#pjo demeter

his siblings: ...

demeter: poseidon he looks just like you.

poseidon: okay… sure. maybe he does, but! there are many people in this world that share similar traits! that hardly means anything!

hades remembering poseidon in the first titan war: he acts just like you too.

hera: you both are… unique fighters.

poseidon: what does that mean.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians has found its next set of gods

Please welcome,

Ming-Na Wen as Hera

Jennifer Beals as Demeter

Hades is a grumpy napper(wake Hades up prematurely and you were likely to end up as a nuclear-blast shadow on his wall.)

Athena always wins scrabble(once she played abaxial on a triple, and Zeus lightning-bolted of the top of Mount Parnassus in his rage)

Hephaestus and Ares caused Three-Mile Island with a chainsaw fight(Ares insulted Hephaestus' bell bottom pants)

Demeter once cursed him so that every clothing he put on would immediately sprout(He told her "They're just seeds!")

Dionysus insists on keeping old casks of wine in his cellar that have long turned to vinegar

The Greek gods are truly strange

edit: parts(2)(3)(4)

Poseidon runs into the problem of her still being his daughter, so all the non-intervention laws still apply. However, those same laws don't apply to Amphitrite, who finds all sorts of fun ways to spend time with her sister-in-law/stepdaughter. She's also mature enough to do so in a way that won't freak her out. Perse arrives home one day and Amphitrite is just... there, chatting it up with Sally like she isn't the mortal who slept with her husband. Turns out they've been doing this for weeks.

Demeter, like Hera, also tries hanging out in Perse's highschool, but she's even less subtle. I can picture her showing up without even altering her age and lecturing Perse's friends on their eating habits, giving unsettling reasons like 'your untimely deaths due to vitamin deficiency would upset my sister'.

Hestia doesn't need an excuse to spend time with Perse because she's perfect already and everyone is happy to be with her regardless. I imagine she figures it out first of the elder six, perhaps even from when they first meet.

Ares is written as aggressive jerk.

Hera is flanderized into catty woman who only likes "perfect families", without regards for her nuances.

Zeus is portrayed as an obnoxious, authoritative leader, and his capacity for good acts is ignored.

Athena, as the patron goddess of heroes should have had more contributions throughout the saga.

Apollo is reduced to some "cool guy" flirt.

Artemis is flattened to a cold, weird, man-hater.

Calypso is somehow a helpless teenager.

Poseidon is sanitized and has his flaws cut.

Demeter is morphed into a helicopter mom.

Persephone is just a blasé queen.

Demeter: We're really gonna let them die?

Hades: well you're welcome to die with our siblings.

Demeter: ...That....is besides the point! You'd let them be killed? Even Hestia? Even Poseidon?

Hades:...

Hades: ..Why should I help them?

Hades: You'd never do the same for me. You've never done the same for me! Don't take the moral high ground here, you — this — this is all your fault!

—!——!—

so i guess this is really more of a 'this is why i love the gods so much' rather than my usual 'this is why i love ToA' post lmao

but fr, the gods are just sooooo much more fleshed out in ToA. they're more complex, and have these layers to them that pjo and hoo just Did Not convey (and really, only conveyed those things post publication of ToA, which came with the tools on how to decode the gods and read between the lines).

and i'm not even talking about Apollo here. he is by far the most fleshed out god we have because he's the pov character, but i also mean all 12 of the other olympians - they're just so juicy!!

like okay, sure, in pjo and hoo we get glimpses that Dionysus may care more than he lets on, but ToA CONFIRMS this, but not in an 'in your face' way - but in the 'Dionysus picks at Apollo like a little brother would' way, and in that FIRST interaction between Apollo and Dionysus, we can SEE what their relationship was like!!

Hermes is another VERY layered god, ESPECIALLY with pjo's context. but that context ONLY gains its own importance BECAUSE of the story ToA gives us - we would NOT have 'resigned to fate' Hermes without it. or embittered at his favorite brother Hermes. we love this Hermes eheheheheheheh

Artemis also gains more character, and is no longer just the stoic cool badass #Girlboss she's largely presented as - she's scared, she fears for Apollo, so much so she SPLITS. she comes RUNNING to help him in TTT as soon as she could, giving her a softer side, while simultaneously expands on her previous appearances and allowing us to see how she is unconsciously enabling the abuse Apollo's experienced. LAYERS !! !! !!

