You Are Definitely Prophetic, And I Have To Admit I Have Never Looked At Jason's Death That Way. It Might

Exactly. Percy's fatal flaw is personal loyalty damn it. But no Rick decided to shove Percabeth down our throats and made Annabeth his whole personality. It's literally the character assassination of the main character, and no one even talks about it . Not enough. Not to the extent it needs to be said.

Okay, so when you look at PJO Percy and HOO Percy, his character has almost completely changed besides the basics, and I was wondering if someone wanted to rewrite the end of SoN and the rest of the HOO books? The thing that angers me the most is how he acts around/about Nico. Like Percy was completely (kinda) obsessed with Nico’s safety for BotL, and yeah they had rough patches when Nico accidentally betrayed Percy in tLO, and later when he doesn’t tell Percy who he is in SoN, but when Percy learned that Nico was captured, he should’ve like, flipped his shit. He should’ve joined Hazel in standing up for Nico in MoA.

Nico gets a lot of people who care about him later (Hazel, Jason, Will, etc.) but I think we forget that Percy has known Nico longer, he and Nico were actually friends before he met Hazel and the others. Percy claims the prophecy and lies about Nico’s parentage to protect him??? And in HOO he barely thinks about Nico which is really out of character. When they get Nico out of the jar he would’ve immediately gone to him and tried to take care of him. I feel robbed of the Percy/Nico friendship, and the disaster that was Percy’s character in HOO.

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

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

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

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

Let's recap his life real quick.

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

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

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

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

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

4.

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

5.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hades is just uncomfortable cause Percy beat the shit out of his army and had him at swordpoint. But there's no way he has any right to bear a grudge when he was the one who detained Percy. Plus, considering Percy vouched for Hades and his children in his wish, there's no way Hades won't show gratitude. As Poseidon says, even the Lord of the Dead pays his debts.

If that wasn't enough, Percy was one of the instrumental people in saving Thanatos, Hades's right hand in the Underworld, the god of death, so there's that. There's also the fact that Percy is super close with Hazel, who looks up to him like another brother. Bianca herself trusted Percy enough to leave Nico to him and again Percy was also the one who got Nico out of the jar along with Jason.

So I don't see why Hades would have a beef with Percy considering Hades sort of owes Percy for so many things. But I see why one might think so cause Hades has complex feelings when it comes to Percy given the things Percy has done and the stuff Percy knows.

Percy is one of the few people to know that Hades cursed the Oracle of Delphi. And the reasons behind it. I don't remember whether Apollo knows who cursed his Oracle but I am sure that won't go over well with either Apollo or any other Olympians; after all the Oracle is always under the sacred protection of the King of Olympus and Olympians themselves. So it's definitely quite punishable to curse the Oracle.

And if you remember the short story, the Sword of Hades where Persephone fucks up by going behind Hades's back and trying to create another great weapon for him and forces Percy, Thalia and Nico into a quest. The punishment for an Elder God forging another weapon of power is enough to incur severe consequences from the rest, especially Zeus and Poseidon. While Hades wasn't directly at fault, it was under his name that the weapon was being made. Thankfully, neither Thalia nor Percy snitched on what Persephone was upto and so only five of them knew. And if that got out, it might become very problematic for Hades.

Which is another reason why he has complicated opinions on Percy, a demigod to whom he either owes quite a bit to when it comes to his children and someone who knows things about Hades that he rather not have anyone know. But either way he definitely won't be petty to Percy in terms like the ones op mentioned, cause there's Poseidon to think of and Hades knows that Poseidon loves Percy enough to take actions like Hades banning Percy from entering the Underworld as a slight against himself as well. I just find it so funny that all of the Big Three have a very uncomfortable relationship with Percy. Hades because Percy knows some of his secrets and he owes Percy for everything he did for his children; Poseidon cause he is trying to be a better father and mend his relationship with Percy, Zeus cause he wants Percy dead so bad; like that so called all powerful God is so fucking hellbent on wanting Percy's demise, so paranoid and afraid of what Percy might do. I swear if Zeus saw half of what Percy did in Tartarus, he would sentence Percy to execution then and there and the war it would cause. I honestly want to see that happen just for the sake of it.

