#and then house of hades comes out and nico's revealed to be gay and it's like the first canon queer rep megumi's seen and it's a character

[zukkaoru]

eleven year old megumi was a nico di angelo kinnie. i know this in my soul

[magnorious]

The Reveal that Changed Percy Jackson

*Spoiler Alert*

I’m talking about the Nico vs Cupid scene in book 8, House of Hades. I picked this scene, even though there were a great many in the original series that defined Percy Jackson as a story far more meaningful than just “cool tweenage demigods with magic and superpowers who fight evil”.

When this book came out, Nico vs Cupid was almost all anyone talked about. Why? Because Nico came out. Nico, an explicitly gay character in a book published by Disney, in a rather high profile series. Nico, the little angsty brat displaced from the timeline, comes out of nowhere with a world-shattering reveal.

House of Hades is already the darkest book in the series and, I think, the most polished and successful with this tone and how it feels so complete. While Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus, the constant clever and horrific callbacks to quests from prior books quite literally come back to haunt them. The others trying to carry on without them, the ridiculously high personal stakes, the drama, the storytelling, it spares no expense in this book.

The Nico vs Cupid scene was something else, though, and all these years later… I’m not so sure it was done for the better.

—

Independent of the Big Reveal, this scene does a lot of things we’d never seen before in this series, namely this: Cupid is scary, and no one expected him to be.

Percy Jackson, though it does have its serious moments, is the series where the god of wine wears leopard print shirts and the god of the seas has a fishing chair for a throne. These characters quip and joke even when they’re trying to be intimidating and Percy’s personality, snarky and sassy and very rarely shooting straight, undercuts a lot of the attempts at looking competent and threatening (and we love him for it).

They’ve fought gods and monsters and demigods and characters have died really tragic deaths, but for the most part, these serious moments all come when we expect them to.

This scene comes out of nowhere and for anyone who hasn’t read the book in a while, here’s the context: Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus and Nico is kind of the de-facto leader in their absence, knowing the most about Tartarus of the remaining crew. He and Jason are sent on a side quest to go retrieve the Staff of Diocletian from Cupid and Nico is not at all happy about this venture, but we don’t know why beyond that he’s Nico and he’s never happy.

Right out of the gate, Cupid is not at all who we expect him to be and this fight scene, absent of Percy, is suddenly very serious. Cupid doesn’t quip, he doesn’t show himself, and he fights dirty. The god of love, not the god of war or anything we expect to be violent and dangerous.

He’s whispering in characters’ heads, throwing them around like ragdolls, and taunting Nico ceaselessly all in Jason’s POV. Cupid gets some seriously badass lines, too.

“I’ve been to Tartarus and back,” Nico snarled. “You don’t scare me.” I scare you very, very much. Face me. Be honest.

Love is no game! It is no flowery softness! It is hard work—a quest that never ends. It demands everything from you—especially the truth. Only then does it yield rewards.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say Love always makes you happy.” [Cupid's] voice sounded smaller, much more human. “Sometimes it makes you incredibly sad. But at least you’ve faced it now. That’s the only way to conquer me.”

In all this, unfortunately in Jason POV, we’re primed only once by a previous god finally acknowledging that gays exist in this universe. This universe, based on Greek Mythology, famous for its not-straightness. Even then, audiences have spent 7 and a half books accepting that there won’t be any gays. No one is expecting this from Nico.

So when it comes, when Nico reveals he has a crush on Percy… the fandom lost our minds.

—

And I’m not so sure that’s a good thing, looking back. On the one hand, obligatory “we need representation,” but on the other, there was this one reviewer who knew what was up long before anyone else did.

She’d said something along the lines of raising damning concerns that Nico’s entire character arc was now defined by his homosexuality, that this scene frames all his anger, all his hate, all his rage and depression, about this one aspect of his character, and diminishes him because of it.

All these years later, I’m disappointed to say I agree with her.

This book series’ only major canonical gay (so far) is forced out of the closet with a proverbial gun to his head

Now, Nico likely never would have come out without that gun, but the way it happened, especially in front of Jason who he’s not friends with, showing Jason his memories because it’s not Nico’s POV and Jason has to see somehow because Nico sure won’t detail those scenes himself is... not good?

Jason handles it well, as well as he can given that this is Nico, and Cupid is an explicit villain so him forcing Nico out is in-character and not my problem. The narrative forcing Nico out is the problem—that this is a big reveal both to Jason and the audience is the problem.

The book isn’t new and with respect to when it was written and who wrote it, it’s not a terrible scene or terrible representation. But it’s not just forcing Nico out of the closet, either.

All of Nico’s character development is retroactively pinned on his sexuality

I get it. Nico’s… 14? 14 and from an era where being who he is was a death sentence, with zero education on the matter. Internalized homophobia is a thing (though Nico doesn’t actually seem to hate himself for being gay, he hates himself for crushing on Percy. Nor does he hate other gays or the concept).

Nico, though, is the one demigod who can summon any ghost he could dream up to teach him to hate himself a little less. He could have summoned the ghost of Freddie Mercury and what a dazzling mentorship that would have been.

The way the scene is framed makes it look like all of Nico’s rage comes from this one relationship, when it comes from so much more. He’s a son of Hades, a god no one trusts or likes and is synonymous with death, evil, and deceit. His sister, his last living relative, died on a quest as just a teenager. He has no friends at camp, powers that scare people, and is almost a century removed from everything and everyone he knew in his old life.

And he went and left camp *only* because of his crush on Percy? Not for any other reason?

When he does get his crush on Will, that only makes it worse. Nico did have friends, even if he didn’t believe it. He did have Percy and he’d earned the respect of his fellow campers after the Battle of Manhattan. He back-slid in HOH for this reveal, as if a romance is the only thing that could make him happy.

Cupid’s message is the narrative’s message: The only way to conquer love is to face it [in combat]

With a gun to his head, in front of a veritable stranger, instead of in, I don’t know, therapy with Apollo? There couldn’t have been any other way to fit this reveal in? He couldn’t have made his own group therapy session with other ghosts? Persephone or Demeter never sat this boy down for The Talk with a literal captive audience?

And that it’s a “reveal” at all, in incredibly dramatic fashion, a plot twist for shock value. The book couldn’t drop hints in Nico POV? Couldn’t casually state it anywhere at any time in the previous 3 books? Couldn’t treat it at all like this is normal and not a life-or-death situation?

I just feel bad for the kid. Nico can’t be the only demigod who has a guilty, unrequited crush. Cupid is forcing this out of him because that crush happens to be on another boy.

It’s in Jason’s POV

This world shattering, deeply personal reveal, and the character who’s having it isn’t even the narrator. Jason is a fine character and I know why it’s him out of everyone who could have gone with Nico, but this should have been solely Nico’s moment, not Jason’s commentary about Nico’s moment, being a non-consenting voyeur into Nico’s very personal memories about Percy.

Even if it’s not Jason’s POV to retain the surprise, it certainly starts to feel like Jason’s POV to retain the surprise. Jason can still be present, but even then—Cupid needed Nico to face Cupid, not Cupid and Jason.

—

It sucks because the scene as a whole, removed from the context, is incredible. The choreography, the pacing, the intensity of the battle, Cupid as a villain and Nico and Jason’s desperation to just stay alive.

Its impact on the series can’t be ignored. Blood of Olympus is no one’s favorite. It’s a terrible last book and not all that great as a book, period, but the ending?

Among other travesties, Nico confronts Percy, tells him he had a crush on him, and then *immediately* starts pining after Will. Percy doesn’t get the chance to talk to him, stunned at this reveal. They never have a heartfelt conversation about it, what this means for their friendship, how Percy never noticed or how this makes him feel, if he’s at all guilty for potentially leading Nico on and being a bad friend.

