I’m Like Bread Dropped Butter Side Down

HOT TAKE

Breakup parallels clocked on first watch

i might be signing my death warrant by saying this, but just because annabeth is strong doesn’t mean percy is weak. annabeth was a lot more skilled in combat than percy when he first arrived at camp because he hadn’t had any training yet, whereas annabeth already had five years of training. but percy got better at fighting over time. he and annabeth are a battle couple and neither of them is significantly stronger than the other to the point that they would be helpless without them. reducing percy to just annabeth’s dumbass boyfriend doesn’t make annabeth look smarter. they’re both smart, just in different ways. annabeth calls percy “seaweed brain” as a lighthearted joke, she doesn’t legitimately think he’s stupid. annabeth canonically thinks of percy as the bravest person she knows. percy’s very good at coming up with battle strategies on the spot, he just doesn’t think through how dangerous they are and impulsively does them. all that saying percy would be lost without annabeth does for annabeth’s character is strip her of her complexity and reduce her to just a Strong Female Character. annabeth has more depth than that. she ran away from home when she was 7 years old, meaning she had to become strong and self-reliant at an age where she should not have needed to be. i would never deny that annabeth is very strong, smart, and powerful because she is, but letting her be flawed and emotionally vulnerable and sometimes rely on others for support doesn’t change that.

imagine being someone at new rome university and not knowing percy is the same guy as “percy jackson, son of poseidon, two-time hero of olympus, former praetor” because the thought doesn’t even cross your mind. like… he’s percy. he’s a total frat boy. on a normal night, he walks into a party, refers to everyone as bro or dude, socializes with every living (and not-living) person in the room, makes at least 50 sarcastic comments, plays 12 rounds of beer pong, drinks way too much, and then skates around campus on his skateboard yelling “I LOVE NEW YORK” (which makes no sense, because they’re in california) until someone calls his girlfriend to come get him.

annabeth “no fear in the face of the war god, in fact i’m going to verbally eviscerate him” chase, percy “fuck around and find out, i dare you ares” jackson, and grover “thanks for the emotional abuse!” underwood