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Percy Jackson and the Olympians is finally available for streaming on Disney+. The streaming platform has brought to life the dreams of countless Percy Jackson fans, with Rick Riordan's beloved novel series adaptation.
Like all book-to-screen adaptations, Percy Jackson and the Olympians too deviate occasionally from the original novel series. But the main arc remains the same. It follows a 12-year-old Percy Jackson who learns that he is a demigod, who is the son of a human woman and a Greek god.
Following this discovery, he undertakes a quest along with Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood to stop a war from breaking out between the Gods.
What are the 5 main differences between the Percy Jackson novels and the Disney+ Percy Jackson and the Olympians?
For fans of the series, here are the five main dissimilarities between the novels and the television adaptation, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
1. Percy's first fight scene with Mrs. Dodds
The first episode of the Disney+ series follows the story of The Lightning Thief. In the novel, one of Percy's main fight scenes is with his math teacher Mrs. Dodds who lures Percy into the museum alone where she reveals herself to be a Fury and attempts to kill him. Percy's Latin teacher Mr. Brunner intervenes here by tossing Percy a ballpoint pen which turns into a sword with which he can slay Mrs. Dodds.
However, in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the fight scene takes place on the front steps of the Met and there is no intervention from Mr. Brunner. Instead, we see a close fight where Mrs. Dodds lands on top of Percy and nearly kills him. Percy survived only by a stroke of luck when his pen turns into a sword and impales Mrs. Dodds without Percy realizing.
2. Sally Jackson's role is much bigger
In the book The Lightning Thief, we see that Percy's mother, Sally, and Grover explain some things about his identity to him on the ride to Camp Half-Blood. But it is mainly at the camp that he is told everything by Chiron, Annabeth, and Luke.
But in Disney's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a lot of these revelations are made by Sally Jackson, Percy's mother. She tells Percy that he is a demigod and consoles him when he feels different from everyone else. She is also the one who has been training Percy for his birthright his whole life and explains to him why he was named Percy after his father. It is even Sally who protects Percy during the Minotaur attack by distracting it with Percy's red jacket.
3. Missing hellhound
One of the biggest cuts Percy Jackson and the Olympians made was the scene involving the hellhound attack in a camp-wide game of Capture the Flag. In the show, the game plays out the same way it does in the books, but there is no appearance of a bloodthirsty hellhound who attempts to kill Percy, as it does in the book. The hellhound part in the novel is a short one and it makes sense that the scene was left out owing to the creation of several other complicated on-screen beasts.
4. Another motivation for Percy to undertake the quest
In the show, Grover learns from the Council of Cloven Hooves that Sally is not dead. However, neither Chiron nor camp director Dionysus wants Grover to tell Percy but as Percy's best friend, Grover tells him this anyway since he deserves to know the truth about his mother. When Percy comes to know that Sally is alive and could be brought back from the Underworld, he is further motivated to take up the quest.
This is different from the book where Percy was not told that his mother could be brought back and he only comes to know that when he reaches the Underworld where Hades reveals that he took Sally hostage to gain some leverage over Percy.
5. Medusa's portrayal
The Disney+ series and the book have taken different paths in the portrayal of Medusa's backstory. The show takes on a more detailed exploration that delves into parts of the original myth, acknowledging the aspect of sexual assault present in her backstory. This theme was not explored in the novel series. Moreover, the series also explores Medusa's profound affection for Athena, showing her prayers and offerings to the goddess despite receiving no response from Athena.
Watch this space for more book/TV show comparisons for the subsequent episodes of the Rick Riordan novel adaptation Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
