Anti Annabeth Chase - Blog Posts

we need to stop saying hating a female character is misogynistic

yes, i hate annabeth chase, yes im a feminist, yes we exist.

annabeth sucks ass. she’s literally just annoying. she’s one of those blondes who acts like being blonde is the disadvantage, not being female. annabeth chase needs to shut the fuvk up.

i got called sexist for saying i dont like her. u guys r acc delusional

ty 4 coming to my ted talk

I will say, while I do enjoy enough of Percy Jackson books… I think I prefer the fanfictions that take that world and lean into the darker parts of it.

I really enjoy fanfics I find that have the gods be more… godly I guess. The gods in PJO just feel too much like regular people. Like just annoying people. Also they just suck in general… Luke was an asshole but I kinda get why he was doing it you know? They are fucking gods. They can’t like make sure they’re kids don’t have to struggle and fight just to fucking exist??

I will say, I live for fanfiction where Percy ascends even if he didn’t choose to. Beautiful and tragic and honestly with the shit Percy does thats all I can see happening.

Another thing i enjoy in PJO fanfiction is when it becomes critical of certain characters (if you like Annabeth Chase and Percabeth please leave) and of camp half-blood and camp Jupiter. I cannot stress this enough, those camps are cults making child soldiers. They are not a safe space. They are cults training children to willingly sacrifice themselves for their parents who don’t give a flying shit about them. Chiron literally looked over the fact Percy could have died in that capture the flag game. Camp Halfblood sent out a kid with the like 0 training to go on a death quest just because his father got accused of a damn crime, and they sent him with the girl who nearly gor him fucking killed (Im so sorry I don’t like Annabeth). Camp Jupiter is so much worse because Im sorry??? There are adults??? Why are the children the military??? Thats not even mentioning the fact that so many of these kids are year rounders. They don’t have an actual home to go back to. Thats terrifying, they are stuck in these fucking death camps. Once again, no wonder there are kids who joined Kronos’ army. Not a good thing but I kinda fucking get it.

Also oh my god Percabeth. I love Annabeth bashing fics. Those feed my soul. I don’t care much for Annabeth Chase. She’s interesting but she’s also fucking shit. She beats Percy everytime she gets and is praised for every shitty thing she does and I hate that so fucking much. Im actually so scared for Leah because when people start putting together how shit Annabeth is as PJO get adapted into shows Im so scared she’ll get the brunt of all the problems when it was just how her character was horribly written. Fandom made Percabeth cuter and healthier then they actually are in canon (she didn’t know his Achilles curse was gone yet judo flipped him. Percy. Could. Have. Died.)

Anyway… anyone have recommendations for any fics that lean into the more fucked up side of these books? I’d love to hear it

I legit do not understand the premise or appeal of just calling your partner or friend stupid, dumb, or anything of the like and genuinely mean it. Like I do understand that there are times when someone or you are joking calling someone that because of a small mistake but in regards to Percabeth it seems more genuine. And lots of people are praising it within the PJO fandom, I just saw a video of Annabeth and Penelope "relating" to each other about having "idiot partners and having to clean up after them". Like excuse me??? Percy Jackson and Odysseus are far far from idiots, it's also the fact that Percabeth and Ody/Penelope are even being compared to the same level. You cannot compare these two relationships at all because honestly in my opinion they are not on the same level at all.

I just searched up why Rick Riordan added Annabeth's judo flip, and oh my god, it's just so bad-

No, I'm serious. Just look at this sentence-

Rick Riordan added the judo flip as a way to depict Annabeth's practical and strategic nature.

Practical? STRATEGIC? It was literally the opposite of that! Annabeth put her mission in danger! I know she was emotional, but that just doesn't make her actions any less stupid, and it's a blatant lie to paint her judo flip as practical and strategic.

'It's a moment of action and control, showcasing her quick thinking and ability to get out of dangerous situations.'

I just-who wrote this paragraph? How are they able to twist is so badly?

Annabeth literally made it worse-she put them in a dangerous situation by judo flipping Percy! If Percy and Reyna hadn't acted diplomatically, the whole mission would have gone to pieces.

'While it might seem unusual for a character, the judo flip highlights Annabeth's strength and resourcefulness, particularly in a world where demigods often face danger.'

I'm wheezing. Get out of danger? Honey, she just put them in more danger. Show her strength? If that's the best example you have, then your ability to write female characters and relationships is just terrible. There are other ways to show her strength, like having her beat a monster of fight another demigod (Which, by the way, she could have done if Rick hadn't decided to put another Percabeth moment in there. Sigh.)

The judo flip is a memorable and unexpected action that adds to Annabeth's unique personality. It shows she's not just intelligent and resourceful but also capable of physical strength and quick reactions.

Terrible writing. Horrible writing. Egregious writing. Dreadful, awful, appalling, horrific writing.

Resourceful and intelligent-we've already gone over this multiple times, the judo flip was the opposite of that.

Capable of physical strength and quick reactions-except there was no reason for a judo flip of all things. She could have done this when fighting a monster or an enemy demigod or even during sparring practice.

The judo flip can be seen as a symbol of Annabeth's ability to control situations and take charge. It reflects her leadership qualities and her willingness to defend herself and others.

Annabeth wasn't defending anyone, she was actively making the situation worse. She would have defended her team better if she hadn't judo flipped Percy.

Also, if she needs to take charge by physical violence, then she's not a good leader.

In essence, the judo flip is a character-driven moment that enhances Annabeth's personality and adds a layer of realism to the story.

I do agree with this sentence-it's definitely realistic and apropos to Annabeth's personality, but it's a flaw. And if flaws aren't developed and overcome, then it's just bad writing.

How did Annabeth Chase even bag Percy?

Listen he has his flaws (like all the other characters) but he's still too good for her, especially with how she treats him.

Let me guess. Anti Annabeth Chase and anti Percabeth?

Yeah, if you're @hermesmyplatonicbeloved or @cynthiav06 in diguise, then ok. They share the same views as you.

Annabeth treatment of Percy is sometimes pretty unhealthy, to be frank. They love each other and there are many sweet moments and poetic parallels (that I can't be bothered to find, go dig through the Percabeth blogs for those theses.)

They had a pretty good friendship when she wasn't punching him or calling him a nickname that he had to grow used to simply because she wouldn't stop or making him think really hard about what he had to say or calling him a coward for the crime of *Checks notes* being stressed about a high chance of possible death!

Hm. Even their friendship was somewhat unhealthy at times.

And if you pull out the emotionally stressed card, then why didn't she apologise to him for it later? Not everything requires an apology, of course, but this does.

They also have a really nice romantic relationship when she's not judo flipping him and victim-blaming him for getting kidnapped, when she's not bringing up Rachel to keep him on his toes, when he's not almost scared to death by her and when she doesn't hit him.

It baffles me how Rick is able to write such toxicity in his relationships. Like. Rick. You know that this is unhealthy behaviour, right? You do know that having a healthy fear of your partner is not normal. It's not normal for them to hit you either (and don't get me started on the 'but they're demigods!' because Annabeth is the only one whom we see exhibit this kind of behaviour. Clarisse and her cabin don't count because this behaviour is negatively associated with them and they're called out on it while Annabeth is not.) It's not normal for you to get used to a nickname that they keep calling you (this was in TTC too, before he went off his rocket.)

You know that, right, Rick? You know it?

She was pretty much the only girl that he really interacted with throughout the series. Sally doesn't count (I'm talking about people of his age, plus she's his mom) Thalia went away after one book and Rachel came in later and left soon. Annabeth is also one of Percy's only friends (apart from Grover and Nico, who don't interact with Percy that much after HOO and then there's Rachel who drops out of his life fast after becoming the Oracle.) In fact, she's the person with whom he interacts the most. So that explains a lot of it.

I don't think that he's too good for her, but I would really like her unhealthy behaviour towards him to be called out and fixed. It would be absolutely amazing if it was treated as a character flaw, which, unfortunately, won't happen.

Hi, I love you blog!! I have a question: why do Annabeth stans/percabeth shippers love to victim blame Percy, who is also a victim of abuse?

Hi, thanks! It's nice to know that my blog gives people some happiness :D

Well, in my opinion, it's because some of them love Annabeth and don't want to accept the fact that her toxic traits are their toxic traits, so they deflect the blame onto Percy, because it's easier to blame him for being stupid, which isn't true-they just make it up.

And if anyone brings up how he acted in WOTTG, they can forget it, since we can all agree that his characterization was magnificently ruined in that book (Annabeth has to do 90% of the thinking for him? Really? No.)

I've seen a Percabeth stan say that Annabeth is stressed out with Percy and feels like she has to act like his mom, which is bullshit-again, we can disregard WOTTG because nearly everyone agrees that it's blatant flanderisation and ruination of the characterisation of the trio.

In fact, Percy is not Annabeth's son (bleh) but her equal. He comforts her at many points throughout the series and he even saves her life multiple times. The whole charm of Percabeth is that they're on equal footing and that they know and balance each other out. To liken Annabeth as a condescending and long-suffering mother figure towards Percy resoundingly ruins that......which is not surprising, given Rick's track record of ruining whatever good he had left in his books.

Also, Rick himself has admitted that he's writing Percy and Annabeth's characters to be a reflection of the TV shows characters, who are different from the book characters. It seems like he's mixing both of them, so book Percy's characterisation in these books isn't accurate.

But also, I do not think that Percy is faultless-in fact, there are times when he is the problem.

I've read the baby reveal in COTG and everyone being nervous of Percy's temper when they break news to him (and not even bad news-being pregnant in this situation wasn't bad news, it was great for them!) is not ok. They shouldn't have been nervous-they should have been excited.

He says that they were probably afraid that he'd make all the pipes in the building explode. If he's temperamental enough to do that and they're all scared of it when breaking good news to him, then that's not healthy. I definitely would have written the scene differently to reflect their excitement and not their fear of his reaction.

Also, the fact that he intentionally ragebaits Bacchus is extremely foolish on his part. If Annabeth did that, I'd think that most of her antis would leap onto her like a hound on a hare, but they're suddenly silent because it's Percy? Pretty hypocritical of them.

Anyway, I hope this answer satisfies you. Feel free to ask me anything else if you'd like.

I've seen this post before, and I wanted to argue against it.

Now, bear in mind that this is supposed to be a friendly debate and I don't want to offend you.

With that being said, let's look at the bullies that Percy's called out.

The teachers and students who bullied him at his old schools for his learning disabilities, Nancy Bobofit, Gabe, Dionysus, Tantalus, Ares, Hades (yeah he qualifies, he made Percy feel bad and Percy stood up to him. Go Percy, boss moment honestly) Clarisse, Matt Sloan and his gang.

