Hey I was totally randomly wondering what you thought about Will and Apollo’s relationship? :D
This took me a while to get around to, so sorry about the delay! I just love this relationship so much so I needed to make sure I had the time to delve into it properly and give it the acknowledgement it deserves!
Why? Because Apollo and Will's relationship is simultaneously so wholesome and beautiful, and also so sad, because they both love each other so much - but they don't often get the chance to show it, and indeed when they do get the chance, they get a little bit awkward and shy.
We might as well start chronologically here, with the first massive sign that this is a positive relationship, and not a neutral or negative one, and that's BOO. BOO is actually a goldmine for getting Will's unfettered and unbiased thoughts on Apollo, because once we hit TOA we're seeing it all through Apollo's unreliable narration, where he can't possibily believe that his kids might not actually hate him, and also the aforementioned awkwardness.
Will actively worries about Apollo. Before the idea of him being mortal enters the equation, back when he's a fully fledged god and surely there shouldn't be anything that could hurt him - Will is worried about him.
‘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.’
"Something's wrong", Will says, after acknowledging that for most gods this degree of silence isn't weird at all - but that it is, for Apollo. That Apollo not dropping in on his kids' dreams is a massive red flag that something is wrong.
I'm just gonna dip into a secondary thing here because it's also occurred to me that there's an obvious fear running through Will here - "we don't know what's going on at Delphi". Delphi, the home of the oracle (hence this conversation coming up in the first place), but also the place of Apollo's greatest mythological battle. At this point it doesn't seem like the campers know that Python is definitely back, but they know something is wrong, that somehow the prophecies are blocked which means something's happened to one of Apollo's core seats of power, and with no signs that Apollo is trying to fix it - there's a high chance that at this point Will is terrified that his father has actually been defeated. And it's a logical jump to make - after all, gods are not exactly known for just letting control of their domains disappear, and with the double-whammy of him also going silent as one of his sacred places stops working...
I really, really, would not want to be in the shoes of an Apollo kid right then.
But anyway, back to the main point of this, which is their relationship. This section also gives us some great little pieces of insight into Apollo's relationship not just with Will, but also with the rest of his kids. Firstly, Will calls him dad, which is not super unusual amongst campers when referring to their godly parents, but also not overly common - they tend to call them by name. Small detail but a cute one.
Secondly, if Apollo not appearing in dreams or answering prayers in unusual, then that means that Apollo almost always (if not straight-up always) answers his kids when they call on him. Definitely, he must answer them when they're upset/panicked - which they would be at this point, and getting more and more upset and panicked as he doesn't answer, etc. And it's not just answering prayers, which could be done in any variety of nebulous forms, it's also actually dropping in on their dreams.
Apollo kids probably see their dad frequently, certainly compared to the other kids, most of whom seem to never, ever see their godly parent, or once in a blue moon (when their parent wants something from them). Is it likely that these dream visits are probably just Apollo dropping by and being his pre-TOA daft self with lots of posturing and probably many, many recitals of bad haikus? Probably - in fact, given how they treat him in THO, I'd say it's likely that they only see Apollo in goofy mode. Does that mean these visits aren't something to be cherished? Absolutely not. Will isn't pleased or relieved that Apollo's stopped bothering his dreams, he's worried.
He's also furious.
"I wish I was a better archer ... I wouldn’t mind shooting my Roman relative off his high horse[...]"
Octavian is claiming Apollo is supporting what he's doing. According to Octavian, Apollo wants this war. Will explicitly wants to kill him for this. He's not even subtle about it; he straight up says "I wouldn't mind shooting the guy" - and that's before we actually get the face to face confrontation with Octavian:
"[...]The god Apollo has shown me the future –’ ‘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!’ Octavian’s lip curled. ‘You lie. The god told me personally that I would be remembered as the saviour of Rome. I will lead the legion to victory, and I will start by –’
I love Will for this moment so, so much. He is furious with Octavian for even daring to suggest he has Apollo's support. He knows Apollo well enough to be able to confidently tell not just Octavian, not just Nico and Lou Ellen and Cecil, but also everyone in earshot, that Octavian is wrong. That Apollo would not want this, that he's so, so wrong and how dare he desecrate Apollo's name like that.
And the kicker is - Will is right. Will doesn't know it (yet - we'll come to that later) beyond simply his pure, unadulterated faith in his father, but we, the readers, already do, because Apollo has already bemoaned this whole mess to Leo. Will's absolute and utter faith in Apollo here is right and that sort of faith isn't blind, can't be blind. The only other time we see kids so adamant in their belief is the Athena kids - and by now we've had the absolute whopper of a confession that the Athena kids are like this because they're indoctrinated, because they're scared not to, because "Mum's always right".
