History Literature / PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/percy_jackson_book_1.jpg]]

** Percy and Annabeth. In the books, Percy has black hair like his father while Annabeth is blonde. In the show, their hair colors are swapped and while Annabeth is described as having tanned skin, she is played by Leah Sava Jeffries, who is Black.

%%* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Percy's prophecy.

*** In ''The Last Olympian'', he is seen reading [[Literature/{{Twilight}} a big black book with a flower on the cover]].

* RedHerring: [[spoiler: In a weird way, the half-blood from the Great Prophecy. The hero is actually a different person, and it was his death that saved Olympus.]]

* WellDoneSonGuy: Happens with plenty of Half-Bloods.
** Percy, too. Grover points this out in the first book.
--->'''Grover:''' ''(to Percy)'' You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you [[spoiler:mailed Medusa's head to Olympus]]. You wanted him to notice what you'd done.
%%** [[spoiler:Nico, in particular]].
** This is also a major driving force behind Luke's actions.

* ChekhovsClassroom: Chiron points this out about Percy's Greek History before Percy knows anything. Then it is taken to the extreme when he goes to Camp Half-Blood. %%Played straight for almost everyone.

** [[invoked]][[WordOfGod Interviews]] confirm Luke's fatal flaw is {{Wrath}}. He's blinded by anger at the gods and lashes out against them, and [[spoiler:that same anger and recklessness keeps him from realizing how badly he's screwed up until it's too late to stop the ball rolling. In true Greek tragedy fashion, it ends up killing him.]]

* OfferingsToTheGods: Campers at Camp Half-Blood toss a bit of their food into a fire in the middle of the picnic area to send to their parents.

* FirstGirlWins: Annabeth is the first named girl introduced, unless you count the bully at Yancy.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''The Last Olympian'', after mainly encountering Greek gods and monsters, leading up to the first sequel series, ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus''.
-->'''Percy:''' ''(to statue)'' Are you supposed to be Demeter?\\

* AbusivePrecursors: The Titans.
* AchillesHeel: Figuratively and literally. Taking a dip into the River Styx enables you to become invincible so no weapon will harm you, except at a tiny spot somewhere on your body. Along with Achilles' actual heel, [[spoiler:the final book has two -- a spot on Percy's back and a spot near Luke's armpit]]. Additionally, the tiny weak spot isn't the only AchillesHeel of taking a bath in the Styx. While you TakeALevelInBadass in addition to becoming invincible, you do so basically by turning your body up to eleven, meaning you need especially long periods of rest between fights. Meaning that if someone throws enough {{Mooks}} at you, you will drop from exhaustion ''faster'' than a normal person.

** [[spoiler:Hades]] as well.

*** Nigerian mythology makes a brief cameo as well: it's implied that Olujimbe, or "Jimmy," is a Yoruba demigod (likely the son of Shango).

* AmazonBrigade: The Hunters of Artemis.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Nico to Bianca, and [[spoiler: Tyson]] to Percy [[SubvertedTrope at first]].

* ApocalypseMaiden: [[spoiler: Thalia]] in ''The Titan's Curse''. In a similar vein, Percy himself.

--> '''Dionysus:''' The world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine!

--> "Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music."

* AscendedExtra: Hestia, who appears in the first book stoking the campfire at Camp Half-Blood, but Percy doesn't find this out until ''The Last Olympian''.
** Also Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who appeared briefly in ''The Titan's Curse'' at Hoover Dam. In the next book, she attends the same school as Percy, and by the end of ''The Last Olympian'', she has [[spoiler:become the new Oracle]] (which carries over into ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'').

-->''If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages -- if you feel something stirring inside -- stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.''

* AwesomeButImpractical: [[spoiler: After taking a dip in the River Styx, Percy [[TookALevelInBadass takes a major level in badass]], but has to rest after almost every fight he gets into.]] [[/folder]]

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Thalia]] and a few others.

* BadassNormal: Comparatively. Children of Athena don't really have any supernatural powers, but their sheer intelligence and strategy makes them be very competent and powerful fighters and hold equal ground to any other demigod.
%%** Annabeth's dad Frederick, Percy's mom Sally, and Paul Blofis.
* BarrierMaiden: Thalia in tree form.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Between Percy and Annabeth.

