The other campers at CHB: the Athena cabin
Next stop in our tour of the non-protagonist campers: the Athena cabin!
Despite being the cabin from which one of the main protagonists of the Half-Blood franchises, Annabeth Chase herself, we actually know very little about the Athena campers. Annabeth takes most of the place and thus overshadows her half-brothers and half-sisters.
In The Lightning Thief we get a generalized description of the Athena kids as a “bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with the gray eyes and honey-blond hair” of Annabeth. This is confirmed in Sea of Monsters, where they are described as a “dozen of boys and girls” (without counting Annabeth) “with blond hair and gray eyes” just like Annabeth. Many fans have noted that the fact all the children of Athena are blond could limit the ethnic diversity among them, or implies some unnatural hair color for some of them.
The Lightning Thief also mentions that the Athena kids “always have a plan”, something repeated in “The Hidden Oracle” where Lester identifies the Athena kids as the biggest threat in the three-legged race because they always have a plan, just like their mother. The Athena kids are depicted as being the intellectuals of the camps, the martial geeks and bookworm nerds, the sources of strategy and knowledge - there is a great emphasis on their intelligence supposed to be higher than normal, Circe described Athena children as always being the same “seeking knowledge and admiring greatness” (Sea of Monsters), and during the fight in Battle of the Labyrinth they set up a command tent to direct the camp’s military operations (Malcolm does the same in the battle during The Hidden Oracle).
However there are nuances to all that. In the Sea of Monsters, Percy mentions that some of the sword-fighters of the camp are in the Athena cabin (the others are in the Ares cabin), which ties to how they were described as athletic in the first book ; and in Battle of the Labyrinth it is mentionned that the children of Athena are supposed “to be wise, not just clever”. Outside of that, we know that during The Last Olympian their part in the war involved bringing the giants down to the ground with hooks and chains, that in Battle of the Labyrinth they organized a chariot race with the Demeter cabin (an event not out of the ordinary according to Percy), and during the Sea of Monsters when the Stymphalian Birds attack they demand to have shields to protect themselves and others (truly showing Athena’s style of combat, protecting and defending before attacking).
The last interesting note is that in The Sea of Monsters, it is mentionned that Annabeth is not the oldest of the residents of the Athena cabin, but she is their leader and head because she spent more summers there than any of them and thus they do not contest her right to lead.
Now, the only camper of the Athena Cabin truly identified is actually Malcolm... who we could sum up as “lesser Annabeth” or the “Annabeth replacement”, but let’s go into more details...
Malcolm first appears in The Battle of the Labyrinth, when he fetches Annabeth for archery practice and stumbles upon her emotional hug with Percy. He is very embarrassed, his whole face bright red, and quickly leaves them alone. No physical description of him is given, and in fact we will never have one of the entire books - though we do know that he has blond hair and gray eyes like Annabeth’s, because in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” it is the rule for Athena children. He reappears in the Last Olympian, where he is identified as the “second-in-command” to Annabeth and he takes over her role when she has to leave.
For the Heroes of Olympus series he only reappears in “Blood of Olympus”, where it is explained that he is the new head counsellor of the Athena cabin in Annabeth’s absence, and contrary to Clarisse’s belligerent plans to fight the Roman legions he advices for a more patient and careful approach, considering the technological advantage of New Rome.
He makes a bit more appearances in “The Trials of Apollo”, and it is actually in “The Hidden Oracle” that we finally learn of his last name - Pace. His full name is Malcolm Pace. His appearance there basically repeats all I mentionned above - he shows Meg and Lester maps of the woods so that they know the places to avoid and where to go (information-giver) and when the camp is under attack he coordinates the fight from a command camp. However this book also gives him some details that make his character a bit more noticeable, even though not much deeper: he is the only child of Athena in his cabin at this time of the year (revealing he is a year-long camper), and when the camp is under attack he is dressed with his leather cuirass but forgot his pants, showing off his red briefs - this implies that he is the kind to rush into action when the camp is in grave danger and to not care much of his appearance when the situation is critical.
Malcolm’s final appearance is in the Tower of Nero, where he is now the official and fully-fledged head counsellor of the Athena Cabin (instead of a co-counsellor or assistant to Annabeth). At one point Lester asks him for information to prepare a plan of attack, and he explains that he can build up an intelligence dossier and plans of attack, but that it would take him (and his fellow Athena siblings) four weeks, “three if we push it”, which might be a hint at how perfectionist or overtly cautious and working he is. Or just be a way for Riordan to torture his characters further...
So yes, unfortunately, it seems Malcolm was mostly designed to be a male and lesser-talented version of Annabeth, mostly existing to fill her role whenever she is gone or to assist her in whatever task she has to do.
There is actually a second identified camper of Athena in the franchise, that I overlooked because she appeared in a side-book/bonus material, but it is a very interesting case... Bea Wise, from the Camp Half-Blood Confidential book.
Bea Wise resided in the camp in the 1950s, and participated in the “Camp Half-Blood” quiz show featured in the orientation movie used on all new demigods. Bea Wise quickly gets annoyed at the game and at how Apollo (the host) runs things, but her reactions are quite interesting... she answers “Are you ready?” with “I think therefore I am” which is a clever pun and philosophical reference, possibly showing a hint of sly humor there. However after the first question is asked, she actually takes her answering time to object that it is not a question (Apollo used an order form “Name the snake I slayed!” instead of “What is the name of the snake I slayed?”). It hints that Bea might be one of those “textbook” people that can object to very little details for not much.
However her next objections are more legitimate - she is angry when Apollo gives the answer to another question after one failed answer by another contestant, legitimately shouting that Apollo did not let the other contestants answer. She then points out how Apollo is inconsistent in his speech (he asks about the Marsyas case, saying in his question that he was falsely accused of skinning him alive, but once the answer is given he brags that he taught the satyr good by... well skinning him alive). And finally, when Apollo just abandons the quiz show to start a big party with satyrs, Bea is just fed up with everything. “I cannot believe I studied for this” are her last recorded words.
But what is even more interesting here is Bea’s appearance, because the book is illustrated, and we can see that Bea does not have the “typical blond hair” of the Athena kids, being rather an Afro-American girl with dark-colored hair (I can’t tell which color it is exactly since the picture is in shades of gray and black, but it is a dark color). We can assume she has the gray eyes of the Athena children, though it is not visible on the drawing - we can just see that she has her hair pulled in a ponytail and big glasses on her nose. But anyway, it is quite interesting to get to see an Athena child that breaks the “blond hair and gray eyes” pattern in the camp.
