Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Headscratchers / PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians

Go To

1[[foldercontrol]]
2[[folder: Iapetus’s Attack]]
3* When Iapetus is risen out of Tartarus in the sword of Hades he attacks Percy unprovoked, breaking an ancient law. Why and how is he able to do this?
4** There are some ancient laws which are unbreakable (ie immortals can't cross into each other's territories without permission, except the messenger gods), and some which were handed down by Zeus (ie no interfering in demigod quests). Most likely, the one about no attacking humans/demigods first is a Zeus-given law to stop the gods from killing humans left, right, and centre whenever they get upset. If it's a Zeus-given law, it only binds the Olympians, not the Titans.
5** Didn't ''The Titan's Curse'' prove this wasn't the case, though? When Percy goes to attack Atlas, Zoe warns him to beware, as landing a single blow will allow Atlas to retaliate in full force. That's how it's worded, anyway. If Atlas wasn't bound by the law (and you would expect Zoe to know), he wouldn't need to wait for Percy to attack him first.
6** Either the writers were ignoring that at the time, or there are some caveats to it, like say, the Titans specifically ''can'' attack mortals and demigods without being challenged, but they can't use everything they have to kill them, a sort of "fight with handicaps unless challenged first" sort of deal. Another possibility is that it isn't that you ''can't'' do those sorts of things, but you face ''consequences'' if you do, like with swearing on the River Styx, and well...[[FridgeBrilliance Iapetus' attempt to fight Percy, despite Percy being seriously injured, didn't go so well for him did it...]]
7** Also, if memory serves, all Zoe said at the time was "Beware!", or something of that sort. It was Percy who assumed she was referring to Atlas being able to retaliate in full force when provoked; Zoe herself might've known that rule wasn't a factor to begin with, and her warning was meant as a generic "Atlas is very strong, so be on your guard once he has you in his sights."
8[[/folder]]
9
10[[folder: Athena's birth]]
11* This counts for actual Greek mythology as well but Athena's mother was supposed to have a child stronger then the father, but Athena is always said to be weaker than the big three. Why is that? Did Zeus "technically" give birth to Athena so it doesn't count?
12** Some versions say that Metis, Athena's mom, was supposed to give birth originally to ''two'' children, of which the second, the son, would be the one to surpass his father.
13*** ''Percy Jackson's Greek Gods'' confirms that this version is the one canon in the Riordanverse.
14** The myths about "a child stronger than the father" generally specified that the kid had to be a boy. So if Metis had a son, he would've been stronger than his father, but as a daughter, Athena wasn't seen as a threat to her father. (The same issue cropped up with Thetis, a Nereid who Zeus had his eye on until he heard about the prophecy. She was married to a mortal named Peleus instead, and became the mother of the hero Achilles).
15[[/folder]]
16
17[[folder: Godly DNA]]
18* So gods not passing on DNA means that there aren't any cases of kissing cousins at camp. But doesn't this mean that it's the mortal parent they should worry about? Sharing a divine parent should mean the equivalent of not being related by blood because they really aren't.
19** The gods have to have something that substitutes as DNA for them - they still have organs, genitals, and golden blood, after all. The "having no mortal DNA" technicality is only used to cover the dating of half-bloods with different godly parents, since most of the gods are so different from each other it's nearly impossible to tell they're related, so two children of the same god dating is still seen as a taboo.
20[[/folder]]
21
22[[folder: Percy’s trip to Ogygia]]
23* In ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'', when Percy is blasted off to Calypso’s island, it is mentioned that he was stuck there for two weeks. And you don’t age meaning that he reached the age of 16 two weeks after his birthday. Does "reaching sixteen" factor in your actual age or just how many birthdays you've had?
24** According to when Thalia became a Hunter in ''The Titan's Curse'', the prophecy's fulfillment is indeed set back if a form of immortality is in effect over the half-blood in question. That Kronos was still defeated on August 18th probably means Riordan failed to think of this while writing the last book, but maybe we could assume that leaving Ogygia causes your lost time to catch up to you, or that Percy actually wasn't exempt from aging to begin with. If no one's ever opted to stay with Calypso, then it's not as if she would know if they would stay as youthful as her.
25*** On the flipside, much ado is made in that book about Thalia's 16th birthday approaching, which Thalia states to be the same birthday she remembers from before turning into a tree (December 22nd). So either Thalia aged a whole number of human-years in tree form (which would've been quite a remarkable coincidence, and yet is never remarked upon), or the anniversary of your birth maintains its significance, even if your aging has been slowed.
26** Maybe the Oracle was rounding--"A half-blood of the eldest gods shall reach sixteen against all odds" sounds a lot better than "a half-blood of the eldest gods shall reach fifteen and eleven and a half months against all odds."
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Luke and Thalia's knowledge about demigods]]
30* In the Demigod Diaries, Luke and Thalia are living rough, battling monsters and just trying to stay alive. They don't know about Camp Half-blood, but somehow, Luke knows that they're demigods. OK, so that can be explained when he mentions having met other demigods in his years on the run; presumably somebody explained to him what he is at some point. And OK, that could explain why he knows about Celestial Bronze. But how, HOW, does he know that he's a son of Hermes, specifically? And that Thalia is a daughter of Zeus? Considering that there are kids at the camp that have no idea who their godly parent is, how could two demigods on the run know? Even if they had been officially claimed, who would know what the symbols over their head even meant? Then, OK, so they know *about* Celestial bronze via word of mouth from other outlaw demigods, but how in the world did they GET any? Luke and Thalia have safe houses scattered about that are stocked with, among other things, caches of Celestial bronze weapons. This just doesn't work out. If there's some logical, in-universe explaination for why Luke and Thalia know who they are (or who they're from)AND where they got not just one or two CB weapons but entire caches' worth, it needs to be spelled out, because otherwise it just leaves the reader confused.
31** Lukes mother knew. she probably told him. as for Thalia I think her mother told her too. Especially considering what we find out about Thalia's mother in Heroes of Olympus.
32*** Luke’s mother was talking to him about him being a demi-god. That’s what scared him and made him flee his home. Also, Hermes was visiting her a lot, even when Luke was a child. Luke remembers when his mom was trying to become the Oracle.
33** In ''The Lost Hero'', Thalia actually talks about how her father came back to visit her (in his Roman form, but still), so we can assume that she'd known about him already.
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder: Gods' lack of commitment]]
37* Why are the gods so bad at ''staying with'' a single mortal woman? Out of the ones we know about, two of the seemingly ''less'' dependable ones stayed with their loved ones until tragedy happened, but Athena and Poseidon both moved on without any reason whatsoever, and their partners also treat it as the most normal thing, and are still on JustFriends terms with them. Why, exactly?
38** ''Humans'' have equal trouble keeping promises. When you have lived for millennia time would go by in the blink of an eye. To the gods their human partners and demigod children are only extremely fleeting relationships, passing in a moment.
39** Also, while the Gods do have marriage and child-rearing, it's not really clear that they strongly resemble human ones. They might be going by the standards of Ancient Greek relationships or have expectations for a long-term relationship that humans are incapable of meeting.
40** Poseidon also knew that he wasn't supposed to have had Percy, so he probably figured that by staying away he would lessen the chances of the boy being discovered.
41** Several times the gods say they aren't allowed to directly interfere with things, which does seem to extend somewhat to their children's entire lives, so as long as the parents intend to keep the kids around the gods can't be there as well.
42** In the sequel series, which concentrates more on demigods who aren't children of the big three, we get a few more excuses/explanations: Aphrodite claims that the man wouldn't be happy knowing that the mythology is real, and Hephaestus is just plain antisocial and stuff.
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder: Celestial bronze and mortal weapons]]
46* Celestial Bronze. Much is made of this wonderous material in the first book, yet in later books, things such as shotguns, mundane explosions, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and blue plastic hairbrushes]] have been seen to kill or at least hurt even Titans. Whats the big deal with it, then?
47** Well, a shotgun blast still packs more force than any mortal can put into a sword swing. And of course an explosion would hurt. An explosion isn't a weapon- it's a massive expulsion of heat, energy and pressure. An explosion which is quite a bit higher on the scale of lethality than a sword, magical or not. As for the hairbrush, it probably didn't really hurt him so mush as shock him and its worth noting he was in a human body at the time anyway. Higher ranked monsters could probably shrug off human weaponry for the most part, though, which is the reason half-bloods carry it. Besides, it's the only weapon we see that can hurt the gods.
48** Remember that the explosions were [[AWizardDidIt magical]] Greek fire, not ordinary explosions.
49** The SequelSeries actually has a specially made shotgun that fires celestial rounds.
50** Celestial bronze can kill a monster (or to be more precise, send them back into the Underworld) semi-permanently. Sure, Kronos got bonked in the head with a hairbrush, but there's no way every non-magical material would phase through Greek monsters or they'd all sink into the concrete and asphalt of Manhattan.
51** Also, in The Titan's Curse, Percy deflected bullets from the skeletons' sidearms with Riptide. Monsters can probably do the same. The guy Percy's mother shot was probably just caught by surprise. Kronos was only just into his mortal body, so when Rachel threw the brush, it unsteadied him. Furthermore, Celestial bronze is implied to make sharper and stronger swords than mortal steel - Percy frequently slashes through rock and metal without it doing it the slightest bit of harm.
52** For the shotgun scene in question is question, it's not the shotgun that kills the monster, it just pushes the monster towards a demigod weapon, it is being pierced by that weapon which actually destroys it.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder: Sibling lookalikes]]
56* Annabeth's siblings are described in the first book as sharing her blonde hair and gray eyes, the latter of which is understandable, since it's a trait inherited from their mother. But Annabeth quite ''obviously'' inherited the former from her father - seeing as her mother has ''black'' hair. So how do her siblings all share the same hair color? Does Athena just have a thing for blonds?
57** They're [[HandWave made intellectually]], so the rules of natural birth don't really need to apply. She could shape them to her image.
58** And gods can appear in practically any form they choose. Maybe Athena decided to go for black hair after a century of being blond.
59*** Maybe she doesn't approve of the "Dumb Blonde" stereotype?
60** Also, in The Titan's Curse Percy describes her as: 'looking so much like Annabeth I almost called her that' so at that point she must have been still Blond, since otherwise he would have described her differently...
61*** Not necessarily. Hair color and style are probably the last things that would highlight a resemblance between two people - I strongly take after my great-grandmother in terms of my eyes, lips, and facial shape, but I would have to wear a wig for my hair to come close to resembling hers. In this case, Athena's black hair may've been what made Percy realize his mistake in thinking she was Annabeth.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder: Ancient Greek]]
65* Why ''are'' demigods hardwired to read Ancient Greek, given the transient nature of the gods, moving from location to location following Western civilization ?
66** It's better explained in the sequel series that while their taste match the country the flame is brightest in, they are still connected to their birth country and would fade if it was destroyed.
67*** Why, exactly? According to the myths, the gods existed long before humanity. Why would they suddenly be tied to the civilization that worshiped them?
68*** In orthodoz mythology, yes. In our PJO universe, the gods are personifications of ideals rather than actual literal beings. ''The Trials of Apollo'' mention this: the sun continues to travel the sky even though Apollo isn't on his charior because Ra and Huichilopochtli and yes, science, are still there.
69** FWIW in the sequel series it is mentioned that some gods and their offspring have the inherent ability to speak and understand other languages, namely French. Children of Aphrodite can speak fluent French because it's the "language of love", whereas Boreas has always lived to the north of the other gods, which in this case means he lodges in Quebec and can thusly speak French as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Notus, the South Wind, were able to speak Spanish or something, especially seeing as the Boreads mistake Leo for one of his children when they meet.
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder: Godly DNA 2]]
73* In The Last Olympian, we learn that Gods don't have genes, so while a relationship between any two demigods with the same Olympian parent is taboo, a relationship between two demigods with completely different sets of parents is a-okay. But if Gods don't have genes, what is the difference between the two? What makes two of Apollo's kids gettin' it on so much worse than Annabeth and Percy's relationship?
74** Hmm... Maybe because they would have lived with each other for some time? Or their godly parents would be disgusted by it?
75** Maybe it's a psychological thing? Like, it's techicially ''not'' incest, but they know they have the same mom or dad, so it's still [[{{Squick}} squicky]], but don't feel as squicked out with someone from another cabin?
76*** It never says the gods forbid it, just that it doesn't happen - too squicky for the mortal raised halfbloods.
77** Maybe he means that the gods, being of a different ontonlogical nature to humans, don't have the same kind of genetic resemblance ''to each other'' - the gods aren't treated as being related to each other in this regard, but their half-human children still share the same parent.
78*** It's also perhaps to do with the convoluted Greek family tree. Athena is Poseidon's brother's daughter, so since Percy is Poseidon's son and Annabeth is Athena's daughter, Percy is technically like her uncle once removed, which would be enough distance in a normal mortal relationship anyway. Whereas if Percy and Annabeth had the same parent they would be half siblings, which, genes or no, is probably just a little too close.
79*** Actually, Percy and Annabeth would be first cousins once-removed. Percy is the son of Poseidon. Athena is the daughter of Zeus. That makes Percy and Athena first cousins. Annabeth is Athena's daughter, therefore she and Percy are first cousins once-removed. This troper is personally far more squicked out by the implications of something between Luke and Thalia, considering that, since Hermes is the son of Zeus, and therefore Thalia's brother, and Luke is the son of Hermes, Thalia is Luke's aunt. And you can't even use the "different gods" excuse to get around that one.
80** The Greek gods are beings spun of power and magic, not genes and cells. They don't have genes because they're completely different than human beings, they exist because people believe in them. It's more about magic than genetics, and a lot of myths reflect that.
81*** Siblings are usually not attracted to each other by default, both through psychological and physicalhormonal reasons. Cousins are less of a big deal, and if they're only related through their godly parent, then they have everything listed above as an excuse. Siblings would still have to think "out daddy is the same person", which would be squicky for them regardless of genetics. I've always assumed, though, that even if gods are beings of energy, demigods would still have their traits (maybe except for the supernatural ones) translated into their genetic code.
82** The thing about incest is that the problems associated with it stem from the likelihood that both carry the recessive alleles for the same genetic disorders. Granted, people who are unrelated but carry the same recessive alleles unknowingly have kids together, but it is much more likely in two closely related individuals. I interpreted the whole situation when Percy mentioned it as something that was not technically incest, but rather the gods being gods having none of the genetic problems that warranted the incest taboo through their side of the family.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder: Discovering Percy's father]]
86* Why did it take so long for anyone to determine who Percy's father was? How many Greek deities associated with water are there to have any confusion, after all?
