#less than

So since the creation of the honmoon there have been three huntresses (which the fact that they’ve only been women is another talking point for later) who fight demons and use their voice the keep the honmoon strong. As such, it’s an easy—and typically automatic—assumption to make that these huntresses have some form of battle-related PTSD. But I don’t think the HUNTR/X girls do. Or at least, not in the severe way we see in so many fantasy shows, movies, and books.

I want to go ahead and compare them to the demigods of the PJO-verse.

Yes the girls fight demons. Yes the demons are absolutely terrifying. But these girls never seem to falter in fear towards them, even in the end. Horrified of the damage caused by them, sure. But fear of the demons themselves? No, I don’t think so.

The same can be said for demigods, mostly anyway. Monsters are terrifying. They have to fight these monsters. But demigods, especially those who aren’t, yk, big three kids are terrified of fighting them (typically) even though they’re still confident (typically) when they do—moreso the seasoned fighters.

Let’s take a look at their weapons. It seems like once the blades of their weapons makes some kind of contact with the demons, they blow up into dust. So while fighting them off is difficult, once they’re struck they’re done. There’s reassurance in that.

The same cont be said for demigods and their own weapons. Demigods need to hit the monsters in a lethal spot in order for them to die and they same rules do not apply to every monster and some don’t even fully die (e.g. Medusa vs. Hydra vs. Hellhound). That reassurance of “one hit and it’s done” does not exist here. I’m not going to say that there aren’t “higher level” demons that the girls need to fight in a specific way (poisons claws and teeth, extreme strength and speed, invisibility, etc.) but we canonically have not see that there are. With demigods, if you encounter certain monsters that are above you own skill and/or power set, that’s ir you’re dead.

Next, let’s look at the battlefields themselves. Aside from Rumi (maybe), is there really any issue with killing the demons? Because it seems that up until the Saja Boys, the demons were very much dehumanized in they eyes of the huntresses — and for good reason too. So there’s no moral dilemma in killing their opponents. What about the grief with loosing their friends, families, allies? Not there either. It’s just them and Celine. From what we can infer, Mira and Zoey are likely low-to-no contact with their family and even if they are in contact, they’re not getting involved in battles, they’re safe. The most I can see is fear of losing one another in battle, which is valid.

So let’s compare this to the demigods. The whole dehumanization of demons applies to the monsters too, I’m not going to say otherwise. And mind you there are canonical exceptions in the PJO-verse like Tyson and Mrs. O’Leary. But what about the wars? In The Second Titan War, demigods were fighting each other. Killing each other. And while I don’t think demigods killing demigods is a norm in the way killing monsters are, I wouldn’t be surprised to see if it’s more common than one would think. Like the Romans vs the Greeks before their godly parents set magical barriers to keep them apart. Or children of rivaling gods. Or malicious demigods in general. Many of the have had to kill one of their own. And in their world, they’re all m—for the most part—children. Many were NOT over the age of, like, 21. Some were younger than 13. They’ve lost family. They’ve lost friends. They’ve lost allies. Not just to each other but to monsters and that IS the norm for them.

Furthermore, I do believe it’s rare for the battle to go to the girls unexpectedly instead of them heading there themselves. Demigods live every second out in the world wondering when the shadows around them are gonna jump out at them. So they’re always in fear.

Next, let’s talk about holding the weight of the world. Aside from Rumi who I’m sure was groomed to be a huntress, the huntresses in general choose that life from what we’ve see. They decide to take on that burden of keeping the world safe. Demigods are born with burden of always being attacked. Not necessarily to keep the world safe, mind you, because that is —for the most part— exclusive to the great prophecies. But they carry the burden of having to know how to fight and kill monsters if they want to wake up the next day. And for the demigods who do have to carry the weight of the word in their shoulders, well…it’s safe to say they’re no less pessimistic than the girls are. And even then, the choice of stepping into that role definitely influences their view of that. There’s a big difference between choosing to save the world and being forced to do it.

The reason as to why I bring this all up is because I just found it very interesting how, really, these girls seemingly don’t have strong battle-related PTSD until the start of the movie when things start to go to shit in a way they’d never seen before and were unprepared for. Because, typically, there’s a bit more of that in experienced fighters like these girls.

And that’s why I brought up the PJO-verse. Because I’m not talking about characters who are “just starting their journey” not having trauma related to battles I’m talking about, these girls are experienced fighters. They’ve been doing this for years, training in a highly controlled environment. And, typically, in veteran fighters like these girls, there’s a certain trauma found in them due to battles gone wrong and such. Which we see in basically all our characters in the PJO-verse. And in other works of fictions with similar premises.