My little tirades

So I was scrolling through TikTok and I saw a Percy vs Annabeth edit and I read a few of the comments and okay wow the Annabeth glaze is genuinely too much. So let's analyze shall we.

COMPARISONS I SAW -

First off was strength. The creator had given to the point and the people in the comments were saying 'Oh but Annabeth is stronger,' 'Oh but she's trained for longer,' 'Oh but she held up the sky for 22 hours' and yada yada. Thing is. Percy is clearly shown to be one of the strongest demigods alive in the books. First of all, he is the son of one of the Big Three. Percy inherently possesses higher base physical attributes, durability, and stamina than children of minor or standard Olympian deities. Percy has also physically wrestled monsters and deflected blows from giants. I mean sure Annabeth had her moments but it was nowhere near as much as him. Also point three. Small minor factor. When Percy touches water, his physical strength, speed, and healing factors multiply instantly, pushing his physical capabilities far past Annabeth's peak limits. I will talk about the whole holding the sky thing a bit later.

Secondly was speed. Point to Percy. I yet again agree. Not much argument. One or two people did argue and I have a few things to say about that. If we include godly powers Percy can canonically swim at Mach 5, which may be below water but still is speed. In the Son of Sobek (PJO x KC crossover narrated by Carter Kane) Carter states that Percy is much faster than him. Someone in the comments had used the argument that Percy said in one of the Senior Adventures book that he wasn't the best at running at something. Which really is a stupid argument. As much as I love Rick the qualities of the books have getting worse by the year and they sound like fanficition written by middle-schoolers. The Senior Adventures Trilogy (third book yet to be published) completely ruins Annabeth and Percy's character (not so much Annabeth as Percy) so I will not be taking that as a valid argument. Annabeth is fast, she is agile but over Percy? No chance.

Third is durability. Boy oh boy the arguments on this one. Yet again the point went to Percy (are we surprised?) Now people had quite a few opinions on this. The amount of people saying that Annabeth has more durability was.. wow. None were worded politely either, which is astounding. What happened to being nice to creators? The one and only argument repeated by all of them was the mention of the sky holding scene. Now let me remind you something that people love to forget. Percy, too held the sky. And what I've come to realize is that people are confusing durability to endurance or stamina. Here is a definiton I copy-pasted from the google AI thing - Durability is about resisting damage. Endurance is about resisting fatigue and staying active over long periods. People say that Annabeth held the sky for 22 hours. That is an impressive feat but let me make it clear that we actually don't know how long she held it for. From what I remember in the books (correct me if I'm wrong) Percy dreamt at point of Annabeth holding the sky and the next time he slept he dreamt of Artemis holding it. So we do not know if she held if for less than 22 hours or more. It completely depends on when Artemis took it from her. Also to the people saying that Annabeth had Artemis's blessing so it was was easier for her. You're also wrong (if I am remembering right.) Artemis said she had the spirit of a Hunter, but it was never clearly stated that she had given the blessing. But back to Percy. People downplay that my boy here fought Atlas, was sleep deprive, food deprived, had a broken arm and he still held the freaking sky for as long as he held it. The thing about the sky is the fact that it will always the heaviest amount possible to the person holding it, but not enough to kill them. So really the sky scene for Annabeth was a test of endurance, and for Percy it was a test of strength. Back to durability, Percy had the Curse of Achilles for a while which definitely helped. Plus if the guy takes too much it literally just takes a splash of water and he heals. Also Percy has literally been thrown around like a toy. He's been thrown against walls, smashed by giants and pummelled by gods. Whatever Annabeth says, however she acts, however the fandom acts, she is still mortal. She is the daughter of Athena. No powers just.. smart. And even that is debatable. But like fact is, a blade to the shoulder or knife to the back would make her weaker than it would Percy seeing as he can literally use water to heal himself and like she'd need medical assistance and all.

