Percy spent the entire summer leading up to a war in which Annabeth could die hanging out with another girl. Prior to that he got feelings for another girl days after Annabeth worked up the courage to take the first step in their romantic relationship and kiss him and let's not forget that he didn't know if Annabeth was alive or dead when he was on Ogygia and that didn't stop him from getting feelings for Calypso during that time.
The fact that Percy treating Annabeth poorly coincides with him starting to get attention from other girls for the first time is hands down one of the douchiest parts of his personality in the first five books that never gets called out.
That said, I don't mind Percy having other love interest, I just wished Rick would have given Annabeth the same respect and experiences of romantic connections outside of Percy that didn't include being preyed on by a grown Luke. That difference in Annabeth and Percy having other romantic connections will always read as an insane level of really gross misogyny to me.
I don't think Rick concluded any of those storylines well enough. Percy comes off as wishy washy in some of his romantic choices. Calypso was left open ended in terms of his feelings, and Percy never actually made a choice to not pursue anything with Rachel romantically, Rachel made that choice. Things just happen to Percy. Percy really doesn't seem like an active participant in any of his choices.
In my opinion, the Percy/Rachel stuff lasted way too far into Last Olympian for me to believe the resolution of Percy/Annabeth by the end of the book. Percy was still acting like Rachel was a romantic interest by the last few chapters of the book. The Percy/Rachel stuff concluded and Percy/Annabeth got together like five minutes later. It was jarring and rushed and I firmly believe that Annabeth and that entire storyline that had been built up for 5 books deserved better.
The only thing that got me to like Percabeth again was Mark of Athena and House of Hades. I just could never be okay with how Percy treated Annabeth compared to his other love interest in botl and tlo to like them together by the end of Last Olympian because I will always think she deserved better than a guy who was wish washy and unclear about how he felt about her compared to any other girl who batted their eyes at him until the very last minute, after she did all the emotional labor in the lead up to their relationship, and only when it was convenient for him.
Why do we act like teenagers can't be assholes and shouldn't get their asshole behavior called out? No one is saying Percy is a monster, but b being a teenager is not an excuse to treat someone who you're suppose to care about like absolute shit until it's convenient for you to treat them better.
Going from TTC to BOTL honestly has given me whiplash sometimes because how is this Percy:
“Pick the most beautiful actress you can think of. The goddess was ten times more beautiful than that. Pick your favorite hair color, eye color, whatever. The goddess had that. When she smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Annabeth.” - TTC Percy about Aphrodite (and Annabeth)
“Zeus beckoned Artemis forward. He leaned down and listened as she spoke in his ear. A feeling of panic seized me. ‘Annabeth’, I said under my breath, ‘Don’t.’ She frowned at me, ‘What?’. ‘Look, I need to tell you something,’ I continued. The words came tumbling out of me. ‘I couldn’t stand it if… I don’t want you to- …” -TTC, Percy sick to his stomach about Annabeth and the Hunters
…The same as this Percy:
“However amazing the stars were, Calypso was twice as brilliant. I mean, I’ve seen the goddess of love herself, Aphrodite, and I would never say this out loud or she’d blast me to ashes, but for my money, Calypso was a lot more beautiful, because she just seemed so natural, like she didn’t even care about that. She just was.” - BOTL Percy about Calypso (ew- *stahp* be mature 😌😑)
So what I’m hearing is that you saw the goddess of love and beauty and saw Annabeth, but Calypso is more beautiful than even Aphrodite now, so therefore Calypso is more beautiful to you than Anna- nope I’mma stop
“It was a small restrained laugh, like she found me really funny but didn’t want to embarrass me. She was cute when she laughed.” - Percy about Calypso, again
“…Calypso and I were sitting at dinner, and she looked beautiful in the candlelight.” - BOTL Percy *sigh* about Calypso (oh you just having a good ole time with her on your little date aren’t ya 😃; how long you been there again 🤨??)
His friends - Grover, Tyson, ANNABETH - have no idea where he is or if he’s even alive. He doesn’t know how much time has passed, but he still finds it hard to leave the island because he’s perfectly content with staring at Calypso, having candlelit dinners with Calypso, going on moonlit walks and ventures with Calypso, calling her the most beautiful girl he could ever lay eyes on because she looks like “she’s not even trying” (spare meeeee 🫥). He ofc eventually leaves, but he hesitates, and that’s cowardly.
