History Fridge / TheTrialsOfApollo

* Apollo is a sentient person who knows humans and is relatively involved in human culture, who is 4,612 years old. This means that not only has he watched all his humans friends, lovers, and children die over and over again, but has watched ''entire cultures and peoples'' die out, over and over again. Society has become completely unrecognizable over and over. No wonder he’s so distant and not empathic.

!FridgeBrilliance

!FridgeHorror

** Apollo is also noted to happily flirt with the Huntresses, but only gets interested if they flirt back- and the only one who does is a goddess who can and has tricked him more than once. While Apollo might think it's just harmless fun, some of the Huntresses themselves might be afraid that if they flirt back they're painting targets on their back- especially since [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming some men and patriarchal cultures take any sign of affection from a woman as an excuse to say "she was asking for it."]]

* Just how much kind of injuries did Brito inflict on Apollo? Granted, this is probably more imagining AmusingInjuries.
* Apollo off-handedly mentions having to dodge Chinese dragons when flying his sun chariot, which seems like just an off-the-cuff gag about driving hazards. However, according to Chinese superstition, Solar Eclipses occur when dragons ''try to eat the sun.''

* Percy mentions during his Greek Gods and Heroes book that his mother named him after the hero Perseus because he was the only Greek hero who got a happy ending. [[spoiler:Jason unfortunately, meets a sad end, like the hero he was named after, after suffering a rough period after the Argo trip ended just as the original Jason did, though unlike his namesake it wasn't self inflicted.]]

* Apollo can't understand Paolo speaking Portuguese, but he ''can'' understand Chiara speaking Italian, since he decides [[NarrativeProfanityFilter not to translate her]]. This could be because Mount Olympus was in Italy for a while at some point (probably during the Renaissance), after Latin died out. Or, it could be because Italian is the language of music-- a lot of terms used to describe music or notate how it should be played are in Italian, and Apollo uses such terms to describe his heartbeat earlier in the book. Some fans have speculated that all Apollo kids can speak Italian the same way the Aphrodite kids can speak French, the language of love.

* Frank's [[spoiler:surviving the piece of wood being burned]] was actually subtly foreshadowed all the way back in ''Son of Neptune.'' Iris (who knows more than a bit about defying expectations/destined roles herself) says that Frank is destined to die holding the piece of wood ''unless he gives it to someone he trusts.'' By entrusting Hazel and later Leo with it, he becomes much less dependent and more willing to share the burden, unlike Meleager.
* The SeriesContinuityErrors are because Apollo’s mind is muddled.

* Apollo describes Oujime/Jaime using a "Double sided hockey stick" and he commanded lightning a different way than Zeus did. Some people might think about Thor, but wait a second! A double sided hockey stick as a weapon? And it's mentioned that he is Yoruban? That seems to be an allusion to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shango Shango]].

* With the identity of the Triumvirate revealed, two of them are related by blood (Nero, Caligula), but one of them, Commodus, isn't, and was chosen to be a buffer between Nero and Caligula. Why him specifically? He [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers sticks out a bit]]. Well, consider that Commodus, while still evil, is, as shown in ''The Dark Prophecy'', more interested in ''himself'' than allying with Nero or Caligula against the other. This ''ensures'' that Nero and Caligula can't go to him and use their combined resources to wipe out the other. This is how Commodus stabilizes everything... and why they didn't pick Tiberius or Domitian. (Nero would ''especially'' not be fond of him).

* In the Heroes of Olympus both Jason and Percy were said to have a look of dreading the monster they could never defeat that would end their life. [[spoiler:While metaphoric, Jason's life was ended by a monster: The emperor Caligula]].

* Meg appeared at ''just'' the right time -- had she come to Camp Half Blood displaying her Roman training despite being a child of [[spoiler: Demeter, the ''Greek'' aspect of Ceres,]] naturally people would have been asking questions and possibly spoiled all the Triumvirate's plans at starting a Greco-Roman civil war -- by the time Meg appears to the campers, they already know of a Roman camp.

** In fact, book number four in the series shows Caligula [[spoiler: teaming up ''with'' Commodus... for ''exactly'' this reason -- because he wanted to get rid of Nero eventually]].

* With 'The Ship of the Dead' ending just after the events of 'The Burning Maze', and Frank and Hazel set for 'The Tyrant's Tomb', Rick has nicely set up two of each for their reaction to [[spoiler: Jason's death]]. First in Burning Maze we have Piper and Leo, then in Ship of the Dead Percy and Annabeth, and the Tyrant's Tomb will show Frank and Hazel's reaction.

* In the Heroes of Olympus both Jason and Percy were said to have a look of dreading the monster they could never defeat that would end their life. [[spoiler: While metaphoric, Jason's life was ended by a monster: The emperor Caligula]].

* Frank's [[spoiler: surviving the piece of wood being burned]] was actually subtly foreshadowed all the way back in ''Son of Neptune.'' Iris (who knows more than a bit about defying expectations/destined roles herself) says that Frank is destined to die holding the piece of wood ''unless he gives it to someone he trusts.'' By entrusting Hazel and later Leo with it, he becomes much less dependent and more willing to share the burden, unlike Meleager.

** Confirmed in book 2, where some of the demigods in the emperor's imperial household show up and fight on their lords behalf.

* Percy mentions during his Greek Gods and Heroes book that his mother named him after the hero Perseus because he was the only Greek hero who got a happy ending. [[spoiler: Jason unfortunately, meets a sad end, like the hero he was named after, after suffering a rough period after the Argo trip ended just as the original Jason did, though unlike his namesake it wasn't self inflicted.]]
** It also shows a very distinct difference between Sally and Beryl: [[spoiler: Sally named Percy as she did to try and keep him safe, while Beryl named Jason as she did to try and keep Hera from killing her. The selfless mother's son lived, the selfish mother's did not.]]

** Confirmed in book 2, where some of the demigods in the emperors imperial household show up and fight on their lords behalf.