Percy Jackson Book Club discussion

Sorry about the title but I HAD TO!!
Shoutout to Charlie for the idea.

TRIGGER WARNING:
talks of h0m0ph0bia and WW2

Introduction
Nico was born in the 1930's in Italy. He was born to Hades and Maria di Angelo and he is Bianca di Angelo's little brother.
I will not give insight of his and Bianca's relationship as I have already done a deep dive on that (press here to read it), instead I will focus of Nico's development throughout the first 5 Percy Jackson books (and because I accidentally spoiled myself, on his love life from what I can tell from memes). Great, let's turn the emo music (sorry, again) up and deep dive into our favourite alive Italian (sorry, Bianca).

Early Childhood

Nico was born somewhere in the 1930's in Italy and relocated to the US due to the Second World War. It is important to know that Italy was, at that moment, under a dictatorship and joined the Axis Powers (Rome-Berlin-Tokyo) and it became a war zone. Italy was also in poverty at the time and many Italians decided to flee the country in the 1930's-1940's. Nico di Angelo, his mother and his sister were also part of the immigrants.
Eventually, they migrated to the US and there his mother was killed by Zeus.

The Lotus Hotel
Hades got his kids in the Lotus hotel which prevented them from aging, which was great because the 1950's weren't great for Italian immigrants, let alone orphaned ones. There he stayed with his sister Bianca, until Hades wanted to get them (Bianca, especially) in the prophecy, for whatever reason. I suppose he thought "WHY DO MY BROTHERS BOTH HAVE KIDS WHO CAN FULFILL THE PROPHECY?? YEAH, WELL I'VE GOT TWO! LET'S SEE WHO'S THE COOLEST NOW???"
I digress, he had a great time with his sister there as they would play and have a "lawyer" visit them once in a while.

Boarding school and Bianca joining Artemis
The "lawyer" sent them to a boarding school in Maine where they meet the Trio and Thalia. His sister then joined Artemis and her hunters, which obviously made him hurt, but looking through Bianca's lens, she wasn't ready to be his mother, she was only two years older. She also went on a quest where she eventually died, trying to obtain a Mythomagic figurine for him. *sheds a tear*

Dealing with Grief
Nico gets mad that Percy failed to keep his sister alive and seemingly disappears. In the time away from CHB (where he wasn't welcome anyway since he didn't have a cabin), he was learning how to master his powers and bring his sister back with the help of Happy Meals. He managed to get his closure with her and eventually had to move forward. He started living with his father and Persephone in the Underworld. Though her and Nico dislike each other, they do try to be nice, so, that's great.

I spoiled myself, but now some things make sense. Anyway, let's talk about Nico and Will
So, Nico is gay. Which, in hindsight, makes sense. I do not know how he came out, why he came out, nor when him and Will have started dating, because I did not reach that in the books yet.
However, due to history and what I know from the earlier books, it makes total sense as to why we only found out in the later books (or through memes, if you're me) that he is gay.
That is because he grew up in the 1930's Italy where, as I mentioned above, there was a dictatorship and that was considered abnormal. He obviously grew up feeling like the odd one out and when the only person who cared for him (Bianca) was gone, he felt even more different than the rest. He somehow starts dating Will Solace and people compare them to Percabeth, but as I said previously - I don't know yet.

Conclusion
Nico had a tough life and is definitely a complex character who has a look of overlooked trauma.


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Tomorrow I'll deep dive into Clarisse (suggested by Isabelle) and the day after that the bond between the og trio that ended up very very bad (aka Thalia, Luke and Annabeth) (suggested by Noah)

do u guys have anything to add or say??? i love reading ur comments:))

this is a great one! I know you haven't read the rest of HoO (I'm only on book 3) but once you do, I'd love for you to talk about the relationship between Nico and Hazel <3

I love how put research into Italian history as well

@lowri, I definitely will:) after I get used to the school schedule and having to coordinate the school magazine team again, I'll buy the second and third book and try to catch up:)
We actually just studied Italy and Romania in WW2 in June (they have a lot of similarities as they both turned out to betray their allies in order to unify their countries with the land stolen from Austro-Hungarian Empire) so I had to dig up my notes, but I was so thrilled when I wrote this.

ooo that's an interesting topic!

i hav so many things to say:

nico is no doubt the strongest demigod. percy literally couldn’t have made it through tartarus without him. he is literally the one who got percy INTO tartarus even AFTER what happened with bianca. his little mcdonald’s quirk was so clever lol. i love nico and he’s my fave character.

