#leo valdez preferences

[1800-lemon-boy]

Friendly reminder that Jason spent months looking for Leo and only stopped when Chiron forced him to enroll in school.

<33

[xoxochb]

we as a society need to bring back early 2024 riordanverse fandom

[half-gone]

Jason would’ve wanted to be buried at Camp Half-Blood. Send tweet.

[fbfh]

HIHIHI I LOVE YOUR WORK AND ID LOVE TO DROP A REQUEST<33

HOW WOULD THE HOO BOYS ACT TO THE READER OWNING A CAT? DO YOU THINK THE CAT WOULD LIKE HIM? HATE HIM?<3

YOU'RE SO TALENTED, IT'S AWESOME

BAAAAABES YOU ARE SO SWEET!!!!! SUCH A CUTIE PATOOTIE!!!!!!

Percy is pleasantly surprised. he wonders how he didn't know you have a cat, and starts asking you everything he can think of. do you have any other pets? what's your favorite animal? how did you come up with your cat's name? how long have you had them? he wants to know everything about you that he didn't before. while you lay with your head on his stomach as he picks your brain, you find yourself pleasantly surprised too. your cat will not leave Percy alone. kitty purrs, rubbing against him, demanding cuddles and belly rubs. kitty tries to move you off Percy so they can lay on him instead. kitty licks him, and you watch, giggling.

"I probably just taste like fish." Percy jokes, cuddling kitty right back.

Jason is a little scared of your cat. not because he doesn't like cats, but because he feels like he needs to impress them, gain their approval. and we all know that the more you try to make a cat like you, the more they'll ignore you. you explain this to Jason, but it does little to soothe his inner turmoil over the thought of not being approved by your beloved pet. he starts rubbing cat nip on himself before he comes over, bringing bouncy fuzzy mice and lickable salmon fillet flavored treats. he's armed to the teeth, determined to make your kitty at neutral towards him. slightly favorable would be a huge win in his book. your cat can smell his fear, and thinks it's... kind of funny. after three treats and enough whiffs of catnip coming off him, kitty butts their head against Jason, tail curling in approval before trotting off to nap in the window. never in your life have you seen Jason look so triumphant.

"Good. Good. This is good." You cut him off with a kiss before he can show you his 16 step plan to win over your cat.

you swear your cat loves Leo more than you. you can't believe your eyes when your cat runs right over to him when you bring him home.

"hey gaitito," he chuckles, bending down to give your now purring cat a scratch behind the ears. "look at you."

I swear to god cats are drawn to Leo. in Houston they would gather around his apartment building when he was a kid. he would sneak the neighborhood strays snacks and leftovers, naming them after tv characters from his mom's favorite telanovelas. your kitty is no different. they follow you two around all day, purring and demanding attention. they lay on his chest, drooling when he scratches their chin. never in your life have you seen a cat drool. but you drool over Leo a lot too, so you guess you're in good company.

Frank first meets your cat when you call him, asking for advice. your cat has been weird lately, and seems to be avoiding your kitchen. they won't eat or drink in there, and you can't figure out why. Frank shows up at your place, greets you with a kiss, and you bring him over to couch your kitty is curled up on. in the blink of an eye, Frank transforms himself into a large, gray, maine coon tabby cat. he trots over to your kitty, who wakes up with a little chirp. they stare at each other for a moment, making an occasional noise, tails flicking. your cat gets up and trots to the kitchen door, and Frank follows, entering hesitantly. he leaves as a human a moment later, nodding his head.

"It's white noise from your new humidifier." he explains, your cat's eyes trained on him the whole time. you had no idea one of the perks of dating Frank was dating an animal whisperer, and he tells you and your cat he's happy to help translate any time.

[somewhereincairparavel]

Okay look. I'm not a huge fan of Piper's character myself, and that is because the trope of her character was, in my opinion, executed very poorly.

but do people really hate her because she said that Percy was less impressive compared to Jason? This whole thing started out as a joke, but I've literally seen people include this in one of their "Why Piper Mclean is a bad character" essays and it never fails to boggle my mind.

