Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Characters

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Characters who appear in Percy Jackson and The Olympians.

Half-bloods

Sons and daughters of the Greek gods. They have heightened senses and combat skills that take the form of ADHD and their minds are hard-wired to read Ancient Greek, which gives them trouble reading English. Their skills and personalities are inherited from their divine parents (children of Aphrodite will be Love Freaks, children of Athena will be highly intelligent, and children of Apollo will be musically and/or medicinally inclined, as well as a good shot with a bow).

Perseus "Percy" Jackson

"Is he dangerous?"
"Very, to his enemies."

The son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and clear-sighted mortal Sally Jackson. The titular hero of the series, the books start in Percy's sixth grade year when he kills one of the Furies, masquerading as his pre-algebra teacher. Has a Cool Sword, Anaklusmos ("Riptide") and later becomes the third person in history to bear the Curse of Achilles.

  • Achilles' Heel: The small of his back. Or, in a more figurative sense, Annabeth..
  • Adaptation Dye Job: In the books, it was Percy who was the dark-haired one while Luke was the evil blonde. In the Disney Plus series, their hair colors are switched. The same applies to him and Annabeth. In addition, like Logan Lerman before him, his eyes are Circassian blue instead of green.
  • Amazon Admirer: Percy develops a crush on Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, within a few weeks of meeting her. Sure she can kick his ass, and does so on multiple occasions, but he would follow her into the Underworld if she needed his help. Before, Annabeth considers Percy a "Seaweed Brain" and crushes on Luke because Luke rescued her as a kid from mutant spiders. Then Luke betrays Camp Half-Blood and tries to murder Percy, after he survived a quest with Annabeth and Grover. It's implied that Annabeth started returning Percy's feelings when Luke betrayed her a second time by tricking her into holding up the sky, and then using her as a hostage against the party coming to rescue her and Artemis.
  • Animal Talk: Can talk to horses and other vaguely equine beasts and sea creatures, since his dad made them.
  • Author Avatar: Percy is pretty much an in-book avatar of Rick's son.
  • Badass Abnormal: Among demigods, after his dip in the River Styx in The Last Olympian.
  • Battle Couple: With Annabeth.
  • Book Dumb: He prefers to leave the deep thinking to Annabeth.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Thanks in particular to his Fatal Flaw.
  • Cursed with Awesome: A self-inflicted example.
  • Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday
  • Deadpan Snarker: Percy gets the award for being the most snarky in a World of Snark.
  • Don't Call Me "Sir"!: He doesn't like it various subjects of his father call him "lord." Blackjack, Percy's pegasus, still calls him "boss" though.
  • Embarrassing First Name
  • Fatal Flaw: Personal loyalty.
  • First-Person Smartass
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Of Luke's history with Annabeth.
  • Green Eyes
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Percy's pretty terrible at anything besides the sword.
  • Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad
  • Indy Ploy: It'd be faster to count the number of times his plans didn't boil down to "I'll figure something out, in the meantime, try not to get killed."
  • Kissing Cousins: Although it's explained that gods don't have DNA, so there's nothing wrong with people from different cabins dating one another.
  • Leeroy Jenkins
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Chiron and Annabeth never seem to tell him anything.
  • Making a Splash
  • Momma's Boy
  • Meaningful Name: Named after the only Greek hero to actually get a Happy Ending. Also helps slay Medusa and hangs out with a pegasus.
    • And Medusa's hacked off head is involved with getting rid of his mother's husband, a "suitor".
  • Nice Guy
  • Olympic Swimmer: Don't try to deny it.
  • Only Known By His Nickname: Virtually no one calls him Perseus, except for maybe the demon cheerleaders. Not even the big bad does. This is pretty much the reason he can tell monsters from normal people. They are the only ones to say "Perseus" when talking to him.
  • Showy Invincible Hero: Became this in the fifth book.
  • Soft Water / Super Not-Drowning Skills: Not only can Percy always take a dive into water, from any height, to escape a bad situation (admit it, that's a handy thing to know), being submerged in water (more accurately, touching water in general, but it's strongest when he's submerged) heals and freshens him up, even to the point of detoxing any poison he's suffering from,; he doesn't even get wet unless he wants to. He can even use a lighter underwater. Being the son of the sea god has its perks.
  • Underwater Kiss: In The Last Olympian with Annabeth.
  • Sweet Tooth: His favorite food is "anything blue and sweet", understandable, since his mom used to work at a candy store and brought home lots of free samples.
  • Undying Loyalty: His Fatal Flaw is said to be his loyalty to his friends.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy - He's kind of a sucker for his dad's good opinion.
  • Will They Or Won't They - With Annabeth. They Do at the end of The Last Olympian. Even their fellow campers thought it was about time already.

