Nico Di Angelo: Misery Personified

 

Life throws difficulties at everyone, but Nico Di Angelo got the shorter end of the stick. The amount of pain he has gone through, ever since he was a 9-year-old, I couldn’t even fathom experiencing.

If there is a category for side-character-with-the-most-painful-backstory-and-angst-riddled-life, Nico di Angelo takes the cake. When I read about him throughout the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, I could see his transition from a bright-eyed boy to a weary, closed-off teen.

From losing a sister, being labeled king of ghosts, being ignored, saving the world and getting no credit, going to Tartarus, being trapped in a jar for months, and almost dying while delivering a 40 feet tall statue across half the world, to being shunned and bullied, Nico has been through everything.

At this point, he has been through enough to be labeled as a protagonist and have 17 books written about him. Through the first couple books of the Percy Jackson series, it pained me to see how little he was given credit for, how he was just this invisible supporting character there to create drama and ‘save’ the protagonist when needed.

In the Heroes of Olympus series, he had a much more important role. I adore all the 7 protagonists of the series, but hold a grudge against all of them for treating him as an outsider for being ‘weird’ even after he had been through literal hell.

 

Personality

I find Nico’s personality fascinating, as there are so many different layers to unwrap. He is often misunderstood to be reserved, guarded, and cynical. But, with the characters he’s closer to, like Jason, Reyna, Hazel, and Will, his true personality shines through. With them, he is sarcastic, even witty, and all his cynicism disappears to show a shy introverted boy who doesn’t know how to express his feelings, and would rather convey them through actions.

 

Childhood and the Casino

Nico was the second child of Maria Di Angelo and Hades, the God of the Dead. He and his sister, Bianca Di Angelo, were all a part of this close-knit loving family of 4, with Hades being a much more responsible dad than any of the other gods combined.

But, any child of Hades would be a powerful demigod, and the fact that he had 2 children with the same woman already, scared Zeus, the King of Gods. So, in a typical Zeus-like manner, Zeus decided he had to interfere.

What was his way of getting rid of these ‘threats’? He shot bolts of lightning at the hotel the Di Angelo’s were staying at to try and exterminate the children. Hades, sensing something was wrong managed to create a force field around Nico and Bianca, but was too late for Maria.

At a very young age, Nico faced the traumatic experience of watching his mother die.

Hades got the children reservations at Lotus Casino, a magical hotel where one wouldn’t know how much time passed throughout their stay. At the casino, Nico and Bianca never aged. If we count Nico’s age from before his stay at Lotus Casino, he would be 89 years old.

Camp Half-Blood and Bianca’s Death

When the time became right and the prophecy started, Hades sent Nico and Bianca to a mortal boarding school, where they were attacked by a manticore, and rescued by Thalia, Percy, and Annabeth, who took them to Camp Half-Blood.

Throughout this ordeal, Nico is portrayed as an excitable nine-year-old who was amazed by this whole new magical world lying open in front of him. He kept asking Percy questions, followed him around camp, and showed exceptional bravery when facing monsters, letting his natural childlike curiosity take hold of him.

Bianca di Angelo’s death was the changing point in Nico’s life. He became bitter, silent, and extremely depressed. He did not believe he belonged to Camp Half-Blood. He started talking to ghosts and earned the nickname Ghost King. This made him feel like everyone only ever saw him as the dangerous son of Hades, and he felt like he would never be accepted anywhere.

He was seen traveling alone through the labyrinth, seeking counsel from ghosts about how to revive Bianca. At one point, he became so obsessed with bringing her back, that he stopped paying attention to his own health. He had lost the will to live.

Bianca tried to convey to him that he should stop blaming people for her death and trying to bring her back to life, and Nico finally agreed to help Percy and Annabeth on their quest.

In the end, after the Battle of the Labyrinth had been fought, Daedalus offered his soul to Nico so he could exchange it for his sister’s. However, Nico could now see that his sister was happier in death and that exchanging somebody’s soul for hers was not the right thing to do.

At the end of the book, Nico is nowhere near healed, but we can see substantial character development in his personality. There are various parts of himself he still needs to work on, but those will be seen in the next blog post, which will follow Nico’s road to recovery.