Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33625519-20180807184614/@comment-38631165-20190225011155

Hello to all of the PJO fandom. Here with you live (not really) to discuss what I may believe to be a pretty decent theory that I had developed in regards to “The Burning Maze.” This being said, this is likely to be a controversial one, as it has to do with relationships. Also, I need to make it clear that I don’t even necessarily like this theory, but I still found that it had an unnerving amount of evidence to support it. Before we get to this, I would like to provide a little bit of context and backstory to why I developed this theory to begin with. This theory has nothing to do with the overall plot of the story nor does it involve our main cast of characters. Rather it has to do with a once major character, now turned side character, Piper McLean. While I understand that of the Seven from the Heroes of Olympus, Piper and Jason are often viewed as the two worst of the characters. While I can say that I wasn’t a big fan of Jason’s character, Piper was a different story. I actually considered her my third favorite character within the Heroes of Olympus, behind only Percy and Annabeth (because of course those are my top two). I personally found Piper’s character very endearing. She was the caring, affectionate, and friendly voice of calming within the Seven. I personally was able to relate to being the insecure person who only seems to fix everyone else’s problem, but I can’t let that prevent me from being objective about my developed theory. When we see Piper in “The Burning Maze”, one can’t deny that her character is vastly different from the Piper we had previously known. She is much colder, apathetic, selfish, and bitter; all traits that were never really associated with Piper on the grand scale. Also, it seems as though many of the values that she once stood for within the Heroes of Olympus have been thrown out the window. The daughter of Aphrodite once believed in the true power of love and didn’t define herself based on the selfish idea of manipulation and infatuation that her mother and siblings attempted to instill in her. However, the new Piper is now going through an identity crisis that came out of nowhere and is apparently caught between a cultural rift. As an avid Piper fan, I can honestly say that I was not happy with this portrayal of her character. Identity was never a major struggle for her, insecurity was. She had established that she is not going to define herself by what others want to stereotype her as (be it a daughter of Aphrodite or a Cherokee). This being said, as an avid Piper fan, I am more than willing to admit that I might just be overzealous and grasping at straws that aren’t there. Maybe this is just my way of expressing my frustration with her new depiction and I simply read way too far between the lines in my attempt to find an answer to her character shift that would satisfy me. I won’t deny that possibility and maybe it is simply as Piper herself put it, “Things change. People change.” (123). Now that we have the backstory out of the way, let’s get to the punchline of the theory. Now, as this is likely to have most readers simply turn off their computers and form a lynch mob to come find me, please just hear me out before you do. So for the big theory as to why Piper’s character has shifted so much and the real reason why I believe that Piper broke up with Jason; Jason made a sexual move on Piper and she wasn’t prepared for it. Now that I have every Jason fan raging and screaming for blood, let’s see if my show of evidence can dissuade them from burning my house down. My initial take on this theory began shortly after Apollo and the gang pull Jason out of class. Jason takes everyone to his dorm to discuss the events of the book. When they get inside, Apollo takes notice of a very particular action of Piper’s. “Piper sat cross-legged on the floor, her back against the wall, as far as possible from the more comfortable sitting option of the bed.” (204). Had this scene described Piper trying to distance herself from Jason, I wouldn’t have batted an eye and just moved over it. After all, it tends to be awkward around your ex. However, this line seems to be putting the villainy and discomfort on the bed itself, not Jason. Why is it that a bed would be uncomfortable for someone to associate themself with? Is it possible that something happened on or around that bed that makes Piper want to distance herself from it? Now seeing as some could argue against it, let’s provide some additional support. The school Jason attends is an all male boarding school, where he has been living out of his dorm for the past several months (likely prior to when Piper broke up with him). Despite this, Apollo mentally calls out Piper for something that seems off. “Despite Piper’s insistence that she had distanced herself from Jason’s life, she had his schedule memorized.” (200). Now as Piper is female and was attending a different school than Jason, how or why would she memorize his school schedule? Well, given her charmspeaking abilities, it’s likely that she would sneak into his school so they could spend time together between or after his classes. This would also explain how she knows so much about Jason’s plans for renovating and building new temples in Camp Jupiter, as the plans, drawings, and models were all in his dorm room. So, we have established that Piper likely spent a great deal of time with Jason in his dorm room and that she is uncomfortable being on or near his bed. Some could argue that this is not definitive evidence that Jason made a move on Piper, and I would agree. However, let’s