#anti Luke Castellan

[punkeropercyjackson]

Luke Castellan in the books was literally a Mighty Whitey,the superiority complex he had and leftism he uphoalded is something only a white man could have.A whole serial pedophile that exclusively liked underaged girls and treated boys of color he groomed into child soldiers for him like shit because he didn't wanna fuck them with his I Like Little Girls by Oingo Boingo ass yet thought he was so much better than the gods for giving into an even higher power and doing child abuse the 'justfied' way,ntm his constant talking down to combined with physical of assaults and even stalking to afrolatino legend Perseo 'Percy' 'Anarchism does not like to be restrained' Jackson as if Percy didn't clock the gods as the bad guys on first meetings because he'd been dealing with his own gods,authority figures,his whole life so he knew better on fighting them than him and knew how to love and help the people better too as he actually wanted to while ignoring any opportunities for vengeance since he's not nearly of A Dude™️ to go ooouuhhh woe is me my feelings father i crave violence.You could never make me believe Luke had good intentions at any point that got misenterpreted or was a marytr of the gods,that's Percy's entire character from start to finish babes,not Luke's.Y'all give that colonizer too much credit and it's all stolen from Percy because you want your radicalists aesthetic and palpable and not the victims of the system

[wanderingmind867]

Does anyone want a Percy Jackson series set from Camp Jupiter's perspective during the Titan War? I sort of do. Because honestly, the war from Camp Jupiter's perspective makes no sense. And honestly (I'm still rereading the lost hero, so i'm jumping the gun a bit) I think I can forgive Octavius and others at Camp Jupiter hating the Greeks. Because think about it:

Luke was the guy responsible for helping raise Kronos from the dead. Luke assembled the army. Luke gave himself over to Kronos. Luke did all the legwork (hence me making clear I despise Luke when I read the pjo books last year). The other people fighting with the titans were dumb too (like ethan nakamura, who betrayed percy after percy saved his life in battle of the labyrinth), but Luke was the worst of the worst.

But to the kids at Camp Jupiter, I'm fairly sure Luke Castellan was a non-entity. He was a Greek kid, they had no reason to be aware of him. To them, it must've been quite a shock to find Saturn rising from the dead, already with an army backing him. Because unless Camp Jupiter had their own version of Luke (who was secretly helping Saturn like Luke helped Kronos), this means it's all the fault of the stupid Greeks that Saturn rose!

Because of those Greeks, typhon rose! A wave of destruction burned across (at least) North America, and Dii Consentes, the very gods themselves were almost wiped out! So you know what? I think Octavian wasn't necessarily wrong to think the Greeks were scum. He was an extremist, but he wasn't wrong about it being unwise to trust the greeks. Again, they're the ones who woke Saturn!

[freddie-77-ao3]

[perseas-wellyboots]

The Luke Castellan problem in PJO books and Fandom

I just finished rereading the pjo series for the dozenth time and I have so many thoughts about Luke and how the fandom woobified him.

Like no Luke did not have the right idea and executed it in the wrong way. He wasn't a misguided victim, although there is no doubt Kronos manipulated him. But him being manipulated does not absolve him of his wrongdoings. Hurt people can still hurt people, you can be abused and still become an abuser.

Most of Fandom's idea of Luke being a 'hero' because he did the right thing in the end is extremely doozy like ok he killed himself to stop Kronos but that does not absolve him the blame of killing innocent people.

While Luke's main goal was the destruction of Gods, that was not because he wanted the demigods to have better lives. He actively killed demigods.

In the Sea of Monsters, when Percy, Annabeth and Tyson snuck into Princess Andromeda; they saw 12 year olds being trained how to kill a 'dummy in camp half blood tshirts'. He was actively exploiting children and manipulating them into killing other children and saw nothing wrong with it.

He only considered deflecting from Kronos when he found out that he was going to be possessed by him.

He only worked and cared for him, he was so lost into power and revenge that HE became a monster.

"Oh but he cared for Thalia and Annabeth!!" I'll get into that later too

I think Luke's fatal flaw contrary to the opinion of fandom is The Urge to Prove Himself.

He had one conversation with Hermes which made him angry and bitter and Thalia even notes that after that conversation Luke got into more and more fights with monsters like he had something to prove which Annabeth didnt seem to see as a problem since he was her hero. They got into more skirmishes because of his recklessness, fighting more monsters since Luke wanted to pick a fight with each one he came across.

