Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Part Two: Plot Analysis
45 Plays28 days ago
📖✨ In this episode of Book Watch, we’re diving into the plot breakdown of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and its two screen adaptations—the 2010 movie (The Lightning Thief) and the 2023 Disney+ series (Percy Jackson and the Olympians). How well did each version capture the heart of the book? What changes worked—and which ones missed the mark?
💡 In Part 2, we’ll explore:
✅ Plot changes from page to screen
✅ Major omissions, additions, and rearranged storylines
✅ How well each adaptation stayed true to the book’s themes of identity, loyalty, and fate
Join hosts Sarah-Daye and guest Jordyn Carrido as they break down what worked, what didn’t, and whether these adaptations do Rick Riordan’s beloved book justice. 🎬📚
📌 Tell us your thoughts! Did you love or hate these adaptations? Let’s discuss in The Book Watch Lounge on Facebook 💙
🔗 Follow & Support:
📲 Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1NFeZYgh1j/
📺 Watch behind-the-scenes: http://patreon.com/BookWatchPodcast
🤳🏼 Follow Book Watch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/bookwatchpodcast
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Focus on Percy Jackson
00:00:46
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Welcome back to book watch listeners. I am joined once again with Jordan and we are going to be doing part two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the lightning thief, where we dive into the key plot points. Jordan, thank you for coming back for a second episode.
00:01:04
Jordyn Carrido
Happy to be here.
00:01:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Um, so do you have any thoughts on the general key plot points of the film and the show compared to the book before we dive into each kind of bullet point?
00:01:20
Jordyn Carrido
Oh, boy, do i um Basically, the movie doesn't follow the book.
00:01:23
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:01:25
Jordyn Carrido
it Very, very, very loosely in the loosest of terms. Does it follow the book? um The show is a much better. There are still some things that are a little bit different here and there, but overall, it follows the same beats. And even if we take a different path, we end up at the same spot.
00:01:46
Jordyn Carrido
So I'm definitely much happier with that version.
00:01:50
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And we mentioned last week that we really appreciated the episode titles are chapter titles.
00:01:56
Jordyn Carrido
Yes, i the chapter titles are so creative and fun and quirky and really give the book and Percy so much character. And like they just you feel like if a friend was telling you a story, so then a god bought us cheeseburgers and we go on the water ride of death.
00:02:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. Right.
00:02:15
Jordyn Carrido
like It just feels... It's so Percy and so his character.
00:02:20
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yes.
00:02:21
Jordyn Carrido
And so for the show to keep that, you know, obviously a movie can't have chapter titles because there's no chapters or episodes.
00:02:26
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. Right.
00:02:27
Jordyn Carrido
But for the show to make that choice to include those things means a lot.
00:02:33
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah, definitely. um So then let let's get in.
Book vs Movie: Major Plot Deviations
00:02:36
Sarah-Daye McDougall
So um we start this story with Percy discovering that he's a demigod by his teacher turning into um ah creature.
00:02:48
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And Chiron and Grover kind of reveal –
00:02:48
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:02:53
Sarah-Daye McDougall
you know, that they're in on this.
00:02:55
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:02:56
Sarah-Daye McDougall
and then um they tell Sally that they they need to take Percy to Camp Half-Blood. So walk me through how you thought the film adapted that and how the show adapted that.
00:03:09
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, so the honestly, the first thing I noticed about the film is the timeline is so squished. The beginning of the story when he's they're on the field trip at the Met and the teacher turns into a monster and attacks him.
00:03:17
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:03:26
Jordyn Carrido
That same night, he's going home and talking to his mom and they're going to the cabin versus in the book, he goes back to school and he's there through final exam.
00:03:36
Jordyn Carrido
So at least a couple of weeks and then he takes a day to get home and then they go to the beach and then we're starting to get into Camp Half-Blood.
00:03:38
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:03:45
Jordyn Carrido
um So for the film, again, it's a film. Okay, you guys got to squish down for time. But to go from kind of a public school setting in the city where he can just walk home after school to a boarding school way out in the middle of nowhere New York, and then him finishing school and taking time to get home on the bus with Grover, like huge difference right off the bat for me at least.
00:03:52
Sarah-Daye McDougall
her
00:04:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah um and so we we we find out we're demigod and we're going to camp half-blood we have this whole debacle with um not a centaur what's minotaur yes um
00:04:27
Jordyn Carrido
The Minotaur. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
the number one thing I noticed um and correct me if I'm wrong, ah but it's the underwear that the Minotaur wears is not on the film, but it is in the book and the show.
00:04:38
Jordyn Carrido
Yep. Yeah.
00:04:41
Jordyn Carrido
Yes, that is correct. He wears the fruit of the loom, tighty whities. That's how they're described in the book. They are in the show and they just disappear in the movie.
00:04:51
Jordyn Carrido
And that's something that I think, you know, we talked last week about aging up the characters and aging up the story. I think that's something that kind of got
00:04:59
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:05:01
Jordyn Carrido
lost with that aging up is that kind of whimsy and like yeah the silliness like in the moment of terror and oh my gosh this monster is coming after us but lol he's got tighty whiteys on you know like there that moment doesn't happen because it we're 16 and we're so serious and this is you know so important what we're doing um so it's just things like that you know and we talked about like not having mr d like you just lose some of that whimsy and some of that like
00:05:05
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:14
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:05:28
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:05:29
Jordyn Carrido
light-heartedness that you know can always be found in you know hard times and dark times um the actual like battle with the minotaur is pretty consistent across all three adaptations he breaks off the horn he just he defeats the minotaur in
00:05:36
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
Character Development: Grover and Annabeth
00:05:50
Jordyn Carrido
in the show and the movie Grover is conscious in the book Grover's unconscious and Percy is alone battling the Minotaur and then has to carry Grover over the border over the boundary into camp and then he passes out and wakes up a couple days later so that difference of him and Grover kind of being able to work together to get to safety versus him having to, again, you know, he could have left Grover behind.
00:06:14
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:06:19
Jordyn Carrido
He could have just like not continued on, but he's like, no, Grover needs to get to safety. he wanted me to get to safety. So let's go together and do that.
00:06:29
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:06:30
Jordyn Carrido
And then something the show, sorry, something the show added was a little scene between Sally and Grover and Sally,
00:06:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ahead. ahead
00:06:38
Jordyn Carrido
you know demanding Grover, swear to me that you'll protect him, swear to me that you'll keep him safe. That doesn't happen in the book or the movie. And I think that also is like really interesting in the discussion of how Grover's character is a little bit different.