I like to imagine that Hades is real nice to Jason, yknow? Partly out of spite cuz he doesn't like Percy and partly to genuinely show he appreciates how well he treats Nico and looks after him. And I think that would make for some hilarious conversation like Jason goes "Yeah Hades is pretty neat I had to pop around a cemetery for a quest and he showed up out of nowhere, said he was just passing through, ended up helping me out and even bought me lunch" while Percy is just "he threw me in a dungeon once". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean we know Hades picks favorites and is capable of learning to be a better father/uncle sooooo.

Nico: Hey can I invite Will to our scheduled dinner next week?

Hades: I'm sure we can find an extra seat for him.

Nico: Can I also bring Meg?

Hades: Demeter would enjoy seeing her daughter.

Nico: Can I bring Jason?

Hades: Of course you can bring Jason.

Nico: Can I bring Per—

Hades: No.

Top 5 powerful Percy moments

1. when percy cuts the williamsburg bridge in half with a scream as everyone watches. we love a dramatic king who shows off<3

2. the cleaning the stables scene, but more so because this is when he gets scared of what he’s capable of; he didn’t want to stop, and the man eating horses were genuinely terrified of his power because of this.

3. mount saint helens explosion. of course. i mean, c’mon, this is when he uses the max amount of his power, literally turning into water (this is just a theory of mine but yeah. he turned into water when the explosion happened and the strain of it was why he lost so much weight when he landed on ogygia)

4. him creating a hurricane as he fights hyperion!!!! king shit for real!!!! and i also love it because everyone gets to watch<3

5. this is a tie between when he raised the river lethe so he and thalia and nico could pass to the other side, while he was mortally wounded, to when he tortured aklyss (i think that’s how u spell her name). literally when he raised that underworld river thalia and nico thought him incapable because it was just that impossible, but he! proved! them! wrong!!! this is similar to the torture of misery, since he controlled other liquids that weren’t actual water in both scenes. anyway he should’ve killed that goddess i’m just saying 🤌

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.

Years ago I was a toxic Klaroline fan. I hated Klayley and from their fans, even though I never watched The Originals. But things are not the same now. I started to enjoy seeing the edits with Klaus and Hayley together. I used to be so busy hating them that I didn't realize how much chemistry they had. And now I keep uploading every Klayley photo I see to my gallery as if someone else has taken control of my body. Thanks to your blog, I decided to watch The Originals this time starting from the first season.

No compliment, and I mean none compares to the sheer joy I just experienced reading this. I am very glad to know you found it in yourself to watch the Orignals due to a few of my posts . I have nothing against other Klaus ships, but I do loathe it when they try to downgrade and demean any meaningful connections Klaus has had with anyone else. And no one with a working pair of eyes will miss the sheer love Klaus and Hayley have for each other. I am sure you will enjoy the Orignals. Thank you for saying this, made my day really! Also, I hope you post about your change of mindset and your favorite Klayley scenes moments and quotes. Maybe you will manage to turn the opinions of many others too. [We will get even better Klayley fics then].

The entire Fandom needs to listen to this:

Percy having a thing for Rachel was so absolutely deserved like he should have been head over heels for her. Here's why?

First meeting? Runs her through with Riptide, and where anyone would have spent the whole time yelling and arguing, Rachel quickly gauged the situation, helped Percy hide, deviated the skeletons from their orignal path all at the same time.

Percy is so awed and he should be and Rick Riordan doesn't do justice to the whole thing.

It ends on Percy saying he owes her one, almost an indication that they would meet again.

Yet Percy is terrified of running into Rachel again because he isn't sure if he could answer all her questions, most definitely because he doesn't want to drag her into the whole thing. So much so that when he sees her at Goode, he calls her "my redheaded nightmare " .

Not only has he thought of her since they last met, but he may or may not have dreamed about her, not to mention he remembered her full name after listening just once.

When he does meet her again she yet again warns him about monsters hence saving both of them.

The most important thing is Percy, who all his life has been judged blamed ridiculed, and mocked is for the very first time understood so instantaneously by Rachel. She who has been put in mortal danger every single time she meets him doesn't blame him, doesn't judge him for it, and openly takes the blame for the burning school. Even Annabeth's first response to seeing the smoke is blaming Percy despite being around him and knowing well enough for 3 years; she chooses to blame him as if she doesn't know that it's never Percy's fault. Yet Rachel, someone who he has met only twice and that too for meager few minutes, understands him and his situation so well.

All the people in the Fandom ask yourself this: Will Percy Jackson not for all that he is be absolutely head over heels and in awe of someone like that?

He can barely give her any answers at the moment, but she agrees to a death quest to help him save the world.

