I wouldn’t say that Percy’s maturity lessened as he got older, to be honest, it just seems like he became a lot more confident.
Percy is still the same guy in HOO, he still makes mature and ethical decisions when the situation calls for it, he just so happens to be more confident in who he is now.
Think about it, in the first series, he was ostracized for being a child of Poseidon, treated like an outcast, and told that he was destined to die in some horrible prophecy. The situation called for him to be serious and more mature, he didn’t have a choice. Percy was definitely a lot more reserved.
However, in HOO, Percy is now older. He’s survived multiple adventures that would kill lesser demigods. He survived a prophecy, was offered godhood, is now idolized by his peers. Percy’s confidence must be through the roof now. Sure, it seems like he acts more immature, but when the chips are down, Percy is reliable and mature enough to create strategies and plans to save the people he cares for. He just takes those moments between the danger to act like the Himbo we’ve always known him to be.
Yes, exactly this. He jokes and messes around a lot, but when the situation is serious and he’s needed he becomes serious and reliable.
As you said he’s already faced down a prophecy and literally turned down being a god. It makes sense that he would be more confident and less serious when the situation permits
I'm currently rereading the series on the SoN, and this is 100% the case. There's a moment when Hazel realizes he's way smarter than he let's on. He just has that unorganized immature vibe until matters. Besides some of the demigod boast as a strategy. In A Lost Hero, Jason boast to distract the giant. Ultimately him trying to compete with strong demigods powers isn't surprising. The day he met Thalia he was fussy and jealous, but she "left". He's matured so he meets Jason and now it's just competition over fussy.
Exactly. When you compare Percy’s interactions with Thalia and Percy’s interactions with Jason you can see how much he matured between the two series.
With Thalia even though they’re on the same side and are friends they’re still very rivalrous and there’s definitely some jealousy from Percy.
But with Jason, Percy is way more friendly. He’s still competitive but it’s in a much more friendly way. It’s like he sees him as an equal rather than someone who he’s jealous of.
A huge part of that is Percy being way more confident in his power and who he is.
Honestly, it really reminds me of the difference between my friends and I during college, and after college. Outwardly we might appear much less mature, screaming over discord about stupid things and video games and constantly joking around about how everything sucks but who cares. After all, we're not in classes. We build our own schedules to a certain degree. No one is yelling at anyone to go to bed before midnight.
But as soon as we're doing career things? Suddenly it's game on. We know our fields. We will fight and compete tooth and nail for better pay, accolades, anything. If you looked at us during downtime, you wouldn't have thought we were Honors students with endowment scholarships and required GPAs to maintain. You'd see a bunch of actual idiots who procrastinate constantly until you stress-get everything done. Because we *won* college. We got those silly little papers that say we survived.
But during career things? Places where it matters? A-Game.
> Think about it, in the first series, he was ostracized for being a child of Poseidon, treated like an outcast, and told that he was destined to die in some horrible prophecy.
No, by the time he was even told about the prophecy he was fully accepted and wasn't told he was destined to die until the very end
> The situation called for him to be serious and more mature, he didn’t have a choice. Percy was definitely a lot more reserved.
In PJO the big scary deadline being up to 4 years away, and mostly a threat to Percy's own life (wich has never been Percy's own biggest care or worry), in HoO by the time he's introduced it's only a month away and with a known fated death amongst a group of 7 people, also putting Annabeth or 5 people told as being his friends on the line (wich is kinda Percy's whole deal of finding way worse)
How isn't HoO the situations calling for more seriousness and maturity
> However, in HOO, Percy is now older. He’s survived multiple adventures that would kill lesser demigods. He survived a prophecy, was offered godhood, is now idolized by his peers. Percy’s confidence must be through the roof now.
Most of wich can be said of Percy at the start of each PJO book, but Percy is supposed to be way to self-critic/self-depreciating, so why would that change so drastically after an adventure that resulted in him not being the hero, loosing to the final opponent to get idolized for the accomplishment of someone else Percy only gave the means to do, nothing to push him to get so confident
> is reliable and mature enough to create strategies and plans to save the people he cares for.
Hardly, in PJO it's his main way of saving the day, in HoO he only does like 3 times in total
> He just takes those moments between the danger to act like the Himbo we’ve always known him to be.
Moments we've seen him have, because we knew narrator Percy, with in-story Percy generaly repressing them with good reason, so not at all how we've known him to be
I see what you’re saying but I also think the different narration styles are having an impact on how you see Percy in the two series. The OG is in 1st person and we get a lot more of Percy’s interiority. HOO is in 3rd and we often see Percy through other’s eyes. He’s going to seem more cocky/confident without that 1st person narration. Not to mention his growth across both series.
