Latest Posts by papercastl - Page 7

I love soulmates but also this-

when it comes down to it, it’s only fair (if not painfully canonical) for karen to be there—helping frank’s ass out of whatever rundown warehouse he’s been stashed in. like. of course she’ll do something when she finds out. of course she’ll find him. she will be there. that’s what they do. that’s them.

I just finished watching The Punisher s1 (I know, kinda late) And the part that spoke to me the most was everyone being kinda charmed by Frank Castle : Sarah AND David Lieberman, Billy, in some way, Karen, Dinah… I see you bc same

Frank’s physical and emotional state in DD: Born Again

Occasionally I’ve seen people express confusion at Frank’s…general state in Born Again. He does seem unkept, unhappy, in a worse mood than usual and oddly detached from everything else.

The shock was apparently so big, people started theorizing SOMETHING must’ve happened to Frank. And I’m here wondering what people expected to find, exactly.

I mean, if you watched The Punisher season 2 you will know Frank embraced the vigilante life by the end of that season. You would also remember he ended up the show pretty much alone. He pushed Karen away in a very definitive manner, Curtis, if I remember correctly, was very done with his bullshit by that point and didn’t want any more contact with Frank, he sent Amy away to Florida and seemed like didn’t plan to meet her ever again. The only person he seems to be in contact with is Madani, but she was in the Middle East and he also shut down any relationship there when he refused her offer for a job at the CIA (because “he already has a job”).

So, what we are seeing in Born Again is Frank being The Punisher. It’s a guy who shut down every single relationship he ever had and it’s only focused on the mission 24/7. The only thing he does, day in and day out, is look for the next scumbag to kill, the next gang to gun down, the next mafia to disperse. He gets beaten up, goes home, stitches himself and does the same thing all over again the next day. He’s been doing this for years.

And I’m sure, at some point, he realized what he’s doing is pointless, because no matter how many criminals and bad people he puts to the ground, new ones take their place faster than he can kill them. So, all he has to hope for is to keep at it, until he eventually dies. Except he doesn’t die. Almost 10 years and he’s still at it, and not a single thing has changed. Fisk is freaking mayor of New York City, for gods sake.

What we are seeing is a man who has become hopeless and detached, because he has nothing to look for in his life, except death. So…..no shit he is moodier than usual.

I get that this is not a common arc for The Punisher in the comics (if it was ever portrayed), but I think it’s a very interesting thing to explore in the MCU version. I do think it’s in line with what the OG show might’ve explored if it ever got a third season.

Season 2 ended with Frank reaching the conclusion The Punisher was his destiny. There was no happy ending for him, his calling was to kill criminals no matter the cost. And that was actually a very tragic conclusion for Frank to reach, effectively shutting down any opportunity at recovery he could get. He didn’t find fulfillment living as Just Frank (A.K.A Pete Castiglione), so he would find it with The Punisher….except, spoiler alert: he doesn’t! He’s still as unhappy and miserable as he was before. Turns out, giving in to your worst impulses doesn’t improve your life.

I think the point of the mysterious pills we see him take in Born Again, is supposed to be a physical manifestation of Frank’s weariness. That there is a downside to living like The Punisher, and aside from the emotional isolation, he is physically weaker. And again, I know there’s a bunch of comics of an older Frank, and even though he is older, he is somehow as strong and agile as he was when he was younger, and while it’s a valid depiction of an older Frank, it’s probably not a realistic one. Like, the man doesn’t eat well, doesn’t sleep well, he gets punched, stabbed and shot at an alarming frequency and he doesn’t get any breaks. That’s not the lifestyle that creates a healthy and active 60yo. On the contrary, actually. Now, he might have chronic pain he needs to manage with medication, just to function. And I like that. After all, Frank is only human. To show him grappling with all the ways his body can fail him is very compelling storytelling in my opinion.

I mean, I don’t know what they are cooking with Frank, but if I’m right, I am very interested in what they might show in the future with him.

TL;DR: the reason Frank is….LIKE THAT in Born Again is not because of any singular traumatic event, it’s simply the downside of the life he chose as The Punisher. A lonely, violent life that finally is claiming his toll on him. So yeah, he is moody and detached and doesn’t care about much other than his next target.

