History Literature / TheTrialsOfApollo

** ''The Tyrant's Tomb'' is downright ''depressing'' at times. Mainly because it takes place at the lowest point in Apollo's life, where he's inches away from a depression.

** During the Olympian meeting, [[spoiler:Apollo is surprised to see that Hera, the vengeful wife of Zeus, is ''mourning'' over not only his predicament but also Jason's death, urging Zeus to admit that Apollo has done his job. As Apollo aptly states: "Who is this woman and what has she done with my stepmother?" She keeps this attitude up even after he has succeeded, and when Apollo is reflecting on his relationship to Zeus, he realizes that he can understand why she's not usually like this.]]

** ''The Tower of Nero'' has [[spoiler:Nico rescuing Apollo by turning the Germanus who is about to kill him into a skeleton]]. Later that book, [[spoiler:Will, Rachel and Lu interrupted Nero sending his guards to kill Apollo after he had Meg cornered and Nico too injured to keep fighting, buying them enough time to escape, recuperate and have another chance of winning the fight]].

* AbusiveParents: Both Nero and Zeus are this to their respective childrens. ''The Tower of Nero'' draws sharp similarities between the two, how they both belittle, use threats and violence to control their childrens, how they are both ManipulativeBastard that employ WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou while being blatantly in the wrong. The end of Meg and Apollo's CharacterDevelopment journeys are finding two different ways to remove their with their AbusiveParents's influence: confronting Nero for Meg and ignoring Zeus for Apollo.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of ''The Tower of Nero'', Apollo has regained his godhood, but he resolves not to fall back into his previous douchebaggery by keeping in touch with mortals and staying away from Zeus as much as possible. Nico has plans to explore Tartarus and save Bob/Iapetus and Damasen, but has new friends in the Troglodytes and is happy with Will in Camp Half-Blood. The Camp is full of new Demigods, with Chiron securely watching over them and making plans with Bast and Mimir for some sort of cross-pantheon task force. Meg is building a life with her adopted siblings, Lu, and the dryads in her Palm Springs home, which she has converted into a botanical garden. Sally is living happily with Paul and their new baby daughter Estelle, and Percy has graduated from high school and moved to Camp Jupiter alongside Annabeth to attend college. Hazel and Frank are happily leading Camp Jupiter as praetors, and Lavinia is doing well as a centurion. Leo and Calypso continue living in the Waystation alongside Emmie, Josie, Georgina, and the others, with the Hunters, including Reyna and Thalia, visiting often, as Calypso oversees a musical camp to try assimilating into the mortal world. Even Livia and Hannibal, the two elephants, are finally able to meet, and get along well. Finally, Piper is living a quiet life in Oklahoma with Tristan and has moved on from Jason, dating a girl named Shel.]] Dionysus even lampshades this, stating that "some of us do get happy endings".

* AbusiveParents:
** [[spoiler:Nero/The Beast is this towards Meg]].
** Zeus also has a history of inflicting DisproportionateRetribution on Apollo, especially when he was a young god, with Apollo even comparing the two. Then again, given that Apollo's an UnreliableNarrator, the latter may not be entirely true.

** In ''The Tower of Nero'', [[spoiler:the Arrow of Dodona sacrifices itself to help Apollo defeat Python. Earlier, Lu also sacrifices her immortality to retrieve Nero's fasces, although this involved some LoopholeAbuse as her immortality was ultimately derived from Nero and didn't actually belong to her originally]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of ''The Tower of Nero'', Apollo has regained his godhood, but he resolves not to fall back into his previous douchebaggery by keeping in touch with mortals and staying away from Zeus as much as possible. Nico has plans to explore Tartarus and save Bob/Iapetus and Damasen, but has new friends in the Troglodytes and is happy with Will in Camp Half-Blood. The Camp is full of new Demigods, with Chiron securely watching over them and making plans with Bast and Mimir for some sort of cross-pantheon task force. Meg is building a life with her adopted siblings, Lu, and the dryads in her Palm Springs home, which she has converted into a botanical garden. Sally is living happily with Paul and their new baby daughter Estelle, and Percy has graduated from high school and moved to Camp Jupiter alongside Annabeth to attend college. Leo and Calypso continue living in the Waystation alongside Emmie, Josie, Georgina, and the others, with the Hunters, including Reyna and Thalia, visiting often, as Calypso oversees a musical camp to try assimilating into the mortal world. Finally, Piper is living a quiet life in Oklahoma with Tristan and has moved on from Jason, dating a girl named Shel.]] Dionysus even lampshades this, stating that "some of us do get happy endings".

** ''The Dark Prophecy'' utterly destroys any ships within the Hunters of Artemis. Turns out all the LesYay is accidental courtesy of being a female only group and all members are required to be celibate and remain romantically unencumbered. And any LGBP interpretations of Artemis are completely torpedoed, it is made clear she is asexual and aromantic.

** At her family's compound in Brooklyn, Rachel mentions that [[Literature/TheKaneChronicles the mansion next door has "weird goings-on", including penguins waddling around on the back deck]]

* TheOathBreaker: Apollo absentmindedly vows on the River Styx that he will no longer play music until he becomes a god. [[TemptingFate So he promptly breaks it]]. It is initially played for laughs. [[spoiler: But as the later books reveal, it has far-reaching consequences as tragedies start to befall on him. In ''The Burning Maze'', Styx appears personally to reveal that Jason and Crest's deaths are part of his punishment.]]

