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28: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Part One - Episodes 1-4
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In this episode of Book Watch, we’re experimenting with a new format and diving into the first half of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 which adapts book two of the young adult series, The Sea of Monsters. The series and the previous adaptation film with the same title are available on Disney+. How well did the first half of the show portray the book and how did the movie tie in (if it did at all)?
In Part 1, we review the cast of the show and movie adaptations and break down episodes 1-4 of the show and their corresponding book chapters.
Join hosts Chris, Jordyn, and Sarah-Daye as they break down what worked, what didn’t, and whether this adaptation does the book justice.
Tell us your thoughts! Did you love or hate this adaptation? Let’s discuss in The Book Watch Lounge on Facebook
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back, Book Watchers, to another episode. um This week, we are talking about Percy Jackson and the Olympians book two, Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. This is book two of the original Percy Jackson series, and it was published in 2006. And we will be comparing it to the brand new 2025 season two of the Disney Plus TV show, as well as the barely mentioned 2013 film, um which all have the same name.
00:00:29
Speaker
The film that we shall not discuss, but we actually are going to discuss, was directed by Thor Frudenthal. You might recognize him as the director of one of the live-action Diary Wimpy Kid movies. um That's the only other thing that I've heard of his. and The TV show on Disney Plus is adapted by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg. And the audiobook that I found on Audible but did not listen to is narrated by Jesse Bursine. I'm Jordan.
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm Sarah I'm Chris. And we're going to get started right after these messages.
00:01:13
Speaker
Welcome to Book Watch, the podcast where pages meet screens. Each week we dive into the world of adaptations, comparing beloved books with their cinematic counterparts. From faithful retellings to bold reimaginings, we'll break down what worked, what didn't, and what made each adaptation unforgettable. Whether you are a bookworm, a movie buff, or both, grab your bookmark, grab your popcorn, and let's watch some books.
00:01:37
Speaker
Okay, welcome back. Thanks for listening to our messages. So we are changing things up this week. We are experimenting with a new kind of format um for their Percy Jackson and for future TV show adaptations. So we are going to do a quick run through review slash review of the cast members of the show and the movie. And then we're going to cover in depth episodes one through four of the show.
00:02:04
Speaker
And then next week, we will cover episodes five through eight of the show. And as we go through the show, of course, we'll be comparing contrasting to the source material of the book and that movie that I've mentioned. um So yeah, bear with us as we navigate this new format. Please give us feedback if you like it, you don't like it, um how you want us to go move going forward. But we thought that this would be good since we've already covered a Percy Jackson book. We didn't want to take a whole episode reviewing characters that we've already kind of talked about. And we really want to get into that meat and potatoes of... all the changes that have been made for this book. Without further ado, quick review of our characters. So we've got Percy Jackson himself. He's played in the show by Walker Scobell, and he's played in the movie by Logan Lerman.
00:02:56
Speaker
Next, we've got Annabeth Chase in the show played by the darling Leah Sava Jeffries and the iconic Alexandra Daddario in the movie.
00:03:07
Speaker
Grover Underwood played by Arian Simhadri in the show and Brandon T. Jackson in the movie.
00:03:15
Speaker
Introducing, well, Clarice LaRue, daughter of Ares. She was in season one of the show. She's played by Dior Goodjohn. She makes her film appearance in this movie and she's played by ah Levin Rambin, who you will recognize as Glimmer from The Hunger Games. Yes.
00:03:34
Speaker
um Next, we've got our new character of Tyson. So Tyson is Percy's Cyclops half-brother. and In the show, he's played by Daniel Diemer, and in the movie, he's played by Douglas Smith.
00:03:49
Speaker
um I definitely prefer Daniel Diemer's version to Douglas Smith's version, but we'll get into that. We will get into that. Luke Castellan, we remember from season one, he is played by Charlie Bushnell in the show, and he is played wonderfully by Jake Abel in the movies. um I think Jake Abel was probably the perfect casting for Luke.
00:04:12
Speaker
Charlie Bushnell was great, but especially the way he's described in the book, I always saw more Jake Abel, but... That's all on that. um We are introduced to Miss Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.
00:04:27
Speaker
And she is played in the show by Tamara Smart. And she's played by Paloma Kwiatkowski in the film in a very small um cameo kind of role.
00:04:40
Speaker
In the show, she gets more of a role. We see her in some flashbacks with baby Annabeth, and then we see her come come to us at the end. Spoilers.
00:04:50
Speaker
Sorry. ah who well what Next, we have got Chiron, who's played by Glyn Turman in the show. And in the movie, he was recast. So in the first movie, he was played by Pierce Brosnan. In the second movie, he was recast and is played by Anthony Head, who at the time apparently went by Anthony Stewart Head.
00:05:14
Speaker
ah Then we've got Mr. d who in the show is played by Jason Manzoukas, which is still perfect casting. Absolutely. But Stanley Tucci in the movie does come pretty close. Stanley Tucci is great. And so Mr. D was not in movie one. He was in movie two and Stanley Tucci plays him and Stanley Tucci is great. So Jason Manzoukas is better, but it's fine.
00:05:38
Speaker
ah And now we've got Hermes ah played again by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the show. We saw him in season one, which was a change because we did not meet Hermes in the book um for The Lightning Thief.
00:05:52
Speaker
And the movie, he is Nathan Fillion. And I kind of wish they had brought Nathan Fillion back for the show, but that's OK. Nathan Fillion does a great job as Hermes for his very small scene that he's in.
