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Some Shiny Solangelo Stickers ! They'll be available at Japan Expo on the @girigirizine booth ( Hall 6 S680 ) and later this summer on my kofi shop (link in bio)

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“Not all the souls are so terrible. Those that I collect are the lost, the remorseful, the ones whose greatest crimes were against themselves.”

I finished reading The Sun and the Star yesterday… I missed these characters so much, and there are so many beautiful moments… I might draw some more scenes or mini comics later. The urge to reread heroes of olympus is so strong—

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New headcannon that in TLO during the battle of Manhattan, the real reason why Nico and the others were late joining the battle was because Nico wanted to look his best to try and impress Percy.

Like I vividly imagine Nico looking through his closet for his best black t-shirt, skinny jeans and Converse. Then going through the entire underworld armory to find the best looking and coolest armor to wear. It takes him an extra 30 minutes to get ready while Hades is just standing there, completely ready, tapping his foot impatiently and holding his head in his hands as he hears Nico tell another undead servant that he "can't possibly wear that helmet into battle, it's not cool enough!"

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theres JUST SOMETHING about reading a character who spent a good seven books methodically destroying himself because he didn't think he was worth living say "theres nothing you can say to me that would make me give up my life" thats just soooo personal and important

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Proud and hopeful

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It is absolutely fascinating to me how Nico and Hades just... don't lie. Like, I've talked about Nico before, and I still haven't found any point where he lies outright other than that time he says he and Thalia are fine when they are not fine. But I don't think Hades ever lies outright either. I mean, obviously in TLT he tells Percy that if Percy returns the Helm of Darkness he'll release Sally, and sure enough he sets her free unharmed as soon as the Helm gets back to him. ...Actually it's a little weird that Percy acts like Nico should've known better than to trust Hades in TLO, because the only time Percy actually dealt with Hades before that point Hades kept his word and also offered honestly a very fair explanation for why he took Sally in the first place (he says very clearly that he had no reason to believe the gods' champion of the day would return the Helm without collateral, and given literally everyone was like "Clearly Hades was responsible for the theft, he was there" despite a) him not having any known demigods who would steal the master bolt for him and b) him not being able to steal it personally so him physically being on Olympus in no way suggests his involvement... yeah, it makes a lot of sense that he assumed Percy wouldn't return the Helm willingly and he'd need something to force him to do so). But anyway, even in TLO as far as I remember Hades doesn't actually lie outright? He tells Nico that if he brings Percy to him, he'll tell him about his mother; he does that. And unless I'm forgetting something he basically says that once his business with Percy is done he'll let him go. And... that's not actually a lie. He just didn't mention to Nico that his business with Percy involved locking him in an airtight room until he suffocated! I'm sure Percy's soul would've been free to go once Hades was done keeping him locked up, it's just that he'd be free to go to his judgement rather than back to the surface. ...To be clear, because some people have no reading comprehension, I'm not saying that Hades is being honest in TLO, he was absolutely deliberately tricking Nico, but it's interesting that he doesn't actually lie the same way Nico generally doesn't actually lie. Apparently lies of omission run in the family.

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Thinking about, when Nico said he would be leaving, Percy let him go whereas Jason tried to make him stay.

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some assorted will solace moments that are now canon

scared of birds

fell down the stairs and passed out right after being told to watch his step

sang a little song so pretty it made flowers grow

said persephone was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen while his boyfriend was standing right next to him

saw real human feces on the nyc subway

bisexual....that's Literally his boyfriend

built a little shelter and left a kitkat for nico and then fucked off to go for a stroll in tartarus alone

laughed so hard at being called a care bear he broke down in hysterical crying

has a battery powered sun globe bc he gets depressed when the sun is weak

almost certainly had a crush on nico before blood of olympus

cargo shorts defender

inferiority complex

plague powers so strong he inflicted hay fever on a primordial goddess that doesnt even have a respiratory system and should be immune to all illness

best friend is his mom

TALL

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This is perfection:

Art by: michosoup on Twitter

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Solangelo: and how they feel about cute couple stuff (Pt. 1)

Hand holding

Ok Will is definitely on board for holding hands whenever and wherever, because it just shows everyone that the two of them are together and in a relationship. Will isn't easily jealous and all that but whenever he gets the chance he will shove it in everyone's face that he is dating THE Nico Di Angelo 😭. (But of course our respectful sunshine solace will only hold hands if the other party is ok with it. So it'll start like grabbing Nico's pinky or smth and if the other pulls away then he'd respect that. If not then he'd interlace their fingers together and smile like an absolute loser.)

