Hecate's house is WILD. The knockers? The aesthetic choices? The BATHROOMS? She 1000% committed to the bit
Some ppl have said that the recent Riordanverse books have had themes. (Roughly speaking,) 'The Sun and the Star' was about accepting yourself and moving through trauma, and 'Chalice of the Gods' was about growing up, aging and embracing the changes that come with it (kinda ironic for focusing on a character who is known for turning 17 every year). I thought 'Wrath of the Triple Goddess' could have been about grief and family, but it's actually abt choices and regrets. Bc ofc the book abt Ἑκάτη (Hecate), the goddess of crossroads, would be abt choices.
Fanart I want to see
The Halloween costumes Percy, Grove & Annabeth wore
Human!Grover, Owl-a-beth & Octo-Percy
The Campers' Halloween costumes
Page-by-page notes that I took (with quotes)
I'm always careful not to look at my mom's screen while she's writing, because a) I know it makes her nervous, b) the
floating words make me queasy, and c) I can't help wondering if she's writing a character based on me. Maybe that sounds self-centered, but the idea of anybody writing a book about me makes me super paranoid. (pg 16)
Bud, I'm sorry, but it's a decade and a half too late for that
She knew exactly what I was saying, even if Dave and Hana didn't.
"She can't do all your homework for you, dude," Hana said.
"Yeah, she has to do our homework," Dave said.
"Ugh, you two," Annabeth said, but she gave them a smile. "Okay, Jackson, I can spare you a few minutes, Come on." She hauled me up and led me out of the library, Paul and Hana whispering behind our backs, (pg 24)
Oh look, surprise name change! (/j)
Then his eyes drifted up to the gargoyles on the roof. "Oh, wow."
"I know, spooky," Annabeth agreed.
Grover scratched his goatee. "I was going to say the one on the left looks like my Aunt Helena. But guess that's the same thing." (pg 32)
Grover's Aunt Helena is probably a harpy / nasty wind Spirit
I'd barely been able to master numbers and colors in Spanish, even with my friend Leo Valdez as a tutor. (pg 35)
Rick is making himself plotholes. Percy is being tutored in Spanish by the missing Leo. It's only Chapter 4!
We had some trouble on Third Avenue when Hecuba decided attack a Lil Zeus Greek food cart, but I managed to pull her off before she killed the cook or devoured his meat supply. Dude wasn't too happy. He yelled something in Greek at me--maybe Please control your rhinoceros--but I couldn't be too mad at Hecuba. For one thing, the food smelled good. For another, anything labeled Zeus sent me into attack mode, too. (pg 64)
Lil Zeus Greek food cart? a) Percy should have understood more of the Greek dude's language, unless he did actually think the hellhound was a rhino and b) fair on attacking it
I took out Riptide. With the tip of the blade, I etched a message on the sidewalk: Went to Gramercy.
That was another trick I'd only learned in the last month. One day when I was bored, sitting on a sidewalk while my mom shopped for clothes for her first author signing, I discovered that Riptide could sketch glowing lines on asphalt that no regular mortals could see. The markings lasted about three hours before fading away--less if it rained. It made me wonder why I'd never seen Celestial bronze graffiti around from other demigods. (pg 68)
Riptide can write on the pavement?
He couldn’t have been more than six weeks old.
"You want another treat?" I asked him.
"Nope!" he barked, which apparently meant Yes, please, I'll take the whole bag.
I couldn't help but smile. "Is that your name? Nope?"
He tilted his head, maybe thinking about it. "Nope!"
"Okay, then that's what I'll call you."
He crawled right into my lap. He was heavy--like fifty pounds--and floppy, with ridiculously oversize paws that told me he was going to be a rhino-size hellhound someday. I scratched behind his ears and kept feeding him treats, letting him get used to the sound of my voice. (pg 87)
Percy’s getting a Hellhound puppy that can say nope????
The man who was eating a late breakfast at Dr. Sharma's desk was definitely not Dr. Sharma.
