I’ve seen a lot of Annabeth hate recently and when I found this reddit post I just had to share it with y’all. DISCLAIMER: POST NOT MINE COPIED AND PASTED FROM A USER’S BLOG ON REDDIT (I went through and edited out all the swear words I could find, hopefully I got them all, sorry if I missed one).
“So recently I reread the PJO series,. I’m eighteen now and haven’t read it since like 8th grade so a combination of forgetfulness and simply being in a different mental state this time around has helped me notice a lot of things that for some reason had never occurred to me in my many previous readings. One of the biggest things I noticed--maybe the biggest thing--has been just how rocky Percy and Annabeth’s friendship became once Rachel Elizabeth Dare stepped into the picture. Throughout BotL and TLO, there are numerous instances where Annabeth is rude, snappy, and even downright cruel towards both Rachel and Percy. From Percy’s perspective, it is easy to see this behavior as harsh and uncalled for, especially since neither he or Rachel did anything to offend her... at least he didn’t think they did.
The utmost important thing to remember at this point is in Mark of Athena when Annabeth admits to the reader that she’s had a crush on Percy since they were twelve. In other words, she’d already had feelings for Percy for three years by the time she meets Rachel for the first time. Also, she has made every first move in the relationship which says a lot about her feelings and Percy’s confidence (more on that bit later).
Like I mentioned earlier there are numerous instances where Annabeth is a jerk, but probably her biggest jerk moment is when she calls Percy a coward. quotes please!
“We’ll just have to be ready.” “How?” I said. “Look at our camp. We can’t even stop fighting each other, And I’m supposed to get my stupid soul reaped.” She threw down her scroll. “I knew we shouldn’t have shown you the prophecy.” Her voice was angry and hurt. “All it did was scare you. You run away from things when you’re scared.” I stared at her, completely stunned. “Me? Run away?” She got right in my face. “Yes, you. You’re a coward, Percy Jackson!” We were nose to nose. her eyes were red, and I suddenly realized that when she called me a coward, maybe she wasn’t talking about the prophecy. “If you don’t like our chances,” she said, “maybe you should go on that vacation with Rachel.”
As mentioned by Percy she wasn’t talking about the prophecy, but there’s a bit more revealed in between the lines here: She was waiting for Percy to make a move. Now you might be asking well how was he supposed to know? Well, my friends, the answer is simple: Mount St. Helen’s.
A lot of you were probably confused when the kiss our lovers shared in the volcano was never mentioned again, but there’s a good reason for that. A reason never brought up because we were looking at everything through the awkward, unconfident, and oblivious eyes of Percy. We all know that the reason Annabeth kissed him to begin with was because she wasn’t sure whether he would make it out alive or not and wanted to show him how she felt with what little time they had left. For two weeks, that ended up being Annabeth’s reality. For two weeks, all she could think about was the last kiss she had been able to share with her Seaweed Brain before he died. All of that came crashing down when he came back. She might’ve kissed Percy again when she first saw him again if it weren’t for everyone around, but obviously any catching up she longed for had to wait until a conversation with Chiron. That conversation didn’t help because though Percy never said it outright, it is strongly hinted that Annabeth knows he went to Ogygia and since we know that Annabeth knows her Greek mythology like the back of her hand, we know that she knows that Percy was this close to staying there with Calypso. In other words, she sees that Percy almost gave her up after she literally put her heart on the line as a final parting gift to a boy she thought she’d never see again. After that talk with Chiron, Annabeth has lost all confidence in the way she hoped Percy saw her, and as a result is far too embarrassed to bring it up, leaving her waiting for Percy to be the next one to make a move. To show that he really did feel the same way towards her.
Of course, Percy being Percy, he and the majority of us don’t catch on and he just continues in his awkward ways, believing that the kiss was purely a heat-of-the-moment decision (literally, haha) and she doesn’t really feel that way and is now embarrassed to be around him because kissing him was a mistake. Because he was a mistake. It definitely doesn’t help when he invites Rachel on the quest, showing Annabeth, even if she is being unnecessarily jealous, that there are other girls who are into Percy. After everything in BotL, she continues to avoid him for the rest of the summer for the same reason mentioned earlier, but again Percy is too oblivious to see that Annabeth is desperately waiting on him to give her a sign and continues to assume she just doesn't want to be around him even though that’s the exact opposite of what’s going. Percy continues to drive a wedge in the rift when he assumedly spends the school year and the majority of the summer leading up to TLO with Rachel--a fact there’s no way in Hades Annabeth doesn’t know about.
Now back to everything leading up to the fight.