00:06:54
Jordyn Carrido
He's a little bit braver. He's not as afraid to fail um as he is in the book. And the movie doesn't really touch on it that much, but yeah. We've already talked about that.
00:07:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:07:06
Jordyn Carrido
um But having that scene where, you know, Sally has faith in him and you need to take care of my kid, i think is valuable for Grover's character. And again, within the context of the show and, you know, be different, be better, keep moving forwards and just keep making progress is a good scene to have that, you know, she trusts him.
00:07:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And speaking of Sally, this is also when we lose Sally in the story. She goes to the underworld and we don't know that right away. We just think we've lost her, but we find out later that she, he can get her back.
00:07:43
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um So talk to me about the differences in, in the three different mediums of Sally's demise.
00:07:48
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:07:49
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:07:50
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, those are pretty consistent as well. Like she, in all of them, she gets grabbed by the Minotaur, and he starts to, you squish her, and then she disappears in a shower of gold.
00:08:03
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:08:03
Jordyn Carrido
And Percy assumes that she's dead.
00:08:06
Jordyn Carrido
Um, and it has to go on processing, you know, that his mom has just died in front of him and he can't, what am I going to do now?
00:08:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
right
00:08:15
Jordyn Carrido
mom My mom was the only person in the whole world that understood me, that loved about me, that cared about me. And she's gone and him having to try to process that. And in the movie,
00:08:29
Jordyn Carrido
We have a couple of minutes interlude between that and when Hades shows up at camp in demon form and is like, I actually stole your mom because you stole the master bowl and I want it back.
00:08:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:08:42
Jordyn Carrido
Totally random plot change. And so then that's when Percy's like, oh, my mom's alive. i can get her back. I need to go get her back. And then in the show, there's a another new scene for Grover where Grover is you know, discovers by talking to the Council of Satyrs, Council of Cloven Elders, you know, like, oh, they said that, like, she might not be dead. She might just be taken. And Mr. D and Chiron are like, yeah, we know, dude, like, but you can't tell Percy that because otherwise Percy will go get his mom and not do the quest that we want him to do.
00:09:18
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:09:18
Jordyn Carrido
And Grover has to make that choice of like, do I... Obey what the adults are telling me or do I stick by my friend and do what I think is right for my friend.
00:09:29
Jordyn Carrido
And, you know, Grover being that awesome friend that he is, he chooses Percy and he defies. Mr. D and Chiron and that is a departure from Book Grover. Book Grover would never.
00:09:42
Jordyn Carrido
Book Grover is deathly afraid of Mr. D especially. He would never defy a direct order like that but show Percy ah sorry show Grover does. He is willing to choose Percy over leadership and he makes that choice and so that kind of sets Percy also as like well okay I guess I'll do your quest because I can also use that as an opportunity to get my mom versus the movie is like no I'm just gonna sneak out of camp on my own to go get my mom and the quest is like completely an afterthought
00:10:07
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:10:12
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:10:15
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. Before we get to the quest of leaving Half-Blood, let's talk about his introduction to Camp Half-Blood and capture the flag, Clarice, Luke, Annabeth, meaning the bathroom scene, all of that.
00:10:27
Jordyn Carrido
yeah Yeah. um Percy first meets Annabeth when he wakes up and he goes outside and he's like, where am i What's going on? And she's like, drool in your sleep.
00:10:40
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:10:41
Jordyn Carrido
That's his first impression of her. And I think, again, keeping in mind that they're 12 years old, it's like, yeah, that makes sense. like the first Of course, the first thing she says is, you drool in your sleep, while you loser, you goober.
00:10:51
Sarah-Daye McDougall
her
00:10:53
Jordyn Carrido
um Versus the movie, the first time he sees her is she's being a total badass and she's fighting, she's sword fighting with all these guys and she's taking them all down and she's like...
00:11:04
Jordyn Carrido
giving him eyes across the field. And he's like, who's that?
00:11:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
huh
00:11:07
Jordyn Carrido
I want to talk to her. And so different. Their dynamic immediately is not the same. It's not two 12 year olds who, you know, sometimes fight, sometimes are friends.
00:11:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:11:17
Jordyn Carrido
Like they just have eyes for each other. um And then the show is a lot more faithful to the book. It's very similar where, you know, she's there and you know, she kind of helps show him around camp and,
00:11:34
Jordyn Carrido
introduces him to people um after the battle in the bathrooms with Clarice. That was something that was interesting is in the book, Annabeth is showing Percy around camp and introducing him to people.
00:11:48
Jordyn Carrido
And they go to the Hermes cabin and they're like, is he, ah you know, is he a son of Hermes? And she's like, he's unclaimed. Like, ah man, like another one.
00:11:55
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. ah
00:11:58
Jordyn Carrido
um And then they bump into Clarice outside and she's like, you know, come here, Prissy. Like you're, you know, I'm going to, she's just the bully on campus, you know, and she just takes him to the bathroom and he's like, I don't want to get my head stuck in the toilet.
00:12:09
Sarah-Daye McDougall
right
00:12:16
Jordyn Carrido
And he doesn't consciously, you know, make her stop, but he being a son of Poseidon, he's, he, he becomes what they say, the God of the plumbing, I think is the title of that chapter.
00:12:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:12:28
Jordyn Carrido
i become one with the plumbing and he, you know, gets toilet water sprayed all over Clarice and Annabeth. And that's when Annabeth is like, you've got some sort of power here. i want you on my team for capture the flag.
00:12:39
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:12:41
Jordyn Carrido
And in the movie, none of that happens. Clarice doesn't happen. The bathroom scene doesn't happen. she actually, Annabeth is against Luke and Percy in Capture the Flag, which totally changes that dynamic as well.
00:12:50
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:12:55
Jordyn Carrido
Because instead of her showing that she's a child of Athena and her strategy of, okay, Clarice wants revenge on Percy for the bathroom scene, so I'm going to set him up, you know, as a decoy and her demonstrating her intelligence in that way.
00:13:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:13:11
Jordyn Carrido
It's just her attacking Percy for who knows why, just because.
00:13:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Well, yeah, and it's almost like they had, because they cut Clarice out, they replaced that with Annabeth and gave it, yeah, just gave that role of Clarice to Annabeth in the film.
00:13:17
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:13:27
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, and I think that's kind of disappointing because clear i think, first of all, Clarice is a hugely important character in upcoming books. And so to just erase her is rude.
00:13:41
Jordyn Carrido
I don't I didn't like it.
