Character Analysis
Tristan McClane is a movie star who usually plays heroes. In The Lost Hero, though, he's the damsel in distress. Tristan gets captured by the evil giant Enceladus, and spends the entire book tied up while his daughter, Piper, tries to figure out how to rescue him.
When Piper does finally break him free at the end of the novel, Tristan says, with some pain, that they've switched positions: "I'm supposed to be the parent" (46.30). They haven't just switched power positions, though—they've also switched gender roles. Instead of the movie cliché where the guy has to save the girl, in this case it's Piper (and her friends) who have to save the movie hero. The Lost Hero doesn't just update myths—it inverts Hollywood.
Which is cool, though we would have liked to see Piper get a chance to fight the giant instead of Jason. We can't have everything, though.
Tristan McClane's Timeline