#tower of nero spoilers

[ritalinratgirl]

ya know what i want in the new pjo book? neros other 'kids', i want to see how theyre coping, bc last we saw them they were not doing well, i want to see dionysus being kind to those poor traumatised kids, as well as the aftermath of that experience for them, ik we probably wont get it, but like, i want it.

[kermitthesog]

All the series combined, (pjo, hoo, toa) I think Trials of Apollo might be my favorite. I’ve said Heroes of Olympus for a while, but after finishing toa, I was actually really sad in a way that I wasn’t with the other series. This is my reasoning: *TOA SPOILERS AHEAD*

Lester/Apollo’s narration and character development was top notch. In The Hidden Oracle, at first I thought the book series was gonna be full of arrogance and whining. Oh, how it was the complete opposite. He went through stuff that no other god will ever go through. Pain, and grief. The empty feeling of not being yourself anymore. And he finally realized how the gods are, how clueless they have been about mortals and demigods. Everything that happened in toa was just building up to the perfect Apollo, the Apollo that’s not in fact perfect.

The characters. Like, these characters are so good? First of all, they are so fleshed out. Meg McCaffrey, who saw her own father dead and got mentally abused by the emperor who killed him. “The Beast,” was just himself, but Meg was too scared of him to stand up for herself. And like, how is an arrow kind of making me empathize with it? The arrow of Dodona was supposedly the worst piece of wood in the forest, and so Lester needed to prove the others wrong, and I think he did. Especially in that final battle against Python.

The amount of different stories and adventures. Obviously you would have sooo many adventures, because you need to get a different oracle in each one! In every single one, we’re introduced to a new character and new goal. It doesn’t really start in the first one, as it’s just introducing the main characters. In the second one, it’s Emmie, Jo, Calypso, and Leo. In the third one, it’s Piper, Jason, and Grover. In the fourth one, it’s Lavinia, Reyna, Hazel, and Frank (a lot of characters from SoN). In the last one, it’s just a lot of chb campers. Will, Nico, the Troglodytes, and more. See what I mean? There are so many different stories in just one series.

And lastly, how powerful it is. The fact that it could make me cry is impressive, because I don’t cry at much (book and movie wise). Jason’s death, Lester’s misery, Meg’s abuse, and so much more. It’s just so sad but powerful at the same time. If you prefer a different series, (PJO, HOO, TOA) then tell me why!

[literallyadonis]

You think they ever just hang out like this sometimes, like catching up beside a dumpster, just like good old times

[ijustreallylikepirates]

I just finished Trials of Apollo: The Tower of Nero and COME ON RICK RIORDAN STOP MAKING ME CRY 😭😭😭

Like this little interaction between Meg and Apollo:

Meg: You’ll come back?

Apollo: Always. The sun always comes back.

…

TEARS RN BUDDY TEARS

THE LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS TOO GOT ME GOING 😭😭😭

I also like the fact that Piper has a girlfriend now. I accidentally skimmed the page at first and saw the quote “Your dad has a boyfriend?” and I thought that was Apollo asking Piper that question after seeing her and her dad on the roof with her dads new boyfriend. But then there was a woman and I was like “so he’s still straight :(” and then I realized Piper’s dad wasn’t even there and that lady was Piper’s girlfriend. I got my homosexuality in the end guys 🙌🏻

[soapywankenopy]

will definitely be crying abt this later...

[readerwithsalt]

Okay this is another random thing about tsats.

Y’all know how the camp is randomly empty (which is so non canon but still) and how in the Tower of Nero at the end we find out that Apollo cabin has three new members…

So let me just ask:

Where in the hell are Jerry, Grace, and Yan? 😭🤣

I know I did not dream these three kids up. Like? One of them is from Hong Kong and the only reason they are at camp is because it’s the only safe place?? And in the timeline of ToN to tsats they’ve only been at camp for about three weeks??

But they no longer exist in tsats?? Lol??

Please someone comment if they remember them.

