| “ | Good-bye, Percy. There is a new Golden Age coming. You won't be part of it | „ |
| ~ Luke Castellan to Percy (The Lightning Thief, Ch. 22) |
| “ | He abandoned me, Percy! I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Hermes it’s going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. | „ |
| ~ Luke to Percy (The Sea of Monsters, Ch. 9) |
I was surprised to learn that Lukey-boy didn't already have a page here. Percy Jackson has been around for a while with a decently large fandom. Plus, Luke has already been accepted on TV Tropes. Well, if nobody has submitted him yet, I suppose I will.
What's The Work?
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a young adult fantasy novel series by Rick Riordan. The premise of the books is that ancient Greek gods and monsters of myth not only exist today, but live in the USA, where the gods continue to have half-blood (demigod) children with mortals. These half-bloods are often hunted by monsters, but have a safe haven in the form of Camp Half-Blood, where heroes are trained by Chiron.
The main character of the series is Percy Jackson, a young boy who learns that he's the son of Poseidon, Greek god of the seas. He's unlucky enough to be a half-blood around the same time that Kronos, ancient king of the Titans and bane of the gods, is working to excape his prison and get revenge on his children. Percy is tasked with saving the world from the resurgant Titans.
The first book was released in 2005 and the last book in 2009. Rick Riordan cashed on the success of the books to make the "Camp Half-Blood Chronicles" or "Riordanverse" into a full franchise, with other book series like The Heroes of Olympus (2010-2014) and The Trials of Apollo (2016-2020) set in the same universe.
NOTE: This is only covering the original five books. Film adaptations like The Lightning Thief (2010) and The Sea of Monsters (2013) won't be discussed here.
Who's The Candidate/What Has He Done?
Luke Castellan is the main antagonist of the Percy Jackson books, with Kronos the King of the Titans as the overarching antagonist. Born in Westport, Connecticut, Luke is the son of the Greek god Hermes and a mortal woman named May Castellan. As an infant, his mother May attempted to become the new Oracle, but instead was driven insane by seeing a vision of Luke's future.
At 9 years old, Luke ran away from home because of his mother's poor mental state. He travelled alone for several years, fending for himself against hordes of monsters trying to kill him. When he was 14, he met a 12 year old daughter of Zeus named Thalia Grace, and the same year he met a 7 year old daughter of Athena named Annabeth Chase. The three travelled across the United States together. At one point Luke met his father Hermes, who refused to explain why he didn't answer Luke's prayers, which led to Luke saying he couldn't love his father in such a relationship. After a long while, the trio found the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood; but Thalia sacrificed herself fighting monsters before she could come in, and Zeus turned her into a pine tree right before she died.
Luke became the head counselor of the Hermes cabin at camp. At Camp-Half Blood, Hermes gave Luke a quest to take a Golden Apple from the Garden of Hesperides. Luke failed the quest and returned to the Camp ashamed. Later, Luke was spoken to in a dream by the titan Kronos, who offered to help him get revenge on the gods for all the mistreatments he recieved. Luke accepted and pledged himself to the Titan King.
The first quest Luke recieved from Kronos was to steal Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness to start a civil war between the gods. Camp Half-Blood went on a field trip to Mount Olympus, and Luke took the chance to commit the theft. The gods sent out a team to search for the thief, and Ares managed to catch Luke - but he convinced Ares to spare him by telling him how much war would arise from the theft. Ares took the weapons for himself and let Luke escape.
Kronos punished Luke by sending him nightmares, but also told him that he could pin the blame for the theft on a new camper. That new camper was Percy Jackson.
This is just a synopsis of his backstory. There's no way I'm retelling his entire 5-book character arc in a subsection. That's what RiordanWiki is for.
Is He Magnificent?
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All throughout his tenure as antagonist, Luke Castellan is consistently shown to be compitent and cunning:
- The Lightning Thief:
- He stole Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness, both of which are priceless possessions of the strongest Olympian gods, as part of his plan to make them fight each other.
- When Percy Jackson came to the camp, Luke gained his trust and pretended to be a helpful mentor-figure. He gave Percy a set of winged shoes, that were secretly cursed so they'd fly Percy to Tartarus when he arrived in the Underworld. The plan failed but only because Percy wasn't wearing the shoes when Luke expected he would.
