hey why are some authors so okay with writing romance as literally girl insults and is objectively incredibly mean to boy while boy laughs it off and for some reason is incredibly attached to mean girl
this isnt even them 'rushing it' or whatever, its taking them off even playing levels. i cant think of a single time percy was in severe danger and annabeth got to save him or help him or was protective of him, when shes shown to do just that in the books, while (show) percy over here is losing his mind anytime annabeth is offscreen, completely going insane when she was about to die (fair but with the other examples a bit mmmm.) and being generally protective of her, moreso than he is anyone else in his life, when he would do the same for anyone, yet the show doesnt treat it like that.
the show is making percy a golden retriever booktok 'bad boy' yearning boyfriend or whatever and giving him chances to save or protect annabeth, leaving him as. i dont wanna say this but i cant find a better word, but theyre making him the 'dominant' one in the relationship- when the most fantastic thing about them was that theyre equals
but instead no, we have percy whos almost never in severe danger leaving annabeth no way to save/protect him the way he does for her, and percy who's fallen head over heels for annabeth and would sacrifice camp, his friends and his family for her.
in the books, theyre on equal levels in every way, they match each other perfectly and they both save and protect each other the same. making percy only help annabeth gets rid if that even footing and also shows annabeth in a weaker light, that she cant protect or save herself. theyre uplifting percy by pushing down annabeth. also, percy didnt even fucking like annabeth romantically until later! wanna know who did fall in love first? annabeth. shes the one whos head over heels for him.
theres also 1. why is it just annabeth being in constant danger? ‘percy would do the same for anyone else!’ then show it. show me that. because right now i wouldnt know that and think that he only cares about annabeth this much. show me percy losing his cool over someone else he cares about getting hurt or it doesnt exist. 2. percy would not sacrifice camp for a friend. he would not sacrifice the other people he cares about for a friend. if he could leave his mother with hades to end a war, then im sure he could act rationally when annabeth was in danger.
one of my favorite things about pjo is that it wasnt romance centric. there were romance plots, but they were never right in our face, they were never the focus of the story, they were background points that existed in the back if the main plot. but in the show, percabeth is right in our faces. theyre making it a plot point, when it was never meant to be anything more than a side plot at most. this is a similar issue i had with hoo as a whole, friends cant just be friends. moments with friends like grover or tyson are pushed to the side to further his relationship with annabeth, when both relationship developments should be able to occupy the same space without crowding. i feel like this is also a total runtime issue, theres 8 episodes per season. 16 episodes in total, there isnt enough time to develop all the relationships that need to be developed, which leaves them feeling hollow. percabeth included.
Percy: Grover never makes fun of me. Nico sometimes makes fun of me, but he does it in a way that's funny for both of us. Rachel never makes fun of me - actually she does the opposite and just being around her eases my stress and anxiety.
Annabeth: Maybe you should go date one of them!
Percy: Is that what you got from that? I'm asking you - my girlfriend - to stop making fun of me!
Annabeth: Too bad, seaweed brain. When we got together I told you that I'd never make anything easy for you and I intend on carrying through with that.
Relationship Analysis: Percabeth is Romanticized Toxicity
Believe me, I know I'm walking into the middle of a firing squad here. But you know something? I don't give a tinker's curse about the hornet's nest I'm about to disturb. I'm tired of men being abused in ships that are glorified by the fandom, and as such I could care less about who gets upset by the truth.
Anti Annabeth Chase/Percabeth people are welcome, but those who adore the ground she walks on are obligated to leave, posthaste.
Now, without further meandering, let's tear down this abusive relationship.
Annabeth: A Self-Righteous Narcissist
As can be told by any of a number of PJO fans, Annabeth Chase suffered depression from the belief that her parents hated her, was tormented by spiders once as a child, and ran away and fought monsters so that she could be free of her home life at age seven. While that last is inane considering how tiny and fragile she was at the time, it's these actions that led her running into the arms of Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace, who formed a pseudo family with her until they came to Camp Half-Blood, where Annabeth's woe filled story was capped off with Thalia getting turned into a tree for her own protection and then numerous strained exchanges with her father before Luke's later fall from grace.
