Nico di Angelo

Nico di Angelo
File:Nico di Angelo.jpg Here he is shown as in the Last Olympian
First appearance	The Titan's Curse
Last appearance	The Last Olympian
Created by	Rick Riordan
In-universe information
Nickname	King of Ghosts, Lord, Master (by the dead)
Family	Hades (father) Maria Di Angelo (mother, deceased) Bianca di Angelo (sister, deceased) Percy Jackson (cousin) Thaila Grace (cousin) Poseidon (uncle) Zeus (uncle)

Nico di Angelo is a fictional character in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. Nico is the demigod son of Hades and mortal Maria Di Angelo. As such Nico has extraordinary powers of necrokenesis and has the power to command the dead; the fact that he is the son one of the 'Big Three Gods' makes his powers superior to those of other half-bloods. Nico is chronologically over seventy years old as a result of his prolonged stay in the Lotus Casino in Las Vegas, an enchanted hotel where one does not age and time does not pass at its normal pace.

Description

Nico is said to have shaggy, messy black hair, olive-like skin and black eyes. He usually has on dark clothing and he is also mentioned on several occasions to be wearing an aviator's jacket. By the end of The Battle of the Labyrinth, he also wears a skull ring.

In The Titan's Curse, Nico is a happy kid who loves a trading card game called Mythomagic. However, since his sister's death in The Titan's Curse at the hands of a defective Talos, he has a hateful resentment toward Percy. He later thinks Mythomagic is a stupid game, and burns his cards in a fire. He becomes more sullen and solitary, saying that "only the dead respect him... and only out of fear". He believes that he will never be accepted with the living, but forgives Percy after Bianca tells him that it wasn't Percy's fault that she died. He also accepts the small figurine of Hades that Bianca wanted him to have before she died in The Titan's Curse. In the fifth book, he brings Percy to his father to get information that proves to be the least his father can give, and his father ends up putting Percy in a dungeon. However, Nico rescues Percy from the dungeon and takes him to the River Styx where Percy becomes invincible. In the end of The Last Olympian Nico convinces his father, Hades, to help the other gods fight in the war against the Lord of Time, Kronos, and his army, and plays a major role in the victory. The relationship between Percy and Nico becomes close for they both might have been the child of the Great Prophecy.

Nico di Angelo's fatal flaw is holding grudges, as Bianca tells him; which, in his case, can lead to not wanting help or not asking to be saved in deadly situations because he does not like someone. Examples are his not wanting to be helped by Percy, even when Geryon was going to sell him to the Titans and not wanting to go back in the Labyrinth with them. Bianca shares this with him, as she also had the same fatal flaw in life, although this did not lead to her death. Bianca also says that holding grudges is the demigods of Hades' fatal flaw. In the fifth book, Nico tells his father, Hades, that he is holding a grudge that could end up killing the Olympians and the campers.

History

Nico and his sister Bianca are sent to the Lotus Casino after the telling of the so-called Great Prophecy, a prophecy predicting a child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) would determine whether or not the gods would be preserved or destroyed. Using this information, the Big Three entered a pact in which none could continue to sire heroes. However, unbeknownst to Zeus at the time, Hades had previously bore two young children, Nico di Angelo and Bianca di Angelo. Zeus, fearing that either were the children of the prophecy, destroyed the hotel where the Di Angelos lived with his master bolt, failing to kill the young siblings, but, however, causing fatal injuries to their mother, Maria. Fearing for the safety of his children, Hades has Alecto bring them to the River Lethe to make them forget their mother and make them stay in the Lotus Casino where they do not age until they are allowed to leave. Reentering the world decades later as students at a boarding school in Maine, where they are subsequently discovered by Grover Underwood a satyr searching for half-bloods to recruit for the gods' coming war against the Titans.

Hades orders Alecto to release Nico and Bianca from the Lotus in hopes that either of his children will be the hero to fulfill the prophecy and thus bring an end to his yearly exile from Mt. Olympus.

In the books

The Titan's Curse

Main article: The Titan's Curse

Nico, ten years old in this book, first appears with his sister in a military school called Westover Hall in Bar Harbor, Maine. They are sought out by Grover Underwood, the satyr, who believes them to be two very powerful unknown half-bloods. Nico seems to be very interested in Mythomagic, a game about Greek mythology. When his sister Bianca accepts Artemis's proposal to become a Hunter, Nico gets angry at her for "abandoning" him. Percy finds Nico eavesdropping on Bianca and Zöe Nightshade (one of the Hunters of Artemis, a daughter of Atlas), and Nico successfully convinces Percy to promise to keep his sister safe. He does not appear again until the end of the book, where Percy explains to him that Bianca died to save the others on the quest. He also creates a large crack in the ground to swallow up the skeletons that were chasing Percy. He immediately turns on Percy, telling him he hates him, and reminds him of the oath he took to keep Bianca safe. Nico is last seen running into the woods at night, after screaming at Percy.

