The Broken Bow series by Xed Alpha follows the story of Armani Dove, son of Artemis, as he adventures throughout the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
This series includes:
- Broken Bow
(Complete) - Shadows of the Hunt (Complete)
- Counterpart (Complete)
- A Boy Called Artemis (Complete)
- The Lost Prince (Complete)
- The 12 Years of Christmas (Complete)
- Hunter Tales (Dead)
Broken Bow contains examples of:
- Accidental Marriage: Armani to Lya at the end of Shadows of the Hunt.
- Accidental Proposal: Letting a wood nymph braid your hair is equivalent of accepting an engagement ring from them, as Armani finds out too late.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Nico is heterosexual in this fic, although that can be justified as the story was published before House of Hades.
- Adaptational Villainy: Nico di Angelo gets a bit of this in Book 2, though it's more of an Adaptational Angst Upgrade than a real Face–Heel Turn. Hades, however, plays this straight in Book 2, though afterwards he returns to being more close to his canonical self. Even then he never reaches Everyone Hates Hades levels of evil and his antagonistic behavior is within the realms of his canon portrayal.
- Alternate Universe: Two appear in story: one home to Armani's female counterpart Selene Dove, the other to the Artemis Fowl verse.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The Artemis Fowl characters, especially the fairies, are not quick to believe Armani is a Demigod. He, of course, lampshades the fact that faeries aren't believing him.
- Batman Gambit: Eris pulls off a classic one in Book 3: She lets Armani and Selene touch the mirror at the same time, opening a breach into inter-dimensional space to allow all sorts of Eldritch Abominations in.
- The Beastmaster: Armani, as a child of Artemis.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Lya's a very sweet wood nymph, but tell her there's another woman between you and her, and she'll hijack the entire forest to get you, as poor Armani finds out.
- Brick Joke: Ares's answer to questions is shouting 'BECAUSE WE ARE GODS!'
- Broken Ace: By the end of Chapter 1, we've already established that Armani is a) is an expert archer and all-round combatant, b) a Deadpan Snarker, and c) struggling with self-loathing. Oh, and he's dying. Mostly averted in later books.
- The Cameo: Christopher Walken makes an appearance in the first chapter of the third book, kidnapped by Lya as a present for her shotgun-wedded husband, Armani. He even gives Armani, whom he mistakes for Jesus, an autograph and some marriage advice.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Clarisse, Percy, Annabeth, and Armani engage in this on Alcatraz.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Between books 1 and 2, Armani attracts the attention of several wood nymphs due to his connection with Artemis.
- Cool Uncle: Apollo to Armani, no matter how much the latter denies it. Doubles as a Parental Substitute, since Artemis wasn't aware of the latter's birth until sixteen years later.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ares and Aphrodite are on the receiving end of one in Shadows of the Hunt, with Artemis in Mama Bear mode delivering it.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Trying to go up against Artemis, in the wild, on the night of a full moon? It's only because Armani has a similar, though lesser, set of powers, and because she's explicitly holding back, that stops this from being a fully-fledged Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Deadpan Snarker: Armani. Best exemplified by the conversation he has with Apollo in the first book about his birth about why Artemis was unaware of his (immaculate) birth.Armani: Apollo, did Zeus ever have "the talk" with you? Do you know how babies are made and how they come out? Trust me; mothers tend to notice the second bit!
- Death Seeker: Armani during the first book.
- Determinator: Come hell or high water, Armani will not give up when he's set on a goal.
- Dissonant Serenity: Artemis engages in a Curb-Stomp Battle with Ares and Aphrodite. Athena, meanwhile, stands casually by, making notes on a clipboard and chatting to the other demigods.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Lya, oh so much towards Armani. She's tried everything from Through His Stomach to kidnapping Christopher Walken.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Percy is a bit miffed than Armani's never heard of him. Mostly Played for Laughs, though.
- Everyone Has Standards: The hunters of Artemis, who hate males as a matter of principle, are shocked by how badly injured Armani is when they finally catch up to him.
- Fearful Symmetry: This is one of the things that tips off Armani that Selene is his counterpart.
- Foreshadowing: In the second book, Armani thinks that he could say, "I'm a young Irish master criminal and these are my fairy friends," and get away with it, as long as he has money to spare. Guess who shows up a couple of books later?
- Gender-Blender Name: Armani's pet female griffin, Tim. In his defense, he was a young kid at the time.
- Hammerspace: Where Armani and Artemis keep their bows. Combined with Bottomless Quivers.
- Hero of Another Story: Percy Jackson. You may have heard of him. Same with Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Chiron, etc.
- Hot Librarian: Lanaya, the dryad who teaches Armani English, in The 12 Years of Christmas pulls off this look quite well, thanks to her advanced age of nine hundred years giving her the appearance of a woman in her late twenties or early thirties.
- Line-of-Sight Name: How Armani got his name.Armani: So let me get this straight; the clothes on your back, and your toothpaste?
Apollo: Umm, kinda, yeah...
Armani: With all due respect, uncle,
you suck. - Loophole Abuse:
- When Zeus gets mad at Percy for flying in his realm, Apollo points out that Percy was driving the sun chariot, which is his realm. At another point, Poseidon is forbidden from telling Percy about the quest his friends are on...so he calls Percy on an Iris-Message and starts talking to Tyson about it while the line is open.
