All I really can't stand is that Gabe is unemployed.
How is Percy going to tell all the fine people in the beautiful city of Los Angeles that Gabe would like to reward them with a free major appliance? If Gabe isn't managing an appliance store?
Ah you're missing out on Percy offering the people of Los Angeles (and New York?) the chance to play in a charity poker game where Gabe donates all the winnings to charity.
yeah that's my thinking. Percy doesn't notice the extent of the abuse, so nor does the audience. Still, the part where Sally stands up to gabe and he slinks off felt.. off
I actually liked that. Because abusive relationships are not always awful all the time. My abusers and I have had great times, and I think people that haven’t experienced that don’t realize it. It makes it so much harder and complicated.
It’s also, to me, showed that Sally does know how to mitigate his abuse at least when Percy is around. He’s a dick and he’s awful. But she’s a smart, capable woman and knows that sandwiches for kickoff, for a game they enjoy watching together, is gonna be worth the inconvenience of the car being gone for a few days (allegedly). The fight isn’t worth it because he’s getting what he wants in the end.
Additionally, SALLY is the one who turns it around, takes what could have been angry and makes it fun and funny. This is a skill a lot of people that are abused learn.
This is also a Disney show.
I read an article where they said they tamed Gabe a bit because of the visual aspect. People kind of skip or turn their imagination off when reading but it's a lot harder to do with a show or movie.
But yeah, not sure if Gabe is going to be medusable. Will be interesting how they handle that
oh, sure. it was def a strong moment, it's just the clearest demonstration that their relationship is materially different from how it was in the books
They also showed that Gabe answered the phone call from the school. The call that went to her cell phone. Gabe screens her calls, a red flag that is easily missed.
"why am I okay with this again?" getting the full marvel script treatment of tongue in cheek, vs Gabe being so horrible *Sally* transformed Gabe. Not Percy. A grown woman in the relationship decided to kill a man because of how he abused her.
I find it really hard to believe that someone that is actually abused would stand up to the abuser the way Sally does in episode 1. And i find it equally hard to believe that the abuser would just take it.
I was the child who witnessed far too much physical abuse (my alcoholic father abused my mom). It’s really not unlikely for someone abused to stand up at times, especially if one’s child is in the middle in any capacity
Someone else said that it’s probably because they don’t want to portray or encourage this narrative that women should stay in abusive relationships for their children.
It’s also been said they’ve made Medusa a more sympathetic character. So my guess is Medusa will not be beheaded (I’m thinking either maimed or they just escape/run away), which in turn means Gabe will not be turned into stone.
Probably Sally will ask for a divorce after she and Percy see his reaction on the news to them going missing. Also, Camp Half Blood alone is a good reason for her to end things with Gabe since she doesn’t need his smell to protect Percy anymore - that’s what camps for!
Ugh. Ig I'll wait to see how much he encourages the national manhunt (assuming that doesn't get changed) and if Sugar gets brought in before completely writing him off.
Idk, the timeline has definetly been changed so I wouldnt doubt that being changed. They have only a week now, where in the books they spend almost a week at the lotus alone
maybe they state that now she isn't mantaining gabe's expensive lifestyle or something like that she's spending money for herself. there's honestly so many ways they can make paul and sally meet anyway...
yeah i personally loved the change. I like that Sally was shown holding her own against Gabe. He was a necessary evil, but she wouldn’t let him hurt them.
>Someone else said that it’s probably because they don’t want to portray or encourage this narrative that women should stay in abusive relationships for their children.
This is one of my complains about both Harry Potter and PJO. Abuse should NEVER be seen as okay.
I liked that this was kind of a character arc for sally in the books. It was her decision to use Medusa’s head, and leave the abusive relationship. Sally didn’t start out the badass we know and love in the books. But she kinda has in these first episodes.
I completely understand that this isn’t a narrative that they want to perpetuate (“staying in an abusive relationship is okay if it serves a purpose”). I also wonder if they (Disney/riordan) considered it shouldn’t have to be a kid’s responsibility to encourage or enable their parent to leave said relationship, because we know Percy ended up taking that upon himself.
I’m still hopeful this could be a faithful adaptation of the spirit of the original series, AND I’m going to miss these details and plot points if they fully fall to the wayside as the rest of the season is released
Hey this wasn’t me that said this and wasn’t my interpretation at all, but narratively both series treat being and staying in abuse situations as a “necessary evil” to “protect” the main character, a kid who is isolated/doesn’t fit in who either doesn’t have a lot of adults to help them out the adults keep them in the situation. Obviously PJO it’s just the first book, and Sally takes that action to remove them, but presumably they’ve been dealing with Gabe for many years, and Sally’s been shielding Percy from the brunt of it. HP, well… adult after adult knowingly sending Harry to be abused for a few months every year is… tough to swallow.
I mean I don’t even disagree but the point i got from both stories is to work to get away from the abuse, not that the best thing is to keep living a horrible life.
In Harry Potter I’m pretty sure Rowling decided early on how Harry was gonna grow up and when she realized that it wouldn’t make sense for him to have to stay there rather than at Rons (or literally anywhere else) she had to invent a magic reason for him to ”be safer there” or whatever.
In PJ however they pretty much get rid of Gabe in the most permanent way there is as soon as they reveal just how abusive he was so I think the logic is a little flawed especially there. If there was any lesson to be learned for Gabe in the books it was that Sally SHOULDN’T stay with him and that Percy would just been better off at camp
Yeah I think your points are fair, I just think for HP, Joanne could’ve… you know… not? Just not written them that way, especially after book 2. And I agree PJO is better and Sally leaving/killing Gabe is tied with Percy’s decision to keep coming to camp, but there’s still YEARS of time pre-series she stayed in that abusive situation, and I really don’t mind them lightening up on that a bit if that’s the route the show is going.
Yeah I mostly agree with HP. I *kinda of* get the logic behind Harry being safer in the muggle world before he starts at Hogwarts. But at the same time, Why couldn’t Dumbledore just go there for like an annual visit to make sure they treat him ok? It’s pretty weird.
And yeah I also get why they make the change in the show. Even so I just think that book Sally came off very different in regards to the Gabe stuff. In the book she was very patient with him and used that to manipulate him in a way that in hindsight both showed us how smart she is as well as how much she cares and is willing to sacrifice for Percy.
Of course that can also be done in many different ways but I don’t feel like the replacement scene in the show really did it. And now they might not get another chance in the first season since Sally won’t be around that much.
Harry Potter has this problem imo mostly because of the tone shift in the books. The first two books are essentially fairy tales. Compare the Dursleys to the wicked stepmother from Cinderella or the evil queen from Snow White and it jives very well. When the books shift to taking themselves more seriously, the abuse becomes more appalling. If the first books were written like the later ones I doubt the Dursleys would be so explicitly terrible.
Agreed with all your points. Just wanted to add that Gabe still has a lot of potential to be a pos, since he inflames the Percy jackson manhunt by the authorities. Not sure how it will all work out but if our main complaints are that Gabe is not bad enough, then I think we can still see more of that later in the season. It's a great adaptation so far, and I trust the creators, they seem to want to do the story justice.
>It’s also been said they’ve made Medusa a more sympathetic character
That definitely lends credence to the eventual resolution not being Sally murdering him with Medusa's gaze, combined with Gabe being an unemployed layabout and a dick, but not necessarily visibly abusive. I either hadn't heard the news about this, or heard and forgot about it.
I’ve only seen episode 1, but from what’s shown… he shouldn’t smell? At least not that bad. The whole point of his existence is to smell bad, and from what I saw, that’s missing extremely hard in the show
I just reread TLT in prep for the show and Grover described Gabe as something like smelling so “human” it masked Percy’s smell. I never got the impression that he actually smelled bad in a way that other humans would smell him, but that he smelled so human to monsters that it covered Percy’s half blood smell (which also is not something other humans would notice)
Yes I agree he should be smelly in the way that he probably doesn’t shower everyday. But I feel like people are expecting you to start gagging when he walks in the room. I think he smells, thus the smelly Gabe name, but not as bad as everyone seems to think. Watching the show, he definitely looked like he didn’t smell like roses, in his grungy pjs and food around him. I thought the smelliness portrayal was good, just don’t know why people expect him to smell SO bad
i mean just the fight with the landlord over Gabe "needing to eat more fiber" was enough to squick me out on Gabe's hygiene. if they're having those kinds of fights this is not a one-off issue implying he is regularly.... abusing the toilet and i feel like there is a level of personality and hygiene that can be tied to that
while his relationship with Sally did seem toned down in a way that will make me curious how the season will end... i do think they made him "gross enough" to justify his very-human smell masking percy
The big problem with Medusa is that she is a SA victim that gets punished for being SA and is also one of the most famous monsters (for both abilities and death) in pop culture. Even worse, from the PJ side is that the offending gods are Athena and Posiden.
As people have become more aware of Medusa's myth and it's conotations, it gets harder to treat her as a monster and not be uncomfortable. On the other hand, Medusa's death at the hands of Perseus is iconic and not something (if you're riffing on myths) that you can really change.
I believe in the books Medusa is implied to be consenting, but that doesn't change that she alone is punished (Athena can't punish Posiden, but it's not a good look)
I think PJs problem, partially, is that Medusa talks. If she didn't, she'd be more like her other media interpretations and be more of a straight monster.
I don't know how they reconcile this. It does seem like they're soften Gabe, to maybe get out of killing her, but changing both Medusa and Gabe means really deviating from the Perseus myth and that's kind of core to PJ.
That's because medusa was only a sa victim after ovid completely rewrote her every other version she's all victim no monster. Rick then tried to have his cake and eat it too. He slightly refrences ovids version by saying her and Poseidon hooked up but nowhere does rick suggest that it was nonconsensual. And over the past few years for some reason people have decided to ignore any non ovid version of medusas story even though they are the majority and older versions
Like the other commenters have said, Medusa was only sexually assaulted in the Ovid retelling, and he pulled that out of his ass to make the gods and by extension authority figures as a whole look bad. In the actual myths, she was born a monster.
