Unpopular Criminal Case Opinion #1
HUGE SPOILERS FOR PACIFIC BAY
The moment he killed Danny, Frank became irredeemable.
as promised, tagging @blenderscientist and @therealziggystardustfr
Just a heads up, this isn't an analysis of Frank as a character. This is me expressing an opinion about a certain part of his character.
And yes, that opinion is what is in the subtitle, which of course I'll explain.
For one, Danny was a LITERAL CHILD. HE WAS SEVENTEEN. Just because he was tried as an adult for killing Louis, that doesn't mean he WAS an adult, and the fandom forgets that too often. This is partially, the game's fault, too, because before Danny is killed, the game/characters refer to him as a boy/kid frequently, but after he dies, he's referred to as a boy like ONCE by Amy, but mostly, including in the very case he is murdered in, he is referred to as a man for some reason? Danny's killer wasn't even caught yet, and the game was already trying to downplay the severity of Frank killing a teenager.
I am also not trying to justify Danny killing Louis. Obviously, that was wrong, but Danny deserved prison time, not getting electrocuted. (I have my own beef with Danny getting 50 years while adults who commit hate crimes and/or dismember their victims get literal decades less than a minor, but that's a complaint for another day). But regardless of what Danny did, that does NOT justify Frank killing him, especially because Frank killed Danny for reasons unrelated to Danny killing Louis.
Speaking of those reasons, the reasons Frank killed Danny were VERY selfish. He literally killed Danny because Danny was going to expose Frank's crimes--which amounted to obstruction of justice and helping a heist, which probably wouldn't have gotten him arrested, just fired, because the police in CC can get away with more than regular civilians can (Jones getting away with holding Marconi at GUNPOINT comes to mind). But when faced with the possibility that Danny was going to tell Frank's friends he was the police mole, Frank decides to up his crimes to murder, and decided to VERY PAINFULLY kill Danny.
I could maybe say that Frank would be redeemable if Danny's murder was a spur-of-the-moment thing where Frank shot Danny suddenly or something, but the murder Frank committed was VERY pre-meditated. He had to modify the stun gun. He had to grab the whiskey bottle. He had to lay the spike strip. He drove Danny to the station. There were plenty of times Frank could have stopped and thought, "wtf am I doing?" But he didn't.
TW FOR DISCUSSION OF INJURIES RELATED TO ELECTROCUTION
And another point against Frank is the fact that the way he killed Danny was? So unnecessarily cruel? Frank has a gun, and he proved in Sting of Death he is very good at using it. So why on earth did he not just SHOOT Danny? Why did he waste time tinkering with a stun gun to make it lethal? And do you realize how PAINFUL electrocution is? I won't go into extreme detail, but basically, being electrocuted can cause burns and can cause convulsions extreme enough that you can literally dislocate limbs and tear tendons, ligaments, etc. And look at Danny in the crime scene. It is clear just from a glance that he died in absolute agony.
Also, put yourself in Danny's shoes. You're a teenager who's agreed to be an informant for the police, but you're trapped with the adult man that you have dirt on. You strongly suspect that he wants to kill you, and you know that because he knows that you know said dirt, he doesn't want to let you live. And then he crashes the car you're in, drags you out of the car, looks you in the eyes, and electrocutes you.
Now, you may say, "but Frank felt bad." Yeah, he did, but that did not change the fact that he wanted to get away with the murder, and he still COMMITTED it when he had many opportunities not to. Even though Frank wanted to gain his family back, especially his daughters, Frank, a FATHER, decided the best course of action would be to murder a child.
And all this brings me to The Final Countdown. Frank died not atoning for or making up for Danny's death or whatever, but trying to fix a problem he helped cause. It was because of Frank helping the heist that he was able to snatch the plutonium, which led to Tesla gaining power and nearly blowing up Pacific Bay. Frank was trying to fix that. He was not trying to make amends for Danny's death--not like he really could. Because Danny is dead, thanks to Frank.
And all of what I just said about how bad Danny's death was is forgotten by the game. Frank murdering a teenager in cold blood is swept under the rug in favor of giving Frank a police funeral that he does not deserve. "We forgive you Frank for betraying us!" That's nice, but you are not who he hurt the most.
(Not helping Frank's case is fans will genuinely sometimes make up stuff about Danny to make him look worse, if they acknowledge Danny at all.)
Justice for Danny Moto. He was a very troubled teenager who deserved prison time, yes of course, but never did anything deserving getting painfully murdered by someone who was later honored as a hero, with no one in the game really caring about what Frank did to Danny by the end of the game.
What Frank did to Danny was unforgivable.