** In ''The Tower of Nero'', [[spoiler:the Arrow of Dodona sacrifices itself to help Apollo defeat Python. Earlier, Lu also sacrifices her immortality to retrieve Nero's fasces, although this involves some LoopholeAbuse as her immortality ultimately derives from Nero and didn't actually belong to her originally]]

** In ''The Tower of Nero'', [[spoiler:the Arrow of Dodona sacrifices itself to help Apollo defeat Python. Earlier, Lu also sacrifices her immortality to retrieve Nero's fasces, although this involves some LoopholeAbuse as her immortality ultimately derives from Nero and doesn't actually belong to her]]

** In ''The Tower of Nero'', [[spoiler:the Arrow of Dodona sacrifices itself to help Apollo defeat Python. Lu also sacrifices her immortality to retrieve Nero's fasces, although this involves some LoopholeAbuse as her immortality ultimately derives from Nero and doesn't actually belong to her]]

** The events of ''The Tower of Nero'' are mostly confined to a single area (the New York City area, with much of the action taking place in said tower). However, there are a couple of large-scale battles, and the final confrontation against Python taking place in the caverns beneath Delphi in Greece, [[spoiler:at least until Apollo and Python plunge down through the depths of the Underworld all the way to the edge of primordial Chaos]]

** The events of ''The Tower of Nero'' are mostly confined to a single area (the New York City area, with much of the action taking place in said tower). However, there are a couple of large-scale battles, with the final confrontation against Python taking place in the caverns beneath Delphi in Greece [[spoiler:before Apollo and Python plunge down through the depths of the Underworld all the way to the edge of primordial Chaos]]

** The Apollo campers, including Will and Kayla, by virtue of proximity to the title character. While Will has been a semi-major character since ''The Blood of Olympus'' (thanks to being Nico's boyfriend), Kayla only has a few mentions before this series.

** ''The Tower of Nero'' has [[spoiler:Nico rescuing Apollo by turning the Germanus who is about to kill him into a skeleton.]]

** In ''Tower of Nero'' [[spoiler: when the Arrow of Dodona has an outburst early on and reveals that they feel as if they were cast out from their forest home, unwanted by the other trees, Apollo reassures the oracular projectile that he will bring them back to the grove, but the Arrow is quiet and is not comforted. This is because they have foreseen that they will have to die to serve as Apollo's final weapon against Python.]]

* FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow: Apollo still plays his ukulele despite making an oath on the river Styx that he wouldn't until he became a god again. This is how he earns the ire of the goddess Styx, and he attributes the tragedies and deaths that occur during his journey to her anger at his oathbreaking. [[spoiler: When she finally comes meets him on the edge of Chaos in the climax of ''Tower of Nero'', though, he has come to believe that she didn't actually cause all of his misery, and that her role was mostly to call out his recklessness and humble him.]]

** During the Olympian meeting, [[spoiler:Apollo is surprised to see that Hera, the vengeful wife of Zeus, is ''mourning'' over not only his predicament but also Jason's death, urging Zeus to admit that Apollo has done his job. As Apollo aptly states: "Who is this woman and what has she done with my stepmother?"]]

** [[spoiler:Nico is planning to rescue Iapetus (who is revealed to be alive) from Tartarus with the help of Will and the troglodytes.]]

** Will Solace references ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' to Apollo, Rachel, and Nico, none of whom understand the reference.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of ''The Tower of Nero'', Apollo has regained his godhood, but he resolves not to fall back into his previous douchebaggery by keeping in touch with mortals and staying away from Zeus as much as possible. Nico has plans to explore Tartarus and save Bob/Iapetus and Damasen, but has new friends in the Troglodytes and is happy with Will in Camp Half-Blood. The Camp is full of new Demigods, with Chiron securely watching over them and making plans with Bast and Mimir for some sort of cross-pantheon task force. Meg is building a life with her adopted siblings, Lu, and the dryads in her Palm Springs home, which she has converted into a botanical garden. Sally is living happily with Paul and their new baby daughter Estelle, and Percy has graduated from high school and moved to Camp Jupiter alongside Annabeth to attend college. Leo and Calypso continue living in the Waystation alongside Emmie, Josie, Georgina and the others, with the Hunters, including Reyna and Thalia, visiting often, as Calypso oversees a musical camp to try assimilating into the mortal world. Finally, Piper is living a quiet life in Oklahoma with Tristan and has moved on from Jason, dating a girl named Shel.]] Dionysus even lampshades this, stating that "some of us do get happy endings".

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of ''The Tower of Nero'', Apollo has regained his godhood, but he resolves not to fall back into his previous douchebaggery by keeping in touch with mortals and staying away from Zeus as much as possible. Meg is building a life with her adopted siblings, Lu, and the dryads in her Palm Springs home, which she has converted into a botanical garden. Percy has graduated from high school and moves to Camp Jupiter alongside Annabeth to attend college. Leo and Calypso continue living in the Waystation alongside Emmie, Josie, and the others, with Calypso overseeing a musical camp to try assimilating into the mortal world. Finally, Piper is living a quiet life in Oklahoma with Tristan and has moved on from Jason, dating a girl named Shel.]] Dionysius even lampshades this, stating that "some of us do get happy endings".

* {{Foreshadowing}}: This exchange in the ''Dark Prophecy:

* FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow: Apollo still plays his ukulele despite making an oath on the river Styx that he wouldn't until he became a god again.