ALSO TWO FUN FACTS:
i’ve been to romania nd i’m saving up to study abroad in italy (or australia i can’t decide yet lol)

omggg i am always so proud when people visit romania since we don’t have many tourists!!! did you like it??? and what cities did you visit?

omg i loved it!! i was in bucharest i think its called. IVE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH GREEEEEN!!!!!

Ohh! That's the capital!! We have many parks there!! My favourite part is The Old Town or Victory's Avenue. Revolution Square is also an interesting place to visit

i also got to visit some gypsy villages!! i went with my church!!

that’s so cool!! mostly everyone here’s religious (christian orthodox) and we have many beautiful churches and monasteries. sadly, during the communist regime many were demolished by the dictator nicolae ceausescu. one even had a curse on it saying that the one who will destroy the church will die on a holy day. and he was assassinat3d on christmas day, 1989.

Omg I really wanna visit Romania!!! I think I’ve wanted to visit since I was like 5, because I think they talked about Romania in Harry Potter😂🪄🧙‍♂️
It feels like it’s peaceful in there😌

it is!! and we are always so excited when we have tourists!! i recommend visiting sibiu, brașov, ocnele mari (but stay in râmnicu vâlcea), bucharest and cluj. and if you’re religious, i recommend hunedoara where a priest with the gift of prophecy

lived

<33

that’s crazyyyy
but yeah we went there and i got to read and teach the bible to some people it was great!!! i went to a BEAUTIFULLLLLLLL church it was GORGEOUS

i’m so glad you enjoyed your stay<33

Thank you for all the research into itailian history, it adds so much to know that was going on when Nico was born/there!

it also adds depth to his coming out!!

Yeah!!

**cries**
I love my little emo gay cinnamonroll

y'all nico was actually my first book crush
i was so heartbroken when rick riordan revealed he was gay 😭😭😭

@asha LOLLLLLL

@asha no cause fr

yeah 4th grade me thought the world was ending

honestly even tho nico is gay i still fantasize abt him bc…. IM JUST A GIRL IN THE WORLD 🎀🤗

What book has the most of Nico and Will cause I just finished Blood of Olympus but ik there is more but I don’t know which book (PLS NO SPOILERS THO 🙏🙏)

Isabelle wrote: "What book has the most of Nico and Will cause I just finished Blood of Olympus but ik there is more but I don’t know which book (PLS NO SPOILERS THO 🙏🙏)"

There is an entire book about them called The Sun and the Star

Is that one part of a series?

It's a stand alone

It's a stand alone but I say we blackmail Rick until he makes it a series

Omg I really wanna visit Romania!!! I think I’ve wanted to visit since I was like 5, because I think they talked about Romania in Harry Potter😂🪄🧙‍♂️
It feels like it’s peaceful in there😌

Yeah, it is mentioned in HP, Charlie lives there and cares for dragons.

@Lauren, it is peaceful here (well, with some exceptions).
Sadly, I have never met a dragon (yet), but I am always on the lookout haha.
On a serious note, our food is amazing

Wow! Now I want to go! Is it worth it?

Yes, and it is way cheaper than other countries! Bucharest is known as the Little Paris because of its architecture, however that is an understatement! As an history geek, Bucharest showcases all the influences my country has had throughout the history. But the seaside is gorgeous and full of history, too. It actually used to be Tomis because of the Greek Myth of the Golden Fleece as the head of Medea's brother reached our land.
Sibiu is another gorgeous city, the mountains are breath taking! If you're into vampires you may want to stop by at Castle Bran and learn about Vlad the Impaler.
Cluj, Oradea, and Timisoara are beautiful, too.
Honestly, everywhere it's beautiful.
Bucharest is quite loud, but there are still remote areas in it where you can chill.

I’ve wanted to visit Romania for a while now (it looks gorgeous in photos and the architecture is absolutely stunning) but now I REALLY want to go, honestly

This makes me so happy! Ive always wanted to see tourists here, we have so much history and we are welcoming