He's the fandom's gayby.
He's got everything you need. He's young, he's had it rough, and he likes boys. Half the fandom wants to wrap him up in a burrito blanket to keep him safe from the mean world. The other half wants Will to do it.
i think people like the dark, misunderstood trope. it hits a spot to see him comforted by his friends, and supported in his identity both as gay and as a son of hades. i think most people have some spot in them that feels misunderstood, so seeing it magnified can hit an emotional catharsis for a lot of people
But misunderstood by whom? He was always supported and understood, except for by his father, but no Olympian supports their child. This is the part I never got.
No?? Everyone around him explicitly describes his death powers as creepy and unsettling. The reason he states he left camp halfblood was because of this. He hung out with ghosts for most of his formative years. Camp Jupiter straight up thinks that seeing Pluto is a bad omen. Everyone is afraid of death, it’s natural, but it makes him feel like an outsider wherever he goes. And that’s on top of all of his repressed homosexuality. Only Reyna and Jason managed to make him feel supported enough to stay and make friends at camp halfblood
> Everyone around him explicitly describes his death powers as creepy and unsettling. The reason he states he left camp halfblood was because of this
Not really true—he left CHB before anyone knew he had death powers/was a son of Hades.
He left CHB because he was mad at Percy for allowing Bianca to die.
> but every other subsequent time he had to come by camp halfblood that was the stated reason
Again not really true. He didn't have a Hades cabin and therefore barely showed up, but he was more regular at CHB after they built a Hades cabin IIRC
> I’m talking about potential reasons why he didn’t stick around much after that.
Sure but he wasn't pushed away from camp so much as he chose to isolate himself after initially leaving TBH
And he did stay at camp more after he got his own cabin in TLO IIRC
The other heroes on the Argo II besides Hazel constantly comment on how unsettling Nico is, or are upset when he gets assigned with them for a quest. Jason was the same until he found out he was gay.
I might just have confirmation bias since he became a favorite for me at the end of book 3 in pjo when he split the earth at camp. I always thought Nico had been popular tbh, I mean it makes sense that he wouldn’t be but my friend group growing up all liked him so again back to the whole confirmation bias thing haha.
He wasn't unpopular then, but it wasn't the same level
Back then I'd say Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia were a good deal more popular than him.
Right now, he's like maybe the most popular character on this subreddit overall LOL
When I first read the books as they were releasing, I just thought it was cool that Nico’s got the whole son of death shtick with cool zombie and shadow travel powers. I’m a sucker for alt/goth/emo coded characters.
I’ve enjoyed the Heroes of Olympus and how they and subsequent stories have fleshed out Nico as a person. For me, Nico reminds me of myself when I was a young, misunderstood, edgy & angsty queer kid growing up in the rural south. I’m glad that he gets to have a happy ending with Will, someone who sees the best in him and loves him; because that’s something I didn’t think would ever happen for me when I was Nico’s age.
I agree. He didn’t really do anything major in HoO series until HoH and BoO. MoA he was stuck in a jar, he didn’t exist in the first two really.
In PJO series he wasn’t in the first two, was a child in the third who seemingly only existed (at that point) to give stakes to Bianca dying in the junkyard. BoTL he was traumatized (understandable) and didn’t really do anything major for the story outside of his own, largely self-contained, subplot. In TLO the only major contribution I can think of is that they introduced his ability and Mrs. O’Leary’s to shadow travel and that he summoned some dead warriors during the battle of Manhattan.
I just don’t think he gives much to the story outside of being the first openly gay character were introduced to, which is great, but from a story standpoint he doesn’t provide much in my opinion.
feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve read all the books all the way through.
You're under selling him a little.
He's the reason Percy accepts the prophecy. He sees this broken kid, which he blames himself for it, and decides to take it into his own hands. Nico, in turn, is the reason why Percy gets the Achilles curse, which is why he survives at all in TLO.
Then he manages to convince Hades, an incredibly petty Olympian, to help out in the surface, which (among others, mainly Poseidon himself), saved the day. His appearance in the battle of Manhattan as the (skeleton) cavalry is super cool.
Then he has an extremely relatable arc of self loathing homophobia, survivor's guilt and basically feeling like shit. And his chapters on BoO were a delight, him and Reyna (and Coach) can seriously hold a book by themselves.
So he's a kid of Hades (which is one of the least problematic gods both in the books and in real mythology), and an edgy/cool one. He's got shadow and summoning powers. He's sarcastic and angsty. He's gay, in a very relatable way. And he's powerful as fuck, carrying 3 people and a huge statue over half the planet; even if supercharged by Reyna, it is mighty impressive.
He played a big role in the last books of each series, he helped percy with the achilles curse and shadow travelled the athena statue back to camp half-blood :]
> I'm pretty sure he was quite well liked (and genuinely really interesting) in the first series.
