Literature: The Heroes of Olympus aka: The Heroesof Olympus
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the first series and the first two books of the second.A Sequel Series to Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. It takes the same setting as its predecessor and is set a short time after.The first book, The Lost Hero, was released on October 12, with two chapters released online. The story follows a half-blood, Jason (like that Jason) finding himself in a school bus with absolutely no memory of who or what he is, along with a girl, Piper, and a boy, Leo. The three turn out to be half-bloods and run into Annabeth (from the first series) and someone named Butch, who are looking for a kidnapped character.The second book, The Son of Neptune, was released on October 4th, 2011. The first chapter can be read over yonder.The third book in the series, to be titled The Mark of Athena, is slated for October 2, 2012. However, a sneak peek of the first chapter was read aloud by Riordan while on tour for a different book. Video of the reading can be found here while a transcript of what was read can be found here.General tropes about the setting carried over from Percy Jackson should be left neatly at the bottom of the page.Please place tropes which only apply to one character on the character sheet. The main article is getting cluttered, and we're only on book two!
Queen Marie, Hazel's mother, actively (if unintentionally) cursed her daughter and resented Hazel for it when bad stuff started happening.
Subverted with her father, Pluto. His deliberately turning a blind eye to her means she won't have to go back to the Underworld, even though she's supposed to be dead.
Alaska: The land beyond the gods. Where Percy, Frank, and Hazel go on their quest in Son of Neptune.
"As they trudged on, Percy thought about all the crazy places he'd seen. None of them left him speechless like Alaska. He could see why it was a land beyond the gods. Everything here was rough and untamed. There were no rules, no prophecies, no destinies—just the harsh wilderness and a bunch of animals and monsters. Mortals and demigods came here at their own risk."
Amnesiac Lover: Averted. Jason quickly reciprocates Piper's feelings, but he doesn't want to lead her on when he isn't entirely sure how he feels about her (first because of his amnesia, then because it turns out they were never dating in the first place, and then because of Reyna).
Subverted with Percy. Annabeth is the one thing he's absolutely sure about from his old life.
Well, he WAS born before they really had invented it yet...
Art Shift: The covers of the first two books. Probably deliberate, to accentuate the more culturally refined nature of the Greeks (featured in ''The Lost Hero''◊) verses the rougher, grittier Romans (featured in ''The Son of Neptune''◊).
Ascended Extra: "D-list goddess" Khione plays a major role. Gleeson Hedge (referenced once in TLO) is another example. Will Solace and Jake Mason may also apply.
Hylla, Circe's assisstant, last seen in Sea of Monsters turns up again as Reyna's sister and queen of the Amazons.
Euryale and Stheno, Medusa's sisters, in Son Of Neptune Also, Hazel and after the war games, Gwen (aka: Centurion Shish-ka-bob).
Monsters coming back from the dead in nothing new. Unfortunately, due to Death himself being chained, monsters come back mere seconds after being slain.
Let's just knock out all the tropes associated with "The Doors of Death are open, and Greek villains and monsters are coming back to life willy nilly":
Back from the Dead: Hazel sacrificed herself in 1941 to prevent Gaea from waking fully during World War II. Nearly seventy years later, Nico went to the underworld to sneak Bianca out, only to discover she'd already tried for rebirth. Instead, he rescued Hazel, who was also a child of Hades/Pluto.
Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Pretty much the entire theme of The Son of Neptune - Death has been chained and the literal doors to the afterlife are now open.
Badass Boast: Jason and Porphyrion both during their boasting match.
Jason:I'm the son of Jupiter! I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion. I slew the Trojan sea monster. I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves.
Bag of Holding: Leo's magic toolbelt, which can produce any sort of tool (so long as it's not too huge) and apparently breath mints.
Bag of Spilling: In The Son of Neptune, Percy loses most of his memories. He is still effectively invulnerable due to his Curse of Achilles and repeatedly defeats the gorgons. Soon after June tells him that for him to enter Camp Roman he must lose his Curse of Achilles, leaving him vulnerable to harm, and he chooses to enter.
