Release: June 26, 2019
Focus: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
The Olympians never looked so... average. Nostalgia Critic looks at another Young Adult series that never got the franchise it was hoping for.
Tropes:
- Audience Surrogate: The Critic's students, as well as the Critic's main issue with Percy himself.
- Cliché Storm: In-Universe, the Critic and his students spend the review identifying a lot of recycled plot devices in the movie.
- The Dog Bites Back: Tamara!Harry attempts to incinerate Heather!Jubilee, who had been bullying him the most besides the Critic, with a spell after being held back (simply because the Critic hates him) while she graduates with honors. Unfortunately, Heather!Jubilee also turns out to be a vampire (which, as pointed out, is canon), and proceeds to viciously maul Tamara!Harry to death.
- Dreadful Musician: The mid-episode ad has Doug be absolutely atrocious at singing, until taking lessons from the episode's sponsor.
- Hero Academy: The framing device is the Critic running a subversion of one, focusing on Audience Surrogates and making them bland enough for everyone to relate to them.
- Malicious Misnaming: In the film, Percy asking for Annabeth's name elicits an awkward laugh from Grover. The Critic ends up comically misinterpreting the laugh as her actual name and refers to her as said laugh throughout the review.
- No-Sell: Jubilee is completely fine after Harry's attempted murder, due to being part-vampire according to the comics.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: At the episode's end, everybody takes a moment to confirm to the audience that, yes, Jubilee really is canonically a vampire.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: While the Critic is disdainful at best of most of the movie, he does praise the Lotus Casino sequence as not just a clever update of the Island of the Lotus Eaters, but also a great metaphor for addiction.
- Only Sane Man: Malcolm is frequently dumbfounded by the Critic and his school.
- Screw Yourself: The mid-episode advertisement has Doug proclaiming his love for an identical Doug.
- Shout-Out: The Critic's "Jean Grey's School for Wowed Youngsters" features Tamara as Harry Potter, Jim as Eragon, Walter as Neo and Heather as Jubilee.
- Strictly Formula: The movie, and thus the Critic's school, follow the structure of "outcast young adult is thrust into an unfamiliar situation and saves the world" rather rigidly.
- The Unfavorite: Tamara!Potter quickly gets on the Critic's bad side for not having a marketable catchphrase, and is constantly put down throughout the episode.
- Vanilla Protagonist: The Critic's opinion of Percy.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After suffering a lot of abuse, Tamara!Harry manages to take revenge on Heather!Jubilee and graduates with honors. Unfortunately, it turns out that Heather!Jubilee is a vampire and proceeds to tear him apart.
(Grover's awkward laugh)