00:13:42
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:13:43
Jordyn Carrido
but um But then also to like Clarice is mean and she's a bully and she picks on people just because she can't. She's a child of Ares. She's just kind of like that. And so to give those kind of attributes to Annabeth, you know, she's not mean. She's analytical. She's not a bully. She's just practical and willing to make the sacrifice play. She's willing to let Percy be hung out to dry to attract Clarice so that she can win capture the flag, you know, four times in a row.
00:14:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:14:14
Jordyn Carrido
But that's not her like being out to get Percy. It's just strategy, you know. um So to give her that like mean streak, I think is a disservice to her as a character for sure.
00:14:26
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Okay, so um moving on before, well, before we get to our quest again, we have to be given the quest. And so Percy sees the Oracle, which is completely cut from the film.
00:14:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
There's no Oracle in the film, um which they, like you said earlier, they just sneak out of camp because he wants to go save his mom because Zeus, or I'm sorry, Hades shows up and says, I got your mom.
00:14:41
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:14:53
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um So very, very divergent from the book.
00:14:57
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, definitely. And then the show does a good job of sticking closer to the book. He does go up and talk to the Oracle, the green smoke is accurate.
00:15:08
Jordyn Carrido
And the show even gets it right where it is Gabe in the green smoke, excuse me, delivering that message to Percy.
00:15:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:15:18
Jordyn Carrido
It's Gabe's form with the Oracle's voice saying, you know, you're, you will go West and find the God who has turned and giving him the prophecy for this quest.
00:15:21
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ha
00:15:29
Jordyn Carrido
um So that was really exciting because again, having watched the movie and been disappointed, like they cut that whole scene and that, you know, that's why is it Gabe? Like that, all those, you know, interesting questions that are, you know, that come up in that scene, them just being gone. And then the show doing it right. was like, Oh, this is awesome.
00:15:48
Jordyn Carrido
It was really cool.
00:15:49
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Yeah. um It was, it was fun to see the Oracle scene for sure. um Okay. So now we've, we've left him camp, camp half blood and we are on our mission and this is when it gets really fun because it's almost like monster of the week.
00:15:57
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:00
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:16:02
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um Even like the chapters, the episodes, um the movies, not so much because of all the changes that we'll get into, but the first sort of um run in we have is Auntie M's garden emporium.
00:16:05
Jordyn Carrido
yeah
00:16:10
Jordyn Carrido
yeah
00:16:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. which is our our first look at Medusa. And that's what I forgot to mention last week, but I wanted to talk about Uma Thurman, which was another like Pierce Brosnan.
00:16:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
It's like, it's Uma Thurman. Like what are these heavy hitters doing in this film? Hmm.
00:16:32
Jordyn Carrido
who knows i mean medusa that whole scene When I first saw the show, i was not happy with it.
00:16:42
Jordyn Carrido
I did not like how it's it's really different from the book and I was not happy about it at first.
00:16:43
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Hmm.
00:16:50
Jordyn Carrido
And then going back and rewatching it and and sitting in it and and having had some time to kind of process it after the fact, I was like, you know what?
00:16:58
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:17:00
Jordyn Carrido
they they might have gotten that change right they might that might have made some sense um because in the book they get to Auntie Em's and nobody figures it out that it's Medusa until you know she kind of reveals herself she takes off her headdress and her coverings and that's when they are like oh my gosh oh my gosh it's Medusa like you know run, hide, and fight
00:17:23
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:17:25
Jordyn Carrido
um Versus in the show, ah Annabeth immediately clocks it. She's like, who do you think Auntie Em is with all the stone statues? Like, duh, you guys.
00:17:36
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:17:36
Jordyn Carrido
And it's like, well, yeah, that actually kind of makes some sense because, you know, especially Annabeth being a daughter of Athena.
00:17:43
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:17:45
Jordyn Carrido
And grown up in this world since she was seven years old, of course, she's going to be able to recognize these things and figure it out quickly.
00:17:51
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:17:51
Jordyn Carrido
Like, yeah, that when I think about it, it makes sense.
Exploring Themes: Medusa and Mythical Creatures
00:17:56
Jordyn Carrido
Just is it being different from the book, I was like, no, it's not right.
00:17:56
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:18:00
Jordyn Carrido
That's not right. And i was like, well, you know, there's some logic here.
00:18:01
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. It's a good point.
00:18:03
Jordyn Carrido
It makes sense. Yeah.
00:18:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:18:04
Jordyn Carrido
like You got me with that one.
00:18:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And it's almost like you wonder, you want to be a fly on the wall in the writing room with Rick and being like, you know, like, is that something fans have brought up with the book in the past? And he's like, yeah, let's remedy that with the show.
00:18:18
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Or is that, you know, how did this change come about?
00:18:18
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:18:21
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, absolutely. And then the other thing that's super different in the show compared to both the film and the book is getting more conversation with Medusa about how she became Medusa and how she became the ah the monster, quote unquote, that we know her as.
00:18:35
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yes.
00:18:39
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:18:41
Jordyn Carrido
And, you know, hearing her side of the story and it goes back to the theme of the show, that, you know, they do a great job, like I've said, of weaving it throughout all the episodes of not all monsters look like monsters and not all heroes look like heroes.
00:18:56
Jordyn Carrido
Because from Medusa's point of view, Athena is the monster and Poseidon is the monster and she's a victim and she was taken advantage of by them.
00:18:56
Sarah-Daye McDougall
her
00:19:03
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:19:05
Jordyn Carrido
And from her point of view, yeah, that's true.
00:19:08
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm. huh
00:19:08
Jordyn Carrido
And then What we hear from Annabeth from her mom's point of view is that you know, you defiled my temple. So of course, you're the bad guy here. And then you turn people to stone. Of course, you're the bad guy here.
00:19:20
Jordyn Carrido
So i think that is really important. interesting and I think when you can have that kind of time to explain and space that out and you know the show too understanding that it's going to be kids and their parents watching as opposed to the book which is very much like if you're not 12 you might think that it's a kid's book or it's kind of lame like
00:19:40
Sarah-Daye McDougall
her
00:19:46
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:19:47
Jordyn Carrido
who the Who the product is being made for, I think also has an impact, because the book doesn't cover that story. It doesn't talk about Medusa's side and you know how how her and Poseidon's relationship was and how her relationship with Athena was.
00:20:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:20:04
Jordyn Carrido
It's just, she's a monster. She's bad. We got to chop her head off.
00:20:08
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:20:08
Jordyn Carrido
And so for kids, that makes sense. But then for the show, for kids and teenagers and adults, like, yeah, we can go a little bit deeper and we can talk about these other topics.
00:20:18
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. And not only is it the kids and the parents, like the parents watching with the kids, but it's the parents are the ones that read this book in 2005.
