Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Fridge Brilliance: We're told that Mrs. Jackson chose the name "Perseus" for Percy because he, pretty much alone of the great Greek heroes, got a reasonably happy ending. However, he also killed his grandfather (by accident); Percy, by comparison, is responsible for the defeat of Kronos, who is his grandfather.
• An earlier example from the first book: the Perseus in Greek mythology killed Medusa because he was ordered to by Polydectes, a king. Polydectes was interested in Perseus' mother and wanted him out of the way so that he could force her to marry him. Perseus returned with Medusa's head and turned him to stone. Percy's abusive stepdad Gabe befalls the same fate.
  • Annabeth's Taking the Bullet in TLO. She was attacked by Ethan, a son of Nemesis. Nemesis was the spirit of retribution against hubris, something that Annabeth admits to.
  • If you look at it that way, Ethan and Nemesis even joining Kronos' side. Hubris is considered to be the fatal flaw of Zeus, after all. Then Ethan balances this out--while his mother still fights for the Titans, he turns and fights for the gods, against Kronos, who's ego is big enough to have its own gravity field. Really, for all the myths that were messed up in the books, Riordan was perfect with some of this stuff.
• When Zoë dies in Titan's Curse, Artemis puts her spirit in the stars as a constellation. She has done this once before in the original myths...for Orion, her lover. Suddenly Zoë's devotion to Artemis gains a whole new level of meaning...
  • Lieutenant. Is That What They're Calling It Now?
  • Actually, it's debated whether or not Orion was actually Artemis/Diana's lover, considering Artemis's schtick of being a perpetual maiden and all that jazz. At the very least, they were tight hunting partners.
• In Book 4, Chiron makes a big deal about how only three people can go on a quest. However, by the end there are six, and none of them die. At first, I thought this was a Plot Hole or something. Then I realized: six is a multiple of three! The rule wasn't violated at all. Makes one wonder why they don't just send nine kids(3x3). Or twenty-seven(3^3).
  • Well, the original quest is actually only 4 people, they need new people to advance the plot.
• Notice that Hades was absent from the winter solstice meeting in Titan's Curse? He didn't want to draw attention to himself with his son running about.
• Surely you'd assume that demigod children would know about their divine origins - actually; a lot of gods probably try to keep this hush hush because when some people know it's not turned out well - I mean, Tantalus probably left a bad taste in a lot of mouth in Olympus (Especially Hera), Phaeton was allowed to drive the sun because his fellow kids didn't believe him, etc. Not to mention when mortals know that they were in love with a god, not all of them turned out that well. ( It's mentioned in "The Lost Hero" that Thalia and Jason's mom was...kinda screwed up in the head and Zeus didn't really help her that much, until he came around in his Roman aspect.) Naturally the kids have a right to know are told when they're old enough to handle it; and some mortals who do know about it are told because they can maturely handle it.
• Thalia's last name is Grace. This seems innocuous at first, but I did some digging. Turns out there is another daughter of Zeus named Thalia who is one of the Graces.
• Calypso says that she is always sent someone who can't stay, but in the original myth, Odysseus leaves because he is in love with someone else. Meanwhile, Percy is worrying about Annabeth...
• It makes sense for Annabeth and her dad to live in such a high-military area as Jamestown, VA, with many universities nearby, since he is a professor of military history.
• Prometheus was right about the Battle of Manhattan being a reenactment of the Trojan War. However, he was wrong about which side was which
• Chiron is seriously dedicated about winning the Titan War because if they lose, civilization falls and then heroes may stop rising. So he is no longer needed. May make Greek History lessons a tad more essential.
• Zoë Nightshade's name becomes this upon reflection:
  • "Zoe" means "life"--both appropriate given her longevity, and painful given her ironic demise.
  • The nightshade flower is breathtakingly beautiful--and nightshade is a deadly poison. Beautiful and deadly--coincidence? I think not. Also, the flower is deep purple except for the very center, which is bright yellow. In other words, it has a dark exterior but a heart of gold.
  • In addition, Zoë was once a Hesperid, a nymph of the sunset. Sunset = shadow of night = Nightshade.
• Percy. Perseus. Annabeth. Andromeda.
• A chance comment by my niece while we were watching the movie of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief made this one occur to me, but I doubt it doesn't apply here, too. Hermes' son is Luke. One of the items Luke provides/uses are shoes with wings on them. This basically means Luke is flying because of his feet. The chance comment my niece made: She called him "Luke Skywalker." -- Sgamer 82
• We're told in The Last Olympian that Nico and the Pegasi dislikes each other. This mostly seems to be because his father is Hades and children of him are generally outcasts, but in Sea of Monsters, Percy mentions that Pegasi are sort of neutral territory between Poseidon and Zeus. So naturally the Pegasi would dislike a son of Hades!
• I was always a little confused about how Silena Beauregard got the Ares cabin to believe she was Clarisse and follow her into battle, because she and Clarisse don't look anything like each other. But then in The Lost Hero it's revealed children of Aphrodite sometimes have the ability to make other people do stuff with their voice. No wonder they believed Silena was Clarisse, she charmspoke them into it!
  • It's never stated that Silena could charmspeak, but it's a possibility.
    • I think it's more likely that the entire cabin wanted to go to the fight (because it was the right thing to do) and took any excuse they could get.
• Something this troper realized after reading the Great Prophecy a few times: Hades got his wish! All three children of the Big Three were the child mentioned in the prophecy! Just hear me out for a moment: Thalia skips out a few days before her age-16-birthday, but she had already been around for at least 16 years before that and did that against all odds (she got turned into a tree after she died). Her choice to 'pass' allowed Percy to be the child. Same for Nico: he too survived against all odds (getting a lightning-bolt thrown at the place you're in is usually deadly) and his choice to allow Percy to 'be' the one gave Percy the chance for HIS choice to give Luke the knife to save Olympus. Ergo: if either Thalia or Nico had chosen differently, Percy would not have gotten his choice and Olympus might have fallen!
• After reading through Battle of the Laberynth, it struck me that one chapter is titled "We Meet the Two-faced God". Well, yah, of course, it makes sense in this book that it's got such a weird title, so I was expecting them to literally meet a two-faced god. And of course they did -- Janus. But who else did they meet in that chapter? Hera. I recall how nice she was to Percy and the others. I also recall a story in which it's said she threw Hephaestus off a cliff... Odd for the goddess of marriage and family...
• Rachel, a mortal who had no ties to the gods until she became the oracle, has a very much Jewish name.

