Annabeth Chase

Annabeth Chase is a fictional character in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. She is a demigod, meaning she is half-mortal and half god. Her father is the mortal Frederick Chase and her mother is Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She first appears in the first novel of the series, The Lightning Thief. Throughout the series she becomes close friends with Percy Jackson, later becoming his main love interest and girlfriend.

Development

The writer of the books, Rick Riordan, was asked in an interview, "Do you feel those who said the main characters, such as Grover and Annabeth, are heroes in their own right?". He answered, "Annabeth is Percy's rational side. She can think through things and look at options that sometimes evade Percy in his moments of battle panic." This means she can think even when there is a fight going on, unlike Percy, and can find fixes to problems.

Biography

Annabeth Chase is the half-blood daughter of the Goddess Athena and the mortal man Frederick Chase. Being a daughter of Athena, who is a virgin, she was not physically born, but is a literal 'brain child'; she was born as a gift to the man her mother loved. When she was seven, she ran away from home. On her journey, she met Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, and Grover Underwood. Together, they traveled to Camp Half-Blood, running from and fighting hordes of monsters. When they got to the borders of Camp Half-Blood, Thalia died fighting monsters so that Luke and Annabeth could safely get into camp. She lived at Camp Half-Blood for five years prior to Percy Jackson's arrival.

It has been shown that Annabeth does not get along with her father and step-family. According to her, her father was not very happy when she first appeared and tends to look at her as a nuisance. Her step-siblings appear to dislike her and feel afraid of her. Her stepmother seems to hate her and feel that she endangers the family by being only half-mortal. At the end of The Lightning Thief, Annabeth returns to her family to see if she can get along with them. She is able to stay with them for approximately a year, but it is unknown if her feeling towards her family have changed; however, in The Titan's Curse, her father and stepmother seem to care for her deeply, and her father helps fight off Kronos's army to save Annabeth.

Annabeth is a good fighter, and has been shown to be able to think on her feet in very hard situations. Despite this, Annabeth dreams of being an architect( building things), and the story has made many references to this. In The Lightning Thief, she enjoys and quickly becomes addicted to the 3-D holographic SimCity-esque game at the Lotus Hotel and Casino, and in The Sea of Monsters, it was shown that Annabeth’s greatest dream is to redesign the whole world to make it better, make Luke good again, and be accepted by her mother and father. In The Last Olympian, she is granted the status of being the architect of Olympus.

Hubris, or deadly pride, is Annabeth's fatal flaw. Annabeth thinks that she is able to do anything: get her parents back together, build great monuments, and save Luke, as shown in the second book. She sometimes even thinks she can rebuild the world into an even better place than the immortals did. She also has a deep fear of spiders, due to the contest between Athena and Arachne.

Annabeth is described as being athletic and having curly blond hair, tan skin, and steely gray eyes. Percy Jackson describes her as "cute" at first but eventually she becomes "seriously beautiful."

In the books

'The Lightning Thief'

Annabeth first appears in The Lightning Thief and is twelve years old. She was nicknamed "Wise Girl" by Percy. She first meets Percy Jackson after he was attacked by the Minotaur and makes his way into Half-Blood Hill. When he first saw her, Percy described Annabeth as "pretty" with blond hair curled "like a princess's". After Percy heals from the Minotaur attack, Annabeth hears that he is to go on a quest (search) and she wants to go along, thinking Percy is "the one" from Chiron's prophecy. Together, she, Percy, and Grover go searching for Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. Throughout the book, Annabeth shows her unique intelligence, which she inherited from her mother, and also her arachnophobia (fear of spiders) that she shares with all her siblings on her mother's side (originating from the story of Arachne and Athena). At the end of the book, Annabeth is deeply hurt by Luke's betrayal.

'The Sea of Monsters'

Main article: The Sea of Monsters

Annabeth and Percy are more friendly towards each other than they were in The Lightning Thief . Together, they journey to the Sea of Monsters (now located in Bermuda Triangle) to find the Golden Fleece and save Grover from Polyphemus the Cyclops. The Golden Fleece is needed to save Camp Half-Blood. She hears the Sirens' song and confirms that her fatal flaw is hubris, which means "deadly pride." On Circe's island, she gives Percy multivitamins to change him back into a human after being turned into a guinea pig. She also learns to accept Tyson, Percy's young, Cyclops half-brother after having a bad experience with another Cyclops long ago. When they return back to camp, she and Percy team up and win the chariot race. Her feelings for Percy seem to emerge at the end when she kisses Percy on the cheek after winning the chariot race.

'The Titan's Curse'

Main article: The Titan's Curse

Annabeth is kidnapped along with the goddess Artemis and has to be saved by Percy, Thalia, Grover, and the huntresses Zoë Nightshade and Bianca di Angelo. In a dream Percy has, Annabeth is on a mountain, and she sees Luke holding up a black roof (unknown to Percy, it is the sky). Annabeth helps him hold it, and then Luke slips out from underneath, making Annabeth hold it. This is later used to trick Artemis into holding the sky, as Artemis would not be able to resist helping a maiden. Unlike the other books, Annabeth's role is quite small. It is hinted in this book that there will be a romantic future for her and Percy. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, also convinced Percy about his feelings for Annabeth, though she also made it even harder for them to fall in love. In the end, Percy saves both Annabeth and Artemis.

'The Battle of the Labyrinth'

Main article: The Battle of the Labyrinth

By this book, Annabeth is fifteen. Percy and Annabeth find an entrance into the Labyrinth. She realizes that Luke may try to use this entrance to invade Camp.

