, the monsters turned and fled—about twenty left alive out of two hundred. (pg 188)

So the grand total for the first TA attack was 500 soldiers or more, with only 40-70 of them demigods. And after the monsters on the Williamsburg bridge retreat, those demigods show back up.

Then I saw the crowd at the base of the bridge. The retreating monsters were running straight toward their reinforcements. It was a small group, maybe thirty or forty demigods in battle armor, mounted on skeletal horses. One of them held a purple banner with the black scythe design.  The lead horseman trotted forward. He took off his helm, and I recognized Kronos himself, his eyes like molten gold. (pg1 188)

This is the only time we get anywhere close to a specific number when TA demigods are concerned. It would have been the same group that was sunk in the East River, who then had to swim for Brooklynn; which is where they are now trying to take the Williamsburg bridge. This reinforces the idea that the number of demigods in the boats was only a little more than forty, since they would not have suffered more than a few injuries in the sinkings.

I’m going to come back to this moment later to demonstrate how Percy refrains from killing other demigods, even in his Achilles state, but the other important thing to note is that this is the last time Kronos organizes his demigods into a unit that he leads personally. After they fail to break through here, Kronos just has them take on a secondary role, and puts his faith in bigger and bigger monsters to lead the charge instead.

The Titan Army units on Long Island then spend the evening marching the long way around Manhattan (for some reason) because they make camp for the night in New Jersey, at Medusa’s old lair. Percy again describes demigods as the small minority.

Hundreds of tents and fires surrounded the property. Mostly I saw monsters, but there were some human mercenaries in combat fatigues and demigods in armor too. A purple-and-black banner hung outside the emporium, guarded by two huge blue Hyperboreans.

And this is only part of the Titan army, because there are more troops north of Manhattan. 

“Tell my brother Hyperion to move our main force south into Central Park. The halfbloods will be in such disarray they will not be able to defend themselves.” (pg 237)

The army that marches into central park is bigger than the one camped in New Jersey. And it is made up exclusively of monsters. 

At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods—a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them. (pg 243)

There is not a single mention of a demigod. However they’re already joining the fight in other places. 

When it flew above the rooftops, I could see fires here and there around the city. It looked like my friends were having a rough time. Kronos was attacking on several fronts. (pg 251)  

After Percy kills the Clazmonian Sow, the momentum of the battle shifts. With his main force failing to deliver a knockout punch, Kronos has his remaining armies spread out to put equal pressure on the entire defensive line, and catch it in a massive envelopment.

Midtown was a war zone. We flew over little skirmishes everywhere. A giant was ripping up trees in Bryant Park while dryads pelted him with nuts. Outside the Waldorf Astoria, a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin was whacking a hellhound with a rolled-up newspaper. A trio of Hephaestus campers fought a squad of dracaenae in the middle of Rockefeller Center . . . . . The hunters had set up a defensive line on 37th, just three blocks north of Olympus. To the east on Park Avenue, Jake Mason and some other Hephaestus campers were leading an army of statues against the enemy. To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover’s nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a  squadron of Kronos’s demigods . . . . . I spotted a familiar silver owl banner in the southeast corner of the fight, 33rd at the Park Avenue tunnel. Annabeth and two of her siblings were holding back a Hyperborean giant . . . . . The next hour was a blur. I fought like I’d never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods . . . . . At one point Grover was next to me, bonking snake women over the head with his cudgel. Then he disappeared in the crowd, and it was Thalia at my side, driving monsters back with the power of her magic shield. Mrs. O’Leary bounded out of nowhere, picked up a Laistrygonian giant in her mouth and flung him like a Frisbee. Annabeth used her invisibility cap to sneak behind enemy lines. Whenever a monster disintegrated for no apparent reason with a surprised look on his face, I knew Annabeth had been there . . . . . Kronos was riding towards us on a golden chariot. A dozen Laistrygonian giants bore torches before him. Two Hyperboreans carried his black-and-purple banners . . .

“THEN THE WINGED HUSSAARSSS AARRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVED” SABATON BLASTS ON ELECTRIC GUITAR

 Sorry, sorry, I mean then Chiron and the 500 centaurs arrived!

Kronos’s forces looked as confused as we were. Giants lowered their clubs. Dracaenae hissed. Even Kronos’s honor guard looked uneasy. Then, to our left, a hundred monsters cried out at once. Kronos’s entire northern flank surged forward. I thought we were doomed, but they didn’t attack. They ran straight past us and crashed into their southern allies . . . a shower of arrows arced over our heads and slammed into the enemy, vaporizing hundreds of demons. (pg 258)

This is how the second phase of the battle ends. And during the entire night, out of a sea of monsters (hehe) we only see one unit of TA demigods. And it’s the last time we get any reference to them participating in the battle.

