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IMO these are the biggest unresolved plot points: Hazel's curse, Frank's curse, Frank's destiny and bringing his family full circle (it's in there, technically, but it happens OFF PAGE and is written to be a disappointment!), Percy's sacrifice that he is unable to make requiring Frank to intervene (also technically in there, just bad), the oath to keep with final breath (bc Leo's promise to Calypso does not work as fulfillment).

So in SON, Percy and Hazel and Frank latch onto each other and form an extremely tight bond despite the imminent threat of death hanging over all three of them. Frank is the leader of this quest, he knows all three of their lives are at risk, he has already lost his mother, and his grandmother is also dying. But Mars tells him:

“Self-pity isn’t helpful, kid. It isn’t worthy of you. Even without the family gift, your mom gave you your most important traits—bravery, loyalty, brains." “Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don’t know how lucky you are.” "Duty. Sacrifice. They mean something."

Now initially, Frank is disgusted by his father, and he resents his mother's sacrifice because it left him alone. And Frank will tell Percy, about Hazel:

“She’s my best friend,” Frank said. “I lost my mom, my grandmother…I can’t lose her, too.”

But as the story unfolds he will come to grips with what Mars is telling him:

Frank understood what he had to do to break those chains. Mars had warned him. He’d explained why he loved Emily Zhang so much: She always put her duty first, ahead of everything. Even her life. Now it was Frank’s turn. His mother’s sacrifice medal felt warm in his pocket. He finally understood his mother’s choice, saving her comrades at the cost of her own life. He got what Mars had been trying to tell him—Duty. Sacrifice. They mean something. In Frank’s chest, a hard knot of anger and resentment—a lump of grief he’d been carrying since the funeral—finally began to dissolve. He understood why his mother never came home. Some things were worth dying for.

So in this narrative, it is Frank's turn to be in his mother's position. He's directly risking his own life. He's also putting Hazel's life at risk. But he ALSO makes peace with his mother's sacrifice, the loved one that he has been grieving for the whole narrative. (doesn't mean he isn't still going to grieve, of course - but that he can make peace with her choices).

Ok. So that's Frank's arc in SON. He also gets a prediction from Mars about Percy (in the same convo, mind you) that has THREE different components:

Percy Jackson? He’s too loyal to his friends. He can’t give them up, not for anything. He was told that, years ago. And someday soon, he’s going to face a sacrifice he can’t make. Without you, Frank—without your sense of duty—he’s going to fail. The whole war will go sideways, and Gaea will destroy our world.”

SO. 1. Percy will refuse to make the sacrifice 2. Frank's sense of duty - the sense of duty that accepts people making sacrifices for the sense of duty, even if it's your own mother - is the only thing that can prevent Percy from making this mistake and 3. The stakes of this moment are world-ending. Ok.

For this reason, Mars tells Frank that Gaea is more worried about him than Percy or Jason or the rest of the seven - Gaea thinks she can control Percy, and, in line with the prediction, she's right; she can control him.

You get a delicious little taste of this when Percy bets his life, relying on Gaea to save him over Phineas. Gaea wants Percy alive, not just because she wants his blood to wake, but because she's waiting to exploit his flaw and when she does she knows he's going to fail and she knows that it will come at the exact time when it matters the most. Ok.

Meanwhile, Hazel is on this quest with Percy and Frank knowing that freeing Thanatos means he will take her back to the Underworld and she does not want to go. Percy knows that Hazel does not want to go and he tells her - he promises her, in fact - that he will not allow this to happen:

“You’ll make it back, too, Hazel,” he insisted. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you. You’re too valuable to me, to the camp, and especially to Frank.” Hazel picked up an old valentine. The lacy white paper fell apart in her hands. “I don’t belong in this century. Nico only brought me back so I could correct my mistakes, maybe get into Elysium.” “There’s more to your destiny than that,” he said. “We’re supposed to fight Gaea together. I’m going to need you at my side way longer than just today. And Frank—you can see the guy is crazy about you. This life is worth fighting for, Hazel.” She closed her eyes. “Please, don’t get my hopes up. I can’t—”

It is absolutely critical that Hazel does not conceal to Percy that she does not want to die again.

