Percy Jackson Character Analysis - Blog Posts

A big part of the fandom doesn't deserve to have Percy as a protagonist because of how they treat him and mischaracterize them to make their own favorite characters "better", more sympathetic or more tragic. Can they stop blaming Percy for Bianca's death? No offense to her stans but what was Percy to do when SHE was the one who stole from a fucking junkyard where they were specifically warned not to touch/take anything? Plus isn't she the one who basically abandoned her brother and joined the Huntresses? Can they stop acting as if Percy is stupid when he is actually better at coming up with strategies where no one gets hurts or killed *cough*unlike a certain blonde*cough*? Can they stop excusing Annabeth for being such a shitty person to Percy and anyone interested in him romantically or platonically? Can they fucking understand that her "cute nickname" to her boyfriend "Seaweed brain" is actually an insult and not a cutesy little token of love? Can they understand that judo flipping him, punching/hitting/etc him and liking to make him anxious is what typical toxic and abusive partners do? I don't care that she was abused and neglected as a child, having been abused is an explanation never an excuse. Percy was also abused by his stepdad and yet he doesn't act like her. Also another thing (and this one might be heavily controversial but) Sally Jackson is a loving mom, she tried her best for her kid but she is not a good mom, she was selfish in her love and got herself and her kid stuck with an abusive bastard for years despite the fact that she had safer options. At this point I feel like we didn't even read the same books or that these people didn't even read the series they just watch youtube and tiktok videos that are mostly filled with misinformation and headcanons.

I know I am extremely late in my response but hopefully not 'late to your own funeral' level of late. It was partly due to health problems and back to back exams I had and partly due to my procrastination habits. Which is why now that I am considerably free, I am trying to answer all the asks in my inbox.

I absolutely agree with most of the things you have said. I myself am extremely tired of repeating the same things over and over again to the fandom but I am under no delusions that any posts debunking biased takes, character assassination headcanons and absolutely baseless assumptions will actually stop anything or even change anyone's opinions.

These posts are just for people with similar mindset to interact with something that finally meets with their pov and aren't led to feeling isolated in the fandom due to monopoly canon ships and other such topics have in fandom posts. Sort of to create a safe space cause I myself was spared of the worst of the fandom's wrath due to there already being an established anti percabeth community, small but reliable and supportive. I even had to the fortune of never receiving a single death threat, at least in this fandom, and I want to make sure that any new mutuals I have get the same experience.

For the whole Percy being blamed for no absolute reason and for completely made-up reasons for the Nico-Bianca situation, I have already made a post here.

Percy being more strategic than Annabeth was something I have stated in multiple posts but mostly here. And Rick himself did give us proof, too, both about Percy getting better grades than Annabeth and how Seaweed brain is, in fact, an insult.

I really believe that Percy and Annabeth's lack of nuanced emotional interactions, contrasting goals, and really conflicting fatal flaws all make up for a doomed relationship scenario. Percy finds himself unable to share about any of his trauma with Annabeth, and he also seems very insecure about their relationship and believes he can't live up to Annabeth's expectations or is being a bad boyfriend. Annabeth doesn't seem to be able to pick up on any of this, and without proper conversation, they are both chafing. Not to mention, Annabeth's toxic habits are not something Percy will ever address, and eventually, they will both just end up resenting each other. I had an idea about Percabeth break up and why and how it would occur, and I have posted about it here, and that's all I really want to say on that matter.

As for the Sally Jackson bit, I am actually planning on a Sally centric post. I have read so many takes on her and Percy's relationship and I am in the process of making it. Will definitely tag you in that.

Though what I will say is that, while Sally's love for Percy was very selfish, I think it was realistically rooted in her own trauma, the two way abandonment issues between both her and Percy and a mother's desperation.

Because for all the trauma Percy suffered under Gabe, you have to remember Sally suffered twice as much. She sent Percy off to boarding schools to spare him most of Gabe's influence while she suffered both physical and mental abuse throughout the six years she was with Gabe. The fact that Sally was willing put herself and Percy through the trauma of Gabe's abuse should highlight just how desperate she was to keep Percy with herself. And how despite all of Gabe's abuse he would face at home if he stayed, Percy resented Sally for sending him away to boarding school.

There's such an intricate codependency and deep-rooted trauma, maybe even generational trauma there. I really want to explore all of that cause I think Sally had very simple motivations and put herself and Percy through such complex methods to try and achieve those motivations permanently.

So yeah, there will be a post on that soon. I will tag you in that one, and there's another one I have to get to just before that. It's a Frank and Percy centric post, and I really loved that idea and I think I have most of my thoughts ready for both these posts. So expect them by the end of the week for sure.

Let's look at this rationally. I will be considering feats, raw power, abilities and their versatility, variable experiences, training environment, and last but not least Percy’s realistic motivations for gaining more and more power while Jason's powers stifling due to a stagnant environment, all based on the amount of information provided to us.

