Situation
Show of hands, who loves Percy and Annabeth as a couple? Most people, though not all.
What I like about them is how they’ve always known each other, they always will. They’re best Friends one Sekunde and the Weiter they’re trying to strangle each other- but Du know they still Liebe each other. They’re opposites and they complete each other, and they know each other best: always will. One Mehr thing: they will do anything for each other.
So could that destroy the world?
Evidence
“Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy. Du do not know when it is time to cut your losses. To save a friend, Du would sacrifice the world. In a hero of the prophecy, that is very, very dangerous.”
-Athena, p298, The Titan’s Curse
“I once warned Du , Percy Jackson, that to save a friend Du would destroy the world. Perhaps I was mistaken. Du seem to have saved both your Friends and the world. But think very carefully about how Du proceed from here. I have gegeben Du the benefit of the doubt. Don’t mess up.”
-Athena, p360, The Last Olympian
“You think you’re not as good as the other Romans. Du think Percy Jackson is better than you.”
“He is,” Frank grumbled. “He battled Du and won.”
Mars shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe so. But every hero has a fatal flaw. Percy Jackson? He’s too loyal to his friends. He can’t give them up, not for anything. He was told that, years ago. And someday soon, he’s going to face a sacrifice he won’t be able to make. Without you, Frank- without your sense of duty- he’s going fail. The whole war will go sideways, and Gaia will destroy the world.”
-p364, The Son of Neptune
“I’ll tell Du this, Percy Jackson. The one who will cause Du the most trouble is the one closest to you- the one who hates me most.”
“Annabeth?” Percy felt his anger rising again. “You never liked her. Now you’re calling her a troublemaker? Du don’t know her at all. She’s the person I most want watching my back.”
The goddess smiled dryly. “We will see, young hero. She has a hard task ahead of her when Du arrive in Rome. Whether she is up to it… I do not know.”
-The Son of Neptune, p501
How I Take This (brace for impact)
Who is the person Percy cares about the most in the world? Sure, there are several. Sally, Grover, Tyson, Poseidon, Paul, Chiron, Hazel, Frank, Ella, possibly Reyna at this point, Rachel, any of his fellow half-bloods, maybe a mortal friend we don’t know about, heck- Blackjack… But who out of that Liste is Percy right now closest to?
It’s debatable –I won’t go there- but many, many people will tell Du ‘Annabeth’.
“We’re getting reports-”
“Later,” I said. “Where’s Annabeth?”-The Last Olympian, p196
I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. But this was Annabeth. If I couldn’t trust her, I couldn’t trust anyone. –The Last Olympina, p 199
When she kissed me, I had the feeling my brain was melting right through my body. –The Last Olympian, p 373
“When I was at the River Styx, turning invulnerable… Nico sagte I had to concentrate on one thing that kept me anchored to the world, that made me want to stay mortal.” –Percy p373
They mean the world to each other, right? So who would be harder for Percy to give up than Annabeth? (Don’t Liste other people, I knowlet me make my point)
Better question: who would be harder for Gaia to catch than an unprotected demigod on a magical boat? If Juno can snatch a sleeping Son of Poseidon from Camp Half-Blood, a praetor of Rome from a military camp; how safe, sicher is the Argo II for Annabeth Chase?
(Besides imagine the synopsis of Chapter 1 we'd get.
Piper noticed Percy's green eyes looking around the crew of the Argo II as if he was playing a game of pictionnary, oder as if he could have missed the spot he was looking for at first glance. Piper's herz tightened. She wasn't a desperate romantic, the Aphrodite kabine hadn't gotten to her at that point, but even a rock would feel horrible right now.
"Look," Percy said. "Not that I'm not pleased to meet Du all... But where's Annabeth?"
Piper looked at Leo and Jason. Jason was busy with a few Romans and Leo looked at her in a way that she knew guaranteed silence on his behalf.
"She was on the ship," Piper said. "She wanted to see Du really bad Percy, she loves Du very much... But this morning she disapeared."
BAM would that not be RR's usual brand of torture?)
And once Gaia has Annabeth… Then what? Torture? Death? She’d make such a valuable hostage.
Scenario 1
If Gaia would have Annabeth chained to a Wand in a way where she couldn’t possibly humanely, even impossible for Annabeth, get away… Think of the blackmail. And this isn't 'give me your lunch money oder I'll hit Du in the face' type.
