son of a beach

What Luke does to Percy in the Lightning Thief is deeply personal and it allows Percy to experience firsthand just how manipulative and astoundingly cruel he can be. This is a perspective which I don't think Annabeth could ever share, because his relationship with her was authentic, while Luke's relationship with Percy was a sham. When Percy gets to camp, he is confused and desperate for straight answers, he has just lost his mother, Chiron and Grover and Annabeth are essentially hopeless at explaining what's really going on in his life and truly, while they're not trying to be cruel and it's just old hat for them, it still comes across like they have very little sympathy for Percy and how badly his whole world has just been upended. From Percy's perspective, Luke is the only one who has the presence of mind to think "hm, this 12 year old kid who just lost everything he has in the world probably needs a sleeping bag and a toothbrush. I'll go get them for him." Percy explicitly says that this is "the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day." Luke is the only one who sincerely answers Percy's questions and doesn't make him feel stupid for asking them - again, I know Chiron & co. are not doing that on purpose, but for the entire beginning of TLT, Percy asks a perfectly logical question and gets a weird look and a half answer that assumes he's supposed to know more than he can reasonably be expected to know (considering he was actively being lied to for his entire life!) Luke is also the only person who Percy thinks "seemed to understand how lost I felt." And of course we know how moved he is by Luke's gift of the shoes, to the point that he even feels guilty for lying to Luke about not using them.

And the whole time, the entire reason Percy is in this situation is because of Luke. Had Luke not stolen Master Bolt and the Helm, Percy might have been able to continue in the mortal world for a few more years. Or at least his introduction to the mythic world would have been less traumatic - both the Fury and the Minotaur (his worst attacks to date) are sent from Hades, looking for the Helm. Zeus blasts Percy and Sally off the road on their way to camp out of spite for the Master Bolt - otherwise, they would have all three made it to safety and Percy never would have needed to fight the Minotaur (and again, the Minotaur would have never been chasing him in the first place). Sally is kidnapped by Hades as a bargaining chip. All this, because Percy was framed for Luke's crime.

And worse - Luke knows that the entire time. He summons a hellhound to attack Percy inside of Camp, to make Chiron think it's not safe for him to stay there. The hellhound attack is before Percy is claimed, meaning Luke has already committed to framing Percy before he's revealed as Poseidon's son (publicly, at least. It seems Kronos and Hades and Zeus already have figured it out. It’s not like it’s rocket science lol). And then after ruining Percy's life and forcing his hand to go on this insanely dangerous quest, Luke gives him shoes that are designed to drag him into Tartarus. Percy is twelve! Twelve! And he is a completely blank slate in the myth world - for all Luke knows, Percy would have wanted to join Kronos! But he never gets that opportunity - Kronos just wants to use him and Luke is seemingly completely fine with this. And Percy knows that Luke had no qualms about it because he does a supervillain-style monologue about it at the end of the book. He shows Percy his sword that can specifically kill mortals. And then he lures Percy into the woods (again, Luke, age 19, using friendship to manipulate Percy, age 12) and tries to kill him. His parting words are "There is a new Golden Age coming. You won't be part of it." That is cold. Imagine if Percy actually had just died in the woods like he was supposed to - how dark is this?

It is no wonder that Percy never got over this moment - being left in the woods for dead by someone who shows absolutely zero remorse. After you put your trust in them. After they acted so kind to you that you never doubted their sincerity. This is the side of Luke that successfully recruited so many other campers - Silena being another example of someone who was taken in by his manipulation. It’s Silena’s plight that makes even Annabeth, his most faithful defender, question just how evil Luke has really become - so it makes complete sense that Percy, after being personally victimized by it, cannot see Luke as anything other than completely morally bankrupt.

Especially when Luke displays this level of cruelty with total lack of remorse again and again. Luke puts a bounty on the heads of demigods in Battle of the Labyrinth, and taunts Percy while he traps him in the battle arena. In SOM Luke is almost comically evil (to the point that it’s like, really too much - maybe it was written before Rick had hammered out his redemption arc): he pilots a cruise ship full of drugged mortal families, presumably kept there as prisoner. He (age 20) taunts Percy (age 13) about being “out of practice” while he’s beating him up in a duel to the death, then tells him that he wants Percy to watch his bear-monster eat Grover and Annabeth before he dies. He fights Thalia to the death at the end of TTC - and loses, but he was indeed the one that made it into a fight to the death. When it becomes clear that Thalia does not share Luke’s worldview anymore and doesn’t want to destroy Olympus, he tries two different tactics at manipulating her. First, to beg her to join so Kronos doesn’t have to “use the other way” that puts Luke’s life in danger - and again Percy, who has been burned by Luke before, sees through it: “I believed that Luke was in danger. His life depended on Thalia’s joining his cause. And I was afraid Thalia might believe it too.” But this doesn’t work on Thalia, so then Luke turns to, “don’t make me… don’t make him destroy you.” Think of how this frames Thalia’s choice! “Join my cause because if you don’t then I’ll be in danger. But if you don’t then you’re the one who is making me destroy you.” I get it, all of this is nuanced because Luke really is in danger and he’s scared of his own master - he got in too deep and couldn’t find a way out. Defensible, no, but understandable and sympathetic - yes. Sad. Tragic. I feel bad for him. I think Percy does too! But it still puts Thalia in a completely unfair position. Luke is in this spot (and everyone else is also in dire straits at this exact moment) because of his own actions, so he has no business passing this off as if it’s now Thalia’s responsibility. And this comes on the heels of one of Luke’s absolute nastiest moments: preying on his old relationship with Annabeth and using her compassion for him against her, manipulating her into holding the sky, walking away while she screams and pleads for help and telling her to “try not to die.” Stone cold. Percy is watching this exchange between Luke and Annabeth wanting to scream at her to “let him die, let him die!” And it’s no wonder - he sees through the act now. Annabeth doesn’t. It very nearly kills her. Even though I do believe Luke would not have allowed Annabeth to actually die, there is absolutely nothing about his behavior that indicates he cares about seeing Annabeth in that much pain. Why would Percy ever believe that Luke actually cares about Annabeth, after witnessing that? It makes complete sense that Percy thinks Annabeth is delusional for not seeing how evil Luke really is. It makes complete sense that Percy tells Rachel Elizabeth Dare that Luke will use “mortals, demigods, monsters, whatever. And he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way.”

