#hyllatwicekill

Alright, so, discussion time about a character I've always wanted to know more about in Heroes of Olympus: Hylla.

Since the Ramirez family has been blessed by Bellona for centuries, wouldn't it make sense for Reyna and Hylla to have some type of really, well, powerful power? We all know that Reyna's only godly power is that she can lend strength to others, and when she does, her SPQR tattoo burns... from this, I have this theory that Reyna's power to share strength is directly linked to her Roman tattoo— if anything else, I think this power was a gift from Bellona as a pat on the back for joining the Legion.

On the other hand, Hylla never joined the legion. But she's the firstborn child of the Ramirez family after centuries of blessed genes, and she's probably even more powerful than Reyna. Hylla likely has the power to share strength as well, but then, it's also possible that she doesn't. I think she does share that power with Reyna, but I also think that she has even can do even more than what Reyna can do... I'm just undecided on what this "more" is.

Furthermore, we know that Hylla's awesome at close combat, her skills equal or possibly even greater than Reyna, and, now, combined with the Amazon Queen's belt, she can literally lift a car. A CAR. Now that's some physical prowess there. Plus, Hylla became the Amazon queen, and there are only two ways she could've done that: one, the previous queen declared her the heir to the throne, or two, she won a dual against the previous queen. Since the Amazons are a group of warriors that really value fighting prowess (as compared to say the hunters, who value things like agility and stealth), it's safe to say that in either situation of Hylla's ascension to the throne, Hylla must have had to be a great fighter.

But moving on, while Reyna's biggest strength is in her nobility (which leads to her fatal flaw of ambition, because, you know, she wants to be the paragon of honor and leadership for her fellow legionnaires), I think Hylla's biggest strength could be her ambition (and her fatal flaw possible the recklessness that comes with a willingness to do anything and everything to get where she wants to get herself). In fact, Bellona is the goddess of war, but she (and her Greek equivalent, Enyo) is also the embodiment of destruction and devastation. We already know that Hylla and Reyna are alike but also different, and I can see this being the main difference between them. Also, Reyna continued down the path that her mother had pushed the two sisters onto, while Hylla chose to carve her own path into the woods with the Amazons.

With this in mind, I think that Hylla and Reyna represent the two different parts of Bellona. Reyna, aligning with Rome, can give strength because she's aligned with the Roman, military-honor-Bellona, who stands for equity, nobility, and selflessness. On the other hand, Hylla pretty much raised herself and Reyna, all by herself. It's a little bit like Bianca and Nico's situation. It makes sense that Hylla would align with the more destructive side of Bellona. She would want to write her own destiny, and it makes even more sense that she can care more about herself than others at times (but she obviously won't put herself above her sister) because of her childhood. Plus, Hylla aligns with some of the fiercest warriors and most independent, powerful women in the entire modern world, who are also known for being a tad bit harsh toward men, to say the least... Honestly, I really think that she HAS to be the embodiment of destruction for her mother's side because combined with ambition and godly powers even greater than Reyna's, it's a recipe for greatness, fit for a firstborn daughter of Bellona.

my self esteem is entirely dependent on people telling me that im nice/kind and/or thanking me for being nice/kind to them. also it’s fun!!!

You see, Thalia is the one writing, Reyna is the one narrating, Hylla is the one reading. And they're all demigods. So they're probably dyslexic.

But at least Thalia is probably literate in ancient Greek. But I think Hylla and Reyna are only literate in Latin.