Reasons why books from the Riordanverse are better than HP (Part 5)

Diversity:

In the HP universe, all the characters are from the UK, they're mostly white, and are all straight (except for Dumbledore, whose homosexuality was confirmed over social media).

Meanwhile, in the Riordanverse, every character is unique (sexuality, beliefs and color-wise).

In PJO, all the demigod have ADHD and dyslexia, Charles Beckendorf is black, the Di Angelo siblings are from Italian roots, Zoe Nightshade is Greek and many more.

In HoO, 4 out of the 7 from the prophecy are either Latino, Asian, black and Cherokee. Nico Di Angelo is canonically gay and Drew Tanaka is also Asian.

Not to mention that a pansexual main character is in love with a genderfluid demigod, there are Muslim characters, and a lot of characters are from the LGBTQ+ community. Let's not forget that Apollo, a GOD is bi sexual and that his twin sister literally has a group of aro/ace huntresses.

This shows that Rick Riordan truly tries to include everyone, no matter what their gender, sexuality, beliefs, color or mental illnesses are.

Percy Jackson

I think we can all agree that Percy Jackson will always be one of the best characters and protagonists ever.

I loved Percy from the beginning, though he was never my favorite character. Nonetheless, I loved him dearly, since he pretty much changed my life for the better.

Percy taught us that it doesn't matter who you are or who is your godly parent, you can be friends with anyone, regarding of their race, sexuality, gender or godly parent. Percy taught us loyalty, humility, love, strength and compassion. We watched him slowly fall in love with Annabeth. We watched him become a camp hero. We watched him overcome the deaths that broke him. We watched him accept every single person he met.

But most importantly, he stood up for his mother, when she was abused by Smelly Gabe, and sent her Medusa's head to end him.

Percy is one of the strongest demigods of all time but that didn't change him one bit. He remains calm, nice and, of course, sassy.

Let's not forget that he have up immortality to be with Annabeth and that he still calls his mom to reassure her that he is okay.

Annabeth Chase

Annabeth was my favorite character in PJO. I loved her since the first minute she showed up. I loved her way of thinking and her strategy skills. I loved the fact that she could beat Percy in a fight. I loved that she was taller than him. I loved how she was portrayed, a strong independent woman. But most of all, I admired her strength.  She ran away from home when she was only 7, she saved Luke and Thalia from the Cyclops, she held the sky more than Percy, she always fought for her family, the campers at CHB. I loved how Uncle Rick portrayed her. I loved that she sometimes overcame her certain beliefs to adapt. Like how she befriended Tyson even with her past with Cyclops. Or how she was able to cope with the fact that Luke abandoned her, even though he promised he wouldn’t. Or she overcame the fact that her bestfriend was changed into a tree, or that her boyfriend disappeared. And most importantly, how she was able to adapt with the Romans, even though she didn’t know if they could be trusted.

Let’s not forget that while Percy and Jason were always fighting to see who was the leader of the Seven, everyone waited for Annabeth to give the orders.

Reasons why books from the Riordanverse are better than HP (Part 4)

Better character’s struggles:

In HP, Harry is the one who’s struggles we read about the most. We learn about his difficulties to cope with the Dursleys and to fit it in the wizarding world, since he doesn’t know anything about them. In PJO, Percy struggles with an abusive step-dad, an accusation of theft from the king of the gods himself, and a feeling of not fitting in, since he’s a son of the Big Three. In addition to that, we see Annabeth struggling with trusting people, such as Tyson, and see her struggling with the fact that she left home at the young age of 7, only to be afterwards betrayed by the person she most trusted.  Likewise, in HoO, we learn more about everyone’s hard lives, such as Piper who’s dad doesn’t notice, Leo who ran away at 8 thinking he killed his mother, Frank struggling with accepting himself, Hazel struggling with being from another time and having seen death...

In my opinion, this adds to the importance of each and every character, and makes us understand that struggling is okay, running away even if your family is physically abusive but is somehow toxic is okay, and it’s what makes us unique.

Reasons why books from the Riordanvere are better than HP (Part 3)

Better protagonists:

In PJO, the main protagonist is our beloved Percy, that everyone from the fandom appreciates. A lot of people that I know have stated that Percy was their favorite character from the fandom. He's funny and sassy, intelligent and strong, all of which in his own way. Meanwhile, in the HP fandom, none of the fans has Harry as their favorite character. I have asked countless of people if they like him. Most of them ended up confessing that they preferred Draco, that Harry was somewhat boring and sometimes didn't do the easy thing. In my opinion, the fact that Percy is more loveable adds to the charm of the books, because we can appreciate the trials that he goes through, while Harry might need a lot of help to move on.

Reasons why books from the Riordanverse are better than HP (Part 2)

More action:

In the HP saga, the main villain is Voldemort, the whole story is to find a way to defeat him. In each book, they fight Voldemort towards the end of the year (so the end of the book), the rest is just preparing to fight him. 

In the Riordanverse books, at least PJO and HoO (I haven’t finished the others yet), there is always someone or something to defeat. The main villain might be Kronos for example, but there are thousands of other villains that are obstacles to the main characters and that try to stop them from getting to the main villain. 

In my opinion, the lack of action in the HP saga makes books from the Riordanverse more entertaining since you don’t get bored while reading about Harry being in class and learning whatever wizards learn. I think that the books from the Riordanverse are full of suspense and that makes us unable to stop reading until we at least finish the chapter. 

Personally, I would reread PJO and HoO a hundred times, but I do not see myself rereading HP.

Reasons why books from the Riordanverse are better than HP (Part 1)

More character development:

Something that I love in the Riordanverse books is the character development. In the HP series, we see the Golden Trio grow up and evolve, along Ginny, Luna, Neville and much more, but in the Riordanverse books, the characters evolve so much more. Like Nico who grew up from 10 year old annoying mythomagic addicted kid to 13 year old relatable guy that pushes everyone away.

Also, something I love about HoO, is the change of POV. This is the main reason why I like HoO more than PJO. This change of POV let’s us explore the minds of all the characters, rather than just Percy. In the HP books, the whole story is based on what Harry is living or doing, while in HoO, you live with every single character. This adds to the characters development because you discover their struggles and beliefs, their opinions on a certain issue and their opinion on fellow demigods