Please Argue With Me On This If You Like - Blog Posts

I’ve read a lot of fanfics in my time, but it’s been a while since I’ve done a full read through of Uncle Rick’s series, and the only book I don’t have is The Sun and Star (I think) so if I leave anything out let me know.

One of the most interesting things I noticed in Uncle Rick’s stories is the power levels of different demigods. Most demigods in old myths never stepped foot in the Underworld, much less hoped to survive it, beyond a few who had pretty massive amounts of godly help (Hermes with Orpheus, Herakles with Hera, etc.) to get through the journey.

And yet multiple people not only survived the journey, but also did it multiple times, including but not limited to:

Percy (twice, once with pearls and once with Nico)

Grover (with pearls)

Annabeth (with pearls)

Nico (an undisclosed amount of time including with a ghostly half-sister in tow)

Hazel (with help as one of the undead)

Sally (as a kidnapping victim)

A good list of demigods who likely died and came back all on their own while Thanatos was chained

Thalia (while with Nico and Percy)

And while, yes, all of these examples are either because of massive problems on the godly side, or because they are/were accompanied by a Big Three kid (which is BS that Hestia, Hera, and Demeter aren’t included in “they have super crazy powerful kids” despite only Demeter having kids), it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s happening more often.

“But Nick, like you said, those are major influences that’s helping these guys get out of the Underworld. It’s just relevant to the plot!”

Fair enough, but now here’s the next point: Tartarus.

Basically, Rick’s Greek world essentially functions as such:

While I don’t think Eris is confirmed to exist in Tartarus (again I haven’t read The Sun and Star), Nyx is, and since Nyx is darkness and Eris is light, it makes sense they exist on the same plane (either beneath Tartarus or coexisting with it) despite both being a concept for all planes except arguably Chaos, which is why I put it on the same level as well.

There are various creation myths, but the overarching plot is: There is Something, that Something creates Others, and this Others become known as Primordials, which make their own Others, such as Titans, Giants, Gods, etc. The creations make essentially layers on Earth, similar to the actual layers of the Earth.

Think of it like this:

And when new beings are made that take over for the last generation (like Helios and Apollo), then those layers get kinda funky.

So, back to Tartarus. Obviously you have 3 separate “Underworlds”, one for deities (like with Python in Trials of Apollo), one for monsters, and one for mortals. Each of these places is built to recycle beings, similar to the idea of Conservation of Energy and Conservation of Matter. Not only that, but upper level beings can’t (or at least shouldn’t) go below their respective underworld, but lower level beings can’t go up, which is why monsters can go up to the Underworld and Gaea but a human can’t go down into the Underworld or Tartarus without dying.

So this is why demigods surviving Tartarus is crazy work. Sure, there are demigods that can become monsters or gods and survive the trip, but just your average demigod? They’re dead on sight. Between the poison air, the aggressive terrain, no food, no water, monsters being reborn in every direction, etc., survival is slim to none.

Except now we have instances of people surviving the fall and the climb back up, with a questionable amount of sanity intact. Will, Nico (twice), Annabeth, and Percy (you can include Apollo if you like) all survived the fall and came back still kicking, and noticeably not monsters.

So what’s my point?

There’s a common repetition of myth for the Greeks, and that’s the death of the father by their son. Ouranos was killed by Kronos and his siblings. Kronos was killed by Zeus and his siblings. The point is that Rick’s version of the Greeks is approaching the death of Zeus, and the crowning of a new King (if we’re following by patriarchal standards). It’s definitely not going to happen anytime soon, but Big Three kids like Percy and Nico and just your average demigod like the Seven is proof of this. And do you want to know WHY demigods are only going to get more powerful from here?

Because the gods are slowly and indirectly creating their own demise, as had their predecessors. But unlike their predecessors, their downfall will come from not looking in the right direction, instead of thinking they have complete control. Zeus isn’t stupid, and he knows his shit. He’s well aware that he only survived being swallowed because Rhea gave Kronos a rock, because he wasn’t paying attention. Kronos was prideful and believed that he was loved enough that no one would dare defy him, because he wasn’t paying attention the one who saved them. Zeus knows that being ignorant of who is and isn’t against him would be his downfall, so he locks the fuck in. Kronos, while well known for his ability to control time, ruled over the Harvest as well, making him a more Gaea-bound deity. So Zeus chooses the sky. Instead of simply believing in people, he overlooks them, watching them, judging them. He is the God of Justice, after all, so the job title includes the role of “Judge, Jury, and Executioner”.

“But isn’t Olympus a democracy, Nick? Athens was a democracy too, so Zeus wouldn’t be the one in sole power!”

Nope! Well, yes, it is a democracy, but just not a democracy in the way it’s supposed to be. In Athens, they were technically a democracy, but only for those who were rich, powerful, and close to the inner circle of politicians. The building that housed the voting in Athens let people in on a first-come-first-serve basis, so only people who had the time to include themselves and the money to live so close to the place where votes are casted had the power, and on top of that, their politics were wild. One person got a vote, obviously, but it’s like goddamn Survival over there. They made groups and all discussed what went down and who to fucking vote off the island. I’m not joking, they actually did that.

So Zeus consolidated power into a small group of 12, playing it as a “democracy” when in reality those who do not follow him are punished or replaced. Hestia was kicked out for Dionysus, for example, and Apollo was made human, for another. So yeah, it’s a “democracy” in the same way someone gets cohersed into giving consent: it’s not actually real, just driven by fear.

On top of that, they literally have Hephestus TV! They watch their subjects for fun. You cannot tell me Zeus didn’t set up that particularly entertaining baby cam for no reason. He ate Leto! He’s not above being the magical version of the Chaos Council from Sonic Prime.

