percabeth get behind me

It's the love that empowers bravery and the willingness to sacrifice for others. It's the love that gives hope for a better future, if you're willing to work for it. It's the love that will let a person fall into hell for their loved ones. It's the love that causes a demigod to willingly take on an entire prophecy to protect his younger cousin.

he's the sun, he's the sea, he gets fish kisses 💙🐟

Part 1/3 (because this is seriously too long. You can find the other parts in the reblogs of this post)

Claim of this analysis (just so you know what this post is going to be about, before you click on the extent button):

Percy is Ares’ and Mars’ ideal version of a demigod come to life and perfectly incorporates all the traits they canonically value.

First Warning: This is an extremely long post. It has over 12.000 words. If you’re not interested in reading this, please do not click on the extend button. Scrolling past this will get very annoying very quickly for you otherwise. I'm very sorry if you clicked on the extend button without reading this warning first.

Second warning: I try my best to tie my analysis and interpretation to the text and use textual evidence to support my claims. However, every interpretation is subjective. This is simply the conclusion I have personally drawn, and I obviously have my own biases, which definitely influence how I interact with the books. If you have a different opinion, that’s obviously fine.

Third Warning: If you have followed my blog for the past couple weeks, you might notice that some of my posts are incorporated into this post. That’s mainly because I was working on this analysis for a while, and wanted to share some of these points individually, because I enjoyed writing about them.

Last year I started to analyse the relationship Percy has to the Olympian gods. I absolutely adore Greek mythology, and the figures associated with it, and Percy is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time. So, the different relationships he has to the gods are, for me, one of the most fascinating dynamics in PJO, and a topic I can personally get lost in for hours.

I started with this post analyzing the relationship between Dionysus and Percy:

This analysis will be a bit different than that. Percy and Dionysus had development in their relationship, which led to fundamental changes of opinions, especially for Dionysus, and they shared various very important and meaningful conversations.  

That is not really the case for Ares and Percy. Especially Percy’s opinion of Ares remains stagnant throughout all of the books.

Ares acting like an abusive figure of authority, his involvement with Kronos in “The lightning Thief” and, obviously the implication that he hurts his children, which makes him a mirror to Gabe, all lead to Percy very much disliking him:

He gave me a wicked grin. “So you’re old Seaweed’s kid, huh?” I should’ve been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guy’s head off. “What’s it to you?” (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 15)

I knew my anger was being caused by the war god’s presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I’d ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers-every jerk who’d called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I’d gotten expelled. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 16)

The thing was: I’d almost forgotten this quest was supposed to be Clarisse’s. For a scary moment, I saw things from her point of view. How would I feel if a bunch of other heroes had butted in and made me look bad? I thought about what I’d overheard in the boiler room of the CSS Birmingham-Ares yelling at Clarisse, warning her that she’d better not fail. Ares couldn’t care less about the camp, but if Clarisse made him look bad … (The Sea of Monsters, Chapter 17)

For Ares/ Mars, you could argue, that, while he obviously has resentment for Percy, and does dislike him quite a lot, he grows to begrudgingly respect him a bit with time. In fact, after a while, he seems to be more amused with Percy’s taunts than outright angry.

Ares nodded, like I'd finally said something intelligent. "I'd love to kill you, seriously," he said. "But see, I got a situation. Word on Olympus is that you might start the biggest war in history. I can't risk messing that up. Besides, Aphrodite thinks you're some kinda soap-opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten my promise. Some day soon, kid—real soon—you're going to raise your sword to fight, and you're going to remember the wrath of Ares." I balled my fists. "Why wait? I beat you once. How's that ankle healing up?" He grinned crookedly. "Not bad, punk. But you got nothing on the master of taunts. I'll start the fight when I'm good and ready. Until then… Get lost." (Titan’s Curse, Chapter 13)

So far so, that Ares seems to even look forward to Percy becoming a god at the end of the last Olympian. (Even if that is mostly so that he can beat him up for eternity.)

