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Jason Grace Deserved Better
*This is just my opinion. I don’t care if you like TOA
Like most fans, I at first didn’t like Jason too much. Compared to most of the main characters, Jason seemed pretty bland. However, after rereading the books and analyzing Jason’s character, I realized how interesting he is. All his life, Jason has always been the “golden boy” leader type without really exploring himself. After the HOO series though, Jason started exploring more of himself beyond people’s expectations. When I learned about him appearing in the TOA series, I was expecting more exploration and growth for Jason, but it was ignored and he was killed off. This made me very upset.
Jason had a mission to commemorate every god (Greek or Roman) and live his own life. It would’ve been great representation for people who have trouble with their identity. If Rick wanted to add something tragic to Jason’s story then he could’ve done something else. Or he could’ve prolonged his death after doing at least a bit of Jason’s development.
With his relationship with Piper, I didn’t care much for the romance in HOO but felt it was getting better when they both agreed to restart their relationship in BOO. When I read that they broke up, I was upset because the reasoning contradicted what happened in BOO, and Rick didn’t show us (the readers) why it didn’t work out during that time skip. And Piper moving on so fast after Jason’s death left a bad taste in my mouth. It was shown before Jason’s death that the two still had feelings for each other after the breakup. The timeline from Jason’s death to the end of the TOA series was around 2-3 months, which seems a bit short for someone to move on after their first love died. Maybe Piper’s girlfriend is a rebound but I’m still meh with Piper moving on at that time. Also note that I’m not upset about Piper having a girlfriend. I’m a part of the community and am all in for representation.
Jason not reuniting with Leo was so bad. He deserved to see him again as much as Piper. Coach Hedge assuming Jason broke up with Piper and being mad at him was so disrespectful. A big part of Hedge is him caring about the Lost Hero trio and it was disregarded because of drama. I consider TOA worse than HOO and non-canon. Honestly, the series made me not care about the new releases for the series. I’m only interested in the Nico story because he’s at least well-written and justice for Bob.
I’m thinking of writing an essay on how I would rewrite Jason’s character and development but it would take a while and I don’t have the time.