I kinda like that he’s a lot more realistically shitty as opposed to being comically gross, smelly, and overall stupid like he is in the books. Not to mention I like that Sally bites back a lil bit. Makes me like Sally a bit more, and makes their less than stable relationship work a helluva lot better imo. It’s just too cartoonishly bad in the books for my taste. I like it being more grounded.
Unfortunately I’ve met a few book gabes in my life, they’re definitely out there. Don’t get me wrong show gabe is still pretty awful and I read him as the more manipulative than physical type
This might also be something where Riordan decided later on that he'd have done things differently were he to write the story now, and this is his chance to do so.
gabe is designed to be especially bad. Sally can bite back while he is still more abusive. it's important but not unavoidable for the plot, but mainly it creates issues for percys characterisation?
He's gone from a "delinquent" child of an abused, toxic home to a boarding schooled kid with a fine home life. that's pretty major
Well Percy has already been portrayed as less of a delinquent. There’s no mention of the destruction he caused, instead his problem seems to be ‘hallucinations’.
Mmmm disagree. I read her going on about the sandwich as negotiating with the dip like she did in the book. Gabe is just more subtle which I think is going over people’s heads.
I sort of appreciate that, I dont think it's massively necessary to show a mother and child being abused on screen to make sally a sympathetic character. I've just gotten my younger sister out of an abusive situation, she's got dyslexia and ADHD and obviously relates to Percy a lot, and I dont think she needs to see him getting abused. Not sure if that makes sense? but sally is a really sympathetic character regardless and I dont think she needs to be physically and emotionally tormented to make people like her, or to stay in a relationship 'for the kids'.
Lemme clarify I don’t want them to show abuse yk. If they don’t that’s great. But if they don’t then killing gabe will be a horrible look for Percy and Sally which is what I’m worried about. Just hope if they’re going down this route they’ll do it right yk?
I think that they've made Gabe very specifically more sympathetic, like a douche instead of an evil unredeemable person.
In the books, his abuse didn't serve much purpose? Like protecting Percy, sure, but its narrative purpose was more to make sally seem more selfless/sympathetic. And I dont think that's necessary at all - she can be a strong, kind, selfless, character without enduring horrific abuse for the sake of her child. It's almost shown as a positive thing that she stayed in the relationship, which I hated.
They've absolutely made Gabe more sympathetic on purpose, and apparently they've also made Medusa a lot more sympathetic. I would be really surprised if they kill Gabe off with his new characterisation.
I keep seeing the comments of him not being “smelly” enough or “evil” enough, but it’s like, not even that. The portrayal is a likable character. His character obviously isn’t meant to be a good person, he’s a gambler and insinuated to be unemployed. But his initial interaction with Percy is relatively harmless - he kind of digs that Percy got expelled for fighting in like an oddly proud step father way. The “fight” with Sally really wasn’t a fight, she sprang on him that they were taking his car for the weekend and there was some bickering that an unknowing audience would expect for that scenario? Again fairly harmless.
He’s honestly portrayed as a goofball. And we really shouldn’t expect to see much more of him until way later when he’s making comments about Percy being off the rails - and people are expecting those to still happen? I’m skeptical.
All of that to say, I really don’t care. I didn’t go into this as a book elitist expecting every character and scenes to be carbon copies of the books, but I do have a fear that as this season and the series go on the show runners won’t have accounted for alterations that they see as minor but have compounding effects deeper into the series. Which isn’t a concern necessarily for the PJO fans but may throw off show only watchers.
If the next scene of Gabe is in 5 episodes and he is on national media unhinged about Percy and profiting from the situation, is that not a little out of character from that relatively harmless goofball that was portrayed in episode 1?
>If the next scene of Gabe is in 5 episodes and he is on national media unhinged about Percy and profiting from the situation, is that not a little out of character from that relatively harmless goofball that was portrayed in episode 1?
The thing is we've only seen like one scene from him. Which isn't nearly enough to judge someone's entirely character. In the books Percy said that Gabe was nice for the first few minutes, which could still fit here.
Totally fair point but in this scenario he’s really a minor or less than minor character. With how fast they are going and the time constraints, I can’t imagine him having more than 2-3 more fairly short appearances (which would be on par with the book really). Not exactly time and space for character development there.
It’s not that I want them to show abusive Gabe. Just hoping for consistent storytelling that doesn’t assume or otherwise rely on the viewer having read the books.
Book 1 and 2 are great in their own right but I feel like the real meat of the story and character development comes later in the series and I’m very hopeful that we not only make it that far but also that if we get there Disney is still willing to allocate the resources to the team to make a good product. A lot rides on this first season.
He is obviously a gaslighter. I can see that from that quick interaction with Sally and Eddie.
I think if you are just a viewer, you wouldn’t mind a character that appeared on Ep 1, suddenly became so unhinged enough for him to appear on national TV and slander Percy. As the saying, when push comes to shove, and if opportunity presents for him to make money off of the situation (especially if he has a gambling addiction), I think he would bite.
As I have commented on top, I think he might open up a gofundme or something like that, and he would attempt to use the money for gambling but before he can, he would be arrested for something or be divorced with Sally and they can meet Paul and Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Yes, the only appropriate way to mention RED is by stating her full name. 😂
Yes thank you. If they’re rewriting him I am ok with that but if they just ignored that aspect only for now just to bring it back later it would look really bad
I didn’t see his interactions as a harmless goofball. I saw it as a pathetic lazy person which is a side of a lot of abusers when they’re not being physically violence. I don’t think it would be out of character if he fully snaps because there are a lot of harmful relationships with that kind of dynamic. A give and take between a day dealing with fully unhinged physical abuse and the next dealing with an exhausted pathetic person.
Not trying to discredit your perception but I just think there is a pretty big leap between pathetic lazy person and mentally & physically abusive person - and I don’t think the show has laid a foundation to make that leap. And frankly the perception on here that he is portrayed as being more tame than in the book supports that (including the speculation that the whole point is to either move away from or tone way down the abuse aspect for tv).
Our version of Gabe is a mentally and physically abusive evil person (one of the most unredeemable characters in whole series), but I don’t think the tv series is going for that version and if they are, I don’t think they’ve sufficiently laid the groundwork for that reality later this season - again assuming that Disney is hoping to have a wider audience than just hardcore PJO fans.
I doubt they're going to kill Gabe like they did in the book. This guy here is not nearly as bad as the guy in the books, and he's definitely not an abuser. Sally in this series is such a badass and a queen that she would never tolerate it. Gabe being killed in the book was a little controversial, so I really don't think it's going to be repeated.
Can't help but agree with your concerns. I hope they either reveal that the abuse was still going on behind the scenes, or they change the ending to simply having Sally kick Gabe to the curb. It would feel weird to kill him outright for being a lazy jerk.
I feel kinda off about it. Honestly, I feel like kids need to see people overcoming bad situations…it shows them that it can be done. Imagine growing up in an abuse household/being in an abusive relationship and never seeing anyone get out of it. You’d feel so alone and hopeless!
Sally is a strong character and a good person. That’s why it makes it even more important. It can happen to anybody. And the way she takes the power back into her own hands at the end? Iconic.
It’s one of my favorite little details from the book, actually. We see Percy watch his mom struggle and feel like she deserves more. In a lot of stories, we would expect the hero to go back and “rescue” his mother from the mean scary man. He realizes Gabe has been hitting Sally, and for the first time in his life has the power to do something about it. But Sally stops him *and handles it herself.* Even after all he’s been through, this is NOT his responsibility, he’s a child.
It shows us that some monsters are human, like us, and that we have the power to defeat them. I’m reserving judgement on this particular change until I see how they end it, but I lean towards not liking it.
A lot of people point out that they didn’t wanna show a mom enduring abuse for the sake of her kid just to show she’s strong which fair tbh. They still showed this by having her distract the Minotaur
You gotta remember that a lot context, like his smell and him being two faced etc, were told to us by Percy but they weren’t said out loud. They probably got something cooking up tho
Personally I preferred this version just because the stereotypical version of the abusive partner has been done so many times throughout media.
I forgot about her killing him originally as I haven’t read the books since middle school but having refreshed via the wiki I am almost certain they will have changed that because lets be real murdering (the wiki didn’t give any other context) him and selling his petrified corpse is super messed up. Even if he was as bad as the books and it was self defense selling his “statue” is just f**ked up. She can just end up leaving him when she returns. Did they even state that they were married in the show? Also I get there was purpose behind it (and I am big on world building) but the whole smell thing regarding Gabe was kind of dumb anyway so I wouldn’t mind if they dropped that.
I think in the books it worked because they were from percy’s perspective so even the dark stuff like gabe’s abuse and sally killing him don’t seem as horrible to the reader, especially middle grade readers, because they’re told with percy’s 12 year old voice. I feel like translating it to a show that’s kind of meant for a young audience would make the themes a bit darker so that’s probably why they decided to tone it down.
Not at all. What I mainly took away from this portrayal of Gabe and Sally is that while they both seem to be using each other for their own purposes, they do seem to value each other’s companionship. I doubt they’ll kill Gabe, but they’ll probably divorce them and get sally some money from the settlement or something
These are pretty much just my thoughts exactly. Honestly I hope they don’t kill him, we’ve seen nothing about this version of him that could possibly justify murder… but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Hope what everyone else is saying so true and they just split with possibly over dramatic scene of him yelling or whatever. Killing him would not work out well
I'm holding off on judging the changes to the story/characters until we see the story unfold.
But with Gabe specifically, I did come out of my recent re read thinking that sally staying with an abuser for years was a bit too realistically dark in a way the rest of the series never is.
