🎶 I don’t, don’t really know what I’m doing 🎶

She/her | Pjo sideblo

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Introduction

I go by she/her. Call me Tasha, or just about whatever. Pjo sideblog. Mainly Nico-centric <3

Be warned: I do not really like Solangelo.

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"Reyna is her own person, she doesn't owe Nico anything and has the autonomy to join the Hunt" and "Reyna joining the Hunt was a very poor writing choice" are two statements which can and should co-exist, actually.

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Let's please talk about how well-written Nico's abandonment issues and trauma were actually.

(Excerpt 1: Blood of Olympus, Nico's PoV)

(Excerpt 2: Blood of Olympus, Nico's PoV)

Well, the implications from excerpt one are interesting: it was from a fever dream/nightmare sequence (?) - in Nico's case his dreamscape usually represents painful memories.

Additionally, the way it's framed gives that impression of being left behind; Nico simply watches from afar, he isn't even at the same table (which is big given how they spent a fair amount of time tethered to each other and now...).

Now, excerpt two makes it more interesting because Nico doesn't attribute the abandonment to Bianca's choice, he attributes it to the Hunters, essentially shifting the agency. He's right in a way of course because the Hunters did manipulate Bianca, but Nico doesn't know that. He wasn't present and he was simply told that she made the decision to join the Hunt.

It's very intriguing because Nico essentially viewed it as "they stole her" and not "she left me", probably because it would hurt less, or maybe because he could never blame Bianca for anything - she left Elysium without even informing him but he never brings that up or holds it against her (I understand that she would want a second life, and she was still young but from Nico's PoV I think this part is an interesting detail).

Oh, and also - love how in this excerpt he views people as "stolen"/'can be stolen'. That's a puerile sentiment. It's something you usually see in very young insecure children. Again, pretty intriguing because Nico is rather mature for his age but the sentiment is very fitting: he was a naive kid when it all happened and he never really got the chance to process that abandonment in a healthy way, so...

Anyways, yeah. I think his abandonment issues and trauma were well done even with the scant page time.

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Let's address the elephant in the room: Pjo!Nico, SoN + MoA!Nico, HoH+BoO!Nico and ToA!Nico are essentially four different characters with the same name.

First off, Nico's character was centered primarily around platonic + familial love, identity in vastly different tempo-cultural environment from the one in which he was born, grief, abandonment and finding acceptance among others. A principle highlight of his character development was coming to terms with Bianca's death:

(Battle of the Labyrinth; in this pivotal scene Nico accepts Bianca must stay where she is: receipt 1)

However, moving on to Son of Neptune, we come across the first major (and highly unfavorable) aberration his character undergoes:

(Son of Neptune, receipt 2)

This was a major disservice to his character development. The Doylist explanation? He needed to be used as a plot device for Hazel's resurrection - which is bluntly put - unnecessary; the doors of death were open, she could've returned simply as an escaped soul.

Now in House of Hades, we run into yet another bad retcon - the crush on Percy and the botched recontextualization. Overlaying a deeply platonic relationship with a major one-sided crush requires a lot of craft, thought and subtlety - work Riordan failed to put in. We can clearly see how Nico's thoughts, attitude and behaviour towards Percy are very different after the retcon; this can be illustrated very easily by drawing a comparison:

(House of Hades; Nico is implied to be deeply bitter towards Percy: receipt 3)

(House of Hades; Percy tries to thank Nico with regards to Bob the Titan and his experience in Tartarus, only for Nico to snub him: receipt 4)

Vs

(Son of Neptune; like an "incantation": receipt 5)

(Son of Neptune: receipt 6)

(Mark of Athena; Nico and Percy's conversation: receipt 7)

In receipts (3 and 4) Nico is bitter towards Percy alongside the crush, demonstrated by the way he snubbed him.

Now this really does not track at all. Note the tone and choice of words in the receipts 5 and 6- Nico describes Percy as trustworthy, a threat only to his enemies. The word "incantation" - what sentiments does this highlight? Fascination, admiration, a certain degree of reverence even. Do you see hostility or bitterness anywhere?

Note the contrast against how he addresses him in receipt 7 as opposed to the unwarranted snub - he apologizes and explains his situation. In fact, he's in a far worse mental and physical state in Mark of Athena than in the House of Hades.

Another major ham-fisted retcon is the whole "you pushed everyone away" being attributed to his internalised homophobia, instead of being attributed to the horrifying trauma which would've made a lot more sense in terms of continuity because if the former were true, Nico would've pushed everyone since Son of Neptune, but we can see there isn't any good truth to the idea:

(Son of Neptune; Frank calls Nico, a gesture Nico reciprocates with a smile receipt 8).

(Son of Neptune: receipt 9)

(Son of Neptune: receipt 10)

We can infer from receipts 8 to 10 that Nico actually tries quite well to interact with people in a environment that was decidedly averse to his parentage.

It's actually simple. Riordan pulled a lot of post hoc changes to fit in the whole crush on Percy +internalized homophobia retcon, which damaged Nico's character significantly.

