Fighting The Urge To Make Another Post About Bryce Lawerence

Fighting the urge to make another post about Bryce Lawerence 😔…

Another post about Bryce Lawerence!

(Guys I gave into the urge)

Okay- but like. No one cares about him, it’s like if I went on an entire post for Larry the legionnaire (that one is still on my list to make- **Update from future Kleos who’s finishing this right now, Larry the Legionnaire post is going to be started directly after this is posted!***). But I really like talking about him because he literally stole a part of my brain and refuses to hand it over.

And there’s so much to him that we don’t know that can be explored! Like- there are so many possibilities with his character and I want to include him more in my Re-imagining because if we’re gonna make him a monster then why not actually display his absolute bat shittery in the book. Or I don’t know.. make him an actually compelling character that gets to be an actual character and not a maniacal stereotype that is put in the plot so we can show Nico’s.. thing? (I don’t know, I’ll be honest don’t like Nico that much- like him in the first arc when he’s a silly little baby and then an emo 10 year old)

Like we know he cannonically committed a bunch of crimes, barely got away by the skin of his teeth because of nepotism and then like??? We don’t know how old he was when he committed said crimes, his most notable one oh I don’t know, MURDER, that feels notable is left as just an afterthought like- there were so many ways this could’ve affected everything just from how long ago the murder was! (I think I did a whole other post on Bryce just talking about that! But it could seriously affect camp and I feel like there was major potential that could’ve improved the story)

Bryce could’ve been a convincing demigod villain that would be an actual threat and the scariest part would be that he wouldn’t have been working for Gaea (at the very most he might’ve done like mercenary work for stuff like triumvirate holdings or whatever it’s called but because I haven’t finished TOA I refuse to make any conclusions) he’d be a separate much more real entity and threat (because how many people were really tensed up and nervous over the Camp Jupiter-Camp Half-blood conflict. Because we don’t see any of it and if the story was tweaked and all of protags weren’t shoved in the same boat away from the b-plot it would be better but that’s for me to yap about-)

And; may I propose a concept (that fits with my hcs-) that Bryce would’ve been in the first cohort, he canonically murdered his Centurion in the war games (It’s not plural in the books to I have to assume that it’s just one of them) but this is my idea that he killed the Centurion that Micheal too over for, and that either Bryce killed them to clear the way for Michael (which opens a whole new avenue for a Michael and Bryce and what their relationship would’ve been that would lead for Bryce to do that-) or that Bryce wanted to take up the role but didn’t get it.

Of course there’s the scenario that Bryce did it for fun. Which is what Rick implied though I don’t like that because it feels… icky? Most people (even people who do heinous crimes like this) don’t just murder for no reason. There is more often than not, a motive. And I think giving Bryce a motive would make him a lot more interesting than just saying, “oh he’s wild guys, he’s just a quirky little guy” and moving on. Again; let’s not make the character with some form of implied psychopathy just a harmful stereotype of an already incredibly stigmatized condition. Alright, cool.

But if we just got a little forethought and Bryce was a bigger part in the plot (which could be my biased perspective because I like the little man) then it could’ve been so much more interesting in camp! It would set up a post Bryce-debocle Camp Jupiter when we first see in in SoN. Where Reyna’s struggling to keep camp together and has to deal with the lingering outside threats of the dude that would probably have a vendetta because she exiled him from the life he’s ever known that could quite possibly still be close to camp (remember Camp Jupiter doesn’t have the magic border-) and developing a following (Make Reyna paranoid, make her fall- make her be a prime example of the perfect soldier, then make her crumble, see as she begins to spiral and fear that she is becoming every closer to her own fathers paranoia, allow her that and put in the message that it gets better and that you can get help. But that’s another post-) a First cohort that is still trying to adjust to the power exchange of a new Centurion, a camp that is on guard and is mourning the loss of a valued and dear member of their legion (I’m not saying we make a Redtail out of the unnamed murdered centurion- but I am saying make a Redtail, and if you get the reference, rad) a camp that is unwelcoming more so than usual all because of this one person. A legacy no less- give us a proper opportunity to dive into Legacies and the culture surrounding them!

