I don't know if anyone's said this before, but I'm 90 percent sure that if Rick had written only PJO, no sequels and no short stories, there wouldn't be many anti Percabeths.
Sure, they'd still point out weird moments like Percy 'getting used' to his nickname or Percy's internal monologue about him and Annabeth at the beginning of TLO, but in the end, barely anyone would criticise it.
There is basis for anti Percabeth people in PJO, but it's weak. Their main basis comes from HOO, the sides stories and the new trilogy.
Annabeth's gut punch isn't toxic or abusive per se, but in the larger context of their relationship, it's just another incident and showcase of her toxicity towards Percy.
I've seen this post before, and I wanted to argue against it.
Now, bear in mind that this is supposed to be a friendly debate and I don't want to offend you.
With that being said, let's look at the bullies that Percy's called out.
The teachers and students who bullied him at his old schools for his learning disabilities, Nancy Bobofit, Gabe, Dionysus, Tantalus, Ares, Hades (yeah he qualifies, he made Percy feel bad and Percy stood up to him. Go Percy, boss moment honestly) Clarisse, Matt Sloan and his gang.
These are people that Percy heavily dislikes (well, Clarisse is an exception, but at the time she bullied Percy, he heavily disliked her.) This makes it easier to call out their bullshit.
Annabeth is someone he likes. It's difficult to call out the bullshit of people that you like-very rarely can people can do this.
And we're forgetting that Percy's fatal flaw is loyalty. He's loyal to the people he loves and blind to their flaws, so he is the exact opposite of a person who'd be fair with both their friends and enemies.
Take Sally Jackson, for example. Sally herself admitted that she was selfish and kept Percy with an abuser so as not to be attacked by monsters instead of dropping him off at Camp where he would have been safer, especially with Poseidon's influence. Logically speaking, Percy should have resented her for this a little bit, right?
Now, for the morons who'll come to this conclusion, I am not saying that Sally Jackson is the devil incarnate. She was a struggling single mother stuck in between a rock and a hard place-there was no completely good option for her to choose here.
But she still chose to marry an abuser to keep Percy and herself safe. She knowingly married him knowing that he'd make Percy's life terrible and that Percy would be affected by this. This was definitely not a good choice on her part and it doesn't make her a good person (though she still is a good person, just not as good as one would make her out to be).
But Percy doesn't even think about this-he just idolises her (understandable, considering the circumstances, but still) and he never thinks about the situation from this point of view.
And Grover in Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Percy calls him out, but Percy later feels guilty for the stupid reason of Grover thinking he's going to be lonely when they (Percy and Annabeth) go to college, which is why Grover almost ruined the quest. Percy literally says that he should have been thinking about what Grover felt (Grover, who is responsible for his own self, Percy is not responsible for Grover) instead of, you know, thinking about himself and his future.
This is complete malarkey. It's a terrible reason for Grover's terrible actions. And what does Percy do?
He shoves it down, takes the blame, forces himself to be calm even though he should rage. This is another example of Percy not wanting to call someone's bullshit out because they're a loved one.
And Percy loves Annabeth. She's his friend, she went on his first quest with him, she's saved his life and she has a lion's share in his view of the mythological world since she was pretty much the first demigod that he really knew (discounting Luke who left after the first book).
All of this makes it pretty difficult for him to call out her bullshit-especially when she hates being called out on her bullshit, which she does.
Of course, he called out her bullshit during TLT and SOM regarding himself and Tyson respectively, but this is when they're not really friends. In the later books, where they're better friends and he likes her more, he doesn't do it.
And also, Percy has called Annabeth out on her bullshit, but she doesn't listen to him, so he becomes resigned to it.
Her calling him Seaweed Brain? He says that he's gotten used to it in TTC, meaning that he didn't like it but she didn't stop, so he just became used to it.
He says in TLO that he wanted to argue with Annabeth regarding his cabin inspection marks, but no good would come of it, so he just resigned himself to his marks.
