#felt when it happened even if he was brave and decided to be reclaimatory about the event

[the-ghost-king]

Ngl it could have been better if their first kiss happened in the underworld in this book. And like idk some ppl already commented on this but their first kiss happening after Nico learnt about Jason's death and Will coming and kissing him is kinda.... idk. We got all of these 'first kiss' moments with the hetero couples so it could have been nice if we got once for will and nico too. I also do not understand the whole 'outing' thing. First, it was already bad in HoH. but why does Nico have to out himself to the entire camp? It's giving 'you cannot be yourself and you cannot date if you do not openly come out' energy, but you literally can... do that. And Nico outing Will makes no sense. I can understand Nico slowly opening up to others like Piper but why say it to the whole camp? The only good thing that came out of this was Nico's coming out encouraging other kids at the camp, i guess but still... unnecessary.

Everything you've said here is something I agree with and have already brought up multiple times and I expect I will bring it up again in the future as well... I would also like to mention how upsetting it is that the "you have to come out to be fully yourself" thing is aimed at teens and young adults, as if that isn't the group often most at risk for harm in that situation as they have no way to support themself if need be... Also the outing Nico had in HoH was far worse because it was malicious, but being outed unintentionally by people who are well meaning can be just as painful (trust me I've been through both lol) and difficult to cope with. A lot of the queer narrative in the book also felt "preachy" for lack of a better term, so much of it was stated instead of shown and it was like expecting you to automatically agree with what was being said and what you were being told but the way things were worded was very much so from like a queer theory lingo origin? And while I can't think of anything that was said I necessarily disagree with it was a rough transition and I think it was unnecessary as I think they would probably have slightly different culture and customs and beliefs systems around queerness being from camp and having limited internet access... The only thing I can say I liked was Nico saying he never had a moment he realized he was gay but that he was always gay and that he did instead only have a moment where he realized it was something people may look down at him for and he would have to hide/fight for, that felt very accurate to previous character set ups we've seen with him (to me at least) but otherwise he had moments where he came across as more of a mouthpiece and even though like I said I didn't think anything that was put in the dialogue was disagreeable it's still odd and poor authorship imo... And I don't personally think Will kissing Nico at that point was wrong, a little weird or odd though? definitely... It would have been nice to have Will and Nico have a first kiss in text that was comparable to the heterosexual couples in previous books in the series but even if I can't have that I would have just very much not have liked Nico to be outed again and to have that be embraced as a good thing because it once again pushes the idea that the way to be a good ally is to nudge or shove your friend out of the closet when in all actuality your job as a good ally and a good friend (even more importantly) is to wait patiently for your friend to hatch on their own terms instead of trying to crack eggs too early

I think as well having them be together almost a year and then take their relationship in the direction they did was too much... If they wanted to go the route they did with their relationship they should have only been together a couple of months, and if they wanted to have them be together longer they needed to fortify their relationship more yet they tried to do both and of course the relationship fell flat (again though, I do like the idea that love is different for each couple and I like the acknowledgement that love is a constant choice- I just find the way they arrive at that conclusion sometimes to be a little unhealthy?)

#i honestly feel totally comfortable to call Nico's second outing gross #the one in HoH felt like a message explaining why outing people was bad and this just goes and undoes all that #it feels so ooc and it's just bad representation idc if someone who was queer wrote it they shouldn't have #maybe a coming out like that could work for a different character but it should have never even been considered with Nico's history #in previous works #It's so unnecessary and I can't believe it was treated as okay as it was with no acknowledgement for the negative emotions Nico definitely #felt when it happened even if he was brave and decided to be reclaimatory about the event #so irritating #pjo #tsats spoilers #tsats #anon #asks #nico di angelo