the clear cut parallels between rin, nezha, and kitay and the trifecta never fail to make me sob. like speer and mugen, the second poppy war and the third poppy war. riga loving and betraying daji, nezha loving and betraying rin. the friendship between jiang and daji, the friendship between rin and kitay. both groups leaving only one of them to rule. their shared complicated love and loyalty and hurt between each other. jiang and rins final moments of clarity. they followed right into their predecessors footsteps and didn’t even know it. both groups were supposed to be unstoppable forces but ended up being torn apart by each other.
what i love about emily henry’s books is how painfully human they are. they feed into everyone’s inner hopeless romantic, but they give you steady ground. you feel like you know these characters, you feel like you are them. my favorite thing about her books is how she will always put her main character’s emotional arc at the forefront. i love how she encapsulates the very relatable, human fears and emotions when it comes to love.
something i always wonder about is the aftermath of tbg is the legacy of rin, kitay, and nezha. would they be revered as a trio? would they be told to be as powerful as the trifecta? would they be told as a tragedy? would anyone even know of rin and nezhas almost romance? or would it be embellished to the point of an entirely new story? or would it be a reiteration of the red emperor and tearza? would nezha try his best to erase them, pieces of them, from history, not out of hatred, but merely to protect himself from the pain of their legacy? to preserve the memory of the people he loved most? i wonder if he would let their story be turned into a legend or if he would burn it to ash. i wonder how he’d carry their legacy on his already weakened shoulders.
no one loved each other more than rin and kitay. despite all the rinezhafication of tpw, the best love story was the platonic bond between rin and kitay. kitay never stopped loving rin even as her made her most selfish choices. rin stuck by kitay even when she felt most betrayed by him, they never let each other go. they couldn’t even practice with each other in sinegard because they couldn’t bear to see the other hurt by their hand even if it was pretend. and AT THE END OF TBG???? kitay would rather die hating rin than live in a world without her at all. THEIR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER ALWAYS OUTWEIGHED EVERYTHING, NOT EVEN IN DEATH COULD THEY BE TORN APART!!!
i don’t know how to explain it but characters like percy jackson, leo valdez, kenji kishimoto, nikolai lanstov, jesper fahey (canon!), and enrique mercado-lopez (canon!) always end up being bisexual or give off bi vibes.
in which Annabeth’s drunk and wanting attention, and Percy’s a good boyfriend,, percabeth,, no plot just love
If there’s one thing Percy never would’ve expected from Annabeth, it would be the way she clings onto him when she’s one too many drinks into the night.
His girlfriend has always been more on the independent side, though there are still times when she loves to press up against him and demand kiss after kiss. Tonight appears to be one of those times, and Percy can hardly keep a straight face with the way she talks and giggles. Drunk Annabeth is also not one that appears often, but he cherishes it every moment he can get.
They’re alone in back bed by the time that Annabeth decides to take a nosedive into him, quite literally. She stands on the bed, and he has to kick a leg out to stop her from falling, before flopping down on top of him, knocking the air out of him entirely. Her face goes to his neck as she crawls over him and settles all her weight down, and Percy can’t help the laughter that bubbles up out of his throat when she blows air against his skin.
“What are you doing?” he chokes, squirming at her hold.
“Bothering you,” she says.
“I can see that.”
Annabeth drags her face along the sleeve of the shirt, and he doesn’t need to look to know that he’s going to be covered in her foundation.
“Stop it,” he whines, but he makes no effort to move. “I like this shirt.”
“I like your shirt too.”
Percy smiles lazily, brushing her hair out of her face. “Too bad because it’s mine.”
Annabeth tugs at the bottom. “Give it to me.”
He turns onto his stomach to block her out, stifling a smile into the comforter of their bed when she presses her face right between his shoulder blades. She nips at the skin there, but Percy pays it no mind. It’s comforting, he thinks, with his girlfriend acting as his personal blanket and the fan whirling above, not to mention the alcohol taking a bit of a toll on his own brain. He’d have fallen asleep, had it not been for Annabeth’s hand poking his butt.
“Give me attention,” she says when he jumps and shoots her an accusing glare.
“I’m giving you lots of attention,” he tells her. Annabeth just scowls, and it’s meant to be intimidating, but her hair is ruffled and a mess, and her makeup just a bit smudged, and it’s too cute for him to be properly terrified.
Annabeth shifts on top of him and rests her face on top of his, which forces one of his eyes closed and Percy to choke on his own laughter.
