#i love him in everything except his treatment of nico in which he is Simply The Worst

[crossdressingdeath]

The thing that bothers me most about the fandom acting like Percy and Nico have this really close, sweet, mutually supportive relationship that's usually actually Jason and Nico's relationship with Percy slapped on top but never mind that is... honestly for me the most compelling part of their relationship is just how incredibly fucked it is? It's this one-sided unhealthy mess that's leading Nico further and further down a path of self-destruction and the whole time he knows he is never going to get out of it anywhere near what he's putting in but he can't stop himself (even though some of his thoughts in BoO suggest he wants to) and Percy seems at best only vaguely aware of how badly he's hurting this person who's only ever wanted to help him, but neither of them are bad people. It's an unhealthy relationship where both the people involved are fundamentally good people who do not want to hurt anyone. Their relationship is not mutually supportive or even all that close, and is frankly hanging on by a thread made entirely of messy history that occasionally feels like the aftermath of a bad breakup without them ever actually dating (you can't tell me that Percy talking shit about Nico while the Argo II was en route to rescue him and despite the members of the Seven who didn't know Nico already distrusting him doesn't have just a few "ex-boyfriend who's still kind of bitter about it" vibes)! And neither of them are happy with this situation, but neither of them know how to take the first step towards fixing it! That's something you don't see very often in kids' media!

Now, I don't know how much of that was intentional on Rick's part (the bit where the writing lowkey suggests that the only thing messing up their relationship is Nico not having told Percy that he used to have a crush on him makes me just a little uncomfortable and I hope TSatS goes more into all the other stuff between them, for example Percy making zero attempts to defend Nico when Leo and Jason question his loyalties and in fact almost certainly making things worse with the disturbing stories he canonically told them about Nico, which I am literally never going to be over). But I find Nico and Percy's canon dynamic fascinating, because it shows sides of them that we don't usually get to see. Percy's treatment of Nico shows a dark side to his devotion to His Group Specifically (what happens if you're not considered part of Percy's group specifically? Percy's got some really strong "fuck you, got mine" energy at times that does not get acknowledged enough) that can only be showcased with a character like Nico who's vitally important but not technically part of the group! Meanwhile Nico's unfaltering loyalty and devotion to Percy even though he knows it's bad for him and even though he hates himself for it says a lot about him as a person (and I'd argue gives more of a hint about his actual fatal flaw than Bianca's little talk about grudges does; this boy's fatal flaw is self-sacrifice, not holding grudges, and I will die on this hill)! And it just feels like a shame to drop that for your standard protective older brother dynamic that doesn't fit the established relationship at all, especially when half the time it feels like the people doing this just don't want to acknowledge that Percy isn't perfect all the time outside of minor Protagonist Flaws like being mildly insecure at times and being a little dense. Basically I want more fucked up relationships where both parties are good people who haven't got a single solitary idea how to fix it but don't want to take the massive step of cutting the relationship off entirely and trying to rebuild it from the ground up! Stop taking away one of the really good examples of that I've got, dammit!