Why are people so mad that a girl said her boyfriend was better than a random guy she barely knew? It's very natural, that regardless of how handsome and impressive looking a person may be, partners always come first. In fact, she should be praised for staying that loyal, to the point that she didn't even subconsciously find any other guy attractive, despite the amount of praise she heard of Percy. I thought it was rather sweet that the moment she looked at percy, her first thought was Jason, her boyfriend. Let's be real, if Annabeth did the same for percy, y'all would be drowning her in praise for being "wife material" or something 😒

If it weren't Percy, then the fandom would accuse Piper of emotionally cheating on Jason by having thoughts of other guys. That's just it.

Also, canonically, Jason was better built/looked more fit with tanned muscles and had this intimidating and royal look, while Percy was said to look a little skinny/lanky (even though he is very strong) so Piper saying that Percy wasn't impressive looking wasn't directed as an insult. Piper was just puzzled that Percy didn't look as "strong" and "grand" like she imagined the HERO of Olympus to look like.

Also literally a few pages later, she said that Percy had cute baby seal eyes, apparently that isn't a compliment?

I cannot believe ppl are trashing a 15 year old girl for not falling on her knees for a boy when she has a boyfriend. Like you can hate Piper and everything, i don't like her either, but give valid reasons pls 😭

[schooltown-follies]

valdangelo renaissance WHEN

[wanderingmind867]

Ranking the Seven (plus Nico):

1. Nico di Angelo: Just…ever since I was a nine or ten year old boy reading Rick Riordan's books, Nico di Angelo was my anchor into the world of Percy Jackson. Lonely, an outcast, the one person everybody else shunned…he was always just a vessel for all my real pain and fear. He still is. All my loneliness and sadness and stress and anxiety…it can all be channeled into him.

And to think more about it, he really is just like me. He never opens up to others (same as me, he probably has a fear of judgement), he's got no real friends for most of the books (which is still true of me at 20, no friends except my dad), he's just…god, Nico di Angelo is the character in these books i've always loved most. And I wish he got all the happy things that I feel i haven't had yet.

Frank Zhang: Frank was like the second main character who always spoke to me. Not just because he was Canadian (although that certainly helped), but because he was a heavier set kid who didn't have many friends. His mother died; whereas mine was more just dying (dead now, of course). And I always did like how he was good with a bow and arrow. A ranged fighter with a preference towards support (despite how his looks make him appear), Frank Zhang had a lot of relatable aspects too.

Honestly, nobody in these books ever had a 1 for 1 backstory line up with me (it'd be incredibly bizarre if there was one, I suppose). But Frank and Nico are two of the ones who come closest to hitting me right in the heart. I definitely can see myself in them, and I love them both a lot.

Jason Grace: Jason is a character i've heard be called bland many times. But are you all reading the same books!? Jason Grace is not bland! He is the paragon of virtue, a great kid who always does what he thinks is right. And I really relate to his existential issues. He's a confused person. Is he Greek or Roman? Who is he? Where does he belong? Will he ever belong? A great many of those questions feel like they apply to me as well as to him, and that makes him all the more relatable.

Also, Jason seems to value order and fairness. I respect that. I, too, value order and consistency in my actions. Who doesn't? I'm that weird kid who liked my teachers ten times more than I liked my fellow students. I never got along with other kids. I always felt like I was somehow more mature in some ways. So that's why Jason Grace and Cyclops are like some of my favourite fictional teenagers. They remind me of myself.

Leo Valdez: I almost put Leo in front of Jason, but one thing changed my mind: I hate machinery and mechanics. Don't get me wrong: I like machines. As someone who's wasted way too much time talking to AI chatbots (and who always relates to characters like Vision or Red Tornado), I definitely like machines. But I don't like getting my hands dirty. Mechanics and hands on work was never my thing. So, you know, that was the deciding factor here.

Still, I really relate to Leo. His avoidant streak (which is super relatable), his insecurities about being the most useless member on the team (which is also relatable), even the fact that he covers his insecurites by acting overly confident and personable gets to me. Because while I don't do that one, I do understand all of Leo's insecurites. He's definitely one of my favourite characters.