00:06:09
Speaker
And finally, we've got some new characters that did not appear in the movie. um I'll start with Tantalus. He's played by Timothy Simon. So this is a fun character from the book that never made it to screen um in the movie adaptation that came out 10 years ago. But Timothy Simons did a great job as Tantalus, I think, in the show. And we'll get more into his scenes at the beginning.
00:06:36
Speaker
And we also have a brand new character named Allison Sims and she's played by Beatrice Kitsos. This character, to my recollection, definitely does not appear in the book Sea of Monsters. To my recollection, she does not appear at all ever um in the series. So this is a brand new screen only character. um Really super quick.
00:06:58
Speaker
What did you guys think of Miss Beatrice's portrayal of this character? I feel like she was kind of there to show you that Luke had some second thoughts in a way, um but she was like all in on Kronos' plan.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so like, so you could see the kind of contrast between her 100% loyalty and then his like questioning his portrayal of Annabeth. Mm-hmm.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, definitely a good foil and good ah another addition to that dichotomy of the school and how all these demigods are having make choices. yeah um We do meet some other demigods who are have joined Luke's army in the movie. Chris Rodriguez is mentioned, who also features in the show in season two. and Ethan Nakamura, who becomes a really big character in later books.
00:08:01
Speaker
um But Allison Sims, again, I don't remember her coming up at all in the books. um But I do kind of like the introduction of demigod characters being on the other team this early, just to kind of set some higher stakes that like there are people. like Luke is not some fringe weirdo on his own with Kronos. like He does have other people who agree with him and support him. um So, yeah.
00:08:30
Speaker
And I just confirmed not in the original books. That's correct. Perfect. All right. Well, that's that. That's our really quick rundown of the characters really fast. I want to see um Chris Rodriguez because Chris Rodriguez does come in the books. He's mentioned by name and he plays a role in the books, but Not this early, if I recall correctly.
00:09:00
Speaker
He does appear in the Sea of Monsters and Titan's Curse. was going to say, I recognize the name. And the last one. Okay. But I don't think he has any speaking roles or lines or anything in the book, right? Very possible.
00:09:16
Speaker
Okay. Anyways, moving along. Hmm. So we've gotten through our characters and now we're going to start going through the episodes of the show right after this super quick full story summary. So 13 year old Percy Jackson kind of finishes seventh grade and returns to Camp Half-Blood to find that someone has poisoned Thalia's tree. the magical pine that holds the spirit of Thaliate Grace, daughter of Zeus, and provides power to the magical boundary around Camp Half-Blood that keeps monsters and mortals out.
00:09:53
Speaker
Percy also discovers that he has a Cyclops half-brother, Tyson, and that his satyr best friend Grover is being held captive by as different Cyclops named Polyphemus, who uses the magical golden fleece to lure satyrs to his island in the Sea of Monsters.
00:10:08
Speaker
The golden fleece also happens to be the only magical item powerful enough to save Thalia's tree and the rest of Camp Half-Blood. Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth, and several other friends set out on a mission to retrieve the Golden Fleece, save Grover, save camp, and battle their old enemy Luke and the growing armies of Kronos in this epic journey through Greek myth and the United States' eastern seaboard.
00:10:30
Speaker
Eastern shore. woooooop bo Can't relate. West coast, best coast. Excuse me. and You're outnumbered here. i know.
00:10:41
Speaker
he whoops. All right. So episode one of the show is titled. I play dodgeball with cannibals. And this reflects generally chapters one through five of the book.
00:10:54
Speaker
so And my biggest beef here is in neither the movie or the show, does anybody play dodgeball with cannibals? Nobody plays dodgeball. Listen, I was looking forward to that set piece. I was looking forward to that scene. I have been looking forward to seeing that scene in live action since I first read these books when I was 12. And I still don't have it. And I'm so sad.
00:11:19
Speaker
um Got to wait for the reboot now. Maybe we'll flip it into something else. yes That kind of speaks to the broader like tone shift, I think, that the show has that's different from the book. The book feels very middle school. like The humor, the tone, like the stuff that happens feels very 12, 13-year-old kid. um and the show, I think they're trying to like be a little bit more dramatic, a little bit more mature while still having age-appropriate actors.
00:11:46
Speaker
um But that's like a broader conversation that we can have kind of at the end. um Anyways, so in the book, Percy wakes up from a nightmare about Grover being chased by something. He can't quite see what it is in the dream. But he wakes up and he goes to his last day of seventh grade with Tyson. So at this point in the book, Percy does not know that Tyson is a Cyclops, nor does he know that they are related.
00:12:13
Speaker
and They're going throughout their day. They go to PE class and they are attacked by the Lystrgonian giants who throw lava dodgeballs at them. And it's a really fun fight scene and they cut it out and I'm sad about it.
00:12:28
Speaker
But Annabeth saves them and they take the Grey Sisters taxi to Camp Half-Blood where they once they arrive, they find out that the camp is already under attack by the giant golden mechanical Colchis bulls. And the tree has already been poisoned. And Percy assumes that it's Luke, but we don't actually in the book know for sure that it's Luke.
00:12:52
Speaker
It is, but we don't know for sure. The camp is dying. He can see like the grass is turning yellow and like it feels like it's dying. The air is stale and it's just not good. And we get to see Chiron as he's packing his bags.
00:13:07
Speaker
And he explains how the gods have decided that he is not fit to run camp because he is the son of Cronos. And also because he did not prevent Thalia's tree from being poisoned, nor does he know how to cure the poisoning of the tree.
00:13:23
Speaker
um And we are told that Tantalus is the new activities director alongside Mr. D while Chiron is getting the boot.
