RIPRED WITH A GUN

So we all know Percy is powerful as shit, there's no doubt in that. But I think I may have thought of a few more (theoretical) applications of his abilities. These ones aren't insanely broken (except one I had to give up on cause I couldn't find a way to make it work), but they're still pretty good.

Percy can control liquids with water in them. We learned this in Tartarus when he drowned Akhlys in her own poison. So in theory, he can bloodbend, right? But this is actually incredibly good in a defensive sense. Since he can control blood, including his own, he can use his powers to (theoretically) negate blood loss and keep his blood inside his own body, keeping him in the fight for much longer. Hell, this circumvents internal bleeding when you think about it.

Speaking of bloodbending, in the same Avatar episode that that idea is introduced to us, we learn that water can be taken from plants, as well as animals (although that is harder as far as I know). Okay, so Percy can take water out of plants, cool. But what about the atmosphere? Sure, the amount of water in the atmosphere varies wildly depending on location, season, etc. But the point still stands. In theory, Percy can pull water out of his surroundings and use it to heal himself, further improving his durability, and giving him an overall stat boost, as he just performs better in water in general.

Imagine fighting Percy, thinking you've got him beat, when all of a sudden he pulls out a Dragon Ball-esque transformation and surrounds himself in a thin coat of the water from not just the atmosphere, but his sweat, your blood, hell, YOUR sweat, and any other possible sources of water nearby. Bloody terrifying. Especially when you consider Percy killing -> Percy receiving access to blood -> Percy getting stronger -> Percy killing more, basically creating an infinite cycle of steadily increasing strength (providing his enemy has blood, naturally).

So yeah. Percy, using his abilities correctly, isn't just insanely strong, but pretty damn durable too. I did have another idea about him controlling brain fluids/breathing in oxygen through water to circumvent brain death, but that kinda fell through because brain fluids aren't really related to brain death and you need lungs to, you know, breath, which would circumvent the decapitation scenario I was thinking of, and Percy can't breathe through osmosis (as far as we know). So that idea is a bust.

...Unless Jason could manipulate oxygen into his bloodstream, using his abilities to circumvent brain death instead...

juuuuuust in case

i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again

these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled

doomed lovers? tragic, sure. but doomed siblings? the same blood is running through our veins, but the differences between us feel insurmountable. i love you. i hate you. sometimes i think i would’ve died without you. you drive me insane. i would take a bullet for you. i’d kill someone for you. i know you better than myself. i feel like i don’t know you at all. our parents failed us. you left me. i left you. you taught me how to love. you taught me how to be loved. i’m sorry. i miss you. i never want to see you again. i only ever wanted you to stay.

Percy: Yeah, I'm arguably one of, if not THE, strongest demigo-

Some random fucking Hermes kid from 2,000 years ago:

Ya think Collins killed Prim just cause TUC didn't sell well enough and she decided that the MC's sister needed to die for the series to sell well?

I may or may not be a sociopath.

The warp is a strange and uncontrollable thing, my friend

wait a minute

WAIT A MINUTE

I might have seen this said before, on a different post, but I couldn't find it, so I'm just gonna say a few words on this, partially because of that and partially because it's been ages since I've last read the series, despite it being ingrained into my head.

Almost all of the characters in TUC have moments where they are genuine assholes. Gregor has a few points where he says some genuinely disrespectful shit. Luxa, as well as most of the other humans (including Gregor, although arguably to a lesser extent), are deeply prejudiced against the gnawers. Ripred, is, well, Ripred (look, I love him, we all do, but he's a dick).

Even Vikus, arguably one of the nicest characters in the series, admires Sandwich (I think, been a while), a man who literally used poison to commit genocide in the name of stealing land that didn't belong to him.

The only characters I can think of in TUC that don't have flaws are the ones who also have the least lines: Aurora, Dulcet, Miravet. Oh, and all of those characters? Probably also prejudiced against gnawers, just never explicitly stated (to my knowledge), probably due to their obscene lack of lines. Of course there are characters like Lizzie and Hazard, who are literal fucking children so as nice as they are, I think it's safe to say they can't really be counted up here. (Should probably also mention that Gregor and Luxa are also children, just ones that were forced to grow up faster, sadly).

Then again, all of these characters have redeeming qualities. Gregor can be disrespectful at times, but that's mainly because of the stress placed upon him by the various bullshit situations he has to go through, and he usually apologizes after. Luxa and all the humans are deeply prejudiced (actually, I should probably add the fliers might be in that category too), but they are basically raised from birth to hate and kill gnawers, and vice versa. plus, it's shown that despite what is practically being brainwashed from birth, they can grow and change to overcome their own bigotry and accept gnawers as genuine people, as well as friends.

And yes, Ripred, the glorious bastard himself, is a dick. But he's also a war veteran who's lost his family, and most of the respect from his people, meaning he mainly works with humans, who tend to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility (until they get to know him). And he makes up for it by letting his guard down at times to be a father to the traumatized pups that dragged him into their pack.

Point is, flawed characters are one of the things that make TUC so great. They're not few and hid away either, they're everywhere, with visible flaws. If you want to make a good character, TUC is a great series to use as an example. Everything casts a shadow, just like every character has a flaw. If they don't, you probably just can't see them from your angle. And if they don't? Like, at all? Give them some, just make sure the shadow they cast matches up with the object itself.

Reject fluff, return to everyone-in-the-Overland-knowing-Gregor-has-issues-because-of-his-dad's-disappearance-and-being-forced-to-take-care-of-his-younger-siblings-and-grandmother-out-of-necessity-and-his-friends-and-teachers-and-Mrs-Cormaci-watching-his-mental-health-get-worse-and-worse-to-the-point-where-he's-like-the-boogeyman-of-his-school-but-he-refuses-to-talk-about-it-because-he-knows-they'll-think-he's-insane-if-he-tells-them-the-truth-so-it's-like-a-tragedy-as-this-previously-bright-and-happy-kid-who-loved-playing-his-saxophone-and-being-on-the-track-team-spirals-into-a-hollow-wreck-of-a-teen angst.

He's pan

good evening! ripred the gnawer is trans

Y'all ever think about how fucked up it was that Nevee was executed, but Solovet was put under house arrest?

It's fucked up, but it fits in with the repeated theme of scapegoats in TUC. Gregor, Nevee, and even the Bane are all arguably scapegoats and political pawns for the people pulling the strings (Sandwich, Solovet, Twirltounge), who are used and thrown under the bus when no longer of any use or when they need a scapegoat. None of them really seemed to understand what they were doing or who they were fighting for. Gregor didn't know about the whole "killer" thing until book 4, Nevee was just following orders, and the Bane was basically an insane 1 year old. Sure, some people might care about these guys, but at the end of the day, they're just tools to the people in charge. Even Luxa and Ripred aren't above just assuming Gregor will side with them because "they're right and the other guys are wrong". And I've probably missed half of the pawns in this series.