#and in SoM it's even specifically acknowledged to be used in a hurtful way! Percy is actively condemning it!

[aroaceleovaldez]

i hope this doesn't sound like a silly or weird thing to send you, but i'm autistic and have long thought of nico and a handful of other riordanverse characters as autistic and i love your posts about why nico in particular seems intentionally autistic-coded. but i've been thinking, if rick did intend for any of his characters to be autistic, why wouldn't he say so outside of the text at least? i can't think of a good reason why not, when he goes out of his way to be explicit about so many other characters' various marginalized identities and has confirmed things like reyna being asexual outside of the original text. so it gives me this nagging sort of doubt that maybe rick just made nico come off as so extremely autistic coded by accident, somehow. if it wasn't an accident i do kind of wish he'd say so because there's next to zero explicitly stated autistic representation in, like, any media so it'd be nice to have here even if not strictly necessary. either way though, like i said, i love your posts and i agree with you 100% about autistic nico! some others i like to think are autistic are annabeth and leo.

(Most of this is gonna be kind of a tangential ramble to your point and i apologize in advance just bear with me)

This actually touches upon something I've been meaning to do a write-up on recently, which is: depending on the coding, that is our explicit statement. In most coding, actually, that's kind of the point. (Also something something Death of the Author.)

You may have noticed a recent trend across media of characters saying things directly rather than expressing them in a natural way, and often this includes incredibly stilted dialogue of characters explaining things in very politically correct, wikipedia-esque descriptions and terminology that make absolutely no sense for the characters' personalities or mannerisms. This is born out of the idea that if something is not stated in explicit terms, no amount of evidence below an outright direct exact statement will ever count - if two characters of the same gender have an explicit kiss and wedding on-screen, it doesn't matter because they never said the word "gay," etc etc.

In PJO, prior to more recent books, we get plenty of examples of characters explaining parts of their identities without direct statements. Percy never needs to say in outright terms that he has PTSD from Gabe - and it doesn't make sense that he would! He's 12! He's never been diagnosed for that. He probably doesn't even know what PTSD is really. But we, the audience, know without a doubt he has PTSD, because it is clearly expressed to us. That is coding. Tyson is coded as having down syndrome. Nico is coded as being autistic. It doesn't make sense for Nico to turn to the camera and explain that he's autistic and what that means, because he definitely never got diagnosed for it and probably doesn't know what that means cause the diagnosis literally did not exist when he was growing up - and heck, autism terminology was still kind of getting sorted out back in 2007 when TTC was published, so it's unlikely we could have feasibly gotten any exact terminology wink-wink-nudge-nudges short of something like how Percy outright mentions other students called Tyson the r-slur in Sea of Monsters. And in fact we see that same exact style of coding with Nico later on in the series. Nico never turns to the camera and says word-for-word "I am gay, I am mlm, here's me wearing my exact pride flags" (until TOA/TSATS, which... did the exact thing i mentioned about characters speaking like theyre trying to get a good grade in therapy, or giving a powerpoint presentation). But it is never unclear that HoO is telling us outright that Nico is gay. It's not just hinted at. It's there, in your face. But entirely because no one ever outright says "gay" specifically it's technically still only coding. We know he's gay, we know the characters have trauma/ptsd, etc etc. We don't need it spelled out - that's just kind of condescending. It's like if you said describing a character with "eyes like moss" means they were "green-eye coded."

Nico being autistic-coded isn't hidden. It's not a secret. It's very overt. If you know what autism looks like, well, yeah, there he is. Even if you only know very vague 2007 media presentation of autism, Nico in TTC is easily recognizable enough as autistic because that's the point. Tyson is easily recognizable as being coded as having down syndrome and it's very clearly very intentional! It's just never spoon-fed in exact terms to the reader because it's not necessary! You've already been told the information necessary to tell you what is up with this character, so just plainly going "oh they're [x] in exact terms" is very much telling-not-showing and feels redundant. And while there are places for that kind of thing, most of the time it's very unnecessary. Sometimes coding is subtle, sometimes it's obvious, and yeah there are times where writers code characters unintentionally, but the textual evidence is there, and that's the whole point.

