Would you be willing to elaborate on why you think hoo broke the rules of the world? I didnāt like the series bc of what it did to the og character arcs but I never caught onto it breaking the rules. No pressure to do so Iām mostly just curious
lol it's okay! WEEEEEEEELLLLLLL where to begin?
Big Three Kids!
The whole point of PJO was that there was nobody like Percy. That they were rare and were destined to be hunted to death because they weren't meant to be born. So then, of course, you assume they don't exist! The ones who are alive each paid a heavy price- Bianca and Thalia died, Thalia chose immortality, Bianca and Nico each lived in a weird universe where they missed out on their own lives.
There was no real reason for Jason to be a child of Zeus other than to put him in a position of leadership, but the thing about New Rome is that they have a different system about these things anyway with their cohorts and stuff and him being Thalia's sister adds so little to anything it was just a really stupid move imo.
I get what Riordan was trying to do with Hazel by circumventing the rule-- but it feels cheap and tacky. ESPECIALLY because Hazel's powers are so badly plotted out that she could have just as easily been a child of Hecate lol.
The most baffling one, though, is FRANK who is for some reason a legacy of Poseidon? I would have thought that was cool-- like being a legacy and so many generations before you having lived out their lives despite being demigods? SUPER cool. In that case. Why is he also a son of Mars?
It feels like too much is being packed into too little and when you don't have the time to explore these things, they just seem like he's saying hey. I know I said it's rare for demigods to grow old. But that's GREEK demigods. The ROMANS are super cool and super fun and they don't stand by the same rules!
2. The actual powers themselves.
Leo, son of Hephaestus and brother of Charles Beckendorf who died in a fire- now has control over fire! Piper can basically brainwash anyone because she's got Charmspeak but wait! There's more! Her sister Drew ALSO has Charmspeak!! Both of them are, of course, sisters of a girl who was manipulated into betraying all her friends <3 Hazel's a daughter of Hades? She's magic. Also she has power over gems and knows her way underground (I cannot even begin to think of WHAT made him decide the black girl needs to play ANY of these roles but I digress). Frank's just an average son of Mars who can turn into any animal he wants, which is totally cool and normal!
Do you remember how special Percy was in PJO? How hard other demigods had to train in combat because they would be killed if they didn't learn it? Remember how absolutely rare it was to see demigods with that kind of power, to the point where Chiron didn't want Percy and Thalia to be near each other because he feared they'd destroy everything? Not anymore <3 Super Powerful Demigods can now sit together on a ship and face no consequences at all, even when they have minor disagreements because they all come together very organically !!
3. Character arcs
I know you said it, but I can't talk about HoO and not bring up Nico di Angelo. Tell me why he went through his arc TWICE in two series? Here's the reason: because Mr. Riordan didn't want to make any of the main cast gay <3 He did it for woke points, so he was like hey hold on what if. Instead of any combination of the FIVE new characters I introduced being gay... I can retcon my Straight Series so it looks like I'm far more inclusive!
Great job, Mr. Riordan. You have raised a bunch of rabid fans who like Nico now because he's Gay and not because at one point he was an innocent boy who loses everything and fights to find his way back home. His story in PJO was a large part of the Great Prophecy, and yet... all of that was washed away in order to make him Gay Gay Gay.
Percy and Annabeth, we know-- it's a travesty. Stupid Percy and Robot Annabeth we've been through this a thousand times fuck that shit but it's so disappointing because as readers WE know these characters. We know them from PJO where they were each their own person and they had some good moments but HoO effectively wiped off the super strong friendship they already had going.
4. A HALFBLOOD'S LIFE!!!!
WHY has that been cheapened to the point of a joke!! It's literally so insane like the first series is about how difficult it is to be a half-blood. Greek and Roman mythology are not as different as Greek and Egyptian, see, so TKC ad MCGA can afford to change up the rules but HoO can't. That's like. The whole point!! So to randomly say hey actually this group is perfectly fine and the reason they're living so well is because the Greeks aren't as organised is so offensive to the reader because up until now all we had was the Greek camp! He flips it over and then somehow blames US for being stupid enough to think that's the only way to live.... and still decides to give the Roman camp child soldiers?????????????????????????????????????????????? make it make sense im begging
5. The bloody GODS
What did HoO do. Like. What did it do.
Because I can tell you what PJO did. PJO was about the gods learning to hold themselves accountable for the lives they create, drew a parallel between mortals, demi-mortals and immortal beings and dissected the value of life. It was a learning curve for everyone involved: for Luke, for Percy, and for the gods he so unwaveringly served. That was the point. That Luke was right, that the gods were primarily to blame because they don't care enough about human life. That they don't even care about minor gods. They swore to change.
And HoO is like aha I know I made it a whole thing and it was a huge sacrifice on Percy's part because he was offered immortality in place of the gods being held accountable-- but sike they haven't changed, even ONE YEAR down the line.
It makes the ENTIRE first Great Prophecy a TOTAL joke. Like what was the point of ANY of that happening if the gods were jut going to revert to being the exact same???
6. Harrowing realities of war
According to the wiki, there were forty campers fighting at the Battle of Manhattan. Forty. That's how many demigods there were. Yeah, the Hunters helped and the party ponies also came in- but it was a small team of campers. Between BotL and TLO, I can think off the top of my head about Lee Mitchell, Castor or Pollux (whichever one) Charles Beckendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard who died. A lot of these characters have been mentioned before as well! And they died. Because children shouldn't be fighting a war, actually, and yet here they were, dying before they could apply to college. The finale was just this horrible moment when Silena dies and Kronos attacks Chiron and everything seems so bleak and it's when Annabeth loses faith that you know everything is going to change.
Meanwhile HoO is the most absurd final battle, I think, because if I'm being honest, I don't even know who the enemy is. First they're fighting giants then the gods arrive and Fix it for them and then they're fighting Romans and Greeks and then there's monsters in their armies? And SIKE it's actually Gaea who's the Big Bad and defeating her fixes everything as though ANY of that makes sense!! So what, then? All the work that they did in PJO- the friends they buried and the enemies they spared-- that is stupid, right, when you can just get some girl to come and scream "please stop fighting"? What is the point of the war then?
Just because it's more complicated.... doesn't make the writing good.
7. What Theme.
Percy Jackson is about finding your place in the world. It's about home and it's about hope and it's about knowing that you're never alone. That love is always the answer, that faith and belief are the only motivators and that all darkness can be defeated with light. Someoe tell me what HoO is about. Earth Bad, Teenagers Good? It's not even about bridging the gap between the Greeks and Romans which is what it ostensibly claims is the core of the series. Makes it feel like PJO was dumb to have a theme at all. <3
Look at the time lol
In summation,
PJO is a story. HoO is a bunch of scenes sewn together where every scene is designed to be more insane and also to consistently undermine everything that happens in PJO. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