“I thought about Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson constantly (good). I remembered exactly why I needed to leave. I just…couldn’t (not good). And then there was Calypso herself (Oh brothers 🙄). She never talked much about herself, but that just made me want to know more… (is he under a spell??? You are under spells people!)”.
Mind you this is alll following up after Annabeth KISSED him! Yeah, ANNABETH - the girl he was plotting to strangle everyone in TTC for (he wanted to strangle Mr. D just because he mispronounced her name!). The girl who if anyone comes near her or if she feels closer to anyone other than him (whether it’s Thalia, Luke, Clarisse etc), he gets jealous. The girl who he literally was crying, screaming throwing up at the idea that she could possibly join the hunters, and leave him.
The girl who he almost confessed to at the end of TTC, if it wasn’t for her mother.
Percy, my guy, you feel all these strong feelings for this girl, she kisses you, basically confirming that she feels for you just as strongly, and you fix your mouth to say:
“They sent Calypso someone who she couldn’t help but love. But it worked both ways (👀). For the rest of my life I would be thinking about her (righttt, don’t even think about getting with Annabeth if this is who’s going to be on your mind while being with her). She would always be my biggest what if (anddd cut the cameras)” . - BOTL Percy about 👏 Calypso 👏
Your biggest “what if”…what if you WHAT?! Stayed on the island with her and lived happily ever after? Never left and lived out your days, loving Calypso? You…fell for her just like that?? Off of what, her beauty, mystery, and loving attention? I’m confused. The way he framed it, the way that line was framed, was like he was losing his first love, like he and Calypso were some tragic love story, destined to be a part (doomed lovers). Lowkey tweaking because how after everything you and Annabeth have been through. After she kissed you - a blatant display of romantic attraction and vulnerability, but you want to go explore said attraction with Calypso, on a remote island.
Yea, I’m absolutely floored.
Men/boys can be so. freaking. easy. Shove any drop dead gorgeous girl into their face and anything they had with another also gorgeous girl (who they are wayyy more emotionally connected to btw) is out the window; obsolete.
And Percy knows he’s wrong, or at least feels guilty, because when he reunites with Annabeth at camp, and has to tell Chiron and Annabeth where he’s been (after she almost EULOGIZES him - Lawd they really thought this boy was dead), his palms are sweaty, he’s nervous, and he feels the need to leave out Calypso; just tells her he got “lost”. Why do you think that isss Perseus 👏 Jackson 👏!
I lowkey dreaded picking up Book 4 (BOTL) after TTC because hearing from people in the fandom all of the shenanigans that go on in there (y’all’s PR for this book is NOT great), I was like “nahhhh”. BUT I always have to see/read things for myself and GUESS what scene/chapter I stopped on last night…
Hello Calypso 😑.
Mannnn my thoughts are still reeelingg. The whole time I read that chapter and everything that happened on Mt. St Helens, I’m like “be mature about this, you’re not 12 anymore” - repeating it like a mantra. But that 12 year old who absolutely hated that red-head (Charlotte? or whatever her name was) from H2O and despised Harem animes with a passion was peaking out 🫨, oh she was ready to snap.
Now, if I’m objective and mature about this 😌, I can recognize that Percy is a young, teenage boy who has been thrusted into this world of almost endless fighting, wars (for seemingly nothing but glory), and prophecies that determine your fate without your consent. He can’t catch a break. He quite literally almost died (again!) and had to blow up a volcano/mountain to survive. He’s injured and barely able to stand for more than a couple hours due to exerting too much of his massive power.
So, a very beautiful, mysterious girl nursing him back to health, clothing him, feeding him, planting flowers with him, and telling him she’s in love with a “boy like him”, on this lush paradise - makes it hard for him to want anything else; makes it hard to leave and go back out to the craziness; it’s “every teenage boy’s fantasy” (🙄). I can also understand that Calypso and Calypso’s Island was honestly like a test for him: will you stay on this island with this beautiful girl and have a permanent vacation, shirking all your responsibilities, escaping your troubles, and leaving your friends and family behind, or… will you be the hero and choose the prophecy (again) and save everyone you care about??
Ultimately, Percy chose the latter (attaboy), to leave the island, to leave Calypso, to be a hero, and to find his friends (there’s that sense of loyalty again - putting his friends above his…fantasy, ig). All this was technically needed for his development. I was a little proud of him for making that choice…in the end. The lead up to that choice, however, oh I don’t have to like that.
Sooo this might be wild to say but, I’m seeing, and not understanding, the lack of urgency, or lack of prioritization of finding Annabeth in TTC by specifically Thalia (and even Grover) - her sister & Satyr Protector.
