I have long lost my rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Percy. And one aspect of his story that I continue to find lacking is his wish in TLO, for multiple reasons.

I thought I would reread his wish again and point out the parts that are lacklustre or unearned.

"From now on, I want to you properly recognize the children of the gods," I said. "All the children . . .of all the gods."

This part rings hollow to me because Percy has hardly shown any concern or care for the kids of the minor gods. He did not meet Ethan until book 4 and in book 5 he threw a bigoted comment about Nemesis to his opponent. All of his close friends are kids of Olympians or Kronides (re Nico). Besides Ethan, does Percy even know the names of other minor god kids? Percy lived in the Hermes cabin for a good while...why is he not more bothered about the unclaimed kids living there up until this point?

"No more undetermined children," I said. "I want you to promise to claim your children—all your demigod children—by the time they turn thirteen. They won't be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive."

Why thirteen?! Percy knows Annabeth was only seven when she ran away, right? Percy himself was twelve when he went to camp. I guess all the kids who show up at camp before thirteen are screwed then! Bravo Percy.

"And the minor gods," I said. "Nemesis, Hecate, Morpheus, Janus, Hebe-—they all deserve a general amnesty and a place at Camp Half-Blood. Their children shouldn't be ignored. Calypso and the other peaceful Titan-kind should be pardoned too. And Hades—"

Percy, the advocate for demigods as the fandom calls him...he asks for the gods to be pardoned. But what about the TA demigods? People like Alabaster and others who are likely not going to be welcomed back at camp? I guess Percy doesn't give much of a crap about them.

"We're going to train them and accept them instead. All children of the gods will be welcome and treated with respect. That is my wish."

I think at the end of the day, Percy is 100% complicit in the system of demigods being child soldiers. When people complain how Percy wasn't bothered by Camp Jupiter and happily going to college there and benefiting from their child army...it's not OOC as people claim. This line actually proves it. Also see TC when Percy mainly cared about the Di Angelos being found so that camp would have more fighters...not because he wanted them to be safe. Or how Percy doesn't react much to Chiron commenting that it would be better for Nico to be eaten than for Kronos to get him.

In this wish, Percy NEVER asks the gods to be better parents. This wish doesn't address what Athena does to Annabeth in MoA. It doesn't address Hermes abandoning Luke to his bad fate. It doesn't address the gods treating their kids like playthings.

Which is why I find TLO an unsatisfactory ending and why HOO is the logical conclusion to this story. Sure, the kids get some new cabins...but nothing has really changed.

All of the parents knew the risks of their children being demigods, but that doesn't change all of their heartbreaks they went through due to their child. The first one was the knowledge that they could never be a normal family, that their baby was going to likely die before them. The second is their biggest fear coming true, their baby died and they didn't even get to hold them, hug them, tell them 'I love you'. They had to be informed by the children that did survive, that their child is gone, they had to stare at their child's stuff crying at the memories of their smiles and laugh when they were little.

The last time they likely even talked to their kid was before they dropped them off at camp for the summer. A summer they didn't know would end in an empty house, with echos of laughter that will never fill the warm house ever again. The pictures of their kids hanging on the walls of the once happy home. The room of their child that was still in the mess it was left in, clothes in the floor, paper everywhere, a messy bed, books with bookmarks still in them.

They couldn't even get comfort from the child's other parent due to them having multiple other partners. They had no one that understood them, no one that knew what they were going through. How could they? You can't just tell people that your child died saving the world, they'd lock you up in a mental hospital.

Do you think that the ares kid who got swallowed by a drakon the very SECOND that they joined the battle of Manhattan knows that I'm mourning for them every single day??? The text literally says 'some ares kid got swallowed' and THAT'S IT???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS HUGE SNAKE MONSTER ATE A GUY WHOLE?? YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO COMMENT?? PERCYYY????

Then, of course, he fell into Tartarus.