They had been around each other all morning, talking and going through room inspections and reports. Certainly she noticed Percy staring a lot which is a sign that hey, he’s still into you. Then they get to the Athena cabin and Malcolm's comment as he leaves screams to her hey, everyone knows that you two are both definitely still into each other and have been for a long time. Judging from Percy’s internal dialogue at this point, there's a looooot of tension in the room that both of them can feel. Judging from how Annabeth has been acting all morning, she’s been feeling it more than he has and has been trying her hardest to not let it show. When Percy starts complaining about the war and his prophecy, all she can probably think about is him. All she can think about is how she’s already known for years that the Hero is supposed to die and now that it’s officially Percy’s prophecy, that means her stupid Seaweed Brain that she can’t help but fall for is supposed to die and now all he can do is drive that knife deeper into her heart. To Annabeth, he was one week left to live. One week left to admit to the feelings she knows he has for her, and he’s still too stupid to do or say anything. In a confused and frustrated effort to wake him the hell up, Annabeth lashes out. In that moment she might not be saying it out loud, but she’s crying for him to reach out to her. When all he can do is sit there and stammer about her not being fair, she gives up. She thinks, why am I even trying anymore? If he wants to talk about fair, maybe he shouldn’t have dropped the girl he’s been going through heck and back with for four years for some mortal in middle of a war that she isn’t even part of. and has to walk away because he’s officially broken her heart.
So, we’ve resolved that Annabeth has every reason to be mad and even give up on Percy, even if he doesn’t see it that way. The question now is: Why did she stay in the end? Well, more explaining.
At the beginning of the Battle of Manhattan, Annabeth is still probably fed up with Percy but is mature enough to put her personal feelings aside the wake of a war. She understands that without Chiron, Percy is basically first in command if not at the very least sharing the position with her. On their way up to Olympus Annabeth begins to notice his dip in the Styx, even if she doesn’t yet know it was the Styx, and is starting to become more curious about where he’s been the last 18 hours than anything else. The way he then reacts to the vision Hestia gives him is enough to start making her concerned again, as anyone should be when their friend goes from perfectly fine to practically in shock in an instant. On top of this, Hermes immediately comes in and starts to talk to talk to the two while everyone else leaves. Once the argument about Luke starts and Hermes grows ten feet tall with an almighty cattle prod pointed directly at her, Annabeth is probably thinking This is it. This is where I die over some stupid argument with a god and the battle hasn’t even started yet. She’s probably scared out of her mind, and freaking Percy Jackson steps in front of a god for her. Not only does he volunteer to take the wrath of a god for her, but he defends her actions and lays in on Hermes for mistreating Luke, someone who up until this point had been nothing other than an enemy to Percy. Obviously, this shows her that Percy really does care, even if he still won’t say anything. At this point though, they’re both more concerned about fighting a war than talking about their relationship so it’s okay at the moment.
Then, finally, Seaweed Brain says it. “Don’t I get a kiss for good luck?” Whether the words came out his of mouth directly or not, Percy just told Annabeth Hey, I might be invincible and definitely won’t die in this battle, but I’d still like to kiss you before going off to kill some monsters. Percy has finally grown a spine and admitted that he really likes Annabeth a lot. She probably gives the response she gives because 1. There are more important things to worry about right now, 2. She still has to decide if she’s ready to seal the deal with this idiot after all of his idiot-ness, and 3. Michael Yew is right there watching the whole thing.
The poison knife thing happens, they have their moment and are more or less unofficially a thing now... until Rachel comes. To Annabeth she’s obviously all over Percy, which is pissing her off again and probably bringing back old anxieties and frustrations, so she has to leave. Soon after though, the climax of the battle ensues and as everything happens, Annabeth sees that Percy is doing everything for her, even taking her dagger and trusting Luke for her.
I know by now I’ve implied “now she really knows he wants to be with her” several times, but the next part is really the Super Ultra Mega Hey-This-Wants-To-Be-With-You declaration, and half the room probably knows it too.
Percy says no to becoming a God for her.
Right in front of her, all of Annabeth’s hopes and dreams are threatened as the Gods offer to grant Percy immortality. In the words of Percy himself, she looks exactly how he felt when he thought she was going to be made a Huntress. Then he looks back at Annabeth, says no, and looks back again as she doesn’t even try to hide her relief and joy that he decided to stay mortal, effectively declaring Hey Wise Girl, you’re the better than any gift a God could give me.
Then we have our happy moment. You can bet Annabeth was planning on kissing Percy before the night was over even when she still making her brick cupcake with Tyson. You gotta hand it to her, she played her poker face pretty dang well, all the way up until the entire camp caught them in the act. For all the playing it cool we see from Percy’s point of view, she undoubtedly enjoyed their underwater kiss just as much as Percy did, if not more.
In conclusion, the reason I love this relationship so much is not only because it was built on the foundation of a years-long friendship, but it had its struggles getting there. The two of them had to go through a lot of things and come to term with a lot of things before the relationship could start and even though it seemed to be dangling by a thread at times, our lovers finally made it through and to them, all the heck had finally paid off.”