try and keep an open mind about this. So we have the place in which this action likely occurred. Well, the characters themselves declare their reason for breaking up, or do they? If you read through “The Burning Maze,” you will notice that the only one who discusses the reason for the breakup is Piper herself. Jason gives no reason, only declaring that “Piper ended it,” and neither does the Hedge family, who seem very familiar with their breakup (218). Piper declares that it was all on her and that it was her identity crisis that lead to her breaking up with Jason. As I stated before, this seems very out of character for her. As someone who was arguably the most emotionally in-tune out of the Seven, Piper doesn’t seem like the kind of person to have this kind of reaction or crisis. Hazel, who was literally raised in the forties, when segregation and prudent lifestyles were the norm, seems like a much more likely candidate for this kind of reaction and outburst. However, our theory is on Piper, so let’s refocus. Now, why would Piper openly tell us that she was the cause of the break up and why shouldn’t we simply accept that? As I’ve said before, she is acting very out of character through the whole book. As such, it is likely that she was lying or at least not telling the full truth. Why would she do that? Simple, she still loves Jason and doesn’t want others detesting him. To provide some more context on why she may have lied to cover up for Jason, let’s look at what would happen if she didn’t; insert Gleeson Hedge and Mellie. Early on, Mellie says “Most of you know we’ve been living with the McLeans,” so we know for a fact that she and Gleeson were raising their son in very close proximity to Piper (91). So, for the sake of this theory, let’s say that Jason made a move on Piper and she freaked out. Would it be so unreasonable to believe that she would have confessed what happened to Mellie and Gleeson? This would explain their disposition towards Jason when they meet Apollo much better than Jason simply keeping a secret. Along with that, this would explain why Jason doesn’t mind being labeled as the bad guy. “... Mellie seemed, ah, upset with you.”... “I’m okay with Mellie blaming me. It’s probably better.” (218). Now maybe this is simply him referring to the fact that he witheld information from Piper about one of them dying, but while I find this within his character, it seems out of character for Mellie and Gleeson to hold this so strongly against him, even if they only know that Jason is hiding something. One can’t deny that the amount of venom Mellie has towards Jason is rather harsh, even warranting the immediate attention of Apollo when she refers to him as “that boy”. “That boy. My finely tuned senses told me Mellie was not happy with Jason Grace, son of Jupiter.” (92). This would also explain why Mellie would be too heartbroken to return to the McLeans when Apollo, Grover, and Meg needed to go there; “I can’t take you. Going back… it would break my heart.” (93). Now, this could be explained away by the fact that the McLeans were now bankrupt and forced to move to Oklahoma and that would be heartbreaking. However, based on the neutral response that Piper gave about this taking place, it doesn’t seem like this was necessarily fazing her. Something however that would be heartbreaking for a teenager and would warrant an equal response from others is an unreciprocated advance. This being said, as Piper sees how Mellie and Gleeson reacted to what happened between her and Jason, she likely wanted to prevent other people from turning on Jason in the same way. Let’s also keep in mind that Piper’s fatal flaw is her own insecurity. This being said, an unwanted advance by a significant other would be devastating for someone who’s insecure, even within the realm of going as far as breaking up with them because of it. So is it possible that Jason, who knows that Piper loves physical affection, accidentally took it too far and Piper freaked as a result? Who knows, let’s keep digging. Perhaps the greatest hint that something major happened is simply Piper’s shift in character. Let’s face it, within this series, the characters remain fairly consistent in the way they behave. For someone to act out of character, especially in an aggressive manner, something has to have been a catalyst for it. For example, let’s look at Annabeth’s character back in “The Last Olympian.” She became increasingly aggressive with Percy and even went as far as to scream in his face that he’s a coward. This didn’t simply happen out of nowhere. She was upset with Percy for distancing himself from the prophecy and was also frustrated at the fact that he wasn’t accepting his own romantic feelings towards her, but was rather hiding from them. Annabeth had a motivation to lash out and it was justified. Piper’s identity crisis though, seems to have come out of nowhere. Yes, I do concede that she does lay the blame on her mother and Hera for making her relationship difficult and I agree with that. In all honesty, if she had broken up with Jason just for that and simply wanted to rebuild their foundation before getting back into a relationship, I could very well see that being within her character. In all honesty, I agree that her relationship with Jason wasn’t a very stable one as far as a foundation goes. What they were developing within the Heroes of Olympus seems more akin to a close friendship than a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. As such, I agreed with the decision to break them up, at least temporarily. However, this sudden identity crisis seems to have come out of left field. So now comes the question, what would have caused