The Heroes of Olympus/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Seems to be the general reaction to Percy being one of the narrators of Son of Neptune.
  • Call Back: Hazel initially thinks Percy is a god... which he could have become at the end of the previous quintet.
  • Complete Monster: Gaea anyone? It's been only 2/5 books and her list of crimes already includes tricking Leo into burning his mother alive and forcing him to live with the guilt for years, kidnapping Piper's father and inflicting torturous Mind Rape on him, possessing Hazel's mother into nearly raising Alcyoneus (and ruining Hazel's life) and burning Frank's mansion and killing his grandmother. Not to mention her reputation in Greek mythology ("mother of all bad guys", the original Bigger Bad behind Kronos). Unlikely that the heroes will let her off with just putting her back to sleep at the end of the series.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Leo alone has several, and Piper definitely has one at the end when she tells off Drew.
    • Her warning Drew to stay away from Jason. If their genders had been flopped, the threat wouldn't seem so awesome, but downright alarming.
      • To be fair, she IS still a daughter of Aphrodite, and doing this in front of the entire Aphrodite cabin, who revels in this kind of stuff, isn't out of place. Besides, while that's still YMMV, Piper seizing control and forcing Drew to step down and end her reign of terror by challenging her to a duel and then holding her at knifepoint most certainly is a CMOA.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: See below. Although this could arguably be a result of readers resenting all their favorite characters being Put on a Bus, there are some who sincerely dislike some or all of the new protagonists.
    • And Jason not having any memories probably has something to do with his current 'boring' state.
      • Except that Percy has also lost his memories, and he pretty much seems like the old Percy we all know and love.
      • Actually, Percy was awake for a few weeks at the start of Son of Neptune. Jason had literally just woken up.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans of the Percy Jackson series pretend the story of Camp Half Blood ended with the Last Olympian.
    • This might fade in time. Clearly the main characters of the previous series are coming into focus. Annabeth specifically said she'd be going on the next quest, and Percy is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the seven. This book existed mostly to set the stage for the new aspects of the story.
  • Foe Yay: Khione is pretty interested in Jason. Jason, on the other hand, not so much.
    • There's also Leo's even more obvious interest in Khione.
  • Fridge Brilliance:
    • Unlike most demigods, Jason doesn't seem to have dyslexia. Why? He's a Roman demigod, and their minds are wired for Latin, not Ancient Greek.
      • Another Fridge Brilliance moment happens because Jason wasn't directly claimed when he went to the Greek Camp Half Blood. he was already claimed over at the Roman camp half blood, and it was Hera who sent him over there.
    • The Cold War is referred to as a war between the East and West (Greek and Roman) demigods. This may sound strange until you realize that Roman influence moved East, and then North, into Russia. Moscow has also been called the Third Rome.
      • Where was that mentioned? Chiron said that most civil wars were covers for wars between the Greek and Roman demigods, but the Cold War wasn't a civil war.
    • Aphrodite is the goddess of love, lust, and beauty. Of course her children look like Mary Sues!
    • Why do they wear purple shirts at the Roman camp? Because purple was a symbol of power in Ancient Rome.
  • Fridge Horror: Jason falls in love with Piper while amnesiac, taken away from someone named "Reyna". Now, if Percy's made any "friends" where he is...
    • This seems to have been Averted, as in the very first chapter of The Son of Neptune, Annabeth is really the only thing Percy remembers.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Reyna states that she wasn't involved with Jason, yet. However, Percy and Annabeth were very involved. In fact, their involvement lasted for two months before it was abruptly cut short by Hera/Juno. It is not unheard of for amnesia victims to remember faces and names of loved ones.
  • Fridge Logic: The gods acquired their Roman aspects after the flame of Western civilization moved to Rome, right? Then how can Aeneas, who survived the Trojan War, be the first of the Roman demigods? Rome wouldn't even be founded for another couple hundred years.
    • He was referred to as the founder of what would eventually become Rome. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that some people would hear that and think of him as a Roman demigod.
