#minos should not be a judge of the underworld after BotL

[hyperpotamianarch]

All right. So, I had another PJO character essay in relation to my Bianca fic baking on my mind ever since the last one, so I guess I'll do it. This time, I wish to talk about King Minos.

King Minos is pretty much a straight-forward character: he's dead, he wants to come back to life through killing his bitter enemy. Sure, he'll scheme and backstab to achieve this goal, but this is pretty much his only motive. Well, aside from his weird sense of ownership over the Labyrinth.

His way to achieve his goal initially is manipulating Nico into trading a life for a life, then hijacking the process and reviving himself. Technically we don't know if he always intended to sell him to the Titan army, as that could be a last resort due to Nico losing his motivation for even attempting the trade.

In our alternative universe, though, he has the problem that Nico's motive is too fragile to begin with, as his sister is still alive even if he isn't aware of it. It's plausible that Minos is aware that Bianca is alive as a judge of the Underworld, in addition to the fact she's in "his" Labyrinth. Which leads us to the questions: why Nico? And could Minos potentially want to manipulate Bianca instead in this AU?

Well, Nico and Bianca certainly share parentage, which might be relevant. While we're told that trading a life for a life is possible, we're not told that it's possible for everyone. It's not impossible that it's essentially a special request from Hades ("you cannot offer your father a soul that will come to him eventually regardless. Besides, he is not keen on hastening his own son's death", roughly retranslated because I don't have the English version). At the very least, Hades needs to approve of the exchange - to a degree, as Minos still thinks he can cheat and be ressurrected himself. If that's th reason Minos stuck up with Nico then supposedly Bianca will fit him just as well.

But of coursse, that's not the case, is it. Nico has a couple of other parameters that make him more susceptible to manipulation: he's younger and he has someone he wants to ressurrect. We also don't know what Bianca's powers are, and it's not impossible that Nico, King of Ghosts, is actually more powerful than her - which jus makes him a better cunduit for Minos' ressurrection, if true. But we don't know anything about power levels and their relevance, and regarding Nico's young age and drive to attempt the trade - well, Bianca's amnesiac in my story. If Minos would succeeed in convincing her that Nico is dead, he could possibly drive her to doing what he wants... maybe. We really don't know if Bianca would've done such a thing to Nico. Maybe so, maybe not. And I kind of get to decide. But to be honest, Nico is already a step closer than her, so he'll be Minos' first choice.

So, what I think would happen is Minos will do his best to keep Bianca away from Nico. And since I need someone to direct Bianca somehow, I just might give this role to Minos. We'll see about that.

There are quite a few things further down the line that make it problematic, though. I don't know, for example, how Minos might be able to avoid Having Nico summon his sister. In addition, without the Iris-net messages... How would Annabeth and Percy (and Grover and Tyson) react to meeting Nico? Would they still attempt to convince him to give up on ressurrecting Bianca? Would they have a chance of success without being able to talk to Bianca herself?

I also have a slight problem with Minos I wish to address. Namely, the fact that after all that, after literally selling his boss' child to the Titans, he's still a judge in the Underworld! Guys, he literally supported a rebellion/the other side of a war. And he's kept as a judge? People like that are generally thrown to Tartarus and given appropriate punishment in accordance to their sin. Why in Hades would they let this guy stay a judge?

(I do have a weird excuse about how there might be two Minos spirits, one that is his immortal side from Zeus who gets to judge people and one who is actually a mortal ghost that didn't cross the Styx due to not having a coin and is now a restless dead watching over the Maze. However, that is a crack theory and makes as much sense as the theory I just invented about Kronos causing the regeneration of monsters by being cut to pieces in Tartarus: both are uncontradictable by canon, but neither is likely to be true.)

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

[hyperpotamianarch]

Here's a problem.

After posting this, I caught myself overthinking how many notes it's getting in relation to the other posts about this fic I've made. And that's one worrying sign about my motivation on writing this. The other is how this didn't really help me flesh out Minos' role in this fic. In actuality, it was an attempt at writing when the one thing that kept being on my mind was why Minos was still a judge of the dead?

I mean, seriously. When pondering his character for this fic, conceiving what was to become this post, I actually thought out a rant about how this doesn't make sense at all. Minos didn't only betray the order of the gods, he betrayed Hades in particular - attempting to sell his son to the Titans and quite possibly also replacing him in the Underworld. I may have mentioned that latter point above. However you think of it, it doesn't make any sense.

The fact that my thoughts kept spiralling to that didn't help. Minos' role in this story isn't dependant on the answer to why he's still a judge. I'd have said something about how much he's willing to risk just to live again, but he apparently risked nothing whatsoever. He certainly was willing to go very far with his plan, which is why I assumed he'll try to use Bianca as well. Which leads me to the narrative role Minos could fit into.

You see, Bianca as she stands in my story has a purpose in mind, a goal: finding Nico. It comes from what she said to Percy - that she felt fine with leaving her brother because she left him in the capable hands of Percy and CHB. So if she forgot all that... If she forgot the reason she allowed herself to leave him... She will be worried sick about him. But what she's lacking is a direction, both literally and figuratively.

