#dogwatertalks

we see similar things with thalia and jason. thalia's majorly associated with lightning-- she seems to not have much trouble summoning lightning or zapping people (especially percy). however, we don't often see her controlling the wind. meanwhile jason uses lightning sparingly, usually opting to fight with a sword or his fists. along with that, jason uses wind a lot - whether it's controlling storm spirits like tempest or dylan (lol), or flying, he seems to be more adept in that area. I would also like to point out that some of this difference, mainly the difference in their fighting styles, can mostly be attributed to the way they were raised. it makes sense that thalia, who became familiar with the demigod world whilst on the run from everything and their mother, would opt for more violent attacks and more intense fighting. lightning comes naturally to her, so of course she's shocking everything in sight. meanwhile jason was raised in the legion, which, while I assume he did fight with the influence his demigodly powers, he seems to have been trained more heavily in weapons fighting techniques. he doesn't reach for his powers right away, with the most influence they have over his fighting seeming to be with him flying around to hit things. somewhere in the heroes of olympus series (maybe mark of athena…?), percy speculates about whether or not thalia could learn to fly like jason, if she didn’t have her fear of heights holding her back, which speaks to the idea of demigods having a certain domain that comes naturally to them, though they may have the potential to obtain more skills with intentional training.

now lets talk about percy. poseidon doesnt have any other demigod kids, but percy mainly embodies the ocean side of his domain. in one of the side books, percy said something about not having earthshaking abilities, which is something that falls into poseidon’s domain. it stands to reason that if posidon had another demigod kid, they could lean more into the earthshaking side of things, and have more expertise in that area rather than all things ocean, like percy. furthermore, we do see percy do some earthshaking in the battle of the labyrinth, when he exploded mount st helens — this can be attributed to just him controlling the water, but for the sake of this analysis and because I think it’s a better reading, I’m attributing it to percy expressing some control over the earthquake elements of poseidon’s domain. its very important to note that doing this took a lot out of him, hence why he was on calypso’s island for so long. again, showing that while he can operate in other sections of his father’s domain, it’s much more difficult and strenuous (though it must be noted that exploding a whole mountain would be strenuous no matter your expertise).

this isn’t just seen with big three kids, but it’s easiest to point out in them due to the way they seem to be written to be more influenced by their parents domains than other demigods. plus, there aren’t many main characters that come from the same cabin as another, which makes comparison much harder

anyway these are just some thoughts about different ways demigod kids express their abilities!! heres some questions to chew on:

do you think that, with intensive training, a demigod could extend their control over their parents entire domain, and not just the parts that come easiest to them?

what do y’all think about thalia’s fear of heights and how that influences her control of her fathers elements??

another extremely interesting thing about percy is how he seemed to max out his water controlling stats, and that skill + extreme stress led him to control poison in tartarus. how do y’all think this different expression of power says about a demigod’s ability to adapt and control different elements of the world that may not immediately come to mind when thinking of their parents domain?