#venetian nico

[losergender]

"nico di angelo would lose his ability to speak venetian after bianca dies" is a very understandable headcanon but minoritarian languages losing speakers makes me very sad so i personally choose to think nico raises venetian ghosts to practice his venetian from time to time and make sure he doesn't lose it.

[the-ghost-king]

actually no we don't talk about nico who likes pirates enough. we don't talk enough about how he probably has a favorite pirate. we don't talk enough about how he probably has a favorite ship. we don't talk enough about how he probably has a favorite shipwreck too. we don't talk enough about how he probably spent all day on the canals with the gondole, asking the gondoliers all sorts of questions about their boats until his mother had to pull him away. how many hours did he spend on the port of venice just watching the boats come in and leave? just.... how far does the love of pirates go? is it a love of boats too? like we know he loves (I refuse to believe it's past tense) pirates, but we don't even know if he knows how to swim, or if he likes being on cruises, or at the beach or what. it's sad.

[tagthescullion]

from hazel's wiki entry: "Hazel is one of the four known demigods who can speak another language not related to their godly parent. The other three are Nico di Angelo, who can converse in Italian [...]"

nico's "other" language would be english tho??

[heresronnie21]

I have thoughts, opinions even.

I just like him being a nasty skrunkle better prettyboyifying nico is not it for me and also kind of against the point

Also the left one isn’t based on anyone’s design it just came out my brain I’m not dissing anyone deliberately. Also ALSO I’m Aware he is Italian I just don’t think he’s into it I think he’s ambivalent if not neutral about it

Both are fine though like whatever he’s not real he’s just words

[butt-puncher]

Nico is good at glass blowing

[cocrante]

I find it really canon that Nico is unable to speak English properly when he's angry. It's a sentiment I understand and share, especially now

And I'll add my own headcanon:

not only Nico is unable to speak English well when is angry, but he doesn't even speak Italian. Instead, he switches to the Venetian dialect, which consists of a circuit of curses aimed at catching the attention of our vast and personal pantheon of Angels and Saints

[nicohate]

rick riordan making nico venetian is so funny actually

[yunyun-soso]

More Niccolò di Angelo content

nico di angelo: nico who is actually niccolò, a name he uses rarely, quietly, carefully. something not everyone can say, nor grasp the importance of. niccolò di angelo, son of an italian woman, brother of an italian girl, grandson of an italian man and diplomat: blood as red and vibrant as caravaggio’s death of the virgin flows through his veins, his complexion carries the faint memory of olives and the liquid they produce, a memory of where he comes from, of home. niccolò: a name of most significant power and presence, owned by many before him. before niccolò di angelo there was niccolò “ugo” foscolo, before niccolò foscolo there was niccolò machiavelli: a legacy of writers, poets who made history with the sole movement of their hand holding a quill. he, too, will carry their memory, spread his word about the generations that led to his existence. he will see the sun shining bright in the sky and bask in the light and warmth it brings, because who is he if he doesn’t appreciate the pieces of home that follow him wherever he goes? he will look at the night sky and think of galileo, of leopardi’s poems, and he will remember the loud laughter of his mamma and the tight embraces of his nonna. he will make food for his loved ones with all the passion and affection his heart can carry and, for an instant, be brought back to that one tiny, hidden street, now long forgotten, in venice, where his home once stood, and in that instant he will reminisce and smile at the consciousness that he carries his own bloodline and origins with him, always.

[himynameis4]

Not me researching how Venetian Church records addressed legitimacy for my di Angelo family timeline

[nicodisigma]

solangelo headcanons part 11!

Will, as child of Apollo, is as scared of snakes as children of Athena are scared of spiders. He absolutely PANICS.

Nico is very protective of his boyfriend and his instincts always make him grab Will or cover Will with his body whenever some danger occurs.

Once Apollo visited camp and Nico didn’t know about it. He mistook Apollo for Will and he threw his arms around Apollo’s neck. Nico had never been this embarrassed before (Apollo didn’t even realize that this was a mistake).

Will is always mentioned by campers as #1 example of demigods taking after their godly parents. He’s VERY similar to his father. And everyone at CHB knows that the Naomi Solace is ginger, not blond. So him taking after Apollo is very obvious and visible especially that Apollo shows up at camp way more often than other gods.

Nico on the other hand doesn’t seem to inherit any features from his godly parent, as Maria di Angelo also had dark hair and dark eyes, just like Hades. His face also doesn’t evoke associations with his father.

Nico does speak the venetian language (dialect), and he’s as natural with it as with italian, so he’s referring to english as his 3rd language!

[delicate-sketch]

Carnevale di Venezia

Because I think it's a crime Nico being a venetian and having between none to nothing fanarts being extra and wearing a costume

[aroaceleovaldez]

Mark Oshiro confuses me a little bit not going to lie. In the press tour for the first book all they ever talked about was how Nico is their son and Will is fine I guess. Then they said like 2 weeks before TSATS came out that they didn't understand Will's character at all and it's one of the main reasons why Will has so little POV.