In ToA, most of his character is flattened to "Will Solace's emo bickering boyfriend", and he barely brings up his platonic relationships with Reyna and Hazel, which were very important to him throughout BoO.

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I'm afraid they'll just have to pry (gay oriented) aroace Nico di Angelo out of my cold, dead hands <3

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I love how Nico's full name can often be translated into 'Angel of Victory' - he very much is a harbinger of the same given how he's consistently played a major role in all three final battles across the pjo-hoo-toa continuum and the direct foil to this with how people (esp. Camp Jupiter) view him as a bad omen.... that's the kind of poetic irony I love.

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Returning to my roots again with a meta on smart Nico di Angelo:

Nico is a clever manipulator and talker - and a good ambassador by virtue of that quality

That was really a quick and good choice of words - interesting how Nico has been capable of manipulation since he was 12.

Nico was smart enough to realise that he couldn't disclose Percy's past in any way - the two camps had to be kept apart, hence he goes out of his way to manipulate Percy into thinking they hadn't even met before and withheld information about the existence of the Greek camp. Nico adapts very well to his role as ambassador.

A more subtle instance but as Hazel lays it out, he keeps the statement vague, giving the impression that he'd simply run into her in New Orleans - very different from the complete truth.

Additional notes: Nico not only kept his cover as a greek demigod, but also effectively tricked Jupiter's campers about how he found Hazel (as she states in the excerpt above). It's also worth noting how neither Jason nor Reyna caught on about any of Nico's concealed truths concerning Hazel and his Greek origins despite being senior and more experienced to him in social matters (and both of them are canonically implied to be good readers of people).

Nico is a quick-witted and good strategist /tactician

Nico is the one to come up with a plan to save them from lycaon.

Here he gives Dakota the idea of creating a distraction and how to do so.

And he gives the idea to redirect the onagers, which worked pretty well.

In the Tower of Nero, he is the one who to come up with a plan to disable the vats using the hint from the prophecy.

Nico also consistently demonstrates himself to quick on the uptake, logical and knowledgeable. Oh, and yes he also researched and formulated the plan to make Percy invincible.

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Hi! What are your takes/ideas on fanon Nico ships/shipping + Solangelo?

Oh anon, you've opened the can of worms, haven't you?

Well, I do ship Nico a fair bit with Apollo (they're my OTP) - only in adulthood (when he's well into his mid 20s something) and keep that decade long stretch for his healing processe. I would consider myself a very casual/occasional shipper of the other popular fanon pairs (such as Valdangelo, Jasico and Percico).

As for Solangelo, I was dead apathetic about them during the introduction and felt they were bland at best or straight up problematic moments at worst; Trials of Apollo only worsened it.

All that being said my hot take is that I primarily view Nico in light of his platonic relations over his romantic ones and I tend to fixate/think about them more. My default view of his life usually focuses on his found family (Coach Hedge, Reyna and Hazel - with Jason it's on and off depending on whether I want to leave him dead or keep him alive 🫢 and sometimes, a Percy cameo).

And there's also the part about how Nico can be read as being (a gay oriented) aroace coded character and I like exploring that aspect, so I also put him in QPRs with a bunch of characters (Leo, Percy, Jason, Frank sometimes and Reyna too).

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I've been thinking about how Nico's association as prince of the Underworld can be interpreted as a beautiful metaphorical connection to his dichotomous personality in general.

The underworld encompasses different region with of diverse natures - The fields of Elysium along with the Isles of Blessed represent the best, and the fields of punishment, tartarus and land of sorrow, in direct contrast, represent some of the worst things...

I don't have the words to articulate this well, but it can be read as an interesting parallel to Nico's own persona: he has great capacity for violence, destruction and a streak of ruthlessness, yet his PoVs are abrim with so much love for his friends, consideration and genuine good intent.

As a side, I feel very few characters in the continuum have such a consistent, overarching and strong juxtaposition of contrasting traits as Nico does.

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A while ago I read an amazing post talking about how victims of trauma are rarely ever portrayed as having "unacceptable" trauma responses - and that actually got me thinking about Nico, because he's one of the rare characters in the riordanverse who actually shows the so-called "problematic" or "unpalatable" responses and displays clear signs of poor adjustment - he can get pretty mouthy, curt and has a certain proclivity towards aggression /physical destruction:

(Case A: He tears up an entire courtyard)

(Case B: He is very close to initiate a physical fight)

I was pretty intrigued about it all, because it would be great to see a beloved character who showed the other side of how negative experiences affect people, and they also deserve support.

Not so coincidentally, however, Nico is vilified as an unlikeable weirdo in most of the characters' PoVs throughout the House of Hades, and that's simply glossed over.

I love the bond Nico shares with Jason and Reyna, but even they weren't soft on him until they had seen him go through a difficult experience first-hand and feel a portion of his pain, respectively - which is just...

The fandom is no better, with its tendency to often flanderize Nico in similar ways (or the UwU baby cinnamon roll trope - which is a topic for another day).

Anyways, the ableist undertones and the missed potential of Nico's portrayal as a trauma victim is something I think about quite a bit.

