History Literature / TheTrialsOfApollo

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Having exhausted all the A-list and B-list mythical creatures in the previous two series, Rick really does his research to bring in mythical creatures even mythology buffs will likely not have heard about, like blemmyae, pandai, tauri silvestre, and troglodytes.

* GoodFlawsBadFlaws: A subversion versus Riordan’s other works. Most of Riordan’s hero’s “fatal flaws” are either flaws that make them seem nicer or more heroic, or relatively minor flaws. For example, Percy’s flaw is personal loyalty, which makes him just seem more like an AllLovingHero. Leo, Piper, and Frank’s flaw is low self esteem, which makes them just seem humble. Even the flaws that are genuine flaws, like Annabeth’s hubris and ambition, don’t really prevent her from making good decisions. On the other hand, Apollo generally what’s seen as “bad flaws.” He is [[ItsAllAboutMe vain]] and he struggles with [[LackOfEmpathy empathy]]. He works on these flaws and learns to be better.

* NoSell: The only weapons that would be useful for battling a monster have to be magical in nature. Because of this, demigods always still fight with ancient, traditional weapons like bows and swords and never more modern weapons like guns or hand grenades as this are all single use, which isn't useful for a demigod fight.

** Apollo says ''“I’d witnessed Queen Clytemnestra turn homicidal, killing her husband Agamemnon just because he made one little human sacrifice to me. Demigods are an unpredictable bunch.”'' The “little sacrifice” is their daughter, Iphigenia, who Agamemnon and sacrifices and Clytemnestra later avenges. However, in the myths/plays, it’s Artemis that Agamemnon offends and sacrifices Iphigenia to. However, given how Artemis in this series is much [[AdaptationalHeroism nicer]] than in the myths, Rick likely thought this was a cheeky way of adding a joke about Apollo’s lack of empathy.

** Apollo makes this quip about Caligula:
--> “I had to believe that if these mercenaries truly understood whom they were serving, they too would throw down their arms. Surely humans would not blindly follow such an evil man of their own free will—I mean, except for the few hundred exceptions I could think of from human history….But not Caligula!”
*** Caligula was assassinated by the Praetorian guard for his behavior, so at least, if we take the historical sources at their word, he was assassinated because they couldn’t stand working for someone so evil.

--> “I had to believe that if these mercenaries truly understood whom they were serving, they too would throw down their arms. Surely humans would not blindly follow such an evil man of their own free will—I mean, except for the few hundred exceptions I could think of from human history….But not Caligula!”\\
\\Caligula was assassinated by the Praetorian guard for his behavior, so at least, if we take the historical sources at their word, he was assassinated because they couldn’t stand working for someone so evil and mad.

--> “I had to believe that if these mercenaries truly understood whom they were serving, they too would throw down their arms. Surely humans would not blindly follow such an evil man of their own free will—I mean, except for the few hundred exceptions I could think of from human history….But not Caligula!”//
//Caligula was assassinated by the Praetorian guard for his behavior, so at least, if we take the historical sources at their word, he was assassinated because they couldn’t stand working for someone so evil and mad.

** Happens to Apollo in ''The Burning Maze.'' When Medea is flaying Apollo in order to erase him from existence, the spell causes Apollo to lose his sense of sense and will to live, on top of the agony of being tortured. Luckily when the spell (and torture stops), he gets everything back.

** Happens to Apollo in ''The Burning Maze.'' When Medea is flaying Apollo in order to erase him from existence, the spell causes Apollo to lose his sense of sense and will to live, on top of the agony of being tortured.

* MindRape: Done to Meg. Also to Apollo, but it leaves him as a super forgetful UnreliableNarrator. Thankfully, both of them eventually recover from it.

** Apollo says that Herophile was painted by Michelangelo because: ''Apparently, she was being celebrated for some obscure prophecy long ago, when she’d predicted the birth of Jesus the Nazarene.''

*** Although the joke here is more that Apollo doesn’t really know who Jesus is, the most important figure to Western Civilization in the past 2,000 years.

** Apollo says that Herophile was painted by Michelangelo because: '''Apparently, she was being celebrated for some obscure prophecy long ago, when she’d predicted the birth of Jesus the Nazarene.'''

** ''The Burning Maze'' alone has an insane amount of traumatic events for Apollo. First, racking up his usual amount of injuries, he’s badly burned. However, it really starts to go bad for him after being captured by Caligula. In order to save the others, he attempts suicide by ''stabbing himself in the heart''. He [[spoiler:watches his half-brother die, still while very badly injured from stabbing himself in the chest after failing to save his brother and the others.]] He also blames himself for his [[spoiler:brother’s death, and his new friend Piper also blames him, too]]. He also watches new friend Crest die. He is then chained and tortured by being ''flayed and burned alive''. The purpose of the torture is to erase him from existence, so he loses his sense of self during the torture, from pain and MindRape. Pretty [[NightmareFuel dark]] for a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids kid’s book]]. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him when he starts crying on the plane at the end of the book. Who wouldn’t break down after all that?