These are people that Percy heavily dislikes (well, Clarisse is an exception, but at the time she bullied Percy, he heavily disliked her.) This makes it easier to call out their bullshit.

Annabeth is someone he likes. It's difficult to call out the bullshit of people that you like-very rarely can people can do this.

And we're forgetting that Percy's fatal flaw is loyalty. He's loyal to the people he loves and blind to their flaws, so he is the exact opposite of a person who'd be fair with both their friends and enemies.

Take Sally Jackson, for example. Sally herself admitted that she was selfish and kept Percy with an abuser so as not to be attacked by monsters instead of dropping him off at Camp where he would have been safer, especially with Poseidon's influence. Logically speaking, Percy should have resented her for this a little bit, right?

Now, for the morons who'll come to this conclusion, I am not saying that Sally Jackson is the devil incarnate. She was a struggling single mother stuck in between a rock and a hard place-there was no completely good option for her to choose here.

But she still chose to marry an abuser to keep Percy and herself safe. She knowingly married him knowing that he'd make Percy's life terrible and that Percy would be affected by this. This was definitely not a good choice on her part and it doesn't make her a good person (though she still is a good person, just not as good as one would make her out to be).

But Percy doesn't even think about this-he just idolises her (understandable, considering the circumstances, but still) and he never thinks about the situation from this point of view.

And Grover in Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Percy calls him out, but Percy later feels guilty for the stupid reason of Grover thinking he's going to be lonely when they (Percy and Annabeth) go to college, which is why Grover almost ruined the quest. Percy literally says that he should have been thinking about what Grover felt (Grover, who is responsible for his own self, Percy is not responsible for Grover) instead of, you know, thinking about himself and his future.

This is complete malarkey. It's a terrible reason for Grover's terrible actions. And what does Percy do?

He shoves it down, takes the blame, forces himself to be calm even though he should rage. This is another example of Percy not wanting to call someone's bullshit out because they're a loved one.

And Percy loves Annabeth. She's his friend, she went on his first quest with him, she's saved his life and she has a lion's share in his view of the mythological world since she was pretty much the first demigod that he really knew (discounting Luke who left after the first book).

All of this makes it pretty difficult for him to call out her bullshit-especially when she hates being called out on her bullshit, which she does.

Of course, he called out her bullshit during TLT and SOM regarding himself and Tyson respectively, but this is when they're not really friends. In the later books, where they're better friends and he likes her more, he doesn't do it.

And also, Percy has called Annabeth out on her bullshit, but she doesn't listen to him, so he becomes resigned to it.

Her calling him Seaweed Brain? He says that he's gotten used to it in TTC, meaning that he didn't like it but she didn't stop, so he just became used to it.

He says in TLO that he wanted to argue with Annabeth regarding his cabin inspection marks, but no good would come of it, so he just resigned himself to his marks.

He says that he wouldn't argue with her because she would beat him up.

Annabeth yells at Percy and blames him for leaving even though they both know that he was kidnapped. Does he call her out on this, tell her that she was wrong? No.

Annabeth makes Percy feel scared every time she brings up Rachel. This makes Percy feel bad and he does not call her out on it.

All of these are examples of Annabeth not listening to him and bulldozing her way over his protests, so he becomes resigned to it.

That's a common abusive tactic that I've experienced myself-don't listen to the victim and bulldoze your way over them until they become silent and resigned.

Now, I don't want to go so far as to call Annabeth abusive, but she is definitely pretty toxic towards Percy at times. I know that she loves him, I'm not denying that, but you can love someone and be toxic towards them.

Again, I don't want to be disrespectful and I respect your opinions. I'm just providing valid arguments as to why I think your statement was wrong.

when you say that percy is stuck in an abusive relationship with annabeth, you are not only insulting annabeth, you are erasing one of percy's best character strengths: how he is NOT afraid to call out people's nonsense and stand up against bullies no matter how bad or insecure they make him feel

This is not even close to how bad she gets. Annabeth would be dead in this quest without Rachel and Percy. They both literally did all the work while Annabeth was being absolutely unreasonable and bitchy. I understand this is Rick's attempt at portraying jealousy but at this point in time, Annabeth and Percy aren't even dating. She is being toxic and showing unhealthy possessiveness to Percy.

Also, doesn't Annabeth pride herself on her intellect and wisdom? And her knowledge of myths? She knew how in the orignal myths, Ariadne's help was paramount in crossing the Labyrinth and yet she still refuses to accept it. Rachel the only one who can save them and help them has benevolently offered aid despite Annabeth's horrible demeanor and yet she has the audacity to be absolutely ungrateful. We don't even get a single apology.

At the start of Botl when the school blows up due to fighting, Annabeth who has known Percy for at least three years immediately jumps to accuse and blame Percy for it even though she knows it's almost always due to monster attacks and rarely Percy's fault. Rachel who has known him for like five minutes is the one jumping to his defense, offering to cover for him at the cost of her own reputation and school record and take the blame for something she is the not one bit responsible for. Because it was necessary. That's the difference between Annabeth and Rachel. One is practical and compassionate, while the other is prideful and self-centered.

So many other things happen in Rachel and Annabeth's dynamic that are horrible and toxic but the ace is that Annabeth has the audacity to consistently bring up Rachel, (who at later point is a close friend) to make Percy uncomfortable and keeping him on his toes, even in literal hell, so much so Percy is scared to talk to Annabeth about Rachel or even think about her near Annabeth which is absolutely completely disgusting behavior and the fandom just glosses over it like nothing. What the hell?

Annabeth, you know you're half mortal, right? You can't just pretend that isn't a part of you.

Didn't even remember that this was an aspect to the Annabeth and Rachel dynamic, but it really supports all I've been saying about how Percy and Rachel are so much more compatible, because they build their own world. Find the in-between of the mortal and the godly together. Ground each other in the half of themselves they feel disconnected to. And then there's Annabeth, who buys into the godly propaganda so hard. Annabeth who doesn't get along with her mortal family. Annabeth who's spent more of her life at Camp than anywhere else. Annabeth who wants to rebuild Olympus. Annabeth who wants to go to college in New Rome, a city absent of mortals. Even if I didn't think Percy and Annabeth's relationship was toxic, I still wouldn't ship them because they're just fundamentally incompatible.

No. Just no.

Annabeth bringing up Rachael when they're in Tartarus is ass backwards.

Girl, you and your boyfriend are trapped in Tartarus (you being ONE of the reasons due to your hubris). A place where misery, STRESS, anger, and evil roam and consume. And what do you decide to do? Bring up Rachael with the intent to stress him out.

What the fuck is wrong with you.

Percy is already stressed, tired, and in pain, and you want to ADD to it.

It has me thinking. Call me dramatic or biased. IDC.

Annabeth wants to hurt Percy.

This pattern has not changed. Before, she hit and kicked him to the point he expected and feared her. She insulted him. When asked to not be called that, she doesn't, and he grows used to it. She judo-flipped him because she was angry at him, but she didn't just flip him. She pressed her knee on his chest, pinning him on the concrete, and threatened him. What makes this worse is that she flips him on his fatal spot knowingly (luckily, he doesn't have it anymore). She makes HIM apologize for what happened despite him being innocent.

On with Tartarus, she tells Percy right after he saves both of their skins never to use that power again. Instead of helping him control it, she demonizes it and forbids him to use it. The lack of gratefulness is astounding. I understand she's afraid, but instead of talking with him, she speaks with Piper, and Piper kind of paints Percy as a monster by saying he needs to be chained. Annabeth is still afraid of Percy.

She agrees with Reyna that Percy is stupid instead of taking up for him. She further insults his intelligence even though she knows he's not stupid.

I can go on and on.

I know certain stans don't like it when I or others criticize Annie and 'paint her as a villain!' but seriously... Annabeth does that herself. It's not like I'm misconstruing things or Annabeth's being held at gunpoint. She CHOSE to do these things! She doesn't APOLOGIZE! She chooses to NOT CHANGE. RICK CHOOSES TO NOT CHANGE HER.

You're upset about how we talk about her, you should be upset at Rick for how he wrote her and continues to write her. Could you take it up with him, not the ones who put her flaws in a magnifying glass?

Anyway, that's how I feel. Does Annabeth care or love Percy? I like to believe she does because she wouldn't stay with him if she didn't. However, I also think she likes to have a sense of control over Percy a bit, along with having a deep-rooted jealousy because he outperforms, especially in wisdom and strategy. These things she does come from a sense of anger and jealousy.

Alright, see you later.

I need others to understand that none of the incorrect quotes centered around percabeth are actually farfetched or inaccurate and that you can find evidence for all of them in canon every time. These aren't some great exaggerations. They are just conversations made around context clues and implications that are already in the books or downright direct quotes from the book.

No one is making any effort to make your "golden ship" unhealthy because that's unnecessary. It is already unhealthy, and the books are littered with such interactions, but the shippers are willfully blind and those that aren't romanticize such interactions. I am not sure which is worse.

And if these sort of quotes annoy you, then in general, pjo incorrect quotes including all the constant dumb Percy takes and character assassination of Percy is just as annoying if not far more annoying for the rest of the community.

@ogjacksonsimp @berrybore would love your thoughts on this.

Percy: Hey wise girl, can you stop encouraging all your friends to think the worst of me? Piper thinks I need to be controlled, Reyna thinks that I can't find my way out of a paper bag and now your architecture classmates don't think I'm good enough for you!

Annabeth: I don't encourage my friends to think the worse of you, seaweed brain. I tell them how it is.

Percy:

Percy: Wait you think I'm not good enough for you? I literally fell into Tartarus for you! I went through hell for you! I went on a whole quest and risked permanent banishment from camp half blood - my only safe place - for you! I even did a mission for a god after I retired to get a classy date for you! What more do you want?

Annabeth: The bare minimum, seaweed brain. You only did those things once, and you missed our 4th-11th month anniversaries. You have a lot to make up for!

My Response

Since I can't reblog, I'll respond this way.

THIS IS NOT TO ATTACK BUT TO SHARE MY REASONING FOR DISAGREEMENT.

I won't lie. This tweet really bothered me. Same annoyance and sadness with 'You can't criticize percabeth because it's based on Rick's marriage.' I'm not saying you said that, but I see that comment often.

Anyway, I'm going to remain respectful.