And that's what Death of the Author is about - it doesn't matter what the author intended at the end of the day, because if it's in the text it's in the text. You can look at author intent to try and figure out what that text means, but the text is the text. A Separate Peace is a very classic example - author John Knowles denies there being homosexual subtext, and meanwhile one of the protagonists living in 1942 puts on a pink shirt while saying he doesn't mind of people think of him as gay. What the author says after the fact doesn't matter - if it's there, it's there. So Rick saying anything outside of the books is completely irrelevant. And Rick talks about this a lot - he actively tells people that his statements outside of the books are just his own thoughts, but what's in the books is what's in the books, and if the text supports it then that's all the evidence you need.

Nico specifically is a case where yeah, he's clearly autistic-coded. It's very obvious and very obviously intentional when he's younger, and as the books progress it remains a background trait of his but is still notable (except for when it gets forgotten in TOA/TSATS like everything else, including the adhd/dyslexia, but i digress). It's a clear pattern within the first few books that Rick is intentionally including. It doesn't make sense, especially for the year the book was published, for the reader to be directly told in explicit terminology that Nico is autistic, because the reader is already being told that Nico is autistic.

And yeah, Rick doesn't mention Nico being autistic-coded outside of the text, but he also doesn't mention Tyson being coded as having down syndrome. He also said one time that Percy doesn't have PTSD at all, which is very incorrect starting from book 1. Again, Death of the Author. Whatever Rick says outside of the books does not matter, because he already said it in the books. And there's plenty of other stuff in the books that Rick doesn't touch upon, particularly relating to character identity - did you know Leo is Native? Sammy mentions that the Valdez family is Native in Son of Neptune but we don't get any specifics and then it's like never brought up again anywhere. That happens all the time in the series - and outside of the series - Rick can't possibly address every single point to confirm/deny everything from the books. That's what analysis is for! And that's why my blog exists 👍

#pjo #riordanverse #nico di angelo #autistic nico #analysis #ask #Anonymous #long post // #tone indicator just to be sure cause i know i used a lot of italics: this is all non-agressive/not mad i prommy #im just very passionate about this topic (coding & fandom concepts surrounding ''canon'' + death of the author) #also controversial opinion cause i know some people have talked about wanting the use of the r-slur in SoM censored #but i think it should stay because. well. yeah no that was still very commonly used in 2006 #trust me i heard it a lot. i was there. in fact it was commonly used after that point. for awhile. #it wasnt until like a bit into the 2010s iirc that campaigns started to go ''hey maybe. dont use that word.'' #like that was RECENT #and yeah! these books are not old! TLT is only just coming up on 20 years. thats not super old for a book! #and yeah! that term was considered a-okay terminology to be used in a middle grade book in 2006! which is startling to think now! #but that's also why it's important to not erase that #because otherwise you forget that up until very recently that word was considered Perfectly Acceptable #and in SoM it's even specifically acknowledged to be used in a hurtful way! Percy is actively condemning it! #like. dont put it in the show or whatever. obviously. replace it with a different indication/coding to explain Tyson's struggles #not that i think Disney would put the r-slur in their show. but like. dont erase it from the book??? from 2006?????? #i am frightened to see how the show will handle tyson though. its not gonna go well i can feel it in my bones #anyways man i should post that excerpt from A Separate Peace though #just cause that scene has lived in my brain rent-free for years

[posallys]

me writing connabeth headcanons?  more likely than you’d think

so we already established that they had puppy crushes on each other, and connor’s never really went away even though annabeth’s did (imma say the end of the summer after tlt/ into the school year around where she started sending pictures of her trips to percy)

connor’s puppy crush was a full blown crush by the time the som summer came to a close, and it always kind of hurt to see her with percy constantly and have him be sidelined, and when she kissed percy’s cheek after the chariot race?  his heart shattered

he didn’t blame her though, how could he?  it’s not like she knew he liked her.  

and really, if percy made her smile like that, who was he to try and take that away?

around the time it became painfully obvious to everyone except percy and annabeth they they liked each other (after ttc ish) there was this daughter of apollo who came to camp and connor and her instantly hit it off.  he really liked her and she was a great friend and he started pouring all of his energy into this relationship so his crush on annabeth faded a little and now it was focused on this girl

except connor still does like annabeth, he’s just tricking himself into thinking he doesn’t

he decides during that summer that he’s not going to pursue annabeth because anyone with eyes can see that she is practically in love with percy and he’s in love with her too

he actually ends up dating that other girl for a few months (until botl summer) but his heart isn’t fully in it.