The Apollo kids aren't indoctrinated. Maybe in BOO we don't know that for certain, but the moment TOA hits and we get his kids ribbing him and treating him like a person rather than someone to be afraid of, it's clear as day. This faith comes from Apollo earning it - we know he's gifted his kids stuff before. Percy tells us that Michael's sonic arrows are straight from Apollo in TLO. It's just a logical progression from there that his kids at the least have enough faith in their father to know that he wouldn't throw them into another war. And that's what Will gives us here, in BOO.
And then we reach TOA.
Will (tragically) only appears in the first and last books of the series, although Apollo does think about him occasionally, but even just from THO and TON we get so much depth to their relationship.
And it starts the very first time we see Will.
“You’re Will Solace,” I said. “My, ah...erm—” “Yeah,” Will agreed. “It’s awkward.” My frontal lobe did a one-eighty inside my skull. I listed sideways. “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.”
There are some major things in here that really stand out to me. Firstly, and I've mentioned this before in a meta about names and nicknames - Apollo calls him Will. He goes from explicitly not recalling his name (which is a whole other kettle of fish I have an entire theory on), to not just getting it right first try with no hesitation, he also calls him Will. Will, not William.
And that's not because Will's full name isn't William - we get that canon titbit in TON when Nico fullnames him. Apollo would have been correct to call him William, and given the pattern of most gods to call demigods by their full names rather than their preferred nicknames, the fact that Apollo not only gets his name right straight after his mental blank, he also defaults straight to Will's preferred name rather than his full name, is telling. It proves that Apollo has at the very least been paying close enough attention to Will during his life to know this - and combined with Will's own words in BOO, it's a straight up smoking gun that Apollo has interacted with Will often enough before this to instinctively get his name right.
Then we have the confession. Not just one confession, either - we've actually got two. The first one is a confession of I don't know what's wrong, from the kid whose primary inherited ability (that we know of at this point) is healing, which by itself is pretty impressive. Hi dad, I know I got all this healing stuff from you but sorry I still don't understand things is not something I'd be willing to say to a god I didn't know for certain wouldn't get mad at me - even if said god was temporarily mortal. And of course, there's the big one, the "I almost killed you" confession. That's definitely not something you admit to someone you're scared of.
But there's more to it than that, too - the trembling of his fingers, the way he goes back to check Apollo's vitals again (the way he's concentrating then, he's definitely using his vitakinesis). That's all fear, a need to reassure himself that actually no, he didn't kill his dad, that Apollo is awake and on the mend - as much as he can mend from the issue that is being mortal.
This is all the interactions of someone who cares - who cares so much.
And then the scene continues...
“Gee, thanks....” I got the feeling that he almost said Dad but managed to stop himself. It was difficult to think of this young man as my son. He was so poised, so unassuming, so free of acne. He also didn’t appear to be awestruck in my presence. In fact, the corner of his mouth had started twitching. “Are—are you amused?” I demanded. Will shrugged. “Well, it’s either find this funny or freak out. My dad, the god Apollo, is a fifteen-year-old—” “Sixteen,” I corrected. “Let’s go with sixteen.” “A sixteen-year-old mortal, lying in a cot in my cabin, and with all my healing arts—which I got from you—I still can’t figure out how to fix you.”
Most of this just affirms what I said already - the acknowledgement that it's abilities Will got from Apollo that he's failing to use to help Apollo completely, the way Will is completely at ease talking with Apollo (for the most part), the way Will opens up to Apollo about being worried - but also we get to see Will from Apollo's perspective, here.
We got the physical description earlier, which I didn't bother to include, but there's more here - Will's "poise", the respectful words he uses ("young man"), and also the fact that Will isn't at all scared or awestruck by him. That's not just a background detail, it's something Apollo specifically mentions. Will's scared, he's upset, he's trying very hard not to visibly panic - but he's still not on edge around Apollo. And when he calls Will out on this, Will shrugs him off.
I also mentioned earlier that one of the sad things about their relationship is the awkwardness between them, and that's something that this scene also manages to show, somewhat paradoxically given Will's general openness with Apollo about what's going on.
It's a very clever detail in THO, which is then mirrored in TON - there is only one occasion in THO that Will calls Apollo "Dad", and that's during a conversation where they're talking about other stuff and it just slips out. The rest of the time, we get scenes like this, where Will pauses, where he's gonna call Apollo "Dad" but then doesn't, because he doesn't know if he should, because this is his dad but it's also not, Apollo's a scared teenage boy himself right now and is it right to call him Dad? Skip ahead to TON and Will never, ever, calls Apollo by name when addressing him - it's 100% Dad, after he's got used to this new status quo.