Fourth was feats. Percy. Obviously. I'm not even going to argue about this, and honestly, no one else should be arguing with it either. But of course, you always get those people in the comments saying, "Oh, but Annabeth helped him with everything," or "Oh, he would have died without her, so it's actually her feat." Respectfully? Shut up. Yes, they are an iconic team, and yes, they save each other constantly, but this fanon narrative that Annabeth is a flawless mastermind who always babysits a clueless Percy is completely fake. For a character who is constantly praised as the wisest and smartest demigod alive, Annabeth has actually fucked things up for Percy so many times, forcing him to clean up the mess with his raw power and survival instincts. Take the Sphinx incident in BOTL, for example. Annabeth almost gets them both slaughtered because of her massive hubris; the Sphinx gives her a standardized, unchallenging test, and instead of just answering the easy questions to save their lives, Annabeth throws a literal temper tantrum because it insults her intellect, forcing Percy to jump into active combat to keep them from getting shredded. People also love to forget the Siren scene in SOM. Annabeth confidently thinks she can handle listening to them, but she gets completely overwhelmed, jumps out of the boat, and tries to swim to her death. Percy is the one who has to dive in, physically overpower her while she’s kicking and screaming, and hold her underwater in an air bubble just to keep her from drowning. Even as early as TLT at Ares’s water park, Annabeth freezes up entirely because of her fear of spiders, leaving a completely paralyzed, panicking genius while Percy has to think on his feet, manipulate the water to launch them out of the boat, and physically catch her mid-air. Even her most famous solo win against Arachne in MOA ends with her hubris blinding her to her surroundings, causing her to get tangled in the web and dragged into Tartarus, where Percy has to try and haul her up before falling with her. Annabeth is smart, but she is highly emotional, prideful, and prone to freezing when her ego or phobias are triggered. Percy’s feats are his own, and he is consistently the one bailing them out when her 'master plans' hit a wall.

I’m gonna group the fifth and sixth topics together: IQ (intelligence quotient) and BIQ (battle IQ). The creator gave IQ to Beth and BIQ to Percy, and of course, people had massive problems with this. I read comments outright calling him dumb as a "joke" and saying that Annabeth should easily get both points. I personally completely disagree with that, and honestly, I only half-agree with giving her the general IQ point in the first place. There have been so many cases across the books where Annabeth has been dumb af, but because she’s the "smart one," no one bloody acknowledges it. Just because Percy isn't book-smart or spouting random architecture facts doesn't mean he lacks intellect, and reducing him to a brainless powerhouse while treating Annabeth like an infallible goddess is just lazy character analysis. Annabeth gets the point for general IQ because she excels at academics, architecture, and thriving when she has time to sit down, study a problem, and map out a plan. But her "genius" status blindspots her constantly. She completely fails to see obvious traps because she thinks she’s too smart to be tricked. Remember when Luke tricked her into taking the SKY from him? Or when she completely misread the Sirens' danger? People act like she's a walking computer, but her pride makes her pull some incredibly stupid moves that a little bit of common sense could have avoided. Battle IQ, on the other hand, belongs entirely to Percy. Battle IQ is about split-second decision-making, spatial awareness, and adapting to a chaotic environment when a plan completely falls apart. We see Percy display insane tactical brilliance in the middle of combat all the time. In TLT he figures out how to defeat Medusa by using the reflection on his shield, and he tricks Procrustes into his own trap beds. In TLO, he coordinates the entire defense of Manhattan, demonstrating a macro-level understanding of war tactics that kept an army alive against overwhelming odds. Annabeth is a brilliant planner, but when the battlefield shifts unexpectedly, she tends to overthink or rely too heavily on the rules of logic. Percy thrives in the chaos. He reads his opponents instantly, exploits their weaknesses on the fly, and uses his environment in ways nobody else would ever think of. Annabeth gets the blueprints, but Percy owns the battlefield—and he definitely isn't the idiot the fandom tries to make him out to be. And we definitely don't talk enough about how smart our wonderful boy truly is.