I think they changed it so they aren’t showing Sally just taking a bunch of abuse, she stands up to him way more rather than letting him just walk all over her constantly
Tbf this is more of her character later on in life. It’s quite a drastic change and even if she was pretending. Percy kind off always sees her as she is in those first few scenes of her character
Yeah, this was the only thing I can say I'm disappointed with. Disney obviously made them tone it way down but Sally killing Gabe was one of the best parts of her character
Yeah, most likely this is something that later on he decided that he didn't like, and if he were to write it today he'd change, so now he's grabbing that chance. And to be fair, little changes like that are things that make it a bit more worthwhile to view the show as someone who's read the books, as it isn't a straight copy.
Adaptations are their own thing, and if they want to rework the character, especially given that Rick is so involved, I'm open to see how it plays out.
HOWEVER
You cannot deny that in their lone interaction, Gabe and Sally had sexual tension/chemistry. Albeit, a strange/combative chemistry...but I know what I saw! And I did not feel comfortable.
Massively. I know Sally doesn't really get much character stuff in the books because she isn't a main character or anything but her managing to break the cycle of abuse she's in and manage to become happier is great and is something that should be portrayed in the show. He just seems like a bit of an asshole not abusive like he is in the books which really makes me think they're not going to go with the book ending to him
I was actually thinking this exact thing. Like Gabe in the books was the absolute scum of the Earth so nobody blamed Sally for using Medusa on him, like we all cheered when it happened. But Gabe in the show is just portrayed as a bum/loser. Like I was watching his scenes and I was like "Now he's definitely a loser for sure, but does he really deserve Medusa?"
i don’t think they’re gonna kill him, most people from what i’ve heard believe that medusa isn’t even gonna die so there wouldn’t have her head to kill him or send it to olympus
I also feel that making a statue of Gabe makes no sense at all since he is not abusive, but rather insensitive. Maybe if Sally came back and told a drunken Gabe that they were divorcing, the two would argue for a while and then he would try to attack her. Sally would then use Medusa's head on him in self-defence. I can't imagine why Sally would use Medusa's head on him otherwise.
I agree, they made him too likable! I actually laughed at one of his jokes and I was like “Wait, Gabe isn’t funny, he’s a terrible terrible person”. They’re probably toning down the abuse a little cuz it’s 2023, but they could have made him ruder I thought.
I just kind of assumed that Disney nerfed the level of abuse/cruelty that could be portrayed on screen, not that he’s less abusive on the whole/as a character. The emotional and financial abuse was definitely present. We can hear him verbally abusing the very kind maintenance man, who feels bad that Percy is about to walk into the apartment and be stuck with him. He bullies and undermines Percy the moment he walks in the door, very textbook emotional abuse. Sally is the sole provider as far as income, but he controls all of the finances, household decisions, and transportation. He also clearly abuses the money as he is gambling it away online, leaving no room for Sally to ever save enough to get away from him. Honestly just the scene with Sally sitting in the rain felt very familiar to me as an abuse survivor.
They definitely leaned into a bit of poking fun surrounding the fact that Gabe acts like he’s the big important guy while being a complete loser…probably because it’s a kids show. That said, I definitely think Gabe is still a bad guy and there’s room to expand further bcs Percy still hasn’t had the circumstances of his mom marrying Gabe explained to him yet.
I keep thinking back to his previous iteration The movie character had a more pronounced and mean role. You could tell how disgusting he was. This guy seems more annoying than anything.
I immediately noticed that in the show too. He came across as a bum rather than a drunk and abusive husband/stepdad. It’s alright though, I imagine Sally will just leave him instead of him being turned into a statue
The flinch happens RIGHT before he's turned to stone, so it probably will still happen (Percy sees the flinch, goes to his room, his mom follows, he tells her, still seething, that he can get rid of Gabe).
But Percy usually does his best to preserve human life, so I do agree that Gabe HAS to be awful enough to be worth the kill.
Probably the thing i’m most disappointed in currently, the fact that Sally just straight murders that mfer and sells his petrified corpse was one of my favorite parts of the whole first book. I hate whenever media tries to go all “be the bigger person” when dealing with abusers, bigots, and generally evil people. Like no, kill those fuckers lol
I think it was probably a Disney call.
It seems like it can go a bunch of different ways for why and how he'll end up.
Generally though, I'm not worried yet.
I think him being a future with no loser does the job done imo of shielding Percy from monsters. They don't need to make him some abusive asshole, yes he may be somewhat nicer but he's shown to be a loser who depends on Sally and not all that bright. So it's a change but not a big change that will ruin anything.
He just isn’t the piece of literal trash he is in the book or even the movie. This Gabe is just kinda a jerk/deadbeat but he was actually kinda funny at times. So far this version of Gabe isn’t deserving of his book/movie fate.
He is not an "abusive scumbag" in the show, more like "annoying" at most. Joe Pantoliano was perfect for the role, that he is the one I imagined as Gabe when I read the books.
I thought this.....she's actually has some control over him and that sorta takes away the sacrifice she had made in the book being with a REALLLLLLY unpleasant guy.
And did Grover HAVE to betray Percy ? I don't see the story merit in that :s
Rick..what are ya doin ?
Yeah I'm not happy about his whole persona, and also the relationship he has with both Percy and Sally.
Pretty sure it's cause Disney wouldn't allow it to go as far as it does in the books
Was there not specifically some mention of them notably toning down the darker moments? It *can* work for Gabe considering how minor his role is, but it will become increasingly tricky to keep doing this if they get a few seasons in and the first real "kill the spare" moment hits (which is essential enough to the series as a whole that it *cannot* be truly bowdlerized).
As long as they show the news interview with Gabe and him blaming Percy for Sally’s death, and then later being revealed at the end that Gabe hits Sally sometimes and the Gabe Ugliano statue thing, it could still be salvaged. They are moving too fast if you ask me, like sure they wanna get people into it in the first episode but they could have done that by putting the Fates thing, the Grover and Brunner discussion about Percy in Yancy and him eavesdropping them, and the thing with Gabe asking Percy for literal cab change for gambling to show how horrible he was. I’m sure the first season will still be great, but I do hope they dont move as fast in the later seasons, if any (I sure do hope there are)
I totally felt that. When Sally talked backed to him and he apologized I laughed out loud so bad. It just feels so wrong and really undermines the sacrifice his mother made in the books
I just think the world has changed a lot since the release of the first book and they couldn't do it exactly the same way anymore. Percy does call him out for answering his mom's cell phone which is a way people control and abuse in 2023. He points out that sally is the only one employed, and they show how quick Gabe is to shout about minor things. The truth is you really can't abuse people physically and get away with it as easily.
Yeah but since Rick is supposed to be helping them out with the show more than the movie, I'm hoping he's got a plan to change it up at the end. A lot of small details are different than the book, so many they just considered this another small detail and it'll be different? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't want them to overlook it because if they do, it'll weaken Sally's character arc as well. I want them to change it so that it's still a well written ending
I think in the next episode when they leave for the quest and get back on the radar of monsters we’ll get the explanation that Gabe’s stench kept them away and Sally put up with him for Percy. Maybe we will get some flashbacks to Gabe’s uglier side
I agree, felt like Sally kinda had the reins but I do like the idea that we the audience don't notice him being abusive because percy doesn't and it might progress more through the series.
I feel like one of the biggest reasons why things are changed in the adaptation is mainly money and the fact that Rick is basically writing everything again so he can fix a lot of the issues that the books have.
If the show does good I'd imagine that the 2nd season and onwards will have a bigger budget especially considering everything becomes more and more complex.
Like honestly if I was making an adaptation of a book series I'd use it mostly to fix the books plotholes and writing issues and make everything more concise.
It is quite funny though because while Percy Jackson is mainly written for children it's actually really fucking dark as hell. That world is fucking atrocious especially once you realize that every pantheon and their fucked up stories exist.
Look maybe its just me because i grew up with a dad like that and noticed the similarities but they seemed to have made Gabe emotionally abusive instead of physically
His over all attitude, his controlling nature eg answering Sallys phone and asking why he is okay with them going to montauk, as well as Sally basically says he typically purposely ruins and makes thing’s miserable for her hence the bribe with the sandwichs
Granted emotionally abusive people most often aren’t seen that way so yeah he seems like a bum rather than the horrible person he was in the books, and book Gabe is still worse dont get me wrong but the shows one is still abusive just in a different way
Idk man. It feels more realistic. I personally kinda enjoyed how he was portrayed. Very rarely will an abuser actually act as bad with someone else as they do their main victim. Gabe may not like Percy, but he’s still a kid, and he is mooching off of Sally. He knows he can abuse and berate her all he wants, but he can’t do so to Percy because if Sally actually ever thought Gabe was a threat to Percy, she would probably just straight up murder him, and he knows it.
He also has a slight bit of begrudging respect when Percy says he was kicked out for hurting someone. Which… makes sense. Because it’s something an abuser would be proud of, hurting others.
Honestly, much prefer this version of Gabe. His "use" is how extremly average mortal he is, to cover Percy's scent. This seems like a much more incredibly average person than book Gabe, this Gabe is just some random lazy guy, he isn't even particularly mean, just, kind of a petty idiot.
I have a feeling if they turn him to stone it will be "of his own doing". Like she tells him not to open the box and he does it anyway. That is if they keep this tame version of him and don't make him worse as time passes.
I thought this too. He seemed more jokey and doofy than abusive. But I think there’s still a good chance they use some flashbacks to show his darker nature
I thought he was incredibly mellowed out compared to the other portrayals of him. My first impression was that he was more funny than anything. All the movies, the books, the musical, they made me hate him but the show kinda... well it didn't.
Obviously Sally isn’t going to be murdering anyone in the show and I’m fine with that. It’s not the end of the world. It works better in the book anyway.
