‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’: What Is a Forbidden Child?

Like many different fictional worlds that focus on fantasy storylines, the story of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ also has its own fair share of concepts that are unique to this fictional universe. One such concept that was introduced in episode 2 of the live-action series was the concept of the Forbidden Child, which is one of the most important concepts in the early portion of the story. So, what is a Forbidden Child in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians?’

The Big Three are the most powerful Greek gods

It was never a secret that the storyline of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ was always going to include the Greek gods or the Olympians as part of the greater narrative. After all, the main characters of the storyline are all half-bloods born as the demigod children of Greek gods. That means that the Greek gods were always going to be featured as some of the most important figures in the storyline.

Of course, the gods of the Greek pantheon aren’t created to become equals to one another. That’s because there are other gods who are far more powerful than the lesser gods of the Greek pantheon. The three gods who are head and shoulders superior to the other gods are the brothers who worked together to defeat their father and establish the reign of the Greek gods on Olympus.

We are talking about the brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, who all govern different aspects of the world. Zeus is the king of the gods and the one controlling the skies as the strongest god in all of Olympus. Poseidon is the god of the sea and is the one who governs the waters of the world. Finally, Hades is the king of the underworld of Greek mythology.

Collectively, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are known as the Big Three of the Greek pantheon of gods. They are not only the original three Olympians but are also the strongest out of all of the Greek gods. As such, they are levels higher than all of the other gods, as they control some of the most important aspects of the world.

But it is the power of the Big Three that made them threats to one another and to the other gods. So, while they may be the strongest gods in all of Olympus, there were limits that had to be put in place for them so that they wouldn’t become too powerful. One limit is in line with the concept of the Forbidden Children.

The Big Three are forbidden from having children with mortals

Obviously, the storyline of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ focuses on the half-bloods or the children of the gods with the mortals that they fell in love with. This means that there are a lot of demigods roaming the world and that most of them are in Camp Half-Blood, where they are sorted based on who their parents are.

Percy Jackson was initially sorted into Hermes’ Cabin because this was where the unclaimed children were supposed to live before their parents claimed them. He befriended Luke, the son of the messenger god Hermes. Luke was one of the people who allowed Percy to get to know more about Camp Half-Blood and the different concepts that they needed to learn. He even mentioned about Thalia, who was one of the Forbidden Children.

Luke tells Percy that the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) were so powerful that the other gods feared that their children would also become too powerful. As such, a limit had to be imposed on them, as they were forbidden from having children with mortals. In short, the Forbidden Children are the children born to one of the gods of the Big Three.

Of course, at that time, Percy had yet to learn that he was the son of Poseidon. It was only after Annabeth shoved an injured Percy into running water that they learned that he was the son of Poseidon. Of course, this also allowed him to discover that he was supposed to go on a quest involving the fate of the entire world as it was reportedly a Forbidden Child who stole the master bolt of Zeus, thereby threatening a war between Zeus and Poseidon.

Because he was wrongly framed for the theft of Zeus’ master bolt, Percy now has to find a way to clear his name by recovering and returning the master bolt to prevent a war between the gods from breaking out.

Forbidden Children, being the children of one of the three strongest Greek gods, are naturally stronger than most of the other half-bloods. This could be seen in how Percy was able to defeat the Minotaur and even break Clarisse’s spear with little to no training. The fact that Forbidden Children were becoming too powerful was one of the reasons why they were forbidden.

As of this writing, the only Forbidden Child revealed in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ is Percy himself. Also, he is the only child to be claimed by Poseidon, making him unique among all of the different half-bloods in Camp Half-Blood.

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