87** Lots actually. More or less every river, lake or individual sea had its own associated deity. Poseidon is just the most significant of them.
88** Consider that everyone was hoping for him ''not being'' Poseidon's son. Chiron because of the prophecy, Annabeth because of her mother's rivalry. So saying Percy is Poseidon's son, no matter how obvious, is insinuating Poseidon broke the promise, which is probably not good for one's continued existence.
89** Also keep in mind that Percy hasn't really displayed any of the traditional powers or gifts that Big Three half-bloods in the myths were known to have. You never hear tell of Heracles or Perseus being able to zap people with lightning or Theseus being able to control water or talk to fish. Instead, they were known primarily for their great feats of strength and mental wit, neither of which are particularly evident in Percy.
90[[/folder]]
91
92[[folder: Luke killing Annabeth]]
93* Near the end of the second book, Luke gives the impression he is perfectly willing for Annabeth to be eaten by his bear-man minion. But in the third book, he hesitates about killing her when they don't need her any more, then in the fourth book, he orders his minions to kill Rachel and Percy, but not her. What's with the flip-flop in personality?
94** With Kronos right there on the ship, maybe Luke didn't want to look weak in front of him.
95** It might be more that Luke is perfectly willing to ''pretend'' to be about to kill Annabeth, if that's what he needs for leverage against Percy. There was never any chance that Percy would stand there and watch any of his friends eaten, and Luke could have prepared for it in advance with a quick 'hey, if I tell you to kill Jackson's friends, don't start with the blonde girl.'
96** It also seemed that as the fight between Kronos and the Gods got more heated through the series, Luke seemed to get a bit more hesitant about violence, a bit slower on the draw, as he began to see how much he would have to betray his friends.
97[[/folder]]
98
99[[folder: What's left in Greece?]]
100* Annabeth said she wanted to visit Greece. If all the Greek gods, monsters, and even "geographic locations" are now in America, what the heck is left in Greece?
101** Only the ''magical'' locations are in America. The ruins - like the Parthenon, say - remain in Greece; also, it's probably worth something to see the original locations, at least for sentimental value. She does like architecture, after all.
102** In ''The Lightning Thief'', after reclaiming the master bolt, Zeus stated he would need to take it to the "waters of Lemnos" to purify it. Lemnos, being an island off the coast of Greece. Unless Zeus is using the original location's name to refer to its updated placement in America, this would suggest that there are still functions served by what's left behind in Greece if he so readily makes such a trip back there.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder: Hunters' immortality]]
106* In the third book, it says that all of Artemis's hunters are immortal, unless they're killed in battle. Why? Nothing is stopping Artemis from just making them all 100% immortal, so why not?
107** Full-fledged immortality is only granted in extenuating circumstances. Looking at Greek Mythology, there are plenty of times when the gods wanted to protect/immortalize someone and instead of just making them immortal did something weird like transforming them into plants and animals. Apparently only the gods get to have full immortality.
108** Artemis gives the Hunters eternal youth, not eternal life. Nowadays we don't tend to draw much of a distinction between the two, but [[AgeWithoutYouth Greek mythology did]].
109** ''The Last Olympian'' mentions that Zeus needs the approval of the whole council to grant true immortality. Presumably that's too much trouble for Artemis to go through.
110** It's fitting - if her hunters did die, it would be because of their own actions - it fits with Greek myths overall; most of the deaths that occur are the result of someone's actions; you don't hear a lot of myths concerning people dying of old age.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder: Half-blood gods]]
114* Wouldn't Dionysus, Apollo, and Artemis all technically be half-bloods?
115** My Greek mythology is rusty but Dionysus was conceived by a mortal woman but upon seeing Zeus's divine form, she was incinerated and died. Zeus took the apparently took the embryo and sowed it into his thigh. So Dionysus can be handwaved. I don't remember about Apollo and Artemis though.
116** Apollo and Artemis's mom was a Titan. So was Hermes's, actually. I suppose that makes them demigod-demititans, but they're not mortal-parent demigods.
117*** Also keep in mind that the original seven Olympians were also the children of Titans. There's no biological (metabiological?) difference between the two factions; it's a matter of title, not species. So Apollo, Artemis, and Hermes aren't half-bloods (nor are Hephaestus and Athena, who are grandchildren of Titans, though their status isn't in dispute anyway). Dionysus still requires the above handwave, though.
118** In ''The Last Olympian'', the gods [[spoiler: offer to make Percy a god]]. This implies that half-bloods can become gods if they do enough. Maybe the half-blood gods managed to rise in power over time.
119*** Hercules was said to have become a full god after his death, his cremation burning away the mortal part of him and leaving only the divine.
120*** I think it was outright stated that Dionysus was mortal at one point and was made a god.
121*** In Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods, it's... ''speculated'' that Dionysus was elevated to true godly status by having an enormous number of worshippers. It also makes specific mention that GodsNeedPrayerBadly, so it's certainly one possibility.
122** In The Mark Of Athena from the second series, Percy has a conversation with Dionysus, who mentions specifically that he was once a demigod. Though, it's worth taking into consideration that [[spoiler: Percy technically wasn't having this conversation with Dionysus, but rather his Roman personality, Bacchus.]]
123** In a book that I read, Dionysus would've been born a half-blood, but because he ended up being born out of Zeus's thigh (since Zeus carried him there after he was forced to incinerate his mother), he ended up an immortal god instead.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder: Dionysus rant]]
127* Something that seems kind of twisted concerns Dionysus' rant about heroes in the third book, where he points out how Thesus abandoned Ariadne. Cue Percy more or less just agreeing with it when the proper response would be, "demigods being dicks and assholes to mortals who help and/or love them, gee I wonder where they learned ''that'' from?" What with a fair number of greek heroes being the product of outright rape on the part of their divine parents, then being saddled with the blame for their parents' indiscretions and made to clean up after the gods' messes. Is it any surprise that most demigods are slightly less than well adjusted?
128** Maybe that would be the reaction of some people, but Percy isn't one to pass the blame for wrongdoings and misbehavior or justify it because of a slightly messed-up life, keeping in mind that his first escapade as a hero involved being framed for stealing from the king of the gods himself. Remember that river nymph in ''Battle of the Labyrinth''? Percy couldn't bring himself to wrestle control over the river from her in order to clean Geyron's stables after she told him how Heracles did the same thing. He probably realizes that mouthing off to the gods isn't going to accomplish much, but when confronted with evidence that the heroes before him weren't entirely as heroic as they're claimed to be, he's going to want to change that reputation rather than go along with it.
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder: Demigod power]]
132* Demigod's level of power; how strong are we talking here? They're head and shoulders above laymen mortals but divine blood isn't the only way people come across enhanced strength and improved reflexes. Say if a demigod went up against a well trained mortal martial artist who would win? Could the Half-Bloods outfight a U.S. Marine or an SAS officer using comparable technology?
133** Children of Ares, maybe, due to Ares being the god of warfare. The others...not so much.
134** Well, if it was a kid of the Big Three, they could... (a) Vaporise them with lightning (b) Turn them into a fish (c) Send them straight to the Underworld.
135** Also, within the setting of the book the best trained US Marines or SAS officers would probably turn out to be demigods anyway. The idea is that most significant 'mortals' secretly are.
136*** That, or Roman demigods, or [[Literature/TheKaneChronicles magicians]], or a magical something or another. I don't know to what extent all myths are true in this verse, but it seems like most important people are connected to some mythology.
137** It's also dependent on how you define "power." In general terms, a half-blood only inherent powers are having ADHD, ergo, enhanced battle reflexes. But that doesn't automatically make them masters in combat, unless perhaps they were a child of Athena or Ares, or Poseidon and soaking wet, maybe. The rest of their skill is only achieved through training and practice, which is the same thing real-world masters have to go through.
138** Also, "power" does NOT just flat-out beat skill. Sure, Percy would probably beat a mortal MasterSwordsman in a sword fight. ''If'' Percy was on his game. ''If'' the other person wasn't a CombatPragmatist and didn't ambush him. ''If'' the mortal doesn't just get flat-out lucky. Fights are never as easy as Hollywood depicts them.
139[[/folder]]
140
141[[folder: Fatal flaw]]
142* Percy's FatalFlaw is loyalty? Annabeth overly proud, Thalia is easily tempted with power, the Di Angelo's are prone to malicious grudges and Percy is...''too good a friend?''
143** Yes. I believe it was Athena who underlines the inherent flaw in it, which is that to save a friend, Percy would sacrifice the world. Think of Anakin Skywalker, who was tempted to the dark side because he thought it was the only way to save the person he loved. Loyalty to your friends and loved ones is important, but you also must consider the needs of the many rather than those of people you care about alone.
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder: Making Maria immortal]]
147* In ''The Titan's Curse'', Dionysus talks about making a mortal woman his immortal wife after her death. Why then, when Maria DiAngelo was killed, did Hades have to "respect the rules of death" and lose her forever? Was it because he already had a wife, like first come, first serve?
148** Did the book clarify that Ariadne was dying at the time Dionysus made her immortal?. But even if he did, if he saw it coming, then he would've had time to make the change, or possibly, ask Zeus to make the change. Hades didn't have time to do this because Maria was killed suddenly, by a thunderbolt, that no one saw coming until it had already struck. That's why he couldn't do anything - once she's dead, she's moving on to the afterlife. Ariadne may have been ''close to death'', but she was still alive when Dionysus changed her. Her spirit hadn't left her body yet.
149* Not just that, but Book 5 shows that you need a unanimous vote of the Council to make someone a god. No way they'd agree to that for Maria.
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder: Luke's sacrifice]]
153* Why does everyone treat [[spoiler: Luke's death]] like a huge HeroicSacrifice when [[spoiler: he was going to die anyway]]? Doesn't going to Elysium beat [[spoiler: being burned away as Kronos rises]]?
154** DyingAsYourself and BetterToDieThanBeKilled. Luke [[spoiler: chose to die before Kronos could kill him.]] That makes it a HeroicSacrifice.
155** Also, [[spoiler: if Luke hadn't pulled his HeroicSacrifice, Kronos would have killed him ''and'' the world. Being the hero in the prophecy meant that no matter what, Percy couldn't save everyone without Luke killing himself [[TakingYouWithMe and Kronos with him]]. And again with DyingAsYourself and RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
156*** As well, we only get to see Percy and Annabeth's take on it and Percy is more focused on comforting Annabeth. The rest could easily be the camp going along with their war heroes.
157[[/folder]]
158
159[[folder: Protection]]
160* Okay, so Poseidon wasn't allowed to have children with mortal women. Did he ever hear of this little thing called a condom? Or does he have magical sperm with a 100% chance of getting a child?
161** Condoms can break. And Poseidon could've easily been in an arrogant mood and just not cared for unreliable man-made protection.
162** Not to mention we don't exactly know what is being exchanged when a mortal and god have intercourse (see the discussion about the gene-god issue above), so a condom might not be able to block whatever is happening.
163** In the original myths, it is explicitly stated (by Poseidon, to his mortal one-night stand of ...questionable consent...) that "The embrance of a god is never barren." I don't think any form of contraceptive would work.
164** He and his brothers also could’ve limited themselves to women who are already infertile, but I think it’s pertinent that the thing that made them agree to the abstinence pact and the thing that made them want to go against it are two different parts of their anatomy.
165** To stop fluids belonging to the guy in charge of the whole ocean, it would have to be a pretty strong condom.
166[[/folder]]
167
168[[folder: Curse of Achilles]]
169* How specific is the Curse of Achilles about choosing weak points? Do you have to have it on the outside of your body? For example, could you choose to make your stomach your only weak point? Or your heart? Surely that would make you basically invincible, except to poison or heart failure. Or why not your spleen or something very small and totally random. Maybe Percy just wouldn't be the type to think about those sorts of things but would it be theoretically possible? Also, even if it has to be something on the outside of your body, why not an eyeball, so if anything is about to hit you you can just close your invincible eyelid and no harm will come to you.
170** If it was his eye he would die the second an invincible eyelash got stuck in his eye. Achilles died of essentially a tiny scratch from what I recall.
171** What if he gets a vat of acid to his face? Or an arrow through the eye?
172*** No, it wouldn't pierce his eyelid if it wasn't the vincible part. "Invincible, anyone?"
173** It's the place from which Percy imagined a cord coming, connecting him back to the people he loved, so it would probably take a pretty good imagination to make it come from a minor internal organ, especially whilst standing in the Styxx.
174** Since a hero's death in Greek myth is usually decreed by the Fates, [[YouCantFightFate you can't rules-lawyer it]]. Achilles was given the choice of long life and an obscure death or to die young and have glory forever. He chose the glory. Once he did that it was only a matter of time until the fatal blow found his weak spot. It wouldn't matter if Percy had chosen "under the toenail of my left pinky toe," something would have found its way there eventually if he'd been fated to die.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder: Percy's parent]]
178* In ''The Lightning Thief'', before Percy's godly parent is known, Grover states that he could be a son of Nemesis. Nemesis is a female god, and Percy already has a mom. What's that about?
179** If Gods can take pretty much ANY form (which they do, e.g. Zeus as a horse, bull, swan, golden light, a storm, etc.), do you think that gods can't change gender? In fact, there was even an intersexed god/dess named Hermaphroditus, the child of both Hermes and Aphrodite. So... Yeah.
180** In the original myths, Zeus seduced Callisto by taking the form of [[LesYay Artemis]] and impregnated her. It's up to version and interpretation whether he changed back to his own form for the impregnating part, but... y'know, we can safely assume gods can do whatever they want. Also in the original, Hera had children on her own, and in the series, Athena has children with mortal men while remaining a virgin.
181** Grover's diction is that Percy could be the son of a minor god, like Nemesis. It was used for comparison (albeit phrased rather badly).
182** In ''Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard'', one of the characters was actually mothered by Loki transforming himself into a female.
183** "The Trials of Apollo" also has Apollo mention that one of his children has two dads.
184[[/folder]]
185
186[[folder: Prometheus siding with the Titans]]
187* How does Prometheus, who can see the future, pick the wrong side? He said he looked into the future, and Olympus lost.
