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Friendly reminder that just like Nico had to learn it’s okay to be queer, Hazel would have had to learn that it’s okay to be queer, a person of colour or a woman.

Hazel was born in the 1920s-1930s and we don’t talk about that nearly enough-

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Having the whole plot between Nico and Percy be resolved simply with “You’re not my type” in Blood of Olympus was such a huge disservice to both characters

They are pivotal parts to each others journey. No person in PJO influenced Nico as much as Percy did, aside from Bianca, and no person represents Percy’s guilt and the responsibility he had to shoulder more than Nico does. The writing for both characters really suffers through this lack of a real satisfying resolution.

First to talk about what Percy represents for Nico:

Percy, first of all, represents Nico’s introduction to the mythological world

He is the first demigod Nico ever came in contact with

He saved him and Bianca from the manticore (somewhat)

Nico stated in Blood of Olympus than Percy had reminded of the heroes of his mythomagic game come to life

Nico wholeheartedly believed that Bianca would be safe, if Percy was with her and created this image of the perfect hero in his mind, putting Percy on a pedestal

2.

In Nico’s mind Percy is irrevocably intertwined with Bianca and everything that happened to her

Despite Nico naively believing, that Bianca would be safe if Percy were around, he was instead the last person to ever talk to her, and present when she died

Percy informed Nico of her death (Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn’t believe nobody had told him yet. Then I realized why. They’d been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person, Titan’s curse)

Nico turned him into the scapegoat for her death, so that he could let all his grief and anger and bitterness out on him

Bianca sent Iris-messages to Percy, so that he would find and help Nico (“Percy has been worried about you, Nico. He can help. I let him see what you were up to, hoping he would find you.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Her ghost only appeared to Nico when Percy was with him

Percy is the only person Nico knows of, who also grieved for Bianca (“Bianca,” I said. My voice was thick. I’d felt guilty about her death for a long time but seeing her in front of me was five times as bad, like her death was fresh and new. I remembered searching through the wreckage of the giant bronze warrior she’d sacrificed her life to defeat, and not finding any sign of her. “I’m so sorry,” I said. Battle of the Labyrinth)

3.

Percy is the person who protected and cared for Nico more than anyone else in pjo

Tried to convince Bianca to think more deeply about her decision of joining the hunters, especially thinking of him (“Biance, this is crazy,” I said. “What about your brother? Nico can’t be a hunter.” (Titan’s curse)

Searched the woods in the dark for hours after he had disappeared (Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.)

Didn’t tell Chiron about Nico’s parentage to protect him from the Gods. (I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—") Titan’s curse)

Decided to completely commit to the prophecy, solely so Nico didn’t have to bear that burden and go trough any more suffering(It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it. "I can't let Nico be in any more danger," I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I… let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more." ) Titan’s curse)

Searched for Nico in the months after Titan’s Curse (Now, six months later, I hadn’t even come close to finding him. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Battle of the labyrinth, chapter 3))

Saved his life on Geryon’s farm. (“Either way, you get my friends,” I said. “But, if I succeed, you’ve got to let all of us go, including Nico.”)

Always offered Nico a place at camp half-blood to the best of his abilities (“We missed you at dinner,” I said. “You could’ve sat with me.”“No.”“Nico, you can’t miss every meal. If you don’t want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the big house. They’ve got plenty of room.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Invited him to join him on his birthday (“Is that… is that blue birthday cake?”He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. I wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he’d ever been invited to one. “Come inside for cake and ice cream,” I said. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot to talk about.”, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Reminded him that he was still a child (I smiled. “Maybe it’s okay to still be a kid once in a while.” I tossed him the statue, Battle of the Labyrinth)

Helped him to get the sword of hades back to impress his father (Then I looked at Nico. Unfortunately, I recognised the expression on his face. I knew what it was like wanting to make your dad proud, even if your dad was hard to love., Sword of hades)

Acknowledged everything Nico did in The last Olympian and is one of the main reasons why Hades has a cabin at camp. ( “But your children should not be left out. They should have a cabin at camp. Nico has proven that.”)

4.

Percy was Nico’s first, and after Will, his biggest love

Nico had feelings for Percy, which didn’t leave him for around 2 1/2 years, and accompanied him throughout the most challenging parts of his life. 

Feelings, which were so deep, the god of love personally acknowledged them.

Favonius even called Percy, the person Nico cares about most in House of Hades.

