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ToApril Day 30— Sunset on the Horizon

Apollo and his family (of course, it's not everyone, but I can only fit so many people on the cabin seven roof) - winged Apollo still not my own idea, still based off Ukelele-boy's design

Final day!!! I'm feeling really proud of myself for holding on this long. This month was probably the most artistically productive I've been in a while- though I didn't make a piece for every prompt. Admittedly, I did overcommit and burn out a little by the end trying to juggle school and this, but I still had a great time, and I really appreciated everyone's support and the lovely things people had to say in the reblogs. I've also pushed myself to draw things I normally wouldn't for this, and I'm super glad to have been able to branch out a little. That being said, I'm super proud of this piece, and glad that I decided to challenge myself with a more complex background and composition than I usualy draw, as well as messing with the lighting.

Ps. I will make something for every prompt in the following months, though not at this intensity because I need a friggin break

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he’s yapping about a talking arrow? idk seems kinda crazy to me. He’s lucky he’s cute.

oh he’s…playing the ukulele now. Great.

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ToApril Day 19: Nuturing Seeds

Read it left to right pls LOL

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i feel so bad for him he was STRESSING OUT

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One of Lester's greatest challenges

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Day 15 - Soul-Entwined but Forgotten

I need this fandom to talk more about them

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Lestora!! (again)

Self-insert x cannon😗😗

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So cute love the artstyle

guys i have like 1 billion sketches of lester slop should i post some

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such a good read, put so many of my thoughts into words.

Analyzing Apollo’s Big 5 Personality Traits

I made this giant text in my notes app a year ago and only just made a tumblr today, so enjoy my sheer amount of blabber here (which I also have not edited since last year). Feel free to agree or disagree with the content since I only wrote this after learning about the Big 5 in my college psychology class. I am not a psychologist.

Openness to Experience

Apollo is the epitome of openness and open-mindedness. He’s always inquisitive and wants to learn new things, he has very broad interests as indicated by his domains, and he’s very creative and imaginative as one would expect from the patron of the arts. 

2. Conscientiousness

This one might be a little harder to pinpoint. Conscientiousness is how organized, structured, and thoughtful someone is. Conscientious people are goal-oriented, have good impulse control, rational, responsible and follow through with what they want to do; they are careful and diligent. Remind you of a certain son of Jupiter?

As a god, Apollo is somewhat irresponsible and ignores his duties. He’s swayed by Octavian and allows him to attack Camp Half-Blood, the place where his children live and that he literally founded. And while he’s not the worst of the godly parents (in fact, he’s probably the best out of all of them), he could still stand to be a better father. 

But as a mortal, Apollo consistently follows through with his duties, even if a lot of complaining is involved in the process. He is undoubtedly reliable when it comes down to it, like when he fights alongside Frank in the duel in TTT. Although, I guess you could probably argue that he’s impulsive in this situation.

He also has a strong sense of responsibility towards Meg and the people he cares about, blaming himself if things go wrong. 

While Apollo’s narration depicts himself as weak-willed and quick to give up, his actions seem to contradict this perception, because he always goes along with everything despite his fears. 

I also think he is organized — although he is often thrust into situations where he cannot formulate a plan, he tries to plan ahead when he can (even though Meg always says “no spoilers” when he tries to talk about his plans). Compared to Meg, he’s pretty rational and takes the time to think things through properly. I mean, he is the god of reason.

….Perhaps I’m giving him more credit than he deserves because I’m comparing him to Meg.

For me, the biggest moment where Apollo lacks conscientiousness is when he throws a temper tantrum on the beach in THO while everyone is depending on him to defeat the Colossus. It’s impulsive and irresponsible, especially in such a critical moment. And, of course, he’s extremely impulsive when he makes that rash oath to the Styx in THO.

This trait is the hardest for me to figure out. There could be more examples of Apollo being impulsive or disorganized or rash in the series, but I’m not sure where they would be. There are times where he comes off as disorganized/impulsive and has no plan, but that’s because he’s constantly put in situations where he has no time to actually formulate one. 

All things considered, he’s good at thinking on his feet and is not afraid to be impulsive and spontaneous when plans inevitably fail. So I’d say he’s conscientious, but not excessively so. Jason would probably be an example of excessive conscientiousness; his sense of duty overwhelms him.

3. Extraversion

This one’s easy. He’s very extroverted. No surprises there.