You are NOT erasing Percy's character's strength by pointing out the toxicity and abuse of Percabeth. Yes, Percy is not afraid of calling out people's nonsense. HOWEVER, he does that with people he DOES NOT like. Of course, it's easier for him to call out people he doesn't like because it wouldn't affect him.

However, when it comes to people he cares for, that's another story. When it comes to Grover nearly fucking up Percy's quest because he didn't want him or Annabeth to leave him, instead of calling out his selfishness, Percy bites his tongue and BLAMES HIMSELF for making Grover feel that way.

What about when his mother admits she was selfish by not letting him go to camp? Despite being a safer option, she didn't want him going to camp. Percy had every right to be mad. This could've saved him from Gabe. But instead, he still adores her. He doesn't hold it against her.

Lastly, with Annabeth, she's done all sorts of things, like punching him in the gut, judo flipping him with the intention of hurting him, and blaming him for leaving her even though he was kidnapped.

Did Percy lash out? No. There wasn't a retort either. Instead, he laughed it off, and they haven't spoken about it. If anything, he felt the need to make it up to Annabeth. He felt GUILTY for something that was not his fault.

What about when she calls him seaweed brain, a name he doesn't like? A name similar to 'brain boy,' something smelly Gabe calls him to demean his intelligence. A name that ANNABETH finds insulting too, and doesn't want to be called. Does he tell her to stop or call her mean names back? Kinda, but he later GIVES UP and bites his tongue.

What about when Reyna says he 'couldn't find his way out of a paper bag,' and Annabeth laughs and agrees with her. Percy may have said 'hey!" but that's it. Was it talked about? I don't think so. It was brushed to the side.

Percy may be brave enough to stand up to bullies, but he doesn't stand up to his loved ones when they truly hurt him. His fatal flaw being loyalty to loved ones, even when they fuck him over, prevents him from doing that.

Annabeth is nowhere near like Gabe, but that doesn't mean she's not hurting Percy, and you're not degrading Percy for calling this out.

I was in Percy's shoes. I stood up to bullies and people I didn't like. Uncomfortable? Scary? Hell yeah, but I did it anyway. I know what that's like. However, just like Percy, I also brushed off the pain my friends and loved ones caused me. I brushed off my 'friends' fucking me over, even took the blame for them. Why? I didn't want them to leave me. I overlooked when my loved ones would unintentionally say hurtful things. Why? Because I love them and didn't want them to leave me either. Also, I tried to appear strong, too. It's okay now that I had therapy and stuff.

Guess what? Percy does the same thing, and that's worth calling out. Victims of abuse tend to overlook their loved ones hurting them.

I'm not 'minimizing' or 'erasing' Percy's strength and courage for calling a spade a spade, and I can not stand when percabeth stans try to sweep toxic things Annabeth does under the rug. Again, is she abusive and like Gabe? No. BUT she does things that remind me of Gabe, like calling Percy mean names to insult his intelligence. She hits, kicks, and hurts him when he does something she doesn't like. Gabe doesn't do this, but Annabeth would sometimes play mind games or make her boyfriend anxious just for the hell of it. (Bringing up Rachel to make Percy uncomfortable). I'll stop listing.

But I have to say. You said it was 'insulting' to Annabeth to call her actions 'abusive'? I say it's insulting to act like what she's doing isn't abusive or toxic. All that I've listed, she didn't do this playfully or in a lighthearted manner. Annabeth did this angry or annoyed and with INTENT. It wasn't an oopsie! No, she wants it to hurt, especially the judo flip scene. So, do I care if I insult Annabeth? Sorry, but no. I don't care because she's in the wrong. Not always, but MOST, and I don't feel guilty because of her actions and how she hasn't learned (and doesn't want to).

Overall, I hate that these types of arguments become popular. I understand you don't like your ship being called horrible things, and I'm not trying to be mean. Most of us are not. However, we can NOT sweep over some of the things Annabeth or Percy do, mainly Annabeth.

I'm sorry for dumping something heavy. I'm not trying to make this about me. My point is that you're not discarding Percy for calling out Percabeth's toxicity. That's it.

Night

Edited: March 18th, 2025. I wanted to add a little more and correct grammar and typos.

I am in love with this post. Because I have been screaming the same things for so long, and yet the fandom is as willfully blind as ever. Annabeth is more knowledgeable, but knowledge is nothing without practical application. Percy is quick on his feet, extremely adaptive, and has good instincts and has way higher emotional intelligence (people reading skills, people assessment skills) and is also a far better manipulator. Ergo Percy is smarter than Annabeth. There I said it. Plus, in knowledge and studies, which is Annabeth's supposed field of expertise, she still lost to Percy when Percy began putting in effort. So again, Annabeth's got nothing on Percy. Also, this is the entry op is talking about:

There's just so few people who are willing to acknowledge genuine character flaws instead of mindlessly defending their own skewed opinions. Everyone in the anti percabeth community or anti Annabeth chase community has been hounded with labels of being a misogynist, death threats and other complete and utter bullshit arguments lacking common sense like that one time someone told me, "But Percabeth are inspired by Rick's relationship with his own wife. So you can't critique them." I am sorry, what? If anything, that's more concerning.

Now that Rick's marketing trilogy is out and Annabeth's flaws are glaringly visible, like flashing neon red, everyone rushes to blame Rick's writing but given Annabeth's toxic traits and flaws have existed since the orignal series at least at some point readers need to admit that Rick was definitely framing the character persona like this since the start and everyone else has just been glossing over it for the convenience of their "golden ship" and "strong female character."

Annabeth out of every other character needs to be critiqued the most, given how redundant and devolving her character keeps getting. Like not only does she not get character development for her past mistakes and flaws, SHE SOMEHOW GETS WORSE WITH EACH BOOK AND EVERYONE JUST GLOSSES OVER IT.

Come on, people, even the fanfic authors change her personality to suit the idea of their golden relationship. Obviously, everyone is playing trail and error with Percy's personality anyway. Listen, if you have to change two characters completely to be able to ship them, then you aren't shipping the original characters, you are shipping oc pairing. And to all the proud Annabeth stans, if you really loved her, you would call her out on her bullshit and love her despite that. But you ignore that the flaws exists implying that you don't love the character itself but whatever altered version of her is in your head.

Okay, this is just a quick (lies, this ended up so long) and dirty articulation of why I don't like Annabeth Chase from PJO, her relationship with Percy, and what I think could fix it. (It got too long so I cut that bit. I'll write it if someone asks, but right now this is just a deconstruction of how, in my opinion, Annabeth Chase is not a well-written and compelling character.) This will be rambling and scattershot but hopefully it all makes sense, even if you don't agree.

First of all, Annabeth Chase has a lot of potential. I'm about to talk some shit, but I want to be clear, I see a lot in her character that could be interesting. I attribute most of my problems with her to Rick's writing, which, for all its good qualities, is not the strongest or most consistent imo. This isn't intended as a hate piece, just a way to organize my thoughts. I'm doing this all from memory, and am open to feedback, disagreement, or correction if I make a mistake so long as it's done in a civil way. Thank you.

I think my biggest frustration with Annabeth is that I simply don't believe her intelligence. I would LIKE to. But I think we are told that she is smart far more than we're shown, which makes the praise heaped upon her somewhat galling.

When I think about great strategies in these books, Percy comes to mind first. In The Last Olympian, he's the one who plans out the destruction of the bridges to frustrate Kronos' approach, including making diplomatic deals with the river gods and strategically deploying demigods to get it done. He's the one to realize that Poseidon is critical to success, find a way to get his attention in the middle of a war, and convince him to take heavy losses in Atlantis — and lose that battle which was very personal and precious to him — in order to win the ultimate war against Kronos. It is also Percy's strategy which is successful in defeating Typhon. Percy is constantly thinking up strategies in high pressure environments, such as fights. For example, in the Labrynth, when he realizes that his half-brother is healed by earth so he concocts a method with what he has around him to keep his brother suspended so he can be killed.

Now, other demigods also make important contributions in The Last Olympian. Wasn't it Nico who convinced Hades, Persephone, and Demeter to join the fight? And Annabeth activated Daedalus(??? spelling) statues in defense as well. But Percy is one that we are most often shown being strategic. I think it just goes under the radar because Percy does not have a high self esteem and does not praise himself internally for a lot of the clever stuff he does.

Annabeth most often contributes by knowing something. She often serves as exposition; she'll recognize a myth first, and explain it to Percy. But not only is prior knowledge and memorization not a replacement for actual strategy, BUT PERCY GETS BETTER GRADES THAN HER. I think it's in that Demigod Files book?? All Riordan's stuff has at least a month's waitlist at my library or I would double check my source, but I distinctly remember an entry where Annabeth is like, "Seriously, how is Percy getting better grades than me?? I'm the one who taught him how to put an essay together and now he's breezing through them??? Wtf." I find this intensely frustrating. Because what do you MEAN she's not even more successful than Percy academically? It's just, it's frustrating, because she's supposed to be so super smart, and I'm struggling to see where that actually gets expressed. If her only advantage is an earlier exposure to the Greek myths than Percy and a good memory, then her value as a character is highest near the start of the series and can only decline from there.

Even her encounter with the Sphinx highlights this. She had the trivia knowledge to answer the questions but not the wisdom to just, do that and not start an unnecessary fight in the middle of their quest.

I can think of several times in the books where Annabeth stutters, trying to think of something, while Percy improvises something that might be a little goofy but it WORKS.

Actually, Percy is by far the better manipulator out of the two of them. He is insanely good at reading his enemies, figuring out how to convince them to ally with him if possible, or defeat them if not. His big vulnerability is he can't do that for shit with people he cares about. Percy is actually very conflict avoidant in his personal life, I've noticed? And he's very quick to empathize with a friend and try to see things from their persepective (like when Grover kinda SABOTAGED his college applications and Percy heard him out and supported him in his emotional struggle with Percy leaving).

By contrast, Annabeth doesn't seem interested in the emotional wellbeing of her friends?

Annabeth often insults Percy's intelligence and his strategies. She says his head is full of kelp, seaweed brain, outright calls him stupid at least once (during that quest for Hermes, if I recall; was that in the Demigod Files as well? It wasn't in a main book I don't think). Everyone says that Annabeth is so smart, she's the daughter of Athena she's the architect of Olympus!! Meanwhile, the person I see actually implementing successful strategy is the person Annabeth constantly insults. She says that he's lucky, that he needs help to do anything, couldn't think his way out of a paper bag without her????????