"Hmm," Ares mused. "That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he'll just keep coming back for more. I like this idea."  (The Last Olympian, Chapter 20)

A point that is supported in “Son of Neptune” with Mars, who seems to actually somewhat enjoy Percy’s responses to him:

Frank noticed that one person wasn’t kneeling. Percy Jackson, his sword still in hand, was glaring at the giant soldier. ‘You’re Ares,’ Percy said. ‘What do you want?’ A collective gasp went up from two hundred campers and an elephant. Frank wanted to say something to excuse Percy and placate the god, but he didn’t know what. He was afraid the war god would blast his new friend with that extra-large M16. Instead, the god bared his brilliant white teeth. ‘You’ve got spunk, demigod,’ he said. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 12, Frank)

“I am happy to crush my enemies underfoot, but I don’t fight without reason. I don’t want war without end. You will discover this. You will serve me.’ ‘Not likely,’ Percy said. Again, Frank waited for the god to strike him down, but Mars just grinned like they were two old buddies talking trash. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 12, Frank)

I’m not going to lie. “Two old war buddies talking trash” is honestly one of the funniest descriptions Rick Riordan could have chosen for Percy and Ares/ Mars.

Still, differently to Percy and Dionysus, there is not really a lot to analyse by focusing on their canon interactions only.

So, I want to make this analysis a bit different. What I want to talk about, and what is, for me, the most interesting aspect of their dynamic is that Percy is literally Ares’ and Mars’ ideal version of a demigod come to life. He perfectly incorporates every single character trait, that Ares and Mars canonically appreciate in the books.

Let me explain.

Ares

Accomplishments/ Skills as a Warrior

Granted, we know actually more about Mars’ values than Ares’.

The one thing we do find out about Ares in the Percy Jackson books is that he values strength and the skills a warrior possesses above all else. We can easily conclude that after witnessing his reaction to Clarisse slaying the drakon in The Last Olympian:

Clarisse marched in, still shivering from her time in the ice block, and Ares bellowed, "There's my girl!" The god of war ruffled her hair and pounded her on the back, calling her the best warrior he'd ever seen. "That drakon-slaying? THAT'S what I'm talking about!" (The Last Olympian, Chapter 20)

Now, there is no mortal character more accomplished in the Riordan verse, (or arguably the entirety of Greek mythology) than Percy. I don’t think I have to spend too much time defending this claim. He saved, or helped save, the world and Olympus on multiple occasions, and has several feats which could be considered equal or even more impressive than Clarisse slaying the drakon.

He fought not only successfully against several gods/ titans/ giants like Hades, Hyperion, Kronos, Iapeteus, Polybotes, etc. but also beat some of the most infamous monsters in Greek mythology, like the minotaur, Polyphemus, Antaeus, etc. completely on his own.

Percy is also an extremely talented sword fighter. So good that people at camp half blood claim that Percy is, after Luke, the best sword fighter in the last 100 years:

Swordplay had always been my strength. People said I was better at it than any camper in the last hundred years, except maybe Luke. People always compared me to Luke. I thrashed the Apollo guys easily. (The Sea of Monsters, Chapter 6)

Important note: At the time this was said, Percy was only 13 years old, and Luke 20 and while Luke had been training since he was nine years old, Percy had only been training for a couple weeks. It is highly likely that he surpassed him by now.

Not even mentioning the fact that he beat Ares himself when he was only 12 years old.

Mars:

Similarly, he perfectly incorporates the character traits which Mars canonically values.

In Heroes of Olympus, Mars reveals to Frank that some of the attributes he appreciates the most in mortals, and the attributes which made him fall in love with Emily Zhang in the first place are bravery, loyalty and brains. All things Percy repeatedly demonstrated to possess:

‘Self-pity isn’t helpful, kid. It isn’t worthy of you. Even without the family gift, your mom gave you your most important traits – bravery, loyalty, brains. Now you’ve got to decide how to use them.” (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 34, Frank)

Bravery:

Again, I don’t think I have to do much work to do here. Percy is an incredibly brave character. Be it him choosing to fall into Tartarus with Annabeth, him fighting in the battle of Manhattan, despite “knowing” he was going to die, going on all the quests he went on, facing gods, titans and giants, etc, I don’t think anyone can argue the fact that Percy is beyond brave. There’s no reason to make this section longer than it has to be.

Loyalty:

I’m not even going to bother with this point. Loyalty is literally Percy’s fatal flaw. And while Mars does critizice this fatal flaw and it’s implications in son of neptune, that is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Percy’s character and fatal flaw by the overall narrative in Heroes of Olympus, which I will discuss at the very end of this post.