“Attention,” she demands again.
“I’m giving you lots of attention, baby.”
“More.”
Percy rolls his eyes but presses a kiss to her cheek, which is enough to satiate her. She hovers over him and he tries to run his fingers through her hair to fix the wild curls.
“You’re so drunk,” he whispers.
“No I’m not.”
Percy smiles softly and drags a thumb by the corner of her mouth to fix her smeared lipstick. “Just a little bit.”
Then, she brings a hand up and pinches her fingers together. “Maybe just a little bit.”
Percy kisses her forehead. “A lotta bit.”
“It’s your fault.”
“My fault?”
“You kept giving me drinks.”
“How could I say no to such a messy face?”
“Messy?”
“Mh-hm.”
“You dick.”
“I like messy Annabeth,” he says. “She lets me cuddle her.”
“You’re not getting any cuddles if you don’t give me more attention.”
Percy sighs and decides not to point out that she’s already technically snuggling him. Instead, he gently moves her off of him so she can lay down on the pillows. He makes sure she is in no danger of falling off the bed before he walks away.
He walks out of the room for a moment, but he hears her complaining.
“I’ll be back in a second!” he assures, rummaging through the drawers of their bathroom. When he comes back, it’s with a makeup wipe in hand and a glass of water.
She reaches for the water and sits up, taking a few gulps of the icy drink. Her eyes are on him as he moves around the room.
“You’re really bad at giving me attention, you know?”
Percy shakes him head, amused, and pushes her shoulder gently. “Lean back.”
She does as he says, flopping onto his pillow, and he sits beside her. The first thing he goes for is her lashes. Her eyes flutter shut as he pulls softly at the outer corners until the adhesive begins to give.
“Did you know that I love you a lot?” Annabeth says, shifting beneath him.
“Someone may have told me once or twice,” he says, smiling. “Stay still.”
“Is this what you consider attention?”
“It’s like your own personal spa day!”
Annabeth giggles as he begins to swipe at her cheek, softly dragging the wipe across her skin. “You could also propose.”
Percy laughs quietly. “What?”
“I think that qualifies as attention.”
“You want me to propose to you when you’re so drunk you can barely walk?”
“Hm. Maybe not.”
Percy bites at his lower lip to suppress another grin. “If I proposed, would you say yes?”
“It depends.”
Percy gasps, mock offended. “On what?”
“Well, when are you going to do it?”
Percy begins to work on her lipstick. “When do you want me to do it?”
She waits until he moves the wipe away to answer. “In the next year.”
“That’s good to know,” he says. His eyes dart over to the dresser where he knows a ring has already been sitting for months. It’s not until after he does it that he realizes Annabeth is staring right at him, but he thinks she wouldn’t have noticed, and even if she did, she’d forget by morning anyways.
He finishes taking off her makeup with them in silence before he sets the wipe aside. “Come on, sit up.”
Annabeth whines. “I don’t want to.”
“You can’t sleep in that.”
She mumbles in complaint but does as he asks. He pulls her shirt over her head and is about to help her into her own t-shirt before she pushes him away. “I want your shirt.”
“No, you don’t. I’ve been wearing it all day.” He tries again to get her to lift her arms, but she flops down to stop him. “Annabeth, really?”
“I want your shirt,” she says, “since you refuse to give me attention.”
“What do you consider this then?” he asks, but he’s already back at their dresser to pull out one of his own shirts for her.
“A boyfriend doing the bare minimum.”
“Fine, then. Sleep in your makeup. See if I care.”
Annabeth giggles when he appears back at her side and squeezes the skin at her hip. “You love me too much to let me sleep in my makeup,” she says, letting him tug the shirt onto her before he unbuttons her jeans and tugs those off too.
“Unfortunately,” he says.
“Unfortunately!?” Annabeth’s leg reaches out to kick him, but it lacks any real strength. “That’s mean. Maybe I won’t say yes.”
“Oh, but Annabeth, I love you so much and I wouldn’t know what to do without you in my life.”
“Is that sarcasm? That sounds like sarcasm.”
“You talk a lot for a drunk person.”
“Then help me sleep.” An arm extends towards him, which he allows himself to take. He lays next to her, pulling the covers over the both of them while Annabeth gets comfortable in his embrace. “Rub my back?” she asks.
He does as she asks, trailing his hand up and down the smooth skin of her back, and when her eyes begin to close only minutes later, he presses a kiss to her forehead.
