I Dont Quite Know How To Title This Post But Its A General Pjo Canon Question/word Vomit/thing?? But

I don’t quite know how to title this post but it’s a general Pjo canon question/word vomit/thing?? But it’s the, ‘Monsters are not doing the monster mash”

That’s an arguably weird way to explain it, but like,

In the lightning thief, we are told that monsters hunt down Demigods like people hunt down the Costco samples (stupid example I know) and episode three of the tv show really brought that back to the front of my mind when Annabeth was talking about Percy and Thalia.

If I remember correctly (I don’t have my copy of the book on my but I’ll probably reblog this post with added new information) in the lightning thief it’s said that after demigods have their ‘awakening’ (when they begin to figure out their demigods, I think is how it’s described. But like when their powers begin manifesting and stuff). Then after that they’ll be plagued by monsters trying to eat them, that’s what things like Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter/New Rome are so important, they save demigod lives (Well, Camp Half-blood is a bit more secure than Camp Jupiter and probably saves more demigod lives but whatever) and we get examples of this?

Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth all get swarmed and are constantly facing, drawing, and meeting monsters during their run. Sure it’s like weirdly said that Hades sent some of them and it’s mentioned that Hades sends monsters in TLT though it’s like a little??? I get confused by it when we’re not talking about the Furies.

Percy during his quest is dogged by them and after he displays powers he is also attracting the Minotaur (not counting Mrs.Dodds because she was like sent and like?)

We know that it’s called out when the majority of the Aphrodite cabin (which I feel like should’ve been housing a much smaller group of Demigods because from what I remember over my very limited knowledge of myths she didn’t fall with mortals very often *Literally abandoned Aeneas because of the circumstances there with like arrows and mortals* and she never really had that many encounters? But I’m in no way the one that should be talking about myths lol) leaves camp because they don’t attract monsters as much or like monsters just don’t bother (which is dumb and I don’t really like what was done with the Aphrodite cabin the more and more I talk about it because they were done so dirty and just like? Is infantilized the right word?) but it’s like-

We get conflicted that “Camp is important, camp is the only place demigods will be safe from the dangers of monsters” and that, they train demigods not to be heroes or whatever, but to equip them to survive that hopefully monsters find it to be too much trouble to eat them and will not attempt to (Again; then it feels like from what we know of the Aphrodite cabin they’d be in constant danger because Rick wanted to characterize the general group as people that are shallow and vain and don’t train. Maybe I’ll just do an Aphrodite cabin post after this idk) and that demigods who aren’t trained and have had their awakening would be in constant danger and would be constantly around monsters.

But also, “yeah go home for the rest of the year even if we’ve stayed that you’ll totally be in danger constantly but hey! We never really see that-“ for kids like the big three (why was Percy allowed to go home? Would he have forced his way home, probably. Should we have heard about how miserable it probably would’ve been with low level monsters trying to constantly get at him, maybe?) or people like Annabeth (who ran away from her home where one of the canon reasons was her parents couldn’t take the constant monsters.) but we don’t get any info that there are still, constant monsters when she’s home.

Maybe I’m not remembering the books much but we are given that “Demigods are never truly safe in the world and Camp is a safe haven” while also not being really shown that? Like, Leo should’ve been having monster problems. Canonically Piper wouldn’t have to deal with it because of the weird Aphrodite cabin unfairness.

And Frank, uh. I don’t like the fact that Frank never had to deal with monsters- but we don’t know the deal with legacies and monster attraction but i don’t want to put more braincells into that for the moment- but he didn’t have his awakening. He really just didn’t have any awakening until like the middle of his quest so I give him a pass because it’s.. sort of explained? If you read between the lines enough it makes sense.

And that abruptly leads to the next thing. What was Camp Half-Bloods deal before Thalia? Because we know the barrier came with the whole Thalia thing (it was her turning to the tree that also brought the barrier, in SoM when her tree is dying the barrier is growing weaker) there is a canon CHB that was also running without a barrier and hoping for the best. Can we get more info on that? Like between the fact that Camp Jupiter also has no barrier (also made a post on that, think it’s the injuries one but I believe I have thoughts on there. Not my best work but it fits in with all the other posts) and that monster would’ve canonically been swarming?