Annabeth Chase

"Athena always has a plan."

Heroine of the series and the resident brainiac, Annabeth is the literal brainchild of Athena and military historian Frederick Chase (kids of Athena are just special that way). Her pastimes include architecture, Ancient Greek, killing monsters, and learning how to stab things. Annabeth ran away from home when she was seven and met up with Thalia and Luke; eventually they made their way to Camp Half-Blood, but lost Thalia in the process.

Luke Castellan

Son of Hermes and May Castellan. When he was an infant, his mother tried to become the new host for the Oracle of Delphi. It went horribly wrong. May went crazy from visions of her son's eventual future and became The Ophelia, and spent Luke's childhood babbling at him about his horrible fate. He ran away and met up with Thalia and Annabeth; they eventually made it to Camp Half-Blood, but not before Thalia died. Luke went on a failed quest and came back with a scar.

Clarisse La Rue

Daughter of Ares and head counselor of Cabin Five, Clarisse frequently bullies new campers and her first appearance involves trying to shove Percy's head in a toilet. She and Percy never get along, but they do develop respect for one another.

Silena Beauregard

Daughter of Aphrodite, ergo stunningly beautiful and in love with love. Extremely talented with handling pegasi. Hooks up with Beckendorf between the fourth and fifth books.

Charles Beckendorf

Son of Hephaestus and constantly hanging out in the camp's metal forges. Can build bombs.

Connor & Travis Stoll

Sons of Hermes—not twins, but a year apart. They succeed Luke as co-counselors of Cabin Eleven and the main pranksters of Camp Half-Blood.

Thalia Grace

Daughter of Zeus and an eighties starlet with a poofy hairdo. Her birth broke the pact the Big Three had made after World War II to never have children again. She ran away from her alcoholic mother when she was younger, met up with Luke and eventually Annabeth, and made her way with them to Camp Half-Blood. There they were overwhelmed by monsters and Thalia stayed behind to hold them off, dying in the process. Zeus turned her body into a pine tree.

Bianca di Angelo

Daughter of Hades and Maria di Angelo, Bianca and her brother were actually born in the 1920s.

Nico di Angelo

Younger brother to Bianca and son of Hades and Maria di Angelo. After Bianca's death, Nico runs away and teaches himself to use his unique powers.

Ethan Nakamura

Son of Nemesis, the goddess of revenge and balance, Ethan was one of the many residents of Cabin Eleven who went unclaimed or had no cabin of their own because their parents were minor gods. He promised his mother he would make a place on Olympus for the minor gods, and in exchange she took his eye.

Other Camp residents

Grover Underwood

A satyr and Percy's best friend, Grover is the Searcher sent to Yancy Academy to keep an eye on Percy. He leads Percy to Camp Half-Blood and joins him on each book's quest (except the second, where the object is to rescue him). His dream is to find the lost god of the wild, Pan. He eventually does. Just in time to watch Pan die.

Chiron

Tyson

Tyson is first introduced as a school friend of Percy's, but he is later revealed to be a Cyclops - one-eyed children of Poseidon, therefore making him Percy's half-brother.

Mrs. O'Leary

Quintus's dog. Later becomes Percy's after Quintus/Daedalus dies.

Blackjack

Percy's trusty horse, who he rescued from slavery in Luke's ship. Percy can talk with him because he's a son of Poseidon, who made horses.

Mortals

Sally Jackson

Percy's mother.