And finally: Power. Percy. Obviously. You would think people would leave this very obvious one alone, but I saw someone in the comments actually arguing that Annabeth should have gotten the point for power, and that awakened pure, unfiltered rage in me because what the actual hell? The Annabeth glaze is getting worse by the day. To say a regular mortal demigod with a dagger is more powerful than a son of the Big Three who can literally command the oceans is a level of delusion I cannot comprehend. Annabeth is a highly skilled human athlete; Percy is a localized walking natural disaster. If we are talking about raw power, Percy’s feats are completely on a god-tier level. He has summoned personal hurricanes to fight off entire armies, created massive tidal waves, caused a literal volcanic eruption at Mount Saint Helens, and can control the water inside poison or blood when he's pushed to his absolute limits in Tartarus. Annabeth’s "power" is her brain and her dagger. She cannot control the elements, she cannot shake the earth, and she cannot summon a storm. Her strength is tactical, not supernatural. To even put them in the same tier of raw power is an insult to the entire power-scaling system Rick Riordan built. This ties directly into how stupid it is that the fandom treats her like the undisputed leader of the Seven on the Argo II. People love to post things like "Annabeth controls those idiots" or act like she’s a babysitter dealing with brainless toddlers, which is just straight-up disrespectful to the other characters. Like, wtf? She didn't "control" anyone. The Seven is made up of child-of-the-Big-Three heavy hitters like Percy, Jason, and Hazel, plus incredibly powerful demigods like Piper, Frank, and Leo. None of them were ever "controlled" by her. They respected her intellect and strategy, sure, but acting like she was the boss of everyone just feeds into this weird, hyper-inflated fanon version of her. If anything Percy or Jason should have been the leader, or even Coach Hedge. Annabeth is a character with a lot of possibilities, but trying to strip Percy of his most defining trait—and putting everyone else down just to boost her up—is absolutely wild. He is a son of Poseidon, his raw, destructive power is unmatched by almost any other demigod alive, and he doesn't need to be managed like a child.

misplaced forever partners

none of the ravens, except for him—because the first thing he did was reach for the tv and try to get neil out of harm’s way.

Percy and Frank adore each other. They both think the other person is awesome due to their powers and skills. Frank feels secure with Percy so much so that he opens up about his mother's death(a topic that isn't easy for him to discuss).

I adore these scenes on so many different levels.

There are two senate scenes in son of Neptune, and I am obsessed with both of them, partly because they really highlight some of my favourite aspects of Percy’s characters: His intelligence, his social awareness, his leadership abilities and his ability to easily understand the emotions of others.

The only reason why Percy is currently doing three more quests for the gods, while already being burnt out from finishing high school, is because he wants to enter the university of New Rome. A place where the monster who he watched kill his mom when he was twelve, the monster, who wore the necklaces of his dead friends around its axe as spoils of war, the monster he canonically still has nightmares about, lives peacefully alongside him and gets offended when he gets called a monster.

He does not want to go to that university, because he has a passion for a specific subject, or because he has a good time and flourishes in an academic environment. We know that Rick Riordan didn't really bother to think about what Percy wants to study, and as already stated, he is already burnt out from academics. But he wants to go there solely because his girlfriend and maybe some of his other friends live there.

All the while, he could technically go to a different university altogether, because, appearantly, monsters stop bothering demigods once they reach a certain age, which completely robs New Rome of the initial appeal it had to Percy in Son of Neptune, and of the sole reason why he wanted to live there in the first place.

On top of that, his trauma gets completely ignored, his accomplishments don't matter at all, and his relationship to other characters get either ignored/ brushed to the side, like in the case of Clarisse, Hazel, Frank, Rachel, Thalia etc. or get washed down so much that they are unrecognizable, frankly completely one dimensional, and require a bunch of mischaracterization, like in the case of Annabeth, Grover or Nico.

I am not talking only about Annabeth character here. There are tons and tons of characters who can do no wrong in the eyes of the fandom because "they were traumatized". I can quote Wanda and Tony stans from UCM; Klaus, Damon and Katherine stans from TVD; Dazai, Akutagawa and Chuuya stans from BSD.

The characters are not babies. Yes. All of them are very complex characters. But they have terrible behavior who should not be excused with "they suffer from childhood trauma". You can't use this weak wxcuse to glass over the fact these people killed, manipulated and threatened the well being of others.

You can like a character and still acknowledge they did WRONG CHOICES and did TERRIBLE THINGS and they have toxic traits.

You can UNDERSTAND where this comes from. This is what makes these characters appealing. The fact they are not one dimensional.

But you can't excuse their actions. Especially if the said character not even ONCE tries to change for the better, or have a self reflection "that hey. Maybe i am wrong for this". "Hey. Maybe i should not project my insecurities on someone, be mad they don't understand and leash on them for it." "Maybe I did something wrong. I need to fix it and talk with them on why I reacted that way"

Especially if the said character is supposed to be "one of the good guys".

Out of the narrative, this kind of argument is also so flat. A lot of abusers were once abused as well. Of course, not all of them. But a lot of them, yes. They were part of this chain once as a victim.