DEMETER. OOOHHH DEMETER ILY, IN MYTHOLOGY AND THE RRVERSE. BUT FOR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASONS LMAO

we can infer Demeter has basically shot herself in the foot by obsessing so much over Persephone, where she NEGLETS her other kids (ex: Lityerses, Meg). myth Demeter would NEVER but rrverse Demeter is still a fav BECAUSE of how flawed she is.

ARESSSSS do i even need to say anything. we KNOW Ares and Apollo are bros because of how often Apollo takes pot-shots at him in his dialogue LMAO true brother behavior

Hades is a chill uncle with Apollo in particular. i mean. *gestures* he used to purposefully mess up Apollo's aim when shooting for no reason. need i say more?

looking back i'm also a little intrigued by how little Poseidon was mentioned - perhaps lending credence to the idea that he and Apollo grew apart over the centuries?

also Hestia's position as the goddess of the hearth and home calls into question how passive she is on olympus BECAUSE of the shitshow it's become!! she defends it!! what has caused the hearth and home, the FIRSTBORN OF KRONOS, of the ENTIRE PANTHEON to be so stagnant in the face of this toxic cycle? the people want to know and so do i.

Hephaestus is trickier to pin down for me because he has little mention, but there's one SPECIFIC one that has stuck in my brain and its the "apollo missed an entire decade watching Hephaestus's newton's cradle INSIDE HIS OFFICE"

what was apollo doing in his office. and why did hephaestus - notorious introvert - let him stay in there. these are the questions we are all dying to know.

ATHENAAAAAAA !! !! !! !! !! that nod she gives apollo at the end. her bet on his SUCCESS. need i say more? she's bros with him trust <3 add in the mythology and it gets SPICY

Aphrodite is arguably a tricky one to pin down too, and honestly we as a fandom have probably taken more from the mythos to pin down her character than with the others, but she's sooooo interesting too!! the eldest olympian. powerful goddess. extremely cunning and ruthless. and yet she's seen as airheaded and vain by practically everyone.

makes you wonder who else is like that. *quick glance at our favorite god* i dunno who that could be. *whistles innocently*

and do i need to say anything about Zeus? about the tragedy of him falling into the cycle he was meant to break? ABOUT THE TRAGEDY OF HOW HE DEF WANTED TO BE A FATHER BUT HIS PARANOIA GOT THE BETTER OF HIM UNTIL HE NO LONGER WAS ONE??

*seizes you by the shoulders* HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS. HOW.

and ofc. one of my FAVORITE gods...Hera. oh, ho ho Hera. you do NOT deserve the hate you get <3 okay maybe a bit of irritation is warranted because you do pull off risky things in hoo but we stan a goddess who takes charge in this house.

YOU CAN'T CONVINCE ME SHE'S GONNA BE - well, nicer? is that the right word? - BETTER WITH APOLLO POST-TOA. AFTER SEEING EVERYTHING HE SUFFERED? AFTER SEEING HIM SHED THE MASK? AFTER JASON GRACE?

So Riordan has Percy as OP and justified by the many domains, titles, and godly abilities of Poseidon. He does NOT do this for the gods I listed. Since you said you can get Apollo, I'm just gonna skip him.

Demeter - Goddess of harvest and the "life" parts of "life and death."

She caused winter and famine via no plant growth, has some authority over animals since she's goddess of agriculture, has cursed someone with insatiable hunger (he ate himself).

Her children growing plants is undervalued, especially when one that's powerful could put things into perpetual bloom or keep anything from living. Or get creative -

Goddess of food has children whose food gives buffs and debuffs

Goddess of life has children that can take it away and give it to someone else

Being "they like and grow plants, they're weaker" only works by ignoring a bulk of her mythology. If Percy can cause earthquakes because Poseidon can, Katie can curse people and the land itself because Demeter can (and that's terrifying as hell).