Percy: Mom! When did you learn to fire a shotgun?
Sally: About two seconds ago.


Paul Blofis

  • Action Dad: We, once again, refer you to Book 5, Chapter 18: My Parents Go Commando. Paul picks up a sword and promptly kills a dracaena with it. After which he says a memorable quote:

"I hope that was a monster I just killed. I was a Shakespearian actor in college! Picked up a little swordplay!"

Frederick Chase

"Get away from my daughter!"

Rachel Elizabeth Dare

May Castellan

Luke's mother, who is described as kind-hearted and multitalented. Until she tried to become the Oracle of Delphi despite Hades's curse, and paid the price for it.

Gabe Ugliano

Percy's abusive stepfather at the beginning of the series. He isn't the nicest of guys.


Gods

Tropes that apply to many of the gods:

  • Berserk Button: Don't sit in their chair.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Many of the gods: Poseidon is one of the three most powerful gods in existence, and he walks around in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts; Dionysus likes playing Pac-Man and whines about only drinking pop; and Apollo is the god of medicine, drives the sun chariot as a Maserati Spyder, and lets fifteen-year-old girls take it for a spin.
  • Jerkass Gods: Most of the gods at one point or another, but especially Zeus and Ares. Even the most sympathetically portrayed have their moments.
  • Parental Abandonment: They're both victims of this and guilty of it.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Bordering on Time Abyss.

Aphrodite

The goddess of love and beauty. As one might expect, her role in an adventure story is pretty minimal.

Ares

The god of war. As one might expect, he's petty and not that bright.

Artemis

The goddess of the moon, the hunt, and maidens. She is sworn as a perpetual maiden, and thus has no true children, but she does "adopt" maidens who foreswear men forever.

Apollo

The god of the sun, poetry, prophecy, and medicine, and Artemis's older twin brother (but don't bring that up). He speaks through the oracle of Delphi.

Apollo: Green grass breaks through snow,
Artemis pleads for my help,
I am so cool.

Athena

The goddess of wisdom. A perpetual maiden, her "children" are born from a quite literal meeting of minds between herself and a mortal.

  • Gray Eyes
  • Genius Bruiser: She is the goddess of both wisdom and battle strategy, and in classical mythology is one of the most powerful gods, perhaps only second or third to Zeus and Poseidon. Percy himself points out that Athena would be a worse enemy to have than even Dionysus or Ares, because if she planned to have you killed, then you would die. No matter what.
  • Lady of War
  • Overprotective Mom: Well, as "overprotective" as any of the absentee parent gods can get, anyway.

Dionysus

The god of wine, parties, and insanity. He's being "punished" by being assigned as the head of Camp Half-Blood for 100 years after chasing after an off-limits nymph, and is grouchy due to being put off the bottle and thus can't drink until his punishment is over. Has an extremely strong dislike of heroes. Known as "Mr. D" to the campers.

  • Big Damn Heroes: In The Titan's Curse, saving Percy, Thalia, Zoë, and Grover from Dr. Thorn and his soldiers.
  • Freudian Excuse: A non-villainous example. The reason he dislikes heroes is because his wife Ariadne was abandoned by the demigod Theseus.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • My Name Is Not Durwood - Mr. D staunchly refuses to get any of the campers' names right. Just ask Peter Johnson Percy Jackson.
  • Mind Rape: His signature move.
  • Papa Wolf: Minor example, but he contacts Percy in a dream to make sure his one remaining son is safe.
  • Pet the Dog: Restoring Chris Rodriguez' sanity in The Battle of the Labyrinth.

Hades

The god of the underworld. Bitter and asocial, but not truly evil.