After being driven south, the TA apparently did another long march, because they make camp northeast of Manhattan.

The Titan army had set up camp all around the U.N. complex. The flagpoles were hung with horrible trophies—helmets and armor from defeated campers. All along First Avenue, giants sharpened their axes. Telkines repaired armor at makeshift forges. (pg 282)

Ethan is the only demigod mentioned this time. And he doesn’t appear to take part in the next attack, aside from releasing the drakon. We get less of a description of the enemy army this time, but it’s all monsters.

The rest of the battle wasn’t going well. The centaurs had panicked under the onslaught of giants and demons. An occasional orange camp T-shirt appeared in the sea of fighting, but quickly disappeared.  (pg 289)

Of course the Ares cabin arrives, the drakon kills Silena, and Clarisse kills it. It’s another rout for the TA.

The monsters retreated toward 35th Street. (pg 298) There was no answer from the enemy. Slowly, they began to fall back behind a dracaenae shield wall, while Clarisse drove in circles around Fifth Avenue, daring anyone to cross her path. (pg 299)

After that we have the final phase of the battle, when the Titan Army finally breaks through the Olympian lines. But once again, we have no reference to demigods other than Ethan.

The Titan Army ringed the building, standing maybe twenty feet from the doors. Kronos’s vanguard was in the lead: Ethan Nakamura, the dracaenae queen in her green armor, and two Hyperboreans. I didn’t see Prometheus. (pg 312) “ROWWF!” Mrs. O’Leary bounded toward me, ignoring the growling monsters on either side. (pg 315) There were thousands of [skeletan soldiers], and as they emerged, the titan’s monsters got jumpy and started to back up. (pg 315)     The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan’s monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos. Mortals screamed and ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the dracaenae spears into sunflowers. Nico slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect pedestrians as best as he could. My parents ran toward me , dodging monsters and zombies, but there was nothing I could do to help them. (pg 318).

The fight continues like this, until Typhon is destroyed, and the defenders are joined by the gods, and Poseidon’s army of cyclopes. It’s then that the Titan army is “massacred.” Most of the fandom thinks that the demigods were killed too, but that’s not the case.

PART 3: The TA Demigods Deserted Before The Final Battle

As Alabaster remembers it:

the war didn’t go our way. I fought on the battlefield against the enemy, but most of our allies ran. Kronos himself marched on Olympus, only to be killed by a son of Poseidon. After Kronos’s death, the Olympian gods smashed any remaining resistance. It was a massacre. “We weren’t all destroyed,” Alabaster said. “Most of the remaining half-bloods fled or were captured. They were so demoralized they joined the enemy. (pg 219)

When you look at this narrative, and compare it to The Last Olympian, it’s actually more complicated than the TA demigods simply getting massacred.

Al says that while he was fighting, most of his allies ran. That’s odd, because we don’t see the relative numbers of monsters go down at any point. What we do see, is the number of demigods go down.

As I illustrated in Part 2, the Battle of Manhattan has four distinct phases. Phase one, that ends when the Williamsburg Bridge is destroyed. The second phase, that starts when Hyperion attacks Central Park, and ends when the Party Ponies arrive. The third phase, which is all about the attack of the drakon. And the final phase, when Kronos breaks through.

We only see TA demigods in the first two phases; they attack the Williamsburg Bridge in the first phase as part of the Kronos’s main force, then in the second phase they’re relegated to a supporting role by hitting the defenders western flank. And that’s the last we see of them. After that, Etahn is the only demigod left standing in the TA. Alabaster must be somewhere in the background, as a retcon, but there’s no one beyond the two of them.

You might think that they’ve just already been killed by this point. After all, Percy blows up the Princess Andromeda, then goes into an Achilles Curse fueled berserker mode several times in the first two phases of the battle. Surely he must have killed hundreds of kids, right?

No, not even close.

Maybe not any at all.

On the Princess Andromeda Percy finds lots of monsters, but the number of demigods he finds could be counted on one hand. And the first one he meets; Percy spares him and tells him to get his friends and evacuate. We can’t prove whether or not any demigods were killed in the blast; we just know that the two we can confirm were still on board, Ethan and Alabaster, both survived. And when Alabaster recounts it, he doesn’t mention any bad losses at this point.