Also would like to state that in my legacies post I briefly fluttered by the mention that I think his father was a demigod and that made him a first gen legacy, but on his mothers side I’d like to give the consideration that she’d come from a long line of legacies of Ira (or Furor- or Lyssa as she was in her Green counterpart) but Ira was the spirit (not a goddess, felt that should be known though I’m unsure if that matters or if she can really be interchangeable and still regarded as a minor goddess-) of mad rage, frenzy, and rabies in animals. I say to add this aspect because it feels right in my brain. Sure demigods shouldn’t be stereotyped into personalities based on who they’re related to directly in divinity. But- like, I just wanna have this. I don’t get to talk about Lyssa a lot and I find her interesting and it’s my head-canon (no idea why I’m arguing with myself because literally none of you guys care.)

Okay! I’ve been writing this and recently finished reading zazzanders‘s (please I don’t know if I should be using a direct mention- link thingy? If I should let me know because I’d rather have my posts… somewhat easier to read, like obviously the writing style invokes someone hunched over their phone just typing out random sentences for the fun of it because that’s what it is but I want there to be some form of ease. But you should go check out their page because they make really cool and interesting content) reblog of one of my posts and I too just realized how insanely powerful Bryce is? I don’t know how I would like nerf him but I feel he significantly needs to be chilled out because he has a lot of stuff going on. Like a lot of powers and stuff and whatever and it’s all weird and Rick just yelled whatever when writing him and anything to do with Camp Jupiter so it all ends up weird as hell. Until I figure all that out I’m not touching it and I’m leaving Bryce in this weird zone- and I can’t say screw it and make him blessed by Orcus because with his title alone I think there is no way he would condone or agree with anything Bryce has done,

Which launches me into sudden change! I want to know what Bryce and Orcus’s relationship is. We know Bryce is said to have gone and survived a trip to the underworld because of his edgy 12-year-old comment about the screams from the field of punishment sounding like music to his ears (seriously the more I write the more like I feel like he’d be one of Ramona Flowers’s evil ex boyfriends) so it can be implied that at one point he tried to make contact with Orcus. How did that go out? Not well because I expect Bryce broke a shit ton of oaths about like being a good legionnaire and he probably lied on stand during trial because he’s totally the type of beetle that would do that, so I want to know what that was like- how that affected Bryce, all that stuff. And I know I’ll probably write out how I think that scenario played out in the future.

Anyway I’m pretty sure that I’m just grasping at straws and really if I wanted to I could just keep talking about this character because I don’t know why but I just like- woke up one day and couldn’t get him off my mind sooo..

Larry the legionnaire post next! Then after that I don’t know, maybe something about New Rome or Camp Jupiter. Maybe I’ll finally get around to being confused about the jobs in camp or something,

Maybe goodnight? I don’t really know because the Larry post feels like it’ll be short.

I ran out of Vanilla Coke and don’t want to get more at the moment

Send help :[

Away from that I’m working on drawing something (wow shocker) because I’ve been on a drawing kick recently, anyway I drew Larry,

The lighting was doing something and I have no idea what it’s trying to convey or how those shadows work but I don’t necessarily care at the moment because this was the first time that I figured out his design and the tattoo also took so long.

Anyway I’m working on drawing tiny Octavian and Michael when they first came to camp (have to switch to one of my sketchbooks because the draft was not working to be sketched with my fingers on the phone).

Probably gonna do that Aphrodite/Venus children post later, but for now goodnight!

Nico was silly in Pjo but he killed my sillies :[

Don’t have issue with his writing but I liked him more in titans curse and battle of the labyrinth.

He killed my guys! All three if you squint!

I am biased and shivering in the cold, my thumbs are frozen as I type.