- He summoned a Hellhound - a monster in the service of Hades - to attack the camp and go after Percy. This was meant to make Chiron think 1) the camp wasn't safe for Percy, and 2) that Hades stole the Master Bolt. Chiron fell for both of these tricks and sent Percy on a quest to the underworld.
- After Percy returned home from his quest, Luke talked with Percy in private. It was here that Luke revealed his true allegiances, summoned a pit scorpion to kill Percy, and then teleported away before being caught. Percy barely makes it out alive.
- Interesting note: Just about everyone at Camp Half-Blood was utterly surprised to learn that Luke was the thief and had betrayed them. Especially Annabeth, who didn't believe it at first.
- The Sea of Monsters:
- He had a spy poison Thalia's tree, which protected Camp Half-Blood. This was in the hopes that Percy would be sent on a quest for the Golden Fleece, which Luke needed for his plans. Lo and behold, that's exactly what Camp Half-Blood sent Percy to do.
- He also had framed Chiron for the poisoning, which meant that the gods fired Chiron for a short while. This fact was only revealed because Percy tricked Luke into admitting it in front of everyone.
- When he duels Percy, Luke is easily able to defeat the kid, and is only prevented from killing him by reinforcements coming last second.
- He tricks Percy into thinking he was going to use the Golden Fleece to bring back Kronos. In truth, he was actually hoping Percy would use it on Thalia's tree to bring Thalia back to life - which, lo and behold, Percy did.
- Oh, and in terms of style/charisma, Percy (in typical Percy narration) said that "He looked like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year."
- The Titan's Curse:
- He arranged for Annabeth to be captured while he held up the sky in Atlas' place. The kidnapped Annabeth came, and he tricked her into holding the sky instead of him.
- Kidnapping Annabeth was, in turn, part of a plan to lure the goddess Artemis over, and he managed to trick Artemis into holding up the sky instead of Annabeth.
- In a fight with Thalia, he's kicked off a cliff and even has his lifeless body seen by Percy. However in the same book it's revealed that he faked his death and was still alive.
- Interesting note: Poseidon mentions to Percy that, minus gods and Titans, "Only a hero, someone with strength, a true heart, and great courage" can hold the sky up. Percy points out that Luke did it, which Poseidon finds curious.
- The Battle of the Labyrinth:
- He made a deal with Daedalus, creator of the Labyrinth, so that he'd be given magical string he could use to navigate the Labyrinth.
- He allows Antaeus the giant to have gladiator games in his arena. This is because Antaeus' arena is one of the enterance ways to the Labyrinth. In this arena, Luke has Percy forced into a gladiator fight with the giant.
- He bathes in the River Styx, making him invulnerable except for one spot on his body, so he can volunteer to be possessed by Kronos.
- The Last Olympian:
- In The Last Olympian, it is revealed that Luke convinced Silena Beauregard, a camper and daughter of Aphrodite, into being his spy in Camp Half-Blood. He convinced her by tricking her into thinking she's saving lives; I should note that it's implied he also seduced her with his looks. When she found out the truth, Luke blackmailed her into staying in Kronos' service.
- MAJOR SPOILERS FOR The Last Olympian, BE WARNED! As he's possessed by Kronos who is fighting Percy, Luke manages to fight for control of his body after regretting what he's done. He resists Kronos just enough to tell Annabeth his weak spot so she can stab him, defeating Kronos once and for all. This heroic sacrifice is his last moment on earth, as he reconciles with Percy and Annabeth on his deathbed.
Does He Think On His Feet?
Luke is shown to think on his feet when things don't go as planned. For example:
- When he's captured by Ares, he's able to convince the god of war to let him go and not tell anyone. Ares agrees and the plan for a divine conflict goes as planned despite getting caught. Now, Kronos punished him with nightmares for "losing", but that's more Kronos being a bad boss than anything else.
- He has a backup plan in case he can't get the Golden Fleece. That is, he hoped that when Thalia was brought back from the dead, he could convince her to join him based on their past friendship. That part didn't go as planned but it's still notable.
- His final act in life is resisting Kronos' possession and figuring out a way to destroy him.
What's The Competition?
Even if Rick Riordan has expanded the "Riordanverse" beyond Percy Jackson and the Olympians, very few antagonists can compare to Luke.
