Nico di Angelo is the son of Hades and a character in the Percy Jackson series.
History
Nico di Angelo is the son of Hades, and the younger brother of Bianca di Angelo. Not much is known about his past. Apparently, he and Bianca were born before World War II, so Hades never broke the oath he took to never have any half-blood children again. Bianca and Nico both lived in Washington DC at some point. When Nico was ten and Bianca was twelve, both were brought to the Lotus Casino by a Fury disguised as a lawyer. Hades had to erase their memories so they wouldn't know who they were. After a month in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, which was actually about 70 years, they were taken out by the same fury. Hades wanted them because he wanted one of them to be the child in the prophecy. His mother, Maria di Angelo, died when Zeus struck their apartment with lightning while trying to kill Nico and Bianca, during World War II. The Oracle, showing up shortly after the destruction of their apartment, is cursed by Hades to never have her soul rest, and to stay in her body until it rots. He cursed her because she kept telling him that he should have given Bianca and Nico to Zeus as she knew their future.
He is the son of Hades and brother to Bianca. His sister died in The Titan's Curse from a defective Talos. He can tell if someone he knows is in the Underworld and if they are being judged. He also knows when a mortal or half-blood is dead, from a buzzing in his ears. He can also call spirits from the dead and/or communicate with them. He was angry with Percy Jackson for letting his sister die and tries to get back at him, but at the end of The Battle of the Labyrinth he seems to come up with his own mutual agreement. Nico has discovered a way to defeat the titans, but the book ends before this is told. In The Titan's Curse, it is said that Nico and Bianca are more than 70 years old due to the Lotus Casino, which means Hades was the only god among the Big Three that kept his promise not to have children after World War II.
Appearance
He is said to have shaggy and messy black hair, olive skin, dark, brown eyes, and wears mostly black, and by the end of the Battle of the Labyrinth, a skull ring. He is also mentioned on several occasions wearing an aviator's jacket. Towards the end of the fourth he becomes more solitary and lonesome.
Personality
In The Titan's Curse, Nico was a happy, undetermined demigod who loved playing with his Mythomagic Cards. He seems a little clueless and asks many questions, sometimes annoying Percy, espsecially when he asks questions about Annabeth. He is excited about finding out that he is a demigod, and compares monsters to Mythomagic. He feels abandoned when Bianca becomes a Hunter of Artemis. However since his sister, Bianca, died, he has had a hateful resentment toward Percy. He decided that Mythomagic was a stupid, childish game, and burned his cards in a fire. He becomes more sullen and solitary during The Battle of the Labyrinth, saying that "only the dead respect him... and only out of fear". He believes that he will never be accepted with the living, but forgives Percy after Bianca's ghost tells him that it wasn't Percy's fault that she died. He also accepts the small figurine of Hades that Bianca wanted him to have before she died in The Titan's Curse. He has a soft spot for Annabeth in the The Battle of the Labyrinth. In the fifth book, he brings Percy to his father to get information about his mother that proves to be the least his father can give, and his father ends up putting Percy in a dungeon. Nico later came to help Percy escape. Even though he tricked Percy in order to get information about his mother, he was quite sincere in wanting to help him with the prophecy and the war.
In the books
The Titan's Curse
Nico first appears with his sister, in a military school called Westover Hall, in Bar Harbor, Maine. Bianca and Nico are almost kidnapped by a manticore named Dr. Thorn. Thalia, Grover, Percy, and Annabeth attempt to save them, but it is the Hunters of Artemis who come to the rescue. They are sought out by Grover Underwood, the satyr, who believes them to be two very powerful unknown half-bloods. Nico is about ten, and seems to be very interested in MythoMagic, a game about Greek mythology. But when Bianca accepts Artemis's proposal to become a Hunter, Nico gets angry at her for abandoning him. Percy finds Nico eavesdropping on Bianca and Zöe, and Nico successfully convinces Percy to promise to keep his sister safe. He doesn't appear again until the end of the book, where Percy explains to him that Bianca died to save the others on the quest. He immediately turns on Percy, telling him he hates him, and reminding him of the oath he took to keep his Bianca safe. Nico is last seen running into the woods at night, after screaming at Percy. He also created a large crack in the ground to swallow up the skeletons that were chasing Percy.