I try to explain Nico di Angelo but my friend htes him

his sister died :( and yes, it was unfair for him to ask Percy to keep her safe but he was a child. He was just worried about the only thing in the world he had that don’t make him bad he was a child

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.

Powers in Camp Jupiter

Wow I’ve posted a lot today lol-

Finally! Another long, ‘Camp Jupiter general Hc’ post. I’ve just been thinking a lot on powers the more I’ve been dipping my toes into learning about Rome and its culture and how I want to incorporate that into New Rome and Camp (literally I mention it once so don’t get any hopes up for like in depth Ancient Rome stuff and it just affected my thought process for how the Romans might think similarly to powers as they did other things). Also this is another post going, ‘this is a weird thing in camp that is never explained but doesn’t make sense to me so this is how I’d go about explaining it’ post, enjoy :]

But first things first; I think Camp puts a heavy importance on physical skill, that powers are somewhat frowned upon. That Camp Jupiter would put a higher importance on someone’s capabilities without the powers, and that power usage is something that generally the Camp doesn’t like acknowledging- I’ll go more in depth on what I mean but first I wanna talk about how I got to this conclusion making sense in my mind,

This did make sense in my brain because it fills the little gap where we don’t see a lot of Camp Jupiter power embracing or whatever. We get Hazel being worried over her powers because of the like cursed aspect? Which is a whole other can of worms that I don’t like the plot point on- but whatever. Hazel’s thing feels weird that she wouldn’t explain it, now I am obviously not a Hazel analyzer- but I do have a pretty solid characterization of Camp in my head and I feel that is something that they would 100% want to and need to know. Along with the apparent lack of notable power usage in Camp Jupiter- we don’t see it in the same way that we see over at Half-Blood, now this could be because Camp has like 0 important characters. But I feel like during the war games there would be more people taking advantage of powers, where it’s specifically called out when Percy is doing it because it’s odd in the setting- it stands out (yes it probably was called out for Rick to be like “Look at how cool and powerful Percy is guys!” But whatever-) but that bleeds into the first gorgon chase scene, where it’s notable that again; it’s only Percy using his powers openly, it’s the legionnaires that are looking on in bewilderment, confusion.

Of course there are the 4 main outliers I think of about this power thing; Reyna, Jason, Octavian, and Bryce Lawrence. But I’ll talk about what I think their situations are.

Anyway, I believe this seeming power-aversion in camp Jupiter (was probably not planned and Rick just kind of forgot about Demigods and how probable it would be that they’d display them more often for the general quality of life improvements they’d give-) could be caused by a couple factors,

The abundance of Legacy’s at camp and at New Rome; we aren’t sure how legacies work (because they are all over the place and we never get set power levels on them) but it would make logical sense that powers became more niche or less potent through generations (this obviously has outliers, and its own holes but I’ll justify this take in another post probably just about legacies-) and this would lead to less and less importance on powers- because why would a community see them as important when the majority of them don’t have very potent ones, or very general ones and it’s more simple to just not use them than hone either a very weak skill or a very niche skill.

The importance of Strength in New Rome and Camp Jupiter’s community; based partially on Ancient Romes importance on Masculinity (which I will not be mentioning much because I am just a silly black cat on the internet and I don’t have the knowledge about Romes masculinity thing) and just what we see from the very concept of Camp Jupiter’s go through Lupa’s training and survive or die, Camp Jupiter’s no magic barrier of protection, the military camp. Conquer or Die. It all places a very big importance on one’s personal strength- their strategic mind, physical prowess, ability to work together as a unit in the army. That the powers could possibly be seen almost as a cheat- that why would you use your powers when you have your training, are you weak? Do you not trust in what you’ve been taught? The Societal idea were given for the Romans is strength- and why use your powers if you are physically capable enough. And everyone is physically capable enough to be a Roman, to Conquer or Die.