188** It's implied that much of his foreknowledge comes from being able to calculate the most probable outcome of events. He sides with the Titans because he believed the Olympian side did not have the strength to win just has he calculated the Titans did not have the strength to win in the first war. Remember, at the time Hades was sulking in the underworld with no sign he would change and Poseidon was busy with Oceanus. Even if Kronos had not attacked Olympus, it did not look like the gods would stop Typhon in time. The bitterness between Zeus and his brother and their own selfishness and pride is so great it was highly unlikely they would put aside their differences. Zeus almost had a fit when he had to thank them. It is implied that one of his reasons for siding with the Titans is his hatred for Zeus due to his punishment involving the eagle and this could be clouding his judgment. Finally, Prometheus saw one future. Its strongly implied that the future is not entirely set in stone. Percy saw one future where he grows old and dies, but could have changed that by becoming immortal. Prometheus once saw a future where a son of Metis would overthrow Zeus so Zeus took steps to prevent it.
189** Also, even if you look past Poseidon and Hades not helping until their children convinced them to, the fate of Olympus really came down to [[spoiler: Percy giving Annabeth's knife over to Luke, disarming himself in the process, instead of the more sensible and likely option of trying to take down Kronos on his own.]] If Prometheus was only looking at the most likely outcome, it's no surprise that he bet on the Titans' victory.
190** Remember, he's the god of ''forethought,'' not ''foreknowledge.'' In other words, while he's the god of thinking ahead (as opposed to his brother, who always acted first and thought later), he's not Odin. He can't actually foretell the future.
191[[/folder]]
192
193[[folder: Gods of the West]]
194* The Olympians claim that they are more or less embodiments of Western Civilization and without them it would collapse into chaos. Do you think this is true? The Egyptian gods from the Kane Chronicles are supposedly the first gods of the west. They were imprisoned after Egypt was conquered by the Romans with no known ill effects. Pan, the god of the wild, died and entrusted mortals with protecting the wild instead of him. So would Western Civilization fall without the Olympians? Or is it they are just the upholders of the current order? Without them another set of gods like the Titans may replace them and reorder the world.
195** Uh, how would Egypt be the West? They're in the Middle East.
196** The thing is, Western Civilization ''is'' the current order. Yes, humanity and society could endure past the fall of the Olympians. But whoever replaces the Olympians may not be so disposed to liking humans; for instance, the Titans pretty much treat mortals as trash. I doubt they'd let civilization survive once they took power.
197*** This other troper doesn't quite understand how the order could be tied to the gods, though. Prometheus, a titan, was the one who created humanity and gave us fire or enlightenment or whatever in the original myths, which seriously pissed off Zeus.
198*** Big gaps between the earliest controlled fire and the earliest civilization. Somewhere between 60, 000 years and 260, 000 years, to be specific. Also, it wasn't the giving people fire that pissed off Zeus, it was the fact that he stole it from the gods.
199** One has to guess that even if civilization survived without the Olympians, they probably wouldn't be going around telling people that. Think of them like politicians. "If I'm not re-elected president, the world will end." Just because someone says something doesn't mean its true, especially if they are egotistical maniacs or people who worship them.
200** One must realize that there are many type of Western Civilizations, Egypt was the First Western Civilization, but it collapsed because Isis banished Ra in ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles''. After that The Greek Gods took over and created a new one with Greek and Rome.if the Greek Gods die than odds are U.S and every nation that has ever been influence by Greek or Roman culture(e.g U.K, France, and every country that has democratic government or has been part of the Roman Empire), will collapse into chaos, allowing any new deity to take their place and create a new "western civilization" albeit in their own image. This is probably what the Titans were planning to do.
201** Also, "Western Civilization" probably is a combination of Greek and Roman and Egyptian mythology, most likely Celtic as well, plus the impact the Abrahmaic faiths made, etc. Take away any one element, and all the others will be weakened.
202[[/folder]]
203
204[[folder: Thalia's age]]
205* If Thalia was 12 when Annabeth was 7, how come she's only 15 in The Titan's Curse, when Percy and Annabeth are 14? Did being turned into a tree slow the aging process on her?
206** Yes.
207*** It was explicitly stated by Apollo, who managed to calculate her exact age. She didn't know how old she was until he told her.
208[[/folder]]
209
210[[folder: Nymph Hunters]]
211* In ''The Titan's Curse,'' Zoe says that nymphs can become Hunters of Artemis. The problem is that a nymph can't go too far away from her tree/river/whatever, and the Hunters are always traveling. When a nymph becomes a Hunter of Artemis, what happens to her tree/river? Is it not tied to her life force anymore?
212** We just don't know. True to the original myths, the gods have all kinds of mysterious and not at all defined powers, so maybe Artemis can "untie" them. The author probably didn't think of it when he mentioned nymphs offhand, though.
213** In the original mythology, Artemis was always attended by a group of nymphs who were originally, I believe, either ocean or river spirits. When they joined her, in a way ''she'' became their tether/life force. So yes, the ability for a nymph to leave their original tree/river/etc once they swear themselves to Artemis is just part of the Hunter blessing. Eternal youth, magical bow, increased strength and stamina, and for nymphs being untethered from their focus.
214** Actually, the nymphs who accompanied Artemis in the myths were typically dryads or oreads (mountain nymphs) since those were the hunting grounds she frequented most often.
215[[/folder]]
216
217[[folder: Godly DNA 4]]
218* The children in a few of the cabins were mentioned to look alike, so why doesn't anyone seem to pay attention to appearance when trying to find out who the kid's parent is? On a related note, why do some gods have children who all look like them, and others resemble their human parents instead? How does that work, exactly - if Sally was Chinese, would Percy have looked half-Chinese or something?
219** On the first note (why do they not pay attention to appearance?)... because genetics are weird? Even if we disregard the "God's don't have genes" thing (see further up the page), there's still the fact that just because you look lime somebody does not mean you are related. For instance, most of Athena's children have grey eyes. Does that mean every demi-god with grey eyes is a child of Athena? No. Of course not. A demi-god could, for example, be the child of Hermes and a woman with grey eyes, inheriting the mortal mother's eye color. Or it could be an eye color shared with another God (Zeus also has grey eyes). Add in the fact that the gods can change shape to look like pretty much whatever they want and appearance would, in fact, be an incredibly poor way to try and label a demi-god's godly parent.
220** On the second question (why do some gods have children who look like them and some don't?)... the same reason some humans have children who look like them and some don't. Genetics are tricky. You inherit half of your genetic make up from mom and half from dad. But that doesn't mean you will look like a perfect combo of mom and dad, because some genes are dominant and some are recessive. For example, in real life, if your mother is dark skinned with dark hair and dark brown eyes, and your father is light skinned with green eyes and red hair, you will most likely end up looking very similar to your mother and not too similar to your dad. Likewise, in PJatO, sometimes the kids look more like their godly parent, sometimes they look more like the mortal one. As to the "if Sally was half Chinese" question... like any other couple, if Sally was Asian and had Percy with Poseidon, Percy would most likely take some traits from her and some from his father, but it would depend on which genes were dominant. So he could end up looking pretty much 100% Asian, or he could end up looking 100% Caucasian. Most likely he would be somewhere in the middle. But it would depend on the genes. And of course, none of this is taking into account the "godly shape shifting", "lack of real genes" and "possible weird ways of reproducing" that have all been discussed further up this page.
221[[/folder]]
222
223[[folder: Lightning Thief prophecy]]
224* The prophecy from the first book isn't complete. The last line said that Percy would fail to save what mattered most to him, but he did eventually get his mother released from the underworld.
225** The last line was referring to how Percy's quest wouldn't end in the way he thought it would; he hoped to rescue his mother from Hades, but he initially had to leave her behind. But keeping in line with Greek prophecies being weird and vague, a different interpretation by some is that, in fact, the thing that "matters most" and which Percy failed to save is Luke, in multiple senses - their friendship, ultimately Luke's life, and (the archaic sense of "save" meaning "to prevent") avoiding Kronos' rise in the first place.
226** And ''he'' didn't get his mother released, technically. He had to make the decision to give her up in order to escape Hades. Hades himself later made the choice to release her.
227[[/folder]]
228
229[[folder: Weight of the sky]]
230* Who, or what held up the sky before the Olympians decided to punish Atlas with it?
231** The story I've heard is that there was a pillar holding up the sky, and that the first war between the Titans and gods cracked it.
232** In the one I saw, there wasn't any sky before that.
233** Riordan addresses this; as he lays it out, it was the presence of the four titans of the cardinal points - north, south, east, west - that maintained the pillars of the sky, and after the first Titan War things were rejiggled so the sky was held up in the middle, by Atlas, rather than at the corners.
234** According to ancient sources, the earth and sky weren't always in complete contact to necessitate someone keeping them apart; it's said that Ouranos came to cover or lie with Gaia only at certain times, usually at night. After being overthrown, what few sources mention Ouranos afterward state or hint that he retreated into the heavens and stopped trying to make contact. Atlas does mention in ''The Titan's Curse'', though, that the sky now wants to embrace the earth again, implying that desire came back into being around the time of the Titanomachy.
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder: Godly reproduction]]
238* How is it possible for the Greek goddesses to have so many half-blood children who are the same age? While the male gods can go around having as many children as they want, wouldn't the goddesses need to actually carry each child to term?
239** Well, if we follow human biology (which is entirely optional), they could still have about one child a year, which is a whole lot of children.
240** It's established in The Lost Hero that Gods can be in as many places as they want at a time. So, say, Aphrodite could theoretically simultaneously be in Seattle, Houston and Boston having three different kids with three different mortals all at once.
241** Even if they were limited to the bounds of human biology, multiple births are a thing, even with children from completely different fathers. That's how Heracles was born -- his mortal mother Alcmene was pregnant at the same time with one child of Zeus and one child of her husband, Amphitryon. And since the gods can change their size and shape at will, it's not as if their developing children would risk running out of room.
242** The wiki states (or once stated in the past) that pregnancy for demigods lasts only three months as opposed to nine months like a traditional pregnancy. This would allow for goddesses to carry more children to term per year, but I can't recall when this was stated in the books and it explicitly contradicts the myth of Heracles described above -- he and his mortal brother were conceived on the same night but still born on the same day.
243*** They seem to have gotten that tidbit from the fact that Sally was apparently only pregnant with Percy for three months. So, even if that fact means anything (which I wouldn't automatically assume it does - it could easily just be a case of WritersCannotDoMath), it's irrelevant to this conversation because it's referring to mortal pregnancies with demigods, not goddess pregnancies.
244** In general, it seems that pregnancies amongst goddesses last as long as the goddesses want them to. Apollo, for example, barely understands the pregnancy concept at all in his series.
245** This is the same series where Athena forms children purely from brainpower and then births them from her head. Of course the goddesses can magically have multiple children at once.
246[[/folder]]
247
248[[folder: Percy flying]]
249* In the first book, Zeus says he will let Percy live so long as he doesn't presume to fly again. But in the second and third books, he flies on horseback, and in the fourth, he flies using one of Daedalus's machines. So why is he still alive?
250** It's flat out said that Pegasi are fair game. Percy's dad made horses, but Zeus is lord of the sky. It's neutral.
251** Percy is also concerned about this when he uses Daedalus' wings. The trick there was that they didn't go all that high, thus not attracting notice.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder: New gods]]
255* In all the years since the time of Ancient Greece, how is it that none of the gods ever had any more children with each other?
256** With Zeus and Hera it may be they haven't touched each other or considering how Hephaestus and Ares turned out they did not want anymore. The rest could just be birth control. Why would Poseidon want a hundred immortal kids running around. The ones he has already create enough of a headache and would either be rivals for Triton, potential to overthrow him, or just more than he needs or wants to have to look after. It may also be that if each god fulfills a universal role no more are needed because all of the roles are currently occupied.
257** It's simple. Somewhere on down the line, the Greeks got conquered (was it by the Romans? My history is fuzzy), so nobody made any new Greek myths, so there were no more stories about these gods having babies with each other. The gods are tied to society and culture. Since there were no stories about gods having babies with each other, the gods no longer had babies with each other. Since all (most?) mortals no longer believe in/worship the Greek gods, they are essentially sterile.
258*** Alternatively, maybe they have been having children this whole time, but since no one believed in them anymore they never became known to mortals and so they faded.
259*** That's not how fading works. People nowadays don't believe in the gods like they did in Ancient Greece, and even back then, there were still some of them who didn't receive ample worship, like Khione. The books make it clear that a god's own will and desire to live, as well as the extent of their sphere of influence, also factor into whether or not they fade.
260** It's also possible the gods are just bored with each other by this point. Zeus and Poseidon both broke the pact of abstinence that was held between them, which certainly seemed to put a strain on their relationships with their wives, and even Hades, loyal, humble, true-to-his-word Hades, found a loophole in the rules of death and arranged for his demigod children to be placed inside the Lotus Casino, prolonging their lifespans, and later allowed Nico to live with him in the Underworld, which likewise puts him on bad terms with Persephone, who never actually liked him anyway, since he kidnapped her in order to marry her. Ares and Aphrodite wouldn't be able to get together as often since Hephaestus has so many traps laid for them across America. Athena, Hestia, and Artemis are all virgin goddesses, Demeter seems a bit too picky to just go about sleeping with people, Dionysus is one of the few gods who actually is happily married, and Apollo may be too busy with his job to sire any more children...and even if he wasn't, he doesn't have many options - besides the three who are virgins, and Aphrodite constantly being fought over by Ares and Hephaestus, that leaves only Hera, who's too loyal to her husband to betray their marriage, and Demeter, who seems like she would be too naggy and picky for Apollo's taste.
261*** Who says there aren't any new ones? There may well be new ones who just don't affect the plot.
262*** Even if they didn't have an effect on the plot (and it's not like it would've been impossible to give them one), it would seem that they would be worth mentioning, even in casual conversation. There are, what, four or five different series' focused on the existence of ancient gods in the modern world, you'd think that if new gods had been born, they would've been brought up at some point.
263*** Why would they? If they don't affect the plot, it would be extra detail. Riordan probably has no desire to introduce a new god just for the heck of it, same way we don't get to meet every single Gryffindor in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' or Jedi from ''Franchise/StarWars''. Plus, remember that gods are bound to not get involved in heroic quests (and from a Doylist POV they're [[StoryBreakerPower story-breakers if they could get involved]]), so there's only so much you can do with 'em anyway.
264*** It's still illogical to assume that there are any new gods just because Riordan didn't introduce us to them. And new members of the Greek pantheon would be nowhere near as insignificant as random Hogwarts students, since the entire series is about showing how the gods and their ilk have changed to suit the new countries they live in. Whether there were new gods born and what their attributes and spheres of influence might be very largely ties into that, especially when a major conflict already centers around minor gods not being treated well by the Olympians.