Nico :((( ok I think anything PDA in general he isn't really on board with (y'all know why already) and he probably feels guilty whenever he pulls away from Will and HDIDBFIEJ MY POOR BOY TT. but don't worry he makes up for that in private. But when he gains confidence he definitely would agree to holding hands whenever they're with a small group of people. (Will almost died once because he actually initiated the hand holding.)

Cuddling

If there's one thing Will loves after a long day of working and healing it's definitely cuddling. He's super clingy especially when he's sleep deprived and tired. Will literally just jump in the other's arms as soon as he has a break from the clinic (coffee who? You only need your cute emo boyfriend in this life). Sometimes it's just quiet between the two of them, like a peaceful kind of silence. Sometimes they talk about each other's days, and random topics that come into mind. But it always manages to give Will his energy back. Neck, he definitely like snuggling into the others neck the most and giving it small soft kisses. (AGHHDHSHEHS we love the touch starved idiots)

Nico, yes yes and yes to cuddling. Though he likes to deny it everytime the other teases him about it. He likes the fact that he's the first person Will goes to too seek energy. Clingy Will is his favorite (don't tell Will that though). He likes putting his arms around the blonde like he's protecting him, and he's always super gentle. Also yes combing the others unruly mess of blonde hair. I feel like he realizes how much he likes this man during one of their cuddle session, it's just Will acting clingy and complaining about the Stolls once more and it just clicks to Nico that 'oh wow I want to spend the rest of my life with this person.'

Borrowing each other's clothes.

Oh you can't do that to poor Will without a warning, he'd just see Nico in his shirt or hoodie and then he's reduced to a coughing mess. Though he tries (and fails) to act cool about it. Seeing Nico in his clothes makes his heart melt and his mood brighten. Like they could be having a fight or squabble, and Nico would be wearing his hoodie and the only thing Will could focus on is that. 'oh my Gods he's wearing my hoodie', 'why does he look good?!' 'no you should be mad at him' 'put your mad face on damnit!' 'oh fudje it'.

Ok but Nico knows wearing the other's clothes drives the blonde to the bring of Insanity. That's why he does it. He'll play innocent of course as if he doesn't know the effect it has on his boyfriend TT. He picks the biggest ones because they're the most comfiest and warm. Props because it smells like Will too. Nico 'wears Wills oversized hoodies to fuck with him' Di Angelo. Oh but Will does borrow Nico's band t-shirts, the tables are definitely turned and now he's the flustered mess.

Forehead kisses

Yes. He's tall. Nico's short. He loves this so much. He loves that Nico is the perfect height to give forehead kisses too. Yes it's to show his affection but it's also him teasing the other boy in a way. At random times of the day when there aren't many campers around he'd just give Nico forehead kisses randomly, and the other is always an angry flustered mess after them. But maybe like a few years into their relationship Nick gets used to it, to the point that when Will does that he just gives him a look and continues to talk about whatever he was saying before he was so *rudely* interrupted. My guys not even surprised anymore.

Nico giving forehead kisses when they cuddle. Because Will being the big baby he is always in need of affection. So yes kisses for you. I have nothing to say except for the fact that Nico definitely brushes Wills bangs upwards to give him proper forehead kisses. 'its called forehead kisses not hair kisses Solace!'

Ok. I'm gonna stop here because I'm writting this as I walk to the dentist. Pt 2. Soon if this part blows up, or not because I love talking about my sun and star couple so much.

