Cynthiav06 - Books, Multifandom, Percy Jackson+

Abuse Apologism

IF YOU'RE A PERC@BETH STAN KEEP SCROLLING. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.

The abuse apologism is among these fans is sickening.

Do you see this?

Annabeth has to hurt Percy to let him know she's about to kiss him?

What the actual fuck. She could just. Ask. for. consent. "hey Percy can I kiss you?" It's not that fucking hard. If she doesn't understand what consent is then she has no right kissing anyone until she learns. I don't care how old she is. She's not a baby. This is a romantic kiss. Get fucking permission without hurting him. Use your fucking words.

Also no, this is not a discussion post. Don't come here defending this comment, I will not respond and will block you.

Why does everyone have to take a shot at Percy? Nico stans come up with nonexistent flaws for him to put him down and literally criticize him for self defense against Nico after he literally betrayed Percy, Jason fans desperately want to prove that Jason is stronger than Percy and a better leader than Percy so much so they try and downgrade Percy's feats even when he is literally a strategical genius and an absolute beast of a fighter and the rest of the fandom along with Annabeth stans go on about some delusional and untrue dumb!Percy takes. I swear our fandom has the first top tier and absolutely phenomenal character, if not the best main character ever and suddenly everyone has a problem with it and Rick being Rick eats up whatever the majority of the fandom agrees on as new canon. I understand Jason fans are furious with the whole Jason is boring stuff, which I also heavily disagree with, but come on, Jason was barely fleshed out through the series. He has the most tragic backstory, and yet we see no great change in him due to it, nor do we get much of a solid plot line around him. You are always free to make headcanons, but don't drag other characters down for it.

hmmmmm not to be back on my jason grace agenda but something about percy, thalia, and nico facing iapetus and barely winning. (between titans curse & battle of the labyrinth, setting percy’s age at 14-15). and jason defeating krios, alone. hand-to-hand combat, aged 15. something about how in the house of hades we even hear that iapetus is, in fact, weaker than krios. this guy is so metal actually

The same rules as the last poll apply. This has nothing to do with sexual intimacy or no. of romantic scenes. Which couples worked best together and had a natural understanding of one another.

No other post has so accurately expressed my feelings on this matter. It's truly beyond me how anyone can hate Percy. It's literally Percy Jackson, the heart of the Riordanverse. I know everyone has their own favorites, and that's only natural, but it's literally HIS series. It's like driving out and disrespecting someone in their own house. You don't do it. You just don't.

And I could maybe understand it if the main character was terribly written or just an awful character, and it actually happens a lot with many series. But we, the PJO fandom, are extremely lucky to have one of the best main characters of all time. Percy is absolutely awesome and badass as a character; he is beyond powerful, but he is neither malicious nor self-absorbed. My man's been suffering since Book 1 without break and has literally been driven to his breaking point and subjected to every possible horror that exists, and he is still desperately excruciatingly doing his best to be good.

He has done everything a main character is expected to do, has gone above and beyond even in case of his personal relationships, has accepted every single responsibility both asked and not asked of him and fulfilled it. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

There's not a single other main or side character (non antagonistic) that Percy has a bad relationship with. In fact, he has single handedly saved all of them at least once.

So no, you don't get to have your deluded anti takes on this one. All arguments are literally null and void. Percy is such a dynamic and inspiring character that antis have to invent some falsehoods to even take a shot at him.

I don't know what other fandoms do, but in this one, we stan our main character completely and passionately.

For the longest time I've pretty much thought that Percy Jackson and Hermes are both my fav characters? like their both tied first place. Can't choose between them.

But then I saw a Percy Jackson anti talk shit so much shit about him... and like. it wasn't even things that Percy did wrong. Part of it was just them going "yeah Percy did all that but I don't don't he deserved a reward. I don't think he's worth anything. I don't think he's smart - he's dumb and all his plans were dumb" and boy. let me tell you. I was M A D.

This is not how I wanted to figure out that I like Percy Jackson more than Hermes. Hermes hate makes me lowkey mad but Percy Jackson hate?

It's an entirely different year (less than a month tho) and I'm still steaming M A D.