And Will is the only one with this issue - Austin and Kayla call Apollo "Dad" right from the start. It's a very clever little piece of narration to show how Will's not quite confident in what's going on, how he's worrying about things that the other two maybe haven't fully registered yet. The way he wants to call him Dad but he doesn't actually know if he should, because things are different now. The way he almost slips here because calling Apollo Dad is natural, the way he does slip later on, at dinner.
The word smacked me in the face like Ares’s body odor. I turned to Austin. “The Labyrinth? As in Daedalus’s Labyrinth?” [...] “During the war with Gaea,” Austin said, “the maze reopened. We’ve been trying to map it ever since.” “That’s impossible,” I said. “Also insane. The Labyrinth is a malevolent sentient creation! It can’t be mapped or trusted.” [...] “It’s different now,” Austin told me. “Since Daedalus died...I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. Doesn’t feel so evil. Not quite as deadly.” “Oh, that’s hugely reassuring. So of course you decided to do three-legged races through it.” Will coughed. “The other thing, Dad...Nobody wants to disappoint Harley.”
I love this little scene (Apollo's extra descriptions removed from the quote for ease of length because they don't add anything to the Will&Apollo focus here) because it's Apollo being an actual dispairing father with the oozing sarcasm of "well of course it's safe so you can do dangerous things in there", and this is where Will has his one, single slip re: "Dad" in THO - a reaction to Apollo's super-parental vibe here. Where Apollo really just fell into worried dad mode and Will instinctively responded to it.
But despite this, for a lot of THO, Will is the one almost taking the parental role - he tells Apollo off when he's being an idiot (we'll get to that in a bit), but he also fills the softer sections, like here:
A blanket was draped over me. Will said, “Sleep well, Apollo.”
It shouldn't be the child tucking the parent in, it should be the parent tucking the child in, and it's heartbreaking that this happens but also the fact that Will does it, steps up to be what Apollo doesn't even realise he needs right then, is so precious in its own way. As for telling Apollo off...
I would have ignored Chiron’s warning and run into the forest except for Will’s panicked shout, “Apollo, I need you!” At the far end of the field, he had set up an impromptu hospital where half a dozen campers lay injured on stretchers. He was frantically tending to Paolo Montes while Nico held down the screaming patient. I ran to Will’s side and winced at what I saw. Paolo had managed to get one of his legs sawed off. “I got it reattached,” Will told me, his voice shaky with exhaustion. His scrubs were speckled with blood. “I need somebody to keep him stable.” I pointed to the woods. “But—” “I know!” Will snapped. “Don’t you think I want to be out there searching too? We’re shorthanded for healers. There’s some salve and nectar in that pack. Go!” I was stunned by his tone. I realized he was just as concerned about Kayla and Austin as I was. The only difference: Will knew his duty. He had to heal the injured first. And he needed my help. “Y-yes,” I said. “Yes, of course.” I grabbed the supply pack and took charge of Paolo, who had conveniently passed out from the pain. Will changed his surgical gloves and glared at the woods. “We will find them. We have to.” Nico di Angelo gave him a canteen. “Drink. Right now, this is where you need to be.” I could tell the son of Hades was angry too. Around his feet, the grass steamed and withered. Will sighed. “You’re right. But that doesn’t make me feel better. I have to set Valentina’s broken arm now. You want to assist?” “Sounds gruesome,” Nico said. “Let’s go.”
A long quote here but a necessary one because this scene is so, so good. @fearlessinger has already written about this in depth, but there's something so powerful here about the way Will snaps at Apollo in front of the entire camp, and Apollo backs down, admits he was wrong, and meekly does what he's told.
We see Will's own fear for his siblings here as well, of course - that glare he gives the woods is fierce, the defiance that the woods will not steal his (remaining) siblings from him is such a powerful image - but also it's just the way he channels it into doing what he's trained to do, how he's a battlefield medic first and foremost and the trauma that comes with it - and that Apollo respects this. Apollo understands what Will's saying, what Will needs from him. He understands that they're actually on the same page, re: Austin and Kayla, but that Will knows no-one would forgive them if they abandoned the injured to go after them - least of all themselves, or the missing kids.
Apollo's sheer respect for Will shines through here, the first time it's so blatantly explicit as respect as well as just love; it's also one of the first times we properly see Apollo respect someone else so openly (when you dig into his narration, you see it everywhere, because despite the unreliable narration he throws in our faces, Apollo is very much a god who loves and respects humans), and then he even takes it one step further, because then we get this:
I found my mortal healing skills were passable. Will Solace far outshone me, but that didn’t bother me as much as my failures with archery and music had. I suppose I was used to being second in healing. My son Asclepius had become the god of medicine by the time he was fifteen, and I couldn’t have been happier for him. It left me time for my other interests. Besides, it’s every god’s dream to have a child who grows up to be a doctor.