Okay on a probably lighter note (idk I was reading the upper passage and that sounded pretty intense-) but also the fact that powers just feel like they wouldn’t be a good thing in Camp’s military settings. Camp Jupiter puts its importance on their military and fighting prowess, their form, the discipline. It’s much harder to fight in coordination if everyone is doing anything that isn’t related to other skills. The fact that the Cohorts aren’t godly ancestor-specific adds to that. So it just doesn’t seem reasonable knowing Camps whole thing.

Okay those three all are my ideas on the surrounding factors that make powers less used and more taboo in Camp/New Rome. This could explain why camp doesn’t display their powers. While it gives more reason for the reactions to Percy other than everyone being suprised at how cool and powerful he is or something idk, it gives Hazel more reason to hide her precious riches power thing.

Now the Outliers, people in camp that comfortably and openly use and display their powers (not including Percy, maybe idk- we’ll see)

First Reyna; we know that Reyna openly used her Bellona strength, warrior spirit and bravery sharing powers that also take away pain? Idk how they explain it but we get that in BoO the knowledge that when leading the Romans into battle Reyna would use her powers. I think this can be explained away by 1st off it’s not that noticeable so might be likely that the legion doesn’t even know she did that, secondly it could be considered that they considered her ability a outlier to the notion- it directly helps them win so I guess they don’t mind, sure they’ll be upset about it but they won’t openly object to it.

Secondly Jason and his wild skill set; he’s Jupiter’s son, pretty much Lupa’s adopted kid and Camp’s prince. They’d let him do whatever, he’s Jupite’rs son! I think they’d be super hypocritical and think him and the powers make him stronger and cooler and whatever because he’s Jupiter’s son and canonically we know they put him on a pedestal and thought he pretty much could do no wrong when he was younger so I think it’s reasonable to assume legionnaires would go along with Jason pulling lightning bolts from thin air and just going, “That’s so cool Jason!!! Yeaaah you go man!” And then turning around and ostracizing someone that used like their water-bending because like- why not just use your actual skill, no need to be a show off, y’know Dave from the 3rd cohort could’ve done that just with his Pugio and a bendy straw.

Octavian; it’s his job. I think Augur’s generally get a pass because it’s their job to be all mysterious and otherworldly and do all the cool retelling prophecies and omens. And he needs the powers to do that so of course he gets a pass.

Bryce Lawerence; he’s a freak (nicely, I love him) but he gives 0 crap if people don’t like it. They can just go to the fields of punishment for all he cares. He literally murdered someone and lit a cat on fire. There is no way in Hades that this man cares about some power taboo. If he wants to do it he’ll do it and if anyone wants to say anything they can suck his spear handle.

Overall; Camp Jupiter are Hypocrites when it comes to powers (obviously, I feel like for many reasons they are hypocrites in many other fields-) and this gives better reason that Octavian and Micheal didn’t immediately drag Percy into the 1st cohort. Because like- you know they would’ve and I think that would’ve been more interesting than the 5th cohort underdog story (like, Hazel and Frank could’ve been the main pushers of that plot and I feel that would’ve been cooler-)

But if we want to stay with Percy being put in the 5th (which if anyone wants to know for my re-imagining he is totally put in the 1st because that gives us an opening to actually characterize notable characters a lot more-) this powers thing gives a reason. All the legion knows about this kid is that he’s got a mouth on him, attracts monsters like a neon billboard with a giant arrow on it, and relies on his powers constantly. And in Camp Jupiter where obedience and discipline are cherished, they don’t need to deal with any more monsters their hands are already full, and that everyone like collectively hates their powers from societal norms. It makes more sense that none of the more notable cohorts would want to tarnish their names or reputation by bringing him on board- so of course the 5th is forced to take him.

Okay that’s my rant on how the community of Romans don’t like their powers unless they can serve a purpose of aiding the army, your the child of Jupiter, or it’s your job.

I am sleepy and therefore I bid you all a good night.

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!!!