Nothing pisses me off more in this fandom than 1. people insulting Percy's intelligence (a kid with two learning disabilities) or 2. not acknowledging how much blood, sweat, tears, insomnia, time, risk etc. Percy has put into his quests and fighting the war. And to have that so casually disregarded? *exhales* yeah as you can tell I'm still fucking pissed.

but anyways, long story short: Percy Jackson is now my undisputed all time fav fictional character :)

There's no problem with that. It's true. A lot of the characters have become underwhelming. I myself only liked Jason after I read a few fics exploring Jason's character. Because I agree that Rick does a shit job of portraying or highlighting Jason or many other key characters. I personally always used to see the take of Percy lovers hating on Jason and how wrong some anti Jason posts were, so I wanted to prove both of that wrong. I myself only enjoy Percy's character throughly throughout the books (not the new series, that's an abomination, even some parts of HoO are horrible but at least it's tolerable and has some great moments). I had love-hate moments with almost every other character, save for Hazel and Sadie. And some characters I do love have less or no proper exploration.

But no, I completely agree that certain characters fell flat. Personally, for me, Will Solace is such a character . This will probably enrage a few Solangelo fans. And Piper McLean who I absolutely disliked.

So let's finally talk about it. There's very few things that can actually make me mad on PJO fandom. Calling Percy dumb is the first one. It makes me seethe in rage. And among the other ones is calling Jason Grace boring.

What do you think is worse than trauma? You guessed it. Childhood trauma. Jason Grace is one of the most tragic PJO characters ever. You could almost say the quest with the Seven was one of the better things that happened to him.

Let's recap his life real quick.

Absolutely terrible mother who dumped him near Lupas territory when he was literally 2 years old. And the fact that he would be better off with Lupa than with Beryl Grace is just a testament to how shit of a mother and person she was.

Then he had to win Lupa's approval while she trained him when he was a literal toddler. If you think that's the end of it, it's not even close. Then he was sent to the camp. It was pleasant, as pleasant as a child-soldier factory can be. Which is not at all.

Being the son of Jupiter, he had insane expectations and prejudices forced upon him, along with a certain caged way of living. Fight a certain way, behave a certain way, think a certain way, and repeat. A monotonous, cyclic existence with no escape and no way for self thinking. After all, the Romans are about as creative as a marble is sharp. Imagine it, a child being raised in the legion, by the legion, molded to be the perfect soldier and Praetor who should have only the Legions benefit in mind with no opinions of his own.

Anyone, anyone would go insane and lose their mind because this is torture, complete, and utter torture. But do you know what's worse, that Jason didn't know how the world was supposed to be. Whatever he was used to living, he believed to be the normal thing. He had no idea the things that happened to him were wrong for a long time. In fact, he strived to be even more perfect, all for what? The approval of a god that was his father? A god he had never seen or heard from? That in itself is the tragedy of most Roman demigods or just demigods in general. But at least the Greek ones get to see them every once in a while.

I think Reyna was the first to see his as his own person and to give his individual opinions actual importance. Because she knew what it felt like to live a life of servitude and imprisonment. Under Circe and the pirates. I like to think that's how they bonded. By making each other's lives a bit happier than their former bleak prospects. And I bet they were super close. You can't convince me otherwise. Which is why I will never forgive Rick for ruining their relationship over Piper of all people.

4.

Then, of course, he was demigod too on top of that, so his life was obviously and decidedly terrible. Being sent on fatal missions? Having the responsibility of not only his own life but his comrades life thrust upon him? CAN YOU IMAGINE LIVING LIKE THAT?? THE ABJECT HORROR OF A LIFE LIKE THAT?

5.

If that's not enough his even more repulsive and terrible godly father fucking offers him to Hera to appease her rage like he is some sort of bloody object. An object to be sold. A fuckinhg APOLOGY GIFT. And then what does Hera do to him? She wipes his memories, sends him to a foreign land which was previously considered enemy territory by the Camp he grew up in, forces fake memories upon him of fake friends, and sent him on another death quest. But at least Leo was one of the nicer things about that whole situation. I won't be touching the wreck that is Jiper with a ten foot pole.