Batman Gambit: Double subverted. Percy tricks Phineas into giving up the location of Alcyoneus' lair, but it involves using himself as blackmail against Gaea and gambling that she'll come through for him. It works.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Being claimed/blessed by Aphrodite invokes this. Piper tries her hardest to mess her appearance up, but her looks just keep fixing themselves for days afterward, to Piper's irritation.
Big Damn Heroes: Percy, Frank, and Hazel and the Amazons during the invasion of New Rome.
Cavalry Betrayal: Polybotes's army assumes the Amazons are there to attack New Rome.
Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: A good portion of the main cast has to deal with powers that can be either crappy or awesome, depending on the situation.
Leo, in addition to his technological talent, has fire powers. Great for fighting monsters, right?Yeah, except for the fact that said powers are difficult to control and extremely dangerous. Just ask Leo's mom. Oh, wait, you can't: she died in a fire started by accident by her son. And Apparently the last son of Hephaestus with the ability started the Great Fire of London. So that should give you an idea of what we're dealing with here.
Hazel can summon precious minerals from underground as per her mother's wish. While the ability has come in useful before, it absolutely ruined her first life, as the stones curse anyone who holds onto them...
Frank Zhang could darn well be the Trope Codifier for both. His life force is tied to a stick, and if it burns down completely, he dies. However, the fire from the stick has been shown to be able to free Death himself; who knows what other awesome stuff it could do. His Animorphism powers don't count, being just plain awesome without side affects.
Blond Guys are Evil: Octavian. This is the second time Riordan has made the evil guy from camp an older blond dude. Subverted by Jason.
Blood Magic: Gaea plans to use Percy’s blood in some kind of sacrifice to bring down the gods.
Break the Cutie: Leo's mom's death. Later, Festus dying on Leo.
Hazel's flashbacks.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out The Titans: The gods of Olympus are in no shape to fight a war against the giants precisely because they're still broke from fighting the Titans and Typhon.
Call Back: Ma Gasket shows up in Son of Neptune wanting revenge on Jason, Leo, and Piper. Percy also shows up to reclaim his place as a main character after being absent for the first book.
Chekhov's Gag/Brick Joke: Five books later, Annabeth proclaiming the Laistrygonian giants to be "Canadians" in Sea of Monster is brought back up in Son of Neptune where Percy calls them Canadians... in front of genuine Canadian Frank Zhang. Frank is not pleased.
Chekhov's Gun: The bronze dragon. Festus first appeared in the shorty story collection "The Demigod Files."
And now Terminus. Seemingly a one-off gag, but then comes back in the climax to help Percy defeat a Giant.
And the bronze dragon also makes its first appearance in The Demigod Files.
Also, while shopping in Medea's shopping mall, a bronze breastplate that is corroded with acid is mentioned along with other merchandise belonging to deceased campers. This troper can't be sure, but her first thought was that the armor belonged to Clarisse and was last used by Silena.
The Armor coupled with Aphrodite's conversation with Piper doubles as Fridge Brilliance when you realize that Aphrodite was most likely referencing Silena when she held up the armor.
Nereus, the old man of the sea, last seen in Titan's Curse, makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it but funny cameo in Son of Neptune.
Vitellius, in Son of Neptune, asks whether or not Percy cleans stables during their first conversation. Since Percy's memory has gone, he can't remember that he did in Battle of the Labyrinth.
Cool Boat: Percy blatantly calls the Argo II the most incredible ship he's ever seen. Averted by the beat-up dinghy that constitutes the entire Roman navy.
Hazel: "I didn't even know we had a navy."
Cool Sword: Jason's Imperial Gold sword, which can also turn into a javelin- see Swiss Army Weapon. Sadly, it broke during the fight with Enceladus.
Crazy-Prepared: The Zhangs have an armory in their attic that's almost as well stocked as the one at Camp Jupiter. They have everything from swords, bows, arrows, spears, even potato launchers for taking out earthborn. It comes in handy. (Don't forget the water-hose on the roof!)
Creator Provincialism: Noticeable aversion in comparison to the first series. Instead of all America, all the time (with a few digs at Canada), Heroes of Olympus looks set to be much more international: a Chinese-Canadian main character (complete with an exceedingly rare tip of the hat to Canada's military) a book cover set against the Quebec City skyline, a climactic moment in British Columbia, and a quest that looks set to take the heroes back to the original Rome and Greece.