- From the original five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books:
- Daedalus is a genius inventor from ancient times, who escaped death by transfering his conciousness to different automaton bodies throughout the centuries. He's only present in The Battle of the Labyrinth, in which the dude is contstantly switching sides. When betrayed by the Titans, he sacrifices himself to destroy the Labyrinth with their army. As mentioned before he struck a deal with Luke.
- From the rest of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series:
- The Trials of Apollo: Nero AKA the Beast is one of the members of the "Big Bad Triumvirate" of The Trials of Apollo. He raises orphaned half-bloods as part of a conspiracy to overthrow the gods, and uses his indoctrinated servants as spies in Camp Half-Blood. However his abuse of these children arguably puts him in Hate Sink territory.
- From the other "Riordanverse" books:
- Kane Chronicles: Set is an ancient Egyptian god who is harder to figure out than even Daedalus. He teaches Amos his branch of divine magic, and at another point forces Carter and Sadie to release him so they can defeat Vladimir.
- Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Utgard-Loki is a king of the Nountain Jotunn. He introduces himself by tricking Magnus into giving him a meal. He also helps Magnus defeat Loki.
Is He A Baddie?
Yes, Luke is a baddie. He's a servant of Lord Kronos in his plan to destroy civilization, motivated by revenge and ressentiment against the gods. For an overview of his acts:
- He framed Percy for stealing the Master Bolt - a crime that Luke committed - in order to cover his blame.
- He tried murdering Percy - a boy who was only 12, 13, 14, and 15 years old at different points in the series - multiple times. These include:
- Giving Percy cursed shoes that were meant to drag him to Tartarus.
- Sending a Hellhound to kill Percy during capture the flag.
- Leaving Percy behind with a deadly scorpion, which Percy barely escaped from (all in The Lightning Thief).
- Aboard the Princess Andromeda, he had his bodyguards feed Percy to a Drakon. Note that he also tried to kill Annabeth in the same instance.
- Later, he tried to kill Percy in a duel (both in The Sea of Monsters).
- He tricked Annabeth into holding up the sky in lieu of Atlas (in The Titan's Curse). He didn't even need to do this, and he did so by manipulating her with their past friendship.
- He blackmaled Silena Beauregard into being his spy and threataned to hurt her boyfriend if she disobeyed him.
- The last thing to note is that, in his dialogues with Percy and the other heroes, he makes it clear that he wants to destroy civilization along with the gods. In The Lightning Thief, he tells Percy that "Their precious 'Western civilization' is a disease," and that "[Kronos] will cast the Olympians into Tartarus and drive humanity back to their caves. All except the strongest—the ones who serve him." Lines like this are pretty consistent in the books. He knows full well what Kronos has planned for the world, and joins him anyways.
Is He Too Bad?
No. Luke is a tragic, extremist anti-villain, and in The Last Olympian is basically a hero.
- His hatred for the Olympian gods is completely understandable, if not outright justified. I mean, the monsters that he watched Thalia sacrificed herself to stop were sent by Hades to kill her, who in turn wanted her dead because Zeus murdered his lover Maria di Angelo and almost got their kids Nico and Bianca. As a kid, Luke's prayers to his own father Hermes were almost never answered. Half-bloods tend to grow up in broken families as the gods often abandon them. Oh, and kids from non-Olympian gods didn't have their own cabins, so the Hermes cabin was overcrowded with abandoned children. Luke wasn't wrong in identifying the problem. He was just wrong about the cure.
- He still sees himself, at least to some extent, as being responsible for protecting Annabeth. This is most clear in The Titan's Curse, where he repeatedly makes sure his minions don't kill her. Now, he sometimes ignores this (e.g. The Sea of Monsters) and hurts her anyways - and it's noticing that he's hurting the one he promised to protect that made him realize he's the bad guy.
- MAJOR SPOILERS FOR The Last Olympian, BE WARNED! While possessed by Kronos, Luke is able to resist him long enough to repent of his past deeds. He tells Percy and Annabeth where his weak spot is so they can finally destroy Kronos. He's stabbed, and in his dying moments, he asks for forgiveness and requests that unclaimed half-bloods get the justice they deserved. When he dies, Hermes blesses him, and the gods declare him a hero whose soul is currently in Elysium (basically Heaven).
Conclusion?
I say yes, but you fellas make the decisions here, not me.
| “ | Ethan. Me. All the unclaimed. Don't... Don't let it happen again. | „ |
| ~ Luke Castellan's last words (The Last Olympian, Ch. 19) |