And on, of course, he also gets nearly killed by the same goddess he was offered to as an apology gift. If that was enough, he would find out about the existence of his sister who had grown up and gone her own way, thinking he was dead and now was basically a stranger to him? Yeah wow.

And then everything else from the series happens like dear God, him and Percy are practically drowning in trauma. With Hazel, Nico and then Leo after them.

But at least Percy had Sally (even though the reason he put up with Gabe and his mental and physical abuse was Sally) and even though he felt like Sally was always sending him away and no longer wanted him which was fair of him to think but a grave misunderstanding. Sally was still the best thing in his life. Percy had someone to live for something to live forward to even though he was practically almost dying every year, which kept adding to his trauma. And Poseidon, he cared, acknowledged, and helped Percy. The bare minimum and Poseidon actually did even more.

We can assume Jason also had similar experiences with neither a mother's unconditional love nor a god's genuine care and love.

I am not going to say the Camp point because being the son of Jupiter, Jason had certain assurances, but Percy was practically ostracized or badly treated till book 3.

The only good thing that happened in Jason's life was meeting Reyna, the other Seven, and being friends with them, Nico and his sister, and also not falling in Tartarus, so yeah man's living his best life.

So no Jason Grace isn't boring, he is the most in depth character who had his autonomy and childhood stolen, his interests and opinions razed and his entire life molded and shaped for him, turning his mind and body into a tool to serve so called greater interests of Gods and Camp Jupiter. It's like ridiculing a blind man for not being able to see.

Next time, think twice before making that absolutely thoughtless, mindless, wildly inaccurate and cruel comment ever again.

There's no need to blindly hate Jason cause you love Percy or on Percy cause you love Jason. Hell, Percy is my absolute favorite, 90% of my posts are about him, but Percy is awesome and arguably the best all by himself. This is also true for Jason's character. (I am probably the only one who thinks Jason is stronger than Nico just due to greater experience and stamina.) We don't need to be like Rick or ship stans who demean Percy to prop up Annabeth or other characters. They are both iconic and great friends despite whatever rivalry Rick was trying to project.

I keep seeing the argument that Percy is plot armored and that other big three kids should be as powerful as him or more in the case of Thalia and Jason. I don't think that the inherent nature of their personalities is really taken into account.

The first argument is that Zeus is the king of Gods so his children should obviously be more powerful. This is a misunderstanding, Gods only ever transfer basic abilities to their children. Everything else that comes after is all a credit to the children themselves. (For e.g, how only Leo is able to summon fire even though there are many children of Hepheastus or how only Meg shows stronger, more deadly abilities of Demeter's domain.)

Percy's basic ability to control over water or earth comes from Poseidon but it's Percy's mindset, upbringing and motivations enhance and expand his abilities to the next level.

1)Thalia: She probably has more potential but is held back by her fear of heights and is therefore unable to exercise wind control. Her lightning control is way better and stronger but it's limited by her spite for Zeus or her overall fear of what ambition might do to her.(Titan's Curse subtly alludes to this)

2)Jason shows more inclination towards wind control more so than lightning perhaps because it's comes to him gar easier than lightning which requires rawness more so than discipline. His greatest downfall is his commitment to rules and his stern belief in doing things in a set way.

Jason is a lot of things, but he isn't very creative, nor is he a good out of the box thinker, so he just sticks to the rudimentary abilities he has and doesn't even think to explore Another good reason is that since Roman counteroarts of Gods are so disciplined, they do not indulge in the true raw nature of their power, and hence, Roman demigods are technically weaker in terms of raw power. (LOOK at the life expectancy of Greek demigods and how strongly they attract monsters).

He just doesn't have the touch of madness that sparks power in the big three children of Greek counterparts.

Jason is also not the type to damn the world for people he loves while we know the Jackson Family preaches the "do anything and everything under the sun to protect the ones we love. "

But mostly all of them, Thalia or Jason, believe there's a limit to what they can do or can be done and controlled while Percy has no sense of such predetermined boundaries. He is an open-minded and extremely adaptable fighter. He believes anything and everything could be used against his opponents, and hence, his fighting style is also better and far more unpredictable than usual. Percy also doesn't believe he is all that powerful, so he thinks there's always more to channel.

