the dream sequences that percy experiences in tlt are integral to the series because they immediately connect percy to his father & family. in these dreams we are given symbolic and literal imagery of zeus and poseidon fighting and being, unknowingly, influenced by kronos. so that oppressiveness isn’t known to them but is being directly depicted to percy who, both times, is panicked, upset and scared by this imagery and basically sense kronos’ presence there. by showing him these dreams, kronos instills this fear of himself into percy, who is affected by the idea of his father in trouble. and what’s funny is, percy’s fear doesn’t manifest that strongly. he brings kronos up to poseidon at the end of tlt, but poseidon then says zeus has barred them from discussing kronos. so really, it is the gods who are aware and scared of kronos. percy experiences the fear of his father who, in the dreams being nearly infantilized, is a son being manipulated by his own father, and unable to stop it

i keep coming across the sentiment in the pjo fanbase that the tv show altering thalia’s sacrifice is a better choice because it shows zeus is a villain & did not show a preference towards either of his children but of course i hate that, because i feel it reduces the text rather than adds. we shouldn’t want to show zeus has no preference, we should be asking what changed between thalia’s death and jason’s for zeus to regard his children with such disdain

thinking so hard about percy’s single mother era... him taking nico under his wing and trying his best to look out for him yes yes yes but also nico mouthing off to him and percy reprimanding him and calling after him “that mouth of yours is gonna get you into trouble!!” and then just pausing for a second and reflecting before nodding and sighing heavily to himself and muttering “i need to apologize to my mother.”

percy visiting olympus but not to visit the gods. literally just to get inside the throne room and play with bessie. pulling water from his tank to make floating water pools for bessie to jump through. zeus coming to the throne room like hours later and he happens to glance in the corner and see bessie and percy curled up together in the tank, sleeping peacefully against one another