umbran6

[umbran6]

*sighs and lifts the baseball bat again.* I thought I shut this misinformation down, but I'm going to have to repeat it again.

THE SEVEN WERE NOT IN THE ARGO II FOR FOUR MONTHS.

Simple mathematics. The Argo II arrived in New Rome a few days around June 24th, made it to Italy at July 1st, and only made it to Greece on August 1st. That means that they were only in the Argo II for 1 month and a week. And we're not even counting that a majority of the time after July 1st, Percy and Annabeth were stuck in freaking Tartarus!

I agree with you that there's some lost potential. But there can only be so much bonding made when two of your members spent at least two weeks going down a nightmare roller coaster, a good chunk of week with one of them stuck in Ogygia, and the rest being spent by multiple monsters on a daily basis.

The Argo II has so much wasted potential.

I always thought that the biggest letdown of HoO is the fact that we never saw the bonding between ALL seven of the demigods. Piper, Leo and Jason & Percy, Hazel and Frank all bonded very quickly, and considering that all the Argo II crew were together in that one ship for atleast 4 months and had little to no bonding shown is baffling to me.

So many things, like how Percy and Jason's "bromance" is so fanon, because they barely interact, but when they do interact they're kinda close - which is jarring, because we never saw the development. Even if we did, their interactions are awkward for people who've been literally travelling in a vessel together and fought monsters off.

And the relationships between Percy and Piper, Jason and Hazel, Leo and Annabeth, Frank and Piper were hardly explored - so there is no sense as to why they'd be close and it frustrates me. Not to mention the Seven as a whole don't have too much bonding with Nico. Not really.

Like come on. Annabeth, Grover and Percy set in as a good trio for a single quest. And you're telling me seven demigods, many of whom known almost everyone else have not much bonding? Come ON. They live on the same ship. And most of them have such an awesome sense of humor.

I get that the book focused on more thrilling ideas to conserve space, but I'd honestly had another chapter of them being wholesome demigod neurodivergent teenagers than a Tartarus chapter. (So sorry my fellow Percabethians but i never liked the way the tartarus arc was written - at least, not all of it.)

Like really. Can you not imagine Percy and Jason bonding over how hard it is to be used as a tool for the gods? Annabeth helping Leo obsess over the Archimedes sphere? Piper catching Hazel up on all the new things and Hazel nearly fainting when she sees "The Poster" that Piper shows to her? Frank and Nico playing Mythomagic?

Am I the only one who'd die for an Argo II book like the Demigod Files or the Demigod Diaries??

[umbran6]

Nah, they're the group of college students that people assume are a cohesive team because they all worked on that one project together.

Leo and Percy: Guys that did the hard-carry and which the project would've failed without their involvement (Percy doing a lot of the fighting while Leo was the builder and maintainer of the Argo II).

Annabeth and Hazel: The smart kids that did their best to make sure that everyone else locked in (Annabeth pre-Tartarus and Hazel helping the crew during House of Hades).

Frank: The one kid doing his fair share of the work.

Piper and Jason: The ones who did the least amount of work but still got to put their name on the project (Jason mainly being more famous for getting constantly knocked out Piper focusing a lot on her relationship with Jason).

And the only reason they were in the project in the first place is because the teacher (Hera) forced them into it.

never forgetting the time someone said "the seven are not a found family, they are parents that should've been divorced long ago but are staying together for the kids and it's not going well", not only hillarious but also true, those guys are not eachother's bffs and it SHOWS

[umbran6]

Third option:

Leo constantly seeks validation from others because he desperately seeks acceptance and affection, so he hyper focused on building the Argo II to reinforce the idea of him being in the Seven up to making himself unremovable from being the ship's creator so people could at least respect and care about him. This means that he over-concentrated himself to being at risk of being closest to death because he wants to remind himself (and he hopes, the others) that yes, he belongs, he's carrying his weight, please, don't kick him out, he really, really wants to be here.

But when no one seems to recognize his work and that he's seemingly stuck in a position where he's socially isolated as the Seventh Wheel, he does his best to hide the internal suffering he goes through, especially when he's initially blamed for firing on New Rome (which, side track, he never actually got an apology for being blamed for it).

So needless to say, he desperately clings to new goals in life such as rescuing Calypso or helping Apollo recover his immortality because if it at least gets him a friend or gets someone that would give him the affection he craves. If he doesn't have something to focus on, he will go on a depression fueled crash-out.

Constantly torn between Leo Valdez was in a deep state of hyperfocus during the six months he built the Argo II and therefore at his unhealthiest and closest to physical death at this time VS Leo's character boils down to needing to be needed, so he would be his happiest and healthiest while building the warship because he feels incredibly needed at that point and afterwards he gets so much worse because he's no longer feeling like he's needed.

Anyways.

[umbran6]

Eh, IMO Leo kinda deserves to crash out against Hephaestus. So if this is him during his villain arc I'd get it.