Throws a literal hairbrush at the Titan King and stands her ground.

Stays by him and comforts him through his depressive thoughts about dying due to the prophecy.

Falls in love with him despite knowing he has little time left.

Does her best to help him while still keeping his mind off from spiraling into dark thoughts.

Rides a literal helicopter mid-apocalypse to get to him just to warn him of the dangers?

Percy would be so absolutely over the moon in love with Rachel, were Uncle Rick not so fixated on Percabeth agenda.

The last bit is for toxic Annabeth stans:

Rachel is a genius too.

She is ambidextrous and can draw with both hands and legs; probably has exceptional memory, and her composure and quick thinking are on par with Percy himself.

I hate bringing this to looks, but I will if I get to shut up toxic fans. Annabeth is certainly beautiful, and her grey eyes are quite unique, but Rachel is the most underrated and definitely the most beautiful out of all Percy Jackson females.

The woman literally won genetic lottery with red hair and green eyes, and the only reason Uncle Rick doesn't rave about her beauty is to not make Annabeth insecure.

Also, for those overly concerned about the Oracle celibacy thing, I will address that in my next post and how it's not a problem at all. (Now posted link is here:

Expect more Pjo-centric posts along with Perachel headcanons and more.

for context, @rosabell14 is referring to tags on this post.

ok we're going off-road w this one

generally speaking, i like the concept of "some things aren't meant to be controlled," which annabeth says to percy after he controls the poison. this is said and then immediately forgotten abt, however, this could be another angle of change, a reoccurring theme in hoo, as well as a continued theme from pjo.

obviously, from pjo, the change is addressed w the myths, the theme of yielding, and w the conclusion of the story:

hoo continues this concept of change w the percy-jason switch, the greek-roman conflict, the idea of what an identity is and how to change it, etc. there's a lot of individual character work w this idea, but there's less of a mythological concept attached to it. gaea is a static and flatly written antagonist, octavian becomes incredibly flat as a character and his development into this sort of fanatical antagonist that is never explored, there's a lot of teeth-gritting abt how the gods are gods and they never change and everyone just has to accept it, the myths aren't challenged in the same way they were in pjo, etc. there's a few major exceptions, i'll get to that.

this is a glaring issue i have w hoo. it wouldn't be as bad as a standalone, but hoo makes the entirety of the previous series meaningless. in tlo, percy asks for kids to get claimed and be trained so when (or if) they have to go on dangerous quests/fight monsters/etc they're both older and more experienced. this is the conclusion to the war and how the status quo is changed (disability accommodations expanded to reach more ppl and work more effectively).

hoo, however, does not do this. camp jupiter infamously has a child army while the adults are retired, all of the new characters are younger than percy (who is still 16), and only two of them have spent a long period of time training, although hazel's isn't formal/in a camp (and piper doesn't even learn how to fight until book four ffs). this sort of immediately bastardizes pjo in a way that is never acknowledge by the series and makes it, and anything after it, a failure as a continuation of pjo.

and that's where this theme could've come in. when bob is remembering who he is, him and percy have this back-and-forth abt identity. percy relates to bob bc he, too, just had his memory erased and that vulnerability exploited (annabeth's perspective in this conversation is very different bc she doesn't have this same experience nor does she understand percy's feelings abt it. a good way to build tension using different povs, but, once again, doesn't get fully utilized). in the conclusion that conversation, there's an interesting moment:

this is that idea again, "some things aren't meant to be controlled," like fate, like identity. titans are meant to "be the same...forever." and here percy is, not only as the catalyst for change by throwing bob into the river lethe, but also by encouraging him to commit to this change once bob should know better. this was percy's role in the previous series, as well, where he constantly challenges the perspective of other characters to be more quote human unquote.

afterwards, annabeth has a similar moment w damasen:

i also think these are very funny to have side-by-side, just as character analysis, bc percy is very much both insecure and empathetic like u can choose ur future, it's up to u, etc, whereas annabeth is like i am right, listen to me.

anyway, both of these moments repeat the idea from pjo/tlo: immortals can't change. but they are changing. and they will change. the rules of the world are malleable (i also think hazel's monologue abt seeing the minotaur as a victim would be another aspect of this to explore). what abt traditions? what abt camp jupiter's child army? how should these change? going back to the og thought, tho, what shouldn't change? what are the "some things" that aren't meant to be controlled? how do you balance traditions and reform (great opportunity to use octavian btw!)? why can't a god be human, act human? why are the ancient rules important? that's an important discussion to have if we're growing this universe.