he’s very much in a state of “if we were both single and you asked…” with annabeth

so along comes botl summer

percy’s got rachel now, and connor is very suspicious

its so fucking obvious that he loves annabeth at this point, so why is he hanging around with rachel?  connor is like🤔

and annabeth is super upset and won’t really talk to anyone.  he can tell she’s started to close herself off from percy too

she finds her way back to connor, and for the majority of that summer the two are inseparable

percy of course notices this when he is at camp and is like “the fuck??”

percy’s not very happy to say the least.  he doesn’t really understand why annabeth is shutting him out because obviously rachel is one of his closer friends and he’s been hanging out with her just because he needed a break from all the chaos at camp (and seeing annabeth so much reminds him that he’s going to have this prophecy hanging over his head in about a year and it hurts to think that something could happen to him and he’d never get to see her again, so in his head if he starts detaching himself now it won’t hurt as bad)

but percy doesn’t like rachel.  she’s a great friend and that’s all he sees her as because he’s so infatuated with annabeth

annabeth obviously thinks that him and rachel are a thing and it pains her to see him with someone who isn’t her, but if he’s going to spend his last year with someone who makes him happy (someone who isn’t her), she guesses she’ll be able to live with it.  all she really wants is for him to be happy.

there’s a lot of tension between the four of them (annabeth&rachel, percy&connor, annabeth&percy) and specifically with p, a, and c at camp. 

everyone is basically watching the three of them all summer like: 👀🔍🔍

there’s this one day where annabeth walks up to connor (he’s playing volleyball or something) and grabs his arm and just drags him with her

she ends up pulling her with him to the strawberry fields and she turns to face him (she hasn’t said a word to him since she started pulling him with her, let alone looked at him) and her eyes are glassed over and tears are threatening to spill.  her cheeks are red and she looks so broken and all connor can think about is how he was going to seriously fuck up whoever did that to her.

she doesn’t say anything but she starts crying and throws herself at him and buries her head in his shoulder

he moves to sit down and he sits there and holds her and rubs her back and plays with the ends of her hair while she cries and his heart hurts for her even though he’s not sure what’s wrong yet.

eventually she lifts her head and she’s sniffling and definitely got snot on his shirt and her eyes are puffy and he asks her a silent question with his eyes and she takes a deep breath and sighs heavily

eventually when she’s ready to talk she tells him that she iris messaged percy to find out if he was coming back to camp that night and to tell him that if he was he was going to be on her capture the flag team, but apparently he was with rachel and didn’t realized that she had called.  

all annabeth heard was “…needed to get away from Annabeth. I didn’t–” and that was enough for her.  she immediately ended the call and went to go find connor because she didn’t want to be alone

what annabeth didn’t hear is that percy was actually telling rachel that it was just super hard to be around her knowing that he might not make it through next year

annabeth and connor spend a few hours just sitting in the field talking about whatever, and they’re too caught up in their feelings of nostalgia because it’s been ages since they’ve sat down and had a lengthy conversation and they skip dinner.

the sun is setting and it’s almost time for capture the flag (which percy was in fact coming back to camp for) and the two of them were still in the field, except now they’re both lying on the ground looking up at the stars and connor is pointing out some of the constellations that him and annabeth learned together and annabeth is tucked into his side, her head on that spot right between his chest and his arm, and the arm her head is half on is also slightly wrapped around her shoulder

the two of them have every intention to stay out there and skip capture the flag, but then they hear a familiar voice calling out annabeth’s name as he walks through the field

“Annabeth?  Capture the flag is getting ready to start. I was told to come…find you”

the first thing percy feels is jealousy because he can’t count how many times him and annabeth have gone out to the field to look at the stars together the same ones she’s looking at with someone who’s not him

by the time either of them register what’s happening percy is standing 20 yards away and staring at the two of them, annabeth still tucked into connor’s side.

annabeth sits up as quick as she can but part of her was telling her to just stay where she was.  the other part (the one that’s in love with him) was saying that she should hurry up and try to make up a story about what was happening

she’s mad at percy right now anyway, so why should she explain anything to him?  as far as she knows, he didn’t want to be around her.  so why does she feel so guilty?

maybe it’s because the look on his face is enough to break her heart

she stands up and brushes the grass from her legs and connor stands up beside her.  she swears she catches percy glaring at him out of the corner of her eye, but when she looks back at him it’s gone and a smile (that looks awfully fake) has replaced whatever she thinks she saw.

“thank you for telling us” she says

connor doesn’t really have an expression on his face when he says “yeah, thanks. let’s go get ready, Chasey” and he grabs her hand and pulls her back towards the dining pavilion.

percy is just standing in the field trying to process what just happened because why the fuck is annabeth with connor? are they together? did she not tell percy?

percy’s not an idiot, he knows connor likes annabeth (so does everyone except annabeth)

hell, connor liked annabeth before percy ever came to camp, and he knows they were best friends before he took that spot, so why is he so jealous? he hangs out with rachel all the time even though annabeth is his best friend, why is the two of them hanging out any different?  

maybe it’s because annabeth never cuddled up to percy like that while they watched the stars

both the hermes cabin and athena cabin are on the same team for capture the flag, and obviously percy is on annabeth’s team.

percy definitely didn’t accidentally soak connor while he was jumping over the creek. 

he’s not sure why he did it, all he knows is that he saw connor and instantly got angry.  he’s not even really sure if he did it or if the water was simply responding to his anger.

flash forward a few weeks and percy is hanging out with rachel even more so in turn annabeth is spending even more time with connor

the two of them are closer than they’ve been in years and annabeth is super confused about her feelings because she likes percy, but percy isn’t the one who’s there for her right now. percy is chosing rachel over her (keeping in mind annabeth still doesn’t know the real reason percy is avoiding her), but connor?  connor is there and he’s giving her his undivided attention and it feels good to have someone acknowledging her.

meanwhile percy is battling with his own feelings because after the labyrinth he was beginning to think that annabeth liked him (since she seemed super jealous of rachel and also she kissed him and also because beckendorf was like 😏😏)

but maybe she doesn’t? maybe she likes connor and doesn’t think of him as anything more than her best friend (although it’s beginning to feel more like ex best friend)

beckendorf finally talks some sense into him and says that he knows of like 4 people who like annabeth and that silena told him annabeth likes percy ( “and she kissed you?  dude, she likes you.  I don’t know what else you need, Perce”), and that if percy doesn’t do something about it soon he might not get his chance with annabeth.

percy decides that he’s going to talk to annabeth that night at one of travis’ secret only-the-campers-that-matter parties.

when he shows up he immediatly registers that there’s alcohol (obviously, there always is, he expected it) but what he didn’t expect was annabeth to be drinking.

annabeth never drank at them before, why is she now?

percy wonders if she was doing it for him, come to think of it. he remembers telling her about gabe and how she didn’t press but he also remembers the look on her face when he told her about how sometimes it made him uncomfortable, especially at these parties, and just maybe she was trying to make him feel more comfortable

he also didn’t expect to see connor’s arm thrown over her shoulder and her leaning into him (way too similar to how charles and silena were sitting for him to like)

when annabeth tilts her head up and kisses connor on the jaw, something in percy’s chest snaps.

he doesn’t think anyone noticed that he was there yet, so he turns to leave because he can’t do this right now.  he was here to tell her how he felt and she’s acting awfully couple-y with fucking connor and suddenly that night he found them in the strawberry field comes rushing back and he wants to scream because charles told him to tell her and he didn’t and now annabeth is with connor and he fucking blew it and he’s never going to get the chance to tell her now because she’s with fucking connor and he also feels horrible because he’s supposed to be her best friend and she would have told him if she liked someone, right?  how bad did he fuck up if annabeth isn’t talking to him?

“hey, percy! come join us!”

“fuck. hey guys!”

annabeth and connor untangled themselves and annabeth moved over and there was definitely enough room for him to sit beside her (more importantly in between them) and he always sat with her but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to handle it if she starts looking through him to see connor or if she stops paying attention to him because connor started talking

he sits as far away from the two of them as possible and he tries super hard to not look at them but occasionally is eyes find their way over to her

she looks kind of nervous and he’s not really sure why

connor is just sitting there and he has a sort of confused look

percy is 99% sure he either looks pissed as hell or extremely sad

connor doesn’t really know what to make of it because you could cut the air with a knife right now. he really wants to move closer to annabeth and put his arm back around her because she was warm and her hair smelled good and it was annabeth and he definitely wants her to kiss him again, but this time not on his jaw

but at the same time he can’t help but look at annabeth and feel guilty for wanting that.  he knows her well enough to know how she’s feeling, and right now she’s giving him scared vibes and she looks really uncomfortable

he also feels bad because he knows she likes percy

he knows

she’s told him

but here he is, and there she is, acting like she never told him that on their walk down at the beach while percy was missing.

annabeth is definitely confused because she knows she likes percy

she kissed him, obviously she likes him

but she thinks he likes rachel and she wants him to be happy

so she started getting closer to connor and now all of a sudden percy seems angry? jealous? he hasn’t said a word to her since he got to the party and he won’t look her in the eye.

they do make eye contact once and his eyes look so broken and her heart feels heavy 

she doesn’t know how to cope with her feelings though, and connors there so she pushes whatever feelings she has for percy onto connor (basically what connor did with that daughter of apollo i mentioned)

there’s this one night a few weeks later where they’re both drunk from one of those parties and percy is off with rachel and annabeth just needs a distraction because all she wants is her percy back

she misses him so much and it hurts because she knows that this is their last summer together and next year the prophecy is going to be on top of them and they’re going to be fighting for their lives and there’s a good chance one or both of them aren’t going to make it back alive.

anyway they’ve both been drinking and connor is right there and annabeth is confused and wants percy somebody to love her and so her and connor sneak off to the woods and they end up making out and maybe his hands slip under her shirt and maybe her hands go up to tug on his hair while he presses her back against the tree and maybe their kisses are a little too rough and maybe she wakes up the next morning with a bruise along her collar bone and overwhelming guilt weighing her down

and connor can’t keep doing this

he loves annabeth, he really really does.

but he heard charlie whispering to silena the same night they sneaked off about how percy was telling him that he doesn’t know what to do about annabeth.  about how rachel keeps telling him that he just needs to tell her because she’s sick of hearing him mope around about how annabeth barely talks to him anymore and how she’s always with connor and he thinks the two of them are dating and connor feels horrible

connor likes percy. it’s never been about him not liking percy.  the two of them got along great, as long as annabeth wasn’t around.

there’s just something about the fact that she came crying to him about percy that sat with him wrong

but he knows that annabeth likes him, and obviously knows that percy likes her

and he can’t do that to her

he can’t let her run herself into the ground because she’s losing percy to rachel when she’s really not.  

so he tells her that he can’t keep doing stuff like that with her

he doesn’t tell her why specifically, just that he knows she loves likes percy and that he doesn’t think it’s fair to either of them to keep doing it when she doesn’t like him like that.

it hurts and he doesn’t know whether to feel good about his choice or not

connor never really stops loving annabeth, but it shifts from being split platonically and romantically to being completely platonic by the time percy and annabeth actually get their shit together and start dating

he’s constantly pushing her to tell him the summer leading up the the battle of manhattan because percy’s birthday is coming up and they both know that he might not live through it and is she’s going to do something about it she has to do it now because the clock is ticking

once connor and annabeth stop doing the borderline couple-y stuff, the tension eases between percy and annabeth and connor feels good about making that choice for the first time

and everyone is watching percy and annabeth that summer and they all can see how they’re moving into a more than best friends state but neither of them want to bring it up 

and when percy says “don’t I get a kiss for luck, it’s kind of a tradition, right?” connor makes sure catch her eye and wink before going off with travis.

and connor is the one that suggests annabeth makes percy a cupcake for his birthday, and he totally gives her shit until she agrees to tell percy how she feels because the war is over and they’re both still alive and she’s put it off this long and is she puts it off any longer connor is going to take matters into his own hands

“oh my gods, you wouldn’t”

“really? you don’t think i would?”

“connor.”

“annabeth.”

“…fine i’ll tell him…”

and connor feels really good when percy and annabeth finally kiss and him and travis are there to throw them in the lake

he’s really happy that his best friend is happy, and he thinks that it was always supposed to be this way, and maybe there was a reason she would fall for the son of her mom’s rival.

connor thinks it makes more sense this way, and he’s happy with how everything worked out for the three of them.

let me just tag the nation here 😌💕

@connabeth @spookyannabeth @riptide-anaklusmoss @eggplant-avenger @spookyperce @greekgrad07 @hallowannie

#connabeth #connabeth nation #pjo #percabeth #jealous percy #ash tag #erica tag #sarah tag #annie tag #sophi tag #kayla tag #marisa tag #3.2k of connabeth #i didnt read over it so have some word vomit :)