Did episode 3 of the PJO change a lot of things? Yes. Do I really enjoy the direction it took though? Also yes.
This is really just a brain dump post episode, and it does have spoilers for later on in the books!
I think a theme that the show is really playing into in a way that the books didn’t as much is choice. Percy chose Annabeth despite not really having a reason to. Annabeth chose not to take the easy way out and protect Percy. Percy chose not to take the easy way out and protect Grover and Annabeth.
But despite all this, there’s also a lack of choice. I can’t remember annabeths exact words, but in the woods she tells Percy that they have no choice. They were born demigods, they have to do what they are told.
And Percy refuses to be put in that box. He is angry and scared but he makes the decision to stick with his friends, to save his mom, ultimately to save Olympus.
And now I’m thinking about his decision to give Luke the dagger in the end. And how Percy’s fatal flaw is loyalty. He is always going to chose his friends, always going to chose to help people. And so is Annabeth and so is Grover. All three of them are choosing to be kind, to do good, to help people.
And the theme of choice too with everything else. Of these children being trapped in this impossible situation where time and time again absent neglectful (sometimes outright abusive — Clarisse flinching away from Ares) parents are forcing their children to go on quests for them.
And also the fact that the gods need their kids! Their kids don’t really need the gods. But the gods need their kids. We see this with Mr. D asking for wine. The gods are so limited in their power, and they need their kids to do much of anything.
Also the idea of fate being so heavy in the books. With the oracle and prophecy’s that are guaranteed to happen and characters who can see into the future, choice isn’t something to be taken for granted.
This also I think feeds into Luke and Percy being perfect foils for each other. Both are angry at the gods. Both feel slighted by their fathers, both have a mother who they love and loves them who was hurt by their fathers. Percy so easily could have fallen down Luke’s path, if the situation had been just a bit different. If sally had wound up making endless blue cookies in a little house all by herself without much rational thought left, and it was Poseidon’s fault, Percy would absolutely have waged war. It’s chance as much as choice and fate that’s guiding these kids.
As Medusa said, “We are not our parents until we chose to be.”
