#percy jackson: the last olypiam

[nockstormbringer]

I FINISHED THE FIFTH PERCY JACKSON BOOK TODAY. I CRIED SEVERAL TIMES TODAY. NO. I AM NOT OKAY.

Why is everyone to tragic?

[algumaideia]

Messy thoughts about Nico di Angelo

In the Titan's curse Nico is already a lonely child. He just has his sister and no other friend. He is also a curious and excited kid. He is delighted to know about the existence of the Greek gods. He is also understandably afraid, but more than anything happy.

In this book Nico loses his sister twice. First because she left him, and then later because she died. This leaves him lonely in a way he has never been before. And this loneliness is a constant in his life from this moment.

When Nico discovered that Bianca died, he developed some anger issues. He was angry that his sister abandoned him, he was angry that she died, he was angry that the person he trusted to protect her failed.

All this anger was used by Minos in battle of labyrinth to manipulate him. Minos, instead of helping Nico deal with all of his feelings, Minos fomented his anger. Nico wass angry because he missed his sister, he was angry because it was unfair, he is angry because he was alone in the world.

In the end of Battle of Labyrinth, Nico was not angry anymore. He accepted his sister death, he said good-bye to her. He had closure to this problem and his anger issues.

He was still lonely though.

His father was one of the big three and didn't have a cabin in CHB, the more he used his powers more people and animals and creatures thought he is creepy and weird, and because of that avoided and misjudged him.

Also, Hades didn't treat Nico well. He said without apparent remorse how useless and bad he thought Nico was, showed favoritism towards Bianca, and basically no sign of love.

Nico recoginzed his father didn't like him, but still wanted his affection.

What we see in the end of battle of the labyrinth and the last olypiam is a character that wants to know more about his pasts, trusts people a lot, feels bad about omiting information from others and still has abandonment issues.

Nico knew people wouldn't want to do anything of him because of being a child of Hades, and this plus the fact he felt abandoned by his sister, made him not want to be close to anyone. He always tries to keep a distance between him and others, not necessarily pushing people away.

And my proof is this line when Nico tells Hades what he has learned:

"You're just as much of an outcast as I am!" Nico yelled. "Stop being angry about it and do somethinghelpful for once. That's the only way they'll respect you!"

Nico is always trying to be useful, gathering information, helping with side quests, providing backup. This is a consistent thing we see in pjo, hoo and toa.

In the last book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Nico is curious about his mother and I don't think he ever gets a real closure. We don't know how he dealt with discovering how she died.

We finish the first series, with Nico trying to work on his abandonment issues. He was trying to connect with people. He was in CHB trying to find a place for himself. And my impression rereading the ending was that he was as much part of the group as Rachel or Grover. He became part of the group.

In Hoo, Nico's anger is back again, for no reason apparently?? Also I've gotten the impression that Rick is continuesly traumatizing Nico just for the sake of it. Because he is the sad traumatized character, the fandom loves and wants to protect. And not to further his character development in a meaninful way.

Nico's abandonment issues are also back, but people are treating him way more antagonistic than before. And for no reason, it is not like anyone besides Jason learns to not be a dick.

The fact that he seemed to be working to learn how to form meaninful connections with people and you know decided to stay at chb and like not be lonely anymore, those things were ignored.

Nico was as if not more lonely than he was in pjo. Hazel is there too and because of that Bianca drama is introduced again. Things he already overcame are just brought up for no reason.

I think Nico's new relationship with Hazel and all the trauma he went in the Tartarus and inside the jar are ignored, and instead we focus on abandoment issues, anger and Percy's crush.

I don't know how to properly explain, but I don't think we had a natural progression of his character in hoo. He was supposed to get better.

Riordan didn't really know what to do with him, so he mischaracterized him and invented things out of nowhere (like his crush on Percy).

It seems that a lot of times his parts on hoo can be reduced to people think Nico is creepy, Nico knows people think he is creepy.

We don't have a character still trying to learn how to connect with people and have relationships and deal with loneliness plus new trauma.

It is just weird how trauma and bad stuff are shoved into Nico, when in pjo the natural progression was to him go to a good place??