That's what drives me crazy about Annabeth. Nobody ever calls her on her bragging or her putting down of other people. She doesn't learn. Not even when her carelessness and overconfidence gets her DRAGGED INTO TARTARUS. I'm so sorry, but is it not embarrassing for a daughter of Athena to be defeated like that??? All you had to do was keep an awareness of your environment, put two and two together that you're covered in webs just like the spider who just fell through the floor, and realize you'd better do something about that ASAP. And, like. Look. My issue isn't that she was pulled into Tartarus. My issue isn't even the way it happened. It matches with her fatal flaw.

My issue is that, like with everything else she gets wrong, she never seems to learn or grow from it. Like when Luke tricked her into holding up the sky. That to me is a perfect opportunity for a genuine character moment. It's so humbling, and would leave you so shaken. A moment for an unwanted but desperately needed reckoning between who she wants Luke to be and who he is. I'm not even saying she should have given up on him. I don't mind that she couldn't or that the whole thing was so messy and painful for her, but the way that it was expressed in the book made me feel like Annabeth was either willfully blind or untrustworthy. Her denial of Luke's worst aspects, her defending of him, her refusal to hold space for other characters feeling differently to her, all of it fostered suspicion in me when I first read the PJO books.

I remember when I first read the scene where Percy reveals his Achille's heel to her. My hair stood on end. Something about the way her eyes are described as "distant" when she asks where it is, and how Percy hesitates. In that moment I was screaming for him not to trust her. I did not want her to know. I thought his fatal flaw was going to kill him. Percy is a character who cannot anticipate betrayal.

Of course I was wrong about Annabeth there. Or was I? Other people before me have noted that when Annabeth judo flips Percy onto his back in New Rome, she does not know that the Mark of Achilles has been lifted. I don't think that the throw would have necessarily killed him if it hadn't; he lands on a flat surface. But it was certainly DEEPLY careless and foolhardy of Annabeth, EVEN BEFORE you take into account that it was, strategically, a STUPID thing to do. It makes me want to scream how dumb this moment makes Annabeth look. It's the tense, fraught first meeting in years between ancient enemies. You're the leader of your group, the diplomatic ambassador from Camp Half Blood. It's imperative that this goes well, for the fate of the world. And your emotions run so high upon reuniting with your kidnapped boyfriend — who was stolen by a god and has been through you-don't-know-what kind of godly fuckery — that you take it out on him, the VICTIM, and physically attack him. Didn't she put a knife to his throat?? If PERCY hadn't defused the moment, handled it, Annabeth would easily have destroyed the Greek-Roman alliance right there, no ghostly possession of Leo needed. With friends like her, who needs enemies?

Her relationship with Percy…I've never understood why they're the golden couple of the fandom. Annabeth seemed more interested in Luke than Percy, and when she was interested in Percy it was always…like, okay, Annabeth was vulnerable with Luke. I don't think he ever had a thing for her, but there was a tenderness to how she'd interact with him. When she interacted with Percy — think of the school dance, or how she handled having Rachel on a quest — she refuses to be vulnerable with him. If she has a crush on Percy, she hides it under glares, insults, and demands. Annabeth won't ask Percy to dance with her, she'll hit him and call him stupid for not asking her. She will not let her guard down with him.

This is a throughline in their relationship; even in Tartarus, she's thinking about how she likes to keep Percy on her toes. Yeah, Annabeth, we know. It was obvious when you manufactured a whole drama around your "one month anniversary." Which, no, that's not a thing, and it's completely normal of Percy not to anticipate that you would want him to do something special for it. I hated that whole story (it's in demigod files, I think). It's just Annabeth dangling Percy over undefined consequences if he doesn't read her mind and figure out what she wants and needs. He does all the work and she judges it. It's not cute or fun.

I do place most of the blame on Riordan's writing. What's that scene where Annabeth pushes Percy unexpectably off a cliff, triggering a very sensitive and dangerous encounter that he had to negotiate under time pressure while Annabeth watches? How does that scene start? "Get you a girlfriend who…" It's framed as a positive that Annabeth will just shove Percy into dangerous situations without warning when she absolutely does not have to do that. Isn't she supposed to be strategic? Why can't she think up a strategy and tell him, instead of shoving him at the problem and just, putting it on him to find a solution? "Give the problem to Percy" isn't a strategy worthy of Athena, I'm sorry. But my point is, Rick genuinely seems to think their romance is good and these red flag moments are cute and flirty. He is not writing Annabeth as an asshole on purpose.

I tend towards death of the author analyses myself, but Rick's writing is not consistent enough for that. You kinda just have to identify what he was trying to do, see where it failed, and decide how you wanna interpret that. And when it comes to Annabeth…I just want to either burn her relationship with Percy down or rewrite her character.

What else is there? Oh yeah, does anyone else feel like the way her family is written makes her seem…overdramatic? Like, meeting her dad and stepmom…it's an anticlimax. This girl was so unhappy she ran away from home as a child. She chose to become homeless in a world where monsters hunt her down, AS A CHILD, rather than stay with her dad. There's a deep unhappiness and loss to that. When she talks about it, she talks about being unwanted, a burden that her dad was unable and unwilling to handle, not being heard, not being believed. She is describing victim blaming. In that house, she, a six year old child, was seen as the problem.

And after that build up, we meet her family, and they are…well, they're fine, aren't they. Her step mom is concerned for her. She and Annabeth's dad (no i don't remember his name rn) seem to want the best for her, to help however they can. Mr Chase—is his name Frederick maybe???—Mr Chase takes the initiative, after Percy and his friends let him in on a sliver of what's going on with Annabeth, to melt down old weapons to make bullets and FLY A HELICOPTER to come save his daughter.

I'm honestly at a loss about what we're supposed to think here. At the end of Titan's Curse Percy gently suggests to Annabeth that she give her family another chance. If I recall, she says some things can't be repaired, but it's implied that she does actually try again with her family later. This always seemed to me to undermine Annabeth's entire narrative…the way she describes being treated simply does not match what we observe for ourselves in Titan's Curse.

I could go on but I'll cut it here. Maybe I'll make a post about I'd rewrite her if I could, because I do WANT to like Annabeth. There's a lot interesting that could be done with her. Probably not though bc all the Annabeth stans are gonna block me for this one I fear. Maybe I'll post my criticisms of other PJO couples instead lol (I won't. if you've read this far you'll find this claim dubious, but I actually don't enjoy being a hater. anyway i don't have nearly so much to say about any other pjo couple). Thanks for reading.

To everyone who checks out my blog semi regularly, my mutuals, and followers, I am going on a hiatus for at least until mid-March. Exams coming up and lots of prep to be done and all those other delightful real-life obligations.

Those who have sent me asks and I haven't responded yet, and those who want to send me more asks, please do so in this hiatus timeline. I will respond to all asks (only asks) when I resume back here cause I will be going on another hiatus after that. No orignal content for a while, at least for now.

[Yes I have two major exams back to back. Don't wish me luck it's too late for that. But if any of you know ancient rituals or any Eldritch entities, would love some sorcery to come my way]

I get all sorts of asks so feel free to send any. But just for reference:

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I know I know my blog is too full of everything. By next week, I will make a proper navigation page, I will do at least that before I get out of tumblr. But until then, please search the tags of whatever content you originally liked from my blog on my profile page. You will probably get the right posts.

Don't cause too much chaos in the meantime. I would hate to not be in on it.

Percy's amnesia in SoN gave him the perfect excuse to build his confidence to where it should be and break up with Annabeth, with very few consequences, and I will always stand by that. Annabeth may be easier for the Greeks to back due to her history there, but she has nothing at Camp Jupiter, where he quickly and firmly established himself as a powerful, capable and trustworthy entity, getting promoted to Praetor within a week. I honestly believe that, after his SON quest and the "greeting" Annabeth gave him on their reunion, Percy should've broken up with Annabeth, stayed with Camp Jupiter and thrived there.

Not only would the structure help him long-term in the way it canonically did in the (maybe) three days we saw him spend there, but he has a proper support system without biases in favour of Annabeth. It would also provide a fun narrative contrast to Jason, which RR was trying to push in-story, where they thrive in the other's camp despite the shadow of a figure they kind of feel they have to live up to. Jason does better in the looser structure of CHB due to his having picked up many wolf-ish traits from Lupa, while Percy almost *relaxes* in the strict routine of CJ because it helps with his ADHD symptoms.

And this confidence he very clearly has in SoN, and the way he almost romanticized the possible relationship between him and Annabeth when he didn't have his memories, would lead to a very jarring experience when his memories are settled and he reunites with Annabeth. Because, woah, that was not just a subconscious bias from preferring his new friendships/camp structure, but she actually is like that.

Boom, he now has recontextualised memories and perspective of Annabeth, and a place where she doesn't have a stronger reputation than him, and he can fairly safely break up with Annabeth and escape attempts at retaliation.

He might wait until after the quest the Seven go on, so that he can immediately cut her out of his lfe, but this new perspective changes how he approaches her.

The canon would never, but fortunately for us, there are fic writers. If I get enough time somewhere in this month or next, I might end up writing this, but I will have to see, no promises.

Back to your point; you have covered mostly everything so I don't see what I should be adding to this exact scenario but yes it is one of the few perfect pit stops for a percabeth break up to happen. I am going to go down a slightly different avenue for this one as my thoughts vary a bit from yours, so bear with me. It is going to be long, but I need to recap and clarify a few things for others; I will get to your specific questions near the end. [Everything's numbered, so if you are in a hurry, just scroll to the final four points]

-------------------------------------------------------

The breakup could have been mutual, too, if Rick had written it well. If we follow the proper timeline, Annabeth was still hung up over Luke up until the end of BoTL and had just started to get over him at the start of Last Olympian. Percy had just been informed of the Prophecy and under massive stress between end of BoTL and start of TLO and was obviously arguing with Annabeth over it as she repeatedly got angry at him for reasonably freaking out over his then "assumed death" prophecy. To find some relief from all this, he was dating Rachel, who he really liked, had a kiss with, and overall a good relationship with.

Then the whole plot of the Last Olympian occurs in what can be considered to be a few months at best. Then both Percy and Annabeth get together but to recap the events leading up to this:

Rachel breaks up with Percy despite their good relationship due to understanding the role she needs to play in saving the Oracle.

Luke who had previously visited Annabeth to make her join him and who Annabeth was somewhat hung over still, dies.

The war ended up killing a lot of close friends and companions and was a generally traumatic event for everyone involved.

Percy is very high on mixed emotions, reeling from everything that's happened when he gets together with Annabeth, so neither of them have had any time to process anything that's happened properly enough.

They have their one month anniversary on September 18th[The Staff of Hermes short story], and Percy disappears in October. [Riordan.wiki has years and dates of important events].