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Nico canonically being the least dense and the most sensible when it comes to relationships and romance among the big three kids lives rent free in my mind

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ppl who genuinely hate solangelo bc of their interactions in tsats are insane and have never interacted with a human being their whole life

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No but. part of the reason it bugs me that Percy and Nico never actually deal with all the shit between them (no, Rick, Nico telling Percy he used to have a crush on him isn't the same thing as them working through all the shit between them) is that if these two could talk through their incredibly messy past relationship and start over in a way that would allow them to actually work together as opposed to just being on the same side and working towards the same goals they would be so good at dealing with immortal shenanigans. Percy's gift for getting exactly what he wants in the short term combined with Nico's gift for creating lasting, meaningful relationships with immortals? They'd be unstoppable. Largely because they'd cover each other's weaknesses, or at least mitigate the effects somewhat: Percy fixates on getting what he wants in the short term to the point where he always seems to forget that making an enemy of beings that can destroy you with a snap of their fingers and curse you on a whim historically hasn't worked out well for anyone, and while it's largely Nico's incredible willingness to walk through fire for anyone who shows him kindness that wins immortals to his side walking through fire does tend to get him burned quite a lot before he benefits. And I can prove it would work to their mutual benefit if they could manage to work as a team, because we have an example of what happens when they do successfully tag-team an immortal: Bob.

Percy's quick thinking removes Iapetus from the board! Throw a Titan in the Lethe, tell the amnesiac that crawls out you're friends, boom: incredibly useful short-term ally to help you finish your quest. But as we see in HoH, Bob immediately turns on Percy when he learns it was Percy who took his memories, because... well, he has no reason not to. Percy saw Bob as the means to an end, not as a person who might learn who took his memories and get mad about it, so once the quest was done he forgot about Bob completely. It just did not occur to him that this could come back to bite him, because Percy doesn't tend to think in long-term plans. And his failure to think in terms of the future beyond that one quest in this case could very easily have gotten him and Annabeth killed; he'd given Bob no reason to remain loyal to him, because "How can I ensure that if Bob learns who stole his memories he won't get angry enough to seek payback" isn't a question it ever occurred to him to ask. If it had just been him in that equation, he and Annabeth would've died in Tartarus. Fortunately it wasn't just him, though!

Now, there's no way Nico could ever have gotten Iapetus into the Lethe. Could he have defeated Iapetus some other way? Probably. But there's no way he could've wiped his memory even if the thought occurred to him (and even if he could bring himself to do it; given he got mind-wiped in the Lethe he might have some qualms about doing it to someone else that Percy obviously wouldn't), since it was only Percy's control over water that made that possible. But it was Nico who thought about Bob and how alone he must be and took the time to befriend him. I don't think there was really any sort of plan attached to it, I think Nico is just an empathetic and compassionate sort of person who wanted to help Bob, if nothing else because he knows what it's like to be alone in a world you don't know with your memory erased... but then, Bob does say in HoH that Nico asked him to help Percy and told him Percy was a friend. It is possible that that was just Nico's affection for Percy talking... but it wouldn't surprise me if Nico did consider the question of what would happen if Bob learned what Percy did to him and wanted to take steps to mitigate the fallout. And that's why Bob jumps into Tartarus in the first place and comes back after learning what Percy did: Nico wanted him to help. Nico said Percy was a friend. Percy may have made Bob out of Iapetus, but it was Nico who made Bob into an ally. And while it takes a lot more for Nico to really benefit (another trip to Tartarus is no small ask), the benefits are in proportion to the risk: he's got an immensely powerful ally for life, and that wouldn't have been possible if Percy hadn't dumped Iapetus in the Lethe to begin with.

Basically the one time we actually see these two work together to handle an immortal in both the short and long term it works out shockingly well for both of them, while when they handle immortals separately Percy tends to be screwed in the long term and Nico tends to be screwed in the short term. I want to see them learn to work as a team so they can work together to handle immortals more often, it would be fun!

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Haven’t seen anyone post the bookmark that came with some editions of the Sun and the Star. It’s got the cereal gang on the backside too if anyone needed a reference lol

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No wonder Luke went off the deep end. He was the head of the Hermes cabin. The cabin all the sad unclaimed kids get sent to. Luke was the one who had to take care of them, comfort them, watch them suffer because the gods couldn't be responsible for a second. Luke saw that problem more than anyone else. He had to deal with it directly, on top everything else. No wonder.

