Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3542839-20140227002012/@comment-5471249-20140712174041

Kralos wrote:

But with Nico, he always had help in his feats (except for Tartarus). When fighting the Keres, of course he would do good, because he was fighting creature of the Underworld, which he does the best. He got defeated by Iapetus pretty quickly, actually, even though Iapetus was still weak. In the Battle of Manhattan, he had the help of 3 gods, a bunch of demigods, 2 awesome mortals, a bunch of hunters and party ponies, and hundreds of dead soldiers. Percy's parents fought in the same portion of battle as Nico did, and they came out unscathed, so it's no wonder a child of the Big Three would do so as well. Again in the House of Hades, he had the help of numerous dead soldiers, a guy with the Blessing of Mars, a demigod causing chaos in the enemy's ranks, and a son of Jupiter. And now, Kralos, we shall look at Nico di Angelo.

1) Surviving Tartarus... I noticed how you carefully avoided Nico´s greatest feat of all: surviving alone in Tartarus, while seeing that ineffably terrifying place for what it truly is for the entire time (considering that only seeing that for a few seconds was maddening for Percy!!)... This implies an indomitable will and unbreakable spirit on Nico´s part.  As I have said before, that is, quite possibly, the greatest single feat ever achieved by any demigod in both series. However, since you chose to avoid this feat alltogether, we shall examine all of the others in great detail!

2) The Keres...Did you read the short dialogue that Nico has with the Keres before fighting them? While he, as a son of Hades, would normally have divine authority over them, the Keres completelly disregard his orders now, since they have altered their loyalties from Hades to Iapetus (needless to say, that was a horrible choice!). You do not seem to understand Nico´s powers. Allow me to enlighten you: while he (like any other child of Hades) does possess the ability to destroy Skeleton warriors by stabbing them (which causes the warriors to erupt in black hellfire). Nico has displayed no special powers in destroying monsters, even those native to the Underword. Since these Keres used to be loyal to to his father, and attacked him first (!) without fear, this indicates that Nico has no special powers when it comes to destroying them (or the Keres would have been much more frightened, and thought twice before attacking him FIRST!!). Nico´s only advantage when it comes to fighting monsters is his Stygian Iron sword, which "absorbes their essense like a vacuum cleaner." That, however, is not a big advantage, especially if one lacks good combat skills, which Nico, obviously, had. Also, it is Percy (who is more experienced in combat) that gets wounded by the Keres, while Nico manages to survived unscathed. Case made.

3) The Titan Iapetus...Well, yes, while Nico does get defeated relativelly quckly, so do Percy and Thalia (who are both more experienced warriors, especially Thalia)! Why, Percy was only able to overcome him by tricking Iapetus and pulling him into the River Lethe! I am absolutelly certain that Annabeth would have been defeated even quicker than Nico in this case, and, like Percy, would try to find a way to pull Iapetus into the Lethe... Case made.

4) The Battle of Manhattan... Well, yes, Nico did indeed have the aid of many demigods, 2 "awesome" mortals, many Huntresses, as well as the "Party Pony" Centaurs. HOWEVER, that is exactly where your argument is flawed, since Annabeth had all of that aid as well! And, Annabeth ended up getting wounded rather quickly by Nakamura (who was an inferior swordsman to Percy). Shortly thereafter, Percy mentions that Annabeth almost got freezed by a Hyperborean giant, but was pulled away by Grover just in time, after which Thalia charged the giant herself. UNIMPRESSIVE... Nico, however, survived a more intense portion of the battle completelly unscathed. Furthermore, Nico did not stay within the safe zone of his father´s charriot and Helm or hide behind the backs of his mighty Skeleton warriors. Rather, Nico bravely charged at Kronos´s forces, "slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect the pedestrians as best he could." The fact that Nico was able to overcome countless monsters, AND protect many pedestrians from them at the same time, AND survive the entire ordeal unscathed... Well, truth be told, Nico is an incredible swordsman and warrior, since after the battle, Percy noted that nearly all other demigods patted him on the back, complimenting him on his fighting, even the Ares demigods (and we all know how hard to please THEY are)!! As for Percy´s parents... well, while Paul´s swordsmanship skills were quite good, he was only able to fight a single Dracaena at once, while a demigod of Percy, Thalia, and Nico´s caliber has no problem charging many monsters at once... As for Percy´s mother Sally... well, she just so happened to pick up a shotgun, and just so happened to shoot it a Laistrygonian giant (since she, admittedly, never knew how to fire a shotgun before), which just so happened to knock it back right into Nico´s sword... I call that incredible luck, at its best. Surely these two mortals with no extraordinary skills could not survive the rest of the intense battle?! Well, here is my reason---right at that moment Percy leaves (to pursue Kronos), so it is implied that Nico fought his way towards Percy´s parents (as he was doing initially), and helped protect them for the remainder of the battle (as he already shown himself to be quite good at that!), since when Percy later looks into Kronos´smoke image, he sees the 3 of them "ringed in enemies." Case made.

5) The Battle of the House of Hades... well, yes, while Nico did have help during this extremely intense battle, his performance was more impressive than anybody else´s, even Frank´s (in spite of him being the most powerful son of the war god!!) and Jason´s. In fact, it should be noted that Frank ended up getting wounded during this battle (and only began fighting impressively well AFTER he receives the Blessing of Mars!!), while Nico survived the entire ordeal unscathed, even though he only fought with one arm (!), since his other was busy holding up the Scepter of Diocletian. And even with one arm, Nico shows himself as a very formiddable opponent: he was able to easily wade through an entire group of superhumanly strong Earthborn giants, slashing them into mounds of wet clay. As for Jason... well, in The Son of Neptune, Hazel states that Nico is a more dangerous, powerful and skilled demigod than ANY Roman demigod at Camp Jupiter, even Jason Grace. Also, in The House of Hades, even Jason himself admits this, and is openly frightened of Nico di Angelo (even though the latter is still thin, sickly, and weakened after Tartarus). This implies that Nico´s performance in this battle was more impressive than Jason´s who´s only big feat is being able to blow some of the enemy´s projectiles back at them. '''Case made. '''

'''Overall---Kralos, I regret to inform you that, after a thorough analysis, none of your claims of Annabeth´s feats being superior to Nico di Angelo´s have lived up to yuor expectations. All of the evidence that I have provided you with here only serves to indicate that Nico has a potential to do greater feats than Annabeth. '''