Crossover Cosmology: When meeting his dad for the first time in a dream, Leo exclaims, "Holy Mother!" Hephaestus chides him, "It's 'holy father', boy. I would think you'd know the difference."
Topped in The Son of Neptune by rainbow goddess Iris, who hasn't quite decided whether her personal creed should be...Buddhism or Taoism. Amusingly, Buddhism canonicaly sees nothing wrong with being a god and buddhist at the same time.
Iris, the Messenger goddess, is trapped in her store with an army of monsters, and Polybotes, outside. She throws a ding-dong at him.
Did Not Do the Research: The time that Vitellius lived in was around the death of the Republic, the only battle in which a Legion Eagle was taken was at the battle of Carrhae against the Parthians, not during a Jewish rebellion.
Averted. See the other wiki The Twelfth did lose it's eagle in the Jewish Revolt.
Doting Parent: I never thought I'd say this, but Mars to Frank. Compared to how Ares treated Clarisse, his Roman counterpart nearly rivals Percy's father.
Also, Hades/Pluto. Probably the most involved parent of all the gods.
Don't forget about Hephaestus. He really does care about Leo and Esperanza. If it were up to him, he'd actually visit all his kids.
That Mars would be much kinder than Ares makes sense in that Mars is a god of agriculture as much as a god of war, he's basically the badass sergeant to his more brutal greek counterpart.
Easy Amnesia: Zigzagged. Both Jason and Percy have their memories stolen by Hera/Juno, but get them back a few days after joining the other camp of demigods. Jason joins the Greeks almost immediately after waking up with amnesia, but only gets most of his memories back at first. The rest take presumably months to return. Percy wakes up with and spends roughly two months with only the faintest memory of Annabeth and little else, but gets all of his memory back pretty much all at once. While this is appropriate, as Jason needed time to learn to trust the Greeks while Percy’s Fatal Flawallowed him to trust the Romans quickly, YMMV as to whose amnesia was easier. Percy's memories returning quickly was also partly caused by his drinking gorgon's blood.
Annabeth and Frank got shafted on the elemental powers thing, though.
Eternal Recurrence: How many times do you think the Titans and giants will keep going after the Olympians?
Invoked with Monsters, which regenerate to be fought again, and with immortals, as they don't change (much). Addressed further in The Kane Chronicles, which share a universe.
Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Aphrodite apparently thinks so. Children of Aphrodite can speak and understand French. Why? Because it's the language of love, of course.
Subverted in Son of Neptune. Frank and Hazel try to talk to each other in French, but they’re pretty bad at it.
Hedge mentioned that "Fauns are Roman." Seeing as how Roman demigods are quite different from their Greek counterparts, it wouldn't be surprising if this was the case with other magical creatures.
Possibly justified. They could have indeed become more or less the same if people began to believe that they were with different names. In the first series, it was said that the Titans Helios and Selene faded after the Romans reassigned their duties over the sun and moon to Apollo and Artemis, so it's not unprecedented for them to have been blended them together into the same creature/species.
And as of Son Of Neptune, we've seen fauns, and they are, in fact, not the same as satyrs, to Percy's confusion.
Fire-Forged Friends: Played with. Leo and Piper think they've been friends with Jason for a while, but even when this is proven to be false, they're still tight from the time they have spent together.
Foreshadowing: When Reyna summons Percy to a private meeting with her in the principia, he sits in the other praetor's chair while waiting for her.
Though it's really in name only. Gaia isn't really angry at humans polluting the environment, she's angry at the Gods for killing the Titans. Destroying the gods and thus unmaking western civilization would have a similar effect, however.
And Gaea's powers appear to be more Earth based and less nature based: that was Pan's domain.
Genius Ditz: Quite a lot of characters, including Leo, Frank, Percy, and Ella.
Gentle Giant: In their native home, the Hyperborean giants are peaceful. Percy and Co. are still use one to help them escape from some griffins.
Much of Percy's intepreting for Arion consists of this.
In "The Lost Hero", it mentions that Drew dumped, "everything from the bathroom waste bin- some pretty nasty things- all over the floor".