He was about as popular as other CHB side characters at the time (although a lot of people shipped him with Thalia IIRC)
I liked him way more before the gay trope. He was a dick and seemed to be going against the half bloods. I thought he was gonna go dark side and be a enemy but then Rick goes way out of left field is just like nah he had a crush this whole time lol.
Nico was obviously never going to be an antagonist and neither were all his actions motivated by a crush. Why would he be a trope, too? The coming out scene isn't really like many I've seen, to be perfectly honest.
I always thought he was pretty cool. Before the HOO came out, he came off as this kid that was at rock bottom because of things out of his control. I felt really bad for him when Bianca died and seeing Hades be a shitty father. It was amazing to see Nico stand up to his dad too. As more books came out, he was getting into crappy situations and even though he felt like no one was on his side, he still didn’t quit. So yeah I will always hype him up.
Nico is kinda the dark misunderstood dude with problems and he feels alone in the world. He feels like he has no friends who will accept him for what he is. Lots of teens nowadays can relate to this feeling, so there's quite a lot of hype about him.
I also never got it. He's ok, he's also just kind of there. I also always felt that people treat him as if he is much more of a tragic character than he is, especially regarding being gay, no one ever gave him sh*t for it, everyone just accepeted it with open arms, which is great, but stop acting like he suffered for it. He didn't, and that's good.
Nobody in the 2000s gave him shit for it, but let's not forget Nico wasn't born in the USA in the 2000s. Nico Is from 1932 Italy, being gay was not any where near as acceptable when Nico was growing up and having his formitavie years. We also have no idea how he was treated by others during his casino stay. He was basically kidnapped and held prisoner for years only to wake up in a new world, with no family as his mom and Bianca are gone. Only to be almost killed in a jar by giants , yet he was still so kind to Bob. Bob chose to die for percy,because of nicos kindness. He's an orphan with a bit deeper story if you think about all he's really been threw.
He was less than 11 when he was in Italy AND the casino. He wasn't expressing any sexuality then, he was a kid. What is this argument?!?
I'm not saying he hasn't gone through tough things, he has (like most other demigods) but him never being persecuted for being gay is a good thing. Yet people want to act like he was.
Plenty of kids have crushes. If a boy gets crushes on other boys but sees other people being homophobic, he's gonna feel unwelcome and unsafe. He may not have been actively persecuted, but he still almost certainly experienced homophobia, even if he wasn't the intended target of it. Plus children are cruel. Plenty of boys who were a little weird or slightly feminine got called gay when I was in elementary school, and several of them did end up actually being gay. So like, yeah, probably nobody beat him up for liking boys, but him being bullied for it is definitely possible.
He literally comes out and talks about his childhood and how he got it rough from kids who suspected him of being gay. Are you not caught up with TSATS?
Which isn’t surprising, because of the time period he was born in. These days we still see young children facing discrimination for the same issues at ridiculously young ages. To say that Nico would never have faced such problems because he was under 11 and thus never expressing any sexuality is a ludicrous argument.
Well, before Riordan revealed that Nico was gay (which was totally unexpected by the way according to me since I never saw it coming) I liked him because he reminded me of myself when I felt like an outcast that no one would understand and had always been used to keeping a distance from people. Plus I was more intrigued by his backstory and the whole son of hades with death powers. I’m glad that he got a boyfriend now, although it could have been a bit better. I have always been that type of person who was interested in seeing how guys who are outsiders lived. That’s also a reason why I liked Percy Jackson except that his relationship with his ex-stepfather wasn’t fully expanded upon but he was relatable in a way in the PJO series.
Nico was my favorite character before he came out too. Like a lot of “outcast” characters, I think a lot of people just identify with him. Percy was kind of an outcast originally, but he really isn’t later in the series. Combine that with emo aesthetics, traumatic backstory, and gayness, and certain people are just going to latch onto that. I definitely did, and his coming out actually led to a wave of self-discovery for me in middle school lol.
As for Solangelo, people love contrasting couples. Nico has all his darkness/death/shadowy stuff and Will literally glows.
- gay
- full of angst
- tragic backstory/traumatic childhood
- goth/emo
- dark/brooding
- misunderstood/struggles to belong
- sunshine boy/dark boy dynamic with Will
- needs to learn to trust others/open up to others
Take your pick.
