#its poseidon. listening. THATS why athena said DONT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

3-frogs-in-a-trenchcoat · 4 months

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random thoughts on athena and annabeth

annabeth is widely recognized as the pride of athena's offspring, meaning she would have had to put in the insane level of effort, training and obedience required to reach the level of perfection and devotion that would have earned her the title, both by her peers, her enemies (alecto said something to that effect) and presumably athena herself (im relying on the fact that even in the books the other children of athena we meet dont have magical items from their mother like annabeth has her hat).

but that was before and while she was at camp. before she got to camp and before she met luke and thalia, she was likely relying mostly on her wits to survive, yk, having the strength and training of a SEVEN yr old. its likely athena would have recognized this (even if she doesnt interfere or help bc shes a god and why would she), annabeth gets to camp and becomes a year rounder, she probably gets claimed relatively early in her time at chb (if we leave enough time for her to become her cabin's counselor by virtue of being there the longest). she is able to succeed greatly but thats largely in controlled environment (monsters dont get into camp unless you go looking for them in the forest, and none at camp at the time is purpose looking to kill). annabeth is able to live up to athena's standard of perfection while the conditions are favorable and controlled. its not to say her life wasnt hard at chb, but the point of chb's existence is to keep demigods safe. its literally said the reason she wants to go on a quest is bc the only way left to prove herself to her mother is out there, in the real world, with real threats.

she gets her wish and is thrust in a volatile environment for her, where she knows she is the one with the most experience and takes the responsibility for keeping her friends alive. she is now supposed to be making the kind of serious decisions that she wouldnt have had to face, at least yet, had she stayed at camp. even so annabeth has been and is the picture of unquestionable devotion to athena, and medusa acknowleges it. "i wasnt like you, i WAS you"

but, like medusa, one slip up was all it took to fall from athena's grace. poseidon did not care for medusa but percy does already care deeply for annabeth. once its brought to his attention that the hat is annabeth's only acknowledgment from athena and a reminder that maybe athena does love her, maybe she is watching over her, he does the first thing that comes to his mind to let her keep it, a desicion that is naturally influenced by his own feelings about and for his father and the gods in general. annabeth goes along because, among other reasons, she gets to keep her hat. annabeth is still part human and even then she recognizes that the gods will not like it; her mother does not know her but she knows her mother enough to know her likely reaction. all it takes for annabeth, previously implied the favourite (if that means something), is for her to listen to her emotions, listen to her human side and even listen to percy, for athena to decide that annabeth is not worth it anymore. and she puts the responsability of her wounded pride (poor her) on annabeth even though she very likely knows that both her and grover protested sending the head to olympus for the very same reason she would use to punisher her. bc lets face it, by letting echidna into the arch, athena, a strategist, was probably aware that her daughter would be the one to face the chimera and was not expecting her to survive.

side note: percy makes a pretty logical argument that the head can be considered tribute and why shouldn't it really? athena is embarrased when annabeth kills one of her enemies and sends her the proof but years later sends her to a quest where she KNOWS annabeth will have to kill another of her enemies and offer her the proof, another woman made an enemy only by virtue of a percieved offense. the two situations are barely different but athena gets to decide when something is her will and when its embarrasing. wisdom where??

athena expects her children to honor her by acting on the side of wisdom, whatever that may mean to her. by ignoring the reasons annabeth let the head arrive at olympus and blaming her rather than percy directly, athena shows that she does not believe that emotions have a place in wisdom, in strategic thinking, directly foreshadowing the lesson she is forced to learn (and quickly forget) at the end of the series: (SPOILERS FOR SHOW ONLYS) that MAYBE letting their children feel neglected enough so that they defect to the dark side fighting for their destruction (which nearly succeds by the way, were it not for percy's EMOTION DRIVEN decision to give the dagger to luke, bc lemme tell you that was not the strategic move) was PROBABLY not the wisest move.

and if these things are true for annabeth, the supposed favourite, then how difficult is it for annabeth's siblings to gain their mother's respect or acknowledgement and how easily can they lose it? i would not be surprised if the show sets it up for more children of athena to defect camp than is mentioned in the books. The books don't really specify which cabin lost the most demigods to kronos' side, apart from the unclaimed. but it would not be out of this world to me for children of athena, if tempted by luke and company and they unlearn their belief in their mother's perfection, to associate all those issues to their mother's hypocrisy. and i believe athena to be amongst the most hypocritic gods simply bc of the nature of prioritizing strategy etc above all other things, being the one to recognize the root of the problem and then doing practically nothing better for five more books. especially when from the get go, the show is really honing in on the main character *openly and frequently* questioning the unfairness of the god's treatment, whats not say, after later events ifykyk, children of athena who dont have the same loyalty to percy annabeth does but do have the information at hand she does, wont come to the same conclusion?

#its an unspoken rule that the gods need demigods #athena should be the one that is capable of more easily coming to terms with the fact #yet she acts the same as the others #she doesnt care and will look for the tiniest excuse to give out penalties #and that speaks volumes #shit thats a long read damn #pjo book spoilers i think #percy jackson #annabeth chase #pjo tv show #pjo series #percy jackson tv show #pjo athena #pjo tv show s1 ep4

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