265*** There's also the LawOfConservationOfDetail. Riordan only has so much narrative space to use. Additionally, one of his aims is getting kids into ancient mythology, so naturally he's going to focus on already-established gods and monsters. This is what fanfic is for.
266*** Hope you understand that I'm not trying to sound provocative or hostile, but Riordan has as much narrative space as he wants. It's his book series, and I would imagine he can decide how much material the narrative covers and what he chooses to focus on. So it's not like a restriction that's forced on him or anything.
267*** [[SincerityMode Sure.]] Again, since he's focused on introducing kids to the original myths, he probably wanted to focus on the original gods/goddesses. You make a fair point, but I guess he just didn't feel like it was necessary/relevant for his plot.
268** Because this is a series about Greek mythology. If a completely new god were to be introduced, it wouldn't be Greek mythology anymore. It would be a purely Riordan creation. It would go against the entire premise of the series. All in all, no new gods being introduced is an AcceptableBreaksFromReality.
269[[/folder]]
270
271
272[[folder: Stoll brothers]]
273* In ''The Sea of Monsters'', Percy mentions that there are two Stoll brothers, both sons of Hermes, right? Then, he says that they're not twins. Does this mean that Hermes left so much celestial spunk in their mother that she had another child, or did Hermes come back for seconds?
274** More than likely Hermes just visited the mother twice. Nothing I recall has been stated that says this never happened. Thalia and Jason are the first case of a mortal attracting both the Roman and Greek aspects. Nothing has been said about the Greek aspect coming back twice.
275** Remember Bianca and Nico had the same mother, but were a few years apart. Obviously, a god sleeping with the same mortal twice isn't a big deal.
276[[/folder]]
277
278[[folder: Fate of the Titanesses]]
279* Where in the name of Zeus are the Titanesses in all of this? They aren't mentioned even ''once.'' Did they just lose their immortality and fade out of existence like Briares's brothers?
280** Odds are they they still exist but aren't incorporated in the story as the books are focus mostly on Percy Jackson and the demigods, not the gods and titans themselves. Greek Mythology has hundreds of minor deities and incorporating that into a book would fill more pages than the Library of Congress.
281** It's been a while since I read it, but I believe ''The Lightning Thief'' makes some mention of Rhea being involved in the conflict between Zeus and Poseidon in some way. I can't recall how, but that would seem to indicate that Zeus and the other gods are willing to let them stick around.
282*** It's not her being involved in the conflict, it's an example Chiron brings to the petty spats Poseidon and Zeus have all the time, as in, "You were always Mom Rhea's favourite".
283** I think Percy mentions in the "Greek Gods" book that the Titanesses were neutral in the first war, so presumably they stayed neutral in the second as well.
284** Note that the Titanesses being scarcely mentioned is pretty true to the original mythology, as it were. What few sources there were on them reveal that they went unpunished after the Titanomachy was over, and also that a few of them had children with Zeus himself.
285** If I remember correctly, at one point in the Heros of Olympus, a Titan mentions "the twins mother" and says the nicer ones always take longer to come back, and most of the Titanesses were portrayed as nice or wanting to stay uninvolved in Riordan's Greek Mythology book.
286[[/folder]]
287
288[[folder: Minos]]
289* Why is Minos one of the judges of the dead? In life he was a cruel and vindictive king and that has followed him in death. I know he is a son of Zeus, taught law by Zeus, and later made a judge by Zeus, but isn't this extreme nepotism? In Percy Jackson, Zeus has a long history of making poor decisions even when the right one is obvious. In the books he tries to manipulate Nico and wrongfully condemn Daedalus. The ancient Greeks had to try and rationalize it by saying there were two Minoses, the morally just one and another who was responsible for the Minotaur and Daedalus' suffering. So why is Minos a king? Should all the souls he judge be retried to make sure he did not let his vindictive nature get in the way and his judgements were just?
290** Because he is in Greek Mythology, and in Greek Mythology the strongest theme is "life's not fair" and in many cases "the afterlife is not fair". After all, the stories are filled with heroes who are really jerks, who beat up innocent people and steal things from their rightful owner while receiving absolutely no comeuppance for doing these things. Or in the case of someone getting punished, it's always disproportionate; if you spotted Artemis bathing, not in her home, simply in a forest, you'd get turned into a stag and she'd hunt you like an animal. All in all, in Greek myths nothing's fair.
291*** I would say that is a tad simplistic. It is true many heroes were jerks, but often they were at some point punished for their crimes like Jason and Theseus. And they often did good things like killing monsters. In the Artemis case it is not so much that they accidentally glanced but that they decided to continue to stare that they were punished, at least according to some versions.
292*** Life is fair in Greek mythology. It's just that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality their concept of fairness was very weird]] for our standards.
293** You just answered your own question. Nepotism and poor decision-making skills on the part of the Gods.
294[[/folder]]
295
296[[folder: Hunters' abstinence]]
297* The Hunters of Artemis....they are said to swear off love and all that, which is very much implied in myth to stay virgins. But what happens if hunters are attracted to their fellow hunters?
298** Presumably depends on how Artemis defines "virgin". That they're only asked to avoid "the company of ''men''" is one thing, but the "company" bit being a euphemism might imply the extent of the statement is expected to be understood.
299** A virgin is described as someone who abstains from ''any kind'' of "company", not just with a certain sex.
300** ''The Dark Prophecy'', the second ''Trials of Apollo'' book, clarifies that all romance is off-limits, regardless of orientation, although apparently in some situations, Artemis will allow Hunters to leave her service and lose their immortality without killing them.
301[[/folder]]
302
303[[folder: Hades in future adaptions]]
304* For the movie: assuming they continue adapting the books, how are they going to handle Nico and Bianca di Angelo? Y'know, since they [[EverybodyHatesHades made Hades into]] a Satan analogue?
305** I don't see why making Hades slightly more villainous than he was in the books would affect how his children are portrayed. (Or how it makes him a Satan analogue.) They made Zeus out to be a lot nicer than he was in the books, but what little we've seen of Thalia is still the same. Besides, you're "assuming they continue adapting the books" when there's no reason to take that as a given. So it probably doesn't even matter.
306[[/folder]]
307
308[[folder: Dionysus's banishment]]
309* What did Dionysus do to get banished from Olympus? I know the official reason is he tried to pursue an off-limits nymph, but a hundred year banishment to Camp Half-Blood seems kind of harsh considering other Olympians have performed worse actions and gotten off with lighter punishments. Do you think it was merely the latest in a long line of offenses that finally pushed Zeus too far?
310** Could be that yes, he pushed Zeus too far; doesn’t sound unlikely, since Dionysus seems to be one of the most reckless gods in terms of behavior. But reason for punishment aside, what is a century for a god who’s been around for hundreds of years? It probably sucks for one of the most hedonist gods to spend time with a bunch of kids (including his own children) in a camp, but it sounds quite like a light punishment in a god’s eyes.
311*** Not to mention, though the excuse for sending him there (off limits nymph) seems ''highly hypocritical'' of Zeus of all people, Dionysus says he was also told to be a better influence on the young demigods. Whether Zeus intended that as bullshit or not, it has merit, as Dionysus is pretty much the closest person Zeus can think of among the gods who was originally a demigod (touchy subject notwithstanding) and might be able to understand them better than many of the others. Also depending on when exactly Mr. D has arrived in camp (i.e., just weeks before Percy or a few years earlier), Zeus might have even been aware of another child of his, Thalia, being on her way to the camp.
312** Zeus is also kind of a prick and quick to anger, even in this series which mostly tones down the gods' worst aspects. Dionysus was probably just annoying him and he was looking for any excuse to punish him.
313** Dionysus being Zeus's son might also have something to do with it. In one of the sequel series', he also saddles Apollo, another son of his, with a pretty unfair punishment.
314** According to the final book of Trials of Apollo, the wood nymph was off limits because Zeus was interested in her as well, to put it mildly. He probably banished Dionysus because he perceived him as getting in the way and is historically prone to disproportionate punishment.
315[[/folder]]
316
317[[folder: Sally and Gabe]]
318* Paraphrasing WebVideo/CinemaSins video about the movie, regarding to Sally's marriage with Gabe: "(...) Couldn't have been, like, almost any other tactic to disguise the smell of his (Percy's) blood other than marrying a smelly, abusive asshole? Aren't there some nice guys out there who just happen to smell bad, too?"
319** Probably, but keep in mind that Percy was being regularly attacked by monsters that could easily have killed him. She probably felt that she couldn't afford to wait until she found another suitable man.
320** In the first book, Percy mentions that Gabe appeared to be a genuinely nice guy when they first met him, and that he only became a big jerk later on, presumably once he'd married Sally.
321** It's implied if not outright stated that the "stench" Gabe gives off is due to his moral nature, not an actual [=B.O.=] problem. (Think about the number of analogies in the world between bad behavior and bad smells.) Likewise, it's implied that the "smell" that demigods give off is metaphysical in nature, not an actual scent. That's why it can be amplified by things like cell phones and internet connections.
322*** Sally can see through the Mist, yes, but that's it. Most probably she couldn't smell Gabe, only noticed the weird things she saw all around and weird monsters avoided him like the plague.
323** And finally, spending too much time looking for a nice guy who smells bad might make Sally come off looking like a little bit of a weirdo. Say she does find a nice guy whose smelliness is due to some medical condition or something - what's she going to do without sounding crazy if he one day comes up with a treatment for it that would end up putting Percy in danger?
324[[/folder]]
325
326[[folder: Sally's financial status]]
327* Percy states that his family is so poor that renting a movie and getting Burger King is a treat that they can rarely afford, but there's nothing to support this in how their lifestyle is portrayed. Percy has gone to private school since at least sixth grade, and is implied to have gone since first grade. That isn't cheap. Percy has enough pocket change at twelve years old to take a taxi home from the Port Authority, not the cheaper bus or subway. Keep in mind that no business would hire him at that age for a regular job, most of the work he would have gotten at this point would have been small jobs for neighbors, which he wouldn't have been able to get in five/six months because of the boarding school he had been at. Though there was no evidence that Camp Half-Blood was picking him up for the summer, there was no hint that Sally was figuring out creative, low cost ways of getting Percy to camp. Sally, despite living in Manhattan, could afford and had a car that worked well enough to drive Percy to Maine, and could take time off from work to do so. The drive from Manhattan to even southern Maine is about five hours even in the best of traffic conditions. There is also no suggestion that at any time in the Jackson household that there was anything less than plenty for everyone to eat. If they're so poor, how can they afford all this?
328** Possible financial backing from Poseidon that was kept secret from Percy? And Percy being Percy might have not noticed some other things that should not be affordable in his family?
329** Gabe owned and ran his own appliance business and Sally worked full time. It's strongly implied that there was plenty of money around, Gabe was just very stingy about allowing Sally or Percy any luxuries. He even took Sally's pay for his poker money. The private schools were something Gabe was obligated to do due to Percy's record of expulsion. The car was probably useful for Sally to run errands, therefore useful to Gabe. What little money Percy had came from whatever part of her pay Sally managed to hold back from Gabe.
330** Most of the money is probably going towards private school tuition, hence why they can't afford to do things like go out to eat. As for Sally's car, that happens in ''The Titan's Curse'', after she's gotten a better job and sold the "statue" of Gabe for a lot of money.
331*** ^ This. The car they took to Montauk in book one was expressly described as Gabe's, he even made the point of threatening Percy with terrible punishment if there is as much as a scratch on the paint (which Percy snarks at in his mind, given that he is TWELVE and obviously not the one who is going to drive the car.) If it was Sally's, he wouldn't have bothered.
332** Plus, Gabe wouldn't mind Percy being away at school. He might even pay for it himself.
333[[/folder]]
334
335[[folder: Percy beating Ares]]
336* Can someone explain how a preteen boy who started learning how to fight with a sword only two weeks ago could go toe-to-toe with Ares, the god of battle himself?
337** Pretty much the above. They stated several times that for all his power, skill and knowledge Ares doesn't think instead relying on brute power to solve the problem. He had no trouble with Percy on land and was toying with him since to him war is a game. He was so overconfident that he did not think Percy would use the sea against him despite it being obvious.
338** Ares was literally toying with him, but it was Poseidon who manage to distract him, thanks to Ares deciding to fight the son of the sea god the beach less than 10 ft from the ocean. Heck, Ares was gonna fry him until Kronos force him to back off. The next time Percy fights an immortal, Atlas literally backslaps him down. He only manage to hold a stalemate against Hyperion due to Curse of Achilles boosting his power up, even then it was Grover who turn the Titan into a tree, and Dionysus revealed that all the titans weren't even at full power yet.
339** Also, Ares was always looked upon as the patron of the more violent, untamed, bloodthirsty side to a war, and was known for the humility he often suffered in mythology - just look at how many times Hephaestus pulled off pranks on him - whereas Athena was the one who represented actual tactics and battle strategy. He's strong, but not particularly smart, and ''especially'' not so when he's angry.
340** Bear in mind, Percy didn't actually ''beat'' Ares. He landed one blow (two if we're counting hitting him in the face with a wave), and then Kronos convinced him to back off.
341[[/folder]]
342
343[[folder: 12 cabins]]
344* Who are the 12 cabins assigned to if Hades doesn't have one and there are only 12 major gods. For that matter there's said to be 12 thrones on Olympus and again Hades doesn't have one.
345** The 12 are Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Dionysus, Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, and Demeter. Hera and Artemis do not have any children. Hera's "cabin" is more of a temple in her honor. Artemis' cabin is for when her hunters visit. Hestia stepped down to prevent a fight over Dionysus having a throne. Hades only goes to Olympus once a year (normally) and while he is a major god he is not one of the ruling council. His area of responsibility is the underworld which takes his full attention.
346[[/folder]]
347
348[[folder: Blaming the Fates]]
349* Why isn't Percy angrier at the Fates as they take Luke's body away in ''The Last Olympian''? I understand that he'd keep his opinions to himself around JerkassGods, but in the narration he barely acknowledges their role in this sorry mess and doesn't seem the least bit angry or despairing that they Fated the events of the series to happen "Just Cuz" [[KarmaHoudini and got away with it for the eleventy-billionth time]].