So they have barely been together for two months, and Percy's already missing.

This is Annabeth's thought process when they do reunite. It implies she has been doing a bit of thinking about their relationship and might not be as sure about it anymore.

She also seems to heavily dislike Percy's initial idea of settling in New Rome and seems to have no intention of taking a break from quests like Percy does.

She also seems to dismiss Percy's unwillingness to go to NRU after the news of Estelle's birth and the events of CotG.

Those were a few key points of contrast between them both on their future plans. Not small ones either.

Now, back to their reunion and the events following; here are a few things:

She judo flips him in front of the Argo II and almost entirety of Camp Jupiter.

If Annabeth didn't know that Percy had lost the Curse of Achilles then she was judo flipping him on the small of his back where his mortal tether was located ; which she knew about and therefore would have killed him in her anger and hyper emotional state.

If Annabeth did know that he had lost the Curse of Achilles then she was still judo flipping her boyfriend who had been missing for six months after surviving an already very traumatic event where he barely managed to survive and was then put through kidnapping, six months of amnesia, and brainwashing against his will by a goddess and then thrust into an unknown land with enemies on his trail.

Further, she blames Percy for disappearing for all of the things HE suffered through against his will and HAS THE AUDACITY TO MAKE HIM APOLOGIZE FOR IT.

Annabeth says and I quote that she likes keeping Percy on his toes.

She also agrees with Piper that Percy needs to be leashed and controlled.

Then Percy's side gives us a few more concerning tidbits:

Percy repeatedly notes that he is scared of Annabeth or thinks she might hit him

He also says that she often brings up Rachel to make him uncomfortable.

Percy also doesn't feel comfortable confiding in Annabeth about Gabe or past trauma.

He repeatedly feels he isn't good enough for Annabeth, and obviously Annabeth's behavior consciously or subconsciously on her part enables his thought process.

He ends up almost killing himself because Annabeth makes him promise not to use his specific ability despite it being used in self-defense by Percy, which ended up saving them both because she was afraid of Percy's powers.

Yet another thing to point out is that Annabeth's fatal flaw hubris and her abandonment issues feed too much into her behavior, and until that is fixed, nothing can be helped.

Annabeth punched Percy in ttc just because he didn't ask her to dance like she wanted him to. She also gave Percy a very hard time just because he knew another girl (Rachel) and immediately acted controlling and toxically possesive towards Percy over Rachel and Calypso despite her and Percy not being in a relationship at any of those points. In fact, despite her supposed crush on Percy, she defended Luke all the way till Botl, despite his repeated attempts at murdering Percy, and even went as far as to say Percy was unreasonably angry at Luke. She also displayed rude and downright awful behavior when interacting with Rachel; and Rachel, being the better person, handled her with class and grace. This all is not even including her demeaning remarks against Percy's intelligence and condescending behavior.

We can conclude from all this that Percy and Annabeth are not compatible, with different future goals and clashing perspectives and most importantly due to lack of proper communication, terrible misunderstandings, and Annabeth's consistent toxic behavior.

But neither the characters nor the author and not even most of the fandom acknowledge any of these glaring issues, so nothing can be done, but their break up can go several ways:

1.

Percy and Annabeth both break up amicably with Annabeth apologizing and understanding the gravity of her behavior and her mistakes and consistently making up to Percy for all the things she has been doing terribly. This is only possible for pre Tartarus or pre MoA situation.

Annabeth could have had a good arc in overcoming all of her problems while Percy too dealt with his self esteem issues and past trauma and they could have given their relationship a shot again in the future; they are both too young right now.

2.

Percy confronts Annabeth on her behavior and breaks up with her. Things get ugly, and it ends up being horrible for both of them. This is a traumatic situation on both ends, but the reason why this is unlikely is that Annabeth and Percy have a case of trauma bonding, and there's hints of codependency more on Annabeth's end. Which makes Percy mask Annabeth's toxic traits easily and for Annabeth to ignore Percy's devolving mental health and self-esteem issues that she has been enabling unknowingly.

3.

The other likely option is third-party intervention. Sally or Poseidon/Athena or other campers.

I also disagree that the camp half blood would back Annabeth. Percy's their [CHB] unofficial leader and a good friend to all of them plus he is the reason the children of other non-Olympian gods have cabins and get claimed early so he definitely has a higher status than Annabeth does in both camps. Camp Jupiter also does respect Percy more than any other Greek, and he is the only Greek to ever be made Praetor. So in social or reputation terms, Percy's winning.

But I don't think other campers would dare meddle in Percy and Annabeth's business. Maybe the seven would. [Leo and Frank would never. Jason probably doesn't understand the whole situation. Piper’s misguided and would probably feed into Annabeth's behavior, so either Hazel or Reyna? Hazel would definitely help Percy understand, and Percy would totally hear Hazel out. Thalia, hmm, I don't really know what Thalia would do, but I don't think she would blindly back Annabeth. She does seem to care for and respect Percy just as much. Nico isn't touching it with a 20-foot pole, plus I don't think he is over his Percy crush at all, so he's not an unbiased party either. ]

4.

Last option and what probably is the most likely is that things continue as they are and Percy eventually snaps due to endless pressure and his mental health issues and Annabeth can't deal with it and then all their other issues which they have both ignored come spilling out and then it's just a clean break but it's going to be the most excruciating way out and given their luck definitely happening.

What do you mean he kept roaming around??? MONSTERS WERE CHASING HIM ALL THE WAY FROM THE FOREST TO CAMP JUPITER. UNLIKE JASON WHO HAD OTHER PEOPLE WITH HIM AND WAS DROPPED IN A RELATIVELY SAFER AREA, PERCY WOKE UP WITH NO MEMORY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WITH GORGONS ON HIS TRAIL. GORGONS, WHICH DID NOT REMAIN DEAD. OF COURSE HE HAD TO MOVE CONSTANLY; PERCY KNOWS EXACTLY HOW TO STAY ALIVE AND WAS OBVIOUSLY SMART ENOUGH TO ALWAYS KEEP THEM GUESSING.

But obviously, some readers are too ignorant or too willfully blind to understand that.

Even after he came to camp Jupiter, he had to immediately fight for his place. His only two friends so far were in a tough situation. Frank was being sent on a quest. Percy, being the loyal, selfless guy that he is, obviously went with him and Hazel to protect them and also find answers to his amnesia.

WHILE ANNABETH WAS BUSY LOOKING FOR PERCY, HE WAS BUSY SURVIVING, SAVING HIS FRIENDS, SAVING THE WORLD AND SAVING CAMP JUPITER. BUT OF COURSE HE IS AN IDIOT FOR NOT STAYING IN ONE PLACE WHEN THE HIS HELP WAS REQUIRED AND NECESSARY ELSEWHERE TO YOU KNOW HELP HIS FRIENDS AND SAVE CAMP JUPITER???

How braindead and delusional can Annabeth stans be? Sorry to burst your bubble, but Percy has other things to do than deal with Annabeth's whims and demands and he has other people who mean just as much to him as Annabeth, who he would do anything for.

And you should be thankful. Annabeth would be dead without Percy. If he hadn't jumped to join Annabeth in Tartarus, that is. You can love Annabeth, you should, she has certain good contributions but stop putting her on a non-existent pedestal especially to demean Percy, not when she has so many flaws and obvious controlling and toxic behavior towards Percy. There's no take you could have that would make anyone hate Percy and like Annabeth, whereas the reverse already exists. So stop fueling the already growing hatred against Annabeth by making such idiotic hate comments and consistent abuse apologism on Annabeth's behalf.

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.

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.

Athena: I once told him that in his loyalty, he would doom himself and the world, but he managed to find a way to overcome both. Why should there be any doubt as to his skills as an excellent strategist, daughter? If anything, he reminds me of Odysseus.

Annabeth: (speechless, having a minor attack, stammering to even speak) M-other... wh-what?

Poseidon: (proud as hell) Perseus is certainly better than that Ithacan bastard. Why, of course, Percy is the best strategist. After all, it was his idea to get me to join in the war against Typhon and his plan that the Demigod Army followed. Not to mention the creative ways in which my son finds a way to beat almost all his opponents.

Annabeth: (hyperventilating)......I am having a bad dream, a really bad dream, I need to wake up.

[Poseidon and Athena fighting over whether Odysseus or Percy is smarter in the background, unaware of the surroundings]

Hermes: (lowkey thinks of Percy as his best friend) I told you once, girl, you are your own worst enemy. Do not deny Percy his achievements. He has done much to get there.

Apollo: (high-key in love with Percy) I, the great Apollo, even have a haiku for each of his quests. He is also the reason I have my wonderful Oracle back. Would you like to hear them all?

[Every God in vicinity: APOLLO NO]

Annabeth: [having an epiphany and getting a massive reality check] T-this isn-isn't true. H-e, he would have, would have gotten nowhere without me. He would be dead without me.

Artemis: [rolling her eyes at Apollo's antics] Surely you mean the other way around child? Has Percy not saved you more times that can be tracked? Even my hunters admire him for the way he so respectfully teaches them some of his fighting techniques. Be glad Annabeth, Percy is a man worthy of admiration from all.

Annabeth: *almost chokes*

-------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, Hermes was getting personal. It's not his fault. The man's still recovering from Luke. The rest were just stating facts. Maybe Part 2 with more gods and another with Hunters? Hmm, will see no promises.

Okay it's 2025

Can we please leave the Dumb Percy Jokes back in 2024

Cause they should have never been a thing in the first place but some of y'all genuinely think he's stupid and it annoys me

I'm sick of the seaweed brain joke too, I don't find it funny at all nor do I find the dumb Percy jokes funny either

Instead let's Start the Smart Percy Jackson trend

Incorrect Quotes of just Percy being the genius he is (and even being smarter than Annabeth)

Like for example

Teacher: Okay here are your Tests Back *Hands Them Their Grades*

Annabeth: What?! How on earth did I Get a C+?! Seaweed brain why did you get? There's no way you got a better grade than me.

Percy: Um...*Shows her his paper that says A+ on it*

Annabeth: WHAT THE F-

Or how about this:

Young camper: Excuse me sir but Genuine Question who's the Best strategist here at Camp?

Annabeth: uh me Duh I'm the daughter of Athena of course I'm the best Strategist here

Chiron: it's Percy. Percy's the best Strategist here at Camp

Annabeth: wait wha-

Dionysus: I Agree with him, as much as I don't like the kid he is pretty Smart, definitely the Smartest strategiest here

Younger Camper: But I thought children of Athena were the best Strategists

Clarisse: **Who Overheard them**Kid, There's a difference between Being Book smart and being Street smart, and having a Demi-God who's fatal flaw is Hubris probably isn't the best person to lead us in battle, there's a reason Chiron and the rest of Camp put Percy in Charge instead of Annabeth, He's the best Person here for the Job.