This is deliberate. This is so, so deliberate on Apollo's behalf. Here we have Will, confirmed earlier in the book to be fifteen, in direct comparison to Asclepius, at the same age, and in the same position - a better healer than Apollo. Of course, there's the fact that we are comparing Will to mortal!Apollo at this point, but the overall message is still the same: Apollo loves and greatly respects Asclepius, and is proud of him for surpassing him - and he's praising Will in the same breath, with this comparison right there. This is Apollo telling us "so you know that famous healer son of mine? Well here's another one, look at him, isn't he amazing?" No holds barred, pure and simple praise.
The painful thing is that Will doesn't realise this. Because Apollo also makes an absolutely massive mistake in THO when it comes to Will - and that's that he abandons him when he needed him the most.
“That’s an order,” she said. “No going into the woods until I say so.” The command sent a shudder from the base of my skull to my heels. I dug my fingernails into my palms. “Meg McCaffrey, if my children die because you wouldn’t let me—” “Like Chiron said, you’d just get yourself killed. We’ll wait for daylight.” [...] I scowled at Meg. “I’m staying out here tonight, in case Kayla and Austin come back. Unless you want to forbid me from doing that, too.” She only shrugged. Even her shrugs were annoying. I stormed off to the Me cabin and grabbed a few supplies: a flashlight, two blankets, a canteen of water. As an afterthought, I took a few books from Will Solace’s bookshelf. No surprise, he kept reference materials about me to share with new campers. I thought perhaps the books might help jog my memories. Failing that, they’d make good tinder for a fire. When I returned to the edge of the woods, Meg was still there.
It's never explicitly mentioned in the books - it's hardly even referenced - but Apollo doesn't even think about Will here, except as an owner of storybooks (that Apollo threatens to burn, although I highly doubt he ever would've done, not when they belong to Will) and a good head counsellor. He's so frantic for his missing kids, and so angry with Meg for (rightfully) banning him from going straight after them, that he storms off and doesn't pay Will any attention. He even uses the word "afterthought" here which technically references the action of taking the books, but also tells us what Will was here.
And it was wrong of Apollo. It no doubt hurt Will, although being Will he also probably brushed it off, understanding why Apollo was more desperate for news of his missing kids - after all, Will, too was desperate to go into the woods, and I wonder if Nico had to stop him from the same vigil, too.
I rested my hand on Will’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back by dawn.” His mouth trembled ever so slightly. “How can you be sure?” “I’m the sun god,” I said, trying to muster more confidence than I felt. “I always return at dawn.”
Apollo does, however, remember to reassure Will before he leaves - this isn't prompted by anything Will does, the presentation of the ukulele (which Will wholly attributes to Harley but given that Will is the one presenting it, heavily implies that Will was highly involved during its creation - I like to think that Will's the one that tuned it!) is several lines earlier, and several other non-Will interactions take place before Apollo does this. We see Will's fear come back again, in that little tremble that indicates he's not all that far short of crying, which Apollo notices (but doesn't call out directly, not even to the readers) and does his best to mitigate, even though he knows there's only so much he can do.
And Nico confirms for us that it didn't really help:
Nico rested his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Apollo, we were worried. Will was especially.”
(This is also one of my favourite THO Solangelo moments but that's a rabbit hole for a different post, this one is getting quite long enough I think, and we haven't even got near TON yet...) This is a sad moment, because while Will has spoken in this scene, it's all been purely medical, telling Apollo about his injuries, what they know - but not opening up even for a moment about how he's feeling. So Nico does it for him, letting Apollo - and us, the reader - know just how worried Will has been, that Will can't even admit it himself despite all the admittances he's made to Apollo about worries and mistakes and fears earlier in the book - and Apollo's delighted for Will, in that moment, that he has someone there to support him so whole-heartedly, even though his narration spends more time talking about his own woes than addressing his son's clear distress over him - likely because we're still at the point in the series where Apollo can't actually bring himself to realise that other people do, genuinely, care about and like him. He still thinks he's unworthy of his own children's affection, especially right now, when two of them are missing and not only did he just fail to bring them back, but he lost another child (not his, but bound to him nonetheless) in the process.
This is the moment where we realise that, despite how much both of them love each other, something that has been made abundantly clear on both sides by BOO and THO up to this point, there's still an emotional gap there, an uncertainty that when things get serious they can actually turn to each other and accept help from each other - expect help from each other. Despite the fact that we've already been seeing that happen all book.
In my humble, Apollo&his kids loving, opinion, there is nowhere near enough Will in THO, so the next time we actually see him is near the end, when we get this little moment:
“Hey!” called Nico di Angelo. He and Will scrambled over the dunes, still dripping from their swim in the canoe lake. “What’s the plan?” Will seemed calm, but I knew him well enough by now to tell that inside he was as charged as a bare electrical wire.