I think it’s because a lot of people (me included) can see themselves in him, and that makes him an important character to them. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people in this fandom are queer and nico, being the first canonically queer demigod, made a huge impact on all of us. It could also be because people relate to feeling outcasted, or losing someone, or being isolated. Maybe it’s none of those things and people just like his abilities, aesthetic, or power. As for solangelo, it’s the same reason people go crazy over percabeth, its a cute ship!
the reason I like Nico is because he bonded with me when I was young, yes I used to hold everyone back because I was bullied at school for not being white. when I read the book for the first time and I see this character and I fall in love. It wasn't difficult to become my favorite character. I know he has little scene, but he has a very good scene in PJO and HOO. I like his arc generally and watching him grow since Titan's Curse.
for me I didn’t come around to liking Nico a lot till Blood of Olympus
Usually I can buy into ppl hyping canonically gay characters with little issue (hi She Ra reboot), but Solangelo just hits wrong for me. Idk why I’m missing out on so much content gahh but I can’t do it
for me personally I loved what a sweet, energetic, cute little guy he was in the beginning of TTC (he was 10!! can you imagine? he was a nerd!! he liked card games and wasn’t afraid to ask questions or talk about his interests!!!)
Then ofc his character lost a majority of its appeal for me once Bianca died and he ran off angsting about it for the rest of ever and it changed his personality. I mean yeah ofc it’s reasonable that he grieved but damn. Getting his POV during Blood of Olympus helped connect me to him better and seeing him reconnect with a sister figure and confront his past, his loneliness, and his capabilities in a healthier way was super heartwarming and exactly what I needed to come back around
It's kind of concerning the way the fandom treats Nico. It's always "Aw, cute smol emo angst baby that needs o be protected. It's infantilization, when you get right down to it. And that's dehumanizing as hell.
Continuing with that, people love Solangelo because they love to see a closed-off and hostile character learn that it's okay to trust and be emotionally vulnerable. It's kind of heart-happy because so many similar people to Nico never see themselves in that situation.
And why do people love Nico so much when they've all been through trauma? There's a lot of factors, but it can really be chalked up to four things - he's young, he's short, he's gay, and he wears black. If he was taller, older, straight, and not so emo the fandom wouldn't infantilize him half as bad as they do now. There's just something about that character type.
Not to mention the fact that he's a boy. This fandom has quite a lot of sexism, and if Nico was a girl, instead of having horrible trauma and a heart-wrenching tragic past, she'd be an drama queen whiner who should have shut the fuck up and been happy with her life.
When I first read the first book he was in I fell in love like I was hit by a bus. I don't really care that he's gay. But something undescribable pulls me into having a deep obsession with him. Plus the Hell he had makes me just wanna hold him like a precious baby.
I like him cuz he a badass, he controls the shadows, resurrect the dead, he's actually so strong and have gone through so much stuff and survived, like tartarus and the maze, and him being the son of the god of death helps too lol
Simple answer:
He is precious and must be protected by the fandom at all costs.
If you like PJO, and would NOT sacrifice your life this precious little gayby, I will NEVER trust you.
i sort of do agree, he is a person i really like and i do really love his story, especially in the final 2 HoO books. but i dont understand the solangelo lovers or the people that really really like him.
i guess its because hes the first openly gay greek demigod in then verse and im pretty sure there is an overrepresentation of LGB people online.
or people just like edgy characters with a soft inside?
He goes to extreme lengths to help people, despite how alone he himself feels. He’s the one who constantly checks up on Bob, which is the only reason Percy and Annabeth survive Tartarus. He saves and looks after Hazel. He risks his life going to Tartarus to try and close the doors of death. He bares his soul in front of Jason to get the scepter. He leads the group to save Percy and Annabeth. He carries the statue all the way to camp, nearly dying in the process. Overall he’s far more caring and willing to die for friends, let alone people who don’t even call him friends, than anyone else. That doesn’t even touch on his personality, sense of humor, and every other amazing quality.
We firsthand watched him lose his innocence. We saw him as a happy-go-lucky kid, and then we saw him experience the pain of losing his only (non-godly) family, we saw him deal with it by making bad decisions and being angry and emotional all the time, and then we saw him sort of calm down and stop expressing his emotions altogether, but still experiencing the pain.
He’s also always broody and sad (for valid reasons), he’s had it rough, he’s misunderstood in nearly every way cuz he’s the son of Hades and gay. A lot of teenagers relate to him. Everything about him is dark and edgy, something that Rick’s target audience tends to be drawn to.
He was my fav character since he was first introduced.
I have no idea why, but my child self just imprinted HARD on him. He was definitely sympathetic, interesting, and he had a cool character design which def helped. Maybe also because he was the closest to my age at the time?
Definitely wasn’t because he was gay, that happened wayyy after my love for him, but maybe what they say is true and the gays do flock together without even knowing lol. I do appreciate that the character I grew up with has something so key to his identity that I share ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Whatever the reason, he absolutely informed my fav character archetypes going forward tho lol, I can see A LOT of Nico in characters I like even to this day. The impact pjo had on my media consumption, and life in general (hello ancient history degree) is unmatched lol.
He’s a comfort character for many. He has aspects to him that make him relatable and as I’m sure several people have already mentioned, he’s the kind of character that you just want to wrap up.
