we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason
i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3
unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it
i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map
i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs
this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.
crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.
Reasons why I personally headcanon Percy as a person of color
A post that became way longer than it had any right to be
Warning: this is a really long post. It has close to 8000 words. If you are not interested in reading it, do not click on the keep reading “button” and please just scroll past it. Scrolling past it after accidentally clicking on the "keep reading button" will probably become very annoying very quickly.
You have now officially been warned.
Recently, under a rant that I posted on ao3, someone asked me why I personally headcanon Percy as a person of color (specifically as Syrian) and I wanted to quickly answer that.
I am however a person who is incapable of keeping herself short in her explanations, especially when they concern Percy, so the “quick answer” turned into this 8000-word long post.
I should probably start with the simplest answer:
I’ve personally pictured Percy as Syrian since I first read the books.
When I was like 8, or 9, I was close friends with a classmate in elementary school, who also had the black hair, light eyes combo, and whose family originated in Syria. So, ever since then, I pictured Percy looking like that.
Not much analysis here required, I admit. 9-year old me didn't really think much further than that.
However, that was only the original reason of this headcanon.
As I got older and reread the books more critically, I started realizing that this headcanon actually works for me on more than just a personal level. I genuinely think reading Percy as a person of color adds to his story and fits surprisingly well with the text.
First, I should say that I’m aware that this is purely a headcanon.
I very much think that Rick Riordan always intended for Percy to be read as a white person.
He never explicitly calls him a person of color in the way that he does with his canonically non-white characters like Beckendorf, Ethan, Leo, Piper, Hazel, Carter, etc. In comparison to them, Percy’s ethnicity is left ambiguous, which considering he was created in the early 2000s by a white author, highly likely means that he is supposed to be white.
Additionally, almost every single one of his canon portrayals outside the books is white. That includes most of his actors, not only Logan Lermann and Walker Scobell, but also most of the actors who played Percy in the musical. (Actors like Chris McCarrell or Max Harwood for example), and also both of his official arts by Antonio Caparo and Viria respectively.
So, Rick probably always intended for Percy to be a white person.
However, when I create headcanons or analyse characters, I don’t really care for the author’s intention. I only care about what he included in his books, and I dismiss every piece of information outside of it.
In Percy’s case, that means I’m personally only considering the original five Percy Jackson books, short stories like The Bronze Dragon, Stolen Chariot, Sword of Hades, Staff of Hermes and Singer of Apollo, parts of Heroes of Olympus, and a very little bit of Trials of Apollo.
And the books themselves are far more ambiguous about the subject.
Now, before I continue, I should probably mention that I’m a white woman. Like, pale white. Pale in a way that I look like a Victorian child, who died of tuberculosis.
I feel the need to point this out, because I know it can get very problematic when especially white fans headcanon specific ethnicities onto characters, or just generally headcanon characters as people of color. That can easily reinforce harmful stereotypes, like when making a “smart, nerdy” character Chinese, an “aggressive, male” character arab or the “loud, sassy best friend” Black. I’ve tried my best to be mindful of that here. But I also know that a lack of personal experience can breed ignorance and blind spots, and unfortunately no one is above unconscious bias.
So, if I’ve framed anything poorly or overlooked something important, I’m very open to correction and happy to revise my thinking.
Also, I tried my best to write this post with the necessary tact. Mostly when I write about Percy, I exclusively write about fictional characters and worlds. That is not entirely the case here.
Part of my argumentation will be about how reading Percy as a person of color (specifically Syrian) can add further impact and layers to the treatment he receives in school and from the media. For that, I will be talking about issues and biases that exist in the real world and affect and harm real people. So, this post is a bit more serious than my others, and I hope I treated the subject with the necessary tact and respect.
With that context in mind, there are four main reasons why I personally continue to read Percy as a person of color, specifically, as someone of Syrian descent.
His actual physical description in the books
The way Percy gets treated within the mortal world
Percy’s story and the themes embedded in PJO
Personal preference
1. His actual physical description in the books.
(I think I should mention before I start my argumentation here, that I am aware that Syria is an ethnically very diverse place where a lot of different people live, including people who are pale and dark skinned. This specific part of my argumentation is about how Percy is generally described as being very "tan".. However, I do not mean to generalize and say that all Syrians look the same. In Percy’s specific case, I just personally read him as having a darker complexion, additionally to being Syrian.)
What really helps this headcanon is that Percy has never been explicitly described as white (at least to my knowledge). He has consistently been described as having a “mediterranean complexion” or as being “tan”:
‘Graecus means Greek.’ ‘Is that bad?’ Percy asked. Frank cleared his throat. ‘Maybe not. You’ve got that type of complexion, the dark hair and all. Maybe they think you’re actually Greek.’ (The Son of Neptune, Chapter 3, Percy)
His dark hair was swept to one side, like he’d just come from a walk on the beach. He looked even better than he had six months ago—tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular. (Mark of Athena, Chapter 2, Annabeth)
Granted, that does not necessarily mean Percy is a Person of color. “Mediterranean complexion” and “tan” are vague terms and can include people from a lot of different countries. From European countries like southern Greek and Italy to west Asian countries like Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, to north African countries like Egypt and Morocco. I mean, the book even points out, that Frank thinks Percy’s family might be from Greece.
However, it does at least mean that his canon appearance is (probably) not pale in the way that Logan Lerman, Walker Scobell or his official artworks are.
(No hate to the actors obviously. Both of them are very talented and while I am not a fan of how either of their Percy’s are written, I 100% believe both could perfectly embody Percy with the right script)
Additionally, it is oftentimes stated that Percy looks very much like Poseidon. Apollo himself notices their likeliness in his narration in THO:
“As usual, I was struck by his resemblance to his father, Poseidon. He had the same sea-green eyes, the same dark tousled hair, the same handsome features that could shift from humor to anger so easily.”
In the past, Poseidon has been described as not only having a “Mediterranean complexion”, which, like already stated, could include just slightly darker skin than pale, but he has been described as “deeply tanned”.
His skin was deeply tanned (…) his hair was black, like mine. His face had the same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel. (The Lightning Thief, chapter 21)
And even though the descriptions remain broad, I personally tend to read descriptions like ‘olive skin,’ ‘Mediterranean complexion,’ or ‘deeply tanned’ as very compatible with brown or non-white characters.
In early YA fiction of the 2000s and 2010s especially, authors often used vague descriptors like that to describe characters of color or characters whose ethnicity was left intentionally ambiguous.
Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games is maybe the biggest example of that. She is consistently described as having “olive skin” and “black hair”, which led to many fans thinking she is meant to be a poc. I think the most popular head canon for Katniss within the fandom is that she is native American.
Similar to Percy, Magnus Bane from the shadow hunter series, who is half-indonesian, has been described as tanned in city of bones as well:
"Clary could tell from the curve of his sleepy eyes and the gold tone of his evenly tanned skin that he was part Asian. He wore jeans and a black shirt covered with dozens of metal buckles..."
And in a later book (Clockwork Angel), he has been explicitly described as having brown skin:
"His hair was like rough black silk, so dark it had a bluish sheen to it; his skin was brown, the cast of his features like Jem’s."
Meaning that while these types of descriptions don’t necessarily have to mean that the character they are describing is a person of color or has brown skin, they certainly can and have been used in the past to describe such characters.
One of the reasons why I personally headcanon Percy as Syrian, rather than as another ethnicity, is simply because his general physical description is very much compatible with many people from the Levant, including Syria. Syria has historically been a crossroad of cultures, migration, and exchange, and, because of that, Percy’s canonical features of dark hair and “mediterranean complexion, especially in combination with his green eyes, is more common in west asia, than in many other parts of the world.