00:13:34
Speaker
So in the show, similar start at first. Percy wakes up from a nightmare about Grover. In this one, though, instead of being chased by a monster, Grover has a confrontation with our new character, Alice in Sims, as well as a but a handful of other demigods who are fighting on Luke's team for Kronos.
00:13:58
Speaker
He wakes up from his nightmare. He does a little voiceover talking about finishing seventh grade and what life is like and then we find out that Tyson is not only Percy's friend but he is aware that Tyson is a Cyclops and Tyson like fully lives with Percy and Sally in their apartment um which right off the bat I was like clutching my pearls like what do you mean how how could you do this um they the boys never even make it to school before Annabeth jumps out of the cab and says that camp's in trouble And they need to take the cab to Camp Half-Blood.
00:14:35
Speaker
Camp is under attack, but the show gets rid of the golden mechanical bulls, um which is a bummer because the movie did include that part and it was a really cool fight scene, actually. um They do keep the giants that are throwing lava balls, but it's not like an actual dodgeball game, so it's still disappointing.
00:14:59
Speaker
um And all of that is actually a distraction for Luke to poison Thalia's tree. And we do actually get to watch Luke be the one to poison the tree in the show versus, like I said in the book, it's eluded or implied and we don't actually witness him doing it.
00:15:19
Speaker
I have a question for you guys. I know that you were both very bummed about the dodgeball stuff and I am too. um But also the books read like a young adult. yeah They're very juvenile um and the humor is very juvenile, like middle school boy humor. um Not that I'm calling of those middle school What are saying But I have found that way. A, the movie's definitely aged up a lot. um Too much, I think. I think the show's a happy medium. Yeah.
00:15:51
Speaker
But do you think like the dodgeball stuff and like play like playing dodgeball with giants is like too silly? And that's why it was cut from the show. Even though it the title is – that doesn't make sense. I get that. But do you think like the show just made that decision to like age it up a little bit?
00:16:11
Speaker
I think it was a time thing. I think that getting him to school was the, ah or to camp is the point. And going back to school was going to take up too much of that time as he tried to get, you know, figure out a stuff and felt, you know, all of his internal, because a lot of that's his internal emotions of, I haven't seen Annabeth. I haven't seen, you know, it's it's him. he's embarrassed Tyson. Just internalizing stuff. Yeah. And so,
00:16:34
Speaker
I think that I liked in the book that him going to school was part of, you you're always, he's always coming back to school. That is his, his real life. He always has to come back to. and then his God life invaded that at that moment. And you, so you see, you think the worlds collide a little bit and he has to basically leave for camp in a hurry and all that without saying goodbye to his mom. And so it, it added a level of depth I felt to the story. yeah So yeah,
00:16:58
Speaker
it was i think almost a much better way to start the book but unlike the movie where they literally jump right into the camp uh it's where they are at they completely cut out him going to school at all in that one so i i agree like being serious i do understand why they cut it and i think it was probably the right choice to cut it um but i part of why i love these books so much because it makes the fantastical feel like it could be real and so I think like yeah creating more of a separation between the mythical world and the world of the gods and the real world like is a kind of a disservice because they don't feel like
00:17:42
Speaker
like they don't feel like it could happen to you like the way that the first book is opens where he's like I didn't want to be a half-blood if you think that you might be a half-blood stop reading like that kind of vibe where like like what it could be me I could be a a demigod I could I you know having that like point of view or like I could be the kid who doesn't know anything about this world and gets thrust into it was really appealing to me as, you know, a 12, 13 year old when I was first reading them. um
00:18:14
Speaker
And I think that that's important, but yeah, like for it being a show and having multiple points of views and like not just being super locked in on what's happening in Percy's head, it definitely makes sense to cut it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not still sad. Yeah.
00:18:33
Speaker
I think the cab, I told you guys this when I was reading it, but the cab to me felt very much like the ah the night bus and Harry Potter to me. Like that's how it read. And I was really enjoying that. And the movie did a good job of making it feel kind of that same sort of rushing around and, you know, them not paying attention and people almost getting hit, but them working their around it. It's pretty fun. Yeah.
00:18:53
Speaker
I liked what they did there. yeah all ah Both of the adaptations of the Grey Sisters in the taxi are pretty good. They're pretty consistent with the dialogue from the book and like the eye falling out and Percy being like, you know i'll tell you you know I'll give you the eye if you tell me what I want to know. um That kind of thing. It's just the movie changes the timing of it So instead of going to camp, they're leaving camp and taking the taxi.
00:19:17
Speaker
Which, you know, I'm glad they still included it because I think that kind of like magic and whimsy is part of why these books are one of people want to adapt these books in the first place. And so i'm glad they included that in the movie. and The movie does open with an epic needle drop. Once again, the movies, the movie music is really good. Still, you guys, they've got the fallout boy um song yeah as he's like climbing the tower. And I liked that we get to see Percy like at camp and training And like practicing, you know, agility and mobility and sword fighting and like, you know, doing things that, you know, make him more of a warrior, more of a fighter. I did like that.