Brains:

Obviously, Percy is also a very brilliant character, who has outsmarted many of his opponents. I’m just going to name some of his intellectual accomplishments (because, differently than the bravery and loyalty section, this is sadly an aspect of his character which often gets ignored within the fandom) :

He saved Grover and Annabeth by tricking Procrustes into falling into his own trap

He bribed Charon so that he would lead him, Annabeth and Grover into the Underworld

He tricked Luke into wasting time fighting him, so that Clarisse got more time to escape, and tricked him into clearing Chiron’s name in front of Camp Half-Blood

He came up with the successful strategy to defeat the Nemean Lion in “Titan’s Curse”

He came up with a successful strategy to defeat his half-brother Antaeus

He was the main strategist during the Battle of Manhattan

He convinced his father to leave the battle against Oceanus and help defeat Typhon

With Ella’s help he came up with the bet against Phineas

He came up with a successful strategy to defeat Polybotes

He came up with a successful strategy to trick Crysaor and his crew into fleeing

He manipulates Iapeteus into killing his own brother

Etc.

Rome:

Another important aspect to consider is that Mars is the patron god of New Rome, and the fact that Percy has a very special connection to Camp Jupiter.

This is what Mars says about himself in “Son of Neptune”:

‘I’m the god of Rome, child. I am the god of military might used for a righteous cause. I protect the legions. I am happy to crush my enemies underfoot, but I don’t fight without reason. I don’t want war without end.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 12, Frank)

Small question: Having just read this self description of Mars, don’t the following thought processes not sound exactly like what an ideal roman son of Mars would sound like?

‘We’re too late,’ Hazel said. ‘No,’ Percy said. ‘They’re still fighting. We can do this.’ ‘Where’s Lupa?’ Frank asked, desperation creeping into his voice. ‘She and the wolves … they should be here.’ Percy thought about his time with the wolf goddess. He’d come to respect her teachings, but he’d also learned that wolves had limits. They weren’t front-line fighters. They only attacked when they had vastly superior numbers, and usually under the cover of darkness. Besides, Lupa’s first rule was self-sufficiency. She would help her children as much as she could, train them to fight – but in the end they were either predator or prey. Romans had to fight for themselves. They had to prove their worth or die. That was Lupa’s way. ‘She did what she could,’ Percy said. ‘She slowed down the army on its way south. Now it’s up to us. We’ve got to get the gold eagle and these weapons to the legion.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 49, Percy)

A horde of Cyclopes was hammering away at the campers of the Fifth Cohort, who were trying to keep their shields locked just to stay alive. Seeing them in trouble, Percy felt a surge of protective rage. These were the kids who’d taken him in. This was his family. He shouted, ‘Fifth Cohort!’ and slammed into the nearest Cyclops. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

As for Percy, he rode Mrs O’Leary into battle with a chariot full of Imperial gold equipment clanking and clinking behind, the golden eagle standard of the Twelfth Legion raised high above him. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

As Percy and Mrs O’Leary charged onward, the entire cohort followed – forty extremely shiny gold-plated warriors screaming for blood. They slammed into a herd of wild centaurs that were attacking the Third Cohort. When the campers of the Third saw the eagle standard, they shouted insanely and fought with renewed effort. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

Percy felt a rush of power coursing through the standard’s staff. He raised the eagle and shouted, ‘Twelfth Legion Fulminata!’ Thunder shook the valley. The eagle let loose a blinding flash, and a thousand tendrils of lightning exploded from its golden wings – arcing in front of Percy like the branches of an enormous deadly tree, connecting with the nearest monsters, leaping from one to another, completely ignoring the Roman forces. When the lightning stopped, the First and Second Cohorts were facing one surprised-looking giant and several hundred smoking piles of ash. The enemy’s centre line had been charred to oblivion. The look on Octavian’s face was priceless. The centurion stared at Percy with shock, then outrage. Then, when his own troops started to cheer, he had no choice except to join the shouting: ‘Rome! Rome! (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

