I loooooove crossovers, especially Harry Potter and Percy Jackson crossovers (PJO/Avengers crossovers are a very close second).
But... I have some issues with PJO/HP crossovers... or more specifically, how they're written.
This rant's such an unorganized mess but just bear with me, guys.
Now let's start!
(I hope I don't offend anyone, but if I do... sorry?)
(THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS GUYS!!! IT'S A RANT! REMEMBER THAT!)
CANON CHARACTERS ONLY!
I swear to god, like, 99% of these fics have the exact same plots.
'The gods tell the demigods to help the wizards in the upcoming war'
???!!
First of all, the gods wouldn't give a shit about the wizarding world, except maybe Hecate but that's only if you write her as the creator of the wizarding world. But half of the time, Hecate isn't mentioned in these fics so yeah.
The gods are always like "you gotta join their war because if Voldemort wins, it could be the end of everything"
😂 😂 😂
Why the fuck are the gods acting as if Voldemort's the new Kronos? Voldemort is nothing! He's a mortal! He might be a threat to the Wizarding world but he just needs to piss off the wrong monster, deity, immortal, demigod, and it's bye-bye him.
Oh but Voldemort's joining ranks with Kronos and Gaea?!?!?!? Ohhhh nooo!
First of all, wtf could Voldemort even give them in exchange? What use is he to a Titan or a Primordial? Oh he could help them in the war to defeat the Olympians? Yeah, and he gets his wand stolen or broken in the middle of battle, now what?
Second of all, Voldemort would feel too threatened to join them. Literal gods, Titans, or Primordials who are actually truly immortal? Demigods with super powers and super abilities? Monsters far more vicious then the ones in the wizarding world? HE WOULD FEEL SO LAME AND POWERLESS, HE WOULD HATE IT! That completely shatters his whole 'purebloods are more superior to everyone else' ideal. It's a blow to the ego! When he makes alliances with other creatures like the werewolves, giants, etc, he makes sure they know that he's still above them. If he were to join Kronos or Gaea, he would be a lot lower in their hierarchy. He's a fucking narcissist, he wouldn't want to join forces where he would have lesser power.
It's so aggravating to read about, and it's even worse because 90% of the stories on fanfiction.net, Wattpad, and sometimes even Quotev, are exactly like this!
And then comes the second most overused plot: Voldemort is Percy's grandfather
Okay, I could see the comedic reason for giving Percy another evil grandpa, it's very on-point with Percy's shitty luck 😂
But everything else beyond that is where I stop enjoying them.
In these books, Dumbledore somehow finds out about Percy being Voldemort's grandson and tracks him down in New York. Then he, either by himself or with other member's of the Order, go over to visit him. He meets the Jacksons (and Paul) and tells them that Percy has to go all the way to Britain to attend their school and...
Sally... accepts???
What???
NO!
Sally fucking Jackson would never allow her baby boy to go all the way to a different continent just to attend some fucking school (he wouldn't even be able to get any credits from Hogwarts, how's that gonna help him in the future), WHERE EVERYONE WOULD HATE HIM??? Why on Earth would she allow her son to go to hostile territory ESPECIALLY AFTER EVERYTHING THAT'S ALREADY HAPPENED TO HIM?!
"Oh but Percy's the one who agrees and because of his fatal flaw, he just HAS to help them in the war!"
Uhhhh no he fucking wouldn't??? His fatal flaw is loyalty, which is correct, but he has no fucking loyalty to these people. He's never met them and they hate him just because of who his grandfather is, why would he help? Especially after dealing with two wars, why would he throw himself in a third one that has very little to do with him?
"The gods told him to help because Voldemort's a danger to the divine world"
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
Again with this shit? No, bitch, no. 😂
And then there's the next overused plot: 'The seven (+ Thalia, Reyna, Nico, Will, and Calypso) go to Hogwarts' for whatever reason.
I highly doubt seven of the most powerful demigods in the world (with other very powerful demigods) are needed to help Britain with their pest problem. The most they'll need is Nico, who could easily kill Voldemort.
Speaking of Nico! That's my next topic!
'Nico is the younger brother of Voldemort' plots.
😂 😂 😂 Okay, the only reason I like these sort of stories is because I find it so hilarious that Voldemort's pretty much the big brother that the little brother just constantly shits on 😂 😂 😂 But other then that, everything else about these stories are lame.
Because of Nico's dark clothes and dark personality, people almost always assume that he's a Death Eater. I mean, sure everyone in the Wizarding World's hella judgmental, but I'm pretty sure more sharper characters like Hermione, Remus, Moody, Dumbledore, Sirius, etc, can easily catch that Nico's definitely not a Death Eater.
First obvious thing are his clothes. He walks around in oversized clothes like an aviators jacket, black tee-shirts, and jeans. That's a very Muggle attire and anyone who believes in pureblood superiority wouldn't be caught dead in those kind of clothes. Death Eaters probably like dressing in actual wizarding outfits with the cloaks, robes and other outdated fashion. Not... jeans and tee-shirts. The next obvious thing would he his treatment towards other characters. If he treats Hermione (a muggle-born) or the Weasleys (blood traitors) the same as he would treat anyone else, then he obviously doesn't care about pureblood believes that Muggle-borns and blood traitors are inferior, etc.