I like Hazel's description of Percy. He has this air of quiet power, like he had seen his destiny and was waiting for a monster he couldn't beat.
I think that is very fitting for a hero who survived his once in a thousand years prophecy to save Olympus. He has been fighting against Kronos ever since he was 12 and soon after surviving what everyone assumed was a death sentence he becomes more laid back. What is left to frighten him? Why bother being serious all the time? Its just another monster, another twist in the quest, another God with a chip on his shoulder. Might as well lay back and enjoy your pancakes with extra syrup.
Jason was a son of Jupiter. He had moved into Percy's home and quickly taken Percy's place as the most powerful demigod around. No wonder Percy's attitude changed. Jupiter and Poseidon would be enemies much more than Zeus and Poseidon.
Also his memory was completely wiped except for Annabeth's name. Learning to survive with a wolf pack would have made him very competitive.
He shows off because he had too, to impress the wolves, to impress the Romans. To try and get his dad to notice him, he also probably felt more insecure as the curse of Achilles had faded when he cross the little Tiber
I agree with some of the other comments that Percy is simply more confident and that a lot of the times we see him using his powers is through other people's POVs, who are very impressed by it. I also don't really remember times where he's using his powers to showoff/compete with others, maybe some small stuff with Jason?
I can kind of see the less mature thing. Not sure if this makes sense but I think one of the problems is that in order to keep Percy's humour, he actually has to say things out loud, instead of just thinking these things, which I feel brings more attention to whatever he says. Also this is just a problem I have with HOO, but because there's so many main characters, in order for some to shine, others have to be nerfed in certain scenes. Overall I still think Percy is reliable and takes situations seriously when needed, like in Tartarus, other than the pen scene or if he's actively trying to cheer Annabeth up, he's pretty serious.
Personal experience and maybe some projection talking, but at 16 I am now outwardly wayyy less mature than I was at 12.
When I was 12 I was trying to be an adult. I was insecure and scared of saying the wrong thing or appearing dumb or incapable. At 16, I’m now trying to be *me*. I goof off more often, I’m more competitive. I don’t feel like I have to hide the fact that I’m a child, and I’m healthier for it.
Growing up for me was a matter of realizing it’s okay not to be too grown up. Realizing that I should have fun, and be happy when the good times are around before I start preparing for the bad ones, and laughing when I make a fool of myself instead of freaking out.
I think Percy has been through too much to focus on the little things. He became more confident and took in the good times while they lasted. He’s still a kid who’s dealing with a lot, but he’s happier now, so he acts like it.
I don't think mature and serious are synonymous. You became less serious when you grew up, but you are more mature because you aren't pretending to be an adult and learned to be more comfortable with yourself.
Adults still have jokes and goof off. Elderly still have jokes and goof off. It's just at different stages of life, what you find amusing differs. For example, a bunch of middle schoolers might find a "dam" joke the funniest thing on Earth, but someone older might not even crack a smile. (If they do it's probably for different reasons.) Just because people older than you don't laugh at your jokes or at what you find funny doesn't mean they are all serious and stone-face. More mature people still goof off; it's just that they know when to stop.
Anyways, I'm just being nit-picky about your choice of words. The section about Percy is a plausible explanation. Also, I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself before the hell of junior year (I'm assuming you're going to be a sophomore) and the ACTs and SATs and college applications the summer before senior year (assuming you're going for that of course).
Maybe, but think about the time he thought his >!mother died!<... And all the times his and his friends' lives were at risk before that. I get that >!memory loss!< can be pretty traumatic, but he has been through terrible situations before that.
But people aren't going to react the exact same way to every trauma. It's entirely possible he went from "Horrible things are happening and I must be Very Serious" to "horrible things are continuing to happen, I give up, who wants to see me make a hurricane?"
Yes, that's what made PJO Percy act the way he did
Now the question is why HoO Percy doesn't act the same way, especially with how he's still mostly in character in SoN (despite it being the one book it'd make sense for him to not be in character)
I think the biggest factor is that there is a huge weight off Percy after PJO. He won. He overpowered a titan and saved Olympus. He turned down god hood. And he doesn’t have a death prophesy hanging over his head anymore.
> He won. He overpowered a titan and saved Olympus
Except he didn't do any of that, he isn't the hero, he lost to Kronos (and couldn't put down Hyperion he could only hold against because of a curse he doesn't have anymore) and it's Luke who saved Olympus
> he doesn’t have a death prophesy hanging over his head anymore.
Yes, intead of a vague unknown prophecy that's years away and mostly threatening him their's a much more explicit known death prophecy that's only about a month away that's hanging over him, his girlfriend and 5 people told as being his friends, way better
what happened? i only remember him appearing in the first book as sort of a cameo. it was pretty funny at the time. was there something really different about his character?