Polybotes bellowed. A dozen fresh basilisks fell out of his hair, turning the grass to poison yellow. ‘You think this changes anything, Percy Jackson? I cannot be destroyed! Come forward, son of Neptune. I will break you!’ Percy dismounted. He handed Dakota the standard. ‘You are the cohort’s senior centurion. Take care of this.’ Dakota blinked, then he straightened with pride. He dropped his Kool Aid flask and took the eagle. ‘I will carry it with honour.’ ‘Frank, Hazel, Tyson,’ Percy said, ‘help the Fourth Cohort. I’ve got a giant to kill.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

For a moment, the battlefield was silent except for a few fires burning, and a few retreating monsters screaming in panic. A ragged circle of Romans and Amazons stood around Percy. Tyson, Ella and Mrs O’Leary were there. Frank and Hazel were grinning at him with pride. Arion was nibbling contentedly on a golden shield. The Romans began to chant, ‘Percy! Percy!’ They mobbed him. Before he knew it, they were raising him on a shield. The cry changed to, ‘Praetor! Praetor!’ Among the chanters was Reyna herself, who held up her hand and grasped Percy’s in congratulation. Then the mob of cheering Romans carried him around the Pomerian Line, carefully avoiding Terminus’s borders, and escorted him back home to Camp Jupiter. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

He jabbed a finger at Percy. ‘His friends are attacking in a warship. He has led them here. We must attack!’ ‘No,’ Percy said firmly. ‘You all raised me as praetor for a reason. I will fight to defend this camp with my life. But these aren’t enemies. I say we stand ready, but do not attack. Let them land. Let them speak. If it is a trick, then I will fight with you, as I did last night. But it is not a trick.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 52, Percy)

Not only did Percy play a huge role in saving New Rome and in correcting a shame which has plagued Camp Jupiter for years, he also has been bestowed with the highest possible honor a roman could have with his election as praetor as a result.  

But that’s not all.

He also adapts remarkably well to this new environment.  

At the end of “Son of Neptune”, Percy sees it as a potential home and the people there even as his family, despite only knowing them for a couple of days:

He remembered his home, and that gave him a new determination to succeed. He was fighting for two camps now – two families. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 38, Percy)

A horde of Cyclopes was hammering away at the campers of the Fifth Cohort, who were trying to keep their shields locked just to stay alive. Seeing them in trouble, Percy felt a surge of protective rage. These were the kids who’d taken him in. This was his family. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

Then the mob of cheering Romans carried him around the Pomerian Line, carefully avoiding Terminus’s borders, and escorted him back home to Camp Jupiter. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 50, Percy)

Percy also integrates into roman society in son of Neptune remarkably well. Arguably, better than Jason does to Camp Half-blood.

Now, I am 100% convinced, that this was not Rick Riordan’s intention. But I don’t really care. It’s in the books, so I can use it however I please.

For example, Percy seems to have an easier time adapting to the roman names of the gods than Jason does. Jason repeatedly uses the roman names of mythological beings throughout the “Lost Hero.” (At least as long as the Greek names weren’t explicitly previously stated)

The coach didn’t have any feet. He had hooves—goat’s hooves. Which meant those things on his head, Jason realized, weren’t bumps. They were horns. “You’re a faun,” Jason said. “Satyr!” Hedge snapped. “Fauns are Roman. But we’ll talk about that later.” (The Lost Hero, Chapter 2, Jason)

“This can’t be good,” Butch muttered. “The curse—” “Butch, shut up,” Annabeth said. “Leo, you’ve just been claimed—” “By a god,” Jason interrupted. “That’s the symbol of Vulcan, isn’t it?” All eyes turned to him. “Jason,” Annabeth said carefully, “how did you know that?” “I’m not sure.” (The Lost Hero, Chapter 3, Piper)

Percy meanwhile almost immediately adapts to the roman names once he arrives at Camp Jupiter:

He pointed towards the summit. Clouds swirled over the largest temple, a round pavilion with a ring of white columns supporting a domed roof. ‘I’m guessing that’s Zeus – uh, I mean, Jupiter’s? That’s where we’re heading?’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 4, Percy)

Even while feeling incredibly sick after seeing the monster army, Percy called Fleecy the cloud nymph “nebulae” the Latin term for cloud nymph after she introduces herself as such and doesn’t even mention the Greek term (which would be “Nephelai (Νεφέλαι)”.