The Battle of The Labyrinth

Main article: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Nico is eleven years old in this book. He is first seen talking with an unknown ghost who is trying to tell Nico how to resurrect his sister's dead body when Percy is sent a collect Iris Message sent by Bianca di Angelo, Nico's sister. It is revealed in this book that Nico can summon the dead. Nico is then seen when Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson visit Triple G Ranch, where Percy then saves Nico from being sent to the Titans. Nico, still angry at Percy, finally understands that it was Bianca's choice to go into the Talos robot, and he shouldn't be mad at Percy. The others leave Nico at the Ranch, where he supposedly meets King Minos (in ghost form) again, who convinces him to go back into the Labyrinth.

He is next seen being dragged into Daedalus's workshop by one empousa and two Laistrygonians, in chains, after being tricked by King Minos. He escapes with Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who have to go back into the Labyrinth to find Grover and Tyson. Along the way, they see Kronos in the form of Luke, and Nico, in a desperate attempt to save everyone, shows his true powers, and makes it known to Kronos that he is a son of Hades. They meet Pan, who gives everyone except for Nico a cryptic future reading and then vanishes. After they get out of the Labyrinth, a full-fledged battle erupts between the Titans and Camp Half-Blood, in which Nico summons a dozen undead soldiers to fight the dracanae, passing out in the process. He is revived with nectar, and he states that summoning that many soldiers required a lot of energy. After the campfire, he is seen talking with the ghost form of his sister Bianca. He then tells Percy, who came out to see what was going on, that he did not belong at camp, but instead in the Underworld, and would train there instead. He also goes to search on who his mother is and who paid for him and Bianca to stay at the school in the beginning of The Titan's Curse. He is last seen on Percy's apartment fire escape giving Percy news on Daedalus and a way to beat Luke for good. Before mentioning it, Nico is distracted by Percy's blue birthday cake, and Percy invites him in to talk.

The Last Olympian

Main article: The Last Olympian

Nico is twelve years old in this book. His theory to gain an edge over the Titans is to make Percy invincible by having him bathe in the River Styx, similar to the myth of Achilles. It is shown that after Bianca died, Hades feels he has no competent child, repeatedly mentioning that Bianca could do a better job at fulfilling their father's demands. It is also revealed that the lawyer who removed the children from the Lotus Casino was Hades' lead fury, Alecto, in disguise.

Nico attempts to summon the ghost of his mother, but the ghost of Bianca tells him not to. What he witnesses is the scene of their mother's death; Zeus blasted the building they were in, Maria was killed along with anyone within the building. Hades, having realized what was happening too late, only managed to save the children. He then tells Alecto to wipe the children's memories of their mother's death. It is in revenge for her death that Hades curses the Oracle of Delphi to not have a mortal host until his children are no longer outcasts and he no longer labors under the Great Prophecy. After learning about his mother, Nico convinces Hades to help in the war. Following the final battle, Hades and Nico receive a hero's welcome into Olympus and are thanked by Zeus for their contribution.

Powers and abilities

General

Nico's sword is made of Stygian Iron, which will kill monsters, but not harm mortals. The metal, when being forged, is cooled in the River Styx, making it indestructible. It is implied that only people of the underworld are to use a Stygian iron weapon. The sword helps him channel his power to control and summon the dead, along with draining an enemy's soul to reinforce his sword's power.

• Nico has ADHD like other half-bloods, which allows him a heightened sense of awareness in combat.
• As with all other half-bloods, Nico is dyslexic because his brain has been "hard-wired" for Ancient Greek.
• Nico, being a son of Hades, is one of the most powerful demigods alive.

Necrokinetic abilities

• Nico can put humans and skeletons to sleep by pointing at them, and it may work with other things, too.
• He shares his sister's ability to kill creatures of the Underworld.
• Nico has dominion over the dead, allowing him the title The Ghost King.
• Nico can summon and communicate with the dead.
• He can sense when a mortal or half-blood has died through a buzzing in his ears.
• He can tell if someone he loves is in the Underworld and if they are being judged.
• Nico can create flaming fissures of hellfire that then close, swallowing up living or dead creatures and immediately trapping them in the Underworld.
• Nico is shown to be able to release a soul into the underworld, as he did with Daedalus.
• Nico can make large rocks that block entrances.

Umbrakinetic abilities

• Nico can shadow-travel, a form of travel that uses shadows that enables him to teleport to different places.
• Nico can bend shadows around him to conceal himself.

Geokinetic abilities

• Nico can call forth Stygian iron from the Underworld.
• He can manipulate rocks, making them deadly. (The ability is similar to how Hades was able to kidnap Persephone.)

References

http://www.rickriordan.com