Should this person not be charged and be responsible for their actions because once they were a victim too? Of course not.

Not only I take the agency of the agressor or a character with this argument. It is also a very dangerous argument.

You can answer this ask or not. Just sharing my opinion.

Hey, anon. Sorry for the late response.

THIS!

Also, hearing this "they're flawed" or "you can't handle flawed female characters," Okay, and you can't handle when they're in the hot seat.

Yes, I love that they're flawed. Now, could you give them consequences? NO, not slap on the wrists. Actually consequences. Actually, make them see their flaws and make them reflect. Make them lose something precious or go through hardships that hinder them. Not having someone save them from consequences or easily beat them. I'm not sure about the other characters, but Annabeth Chase had potential. She's very interesting, and Rick could have made an amazing female character, but he fumbled badly. There's not much progress. She's still the same. There's still pride, insecurity, and resentment. The way she reacted to getting poor grades compared to her boyfriend is a clear sign she has not changed.

And that's another thing. Part of changing isn't doing kind things. It's doing the uncomfortable thing and acknowledging when you're wrong. It's reflecting and seeing your fuck-ups. I've never really seen or heard that from Annabeth, especially with Percy or Rachel. It's either off-screen or Percy making up for them. Ex: him being kidnapped and making up for being missing. Again, that's not fixing anything. There's no resolution being done.

Another thing I want to add is that Percy is also a victim of abuse. Same with Reyna and Leo. None of them, Percy in particular, has bullied and put down people. There is no excuse. This is just unacceptable behavior. It's her need for control, and that's not okay.

Before anyone pulls the gender card, my answer would be the same if Percy did this. My answer is the same for Luke, too. I know it's different, but it's somewhat similar. Luke was neglected by his parents. It doesn't give him the right to do what he did. I understand him, but it's not justifiable.

Overall, I agree with everything you said. Trauma explains the character, but they're still responsible for their actions. Using it as an excuse for terrible behavior is not only a flawed argument but also dangerous. It creates more victims, and perpetrators are never held accountable.

Yes, this is fiction, but this is a kids' book. What kids read, they will take with them. The same goes for movies. We want them to understand that just because they were victims of abuse or bullying doesn't mean they're not responsible for their actions.

It's the love that empowers bravery and the willingness to sacrifice for others. It's the love that gives hope for a better future, if you're willing to work for it. It's the love that will let a person fall into hell for their loved ones. It's the love that causes a demigod to willingly take on an entire prophecy to protect his younger cousin.

"She really was beautiful, and not just because she had a pretty face"

The simple fact is that Aphrodite's appreciation and zeal for love made her seem more beautiful in Percy's eyes. And even if you can claim that he is partially influenced by the goddess, the fact that he uses the word "giddy" when describing his feelings is very telling.

This is from the online Merriam Webster's dictionary. Let's use the synonym/definition instead:

"[Aphrodite] believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel euphoric when she talked about it."

Because someone who scorns love, or even doesn't fully respect it, wouldn't be using those adjectives.

Percy Jackson was made from love. We know from the books that Poseidon and Sally loved ones another in their own way. Poseidon offered her a palace under the seas. And he respected when Sally said no, because she wanted to pave her own way. However, she and the with Percy always returned to where that love was born. Like the tides kissing the shore, the ocean always accepts them back.

Percy is one he establishes such loyalty, such faith, in friend and foe alike. Ethan, who wanted nothing less than the proper respect for his mother and too all minor gods and their children, in the end trusted Percy to fulfill his wish.

"Zeus offered me a reward: godhood. I turned him down flat. I wanted justice for other demigods instead. I wanted the gods to stop being jerks and to pay attention to their kids." (The Crown of Ptolemy)

She does not feel like the daughter of a war wisdom goddess. Which is a shame because she has no other powers! Wisdom!=knowledge. Annabeth knowing a lot of facts does not make her wise. If Rick wanted a knowledgeable character, he could have used an Apollo kid. A prime example of Annabeth not being wise in a war situation was judo flipping Percy in front of the Romans. Forget the Percabeth implications. Even if she and Percy were just friends, what she did was so foolish, if I were Athena I would disown her on the spot. Given that Annabeth has no other powers, having Percy who is already OP as hell coming up with so many strategies is a spit in the face to Annabeth's character. I don't like her much but she deserves better when it comes to that. At least make her way smarter than Percy.