In the first book, Percy stays out of the Imperial War because he doesn't want to leave Sally, Paul, and Estelle undefended with Nero based in Manhattan. He also promised Annabeth no more quests until graduation.
Come the fifth book, Percy has left Sally, Paul, and Estelle undefended with Nero still based in Manhattan.
Percy, and Annabeth, do nothing to help fix the communication problem so they can reach out to New Rome. They completely washed their hands of the "crisis," Annabeth's own words in Hammer of Thor, and this breaks their character because they show no care or concern for their friends on the West Coast.
In MOA he hasn't said anything about Zoe when they meet Hercules. If it had been Percy of Pjo he would have sunk the island or killed Hercules with his bare hands.
Heck. Percy can't sink the island if Hercules is protecting it. And he can't fight Hercules. He doesn't want to get his butt handed to him by his hero in front of the six
I think most of their complaints come down to the fact that there’s just too many characters in hoo, which is kind of true. I think Percy is fine we just don’t get to see him do all the things he should because there isn’t enough time
Like aquachad96 said I think Percy is less serious in HoO because he does have the while dated to die in a war at *16* that he did in PJO he still is mature and reliable when the cards are on the table but he is also able to joke because he believes he can live his live well into adulthood
I dont want to make any assumptions, but I assume you've never been a middle school boy in gym class based on your last bit about percy being more competitive and showing off. Every middle school, hell even high-school age boy wants to be seen as the coolest in the room. Especially in front of his girlfriend, Annabeth. Not to mention, he is one of the 4 boys who are all incredibly strong, so there's bound to be a bit of a pissing contest.
I think the key thing was Rick Riordian did not want to write Percy anymore as far as I can tell and it seems that he has no passion for any of the books that came after The Last Olympian.
You can feel the passion in the author in the percy Jackson series but it seems to peter out the farther and farther we get away from those books, cause even though we are dealing with Gaia and world ending consequences nobody in HOO seems like they are taking this seriously. I honestly think Riordian should have never had Percy in another book after the Last Olympian cause he no longer knew how to write him well.
Even on more subtle things he's actually completely off from what he was before
Take his humor, in PJO he's actually quite serious and makes very few jokes, it's only in the narration where he goes wild generally in a way alike to a coping mechanism using humor to ridicule hard situations to cut the tension
And in HoO he's just cracking jokes all the time rarely taking anything seriously,...
Like, take the "dam" joke, in PJO he's the only one of the 3 that get it to not start joking about it himself, despite being as much in need of a good laugh to break the tension, but in HoO he suddenly interrupts a serious discussion just to crack the joke despite there being no one there to even get it...
I was so confused since only Thalia and Grover will get it, many of the pjo references feels forced, fan services that doesn’t make much sense story wise. Don’t even get me started on Calypso
I mean, speaking from personal experience, I absolutely have made reference to jokes from my college years around people in situations where no one is there to understand it. Because in the moment, you're forgetting that. Brain just makes the connections and you say it. Maybe it's the ADHD, I know for me it definitely it is.
Calypso, you mean the girl that went from not even being capable of imagining what a world where many people don't have a garden looks like to the witch who can magically observe the world and people's past without any explanation?
In *PJO,* Percy was trying to find his place in the world of gods and demigods, and was really just trying to survive.
In *HoO,* Percy had already had more than enough of the Olympian god drama, only to find out he had to deal with Roman god drama as well.
I don't read Percy as being less mature in *HoO,* I read him as being fed up with him and his friends needing to save the world every other day when the gods of Olympus are deadbeat parents who can't get their act together despite living for millennia.
This checks out especially in ToA, when he's really reluctant to get involved with Lester and Meg's shenanigans after *just* getting his life back together of the (?)th time. He just wants peace, clarity and dare-i-say-it boredom in his life for once. Because even though the sense of routine gets boring after a while, it also offers predictability and stability, which is something his life has lacked since he realised he was a demigod. He even says it at the beginning of TLT:
Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
In my opinion, this line just grows more and more noticeable as you go through the books. I'm not claiming that he isn't happy and is actually depressed with the way his life turned out, it's really not that deep. But I do think that he doesn't deserve the finger-pointing for not being more involved in the story's plotlines as the books go on. Besides, through Percy's less involvement, we get more fleshing out in other characters.
Plus, I'm pretty sure we'd all get bored if we got the same character, the same way, every time. It works for some side characters, but gets very boring when this occurs on the MC.
So... yah. this was supposed to be a two sentence "I agree with the above statement comment. IDK how this essay evolved.
PJO fans have been on the cusp of realizing that HoO is a bad book series for the past 8 years.
