For the chapter title, it's honestly true. At this point, while not having read any of the books and watching most of both films, purely using fanfics and fan-art.. as well as audiobooks at times.. to guide me through this, I am legitimately convinced that the entire fandom purely exists to hate Zeus. And truth be told, I am all here for it.
This is also a good Segway into what this chapter mainly focuses on, which is how the Monster King, in defying the fates as the series goes on, unintentionally serves to spite Zeus and the other gods - with the exception of Ares and Apollo - as well. Mainly, it's directed towards Zeus, but the other gods all got chips on their shoulders too, even Apollo and Ares a little bit.
On the foundational level, Zeus literally exists as the main reason much of what happened in Percy's time had to happen at all. Hades played a part in it too, but he gets a pass for this due to his recent upgrade in being a better person in TSATS.
It's because of the king of the gods that the stupid rule book known as the ancient rules even exists, though to be fair, given the Gods' walking all over it - and Apollo most likely proceeding to outright ignore its existence after what happened in TOA, it's safe to be said that out of all the mistakes of the Gods, sooner or later.. fate was going to mean that they were going to break that rule book.
Luke probably understood that full well, no doubt.
I do honestly think Disney Hades' comments about Zeus being replaced in that one episode in the TV show where Pain and Panic stole the sun from Hercules have more weight if they were said in the PJO world, I will admit. Simply replace "son" and "suns" with "now nearly losing one kid" and "but to actually lose a child and not do anything about it" and it would make sense context-wise.
(For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, it's the clip in this video starting at 2:46 and ending at 3:21:
Like, seriously, it makes sense.)
Because look, while historical Zeus isn't all that great, arguably Zeus in PJO takes that up to eleven honestly. I mean, when your track record has you contributing to the start of three wars in the span of five years because of bad decisions that you made, I think it's definitely time for a new person to be in charge.
There have been fanfics about there that take a stab at Apollo confronting issues related to his kids (and the Gods' children as a whole sometimes for that matter) and to the creators of those on AO3 and Fanfiction, I applaud.
I seriously applaud, because let's be real, Zeus is an asshole to the demigods - and the gods in general. Not just Percy.
We might throw Hera under the bus for swapping Jason and Percy and tearing Percy away from Annabeth, but when you think about it, what choice did she even have?
She knew that Gaea was rising, and that Zeus was being an idiot again. So realistically, switching Percy and Jason may not have been her best option, but in retrospect, I do think she understood how not doing something in regards to the situation would turn out after the last war.
I do honestly think that as the Greek goddess of familial love, despite her vanity, Percy's words in TLO probably made her realize how much of an idiot she was, how much of an idiot Zeus was - in letting their kids feel under appreciated and doing nothing to help them.
The only reason why so many demigods - like Luke, Meg, Ethan, Alabaster, Chris, and god knows how many other names - fell into the trap of Kronos and Nero was precisely of Zeus and the gods being idiots.
How does the Monster King factor into this? Because he literally exists to change fate, he's basically even more of a massive "screw you" to the gods for being idiotic, lazy bums. I did put a comment talking about Typhon being a chaos agent, but I think in reality, this is just the father of all monsters recognizing that change needs to happen - and that Percy probably can't do it alone. I mean, the amount of death and trauma that the demigods have suffered despite Percy being well.. Percy.. to the point that Percy outright refuses to be involved in most of TOA - only appearing in the first and last books of that series - is proof enough of that. The fact that Zeus, despite his apparent agreement to be better, still decides to make dumb decisions after TLO is proof enough.
He knows that the gods will outright try to smite him and send him to Tartarus if he ever escapes - for such is his nature to destroy - but I think in Colton, he saw something. A chance for his children to help forge a better world.
He's still going to follow the role he's expected to play, no doubt about it. But as you will soon see, he's going to do it at maybe a slower pace than in canon. Wonder why?
But yeah, the gods are idiots beyond belief. I can literally imagine Hestia throughout most of the time spent in the books, trying to tend to her fire and yet thinking inside herself:
Laugh track cued.
Anyways, yeah. I wouldn't blame her if that is what she was thinking. Because let's be real, despite not having any demigod kids of her own in the present time, Hestia is somehow more based than the other gods, with Apollo only anywhere close to her right now.
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Monster King Explained
FanfictionAn explanation as to exactly who the Monster King is when it comes to my Percy Jackson fanfic Heart Pierced, in my own words.
