Post-tartarus Percy And Annabeth And Even Post Tartarus Nico Weren't Written Well At All. Tartarus Makes

I am so sorry op but I think it's more on the inverse side. Percy's powers are so in tune with him that even with limited time, he was able to access a large arsenal of them. Sure he hasn't specifically trained to fine tune his powers but unlike the other big three children who have all experimented their powers before, he always ends up in mortal peril everytime he has to come up with something new. So unlike others who have kind of tried and tested and put a few limits on their powers, Percy just goes with it. He doesn't think about whether he can or not, it's always a case of "I must".

Iapetus is going to kill Thalia and Nico, so I have to find a way to stop him. But I am half poisoned and bruised, I can't fight him. Oh okay so I will just use the rivers in Underworld for help. They are water right?

Akhyls is going to kill me and Annabeth here, we aren't strong enough to fight a primordial. She is going to choke us with poison. Annabeth's going to die. I am going to die. Annabeth's going to die. Wait poison has large amount of water or even liquids. I can control it!

And each time he proves himself right he goes Oh cool, that's helpful. With no idea how world transcending his own abilities are. Were it anyone else they would have let their training and mindset of myths limit their imagination and their ability to fight. But Percy hasn't been trained traditionally, he has never put a limit on his own power. He does with it whatever he needs to and he doesn't let a pre defined set of rules or ways inhibit him. "What do you mean I can't overpower a Primordial in her own domain with her own poison? Of course I can. Poison contains water, it's liquid. I can totally do that."

I think Percy using less powers in the first series has more to do with his trust issues with it. See Percy has deeply internalized his self loathing and self esteem issues. He sees himself as a burden, a troubled kid who only causes problems. He doesn't want his powers to do that, to destroy everything in their path. So he keeps them coiled tight and shut. He needs it to do precisely what he wants, which it does almost always. He starts trusting them but but then at times when he he lets a leash loose, his powers do crazy shit like, blow up a volcano, lift an entire river bed from its roots, level a creek, start a hurricane or other disasters, so he keeps them tightly leashed.

We can see evidence of that with words like "a pull in my gut" "I felt something inside me break" "something uncoiled" and so on.

Whether he does it consciously or not, it only serves to benefit him because everytime his opponents foolishly think,

Enemy: I know all that you can do Perseus Jackson.

Percy: ........

Percy: Damn, even I don't know everything I can do. It's cool that you think you know all I can do though.

*obliterates the monster with something new he comes up with*

Percy: Ha didn't know I could that but boy am I glad it worked. See this is what I was talking about.

Either way I do agree with op on a few things like children of Hades have the most potent abilities, most broken ones but I think their lack of stamina does hinder them. And I mean Nico has known about his powers for even less time than Percy while neither Thalia nor Jason are very creative.

I think Hazel comes really close due to her versatility and creativity. Magic, mist and her own powers along with her fighting prowess. Her and Meg McCaffrey should have been compared to Percy more so than others given they were in similar situations and have such strong abilities. Technically Meg is a child of the Elder Gods.

I think Rick should have explored a bit more on the big three children and their powers.

The point I was trying to make is Percy is so powerful because of his lack of traditional training or traditional fighting knowledge. He learns by hands on experience, adapts on instinct and improves by finding loopholes or getting a better grasp of his already present abilities.

can we/rick talk more abt how extremely inexperienced percy is with his powers in comparison to many of the other big 3 kids

like it’s actually very interesting to think abt if you think abt the connection they each have as a scale to how connected they are to their godly parent (not like emotionally lmao but their godly heritage if that makes sense)

like if you think of nico and hazel those two are arguably the most like in tune with their powers both having used their powers since they were very young and being forced to kind of connect with their godly side much sooner/faster then the others

thalia and jason being second since thalia is literally the second in command to a literal goddess and as a soldier camp jupiter would definitely push jason to know his limits but they both haven’t reached that ease that nico and hazel have — thalia probably could’ve reached it if she hadn’t been snubbed at 15 and wasn’t scared of heights lmao and if jason had probably any type of support that wasn’t pushing him to just be better or focused more on his powers then physical strengths

