Line #14 Fridge/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians


1	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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3	!!FridgeBrilliance
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5	* In the first book, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line about how "Mr Brunner" looked sadly at the ''stele'' he's showing Percy's class, as if he'd been there himself. Given TheReveal about his identity and age, he may well have been!
6	** Another, grimmer, possibility is that Chiron knows there's a monster on staff, but doesn't know who it is, and he's worried that the next funeral he goes to will be Percy's.
7	* Percy lists Mr. Brunner as his favorite teacher and the one who motivates him the most. Not only is Chiron a cool mentor, but he also has millennia of experience teaching kids with ADHD and dyslexia. Any kid with any kind of learning difficulties would appreciate a teacher who makes class easier for them.
8	* From a neutral perspective, Annabeth's running away when she was seven makes sense. Children's minds are programed for black and white thinking, so if she got into trouble a lot, it would make sense that she would come to the conclusion that her father and stepmother didn't love or want her. Adding to that, it would make sense as well that Annabeth's choice would be foolish; there's a big difference between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence is determined by genetics, but wisdom almost always comes from experience, which a seven-year old girl fresh from a comfortable home wouldn't have yet, regardless of having a divine parent or not.
9	** Adding to that, she specifically mentions that when monsters found her and attacked, her family saw her as the cause and blamed her for getting all of them into danger. Even if she knew she wasn't calling them and felt the accusations unfair as she didn't WANT to be attacked, after several of those incidents it is actually plausible for a 7-year old to come to the conclusion that 1, her family saw her as a burden and danger, and 2, they will be in no danger without her.
10	* Athena's apparent dislike of Percy might be only partly because he is Poseidon's son. Aside from the fact that Percy has been known to act recklessly, the boy has a powerful scent as a child of the Big Three, and is effectively a monster-magnet. Keeping that in mind, it's understandable that Athena doesn't like him hanging around her favorite daughter so much; she only wants to protect Annabeth. It could also be due to Athena being the goddess of battle strategy, she tends to see people, especially mortals as pieces on a chessboard. It's not that Athena doesn't like Percy (in the past she has help out numerous children of Posiedon before such as Bellerophon, and Theseus was even a king of her patron city), it's that she doesn't trust him.
11	* In ''The Last Olympian'', there's a sort of context as to why Percy's weak spot is the naval of his back. Percy ''hates'' "backstabbers", as he always takes betrayal ''very'' [[ItsPersonal personally]] if they take advantage of him for selfish reasons.
12	** There's also the instance when Ethan Nakamura was about to pierce his blade into Percy's weak spot, Annabeth intercepts and takes the blow. There's something [[RuleOfSymbolism very symbolic]] in this instance. For Ethan, he "backstabbed" Percy in the previous book, as it was his pledge to Kronos that allowed him to take over Luke's body. So, after that, Ethan tries to backstab Percy again, this time ''literally''. Meanwhile, Annabeth took Ethan's blow before he could even touch Percy's weak spot. It's likely a metaphor to Annabeth's UndyingLoyalty to Percy and that she'll always have his back.
13	* We're told that Sally Jackson chose the name "Perseus" for Percy because he, pretty much alone of the great Greek heroes, got a reasonably happy ending. However, Perseus killed his grandfather (by accident); Percy, by comparison, is responsible for the defeat of Kronos, who is technically ''his'' grandfather. So it's only fitting that history repeated itself.
14	* An earlier example from the first book: Perseus in Greek mythology killed Medusa on the orders of Polydectes, a king. Polydectes was interested in Perseus' mother and wanted him out of the way so that he could force her to marry him. Perseus returned with Medusa's head and turned him to stone. Percy's abusive stepdad Gabe befalls the same fate.
15	** In ''Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes'', he gleefully points out when talking about his namesake that the name Perseus means no less than "avenger" or "destroyer". Fitting both for his role in Gabe's fate and in defeating Kronos.
16	** Annabeth's TakingTheBullet in TLO. She was attacked by Ethan, a son of Nemesis, the spirit of retribution against hubris, something that Annabeth admits to.
17	** If you look at it that way, Ethan and Nemesis even joining Kronos' side. Hubris is considered to be Zeus's flaw, after all. Then Ethan balances this out--while his mother still fights for the Titans, he turns and fights for the gods, against Kronos, whose ego is big enough to have its own gravity field. Riordan was ''perfect'' with some of this stuff.
18	* In Book 4, Chiron makes a big deal about how only [[RuleOfThree three]] people can go on a quest. However, by the end there are six, and none of them die. At first, I thought this was a PlotHole or something. Then I realized: six is a multiple of three! Meaning the rule wasn't violated at all through their new knowledge of [[LoopholeAbuse a certain bureaucratic loophole]]. Makes one wonder why they don't just send nine kids(3x3). Or twenty-seven(3^3).
19	** Because having a bunch of demigods in a single place would collectively create a smell based neon sign declaring "Come eat me" to every monster in a ten mile radius.
20	** Well, the original quest is actually only 4 people, they need new people to advance the plot.
21	** But after they first came back, three of them didn't return. Percy was on Calypso's island and Tyson and Grover were still somewhere in the labyrinth.