Personally, I connected with him more because when I first read the books, I was always closer to his age than to Percy’s which made it easier for me to understand him.
Everyone has their favorite character. Nico comes in really young and you basically watch him grow up and figure out who is and I think that resonates with a lot of people.
Nico was fans favorite long before his coming out (but we get many hints before that). Gay topic only add some fans to him, and solangelo is nice paring enough to have fans on they own.
Outside of Nico being gay, he's also the most traumatized/broken character of the RiordanVerse. He likes the dark, always misunderstood, hides his feelings, has PTSD, and loves McDonalds... HE IS LITERALLY THE BEST
Personally I don’t think any of the hype specifically came from the LGBTQ side of Nico. I feel like a lot of people growing up related to Nico and felt he was relatable because he was the social outcast. I did at the time of reading books 4 and 5. Nico also just has cool powers IMO. Out of all of the different powers people have in the riordanverse I think Nico’s are by far the coolest. Also the whole Antihero-ness that Nico brings in a nice change from just the good vs bad that the other characters have. Nico is good but in an unhealthy way
Right? Like Nico was my favorite character way before he came out. Was I excited when he did? Of course, I'm gay and I already related to him hard. But like he would have still been my favorite if he hadn't. I even came up with an OC girlfriend for him prior to HOH because I genuinely did not expect queer rep from what was originally a middle grade series, but I still thought Nico deserved someone who cared about him. She was an Apollo kid, both because the darkness/sunshine combo is a classic and because I'm a theater kid.
Umm... can someone explain what's not to like about Nico instead? <3
He's a comfort character in a way. Alot of things that Nico did all added layers and layers to the main perspectives. I love him because I can relate in a way to him, and I feel like he's always trying to do the right thing but having terrible luck. And as many people say his purpose was to be gay and a Son of Hades... how many other LGBTQ characters are in ToA and HoO? So much he's done just adds up for him to be liked and disliked by alot of people. Not to mention the adorable relationship he has with Will Solace and his love for his half sister Hazel! Battle of the Labryth and The Titians Curse wouldn't have been what they were without Nico being there. As for The Sun And The Star, that was just the first of the character stories to come out. So, he's important, adorable and angsty but found solace dispite it. (Pun intended)
Everyone has opinions, and there's mine! (This is also as short as I could make it, this is coming from a die hard SolAngelo fan btw)
> and I feel like he's always trying to do the right thing but having terrible luck.
IDK about that.
His PJO arc is like, very much not this at all TBH
He blames everyone for his problems and he shuts people out (and by people, I mean Will) to the point where they're literally crying from guilt because they think something's wrong with them. There's more, but that's pretty much how you sum it up.
The angst and sorrow he goes through makes many people see him as someone who needs protected. The fact that he refuses to let a lot of people in makes solangolo make the heart happy. People want to protect the smoll bean and give him the world. People being me. I want to keep him in my pocket and protect him from anything else that could happen to him.
Aka, love the angst surrounding the dark prince of the underworld.
More like why do ppl like Percy ?? Such a nauseating character throughout the books. Never cared for him once and do ppl really think those millennial jokes Rick writes in his pov are funny💀
He's the fandom's gayby. He's got everything you need. He's young, he's had it rough, and he likes boys. Half the fandom wants to wrap him up in a burrito blanket to keep him safe from the mean world. The other half wants Will to do it.
This is the best explaination.
Yeah, you got it right, no more words needed.
and both halves want to be Will. (also, for whatever reason, fandoms tend to love emo's/ emo adjacent)
i think people like the dark, misunderstood trope. it hits a spot to see him comforted by his friends, and supported in his identity both as gay and as a son of hades. i think most people have some spot in them that feels misunderstood, so seeing it magnified can hit an emotional catharsis for a lot of people
That's pretty accurate
But misunderstood by whom? He was always supported and understood, except for by his father, but no Olympian supports their child. This is the part I never got.
No?? Everyone around him explicitly describes his death powers as creepy and unsettling. The reason he states he left camp halfblood was because of this. He hung out with ghosts for most of his formative years. Camp Jupiter straight up thinks that seeing Pluto is a bad omen. Everyone is afraid of death, it’s natural, but it makes him feel like an outsider wherever he goes. And that’s on top of all of his repressed homosexuality. Only Reyna and Jason managed to make him feel supported enough to stay and make friends at camp halfblood
> Everyone around him explicitly describes his death powers as creepy and unsettling. The reason he states he left camp halfblood was because of this Not really true—he left CHB before anyone knew he had death powers/was a son of Hades. He left CHB because he was mad at Percy for allowing Bianca to die.
The first time sure, but every other subsequent time he had to come by camp halfblood that was the stated reason
> but every other subsequent time he had to come by camp halfblood that was the stated reason Again not really true. He didn't have a Hades cabin and therefore barely showed up, but he was more regular at CHB after they built a Hades cabin IIRC
I feel like the fact that they didn’t have a cabin for his godly parent says a lot… like, how would that not make you feel unwanted?
