#and yes given the opportunity i think iola and callie have the potential to be SO interesting

[thebrothershardy]

While I'll admit Vanessa, Callie, and especially Iola are a little flat and while I still ship Francy and Joe w/ Bess and w/ Ned, Iola's fridging aggravates me so much that I still low-key stan both her and Callie (who is awesome if undeveloped). Just like...I understand the need to shake things w/ love drama but like ND didn't kill off Burt or Dave (Bess's + George's bfs from OG ND). Plus Iola is Chet's sis(which is ignored for Joe!pain) which makes it even more shitty imo.

yeah, killing off iola was obviously a shitty move, but those books definitely came out at a time when no one thought all that hard about the laziness/offensiveness of murdering a girl just to further a guy’s personal journey, even if the people writing it probably though they were just getting rid of someone who was a disposable character anyway. i’d like to believe that society has come under enough of a microscope nowadays to not repeat that mistake should a similar storyline ever appear in a hardy boys series! like you said, there are thousands of ways to create drama and to send a character on a journey of self-development without killing off the important female figures in their life, and most (competent) writers these days realize that. i haven’t actually read the casefiles though, so i have no clue on how everything was handled with chet afterwards, or just how deep joe’s Man Pain ran.

as for killing off burt and dave (lmao), not only would this never happen for obvious reasons (i honestly don’t recall one instance in the media/literature world where a man was killed off just for a woman to grieve and grow through it), but they’re also like…. the sidekicks of the sidekicks. bess and george are already side characters, so i feel like the equivalent would be more around the lines of killing off ned, the thought of which is as hilarious as it is eye-roll-worthy. 

but honestly, at the core of it, killing off love interests is pretty sloppy writing overall and usually just used for shock factor. i would love to see an instance in which callie and iola are both deservedly fleshed out and given substantial traits! it would be utterly amazing if the hardy boys were given their own string of video games like her did with nancy drew if only for that very purpose!