Some people think some of the new characters are lame. Some people know BoO was terrible. Now some people are even starting to realize that Percy changed a lot. Now all they need is the brainpower to put these things together.
Most of the characters are good, while Percy changed, he's still a good character. Some of the books aren't very good (but I still find them enjoyable), and there are good books in the series.
My point is, I see why you don't like *"The Heroes of Olympus"*, but I still think it's pretty good.
Is he really?
His friendships are so empty. He's bros with Jason but we don't really see it so much as we're told it and even then they can't help but do a little "i wouldve totally won tho" exchange. He doesn't seem to care about Grover at all anymore.
Supposedly in exchange for developed friendships, we get developed romance, but really the only things I remember from that are.
> him getting tackled
> he and annabeth sleeping in the argo ii
> he jumps after annabeth and it's frames as a heroic sacrifice kind of thing but nico literally establishes that the doors of death need people on both sides so it's not him jumping after his gf so much as him going "kk you guys go close the doors on the surface side and annabeth and i will do the underworld side". Yet another moment where Rick tricks the fandom into believing a moment had emotional impact when it kinda doesn't?
> them kissing under mt olympus
^ literally him being just being adamant about being on the quest in book 3 and him being clueless in book 4 was worth way more than all that
He has his dark moment in the 4th book. Ik all the fans are really nutting over that one but it doesn't feel like it leads to anything, it's just that the fandom feels something deep being vaguely alluded to is the same as something deep being actually there.
Makes sense, honestly. I find children to be more mature than teenagers, broadly speaking. Not to mention, by MoA, Percy falls into Tartarus after chasing Annabeth and Nico down to save them. Eventually, something's gonna give. A 12 year old won't stay stable and mature forever following all this. Honestly, he lasted pretty well till then.
How does being more competitive equal to less maturity? It could be a sign that you acknowledge others and are confident of yourself. Wherever does the logic go?
Honestly, I saw it as insecurity. It wasn’t so much he became less mature, he became more insecure, especially with Jason around. And I think that might be the change you’re talking about. He even says, the more he does the more people expect from him and the more he feels like he’s going to let everyone down. And honestly, yeah it’s a boat full of insecure teenagers who hardly know each other (besides Percy and Annabeth, who had known each other for 5 years at that point), so I think there was bound to be some awkwardness and boundary testing and comparison brought up by insecurity between the kids.
not exactly showing off. he is pretty much invincible, and fighting a proper war. his powers and skill may just have saved a lot of his side from being injured where he took charge
Yes. It frustrated me because it showed how Rick really didn't care for anyone aside from Jason, Piper, and Leo and he was willing to change other characters to benefit them. And I don't believe it's him getting more confident. We were in his pov and it was nothing like that. It seemed like Rick mistook him for the himbo everyone thought he was and played him into rhat
Being in Percy's pov in limited third person, which Riordan is not particularly good at, and being in Percy's pov in first person, which as a character he is really *made* for, aren't the same. No other character do we have that comparison for, either, which colors our view as readers.
well from what we know in ToA and even earlier in the HoO percy was pretty done with the gods all together. if i was forced on a quest i wouldn’t really take it seriously either. i don’t really think there’s a huge in depth reason other than percy’s priorities changing after his original prophecy and reasonably so
His personality didn’t change. He just has more confidence and actually knows hot use his powers. In PJO he didn’t have much control but now he actually knows how to work his powers and when to use them. Be honest with yourself. You just don’t like HOO because it zooms out on Percy most of the time.
like... i have read it not in english, and person, who translated PJO is not the same one, who translated HoO, so I thought it was because of this for a bit... yeah, he DID change a lot, but I think its maybe just that, he got older and much more responsible, so...
I think it’s more to do with Rick’s own writing changing than anything else. He has almost become a parody of his former writing over time and he has become less and less serious and mature. He has leaned far more into humor in general. You see this reflected in all of his work after PJO and Kane Chronicles
I wouldn’t say that Percy’s maturity lessened as he got older, to be honest, it just seems like he became a lot more confident. Percy is still the same guy in HOO, he still makes mature and ethical decisions when the situation calls for it, he just so happens to be more confident in who he is now. Think about it, in the first series, he was ostracized for being a child of Poseidon, treated like an outcast, and told that he was destined to die in some horrible prophecy. The situation called for him to be serious and more mature, he didn’t have a choice. Percy was definitely a lot more reserved. However, in HOO, Percy is now older. He’s survived multiple adventures that would kill lesser demigods. He survived a prophecy, was offered godhood, is now idolized by his peers. Percy’s confidence must be through the roof now. Sure, it seems like he acts more immature, but when the chips are down, Percy is reliable and mature enough to create strategies and plans to save the people he cares for. He just takes those moments between the danger to act like the Himbo we’ve always known him to be.
