I was re-reading TLO when a thought popped into my head. This idea was before I started writing theories down, so I dropped the idea, but as I was reading fanfiction, the idea arose from the dead and climbed out of the cemetery of lost ideas in the back of my brain.

We all know why Percy's fatal flaw, loyalty, is so fatal, right? Flashback to TTC: Take it away, Athena. "Hem, hem, (you know I love you, right, HP fans?) you see, Percy's fatal flaw of loyalty means that Percy is too loyal. He can't let go; if he were forced to choose between saving the world and saving his friends, he would choose his friends." Thank you, Athena. Now I know that many of you are thinking, 'That's not too bad; I mean he just wants to save his friends.' I thought so, as well. But we might have overlooked something.

Now, my theory is that Percy's loyalty is more fatal than just that. Here's what popped into my mind: what if someone betrays that loyalty? If someone betrayed such pure loyalty... wouldn't that be considered the worst possible misdeed in Percy's book? Wouldn't he hate such people, feel unable to forgive them, not be sure if he could truly trust those people even if they prove themselves?

I know what you're thinking. 'Well, if you really want to consider it, why don't you look at all of the traitors that appear throughout the PJO series? Chris Rodriguez, Ethan Nakamura, Silena Beauregard, and the biggest one, Luke Castellan.'

Well, Chris Rodriguez went mad after a mission from Kronos, Clarisse nursed him back to health, and Florence Nightingale style, they fell in love with each other (Meanwhile, Percy and co. were roaming the Labyrinth and nearly dying and whatnot). I think that the fact that Chris's circumstances were so terrible, combined with the fact that Clarisse was actually happy for once, gave him a second chance with Percy.

Okay... so next off, Ethan Nakamura. After being saved by Percy, he still joined the Kronos army and was the final pledge needed to allow Kronos's rising. During the war, though, Ethan was reluctant to share Percy's Achilles spot with Kronos, even though he caught wind of its general area by chance in battle (Kind of a Divergent Peter/Peter Pettigrew thing going on. He was the son of the revenge goddess, so I guess the eye-for-an-eye—literally—mentality that Divergent Peter has is what he was going for). Also, in the final showdown against Kronos, Ethan makes a last minute switch to Percy's side and dies, reminding Percy to get the Olympians to remember the minor gods and their children. So, of course, Ethan is forgiven. I mean, he died for their cause. Can't get any more loyal than that.

Next is Silena Beauregard. She was the second most well known war traitor in the PJO series, mostly because she was a spy, and not upfront like the other traitors. We can hear Percy's rage at the traitor throughout all of TLO, but when it is finally revealed that Silena is the traitor during an emotional scene in which she tries to impersonate Clarisse to lead the Ares cabin into defeating the drakon, Percy forgives her. Once again, she died for the cause. He couldn't blame her for her crimes.

Last, but certainly not the least, there is the most well known war traitor in the PJO series. Luke Castellan, the traitor from book one. His list of crimes runs long. He stole the Lightning Bolt and the Helm of Darkness, framing it on Percy, nearly creating another civil war, attempted to drag Percy into Tartarus using a pair of flying shoes that he stole from his father's house and cursed, he attacked Percy with a pit scorpion in the woods, he poisoned Thalia's tree, he attempted to steal the Golden Fleece, he tricked Annabeth into taking the weight of the sky, he attempted to get Thalia to join the dark side and kill the Ophiotaurus, he tricked a dryad into showing him the entrance to the Labyrinth as a means into camp, he took Ariadne's thread, he became the host for Kronos, he tricked Silena into becoming a spy, he led armies against Camp Half-Blood, and he generally did a lot of bad stuff. However, Percy's dreams in TLO showed that Luke was having second thoughts, and during the final battle, Luke sacrificed himself to destroy Kronos. So he died. I'm beginning to sense a theme, here, Rick Riordan.

Percy didn't forgive Luke during the first few books, though. He tried to convince Annabeth not to trust Luke before the final battle, not telling her about the visions he saw, trying not to get her hopes up. He didn't think that Luke had survived the fall from the cliff in TTC. But is that his fatal flaw, or a bout of jealousy?

So I looked again.

Percy knew Chris was a traitor, but given the circumstances, he forgave him. Ethan gave Percy a longer time to dwell on his actions, but during TLO, Percy didn't harbor much real anger against Ethan. Again, is that because of the circumstances? Percy was fine hating a faceless enemy during the start of TLO, but when it was revealed that it was Silena, Percy forgave her. Circumstances? And then finally, Luke. Percy had five books of hating Luke. Luke made many mistakes, but in the end, Percy trusted Luke enough to give him the knife at the final scene without any concrete proof or evidence. I mean, Luke could've pulled a complete Kylo Ren on them then taken over the world, for all we knew! Still, Percy put his faith into him, and let the fate of everything rest in a man that had continuously failed him for the past five years.

And so I concluded.

My original theory was wrong. This theory is much, much worse. When it turned out to be Percy's old friends, Percy always ended up forgiving them. Even if he didn't know them that well, if they were on the same side at one point, Percy often forgave them. While this cancels out my original theory, it leaves room for a much more fatal one.

The problem is, that it's not that Percy won't be able to forgive those who betray him, but he will always forgive those who betray him so long as they give him evidence that they repented. While this is a good trait, Percy's fatal flaw takes it to a whole new level. All the characters that we know as traitors were truthful and then died (other than Chris), so it was pretty okay until now, but what if someone tried to take advantage of this? So long as you seem to repent, you could do anything and Percy would forgive you. That's a huge vulnerability. Spies and double-agents could use Percy as a way to infiltrate, and because Percy is the camp's leader, even if grudgingly, the campers will accept them. That's a gigantic vulnerability. And that just made a fatal flaw even more fatal.

So, did you enjoy that? Do you agree with me? Honestly, this theory scares me much more than anything the war traitors did!

Is there anything that I missed? Comment what you think!

Please, I don't think it's rude. I need some constructive criticism, even if it's a simple grammar mistake or misspelled word. Thank you for reading!

-FaeHunter