thinking about percy and annabeth's different relationships with the concept of choice, and how perfectly they compliment each other
(spoilers for the percy jackson & the olympians book series and season one of the tv show below)
annabeth struggles throughout the series with making choices; when the sirens show her the idealized world her hubris makes her believe she can build, it's one where doesn't have to choose between her father's world and her mother's, or between luke's side and her own. this comes up again when janus asks her to make a choice in the labyrinth, and many more times as she wrestles with the decision to fully give up on luke or not. choice is something that feels daunting and foreign for annabeth, who has been burdened with the knowledge of the great prophecy and the consequences of fate since she was ten years old. i LOVE that the show subtly introduces this aspect of annabeth's character so early, with the scene in the convenience store where she takes every flavor of candy instead of choosing one, and her being the one to witness the string of fate being cut.
percy, on the other hand, embraces the concept of choice and actively makes choices, over and over, even when prophecies and authority figures and the rules of the godly world seem to indicate that he can't. i also LOVE how prominent they make this aspect of his character in the show; he immediately questions the idea of fate being certain and rigid when he learns about the thread being cut, adamantly stating that the choices he makes are important and can change the outcome of what's going to happen. he defiantly chooses his mother over everything in the godly world, and even tries to convince luke that he can still make the right choice after the betrayal.
their relationships with choice contrast in such a beautiful way, and it makes the end of the series all the more impactful. the final line of the prophecy requires them to make a choice together: to save olympus, annabeth must make the choice to let go of luke, and the idealized family she wished for, by telling percy to give the knife to luke. percy then has to make the same choice, the hardest choice he's ever had to make, by giving luke the knife.
in the end, annabeth, who has struggled the entire series to make difficult choices, is finally able to overcome it because percy is there to support her. and percy, who has made difficult choices throughout the series but has to make the hardest one, the one that determines the fate of the world, is able to do it because annabeth is there to support him.
all along, the two of them were fated to make a choice together, and it was the unwavering trust in one another that they'd developed over four years that allowed them to make the right one.
oh, the soulmates of it all.
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