(I think I deleted this ask on accident or its buried deep in my inbox sry)
I have to add a disclaimer that the siren scene might just be my favorite annabeth moment in the entire series, so I was already predisposed to be biased and unhappy with any changes made to it in the show regardless of the quality of those changes - but nonetheless even after watching it multiple times I'm just not a fan of it. my main opinion is that while the tv show's rendition of the siren scene isn't wholly bad on its own it's just worse than what happens in the books, and it's worse in a way that feels completely unnecessary and very avoidable from a screenwriting perspective. I think it's weaker because it either misunderstands or just doesn't care for what's valuable about the original scene, about what it does for percy and annabeth's relationship, and especially about what it does for and says about annabeth as a character
what I'm going to say next is going to be boring but it is necessary to understand the way in which the two siren scenes are constructed; cause, effect, and meaning are major contributors to what make the siren scene in the original book interesting and complicated, so let's just recap what causes the siren scene:
as percy says, it would be no problem for the two of them to survive the sirens. they already have candle wax. this scene occurs two-thirds into this book, meaning that percy and annabeth have already gone through immense danger, strife, and grief on this quest - and they're under high stakes time constraints (if they don't get the fleece, camp runs the risk of succumbing to monsters and other threats, such as the titan army), so having the option to completely avoid yet another life-threatening, time-wasting situation is the only logical choice here. annabeth proceeds to make a decision that is not only decidedly illogical, but also selfish and even overconfident: she wants to listen to the sirens, and she asks percy to help facilitate this
so what is the meaning of this: for one, it quietly shows the depth of trust annabeth has in percy and vise versa. if percy doesn't tie her up well, if he doesn't watch over annabeth while she listens to the sirens, if she escapes the binds and he doesn't save her, she will die, no questions asked. annabeth knows this is a life-or-death decision - an utterly needless one at that, yet she has confidence in percy to look out for her. similarly, percy enables her lol. there's not really a better word for it; he should have just said no, annabeth wasn't pressuring him or guilt tripping him at all into doing this for her, but he's choosing to oblige her request and trust her judgment. the two of them had been bickering a lot in this book (and they even tease each other in the precursor to this scene; percy jokes about letting her drown herself, annabeth pokes fun at how his wax earplugs are "a real fashion statement"). under these conditions having moments that showcase their sincerity towards each other are especially valuable, particularly in the aftermath of the siren scene that I'll be addressing later
secondly it emphasizes what annabeth's values are. she tells us exactly what her motivation is: she wants to become wiser. aside from my feeling that this is such a 13 year old way of thinking (lest we forget that these guys are little kids and little kids make bad decisions), this really lines up well with the way annabeth's character has been set up so far. annabeth tells us in tlt that she wants to leave camp and be a demigod and go on quests to prove her worth, but something she's also driven towards is the pursuit of knowledge even if it comes at a great cost to herself. annabeth wants to be challenged, she wants to take risks, she wants to grow as a daughter of athena and choosing to listen to what the sirens sing to her makes clear how recklessly ambitious she can be
but more importantly, having the siren scene occur in this way does one of my favorite things for a story to do - it positions annabeth as a character that does things, and not a character whom things happen to. by this I mean that annabeth is exerting influence over the events of this story. have you ever engaged with a story where it felt like it was largely about a bunch of things happening to a character, rather than being about a character actually doing interesting things? both story types can work in the hands of a competent author (and this is the fluidity of fiction; very few things are definitively bad and definitively good 100% of the time), but in this case the latter is highly conducive to adding complexity to annabeth as a character with agency in this story. none of what follows would have happened if not for annabeth
hence why within this choice there lies additional meaning: the pervasiveness of annabeth's hubris, the trait that her existence as a greek hero revolves around. but we'll come back to this after further giving context to the book siren scene
the effect is as follows: annabeth escapes the bindings while percy isn't watching her, swims towards the sirens, and percy chases her down in the water with his ears still plugged - causing him to see exactly what it is that annabeth wants most. she wants luke, she wants athena and her father back together, and she wants to be an architect that rebuilds the world. annabeth wants everyone she cares about most to come together in the beautiful new manhattan that she designed herself, and for them to love her and welcome her into their affectionate embrace
