| Leo Valdez | |
|---|---|
| The Heroes of Olympus character | |
| First appearance | The Lost Hero |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Demigod |
| Immortal Parent | Hephaestus |
| Abilities | Pyrokinesis Technopathy |
| Weapon(s) | Magical tool belt |
Leo Valdez is a fictional character in Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus series of novels. He first appears as one of the three protagonists in The Lost Hero where he is a fifteen year-old demigod of indeterminate parentage who attends the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids".
After an attack by a group of storm spirits Leo learns that he and his friends, Jason Grace and Piper McLean, are demigods. The three of them are then escorted to Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for Greek demigods, where Hephaestus claims him as his son.[1]
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In the novels Leo is the demigod son of Hephaestus and Luísa's boyfriend, the Roman counter part of Vulcan, and Esperanza Valdez, who worked at a machine shop. He grew up in North Houston with Tia Callida as his baby-sitter, whom he later discovers to be Hera in human form.
The novel The Lost Hero explains how Tia Callida tried to "kill" Leo many times: The myth of Demeter and Persephone is reflected when she lets Leo take a nap inside a blazing fire at the age of two; When he was three, she let him play with knives; When he was four she gave Leo a stick and encouraged him to poke a rattlesnake but, not wanting to harm the snake, he let it get away.
When Leo was eight he encountered a sleeping woman dressed in earthen robes, who he will later learn to be Gaia, or "mother earth". She locked his mother inside the machine shop while Leo was in the break room. After Gaia goes right through a table, Leo realizes that she will go right through him as well and kill his mother. In desperation, he erupts into flames, killing his mother. Leo's relatives would not take him in after his mother's death and he was sent to several foster homes which he always ran away from.
After Leo is claimed by Hephaestus at Camp Half-Blood, he discovers that he is the only living son of the god who can manipulate fire, a power which many demigods claim is dangerous and catastrophic. The last son of Hephaestus to have power over fire was Thomas Faynor, who was responsible for starting the Great Fire of London in 1666.[1]
Leo makes his first appearance in the novel The Lost Hero (2010) as a student at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids". He and his friends Jason Grace and Piper McLean are on the school bus for a field trip to the Grand Canyon. Leo believes Jason to be his best friend, but later discovers that this was a fake memory manipulated by the Mist.
After getting attacked by a group of storm spirits, Leo, Jason, and Piper are escorted to Camp Half-Blood, where Leo is claimed as the son of the Greek god Hephaestus. He embarks on a quest to save Hera with Jason and Piper after Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the current Oracle of Delphi, gives Jason a prophecy that advises him to choose Leo and Piper as his companions.[1]
He is briefly seen towards the end of The Son of Neptune (2011) when he sends video message to Percy on a piece of parchment. He is then revealed to look just like Sammy Valdez, Hazel's cute boyfriend from 70 years earlier, hinting he may be related to Sammy Valdez, an ancestor of Leo Valdez.
In the novel Leo is described as looking like a "Latino Santa's elf" with curly black hair, dark brown eyes, pointy ears, a cheerful babyish face, and a mischievous smile. He is described as being of normal height with a slim build.
The novel describes Valdez as appearing to be impatient, often seen fiddling with mechanical bits and pieces when he is nervous or bored, quickly constructing various objects and disassembling them just as fast. Leo is normally seen as a cheerful person, who enjoys playing pranks on others and provides comic relief during serious moments in the book. Despite his normally happy appearance, Leo is emotionally scarred by the loss of his mother. Leo resents Hephasteus for ignoring him. He is shown as an extremely quick thinker who is good at math, and one of the most intelligent students at Camp Half-Blood. It is also stated that he falls in love with every girl he meets, as long as she is totally out of his league. That includes Thalia Grace (Jason's older sister) whom he endlessly tries to impress. 'Dirt Woman' as Leo calls her, is always trying to mess up his life. She made Leo lose control with his fire abilities, causing the death of his mother. Leo ran away six times, possibly because he wants to forget about his mother's death and keep moving farther and farther away from the machine shop where she died. Leo briefly dreamed of having his mother back (possibly as the result of supporting or blackmailing Gaea), but dismissed the idea as "'Frankenstein thinking'". Leo jokingly refers to himself as "'Commander Tool Belt'". [1]
Like most demigods in Riordan's novels, Leo is diagnosed with ADHD but, unlike the rest, he does not suffer from dyslexia. As the son of Hephaestus, the god of flames and blacksmiths, Leo has a gift for repairing and building almost anything. Other than Charles Beckendorf, who first appeared, and died, in the Percy Jackson series, he is the only camper at Camp Half-Blood who is able to control Festus, a life-size bronze automaton dragon. He is able to control any kind of mechanical device without previous knowledge of the subject, such as flying a helicopter. Leo is also the only living son of Hephaestus who is able to control and manipulate fire. When Leo exhibits extreme feelings, his body temperature rises, which can ultimately cause him to become encased in a ball of fire. This almost caused him to fall to his death when he melted the bridge to Aeolus' palace.[1]
In the novels, Leo has a special tool belt, which appears to be quite ordinary. However, when caught in battle, any sticky situation, or in everyday life, Leo has the power to pull out any average tool that comes to his mind. All he has to do is ask. For example, when Leo attempts to romance Khione, the belt produces breath mints. Leo's requests for his tool belt must be limited to everyday objects as the belt is incapable of producing magic items. A lack of concentration can cause the belt to produce weak tools for the holder. When he asks for larger items the belt needs some "cooling-down" time during which he is unable to produce anything further from the belt apart from breath mints. Leo discovered the tool belt when he found Bunker 9, a hidden bunker in the forest that can only be opened by a pyrokinetic demigod.[1]
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