[It also helps that Poseidon favors Percy to the moon and back while Jupiter just gave Jason as a guilty gift to Juno.]

3)Now Nico has a good chance of being way more powerful than Thalia and Jason and isn't also very held back by moral concerns. His problem is that his powers are much too vast for him to control, and they always get the better of him. Raising the dead? Traveling through Shadows? Hands down Hades has the most op abilities to give. But this fact aside Nico also lacks the enhanced physical strength and the necessary experience to use his powers.

Last but not the least Percy is the most connected to his father's domain. He has sat on his father's throne, he has been in his father's secondary seat of power, Atlantis.

So overall, Percy is and will be the strongest demigod for a long, long time.

It's only in Percy Jackson Fandom where shipping anything other than the main couple seemingly warrants death sentence.

Every other fandom explores so many other ships as shipping between characters helps in finding out how far the depth of their relationship might go.

Personally, I have always loved the idea of what Perachel could have been if Rick had actually tried. Imagine:

Part 1

Percy staying up thinking about this mortal he accidentally ran his sword through; she looked furious and confused and long after its over he is left wondering if that's how his mother felt when she met his father. He wonders it ceaselessly at times.

Rachel living in fear of everything she sees, plagued by dreams and visions, and this guy who ran her through with a literal sword calling her a mortal and surprised she can even see the sword just straight up leaves, taking all the answers with him. Long after it's happened, all she's left with is a canvas filled with the sketches of a sea-green eyed guy.

Then fate connects them yet again because Percy needs her. It starts with his need to fulfill the quest and her need for answers, but the awe Percy must have felt at Rachel's courage through the whole quest despite the incessant quips from Annabeth. He is sorry then that he has dragged someone like her to her death and if that weren't enough they run into the Titan King and he knows that maybe he has doomed them all and Rachel, mortal and unreliable according to Annabeth , throws a hairbrush at the literal actual Kronos himself.

On the flip side, Rachel knows for sure that whatever happens with her visions she will always dream of the sea green eyed hero. The images are everywhere. Him fighting, him negotiating, leading, saving them so she draws and draws and hopes it stops.

It has been noted somewhere in the Fandom once that the only reason Rachel was attracted to Percy was because he introduced her to a whole new world as if that isn't reason enough, as if they need a reason. As if it's not happened before with The Sea God and the Queen among mortals.

It doesn't stop for either of them cause now Rachel knows there's a prophecy hanging over Percy's head, and Percy knows she will see its outcome. So they talk of anything but this, whatever they can because neither of them wants to see how it ends, for the world and for them.

Long before Blackjack crashes his hooves on Paul's Prius, he knows it's coming; the end of the world, and it's far too late to look back. He leaves Rachel there because he is never taking her on a mission again, Morpheus knows he has enough nightmares of something happening to her.

Rachel watches him leave as a prickling at the back of her head tells her one of them isn't returning and no matter how wrong it is, she wishes against all odds that it won't be him.

After that, Rachel has only her visions to keep her company. She has started seeing someone's past , it's not his, but if she tries hard enough, she sees him once or twice. She commits the visions to memory, immortalizing them in art.

Percy doesn't speak to her for a good while after that, not because he doesn't want to, he would do anything to speak to her instead of doing this but his life's already forfeit so he might as well save the world. But he doesn't need to speak to her; they talk best in their visions. When of present, they are always of her. He understands why he sees them, for it's necessary to know what she sees, for she can't tell him, but he's glad for the excuse of it. He gets to see her, and he stays sane.

Yup, she's certifiably insane when she gets in a helicopter to see him, but he needs to know.

He was quite prepared for it, his death and her possibly becoming the Oracle later on. He knew it would happen. He is glad in some part of him that he would die long before it comes to fruition, that he would die in a world where they were together.

It would be their shared tragedy, them fulfilling their destinies as he escapes the divine while she ties herself to them.