As for the Curse of Achilles, it doesn’t send Percy into anything like the berserker state some people think of it as. It might seem like that when Percy lets loose on the Williamsburg Bridge:

You’re going to ask how the whole “invincible” thing worked: if I magically dodged every weapon, or if the weapon hit me and just didn’t harm me. Honestly, I don’t remember. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let these monsters invade my hometown. I sliced through armor like it was made of paper. Snake women exploded. Hellhounds melted to shadow. I slashed and stabbed and whirled, and I might have even laughed once or twice—a crazy laugh that scared me as much as it did my enemies. (pg 188)

But when push comes to shove, Percy can control the Curse, and what he does during it. That last moment was when he was fighting nothing but monsters. But when the TA demigods arrived, Percy pulled his punches like he always does.

I tried to wound his men, not kill. That slowed me down, but these weren’t monsters. They were demigods who’d fallen under Kronos’s spell. I couldn’t see faces under their helmets, but some of them had probably been my friends. I slashed the legs off their horses and made the skeletal mounts disintegrate. After the first few demigods took a spill, the rest figured out they’d better dismount and fight me on foot. (pg 189)

Percy is still in complete control of what he’s doing; even when the worst happens.

“Annabeth!” I turned in time to see her fall, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her . . . . . I locked eyes with the enemy demigod. He wore an eye patch under his helmet: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. Somehow he’d survived the explosion on the Princess Andromeda. I slammed him in the face with my sword hilt so hard I dented his helm. (pg 190)

Percy really has all the reason to hate Ethan at this point; after Percy spared his life in Antaeus’ arena, Ethan still joined the side that had been ready to write off his death, and deliberately helped Kronos achieve his physical resurrection. Because of that Percy’s friends and even-Riordan-doesn’t-know how many mortals are going to die in the next few days; and on top of all that, Ethan just stabbed the love of his life.

And all Percy does is knock him out, maybe a little harder than necessary. He makes no effort to kill him. Those aren’t the actions of a berserker with no control.

In fact, the knife turns out to be poisonsed. And Ethan now has an idea where Percy’s Achilles Spot is, and might tell Kronos. And even after all of that, Percy doesn’t seriously think about killing him as an option.

“I’ll bonk him on the head harder next time.” (pg 241)

But more on topic, there is no reason to think the TA demigods have particularly high casualties in this phase of the battle, though they have a few:

Our archers shot a volley, bringing down several of the enemy, but they just kept riding. (pg 189)

Though it’s vague if they are hitting the riders or the horses. In fact, it might actually be Kronos who’s responsible for more of their losses.

[Kronos] struck the bridge with the butt of his scythe, and a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars went careening. Demigods—even Luke’s own men—were blown off the edge of the bridge. (pg 192)

I will die on the hill that between this, Ethan, and other implied moments, Kronos killed more of his own demigods than Percy did.

In the second phase of the battle, when we see the TA demigods attack again, they’re in a very different situation.

To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover’s nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a  squadron of Kronos’s demigods. (pg 255)

This is the only thing we see the TA demigods do as a group in this phase; and they’re fighting people who are using very defensive tactics, more hampering than harmful. They’re not likely to lose many fighters. A few of them do cross Percy’s path in the chaos, but even at his most Achilles fueled chaos he never loses control.

The next hour was a blur. I fought like I’d never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. (pg 257)

He talks about killing monsters, but always “knocking out” demigods. Finally, that phase of the battle ends when the centaurs show up. Did the centaurs kill any demigods? After all, Percy said they “trampled everything in their path.”

Well the only report we get on the TA demigods puts them to the west. When the centaurs attack, they come out of the north east and drive the enemy south, and start off a wave of panic that ripples down the enemy lines ahead of them. The demigods were probably running before any centaur reached them, and might have had better chances of being trampled by their own monsters.

So if the TA demigods aren’t taking many losses, where do they all go in the third and fourth phases, when we don’t see any except Ethan?

They desert. 

Alabaster: “I fought on the battlefield against the enemy, but most of our allies ran.”

I think the demigods of the TA signed up with no real idea of what would happen when they fought the Olympians. They thought they were going to have a sure victory. 

Chris Rodriguez said it in SOM:

“I hear they got two more [drakon] coming,” [Chris] said. “They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!” (pg 122)

Alabaster C. Torrington said it in SOM:

“Kronos wasn’t supposed to lose! You said the odds of winning were in the Titan’s favor! You told me Camp Half-Blood would be destroyed!” (pg 196)

And they probably weren’t well prepared for the war either. At one point Luke says they will fight well because he has been training the army. But most of them join because they are the children of minor gods who swear for Kronos, and that doesn’t happen until the end of BOTL, after Luke has been possessed. Most of the TA demigods never got training from him; including their two highest ranking members, Ethan and Alabaster. It’s no wonder most of them weren’t prepared.