Frank Castle with everyone else 🦁

Frank Castle with Karen Page 🐈

Put him right under her gaze after a slow hug and he's just a shy kitty kat...

anway… HE SHAVED FOR KAREN. Frank Castle you are a slut.

“ You have everything. So hold on to it. Use two hands and never let go. You got it? ”

[ Posted here & Bluesky @ MadQueenMaddie ]

i wonder what karen did in san francisco. hmm.

So I wrote fanfiction for the first time in almost two years (not traught sorry guys 🥲) but I’ve been obsessed with the Kastle ship for years and after seeing Frank and Karen back on my screen the obsession is full force. So please check out my first ever Kastle fic!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65127175

THE PUNISHER | 1.10 — Virtue of the Vicious

DAREDEVIL — 2.11 ".380"

Saw a cis (I think) woman talking about how cis women need trans women because if trans women don’t exist then being a woman isn’t a choice and is instead just something you’re consigned to for life.

I’ve been thinking about it all day because I agree but I feel like there’s more to it than that.

Idk. Gotta think more.

Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle

THE PUNISHER | "HOME" 1.12

the punisher character list ≡ [1/?] frank castle

first time, as long as i can remember, i don’t have a war to fight. and i guess, if i’m gonna be honest, i just… i’m scared.

I want Deborah Ann Woll to body slam me.

Wait, did I say that out loud?

DDBA made me want to rewatch the whole Daredevil and The Punisher series Even tho Karen and Matt scenes are pretty, i just don't feel anything watching them now, knowing perfectly what's waiting for her. Frank Castle just destroyed the Karedevil ship with a

A case for Kastle | Why Karen and Frank are end game

The relationship between Frank Castle and Karen Page doesn’t just surpass her connection with Matt Murdock, it fundamentally redefines what intimacy looks like in the darker corners of the MCU.

Where Matt’s love is complicated by secrets and duality, Frank’s is startling in its raw transparency. And crucially, their bond is textually romantic in ways the narrative consistently reinforces.

Matt’s love is fractured by duality

Matt Murdock exists in perpetual contradiction: saint and sinner, attorney and assailant, the man and the mask. His relationship with Karen mirrors this civil war within: every tender moment undermined by secrets, every act of protection laced with deception. He doesn't withhold truths because he doesn't care, but because he's forgotten how to exist without walls. Even as Daredevil fights for her safety, Matt Murdock keeps her at arm's length—not from lack of love, but from the terrifying certainty that to let her truly see him might destroy them both.

Frank’s love is brutal in its honesty

Frank Castle wears no mask, he owns his brutality. And yet with Karen, his most jagged edges as the Punisher soften.

Karen could never replace his family, but she becomes something equally dangerous: proof that Frank Castle might still exist beyond his war. She's the first person who makes him consider there could be an after—not as the Punisher, but simply as Frank. And that's what truly terrifies him.

Because in Frank's world, love is vulnerability. It's the knowledge that those closest to us are the ones who can destroy us most completely. His family's love made him whole; their loss unmade him. To let Karen matter is to risk that devastation all over again. Yet still, against instincts and effort their connection is forged.

Kastle is a lens, not a subplot

Frank and Karen’s relationship isn’t romantic filler, it’s the narrative’s moral compass. A lens through which we learn about their characters. Through their connection, we see:

Frank’s capacity for tenderness beneath the violence

Karen’s strength and empathy in the face of darkness

Their shared language of guilt and vengeance

They are each other's revelation. Karen is Frank's reckoning—the living mirror forcing him to confront the man beneath the body armor. And he, in turn, becomes her permission:

Permission to stop running from the blood on her hands

Permission to stare into her darkness without flinching

Permission to plant her feet when the world says "know your place"

Where Matt's half-truths left Karen questioning her worth, Frank's brutal transparency becomes her foundation. Their connection transcends romantic subplot. It's the spinal column of their shared narrative. Every loaded glance, every silence thicker than gun smoke, every "Karen" growled like a prayer or "Frank" whispered like a secret—these moments do more heavy lifting than any fight scene.