We get none of that. Nico just finds a pretty blond boy after, what, four years pining after Percy? One awful confrontation with Cupid and a few lines of dialogue traded with Jason and all his angst and moodiness is cured off-screen.

Can’t Nico go five minutes where he figures out who he is before he’s trading one crush for another? Can he not define himself independently of who he likes for just a couple chapters? He tells Jason after the Cupid fight that he’s over it, but… c’mon, he’s absolutely lying there, or he wouldn’t have been so hurt and upset and hesitant to reveal himself.

I love that he’s popular now, I love that he does have a healthy relationship (one that eclipsed the whole fandom for better or for worse), but the way he went about becoming popular still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Nico did walk so the rest of the series' extended universe could run. We did get Solangelo, we got Apollo being Apollo, we got a world based off Greek Mythology that stops straight-washing history. It's just a shame that he had to be forced out the way he did, and that his whole character is now defined by his relationship with Will.

[banannabethchase]

Hello you mentioned Annabeth Chase and now I must ask;

Thoughts on one Nico Di Angelo??

Gonna try to keep this under control because I could go OFF. I have. I've been on this blog for over a decade, if you need more context. But remember, those posts are old as hell, which is sort of the crux of this response.

Nico! Okay so I haven't read The Sun and the Star because I can't imagine it went well with "two" writers, but I think he, in 2013, was a truly revolutionary character. Back in the day an openly queer (nobody knew what brand of queer he was until I think Blood of Olympus) focus character in a middle grade novel was a huge shift in perception of what "gay" could be. A lot of young kids don't get this, but same sex marriage wasn't legalized nationally until 2015. We were in the era where Fox News was screaming constantly about the Kurt/Blaine romance on Glee because it was ~disgusting. I wrote my freshman thesis on how gay people should be able to exist and got pushback. Putting a gay character into a middle grade novel and refusing to apologize or make it ambiguous was a HUGE fuck you to the conservatives screaming the "protect the children!" narratives that are so powerful and prevalent today.

As a character already beloved by fans AND gay, Nico was a game changer. Was he written perfectly? Absolutely not! Riordan is a cishet white man. He's not going to be the king of writing queer youth. And, back in 2013, sensitivity readers kind of weren't a thing. Some of the Will and Nico moments are weird as hell, and I chose to ignore some of the very strange moments where Will just...inexplicably ignores Nico's boundaries? Not sure what's trying to be communicated there, so I move on. The outing scene wasn't great, but unfortunately reflects a lot of coming out experiences people had: they deny and/or hide it until they're unable to anymore.

All in all, for who created him and the audience he was designed for, Nico is pretty great. Ten years later, are there flaws? Of course! Times progress and change and a decade is a huge chunk of time (10 year anniversary of House of Hades, where Nico is revealed to be queer, is October 8th of this year). But for the time and for the audience, Nico was wonderful. I just wish his story progressed alongside the times.

[doevademe]

How would you have written the story in way that would have been healthy and not traumatising for Nico to come out and accept his feelings and actually moving on from Percy?

Okay, I will leave my shipping googles behind and give you an actual literary analysis Re: Nico di Angelo and his coming out, as well as how I would have done it.

First of all, the problem with the scene is not so much Nico being forced to come out, but how it's portrayed. Cupid is shown as if he's owed Nico's confession because he's lying to himself, and the narrative portrays Nico wanting to not come out as a flaw, like he needed to be dragged out of the closet kicking and screaming or else he would never have done it.

Coming out is not something you owe anyone but yourself. It's something to do when you feel safe and ready to do so, and Nico, who is shown to not have many close friends, doesn't feel it's safe for him to come out, much less with a person who, unbeknownst to him, called him unloyal and voted to leave him to die. Yes, Jason was understanding and became Nico's friend, but it was a traumatic scene that is portrayed as necessary for Nico to grow. And that sucks.

If I had to keep the scene, I would have called out Cupid, not let him have the last word. Cupid wouldn't have "won" anything but the scorn of Nico and the person with him, and he would have retreated in shame. And yes, I said "person", Because the person with Nico would not have been Jason, but Hazel, someone who loves Nico, who can assure him that she doesn't think any less of him, that she still loves him. While I appreciate Jason and Nico's friendship, the fact that it only happens after Nico is forced to admit being gay is gross and comes across less as being about Nico, and more about how accepting and open-minded Jason actually is. Coming out is never about the other person, and Riordan turned it into a display of how much of a nice guy Jason is.

Now, how would I have done it if I could start this subplot from scratch? I would have given Nico POV chapters in House of Hades. His orientation would be hinted in the first chapter, before being revealed at the end of the second. That way, the audience knows Nico is gay without having to out him before he's ready for the sake of drama.

The scepter retrieval still happens, but featuring Favonius as an antagonist, not Cupid, and instead of having to admit his crush, he and Jason would become friends by working together against him. Keep Favonius's warnings against letting his anger and jealousy control Nico's love, but Jason doesn't need to know until Nico is ready, so he still assumes it's Annabeth they're talking about.

Finally, the first person Nico comes out to is Percy, before leaving with the Athena Parthenos. He takes Favonius's words to heart, and decides he trusts Percy enough to let him know. He rejects Nico, of course, because we're in canonland, but tells him he still wants to be his friend, and that's something that will never change.

Blood of Olympus would have him coming out to Hades, Reyna, Jason and Hazel at different points in the story, slowly growing more confident in himself, and understanding that the people who care about him, who actually love him, will accept him for who he is. This of course, will be closely related to getting over his hang-ups over being shunned as a Son of Hades.

Nico would end the story not "realizing" he feels nothing for Percy anymore, but starting the road to move on. He would see Percy and Annabeth happy about college, congratulate them, have a nice friendship moment with Percy, and not feel the usual pain in his chest, and he would understand, that it would get easier, and that he can move on, and eventually fall in love with someone who will reciprocate.

A hopeful ending that respects Nico's character, his sexuality, and the feelings he has held for nearly 8 books now (even if we only found out about them a book ago), while keeping things open for him and a future love interest.

[arsenicgodhead]

Seeing all the JKR shit that’s going down on Twitter rn and how Rick Riordan is trending in response, I wanna point out WHY Rick Riordan was used as a response:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in 2007, ending the Harry Potter book series. The last chance to edit this narrative in a wide-spread manner was in 2011, with the release of the second half of the film version of the book. A few weeks after the release of the book, JK Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay. It’s 2020 and she’s never once depicted this in any canonical sense - not in passing in the movie versions of Deathly Hallows, or in the Crimes of Grindlewald (which likely took place DURING Dumbledore and Grindlewald’s romance), or, to my knowledge, in any of the supplemental books that have been released. I didn’t pay attention to pottermore, so correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think it appeared there either. It seems that the most she’s done is remove a line by a screenwriter in Half Blood Prince that alluded to a woman that Dumbledore once loved, but as far as in-universe confirmation: nada.

Riordan, on the other hand, outed his first gay character in-universe in 2013’s House of Hades. The character in question is Nico di Angelo, who had been present in the series since the third book of the original series (The Titan’s Curse, published 2007). Nico started off as a minor character - a 10 year old boy who admired Percy for being a strong, cool demigod who rushed in and saved his life and his sister’s life, and was given more and more importance as the series went on. When it’s revealed that he’s had a crush on Percy since he was young, it made a lot of sense - whether or not that was Riordan’s initial intension, this new meaning worked with the material that we were already given, rather than simply making sense with information that wasn’t already there.

