Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26468287-20150614010051/@comment-5471249-20150724234939

Erick.baez.773 wrote:

I disagree with you about Annabeth. Piper's obsession is much greater than's Annabeth's. And, no, Annabeth's personality is more appealing and pleasant than Annabeth's. Now, if Piper personality is more pleasant that Annabeth's, then why do more people hate Piper more than Annabeth? It's because Annabeth is more likable than Piper. All right, then, let's address those points of yours separately... No offense, Erick, but all you really did was state your own subjective opinions as if they were objective and self-evident facts. Hence, it is the objective facts that we shall have to look at, then, I'm afraid... I apologize beforehand if this ends up becoming too long! :)))

Piper's obsession is much greater than's Annabeth's. 1)  You would have me believe that? Well, let me see... Piper, after finding out that her relationship with Jason had been a Mist-induced hallucination, was, understandably, depressed. However, when she sees him holding a photo of Thalia (who she assumes might be his real girlfriend) she seems saddened at the news, but doesn't press Jason for information (and is apologetic when she finally does, 2 days later), respecting his privacy, as well as the fact that Jason, her crush, might not have mutual romantic feelings for her. As a result, Piper only threatened Drew  after  it became clear that her attraction to Jason is in fact reciprocated. Also, even though Piper does become somewhat jealous every time Jason mentions Reyna, she doesn’t really give her boyfriend a hard time about it, and later even  empathizes with Reyna, understanding why the latter must have admired Jason so much  . '''Now what does Annabeth do in a similar situation? '''Well, she instantly starts giving Percy a hard time due to him previously hanging out with Rachel. As soon as Annabeth sees Rachel running out of the school with Percy, “her smile melts and turns into a frown.”  She completely ignores Percy’s genuine and honest explanation, and is furious with him for telling a mortal girl about half-bloods, regardless of the extreme circumstances (which she doesn’t even bother to ask about!). Still, the   real  reason she’s upset is because Percy and Rachel briefly hung out, and that they’d meet before… Seriously, if she’s so upset about Percy hanging out with another girl (and they didn’t even hang out properly!), maybe Annabeth should have made her own romantic feelings for him more obvious, since Percy doesn’t understand obvious hints!!! Also, more importantly, Percy wasn’t her boyfriend at that point, and had the right to choose any girl that he wanted, so Annabeth being paranoid about making him love her and her alone, is very selfish, self-centered and disrespectful. Piper, on the other hand, was considerably more selfless, sweet and diplomatic in her approach, actually giving Jason a choice in the matter and not becoming possessive of him until it became clear that their romantic attraction was mutual, something Annabeth never did. I daresay that in Annabeth’s situation, while Piper would have been saddened by Jason hanging out with Rachel, she would first make it her goal to find out whether or not he loved Rachel before even trying to win him over. Due to Piper being more perceptive of others’ feelings than Annabeth, this wouldn’t have been a difficult task for her.

And, no, Annabeth's personality is more appealing and pleasant than Annabeth's. You would have me believe that too? Well, let me see…. Annabeth has quite a few annoying flaws, and I’ve already mentioned her selfish possessiveness, so let's look at 3 more…

1) She initially gave Percy a hard time just because he’s a son of Poseidon, citing that as the only reason that obliged her not to get along with him. She’s unable to see that children aren’t responsible for the sins of their parents, since they are entirely different people. The proper approach is to judge Percy based on his own actions, and not to treat him differently simply because he’s a son of Poseidon, who wasn’t even the one to raise Percy!

2) While reuniting with Percy, Annabeth flips him over and threatens him (“if [Percy] ever leaves her again...”), without even taking into consideration the fact that Percy never would have left his girlfriend out of his own free will, and that it was all technically Hera’s fault (who’s the only person that completely deserves Annabeth’s anger, yet even her motivations are somewhat understandable). Heck, Percy had it even harder those past few months than Annabeth, due to his amnesia! But NOOO, Annabeth just had to selfishly make it seem like she’s the only victim here, and technically used Percy as a scapegoat…

3) Worst of all, Annabeth was initially extremely rude and outright racist towards Tyson,  simply because he was a Cyclops. She gives him distasteful looks, openly insults him (rudely pretending to be very surprised that he can talk), is disgusted by his attempts to touch her beautiful hair, and claims that Cyclopes in general are abominations, “mistakes” of mother nature… Seriously?! Yep - she’s stubbornly ignoring the fact that Tyson has just selflessly saved Percy’s life 3 or 4 times (while risking his own!) from Laestrigones, and all she can do is glare at him like he’s the problem?! Look, I can understand where she’s coming from – I get that one nasty cannibalistic Cyclopes did once terrify Annabeth as a child, and greatly contributed to the death of her dear friend Thalia. BUT that doesn’t give her any authority whatsoever to be so hateful, nasty and racist to every single Cyclopes out there, especially not one as innocent, kind and selfless as Tyson!!! Judging a race by the actions of a select few is completely and utterly wrong and disgusting!

One of Annabeth’s only redeeming traits in this light is that she doesn’t  overlook or avoid Nico like most people, and isn’t homophobic when he comes out.

<p style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="line-height:15.75pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;">Don’t get me wrong,  Piper<span style="line-height:15.75pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"> has some serious flaws too – her bratty attitude (but she grows out of it after she finally understands her dad, and never abuses her Charmspeak again), her insecurity with her own identity, feeling useless and not a hero at all without her friends, a feeling that Khione exploited when she attacked the Argo II. However, Piper’s overcome that one as well, finding her confidence and understanding the true power of love while defeating the snow goddess.

<p style="margin:12pt0in;line-height:15.75pt;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:15.75pt;">If you’re willing to still call Annabeth more likable than Piper without ignoring the former’s flaws, I daresay that you lack a good and objective understanding of Annabeth.

Now, if Piper personality is more pleasant that Annabeth's, then why do more people hate Piper more than Annabeth? It's because Annabeth is more likable than Piper. <span style="line-height:15.75pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ah… See, simply because the majority holds a certain belief, that doesn’t automatically imply that it is true, since I could argue that good taste, understanding and appreciation are relatively rare! An objectively true belief, even if held by a select few, isn’t any less true as a result. Hence, considering all of the positive traits of Piper that I’ve listed (along with Annabeth’s less attractive ones), the fact that she receives so much hatred might simply imply that others are unable to appreciate them, perhaps are even stubbornly refusing to appreciate them! :(((. Also, since Annabeth has already been a major character in 5 books (before Piper even appeared!) that would explain why PJO fans feel more attached to her, and, considering all of the amazing things that she’s already done with Percy by this point, they’re unable to be objective about her and see her irritating flaws! :(((

'''<span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:15.75pt;">Sorry again for writing such a long response – I just wanted to properly address every single one of your points! :)))   '''

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