i don't particularly like that hoo immediately reverts back w the premise of the story, like i was talking abt earlier, nor do i think these characters were introduced or used well in canon, but using these characters, these moments, these conversations, rick could've salvaged this mess by embracing change isn't a static thing. he doesn't, tho, so it's all lost potential.

separately, something i've always liked abt the akhlys fight is that percy wins the literal, physical fight against her, but loses the metaphorical fight. he gets to walk away, but he walks away miserable. and this is bc the gods aren't ppl, they're physical representations of concepts. and percy has this thought abt tartarus and gaea while in tartarus, and i believe it's brought up in boo, but it's barely relevant. it's something i wish was explored more.

now onto specific characters. i talk abt my general idea here, ie this moment in tartarus is forcing percy and annabeth to confront their worst-case scenarios.

for annabeth, i've repeatedly gone on record to say i hate the way annabeth is written in hoo, here is an example, ie her fatal flaw does not come thru in her character (i also think she and percy switched characterizations from pjo to hoo, but...). separate issue is that annabeth's character revolves around percy a lot. so there are two issues i would focus on, largely bc she's not written well and doesn't have established unique conflicts. like,

this is a big revelation at the end of hoh, that she has to "step back" and she can't "protect everyone she love[s]." except it doesn't make any sense. tlo ended w annabeth telling percy to give luke her knife which luke uses to kill himself. not to mention, thalia's sacrifice on hbh. ALSO. percy accepting the prophecy and "taking the brunt of the danger"! and finally. annabeth has been at camp for 7-8 years. 1) she should have relationships w these ppl and 2) she should care that some of the ogs died in the previous war (which would also require rick to figure out who died lol). but the point is, this isn't a new conflict for annabeth!

the thought she had in moa abt having to accept she's not always the best person for the job:

this is not built up nor is it delivered on, but would be interesting, given that she demanded to be on the quest and if there was an actual power struggle instead of writing her as the de facto leader. this would be a better conflict than accepting that "she couldn't protect everyone she loved" when she has historically not been able to protect everyone she loved.

anyway, back on topic.

first, this moment exists to challenge her perception of percy, which is important to challenge bc she quite frankly has an unhealthy attachment to him. other ppl have said this better than i, so here's a post abt codependency and p*rcabeth and here's another one i rbed a while ago.

tldr; rick treats annabeth's abandonment issues/possessiveness/codependency as like. cute, peak romance. and he's been doing this since pjo, right, like annabeth's abandonment issues and possessiveness didn't matter when it was thalia joining the hunters,—bc there's no romance trope here w thalia—but gods forbid percy speak to rachel.

and this doesn't change in hoo. in fact, it's worse. like,

i'm going to [statement redacted] rick for this. what part of this is cute??? i'm killing it with fire.

so anyway, i want to treat annabeth's possessiveness/etc as an actual, consistent, character flaw, that she can grow out of, even. maybe even connect it to her hubris or her rsd. explore her feelings abt luke now that we have her pov to do it in. the fallout from this moment w akhlys is a great way to begin delving into that bc it's a shocking moment for her.

second, and going back to the theme of change, annabeth is different from percy in the sense that she has a different relationship to the gods than him (which i'm comparing bc i think rick (and fandom) has a hard time giving these two consistent and separate personalities/beliefs post pjo). the two times she has rebelled against the gods directly were bc of percy's influence (again, this is percy's role in pjo), 1) in the zoo truck, a scene that only takes place bc percy challenged her view of the poseidon-athena rivalry and their place in it, and 2) w hera where the first words out of annabeth's mouth are literally "percy is right."

i find this interesting especially bc her fatal flaw is hubris, which is common in mythology and frequently ends up fatal bc ppl challenge the gods. so, annabeth using the gods and these stories to keep her hubris in check makes complete sense.

and it seems like this is the same approach she's using w percy:

percy is directly challenging a god for power, and more than that, he's challenging a domain he's not supposed to have control of at all.

very interesting! does not get explored. such is common for hoo.

for percy, this scene is part of a long-running conversation of his powers (which is a huge part of his disability coding!!!!!). and it doesn't go anywhere.

percy has established anger issues and implied emotional dysregulation. this has been a thing since the beginning, literally chapter one of tlt! punishing percy for this when he's clearly not getting the support he needs is. a choice. also there's the issue that hoo kinda. erases this aspect of percy's character until the confrontation w akhlys, which is a separate but related issue.