Furthermore, Nico was far from Riordan’s last LGBT+ character. By the end of House of Olympus, Nico is hinted to be perusing a relationship with another boy at camp half blood. This fact is confirmed in the following book, when Nico’s boyfriend’s godly father is turned mortal and takes a break from the narrative to explain that he is not the least bit unnerved by his son’s same-sex relationship because he himself is bisexual. As the series goes on, the audience is introduced to two major middle aged Lesbian characters, given confirmation that Artemis is aromantic, shown a struggle with romantic attraction from a character that ultimately decides her path lies with a largely aromantic group of women, and told about many of Apollo’s previous hetero AND same-sex relationships. And that’s only accounting for the main series of books - Magnus chase is a whole other story, which includes a homeless pansexual main character, the concept of found family, a hijabi Muslim best friend, a genderfluid love interest, and LOADS of deaf culture.

The main difference to consider here is that JK Rowling makes a big show of including diversity in her work - she boasted about Dumbledore being gay and made sure that there was no canon evidence to contradict it, but also made sure to never confirm this in-universe. Rick Riordan, on the other hand, said that the world is a diverse place, and that he hopes to represent that as best as he can considering his race, age, and gender. He’s never promoted a character’s sexuality as a feature in one of his books - I think the closest I’ve seen him come to that is confirming that Reyna isn’t canonically gay, because he felt that he couldn’t write this without confirming the negative stereotype of “women becoming lesbians because they couldn’t find a man”, and instead chose to show Reyna’s struggle with her sexuality and romantic attraction throughout The Tyrant’s Tomb.

TLDR; JK Rowling likes to talk a big game about how inclusive she is and makes it into a big promotional stunt while never actually acting on it in-universe. Also she’s a TERF. Rick Riordan likes to make his characters diverse for the sake of representing his readers, and doesn’t make a big fuss about how great he is for doing so. Love Harry Potter, but stan Rick Riordan over JK Rowling.

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

ok as much as i hate Nico’s Cupid scene in House of Hades

I’m thinking if House of Hades or Trials of Apollo were published before 2006 (or if Nico was revealed to be gay during the original PJO series) and i read it, it definitely would’ve helped me.

AAALL the media i consumed when i was a little kid was cishet, so queerness wasn’t even a consideration. (Granted I went to a Catholic K-8 school lol. And dont get me started on the Hong kong/Taiwanese dramas before 2006). I didnt start questioning my sexuality until i started reading BL in high school (i know, underrage, shhh). So I know media had an impact on me figuring myself out.

I’ve seen enough people say that Nico’s scene helped them come out back then, even though they dislike it now. And I think I would have too if I read it when I was younger. 

So in summary, some people hate that scene, some people like it, but for the time period it was published, it might have been helpful and one of the few mainstream pieces of media.

*Note: I say 2006 cause that’s when I was in middle school. I was in college by the time House of Hades was published.

[blackpercy]

idk if i’m reading into it too much but for house of hades being the book where rick does his big reveal of nico being the first gay character he really goes out of his way to say how much nico makes everyone uncomfortable. i know it’s because of his personality but like rick could’ve looked at that and went hm maybe i shouldn’t do that. especially after everything nico went through i don’t get what was so hard to make the seven be decent people

i think he really wanted to lean into the type of isolation nico felt but god you are so right esp since in BoO everyone was like oh ur gay? that's why u were weird as fuck who cares come roast some smores.... like you are right wow can you believe the seven (minus hazel who just was happy her brother was fucking alive) are homophobic

[alextriestowritestuff]

House of Hades Read with Me Part 2

Hey guys! I’m back with my final thoughts on House of Hades (HoH) by Rick Riordan. My thoughts covering the first half of the book can be found here. My thoughts on Son of Neptune/why I’m re-reading the series is here. My Mark of Athena thoughts are here. If you want to know my general thoughts on HoH and don’t want to read my long winded review of it here it is: It’s AMAZING. This is the best book in the series so far by a landslide imo. Literally if I actually felt more than indifference or dislike for the new HoO characters, I’d say this book was better than any of the PJO books. I was really losing faith in the series before I read HoH to the point where I had wished Rick ended Percy’s story with the Last Olympian. If I were to rate this book, I’d give it a 4.5. I enjoyed the Percabeth, the suspense, and the journey through Tartarus the most. Despite issues with pacing, lack of platonic bonding between the Seven, romantic relationships being stunted for couples such as Piper/Jason and Hazel/Frank, HoH has renewed my faith in the series potentially ending on a good note. 

So let’s get into more specifics down below. I’ll have thoughts, my issues with the book, and spoilers under the cut. 

I’m going to try not to fangirl too much over Percabeth because I’ve done that for all of my read with me’s so far but my heart belongs to them. I loved every reference to their future together. Percy and Annabeth both mentioned possibly having children in the future and I just decided then and there that their relationship is why I have such high standards. This is the blueprint of what I want for my romantic life. Taking applications for suitors now. Actually no, I’m scared of men. Percabeth’s chemistry is out of the world, romantically and in their fighting abilities. I really started to pay attention to how they fight together and as I read, I noticed how they would stand back to back and work together without even saying anything. I’m curious to how they’re going to react now that they’re literally been through hell and back. I’m sensing a PTSD arc. I guess Percy will have a more aggressive reaction (My mans was wildin in Tartarus-also when he said he was going to kill Gaea with his bare hands, I was like umm. sir. Rick better let him have that kill though.) but I can’t quite predict what Annabeth’s reaction will be. Also it wasn’t explained why Percy was acting like a psycho in Tartarus and about to brutally kill Aklyhs but I guess I’m just to assume it was to add suspense and implies he has a dark side. And don’t forget that Percy told Annabeth he loved her back-it wasn’t as poetic as when she said it but he still said love you too. 

Next topic: Bob/Iapetus/Damasen. I like to check goodreads reviews after I finish a book just to see what everyone thought of it and it seems that a lot of people were heartbroken after they (presumably) sacrificed themselves. I don’t have much to say here-I mean, that’s sad and I’m thankful that they did that but I’m not in my feels about it. It was a clever outcome of the ‘foes bear arms to the doors of death’ line from the prophecy. I was wondering if Small Bob had any cool powers the entire time so that was cool when it got all big and helped Bob fight Tartarus (who by the way, scared the shit out of me jesus). 

Nico. Check out my first part to know my thoughts about his whole coming out. I just had a question for you guys here-was he technically outed? And if so, that’s not good. I consider myself an LGBT ally and I try to be aware of when it is and when it’s not okay to reveal someone else’s sexuality. On one hand, I thought it was shitty of Cupid to coerce Nico into it but on the other hand if we (the readers) found out that Nico was gay by just him saying he liked Percy, I would’ve been like there’s nothing in the text to support that statement (because prior to HoH, I thought he hated Percy--blaming him for Bianca’s death--then only helped Percy (River styx, the Labyrinth) because he was an ally to the gods like Nico) so having the scenes in HoH of how Nico started to develop feelings for Percy made so much more sense to me. And those scenes only came up because of Cupid. Idk. Let me know what you guys think.

I found it a little strange how Nico wrote off Percy at the end of the book when Percy thanked him for leading the other demigods to HoH. I get it’s probably a defense mechanism to keep his distance from being even more attracted to Percy but I figured Nico would be a little less cold to him now that he admitted his feelings. I saw a goodsreads review that said there was a confirmed Nico POV in Blood of Olympus so fingers crossed we get that and it’ll explain his curt response to Percy and I’d love a Nico POV if we don’t actually have a Percy/Annabeth POV (according to another review I saw) because I can’t deal with the other HoO characters (except Leo, y’all know that tho).

Next topic: Frank and Hazel. I always give credit where it’s due even if I don’t particularly like or care about a character and these two got the MVPs for this book. Hazel’s fight with Pasiphae-it was so cool. For someone who didn’t get a mentor to help her with the mist and figured it out on her own, she was a straight boss. It was a little off to me how her POV started off the book yet she had the least amount of chapters but had this huge task of controlling the Mist/helping the team get through HoH ahead of her. And then her POV pops up in the end to defeat Pasiphae. This is again, why I say, there’s no need for all 7 to narrate. Hecate could’ve easily come to the ship and say all that stuff in front of the crew and let’s say it had been Frank’s POV. He would notice how Hazel is apprehensive/scared of this task because he knows her well and they could talk about it together so we still know her feelings and that’s one less POV because once again, she barely had any chapters. 

