[1/2] From @moodyseal for @ferodactyl using the prompt Meg and Apollo as Don't Starve characters? Maybe them having unique stats or them coping with the Constant
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Pspsppspspspss tsari can you give us the essay :tm: as to why Apollo is instrumental in solangelo :)?
Oh boy, here we go. So, anyone who speaks to me regularly about TOA/RRverse knows that I have opinions on all things Will (and a few on Solangelo, and Apollo) and you've just invited me to dive into a real rabbit hole here. (Warning, this is long. Approx. 3k words long.) Iâve done my best to stick with canon facts rather than go too far down the spiral of headcanons and extrapolations (otherwise this would be at least twice as long again), but as always I canât claim complete unbias in my interpretations of the canon material.
For general context, to me this subject is relevant and important because of the upcoming Solangelo book, and there are fears in the TOA discord about how badly Apollo's characterisation is going to be butchered and his entire character development retconned in order to actually make the Tartarus Quest a feasible plotline for the boys. The epilogue of TON in particular has some glaring red flags for this, where Apollo talks Will (and Nico) about their upcoming quest.
I frowned. I still didn't like the idea of my sunshiny son skipping off into the land of monster nightmares. My recent tumble to the edge of Chaos had reminded me what a terrible travel destination it was. Then again, it wasn't my place to tell demigods what to do, especially those I loved the most. I didn't want to be that kind of god any more.
"I wish I could offer you help," I said, "but I'm afraid Tartarus is outside my jurisdiction."
Now, that sounds... vaguely reasonable, I suppose, although even this bit I don't like because it sounds a lot like Apollo's already falling back on making excuses for not being able to interfere considering he spent the last couple of books, no, not telling demigods what to do, but definitely not sitting back and letting them throw themselves headfirst into danger, either. But then, right at the very end, we get this:
"Did you hear it?" Nico asked me. "The prophecy she whispered?"
"I - I didn't," I admitted. "Probably better if... if I let you two figure this one out."
This? This, from the perspective of someone who loves both Apollo's character development throughout the series, and his relationship with his children (especially Will, because yes, I admit my bias), is terrifying. This isn't him reluctantly admitting that there's limits to the help he can offer like he was pre-prophecy, this is him willingly stepping back and washing his hands of the whole situation. This line goes directly against the last five books' worth of character development (and even his baseline self during PJO/HOO, to say nothing of THO where Meg has to physically Order him not to throw away his life trying to blindly save Austin and Kayla).
Anyway, I'm going to get seriously off-track if I continue diving down that line because that's not actually what's being asked here, so I'll leave it there for general context of where this is coming from and get started on answering the question proper now.
Why is Apollo so important to Solangeloâs relationship?
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 thatâs what Iâll talk about here (I can poke more at Nicoâs relationship with Apollo later, if thereâs 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 donât. 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 donât agree) abandonment of him, and her death, to name the obvious example. It wasnât being a son of Hades that made him stop being the bubbly kid we saw and loved in TTC, it was Biancaâs death and then Minosâ 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 hadnât 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 heâs 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&Naomiâs relationship is, too, but thatâs an essay for another time if anyoneâs interested.)
However, Apollo is a god, and weâve spent the first ten books looking at how much gods fail at being parents, especially the first five books where that was basically Lukeâs 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, weâre looking at the fact that Apollo is, canonically, one of the best godly parents. Itâs a very low bar, I admit, but we get a hint of this during Clovisâ recounting of the war council in BOO:
âWe donât know whatâs going on at Delphi,â Will continued. âMy dad hasnât answered any prayers, or appeared in any dreams ... I mean, all the gods have been silent, but this isnât like Apollo. Somethingâs wrong.â
This isnât like Apollo, Will says, making specific mention of the fact that, yeah, the gods are all silent and thatâs pretty normal overall, but thatâs not like Apollo. Apollo is, usually, present in Willâs life to some extent. He answers prayers, he pops into their dreams. Admittedly we donât know exactly what he does in those dreams (and yes, itâs a high chance heâs just reciting new poems at them that they may or may not actually want to hear), but itâs confirmed, repeated, canonical interaction with his kids. Thatâs a lot more than we hear about or see from most of the Olympians.
This passage, to me, also reads like heâs worried about Apollo to at least some degree. Nothing like the levels we see later on, in TOA, no, but thereâs some concern going on there and itâs 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:
âNo!â Will Solace shoved Nico out of the way and got in Octavianâs face. âI am a son of Apollo, you anaemic loser. My father hasnât shown anyone the future, because the power of prophecy isnât working. But this ââ He waved loosely at the assembled legion, the hordes of monstrous armies spread across the hillside. âThis is not what Apollo would want!â
He has no doubt at all that Octavian is at the very least mistaken, if not outright lying using his dadâs 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 doesnât hesitate, he gets properly angry (and we donât 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. Heâs not just protesting to Octavian here, heâs 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 heâs 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 thereâs shown to be very little faith in the godsâ 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, heâs never done anything but help the demigods).