both thalia and jason also started very young with using their powers yet both had that small blocker of other mortals/people around in comparison to hazel and nico

like hazel and nico are both so small that they’ve been taught to mostly use their powers not that they can’t fight but they rely a lot more on that rather then a sword unlike jason thalia or percy but i think that also just goes with the age that they are since their so young and were taught at that young age to lean on their powers that’s simply what’s easier

then you have percy who literally just found out half this shit was real like 5 years ago and knows nothing abt his powers like genuinely the amount percy leans more on his physical strength bc that’s all he’s had up until he was 12 in comparison to how much he leans on his actual powers is crazy especially if you look at the difference between how much jason or nico rely on their powers at their ages in comparison to how much percy did at those ages

it’s also interesting how that plays into people not taking him very seriously people see him as much more mortal and “weak” bc of it

not that any of them are doing it wrong obv it’s just very interesting to think abt

i think this also plays into percy’s morals a lot ? i recently saw a post saying nico wasn’t scared of percy when he was taking down an army and had hades with a sword to his neck yet annabeth was when percy was choking that goddess in tartarus even tho it was self defense which is all true but if you boil it down to those key points you can really see the clear distinction between the morality of nico and annabeth in those moments and how they know percy in that way as well

nico who’s on the cusp of godly hood in a way - being hades ambassador and spending most time in the underworld - he looks at percy as this hero who fights and kills and wins so that’s what he was letting percy do and he was watching it in awe

yet annabeth knowing percy stopped him yes in fear but in fear of the fact that that is simply not percy percy is the most mortal demigod we’ve met (him and piper tbh) he’s lived his life with mortal morals and he barely uses his powers bc of it so when he’s using his powers to literally kill a goddess like who tf is that ?? and who would he have been if he had gone through with it

i think that’s a pretty easy summary of why percy doesn’t really use his powers much as well he’s always seen himself as just some guy he doesn’t really like ppl calling him a hero he doesn’t really show off (on purpose/without reason) he’s just fighting to survive or to get shit done which is a very human trait percy is a very humble guy and it would just be crazy to see how much more powerful he’d be if he wasn’t bc ik a lot of that is what’s holding him back

also i think it’s interesting to point out the fact that percy used a sword when fighting hades in comparison to tartarus when he used just his powers id be interested to see what nico/annabeth would’ve thought if they were in each others shoes in those moments

also interesting that in both cases he doesn’t go through with it (killing a god/goddess) for 2 different reasons but what would they have done if he did …

i’m realising the purpose at the start of this is very different then what it ended in but i’d like to hear what ppl think if i’m just yapping or if anyone else knows wtf im talking abt lmao

gotta give it to the percy jackson fans, you really do love your main character. for other franchises, fans usually place the #1 blorbo title on a specific side character. but in percy jackson you really love your percy jackson

watching percy’s trauma and low self-esteem be used as fuel for the “hehe himbo adhd simp” punchline instead of a genuine in-depth exploration of how fighting two wars (and some) and going thru hell have affected him

something i feel like we don’t talk about nearly enough is the fact that percy is healed by water.

it’s so normal to us because it’s one of the first abilities we discovered he has. and it makes complete sense. but like… he’s the only demigod with that ability. jason doesn’t get healed by a gust of wind. hazel doesn’t get healed if she touches a diamond. nico doesn’t get healed if a skeleton gives him a hug. annabeth doesn’t get healed if she walks into a library.

like percy could be stabbed in the chest multiple times, he could break every bone in his body, he could be slammed in the head resulting in a crushed skull and hemorrhaging, but get him to some water fast enough and not only is he good as new in no time, but he’s stronger and freshly rejuvenated.

it’s insane when you think about it. no one else can do that. do you know how hard it is to kill percy? even if he’s not near the ocean, he can be healed by rivers and lakes and streams and ponds and all sorts of water sources. water recharges him. it makes him immediately stronger.