Frank. I stand by my thoughts about the ‘growth spurt’, still think it’s hella problematic. I don’t generally care for him but even I got seduced by him more times than I’m willing to admit. When he commanded that dead army I was like yesss. The blessing of Ares and how he literally was on fire and the fact that he pulled an arrow out of his arm like it was no big deal really did it for me. I feel bad, because he’s just not very well written or else I think I could like him. I want to touch on the ship-- tbh, ship is not a word I’d use to describe this DOA relationship, maybe dinghy--ya this DINGHY ‘ship’ that is Hazel and Frank. Like it’s even drier than Jasper lmao. No chemistry there. They had no scenes alone together. I see that they care for each other and are worried when the other person is in danger but that’s not enough. Worry is normal for any relationship, Percy was worried about Grover when he went missing in Sea of Monsters but they weren’t together romantically. 

And it could just be me refusing to ship a 13 year old with anyone but I just get no vibes from them. Leo and Hazel have more chemistry in their conversations alone. This is a total aside but I’ve been getting salty about how little Percy has had to work with in PJO compared to the HoO characters (And I know Rick wrote PJO first, he didn’t develop all these cool things/weapons like charmspeak or Leo’s belt yet) but although Percy is a great swordsman, he only has his powers like every other demigod. Like Hazel has her child of Pluto powers, the jewel curse that has helped her find gold, and now she can control the mist. And technically she has a horse but so does Percy. Frank’s got his fire stick, shape shifting, Ares’ child powers, archery, and he can command armies. Y’all know the other skills/boosts/weapons the other Seven have (Not including Annabeth) so like Rick really gave Percy (and no offense to Percy but also gave him half the intelligence of the HoO demigods) the bare minimum in PJO and we were all still impressed.

There’s this tik tok sound where someone (I don’t know the original meme or video, if you know please comment or reblog. I’d love to give credit), in disbelief, says ‘Wait a minute, what is this? This isn’t enough’ and someone responds in a sassy tone, ‘Make it enough’. And I feel like for PJO, Percy was like this isn’t enough and Rick said make it enough lmaoo. Percy was struggle bussin’ for no reason in PJO! HoO characters get everything handed to them and they still have the AUDACITY to not have any characterization. Couldn’t be me. 

Next two couples I’ll talk about: Leo and Calypso & Jasper. I wasn’t expecting Calypso to be such a savage, like she was DONE with having heroes wash up on her shores. I missed her so much. While I liked the banter between Leo and Calypso, I felt that it was rushed/forced because it all took place in about four chapters. This wasn’t the best execution and part of why I can’t give the book five stars. I think he’ll come back for her, I don’t know how but out of everyone, Leo has really figured out how to make things work when they’re deemed ‘impossible’. So he’ll find a way. I wonder if he’ll confront Percy about leaving Calypso tho, I’d like to see that. So while he was on Ogygia, the other demigods had moved forward and were in Africa. And I was like WOW y’all really said fuck Leo. There was no search party for him (or mention of it), no tears shed for Leo. Damn. No wonder he feels like the Seventh wheel. I mean we got one or two throwaway lines about them worried about Leo’s whereabouts from Jason and Piper but I mean they weren’t in distress about it. I guessing I’m to assume they asked Nico if Leo was dead off screen and Nico confirmed that he wasn’t so they weren’t too worried about him? Anyway, they’re fake friends for that one. 

That aside, Piper and Jason are *yawn* boring as I’ve said before. But I thought he was going to address Piper’s ‘I love you’ confession last book but I’m not sure if he even heard it. I really thought Reyna was going to come in and shake things up between them but just as soon she came, she left w/ Nico and Hedge to take the statue to Camp Half Blood so missed opportunity for resolution there. Piper and Jason also had NO scenes together so I’m really shocked how Rick expects us to ship couples if they don’t spend any time together. I’m not shocked about how Jason is most likely going back to Camp Half Blood after all this is over. It’s superior to Camp Jupiter so I don’t blame him but it’s an interesting choice. I was actually thinking that Percy might stay at Camp Jupiter because I figured he’d stay as praetor. And since Annabeth’s dad lives in Cali, I was thinking they could stay there but I’m sure they go back to New York after BoO because I saw an excerpt where Apollo asks for Percy’s help and I believe Apollo went to Sally’s apartment. But Percy could’ve been visiting Sally and live in CA normally. Speaking of which, how did Jason just give that position to Frank?? He has to be elected lmao. I mean when I read it, I was like Frank gets handed everything but then I was like well, Percy got the position and he wasn’t even at Camp Jupiter for a week and I didn’t complain about that. At least Frank has been there longer and has shown leadership qualities. But yeah, it’s still a no for me for Piper and Jason. At least Piper’s POV chapters weren’t annoying this book but she only got 4 chapters lmao so no time to be annoying. 

To end this review, I want to touch about why I give this book gets a 4.5 and not a 5. I really feel like the 7 POVs were extremely unnecessary especially because the demigods not in tartarus were mostly together and didn’t have as many side quests as MoA. And some of them didn’t even get more than 4 chapters. I found the magic growth spurt way too problematic to overlook. I still feel like the new HoO characters except for Leo are underdeveloped or unlikeable. The pacing wasn’t the best-Alot of things happened in this book and very little of it could’ve been taken out. The pacing wasn’t slow, it was the right pace until about 60% of the way in and then I was just constantly being hit with attacks and rushed meetings like Leo and Calypso. But I can’t quite fault Rick because I felt every event in this book was necessary for it to be as good as it was so of course, some parts end up rushed. In addition, there’s not much bonding happening between the Seven. Like each trio that had their own book had some bonding in there (Can��t speak for Lost Hero because I haven’t read that in 6 or so years. But tSoN had a little, mostly between Frank and Hazel tho) but collectively, as the seven demigods of the prophecy-they haven’t really hung out and just talked about things that aren’t quests. For example in the Lighting Thief, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover would play hacky sack and he bonded with both of them when they were stuck in the zoo animal enclosure whatever. Grover told him about finding Pan and being worried since he was supposed to guide Thalia back to camp safely and he wasn’t able to. Annabeth told him about her dreams to become an architect in the Sea of Monsters. 

Those moments of platonic bonding and intimacy are what’s missing from this series. Yes, the plot/the quest of the Seven should be front and center but I don’t feel like they’re a team. They’re just co workers at this point lmao. Hell, I think all of them participating in a conversation and just talking and enjoying each other’s company would actually make me like the HoO characters. Not Piper, she’s irredeemable in my eyes. She belongs to streets. Everyone else has a fighting chance tho. Guys, think about it. They have something in common (that’s number one requirement of friendship) they’re all demigods. They’ve all been scared, under pressure and expectations to save the world, and felt abandoned by their parents at one point or the other. Leo and Frank have said in their narrations that they feel inadequate next to powerful demigods like Percy and Jason. Imagine if Frank and Leo spoke to each other about that and were friends. Or started a dialogue about feeling inadequate and the other demigods could share their insecurities. The Seven are able to work together, that’s true but it doesn’t feel like friendship. It seems like each separate trio from the first two books are friends (Annabeth is in between because she’s friends with Jason and them but also Percy’s girlfriend) and they all just call the other trio friends because what else is there? Quest mates? 