00:20:05
Speaker
I do love that whole obstacle course thing too. That thing was awesome. And I would totally be into doing something like that. So yeah I was like, okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. and that's Even if it's different, it's pretty cool. And that's another thing I kind of miss in the show is not getting to live in camp that much. Like I was rereading the book and there's a whole scene of them like, There's like the harpies that go around and clean the cabins and like the harpies will eat you if you're out of bed past curfew. And like they're washing the dishes with lava to get rid of 99.9% of germs. And it's like those kinds of, yes, like they're they are so they're definitely silly and they're definitely very in middle school, but they make camp feel like a real place. And I feel like we're still kind of missing that out of the show. um for all of it. We could all could use an escape from adulthood. So, you know, reading middle school books and level books doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing. It's okay to enjoy that humor at that level. yeah
00:21:00
Speaker
I hope. So, yes, that's pretty much the first, that's the first episode, the first chunk of the book, our little exposition as we get into camp. Episode two is called Demon Pigeon's Attack and that covers broadly chapter six and seven of the book um the differences between the book and the show start from the first minute and they just keep going the whole time um I'll try to be brief but in the book basically Annabeth has a big problem with Tyson she does not like Tyson she's really mean to him she's like straight up calling him a monster and ugly and stupid and like all of these terrible things and Percy's like dude what is your problem like Why are you being so mean to him?
00:21:47
Speaker
While also feeling ashamed that Tyson is his friend and he has to kind of like look out for Tyson. um Tyson ends up getting claimed by Poseidon in front of the whole camp at dinner. And now Percy has to be like, oh, my God, like, this is my brother. Like, not only is this my friend that I have to deal with that nobody likes and he's a cyclops and nobody likes that because he's a monster technically. But now he's also my brother on top of that. And Percy has to deal with that.
00:22:19
Speaker
Percy and Annabeth, because of Tyson, it seems like because of Tyson, they're fighting and they are like, well, you know I'll make my own chariot because Tantalus has decided to bring back the chariot races instead of patrolling the borders of camp and sending out a quest to try to heal the tree. He's like, we're going to do chariot races, you know, give them give them bread and show. And like, don't don't worry about what's like the actual issues that are happening at camp.
00:22:46
Speaker
um So they create their own chariots to race and in the middle of the chariot race, the Stymphalian birds attack the campers In the book, they're saved um by playing Dean Martin music, which they steal from Chiron's office.
00:23:04
Speaker
um In the show, I like the update where they play Mariah Carey instead. I think that was really fun choice. And Ethan, my husband, actually clocked it. He was like, watch it be like Mariah Carey or something. And then sure enough, there they go. Because they said that high-pitched noises is a way to get rid of the birds. And so who better than Mariah Carey to hit that whistle tone for us?
00:23:28
Speaker
Have you seen the, um like, so side note, Millie Bobby Brown, like, on Jimmy Fallon, I think, was talking about, like, having dinner at Mariah Carey's house and how she's, she just is always singing.
00:23:43
Speaker
And she's like, ah, ah. And then, like, they followed up and Mariah Carey was on. And she, ah anyway, it was just really funny. And you guys know what I'm talking about, you know, if not, go watch it. Yeah.
00:23:57
Speaker
That seems like a weird duo, Mariah Carey and Millie Bobby Brown. but So weird, but it was so funny. I guess they have dinner all the time or something. All right, sure. i mean, after marrying her husband, I'm sure she's got all sorts of musical friends and stuff that are part of the family there. So I'm sure she sees all sorts of people that were like, oh, you you two know each other?
00:24:17
Speaker
So that is kind of the chariot section in the book. In the show, Percy and Annabeth are still kind of fighting, um but not as much. She's not nearly as mean to Tyson as she is in the book.
00:24:31
Speaker
um They create this whole scheme to break into Chiron's office to try to call him because in the show, Chiron has already been kicked out of Camp Half-Blood versus in the book, they got to have some a little conversation with him.
00:24:45
Speaker
um So... In the show, Chiron is actually the one who tells Annabeth about the golden fleece and thinks that that might be a way to to cure Thalia's tree and the poisoning. But he also says that it might be a trap.
00:25:01
Speaker
um Since Luke is the one who poisoned Thalia's tree, Chiron is worried that Kronos is setting another trap for to try to get Percy the same way that last summer um the lightning thief was a trap to get Percy. So he tells Annabeth a little bit about the great prophecy, which talks about a child of the eldest three gods and how they are either going to destroy or save the world. And says, like, OK, now that you know this, make sure you don't tell Percy about it, which is crazy because now she has to struggle with. I don't want to lie to my friend, but that's a lot of pressure.
00:25:35
Speaker
that's a whole thing throughout the show that we um that she continues to struggle with um so but chiron makes annabeth promise to not let percy leave camp versus in the book he makes her promise to keep percy safe which is a little different um and annabeth's plan to keep percy in camp is to not let him win the chariot race because the chariot race will result in you being awarded a quest which means you can leave camp to go and find the golden fleas so she um makes she tells percy let's do our own chariots that way we double our chances of winning instead of it being the result of them fighting so percy and tyson are on the poseidon chariot and annabeth and her sister bronte are on the athena chariot and annabeth tells bronte do not let percy win stop him would do whatever you have to do but do not let percy win
00:26:32
Speaker
The birds attack um again. we get Mariah Carey. And then after that, Tantalus gives the Clarice wins the race. Technically, she's the only one who finished the race in the middle of the bird attack. And so Tantalus gives her the quest because she won.
00:26:51
Speaker
And we watch her pick Annabeth. Annabeth convinces her to pick her. And then we watch Annabeth whisper something to Clarice. And Clarice does not pick Percy, even though they're going to the Sea of Monsters and Percy is the son of the Sea God. And it would make a lot of sense. She picks Chris Rodriguez instead.
00:27:11
Speaker
Percy gets upset because Annabeth told Clarice not to pick him. And he decides to go on his own to save Grover and get the fleece. Up to that point, how are we feeling?