00:20:27
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:20:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And now it's 2025 and it's 20 years later. Now we have kids and we are introducing our kids to it. So they are, they are needing to, market this towards the 12 year olds that are watching this for the first time.
00:20:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And this show is introducing them to Percy Jackson, but they also need to capture our attention and keep, you know, keep us adults interested in the story as well.
00:20:46
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:20:51
Jordyn Carrido
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:20:52
Sarah-Daye McDougall
But I really did enjoy the Medusa scene in the show. And I thought the actress that played her, and I'm sorry I didn't write down her um name because we didn't talk about her in the last episode.
00:21:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um But I thought that she did a really good job playing Medusa. And especially with that, um you know, having her side of the story be told, I thought she did a really good job with that.
00:21:15
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, she had the perfect balance, I think, of being a sympathetic character where you felt bad for her and you kind of wanted her to succeed. And you kind of were like, yeah, Percy, if you want to hang out with her, like, I don't blame you.
00:21:23
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:21:27
Jordyn Carrido
Like, she's just going through it out here.
00:21:29
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:21:29
Jordyn Carrido
um And then still being like, oh, she could still do some damage and she she's still dangerous, even though we feel bad for her.
00:21:38
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:21:40
Jordyn Carrido
So I thought the actress did a great job. Yeah.
00:21:42
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. So our next monster of the week is Echidna. We have gone to St.
00:21:47
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:21:48
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Louis and we have the St. Louis arch and there's a big battle. um There's also um the chimera, which is introduced on the train and then follows him into the arch, um which I think is a little different from the book to the show.
00:22:03
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ah This is completely cut from the film. There's no chimera. There's no Echidna. Yeah.
00:22:08
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, it's cut and replaced. The whole plot line of trying to get west is changed by they're trying to find these pearls.
00:22:17
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yes.
00:22:18
Jordyn Carrido
And the pearls are each located in a different place. One of them was with Medusa. The next one is at the um Parthenon in Nashville.
00:22:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
so
00:22:27
Jordyn Carrido
And in the film, they fight a hydra.
00:22:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Hydra.
00:22:32
Jordyn Carrido
Hydra does not happen in the book. In the book, it's like you said, they keep going and they're on the train and they're in St.
00:22:34
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:22:39
Jordyn Carrido
Louis and it's Echidna and Chimera. So in the book, they get off the train just because it's a layover, like the train's refueling or whatever, and they just have a couple of hours.
00:22:50
Jordyn Carrido
So what are we going to do for a couple hours? Well, Annabeth wants to be an architect. She's a child of Athena. She has the brain for it.
00:22:56
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:22:57
Jordyn Carrido
She wants to be an architect and the St. Louis arch is right there. Of course, she wants to go see it. So they go and as they go up to the top of the arch, you know, Echidna and Chimera like reveal themselves to the kids and Percy is left behind just because he doesn't fit in the elevator to get down.
00:23:19
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:23:20
Jordyn Carrido
And that's how they attack the Percy. And then in the show, they changed it, and which follows the theme, you know, monsters not being monsters and and all that, like we've said.
00:23:31
Jordyn Carrido
And so they get off the train because Echidna and Chimera reveal themselves and they have to get off to escape. And then there's the whole really interesting change that they made about the arch being a secret temple to Athena,
00:23:47
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:23:48
Jordyn Carrido
And being able to offer protection for the demigods. And then because they sent Medusa's head to Olympus, Athena's embarrassed and Annabeth and lets the monsters in to attack them.
00:24:00
Jordyn Carrido
And that's how we get up the arch.
00:24:01
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:24:02
Jordyn Carrido
We're trying to escape.
00:24:03
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:24:04
Jordyn Carrido
So that little plot line is not from the book. But again, In the context of the show and the themes that the show is trying to express, it makes sense.
00:24:15
Jordyn Carrido
And it's really well written. And it, you know, is acted beautifully by Leah, like the hurt and heartbreak of her mom being disappointed in her and punishing her.
00:24:22
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yes. Yes.
00:24:26
Jordyn Carrido
The same way that she punished Medusa, you know, when when Medusa did something wrong um was really, really well done. Really interesting take on that scene and Annabelle's relationship with Athena, I think.
00:24:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Yeah. Very good points. um So after the St. Louis Arch, um you know, Percy, he falls into the water um and he's given a message.
00:24:54
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um And then we make our way to the Lotus Casino where they...
00:25:00
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:25:01
Sarah-Daye McDougall
end up realizing they've actually spent days there once they come out of their haze, um which we do get this event happening in the film. It's a little over the top in my opinion, ah but talk to me about your thoughts on how this was portrayed in both the film and the show.
00:25:20
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, in the film, I think, you know, we talked last week about the characters being aged up and the film being aged up. And I think the casino scene is probably where I felt it the most because there's, you know, girls in certain types of outfits and dancing and there's gambling happening everywhere.
00:25:31
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:25:40
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay.
00:25:41
Jordyn Carrido
And they are drugged, like they eat the lotus flowers and all of a sudden Lady Gaga is playing in the background and they're like,
00:25:48
Sarah-Daye McDougall
one
00:25:50
Jordyn Carrido
woo, this is great. Everything is so fun and exciting. And in the book, they just walk in and are immediately like, hey, here's a room key. Here's, you know, a key to swipe um for food and for games. Like it's all unlimited. It's all free. Like just have at it.
00:26:07
Jordyn Carrido
And they go up and they shower because they've been on the road for days and they're gross and tired.
00:26:10
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:26:13
Jordyn Carrido
And then they go um the water slide and there's, it's more of like an arcade setting.
00:26:18
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:26:20
Jordyn Carrido
in the book and it's very much child friendly and like to get kids in and to get kids to want to stay versus the movie is like no this is just a regular casino and there's just regular Vegas casino people here and you know partying and and like that so very different but the story of the lotus eaters from the odyssey is not mentioned in
00:26:31
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:26:48
Jordyn Carrido
the book at all I think they kind of put two and two together after the fact but it's not introduced in the content like like it's not described before they get into it the way it is in the film and in the show especially they go in they're like well obviously it's the lotus eaters from the odyssey like just don't eat anything um which is still kind of different
00:26:52
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Sure.
00:27:15
Jordyn Carrido
as well because they don't need anything and then they're like oh no they're pumping the magic through the air so it's like cool well that explains how they still kind of forget where they're at and what their mission is but still like they're not drawn in by the casino itself there's nothing like that they're like oh we really want to stay here because there's games or because there's a warm bed to sleep in or things like that they just kind of wait what are we doing here again
00:27:32
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:27:39
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:27:44
Jordyn Carrido
um And then we meet Hermes there, which doesn't happen anywhere else.