Naturally, this is traumatizing. I would not mind such a backstory for Annabeth if she didn't throw it around as an excuse to abuse the people (effectively her own family, too) around her twenty-four/seven, and Percy Jackson in particular.
Annabeth consistently turns her nose up at Percy, throws his Poseidon heritage against him as an insult simply because their divine parents hate each other, demeans his intelligence in the exact opposite way his stepfather Gabe does, and physically assaults him from the age of twelve until they are sixteen....all while expecting Percy to know that she's in love with him.
Remind me again, how is physical, mental, and verbal abuse supposed to be clues that a girl loves a guy?
I don't care how traumatized Annabeth is. I don't care how drop-dead gorgeous she is. I don't care how much backside she can kick. This is unacceptable behavior.
From the start of their friendship, Annabeth props herself up as the brains and insists that Percy would be dead without her. This is ignoring the fact that she nearly died because of her hubris of improving a building's design in Sea of Monsters, where he literally had to drag her out of the water lest she drown. And speaking of, she also never cared about Percy's feelings. Keep in mind, she took the opportunity throughout the entire book to be racist towards his innocent little brother because he was a cyclops when it was clear that he wasn't like the others of his kind, which is then made worse by her taking the chance his "death" in the novel provided her with to play victim and say "look I get you liked your bro, but I knew so many bad ones that I had to kill, it's a miracle he wasn't anything like that."
Can that talk, you viper of a female. Percy's little brother just died in front of him. He needs comfort and sympathy, not your personal saga of a sob story.
Not once does Annabeth apologize for this moment, or even for her repeated assaults on him. It is an established fact in-universe that Percy is afraid of getting hit by her, which happens all the time even when he tries being careful with what he say to her. Furthermore, Annabeth isn't even pleased with his attempts when they start dating. When he sets up a picnic out in the field with pizza and sandwiches as the meal, Annabeth complains that she was "hoping for a bit more" than something so simplistic. Woman, I'd swoon if a man offered to take me on a date like that, and love it if he took me to the lake shore. Why is something as sweet and normal as that unsatisfactory? Because it's something mortals would do, and you hate mortals as much as you do monsters?
And she never improves.
Annabeth reacts violently to Percy leaving her sight twice in the franchise: the first time when she thinks he's died, the second time as part of Hera's second prophecy thing in Heroes of Olympus. And unsurprisingly, she reacts to his return with violence. She screams at him the first time, judo flips and pins his throat the second time, and both times threatens him into never doing that again when he was forcibly taken from the Camp. Then in the second arc, she torments him by making him nervous by bringing up Rachel, the one woman who posed a threat to her place as number one girl in Percy's heart, and essentially treated him as a monster for utilizing a heretofore unknown poison power he had that Percy had used to save her life.
Saying that it's her nerves, her upbringing as a child soldier, her trauma, or all of the above is a flat out excuse for abusive behavior. If a man did to a woman half the things Annabeth did to Percy, he'd be thrown in the deepest cell where he'd never see the light of day again, and rightly so.
The fact that everyone, in and out of universe, laughs and fawns all over her abuse of Percy in this relationship is borderline sadistic. It is not cute, it is not endearing, and it is not healthy.
You know why? I'll tell you why.
Percy: A Loyal Abuse Victim
Percy is a known victim of Gabe's abuse, same as Sally. Unlike Annabeth though, he doesn't use it as an excuse to behave badly. Rather, he remains kind to his mother, dutiful in whatever he can do at school or at home for her, and no matter what, is loyal to the end.
It's for these reasons that he's unable to break away from Annabeth.