Between making it back to camp after Annabeth fell, and coming upon the Hoover Dam (which is a pretty wide stretch of time), Annabeth and finding her is like second on the list (first being find Artemis) to Thalia/Grover, and almost barely even mentioned by anyone other than Percy on the quest. It wasn’t until Percy mentioned Annabeth’s love for architecture first at the Hoover Dam that Thalia expressed emotions about Annabeth being gone since camp (again that’s quite some time, it had been days at least). Where is the maternal/sisterly instinct from her that I am definitely getting a sense of more in the show??
Whenever Percy and Thalia talk on the quest, it’s not really about Annabeth (except for that time she brought up Annabeth wanting to join the hunters). She doesn’t explicitly say why she is on this quest either, just “I’ll go”; (it can’t be just to find Artemis and the beast she’s hunting, you just woke up from a tree coma after protecting your sister, why would that be your first motivation?🤨). From Zoe and Bianca, that being their main motivation makes sense.
Now, I get it, quest first, save Olympus first - that’s the supposed “hero/demigod duty”. Thalia didn’t strike me as a character to care about a “demigod’s duty”, or finding glory in saving Artemis (therefore saving Olympus), though. She literally said in the show, “I don’t care for my father’s world”.
I guess going into TTC, I was expecting more of “I’m here to find Annabeth (and Luke) and that’s all, f the gods and this quest (but I’ll still use it for my gain)” energy from this punk diva. Her characterization and line “We take care of our own” in the tv show gave me this impression.
I guess the true answer is that since the book is from Percy’s POV, you’re not going to exactly get all of Thalia’s thoughts or feelings about losing her sister 🙃.
[Which is exactly why book purists who watch the show should at least thank the writers for making the narrative from a third person’s POV because…idkkk👀]
Reading PJO’s The Titan’s Curse for the first time and coming upon *that* scene…
[SPOILERS‼️]
“BIANCA DI ANGELO IS NOT DEAD JUST LOST, THERE WAS NO BODY!!”, I say as they drag me back into the asylum 😭
No fr, how did she just disappear or “die” like that in that scrappy robot or whatever, and I didn’t even get to find out why her memories were so scrambled! Like what happened to her and Nico in the Lotus Casino that she thinks FDR was the previous president?! BRING HER BACKKKK! Both Nico and I are about to crash out (in the book and tv show)
Today is the first day of my “Bianca Di Angelo isn’t dead because her Godly parent had to have saved her and she’s a powerful demigod” campaign 🙂↔️
Hot take apparently, but I’m getting tired of “Percy is so clueless about Annabeth” as a sentiment. Cause like he’s actually really not.
Percy knows he has a crush on Annabeth by the end of Titan’s Curse. He literally almost says as much, except that Athena scares him off of it. And after that he is choosing not to know about it. He is essentially burying his head in the sand. On purpose.
Because the thing is. The thing is! At the end of the third book he finds out that Nico is a child of Hades and that changes things. For all of book 4 it seems entirely possible that Nico could be the child of the prophecy. Part of why Percy won't leave Nico alone and insists on helping him and getting through to him is that he's scared Nico will be the child of prophecy and will choose to destroy the gods because of his grief over Bianca.
Which would also mean that Percy is going to die before he turns sixteen. And in book 5, when Percy is claiming the prophecy as his own, he finds out the rest of it. Hero's soul cursed blade shall reap. It’s not until the climax of book 5 and Rachel saying “you’re not the hero” that Percy realizes it’s not his soul that’s going to be reaped. Up until that point he believes he is going to die at sixteen, maybe saving Olympus, maybe not, or maybe before that, if he's not actually the child of the prophecy. And that has a massive impact on all of his decisions, but especially his decisions around Annabeth.
Percy knows, deep down, how he feels about Annabeth, perhaps he even knows how she feels about him. But he is also very empathetic and emotionally perceptive, something he does not get enough credit for from the fandom. He knows that Annabeth is deeply lonely. He knows that she has been abandoned by her parents, Luke, even Thalia joining the hunters is a sort of abandonment for Annabeth, and he knows how deeply this impacts her. He knows how much she is still clinging to the idea of bringing Luke back, for instance, because of how much his betrayal hurt her.
And he knows, when he dies—and he believes it to be a certainty, after all, there is no escaping fate—he’ll just be another person she loved who hurt her, who left her. And if he admits how he feels to her, if they start a relationship, and then he dies? That’s even worse. He cannot and will not do that to her.
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