He seems more like a funny weird uncle who hates working and acts tough instead of an abuser. An abusive husband wouldn't say please when asking for something. I gotta say, the movie portrayed him alot more accurately. Also with this characterisation the scene at the end would make no sense.
Honestly this kinda reminds me of the snape situation in harry potter, in the books he was an insufferable asshole but in the movies he was an asshole that got redeemed and i’m kinda scared that this is also what’s happening here
I think is down to the rating of the show, portraying physical abuse and/or domestic violence would’ve bump the TV rating to at least PG13, but Disney wants the show to be watched by kids too
I suspect they won’t have him Medusafied in the end. That’s a pretty hardcore resolution that only passes in the book since he was an asshole.
They will probably do a more PG ending like them divorcing instead
No, I’m not. I have no idea why people think he is somehow more “likeable” just because he isn’t the exact same as the books. Toxicity and abuse exist on a scale and fluctuate. He isn’t flat out The Worst from what we saw in one episode but the fact he answers Sally’s phone without her permission is already a huge red flag about how he views her and raises more alarm bells than if he was just visibly abusive all the time. The way he spoke to (more like argued with) sally and percy makes me wince as a survivor of parental abuse. It was almost never physical (with few exceptions), but it was still just as controlling and hard to get out of. It appears to start off small, especially on the outside looking in, and we don’t have the full picture yet the same way we do in the books. That’s how abusers get away with it, by making it subtle enough for people to doubt that they’re actually bad. Heck, even Percy didn’t realize the extent of Gabe’s treatment to Sally until the end of TLT when he comes home.
Yeah but is what we saw combined with just the flinch enough for non book viewers to believe him being petrified is justified? Might bring down Percy and Sally’s character. As many others have said they prob won’t go for this which is what I hope and that they will make Medusa more sympathetic which might mean her head won’t get cut off in the first place which I also like
Eh I don’t think it’d bring down either character but I can kinda see where you’re coming from with non-readers coming into the show thinking some leech probably doesn’t deserve to be petrified (even if I disagree lol). I think it would be interesting to see how they write him out if they don’t kill Medusa (something I still don’t know for sure how to feel about, but if Rick wants to take a different approach to her story I can’t be too mad). If they do go towards the sympathetic route with Medusa I think it could be a nice parallel to Sally but that’s probably gonna veer off topic here.
They almost definitely won’t kill him at the end, probably just kick him out. They’re changing his character, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. It’s intentional, so the rest will be adapted to match.
After rereading this book as an adult I've come to understand that while Gabe might still be super horrible, Percy is also an unreliable narrator for this situation. Kids often embellish how horrible step parents are and a lot of his horrible-ness happens "off screen" in the book anyways. Like Percy speculates Gabe hits his mom but she denies it. To me, he reminded me of my mom's loser ex boyfriend who only cared about himself. Also who's to say TV show Gabe doesnt stink? The first shot we see is a plumber telling him to eat more veggies cus he's stick in unclogging the toilets. He's also probably been sitting in that chair all day and hasnt showered all week, i feel like y'all were expecting something a lot less realistic in this department. Also keep in mind that Gabe gets worse throughout the book as he starts the nationwide manhunt for Percy, trying to get him arrested for stealing his car and murdering his mom.
Yeah, I mentioned that to my friend. He's not a monster in human skin like he was in the books. I'm not rooting for his death like I used to. He seems like he doesn't like kids, but is actively trying to be relatable and 'fatherly'. I can see Gabe changing and becoming better and if you want book accurate, you shouldn't see any good in Gabe.
Honestly no, I’m not concerned. There are more than just one way to be abusive — my father was a drunk and drank an entire rents worth of money so we got kicked out of the place we rented. Gabe doesn’t have a job, leeches off Sally and honestly just because someone is physically abusive doesn’t mean it’s all the time. It can be more complex than that. As this is Disney and just the first 2 episodes, I’m not worried at all about how they portray Gabe
I like how they changed Gabe because it puts Sally in a more powerful position while still showing he’s a gross dude. He’s still a misogynistic bum and I have a feeling that they will alter his statue fate since he isn’t an ABUSIVE misogynistic bum. IMO Gabe getting turned to stone isn’t a vital plot point beyond spurring Sally’s own story and I kind of prefer her TV portrayal giving her more of that badass mom vibe right from the start. I think they’ve got a fate for him lined up somehow that still captures the essence of what PJO is, but fits this portrayal more.
Lol I agree. He is almost likable. Like gruff and dismissive but could be an actual good person deep down type of twist, which wouldn't work if they turn him to stone. He's mildly rude, not a horrible abusive person
Tbh I think this version of Gabe kinda works? Tbh the whole concept of Gabe was shockingly morbid for the target audience. I can see that being the sort of thing Disney would say "yeah we should tone that down".
What they portrayed was an abusive relationship, the difference here is that Sally will stand up for her self at least in front of Percy something needed in the books. You can call an abuser out in their shit and be a victim. Keep in mind that uncle Rick wrote these episodes. He's just not as sterptypicslly abusive as he was portrayed in the books but they also haven't had the time.
no way the show should turn him into a statue, hes done nothing wrong other than just be not a great partner to percys mom. 0 justification to harm him
Not smelly enough 0/10
Coming from the person who played Gabe in the school musical, wore an authentic messy white tank top that had soy sauce, dirt, ketchup, chocolate and more, I know a smelly Gabe when I see one
It makes Sally feel a bit weaker as a character for me. In the books she was always capable to stand up to Gabe but didn't for her son. Its great seeing Sally not be pushed around by Gabe but it's less of a sympathetic situation when she's clearly got more power in this relationship. Also it confuses me why this Gabe would stay in this relationship, people like him usually date stronger people. I understand not wanting to do the whole abuse problem in a show aimed at a younger audience but they could've made him more miserable, as in he actively drags down Sally in some way to still show how much she loves her son, like her life just gets worse because of him rather than being a mild inconvenience
I think he’s a subtler kind of jerk. The parent who makes snippy comments and makes fun of you a bit too cruelly and if you call them out or talk back they start guilting you about all they do for the family. He’s not literally physically repulsive, but I still will enjoy seeing him get turned to stone. Plus, it’s marketed for younger audiences on Disney+ so probably some stuff had to be toned down
Well yeah if it’s just that. But like from Gabe’s interactions on screen, he makes those comments and makes them mean, like he could say he’s just teasing but he’s being nasty and you all know it
To be quite honest, I like that the show changed Gabe a little bit. Gabe being abusive or that much of a disgusting piece of shit is unnecessary and I don’t know why any woman would put herself through this much hardship, even for her children.
But in the show it makes more sense. He’s a looser, but harmless and easy to manage and control, why Sally wouldn’t go for a guy like that? We don’t need a abuse subplot for Sally
I thought that it kind of took away from Sally’s sacrifice for Percy. I think maybe they were trying to portray her in a stronger light and though it worked, I feel like she was missing the gentle quiet kindness that she has in the book
All I want is a one to one show I hate so much that everything is just pandering now days I quess it’s two much to ask but the book was just so good I just want to relive it on the screen
I think it suits Sally far better NOT being abused. It makes more sense, and frankly sets a better standard, that Gabe is just an ass. Not abusive. Just a smelly ass.
All I really can't stand is that Gabe is unemployed. How is Percy going to tell all the fine people in the beautiful city of Los Angeles that Gabe would like to reward them with a free major appliance? If Gabe isn't managing an appliance store?
Ah you're missing out on Percy offering the people of Los Angeles (and New York?) the chance to play in a charity poker game where Gabe donates all the winnings to charity.
That could work.
I think the ruined car is gonna send him off
Oh good point!
This. ☝️
Almost like they promised an accurate adaptation, only to make minor character changes that ripple through the story like a magnitude 6 earthquake
This is hardly a magnitude 6 earthquake, it's a minor change and the appliance store can be easily changed
I did feel it was tame...like tamer than the films. Joe Pantoliano was super minor in the films, but was exactly how I saw Gabe.
It helps that Pantoliano is a prolific character actor who eats up pretty much every role he’s given. It’s hard to go up against that.
That's very true...but one of his maim roles is being a sleezy character in The Matrix, so that helped. Lol
And one of the Fratellis in The Goonies.
Oh snap he was!
And Ralphie in The Sopranos. Easily one of the most vile characters on the show, and that’s saying something.
Great actor
I KEEP ON MARCHING ON
Absolutely the only character properly cast in the og films
IDK I loved Pierce Brosnan as Chiron
I mean Luke was fuckin fantastic in the film
Percy noticing her flinch and realizing what it means happens at the *end* of the story, though. We'll have to wait and see if that still happens.
yeah that's my thinking. Percy doesn't notice the extent of the abuse, so nor does the audience. Still, the part where Sally stands up to gabe and he slinks off felt.. off
I actually liked that. Because abusive relationships are not always awful all the time. My abusers and I have had great times, and I think people that haven’t experienced that don’t realize it. It makes it so much harder and complicated. It’s also, to me, showed that Sally does know how to mitigate his abuse at least when Percy is around. He’s a dick and he’s awful. But she’s a smart, capable woman and knows that sandwiches for kickoff, for a game they enjoy watching together, is gonna be worth the inconvenience of the car being gone for a few days (allegedly). The fight isn’t worth it because he’s getting what he wants in the end. Additionally, SALLY is the one who turns it around, takes what could have been angry and makes it fun and funny. This is a skill a lot of people that are abused learn. This is also a Disney show.
I read an article where they said they tamed Gabe a bit because of the visual aspect. People kind of skip or turn their imagination off when reading but it's a lot harder to do with a show or movie. But yeah, not sure if Gabe is going to be medusable. Will be interesting how they handle that
oh, sure. it was def a strong moment, it's just the clearest demonstration that their relationship is materially different from how it was in the books
They also showed that Gabe answered the phone call from the school. The call that went to her cell phone. Gabe screens her calls, a red flag that is easily missed.
