| “ | With great power . . . comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later. | „ |
| ~ Nico di Angelo. |
Nico di Angelo is a major character in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles by Rick Riordan. He is a supporting protagonist of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo, and the main protagonist of The Sun and the Star.
He is the half-blood son of the Greek god Hades and a mortal woman named Maria di Angelo. He is the brother of Bianca di Angelo, the half-brother of Hazel Levesque, and the boyfriend of Will Solace.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
In general[]
- He has made amends with nearly all of the half-bloods he had a bad history with, reconciled with Percy Jackson to put aside his past grudge, and learned to get past Bianca's death.
- He refuses to let his traumatic past define him, even though he's been through so much that Akhlys, Goddess of Misery, said she couldn't do anything more to him. Even while he suffers from PTSD and can be averse to others because of it, he still tries his best to be sociable with people.
- He has often shown tremendous guilt even for things that weren't his fault, namely the deaths of Octavian and of Jason, since he didn't do anything to save them, even though Octavian brought his death upon himself and Jason was so far away when he died that there was nothing Nico could have done.
- Though Percy Jackson and Leo Valdez saved the world with similar resources, Nico stands out for playing a pivotal role in some of their biggest actions, and also for willingly going down to Tartarus to save a life, something even Percy was too terrified to do.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians[]
- He frequently attempted to speak to the ghost of his sister Bianca out of deep familial love and cared for her well-being. Even though Bianca later told him to move on after being summoned, he still cared for her to try speaking in the first place.
- In The Battle of the Labyrinth, he was ultimately able to resist the temptations of Minos to murder people and serve his agenda.
- He bravely defended Camp Half-Blood from an army of monsters coming out of the Labyrinth.
- He chose to release Daedalus and destroy the Labyrinth so that Kronos' army couldn't use it.
- In The Last Olympian, he proposes that Percy bathe in the Styx to become invulnerable, thus giving him an edge in defeating Kronos.
- He made Hades agree to not harm Percy during his visit to the Underworld.
- After much hard work, he convinced Hades to take part in the defence of Olympus against Kronos and thus to help save civilization.
- During the Battle of Manhattan, he displayed great bravery in fighting Kronos and his army, even challenging Kronos himself to his face. It's noted that Nico was "trying to protect the pedestrians as best he could" even as he slashed through hordes of monsters.
The Heroes of Olympus[]
- He brought the soul of Hazel back out from the Underworld to give her another chance at life. He also took her to Camp Jupiter where she'll be safe.
- He is mentioned to have been one of the people looking for Percy after he went missing.
- After being rescued, he joined the crew of the Argo II in their quest to save the world from Gaea.
- In The Mark of Athena, he tried to save Percy from falling into Tartarus.
- In The House of Hades, he was the one who led Hazel, Jason, Leo, Piper, and Frank into their mission to the Doors of Death, where they saved Percy and Annabeth from being trapped in Tartarus.
- In The Blood of Olympus, he used Shadow Travel to transport the Athena Parthenos across the ocean. This had overused his powers to the point that it almost killed him.
- He banished Bryce Lawrence to the underworld to save the lives of Reyna Ramírez-Arellano and Gleeson Hedge from him.
- He and Reyna make a peace offering to stop the war between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, with this plan almost working had it not been for Gaea's last second intervention.
- He was one of the many people defending Camp Half-Blood from Gaea's army.
The Trials of Apollo[]
- He came to mutually love Will Solace, which in turn inspired some other campers to come out of the closet.
- In The Hidden Oracle, he helped Will heal the wounds of Paolo Montes and Valentina Diaz after the Three-Legged Death Race.
- He joined Apollo's cabin in their defence of Camp Half-Blood against the Colossus Neronis, also risking his life to do so.
- In The Tower of Nero, he convinced the troglodytes to sabotage Nero's Greek Fire filtration system, saving all of New York City's people from being killed. He also joined the troglodytes in the sabotage mission.
- He narrowly saved Apollo from being killed by a Germanus.
- With other half-bloods, he aided Apollo in fighting and thwarting Nero.
- He and Will healed Apollo for his fight with Python.
The Sun and the Star[]
- He volunteered to go down to Tartarus to rescue Iapetus aka Bob. Before going, nearly everybody he talked to from Chiron to Percy and Annabeth warned him not to as it was too dangerous. Nico, after being informed of all of the risks, still chose to go on the mission to the infernal realm because he figured that saving Bob was more important. At one point he was warned that it could be a trap, but he said that even if it was a trap, it'd still be right to save Bob.
- Along with Will, he freed Bob from the regeneration pod that he was being held prisoner in. Bob was more or less being tortured by Nyx in that regeneration pod. They then helped bring Bob out of Tartarus and to Camp Half-Blood where he's safe from Nyx and other threats.
- He resisted Nyx's attempt to manipulate him using his traumatic past.
- He freed the cacodemons that Nyx made from his emotions, giving them the ability to be their own creatures. When the cacodemons used this freedom to join Nico, he brought the now-tame creatures with him to Camp Half-Blood.
- When given the chance by Hades to have any wish of his granted, Nico wished that Amphithemis would be freed from his centuries-old curse.
- He gave Piper advice on her love life and self-identity.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- In general, he is rather solitary, moody, pessimistic, and untrusting of many people he meets, making it hard to connect with others. Though he has definitely improved in this area by establishing a relationship with Will and being more open about his feelings to people like Percy, Jason, or Piper, his distant tendencies still remain a notable part of his personality.
- Even after his character development, he still has some notable jerkish moments:
- In The House of Hades, when Leo tried to lighten the mood, he glared and said "We'll see how long you keep your sense of humour."
- He can be snarky to his boyfriend Will, such as calling him his "significant annoyance" (instead of "significant other").
- In The Hidden Oracle, he organized a lineup of people to take turns punching Leo after the latter came back to Camp Half-Blood. Though it's played for laughs and nobody was gravely hurt, Leo very clearly didn't enjoy the experience.
- In The Sun and the Star, Will noted that Nico can hardly go a conversation without sarcasm, an insult, or a combination of the two. Nico himself recognized that Will had a point there.
- While he has made up for most of his grudges as of The Sun and the Star, it isn't clear that his fatal flaw of grudge-holding itself is gone.
- In The Blood of Olympus, he wrathfully unleashed "a flood of pain and anger" that turned Bryce Lawrence into a ghost and then had Bryce's soul dragged to the Fields of Punishment forever, effectively condemning him to a fate worse than death. Nico is never shown in that book or in any later books to feel remorse for this. Admittedly, Bryce was a sadistic psychopath who attempted to kill Nico and torture Gleeson, and thus he arguably completely deserved what happened to him. However, Nico's response was extreme since even killing Bryce would have been more reasonable than dragging him to damnation.
- Using a Stygian iron sword makes him slightly lethal, as it prevents monsters from regenerating and makes their deaths permanent. Though these killings may be justified as they were done to defend himself and others during wartime situations, making it a minor prevention, Nico also hasn't shown any reluctance in using his sword.
- In order to bring Percy to Hades in The Last Olympian, he tricked and manipulated Percy. He also put Percy's life at risk by handing him over to the Furies.
External Links[]
- Nico di Angelo on the Heroes Wiki