#really need to stop making jason posts lol mb

[justafewberries]

No one cheated the prophecy of the seven

I've seen the theory that Jason died because Leo cheated the Prophecy of Seven, but I don't think it's true. Rather, I don’t think anyone cheated the Prophecy of the Seven. The origin of the theory likely stems from lines two and three of the prophecy as written below:

1. Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.

2. To storm or fire, the world must fall.

3. An oath to keep with a final breath,

4. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

For the sake of this argument, let's assume Leo is fire and Jason is storm. Yes, there can be arguments that Percy is storm (hurricanes) or Frank is fire (burning stick), but let's keep it simple.

The key line in this theory is the second one. It states either Leo (fire) or Jason (storm) must cause the fall of Gaea (the world), but nowhere does it strictly state that they must die too.

When a prophecy wants someone gone, it makes it clear. The prophecy in Titan's Curse states: "One shall be lost in the land without rain," where Bianca is then lost. In The Burning Maze, we see something similar. The prophecy is never strictly stated, but Jason says it was verbatim that he would die. In both instances, the foretold deaths have been blatant with the words "lost" and "die" being crucial to the unfolding of the prophecy.

Notably, however, the Prophecy of Seven's only mentions of death belong to two lines: line three being "final breath", and line four being "doors of death". Nowhere does it strictly say storm or fire must die. The proximity of the lines to each other makes it seem like they could be related- but I don't think that's the case.

When studying poetry, there's a major difference between a comma and a period. A period is a full stop (as seen in lines one, two, and four). A comma, on the other hand, is a pause before a continuation of an idea. Therefore, lines three and four are attached to one another, and line two is a separate event.

Therefore, Leo was never prophesied to die. In fact, no one was foretold to die. The oath was never Leo's oath to Calypso, and the final breath was not his either.

Whose final breath was it, then?

Bob's.

It's the final breath of the foes at the doors of death. Lines three and four are related, as they're separated only by a comma, not a period.

When the doors are closing, Bob uses his final breath of his time with Percy to ask him to keep an oath that he'll say hello to the stars for him. The oath was Percy's, the oath was Bob's.

Therefore, Leo didn't cheat the prophecy. Sure, he could have died outside of the prophecy, but it wasn't foretold as is often theorized.

(I posted this on reddit a while ago, I just thought it belonged here more.)