(Also there are a bunch of orphans at camp who don’t have a mortal parent or are way too powerful to leave but now everyone can leave … because they want to? Lol 😂)

[ichig0tchi]

Hello gamers I just finished the crystal tower raids

[lethalbutterfly]

About the First Kiss

(Spoilers for The Sun and the Star) . . . . . . . So, yeah, I can see why that would strike a lot of people as insensitive. It did me at first, a bit out of place, but the main thing that warmed me up to it is that Nico actually didn’t think it was all that inappropriate. He liked it, and that’s really the main thing that matters. THAT ASIDE-- there are other reasons that I think it works with the narrative and with Nico’s character. For one thing, he’s a spooky little gremlin and having his first kiss in the wake of Jason’s death is honestly kinda Mary Shelley of him (who for those of you who don’t recall, is the author of Frankenstein and is such a hardcore goth she actually lost her virginity on top of her mother’s grave). That’s the first thing I thought of when I first saw a meme about it (before having read it) and now that I have the context, I admit it’s a bit of a reach but I still think it’s a valid association, and one that... is very telling about Nico’s character. Writing about it now I even remember from the Addams’ family, how Gomez and Morticia originally met at a funeral, and Gomez, reminiscing said “You were so beautiful that day, nobody even looked at the corpse” and this is their version of flirting. Nico’s first kiss very much would be... kinda dark. (not to mention that knowing Jason, if his ghost found out he’d probably be high-fiving Nico from beyond the grave and ecstatic for a chance to wingman for him, even in death.) But there’s another thing I’d like to mention-- and this is not why I think the kiss worked, but why I think it could have worked. Because as I was reading the climax, as soon as the Cacodemons were introduced, my mind started racing. Just before it was outright stated, it was starting to become obvious that Nico would have to win them over by offering them freedom, as opposed to Nyx who would just control and restrict them. So how would Nico teach the Cacodemons that they can become whatever they want? By showing them that they’re capable of creating beautiful things, of becoming beautiful things. The beauty not just in but of darkness is, in addition to a running theme in the book is kind of (as I understand it) the core of the goth aesthetic that Nico sports. So, just as his own darkness can show him the memories from which they were created he could show them, maybe even the entire assembled armies of night, other aspects of those same memories. He could have called upon Jealousy and showed them that, acting out of envy for Annabeth’s possession of Percy’s romantic attention, he went and dipped Percy in the Styx, hoping to win him over and steal him away. And that’s dark, but it made Percy indestructible and basically won them the Titan War. He could have called up isolation and shown everyone how, thinking that nobody could accept him, he chose to isolate himself among the ghosts in asphodel, where, surprise, he found his sister and brought her to life. and his loneliness and his rule-breaking and his asocial tendencies are dark, but they brought Hazel into the world, and Hazel is beautiful and powerful and bringing happiness to a lot of people now. and then, last but not least, he could have called on Grief, the one with which he’s most intimately familiar. In the hands of a child of Hades, Grief must surely be a source of incredible energy and power, but it doesn’t have to be a destructive weapon either-- and Nico could show that it was because of his grief that he became closer to Will with their first kiss. Even Grief is capable of creating and becoming something beautiful like that, and while (in my mind) Nico would not implore his demons to become something beautiful if they didn’t want to, it would be important to him that they know they have the option to, that Nyx cannot tell them what they cannot be, just like she can’t tell him or Bob or even Will. Nico accepts and embraces his darkness for whatever it is, not because he is resigned to the fact that he must be dark and miserable, but because he understands that darkness has it’s own beauty (which is the lesson that Will spent most of the book trying to learn, and which Nico already understood but needed to learn to articulate and prove). And Riordan and Oshiro didn’t do that. It was fine the way it was, but I think it could have been just a smidge more if they had ran with this; they had all the pieces in place. But hey, that’s what fanfic is for, right? I’ll probably write a more fleshed-out version of this at some point. I’m also probably going to write another version of parts of The Tower of Nero where the Kiss didn’t happen, and instead Nico found out about Jason’s death, stormed off in a grief-stricken rage, and solos the Triumvirate Holdings HQ himself, trapping it in an impenetrable column of pure darkness that kills nearly everything inside, Nico himself skirting the border between anti-hero and straight up villain. but that’s a story for another discussion.