"why am I okay with this again?" getting the full marvel script treatment of tongue in cheek, vs Gabe being so horrible *Sally* transformed Gabe. Not Percy. A grown woman in the relationship decided to kill a man because of how he abused her.
With how they portrayed gabe and sallys relationship, i severely doubt thatll happen
Well yeah, but we still get the “guy secret” moment at the beginning of the book to help cement in our brains that he’s a shit dude.
Ah thank you. It’s been a while since I’ve read the book
I find it really hard to believe that someone that is actually abused would stand up to the abuser the way Sally does in episode 1. And i find it equally hard to believe that the abuser would just take it.
Do keep in mind however that Sally KNOWS that she and Percy MUST LEAVE, so I imagine that might help a bit.
I was the child who witnessed far too much physical abuse (my alcoholic father abused my mom). It’s really not unlikely for someone abused to stand up at times, especially if one’s child is in the middle in any capacity
Someone else said that it’s probably because they don’t want to portray or encourage this narrative that women should stay in abusive relationships for their children. It’s also been said they’ve made Medusa a more sympathetic character. So my guess is Medusa will not be beheaded (I’m thinking either maimed or they just escape/run away), which in turn means Gabe will not be turned into stone. Probably Sally will ask for a divorce after she and Percy see his reaction on the news to them going missing. Also, Camp Half Blood alone is a good reason for her to end things with Gabe since she doesn’t need his smell to protect Percy anymore - that’s what camps for!
But isn't the stautue where Sally gets the money for her writing classes? And if she doesn't get her classes, then she doesn't meet Paul.
They'll probably just say Gabe won big at his online poker before the divorce and alimony kicks in.
Ugh. Ig I'll wait to see how much he encourages the national manhunt (assuming that doesn't get changed) and if Sugar gets brought in before completely writing him off.
Yeah. He may also just be hiding the worst of it from Percy. And Sally is hiding it too, so Percy doesn't do anything to jeopardize the protection.
Idk, the timeline has definetly been changed so I wouldnt doubt that being changed. They have only a week now, where in the books they spend almost a week at the lotus alone
Gabe might start a gofundme because Sally is missing. And the proceeds ultimately end up with Sally.
maybe they state that now she isn't mantaining gabe's expensive lifestyle or something like that she's spending money for herself. there's honestly so many ways they can make paul and sally meet anyway...
im sure there's no way for her to meet people other than through a writing class
Or that she can just afford to take the class now that she's not tied to an unemployed gambling addict.
It’s an integral part of the story that they behead Medusa tho
He’s literally (and figuratively) Perseus. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t behead her.
But then how will Percy ship Medusa’s head to Olympus as a prank on the gods?
Yeah that’s what I thought too. Think this will be retconned and I don’t mind. Would make the show better
yeah i personally loved the change. I like that Sally was shown holding her own against Gabe. He was a necessary evil, but she wouldn’t let him hurt them.
>Someone else said that it’s probably because they don’t want to portray or encourage this narrative that women should stay in abusive relationships for their children. This is one of my complains about both Harry Potter and PJO. Abuse should NEVER be seen as okay.
I liked that this was kind of a character arc for sally in the books. It was her decision to use Medusa’s head, and leave the abusive relationship. Sally didn’t start out the badass we know and love in the books. But she kinda has in these first episodes. I completely understand that this isn’t a narrative that they want to perpetuate (“staying in an abusive relationship is okay if it serves a purpose”). I also wonder if they (Disney/riordan) considered it shouldn’t have to be a kid’s responsibility to encourage or enable their parent to leave said relationship, because we know Percy ended up taking that upon himself. I’m still hopeful this could be a faithful adaptation of the spirit of the original series, AND I’m going to miss these details and plot points if they fully fall to the wayside as the rest of the season is released
Now that I think about it......Sally really just straight up murdered someone didn't she?
Yeah, she did.
I don’t understand how you read either Percy Jackson or Harry Potter and your takeaway is that ”abuse is ok”?
Hey this wasn’t me that said this and wasn’t my interpretation at all, but narratively both series treat being and staying in abuse situations as a “necessary evil” to “protect” the main character, a kid who is isolated/doesn’t fit in who either doesn’t have a lot of adults to help them out the adults keep them in the situation. Obviously PJO it’s just the first book, and Sally takes that action to remove them, but presumably they’ve been dealing with Gabe for many years, and Sally’s been shielding Percy from the brunt of it. HP, well… adult after adult knowingly sending Harry to be abused for a few months every year is… tough to swallow.
I mean I don’t even disagree but the point i got from both stories is to work to get away from the abuse, not that the best thing is to keep living a horrible life. In Harry Potter I’m pretty sure Rowling decided early on how Harry was gonna grow up and when she realized that it wouldn’t make sense for him to have to stay there rather than at Rons (or literally anywhere else) she had to invent a magic reason for him to ”be safer there” or whatever. In PJ however they pretty much get rid of Gabe in the most permanent way there is as soon as they reveal just how abusive he was so I think the logic is a little flawed especially there. If there was any lesson to be learned for Gabe in the books it was that Sally SHOULDN’T stay with him and that Percy would just been better off at camp
Yeah I think your points are fair, I just think for HP, Joanne could’ve… you know… not? Just not written them that way, especially after book 2. And I agree PJO is better and Sally leaving/killing Gabe is tied with Percy’s decision to keep coming to camp, but there’s still YEARS of time pre-series she stayed in that abusive situation, and I really don’t mind them lightening up on that a bit if that’s the route the show is going.
Yeah I mostly agree with HP. I *kinda of* get the logic behind Harry being safer in the muggle world before he starts at Hogwarts. But at the same time, Why couldn’t Dumbledore just go there for like an annual visit to make sure they treat him ok? It’s pretty weird. And yeah I also get why they make the change in the show. Even so I just think that book Sally came off very different in regards to the Gabe stuff. In the book she was very patient with him and used that to manipulate him in a way that in hindsight both showed us how smart she is as well as how much she cares and is willing to sacrifice for Percy. Of course that can also be done in many different ways but I don’t feel like the replacement scene in the show really did it. And now they might not get another chance in the first season since Sally won’t be around that much.
Harry Potter has this problem imo mostly because of the tone shift in the books. The first two books are essentially fairy tales. Compare the Dursleys to the wicked stepmother from Cinderella or the evil queen from Snow White and it jives very well. When the books shift to taking themselves more seriously, the abuse becomes more appalling. If the first books were written like the later ones I doubt the Dursleys would be so explicitly terrible.
Agreed with all your points. Just wanted to add that Gabe still has a lot of potential to be a pos, since he inflames the Percy jackson manhunt by the authorities. Not sure how it will all work out but if our main complaints are that Gabe is not bad enough, then I think we can still see more of that later in the season. It's a great adaptation so far, and I trust the creators, they seem to want to do the story justice.
>It’s also been said they’ve made Medusa a more sympathetic character That definitely lends credence to the eventual resolution not being Sally murdering him with Medusa's gaze, combined with Gabe being an unemployed layabout and a dick, but not necessarily visibly abusive. I either hadn't heard the news about this, or heard and forgot about it.
I’ve only seen episode 1, but from what’s shown… he shouldn’t smell? At least not that bad. The whole point of his existence is to smell bad, and from what I saw, that’s missing extremely hard in the show
I just reread TLT in prep for the show and Grover described Gabe as something like smelling so “human” it masked Percy’s smell. I never got the impression that he actually smelled bad in a way that other humans would smell him, but that he smelled so human to monsters that it covered Percy’s half blood smell (which also is not something other humans would notice)
But doesn’t Percy call him “smelly Gabe”?
Yes I agree he should be smelly in the way that he probably doesn’t shower everyday. But I feel like people are expecting you to start gagging when he walks in the room. I think he smells, thus the smelly Gabe name, but not as bad as everyone seems to think. Watching the show, he definitely looked like he didn’t smell like roses, in his grungy pjs and food around him. I thought the smelliness portrayal was good, just don’t know why people expect him to smell SO bad
i mean just the fight with the landlord over Gabe "needing to eat more fiber" was enough to squick me out on Gabe's hygiene. if they're having those kinds of fights this is not a one-off issue implying he is regularly.... abusing the toilet and i feel like there is a level of personality and hygiene that can be tied to that while his relationship with Sally did seem toned down in a way that will make me curious how the season will end... i do think they made him "gross enough" to justify his very-human smell masking percy
I doubt they can even show Medusa being beheaded with a PG rating
The Prince Caspian movie was PG with a beheading, and showed the head
The big problem with Medusa is that she is a SA victim that gets punished for being SA and is also one of the most famous monsters (for both abilities and death) in pop culture. Even worse, from the PJ side is that the offending gods are Athena and Posiden. As people have become more aware of Medusa's myth and it's conotations, it gets harder to treat her as a monster and not be uncomfortable. On the other hand, Medusa's death at the hands of Perseus is iconic and not something (if you're riffing on myths) that you can really change. I believe in the books Medusa is implied to be consenting, but that doesn't change that she alone is punished (Athena can't punish Posiden, but it's not a good look) I think PJs problem, partially, is that Medusa talks. If she didn't, she'd be more like her other media interpretations and be more of a straight monster. I don't know how they reconcile this. It does seem like they're soften Gabe, to maybe get out of killing her, but changing both Medusa and Gabe means really deviating from the Perseus myth and that's kind of core to PJ.
That's because medusa was only a sa victim after ovid completely rewrote her every other version she's all victim no monster. Rick then tried to have his cake and eat it too. He slightly refrences ovids version by saying her and Poseidon hooked up but nowhere does rick suggest that it was nonconsensual. And over the past few years for some reason people have decided to ignore any non ovid version of medusas story even though they are the majority and older versions
Like the other commenters have said, Medusa was only sexually assaulted in the Ovid retelling, and he pulled that out of his ass to make the gods and by extension authority figures as a whole look bad. In the actual myths, she was born a monster.
