The Tower of Nero

One of the two protagonists of the book, Meg McCaffrey is a 13-year-old demigod, the daughter of harvest-goddess Demeter and a mortal botanist. Seen through Apollo’s eyes, Meg is a small and strange-looking at first, and increasingly, distinctive in her quirky style. Meg has a pageboy haircut and favors large glasses studded with rhinestones, clothes in clashing colors, and colorful high-top sneakers. She has little patience for social niceties and tends to be blunt with her opinions while hiding her innermost feelings. As a daughter of Demeter, Meg has the power to make seeds sprout and plants grow the way she desires. Meg is also a trained gladiator since her stepfather Nero has brought her up to be a weapon for him. Her powers and abilities make Meg a fearsome opponent in battle, yet Meg’s skill and individuality are clouded by the emotional trauma she has undergone under Nero’s poor parenting. Her character arc involves coming into her own self and defeating Nero decisively.

Meg is frequently associated with botany and agriculture, and Apollo often uses the metaphor of a growing plant to describe her. Luguselwa, Meg’s guardian, refers to her as “Sapling.” As a child blossoming in the face of trauma and setbacks, Meg represents the tenacity and resilience associated with plants. At the start of The Tower of Nero, it is unclear if Meg will be able to stand up to Nero when she finally meets him. However, Meg tells Apollo she needs to meet Nero in order to face and conquer her fears. In an important gesture during her final encounter with Nero, Meg throws away the siccae rings Nero had given her, and she declares she does not want to fight with his weapons anymore. The shunning of the siccae rings symbolizes Meg’s breaking of Nero’s control. When Nero orders the attack on dryads or tree spirits, Meg’s powers literally burst out of her, enveloping the room in green pollen and making the trees grow exponentially. The explosion is a metaphor for Meg’s asserting her individuality. She tells Nero that she has “killed” the Beast, referring to her defeat of Nero’s hold over her. By the end of the novel, Meg has come a long way from being manipulated by Nero to running a sanctuary for imperiled folks. Thus, she is a round, dynamic character who changes over the course of the series and the book. Meg symbolizes hope and strength in the face of adversity.

One of the chief antagonists of the book and the Trials of Apollo series, Nero is a resurrected emperor from Ancient Rome. Nero leads a group called the Triumvirate, which aims to bring the entire world under its control. Sadistic, suave, and abusive, Nero represents the unbridled greed for power. Though Nero is immortal and has lived thousands of years, he has not changed. He burned people for entertainment in Ancient Rome and played music while Rome burned. In contemporary times, he controls and manipulates young demigods, makes them kill opponents in gladiatorial matches, and plans to burn down New York City. He even plans to play the fiddle as he watches New York burn. Apollo spots the fiddle in Nero’s tower; the instrument becomes a symbol of Nero’s refusal to change and grow. He is thus a static character with a flat trajectory. Nero is shown to be a master at twisting words, such as when he tells Apollo he wants to keep Meg safe from the sun god. He is also associated with contemporary materialistic greed: He dresses like a banker, and his tower is indistinguishable from a bank on the outside. When Apollo is fighting him, Nero taunts that his bank accounts cannot be destroyed. Thus, Nero stresses that wealth and power are near impossible to defeat.

One of the most reprehensible aspects of Nero’s character is his treatment of Meg. Meg often refers to Nero as “father” though it was Nero who killed Meg’s biological father. Nero blames Meg for the killing since it was her refusal to obey him that “made” Nero carry out the murder. Nero calls the murderous side of him “the Beast” and often threatens Meg that she will unleash the Beast if she does not follow his orders. The reader can see what Meg cannot in the beginning: Nero and the Beast are one and the same. Nero’s narrative about the Beast is a classic example of the strategy abusers use to manipulate their victims. Nero makes Meg believe it is her responsibility to keep him sane; thus, he forces Meg to walk on eggshells around him. Another example of Nero’s cruelty is his ruthlessness with Lu. He has the Gaul’s hands amputated, despite the fact that Lu has served him for hundreds of years. Though Nero is irredeemable as a character, the narrative does provide some context for Nero’s cruelty. Nero’s own mother was terrible to him, and now Python Is manipulating him. “Like most bullies,” Apollo says, “Nero had been shaped and manipulates by an even stronger abuser” (310). Nero’s character thus symbolizes the endless cycle of abuse and bullying. The cycle can end only when the victim of bullying chooses not to continue the cycle of bullying others, as like Meg decides not to be Nero.

Python is one of the chief antagonists of the book. A gigantic snake, Python is described as having a head as big as a truck and a body that grows wings and scales as required, “the reptilian congregation of everything that mammals feared in their deepest, most primal nightmares” (332). Python’s ability to change physically shows the shifting, amorphous nature of evil. Evil is clever and adaptable, and good people need to guard against it constantly, even within themselves. Thus, Python represents an abstract, absolute concept of evil. Significantly, even after Python seems to have disintegrated in Chaos, Zeus remarks to Apollo that Python’s defeat makes it “appear […] Apollo’s fix is permanent” (365). The use of “appear” indicates that even Zeus does not know Python’s fate. Thus, though evil can seem to end, it may appear in another form. In the book, an example of evil morphing into different forms occurs when Nero’s power passes to Python. Python simply soaks up the power and life of the Triumvirate to grow nearly indestructible.

Apollo describes Python as his arch-nemesis. In mythology, Apollo killed Python to seize the Oracle of Pythos and rename it Delphi (the name Python is thus linked with Pythos, and pythia, the term for the priestess of Delphi). In Rick Riordan’s universe, the slain serpent is resurrected from Tartarus, the depths of the underworld. While some scholars of myth and history see Apollo’s killing of Python as symbolizing the takeover of pre-Hellenic culture by Hellenic (Greek) culture, Riordan imagines it as a fight between good and evil.

Distinctive with her tall, muscular form and elaborate mohawk hairstyle, Luguselwa, or Lu, is an important secondary character in the novel. Lu is described as a Gaul, a member of an ancient people inhabiting areas corresponding to modern France and Britain. Her imposing physicality signifies her fearlessness as well as her comfort with herself. Lu serves Nero because he once saved her from an undisclosed danger; therefore, she feels compelled to obey even the most heinous of his orders. Lu’s indebtedness to Nero is an example of her innate sense of loyalty; it is this sense of loyalty that makes Lu risk her life to save that of her ward, Meg. Lu is a brave warrior and steadfast friend who takes adversity in her stride. When Nero has her hands amputated, Lu continues to fight for her friends. Although Lu thinks she could have done more to save Meg from Nero in the past, her continuing dedication to Meg shows Lu is a trustworthy parental figure to Meg. Lu’s example shows parents come in all forms, and good parents need not be biologically related to their child.

Nico has a wiry build and is pale in complexion with messy black hair. However, as Apollo notes, the compactly built Nico is a far tougher opponent than many more physically imposing people. A son of Hades, the god of the underworld, Nico is the boyfriend of Apollo’s healer son Will Solace. Nico tends to be quiet and intense but is fiercely loyal to his loved ones. In The Tower of Nero, Nico plays an important role in the plot by leading Apollo to the secret way to the troglodytes and Nero’s lair.