Hermes - god of travelers, shepherds/cowherds, thieves, wit and cunning, writing and language, commerce, diplomacy, and luck and good fortune

I think I mentioned this in a reblog, but he uses magic and incantations, it falls under his domains of writing and communication. Magic alone could make any of his children OP, but he's also a psychopomp (takes the dead to the underworld), god of mediation (because he's god of communication and commerce), AND god of BOUNDARIES - the latter has so much potential, from making and weaponizing barriers, but also negating them.

In theory, nothing could stop a child of Hermes from poofing themselves into places they want to go to, making portals to bring an entire army into Camp Half-Blood, or make a barrier that keeps everyone out (yes, I'm talking about Luke - he deserved to be over powered and on par with Percy by virtue of being the primary antagonist).

Aphrodite - goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality

Again, I made a post about her and Riordan's treatment of her and her children. She's legit one of the most dreaded gods by the Olympians because her power over love has authority over anyone that isn't asexual or aromantic. Plus, Aphrodite Areia, her war goddess aspect, exists.

And even ignoring that, Aphrodite is beauty and it can be found in anything, it's a major aspect of her attraction to Ares (not just him being physically attractive, but because his carnage is beautiful in its own right). Beauty in war, strength and physical power, combat and bladework, you get my point.

Any of her children could be an OP warrior like Malenia from Elden Ring (her bladework is described as beautiful, she herself is beautiful IMO, and she hits harder than a freight truck) or amass such warrior loyalists like Miquella (charmspeak, people, it is OP on its own and Riordan ignores that).

And now, to my favorite to talk about:

Dionysus - god of wine, theater, festivity, madness, religious ecstasy (visions and propechy), orchards/fruit, wildlife, and death and rebirth.

Not even discussing his conquest of India while drunk off his ass, an OP child of Dionysus could, in theory:

Cause mass hallucinations and madness not just in large groups, but over an entire town/city/country

Be nigh-invulnerable with ressurective immortality or be Kenny Mccormick and keep being reborn, memories and all

Potentially have authority over lightning and thunder (The Bacchae) or be loud enough to create something akin to thunder

Inspire loyalty and have the following of a group similar to Dionysus with his maenads and the thiasus (his retinue)

Have a loyal following of MONSTERS in the form of kobaloi (well, sprites - but I feel like in the Riordanverse they would be treated as monsters)

Be able to grant superhuman strength to their followers (maenads, just maenads, they're terrifying)

Lowkey effect the world around them through theater (and madness/religious ecstacy). Imagine a dramatic ass theater kid that embodies main character syndrome and borders on a reality warper (and this is a further justified idea because in Ophic Hymns, Dionysus is kinda an aspect of Phanes - it's complicated, Zeus ate Phanes and Dionysus is twice born among other things)

There's such cool things that could be done with any of the gods, but them and their kids are downplayed because let's be honest, Percy would not be viewed as so powerful if they weren't underpowered.

Tangent time, but in what world would a child of Hecate be weak in any sense? Alabaster should be able to body the camp via magic and Mist.

Or a child of Nemesis, a goddess feared by even Zeus, not being able to control retribution and luck in their favor to never lose. Ethan should be out here winning until he gets hit with divine intervention and even that shouldn't stop his pursuit - because that is a major trait of Nemesis, retribution is an unstoppable force!

Or a child of Hypnos, why is Clovis among those deemed weak when he legit can put anyone to sleep (and sleep is so close to death in mythology that they were born together, he could make people sleep so heavily that they look dead - AND Hypnos is "easily embraced," imagine Clovis having a form of charmspeak where people he puts to sleep do whatever he wants like he's a necromancer controlling the dead).

POTENTIAL WASTED!

Like, even Percy and his OPness is wasted - prophecy was once Poseidon's domain, strategy was once his domain, he used to be god of the underworld AND top god (Mycenaean - it's also where his Earth-Shaker epithet comes from). Riordan didn't even truly emphasize everything would make a child of Poseidon powerful.

Edit