As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down. He looked like he had just woken up from a nap. His armor was half on. He drew his sword and yelled, “Kronos!” but he sounded more scared than angry . . . . No way was I going to hurt him. I didn’t need a weapon for this. I stepped inside his strike and grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand. (pg 18)

And the demigods might not hold much loyalty to Kronos, a violent and temperamental eldritch horror!

Ethan moistened his lips. “He’s still fighting you, isn’t he? Luke—” “Nonesense,” Kronos spat. “Repeat that lie, and I will cut out your tongue. The boy’s soul has been crushed.” (pg 236) “But, my lord,” Ethan said. “Your regeneration.” Kronos pointed at Ethan, and the demigod froze. “Does it seem,” Kronos hissed. “that I need to regenerate?” Ethan didn’t respond. Kind of hard to do when you’re immobilized in time. Kronos snapped his fingers and Ethan collapsed. (pg 284)

And the demigods might have witnessed a darker side to his army that we didn’t.

Back on my first visit to the Princess Andromeda, my old enemy Luke had kept dazed tourists on board for show, shrouded in Mist so they didn’t realize they were on a monster infested ship. Now i didn’t see any sign of tourists. I hated to think what had happened to them, but I kind of doubted they’d been allowed to go home with their bingo winnings. (pg 15)

So, the demigods deserted. After the second phase of the battle we don’t see any at the Titan camp at the U.N., or taking any part in the last phases of the battle. They had been fed false promises, were treated badly, and were being sent against enemies out of their league.

“Most of the remaining half-bloods fled or were captured. They were so demoralized they joined the enemy.”

All except two, Alabaster and Ethan. The son of Nemesis, who has already given so much and is so desperate to see something good and fair come out of it; and the son of Hecate, who was promised victory, and is desperate to avenge the death of his siblings. Ironically, the two demigods who stayed loyal to Kronos the longest, did so because they had faith in their godly parents.

So if there was no “massacre” of TA demigods at the end of the Battle of Manhattan, why is Alabaster so insistent that there was one? 

“Yes,” Alabaster said bitterly. “Camp Half-Blood decided that they would accept any children of the minor gods. They would build us cabins at camp and pretend that they didn’t just blindly massacre us for resisting. (pg 220) “But I’ll never bow to the Olympian gods after the atrocities they committed. Their followers are blind. I’d never set foot in their camp, and if I did, it would only be to give that son of Poseidon what he deserves.” (pg 221)

Well, it’s because the children of Hecate suffered the most in the war. She didn’t have as many children as other gods, and Alabaster was the only one to fight in it and survive. He claims he convinced “most” of his siblings to join; but if Hecate does not have many children, and he is the only survivor of the battle, how are there still enough of his siblings to decently fill a cabin, it’s likely “most” was only slightly more than half. The sad irony is that the fact that the smaller group of demigods had more casualties than the larger ones (and it sounds like not just more proportionately, but more in actual numbers), also kind of disproves that there could have been a large massacre that affected them all.

Alabaster was a scared, frustrated, exhausted kid; who convinced his siblings to fight in a destructive war, and was the only one of them to survive. To him, that is probably always going to feel like a brutal massacre.

[thewhispersofthewaves]

Can you do a mood board for the Stoll brothers or Ethan Nakamura from Percy jackson please?

《... Eye for

An eye...》

[goblinwithartsupplies]

On the lower back of Percy Jackson, the place where his Achilles heel used to be, a magnificent shodo is tattooed with a 青木 [Aoki] blue tree.

When people see his tattoo for the first time, Percy laughs and says that his love for the color blue has reached a new level and he always wanted an idiotic tattoo With Asian characters.

Only Annabeth, Rachel and Jason know the truth.

The tattoo was designed by Rachel. Percy Ethan and Rachel were all curled up in Rachel’s room, with Percy squishing himself into Ethan’s arms. Rachel furiously sketched out various designs with Ethan correcting when stylization makes the character have a different meaning. The tattoo is stylized with water imagery to add another layer of secrecy. Of course Percy has a water stylized tattoo pertaining to the color blue.

Ethan wouldn’t live to see the tattoo on Percy’s skin.

Annabeth holds Percy’s hand as he lays down while he gets the tattoo. Percy was too broken up to handle anything other than just laying there. Annabeth handled Ethan’s ashes and the process of getting the tattoo parlor to agree to add the ashes to the ink. Annabeth is Percy’s best friend and she’ll always be there for him so all Percy needs to is grieve.