NOW MOVING ON!!! This next one's not really a plot, but more like something writers include in their plots.
Snape, Draco, Luna, and Neville are demigods, for some reason. Draco and Luna are children of Athena, Neville's the son of Demeter, and Snape (I think?) is a son of Hades.
🤢 Damn Nico, that's gotta suck, I'm so sorry sweetie 🤮🤮🤮
But anyways, they keep their demigod identities a secret (understandable), but apparently Draco and Snape were only pretending to be assholes??? Why?? What's the point of making them nice, you're literally just making them OOC then.
If Draco was a demigod, he would not be nice about it. If anything, he'd be even worse. He's not a full mortal, he's half god, do you have any idea what an ego boost that would be? He would be so much more brattier, self-entitled, and narcissistic. He'd probably look down on everyone in school, even his own Pureblood peers because "I'm half-god and you're not! Hahaha, bow before me, worthless peasants!"
As for Snape being a son of Hades... 🤮 Come on guys, Nico's already miserable enough, why you gotta give him the worst brother ever? Geez... give the poor kid a break.
What I hate the most about these sorta fics is that they always demonize the Golden Trio. Always. Look, it's very accurate for them to become sus of the demigods (especially if one of them is in Slytherin), but they're not going to go around screaming and starting fights with them.
They don't even go out of their way to do that with Draco. Most of the times, they just keep away from him until Draco insults one of them and that's when they through hands. They are not gonna actively go looking for the demigods to start fights with them just because they're a little suspicious. YES, they might spy on them, gather intel on them and do research in the library, etc, but they're not gonna start any fights or screaming fests unless the demigods start it first.
WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT ANOTHER THING!!! When the demigods get sorted, the Sorting Hat gets all traumatized and shit because of everything they've been through and can't sort them properly, or they get sorted to more then one house! 🤣
Okay... I think that's all for this category, now I'm gonna talk about the next one:
OC-BASED FICS
(All my knowledge about these fics are from fics that I read back in like... 2013 or something. I have a few current fics in my library, but they're fairly new so the plot isn't that deep yet. Therefore, I'll be basing my rant on the older PJO/HP crossover fics. If PJO/HP fics are still like this today, then I'll just be disappointed ☹️)
Do people... not know... that Hecate exists???
What???
How???
Why???
HOW???
Some authors make a PJO/HP crossover fics but they just NEVER mention the literal goddess/Titaness of magic??? The fucking creator of magic??? Come on, Hecate's the best way to make a connection between the two fandoms, but she's rarely ever mentioned! Not even Circe, the other goddess of magic! What the fuck guys?!
Speaking of that, the OCs godly parent has zero relation to magic. The godly parent's either Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, aLl ThE OlYMpiANs, Apollo, or... ugh, Artemis (no hate to her, I just hate how people ignore her vow smh).
What. Is. The. Point.
Why would any of these gods be interested in the wizarding world?! The only ones that make sense are Zeus and Apollo cuz they'd bang just about anyone. I feel like this is just an excuse to make their OC hella powerful or some shit because wizarding magic + other powers from their godly parent = very very powerful.
Okay, okay, I know I'm real picky and shit, but I just wanna read an OC-based PJO/HP fic where the OCs parentage makes sense. If the godly parent was a deity of magic then that makes sense. I wanna read a reason WHY any other god would bang with a wizard/witch, like, there's never any background other then "ur the child of a god and a witch/wizard, that's it" WHERE'S THE OTHER INFO?!?!?!?! ALSO WOULD ZEUS REALLY BE CHILL WITH A HYBRID???? HE DOESN'T LIKE THREATS!!!!!
Like, the OC finds out they're a child of a wizard/witch and a god WOULDN'T THAT BE A BIG DEAL??? Why is it that everyone else is chill with it like it's a normal occurrence? If it was normal then wouldn't there be other hybrid kids too???
AND THEN WHEN THEY GET TO HOGWARTS, THEY'RE EITHER SORTED IN GRYFFINDOR OR SLYTHERIN. 😩 there's other houses, you guys! Then if they're sorted into Gryffindor (which they are, like, 99% of the time), they befriend Harry, Ron, and Hermione and suddenly the Golden Trio becomes the ✨Golden Quartet✨
STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP
There's other characters 😭 And what's worse is that the only reason these authors only group their OC with the Golden Trio is so they can paste them onto every single fucking plot point. Even the hella unnecessary ones. I once read one fic that put their OC into Harry's house just so they could be there when Dobby dropped the cake or whatever to get Harry into trouble with the Dursleys. What relevance was the OC in that scene? Absolutely none.