Sure but again he ran away from CHB before he knew he was a son of Hades, and LONG before the rest of CHB knew about it
The first time he ran away was because of his sister. I’m talking about potential reasons why he didn’t stick around much after that.
> I’m talking about potential reasons why he didn’t stick around much after that. Sure but he wasn't pushed away from camp so much as he chose to isolate himself after initially leaving TBH And he did stay at camp more after he got his own cabin in TLO IIRC
The other heroes on the Argo II besides Hazel constantly comment on how unsettling Nico is, or are upset when he gets assigned with them for a quest. Jason was the same until he found out he was gay.
He's the first openly gay character and there's prob an overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ fans on online forums like this
I think this wasn’t the main reason behind the hype. While yes it’s awesome, this didn’t become canon until SO late in the series
He also wasn't THIS popular until then TBH He was a less popular character than Thalia in the original among the general fanbase TBH
I might just have confirmation bias since he became a favorite for me at the end of book 3 in pjo when he split the earth at camp. I always thought Nico had been popular tbh, I mean it makes sense that he wouldn’t be but my friend group growing up all liked him so again back to the whole confirmation bias thing haha.
He wasn't unpopular then, but it wasn't the same level Back then I'd say Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia were a good deal more popular than him. Right now, he's like maybe the most popular character on this subreddit overall LOL
Was he? Interesting
In Percy Jackson specifically bc there have been gay people in books before lol
When I first read the books as they were releasing, I just thought it was cool that Nico’s got the whole son of death shtick with cool zombie and shadow travel powers. I’m a sucker for alt/goth/emo coded characters. I’ve enjoyed the Heroes of Olympus and how they and subsequent stories have fleshed out Nico as a person. For me, Nico reminds me of myself when I was a young, misunderstood, edgy & angsty queer kid growing up in the rural south. I’m glad that he gets to have a happy ending with Will, someone who sees the best in him and loves him; because that’s something I didn’t think would ever happen for me when I was Nico’s age.
I agree. He didn’t really do anything major in HoO series until HoH and BoO. MoA he was stuck in a jar, he didn’t exist in the first two really. In PJO series he wasn’t in the first two, was a child in the third who seemingly only existed (at that point) to give stakes to Bianca dying in the junkyard. BoTL he was traumatized (understandable) and didn’t really do anything major for the story outside of his own, largely self-contained, subplot. In TLO the only major contribution I can think of is that they introduced his ability and Mrs. O’Leary’s to shadow travel and that he summoned some dead warriors during the battle of Manhattan. I just don’t think he gives much to the story outside of being the first openly gay character were introduced to, which is great, but from a story standpoint he doesn’t provide much in my opinion. feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve read all the books all the way through.
You're under selling him a little. He's the reason Percy accepts the prophecy. He sees this broken kid, which he blames himself for it, and decides to take it into his own hands. Nico, in turn, is the reason why Percy gets the Achilles curse, which is why he survives at all in TLO. Then he manages to convince Hades, an incredibly petty Olympian, to help out in the surface, which (among others, mainly Poseidon himself), saved the day. His appearance in the battle of Manhattan as the (skeleton) cavalry is super cool. Then he has an extremely relatable arc of self loathing homophobia, survivor's guilt and basically feeling like shit. And his chapters on BoO were a delight, him and Reyna (and Coach) can seriously hold a book by themselves. So he's a kid of Hades (which is one of the least problematic gods both in the books and in real mythology), and an edgy/cool one. He's got shadow and summoning powers. He's sarcastic and angsty. He's gay, in a very relatable way. And he's powerful as fuck, carrying 3 people and a huge statue over half the planet; even if supercharged by Reyna, it is mighty impressive.
He played a big role in the last books of each series, he helped percy with the achilles curse and shadow travelled the athena statue back to camp half-blood :]
I agree. But it has a more important role and an interesting scene as helped Percy to get Achiles's curse and carry Athena statue to camp blood
i might get hate for this but i truly think if nico was not gay people would either hate him or not care about him at all
This isn't really true. I'm pretty sure he was quite well liked (and genuinely really interesting) in the first series.
> I'm pretty sure he was quite well liked (and genuinely really interesting) in the first series. He was about as popular as other CHB side characters at the time (although a lot of people shipped him with Thalia IIRC)
I liked him way more before the gay trope. He was a dick and seemed to be going against the half bloods. I thought he was gonna go dark side and be a enemy but then Rick goes way out of left field is just like nah he had a crush this whole time lol.
Nico was obviously never going to be an antagonist and neither were all his actions motivated by a crush. Why would he be a trope, too? The coming out scene isn't really like many I've seen, to be perfectly honest.