Rachel had prepared for the same. She could give up over men , she was certain she would never think of them again after Perseus Jackson dies; it would be her eternal mourning and if someone asks she might tell them that the Spirit of Delphi lost her favored hero to her own prophecy.

But Fate's far too cruel.

Rachel is euphoric. He won't die, HE WON'T DIE. He's NOT the hero. The implications don't set in until she is facing him in the Throne room of Olympus. She says the things she doesn't even mean so she can soften the blow. She sees the break in him in his eyes as they share a last glance instead of a last kiss.

It clicks for him after Luke dies a hero. The bittersweet pang of triumph and loss. Blackjack is gone, and she's taken him. He isn't nearly as furious over that as he is about what she is to do.

He doesn't know if the curse is broken for sure, and he definitely doesn't want her to be the test run. Does she not know visions of her ending up like May Castellan are what breaks him in his worst nightmares.

He is the one who sees her take the oath, as she breaks what's left of them. A moment before all things come crashing down, she looks at him, and he looks back. The Oracle of Delphi and The Savior of Olympus have roles to play and loving the other isn't written in fates or destiny but they share one last vision of a perfect kiss as they resign themselves to their fate for the rest of their life; Their destinies forever entwined but never joined.

....Part 2 pending

(Also going to write headcanons of just perachel things and there are many so wait up)

Do you know something that I find really curious?

Is that in Ancient Greek, Greek Mythology, and Hellenic Polytheism, even tho we don't actually have the idea of "sin" there are a few things they and therefore, hellenic polytheistics shouldn't do, but interestingly enough the only thing that is likely, highly not encouraged to do, and mostly unforgiving in Hellenism, is Húbris.

I find it really interesting and curious, because I bet Rick knew about it when he wrote PJO and still decided to give Annabeth, one of his main characters, a fatal flaw that was the closest thing of what could be considered a "sin" in Ancient Greece (the society he was basing his story on).

I'm not saying "whoa, he wanted to make something." My personal opinion is that he just doesn't care, just like he doesn't care to make a better adaptation of the Gods, but I still find it interesting enough to rant about it.

+ it is really concerning see people treating her fatal flaw as something positive and to be cheered on, even in the literal book narrative, when in fact, It is not.

Excessive pride can be a sign of a narcissist behavior, what can lead to dangerous situations or to toxic relationships. And I see Rick playing too much with this edge in Perccabeth dynamics.

(I'm not saying she is narcissist, tho. I believe I have to make this as clear as possible here. There is a difference of having a trace of narcissism, and be diagnosticaded with it.)

Just to finish my thoughts, when I realized Perccabeth lost all the sparkle for me was when I've read one meta about someone who didn't like Annabeth's behavior towards Percy a long time ago. At that time I was an avid Perccabeth shipper, but I basically sat and tought about it, and made a mental exercise: If Percy was a woman, and Annabeth was a man, would their interactions still be considered cute and perfect in a relationship?

That was when I realized, no, it wouldn't be. And that was it for me.

No, I completely get it. I myself was a Percabeth shipper, I think everyone was at one point as most of us read these books at a young age. I am glad that all of us are seeing massive problems with the many canon relationships and other aspects of Riordan's terrible writing.

You give Rick Riordan too much credit. If you have checked out any recent pjo books, you can see how terrible the continuity is and how one dimensional the characters are becoming. So he certainly did not take into account the gravity of Annabeth's fatal flaw, it's repercussions or even it’s connotations in Greek myths.

Annabeth is, as I have said before, a character that always devolves through the lack of change in her attitude and the behavioral inconsistencies. She admits to her fatal flaw and how it endangers her in some instances but then never brings it up again. Doesn't do anything to actively improve on it either.

Her overall attitude remains condescending, judgemental, and heavily hypocritical. And that is putting it mildly.

The fact that she made Percy apologize for getting kidnapped against his will and then having his memory wiped out.

She repeatedly made negative or demeaning comments on his intelligence.

This should be enough of a giveaway in the first place.

Not to mention her horrifying treatment of Rachel and lack of remorse for it. Not a single apology made for it either. Or to Percy for acting as if she owned him.