it? Again, Piper’s character seems very different and much colder than how she was portrayed in The Heroes of Olympus. Is it likely that this shift may have resulted from Jason making a move on her? It would make sense. If Jason made a move before she was ready, she would have likely panicked and broken things off with Jason without thinking. Following this, it is then that her beginning a journey of self discovery would make sense. Also, this would explain her general character shift. After a severe moment of vulnerability, it is likely that she would lock up and become more reclusive, only reaching out when there was a clear and present threat (i.e. her dreams about the burning maze). This would also explain why she becomes snappy with the other characters when they try and figure out why she broke up with Jason. Her guard is up and she has already come up with a story to cover it up. She also seems to have taken on a much more passive role than what she is normally described as, once again warranting the attention of Apollo when she discusses how she and her father would have to move to Tahlequah. “ I didn’t like the way Piper said home, as if she’d already accepted that she would live the rest of her life in Oklahoma.” (126). The Piper that we knew in the previous series would have done everything in her power and fought tooth and nail to stay in California. She would have used her charmspeaking to help her and her father. However, if Jason had made a move on her, it does seem possible that Piper wanted to distance herself from Jason so that she could come to terms with her own insecurity. Even when she was face to face with Jason when the whole group was in his dorm room, she still seemed to distance herself from him, often speaking in short lines and keeping “her tone carefully neutral.” (205). This once again seems out of character, as Piper was often very expressive, even going as far as having a fairly large number of readers hating her for “being too whiny.” This one-eighty in personality seems to be an answer those readers wanted, but there is no explanation for it. While she has a history of trying to keep herself calm, she only really did this when there was a clear and present threat (i.e. when she battled Khione and the Boreads by herself on the Argo II). Based on that character trait, does this mean that she viewed Jason as a threat? I don’t believe that. Rather, I believe that her own emotional outburst towards Jason would have been the threat, as the remaining characters would just as quickly have turned on Jason as the Hedge family did. Again, she still loves the boy and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him, hence her extremely in character and emotional outburst following Jason’s death. As such, she was likely staying calm for his sake. With all of this talk about Piper’s character change, there are some points in the story where she does seem to be back in character. For example, her reaction to Leo being alive and her comforting Meg about her past are well within character. Another point where she seems back in character is when she “cradled Baby Chuck…” (188). This motherly role is very much like the Piper we knew back in The Heroes of Olympus. Now keep your pants on for this one, because even I have to confess that this particular bit of the theory seems a bit thin. Is it possible that why she is spending so much time with Baby Chuck is because of a motherly instinct kicking in as a result of her identity crisis? Bear with me here. Let’s say that Jason’s move on Piper may not necessarily have been physical in nature, but rather in the form of a declaration or request. Is it possible that Jason had suggested the idea of having children with Piper and that was what caused this whole incident? Maybe he got caught up in an intimate moment with her and dropped the suggestion without thinking. With all of the hits he’s taken to the head, maybe this is the case. That would explain this journey of self discovery that Piper is going on and along the way, she has found herself not entirely opposed to the idea of having her own children. Before we come back to that idea, let’s look at something that is much more subtle. This actually has nothing to do with the characters themselves, but rather an overarching theme within the story and the creatures that are introduced in this book. However, let’s give some context. Within the Trials of Apollo, there is always a new major type of monster that is introduced. For the first book, it was the myrmekes. For the second, the blemmyae. Each new monster seems to have a connection with a theme within its given book. The myrmekes are a misunderstood race that are alienated despite their very sophisticated nature, just like Apollo was alienated by the demigods and how he in turn had alienated them, even his own children. The blemmyae seem to be a metaphor for the short sighted and simple minded nature of Apollo and all of the characters within the story. So our major themes here are prejudice/alienation and short sightedness. Well, within “The Burning Maze”, the new monsters introduced are the pandae, a race of fuzzy humanoids with eight digits and massive ears that can hear so clearly that they can tell when a person is lying just by micro volumes of their voice. The major theme that they carry is secrets. Several times, their desire to know secrets is used against them. The ill fated Crest secretly wants to be a musician. Overall, secrets are the major theme they represent. This is also apparent with the characters themselves. Piper and Jason are at odds because of the secrets that Jason is keeping from Piper. However, even Apollo noted how Piper and