As I said before, I’ve always had up and down feelings about Calypso in all of Rick Riordan’s books. First, I didn’t like her due to the fact she liked Percy when he was obviously meant for Annabeth. Then, I felt neutral about her after she let him leave with one of her island’s plants, moonlace. In HoO, I didn’t like how badly she was treating Leo after he crashed onto her island but then in the last book of that series, they seemed like the perfect match for each other. Near the end of The Hidden Oracle, she arrived to Camp Half-Blood with Leo and I couldn’t wait until the next book so see how well their relationship played out, given the information about both of their depressing family and love backgrounds. Sadly to say, I was disappointed.
During reading The Dark Prophecy, I was annoyed with Leo’s and Calypso’s relationship. I liked the idea of it but on paper their love seemed strange. As everyone knows, Leo is a very humorous person. In all the previous books, Calypso seemed serious but just as clever and fierce as Leo. While reading, her humor sounded forced and unlike her personality at all. It didn’t match how she acted in the other books and her sarcasm sounded so rudely sarcastic that none of the side comments were funny at all. It also seemed like Leo was giving her love but was receiving none back. Because she gave up her immortal life for Leo, I thought it would be a lot like a typical love story with a happy ever after. However, all they did was fight. When they weren’t fighting, Calypso’s only words would be annoyingly sarcastic while Leo would talk all “lovey dovey” towards her. After finishing the book, I finally saw what I thought was so off in this relationship.
In My Thoughts on Calypso Pt. 1, I mentioned that something else really bothered me other than Calypso’s annoying sarcasm. After reading, I think I have come to a conclusion that their relationship is too smooth. In all the other great relationships, both sides have been through quests and struggles to build their friendship. They started to understand each other and get closer before they dated. However, Calypso and Leo recently met, were alone on an island for a few days, and are suddenly in love without any development. Leo talks smoothly to her while Calypso replies with fake humor. It doesn’t make sense that Leo talks smoothly because when you truly like someone, you act nervous, which is what Leo didn’t act like at all in any of the books.
Now, I feel Rick is forcing Leo to be in a relationship when he doesn’t have to. I, and most other people in the PJO/HoO fandom, feel that Leo doesn’t have to have a significant other and would be fine on his own. I think the couple would be good if there was bonding development, struggles for them to undergo together, and un-forced humor. But, they went from hating each other briefly to falling in love in a short amount of time which is why their relationship is failing and causes them to always fight. Rick should’ve had a friendship stage and a stage where they went on a quest or a rough situation together to better understand one another. However, there wasn’t and it made the whole fandom feel this was forced, unnecessary, and poorly written.
I believe that Calypso in The Dark Prophecy was necessary but being with Leo was not. If Rick had character development of Calypso and made this book their “friendship” and “struggle” stage, I think they could eventually be just as good as the other ships and not fight all the time. Now I realize it was the way her relationship with Leo was written that annoyed me rather than her personality. I could’ve easily grown out of her sarcasm but without the development, my brain automatically hated her and disguised the hate with her personality.
~M. Valdez
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