Also, Pipers father says that he thinks " That Indian and Greek stuff is all bull "
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Jason has a little one on his lip from trying to eat a stapler when he was two. Lit, Midas' son and bodyguard is covered in them.
G-Rated Drug: Dakota, a son of Bacchus, is addicted to Kool-Aid.
Have You Seen My Gods: Olympus has been closed and the gods have gone MIA. Subverted. Even though Zeus ordered it, thinking it would lull Gaea back to sleep, several of the gods, thinking Zeus is making a mistake, have defied his orders. They had to do so covertly, however.
In The Son of Neptune he seems to have changed his mind (or bowed to the inevitability of the others meddling making the plan moot), allowing Mars to order a quest.
"Hell Yes" Moment: The Fifth cohort after Percy, Hazel, and Frank storm the defenders’ fortress during the war games. The entire legion, especially Reyna, when they pull a Big Damn Heroes during the invasion. Not to mention "TWELFTH LEGIONFULMINATA!"
Heroic Sacrifice: Percy is initially thought to have killed himself to take out a ghost army that threatened Hazel and Frank. Then, after defeating Alcyoneus, they go back to the glacier only to find Percy there, totally unperturbed at bringing a glacier down on himself.
Holding Hands: Percy and Reyna after they defeat the invasion and he gets promoted to praetor.
A House Divided: The Greeks and Romans need to ally themselves so they can defeat Gaea. Otherwise, they are SCREWED.
Human Popsicle: Quite a few, from those in Boreas' fortress and the Hunters for a short time during the battle at the Wolf House. Midas' "house guests" probably count, too.
It Belongs In A Museum: Piper initially believes this of the dagger she gets from Annabeth (it had once belonged to Helen of Troy). Annabeth tells her that they're surrounded by Ancient Greek stuff at camp, but weapons like that are the heritage of the demigods and are meant to be used.
The coffee shops were doing a brisk business, and street musicians filled the air with the sounds of guitar, lyre, panpipes, and armpit noises.
Late Arrival Spoiler: After taking most of The Lost Hero to be revealed, Gaea being the new Big Bad is spoiled in the first chapter of Son of Neptune.
Locked Out of the Loop: The gods, Chiron, and Lupa are keeping a big secret. The Lares of Camp Jupiter, too.
A bit of story hints is that Chiron never mentioned the Roman camp because he swore not to - chances are, Lupa wouldn't mention the Greek camp either.
Long Lost Relative/Everyone Is Related: Jason and Thalia have the same mother, as well as being kids of the same god (Jupiter/Zeus respectively) but in different aspects.
Hazel is Nico’s sister and Frank turns out to be a descendent of Poseidon, so Percy and Tyson adopt him as their brother.
Leo is related to Sammy Valdez, Hazel's boyfriend from back during World War 2—specifically, he seems to be the grandson or great-grandson.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: On a series level, not within the series. Apparently certain children of Hephaestus can wield fire and all children of Aphrodite have apparently always been able to speak French, and some can charm-speak people into doing what they want. Justified as it's stated that controlling fire and charmspeaking are ridiculously rare, though some fans still think Aphrodite's children speaking French came from left-field.
There was only one named camper from the Aphrodite cabin in the first series, and she was never in a situation where speaking French would have been remotely helpful. Combining that with the fact that Piper seemed honestly surprised she could speak it, and it's fairly justified.
It was also never really delved into in the first series just what powers were granted to each god's children, and they seem to vary quite a lot among themselves as well.
Official Couple: Played with as of Son of Neptune. Hazel and Frank share a kiss after defeating Alcyoneus, but we don’t know if they’re officially going out by the end.
Oh Crap: Alcyoneus after Frank and Hazel drag him into Canada. Polybotes when he realizes that Percy’s got a god on his side.
One-Man Army: It was mentioned that Greek Heroes are trained to handle things solo compared to the Romans who rely on military teamwork. Percy's fighting style is repeatedly mentioned to be un-Romanly because of this.
One Steve Limit: Averted; though it'd be very hard to confuse, Midas mentions his daughter being named Zoe (not to be confused with the first series' Zoë Nightshade).