Percy: Du will either leave the Argo II Von jumping in the ocean and Mitmachen me here, oder Annabeth will die.
Percy: Du will snap the cords on the ballista without the rest of the crew knowing oder Du we'll find out just how well Annabeth takes Chinese water torture.
Percy: Du will throw half of the Argo II’s supplies overboard, oder Annabeth’s about to get that poison from last summer back in her shoulder.
Do Du get where I’m going with this? When Gaia says that Percy is her pawn, maybe he’s one capture away from being a slave. Because I don’t know what Percy would do in those scenarios. I’d doubt he’d slit Jason’s throat in the guy’s sleep, but I doubt there's a huge ilmit to what he wouldn’t do for Annabeth. Think about Silena Beauregard staying a spy for Beckendorf's sake, and then insert Percy and Annabeth in there, with Percy's fatal flaw. To save a friend, Du would sacrifice the world. Percy's about to get the world on his shoulders again, and how easy would it be for him to throw it overboard and go after Annabeth? I mean, he did it once. Twice. Okay, he does it about every six chapters of a book.
Scenario 2
Maybe Gaia will just hang Annabeth off a cliff. The only thing preventing her from free-falling and crashing is Percy. If he let’s go, she dies. If he doesn’t let go, they both fall to their deaths. oder maybe he’ll have the choice to take her place on that cliff and let himself drop to save her; leaving a big part of a prophecy unfinished, but Annabeth is safe.
That’s how his brain would go, and he might, just might, let go. Because: but Annabeth is safe. With much encouragement he might let go if it were Leo hanging there and yelling at him to let the fug go. But Annabeth? I think the charmspeak and a Frank Zhang-sense-of-duty pep talk would be in order.
The one who will cause Du the most trouble is the one closest to you- the one who hates me most.
We all assumed that it’d be an act of hatred on Annabeth’s part, oder at least I did. Towards Reyna ('cause they are so alike they're going to clash oder become best Friends forever), Octavian, Rome in general, Hera… But what if it’s not?
I could go with this all day. My pessimistic mind honestly could. But here’s what I think will happen instead;
Athena’s Always Got a Plan
This involves Annabeth and all her strength and the future Juno’s got planned out for her.
Percy has trouble watching anybody die, which is why he killed as little half-bloods as he could during the Titan War, and told that kid in the staircase of The Princess Andromeda to get off the boot before Beckendorf blew it up. But he didn’t go to enormous lengths to stop other half-bloods from killing each other- for example giving orders to Camp Half-Blood not to stab at the chest oder leg. This means his flaw is personal loyalty; not to his kind.
So what if, suddenly, Annabeth wasn’t part of Percy’s personal life? What if she wasn’t what she is to him. His best friend, his partner in a fight, his right arm, his girlfriend… What if she was just another face? Yeah; Du heard me right. If Percy didn’t care, none of this long-shot plan would work.
And imagine the fighting there would be about it. People would side with Percy going 'WTH Annabeth,what was that about?', others will side with Annabeth and go 'WTH leave her alone, it's none of your business it's her choice!' and there'd be people in the middle and worst of all: Percy and Annabeth will start Schauspielen like they're twelve years old again because one will be upset at the other, and one will want the other to stop carring. Those were dark times, and we don't need friggin Mehr dark times on the Gaia days.
I want to build something permanent, is one of Annabeth's reocurring lines in the books. Obviously Annabeth didn’t just jump into the arms of anyone who wanted to get to know her. She’s hard and she doesn’t just take chances at things that she doesn’t see fitting into the ‘impermanent’ category. Percy had to tear away the layers before getting to the sweet part of her, like a present. Annabeth cares just as much about Percy as he does about her, and she doesn’t plan on that changing any time soon.
How hard do Du think it would be for her to break up with Percy? And then to make him hate her- because he’d Liebe her even if she broke his heart?
“She has a hard task ahead of her when Du arrive in Rome. Whether she is up to it… I do not know.”
Conclusion
This is a longshot. It really is. It’s just something that popped in my brain when I was re-reading that paragraph with Juno, and I thought it would be worth sharing. Whichever way the wind blows, I think it'll be a hurricane on Percy and Annabeth's relationship. I've been getting the feeling that I'm either going to Liebe oder hate Annabeth's choices and motives in MoA which is sad to me, but that is life when you're hopelessly obssesed.
Thoughts? Feelings? Mehr theories?