  • Genius Bonus: Midas' line about an oracle in Omaha was a sly reference to Warren Buffet.
    • The failed expedition to Alaska was led by a guy named Varus.
  • Instant Expert: Percy and Annabeth had to go through a significant learning curve spanning several years to become as badass as they are now. The main characters of the Heroes series are able to become just as powerful in less than a week.
    • Averted with Jason because he's been training at the Roman camp since he was two, and still has his skills even if he doesn't remember how he got them. Ditto with Leo too, kinda, as it seems that Hephestus' kids are gifted with using machines the way Percy's gifted with sailing ships. But true for Piper, especially considering her mom's Aphrodite, who's tied with Demeter for second in least warlike of the gods, Hestia being first (in their Greek forms anyway).
      • It's even still kind of averted in Piper's case too. Almost all of her power comes from charmspeaking, and that's something she's been using for years, albeit without exactly knowing how or why it worked. Her charmspeaking did get more powerful over the course of the book, but it wasn't something she just discovered she had and instantly became an expert in. Played straight with her apparent prowess at wielding daggers, though, such as her slicing up Earthborn with no problem or bringing her dagger to Drew's throat blindingly fast.
      • In this same vein, Hazel's power over metals and precious gems is something that she worked on for most of her life. Frank plays this pretty straight though, with his ability to be good at whatever he wants.
  • Mary Sue and Marty Stu: Virtually all of the new main characters have been accused of this. Whether or not it's actually true is largely subjective, and dependent on how each reader defines the term. We really shouldn't go any deeper into the subject than that.
    • Not extremely out of line in judgement since the first book revolves around characters who have the rarest gifts of their divine parent could grant.
    • It could be justified seeing as the series seems to revolve around the newest big prophecy and the strongest demi-gods will be needed.
  • Moe: One could argue that Ella at least somewhat fits this trope.
  • Moral Event Horizon: For many fans, Octavian seemed like a power-hungry jerk who would not do much harm. Then he tried to kill Gwen by stabbing her in the back.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: the Son of Neptune may be this for a lot of fans after the lack luster Lost Hero as getting Percy back as one of the main protagonists is definitely a step in the right direction.
  • Tear Jerker: Percy calls home for the first time in months and gets the answering machine.
    • The later part of Hazel's childhood, particularly her death.
  • The Untwist: The fact that Gaea is the new big bad is pretty apparent before you're even halfway through the story as long as you have a decent understanding of Greek Mythology. By the time you reach the point where it is "revealed" to the characters in the story, you kind of feel that Riordan was suffering from a pretty severe case of Cannot Spit It Out.
  • The Woobie: Annabeth. She finally got together with Percy, he disappears four months later, and then she finds out he probably doesn't even remember her.
    • What, no sympathy for Leo? He was tricked by Gaea into killing his own mother and then spent the next six or years of his life trying to outrun the pain.
    • Also Hazel, she was forced by her possessed mother to move to Alaska and raise Alcyoneus, where she made the decision to kill herself and her mother to delay Gaea's plan. Even before she was possessed, Queen Marie was emotionally abusive, blaming Hazel for being cursed. Plus, because of her curse she is indirectly responsible for a number of human deaths which she feels incredibly guilty for.
    • Ella. Her treatment at the hands of the other harpies and Phineas is heartwrenching.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Embodied in the form of Aeolus, master of the wind. It's explicitly stated that minor gods (Boreas, etc.) are subservient to him. The Aeolian wind spirits mentioned in The Last Olympian are fast and powerful enough to prevent Titans from entering Olympus, at least by air. Everything appears to be setting up for a confrontation with what is arguably the most powerful god that doesn't have a seat on Olympus. When the heroes meet him ... he's a celestial TV weatherman. That's all he does. He tells the weather to a camera that goes to Olympus, and then prepares to do it again in less than a minute. What's more, he has been driven insane by this incredible responsibility that a literal god couldn't possibly handle, especially since gods can be in more than one place at the same time.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Come on, you know you were thinking it too; with the men(slaves) of the Amazons being forced to wear prison outfits and spiked, leather collars...
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