[quagquag]

jerma986

[aglioeolioeaddio]

Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro are heroes. They really said parents aren't entitled to shit from their children

They really said trans rights + fuck parents who won't accept their kids if they're not their ""ideal"" child

They really said children deserve and need autonomy

[soleil-in-retrograde]

You know if Riordan was evil (read: a fanfic writer), he could have messed with Lesterpollo's head SO much harder. The guy already has his brain scrambled by going from god to mortal.

It could have been scrambled even worse.

Imagine if Lesterpollo couldn't remember he was a god at all. I have no doubt he at least had a concussion from the fall into the dumpster.

Imagine if he couldn't remember Commodus no matter how hard he tried and Commodus decided to take advantage of that?

Imagine how much more heartbroken Artemis would have been when people figured out Lester was Apollo and he'd forgotten her? What if Temple Hill was the first time he remembered she was his sister?

There are just so many ways it could have easily gone wrong.

[spadesnoir]

I dunno if this is a point that’s been made but the crystal tower alliance raid is just one big knockoff of The Cat in the Hat (2003)

There’s a catboy, two siblings—a boy and a girl, at least two fucked up Things that cause trouble, the climax involves having to close a gateway to another realm that threatens to consume the world in chaos—which the catboy and the siblings accomplish.

Also this happens to a character in both

[devils-little-sista]

Yeah like I thought that Will's whole appeal to Nico was that he DID accept Nico's darkness without trying to fix him or asking him to change? He shadow travels with Nico multiple times and is completely fine. His idea of flirting with Nico is to ask him to help out with gory medical procedures. They roasted s'mores on bones Nico summoned. Nico kills people and Will lets him- TSATS also claims that Will loves being a healer and never wanted to be a fighter, but we know that he hates JUST being a healer and in BoO specifically said he wishes he were a better archer so he could shoot Octavian. Will was not intimidated by Nico or his powers. His discomfort in ToN made sense because he was out of his element for an extended period of time. Anxiety/depression in the Underworld would've made him tense and snappy. It does not explain... everything else.

Exactly. All of this is why I keep saying Will is so extremely out of character in tsats. ToA Will was great I love that guy I think that version of Will is great for Nico. Will in tsats is unrecognizable from Will in ToA. Tsats Will is constantly saying rude disrespectful demeaning things about the underworld and darkness. He never said anything like in ToA, in fact he seemed to kinda embrace darkness and underworldiness and he embraces Nicos powers as long as it it wasn’t draining Nico. In tsats Will doesn’t let Nico shadow travel at all. Why Nico goes along with it I have no idea (because Nico is also very out of character in tsats). Will makes Nico keep his powers to an extreme minimum the entire book. In ToA Will let’s Nico go ham with his powers until starts getting tired. Then Will just gives him Gatorade and KitKats and lets Nico take a nap if he needs it. Then he lets Nico go ham some more if he wants to. Only when he starts getting drained does ToA Will stop Nico from using powers. Nico is not drained at all in tsats (at least until they get to Tartarus) but Will won’t even let him use his powers in the begging of the book when Nicos not drained at all yet. Makes no sense to me.

The tsats versions of Nico and Will are two totally different people than ToA Nico and Will. And I can’t stand the tsats version of them, especially Will.

[hailperseusjackson]

i don’t like what i’m hearing about percy’s character assassination in tsats…………..

[sleepless-crows]

there are a lot of good rumors spreading around now that they handled the plot well and the mash up of tgt and soc storylines were even better than s1. and i am actually very gullible but i will still believe it

[03091940b]

I was rereading the last olympian and in the bit where rachel becomes the oracle and immediately says the prophecy of seven, an exchange follows that is pretty much word-for-word what happens at the end of the tower of nero when rachel says will and nico’s prophecy that we don’t hear. Someone says ‘that doesn’t sound good’, followed by apollo saying ‘she is/will be a wonderful oracle.’ No idea what that means for the upcoming book, but I love the parallels.