Annabeth: Excuse me?!

Chiron: Clarisse is right Annabeth. And If I'm being honest with you, I put Percy in charge Cause I knew he was the Smartest and best person for the Job. You get blinded by your hubris and it Ends up falling apart for you, You couldn't even lead your own Quest. So why would I give you the responsibility of being the leader of Camp half blood?

Annabeth: But that's Not-

Clarisse: Face it Annabeth, Percy is Smarter than you

Annabeth: *Storming off* Ugh whatever!

LET 👏 PERCY 👏 BE 👏 SMART 👏

Even if you eliminate the judo flip, it's still not the most concerning thing about the situation. She BLAMES Percy for getting KIDNAPPED AND BRAINWASHED BY A GODDESS, and fine, you would say she was super high on emotions, she didn't mean it. But then there's this:

Annabeth made Percy APOLOGIZE FOR STUFF THAT WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF HIS CONTROL. IT WAS AN ASSAULT ON HIM AND HE SHOULD APOLOGIZE??

This isn't the first time. She blames Percy in BoTL in the opening scenes for burning down the school, not even having enough trust in Percy to know he wouldn't do it. Not even after he tells her HE DIDN'T DO IT.

Also happens again in The Last Olympian. She gets angry at Percy because he is panicking over the prophecy that basically states [at that point] that he will die. SHE GETS ANGRY AT HIM AND YELLS AT HIM FOR BEING PANICKED ABOUT THE PROPHECY IN WHICH HE IS BASICALLY STATED TO DIE.

Like wtf. Why is no one pointing that out?? I swear if anyone comes along saying Annabeth was just worried so she got angry. It's like getting angry at a person for panicking before a life-threatening surgery because you couldn't handle your worry. And it's a multiple time occurrence.

Percy confided his worries in Rachel, too, and they were almost definitely dating. She didn't freak out or yell at Percy even though she was probably getting constant visions. She kept Percy company and did her best to lower his stress and get his mind off the situation.

Yet again Rachel shows more maturity and understanding than Annabeth. [Mind you Rachel was angry at Percy, if you remember he had a demigod dream where he found her throwing darts at his picture.] But never has Rachel had an outburst at Percy because she knows none of it is his fault.

Also, in BoTl, when Annabeth is basically calling Rachel a mortal like a slur and looking down on her and continuously insulting her, Rachel can tell exactly what's wrong with Annabeth, and she knows it's too stupid to even engage and Annabeth is left to being a short tempered girl yelling at someone else for no reason. Because again Rachel has more maturity than Annabeth.

I don't know why this turned into a Rachel post, but is anyone complaining?

The point is, there's an awfully long list of apologies Annabeth needs to get to, and Rick won't be doing it in this lifetime or next, so fic writers, would you like to take this one?

Finding a good blog to follow on pjo is so hard because you'll get like 10 good posts and then the 11th will have blatant abuse apologism and borderline victim blaming:

Do we really need to start reminding people that Percy had no control whatsoever over being kidnapped!? he barely knew what was happening!! He had his memories wiped!! How the fuck does he deserve to be physically assaulted?? HE WAS KIDNAPPED!!

Not to mention that like. the first time he went missing? yeah he nearly died. He would have died if Hera had not intervened and sent him to Calypso, who used her healing powers to save him. And then Percy returned to chb - returned to a building war and death sentence - as soon as he was recovered and physically able.

Hera deserved the judo flip. Not Percy. She took Percy twice. Annabeth, your anger is misdirected, please use your Athena given brains. You have them for more than one reason.

Percy: Whenever life throws lemons at me (and by life, I mean the gods), I do my best to roll with the punches. Dodge what I can, and divert the rest.

Percy: Mom and dad say that I'm smart, adaptable, and powerful? Which is probably one of the best compliments I've ever gotten.

Percy: Not that I get many compliments, haha.

Percy: Although sometimes Annabeth likes to blame me for the lemons that life throws at me.

Annabeth, angry in the distance: Percy, how dare you get yourself blown up on Mt. Helens, and then take two whole weeks to recuperate with Calypso, of all beings?! In the middle of my quest!?

Annabeth, getting closer but still angry: Percy, how dare you get kidnapped by Hera and get your memory stolen? If you ever do that to me again [redacted threats]

Percy, edging away: Annabeth is very fond of victim blaming me. It took me years of therapy to realize that the pain others feel when I'm hurt is not my fault, and even longer to stop feeling guilty about it.

Percy, preparing to flee: Anyways, when Annabeth is mad at me, there's a 50-50 chance that she just looks like she's going to hit or judo-flip me, or if she'll actually do it.

Percy, jumping on top of Mrs. O'Leary's back: Been there, endured that, 10/10 would not recommend repeating that experience again. On that note, I gotta run. Bye!

Percy and Mrs. O'Leary: *disappear into the nearest shadow*

Annabeth, arriving: Percy Jackson, stop hiding from me you coward!!

There's also rarely, if ever any, exploration of Percy's interests as opposed to Annabeth's own. Same with goals for the future. Percy doesn't want any quests, and Annabeth wants the demigod life, so they are already at odds, and it's never addressed.

Percy's interests are almost never taken in account or even brought to the conversation while Annabeth's are always a priority. In Chalice of the Gods, Percy doesn't want to go to NRU at all but Annabeth's going so he has to. You can clearly tell throughout that Percy doesn't want to go and especially not after finding out he is getting a baby sister.

The fact that he has to change what he wants because of what Annabeth wants is a sign of how terrible the situation is, especially when considering something as important as future plans. And often than not, Annabeth's narcissism shows in the process.

As for Rick, at this point, criticizing him is like preaching to the choir. He has already butchered enough as is. And we all already know it's his fault to some extent always.

You know, one thing that makes me unhappy about Percabeth in WOTTG is that Percy feels like he has to be the perfect boyfriend for Annabeth and feels pressured around her.

Because you shouldn't feel like you have to please your partner all the time. You should be able to relax and be yourself with them. If they're really your partner, they'll accept you, flaws and all. If you're with strangers at a party, uncomfortable, and they walk in, you should be able to light up and relax with them.

The way Percabeth is written, Percy would freak out and stress out even MORE about Annabeth being there because he'd want to impress her too much.

But I'm not blaming Annabeth for this-because I don't know if she knows what Percy's thinking.

Has Percy ever told her that he feels like he has to be the perfect boyfriend for her and always please her? Because if he has, and if she hasn't shot down that ridiculous notion, then it's bad writing on Rick's part-

But if Percy HASN'T told her that, then how can we blame her?

In the end, I blame Rick Riordan and his terrible writing.

But can someone please tell me if Percy ever told Annabeth about wanting to be the perfect boyfriend for her? Has he ever told her about ANY of his insecurities?

Fun fact is that no one has even had an inch of an extreme reaction yet. If we wanted to be extreme, we would tear down other characters to prove Percy's supremacy like every other stan seems to do. There would be death threats flinging around the way percabeth stans do to any other Percy ship or to those who don't critique on Percy and Annabeth. There's not even basic curses thrown around in any of the posts.

We are literally posting as civilly as possible, pointing out flaws and inconsistencies in canon and the way Percy is mistreated also through canon evidence because we are sensible people who just want other people with common sense, emphasis on common sense to acknowledged the character butchering Rick is doing to Percy to prop up Annabeth or the endless made up arguments other character stans invent to prop up their favorite and tear down Percy. But as it stands, facts seem to give everyone in the community indigestion. We aren't even anywhere near the extremes others usually employ. Enough said.

"ppl in this fandom overreact when someone so much as breathes on Percy-"

I'm sorry, my favourite 16/17 year old has been tortured half to death TWICE in the last 12 months, and no one, not a single character protected him, checked in with him emotionally afterward or provided any type of medical aid. no one. instead he's blamed to defending himself in the only possible way he could've, and HIS TORMENTORS are comforted right in front of him, BY HIS LOVED ONES.

yeah I think this calls for a bit of an extreme reaction, don't you think?

Ok, so I am HOWLING with laughter.

So, have you heard? People are comparing Percy and Annabeth to................Odysseus and Penelope.

When I heard this, you don't know how funny it was to me. I almost choked on my spit. LMAOOOOOOOOOOO

Penelope would NEVER hit or insult Odysseus. She doesn't play mind games with him and they communicate properly.

Odysseus and Penelope are not toxic. Percabeth is.

Also, Rick Riordan is LEAGUES worse than Homer. Like, the guy cannot even compare to the ACTUAL GREEK POET.

And people are actually comparing the two.

Percy Jackson IS good at times, but it will NEVER compare to Homer's compositions. Literally never.

TBH that's just my personal opinion.

Also, Homer actually composed many of the Greek epics that we still read today.

I get why people would want to compare them, but there is no comparison, really. It's so fucking funny to me.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Percabeth compared to Odysseus and Penelope?

That comparison alone has ruined the New Year for me. It's an insult to the Odyssey. Hell, it's an insult to the recently released Ithaca Saga of Epic the Musical.

But seriously, are these things actually being said? Cause that puts Percabeth stans from delusional category to brain dead.

Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey are one of history's most reputed myths of all time. And the primary source of Greek mythology for many people. I am certain Rick himself referred Homer's works for ideas and references. Even Riordan himself would be ashamed to compare his writing to Homer, in even the slightest manner.

Now to Odysseus and Penelope; the greatest couple of all time, truly and undeniably. The orignal eternal love. Even Hera, the goddess of marriage and family, considers Odysseus and Penelope's marriage bed sacred. Which Odysseus carved out of a living tree as a symbol of their undying love and so that it could never be moved.

Odysseus crawled through hell to get to Penelope and Telemachus. He survived and won the 10 year long Trojan war, defeated/ tricked a Cyclops, countless mythical monsters, Circe, Calypso, and even Zeus himself and at last Poseidon. That alone is beyond comprehension. Because Odysseus isn't a demigod or any specially blessed being. No, he is just an ordinary mortal, a genius mortal, one trained by the wisdom goddess but an ordinary mortal all the same. Yes, he is one of a kind genius, but these are literally eldritch creatures compared to him.

Let me put it this way, Odysseus is the OG Batman. He is who all smart fictional human characters aspire to be.