annabeth is devastated by what happens to her. annabeth, a character who is known for clinging desperately to difficult relationships (insisting that she can save luke, trying to make things with her dad work multiple times, trying to make her mom proud despite the permanent distance these god-demigod relationships always have, etc) was fooled into believing that everything and everyone she's ever wanted was so easily within reach. then she had it ripped away from her by force, had to find out that none of it was actually real and she almost died for nothing, and accept that she overestimated herself and underestimated the power of the sirens. she's 13 years old y'all
as an aside we also get great percabeth moments, such as percy caring for annabeth and being a really great friend to her, annabeth depending on him for comfort while she bawls her eyes out, and these extremely silly fish that help inject some refreshing lightheartedness into this very fraught, intense scene
there are a few other reasons why the siren scene is interesting for percy as a character too (percy makes an emotional bad choice and stops watching annabeth because her pleas are too much to bear - thus letting her escape while he's not looking, he sees his mom, grover, poseidon, and tyson in the sirens, he uses quick thinking and discovers his ability to use air bubbles underwater to help annabeth breathe, etc) but I'm far more interested in what this scene does for annabeth. we are locked into percy's perspective for this series, and percy's perspectives can be very limiting when you care to look at other characters. the siren scene is a rare moment for us to see annabeth, to literally observe her desires and her vulnerabilities from her own unique perspective; it's such an intense and raw experience that percy even feels guilty for having witnessed something so personal to annabeth without permission
and then what we get in the show is: the sirens aren't necessarily described as beings that sing truths about your deepest desires, they're described by circe as monsters that "peer into your soul to see your fatal flaw and then use that against you". percy and annabeth don't have enough candle wax for both of them to plug their ears. percy tells annabeth to take the wax, while he'll be tied to the ship mast. annabeth relents and accepts this. annabeth ties percy up, and right when she's about to plug up her ears, circe uses her magic to take the bottle of wax right out of her hands. this forces annabeth to have to listen to the sirens. while percy pleads for her to cut him loose, she insists that she can do it. her siren vision is percy, grover, and luke in what seems to be a dark underground sewer pathway (likely a reference to annabeth's time in the sewers with luke and thalia). percy and luke are beefing with each other while grover tries to mediate. annabeth takes her knife and stabs the illusions of them effortlessly - her expression is generally stoic and confident if not very briefly confused and suspicious
stabbing them shatters the illusion; annabeth sees the sirens for what they are, is startled, and falls backwards, scrambling to get away from them in terror. then athena jumps into the scene, attacks a siren, and rescues her. athena praises annabeth for setting a trap for the sirens and smiles at her. annabeth says, "I didn't know you were watching," to which athena replies, "I was always watching." athena reaches out her hand for annabeth, and annabeth tries to take it, only for percy to come in and rescue her, revealing that this vision of athena was yet another false siren illusion
when they return to the boat safely, annabeth appears somewhat shaken. she tells percy that, after beating so many impossible trials already on their quests, she thought that her mother would be proud of her and notice her (at least that's what she probably would have said; she didn't actually finish her sentence). annabeth acknowledges that this belief was her own hubris at work. percy contradicts her and says that it was only her being human, because it's normal for her to want her mom to notice her. annabeth asks percy what he saw when he heard the siren song, and he answers that all he saw was her. "if you weren't on those rocks, who knows what I would have seen. I think you shielded me. I think you saved me." he says. "if you stayed at camp, I'd be siren chow. you definitely saved me." she says. "maybe we both had to be here to get past them. like the one version of fate that doesn't suck." percy says. they both chuckle and smile at each other warmly and then they move on from this - percy points out that they've arrived at their destination
I could be more detailed about recapping and analyzing this but this post has gotten longer than intended already lol. I've rewatched the show's siren sequence like a million times at this point and I'd encourage anyone who's interested in comparing these book/show counterparts to rewatch and reread these texts themselves. you can (and should) form your own opinion on them, but based on everything I've said this far you should be able to start concluding why the show version is weaker than the original siren scene. if you like the show's version nonetheless I wouldn't blame you, there have been a lot of stupid to downright awful changes in this show and I wouldn't put the siren scene in either category. it's okay. I think the athena twist was clever in a vacuum, but that's the only thing about it that's somewhat impressive.
