#icb i wrote this a whole year ago aklfnga

[warstrike]

after reading punisher: the tyger, i’ve decided to modernize it a bit and make it into netflix frank’s backstory as well. i don’t agree with the implication of frank being a troubled kid / showing signs of violent behavior previously. the tyger poem is also essential to this characterization of the punisher, which i feel can apply to mcu frank, as well. under the cut is the tweaked story and his life as a child, influences into adulthood. in another post, i’ll explain the importance of the poem the tyger by william blake. it’s VERY lengthy im so sorry and more or less a synopsis of the comic shit.  fair warning this mentions heavy topics. ill tag it if you’d like, i don’t go into detail, but it is implied.

his grandfather was involved in world world ii in the marines and later his father  (  in place of frank, since frank is placed in the marines within the series ) was a vietnam vet. he was with louisa before he was drafted, and later married her following the end of the vietnam war. frank was born november 15th, 1980 and raised by both mario and louisa castiglione in queens.

growing up, frank had always had military influences in his life from both his father and his grandfather. his father didn’t talk about the war as much as his grandfather while he was alive, but as frank grew up, he learned to listen and discover things himself without asking. he knew where his father kept his medals, his old journal, the key to the box he kept it all in: he stood aside and listened.  young frank kept to himself and was lost in his thoughts or imagination, which later prompted his interest in the poetry his mom kept around. the pictures depicted by words and worlds painted by the moods made a mental playground for him, it was anESCAPE for young frank. it gave him insight into a world full of color and mirth, something he was starting to realize the world around him lacked.

yet, his quietness didn’t equate to him being a pushover. most kids knew not to pick on frank, because despite his size he wasn’t afraid to fight back to defend himself or anyone being bullied. there was a protective streak to him towards kids who couldn’t protect themselves and he wanted to help, even when he always couldn’t.

ONTO EVENTS IN HIS CHILDHOOD THAT INFLUENCE HIS ACTIONS LATER IN LIFE …

when he was 10, he witnessed a man on fire after lighting a cigarette around paint fumes and spilling paint thinner on himself. this was while he was bringing his father lunch to the construction yard. a young frank watched the man burn, face blank and conflicted with what he was watching. still, he never looked away. later he soon listened to his parents recall the event that happened. his mother sympathetic, his father colder towards the man’s death and in general considering it not to be as big of a tragedy.

frank takes a class during the summer centered around the review of poetry and constructive meanings of it, overseen by father david. he attends it with a friend a few years older than him named lauren buvoli. lauren is as entranced, if not more, than frank is as a kid. he takes interest in her brother sal, a marine, and sometimes talks with him and asks questions related to his service ( this further installs his interest in the military as a child ). lauren and frank were close, close enough to where the events that steamroll into her life rocks his, too.

after a class with father david, frank and lauren walk home, holding a loose conversation about the poem the tyger ( which i’ll later get into ). during this walk home, lauren sees her friend sue, but how she sees her is a tragedy in itself. sue is in the middle of the road and the two see her hit and killed by the driver. suicide was a scarce topic back then, so many would dub it as an ‘accident’.

as it turns out, sue had been ‘involved’ with vincent rosa, the youngest son in one of the well-beloved and feared families in that part of queens. nobody ever talked bad about the rosas, at least not where somebody connected could potentially HEAR. there were darker things to discover about vincent rosa, and discover frank did. after listening to his parents talk about vincent and another girl, kate donegan, he went to talk to her brother and found out that vincent had been forcing himself on the girls he was with. sue, kate, and lauren, as it was later implied.

frank hadn’t seen lauren for days, she was always gone from home when he would go over to see her.  a week went by, and he saw her in father david’s class,  but she bailed at a moment’s notice. ran to the bus, homeward bound and frank ran after her, but missed the bus. it didn’t stop him, however, frank made his way to lauren’s house, but it was too late. her mom screamed from the back for her father, lauren had taken her life. all because of the rosa kid, and frank couldn’t do a damn thing. what’s a ten year old suppose to do, anyway, besides sit by and watch?  it created a deep seated sense ofhelplessness, something he hated.

frank listened to how his mother reacted to the news about lauren towards his father, how she described the fear of men taking advantage of women. in that same conversation, he heard his father say he went with friends and sue’s father to go after albert rosa, vincent’s father, to confront them about his son’s actions. they were scared off, however, due to albert having threatened and his followers around him physically harm sue’s father as a warning to them. this prompted frank to attempt to go after vincent himself. he took the knowledge of the lockbox key and took his father’s gun and went to find vincent. when he got to vincent’s usual hangout and followed him out, he was too late. sal, lauren’s brother, had already decided he was going to take him out.

sal beat vincent and dragged his body to the cemetery to a hole he’d dug, tossed him in and lit him on fire. all the while a young frank castle watched and wrapped his head around the idea of hate.

TO CONCLUDE …  to me, this story compacts more motivation for frank as an adult to do what he does. seeing such trauma as a child, hearing fear and seeing hate as a child sticks with you as you’re growing up. frank couldn’t do anything then. he couldn’t help lauren buvoli. he couldn’t say anything to make her feel better, he couldn’t DO anything to help her and stop her from doing what she did, he couldn’t avenge her. even if he had gotten to vincent first, the idea of a ten year old holding his own against a boy in his late teens is unreasonable. sal was a motivation for him, he showed a young frank castle what it was like to hate someone that much and make them pay. he didn’t understand that until he was older, until he lost his family and felt the trauma of loss and helplessness seep in again when he survived. this is how he adopted a maladaptive manner of dealing with grief and trauma. frank castle now can DO SOMETHING, he can feel a pang of retribution with each of the lives he takes. frank castle is the punisher. the tyger that damns people for the crimes they commit and the innocent lives they’ve shattered. he’s seen the dark parts of the world since he was a kid and has come to terms that the only way to stop it is to be the monster to the monsters.