Hazel Levesque: A girl from out of time. She doesn't quite fit in with this time period, and I can relate to that in some ways (i've always felt like an old soul myself). She's from New Orleans (possibly the one locale in the US that I really like, due to watching Disney's Princess and the Frog as a kid). She's even got magic powers, thus putting her in with the group of people I tend to like most in fiction: mages.

Hazel is a great character. She makes my top five because she appeals to almost all of my many interests. She was never my number one favourite, but she's definitely up there.

Piper McLean: I loved Piper's story. I don't like how native american stuff is never explored in US media (while up here in Canada, we at least get frequent documentaries and sitcoms stuff about indigenous people and culture). So just…whether it's fully accurate or not, props to Rick Riordan for even giving us Cherokee representation. I can't think of any other native characters in american media off the top of my head, so he's already succeeding because of that.

But I also really liked Piper for her struggles with being aphrodite's daughter, and with being a famous celebrity's kid. These things aren't all too relatable on the surface, but the way Rick Riordan wrote about them…god, you know it's good writing when i can grow to feel empathy and love for a character (even despite our many differences). So Piper is cool.

But I do have at least one minor complaint with her story: did her dad really have to forget she was a demigod? That part of the Lost Hero really let me down, and I still don't see the logic of having it happen. So that's why she's number six here.

Annabeth Chase: Annabeth is often relatable, but mostly just when i'm reading from her perspective. From her POV, I really do feel her. I really do love the chapters from her perspective. But when it's other characters talking about her or dealing with her…she is a lot less likeable. She can be downright rude to many characters.

I remember how she hated Tyson. She had decent reasons, but it still really got to me. I didn't like how her and percy started with a bit of an antagonistic attitude towards each other. I also never really felt too much of her issues in regards to her home life. I always kind of related to Frederick Chase, and so I never saw the issues with her home life. When we see it in The Titan's Curse, it seems downright pleasant. So I never understood her.

But let me make something kind of clear: Annabeth is way better following the Mark of Athena. In the Mark of Athena and House of Hades, i've loved her every scene. In all the previous books…it was a lot more love/hate. So I don't despise her (I would never go that far), but I just have some hangups that seem to be personal to me.

8. Percy Jackson: Oh, boy. This opinion is gonna be controversial, I already have that feeling. But i'm gonna stand firm here. Percy Jackson isn't that great. His supporting cast usually always outshines him. He's funny sometimes, sure. But think about his actions. He was just as judgmental towards Tyson as everyone else, at least initially. We read about him admitting he didn't like being related to him! And that action is just the tip of the iceberg.

He abandoned Calypso to rot on Ogygia (while Leo actually had the decency and moral fiber to rescue her). He didn't fulfill the dreams he said he believed in, either. He said he wanted the gods to claim all their kids, yet Camp Half-Blood only added maybe seven new cabins. That's not nearly good enough. That's half assing it. Look what Jason Grace did! He honoured all the gods, even if they were minor ones like Kympoleia! Anything Percy did, someone else did it ten times better!

And let's not forget Nico's treatment here! Percy also didn't seem to like Nico that much, considering he was way too easily annoyed by him (when there were far worse kids out there). Nico got screwed over by Percy, and I won't let that one go! Only one who screwed him over worse was his own sister (abandoning him for the hunters when she knew she was all he had)! But I digress. I just… Percy doesn't live up to any of the high potential set on him. Especially not when compared to the other seven.

So there are my rankings. I kind of feel like mine are probably going to end up sort of uncommon, but this is legitimately my opinions on each character. If anyone else wants to share their rankings, feel free to. At this point, i'm kind of interested to see what other people's opinions are.