But aside from his physical description, another reason, why I think this headcanon can be plausible and even add layers to Percy’s characterization, is because of the amount of bullshit he has to deal with in the mortal world.
He is constantly getting unfairly judged or blamed for things that are not his fault. Some of the ways Percy gets treated could be read, if one chooses to headcanon him as a person of color, as potentially intensified by racial bias.
2. The way Percy gets treated in the mortal world
There are three areas I want to focus on here:
How he gets treated within the school system
How the media treats him in “The Lightning Thief”
And two other singular instances, that are not part of a broader pattern, but, I think, still worth mentioning
School System:
It is unfortunately well documented that students of color in the United States are often treated unfairly and get disciplined more harshly than their white peers for similar behavior.
Research from the American Psychological Association, the Government Accountability Office, and other educational institutions has repeatedly found that Black students, in particular, are punished more frequently and more severely for minor infractions than white students in similar positions.
Ming-te Wang, professor for psychology at the university of Pittsburgh for example stated in her co-authored paper “The Roles of Suspensions for Minor Infractions and School Climate in Predicting Academic Performance Among Adolescents” :
“Unfortunately, we were not surprised by the findings, considering what we know about the role of racial bias in painting school adults’ views of African American youth as less innocent, older and more aggressive than their white peers. Regardless of the behavior that African American youth engage in, that behavior is viewed by educators as more worthy of harsh school discipline like a suspension.”
There is less large-scale data on Arab American students specifically (mostly because students of West Asian and North African descent have historically been categorized as “white” on demographic forms) but educational institutions like the Arab American Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Education have also documented clear evidence of bias and discrimination toward Arab, Muslim, and Muslim-perceived students in schools, especially after political events like 9/11, or the genocide against the people of Palestine.
None of this means Percy’s treatment in canon has to be read through a racial lens. His poverty, school reputation, and neurodivergence can already explain it on their own. But if one chooses to read Percy as Syrian or otherwise Arab (or of course, as whatever you personally headcanon him as) some of his repeated experiences of being singled out, unfairly blamed, and punished in school in comparison to his peers can fit this larger pattern.
We see two examples of Percy’s school life throughout Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus and both follow a very similar pattern. One is in the lightning Thief, and the other is in Sea of monsters and in both instances, Percy has troubles with bullies, who instigate a confrontation with him, and as soon as that trouble escalates, the bullies get away scot free, while Percy is the one that gets in trouble.
At Yancy Academy, the bully is Nancy Bobofit.
Nancy is the obvious aggressor between the two of them and doesn’t try to hide it at all. She openly throws bits of her sandwich unprovoked at Grover, tries to steal a woman’s purse in a public location, and dumps her entire meal onto Grover’s lap on this one fieldtrip alone.
Yet, we don’t see her suffer any consequence for this pattern of repetitive behavior. Percy even states, that the only teacher in the entirety of Yancy Academy, who ever reprimands Nancy for her actions is Chiron:
At least Nancy got packed too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 1)
None of the other teachers or the principal seem to ever criticize her behavior.
Percy meanwhile only engages with Nancy when he defends either himself or Grover from Nancy’s bullying. It is clearly stated in the text that that’s the main reason he gets into fights with her:
I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends (…) All year long, I’d gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 2)
Yet, he is the one, who gets punished for it. Not only does his headmaster warn him not to cause any trouble at the field trip (while not doing the same towards Nancy):
Anyway, Nacy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich (…) and she knew I couldn’t do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster threatened me with death by in school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 1)
But he also expelled him from Yancy, partly because of these fights:
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 2)
It speaks of at least some sort of double standard between Percy and other students.
It is similar in Sea of monsters with Matt Sloan.
Matt Sloan is portrayed as a rich teenager, who takes everything he has for granted and is the biggest bully at school.
He, for example, starts a wedgie contest between the seventh and eight graders, two pebble fights and a full tackle basketball game:
What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eight graders, two pebble fights and a full-tackle basketball game. The school bully, matt sloan, led most of those activities. (Sea of Monsters, Chapter 2)
He also openly bullies Tyson, going so far as to loudly calling him the r-word, and later steals one of Percy’s notebooks during class. Like Nancy Bobofit, he doesn’t seem to attempt to hide what he is doing, yet he never gets reprimanded for it.
Percy meanwhile doesn’t seem to partake in any of the aforementioned activities, only engaged Matt Sloan when he actively bullied Tyson, and as far as we know, didn’t disturb the school in any way.
However, he still gets immediately blamed for burning down the gym, based purely on Matt Sloan’s testimony, and the agreement of a p.e. teacher, who has been deeply focused on a magazine only seconds prior:
“Percy Jackson?” Mr. Bonsai said. “What … how …” Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. “Head hurts.” Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. “Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!” Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck-he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. “Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm.” The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth. (Sea of Monsters, Chapter 2)
And even after Chiron manages to make the mortals believe the gym exploded because of furnace explosion and that Percy is completely innocent in the matter, the school still expelled Percy, because he has, and I quote, “an un-groovy karma that disrupted the school’s educational aura”. (Sea of monsters, chapter 20)
Mind you, again, we have not seen a single instance of Percy disrupting the classes in any way.
Again, this does not mean Percy’s treatment is canonically racialized. His ADHD, poverty, and reputation as a “problem student” already explain much of it. Both Nancy Bobofit and Matt Sloan are also explicitly portrayed as the children of very rich parents, which could obviously also explain why they are held to a different standard than Percy who comes from a poor background:
They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives or ambassadors or celebrities. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 2)
He always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to know how little he cared about his family’s money. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he’d taken his daddy’s Porsche for a joyride and ran into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign. (Sea of Monsters chapter 2)
However, if one reads Percy as Syrian (or, generally as a person of color), these repeated moments of adults assuming the worst about him can begin to feel like part of a broader pattern and can seem reflective of real-life treatment of students of color.
A similar bias exists in media narratives.
Media
There is a high double standard in the us media between the way white perpetrators and victims are framed and talked about and how criminals and victims, who are people of color get talked about.
Scott Duxbury, Laura Frizell and Sadé Lindsay, three sociology doctoral students at Ohio state, published for example in July 2018 a study in the Journal of Research in crime and delinquency, called “Mental Illness, the Media, and the Moral Politics of Mass Violence: The Role of Race in Mass Shootings Coverage.”
Their study found that white shooters were 95 percent more likely to be described as “mentally ill” than black shooters, and even when black shooters were given that description, the coverage was still harsher on them. When shooters were framed as mentally ill, 78% of white attackers were described as victims of society, while the same narrative was used for only 17% of black attackers.
They explicitly say that white shooters are often framed as sympathetic characters who were suffering from extreme life circumstances, while black shooters are usually described as “dangerous” and a “menace to society”.
Similarly, in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative, the Global Strategy Group, a leading research, communications, and public affairs firm in the us, published a report on the role of racial bias in the media, called , Innocent Until Proven Guilty? A look at media coverage of criminal defendants in the U.S.. This report used data from several criminal cases to analyze how differently black defendants and white defendants are portrayed.
The study found huge disparity in 20 different topics, including the use of imagery, language choices, etc.
It found, for example, that
Mugshots were used in coverage of 45% of cases involving Black people accused of crimes compared to only 8% of cases involving white defendants
White victims were nearly four times more likely to be presented in photos with friends and family than Black people victimized by crime, which reinforces existing tendencies to dehumanize black pain and suffering
Media coverage was 50% more likely to refer to white defendants by name as compared to Black defendants
The three words most used in characterizing white defendants were “father”, “son” and “man”, while the three words most used in characterizing black defendants were “murder”, “accused” and “arrested”
Quotes from family and friends were nearly twice as likely to appear in articles about white defendants than articles about Black defendants.
