Okay but my favorite revelation of the Newest Olympian interview with Walker Scobell is that as much as he hates the age gap between Luke and Annabeth, he wants to play jealous Percy. He's such a Percabeth shipper someone help him

"If you want the gods' attention, you have to pay for it."

Back like in my senior year of high school I did this drawing of Nico and I decided to re do it and do something objectively cooler to close out the year (probably) (also I know he’s a McDonald’s girly but the Burger King crown slays)

So with the disney series on the way and one of my friends currently in a production of the lightning theif musical I've been getting back into pjo, and I've been listening to the newest olympian podcast (guy named mike who's never read pjo reads pjo and talks about it chapter by chapter with longtime fans), and in episode 8 he talks about how the cosmic threat (gods) is really different from the malicious threat in other books (eg voldemort) and it makes the stakes have a really different energy because it's not someone evil intentionally hurting people for personal reasons, it's larger powers at play who don't really care if they hurt people because to them it's just collateral damage.

Now of course mike is still early enough in book one that the cosmic threat is the only threat and we all know that changes as the series goes on, but it made me think about the difference between the godly antagonists and the human antagonists in pjo and how they're portrayed, and I sort of realized for the first time that, in the case of the fate of humanity, pjo doesn't have "bad guys".

There are two types of antagonist in pjo. The first are the gods/titans/other mythological beings who don't care about humans beyond what they can do for them and are mostly just fighting amongst themselves. Yeah, big bad villain Kronos isn't really a fan of humanity, but destroying humans isn't his main objective in the war. His objective is destroying the gods and taking back control. Destroying humans is a happy bonus for him, but even if he knew he wouldn't be capable of that he would still be fighting the gods.

The second type are the half blood traitors, and this is what I really care about, because Luke is an antagonist but he is NOT a villain. He's a victim. And that distinction is the entire point.

Throughout the entire series Percy shows he understands this concept. Our first minor human antagonist is Clarisse. Percy doesn't like Clarisse, but he understands she's a product of her situation and he treats her with genuine compassion even when he's not being very nice to her. He knows how important her quest is to her, that her anger stems from insecurity, and he makes sure she gets to take the fleece back even though he won't get any credit.

As the books go on we see more significant demigod antagonists who don't just bully Percy but actually betray him. It would be easy for Percy to hate them, to write them off. But he doesn't.

Nico turns on Percy several times throughout the series, always for the same reason (seeking information on his family/bianca). Someone else might see that repeated betrayal and be furious, and yes Percy is a little pissed, but his first conscious reaction is guilt that he wasn't there for Nico and his first instinct is to try and help him. He continues to trust Nico despite everything. And Nico fights alongside Percy in the very end when it counts.

Silena doesn't just betray Percy, but all of camp and by proxy all of humanity. And instead of seeing a traitor Percy sees that, just like Clarisse, just like Nico, Silena is a victim of this life they've all been forced into by their godly parents. Percy understands that the human threat has been created by the cosmic threat, and Percy turns around and says "no." He has Clarisse's back. He forgives Nico. He makes sure Silena is honored as a hero. He gives the knife to Luke.

And this is what sets pjo apart. This is why the story is so important. Luke is the ultimate traitor. He was Percy's first friend at camp after Grover, and at the end of book one he tries to kill Percy and nearly succeeds. He turns his back on the gods, offers himself to Kronos, and forsakes all of humanity. And instead of building up that animosity throughout the series and culminating with Percy killing Luke, Percy spends years trying to help him. He learns Luke's backstory. He meets his parents, the godly and the mortal. He sees Luke's experiences as what they are: trauma. He finds him and asks him to come back. He offers him his trust. Luke declines, multiple times. But Percy doesn't stop trying. And at the very end, when killing Luke is the only way to stop Kronos and Percy has the opportunity to do so, he doesn't. He is not the hero, and he knows it. Instead, he forgives Luke. He gives him the knife. He offers his trust. And Luke finally accepts.

So Luke dies, Kronos is defeated, and Percy is not victorious. He sees it as a failure that they all let it get far enough that saving Luke wasn't an option. The gods offer to grant Percy one wish as a reward for his heroism, with immortality as the implied correct choice. And Percy shocks them all and says "no. This isn't about me. It was never about me. I don't want to be a god. I want you to make sure that what happened to Luke never happens to anyone ever again."

[x]

Hell yeah Sally Jackson! Single mom! Successful artist! Supportive as heck! Taught her son manners! Aspiring writer! Murdered her ex husband and sold his corpse! Got her education! Loves her son’s friends! Back in the dating scene! Mom of the year best person Sally Jackson!

I've been listening to a percy jackson podcast recently and it's really taking me back to the good old days 🥺🥺

Just listened to The Newest Olympian’s (podcast) newest episode and Mike talks to the creators of the consensus song and apparently one of the writers was the writer of the pjo musical! (Time stamp: 6.50) This fact makes the song so much better!!

i just realized that when the newest olympian gets to the later books, Mike is gonna totally root for jiper, frazel, caleo and solangelo just because they’re canon…🫠

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OLYMPIAN

I want to talk about Silena Beauregard.

Silena Beauregard. The girl who loved Beckendorf. The daughter of Aphrodite who revolutionized her cabin (before Drew took it backwards). And the girl who, yes, was the spy.

I’ve seen some people get very negative towards her because of her role as the spy (including my favorite podcaster :/) and while yes, she did a very bad thing, I think the level of judgment towards her and the judgment of her moral character is over-the-top and a little un-empathetic. So I wanted to do a little character study on her and her time as Luke’s spy.

First of all, I will preface this by mentioning that she was a teenager. A literal child. Her brain was still developing and she probably would have made different choices if all of this had happened when she was even just a few years older.