His dark hair and beard were flecked with gray. He wore a rumpled tweed jacket, tie, and dress shirt, with a flannel blanket over his lap. His old-fashioned wheel-chair had hand-pushed steel wheels and well-worn black leather armrests. He held a half-eaten bagel in one hand and a steaming cup of tea in other. I registered all these details with perfect clarity, but somehow, I still did not recognize him. (pg 99)
WHAT IS CHIRON DOING AT PERCY’S SCHOOL?
"The Adventures of Mom, Chew Toy, and Alley Boy," Annabeth mused. (pg 115)
pffft! And look, an Oxford comma!
My friend Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, also had the ability. He'd used it once to take me Christmas shopping in Florence. (Long story.) (pg 133)
Nico took Percy Christmas shopping in Florence? I need this story.
“Okay,” I said. “Maybe pack isn’t the right word. I don’t know why
Hecate turned you into a hellhound. Gods are weird. I have a friend whose dad once turned her into a tree. Maybe Hecate saved you the only way she knew how. It’s not perfect, but it’s still love.”
Hecuba gazed at the ocean—a view she’d probably seen thousands of times when she was a mortal. She’d watched the Greek ships anchor off that coast, ready for war. She’d watched her children die in battle on that rocky beach before the walls of her doomed city. (pg 137)
Is this book abt grief & family?
I frowned. "I didn't figure you for a nightclub guy."
"Are you kidding? I can hoof-boogie with the best of them! I've still got that wedding-dress outfit from the Sea of Monsters, too." He sighed. "Maybe someday." (pg 142)
Grover still has his wedding dress?
Pracktical forcery and Potionf for Beginnyng Uferf (pg 144)
Oh look, it's that old-timey font where 'S' is really tall and skinny and kinda looks like an 'f'!
Under this collection was a brass plaque engraved with WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.
I lifted the top of the display case. I picked up a pair of blue-framed glasses that were snapped in half at the bridge. They were the same ones I'd seen in my vision of the child pedaling away from the manse in terror. On the right stem, the initials SEJ were monogrammed in gold.
I felt like I had shadow-traveled into a block of ice. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. SEJ. I knew those initials. (pg 145)
SEJ, Sally's initials?
I didn't realize that when he'd said ground himself, he'd meant literally cover himself with the ground. He sat down in a flower bed and started to heap leaves and dirt over his legs. (pg 147)
...
Two more tunneled through the leaves and skittered up Grover's legs. Within a minute, there were dozens, maybe hundreds. Honestly, I had no idea. I never had to count squirrels in numbers that high before Grover's torso disappeared under a tidal wave of chittering fur and twitching bushy tails. Somewhere in the mix of brown and gray, I spotted one very large black rat, who quickly disappeared in the sea of its squirrely comrades. (pg 148)
This grounding thing is weird... Could it be a Pan thing?
As he nibbled his cake, I said, "Okay. Tell me."
He shrugged listlessly. "It's just... grounding myself like that? It's pretty powerful magic. I can only do it because I'm a Cloven Elder."
Grover was too modest. He rarely talked about it, but after the Battle of Manhattan, he'd been promoted to the council of the three most important satyrs in the world, which in my mind made him an elite boss.
"It's dangerous?" I guessed.
"Oh... nothing I'd worry about," he said. "Not a big deal. It's just when I do that, when I connect with nature on that level, there's always a small chance..."
"Yes?"
He nibbled more cake. "That I might dissolve into nothing." (pg 151)
Yep, it's a Pan thing. And oh, the grounding thing is like Nico at the end of BoO... okay. This is great /s
And Grover seemed to enjoy being called Cloven Elder. My thoughts started rambling, as they do. I wondered if I should call him CE for short. Did that mean before he became a Cloven Elder he was Grover BCE?
This is how my mind works. Welcome to the chaos. (pg 156)
Grover BCE, YES!
The name of the place glittered in pearly white over the door: AEAEA. I guess they'd spent all their money on the storefront decorations and hadn't been able to afford any consonants for their sign.