This was more than just a mere crush

Percy is so completely intertwined with most aspects of Nico’s character arc, in both PJO and Hoo, be it his feeling of ostracism, his relationship to Bianca or him coming to term with his own sexuality, that them not having a final interaction, makes his writing feel shallow and unfinished. Especially Nico coming to terms with his crush on Percy opens up the opportunity for a really heartwarming conversation and a moment of character growth and maturity for both of them, instead of it being wasted on one throw-away line.

And it’s the same the other way around. Nico is also a huge part of Percy’s journey.

He especially represents Percy’s biggest failure.

The first five Percy Jackson books are characterized by Percy having to take up responsibility and him being afraid of not being able to fulfill them. Be it responsibility for camp, the world, Bianca’s death, the prophecy, his friends, teh unclaimed demigods, or everything else. Most of the time, Percy was able to make sure everything turned out fine. He saved camp, he saved Olympus, he finished his quests, made the right decision for the prophecy, and he made the gods swear upon teh styx. But there’s one exception. And that is Nico.

Percy did everything in his power to make sure Nico would be spared any more hardships. He took up the burden of the prophecy, explicitly, so that Nico doesn’t have to go through any more hardships

He searched for him after Titan’s curse, kept his identity a secret and even risked himself, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson dying if it meant saving Nico

Still, Nico is one of the characters, if not the character, who has suffered the most in PJO and Hoo, even partly because of Percy (though, of course, Nico having a crush on him was not Percy’s fault at all)

He lived alone at 11 years old on the streets and in the labyrinth, while getting manipulated by an ancient evil spirit

He was isolated and ostracized at camp half-blood

He experienced the horrors of Tartarus completely on his own

He got captured by the giants and slowly suffocated to death in a small jar

He had to deal with internalized homophobia and his complicated feelings regarding Percy

He has been a vital part of two wars at only 15 years old

Had to admit his crush involuntarily in front of Jason, etc.  

One of the things Percy battles with in Heroes of Olympus is this overwhelming sense of guilt. He blames himself for almost everything that went wrong over the last few years. Be it for Iapetus, Calypso, or especially Nico. Having Percy acknowledge this complicated relationship he has with him during House of Hades, but not allowing the two of them to talk it out is genuinely baffling to me, and one of the (albeit many) reasons why I really don’t like most of Percy’s writing during Heroes of Olympus, despite the fact that he is my favourite character by far. This could have led to a moment of character growth, where Nico helps Percy to aknowledge that he feels guilty for things he had little to no control over, while Nico himself realizes how important he actually is to Percy.

They are also so similar in terms of who they are and what they’ve been through, that even if you ignore their history with each other, it seems insane, that they didn’t interact in any meaningful way:  

Both were ostracized at camp half-blood because of their parentage, and so far are the only two half-bloods we know of with that experience

They are (together with Hazel) the most powerful demigods in the Riordan verse, and have feats which far surpass anyone else’s

Both are in some way afraid of their powers

Both went through Tartarus

Both have relatively similar relationships to their godly parents

Both have gone through immense trauma and loss

And if you read heroes of Olympus, it actually very much seems to build towards a final resolution of their relationship

Percy and Nico were, aside from Frank, the two people closest to Hazel; both saw her as a little sister, and Hazel treated them both like her brothers

Nico was the first person Percy met from his old life

Percy was the one, who received the visions of Nico being captured

From everyone present, Percy trusted Nico to lead the others to Greece in his moment of greatest desperation

They both had introspections about the other in house of Hades, Nico having to deal with his crush and Percy with his guilt in Tartarus

But, in the end, after they met again, nothing happened. The only scene we really got was the “You’re not my type” line and Percy being surprised by it for a couple seconds. That’s it.

We saw no meaningful conversation between the two of them, no acknowledgement of what they’ve been through together, no lasting feelings. Nothing.

In regards to their relationship, Percy acknowledging everything that Nico has been through led to nothing. Nico acknowledging his feelings for Percy and finally letting go of this pedestal he had placed him on led to nothing. You could argue that their entire relationship, which has been built up since Titan’s curse led to nothing. And considering that they are so important characters for each of their character arcs, their characterization very much suffers from this writing decision.

The two of them, together with Hazel, are my three favourite Riordan verse characters by a long shot, but some very important aspects of both of their characters fall so flat to me through this lack of a satisfying resolution.

 Both of them deserved so much better.  

They are the friendship with the most missed potential in the entirety of the Riordan verse and probably the most fleshed out and nuanced relationship Rick ever wrote.

R.I.P.  Nico di Angelo, and Percy Jackson, you will always be brothers in my mind.

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Chris Claremont harassing Cyclops

These four panels live rent free in my head and make me chuckle every time. I generally consider the captions speaking directly to the characters is a bit of a cheesy technique - but it's worth it for this moment. It's not enough to traumatize Scott repeatedly, he has to embody the narrative itself to torment Scott through repetitively pushing his buttons. Third person omniscient is boring, third person antagonistic is where it's at.