22	* Notice that Hades was absent from the winter solstice meeting in ''The Titan's Curse'' (or at least, if he was there, kept a very low profile)? He didn't want to draw attention to himself with Nico out there.
23	* Surely you'd assume that demigod children would know about their divine origins - actually; a lot of gods probably try to keep this hush hush because when some people know it's not turned out well - I mean, Tantalus, a favored child of Zeus, probably left a ''bad'' taste in a lot of mouths in Olympus (Especially Demeter), Phaeton was allowed to drive the sun because his fellow kids didn't believe him, etc. Not to mention when ''mortals'' know that they were in love with a god, not all of them turned out that well. (It's mentioned in "The Lost Hero" that Thalia and Jason's mom was...kinda screwed up in the head and Zeus didn't really help her that much, until he came around in his Roman aspect. In regards to Piper's dad, this is outright confirmed. Knowing the gods existed [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow seriously messed with his head]].) Plus in today's society being a demigod is a burden than a blessing, as opposed to ancient times, where demigods are practically (and some cases are) worshiped, nowadays being told you're a demigod will only make you die faster. Naturally the kids have a right to know are told when they're old enough to handle it; and some mortals who do know about it are told because they can maturely handle it.
24	* Thalia's last name is Grace. There's another daughter of Zeus, also named Thalia, who is one of the Graces.
25	** Goes farther than that. Thaleia, the muse of comic theatre, also a daughter of Zeus is sometimes translated as blooming and usually spelled in English as Thalia.
26	*** In fact, going by evidence from the sequel series, this seems to be no coincidence as ''Zeus appears to have picked the name'' [[note]]as in her brother's case [[/note]].
27	*** This leads to brilliance on its own, as Zeus is a rather inattentive parent, so you could imagine he gave a bunch of his kids the same names so he can better remember them!
28	* In the fourth book, Calypso says that she has always sent someone who can't stay, but in the original myth, Odysseus leaves because he is in love with someone else. Meanwhile, Percy is worrying about Annabeth...
29	* It makes sense for Annabeth and her dad to live in such a high-military area as Jamestown, Virginia, with many universities nearby, since he is a professor of military history. And a lot of the Revolutionary War and Civil War happened in the area. Why he should move out to San Francisco makes no sense, but the Presidio there is also a former military installation.
30	** Annabeth states he moved to San Francisco because he got a research job there.
31	* Prometheus was right about the Battle of Manhattan being a reenactment of the Trojan War. However, he was wrong about which side was which. That's because Prometheus is the god of ''forethought'' not ''foresight''. He can predict the future, but as anyone from Greek mythology tell you, the future is not always what you think it is.
32	* Chiron is seriously dedicated about winning the Titan War because if they lose, civilization falls and then heroes may stop rising. So he is no longer needed. May make Greek History lessons a tad more essential.
33	* Zoë Nightshade's name becomes this upon reflection:
34	** "Zoe" means "life"--both appropriate given her longevity, and painful given her ironic demise.
35	** The nightshade flower is breathtakingly beautiful--and nightshade is a deadly poison. Beautiful and deadly--coincidence? I think not. Also, the flower is deep purple except for the very center, which is bright yellow. In other words, it has a dark exterior but a heart of gold.
36	** In addition, Zoë was once a Hesperid, a nymph of the sunset. Sunset = shadow of night = Nightshade.
37	* Percy. Perseus. Annabeth. Athena.
38	* A chance comment by my niece while we were watching the movie of ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief]]'' made this one occur to me, but I doubt it doesn't apply here, too. Hermes' son is Luke. One of the items Luke provides/uses are winged shoes. This basically means Luke is flying because of his feet. The chance comment my niece made: She called him "[[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]]." -- {{Sgamer82}}
39	** 1) yes, that still applies here. 2), that’s hilarious.
40	* We're told in ''The Last Olympian'' that Nico and the Pegasi dislike each other. This mostly seems to be because his father is Hades and children of him are generally outcasts, but in ''The Sea of Monsters'', Percy mentions that Pegasi are sort of neutral territory between Poseidon and Zeus only. So naturally the Pegasi would dislike a son of Hades!
41	* I was always a little confused about how Silena Beauregard got the Ares cabin to believe she was Clarisse and follow her into battle, because she and Clarisse don't look anything like each other. But then in ''The Lost Hero'', it's revealed children of Aphrodite sometimes have [[CompellingVoice the ability to make other people do stuff with their voice]]. No wonder they believed Silena was Clarisse, she ''charmspoke'' them into it!
42	** It's never stated that Silena could charmspeak, but it's a possibility.
43	*** I think it's more likely that the entire cabin wanted to go to the fight (because it was the right thing to do) and took any excuse they could get.
44	** The above is pretty much explicitly stated, but it's also a pretty obvious allusion to The Iliad (the need-to-know book for info on the Mist). Achilles (Clarisse) was the best fighter and led the finest men in the Greek army, but (s)he sulked due to having a prize earned in battle awarded to someone else. (Thankfully, Clarisse's prize was a flying chariot, not a slave girl.) At the battle's most desperate point, Patroclus/Silena took Achilles' armor and led his men into battle to hearten the Greeks. Achilles' men knew it's not really their leader, but they want to help the Greeks and will follow ''anyone'' at that point. And both of these false leaders die as a result of their deception.
