annaversechase:

One of my favorite things about TLO is how the final battle is presented as a tragedy. It’s not victorious Percy vanquishing an enemy, it’s the gods’ children paying for the gods’ mistakes. When Annabeth says “family Luke, you promised,” it hits you that Luke isn’t the villain, he’s a broken boy and you don’t want him to die. Of course you root for Percy, but when you see Luke stab himself, hear his last words, it’s so gut wrenching and makes you feel kind of hollow. Because Luke wasn’t the bad guy in the end, it was the gods and their incompetence, the very people Percy was fighting for that are to blame. And that’s what war is, it’s not good vs evil, it’s complicated and messy and ultimately, a tragedy.