#pjo tbotl

[losergender]

we don't talk enough about tbotl nico. those six months between the ending of the titans curse and the beginning of the battle of the labyrinth had to be literally so traumatizing and yet i feel they are never mentioned. (spoilers from tbotl ahead)

he was 11 and alone in the street for god knows how long before minos found him. he had no living family whatsoever and his father wasn't even accepted by anyone. hell, we don't even know if hades claimed him after ttc or how it went. (or maybe we do, i haven't read tsats nor half of toa, but if we do know of it i have never seen anyone mention it). he had spent 3 months in the 21st century before ttc and some months in the usa, am i meant to think he did alright in an unknown country, with unknown technology and most likely not being all that fluent in english yet? all of that paired with fighting monsters, something he had a week and a half of training for, not to mention that he left camp WITH NO WEAPONS ON HIM.

EVEN BEFORE MEETING MINOS, NICO HAD ALREADY CONSIDERED/TRYING TO DIE. HE OFFERED HIS SOUL IN EXCHANGE FOR BIANCA'S. HE CONSIDERED/TRIED DYING AT THE RIPE AGE OF 11. and after he fails to do so he gets manipulated by minos for the whole book to be his hitman. he went into the labyrinth alone with, again, less than 2 weeks of proper demigod training.

i love bianca a lot but if i were nico and after months of failing to summon my sister i succeeded just for her first words to be "hello, percy" i would not do beautiful things. everything else she said i agree with and think it was neccessary for him to hear, but i was hurting when she didn't greet him first. same goes for when pan skips him.

like, okay, maybe it wasn't the tartarus, or transporting the athena parthenos or the tartarus again, but he was so young and so unprepared for anything and i have seen 0 people talk about it. so eh sorry for the rant i just had to do it myself

[demigods-posts]

imagine if thalia visited percy on his fifteen birthday. an apology lodged somewhere in the back of her throat. knocking on the apartment door while holding back tears. sally greeting her with the warm smile of a mother. paul welcoming her inside with the kind tone of a father. imagine thalia surprised to see percy and nico bonding over two slices of blue cake. feeling even more alienated as a big three kid. knowing these two had a relationship without her. imagine thalia meeting percy's eyes from across the room. and for a brief second. she swears his previously gleeful gaze turns cold and bitter. and she's waiting for the anger. for the tide to drown her. and she's prepared to welcome it. but then his gaze turns remorseful. and then apologetic. and he doesn't yell at her. instead. he invites her to sit next to him and nico. and welcomes her to a slice of blue cake. because time will pass anyway. and life's way too short for kids like them to not hold each other through it.

[wowthatsextra]

Rachel Elizabeth Dare doesn’t need to be the Oracle to give Percy Oblivious Jackson a reality check

[happyk44]

percy needs to be haunted by bianca's ghost more

[kitkatperce]

hi guys og trio in my style

missed grover in heroes of olympus so hes on the argo || instead of coach hedge . coach hedge was a good enough character but not good enough to replace my boy

also PERCY GETS BRACES !!! BECAUSE ALL MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS GET BRACES I GUESS !!!

[sketchtheinfinity]

Pan dedicates a few words to everyone...

wait, um...

[hazellevessque]

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth

[tarragonthedragon]

i think every day of my life about nico between titan's curse and battle of the labyrinth

like yes it is deeply tragic and horrifying, but also? an 11yo whose memories consist entirely of casino, military academy, and greek god summer camp living feral with only an evil ghost king for support? where is my sitcom

[archgabrielangel]

I read The Battle of the Labyrinth before any of the other pjo books in 4th grade because I didn't understand the roman rumerals that were on the spines so I just picked one book based on vibes

[pianapplez]

Hello there 👋👀,

So I just found your blog and had a lot of fun scrolling through all the pjo show crit😂 I couldn't help but notice that one tag you left on a post where you said you had some beef with Annabeth's portrayal in the books 👀 Would you mind elaborating on that if you're comfortable with it🙈? Because I absolutely share that sentiment, but it's sooo veeeery rare that I see other people express anything like it... I've found that trying to be a part of the fandom can be pretty alienating most of the time, if you're not exactly the biggest most devoted Percabeth shipper...😅 And often any criticism leveled at Annabeth just gets you a smack with the "internalized-misogyny" hammer... it's even worse in the tv show now due to... obvious reasons...

