#anywho hopefully this is semi coherent but I want us as a fandom to start talking about the infarction

[oddlittlestories]

I promise I'll do a proper post about this sometime but

House was so different before the infarction, and we as a fandom don't talk about that nearly enough. His gentleness and vulnerability with Stacy (at the end of The Mistake "so what do we do now?" - in the middle of the ep with her husband). In s1e21 Three Stories, he's so gentle with Cuddy even though it was her hospital's mistake. He doesn't shout at the nurse or rail against anyone, just quietly insists on his (borderline suicidal) course of action.

Basically, the level of abrasiveness, misanthropy, etc etc that we see in the show pretty clearly (though subtly) didn't exist prior to the infarction. Is it exacerbated by the clear self-esteem issues, implied trust issues, and ofc his usual anti-authority attitude that clearly came from a lifetime of being raised by John House? Yeah.

But House could be and was vulnerable before the infarction. Sometime I'll write a post about his different life stages through the show, but tldr;

the abuse House suffered as a child was only one of the core drivers of his "walls to keep people out;" the infarction was another massive change / hit for him.