brace yourself

compare that to percy, who by all logic, is alienated. in the mortal world, he's bullied, he's transferred from school to school, his stepdad is abusive and makes him feel like a burden onto the household/his mom. there is a good reason why grover is percy's only friend - a relationship which is also thrown to the rocks when percy finds out that grover and mr brunner basically gaslit him about mrs dodds. THEN HIS MOM DIES TO GET HIM TO CAMP, but even getting to camp doesn't make percy's situation much better either (which is something that the show passes over despite the book actually making sure to highlight it), because he's still in danger from enemies both within camp and from outside. cherry on top of course is the quest prophecy telling him that he will be betrayed by one who calls him friend. in a weird way, the problem with show percy is the opposite on annabeth's: he's (kind of) going in the right direction but i think there is error with the writers' fundamental understanding of where percy is coming from.

all this to say: there is a reason why in the books, annabeth is the one to make the offer of friendship to percy. is she socially awkward, abrasive, and blunt? yes! but she's not closed off; she's a deeply emotional person who longs for someone to be permanently in her life, which btw tltm perfectly captures with the invisibility cap extrapolation.and i think what's admirable about annabeth is that for all her roughness, she wears her heart on her sleeve and is every bit a 12-year-old girl, veteran camper status be damned. percy may be goofy, funny, sarcastic, but the devil-may-care impertinence is stemming from a place of deep-seated resentment that is only softened in the succeeding books because he finally feels like he has finally earned his belonging somewhere.

luke's and alecto's lines about annabeth in my opinion kind of undermine annabeth's desire to prove herself in the mortal world. i get what they were going for (luke showing how well he understands annabeth, alecto playing on annabeth's pride to bait her), but the lines are just weaseled in there to tell us about annabeth's personality so the audience kind of takes it at face value; hence the undermining.

jumping off from the previous point, the telling is further exacerbated by annabeth basically having no interests/quirks in the show. her interest in st louis is transmuted into her loyalty/belief to her mother rather than her love for architecture, and again luke tells us about her fear of spiders rather than us actually seeing annabeth having normal shortcomings

at the same time, the entire logic of annabeth being in the quest is also nuked by percy somehow being an expert in greek mythology (PROCRUSTES SCENE WHEN I FUCKING CATCH YOU-); in the books, there's a clear experience differential between annabeth and percy, which percy then compensates for with quick thinking and sheer guts.

percy's trauma and distrust are largely resolved when after medusa, the trio have a "lets talk about it" moment (as they often do in the show... sigh...) and percy and annabeth both realize they turned down deals that would've betrayed the other. Shocker! Kumbaya! tbh all the betrayal/sacrifice plotlines they shoehorned in fall so flat because there's never any truly consequences for any decision they decide to renege on: the worst was missing the fucking deadline bullshit but i digress

at the same time, the entire logic of annabeth being in the quest is also nuked by percy somehow being an expert in greek mythology (PROCRUSTES SCENE WHEN I FUCKING CATCH YOU-); in the books, there's a clear experience differential between annabeth and percy, which percy then compensates for with quick thinking and sheer guts.

aside from “greek myth expert percy” nuking one of annabeth’s central characteristics, i also felt that in some ways they kinda nerfed percy’s aforementioned ability for quick thinking with this. part of percy’s main character buffs is being a martial prodigy because he’s such a fast learner (points to THE sword trick in pjo). his adventures are exciting to read coz half the time he has zero ideas on how to defeat his enemies but because he’s quick to think on his feet, coupled with his natural fighting prowess he emerges victorious. if he’s already well-informed on enemies prior to encountering them, then how are we supposed to sympathize and root for a character we do not see struggle?

Joespeh Pintauro and Norman Laliberté, The Magic Box, 1970

Originally published and sold as part of The Rainbow Box, a four piece box set by Harper & Row