[katiefromcabin7]

I’m trying to avoid describing features in my fic because I want people to picture whichever versions of the characters they want but it is making somethings so challenging because I’m trying to avoid things like eye and hair colour

[huntingrays]

headcanon: whenever annabeth and leo work together on a project, they like to have on a documentary in the background. since leo hates the quiet and they can’t ever agree on what songs they should listen to, so they settle for documentaries instead of music. early on, they ran into some snags with this plan, since annabeth preferred ocean related documentaries while leo preferred space ones. in the end, they reached a middle ground and settled for animal documentaries. now, whenever the two of them see frank, they always rattle of animal fun facts to him because “he may need them someday” (and they’re very shocked when the shape shifter doesn’t know the random fun fact they have)

[dontspillthefrijoles43]

My hoo headcanons (pt??)

♡ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ♡

Breisa man woman handling Leo when he’s in a bind.

Grabbing him by the waist, hoisting him up, or pulling him behind her. Hell even tackling him down from enemy fire during capture the flag. Yelling at him for being An idiot, out in the open to danger.

Leo getting all dizzy and smoking up, maybe it’s the fact an invention went wrong. The way she’s on top of him, her arms are wrapped tightly onto him, and suddenly he’s being tossed over her shoulder like a rag-doll. A prince in peril…He can’t really complain, in fact he just giggles with a flush— It’s not stupid, when I have you to protect me.

She doesn’t have time to call him an idiot again. Before she’s shadow traveling them both out of cross fire.

Later, he thanks her with his famous Chilaquiles.

Breisa snorts and tell him, What are you my wife?

I prefer husband. He doesn’t think when he says it. But he knows he means it. Plus it’s hilarious when she does a double take.

♡ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ♡

[hazellvsq]

frank/hazel/leo most popular pjo ot3? an analysis

okay so the love triangle poll had me thinking. i knew frank/hazel/leo had ship content on ao3, and i was curious to see if other love triangles or popular trios got the same treatment.

(this is very long and rambling)

this is the amount of ao3 content frank/hazel/leo has:

these are the other trios i was looking at:

last one is crazy lol. anyway, other potential trios like jason/reyna/piper or different combos of percy/annabeth/piper/jason all had less than 20 fics each. its possible i missed one but i'm pretty sure i tried of all of them.

for context, the general state of pjo character and ship content looks like this:

the vast majority of tagged fandom content with frank and hazel has them as background characters. finding content that centers them takes digging. aside from calypso/leo, they have the least popular canon ship, and the only other character that either has any substantial fan content with is leo. the pjo fandom has shipped leo with literally any character he was in proximity with, and hazel was a canon love interest of his. in addition, the pjo fandom has incredibly popular mlm ships and has gone through the time-honored tradition of finding ways to sideline, if not villainize, the canon female love interests. which makes these next stats so interesting to me:

a decent portion of works in both of these tags are frank/hazel/leo fics that got crosstagged. obviously, frank/hazel have more fics than frank/hazel/leo:

however, its impossible to figure out how many of these fics actually center frank/hazel, as opposed to them just being background characters. so i did a test and filtered out all of the more popular ships in their tag:

this isn't a perfect representation, because there are definitely frank/hazel centric-fics that had other ships in the background, and frank/hazel/leo aren't the main couple of every fic they get tagged in. still, though. that's less than the frank/hazel/leo fics.

the other thing about hazel and frank content is that they are the two characters who are most frequently headcanoned as straight. it's died down some in recent years but it used to be CONSTANT (it happened to leo too, but not as much). most fans thought they were the two most "traditional" characters, value-wise. so i was thinking, if frank and hazel got this much content for a poly ship, then the characters that this fandom actually thinks are gay have to have more:

and then i was like, hmmm well okay i'm very surprised there's not more for those three. but there's so many people who ship some combo of nico/percy/jason/will. i've seen so many big 3 edits that leave out the girls. there's no way frank/hazel/leo is beating out the white slash ship industrial complex.

frank/hazel/leo beat out the white slash ship industrial complex (big threesome is a very funny ship name tho).

my biggest guess would be that there was some sort of beef between the percy/nico and jason/nico crowds that has led to this lack of ot3 content. i wouldn't know. i'm wondering if they're going to catch up; its not far off right now. as far as i can tell will solace has no popular ot3's that broke more than 20 fics and is pretty much only shipped with nico.