Although much of the strongest empirical research focuses on anti-Black bias, scholars have documented similar patterns of dehumanization, suspicion, and criminalization affecting Arab and Muslim communities, especially post-9/11.
For example, the report “Equal Treatment? Measuring the Legal and Media Responses to Ideologically Motivated Violence in the United States, released by the Washington-based Institute for Social Policy and Understanding stated that among perpetrators of ideologically motivated violent attacks, those who were perceived to be Muslim received sentences that were four times longer than non-Muslims involved in similar cases.
A double standard, that carried over into the court of public opinion, too: Cases of attempted violence by Muslims received 7 1/2 times more coverage from major media outlets, while successful plots were covered twice as much.
Nancy Heitzeg, a professor of sociology and critical studies of race and ethnicity at Saint Catherine University in Minnesota, also notes there is a “double standard” when it comes to white people versus people of colour when they commit the same crime:
“When a white individual is committing a crime, there is always a life story that gives characteristics to the accused. However, when a minority individual is committing the crime, there are no backgrounds, no excuses and no side stories.”
Similarly, Professor Leila Nadya Sadat, former Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, once pointed out that there has been “a disturbing tendency in U.S. government’s public discourse to consider Arabs and Muslims as less deserving of normal courtesies than other ethnic or religious groups.”18
Given, this background of dehumanization, lack of excuses, assumed guilt and unfair media treatment of People of color, please picture the following:
A mother and her 12-year-old son are in a car accident. The police find the car they were in completely destroyed and the mother and son are nowhere to be found. There is no other evidence to what happened to them. No witness statements, no video footage, no nothing. Only the wrecked car, and a few drops of blood near the scene of the accident. The stepfather of the son then tells the police and media his stepson is a troubled child, who has expressed violent tendencies in the past.
And then, based on nothing but hearsay from the stepfather, the New York Times, one of the most influential newspapers in the united states, portrays this 12 year old as violent and as a potential suspect for his mother’s disappearance without bothering to censor his name and without the slightest shred of evidence that their disappearance was his fault:
Ms. Jackson’s husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past. Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother’s disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 9)
Mind you, this line of journalism goes directly against the New York Times Ethical Journalism Handbook.
This handbook says, for example:
“Accuracy is the foundation of our credibility, so carefully checking facts is a fundamental responsibility of every staff member. A staff member who knowingly or recklessly provides false information for publication betrays our readers’ trust. We will not tolerate such behavior.”
Hearsay, from someone’s stepfather does certainly not count as credible evidence.
It also states that:
Staff members should consult our lawyers on any potential legal issue that arises in the course of their work.
Some potential legal concerns before publication:
• Stories that include accusations of illegal behavior or other potentially damaging allegations, especially if there are no formal criminal charges.
Implying that a 12-year-old missing child might be a potential suspect for his mother’s disappearance (again, with no evidence) would, in my opinion at least, count as “stories that include potentially damaging accusations, especially if there are no formal charges”.
And the problematic media coverage does not end there.
Two weeks later, after Percy, Annabeth and Grover manage to defeat the furies, a picture is taken of Percy as he is leaving the destroyed bus, and this news article is published in the (fictional) Trenton Register News:
The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might’ve been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick. The picture’s caption read: Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture. (The lightning Thief chapter 13)
Granted, the bus explosion, the fact that he was seen alive while his mom is still missing and the fact that the mist apparently made it seem as if he accosted three elderly ladies, (even if it is weird that this is the picture that was painted here, since the furies first approached them, but okay) does raise points for suspicion, but it still doesn’t warrant the one-sided way the media continues to talk about him.
There is, again, no real evidence to prove that it was Percy’s fault that the bus exploded.
In fact, from the mortal perspective, there is more evidence to say the bus exploded because of mechanical or technical errors or because of the bus driver’s behavior. After all, while invisible, Percy jerked the bus’s wheel to the left, and then hit the emergency break, actions which would make it seem as if the bus didn’t function right or as if the driver lost control of it. There is no evidence at all to connect Percy to this sequence of events.
And, in the end, the bus exploded, because Zeus zapped it with lightning:
Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck. “Get out!” Annabeth yelled at me. “Now(…) “Our bags!” Grover realized. “We left our-“ BOOOOOM! The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead. (The Lightning Thief, chapter 10)
I doubt the mist needed to disguise that.
While highly unusual, it can happen that lightning strikes hit objects, even when the sky is clear and the actual storm miles away in the form of so called “Bolts from the Blue”.
(A "Bolt from the Blue" is a cloud to ground lightning flash which typically comes out of the back side of the thunderstorm cloud, travels a relatively large distance in clear air away from the storm cloud, and then angles down and strikes the ground. It’s one of the most dangerous types of cloud to ground lightning)
Yet, instead of considering a mechanical error in the bus, the weird driving of the bus driver or the possibility of a “bolt from the blue”, the news article immediately blames Percy for the bus explosion without exploring other options. So, it did not simply report facts. It selected the most incriminating interpretation available, the one interpretation of this incident which makes Percy look the worst. (Something which is far more common for how the media treats people of color, in comparison to white people)
The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. (The lightning Thief chapter 13)
Also, Percy is no longer treated in this article as a potential victim. The police no longer want to find him, because he might be in danger, but only because he is wanted for questioning for his mother’s disappearance, highly implying that he is a suspect:
“Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the long island disappearance of his mother” (The lightning Thief chapter 13)
And Grover and Annabeth are not described as potential friends, or companions, but immediately as “accomplices”, which certainly implies a crime, and paints the one-sided (mainly unfounded) picture of Percy as a criminal:
Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. (The lightning Thief chapter 13)
(The use of teenage is also weird, considering that they were both around 13 years old)
Plus, maybe the most disturbing part of this article is that it openly says hat Gabe “offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.” (The lightning Thief chapter 13)
Since when is it okay, for a grown ass man to offer a cash reward for the capture of a 12-year-old child on national news? That’s just messed up on a different level and makes Percy seem more like a dangerous and violent threat, and less as a potential victim of a violent crime, and a 12-year-old child.
Then it gets even worse with what happened at the Gateway Arch.
Here, the media actually has footage for once:
“Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion.” (The Lightning thief, Chapter 14)
However, the news coverage still needs more nuance. “Going wild” and “somehow setting off” are very vague descriptions for what happened and the witnesses they do have, the family and the ranger, who were with Percy on top of the arch when Echidna attacked, don’t seem to blame Percy for what happened, at least from the little bit that we have seen:
The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who’d been on the observation deck. She was saying, “And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-“ “Okay, ma’am,” the paramedic said. “Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in.” “I’m not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared.” (The Lightning thief, Chapter 14)
So, again, while the sequence of the events, the car crash, the bus explosion and the explosion at the gateway arch does imply a connection to Percy, it doesn’t warrant this extremely one-sided narrative of him:
“Percy Jackson. That’s right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago.” (The Lightning thief, Chapter 14)
Here, again, the authorities and the news completely blame Percy for the bus explosion, without even considering alternative reasons. In their minds, there is no doubt that he is responsible, despite the lack of real evidence against him. It is simply assumed guilt.
Also, the phrasing of “young man” is very interesting to me in this context.
Percy is a 12-year-old child during the lightning thief, far from someone who could reasonably be considered old enough to be a “young man.”
While “young man” can of course potentially be used for any child, it is a fact that children of color, especially boys, are disproportionately framed in older, less innocent terms when it comes to media portrayal.
This is a process called “Adultification.”
“Adultification” is a term which originated in the US in about 2008. Dr Jahnine Davis, the National Kinship Care Ambassador of the Uk and Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel member, says it can mean that children of colour are not seen as “innocent”, as their white peers would be.
