Annabeth Chase

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Annabeth Chase is a character from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus book series written by American author Rick Riordan. She appears in the first book of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Lightning Thief and is a main character throughout the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and is a major character in Heroes of Olympus series.^[1]

Background

Annabeth is a daughter of the Greek goddess Athena. At age seven, Annabeth ran away because she felt unwanted and hated by her father and stepmother. Annabeth and her new friends, Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace, traveled together for some time after she ran away from home before arriving at Camp Half-Blood. Her friend Thalia had sacrificed her life so that Annabeth and Luke cold get to camp safely. During her time at the camp, she developed a father-daughter relationship with the camp activities director, the centaur Chiron. Before meeting Percy, she had been at the Camp for five years.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Lightning Thief

She is first introduced when Percy makes his way to Camp Half-Blood. When Percy wakes up after collapsing after fighting the Minotaur,she nurses him back to health, and she shows him around the camp. After seeing Percy demonstrate his power against camp bully, Clarisse, Daughter of Ares, Annabeth puts Percy on her team for a camp game of capture the flag. Annabeth is the first to realize that Percy is a son of Poseidon and attempts to protect him from a hellhound supposedly sent by Hades from the Fields of Punishment.

When Zeus's master bolt is stolen and Percy accused as the thief, Percy accepts her as one those who'll accompany him on the quest. They travel from the East coast to the West coast, encountering many obstacles along the way. Annabeth struggles with her mother's historic rivalry with Percy's father and her budding friendship with Percy. After they return back to camp, it is reveled that Luke Castellan, Annabeth's longtime friend, was behind the theft and is seeking the overthrow of the Olympians.

The Sea of Monsters

Annabeth finds Percy and they return to Camp Half-Blood with Percy's friend, Tyson, to find it under attack and its borders failing. Annabeth and Percy go see Chiron but learn he is being fired for being accused of poisoning Thalia's tree; the tree is what gives the borders power to repel monster attacks. Annabeth and Percy set off in the middle of the night, along with Tyson, against the order of the new camp director, Tantalus. After encountering Luke Castellan, his monster army and a hydra, they are rescued by Clarisse, who is on a quest to find the golden fleece, and enter the Sea of Monsters, or the Bermuda Triangle. Their ship is soon destroyed and Annabeth and Percy are left adrift in a small rescue boat. They come ashore on an island and soon afterward, Percy is captured. Annabeth rescues him and they leave the island with a new old pirate ship.

While rescuing Clarisse and Grover from Polyphemus, Annabeth is knocked unconscious and injured. Percy finds the golden fleece and utilizes its ability to speed up the healing of injuries. Once safe, Clarisse is sent ahead to camp with the fleece while Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Tyson stay behind and encounter Luke; he takes them captive and duels Percy. They are rescued by Chiron and are transported back to camp. Some time later, the fleece has restored the tree to normal and to the amazement of Annabeth and the others, it has restored Thalia, Annabeth's friend, back to life.

The Titan's Curse

Annabeth is on a rescue mission with Percy and Thalia but when they face Dr. Thorn, a manticore, she is taken captive. While in captivity, Annabeth is forced to carry the weight of the sky for some time until Artemis is forced to do so by Atlas. She is rescued from the Titan by Percy and later learns that there is another child of the 'big three'-Poseidon, Zeus and Hades- and it was one of the children they were trying to rescue in the beginning, Nico di Angelo.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Annabeth finds Percy running from a burning school with another girl, Rachel Dare, behind him. Annabeth is initially jealous of Rachel and avoids Percy when they first get to camp as a result. While in the middle of a training game, Annabeth and Percy find an entrance to the labyrinth in the middle of camp, which opens a direct door to any invading forces Kronos could muster. Annabeth is given her desired quest and requests her old friends to join her; Percy, Grover and Tyson agree. After navigating the labyrinth they meet Hera, Kampe, Briares and Hephaestus among others. After meeting Hephaestus, Grover and Tyson separate to look for Pan and soon afterward Percy is presumed dead after causing a volcanic eruption. Annabeth's quest resumes when Percy comes back and they ask Rachel Dare to be a guide. Rachel is able to correctly guide them through the labyrinth and Annabeth is later a witness to Kronos' return. They flee from Kronos and return to camp. The forces of Kronos attack Camp Half-Blood but are successfully repulsed by the combined efforts of the campers' Mothers.

The Last Olympian

Annabeth, as one of the Camp's leaders, is a crucial character. She leads her cabin in defending New York City and fights alongside Percy many times. During one of the battles, Annabeth is critically injured when she is stabbed trying to defend Percy. While Typhon distracts the olympians out west, Kronos, who is being hosted by a demigod, attacks their home in New York City with his army. She joins with all the other campers, the Hunter's of Artemis, the satyrs and nature spirits in fighting off the Titan's army. In spite of their efforts to ward off the Titan king, Kronos makes his way into the throne room of the twelve Olympians; Annabeth, Percy and Grover try their best to protect the thrones. She is the first to come to the realization that Kronos can only be vanquished by the actions of his host, Luke Castellan, and convinces Percy to hand Luke her dagger to allow him to once and for all defeat Kronos. Later in the book Annabeth and Percy share two kisses. They start a relationship.