"What is it?" Grover asked.
"Not sure," I said. "The name of that place mean anything to you?"
Grover tried to pronounce it. "It looks like something Hephaestus might scream when he drops a hammer on his foot." (pg 158)
Αἰαία (Aeaea)? Κίρκη (Circe)????
"My name is Filomena," she said, her jaw clenched. "Aeaea was my home island. But you don't even remember, do you?" (pg 161)
Dude doesn't remember the last time someone recognized him and accused him of destroying their home, does he?
A noxious purple fog started to rise around us. I recovered my senses, yelled, "Aeaea!" (because it was on my mind) and blasted the potion fog right back at Filomena.
"Ack!" she complained, now speckled head to toe in magical whatever-it-was. "How dare you!" (pg 162)
Poison manipulation again????
"I take it you didn’t recognize the naiads?"
"From where?" Grover asked.
"You weren't with us," Annabeth told him. "You were stuck in a Cyclops's cave at the time."
Grover shivered. "The Sea of Monsters."
"Yep. The naiads are from the island of Aeaea."
I rubbed my sore neck. "I think I would've remembered a name like Aeaea."
Annabeth considered that. "Actually, you're right. I don't thínk anyone called it that when we were there. It's another name for Circe's Island." (pg 184)
...
"Circe had four main handmaidens," Annabeth said. "The Aeaean nymphs. They were responsible for preparing her potions. I guess when the pirates burned down C.C.'s Spa--"
"The naiads came to Manhattan," Grover finished. "And set up competing perfume shops. As one does." (pg 185)
I knew they were from Αἰαία! And Lore drop!
Whenever Annabeth joined the chat, the odds of us doing something idiotic went way down. The odds were never zero, mind you, because I was still in the mix. (pg 186)
"Annabeth joined the chat..." Bro, why. Why did you use that piece of slang?
With the help of one of the costume people, Annabeth had done her hair and makeup like it had been on Circe's Island. She looked incredible, but you don't have to take my word for it. The costume person's exact reaction was "You look incredible." Then she turned to Grover and me and said "Now, these two are are a challenge."
We were dressed as Annabeth's servants/bodyguards/loyal gladiators? I'm not even sure, but we weren't rocking the look very well.
Grover wore a gladiator's breastplate and a leather kilt sort of of thing, with a big plastic sword at his side. I got dressed like a retiarius--one of those Colosseum fighters with the weighted nets and the tridents. The trident seemed a little on the nose for me, but it wasn't my biggest complaint. My "armor" was basically an oversize loincloth with a thick leather belt, sandals, and a weird shield-sleeve thing on my left arm that reminded me of a pizza pan. This meant I would basically be walking around Manhattan in late October in my underwear. Annabeth added a big helmet with a faceplate so nobody would recognize me unless they literally got up in my grill. (pg 187)
I need art of these costumes
23. We Find the Lair of Evil Perfume
Annabeth is doing a ton of amazing work this chapter!
Annabeth responded, "WHOOOO!" (pg 206)
Annabeth, daughter of the Owl Goddess, hooted. It only took her 24 books and 5 years
I raised my hands--except I didn't have hands anymore. Where my arms used to be were eight thick purple tentacles lined with pink suction cups. One tentacle was curled around Riptide. I was so shocked I loosened my hold, letting the blade drop.
"Oh.."
I wanted to throw up. No offense to octopuses. I've had some great conversations with octopuses. But I didn't want to have their tentacles. My new appendages felt wet and slimy. Powerful muscles rippled under the skin. The suckers clasped and unclasped, smelling the air, searching for something to grip. "This is bad." (pg 207)
Well octo-Percy is... interesting
He was staring down at his legs and weeping. Where his furry goat hindquarters had been, there was bare skin, forward-articulating knees, and instead of hooves... feet. Five-toed feet not too different from mine.