Leo Valdez supermercy

I wanna make him look badass but... now it look like villain version. Whatever

[umbran6]

Leo is the guy who carried The Lost Hero as a character when it came out. There is no other option.

[umbran6]

Yeah, you're not alone. Like, I'm quite sure that 99.99% of the fandom believes he is some variant of gay, bi, or ace. I personally believe he is bi, but focuses more on girls due to pressure from comphet (compulsory heterosexuality). Not in the closet, but won't tell anyone unless they poke their noses into it.

ok, so im re-listening to Mark of Athena... am I the only one who feels like Leo is overcompensating and actually doesn't like girls at all?

[umbran6]

Thank you for the meal, it's delicious.

Hi guys. so i drew this like two months ago and forgot to post it sorry Valdangelo Fans

[umbran6]

Personally as someone that is apart of the anti-Caleo brigade, the main issue with Calypso's 1000+ years of life could be argued that they were spent in a more... controversial fashion.

Mainly because of the fact that she essentially trapped and stockholm'ed Odysseus for ten years, with the clear notice that she did a lot of this without his consent. Multiply that by who knows how many people ended up on her island, and we got a goddess whose mere mention would have the FBI on speed dial. The fact that she gave Percy a choice to stick around or not was... An improvement.

But the fact that she kissed Leo when he brings up the possibility of taking her with him when the magical raft got there is EXTREME red flag behavior. That would be if someone offered to get together with you after you offered to break them out of prison. So yeah, her behavior is still persistent.

That and the other characters that could possibly fall into the time/ age gap dilemma (Echo in this case), it can be argued that they do not have a history of this red flag behavior. Either that or they have had enough character development to the point that they actively try to stir away from red flag behavior.

Something i find weird is that one of the biggest arguments against Caleo is the age gap bc Calypso's technically like over a thousand years old (which is a whole other topic I might talk about and anyway, I doubt getting rid of the "age gap" is enough to make ppl like Caleo)

But then some ppl will also say that Leo should have gotten with Echo??? Shouldn't the age gap also be a problem there???

[umbran6]

I like the fact that you focused more on him having a darker mood. Keep cooking, you're doing great!

Something about wielding the power that killed the person you loved the most

guys do you like my first proper digital art piece (there are many mistakes don't look for them please)

[umbran6]

My good lady, it would be more understandable for him to suffer. Our boy's childhood after Gaea was miserable.

So, I'm writing a pre-canon thing for Leo, and I'm debating on if I want this to just be a good memory, a moment of reprieve in his clusterfuck of a life, or if I want to end it with him miserable.

[umbran6]

All of the designs are amazing! But the Greek outfit is my favorite imo.

Leo outfit doodles for fun

[umbran6]

So pretty... I swear to god, when you cook, you deliver 5-star meals.

little leo doodle here

[umbran6]

Perhaps a version of him as an Archetype user? A bit cheap in terms of creativity (I've seen some other people use it), but it would be something new.

i need to come up with more ideas for edeni art aaaaagh 😩

[umbran6]

Main personal theory is that he never quite got iconic with the army jacket and jeans combo, so the fandom collectively latched itself to Aphrodite's outfit since it was one of the more stand-out outfits that he had. Add that to the collective artwork that was going on when the series released, the image of Leo with that outfit got collectively glued to the fandom's image of him.

posted this in a community first but i wanted everyone to hear it

Almost every piece of Leo fanart i've seen has him in the suspenders outfit Aphrodite stuck him in at the end of the lost hero but...

He canonically didn't like that outfit-- not necessarily its appearance but he preferred his army jacket & he didn't like that the shoes were impractical and he didn't have pockets

so like... why do we (collectively, as a fandom, and i am guilty of this too) draw Leo in those suspenders? Instead of his actual favorite clothes?

[umbran6]

Oh, this? *gestures at t-shirt, which is stained red.* No worry. Tis' just a nose bleed.

what if it was edeni instead of eupha in that one cutscene

[umbran6]

As always, the Leo Valdez artwork is amazing! 🔥

Anyways heres Leo

🔥

[umbran6]

Leo. 10/10, no question. The guy literally killed the goddess who ruined his life and avenged his mom's death without any casualties beyond himself, and even that was planned out beforehand. He broke Calypso out of Ogygia by working around the rules of the island's magic without the help of the gods (aside from Asclepius, and even then, he wasn't exactly in on Leo's plan. He practically manipulated the confines of the Prophecy of Seven to his advantage in every possible way. In the end, he got everything that he wanted without paying any price beyond the suffering he went through when he was younger.

feel free to explain your answer, and follow for daily pjo polls + fandom creator content! 🌊⚡🗡️💎

(do you read PJO fanfiction? demigodpolls is seeking input from fanfic readers to compile a collection of the best stories published/updated this year! see this post to share your best recs of 2024!)