00:27:24
Speaker
And a lot of the foil of Annabeth's plan there was that Tyson has ah amazing hearing. And so he's able to i tell him, yeah, she's telling him telling everybody to keep you out of this. Something's going on. Yeah. um Just really quick on Tyson.
00:27:41
Speaker
When you read the book, ah Tyson kind of comes off as... Neurodivergent or like developmentally challenged. um And I think later in either in this book or another book, it says that he's basically like he has the mind of a three year old because he is literally like three years old, even though he's like also six feet tall. um just because monsters age and grow at different rates than humans do. I really liked how in the show they still kind of did that, but they made it more of like he's young and therefore naive and he doesn't like understand a little bit versus in the movie
00:28:28
Speaker
they He was just dumb. like he was just I hate the trope of like the kid who can't follow directions and causes problems in the apocalypse. And then you see it in like Walking Dead and Last of Us and all the shows like that.
00:28:43
Speaker
And that's kind of the energy that movie Tyson was giving. We're like, dude, just stop talking. Just don't like, just do what I tell you to do. Stay out of the way. And he I found him very annoying in the movie versus in the show. I found Daniel Deamer's portrayal of Tyson very endearing. And like, and I was started crying at some points. I was like, I love Tyson. Like that's my baby brother. Like he's so sweet. Like I, i really like how they like,
00:29:09
Speaker
And I think that might have something to do with like the time in which the book was written and like the way that we like the stigma around neurodiversity and developmental challenges in 2006 when this book came out versus how we view these things now in 2025. And so I think it was a much more like appropriate way to still have Tyson be young and naive and like you know innocent without like playing into harmful stereotypes about people who might be like autistic or anything like that the way that he was kind of coded in the book originally so i just want to say audiobook also reads like he's very stupid um and you know i don't know what direction he got when he recorded the audiobook from rick or whoever you know whoever um
00:30:02
Speaker
But I really liked the show's portrayal of Tyson. I really liked the character design in the show compared to the movie where he's just like dirty and his hair is a mess. He is homeless in the book. Like he lives in and and a cardboard box in an alley, um which kind of explains like the dirty appearance and stuff like that. And him like living on his own and being a baby monster who is victimized by other monsters who are, you know, around him. So I think
00:30:33
Speaker
yeah they they just wanted to give a different kind of take in the show. And so he's clean and he's well kept and he's living with Sally and Percy. So yeah, I didn't, yeah, I didn't, I hated movie Tyson.
00:30:44
Speaker
Sorry to cut you off. I like the way Tyson got that relationship with mom as well, though. I think that her taking him in was super sweet. It gave her character more depth. It gave the ah Tyson more depth and it gave Percy that extra relationship with him that wasn't there. in the And it gave him a foil when he went to school or went to camp of, oh, I was fine with him when he lived with at home, but now it's kind of a little different story now that he's here in my dorm all the time trying to please me and everybody else. you know Giving him like having Sally almost like adopt him in the show um gives her more of.
00:31:19
Speaker
I don't know how to explain it like Poseidon. seems to have be really in love with her and now she's taking on one of his other kids and that just gives her more of a reason why he would love her because she is this good person that's going to look out for yeah his children biologically hers or not i've loved the actress playing that she's done a great job with that role yeah yeah i agree with her I think it makes a lot of sense too because they established in the first season of the show that Sally knows exactly what's going on. She's very knowledgeable about this world. She's been training Percy about this world. So to try to like, this is one of the changes that like because of the changes they made in season one, you kind of had to make this change in season two Because in the book, neither one of them knows that Tyson is a Cyclops, like the mist is that strong that neither of them can see it. Versus in the show, they've established that Sally knows about this world and is involved in Percy's life. And so for them both to be fooled by that would not make any sense anymore.
00:32:23
Speaker
All that being said, I like this change and how he like yep he's just a Cyclops. He's just part of the family and we're just moving forward from there.
00:32:34
Speaker
um And then, yeah, in the movie, we don't really get an explanation. Tyson just kind of shows up at camp. Yeah, he'd been living in the woods and he just kind of shows up and everybody's like, who's this guy And then Poseidon claims him and Percy's like, not only... dealing with the fact that Poseidon claimed him and he has a brother, but just the fact that this Cyclops exists in his life at all, he has to deal with. And they kind of skate right over that. They just move along like as if he had been there.
00:33:07
Speaker
Correct me if I'm wrong Maybe it happened later in the film. Doesn't he explain to Percy that he saw a trident and he followed it? And he's like, he followed a trident. And he was it was Yes, right. Yeah, you're right. Glowing, tried and guided him to camp. Yeah. So basically his claiming was getting to camp. Which I think is, I don't know, even in the book, I don't really like it. How like Tyson doesn't know who his dad is. Like Tyson is just as surprised as Percy when Poseidon claims him versus all Cyclops are children of Poseidon. Like that's like Greek myth canon, but all Cyclops are Poseidon messing around with sea nymphs. Like that's just, it is what it is. So like,
00:33:48
Speaker
I feel like they all, like nobody should have been surprised. Like they could have been surprised that Poseidon claimed him in the sense, like putting the trident over his head, but nobody should be surprised that Tyson is being a Cyclops is a son of Poseidon. um So that's. I mean, and if he's as young as you say he is, like a three-year-old, he might not know, like nobody's been there to teach him that's who, that's how Cyclopses are made. but yeah everybody else at camp shouldn't have been that surprised yeah that's true he yeah and he's been living on his own the whole time poor thing poor baby or tyson okay so percy is frustrated that he's not getting a quest because that's consistent between book and the show percy does not get the quest to go and a save grover b get the golden fleece he is jilted and he has he's told to go to your room and stay home
00:34:43
Speaker
So he gets upset. He, in the book, he just grabs a pack of Coke and goes out to the beach to like sit and clear his head. um Versus in show,
00:34:56
Speaker
show He gets upset at Annabeth because Tyson tells him that Annabeth told her sister Bronte to not let Percy win. He's hurt by that. He's upset. And he's like, basically like, screw you guys.