other potential ot3's like jason/piper/leo...i have a theory that a lot of jason/piper shippers only really shipped it in conjunction with percy/annabeth because they were were a good secondary couple for percabeth-centric fics, and didn't care about leo as much (which could explain why there's more overall content for jason and piper than for leo). also, i think historically a lot of leo fans thought jason and piper were bad friends, although these days there's a lot more renewed appreciation for their trio. piper has also been commonly written as a ship obstacle since the inception of her character, when people thought she was homewrecking jason and reyna (the jason/nico crowd uses this trope too), which might be why she's not commonly put in ot3's despite having chemistry with most of the cast. on the other hand, the "ship wars" between hazel/frank and hazel/leo shippers in the mark of athena era were pretty mild, because most readers liked all three characters and didn't have strong enough feelings about either pairing to fight about it, whereas other ot3's don't get written because fans have a very strong preference for their other ships.

i know frank/hazel/leo has its origins on ff.net, but it was mostly one author and mostly just kink. there's a much bigger variety on ao3. i'm wondering why people liked it enough to make it a side pairing for other fics, and at what point the bulk of content for it was written. i'm wondering what people get out of combining the three of them that you don't get from just two. is it because all 3 dynamics are so clearly defined in canon? some of them also are based on kinks like mpreg that historically exclude women, so why do these authors include one? this is also interesting because the rest of the fanbase, including both fans who ship frank/hazel and fans who think that shipping hazel with anybody is problematic, refuse to write about hazel or frank having sex to the point where it was a fandom meme for a while. except in frank/hazel/leo fics, where a large percentage have explicit content. i'm wondering which of the nico/jason/percy or frank/hazel/leo tags has more mpreg, but i'm okay not knowing.

if you made it this far, there's not a real point to this post, except pointing out that for characters who barely get shipping content, frank/hazel/leo is unexpectedly popular considering how much content exists about them otherwise, and also goes against popular fandom perception of the characters in interesting ways.

[crookedghosts]

there's a LOT of bouncing around in the lost trio challengers au and it's not even done yet but rn even I get lost in my 13k word document sometimes. a part of me thinks that this is a story best read in one sitting even more so than most multichapter fics (just, with how things unravel and how I'm playing tennis with the characters), but I also want to make it manageable without finding a nonsense halfway point just to make a part one and part two (which is not how it was written)...

I did find areas where the perspective kind of switches between characters to build (so far) 2.4k, 3.2k, 5.5k, and 1.7k+ word chapters. and that's a lot more accurate to how it's been written—you bounce in one or two characters' brains for a little, it contextualizes what's happening in the present, and now you understand the last POV better/the next one will make more sense.

what do y'all think about me slowly posting them (probably with a day in between each, since I am trying to finish those last chapters soon) vs posting it as one complete work all at once vs posting... 4-5 chapters all at once? I've written it assuming that it's all one piece, and more gets uncovered about past "chapters" as things get revealed, which makes bouncing around helpful, so I think that the reasoning for either format is kind of the same except for what people prefer/if people would read the same work differently if it were posted differently

if anyone has particular interest in this and wants to read it to form a proper opinion also, by all means lmk and I'd be happy to share the draft for that input :")

[what-is-merlin-so-gay-for]

reading tlh right now and i just know 14yo me would have been OBSESSED with leo valdez godddd funny and a tragic backstory??? just how i liked them

[demigod-shenanigans]

I will never understand the writing choice that was the weird mean 180 Calypso does from pjo to HoO. Also we’re pretending Calypso is in fact sixteen because I absolutely cannot deal with the implications of their canon age difference. But.

The thing is I think some of the ideas Rick had for Calypso’s character in ToA were genuinely interesting. I liked her having conflicting feelings about leaving the island and losing her immortality and most of her powers in the process. That makes sense! (And also the “feeling conflicted about losing immortality”-aspect is one joining the Hunters could resolve.) But the execution of that and the way she takes it out on Leo and how that’s never said to be a bad thing is really frustrating. Her having valid conflicting feelings doesn’t give her the right to make Leo feel like shit and she absolutely should have been called out on that. The way a lot of the problems in their relationship were explicitly connected to Calypso not being able to deal with Leo’s nd traits (specifically her disliking his fixation on machines and getting frustrated with the way he communicates) and how that was handled not by her making more of an effort to understand him but by making it seem like every issue in their relationship was in fact Leo’s fault and he had to completely change as a person to stay in that relationship is just. Extremely not okay on a lot of levels imo.