‘Your name is Fleecy?’ Hazel asked. Fleecy giggled. ‘Well, in the language of the nebulae it’s actually –’ She made a series of crackling and blowing noises that reminded Frank of a thunderstorm giving way to a nice cold front. ‘But you can call me Fleecy.’ ‘Nebulae …’ Percy muttered in a daze. ‘Cloud nymphs.’ Fleecy beamed. ‘Oh, I like this one! Usually no one knows about cloud nymphs. But, dear me, he doesn’t look so good. Come to the back. My boss wants to meet you. We’ll get your friend fixed up.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 21, Frank)

A little contrast to Jason’s encounter with the storm spirits (even if that was admittedly earlier, and he didn’t hear their names before that):

Leo cleared his throat. “He got taken by some … tornado things.” “Venti,” Jason said. “Storm spirits.” The blond girl arched an eyebrow. “You mean anemoi thuellai? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?” (The Lost Hero, Chapter 2, Jason)

But Percy’s aptitude for the roman names stays consistent, even after he partially regained his memories. He even refers to his father as Neptune and not Poseidon in his own mind:

Across the street, a frosty black sand beach led down to the sea, which was as smooth as steel. The ocean here felt different – still powerful, but freezing, slow and primal. No gods controlled that water, at least no gods Percy knew. Neptune wouldn’t be able to protect him. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 38, Percy)

Percy is also very adapt at speaking Latin, far more do than other greek demigods

Throughout Heroes of Olympus, it is made pretty clear that greek demigods have issues speaking and even understanding latin.

Annabeth, for example, admits in Mark of Athena that she has some trouble with it:

Annabeth said nothing. She knew very little about the Roman goddess. She wished she had studied up, but Latin never came as easily to her as Greek. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 4, Annabeth)

When Jason recites the prophecy of the seven at the campfire in “The Lost Hero”, the campers had very obvious troubles understanding it (despite all, or most, of them already knowing the contents of the prophecy he is reciting.) Piper doesn’t even understand a single word, and is only able to discern that it is Latin that he is speaking:

An uneasy silence settled on the group. Piper could see from their faces that several of them were trying to translate the lines. She could tell it was Latin, but she wasn’t sure why her hopefully future boyfriend was suddenly chanting like a Catholic priest. (The Lost Hero, Chapter 10, Piper)

In the same book, Chiron states that greek demigods are merely able to recognize a few phrases at most and that no one can speak latin fluently without practice.

 “You know Latin,” Chiron observed. “Most demigods recognize a few phrases, of course. It’s in their blood, but not as much as Ancient Greek. None can speak Latin fluently without practice.” (The Lost Hero, Chapter 7, Jason)

Yet, it is a bit of a different story for Percy.

He not only has a relatively easy time understanding Latin, but he has actively spoken it in the past. By far not as well or fluently as Jason obviously, but still to some degree.

In fact, the beginning of his understanding of Latin in son of Neptune is remarkably similar to the beginning of his understanding of Greek in “The Lightning thief."

Just compare these two scenes. One from the beginning of Son of Neptune, and one from the beginning of The Lightning Thief:

‘They won’t attack,’ Reyna said, ‘unless you try to steal something, or unless I tell them to. That’s Argentum and Aurum.’ ‘Silver and Gold,’ Percy said. The Latin meanings popped into his head like Hazel had said they would. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 3, Percy)

“The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into,” Chiron told me. “Its name is Anaklusmos.” “‘Riptide,’” I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 10)

Important note here: The scene in Son of Neptune was still when Hazel thought he was a roman demigod. Meaning his understanding of Latin seems to have an equal progression to how a roman demigod would understand Latin in his situation.

Now, obviously these were only a couple words and still align with Chiron’s description of the ability of Greek demigods to understand a couple words and phrases, but we have other direct comparisons, that show that Percy’s understanding seems to be a bit more advanced than other demigods.

For example, we do have direct comparison like that between Percy and Annabeth.