"Human," he sniffled. "That's the worst kind of beast!" (pg 207 & 208)
Oh, poor Grover. Also... very interesting "humans are the worst kind of beast"
Annabeth turned her head 180 degrees and shrieked at the nymph. "AWK!" (pg 208)
180-degree head turn from Annabeth!
Grover shuffed awkwardly toward Daedra. "How do you walk on these? They're so tender! Ouch. Ouch. Ouch." (pg 209)
We don't normally walk barefoot. And I want art of human!Grover
I saw a young woman in tattered brown robes. She carried a leather pack over one shoulder, loaded with medicinal plants, vials, salves, and scrolls. It was her life's work--all she could salvage when the Colossians chased her out of their city. She struggled up a steep mountain path, occasionally stopping to grip her stomach, crying out in pain. Tears streaked her face, smearing the kohl around her eyes so she appeared to have a black mask. (pg 215)
Gale Lore drop? Poor Gale!
I'd been wrong about Hecate. She hadn't turned Gale into a polecat out of jealousy. The reason was worse. She'd empathized. She'd lacked faith that Gale could survive on her magical talents alone. Hecate of all people knew how the world saw witches. She'd pitied Gale, admired her, and yes, maybe even feared her a little, but she could not imagine a mere human succeeding when she, a goddess, had failed. So Gale had to cease being human. (pg 218)
Poor Hecate too. Dam patriarchy & fear of the unknown
And no way did I want to be around when orange goo started dripping through Hades's palace ceiling. I'd met his plumbers. They tended to solve all his problems with fery whips. (pg 219)
The Kindly Ones aren't plumbers, Percy
I'll say it again: thank the gods for Halloween.
I doubt any amount of Mist could have hidden Owl-a-beth and Octo-Percy from the curious eyes of mortals as we fled, especially since my tentacles kept slapping passers by for no particular reason. Because it was Halloween, though, most people would think, Wow, those costumes are incredible, and that third guy is fully human! Amazing! (pg 222)
Yeah, Halloween does a lot for hiding mythical stuff. Cuts both ways tho
Annabeth gagged. Her beak opened wide. Her owl eyes got even larger. Her crown feathers stood on end like blades. She brought her hands to her throat—the universal sign for choking.
I panicked. Would the Heimlich maneuver work on a half human, half
raptor? I only had octopus tentacles, but I hustled behind her and did my best to find her sternum the way my fourth-grade health teacher had taught us. I thrust upward into her diaphragm.
COUGH!
An owl pellet the size of a melon shot from her throat and bounced off the opposite wall. She doubled over, breathing heavily. When she straightened again, she was normal Annabeth—human face, human hair with the scent of her usual apple shampoo. (pg 225)
Coughing that up must've been painful. And I'm pretty sure the Heimlich maneuver isn't recommended anymore
Grover seemed to follow my thoughts. “Tomorrow is Halloween. There’s no way three people can fix this mansion before Hecate gets back. (pg 230)
Just ask your friends to help! They're coming for the party, just ask them to arrive early too
I nodded. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but if we’re going to try rebuilding this place with the help of ghosts, then we need to figure it out. Which means I need to talk to SEJ. Sally Estelle Jackson.” (pg 238)
His mum? Or an ancestor? I'm thinking his mum, but the timing makes me think maybe an ancestor
She smiled wistfully, the way she does when she looks at old photographs. “I haven’t since that day. My family made me wear them because I was seeing things…differently.”
“Through the Mist.”
She’d always been able to do that. Some rare mortals could, but I’d never considered how hard that would’ve been for her as a kid.
“They were just trying to help,” she said. “They were worried. When other kids saw a mounted police officer riding down the street, I saw a pegasus. That kind of thing. We used to live near Gramercy Park West. One day, when I was riding my bike down the street, I saw that mansion, shifting and blending into the buildings around it. Those tombstone walls.” (pg 244)
Interesting... what ppl think of clear-sighted ppl
She swallowed. “Hecate ambushed me! She showed up on Olympus and…well, she asked me what I thought of you. I was shocked! She hadn’t spoken to me since 1914! I—I was desperate to impress her. And foolishly… I said you were quite competent.”