He says that he wouldn't argue with her because she would beat him up.
Annabeth yells at Percy and blames him for leaving even though they both know that he was kidnapped. Does he call her out on this, tell her that she was wrong? No.
Annabeth makes Percy feel scared every time she brings up Rachel. This makes Percy feel bad and he does not call her out on it.
All of these are examples of Annabeth not listening to him and bulldozing her way over his protests, so he becomes resigned to it.
That's a common abusive tactic that I've experienced myself-don't listen to the victim and bulldoze your way over them until they become silent and resigned.
Now, I don't want to go so far as to call Annabeth abusive, but she is definitely pretty toxic towards Percy at times. I know that she loves him, I'm not denying that, but you can love someone and be toxic towards them.
Again, I don't want to be disrespectful and I respect your opinions. I'm just providing valid arguments as to why I think your statement was wrong.
when you say that percy is stuck in an abusive relationship with annabeth, you are not only insulting annabeth, you are erasing one of percy's best character strengths: how he is NOT afraid to call out people's nonsense and stand up against bullies no matter how bad or insecure they make him feel
You know, in Percabeth, Annabeth is usually the one harming Percy, but there are two interesting moments where the tables are turned.
Let me explain
When Percy tells Annabeth that her mortal parents aren't so bad in TTC on the flight home and that she should stay in touch with them.
Percy.........what? Rick...........WHAT?
I..........I can't say how horribly written this was.
Annabeth was a child. Her stepmother signed up to raise her when she married Frederick. She literally had night terrors which isn't uncommon in children-
And what did her stepmother do? Did she stay and try to comfort her? Did she take Annabeth to her room so that Annabeth wouldn't be alone? Did she check the room for spiders?
No. No, she did none of this. She just told Annabeth that it was a figment of her imagination and told her to stop scaring her baby brothers.
That's not what you do to a scared child. Her stepmother fucked up with that one. Her stepmother was bad for that.
Mrs Chase also called Annabeth a big girl when she was seven.
SEVEN years old is NOT a big girl. Mrs Chase knowingly did what I listed above and that makes her a terrible person. She's not entirely bad, but she's pretty morally black when it comes to Annabeth.
And Frederick is also horrible. He neglected Annabeth and let Mrs Chase not call him home for his daughter when she needed him. Granted, he was working, but he couldn't have called Annabeth and tried to comfort her?
Percy shouldn't have said that and Rick shouldn't have written that. End of discussion, period.
2. Now, here, Percy isn't even there in the scene and he's not trying to actively harm Annabeth, but I still wanted to include it because I do think that it was still harmful in a way.
'Annabeth shook her head. Percy would hate her getting so philosophical.'
I don't remember which book this is from-I think it's from the Mark of Athena.
Annabeth doesn't want to get philosophical because Percy hates it?
All right, there are certain habits that you might have to change because your partner doesn't like it. Smoking, drinking, watching porn, all harmful activities.
But getting philosophical? There's nothing wrong that. And if Percy doesn't like it, well, that's just too bad. There's nothing wrong with a little compromise there.
Annabeth is allowed to have her own thoughts without her thinking about how Percy would like them. Annabeth doesn't always have to get philosophical with Percy-she can do it on her own or with her other friends. This applies to relationships in general.
It's frustrating to see how Percy and Annabeth always cater to each other first and never even think about their own selves or relationships outside of each other.
I ultimately blame Rick Riordan for making them obsessed with each other.
I was reading Percy Jackson Greek Heroes and I found another concerning Percabeth moment-
Percy says that when he doesn't like what Annabeth likes, she goes all 'man-hazan' (meaning warrior like) on him.
Meaning that she yells at him and is violent when he doesn't like what she likes..........
That's uncalled for. You don't have to like everything that your partner likes. And if they get angry at you for not liking what they like, then that's concerning and you need to talk to them about it.