Fridge Horror

• You know how Percy saved Ethan? Ethan, the son of Nemesis, resurrected Kronos because of that.
• Before Rachel Eliabeth Dare became the Oracle, the previous one was soul bound permanently to her body. Her corpse was still animated, even after it had been dead for presumably centuries. Therefore the Oracle had been living forever in the mummified body that was once hers. Since the Oracle would have lasted indefinitely until someone gave her a new body (Rachel), what exactly is gonna happen to Rachel's body in a couple hundred years?
  • That only happened because of the curse Hades placed on the old Oracle. Rachel is not cursed.
• In book two, Percy talks about seeing a father and his two elementary school-aged daughters on the Princess Andromeda, along with other guests. In book four, all the guests are gone. Percy theorizes that they "didn't get to leave with their bingo winnings". This includes, of course, the father his daughters.
  • Take it one step further and consider the ship's inhabitants: ( Kronos' army of monsters). They were most likely fed to aforementioned monsters. Full stop.
• The Labyrinth was destroyed. Now, imagine how many people were still inside when it collapsed...
• Nico spends a lot of time just roaming around, especially right after he runs away from camp when he was ten. Just think about that for a moment. A ten year old living on the streets of Manhattan alone for who knows how long.
• At the end of The Lightning Thief, Percy's mom turns her husband to stone, with Percy's help. For the entire rest of the series, no one brings it up again, or comments on the fact that this is murder.
  • Well, with a just afterlife murder is going to be far less of a crime than it is in our world.
• Imagine that you are one of the rare mortals who can see through the Mist, like Sally Jackson or Rachel Elizabeth Dare. You grow up, seeing monsters attacking the city and strange kids with powers your entire life. Because few others have your ability, nobody believes anything you say about what you've seen, and you start to wonder yourself if you're actually insane. Your only hope for mental safety is for your ability to help run you into a half-blood who might be able to explain things to you - and doing that means you've become involved in their dangerous lives...

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