Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3542839-20140227002012/@comment-25021451-20140710051324

8th Hero of Olympus wrote:

Kralos wrote:

Well, it would depend on what you mean by "greatest". Greatest doesn't have to be the strongest or the most feared. For example, Piper is neither one of the strongest or the most feared of the age, but is one of the 7. Greatest may refer to those who have achieved the greatest feats and those who have the largest potential to do so. Annabeth has achieved greater feats than Nico has, excluding the raising the dead thing Nico does. I quite agree, Kralos, "greatness" does not neccessarily imply great physical strength, power, or infamy. HOWEVER, let us examine this matter more closely...

1) About Piper... While she is by no means the most powerful or feared of the Seven Heroes of Olympus, Piper, as I can see, is vasty underestimated by most fans of the series. Think about it: with her great skill in Charmspeak, Piper is certainly the most powerful demigod child of Aphrodite, in terms of amokinetic potential. We must also not forget that Piper was even able to melt Khione´s ice through her powers in amokinesis. Now that was certainly an incredible feat of using the powers of love alone... in that sense, I love how Piper´s abilities imply that "love conquers all"! Furthermore, while she was initially a rather pathetic swordswoman, Piper, through her spars with Hazel, has quickly become quite skilled. In the beginning of "The Blood of Olympus", her skills improved to the point that she single-handedly defeated an entire flock of "demon chicken ladies" while on guard duty. Hence, Piper is nothing less than a prodigee, and I do not think that she is a good example for your initial statement.

2) Yes, "greatest" certainly could imply the potential to acheive great feats, I do not deny that. HOWEVER, you cannot deny that as a child of the Big Three, Nico has a greater potential to do this that Annabeth. You mentioned that Annabeth has achieved "greater feats."  Let us examine this closely... While Annabeth may surpass Nico in quick thinking (especially when it comes to battle strategy), Nico is, undoutedly the greater warrior of the two, even though he has had FAR less training than Annabreth. Think about it!  Nico was able to keep up with the more experienced Thalia and Percy during their fight with the Keres; Nico fought well against the Titan Iapetius (while he was still a beginner); Nico survived the most intense portion of the Battle of Manhattan unscathed; Nico is able to fight Gaea´s army at the House of Hades with only one hand (!); finally, Nico was even able to survive in Tartarus on his own, while seeing Tartarus for what it truly was for the entire time (that, in my opinion, is the greatest single feat achieved by any demigod in the series) !!! By comparison, Annabeth was quickly defeated by Ethan Nakamura; while she did briefly fight Kronos himself, she was overwhelmed and defeated almost at once; Annabeth admitted that Reyna (and Hazel has stated that Nico is more skilled and dangerous than Reyna) is a more skilled warrior than her; Annabeth has never defeated a single Titan or Giant;  and Annabeth barely survived in Tartarus, even with Percy and Iapetius to back her up!

So far, I don´t see Annabeth´s "greater feats" that you have mentioned. I only see Nico, a prodigious demigod, who´s feats clearly surpass Annabeth´s, which is all the more impressive, if you recall that she has had 9 years of training at Camp, while, Nico has barely had 3 years of self-training with the dead! Annabeth single-handedly got the Athena Parthenos, a feat which nobody has ever achieved before. Because of this, thousands of years of rivalry would end. She also survived the Sea of Monsters, held the sky up, navigated the Labyrinth by herself with no help (after Mt St Helens erupted), and withstood the might of Kronos with a dagger (when she caught Kronos's blade on her hilt). That is a great feat. 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.