The Odyssey is literally about the all transcending power of human will. Of Odysseus's sheer fucking will to get back home, to his wife and son. That's it. A common desire of a common man, yet so miraculously burning and indomitable in Odysseus's mind that it alone outshines his extraordinary genius.

He quite literally died on his way there. Had to hitch a ride through the Underworld and then some.

Then he had to sacrifice his ENTIRE CREW, HIS FRIENDS, HIS COMRADES to get back to Ithaca. Mind you, Odysseus had the record of getting every single one of his 600 men alive out of Trojan War. The only one to have done so. And he had to lose some to the tragedies and then WILLINGLY SACRIFICE others to get back to Penelope.

I don't think there are words enough to encapsulate Odysseus's dedication.

Now Penelope. The thing is, she is just as bloody impressive. The Queen of Ithaca and a Spartan Princess, she is also one of a kind. Throughout Odysseus's departure and the suitors' invasion , not five, not ten, 108 SUITORS, Penelope held her own, keeping the castle, her son Telemachus and herself secure. All the while, raising Telemachus and running the kingdom on her own as well.

She tricked the suitors into an eternally futile game of trying to lift Odysseus's bow and shoot with it. Tricked them by telling them she was weaving Odysseus's shroud, which, when finished, would signify that she is picking a new husband. Each day, she would weave for all suitors to see, and each night, she would unravel the shroud. All in an attempt to stall. Among the many other ways, she did so. Including STEADFASTLY DENYING EACH AND EVERY SUITOR CONSTANTLY FOR YEARS AS THEY ASKED FOR HER HAND, NEVER ONCE LOSING HOPE OR FAITH IN ODYSSEUS.

When Odysseus returns, disguised as a beggar, she not only immediately recognizes him but subtly helps him in killing the suitors, which then Odysseus and Telemachus proceed to do.

All 108 suitors dead in a night. Add that to 600 men under Odysseus's command. 708 lives murdered and then some all for Odysseus and Penelope to reunite.

And this is me abridging the whole thing. Imagine the struggle, the suffering, the mental and physical trauma. 20 years straight. You can't fathom it.

I don't think I have words enough to state how repulsively disrespectfully wretched this comparison is. I would use an analogy, but it's so horrendous that I don't think there's one that suffices.

I literally have more than half the posts dedicated to dismantling the delusion of percabeth being a perfect ship, so I won't preach to the choir, but I mean Annabeth's fatal flaw is Hubris and Percy's is Personal Loyalty. Go figure.

If that isn't enough, Percy jumped in Tartarus for Annabeth. She fell, but Percy jumped, among the many other ways he has saved her from countless deaths. And Annabeth offers him what in return? It would have been alright if she gave him nothing in return, but somehow, the situation is EVEN WORSE.

Physical and mental demeaning. Toxic and controlling attitude and of course BLAMING HIM FOR GETTING KIDNAPPED AND HAVING HIS MEMORY WIPED BY A GODDESS. WOW, THAT SOUNDS SO SIMILAR TO PENELOPE AND ODYSSEUS.

Not to mention, Penelope accepted her husband, as he was. Even after being so completely changed by his tragic journey that he was quite literally NO LONGER HIMSELF.

And Percy when had to CHOKE AKHYLS WHO WAS DEFINITELY GOING TO KILL HIM AND ANNABETH, WAS KILLING HIM AND ANNABETH, OUT OF SELF DEFENSE AND SHE BLAMES HIM AND FORCES HIM TO PROMISE NOT TO USE HIS POWERS TO DEFEND HIMSELF???

WHAT THE FUCK??? And sure it would have been ignorable had it not had any long term effects. BUT NO PERCY ALMOST KILLS HIMSELF OUT OF KEEPING HIS PROMISE TO ANNABETH.

Call them whatever the hell you want but DON'T EVER COMPARE THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE.

PERCY DESERVES INFINITELY BETTER THAN ANNABETH. Enough said, really.

Rick also ruined Thalia and Luke's character heavily. Not to mention the absolute one dimensionality given to Grover later on.

But the most important butchering was done to the villains. Titans and Giants are not even close to how powerful they should have been.

So many Greek gods mischaracterized, or even stereotyped. And the "minor gods" thing. Literally most of the so called minor gods are either children of Titans or Children of Nyx and are therefore not only OLDER than the Olympians but technically STRONGER since they are not dependent on mortal faith for worship and are children of the Elder entities or the Protegenoi themselves. They will outlive the Olympians, too.

And the fact that he had the audacity to ruin probably the most iconic of main characters ever, who he had developed so well for at least 6 books[ SoN Percy was peak], all to be thrown down the drain to hype up Annabeth and Percabeth is just ridiculous.

The fact that more than half of the fandom was delusional about Percabeth and therefore started the dumb!Percy takes or fed into it so much so that Rick doubled down on them in the newest books in such a repulsive manner; on things that are utterly false and absurd. How in hell did the Fandom get around to twisting the strongest demigod and the best strategist throughout the verse into a dumb man who can't think for himself ??? What books were you reading???

And Nico. The things that could have been. Especially given the train wreck that is TSATS. But at least not as much of an abomination as the new marketing trilogy, Cotg, and so on. Still the devolution of his connections with Hazel, Percy, Jason and Reyna was ludicrous. Nico should have had a solo self-introspective arc to better deal with the hell he's been put through but no slap a boyfriend on him, and wow, suddenly everything's fine.

I have already made lengthy post on Jason so I am not going to go down that rabbit hole again. Underdeveloped potential indeed. The sheer character arc it could have been! Jason Grace probably has the most potential. He should have gotten the Meg McCaffrey treatment.

The characters all fell so flat in the later books due to Rick's devolving writing. It was such a pain to get through. It would have been so much better if he had skipped romance all along and actually done justice to each character's individual development.

There's too many things wrong with his writing and not enough time to point it all out but I am glad everyone's speaking on it now.

The thing about HOO is that it's either egregious, or amazing, or just......really plain and boring.

It retcons and ruins Nico and Percy's relationship. It ruins Percy's characterisation in PJO. Piper and Leo are 15 and haven't been attacked by monsters or brought to camp yet.

It depicts Piper and Hazel in a racist way (light hair and eyes to make them more attractive, both Hazel's parents have dark hair and eyes and no one else in the Aphrodite cabin has Piper's kaleidescope eyes)

It has a 14 year old date a 16 year old (Frazel).

Reyna calls Percy dumb in front of a whole group and Annabeth laughs and agrees with her.

It has Nico's acceptance arc be smashed to pieces. It has Nico be forcibly outed.

It has Frank's fatness magically disappear after being given the blessing of Ares.

It has Percabeth be abusive (Annabeth making Percy promise not to use his poison powers again when it could save them, not accepting them even though they're a part of Percy, her laughing at his trauma when he says Tartarus smells like Gabe, her bringing up Rachel to make Percy nervous, her agreeing with Reyna in front of an entire damn crowd that Percy is dumb and couldn't find his way out of a paper bag without her apparently).

It doesn't release Calypso from her island when in TLO the gods swore on the Styx to do so.

And it puts a millenia old goddess in a relationship with a teenager, and Rick even depicts Calypso herself as a teenager while saying that she romanced adult men.

It has a wolf goddes who eats children who aren't good enough according to her standards, when those children could be amazing at something else instead of just physical training and survival.

And I do NOT know how HOO wasn't a YA series based on the last one alone.

But there are also those moments with characters where they really accept themselves, like Piper growing out of her internalised misogyny, or with Jason and Leo, or with Frank learning about and using his abilities to be a badass magical warrior, or having a nice moment with Reyna and Nico. Or how it shows Clarisse and Coach Hedge's relationship and Hedge's backstory and his understandable fear and concern for his wife.

And then it's just kind of boring at times. Jason is an underdeveloped character (with SO MUCH POTENTIAL MIGHT I ADD!!!) He should've been able to wipe the floor with Percy, Nico, Hazel and Thalia. And then his relationship with Reyna was barely expanded on. And Octavian, while initially set up to be an interesting character, was reduced to an absolute clown. Gaia could have been such an interesting, morally gray character, possibly the most complex in the Riordanverse, and Rick could've sent a message about environmental pollution and how we need to do something about it, which would definitely impact a lot of people, seeing as PJO is one of the most if not THE MOST popular book series globally. But she was just made into a cartoon villain instead. And Jason and Thalia's meet up was........dryer than the Sahara Desert, if I dare say so.

This series had so much potential-since the millenia long abusive systems are broken, why not have the camps discover each other after the Titan war? I will always mourn what HOO could have been.

As intellectuals, one would think the amount of times this point has been reiterated would indicate that a reasonable number of readers have developed the common sense to understand this. Considering we are all older now and aren't blinded by nostalgia, it's the only logical conclusion.

But of course, we have a large population of willfully blind people in the mix. Honestly, the state of the fandom is almost as disappointing as Rick's writing.

It is SO funny to me that some of the Percabeth/Annabeth stans are genuinely upset about wottg, because like. that's how Percabeth/Annabeth has always been with one sole exception: something to "justify" Annabeth's behavior.

For instance:

TLT: she offloads onto Percy about her hatred of Poseidon. Justification: she's 12, she's prejudiced (presumably based on myth? unclear? and she's learning how to be a person etc.

SoM: she offloads onto Percy and Tyson. Justification: Cyclops trauma (nevermind that Tyson had nothing in common with the Cyclops that scared 7 yr Annabeth other than his race).

TTC: she was barely in this book so we'll skip it.

BoTL: she offloads onto Percy and Rachel. Justification: she's jealous of Rachel, also she's in love with Luke AND Percy and is stressed about her prophecy/quest.

TLO: she offloads onto Percy about being a "coward" etc. Justification: he's spending time with Rachel destressing/managing his mental health instead of time with her at chb and she's jealous.

MoA: she offloads onto Percy aka judo flip + threats. Justification: he was missing for months and she was stressed. Nevermind that none of it was his fault.

HoH: she offloads onto Percy aka. using Rachel's name to keep him on his toes. Justification: she was in Tartarus, and therefore stressed (how this results in her actively making Percy anxious as a trauma response - I have no idea; especially when you consider that the only reason Percy is also there is to save her life)

BoO: she offloads about Percy to Piper. Justification: she's angry that Percy scared her in Tartarus while he was fighting - coincidentally against the same enemy she wasn't able to do anything but dodge while said enemy was killing Percy and planning on killing Annabeth next.

you get the point. she's consistently rude/taking her emotions out on people instead of working through it and setting healthy boundaries. there's always some reason that boils down to "I'm hurt and lashing out" that her stans use to justify her behavior.

but in wottg, Annabeth has everything she wants: her perfectly controlled boyfriend, her architecture studies and a non-stressful mission/quest from the gods.

there's no trauma to justify how she's consistently calling Percy stupid or talking down to him or being rude.

now the stans are seeing it. and some of them don't like it.