Again, let’s look at these two scenes from Son of Neptune and Mark of Athena respectively:

As Hazel marched down the hill, she cursed in Latin. Percy didn’t understand all of it, but he got son of a gorgon, power-hungry snake, and a few choice suggestions about where Octavian could stick his knife. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 4, Percy)

A statue of Terminus exploded into being, right in front of Annabeth. He yelled at her in Latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker; but she pushed the statue over and kept running. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 4, Annabeth)

“No doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker” Meaning, Annabeth only assumes what he says from his tone of voice and the circumstances and doesn’t actually understand it. In contrast to Percy actually understanding most of what Hazel was saying.

A little bit later in Son of Neptune, Frank, who is a roman demigod, and has spent six weeks actively learning Latin in Camp Jupiter admits to having a bit of trouble understanding Ella when she recites the prophecy in the library:

Ella twitched uncomfortably. ‘Alaska. Six hundred twenty-six thousand, four hundred twenty-five square miles. State mammal: the moose.’ Suddenly she switched to Latin, which Frank could just barely follow thanks to his classes at Camp Jupiter. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 36, Frank)

Yet, Percy is perfectly capable of understanding the very same prophecy. A prophecy he has never heard, in contrast to the demigods at camp half blood. He seems to be just as capable of understanding it as Hazel and Frank are:

‘Camp,’ Ella muttered. Then in Latin: ‘“Wisdom’s daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.”’ ‘Uh, right,’ Percy said. ‘That sounds important, but we can talk about that later. (…) ‘We’ll see her again,’ Percy promised, but he frowned uneasily, as if he were really troubled by that last bit of prophecy – the thing about Athena. (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 36, Frank)

But that is not all. Percy even spoke Latin as far back as the lightning thief:

“Zeus will destroy you!” she promised. “Hades will have your soul!” “Braccas meas vescimini!” I yelled. I wasn’t sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant “Eat my pants!” (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 10)

He didn’t even plan on speaking it, it just came to him as naturally as greek does to other greek demigods.

And I know some people will say “he had Latin in school. Chiron was his Latin teacher after all”.

Listen, I had Latin in school. I had Latin in school for close to 8 years and did an extra course at university for my history degree. You do not learn to speak Latin in school. At all. Especially in grade six. At this point you have some very simple sentences in Latin that you have to translate, and maybe learn like twenty vocabularies. You have sentences like “Julia puella est. Cornelia puella est. Julia et Cornelia puellae sunt.” You certainly don’t learn grammar, the conjugation of passive verbs like viscimini, declinations of “Bracca” or to use all of these words in a coherent sentence. Unless the American education system regarding Latin is completely different than the german one  and you guys learn to actively communicate in Latin and have a bunch of 12 year old prodigies, I can assure you, this did not stem from his Latin classes.

Now, do I believe that this was intentional on Rick’s part? No. Not at all.

Am I interpreting too much in a few little lines? Definitely.

But it’s written in these books, so I am free to interpret and use it however I well may please and it matches rather nicely with the overall point of my argumentation here.

So, on top of being a great warrior, of being brave, intelligent and very smart, Percy also has a particular special connection to Rome for a greek demigod, making him already a character, who perfectly fits especially Mars’, but also Ares’ prefect version of a demigod.

But it doesn’t end here.

Not only does Percy fulfill all the attributes Mars and Ares appreciate, but the heroes they personally canonically consider the greatest heroes of all time, include two of the heroes who share the most similarities with Percy in all of Greek and roman mythology.

Mars' & Ares' favourite heroes

During House of Hades, Frank meets Mars/ Ares in Venice, and the following conversation ensues:

‘So you can turn your enemies into snakes,’ Frank said. ‘That’s what I need. I need to find an enemy. Then I need you to turn him into a snake.’ You think I would do that for you? Ares roared. You have not proven your worth! Only the greatest hero could ask such a boon, Mars said. A hero like Romulus! Too Roman! Ares shouted. Diomedes! Never! Mars shouted back. That coward fell to Heracles! Horatius, then, Ares suggested. Mars went silent. Frank sensed a grudging agreement. ‘Horatius,’ Frank said. ‘Fine. If that’s what it takes, I’ll prove I’m as good as Horatius. (House of Hades, Chapter 20, Frank)

They name three heroes in this section: Romulus, Diomedes and Horatius.

One thing which is really interesting to me regarding the dynamic between Percy and Mars/ Ares, is that every single time Mars describes the kind of person he respects, or the attributes he appreciates in mortals, he just describes Percy to a T without realizing it.