00:35:09
Speaker
I'm gonna go save my friend. and They figured out that the Golden Fleece is at the same place that Grover is at, which is on Polyphemus's island. polyphemus being the cyclops from the odyssey that odysseus had to battle um and it's out in the sea of monsters which is the bermuda triangle in this universe um and percy just is like screw you guys i'm going to go save save camp and save grover um i'll do by myself if i have to
00:35:43
Speaker
When he gets to the beach in both the book and the show, he is approached by the god Hermes, who, as we mentioned, is played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
00:35:55
Speaker
These conversations are pretty consistent between both versions. Basically, Hermes gives him the thermos, which holds the four winds, which he can use. You can unscrew it a little bit and you get a little boost on your boat. You unscrew it all the way and it's just going blow up basically.
00:36:15
Speaker
um He gets the vitamins, which will help you feel like yourself again. and they come in different shapes and flavors, kind of like Scooby snacks from back in the day, if you know, you know. um And they have a conversation and basically Hermes is like, hey, while you're at it, try and save my son, Luke.
00:36:34
Speaker
And Percy, again, in both adaptations is like, Luke doesn't want to be saved. He hates you. He hates the gods. He hates Olympus. He hates all of this. He does not want to be saved. he Like, you're you're crazy and delusional, basically. And Hermes has this great line where it's like, in all my eons of living, you can't give up on your family.
00:36:58
Speaker
And I really like how they kept that line in both of them. um And i especially in the show, talking like we saw kind of last year when um or last season when annabeth talks to hephaestus like percy's not like that percy you know represents a new ideology of how to deal with family and how to be part of this family of the greek gods um and so i like how hermes also like has that idealism and like you know we can be different we can
00:37:29
Speaker
do better and he wants to do better and he wants Percy's help to to bring Luke back um to the light side and then he in the book Hermes works some magic and gets Annabeth and Tyson to come meet Percy they get on Rainbow the hippocampus and they go out to Luke's cruise ship In the show, Rainbow the Hippocampus basically got screen murdered and he's not here until like way later in the show. And again, it's one of those like silly, magical, whimsy things that I wish had been included because I love Rainbow the Hippocampus and his friends.
00:38:10
Speaker
And the relationship that the that Rainbow has with Tyson is also really sweet. Yeah, it is. And I wish that that had been able to happen. But I think that was a CGI budget thing.
00:38:21
Speaker
a TBH. The CGI in the movie looks great when it happened. that They do take Rainbow in the movie to get onto the boat. um And they do first bump into Hermes in the movie. But they go to UPS, which is actually OPS, Olympian Postal Service. And they get to talk to Nathan Philly in Hermes. And he gives them all the same things, the thermos and the multivitamins and the backpacks full of supplies.
00:38:49
Speaker
um And then going back to the show, since we've added the Tantalus character, Tantalus comes out with a crossbow and starts shooting at these kids that he's supposed to be in charge of as they escape out into the water um and take their little powered raft out to the cruise ship.
00:39:13
Speaker
Any thoughts, comments on up to there? You know, you commented on the CGI in the movie being so good, but I did see like the moments they give Cyclops the spray for the mist for his eyes so they didn't have to keep CGI-ing his eyes throughout the show and things like that. They definitely cut some corners where they could too. For sure. But where they did do CGI, it's really good. They did spend it well, yes. They did include the Golden Bull, which was really good CGI, I think.
00:39:42
Speaker
The hippocampi are really good CGI, but yeah, they definitely cut corners on the Cyclops. And we're like, how can we minimize that? The sunglasses and the mist are a good idea for the CGI. um But they, i mean, in the show, Tyson has his one eye the entire time, right? They don't hide it at all. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:05
Speaker
Which I think some of the more modern CGI methods actually make that easier because they're able to just like dot matrix's face and just track them all throughout and throws that on there. So the the time change between the 10 years that have come between or whatever have definitely made it easier to do some of those things that they you weren't able to do in 2013. Yeah.
00:40:24
Speaker
yeah It's also the difference in budget too and where the budget goes. Like I said, I think the CGI, they really wanted to make the bull look super cool. They really wanted to make Rainbow look really cool. And so they're like, yeah, we can cut some corners with with the eye and that's fine versus in the show.
00:40:41
Speaker
with it being mostly practical they don't really have that much a CGI budget in the first place and then when you have to do the birds and Scylla and Charybdis and like you know some of these bigger monster um things they you know if they have the ability to just do the like you said like the mocap on the eye like it makes more sense and I definitely I think that the practicals really worked well for the show I don't think it I don't think it took away from it at all i've I've actually enjoyed a lot of it I mean they've yeah they pick and choose what things they put in but I think they told a good story throughout that made that led to those choices making sense even if it did take away from the things we would have chosen but um all right moving along episode three we board the princess Andromeda so that is
00:41:28
Speaker
Chapters eight and nine and like a little bit of chapter 10, just like the very beginning section. So they get onto the boat. They figure out that it's the cruise ship is run by Luke and there are monsters and mortals and demigods all walking amongst each other.