The way it’s portrayed is also absolutely not helped by the fact that Apollo, who is narrating, doesn’t really care about Leo, Calypso or their relationship that much. He’s just kind of like “eh, they’re arguing, this happens a lot for reasons that I don’t care to find out more about, moving on to thinking about all of my problems”. Iirc the conversation where Leo and Calypso sort of make up and decide to stay at the Waystation together doesn’t even happen on screen. This off-screen “resolution” is then followed directly by Leo leaving Calypso to go help his friends, which—while completely understandable—feeds directly into Calypso always being left behind, but that is also not properly addressed.

Their relationship had a whole host of problems and was just not built to last. They’re both traumatized teenagers but their traumas are so at odds with each other that they end up making things worse for each other. All their issues come together to make an explosive mix that was bound to blow up in their faces sooner rather than later.

Calypso and Leo are actually sort of fascinating to me in a toxic wreck kind of way. The girl who no one ever stays for and the boy who has been running away for his entire life. The girl cursed to fall in love with every person who lands on her island and the boy who chronically only ever falls in love with people who are completely unattainable.

They’re both so desperate to finally be loved and for it to be different this time that they’re ignoring all the ways in which they just don’t fit. They want this to work, but even when they’re trying to be gentle with each other all they can do is press down on each other’s bruises.

Calypso wants to love Leo by showing emotional sincerity and asking him to do the same thing, but emotional sincerity is something Leo has always struggled with, and he can’t give her that. That’s just not who he is. Leo isn’t big on words but he is big on gestures and showing that he cares in other ways, which isn’t a thing Calypso really does or knows what to do with. They’re both trying to show they care, but in a way that the other person doesn’t really understand or want and just hurt themselves and each other in the process.

They cannot break the pattern with each other because them meeting and “falling in love” is just a repeat of how they always act. Calypso doesn’t realize it at the time, but she only falls for Leo because he lands on her island and her usual curse gets her again. And Leo may come back for her, but he only does that because he’s running away! He’s running away from the friends that love him because he’s so afraid of not fitting in and not being wanted by them (and not being wanted by Jason) that the pipe dream of a girl on an island no one has ever managed to return to seems far more reasonable and far less scary.

Leo needed to realize he is loved and deserves that love before entering any kind of romantic relationship (there’s a reason that him learning to see himself as a person worth loving is such a huge part of my Orpheus Eurydice fic). Just throwing a girlfriend at the problem, especially one who then proceeds to trample all over his coping mechanisms, is sure as hell not going to resolve it.

The lesson here should have been “you cannot do the same thing over and over expecting different results”

I’m also genuinely not sure why Rick doesn’t just commit to breaking them up. They’re on a break anyway and the last thing we got was a blog post of Calypso bailing on seeing Leo for Thanksgiving at the last second. Like, at this point just commit to breaking them up, this is just miserable to witness. God.

As much as I dislike caleo, calypso herself is not an inherently bad character (only talking about pjo, if we're talking about the accurate calypso from Greek myths then I'm tying up my hair and putting my hands up she's awful there)

but the thing is that TOA caleo ruined any development that she could have had

You had a boy who never felt loved and a girl who always fell in love with people that couldn't stay and threw them together? It's a good ship in concept

but then you get to the plot holes and stuff

like calypso being 6000+ years old and Leo being 16

and calypso being insanely rude and demeaning to Leo throughout TOA

it's just not a good ship and I'm sorry because it could've been cute it really could've but it's not

i really really hope that rick realizes that caleo isn't a good or healthy relationship bc it would be better for both calypso and Leo to break up

imagine calypso, someone who has been cursed to never find true love (JUST LIKE REYNA!) finally getting in the mindset that she doesn't need a guy to be happy that she can live her own life without relying on romance

imagine calypso joining the hunters of artemis. would that not be the most perfect thing for her character?