'Can you Cyclops?

Can you?

CAN YOU?'

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i love it when fisk does something to unsettle/attack matt and then matt shows up in a public setting and just stares at him from afar like O_O with the suppressed rage of ten thousand suns behind him while fisk's silently giving it fuckfuckshitfuckingshitfuck

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matt murdock just became the mayors hero. if fisk was planning on outing him as daredevil (which is unlikely tbh he likes fighting him too much), it would now damage his campaign that vigilantes need to be stopped since daredevil was the one who saved him at an event that the task force was supposed to be leading security at. matt's accidentally just put him in checkmate lol

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they're never beating the renaissance painting allegations

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watch how fast frank comes storming out of retirement when he hears on the news that matt murdock took a bullet for mayor fisk

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There Ain't Language for the Things I've Seen

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Summary:

“I don’t think I survived the accident,” Danny says out loud for the first time. It’s a whisper, but it’s nonetheless hard to get out. It’s pointless to say it, really, Tucker and Sam had both already come to the conclusion themselves, but Danny needed to say it. He can practically hear Jazz telling him the first step of overcoming anything is acknowledging your problem. That’s all it takes for the tears in Sam’s eyes to start to fall, and then Danny is looking helplessly at his crying two best friends. They’re crying because they lost their friend, Danny thinks. Their friend died. ___ Or, a Danny Phantom horror series rewrite.

A brilliant and creepy story, more serious take on how Danny Fenton became Danny Phantom I guess. Do mind the tags though. It’s pretty gory, the body horror in particular. 10/10

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The Shark in Your Water

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Summary:

When people are desperate they turn to faith. Panem has done a good job creating a truly secular society, stamping out the religions of the past, but nothing can stop new gods from rising. - Or: When Gaea curses Percy to live in a world without the gods, he winds up in District 4 and is chosen as tribute for the 70th Hunger Games. From there, everything just kind of spirals.

LITERALLY RHE BEST FIC I HAVE READ THIS YEAR, IT IS GORGEOUS!!!!

Do mind the tags though and the fact that’s it’s not finished yet, though the author seems to be posting a couple of times a month at least. From what I’ve figured anyway.

100000000000000000/10

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Looking back at episode 4, in addition to Matt Murdock starting to understand Frank Castle’s view on morality due to Foggy’s murder, it looks like Frank is also starting to understand Matt’s viewpoint. Because even though he claims to not care about the Punisher cultist cops, it’s clear that he’s bothered by it. And, of course, Matt’s speech about Foggy’s decency and good character clearly got to Frank.

It’s interesting. Matt is starting to understand why Frank has such a black-and-white view on people. While he wants to believe that there’s good in everyone, there’s people like Bullseye who don’t deserve anyone’s pity. Meanwhile, Frank is starting to understand why Matt tries to see the good in everyone and why he chooses to be a hero. He’s bothered by the legacy he’s creating with the Punisher cult and he understands why Foggy was so important to Matt as a pillar of decency. It’s like he realized at the moment that he was the bad guy. Foggy inspired people to do good, he was inspiring people to do evil.

This almost feels like a continuation of the rooftop scene in DD season 2. But instead of yelling at each other and being all stubborn with their beliefs, they’re coming to an understanding. Now, obviously, this doesn’t mean Matt’s gonna start killing people and Frank is gonna take a vow of non-violence. But the two of them understanding each other and why they believe what they believe is a good angle to develop their characters.

Also, based on the BTS photos, this would explain why they’re fine with teaming up in the latter half of the season. DD season 2 Matt and Frank wouldn’t team up unless they absolutely had to. DDBA Matt and Frank, I can see them tolerating each other more.

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You watch season 1 and season 2 of Daredevil, and it's like. Wow. This is top television. This truly can not get any better. And season 3 comes around, and it does get better ????

What the fuck were those writers eating holy shit.

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Miss I killed Kingpins boyfriend and I only stopped shooting because the clip ran out absolutely would not have hesitated in shooting Bullseye after Foggy dropped

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Wilson Bethel as Bullseye Daredevil: Born Again S01E01

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"In another life, you may be defending me. That's what a good man does. Defends his worst enemy" you don't fucking understand how hard that line goes when you know that Dex isn't Matt's worst enemy. Fisk is. And Matt defended his worst enemy. Because that's what a good man does

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this picture is pretty funny because bruce is destroying slade but my guy ur expensive ass home is this only thing keeping u from being in the exact same position 😭