The Heroes of Olympus

The Lost Hero

Annabeth is shown at the beginning to be looking for her boyfriend, Percy Jackson. She accompanies three new demigods to Camp Half-Blood and leaves soon after to continue her search. She later volunteers to go with Jason Grace and the others when they discover the location of Percy Jackson. ^[2]

The Son of Neptune

Annabeth does not make an actual appearance in the book, but she is shown talking to Percy in his dream. She is mentioned multiple times throughout the course of the book.^[3]

Appearance

Annabeth is a beautiful teenage girl. She has long blonde hair described by Percy as "curled like a princess's". She is tall, slender, graceful and athletic. Annabeth looks like a typical California girl only with stormy, intelligent gray eyes that always seem to be calculating a million things at once and analyzing whoever she is looking at. Annabeth is described as 'cute' 'pretty' and 'beautiful' many times in the books. Her mother, Athena, is considered one of the most beautiful of the Greek goddesses along with Aphrodite and Hera. When she is not wearing her Camp-Half Blood shirt she wears cute and stylish but simple and practical clothes. She's never been described to wear makeup but yet she does so in the Sea Of Monsters at Circe's command. She has brains and beauty and makes good use of both attributes. Annabeth is prideful. In the Titan's Curse, she outgrows Percy. He says in the same book, that he was used to seeing her with absolutely no jewelry, except her Camp Half-Blood bead necklace, but he's surprised when he sees that she's wearing owl-shaped silver earrings, (the symbol of her mother) that were given to her by her father.

Personality and fatal flaw

Inherited from her mother, the goddess of wisdom, Annabeth is a great strategist, full of wit, cunning, very intelligent and strong. Annabeth's personality is shown throughout the series to be practical and smart. She is a quick thinker, providing Percy a great deal of help in his quests, and most of the time, saves their lives. Annabeth can be cold towards others at first, shown in The Lightning Thief, when she first meets Percy, this eventually changes through the first book, as she eventually warms up to him and grows extremely protective of him. As shown in The Lost Hero and in The Son of Neptune, she is shown to be extremely worried about Percy's mysterious disappearance, desperately trying to find him. She can be sharp-tongued towards others, even the gods, shown when she insulted Hera for her selfish views on family. Annabeth can be sensitive when it come to promises, as she never forgets them, and she becomes greatly upset when Luke betrays Camp and breaks his promise to her. Being a child of Athena, Annabeth has arachnophobia, resulting from the story of Arachne, the woman who was turned into a spider by Athena as punishment for extreme arrogance. Annabeth's fatal flaw is hubris, which means "deadly pride." It was revealed in The Sea of Monsters when she and Percy encountered the sirens. Annabeth mentions this flaw as a common thing for children of Athena.

Romance

At the beginning of the first series of books, Annabeth had a crush on Luke. As the series progressed, she comes to terms with his betrayal, as well as her developing feelings for Percy. In Battle of the Labyrinth, when she believes he is going to die, she kisses Percy, and is visibly moved when he returns to camp. In The Last Olympian, she resolves her feelings for Luke, telling him that she always considered him more of a brother, and never loved him and she begins a relationship with Percy. In The Lost Hero when Percy is missing, she is desperately trying to find him. She also mentions that Percy and her became boyfriend and girlfriend.

Annabeth and Percy first become friends in The Lightning Thief. She explains that she will fight alongside Percy, despite their parents rivalry, because he is her friend and true love.

In The Sea of Monsters Annabeth reveals some feelings for Percy. She hugged him when he was turned back into a human [he was a guinea pig at the time thanks to Circe] and allowed Percy to hold her while she cried when she heard the sirens. Also toward the end of the book she kisses Percy on the cheek after they won the race.

In The Titan's curse Percy and Annabeth dance before she is kidnapped. When he saves her, they finish the dance on Mount Olympus.

Annabeth shows strong feelings for Percy in The Battle of the Labyrinth. She hugs him for a long time when she tries to explain that she is worried about losing Percy. She kissed him when Percy told her to leave because she would get killed by Sea Demons.

The Last Olympian is when she developed very strong feelings for Percy. They get frustrated with him because he can't see it. At the end, when Percy explains that in the River Styx he thought about her, She kisses him. Clarisse dumps them in the lake and Percy kisses her underwater: "and it was pretty much the best uderwater kiss of all time," which starts their relationship.

In The Lost Hero, Annabeth searches desperately for Percy.

In the Son Of Neptune when Percy's memories get stripped by Hera/Juno, wife of Zeus, the only name he remembers is Annabeth.

References