And I’m getting a little upset rn because there have been so many instances where we could’ve gotten some platonic friendship. Piper is learning from Hazel how to sword fight (How this girl has survived without learning an actual weapon how is beyond me. Charmspeak didn’t work very well for her in this book), like we had both their POVs. We could’ve had a training/bonding scene from either perspective. Not just some throwaway line about how they got close because they’re the only girls now that Annabeth was in Tartarus. Why couldn’t we have gotten one scene Rick? What was the reason? Tragic.

Platonic love and relationships exist. And it’s more than just complimenting someone when they use their powers. The scene at the end of the book when the Seven, Hedge, Reyna, and Nico are having lunch together on the hill is a whisper in the right direction. How Jason ‘bear hugged’ Percy when he got out of Tartarus is another example. Though this wasn’t platonic and was more familial but Nico basically accepting Hazel as his siser (On a level that is acknowledging her on the same level as Bianca and not just another kid of Hades/Pluto) by kissing her on the cheek. I know you can do it Rick. You’ve done it before. All I want from the last book in this series is platonic love, answers about how Hazel’s curse will be lifted by a descendant of Neptune, Percabeth, and the Gaea/giants defeated. You can have all the POVs your heart desires if you just give me those things. 

See you guys next week with the Blood of Olympus read with me. My writeblr followers must be tired of me lmao, I swear I’ll get back to normally scheduled content after this. I love writing this kind of rants/reviews even though they take me like 2 hours to write.

[moonlit-maiden]

On Nico di Angelo, "Pairing the Spare" and How to Shaft a Complex Character in Less Than 500 Pages

This will be long. Strap in. This is long overdue.

So more longtime followers of mine may already know this but I adore Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. They also know I continue to eastly, to this day, about how he was handled at the end of the Heroes of Olympus series. Now, I've never fully delved into the 'why's and I will do so now as it's probably best to actually articulate it at some point instead of continually lamenting it without presenting rationale.

First: WHY do I love his character so much? It all boils down to shared/similar experiences for social ostracization. Growing up, I was quickly pushed out of social circles due to who my parents were; immigrants. Simply existing with the ethnicity and cultural heritage I had labeled me as untouchable. To sum it up succinctly; white but not the "right" kind of white. Keep in mind this was at the end of the Cold War; attitudes towards Slavic peoples were poor as hell. Fuck, they still are 30 years later! Nico is ousted due to his heritage too; being a Hades child. It's not something he chose nor controlled. He himself did nothing wrong to any of the campers yet when word got out they pushed him away. The same happened to me. As soon as the school kids and/or parents realized my parents were Slavic immigrants they shoved me out. It still hurts to this day. As such, I can deeply empathize with Nico.

Why does this matter? Because that blanket social rejections fucks people up. Nico is shown throughout the series to be distrustful, preferring to isolate himself. He has been shown time and time again he is unwanted due to being a Hades child. Eventually you just... stop trying. When you beat a dog enough times it stops coming around. This is the same thing. In addition, Nico has lost his elder sister, Bianca. The one person he felt understood him because she, too, was similar to him. Now I have Opinions on Bianca that would piss off 99% of the fandom but it's irrelevant here. Her death occurs shorts before or after it's revealed Nico is a Child of Hades. He is 10 years old with no one and the whole camp rejects him. It's a cruel thing to do to someone no matter how much you try and justify it. Rick did an incredible job highlighting how racism, ethnocentrism and bullying harms a child. Nico immediately became my favorite for this and I applauded Rick for having the balls to shine a very uncomfortable light on a situation similar to mine. A situation, I'm very sure many first generation or immigrant kids can relate to.

So where did it all go wrong? To be blunt, Blood of Olympus. Now, the final volume of the HHO series is a hot mess in general. Almost ALL characters get shafted on way or another with mischaracterization, simplification or backtracker on character growth. Not to mention the plot feels very slapdash and messy at times. But again, another subject. We see Reyna and Coach Hedge start to really get to know Nico and realize the extent at how bad his abuse has been at the hands of monsters and demigods alike. Neither feels this is right and shows it as best they can while respecting Nico's boundaries. In the previous book, House of Hades, Jason does the same thing. But then we finally get back to Camp Half Blood and shit falls apart for Nico's arc.

It's plainly obvious to anyone who's ready the series in full that Nico is traumatized, even moreso then most of the cast. He has been physically tortured multiple times, psychologically tortured by the camp and emotionally manipulated by several individuals. Keep in mind, by HOO, Nico is roughly 14. Fourteen. Can you even image how that feels?! He's only just now, after Jason, Hazel and Reyna's persistence that they will not hurt him, that they genuinely care for his well being, that they don't care about his heritage (and don't care about his sexuality, from Jason specifically). And then Will appears and Nico magically forgets 4 years of pining for Percy. It's so jarring, like a screeching record! This is when we enter the issue.

In writing, there are many rules. Like all rules, they can be bent of broken under certain circumstances. The rule in question is the 'pair the spare' rule. The rule states that if the pain cast has paired off, do not pair of the "spare" aka the odd man out unless it's been led up to. Rick chose to ignore this rule and pair Nico with Will, citing that as a canon LGBT character, he wanted to send the message to LGBT kids that they were worthy of love. This in itself is not a bad message. What IS bad is execution. First, Will is a background character. He very much has potential, don't get me wrong! But outside of having a few minor scenes in final volume of the PJO series, Will has only ever been mentioned in passing. From what we've seen, he and Nico have never interacted. On top of that, Will who is a healer, completely dismisses Nico's trauma. This is a very big red flag. When someone is traumatized, particularly psychologically, the absolute last thing to do is to dismiss the experience as "teen angst" like Will does. It shows absolute disrespect for Nico as a human being. And he is a healer. He should know better. In addition, Nico himself is not fond of the dismissive personality Will is displaying, the 'I'm going to tell you what to do' persona because he's a doctor so 'doctor knows best'. And in Nico's POV he says as much in his inner monologue! Yet he's "drawn to him". I'm sorry, but I call bullshit. Nico has been shown in 9 1/2 books to be quite smart, paranoid about social intentions due to past experiences and won't take crap from no one, not even his own father, the Lord of the (fucking) Underworld. Yet he'll just grit his teeth and basically follow Will's lead with little complaint? It's so out of character it's jarring and painful.

We briefly see Nico and Will in the first Trials of Apollo book. They're acting like the normal couple with Nico being the "sassy, snarky" one of the pair. Please note it's been 6-8months since the end of BOO, in-universe. In this one scene it completely erases Nico's trauma, very valid feelings of distrust and hurt, his struggle with both his heritage and his sexuality, his years-long unrequited love for Percy, his grief over his sister and his struggle to make connections with his fellow demigods. Love is powerful but its not a cure-all. It doesn't make the years of hurt and abuse magically disappear (trust me. I know.) and it doesn't change someone's personality to well-adjusted.

Pairing Nico with Will at the end of BOO completely destroys his characterization from a writing standpoint. All the real struggle, grief and unpleasant consequences of abusing and bullying people who are "other" in socially-acceptable ways is wiped away in less then 50 pages. It also send a very VERY dangerous message to LGBT youth; find someone you're attracted to and they'll fix you. That's a toxic message to tell to straight kids so why the fuck would you tell it to LGBT kids!? Unlike most LGBT character in literature that I can tell are shoehorned it, Nico was planned to be gay from the start, I have no issue with this. What I do have issue with is throwing his character out the window so he can chase some cute blond ass. Nico deserves better then that as a character. People who suffered socially-acceptable abuse deserve better then that. Immigrants and first-generation kids deserved better then that. LGBT youth deserved better then that.

