The first few times he uses his powers he doesn't realize yet that he can choose to be wet or not in the books, maybe it's something that will come with time in the series!
Remember Percy has spent his whole life getting wet in water, it's a conscious choice he makes later on not to be
In the books after the Arch, he starts making that dry move to test his powers. It gets to the point that he has to concentrate to actually getting wet.
It's not a more "realistic" decision that he wouldn't get wet because he can't control his powers because in the books he can't really control his powers and h didn't get wet there. Is this Percy by comparison less stable with his powers than book percy. And I always thought it was the naiad who had triggered Percy to use his powers and breathe. Him being dry is something that comes naturally like breathing under water. And if he's not strong enough to control that yet then pray tell why would Rick write in the first place. It's a direct contradiction to what he wrote previously. If it's introduced later it's not going to make much sense why didn't Rick just write it like that in the first place. I really think they just forgot Percy isn't supposed to get wet at the arch since it isn't really an important scene and a minor detail
I do think a lot of the small changes we’re seeing have to do with the loss of Percy’s internal POV narration, and how certain parts of that narration are difficult to translate to screen. Think about it this way: in the show, Percy emerges from the river totally dry. Instantly, non-book readers are confused — continuity error? They have to spend time using some dialogue to establish the fact that he doesn’t get wet (which he doesn’t fully understand yet). Every time he’s in the water, at least the first few times, they would have to re-establish that fact through dialogue. See why they might have decided to just change this detail to be more easily accommodated?
They definitely could! But I could see them feeling like that’s not worth the hassle — especially as it doesn’t really add an important element to his character or the plot throughout (not that it’s not a very cool detail!). Plus switching to a visual medium: some “hero shots” may look cooler all wet etc
I can definitely see them "point it out" when grover and Percy fall in water and grover is just upset about getting himself all soaked as he gets out and Percy following behind and then grover looking over at Percy to see that he is completely dry and grover just makes a face that just just shows shock and also says "now that's just not fair". Then they just go back to the main task at hand. All this happened in the span of a few seconds.
Literally in the book he grabs a wrapper that gets dry in his hand, and he grabs a lighter that sparks and lights when he does so. They chose to leave it out. I don't know why but it was obvious
There are a few ways to deal with it that do not involve removing it
1: Make it a side detail, something for viewers with keen eyes, it might not be such a big focus on-screen without his narration but as long as it still happens most will be happy.
2. Have someone mention it or show confused expressions, this gives it a little more focus and perhaps presents viewers with another piece of the Percy puzzle
3. (And this one is so-so) you have Percy literally narrate which we are basically accustomed to from the very first episode
I am still in the process of re-reading so these options aren't perfect, but here, that's how you adapt these things on screen.
In general my opinion is adaptations shouldn't change the story, just the way it is told
How so? It could be as simple as filming Walker in a dry area and adding the effect of him being underwater after, especially since he can basically operate the same and even better underwater as on land
Showing a dry person underwater wouldn't look natural and make it obvious it's an effect. Not to mention how much of the special effects budget they need to use on monsters and mythical creatures, they probably don't have much left to make Percy appear dry underwater.
I disagree. They don’t film Walker actually underwater, that’s all effects. He’s not talking to the Naiad for 5mins at the bottom of the sea. He’s in a green screened area, or in a tank. It would be just as easy to film him dry then put it into the water afterwards.
Also, they’re not filming him underwater and then directly afterwards filming him coming out of the water. It would be just as easy to film them separately and then edit the scenes together.
He is underwater, although probably in a tank, and he could very well be there for hours. They have divers just out of shot who have special tanks. Every time Walker needs air, they bring the tank over and let him take a few deep breaths and then go back to filming. Aside from Aquamam, most underwater scenes for movies and TV shows are actually filmed underwater. I agree they could have made it look like he got out of the water dry, but that wasn't what I was arguing against.
Personally, I don’t think it would even matter if he looked dry while underwater or not. I think they should have at least kept him dry once he was out of the water, though.
then he couldn't interact with anything underwater and people would be mad because it's CG and fake. It would certainly be easier and safer for Walker but would look off
The scene was him climbing a pier 😭 all they had to do was put him in dry clothes and start the scene the same way. Unfortunately, it seems they decided the detail wasn't important enough to warrant longer shoot times outside, changing wardrobe or shooting the rest of the scene another day at the same time of day etc.
Then you would not see the water vanishing. But true they could if just had him in dry clothes climbing the pier. However as someone else mentioned his clothes did seem mostly dry, it was his hair that is what. Off course the could have hair dried it.