Apollo misleading us nicely here "I knew him well enough by now" - the way this is written, it makes it sound like he's talking about just since being Lester, but that doesn't fit. For starters, we've not actually seen Will pull this calm exterior frantic interior display - whenever he's been frantic on the interior, it's come across in his body language, whether it was biting his lip, fighting a smile or even being outright snappy. Or rather, Apollo's always taken the time to pick up on Will's tells even from the start. This isn't a sudden realisation of "oh now I can tell Will's not calm" when he's been doing the same thing subtly all book, this is Apollo pretending he's only just realised, holding up his self-inflicted narrative of "I'm a bad father", but given that he's been picking Will's tells apart all book already... this is actually more evidence that Apollo knows Will well and has done for a long time - definitely longer than the span of the couple of days Lester is in camp.
Apollo, please stop trying to convince us and yourself you're a terrible father. It's not working on us and you need to stop doing yourself that disservice.
And to wrap up THO, we have Apollo once again being a proud dad:
Will Solace and I spent the evening caring for the wounded. Will took the lead, which was fine with me; I was exhausted. Mostly I splinted arms, distributed cold medicine and tissues, and tried to keep Harley from stealing the infirmary’s entire supply of smiley-face stickers, which he plastered all over his flamethrower. [...] Thanks to Will’s healing and a hot dinner, the demigods I had rescued from the woods quickly got back to full strength.
Apollo and Will work on healing everyone together - Apollo even lists all the things he did - but when it comes to everyone getting better, he only credits Will. Gotta love some proud dad moments!
Now we're onto TON, which gives me so many feels about Apollo&Will. Yes, I know this is long already. No, I am definitely not done I just love these two so much okay.
Compared to the camp’s Greek temples and amphitheatres, the four-storey sky-blue Victorian known as the Big House looked quaint and homey. Its white trim gleamed like cake frosting. Its bronze eagle weathervane drifted lazily in the breeze. On its wraparound front porch, enjoying lemonade at the card table, sat Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. ‘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.
Look at this greeting. Look at how delighted Will is to see Apollo, that Dad! and the tackle hug and the open fussing and just all of it, especially compared to six months earlier, in THO where Will's always just a little reticent, a little shy to fully let himself be Apollo's son. Even here he's still falling a little into healer mode, but only after he gets to be the delighted, relieved son, and it makes you wonder just how much worse his worry got while they were separated, that he's managed to lose all those inhibitions and just be so openly, frantically, delighted, to see Apollo.
And of course, Apollo reciprocates in his narration. He's likewise so happy to see Will, can't not let this moment pass without letting us know that this is his son and he's so, so proud of him, look how amazing Will is. He's half delirious and about to pass out (much to Will's horror), but he's still got to find the time to tell us all about just how beautiful and talented and amazing Will is.
Then we get a beautiful, amazing little character detail, which makes me keysmash just thinking about it.
‘Oh, you’re awake!’ My son Will emerged from the bathroom in a billow of steam, his blond hair dripping wet and a towel around his waist. On his left pectoral was a stylized sun tattoo, which seemed unnecessary to me – as if he could be mistaken for anything but a child of the sun god.
The sun tattoo. The tattoo that is so clearly a sun that Apollo can't even pretend to mistake it for anything other than not only a sun, but also an acknowledgement of him, that he is Will's father and that Will is proud enough of that fact to have it tattooed over his heart (at fifteen and who the hell was willing to tattoo a fifteen year old boy but I'm glad they did). Is this tattoo just an homage? Was it a potential memorial in case something went wrong and Apollo died? So many questions, so many potential answers, and all of them are so, so pro-Apollo. We only see one other demigod with something so permanent representing their parent and that's Butch's rainbow tattoo in TLH. Whatever the exact reason, Will loves Apollo enough to permanently etch that into his skin and I think that's absolutely beautiful.
And Apollo makes a small enough deal out of it that it's clear even he can't escape the implications, although he hurriedly moves on in his narration rather than focus on this visual representation that he can't be a bad father, in Will's eyes, otherwise Will would never have got that tattoo.
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.’
Will Solace you beautiful child. And the way Apollo bursts into tears at this kindness, too, trying to attribute it to Naomi when we've just had four and a bit books of Apollo being kind to a world he thinks hates him. Maybe Will learned kindness from Naomi as well, but he definitely inherited at least some of it from Apollo. By this point in the series it's impossible to claim otherwise.