00:41:47
Speaker
In the book, we I think here we get introduced to the half-brother henchmen that Luke has, which they come back throughout the other books as well. They just continue to be Luke's henchmen. And the movie...
00:42:03
Speaker
and and the show they basically get cut slash replaced by these demigod characters. um There's this whole set piece with the brand new Alison Simms character that we've talked about where she's like, oh my gosh, Annabeth, how are you? like she Like she's just on vacation and she graduated Keon Pathblood. And she's just hanging out, ah but she actually works for Luke and tries to kill them. And they throw her overboard.
00:42:33
Speaker
Somehow she gets rescued, even though there's no sons or daughters of the sea god to help her, but whatever. While they're on the boat... Percy and Annabeth in the show have this conversation about, you know, the prophecy and Annabeth tells Percy that she knows a little bit about the prophecy. And he finds out that like, it's kind of, he's either going to save the world or destroy the world. And he's like, you know, say the code word. If I start doing anything, That's leaning towards destroying the world. And so he figures out that he's on Luke's boat. He's like, we should take out Luke now. And she's like, code word.
00:43:08
Speaker
That's a bad idea. You should not be killing people, which, you know, strategically, it would be smarter to kill him. But we're still 13 years old at this point. So we probably should not be killing people at 13. We'll wait till we're 15, 16. But we can stab them with swords and stuff. Right. That's fine. But he's the bad guy. So, you know.
00:43:28
Speaker
How do you think they're supposed to be in the show? Do you think they've aged them up at all? I think they're still supposed to be 13. I was doing the math because Percy's birthday is August 18th.
00:43:40
Speaker
And he starts book one when he's 12. And that all happens by summer solstice, which is still in June, I think. So he turns 13 that August and then goes to school. And then this is like the last day of school. So he's still 13 at this point.
00:43:55
Speaker
um because yeah beginning online it says 13 as well yeah the beginning of book five he's 15 because everything is supposed to happen on his 16th birthday and i noticed the movie said 20 yes um but the show still says 16th birthday right yeah maybe that's why they're filming so quickly so that they don't age out so fast Because at the time of this filming, he was 15 to 16. So he is already a little older than that 13 they're trying to portray him as. Yeah. Which, and you can tell it's crazy, the difference between season one Walker Scobell and season two Walker Scobell. Like, just the voice, the hair, everything. i'm like, that's a different kid. Like, holy mother. It's crazy. But yeah, I think that's, yeah that is probably why they're filming so much, so fast, um but also, like, good. Like, keep going. Do it faster if you can. like I want to hear this. Literally.
00:44:52
Speaker
So yeah, so we have this conflict with Luke. We see the coffin of Kronos in the show and in the book. We don't see the coffin of Kronos till later in the movie. um Or no, if we do see it in the beginning. There's a tiny little little underneath the cloth that they see that goes down the movie. In the movie, they add the manticore monster, which we actually in the book we meet for the first time um in the beginning of book three.
00:45:23
Speaker
um So that is a fun like they just take bits and pieces from all over the place and crammed it into this movie because there was some stuff in the movie that was like that was supposed to happen in movie one, but whatever. um and Jake Abel has the iconic line, what are you doing? Don't stand on my roof. um And they get to have their their whole interaction. And, you know, Jake Abel continue and Luke in all versions kind of explains more why he's on Kronos' side, explaining his point of view, how why he hates his father and all of the Olympians. And,
00:46:00
Speaker
Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson have to fight their way out, and they take a lifeboat, and they use the thermos and to give themselves that little wind boost and scoot on out into the Sea of Monsters. All right, and then episode four is titled Clarice Blows Up Everything, and that covers generally at chapters 10 and 11 and like a little bit of the beginning of chapter 12.
00:46:25
Speaker
In the show, we get full flashbacks of baby Annabeth, six, seven years old, Annabeth being on the run with Luke and Thalia, visiting an old hideout or weapons cache. it shows the big brother relationship between Luke and Annabeth and how he like really takes care of her and comforts her and why she... is so adamant that like we shouldn't kill Luke we should try to reform him and bring him back and just explains more in depth their relationship
00:46:57
Speaker
We also get to see in flashback how Grover finds the three of them while they're on the run and tries to convince them to come to Camp Half-Blood with him. In the book, we also go to a place that Annabeth knows where Thalia and Luke stashed supplies. We get the monster donuts thing where basically like it's alluded that Kind of every half-blood who decides to leave Camp Half-Blood and join the side of Kronos helps birth monsters. And so these little like monster donut shops pop up.
00:47:35
Speaker
Again, another like middle school type of thing that got cut. This one I'm not as sad about. I do wish that we had gotten the fight scene with the Hydra that happens here in the book where Clarice comes in and saves them on her Civil War ironclad ship.
00:47:54
Speaker
But it is what it is in the show. Clarice still finds them. She said that her dad, Lord Ares, has pointed the direction for her to find um Percy and Tyson and Annabeth. And she wants the coordinates that the Grey Sisters gave Percy in the taxi to find the island where the golden fleece is.
00:48:17
Speaker
Percy challenges her to a duel. While they're fighting, Annabeth puts on her invisibility cap and starts sniping Clarice's crew. And just she's like, I don't need you guys. I have this guy, this guy and this guy.
00:48:30
Speaker
um This guy can navigate. This guy runs the ship, whatever. And Annabeth is like, no, you don't. I'm going to stab them. And these undead crew members are going to go back to being fully dead.
00:48:42
Speaker
Clarice's ironclad ship and her undead crew were gifts from her father to help her on her quest. And all of this, however we got here, we ended up getting onto Clarice's ship.