* ButtMonkey: Humanity in-universe, or at the very least Westerners. Whether it's tourists being turned to stone by Medusa, children being lured into a [[LotusEaterMachine Lotus Eater Machine]] for eternity, or innocent shoppers being stretched to death or hacked up by Procrustes, it sucketh verily to be a human in the Percy Jackson universe.

-->'''Zoe Nightshade''': "You challenge my skills, you scullion? You know ''nothing'' of being a Hunter!"\\
'''Thalia Grace''': "Oh, ''scullion''? You're calling ''me'' a scullion? What the heck is a scullion?"

--> '''Hades to Kronos:''' "And if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that you were a TERRIBLE father."

* CampfireCharacterExploration: In ''The Lightning Thief'', a campfire at their cabin in Montauk is where Percy and his mother discuss Poseidon.

** Finding out the ''other'' parent is often a bad thing. For starters some parents were kind of absent. One can understand not telling a kid since they'd brag (Hey, it didn't turn out so well for poor Phaethon!), but when they ''need'' to know and they aren't there… well...
** Things are improving in ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', however, as demigods were claimed instantly and the godly parents actually ''talk'' to their children.
* ChekhovsClassroom: Chiron points this out about Percy's Greek History before Percy knows anything. Then it is taken to the extreme when he goes to Camp Half-Blood. Played straight for almost everyone.

* TheChessmaster: Kronos.

--> I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children ... alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries.
* CoolSword: Riptide and Backbiter. Also [[spoiler:Nico's Stygian-iron sword.]]

* CreatorProvincialism: The United States is literally the current center of western civilization, even though it's noted that this is not necessarily a good thing. Canada is mentioned, but only because it's where Laystrigonian giants are from.

* CrossoverCosmology: The Roman god Janus appears in the ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'' (he doesn't have a Greek equivalent). [[invoked]]WordOfGod said in an interview that the Roman gods exist but they are younger than the Greek gods. This is expanded on in [[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus the second series]] where the Greek and Roman gods (the ones that exist in both mythologies, anyway) have {{split personalit|y}}ies, and a main plot point is to get their two aspects to reconcile.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** [[spoiler:Bianca]] is electrocuted inside a giant bronze automaton in New Mexico. [[spoiler:Zoe]] is killed by a combination of dragon poison and her father on Mount Tamalpais. But the laurels definitely go to [[spoiler:Silena]], who's facially disfigured by the acid breath of a giant, two-hundred-foot-long worm and gets launched into the pavement.

* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Percy's prophecy.

* DarkSecret: [[spoiler: Zoe is the daughter of Titan general Atlas]], Kronos' right hand. She was also the mastermind behind at least one of '''Hercules'''' great victories; it's implied she may have helped him with others. Nico di Angelo being [[spoiler: the son of Hades]] is treated as one (of the fewer people know the better catergory).
* DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much ''everyone'' is a deadpan snarker (though Percy probably gets the most in). The chapter titles are almost always deadpan snark in some way: "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" is the first.
* DeadPersonConversation: With King Minos, [[spoiler:Bianca]], Achilles. Nico di Angelo does this regularly, being the son of [[spoiler: Hades]]

* DefrostingIceQueen: Zoe, Thalia, and arguably Annabeth.

* DevourTheDragon: [[spoiler: Kronos possesses Luke's body in ''The Battle of the Labryinth''.]]
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu

--> '''Percy''': But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is '''crazy!'''

--> ''' Maria di Angelo:''' Zeus is '''un imbecile.'''

** [[spoiler: At the end of the first book, 12-year-old Percy, with barely any training, manages to beat Ares, the several-thousand-year-old ''god of war''.]]

* DisabilitySuperpower: All half-bloods have ADHD, which enhances their battle awareness, and dyslexia, which is caused by their brains being hardwired for ancient Greek. [[TruthInTelevision The ADHD thing actually has basis in real life; it's believed that the condition originates from survival instincts from humanity's hunter-gatherer days.]]

* DownerEnding: ''Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes'' concludes with the story of Jason dying alone, his quest failed, his children dead by his wifes hands, and despised by everyone.
--> '''Percy''': And if that isn't a great ending for this book, I don't know what is!

* DramaticThunder: It tends to happen a lot thanks to Zeus, so naturally it's [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshaded.]]

