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character history contains: violence, gore, murder, trauma, ptsd, detailed mentions of child death, various other aspects to military life, family loss, and multiple kills.
frank castle is a mass killer. he lives by a moral code and will not kill children or the innocent, but he casts his own judgment and will kill without hesitation those who do, as well as terrorists, rapists, predators, and those who hurt the people he cares about. if any of this bothers you, please let me know in a pm or this comment and i will avoid tagging you with the character.
ship preferences: m/f (m/m only with matt), 25+ (21+ with discussion)
canon shipping: karen page, beth quinn, maria castle, dinah madani, jessica jones, elektra natchios, matt murdock.
gen only: amy bendix, billy russo, curtis hoyle, david lieberman, sarah lieberman, all other marvel netflix characters.
other shipping: for any mcu characters in the movie verse, feel free to ask, as shipping can happen on a case by case basis. however, based on frank's characterization, will only ship m/f and characters over 25. exceptions can be made with discussion or heavy development.
kinks: full list here
Frank Castle is a complex man β a man of loyalty, loss, and vengeful anger. He hadn't always been an interwoven web of tugging emotions consistently tearing him at the seams, even if he had been a troubled youth even in his earlier days. Joining the military had been a no-brainer when he had signed on, because if there was one thing that Frank had little doubt of once, it was devotion to his country and fighting to protect those in it, simplistic and to the point at an early time in his life. As a soldier, he followed orders, looked out for his fellow brothers, and fought as hard as he could, smartly so with tactical expertise and careful planning, a damn good solider if there ever was one, and it was the basics of these core values, these admirable qualities, that led to his inevitable downfall.
Eventually, the orders began to come with suspicions, to where Frank began to have more and more blood on his hands, killing without full cause or reason aside from being told that Congress was offering their support, enough to assure him that he needed to move forward, unaware of how he'd been re-sculpted into an assassin by those that would take advantage of his loyalty. Even in the face of an ambush, one that he'd previously anticipated and tried to warn of to no avail, he singlehandedly killed every enemy in his path to ensure the safety and escape of his team. It was this battle at Kandahar that began to shake to wires that had been so carefully arranged in his mind, when shades of gray began to shower his original ideas of right and wrong, and this was this battle, sending him in a fury of rage at his superior officers afterwards, that cost him. Because when it came time for those at the top of this Operation Cerberus, this team of soldiers that had been unknowingly primed into killers, to clean their tracks, convinced of someone in their midst leaking their crimes, it was Frank they aimed to get rid of β by staging a gang shoot-out at a carousel that rained bullets on his family, killing his wife, daughter, and son.
Frank's loyalty didn't stem only to his country; he loved his family with every fiber of his being. He recalls the memory of meeting Maria with such affection, a rare tenderness amongst hard lines and exterior texture when he notes love at first sight, proposing marriage a mere three months later the moment she'd told him she was pregnant with their daughter. Speaking of Lisa, he describes seeing her upon returning home for the final time, swooping her into his arms and crumbling beneath the embrace as she held him, far stronger in her foundation than he was in his, a mess of tears as his daughter pulled his pieces together. Because for all that Frank appears to be solid and unbreachable, his weakness for his family is such a core consistency to every component of his character. Maintaining balance between being a soldier and a husband, a fighter and a father, had been another catalyst for his shattering, his returns home always leaving him a shell of torn identity, of longing for the noise of war while trying to find himself in the quiet peace amongst those he loved. And how it had branched guilt, even long before their deaths, as when he'd caught Frank Jr painting a Marine on the walls of their house, scolding him for the act, only for his son to tell him that the Marine was meant to "scare off bad guys" because when his father was away, it was he who needed to protect their girls. And yet it's Frank who couldn't do just that, couldn't protect any one of them, knowing that their deaths came because he was at their side, because it was he they wanted dead, and it's that very guilt would drive him to stay alive, if only to avenge those he couldn't save.
The birth of the Punisher began the trail of misunderstandings of who Frank Castle is, at the very least to the public who came to know him more by his reputation and crimes than the purposely hidden details of what had brought about the creation of this anti-hero. While he came to be seen as a murderer, a number of bodies listed beneath his kills, it's worthy to note that Frank does not kill without cause. And while this begins a moral disconfigured debate with Matt Murdock, who sees murder as a sin in all aspects whether or not the person is deserving of it, Frank is insistent that the blood on his hands is for the purpose of stopping those who'd killed or harmed innocent lives, as he assures Karen Page that she was never in any danger with him, valuing his code and abiding by it even in light of his feral tendencies in a fight, when his typical composure breaks in favor of heightened rage sending him into a fury of killing. In addition, there's a even a strong presence of a protective nature, aiming heavily towards women and children, possibly lingering from his instincts in having wanted to keep his family safe. It later finds him further trouble in the form of Amy Bendix, a young girl he inevitably sacrifices a chance of a peaceful life for, when he prioritizes keeping her safe and risking his life for rather than keeping himself from getting involved.
It's through Karen Page, through her investigative nature and stubborn eagerness to uncover truth, that the remnants of the man who was once Frank Castle are gradually unveiled, proving that despite the changing course of his life from soldier to vengeful vigilante, the qualities of a good man still piece him together even in his denial of being anything more than a monster. Karen remains insistent that Frank is an honest man, because he's never been privy to lying, that he never seeks to rely on manipulation or make excuses for the things he does, blunt as he is to lay the truth on the surface and convey what's on his mind whether or not it hurts for someone to hear it. Even when he later takes on the identity of "Pete Castiglione" to find a life outside of the haunting memories of Frank Castle, he openly admits his losses and the tremendous weight they hold on him, how he struggles to find purpose in living in the silence that comes after it all.
Despite the fear of the silence, when he's completed his self-appointed mission of killing those involved with his family's death, Frank does indeed try to find the possibility of living beyond his internal itch for war, be it in his mind or outside of it. It's in meeting Beth, a small-town bartender and single mother, that Frank shows a man who's willing to allow change in his life for the better. But he's neither insistent nor hurried for it, the more gentlemanly nature of his personality evident as he lets Beth make her choices in how far she wants to move the night along, always polite in his daily interactions despite his more gruff attitude when he's putting up a fight (if his usual patterns of "ma'am" and "please" are anything to go by), and despite his introduction as Pete, he finds himself quick to correct himself in letting her in on his real name, his honesty branching through as he tells her briefly of his burdens. When it comes to him leaving town as originally intended, he turns the van around, because he longs for it, the chance of finding that peace, the way that love once shook him and gave him purpose, but when trouble finds him once more, almost killing Beth in the process, the instinctive nature of shutting himself away, of reminding himself that the fight will always live on, that he's only meant for taking out the bad, he recoils back once more into the Punisher. It's in that to which he'll remain stubborn, because Frank is hardly malleable once his mind is set on something, and despite Karen's assurance later that he could find a way in resolving his problems by doing it together with her, by having a life with her, he fully denies the possibility, accepting that there's "no light" for him, that this, his life as Punisher, is what he's meant to be.
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