Board Thread:Percy Jackson & the Olympians/@comment-39214247-20190515230242/@comment-38639610-20190527002041

People like him for several reasons:

1. We're invested. We have been with him on his journey through character development for years. We've journeyed with him from young, happy boy to grieving child to Ghost King to surviving Tartarus to overcoming internalized homophobia to nearly sacrificing himself so that the Athena Pathenos could be returned and finally to self-acceptance. It's easy to get invested in a character you have known for so long and know so intimately.

2. '''He was a child in his first appearance. '''People have a real soft spot for children. He was about ten when he was first introduced and cute as a button. The fact he was a child that then went through trauma made us more empathetic towards him.

3. He is a sweetheart. Think about it. He was the first person to notice and talk to Hestia in ages. He made frequent trips to the underworld to talk to Bob although he was under no obligation to talk to the titan that tried to kill him. Even Percy didn't do any of these things. Nico refuses to be rude to the dead or disrespect them, even saying thank-you to them. When he saw Bianca was gone, he saved Hazel anyways and treated her as family. There's also the fact that, despite believing that the people in Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood hated him, he still spent the entire Blood of Olympus nearly destroying his very existence in an attempt to save them.

4. '''He's tough as nails. '''People love tough characters. Characters who will overcome and survive even the most trying of circumstances. At ten years old, he lost his only living family member, Bianca (sans Hades). Shortly after, he overcame the emotional manipulation of an adult who took advantage of him in his time of grieving (Minos). He felt ostracized at Camp Half-Blood due to his heritage as Hades' son so he went to live in the Underworld. There, his father Hades appears to have constantly compared him to Bianca and even said right in front of Percy that Nico should've died, not Bianca. He learns about the horrible circumstances surrounding his mom's death. He falls into Tartarus where he was exposed to it's true form the entire time, a form that was so awful that Percy's thought he was going to go mad after only seeing it for a moment. Right after getting out of Tartarus and being rescued, he begins to shadow travel the Athena Pathenos to the other side of the world. This ends up destroying his body, making him become too emaciated to breath normally and causing him to fade in and out of existence. He does all this while also dealing with his low self-esteem and internalized homophobia. What a trooper.

5. He's attractive. Let's be real, a lot of fangirls (and fanboys) like him because he is attractive. He is the pale skinned, dark haired brooding "bad" boy archetype. That, an top of the fact he secretly has a heart of gold makes the fangirls go Goo-Goo Gaga. Also, his age range in the books is from 10-14, which is about the typical age thirsty fangirls have (you know: those young female middle schoolers who are just beginning their journey into adulthood). That would only make him seem more appealing.

Well, that's it. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk!

((This is VidiaPhoenix btw))