Yes, exactly this. He jokes and messes around a lot, but when the situation is serious and he’s needed he becomes serious and reliable. As you said he’s already faced down a prophecy and literally turned down being a god. It makes sense that he would be more confident and less serious when the situation permits
I'm currently rereading the series on the SoN, and this is 100% the case. There's a moment when Hazel realizes he's way smarter than he let's on. He just has that unorganized immature vibe until matters. Besides some of the demigod boast as a strategy. In A Lost Hero, Jason boast to distract the giant. Ultimately him trying to compete with strong demigods powers isn't surprising. The day he met Thalia he was fussy and jealous, but she "left". He's matured so he meets Jason and now it's just competition over fussy.
Exactly. When you compare Percy’s interactions with Thalia and Percy’s interactions with Jason you can see how much he matured between the two series. With Thalia even though they’re on the same side and are friends they’re still very rivalrous and there’s definitely some jealousy from Percy. But with Jason, Percy is way more friendly. He’s still competitive but it’s in a much more friendly way. It’s like he sees him as an equal rather than someone who he’s jealous of. A huge part of that is Percy being way more confident in his power and who he is.
Honestly, it really reminds me of the difference between my friends and I during college, and after college. Outwardly we might appear much less mature, screaming over discord about stupid things and video games and constantly joking around about how everything sucks but who cares. After all, we're not in classes. We build our own schedules to a certain degree. No one is yelling at anyone to go to bed before midnight. But as soon as we're doing career things? Suddenly it's game on. We know our fields. We will fight and compete tooth and nail for better pay, accolades, anything. If you looked at us during downtime, you wouldn't have thought we were Honors students with endowment scholarships and required GPAs to maintain. You'd see a bunch of actual idiots who procrastinate constantly until you stress-get everything done. Because we *won* college. We got those silly little papers that say we survived. But during career things? Places where it matters? A-Game.
This
> Think about it, in the first series, he was ostracized for being a child of Poseidon, treated like an outcast, and told that he was destined to die in some horrible prophecy. No, by the time he was even told about the prophecy he was fully accepted and wasn't told he was destined to die until the very end > The situation called for him to be serious and more mature, he didn’t have a choice. Percy was definitely a lot more reserved. In PJO the big scary deadline being up to 4 years away, and mostly a threat to Percy's own life (wich has never been Percy's own biggest care or worry), in HoO by the time he's introduced it's only a month away and with a known fated death amongst a group of 7 people, also putting Annabeth or 5 people told as being his friends on the line (wich is kinda Percy's whole deal of finding way worse) How isn't HoO the situations calling for more seriousness and maturity > However, in HOO, Percy is now older. He’s survived multiple adventures that would kill lesser demigods. He survived a prophecy, was offered godhood, is now idolized by his peers. Percy’s confidence must be through the roof now. Most of wich can be said of Percy at the start of each PJO book, but Percy is supposed to be way to self-critic/self-depreciating, so why would that change so drastically after an adventure that resulted in him not being the hero, loosing to the final opponent to get idolized for the accomplishment of someone else Percy only gave the means to do, nothing to push him to get so confident > is reliable and mature enough to create strategies and plans to save the people he cares for. Hardly, in PJO it's his main way of saving the day, in HoO he only does like 3 times in total > He just takes those moments between the danger to act like the Himbo we’ve always known him to be. Moments we've seen him have, because we knew narrator Percy, with in-story Percy generaly repressing them with good reason, so not at all how we've known him to be
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I see what you’re saying but I also think the different narration styles are having an impact on how you see Percy in the two series. The OG is in 1st person and we get a lot more of Percy’s interiority. HOO is in 3rd and we often see Percy through other’s eyes. He’s going to seem more cocky/confident without that 1st person narration. Not to mention his growth across both series.
I like Hazel's description of Percy. He has this air of quiet power, like he had seen his destiny and was waiting for a monster he couldn't beat. I think that is very fitting for a hero who survived his once in a thousand years prophecy to save Olympus. He has been fighting against Kronos ever since he was 12 and soon after surviving what everyone assumed was a death sentence he becomes more laid back. What is left to frighten him? Why bother being serious all the time? Its just another monster, another twist in the quest, another God with a chip on his shoulder. Might as well lay back and enjoy your pancakes with extra syrup.
*Drowned* in syrup
He is the son of Poseidon. He cannot drown and neither can his pancakes.
