#reentering my thalia grace obsession i suppose

[aetherialpiplup108]

So, I've always been a little upset at the way Thalia was cast aside after TTC considering how important she was as a thematic clinch for the narrative (like, how wild is it that her death was a primary instigator pushing Luke towards his warped ideology—bro literally spends books 1 and 2 going "oh, you want to talk to ME about Thalia?? Well guess what, she'd be on my side"—and then she shows up with an uno reverse card, effectively ensuring his downfall etc. etc. etc.) and the neglect of her character comes to a head in the climax where she's irritatingly not present even though the entire moment centered around her dynamic with Luke and Annabeth.

But.

There is something to be said about how the only reason Annabeth is there to shock Luke into disillusion is because Thalia shoved her to safety, getting trapped underneath Hera's statue in Annabeth's stead. Thalia never gets the "lost family" emphasis that Luke and Annabeth get because she's always pushed out of the storyline (spending the first half as a three, the latter as a hunter) but even so, her love for them is embedded into every action she takes throughout the series. Luke might have been the one who made the promise to the little girl they found on the streets, but Thalia's the one that kept it.

Still…how cool would it be if the statue fell after the gang already reached Luke—forget Hera, what if it was Kronos/Luke that caused it to fall—and Thalia instinctively pushes Annabeth out of danger at cost to herself highlighting that the main difference between her and Luke is not their feelings towards the gods but that Thalia can't hurt Annabeth or another innocent demigod whereas Luke is so blinded by his personal anger, he's forgotten who he's supposed to be fighting for. And Annabeth sees this and just snaps because this is her family, the only people who were there for her as a kid, and they keep hurting each other over and over for a cause they each believe will serve her. It hurts so much that Annabeth doesn't even look up as Kronos stalks over and Percy screams for her to get out of the way, but she does spit out a bitter, "Family, Luke. You promised", and Luke flinches, turning unconsciously to look at Thalia and sees the legs she broke trying to stop him from hurting Annabeth of all people, and realization crashes upon him like a pile of bricks that he's hurt the two most important people to him in the world. So then he begs Percy—who's watching all of this with a damn, what soap opera did I just walk into expression—for the knife and tries in his last moments to rectify the ridiculous mess he's made and offers a well-deserved apology to the girl who stepped up when he did not and the other who never gave up on him.)

or maybe that's ridiculously cheesy and dramatic and totally stupid. idk.