* DrivesLikeCrazy: The Gray Sisters. Given they're all fighting over that one eye while behind the wheel, it's amazing they can avoid getting into any accidents.
** Thalia [[spoiler:driving the airborne sun chariot in its schoolbus form]]. Mainly due to her [[{{Irony}} Acrophobia]]. She can drive well on land, though.
** She torches a New England village while flying it, and doesn't land smoothly enough at Camp-Half Blood, prompting Apollo to say they should look and hope they haven't burned up anyone important.
* DodgeBallIsHell: A bit more literally than you might think at the beginning of ''The Sea of Monsters''.

->''"If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages - if you feel something stirring inside - stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you."''

* ABirthdayNotABreak: Percy forgets his [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday sixteenth birthday]].

** [[spoiler: Nemesis, God of Balance and Revenge,]] to Ethan. The one time they meet, she blinds his left eye with the promise that he would [[spoiler: bring balance to the world once again]].

** In the first book, Percy's stepfather, "Smelly" Gabe, treats both Percy and his mom like dirt. [[spoiler: At the end, Sally Jackson uses Medusa's head to turn Gabe into a stone statue]].

* AchillesHeel: Figuratively and literally. Taking a dip into the River Styx enables you to become invincible so no weapon will harm you, except at a tiny spot somewhere on your body. Along with Achilles' actual heel, [[spoiler: the final book has two - a spot on Percy's back and a spot near Luke's armpit]]. Additionally, the tiny weak spot isn't the only AchillesHeel of taking a bath in the Styx. While you TakeALevelInBadass in addition to becoming invincible, you do so basically by turning your body up to eleven, meaning you need especially long periods of rest between fights. Meaning that if someone throws enough {{Mooks}} at you, you will drop from exhaustion ''faster'' than a normal person.
** In addition, it is implied that bathing in the Styx amplifies the bather's own personal "fatal flaw"--you become heavy with one emotion (such as pride) that can be used against you. This is somewhat subverted in that [[spoiler:the weakness that Percy has, personal loyalty, causes problems but doesn't actually link to a defeat in the finale]].
* AchillesInHisTent: [[spoiler: Clarisse]] in ''The Last Olympian''. [[spoiler:Hades]] as well.
* ActionGirl: Tons. Annabeth, Thalia, Bianca, and Zoe to name a few. Just as helpful as the boys, usually.
* AdaptationalDyeJob: Due to Rick Riordan's preference of AbilityOverAppearance, most of the actors in the Disney Plus series look a bit different than their book counterparts. Examples include:

** Clarisse also retains her brown hair and eye color, but in the Disney Plus series she has brown skin.
** Luke is described as a blonde surfer dude according to Percy. As with Annabeth, his and Percy's hair colors are swapped.

-->'''Grover:''' You slaughter Apollo's sacred cows?! YouMonster!
-->'''Geryon:''' [[DeadpanSnarker What gave it away, my three bodies?]]
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The gods do this, as looking on their true form would [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm burn up mortal beings]].

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: It seems that most any legendary figure in the history of western civilization who did something important was a demigod: George Washington was the [[SpontaneousGeneration brainchild]] of Athena, Thomas Jefferson was one of Zeus - given how he is a judge of the Underworld since all of the judges are (and [[HistoricalInJoke it must have had something that helped the colonists win the American Revolutionary War]]), and Harriet Tubman was a daughter of Hermes.

* BestHerToBedHer: This seems to be how romance works at Camp Halfblood: "If a girl keeps trying to kill you, it means she's into you."

* BilingualBonus: When pretending to be Polyphemus' bride, Grover claims to be wearing "Eau de Chèvre" perfume to explain why he smells like goats. ''Chèvre'' is French for "goat."

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Anyone should know that Greek mythology is not exactly kid-friendly, so the author had to intervene. For example: It's stated Kronos cut Uranos "to bits". This is somewhat unprecise - technically it was only [[GroinAttack two bits, the bits Uranos loved most and the rest of Uranos.]]
* BreakTheCutie: Nico, Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth.

--> "We need a shroud. A shroud for [[spoiler:the son of Hermes]]."

** Rachel appears [[OneSceneWonder briefly but memorably]] in ''The Titan's Curse'' by way of helping Percy hide from Atlas' zombie warriors, then demanding an explanation. Percy is shocked InUniverse when she shows up again at his high school in the next book, and ''[[OhCrap recognizes him]]''.