that’s a huge reason why i argue percy is the most powerful demigod. yes, he’s shown he has incredible super strength and super speed. yes, he’s a legendary sword fighter - arguably the best one alive. yes, he has control over air, land, and sea. (deadly hurricanes with heavy winds and thunder and lightning, huge volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc.) yes, he’s capable of mass destruction. yes he can single handedly cause natural disasters and mass casualties. and yes, he’s capable of controlling people’s bodily fluids, including their blood and saliva. he is terrifying

but even if someone manages to beat him, he dips one toe in some water and he’s immediately healed and even stronger than before. whether the injury is internal and external. he’s healed all on his own. no ambrosia or nectar or external remedies necessary.

guys. percy is insane. he’s way overpowered.

and i love it.

As it should be. And who's to say they had a choice in the first place.

Some character: "Oh, you need the pegasi for your very important quest to save Hera? Can't do. The Savior of Olympus himself is missing, so it's all hands on deck, really, so we will leave this minor task to you . And frankly, Blackjack's rallied all the Pegasi to look for "Boss," as he calls Percy so you will have no luck there."

Like, I don't think we talk about Blackjack or Ms. O Leary's situation when Percy's missing. They must be so sad, panicked, and feeling alone like any animal without its caretaker.

But I headcanon that Blackjack rallied all the Pegasi even 'Pegasus' himself to look for Percy while all the sea creatures and nymphs, naiads were also naturally looking for their Sea Prince. [Maybe on Poseidon's order but I think he was already being split between two halves of his personality when Percy went missing so the sea creatures are doing this for Percy just cause as he is very kind to them and always helps around. ]

Not to mention, Grover would obviously have all the nature spirits looking to find Percy as well.

We totally deserved a Percy-Blackjack-Ms. O Leary reunion scene and of course Percy Grover one as well.

I really love the fact that Camp Half-Blood didn't give Jason, Piper, and Leo Pegasi for their quest in The Lost Hero, despite the fact that they didn't really have an alternative for air transportation at this point in time, and only had four days to save Hera, solely because they used the pegasi to search for Percy.

Like, priorities were set, and Hera was not on the top of that list.

And these are not even all the feats. Well and truly, Percy Jackson is in a league of his own.

Manipulated literal primordial of the Earth into saving him over her own servant Phineas after challenging him, a literal seer to a poison trial. [I know it's mentioned, but still wanted to clarify on it]

Was successfully able to hold his own for a while in a tug of war [for the control of the sea] against Chardybis in her own domain, at age 13

Came up with the plan to use the river gods against the Titan Army and successfully convinced them to give their assistance

Figured out Ares was the deciever.

Singlehandedly defeated Hades and his army in minutes [Even with the curse, it was still beyond impressive]

Not just became a Praetor but did so in a week

Found out the way to triump over Geras

Beat Phobos and Deimos, two minor gods

Managed to drown and brainwash a Titan in waters of Lethe when he was heavily injured

Has killed more monsters than any other demigod in the verse

Has been called by Apollo to be the only one worthy enough of his service, a god's service after he turned mortal

Is the only one to survive the curse of Achilles without dying

Survived Tartarus [Don't Annabeth me, the only reason she survived was because Percy was there, I would like to see how Annabeth stans try and refute that, Nico also doesn't count cause he got captured soon after entering Tartarus]

Hermes, one of the Olympians went to Percy after losing the symbol of his power

Dionysus trusted Percy to protect his son, no one else

Successfully resisted Pandora's Jar [which is literally meant to tempt you beyond what mortals can resist]

And yet, there are still some groups in the fandom that call Percy dumb and that he needs Annabeth to tell him what to do. Tell me you haven't read the books without telling me you haven't read the books for sure. Percy Jackson is literally a strategic genius and the most powerful and influential demigod of this age or ever. If you count how many individual key strategies Annabeth has made over the ones Percy made; he has made higher and more successful strategies literally in each book. Imagine how low of a self-esteem you would have to have for you to see yourself like this even after saving the world more times that you can count. And how comments and behaviors of Annabeth or other characters enable this behavior. It's like a broken tape at this point.

this is why we need a pov outside of percy cause wdym "i am a guy of limited talents" YOU NEARLY DROWNED A GODDESS IN HER OWN POISON AND ANNABETH HAD TO STOP YOU BEFORE YOU DID. BE FR

Yes, absolutely yes. Gaea is literally the first of the Primordials. Dragging her into anything, be it major or minor, makes most plots baseless or completely entirely unrealistic even by fictional standards. Unless it's a war between primordials or divinities themselves.