That's why the question was never "will they/won't they," but "how could they not?". In a universe where Daredevil hides behind masks and Kingpin behind tailored suits, Frank and Karen stand stripped bare. No aliases, no pretenses, just two scarred souls recognizing each other in the wreckage.

And that raw honesty? In my book, it's rarer and more revolutionary, than love.

Matt can move on (Frank can’t)

Matt's story thrives on reinvention. Across the comics and the MCU, he cycles through defining relationships (Karen, Elektra, Claire, Kirsten, etc.). Each love interest representing a different phase of his moral journey. We know that Karen in this case, is a chapter in Matt/Daredevil’s story, not the ending. The MCU's current trajectory seems to confirm this flexibility: with new Daredevil projects announced and more adversaries emerging, Matt's character arc clearly has room to evolve beyond any single romance. He's a hero whose growth comes through many varied connections.

Frank's narrative on the other hand, operates on an entirely different principle. It's a closed emotional circuit. His past is defined by the family he lost; his present (and with any justice, his future) by Karen Page. These are the twin anchors of his humanity, because beneath the body armor and bloodstains, Frank Castle remains at his core what he's always been: a family man without a family.

Where Matt's rotating relationships showcase his evolution as a hero, Frank's bond with Karen serves as his last tether to something resembling normalcy. She prevents him from devolving into pure monstrosity. 

This distinction is crucial for understanding Frank as an anti-hero rather than a villain:

Without Karen, Frank risks becoming a one-dimensional killing machine. She serves as his living connection to the world beyond vengeance. 

Karen gives viewers permission to root for Frank despite his brutality. Through her eyes, we see:

The remnants of the man he was before the tragedy

The potential for something beyond endless war

The cost of his crusade on someone who cares about him

With Karen in the picture, The Punisher's story becomes:

A tragedy of survival rather than mindless violence

A meditation on what parts of ourselves we sacrifice to trauma

A question of whether damaged people can still connect

The MCU's current trajectory seems to recognize this. While Matt will continue evolving through new relationships and challenges, Frank's arc demands resolution. His character is getting older, and this crusade it taking it toll (evidenced in Born Again when he is seen taking pain killers on two seperate occasions). Karen isn't just another love interest to him, she's the last remaining thread connecting Frank Castle to humanity and his way out of the life of venegence. Sever that, and you don't have an anti-hero anymore... you just have a loaded gun in a world full of targets.

Their relationship transforms what would just be gratuitous violence into Shakespearean tragedy. Without it, we're left with the shell of a character who long ago forgot why he started fighting.

There’s transformation through love

Love made Frank Castle into the Punisher (a husband and father’s rage crystallized into war). Now love, his simmering connection to Karen, could forge him into something new. Not a saint, not even a hero, but a man who’s learned to carry his losses without being crushed by them.

The tragedy and the triumph is this: The same force that created the monster might yet redeem the man. Not through grand gestures, but through cups of coffee and all the quiet ways two broken people learn to fit together without cutting themselves on each other’s edges.

To me, that’s beyond romance. That’s resurrection.

A Kastle resolution would fit the MCU’s pattern

In the MCU, completed love stories are reserved for characters whose journeys are ending. Steve Rogers gets his dance with Peggy only after hanging up the shield. Thor’s reunion with Jane coincides with her heroic exit. So following this narrative calculus, if the plan is to wrap up the Punisher’s story, it would seem that the Kastle payoff is inevitable.

The evidence: 

1. The original plan to exclude Karen from Born Again was a miscalculation so glaring it had to be reversed. This speaks volumes:

The push for her inclusion recognises her narrative necessity to both Daredevil and the Punisher

Karen's light footprint in Born Again season 1 suggests the show is saving her emotional weight for a more pivotal conclusion

2. The upcoming Born Again season 2 and 2026 Punisher special create an ideal narrative runway:

For Matt and Karen it could provide a clean, mature resolution to their relationship that:

Honors their history without trapping Matt in the past

Gives Karen agency in walking away

Leaves Matt open for fresh dynamics in a potential season 3

For Frank and Karen it grants a sunset moment with gravity:

The Punisher special could mirror Logan's emotional heft (not in death, but in closure)

Karen's arc would be allowed to culminate not as "Daredevil’s love interest” or "Frank's salvation," but as a woman who's faced her demons and maintained her agency 

3. It serves everyone

Matt grows beyond his Netflix-era baggage

Frank's story ends where it began: with love as his defining force

Karen avoids becoming a plot device—she exits as someone who shaped both men

This is narrative justice. The pieces are all there. Now Marvel just needs to follow through.