45	* Something this troper realized after reading the Great Prophecy a few times: Hades got his wish! All three children of the Big Three were the child mentioned in the prophecy! Just hear me out for a moment: Thalia skips out a few days before her age-16-birthday, but she had already been around for at least 16 years before that and did that against all odds (she got turned into a tree after she died). Her choice to 'pass' allowed Percy to be the child. Same for Nico: he too survived against all odds (getting a lightning-bolt thrown at the place you're in is usually deadly) and his choice to allow Percy to 'be' the one gave Percy the chance for HIS choice to give Luke the knife to save Olympus. Ergo: if either Thalia or Nico had chosen differently, Percy would not have gotten his choice and Olympus might have fallen!
46	** Not how prophecies work. The Great Prophecy always referred to Percy, it's just that Thalia could have theoretically been the demigod it spoke of, and Nico (or Bianca, for that matter) could have as well if Percy had been taken out of commission. They didn't know for certain which one it referred to, hence the confusion and manipulation, but it was always going to be Percy.
47	** Also, Nico is younger than Percy. Nico was 10 when introduced, meaning he is about 13 during the Mark of Athena.
48	* After reading through Battle of the Labyrinth, it struck me that one chapter is titled "We Meet the Two-faced God". Well, yeah, of course, it makes sense in this book that it's got such a weird title, so I was expecting them to literally meet a two-faced god. And of course they did -- Janus. But who else did they meet in that chapter? Hera. I recall how nice she was to Percy and the others. I also recall a story in which it's said she threw Hephaestus off a cliff... Odd for the goddess of marriage and family...
49	** In the same book, it is pretty much stated that she is almost obsessively devoted to the ideal of a PERFECT family, and, as Hephaestus bitterly remarks, he doesn't quite fit in that with his looks... Not that Zeus' chronic infidelity helps anything.
50	* Rachel, a mortal who had no ties to the gods until she became the oracle, has a very much Jewish name.
51	** This Troper just reread the story of Rachel and Jacob; when she was having problems getting pregnant she used the magic of the Greeks to conceive Joseph and Benjamin.
52	* For quite some time, I was wondering what Blackbeard was doing on Circe's island. After all, he was killed by the Royal Navy. Then I realized: it fits. Blackbeard is the son of Ares. Eurytion is another of Ares' children. Eurytion made a deal with his father to come back to life each time he died, making him functionally immortal. Moreover, contemporary accounts of Blackbeard's death describe his headless corpse swimming around the ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' three times. Take all this into account, and it's obvious: Blackbeard made a deal with his father to be effectively immortal.
53	* If the Oracle hadn't made the prophecy that is the driving force behind the series, then Zeus wouldn't have made the law that him and his brothers should have no more children. If Zeus hadn't made that law, then he wouldn't have tried to kill Bianca and Nico. If Zeus hadn't made that attack, then Hades wouldn't have cursed the Oracle which means Luke's mum wouldn't have gone insane which means Luke wouldn't be the person that he was. The fact that the prophecy was made is what made sure that all the pieces were in place ready for Percy 70 years later.
54	** Hence the saying; Those who try to change fate, are doomed to fulfill it. In this instance, Zeus tried to stop the prophecy, by killing any children of the Big Three and stopping more to be born. The events sparked by his actions lead to the prophecy actually coming true.
55	* Rachel Elizabeth Dare's initials spell out RED--and incidentally, her red hair is definitely one of her defining characteristics. (Also take into account the fact that her middle name is explicitly mentioned--often--whereas other characters' aren't)
56	* Pollux and [[DeathByIrony Castor]]. Guess which one of the twins dies while the other one lives.
57	* The reason why gods do not care about incest? The thing about the gods are that they are physically perfect, part of what makes them godly is that they don't have any flaws in their body (except for Hephaestus). So, the practical reasons behind the taboo on relatives marrying when it comes to people related through gods is void, and assuming they aren't related through their mortal parent, two demigods are as likely to have a child with a genetic disorder as two completely unrelated individuals.
58	* At the end of TLO, Annabeth takes Nico aside and says something to him that makes him agree to go back to camp with them. However, he acts really embarrassed after having the talk with her. But in House of Hades, we find out Nico has a crush for Percy. Annabeth, being the daughter of wisdom, must have figured it out and used it to blackmail him! This explains why she didn't want Percy to hear them talking and also why Nico was so flustered afterwards!
59	** Jossed-Annabeth mentions in Heroes of Olympus that she suspects Nico has a crush on her, not Percy. It's more likely that she talked to Nico about that, and that's why Nico was embarrassed. Also explains why Nico plays up the rumor that he has a crush on Annabeth
60	** I always figured she mentioned how Percy had been looking for him, and maybe some of the things he said at the end of Titan's Curse.