Annabeth seemed more interested in Luke than Percy, and when she was interested in Percy it was always…like, okay, Annabeth was vulnerable with Luke. I don't think he ever had a thing for her, but there was a tenderness to how she'd interact with him. When she interacted with Percy — think of the school dance, or how she handled having Rachel on a quest — she refuses to be vulnerable with him. If she has a crush on Percy, she hides it under glares, insults, and demands. Annabeth won't ask Percy to dance with her, she'll hit him and call him stupid for not asking her. She will not let her guard down with him.

Annabeth treats Luke like the first love, the one who had her heart. She treats Percy like the second-choice guy she ended up with because she couldn't get the first guy. Post book 2, Annabeth has so much tenderness and concern for Luke. It's actually really sweet that she still has hope for him, no matter how fall he has fallen. And she's not totally naive since she did slam the door in his face when he came begging to run away with her. In comparison, she treats poor Percy so harshly. She would never judo-flip Luke. I partially disagree that Annabeth doesn't let her guard down with Percy. Percy allows Annabeth to be vulnerable with him (eg. Percy holding her after the siren scene in book 2) but is the opposite true? Does Annabeth ever comfort Percy when he is going through a hard time?

the way she describes being treated simply does not match what we observe for ourselves in Titan's Curse.

Maybe her parents had a change of heart? Also, Annabeth was six and everything is so overwhelming as a small child. The storyline with her parents was a bit tacky to be honest.

There's just so few people who are willing to acknowledge genuine character flaws instead of mindlessly defending their own skewed opinions. Everyone in the anti percabeth community or anti Annabeth chase community has been hounded with labels of being a misogynist, death threats and other complete and utter bullshit arguments lacking common sense like that one time someone told me, "But Percabeth are inspired by Rick's relationship with his own wife. So you can't critique them." I am sorry, what? If anything, that's more concerning.

Now that Rick's marketing trilogy is out and Annabeth's flaws are glaringly visible, like flashing neon red, everyone rushes to blame Rick's writing but given Annabeth's toxic traits and flaws have existed since the orignal series at least at some point readers need to admit that Rick was definitely framing the character persona like this since the start and everyone else has just been glossing over it for the convenience of their "golden ship" and "strong female character."

Annabeth out of every other character needs to be critiqued the most, given how redundant and devolving her character keeps getting. Like not only does she not get character development for her past mistakes and flaws, SHE SOMEHOW GETS WORSE WITH EACH BOOK AND EVERYONE JUST GLOSSES OVER IT.

Yeah, it's also just the fact that for some reason, a lot of people ignore Annabeth's lack of growth and instead put her this pedestal (even sometimes raised above Percy for her accomplishments, despite the fact the Percy's done the same and MORE). I would love it if Annabeth was written to show this toxic person who takes her anger out on others and entitled to think she's better than everyone, but instead, she's written to be a HERO. Sure, she's helped save the world, but was that out of the good of her heart? Or even to save her loved ones like Percy? I don't think so. She wants glory. She wants her name and work to be remembered for all of eternity. And while this isn't inherently a bad thing, she's written as someone who's supposed to "leash" Percy in in case he goes too far (Yeah, the guy who litterally fell into Tartarus for his girlfriend). I wouldn't trust Annabeth's judgment and "goodness" with a ten-foot pole. The one who argued with an easy Spinx riddle and ended up making the others fight it, no thanks!

Annabeth is not the calm, cool, and collected hero. She's prideful and angry and snooty person. She's not wise. She's simply knowledgeable about myths (the ones she's learned about since she was seven!). Overall, she just doesn't contribute anything more than tension to the characters (with Percy and his friendships with others i.e Rachel and Jason. Also, with not accepting that others can have different views of people i.e Luke and the Romans) and knowledge of myths. Anyways, peace out.

But it's such a interesting fic, esspecially when you dive deep into what its about

Warning!!! For all Annabeth and Percabeth fans, this isn't Annabeth or Percabeth friendly! The whole fic is about criticising and having Annabeth undergo the consequences of her actions!!

Anyway, as I was saying, the story is about how Annabeth's action finally get their consequences and goes on trail for them.

I wouldn't spoil much but if your interested in it and have no issues with a lot of Annabeth bashing, then totally check it out!