Jason Grace: A character analysis

Part 1

(While my Jason fic relies on mainly interpretation and headcanons, this one's mostly going on the limited list of Jason's life from the books. YOU'RE ALLOWED TO DISAGREE WITH ME,JUST DO IT RESPECTFULLY IN THE COMMENTS. be nice pls.)

Jason Grace is a character who was, in a way, screwed over by Rick during his writing of Heroes of Olympus and eventually Trials of Apollo. His story was very sad, but never explored to its fullest potential and in some cases didn't make sense. He's a character who is seen as 'boring' by the fandom, which , in a way, makes sense. Uncle Rick didn't do him justice, so I'm here for a Jason Grace analysis.

Firstly, Jason's incredibly depressing life. Because I do not know what vendetta that Rick had against my boy, but I would argue his story is the most tragic of everyone in the books. Yes. Even Nico.

Jason's mother was an unhinged alcoholic who was obsessed with fame. For the first 2 years of his life, he was basically looked after by his sister, who was also a young child. As hard as Thalia tried, she probably wasn't the best caregiver on account of her age. His mother was unstable, which has got to leave some scars, even if you're a young kid, because you still know what's going on to some extent. And Jupiter seemed to leave the family to their own devices after a while, not even staying for a kid. So Jason has been basically abandoned, keep track of how often that happens.

Then Jason was abandoned again, this time by his mother, left as a sacrifice for Hera. And he wasn't sacrificed just anywhere, he was left at the Wolf House, where Lupa tested him to see if he was 'pup or food'. So Jason, at two years old, was tested by a Wolf Goddess, a ruthless one at that, who threatened to kill him if he didn't live up to expectations. Just a great environment for a toddler to live in. And while the time he spends in the Wolf House is unspecified, the general consensus is that it was for a year or two. This is more of a headcanon, but the implications of 'pup or food' could show that he stayed with her longer than the average Roman demigod. In SoN, it's shown that most demigods do their Wolf House training for like, a week. And the training sounds harsh when Percy, age 16 does it. So imagine a 2 year old, going through that, constantly. Then he is off to New Rome.

In HoO, it's pointed out that Jason has 12 lines of his forearm for his years of service in New Rome. 12 lines representing 12 years of service. Jason has been serving 12 years of military service since he was around 3. So that means that this literal infant is just... in the military. How does that work? Was baby Jason just running around in little armour? Was he doing the same drills as other kids when he was much, much younger? Also the fact that in Camp Jupiter, you train for 10 years, then go to live in New Rome. But Jason has been serving for longer than that, with 2 extra years. It seemed like he wasn't going to retire anytime soon in the books, so that also adds some mystique to his character that was never explored.

Then we move into the other things at Camp Jupiter, which is that Jason was treated like a statue or a star, instead of a person. Hazel says that he is 'more legend than boy' which is so sad! This kid, this 15 year old is seen by those around him as a hero, a legend to look up to. Did Jason have any other friends? While Reyna seems to be close, Reyna had a crush on him, and while he didn't know that, it must have made the friendship a bit... different. Jason isn't specified to have any other friends in the books, probably because everyone was to in awe of his status as a Son of Jupiter. And while Jason may care about the rules, in Roman terms he was a very radical person. He was just trying to live a calm life, to not be known only as the Son of Jupiter. He joins the least respected cohort. He tries to take less important quests. But it doesn't work, because he does get assigned big quests and while he is in the 5th cohort, people still treat him like a legendary hero instead of just a guy. And while the phrase 'victim of nepotism' is quite controversial, I think that Jason actually fits that bill.

Then we come to SoN. You know that tweet that's like: hey we're calling off the search party. we found a different guy out there we like more. That's what Camp Jupiter did to Jason. Again, he was abandoned, this time by his own Camp. Like I know 8 months is a while, but oh my gosh, do we have to elect a new praetor? There's also a contradiction. Percy is a Greek demigod, which isn't a thing the Roman's really like. Yet after a couple weeks at Camp, he's already a PRAETOR? While Jason was put down for being 'unrecognisable as a Roman', they elected a very Greek person as a praetor? He was immediately accepted into the highest position of power? Also the fact that Jason wasn't looked for. At all. While CHB was scrambling to find their boy (as they should), no one in CJ cared? Like, aren't they the ones with the giant searching eagles? It seemed like everyone forgot about him, with him being missing not being a huge thing for most people (except Hazel and Reyna to my memory, fill me in if anyone else gave two frogs) and that's gotta sting. The knowledge that your entire camp not only replaced you, but didn't bother to look.

Jason also had amnesia and never regained his memory. That must be horrible, to have chunks of your life gone, to not remember much. While Percy got everything back, Jason got nothing.

Jason goes on the quest, then comes back. He goes to CHB, goes to school. He starts having a normal life. And he gets broken up with, making him genuinely sad. And while I know that Piper had no ill intentions whatsoever when she broke up with him, that also could count as an abandonment. Because they don't really keep in touch in the book, they seem to go their separate ways. So kinda half of an abandonment, even though both parties weren't in blame.

Finally we have his death. While Thalia got turned into a tree by Zeus, a slightly caring act for a god, Jason died. This could be because Jupiter is crueller than Jason or it could be because of the cycle of patricide, with Jupiter killing his father, who did the same to his father. Maybe it's because of his paranoia. Maybe it's because Jason called Jupiter unwise, but it still counts as an abandonment. The god saved Thalia (she could be seen as non threatening, not a killer. Not someone who could carry on the tradition of son killing father) and abandoned Jason, left him to die the 'heroes death'.

Jason's life has been one big struggle and rejection. 4.5 times, he was abandoned, left somewhere by someone. Left to die in the end. He was a child soldier, meaning that he was a kid that never got to be a kid, just a tool for the gods, for years and years. And he struggled with making friends, making new rules, trying to push the camp into the future. Seen as unroman, even Reyna says it. That's an awful life, one that Rick Riordan never explored and one that's contradicted at times.