Something to be said about how all three of Poseidon's sons we meet in the first saga are extremely devoted to him.
This gets extremely obvious in chapter two of The Last Olympian, when Oceanus is attacking Atlantis and Percy, Tyson and Triton are just... dying to fight in a war and risk their lives to help Poseidon.
Actually, I find it extremely interesting how the three of them seem to look at this as almost a favor - or a gift, an opportunity - Poseidon would be giving them, instead of a favor they would be doing to him. They see it as a show of trust.
Look, let me pull some passages
At the edge of the palace complex, a temple with a red coral roof exploded, sending fire and debris streaming in slow motion across the farthest gardens. Out of the darkness above, an enormous form appeared—a squid larger than any skyscraper. It was surrounded by a glittering cloud of dust—at least I thought it was dust, until I realized it was a swarm of mermen trying to attack the monster. The squid descended on the palace and swatted its tentacles, smashing a whole column of warriors. Then a brilliant arc of blue light shot from the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings. The light hit the giant squid, and the monster dissolved like food coloring in water.
"Daddy," Tyson said, pointing to where the light had come from.
"He did that?" I suddenly felt more hopeful. My dad had unbelievable powers. He was the god of the sea. He could deal with this attack, right? Maybe he'd let me help.
"Have you been in the fight?" I asked Tyson in awe. "Like bashing heads with your awesome Cyclops strength and stuff?"
Tyson pouted, and immediately I knew I'd asked a bad question, "I have been . . . fixing weapons," he mumbled. "Come. Let's go find Daddy."
Tyson wants really badly to fight, which to be fair, is pretty understandable. This is not only his father's kingdom, but he also lives there, and he sees the impacts the war is having on everyone. Poseidon has also done things for him before (not much, some would argue but): he "sent" percy to him when he asked for help, claimed him when he got to camp, offered him the opportunity to work in the forges, sent him to camp in the summer of tbotl to keep him away from the war, and seems to be pretty nice to him every time we see them interact. You can easily get why Tyson would be attached to Poseidon and would want to do anything he can to help him, especially considering he is seeing how Atlantis' destruction is wearing on his father.
"(...) and this is my son Triton. Er, my other son."
"Your son and heir," the green dude corrected. His double fish tails swished back and forth. He smiled at me, but there was no friendliness in his eyes. "Hello, Perseus Jackson. Come to help at last?"
He acted like I was late or lazy. If you can blush underwater, I probably did.
"Tell me what to do," I said.
Triton smiled like that was a cute suggestion—like I was a slightly amusing dog that had barked for him or something. He turned to Poseidon. "I will see to the front line, Father. Don't worry. I will not fail."
Okay, first of all I wanna point out how just before this scene, Percy says, "I'd only seen my dad four or five times in my life, and never for more than a few minutes." And now we have him feeling ashamed for not coming sooner to fight in his father's war, and being willing to do anything they ask of him - like, he just got out of an explosion, was shot in the leg and wounded by kronos scythe, FIGHTING AGAINST ONE OF THE GODS BIGGETS ENEMIES, MIND YOU, and yet I know for a fact if Triton had told him to go try beating Oceanus by himself, and if Poseidon had allowed it, he would have done it, yk?
A different character might have felt angry at being called out like this for not helping Poseidon with Oceanus when he is already the one who's leading the demigods against the bigger threat (who's the reason why Oceanus is even attacking them to begin with). But Triton's jab works. Percy does feel like he's not doing everything he could or should be doing for Poseidon. Like, do you get how insane this is?? He really feels like he should be doing more for the guy.
Do you get how good Poseidon's PR work was with Percy? In the first book Percy was seething bc this dude abandoned him and his mom for 12 years and then only claimed Percy to get him to clear his name, and now he is getting red in the face bc his big brother he didn't know he had until this moment is implying he's a bad son for not showing up unannounced to the palace he has never been invited to before to fight in this war instead of the other war he's usually fighting in also on behalf of their father.
These people are insane. The fact that Triton knew this jab would work? The fact that he is proud to be fighting on the front lines, the fact that he sees this as an opportunity to make his dad proud, the way he knew the fact that he got to do this would make Percy feel inferior and jealous? *chef's kiss*
A shadow passed over my father's face. "You've had enough sorrow for one day. Ask Chiron when you return to camp."
"Return to camp? But you're in trouble here. I want to help!"
"You can't, Percy. Your job is elsewhere."
I couldn't believe I was hearing this. I looked at Tyson for backup.
My brother chewed his lip. "Daddy . . . Percy can fight with a sword. He is good."
"I know that," Poseidon said gently.
"Dad, I can help," I said. "I know I can. You're not going to hold out here much longer."
A fireball launched into the sky from behind the enemy lines. I thought Poseidon would deflect it or something, but it landed on the outer corner of the yard and exploded, sending mermen tumbling through the water. Poseidon winced as if he'd just been stabbed.
"Return to camp," he insisted. "And tell Chiron it is time."
"For what?"
"You must hear the prophecy. The entire prophecy."
I didn't need to ask him which prophecy. I'd been hearing about the "Great Prophecy" for years, but nobody would ever tell me the whole thing. All I knew was that I was supposed to make a decision that would decide the fate of the world—but no pressure.