00:27:47
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yep.
00:27:49
Jordyn Carrido
um But yeah I think those the Lotus scene in a lot of ways is really consistent through all three, but there's still quite a bit of change in there, too.
00:27:58
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm. Is there anything you want to touch on before we kind of get to the underworld and start finishing up our story?
Ares and Plot Complexity
00:28:07
Jordyn Carrido
ah Yeah, I want to The whole Ares and the diner scene was completely...
00:28:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Oh, yes, yes. We can't forget Ares. Yes.
00:28:15
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, my boy. Can't forget Ares. He was cut completely from the movie. They don't have that. And also the transportation. It's not a big deal, but in the movie, they...
00:28:27
Jordyn Carrido
steal a truck and Grover is just driving them across the country versus you know the book and the show is really more of a forgive the pun it's really more of an odyssey of like we're on a bus and then we're on a train and then we're taking a Hermes taxi cab in the show and it's really a ah struggle to travel versus in the movie they're like yeah we're just gonna hop in the car and get going um but back to Ares the
00:28:42
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:28:55
Jordyn Carrido
I like how we were talking about the movie. You can tell that it was made in 2010 because of the soundtrack.
00:29:01
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:29:02
Jordyn Carrido
The show, you can really tell that it was made in two thousand in the two thousand and twenty s when Ares shows up. He's like, I'm just starting a war on Twitter. Like, so funny, timely.
00:29:14
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um
00:29:14
Jordyn Carrido
It makes perfect sense because of course he would.
00:29:16
Jordyn Carrido
And of course, that's how he would do it because, you know, our society, our culture, we don't just go to war the same way that we used to you know, when you know, the gods were in their heyday.
00:29:28
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:29:28
Jordyn Carrido
So how else is the god of war going to start fights? Well, the internet, obviously.
00:29:33
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:29:33
Jordyn Carrido
um And again, Grover's character is so different in the show versus the book because he gets left behind to stay with Ares and he talks to him and he's kind of like manipulating the conversation to figure out, you know, oh, Clarice was the lightning thief, which ends up not being the case.
00:29:54
Jordyn Carrido
But just the fact that Grover had that opportunity to stay behind and had the, like, forgive me, but Grover's not as intelligent as, like, Annabeth.
00:30:07
Jordyn Carrido
If they had switched it and Annabeth was having that conversation, of course, I can definitely believe that Annabeth would have gotten that information out of Ares and, you know, twisted the conversation to get what she wanted out of him.
00:30:18
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Uh-huh.
00:30:18
Jordyn Carrido
But for Grover to be the one to do it, I was like... are you sure this is the same Grover that is supposed to be eating tin cans and enchiladas?
00:30:28
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:30:28
Jordyn Carrido
Like the way he's talked about in the book. um Again, I think it ultimately is I would say it's like a net neutral in the sense that it's a negative because it's so different from the book, but it's a positive because it continues to build Grover's character and show that there's more to him than just being the nervous, you know, little side character and, you know, the sidekick.
00:30:47
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:30:54
Jordyn Carrido
of Percy. So that was honestly probably the biggest difference as well as that and um getting to meet Hephaestus and talk to him um in the thrill ride love at the Waterland Park. um The rest of that was pretty accurate.
00:31:14
Jordyn Carrido
It's interesting how they changed it, but not different enough where I was like, what's going on?
00:31:17
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:31:21
Jordyn Carrido
Like, I still knew what was happening, where we were. um But Annabeth confronting Hephaestus and having that conversation with him about, you know, being better. And Percy's not like that. you know, Hephaestus is like, all right, you know, you got what you wanted. You can get out of here and leave him behind. She's like, no, I'm not doing that.
00:31:40
Jordyn Carrido
I don't do that to my friends. Percy doesn't do that. We're different. We want to be better than the gods are.
00:31:45
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Hmm. Hmm.
00:31:46
Jordyn Carrido
And him... believing her and giving her and Percy that opportunity to prove themselves to be better by letting them go and saying he'll put in a good word with Athena i loved that change I thought that was awesome and Hephaestus is a cool character throughout the rest of the series and so to get him so early i was like yes this is gonna be awesome
00:32:10
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Great. Love that. um Because i i don't I don't remember his character in the books so much. I mean, it's been a while since I read the Well, I mean, it's only been like over a year, but um I don't remember his Well, he the one that like has a lot to do with the maze?
00:32:29
Jordyn Carrido
Yes.
00:32:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
OK, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:30
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:32:30
Sarah-Daye McDougall
OK, that's coming back to me a little bit. um But yeah, so I'm excited to see his character and and kind of reread the books and and get to know actually all of these characters more.
00:32:40
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:32:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um Okay, so are we are we ready for the underworld now?
00:32:45
Jordyn Carrido
I think so, yeah.
00:32:45
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay, so um yeah, I mean, we the underworld is really where Percy has the realization that he's been set up um and that Ares and, um well, no, he doesn't realize Luke until he gets back to Camp Half-Blood, right?
00:33:02
Jordyn Carrido
In the book, that's correct.
00:33:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay, yeah, so...
00:33:04
Jordyn Carrido
he And I think all of them is pretty accurate. He doesn't figure out that it's Luke until Luke reveals himself after the fact.
00:33:10
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay. um So this is just when he realizes Ares has set him up.
00:33:15
Jordyn Carrido
Yes.
00:33:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um So yeah, like tell me about the the film and and the ah show.
00:33:16
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah.
00:33:21
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah. And the film doesn't touch on it again. They cut Ares out.
00:33:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Well, yeah. Yeah.
00:33:28
Jordyn Carrido
ah yeah So there's not really much to say there. It's just they instead of Ares, they add Persephone. They add Rosario Dawson as Persephone. And I was like, oh, my.
00:33:39
Jordyn Carrido
What is Ahsoka Tano doing here?
00:33:40
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:33:40
Jordyn Carrido
What's going on?
00:33:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:33:42
Jordyn Carrido
um and so that you know the film introducing her and her talking about how you know Hades is so cruel and like I don't want to be here and you know why she chooses to help you know Percy and Annabeth and and Sally get out and keeping Grover all of that is like completely different it just it doesn't happen
00:34:07
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:34:09
Jordyn Carrido
um It makes sense, I guess, in the context of the movie, like how it's aged up, like we said, and like those kind of more like adult themes.
00:34:15
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:34:18
Jordyn Carrido
um I didn't like it. i like My biggest gripe with any book adaptation, movie, show, any property is like you already have a script written.