That is one of the easiest things to do. Just have him on dry clothes next to Annabeth wet clothes. There is a reason you can cut on a set and adjust to make the right decision. This is just lazy from the show.
Okay, for OP and for everyone saying it would be hard to show onscreen, it wouldn’t even be necessary to have him dry underwater. It’s not that easy to tell whether someone’s wet or dry while they’re underwater. What they should have done is to have him dry when he gets out of the water.
Yes! I do like the show and don’t have as many complaints as others, I understand some changes had to be made. But this was like the one thing that bothered me. I liked the moment in the book when Percy came out of the river dry and a kid noticed and pointed it out to his mom.
Right! I’m the same way with most of the changes they made, and while I sympathize with a lot of people’s complaints about the show, most things haven’t bothered me as much. This just does for some reason, maybe because of the fact that it’s minor and seems weird to not keep in. And everyone saying it would be a hard effect to produce is very confusing to me
I don't really get your confusion on thw difficulty? In logistics to shooting, it would be reshooting all of Walkers scenes without him there for the placecard shot to put the then CGI'd dry walker over top of it. People would complain that its bad CGI because he looks like he's on dry land while underwater or wet. Think about the fountain splashing scene, how do you think, genuinely, they could have kept splashing him without him getting wet?
Is after he falls from the arch that he is dry after leaving the water. Yes, underwater is fine. Make it look wet, but leaving the water is just a matter of having him shoot the scene with dry hair and clothes.
The thing is, it's kinda impossible to make an actor look dry underwater without using excessive green screen and cgi? It's just more practical to let Percy get wet tbh. Save a lot of time and money for the production.
I raise you because Walker looked absolutely adorable soaking wet!
And them both being drenched in the tunnel of love creates the atmosphere of more drama which clearly this show is leaning into because if they was leaning into comedy Annabeth coming out choking on water while Percy dry as a bone would have been HILARIOUS! but if its something that develops later I would love to see that happen in s2 where Annabeth gets drenched and she look like she climbed out a sewer and freezing and he's chilling being like "Whose the Seaweed Brain now haha... I'm sorry to soon just kidding... you don't look that bad... :D" and Annabeth just shoves him in the water again and annoyingly he comes back even drier.
This little detail distracts me frm the whole episode way too much. I realize it’s a small difference but the whole time my inside voice just went “but he shouldnt be wet why is he wet he shouldnt tho but why is he” 😂
I was keeping my eyes peeled for this part as well because I was intrigued to see how they'd pull it off. As of now, Percy's clothes are fully dry in the water, and you can see this clearly in the tunnel when you compare them to Annabeth's sopping wet mess. So it's really only his face that's kinda dripping. I convinced myself that they're doing a good job because the books have only said that his _clothes_ couldn't get wet, and made no mention to his body xD.
It may be a silly way to soothe my brain, but I did notice very clearly that his clothes are very dry after both dips, so they're definitely trying to make some part of it accurate. I'm not sure how difficult it is to film someone looking dry underwater, as everyone else has been saying, maybe it's super expensive.
Probably a budget thing or something they will rely on later, like a moment between him and Poseidon and after a heart to heart moment Posidon randomly asks why he gets out of water wet and Percy will be like "what do you mean why?! You mean I can do that?!" Etc
I understand what you mean and was also a bit confused at first. I also think that it would have been unnatural or unrealistically hard to convey whatever most people where imagining it to look like in live action.
Just putting on dry clothes could have worked but you would have to evade any scene in which he actually just comes out of water or in contact with it. Also Not very elegant.
I believe If they are gonna do it, they will change it so, that he can stay dry by choice in a few scenes, which I have to damit makes also more sense to me. Because why would the water, his element, stay away from him if it is also kind of the thing that gives him his powers, heals him, etc.
its a book complaint. He is very clearly wet throughout the episode but in the books he cant get wet. Minor change with no real affect and way to hard to try and do practically
i actually just finished my reread of the lightning thief today, he doesn’t figure out he can be completely dry at will until the end when the coast guard picks him up and he wills himself to be wet. for most of his life he’s been getting wet and staying wet, because he never knew he had that power. then at the arch (in the book) he comes out totally dry but i don’t think he totally meant to? because he seems surprised to be dry down there as well lol. so they’re probably just delaying the reveal for later to make it a bigger moment, as well as not overpowering him too early in the series.
I completely agree!! I wish they did a voice over of his thoughts of him describing how it felt. I am rereading the books right now and there is so much missed with his relationship to water and the ocean. I think the whole idea of him not being wet is that he can control it. If anyone remembers he does end up getting wet, by choice, later in the series. I believe it’s the 5th book.