Even in core Greek myths, Gaea or most primordials have extremely limited appearances, and Rick has no basis nor nuance for Gaea to appear or for it to be reasonable enough.

It should have been Greco-Roman conflict, which should have culminated with both camps teaming up against Giants [not Gaia, just the Giants] and which would have hopefully ended in changing the rigid ways of Camp Jupiter and certain problematic aspects of Camp Halfblood. That would have been so much better and with less plotholes.

Hot take I think hoo should’ve had NOTHING to do with Gaia and should’ve been completely about the war between the Roman’s and the Greek’s

The biggest concern of all Perachel shippers and the most used argument used by anti Perachel shippers is that Rachel is an oracle and she took a vow of celibacy so no dating. That's not exactly how it works.

The reason they are made to make such a vow is to put serving their God Apollo first and foremost.

May Castellan had already had a child when she went to bond with the Oracle, and her not being celibate has nothing to do with that as we know .

Now, even in Ancient Greece, older women have been vessels for Oracles. They just had to put their family aside.

So, in conclusion, the vow of celibacy isn't an obligate condition.

Now for a bit of an history lesson The Oracle of Delphi is extremely unique as she has existed long before the Gods did as a spirit in Lake of Delphi and was often initially referred to as the Oracle of Gaia.

The titaness Phoebe used the powers given by the lake to divine futures. That was how Rhea knew where to hide and how to trick Kronos as she had gone to Phoebe for advice.

Now, for an even more interesting piece of fact after the Gods took control, the Lake of Delphi remained for millenias under the jurisdiction of Poseidon himself.

Priestesses used to come there to seek the power to be able to divine the futures. Only when it was attacked by Python himself and then saved by Apollo who killed the Python did the Spirit of Delphi choose to host itself in Apollos Priestesses thus abandoning the Lake.

The spirit of Delphi has no clear allegiances being able to change who she serves, and we know the Oracle spirit has some fondness for Percy given his own exceptionally prophetic dreams which is a power akin to an Oracle.

This means Rachel can probably choose to serve another God, maybe Poseidon himself, again, so he would revoke the no dating condition.

Or or this is my absolute favorite headcanon about Perachel, that given how many times Percy has managed to save her when Percy eventually ascends to Godhood Rachel and the Oracle spirit, swear fealty to him.

Take that Percabeth shippers. Your only viable argument against Perachel is no longer an argument.

Percy is a dude from the category of screaming "what the hell did you do!" and solve all the problems in 5 minutes. Everyone would have been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for him.

I have mixed opinions on this. On one hand, Percy is the type of person to wait about for the problem to disappear by itself just so he doesn't have to deal with it. Cause even before he found out he was a demigod, he was 100% done with everyone's shit.

But I do agree that he would be able to solve all problems because through so many books we have seen that no matter how much prior planning Annabeth or the Seven or anyone else does, Percy always does his own thing at the end. And it works out mostly for the better than whatever initial situation anyone else had in mind because Percy thinks almost too well on his feet. Every time.

But Percy has such low self esteem that he sees the fact that he has to make so many improvisations more so as his plans never working as less so as an exceptional ability to adapt. Especially when at times he can easily sense that some titan/giant is too powerful so he maneuvers around a direct fight and ends up defeating them by pure strategy and still ends up thinking of himself as "Oh shit I seriously had no plans. I am so reckless and stupid".

His whole character arc could have been evolving into a more confident and self assured but still the usual sarcastic laid back version of himself who no longer doubts his own abilities and becomes the great leader he showed many signs of being. But no, Rick had to ruin it all because, for some reason, 10+ books later and almost all the characters are still the same, just decorated with even more trauma. Rick being Rick, and instead of showing characters working out their traumas and insecurities, he just slaps a relationship on them, and lo and behold, all is better again somehow.