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The art history version of “you’d look prettier if you smiled more”

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I think personal loyalty is a fitting fatal flaw for Percy. Focus on personal. “To save a friend you would sacrifice the world” is what Athena tells him, and she’s absolutely right. Percy is absolutely loyal to his people, even when he shouldn’t be (cough cough Poseidon, more on that later) but while it’s not like he’s a dick to others, he is still a good guy who tries his best, he can often overlook others and isn’t good at prioritizing things. Or rather, he will always prioritize his own above all else. Like falling in tartarus with Annabeth. Loved it of course, he’s madly in love with her and will do anything for her, even possibly jeopardizing a world saving quest. Or during TLO after the fight on the bridge when Annabeth was hurt. His first priority was saving Annabeth, he grabbed Will (who’s brother had just fallen to his death, was maybe alive maybe not, we never will know) and brought him to Annabeth. 

I never ever understood why Nico’s fatal flaw is supposed to be holding grudges. I am holding on to the fact that the only time it is mentioned it’s by Bianca, who says it’s a fatal flaw to most children of Hades. Which I’ll take as not being definitive, both because Bianca’s word on it isn’t necessarely law on it and because while it may be true for most, doesn’t mean it is Nico’s case. What grudges is he holding exactly??? He literally never does. Even when he should. Are we talking about his blaming Percy for his sister’s death? You know, when he was alone, homeless, ten/eleven, grieving and being manipulated by Minos and looking for someone to blame for his misfortune? Nevermind that the moment he does get the chance to talk to Bianca, and she tells him it’s her he’s mad with and not Percy, and if anything she’s the one to blame, he actually agrees rather soon. He doesn’t really keep blaming Percy beyond that. Not even a few days after that he risks his life to help Percy, he helps during the battle at camp. A camp he has nothing to gain in saving since he believes he doesn’t belong, but he still doesn’t think twice about fighting to save. Or what about when he found out Zeus killed his mother and tried to kill him and his sister, and still convinced his father to fight for the other gods? For someone who’s fatal flaw is supposed to be holding grudges,  that would be a pretty big one to keep. But he doesn’t. He is ostracized by the 7 on the Argo II, and still offers to bring back the Athena Parthenos, nearly dying in the process. To help people who ostracized him, both the 7 and the two camps. WHAT GRUDGES IS HE HOLDING EXACTLY? ARE THE GRUDGES IN THE ROOM WITH US? If anything I’d pick either absolute loyalty, or absolute fairness as his fatal flaw. Since that’s what usually nearly gets him killed.      

Getting back to Poseidon and Percy’s bias, I think one of the fun things about rereading the books at different points in life is seeing how much my opinion and interpretation of characters changes (Not Nico though, he was my favorite at 13 and still is). As a kid Poseidon seemed like a pretty good parent for a god, especially since we mostly see it from Percy’s biased POV. Growing older means realizing just how manipulative he is. He literally uses him as a tool. Percy sometimes realizes this sometimes chooses to ignore it. And that’s a recurrent thing with demigods that I think is very interesting. Their relationship with gods is often strained, because demigods are tired of being used as pawns by godly parents who never seem to care about them. But at the same time they are still children who crave their parents approvation. Objectively they know their parents are bad parents, they know they’re often not good people either, but they can’t help wanting to please them, to make them proud. Calypso in BOTL shows light on their hypocrisy. Percy is surprised she fought for the titans because titans=bad, but she fought for them because it’s her family, and isn’t Percy doing the same? Not all titans are bad and not all gods are good, and the side they’re on is really only about their personal loyalties. Gods are not really that good and don’t really care about their kids becomes painfully obvious in TOA, where Apollo’s whole arc is that gods should do better, that they should care. And that while the kids sometimes try to find excuses for their parents, because who wants to accept that their parent just doesn’t care about them, sometimes that’s exactly how it is. Gods care about some of the kids, they completely forget about others. Gods help sometimes and are merciful, and other times they are absolutely monstrous. Good moment to point out I believe Luke was absolutely right in rejecting the gods, he had every right, but he was very wrong in going about it by supporting someone who was no better if not worse than the gods. Also talking about Luke (and others) I think that’s another example of Percy being blindsided by his own loyalties. Once Luke sacrifices himself he is immediately considered an hero, same with Selena, in a very black and white way. Good for Percy to forgive them, and Annabeth too, not to good on them to blame those who do not forgive them. Yes they had reasons, yes they were misguided, yes in the end they did the right thing. But every choice before then still had consequences, still caused death and pain to others. And by them refusing to let anyone call them a traitor or say something bad about them, they are forcing others to forgive them, which is not their choice to make. 