Aaaa, just monsters don’t make sense in my brain between what we’re told and shown, it really just was brought back to my brain during the whole,

“Thalia met a heroes fate”

“She also met a pinecones fate” 😐

Annabeth scene in the latest pjo episode. I meant to do this post like months ago but just fell on the back burner.

Anyway I’m finding myself relating to Annabeth more and more while watching the show and like- aaa idk.

Anyway meant to finish this post a couple days ago but I was visiting family friends so I was just chipping away at it and this is just the aftermath of it. I didn’t present any ideas of my own and just kind of blabbed about my confusion for a bit but I do that frequently. Anyway I’ll probably make that Aphrodite cabin post because I haven’t realized how much they were just like, let down? Also would like to add as a general I’ve heard the hello I’m Shelly Duvall Audio so many times that whenever someone says hello with a little pause I hear her voice-

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Not official for me yet but I’m not about to make sure I posted exactly on midnight!

Last Kleos doodle of the year!!!

Would like to think more about how schools in New Rome operate.

Anyways here’s how the Libum turned out,

I personally didn’t like how it tasted but I had to wait a few hours to eat it :P

Larry the Legionnaire

I’ve lost it guys finally I’ve gotten around to the Larry post! Larry the Legionnaire (as he is sort of titled in the wiki which makes me giggle though it’s not an accurate title) is a character that shows up in SoN and I believe some point in ToA,

Larry is a Son of Mercury, Centurion to the second cohort and a Senator; though I believe that he swapped cohorts? In SoN I think it’s mentioned he was from the second but from what I’ve seen in Tyrants tomb he’s referred to being from the third. He first shows up in SoN to yell about how Frank shouldn’t be made Centurion because of several technicalities, and then from what I’ve seen he shows up in ToA though because I haven’t read Tyrants tomb and I’ve been… struggling through the hidden oracle and taken a break so I won’t really talk about it other than the brief notes on his personality.

Larry is a character that I think is silly. He is a goofball. But he also has one of the most frustrating roles to be played in like Camp Jupiter meta.

He is a character that directly muddles the water with rules over Camp Jupiter Centurion ascension requirements and Senatorial(?) requirements. Originally he could be read as a Senator who knows the rules and doesn’t like them being broken, he would’ve been the only named Senator we got- and that could’ve been interesting and would’ve solidified the idea that there are legionnaires whose other role is to be a Senator. But then we had to make him a Centurion, which (like I said in a different post) really made the Centurion and Senator roles very unclear (let’s be honest every role except Probatio and Legionnaire are unclear in the terms of ascension, the rules surrounding them, etc). But by making him a Centurion it only furthered the concept that they serve in the Senate as well and that rules applied to Senators could apply to Centurions (I don’t know if anyone else had that misconception, but I really did lol) and it just kind of sucked. I’ll make a post about my ideas over CJ role ascension and that stuff (not exactly canon because I don’t want to re-read through SoN and MoA trying to find that stuff)

Anyway! Uhhh, I would love to tell you about all the cool stuff about Larry, but all I really can say is the super limited things we get in SoN. Due to the fact I haven’t read Tyrants tomb..

However I will say the fact that according to the wiki they described him as, “Goofy” and said he expressed interest in becoming a pirate and that is very silly. I like the idea of Larry being just a goofy little guy that tries his best to be a good guy for the legion.

What I can draw from his character surrounds the idea that he is both a Centurion and Senator. The Senator is a voted on role in the legion and there’s only 10 of them (2 per cohort. And if we want to bring up the 5 outpost cohorts I talked about waaaay back in my earlier posts then the outposts have a separate group of senators that are sent down to New Rome) and that implies to me at least that we can draw that Larry is a likeable guy, he’s reasonable, from the fact he was in opposition to Frank’s ascension because he didn’t meet the requirements I feel we can take that in a couple directions,

One, that Larry is rule-oriented. He may canonically be lighthearted and goofy, but he still very well can be attached to the rules. Also would like to sort-of tangentially add that he was canonically one of the legionnaires that didn’t like and looked down upon the fifth cohort though that’s what everyone in Camp Jupiter commonly has agreed upon