Bianca is alone in my AU, and in an unfamiliar place. Her last memories are probably from somewhere in Westover Hall, and nothing from there can fit the situation of being stuck in a random cave without any idea of where the entrance is. She truly is lost. And so, for the story to progress she's going to need a guide.

Now, had she retained all her memories things would've been ever-so-slightly easier. Her goal would've been to simply find her way back to Artemis. It would've produced a different type of story of wandering the Maze. But since I chose to make it this way, I have to stick with it. And Minos would very much like for the daughter of Hades to be under his control to a degree - and to not meet her brother. So with the Cadmus parallel, Minos takes the role of the Oracle of Delphy - gently dissuading our naïve heroine from going where she thinks she should go, under the guise of helping her. I'm not sure exactly how it would go. I picture something along the lines of: Bianca is running away from some monster. When she finds some time to breath, she meets with Minos who suggests she'd do thing A (which should lead her far away from her brother; in theory it would've been a cow with a crescent sign to lead her back to the Hunters, but I'm not sure how cooperative Artemis would be with Minos). She would follow his advice for a while, possibly meeting with Clarisse along this way and driving her to desperation by killing a boar. I'm not really sure about anything here, because she needs to find Nico and the rest of the BotL's party at some point (possibly with Pan), and she probably needs to regain her memories. Also, some divine power in a level of god or Titan needs to hide her from Hades - leading to him being distracted during Nico's time in the Underworld and not finding the opportunity to tell him Bianca's alive before Minos whisks him away. Maybe I'll try Cybele for that role, depending on how well her myths could fit with all that...

And that's a little more progress than what I had in this post previously. Hopefully I'll manage fleshing out this story a bit more.

All right. So, I had another PJO character essay in relation to my Bianca fic baking on my mind ever since the last one, so I guess I'll do it. This time, I wish to talk about King Minos.

King Minos is pretty much a straight-forward character: he's dead, he wants to come back to life through killing his bitter enemy. Sure, he'll scheme and backstab to achieve this goal, but this is pretty much his only motive. Well, aside from his weird sense of ownership over the Labyrinth.

His way to achieve his goal initially is manipulating Nico into trading a life for a life, then hijacking the process and reviving himself. Technically we don't know if he always intended to sell him to the Titan army, as that could be a last resort due to Nico losing his motivation for even attempting the trade.

In our alternative universe, though, he has the problem that Nico's motive is too fragile to begin with, as his sister is still alive even if he isn't aware of it. It's plausible that Minos is aware that Bianca is alive as a judge of the Underworld, in addition to the fact she's in "his" Labyrinth. Which leads us to the questions: why Nico? And could Minos potentially want to manipulate Bianca instead in this AU?

Well, Nico and Bianca certainly share parentage, which might be relevant. While we're told that trading a life for a life is possible, we're not told that it's possible for everyone. It's not impossible that it's essentially a special request from Hades ("you cannot offer your father a soul that will come to him eventually regardless. Besides, he is not keen on hastening his own son's death", roughly retranslated because I don't have the English version). At the very least, Hades needs to approve of the exchange - to a degree, as Minos still thinks he can cheat and be ressurrected himself. If that's th reason Minos stuck up with Nico then supposedly Bianca will fit him just as well.

But of coursse, that's not the case, is it. Nico has a couple of other parameters that make him more susceptible to manipulation: he's younger and he has someone he wants to ressurrect. We also don't know what Bianca's powers are, and it's not impossible that Nico, King of Ghosts, is actually more powerful than her - which jus makes him a better cunduit for Minos' ressurrection, if true. But we don't know anything about power levels and their relevance, and regarding Nico's young age and drive to attempt the trade - well, Bianca's amnesiac in my story. If Minos would succeeed in convincing her that Nico is dead, he could possibly drive her to doing what he wants... maybe. We really don't know if Bianca would've done such a thing to Nico. Maybe so, maybe not. And I kind of get to decide. But to be honest, Nico is already a step closer than her, so he'll be Minos' first choice.

So, what I think would happen is Minos will do his best to keep Bianca away from Nico. And since I need someone to direct Bianca somehow, I just might give this role to Minos. We'll see about that.

There are quite a few things further down the line that make it problematic, though. I don't know, for example, how Minos might be able to avoid Having Nico summon his sister. In addition, without the Iris-net messages... How would Annabeth and Percy (and Grover and Tyson) react to meeting Nico? Would they still attempt to convince him to give up on ressurrecting Bianca? Would they have a chance of success without being able to talk to Bianca herself?

I also have a slight problem with Minos I wish to address. Namely, the fact that after all that, after literally selling his boss' child to the Titans, he's still a judge in the Underworld! Guys, he literally supported a rebellion/the other side of a war. And he's kept as a judge? People like that are generally thrown to Tartarus and given appropriate punishment in accordance to their sin. Why in Hades would they let this guy stay a judge?

(I do have a weird excuse about how there might be two Minos spirits, one that is his immortal side from Zeus who gets to judge people and one who is actually a mortal ghost that didn't cross the Styx due to not having a coin and is now a restless dead watching over the Maze. However, that is a crack theory and makes as much sense as the theory I just invented about Kronos causing the regeneration of monsters by being cut to pieces in Tartarus: both are uncontradictable by canon, but neither is likely to be true.)

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!