I am kind of disappointed that we never got to see Percy or any other members of the Seven do any solo missions(aside from Annabeth in MoA) . She almost had the very quintessential realization about how she needs others and how her hubris will ruin everything if she doesn't keep it in check only for whatever she was doing in the later parts House of Hades and all of Chalice of the Gods to take away even that little bit of character development.

And cause solo missions working out perfectly well for Percy while most other demigods struggle a bit to make it work might finally make him realize that his plans don't suck and he is actually a really really good strategist and somehow an even better manipulator. (Though more on that and his observational skills later).

Or make characters like Frank and Leo whose unique abilities and perspectives on combat could have been shown off more, making them all become more self-reliant.

And even so we could finally get proper idea of limits of certain characters like Piper (cause charmspeak isn't going to get her everywhere) or Hazel (we so need more scenes of her surprising demigods and monsters with not only her unique jewel abilities and her magic.) Plus Nico's combat limits, Jason's stamina limits (no I am not considering his death part of canon, you can't tell me it's true, I refuse to stand by it), Thalia's character development as well as her honing her powers and combat abilities more.

So yeah, we really should have gotten a few solo missions instead of so many short stories and all. And a bit more cross-over highlighting the power levels between the Norse, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian demigods/magicians/Valhalla residents/Valkyrie and so on.

To sum it up, tons of missed opportunities by Riordan and even more tragic and terrible progression of previously great characters who just needed a well-made character arc or even some favoritism. (I am looking at Grover and Rachel, who both could have done so so much if Rick had only realized the awesome potential they had).

I have said it many times that it's #percy jackson supremacy. So hell yes everyone would be dead without him, and he is arguably the best protagonist out of any other fantasy action book series. All hail Percy Jackson, the master of sass, and the most beloved but somehow still the most misinterpreted character in the fandom. Really liked this ask, would love more of these regarding Percy or any other characters.

Percy has always been more godly than mortal. From Book 1, his powers have been exponentially expanding, and we can literally see Percy keeping a tight leash on his powers. As evidenced by how words like something tightened in my gut/something uncoiled in my gut precede Percy's power usage.

Then there are times of physical, emotional, and mental duress where he instinctively loosens his hold on his powers, and it always transcends the limits of a demigod.

Water bursts and floods, storms/hurricane, volcano erupting, uprooting an entire river along with it's riverbed, summoning an independent water reservoir, controlling Rivers of Underworld(Hades/Tartarus domain), controlling the water in the Sea of Monsters (Chardybis's domain), glacier manipulation (outside of the land of gods) and so on.

But until Tartarus, there was some sort of phantom line. At least he had convinced himself of one, but Tartarus erased all his pretenses. Those he kept around for others and those he kept around even to himself. When he chokes Akhyls, he feels something inside him break. Either that's his mortality breaking or it's the threshold of his power breaking. I like the second idea. That Percy Jackson has in overpowering a primordial in their own domain done something so singular, neither a demigod shell nor a godly one can keep his power contained.

Another thing that's almost just as often theorized is that when Percy was offered godhood, his fate was sealed. No one, probably not even the fates, had seen the denial coming. This implies that Percy was already mid process to his transition into a deity, and he has been singlehandedly holding himself back from his own fate all the way until Tartarus. And that becoming a God/deity is inevitable for him. And do we not talk enough about this. Percy Jackson saying no to godhood was the most groundbreaking thing to happen in Olympus in this millenia, only to be followed up by Percy making the gods swear multiple oaths that upend the very roots of how Olympus has functioned until that moment.

So yeah, All hail Perseus Jackson, no one is doing it like him.

Obsessed with these parallels.

Ares in tlt after Percy stabs him in the ankle:

Percy in cotg, breaking free of the river god trying to kill/torture him:

Percy Jackson is a god (and he doesn't know it yet) theory has been born yall.