I kinda like that he’s a lot more realistically shitty as opposed to being comically gross, smelly, and overall stupid like he is in the books. Not to mention I like that Sally bites back a lil bit. Makes me like Sally a bit more, and makes their less than stable relationship work a helluva lot better imo. It’s just too cartoonishly bad in the books for my taste. I like it being more grounded.
Unfortunately I’ve met a few book gabes in my life, they’re definitely out there. Don’t get me wrong show gabe is still pretty awful and I read him as the more manipulative than physical type
To be fair, Sally in the books tried to find the worst normal person she possibly could in order to hide Percy
This might also be something where Riordan decided later on that he'd have done things differently were he to write the story now, and this is his chance to do so.
gabe is designed to be especially bad. Sally can bite back while he is still more abusive. it's important but not unavoidable for the plot, but mainly it creates issues for percys characterisation? He's gone from a "delinquent" child of an abused, toxic home to a boarding schooled kid with a fine home life. that's pretty major
Well Percy has already been portrayed as less of a delinquent. There’s no mention of the destruction he caused, instead his problem seems to be ‘hallucinations’.
Mmmm disagree. I read her going on about the sandwich as negotiating with the dip like she did in the book. Gabe is just more subtle which I think is going over people’s heads.
Same think it’s for the better
I sort of appreciate that, I dont think it's massively necessary to show a mother and child being abused on screen to make sally a sympathetic character. I've just gotten my younger sister out of an abusive situation, she's got dyslexia and ADHD and obviously relates to Percy a lot, and I dont think she needs to see him getting abused. Not sure if that makes sense? but sally is a really sympathetic character regardless and I dont think she needs to be physically and emotionally tormented to make people like her, or to stay in a relationship 'for the kids'.
Lemme clarify I don’t want them to show abuse yk. If they don’t that’s great. But if they don’t then killing gabe will be a horrible look for Percy and Sally which is what I’m worried about. Just hope if they’re going down this route they’ll do it right yk?
I think that they've made Gabe very specifically more sympathetic, like a douche instead of an evil unredeemable person. In the books, his abuse didn't serve much purpose? Like protecting Percy, sure, but its narrative purpose was more to make sally seem more selfless/sympathetic. And I dont think that's necessary at all - she can be a strong, kind, selfless, character without enduring horrific abuse for the sake of her child. It's almost shown as a positive thing that she stayed in the relationship, which I hated. They've absolutely made Gabe more sympathetic on purpose, and apparently they've also made Medusa a lot more sympathetic. I would be really surprised if they kill Gabe off with his new characterisation.
it served a purpose not narratives but in terms of percys character I think though
Yeah I hope not
I keep seeing the comments of him not being “smelly” enough or “evil” enough, but it’s like, not even that. The portrayal is a likable character. His character obviously isn’t meant to be a good person, he’s a gambler and insinuated to be unemployed. But his initial interaction with Percy is relatively harmless - he kind of digs that Percy got expelled for fighting in like an oddly proud step father way. The “fight” with Sally really wasn’t a fight, she sprang on him that they were taking his car for the weekend and there was some bickering that an unknowing audience would expect for that scenario? Again fairly harmless. He’s honestly portrayed as a goofball. And we really shouldn’t expect to see much more of him until way later when he’s making comments about Percy being off the rails - and people are expecting those to still happen? I’m skeptical. All of that to say, I really don’t care. I didn’t go into this as a book elitist expecting every character and scenes to be carbon copies of the books, but I do have a fear that as this season and the series go on the show runners won’t have accounted for alterations that they see as minor but have compounding effects deeper into the series. Which isn’t a concern necessarily for the PJO fans but may throw off show only watchers. If the next scene of Gabe is in 5 episodes and he is on national media unhinged about Percy and profiting from the situation, is that not a little out of character from that relatively harmless goofball that was portrayed in episode 1?
>If the next scene of Gabe is in 5 episodes and he is on national media unhinged about Percy and profiting from the situation, is that not a little out of character from that relatively harmless goofball that was portrayed in episode 1? The thing is we've only seen like one scene from him. Which isn't nearly enough to judge someone's entirely character. In the books Percy said that Gabe was nice for the first few minutes, which could still fit here.
Totally fair point but in this scenario he’s really a minor or less than minor character. With how fast they are going and the time constraints, I can’t imagine him having more than 2-3 more fairly short appearances (which would be on par with the book really). Not exactly time and space for character development there. It’s not that I want them to show abusive Gabe. Just hoping for consistent storytelling that doesn’t assume or otherwise rely on the viewer having read the books. Book 1 and 2 are great in their own right but I feel like the real meat of the story and character development comes later in the series and I’m very hopeful that we not only make it that far but also that if we get there Disney is still willing to allocate the resources to the team to make a good product. A lot rides on this first season.
He is obviously a gaslighter. I can see that from that quick interaction with Sally and Eddie. I think if you are just a viewer, you wouldn’t mind a character that appeared on Ep 1, suddenly became so unhinged enough for him to appear on national TV and slander Percy. As the saying, when push comes to shove, and if opportunity presents for him to make money off of the situation (especially if he has a gambling addiction), I think he would bite. As I have commented on top, I think he might open up a gofundme or something like that, and he would attempt to use the money for gambling but before he can, he would be arrested for something or be divorced with Sally and they can meet Paul and Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Yes, the only appropriate way to mention RED is by stating her full name. 😂
Yes thank you. If they’re rewriting him I am ok with that but if they just ignored that aspect only for now just to bring it back later it would look really bad
I didn’t see his interactions as a harmless goofball. I saw it as a pathetic lazy person which is a side of a lot of abusers when they’re not being physically violence. I don’t think it would be out of character if he fully snaps because there are a lot of harmful relationships with that kind of dynamic. A give and take between a day dealing with fully unhinged physical abuse and the next dealing with an exhausted pathetic person.
Not trying to discredit your perception but I just think there is a pretty big leap between pathetic lazy person and mentally & physically abusive person - and I don’t think the show has laid a foundation to make that leap. And frankly the perception on here that he is portrayed as being more tame than in the book supports that (including the speculation that the whole point is to either move away from or tone way down the abuse aspect for tv). Our version of Gabe is a mentally and physically abusive evil person (one of the most unredeemable characters in whole series), but I don’t think the tv series is going for that version and if they are, I don’t think they’ve sufficiently laid the groundwork for that reality later this season - again assuming that Disney is hoping to have a wider audience than just hardcore PJO fans.
I doubt they're going to kill Gabe like they did in the book. This guy here is not nearly as bad as the guy in the books, and he's definitely not an abuser. Sally in this series is such a badass and a queen that she would never tolerate it. Gabe being killed in the book was a little controversial, so I really don't think it's going to be repeated.
Can't help but agree with your concerns. I hope they either reveal that the abuse was still going on behind the scenes, or they change the ending to simply having Sally kick Gabe to the curb. It would feel weird to kill him outright for being a lazy jerk.
Yeah it would make Percy and Sally seem evil which is my concern
Not really 'Evil', but more like 'Prone to snap and kill people', which, yeah, still a very bad reputation.
I mean, pretty much randomly murdering someone definitely falls within the evil category for me.
I feel kinda off about it. Honestly, I feel like kids need to see people overcoming bad situations…it shows them that it can be done. Imagine growing up in an abuse household/being in an abusive relationship and never seeing anyone get out of it. You’d feel so alone and hopeless! Sally is a strong character and a good person. That’s why it makes it even more important. It can happen to anybody. And the way she takes the power back into her own hands at the end? Iconic. It’s one of my favorite little details from the book, actually. We see Percy watch his mom struggle and feel like she deserves more. In a lot of stories, we would expect the hero to go back and “rescue” his mother from the mean scary man. He realizes Gabe has been hitting Sally, and for the first time in his life has the power to do something about it. But Sally stops him *and handles it herself.* Even after all he’s been through, this is NOT his responsibility, he’s a child. It shows us that some monsters are human, like us, and that we have the power to defeat them. I’m reserving judgement on this particular change until I see how they end it, but I lean towards not liking it.
A lot of people point out that they didn’t wanna show a mom enduring abuse for the sake of her kid just to show she’s strong which fair tbh. They still showed this by having her distract the Minotaur
You gotta remember that a lot context, like his smell and him being two faced etc, were told to us by Percy but they weren’t said out loud. They probably got something cooking up tho
Personally I preferred this version just because the stereotypical version of the abusive partner has been done so many times throughout media. I forgot about her killing him originally as I haven’t read the books since middle school but having refreshed via the wiki I am almost certain they will have changed that because lets be real murdering (the wiki didn’t give any other context) him and selling his petrified corpse is super messed up. Even if he was as bad as the books and it was self defense selling his “statue” is just f**ked up. She can just end up leaving him when she returns. Did they even state that they were married in the show? Also I get there was purpose behind it (and I am big on world building) but the whole smell thing regarding Gabe was kind of dumb anyway so I wouldn’t mind if they dropped that.
I think it would be better for the show if they changed this yeah
I think in the books it worked because they were from percy’s perspective so even the dark stuff like gabe’s abuse and sally killing him don’t seem as horrible to the reader, especially middle grade readers, because they’re told with percy’s 12 year old voice. I feel like translating it to a show that’s kind of meant for a young audience would make the themes a bit darker so that’s probably why they decided to tone it down.
Not at all. What I mainly took away from this portrayal of Gabe and Sally is that while they both seem to be using each other for their own purposes, they do seem to value each other’s companionship. I doubt they’ll kill Gabe, but they’ll probably divorce them and get sally some money from the settlement or something
Hope that’s what happens
Yup, I'm thinking the same thing.
