azael

also sets up luke's redemption better! abt someone doing awful things but yk changing their mind once something personal happens to them lmfao and they realize they've been used (luke realizing he's gone too far for kronos because he doesn't want to be possessed. very selfish reasons to want to change sides but they do!)

a big part of ttc is percy convincing thalia that her father does love her in his own way like poseidon loves him distantly, and zeus isn't meant to be like completely evil the way kronos is—to show why the olympians are a better option even though they do suck. like he’s the king of olympus he needs some redeeming actions for percy and thalia to want to fight for him! because they do

obviously you can say that thalia chooses neither at the end but artemis is still an olympian, another zeus child, who clearly fights for zeus and especially at the battle of manhattan, so I feel like zeus saving her helps shape thalia's complex feelings of disdain that her father sucks but he obviously cares somewhat. that her father broke his own strict rules of no interference and saved a bunch of campers in the process.

also don't like that hades didn't kill her. villanizing just zeus makes the story more boring i think! hades is still an angry, bitter big three god and I really like how complex rick had made him in the books!! zeus had killed his lover and tried to do the same with his kids, so hades tries to kill zeus' kid too. it's all about the cycle and how shitty the family is to each other. it makes how percy tries to end that by giving hades a throne on olympus and nulling the river styx vow at the end of tlo that much more impactful!

she's been training to fight since she was 7 years old! and continued training and spending more time for years to come! she's as good/better of a fighter than percy from all that time and training! especially since she was likely trained by luke. she's the daughter of a war goddess!

like look at this scene??

(sorry ik this is my unused blog just ignore that)