Also Will being so desperate to help Apollo feel at home, the little implication there that he doesn't want him to leave again, or at least doesn't want to be left behind again - and he isn't. Not until the end, when Apollo has to leave everyone, including Meg, behind. Apollo lets him come with them to the trogs, lets him join in and help, this time, for all that they get separated too soon, because Apollo doesn't want to be separated again, either. He definitely doesn't want his son (or any of the demigods) in danger, but he's learned to accept help, and the help of the two demigods who have been trying from the start (Will and Nico) is the help he accepts first.
I wanted to tell them that they were all so young. Their lifespans were a blink of an eye compared to my four millennia. I should be wrapping them all in warm blankets and giving them cookies rather than expecting them to be heroes, slay monsters and buy me clothes.
Some yearning to be a proper dad, too, just in case anyone missed how much Apollo doesn't want to put them in danger.
I won't dump the whole passage here, but I also just wanna mention how much Will trusts Apollo, that he's willing to give an overview of Nico's problems to him (no doubt with permission from Nico as well - we saw Nico speak for Will in THO, so this is a neat reversal here). He also confides in his own worries about Nico here, too, because while he's definitely not shy about telling Nico he does not want him going back to Tartarus, he also doesn't load Nico up with all his panics about the situation - so he offloads on Apollo, instead, once again showing us just how much he loves and trusts his dad.
Will developed a sudden interest in his bran muffin’s wrapper. Nico seemed to realize, at the same time I did, that Will hadn’t shared all the lines of the prophecy with him. ‘William Andrew Solace,’ Nico said, ‘do you have something to confess?’ ‘I was going to mention it.’ Will looked at me pleadingly, as if he couldn’t make himself say the lines. ‘The son of Hades, cavern-runners ’ friend ,’ I recited. ‘Must show the secret way unto the throne .’ Nico scowled with such intensity I feared he might make Will wither like the apple. ‘You think that might have been good to mention sooner?’ ‘Hold on,’ I said, partly to spare Will from Nico’s wrath, and partly because I had been racking my brain, trying to think who these ‘cavern-runners’ might be, and I still had no clue.
In fact, we get a lot of this in this scene, with Will actually treating Apollo like his dad, looking to him for reassurance and help and even to handle the difficult conversations (he's a fifteen year old boy he's allowed to want to hide behind an adult occasionally. If he was a normal mortal child he would absolutely be doing so most of the time at his age). It's a great evolution from THO, where he's almost still too in shock to actually treat Lester like his dad - to now, where he's completely and utterly embraced the fact that this is still Apollo, and that he can treat him like Apollo.
TON gives us many small moments of Will appreciation, because Apollo spends a lot of time with him and loves his son so very much, so I'll skip over all of those because they don't actually add anything new to this answer. But I'm not going to skip over the big ones.
Will Solace, healer, The hero we don’t deserve, He has Kit Kat bars.
Firstly: Will gets his own haiku. By name. Absolutely no misinterpretating who this could possibly be about - it's right there in the first three syllables of the first line. It also highlights his healing (at this point, Will's biggest point of pride), and calls him a hero. Massive honours right there (and reasons why I, personally, am gonna be voting this haiku all the way to top haiku in TOA in @ferodactyl's haiku tournament).
Then... anyone who has heard me talk about Apollo&Will has no doubt been waiting for me to bring this up, because oh boy do I think this was some beautiful, subtle, writing that showcases just how much Apollo's word means to Will.
The glowing.
Firstly, I love that Will can glow, anyway. It fits his character so well.
Secondly, the way it's used to showcase his and Apollo's relationship is masterful.
‘You guys stay behind me,’ Nico said. ‘Will, can you do your thing? The barest minimum, please.’ ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What is Will’s “thing”?’ Will kept his focus on Nico. ‘Do I have to?’ ‘We can’t use our weapons for light,’ Nico reminded him. ‘And we’ll need a little bit more, because the trogs don’t need any. I’d rather be able to see them.’ Will wrinkled his nose. ‘Fine.’ He set down his pack and stripped off his linen overshirt, leaving just his tank top. I still had no idea what he was doing, though the girls didn’t seem to mind letting him do his thing . Did Will keep a concealed flashlight in his undershirt? Was he going to provide light by rubbing lichen on himself and smiling brilliantly? [...] Will took a deep breath. When he exhaled ... I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. We’d been in near-total darkness so long, I wasn’t sure why Will’s outline suddenly seemed clearer. I could see the texture of his jeans, the individual tufts of his hair, the blue of his eyes. His skin was glowing with a soft, warm golden light as if he’d ingested sunshine. ‘Whoa,’ Meg said. Rachel’s eyebrows floated towards her hairline. Nico smirked. ‘Friends, meet my glow-in-the-dark boyfriend.’ ‘Could you not make a big deal about it?’ Will asked. I was speechless. How could anyone not make a big deal about this? As far as demigod powers went, glowing in the dark was perhaps not as showy as skeleton-summoning or tomato-vine mastery, but it was still impressive. And, like Will’s skill at healing, it was gentle, useful and exactly what we needed in a pinch. ‘I’m so proud,’ I said. Will’s face turned the colour of sunlight shining through a glass of cranberry juice. ‘Dad, I’m just glowing . I’m not graduating at the top of my class.’ ‘I’ll be proud when you do that, too,’ I assured him.