350** If what Zeus said at the end of "The Blood of Olympus" is true then events did not have to end this way. Zeus says there are three fates so prophecies can unfold different ways. That is one reason they tend to be vague. I don't think Percy was mad at them because he realizes that they are not {{Karma Houdini}}s. And there are several stories in Greek Mythology back this up. A fated event can be prevented if the appropriate action is taken. A son of Metis was destined to overthrow Zeus and Zeus prevented it. Troy could have avoided its fate of being destroyed if several things were done differently, but they were not. At best, the Fates are keepers of balance. They prevent the gods from utterly enslaving mortals and that different sides have a fair shot at succeeding. The Fates do not control absolutely everything. To blame them is to devoid both the gods and mortals of any responsibility. Luke's fate could have been avoided if Hermes had been a better father, if Hades had not chosen to cure the oracle, if Luke' mother had not ignored Hermes's warnings, if this and that. Luke brought his fate upon himself. Percy knows this. So he does not blame them.
351[[/folder]]
352
353[[folder: Grover in the Underworld]]
354* At the end of the first film, after Grover returns to Camp Half-Blood from the Underworld, he mentions doing various things together with Persephone, among them 'dining'. But in the myths, it was mentioned that you can't eat the food of the Underworld or else you'll be fated to return there again - that's the whole reason Persephone's there in the first place! So...did they just overlook this detail, or was it meant as a sort of "Now Grover will have to return to the Underworld and spend even ''more'' time with Persephone' joke?
355** Not everything in the myths is adapted - it could be that had more films been made, they would've retconned this as being only food served by Hades himself that would trap you in the Underworld (since the only reason Persephone gets trapped there is because she swallows a few pomegranate seeds that were from a fruit he offered her).
356** Could be that they did what considered to be dining in the formal sense -- they sat together at a table with lots of food, but Grover didn't actually eat any of it. Or Grover was just dramatizing what had happened when telling Percy the story.
357[[/folder]]
358
359[[folder: Children of the Big Three]]
360* Why does Poseidon seem to be the one who gets most hated on by the other gods for siring a demigod when he's actually the only one of the Big Three who only sired ''one''? Yes, I understand that Jason is Roman, Bianca and Nico were born before the pact was made, and Thalia seemed to get as raw a deal as Percy did...but still, with the way people treat him, you'd think he was the only Big Three child there ever was.
361** He doesn't get the most hate. Zeus brings it up because Zeus is a JerkAss. Athena later criticizes both of them for it indirectly. The problem is in this series Zeus has a hair-trigger temper and a big BoltOfDivineRetribution he would use on anyone who criticizes him. If you notice throughout both series anyone who has met Zeus has little true respect for him. They say nice things about him out of fear.
362** Maybe he isn't hated on directly, but I guess I meant it more like this...Zeus hates Poseidon's son Percy and Hades's children Bianca and Nico. Hades, likewise, holds a grudge against Percy and Zeus's daughter Thalia. But we never really hear of any attempts Poseidon has made on the lives of either of his brothers' half-blood children or any feelings of ill will he may have toward them, even from the children themselves. Whether this is because the story is told from the viewpoint of his own son or Poseidon is just the most levelheaded out of the Big Three (and ''why?''), I'm not sure, but I think this issue could've been helped by maybe giving the sea god a few more flaws besides just being kind of a dead-beat dad. As stubborn as Zeus is, for example, it's easy for me to say something positive about him - he loves his daughter. Sure, he's kind of dismissive of her when she needs him, but he's also probably a little busy some of the time, being king of the gods and all.
363*** It's probably has to due with unlike Hades and Zeus, Poseidon actually has a better politician. Unlike them, Poseidon is not the "true" lord of his domain. There are literally thousands of minor sea deities and at least several other "Lords of the Sea" that still have strong influence over the Ocean(e.g Oceanus, Nereus, Pontus, Aigaios, and that's not including Sea gods from other Pantheons that could possibly exist). Unlike Hades or Zeus who are pretty much absolute rulers of their domain and can do anything they want. Posiedon has to be careful not to get any of the other sea deities piss off at him or they might gang up on him(He even had his own war along the Second Titan War). So in the thousands of years Poseidon learned how to keep his temper in check in order to live peacefully with his neighbors. Which is probably why he is not taking his anger out on his brother's demigod children since he knows that would be death for his own.
364*** Adding to this debate is the fact that Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite, is the only wife of one of the Big Three who doesn't seem to have it out for her stepson. (Persephone once turned Nico into a dandelion while they were in the middle of a "family spat", and Hera...Well, she took Thalia's brother away, along with probably a lot of other things, considering her spiteful nature.) She acts pretty coldly toward Percy when they meet, but there's not much else. I understand that Percy is the main character in this series, but why is his divine family the most level-headed and reasonable out of all the Big Three?
365*** I think you hit it when you said he was the main character. Percy's life is already so messed up it giving him an unsympathetic parent might make things too dark for a light-hearted series. Besides, that might be considered too similar to Zeus and Hera. Mythologically, Poseidon and Zeus were not that different. Riordan wants to keep the Olympians somewhat likable so you cannot have all of them be Jerkasses.
366** Also, Hades mostly seems to hate Percy because he's impertinent-seldom if ever does he say anything bad about Percy relating to being Poseidon's son.
367*** What's more, Zeus doesn't show any signs that he actually ''hates'' Percy; he just doesn't like him much, and at least part of that is because of the prophecy. He probably dislikes Hades's children more because he knows that Hades is a bitter underdog and doesn't put it past him that he would raise one of his children to want to destroy Olympus. Likewise, Hades only tried to kill Thalia because Zeus had tried to kill Bianca and Nico, and he says he only dislikes Percy for personal reasons.
368[[/folder]]
369
370[[folder: Belief in the gods]]
371* If the gods in this series can only remain alive for as long as people still pray to/believe in them, which is what I've picked up on as being the case, then how is it that Khione is even still alive, let alone posing as a threat? She claims that no one honored her in Ancient Greece (which, as sad as it is, is kind of understandable considering it rarely snowed there), she presumably doesn't have demigod children given how much she hates mortals, I never read about her being mentioned at Camp Half-Blood, she didn't get a cabin there...I even read somewhere that Riordan didn't even know she existed when he wrote the first series.
372** This is not the case. They do not need people to pray to them or acknowledge they exist to live. Khione and a slew of other minor gods and the Titans are proof of this. Riodan's series is not one of GodsNeedPrayerBadly. It appears to be a matter of will to live. Immortality can be hard to bear. Being remembered and worshipped can give you a connection to the world and a reason to live. Lack of that can cause you to lose your purpose to live so you fade. Khione and other still have strength of will to live so it does not bother them. It is also indicated that worship or at least veneration of a god's sphere of influence has an effect on their health and the weakening of Pan's sphere caused him to fade, but since they were born independent of their sphere Pan could have lived if he had wanted to.
373** So...does that mean the myths Ancient Greeks believed about creation actually happened in this universe, if the existence of the gods and everything related to them is independent of peoples' belief in them? And setting things up for the next question, I'd like to ask, do ''The Kane Chronicles'' and the ''Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus'' books both take place in the same realm of continuity? I haven't read the former of the two, but I heard there was some sort of reference made in one to the other.
374*** As for this^ I recall it being stated by either Amos or Bast in ''The Kane Chronicles'' that they stay out of Manhattan (and primarily in Brooklyn) because "they have their own gods over there". Plus Kronos' attack on Manhattan in "The Last Olympian" was primarily focussed on Manhattan, with borders. And there have been Percy Jackson and ''Kane Chronicles'' crossovers, as well as crossovers with the Magnus Chase series. So my best guess is that a lot of ancient mythology gods congregated to where western civilization was the strongest (USA/North America/New York) and wordlessly split up the area (Norse, Greek/Roman) along with trying to stay out of each other's way.
375** The goddess Bast stated in the ''Kane Chronicles'' that conflicting stories can often be true. A key point of magic and mythology in other fantasy universes is they are not facts you check off in a ledger. They are not rational the way modern man thinks. I think that is the case here where in some weird way the multiple myths and creation stories are all true. So they take place in the same universe and realm of continuity.
376[[/folder]]
377
378[[folder: Percy's motivation]]
379* During the fourth book, Percy is asked by Calypso what really drives him to support the Olympians like he does. Percy thinks on this and realizes that although the Olympians are not necessarily ''good'', he feels that he has a duty to support them because he's the son of Poseidon. But shouldn't the ''main'' reason be, since he's still half-human, and has grown up among humans, that the gods treat mortals better than the Titans did, and that he wouldn't want to see their world reduced to what it was when Kronos ruled over it? I'm not saying Calypso doesn't bring up a good point in questioning him on this - I merely think Percy's answer is a bit befuddling. Regardless of who his godly parent is, shouldn't his real loyalty be toward the mortal world where he grew up?
380** Growing up, Percy's stepfather was a JerkAss who likely abused him and I don't recall him having many if any friends besides Grover. This isn't the childhood that would endear him to the human race. Then he learns that he is "special" because he is the son of a major god and said major god is pretty cool and looks out for him as best he can. Percy strikes me more as an emotional being who things primarily in those terms. Loyalty to the whole human race is a vague, abstract notion that does not work with him. So his reasoning is going to be more motivated by his emotional connections. Then you have that his best friends are all nonhumans or half-humans. He spends most of his time in a secret world disconnected from the rest of humanity. So I don't see him having strong loyalty to the mortal world because it pretty much treated him like crap and he has no true emotional connection to it outside of his mother. At the same time, I don't think he has any true loyalty to the Olympians either aside from Poseidon. They have treated him like crap as well. His only real loyalties and motivations are to his friends. This was supposed to be his fatal flaw. He fights the Titans and Giants partly because yes...they are supposedly worse than the Olympians and would make the world worse for everyone. He does have a sense or right and wrong in that regard, but since he is motivated more by emotions and personal relationships that is where his true reasoning is.
381** What about his mom, though? His second stepdad, Paul Blofis, who is actually a pretty decent guy? Are we to assume Percy's made no completely mortal friends throughout his life? And I know Poseidon's come to learn a thing or two by the events of the fourth book, but at the end of ''The Lightning Thief'', even Percy acknowledges that his father probably didn't even want for him to have been born that early on. So while I can understand it being a product of Percy's fatal flaw of personal loyalty, I don't believe that a somewhat rotten upbringing would have made him less-inclined to the mortal world or that loyalty to his father would've been highest on his list.
382** Percy is a primarily emotional being. General loyalty to the human race is a vague abstract notion and he does not think in those terms. Why does he fight? What motivates him? What is first in his mind? Loyalty to family and friends with the human race as a whole being second. So the reason he supports the Olympians is out of loyalty and love to his family and friends and not to mankind in general. He knows regular humans can be as crappy to each other as the Olympians are to him. He has been on the receiving end of it. Yeah, it would suck if the mortal world went down the toilet, but again the real motivation he fights is not a vague abstract notion. It is his love and loyalty to his friends and family.
383*** Even then, at the point where he meets Calypso, it’s stupid to suggest that his relation to Poseidon is the primary reason he sides with the Olympians. Saying it’s because of his friends at Camp Half-Blood is perfectly reasonable, but his relationship with and allegiance to Poseidon at that point in the series is about as vague, abstract, and indirect as you’re saying his duty to the mortal world is.
384[[/folder]]
385
386[[folder: Selina & Beckendorf]]
387* Isn't there just a teensy bit of strangeness in Silena and Beckendorf dating? I know it's not the same as having the same godly parent, and that the gods don't have DNA anyway, but Beckendorf's father is Hephaestus, who is married to Aphrodite, who is Silena's mother...Wouldn't that technically make them some sort of half-/step-siblings or something?
388** Well, Aphrodite and Hephaestus were never the most loving of the couples; indeed it was a pretty bad ArrangedMarriage. It's safe to say that nowadays they're more or less separated, so at most Silena and Beckendorf would be like a couple whose mom and dad are "legally" married and refer to each other as wife/husband but do not have an actual loving married life and obviously cheat on each other all the time, and probably don't even live together per se. If anything at all they're step-siblings who don't even share a house or have a sibling-like relationship. Don't see anything wrong with that, though ''it is'' kind of funny that they got together given their parent's history.
389** I mean, if we're going by that logic, Percy is Annabeth's mom's cousin and basically all of the demigods are related. This is Greek mythology we're talking about. There's no room for squeamishness about or dwelling on the implications of incest.
390** It's explicitly mentioned that godly DNA does not work the same way human DNA does, so, unless you share the same godly parent, no other biological relation counts. Silena and Beckendorf were actually used as the example to explain this in the fifth book.
391** They are not remotely half-siblings. They don't share any biological parents.
392[[/folder]]
393
394[[folder: Ares' weapon of choice]]
395* Why does Ares fight with a sword in this series when his signature weapon in mythology was a spear?
396** The guy's the god of war. While the spear is his symbol, he is just as fine with any weapon. Plus, the only time we see him fight is against Percy, in which case he used a sword because Percy is a sword-user and Ares wants to toy with him for the kicks.
397*** Exactly- he starts the fight by asking what kind of weapon style Percy wants them to settle this in, modern or classical, to which Percy just sorta waves his sword in a "duh, only have one of them" way, which is when Ares' bat and bulletproof vest turn to a humongous sword and his shield respectively, but when the police arrive, Percy specifically mentions that he can see Ares as holding a sword and many other weapons, ranging from baseball bat to machine gun, and he doesn't even want to know what Riptide cloaked itself as with the Mist but is sure it is ''not'' something that is to his credit in the eyes of the police.
398[[/folder]]
399
400[[folder: Wars and conflicts]]
401* If the conflicts between the gods and their offspring are meant to coincide with those of mortals that have occured throughout our human history - the American Civil War was accompanied by a confrontation between the Greek and Roman half-bloods and World War II was spearheaded by the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side against the sons of Hades on the other - then what event in the mortal world corresponds to the second clash between the Titans and the Olympian gods?
402** It's not EVERY single war mirrors the what gods and demigods do, but just in general.
403** Also, recall that officially, there hasn't been a war involving the United States (where Mount Olympus is located) since World War II - conflicts involving the US? Yes. But WWII was the last time Congress declared war, so it's possible that some of the conflicts that broke out after WWII (i.e., the Vietnam War, the Gulf invasion) didn't have demigods on both sides.
404[[/folder]]
405
406[[folder: Poseidon's appearance]]
407* Why does Poseidon cease being an old man in ''The Last Olympian'' when he chose to let his kingdom be destroyed in order to fight Typhon alongside his family? His visage was based on the state of his home during the attacks, and he confirms later that Oceanus didn't hesitate to level it to the ground when the chance came to him...Hence, shouldn't he still have looked like an old man?