there really should've been more buildup to this outburst (eg: in son percy punches a shelf in the library and immediately feels guilty bc he scares frank and hazel. percy is in an incredibly stressful situation; this should've happened more), but that would mean rick would treat it and the disability conversation seriously (which falls flat after son) and do less teeth-gritting abt the whole gods thing.

so, to go back on my "using the different povs to build tension was wildly underutilized" train, a featured part of almost everyone's pov is that percy is very kind, and gentle, and forgiving. i discuss a moment w frank being impressed w percy's selflessness here and he also says that he would follow percy anywhere, jason says percy is "a nice guy" after like 2 days, nico has his whole thing, hazel says "percy was a child of poseidon’s better nature," going on to describe him as gentle, etc.

and all of this praise goes nowhere and kinda just becomes percy is so awesome...and then turns into everything is percy's fault in boo...it's bad writing.

but it's an interesting opportunity to play w perspective. percy in pjo is dehumanized in that he is both villainized and idolized, and obviously hoo is continuing the trend w idolization. rick sets up a great plotline w this in moa:

and this doesn't go anywhere bc apparently percy's problem is that he needs to learn to step back. which. part of this is bc rick recycled plotlines from percy and gave them to other characters, which means that percy cannot be in character anymore without making themlook bad (the recycled plotlines i'm talking abt are the idolization, imposter syndrome, wanting to step back but constantly pushed into the spotlight, being seen as different/elevated status bc of ur parentage, struggling to connect to who your parent is, even the dehumanization as a weapon is straight out of percy's writing in pjo). this is a big problem w hoo in general ie characters becoming ooc by necessity (see: bad writing). the other part to blame is that rick is literally trying to redo tlo what w the whole "you are not the hero." it's all the same from pjo except written worse. it's a running theme of hoo (and a bonus). bad writing all the way down!

ANYWAY. so pjo ends w percy at an elevated status bc he 1) survived an unsurvivable prophecy, 2) was offered godhood, and 3) turned down godhood to improve the lives of the demigods while all the demigods watched. and he has the curse of achilles but. we all know how that went. the point is, all of this puts percy on a pedestal. i like to think it's the biggest reason hera kidnapped percy: if he said no, if he refused, she would've lost the support of almost all the demigods at chb (also the metaphor for the audience lol). i think making percy go on the quest, or at least to new rome, is the only good bit of world building rick did between books.

the problem is, rick is kinda all over the place w how percy is perceived and misses both the point of percy's character (callback to what i said abt his disability) and the world building of the previous series (what happened to power-scaling, narrative consequence, etc fr). that's what creates the flip-flopping "percy is perfect" and "everything is percy's fault," and neither are particularly good reads.

going back to annabeth, i don't think she's an exception in idolizing percy. she has no reason to see percy's vindictive side bc he works hard to hide it. even w crusty, annabeth is preoccupied. annabeth is smart, she's not omniscient. instead, there's the famous "percy is too nice" from som. i also like to think this is why she keeps trying to talk to percy abt luke as if luke is a good person who didn't try to kill percy. she doesn't understand that percy would hate luke for betraying him bc why would he? percy is a good person.

(for the record, i think the exceptions are: 1) grover, who chooses not to bring it up w the exception of his nemesis comment in tlt, 2) rachel, who made a painting where percy's "expression in the picture was fierce—disturbing, even—so it was hard to tell if I was the good guy or the bad guy" and simply said that's how he looked, and 3) arguably nico—considering percy has attacked him before—but i do think "very [dangerous]. to his enemies." does a good job of capturing that, it just doesn't go anywhere).

so, to condense all of this, ppl are idolizing percy in terms of both strength and morals and percy feels stifled by this knowing that he is not as strong or good as ppl think (and also by the fault that he was demonized prior and has corresponding low self-esteem bc of that lol). keep this in mind, i'm changing the topic.

in botl, percy's torture scene is used primarily to set up how powerful he is. he can cause an eruption that necessitates the evacuation of thousands of ppl and wake the biggest threat in greek mythos, but he would never know that if he wasn't back into a corner. bc that's not who he is. he shies away from power and titles. he wins his fights w strategy and very rarely relies on his powers to overpower his opponents.