4. Agreeableness

In ancient times, he was not as agreeable as he would be today. As shown with the cases of Coronis and the Sybil of Cumae, he has a real vengeful streak. He also acts rather disagreeable towards Leo in BOO and Grover in Singer of Apollo.

At the beginning of THO, he appears disagreeable, but he also isn’t vengeful or ruthless like he was before. He’s just kind of rude and lacks self awareness as well as empathy. We know this is a facade, but he does act this way outwardly to others.

His agreeableness rapidly changes once the facade is broken.He’s quick to forgive, as shown with Lityerses and Crest; in fact, he’s even more forgiving than Leo and Piper and Jason are (not that this is a bad thing in their cases, but it does show the strength of Apollo’s character). He’s empathetic and clearly cares a lot about others. He latches onto people very quickly, risking his life for Meg after only knowing her for a few days. He’s a selfless and kind hero.

In addition, Apollo’s always been shown as a good-natured guy who’s rather laid-back, even way back in his introduction in TTC. It’s hard to irritate him; Meg’s jabs barely bother him despite her abrasive personality. He didn’t even seem to care much when Reyna brutally rejected him. That was harsh, Reyna.

5. Neuroticism 

Apollo starts off as a pretty neurotic guy. He’s so insecure that he’s built up an entire facade to push people away and make himself feel better. He literally says “You’re beautiful and people love you” to himself in the mirror. He throws a self-pitying tantrum on the beach in THO when everyone is depending on him to defeat the Colossus. He’s emotionally unstable.

He exhibits low self-esteem throughout the books. He blames himself for everything even when it makes no sense to do so, like when he blames himself for the wildfires in TBM or when he takes all the blame for Daphne and Hyacinthus’s deaths, even though those deaths were more or less caused by Eros and Zephyros, respectively. Sure, Apollo can say that their deaths were the consequences of his hubris, but these consequences were disproportionately horrible compared to his fairly innocuous actions. Also, when I was rereading TTT and TON, I was a little surprised at how harsh he was towards himself in his narration (not that it was all undeserved, but still). 

As for the nervous and high-strung aspects, I suppose he does act rather nervous and scared at times compared to his peers. But I don’t think he is overall that nervous or high-strung, especially since his peers are usually experienced in demigod affairs while he’s just some guy. And when the situation calls for it, his nervousness sheds away. 

As with the other traits, his neuroticism changes. He becomes less neurotic over time and more sure of himself, coming to terms with his past in TTT. As stated in TON, he holds himself up straighter and is far more confident by the end of his trials.

While I don’t think his neuroticism is completely gone by the end of the series, he’s certainly improved drastically. By the time he confronts his father, he’s completely calm and collected. He’s the one in control.

Well, who knows, maybe his trials ended up giving him a ridiculous amount of trauma and he becomes more neurotic than before because of PTSD or something. I doubt it would make that much of a difference, though. I do believe he has permanently changed for good.

Conclusion

Three out of five of Apollo’s traits change dramatically throughout the series. He becomes more conscientious after the events of THO, more agreeable after the facade breaks, less neurotic overall throughout his trials. This is why I love TOA. We don’t always realize it because we often think personality is set in stone, but we can change all these negative parts of ourselves for the better. And ironically enough, by changing ourselves, we can embrace our true selves in the process.

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Hot Take: One of the reasons the PJO fandom doesn't care about Lester and Megs dynamic as much as the HoO characters is because they can't find/twist it into romance. Therefore, they find little value in it. Also, they're the strongest found family trope in PJO.

Honestly say what you want abt ToA but Lester and Meg as characters and their relationship is insanely overlooked.

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TOApril Day 13 - Rollback To Disco

I genuinely didn't know what to draw for this prompt so I jumped on the first idea I got, and that idea coincidentally happened because up until today I was convinced that the hippie movement and disco were born in the same decade (they weren't)

Anyway have Rhea as a disco queen regardless

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How do the ToApril ppl draw everyday oh my gawsh also where do u see the list for the days??

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AWWW THIS IS SO ADORABLE!!

ITS LATE IN THE DAY BUTTTTTTTT HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVOURITE GUY!!! LESTER!!

(dw guys he got another cake)

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Happy birth to him

(I'll post here again soon, I promise)

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TOApril Day 8 - Echoes of Battle Cries

Celebrating after the battle in CJ must've felt bittersweet :')

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YAYY LESTER DAY!!

Only 4000 yrs old or something 🩷🩷

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LESTER DAY!!

HAPPY LESTER DAY EVERYONE