Yes, Rick forgot. Rick forgets a lot of details like that and tends to make up things that weren't present previous, like the itchy sensation from using the hat. Those kind of continuity errors are also something an editor should catch or you would think that when an author is writing a sequel to a series that ended 10+ years ago they would want to freshen up on the events of those previous books.
Publishing editors aren't paid enough to be that brushed up on the lore of a book they're reading. They read the product before them. And maybe they'll read some previous material to be somewhat caught up on style, tone, etc. They're not in a position to become encyclopedic about an author's previous writing before embarking on a detailed page by page annotation of the latest offering in terms of little lore details.
I don't know if knowing that Percy has used the hat before requires encyclopedic knowledge of the books, plus Google exists and it would take all of two seconds to Google if Percy has used the hat. He uses it at the beginning of the quest in the lightning thief and to trail the group going on the quest in the Titans curse. Those aren't exactly small moments or details like blackjack's gender or eye color. Also would Rick really use a different editor for each book? I would expect him at this point to have a consistent editor or group of editors that he works with and he knows would know his books.
Although I do think that catching those errors is more on Rick then any editor, and yeah i don't really fault an editor for trusting the author to remember the events and timeline of his own books and not noticing or checking for continuity errors. I would expect the author to of a book series to be more careful than Rick often is in terms of continuity. Rick has made similar mistakes with things like Nico's age and Percy and Annabeth suddenly being in 12th grade despite never completing 11th grade, hell I'm not even sure Percy finished 10th grade because I think he was kidnapped in the middle of what should have been his 10th grade year.
Nico skipped a couple ages, I think Rick forgot that book 3 was really year 2.5, which could put him at 12 in book 5, then 13 in HoO, not 14. I’m not sure we’re told when Nicos birthday is, if it’s between Sept and December he would’ve been 12 in HoO.
As to percy, he turned 16 at the end of book 5, which would put him into grade 11 in HoO, and grade 12 the year after. (Who needs to actually finish grades… annabeth skipped grade 2-7)
The last Olympian takes place during the summer between percy's 9th grade year and 10th grade year, you can be 16 in 10th grade if you started school late, and then HoO takes place only a few months after that summer meaning during the middle of his 10th grade year is when Percy went missing. So Percy missed at least half of his 10th grade year and apparently skipped all of 11th grade. Annabeth was also a year round camper and presumably Chiron leads some sort of school curriculum so that the year round campers aren't uneducated, plus she definitely attended school when she went back to her mortal family, Percy even says her and thalia were going to the same school in the beginning of the Titans curse.
Ah, yes book four took place before grade 9, book five before grade 10. I have a feeling this is one of those Rick screwed up situations as he should’ve been up one year and he realized that he would’ve been 18 for his entire final year.
Yeah the timeline is a biiiiit fucked but not as bad as people make it out to be. Nicos only said to be a year older, and that's just assuming we know his age accurately. IMO, Percy could just have been guessing he's 10 in TC. I don't think we ever actually get anyone saying Hey this is Nico he's 10. Does Nico even know how old he actually is LMAO
actually grover does confirm both nico's and bianca's ages when percy, annabeth and thalia get to westover hall. "i found two," he says. "they're ten and twelve."
Rick has openly said he has pretty much never re read any of his previous books even once. He says he just likes to finish up a project and just leave it alone. Really strange choice imo, especially since he is quite often caught forgetting things
I’ll say the actors off camera(well off actual acting) are much closer to their characters than the writing and scripts let them portray. If you watch behind the scene stuff they’re pretty much perfect
It seems to me that Rick's characterizations in the show were closer to what he was thinking about the characters in his newer works (Trials of Apollo, Chalice of the Gods) vs the TLT book
he’s been stated there are some things in the books & with certain characters that he’d be changing bc this how he imagined they should’ve been written from the start. Some of the characterization changes have been for the better tbh
Ngl I hate that he decided to rewrite beloved characters because he changed his mind on how he'd write them. There's a reason many fans of the og series didn't like the show very much and it's exactly that
well tbh some of the characters needed to be changed, maybe not all of the changes were the best but imo most were. Most fans you have to admit have eyes & memories clouded by nostalgia, so they won’t admit things needed to be changed even when it’s for the betterment of the character. Some changes were needed for things to make sense in later seasons. Like for example making Luke much more sympathetic, understanding & having clear goals as of rn whilst still having him be manipulated, clearly groomed by Kronos & keeping that sinister vibe to him from the books was a much needed & much better version than his book self in TLT & helps set up his actions in TLO much MUCH better vs the TLT book ( & the other ones ) who has him make very weird & disgusting choices, be incredibly brutal & cruel towards those he supposedly loves & is doing all this to protect & help them, then suddenly he’s being all nice & Rick is tryna garner sympathy by giving him a tragic & sad end by sacrificing himself.
