So many of Percabeth’s scenes feel so much like foreshadowing for a realization from Percy that he’s in an abusive relationship that it’s honestly really insane to me that it wasn’t intentional at all.
“[Rachel] was so much easier to be around … I didn’t have to watch what I said, or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking.”
“She knew I’d been hanging out with Rachel, and I felt guilty. Then I felt angry that I felt guilty. I was allowed to have friends outside camp, right?”
“Annabeth didn’t mind making Percy a little uneasy. You had to keep your boyfriend on his toes.”
“For the record, I have my own healthy fear of Annabeth.”
This is just a couple that I could quickly find direct quotes of but there’s so many more.
If Rick was as good of a writer as his stans pretend he is, then he’d realize there’s only one logical conclusion for Percabeth’s relationship. A break up because of Annabeth’s toxic and abusive— yes, abusive— behavior.
If the scenes where Annabeth is toxic, controlling, hateful and abusive were treated as what they were, it could’ve been so amazing. A kid’s story showing how abusers aren’t always men? Showing how things often romanticized in media are actually unhealthy and abusive?
A story that goes ‘Hey, these behaviors are unacceptable!’ A story that shows kids a very common example of an abusive relationship and tells them ‘You deserve better than this.’ Kids need that. They don’t need yet another story where toxicity and abuse are romanticized and portrayed as the peak of romance, where it’s portrayed as the relationship end-goal to work for.
I don’t know if you’ve posted it or not yet, but additions are totally fine! I don’t mind at all! @chaoticcerise