61	* In TLO, Silena reveals that her father owns a chocolate store, which is how he caught the attention of Aphrodite. This pair seems a bit odd, but consider the role chocolate has in Valentine's Day, which is a day of love, and how love is what Aphrodite represents. The whole situation makes more sense now, doesn't it?
62	** [[Film/TheRoom2003 They say chocolate is...the symbol of Love.]]
63	* There's much saying about Riordan "getting myths wrong". However, one thing about myths is that there isn't an actual "canonical" version, they have multiple ones that can say far different things (Uranus would be an example: the most common version has him just eraviated, but in some stories he was actually killed, as it's stated in the series). Most often Riordan isn't wrong, just following lesser known versions.
64	** Spelled outright in ''Percy Jackson's Greek Gods'': "Now there might be some of you reading this who will be all like, 'But Percy this is wrong this is not the way I heard it so you must have made a mistake!' To those of you like that, all myths had several versions, I'm just telling the ones that I heard and what make the most sense to me, so deal with it."
65	* Kronos seems far too easy to defeat, in the end, however the sequel reveals that the giants starts awakening after he is defeated. ''The House of Hades'' also reveals that Gaea's favourite children are the giants, and she was planning on their victory all along. Of course he was easily defeated, he was victim of anothers schemings.
66	** It's also revealed that the Titans are nowhere near their full power at all in the series. Kronos was trying to reborn himself using Luke's body like an egg. If he was at full power, Percy and all the other demigods would literally be incinerated just from his mere presence.
67	* After rereading the battle of the labyrinth I realized that Riordan was setting up the groundwork for the revelation of a Roman camp in the lost hero and Chiron's knowledge of it early. When Quintus (actually Daedalus) appears Percy is skeptical of a grown up demigod who had never been to Camp Half-Blood. But Chiron seems to feel uneasy but accepting. He probably assumed that Quintus was a Roman demigod doing what Nico was doing in the Son of Neptune. This is further supported by the fact that Quintus was a common Roman name.
68	** Heck, Quintus may even have deliberately invoked this!
69	* In ''The Sea of Monsters'', Clarisse is traveling with a Confederate battleship. The reason given for this is that Ares gets the ''losing'' side's equipment and dead men after a battle or war. Why the losing side if he's a god of war? For one, the losing side is less likely to get a proper burial, meaning they would be forbidden from entering the Underworld and their spirits would be forced to wander as ghosts, so he's just putting them to use. Two, since the losing side's dead bodies are more likely to be left on the battlefield to rot, Ares' sacred birds, the vultures, and crows/ravens, would find them quick and eat them, which might be almost like sacrificing the bodies to him.
70	* If you live in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC or are a major rail buff, you may have figured out the plot twist about Bianca and Nico di Angelo in ''The Titan's Curse'' prior to the reveal that they spent time in the Lotus Hotel & Casino: To evade their pursuers, they duck into the UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro. Bianca says the Metro is new to her, and she even mentions that the last time she and Nico came through D.C. (which was no less than a year prior to the events of the story), the Washington Metro did not exist. But the story is set in 2007. The di Angelo siblings are in their early teens. It seems odd that Bianca would make such a remark when the first segments of the Washington Metro system opened in 1976, well before either Nico or Bianca would have been born. Once Percy deduces that they spent time in the Lotus Hotel & Casino, it makes sense that they must have entered it sometime ''before'' construction of the Washington Metro ever started. ''The Last Olympian'' reveals that they were actually born sometime in the mid-1930s, and put in the Lotus Hotel sometime around 1941.
71	* In ''Percy Jackson's Greek Gods'', the story of how Zeus got his father to return his eaten siblings is largely expanded, as most sources only mention a potion or even a sucker punch to the solar plexus, whereas here Zeus served as a cupbearer. It makes perfect sense though to add that detail: after all, Kronos was king of the universe at the time, with powerful lackeys all protecting him, and Zeus only got his mighty lightning bolt after he set his siblings free. Obviously he would need stealth, and who better to pull off a poisoning than a cupbearer?
72	* Why did Janus and Pomona, Gods were were (possibly in the latter's case) on the Titans side, begin appearing to the Greek Heroes in the later books? Simple, with the war officially on Kronos would see value in reminding the Greeks to hate Roman things. Should the conflict go on for a while, such hate would be of use to divide and conquer the demigods and cripple the gods, and may have been a plan before Typhon was able to incapacitate the gods.
73	* Remember Hades' rant in ''The Lightning Thief'' about how he already has enough subjects? His anger is understandable, but even more so when you remember he gave a rant pretty much to that effect (saying how busy he is with having to organize and rule the loads of dead people and guard Tartarus to boot) all the way ''back in Literature/TheIliad'', that is, back in ''the times of Odysseus and Achilles''. He's been saying all along that he has enough subjects to almost border on being overworked and people still think he wants more? Of course he will be furious! For extra, that rant in Literature/TheIliad shakes the Underworld due to how loud he's yelling - and here he causes an earthquake in Los Angeles.
74	* Percy thinking Annabeth's godly parent was male, made sense. Most of the female gods of the Olympian Council had sworn off men. Also nearly all the Half-Bloods of Greek Myths were the children of ''Male Gods''. In fact if not for LoopholeAbuse, Annabeth wouldn't exist.