here are my main problems: annabeth's main point of hubris here, in the show, is no longer that she believes she could rebuild the world and make it better, it isn't that she believes she can save luke, it isn't that she thinks she can salvage athena and her father's relationship - it's that it was too prideful of her to believe that athena would notice her after all the good work she's done (or maybe it isn't, since percy tells her that there's nothing wrong with that and his assertion goes unchallenged. this show loves having percy parent annabeth on how to be human and experience her emotions. which I think is deeply, truly Awful but plenty of people have posted crit about that already so I won't add to it)
either way, this is disappointing to me because 1. in tlo, one of percy's main points of advocacy is that the gods should pay more attention to their kids. pjo is about breaking cycles of familial neglect, abuse, and violence. why would it be evidence of annabeth's hubris that she believed her mom would pay attention to her? 2. hence why we're probably intended to take percy's argument as the Correct and Virtuous Opinion. okay. so then where is annabeth's hubris?
this entire episode is even more heavyhanded about fatal flaws than the book was. in the original scene, annabeth admits that she underestimated the strength of the sirens; she would have known the legends of sailors succumbing to their songs better than anyone, and yet she still went out of her way to listen to them because she didn't think it would be that bad. she thought she could handle it. describing this point and explaining it in detail feels like I'm doing reading comprehension for babies but like this is incredibly uncomplicated: being overconfident and underestimating your adversaries is obvious hubris. we don't get to have this in the tv siren scene because annabeth didn't cause this situation herself.
this is why I emphasized earlier the difference between a character doing things and things happening to a character. complex, interesting characters make interesting choices informed by their own complexities. annabeth chose to listen to the sirens in the books because she coveted the wisdom they could offer to her. in the show, the siren situation merely happened to her and she reacted to it. again if you like the show version I think that's fine - but the show has truly gone out of its way to orchestrate a situation in which its heroine has no agency. circe took the wax away. book annabeth had the wax and she listened to the sirens anyway. why would it be better to write the scene in this way for any reason other than to scrub away at annabeth's edges and preserve her good traits while undermining her flaws? her fatal flaw?
this brings me to my second but less problematic gripe with the tv scene. I don't like the vision itself. in the original, the siren scene shows luke, athena, and her dad having a peaceful picnic in a new manhattan that annabeth has built herself. this is annabeth's perfect utopia. instead the show gives us a grungy scene where percy and luke are fighting while grover tries to stop it. they're also in a sewer; this scene bears zero reference to annabeth's care for her father or her architectural aspirations (which sucks majorly - especially since this is the one dream of her siren vision that actually gets fulfilled when she gets to rebuild olympus and makes amends with her dad and other mortal family members). the original siren scene shows annabeth things that she wants but doesn't have; the tv show shows her things she already has and probably doesn't even want: conflict between percy (grover) and luke. this was a vastly easier "challenge" for her to overcome in comparison. she doesn't like seeing percy and luke fight, of course it wouldn't be difficult to break out of this illusion; it's not an illusion of something she even likes, so there's nothing tempting about it
and obviously this is intentional. athena commends annabeth for "setting a trap" for the sirens. I honestly don't know for sure what she means by this but I assume she's trying to convey that annabeth intentionally constructed this fakeout scene, probably by thinking about percy and grover and luke interacting to convince the sirens that that was actually her deepest desire or something like that. what the show intends to actually show as annabeth's deepest desire is acknowledgement from athena. and that's great, book annabeth is certainly desperate for her mom's approval, but that's not the only thing she wants. this is what I'm getting at when I say the show is lacking compared to the original; we are literally getting less of annabeth and her motivations in this scene compared to the original, despite being locked to only percy's limited perspective in the books. I feel like someone in the writing room was just like, "wouldn't it be crazy if we had a scene where annabeth kills her friends? and wouldn't it be cool if we tricked the viewer and did a shocking fakeout where they think the siren scene is over but it actually isn't?" and they just ran with that, without considering the further ramifications. I don't want to call this favoring shock value over story telling/character writing but. that's basically what it is
