Actually I Do Mourn What Hoo Did To Percy And Nico's Relationship Because In Pjo It Was Such A Hilarious

actually I do mourn what hoo did to Percy and Nico's relationship because in pjo it was such a hilarious love-hate thing. Like Percy's this long-suffering and exasperated but protective older cousin figure while Nico is Nico and is feral and dramatic and craves Percy's approval while also loathing him at the same time. Like. Amazing stuff at play there.

Then in hoo Percy's like Nico? yeah he can die I guess and listen listen I'm not saying its out of character for Percy to be vengeful or for him to be annoyed by Nico. Like I think its very on point (see him strangling Nico for betraying him in tlo). However, I think the way it should have played out is Percy being fuming at Nico in his head but the moment Jason and Leo are like "Nico's shady so maybe we shouldn't rescue him?" an instant switch flips off and Percy's like "Um only I can talk shit about Nico and we're going to save him because if he's going to die its going to be by my hand"

You know how everyone has heard a slightly different version of the same Greek myth? Like there’s a version we’re Icarus falls in love with Apollo and there’s a version were he knows the wings aren’t gonna hold but keeps flying anyway and a version were he doesn’t hear his fathers warning. In one version of the story, Athena is punishing Medusa, in another she’s giving her a gift. There’s a story where Hades kidnaps Persephone and one where he helps her escape from her mother. All the same myths but told in different ways depending on who tells them and to whom. Slightly different morals to gain from them but always the same basic concept.

And I just think it’s so fitting that the same is happening with the pjo show. Details change! In this version, Annabeth’s dad loves her from the beginning. In this version, they enter Medusa’s house knowing who she is. And this changes the meaning to reflect the time in which the story is told, and the people who tell it. Myths are meant to be retold again and again, thats the beauty of them. It doesn’t mean that one version is better than the other. And I love that Rick Riordan said I’ve told this story before, but what do I want to say this time? And he squeezes so much meaning into it!

I will forever stand by the hc that Regulus stayed behind to keep his parents from going after Sirius and Sirius died thinking he never wanted to leave

tw: mentions of abuse (walburga and orion a+ parenting)

the tragic thing about his parents is that, despite the abuse and the neglect, regulus loved them.

he loved his mother's intelligence, the way she knew how to answer most of his questions and how she could tell him the origin of each word, whether it was greek or latin or such.

he loved his father's wit, his sharp humour, those brief moments when he'd look at regulus with compliance, those fleeing seconds when his father would grant him a knowing, complicit look.

and their expectations, oh, he loved them and he hated them at the same time. they expected the best because they believed he could give it to them — and yet, what a wonderful suffering if he didn't live up to all those expectations. what an outstanding suffocation, trying to meet them all the time.

not to mention, regulus felt a little guilty about how much he loved their satisfaction once he gave them what they wanted. yes, the burden was a heavy one. yet, what a relief to feel the gentle stroke of his mother's hand on his cheek or to see a pleased smile on his father's lips.

and regulus can't forget about the times his mother called him his 'good son' and about how his father told him that 'he didn't disappoint' — it wasn't the same as saying he was proud of him but, to regulus, it was close enough.

sometimes, the good outweighed the bad (until it didn't). that was what sirius wouldn't understand.

they were good to him, as long as regulus didn't disappoint them. so, he just needed to be good, did he? he just needed to be the good son, he just had to avoid disappointing them, he just had to bear it and they would, maybe, finally love him.

sirius couldn't understand how he could love them.

still, regulus did. and it broke him more than hating them ever would have.

these are most of the pocket reggies I've done so far!!

impromptu character analysis of one regulus arcturus black

i think the key to regulus as a character – at least my version of him, since there isn’t really a canon – is that all his life he’s been searching for somewhere to belong; somewhere that would foster him and allow him to thrive; somewhere that needed him as much as he needed it, even if he didn’t know that’s what he wanted.