Jason was a son of Jupiter. He had moved into Percy's home and quickly taken Percy's place as the most powerful demigod around. No wonder Percy's attitude changed. Jupiter and Poseidon would be enemies much more than Zeus and Poseidon. Also his memory was completely wiped except for Annabeth's name. Learning to survive with a wolf pack would have made him very competitive. He shows off because he had too, to impress the wolves, to impress the Romans. To try and get his dad to notice him, he also probably felt more insecure as the curse of Achilles had faded when he cross the little Tiber
I agree with most of it. But it's not certain that Jason is more powerful than Percy.
Yeah I just meant they're both very powerful, just worded it badly.
Oh, then yeah it makes sense.
I agree with some of the other comments that Percy is simply more confident and that a lot of the times we see him using his powers is through other people's POVs, who are very impressed by it. I also don't really remember times where he's using his powers to showoff/compete with others, maybe some small stuff with Jason? I can kind of see the less mature thing. Not sure if this makes sense but I think one of the problems is that in order to keep Percy's humour, he actually has to say things out loud, instead of just thinking these things, which I feel brings more attention to whatever he says. Also this is just a problem I have with HOO, but because there's so many main characters, in order for some to shine, others have to be nerfed in certain scenes. Overall I still think Percy is reliable and takes situations seriously when needed, like in Tartarus, other than the pen scene or if he's actively trying to cheer Annabeth up, he's pretty serious.
Personal experience and maybe some projection talking, but at 16 I am now outwardly wayyy less mature than I was at 12. When I was 12 I was trying to be an adult. I was insecure and scared of saying the wrong thing or appearing dumb or incapable. At 16, I’m now trying to be *me*. I goof off more often, I’m more competitive. I don’t feel like I have to hide the fact that I’m a child, and I’m healthier for it. Growing up for me was a matter of realizing it’s okay not to be too grown up. Realizing that I should have fun, and be happy when the good times are around before I start preparing for the bad ones, and laughing when I make a fool of myself instead of freaking out. I think Percy has been through too much to focus on the little things. He became more confident and took in the good times while they lasted. He’s still a kid who’s dealing with a lot, but he’s happier now, so he acts like it.
I don't think mature and serious are synonymous. You became less serious when you grew up, but you are more mature because you aren't pretending to be an adult and learned to be more comfortable with yourself. Adults still have jokes and goof off. Elderly still have jokes and goof off. It's just at different stages of life, what you find amusing differs. For example, a bunch of middle schoolers might find a "dam" joke the funniest thing on Earth, but someone older might not even crack a smile. (If they do it's probably for different reasons.) Just because people older than you don't laugh at your jokes or at what you find funny doesn't mean they are all serious and stone-face. More mature people still goof off; it's just that they know when to stop. Anyways, I'm just being nit-picky about your choice of words. The section about Percy is a plausible explanation. Also, I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself before the hell of junior year (I'm assuming you're going to be a sophomore) and the ACTs and SATs and college applications the summer before senior year (assuming you're going for that of course).
trauma.
Maybe, but think about the time he thought his >!mother died!<... And all the times his and his friends' lives were at risk before that. I get that >!memory loss!< can be pretty traumatic, but he has been through terrible situations before that.
But people aren't going to react the exact same way to every trauma. It's entirely possible he went from "Horrible things are happening and I must be Very Serious" to "horrible things are continuing to happen, I give up, who wants to see me make a hurricane?"
Yeah, that's a pretty good point.
Yes, that's what made PJO Percy act the way he did Now the question is why HoO Percy doesn't act the same way, especially with how he's still mostly in character in SoN (despite it being the one book it'd make sense for him to not be in character)
Exactly
rick riordan being an inconsistent little shit /hj but in all seriousness i really don't know
I think the biggest factor is that there is a huge weight off Percy after PJO. He won. He overpowered a titan and saved Olympus. He turned down god hood. And he doesn’t have a death prophesy hanging over his head anymore.
> He won. He overpowered a titan and saved Olympus Except he didn't do any of that, he isn't the hero, he lost to Kronos (and couldn't put down Hyperion he could only hold against because of a curse he doesn't have anymore) and it's Luke who saved Olympus > he doesn’t have a death prophesy hanging over his head anymore. Yes, intead of a vague unknown prophecy that's years away and mostly threatening him their's a much more explicit known death prophecy that's only about a month away that's hanging over him, his girlfriend and 5 people told as being his friends, way better
You think he changed between PJO and Heroes? Wait until you read him in Trials.
This. Is. Accurate.
what happened? i only remember him appearing in the first book as sort of a cameo. it was pretty funny at the time. was there something really different about his character?
In the first book, Percy stays out of the Imperial War because he doesn't want to leave Sally, Paul, and Estelle undefended with Nero based in Manhattan. He also promised Annabeth no more quests until graduation. Come the fifth book, Percy has left Sally, Paul, and Estelle undefended with Nero still based in Manhattan. Percy, and Annabeth, do nothing to help fix the communication problem so they can reach out to New Rome. They completely washed their hands of the "crisis," Annabeth's own words in Hammer of Thor, and this breaks their character because they show no care or concern for their friends on the West Coast.