Possibly unpopular opinion but I don't think it's a good, encouraging sign when the writer admits to not really caring about the deuteragonist or not even having a sense of how to write them...

Yeah, no. If you have no interest in 1/2 of the POV characters of your book, you REALLY shouldn't be writing it (or at least, not have that be a main character). Especially when the main way TSATS could have been improved is if it was primarily Will-centric instead of Nico-centric. Will basically had next to no established character prior to TSATS! He was practically a blank slate! But all the new stuff we got for Will in TSATS was so clearly disinterested and had no regard for his previously established traits (or the established timeline/canon). Which is annoying because fleshing out Will would have been the PERFECT opportunity to actually incorporate a lot of the topics that Mark Oshiro specializes in as a sensitivity reader, which was the ENTIRE REASON THEY WERE BROUGHT ON AS A CO-AUTHOR!!!!

As TSATS stands, there is no reason for Mark Oshiro specifically to have been the co-author instead of someone else. It's so clearly just a PR move from RR following the huge backlash Rick received due to his response to criticism on how he wrote Piper and Samirah (and Reyna and etc etc). This was immediately following Rick saying he wasn't going to write what would become TSATS because "it [wasn't his] place to." Most of the topics that Mark Oshiro specializes in either weren't relevant at all to TSATS or written very poorly (to downright offensively) in TSATS, so either Mark Oshiro wasn't doing their job or was not able to do their job for some reason, but either way it basically makes the theoretical justification for Mark Oshiro being the co-author/sensitivity reader irrelevant.

With Will, it was HUGE fanon back in the day for him to be trans. Trans!Will and photokinesis!Will were basically the two biggest headcanons for him (both largely popularized by Cherryandsisters). We know Rick is aware of this old fanon because he canonized photokinesis!Will. If we had gotten trans!Will, that would have been great! And then made sense why we specifically got a trans co-author! (Instead, if anything, TSATS canonized Will being cis.) If we had gotten Will being latino, that would have been amazing!!!! And also then made sense as to why they chose Mark Oshiro for the job as a latinx author/sensitivity-reader, versus potentially choosing an Italian co-author since Nico being Italian/Venetian was emphasized so much in the book (and done poorly! Yknow what they could have done to fix that? GOTTEN A SENSITIVITY READER FOR IT)! Based on the themes and focuses actually present in the book, it would have been most logical to get a queer, neurodivergent, Italian co-author or sensitivity reader who specializes in those three topics at least. But we didn't! So why was Mark Oshiro chosen instead when they only specialize in one of those topics? PR reasons. It's blatantly entirely PR reasons and no actual thought or care was put into this book (or, likely, TSATS 2 either).

It doesn't help that we're also actively being told that the published version of TSATS was a rough draft. Or that their editor blatantly isn't doing her job. Or that "The Sun And The Star" was the working title that they just kept cause they didn't bother to make an actual title. And that the final version is full of explicitly last-minute scenes that weren't checked over at all (the final Bianca scene, for one). Or the ACTIVELY ADMITTING TO SOURCING IDEAS AND INFORMATION FROM FANS! That last one is kind of important because at this level of publishing that is a HUGE no-no for legal reasons. You can get into a lot of trouble for that and there is a reason why it is Ye Olde Fandom Law to never try to pitch your ideas or headcanons to the source creator(s) and keep fandom separate from the creators. There is a REASON why Rick Riordan is so distant from the community these days and it's for PROTECTION AGAINST LEGAL REPERCUSSION. Mark Oshiro being the exact opposite while also ACTIVELY ACKNOWLEDGING sourcing concepts from fans does not bode well! It has to do with copyright stuff.

It's just. So. Sighhhhhhhh >->o <- me lying on the floor about all of this. It's sad being able to see the glimmer of what could have been at the very least a decent book underneath all this. If anyone involved in the process had actually cared just the tiniest amount.

[tagthescullion]

I feel like Nico being from Venice and the Argo II crew briefly stopping in Venice should have had more of a focus.

Like, all we get is Nico mentioning his mother used to tell him stories about the ghosts of Venice (do we get any details? No), that one time he and Bianca went on a weekend trip, and how they went to the US when World War II started. That's it.

First of all, how does Nico even remember Venice (where he apparently grew up, despite Hades saying he met Maria in Washington DC) and his mother? He and Bianca were dipped in the Lethe! A year earlier in TLO he didn't even remember her name! Suddenly he has childhood memories of her?

Him not remembering Venice and his mother could have been worked into the plot. Like him not remembering anything yet knowing he grew up here. Nico volunteering to go into the city with Frank and Hazel because he wants to see if anything jogs his memory. Wandering the streets looking at any old buildings wishing and hoping that anything seems familiar. Talking with Hazel about how he knows he's from here seventy years ago but doesn't remember a thing.