THAT is why I keep getting so pissed; Rick took a genuinely complex character and fucked him over so he could lazily pair the spare and not be accused of leaving the only canonically gay character single. But there is a reason 'do not pair the spare' is a rule. It's better to leave a character single then slapdashedly pair them up. This goes double for characters who have trauma in their life and trauma is a serious issue that should be respectfully addressed. Love is powerful. Love helps to heal. But the love of family (Hazel) or budding friends (Jason and Reyna) is just as important, valid and send a powerful message. It sends the message 'you are not alone. You are worthy of love. You are a human worthy of regarding of both your experiences and your fears.' Pairing Will with Nico completely and utterly stomps on this message. It sends horrible signals to LGBT youth and scraps his complex character into the token goth gay boy. And Nico di Angelo deserves better then what he was given.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[brunettepenguin]

Look, I know Lance has really been through it and deserves a break, but I really wish that we had been able to see Lance coming out as bisexual in the show and I have a really langsty idea of how they could have approached it.

I’m thinking something along the lines of Nico Di Angelo’s coming out experience in House of Hades where he’s faced with Cupid and the god’s ability to see who each person is in love with. We already know omnipotent characters exist in the vld universe thanks to the game show episode with Bob (who was an all-seeing entity), so it wouldn’t be that far-fetched if they happened upon another one on their journey back to Earth or even while they were looking for Honerva.

In HoH, Nico and Jason are on a quest of some sort (I don’t remember the exact context, it’s been a hot minute since I read the series) when they come across Cupid, who generally appears to you as someone you have romantic feelings for. The chapter is told from Jason’s POV, so we don’t really know what’s going on in Nico’s head while this is happening, but essentially Cupid keeps pestering Nico into revealing who he has/had a crush on and kept tormenting him until finally he cracked and admitted to having a crush on Percy and he later tells Jason that he’s gay (something Nico clearly wasn’t ready to do, he was forcibly outed by a god who used his power to torment him into admission). 

So maybe they come across a being similar to Cupid on some uninhabited planet, who sees through Lance and knows that he’s struggling with his sexuality and his romantic feelings for both Allura (who he’s had a crush on since the start of the show) and Keith (who he’s only recently realized he has feelings for). Everyone except for Lance is comfortable with their sexual identity, so this omnipotent being targets him, seeing as he’s so vulnerable. This entity separates the Paladins from their lions and from each other, and begins torturing Lance in the form of both Allura and Keith, saying things like “Tell me who you really love!” “Why are you like this?” and “Just pick one of us already!” until he eventually gets Lance to crack the same way Cupid cracked Nico. After Lance’s forced confession the being disappears, revealing that the other paladins had all been gathered around Lance, who now realizes he was the only one that was separated and was stuck in some illusion, trying to save him from whatever was going on (remember that Cupid appears as those you love, so each paladin would have seen someone different - or possibly the being’s true form - as it circled Lance). They all hear Lance’s admission of being bisexual and being confused about his feelings for Allura, who, again, he’s always had a crush on, and Keith, who he’s finally starting to form a strong relationship with and who he trusts more than anyone else on the team, and then the being reappears and basically gloats about exposing the hidden feelings and thoughts Lance had previously tried so hard to conceal. 

After the being feels it’s done enough damage, it leaves once more, this time for good, and Lance can’t even look at the team. He just picks up his discarded bayard from when he tried to fight the entity, walks away without saying a word to anyone, even Hunk, and for the next few episodes the main conflict is getting Lance to open up and talk to the team again, and the fact that their bond has been damaged in a way that inhibits them from forming Voltron due to Lance’s feelings of betrayal, worthlessness, and stupidity. 

Eventually, Shiro finally gets Lance to talk to him and opens up about his own experiences being queer and how he faced coming out even when he was terrified of being rejected by everyone around him. He tells Lance about how he felt when he first had a crush on another boy, how eventually he told the boy how he felt, only to be ridiculed and rejected, and he took it really hard. Shiro tells Lance that he reminds him of himself during that low point in his life, but explains how he eventually started opening up to people again and letting himself be accepted and be happy, and how that path led him to finding Adam, his boyfriend back on Earth before he left for Kerberos. 

Slowly, Lance begins to smile again and talk to his friends about what he feels. He no longer feels shame about his sexuality or his conflicting feelings towards Keith and Allura, and talks to them separately about what happened with the being and how he’s scared of this “different Lance” he’s become and they both reassure him that nothing is wrong with him and nothing about him is different, he’s just becoming the true him. The Lance he always was, the one he just had to dig a little deeper to find, the one who’s perfect just the way he is. The bond between the paladins becomes stronger than it ever was because there are no more secrets between them, and they unlock abilities as Voltron they never thought possible. If anyone tries to question Lance’s sexuality he just laughs and shrugs them off because he knows he’s comfortable with who he is and that he’s finally gotten acceptance from the one person he needed it from the most: 

Himself.

[takaraphoenix]

Regarding the spoilery ask there earlier.

Look, I get being excited about Big Fandom News and I do feel immensely flattered when someone’s first instict upon hearing Big Fandom News is to come to me and ask my opinion or have the desire to talk about it.

And you can do that. Once that thing is actually released and I had the chance to consume.

I don’t like spoilers. The good kind even less so than the bad, because the spoilers take that... moment of excitement and discovering that thing myself away from me.

When House of Hades was released - prior to its release, when that one scene was leaked online, I woke up to five different messages in my inbox on FFNet asking me what I thought about the reveal that Nico was gay.

And it completely took the fun and suspense out of reading that book. Because the build-up and reveal could have just been... absolutely mindblowing. Instead, I got to read about it in my inbox, way before that book was even released.

When that book, or in the case of Voltron, season has hit and I had a chance to see this special, potentially mindblowing thing with my own two eyes and in the context of canon, not as a ripped-out piece of information, then please, feel free to come to me, talk to me, ask me my opinion.

But don’t ruin the thing for me before it’s even out. Please.

[lunova-777]

WHY LGBTQ+ REP IS SO IMPORTANT

Strap in children, this one’s gonna be long.

As a Gay™, I feel it’s really important for me to share my story on why queer representation is so, so important to me.

When I was younger, all that I saw on TV was boys who liked girls and girls who liked boys. That was it. That was “normal.” 

In 3rd grade, every girl in my class was talking about their boy crushes. I was the quiet kid with anger issues and a stutter. I had maybe 1 friend. So, in an effort to fit in, I lied. “U-uhm... I like-ke-e... P-pascal. (A boy in my class.)” I didn’t have any feelings for this kid. I was a social outcast, and thought that I’d be ridiculed for not liking anyone. He ended up with another girl in my class, but honestly, I couldn’t care less.

Flash forward to 5th grade. I’m in a new town. The bullies take a liking to the ADHD, autistic, short, scrawny kid with an awful stutter and who got mad easily. I tried to fight them, but just ended up bruised, crying, hit with sticks, and bleeding. The teacher was no help. She was Satan. She loved the bullies, and punished me for things I couldn’t control, like not being able to learn like the others, and getting in fights. I still remember it so clearly. 

Me, this tiny, stuttering, 10-year-old with bruises all over her body, crying and cowering, hiding between 2 lockers, hoping the teacher won’t find me and call me stupid, disobedient, annoying, and all those other terrible things at the top of her lungs for quietly leaving class to get a drink of water from the fountain.

I had severe depression, came home crying almost everyday, was abused, and was bullied. My life was terrible. Then, I met Jeremy. “Bad boy” of the class. He stood up against the bullies and the abuse. I thought I liked him. Looking back, that was a textbook case of emotional transference. I associated his presence with all of the physical and mental pain stopping. 

But then, he moved, and I switched schools. I was still struggling with depression, as I had never actually gotten to a good therapist.

So I began to do what I always did when I felt alone and sad and scared: I read. And I came across this neat little series called “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” In the third book, they introduced a character named Nico Di Angelo. 

He quickly became one of my favourites as the series progressed, I read more books, and grew older, and made new friends. I soon realized that this character had a lot in common with me. A social reject, who felt he didn’t belong, liked being alone, was depressed, but continued to fight. Finally, I reached The House Of Hades, where it revealed one of the reasons Nico didn’t fit in: he was gay, and never liked girls.