Despite her treatment of him, of his family, and of Rachel, Percy's greatest strength, loyalty, is also his greatest weakness. Because of this trait and his background, it both tragically makes sense that he stays with Annabeth and horrifying that he cannot see her abuse for what it is.
Having known her so long and been so abused, Percy is unable to see her treatment of him as anything beyond something he earned simply because he's "too dumb to know better". Gabe always made fun of his intellect, which Annabeth herself does, but worse by telling him how stupid he is. She belittles his intelligence, which is actually incredibly high for a child such as him, and Percy, having had his self-image destroyed by his stepfather and peers both in the mortal world and at Half-Blood, accepts this because he truly thinks he can't know any better. This in and of itself is a weakness of his that doesn't excuse him from taking her abuse lying down, but it sure as heck explains why he can't see it for what it is. Additionally, remember that Annabeth erupted at him for being "too stupid to see that she loved him" (and who also forced herself onto him)? That alone will solidify to Percy that nothing he does will ever be smart enough without her, and that anything that comes across as abuse must be wrong if he "couldn't" see that Annabeth was in love with him.
None of this is healthy. Percy needs a woman who won't treat him like dirt after all he's been through, who won't pick on him because she's oh-so-much-better than him at everything, who won't put him down when he needs to be lifted up, and who won't override his needs simply because she's "been through so much worse than he could ever imagine".
He needs a woman who will take his understandable panic attacks in stride, who won't belittle his intelligence, who will freely admit she's not as good as him at some things, and who can swallow her pride to help him with his struggles rather than be consistently petty with him and propping herself up.
In short, he needs Rachel because she never once treated him horribly, and did all of the above as opposed to bash and treat him like a pet the way Annabeth did.
There's not much to conclude this post with. I've covered the major bases, though there may be others I'm forgetting. That said, I meant what I said, and I won't back down. Despite my disinterest in PJO, Percy is a darling young boy any mother would be proud to call her son, and given how un-defended sons are these days, I'm taking it upon myself to step in until I can (hopefully) be blessed with boys of my own to similarly defend, as well as to remind the other men out there that no matter how beautiful, traumatized, or awesome a girl may be, she's not worth your love if she treats you like an object or pet to be owned.
This is gonna be an Anti-Percabeth/Annabeth rant so don't come at me if you continue reading.
Can't read HOO without Percabeth being shoved down my throat (at the point in life, I forgot everything in the books, hence why I need to reread them before starting CotG), like ffs, best Percy characterization in the series is SoN and it was TTC in PJO. Guess what they both have in common? Little to no Annabeth.
Honestly, maybe I should just shelf this entire series and give up? I don't understand why I saw Percabeth as the golden standard when I was younger? Have I really changed that much to the point that I hate Annabeth now when I used to like her? Like??? Who can stand this bitch irl? She's fictional and I roll my eyes whenever I see her name written on the page.
Don't even get me started on the Percabeth fandom. I'm reading a feel-good fic with Solangelo (because tsats does not exist for me, thanks) and these people just ask why there's no Percabeth??? This is a Solangelo fic??????
Supported/bought a zine and there's barely any art that has Percy in it with no Percabeth. Thought this was Percy Jackson and the Olympians? Does Percy have no character except for the fact that he's Annabeth's boyfriend? God, fucking hate this ship now, hate their fandom with how insistent some people are to smash our face with it too
THIS fucking close to just writing a character review on why I dislike Percabeth with my entire being and I am petty enough to do it in APA format. Just out of pure fucking spite.
Ah, that's a good one. The source post that is. Not op's take on it. Nothing against the op. They have some good Percy takes. I am not sure why anon didn't send this to @fate-of-the-envious themselves considering they would probably have a more apt reply for this as the source post is theirs. But I will do my best to break it down instead.