So in order to create a being capable of overthrowing Zeus, you have to do it slowly, subtly, and have his gaze averted. He has to be focusing on something else. That’s how Luke managed to nearly overthrow him, because he was so focused on 12-year-old Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, then someone so minuscule as Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes. He likes to think he’s got it all figured out, thinking that the one who chooses whether Olympus is going to survive or fall must be one of the Big Three’s children. He ignores bigger details and problems in favor of focusing on one small thing. Percy’s birthday was a prophecized stopwatch, and really nothing more.

How would the gods be able to manufacture such a danger to Zeus’s reign when he supervises everything? They don’t manufacture anything at all, at least not on purpose.

“Nick, what the fuck? You’re making no sense.”

HEAR ME OUT.

Our first example of this is our lovely Frank Zhang. Both a demigod and a Legacy, he has power like we haven’t seen unless provided by a shape-shifting god (such as Loki with Alex). Despite being a Son of Mars, who, alongside Ares, have children who’s main god-given skill is “fights good”, he has the ability to shapeshifting and keep up with powerhouses like Percy, Hazel, and Jason. Sure, you could argue that Clarisse can keep up with Percy well enough, but not to the extent of Frank. He has the blood of multiple gods stacked onto one another, helping him have the power to survive the quest to stop Gaea.

Another is Leo Valdez. Poor boy got the attention of a literal Primordal being at a young age, and also managed to kill said Primordal being with his own fire powers, and lived to tell the tale. In the past, that required an elaborate plot to lure the Primordal away from their domain and slice them to pieces, but Leo just did it with a dragon and two other demigods, and incinerated Gaea. Please tell me you understand how absolutely insane that is!

Piper McClean managed to break down Charmspeak into its basic concepts, and understood how it worked well enough to gaslight a Primordal, and before that she had the strongest charmspeak in the room alongside her siblings.

Jason Grace took down a Giant more or less on his own with little to no help from a god, and can take control of wind spirits that don’t even belong to his father’s domain. He’s Hera’s (or Juno, I guess) champion, and she could have chosen Thalia, but she didn’t. She chose Jason. Jason is a full-sibling to Thalia, only divided by pantheons. Having full-siblings is almost entirely unheard of, with only a handful of mortals able to seduce powerful gods not once, but twice, like with Bianca and Nico. That takes INSANE work.

Hazel has the power not only detect precious metals, but also curse them, and channel that power into raising a whole Giant, something that can only happen in Tartarus. She escaped the Underworld after having already died and lost her memories.

Percy is, I’m just going to say it, absolutely insane. He beat The God of WAR in a fight. At 12. He set off a volcano summoning water out of seashells and a stupid idea. He held up the Sky, something that was purposely held up by 4 pillars and later the Titan of Strength for a reason. He survived Tartarus and Polybotes and stole the domain of another goddess. It’s one thing to utilize the abilities bestowed on you by your parent and make them your own, but he stole another bitch’s domain! And used it against her! And probably would have killed her too if Annabeth hadn’t snapped him out of it! You CAN’T tell me that this man isn’t the beginning of the end for the gods.

And my MOST POWERFUL POINT HERE: goddamn Annabeth Chase. Yeah, you know all that batshit insane stuff Percy did? Annabeth was right there next to him. Holding the sky, Tartarus, the Athena Parthenos (which is known to be killing off Athena kids since forever) etc. What’s even more insane is that Athena doesn’t give her kids powers. Athena kids’ abilities are “smart”, and wtf does that mean??? It makes everything Annabeth does all the more impressive and terrifying. The rest of the Seven are powerhouses so strong they can take on Giants, and then you have Annabeth with her knife and spite, and she not only keeps up, but she’s a role model. The other demigods look to her for guidance!

But it gets crazier. You know how I said the gods are creating their own demise hidden in plain sight? Yeah, Annabeth is that “plain sight”. Percy, for all his power and abilities, is the distraction. People like Annabeth are who Zeus really has to look out for. Remember how I said that full-blooded siblings are rare and crazy to even fathom? The Chase Family makes it worse.

How the flying fuck did they manage to bag not one, not two, but three different deities attentions?! What are those Chases on to get so much godly attention?! Not to mention it’s cross pantheon! Frey, Loki, and Athena, we’re drawn in by something, and it’s not your normal godly infatuation.

In a small blurb of a story, Percy and Annabeth meet the Kanes, and while I haven’t read Kane Chronicles (I have the series just haven’t gotten to it yet), they say that cross-pantheon magic is quite literally the strongest way to K.O. your enemies. So the four of them swap items, with Percy getting possessed by a vulture goddess. Why am I bring this up? Because these very points are why the Chases are terrifying.

They’re an active site of cross-pantheon activity, which is why Magnus and Annabeth are so powerful all on their own. Magnus has been watched over for years because of his role in Ragnarok, and was specifically requested by Odin himself to be taken to Valhalla despite being a nature demigod. And not only does Magnus survive there as a nature demigod in an entire afterlife full of war demigods, he thrives. He’s never held a sword in his life, and his main powers are healing and trying to convince plants to grow, and yet he manages to delay Ragnarok for a long, long time.

People like Annabeth, Magnus, and Frank are obvious points in this evolution of power, and they fly under Zeus’s radar almost entirely.

So that’s my Rant. Something that’s been bubbling in my head for a long time really, but I never had a place for it until now. It’s likely that we have such powerful demigods now compared to the old myths because of godly blood mixing in with humans after so long, and then that godly blood, especially when enhanced by other pantheons, starts to draw deities in more and more. So that’s how Zeus gets his ass kicked.