maverickk

I hate this section in Mark of Athena with such a passion, it’s insane.

And not because Piper described Percy as unimpressive in comparison to Jason.

I actually think that this could be a pretty cool angle and starting point of their relationship.

It could have introduced a theme about reputation and the difference between stories told about Percy, and the person he actually is, which Piper and Jason, as the daughter of a famous actor, and the praetor son of Jupiter respectively, could relate to especially well.

It could have led to character growth on Piper’s part, to an incredibly fun and warm dynamic between her, Jason and Percy, and it could have turned them into a really cool trio in Mark of Athena.

Calling Percy initially unimpressive also feeds into the narrative in PJO where Percy is a rather unconventional hero (abusive childhood, poor, victim of bullying and ostracism, and (for me) highly implied to be a POC), and creates a really fun contrast between him and Jason, who is often seen as the golden boy, and perfect hero.

So I don't hate this section, because Piper calls Percy unimpressive.

I hate this section because such a large part of Piper’s character, especially in the Lost Hero, revolves around how much she hates getting reduced to and judged by her appearance and yet she does the exact same thing to Percy.

Especially in these two parts:

If she’d seen him in the mall somewhere, she probably would’ve thought he was a skater—cute in a scruffy way, a little on the wild side, definitely a troublemaker. She would have steered clear. She had enough trouble.

She could definitely see why Percy needed Annabeth in his life. If anybody could keep a guy like that under control, it was Annabeth.

And yes, she also judged the Aphrodite cabin in The Lost Hero. But I would argue that her low opinion of the Aphrodite cabin and Aphrodite in general got challenged in that book and that her Hypocrisy was treated as a character flaw Piper eventually overcame after she had met her mother and after she had become councillor of the Aphrodite cabin. (Even if that arc wasn’t really written that particularly well in my opinion. But at least the idea was there.)

But it isn’t portrayed as a flaw in this book. The narrative never really challenges Piper’s view of Percy or creates a meaningful moment between them, where Piper realizes that she was wrong about him.  

So, to see Piper judge Percy like that only based on his appearance when he has been nothing but nice to her up until this point is so annoying:

Percy was the first to notice her. He smiled in greeting, which for some reason surprised Piper. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 10, Piper)

Grover: The problem with Grover is the empathy link killing Percy, too. Assuming we don't also want to kill off apercy, that means it has to be during tLF. The best option there, I think, would be Grover taking a hit for Percy during the fight with Ares. Mostly, it would be butterfly effects of Grover being dead, but it would definitely fuck up Percy to see his best friend be killed in front of him at 12. If we're ignoring the empathy link though, having Grover die somehow when Pan does could be really interesting, although it would make the environmental protection metaphor even bleaker.

Sally: The problem with killing off Sally is that it would be very hard to do without it being a "fridging" incident for Percy. To avoid that, she'd probably have to die when Percy is very young. I wouldn't kill Sally, but what if she used a somewhat less magical weapon on Gabe and went to prison for it?

Clarisse: You could have her die or disappear in the Labyrinth, but I think if you were gonna kill off Clarisse it would have to be after slaying the drakon in tLO to further the Achilles parallel. Make it clear she's fighting with no regard for her own safety.

Nico: The most narratively interesting place to kill Nico is in the jar. Have the remaining 5 feel like Rome was an incredibly phyrric victory, have Hazel blame the people who were more cautious about Nico even though it wouldn't have changed anything.

Thalia: Thalia is usually an accompanying character in someone else's story, so again, it's very hard to kill her without it being fridging. My best suggestion would be to have her die when lightning hits their car on Mount Othrys or when she fights Luke there. Then at least the focus would be less on "Thalia's dead" and more on "Zeus/Luke killed someonethey claimedtocare about" but it would still be making her death all about a man.

Jason: Kill Jason off at the Wolf House and have Thalia take his place in the Seven. Yes it would be genderswapped fridging for Thalia, but it would also impact Piper and Leo and ruin Juno's plan.

Piper: Have Terminus kill her for trying to charmspeak him. No, sorry, gut reaction there. The best way to kill her would probably be for it to be tied to her dad being kidnapped but tbh I barely remember anything about that storyline. Actually, maybe it should be the Romans...

Leo: The Gaea fight but make it real. Have some fucking stakes, Rick.

Frank: Have his stick burn out freeing Thanatos. Percy and Hazel feel like they've failed, and Percy's success isn't so absolute that Rome gives him the leeway they did in canon.

Hazel: Thanatos taking Hazel back when he's freed, or if Rick really wants to double down on every God not named Poseidon, Artemis, or Apollo sucking, have Hades/Pluto take her back after Gaea's been defeated because her purpose has been fulfilled.

the therapy:

Not only would you avoid having a virgin goddess being utterly disrespected for no good reason, but it would justify way better why people constantly underestimate Annabeth. Because, oh dear, do Aphrodite's sons and daughters get dragged through the mud in these series!

Annabeth being a child of Aphrodite would be a ruthless situation to be in at first; she would more often than not be judged on her looks rather than her wits.

In Rick's very nature-deterministic world where the Dionysus kids will hand you energy juice bottles while all the Ares kids are on the frontline and all the Apollo kids are archers and/or medics, Annabeth Chase would be expected to sit nice and look pretty and break some hearts and maybe fix other campers' armors.

And she'd understandably hate the idea.

Annabeth would attempt to deny and escape her parentage, such as by avoiding her siblings or trying way too hard to make an impression on Athena. She'd despise pink and femininity, just like Uncle Rick did with all of his other main female characters, because there's only one way to be a likeable girl and it's by not wearing any makeup and not trying 'too hard'.

Annabeth's pride, which she would take after Aphrodite's, would have her deliberately avoid learning about the numerous myths relating to her mother, and that could prove dangerous in missions.

Then she would learn to embrace her divine parentage. She'd stop running away from the parts of herself that society had conditioned her to hate, she'd learn about the actual Aphrodite, about her mother's cunning and bravery which has her not think twice before thrusting herself into a decade-long war, about how feared she was even on Olympus.

Annabeth would learn to let her heart lead her on, as she'd realise how remarkably good of a compass it can be when the entire world seems dark and hopeless.

It would also be far more powerful message than what we're currently working with.