Something clicked in me. “Wait... y-you can like people of the same gender as you? I didn’t know that.” After thinking it over, I soon realized why I never liked boys: 

I was a lesbian. 

When I came out to my friends, I expected some negative reactions. They... surprised me.

My best friend Abby? A pansexual transgender boy. And all of the others were just like “oh. okay. we kind of guessed. You have 3 posters of girls in your room, and none of boys.”

Over time, more and more of us came out. My best friend from middle school, Agathe? Asexual. My friend Juliana? Bisexual. Our friend Dan? Gay. Our friend Angus? Gay. 

Coming out made me stronger emotionally, and brought me closer with my friends, who love me as the gay, smol, mildly violent, anxious dork I am. Being true to who I was helped me beat depression. And now, I have the best group of friends anyone could ask for. And it’s all because of LGBTQ+ rep.

I’m Zoe, a girl looking for my Will Solace, and this is my story.

[good-and-bad-queer-rep]

|| Spoiler Warning : Nico di Angelo ||

This is my actual childhood and I am so happy to see it finally getting the adaptation it deserves!

Rick Riordan is a best-selling author who is most famous for his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He has written multiple other series within the same universe (Heroes of Olympus & Trials of Apollo), not to mention his other similar series The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

As of January 2022, Riordan made the official announcement that Percy Jackson and the Olympians was coming to Disney Plus and they have already casted the three main characters from the first book: Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri)  //see photo above//.

Unfortunately, we’re not gonna spend too much time talking about the amazing casting since none of the three characters are openly queer in the book series and that kinda defeats the purpose of this blog. Just know that I love them and would die for them.

Okay, moving on. What I specifically want to reference is the most popular openly queer character within the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series which is Nico di Angelo, a child of Hades.

Nico enters the series when he’s about 10 years old and at around 14 years old, he comes out as gay, revealing to have had a long term crush on the main character, Percy Jackson, since he was 10. In the beginning of Trials of Apollo, the next series in the trilogy, it is revealed that Nico is in a relationship with a child of Apollo, Will Solace.

He is the first character in the series to come out as queer and it was a ground-breaking moment for Percy Jackson fans everywhere.

However, as with every LGBTQ+ representation out there, there is going to be homophobia and bigotry involved. Within the Heroes of Olympus series, in the book House of Hades, Nico is forced to come out as gay and the Amazon comments under this specific book is appalling.

“My son has loved this series, but when Mr. Riordon decided to introduce openly gay characters, we decided we were done with it.”

“...enjoyed the first 200 pages until I found out that Nico was gay...Please take the gay crap out of your books.”

“WHY does homosexuality have to be EVERYWHERE. Give it a break!”

...Yeah. Disgusting. And this is all just about one character coming out as gay. There have been so many characters since who have come out as transgender and queer and the reactions some people have are just awful.

Examples of queer characters within Rick Riordan’s books: Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Piper McLean, Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, Lavinia, Hemithea and Josephine (lesbian couple)

Rick Riordan does an incredible job including so much queer representation, especially for a cis straight man. Are there things he gets wrong sometimes? Sure. Does he sometimes result to stereotyping? Absolutely, but he’s trying and putting in that effort and that’s all the LGBTQ+ community really wants at the end of the day.

[thatspookyspoonie]

Okay, I'm gonna tell y'all about how much these books mean to me. I absolutely love Rick Riordan.

I got the first three books on my 12th birthday, which was the same day as my grandma's funeral. I was horribly depressed and my health was in the trash because of Wilson's disease. But I start reading the first book, and here's Percy, this 12 year old who watches his mother die, is getting abused by his stepdad, and is generally having a bad life. Then he finds out he's the son of Poseidon, goes on adventures, and slowly starts to improve his life throughout the series (minus the more and more dangerous quests but you know what I mean. He gets friends), and it really gave me hope that maybe my life could improve too. I read the first book whenever I was sad. I read it 52 times between the ages of 12 and 15.

Then, when I was a bit older, I started questioning my sexuality. When I figured it out, I dared not say anything. I was terrified. But then the House of Hades comes out, and it's revealed that Nico is gay. And Nico had already been my favourite character for years because I already found him so relatable. And to read Nico being accepted by Jason immediately... I came out to my friend the same day I read that chapter, and came out to other people in my life within the next few months.

TL;DR, these books changed my life for the better, even giving me courage to come out of the closet because of its representation. Please read these books. They're so good.

no one talks about how rick riordan literally scammed disney 

[luanna801]

Nico and Will Solace !

Listen, I am a simple woman. Nico di Angelo has been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since he first showed up as a nerdy li’l ball of sunshine in The Titan’s Curse. And his life became a near-constant Trauma Conga Line for like, the next six books after that. So the mere fact of seeing him in a happy, healthy relationship being loved and accepted is something that was always going to make me incredibly happy.

When it comes to the specifics of the relationship: I like it. Their chemistry feels natural, and I think their personalities are a really good fit for each other. I wish we’d gotten to see more of their relationship development in between Blood of Olympus and The Hidden Oracle, but I can also understand why Riordan might have written things the way he did.

I do get (and to some degree agree with) the people who felt like it was rushed, but I think what you have to remember is that what we see in Blood of Olympus isn’t them getting together: It’s just the first hints of potential for a relationship. And I think at that point in the series, that was really the best resolution Riordan could give Nico. He’s talked about the fact that he didn’t plan to have Nico be gay from the beginning, but rather that it was something he became aware of as he was writing. By the time we actually got the reveal in House of Hades, there was only one book left to go. There wasn’t really time for Riordan to develop a relationship enough to have Nico get together with someone, but leaving the only canonically gay character in the series alone while almost everyone else was neatly paired off in heterosexual relationships would have sent a pretty bad message. So I think, at that point, setting up the groundwork for a relationship and making it pretty clear how things would end up, without actually having them get together, was the best Riordan could do.

Was it the best he could have done if he’d had time to plan this out from the start of the series? Definitely not. But I think, coming from the position he was in after House of Hades, it was the best option he had of resolving things without making it seem really rushed.

Then we get to Trials of Apollo, and I’ll be honest: I am a bit sorry we didn’t get to see everything that came between those first initial hints and Nico and Will actually getting together (and learning to be a couple in the early days of their relationship). Not just because I think those would have been important moments for them, but because I think they were important moments in Nico’s character growth, and now we can only speculate about how it all happened. And of course, the fact that we’re seeing things through Apollo’s eyes means there’s still a lot we don’t see about their relationship. But with that said, I like what we saw of them in The Hidden Oracle. I like how much happier and more sure of himself Nico is (though, to be very clear, that’s not only a result of his relationship with Will - his platonic/familial relationships with Reyna and Hazel and Jason and Percy etc. are so so so important to his development), and I like seeing him play the supportive boyfriend when Will’s going through a hard time. And of course, seeing a gay couple portrayed in such a normal, non-sensationalized, non-fetishized way in a kids series is amazing in terms of representation.

If there’s anything that keeps me from considering them an absolute OTP, it’s (1) that we’ve so far seen comparatively little of their relationship, and (2) that I wish I had a clearer idea of who Will is beyond being Nico’s Boyfriend and Apollo’s Son. I like what we see of him - I like how outspoken he is, the way he’s incredibly committed to healing people and taking care of them without being some kind of passive cliche. But I don’t feel like we see much of his internal life, what his struggles are, what makes him tick. And for me to really love a relationship, I have to love both of the characters involved. So far, I don’t feel connected enough to Will for that to be the case.