00:34:31
Jordyn Carrido
Like just stick to it. Like the book exists.
00:34:33
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Exactly. Right.
00:34:35
Jordyn Carrido
Just make it into a movie just just just do what it says because the fandom's built in the fandom love book so just do what the book says and then your fandom will give you all the money and will be sat in the seats and we will be there we'll show up and they just chose to change it and it just kind of killed it for me because they don't have the big reveal there's no like
00:34:36
Sarah-Daye McDougall
It's your blueprint. Yeah.
00:34:42
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:35:01
Jordyn Carrido
He doesn't have to do the work of figuring out who's actually behind it. They completely erased Percy having the prophetic dreams and hearing the voice of Kronos in in his sleep.
00:35:05
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:35:11
Jordyn Carrido
All of that is completely erased. So it's just a very cut and dry. Hades took mom. And, you know, he wants the bolt for whatever reason.
00:35:23
Jordyn Carrido
And so let's just do a trade. And Percy doesn't want to do that. And Persephone takes out Hades and that's it. And it's just kind of not as interesting to me as all the different twists and turns of like, you think it's Ares. And then in the show, they add the plot point of them thinking that it's Clarice.
00:35:46
Jordyn Carrido
which doesn't happen in the book. They never suspect Clarice. It's just somebody stole it. They just think that Ares stole it. They don't know that there was a demigod that, you know, stepped in in the middle.
00:35:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:35:57
Jordyn Carrido
They just are like, Ares stole it, you know, whoop for his reasons. He wants to start a war. He wants to enjoy that. And then one because Percy's having the prophetic dreams and hearing Cronos' voice, you know, egging him on, he's like, no, there's still something else going on here that I can't figure out.
00:36:17
Jordyn Carrido
And then it's revealed that Luke was the lightning thief and Luke took everything, got stopped by Ares. Ares took them from and so on and so forth, the rest of the plot of the story.
00:36:28
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:36:29
Jordyn Carrido
um But yeah I think it was interesting that the show added the Clarice point in there because they do, they have talked about how demigods,
00:36:40
Jordyn Carrido
have to do things for the gods the gods can't directly take each other's you know uh powers or objects um so that did make sense and it was good that like of course the only person that Ares would ever defend is his own child and so that was a good change I think for the show to have made
00:36:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
right
00:37:02
Jordyn Carrido
And then, yeah, just the scenes with Hades being so different. The show did a much better job, of course. We know this.
00:37:12
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Right.
00:37:12
Jordyn Carrido
ah But, they yeah, I mean, they I don't have that much more to say about it. they movie failed and the book succeeded. And the only thing that really bothered me at the end of that scene when they do crush the pearls to go back is...
00:37:28
Jordyn Carrido
In the book, they go back to the beach of Santa Monica, where they started.
00:37:31
Sarah-Daye McDougall
right
00:37:34
Jordyn Carrido
And in the show, it seems like they went back to the beach in New York, where the cabin is.
00:37:40
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ah Right.
00:37:41
Jordyn Carrido
And that's how they end up getting back to the other side of the country. And that's fine. fine. it makes sense but at first I didn't realize that they were at that beach I was like how the heck does he get back to New York from California because one minute we're in California on the beach fighting Aries and the next second we're walking into the Empire State Building like how did we get here so that that change also like is fine is not really consequential but just another thing that they changed
00:38:12
Sarah-Daye McDougall
no um So yeah, we return to the beach and we go to New York to return the lightning bolt and we are introduced to um Zeus and Poseidon and um some other gods.
00:38:24
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um And this is all before we have our our final kind of climax back at the camp.
00:38:29
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:38:31
Sarah-Daye McDougall
So let's talk about returning the lightning bolt.
00:38:35
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah. I mean, in the movie, they had all of the gods there. All of them were 10 feet tall. They were all like in like Greek armor.
00:38:45
Jordyn Carrido
And in both the book and the show, it's just Zeus and Poseidon. And they're both in like normal mortal clothes. Like they actually got the costuming like perfect for both of those characters in the show.
00:38:53
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:38:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:38:58
Jordyn Carrido
Zeus is in his pinstripe suit and Poseidon looks like he just got off the boat. Like it's perfect. is much better done. And that you know final...
Godly Interactions: Percy with Zeus and Poseidon
00:39:09
Jordyn Carrido
a conversation with the two of them and Percy gets to talk to his dad for the first time and Poseidon gets to tell him, I'm proud of you. Like you, you really are my son and you are a hero and I'm, I'm proud of you and I see you and I'm paying attention to you.
00:39:28
Jordyn Carrido
And Zeus gets to be Zeus and, you know, going to let you live and that's your reward for bringing my master bolt back to me. And that's, yeah, I mean, okay. Yeah, that's good enough, I guess.
00:39:45
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:39:46
Jordyn Carrido
um And yeah, there the whole plot line of Hades' helm being stolen you know gets resolved by now too. And Percy gets to explain like, hey, like you know this is how this all went down. And I think that Kronos is behind it.
00:40:04
Jordyn Carrido
And Zeus like immediately shuts down the conversation in the book. He's like, we're not talking about this. I'm going to let you live and you're going to leave and you're going to be grateful. Goodbye. And he disappears.
00:40:15
Jordyn Carrido
And then in the show, um he is like, yeah I already know that Kronos is on the rise. Like, duh, kid. And so I think that's an interesting change um for them to have made.
00:40:24
Sarah-Daye McDougall
uh-huh
00:40:29
Jordyn Carrido
And I'm curious to see how that works out. over the next season and the next two seasons, um especially because it's still kind of like, you know, it's kind of like Harry Potter where, you Voldemort comes back in book four and all of book five is people being like, no, he didn't. No, he didn't. it No, he didn't.
00:40:48
Jordyn Carrido
And so book two and part of book three is like, no, he's not back. He's not back. Like, stop. You know, like, you know, let, let, let the grownups handle this Percy.
00:40:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hu
00:40:57
Jordyn Carrido
Like, you know, just do, just go back to your little camp. Versus in the show Zeus acknowledges like, yeah, of course, Kronos is still alive. Of course, he's trying to come back.
00:41:09
Jordyn Carrido
Like, we're working on it. We'll get the council together and talk about it. And so I'm interested to see in future seasons how that's going to or if that's going shape the character actions and shape some conversations down the line.
00:41:25
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Do you think Based on this first season and based on fan feedback, um do you think that we will stay more in line with the book or do you think they will...