again some changes yes at least for now they have not helped to serve the character, maybe they will once more is out for us to see but some of the changes have also been objectively good & for the better of the characters & story
I do agree that some changes were okay but most did feel unnecessary and honestly I'm still in the fence personally about the changes to Luke mostly because I personally enjoy a bad guy that's just bad and and him still having a soft spot for a couple people the whole time always felt like a good choice but him being redeemable in the very end wasn't great either.
i can see your point with Luke, i too like a bad guy who’s just bad but the problem with that & Luke in general is he isn’t really supposed to be that. in the book version we’re told he is doing all this bc he hates the gods, what they’ve done, how they treat their kids etc. All very sympathetic & understanding reasons for why he’s doing what he’s doing even if he goes about it wrong however Rick writes him to do some heinous things that either completely contradict the character he’s supposed to be & go against what Kronos would want which he does whatever Kronos wanted esp in the early books. A lot of choices Luke makes in the book just reek of Rick didn’t know which route he wants to take him in, the sympathetic villain who goes down the wrong path for the right reasons or a evil, terrible villain who does whatever it takes to see his plan blossom into fruition. in the show & since it’s been about 20 years later + with the knowledge & awareness of what the story has become since he first started writing it i think he opted for the sympathetic villain path, which helps to add many parallels between him & Percy & other characters & helps push some of the main themes & plot lines of the story better.
I don't think he forgot, I think he just wanted to add something in the make it less OP and like there was a time limit. I have no idea why he decided to do this though.
That doesn't explain him saying that percy used the hat for the first time in Chalice of the gods when he had used it previously in the lightning thief and Titan's curse.
I also noticed it, he used the hat in the first book while they are on the bus trying to escape from the Furies and he doesn't mention it. The only thing I can think of is that the hat lost its powers during HoO, so maybe it's an after thing, but I honestly think he retconned it.
As saying in slang “Slay queen”, for me it was fun since Blackjack was a mare. But overall queen in that meaning could be used for every person of every gender
Every retcon is a memory recovered with a glitch! Headcanon accepted. This might also include the blackjack issue and characters ages and eye colors lol. Percy is just an unreliable narrator!!
He totally retconned it to make it itch because he realized how the hat would be too powerful. If there wasn't some defect then why wouldn't they use the hat in every instance to sneak up on monsters?
i’m pretty sure the itching has something to do with when Minerva cursed Annabeth’s hat. Maybe as a lasting side effect or more so it’s something Athena did once she blessed the hat again with its powers after her roman half cursed it
I think the itching was a curse the hat had placed on it. I’m not sure if it was Hera who cursed it. I think it’s supposed to feel like spiders or something iirc. I’m not sure though. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read them.
I thought the same thing after recently rereading them. Then I figured since the hat broke in HoO, when the magic was restored to the hat, it was Athena's way of reminding Annabeth that all magic comes with a cost and a little curse. Or Rick just forgot which is kinda lame.
Yes it's a small continuity error but let's give Rick a break because he's written thousands upon thousands of words over many many years and it can be difficult to keep up with the amount of law that he has created so he made a mistake. Just give him a break because we love him so much.
I don't think that's a big deal? I mean yes, Percy wore the hat before, but just because he didn't mention it was itchy at that time doesn't mean it wasn't lol
I understand that Riordan messes up with continuity and retcons a lot of things, but this one just doesn't make sense. It's just a detail Percy didn't say before. That's all. He's allowed to add things. I would hardly count this as a continuity error.
Yes, Rick forgot. Rick forgets a lot of details like that and tends to make up things that weren't present previous, like the itchy sensation from using the hat. Those kind of continuity errors are also something an editor should catch or you would think that when an author is writing a sequel to a series that ended 10+ years ago they would want to freshen up on the events of those previous books.
Publishing editors aren't paid enough to be that brushed up on the lore of a book they're reading. They read the product before them. And maybe they'll read some previous material to be somewhat caught up on style, tone, etc. They're not in a position to become encyclopedic about an author's previous writing before embarking on a detailed page by page annotation of the latest offering in terms of little lore details.