But Nemesis knows her own son’s name. (Surprisingly)

So Percy is only half surprised when the goddess of retribution comes into his room at night and offers him the closest thing to retribution for her son’s death. Protection.

Not for Percy but his and Ethan’s daughter.

The protection of a goddess especially one like Nemesis would be invaluable, so Percy agrees on the condition that there are no strings attached. Nemesis says that she wants the child to sleep in the Nemesis cabin when she is old enough for camp. Percy agrees.

But Percy is a selfish father and he wants all the time he can get with his daughter. So he lies about his daughter’s birth. Keeping her hidden away from camp for years. Jason and him marry and they love each other but nothing could replace the relationship that they lost. Percy with Ethan and Jason with Leo. The only difference is Leo is still alive but is in love with someone else.

And thus years later Percy is introducing his little girl to to her aunts and uncles in the nemesis cabin. Jason is right there with him easing her into the newly revealed family.

[kekaki-cupcakes]

My official present to @lityersesly for the @pjo-equinox-solstice-exchange exchange!

I hope you like

<3

more because I couldn't just pick one so I had a scroll through your blog and doodled some stuff lol

Ethan and Drew dancing to Champagne problems which I understand isn't a very dancy song but oh well

saw that meme you made <3

[fellatitledthemf]

Opinion on Ethan Nakamura?

Personaly, I find his character very interesting and unique(one of my favs for sure).

He fought against the gods in battle of Manhattan for justice against demigods.

I like to imagine that because there were no Nemesis cabin he got into Hermes' habin(canon) and that he became close to Luke and sort of idolized him for his goals which is why he ended up joining him.

At the end he saw the wrong in his actions and turned against Kronos which was just spectacular for a character like that, and for reading. His death might not be in my top sadest ones but it was heroic.

Thanks for asking mate have a splendid day/evening ^^

[sunyalucks]

i love hearing and talking about ethan nakamura sm

[thel1ghtningthief]

drawing of ethan + shitty digitally coloured vers

the eye is... suppsoed to be a goose eye idk

[shitakimooshrooms]

Shockingly(it’s not that shocking) the hardest part about writing my Tanakamura Twins AU is the fact that I don’t know what is normal for a baby to do. When this is eventually released, you will see what I mean.

[phoenix--flying]

I know Nemesis is a god n all and this probably isn't plausible but like hear me out

! gore ! (there's no photo or anything I can't draw to save my life but it's a description)

Ethan Nakamura standing over something out of frame, he's covered in golden blood and holding a dagger in one hand, the other is held closer to his face, dripping ichor. 'An eye for an eye, mother'

[percexe]

Could we have ethan dyeing his hair

close enough

[knightofthenewrepublic]

The Titan Army demigods didn't know Luke . . . or each other!

I was going to give this the more provocative title “How Luke lied to the Titan Army,” because I’ve always felt that when demigods from the TA talk about their goals and motives, they don’t line up with Luke’s plans for world domination. But going back over the moments of every named TA demigod in the series, I noticed something else that might explain the disconnect. Most TA demigods were not in the TA at the same time. Their stories don’t overlap.

The fandom likes to think of the Titan Army as being this tight knit found family of misfits, and that’s a great headcanon; but the truth is, most of them didn’t know each other.

After Luke, the first TA demigod we see is Chris Rodriguez, who joined up at some point between TLT and SOMonsters. He was a son of Hermes, so he at least would have known Luke fairly well, but only him. After his first appearance, we don’t see him again until BTL, when he’s back at Camp Half-blood. He had been sent by Luke to try and scout out the Labyrinth; only to be driven mad, and pop out near Clarisse’s home in Arizona. But while we find out about this in BTL, we are told it happened “last summer,” which means it actually happened in the same summer as SOMo, probably just after Clarisse went home for the year. This means that Chris would have actually spent less than a year in the TA before dropping out of it, and he left before the other named demigods joined.

After Chris leaves, we actually have a gap of almost a year when there is no named demigod besides Luke in the TA, until Ethan joins. Ethan was at Camp “years ago,” before being claimed by Nemesis, and he stayed in Cabin 11, so he would have at least known Luke. But they don’t appear to have been close, because Luke made no effort to find him after leaving. His soldiers only come across Ethan by chance; and even though he’s ready and eager to join, Luke chooses to use him as a sacrifice to appease Antaeus. Ethan still shows the TA an amount of loyalty it didn’t show him, and swears his sword to Kronos. He is the last follower that the titan needed to meet whatever magical quota was necessary for him to perform his possession of Luke’s body. This means that after not seeing each other for years, Luke and Ethan would have interacted for two days at the most before Luke was lost. And Ethan would never have met Chris at all, unless it was years earlier at camp.