(I am not considering the fight op is talking about, because they were both being controlled by eidolons and the fight was prematurely interrupted and contrary to op's opinion Jason was also very biased to himself after the fight and if we are considering unreliable narrators, Piper whose pov we have for this fight is infatuated with Jason and that also counts as grounds for unreliable narration)

Percy has got Jason beat in feats before they even met, and especially after they met. Cue Tartarus. As for Jason, we know very little about the things he did and what other feats he has. We really don't have much to go off of regarding Jason's expertise in either hand to hand or power based combat but I assume everyone is leaning towards Jason in terms of hand to hand because he referenced that he fought Krios with his bare hands. Percy had wrestled with Geras, the very personification of old age who is impossible to overpower and managed to hold his own.

So the hand to hand combat is a maybe. But Jason isn't a solo fighter. Percy is, and also Percy's way better at thinking on his feet. Percy has had a very non-linear approach of learning about the demigod world and his own powers, almost all through practical experience with little traditional training. Which make his mindset towards battle superior to Jason's as Percy has no preconceived notions about domains and their limits and can actualize most things he visualizes while Jason is a bit hindered by Camp Jupiter's approach towards training for the betterment of the legion, more so than honing individual capabilities. This makes Percy terrible at teamwork and synchronized fighting as his experience lies mostly in going solo in combat while Jason is much better at the former than him.

We have also seen that Greek demigods have more volatile powers than Romans do; Thalia, Nico and Percy all show a strong innate raw power as compared to the Roman aspects as evidenced by the Gods themselves saying that their Roman aspects are much more restrained and disciplined while their Greek aspects are more wild and primal. Another canon evidence for this is how Greek demigods have such strong scents that monsters hunt them for childhood, leading to much lower life expectancy as compared to Roman demigods.

Percy has probably the most volatile as well as versatile powers. He can heal himself something Jason can't do, something no other demigod can do. Most fictional magic systems almost always associate the water attribute to healing, so it is unlikely that Jason will be able to self heal, even after unlocking his full potential.

Not to mention, Percy's abilities might not be the best[Hades children have better abilities], but in terms of raw power, no one is close to Percy. Blowing up an entire volcano, lifting an entire river off its riverbed, holding the weight of the sky, jumping an impossible distance to get to the House of Night, causing hurricanes, storms, a tidal wave so great the God of War was smothered, summoning water by will, going toe to toe with Chardybis in her own domain, and then some.

And sure, Percy seems less experienced than Jason, but he has been in more life-death situations than Jason in such a small amount of time that he had to adapt far more. Then, he has the added experience from Tartarus. And even without it, Percy gets the edge cause in mere span of 5 years of being in the demigod world, Percy has killed almost every monster that walks, fought Titan, fought minor gods and even a god. Fought and won.

Even without sea, Percy has higher raw power, more versatile abilities, and has experimented more with his powers than Jason. The latter has not even honed the lightning aspect of his powers. He has killed multiple titans, fought Kronos to a standstill, fought giants singlehandedly, fought a protegeneoi, and won against it in her own domain. That scales Percy on a level that is unattainable by any current demigod in the verse. Not even a god to our knowledge of Riordanverse has bested that feat.

I love Jason as much as the next person, and I always consider Jason to be a stronger demigod than Nico, who is generally scaled after Percy. Cause of stamina reasons. Nico’s powers are beyond exceptional, but they have limited usage time while Jason has higher stamina reserves than Nico and is a better combatant than Nico. But you can't apply this metric to Percy. Percy disarmed Luke in their first fight with little knowledge of sword techniques. Luke, who was considered the best swordsman in the last 300 years. And Luke taught Percy after that, too.

I know everyone likes to cry plot armor over Percy's powers, but technically, it is his series. There would be no point to it if he didn't get stronger. That's literally the definition of a main character. And not to mention that every time Percy gets stronger, it's always due to a strong emotional, physical trauma, or an equally terrible price that is a result of a curse/blessing. Moreover, Percy has realistic motivations to try and grow stronger since he did all he could to survive since he was 12 and was basically thrown uninitiated as a bait to the strongest monsters and was repeatedly told his birth was a mistake so much so that gods voted on whether to keep him alive. Percy has to be strong in a world where everything is out to get him. The literal head and commander of the Titan Army was out to kill Percy since he was 12 and quite dedicatedly, and if that wasn't enough, he was wanted in multiple states for a false terrorism charge. And if you remember, he was rather ostracized at camp until after Titan's Curse.

Jason was the head of a legion, a praetor, revered by his comrades and already strongest among those he led or worked with. He had little exposure to any other extreme life death fatalities or any experience with being persecuted aside from the usual monsters and the legion training.

In conclusion, Percy beats Jason on land with a considerable margin; Percy beats Jason in the Underworld by an even bigger margin since Jason can't do much in the Underworld while Percy can control all the rivers of the Underworld and is used to the noxious environment present there. My apologies, but the near the sea comment made by op is practically delusional; Percy could literally sic any sea creature on Jason to take him out, doesn't even have to do it himself. Percy absolutely completely demolishes and disintegrates Jason near the sea.

Hot take. Jason is actually stronger and better at fighting than Percy. If they fought each other, Jason would win, even if they were at sea. Reading them fight together I'm now convinced. Percy making us believe otherwise is just him being an unreliable narrator