Contrast Will in this scene, with Will here:
On the threshold stood Will Solace, radiating brilliant light.
and here:
Will, still glowing like an overachieving night light, had propped Nico against the wall and was now tending to his wounds.
(I will get to the rest of this scene later)
I love, love, love, love, love this. The first time we're introduced to Will's new ability, he's hesitant about it. He's embarrassed. Nico has to talk him into using it even though they need light and it's the best way to give it without offending the trogs. He dismisses the banter and the praise because he thinks it's a pretty boring ability - after all, it's just glowing, Dad, it's not like it's anything special, right?
Except it is, and Apollo makes sure he knows it is. Apollo, god of poetry, goes speechless he's so proud, and then methodically dismisses all of Will's attempts to downplay his ability because Apollo is so, so impressed that Will can do it - in fact, he later directly contrasts it against actual godly divinity:
His glow was getting brighter as he approached the fasces – like Will, like me in my own godly moments of rage...
because Apollo thinks it is that impressive.
And here we have the second glowing scene - in a brightly lit building, with floor to ceiling windows and plenty of light, certainly no need for more light, we have Will glowing brightly, of his own accord. No hesitation, no embarrassment, just a sheer status symbol, almost: I am the son of Apollo, and I will oppose you with everything I am.
This seems at such odds to his original feelings, where he keeps it as minimal as possible and dismisses any attempts to make it seem good - and the only reason that could possibly exist for this u-turn, is Apollo's praise.
Apollo told him, unreservedly and completely honestly (late enough into his mortality that Will understands that Apollo is sincere, and also that this isn't Apollo loving something completely cringe, like we know Apollo can do) that his power is impressive, that Apollo is proud of him for it. And just those words from his dad are enough to completely change Will's opinion on this power.
That's absolutely beautiful writing, and such a fantastic way to show without ever telling us, just how much weight Apollo's words have for Will. Just how much Apollo's praise means to Will.
Jumping back to an attempt at chronology, remember how I said (way back at the start of this, when I was talking about Will's faith in BOO, probably a couple of hours' of reading ago at this point whoops) that Will had faith that Apollo didn't want to put them in danger but that he didn't actually know for certain outside of that faith? And the yet I tacked on to that?
Well, this next scene I'm gonna mention notably has zero Will interaction in it. Absolutely none, despite the fact we know he's there, in earshot. And that's very interesting to me, because it's a scene entirely about validating Will's belief, especially when we reach this little interaction between Apollo and Rachel:
‘Rachel, I’m scared,’ I admitted. ‘It was one thing thinking about putting myself in danger. But the entire camp? Everyone?’ Strangely, this comment seemed to please her. She took my hand. ‘I know, Apollo. And the fact that you’re worried about other people? That’s beautiful. But you’ll have to trust me. That secret path to the throne ... the thing I am supposed to show you? I’m pretty sure this is it. This is how we make things right.’
An entire pentalogy later, we get it straight from the horse's mouth, without all the airs and posturing and blaming Octavian we got accompanying it in BOO: Apollo does not like putting demigods in danger. At all. Rachel has to convince him it's the only way - and it's interesting, because she views this as progress, on Apollo's part, that he's learned to worry about the others.
But Will and Meg, who are both in earshot but say nothing this entire conversation, already know better. Meg's been with him for (most of) his time as a mortal, at this point she knows him better than arguably anyone else, including Artemis, because she's seen him at his lowest, most vulnerable points. Meg knows he'll do anything to keep others safe - she's seen it, over and over and over again, been the one he's tried to protect more than once. It's not a surprise in the slightest that she's completely silent during this scene - she has nothing to add.
Will, on the other hand - this validates the faith he showed ten months earlier, on the battlefield between two armies loudly declaring that this war is not what Apollo wanted, that Apollo would never put them into the firing line like that. It's not a validation he needed - if he did, we wouldn't call it faith, anyway - but it's one he gets, and in a way it's a shame Apollo didn't look at him, didn't tell us how Will reacted to this, because I bet he was absolutely delighted (and also feeling very smug about being right, take that Octavian!).
