The new PJO book (Wrath of the Triple Goddess) is terrible and Rick’s portrayal of the characters is deeply concerning for the future of the show

I finally got around to reading the new PJO book that came out a few months ago and oh my god. The book was plain awful and borderline unreadable. I always say that BOO was Percy/Annabeth character assassination but this book? Their characterization makes me wonder if the real Rick has been killed and replaced by an impostor who’s never read the original books. In this book:

• Percy is made into a buffoon. He’s characterized as a total idiot who never says anything of intelligence, to the point where Annabeth is shocked when he says something smart. He’s straight up described as being unable to function without Annabeth “doing all of the thinking for him.”

This characterization makes zero sense when Rick has repeatedly emphasized in the past books just how smart and clever Percy is. Even Annabeth has talked about how smart Percy is and how he shouldn’t be underestimated. Where did this new Percy (and Annabeth who’s surprised at Percy being smart) come from?

• Annabeth is surprised when Percy comforts her (the quote is “she was surprised that I was doing for the comforting for once). 

Genuinely what is Rick smoking. Percy has comforted Annabeth countless times (even more times than Annabeth has comforted Percy!), since all the way from TLT. 

• In the book’s opening chapter, Percy pees himself (yes, he PEES himself) because Hecate was scary. He’s also described as being “scrawny” with zero muscle despite the HOO books describing him as muscular (Hazel mistakes him for a Roman god ffs).

Percy is made into a bumbling fool who needs Annabeth to take care of him (more on that soon). This portrayal is so insulting to Percy’s character that it was excruciating to read.

• Grover is useless and made into a clown. He’s the one who inflicts the entire conflict of the book by drinking a strawberry potion for no reason. His character is completely one dimensional with no substance.

Rick obviously sees Grover as an incompetent idiot. Even in the show, Grover is absolutely useless on the quest and is always fucking up (when he loses the pearl and is the only one who gets caught up in the casino). He’s ruined his character.

• Annabeth is made into a flawless “mom” character in this book. I kid you not, Annabeth even calls herself the nickname “Mom” in this book. She does homework for her friends. She’s constantly mothering Percy. She COOKS for Percy and treats him like her child (she literally says things like “let’s get you cleaned up first”). Annabeth can do wrong and is flawless in every way.

Annabeth in the original series was flawed and her character was better for it. She also certainly wasn’t the “mom” character. I don’t know why Rick thinks Annabeth should act this way and why he writes the Percabeth dynamic this way but it’s just awful. 

What is most upsetting to me about this book is that if I was to read this book with zero prior knowledge of the series, I wouldn’t ship Percabeth at all. I would find Percy and Annabeth as characters as well as their dynamic insufferable.

Percy has worrying low self-esteem in this book but it’s just treated as a joke. Percy genuinely believes himself to be an idiot who’s not good enough for Annabeth. Annabeth’s mortal friends treat Percy like he’s stupid and don’t think he’s good enough for Annabeth and Percy doesn’t stand up for himself at all. Instead, he simply wholeheartedly agrees with them. This along with Annabeth being flawless and the mother in their relationship makes for not just a boring dynamic - but also an unhealthy one. A relationship where one partner sees themselves as so inferior can never be functional but the book never addresses this - instead it’s treated as just a whimsical element of their relationship.

The Percabeth ship was everything to me as a kid and holds such a special place in my heart. It’s honestly really upsetting to me to see them portrayed this way and to know that if I picked up this book without reading the other books - I would undeniably hate it. 

Rick has zero understanding of his own characters and for this reason I think the show is doomed. 

Here is also a list of inconsistencies in this book (I'm sure there's more):

• Percy mentions that Leo is his Spanish tutor but this makes no sense because the book takes place before TOA. So everyone should still believe Leo is dead at this point.
• Annabeth makes Percy a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and Grover steals multiple bites out of it despite Grover being a vegetarian. 
• This book states that demigods stop attracting monsters once they turn 18 which defeats the entire point of New Rome. If demigods stopped attracting monsters at 18, then there would be no reason for New Rome to exist or for Percy to get so excited at seeing a way for adult demigods to live in SON.