Board Thread:The Trials of Apollo/@comment-24098124-20190903205130/@comment-30566621-20190927080001

Annabeth and Percy wrote: I thought she was as well. For the most part, good, but when she started laughing at Apollo? That was cruel. There is nothing worse than to have someone laugh in your face. Her doing that, it was like, "How could you ever think a girl like me would ever go out with a guy like you?"

What the hell? Especially since her rejections were much more, for the most part, respectful. Was it really that out of character though? She'd just been through a hellish few days of fighting where she almost definitely had to use her power as Bellona's daughter to empower the legion, only to immediately be smacked in the face by the death of Jason Grace (one of her best friends), the whole time still having to deal with Venus' prophecy and having just had a conversation about it and how people kept trying to "fix" her...and here is Lester, the former narcissistic tryst-minded god Apollo, ignoring the fact that she's been just telling him she doesn't want or need romantic help not on her own terms . . . and trying to suggest that he's the one. He literally set himself up for the biggest letdown, from the timing all the way down to the phrasing. No wonder she broke down and laughed. She didn't need or want his help or his romantic attention, and he still ignored the obvious cues and offered it anyways. It was, in my opinion, fully in character and fully sensible for the ludicrous situation to break through her walls and make her have a moment of true unbridled mirth.

Honestly the part that I found most out of character was the fact that Reyna joining the Hunt felt almost rushed, seeing as the last time there was any real hint about her even thinking that way was all the way back in Blood of Olympus. It did feel a bit forced as a way for her to fulfill Venus' prophecy (though we know from The Dark Prophecy that Hunters can, in rare occasions, leave the Hunt to pursue romantic relationships), though I am at the same time fine with it as a way for Reyna's chapter in the story to come more or less to a conclusion. (Perhaps the Hunters will show up in Tower of Nero but unless Riordan is trying to already kill off the old set, I doubt Reyna or Thalia will have a more definitive end given to them than as Hunters.) I think what would have made it sit a little smoother for me would have been a chapter or two with conversations between Reyna and Thalia, Hazel, and/or Lester, about her decision, so that it wasn't so out of the blue.

Beyond that, I really didn't feel like Reyna strayed out of character. Her laughing at Apollo felt right, in a way. It fit into the story.