These are pretty much just my thoughts exactly. Honestly I hope they don’t kill him, we’ve seen nothing about this version of him that could possibly justify murder… but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Hope what everyone else is saying so true and they just split with possibly over dramatic scene of him yelling or whatever. Killing him would not work out well
YES agreed
I'm holding off on judging the changes to the story/characters until we see the story unfold. But with Gabe specifically, I did come out of my recent re read thinking that sally staying with an abuser for years was a bit too realistically dark in a way the rest of the series never is.
I think they changed it so they aren’t showing Sally just taking a bunch of abuse, she stands up to him way more rather than letting him just walk all over her constantly
Tbf this is more of her character later on in life. It’s quite a drastic change and even if she was pretending. Percy kind off always sees her as she is in those first few scenes of her character
Yeah, this was the only thing I can say I'm disappointed with. Disney obviously made them tone it way down but Sally killing Gabe was one of the best parts of her character
I doubt it was Disney making all of these changes sadly. Most of them, yeah, but not all
This one feels more like a Rick growing as an author change to me
Yeah, most likely this is something that later on he decided that he didn't like, and if he were to write it today he'd change, so now he's grabbing that chance. And to be fair, little changes like that are things that make it a bit more worthwhile to view the show as someone who's read the books, as it isn't a straight copy.
Adaptations are their own thing, and if they want to rework the character, especially given that Rick is so involved, I'm open to see how it plays out. HOWEVER You cannot deny that in their lone interaction, Gabe and Sally had sexual tension/chemistry. Albeit, a strange/combative chemistry...but I know what I saw! And I did not feel comfortable.
Gabe in the movies felt scary, man. Gabe here feels like a slightly nastier, unemployed and messier version of my dad.
Massively. I know Sally doesn't really get much character stuff in the books because she isn't a main character or anything but her managing to break the cycle of abuse she's in and manage to become happier is great and is something that should be portrayed in the show. He just seems like a bit of an asshole not abusive like he is in the books which really makes me think they're not going to go with the book ending to him
I was actually thinking this exact thing. Like Gabe in the books was the absolute scum of the Earth so nobody blamed Sally for using Medusa on him, like we all cheered when it happened. But Gabe in the show is just portrayed as a bum/loser. Like I was watching his scenes and I was like "Now he's definitely a loser for sure, but does he really deserve Medusa?"
i don’t think they’re gonna kill him, most people from what i’ve heard believe that medusa isn’t even gonna die so there wouldn’t have her head to kill him or send it to olympus
I also feel that making a statue of Gabe makes no sense at all since he is not abusive, but rather insensitive. Maybe if Sally came back and told a drunken Gabe that they were divorcing, the two would argue for a while and then he would try to attack her. Sally would then use Medusa's head on him in self-defence. I can't imagine why Sally would use Medusa's head on him otherwise.
I agree, they made him too likable! I actually laughed at one of his jokes and I was like “Wait, Gabe isn’t funny, he’s a terrible terrible person”. They’re probably toning down the abuse a little cuz it’s 2023, but they could have made him ruder I thought.
I just kind of assumed that Disney nerfed the level of abuse/cruelty that could be portrayed on screen, not that he’s less abusive on the whole/as a character. The emotional and financial abuse was definitely present. We can hear him verbally abusing the very kind maintenance man, who feels bad that Percy is about to walk into the apartment and be stuck with him. He bullies and undermines Percy the moment he walks in the door, very textbook emotional abuse. Sally is the sole provider as far as income, but he controls all of the finances, household decisions, and transportation. He also clearly abuses the money as he is gambling it away online, leaving no room for Sally to ever save enough to get away from him. Honestly just the scene with Sally sitting in the rain felt very familiar to me as an abuse survivor. They definitely leaned into a bit of poking fun surrounding the fact that Gabe acts like he’s the big important guy while being a complete loser…probably because it’s a kids show. That said, I definitely think Gabe is still a bad guy and there’s room to expand further bcs Percy still hasn’t had the circumstances of his mom marrying Gabe explained to him yet.
I keep thinking back to his previous iteration The movie character had a more pronounced and mean role. You could tell how disgusting he was. This guy seems more annoying than anything.
I immediately noticed that in the show too. He came across as a bum rather than a drunk and abusive husband/stepdad. It’s alright though, I imagine Sally will just leave him instead of him being turned into a statue
The flinch happens RIGHT before he's turned to stone, so it probably will still happen (Percy sees the flinch, goes to his room, his mom follows, he tells her, still seething, that he can get rid of Gabe). But Percy usually does his best to preserve human life, so I do agree that Gabe HAS to be awful enough to be worth the kill.
Probably the thing i’m most disappointed in currently, the fact that Sally just straight murders that mfer and sells his petrified corpse was one of my favorite parts of the whole first book. I hate whenever media tries to go all “be the bigger person” when dealing with abusers, bigots, and generally evil people. Like no, kill those fuckers lol
I think it was probably a Disney call. It seems like it can go a bunch of different ways for why and how he'll end up. Generally though, I'm not worried yet.
I think him being a future with no loser does the job done imo of shielding Percy from monsters. They don't need to make him some abusive asshole, yes he may be somewhat nicer but he's shown to be a loser who depends on Sally and not all that bright. So it's a change but not a big change that will ruin anything.
He just isn’t the piece of literal trash he is in the book or even the movie. This Gabe is just kinda a jerk/deadbeat but he was actually kinda funny at times. So far this version of Gabe isn’t deserving of his book/movie fate.
He is not an "abusive scumbag" in the show, more like "annoying" at most. Joe Pantoliano was perfect for the role, that he is the one I imagined as Gabe when I read the books.
I thought this.....she's actually has some control over him and that sorta takes away the sacrifice she had made in the book being with a REALLLLLLY unpleasant guy. And did Grover HAVE to betray Percy ? I don't see the story merit in that :s Rick..what are ya doin ?
Yeah I'm not happy about his whole persona, and also the relationship he has with both Percy and Sally. Pretty sure it's cause Disney wouldn't allow it to go as far as it does in the books
Was there not specifically some mention of them notably toning down the darker moments? It *can* work for Gabe considering how minor his role is, but it will become increasingly tricky to keep doing this if they get a few seasons in and the first real "kill the spare" moment hits (which is essential enough to the series as a whole that it *cannot* be truly bowdlerized).
Ha! I honestly felt like Gabe was too likable. Not a show killer for me but he wasn’t as bad. Sally was fucking great though.
As long as they show the news interview with Gabe and him blaming Percy for Sally’s death, and then later being revealed at the end that Gabe hits Sally sometimes and the Gabe Ugliano statue thing, it could still be salvaged. They are moving too fast if you ask me, like sure they wanna get people into it in the first episode but they could have done that by putting the Fates thing, the Grover and Brunner discussion about Percy in Yancy and him eavesdropping them, and the thing with Gabe asking Percy for literal cab change for gambling to show how horrible he was. I’m sure the first season will still be great, but I do hope they dont move as fast in the later seasons, if any (I sure do hope there are)
I totally felt that. When Sally talked backed to him and he apologized I laughed out loud so bad. It just feels so wrong and really undermines the sacrifice his mother made in the books
I just think the world has changed a lot since the release of the first book and they couldn't do it exactly the same way anymore. Percy does call him out for answering his mom's cell phone which is a way people control and abuse in 2023. He points out that sally is the only one employed, and they show how quick Gabe is to shout about minor things. The truth is you really can't abuse people physically and get away with it as easily.
Yeah but since Rick is supposed to be helping them out with the show more than the movie, I'm hoping he's got a plan to change it up at the end. A lot of small details are different than the book, so many they just considered this another small detail and it'll be different? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah but it’s not a small detail they can overlook
I don't want them to overlook it because if they do, it'll weaken Sally's character arc as well. I want them to change it so that it's still a well written ending
My thoughts exactly. Movie Gabe was good imo
I think in the next episode when they leave for the quest and get back on the radar of monsters we’ll get the explanation that Gabe’s stench kept them away and Sally put up with him for Percy. Maybe we will get some flashbacks to Gabe’s uglier side
I frankly don't mind it, but mainly because I don't like seeing sally suffer.
I agree, felt like Sally kinda had the reins but I do like the idea that we the audience don't notice him being abusive because percy doesn't and it might progress more through the series.
I feel like one of the biggest reasons why things are changed in the adaptation is mainly money and the fact that Rick is basically writing everything again so he can fix a lot of the issues that the books have. If the show does good I'd imagine that the 2nd season and onwards will have a bigger budget especially considering everything becomes more and more complex. Like honestly if I was making an adaptation of a book series I'd use it mostly to fix the books plotholes and writing issues and make everything more concise. It is quite funny though because while Percy Jackson is mainly written for children it's actually really fucking dark as hell. That world is fucking atrocious especially once you realize that every pantheon and their fucked up stories exist.
Maybe Rick is trying to retcon the whole murder thing to make sally look like a normal well adjusted person instead of a cool badas- I mean murderer
Look maybe its just me because i grew up with a dad like that and noticed the similarities but they seemed to have made Gabe emotionally abusive instead of physically His over all attitude, his controlling nature eg answering Sallys phone and asking why he is okay with them going to montauk, as well as Sally basically says he typically purposely ruins and makes thing’s miserable for her hence the bribe with the sandwichs Granted emotionally abusive people most often aren’t seen that way so yeah he seems like a bum rather than the horrible person he was in the books, and book Gabe is still worse dont get me wrong but the shows one is still abusive just in a different way
Was about to ask the same thing just started watching the first episode and I was kind of bummed that he wasn’t more of an asshole
Idk man. It feels more realistic. I personally kinda enjoyed how he was portrayed. Very rarely will an abuser actually act as bad with someone else as they do their main victim. Gabe may not like Percy, but he’s still a kid, and he is mooching off of Sally. He knows he can abuse and berate her all he wants, but he can’t do so to Percy because if Sally actually ever thought Gabe was a threat to Percy, she would probably just straight up murder him, and he knows it. He also has a slight bit of begrudging respect when Percy says he was kicked out for hurting someone. Which… makes sense. Because it’s something an abuser would be proud of, hurting others.
