This post [X] contains a pjo fan desperately wanting to believe that Percy/Annabeth isn't toxic.
A Percy/Annabeth shipper responded and honestly I don't agree with some of the stuff they said. They specifically mentioned percabeth antis a couple times and I felt I need to address a few things since they were missing the point about a lot of arguments I've made.
It's far more than just the nickname. That's literally just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know why so many people get caught up on the nickname when it's like. some of the least shit Annabeth has done to Percy that we take issue with. For me, anyway.
Also, like it would be one thing if Annabeth was just using the seaweed nickname as an insult at 12 years old like most children do and grew out of it later on as she matured, but that's not the case. Read Riordan, from Annabeth at college (an adult):
It's more of an indication to me of what Annabeth really thinks of Percy. She doesn't respect him. When he has achievements (ones in academia which he canonically has struggled with and felt shitty about), instead of being happy for him like a supportive friend/girlfriend would, she seethes in jealously and envy. She has to be better than him, because if he's stupid and she's less than him that means she's stupid too, and she can't have that as the daughter of the wisdom and strategy goddess.
This comes from the passage in HoH where Percy mumbles that Tartarus smells like Smelly Gabe and Annabeth laughs at him.
I agree, its fairly flimsy because as far as we've seen Percy has never confided with Annabeth that his first step father was a piece of shit that liked to threatened to beat him into unconsciousness. It's a very traumatic thing and that takes a certain level of trust to share. She could've straight up not known and missed all of Percy's signals that he wanted to confide in her about it then.
One thing that trips me up tho is that a lot of people like to excuse the laughter saying that Percy is using jokes to cope with the trauma - and while we've seen other characters do that we literally never see Percy joking about Gabe's trauma. He never talks about it, barely even thinks about it. So I would say it's incredibly unrealistic to say that he was making a joke prompting laughter as a coping strategy.
Yeahhhh that's the thing!! They never do talk. They never communicate about these super important issues!! If they did, then they could have a healthy relationship. But they don't! And that's the problem!!
You can say "you doubt she would be insensitive " and "you believe she would stop [calling him seaweed brain]" and that's wonderful and present in fanfiction and your beliefs but it's not canon? Like it hasn't happened and we haven't even seen anything alluding to something similar to it.
Communication is not just beneficial - it's necessary to healthy relationships especially when you partner may be doing something that hurts/triggers you. And since they don't get this stuff out in the air, it makes the relationship unhealthy.
Yes. Percy enjoys being around Rachel, and the issue is that he directly contrasts that to Annabeth and his experiences with her come up lacking! Which is something that falls on both of them btw.
"They aren't trauma bonded... they spend time with each other outside of life threatening situations." / "They go on dates."
Yeah, Percy and Rachel did. Nice dates, that didn't involve killing or missions or quests.
Has Percy ever gone on a quest with Annabeth that didn't devolve to a mission or quest? Not that we've seen. There's nothing straight up mentioned in the text. They've been on outings together - ie. the failed movie hangout, the date in central part, etc. that start out fun but it always goes back to a quest or mission.
That's not Annabeth or Percy's fault to be clear (yes I'm repeating this twice) - but it does indicate that they cannot get away from that aspect of their lives and relax together. It's always war-fighting-gods with them, tarnishing the domestic moments. It's always hanging over their heads.
When you consider Percy's character (ie. his first words; "I never wanted to be a demigod," and his desire to have a normal life and be done with the quests, prophecies and missions it's not good. This is not Annabeth being abusive to re-iterate. Not her fault. It's more of a "we're not good together" because of external factors - Percy's not getting what he wants. On some level, he's not happy with the relationship.
Also, since we brought up that experience/convo with Rachel, there's something else I want to talk about. It's a lot less 'subjective.'
Percy's POV from TLO: "She [Rachel] was so much easier to be around than some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said, or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking."
I don't think we talk about this enough?? Like it's so telling about the nature of Percy/Annabeth's relationship. When they got together, Annabeth said, "I will never ever make things easy for you." And it's probably some of the truest things she's ever said.
In TTC instead of communicating with Percy and asking him to dance with her, she punches him. And a lot of people call Percy obvious in that situation, but they had just agreed to split up from Thalia and Grover. It's reasonable for him to be thinking that he would further split up from Annabeth to cover more ground and get closer to the demigods they were watching, instead of dancing together.
