Just my (mostly) Apollo thoughts!

She's still being manipulated by the mortal Triumvirate. They're going after Apollo because he's still the heir to his father's money and Commodus, Nero and Caligula all have individual beef with him (they want to fuck him / be him so bad). Don't even worry about what Olympus could mean in this context

Artemis is just Like That. She's so uncharismatic and passionate and steadfast and headstrong that she loops back around to being incredibly charismatic Which could mean nothing. whatever she's got going on is incredibly legal.

she really doesn't like the idea of having a dad anymore so even though Apollo is absolutely filling that role as a middle aged mother hen of an absent dad she insists on calling him her older brother. part of Apollo's development towards being a better father is projecting this onto Meg and realising that he should in fact be a father to his children (Meg's lack of Father has impacted her badly and he really likes being a dad actually and realises it's very easy for him to not treat kids the way his father treated him etc.)

edit: THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT:

She's still being manipulated by the mortal Triumvirate. They're going after Apollo because he's still the heir to his father's money and Commodus, Nero and Caligula all have individual beef with him (they want to fuck him / be him so bad). Don't even worry about what Olympus could mean in this context

Artemis is just Like That. She's so uncharismatic and passionate and steadfast and headstrong that she loops back around to being incredibly charismatic Which could mean nothing. whatever she's got going on is incredibly legal.

the strange identity fixation throughout where he's like 'i'm not Apollo anymore... I'm Lester (disparagingly, due to taught beliefs about mortal being a bad thing to be and also Guy That Can Change)...' whilst also being like 'I have to become Apollo. I will be a god.' but as a reference to him actually becoming Who He Truly Is rather than what he thinks he should be based on how he's acted in the past (cruel and expressing anger through violence and taking advantage of his power and social position which what his impression of the ideal of His godliness is supposed to be WHICH CAN I ALSO ADD WAS LITERALLYYYY SEEN AS THE IDEAL MASCULINE FORM and associating it at every turn — except for past TTT? — with Being (Acting as) A God. which totally has noooo similarities to how someone who doesn't want to be a man & hates their masculinity would view it and their past actions no sirree.) Like It's the image of how he was in the past WHO I WOULD LIKE TO REITERATE WAS CONSIDERED THE 'IDEAL FOR YOUNG MEN' 'THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN' vs him accepting Who He Is Now. being Apollo and a God but as Himself. but a mysterious and more honest change has occurred. Which could mean nothing

his promises to be better, the road ahead being like 'i have to be Apollo. I must do better.' rather than 'now I'm Apollo!' more as a 'i must actively put in the effort to self-actualise and realise myself as [my new identity] and perform it with others to feel like myself. i choose to put effort into finding out how i'm me rather than pretend I’m who i ‘used to be’ / thought i was / tried to convince myself i was (I WOULD LIKE TO REITERATE A THIRRRRRD TIME THE IDEAL YOUNG MALE YOUTH IN FORM AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES)

also in general his conflation of acting & performing as “Apollo” (“PARAGON OF MASCULINITY!!!!!”) and simply being Apollo reminds me v much of how trans people see and talk about gender when they don’t quite know how to verbalise the distinction yet

And like. everyone around him in the series is going through Changes. and exploring how that changes their identity. piper as herself without jason, crest as himself pursuing what he loves instead of the (warlike and violent...) expectation of how he's 'supposed' to be and want to be, meg learning who she is without Nero (and an implied learning how she likes to dress with Nero dressing her up completely differently in TON!), the gods at the end all acting differently.

even on a more superficial level! Like! We've established hopefully Apollo's whole deal with No Longer Being his past, PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE IDEAL YOUNG MAN IN HIS SOCIETY, self, and learning to accept that he's Different now, with still some not-quite-worked-through thoughts about change being more of a mortal thing? but also he literally shed his bodily shell in the pool of genderless/fem everything and reformed it on his own terms (not on the terms of the people who created him and deemed him the THE QUINTESSENTIAL MALE YOUTH) after promising to follow through on promises that were worth making. Which could mean nothing

Your ideal environment is:

Hot/Cold

Wet/Dry

Bright/Dark

the strange identity fixation throughout where he's like 'i'm not Apollo anymore... I'm Lester (disparagingly, due to taught beliefs about mortal being a bad thing to be and also Guy That Can Change)...' whilst also being like 'I have to become Apollo. I will be a god.' but as a reference to him actually becoming Who He Truly Is rather than what he thinks he should be based on how he's acted in the past (cruel and expressing anger through violence and taking advantage of his power and social position which what his impression of the ideal of His godliness is supposed to be WHICH CAN I ALSO ADD WAS LITERALLYYYY SEEN AS THE IDEAL MASCULINE FORM and associating it at every turn — except for past TTT? — with Being (Acting as) A God. which totally has noooo similarities to how someone who doesn't want to be a man & hates their masculinity would view it and their past actions no sirree.) Like It's the image of how he was in the past WHO I WOULD LIKE TO REITERATE WAS CONSIDERED THE 'IDEAL FOR YOUNG MEN' 'THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN' vs him accepting Who He Is Now. being Apollo and a God but as Himself. but a mysterious and more honest change has occurred. Which could mean nothing

his promises to be better, the road ahead being like 'i have to be Apollo. I must do better.' rather than 'now I'm Apollo!' more as a 'i must actively put in the effort to self-actualise and realise myself as [my new identity] and perform it with others to feel like myself. i choose to put effort into finding out how i'm me rather than pretend I’m who i ‘used to be’ / thought i was / tried to convince myself i was (I WOULD LIKE TO REITERATE A THIRRRRRD TIME THE IDEAL YOUNG MALE YOUTH IN FORM AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES)

also in general his conflation of acting & performing as “Apollo” (“PARAGON OF MASCULINITY!!!!!”) and simply being Apollo reminds me v much of how trans people see and talk about gender when they don’t quite know how to verbalise the distinction yet

And like. everyone around him in the series is going through Changes. and exploring how that changes their identity. piper as herself without jason, crest as himself pursuing what he loves instead of the (warlike and violent...) expectation of how he's 'supposed' to be and want to be, meg learning who she is without Nero (and an implied learning how she likes to dress with Nero dressing her up completely differently in TON!), the gods at the end all acting differently.

even on a more superficial level! Like! We've established hopefully Apollo's whole deal with No Longer Being his past, PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE IDEAL YOUNG MAN IN HIS SOCIETY, self, and learning to accept that he's Different now, with still some not-quite-worked-through thoughts about change being more of a mortal thing? but also he literally shed his bodily shell in the pool of genderless/fem everything and reformed it on his own terms (not on the terms of the people who created him and deemed him the THE QUINTESSENTIAL MALE YOUTH) after promising to follow through on promises that were worth making. Which could mean nothing

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Apollo & Meg McCaffrey, Apollo/Latricia Lake Characters: Apollo (Percy Jackson), Meg McCaffrey, Latricia Lake Additional Tags: will update tags as i go ofc, Police, Fluff and Crack, ToApril 2026 (Percy Jackson), Not Beta Read Summary: