Have you ever read Percy Jackson or Harry Potter? If you have, then you probably know the intense fight between the series’ fans, and they’re all about one thing. Which book series is better? And I’m here to settle the argument. This review will include a battle of three categories. The protagonists, the antagonists, and everyone’s favorite, the romance. In case you hadn’t guessed, this article will include a multitude of spoilers, so if you aren’t comfortable with spoilers, or they make you angry, then don’t read this article.

Part 1: Protagonists

Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. They’re so similar, how could you compare them?  Harry only really had a place to protect. He wanted to protect the place that felt like home, that made him feel less like a freak, because everyone else was like him, to some extent. Meanwhile, Percy had people to protect. The story only really started because he wanted to get his mother back from Hades. And let’s all be honest, Percy didn’t care about Camp Half-blood. He only went there in the first place because his mother told him to go for safety. It never seemed to hold any real importance to him, and he wasn’t even there for the entire time. Whether he was on a quest, or simply at another camp (ahem, the underrated Roman camp, ahem). Percy was loyal to a fault and incredibly sassy, while Harry. . . Could have just left his friends. If you didn’t know, Harry and Hermione didn’t speak to one another for approximately three months over a broom. Percy, on the other hand, refused to listen to camp authorities and instead went after his mother in the first book. If you hadn’t guessed, Percy Jackson won this round.

Part 2: Antagonists

While Voldemort and Kronos are not all that different, I will be pointing out the few things that are different between them. Kronos was never actually portrayed as intelligent. He ate his kids, that immortal was not smart. Meanwhile, Voldemort was always stated to be this intelligent, powerful, and dark wizard. But he was just that, a wizard. Kronos, on the other hand, was an actual primordial being that was thousands of years old. He could’ve just “Thanos-snapped” Voldemort out of existence. There would not have been any cool competition or battle, Kronos would have won, so quickly and easily. Like, there isn’t any way Voldemort would win, except if he were to ever get the drop on “the best father of the year,” which he would be incredibly quick to prevent because as we all know, he is very proactive. He ate his children just to ensure that they couldn’t possibly overpower him. Another thing that separates them is that Kronos never attempted to deny his mortality or his humanity, because there was nothing to deny. The only reason Voldemort became a villain was because he hated being mortal. He hated knowing that he was going to die. If he were less ambitious and less obsessed with immortality, he would never have been considered a villain, he never would have made the Horcruxes.

Part 3: Romance

I know you were all waiting for this. Romance, as much as we all hate to admit it, is incredibly important, whether we love it or hate it in the books (and the movies). I don’t enjoy the romance very much, mainly because it seems rather unnecessary, or rather out of character for both Percy Jackson and Harry Potter to end up with anyone inside their world. All they wanted was normalcy in their life, and they couldn’t get that with anyone from their side of the magical/mythological world. It just wouldn’t be possible. Besides, in the movies, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter’s love interest, has the personality of a toe rag (and in the books until The Half-Blood Prince, but that is a discussion for another time). She isn’t ever really mentioned until the sixth book as anything outside of Ron’s little sister, and her personality (if I can even call it that) is literally just everything Harry “needs” in a partner. As a character, she is not anything besides the perfect match for Harry. Why not make her more emotional? And overall, she was just kind of obnoxious, with her only really  Why not make her more complex? Annabeth isn’t really much better, but at least they got to be friends for multiple books before they started dating. Harry knew Ginny, of course, but for most of the series, she was just Ron’s little sister who had a crush on him. Annabeth, on the other hand, was somewhat able to avoid acting on her crush on Percy. What’s weird to me is that almost everybody loves Percy and Annabeth together, when. . . they aren’t a very remarkable couple. They are just two people who became friends, and then eventually got together, like most real people. And anyway, a simple criticism of the main romantic relationship in Percy Jackson that I have, is why Annabeth would call Percy Seaweed Brain when he had apparently stated that he didn’t enjoy being called that, and it sounds similar enough to Brain Boy, a nickname that mocks him for his intelligence, given to him by Gabe, his abusive stepfather in book one. Both mock his intelligence, and while one might be intended to be endearing, Percy has probably internalized some of those negative comments on his intelligence, so no matter what the intent is, they are both still offensive. So, while the personality of his love interest is. . . Almost non-existent outside of the perfect things that he needs in a partner, Ginny would probably win this round, because we as the readers have never once heard her mock Harry’s intelligence, even if it is endearing.

So, to conclude, I believe that overall, the Percy Jackson series is better than Harry Potter. The protagonist is a better person (with the loyalty as a fatal flaw and all), the antagonists are just better (because Kronos has less to deny), and even though the romance in Harry Potter could technically have been better (Ginny never makes a joke about Harry’s intelligence, even when he might have told her that he was uncomfortable with it), Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase come in close. And, if you haven’t read either and were just curious, I advise you to go to the middle school library to read both series.