(Conversation from PJO, The Last Olympian)

His fatal flaw being to Prove Himself would explain why he took the failure of his quest so hard that the night he returned from the quest was the same night Kronos started speaking to him for the first time. It didn't help that when he returned from his failed quest, the campers treated him with pity.

He wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone because He failed his quest that he didn't want to do because it was already done by Hercules once. 🥴

His endgame has nothing to do with wanting to help ANYBODY. He wanted to take down gods because he had a grudge against them and wanted to Prove that he could do it. Everything else comes secondary if it fits his agenda.

This is one of the reasons why it bothers me so much when people say that Luke had the right idea or that Percy would have joined Kronos if Sally had died like you fundamentally misunderstood the character of Percy if you think he would have joined Kronos.

He talks about "driving humanity back into caves, all except the strongest - who would serve him" THIS IS LITERALLY FASCISM???

(According to Merriam-Webster, Fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression)

Now onto the topic of Thalia, Annabeth and Luke

First of all, I absolutely hate that 'Thalia and Luke had a thing before she got turned into a tree bit' because Thalia was 12 and Luke was 14 when they met and Thalia was 15 and Luke was 20-21ish when they meet again in TTC ugh hate that.

Now TTC, where to begin, here I used to believe Luke had already bathed in river Styx as there are some narrations where Percy notes that Luke looked worse and like his scar was reopened and would certainly explain how he survived the cliff fall but on my rereading I realised that Thalia and Luke fought when Percy was holding the sky and Thalia injured Luke so nvm then.

It is however in this book that Luke began to realise Kronos's plan for him as it is implied by the General and he starts to fear for his life.

Mind you, what did Luke think would happen if Thalia did agree to join Kronos when he knew Kronos was looking for a host of body...

Luke is many things, he is cunning, manipulative, a great swordsman but what he is not is stupid. If Thalia would have agreed then Kronos would have used Thalia as a vessel 😬

And oh boy the can of worms that is Luke and Annabeth. I've seen many Luke fans/apologists deny that there is no canon evidence of Luke being romantically interested in Annabeth BUT THERE IS?? they refuse to believe and call Annabeth an unreliable narrator because otherwise their uwu white boy would be a Pedophile. Even if he wasn't a Pedo, he manipulated Annabeth so many times to make her sympathise with her and use her emotions against her.

(excerpts from various books: TLO, TLO, BoTL, MoA annabeth's pov)

^ Annabeth was 15 almost 16 or already 16 I believe when Luke asked her to run away with him in a romantic sense and he was 21-22.

also another evidence adding to the theory of his fatal flaw having proving himself.

Now, onto the topic of CHB and Luke:

Luke being hesitant to attack camp half blood in BotL has less to do with him suddenly growing a spine (as some fans suggest) and more to do with the inevitable possession.

When Kronos informs that he will himself lead the attack, Luke advises to use Hyperion instead because he knows for Kronos to attack it in person, he would finally possess Luke.

(first one is from TTC, the other two from BoTL)

One of the last things I wanna talk about is Silena Beauregard & Luke and Luke's portrayal in the new Percy Jackson series:

Luke was 17 when Kronos started speaking to him and 19 when he left the camp. Silena was 17-18 when she died which makes her 13-14 when Luke left the camp in TLT and 11-12 when Kronos first started talking to him. Adult Luke charmed an underage girl, and promised her that she was helping the demigods and then when she tried to stop, he started blackmailing her. [excerpts from TLO]

According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children UK, Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. The relationship a groomer builds can take different forms. This could be: a romantic relationship, as a mentor, an authority figure, a dominant and persistent figure. They might use blackmail to make a child feel guilt and shame or introduce the idea of 'secrets' to control, frighten and intimidate.

So canonically, Book!Luke is a fascist groomer pedophile.

Now on the new Disney+ Percy Jackson show, it seems that Rick Riordan is subtly rewriting the character of Luke and removing the more problematic aspect of him (pedophile and grooming). Let me explain why I think that:

Even though in TLT the book, Luke describes Annabeth as his little sister we know how well that lasted but I don't think they are keeping Annabeth's crush on him on the show from what I've seen (though I could be wrong).

