User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The Mark of Athena Official Discussion/@comment-5774152-20121214044606/@comment-3146930-20121214223628

Alcyoneus did say: "Gaea hates you above all others…except perhaps for that upstart Jason Grace."

The perhaps may signify that Gaea only might hate Jason more, as he was the one that lead the attack on Mount Othrys. She could hate them evenly for all we know. I'm just guessing after all.

In a weird way, I kind of dislike how this plot point was handled. In The Son of Neptune, it was only hinted that Gaea wanted to sacrifice someone as Polybotes said he would water the stones of Olympus with Percy's blood. However, it seemed like in The Mark of Athena, Gaea was just trying to get someone, as long as they were a boy and a girl. First you had the part where Gaea tried to make Piper pick between Percy and Jason. Then it was mentioned that Gaea wanted Annabeth, but Arachne wanted to kill her instead. Then we have Hazel, Frank, and Leo all trapped underground. Then it circles back around to Annabeth and Percy falling into Tartarus. About half way into the book, I was like "Alright, someone is getting captured by the end of this book. I'll just put their names in a hat and see if I'm right. Better pick one boy and one girl just to be safe"