EDIT (April 23, 2022): I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO ADD THIS... but like some supporters of the judo-flip scene are saying that it's okay for Annabeth to judo-flip him because she thought he still had his Achilles Heel and that he wouldn't actually get hurt... SORRY BUT THIS MAKES IT LOOK WORSE BECAUSE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE JUDO-FLIPPED? Sometimes you can land on your side, other times you can land on your back. And where's Percy's Achilles Heel? HIS BACK. So yeah, the whole 'she still thought he had his Achilles Heel' argument is shit because then you're implying that she knowingly tried to kill him in his one mortal weak spot 😅

Before I begin, do you guys pronounce it as Per-KA-beth or Per-SA-beth??? I say it as Perkabeth which is probably wrong, so oops 😅

Anyways, so... Percabeth.

Percabeth, Percabeth, Percabeth... Oh Percabeth, what are we gonna do with you? 😔

First of all, I LOVE Percabeth. They're literally my favorite ever ship. I like Perachel too because they would've been cute, I just strongly prefer Percabeth more since we were given so much of them throughout the the books. Their development was great, they didn't get together super quickly, and the couple made sense.

But... they do have some issues. We can't deny that.

Let me bring up this scene:

The praetor Reyna straightened. With apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason.

"Jason Grace, my former colleague..." She spoke the word colleague like it was a dangerous thing. "I welcome you home. And these, your friends—"

Annabeth didn't mean to, but she surged forward. Percy rushed toward her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for swords that weren't there.

Percy threw his arms around her. They kissed, and for a moment nothing else mattered. An asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and Annabeth wouldn't have cared.

Percy smelled of ocean air. His lips were salty.

Seaweed Brain, she thought giddily.

Percy pulled away and studied her face. "Gods, I never thought—"

Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward, but Reyna shouted, "Hold! Stand down!"

Annabeth put her knee on Percy's chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn't care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest—a tumor of worry and bitterness that she'd been carrying around since last autumn.

"If you ever leave me again," she said, her eyes stinging, "I swear to all the gods—"

Yep! It's the controversial judo-flipping scene in Mark of Athena!

Fans are divided when it comes to this scene.

One side thinks it's toxic and abusive. Annabeth was physically hurting Percy here, so obviously they would think it was abusive.

The other side thought it was hilarious and "suPeR bAdAsS" because hahaha Annabeth attacked Percy lol 🤪 They even pull up stupid excuses like:

1. "Annabeth only did that because she missed him so much 🥺"

2. "They're demigods, a judo-flip isn't really gonna hurt him 🙄"

3. "You guys are taking this too seriously. 😒 It's not like little kids read it are gonna try and copy it because they think it's cool. iT's JuSt a BoOk"

And so forth.

And well... I'm gonna have to side with the ones who saw it as abusive (also, the excuses the other side kept using were so terrible omg, I feel like they just pulled it out of their asses 😂). That particular scene was definitely abusive. Sorry, but purposely harming someone you're supposed to love is physical abuse, you can't deny that.

(Plus, I doubt you guys would be defending it if it was Percy judo-flipping Annabeth for absolutely no reason.) 

However, Rick wasn't trying to portray Percabeth as abusive. That obviously wasn't his intention.

Then what was his intention?

To make Annabeth look "badass" 😐

Look at this next scene that happens just after the judo-flipping scene. If it really was his intention to make her to look abusive, he would've had her be called out on what she did. Instead, he has another character praise her for attacking Percy:

He introduced Reyna to Piper, who looked a little miffed that she hadn't gotten to say the lines she'd been practicing, then to Leo, who grinned and flashed a peace sign.

"And this is Annabeth," Jason said. "Uh, normally she doesn't judo-flip people."

Reyna's eyes sparkled. "You sure you're not a Roman, Annabeth? Or an Amazon?"

Annabeth didn't know if that was a compliment, but she held out her hand. "I only attack my boyfriend like that," she promised. "Pleased to meet you."

