So, I'm seeing a few posts going around that say the reason Rachel sucks isn't because she kissed Percy, but because she knew Annabeth liked him but still kissed him anyway.
Now, let me just say that Percabeth has been my all time favourite ship since Day 1 and I've never come across ANY ship that I love more than them. That being said, hating on Rachel for this specific reason doesn't really make much sense in my opinion. So what if Rachel knew that Annabeth liked Percy too - Rachel and Annabeth weren't friends at the time (between BoTL and TLO). They had met only once. Rachel didn't owe Annabeth anything, because they simply weren't friends and to Rachel, Annabeth was just some regular demigod who just happened to have a crush on the same guy she had one on.
This argument would have been valid IF Rachel and Annabeth were friends. But they weren't - they were acquaintances at best (at that point of time, maybe even less than that). If somebody had a crush on a guy and they knew that one of his friends (who they didn't know) liked him too, there's no way they wouldn't shoot their shot JUST because some other random girl liked him too! Again, there's a difference between knowing your friend likes him, and knowing that some random girl liked him.
Also, as a reader it's pretty normal to dislike a character that gets in the way of a ship that you love. But if that's the case, then just admit that's the reason why you dislike them instead of trying to cook up some analysis that doesn't make sense. Heck, when I first read PJO 10 years ago, I didn't like Rachel either for this reason. But once I started looking at her outside of her romantic storyline, I absolutely loved her. A characters romance doesn't define them :)
Anyways, Percabeth is one of the best ships ever written but Rachel was (is) a great character as well and hating on her for this very reason is very middle school and we've all grown from that lol. Again, every one is entitled to their own opinions - you can hate or love whoever you want, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. This was just my defence for Rachel for this specific point :)