The cofounder of the Center for policing Equity, Phillip Atiba Geoff released research called “The essence of innocence: consequences of dehumanizing Black children” in which he and his co-authors found that especially black boys are seen as older and less innocent.
One outcome of that is that especially black children are routinely held to adult standards with the country’s criminal legal systems. In March 2022, a Washington state intermediate-level appellate court even issued a published opinion acknowledging frankly that “adultification is real and can lead to harsher sentences for children of color if care is not taken to consciously avoid biased outcomes.”
So, yeah, referring to 12-year-old Percy as a “young man” instead of a child, can be seen as part of a larger pattern of adultifying children of color, if you choose to read him as such.
Then, the last scene I want to talk about regarding this topic is this scene from chapter 17:
I froze in front of an appliance-store window because a television was playing an interview with somebody who looked very familiar-my stepdad, Smelly Gabe. He was talking to Barbara Walters-I mean, as if he were some kind of huge celebrity. She was interviewing him in our apartment, in the middle of a poker game, and there was a young blond lady sitting next to him, patting his hand. A fake tear glistened on his cheek. He was saying, “Honest, Ms. Walters, if it wasn’t for Sugar here, my grief counselor, I’d be a wreck. My stepson took everything I cared about. My wife … my Camaro … I-I’m sorry. I have trouble talking about it.” “There you have it, America.” Barbara Walters turned to the camera. “A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with serious issues. Let me show you, again, the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver.” The screen cut to a grainy shot of me, Annabeth, and Grover standing outside the Colorado diner, talking to Ares. “Who are the other children in this photo?” Barbara Walters asked dramatically. “Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or perhaps the brainwashed victim of a frightening new cult? When we come back, we chat with a leading child psychologist. Stay tuned, America.”
So, to sum this situation up, Gabe Ugliano, the adult man, who
is the husband of a missing woman, and the stepfather of a boy on the run,
didn’t hesitate to call his 12-year-old stepson dangerous and violent on national Tv and has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture,
is seen on national tv playing a poker game only like three weeks after his wife disappeared, while a young blond woman, with the name sugar, is said to help him “grieve”
openly puts equal importance on his wife’s disappearance and potential death and on his destroyed car
still gets called “a man torn apart”, with no suspicion raised against him, while Percy, the twelve-year-old, gets called “an adolescent boy with serious issues”, who could potentially be “a delinquent” and a “terrorist”?
And, I mean, especially calling him a terrorist is a wild accusation to just throw around.
Additionally to Percy’s unfair treatment in media and school, there are two other moments that happen in the mortal world that I would like to shortly focus on.
Two additional moments
These two examples are admittedly much smaller and more interpretive than the earlier ones. They are not evidence of a broader pattern on their own, but they are small moments that, for me at least, make the reding of Percy as a person of color resonate more strongly.
For one, there is this small line in The Lightning Thief that has always stood out to me:
“A gang of kids had circled us. Six of them in all—white kids with expensive clothes and mean faces. Like the kids at Yancy Academy” (The Lightning Thief, Chapter 17)
On its own, this doesn’t have to mean anything. White narrators can and do describe other characters as white all the time, especially when combined with mentioning their social status. But I do find it interesting that Percy explicitly marks them as white here. It at least suggests that race is something he consciously notices and registers, rather than something that remains invisible or defaulted in his narration, which would be more common for white narrators (at least in my experience). That doesn’t mean Percy must be non-white, but it is one of those tiny moments that makes the reading of him as a person of color resonate with me more.
Another small point is the way Rachel’s dad treats him.
He, the rich CEO of Dare enterprises, who has consistently been characterized as a very unpleasant personality, is recorded to refuse to even call Percy by name:
“So…I take it your friend isn’t coming to St. Thomas?” That’s what Mr. Dare called me. Never Percy. Just your friend. Or young man if he was talking to me, which he rarely did. (The last Olympian, chapter 4)
Now, again, this and every single point I mentioned could admittedly be a result from socio-economic differences, and Percy’s status as a poor, neurodivergent kid, who has been thrown out of all of his schools. And, again, I’m not saying it’s impossible for a white kid to receive this kind of treatment in the mortal world. But, personally, I do think that Percy’s story becomes more layered if he is read as a person of color. And I think there are enough points in the story to make this headcanon plausible.
However, I do not read Percy as a person of color simply because it is textually plausible, or because I like the headcanon (though I really do). I read him that way because I think it makes his story also thematically richer.
3. Percy's story and the themes embedded in PJO
Percy Jackson is fundamentally a story about marginalized children. Kids who have been failed by schools, rejected by adults, forced out of homes, labeled as “problem children” and then also failed by the systems in place in the mythological world.
And Percy, specifically, is a character whose story is deeply shaped by unfair treatment, both in the mortal, but also in the mythological world.
He is repeatedly misread by authority figures. He is scapegoated. He is constantly unfairly judged. He is treated as dangerous before he has done anything to deserve it and he constantly has to prove himself against established biases.
He is excluded and ostracized at Camp Half-Blood because of his parentage and because of his relationship to Tyson.
He is falsely accused of stealing the lightning bolt and the Helm of Darkness, and forced to clear his own name only two weeks after finding out about the mythological world’s existence.
During sea of monsters, he is singled out by the only two authority figures, Tantalus and Dionysus and treated badly because of it.
In Titan’s Curse, he is denied a quest he is objectively extremely qualified for simply because he is a boy, and he gets treated objectively really shitty by both Zoe and Thalia at the beginning of that book. He first has to prove himself before they start to treat him decently.
The gods themselves debate whether he should be killed or not with Athena actively saying he is too dangerous to be left alive.
Dionysus initially hates him and makes his life actively worse, not because of anything Percy did, but simply because he reminds him of Theseus.
And I could go on and on and on.
Let me be clear here.
I am not arguing that Percy’s experiences are canonically about race, or that his marginalization stems from racial prejudice in the text.
My argument here is that because his story is already so deeply intertwined with themes of ostracism, institutional bias, scapegoating, breaking stereotypes and structural inequality, reading him as a person of color adds an additional emotional and thematic layer to it. It certainly doesn’t replace any existing themes, but it does intensify them in a way.
But that is not the most important part of this headcanon for me.
The main reason why I think that reading Percy as a person of color makes the books more impactful is not because he personally is a victim of injustice.
The main reason is because Percy’s story, at its core, is a story about actively fighting against systematic injustice and inequality.
His story literally culminates in creating structural changes to an established thousands-year-old system, which allow for more equality within his society.
His greatest success is not the defeat of Kronos.
His greatest success is the gods promising to agree to his demands, claim their kids, build cabins for the “minor” gods and Hades, and show amnesty towards the gods who, at one point or another, fought on Kronos’ side.
Percy consistently, throughout every single book, challenges either systems or biases that fail people, fights against bullies, who abuse their power, or actively chooses to side with people and beings who their society considers abnormal. His fight against injustice happens both on a larger and smaller scale and is inseparably bound to his narrative.