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I know a lot of us hate what happened to Nico's character since House of Hades, and I think it actually boils down to one thing: the displacement of Nico's fundamental themes and arc.

Nico's character was built on platonic and familial love, on the desire for connection and acceptance. In the original series it was about Bianca, his past and indentity; for some time it holds up in Heroes of Olympus - in the Son Of Neptune, he tries his level best to associate with people at Camp Jupiter - comforting Gwendolyn when she returns to life, discussing war strategy for the games, being a spectator of the games from the watch tower and earnest in his duties as an ambassador despite Camp Jupiter's dislike for his heritage - he tried to connect and belong in spite of his personal turmoil and the Roman demigods' aversion.

Why do you think he was one of the first demigods in a long time to stop and talk to Hestia, the goddess of family? Or the fact that he sought connection in the dead when the living rejected him, even going far enough to give his sister Hazel another chance at life (problems regarding this aspect notwithstanding)?

His story was about seeking acceptance and belonging, dealing with grief and abandonment*, platonic and familial bonds, identity in a world which wasn't his - not in time, not in culture. It was about all of this and so much more.

In fact, his relationship and feelings towards Percy were platonic - which is exactly what it made it so beautiful; they loved and "hated" each other the way siblings do!

Now enter Riordan and House of Hades: bluntly put, the whole "Erm ackshually 🤓☝️, Nico has a crush on Percy since years, he isn't pushing people because of his isolation and personal issues - you see, he actually has this huge complex over his romantic orientation as a gay guy which is going to be resolved largely off-screen after he gets to hold hands with a side character" retcon was a major disservice to everything about Nico and his character, but ok.

All that being said, you're probably thinking "OP, you mean Nico shouldn't have been queer?" - no! Nico could've been queer in ways which perfectly fit everything previously established about him without coming off as a botched retcon - he has quite a few motifs gender queer allegories (enby Nico? Yes.), and could've worked great as a gay oriented aroace character in Trials of Apollo.

On that note, characters like Piper, Leo, Jason and even Percy would've been way better fits for diverse orientations. Piper could've been sapphic/lesbian, Leo could've been gay, Jason and Percy could've been Bi.

but Riordan barely ever puts thought into his diversity so

Anyways, yeah. I just think the way it went down was, well - sad.

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Been thinking about the Cupid Scene for a bit, and something just occurred to me that Nico doesn't get to defeat Cupid and reclaim power...which doesn't make sense at all given how Riordan keeps pulling shit out of thin air to give the demigods victory over their divine/godly persecutors.

Gaia played a part in Hazel's trauma, and Hazel literally crushed the primordial goddess in her own domain. Khione messed with festus, and Leo gets to defeat her in a battle. When khione humiliates Piper, once again, the latter has her moment in the house of hades. I could go on...

It's also worth considering that Nico and Jason, two powerful children from two members of the big three, both used their powers in the scene - and Jason almost struck him.

This makes even less sense because pjo and co. are known to be wish-fulfilment/escapism. Why is it that the courtesy of wish fulfilment was not extended to the first queer character of the books? The queer character was placed on a pedestal of suffering right off the bat...

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Ever since everyone started fawning over Solangelo, I felt most of them didn't actually care about Nico as a character. Like, what do you mean this boy who has so much potential for a good arc (development as well) now needs to hold hands with a random side character, and somehow you're exalting it?

Unsurprisingly, the solangelo fanbase keeps turning Nico into this "UwU soft little emo twink who needs his boyfriend as his nanny" cliche (or some other variant along those lines).

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Do you ever think about how Nico's poor mental and emotional state could cause unrest among the ghosts as he's their king?

And Nico feeling guilty about because it's not something he can fix immediately.

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Figure skater Nico di angelo who has an unparalleled degree of technical perfection and grace on the ice rink...

(please don't tag/add with Solangelo).

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Figure skater Nico, but it's him shaking off the injuries and the consequent pain he suffers during training/practice because he's used to wayyy worse due to his time as a warrior and you know, pretty much everything else which went down from pjo to toa.

(please don't tag/add with Solangelo).

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"Nico is ugly like a rat, he's an eldritch being-"

If I may, in a platonic blorbo way, make a case for Nico di Angelo being conventionally attractive:

-The Last Olympian

Percy describes his hair as silky.

-Blood of Olympus, Reyna's PoV

Now, about the semantics, angelic can mean quite a few things, for eg innocent, kind or like an angel. Here, his surname 'di Angelo' has been invoked - so in this context the meaning is more akin to angelic as in 'like an angel', beings known for being very beautiful. She also makes this statement after the frown lines vanishing reference - so I think it's safe to say that all that mental and physical strain really didn't favour his looks, which otherwise seem to be favorable.

-Trials of Apollo, Lester's/Apollo's PoV

That's the god of male beauty being wax poetic about his smile. Nough said.

-Trials of Apollo, Lester's/Apollo's PoV

So, per the pjo-hoo-toa continuum, Nico has silky hair which smell like petrichor, a nice smile (when it's genuine) and an angelic face.

I was bored so I absolutely had to make an analysis on something this random and trivial. Lol.