just to clarify, i categorize percy's powers in two sorts of ways: involuntary and voluntary. involuntary is like speaking to sea creatures, healing in water, things that don't require a lot of energy/effort/focus. he's not scared of this. he's wary of the voluntary, powerful explosions, the things that set him apart from his peers. that's what i'm referring to in this section.

so, percy has to come to terms w the fact that he 1) blew up a mountain, 2) survived blowing up a mountain, and 3) woke typhon. and what does he say immediately after that?

he immediately deflects! he wasn't in control, it wasn't him that's powerful, it was an accident, and besides, he can't do it again bc he almost died. and what's even more interesting is the only time he uses his powers after this (in botl) is when grover asks him to stop the fire in the woods.

so, what lesson did percy actually take from mt saint helens? that he's dangerous. very interesting to use this teaching moment and have the protagonist come to the quote wrong unquote conclusion.

in hoh, we don't have a purpose for the torture scene. there's no significance to confronting how powerful percy is. percy is not addressing his self-sacrificing tendencies nor his propensity for bottling his emotions up. there's no questioning of p*rcabeth's relationship. there's no questioning of the gods. it's a cool scene w no narrative purpose.

so, take two. what is percy supposed to be learning from akhlys? how do we relate this to percy taking the wrong lesson from mt st helens?

at the end of botl, nico comes up w the river styx plan and percy takes almost a full year to agree to it. how much further ahead in the war would they have been if percy had accepted the curse sooner? how many fights could percy have won faster if he used his powers? if he trained his powers? if he trusted his powers?

there's a really interesting comparison w phorcys and akhyls where percy doesn't attempt to fight phorcys bc he assumes he won't be able to overpower him,

but w akhyls he tries anyway,

bc he's backed against a corner. and he succeeds.

percy is a character who very much embodies duality. i've talked abt this before wrt his loyalty being both his greatest strength and greatest weakness and how it clashes w his desire for freedom, but it's true for almost every trait. he's honest and manipulative. he's ruthless and merciful. he's kind and violent. he's looked up to and looked down upon. he's the saint and the scapegoat. etc etc. and percy responds to this by frequently trying to deny his quote worse unquote traits until they eventually bubble up and explode out of him. this is part of why juno calls him a loose-canon (which btw, i love. everyone has been treating him as a loose canon and no one on this side has the balls to say it until then, seven books in).

all this to say, *ethan voice* it's abt balance! this moment should've been abt percy confronting his unfair treatment! the idolization from his peers! the demonization of his flaws/disability!

thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

What do you think about Perclarisse?

Perclarisee has been getting a lot of popularity recently. It's not a bad pairing, but i don't think it's best for the both of them given their nature's.

Percy is the child made and matured by war, while Clarisse is the child of war, seeking and living by its principles.

Clarisse probably is the person who most understands what the war has done to Percy and Percy is the person who most understands Clarisse's need for violence and how Ares's hypocrisy affects her so greatly.

They both, despite not seeing eye to eye, mostly have a great respect for each other.

But we come back to the point of healing from their traumas and insecurities. Percy and Clarisse talk in violence and in sparring. They need someone who would keep their pride aside and listen to their problems attentively without calling them out for their misgivings repeatedly.

Moreover Clarisse and Percy have a very distinctly different mindset.

As much as war plagues Percy he is no fan of it. He make not like war but the war likes him and it drives Percy insane.

There will never be a day he will get along with War Gods (but strangely, he is the only one who can say that he understands war more than anyone else) .

If it were upto Percy he would choose to talk his way out of everything because he knows if he fights he will leave nothing but pure destruction in its wake.

Clarisse on the other hand is a child of war. She lives and thrives on it. Violence is her language. She would resort to it each and every time.

She needs someone who makes her want to talk and bask in peace, not someone who keeps feeding into her violence hungry tendencies. (Chris has been perfect in that way. Both he and Silena have shown Clarisse how to manage her endless rage) .

But of course in some strange way if they did become a thing it would be interesting to see how they both change to understand the other and make an effort at changing their ways.

Percy needs to be more upfront about his rage instead of suppressing it while Clarisse needs to put a healthy bind on it and in that way I think they would be the perfect person to teach the other (if they stop to talk and don't just end up throwing hands).

The absolute highlight, however, would be Ares's reaction. Oh, Percy's going to have a blast annoying him. Imagine if Aphrodite and other Olympians join in. (I think Percy would do it just to spite Ares if he could lol aside from the respect he has for Clarisse).

It's a fun pairing, but I think it mostly works as close friends.

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

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

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