Rick had Reyna compliment Annabeth's actions. Reyna compared her to a Roman or an Amazon, both of which are good things in her eyes. Rick clearly wanted Annabeth's judo-flipping moment to look like a scene of badassery because "wow, look! A girl judo-flipped a BOY, isn't she so badass? She's not like other girls, cuz she was able to attack a boy!!!"

Do you guys recall my previous chapter titled "Strong Female Characters"? In there I talked about how some authors try to make their female characters look 'strong' by having them be the opposite of femininity because to them, femininity is weakness. They have their female OCs bash on the color pink, see every girl in a dress or skirt as slutty, act unnecessarily violent and aggressive, etc etc.

And you know what else they do? They write off their male characters as "weak" just to make their female characters look strong.

That's what Rick is doing and has been doing.

You can see that in Artemis and her hunters. Rick writes them off as feminists, but they're actually misandrists instead. They hate on every male that walks on the Earth, regardless of whether that male is a decent person or not. They literally use the words "man" or "boy" as an insult. They don't even want to be NEAR a man. They literally jeopardized a quest just because they didn't want a man to come with him, and only accepted Percy because it was already too late to send him back to camp.

You see that in Percabeth. Annabeth attacks Percy because Rick is trying to make her look "bAdAsS". Look at this female character, she can beat up guys! Isn't that badass? No 😐 it isn't. Some authors just keep going through such cringy lengths to make their female characters "badass" but it just ends up sooo poorly written.

That's not feminism, that's misandry, and Rick keeps making the same mistake over and over again because he's trying (but failing) to make a "strong female character". Having your female character hurt an innocent male character doesn't make her badass.

Thalia kicking Luke off a cliff? THAT was badass because Luke actually deserved it and the situation they were in (a fight to the death basically lol) made such an act appropriate. She had a very valid reason for doing it because he basically betrayed her and Annabeth (his FAMILY), and joined the bad guys.

Annabeth judo-flipping Percy? That was NOT badass. Percy did not deserve that and their situation wasn't appropriate for it. Who the fuck attacks their boyfriend after they've gone missing for eight months??? In front of so many Romans too? She may not have known that he was the praetor, but she knew Percy joined Camp Jupiter. Attacking their fellow camper was not a wise idea and they could've retaliated had Reyna not stopped them.

I love Annabeth and she does have a lot of actual badass moments but the judo-flipping scene was not badass and was actually a completely unnecessary thing to do to your boyfriend who got kidnapped, had his memories erased, etc.

So is Percabeth toxic?

No.

Percabeth is actually a genuinely good pair. They match each other well, they care for each other, understand each other, etc. They're not abusive to each other at all. From what I can remember they only had that one toxic scene with the judo-flipping, and that's only considered toxic because Rick's attempts of making Annabeth a "strong female character" just went too far for that moment.

Annabeth isn't toxic, nor is she abusive, but you have to admit that the scene where she judo-flipped her own fucking boyfriend for literally no valid reason was abusive. In real life, NO ONE would judo-flip their boyfriend who they genuinely love. He just had her judo-flip him because he wanted her to look 'badass'. They're a good couple, but that scene was just poorly written.

So what should you learn from this, everyone?

Don't try too hard to make your female OC "badass" because they never actually look badass, just fucking cringy.

If you want them to beat a boy up to look tough, have them beat up a dude who actually DESERVES IT like what Thalia did to Luke. Having your OC just go around blatantly beating up boys who didn't do ANYTHING to her doesn't make her look cool, I'm sorry. Unless, of course, your OC is supposed to be extremely violent, mean, and aggressive, but have it be known that what she's doing isn't actually a good thing rather than have other characters praise her for being "soooo badass".

IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I UPDATED THIS, I'M SO SORRY! 

I still got a shit ton of topics to do too 😫 For those who are curious, here's what to expect from my next updates (not in order): 

- Angst

- Writing Tips (which will include stuff like writing fanon vs canon, straight!Nico fics 🤢, punctuation, etc)

- PJO and HP Fancasts

- Dumbledore Rant

And... I can't remember the rest but yeah 😅