** Luke sarcastically address Percy and Annabeth as his cousins in ''Sea of Monsters.'' This was before the series established the only godly DNA that counts is your parent, ergo making none of them legitimate cousins, which is a a fact that Luke would know.

-->'''Percy:''' You poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us all up - all to help Kronos destroy the gods.
-->'''Luke:''' You know that! Why do you keep asking me?
-->'''Percy:''' Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you.

** Percy is introduced [[BullyHunter trying to defend Grover from a bully]] [[HotBlooded even though getting into another fight could get him expelled.]]

--> She glanced down at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say "You killed a Minotaur!" or "Wow, you're so awesome!" or something like that. Instead she said: "You drool when you sleep."
** Grover himself is established pretty well in the above scene - he's [[ShrinkingViolet glumly taking the bullying from someone he could probably get to shove off if he really wanted]], and [[LetMeAtHim practically holding Percy in his seat to keep him from getting in trouble.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: The ever-handy Iris message. It requires a spray of water vapor to create a rainbow, so artificial sources are used: in ''The Lightning Thief'', when Percy, Grover and Annabeth are in Denver and contacting Luke at camp, they utilize the spray machine of a self-service car wash. In ''The Sea of Monsters'', the wake kicked up by Percy and Annabeth's lifeboat allows them to create an Iris message intended to go to Chiron, who unfortunately is in the middle of a noisy party, leading to the communication breaking up. Starting in ''The Titan's Curse'', Percy has a special fountain in his cabin with gold drachmas at the bottom that allow him to communicate with others when necessary.
* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Monsters may hunt down and terrorize young half-bloods, but when some half-bloods decide to rebel against the gods under the infuence of the titan Kronos, monsters joined up with them under the united banner of the Titan Army. Funnily enough the monsters will sometimes talk about how much they like [[ChildEater eating half-bloods]] ''in the presence of Kronos-aligned half-bloods'' (like Agrius and Oreius in ''The Sea of Monsters'').

* FateWorseThanDeath: In the fourth book, the last line of the prophecy is [[spoiler:"Loose love to worse thann death". It would appear that this line refers to Luke.]]

-->'''Percy:''' (to statue) Are you supposed to be Demeter?\\
''[statue throws things at him]''\\

* FridgeHorror: InUniverse. In ''The Sea of Monsters'', Annabeth explains that chain stores like Monster Donut multiply so rapidly because they are tied to a monster's life source. [[ParanoiaFuel Considering the existence of nationwide chains like]] [[Advertising/TheBurgerKing Burger King]], UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Wendy's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and the like....
** In ''The Lightning Thief'' Percy stated that Gabe had threatened to "punch his lights out." Learning that he ''did'' hit Sally at the end of the book makes it likely that Percy was also abused by Gabe.

--> '''Chiron''': ''God'', capital-G God, is something else entirely. We won't delve into the metaphysical.

-->[[spoiler:'''Calypso:''']] “Tell me, Percy. I have no wish to argue with you. But do you support the gods because they are good, or because they are your family?”

* GreenAesop: Various sea and river creatures get uppity around water pollution, and [[spoiler:the quest for Pan eventually turns out to be all about the current state of the environment.]].

%%* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Mentioned word for word in ''The Lightning Thief''.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler:Daedalus, a son of Athena who spent thousands of years evading death. While he offered some aid to Luke and his forces, he also aided the demigods of Camp Half-Blood]].

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Beckendorf, Luke, and Bianca]]. [[spoiler:Silena]] also counts with her [[spoiler:ElCidPloy]].

* HiddenInPlainSight: Labyrinth entrances. There is one inside Alcatraz. You can also find one on the North Shore of Long Island at some ordinary strawberry farm, and one at the Times Square Marriott.

* HonorBeforeReason: Percy doesn't want to kill [[SarcasmMode poor pitiful]] Polyphemus, given that he's bonding with Tyson as best as he can. So Polyphemus actually lives, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext thinks he's sunk Nobody]].

** Gabe Ugliano. [[spoiler:He gets his comeuppance.]]
** Annabeth, Thalia and Clarisse have shades of this in different books.