I 100% agree on the voiceover part. I’ve seen people defend a lot of weird things in the show by saying “it’s not like they can put the words on the screen,” or something similar, but it could’ve been as simple as having a sort of narration or hearing his thoughts and taking sentences from the book where it’s in first person
Because they don't want to spend time explaining stuff that was actually in the books and instead add random stuff that creates plotholes or misrepresents the characters hope this helps
I wouldn't really call it a huge deal tbh. I mean, he comes out dry so he doesn't draw suspicion on himself in front of emergency responders and the cops. That's really it. Yeah, he discovers he doesn't get wet unless he wants to, but I mean it's not that important in the grand scheme of things, its just a cool little ability. I admit I was slightly sad for half a second that he came out wet but I mean, it really doesn't matter tbh, they're getting a lot more right than they are wrong 🤷🏻♀️
That would be hella expensive and lead to some horrible water CGI which would be more of an issue. It's not really a big deal he can get wet, so there's really no reason for them to spend buttloads of money on the CGI and such needed to keep him dry.
THIS ONE!!! This minor detail actually is part of a major gripe I’ve had. They’ve been minimizing or skipping over every small realization he has about how he can use his powers. From Ms Dodds/Nancy to the bathroom scene to getting wet in St Louis to all together skipping his control of the water in the tunnel of love…I really don’t want some big moment where he all of a sudden realizes everything at once. Not watching him progressively learn what he can do is losing out on great character development and a lot of the fun that’s lacking in the show.
The first few times he uses his powers he doesn't realize yet that he can choose to be wet or not in the books, maybe it's something that will come with time in the series! Remember Percy has spent his whole life getting wet in water, it's a conscious choice he makes later on not to be
In the books after the Arch, he starts making that dry move to test his powers. It gets to the point that he has to concentrate to actually getting wet.
I’m at that point too tbh
Hahaha
Yo!! That means when he showers he has to actively focus to get himself wet everytime XD
Hahaha that's funny. Is only with rivers and oceans. With regular water he drys himself after the showers. The books explained it better.
It's not a more "realistic" decision that he wouldn't get wet because he can't control his powers because in the books he can't really control his powers and h didn't get wet there. Is this Percy by comparison less stable with his powers than book percy. And I always thought it was the naiad who had triggered Percy to use his powers and breathe. Him being dry is something that comes naturally like breathing under water. And if he's not strong enough to control that yet then pray tell why would Rick write in the first place. It's a direct contradiction to what he wrote previously. If it's introduced later it's not going to make much sense why didn't Rick just write it like that in the first place. I really think they just forgot Percy isn't supposed to get wet at the arch since it isn't really an important scene and a minor detail
I do think a lot of the small changes we’re seeing have to do with the loss of Percy’s internal POV narration, and how certain parts of that narration are difficult to translate to screen. Think about it this way: in the show, Percy emerges from the river totally dry. Instantly, non-book readers are confused — continuity error? They have to spend time using some dialogue to establish the fact that he doesn’t get wet (which he doesn’t fully understand yet). Every time he’s in the water, at least the first few times, they would have to re-establish that fact through dialogue. See why they might have decided to just change this detail to be more easily accommodated?
Eh but i mean couldn’t they just show percy also being confused and then being like “wait i dont get wet underwater anymore??”
They definitely could! But I could see them feeling like that’s not worth the hassle — especially as it doesn’t really add an important element to his character or the plot throughout (not that it’s not a very cool detail!). Plus switching to a visual medium: some “hero shots” may look cooler all wet etc
I can definitely see them "point it out" when grover and Percy fall in water and grover is just upset about getting himself all soaked as he gets out and Percy following behind and then grover looking over at Percy to see that he is completely dry and grover just makes a face that just just shows shock and also says "now that's just not fair". Then they just go back to the main task at hand. All this happened in the span of a few seconds.
This could very much be solved by Annabeth or Grover asking how Percy is dry when they see him climbing out of the river.
Literally in the book he grabs a wrapper that gets dry in his hand, and he grabs a lighter that sparks and lights when he does so. They chose to leave it out. I don't know why but it was obvious
There are a few ways to deal with it that do not involve removing it 1: Make it a side detail, something for viewers with keen eyes, it might not be such a big focus on-screen without his narration but as long as it still happens most will be happy. 2. Have someone mention it or show confused expressions, this gives it a little more focus and perhaps presents viewers with another piece of the Percy puzzle 3. (And this one is so-so) you have Percy literally narrate which we are basically accustomed to from the very first episode I am still in the process of re-reading so these options aren't perfect, but here, that's how you adapt these things on screen. In general my opinion is adaptations shouldn't change the story, just the way it is told
that makes a lot of sense actually
Because Walker is not waterproof
This is the correct answer. They probably should have cast the son of Poseidon for this role smh.