There's also a Jason at Camp Half-Blood playing Capture the Flag in Titan's Curse.
Arguably, while she does have feelings for Jason, it may not have had anything to do with that— she simply Charmspoke his soul to keep it from going to Hades. Still technically fits the trope, since only children of Aphrodite, goddess of love, can do this...
It was revealed in the second book that the Doors Of Death are open and heroes can escape death for the same reason that monsters reform almost instantly. The Power of Love probably helped, but Gwen got back by herself, so...
Precision F-Strike: Except that the word "freaking" is used instead of the normal phrase. Going toe-to-toe against an ice goddess is definitely one of Leo's Crowning Moments Of Awesome.
Prophecy Twist: Spoofed by Mars in Son of Neptune. When asked by Octavian for a prophecy, a cryptic poem to guide the quest, Mars writes down the most bluntly straightforward prophecy ever with absolutely no ambiguity whatsoever.
Put on a Bus: As the series is an ensemble, focusing on several new characters as well as old ones, many of the main characters from the original Percy Jackson series take on secondary or cameo roles in the first two novels.
Raised by Wolves: Camp Jupiter, specifically by the wolf-goddess Lupa who raised Romulus and Remus
Real Men Wear Pink: Minor character Butch, a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. His mother is Iris, the Rainbow Goddess. Got a problem with that?
Rummage Fail: When facing off against Lycaon, a nervous Leo reaches into his tool belt for a weapon and initially grabs breath mints before hastily swopping them for a hammer. He hopes no one noticed. This is turned into a Brick Jokeseconds later when the perspective switches to Jason, and while evaluating his assets, he thinks about "Leo, who apparently thought he could defeat the armies of darkness with breath mints."
Sadistic Choice: In the second excerpt of Son of Neptune, "June" (Juno) tells Percy that he can endure suffering and tragedy and maybe save his friends, or live happily under the ocean while the world ends.
Also keeps with the History Repeats theme of the series, as Hercules/Heracles was offered essentially the same choice.
Several characters outright state that Percy’s gonna have to make another one sometime in the future, but likely won't be able to, due to his fatal flaw: loyalty to his friends above all else.
Save Your Deity: Jason, Piper, and Leo have to rescue Hera before the solstice.
Sealed Good in a Can: Percy was kept asleep by Juno for several months until the time was right for him to go to Camp Jupiter.
Hazel's time in the Underworld also qualifies.
Secret Test of Character: Percy thinks "June" is trying to put him through one in the beginning of Son of Neptune.
Hazel thinks it's a test too - she orders Frank not to fire, because she thought Percy was a god in disguise.
Self-Made Orphan: Subverted and very tragic. Leo killed his mother by accident after Gaea tricked him.
Hazel killed her mother and herself to stop Gaea from raising Alcyoneus back in 1942.
Seven Token Band: So far, the seven demigods of the prophecy include a Native American girl (Piper), a Latino (Leo), a Chinese-Canadian (Frank), a black girl (Hazel), and two white guys (Percy and Jason).
Particularly jarring when compared to the first series, where there were almost no minority characters. Makes some sense, as Rome was much more diverse then Ancient Greece.
Ship Tease: Percy and Reyna as well as Reyna and Jason. While she and Jason weren’t a couple, Reyna is shown to be fond of him. It's also fairly common for praetors to become romantically involved. Then Jason disappears for eight months and Percy becomes the new praetor.
There's a possible shout out to the show Charmed. The three main characters' names in the first book are Piper, Leo, and Jason, and one of Artemis's Huntresses is named Phoebe. While this might be a coincidence, if any of the other new demigods are named Paige, Prue, or Derek, we definitely have ourselves a major shout out.
Iris owns a shop with the acronym R.O.F.L whose workers are called ROFLcopters. Also when Leo is working on the warship, he complains about the samophlange.
The name "Perry" getting mentioned in the scene with Phineas.
Butch, the stable keeper at Camp Half-Blood, is a son of Iris, the Rainbow Goddess. He likes Pegasi. Remind you of anypony?
Not only that, but in Son of Neptune, Alcyoneus calls Arion a "little pony".