00:41:39
Sarah-Daye McDougall
stray because in a lot of adaptations the first you know movie or season is faithful and then later books are adapted um the later ah adaptations are a little bit more loose with the storyline so what do you think we're going to see from Percy Jackson
00:41:58
Jordyn Carrido
I mean, i can only hope that they stay as close as possible to the books. You know, i try to be understanding that, you know, we're dealing with a different medium and, you know, things that make sense on the page where it's just words are really hard to do in real life with real actors and props and sets and all that.
00:42:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:42:19
Jordyn Carrido
Um, so I really hope that they stick as close as possible to the book. And I hope that if they do have to make changes, that they are thoughtful about it the way that they seem to have been in this first season, this first season.
00:42:34
Jordyn Carrido
They did make changes and they were noticeable for somebody like me who's reread this book, you know, a dozen times in my life.
00:42:41
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:42:42
Jordyn Carrido
and You know, I know every single thing that is not the same as the book. But like I said, rewatching it all at once, i'm like, all right, you guys kind of ate with that one. It makes sense.
00:42:53
Jordyn Carrido
And why you did I follow it and end up enjoying it a lot more than I did on a first watch and a lot more than I thought I would going into it. So if they are going make changes, please, all rare please just stay intentional, stay thoughtful, and stay true to who Percy is and who these characters are.
00:43:12
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:43:17
Jordyn Carrido
Because this story is really meaningful to a lot of people. And so if we just we do our best to either copy it exactly or be intentional about our changes,
00:43:28
Jordyn Carrido
will be great and I will be sat for every single episode as soon as it drops.
00:43:29
Sarah-Daye McDougall
you know
00:43:34
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um Okay, so I went a little off tangent, but let's come back to the story and let's wrap up the story with Luke's portrayal.
Luke's Betrayal and Guest Preferences
00:43:43
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, painful, painful, painful betrayal. it in the book, you really don't see it coming. It, they do such a good job of
00:43:51
Sarah-Daye McDougall
hmm.
00:43:54
Jordyn Carrido
Luke being so nice in the beginning and then you not really hearing from him throughout the middle of the story to that when you get back and he betrays Percy, you're shocked.
00:44:06
Jordyn Carrido
um especially the way that the scene is set up. It's the last day of camp.
00:44:11
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:44:11
Jordyn Carrido
Percy has to decide if he's going to live at Camp Half-Blood year-round or if he's going to go home to New York City and live with his mom slash go to school. And he goes to the sword fighting training area just to like, you know,
00:44:29
Jordyn Carrido
do something to ease his mind and Luke is there and they start training together and Luke's like hey you want to go to the forest and hunt some monsters you know just clear our heads so Percy goes and that's when Luke starts talking about you know like the gods don't treat us right and you know my dad doesn't care about me and your dad doesn't care about you and there is somebody who you know
00:44:48
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ah Yeah.
00:44:57
Jordyn Carrido
does care about us and would make our lives better. And then the scorpion comes out of the ground and starts crawling on Percy and Percy's like, oh my gosh, you, you are the friend who will betray me from the prophecy that we heard about in the beginning.
00:45:10
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:45:13
Jordyn Carrido
Like he was wondering who is it going to be?
00:45:13
Sarah-Daye McDougall
her
00:45:16
Jordyn Carrido
Is it going to be Annabeth? Is it going to be Grover? Who is it? And it was Luke. And And that moment is so heartbreaking because, you know, and the show does it really well.
00:45:27
Jordyn Carrido
You kind of understand where Luke's coming from. Like, yeah, it is really terrible that the gods don't acknowledge their kids and don't even claim them as theirs. They're just left wondering what?
00:45:38
Jordyn Carrido
who their parent is like that is really bad and if we can change that we should um and so for percy though to be sitting there you know he doesn't want to move because there's a scorpion crawling on him and so for him to sit there and listen to that you know from luke it hurts it's he's upset that his friend has betrayed him he is fearing for his life because his life is in danger
00:45:43
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:45:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
huh
00:46:04
Jordyn Carrido
And Luke doesn't try to persuade Percy to go with him at the end of the book, the way he does at the end of the show. And even the way he does at the end of the movie, the movie version.
00:46:18
Jordyn Carrido
And I think Jake Abel delivered it really well, but it's very much like, I want to be in charge. I want to remake the universe in my image and our generation's image.
00:46:28
Sarah-Daye McDougall
no and
00:46:29
Jordyn Carrido
It's about power. It's about control. and like, yes, revenge against the gods for how they treat their kids, but mostly just that like it's time for a new era. um and I think that was a poor choice from the writer's and director's perspective because that takes away everything.
00:46:47
Jordyn Carrido
the value of what Luke is saying and that he's kind of right. And then in the show, Chiron talks to Percy after the fact and is like, you know, you kind of agreed with some of what Luke said, didn't you?
00:47:00
Jordyn Carrido
And Percy's like, yeah, like things could be better. the gods could be better people, better parents, you know, things could be better.
00:47:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:47:08
Jordyn Carrido
And Chiron's like, you know, yeah, that's, you're right. But Luke's way isn't the way to go about it and Kronos's way isn't the way to go about it and he talks you know in the book too they talk about what it was like for humans under Kronos's rule the first time and how it you know we were just mortals were just being killed left and right and eaten and it wasn't a great time for us to be alive and so even though the gods aren't perfect it's still better um
00:47:39
Jordyn Carrido
And so, yeah, just Luke is such a fascinating character and he is a villain, but he's so sympathetic and you feel so bad for him.
00:47:51
Jordyn Carrido
And especially later on in the books, learning about his mom and what happened with her, um you really are like, he's making some points.
00:48:00
Sarah-Daye McDougall
well
00:48:01
Jordyn Carrido
He's making some points.
00:48:01
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:48:03
Jordyn Carrido
um And so I'm really so excited to see mission, mission be portrayed and for Charlie, who I think is going to do a great job to show why Luke is doing what he's doing and how somebody like Cronos is able to get into his head and take thoughts that were already there and just like make them bigger and stronger and more powerful, you know?
00:48:20
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yep.
00:48:27
Jordyn Carrido
And it really does, I'm just thinking about this now, but it really does remind me of Palpatine, you know, grooming Anakin and like maybe that darkness was already there, but it takes a dark force to, you know, elevate it and make it,
00:48:33
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:48:41
Jordyn Carrido
into what it turns into. um
00:48:43
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:48:44
Jordyn Carrido
And there's a lot of other demigods that we've never seen on screen before, because they come in in later books. But they, you know, they are convinced by Luke to join that side. And so now it's demigods fighting demigods, not just monsters.