and Leo, who has never found someone who stays with him and loves him for who he is, going on a mission (similar to Orpheus and Eurydice) and bringing Jason back to life and them living together

it's my silly valgrace obsessed brain but seriously??? THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD

And the fanfic writers that I know have written "sequels" like this and did it so perfectly prove that this COULD be done

please Rick I am begging you make my tragic gays happen PLEASEEE

[somewhereincairparavel]

I'm actually appalled at how gatekeeping, aggravating and Percy obsessive the pjo fandom is when you say you like Jason as a character or say ANYTHING good about him at all. I've had such horrible experiences, like why the dirty look ffs? I'm not a "true" pjo fan if I like Jason?? Bffr it sounds like something an 8 year old would say

Like I came across a YouTube comment appreciating Jason and Nico's closeness as friends and the replies HAD to be "oh L take. Imagine liking jason. Percy was much more brotherly and affectionate with Nico than Jason was" like ??? This is isn't about Percy?? Not everything revolves around him?? People can like and appreciate others too? How come I NEVER see these comments in a Leo or Nico post?

Or those stupid Instagram reels where ppl go "The people who like Jason isn't one of us" like this ain't a cult ma'am you aren't special for for making Jason lovers feel unwelcome. It seems to be some kind of trend.

Liking Jason isn't a fucking disease and people aren't obligated to have Percy as a favourite. Get over it, the world isn't going to end. I swear I didn't want to come off so aggressive here but this is seriously a very toxic and offputting trait the fandom has that NEEDS to fade over time.

[wanderingmind867]

Ranking the Seven (plus Nico):

1. Nico di Angelo: Just…ever since I was a nine or ten year old boy reading Rick Riordan's books, Nico di Angelo was my anchor into the world of Percy Jackson. Lonely, an outcast, the one person everybody else shunned…he was always just a vessel for all my real pain and fear. He still is. All my loneliness and sadness and stress and anxiety…it can all be channeled into him.

And to think more about it, he really is just like me. He never opens up to others (same as me, he probably has a fear of judgement), he's got no real friends for most of the books (which is still true of me at 20, no friends except my dad), he's just…god, Nico di Angelo is the character in these books i've always loved most. And I wish he got all the happy things that I feel i haven't had yet.

Frank Zhang: Frank was like the second main character who always spoke to me. Not just because he was Canadian (although that certainly helped), but because he was a heavier set kid who didn't have many friends. His mother died; whereas mine was more just dying (dead now, of course). And I always did like how he was good with a bow and arrow. A ranged fighter with a preference towards support (despite how his looks make him appear), Frank Zhang had a lot of relatable aspects too.

Honestly, nobody in these books ever had a 1 for 1 backstory line up with me (it'd be incredibly bizarre if there was one, I suppose). But Frank and Nico are two of the ones who come closest to hitting me right in the heart. I definitely can see myself in them, and I love them both a lot.

Jason Grace: Jason is a character i've heard be called bland many times. But are you all reading the same books!? Jason Grace is not bland! He is the paragon of virtue, a great kid who always does what he thinks is right. And I really relate to his existential issues. He's a confused person. Is he Greek or Roman? Who is he? Where does he belong? Will he ever belong? A great many of those questions feel like they apply to me as well as to him, and that makes him all the more relatable.

Also, Jason seems to value order and fairness. I respect that. I, too, value order and consistency in my actions. Who doesn't? I'm that weird kid who liked my teachers ten times more than I liked my fellow students. I never got along with other kids. I always felt like I was somehow more mature in some ways. So that's why Jason Grace and Cyclops are like some of my favourite fictional teenagers. They remind me of myself.

Leo Valdez: I almost put Leo in front of Jason, but one thing changed my mind: I hate machinery and mechanics. Don't get me wrong: I like machines. As someone who's wasted way too much time talking to AI chatbots (and who always relates to characters like Vision or Red Tornado), I definitely like machines. But I don't like getting my hands dirty. Mechanics and hands on work was never my thing. So, you know, that was the deciding factor here.