75	* Each cabin inheriting the basic powers and personality traits of their godly parent can seem like just a way to group the cast into easily-distinguishable [[GangOfHats Gangs Of Hats]]. However, Annabeth's comment about Athena having an "intellectual connection" with her mortal partners implies that gods and goddesses tend to favor mortals who are talented within their domain, e.g., Athena goes for very intelligent men like Annabeth's father, a professor. In other words, the similar personalities and skills between demigod half-siblings likely aren't just a matter of SuperpowerfulGenetics, but also come from having mortal parents with the same interests and abilities.
76	** ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' and ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'' also introduce a litany of mortal parents who fit this pattern: TheBeautifulElite Tristan [=McLean=] has a daughter with Aphrodite, mechanical engineer Esperanza Valdez has a son with Hephaestus, soldiers Emily Zhang and Julian Ramirez-Arellano have children with Mars and Bellona respectively, botanist Phillip [=McCaffrey=] has a daughter with Demeter, and Apollo has demigod children with a musician, an archery coach, and a music theory teacher. That being said, it's also made clear that the correlation between a mortal parent's skill and their child's skill is variable--Leo's love of machines explicitly derives from his childhood in his mother's machine shop as much as Hephaestus' genes, while Will Solace, the son of a professional musician, is a healer with no musical ability other than a supersonic whistle.
77	* Hades being a bit of a jerk in the Riordan-verse, whereas he was generally presented as being just and fair in the original myths: We know that mortals' belief in the gods affects them and even their personalities. So why is he an AdaptationalJerkass nowadays? Because EverybodyHatesHades! He's seen as a jerk[=/=]villain, so therefore he became one!
78	* When Bianca di Angelo claims that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the previous president, Percy asks, "Like FDR Drive?" While this response originally looks like a simple case of BookDumb, Percy's answer makes more sense with some additional details. In ''The Lightning Thief'', Percy tells a taxi driver to take him to "East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," an intersection near the apartment he shares with his mother and Gabe Ugliano. FDR Drive is only one block away from this intersection, meaning that Percy grew up really close to the parkway. Of course FDR Drive is the first thing he thinks of when he hears Bianca talk about Franklin Roosevelt!
79	* Some complain that the Rachel/Percy ShipTease feels awkward, unnecessary, and out-of-nowhere. However, that's exactly the point! Remember that Aphrodite promised to make Percy and Annabeth's love lives interesting...only a few chapters before Rachel was introduced. ''Their whole ShipTease is just Aphrodite meddling!''
80	** Given that Rachel is intended to be the next Oracle, it's probable that she was fated to meet and befriend Percy anyway; however, all of their awkwardness and the possible romance is down to Aphrodite.
81	* In ''The Last Olympian'' there is an excellent StealthPun, courtesy of Morpheus. It was mentioned that he made everyone in Manhattan, prior to the big battle, fall asleep. NYC is known as "The City That Never Sleeps"...
82	* ''Every'' instance of the myths repeating themselves in this series makes sense when you remember that the Fates actively take a hand in weaving the stories of the heroes. Just like how human authors reuse the same tropes and plot-lines that they enjoyed, why wouldn't the Fates go back to reuse old favorites?
83	* It makes perfect sense that Luke was able to get away with stealing Zeus's lighting blot in the first book, as he's the son of the god of thieves.
84	** Although, it does make you wonder: how was he not even a suspect?
85	*** It's more likely because Zeus, being the egotistical god he is, is known to almost always [[FailedASpotCheck overlook certain clues]]. He's too arrogant and is known to always assume that his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, are always plotting to declare war against him to overthrow him (which is ''far'' from the truth). While the other twelve Olympians are powerful in their own right, Zeus would hardly consider them a threat, minus the Big Three ''and'' their children.
86	*** Adding to this, it's likely Zeus ''knew'' Percy wasn't the Lightning Thief, but as Percy points out in book two, he just wants to find someone to blame who are considered major threats solely due to their blood connection to the Big Three or even the Titans. That's also why Zeus wanted Chiron fired from camp, due to his blood relation to Kronos. He knew Chiron didn't actually have a role in poisoning Thalia's tree; he just blames him for not being able to cure it. Zeus is a "guilty under Zeus' ego until proven innocent" type of god.
87	* The Olympians are under no obligation to claim their kids, which means a lot of kids are never claimed and feel neglected and like their parent doesn't care for them. Athena, however, is unique; she purposefully creates her kids as being gifts to men with a high intellect she admires, and always claims her kids at birth by dropping them off in a golden Olympic cradle. At the end of the series, it's concluded the war happened because of how many demigods felt abandoned by their godly parent, and it becomes mandatory for all Olympians to claim their child by at least thirteen. So, in other words, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, had the right idea for how to treat their kids all along!
88	* Poseidon really does love Sally and Percy, given that he's noted to have wanted to make Sally immortal by bringing her to his kingdom under the sea - and therefore, use a loophole to get out of the prophecy: if Sally is immortal, then Percy isn't mortal either. He'd be safe from the prophecy.
89	* Percy's dream car is a Maserati. What's the Maserati emblem?