** For instance, in ''The Lightning Thief'', Percy, Annabeth and Grover take an Amtrak train from New Jersey to Denver, Colorado - a one-seat ride that also goes through St. Louis (for the Echidna encounter in the Arch). There are several things that are extremely inaccurate with their journey:
*** A one seat ride from New Jersey to Denver via St. Louis is impossible. There are no coast-to-coast intercity trains in the United States. (The ''Sunset Limited'' used to run from Orlando to Los Angeles until August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina truncated the route to New Orleans.) Any intercity trains out of Penn Station only go as far as Chicago, requiring a change of trains there as well. Also, although Amtrak has trains to Denver and St. Louis, completely different trains reach these cities from Chicago - the ''Texas Eagle'' for St. Louis and the ''California Zephyr'' for Denver.

* KidHero: Just about every single half-blood in this book. Just about.
* KilledOffForReal: Everyone who dies in the series. The only aversions to this are Luke [[spoiler: who dies for real in ''The Last Olympian'']] and [[spoiler:Tyson]]. Everyone else thinks that Percy dies, too, but since the story is from his perspective and we know otherwise, it doesn't count.

** ''All'' the incest in Greek mythology is eventually explained in-series by the idea that the gods have no DNA and therefore cannot inbreed the way humans do. Demigods at Camp Half-Blood feel free to date any fellow demigod who does not share a divine parent - in other words, two Athena kids (half-siblings) would not go out, but [[OfficialCouple an Athena kid and a Poseidon kid]] might, regardless of their technical relationship.

* LeeroyJenkins: Percy. He has a tendency to recklessly charge into battle without a proper strategy.

--> But you, Percy - you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die... They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human.

--> [[spoiler:'''[[PhysicalGod Artemis]] (preparing to launch Atlas back under the sky):''' Get ready!\\

* LotusEaterMachine: The Lotus Hotel & Casino, named after the TropeNamer. Time speeds up significantly. Two weeks in that hotel equal 28 years in the real world, and one hour is the equivalent of five days.
* LoveableRogue: Hermes, as in mythology - and by extension, most of his demigod children. [[spoiler:Luke]] is a subversion.

* MadOracle: [[spoiler:May Castellan.]]

** Riordan didn't bother with some of the minor half-bloods, but the worst offender has to be Demeter's daughter. Demeter is the goddess of grain, fertility, and harvesting. Her daughter is Katie ''Gardner''.) Not only that, but one of her sisters is Miranda ''Gard'''i'''ner''.
** Don't forget Connor and Travis ''Stoll''. The sons of Hermes, god of ''thieves''. Percy even points this one out since it's so obvious. It might be interesting to point out that Connor and Travis Stoll are real brothers who at one point were in Riordan's class. Charles Beckendorf, albeit with a different appearence, was also a student.

** A rather tragic example: "Zoe" means "life" in Greek. And her surname is "Nightshade". Nightshade is another name for a family of poisonous plants. [[spoiler:How did Zoe die again? Oh yeah, ''poison'' was a part of it!]]

** Percy, twice over. InUniverse, his mother named him Perseus in the hopes that it would be good luck - he was one of the only Greek heroes to get a happy ending. And from a real-world perspective, the name roughly translates to [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "the destroyer"]] in Greek. Highly appropriate for a potential ApocalypseMaiden with major destructive power.

--> "Great, we just blowtorched a national monument."

--> '''Annabeth:''' Now that was a weird summer.

--> Our beach is on the North Shore of Long Island, and it's enchanted so most people can't even see it. People don't just ''appear'' on the beach unless they're demigods, or gods, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking really, really lost pizza delivery guys]]. (It's happened - but that's another story).

-->'''Nico (to Persephone):''' Family spat? You turned me into a dandelion!
** This is sometimes used in an individual book to refer to events that happened in previous ones without giving the details away. For example, from ''Battle Of The Labyrinth'', in a conversation between Percy and his mom:
--> "I ''told'' them you were all right," my mom said, but she sounded like the weight of the sky had just been lifted off her shoulders - and believe me, I know firsthand how that feels.

-->'''Dionysus:''' Zeus knows how many more.\\
''[lightning rumbles]''\\

* PaperThinDisguise: [[spoiler:Silena leading the Ares cabin to battle in ''The Last Olympian''. Even [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshaded]] by Clarisse.]]
--> "Seriously, not one of you noticed?!"

--> "Red cattle. The cattle of the sun. They're sacred to Apollo."
--> "Holy cows?"
--> "Exactly. But what are they doing --"
* PunnyName: Cassandra Dare (as opposed to CassandraTruth).