Again just if you're comfortable with answering of course🙈 There is a reason I stayed on anon after all...😅😂

Really glad you asked because i finally get to ramble about this heheheh (going forward, know that i skimmed over The Last Olympian to have a clearer sense of what I meant because that's the book where Rick fumbles her character more than the others)

i'm gonna try to make as much sense as possible but short answer would be, she's underdeveloped. Long answer:

She really got on my nerves in the last two books, with the whole Rachel debacle and then the Battle of New York. I can't really remember a single moment in those books where she and Percy aren't bickering or having heated discussions, which really made me question their friendship status. Of course, it's not like friends can't fight and it obviously builds up the (romantic) tension between them, but it got unbearable at one point.

I understand she's a teenager in an incredibly stressful situation that didn't even get to have a normal upbringing- she grew up way too fast (run away at 7, head counselor at 12) while also not really maturing, which is not a problem for a character, if it is handled properly. Given the fact that I am writing this, Riordan did not.

On the surface, my biggest beef is that Annabeth is not exactly held accountable for her actions (ie. treating Rachel a bit like shit and going off on Percy for a bunch of stuff.) I know Percy is to blame a bit here: as far as we know, in TLO he basically cuts the greek world out of his life as much as he can as a coping mechanism. And while yes, he never apologizes either, he doesn't give her nearly half the hard time she gives him: always either giving him the cold shoulder (there must be at least one example of this in the entire series but i cant be bothered to look it up sorry) or starting an argument only to then storm off (see the "you're a coward, Percy Jackson!" scene, which is not the fairest example since she was confronting Percy about ignoring camp but also was a bit too harsh about it) (especially after finally reading the prophecy and being under the impression that he was absolutely going to die when he turned 16 lmao) or just straight up storming off (see, Annabeth reacting when Rachel shows up for the first time during the battle of new york). While most of these feel, at least to some degree, fairly justified given how the entire situation does an absolute number on her emotions, she comes off a bit brattish and like she's trying to rile Percy up, especially when it comes to Rachel, which in the context of a battle that could mean the destruction of the world.... Well, it reads as a bit childish to me, and i wouldn't exactly have that much of a problem with it if it was dealt with in some way (a two-way apology would be nice).

After that first impression, i realized that Annabeth is barely ever anything else other than a plot device (when relating to Luke) or a love interest (when relating to Percy). This might be because the books are on Percy's POV. Hell, on the third book he's even conflicted when Annabeth is considering joining the Hunters of Artemis, aka, when making a choice for herself would mean he loses her (which is fine and dandy but it feels like Percy is more upset about her choosing her own path rather than being sad about not seeing her as often); we really only get a few glimpses of her, as in, actually her when she's on her own.

Obviously it's impossible to talk about Annabeth without touching on percabeth, which also is, in my opinion, what hinders Annabeth's character the most. On paper they sound great. The guy whose fatal flaw is loyalty falls in love with a girl whose been let down by people over and over, and she decides to never give up on the boy whose always had people give up on him (can't find one of the million posts that talks about this right now but it always goes something like that) And yeah, the bickering is really well written! But that's literally as far as it ever goes: they don't ever seem to have fun together, because 8 times out of 10 the bickering ends up being passive aggressive, and mostly done by Annabeth. My biggest gripe about percabeth is that their friendship seems to be based off... shared trauma. Literally. Other than going on quests together we are given no examples of them hanging out, nor a reason why they would want to spend time together in the first place, not even a shared hobby. Yes, in the fourth book they had a movie "date" planned but of course they didn't even get to it, and surprise surprise, they had a minor discussion, and surprise surprise, Annabeth was passive aggressive again. It's hard to picture them having fun together when even the author doesn't write in any scenes in which they get along smoothly (and before you say anything, a scene in which they get along where neither of them is about to die, and they're not talking about previous adventures. Gets a bit hard then, doesn't it?) It's even harder to picture them as a couple when the moment she gets upset about something, she starts coming off as emotionally manipulative (see, again, literally any conversation with Rachel or about Rachel)

To be fair, the books are relatively short and don't allow many "filler" chapters, if you will; there's always something happening to keep the main plot or a minor plot point moving forward, but it's not like there is no room to develop the characters' relationships, especially when we're talking about the main char and what is essentially his endgame. As an example we have Percy and Clarisse, or Percy and Beckendorf. Their interactions are brief but still hold so much weight.

Worst of all, Annabeth could be one hell of a character; what's most interesting of all is how being a daughter of Athena she is still incredibly emotionally driven, which is displayed very clearly with her fatal flaw being pride: her telling the Sphynx that her questions were too easy was not smart nor strategic: it was completely impulsive. I seriously think she wasn't far from being the best character in the series had she been given more time.