“Thanks?”
“I panicked! And now, if you fail, that means I failed. Oh, she won’t forgive me a second time.”
“I still don’t—Wait.”
I’m a little slow on the uptake. But when a puzzle finally starts coming together, I can usually finish it without having to bash too many of the pieces into place.
“A second time,” I said. “Nineteen fourteen. That’s the last year Hecate ran her magic school. You were part of that?” (pg 247)
She shrugged listlessly. “War. It’s always a war. Our students started taking sides, arguing with one another. It escalated from name-calling to violence to potion-flinging.”
“Potion-flinging is bad.” (pg 248)
Ofc WW1 made the school close, and poor Εὐδώρη (Eudora)
I took one more look around the shattered great room. I felt like I was forgetting something important. (pg 258)
Locking the door, I'm pretty sure
Grover and I exchanged a panicked look. If Annabeth was admitting she’d made a mistake, we were in serious trouble. All heroes had fatal flaws. Annabeth’s was pride. She always aimed as high as possible, confident she could go even higher. Most of the time, she was right. But calling for help after one block? The situation had to be desperate for her to swallow her pride like that.
Then I remembered why fatal flaws were called fatal.
We couldn’t let her get worn-out so soon. She was the only one who could direct the ghosts to rebuild the house properly.
“Let me take the torches,” I said. (pg 267)
Annabeth’s fatal flaw is pride, yours is loyalty, Percy. You taking them could go just as badly, with you not passing them to anyone else
My last shot was a miss. Black spots danced in my eyes. I crumpled to my knees, and the torch fell out of my hand. (pg 276)
Oh schist
I knew I’d forgotten something important—again. We’d invited our friends to a Halloween party tonight and never canceled it. You see, kids?
Absentmindedness can save your life.
The side panel door rolled open and costumed demigods poured out. Connor Stoll led the way, wearing a prisoner’s orange jumpsuit with fake manacles on his ankles and wrists. “Dude, your yard decorations are fire!”
“They’re real!” I yelled. “Real ghosts!”
More demigods emerged from the van—Clovis from the Morpheus cabin, wearing a nightgown, nightcap, and slippers, which was not very different from how he usually lounged at camp; Harley from Hephaestus, the youngest of our campers, encased in a Celestial bronze Iron Man suit he’d probably made himself; Valentina Diaz from Aphrodite, dressed in a black 1940s evening gown with white gloves, a broad-brimmed hat, and twenty different strings of pearls around her neck.
Valentina scanned the ghostly horde. “Gross. Can we fight them?”
“Yes, please!” Annabeth yelled from the porch.
Our friends charged into battle. (pg 292)
I said his friends could help. Except they're helping with ghosts ig
And Rick, Clovis is a son of Ὕπνος (Hypnos), we don't have a Μορφεύς (Morpheus) Cabin
The horse freaked out and whinnied, Why am I flying? (pg 297)
Poor police horse
There should be a rule that goddesses can never come home before 8:00 a.m.
Hecate blazed into the mansion at exactly 5:32. (pg 304)
Eugh, what a wake-up time
Sometimes folks at camp asked if I avoided eating seafood because I was the son of Poseidon and could talk to fish or whatever. I always answered that no, I ate fish. Have you ever talked to one? They don’t have a lot to say. Mostly it boils down to Are you food? Am I food? Eating them is the only way to answer the question. (pg 319)
We have an answer to the Percy-seafood question. Tho he'll probably be off calamari for a while
Obviously, I don’t consume the smart species like octopuses, dolphins, sharks, and manta rays. (pg 319)
Greek Demigod 2: What have you got against the Romans?
Greek Demigods 3+: (go into "What have the Romans ever done for us?")
Greek Demigod 1: Nothing! It's just- Latin. It runs in my veins, but that just makes me trip up on more words! I can't decide between octopuses, octopodes and octopi!
So, my mother is η Καλλιόπη (Calliope), η Μούσα (the Muse) of Epic Poetry.