It’s bitter and beautiful 

Kastle was never meant to be a fairytale. It's two fractured souls using each other's sharp edges to polish their own broken pieces:

Karen's unwavering courage files down Frank's nihilism

Frank's brutal honesty cracks open Karen's shell of guilt

Their quiet understanding becomes armor against a world that wants them broken

In a universe where Spider-Man’s optimism feels increasingly naive, and Daredevil's moral code keeps crumbling, Kastle offers something radical: the notion that damaged people don't need fixing, just someone who sees their cracks and doesn't look away. That recognition alone can make the endless fight worthwhile.

The final verdict

All signs point to one undeniable truth: Kastle is the only ending that does justice to Frank and Karen's complex journey, while still giving Matt the narrative space to evolve beyond his past. The foundation has been meticulously built across multiple shows and seasons. Marvel now faces a choice: honor this years-long character arc with the emotional payoff it deserves, or let these rich, layered relationships fade into unrealized potential.

Giving us a Kastle ending is more than fan service, at this point it is narrative integrity. Kastle represents:

One of the MCU's most mature explorations of trauma and connection

A rare love story built on mutual respect

The perfect emotional conclusion for Frank’s and Karen’s arcs, while allowing Matt to move forward unshackled from old dynamics

The evidence is all there in the text, the subtext, and the behind-the-scenes decisions. The story has been telling us where this is headed for nearly a decade. Now, Marvel just needs to listen to its own narrative.

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Want to dive deeper? 

Coffee in the MCU

A way forward (my fan theory)

Kastle scene breakdowns: The subtext you missed [WIP]

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Published: April 23, 2025

Last edited: April 23, 2025

"Let me make it mean something."

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we interrupt your irregularly scheduled Oshamir for some Kastle, which is the only thing DDBA had to deliver on and did it ever.

I think Frank needs to grovel a bit right? That's right here you go.

headcanons are so funny once they become ubiquitous in your brain. forgot that we didn’t all agree about that.

Here for one ship. The greatest slow burn of the mcu.

If you ship kastle, please like. Looking for moots

Hey you all know about that fungus that possesses ants to make them climb on the tip of grass blades in hopes of getting eaten by a cow, so that the fungus can continue its life cycle in the cow's guts? Because I think that's the kind of thing that's wrong with cave divers.

We don't know what's down there. We don't know what's gotten into their heads that makes them so determined to physically, personally go down there to find out. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss the possibility that whatever has gotten into them is very invested in getting eaten by whatever is down there.

The ddba credit scene was so funny to me because why tf would you stick your hand in the cage

i hate love triangles but frank has been jealous of whatever isn’t going on between matt and karen for the better part of a decade and if this storyline forces him to finally confront those feelings? to admit that yes, he does want an after and he wants it with karen? to take his own advice and use two hands and never let go? delicious

kastle is cool bc the shippers actually like both of the characters :)

Confessions held in bloom

A poem on love, loss, and truths left unspoken—from Frank’s perspective.

They hold secrets, these petals under dim lights and soft silences of words left unsaid and reverence expressed. They remember my mourning my guilt of love lost, and fear  of the pain in another found. They tell of regrets and remorse on which we stand, and keep between us the aching longing that lingers. They reflect you pure and good, wrapped in thorns of the past your soul and the hope you protect. They promise my adoration, loyalty to you, to your gentleness my endless appreciation for all you offer. They are a new beginning an invitation of intimacy a first step towards being worthy.

by MauRomance

do you ever just think about frank and karen in dds2, tps1&2, and now ddba, and think, damn—

only kastle can motivate me to revive a tumblr account i hadn’t touched in almost 10 years just for the gif sets and fics

Kastle ♥️