Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1820614-20150509232606

In Mark of Athena, was Hercules intended be be portrayed as sympathetic to readers or someone readers are intended to not like? On one hand, he did give the demigods a hard quest upon hearing they were working for Hera designed to make Alchelous miserable and planned to kill all of them if they failed or refused. On the other, as pointed out as far as demigod lives go he has gotten the worst of the Olympians despite his status as a son of Zeus. Endless persecution from Hera, the completion of one impossible quest after another, and upon death made to spend thousands of years pretty much alone on an island with nothing to do except reflect on the pain of his mortal life...pain he claims he can never forget. And as some final joke Achelous is on the same island with him. Achelous himself admitted what happened to Hercules and  Deianira was wrong and Hera was never punished for it. Hercules was instead.

So, despite the seven thinking Hercules as an unsympathetic jerk I feel sorry for the guy since he has had it worse than pretty much any other demigod in the series despite being the most famous and possibly the most powerful hero to have ever lived. Which do you think he was intended to be? Why do you think Riordan went with the portrayal he did? 