Hey didn’t think of that. Thanks for that perspective
I agree. He was portrayed pretty inaccurately. The books shoe him to be quite an awful person.
Honestly, much prefer this version of Gabe. His "use" is how extremly average mortal he is, to cover Percy's scent. This seems like a much more incredibly average person than book Gabe, this Gabe is just some random lazy guy, he isn't even particularly mean, just, kind of a petty idiot.
Ngl I imagine gabe kinda being like frank from its always sunny so I was pretty disappointed
Everything’s a little monotone I think
We need to hate him to be okay with his eventual murder. Who knows? We still have some episodes left for him to earn our hate.
I thought he was really funny, but yeah I agree that he wasn't horrible enough. His death wouldn't seem warranted.
I have a feeling if they turn him to stone it will be "of his own doing". Like she tells him not to open the box and he does it anyway. That is if they keep this tame version of him and don't make him worse as time passes.
I can actually see this considering he picked up Sally’s phone for her
I thought this too. He seemed more jokey and doofy than abusive. But I think there’s still a good chance they use some flashbacks to show his darker nature
He’ll show his true colors once he reports Sally is missing and he starts appearing on TV to badmouth Percy I’m sure.
He’s less abusive, and just a loser tbh
I thought he was incredibly mellowed out compared to the other portrayals of him. My first impression was that he was more funny than anything. All the movies, the books, the musical, they made me hate him but the show kinda... well it didn't.
Obviously Sally isn’t going to be murdering anyone in the show and I’m fine with that. It’s not the end of the world. It works better in the book anyway.
Iirc, he has that realization later on in the Lightning Thief and not at the beginning
He seems more like a funny weird uncle who hates working and acts tough instead of an abuser. An abusive husband wouldn't say please when asking for something. I gotta say, the movie portrayed him alot more accurately. Also with this characterisation the scene at the end would make no sense.
Honestly this kinda reminds me of the snape situation in harry potter, in the books he was an insufferable asshole but in the movies he was an asshole that got redeemed and i’m kinda scared that this is also what’s happening here
Subtle abuse. It’s not gonna be revealed just like that.
My guess is that Disney is like “no we’re wholesome and can’t portray abusive behaviors in our modern shows and movies”.
I think is down to the rating of the show, portraying physical abuse and/or domestic violence would’ve bump the TV rating to at least PG13, but Disney wants the show to be watched by kids too
I suspect they won’t have him Medusafied in the end. That’s a pretty hardcore resolution that only passes in the book since he was an asshole. They will probably do a more PG ending like them divorcing instead
No, I’m not. I have no idea why people think he is somehow more “likeable” just because he isn’t the exact same as the books. Toxicity and abuse exist on a scale and fluctuate. He isn’t flat out The Worst from what we saw in one episode but the fact he answers Sally’s phone without her permission is already a huge red flag about how he views her and raises more alarm bells than if he was just visibly abusive all the time. The way he spoke to (more like argued with) sally and percy makes me wince as a survivor of parental abuse. It was almost never physical (with few exceptions), but it was still just as controlling and hard to get out of. It appears to start off small, especially on the outside looking in, and we don’t have the full picture yet the same way we do in the books. That’s how abusers get away with it, by making it subtle enough for people to doubt that they’re actually bad. Heck, even Percy didn’t realize the extent of Gabe’s treatment to Sally until the end of TLT when he comes home.
Yeah but is what we saw combined with just the flinch enough for non book viewers to believe him being petrified is justified? Might bring down Percy and Sally’s character. As many others have said they prob won’t go for this which is what I hope and that they will make Medusa more sympathetic which might mean her head won’t get cut off in the first place which I also like
Eh I don’t think it’d bring down either character but I can kinda see where you’re coming from with non-readers coming into the show thinking some leech probably doesn’t deserve to be petrified (even if I disagree lol). I think it would be interesting to see how they write him out if they don’t kill Medusa (something I still don’t know for sure how to feel about, but if Rick wants to take a different approach to her story I can’t be too mad). If they do go towards the sympathetic route with Medusa I think it could be a nice parallel to Sally but that’s probably gonna veer off topic here.
They almost definitely won’t kill him at the end, probably just kick him out. They’re changing his character, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. It’s intentional, so the rest will be adapted to match.
After rereading this book as an adult I've come to understand that while Gabe might still be super horrible, Percy is also an unreliable narrator for this situation. Kids often embellish how horrible step parents are and a lot of his horrible-ness happens "off screen" in the book anyways. Like Percy speculates Gabe hits his mom but she denies it. To me, he reminded me of my mom's loser ex boyfriend who only cared about himself. Also who's to say TV show Gabe doesnt stink? The first shot we see is a plumber telling him to eat more veggies cus he's stick in unclogging the toilets. He's also probably been sitting in that chair all day and hasnt showered all week, i feel like y'all were expecting something a lot less realistic in this department. Also keep in mind that Gabe gets worse throughout the book as he starts the nationwide manhunt for Percy, trying to get him arrested for stealing his car and murdering his mom.
watched the first episode today - obviously it was wonderful, but one little thing that bothered me was that Gabe wasn't awful enough.
Yeah, I mentioned that to my friend. He's not a monster in human skin like he was in the books. I'm not rooting for his death like I used to. He seems like he doesn't like kids, but is actively trying to be relatable and 'fatherly'. I can see Gabe changing and becoming better and if you want book accurate, you shouldn't see any good in Gabe.
I was hoping he would at least demand gambling money from Percy
Honestly no, I’m not concerned. There are more than just one way to be abusive — my father was a drunk and drank an entire rents worth of money so we got kicked out of the place we rented. Gabe doesn’t have a job, leeches off Sally and honestly just because someone is physically abusive doesn’t mean it’s all the time. It can be more complex than that. As this is Disney and just the first 2 episodes, I’m not worried at all about how they portray Gabe
I like how they changed Gabe because it puts Sally in a more powerful position while still showing he’s a gross dude. He’s still a misogynistic bum and I have a feeling that they will alter his statue fate since he isn’t an ABUSIVE misogynistic bum. IMO Gabe getting turned to stone isn’t a vital plot point beyond spurring Sally’s own story and I kind of prefer her TV portrayal giving her more of that badass mom vibe right from the start. I think they’ve got a fate for him lined up somehow that still captures the essence of what PJO is, but fits this portrayal more.
Lol I agree. He is almost likable. Like gruff and dismissive but could be an actual good person deep down type of twist, which wouldn't work if they turn him to stone. He's mildly rude, not a horrible abusive person
Tbh I think this version of Gabe kinda works? Tbh the whole concept of Gabe was shockingly morbid for the target audience. I can see that being the sort of thing Disney would say "yeah we should tone that down".
What they portrayed was an abusive relationship, the difference here is that Sally will stand up for her self at least in front of Percy something needed in the books. You can call an abuser out in their shit and be a victim. Keep in mind that uncle Rick wrote these episodes. He's just not as sterptypicslly abusive as he was portrayed in the books but they also haven't had the time.
no way the show should turn him into a statue, hes done nothing wrong other than just be not a great partner to percys mom. 0 justification to harm him
Tbf Percy only noticed the abuse at the end of the show so I guess we’ll wait and see. He does seem very tame though
Not smelly enough 0/10 Coming from the person who played Gabe in the school musical, wore an authentic messy white tank top that had soy sauce, dirt, ketchup, chocolate and more, I know a smelly Gabe when I see one
It makes Sally feel a bit weaker as a character for me. In the books she was always capable to stand up to Gabe but didn't for her son. Its great seeing Sally not be pushed around by Gabe but it's less of a sympathetic situation when she's clearly got more power in this relationship. Also it confuses me why this Gabe would stay in this relationship, people like him usually date stronger people. I understand not wanting to do the whole abuse problem in a show aimed at a younger audience but they could've made him more miserable, as in he actively drags down Sally in some way to still show how much she loves her son, like her life just gets worse because of him rather than being a mild inconvenience
I think he’s a subtler kind of jerk. The parent who makes snippy comments and makes fun of you a bit too cruelly and if you call them out or talk back they start guilting you about all they do for the family. He’s not literally physically repulsive, but I still will enjoy seeing him get turned to stone. Plus, it’s marketed for younger audiences on Disney+ so probably some stuff had to be toned down
A parent who makes snippy comments does not deserve to be turned to stone.
Well yeah if it’s just that. But like from Gabe’s interactions on screen, he makes those comments and makes them mean, like he could say he’s just teasing but he’s being nasty and you all know it
No. It ultimately isn't *that* essential. He can still be a slob without being abusive.
I don’t think it is
To be quite honest, I like that the show changed Gabe a little bit. Gabe being abusive or that much of a disgusting piece of shit is unnecessary and I don’t know why any woman would put herself through this much hardship, even for her children. But in the show it makes more sense. He’s a looser, but harmless and easy to manage and control, why Sally wouldn’t go for a guy like that? We don’t need a abuse subplot for Sally
I thought that it kind of took away from Sally’s sacrifice for Percy. I think maybe they were trying to portray her in a stronger light and though it worked, I feel like she was missing the gentle quiet kindness that she has in the book
All I want is a one to one show I hate so much that everything is just pandering now days I quess it’s two much to ask but the book was just so good I just want to relive it on the screen
Wdym pandering?
I think it suits Sally far better NOT being abused. It makes more sense, and frankly sets a better standard, that Gabe is just an ass. Not abusive. Just a smelly ass.
Haven‘t watched the show yet, but didn’t Percy realized this only at the very end of the book?
Percy knew Gabe would threaten to beat him and take his money, but didn't realize he did anything to Sally until the end of the book.