#i dont fault people who view her as solely a traitor or people who dont like her as a character or person

[ohumokay]

Super Long Silena Beauregard/Luke Castellan Rant

Okay, so we all have our options on Luke's groomer/pedo personality (due to what he said to Annabeth), but the clearest evidence (for me, at least) is when Luke manipulated Silena's crush on him.

[definition of grooming according to the NSPCC website: "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."]

Firstly, background info: In TLO, Silena confesses that, before dating Charlie, she had a crush on Luke. She found him charming and good-looking, all factors that are no doubt credible to Hermes being his father. Luke manipulated this crush to get her to spy on CHB for him. After she started dating Charlie, Luke couldn't use the crush anymore, so he changed tactics; assuring what they were doing was for a good cause. He then threatened to hurt her boyfriend and tell people that she was a traitor.

Next, ages: In TLO, Silena is 18 and Luke is 23, and it's confirmed that her and Charlie were dating for a bit over a year, since Silena was 17 and Luke was 22. So, with an educated guess, Luke preyed on Silena's crush when she was 16 or younger, most likely right before he left CHB. When he left CHB, he was 19 and Silena was 14.

Luke, at the GROWN age of 19 (more likely than not) used the crush a 14 YEAR OLD CHILD had on him to convince her to be a spy. Then, at the GROWN age of 22, threatened the 17 YEAR OLD CHILD and her boyfriend to stay a spy for him.

That is horrific. If he had just claimed to be fighting for a good cause to manipulate her, it might not have been so disgusted. That was his belief and he's entitled to that. But the fact that a grown ass-man knowingly used a child's crush on him to his advantage is grooming and underlining pedo-ish.

Now to the more Silena-based portion of this rant:

I'd like to state that everyone has a right to their own opinions, I respect it. That being said, I cant respect people who argue that Silena was a awful person because she was a traitor.

I can understand people not thinking of her as a hero (since I'm sorta those people), but to say she was an awful person for such a complex reason really irks me. Their only argument is that she's a traitor (or, at least all of the dozens that I've seen) and that's crap, because there was so much more to her betraying CHB.

As stated above, her romantic feeling was manipulated at such a younger and impressionable age. She was told that what she was doing was good. She had her own problems with the Olympians as most demigods did. It wasn't until she got with Charlie that she realized the extent and harm Luke was doing, but then her security and her boyfriend's safety was threatened. So what was a 17 year old who spent the past 3 years trusting this very person do? She listens. Because she knows what he's capable of, unfortunately .

After Charlie's death, though, is when she learned that it didn't matter how obedient she was. So, since she was no longer trying to spare Charlie's life, she decide to go down fighting against Luke.

I, in no way, think of Silena being a hero through and through. I think she was a traitor (not really by choice). I believe she live as a traitor, but I also believe she died heroically.

She lived as a spy for the titan army, but died leading the missing and probably most important piece of the demigod army.

She lived deceiving to her loved ones, but died changing the tides of the Second Titan War in the demigod's favor.

She lived morally bad, but died tragically beautiful.

Silena Beauregard, the daughter of Aphrodite, died as a hero.