Before we begin, to those who have been sending me similar asks may have missed my recent post on going on a hiatus again soon. It would be beneficial for both me and the anons/followers to use the navigation bar on my blog page to search all the posts relevant to anti percabeth tag or any other tag you want. Because I assure you at least for anti percabeth whatever post you think you want made chances are I have already made it. I have made a lot of posts so a nav page is a bit hard to make, I am in process of making it but please until then utilize this method.
Now, the post (which I implore you to check it out first) is about the scene in Chalice of the Gods where Annabeth pushes Percy of a cliff. Op links that to the Judo flip scene and says neither is abuse and normal rules can't be applied to demigods like Percy and Annabeth but she does agree that it was an inappropriate reaction from Annabeth both times so at least that’s something. Let's deal with this one at a time.
Let's get the Judo flip out of the way. I don't know why everyone focuses on the wrong thing with the Judo flip. Annabeth was high on emotions and the Judo flip was definitely a terrible response considering she was also unaware of whether Percy still had his Achilles curse or not given that she flipped him on the small of his back where his mortal tether is. Even if she knew the curse was gone that is in no way a response of someone who has been intensely missing their boyfriend and was in great pain without the said boyfriend. But I am willing to ignore all of this even because funny enough that's not the most concerning thing about the Judo flip. The MOST CONCERNING part of the Judo flip is that Annabeth BLAMES Percy for getting KIDNAPPED and having his memories BRAINWASHED. That's where I draw the line.
Also if op wants to point out the actual terrible implications in Chalice of the Gods about percabeth, not only does Annabeth do all of the above, she MAKES PERCY APOLOGIZE for what was clearly assault against him as evidenced by Percy's conversation with Grover.
She is putting her own distress at him being missing ABOVE PERCY'S PAIN AND PERCY'S SITUATION. We don't get a single scene where Annabeth comforts or consoles Percy about everything that happened to him. Being dropped in the middle of no where, constantly hunted by creatures that kept resurrecting, being in enemy territory with no memory and a thousand other horrible traumatic situations that PERCY HAD TO FACE.
Okay now getting back to the scene in Cotg where Annabeth pushes Percy off the cliff.
First, the op goes on about how Percy was unhurt and fine, and he is powerful so he can heal himself and so on. Yes, obviously, yes, he's bloody Percy Jackson. But I think everyone's missing the point. Just looking at the start point and the end point isn't enough. What happened in between is just as important. Yes Percy can heal himself, yes he is the strongest demigod but he is also just a teenager who feels pain just as acutely as a human [mentioning this cause op says that we don't know if demigods feel pain the same way] and it's not just me. Percy himself mentions this.
It was obviously painful. He goes far enough to call it worst case of heartburn. Sure it healed right after but it was very painful.
And let's get to the worst part. Percy was quite literally having a very traumatic experience especially if it made him feel like his child self, scared and powerless.
So we have disproved the first point which stated that he was completely fine and it wasn't painful. Yes he healed, but he wasn't at all fine and it was definitely painful. My guy was having a breakdown from it. Which part of that seems okay?
Now the op says that Percy had priorly said yes to a suggestion to jump, let me emphasize jump. Annabeth pushed him off without warning but I am sure she thought it was fine, Percy was a bit irritated but he let it go. We will let this one pass. What however should have been Annabeth's response is that she should have checked on Percy, she should have been at least a bit guilty that Percy was going to have to do all the painful stuff. Because as op says the river god was going to attack anyway and Percy was the only one who could deal with that but there's no acceptance on Annabeth's side for the gravity of what's she made Percy do. Because she was right there watching him being thrown around and beaten up heavily while having a tea party with the river god [not her fault it was a good distraction] but all she did was tap on her watch and tell Percy to hurry up. No consideration for his pain or what he was going through, not during the situation nor after it. Now Annabeth out of everyone should be attuned to Percy's emotional state. Given the sheer scale of his out of control response she must have been able to tell it was not an okay experience. Percy pulled the entire river bed off and completely rearranged it. So that should have been a clue but not Annabeth, she calls it GOING OVERBOARD later on.
