70% of it is me

luke is from fucking conneticut, heavily implied to be white (no skin tone is mentioned but he has 'sandy-blond' hair and blue eyes which is most common in white people). we dont get mention of what his house or tax bracket is, but considering how he acts i think its safe to assume he grew up at least comfortable. theres never any mention of school or friends, but theres also no mention of him being mistreated anywhere in his life aside from the mythological world. the worst things thatve happened to luke is his mom getting cursed, thalias death, and his quest. id say those are the main driving points for why hes the way he is. since we get no mention of any mistreatment aside from his mom before the mythological world, i think its safe to say that living at a place like camp where the gods are the way are they are is an extreme change, he went from living a somewhat normal life (before may was cursed) to being ignored by the beings who were supposed to help and care for them, and everyone acted like that was normal. with all that, he focus more on the direct treatment from the gods, and not any intent behind it. he doesnt try to think about why hermes tried to get may to be the oracle, he doesnt think about why zeus mightve turned thalia into a tree, he doesnt try to think about anything about the action aside from the actual action itself, which ended up leading him to kronos. people who grew up privileged often have thoughts similar to that, seeing more the action itself and not the thoughts behind it (judging people for posting about doing charity when the videos help them do charity is somewhat of an example that comes to mind), and that can lead them down not so good pipelines, like becoming republican. or, like joining kronos. luke was easily manipulated by him because he couldnt really see the thought process behind the actions, and kronos took that and used it easily, saying he could fix all of it. weaponizing lukes narrow vision and kronos, in the books, didnt outright treat luke that bad. we dont see or get any hints of him tormenting him, all we know is that hes manipulating luke- manipulation is often shown as being *nice* on the outside, with cruel intentions beneath. again, luke only sees the action, not the thoughts behind it. him being white is also a good bit important to his story because again hes *privileged.* he was never discriminated against for looking a specific way- in fact him looking the way he does *helped him*, it made people see him as more trustworthy, more gentle, it let him manipulate others (silena) easier and get off the hook more. in the sea of monsters percy, and annabeth im pretty sure, are convinced luke (or kronos' army in general) are the ones who poisoned the tree, but no one actually believes them until percy gets *live video proof of luke himself confessing.* hes seen as the 'perfect boy', blond, blue eyes, privileged backstory, but still with enough 'angst' to make people empathize and care for and about him and what hes doing

annabeth: i love her casting because of the reason annabeth was originally made blonde: to combat the dumb-blonde steroetype, something that was very prevalent at the time they book was written, i get people still wanting her blonde because she was important to them for that reason however to me that train of thought just seems selfish, because the people who say that fail to realize what annabeth now being black can do. for so many young blonde girls annabeth was the first time someone told them they could push down the stereotypes forced on them and be strong and smart, though that doesnt really exist anymore. what still does exist today though (and it is very clear with leahbeth haters) is that black girls are constantly underestimated and put down, which is why i said those people are selfish. because they fail to understand that annabeth being black can now do the same thing for black girls, as book annabeth did for them. blonde girls dont really need that smart blonde girl trope anymore, that steroetype hardly exists anymore and theres so many pieces of media pushing against that, while black girls are still dealing with that and more, and having one of the main characters in such a beloved series thats known for being smart is going to help so many black girls see that they can do that too, which is exactly what annabeth's character is about. showing girls that are put down for physical characteristics that those features dont define anything about who they are or what they can do

percy: they fucking whitewashed him. sure he was never canonically poc or bipoc in the books, but hes described as having a mediterranean skin tone with dark hair and was implied to not be white, as he lived in a place in new york commonly known as spanish harlem. even if they didnt whitewash him they still removed a lot of things about him, and while this isnt about personality thats still a big fucking thing. honestly my issue isnt just the appearance, but how hes written in general (annabeth too honestly), though im going to try and stay away from talking about that. i also strongly dislike how so many fucking people think percy being blond and having blue eyes fits with the ocean theme more, when it doesnt! im someone with a special interest in the ocean, specifically the deep sea, and will always look something up to fact check something i know for sure. both of those help me in knowing: THATS FUCKING BULLSHIT. 1. deep sea, percy is described as embodying the ocean, including the deep sea, and even though specifically the deep sea isnt said it is shown. very well. hes angry, hes impulsive, hes a bit of a bitch, he can be violent and aggressive, and we see him torturing a goddess. reading the books you can see that he absolutely embodies the deep sea, and id say even moreso than other parts of the ocean! 2. theres a goddess of sandy beaches. 'percys blond hair fits because of beaches!-' theres a greek goddess of sandy beaches and if you actually gave a shit about greek mythology you'd probably considering looking up the specific domains of greek gods because they do get specific. poseidon is never once said to be the god of beaches. psamathe is the goddess of sandy beaches specifically. shut up and do 30 seconds of research. also the more people say it the more racist it feels. please tell me in detail why percy having lighter and more eurocentric features fits him as a child of the ocean when theres a goddess of sandy beaches and he never embodied the romanticized aspects of the ocean? quickly. and to go a step further, i can (and have) use fucking color theory as to why percys book appearance works better. 1. hair, its dark like the depths of the sea, ive already gone over why that works, it also makes him seem more intimidating to people which has assisted in teachers and classmates targeting him and the entire country calling him a terrorist at 12- its less likely for blond boys to get that treatment. 2. green has been used to show both good and evil in media, and very rarely is permanently attached to one or the other, unlike blue which most people associate with goodness, the reason why this is important? percys not perfect, like i said earlier hes a bit of an asshole at times and has decently bad anger issues. having one of his main colors be a color thats never solely only 'good' or 'bad' works in the favor of the narrative because it shows that he could honestly end up on either side of the war- will he stay on the 'good' side with the gods, or leave and join kronos? sure, we as the audience know what hes gonna do, but the characters dont know that. luke spends almost more than half the series trying to get percy on his side, because he believes its still possible. the gods are scared because they agree. they dont know which side he'll actually end up on, its why the debate killing him so many times.

- Trials of Apollo

*Inhales sharply*. Ok. Who exactly was raising Nico conservative catholic exactly? He's implied to only ever have lived with his mother and Bianca. Maria di Angelo, who had not one but two bastard children with the Greek god of the Underworld, conservative catholic? Maria who was in on the existence of the Greek pantheon, conservative catholic to such a great degree? Maria who openly blasphemed against the King of the gods, calling him and imbecile, cons-

(On top of that Nico struggled with his romantic orientation on account of comphet, by the way; he makes no reference to this nascent religious complex riordan pulls up):

-Blood of Olympus

Also Nico embraced his divine heritage and hellenic paganism with open arms, and he was very much in touch with the same. That boy did not relate to mortal culture in the slightest and he simply wouldn't have given two shits about Catholicism, actually. Not his religion, not his business.

Oh, and the cherry on top:

You would expect someone with bad internalized religious homophobia to have atleast some/slight conflicted emotions, but Nico doesn't.