Furthermore, her consistently violent actions. Now, even if they don't hurt Percy, it's still an extremely unhealthy manner of expressing her emotions.

Her repeated defense of Luke despite him putting Percy in mortal danger and attempting to kill Percy each time. Before anyone quotes they had a bond, they were family, I know, I do but by that time she had seen him do so multiple times and Thalia was family too, she understood right away that Luke was too far gone.

I also dislike the tendency of Rick and, therefore, the fandom to put Annabeth on a pedestal of she can do wrong. I have made multiple posts highlighting how Percy is canonically a better strategist than Annabeth and how Annabeth is certainly not the smartest demigod. Most knowledgeable, perhaps, but not the smartest.

To all the shippers, everyone agrees that the closest we get to absolutely perfect characterization of Percy is in Son of Neptune and Son of Sobek and the short story The Stolen Chariot. And the most obvious common thing between all these is the lack of Annabeth.

I am not saying Annabeth would ruin the book, but she does ruin Percy's character. Rick is so busy hyping her up for no absolute reason that it ends up demeaning Percy irrationally and illogically. And it happens every time.

Even if you blame later book characterizations of Annabeth on Rick Riordan's terrible writing, her early characterization had the same flaws. They are just now overtly apparent in the most recent books.

If the genders were reversed, this would be the paragon of a toxic relationship. I understand that there are excruciatingly few balanced heterosexual relationships that actually do it right and that the extreme nostalgia makes it hard for us to acknowledge any flaws on it but that's no reason to falsely advertise it as the perfect relationship. Not even close.

Not just due to these reasons but also because they have nothing in common nor do their goals align, and it's also a bit of a case of trauma bonding. Again, I have made individual posts on almost all these points

I don't think there's anything more that needs to be said on this matter, really, but feel free to ask.

After Son of Neptune and except for the Tartarus bit, Percy personality change was so radical and absolutely out of character for him, and the Fandom doesn't talk about it nearly enough. It's literally the character assassination of the main character. How do people not talk about it?

Is...Rick seriously implying Percy 'fatal flaw is his loyalty to friends' Jackson would...literally prefer being captured and put in chains and taken to be sacrificed to Gaea...just so he and Annabeth can be together still??? Keep in mind, Percy KNOWS Hedge would have been sold to Cyclops as food (so one friend would be killed) and that Chrysaor would have sold Hazel and Piper to Circe (depending if this is just Rick forgetting Circe got defeated in Olympians or Chrysaor is unaware of that) and given he had no use for Jason (and likely Leo and Frank), its likely he would have killed three more of Percy's friends. And therefore, you think Percy would be happy his friends are safe from that shit, given his fatal flaw.

But...no, Mark Of Athena decides he suddenly would have preferred all that happening just so he and Annabeth won't be apart, meaning Rick wrote Percy forgetting the danger his friends would be in in that situation in favor of Percabeth...which in itself is weird as uh, I know he's got faith he and Annabeth can figure it out, but like, he really wishing he and Annabeth would get into that danger with Gaea??? For someone whose fatal flaw is loyalty to his friends, it really did not pop up here.

This, this is the problem , with the writing,with the fandom, with shipping stans. I don't care how nostalgic you feel about certain characters and their relationships, if it's at the expense of one of the individuals involved, it's a toxic and terrible situation.

And say what you will, but it's always Percy who has to compromise, adjust, and temper himself for everyone else; always. For the Gods, for his supposed friends, for his so-called girlfriend. This is not a recent issue , but new books have made it more apparent .

Grover is or used to be the character that did everything for Percy, and Percy always went above and beyond himself, more than anyone can count. They have a freaking empathy link, and now you are telling me they are having such terrible misunderstandings and downright toxic behavior on Grover's part. Annabeth isn't much better either. I need to know what Rick's on. Forget about anybody else, somebody get Percy Jackson out of there. Poseidon should take him away to Atlantis to relax for a long time, and he would definitely actually do that if Rick wasn't writing the books brainless and amnesiac.

I swear everyone, the gods, the Camps, Grover, and Annabeth, will all come begging and pleading once he finally snaps and blows them all off. But Percy would never, he's too good, too understanding, too traumatized to do it. But everyone has a limit, and his has almost run out. (Somebody, please write this.)