But since he does somehow remember, more attention should have been paid to that. Nico wandering the streets automatically heading toward his childhood home. Finding his way into the old di Angelo plot in a graveyard. Pointing out familiar landmarks, or, conversely, being confused because familiar landmarks no longer exist. Talking in Italian with passersby (don't even get me started on Nico knowing Italian in the later series, which seems to have been retconned from PJO. I think I might send in another ask sometime about that). Actually knowing what the katobleps are because, you know, he grew up here and would have seen them instead of just barely remembering what they are from Mythomagic. Talking with Hazel about his memories of Venice so long ago and how he feels about returning only a few years later for him but seventy years for everyone else. More talking with Hazel in general.

Instead, we get only a couple mentions. If there's anyone who deserves to have more of a focus on returning to his childhood homeland it's Nico, but he doesn't get it.

I'll start this by saying: rick's timeline is a wobbly bit of weak twine that's threading and creating other unexplainable plotholes

(adding a division bc it got long and not everybody has 'long post' filtered)

maria and hades meet in DC (implying nico and bianca are yanks)

maria and hades meet in venezia (implying nico and bianca are italian)

nico and bianca are born long before the war, that's why by the time they're 10 and 12 they left italy bc the war hadn't yet begun

nico and bianca were born in 30-32 so by 1938 nico was 6 when he went to croatia on holiday, implying they'd been 10-12 in 1942 the war had already started! italy was about to get divided north vs south

nico and bianca were born in 30-32 so by 1938 nico was 6 when he went to croatia, and they still went to the US before the war (<1940), so how in fuck's name does nico know of his venetian neighbour who came back PTSD-ed from the african campaign (1940-1943)????

nico and bianca have no memories bc they were bathed in the lethe, ergo no memories, ergo nico betrays percy to hades to learn about his mother

nico's memories, which shone for their absence for three years, start popping up like ants after rain in HoO?? just like that?? except the freaky cow-things, those ofc he can't remember despite them being a fucking pain in the arse and him having been annoyed/in danger for.. 10 years???

in the end, it's less about rick's subpar ability to keep up with his own characters, and his greedy need to keep writing books without a capable editor knowing he can't remember shite of any of his old stuff.. it's more about just picking whatever makes you happy

I like foreign nico and bianca, bc my country's culture's got a lot from italians, so I'll take HoO's (sort of) version. that and it fits better with my long and niche hcs of maria

nico and bianca being born in 30-32 (or 31 and 33 bc it fit better for my hcs) feels more legit to give nico that whole pre-war/beginning of the war background, but that's only bc wwii is interesting to me

I hc from PJO times that the underworld rivers don't affect children of hades too much, so nico and bianca did have some chunks of memory here and there, like islands of light in a dark ocean.. the speed with which nico gets back every single childhood thing? I don't vibe..

and as for nico being in his hometown.. god above it pains me to hell and back but rick is a white middle-upper class privileged yank boomer, I can't trust him to write his own compatriots, I simply cannot consider his foreigners as canon until people from those countries have given their thumbs-up

as a last comment in this eternal post: I truly, from the bottom of my judgy, bitchy heart, don't think rick even realised (originally) that italy wasn't on the US's side of WWII..

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

Nico should actually speak Venetian, not Italian, but he DOES speak Italian, so headcanon that Nico and Bianca were raised trilingual (as opposed to bilingual which is technically canon).

Canon: raised speaking English and Italian

My theory: raised speaking Venetian, Italian, and English

Also, I am aware that Venetian is often referred to as a dialect rather than a distinct language, but many linguists today do consider it a distinct language.

The bbc link is attached above but here's some more about Venetan

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/venetian.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20140827110429if_/http://www.linguasphere.info/lcontao/tl_files/pdf/master/OL-SITE%201999-2000%20MASTER%20ONE%20Sectors%205-Zones%2050-54.pdf

https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/vene1258 (glottolog my beloved, I had to use this site so much for my linguistics class)

https://brill.com/display/book/9789004252523/B9789004252523_027.xml (I plan on seeing if I can access this book in full through my school, but the preview is concise)

[losergender]

nico di angelo whose mother tongue is not italian but actually vèneto/venetian is so important to me!!! (am i italian? no! but i am a linguistics student who also speaks a minoritized romance language). he usually speaks italian at camp bc he associates venetian with his family, but he always counts in venetian, he reads numbers in venetian, stuff like days of the week and basic vocabulary too. will picks up an italian A1 textbook one, sees 50% of the basic stuff doesn't match with what nico says and decides that his boyfriend just uses a very outdated lexic, or maybe he forgot the language, or maybe it has something to do with dyslexia. obviously chiara from cabin 19 is the first one to find out that the boy is simply a polyglot (venetian, italian, english + ancient greek) but she delays on telling will because watching him struggle to understand the situation is hilarious

[goddessofwisdom18]

no thoughts head empty just nico being venetian and jason being roman