- When Athena is about to punish Armani, Aren, and Percy for breaking their vow of not interfering in past events, Hippolytus points out that the interference chronologically occurred before the vow was made, so technically they were never bound by it.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Justified, as the ones who exhibit them are the twin gods of archery, Artemis' Hunters (who are blessed with superhuman aiming skills), and Armani, son of one of the above and mentored by the other.
- Ironic Echo: At the beginning of Book 2, Artemis gets off a Blasé Boast as she says that her she was "merely reprimanding Aphrodite for stepping out of line." At the end of the book, Apollo says the same about Hades, to whom he did the same thing.
- Lemony Narrator: Just as much as the novels. When he and Percy get together, this inevitably leads to a fair amount of mutual snarking.
- Love at First Sight: Played With in the case of Armani and Aren. There's a bit of love magic in his system, thanks to Aphrodite-however, it takes a few books to build.
- Mama Bear: Do not ever, EVER, attempt to harm, marry, or hide Armani Dove within the vicinity of Artemis, if you don't want to be attacked with so much force, that Athena thinks it could even destroy Zeus. It doesn't matter if you're Aphrodite, a clueless nymph, or even her own brother... just don't.
- Marriage Before Romance: What Lya hoped her marriage to Armani would become. Sadly for her, it doesn't work out that way.
- Mundane Utility: As the god of music, Apollo uses his powers to cheat while playing Guitar Hero with Armani.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: During Shadows of the Hunt.Armani: Great Lords and Ladies of your respective dominions... and Apollo.
Apollo: Hey! - My God, What Have I Done?: Artemis after she accidentally shoots Armani after finding out he's her son.
- Nice Guy: Armani's father, Hippolytus. Literally the first thing we find out about him is that he's "pure of heart and essence."
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Madonna turned Apollo down about eight years before the series. However, he promised Madonna that if she ever sang a song and called out his name, he'd answer.
- No Social Skills: Armani at first, so much that he strips right in front of some of girls in Shadows of the Hunt. Justified since he was raised mainly by Apollo and never really interacted with anyone his age before the camp.Annabeth: Are you really that dense?
Thalia: He is. - Oblivious to Love: Armani is this, given his mother is Artemis. Played for drama as this puts him in conflict with Aphrodite's children and later the goddess herself due to the two goddesses' clashes. It could also be attributed to his No Social Skills.
- Official Couple: Later on, Armani and Aren.
- Other Me Annoys Me: The first thing Armani and Selene do is to get into a fight.
- Pretty Boy: Armani, to the point where he's first mistaken by Annabeth as an Aphrodite kid.
- Psychic Block Defense: As Armani says, when you live with a god for a decade, you learn how to do this.
- Pop-Cultured Badass:
- Armani, thanks to Apollo's influence, much to his dismay. He even says The Deer Hunter is his favorite movie.
- Lya even exploits the above fact and kidnaps Christopher Walken as a present for Armani.
- A Rare Sentence: In Counterpart.Armani: What is Christopher Walken doing in my bed?
- Santa Claus: Appears in The 12 Years of Christmas as Armani's mortal enemy.
- Sarcasm Failure: Percy gets one of these when he finds out who Armani is.
- Sequel Hook: During the final series references to the Heroes of Olympus and the Roman half of the equation began to show up. After all as Percy himself wonders, if they were Roman, why did they end up Greek again?
- Serious Business: Armani and Apollo argue over whether or not Apollo used his "God of Music" powers to cheat on Guitar Hero. That's not surprising. What is surprising is that they get into this argument in the middle of the Council of the Gods. Zeus is not particularly pleased.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Inevitable between Armani, Percy, and Nico. Thalia and Apollo get in on it to a certain extent, as well.
- Summon Magic: One of the perks of being Artemis's only child. Armani can summon animals to help him fight, and utilizes this power in Shadows of the Hunt to call in some of his mother's wolves to even the odds against the Athena kids who have him cornered.
- Tell Me About My Father: When learning that Armani was raised by Apollo himself, the sun god's children become very interested in him and follow him around. When he asks why, one of them (a little girl) asks him about Apollo. Armani chastises himself when he realizes that while he was grown up raised mainly by his uncle, his cousins before him would've given anything to spend five minutes with him. Not only does he indulge in what they want, he encourages Apollo later to spend time with his children.
- Those Two Guys: A feminine version, with Theia and Aemilia in Book 5.
- Through His Stomach: Lya's first attempt at getting Armani to fall in love with her in the first chapter of Counterpart. Unfortunately, she doesn't quite get the differences between human and tree physiologies enough for it to be successful.
- Trap Is the Only Option: In Book 2.
- Troll: Dionysus doesn't say anything to Armani about the significance of Armani's hair being braided.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Played for Laughs in The 12 Years of Christmas when Apollo asks an eight-year-old Armani why he's wearing the Santa hat he hates so much.Armani: (While reading The Art of War) Sun Tzu says, "To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy."
Apollo: (To Lanaya) Why couldn't you have just bought him a Where's Waldo? book? - "Well Done, Son" Guy: Armani to Artemis. Beneath his massive vitriol and hate he had toward her, it all came from the insecurity that she would've never accepted him.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Apollo cites this trope almost word for word when Armani first calls him "uncle."
- Your Days Are Numbered: Thanks to Midas being a bit off with his timing during Armani's conception, Armani was born with a "tear" in his body that would have killed him long ago if it weren't for Apollo, though that was intentional on Midas' part to spite the god. He exceeded his deadline some time before the first book, and this was what fueled his recklessness throughout. Luckily, he gets better.