90	** Probably unintentional, but in the film, the car they use to escape the Lotus Hotel is also a Maserati.
91
92	!!FridgeHorror
93	* Luke's mother is still making sandwiches and kool-aid for a son that will never come home. Ever.
94	* You know how Percy saved Ethan? Ethan, the son of Nemesis, resurrected Kronos because of that.
95	** That is not to say that some other demigod couldn't have finished the job themselves.
96	* Before Rachel Elizabeth Dare became the Oracle, the previous one was soul bound permanently to her body. Her corpse was still animated, even after it had been dead for presumably centuries. Therefore the Oracle had been living forever in the mummified body that was once hers. Since the Oracle would have lasted indefinitely until someone gave her a new body (Rachel), what exactly is gonna happen to Rachel's body in a couple hundred years?
97	** That only happened because of the curse Hades placed on the old Oracle. Rachel is not cursed. She'll probably retire at the standard retirement age of 65.
98	** It's also somewhat confusing, as the previous oracle was about 12 at the time of the second world war, which means that by the time of the series she should only be in her 70s. However, it's possible (though unconfirmed) that Hades' curse had some kind of advanced withering effect.
99	* During ''The Sea of Monsters'', Percy spots a father and his two elementary school-aged daughters on the ''Princess Andromeda'', along with other guests. In book four, all the guests are gone. Percy theorizes that they [[NeverSayDie "didn't get to leave with their bingo winnings"]]. This includes, of course, the father & his daughters.
100	** Take it one step further and consider the ship's inhabitants: (Kronos' army of monsters). They were most likely fed to aforementioned monsters. Full stop.
101	*** In Son of Magic (Short story by Riordan's son, found in Demigod Diaries), Alabaster, son of Hecate, states that when Beckendorf and Percy blew up the ''Andromeda'', not only were monsters lost, but demigods who were allied to Kronos.
102	*** Percy considers the implications of this himself in the book - while creating a diversion so that Beckendorf can finish arming the explosives, he comes across a fellow demigod and tries to warn him about what's going to happen if he doesn't get off the ship.
103	* The Labyrinth was destroyed. Now, imagine how many people may have been inside when it collapsed...
104	** Considering the slim chance of anyone actually getting out and not dying an excruciating death from starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion, not to mention the traps, monsters roaming around, pits leading straight to Tartarus, etc, it was probably a MercyKill.
105	* Nico spends a lot of time just roaming around, especially right after he runs away from camp when he was ten. Just think about that for a moment. A ten year old living on the streets of Manhattan alone for who knows how long.
106	** Add to that, he is the son of Hades. One of the Great Three, whose children are said to have such a strong smell to monsters they are safer in camp for all of the year because otherwise they would be harassed and attacked very very often. No wonder Hades offered him to live in the Underworld, that's like the only other safe place for the kid!
107	* At the end of ''The Lightning Thief'', Percy's mom turns her husband to stone, with Percy's help. For the entire rest of the series, no one brings it up again, or comments on the fact that this is murder.
108	** Well, with a just afterlife murder is going to be far less of a crime than it is in our world.
109	** Bear in mind that this is a Greek epic written in modern times. People got away with that stuff all the time in those myths, especially to people as foul as Gabe.
110	** I'd like to point out that the nickname ''Smelly'' Gabe was said to be appropriate for a good reason: his smell was so bad that it could hide a demigod from monsters. Percy was son of one of the three greater ones, and it still took months for a monster spending several hours every day next to him to suspect him. Being the first one, quite far from the DarkerAndEdgier tones the series got from the third book onwards, that subject is never really touched but it's quite implied he used at the very least to beat Percy's mother. More than fridge horror, is that sincerely everyone just think he got what he deserved.
111	** Look, let's cut to the chase and say that Gabe probably ended up in the Fields of Punishment, so......
112	* Imagine that you are one of the rare mortals who can see through the Mist, like Sally Jackson or Rachel Elizabeth Dare. You grow up, seeing monsters attacking the city and strange kids with powers your entire life. Because few others have your ability, nobody believes anything you say about what you've seen, and you start to wonder yourself if you're actually insane. Your only hope for mental safety is for your ability to help run you into a half-blood who might be able to explain things to you - and doing that means you've become involved in their dangerous lives...
113	** Rachel thought she was going crazy for years until Percy explained to her that everything she was seeing was real. Has any clearsighted mortal ever been institutionalized because they were able to see monsters that no one else could, and nobody ever believed them? And if they were, remember that humane psychiatry and mental health care are relatively recent developments (and still aren't accessible in many parts of the world), and for a long time, people who were mentally ill (or thought to be so) were locked up in insane asylums, abused and even lobotomized--often with an ice pick through the eyeball.
