How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"So you're an oracle?" Piper asked. "You can tell the future?"
"More like the future mugs me from time to time," Rachel said. "I speak prophecies. The oracle's spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future." (4.216-217)
In some sense, the future mugs everybody, whether they're oracles or not. And often the future doesn't make any sense, at least at first. So Rachel isn't that much different than anybody else—except maybe that she gets hijacked by other people's futures, rather than just by her own.
Quote #2
"Then after the war, things started to go wrong. Cabin Nine's chariots blew up. Their automatons went haywire. Their inventions started to malfunction. It was like a curse, and eventually people started calling it that—the Curse of Cabin Nine." (6.5)
The Curse of Cabin Nine is never really explained all that well. Is there really a curse, or is it just chance? And if there is a curse, what caused it? Is it because Leo hasn't shown up yet, and they need him to lead for things to be right? Fate here almost seems like a plot device—a way to make Leo even more important, and give him a chance to save all his siblings from bad karma.
Quote #3
"I cannot destroy you yet," the woman murmured. "The Fates will not allow it. But they do not protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit. Remember this night, little hero, when they ask you to oppose me." (11.42)
The Fates who will not allow it might actually be the author in disguise. Riordan needs some way to explain why the bad guys—who seem to know everyone's destiny—didn't just rub out the heroes in their infancy, after all. Fate and prophecy present all sorts of problems. If everybody knows what's going to happen, then why not change it? And if it can't be changed, then why bother trying ever?