I guess i have as much beef with Annabeth as i have with Rick for doing her dirty. I really could sum this up with: while her emotions are justified, she acts upon them quite poorly. And this is what i mean when i say she's underdeveloped, because it would've been nice to see her come to her senses a bit.

Would love to read anyone's opinions on her character though, feel free to comment, even (or especially) if you don't agree with me!

[demigods-posts]

imagine percy getting suspended from school and using his off time to visit chb. imagine chiron assigning percy a random solo quest in california that he needs to complete within a week. imagine percy completing the quest in a couple of days and deciding to use the rest of his time to visit annabeth after she gets home from school. imagine after that quest, percy will head over to chb during christmas break and spring break hoping chiron will give him another solo quest. imagine chiron purposefully giving percy really easy solo quest based in california because he knows he's using it as an excuse to visit annabeth. imagine chiron being okay with it because he understands annabeth's home situation and wants her to be happy, and percy makes her happy. imagine chiron being okay with it because he understands percy doesn't have many people to hang out with during the school year and he knows he and annabeth have a special bond. imagine chiron just letting percy and annabeth be kids.

[maliha-lili]

No argument brought to the table can ever justify calypso putting a curse on annabeth

[glitteratti]

most wack take i've seen lately is that rick killed off jason as an appeal to older fans because they didn't like heroes of olympus as much. as if that has not been the most universally hated and disregarded part of riordanverse canon

[counting-stars-gayly]

“Ur so pretty” by Wasia Project but it’s Annabeth’s PoV after she kisses Percy in BotL

[femmesandhoney]

Hey, I saw you mentioned the Thalia casting for the pjo show. I’ve never seen anyone else on radblr mention pjo, so I was very excited to see I’m not the only one who likes it! I’m more of a crypto/lurker here, but I thought I’d say hi anyway!

I think they cast a great Thalia, and I’m excited to see what Tamara Smart will bring to the character, especially when they get to season three. Idk about you, but I think the casting thus far for most of the characters has been spot on, and specifically the main trio are phenomenal and perfect for their roles! But I think the writers made so many mistakes with things they changed in season one, so I’m not super optimistic I’ll be thrilled with any plot changes they make to season two.

Sorry if this is a bit awkward, but I just wanted to say hi and get your thoughts about the show and pjo in general, because I’ve never seen anyone else in this corner of tumblr mention it before :)

The casting for the show is hands down the best part of it, every character nails their roles. In particular, me and my best friend agreed Grover (Aryan) was actually the standout of the main trio so far. So excited to see how Tamara portrays Thalia next especially, since shes so important. Absolutely fantastic performances all around tho! I think about Clarisse in episode two when she screams after Percy breaks her lance all the time, it was soooo freaking chilling, just small things that show the entire cast is making up for any weaknesses the writing had in season one lol. There were def things they changed or left out that weren't my fav, but still held enough spirit of pjo for me to relax and hold out hope for future seasons. I believe I read that the writers took note of the season one critiques, so fingers crossed some of the pacing is fixed and hopefully (major hope) more episodes or longer episode lengths for the next season pleasssseeeee that would fix most of the issues people had!

But I won't lie the show adding some new scenes was super fun and fresh of them, like the chair in the tunnel of love where Walker and Leah acted their butts off and had me and my best friend in complete shock as we watched. Or the scenes w Ares and Grover! That was so freaking fun and a cool way to develop Grovers char more. So I do like the changes the writers have made, but sometimes their lack of inclusion of stuff is where it gets tricky and upsetting for future plot points.

I've been a pjo fan since it was the book series that actually made me fall in love w reading as a kid. Fun fact, i borrowed my friends sea of monsters book while he read the lightning thief, and I loved it so much that i devoured the next four books, and ended up reading the lightning thief last! its just that good of a series lol, so fun and engaging especially as a young kid diving into the world. so its super nostalgic for me, but admittedly my bestie is the one who remembers the books far better than me. she'd be like oh this is that monster or oh they left this out and i was like what 💀?? oh right! i gotta do a speed reread or something lmao, but im glad the show was well received and hopefully inspires more kids to pick up the books and enjoy reading.

I read all the classic YA books as a kid so truly I have an opinion on mostly all of them except a select few, but I also read these things in like middle school so they're not as fresh in my mind so if you want more specific opinions you can ask lol, but hopefully this was an enjoyable ramble