For example, when he chooses to help Clarisse in Stolen Chariot:
Now I’ve got to tell you, I’ve met a lot of godlings and monsters I didn’t like, but Phobos took the prize. I don’t like bullies. I’d never been in the “A” crowd at school, so I’d spent most of my life standing up to punks who tried to frighten me and my friends. The way Phobos laughed at me and made Clarisse collapse just by looking at her… I wanted to teach this guy a lesson. (The Demigod Files: The Stolen Chariot)
Or when he defends Tyson, even when Annabeth talks badly about him:
As they walked away laughing, Annabeth grumbled, “Just ignore them, Percy. It isn’t your fault you have a monster for a brother.” “He’s not my brother!” I snapped. “And he’s not a monster, either!” Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “Hey, don’t get mad at me! And technically, he is a monster.” (…) Cyclopes are the most deceitful, treacherous-“ “He is not! What have you got against Cyclopes, any-way? Annabeth’s ears turned pink. I got the feeling there was something she wasn’t telling me-something bad. “Just forget it,” she said. “Now, the axle for this chariot-“ “You’re treating him like he’s this horrible thing,” I said. “He saved my life.” (The Sea of Monsters, Chapter 6)
Or when he actively defends Nico, when Hera tries to imply that he does not belong:
I balled my fists. I couldn’t believe she was saying this. “You’re the one who paid Geryon to let us through the ranch, weren’t you?” Hera shrugged. Her dress shimmered in rainbow colors. “I wanted to speed you on your way.” “But you didn’t care about Nico. You were happy to see him turned over to the Titans.” “Oh, please.” Hera waved her hand dismissively. “The son of Hades said it himself. No one wants him around. He does not belong.” “Hephaestus was right,” I growled. “You only care about your perfect family, not real people.” (Battle of the Labyrinth, Chapter 20)
Or when he argues against killing Bessie in front of the entire Olympian council:
"Well," Zeus grumbled. "Perhaps. But the monster at least must be destroyed. We have agreement on that?" A lot of nodding heads. It took me a second to realize what they were saying. Then my heart turned to lead. "Bessie? You want to destroy Bessie?" "Mooooooo!" Bessie protested. My father frowned. "You have named the Ophiotaurus Bessie?" "Dad," I said, "he's just a sea creature. A really nice sea creature. You can't destroy him." Poseidon shifted uncomfortably. "Percy, the monster's power is considerable. If the Titans were to steal it, or—" "You can't," I insisted. I looked at Zeus. I probably should have been afraid of him, but I stared him right in the eye. "Controlling the prophecies never works. Isn't that true? Besides, Bess— the Ophiotaurus is innocent. Killing something like that is wrong. It's just as wrong as… as Kronos eating his children, just because of something they might do. It's wrong!" Zeus seemed to consider this. (Titan’s curse, chapter 19)
Or dozens of other examples I could name.
The fight against injustice is one of Percy’s defining narrative traits and, I think, him being a person of color just adds to that story, especially with the historical context of the fight against inequality within the United States.
Personal preference
There are other reasons why I specifically headcanon Percy as Syrian, but these really boil down to only personal preference.
Admittedly, this entire post is about personal preference. It’s a headcanon, after all, and like I stated at the beginning, probably not Rick Riordan’s intention when he wrote these books.
But, specifically this part of my explanation is not supported by quotations from either the books or published papers at all, and really only about what I think.
I think my post was more about why I generally like the headcanon of Percy being a POC, and not why I headcanon him specifically as Syrian.
Now, I would love to be able to write a longer text where I connect Percy to values often associated with many Syrian and broader Levantine communities, such as hospitality, community, resistance and the importance of family, or where I perhaps delve into historical and mythological narratives that echo his story.
However, I think to accurately and respectfully write about a country’s culture, and to explain why a fictional character could potentially be part of it, you need to have more than surface level knowledge about that culture.
Knowledge, which I sadly do not have,
To be completely honest, I am not qualified enough to write a text like.
So, instead of writing a surface level explanation, which has the potential to be full of stereotypes, half-truths and inaccurate information, and which generalizes the culture of a country as beautifully diverse as Syria, I’m going to be honest and say that this headcanon exists mainly because of a personal preference.
It probably boils down to three main aspects:
Like I said, the main reason why I always pictured Percy as specifically Syrian in the first place is because of an elementary school classmate, who happened to vaguely look like Percy and whose family originated in Syria. That headcanon just stuck with me since then.
As someone living in Germany, I naturally have more contact with people of Syrian descent than other communities, since Syrians are now one of the largest immigrant groups in the country. So, approximately 1.2 million Germans are also Syrian
I also think Arabic is a beautiful language, and I like imagining my favorite characters speaking languages I love.
Admittedly, weaker arguments, but they’re the truth.
Additionally, I just think it’d be cool, simply representation wise.
Especially since the first Percy Jackson book came out in 2005, where anti-muslim and anti-arab narratives were still very high mainly because of 9/11 and where a lot of racist stereotypes dominated arab characters and stories in the us media (mainly portraying arab people as violent and aggressive), I like the idea of the protagonist of one of the most popular fantasy books aimed at children to be Syrian.
Especially since Percy as a character is so much defined by his compassion, kindness, bravery and empathy.
So, yeah, that’s why I personally headcanon Percy as a person of color, and specifically as Syrian.
I hope this post was enjoyable to read and that I made my reasoning clear.
i think the key difference between george lucas’s star wars and disney’s star wars is that lucas is a man with an ideology. someone with a point of view, and all that entails. which comes with ideas of revolution, anti-imperialism, challenging the status quo, cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes. complex and contradictory ideas because that’s how artists are: complex and complicated people. disney is not. disney is a corporation. a corporation can’t have ideology, because ideology defeats the purpose of profit. and when the only thing you do is to turn on the movie manufacturing machine before you sit down and plan what ideas are you trying to convey to the audience, then your results are going to be washed out corporate garbage. and because when you’re a giant corporation who only cares about selling to the widest audience possible, you can’t take sides. you can’t decide on an idea. because you want to sell your product to people who are on the entire political spectrum. which results in movies without ideology, without purpose, without soul.
I have been looking for this post for years after I came across it and it’s finally here and I need to reblog this because it is absolutely and entirely accurate.
#as I always say: lucas was making a samurai film and a ww2 flying ace film and a western film and adding laser swords#because he fundamentally LIKED samurai films and dambusters films and westerns and 40’s adventure serials#but disney are making a ‘star wars film’ and adding nothing because it already had laser swords and they have nothing else to say#xerox of a xerox baybeeeee (via harrietvane)
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After seing several dozen tiktoks saying stuff like "Percy gave up godhood/ immortality for Annbeth" or "Annabeth is the main reason why Percy gave up godhood", I am eternally grateful for the existence of this segment from "Demigods and Magicians":
"Zeus offered me a reward: godhood. I turned him down flat. I wanted justice for other demigods instead. I wanted the gods to stop being jerks and to pay attention to their kids." (The Crown of Ptolemy)
somehow it comes up that troy had a crush on shane and was going to ask for his number. and after troy gets ribbed by his teammates and ilya makes a big scene, shane is like, “well i never would’ve gone out with you lol.”
and troy smiles, “right, because you were with roz the whole time.”
“i mean, yes, but also because you and dallas kent spent years calling me and jj ‘rush hour’ and asking hayden if his wife was his beard to cover up his big gay relationship with me.”
the rest of the centaurs blink. harris puts his head in his hands and groans.
“Look, I know Kent better than any of you,” Troy insisted, his mounting frustration evident. “And I’m telling you that’s not the best way to handle him during the game.”
“I don’t think the man who once called me three different racial slurs in one season gets to have a fucking opinion on how I handle getting harassed on the ice,” Shane snapped. His voice carried louder over the rink than he had expected it to, and he vaguely noticed the other players stop their drills and start to drift in their direction.
"Oh, um..." Troy blinked at Shane, looking stunned and ashamed by turns.
“Really?” Bood asked, looking at Troy as if he’d never seen him before.
“... three?” Luca said after the silence had stretched out. “What, like he couldn’t remember the right one?”