"What if this is the decision?" I said. "Staying here to fight, or leaving? What if I leave and you . . ."
I couldn't say die. Gods weren't supposed to die, but I'd seen it happen. Even if they didn't die, they could be reduced to nearly nothing, exiled, imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus like Kronos had been.
A lot is said about how Poseidon calls Percy his favorite son, but Percy is actually an insanely devoted son considering how little Poseidon has shown up in his life. Can you really be surprised Poseidon is so fond of him?
Again, to be fair to Poseidon, his interactions with Percy are nice. Like, yeah, the first one was him saying he regretted Percy's existence but by now Percy gets where he was coming from. And in this conversation, Poseidon did a pretty good job at trying to console Percy about Beckendorf dying and the demigods that he probably killed in the Princess Andromeda (it was unsuccessful but the effort was there). Poseidon is chill; he's always cool when he shows up. But yk, as Percy pointed out before, he rarely ever shows up. So you really gotta give it to him, he really must have the charisma of a billion suns.
Tyson gripped my hand desperately. "I will miss you, brother!"
Watching us, our father seemed to age another ten years. "Tyson, you have work to do as well, my son. They need you in the armory."
Tyson pouted some more.
"I will go," he sniffled. He hugged me so hard he almost cracked my ribs. "Percy, be careful! Do not let monsters kill you dead!"
I tried to nod confidently, but it was too much for the big guy. He sobbed and swam away toward the armory, where his cousins were fixing spears and swords.
"You should let him fight," I told my father. "He hates being stuck in the armory. Can't you tell?"
Poseidon shook his head. "It is bad enough I must send you into danger. Tyson is too young. I must protect him."
"You should trust him," I said. "Not try to protect him."
These three are making me insane, I swear. What I like about all of these interactions is the way they get each other and kind of enable each other. They act towards each other in ways they wouldn't with anyone who wasn't their siblings in any context that didn't involve their dad. Like Percy arguing with Poseidon that he should let Tyson fight - if Tyson were sad about not going to some other war and anyone other than Poseidon was trying to keep him safe in the forges, Percy would just say "thank you so very much" and try to convince Tyson it was not so bad. It's only bc it's their father that Percy gets how important this is for Tyson, and it's only bc it's their father that Percy sees Poseidon trying to keep him safe as a bad thing.
Same with Tyson. He loves Percy, he thinks Percy is the coolest person to ever exist, but he's also very protective of Percy - he wouldn't try to convince someone to put Percy in danger, especially considering he is far more familiar with how dangerous this war is, if it wasn't Poseidon.
Same goes for Triton's jabs at Percy - he knows they'll work bc they're all on the same page. He probably feels jealous of Percy for getting to risk his little mortal life in all of these missions.
And look, I get it. This dynamic is recurring amongst the children of the gods - they all wanna make their absent parents proud, they all think the only way to do this is through big feats such as going on missions or fighting wars. Still. Most of the demigods we see are like this bc a) they wanna get claimed or b) they never met their olympian parents and want to get their attention and this is the only way they know how. And most of them grow up to feel pretty bitter about this as well.
What I find interesting is how these three are like this - when they don't actually need to be.
Poseidon loves Tyson. I think he's most affectionate with him out of the three (mostly bc Tyson is also the most comfortable with him). Tyson's work for him in the forges is also important - even Triton seems to respect him for it, and never criticizes Tyson for not being on the front lines with him. And yet, Tyson still wants to do more than he already does - and he's already doing much for him in this war!
Same thing with Percy. He knows Poseidon is much more present and supportive than all the other gods - he has met him more than a few times, Poseidon has helped him on his missions before, he showed up on his last birthday, gave him a gift, hugged him that one time, told him he was his favorite son - and Percy is the fucking child of the prophecy! He's already the greatest hero of his generation! He's about to go to war with Kronos to save all the gods, including Poseidon!
And I can't speak much of the relationship between Poseidon and Triton, but he is his heir, he's leading Poseidon's army, he's with the guy all the time, and he helps him rule his kingdom.
And most importantly, Poseidon is not asking them to do more than they are already doing! He's actually doing his best to tell them he appreciates them and the things they do for him, and he's constantly saying "actually I would like all of my children to stay as safe as possible if it's not too much to ask".
Yet all of them want to do more! They're dying for Poseidon to ask them to do more! They're shaking in their boots at the prospect of failing him! They think him asking one of them to go do dangerous stuff in his name it's an honour! One would think Triton would get over it after living a thousand years with the guy (he has not), or Tyson would be more normal about it bc Poseidon is so affectionate with him as never asked him to do anything for him in exhange for his affection (he's not) or Percy would see how absurd this is bc he has been doing stuff for the gods since he was 12 and has an amazing mortal parent and even an amazing stepdad who do much more for him than Poseidon (he does not see how absurd this is).
They are the "let's ask dad if he wants us to kill something for him. Please dad let us kill something for you" brothers.
Like I feel like with the way Poseidon acts, most children of the gods would become more normal about this kind of stuff.
Not Poseidon's kids tho. They seem to get worse the nicer he is to them. Who would've thought?