00:49:00
Jordyn Carrido
And what does that mean? And how do we handle those situations? It, you know, you grow up with Percy, and as Percy's dealing with these harder, more mature topics the readers do too. And so I think now that there's a show that's going to faithful and good, that show watchers will be able to do that too.
00:49:20
Jordyn Carrido
So very excited.
00:49:21
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah, me too. And um I'm excited because I don't remember or I haven't gotten to some of these things that you're teasing. So I'm excited to finally get there. um But let's wrap up our show here.
00:49:36
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um First, I want you to answer which medium told the story better better. they both succeed in their own ways.
00:49:47
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um Although we are talking about a film and a show here. So did all three succeed in their own ways?
00:49:50
Jordyn Carrido
yeah um i think i'm always gonna be a book purist at heart i'm always gonna be team book over anything else but the show is definitely ah head shoulders knees and toes better than the movie um so the movie just it's it it
00:50:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay.
00:50:11
Jordyn Carrido
is good for what it was, but it's not my adaptation. I, if given the opportunity, I'm always going to read the book rather than watch a movie or a show.
00:50:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:50:22
Jordyn Carrido
um but the show does a really great job and the characters, the actors did such a great job and Rick being involved with the writing, like you can tell.
00:50:29
Sarah-Daye McDougall
yeah
00:50:30
Jordyn Carrido
And, um, they're really great. And I'm really excited to see how they continue on in the future for sure.
00:50:37
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah, me too. and I'm really, really excited that we are getting a second season soon and that they've already announced season three. So I know that I already have two more books to read.
00:50:43
Jordyn Carrido
Mm-hmm.
00:50:46
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um so I'm really excited to see see see where this goes and see how, um like, are we, how many books are there in the original series?
00:50:55
Jordyn Carrido
In the original series, there's five. And then there's sequel series that also has five.
00:50:58
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay.
00:51:00
Jordyn Carrido
And then another spinoff slash sequel that has five.
00:51:05
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Oh, wow.
00:51:06
Jordyn Carrido
And Rick has just started another sequel series was like with like college age Percy that I think is also projected to have five.
00:51:06
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ah
00:51:13
Jordyn Carrido
I think two of them are out right now, maybe three.
00:51:16
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Okay. Yeah.
00:51:17
Jordyn Carrido
Yeah, the universe is big.
00:51:17
Sarah-Daye McDougall
So yeah, he's got a big universe. Yeah. um Well, I like to wrap up my adaptation analysis with our bookmarked moments, which our first is what do you like best about the movie or show adaptation?
00:51:33
Sarah-Daye McDougall
What do you, what is your least favorite moment of the film or show adaptation? And then what is the one moment that stands out either from the book, from the film or from the show?
00:51:46
Jordyn Carrido
Okay, um I'll do the movie first. My least favorite thing about the movie, besides the whole plot being changed, um is probably how they portrayed the gods.
00:52:02
Jordyn Carrido
I think none of the gods had the power and the menace that they were supposed to.
00:52:08
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Uh-huh.
00:52:08
Jordyn Carrido
And so I think that you know takes away from the story more, you know even in the context, okay, that storyline is what it is. The plot is what it is.
00:52:20
Jordyn Carrido
I think having Hades be Mick Jagger was a mistake. I think if they had made Hades actually scary and terrifying, that would have made it a better movie.
00:52:32
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Uh-huh.
00:52:32
Jordyn Carrido
My favorite thing from the movie is the soundtrack. It's, 2010s bangers it's hit after hit and that's the most positive thing I can say about the movie um the show um honestly and like I think I mentioned this before my least hum thing about the show is the lighting it's so dark in the underworld i can't see a darn thing and it's distracting because I'm like what's going on over here like I'm squinting I can't see anything
00:52:44
Sarah-Daye McDougall
ah
00:52:58
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:53:04
Jordyn Carrido
um And my favorite thing about the show is the casting.
00:53:10
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:53:10
Jordyn Carrido
All of the characters are cast so well. Like Walker is Percy and Leah is Annabeth and Jason is Mr.
00:53:15
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah.
00:53:20
Jordyn Carrido
D and everybody is everybody and it's perfect and everybody is awesome. um So that's probably my favorite overall thing about the show. And then my favorite moment
00:53:32
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And this can be and of anything.
00:53:33
Jordyn Carrido
Oh man.
00:53:34
Sarah-Daye McDougall
So your favorite standout moment of the book show or film.
00:53:35
Jordyn Carrido
So hard. So hard. um I think my favorite moment overall probably
00:53:47
Jordyn Carrido
gosh.
00:53:49
Jordyn Carrido
oh hush
00:53:50
Sarah-Daye McDougall
a
00:53:52
Jordyn Carrido
I think it might actually be all of the flashbacks of Sally and Percy in the show.
00:53:57
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Oh.
00:53:58
Jordyn Carrido
i think the way that they did that and set up that she has kind of been training him the whole time is ah is a change from the book, but it's really good. And like just developing that mother-son relationship further and, you know, showing us why Percy is Percy and how he became Percy. And he says that he's like, I'm not the son of Poseidon. I'm the son of Sally Jackson.
00:54:25
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Mm-hmm.
00:54:26
Jordyn Carrido
This woman raised me. She taught me to be who I am. She taught me to stand up for myself and to be strong. And I think that messaging of the value, you know, kind of like Harry Potter, the value of moms and the the magic of motherhood and the impact a great mom can have on their kid and the impact that that kid that was raised well can have on the world and saving the world.
00:54:54
Sarah-Daye McDougall
uh
00:54:54
Jordyn Carrido
i i love those themes. I love stories like that. So i think, and you know, you pose the question, I take ah long time to think about it, but I think that's probably my favorite thing is Sally and Percy's relationship.
00:55:04
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Yeah. Wow. Well, as a mom, as a mom myself, I don't know how I can top that.
00:55:07
Jordyn Carrido
and how the show depicts it. Yeah.
00:55:11
Sarah-Daye McDougall
So that was a really great answer. Thank you
00:55:13
Jordyn Carrido
but Yeah, yeah.
00:55:14
Sarah-Daye McDougall
Thank you for that. um And thank you, Jordan, for joining me on this adaptation. And as season two kind of develops and comes out, I would love to have you back on to talk about Sea of Monsters.
00:55:27
Jordyn Carrido
Yes.
00:55:27
Sarah-Daye McDougall
And we'll see how the show goes. But thank you again so much for joining me.
00:55:29
Jordyn Carrido
Yes.
00:55:31
Sarah-Daye McDougall
um Listeners, thank you for joining us for another episode of Book Watch. And we will see you next week.
00:55:37
Jordyn Carrido
Thank you.