I've seen fans be extremely critical about the changes made to the show and I get it, but this finale cements why I can't agree. A lot of adaptations make unnecessary changes with no valuable reason behind them. They do it just to do it or because they think it hits a trend. But this show feels so obviously different. Every big change feels like it's being made for one of two reasons:
To fit within the constraints of a new medium that comes with a budget (ie the battle of Miami taking place at Camp Half-Blood, condensing certain story points to one location)
To build the characters further, to emphasize their traits and flaws, to make the story more complex (ie the Siren scene including Athena, Thalia being turned into a tree as punishment, giving us more Clarisse and Luke)
It feels like Rick Riordan is coming back to the story with all of the growth he's had since writing the first book and he's evolving the story to meet him and a modern audience as well as the book lovers. And he's also letting the show's team of writers pitch in ideas and using them to build the story into something more. That's how you should make adaptation changes.