Percy will repeat the sentiment to Frank:

“I’m not going to lose either of you,” he promised. “I’m not going to let that happen. And, Frank, you are a leader. Hazel would say the same thing. We need you.”

So here's Percy, inadvertently affirming everything Mars said about him - telling Frank point blank that he cannot lose Hazel or Frank and he WILL NOT let that happen and then saying he needs Frank. Truer than he realizes.

All this to say:

Frank comes to grips with duty in a way that is so powerful that I believe he could allow Hazel to sacrifice her life again. But Percy doesn't. And while Percy's fatal flaw has a loophole that allows him to make peace with sacrifices, again, Percy knows that Hazel does not want to die again - so the loophole won't work this time. He would fight Frank tooth and nail. Frank would hate himself, but if Hazel needed to die to prevent Gaea from rising, again - I think the most logical conclusion and resolution for both Frank and Percy's arcs as set up here is that Frank would let her, and Percy wouldn't.

And like I'm gonna be so real when I say that for the record that I hate this and I don't want Hazel to die and it would have been absolutely gutting in the worst way possible. It's so beautiful that Hazel's story is that she was forced to be a protector to her mother too soon and too young but these boys adore her and they take her and they will fight Death to keep her. And so I'm not going to let her sacrifice herself again, but I think we need to feel the fear of it, because it makes the most sense narratively for Hazel to die:

She is currently cheating death - her dad decides to let her get away with it. But for how long? We're not told. She herself doesn't know. Thanatos is released, but the Doors of Death are still open at the end of SON. So while she escaped this time, the threat of going back to the Underworld should still be Very Very Real for her.

Her powers were exploited by Gaea to make possible Gaea's rise to power in the first place. She is the first demigod contact, Gaea’s first appearance in our story timeline is to Hazel (by a long shot). This was set in motion before any of our other heroes were born, before Kronos woke. In a very real way Gaea is Hazel’s nemesis, Hazel’s unfinished business. I think it would only make sense that Hazel views it as her responsibility (although I don’t think it is - it makes sense for her to take ownership of the conflict). This war is uniquely personal to Hazel.

But the good news is that there's something beautiful that was set up in MOA: the Hazel/Sammy/Leo connection. And I think we could use this to save her.

 “Thanks for being there, Sammy.” “Miss Lamarr, I will always be there for you!” he said brightly.

“That lady, Doña Callida, she warned me.” Sammy shook his head sadly. “She said Hazel’s great danger would not happen in my lifetime. But I promised I would be there for her. You will have to tell her I’m sorry, Leo. Help her if you can.”

So Hera appears to Sammy and tells him about Hazel’s destiny, Sammy doubles down on his oath to Hazel to be there for her and passes it down to Leo.

okay do you see it yet do you see it yet…… do you see where all this could have been going….

What's really interesting about this connection is that it seems that because Gaea made contact with Hazel, Hera made contact with Sammy, and because Hera made contact with Sammy, Gaea made contact with Leo. Because Gaea made contact with Leo, Esperanza Valdez dies in a fire. Leo feels responsible for this fire, knowing that he lost control of his powers. This links Hazel and Leo even more, because both of their mothers are killed by Gaea indirectly - the direct cause of their mothers' deaths is actually Hazel's powers and Leo's powers.

Meanwhile, back to Frank!

While Hera is putting Leo in fireplaces to sleep, Hera is coming out of fireplaces to give Frank's mother a piece of firewood that his life is bound to. Frank is told that "as long as it is safe, you are safe."

To free Thanatos, Frank sets it on fire himself and quite literally comes to terms with his own mortality:

He thought he understood his powers at last. Something about watching the firewood burn, smelling the acrid smoke of his own life, had made him feel strangely confident. Is it fair your life burns so short and bright? Death had asked. “No such thing as fair,” Frank told himself. “If I’m going to burn, it might as well be bright.”

but he doesn't die. But then he gets told by Thanatos:

“As for you, Frank Zhang, it isn’t your time, either. You’ve got a little fuel left to burn. But don’t think I’m doing either of you a favor. We will meet again under less pleasant circumstances.”