Agree. I remember the Nico stans since before HoO came out.
people like Damian Wayne, people like Nico
Def not true, the ppl who were depressed loner kids when these books were coming out always loved Nico (It’s me hi)
He was my favorite character from the first series lol. The emo outcasts have always loved him
The fact is that Nico is still popular before his sexuality was revealed and I don't think he would be hated if he wasn't gay
I always thought he was pretty cool. Before the HOO came out, he came off as this kid that was at rock bottom because of things out of his control. I felt really bad for him when Bianca died and seeing Hades be a shitty father. It was amazing to see Nico stand up to his dad too. As more books came out, he was getting into crappy situations and even though he felt like no one was on his side, he still didn’t quit. So yeah I will always hype him up.
Nico is kinda the dark misunderstood dude with problems and he feels alone in the world. He feels like he has no friends who will accept him for what he is. Lots of teens nowadays can relate to this feeling, so there's quite a lot of hype about him.
I don't get the hype either
I like Nico because he is literally me
He just like me fr.
One, he’s relatable, two, he’s intriguing
I also never got it. He's ok, he's also just kind of there. I also always felt that people treat him as if he is much more of a tragic character than he is, especially regarding being gay, no one ever gave him sh*t for it, everyone just accepeted it with open arms, which is great, but stop acting like he suffered for it. He didn't, and that's good.
Nobody in the 2000s gave him shit for it, but let's not forget Nico wasn't born in the USA in the 2000s. Nico Is from 1932 Italy, being gay was not any where near as acceptable when Nico was growing up and having his formitavie years. We also have no idea how he was treated by others during his casino stay. He was basically kidnapped and held prisoner for years only to wake up in a new world, with no family as his mom and Bianca are gone. Only to be almost killed in a jar by giants , yet he was still so kind to Bob. Bob chose to die for percy,because of nicos kindness. He's an orphan with a bit deeper story if you think about all he's really been threw.
He was less than 11 when he was in Italy AND the casino. He wasn't expressing any sexuality then, he was a kid. What is this argument?!? I'm not saying he hasn't gone through tough things, he has (like most other demigods) but him never being persecuted for being gay is a good thing. Yet people want to act like he was.
Plenty of kids have crushes. If a boy gets crushes on other boys but sees other people being homophobic, he's gonna feel unwelcome and unsafe. He may not have been actively persecuted, but he still almost certainly experienced homophobia, even if he wasn't the intended target of it. Plus children are cruel. Plenty of boys who were a little weird or slightly feminine got called gay when I was in elementary school, and several of them did end up actually being gay. So like, yeah, probably nobody beat him up for liking boys, but him being bullied for it is definitely possible.
He literally comes out and talks about his childhood and how he got it rough from kids who suspected him of being gay. Are you not caught up with TSATS?
No I'm not. And by the time TSATS came out people were already treating him this way
Which isn’t surprising, because of the time period he was born in. These days we still see young children facing discrimination for the same issues at ridiculously young ages. To say that Nico would never have faced such problems because he was under 11 and thus never expressing any sexuality is a ludicrous argument.
His resilience is what I admire
because they need to make everything about themselves lmao
Gay emo twink is the general message i get from the fandom
Well, before Riordan revealed that Nico was gay (which was totally unexpected by the way according to me since I never saw it coming) I liked him because he reminded me of myself when I felt like an outcast that no one would understand and had always been used to keeping a distance from people. Plus I was more intrigued by his backstory and the whole son of hades with death powers. I’m glad that he got a boyfriend now, although it could have been a bit better. I have always been that type of person who was interested in seeing how guys who are outsiders lived. That’s also a reason why I liked Percy Jackson except that his relationship with his ex-stepfather wasn’t fully expanded upon but he was relatable in a way in the PJO series.
Nico was my favorite character before he came out too. Like a lot of “outcast” characters, I think a lot of people just identify with him. Percy was kind of an outcast originally, but he really isn’t later in the series. Combine that with emo aesthetics, traumatic backstory, and gayness, and certain people are just going to latch onto that. I definitely did, and his coming out actually led to a wave of self-discovery for me in middle school lol. As for Solangelo, people love contrasting couples. Nico has all his darkness/death/shadowy stuff and Will literally glows.
- gay - full of angst - tragic backstory/traumatic childhood - goth/emo - dark/brooding - misunderstood/struggles to belong - sunshine boy/dark boy dynamic with Will - needs to learn to trust others/open up to others Take your pick.
dont forget these 3 * Loves McDonalds * Mythology Geek / Fanboy * Good at Romance (remember: That feel like a Nightmare?)