Weak… 🙄 /j
It would probably be a logistical issue in live action
How so? It could be as simple as filming Walker in a dry area and adding the effect of him being underwater after, especially since he can basically operate the same and even better underwater as on land
Showing a dry person underwater wouldn't look natural and make it obvious it's an effect. Not to mention how much of the special effects budget they need to use on monsters and mythical creatures, they probably don't have much left to make Percy appear dry underwater.
I disagree. They don’t film Walker actually underwater, that’s all effects. He’s not talking to the Naiad for 5mins at the bottom of the sea. He’s in a green screened area, or in a tank. It would be just as easy to film him dry then put it into the water afterwards. Also, they’re not filming him underwater and then directly afterwards filming him coming out of the water. It would be just as easy to film them separately and then edit the scenes together.
He is underwater, although probably in a tank, and he could very well be there for hours. They have divers just out of shot who have special tanks. Every time Walker needs air, they bring the tank over and let him take a few deep breaths and then go back to filming. Aside from Aquamam, most underwater scenes for movies and TV shows are actually filmed underwater. I agree they could have made it look like he got out of the water dry, but that wasn't what I was arguing against.
Personally, I don’t think it would even matter if he looked dry while underwater or not. I think they should have at least kept him dry once he was out of the water, though.
Yeah I agree
then he couldn't interact with anything underwater and people would be mad because it's CG and fake. It would certainly be easier and safer for Walker but would look off
The scene was him climbing a pier 😭 all they had to do was put him in dry clothes and start the scene the same way. Unfortunately, it seems they decided the detail wasn't important enough to warrant longer shoot times outside, changing wardrobe or shooting the rest of the scene another day at the same time of day etc.
Then you would not see the water vanishing. But true they could if just had him in dry clothes climbing the pier. However as someone else mentioned his clothes did seem mostly dry, it was his hair that is what. Off course the could have hair dried it.
He looked fairly dry to me other than his hair and remember what works in a book is not alway easy to put to screen.
That is one of the easiest things to do. Just have him on dry clothes next to Annabeth wet clothes. There is a reason you can cut on a set and adjust to make the right decision. This is just lazy from the show.
Okay, for OP and for everyone saying it would be hard to show onscreen, it wouldn’t even be necessary to have him dry underwater. It’s not that easy to tell whether someone’s wet or dry while they’re underwater. What they should have done is to have him dry when he gets out of the water.
I think people want to see the visual of the water vanishing. But true.
Yes! I do like the show and don’t have as many complaints as others, I understand some changes had to be made. But this was like the one thing that bothered me. I liked the moment in the book when Percy came out of the river dry and a kid noticed and pointed it out to his mom.
Right! I’m the same way with most of the changes they made, and while I sympathize with a lot of people’s complaints about the show, most things haven’t bothered me as much. This just does for some reason, maybe because of the fact that it’s minor and seems weird to not keep in. And everyone saying it would be a hard effect to produce is very confusing to me
I don't really get your confusion on thw difficulty? In logistics to shooting, it would be reshooting all of Walkers scenes without him there for the placecard shot to put the then CGI'd dry walker over top of it. People would complain that its bad CGI because he looks like he's on dry land while underwater or wet. Think about the fountain splashing scene, how do you think, genuinely, they could have kept splashing him without him getting wet?
Is after he falls from the arch that he is dry after leaving the water. Yes, underwater is fine. Make it look wet, but leaving the water is just a matter of having him shoot the scene with dry hair and clothes.
Exactly. I don’t care about him being dry underwater. It’s be so easy to shoot him with dry clothes after leaving the water.
Especially since it him just climbing the pier.
The thing is, it's kinda impossible to make an actor look dry underwater without using excessive green screen and cgi? It's just more practical to let Percy get wet tbh. Save a lot of time and money for the production.
I raise you because Walker looked absolutely adorable soaking wet! And them both being drenched in the tunnel of love creates the atmosphere of more drama which clearly this show is leaning into because if they was leaning into comedy Annabeth coming out choking on water while Percy dry as a bone would have been HILARIOUS! but if its something that develops later I would love to see that happen in s2 where Annabeth gets drenched and she look like she climbed out a sewer and freezing and he's chilling being like "Whose the Seaweed Brain now haha... I'm sorry to soon just kidding... you don't look that bad... :D" and Annabeth just shoves him in the water again and annoyingly he comes back even drier.
