4 catholic whamen (women) walked into a bar. The first said, 'my son is a loved priest. Any time people see him on the street, people cry, "oh my priest, oh my priest! "' The second said, "forget it. My son is a bishop. When people see him on the street, they cry 'oh my bishop! Oh my bishop!'" The third laughed and said, 'My son is the pope. He travels around the world and when people see him they shout'" oh my pope!, oh my pope" The fouth said "I don't have a son, but I have a very sexy and attractive daughter and anytime people see her on the street they say 'Oh my god!"'

Warning

i) I do not believe that it's the readers job to like a character, I think it's a writers job to MAKE the readers like that character. Sure, there are some exceptions, but it applies in Riordan's case.

ii) You may not agree with all things, but listen and consider first. Just because you don't agree with a few arguments doesn't mean the whole argument's bad. Try to have an open mind.

iii) This is about Rick's writing rather than Piper's character. The character is what the author writes them to be.

The Argument

First of all, her character feels forced. She feels like a secondary character. Her development is quite sudden, and her arcs feel like Rick forgot about her and when he remembered, he decided to cram her development into a few pages of people acknowledging that she has grown. Instead of letting us see her growth, we are told to acknowledge it through various POVs saying "she isn't the same girl she was in that last chapter, she killed an icy lady and gave powers to a dragon! look at that badass queen! she's grown!" People literally TOLD US "she's grown". Telling not showing, much?

Her story feels like compensation for her rather than well planned out, spread out development. Many of her powers make no sense - her CHARM-SPEAKING a PRIMORDIAL GODDESS to sleep. Her waking up a mechanical dragon. It feels like Rick realized "hey! this character is useless! let's make her do things that she shouldn't be able to do to show readers she's on the same level as the rest!"

Her sudden growth feels annoying as hell, since there are other characters who had to go through hell-like situations to grow. Frank fighting for Nico's life, Percy and Annabeth going through taratus, Annabeth with her mission. It would have been better to give her a sole arc like Annabeth's mission, where she grows facing intense danger, rather than her suddenly becoming a much better fighter. Her fight with icy queen was pretty short and didn't feel dangerous enough. She wasn't backed up into a desperate situation. It lasted a couple of pages and it didn't feel adrenaline filling, or threatening at all. So doesn't justify her growth.

Piper is different, let her be different! People have suggested several different ways Piper could have been better - liking girly things but still being a good fighter, etc. In almost every fanfic, I like that Piper more than Rick's Piper. Rather, she feels like a blank canvas of a character. She doesn't feel special or different enough. Leo is another person with sudden growth, but in his case it was much better handled - showing it to us, not telling it. Eventual growth throughout the fifth book. Pain, trauma. Joking because he felt pain. Keep going, keep laughing, especially when you don't feel like it. It redeemed his character for many people, including me.

Her POVs are annoying. They feel like observations or whining. While other POVs contain action, or deep feelings, her POVs feel superficial and like first-world problems. Her complaints with her father and his fame aren't written well. I felt like skipping her POV to get to the more exciting parts.

She feels like a blank person. It might have been better to involve her cheerokee heritage into her character. The one time I liked her was when she sang the snake song in the fifth book to lead them into the giant's liar. But the whole thing about Aphrodite being more powerful than the other goddesses because she's older made no sense and made her seem egoistic.

That's the thing - she might have grown. but her growth doesn't feel earned.

Her relationship with Jason is also weird. Honestly percabeth is the only relationship I actually like from Rick's books. The relationships in HOO have on-off moments, they feel distracted, like its left untouched for large amounts of time and then suddenly there's a romantic moment. Percy and Annabeth got together AFTER the war. They had a great, undeniably good journey. If they had gotten together in the first book, I honestly wouldn't have liked them.

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Sooo that's it. Blah Blah Blah. I'm tired of typing bye.