Secondly, the casting of Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse puts Clarisse on the same age range as Luke, maybe a year or two younger but in the first book Clarisse was 13-14 and she was 17 in TLO, so they have aged her up. It is my assumption that they will also age Silena by casting a 17-19 yr old actress as her.

And they have made Luke far more sympathetic in the show than the books (him not calling a hellhound during capture the flag and no pit scorpions in the finale), but we wouldn't know how sympathetic or villainous they are making him until season 2 comes out. Charlie Bushnell gives an excellent performance imo

Though this again reflects the double standards it comes to PJO, they have given much grace and praise for the changes made to Luke's character and little to no complaint for ageing up Clarisse but the hate Walker and especially Leah are given is so cruel. Leah has been so much racially targeted though I think she's an excellent Annabeth, just something to think about.

Also, before I forget-

We don't give enough flack to Rick Riordan for writing two weird age dynamics without recognising as grooming and pedophilic nature. (Lukabeth and Caleo/Capercy)

The characters are never made to realise (especially Annabeth) that an older person having feelings for them as a minor is not a normal behaviour.

Especially in regards to Calypso who may take the form of a 15 year old but is actually more than 4612 (according to the riordan wiki) and her having a crush on 14 year old Percy and 15-16 yr old Leo Valdez, not to mention how rudely she treated Leo. Also her cursing Annabeth because Percy left her. Not only is it plain nasty but she's never called out. Its actually so disgusting🤕.

Anyways this turned into a long rant but I would love to read your opinions, especially on Luke's fatal flaw.

I know for some people it may seem like I'm too hard on him but this is just my opinion.

IMO I have no problem if you like a morally bad or gray person, an antihero or a villain as long as their bad deeds aren't swept under the rug and pretend they never happened or glorify their good deeds.

I actually think villian's bad things make them more interesting.

Luke is an antagonist and a villain of the PJO series and a part of being a villain is that some people are going to hate you and that's ok.

Me personally, I was never a fan of his and that's ok.

I know some people are going to bring up the fact that Percy in MoA sympathises but the PJO characters are complicated and Luke was very skilled at making others think of his reason to destroy the Gods the way they would sympathise the most and we see that multiple times.

[somewhereincairparavel]

[TW: grooming] Gentle reminder that Luke castellan was a 19 year old adult going after a 14 year old Silena, emotionally manipulating her and basically grooming her into giving him information. (Luke was said to have recruited Silena sometime after he left chb, which is basically the ending of TLT and Silena was 14 in TLT while Luke was 19) and continued to do so for 4 YEARS (the time between TLT and TLO is 4 years, and Silena only stopped falling into the trap after Charlie died, which was in TLO)

I hope the pjo timeline is an eye opener for the naive as fuck fans defending and justifying Luke's behaviour and having the audacity to deny that Silena was indeed groomed.

There's a difference between appreciating well written complex characters vs actually glossing and meat riding their problematic and questionable behaviour. A huge fucking difference. I think Luke is a good written character, but seeing the amount of fans justifying him being a creep scares me.

"Grooming" (I took the definition straight out of the internet for the detectives that will probably scrutinize and chew on my post lmao) is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.

Luke took advantage of Silena to BOTH manipulate AND exploit her for information.

Don't even get me started on the "he had a terrible home life, he was traumatized as a kid, what else can you expect?" yeah he was, but how was that Silena's fault? She shouldn't have to be taken advantage of , suffer without even realizing it, and pay the price to Luke's insanity, just because Luke had internalized issues like other demigods did?? How is that a fucking excuse??

Look me in the eye and tell me that Luke was "so hot because of how crazy, messed up and unhinged he is"

I dare you.

[massiveladycat]

[comfortabletogether]

I LOVE ETHAN TOO BUT I CAN NEVER FIND CONTENT OF HIM THAT'S NOT FUCKING L*ke so spare hcs????

YES SIR!! I am not a fan of Puke in this household. Even as a stupid little kid I thought that Luke was weird as hell.

Ethan has constant headaches and dizziness due to only having one eye. Typically if not in the middle of planned combat he has a big ass water bottle hooked onto the loops of his jeans.

Chronic blue jean wearer. To the point where most people think that he just doesn’t own a pair of pants that aren’t jeans. On top of that he doesn’t put them in the washer machine but instead he puts them in the freezer for a day or so.

