also related to the luke vs percy in terms of how whiteness plays into their motivations i also think it shouldn’t be overlooked how poc have more pressure to put on somewhat of a performance and “represent” their people in a positive light whereas white people are released from that extra pressure to be observably good and I think that is easily internalized and manifests in many poc having a community mindset and wanting to emphasize their “goodness” more than they would have if they weren’t as scrutinized
#exactly. the whole book it’s reiterated to percy that he’s not allowed to be selfish#he’s not allowed to work in his own self interest. he’s responsible for the future of everyone. no putting himself first#he has to bury his outrage and allow himself to be fucked over and not snap. ooo it makes me seeth#that luke isn’t held to those same standards via pjolesbian
#the gods and the titans r supposed to literally BE the western world right?#which as we all know is built on white supremacy#the fact that the only 2 options presented to the protagonist of color AND the audience are the gods and ‘order’ vs the titans and ‘chaos’#without actually ever being able to question the foundations that this civilization rests on#is just like. this is a fight that percy never actually had a personal stake in it was only ever abt like Which side will be shitty and#which side will actually kill me#so percy has to fight for one side or another and chooses the “good” side bc theres no real alternative#there’s no path offered outside of “western civlization”#and luke’s radicalization to the titan side was the flip side of that#as an angry white kid disillusioned w the system he wanted an alternative he wanted a way out of it#but he ended up not going w a truly revolutionary perspective he just reverted to an older and more violent iteration of the system that#disappointed and traumatized him in the first place via bloodbenderz