They even have their OCs be forced to join the tournament alongside Harry AND THERE ISN'T EVEN AN EXPLANATION WHY! It is literally random, you guys. Voldemort isn't even aware that they're a demigod, neither is Crouch, YET FOR SOME REASON THEY PUT THE OCs NAME IN THE GOBLET ANYWAYS? What is the reeeasssonnnnnnnnn?!?!?!
They literally have no relevance other than to be pasted onto every part of the canon stories, wtf. Nothing changes in the Harry Potter side, and nothing changes in the Percy Jackson side either. The OC is just............. there. Pretending to be a main character.
And I'm just like:
Sureeeeee sweetie, you're totally the MC here...
Also, why is the love interest almost always Draco Malfoy? Damn, people sure love their subs huh...
AND WHY DO THEY ALWAYS DISREGARD ALL THE PJO EVENTS TOO?!?! Like bro, KRONOS IS GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD YET YOUR DUMB ASS IS WORRYING OVER SOME SCALIE WITH INTERNALIZED RACISM???? The OCs' priorities are whack man
They're never concerned about the brewing war in the PJO side of the story, their number one concern is their love life like "oh woe is me, why can't Draco overcome his racism and just be with me??? ☹️"
AND UUUUUUUUGGGHHHHH WHEN THE SECOND TITAN WAR DOES COME THEY'RE SUDDENLY SOOOOOOOOOO CONCERNED ABOUT EVERYTHING AND THEY'RE PASTED ONTO EVERY SCENE WITH PERCY! THEY EVEN MAKE HIM WEAKER?!?!?!?
After several years of obsessing over their pathetic love life, they're suddenly the leader of the Camp Half-Blood???? Sit your ass down Marina Oceana Dolphin Seaworld Jackson, you haven't done shit to prepare for this war, you do NOT get to take Percy's lines and actions in the books HELL FUCKING NO.
There isn't even scenes of them training and their monster attack scenes are always hella short, HOW DO THEY SUDDENLY BECOME A WAR MACHINE IN THE BATTLE OF MANHATTAN????
They break the bridge instead of Percy???
They take the knife for him instead of Annabeth???
They defeat Hyperion instead of Grover, Percy, and the satyrs who worked together???
It's a miracle they had the decency to let Percy give Luke the knife instead of their super speshul OC, god forbid they steal Annabeth's "family Luke, you promised" line (idk if any of them had actually stolen her line, but I wouldn't be surprised).
And then when it's time for the gods to give gifts to the heroes... THEY OFFER THE OC IMMORTALITY TOO????
That is an offer only PERCY should be given. Why? BECAUSE PERCY IS THE CHILD OF THE PROPHECY, HE IS THE HERO OF OLYMPUS! HE LEAD THE CAMPERS TO WAR! THE OC HAS DONE NOTHING TO DESERVE THAT OFFER!
And of course, because the OC is just soooo modest and special, they kindly decline the offer and ask for something else in return. I can't remember what they usually ask because I always get super pissed off by the immortality offer thing, so I get distracted lol.
Anyways, the OC is back at Hogwarts and they're super super sad :( because they lost friends and siblings that the author never or rarely ever mentions :( awwww
And how do we know that they're sad??? Because the OC mentions it.... EVERY FUCKING TIME. HAVE THE AUTHORS EVER HEARD OF THE PHRASE "SHOW, DON'T TELL"??? I DON'T FUCKING THINK SO BECAUSE APPARENTLY THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE THEIR OC'S DEPRESSION AND TRAUMA KNOWN IS TO TALK ABOUT IT AT RANDOM TIMES!
UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHH
Oh and after the war they finally get together with Draco :3 awwwww so cute except he's still a racist bitch at that time but oh well!
But anyways, the OC goes back to Hogwarts, gets with Draco (woohoo), and blah blah blah. Then the Deathly Hallows comes in and since the OC's part of the ✨Golden Quartet✨ they go horcrux hunting. Are they any helpful in any way? Nope! But that's not surprising.
While Harry, Hermione, and Ron are angsting over the mission, the OC's angsting over Draco who broke up with her cuz of death eater business and shit. Aw
SO HORCRUX HUNTING'S DONE, THEN THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS STARTS! I can't really remember what the OCs usually do at this cuz I stopped reading, but they probably steal a lot of characters' lines and actions.
Now, I've only read a handful of PJO/HP fics that branched off onto HOO but even then they're still shit. Honestly, the OC is even worse during HOO because they literally do nothing relevant. They're just....... there. They go along with certain groups, fight some monsters, but do nothing really special that makes them unique to the other members of the Argo II. They're literally just there. They can be replaced by a trashcan and nothing different happens in the story. That's how useless the OC is in HOO.
So that's my take everyone! Wow, I'm glad to get this off my chest. I probably missed a few things, but I think I got most of the stuff I wanted to talk about.
Damn I really went off on the OC-based PJO/HP fics though. I'm sorry, but most of the ones that I've read just reeeaaally frustrated me!!! 😫 It was so bad that I decided to make my own (and it's a decision I do not regret 🥰 🥰 🥰)