As I've mentioned a few times times, one of the actual interesting things Riordan is doing in this new series is mentioning Percy's obvious rage issues and then not actually doing anything with it other than making Percy swallow the anger down so he stays Nice and Controlled at all times.

Which, if we were dealing with pre-Disney+ show deal RR, could be a great character arc over the course of the series where Percy learns to actually deal with his anger and trauma while he's actively being triggered by petty godly bullshit. But Wrath made it pretty clear he's okay with letting Percy eat shit emotionally as long as everyone is one big happy team in the end and we're Therapy Speaking ourselves into the sunset, so I don't think that's happening.

Wrath sets up a conflict between Grover and Percy that's pretty simple: Grover eats a magical thing he's specifically told not eat and causes chaos that puts Percy's quest at risk. Reminder, these stupid quests are so Percy can get into college and Grover knows this. Percy gets angry at Grover; so angry Annabeth can see it and shoos him out of the room so he doesn't explode. And then he just... tries to stop being angry, assumes Grover means well, and carries on pretending it's not Grover's fault while being resentful because it's totally Grover's fucking fault.

Eventually, we get a scene where Grover attempts to make things right by putting himself into danger and Percy freaks out because, duh, he doesn't want his friends to get hurt. Grover then attempts to apologize by admitting he maybe sorta kinda subconsciously wanted to sabotage things. And it's here where we run in to trouble.

Please notice that Percy immediately tries to reassure him that he's not responsible despite Grover acknowledging it. Then we get the good ol' Grover tears and looking like a poor bullied baby before he confesses to sabotaging his best friend's quest because he doesn't want to be left behind. And with that, all of Percy's anger is gone because how can you be mad at your friend for that?

Uh, pretty fucking easy, especially if my idiot satyr friend knows exactly what the consequences of failing the quest is (forget the college letters; Percy is under the assumption that Hecate will unmake him if he fucks up) AND said idiot frequently has gone MONTHS without seeing me because of his job and, in fact, several months from now will be halfway across the country anyway helping Apollo with some different quest bullshit!!!!

I digress.

Suddenly, Percy is the bad guy for being mad at Grover. And this continues with the next part of the conversation.

How hard it's been on him?????

Percy Jackson, you are constantly blowing literal gaskets because of the stress you are under, and you're worried about how hard college applications has been on GROVER???????

"I'm the one who should be apologizing. I should have been thinking about how you felt rather than stressing about getting into college."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing. I should have been thinking about how you felt rather than stressing about getting into college."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing. I should have been thinking about how you felt rather than stressing about getting into college."

like

are you kidding me here rick

are you FUCKING kidding me

PERCY needs to APOLOGIZE to GROVER for PRIORITIZING COLLEGE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

And then Grover makes a joke about Percy's shitty gpa because dunking on Percy in an emotional conversation is totally fine because his emotions don't actually matter to any of his friends. He'll get over it! He's Percy, duh. He's not a ticking time bomb of resentment full of grudges whatsoever.

I think we're supposed to see this as Percy maturing and being forgiving, but is he? He doesn't tell Grover he forgives him. Percy's the one apologizing in the end because he's been guilted into feeling bad that Grover is sad/upset and put himself in danger. The conflict doesn't actually get resolved because Percy brushes it aside; it doesn't matter any more because Grover is sad and must be reassured. No one's going to learn anything from this because there have been no consequences. Grover's gonna do some dumb shit again, Percy's gonna get mad at him, Grover will cry and make up a sad sack excuse, and Percy will stop being angry because Grover's his bestie and what else is he supposed to do?

(This could be a good character arc about how Percy's fatal flaw makes him have a really messed up view of friendships and the meaning of loyalty, but again, we will be denied.)

And for the record, just because your friends have compelling reasons for their shitty actions doesn't make them any less shitty. It doesn't mean they shouldn't apologize for their fuck ups or negate the hurt they caused you. Forgiveness needs to be earned, not manipulated out of you through tears and reckless actions.

Grover can get fucked. I hate this fucking character.