#ferodactyl

The answer is, mostly but not exclusively, his relationship with Will. He also has an interesting, although far more minor, relationship with Nico which does not entirely revolve around their mutual love of Will, but it is predominantly Will, yes, and that’s what I’ll talk about here (I can poke more at Nico’s relationship with Apollo later, if there’s interest). And this brings me to my first point, which underlines my entire opinion on this thing:

Relationships do not exist in a vacuum.  They just don’t.  People are shaped by their relationships with various people, both good and bad, and the situations that arise from each of these situations - Nico is very shaped by his relationship with Bianca, her (in his eyes, not that I don’t agree) abandonment of him, and her death, to name the obvious example.  It wasn’t being a son of Hades that made him stop being the bubbly kid we saw and loved in TTC, it was Bianca’s death and then Minos’ manipulation that jaded him.  Likewise, Will is certainly influenced by other people in his life.  Apollo makes specific mention of his mother, Naomi, in TON:

Will hadn’t inherited his thoughtfulness from me. That was all his mother, Naomi, bless her kind heart.

(I personally think that Apollo is selling himself very short here, considering how he’s been acting in the entire series himself, but regardless, if Apollo says Naomi was thoughtful, then we can probably trust him on that.  I have a lot to say about how I think Will&Naomi’s relationship is, too, but that’s an essay for another time if anyone’s interested.)

However, Apollo is a god, and we’ve spent the first ten books looking at how much gods fail at being parents, especially the first five books where that was basically Luke’s entire original motivation (albeit later hijacked and twisted by Kronos), as well as the reason so many demigods defected to follow Luke, so how does this fit in with Apollo&Will?

Primarily, we’re looking at the fact that Apollo is, canonically, one of the best godly parents.  It’s a very low bar, I admit, but we get a hint of this during Clovis’ recounting of the war council in BOO:

‘We don’t know what’s going on at Delphi,’ Will continued. ‘My dad hasn’t answered any prayers, or appeared in any dreams ... I mean, all the gods have been silent, but this isn’t like Apollo. Something’s wrong.’

This isn’t like Apollo, Will says, making specific mention of the fact that, yeah, the gods are all silent and that’s pretty normal overall, but that’s not like Apollo.  Apollo is, usually, present in Will’s life to some extent.  He answers prayers, he pops into their dreams.  Admittedly we don’t know exactly what he does in those dreams (and yes, it’s a high chance he’s just reciting new poems at them that they may or may not actually want to hear), but it’s confirmed, repeated, canonical interaction with his kids.  That’s a lot more than we hear about or see from most of the Olympians.

This passage, to me, also reads like he’s worried about Apollo to at least some degree.  Nothing like the levels we see later on, in TOA, no, but there’s some concern going on there and it’s not purely at their general situation.

Will also has an unwavering faith in Apollo, as evidenced very plainly in his well-known interaction with Octavian:

‘No!’ Will Solace shoved Nico out of the way and got in Octavian’s face. ‘I am a son of Apollo, you anaemic loser. My father hasn’t shown anyone the future, because the power of prophecy isn’t working. But this –’ He waved loosely at the assembled legion, the hordes of monstrous armies spread across the hillside. ‘This is not what Apollo would want!’

He has no doubt at all that Octavian is at the very least mistaken, if not outright lying using his dad’s name, and that Apollo would not, ever, want the Romans to wipe out CHB - wipe out several of his own children, not to mention the camp he prodded Chiron into starting up in the first place (Apollo is, effectively, the patron god of CHB, after all, and there are a few tell-tale lines in TOA that let slip more than I think Apollo meant to on the subject).  He doesn’t hesitate, he gets properly angry (and we don’t see Will angry much, usually just stubborn and refusing to roll over as he sticks to his beliefs and morals) at the insinuation that anyone could believe Apollo would do that.  He’s not just protesting to Octavian here, he’s also proclaiming his faith in his father to his peers - to Nico, Lou Ellen, and Cecil, who are also his audience there.

Will truly believes in Apollo, and he’s never shown to be ashamed of that fact, not even - or rather, especially - when Apollo is being held up as the reason for the Greco-Roman war.  That level of faith is incredibly solid and deep for a demigod, especially in the aftermath of the PJO books, where there’s shown to be very little faith in the gods’ morality or actions.  Even Apollo projects himself as being self-centred (even though, when you read between the lines and look past his words to his actual actions, he’s never done anything but help the demigods).