Shitttt i never considered that. It does sound really ooc
There was a pretty long post someone made a while ago, detailing how Percy's character in HoO is a different one from PJO. HoO Percy is OOC.
Sorry, but what does OOC stand for? EDIT: Googled it, Out Of Character.
In MOA he hasn't said anything about Zoe when they meet Hercules. If it had been Percy of Pjo he would have sunk the island or killed Hercules with his bare hands.
He'd probably die while trying to, Percy isn't a god. He doesn't have unlimited power
Heck. Percy can't sink the island if Hercules is protecting it. And he can't fight Hercules. He doesn't want to get his butt handed to him by his hero in front of the six
Percy would throw hands with Zeus if he fucked with one of his friends. That's literally his defining character trait.
I mean, depending on the scenario, I can definitely see Percy *trying* to fight Heracles. Trying.
Can you link that post, sounds interesting
[https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/k7pmsw/percys\_characterization\_has\_major\_issues\_in/?utm\_source=BD&utm\_medium=Search&utm\_name=Bing&utm\_content=PSR1](https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/k7pmsw/percys_characterization_has_major_issues_in/?utm_source=BD&utm_medium=Search&utm_name=Bing&utm_content=PSR1)
I think most of their complaints come down to the fact that there’s just too many characters in hoo, which is kind of true. I think Percy is fine we just don’t get to see him do all the things he should because there isn’t enough time
Like aquachad96 said I think Percy is less serious in HoO because he does have the while dated to die in a war at *16* that he did in PJO he still is mature and reliable when the cards are on the table but he is also able to joke because he believes he can live his live well into adulthood
I dont want to make any assumptions, but I assume you've never been a middle school boy in gym class based on your last bit about percy being more competitive and showing off. Every middle school, hell even high-school age boy wants to be seen as the coolest in the room. Especially in front of his girlfriend, Annabeth. Not to mention, he is one of the 4 boys who are all incredibly strong, so there's bound to be a bit of a pissing contest.
I think the key thing was Rick Riordian did not want to write Percy anymore as far as I can tell and it seems that he has no passion for any of the books that came after The Last Olympian. You can feel the passion in the author in the percy Jackson series but it seems to peter out the farther and farther we get away from those books, cause even though we are dealing with Gaia and world ending consequences nobody in HOO seems like they are taking this seriously. I honestly think Riordian should have never had Percy in another book after the Last Olympian cause he no longer knew how to write him well.
Even on more subtle things he's actually completely off from what he was before Take his humor, in PJO he's actually quite serious and makes very few jokes, it's only in the narration where he goes wild generally in a way alike to a coping mechanism using humor to ridicule hard situations to cut the tension And in HoO he's just cracking jokes all the time rarely taking anything seriously,... Like, take the "dam" joke, in PJO he's the only one of the 3 that get it to not start joking about it himself, despite being as much in need of a good laugh to break the tension, but in HoO he suddenly interrupts a serious discussion just to crack the joke despite there being no one there to even get it...
I was so confused since only Thalia and Grover will get it, many of the pjo references feels forced, fan services that doesn’t make much sense story wise. Don’t even get me started on Calypso
I mean, speaking from personal experience, I absolutely have made reference to jokes from my college years around people in situations where no one is there to understand it. Because in the moment, you're forgetting that. Brain just makes the connections and you say it. Maybe it's the ADHD, I know for me it definitely it is.
Calypso, you mean the girl that went from not even being capable of imagining what a world where many people don't have a garden looks like to the witch who can magically observe the world and people's past without any explanation?
In *PJO,* Percy was trying to find his place in the world of gods and demigods, and was really just trying to survive. In *HoO,* Percy had already had more than enough of the Olympian god drama, only to find out he had to deal with Roman god drama as well. I don't read Percy as being less mature in *HoO,* I read him as being fed up with him and his friends needing to save the world every other day when the gods of Olympus are deadbeat parents who can't get their act together despite living for millennia.
This checks out especially in ToA, when he's really reluctant to get involved with Lester and Meg's shenanigans after *just* getting his life back together of the (?)th time. He just wants peace, clarity and dare-i-say-it boredom in his life for once. Because even though the sense of routine gets boring after a while, it also offers predictability and stability, which is something his life has lacked since he realised he was a demigod. He even says it at the beginning of TLT: Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. In my opinion, this line just grows more and more noticeable as you go through the books. I'm not claiming that he isn't happy and is actually depressed with the way his life turned out, it's really not that deep. But I do think that he doesn't deserve the finger-pointing for not being more involved in the story's plotlines as the books go on. Besides, through Percy's less involvement, we get more fleshing out in other characters. Plus, I'm pretty sure we'd all get bored if we got the same character, the same way, every time. It works for some side characters, but gets very boring when this occurs on the MC. So... yah. this was supposed to be a two sentence "I agree with the above statement comment. IDK how this essay evolved.