Ethan struggles to fight in dark places. And it’s a severe struggle for him. Because everything is so much darker when you only are using one eye.

He has an unnaturally high metabolism and they don’t feed him exactly enough in the Titan Army. That caused him and Chris to sneak out in the middle of the night to go steal slushies from 7-11’s.

Ethan thinks exclusively in words. I don’t think he is an artistic person either. But he lives off of logic puzzles and if he could he would play the New York Times games every day (wordle, connections, crossword strands, etc).

When he lived in Camp Half Blood he was a quiet kid back then and was rarely acknowledged by those around him. But he would end up hanging out/find himself trailing behind Clairess, Silena, Chris, Charles and Lee.

People (in universe) easily mistake him for being extremely obedient and will always fall into line no matter what. Which is what ended up making him Kronos’ top general. But he does have his own strict sets of morals he has for himself, and one’s that he would never cross.

He works himself up thinking about equality issues and is extremely adamant about them and people respect other’s identities.

Is a cat person and his father always owns four cats at all times. On that topic dad was a lawyer that focused on family and divorce cases.

[pain-is-too-tired]

Leeluke to me is less "aw they be cute together" and more "Idk if they were married but they are definitely divorced" fgxdc

Like Krisnix in Ace Attorney

Lee being a very bitter ex who's so done with Luke and Luke just not getting it is so funny to me.

Lee had to help care for a nearly dead 12 year old boy that Luke just left to deal with a pit scorpion on his own for and immediately filed the divorce papers.

Luke @ Kronos: my wife's leaving me and he's taking the kids :(

Kronos: What kids??? What wife???

Cut to Lee with the Stolls dhdh

Lee also took the brain cell in the divorce/j

Reason of divorce in the papers is just "He tried to kill one kid three fucking times in one summer. Wtf." Dhdhh

[shattered-glasswork]

I was scrolling Tumblr and saw a post about L*ke claiming he was a hero in the end but... Did we read the same books? L*ke was a monster who led tons of children into their deaths, betrayed almost all of his friends and tried to kill percy multiple times. I get that he like stabbed himself in the end but I don't think that cancels out the wrong that he did, L*ke c@st3ll@n was a traitor and he died a traitor.

[mik3stuff]

Ugh I hate blond Apollo and I think the way Rick wrote him was pretty dirty. Tho I like his character, I still wish he was better writen

[punkeropercyjackson]

Percynico shippers and Godsshipping stans(including Luke aka the honorary god by qualifications)stop liking my anti Percabeth posts,i'm not associated with whatever Flowers In The Attic and Cmbyn shit y'all got going on

[freddie-77-ao3]

Octavian started another war where he was willing and eager to firebomb a camp full of children so he could reap the glory of victory. I'd say his villainization by the fandom is very well-earned, especially since he had none of Luke's more sympathetic traits.

feel like you missed my whole point but okay.

Um. I mean if we consider Luke's sympathetic traits to be he was actually treated as a human with a backstory, sure, Octavian deserves to be villainized more but uh, I'd consider Octavian's reasons for waging war a lot more legitimate than Luke's tbh?

Like. Luke's boiled down to daddy issues. He was upset his father wasn't there, and decided to make that everyone else's problem. Sure, if it wasn't Luke, it would be someone else, but Luke's the figurehead here. Luke, who was actually treated pretty well by Hermes all things considered.

And yes, May Castellan would have been terrifying, and shouldn't have been Luke's caregiver but...

Having a difficult parental situation absolutely does not give you the right to take your pain out on others. And that's what Luke did.

And yes, Luke absolutely was manipulated. Kronos manipulated him.

Now let's consider Octavian's motivation to "firebomb a camp full of children" as you put it.

Number one: Octavian was also manipulated. Gaea did manipulate him. He thought he was listening to Apollo-- a god who, to him, was good. Should be respected.

Number two: he didn't start the war. No, really. The greeks, from his point of view, brought a warship over the city and started firing. They damaged homes, likely hurt people, all within what was MEANT to be a safe place.

Leo might have been possessed but that was never communicated to Octavian. So no, he didn't start a war.

Gaea forced Leo to start a war. Either way, the Greeks started the war in his eyes.