âTsari, this has nothing to do with Solangelo,â but it does, not just because, again, relationships donât 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 donât know, exactly, when Will and Nico became friends, let alone when they became boyfriends. Itâs somewhere in the timeskip between BOO (early August) and THO (mid-January), but we have no exact timeline for it. Iâd say from how they interact that they do seem settled enough in the relationship thatâs itâs 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:
âYouâre staring,â Nico noted.
âI am not,â Will said. âI am merely assessing how well Paoloâs arms are functioning after surgery.â
âHmph.â
(He points this out as a statement of fact, not an accusation; we know what Nicoâs like when he gets defensive or worried and âhmphâ is not it.)
But we donât know for sure exactly when they first became friends, rather than a doctor-patient dynamic (itâs heavily implied canon that they didnât 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 doesnât fit with what we know of Apolloâs 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 doesnât, 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 âwhen exactly did they get together after BOOâ to the events of TOA, has one, consistent backdrop to it.
Apollo.
Or, more specifically, Apollo in trouble.
Weâre 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 Jasonâs 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 whatâs going on with his dad, but even if Will doesnât 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 weâre 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, Iâm not saying that Will has spent the entire time heâs been in a relationship thinking solely about Apollo and worrying about whatâs 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 whatâs going on with Apollo. Thatâs approximately four months, at most, of Will navigating a new relationship with Nico (both platonic and romantic) with the lurking knowledge that somethingâs not right with his father.
Nico has only known the Will whoâs 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 theyâre 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 thatâs enough to show us that Will isnât at all reassured by his fatherâs 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 isnât with Apollo and doesnât know exactly what heâs going through, but he knows itâs a dangerous quest), but on the other, his father is very, very, mortal and very, very fragile.
Will learns this the hard way, weâre told.
âWhoa, there.â Will steadied me. âI tried to heal you, but honestly, I donât understand whatâs wrong. Youâve got blood, not ichor. Youâre recovering quickly from your injuries, but your vital signs are completely human.â
âDonât remind me.â
âYeah, well...â He put his hand on my forehead and frowned in concentration. His fingers trembled slightly. âI didnât know any of that until I tried to give you nectar. Your lips started steaming. I almost killed you.â
And, honestly, things donât get any better. Apolloâs a mess, Nico himself is the one to point out later on in THO that Will, especially, is worried:
Nico rested his hand on Willâs shoulder. âApollo, we were worried. Will was especially.â
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. Itâs not an unhealthy doctor-patient dynamic disguised as romance; Nico is aware that Will is struggling, and heâs being there for him. In fact, it reminds Apollo of his best romantic relationship.)
And while we donât see Will in person for the next three books (although he crops up in Apolloâs thoughts from time to time), when we do meet him again in TON, this is his first encounter:
âDad!â Will shot to his feet. He ran down the steps and tackled me in a hug.
Thatâs when I lost it. I wept openly.
My beautiful son, with his kind eyes, his healerâs 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. âIâm fine,â I murmured, though clearly I wasnât.
His boyfriend, Nico di Angelo, hovered at the edge of our reunion â 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 wasnât Leoâs head counsellor?), and they mostly boil down to Will being overwhelmed with worry, but there isnât any real explicit canon evidence for that so Iâll 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 Jasonâs 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 Willâs distress, and then weâre back in the throes of obviously worried Will again:
I tipped sideways in my chair as Willâs voice receded down a long dark tunnel. âDad! Guys, help me!â
(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, itâs right here, in one of my favourite little exchanges because theyâre both so adorable (and yet, both so insecure in each othersâ feelings):
Hereâs all you need to know about Will Solace: he had clothes waiting for me. On his last trip into town, heâd gone shopping specifically for things that might fit me.
âI figured youâd come back to camp eventually,â he said. âI hoped you would, anyway. I wanted you to feel at home.â
Itâs not even a passive, back-of-the-mind, worry. Will actively did something for Apollo, in the hopes that heâd come back - and feel welcome when he did - while he was away. The specification that it was his âlastâ trip into town, not his first, also shows that this wasnât 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 Apolloâs 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. Heâs 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 heâs actively acting on this worry even when Apollo isnât around. Apolloâs disappearance and subsequent trials are a key influence on Willâs life, and have impacted his relationship and dynamic with Nico, purely because thatâs how relationships work. One relationship causes ripples that then affect another, and so on.
Itâs also important because it gives a clear view into how their relationship is healthy and balanced. Nico is spending a lot of time being Willâs support, just as Will is also supporting Nico, and the main reason weâre 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.
Iâll stop waffling for now, but as always if people want my takes on things, my askbox is always open!
Prompt given: Apollo and Meg looking after each other
Hi Uke (@ukelele-boy) ! I (Fero [@ferodactyl]) am your secret santa this year. Hope you like this :]
(In other news, if I have a nickel every time I use a rainy scene involving the sunflower siblings for a secret santa, I would have 2 nickels, which doesn't seem like a lot but-)
For secret santa, [@ferodactyl]âs match was @that-one-artist-called-rey, with the prompt being âhurt/Comfort Apollo and Meg talking about their abusive (step) fathers during a thunderstorm while they are traveling at some point in their journeyâ, but it was kind of hard to squeeze it into a drawing so I tried to go for the overall gist instead of the nitty gritty stuff. Hope you enjoy your gift :]
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