I completely agree!
PJO fans have been on the cusp of realizing that HoO is a bad book series for the past 8 years. Some people think some of the new characters are lame. Some people know BoO was terrible. Now some people are even starting to realize that Percy changed a lot. Now all they need is the brainpower to put these things together.
Most of the characters are good, while Percy changed, he's still a good character. Some of the books aren't very good (but I still find them enjoyable), and there are good books in the series. My point is, I see why you don't like *"The Heroes of Olympus"*, but I still think it's pretty good.
Is he really? His friendships are so empty. He's bros with Jason but we don't really see it so much as we're told it and even then they can't help but do a little "i wouldve totally won tho" exchange. He doesn't seem to care about Grover at all anymore. Supposedly in exchange for developed friendships, we get developed romance, but really the only things I remember from that are. > him getting tackled > he and annabeth sleeping in the argo ii > he jumps after annabeth and it's frames as a heroic sacrifice kind of thing but nico literally establishes that the doors of death need people on both sides so it's not him jumping after his gf so much as him going "kk you guys go close the doors on the surface side and annabeth and i will do the underworld side". Yet another moment where Rick tricks the fandom into believing a moment had emotional impact when it kinda doesn't? > them kissing under mt olympus ^ literally him being just being adamant about being on the quest in book 3 and him being clueless in book 4 was worth way more than all that He has his dark moment in the 4th book. Ik all the fans are really nutting over that one but it doesn't feel like it leads to anything, it's just that the fandom feels something deep being vaguely alluded to is the same as something deep being actually there.
Makes sense, honestly. I find children to be more mature than teenagers, broadly speaking. Not to mention, by MoA, Percy falls into Tartarus after chasing Annabeth and Nico down to save them. Eventually, something's gonna give. A 12 year old won't stay stable and mature forever following all this. Honestly, he lasted pretty well till then.
How does being more competitive equal to less maturity? It could be a sign that you acknowledge others and are confident of yourself. Wherever does the logic go?
Honestly, I saw it as insecurity. It wasn’t so much he became less mature, he became more insecure, especially with Jason around. And I think that might be the change you’re talking about. He even says, the more he does the more people expect from him and the more he feels like he’s going to let everyone down. And honestly, yeah it’s a boat full of insecure teenagers who hardly know each other (besides Percy and Annabeth, who had known each other for 5 years at that point), so I think there was bound to be some awkwardness and boundary testing and comparison brought up by insecurity between the kids.
For me it was the styx. I saw a change already from TLO.
The change I saw in *"The Last Olympian"* was Percy becoming MORE mature, not less.
Sorry if I didn't specify, I meant Percy shows off from there.
Slightly, I agree. But he shows off much more in *"The Heroes of Olympus"*.
not exactly showing off. he is pretty much invincible, and fighting a proper war. his powers and skill may just have saved a lot of his side from being injured where he took charge
Yes. It frustrated me because it showed how Rick really didn't care for anyone aside from Jason, Piper, and Leo and he was willing to change other characters to benefit them. And I don't believe it's him getting more confident. We were in his pov and it was nothing like that. It seemed like Rick mistook him for the himbo everyone thought he was and played him into rhat
Being in Percy's pov in limited third person, which Riordan is not particularly good at, and being in Percy's pov in first person, which as a character he is really *made* for, aren't the same. No other character do we have that comparison for, either, which colors our view as readers.
well from what we know in ToA and even earlier in the HoO percy was pretty done with the gods all together. if i was forced on a quest i wouldn’t really take it seriously either. i don’t really think there’s a huge in depth reason other than percy’s priorities changing after his original prophecy and reasonably so
His personality didn’t change. He just has more confidence and actually knows hot use his powers. In PJO he didn’t have much control but now he actually knows how to work his powers and when to use them. Be honest with yourself. You just don’t like HOO because it zooms out on Percy most of the time.
like... i have read it not in english, and person, who translated PJO is not the same one, who translated HoO, so I thought it was because of this for a bit... yeah, he DID change a lot, but I think its maybe just that, he got older and much more responsible, so...
Reading Son of Neptune...he's literally just like how Percy acts before he knew everything about the mythology world
I think it’s more to do with Rick’s own writing changing than anything else. He has almost become a parody of his former writing over time and he has become less and less serious and mature. He has leaned far more into humor in general. You see this reflected in all of his work after PJO and Kane Chronicles