both at first and till the end, he clung to his family as his place, but he was the second son, so he wasn’t truly needed. this led to some possible resentment of sirius, who was the heir and got that special place all to himself just by merit of being born first, but didn’t even want it; in fact, actively rejected it. this led, i think, to reg damaging himself to become the perfect son in every way: to be everything that sirius wasn’t. this meant his parents were happy with him bc he was perfect, but no matter what he did, no matter how hard he worked, no matter how perfect he was, he’d never have that place. not like sirius.

and then sirius got himself sorted into gryffindor and reg saw, fleetingly, a chance. now he was even more obviously the perfect son. he did everything right. but to his frustration, sirius went out and found himself ANOTHER place – another family – and reg still couldn’t even grab a place within his own because sirius still had it. so he burned and he burned, hoping to carve himself into what they wanted – hoping that he could rebuild a new him, a better him, from the ashes of his old self, and then maybe they would give him a place… a place in their hearts. in their minds.

i think regulus just really wanted to be loved; to be cared about. and that was a common problem throughout his life – mom and dad don’t care about me, all they care about is sirius; now they’re yelling at him and i hate it and i love it but they’re still not paying attention to me because i’m neither bad enough or good enough to not fade to the background (i am nothing, i am no one); sirius doesn’t care about me, clearly, because he left me, and yes, he asked if i wanted to come with, but i can’t and he knows i can’t because i have a duty to this family even if he decides to shirk his. i don’t have that luxury. i don’t have the ability to fit in wherever i go; to charm people’s faces off until they’d die for me. i could go with you, sirius, but i know i wouldn’t fit in where you’re going. i don’t entirely fit in here, either, but at least here, i’m not a stranger. it’s a case of bad thing vs worse thing.

and then came the death eaters. i don’t think regulus had any love for muggles/muggleborns, but i don’t think he hated them either. he just got so caught up in trying to be who his parents wanted him to be that he went and did what was expected of him. perhaps he would find somewhere to belong within this group of people like him – purebloods; people with lost or buried souls; even several members of his extended family. plus, i think he always had at least some interest in the dark arts and being a death eater would allow him to explore that.

but it wasn’t what he thought it would be. he was horrified when he found out what the dark lord was willing to do, because although regulus appears to be fairly neutral, he still has a line. horcruxes and horrific treatment of his house elf – one of the only creatures who really cared about him – definitely crossed that line. and then, suddenly, he once again found himself on the outside looking in. he now knew that he did not belong here, which made him a lone sheep in a pack of wolves, saved only by the wolf skin he drapes himself in. he knew he had to do something about this, but he had nowhere to go – his family still more or less supported voldemort, he had no true friends, and his brother hated him (or so he thought).

and so he walked straight to his death; and so he drowned.

i think that regulus also felt like nothing fairly often. all of his family had niches that they carved out for themselves (sirius as the spirited rebel with his heart beating proudly on his sleeve; his father standing tall and emotionless, always in control, a cold, solid wall of stoicism; his mother with her icy eyes and sharp tongue and terrifying beauty), but regulus? regulus was just the second son. he tried his best to be perfect, but perfection is not a personality trait; it just made him even more of a blank slate on which his mother could draw. at school, if he was anything, he was sirius’s younger brother. being a black gave him automatic reverence in some circles and contempt in others, but no matter how much it defined his identity, it never helped him find it. being a death eater felt right for his surname, but not for him. as much as he raved about the dark lord’s ideals (hoping that if he talked it up enough, he could convince himself), he always felt at least slightly out of place in that group. so he wasn’t really regulus the death eater and he wasn’t really regulus, perfect son and heir to the noble and most ancient house of black, but he wore both like masks because without them, he was just regulus. and just regulus was nothing to both himself and everyone else. and i think that’s why he was so willing to lay down his life to get rid of the horcrux – because he hoped that maybe if his death meant something, it would be enough to counteract being nothing all his life.