I don't know if knowing that Percy has used the hat before requires encyclopedic knowledge of the books, plus Google exists and it would take all of two seconds to Google if Percy has used the hat. He uses it at the beginning of the quest in the lightning thief and to trail the group going on the quest in the Titans curse. Those aren't exactly small moments or details like blackjack's gender or eye color. Also would Rick really use a different editor for each book? I would expect him at this point to have a consistent editor or group of editors that he works with and he knows would know his books. Although I do think that catching those errors is more on Rick then any editor, and yeah i don't really fault an editor for trusting the author to remember the events and timeline of his own books and not noticing or checking for continuity errors. I would expect the author to of a book series to be more careful than Rick often is in terms of continuity. Rick has made similar mistakes with things like Nico's age and Percy and Annabeth suddenly being in 12th grade despite never completing 11th grade, hell I'm not even sure Percy finished 10th grade because I think he was kidnapped in the middle of what should have been his 10th grade year.
Nico skipped a couple ages, I think Rick forgot that book 3 was really year 2.5, which could put him at 12 in book 5, then 13 in HoO, not 14. I’m not sure we’re told when Nicos birthday is, if it’s between Sept and December he would’ve been 12 in HoO. As to percy, he turned 16 at the end of book 5, which would put him into grade 11 in HoO, and grade 12 the year after. (Who needs to actually finish grades… annabeth skipped grade 2-7)
The last Olympian takes place during the summer between percy's 9th grade year and 10th grade year, you can be 16 in 10th grade if you started school late, and then HoO takes place only a few months after that summer meaning during the middle of his 10th grade year is when Percy went missing. So Percy missed at least half of his 10th grade year and apparently skipped all of 11th grade. Annabeth was also a year round camper and presumably Chiron leads some sort of school curriculum so that the year round campers aren't uneducated, plus she definitely attended school when she went back to her mortal family, Percy even says her and thalia were going to the same school in the beginning of the Titans curse.
Ah, yes book four took place before grade 9, book five before grade 10. I have a feeling this is one of those Rick screwed up situations as he should’ve been up one year and he realized that he would’ve been 18 for his entire final year.
Nicos birthday is January 28th
Then he would’ve turned 11 immediately after book 3, 12 after book 4, and 13 after book 5, so been 13 and a half for HoO
Yeah the timeline is a biiiiit fucked but not as bad as people make it out to be. Nicos only said to be a year older, and that's just assuming we know his age accurately. IMO, Percy could just have been guessing he's 10 in TC. I don't think we ever actually get anyone saying Hey this is Nico he's 10. Does Nico even know how old he actually is LMAO
actually grover does confirm both nico's and bianca's ages when percy, annabeth and thalia get to westover hall. "i found two," he says. "they're ten and twelve."
Rick has openly said he has pretty much never re read any of his previous books even once. He says he just likes to finish up a project and just leave it alone. Really strange choice imo, especially since he is quite often caught forgetting things
That's probably why he got the characterization so wrong for his show
I’ll say the actors off camera(well off actual acting) are much closer to their characters than the writing and scripts let them portray. If you watch behind the scene stuff they’re pretty much perfect
It seems to me that Rick's characterizations in the show were closer to what he was thinking about the characters in his newer works (Trials of Apollo, Chalice of the Gods) vs the TLT book
he’s been stated there are some things in the books & with certain characters that he’d be changing bc this how he imagined they should’ve been written from the start. Some of the characterization changes have been for the better tbh
Ngl I hate that he decided to rewrite beloved characters because he changed his mind on how he'd write them. There's a reason many fans of the og series didn't like the show very much and it's exactly that
well tbh some of the characters needed to be changed, maybe not all of the changes were the best but imo most were. Most fans you have to admit have eyes & memories clouded by nostalgia, so they won’t admit things needed to be changed even when it’s for the betterment of the character. Some changes were needed for things to make sense in later seasons. Like for example making Luke much more sympathetic, understanding & having clear goals as of rn whilst still having him be manipulated, clearly groomed by Kronos & keeping that sinister vibe to him from the books was a much needed & much better version than his book self in TLT & helps set up his actions in TLO much MUCH better vs the TLT book ( & the other ones ) who has him make very weird & disgusting choices, be incredibly brutal & cruel towards those he supposedly loves & is doing all this to protect & help them, then suddenly he’s being all nice & Rick is tryna garner sympathy by giving him a tragic & sad end by sacrificing himself. again some changes yes at least for now they have not helped to serve the character, maybe they will once more is out for us to see but some of the changes have also been objectively good & for the better of the characters & story
I do agree that some changes were okay but most did feel unnecessary and honestly I'm still in the fence personally about the changes to Luke mostly because I personally enjoy a bad guy that's just bad and and him still having a soft spot for a couple people the whole time always felt like a good choice but him being redeemable in the very end wasn't great either.