408** Best guess? Up to that point he was expending all of his power trying to protect his palace form Oceanus and his armies. He spread himself too thin. Oceanus is tied to all waters deeper than Poseidon so I doubt Oceanus was screwing too much with the ocean itself. Once he stopped expanding so much power and focused it all on one target backed by his own armies he was no longer so "exhausted." Yeah, he lost his personal palace, but like Percy stated his true "home" or at least the one his power was tied directly to was his throne on Olympus.
409** I understand that the main idea was supposed to be that Olympus was his true home, but still, Percy sees him as an old man after destroying the Princess Andromeda, and the Battle of Manhattan hadn't begun yet at that point, so even then, his "true home" wasn't in a state that would make him look like that.
410** Poseidon mentioned he was expending power to keep storms from wrecking the surface world. Storms I presume Oceanus was trying to cause to weaken Poseidon. Poseidon "spread himself" too thin to try and counter everything. He had also separated himself from his fellow gods to stand alone. At the end, he focused his entire power on one target and was working with his fellow gods instead of separate. The Egyptian gods, Olympians and Titans have all been portrayed as some sort of inter-dependent collective where to some extent their power relies on each other. Poseidon working with his fellow gods and on a single target focused his power instead of being separate and focused on many targets. Oceanus did not wreck the surface because all of his power was focused on Poseidon and destroying his under seas palace. At least, that is how I understand it.
411[[/folder]]
412
413[[folder: Disguise]]
414* This does apply to all versions of Greek mythology, but I'm addressing it here because this is the only adaption I know to showcase personal relationships and encounters with the individual gods...If the Olympians have the ability to change their appearance in whatever way they want to, why doesn't Hephaestus use this to make himself look less...deformed? I've seen his artwork, and I personally think he could look worse, but if everyone seems to ostracize him for being "ugly", it raises the question why he never considered it.
415** I would guess to it being a shapeshifting limitation caused by the injury and looks being too much. In Norse myth, Odin is always missing an eye no matter what shape he takes because Odin's "true self" gave up an eye. Whatever Hephaestus' divine form looks like it is no doubt damaged in some way and that damage is reflected in whatever shape he takes. He could try to cover it up with illusions, but his fellow gods would know it is a lie and he dislikes the relationship with handsome Ares and his physically perfect wife. Given his general dislike of people in general he would see no point and may even dislike the dishonesty of it.
416** True, it's mentioned in Book 4 that Hephaestus "cleans himself up" for the Council, but most other times just doesn't care enough to bother.
417[[/folder]]
418
419[[folder: Poseidon's favorite]]
420* In ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'', when Poseidon calls Percy his "favorite son"...Did anyone else find that weird, or wonder whether any of the real Greek gods would ever say something like that? Adding to that, isn't it also a little bit unfair and insulting, as well? Poseidon has probably sired hundreds of children throughout history, including some who became great leaders and important celebrities and such, and he says in what is meant to be taken as a truthful and heartfelt manner that Percy is his favorite. No disrespect to Percy Jackson, but I would've expected, say, Winston Churchill to be higher on Poseidon's list than him... (If Churchill really was Poseidon's son, that is, but there are still others.)
421** Percy saved the world at age twelve (and again at fifteen, and yet again at sixteen). He's not exactly a nobody. Plus, "favorite son" doesn't necessarily mean "the greatest child I have ever spawned", it could mean "favorite living son" or "child I get along with best". It's also worth noting that none of the other children of Poseidon we meet are particularly likable people--it's possible most of Poseidon's kids over the years have been jerks, and Percy's an exception to that rule.
422** I think it is Riordan's way of increasing the reputation of Percy compared to children of Zeus who are often the heroes. For instance, Hercules is usually considered the greatest Greek hero and stand up guy, but Riordan's is a darker, more villainous version. In-universe, I can see how it would be insulting to Triton, Poseidon's lawful son and supposedly his heir (if Poseidon ever planned to retire).
423** If Poseidon is anything like some other parents (not all parents just some) he might say that to all his children.
424** Plus, Percy's not going to go up to Triton and say, "Hey, guess what? Dad told me '''I'm''' his favorite son!" As noted above, whereas most of his kids, divine and demigod, are kinda jerks, (Triton is rude, Kym sided with Gaia, Theseus dumped Ariadne, etc) Percy is a genuinely NiceGuy and a true hero. Probably [[MST3KMantra best not to overthink it]].
425** Percy’s fatal flaw is said to be personal loyalty, and fatal flaws are said to trace back to one’s godly parent. In mythology, Poseidon torments Odysseus because of what he did to Polyphemus, who is Poseidon’s son; in the second book, Percy even alludes to this when he tells Polyphemus that Poseidon isn’t going to take sides between two of his own children. That would support the notion that “You’re my favorite offspring!” is something he could say to more than one of his children to avoid alienating any of the others, and therefore isn’t really as meaningful as it would seem.
426[[/folder]]
427
428[[folder: Fading]]
429* Is there anything about fading that sets it apart from mortal death, save being for gods? Like, the gods are immortal and normally can't be killed, so when they fade, where do they go? The underworld? Tartarus? Or do they just cease to exist? And is fading permanent? If a god chooses to fade after losing their will to live, would it be possible for them later on to regain that will and return to life, being immortal, or are they gone for good once the deed is done?
430** Not much is said about it. Gods cannot "die" at least in the mortal idea of death so the impression I was left with is they cease to be. Nothing goes on to the underworld. Mortal worship can force a god to hang on and prevent them from fading, but that too has its limits. It was implied fading was permanent, but in the second book series Gaea somehow revived Medusa's sisters who had faded. There is no clue on how it was done, whether this would work on gods or if anyone could do it. Gaea was incredibly powerful even for a god and monsters are far weaker than gods so that might have played into it. Since a faded god might still be considered "alive" I suppose if they gained enough of a will to live again they could start to exist in some state, but there is zero evidence of this.
431[[/folder]]
432
433[[folder: Warping back to Olympus]]
434* After the Olympians work together to defeat Typhon in ''The Last Olympian'', why don't they warp/teleport back to Olympus directly instead of flying there in their chariots? Kronos could be in the palace smashing each of their thrones to bits by that point, for all they know, and it takes them a few minutes more they finally get there.
435** I think they did. Hermes claimed Olympian teleportation was really a form of air travel which is why the wind gods could prevent anyone from teleporting to Olympus when Percy brought this up.
436** Percy mentions that they arrived, storming into the throne room in full battle armor, just moments after Luke died. If they had teleported, they would've done so directly into the throne room.
437[[/folder]]
438
439[[folder: Mist limitations]]
440* Why does the Mist conceal things like a cyclops' eye, or at least, make it harder to look at, but can't do anything to hide Grover's goat legs? Yes, it certainly would've been a lot weirder if Grover had spent all of his time without pants or shoes on and Percy just failed to notice the hooves until he learned he was a demigod, but still, it makes one wonder...
441** As for the legs, you also have to remember the differences between human and goat legs result in a hugely different movement which would constantly draw attention to the legs. Even if the Mist could have "created" a camouflage of pants or shoes, it would have been probably harder to maintain when attention was constantly drawn to it. Also legs are a much huger part of the body than eyes.
442[[/folder]]
443
444[[folder: Godly DNA 5]]
445* In the fifth book, when Percy is explaining how relationships between demigods are looked upon as okay, how does he know surely and specifically that gods don't have DNA? Even if there were some scenario where he could've learned this fact, DNA just seems like too much of a modern science for anyone to think of applying it to the ancient gods.
446** Always assumed Annabeth told him when he asked it. Being the genius she is, she definitely asked that herself at some point, probably to Chiron or even her mother.
447[[/folder]]
448
449[[folder: Doorman]]
450* Is the doorman for the Empire State Building just a mortal that was brought up to speed on the existence of the Greek gods, or he is an actual figure with a base in Greek lore and legends? I ask because, to my recollection, I don't recall any of the books elaborating upon who he is, nor do I remember Olympus having any sort of gatekeeper in the myths.
451** Strangely enough there were entities who guarded the Olympus, but they were ''goddesses'': the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horae Horae/Hours]]. Perhaps like Selene and other gods, they got tired of immortality and left their duties, which were taken on by the doorman. He might be a demigod or even some minor god, who knows.
452*** He may also be one of Hercules' and Hebes' sons, who are mentioned as being the doorkeepers in one myth.
453[[/folder]]
454
455[[folder: Camp pegasi]]
456* Is there a reason pegasi aren't used more often on quests? In ''Heroes of Olympus'' they get people from the Grand Canyon to Camp (on ''Long Island'', mind) between chapters. You'd think that would shave a whole bunch of time off of all those quests that take campers all the way to the West Coast in Books 1 and 3.
457** I think it's all about how you handle the horses. Percy and Butch are both said to be really good with them, the former for obvious reasons, being the son of Poseidon. Chances are horseback riding isn't a required lesson to learn at camp, so using one ona quest would be out of the question for all but the most experienced campers. In book 3, the heroes had Thalia with them, and while the other quest members didn't know it, she was afraid of heights, making a cross-country trip on a winged horse impractical for her. And as for the first book, Percy was even higher on Zeus's hit-list than he normally was due to the theft of his bolt, meaning even a pegasus, which are usually neutral territory, might not have been safe for him to ride. (Not to mention, he didn't find out about his affinity for horses until the middle of his quest to retrieve the bolt, when he used the connection to talk to a zebra in the back of a truck.)
458** Also, I thought the trip to camp from the Grand Canyon went so fast because of Butch being a son of Iris, which meant he could travel at the speed of light. That's just how I figured it worked.
459[[/folder]]
460
461[[folder: Pan's death]]
462* What I don't get about Pan's death is the timeline of it. Thanks to the satyrs he's been on life support for ''two thousand years''!! Why did the god of the wilds give up the ghost all those years ago, when there were still plenty of wild places and man didn't looting them until ''after'' his supposed death?
463** I haven't read the book in a while, but if I'm remembering correctly, Pan was supposed to be something of a pessimist - he knew that the state of the wild was starting to go into decline as man developed and his influence spread, even if it hadn't yet hit rock-bottom, so maybe he just didn't want to stick around to see it happen?
464[[/folder]]
465
466[[folder: Mist and different mythologies]]
467* OK, so if some mortals can see through the Mist, and all myths are true, does that mean these mortals see EVERYTHING divine, no matter the mythology? Or do certain ones only see certain mythological creatures?
468** The ''Magnus Chase'' books mention something called "glamour", which apparently comes from the gap surrounding the World Tree and serves to disguise from view all things Norse-ish, similarly what the Mist does for the Greeks and Romans. So it would likely vary depending on the mythology.
469** Or "glamour" is their word for the Mist. The crossover reveals that Mist is the highest level of the Duat, so yeah, it's entirely possible they can see everything.
470[[/folder]]
471
472[[folder: Camp safety]]
473* This isn't really something that bothers me personally, but the way Camp Half-Blood gets off so easily, considering the ways in which it endangers its campers so many times...No one ever seems to cut Hogwarts any slack, but in that case, even if they ''did'' take a lot of injuries pretty lightly, they at least had magic to both easily prevent and easily heal them. At camp, you have ambrosia and nectar, but it's said that even half-bloods can only consume so much of them before they burn up just like any other mortal would. And to go along with this, we have kids as young as 11 or 12 playing Capture the flag armed with real-life swords, spears, and armor, in the woods where acid-spitting ants make their nest, and one kid who even ended up in a full-body cast due to a sour encounter with Festus. And no one (in-universe or outside it) seems to have any complaints?
474** There are a few points I'd like to make. The first is that celestial bronze wouldn't work on the demigods because of their mortal blood, so they're basically fighting with blanks. Second, their entire existence is a life or death struggle where they constantly fight monsters and die young. The camp isn't just to provide a safe heaven, but to make the demigods combat ready. And the more dangerous challenges and tasks seem to be reserved for the most powerful ones. The harsh truth is that if they're not put through all of this, they'll be easy pickings once they go back home.
475** The bronze does affect them because they're half-god, just like normal weapons affect their mortal half. This was explained by Chiron as Percy was leaving to go on his first quest, and demonstrated during many different battles across the series.
476** Plus, with ambrosia and nectar, plus Chiron's healing abilities, most stuff not instantly fatal can be healed pretty easily.
477[[/folder]]
478
479[[folder: Persephone's pearls]]
480* Another one from the film alone...So Percy and the gang realize that they only have three pearls to get four people out of the Underworld. Unlike in the books, the pearls here are said to be hidden in different places by Persephone. Who is standing right there with them. And is the one who notices that they're short one to begin with. Is there any reason why she couldn't just make another pearl for them?
481** The Greek gods cannot always conjure items out of thin air which is why they needed Hephaestus to forge things. Few gods had the power to create something out of thin air. That is likely the reason why.
482** It's also not as if Persephone owes anything to them in that moment that would make her feel obligated to conjure another pearl. All she wants is for the bolt to be returned to Zeus, which any three of the heroes can accomplish even if a fourth has to stay behind. She's clearly not upset at the prospect of Grover remaining there, in particular.
483[[/folder]]
484
485[[folder: Thalia's eyes]]
486* What colour ''are'' Thalia's eyes? Her first appearance in a dream of Percy from The Lightning Thief has her with "stormy green eyes" (yeah no idea what that means either) but when she is brought back in Sea of Monsters, she is described with blue/gray eyes EarlyInstallmentWeirdness perhaps?.
487** It was either, that or just due to being in a dream sequence - Percy couldn't have known what she looked like, so maybe he just pictured her as looking a bit like him. I believe there's artwork out there depicting her eyes as blue, [[spoiler: like Jason's are.]]
488*** Ok but how did Percy get everything else, including clothes and hair colour, right about her then? I mean you are right about him not being able to know what she looked like.
489*** The same way he had the dream about the golden eagle and white horse fighting with each other, before knowing anything about the impending war between Zeus and Poseidon - demigods are very prone to having dreams of future events.
490** If you want a HandWave, call it different lighting--I have blue-gray eyes, but in fluorescent lights, they sometimes look vaguely greenish.
491[[/folder]]
492
493[[folder: Boat control]]
494* Why is Percy able to control all manner of boats, but apparently thinks a submarine is beyond his capabilities? I understand that submarines are a lot more technical than an 18th-century pirate ship, but the way they answer his beck and call doesn't seem to have anything to do with that.
495** Where does it say he can't control submarines?