“I love you,” he says.
He had thought she was asleep, so he’s surprised when she answers with a quiet, “Love you too.”
Percy snickers into her hair. “Did I give you enough attention yet?”
Annabeth cuddles deeper against him, her face resting against his chest. He can feel her breathing against his neck, and it warms him heart to know that she trusts him like this, to keep her safe. “For now,” she whispers, “but tomorrow… I want all your attention.”
Percy stops rubbing her back so he can move a strand of hair out of her eyes, entirely too in love. “Consider me yours.”
Percy’s most merciless form of teasing is the Poseidon vs. Athena thing that Annabeth brought up when they were 12. He will never let her forget it. Never.
Annabeth: hey, I’m glad we lived through this quest. Maybe we should email each other when you leave camp?
Percy: I would, but… idk if anyone has told you. Our parents our RIVALS. So, like, I’m not sure we can be friends :/
Annabeth: …this is why I didn’t want to be seen on that stupid love ride with you
And also…
Annabeth: hey could you pass me that notebook?
Percy: Me??? A child of Poseidon??? Help a daughter of Athena???
Annabeth: I thought we agreed to let that go?
Percy: My bitterness lives on for as long as Athens remains Athens I’m afraid 🤷♀️
Then, of course, later on…
Annabeth: I guess I should thank you for coming to save me, huh?
Percy: You’re welcome ☺️ full disclosure though - I only came to get Artemis
Annabeth: …is that so?
Percy: Annabeth, haven’t you heard? Our parents are RIVALS! I could never save the daughter of my father’s RIVAL. Are you crazy?
Annabeth: oh my bad. You’re right though-
Percy: Where are you going?
Annabeth: I gotta get re-captured. Can’t let a son of Poseidon help me out-
Percy: Don’t take my joke away from me! Get back here!
Then you got Percy desperately trying to make a situation less tense and just… messing it up so freaking badly…
Annabeth: And why should we trust this random Rachel girl?
Percy, trying to lighten the mood: Well, she’s not a daughter of Athena, right?
Annabeth: OH?!? SO IS THAT HOW IT IS?!
Percy: Nope. No, it is not. Regret that. I take it back. Please stop glaring at me. I repent. Help.
Like, this child will not let it go…
Percy: I just realized I never officially asked you to be my girlfriend. We just kissed and kind of went with it, didn’t we?
Annabeth: I guess so. You can ask me out now, if you want?
Percy: I mean… I would, but, like, have you heard about this thing that happened in Athens like a thousand years ago?
Annabeth: Perseus, I was TWELVE
Annabeth gets a chance for revenge though…
Percy: Marry me?
Annabeth, holding back tears: I love you so much… and I would! It’s just that our parents are RIVALS-
Percy: how dare you
Bonus:
Percy, updating Sally on the events of Greece: And then we went to Poseidonia-
Sally: Where?
Annabeth, with a heavy sigh: It’s what he calls Athens… It’s only a matter of time before my mother kills him.
everyone gives annabeth a lot of shit for being angry at percy for spending more time with rachel before the war, and yeah she didn’t express it well, but imagine living with the knowledge that your best friend in the world has 3 months left to live and he doesn’t want to spend it with you.
So Percy, being a sweetheart, was the kind of narrator to show us what a simp he was. Mr. Annabeth-was-getting-seriously-beautiful was perfectly fine spending passages talking about his future GF.
I just wanna establish that Annabeth as a narrator in the original PJO series would have be FERAL. She has a perfectly logical/more objective account of everything that happened except when it comes to Percy. Then suddenly it’s:
“What in the name of the gods is this? He decided to get attractive? When I specifically prayed and asked Aphrodite not to make him more attractive? I’m not shallow. Of course I’m not shallow. I just - I’m gonna kick his ass-"
“It’s not that I like him. I just think anyone who makes him sad should be dipped into a vat of hot oil.”
“Look, Percy’s smart. We don’t talk about it because he isn’t allowed to know, but he really is. The problem is that he can be the smartest person in the room, but miss things because he’s kind of a pessimist with self-esteem issues. I swear I’m going to fight him over it.”
“I laughed. What? It was funny. Just because he’s a son of Poseidon doesn’t mean he can’t be funny. What are you? The funny police? He said one funny thing. Back off.”