In HoH while they were in Tartarus, Annabeth intentionally brings up Rachel, and (from her POV) says that she likes to keep Percy, "on his toes." - House of Hades.
Meaning she likes to keep him on edge, guessing at what she's thinking and wondering if he's doing wrong etc. They're in the middle of Tartarus - you'd think that she'd give him a break there context considering but no. She adds to the mental toll he's going through after being kidnapped by Hera, brainwashed and being separated from his friends/family in close to a year on top of being in Tartarus and fighting a war where the existence of everything he loves hangs in the balance.
Idk if I'd classify this as abusive, but its definitely a massive red flag. You do not want to be in a relationship with someone who takes pleasure in giving you anxiety and 'on your toes.' That's definitely unhealthy.
This isn't the case. There are multiple instances of Percy fearing Annabeth outside of active battle from his narrative.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Annabeth interrupted, shoving aside the other campers. I thought she was going to punch me." - Battle of the Labyrinth. Context: Annabeth was very upset/worried about Percy, and he assumed abuse from Annabeth.
“Shut up, Silena. Hand me your dagger.” / I was afraid Annabeth was going to stab me with it. - Bronze Dragon. Context: Percy complimented another girl in front of Annabeth, and then assumed abuse from Annabeth.
He repeatedly expects to be hurt by her - in absurd situations! Like its not reasonable to hurt a friend/significant other in these contexts!! That's a strong red flag, and an indication of an abusive relationship. You have to ask yourself why does he think this way? Why does he think Annabeth's going to hurt him? Has she done that before?
Yes, she has. She has stuck him many times in situations where she has no right to do so:
"Um, who should I ask?" / She punched me in the gut. "Me, Seaweed Brain." - Titan's Curse. Context: Percy doesn't read her mind and doesn't know what she wants, so she hits him before telling him to dance with her.
"Annabeth alternately shouted, gagged, hit me, called me names like “Idiot! Stupid—dirty—moron—” and topped it all off with “Kill you!" - Staff of Hermes. Context: Percy saved himself and Annabeth from being killed, by travelling up sewer water. Annabeth gets livid and hits him multiple times.
"Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement [...] Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat." - Mark of Athena. Context: similar to botl case above, Annabeth was extremely worried about Percy and takes her emotions, her bitterness out on him physically.
"'You did an awesome job.' [Jason, to Percy]. / 'Back at you,' Percy said. / Annabeth kicked his shin." - Mark of Athena. Context: Annabeth kicks Percy while he's bonding with Jason to tell Percy to shut up so they can talk about the great prophecy.
None of those situations warrant striking Percy, but it does prove why Percy fears Annabeth. His fears aren't unfounded - they're built upon actual things Annabeth has done to him.
And if that's still not enough evidence for you, Annabeth has a tendency to place Percy in danger by using him as bait without letting him know the plan, literally shoving him head first into danger, etc.
The lightning thief, Annabeth uses Percy as bait to distract Clarisse + Ares warriors so Luke can get the flag. She doesn't tell Percy that he's being set up, nor does she give him any back up - which you'd think would be important considering that Percy had no experience holding a sword and shield. Reminder: Percy got electrocuted. He thought he would die.
Chalice of the gods, Annabeth shoves Percy off a cliff without warning. Percy gets his ass kicked by the river god, getting a bleeding head wound. (Do I need to remind you how bad head wounds are?) Meanwhile Annabeth sits on the side in safety tapping her wrist impatiently.
I elaborate about it more here. Yeah, I can see why he's scared of her. She puts him in danger with her plans without communicating anything to him. And he gets hurt.
And if that's still not enough, Annabeth has literally said, "I only attack my boyfriend like that." (Edit: - Mark of Athena). Can't remember where its from because it's from a short story someone quoted on tumblr to make an argument. You only attack your boyfriend? Domestic violence right there. Or a really shitty joke that's not really a joke because its a habit that she follows through with repeatedly.
So yeah. Even if you ignore the last point because I don't have the source, there is overwhelming evidence that Annabeth is abusive and Percy canonically fears her. This is not healthy relationship, and the flaws are not acceptable minor grievances you can dismiss by saying that they're just teens learning to be people.
The things Annabeth do are intentional. It starts in tlt, and she doesn't learn or grow out of it by cotg and beyond when she's an adult/ She doesn't have the reason/excuse of being a child anymore. The relationship is toxic and they shouldn't be together.