Annabeth leads the quest into the Labyrinth, fulfilling one of her ambitions. She goes into the Labyrinth with Percy, Grover, and Tyson to find a way to stop Kronos's evil forces from entering the borders of Camp Half-Blood by searching for the Labyrinth's inventor, Daedalus. The prophecy the Oracle gave her appears to have scared her and she refuses to say the last line. As they go into the Labyrinth, they face many hardships. Annabeth faces a Sphinx and finds the riddles (which are actually factual questions) not challenging and an insult to her intellect. They escape the claws of the Sphinx and continue on to find Hephaestus so he can tell them about where to find Daedalus.

As they head towards Hephaestus' forge in Mount St. Helens, they find telekhines there making a weapon for Kronos. Percy tells Annabeth to escape while she can. She kisses him for luck and they part ways. Annabeth believes that he dies when Mount St. Helens erupts, but this is not the case. Percy fell onto the island Ogygia, prison of the nymph Calypso, a daughter of Atlas. When Percy comes back to camp, Annabeth is performing a funeral ritual for him. When she notices him, she hugs him, making a scene. However, when she finds out about Calypso, she is very jealous. Percy then asks a mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, to help them on their way through the Labyrinth (Rachel has a rare ability to see through the Mist). Annabeth becomes very jealous at how close Percy and Rachel are getting. The three of them discover Luke, who has become Kronos's vessel. After a battle, Luke is forced back into the Labyrinth, leaving two casualties. Annabeth refuses to believe that Luke is all bad, and gets quite mad at Percy for saying otherwise.

After they fulfilled their mission, Annabeth and Percy are standing on Half-Blood Hill, and are matching their goals with the prophecy, Annabeth reveals the last line of her prophecy, "To lose a love to worse than death" and is confused, not sure about her feelings for Luke, or a secret love for Percy.

'The Last Olympian'

Main article: The Last Olympian

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In the film

In the film, Alexandra Daddario plays Annabeth, a warrior at Camp Half-Blood with Percy and potential romantic foil. In the film trailer, Annabeth says to Percy, "I definitely have strong feelings for you. I just haven't decided if they are positive or negative yet." Another scene shows them leaning in, seemingly to kiss. It was really a tease which is shown when she surprisingly steals Percy's sword from his sheath and at the same time brings her own sword to his throat and says,"First rule of battle strategy, never let your opponent distract you." In the film, Annabeth is seen with brown, straight hair, a change from the book's description of her (with blonde curly hair). She also does not really show much love towards Luke.

Romance

A key subplot in the series is the relationship between Annabeth, Percy, and Luke. Luke is Annabeth's hero and one of her first half-blood friends. Annabeth likes Percy, which she hints at, but she still has feelings towards Luke. At the end of The Last Olympian, Luke shows slight feelings for her, sort of like an older brother. These feeling are present despite the fact that Luke and Percy are arch enemies and he has attempted to kill Percy many times. In The Sea of Monsters, it is shown that one of her life's wishes is to save Luke.

In the beginning of The Lightning Thief, Annabeth is shown to dislike Percy when she finds out that Percy is the hero of the prophecy. She thinks he is weak, and is influenced by the rivalry between her mother, Athena, and Percy's father, Poseidon. At the very end of The Sea of Monsters Annabeth kisses Percy on the cheek after winning the chariot race. In The Titan's Curse, there are suggestions of some romance between Annabeth and Percy, although this is complicated by her lingering feelings towards Luke and the fact that her mother, Athena, disapproves of her "friendship" with Percy. In The Battle of the Labyrinth, Annabeth finally expresses her feelings for Percy by kissing him good luck before vanishing using her Yankee's cap. When Percy returns, she is highly jealous, because she knows he has been with the sad but seductive Calypso. It is implied that Percy is trying to tell Annabeth about his feelings, but Annabeth remains distant due to her lingering feelings towards Luke.

In The Last Olympian, after the defeat of Kronos and the saving of Luke's soul, the romantic relationship between Percy and Annabeth is solidified. Annabeth also states Percy looks 'cute when he's worried' when he first checks on her after she took a knife that was meant for him. Annabeth tells Luke as he dies that she always saw him as a brother, but never loved him. Later, she and Percy share their third kiss after she tells him that she will never, ever make things easy for him. He describes it as if his brain felt it was melting through his body. But nosy campers snoop on this and throw them into the camp lake. Then comes to a fourth kiss underwater in an air bubble made by Percy. They are together at the end of the series. It is hinted that they might be married one day in the future, as Annabeth said she wanted "to build something permanent", and Percy states that maybe they were "getting a good start together".

Powers and Abilities

General

• Like other half-bloods, Annabeth has ADHD, which increases battle awareness.
• Also like most other half-bloods, she has dyslexia, because her brain is 'hard-wired' from birth to read Ancient Greek.
• Annabeth is trained in hand to hand combat during her stays at Camp Half-Blood.
• Wields a knife in battle as opposed to a sword.
• ===Knowledge Capablities===
• Annabeth knows a lot about architecture, history, and Greek myths.
• Annabeth is a master strategist.
• Annabeth is extremely intelligent, wise, and clever.
• Annabeth may be good at arts and crafts because of her mother.
• Annabeth never forgets what she hears.
• ==Weapons/Magical Items==
• A magical Yankees cap that turns her invisible.
• A celestial bronze knife, given to her by Luke when she was only 7, that she uses as a weapon. Celestial bronze is designed to wound immortals and monsters without injuring mortals. It is the metal favored by many demigods for their weapons.
• A laptop with ideas and information from Daedalus.

Reception

In the books

B. Allison Gray praises how in Battle of the Labyrinth: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4, Riordan "successfully conveys Annabeth's emotions."