Jason “may not be telling each other [and him] the whole truth” when Piper explains why she broke up with Jason and the events regarding the maze. Is it possible that one of these secrets being kept is that Jason made a move on Piper and she wasn’t ready for it? Again, it seems likely. After all, an event like that is not easy to discuss and would likely result in very secretive behavior. Now back to the whole part revolving around Jason. I understand that this theory seems to be demonizing Jason, but that is not the intent. So here is my attempt to rationalize and defend why he possibly made this move. Again, some context needs to be made. Jason has lived his whole life as a soldier. Despite this, he has had a relatively calm upbringing aside from the two wars and his toddler years. He’s now sixteen and has just finished with a second war and let’s face it, teenagers will be teenagers. Hormones are raging at this time. This would be even more likely the case for Jason who seems to constantly even be in life or death situations. This would likely tip the scale of rational behavior and drive him to try and find some solace. Enter Piper McLean. Easily his best friend at this point, Piper is the one constant thing for Jason at this time, so of course he would latch onto her and her to him. Who’s to say that maybe this went too far and once again, he got caught up in the moment and pushed Piper too far? To add some further context, it is more than well established that demigods have very dangerous lives. This is constantly stated throughout the series and is made most apparent with Percy’s shock with New Rome. He had never considered that he could actually survive into adulthood. Given how similar Jason is written to Percy, who’s to say Jason hadn’t considered this and was aware that he was approaching that big hill of adulthood? He knew that his time was coming close to an end even prior to the Sybil telling him, or at least he expected it. In that state of panic, he knew that the odds of him living a long life were very small. So once again, he has reason to want to try and live a fulfilling life. Well, a part of that life, based on his own mind, was to see the grandchildren of him and Piper, and tell them about their adventures. Given that he is faced with the realization of longevity not being an option, perhaps he jumped the gun and told Piper this and she didn’t take it well. In the grand scheme of things, it makes sense. It would give Jason a clear motivation and it gives Piper a well established and developed reason for behaving the way she does in the Burning Maze. Let’s make this clear, I am not demonizing either of these two characters. Quite the contrary. If this was actually proven to be canon, I would actually have a newfound respect for Jason because this kind of situation humanizes him. The same for Piper. Her reaction would be justified and it simply makes her human. Misunderstandings and circumstances can change a great deal within people and oftentimes, people break up because of misunderstandings. Again, I am not saying that this is fact. I am saying that this theory does hold up to scrutiny. Also, let’s not forget that Rick Riordan has been addressing more mature topics as his books have continued. He has addressed race relations, cultural conflicts, LGBT, and domestic violence to name a few. It doesn’t seem too out of place to address this kind of topic. When we also consider the fact that Uncle Rick has a habit of dangling the truth right in front of us, the evidence and reasonings given do seem more likely. So that is the whole theory. Jason, in a state of panic of knowing the potential of his own death and of Piper’s, made a move on Piper or made a case of having a child with Piper before she was ready. In her state of panic as a result of this, she broke up with Jason and told the Hedge family about this before she managed to process it fully. Once she had calmed down, she began to have this crisis about who she is, not necessarily in the cultural sense, but as a person herself and as to whether her mom was influencing Jason’s decision. However, because this is still a sensitive topic, she has become much more guarded and apathetic than she would be otherwise, despite her love for Jason. This was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back when you consider her worries about her mother and Hera screwing up her life. We can’t deny that with everything shown, this does seem like a possibility. I will live at just that however, a possibility. I absolutely love the Percy Jackson universe and the world that Rick Riordan has created. This is by no means an attempt to attack him or the characters within his story. This was simply my attempt, as a fan, to put together the backwards behavior of one of my favorite characters. I don’t know. Maybe I am just someone who went looking too far. Maybe I’m just upset with how Piper has been behaving. Maybe I should just take her words at face value accept the fact that she has changed because of the reasons she gave. While I may not be happy with that idea, I will respect Rick’s decision to go down this route if that is the case. Well, if you managed to get through all of this, you have my appreciation. Please don’t come chasing after me with torches and pitchforks. However, if you have opposing views, do please share them. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t necessarily like this theory. In fact, it actually depresses me quite a bit. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, be it real life or a story. But in the end, I do believe that this kind of event would offer a new light to the events of the Piper and Jason subplot.