#but rereading SOM has reminded me that there are so many tidbits of foreshadowing and information that is sprinkled throughout this book

[lukecastellanshandholder]

Ok so, as I said yesterday I'm rereading Sea of Monsters and I've gotta admit, there are a lot of parts that I didn't remember from it that deserve more appreciation.

(Long post incoming! 😅)

One of them that I really want to talk about is after Annabeth listens to the siren song and learns that her fatal flaw is hubris. When she was listening to the sirens, she saw a scene of her father and Athena happily together, along with Luke all sitting in central park. Surrounding them is a new Manhattan that Annabeth has built and it looks so much better than the western civilization that the gods have built.

When she's telling Percy about her fatal flaw, she talks about how the west represents a lot of the greatest things to ever come from mankind, but how your view starts to change when all you can see are the bad things. She says that would make someone start to think more like Luke. That if she could tear everything down and start everything a new, that she would be able to run and build things better. That if she could rebuild it, the world wouldn't be as messed up. There would be no more war, nobody homeless and left on the streets to fend for themselves.

And this is absolutely correct, this is essentially why Luke is doing this all to begin with. This is his core goal (purely Luke's and not Kronos). To make a better world for everyone. Where no one would have to go what he and countless others had been through. So that maybe others would be able to see the good in the world after all his life he had only been shown the bad.

But then there are these couple paragraphs after that. Those are super interesting to me and it gives so much insight on the universe and how certain people think.

"She (Annabeth) gazed into the distance. 'I'm not sure. But we have to save camp. If we don't stop Luke...'

She didn't need to finish. If Luke's way of thinking could even tempt Annabeth, there was no telling how many other half-bloods might join him."

First thing to remember, this is all from Percy's perspective. These are all his own thoughts and how he thinks about things. So I think the way Percy speaking about Annabeth in the last paragraph kinda shows how he tends to think of her as strong for not thinking like Luke. Like Luke is kind of weak for thinking the way he does about things needing to change and rebelling against the gods. But also like Luke's way of thinking of his envisioning of a better world without the gods in control is, in itself, something dangerous.

Now, to the other demigods, if the gods were to fall and those demigods were to join Luke's/ Kronos's side, then... It really wouldn't be that dangerous for them. At least not much more dangerous than it is for them now with the gods ruling over everything. Because the gods and Titans are very much the same.

But ultimately, my main point is, Percy seems to have this underlying fear and aversion to anyone doing anything to go against the gods. But why? Why when we see that he is to his core, more on the rebellious side? Much like the ocean, Percy doesn't like to be restrained.

Because, he's been influenced by the gods and camp (especially Chiron). He's been steered to believe that even the thought of going against the gods is wrong and shouldn't be done. He's had Chiron who's been telling him that the gods falling out of power would be the worst thing to ever happen. One god in particular (ahem, Hermes) has used Percy's strong sense of loyalty and family to lead him, to manipulate him farther and put in his head that turning his back on his family (in this case the gods) is something that you should never do.

And it's not just Percy who has been raised to think this way, it's a lot of the other demigods at camp who stay loyal to the gods until their final breaths. Who stay loyal to them even as they watch their siblings die left and right before their eyes.

And Kronos is doing this exact same thing to Luke. It's the same thing that Kronos would've done to his subjects if he would've won the war. There is no difference between the gods and the Titans and, once again, Percy and Luke showcase that perfectly.

And people who believe that the gods are better than the Titans like to bring up the line from TLT when Luke says something along the lines of "the ones who serve Kronos will be treated well and be powerful, the others who don't will be killed."

Yeah, the gods do the exact same thing. They kill or torture anyone who defies them, and gives power to the ones who serve them. We have plenty of examples of this, two major ones are right in the last chapters of The Last Olympian. Luke rebelled against the gods, as he was fated to, and he died as he was fated to, along with most of the other traitors. And Percy, the one who had served the gods the most, he was offered godhood. Power. So yeah, there really is no difference between them.

But I just think it's so interesting how those two paragraphs can give so much insight into how Percy views things. And this is just from the second book. And the book that tends to be most people's least favorite book in the series.