Percy Jackson Book Club discussion

I've not yet read the entire Heroes of Olympus series and The trials of Apollo series so please jump in with references from those series if there are any!!!


Frederick Chase is the father of Annabeth, Bobby and Matthew Chase and the husband of Mrs. Chase.
His portrayal in the first book, The Lightning Thief, makes the fans see Frederick as a horrible father who could not care less about his daughter, but in the The Titan’s Curse we see him being actually concerned that his daughter isn't well.
Let's start with discussing about him and Athena.
After meeting mortals she is fascinated with due to their intelligence, Athena gifts them a child.
When he received Annabeth as a gift, he was still in college. He even tried to take Annabeth back to Athena, but she refused and said that a demigod must be raised by a mortal parent.
In the show Annabeth says that she was treated like a gift for a while, that is until she was 5 and his father married Mrs. Chase and they had a set of twins - Bobby and Matthew.
Owed to the fact that she was a demigod, Annabeth attracted monsters who would endanger the family. That's why when she was attending a thanksgiving party at the Chase mansion in Boston she hid in the library with Magnus after getting in a fight with her brothers and told him that she'd run away.
And when she truly did. She was found by two other demigods - Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace and after some time by a satyr - Grover.
And we do not know much else about Frederick before the ending of The Lightning Thief other than the fact that Annabeth eventually tried to return home at some point, but she went back to CHB after seeing that everything was the same as it was when she left, but Frederick kept somewhat in touch with his daughter through letters in which he tried to convince his daughter to come back home and even sent her his Harvard ring so she'd have something to remember him by.
At the end of the Lightning Thief, he came (alongside his wife and two sons) to pick Annabeth up from camp for the summer and give it another try.
The next time we see him is an illusion created by sirens to lure Annabeth in which he stands with Athena and Luke in a new Manhattan designed by his daughter with his arms open, wanting to hug her, in the The Sea of Monsters. This shows that even though their relationship isn't good, Annabeth still wants to make her father proud and cares for him.
In The Titan’s Curse Percy meets Frederick for the first time. Percy was surprised by how kindly they were treated by the Chase's and how they were concerned about Annabeth (a special mention goes to the part of this scene when Mrs. Chase tells Percy that she's heard a lot about him).
After he hears about what's happened to his daughter he says that they must hurry to save her, he offers to fly them with his aeroplane and after they (Thalia, Zoe and Percy) refuse, he insists on driving them as he wants to save his daughter, but is turned down once more. Not being able to convince them to join on the rescue team, he gives them his car. Annabeth's step mom asks Percy to remind Annabeth that she can still come home.
Still, Frederick went and tried to save his daughter with his Sopwith Camel. He shot in the monsters' direction with bullets made out of celestial bronze. Annabeth couldn't believe her father was there and exclaimed in disbelief "That's my dad!" (or "He's my dad!" I'm not sure what's the quote in the English version as I translate the quotes from the Romanian version into English and pray it's the same as in the book if someone ever checks, lol). He flies after Artemis' chariot and they land in Crissy Field after nightfall where he and his daughter share a hug.
Annabeth asks him where he got the bullets and he says that after she left the last time when they still lived in Virginia (he avoided to say ran), she had left behind a lot of demigod arms so he decided to melt a few to try and make some bullets as an experiment.
Then Annabeth tries to apologise, but he stops her and reassures her that she should do whatever she must and that he knows its hard for her. He then tells her that he knows that California isn't a safe space for her but she can come back whenever she wants and that they will protect her.
The book ended with Annabeth telling Percy that she'll keep an eye on Mount Tam and that she'll go back to her family.
We find out that he didn't know that his nephew was homeless and that his sister died because he broke contact with his siblings after an argument during the thanksgiving dinner at the Chase mansion mentioned at the beginning of this deep dive in The Sword of Summer when him and Annabeth are passing flyers on the street and asking people if they'd seen Magnus. He attends Magnus' funeral (although I don't even know if it can be considered a funeral).

While he has many faults, we can not say that he didn't care about his daughter because he clearly did. However caring about someone doesn't mean caring for someone.
He was definitely overwhelmed with caring for a child while he was still in college and protecting her from monsters, especially after he got married and had two other kids.
His relationship with Annabeth is heartbreaking even if we see it from his lens, even if we see it from Annabeth's.
The lack of communication between him and Annabeth adds up to her desire to run away, she felt unwanted after her father started another family. She felt like her step mother hated her when she just didn't know how to handle a demigod.
He wasn't a good father, but he was trying and he continued trying to make his daughter feel safe at home, but it wasn't in his powers and if only he had paid more attention to her and made her feel like the monster attacks weren't her fault, she wouldn't have ran away and their relationship wouldn't be so delicate. The love is clearly there, but it isn't enough for Annabeth to feel safe or to truly forget and forgive how her mortal family made her feel like she was out of place and how she had to leave at such a young age.
I hope that in the future she will be able to visit home and that she will be able to bond with her family.
I think that Annabeth's trauma isn't talked about enough.


What do you guys think about Frederick? And as I've said before, if he makes any appearances that I have missed - please comment them.

this deep dive has 1204 words, so have fun reading lol.

For me is that he was a good dad he just didnt know what annabeth was going threw,exspecially being a demigod

yeah, he tried to understand the world but he couldn’t