I know Percy is vengeful, I know he is 100% down for murder of abusers—but what I’m getting at is that Luke fully earned Percy’s boiling hatred and he deserved it. It’s justified, narratively. With this context, it is actually remarkable that Percy manages to overcome his inherent suspicion of Luke enough to actually hand him the knife. This is a known, and witnessed manipulation tactic that Luke has used against both Thalia and Annabeth - pretending that he’s in imminent danger. It’s no small thing that Percy has to actually believe that Luke is not lying, this time.

Percy is not so jaded by Luke that his suspicion is irrational—on the contrary, it is not only rational, but smart! And Percy, because he is fundamentally a compassionate person, is able to genuinely sympathize with Luke despite this when he witnesses Luke’s upbringing. This is unprompted by Annabeth or even Hestia—when Percy meets May he reflects, of his own accord, on how her green-eyed-fits could have seriously scared a nine-year-old and judges Hermes for abandoning them.

Still, Percy thinks Annabeth is naive about how evil Luke is, and in BOTL, it seems like he has grown so weary of her defenses that he deliberately antagonizes her about it:

“Something was wrong with Luke,” Annabeth muttered, poking at the fire with her knife. “Did you notice the way he was acting?” “He looked pretty pleased to me,” I said. “Like he’d spent a nice day torturing heroes.” “That’s not true! There was something wrong with him. He looked…nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something.” “Probably, ‘Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It’ll be fun!’” “You’re impossible,” Annabeth grumbled.

And again, they're both right and they're both wrong. Luke did want to spare Annabeth and he is nervous because he's about to be sacrificed to Kronos. And he also wanted Percy torn to pieces by monsters and absolutely did not give a crap about Rachel's life. There is no question in the narrative that Luke 100% wants Percy dead and would not lose sleep over it. It is, understandably, hurtful to Percy that Annabeth seems not to care about this, or at least not consider it significant enough to verbally acknowledge and condemn. And I think because his feelings are hurt, he doesn't want to listen to her (correct) assessment of Luke's mental state. Rachel provides a very interesting foil to Annabeth in this scene, where she is so disturbed by finally encountering firsthand the danger that is routine to Percy - she tells him that she thought he was going to die, and she sounds close to tears over it. Obviously the reader knows that Annabeth would be emotionally destroyed by Percy's death (and yes, Percy ought to know that too, and ultimately he does - he's even witnessed her grieving for him at this point) - but I don't think Percy feels that from Annabeth in this moment. It feels like Annabeth is more worried about Luke than she is outraged over what he just forced Percy to do. So he lashes out at her. This will happen again, when Percy loses Beckendorf on the Princess Andromeda and nearly dies himself, and the first thing Annabeth asks him about is whether or not Luke survived. And it will happen again, when Percy admits that he jumped in the Styx and Annabeth will begin to express concern for Percy, before her thoughts immediately divert worry back to Luke.

And yes, his resentment and jealousy about Luke prevent Percy from being able to seriously hear Annabeth:

“He gave himself over to Kronos,” I said. “I’m sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone.” “No!” she insisted. “You saw when Rachel hit him.” I nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. “You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.” Rachel looked embarrassed. “It was the only thing I had.” “But you saw,” Annabeth insisted. “When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses.” “So maybe Kronos wasn’t completely settled in the body, or whatever,” I said. “It doesn’t mean Luke was in control.” “You want him to be evil, is that it?” Annabeth yelled. “You didn’t know him before, Percy. I did!” “What is it with you?” I snapped. “Why do you keep defending him?”

In this exchange, ultimately, Annabeth is completely correct, and she even is able to get to the heart of Percy's jealousy towards Luke. But the sadism Luke displays that she has ignored (or at least failed to openly condemn), has been wrong. So Percy can't hear it from her. He needs to witness it himself, through his visions of Luke's backstory in TLO. And Annabeth is naive about how evil Luke is - again, you'll see that perception be shattered when she comes to grips with how Luke used Silena. And she'll tell Percy: "You were right about Luke."

In the end, Percy, too, will tell Annabeth that she was “right about Luke.” And she was. He was being manipulated by Kronos, but there was still good left in him. But that doesn’t mean that Percy was wrong about all of the sadism that Luke displays to countless people over a period of years. And it doesn't make it somehow okay that Percy has witnessed the deaths of brave people and friends as a direct consequence of Luke's actions. I don't think Annabeth would disagree with that - I just think she doesn't TRULY come to terms with how bad some of Luke's actions truly were until nearly the end of TLO, and it's frustrating for Percy that she's so slow to process what he has been seeing all along.