I got sidetracked but the point with Poseidon is that much like othe demigod children, I think Percy just really wants his dad to be good, to honestly like him. It’s a childish wish that makes sense since he’s still only 17/18 by TOA and TSATS. He doesn’t want to admit his wrongdoings and tries to blindly justify it, because if he truly did look at his father behavior, that would open up a lot of questioning. Questioning his morals, his love, the gods in general, and who are we fighting for really. And that’s a lot. So even if he sometimes realizes Poseidon only seems to call when he needs him, he’s done bad things, he prefers to ignore it and defend him. Because if he didn’t he’d have to question who and what exactly is he fighting for. Hades on the other hand, is basically the scapegoat of the family. It’s okay to hate on Hades, because look at him, he’s always on his own, all gloomy, surrounded by death. Nobody likes death. Death is bad, because people grieve and suffer from it. Everyone punches down on Hades, so it’s okay to join the bandwagon. Hades is the scapegoat. The lightingbolt was stolen? Mh probably Hades, that guy’s fishy. What do you mean proof, have you seen him? Nevermind that by the myths Hades is actually the chillest and least problematic of the big three. Not unproblematic for sure, but by far the least when compared to his brothers. 

People’s prejudice against the underworld definitely applies to Nico too. Percy and the rest are not immune to the propaganda. Not only as OP says Percy is always suspicious of Nico since finding out he’s a child of Hades. Always questioning his motives. They all are. The amount of times I’ve seen people in their pov’s calling him ‘shady’ and ‘untrustworthy’ with absolutely no basis for it. Like when they voted on saving Nico or not. Wich is absolutely insane, and I absolutely believe that if it were anyone but Nico it wouldn’t have been a question. They’re heroes, they’re always saving people, even questionable people sometimes, even when they know it’s a trap. Take Piper’s dad hostage situation. They knew it was a trap, they knew Piper had lied to them, but they saw were she was coming from and never thought twice about saving her dad, despit it possibly jeopardizing the quest, despite it being an obvious trap. Nico is if anything Hazel’s brother and that alone would warrant saving without second guessing. He’s also Percy’s friend whom he’s known since he was 10. He’s someone who repeatedly helped during the war. A powerful valuable ally. But they hesitate. Why? You’re the greatest heroes of your generation and you’re actually considering leaving a 13 year old boy to leave a horrible death at the hands of the giants? But Nico is ‘untrustworthy’. He’s ‘shady’. Oh well, he knew about both camps and didn’t say anything. Guess who else knew about both camps. The gods. Lupa. Chiron. No one ever called them untrustworthy because they didnt’ say anything. Because there are bigger things at play, and they swore they wouldn’t tell. But the same grace apparently doesn’t apply to Nico. Nevermind that Nico being entrusted with information this sensitive actually proves he’s probably very trustworthy Kudos to Reyna for saying that Nico not saying anything about the two camps actually makes her respect him and trust him more. We love some critical thinking. 

Also a lot of the fandom seems to think that Nico knew were Percy was for months and didn’t say anything, while camp halfblood figured out Percy was probably at the other camp when Jason started recovering his memories at the end of TLH in December. Nico was genuinely surprised to see Percy at camp Jupiter in June. Him telling Percy wouldn’t have solved anything, he might not even have believed him, and would have potentially put him and everyone at risk. By him not telling him he ensured his safety, and Percy naturally recovered his memories in a week. Also, everyone at camp Halfblood had found out about Camp Jupiter in December, but considering Nico’s surprise, no one bothered to tell Nico, who was supposedly out looking for Percy.