Sadly we once again lose Will for a while, but then we get this glorious scene which easily competes for #1 Most Badass Will Solace Moment (and honestly, imo competes for simply the Most Badass Moment in Riordanverse, but I acknowledge my pro-Will bias here)
Behind me, a familiar voice roared, ‘STOP!’ The tone was so commanding even Nero’s guards and family members turned towards the broken blast doors. On the threshold stood Will Solace, radiating brilliant light. At his left was Luguselwa, alive and well, her stumps now outfitted with daggers instead of silverware. At Will’s right was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, holding a large axe wrapped in a golden bundle of rods: the fasces of Nero. ‘No one hits my boyfriend,’ Will thundered. ‘And no one kills my dad!’
Again, the wording here is so perfectly chosen. Will radiating light, the way the whole passage, despite also introducing Luguselwa and Rachel and even Nero's fasces into the scene - still frames and focuses on Will in particular. Beautiful.
But what I so, so love about this moment is Apollo's very careful use of the word thundered. We know that Apollo hates Zeus' lightning bolts - we know he's terrified of them. The sound of thunder is, to Apollo, the sound of pain, the sound of loss, the sound of abuse.
And he chooses to use that description here, when Will comes to his defence. When Will barges into the scene, unapologetic and determined, and manages to take over everything, scare the germani (I wish I could also include Nero in this but Nero is obviously actually too worried about Rachel and his fasces), Apollo calls his voice thunder. Coincidence? I think not.
Now, this doesn't mean I think Apollo is scared of Will - Will is his son, Will literally just saved his life. I think this was Apollo's way of driving home to all the readers just how much of a force of nature Will Solace can be when he wants to be. I think this was actually a mark of respect, a comparison literally to the king of the gods, but also how Zeus should be, not the abusive asshole he is.
It's such a powerful description. And that's also what Apollo keeps reminding us Will is - powerful.
And I love it.
The last bit I really wanna talk about here is the scene before Apollo goes to fight Python, when he gets a few minutes with frantic demigods whilst getting patched up just enough to hopefully not die immediately the moment he reaches Delphi, starting with this bit:
‘I have no choice,’ I said. ‘Nectar, please? And supplies. More arrows. My bow.’ [...] Will pressed a vial of nectar into my hands. ‘Drink this. And this.’ He passed me a Mountain Dew. ‘And here’s some salve for those wounds.’
Remember Will almost killing Apollo with nectar back in THO? You'd think he, out of everyone, would be most reluctant to let Apollo near nectar again, even on Apollo's own request, and yet he doesn't even hesitate here. I don't think it's just blind trust in Apollo - Apollo's also proven he's not great at the self-preservation thing, and Will is used to dealing with idiots with no self-preservation (see exhibit A: his boyfriend) - but I think it's faith, again. Faith, and hope, because he just saw Apollo revoke Nero's divinity, he just saw his father do something gods do. Apollo's getting his own divinity back at this point, clawing it back all by himself, and this little moment proves that Will saw this. He might not understand the nuances behind it, he might not realise that this is literally Apollo remaking himself as a god rather than being part of Zeus' own machinations, but he sees that Apollo is returning to godhood - and yet he still doesn't actually change how he treats Apollo. Apollo is still one of his patients here, he will take his medicine exactly as prescribed and treat those wounds before he bleeds to death.
And Will still frets a little, at the end:
Will did some last-minute bandaging.
This is the last moment we see with Will before Apollo reascends to godhood, and really it's too little to encompass everything that this means to the two of them - but also it leaves it open, tells us that this was never a goodbye for Apollo, no matter how scared Will had been, that despite never promising any of his children that he would come back from this, he didn't feel the need to detail out whatever words of farewell/comfort/etc. were uttered in this moment, when Apollo let Will fuss over him for just that last moment before he went down to face Python.
It tells us that while their time together as Lester and Will has come to an end, because one way or another Lester was never coming back, their time as Apollo and Will, as father and son, isn't over. There's no closure here, no final moment.
Because, actually, while they learnt a lot about each other while Apollo was mortal - especially Will learning about his father - this was only ever a single chapter in their relationship. Apollo has been Will's father since birth, he's been checking up on him, however goofily he may have dressed up those visits, at least since Will arrived at camp and probably since long before that, and he's not going to stop now. In fact, given the character arc Apollo went through during TOA, Will's probably in for even more parental interaction than he already had.
We get a little of this in the epilogue, of course, where Apollo returns to camp to open the next chapter of his life - and his relationship with his children - as a god once more. We know Apollo isn't planning on fading out of their lives again. And why should he?
So yeah, I have a lot of feelings about Apollo&Will; I love their relationship so much. I haven't even touched on further extrapolation like how Will will always react better to Apollo-Apollo than Lester-Apollo, because Lester-Apollo needed help and healing, and for Will to step up, while Apollo-Apollo is simply his father, and the version Will's known at least his whole demigod life, if not longer because this is already so long, whoops.
If you've made it to the end of this... congrats! And sorry again that it took me so long to answer.