“I’m not in love with my best friend, okay? But by Hades and Zeus and Poseidon himself this random mortal girl better not be in love with him either. Why is she coloring on her jeans? Isn’t she rich? Buy a freaking notebook. The worst part is that I think I would normally like her. I’m just filled with this....rage that has absolutely nothing to do with Percy at all. You know, I bet this random rage is a sign from the gods. I shouldn’t trust her, right? Right.”
“....listen. We don’t need to talk about Mt. Saint Helens. What happened there happened. I made a tactical decision. As a daughter of Athena I don’t need to explain myself to random mortals. Leave me alone-”
“So what? I took the knife for him. Like you wouldn’t? We would all take the knife for Percy, calm down. It means absolutely nothing. Mind your business.”
“I know this may come as a shock to you, but... I think I like Percy. As more than a friend. I’ll give you a brief moment to be surprised since I did an excellent job keeping it under wraps.”
“So, I’m dating this dork of a demigod who is the best and a child of prophecy and the most loyal and funny and sarcastic and supportive and best person in the world and I’m allowed to gush a little because it’s been years of pent up affection and I bet none of you even saw this coming!”
“Bitch took my boyfriend. It’s been like three months.”
the beauty of kaz and inejs bond is that they are a perfect example of how physical intimacy isn’t necessary for love to born. lots of newer or just ya stuff in general is so focused on sex and sexualizing teenagers. whereas kanej is all about longing stares and just their deep understanding of each other and how they can wordlessly work together. i feel like it’s so unique and beautiful i rlly hope netflix doesn’t fuck it up
this is one of the main reasons they are one of my favourite ships ever. everything in the media is so sexualized these days, so i think we really need more representation of these kinds of relationships. there are many ways to express love without the need of physical contact and that doesn’t mean they are less important.
i’m reading “This is How You Lose the Time War” and here’s some of my favorite lines/excerpts if anyone would like to know.
“Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all.”
“So in this letter I am yours. Not Garden’s, not your mission’s, but yours, alone.”
“PPPS. We’re still going to win”
“Red rarely sleeps, but when she does, she lies still, eyes closed in the dark, and lets herself see lapis, taste iris petals and ice, hear a blue jay’s shriek. She collects blues and keeps them. “
“My memories of you spread through a millennia and each highlighting you in motion.”
“Perhaps someday they’ll assign us side by side, in some small village far upthread, deep cover, each watching each, and we can make tea together, report home sanitized accounts of each other’s doings. I think I’d still write letters, even then.”
“Instead I wick the longing into thread, pass it through your needle eye, and sew it into hiding somewhere beneath my skin, embroider my next letter to you one stitch at a time.”
“I sing myself out to you, and my talons clutch the branch, and I am wrung out until your next letter gives me breath, fills me to bursting.”
“Do you sleep, Red, or dream?”
“I dream of you. I keep more of you inside my mind, my physical, personal, squishy mind, than I keep any other world or time.”
“I want to tell you something about myself. Something true, or nothing at all.”
“When I think of this seed in your mouth I imagine having placed it there myself, my fingers on your lips.”
“I love you, Blue.
Have I always? Haven’t I?”
“I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me. I want to drink tea beside you in ten years or a thousand...But when I think of you, I want to be alone together. I want to strive for and against. I want to live in contact. I want to be a context for you, and you for me.”
“PS. I write to you in stings, Red, but this is me, the truth of me, as I do so: broken open by the act, in the palm of your hand, dying.”
“Listen to me—I am your echo.
I would rather break the world than lose you.”
“I love you. I love you. I love you. I’ll write it in the waves. In skies. In my heart. You’ll never see, but you will know.”
the beauty of kaz and inejs bond is that they are a perfect example of how physical intimacy isn’t necessary for love to born. lots of newer or just ya stuff in general is so focused on sex and sexualizing teenagers. whereas kanej is all about longing stares and just their deep understanding of each other and how they can wordlessly work together. i feel like it’s so unique and beautiful i rlly hope netflix doesn’t fuck it up
for me it’s the way kaz and inej seamlessly fit together. nobody can calm kaz down like his wraith - nobody can hear inej coming but her dirtyhands. it’s as though they ascend to a different reality around each other, one in which they’re completely in-synch. kaz knows inej, and inej knows kaz. they almost know each other better than they know themselves, and that’s what makes the way they love each other so powerful.
kaz fixes himself by himself for inej because inej is a part of him. inej finds freedom for herself and kaz because a part of her is kaz.