The Battle of The Labyrinth
When Percy is sent a collect Iris Message, (sent by Bianca) he sees Nico talking with an unknown ghost (King Minos) who is trying to tell Nico how to resurrect his sister's dead body. It is revealed in this book that Nico can summon the dead. Nico is then seen when Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson visit Triple G Ranch, where Percy then saves Nico from being sent to the Titans. Nico, still angry at Percy, finally learns from his sister that it was not Percy that killed her, and he shouldn't be mad at him. The others leave Nico at the Ranch, where he supposedly meets King Minos (in ghost form) again, who convinces him to go back into the Labyrinth. Then, he is seen being dragged into Daedalus's workshop by one empousa and two Laistrygonians, in chains, after being tricked by King Minos. He escapes with Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who have to go back into the Labyrinth to find Grover and Tyson. Along the way, they see Kronos (in the form of Luke), and Nico, in a desperate attempt to save everyone, shows his true powers, and makes it known to Kronos that he is a son of Hades. They meet Pan, who gives everyone except for Nico a cryptic future reading and then vanishes. After they get out of the Labyrinth, a full-fledged battle erupts between the Titans and Camp Half-Blood, in which Nico summons a dozen undead soldiers to fight the dracanae. He is then revived with nectar, and he states that summoning that many required a lot of energy. After the campfire, he is seen talking with the ghost form of Bianca di Angelo, his sister. He then tells Percy, who came out to see what was going on, that he did not belong at camp, and would train in the Underworld, where he belonged.He also goes to search on who his mother is, who paid for him and Bianca to stay at the school in the beginning of the Titan's Curse. He is last seen, on Percy's apartment fire escape, giving Percy news on Daedalus, and a way to beat Luke for good. But before mentioning it, Nico gets sidetracked by the blue birthday cake (assuming he's most likely never had a birthday party in his life), and Percy invites him in to talk. Nico is 11 years old in this book. Nico is first seen through Iris messages that Bianca sent to Percy. He has honed his powers as the son of Hades by the ghost of King Minos. He tried to summon Bianca's ghost many times, but failed. Frustrated, he seeks to make a deal with his father by trading "a soul for a soul." He decides to find the soul of someone who cheated death and trade it for Bianca's. Later, Nico meets Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover at the Triple G Ranch. Angered, he threatens them, but is stopped by Geryon. He still blames Percy for Bianca's death, and tells him so. He is then captured by Geryon to be sold to the Titans. When Percy offers a deal to Geryon to save him, Nico shouts that he does not want to be saved by Percy.But Percy saves Nico, and convinces him to try and summon Bianca's spirit again. However, Bianca tells Nico not to be angry at Percy or hold grudges, because that is the fatal flaw of the children of Hades. She says to stop blaming Percy because it is really she that Nico is angry at for abandoning him, gives a warning about Kronos sensing Nico, and then disappears. He stays at the Triple G Ranch while the others leave. Nico is tricked by Minos into going back into the maze to save Percy, but is captured by two dracanae of Kronos's. He tells Percy that only the dead accept him, and they only do that out of fear. In the battle at Camp Half-Blood, Nico summons undead warriors to fight. The effort tires him out so much that he collapses, but he is later revived with nectar. He releases Daedalus's soul after that, who offers his soul for ransom, but Nico decides Bianca should stay where she is. He feels out of place at Camp Half-Blood, and refuses to eat with the other demigods. Nico summons Bianca's spirit one last time. He tells Percy that he will leave Camp Half-Blood because he feels that he does not belong there like his father doesn't belong on Olympus. Before he leaves, Percy gives him the small Hades statue that Bianca had given him before she died. He appears again at the very end to Percy and offers a way to defeat Kronos, but is distracted by Percy's blue birthday cake. Percy offers him some, and they both go inside.