And now there’s Alabaster C. Torrington; who, like always, has to be the most extra one in the group. Because the thing about Al that is never stated in the text, but is pretty clear when you read between the lines, is that he never actually met Luke. At all. He would certainly have heard about him, but he apparently had no personal connection to him.

Alabaster and all his siblings joined the TA when their mother Hecate hitched her wagon to Kronos. And we know that happened at the end of BTL, when Dionysus shows up to camp and cheers everyone up with the news:

“The minor gods are changing sides. Morpheus has gone over to the enemy. Hecate, Janus, and Nemesis as well. Zues knows how many more.”

Of course, that would be after Kronos had possessed Luke, so Al never got a chance to meet him. And even though it’s never stated in SOMagic, it’s pretty clearly demonstrated. Alabaster does not mention Luke a single time. And when he explains the war to Claymore, he only talks about the events of TLO; because he didn’t join until the last year of the war.

(He also says that it was Percy who killed Kronos, and we never get an explanation for why he thinks that. Maybe that rumor would spread; but it wouldn’t last long, considering Percy himself would correct anyone who said it. But maybe Al thinks that the story about Luke is Olympian propaganda)

Quite a few of the TA demigods would have joined at that same time, following the lead of their parents, maybe even the majority of their eventual number. I wonder how much those new recruits were told about the TA’s operations before that, but I don’t think it was very much. Kronos wouldn’t want people to be missing Luke; and he definitely wouldn’t want them to know that Percy and friends had bested him so many times.

Finally, there is Silena. Now this might be a hot take, but I don’t think Silena should be considered part of the TA. She didn’t seem to connect with their cause, and probably never swore to Kronos. She only supported Luke himself; first out of misplaced feelings for him, and then because he was blackmailing her. Either way, it’s very unlikely that anyone from the TA other than Luke was contacting her. The others probably knew they had a spy in camp, but not who; it would have been very stupid even by Luke’s standards to let that secret out. You never know when another demigod might have second thoughts, and go the same way as Chris.

So, as much fun as it is to imagine the TA as a big found family, it would never have actually happened in canon. There might have been a strong friendship between Luke and Chris, and then maybe one between Alabaster and Ethan (though come to think of it, Al never mentions Ethan either). But sadly, those are the only relationships the TA would produce outside of fanfiction.

[thisfeelslike-iykyk]

ahh i love your writing so much!!! are requests open?? if so id love to request more ethan nakamura >_< maybe a piece about the reader comforting him after the war? (au where he survives ofc) but honestly i wouldnt mind anything lol

loser ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

ethan nakamura x reader backtrack: "loser", bigbang inspiration: you!

in the days following the battle of manhattan, ethan nakamura was sent to the infirmary and visitors were banned from seeing him. this was probably for good reason--you bet that if campers had unrestricted access to ethan, they’d descend upon him with swords and arrows and finish off what kronos couldn’t do. unfortunately, this also meant you couldn’t see ethan at all. you didn’t even know if you necessarily wanted to see him--just thinking of him made your heart ache--but there was something that compelled you toward the big house every day, standing outside and staring through the windows at the infirmary beds lined with the injured. you often had to be dragged away from the big house porch.

after about a week, ethan was discharged from the infirmary. you now often saw him wandering around camp by himself, trying to keep his head down and avoiding eye contact with everyone. he had nobody; none of his friends from the hermes cabin were talking to him, luke was dead, and you couldn’t bring yourself to do anything except watch from afar. if it wasn’t for you warning the naiads to keep an eye on him, you were sure he would’ve drowned himself already.

you and ethan had so much history. you had been friends for years before everything went to tartarus. you had been the only one ethan confided in when he was feeling angry or upset about the gods. you had been the one to hold him when he had nightmares, to sing softly to him until he fell into a restless sleep. you had known before everyone else that he was planning to betray camp, to join luke and kronos. you had begged him not to go, but he hadn’t listened. you had spent hours tossing and turning in your bed, unable to sleep as your mind danced over all the memories you and ethan shared. you were the best of friends, the worst of enemies, and maybe even something more. and it had been you, in the throne room, who sang to ethan to snap him out of his kronos-induced brainwashed state. you had, essentially, saved his life. and you were miserable. you couldn’t help but feel like you had just reduced ethan to a life of being ostracized and hated; it would take months, if not years, for people to forgive him, if they even would.

maybe it’s your past together that made you so determined to stay with him. you saw how pale his face was; the bags under his eyes were dark purple, and he never showed up to campfire singalongs anymore. you couldn’t remember the last time you saw him smile.

about a month after the battle of manhattan, annabeth started building the new cabins. hades was the first; nico was more than happy to help out with some of the exterior and interior designing. cabin fourteen was for iris, cabin fifteen for hypnos. the design of these cabins were also both heavily influenced by butch and clovis, two respective sons of the gods whom the cabins were built for.

