brace yourself

tangentially related to this is i think sometimes people are unfair or just kind of incorrect about stuff they perceive to be "missed potential" in fiction. like they see elements of characters/a story that could easily handle being elaborated upon because the author has done a good job making something deep and textured, but these elements ultimately are not the point of the story and spending too much time on them would bog down the pacing or otherwise complicate/overstuff the narrative. and instead of realizing that sometimes being left wanting more is a sign of good writing, they'll view it as the author Dropping or Forgetting something. like it's usually not a mistake when side characters are less developed than the core cast and their circumstances do not get the plot's full attention.

Not a popular opinion on tumblr I know but I would argue character death is good for stories, actually, and often a death with long narrative consequences is much better use of a character than having them linger with no more important plot beats to hit.

I didn't talk about this in my big post about frank's awkward and potentially toxic relationship to his masculinity (you don't need to go read it but this post might not make as much sense without it) but I do think it's significant that leo has his comment about the prophecy 7 wanted posters where he's like "I know I'm not worth as much as a percy or a jason but am I worth at least like... two franks?" and frank is genuinely upset about it. and who wouldn't be upset about a joke like that but this line specifically evaluates frank as the most worthless man among his prophecy 7 peers (leo didn't include the women in his comment). and we know that in son frank was struggling with being a man in the way that his grandmother + his father + camp jupiter + frank himself wants him to be and he was already struggling with feeling like a useful member of the crew in moa so this joke from leo is just adding onto all of that