lastly (and this is a symptom of favoring shock value and cool fight scenes), this scene is infinitely less emotionally intense. we don't get annabeth's "horrible, heartbreaking sobs", we don't get her crying on percy's shoulder, we don't get her screaming at percy to free her binds and him being so affected by her cries that he has to look away, we don't get her kicking percy to let her go, we don't get percy holding her no matter how hard she fights him, we don't get annabeth whispering in percy's ear as he carries her underwater, we don't get percy seeing his mom and grover and poseidon and tyson (whom he thinks is dead) in the sirens. we don't even get the cute gossiping fish 💔 they couldn't afford to hire one good fish actor 💔 for a show that's been emphasizing percabeth way more than the first two books ever did, they really went out of their way to downgrade one of the best early percabeth scenes and I think that sucks
speaking of percabeth - this is just tangential but the show has a clear pattern of removing agency from these characters. percy and annabeth were bickering more than they ever had in the first half of this book, and they were bickering because of their own mutual childishness, poor communication, disagreements on how to handle their situation, and annabeth's hatred of tyson. in the show, they choose to create distance between percy and annabeth by having chiron literally tell annabeth to keep percy from going on the quest, saying something like "not only can percy not know this secret, but he can't know that there's a secret being kept at all" (paraphrasing). the show doesn't want characters to have organic conflicts born from their own choices and personalities, they want external forces to put them into whatever drama and situation they believe will add tension. if you're a person who likes og percabeth and the way their personalities mesh and contrast, this sucks. the push and pull between them in the show has much less to do with the characters themselves, and that's just not going to be as impactful for the viewer. there's a special kind of irony to this given that, in this episode, percy goes on and on about how he's so scared of the choices he might make, about how he's so loyal and so flawed and he'd choose annabeth over olympus - and then afterwards, they rewrote the siren in such a way where annabeth doesn't get to be flawed and make interesting complicated decisions herself :/
we can ask the question of "why are they doing this?" if we want, and we'll never know for sure but here are my theories for why they made the siren scene so different
annabeth is not the same character in the tv show personality wise. she is far more stoic, unchildish, and just girlboss-y than her very fierce, emotional, petty, and annoying (/POS!! we love flawed annoying girls) book self. maybe they believe that because they've characterized her so weirdly, it wouldn't be in-character for her to make a reckless, immature choice like listening to the sirens by her own volition
going off of this, the longer rick has written annabeth from hoo and beyond, the more he girlbossifies her characterization and makes her out to be more strictly logical and unemotional than she ever was in the original series - so it's unsurprising that rick is involved in mischaracterizing her so badly in the show as well
the aforementioned "wouldn't it be cool if we did this instead?"-shock value type of screenwriting, i.e. making the show different simply for the sake of catching book readers off guard
???? I don't know maybe they wanted to de-emphasize the annabeth-frederick chase relationship, which would be confusing since that's a major point of ttc, the next book they'll be adapting
I'll be annoyed if people who can't look at the show critically have a field day with this post, so let me just say one more time: idc if you like the show, but don't be obtuse in my notes and speak of the show as if these are stronger writing choices than the original. they aren't, and preserving what's good about the original series in an adaptation is not an unreasonable desire for fans of the books to have. I didn't need a 1-to-1 perfect recreation of the siren scene, but as someone who cares about it and cares very much about annabeth, I did want it to carry the same impact and main ideas and it just didn't do that. which sucks!