“[name],” annabeth called after you one morning as you headed to archery with your cabin. you turned around to see her clutching a folder and a bunch of paper in hand. she showed you the top piece of paper; it was a blueprint design for a cabin. “I’m designing nemesis’s cabin. do you think ethan would want to . . . you know?”

you noticed her nose crinkle a little as she said his name. you couldn’t blame her though. ethan had, after all, stabbed her with a poisoned knife. but the blueprint looked amazing; it was everything ethan had told you he dreamed of for his own cabin. “this is great, annabeth,” you gushed. “I’m sure ethan would love it. and I can ask him, but honestly. . .”

she understood right away. “sure,” she said. “no pressure.”

now, campers weren’t necessarily supposed to go into cabins that weren’t their own. you silently prayed that hermes would forgive you this one time as you made your way to cabin eleven, footsteps feeling heavier the closer you got. your breathing quickened, and your heart started thumping faster. you didn’t know why you were so nervous to finally talk to ethan. this isn’t about you, you tried to tell yourself. ethan’s cabin is finally being built and you’re just here to tell him.

ethan was right where you knew he’d be; sitting on the couch in the hermes cabin (because he didn’t have a bed, only a sleeping bag on the floor) and staring forlornly out the window, facing away from you. you watched him look sad for several minutes, barely controlling your shaky breathing. your fingers were trembling, you realized, and you squeezed your hands into fists to try to get them to stop. taking a deep breath, you cleared your throat. “if you stay cooped up here forever, you’re going to miss the construction of your cabin.”

he startled a little at your voice, before slowly turning to look at you. “what?” he muttered tiredly, face scrunched up in confusion.

“your cabin,” you repeated. “unless you’d prefer it to be a surprise. but I thought you wanted some sort of say in how the nemesis cabin looks.”

he blinked, an odd emotion crossing his face. you wondered if he was about to cry. “nemesis cabin?” he repeated.

“yeah,” you said. “are you coming?”

he practically jumped off the couch.

ethan practically fainted as he saw the base of the nemesis cabin. his hand reached for yours, pleadingly, desperately searching for something to anchor himself to. you let him grip your arm as he stared at the cabin. his face was pale.

annabeth, to her great credit, actually came over and explained to ethan her plans. she couldn’t hide the disgust or hatred in her eyes, but she actually talked to him nonetheless--you suspected someone like percy had forced her to be civil. she asked ethan a few questions about the interior and exterior of the cabin, like what kinds of designs he would like. ethan was too stunned to say anything at first, only nodding numbly, so you stepped in, trying to remember all the things he had once said he dreamed of having: “large mirrors. black floors. scales everywhere. lanterns and torches. am I missing anything, ethan?”

his mouth opened, then closed, his grip on your arm tightening. “uh, no. I don’t think so. thanks, [name]. chase.”

you elbowed him, not super subtly. “annabeth,” ethan corrected hastily.

“hm. yeah.” annabeth looked him up and down, eyes slightly narrowed. “I can do that.” she gave you a polite nod before turning around and walking off.

you were left with ethan, who was still looking dazed at the fact that there was an actual nemesis cabin being built. “what do you think?” you asked finally, a little nervously.

“I’m such a loser,” he muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. “such a loser. [name]--”

“about time you realized.” you tried to make your voice light and playful. “don’t worry too much, ethan. you’re getting your cabin, after all.” you didn’t know how else to comfort him.

he blinked slowly, and you were shocked to see tears glistening in his eyes. “I wasn’t thinking--I never should have--”

you quickly shushed him, dragging him away from the construction site and toward the lake. you shooed away the naiads so the two of you could have a little privacy. you reach up and hastily brush tears away from ethan’s pale, cold face. “I know you feel guilty, ethan. you can see it on your face. it’ll be okay, all right? it’ll be fine. everything will work out. you did what was right in the end.”

he was shaking a little now, so you quickly took his hands in yours, pulling him closer to you. he clung tightly to you, as if you were the first person who has ever been kind to him. perhaps you really were. you lost track of time as the two of you stood on the dock hugging, years of memories and words unsaid passing between the two of you. presently you ran your hands through his hair, whispering comforting words to him. “it’ll be okay,” you tell him. “the war is over now. you’re safe. you did the right thing. I knew you would come back to me; I saw the good in you from the beginning.”

