Dear Reader

Welcome to another post where I go on a tangent about how much I love Percy Jackson. In this reflection, I’m going to tell you Why Percy Jackson Slaps if you couldn’t tell by the title.

 

Before I dive in (I know, bad pun, considering who this series follows), I want to start by sharing how I first got into this series and why it stuck with me. I read The Lightning Thief in third grade because it was our class reading book. Years later, since I’d already read the first one, I decided to continue, but I accidentally bought the third book instead of the second, and never got around to reading them. Then my friend told me she had read the series and loved it, so I gave it another shot. I started with the first book and ended up reading the entire series in one week, finishing some of them in a single night. It would be an understatement to say I love these books with all my heart. I have my friend to thank for pulling me back into it — it’s now a fully ingrained part of my personality (THANK YOU CHRISSY). I loved it so much that I moved straight on to The Heroes of Olympus just because I needed more Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. I liked that series too, but nothing beats the OG.

 

Okay, I’ll stop yapping and get into why Percy Jackson SLAPSSSSS

First of all, I love the humor!!! Percy’s narration is top-tier, and it had me laughing out loud to myself in my room at the age of 16 (at the time) so often. Percy is written in a way that I imagine a 12-year-old boy’s mind would work, and it’s so funny. It’s even more amusing when you consider that most of his comments are just in his head, so this 12-year-old kid is constantly taking a dig at everyone around him, but all they see is a quiet little child in the background. In The Lightning Thief, when Percy is in Yancy, he says, “They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.” The way Percy brings humor (or self-pity) into situations is hilarious, and I love reading it. Even in intense moments like in The Titan’s Curse, Percy’s narration stays iconic when Zoë glares at him. He thinks, “She glared at me as if all the stuff Artemis had just said was my fault like I’d invented the idea of being a guy.” And his nicknames?!?!. Like in The Last Olympian, when he refers to the Minotaur as “Old Beefhead” or says a room looks “like the inside of a dragon’s throat,” he adds that he unfortunately speaks from experience. One of my personal favorites is in The Lightning Thief, where Luke says that Annabeth is a little sister to him, and Percy thinks, “I wonder if Annabeth would like that description.” The sassiness!!! This boy is “we listen and WE JUDGE.”

Beneath the jokes and the sarcasm, Percy and personality run deep. His fatal flaw is personal loyalty, and it’s one of my favorite things about him. Percy is dangerously loyal, and It gets him in trouble very often but it makes him a wonderful “hero” to the story , especially when Greek mythos is full of sorrow and betrayal, Percy is stark contrast to that in the no-man-left-behind kind of way. Like in The Titan’s Curse when Annabeth is captured by Atlas, Percy disobeys orders and sneaks out of camp so he can try to save Annabeth, even though it wasn’t his quest and it’s very risky. Athena warns him about his fatal flaw: “Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy. You do not let your friends suffer, even if doing so would save the world.” He will always choose having everyone around him rather than the logical option where he has to leave someone behind. He will face anything just to keep his promise to someone regardless if he’s close with them or not. Even when Nico literally betrays Percy by luring him into the Underworld , in The Last Olympian , instead of holding a grudge, Percy understands why Nico did it, because he was hurting, and Percy still trusts him. He values people more than revenge, and that kind of loyalty isn’t something you find easily.The thing about Percy is that he knows its fatal flaw and he knows that his loyalty can backfire and it could cost him the world but he chooses it every single time. It’s the fact that he simply cannot fathom that people would betray each other. According to me, this is what makes Percy such a well-written character.