** This is Justified in the ''The Last Olympian'', when Prometheus says that patterns repeat themselves in the world.

** [[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo A later book series establishes that science exists alongside the gods (at least in regards to the sun and moon) explaining why gods can go missing and the world can still work.]]

* SeaSerpents:
** A random sea serpent appears in "Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot" from ''The Demigod Files''.

* SemiDivine: Most of the main characters are demigods.

* ShipSinking: [[spoiler: Thalia/Luke by the end of ''The Titan's Curse''.]] Good luck, shippers.
** Though fans still ship them. There is the whole [[spoiler:breaking her vow]] thing there. [[spoiler:And Thalia seems to generally care for him, still. It did seem like Luke was shunning Thalia when he went to Annabeth's house and said that Thalia would never leave the Hunters.]] But by ''The Last Olympian'', it is implied that Thalia enjoys [[spoiler:being part of the Hunters. She's the freakin' lieutenant, for gods' sake]].
** [[spoiler:The Percy/Rachel ship is also sunk in the latter half of ''The Last Olympian'' before Percy gets together with Annabeth. Rachel realizes that her attraction to Percy was largely due to her destiny of becoming the next Oracle of Delphi and, in Percy's words, "dumps" him. Percy ends up feeling slightly dejected by this (his feelings for Annabeth notwithstanding), even though they weren't really dating to begin with]].

** The books also have a character called Will. Will's name is a shout-out to a certain [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare playwright and poet]] who was said to also be a son of Apollo in-universe.

* ThemeNaming: Sometimes coinciding with with puns. Examples include Annabeth, daughter of Athena (and whose name contains 'Athena' plus a few extra letters) and Clarisse, daughter of Ares (same case). Other examples include Nico ''di Angelo'', son of [[spoiler:Hades]] and, possibly, Ethan Nakamura (whose surname is Japanese for "village in the middle," with respect to [[spoiler:divided loyalties]]).

** Nico's argument to Hades in ''The Last Titan'': whatever the Olympians had done to each other, they were family.
** Percy and [[spoiler:Tyson]] deepen their bond by finding out they are half-brothers. (Not that they get along with Poseidon's other sons.)

* TitanomachyRoundTwo: The series has a plot that revolves around the attempts of Kronos to subvert and corrupt multiple demigods to free him from Tartarus. Kronos and the Titans (who are portrayed as human-like, save for being roughly ten feet tall and some having inhuman features like Hyperion having copper skin and flaming eyes) are actively working to free themselves and build an army using agents outside of Tartarus. On top of that, rather than just being a rampaging monster, Kronos is very much a thinking, scheming character and instead of breaking out the normal way [[spoiler: he possesses a demigod's body to hold his essence while he regenerates a new body, as his original was destroyed in the first Titanomachy.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: Nico in ''The Titan's Curse'' after he realizes [[spoiler:he is so much more awesome than he thought.]]

** Not only is [[ISeeDeadPeople Nico]] ''much'' more powerful than he's initially implied to be; he goes from being an annoying little kid to one of the most deadly demigods alive in under a ''year''. He's ''literally'' put himself through TrainingFromHell.

* TroubledButCute: Nico di Angelo, [[spoiler:after the death of his sister Bianca]]. Percy himself. On the very first page of ''The Lightning Thief'' he tells the reader he goes to Yancy Academy, a boarding school for "troubled kids", then "Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that."

* {{Tsundere}}: Several characters, the most notable being Annabeth (who is initially mean to Percy - whether this is due to him being a son of Poseidon or the fact [[spoiler:they end up together]] is unknown) and Clarisse (''The Stolen Chariot'' side-story reveals her worst fear to be [[spoiler:her father's anger]]).

* UnderwaterKiss: [[spoiler:Percy and Annabeth.]]

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: After ''The Titan's Curse'', Percy and Annabeth both have matching streaks of grey in their hair from the effort of [[spoiler:holding up the sky]]. This is never mentioned again, and none of the people who show up later notice this. ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' establishes that they faded, so it's possible they're simply not there by the next book.
** Many demigod events that happen in public - they can have a fight with monsters and ''we'' will not notice anything. In ''The Last Olympian'', the reason no one ever thinks Mrs. O'Leary is odd in Manhattan is because either they don't see her, or because (as Percy speculates) they actually see her as a truck of some kind.
** A special mention goes to the "The Sword of Hades." While Percy was taking a test in the auditorium Mrs. O'Leary, a hellhound the size of a Hummer, comes bounding in. Everybody else sees a poodle. Percy is understandably shocked by this.