114	* The Underworld/Afterlife. First, for the love of Hades, you better make sure you can pay a fee to Charon for transportation. If you can't? Oh, too bad, you're stuck until he feels nice. (And that can be up to 100 years.) Second, the judges of the underworld can show bias as evidenced by Minos meaning they might not always be fair. Third, where you go heavily depends on what the gods' opinions of you today are. If you have their favor, it might save you from the Fields of Punishment or even get you a retirement in Elysium. If you have angered a god unknowingly or hated the Olympians for them making your life miserable you can easily be denied Elysium or end up in the Fields of Punishment. Fourth, if a new group of deities takes over the laws that decide where people go can change and even those in Elysium might find themselves in the Fields of Punishment for supporting the old order. No wonder most people choose the Asphodel Fields. As Grover put it, "Just imagine standing in a wheat field in the middle of Kansas, ''forever''."
115	** For adults, the fee is not as problematic. Charon casually mentions that it can be added to your electrical bill for the month you died. Of course, that leads into FridgeHorror of its own for lower-income families.
116	* The lives of the monsters. For the high crime of existing they're forced to fight a war in which their own kin kill them callously, over and over and over again . . .
117	** Not really if you think about it. Satyrs and Cyclops are monsters but don't have to fight over and over. Plus Percy and Co. were alright with having a hellhound. The only reason that monsters die is because they WANT to harm/eat/kill demigods. The average demigod is willing to leave monsters alone. Its the monsters who CHOOSE to fight and subsequently die "over and over again".
118	* Annabeth's release of Blackbeard and his pirates upon Circe's island makes you wonder, "just what happened to all the other women who were residing there and didn't escape?" You have to think that rape or murder are the most likely answers....
119	* Its stated in the first book that Yancy Academy had a math teacher before Mrs. Dodds, who had to leave because she had "a nervous breakdown". Add that to the trio's talk about Hades powers later in the book, and the fact that we know Hades specifically sent Mrs. Dodds to find Percy....
120	* The hydra encounter in ''Sea of Monsters'' has Annabeth stating that fast food chain outlets are tied to a monster's life source, after the Monster Donut shop scene.
121	** This Troper doesn't understand what is Fridge Horror about this. Can a fellow Troper explain, please?
122	** I guess it's pointing out how the abundance of fast food chains in the world today indicates a very higher presence of monsters...which, to my knowledge, still doesn't qualify as Fridge Horror since it was what the line was originally meant to convey. Isn't FridgeLogic something that only becomes apparent if you think about it too much?
123	** I thought that line was only referring to the Monster Donuts chain.
124	** This Troper says that fast food chains ARE monsters.
125	** I think they were trying to indicate some Half-Bloods being mixed into the [=McNuggets=].
126	* When monsters die, their essence returns to Tartarus and they reform after an unspecified period of time. Cyclopes are monsters, so the same would happen to them. Tyson is a Cyclops, so when he dies, he will not get to go to Elysium with Percy and the other half-bloods. Neither will Grover, who will be reincarnated into a plant when ''he'' dies.
127	** Technically under that logic Tyson would never die, so that's not so bad. Though how monster resurrection works for friendly monsters isn't known. Given that Percy in The House of Hades was worried if being in Tartarus would affect Mrs. O'Leary in a sort of reset, it does raise a new fridge horror: could Tartarus reset a dead Cyclops from being helpful to Poseidon in his forges to an enemy of demigods everywhere?
128	*** No. Tyson is an Elder Cyclops (the ones that helped the gods). The evil ones are the Northern Cyclops (Ma Gasket) and the Southern Cyclops (Polyhemus). It is unlikely that going to Tartarus will change a monster's species.
129	*** Wait, when the Hades was Tyson an ''Elder Cyclops''? He's a son of Poseidon. The Elder Cyclopses were born to Ouranos and Gaia. Tyson is the same species as Polyphemus.
130	* In the first book, when they explain that ADHD is a manifestation of their battlefield instincts without any outlet, they also say that many of the teachers are monsters. Hence why the teachers who aren't mortal push kids they suspect towards being diagnosed- it not only alienates them a little, but as the disorder itself is survival instinct turned up to eleven hundred, suppressing it means that the kids not only have a harder time noticing any monster they might encounter, it also means that if the monster in question thinks the kid not seeing them for what they are is not enough assurance and attacks, the kid provides a much easier prey.
131	* Given the kind of person Gabe was and the fact that Sally COULDN'T leave him, it is probable that that Sally was effectively raped every night.
132	* Luke is a borderline, if not outright, pedophile. He is seven years older than Annabeth. Which means that in the last novel when he asks Annabeth if she loved him she was 16 and he was 23. This is creepy, but too bad until you consider that he almost certainly didn’t just develop this attraction to Annabeth. The last time that he spent any real amount of time around Annabeth she was 12 and he was 19. He would have been in college and she would have been a sixth grader.
133	** But wasn't the love more of a brother-sister thing than a romantic thing between Luke & Annabeth?
134	*** She says that she saw him as a brother. Whether or not that's true, and whether or not he loved her the same way...
135	** During ''The Titan's Curse'', Annabeth is forced to hold up the sky as part of Atlas' plan to get Artemis to do it, and then is held prisoner for about a week. During this time, Luke could have done anything to her and nobody would have bothered to stop him.