[pjoracle]

Burnt Popcorn

The world needs more pieces about friendships, so here’s some Reyna and Nico

Reyna wrung her clammy hands outside of Nico’s apartment in New Rome, why was she so nervous? Nico had a right to know! A right to know, Reyna thought trying to use that to steel her nerves. With a shaky breath she knocked on the door. For a moment Reyna though about turning away, about just running right then and there, her body was halfway turned away ready to bolt when the door swung open.

Nico stood there, a child of Hades, somehow radiating light. His smile could power New Rome a million times over as he beamed out at her.

“Trying to run away from movie night? Afraid I’m going to force another Italian movie on you?” He teased, stepping into the hallway. “I’m making popcorn.”

“Yeah that’s it; one more played out scene of a couple driving away on a Vespa might do me in. I just want a nice Disney movie with a badass female character that fights in a war and totally kicks every guy’s ass.” Reyna answered easily with a smile to rival his.

“You’re just talking about Mulan, the movie you know I don’t own.”

“A fact that should shame you enough to buy the DVD.” She teased as she stepped under his outreached arm, looping her own around him as they stepped inside the apartment. She looked around the cozy abode and took it all in, comfortable here as her own home. “Hey you said you were making popcorn right?”

“That would be correct…”

“Because it smells more like your burning popcorn.” Reyna answered with a nod at the kitchen, happy for a distraction from her anxiety. Nico’s head snapped back so hard Reyna was afraid he’d get whip lash.

“THE POPCORN!” Nico screamed as he ran to the kitchen, followed by a series of bangs. Reyna chuckled and made her way to the wall of movies they’ve collectively amassed over a few years of movie nights. She was skimming through the third shelf when Nico came in shame faced with a pot in his hand. “Okay, I’m not sure how it happened, but this is not the color of popcorn.”

He tilted the pot to show the completely charred remains of what should have been the popcorn. Reyna’s eyes went wide as she looked from the pot to his hair and back a few times. After a moment with Nico standing with the pot, looking like a confused child and Reyna kneeling on the floor quietly talking it all in she burst out laughing.

“How did you mess up popcorn? You just put it on the stove and wait for the pops!” Reyna cried, in sheer disbelief that the same person whoop shadow traveled across half the planet with her, a very angry satyr, and a huge statue of Athena in tow couldn’t make a pot of popcorn. “Oh my gods, were you trying to add another layer to the pot because that’s a strong burn.”

Nico started to giggle with her making Reyna only laugh harder. “I can’t even make popcorn, Italians weep worldwide at my uselessness in the kitchen.”

“Savior of the world, child of one of the Big Three and you can’t make a pot of popcorn.” She shook her head as she unwound herself from the ground and took the pot from him. Nico followed her into the kitchen as she set herself up at the sink. They were silent as Reyna let the water flow over her hands, testing the temperature, waiting for it to get hot before putting in the soap. “Let this soak for a bit, and then we’ll try and scrape off that disaster.”

“And forget all about it?” Nico asked hopefully while Reyna turned away to scrounge through his fridge.

“Not a chance, Will has to learn of your incompetence in the kitchen or else he might break up with you after you accidently set fire to your hands and burn the house down.” She snorted.

“Hey, our love is stronger than any batch of popcorn I burn.” He shot back with a short tap on the side of the pot. He looked back to Reyna at the uncharacteristic lack of any response and saw how tense she was. “Reyna, are you ok? Do you need to talk about something?”

“How do you know that you love someone?” She asked, her voice was small and tentative. Nico stared at her still turned away form as though he could see through to her face and read every emotion laid out on it.

“You just…it’s like a feeling. Not like you like someone, but that you feel safe with them.” His face scrunched up as he thought of how to put it. “It’s trusting someone entirely with yourself, even if you know you’re not ready to reveal every part of you because you know that if you put your everything into their hands they would never break it, not intentionally at least. Then when what you get them slips a bit, they get nervous holding up so much, a little too weak from holding it too long, you’re there to put your hands under theirs and lift them up. You make them stronger and in your hands is their secrets and life and it may get heavy or start to slip, but then their hands are there to hold yours up. But that’s not even really love early, not entirely. It’s trusting someone and it’s letting them support you and it’s supporting them, but it’s also knowing when to pull your hands back and letting them pull away too if they need it. Love is an ebb and flow, but it’s also solid.”

“That’s a lot of nothing.” Reyna concluded. Her voice was hollow, a bit weaker.

“I don’t think it is.” Nico said softly, gently turning Reyna to face him, not so shocked at the tears streaking down her cheeks. “What’s this about?”

He led her to the couch, holding her hand, rubbing small circles in the back of her hand.

“I just, I think I’m in love.” Reyna began. Nico gave her a small of encouragement, she took a shaky breath “it’s with a friend…a close one.”

Reyna dropped his hands and turned away, Nico’s heart stuttered with horrible thoughts. What if she likes me? I’m too gay, I’m also dating Will. Oh gods, I would never cheat also it’s Reyna. She’s like a sister to me…better. I can’t lose her.

“Well first I should probably tell you. Um.  I’m well,” Reyna stood up and passed the carpet before turning to him and practically screamed, “GOD’S DAMMIT, I’M GAY!”

Surprised at her outburst Nico sat and took it, for an agonizing second nothing happened. Reyna stood in her spot stupidly unsure of what to do until Nico leaped at her, pulling her into a tight hug.

“I’m so proud of you for telling me, you’re brave for this. I’m glad you feel comfortable enough around me and I hope this brings you some type of peace.” Nico mumbled into her hair. Reyna still stood there, but after a moment wrapped her arms around him tightly. Tears silently fell onto his faded Camp Half Blood t-shirt as this huge burden was lifted off her shoulders after pressing down for far too long. “Gods how long have you been holding it in, I’m so sorry you had to think that you were alone.”

Reyna nodded into the crook of his neck and held on tight. After a minute in their embrace, Nico pulled back with a wicked smile on his face, “what were those questions about love about then?”

“I, um, well I” Reyna pulled back and fidgeted with her hands, “like Rachel?” She met Nico’s eyes and they shined with admiration and love and something almost mischievous.

“You know, she is bi and single.” He led on, finally making progress sin his joint mission with Will, Percy, and Annabeth to get these two together. Their pre-relationship sexual tension and extreme denial of any feeling was only topped by Percy and Annabeth themselves. “Maybe you should just go for it.”

Reyna nodded, but her eyes made it clear she was still processing everything, so Nico helped in the way he knew she needed.

“Stay here.” He instructed before shadow traveling out. She tossed up her hands in exasperation, but accepted this fate and settled onto the couch. Not more than 2 minutes later he came back with a copy of Mulan 1 and 2 tucked under his arm as well as two large hot chocolates from her favorite café in one hand and a couple packs of microwave popcorn in the other.

Reyna didn’t say anything as Nico immediately got to setting up the movie, she didn’t say anything the rest of the night as they watched her favorite movies and sipped on hot chocolate. Slowly she drifted to sleep, the adrenaline from coming out fading away and she crashed hard. Nico glanced over at the end of the movie to find her asleep. He rose from his seat to drape a blanket over her curled up legs. He kneeled beside her and put his hand to her forehead and whispered to her.

“It will be hard sometimes, but most of the time the world will be more vibrant because you’re not hiding anymore. Even through all the hard times, remember that there are people who love you and will always be there to protect you. I love you, Reyna.” He kissed her forehead and came up with eyes shining. This was the relationship with Bianca he never got, but that’s ok because maybe he could still have the person who loves him like she did in Reyna.  

He rose from his spot next to her and quickly headed to his bedroom where he IM’d Percy and Annabeth, who were thankfully not in a compromising position, excitedly spilling what he learned that night. They were both relieved that Reyna told him, it was so obvious to anyone close to her that for the past few months there was something off with her. After discussing this for a bit they moved onto to planning how exactly to get Reyna and Rachel to get over themselves and see that they were head over heels for the other. All in all, it was one of the best movie nights he’s ever had.