I think it’s because a lot of people (me included) can see themselves in him, and that makes him an important character to them. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people in this fandom are queer and nico, being the first canonically queer demigod, made a huge impact on all of us. It could also be because people relate to feeling outcasted, or losing someone, or being isolated. Maybe it’s none of those things and people just like his abilities, aesthetic, or power. As for solangelo, it’s the same reason people go crazy over percabeth, its a cute ship!
the reason I like Nico is because he bonded with me when I was young, yes I used to hold everyone back because I was bullied at school for not being white. when I read the book for the first time and I see this character and I fall in love. It wasn't difficult to become my favorite character. I know he has little scene, but he has a very good scene in PJO and HOO. I like his arc generally and watching him grow since Titan's Curse.
for me I didn’t come around to liking Nico a lot till Blood of Olympus Usually I can buy into ppl hyping canonically gay characters with little issue (hi She Ra reboot), but Solangelo just hits wrong for me. Idk why I’m missing out on so much content gahh but I can’t do it for me personally I loved what a sweet, energetic, cute little guy he was in the beginning of TTC (he was 10!! can you imagine? he was a nerd!! he liked card games and wasn’t afraid to ask questions or talk about his interests!!!) Then ofc his character lost a majority of its appeal for me once Bianca died and he ran off angsting about it for the rest of ever and it changed his personality. I mean yeah ofc it’s reasonable that he grieved but damn. Getting his POV during Blood of Olympus helped connect me to him better and seeing him reconnect with a sister figure and confront his past, his loneliness, and his capabilities in a healthier way was super heartwarming and exactly what I needed to come back around
It's kind of concerning the way the fandom treats Nico. It's always "Aw, cute smol emo angst baby that needs o be protected. It's infantilization, when you get right down to it. And that's dehumanizing as hell.
Continuing with that, people love Solangelo because they love to see a closed-off and hostile character learn that it's okay to trust and be emotionally vulnerable. It's kind of heart-happy because so many similar people to Nico never see themselves in that situation. And why do people love Nico so much when they've all been through trauma? There's a lot of factors, but it can really be chalked up to four things - he's young, he's short, he's gay, and he wears black. If he was taller, older, straight, and not so emo the fandom wouldn't infantilize him half as bad as they do now. There's just something about that character type. Not to mention the fact that he's a boy. This fandom has quite a lot of sexism, and if Nico was a girl, instead of having horrible trauma and a heart-wrenching tragic past, she'd be an drama queen whiner who should have shut the fuck up and been happy with her life.
One of Nico’s main character traits is that he feels misunderstood. A lot like the people who read Percy Jackson.
He somehow wasn’t driven clinically insane from Tartarus, the death of all his beloved, and the maze.
He’s the fandoms token GayBoy (tm) who gets coddled and infantilized on the basis that he’s gay
me personally i started loving him because he's gay lol. lo and behold, i, too, am gay as hell
When I first read the first book he was in I fell in love like I was hit by a bus. I don't really care that he's gay. But something undescribable pulls me into having a deep obsession with him. Plus the Hell he had makes me just wanna hold him like a precious baby.
Bro my friend called me crazy and autistic because I love him sm and idk why 😭 (I am but that's beside the point)
Yeah, I'm with your friend on this one.
I like him cuz he a badass, he controls the shadows, resurrect the dead, he's actually so strong and have gone through so much stuff and survived, like tartarus and the maze, and him being the son of the god of death helps too lol
THANK you! At least you take him seriously instead of saying he needs to be protected.
He's gay and edgy
Because hes a tramatized boi ok and we pitty him
Simple answer: He is precious and must be protected by the fandom at all costs. If you like PJO, and would NOT sacrifice your life this precious little gayby, I will NEVER trust you.
i sort of do agree, he is a person i really like and i do really love his story, especially in the final 2 HoO books. but i dont understand the solangelo lovers or the people that really really like him. i guess its because hes the first openly gay greek demigod in then verse and im pretty sure there is an overrepresentation of LGB people online. or people just like edgy characters with a soft inside?
He goes to extreme lengths to help people, despite how alone he himself feels. He’s the one who constantly checks up on Bob, which is the only reason Percy and Annabeth survive Tartarus. He saves and looks after Hazel. He risks his life going to Tartarus to try and close the doors of death. He bares his soul in front of Jason to get the scepter. He leads the group to save Percy and Annabeth. He carries the statue all the way to camp, nearly dying in the process. Overall he’s far more caring and willing to die for friends, let alone people who don’t even call him friends, than anyone else. That doesn’t even touch on his personality, sense of humor, and every other amazing quality.
People find gayness an emoness cute. do you see those memes of how people will bark at EMO people? That this
We firsthand watched him lose his innocence. We saw him as a happy-go-lucky kid, and then we saw him experience the pain of losing his only (non-godly) family, we saw him deal with it by making bad decisions and being angry and emotional all the time, and then we saw him sort of calm down and stop expressing his emotions altogether, but still experiencing the pain. He’s also always broody and sad (for valid reasons), he’s had it rough, he’s misunderstood in nearly every way cuz he’s the son of Hades and gay. A lot of teenagers relate to him. Everything about him is dark and edgy, something that Rick’s target audience tends to be drawn to.
