Chiv

Answer - Tyler, the Creator

It's been close to eight years since I first read The Lightning Thief (so if I'm wrong about anything, please tell me!), but I do somewhat remember how the unveiling of the Lotus Casino's curse went. To me, it marked two very important moments in both the book and the series as a whole. 1) The trio rests. I remember by this point in the book, I had felt bad for Percy and gang cause of the absolute hell they just went through. When they decided to stay at Lotus for a while and play games, I didn't blame them. They were finally able to have fun, as (at least in Percy and Annabeth's case) pre-teens are supposed to do. It was the first time they got to relax and have fun and not worry about the quest. At this point, I wouldn't even blame them for ditching the quest altogether. It was almost impossible. Even if they felt as if they had extra time, the road that lied ahead of them was dangerous and would almost certainly end in death. Lotus promised them an eternity of fun activities, how could they say no? Which leads me directly into my second point: 2) Percy is wrong. I am well aware that the books being in Percy's POV is the hardest problem the show needs to remedy, that said, the Lotus Casino struck me as extremely important because for the first time in the book, I had to question how reliable Percy was as a narrator. Like I said above, when he was first giving in to the Lotus' trap, I thought he was being genuine! I thought they were genuinely tired and just wanted to have a little fun. The realization Percy makes that the Casino is a trap and the subsequent realization that they had spent four days in what felt like a matter of hours was huge because it showed that Percy never actually wavered from his heroic spirit, he was being tricked into doing so. The show, in my opinion, deviated too far from the source on both of these points. The journey up until this point felt nowhere near as stressful as the books did. I blame this primarily in the episodes being 30-40 mins instead of 50-60, as well as the fact that the season was only greenlit for 8 episodes (I really hope season 2 is double length). Regardless, information is given way too easily in the show. I know it's hard to show the Percy's inner thoughts through the screen, but at least have him figure stuff out! Don't just have Hermes make a snide remark at Percy who then instantly realizes what happened. Let Percy be wrong. Have him talk to Annabeth and try and convince her to stay. Tell her she's being too uptight and they have plenty of time to reach the Underworld. These are the things that made the Lotus Casino so important. We got to see the trio have fun, almost like a checkpoint making sure they still really wanted to complete the quest. I mean, who in their right mind would continue to risk their life when they're in a place that provides them with free housing and entertainment forever? The trio's carelessness with the extra time they had before the solstice is what made it such a gut-punch when you find out that they had stayed there for longer than they perceived: the shock didn't simply come from the fact that time was up. This brings me to what I will call: The elephant in the room. The deadline has passed. Percy receives four pearls instead of three. What gives? I don't hate to see the change and, despite what the majority of this posts suggests, I am still a huge fan of the show. However, part of me wonders whether the changes to make them miss the solstice and include a fourth pearl were made just to throw off book-readers. It seems odd, but it's the only reason that I can see right now that explains it. Hopefully the next two episodes will prove me wrong, but if I'm not, let me say this: We fell in love with the story as it is. No one expects it to be 1:1, but to change it for the sake of keeping us in suspense isn't what we really want. I feel like that sums up all of it pretty well, so I'll leave it as that and make it my TL;DR. I am curious to see the conclusion of the show and despite it all am still praying for a season 2.