Piper is mentioned to have kaleidoscopic eyes.
There's a character called Gwen, who plays a major part in demonstrating that people can come back to life indefinitely. Perhaps coincidental, but it certainly reminds this troper of a couple characters in a certain TV series.
Shown Their Work: Rick Riordan has been around in real life, and used to be an editor for mythology books. And it shows.
He actually gets a lot of common misconceptions correct, such as how Thanatos is actually Death itself, and that Pluto was not just the lord of the underworld but also the god of wealth and the earth.
Steam Punk: Leo describes the Hephaestus cabin as steampunk. The term also applies to Festus.
Summon Bigger Fish: Summon Hyperborian giant, actually. (Or at least run underneath one.)
Summon Magic: Frank's godly parent gives him a spear tipped with a Dragon's Tooth that will regrow thrice. Breaking it off in the ground creates a zombie warrior roughly akin to the Terminator.
Swiss Army Weapon: Jason's weapon begins as a gold coin; a toss causes it to become an Imperial Gold sword or javelin on heads or tails respectively.
Taking You with Me: Averted. Hazel and Frank are afraid Percy’s done this to get rid of the Roman shades in Alcyoneus’ lair, but the readers know he’s fine because his water gifts will protect him from the fall.
Played straight during Hazel's first life, when she discovers she was being manipulated by Gaia into reviving Alcyoneus, the giant. She uses her powers as a daughter of Pluto to bring down the cave where the giant was forming, killing herself, her mother and effectively delaying the giant's revival for several decades.
Hannibal the elephant for Camp Jupiter as a whole.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: There is quite a bit of animosity between Hera and more than a few demigods, particularly Annabeth and Thalia, but as Piper points out, they will have to work together to beat the Giants and Gaia.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Lampshaded when Percy runs through traffic with "June" Juno in Son of Neptune, most of the drivers, "just swirved and looked irritated, as if they had to deal with a lot of ratty teenagers carrying old hippie women across the freeway." Its The Mist again.
Because the Senate wouldn't give you any eagles of course.
Because Percy hates to fly on anything that isn't a Pegasus. Zeus might kill him for trying it.
Walking Wasteland: Hazel's life gives off this vibe. Wherever she goes, cursed gems and gold emerge from the earth that could kill innocents who picked them up. Pluto seemed to imply that most of his children are like this to some extent, Hazel just takes it Up to Eleven.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: A couple fans interpreted Octavian sacrificing the stuffed panda as a symbol for the death of the Greek and Roman rivalry, thinking the panda’s black and white coat symbolized the divide between both camps. This never comes up again and isn’t implied to mean anything else other than to be Played for Laughs.
White Male Lead: Subverted in Son of Neptune - Frank is the official leader of the quest.
Window Love: Piper and her father after he's lost his memory do this through a video chat, with their hands touching on "opposite sides" of the computer screen. Your Mileage May Vary on whether this is possible, considering for this actually to work they'd have to put their fingers on the camera...
The Windy City: Although Riordan doesn't seem to realize that Chicago is called the "Windy City" because of blustering politicians, not the weather. It is windy, though. Especially in the winter, when it's also freezing cold. Also, perceptions are important in this series, so if people think that Chicago is literally windy, that's where the Wind will go.
With This Herring: The only formal aid the Roman Senate gives Percy, Frank, and Hazel on their quest to save Camp Jupiter in Son Of Neptune is the piece-of-crap dinghy that sinks outside of Seattle.
A Worldwide Punomenon: Riordan being Riordan, almost as frequent as snarking. Special mention goes to Lupa, directed to Jason: "As always, you are our saving Grace."
Worf Effect: The Giants. Despite being stated to be the greatest threat Olympus has ever faced and three revealed being so far created as direct counters to the most powerful Olympians they have all be defeated fairly easily. Possibly justified in Porpheryion at least was not at full power. That and Percy is just that badass, so a villainous example of Overshadowed by Awesome?
Wrench Wench: Leo's mom and his half-sister Nyssa.
.The third book in the series, to be titled The Mark of Athena, is slated for October 2, 2012. However, a sneak peek of the first chapter was read aloud by Riordan while on tour for a different book. Video of the reading can be found here
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