It’s implied that before Luke left CHB, the two of them were close friends. Now if your close friend, who you previously cared about, trusted, and thought of as a rational person, suddenly up and disappears, you’re going to be worried about them. Even if you’ve heard that they did a bad thing. You’re not going to immediately jump to thinking they’re a terrible, irredeemable person. You’re going to wonder what their side of the story is, where their mind is at, and, if you truly believe they have done something wrong, you’re going to want to see if you can bring them back to the light. As someone who’s been hurt by people who I previously knew well and trusted, I know it’s really hard mentally to pivot your brain immediately from “person who I know and trust and am very close with” to “person who hurt me and others and isn’t who I thought they were at all”. Like, your brain just doesn’t emotionally process that immediately even though you know it logically. It takes time.

So she knows that he tried to kill Percy and fled camp. But Luke… that’s her friend. She knows him. There’s a certain amount of emotional denial that someone you know, trust, and care about would do something so horrible. He must be going through something, he must need help to get out of this situation. She’s not just going to give up on her friend. She’s going to want to help him come back to the good side.

So somehow she gets in contact with him. He explains his side of the story, and while she’s not on board with him trying to kill Percy, she sympathizes with his issues with the gods. He’s her friend. She doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. I hc that the contact bracelet might have started just as a way for them to keep in touch; mortal cell phones are a magnet for monster activity, and while Silena may be safely in camp, she wouldn’t want to endanger Luke (no matter that he’s already working with monsters).

Time goes on, and Silena gives Luke enough information so that he doesn’t die when people at CHB may have a plan to harm him. He’s trying to coax more and more info out of her; Luke is already good at manipulating people, and Kronos is even better. If she just gives them this and that intel, then they can avoid killing the other demigods on CHB’s side if they don’t have to. She can save lives. And Luke is probably sheltering her from the worst of it, too; if she really knew all of the things he was doing, she would be out of there in a heartbeat. When Kronos takes over Luke’s body, he probably takes it a step further by threatening to hurt Luke and the other defected demigods if Silena doesn’t give him information. Maybe not even directly. Maybe he just points out that anyone trying to hurt Kronos would also hurt Luke. She wouldn’t want that, would she?

Then Beckendorf dies.

Silena feels absolutely awful. No, worse than awful. Everyone thinks she’s only upset because her boyfriend died, but it’s more than that. He died because of intel that she gave Kronos. He died because she played along all this time. She let herself get strung along as it slowly got worse and worse.

But here’s the thing. Kronos is still the master manipulator. He would tell her that, well, it was Beckendorf and Percy that blew up the ship. It’s Beckendorf’s own fault that those explosives were in place and went off when they did. That’s not Kronos’s fault! And at the same time, wouldn’t it be so messed up if the rest of the camp learned that she was the spy? She better keep quiet if he doesn’t want to expose her.

So maybe she agrees to keep quiet, to save her own skin, but she thinks that she won’t give him any more intel. This is where it gets a bit more tricky for me: trying to find a reason why she kept spying after Beckendorf’s death. We know that Kronos told Percy that there was a spy, and once the whole camp knew, everyone was ready to tear whoever it was to shreds. Kronos could point out to her that she’s become their enemy. She’s put herself in this situation, and now everyone she knows at camp is out for her blood.

I hc that Silena didn’t actually give him that much intel after Beckendorf’s death, though. Not as much as he said she did. He had eyes and ears everywhere, he could have found his intel other ways. He told Percy about the spy and sensationalized her role in order to make her look bad and turn the camp against her and, in turn, her against the camp. As an incentive to keep her quiet. He thought he could salvage his spy by blackmailing her and turning the camp against her, but her will was stronger than that. So strong in fact, that in the end she died impersonating Clarisse in order to give CHB a fighting chance against Kronos.

Was she perfect? Far from it! But they were at war! And one of her closest friends was manipulating her! I think the quote “if a frog is placed into a pot of boiling water it will immediately try to jump out; but if it’s placed into a pot of cool water that’s gradually heated until boiling, it will stay put and never try to jump out” is a very good metaphor for what happened to Silena. It began with checking up with her friend to see if he’s ok and find out what’s going on, and ended with her committing espionage. If she had had the foresight to know what would become of Luke and her role in the war, she never would have done it. She just got cornered.

That’s not to say that she’s not at fault or not to blame. There were times when she could have come clean and stopped spying, especially at the end. I just think the idea that she’s this terrible irredeemable person, or that her actions are not understandable, is not true at all. I wanted to address it since I’ve been seeing it lately (cough cough The Newest Olympian podcast cough cough).

I’m so excited to see the new fans reactions to Luke being the traitor, it’s gonna be so entertaining

I’m currently obsessed with “The Newest Olympian with Mike Schubert” (I’m on episode 72, which is chapter 14 of BotL) and I’m waiting for the inevitable “I kind of don’t like Rachel because she kissed Percy and I ship Percabeth” to come out of Mike and for him to theorize that Riptide is the “cursed blade shall reap”.

the titans curse is the best book of pjo idc if you disagree im not taking constructive criticism. its about the role of fate / tragedy / the real world / friendships / love and loss / complicated familial relationships / grappling with your choices / what defines a hero / what defines a villain / sacrifice / honor / selflessness / pride / & doing what is right versus what feels good to make the world a better place

autism is fun because I will say I hate listening to podcasts and audio books bc I can’t understand anything. But I will also get obsessed with one and not be in contact with anyone for a couple of days just to find out that I forgot my computer at school because I listened to said podcast.

if u love percy jackson you really really really should listen to the newest olympian. i just. love percy and love tno and mike so so so so so so much. i need everyone to love them too

can’t believe my 1st pjo fic is one based off a joke in tno