- “I am Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades. I control the shadows. They do not control me.”
- ―Nico in The Blood of Olympus
Niccolo di Angelo is a major protagonist in the Camp Half-Blood series. He is a major protagonist in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians, a supporting protagonist in the Heroes of Olympus and the main protagonist of the standalone novel, The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro. He is the demigod Greek son of Hadesand the late Maria di Angelo, the older paternal half-brother of Hazel Levesque and the younger brother of Bianca di Angelo.
In The Heroes of Olympus book series, it is revealed that Nico is gay and has had a crush on Percy for years before entering a relationship with Will Solace. He is known in the Underworld as the "Ghost King" after taking the title from Minos in The Battle of the Labyrinth.
History
Background
Nico was born in Italy during World War II, two years after his sister Bianca to the Greek god of the Underworld, Hades and the mortal Maria di Angelo. Nico was secretly gay; however, being raised and born in a time period filled with homophobia made him closeted. Zeus attempted to kill the di Angelo siblings by sending a lightning bolt to the hotel they were staying with their mom. While Hades protected them with black energy to shield them from Zeus' bolts, he failed to save Maria. Hades sent his faithful servant, Alecto to take them to the River Lethe and erase their memories of the incident. Hades swore vengeance on his brother and many years later sent monsters after Thalia after he learned that Zeus broke his oath.
Nico and Bianca claimed to have no memory of what happened other than living on the streets of Washington DC as orphans. Alecto (disguised as a lawyer) when they were living as orphans on the streets of Washington DC. The kids weren't aware of the creature's true nature at the time; Alecto (as a lawyer) told them that their parents were dead but a trust fund was left in their name. She then left them at the Lotus Hotel.
Percy Jackson & the Olympian
The Heroes of Olympus
The Trials of Apollo
Powers and abilities
- Demigod Physiology:
- ADHD
- Dyslexia
- Geokinesis
- Necromancy
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Speed
- Superhuman Endurance
- Inherent ability to understand Greek
- Necromancy
- Telekinesis
- Soul telepathy
- Geokinesis
- Cyrokinesis
- Hypnokinesis
- Umbrakinesis
- Shadow teleportation
Demigod Powers
Abilities
Weaknesses
Fatal Flaw: Nico's fatal flaw is holding grudges. At the end of The Titan's Curse and part-way through the following novel Nico blamed Percy for his sister's death when he promised to look after her during the quest. However, Bianca's ghost told Nico not to blame Percy for it because it was her decision to save her friends in Hephaestus' desert. She was also able to identify his true reasonings for blaming Percy. In truth, Nico was angry with Bianca.
Relationships
Friends
Family
Trivia
- Nico was one of the first demigods to be identified as LGBTQ+.
- It is confirmed in the house of Hades that Nico is in fact gay and has had a crush on Percy for years. It is partially why he was always jealous seeing Percy with Annabeth. While others mistook Nico having a crush on her instead, in truth Nico.
- Nico is both the youngest and the oldest demigod child of the Big Three. Birth wise, Nico was born first, in the 1940s, Thalia and then Percy and age wise, he is the youngest at age 15.