You know, thinking about it, I was wrong before. Nico has more reason to trust Hades than Percy does Poseidon at the time of the incident in TLO!

If you think about it, Percy's only evidence that Nico should've known it was a trap is that "[Nico] know[s] what [Hades]'s like", but... Nico's view of Hades would be much different from Percy's. Remember, Nico has a room in the palace at this time; Hades couldn't send him to his room the way he does later if he didn't have a room to be sent to. He's been living there! Hades allows him to live there! At this point Nico doesn't know that Hades used to visit him, Maria and Bianca regularly or that he actively stepped in to protect Nico and Bianca from Zeus and keep them safe until the time of Titan's Curse, but he does know that Hades is letting him live in his palace. Gods don't do that. Percy has to nearly die to even get a brief visit to Poseidon's palace, and he very openly knows that Poseidon wouldn't have claimed him to begin with if he didn't need him. Not to mention Poseidon has that whole thing where he explicitly tells Percy he wishes he didn't exist, which... is the sort of thing that's gonna have a negative impact on how you view your dad.

So when Percy says that Nico knows what Hades is like, what he's saying is basically... "The Underworld is evil and Hades is evil, how could you not know that," which is kind of an incredibly shitty thing to say to the child of Hades living in the Underworld? I mean, it is kind of just "You shouldn't trust your father because I think he's evil and the Underworld is evil", if I was Nico I'd be very concerned about what Percy thought of me when he started spouting that shit. Anyway, while Hades is far from a good father at this point in the series Nico still knows him as the father who is letting him live in his palace because he has nowhere to go, stepping well outside the usual bounds of gods interacting with their kids in the process. Hell, unless I've forgotten something (possible), it's entirely possible that by this point in the timeline Hades has already told Nico about Camp Jupiter (which would show a huge amount of faith in him, again above and beyond any other godly parent). Hades can be kind of a dick because all gods are dicks to their kids, but Nico has no particular reason not to trust him! Especially given Nico has exactly zero other adults in his life offering him any support and at this point in the timeline he doesn't remember his mother, so Hades is basically all he's got and he has no points of comparison other than his also-a-child sister who kinda sorta abandoned him (not going into her reasoning here but it was A Thing that would probably influence the way Nico thought about... caregivers, I guess, for lack of a better term to describe the twelve year old put in charge of her little brother) and Minos (who is... Minos. Enough said). It makes sense that when Hades says "Do this small thing for me and I'll tell you about your mother" Nico believes him, because while Hades has been awful to Nico at times there's no evidence that he's ever lied to him. Why should Nico doubt his father who gave him a place to stay when he had nothing and no one just because that father happens to be Hades and the place to stay happens to be the Underworld?

...Also in hindsight knowing just how much Hades spoils Nico (for a godly parent at least) in the future makes the "You know what Hades is like" thing kind of hilarious. Ah yes, the guy who gives Nico a place to stay when he has nowhere to go despite gods Not Doing That, tells him at least some of the gods' most guarded secrets and essentially takes it on faith that he'll keep his mouth shut, lets him get away with breaking the law that the dead stay dead without even a slap on the wrist, promises him a place in the palace when he eventually dies (which may or may not imply that Hades intends to make Nico a god when he bites it, but it's certainly not normal procedure for Underworld kids), tells him to his face he deserves everything, and backs up that claim by fulfilling his wishes with no payment required or debt accrued just because Nico asked if Hades thinking he deserved everything meant he'd do so (because Nico is a little shit, we love to see it) despite Hades claiming that wasn't actually what he meant. Why would Nico trust that guy? (I know, I know, it's not proof of anything at this point because most of that hasn't happened yet. But it is funny how completely Percy's claim that Nico should distrust his dad is eventually proved wrong by Hades spoiling his kid rotten.)

#I will die defending Nico di Angelo #If Nico di Angelo has zero fans I am dead #The pjo series actually has some very deep and significant themes and it's sad that Rick sometimes seems to forget about it #Nico protection squad #I love the seven but MOA and HoH drove me insane with how bad they were to Nico #Nico di Angelo #tsats spoilers #TSATS #percy jackson #pjo #Hades pjo #Poseidon pjo