“Tsari, this has nothing to do with Solangelo,” but it does, not just because, again, relationships don’t exist in a vacuum and Will is undeniably shaped by his relationship with his father anyway, but because of the timing of their relationship.

We don’t know, exactly, when Will and Nico became friends, let alone when they became boyfriends.  It’s somewhere in the timeskip between BOO (early August) and THO (mid-January), but we have no exact timeline for it.  I’d say from how they interact that they do seem settled enough in the relationship that’s it’s likely to have been at least a month from the ease of the banter that they share, and the way Nico is clearly not at all threatened by Paolo:

“You’re staring,” Nico noted.

“I am not,” Will said. “I am merely assessing how well Paolo’s arms are functioning after surgery.”

“Hmph.”

(He points this out as a statement of fact, not an accusation; we know what Nico’s like when he gets defensive or worried and “hmph” is not it.)

But we don’t know for sure exactly when they first became friends, rather than a doctor-patient dynamic (it’s heavily implied canon that they didn’t meet until at least BOTL, judging by the fact that there are no Apollo kids in camp during TTC and while I acknowledge the potential is there for Will to have been unclaimed at the time, that doesn’t fit with what we know of Apollo’s personality - he likes showing things off, he likes showing his kids off (look at how much he waxes poetic about Will, Kayla and Austin in THO, even before we start with the character development, look at how much he likes bragging about what previous kids have gone on to do).  If he had any unclaimed kids in camp while he was dropping by in TTC, it would be very out of character for him to not claim them and show them off, but he doesn’t, so Will was almost certainly not in camp then).

What we do know is that the entirety of the canonical Solangelo relationship, from the ambiguous “when exactly did they get together after BOO” to the events of TOA, has one, consistent backdrop to it.

Apollo.

Or, more specifically, Apollo in trouble.

We’re not told if Jason or anyone else from the Seven ever recounts to the rest of the camp about Zeus blaming Apollo for the rise of Gaia and threatening punishment, although considering Jason’s clear sense of duty, I feel like he would have at last sought out Will, as the head counsellor of cabin seven, to tell him what’s going on with his dad, but even if Will doesn’t know that Apollo is actively in trouble, he does know two things.

Thing one - prophecy is still down, Python alone of the Gaia-era resurgence enemies has not been defeated.

Thing two - Apollo is still not answering prayers, dropping in on dreams, or doing any of those other things we’re told he did pre-HOO.

That adds up pretty conclusively to something is still wrong, even though the general air is that the war is over, everything can go back to normal now.

Now, I’m not saying that Will has spent the entire time he’s been in a relationship thinking solely about Apollo and worrying about what’s going on with him, but I am saying that it will have been something in the back of his mind, resurfacing at times, even during the time gap before he gets confirmation of what’s going on with Apollo.  That’s approximately four months, at most, of Will navigating a new relationship with Nico (both platonic and romantic) with the lurking knowledge that something’s not right with his father.

Nico has only known the Will who’s always worrying in the background about a literal god.  He knows Will trusts Apollo - he was there for the Octavian speech - and that Will seems to have at least a decent view of his father (which is more than most campers can say), and he knows that Will is worrying (maybe not to start with, but certainly by the time THO rolls around, Nico knows Will well enough to recognise it).

So even during the timeskip when they’re getting together, Apollo has a degree of relevance.  This only increases once we reach TOA and Will is reunited with his father for the first time in a year.

TOA spans six months.  Will (and Nico) are only actively present in THO and TON, but that’s enough to show us that Will isn’t at all reassured by his father’s presence in his life again.  On the one hand, at least the uncertainty of not knowing is lessened (not gone entirely, because most of the time, Will isn’t with Apollo and doesn’t know exactly what he’s going through, but he knows it’s a dangerous quest), but on the other, his father is very, very, mortal and very, very fragile.

Will learns this the hard way, we’re told.

“Whoa, there.” Will steadied me. “I tried to heal you, but honestly, I don’t understand what’s wrong. You’ve got blood, not ichor. You’re recovering quickly from your injuries, but your vital signs are completely human.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Yeah, well...” He put his hand on my forehead and frowned in concentration. His fingers trembled slightly. “I didn’t know any of that until I tried to give you nectar. Your lips started steaming. I almost killed you.”

And, honestly, things don’t get any better.  Apollo’s a mess, Nico himself is the one to point out later on in THO that Will, especially, is worried:

Nico rested his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Apollo, we were worried. Will was especially.”

