do u think Nico is more powerful or Percy? cuz it's been a debate in the fandom for a long time and u discuss both Nico and Percy in ur posts so what is ur opinion??
THIS is a really good question.
Before starting this analysis I would like to remember you all that even tho I bias Nico heavily (he is my ult favorite character ever),I'm actually pretty objective when it came to him and Percy level of powers. I mostly blame the writing of the power-scaling (I already discussed about this in another post) and Rick's decision to give them certain powers. But I already yapped enough about this,let's move on with the actual question.
We need to consider a couple of things when we talk about Percy and Nico powers and how people perceives them.
They are Big Three children,so they will always be extremely powerful in their own rights and elements.
They are on a whole different League when it cames to demigods's nature,so they will always be more powerful and skilled than any other demigod,since they are superior in their nature.
They both have self-esteem issues that doesn't give them the full vision of how much powerful they really are.
Those are factors that are involved in the narrative,because outside of it there are other things to take in consideration,but we will talk about them later.
First thing first,they are both sons of the greeks Big Three Gods. There are already singled out from having a normal demigod standard experience by just their fathers. The Greek pantheon is much older than the Roman one,since Ancient Greece's time was between 1000 a.C. and 146 a.C.,when the Romans conquered the territory. So,this put Nico,Thalia and Percy on their own league that's even different from Hazel and Jason levels,because their source of power is more ancient than the roman's one. They are also more in tune with their powers too and can use them in some versatile way,especially Nico. So,we start at the base that Percy and Nico are extremely powerful by default.
Then we have their differences with the other demigods and how normal demigods see them. As I stated before,since they are children of the Elders Gods,they are the most powerful ones. No ifs,no buts and no "but what about-". No,it doesn't matter who,it will always be them,there is no one else who can reach their levels of power. It's like a default starting. Every demigods can be powerful in their own right,especially if they put effort in it,but they will always be seconds to children of the Big Three no matter how good they try. Cue the campers view of them. There is a pattern here we need to follow: Percy forced isolation after Poseidon claimed him; Thalia being put under pression after she come back from being a vegetable,leading to her feeling alone on her own; Nico's mistreatment by everyone and his isolation being a direct consequences of both CHB and Bianca. You think that's a coincidence that every child of the Big Three got mistreatment? No. It isn't. Campers put too many pressure on them since they are the most powerful ones. Their fathers are leaders in their own domains (and Zeus being literally the King of the Gods),so they expect the same from them. But that aspect is more a roman thing,here is more about how irresponsable everyone is when it cames to fix a situation,and probably a bit of envy too since they will never match their abilities.
Percy and Nico view of themselves doesn't help in this case. They recognize the other as a powerful individual,but they don't see themselves as powerful too. Like,if you ask Percy who is the more powerful person between him and Annabeth,the dude is capable of saying Annabeth when she has no powers at all (her brain doesn't count,everyone have that). And for Nico? We are talking about a guy that doesn't see value in living,you think he has a good analysis skill for his own power? That guy barely think he is powerful. That's why they are both unreliable narrators. And while we as readers should know how much powerful they are,their PoVs can alterate this conception. Yes,I'm talking about people that are like "But Percy/Nico said that X character was more [insert something positive] than him" when it came to prove something. Percy and Nico narratives aren't good ones to hold on when we needs to confirm power levels.
Now,I said all of this because at the end of MoA,Nico told the Seven that Percy is the most powerful demigod he knew. That's canon nd something that has been said by everyone that met him. Canonically Percy Jackson is the most powerful demigod of the modern century.
We needs to take in consideration that Nico's powers usually are steps ahead of Percy's,and are more versatile and development than his. Nico himself has more endurance than Percy (maybe not physical,but 100% mental) and that's canon too.
What I'm trying to say is that while Percy strength is in the raw force of his powers,Nico strength lies in the versatility of its powers.
For the books' plots to work they need Nico to actually be more powerful and acknowledged than Percy,since most of the times it's him that take the initiative to save the day. He helped Percy out in the Labyrinth,he helped him escape from Kronus outing himself to their enemy,he found out about Luke living situation,he made a plan to give Percy indestructibility,went out of his way to help him win the war and fighting Kronos with a dead army,brought Hazel back to life,traveled thought Tartarus to find the doors,helped them to travel to their destination,got the scepter from Cupid (fuck him),was the Seven trivia and guide in the second-half of their quest,gave them informations about things they needed to know,actively taking part into fights while extremely weak but could still use his powers (HOW?),took the statue with him and took the weight of helping the Seven to save the world,fought during the travel,turned Bryce into a ghost,summoned a couple of skeletons and zombies,put mortals to sleep and still continued to fight once arrived at camp.
I would like to focus on the "statue point". Nico's travel with the statue is talked about a lot but I never saw the full thought behind what was really happening here. Nico di Angelo wasn't recovered yet from his captivity and was still in an extremely bad shape when he starte his travel. He had to transport the Athena Parthenos,that already had a lot of ancient magic inside,with 2 other people. And it takes a lot of strength for doing this. And if we consider all the things that went down on their trip..... it's really impressive how Nico got that far in his physical condition,before Hedge brought him help. He needed to draw on a lot of powers to accomplish this mission. And he did,while still able to function well enough,and be able to use some of the minor abilities he has.
Nico is extremely powerful,and even tho canonically Percy is in the first place of the classification,the books needs Nico to be more powerful than Percy. So,outside of the narrative,Nico is more powerful.
They are both the most powerful one if we look at the same situation but from a different angle,and all of this if we only focus on the BOOKS NARRATIVE.
Now,if we take an outside look and focus on the writing: Nico is more powerful than Percy with the way his powers operate.
Death is everywhere and part of everyone,it touch and reach whatever you want it to have. It's a universal event. Only for this reason he should be more powerful than Percy. He can instant kill with just a touch or a command,or even trap someone's soul in his sword if he feel like it. That's OP and it's only a little part of things he is able to do.
Pawer-scaling here is a mess because Riordan has the format of "MC is the most powerful character ever" while he adds more and more to Nico's powers. I made a post where I talked about this more in the details,so I won't delve thet much here.
We all know that Riordan favor Percy in any way possible and made him extremely powerful. While I don't mind him having control over poisons (still liquids so it's totally fair) I don't like how he can controll the Underworld Rivers,since they are in the Underworld,Hades's domain. But that's something more about my preference,really.
Other than making Percy OP he also made sure every other child of the Big Three (this times the romans too) couldn't stand out to him. That's the whole reason Jason is this way and Nico has so many downsides in the use of his powers. But even with this,Riordan himself added more and more to Nico's powers,things so unique that even Percy can't do. Which I never understood since he both add and subtract to Nico's powers levels. Riordan can be really weird and indecisive with him,one moment he is bashing someone in the Underworld,the next he is dying in the sun. He needs to decide.
So,we actually have 2 ways to see this:
Canonically Percy Jackson is the most powerful demigod of this century;
Narratively (and outside of it) Nico di Angelo is the most powerful demigod of this time;
And strange enough (knowing Riordan favoritism it is strange),Nico is also the most powerful one when it came to Riordan's writing.
But of course,we need to remember they are BOTH extremely powerful for everyone else in the Riordanverse too,in their own ways.
Now,if only Rick could finally stop nerfing Nico and making Percy not appear as an idiot.....
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