No Net Ensnares Me

*swings bat into the wall* THE "LIGHTNING THIEF" BOOK EXPLICITLY STATES THAT ZEUS DID IT OUT OF PITY AND TO SAVE HER

*slams chair into the floor* THE TV SHOW WANTS US TO LIKE THE (male) GODS SOOO BAD AND "OH THEY'RE TRYING THEY'RE BEST" AND "OHH THEY'RE ACTUALLY NOT THAT BAD"

AND THEN WHEN THERE'S A MOMENT WHERE ONE OF THEM SHOWS HUMANITY, THEY CHANGE IT AND MAKE IT INTO A PUNISHMENT????

THIS MIGHT BE WORSE THAN THE TRIO MISSING THE DEADLINE IN SEASON ONE!!!

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS FUCKING SHOW????

The original PJO gods are flawed, if they weren’t the plot wouldn’t exist, but they still generally cared for their kids, but they can’t interfere directly so it’s harder for them to show it. Athena gave Annabeth her cap and guided her towards Luke and Thalia, Poseidon got the Nereid to help Percy on his quest, Zeus refused to kill Thalia and sent the eagles to help her on her quest etc. They weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imaginations but they also weren’t figures who actively put their children in danger, such as Athena letting Echidna into her temple.

Zeus in the original PJO books cared for Thalia. We know he was around in her childhood until the age of seven, as she talks about the effects he had on Beryl after he left for good, meaning that they likely had a closer bond then most gods have with their children, even if he wasn’t around all the time due to Hera and the Oath of the Big Three, but he was still there. He also refuses let her die twice: once when Hades was trying to engineer her death and again in TTC, he refuses to kill her when the rest of the Olympian council was debating whether or not to kill her and Percy.

Now in the show, he goes from that to trying to kill Thalia. I get Rick wants to make Luke more sympathetic earlier on, which I don’t mind because Annabeth defending him in Battle of the Labyrinth after he actively tried to kill her and Percy a few months and after his speech about driving humanity back to the caves always felt like an odd choice, and an easy way to do is to make the gods worse, but then you have to explain why Percy and Annabeth continue to fight for Olympus despite everything they’ve gone through, and why they’re only reformists instead of revolutionaries