** ''The Burning Maze'' alone has an insane amount of traumatic events for Apollo. First, racking up his usual amount of injuries, he’s badly burned. However, it really starts to go bad for him after being captured by Caligula. In order to save the others, he attempts suicide by ''stabbing himself in the heart''. He [[spoilers:watches his half-brother die, still while very badly injured from stabbing himself in the chest after failing to save his brother and the others.]] He also blames himself for his [[spoilers:brother’s death, and his new friend Piper also blames him, too]]. He also watches new friend Crest die. He is then chained and tortured by being ''flayed and burned alive''. The purpose of the torture is to erase him from existence, so he loses his sense of self during the torture, from pain and MindRape. Pretty [[NightmareFuel dark]] for a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids kid’s book]]. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him when he starts crying on the plane at the end of the book. Who wouldn’t break down after all that?

* TraumaCongaLine: The entire series is basically this for Apollo. On top of monsters threatening to kill him, which is usual for a Riordan’s protagonists, Apollo has a bit [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]] events happen to him. In fact, if you look at the sheer number events that happen to him over the series, he probably has more than the other MCs except maybe Nico Di Angelo. For example, he’s been beaten, tortured, nearly watched his children burned alive, [[MindRape mind-raped]], and even [[spoiler:attempted suicide (to save the others)]]. To be specific:

** ''The Burning Maze'' alone has an insane amount of traumatic events for Apollo. First, racking up his usual amount of injuries, he’s badly burned. In starts to go bad for him after being captured by Caligula. In order to save the others, he attempts suicide by ''stabbing himself in the heart''. He [[spoilers:watches his half-brother die, still while very badly injured from stabbing himself in the chest after failing to save his brother and the others.]] He also blames himself for his [[spoilers:brother’s death, and his new friend Piper also blames him, too]]. He also watches new friend Crest die. He is then chained and tortured by being ''flayed and burned alive''. The purpose of the torture is to erase him from existence, so loses his sense of self during the torture, either from pain and MindRape. Pretty [[NightmareFuel dark]] for a [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids kid’s book]]. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him when he starts crying on the plane at the end of the book. Who wouldn’t break down after all that?

* TraumaCongaLine: The entire series is basically this for Apollo. On top of monsters threatening to kill him, which is usual for a Riordan’s protagonists, Apollo has a bit [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]] events happen to him. In fact, if you look at the sheer number events that happen to him over the series, he probably has more than the other MCs except maybe Nico Di Angelo. For example, he’s been beaten, tortured, nearly watched his children burned alive, [[MindRape mind-raped]], and even [[spoilers:attempted suicide (to save the others)]]. To be specific:

* TraumaCongaLine: The entire series is basically this for Apollo. To be specific, just in ''The Hidden Oracle'' alone, he is physically hurled out of Olympus, thrown into a dumpster, breaking his ribs, with only a vague idea of what he did wrong and even less of an idea of how to fix it. Two mortal thugs stomp on his face, kicking him repeatedly to the point that he blacks out several times. Then he's nearly killed by plague spirits on the way to camp, and nearly dies soon after that in the woods, having a high fever, possibly hypothermia, and being delirious. He's nearly caught by his worst enemy, Python, and then immediately afterwards finds out that his children have been taken in order to lay a trap for him. Oh, and then while trying to help Apollo find his kids, Meg's taken, Apollo's injured some more, and needs to charge BACK into the woods to rescue her, and he has to sing about his worst failures to get to her.

** Apollo claims to be proud of his son Augustus/Octavian, the first Emperor. In real life, there were rumors that the actual Augustus, the first emperor, was the son of Apollo. It’s likely Augustus started the rumors he was the son of Apollo himself.
*** Before Augustus, Apollo was an relatively unimportant god in Roman religion. Augustus caused Apollo to be a much more principal figure in Roman religion. Is Apollo’s good will due to him being the first emperor or due to him increasing Apollo’s status?

--> "I hadn’t witnessed such a tense greeting since Patroclus met Achilles’s war prize, Briseis.”

--> You could not create a race less sympathetic to an attractive, multitalented god like me. (And believe me, Ares had tried. Those eighteenth-century Hessian mercenaries he cooked up? Ugh.

** Apollo says ''“I’d witnessed Queen Clytemnestra turn homicidal, killing her husband Agamemnon just because he made one little human sacrifice to me. Demigods are an unpredictable bunch.”'' The “little sacrifice” is their daughter, Iphigenia, whom Agamemnon and sacrifices and Clytemnestra avenges. However, in the myths/plays, it’s Artemis that Agamemnon offends. While Agamemnon does offend Apollo in other ways, he never sacrifices Iphigenia to Apollo in the plays/myths. However, given how Artemis in this series is much [[AdaptionalHeroism nicer]] than in the myths, Rick likely thought this was a cheeky way of adding a joke about Apollo’s lack of empathy.

** Apollo says ''“I’d witnessed Queen Clytemnestra turn homicidal, killing her husband Agamemnon just because he made one little human sacrifice to me. Demigods are an unpredictable bunch.”'' The “little sacrifice” is their daughter, Iphigenia, subject to many Greek Tragedies. However, in the myths/plays, it’s Artemis that Agamemnon offends. Artemis halts the winds at Aulis, so the Greeks can’t travel to the Trojan War. Thus, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis, and the winds resume. After the Trojan War, Agamemnon comes home to a furious Clytemnestra (for murdering their child), and she kills Agamemnon in revenge. While Agamemnon does offend Apollo in other ways, he never sacrifices Iphigenia to Apollo in the plays/myths. However, given how Artemis in this series is much [[AdaptionalHeroism nicer]] than in the myths, Rick likely thought this was a cheeky way of adding a joke about Apollo’s lack of empathy.