He says he values bravery, loyalty, brains and a sense of duty, and then has beef with a character who has

shown absolutely incredible acts of bravery (fighting the minotaur, visiting the underworld, fighting atlas, fighting Kampe, the entirety of the battle of Manhatten, falling into Tartarus, etc.)

whose loyalty is one of his most defining features

who has been shown to be incredibly intelligent and strategic (defeating Procrustes, defeating the Nemean lion, tricking Nereus, again Manhattan, etc.)

and who has on many instances been willing to sacrifice either his own life or even risk the lives of the people close to him for the sake of the greater good (leaving his mom behind in the underworld, asking about the whereabouts of the monster Artemis was hunting instead of Annabeth's, fighting in Manhattan, despite believing the prophecy meant that he would die, etc.)

percy is so struck by thalia’s bravery and heroism and and selflesness and immediately feels guilty for not matching up to her, feelings that are obviously intensified when thalia’s back in the titan’s curse. but under the surface of all the competitiveness and jealousy there’s just so much admiration and awe on percy’s end, and you see that continuously in the way percy talks about her even before she comes back to life. 

and the scene where thalia becomes human again is SO good, percy’s actions in that moment are so telling of the kind of person he is. i love how proactive he is in that scene, how he rushes to help a hurt demigod without hesitation because that’s just what he sees as his duty. he sees thalia hurt and unconscious by the tree and even though he has no idea what’s going on, he instantly runs to her and kneels by her while everyone else is just staring at her, puts his hand on her forehead and yells that she needs nectar and ambrosia, not understanding why the rest of the camp isn’t helping her, why everyone else is so scared. 

just! percy holding thalia up with her head on his shoulder and what’s wrong with you people and then! the absolute tenderness of this!

Accompaniment to this post

She goes to all of his swim meets and is merciless in her teasing about the fact that he has to wear a speedo, but secretly she loves it

Percy has a habit of wandering out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, wrapped perilously loosely around his waist, and lounging around for a bit before he gets the motivation (or stops being distracted by whatever’s on tv) enough to actually get changed. Annabeth sits on the couch with her thighs clamped together and thinks how easy it would be to get that towel undone with just a single flick of her wrist

He gets this adorable crinkle between his eyebrows when he’s concentrating really hard, and it takes every ounce of willpower she has not to pull him into a dark corner of the library and kiss him senseless

Percy senses her agitation and tries to calm her down by putting a hand on her knee and gently stroking his thumb over her thigh, giving her a sweet smile. It backfires spectacularly and she ends up dragging him behind the stacks and kissing him until he’s completely forgotten about the lit analysis they were supposed to be doing

They’re sparring one day and he gets right up close to her, armour touching and eyes locked and weapons drawn, and he doesn’t even say anything. He just cocks his head, licks his lips and crooks his fingers in a gesture that could be a ‘bring it on’ type of thing but that is entirely too reminiscent of the movements he made inside her last night… Annabeth’s knees go a little weak and he quickly disarms her

When she complains he puts his lips right by her ear and murmurs, “I’ll make it up to you.” She tries to pretend that the flush on her face is just from exertion but they both know better

Annabeth completely loses her train of thought when Percy crests the camp beach, shirtless and with the setting sun blazing behind him, wind tossing his hair back and looking legitimately like a god

They go to one of Piper’s dad’s movie premiers and Percy steps out of his room in a suit, tugging on the collar and looking to Annabeth for confirmation that he doesn’t look ridiculous. She curls her fingers around his tie and pulls him flush against her, pressing her lips just above the starched collar and running her hand down the buttons of his shirt before using the tie to guide him back into the bedroom

She likes it sometimes when he doesn’t shave, because the stubble adds an extra sensation when he goes down on her 

They’re chilling out with their friends and Annabeth’s sitting on the floor between Percy’s legs and he’s just absentmindedly playing with her hair, twirling the strands around his fingers, and she completely checks out of the conversation because she remembers him pulling on her hair the night before, tugging her off her knees and into his lap and -

He taps her shoulder to bring her back to the conversation, and he’s absolutely, totally oblivious as to what she was daydreaming about, because he’s precious like that