Has anyone ever realised how big of a deal annabeth is? Cause I just did. I was re-watching S1 and like there is so much emphasis on how great annabeth is.
Alecto says she is 'perhaps the most formidable demigod of her age' which is like, soo true at that point in time. Annabeth is one of the seven- most powerful demigods of the generation, and at that point in time she was the only one of then who was anyone in the Greek world (leo, piper, frank- don't know they are demis; Hazel - dead; Jason - roman, don't think alecto saw the point in comparing a Greek to a Roman they would never meet; and percy - he's been around for a week, hasn't done something more impressive than being born quite yet).
Just let that sink in, annabeth chase has done things while sitting in camp that were big enough to gain the attention of one of the furies.
she poured her blood, sweat and tears into becoming the best warrior she could be. She trained hard for years because she knew she had disadvantages and she didn't want to be seen as weak. She who has no powers put everything she had into becoming who she is someone who even alecto would admit is one of the best, if not the best.
Everyone at camp holds her to high standards, luke says she 'thinks 6 steps ahead'. there were those in the Athena cabin who were older than her, yet she was the head councillor. We get to find out in hoo that the only was to replace a councilor is to either have more no of quests (no other than luke had been on one), been there longer (that's annabeth) or defeat the current councillor, so either everyone in her cabin respected her enough to not challenge her (which among demis is very hard earned) or they did and they lost.
In the first book percy goes on a quest everyone needs to work out to prevent ww3. And who's on the team, percy (the guy who has to be there), grover (because the council and Mr D said it was his last chance to prove himself) and annabeth, she volunteered, no one argued, no one questioned it, no one tried to say they should send someone better.
They saw that she was the best choice.
They saw annabeth as some sort of a standard to reach. She was the best. She was an unattainable standard everyone hoped to reach.
The fact that annabeth survives everything she does is proof she isn't just anybody else.
No normal demigod would have survived the quest and monsters she fought, the situations she got out of. No normal child of Athena would have survived the archane (the bones on the way are proof of that). She survived taurtarus.
Annabeth was the only one of the seven without powers, on a quest to fight giants, mosters and the primordial godess of the very earth itself. And no one absolutely no one ever looked down on her wonderd why she was there. They asked her for advise, they asked her for help. She made her place among them. Percy and jason, both children of the big three, both used to be the leaders stepped aside and let annabeth take over. They trusted her leadership.
I think the only reason the books never hilight on annabeth being one of the best is the fact that they are from percy's pov. Percy doesn't see anyone like that let alone annabeth. He makes fun of gods and monsters alike. And the first time he saw annabeth, really saw annabeth she was just as off balance as he was. She was on her first quest, with monsters hunting her for the first time since she was 7, doubting herself wondering if she was actually any good.
He saw the humanity in her. He saw her vulnerabile side. Its shown in show too where percy just tells her to 'be a kid' where others were putting her on an impossible pedestal. He focuses more on bestie (then crush then girlfriend) annabeth and less on demigods idol annabeth.
It's like that with Percys own character too he's smart hes so many other things that get pushed under the rug in his own narration. For 5 books we were used to percy being percy. In SoN Hazel compared him to a god.
It s the same with annabeth, the first time we get an opinion on her from third part is in tLH, jason- son of Jupiter, raised by wolves-Grace finds her terrifing and refuses to board a chariot with her on it, even if the alternative was staying with a bunch of wind spirits who could kill him. He was more afraid of annabeth.
Annabeth had no powers, nothing to give her a boost in her demigod standing. She did that on her own. She made herself someone the gods would pay attention to, someone mosters would fear and recognise.
