I used to hate Luke. I grew up loving my parents, and no matter how angry i got at them i knew they did everything they did to help me stand up myself. But Luke didnât have that. His mother became insane when she tried to delve into the world of gods too much. His father didnât answer his prayers and appeared to âabandonâ him. of course there was also the fact that Hermes was a god, and gods canât interact with their children a lot for different and complicated reasons we wonât delve into now.
But the thing is that Luke grew up alone. When he met Thalia and Annabeth he became the older figure that had protected them, guided them and cared for them when he himself didnât have anyone like that. It was obvious that Luke took upon himself to be the figure he always thought his parents were supposed to be.
But as he grew older Luke became even more bitter about the gods and how they treated their children. These kids, his fellow cabin mates, his extended familyâŠsome of them were never recognized by their parents. Some of them were sent on quests to never return because they werenât heroes yet, they were just kids, and they dies trying to become heroes. And to Luke that doesnât seem fucking fair.Â
When Luke and Annabeth arrived at camp it was because Thalia sacrificed herself to hold back the monsters from getting them. Her father didnât magically fly her over the border and âsaved her lifeâ, but turned her into a tree. Ultimately, in Lukeâs eyes, Zeus âendedâ his daughters life.
How many campers had Luke seen go on quests and too never return?? And to think that these campers were sent on the same quests that heroes before them were sent a couple of hundreds of years ago and they died from them. Not achieving even glory in death because they dies doing something that someone else had already done.
Now Luke comes to this realization after being sent on such a quest himself: ( Luke failed in bringing a golden apple from âthe garden of Hesperidosâ ). He saw no glory in repeating what others had done.
And from them we all know how the story continues. We read it from Percyâs POV across the series. We saw how Luke became crueler and crueler as he attempted to reach his goal and âpull out Olympus brick by brickâ, as he turned his back on Annabeth and all the people he used to care for.
We see that Luke still holds a great amount of affection toward Annabeth and that connection to his promise to her and Thalia is what redeems Luke at the end.
We see how across the story Luke begins to realize his mistake in joining kronos, being led by false promises and grief. his wrongdoing. And attempts to correct it.
We all start to remember how Annabeth spoke about Luke, why he acted towards Thalia and Annabeth in affection and protection because their parents had abandoned them. And this was the reason: Because no one showed him love, protection and caring that a parent or a guardian should show to their child, he would show that affection to others. Because there were other children like him who needed a helping hand. and just because his parents werenât good enough to do it, doesnât mean he wonât be the one to be different.
In the start of the story we see Luke, Hermes cabin counselor, sword instructor, mentor and kind friend who helped 2 girls survive, fall down into despair and anger. Luke fell because he was alone in his suffering, and he wanted to end it. Change the way the gods treated their kids by eliminating the gods themselves.
But when he saw, that Annabeth still believed in him across the story. Even after he made her suffer while holding the sky, even after everything he had done, at the end of the last book, he retained his piece of humanity. Because in the end he did have someone to care for him as family. And that was Annabeth.
Luke wasnât a bad person. He was a good person who had bad things happen to him.
stormborns
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gracieabrams
romaincrisis