Obviously, she'd take an interest in 'EPIC'. Ο Άπόλλων (Apollo) wanted to audition, but she talked him down into letting mortals have a go first - divine skill from your domain is a bit of an unfair advantage, don't you think?
Jay didn't need any help in the creative front, it turns out (seriously, I've asked around and as far as I know he has much divine heritage as the general population). So η Μήτερα (Mother) blessed the project to help with the non-creative side of things. Like, scheduling, money, all the logistics-type things. So it can be as good of a final product as possible, his creativity unconfined by practical concerns.
Like seriously, having met Δεύς (Zeus) myself, he wouldn't have a SINGLE complaint with how 'EPIC' is portraying him. He is Ζεύς Βρονταῖος (lit. Thundering Zeus) and his main song in 'EPIC' is 'Thunder Bringer' after all.
Luke Holt, that is, not Luke Castellan. Though there are a lot of jokes about it floating around.
Jay: Are you done yet?
O Έρμείας (Hermes): *sings aggressively*
Bet he picked that up as a skill to get the other gods away. Wouldn't work for ο Άπόλλων, tho, he probably would've joined in singing, back in the day
O Έρμείας: You know, Jay, I am very fast
Jay: I've heard, Έρμείας
O Έρμείας: Oh yeah?
Jay: Yeah
O Έρμείας: Well, would you like to see me run around the whole forest?
Both: *stop walking*
Jay: Sure
O Έρμείας: Would you like to see me do it again?
God of travel and athletes, so obviously very fast, especially with his winged sandals (can't see any wings on his shoes tho). But I can't tell if he' actually did run around the whole forest that fast or not. I mean, there should be some slight change in position, right?
Jay: *laughs* He's, he's crazy *smile fades*
You bet he is, what with 3000+ years of experience and being stuck doing basically only two of his domains (commerce & communication) bc they're so dam big
Gods, I loved the way it started with a recap of the last season. Just giving it to us straight, like Percy always does.
Monsters come at me. So do the gods.
So real. He's probably got the longest list of enemies out of us demigods who are still alive!
AND WE'VE GOT THE CHARIOT RACES! Percy looks ready and raring to go! I can't wait for the races, but they'll probably have to simplify things, otherwise I have no idea how they'd do everything. Those things are Χάος (Chaos) incarnate.
The Ποσειδών (Poseidon) chariot looks AMAZING and Walker/Percy looks badass in his armor. He must've had a growth spurt between the summers/seasons, bc he was swimming in the armor he wore for his first game of Capture the Flag.
Casting Announcement
207K likes, 1,423 comments - percyseries on August 10, 2024: "Introducing a new trio to #PercyJackson and The Olympians. Season 2 is coming
The Gray Ladies have been cast! I"m guessing Kristen Schaal as Tempest, Margaret Cho as Wasp and Sandra Bernhard as Anger, judging by which name those headshots would fit best, but, well... the sisters look identical in canon to the inexperienced eye, so.... who knows?
Jason Mantzoukas Appearance at D23
69K likes, 265 comments - percyseries on August 10, 2024: "DioNICE to see you too Jason Mantzoukas.
Our Mr. D makes a godlike entrance at t
I can not imagine Mr D being that hyped about Camp. The last time he was that hyped was probably before he was made the director.
Daniel Diemer onstage at D23
37K likes, 129 comments - percyseries on August 10, 2024: "the sweetest #D23 panel entrances you ever did sea 🌊 #PercyJackson".
Probably the first time us fans got to see all three of the main SeaFam members together!
Things I'm Looking Forward To
Grover in a wedding dress
I'm curious what sort of dress they'll do! They could do a white dress, a colorful one, or an Ancient Greek one. If they go Greek, Aryan would/could be wearing a veil, a garland of flowers, and a headband to secure the veil, as well as the dress. The color of the dress the Ancient Greeks wore varied, but the Romans wore yellow. It's possible they may lean into this influence.