  • Animal Motif: He is described as been similar to a panther, lithe, graceful and dangerous
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: In “The Lighting Thief” upon Percy’s meeting with Hades he states that Hades, above Ares and Dionysus, radiated power and that he had an air of order and lordship. The Asskicking part is seen in his Big Damn Heroes moment in “The Last Olympian”
  • Big Damn Heroes: The end of The Last Olympian
  • Calling the Old Man Out: "And if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that you were a TERRIBLE father."
  • Dark Is Not Evil
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Even though he didn't do anything to deserve it. Although this gets better in the end.
  • Not So Stoic: Around his family.
  • Orcus on His Throne: How Percy, Annabeth and Grover find him in “The Lighting Thief”
  • Papa Wolf: Hades, it seems, is willing to go to much further lengths to protect his children than his brothers, including visiting them in person. Plus, it's stated that Nico lives in the Underworld with him.
    • This ultra protectedness could be due to Nico and Bianca being his ONLY children (the rest of his siblings have oodles of kids in contrast that they can hardly keep track of them, Poseidon implies that Percy has many more unknown half-siblings, and Jason, main character in Heroes of Olympus is revealed to be Zeus's son). His pact with his brothers prevents him from having more kids making him more motivated to keep the ones he has safe.
      • Well, only Greek children, anyway.
  • Parental Favoritism: Hades makes it quite clear that he'd rather have Bianca alive instead of Nico, though it's probably because of Bianca's resemblance to their mother.
  • Simple Staff: Acording to Nico, Its His Weapon of Choice .

Hephaestus

The god of fire, blacksmiths, metallurgy, and technology.

Hera

The goddess of women and marriage. She is quite possibly one of the three gods who have never had a demigod child (the other two being Artemis and Hestia).

Hermes

The god of messengers, travelers, and thieves. As such, he's always extremely busy.

Hestia

The goddess of the hearth. She's often overlooked by the other characters, often quite literally.

  • Ascended Extra: From the original mythology.
  • Demoted to Extra: In the original mythology, and of course as part of her past in the books. She seems to have happily embraced the option, however.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: The little girl tending the hearth as Percy tours the camp for the first time in The Lightning Thief appears four books later as Hestia, goddess of the hearth and the titular last Olympian.
  • Older Than They Look: Hestia in particular takes this trope out of all the gods, because she takes the form of a seven or eight-year old girl.

Poseidon

The god of the oceans, storms, earthquakes and horses. Poseidon is shown to take greater care of his children than other gods and as more mature than his brother Zeus.

  • Doting Parent: He is the best father in the world, compared to some of his fellow gods, especially Zeus and Hades
  • Father Neptune: The Greek equivalent of the Trope Namer. Especially apparent while fighting against Oceanus in The Last Olympian.
  • Immortal Immaturity: Averted. In ancient times he was very similar to Zeus in temperament. He would often hold grudges and be highly vindictive when things did not go his way. In the series he comes across as having matured to a degree where he is much more reasonable, at least compare to his brother.
  • Making a Splash
  • Prongs of Poseidon: The Trope Namer.

Zeus

Lord of Olympus and god of storms, justice, and oaths. The last two being ironic considering his actions throughout the series.

  • Bolt of Divine Retribution: Quite literally. His symbol of power is the "master bolt." The first lightning bolt and most powerful weapon in the series.
  • Jerkass: All the gods are this to a degree, but Zeus stands out compared to the others.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite breaking a sacred oath and pulling a ton of other crap Zeus is never held accountable for his actions. Instead his children often have to pay for his crimes and mistakes. Being the most powerful god around has its perks.
  • Immortal Immaturity: In ancient times, Zeus and Poseidon had almost interchangeable personalities. By modern day, Poseidon has matured to a degree, so he tends to be more reasonable. Zeus has not and still comes across as a pompous git who thinks he is perfect.
  • Pride: His defining characteristic and source of many of the problems throughout both series.
  • Shock and Awe


Titans

Kronos

Hyperion

Atlas

Krios

Prometheus

Titan of craftiness and forethought. Sided with the Olympians in the first war, but out of a desire for revenge on Zeus and thinking the Olympians cannot win switches sides to the Titans.

  • Affably Evil: If one can call him evil.
  • If My Calculations Are Correct: Implied that part of his foreknowledge is his ability to calculate probability to predict the most likely outcome.
  • Revenge Before Reason: One possible interpretation of his defection.
  • Satan Is Good: In a sense. He is referred to once as "the good Titan" for the aid he has given to mankind with fire and curiosity in defiance of Zeus.
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