(IGNORE toa it's irrelevant to this conversation! We don't write new series to retcon unsatisfying character endings around here!!!!!!!!!)

So two things: Hazel is included in Thanatos' next meeting. Thanatos is gonna see Frank AND Hazel under less pleasant circumstances. Less pleasant than army of the undead, Death being chained, unkillable giant, btw. Fun.

Ok and then in Mark of Athena we get Leo reflecting on a possible explanation for what Thanatos could have meant:

Leo thought about his least favorite line in the Prophecy of Seven: To storm or fire the world must fall. For a long time, he’d figured that Jason or Percy stood for storm—maybe both of them together. Leo was the fire guy. Nobody said that, but it was pretty clear. Leo was one of the wild cards. If he did the wrong thing, the world could fall. No… it must fall. Leo wondered if Frank and his firewood had something to do with that line. Leo had already made some epic mistakes. It would be so easy for him to accidentally send Frank Zhang up in flames.

Also consider that Frank gave his stick to Hazel for safekeeping in SON and MOA, but then he takes it back from her in HOH, deciding he wants to be responsible for his own destiny:

“I’ll keep it,” Frank said. Hazel pursed her lips. She looked down, maybe so Frank wouldn’t see the hurt in her eyes. She’d protected that firewood for him through a lot of hard battles. It was a sign of trust between them, a symbol of their relationship. “Hazel, it’s not about you,” Frank said, as gently as he could. “I can’t explain, but I—I have a feeling I’m going to need to step up when we’re in the House of Hades. I need to carry my own burden.” Hazel’s golden eyes were full of concern. “I understand. I just…I worry.”

Frank feels in HOH that because Leo gave him a fireproof pouch he doesn't need to fear fire anymore. The dumbest resolution I've ever heard of, btw.

So. Anyways. Moving onto BOO with all that foreshadowing in place -

We're going to axe the physician's cure completely because the quest for it was incredibly boring and it's a deus ex machina type solution that removes all stakes from the final conflict.

We're going to remove Reyna and Nico's POVS and have the Seven each get one in this book.

We learn from Hazel's POV that now that the Doors of Death have been closed her days are numbered and she has like 30 of them left, and she doesn't tell anyone about this deadline. Bonus points if Hecate told Hazel this was going to happen before she went to close them and she went anyway for Percy and Annabeth. We're going to explore her feelings of unfinished business and responsibility. We're going to include her very complicated feelings about going back to the Underworld and knowing so many dead people and feeling like a ghost herself some days. We also need to hear more about Sammy, and she needs to talk to Leo about Sammy, and I think she should even tell Leo that she thinks it would be nice to see him again, and Leo's antenna goes up and he's like "you're not thinking about doing something stupid, are you, Hazel?" And of course she will deflect, but Leo is going to be the only one who sees through her facade for what it really is. And I think it should be horrifying like I think she should be having nightmares about standing in Asphodel that feel endless and I think when she sees her dad again she should get a very private breakdown moment with him and I think she should want and try to blame him for all of this but then see the sorrow in his eyes and realize that all of his demigod children are children plucked out of time and he's been trying to play the prophecy game to keep them alive and he doesn't have any cards left to play. And I think he would try to comfort her that "it won't be like the last time. You'll see Elysium" and perhaps he'll even hint at rebirth for her. And Hazel, who is so, so tired, of running, of fighting, of not being safe, of too much being asked of her - tries to make herself believe that this is okay, that this will be enough. And I also think we should get a bunch of absolutely devastating lines in Hazel's last couple chapters as she's saying goodbye to her friends one by one but she's not telling them that's what she's doing and she reflects that "it really was a nice life. A short life - even shorter than the first. But a good life." Wow I'm making myself so emo just thinking about it