* VillainHasAPoint: Luke, Prometheus, and most of the minor gods and demigods that side with the Titans do so because [[JerkAssGods the Olympians are jerks]], [[ParentalNeglect neglectful]], and all around no better than the Titans. They side with Kronos either for revenge or because they hoped that by supporting him, he will grant them a better deal.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Happens with plenty of half-bloods, but [[spoiler:Nico, in particular]].

--->'''Grover (to Percy):''' You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you [[spoiler:mailed Medusa's head to Olympus]]. You wanted him to notice what you'd done.

-->'''Percy''': (to Quintus at [[spoiler:Daedalus's workshop]]): What have you done with Daedalus?
-->'''Quintus''': My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. [[spoiler:I am Daedalus.]]
** In ''The Last Olympian'', the line that foreshadows [[spoiler: that Luke is not entirely gone inside Kronos]] is this both InUniverse and out.
-->'''Luke/Kronos:''' You lied! You said [[JerkassGods they]] cared about me!
-->'''Chiron:''' Me. You said me.

* WritersCannotDoMath: In book one, it's mentioned that Sally and Poseidon shared one summer together before he had to leave. Sally also got pregnant during this time period, as she was able to discuss the baby with Poseidon. But this becomes a problem when it's revealed that Percy's birthday is August eighteenth. This means Sally's entire pregnancy lasted three to four months, which (assuming human pregnancy with demigods works the same as a normal pregnancy) is far from the age of viability.

-->'''Thalia Grace:''' For ''you''. Not ''thee''.
-->'''Zoe Nightshade:''' But you use ''you'' for the beginning of a sentence.
-->'''Thalia Grace:''' And the end. Not ''thou''. Not ''thee''. Just ''you''.
-->'''Zoe Nightshade:''' ''[throwing her hands up in the air]'' I ''hate'' this language! It changes too often!
** This is either an especially irritating example or [[invoked]]FridgeBrilliance, as Zoe seems to be using the thee/thou set of pronouns wrong. Though largely discarded now, they are the English familiar pronouns, like the tú set of Spanish pronouns or the du set of German pronouns. However, this may be due to the fact that Zoe is not a native English speaker. Furthermore, she has little respect for the people she's speaking to, so the use of the informal pronoun may indicate her disdain.

-->'''Annabeth''': You're a monster.
-->'''Geryon''': What gave it away? Was it the three chests?

[[folder:Z]]

[[/folder]]

* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Mentioned word for word in ''The Lightning Thief''.

* A live-action series on Creator/DisneyPlus, announced on May 14, 2020. Unlike the film adaptations, Riordan is more actively involved with the development of the series. Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz (''Series/BlackSails'') act as showrunners, James Bobin (''Film/TheMuppets'') directs the pilot, and Creator/WalkerScobell (''Film/TheAdamProject'') stars as Percy.

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Half-bloods smell like lunch to monsters.

* WholePlotReference: most books in the series have the general framework of one of the classics. Most notably is ''The Last Olympian'', which parallels the ''Iliad'' in some places.

* WeirdHistoricalWar: When discussing how demigods have impacted human history, Grover casually mentions World War II. Apparently it was fought largely between children of Zeus and Poseidon on one side and children of Hades on the other. Snatches picked up throughout the books suggest Hades' side was the Axis one.

** ''Lighting Thief'' is the only book in the series that doesn't mention the Great Prophecy.

* HornyDevils: The empousai are a toned-down version, true to their role in Myth/ClassicalMythology - they were one of the earliest forms of succubi. They're literal man-eaters who use a combination of flirtation, illusory beauty, and some sort of mind-scrambling lust magic to disarm their opponents. Their first appearance is in ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'', when they attack Percy at his freshman orientation while [[AllGuysWantCheerleaders disguised as cheerleading upperclassmen.]]

* ''The Lightning Thief''
* ''The Sea of Monsters''
* ''The Titan's Curse''
* ''The Battle of the Labyrinth''
* ''The Last Olympian''

** Percy and Annabeth. In the books, Percy has black hair like his father while Annabeth is blonde. In the show, their hair colors are swapped and while Annabeth is described as having tanned skin, she is played by Leah Savah Jefferies, whose skin color is a darker shade.