Jabberjay Aftermath

A whole childhood spent drawing Percy Jackson and I never drew this. Feels like I missed a rite of passage somehow, luckily the pjo crowd is still going strong🔱

changes in the pjo show that are better than their book counterparts (from a chronic over analyzer who has been obsessed with this series since age 12)

sally working morality lessons and her own opinions into explaining the greek myths to percy (sally is amazing any details included that allow more of her character to be shown are fine with me i love learning more about her thought process. i also think its a really interesting and more subtle way to show that the mortal parents of demigods are also impacted negatively/are victims of the gods actions.)

stating outright that luke sees annabeth as his sister (bc luke seeing annabeth as anything other than his sister defeats the point of the series in a lot of ways. it makes him irredeemable and is disgusting which overshadows all of his valid arguments and the way percy mirrors him. it's like when an author makes a morally gray character commits some vile act that is out of character but is so bad readers can't ignore it in order to turn that character into a "true villain".)

BRINGING UP THALIA (thalia is one of my favorite characters in the whole series so of course i'm ok with any mention of her, but it sets up future events so well. we understand characters motives sooner, its probably a way that luke can gauge whether a demigod will join the titan army based on their reactions to the story, WE SEE HOW DIFFERENTLY IT EFFECTED LUKE AND ANNABETH)

the medusa and annabeth parallel (that change shows the truth of the gods in one parallel. it sets up annabeth's change in mind set that we get to by the last olympian. i can't explain how much i love this parellel.)

annabeth being the one to watch luke's string be cut (he is her family, it will be her dagger, it is only fair she be the one to see it. that is all i have to say about it.)

GROVER MANIPULATING A GOD (i love this so much bc i think it shows his desperation in a way. he knows how much is riding on this and after finding his uncle and percy falling from the arch he is willing to do anything to succeed. no more thalias.)

there's probably more but that all i can think of atm

suzanne collins is such a genius... the cultural phenomenon of her series leading to the hanging tree house remixes, mockingjay being milked for two (bad) movies, the capitol-inspired makeup palettes, the halloween costumes, the explosion of the market for dystopia, the butchering of her characters and removal of disabilities, disfiguration, and racial tension + representation to sell more tickets, the extra gale scenes to fuel discourse, and the audience showing up to cinemas to watch what was pretty honestly marketed to them (the jacob vs edwardification of the symbolic love story and also to watch children fight to the death) it's just so ridiculously ironic i would say you can't write this shit, but she did write about it... in The Hunger Games published 2008

If you're feeling like writing some percabeth, I would love to see the “Are you really going to leave without asking me the question you’ve been dying to ask me?”. Thank you in advance, love your writing!!

“I’ve missed you,” Annabeth murmurs, burying her head into Percy’s soft sweatshirt, trying to reconcile this warm feeling with what’s left of a memory from months ago. It’s been too long. 

“Me too, Wise Girl. Me too,” Percy says back to her, “I’ve missed you more.”

“I missed you most!” Annabeth leans back from the embrace, smirking at him and sniping at him competitively.

They laugh together. 

I can get used to this, Annabeth thinks. 

Even as they sail towards their next challenge on the Argo II, she feels fortunate. After not seeing him for so many months -- months of crying to Sally and torturing herself with what-ifs -- Annabeth can finally hold him in her arms. 

The only thing she has to do is to try her best on ignoring the voice in the back of her head, taunting her about her solo quest and the eventuality of what other horrors that can bring.

“Hey,” Percy says, drawing her back to the present, “we can talk more tonight. I know you wanted to check with Piper, Jason, and Leo to see how they are getting along with Frank and Hazel. Go ahead, I know we don’t have too much time before dinner. Frank wanted to run something by me, too.”

Annabeth nods, and looks wistfully at Percy as she moves to leave. When she glances back by the door, he is staring at her, smiling weakly. 

“What?” she asks, suddenly self conscious. Did she have something on her face?

“Nothing,” he says.

Just when she was about to turn back, Percy blurts, “are you really going to leave without asking me the question you’ve been dying to ask me?”

Annabeth is taken aback, briefly. She wonders if he knows which specific question she really is dying to ask, because there are so many. 

Did he really remember her all along? 

If he did, did he try his best to find her (as she did to find him) in all those months?

Did he get a chance to talk to his mom yet? Does he know how she and Sally had cried into each other’s arms for months when he disappeared?

Is he resentful for this world and all that it’s brought them?

So many questions flitted through her brain, but the one that makes it to him is, “you nicked your chin when you shaved.” 

“Oh,” Percy says, touching a hand to his chin, certainly not expecting this observation. 

Annabeth wants to scream into the heavens, on how unfair it is that they missed so much time together. Percy didn’t even used to shave regularly the last time they saw each other, the fall after they defeated Kronos. 

“Your invincibility -- it’s gone,” Annabeth explains, patiently waiting for Percy to tell her what happened. It hurts, more than a little, to know that the link between Percy’s mortality and her was severed.

He sighs and tells her about The Little Tiber. 

Annabeth swears that after all this (if there is an “after,” she isn’t quite sure), she will do whatever possible to leave the world of the gods behind.

something about percy winning against ares by drawing first blood, not giving a fuck that it’s the god of war he is making an enemy out of vs him being caught totally unaware by luke and luke drawing first blood because percy hesitated, because this is his friend, because making an enemy out of a god is way more preferable over making an enemy out of a friend. percy winning against insurmountable odds vs him losing because his loyalty is truly and undoubtedly fatal.

Ares saying he hates his own kids and the worst day of the year is when they visit him makes my heart break for Clarisse more. Clarisse fights so hard for scraps of her father’s attention and Ares sees her as just another nuisance. He doesn’t care about her unless she’s able to serve him. But Clarisse (like Annabeth) thinks she just has to work harder for him to love her. In her mind, it’s all her fault. Which is why she is so angry when little punk Percy strolls in at twelve years old, no training and unclaimed, and immediately defeats the minotaur. In three days hes already got the gods attention and his father claimed him. Of course she’s angry.

it is definitely cannon that everyone at camp calls Percy "Annabeth's boyfriend". They'll be showing a new kid around the place and be like "oh yeah, that's Annabeth's boyfriend, Percy. He's also the hero of olympus, beat the god of war, and a child of poseidon or whatever."

the companion to my other post about jason braiding reyna’s hair—i like to think that jason used to do these very neat, practical braids for her and she only started wearing the side-braid everyone draws her with after jason disappeared :’(

okay i'll say it: percy being "different" because sally taught him the myths before he knew he was a demigod is an unnecessary change. percy was never "different" because he knew the myths and thus came into the mythology world knowing how fucked up everything is. he's different because he has a strong sense of loyalty (fatal flaw). he's different because his mum loved him and he learned love and compassion and kindness from her. he's different because when the time comes, he will choose to be the demigod of the prophecy. he's different because despite the life he's had he's a good kid. he's different because he will not give respect that hasn't been earned, even if it gets him into trouble. he's not different for knowing the gods are a fucked up family and that sometimes a monster is not a monster. he's not different for not wanting kleos. in fact i think it's much more impactful if he gets to that conclusion himself, if he sees it and he comes out kinder and choosing not to continue the cycle on the other side.

also they should have let annabeth say the exposition. not just because she's the "smart one" even though she is, but because she was raised in the world of the gods since she was seven and she would absolutely have biases percy could challenge with his own choices.

you know.

like in the book richard wrote already.