00:48:56
Speaker
And we still technically are not in the Sea of Monsters yet. The only way to get into the Sea of Monsters is to choose to pass by Scylla or to pass by Charyptis. So Scylla is like a six headed monster thing that lives up on a cliff and she sends one of her heads down and pulls snatches crew members off the top of the ship. Or you can choose Charybdis, which is like this giant mouth in the ocean that just like creates a whirlpool and like slurps all the water and people and boats down into her and then like spits it back up on like a three minute cycle or something.
00:49:38
Speaker
And the kids all have to decide, who do we want to go with? You can't choose to go around. They will just magically move. You have to choose. You have to go between.
00:49:50
Speaker
And Annabeth says Odysseus chose Scylla. We should choose Scylla. That way we just lose the six guys and we can just scoot right past and and that's it. Clarice wants to fire cannons into Charybdis's mouth and choose that instead.
00:50:07
Speaker
Percy's like, I don't really care. I just want to get through this and save Grover. um and we get to see that pretty cool fight scene between the boat and these two monsters in the sea. I really liked the characterization that they gave Clarice throughout the scene in the show. Because again, the book is all Percy's point of view. And so if Percy's not talking to somebody, we don't know what's happening with them. So we getting these flashbacks back and forth of different point of views in the show. We get to see Clarice talking to her dad as she's gifted the ship and these warriors. We get to see her talking to the crew and earning their respect and promising them that if you help me, i will get you into basically like Greek mythology heaven in the afterlife.
00:50:56
Speaker
And we get to see how these men like come to care for her and trust her and she is their captain and they're willing to put their lives on the line for her. And we see her struggle when these men start getting snatched up off the deck of the ship. She's like, no, I don't want my men to just be taken like that and just die. And she wants to fight to protect them.
00:51:18
Speaker
And so that, you know, turns into this whole big action set piece. So. It is interesting to see how the conflict is inside of her, too, of her promising something that she can't actually guarantee. She has to ask for her father to let them into Elysium, but there's no guarantee they're actually going to be able to fulfill that. They're just trusting her based on the fact that she's a demigod.
00:51:43
Speaker
um and so the this is also an ironclad ship which was not really meant for deep sea voyaging not really sure Ares gave her this ship um but he does have dominion over people who have lost in battle that's like Even though they're dead, technically they should be Hades. If they lose in battle, they become their souls become like tribute to Ares, basically. So the crew is made up of like civil like Confederates and from the Civil War, as well as in the show we get Mitch from Blockbuster because he lost in the streaming wars, which I think was a fun way to get some of that middle school humor back in there. ah it made me laugh for sure yeah so that makes sense i gotta chuckle so they're having this big action set piece they're fighting with sylla they're fighting with charybdis she's fire the cannons fire the cannons and tyson being a cyclops he is immune to heat and fire and cyclops um usually work in the forges of hephaestus so he is down in the boiler room in the engine room trying to get this ship who which is not equipped for this kind of naval warfare um to to survive like without literally falling apart at the bolts um and the thermos full of wind gets knocked loose it gets cracked open and it explodes and we kind of fade to black
00:53:16
Speaker
we don't know who lives, who's died. um and that's where that episode ends. That's kind of where that chapter ends is Percy knows that the boat exploded and Tyson was right there close to the explosion. He thinks Tyson is dead. He thinks Annabeth's dead. He thinks Clarice is dead. And the last line of that chapter is him basically like wishing that he could drown um but he knows he can't because he's a son of the seagull and he's just so depressed that he thinks all of his friends are dead and so he's just like i just wish i could sh drown and it's really sad but that's where we end episode four that's where we're going to cut it off for this episode of book watch um
00:53:53
Speaker
Tune in next week. We're going to cover the rest of season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Sea of Monsters, episodes five through eight and the book slash movie. We didn't talk about the movie too much because it's super different. And this um fighting scene that happens with Scylla and Charybdis is, doesn't happen the same way. um Percy, Annabeth Tyson get swallowed up first and then they fight their way out.
00:54:22
Speaker
We'll get into that a little bit more next week, I think. um Any final thoughts, comments from either of you, Saradae or Chris? Nope. don't think Okie dokie.
00:54:33
Speaker
Well, then that's it. And we will see you next week, demigods. That's a wrap for this week's episode of Book Watch. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of page-to-screen adaptations with us.
00:54:46
Speaker
If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a rating and review wherever you listen, and share it with a fellow book and movie lover. If you prefer to watch along, you can check out the show on YouTube, youtube.com slash at bookwatchpodcast.
00:55:01
Speaker
You can follow the show on Instagram at bookwatchpodcast, and you can follow me, Sarah Day, on Instagram at captain.mcd. That's M-C-D-E-E.
00:55:13
Speaker
And you can follow me, Jordan, on Instagram at JJ Corrito. That's C-A-R-R-I-D-O. And you can follow me, Chris, at CyborgNight404. That's night with a K. You can also join the conversation in the Bookwatch Lounge on Facebook at facebook.com slash groups slash Bookwatch Lounge.
00:55:33
Speaker
If you'd like to support the podcast, you can join the Patreon at patreon.com bookwatchpodcast. Tears start at only $4 a month, and we would love to have you over there. Have a favorite adaptation you'd like us to cover, or a book you think deserves a screen adaptation, or just want to let us know of any feedback, send us an email at bookwatchpodcast at gmail.com.
00:55:54
Speaker
Until next time, keep reading, keep watching, and we will see you next week.