“There’s different slurs specific for people from different countries. You know, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc,” Hayes told Luca, skating over closer to where Shane and Troy were standing looking for all the world as if they were about to face off. His eyes were moving back and forth from Troy to Shane to the rookies as if he didn’t know who to worry about more. “But honestly I could never figure out if Kent and his buddies just didn’t know the difference or they did know and thought it was more fun to mix it up. The whole 'all Asians look the same so it doesn’t matter which names we use' shit. I assume. I apparently missed the racism lessons some of the guys in the league seem to get, so I'm not an expert.”
“And I fucking had to be an expert,” Shane interrupted. “I had to sit with my mom and my grandparents from the time I fucking learned to talk and be taught which words meant someone wasn’t my fucking friend.”
“There’s different ones in French,” LaPointe added. Shane thought maybe he was trying to be helpful.
“Yes, thank you, I had to learn the French ones as well,” Shane huffed. “But I learned those later because my mom didn’t pick up much French until she was an adult, and apparently none of my dad’s French-speaking college buddies were fucking racists. Thank you for reminding me.”
Mycenean Persephone was a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter, so let's say Hellenistic Persephone remained the same, with Arion being her twin. The story of Poseidon having sex with Demeter in horse form but more consensual. Despione is the younger sister born of Zeus.
Persephone was named that from the start, by Demeter and Poseidon. This is pre-Amphitrite so there are no step parents for her to deal with.
She, Arion and Despione live out their childhoods in the wild and the pastures. Perse remembers being percy but like she has a mom and a dad and 2 full siblings and 4 piblings who dote on them so she's enjoying herself. All the soft things she was denied as a demigod she gets now along with her own special interests.
So for like a few hundred years, Persephone is a teenager shaped angel who is perfectly fine with being her mom's baby. Demeter is somewhat overprotective but it's reasonable considering how all the men in their family are. Perse doesn't want a boyfriend, and she has a plan to avoid Hades so he never sees her and since Zeus is not her dad he can't give her away anyway.
Persephone is the goddess of cooking and baking, because Sally Jackson and her daughter definitely bonded over food prep, and so percy liked cooking and baking. Her cookies aren't as good, but they are enough for her right now.
She is the goddess of sailing and oceanic currents and potable water. She likes ships, both sailing and making them, and has like a replica of the black pearl to sail around in. Oceanic currents are useful for the people who pray to her for good sailing. Potable water is needed for farming so she gains it to help her meter.
She is goddess of bladed weapons. Demeter teaches her the scythe, Poseidon the trident to her and 5 years younger Triton, and the moment she gets her hand on a sword it is game over for everyone else who uses the sword.
She is the goddess of plant growth since it's Persephone's original role, and it lets her help out her mother.
TLDR: Persephone is goddess of cooking, baking,sailing, oceanic currents, drinking water, plant growth and blades.
Her sacred plant-related things are pomegranate (she loves the fruit), damaskena (damson plums, blue), carob,oregano, barley, borage flowers, cornflowers, sesame oil, sea lettuce, cattail.
Her sacred animals are the common kingfisher, lionfish, and squirrels.
Her sacred symbols are her sword Atryx, ovens, a mortar and pistle, flower buds or seedlings, and light blue ribbons.
Her sacred stone are chlorite (for carved utensils), and Chrysocolla(for her statues).
When she's around twenty, the flood happens, and then people repopulate the earth. Doesn't effect her too much since she looks like a toddler and is a toddler so Demeter is actually less protective of her even though she's on Olympus. She gets to participate in the first wedding of Zeus and Hera as well.
She makes friends with Artemis quickly and goes on hunts with her.
Despione ends up joining the hunters, making her the 41st hunter. Persephone is 120.
When they're 150 years old and have picked out teenaged forms, Arion starts rebelling. A lot of swearing and running away from home until Amphitrite gets to the heart of the problem - Arion doesn't have a role beyond being god of horses. So Arion leaves, though he still visits and finds himself an independent home.
Persephone is definitely the epitome of mama's girl. She sticks to Demeter like glue and never pushes for more independence, but Demeter is definitely less over the top than canon. Her daughter understands why she needs to stay away from men after all and the only rebellion she commits is staying for longer than expected in the hunt or wanting to bless mortals privately. Which Demeter learns to accept and she understands why she wants privacy with her followers.
As long as Persephone has a distress beacon on her in form of a flower crown, she can spend months without Demeter.
Persephone is one of the most popular goddesses in Olympus, but everyone respects her eternal maiden status, so she never has to deal with people trying to date or marry her. Percy finds this acceptable. It's not like she's ever getting her dream relationship since gods wouldn't know loyalty even if she slapped them. Eternal Maidenhood is perfectly safe, even if she can't upgrade to sworn maidenhood because Zeus grants those and he refused it back when she was 60.
Reasons most people don't try to ask her out: daughter of two Olympians who let her stay a maiden and say no to every offer,even complimenting her is scary. Other Olympians could try to date or marry her, but they all put her in the unattainable category sooner or later.
She's present in Olympus, she comes to the parties and talks to other people.
Persephone's closest friends are Angelos, Hekate, and Aura. Angelos is a nymph daughter of Hera and Zeus, a sworn maiden, and was raised by nymphs in Crete. Hekate is the goddess of witchcraft, magic, crossroads and the mist, the daughter of Perses and Asteria, and their babysitter, basically. Aura is the daughter of Lelantos, cousin to Artemis, goddess of the breeze, and when Perse met her, she remembered the story and decided to stop it. So Aura never swears to the hunt and instead is Persephone's best friend. She's a nature loving deity who likes adventure,it's a match made in heaven.
Persephone has some prophetic powers as a daughter of Poseidon as the god of prophecy, which normally manifests as her knowing things. Like when the harvest will end, who will win in a duel, if this person is important or not in the grand trapesty, stuff like that. A combination of future knowledge and real prophetic dreams.
Persephone's epithets are :
Kore, the maiden | Pelegia, of the sea | Chthonia, of the earth | Cleomater, glory of the mother | Mageirikóa, the cook | Fournaris, the baker | Eupoleia, of good sailing | Ploionia, of ships | Rhoeia, of the currents | Posimohydria, of drinking water | Makhaira, of blades | Xifomáchos, the swordswoman | Hoplismena, armed | Daeira, knowing one | Pronoea, foresighted one
She has a job and a house near her mom's and witnesses the greek myths of the gods play out. Because it's early days of the gods, her naming herself kore is the same as swearing eternal maidenhood but people can ask for her hand in marriage.
When Helios marries Rhode, she tries to protest but politics means she isn't listened to.
The first time he cheats, she knows. She comes into the domain of loyalty this way, and punishes Helios by making him taste sawdust until he apologises to Rhode and is forgiven.
She befriended Chiron centuries ago as a toddler during the flood, so when he tells her that he has too many heroes to train alone, she helps him recruit trainers from among older heroes and nature spirits. She then gets camp halfblood revamped into a city, named Peliorion, which is like Olympus in that it's a magical place but not beyond time.
She becomes goddess of heroes as well, gaining new epithets: Soetira,the saviour, and Iroikos, of heroes.
Her plans for avoiding Hades come to naught in the end, because she ends up a psychopomp. She sees Hermes struggling to collect the soul of a drowned maiden and helps him by collecting her in her ship sails, and then sailing her ship to Hades to deliver the soul. She's the psychopomp of the sea, deliverer of sailors, the drowned, the tritoni leaving in the waters, and all those who make a home at sea, and the psychopomp of heroes, as their goddess she is the one who arms them for their battle in life and the one carries them to their eternal rest when they lose their fight. Her epithet as a psychopomp are Porthmeia, she of the crossing and Anapaúsia, she who grants rest.