136	* In ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'', Percy and his friends find the skeleton of a milkman who accidentally wandered into the Labyrinth and never made it out, his fingers still clawing at the brick wall. There are probably many mortals like him who somehow got into the Labyrinth and never escaped because they didn't know they were supposed to look for the mark of Daedalus to get out. Now think about how many missing persons cases there are in the United States alone, and [[NeverFoundTheBody how many of those people have never been found]], even today...
137	** Come to think of it, so many awful things can happen to mortals. They can wander into the Labyrinth and die there. They can be attacked and eaten by random monsters, with the likelihood increasing if they're in close proximity to a demigod. They can wander into Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium and be turned into statues. They can enter the Lotus Hotel and Casino and stay in there forever, forgetting who they are. Any boy who accidentally sees the Hunters' camp will be turned into a jackalope by Artemis. Any man who winds up on Circe's island will be turned into a guinea pig and sold to a pet store. The vast majority of these people who die will probably never be found and their loved ones will never know what happened to them.
138
139	!!FridgeSadness
140
141	* Annabeth's fatal flaw is hubris, or deadly pride. Her life has always been difficult, feeling like she was unwanted and a danger to her family. They were always being attacked by monsters and she felt her father and stepmother blamed her for them. At seven, she ran away from home with nothing but the clothes on her back and a hammer for fighting monsters, and she spent the next year surviving on the streets with Luke and Thalia until they made it to camp. Maybe pride is her fatal flaw because, for a long time, it was all she had to hold on to--something that made her feel like she deserved to live.
142
143	!!FridgeLogic
144
145	* In the Lightning Thief movie, Persephone is present alongside Hades in the Underworld. Aside from the clear lack of research in this particular myth (i.e., Hades and Persephone in the myth had a loving, devoted marriage), there's also the fact that Persephone is present at all in the Underworld during the story, which takes place in summer. However (unless I miss my guess), Persephone only spends winter in the Underworld with Hades. In fact, her time in the underworld is the reason winter exists (at least according to the myth), because her mother Demeter, goddess of nature and harvest, misses her. What would she be doing in the underworld in the summer?
146	** I'm pretty sure this is a Headscratcher, not Fridge Logic...
147	** Because the movie sucked and they didn't know anything about Greek Mythology.
148	** While I can't deny the above statements, the movie was actually more accurate by accident with having Persephone in the Underworld. In the original myth, it was said that Demeter created a season of death for crops and farms. For most of the modern Western world, we would obviously assume this to be winter. But for the ancient Greeks, who lived much closer to the equator, this would be summer as it would be much too hot and dry to properly raise a farm.
149	*** Is there any evidence from the myths to back this up? In most of the stories I've read, the period where Demeter allows crops to wither has always been referred to as "winter." And even if it ''were'' summer in Greece, it's still illogical that it would be that way in present-day America, where the crops grow quite healthily in the summer, and the harvest time is seen as being in the fall.
150	*** Wouldn't the deal still be on Greece time?
151	*** No, because the Gods and their abilities are tied to wherever the 'West' is manifested the strongest, hence why they're in America. Logically that means the deal is on America time.
152	** Though it also begs the question of why she couldn't just create another pearl for them to get Grover out, considering she created them in the film's verse.
153	** The marriage being a happy one is only one (more hopeful) interpretation of the myth. I know several: one where Persephone went to the Underworld on her own and sought Hades out, one where he courted her and she agreed to go with him, one where he kidnapped her and she grew to love him, and another where he kidnapped her and she never loved him. Regardless, happy marriages can sour -- that's why we (but not the gods) have the option of divorce.
154	* In the film, Luke says verbatim that Percy and his friends weren't supposed to leave the Underworld alive. Even though he's the one who told them about Persephone's pearls, and gave them a map showing them exactly where to find them. Unless they were killed by one of the monsters on the way there, there was never any chance of them ''not'' being able to escape alive.
155	** Chalk it up to the movie leaving out Ares from the Lightning Thief. In the book it's him who says Percy and co but especially Percy was supposed to die there (Hades mad at Poseidon for "trying to pin the theft on him", Poseidon mad at Hades for killing Percy and for "trying to pin the theft on him", and Zeus mad at both would be a perfect three-way war.)
156	* The second film crowbars in an explanation for why Percy can't use his water manipulation to help his friends escape from Charybdis, by saying that the Sea of Monsters isn't in Poseidon's domain. Moving past how stupid this sounds on its own (as it goes against the book ''and'' the original Greek myths), shouldn't that have meant that Percy's other water powers (navigation and healing) should've stopped working, as well?
157	** The same explanation from the last two: these movies are fucking stupid. If anyone has any Fridge Logic examples from the movies, chalk it up to that. However, in universe, possibly it’s because whoever said that (I haven’t seen the movie, thank Zeus) was lying and Percy took it at face value?
158	*** Annabeth is the one who says that to Percy in the movie. But yeah, I wish I could un-see those movies. Lets pray that the upcoming series will be much better.
159	* Not sure if this should go in brilliance or not, but Meta example either way: Dionysus as the director of Camp Half-Blood. If you know '''''anything''''' about Dionysus, he's '''technically''' a half-blood himself. Only reason he's divine is because his mom died before he was born and Zeus sewed him into his thigh so he'd be born at term.

Context Fridge / PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians