We love the underdog. It's a fact. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, I could go on and on. But writing an underdog in Percy Jackson fanfics is chronically done. Done wrong. Thats why, in this chapter, we're learning all about the underdog, and how to write one.

As soon as we saw him, we loved him. Percy Jackson, troublemaker extraordinaire. Half the time, he had no clue what he was doing. He was brash, sometimes oblivious, and could make us want to rip our hair out, but we loved him.

Why? It's simple. He was the underdog. He was relatable. We saw his struggles as our own, and we related to them. And so many people want to replicate that, but just can't. But before we explain how, let's dive into what makes Percy the lovable underdog.

I was instantly drawn in with his sarcastic personality, and witty sense of humor when I read Rick's books. He wasn't some perfect little boy who never made a joke. Percy was the troublemaker, the weird kid. Many of us could relate to not always being included.

Percy's godly parent was one of the things that made me like him. Rick could have easily taken a brief look in a mythology video and thought "Hey, the protagonist is going to be the son of the most powerful god, Zeus!" But he didn't. He chose a person I had barely heard of. Poseidon? Who was that? Closest thing I knew was Neptune from Spongebob. Rick surprised us, and we kept reading.

He messed up! Half of the time, he was a kid running around with a sword doing random things. He didn't know any Greek mythology, he was just a normal kid, wondering What the Hades is going on?!? He was random, and I couldn't predict what was going to happen next. He wasn't a perfect little angel who knew everything about Greek mythology and always won his battles. He was human.

We see a lot of people use the idea of an underdog as the main character, which is fine. Rick doesn't own the idea of an underdog. But they almost never get it right.

For example, a main character will always pretend like they're useless. Yet they always have some hidden talent. They say they're ugly, but in reality, they're beautiful.

If you need a text example, here's what will usually happen.

"Come on, it can't hurt to sing a little!" her friend, Ryker said. (You can probably guess by his name that he's a bit of a bad boy.)

"I don't know..." Emily protested.

"Come on, live a little!" Ryker said, nudging her.

Her face burst into a shade of red the same as a tomato. (You can probably guess she has a little bit of a crush.)

"Fine." she said, taking in a deep breath.

She began to serenade them with her voice, a deep, rich, tone like honey cascading over them. The lyrics were amazing, telling the story of her life. How she was never good enough, her abusive step parent, and everything she endured. She finished the song and peeked open an eye. They stood there, almost expressionless.

Oh no, what if they didn't like it? What if I'm horrible? What if- Emily thought to herself.

"Emily, that was amazing!" Ryker said, as her friends burst into applause.

Does that sound familiar? Of course it does. It's the underdog the fandom likes to write. Shy, abusive parent/step parent/ guardian(s), and has either rich honey blonde hair, or amazing sea green eyes.

I'm pretty sure this is how the average OC writers mind looks like:

See? How many times have you seen the shy, yet sarcastic girl who's really insecure, but has a lot of talents? I know I've seen a lot of OCs that are the spitting image of that description. The one thing you should know before creating your underdog is this: Let your character know his/her limits. Percy knew he wasn't the smartest kid, he knew he couldn't sing, fight very well, or any of those other things.

You have to keep your character human and relatable. Most of us aren't pro cooks and singers who are really well at everything we do. Imagine if Uncle Rick had made Jason the protagonist of the original series.

Let's be real: Most of us hated Jason, or thought he was so bland. Too perfect. Rick tried to make him a little relatable, giving him mistakes and glasses, and insecurities, but the damage was done. The fandom absolutely disliked Jason Grace.

Honestly, I kind of liked Jason when I met him. I thought his powers were cool, and he had great supporting characters. To be fair, that was my second book that I read that Rick had made. Yes, I know, but my library at school was small. It only had The Sea of Monsters, and The Lost Hero.

But I would constantly check out the Lost Hero, again and again and again. (It helped that nobody else liked to read Percy Jackson). But the more and more I got into the Heroes of Olympus, I realized that compared to Percy, Jason was kind of bland.

He just wasn't relatable. That is the key to making an underdog. Relatability. If your readers can't relate to your characters struggles, it's going to be hard for them to read on. Percy was the underdog, and I could relate.

If you don't believe me, I'll give you more evidence. Jack Sullivan, Harry Potter, Nate Wright, Greg Heffley, what do they all have in common? (Besides being fictional characters?) They're underdogs. And coincidentally, they all have done very well. Jack Sullivan, protagonist of The Last Kids on Earth, already has an animated T.V show on Netflix.

Relatability. The true key to success.