I was reading your answer to ships that make you what to vomit and I'm genuinely curious as to why you said Percy and Annabeth's relationship is abusive? I've never heard anyone point out it was or even had the thought that it was abusive myself. I'd really appreciate if you could explain it to me because I'd really like to your opinions on the ship that everyone always seems to regard so highly (I hope this didnt sound rude, I'm just curious)

*frowns annoyed at tumblr* I have done an elaborate post on it before, but because tumblr is a little bitch, I can’t go looking for it on my own damn blog since the search-function doesn’t work. If you’re interested and the Tumblr Gods smile upon you, you could check out my “Riordan Critical” tag and seep through it for that post, it’s definitely there.

Due to tumblr being a little bitch, here’s the highlights of that post:

Annabeth continuously calls Percy a “seaweed brain” and other deteriorating nicknames. And no, insulting your significant other is not cute. Especially not for a boy who changed schools this often and has been bullied about, among other things, his intelligence. Absolutely no one can tell me that a boy who’s been bullied and called dumb by bullies for half his life would actually enjoy being insulted by his girlfriend.

In the beginning of The Titan’s Curse, when they’re on the school festitivity to pick up Nico and Bianca, Annabeth wants Percy to dance with her. Instead of asking him to dance, she is passive-agressively waiting for him to ask her. When he doesn’t… she punches him in the stomach. Not a friendly cuff in the shoulder, an actual punch and in one of the most vulnerable places. Using physical violence when your partner - and he wasn’t even her partner back then - doesn’t comply to your wishes, especially when you don’t even express those wishes vocally, is abuse. You can playfully swat your partner’s arm when he’s being silly, but punching someone in the stomach is not playful. And doing so because someone has not read your mind and anticipated your wishes is just straight-up gross.

When they are reunited in The Mark of Athena, her reaction is not to kiss him or embrace him, her reaction is to judo-flip him. And in as violent a manner that all Romans around them draw their weapons because their leader has just been physically assaulted. Now, like the assault itself wasn’t bad enough, she once again used physical violence to punish Percy for something. In this case, she is literally punishing him for getting abducted and suffering major trauma. It’s not like he willingly left her; he was abducted and has gone through a huge traumatic event in the past half year. Instead of being a comforting girlfriend concerned for him, she immediately punishes him physically for leaving her, like it was in any way or shape his fault.

People don’t notice because it’s the girl doing this and somehow, people at large have been so grossly brainwashed by straight romance to think that women physically abusing men is funny.

Now, please, imagine the roles being reverse, because then usually people see what’s actually wrong with that kind of behavior.

Imagine a girl not wanting to dance with a guy and he flat-out punches her in the gut. Seriously, that would not stand.

Imagine a girl having been abducted and traumatized and instead of embracing her and expressing his love, the guy judo-flips her and literally tags on verbally that this was because she left him and shouldn’t do that again.

Literally no one would have just read past such things. Everyone would have stumbled over those things. but since Annabeth is the cute blonde girlfriend and Percy is the strong male hero it’s ““funny”“ when she uses physical assault to punish him for not doing as she wants.

What makes matters worse is that she is literally a daughter of war, she is a genetically physically superior fighter. That’s how demigods work. And she has been training under Chiron for eight years. That’s the equivalent of a trained Navy SEAL assaulting you for upsetting them. That’s not some frail cute little cheerleader girly girl whose slap packs nothing.

And people just really don’t care or see what’s wrong with that.

EDIT: Thanks to @kimmycup for the link! Here’s the link to the OG post I made on this topic.

Demean your partner consistently ✅️

Physically hurt him multiple times ✅️

Undermine him and his achievements ✅️

Blame him for being in mortal danger and make him apologize for it. ✅️

Disregard his trauma and his self-esteem issues and feed into them ✅️

Annabeth's hitting a pentafecta on this; high achiever indeed. There's probably more. Like when Annabeth talks about leasing Percy or when Percy says he fears Annabeth and how she consistently tries to keep him on his toes and how bringing up Rachel on any other woman is an absolute no-no around Annabeth.

Battle of Labyrinth, Mark of Athena and House of Hades truly showcase the toxic traits of Annabeth.

Also, if you have read Chalice of the Gods or any other non canon fanfics Rick has published, you will clearly see the propaganda of putting Annabeth on a pedestal by undermining Percy is a legitimate thing.

And to all the skeptics, let's look at it logically. Please read solo Percy books and compare the characterization of Percy there with books in which Percy is with Annabeth, especially in later books. See how his character suffers.

The Sword of Hades, Son of Neptune, Son of Sobek, The Stolen Chariot, and so on.

Brb currently thinking how insane it would have been if Percy judo flipped Annabeth at the end of Titans curse like she did with him in MoA 💀 💃🏽

“Annabeth pulled away and studied his face. "Gods, I never thought-“

Percy grabbed her wrist and flipped her over his shoulder. She slammed into the stone pavement. The hunters cried out. Some surged forward, but Artemis shouted, "Hold! Stand down!'

Percy put his knee on annabeths chest. He pushed his forearm against her throat. he didn't care what the hunters or Artemis thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in his chest. A tumor of worry and bitterness that he been carrying around since the dance at Westover.

"If you ever leave me again," he said, his eyes stinging, "I swear to all the gods”.

This might be a genuine Controversial opinion of mine. Really because I Always see The Black Percy fanart or POC Percy and I love them, even though i still love the book version...it had me thinking...

But I highly think that if Percy were Black or Any minority I Doubt he would Take Annabeth's Bs or let her treat him the way she does

What do you think?

I have mixed opinions on this. I think it's a bit controversial but not for the reasons you are going for. Bear with me.

I think all this diversity propaganda has warped our perspectives on characters and their roles. Rick is shit at diversity roles cause he is trying explicitly to write them as diversity characters. I mean yes coming from a certain race, culture or ethnic group does play a large part of who you are but most authors make that the entire point or personality of their character.

In a world like Percy Jackson, where far greater things are at stake, I don't think a character's race or ethnic group should be prioritized so much. In fact, their motivations, how they choose to cope with their trauma and insecurities, how they love, how they fight is what makes a character.

In contrast to Rick, Leigh Bardugo writes tons of diverse characters who are just that, characters in her eyes. It's not because she needs to meet some quota or write diversity for the sake of it. She writes as it comes to her, and I think anyone would appreciate that far more.

Now, coming to your point, I don't think Percy being a minority or person of color would have changed him much. Because the points that you are trying to make should already be valid for Percy as he is.

He had an abusive stepfather who not only physically and mentally abused him but also always harassed him for money. Percy has grown up in that environment, he knows abuse well.

Percy can't stand bullies or people who impose their will, which is a fundamental part of his character which we are actually introduced to very. early on

Not to mention, Percy grew up in the streets of NYC all on his own, also moving from one boarding school to another. He is seasoned player when it comes to cops or law enforcement.

Plus I headcanon that all demigods have issues with any kind of normal organization or law enforcement cause what explanation are they supposed to give for their actions when the person across from them can't fathom it, see it or let alone imagine it. So they are all kind of in similar situations despite whatever culture or ethnic group they are from.

Percy's actions are also a reflection of his self-esteem. That's the thing driving his behavior. Percy wouldn't stand for this from a stranger, but Annabeth is his best friend. The first person he got close to in Camp. She represents his demigod life in a way. To him, the fact that someone like her wants to date him seems unbelievable. He goes in that relationship or any relationship feeling inferior. Then he begins dating her, and he desperately wants to meet her expectations cause Percy Jackson can't take her walking out on him, not because he disappointed her. Cause what sort of shit boyfriend is he if he can't even stand and accept Annabeth as she is. So he takes it as it is. He takes her demands, her violent way of expressing her emotions and her need to be in control. She wants to go to University and study, she wants to be involved in the demigod business, wants to be the heart of it and Percy isn't about to leave her to be on her own. He is Percy, he would go to the ends of earth and beyond for people he loves and cares for. So he goes along with that too.

The question shouldn't be what it would take Percy to be done with Annabeth's bullshit or what would finally make him snap. That shouldn't be the focus.

The focus should be at what point will Annabeth realize that she is stifling Percy, leashing him. (Before you snap, percabeth stans hear me out, not my words. Literally a bloody conversation from Mark of Athena, in which Piper word to word says and agrees with Annabeth that someone needs to leash him and Annabeth can do it.)

And I love how the fandom just glossed over it. What the hell??? Are you people blind? How is that a healthy relationship??

Annabeth should realize how badly she is hurting Percy or how badly she has misunderstood him. How awful her actions have been and how her actions are enabling his lack of self esteem. (For confused people who think Annabeth can do no wrong, please check other posts. There's nothing wrong with admitting that your favorite character is flawed and can make mistakes. )

And then if she truly loves him they should separate, go their ways, still be friends but not romantic partners. Or they should go on a long break in which Annabeth needs to sort out her behavioral issues, come back to Percy, apologize to him earnestly, then to Rachel and even Reyna. And then if Percy (after he too understands the problems in their relationship and how disastrous his lack of self esteem and self deprecation is) is willing to give her a chance or even willing to be in any romantic relationship then and only then should they get back together.

It might not be the answer you were hoping for anon but I had to give my honest thoughts on this. Feel free to comment your own opinions on this as well.

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.

And people wonder why there are anti Annabeth and anti Percabeth stans. It's because Rick and all the stans have shoved Annabeth up a non-existent pedestal of the smartest ( which she is not and it's not even close) and continue to still only consider Annabeth's goals and aspirations and trauma valid.

Think of it this way:

Respectfully, if your ship consists of character A repeatedly calling someone a nickname that is a substitute for the word dumb( as further confirmed by readriordan article), dismissing character B's trauma and opinions, consistently physically hitting character B , showing toxic and controlling behavior towards character B and blaming character B for their own kidnapping and amnesia? It's not the IT couple or the perfect relationship. It's the definition of an escalating toxic relationship.

At least accept that your ship is very flawed and not even close to the definition of perfect that you paint it as. And that it's run mostly by Annabeth's wants and opinions and goals.

Just some of the screenshots. There's a few more but these are the ones I have on hand at the moment.

Percy: *comes up with a great lie to cover their asses in a heartbeat after Annabeth stuttered, unable to think of anything* Annabeth: You're stupid

???