Also let's go back to the part where she pushes him off. Percy wants to take it slow. He says he does but nope Annabeth just straight up pushes him off. Op says it's Annabeth being sarcastic or funny but it's obviously not what Percy wanted to do in that moment.
And we all have seen Annabeth repeatedly getting physical with Percy, and it's completely one-sided to the point where Percy just has to tolerate and get used to her hitting him. There are various books where he says he was afraid she was going to hit him. Now the problem with that is Annabeth's medium for expressing rage is also her medium for having fun with him and that's not a healthy thing cause Percy obviously has bad experiences with physical abuse and latent trauma from it and he shouldn't have to get used to Annabeth's unhealthy ways of expressing herself at his own expense. Annabeth loves him, so she should do better because Percy has gone above and beyond for her every time. surely he deserves Annabeth being soft with him and surely a relationship should have healthy and positive emotional expression medium between them. Shouldn't Annabeth as a person deserve to be able to move on with some of her unhealthy coping mechanisms as a sign of recovery from her own trauma as well? For herself and for Percy? Between Annabeth teasing his intelligence and hitting him constantly, we see zero to none.
So yes it may not be outright abuse but it is heading towards it because at what point are we going to acknowledge Annabeth has a very bad way of expressing herself to Percy and it has consistently involved violence and or demeaning remarks? She literally punches him in the stomach in The Titan's Curse because Percy doesn't ask her to dance when she was the one who wanted him to do so while not giving him any hint and or idea that she wanted such a thing.
I know why everyone in Percabeth community gets defensive over the word abuse as they should because it's not a small thing but surely we can acknowledge that there's some disconnect between what Annabeth wants to convey and how she conveys it that stands contradictory to her orignal intention and also that she fails to see the harm in this?
Now we might have different takes on how a relationship goes but I firmly stand by my own. I have nothing against those who ship it but that does no mean those of us who do not ship it are doing so on baseless grounds.
Annabeth being reduced to the mom friend and have all her struggles erased in favor of the girl boss branding is sexist as hell but her treatment of Percy within their romantic relationship has always been shit but some of you still think hoo percabeth is the blueprint or whatever
The fact that it took some of you till wottg to realize that Annabeth does in fact laugh and join in on jokes made at her boyfriends expense or imply he’s stupid from time to time is actually laughable. We’ve been saying this stuff as early as the judo flip but it has to be this up in your face for you to actually see that’s crazy.
Percy: Whenever life throws lemons at me (and by life, I mean the gods), I do my best to roll with the punches. Dodge what I can, and divert the rest.
Percy: Mom and dad say that I'm smart, adaptable, and powerful? Which is probably one of the best compliments I've ever gotten.
Percy: Not that I get many compliments, haha.
Percy: Although sometimes Annabeth likes to blame me for the lemons that life throws at me.
Annabeth, angry in the distance: Percy, how dare you get yourself blown up on Mt. Helens, and then take two whole weeks to recuperate with Calypso, of all beings?! In the middle of my quest!?
Annabeth, getting closer but still angry: Percy, how dare you get kidnapped by Hera and get your memory stolen? If you ever do that to me again [redacted threats]
Percy, edging away: Annabeth is very fond of victim blaming me. It took me years of therapy to realize that the pain others feel when I'm hurt is not my fault, and even longer to stop feeling guilty about it.
Percy, preparing to flee: Anyways, when Annabeth is mad at me, there's a 50-50 chance that she just looks like she's going to hit or judo-flip me, or if she'll actually do it.
Percy, jumping on top of Mrs. O'Leary's back: Been there, endured that, 10/10 would not recommend repeating that experience again. On that note, I gotta run. Bye!
Percy and Mrs. O'Leary: *disappear into the nearest shadow*
Annabeth, arriving: Percy Jackson, stop hiding from me you coward!!
