This Website’s Easy Watch. *dangles A Bunch Of Greek Gods Like Keys*

Percy is a strategical genius, and this hasn't been said enough. I don't get why the Fandom collectively thinks Percy is dumb or not smart. Even Annabeth sometimes treats him as such.

Reyna, Piper, Annabeth, and everyone needs to hear this:

The truth is Percy is a far better strategist than Annabeth because Annabeth can't think quickly on her feet at all. She can weave the most ingenious of plans but only when given time and enough information, only when she is looking at the bigger picture.

She does, however, have an almost encompassing knowledge of most things, but information is just information unless you apply it.

No one and I mean no one is better than Percy at thinking on his feet.

Mostly almost always Percy seems to be unaware of who his enemies are and yet still manages to go up against them and eventually win while Annabeth is at times left reeling.

Who figured out Ares's scheme? Percy

Who figured out Luke's motives? Percy

Who tricked Crusty? Percy

Who figured out the use for Hermes's gift? Percy

Who came up with a way to show Luke's betrayal to the camp? Percy

Who helps trick Atlas? Percy

Who makes up the entire battle plan in the Battle of Manhattan? Percy

Percy tricks Phineas by goading Gaea. He could only do that if he himself understood how Gaea's mind worked.

He singlehandedly subdued Chrysaur (Yes, Frank helped, but only because Percy came up with it)

There's so many instances of Percy being far more strategic than Annabeth herself.

Not only this but Percy is extremely and terrifyingly perceptive and just a damn genius at getting people to give up secrets.

Athena is the personification of cold hard logic and facts hence Annabeth follows and so she isn't nearly good enough at reading people's intentions or body language.

Yes, Annabeth can be quick on her feet, but it's not very natural to her as it is to Percy because Annabeth believes in pre-planning, but Percy understands and embodies adaptation.

It's a flaw of many of Athena's children. The problem is Athena is a God with the mind of one, nothing stumps her so at any given moment she can and will always have the best plan because her mind is much more rapid than the surrounding circumstances.

Her children, however, are mortal and hence always vulnerable to surprises.

It's the reason why Athena favors Odysseus the most, over everyone. He was quick on his feet, along with being a great planner. He was a strategic genius, and my headcanon is that part of the reason Athena hates Percy is because her greatest enemy's son reminds her of her most favored person.

This Kid's Not Alright

perseus // unknown // The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan // unknown // The House of Hades, Rick Riordan // unknown // @ vialjarhorn // The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan // The House of Hades, Rick Riordan // @ dying-dog // The House of Hades, Rick Riordan // brutal, Olivia Rodrigo // The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan // unknown // The Gods Show Up, Michael Kinnucan // The Chalice of the Gods, Rick Riordan

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!

everytime i see things where ppl are like, upset at percy and blaming him for calypso still being on that island or like, forgetting abt bob im like....okay but when was he supposed to do smth abt either of them. and why is it supposed to be on him to do smth?

cause like, if we're talking calypso, he did what he could. he made the gods promise, he made zeus swear on the styx how was he supposed to know whether or not zeus actually followed through. and then he had what, a few months at best, recovering from a war, trying to focus on his mortal life, yk, pretty much all he wanted, before he was kidnapped by hera and the gods closed down communications. and then hes homeless and amnesiac and then hes going on quest after quest, like. he doesnt even have time to breathe, forgive the boy for not thinking of calypso in this time.

and bob/iapetus like. ive seen many percy is so "manipulative" and "toxic" takes in regards to him and like?? do ya'll even remember when percy and iapetus met? cause when they met iapetus was an enemy doing his damndest to kill thalia, percy, and nico. percy thinking fast and telling him they were "friends" was percy being smart and saving their lives. and he very clearly did have regrets in House of Hades abt how he left things off with bob too, like, that isnt the action of a self-absorbed hero at all.

Like yes, Percy can be manipulative, and he fascinates me for it, but in that one instance where he names Bob and says they’re friends, like. Can you rlly blame him??

As toxic as Percabeth is, they’re still teenagers and there’s a chance that they could grow past that and Annabeth would overcome it. Heroes of Olympus makes that feel unlikely though.

I hold that belief because my relationship with my spouse started out unhealthy- I was extremely codependent due to not having many friends growing up and never quite getting the emotional support I needed from my family. But we grew past that and 11 years later, we’re approaching our 7 year marriage anniversary with our biggest goals as a couple (besides raising our kids) is to always communicate and it’s working well for us.

Annabeth in particular never maturing and growing past it doesn’t have to be what happens. They’re still teenagers, she could grow past it.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem like she’s going to grow and so many people act like the toxic relationship they have is normal and I’m just like…. No. Never mind, I don’t want to read Percabeth. Maybe I’ll ship Percy with Apollo or no one then.

I also thought of it that way. Annabeth would mature and come to understand the error of her ways, and since Percy means so much to her, she would reflect on all the things she says and does and change her ways in order to pursue a more healthier and long lasting relationship.

Then I read the Chalice of God and Read.Riordan. entries, and lost all hope. Annabeth is a character that you think cannot devolve more, and she surprises you in the worst possible way.

I have completely given up on Percabeth, and I will be reading any incoming books just for Percy as I always do.

Perpollo is a new but great ship that has so much potential but I am not really too in it yet but at least due to Apollo, Percy might ascend to godhood which is something I think is inevitable for someone of Percy's stature and power.

Right now, I think I am all for Perachel only. It's the best possible ship for Percy and for Rachel, and if you are interested, you should check out those posts.

But seriously, between their shared prophetic abilities, creative quick thinking minds, fun and easy going personality, and a deep care and affection for each other, Percy and Rachel are literally meant to be.

The Spirit of Delphi is extremely ancient and free and given Oracle of Delphi was once in Poseidon's domain, she could change alliances and freely date Percy, but my favorite headcanon is that Percy becomes a God and Rachel decides to swear allegiance to him instead.

Also, if you have any Perpollo recommendations or posts to share, please do.

Percy walking in with a Greek hero’s name and a different Greek hero’s curse and the most famous and looked up to Greek/Roman hero’s sword into camp Jupiter …

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.

The lack of Perachel is criminal. But percico next followed perpollo and jercy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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