Also the fact you take such offense to Octavian waging war on children... did you somehow think that Luke was only waging war on the adults? Because I can tell you, most people consider a twelve year old a child, and Luke did in fact try to kill one of those. You know, Percy.

Also victims of Luke: Silena, actively groomed by Luke. Yeah she committed suicide, but she wouldn't have if Luke hadn't done that. Also, grooming is in fact also a crime.

And, you know, all the other casualties from that war. Because there were. Castor, Lee, Bianca, Zoë, Michael, Beckendorf, the other 15 campers dead from the battle of manhattan, and all the other casualties.

Also he did send Chris into the labyrinth, and didn't particularly seem to care that he was driven mad?

Not to mention the PTSD he inflicted on a bunch of kids.

So yes, you're right, Octavian did bad shit. But he also had his reasons for said bad shit. Reasons that I, personally, find a lot more compelling than Luke's.

Plenty of people have daddy issues, anon. Not many of them try to end the world.

[echo-stimmingrose]

If I see one more love song edit for Annabeth and Luke I might just lose my mind. Especially since y'all are using SHOW ANNABETH AND LUKE

Like the child and the legal adult! Stop it!

[bugwolfsstuff]

I will never like or forgive Luke mostly because he is the reason Castor is never gonna see their dad again

Like its assumed that Dionysus had a good relationship with his kids.

And yeah Castor will have Pollux in the future but they're never gonna see their dad again.

They're dead and Dionysus is deathless

They're dead and never gets to see the parent they loved because Luke hated his parent

[massiveladycat]

maybe the "did you love me?" could be seen as platonic or romantic, but i'm not here to argue about that honestly, even if it was meant in a platonic way, luke was still an awful person. he manipulated kids in bad positions to join the titan army, knowing full well so many of them would die and knowing full well camp half-blood was full of children. in fact, he knew most of the campers personally children who trusted him were exploited and luke castellan is literally one of the most evil people in pjo deadass and it surprises me when i see people trying to defend him list of all the things he's done, excluding what he's done when possessed by kronos:

stole Zeus's lightning bolt to start a war with the gods, knowing full well that would have led to many deaths

framed 12-year-old percy for stealing Zeus's lightning bolt

gave 12-year-old percy cursed shoes meant to drop him into tartarus. he would NOT have survived that. that was done with every intent to kill percy.

summoned a hellhound to kill percy

left percy alone with a deadly scorpion

poisoned thalia's tree to put the campers (CHILDREN) in serious danger

tried to kill 13-year-old percy in a duel

deceived Annabeth into holding up the sky in place of atlas. she was 14. holding the sky is extremely painful. he literally took advantage of the fact she still had affection for him.

used Annabeth to make artemis hold up the sky

extorted silena into being his spy, threatening to hurt her boyfriend if she disobeyed; also took advantage of her crush on him (she was 14 or 15, luke was 23) anyways. fuck luke castellan and he is NOT innocent and never will be and he hurts children❤️ yes i agree that the gods are pretty messed up but he was more than willing to harm the people the gods were harming. he claimed to only want the best for them, but he was likely the number 1 reason that so many of the kids were dead and/or traumatized. he can't claim to only want the gods to be better when he's going to take it out on kids who've done nothing wrong.

[pain-is-too-tired]

Trafficking technically being canon in pjo still- it just drives me insane.

Like yeah, it might be one(two if you wanna count ttc opening conflict) instances we see

BUT THAT STILL NOT GREAT

I mean it also is great for fic ideas- surprised I hadn't really seen it- but still.

Just insane to me. It's not even "the Titan Army is paying good money for demigods" it's "Luke Castellan is paying good money for demigods."

Like no matter what way your splice it Luke is at least complicit in it.

I know I get silly when writing him with the Leeluke stuff, but there's a reason I tend to focus on divorce Leeluke

Because it's so hard not to write him getting the consequences of his actions. Because he DOES STUFF LIKE THIS.

Especially with how I write Lee. If Lee found out the Luke was at least complicit in what's pretty much the buying of other demigods, he'd kill him with his bare hands. Being stuck as Kronos' vessel would seem like a mercy compared to how badly Lee would kick his ass.

Anyway... looks at my Fae!Lee/were-coyote!Luke au wip Suddenly that doesn't seem too out of pocket anymore...