So, as you may know, I've been reading a series called the Heroes of Olympus, and I've been getting... pretty into it.
Anyways, at one point in the fourth book, we get a major piece of character development for a character called Nico di Angelo.
Now, to put this in perspective, let me give you a crash course on Nico di Angelo.
He is a recurring, but not primary character in the Percy Jackson universe. He appeared in the third book of the Percy Jackson series (The Titan's Curse) as a kid who was a little geeky and a little off and a little loner-ish, but nothing very... worrisome.
What got worrisome was that, when he found out his sister Bianca died, he blamed Percy and ran off in a rage.
We later found out that, first of all, he is not a child of this century. Back in the forties, in order to protect him, his father put him in a place where time moved differently. He eventually emerged from there having barely aged, but about seventy years later. Talk about transition issues.
The other thing we find out is that his mysterious father who hid him in this place is, in fact, Hades, god of the Underworld.
Nico was isolated for a few reasons: A) he was a bit of a loner to begin with. He repeatedly says that his sister was the only one who truly accepted him. Ouch. B) Being a child of the past century... I mean, that's gotta be rough. C) As his father was Hades, who is essentially the loner god, he already felt like an outcast - Hades is feared at best and found contemptible at worst. There's no place for Hades on the Olympian council, and Nico found no place for himself among the other demigods, and his power over the dead is pretty freaky. D) He swore revenge against Percy for not protecting his sister. Percy was well-liked among the other demigods.
As a result, Nico spends most of his time in the Underworld and with the dead.
Nico isn't a bad character at all - once he allowed himself to talk to Percy, he realized that it wasn't Percy's fault, and he wasn't even angry at Percy, he was more angry at his sister for abandoning him. He's a hugely powerful demigod, and really turned the tables when the demigods were fighting the Titans. He singlehandedly convinced his father to help in the fight against Kronos in spite of the fact that Hades loathes the other Olympians.
Basically, Nico is a character who is fundamentally good, but bitter. He's had a lot of bad breaks, and he has literally no support system. (His sister's dead, he freaks out every other demigod, Hades regards him with contempt and says his sister was always better, Persephone... turned him into a flower). Long story short, he's a good character, but sort of... grudgingly so. He helps people but trusts no one.
With that in mind... in the fourth book of Heroes of Olympus, titled The House of Hades, he had to face down Cupid. Cupid slaps him around for a bit, apparently just for the hell of it, until Nico finally admits what terrifies him - he had (or possibly has) a crush on Percy.
What makes this fantastic is, first of all, being from the forties, this would have been an admission that would have been unthinkable in his own time. With that in mind, his isolation suddenly makes that much more sense. After all, if he'd been so ashamed of his feelings for all that time, it's no wonder he'd feel out of place with everyone else.
Anyways, this is a thing that happened in the book. Now, there's a site where the author answers FAQs, and one of the FAQs is: How did you decide on Nico's character development in House of Hades?
His response is my favourite thing of the week, not only because he talks about acceptance and tolerance, but also because, as a writer, he talks about being true to his character (yes, I definitely have my priorities straight).
It's near the bottom of the page. The answer made me happy.
http://www.rickriordan.com/about-rick/faq.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment