Percy's relationship with Gabe is really important to me because it's one of the only accurate representation of abuse I've seen.
A lot of people think abuse is just being hit a lot and you live in fear of the abuser but that is not at all in most cases. It's normally just general neglect and mistreatment. And you do not live in fear of the abuser, instead you live in the resentment of them. You hate them but you are not scared of them.
Percy really shows what abuse is survivor is like.
His personality is what it should be. He is loyal, he would never hurt someone he cares about, both physically and emotionally. And he's sarcastic, which is a trait many abuse pick survivors up from standing up to the abusers. And most importantly, he has a fear of himself. He is so terrified of what he is capable of. He's worried he is going to hurt the people he loves.
When you are abused, you live in so much fear of one day becoming like your abuser.
Percy is just generally terrified of hurting people. You see that he is hesitant to kill anyone, even enemies. And when he scared Annabeth in House of Hades with his powers, he was more upset about that than anything else in the book. He saw what he was capable of and it terrified him.
I just really love how Percy demonstrated what abuse is and what is like to survive abuse.