Seeing them together, supporting each other, made my heart feel even heavier.

(I also love this scene because Apollo explicitly points out that Nico is supporting Will just as much as Will is supporting Nico - this relationship is not one-sided, or uneven.  It’s not an unhealthy doctor-patient dynamic disguised as romance; Nico is aware that Will is struggling, and he’s being there for him.  In fact, it reminds Apollo of his best romantic relationship.)

And while we don’t see Will in person for the next three books (although he crops up in Apollo’s thoughts from time to time), when we do meet him again in TON, this is his first encounter:

‘Dad!’ Will shot to his feet. He ran down the steps and tackled me in a hug.

That’s when I lost it. I wept openly.

My beautiful son, with his kind eyes, his healer’s hands, his sun-warm demeanour. Somehow, he had inherited all my best qualities and none of the worst. He guided me up the steps and insisted I take his seat. He pressed a cold glass of lemonade into my hands, then started fussing over my wounded head. ‘I’m fine,’ I murmured, though clearly I wasn’t.

His boyfriend, Nico di Angelo, hovered at the edge of our reunion – observing, keeping to the shadows, as children of Hades tend to do.

Now, I have thoughts on why Will was hanging around the Big House, sipping lemonade and apparently being taught pinochle rather than helping new campers settle in as is both his duty as the head of cabin seven, and very much his personality (remember how he happily and thoroughly introduced Leo to CHB back in TLH even though he wasn’t Leo’s head counsellor?), and they mostly boil down to Will being overwhelmed with worry, but there isn’t any real explicit canon evidence for that so I’ll skip over that for now.  However, Will is clearly absolutely ecstatic to see Apollo again, and Nico steps back and lets Will have that without any sort of interference (in fact, he specifically turns to help Meg, leaving Will to handle Apollo by himself without needing to also slip into Camp Healer Mode and treat Meg as well, which again shows his keen awareness, even under the weight of Jason’s death, of what Will needs right then - and Will needs his father, not his boyfriend).

This scene ends rather abruptly with Apollo passing out, much to Will’s distress, and then we’re back in the throes of obviously worried Will again:

I tipped sideways in my chair as Will’s voice receded down a long dark tunnel. ‘Dad! Guys, help me!’

(Note that throughout this scene, he explicitly calls Apollo Dad, despite generally tossing up between the two throughout the story.)

And if we want canon proof that Will was actively thinking about Apollo during the time between THO and TON, it’s right here, in one of my favourite little exchanges because they’re both so adorable (and yet, both so insecure in each others’ feelings):

Here’s all you need to know about Will Solace: he had clothes waiting for me. On his last trip into town, he’d gone shopping specifically for things that might fit me.

‘I figured you’d come back to camp eventually,’ he said. ‘I hoped you would, anyway. I wanted you to feel at home.’

It’s not even a passive, back-of-the-mind, worry.  Will actively did something for Apollo, in the hopes that he’d come back - and feel welcome when he did - while he was away.  The specification that it was his “last” trip into town, not his first, also shows that this wasn’t Will wandering down into NY a few days after the events of THO, picking up some clothes, and then forgetting about them until Apollo popped back up again six months later - this was Will mulling over what he could do to help Apollo for some time, before finally making a decision and acting upon it.

So, to answer the question of why Apollo cannot be ignored or dismissed in regards to Solangelo:

For the entire time Will and Nico have been friends (let alone boyfriends), the uncertainty of Apollo’s condition has been hanging over Will.  Will is worried about Apollo in BOO (and likely HOO as a whole, but BOO is where the canon evidence begins), he is worried about him in TOA.  He’s arguably more worried in TOA, which spans six months and is the majority of the time Solangelo have been together in canon so far, to the point where he’s actively acting on this worry even when Apollo isn’t around.  Apollo’s disappearance and subsequent trials are a key influence on Will’s life, and have impacted his relationship and dynamic with Nico, purely because that’s how relationships work.  One relationship causes ripples that then affect another, and so on.

It’s also important because it gives a clear view into how their relationship is healthy and balanced.  Nico is spending a lot of time being Will’s support, just as Will is also supporting Nico, and the main reason we’re being shown that Will needs support at this point in his life is, yes, Apollo.

So yes, Apollo is an integral part of how their relationship has developed so far, both platonically and romantically, and I really wish more people were talking about this.