We learn from Frank's POV that the ancestor who has been waiting for him is the Argonaut he is descended from, whose life was also tied to a piece of firewood (yes so the one he's descended from is a different guy than the firewood guy but these are pretty obscure stories anyway and Rick does retcon myths a lot so we're just gonna roll them into one guy). The Argonaut gets to tell us the story of his life - he was in a boar hunt competition, the heroine Atalanta wins the competition bc she draws first blood on the boar. His uncles are enraged that a woman won the contest and so the Argonaut kills them both, his mom is so mad at him for doing this that she chucks his firewood on the fire and he dies. I actually think this convo could have some humor to it, where Frank is like ".....and you're telling me this, because?" and the Argonaut laughs and tells him that he's too Roman, not every story has a neat little moral. Sometimes the moral is that life sucks and then you die. But then he gives us like a little teaser that's going to come back later, like "or maybe the moral is, some things are worth dying for." Frank will immediately note this as something his dad said to him in Son of Neptune, and perhaps he'll have some reflection on Greeks and Romans not being so different after all and maybe we even get like an emotional moment where Mars and Ares stop shouting at each other in his head. I think this would work well bc it would give the reader an easy explanation for why this scene is in the book without making us necessarily think that Frank's plot is headed towards sacrifice. Also important to me tho that Frank is super disturbed by this conversation bc he was really hoping for a solution to his firewood problem and he thought that was the point of being called back to his ancestors, but then he realizes that he doesn't have a solution and the only precedent is that the guy died. Ok.

Ok. Now, Leo and Jason and even Piper's plot and role to play can be essentially the same, like it does make sense actually to separate Gaea from the earth and cut her into tiny pieces bc of the precedent set by Ouranous. I just think that every demigod in the Seven should be included in the plot and all of them need to be involved in the planning on How to do it. And they concoct a plan for all their different positions, we get a nice callback to Kronos and his three brothers holding Ouranous down and we deal out a different responsibility to each one of the Seven. Like Percy's supposed to be at one corner helping Jason maintain the storm, Jason using his storm powers to separate Gaea from the earth, Hazel using her earth powers to hold the earth DOWN so it doesn't reach up to Gaea once she's held up, I think Frank should be supposed to turn into a dragon again or something to help Jason fly Gaea up, Piper can be still using charmspeak trying to weaken Gaea, I think Annabeth should take point on covering all of them so they can do their jobs (and I think this would be a good plot for Hubris Girl, needing to come to terms with this role being the least flashy, but no less necessary, and choosing it without shame. I also think that she should reunite w/ her mom and get some such resolution there but then realize that she doesn't actually need it because she has nothing to prove to Athena anymore and she gets to be freed from her unyielding desire to be Exceptional, at least a little. And I also think she should get a cool moment where she gets an army to direct bc she certainly has the chops to do it).

Anyways. They're going to talk about this plan in a LOT of detail so that the reader knows the precise moment when everything goes completely off the rails.

For one, Hazel's deadline is coming up, so her plan is to take Gaea down with her and spare the lives of her friends. I think we can even get a moment of Hazel telling Gaea in a dream that she vows to take her down with her last breath. And again we should really FEEL how much Hazel hates Gaea, for everything she did to her mother and put Hazel through. It should feel Personal. Hazel plans to do this the same way she killed Alcyoneus, using her powers to like rip Gaea's heart right out of her chest or some other such extremely metal and crazy thing. But unfortunately she made the mistake of threatening Gaea with this bc she is SO ANGRY at her.

For two, Leo is also planning to blow Gaea up the same way that he does in canon, as revenge for his own mom and refusing to let Gaea take another loved one from him. But his plot is significantly less subtle bc he needs to be like collecting explosives lol so that's how Gaea knows about it. I think we should also get Leo telling Gaea that he's going to take her down 'if it's the last thing i do' so again now we're terrified for Leo and know his death is coming.

So anyway when Gaea finally wakes she's going to be infinitely more terrifying than we ever could have conceived of and we should get immense feelings of powerlessness from the demigods, I think this should perhaps come from Jason or Piper's perspectives. But they have to Try, right? What other option is there?

Except that Gaea is going to tell everyone about Hazel's plan and Leo's plan and then it's going to dissolve into complete pandemonium.

For one, Gaea is going to direct this at Percy specifically bc, as we know, she thought she could control him and she was right. She'll give him a choice about whether or not he wants to proceed with The Plan still and Percy will give up his territory and let Gaea have it. And she'll start cackling like she's already victorious. Should be an extremely dramatic and huge moment. Percy is going to completely lose it - like fracturing the ground storm winds pushing Hazel away from Gaea kind of lose it. And Hazel will be sobbing trying to explain that it's the best way, can't he see that it's the best way, Frank is going to have to like full bodily tackle Percy to the ground otherwise the rest of the six of them will be literally incapable of Going Ahead With The Plan. Bc Frank still thinks this plan is going to happen and it's going to work, lol.

But it's very important to me that in the Chaos of all of this happening, Leo's explosive devices get taken beyond his reach of them so he has no firepower. And this is in Leo's perspective so you feel like horrible horrible despair. But then he locks eyes with Hazel across the battlefield and he realizes that no problem doesn't have a solution - if the two of them work together, Hazel can hold the earth apart & Leo can generate enough explosive power on his own to vaporize Gaea. But he kind of knows it's a long shot, it's not going to work, but he has to Try. They just need to find each other and get to the middle of the battlefield where Gaea is.

Simultaneously Jason and Piper and Annabeth are busy trying to keep Gaea at bay and forge ahead with The Plan lol but obviously it's not working and everything is falling to pieces and the Despair is setting in.

Meanwhile Percy and Frank are having a Family Dispute and Percy is so absolutely livid with Frank that he cannot see what has become clear to everyone else, that The Plan was never going to work, Gaea always knew that someone was going to need to die, and how dare Frank how DARE he let that person be Hazel, like I'm so serious it should be like Percy is screaming "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HER" at the top of his lungs and Frank is sobbing as he's fighting him. Ok.

But then Frank gets this sense of battle calmness. And even though Percy is like going completely unhinged, Frank can hear the truth in what he's saying. He's going to assess everyone as their fighting and realize that the effort is futile, that they don't have enough firepower to stop her, and he's going to realize his entire life has been leading to this, since the day Juno came out of the fireplace and handed the stupid stick. And he also knows that Percy is right - he cannot let Hazel die for this cause again. And he also knows that some things are worth dying for.

So Frank Zhang, "good old Frank, who always seemed to show up when needed," who does not have the strength to transform anymore to fly across the battlefield, notches an arrow (he always was good with a bow), attaches his fireproof pouch to it, and sends it across the chaos to Leo Valdez. And Leo Valdez, who knows exactly what this means, uses every ounce of strength that he has ever possessed and sets that stick ablaze, right in Gaea's face.

Screaming, Chaos, Tragedy, Heartbreak, Earthquakes, and then silence - just silence. Leo is gone, but Frank's body hits the ground with a thud. Somehow, even with his ears ringing from the explosion, it's the loudest noise Percy has ever heard.

Ok.

So anyway the falling action from this sequence is going to have to be like at least a quarter of the book lol bc it's so traumatic. I don't think there's ever going to be any way that Percy is like ever again okay in his life lol but Mayhaps he and Ares can agree to bury the hatchet and Percy can find like some sense of peace that in Frank's final moments he did what he wanted to do. And at least he gets like some comfort from being reunited with Sally and Grover and Rachel and getting to visit home again. But I think the only person who is really going to be able to get through to Percy is Hazel and they can have a sweet moment where Hazel gets to refute all the things that Percy like Will Never be able to forgive himself for.

And Hazel Levesque, dear Hazel gets to live a second time, not just because she 'got thru the deadline' but bc Frank gave his life for hers. I think Thanatos himself comes to collect Frank's body and he explains his to her. And she also has the realization that Leo kept Sammy's oath to be there for her with his final breath.

Juno explains to someone probably Jason that it was always going to end this way. And I think we get the sentiment repeated yet again that death is not fair. Duty, honor, sacrifice - they mean something. No such thing as fair.

Anyways I think they should have a huge co-Greek Roman memorial service and the peace treaty should be named after Frank and Leo somehow.