496** ''Sea of Monsters'': as he and Annabeth are in search of a way off of Circe's island, he takes one look at a submarine and dismisses it as a viable option. I might be wrong, but I recall him thinking he wouldn't know how to pilot it. But immediately afterwards, he gets on board Blackbeard's pirate ship and commandeers it instantly through magic.
497*** Since Demigods are discouraged from using most tech (how many situations can you think of that could've been avoided by using a cell phone), it could be that he might not have as much control over something more modern - maybe perhaps if it was one of the submarines from World War I, it might be a different story.
498** It may be that since a sailing ship has much fewer moving parts than a submarine, theoretically he ''could'' control a submarine, but it would involve a lot more effort.
499[[/folder]]
500
501[[folder: Who's throwing lightning bolts?]]
502* In ''The Titan's Curse'', a lightning bolt knocks the team off the road as they're heading to Mt. Othrys. Thalia suspects it was Zeus, due to her prophecy saying a quest member would "perish by a parent's hand", but Percy tries to convince her that it was just Kronos trying to mess with her. Thalia ''was'' heading right toward the choice that could destroy Olympus, so maybe Zeus wanted to kill her over that, but I might've expected him to have a bit more faith in her. And when they attend the council of the gods on Olympus, he says that he's proud of her and vouches against her being killed. So was it Zeus trying to prevent the Great Prophecy from being fulfilled, or Kronos or one of his allies or subjects?
503** Most likely Kronos given the circumstances. Kronos tried to drive a wedge between the characters and the gods.
504*** Yeah it is probable but how did he pull it off when it's Zeus who has the lightning powers and Kronos is little more than mash pulp at this point?
505*** All of the gods are shown to possess some level of weather manipulation considering they make thunder sound whenever they're insulted in the books; barring that, it could've just been a generic blast of energy that was feigned to appear like a strike of lightning.
506** Alternatively, Kronos had some kind of air elemental on his side who was capable of rigging up a lightning strike for him. It's doubtful that Zeus is the only thunder deity just as Poseidon isn't the sole patron of the world's oceans.
507[[/folder]]
508
509[[folder: Sally marrying Paul]]
510* If Sally only married Gabe so that his putrid odor would keep monsters away from Percy, then why is she okay with marrying Paul Blofis later? A half-blood's scent was said to grow stronger as they got older, and when they find out/begin to suspect they're a half-blood, and Percy is the son of one of the Big Three, so there's a number of gods and other supernatural entities out there who wouldn't mind seeing him dead...Not to mention, it probably brings Paul into a lot of the danger of Percy's lifestyle.
511** Percy is old enough to defend himself from monsters and is not living at home nearly as much so there is no reason to cover up Percy's scent.
512** It's also stated that as a rule, most monsters find mortals below their level, so they don't bother, if they can munch/kill a demigod instead. Not counting some of the lesser and more feral monsters, who usually avoid civilization anyway, unlike their more civilized kin.
513*** Considering that the number of people who knew Percy's dad was Poseidon can be counted on one hand, odds are that the monsters figured that while it's possible that Poseidon might've broken the pact made by the Big 3, the odds of Percy being the kid resulting from said pact were slim. By the end of the first book, odds are that Percy's divine parentage was rather common knowledge, meaning that Gabe's smell was no longer needed, and as a result, Sally was free to marry Paul.
514[[/folder]]
515
516[[folder: Hephaestus's deformity]]
517* Why is it that Hephaestus's children aren't described as being deformed at all? Even if the gods don't have the mortal idea of DNA, they must have something that acts in place of it, so that Percy can look so much like Poseidon, Annabeth can look so much like Athena, and all of Hermes's children can share the same elfish, cunning look that he has. It's already been established that the damage to Hephaestus's leg doesn't go away no matter what form he takes, so why hasn't it been passed on?
518** A large part of Hephaestus' deformity is from being dropped off a mountain when he was a child. He was considered ugly by Hera, which only means "less than 100% perfect", so he might not have originally been as unsightly from birth. Due to the severity of his injuries, and being treated as "ugly" for eons, that's the form he takes as the characters know him, but it's not something that his children would inherit from him, presumably.
519** Remember, gods don't have DNA.
520[[/folder]]
521
522[[folder: Cabins for minor gods]]
523* Why didn't the children of Hades and the minor gods have cabins built for them before Percy suggested it at the end of ''The Last Olympian''? Having a small cabin for your kids to stay in at camp isn't the same as, say, a throne on Olympus for every minor god, and characters like Nico are shown to have built their parents' cabins largely on their own. Were they all waiting for some permission that had to be given by the gods, or did they truthfully just not think of it?
524** They were waiting for permission. The major Olympians especially Zeus are incredibly prideful and did not deem the minor gods important enough to have cabins of their own. It would distract from their own cabins and imply the minor gods are kind of equal to the big 12.
525** Important, according to who? No one except the half-bloods worship the Greek gods anymore, and a cabin doesn't seem to be on the same level as a throne on Olympus because it's not just there for honorary purposes. (We know that Hera's is, but then again, it's Hera we're talking about - Artemis at least uses hers for when her Hunters visit camp as a hunting cabin.) The cabins are there to house their children, and I don't recall any point in the books where it was mentioned that this was the reason.
526*** Important according to the 12 Olympians, whose mistreatment and dismissal of the minor gods is a major theme in the books and what caused many of them to consider siding with Kronos.
527[[/folder]]
528
529[[folder: Labyrinth destruction]]
530* When the labyrinth was destroyed at the end of the fourth book, what happened to Hephaestus's workshop? Did it get destroyed as well, or is it technically not part of the labyrinth?
531** More likely the former. The Labyrinth could just connect to the workshop in the same way that it connects to Camp Half-Blood. Even if not, the forges he used underneath Mount St. Helens were also mentioned and shown, so it's possible he has more workspaces elsewhere that weren't destroyed.
532[[/folder]]
533
534[[folder: Entering the camp]]
535* If Luke wanted to destroy camp from the beginning, couldn't he have just gone inside the barrier himself and then granted permission to all the monsters so that they could enter, too? Or did the camp have some way of keeping him off of the list?
536** First off, its implied that you need to address the monster by name, and you can only individually allow them in one at a time. Considering that an army big enough to beat all the campers must be at least several hundred strong, that would take hours. Which leads to problem two, the campers. They trust Luke, but they aren't stupid. If they see Luke inviting monsters in they would immediately dogpile him and drag him off to be questioned. Third, Dionysus is there. For all his laziness he isn't going to stand by and just watch. Therefore, any army, no matter how big, isn't large enough to threaten the camp at this point in the story, so its pointless. It would even be counterproductive, Kronos needs more time to build up strength, so he mustn't draw suspicion, a monster army marching into one of the great bastions of demigods if literally ringing alarm bells, he would be crushed in his weakened state instantly by the gods.
537[[/folder]]
538
539[[folder: Hera's responsibility]]
540* In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Percy makes the excellent point that since Hercules had a well documented track record of unchecked temper flowing into violence, starting with beating a teached to death when he was ''twelve'', him killing Megara and their children might not have, in fact, been because of Hera driving him completely insane, and was more Hera calculatedly annoying him with the oracle about Hercules having to serve his royal cousin for an extended period of time until he was ready to snap at anyone in a fit of rage. Fair enough. Then in the sequel series we learn Thalia's mother met her death in a carcrash. Most to that say "uh-huh. Yeah. Car crash. Obviously Hera arranged it."- but did she really have to, when Beryl was already a known alcoholic? Did Hera even need to introduce Beryl to alcohol when we learn how obsessed with Zeus and full of herself Beryl was when she found out she managed to snatch the Lord of the skies himself? Speaking of, how did she even find out? ZEUS of all people has a bad experience with his paramours learning who he is (just look at the pile of ashes that was Semele.)
541** I've never heard it suggested anywhere that Hera was responsible for the death of Thalia's mother. If anyone actually believes that, they must be part of a very small minority.
542*** Really? Thought more would have made the obvious jump to conclusion that the goddess whose day job it practically is to torture and kill her husband's paramours and lovechildren would have had something to do with the death of a woman who Zeus had a child with not once, but twice. Then again, by the point Beryl died, Hera did already take Jason, and it is specifically stated that Jason's life was sold to her to pacify her wrath, it's just never added whether it did manage to pacify her at the time or if the years gone by since then have done that.
543** I remember it being established in ''The Demigod Diaries'' that Thalia's mother was a bit of a wreck, and that she sort of let being the secret lover of the king of the gods get to her head a little bit...It sort of undermines her responsibility to pin it on Hera when it was never suggested that that was the case.
544*** Good points, however sadly even in the Demigod Diaries we only have a perspective describing Beryl after she got to know Zeus, we have unfortunately nothing to go on to judge what she was like before him and in what ways she changed that were completely out of line with her former self other than the fact that she became a mania... and Hera ''is'' the one famous for taking her wrath out on Zeus' paramours in various vindictive and creative ways.
545** The ambiguity surrounding Beryl's death harkens back to the ambiguity of Heracles' character for a reason -- because Greek mythos varied greatly depending on who was telling it. While most of Heracles' misdeeds were indeed the results of his own short temper, the madness that killed his wife and children is sometimes a product of his own mind and other times something Hera forced upon him. Just as there's no way of knowing which was closer to the truth, the only one who would know whether Hera played a part in Beryl's death is Hera herself. I'm more inclined to believe that it was Beryl's own doing, since Hera's wrath was usually targeted toward Zeus's offspring rather than his mistresses, but the opposite interpretation is equally as valid.
546[[/folder]]
547
548[[folder: Let's get metaphysical]]
549* In the first book, Percy asks something to the effect of whether the singular God himself is real. Chiron basically shrugs this off, says something about being metaphysical and that it's not worth dwelling on. However, later installments hint and even showcase the existence of multiple different pantheons - Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Aztec, Chinese - and in ''The Sword of Summer'', one character offhandedly mentions one of his interactions with Jesus. So why didn't Chiron just tell Percy that AllMythsAreTrue?
550** Two reasons: one, the Greek gods are basically just really powerful embodiments of the world's various aspects, so in a sense he's being truthful: he ''doesn't'' know if there's a singular God that created reality; two, Chiron couldn't mention the other pantheons because the Greeks at that point aren't supposed to know about them - book 5 alluded to the Egyptian gods who were in Manhattan at the time, but the Greek gods had very little information only knew because they felt some sort of celestial disturbance.
551[[/folder]]
552
553[[folder: Dealing with the scent]]
554* It's stated that all demigods have some degree of luring scent to monsters- the stronger the parent, the stronger the scent and the more monsters find the kid to be like a five star dinner of 10 courses. (Eg: A child of Aphrodite or even a minor god? You should probably be able to get by even if you don't happen to be an outstanding fighter.. A child of Zeus, Poseidon or Hades? STAY AT CAMP FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY. ''Especially'' if you live in Cabin One.) Other factors are whether or not they are in the company of other demigods (too many demigods equals a "come eat me" flare) and the usage of electronics such as cell phones and laptops (IIRC, there is a mention of a poor unfortunate soul whose last mistake was googling a type of monster shortly before being attacked by them and escaping.) Yet... many of those electronics are a staple of modern life and expected for use in school and later work- which might be why it is spelt outright in several books that demigods living to adulthood can be a big thing, and that demigods living to adulthood ''without actually knowing they are demigods'' are rare as anything (though it still happens). How come Cabin Hephaestus and/or Athene hasn't thought of something to deal with the conundrum?
555** Asking "why haven't Hephaestus and Athene kids figured out an answer?" is sort of like asking "how come the real-life genius doctors of the world haven't solved a cure to Alzheimer's?" Some of them probably are working on it, but it might just be that it's ''that'' difficult a conundrum. You also have to remember that widespread information technology has not been widespread for all that long, meaning people haven't had much time to work on a fix, and that most of those who would have the motivation to work on it are, while very smart, still ultimately kids who don't live long enough to reach their full intellectual potential. That being said, it's implied that with time, certain parties '''have'' figured out selective workarounds: Daedalus' laptop, for example, doesn't appear to attract monsters while in use.
556*** Daedalus's laptop was actually one of the main reasons of asking the question in the first place: it proves that the problem can be solved. Not only did Daedalus have no problems while using it but Annabeth (and any demigods around her) doesn't either. Which could give them an opportunity to reverse-engineer from it whatever measures Daedalus took to make it safe.
557*** I think the effects of technology on half-bloods have more to do with whether there's a signal being emitted, like through WiFi or cellular data, and that signal is what the monsters are able to detect. Daedalus's laptop's main use is to store his own designs and inventions, so Annabeth might not use it to browse the internet very often. Nevermind how she's safe with it whenever she uses it while at camp - even if monsters detect the signal, there's no way they could get in. She might just not use it while she's staying with her dad during the year. The same would apply to the kids in Cabin 9 - if they do any tinkering with technology while away from camp, they'd probably be safe as long as the tech doesn't emit any sort of signal.
558** It's mentioned in ''The Lost Hero'' that Cabin 9 has underground tunnels. Possibly there's a room or two in there which is shielded.
559[[/folder]]
560
561[[folder:Tantalus]]
562* Why did Zeus pick ''Tantalus'' of all his sons when he started doubting Chiron? This is the guy who served up his own ''kid'' for a stew, and whom Zeus and the others unanimously, justly and personally punished brutally for it. To that extent, how come he and Dionysus are all chummy? As the god who chews out demigods for being jerks towards others, you would think he would detest one prime example where it really was the demigod at fault.
563** He was the only option available and/or Zeus didn't want to bother pulling his other sons out of the Fields of Asphodel? Besides, it's not like you can argue with Zeus on his decisions, and it's not like Dionysus's entire character revolves around him disliking demigods because they do bad things - he gets annoyed with them primarily because he's miffed about being stuck babysitting them and not being able to drink anything while he's there. Both of these things would probably make him delighted to be paired up with another person who doesn't like half-bloods and is forbidden from eating or drinking.
564[[/folder]]
565
566[[folder: Dead parents]]
567* It's mentioned in the first book that there's a decree or law among the gods that half-bloods are obligated to be raised by the mortal parent. But what would happen if a mortal parent dies before the baby is born? Would they ever get the "You're a wizard, Harry" speech?
568** Short answer, yes. Same for those whose mortal mother dies in/around childbirth or before remarrying if they were single when meeting the god that fathered the child, if there are no other relatives. ''The Trials of Apollo'' indicate that no, they won't get such a speech, and they'd either manage to make it to Camp Half-Blood or perish - usually the latter, sadly.
