Got A Completely New Perspective On Percabeth After Reading This Holy Shit

got a completely new perspective on percabeth after reading this holy shit

Just curious, what is it about Percy/Annabeth that you don’t like (other than the stans)?

I'll happily explain! Just a quick disclaimer that it was a while ago I last read the books.

The entire thing was kinda surprising, cause on paper, percabeth should've been the perfect ship for me. They've got this enemies/rivals to lovers, bickering married couple vibes, unique nicknames etc. I love these tropes, hell, I’ve written them myself, but in percabeth's case I just don't think they're done very well.

To fully explain, I first wanna bring up an example of these things being done right, and why. The first one that comes to mind is Dan and Blair from Gossip Girl. They are also an enemies to friends to lovers ship, with this bickering married couple energy, and they're one of my favourite ships of all time. Their bickering is pretty similar to percabeth's (in the sense that it's mostly Blair saying mean things to Dan), but the key difference is that her insults (at least during their friends and lovers stages) are never coming from a malicious place and Dan's feelings are never hurt by her comments. He recognizes that this is just how Blair expresses her affection for him, and it's even something he enjoys about her. Every time she cleverly insults him he laughs/smiles and looks at her like she's the best thing in the world.

[Id: Two gifs of Dan and Blair. First gif has Blair saying, “There is no up-and-comers section. And even if there were, I mean, let’s face it Humphrey – you still wouldn’t make the cut.” And Dan smiling/laughing like she’s the best thing since sliced bread. Second gif has Blair saying “I care about you too, even if I have odd ways of showing it. Like bossing you around or making fun of your hair. Seriously, you should cut it.” And Dan, once again, smiling/laughing with the most lovey-dovey look on his face. / end id]

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But in Annabeth’s case, insulting Percy isn’t how she shows her affection. She lashes out at him due to her repressed trauma, and Percy does not like that she does this. Annabeth resents people assuming that she’s dumb because she’s blonde, but she continually calls Percy stupid. She’s generally terrible at communicating how she feels and what she needs and then gets mad at him when he doesn’t respond exactly how she wants. I think the worst example of this is in the beginning of The Titan’s Curse when she punches him in the stomach for not asking her to dance with him. 

[Id: Excerpt from The Titan’s Curse:  “Dance, you guys!” Thalia ordered. “You look stupid just standing there.” I looked nervously at Annabeth, then at the groups of girls who were roaming the gym. “Well?” Annabeth said. “Um, who should I ask?” She punched me in the gut. “Me, Seaweed Brain.” “Oh. Oh, right.” / end id]

Unlike the judo-flip, I’ve never even seen this moment discussed before, and it’s so annoying, cause I just know that if the genders were switched people would be horrified by it. 

The same issue comes up with the nicknames. Wise Girl is clearly complimentary while Seaweed Brain is derogatory. Now, what I expected when I read PJO was that Seaweed Brain would eventually turn affectionate, sort of like an inside joke, which again, is a trope I LOVE. And that kinda happens, but only after they start dating. I initially thought it had done so at the end of Lightning Thief when they became real friends, but then this happened in TTC:

[Id: Excerpt from The Titan’s Curse:  But Thalia held out her spear. “You want some, Seaweed Brain?” Somehow, it was okay when Annabeth called me that—at least, I’d gotten used to it—but hearing it from Thalia was not cool. / end id]

This really shocked me when I read it. Cause this clearly shows that Percy still doesn’t like when Annabeth calls him that, he just doesn’t respond with anger anymore because he’s “gotten used to it”, which is... not good. 

Annabeth also never steps in with reassurance that she actually knows that Percy is smart. For all we know she actually believes that he's an idiot (which he definitely isn't!). That's definitely how she makes Percy feel.

There’s also the case of Annabeth’s extreme jealousy. Like, the way she treats Rachel... I’m pretty sure most percabeth shippers even agree that she’s being completely unfair. (Edit: No, they don't, it seems. God I hate this fandom). @fake-plastic-trees made a meme that explains how hypocritical her behaviour concerning Rachel is way better than I ever could, so here’s that: 

[Id: Picture of a meme. First a picture of an anthropomorphic flower screaming in anger, paired with the caption, “How Annabeth reacts when Percy is with Rachel”. Second picture is of the same flower with a sweet/happy look on it’s face, paired with the caption “How Annabeth expects Percy to react when she simps over Luke”. / end id]

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This is the situation where I have the most sympathy with Annabeth, though. At least in the Calypso situation. Like having your best friend that you have feelings for go missing for so long that there’s pretty much no way he’s not dead, only for him to show up on his funeral and you find out that he was sent to an island where another girl took care of and fell in love with him and he most likely had feelings for her too, yeah that must suck. Especially with her abandonment issues. Still, doesn’t make her actions okay. 

And the way I see some percabeth stans talking about this is honestly disgusting. Slut shaming Percy like crazy, calling him a hoe (he was literally 14 while this happened) and being mad at him for "stepping out of line". Annabeth clearly believes she has some sort of claim on Percy and her stans have been convinced of that, too.

All of this is what, partially, makes perachel so appealing. They’re a breath of fresh air, because Rachel is the exact opposite. She’s straight forward with Percy. When he doesn’t make a move on her, instead of punching him or calling him a coward, she just makes a move. Which is, you know, the reasonable and healthy thing to do. Percy himself even expresses that he appreciates this about her. 

[Id: Excerpt from The Last Olympian:  She nodded. “And so ... hypothetically, if these two people liked each other, what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl, huh?” “Oh ...” I felt like one of Apollo’s sacred cows—slow, dumb, and bright red. “Um ...” I can’t pretend I hadn’t thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than ... well, 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. Rachel didn’t hide much. She let you know how she felt. / end id]

It's pretty clear that "some other girls I knew" is just Annabeth.

Finally, I just wanna say that I would be fine with all of this if Annabeth actually had a character arc where she realizes how she was acting was not okay, apologizes, and makes an effort to change and work through her trauma so she wouldn’t lash out on people anymore. Characters are allowed to have flaws, it’s encouraged actually! But those flaws, at least the ones that have a large negative affect on others, need to actually be acknowledged. And if you want the character to be framed like a hero, they need to take steps to change. But that is not what happens with Annabeth, so I’m not okay with it. 

really hope you had the energy to read through all of that