Leo Valdez Hc - Tumblr Posts
Thinking about names having power in the Riordanverse- because it’s exactly the kind of literature motif that I LOVE.
Thinking about “Leo” being short for “Leonidas” who was a Spartan King who sacrificed his life fighting to save his people in the Battle of Thermopylae.
Leo, similarly, gave his own life to stop Gaea and save the world.
That comparison has already been made before, but there’s more-
Leo rejects the name “Leonidas” and chooses to go by “Leo”- in a way, rejecting the fate he’s assigned to. And he doesn’t suffer that fate in the end. He lives.
Yeah, names have power. But what you choose to name yourself has even more power. For example, the fact that Thalia rejected the last name “Grace” because it associated her with her mother, but then taking it back up again when she found out Jason was alive. And Leo chose to not go by “Leonidas” and he also chose to take the physician’s cure and come back.
And here we get onto what Calypso’s doing. By calling him something that he asked to not be called, she is taking away that agency of choice. She is taking away that power.
It’s a small moment, but it REALLY bugs me. Because, like Leo, I go by a shortened version of a longer name, and often one of the ways bullies used to hold power over me was by calling me by my full name repeatedly, even after I asked them to stop. It’s also a way a lot of transphobes hold power over trans people- by deadnaming. By taking away the power of their name, their choice, their identity, who they are, who they’ve built themselves to be, and their right to control all of that.
Now, I’m NOT saying Calypso is going as far as deadnaming Leo, but it’s a similar premise. It’s a manipulation tactic used to knock people down.
Now friendly nicknames -e.g. “Seaweed Brain”- are different, because Percy consents to it. It’s a term of affection between them (and notice how it’s different when Thalia used it. It’s a name that symbolises percabeth’s love, and it’s a name only Annabeth can use). But this is a name, while said in a jokey, banter-y manner, that Leo has SPECIFICALLY ASKED to not be called. And she does it anyway, ignoring the boundary he’s set, ignoring his choice to shape his own identity, ignoring everything that symbolised INCLUDING the fact that it’s literally Leo saying “I choose life” by rejecting the name that fated him to death. It’s just a big red flag for me. And if you put that on top of the fact that she also physically hurt him in this (enough to make him say “ow”) then you just get a whole host of Reasons Why This is NOT Leo’s “Happy Ending”- which the narrative paints it out to be.
wHY MUST YOU MAKE ME CRY 😭
Sons of Jupiter do not cry.
They’re strong, powerful leaders. Tough soldiers, fearsome, lords of lightning. Crying shows weakness. It shows vulnerability. Something a child of the king of the gods could not afford to do.
Jason hadn’t cried in front of others since he was three. He’d had that beaten out of him by Lupa and her wolves. People looked up to him as their Praetor, their ideal Roman warrior. He had to always stay strong, always be vigilant, never show weakness.
The only time they’d seen the Son of Jupiter cry was the moment he lost Leo.
He screamed His name, his voice filled with utter sorrow as the explosion lit the sky. He fell to his knees, sobbing. Head in hands and just fucking sobbing. All sense of dignity was shattered, as he lay there, his knees in the wet grass, crumpled and crying like an infant. All his expectations, all the visages of the Prince of the Sky were lost alongside Him. He just bawled and bawled. No comfort could resolve him. He just stayed there, crying. A broken man.