Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26468287-20150614010051/@comment-25044056-20150620021701

I don't hate Piper McClain but there are some issues with how her character is developed over the course of the series. To be fair the only book where Piper McClain seems like an outright Mary Sue is Blood of Olympus, and none the characters in that book were well written so maybe it's wrong to single her out for ridicule.

But even if you throw out the Blood of Olympus Piper's devolution is still evident in the earlier books. A landmark moment in her devolution is the Deus Ex Machina scene where Piper charmspeaks Festus, yes she charmspeaks a frikking machine! Even Leo Valdez admitted that should be impossible. Until House of Hades Piper's charmspeak powers were unpredictable. Rick Riordan made a choice that instead of Piper developing a new skill or improving her fighting skills to compensate Piper's charmspeak would simply become more powerful and she'd learn how to control it.

A more fundamental problem is that Piper McClain's character becomes less complex in each book she appears in. In the beginning I loved how much flawed Piper McClain was, I loved her ugly streak of self loathing her horrible need for her dad's attention. But once Piper McClain matured and became more confident then I stopped liking her as much. No new flaws surfaced so Piper was just perfect.

Even having said all that I still don't hate Piper and I think there might be some hope for her. There three things I think RR could do to improve Piper's character.

break up Piper and Jason:

have Piper's charmspeak corrupt her

have Piper lose her charmspeak and cope with the loss