Still, I really relate to Leo. His avoidant streak (which is super relatable), his insecurities about being the most useless member on the team (which is also relatable), even the fact that he covers his insecurites by acting overly confident and personable gets to me. Because while I don't do that one, I do understand all of Leo's insecurites. He's definitely one of my favourite characters.

Hazel Levesque: A girl from out of time. She doesn't quite fit in with this time period, and I can relate to that in some ways (i've always felt like an old soul myself). She's from New Orleans (possibly the one locale in the US that I really like, due to watching Disney's Princess and the Frog as a kid). She's even got magic powers, thus putting her in with the group of people I tend to like most in fiction: mages.

Hazel is a great character. She makes my top five because she appeals to almost all of my many interests. She was never my number one favourite, but she's definitely up there.

Piper McLean: I loved Piper's story. I don't like how native american stuff is never explored in US media (while up here in Canada, we at least get frequent documentaries and sitcoms stuff about indigenous people and culture). So just…whether it's fully accurate or not, props to Rick Riordan for even giving us Cherokee representation. I can't think of any other native characters in american media off the top of my head, so he's already succeeding because of that.

But I also really liked Piper for her struggles with being aphrodite's daughter, and with being a famous celebrity's kid. These things aren't all too relatable on the surface, but the way Rick Riordan wrote about them…god, you know it's good writing when i can grow to feel empathy and love for a character (even despite our many differences). So Piper is cool.

But I do have at least one minor complaint with her story: did her dad really have to forget she was a demigod? That part of the Lost Hero really let me down, and I still don't see the logic of having it happen. So that's why she's number six here.

Annabeth Chase: Annabeth is often relatable, but mostly just when i'm reading from her perspective. From her POV, I really do feel her. I really do love the chapters from her perspective. But when it's other characters talking about her or dealing with her…she is a lot less likeable. She can be downright rude to many characters.

I remember how she hated Tyson. She had decent reasons, but it still really got to me. I didn't like how her and percy started with a bit of an antagonistic attitude towards each other. I also never really felt too much of her issues in regards to her home life. I always kind of related to Frederick Chase, and so I never saw the issues with her home life. When we see it in The Titan's Curse, it seems downright pleasant. So I never understood her.

But let me make something kind of clear: Annabeth is way better following the Mark of Athena. In the Mark of Athena and House of Hades, i've loved her every scene. In all the previous books…it was a lot more love/hate. So I don't despise her (I would never go that far), but I just have some hangups that seem to be personal to me.

8. Percy Jackson: Oh, boy. This opinion is gonna be controversial, I already have that feeling. But i'm gonna stand firm here. Percy Jackson isn't that great. His supporting cast usually always outshines him. He's funny sometimes, sure. But think about his actions. He was just as judgmental towards Tyson as everyone else, at least initially. We read about him admitting he didn't like being related to him! And that action is just the tip of the iceberg.

He abandoned Calypso to rot on Ogygia (while Leo actually had the decency and moral fiber to rescue her). He didn't fulfill the dreams he said he believed in, either. He said he wanted the gods to claim all their kids, yet Camp Half-Blood only added maybe seven new cabins. That's not nearly good enough. That's half assing it. Look what Jason Grace did! He honoured all the gods, even if they were minor ones like Kympoleia! Anything Percy did, someone else did it ten times better!

And let's not forget Nico's treatment here! Percy also didn't seem to like Nico that much, considering he was way too easily annoyed by him (when there were far worse kids out there). Nico got screwed over by Percy, and I won't let that one go! Only one who screwed him over worse was his own sister (abandoning him for the hunters when she knew she was all he had)! But I digress. I just… Percy doesn't live up to any of the high potential set on him. Especially not when compared to the other seven.

So there are my rankings. I kind of feel like mine are probably going to end up sort of uncommon, but this is legitimately my opinions on each character. If anyone else wants to share their rankings, feel free to. At this point, i'm kind of interested to see what other people's opinions are.