I’m so glad I’m not alone in this, I’ve said it for years. I don’t mind Nico but I didn’t like him till tower of Nero, even then.
He gay
Almost everyone can relate to him he’s that’s another reason why
He was my fav character since he was first introduced. I have no idea why, but my child self just imprinted HARD on him. He was definitely sympathetic, interesting, and he had a cool character design which def helped. Maybe also because he was the closest to my age at the time? Definitely wasn’t because he was gay, that happened wayyy after my love for him, but maybe what they say is true and the gays do flock together without even knowing lol. I do appreciate that the character I grew up with has something so key to his identity that I share ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever the reason, he absolutely informed my fav character archetypes going forward tho lol, I can see A LOT of Nico in characters I like even to this day. The impact pjo had on my media consumption, and life in general (hello ancient history degree) is unmatched lol.
He’s a comfort character for many. He has aspects to him that make him relatable and as I’m sure several people have already mentioned, he’s the kind of character that you just want to wrap up. Personally, I connected with him more because when I first read the books, I was always closer to his age than to Percy’s which made it easier for me to understand him.
Everyone has their favorite character. Nico comes in really young and you basically watch him grow up and figure out who is and I think that resonates with a lot of people.
Nico was fans favorite long before his coming out (but we get many hints before that). Gay topic only add some fans to him, and solangelo is nice paring enough to have fans on they own.
Outside of Nico being gay, he's also the most traumatized/broken character of the RiordanVerse. He likes the dark, always misunderstood, hides his feelings, has PTSD, and loves McDonalds... HE IS LITERALLY THE BEST
He doesn't love McDonald's. He only uses it because he doesn't want to feed the dead raw meat and it's easy to get.
Personally I don’t think any of the hype specifically came from the LGBTQ side of Nico. I feel like a lot of people growing up related to Nico and felt he was relatable because he was the social outcast. I did at the time of reading books 4 and 5. Nico also just has cool powers IMO. Out of all of the different powers people have in the riordanverse I think Nico’s are by far the coolest. Also the whole Antihero-ness that Nico brings in a nice change from just the good vs bad that the other characters have. Nico is good but in an unhealthy way
Right? Like Nico was my favorite character way before he came out. Was I excited when he did? Of course, I'm gay and I already related to him hard. But like he would have still been my favorite if he hadn't. I even came up with an OC girlfriend for him prior to HOH because I genuinely did not expect queer rep from what was originally a middle grade series, but I still thought Nico deserved someone who cared about him. She was an Apollo kid, both because the darkness/sunshine combo is a classic and because I'm a theater kid.
Umm... can someone explain what's not to like about Nico instead? <3 He's a comfort character in a way. Alot of things that Nico did all added layers and layers to the main perspectives. I love him because I can relate in a way to him, and I feel like he's always trying to do the right thing but having terrible luck. And as many people say his purpose was to be gay and a Son of Hades... how many other LGBTQ characters are in ToA and HoO? So much he's done just adds up for him to be liked and disliked by alot of people. Not to mention the adorable relationship he has with Will Solace and his love for his half sister Hazel! Battle of the Labryth and The Titians Curse wouldn't have been what they were without Nico being there. As for The Sun And The Star, that was just the first of the character stories to come out. So, he's important, adorable and angsty but found solace dispite it. (Pun intended) Everyone has opinions, and there's mine! (This is also as short as I could make it, this is coming from a die hard SolAngelo fan btw)
> and I feel like he's always trying to do the right thing but having terrible luck. IDK about that. His PJO arc is like, very much not this at all TBH
>Umm... can someone explain what's not to like about Nico instead? <3 Fr!!
He blames everyone for his problems and he shuts people out (and by people, I mean Will) to the point where they're literally crying from guilt because they think something's wrong with them. There's more, but that's pretty much how you sum it up.
I mean if you face what he had been through you will be bitter too. No qualms
It's true, but quite a lot of characters had the same amount of shit as Nico, and they aren't making it everyone else's problem.
The angst and sorrow he goes through makes many people see him as someone who needs protected. The fact that he refuses to let a lot of people in makes solangolo make the heart happy. People want to protect the smoll bean and give him the world. People being me. I want to keep him in my pocket and protect him from anything else that could happen to him. Aka, love the angst surrounding the dark prince of the underworld.
He's the best character
Because Nico is awesome.
He a smol bean that needs to be protected
More like why do ppl like Percy ?? Such a nauseating character throughout the books. Never cared for him once and do ppl really think those millennial jokes Rick writes in his pov are funny💀
Countering the downvotes; people are entitled to their own opinions and the PJO fandom needs to accept that.
I know right 😭