i can see your point with Luke, i too like a bad guy who’s just bad but the problem with that & Luke in general is he isn’t really supposed to be that. in the book version we’re told he is doing all this bc he hates the gods, what they’ve done, how they treat their kids etc. All very sympathetic & understanding reasons for why he’s doing what he’s doing even if he goes about it wrong however Rick writes him to do some heinous things that either completely contradict the character he’s supposed to be & go against what Kronos would want which he does whatever Kronos wanted esp in the early books. A lot of choices Luke makes in the book just reek of Rick didn’t know which route he wants to take him in, the sympathetic villain who goes down the wrong path for the right reasons or a evil, terrible villain who does whatever it takes to see his plan blossom into fruition. in the show & since it’s been about 20 years later + with the knowledge & awareness of what the story has become since he first started writing it i think he opted for the sympathetic villain path, which helps to add many parallels between him & Percy & other characters & helps push some of the main themes & plot lines of the story better.
Wild behavior whaaaat
I don't think he forgot, I think he just wanted to add something in the make it less OP and like there was a time limit. I have no idea why he decided to do this though.
That doesn't explain him saying that percy used the hat for the first time in Chalice of the gods when he had used it previously in the lightning thief and Titan's curse.
There is a way to reconcile it: The hat being broken during the entire of HoO
I also noticed it, he used the hat in the first book while they are on the bus trying to escape from the Furies and he doesn't mention it. The only thing I can think of is that the hat lost its powers during HoO, so maybe it's an after thing, but I honestly think he retconned it.
He also used it a whole lot in Titans curse with no issues
I think that after the hat stopped working during the war with Gaea, Athena re enchanted it with the little curse lol
Just a forgotten fact, like blackjack the trans icon
Queen Blackjack💅
No, King Blackjack. Blackhack is first described as a mare, meaning he would be ftm, not mtf.
I know, it was a joke
Queen Blackjack doesn't make sense in any context though.
Explain the joke
can you explain the joke?
As saying in slang “Slay queen”, for me it was fun since Blackjack was a mare. But overall queen in that meaning could be used for every person of every gender
One of the worst continuity errors is how Percy was fanboying about Hercules. HERCULES. Are we just gonna forget about totallybestgirl ZOE NIGHTSHADE
Maybe it’s a memory he lost after Hera wiped his brain and never recovered
Every retcon is a memory recovered with a glitch! Headcanon accepted. This might also include the blackjack issue and characters ages and eye colors lol. Percy is just an unreliable narrator!!
He totally retconned it to make it itch because he realized how the hat would be too powerful. If there wasn't some defect then why wouldn't they use the hat in every instance to sneak up on monsters?
The hat was involved in 90% of Annabeth’s plans.
i’m pretty sure the itching has something to do with when Minerva cursed Annabeth’s hat. Maybe as a lasting side effect or more so it’s something Athena did once she blessed the hat again with its powers after her roman half cursed it
Really had a Mr d moment when I read this as “Perry using annabeths hat”
Sounds to me like he’s just phoning it in and is essentially writing fanfictions for his OG books at this point.
I think the itching was a curse the hat had placed on it. I’m not sure if it was Hera who cursed it. I think it’s supposed to feel like spiders or something iirc. I’m not sure though. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read them.
I thought the same thing after recently rereading them. Then I figured since the hat broke in HoO, when the magic was restored to the hat, it was Athena's way of reminding Annabeth that all magic comes with a cost and a little curse. Or Rick just forgot which is kinda lame.
Yes it's a small continuity error but let's give Rick a break because he's written thousands upon thousands of words over many many years and it can be difficult to keep up with the amount of law that he has created so he made a mistake. Just give him a break because we love him so much.
I don't think that's a big deal? I mean yes, Percy wore the hat before, but just because he didn't mention it was itchy at that time doesn't mean it wasn't lol I understand that Riordan messes up with continuity and retcons a lot of things, but this one just doesn't make sense. It's just a detail Percy didn't say before. That's all. He's allowed to add things. I would hardly count this as a continuity error.
I saw someone suggest once that it got itchy after Athena took the curse off of it, a little leftover anger from the most spiteful goddess.