Two, Larry was trying to say what was best for the legion. We know Larry is loyal to the legion and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he thought this would negatively impact the legion and tried to say his resignations; the fact that Frank was inexperienced and it’d be breaking the rules to make him a Centurion (but I guess Mars just didn’t care about that. Really like I don’t see much of a reason to make Frank in a position of power- but if someone else does feel free to tell me)

Anyway another notable thing is that Larry is a demigod. In a Camp where we’re told that legacies are the majority (or at least it’s implied? It’s certainly made to look like Legacies are the more common body in Camp) where seeing a Demigod says a lot. He’s not engrossed into Roman culture the same way legionnaires who grew up in New Rome and surrounded by it. How does that affect him? He gets to have the ability to not have that New Roman edge, to have a goofier nature that probably would’ve been frowned upon amongst the Romans. He’s fresh he’s knew, it’s relatable for other demigods in his position because they all come from not New Rome! And in the way of my headcanons he’s either in the Second cohort which is just full of legacies from New Rome who’ve gotten a higher cohort because of their letters of recommendation and continue to play second fiddle to the first- which makes it interesting to think about how Larry got into the cohort he did. And if it’s the third cohort than that’s the competitive cohort, then that puts an idea that Larry had some trait and characteristic that the third wanted. All of that is things I want to figure out in the future- which uh technically is the point of this post but Larry is a newer think for me.

We get no physical description for Larry, no last name for Larry. We get nothing for Larry!! And here is now some of my more random misc. ideas,

Larry’s name comes from Laurence- which itself means, “Crowned with Laurel” and I like giving character who have shorter names longer names (I don’t know why but I do). Though, as much as I want to go make his name Laurence- we have a Laurence, sure it’s a Bryce Lawerence. But the two would still be too similar, and I like just Larry- it’s silly, it is a short way to name a character that shows personality. In the best way Larry is just a silly name, it’s fun to say, I like saying Larry and a Larry looks like a good person in my mind. Though I’d like to say his last name is Ahlgren. Ahlgren is a Swedish last name that combines words for Alder and branch. This continues the plant theming in his name (first laurels and now Alders) while I also just wanted to use a last name from a place I usually wouldn’t. While I believe that Larry is from somewhere in Maine.. he just feels like a Maine guy, Larry’s mom worked in a little bakery in a small town and they had a pretty normal life. Sure the monsters were kind of odd but Larry mentioned them only for it to be his imagination. I’d like to say Larry came to camp when he was 11, his mother at some point sends him over (maybe due to Mercury or Lupaor some of Lupa’s wolves? We never like get how Camp gets legionnaires to the Wolf house other than Frank who like his grandma is like “okay go” and then like ??? Implied his mom and Grandma knew about it but still can I have details? Maybe I’m just forgetting.) where he survived through the Wolf house and went on to Camp. His quest (as funny as it is in my mind to just make it Luke’s quest again but I already did that gag for a Oc and I’m not doing it again) but his quest was definitely just a re-skinned old myth quest (because it feels like Hermes/Mercury likes doing that).

Anyway that’s all I have currently swimming around in my brain about Larry, I’ll probably add more in the future but for now, I just realized that Camp doesn’t seem to do offerings during meals from the one meal we saw which is… off? Odd certainly, maybe I’ll do a post over the offering/Divine side of Camp at some point but whatever. I don’t have any planned posts but I have a Castor/Pollux/Kind of Dakota post in my drafts that might be finished soon, I also took a nap this day and honestly couldn’t recommend more, feel asleep watching MandJtv plays I think? I like the Team Sky playlist.

Anyway goodnight!

Legacies in Camp Jupiter/Just Pjo?

Wow I am on a roll! Anyway I’ve been wanting to do this and the power post just really dragged up this issue in my head back to the forefront, and it is someone that really continuously confuses me on a basic level of how Rick chose to let this category function.

Legacies are a type of Demigod introduced in HoO that are directly related to Gods but aren’t first generation. They are not children of gods but like grandkids, great-grandkids, so on and so on. This is not a new concept, it is as old as myths themselves, the first thing that pops up in my mind was Troy’s royal family was said in myths to be descended from Zeus. That makes someone like Hector (in Pjo-verse vocabulary) a legacy in the Pjo canon.