The Last Olympian
His theory to gain an edge over the Titans is to make Percy invincible by having him bathe in the River Styx similar to the myth of Achilles. It is shown that after Bianca died, Hades feels he has no competent child, repeatedly mentioning that Bianca could do a better job at fulfilling their father's demands. It is also revealed that the lawyer who removed the children from the lotus hotel and casino was the lead fury, Alecto, in disguise. Nico, attempts to summon the ghost of his mother, but Bianca tells him not to. What he witnesses is the scene of their mother's death in which Zeus blasted the building she, Hades, and the children where in to pieces. Hades, having realized what was happening too late, only managed to save the children. He then tells Alecto to wipe the children's memories of their mother's death. In the fifth book, Nico is a small part of it, he finds out who his mother is, and is able to convince his father to help the campers fight. He is last seen ordering skeleton soldiers to build a Hades cabin. Nico is 12 years old in this book.
Flaw
Nico di Angelo's fatal flaw is holding grudges, as Bianca tells him - which, in his case, can lead to not wanting help or asking to be saved in deadly situations because he doesn't like someone. Examples are his not wanting to be helped by Percy, even when Geryon was going to sell him to the Titans and not wanting to go back in the Labyrinth with them. Bianca shares this with him, as she also had the same fatal flaw in life, although this didn't lead to her death. Bianca also says that holding grudges is the demigods of Hades' fatal flaw. In the fifth book, Nico tells his father that he (Hades), is holding a grudge that could end up killing the Olympians and the campers.
Weapon
- A Stygian iron sword that channels his powers to control and summon the dead. The sword is unlike the normal demigod one. Though it is rare demigods not of Hades can use it, it is just hard to make because it must be cooled in the River Styx.
Powers/Abilities
- Nico has dominion over the dead, allowing him the title the Ghost King (technically the ghost prince since Hades is above him as Lord of the Dead and Underworld.)
- Nico can summon and communicate with the dead.
- Nico can kill undead skeletons.
- He can sense when a mortal or half-blood has died through the buzzing in his ears .
- Nico can create flaming fissures of hellfire that then closes, swallowing up living or dead creatures and immediately trapping them in the Underworld.
- Nico has been trained in the Underworld.
- Nico can call forth the dead with his Stygian iron sword from the Underworld.
- He can manipulate rocks, making them deadly.
- Nico is the most powerful demigod alive (excluding Percy and Thalia).
- It is suggested that he can bend shadows to conceal his presence.
- Nico can shadow travel, a form of travel that uses shadows.
- Nico can put skeletons asleep by pointing at them, and it might work with other things too as this could be a form of controlling spirits.
- Note the fact that in the fifth book is appears that Nico's powers make him tired, more than when Thalia or Percy use theirs.
- Nico is a demigod with ADHD and most likely dyslexia.
Being the son of Hades, Nico is a powerful demigod. He has a small sword made of Stygian iron, which has the same kind of power as celestial bronze. It has a black blade, and Nico uses it to stab and channel ghosts. He can summon skeletons to work for him, although too much at a time is a strain for him. After escaping from Hades's dungeon in The Last Olympian, Percy says to Nico, "Your powers drain you too much." Nico can kill undead skeletons and control ghosts, or at least send them back to the Underworld. He can also free people's souls into the Underworld, like he did with Daedalus's, and sense souls enter the Underworld, which he describes as a buzzing in his ears. It is also possible that he can bend shadows to conceal his presence, although that has not been confirmed. Like some underworld creatures, Nico has the ability to "Shadow Travel", it isn't said exactly how he does it, but he basically walks into the shadows and appears somewhere else. As described by Percy when Nico appeared, "Nico appeared right next to me, as if the shadows had darkened and created him." Nico had to practice it few times before he could get it right, and built up enough stamina to do it. As said by him "Practice. A Few times running into walls. A few accidental trips to China." Nico didn't have enough stamina the first time he tried it, as he said to Percy, "The first time I shadow traveled, I passed out for a week. Now it just makes me a little drowsy, but I can't do it more than once or twice a night." He prefers to do it at night as it's easier when the user is in a dark place.
Film
Nico has not yet been cast, and presumably will not be until the film version of The Titan's Curse starts production.