569[[/folder]]
570
571[[folder: Age limit]]
572* Is there an age limit to going to camp, both in the sense of "you have to get to camp by the time you are x years old" and in the sense of "You cannot return to camp if you are older than x years old"?
573** There's no indication there were any age limits, or that half-bloods were required to come to camp in the first place. It's probably up to the child and their mortal parent if and when they go. Though an adult half-blood probably would be disallowed by default, since their survival up to that point would indicate either a minor god as their parent or them being sufficiently skilled to protect against monsters on their own. Maybe they could find work there as a camp counselor or some sort of trainer, but Chiron and Mr. D would probably not allow them in as a regular camper.
574[[/folder]]
575
576[[folder: Atlas going divine]]
577* How come Atlas didn't go into his true divine form at any point during ''The Titan's Curse''? In the fifth book, Mr. D reveals that just being near a full-on Titan is enough to incinerate you, even if you don't look at them, and Atlas was never sealed in Tartarus like Kronos and the others, so he shouldn't have needed to take time to recuperate like they did.
578** BondVillainStupidity, most likely.
579** It's implied in the Last Olympian that the Titans are heavily weakened until Kronos regains his form.
580*** Considering that he had been holding the sky up until pretty recently (in the book), it could be that he was too tired to engage the transformation at the time he was fought.
581** It's implied, if not outright stated, he's a BloodKnight as well. It might be the smart choice to go divine and instantly obliterate your enemies, but after a few millennia holding the sky up, he's probably itching for a fight.
582** And once Percy cuts Artemis lose, Atlas definitely wouldn't want to risk incinerating him since he's the only thing keeping the sky from crushing them all.
583[[/folder]]
584
585[[folder: New gods]]
586* So ''Heroes of Olympus'' reveals that the gods still hold a connection to the ruins left behind in Greece, since their roots are still there regardless of how much they move to a new country. But what would happen if a new god was born after they moved. Would they be rooted to Greece like the others, or whatever country they were born in?
587** For new gods who are born to two gods (eg., Ares and Aphrodite), I think they would be rooted in Greece. For new gods who were actually mortal demigods but ascended (eg., Herc and Mr. D) if such a thing is still possible, they would be rooted in their birth country I think.
588[[/folder]]
589
590[[folder: Aphrodite's looks]]
591* If Aphrodite's appearance changes according to the viewer's standards of beauty, what would she see if she looked at herself in the mirror? For that matter, what does Hephaestus see whenever he lays eyes on her? And is this something she can toggle on and off as she pleases, or is it how her appearance always works?
592** She'd see herself a) however she wanted herself to look or b) with whatever features she would find most attractive in another person, presumably as moderated by her personal gender identity/desired presentation. Hephaestus would see whatever he found most attractive in a partner, whether he wanted to or not. We're never told she can turn it off, but I don't see why she wouldn't be able to.
593** The only appearance we see of Aphrodite in the series is her ''human'' one-which is basically just a costume she uses so the mortal characters can conceptualize her. Since human beauty is subjective, Aphrodite needs to alter her human appearance when presenting in it. She wouldn't need to do that in her true divine form, as her divine form is beauty itself.
594[[/folder]]
595
596[[folder: Location of Mt Olympus]]
597* If Mount Olympus's location follows Western Civilization, shouldn't it be located somewhere in Washington DC (i.e., the top of the Washington Monument) instead of at the top of the Empire State Building?
598** Mount Olympus isn't close to Athens, Greece's capital either. The chosen location seems every bit a matter of icon, fame and status as it is being the actual capital.
599** Maybe the construction of the Empire State Building - then the tallest building - was what cemented America's status as the new hearthstone of Western civilization, so when the gods moved to America, Olympus rooted itself to the thing that had brought them there.
600** There's also no reason to assume that Olympus rooted itself to the Empire State Building, and that it wasn't the other way around. Maybe the architects who built it were half-bloods themselves, who did so in honor of the gods.
601[[/folder]]
602
603[[folder: Big Three pact]]
604* If the Big Three were so adamant about not having any more children after World War II (at the time, anyway), why didn’t they swear their oaths on the River Styx so that they’d be completely unbreakable?
605** They did, actually - it's mentioned briefly by Grover. That's part of why the Furies, etc went after Thalia, and she had to make her stand. And as ''The Trials of Apollo'' shows, even Stygian oaths are breakable, there are just very severe (but not entirely fully-defined) punishments.
606[[/folder]]
607
608[[folder: Thalia fulfilling the prophecy]]
609* The ending of The Titan’s Curse plays out as though the Great Prophecy is still in effect (and it does turn out to be) — Thalia joins the Hunters so that she won’t ever fulfill it by turning 16, and Percy accepts the burden of fulfilling it so that Nico won’t have to. However, Thalia already fulfilled the terms of the prophecy, didn’t she? She had the choice to summon that creature (whose name escapes me) that held the power to destroy Olympus, and chose not to - “Olympus to preserve or raze.”
610** But not all of it--there's also the bit about "see the world in endless sleep/a hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."
611** The prophecy will not be fulfilled until a half-blood of the eldest three gods turns sixteen. Thalia had not turned sixteen, so the prophecy could not be about her.
612** Because of her time as a tree. Being inside the tree already slowed her physical growth by 3–4 years. If the prophecy were counting actual age, then Thalia already turned 16 a couple of years ago. Ergo, either it's counting actual age (so she's already in the clear) or it's counting biological age (so she's in the clear once she joins the Hunters.) Joining the Hunters thus allowed her to dodge both possibilities instead of just one of them.
613[[/folder]]
614
615[[folder: Social Services]]
616* Shouldn't Luke have been taken away from his mother at some point before he was old enough to run away? She was clearly some level of crazy, and that's part of the reason why Luke became evil in the first place. Was Hermes somehow pulling something to make sure no one looked into Luke's home situation?
617** Hard to see that happening, given how broken up he was afterwards. Possibly the insanity got worse over time, and when Luke was a kid, it was only occasional flashbacks and episodes, and it got worse over time, especially when she had no one else around to help her focus on the present moment.
618[[/folder]]
619
620[[folder: Half-blood lineage]]
621* How did it take Percy at least three books for the fact to occur to him that Kronos was his grandfather? And even then, it comes up almost as an afterthought during his introduction to Hera!
622** Godly relationships beyond immediate family are seldom touched on. He's also the first cousin once removed of both Luke and Annabeth, and both Apollo ''and'' Meg's first cousin - if you spend really any time thinking about godly family relationships, you're gonna need BrainBleach.
623** Because the idea of this evil, old-as-the-universe, currently-chopped-into-bits monster plotting to overthrow the entire world being your grandpa is really, ''really'' weird.
624[[/folder]]
625
626[[folder: Holding up the sky]]
627* If the weight of the sky is as heavy as it would seem to be, it seems unlikely that Percy, Luke, or Annabeth would be able to hold it up for very long.
628** Probably mostly willpower. Remember, he was only holding it for about a minute or so at most. Most likely, the gods set it up to be difficult but possible - remember they don't want the sky to actually crush the earth, they just want it to be too difficult for Atlas to get out of.
629** If we assume that the sky retains some level of sapience, like the earth still does, then it could be a sign of willpower on Ouranos's part. He has an intrinsic need to embrace the earth again after so long, but his mistrust of Gaia after she helped overthrow him or his desire to not crush everything on the earth keeps the impulse in check just enough that he allows for himself and Gaia to be held apart. Sort if like if you want to punch someone in a rage, but you let someone else hold you back because a part of you knows it would end badly otherwise.
630[[/folder]]
631
632[[folder: Titan powers]]
633* In that short story where Thalia, Percy and Nico had to recover a stolen sword for Hades, after that Titan (Iapetus, I think it was) got his memories wiped by the Lethe, how did he still remember that he could heal Percy's injury with just a touch? I know the water lets you remember some things, like how to walk and talk, but does that extend to magical Titan powers like instant healing?
634** The short answer is that extent of the Lethe's powers is very unclear in canon, so... yeah, maybe? The long answer is that from what little we see of its effects, it seems to ''hide'' memories rather than truly erase them, and seeing related stimuli can trigger those memories, like when Bianca saw the D.C. subway and remembered that it didn't exist when she was younger. It's possible that Bob (formerly Iapetus) saw Percy's wound and remembered that he had healing abilities, even if he didn't remember how or why.
635[[/folder]]
636
637[[folder: Mrs. Dodds or Mrs. Kerr]]
638* Mrs. Dodds was Percy's teacher for the whole year, until she tried to kill him, when she was replaced by Mrs. Kerr, and nobody knew who Mrs. Dodds was. So was Mrs. Dodds really their teacher the whole time before being replaced via Mist with Mrs. Kerr, or was Mrs. Kerr their teacher and Mrs. Dodds temporarily replaced her using the Mist, and never switched Percy's memories back?
639** Most likely Mrs. Dodds was their teacher first, then afterwards Mrs. Kerr was brought in, and Chiron manipulated the Mist to make it seem like she'd been there the whole time.
640[[/folder]]
641
642[[folder: How do they know it works that way?]]
643* When Thalia joins the Hunters in the third book, she says that their immortality will keep the Great Prophecy's fulfillment from falling to her, because she'll never actually turn 16 like it stipulates. However, how does she know that the prophecy is that specific? She'll still technically be sixteen years old; it's just that she won't have the physical signs of age to show it. Yet she's still treated as being out of the running after that point, with no one suggesting that it could still apply to her rather than Percy or Nico.
644** The exact words are that the hero "shall reach sixteen." While you're correct that prophecies can be annoyingly tricky, the chances were that it would most likely be Percy.
645[[/folder]]
646
647[[folder: Who runs the afterlife in this world?]]
648* Percy, Annabeth, and Grover encounter some priest guy in the Greek Underworld in ''The Lightning Thief''. However, later books establish the existence of different cultures' mythologies and pantheons in the same universe, complete with the appropriate afterlife for each. Why did the priest end up in the Greek afterlife specifically?
649** In the ''Kane Chronicles'' it's elaborated further that the exact afterlife they go to depends on the person themselves and which mythology influenced them the most. It's probable that the priest didn't truly believe in capital-G God (given how self-serving he was described to have been), and if he was actually a Greek or Roman demigod/legacy, it makes sense why he would end up in Hades' jurisdiction.
650** ''Aru Shah'' (which may or may not be canon to the setting) also shows people in the Hindu afterlife's waiting room making the sign of the cross or crawling on their bellies, implying that the afterlife appears to them as their own religion's version of it rather than the one the protagonists see.
651[[/folder]]
652
653[[folder: Past & present half-bloods]]
654* In this series, apparently being a half-blood grants you powers that are relevant to your divine parent -- Thalia can control lightning, Jason can fly, Percy is basically Super-Aquaman... However, the heroes of the original myths never seem to display abilities this exemplary. The closest instance I can think of is Heracles, whose biggest divine inheritance was super-strength. Even if the gods do decide which movesets their children can receive, wouldn't they have been more generous with them in ancient times? Those were the days when people actually believed in gods, monsters, and half-bloods living among them, so there wouldn't have been as much need to be subtle.
655** Remember how many Godly kids there would have been running around left right and center? And not just major Gods, minor Gods could have given their half-blood offspring powers as well. There was likely a limit placed on handing out powers back then, so half of Greece wouldn't be burnt to the ground. Plus, if the Gods did get to choose to give their children powers, one of the first that come to mind for most people - when thinking of powers - is super strength, (and when Zeus punishes Gods by turning them human they are commonly shown in mythology to retain super strength) human-ish, but still Godly enough to give demigods an edge. Heracles/Hercules in particular was renown for his SuperStrength. If gods aren't paying attention to what powers their offspring get, that's most likely when the demigods will have powers based off of the Gods' normal powers.
656** Bear in mind it's also implied gods have some measure of foresight (like how it's implied Hermes knew Luke would go evil). So all of the Seven may well have been granted those particular powers for a reason. Plus, we don't know that some of the ancient demigods ''didn't'' have other powers, which the myths elided/glossed over/just plain were forgotten about over the millennia. For example, Theseus may well have had Percy's ability to sail ships just by thinking about them (which would explain why he forgot to switch the sail from black to white, come to think of it), but that's not the kind of detail that is going to wow audiences, so most bards would leave that out when retelling the story. Hence, it never gets written down centuries later and so modern-day folks don't know about it.
657** Also, RuleOfCool. Even if it's not necessarily accurate to the myths, you can't write a series about the children of the gods and ''not'' give each demigod a cool, unique power.
658[[/folder]]
659[[folder: Watch thou language!]]
660* The explanation given in ''The Titan's Curse'' for Zoë's archaic dialect is that she was alive since the time of ancient Greek civilization, and had trouble keeping up with updates in language. But how does that explain why she very specifically spoke in ''Shakespearean English'' with the gang? She lived through far more stages of the English language's development; why did she find this particular one easier than the rest? Did she have a lot of quests in medieval England? How long did it take for her to get used to the changes? Can the language majors please educate me on this one?
661** So, her English is actually more seventeenth than sixteenth century, and even then, it's still fairly up to date (she'd be fairly incomprehensible to Percy and the other demigods were she speaking Shakespearean English or even fully seventeenth-century English). That being said, very likely it's an intentional choice; probably she enjoyed the English spoken at that time, and kept using it even after it "fell out of fashion." Since she probably doesn't interact too much with people outside the Hunters and Artemis (with whom she could speak just about any language she likes), she hasn't felt the need to update her language.
662** Additionally, supplementary material tells us that Olympus actually was in England until about the eighteenth century (Arthur and Merlin were both demigods, and I think Guinevere was too), so she most likely did have a lot of quests in medieval and early modern England.
663[[/folder]]
664[[folder: Waved-aside Questions]]
665* How did the pirates get off of Circe's island? It's mentioned in Heroes of Olympus that Reyna and Hylla were on Circe's island during Sea of Monsters (I think Hylla was even mentioned by name) and were captured by the pirates only for Hylla to out-pirate them so Blackbeard put them ashore. Here's the root of the question: Percy and Annabeth stole Blackbeard's ship and Ployphemus sank it. Percy doesn't describe any other sailing ships the pirates would know how to use docked at the island, except maybe dugout canoes, but those aren't big enough.
666** Maybe Blackbeard was able to get Ares to loan him a ship of zombies like Clarisse did?
667[[/folder]]
668* Would Kronos's takeover of Olympus and Earth have been that bad? Last time he was in charge, humanity experienced some kind of golden age.

Top