nobody

hey did you guys know its the pines twins’ 23rd birthday today? I had no idea.

anyway, here’s a thing I’ve been working on for a while. This was originally supposed to be for the show’s 10th anniversary back in June, but I definitely didn’t anticipate how long it’d take and had to push it back to the end of August. It feels like an appropriate way to send off the summer :]

ps: as per gf tradition, there’s a hidden message along the first 10 pages

jason was obvs intended to be percy’s foil (and apparently the main protag of hoo?). whether or not rick pulled it off is subjective but NARRATIVELY i think jason is a much better foil to nico bc percy is on another level lbr. jason isn’t a good foil for percy because jason doesnt have anything percy WANTS. percy has everything he could possibly want. he has annabeth and his mom and their growing family. the only thing percy wants at this point — what he’s always wanted —is to be a normal teenager, free from the gods and their schemes. percy only does what he does in HOO because hera put him there. hes there bc he HAS to be. jason on the other hand would probably do everything even without hera’s brainwashing bc he’s chained by his sense of duty and justice. as a soldier, as a roman, as the son of Jupiter. percy comes off as static in HOO because he doesnt have a real purpose there ? neither does annabeth imo. they dont have real arcs.

nico and jason on the other hand… THEIR ARCS ARE PERFECT PARALLELS OF EACH OTHER. ‘Nico had talked about not belonging anywhere. At least Nico was free of attachments. He could go wherever he chose.’, putting my entire fist in my mouth rn cuz this is a canon quote (hoh, jason LVIII). the epitome of roman masculinity, the Golden Boy, vs the outcast that is literally cloaked in darkness. the top of the demigod ladder vs the bottom. jason was groomed to be this perfect model leader but throughout heroes of olympus he’s incapacitated and knocked out and rendered useless, numerous times. meanwhile nico is underestimated and scorned yet he’s vital to not one but TWO wars, and he’s also capable as hell. like he survives TARTARUS on his own. he survives captivity. he’s outed by a love god to someone he barely considers an acquaintance. he leads a group of STRANGERS to the house of hades. he brings a huge fucking statue across the globe and earns the respect of a roman praetor.

ITS JUST SO INTERESTING HOW EACH OF THEM HAS WHAT THE OTHER COVETS SO DESPERATELY. jason has physical perfection and acceptance by his peers, but he lacks direction and purpose. nico lacks the former, but he knows who he is, though he dislikes—even reviles—who that person is. nico knows his place and when/where he’s needed. nico has a family but jason doesnt. nico has hades’ love and, for a time, the love of his mother. jason has neither. zeus never gave two shits about jason. he pledged jason to hera before he was even born to placate her. the only ‘mothers’ jason had were an alcoholic starlet fallen from grace, a harsh wolf goddess who trained him to be a child soldier before he could even read, and his patron goddess who manipulates him to her own end. both of their older sisters joined the hunters — and while bianca did it to be rid of nico, i bet a million dollars that if thalia knew jason was alive during TTC, she wouldve become the prophecy kid if it meant she could be with him. nico  has hazel who cares for and defends him. he can see her whenever he wants. jason sees thalia like once a year. nico has the strength to scorn those who scorn him right back, but jason bears the weight of everyone’s expectations like atlas, and he just cant let go.

*ferris beuller voice* Nathaniel… wesnINKSI. NaTHANEIL… wesnINSKI.

The Untamed ★ Characters:

lwj: i desperately want to burrito blanket this man. i have never craved anything the way i crave the right to bury him in rabbits until he stops looking so stressed and i honestly don’t know what to do with that. i was told his sister gives him soup but he doesn’t look like he’s getting enough soup. …i…could give him soup.

Let’s see what he does when that happens.

— anne carson: antigonick

for @songlanfortnight (fills: “people” and “grief”)