you didn’t even know if ethan heard or processed a word you said. all you knew was that with every whisper from your lips, his grip on you tightened, as if you were the most precious thing in the world that he could never bear to let go of.

there would be plenty more time for the two of you in the future. there would be words exchanged, fights and laughter and blasts from the past so intense and dark you might not make it out. but right now, as the two of you stood there, you were the only ones in the world. right now, this was all you needed. this was enough.

the first request I've received! thank you for loving my writing and for requesting, and I hope this met your expectations!

divider by @enchanthings

taglist: @loveinalocket, @raysmayhem-72

[goblinwithartsupplies]

Percy is going across the country to get to new Rome university and just slams into Ethan.

Percy: the hell? You’re supposed to be dead!

Ethan: uhhhh I’m a ghost?

Percy: yeah no nice try. What are you doing out here? I mean I know it’d be hard but camp would take you back.

Ethan: no they wouldn’t. I served Kronos until the last second.

Percy: I got you guys amnesty.

Ethan: what?

Percy: yeah your siblings even have a cabin now. All the minor gods do. Your brother Damian is head counselor and you got a younger brother last year.

Ethan: what about… what about the Hecate kids?

Percy: huh? What? Uh yeah they have a cabin. Lou Ellen is the counselor.

Ethan: and they’re all safe? All the former Titan army kids?

Percy: as far as I know. Except for Alabaster. I… I couldn’t help him. His mother banished him from camp.

Ethan: I know. I found him. We’re running from monsters together.

Percy: well good luck. I’m heading to college. There’s uh a Roman camp in California that has a university for demigods.

Ethan: yeah we know. Luke recruited kids from there. Was obsessed with trying to get this blond kid.

Percy: Jason?

Ethan: yeah!

Percy: yeah he’s Thalia’s little brother. Like full blooded same mother and Roman Zeus brother.

Ethan: oh… that makes sense I guess.

Alabaster from the car driving Claymore: Ethan we gotta go!

Ethan: coming! See you around?

Percy: probably not. But hopefully.

Okays so we all know that at the end of The Last Olympian, Ethan falls to his death right?

WELL WHAT IF HE DIDN’T??

What if it’s like a marvel movie, and unless you see the body, he isn’t actually dead?? I mean Uncle Rick already pulled that shit with Percy and the volcano, so what if it’s the same with Ethan? Sure, it would be almost impossible to live from falling that far, but shouldn’t it also be impossible to be blown up by a volcano and shot millions of miles away?

I feel like I’m whatever masterpiece Rick writes next, Ethan should just pop outta nowhere and be like SUP BITCH!

[goblinwithartsupplies]

I think Ethan's father could have been a kitsune.

Percy and Ethan are talking about the war. Percy is desperately trying to bring Ethan back to camp. When a fox shows up and starts nudging Ethan into Percy.

The fox does it insistently.

Ethan gets incredibly embarrassed and yaps at the fox. It’s undeniably a fox yap.

Percy gets very confused. “Friend of yours?”

Ethan is a shade a scarlet and Percy can’t tell if it’s from frustration or embarrassment. “No…”

The fox then gets tired and shifts into a human with the same nose as Ethan. “Ethan Nakamura you better go with him. I don’t care what your mother says. You’re not fighting the gods! She took your eye for goodness sake!”

“Dad! It’s more complicated than that!”

Percy just stand there awkwardly. “Uhh I am going to guess you’re Mr Nakamura?”

“Yes it’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry for my son. Ethan fox form now young man.”

Ethan reluctantly turns into a tiny little red fox with a graying tail. Mr Nakamura scoops him up. “I’ll deal with him. Thank you for trying to get him to do the right thing.”

“Uh sure? I’m gonna be honest I’m so confused.”

“Don’t worry about it kid. Not your pantheon not your problem.”

Mr Nakamura then turns back into a fox and carries little kit Ethan in his mouth.

[your-stranger-halfblood-things]

Luke: Hi I'm here to make you gay

Beckendorf: Hi I'm here to cause gay tragedy and awakening because Luke failed

Ethan: Hi I'm here to make you question morals AND if you're gay because the other two failed

Jason: I think there's been a mistake here-

Nico: Nope, you're meant to be here as well

Jason, confronting Percy: Hi I'm here to make you realize that YOU LIKE BOYS

Percy, who just wanted to say hi to Bianca: Y'all, I literally have a girlfriend who I love very much

Percy: Though, now that you mention it... before Annabeth, I only liked boys-