In my head Percy is a perfect character and I admire his bravery and loyalty, what really cements him as one of my favorite characters is how incredibly relatable he is. He’s not flawless, but he’s a good leader because he listens, especially to Annabeth and doesn’t act like he has all the answers. He struggles with school, confidence, and trying to figure out his place in the world. Percy (like other demigods) has ADHD and dyslexia. I’ve seen some people say that they wish Rick represented ADHD and dyslexia better and that’s totally valid. As someone who doesn’t have ADHD or dyslexia myself , I appreciated that it’s acknowledged that he struggles in school and how he feels “stupid” at times because the system isn’t made for someone like him.  And even though he’s technically THE hero, he’s never the “chosen one” in the usual sense. He’s thrown into a quest and doesn’t want to fight and is constantly hating on the gods for putting him and a bunch of innocent children in dangerous and difficult situations.

Another wonderful part of this is watching Percy grow, and I’m not him growing up as in starting the series as a 12 year old to the 16 year old in the prophecy, he’s  this angry kid in book one, grieving his mom and just trying to survive. He’s bitter, sarcastic and in his head. In the first book he says that he didn’t ask to be a demigod. It summarizes Percy perfectly” unwilling, uncertain, scared and trying not to be a savior. But by the end of the series, this kid is standing up to the gods and telling them to their faces to be better, making choices that depend on the state of the world, and actually carrying the weight of the world (literally and figuratively). He doesn’t magically turn into a hero , he grows into being a hero because he accepts it and chooses it. One of my favorite things about the series is the found family. Percy starts calling Camp Halfblood from when he arrives there, he gains a huge family and home that’s messy, chaotic, death-trap-y but it was still a home regardless. 

Then we have Grover and Annabeth. They aren’t side characters that build up percy but they are a crucial part of the core of the books. From the moment we meet grover you can tell the connection he and percy have is so genuine and pure. From the point where Annabeth joins Percy on the quest , she is loyal and always believes in him even though she has her walls up. Their bond is so real and imperfect but that’s what makes it so perfect. It grows and it’s so comforting to read about. 

Another reason I love the series is because of Annabeth Chase. That’s it. That’s the reason. She’s an icon, she’s a legend and she is the moment. She is smart, driven, brave, stubborn, ambitious, and always saving Percy’s butt multiple times(mostly for himself). When she says her iconic line “You drool when you sleep” you know that he is a legend. What I love about Annabeth is that she isn’t just a dumb blonde in the books and Leah in the show as some angry black woman. Both books and TV are allowed to be intelligent and vulnerable. She has a complicated relationship with her parents and she’s always trying to prove herself, her worry when she has to lead a quest in The Battle of the Labyrinth. She’s honest and vulnerable with Percy and it makes her so human. AND the dynamic between her and Percy?UNMATCHED. The slow burn is slow-burned so goodddddd. Percabeth is my everything<3333

This is probably most people’s favorite thing about PJO and it’s also mine. The chapter titles seem like clickbait youtube videos but when you actually read the chapter it’s all true and not one ounce of is a lie. The chapter is exactly what the title tells you. When you come across a new unhinged title you know you’re in for a good time. Who else titles a chapter “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher”? Or “We Hail the Taxi of Eternal Torment”? Or “We Get Advice from a Poodle”? Rick Riordan understood the assignment and the extra credit. 

My last point about why percy jackson slaps is the fact that it holds UP. Even though the books are for children 9+ they do not feel like that. I read this book at age 16 and it still hit so hard and didn’t really feel like a “children’s” book. The jokes are funny and the pacing is so well done. Since I read it at an older age and didn’t “grow” with it, I felt like I understood the trauma of it more than I would have if I read it at a younger age. And now with the new senior year adventures ,Percy is still witty, sharp and relatable. He grew up but didn’t lose his sarcasm, heart, or his  I-didn’t-sign-up-for-this energy. He craves for normalcy and wants a peaceful life with Annabeth. It feels like catching up with an old friend and falling right back into your “vibe”. I love this series so much, and writing this makes me want to re-read the books. Percy Jackson and the Olympians will always have a special place in my heart. ( I also can’t wait for season 2 and 3, December is too far away and who knows when season 3 is going to be released.) 

 

Signed with celestial bronze ink,

Sarayu