Her meetings with Hades she tries to limit until she finds out he's dating Leuke. Since he's known for his romantic loyalty to modern demigods, Perse figures she's safe from any bridenapping and makes friends. For a few years, she only took souls that Hermes or Thanatos couldn't, but afterwards, she takes all her charges. Hades thinks she's less scared of the Underworld after a few years of coming down.
Hades starts talking to her at winter solstice parties as well, which Zeus notices. After ten years, Minthe decides to cheat on Hades with some mortal maiden, and so Persephone turns her into mint in anger at the betrayal. She then starts using it as mouth freshner.
When Hyacinthus dies, it is Persephone's job to take him to Elysium, as a demigod and as a hero she trained, but she stands in that clearing as Apollo attempts to heal him and looks away. She lets him be healed. Hyacinth flowers grow where his blood has fallen, and she gathers them into a flower crown and crowns him with them when he rises as a god, after Apollo has poured the chalice of the gods down his throat. Hyacinthus is the god of those who die in the name of love, the injustly murdered, and stories.
The winter solstice after that, Hades and Zeus talk about Persephone. Hades tells him he loves Persephone, Zeus plots out a way for him to marry her without Demeter interfering. As king, Zeus had the power to officiate marriages.
And so the rape of Persephone commences.
There's a hero, unnamed except for him being a son of Poseidon, whom Perse knew from childhood. She's very attached to him and he lived a full life, destined for Elysium. When she delivers him, Hades asks her to stay and watch the judgement. While she's watching the judgement, he has Koios released from Tartarus, covertly enough only Nyx knows he did it.
Hades then closes down the underworld, the only person allowed out is Thanatos.
At this point, Persephone is more Percy about him - This is my uncle, he's nico and hazel's dad and i'll be nice until he pisses me off. But different because they're friends now and he has no kids. She suspects something but not kidnapping.
Hades and Persephone investigate the escape of Koios from Tartarus. They wander around the underworld looking for the titan. They search through Punishment first since it's closest to Tartarus, spend a year looking only to find ichor in Tantalus's pond, and Persephone makes the decision to go into adosphel next. Hades makes sure they get lost in Adosphel, and they end up spending nine years among the shades trying to find a disguised Koios, because that would make sense, the blood trail ends here so he must be disguised somehow?
On the surface, Winter has been going on for nine years. Demeter is pissed her daughter is missing, Helios blabbed a year in and told her she was seen carrying a soul into Hades, so Hades is cheif suspect, but not even Hermes is allowed in. Thanatos looks 5 and has zero idea where Persephone is. All he knows is that a titan broke out of Tartarus, and Hades went looking for him. The gods found and talked to Thanatos after nine years of winter. Demeter stops enforcing winter because this is a genuine problem. Obviously, Hades didn't kidnap Persephone , she's just doing her psychopomp duties.
The next day, Hades and Persephone finally stumble into Elysium.
It's the myth of Kornos being lord of Elysium but with more hostile takeover of Elysium and It's Koios instead.
But Perse's heroes are all here, and they help. So Persephone and Hades,Xenopatra daughter of Hellen, Ion son of Apollo and Xuthus,Tectamus and Aegimus sons of Dorus, Arcesius son of Zeus and grandson of Aelous son of Hellen, Ilona daughter of Hermes, Aeacus son of Zeus by Aegina,Damocrateia daughter of Zeus by Aegina and Huntress of Artemis,and Harmonia daughter of Ares and Aphrodite team up to fight a titan in Elysium. This is like three generations of the family of Hellen son of Deucalion.( if one counts Harmonia as Cadmus's replacement in this ancient dream team).
Hades makes the plan. He's actually in trouble now because Titan Takeover.
Xenopatra, as the daughter of Hellen, gets great respect in Elysium. Hellen was more of a stone nature spirit than a human man so when he died he didn't become a spirit. All of his kids did achieve Elysium though. Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus are somewhere in Elysium, on lockdown, and not coming out of their huge palace complex. Xenopatra has a separate home and came out when she heard Hades was in Elysium. Her part is to throw a party and invite all of Elysium, obstinately to accept their new overlord.
The rest of them will sneak in as guests. They have Harmonia approach Koios as a potential one night stand, and while they flirt, Tectamus and Aegimus start a fight that ends up getting too close to Koios and Harmonia. The rest of them will make sure the fight turns into an outright brawl.
During the brawl, Harmonia escapes the fighting. Koios is constantly attacked by atleast one of them, without knowing who. Once he starts to tire, they capture him in plants and jewels.
It is a fierce fight, but Koios suspects nothing, being separated from the sky. In the end, he is tussled and gagged and put back into jail by Hades.
Hades and Persephone go to his castle for rest until they heal. Once Persephone takes a guest bedroom and falls asleep, he sends a merman spirit with a message to Poseidon. It says ' consent to me marrying Persephone, or I'll never let her leave' . To be extra nefarious about it, he had the merman see where Persephone is being kept and how there are gaurds surrounding her so she can't run.
Persephone wakes up and tries to leave but the main door gaurds don't let her. She attacks them, leading to Hades showing up and dragging her away. Hades tries to trick her but she has realised that something is going on so she fights him as well and he reveals he's in love with her and wants her to become Queen of the Underworld and that Zeus is ready to officiate their marriage as soon as she accepts his proposal. He doesn't reveal how he's blackmailing her dad, he knows it would just turn her against him.
Persephone freaks the fuck out, but he's an elder god and she's a non olympian godddess without weapons or allies, he can absolutely manhandle back into her room. Obviously he's covered all her escape routes and shows up at her door to beg her to marry him. He starts lessening the commitment when she tells him to fuck off, from marriage to betrothal to dating to 'just one date, Perse, please'.
Up on Olympus, the gods are in their tenth year of "where is this major goddess that's very important for mortals and us?". And they are deep into a 'A titan escaped Tartarus and took over the third godly realm' induced beeakdown. Except Poseidon, who got the note telling him Koios was no longer at large and blackmailing him into marrying off his eldest daughter. He considers it for about 5 minutes and then makes a list of the bride price he wants, the dowry he's shipping into the underworld and writes up a ' Respect Persephone or this marriage is invalid' marriage contract. He wants his daughter back, marrying off a grown woman with multiple sources of income is not the worst marriage he's signed off on for political reasons, and his brother wouldn't hurt Perse.
Poseidon sends his acceptance of the proposal and Hades signs it, making them married.
Perse meanwhile is desperate to get out of her bedroom suite. She agrees to one date, where she gets to cook, wear her own clothes and jewellery ( hello Atryx the hairpin in her bun) and the open windows of the smaller dinning room.
Perse does find Hades attractive ( panther-like movements ,anyone?) but marriage is not something she wants with any god- they'll all have other lovers. So she poisons their dinner with poppy, sleeps with him, and afterwards purges the drug from her system, takes the weapons in his room and sets a trap so that they'll injure him if he wakes up and tries to leave, and then jumps out the room's window, since no guards are posted anywhere near lest they catch sight of the god's bedroom.
Thus Persephone trudges to a glade near the Styx and for a few few hours rests at her edge. They speak, the river of oaths and the goddess of staying true to them, and then Persephone calls upon the river's water to flood the plain and open an exit from the underworld, which will be called the doorway of the queen.
Persephone stumbles out onto the aboveworld, and finds a temple of her mother for refuge.
The mortal world is a snowy, barren land, but as Persephone walks across it the hibernating seeds bloom and the sleeping animals wake, and her mother Demeter appears in the temple she sought for refuge and embraces her.
Yet the reunion of mother and daughter is short, for when Kore forced poppy seeds into the mouth of Hades, the pomegranate wine she drank was made from his palace's pomegranate groove and not elysian trees.