But.. Legacies aren’t really different to demigods? Like- not different enough that they would get classified as differently-? For several reasons I believe, but the main three points I want to make (because apparently all my thoughts come in packs of 3), is that 1) Legacies and Demigods are shown to have the same godly-ability level as one another/ it’s inconsistent, 2) somewhat through the books themselves they just sort of stop using the word Legacy/Legacies never have anything that set them apart from demigods, 3) this is a new concept to distinguish them (this is the weakest but it feels weird that Rick decided to differentiate Legacies and Demigods when myths never really did too much, but when did Rick care about the source material- okay, that was rude I’m just still annoyed over Ares-)

Anyway,

Legacies and Demigods powers. Legacies are shown to have similar power levels to Demigods, or those powers are inconsistent. I bring this up because it feels odd? That legacies would have a similar broad level of abilities while still being more mortal than god (this depends and I’ll talk about what I think for like hc on New Rome and their legacy population) but we have characters like Bryce Lawerence; who has powers like, shadow travel (the shadow travel is implied but I’ll get into why it’s likely he has some form of enhanced ability to travel), enhanced tracking (also implied but this will fit into the travel thing), summoning the damned souls of those who broke oaths, along with being implied to have visited the underworld at some point because he mentions hearing the screams of the fields of punishment. But let’s also remember that BoO takes place somewhere in 8-9 days (starts July 20, ends Aug 3) the Bryce attack scene is on chapter XXX while Bryce being brought back to the legion is in chapter VI. No less than if I remember correctly like 2-3 days could’ve past. There are a couple things, he’s stealthy enough that Nico doesn’t notice him. We don’t get any confirmation that he’d been following them for a while (from all I know of Bryce’s character I have to assume he wasn’t or he would’ve 100 percent taken the first chance to attack them) but he is able to get from Long Island to South Carolina on foot, and seemingly appear out of nowhere. There is probably a logical explanation but also considering the fact he knows what’s happening to Nico (that shadow traveling fading that doesn’t seem to matter?) makes me consider and lean more to the idea that he can shadow travel (honestly would love to make another post on Bryce Lawerence because no one cares about him but I really find him interesting). But if he can do the (implied shadow travel) and the very apparent necromancy he has the same skill set of Nico! Never mind the tiny little difference in the necromancy, they have the same power and the same level of that power. The difference is that one is a legacy, and one is a Demigod- but there doesn’t seem to be a power difference. Secondly Frank’s shapeshifting thing, I’ll be real and say I just think that’s a thing because like Poseidon gifted it? I think of it as the same way that like the Red panda gift from turning Red is going strong because it was a blessing or whatever. And Octavian, who is (said, for some reason Rick wanted to put in that maybe Octavian never had powers at all but that’s stupid and takes away what little things Octavian has) but he also, doesn’t seem to have a dip in powers? I don’t care much for seeing the Apollo kids but it seems that they all can have varied powers (fitting seeing as Apollo was a god of so many things) and Octavian’s skill doesn’t seem limited in any way (would’ve been great if we got more information on it because we have no idea how it works compared to say, the way we know how the Oracle stuff works) but all of this puts a clear image that from the legacies we know, there doesn’t seem to be a big difference in power. Which is odd, seeing as they don’t feel like they should.

Through HoO Rick really just like- stopped talking about legacies? I’m laughing as I’m writing this but know it’s a saddened laugh because like. Rachel refers to Octavian as Son of Apollo (Which could be argued she doesn’t know what a Legacy is but I feel like since her Oracle powers told her everything else it would’ve informed her of his proper title- or I guess not because the writing didn’t care at all about Octavian-) and I think Reyna mentions Bryce is a legacy though it’s not referenced any more. Bryce just brings up Orcus in some dialogue and that’s about it. If you’re going to bring up a new type of Demigod then why not explore them more? HoO doesn’t explore like anything but still, Frank never has thoughts about his Legacy stuff. We don’t even get any notes about Greek demigods not considering most of the Roman Legacies Demigods because they aren’t the direct Children of the Gods? It just like- Legacies kind of do nothing, there is nothing different about a legacy.

