I suffer from severe imposter syndrome

I literally cant detach myself from that series. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is and forever will be my number one, but god I love HoO so fucking much.

I understand that it is one of Ricks weakest series. Its got a lot of issues and problems. The story struggles a lot and some of the books are pretty bad.

*Spoilers for the Burning Maze ahead*

Jason has one of the most tragic stories in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. The boy was stripped from his family at age two as a gift to Juno. He was then raised by wolves and trained as a child soldier. Then he gets ripped from the only home he has ever known, his memories stripped, and then placed with people who have a false idea of who he is.

But its OK! He gets a chance at a second home, a girlfriend, a best friend, his sister back, and memories begin to come back.

Then he gets thrown back into a long quest but he finally gets the chance to return home to Camp Jupiter. Almost immediately the camp gets fired on by a possessed Leo and he is declared an enemy.

He gets thrown into a leader position yet again, only to be pit against another powerful demigod. Not to mention he is repeatedly knocked unconscious, making him feel weak. He gets stabbed and almost dies. And then the cherry on top, he loses his best friend.

Then, once everything is returned to normal, he has a job as he dedicated his life to ensuring the minor gods are venerated. His best friend comes back, but they can’t find him. His girlfriend dumps him. And he ends up alone at a school in Southern California.

But its fine, because he makes a life for himself. He is happy enough and content with his life.

And then he fucking dies.

He never got to see his best friend again. He died having never found a true home. He died as a product of a gods quest. He died a pawn of Hera. He died after once again having devoted himself to the gods, who never thanked or repaid him.

I think about this moment all the time. Annabeth insists on listening to the sirens, because of course she does. After she escapes, Percy manages to catch her and when he does, he is able to see her vision. In it, Fredrick Chase, Athena, and Luke welcome Annabeth into a redesigned New York, one that Annabeth herself presumably designed. It was grander than Mount Olympus.

But while everything in this new world was seemingly perfect, it was missing one thing. It didn’t feature her best friend, Percy Jackson. But there is a specific reason for this.

Its because Percy didn’t need fixing.

Everything in Annabeth’s vision was something that was broken in her life. Her relationship with her parents, their relationship with each other, Luke’s betrayal, and the world as a whole being rife with homeless and war. Each of the pieces of her vision were broken.

And Annabeth was the one to fix them. Her perfect world featured all of the broken pieces of her life fixed. But Percy wasn’t there,

Because Percy didn’t need fixing

Annabeth didn’t see Percy as broken, so she didn’t feel as if he needed fixing. He was really the one stable piece of her life, her best friend, and he didn’t need fixing.

She truly loved him enough that even her fatal flaw of hubris couldn’t touch him.

That is why Percy Jackson wasn’t in Annabeth Chase’s vision. Not because she didn’t see him as an important part of her life, but because he didn’t need fixing.