And so for the half glass she drank, the marriage contract in her father's hand and the three hours she spent in his arms, she is bound to a marriage that crowns her Queen of the Underworld.
It is decreed she will spend half the year in the Underworld, and during that time, the seas rage, the plants do not flower, snow falls from the sky and drives game into hiding, for as long as Spring herself is dead.
And so Persephone becomes Queen of the Underworld, Briome the terrifying one, Praxidike the enforcer of justice, Stygiea of the styx, Melania of the dark, Anassa The Queen, Baisilea Elysion the queen of elysuim.
Persephone is very much uncooperative with any attempts to box her in and only returns to the Underworld in the winter to sleep and otherwise she carries on her duties as normal, adapting to changes in her work that winter brings but not acknowledging it. Like, she sleeps in the grove for summer and in the Underworld for winter and that's all that changes between the seasons, she does not stay anywhere all the time and she refuses to rule .
She forgives Poseidon a century later, since he did have good intentions.
Hades pleads for her forgiveness for a very long time, making her a huge garden at the banks of the styx, and remodeling his castle to be more to her tastes, and inviting Hecate to be a permanent member of the dark council of clthonic gods.
In the end, it's actually his kindness towards Angelos that makes her forgive him. Hades does not remember that Angelos is her best friend, but when his neice shows up at the gates of the underworld in summer and asks for sanctuary because her mother is upset at her for attending to Europa- a kidnapped young princess trapped on Crete who deserved to be pampered during her very hard pregnancy with Minos. Hades grants Angelos sanctuary even though he knows nothing about her. He's suprised to find out they are friends. With Angelos comes Aura, and she is not staying but the underworld is her home base now.
At this point, the Queen's garden is basically a forest, and there are four goddesses living in it.
Persephone and Hades get together in the emotional sense at some point, and progress slowly to an official, healthy romance with Nyx acting like their therapist.
Hades and Persephone have a son, Zagreus.
That summer, Persephone comes home with another baby, Bacchus, son of Zeus who is very important in the grand scheme of things and a baby besides so they end up raising the boys as twins.
Bacchus and Zagreus grow as mortal babes do, and are happy enough, raised between the land and the underworld.
Zagreus grows into the god of violent death and blood, the crown prince of the dead, the prince of Elysium, who collects the souls of warriors who fall in battle and avenges the murdered alongside his army of dead heroes. He's another inspiration for the myth of the wild hunt.
Dionysus grows into a wild demigod, with his stayr friends and his invention of wine and his revelry and his love of theatre.
The dead aren't critical enough of his plays for him, so he moves to Athens and becomes a playwright, then starts dating Ampelos, and then when the stayr dies and turns into grapes he makes wine. With the support of his foster parents and the entirety of the clthonic gods, he makes his way through greece, collecting people for his cult and being absolutely mad and creepy and entertaining with his revels. When Hera finds out that the 'wine god' is a biological son of Zeus she curses him to madness, he wanders into the desert and makes it to India before being dragged back by Persephone who takes him to Doddona, leading to the rumors about Zeus and Persephone having a biological shared child. Then he got kidnapped by those pirates that get turned into dolphins and he takes his cult to india to get tigers, and then he returns just in time to rip apart a king of Athens for not believing in him. And ascends to Olympus.
On Olympus, Hestia is really done with being a sitting member of the council, because her brother has a lot of stupid rules like 'don't tend to the fire if you're on the throne' which means it inevitably gets cold. An Olympian level, major god with cults from greece to Africa to India, and love from the hearts of every man , she just picks him up and puts him on the twelfth throne like 'this is your problem now' and the problem is ruling the world.
Meanwhile in Persephone Land, the whole being Queen Consort of the Underworld is not so bad and it's not cutting into her responsibilities as a major food goddess, sea goddess of death and sailing or war goddess, so she might be fine with the whole being kidnapped thing now and the two unplanned but definitely loved kids are the best thing that's ever happened to her, other than her retirement from mythological shenanigans. The whole kidnapped captive to queen pipeline means she can retire to being just a normal goddess who helps out sometimes even richer than before. She's the main character of exactly one myth that she knows of and it's about her marriage. Canon Persephone never really did anything so Perse also doesn't have to do anything either, she just wants to help those in need.
Persephone is of course mentioned in all heroic myths atleast once, as their trainer, teacher or foster mother. The lady of Peliorion is the moral compass for most heroes, and none of Chiron's trainees would dare disrespect her.
Persephone and Demeter remain the closest and healthiest of all mothers and daughters in the pantheon. Persephone and Hades are just as unhealthy as the rest of the kings and queen but they do bring a new type of toxicity to the pantheon instead of just infidelity.
Persephone cares for no one except the women and Diomedes, Ajax, Hector and Menelaus in the Trojan war. None of the other heroes remember her teachings or any civility at all, murdered children in temples, captured priests, ill treated captives, she diswons all of them one by one as they descend into denegracy. Helen she wishes to help but cannot until the walls of troy fall and by then Menelaus has her, Cassandra she does take in as her priestess and bring to the Underworld as a handmaiden, Adromache and Astanyx she helps by temprorily turning them into kingfishers so they can fly away. She grants Patroclus Elysuim personally, and condemns Achilles to gaurding the styx forever. She gives Penelope the thread of cattail fibres, which will unravel every night when she leavss a piece on the loom, so it is easier for her to delay the suitors. She blesses Diomedes and Ajax with the abilty to go intagible and invisible like a shade, so they can avoid blows. She brings Hermione to Menelaus and Helen in their dreams every night so they know their daughter even in seperation. She has Eros make Paris impotent in exchange for an apple of immortality that grows in her garden, for Eros is keeping Psyche in Split at this time as his wife, and wishes to make her a goddess.
After the war, Eros brings his wife to Olympus and though Aphrodite rages, she can't kill her or break them apart.
She is a witness in every war that is waged, in every marriage that is vowed, in every death that takes place.
Persephone is there for every hero, for every demigod, for every child who needs care. She walks in Peliorion for the entirety of the time when Greece is the cradle of civilisation.
Yes Shane and Ilya going to Ottawa to the worst ranked team in the league is compelling, but what about Shane and Ilya becoming founding players of the somehow newly reinstated Quebec Nordiques?
Imagine, how better to make Montreal pay than to steal away half the damn province's hockey fans from them by building a new legacy from a name that is still today well beloved?
The absolute bomb it would unleash into the hockey world for that historic team everyone gave up on ever being revived but every Quebecer hockey fan still thinks on fondly would switch the narrative around them so completely. Instead of being outed and having to switch to the worst team in the league to play together and not get hatecrimed, they're suddenly the superstar patriarchs of the new generation of Nordiques and getting a team custom built specifically to support them. It would be fucking historical.
Having taken stock of the situation, it's not as bad as I originally thought. It's not like these crocodilians are an urgent problem, much less a representation of my own mortality. There's no ticking clock here.
Lwk gonna kms... Just spent the day on twitter for funsies... I thought people were like dramatizing how bad it is over there... Apologies for the ominous ellipses but I feel like the soldier meme with the face of horror while also chanting I think I'm gonna die in this house in my head. I was on there for a day. I came across ten diff wars that seem like complete bs to me. I'm so confused. Anyway needed to tell someone but are u a twitter user?? Someone please explain this to me...
for someone who has gotten a name in the hr fandom for my twitter au I am proud to say I never have and never will use twitter, especially not for fandom! shits scary over there!
like genuinely in all my yrs on that cursed platform (derogatory) i have never once gotten in a fight over fandom discourse
have i seen some? yes, have i blocked all participants? many times esp in mha fandom (everyone plays with the dolls differently if you dont like go play in your corner away from the other kids) have i also scrolled down and not realised twt fights were happening? most likely