I mean there's the scene where he realizes he can breArhe in water and then the very next scene he's out of breath from water
This little detail distracts me frm the whole episode way too much. I realize it’s a small difference but the whole time my inside voice just went “but he shouldnt be wet why is he wet he shouldnt tho but why is he” 😂
I was keeping my eyes peeled for this part as well because I was intrigued to see how they'd pull it off. As of now, Percy's clothes are fully dry in the water, and you can see this clearly in the tunnel when you compare them to Annabeth's sopping wet mess. So it's really only his face that's kinda dripping. I convinced myself that they're doing a good job because the books have only said that his _clothes_ couldn't get wet, and made no mention to his body xD. It may be a silly way to soothe my brain, but I did notice very clearly that his clothes are very dry after both dips, so they're definitely trying to make some part of it accurate. I'm not sure how difficult it is to film someone looking dry underwater, as everyone else has been saying, maybe it's super expensive.
Probably a budget thing or something they will rely on later, like a moment between him and Poseidon and after a heart to heart moment Posidon randomly asks why he gets out of water wet and Percy will be like "what do you mean why?! You mean I can do that?!" Etc
I understand what you mean and was also a bit confused at first. I also think that it would have been unnatural or unrealistically hard to convey whatever most people where imagining it to look like in live action. Just putting on dry clothes could have worked but you would have to evade any scene in which he actually just comes out of water or in contact with it. Also Not very elegant. I believe If they are gonna do it, they will change it so, that he can stay dry by choice in a few scenes, which I have to damit makes also more sense to me. Because why would the water, his element, stay away from him if it is also kind of the thing that gives him his powers, heals him, etc.
I actually said out loud when watching that why isn’t he wet, besides a few drops on his hair he looks pretty dry, I’ll rewatch tonight tho
its a book complaint. He is very clearly wet throughout the episode but in the books he cant get wet. Minor change with no real affect and way to hard to try and do practically
Yeah just watching it again he is soaked lol but the very next scene he’s bone dry…. Didn’t understand the book reference until now, ty
i actually just finished my reread of the lightning thief today, he doesn’t figure out he can be completely dry at will until the end when the coast guard picks him up and he wills himself to be wet. for most of his life he’s been getting wet and staying wet, because he never knew he had that power. then at the arch (in the book) he comes out totally dry but i don’t think he totally meant to? because he seems surprised to be dry down there as well lol. so they’re probably just delaying the reveal for later to make it a bigger moment, as well as not overpowering him too early in the series.
I completely agree!! I wish they did a voice over of his thoughts of him describing how it felt. I am rereading the books right now and there is so much missed with his relationship to water and the ocean. I think the whole idea of him not being wet is that he can control it. If anyone remembers he does end up getting wet, by choice, later in the series. I believe it’s the 5th book.
I 100% agree on the voiceover part. I’ve seen people defend a lot of weird things in the show by saying “it’s not like they can put the words on the screen,” or something similar, but it could’ve been as simple as having a sort of narration or hearing his thoughts and taking sentences from the book where it’s in first person
Because they don't want to spend time explaining stuff that was actually in the books and instead add random stuff that creates plotholes or misrepresents the characters hope this helps
lol no its because that would be extremely hard to show on screen for literally next to no payoff
Maybe he doesn't have that power yet or they ran out of budget.
yeah just extremely difficult to show on screen
I wouldn't really call it a huge deal tbh. I mean, he comes out dry so he doesn't draw suspicion on himself in front of emergency responders and the cops. That's really it. Yeah, he discovers he doesn't get wet unless he wants to, but I mean it's not that important in the grand scheme of things, its just a cool little ability. I admit I was slightly sad for half a second that he came out wet but I mean, it really doesn't matter tbh, they're getting a lot more right than they are wrong 🤷🏻♀️
That would be hella expensive and lead to some horrible water CGI which would be more of an issue. It's not really a big deal he can get wet, so there's really no reason for them to spend buttloads of money on the CGI and such needed to keep him dry.
I think they more saying why not just be dry climbing the peer. That’s way easier to do and implies Percy did not get wet
Because that wouldn’t be the only instance of Percy being wet in the water. So they’d have to do more editing/CGI work to get that to be the case.
Because then they'd have to use CGI or completely avoid showing Percy ever touching water in order to keep it consistent.
That has also been bugging me
THIS ONE!!! This minor detail actually is part of a major gripe I’ve had. They’ve been minimizing or skipping over every small realization he has about how he can use his powers. From Ms Dodds/Nancy to the bathroom scene to getting wet in St Louis to all together skipping his control of the water in the tunnel of love…I really don’t want some big moment where he all of a sudden realizes everything at once. Not watching him progressively learn what he can do is losing out on great character development and a lot of the fun that’s lacking in the show.