Mythology doesn’t even really distinguish the two? Like- again because I’ve read the Iliad and Odyssey it’s what I always think first. Hector mentions he is also related to Zeus- that there is a distinct thing about demigods like Sarpedon, Achilles, and Aeneas. But there never is something where it calls out, “Oh Hectors great-great-great grandpa is Zeus and that’s super different and crazy” but it’s just “Hectors related to Zeus y’know and he’s gonna kick your butt man >:[“ obviously this is a random point because those are ancient texts. But we have to remember that Pjo is founded off of these myths and the fact that Legacies are a part of these myths but distinctly different (literally everyone who is descended from Zeus which is literally everyone- not literally but like-) operate differently, they are essentially no different than their fully mortal companions other than they can sport a God ancestor and the most convoluted family tree.

Okay. Those are the points that I’ve made. All of those boil down into like “Rick did nothing to differentiate Legacies from Demigods other than slap a different name on them” and that’s a missed opportunity. It’d be like if something like Harry Potter went, “Here are wizards that are said to be different than other magic users but all that’s different are their titles!” That might be a thing I don’t know I don’t consume Harry Potter. But there was a ball and it was slammed into the ground (huh, almost like Rick did that with a lot of things related to Camp Jupiter and the Romans- also the Romans canonically have cars and I don’t like that). But I have some Head-canons about legacies for my re-imagining to hopefully make them, make more sense?

The longer a legacy line is, the more ‘diluted’ the power becomes. Like in the myths, after you hit a certain point most legacies will have incredibly weak powers. This adds to the powers post I made (shameless plug that you should read that one too because I’m proud of it.) and how the legacies affect the Romans view on powers. But this means that the farther you get down a family line the less and less powerful the power is. Say a child of Zeus has children and then like ten generations down the line the descendants could be more resistant to lightning, conduct it easier and attract it a little more, maybe jump a big higher but that’s about it. Example, Michael Kahale In my re-imagining comes from a super duper long line and his powers pretty much are, I look pretty, I’m a little more persuasive from remnants of charm-speak (and I want to buff up the Aphrodite cabin more because Rick really just didn’t care when it came to them)

This doesn’t include ‘gifts’ like Frank’s. I think by the will of the God that blessed the ancestor with it they keep the power strong. This goes the same way for curses, maybe. If the curse is not revered than it probably is passed onto your kid.

In common sense, the fresher the legacy the more potent the power. And sometimes there can be mutations that a child can end up with more potent powers, whether that be the wishes of the Godly ancestor or they just get miracle genes it could act as a soft re-boot to strengthen the powers. For examples; Bryce is a very new legacy, his dad is the direct child of Orcus and Bryce gets passed down all of the cool powers (also need a hc for his mother because she comes from a legacy line) or Octavian was just.. born with the more potent powers, I like to think Apollo noted him and took interest to strengthen his powers for some reason. (Note he also is a legacy of Venus but I haven’t worked out if that affects him and how, but the Venus part is much more downplayed)

Legacies who have mixed godly blood/ several different lines that have merged have a little from everything, their powers are weaker but if like for example a Child of Athena with a Hermes legacy might have a easier time stealing things, or be a little faster than their peers. But these end up very minimal because the direct child aspect overpowers it a lot (idk I don’t know hypothetical demigod genes and how they work so let’s just go with it) this is similar with legacies+legacies though the family will usually stick to one legacy title (sort of how last names are passed on, but a partner wouldn’t take up the legacy title of the family. But a child would) while the powers honestly could be all over the place

Okay that’s all I think right now, if I have anything else I’ll probably make a separate post but for me right now it is very nighttime and I need my sleep so I can crush my siblings in various unserious competition.

I wish Tales of Greece and Troy by Robert Lancelyn Green and illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnston along with Jason and the Golden Fleece were more widely available and easily accessible,

Because my Gods are they stunning!

Beautiful! Amazing pieces! A shame their so rare,

I gobble their art so much, and I can only beg to have a fraction of their talent because my god it looks stunning.

Anyway I have no idea why I felt inclined to post this but please take the time to look at some of their art, it’s easy to find on like Pinterest and whatever and it just looks so pretty (in my opinion).