#kastle meta

[the-shining-river]

Trajectories

One of the things that break my heart about Kastle is how they’re sort of on opposite trajectories in life.

Frank comes from this decent (middle-class?) family of two loving, if elderly and exasperated, parents, dad always coming to see his games; Frank knowing what he wants to do in life and joining the military without problems, excelling at Quantico and overseas, earning the rank of Lieutenant, enjoying respect and friendship and companionship of the other soldiers. Falling in love and getting married soon after (unplanned as it was), having a beautiful family, able to afford a house in NYC suburbs, proud of and very much in love with his wife 10+ years later, when he’s finally ready to come home and be with his family, start his ‘second life’... And then it all comes crashing down, he loses everything and finds himself on the wrong side of the law; and even as he tries to get over it and heal and make peace with his loss, the world (i.e. the writers of TP S2) once more pulls the rug from under his feet and everything becomes even more hopeless and dark, leaving him thinking he belongs in that violence and that’s ‘who he is’ and always will be.

Karen comes from a mess of a home situation, with her mum dead, family business struggling, irresponsible father expecting her to figure everything out and at the same time showing very little respect for her efforts; add to that the responsibility she feels for her younger brother and all the money troubles and the sense of hopelessness in a little town in Vermont; how she ends up with a loser boyfriend, doing and dealing drugs, postponing her college application to take care of her family; and then it all goes to hell with Kevin’s death and being thrown out of home by her own father. Like, Karen comes from a very dark and hopeless place with not a whole lot of means or options. But she makes it out. She fights, and she finds a place for herself in New York, and then it again goes to shit at her Union Allied job, but again she fights and perseveres until she has two avocado friends (complicated as one of them is lol), and a cause she believes in, and then a mentor and then a better job she downright excels in even without any college education, just her own intelligence and grit. It’s not easy, but she fights and she stays optimistic, and things are slowly improving for Karen Page of Fagan Corners, Vermont.

And the heartbreak lies in Frank having no idea about this. Thinking Karen’s life is all nice and unproblematic, except for her propensity for danger and knowing how to shoot; that she can’t possibly understand him. They could be sooo good together, helping and supporting each other — in Karen’s loneliness and need for justice, in Frank’s needing to reinvent himself and start from scratch again.

But, no, we can’t have nice things except in fanfic ;______;

[kastleexchange]

Hi guys!

April showers bring May flowers, or so the saying goes! It's time for Come what May, kastle: born again week. We've come up with some prompts and ideas for your art/meta/playlists/fic/gifsets/edits/thoughts (thanks @woahpip and @notquitecogent for their help!!), but please don't feel confined to the day (or even the week)

To participate, just pick a prompt or two and post that week on tumblr! Don't forget to tag your works with #kastleexchange / @ us so we can reblog.

May 26th: What Could Be A single scene you want to see. | The first thing they say to each other in Daredevil: Born Again | AU day!!!! bring on the alternate universe dreams you've been thinking about forever May 27th: Still All Heart Use pics from behind the scenes (the already infamous shit-eating grin one ofc) and actual set pics from Daredevil: Born Again to inspire your art/fic set pics | bts May 28th: Who We Are Think of the lines and scenes from DD and TPS that define the character for you - what's your fave line from frank? from karen? how do you think those things could be revisited in Daredevil: Born Again?

May 29th: Say the Quiet Parts Out Loud A conversation you don't think they'll ever have but wish they would. | What are some offscreen moments you wish you could see?

May 30th: Here They Go Again How do you think other characters will react to seeing Frank again? Karen again? Both of them together? | How do you think characters from other Marvel franchises would react to them (crossover time!)

May 31st: Coda The last thing they say to each other in Daredevil: Born Again | How do they make it mean something?

[cyberdragoninfinity]

🔥I would love to hear your thoughts on the girls in Yugioh

I like em a lot but I wish they got to actually Do Things (especially in Zexal, they had so many cool girls and they hardly got to do anything)

I LOVE YOU YUGIOH GIRLSSSS

🔥 kind of insane that "the yugioh girls are good characters and deserve just as much respect as the male characters do" is a bit of an unpopular take but some anime fans are stuck in 2005 livejournal mindsets and do still act like girls in yugioh existing are the most heinous crime against yaoi possible. COULDNT BE ME!!! yugioh girls get behind me i love you I WILL PROTECT YOU!!!

theyre such a weird case a lot of the time too, though, because with the way yugioh works we equate "doing big, heroic moments" with dueling, because...well. This is the Card Game Dueling Monsters show. and the girls really indeed Do Not Get to Duel A Lot (let alone Win a lot) so in that department especially YEAH THEY REALLY DONT GET TO DO MUCH. And you get instances like poor fucking Rio Kastle, who's fridged for half of Zexal in the hospital, and Akiza JUST NOT GETTING TO TURBO DUEL EXCEPT LIKE TWO TIMES, MAYBE. GOD. But something I've noticed alongside that is because dueling = The benchmark for doing big plot actions, when the girls Do get to do some pretty cool stuff that isnt a duel, it doesn't really get dwelled on or talked about too much in fan spaces, and it's a shame!

I will never stop proclaiming that the DM anime was so real and right for making Serenity Wheeler the one to dive into the ocean to save her brother after the pier duel, it's one of my favorite scenes in all of Duel Monsters. SO much bravery and determination in that action. HER EYES WERE STILL HEALING AND SHE DID ALL THAT STILL!!! WAHHH. and god Tori, Tori Kotori Zexal my daughter MY BABY, everyone wants to be like "ohh she doesnt do anything shes annoying" MISS ME WITH THAT!! It sucks that she doesnt duel, yeah, but she does SO FUCKING MUCH over the course of Zexal. She piloted a spaceship out of a black hole. She followed Shark and Kite to go save Hart and Yuma and she was BEATING THOSE LITTER BOTS TO DEATH to save her friends!! She's by Yuma's side for all the incredible bullshit he has to deal with and without her I think he would have just completely fallen apart. She's so tenacious and loyal and fearless when it counts the most and it's such a bummer there's, like, no Tori meta.

I guess that all isnt too much of a hot unpopular take is it??! hrm. I guess it boils down to "some people have equated "not dueling" with "annoying and bad character" re: the girls of yugioh, which imo is a kneejerk borderline-to-genuinelly-misogynist reaction manifesting over what's really a bad writing choice completely out of the characters' hands" and you should really give yourself a chance to take a look at Everything the girls actually did get to contribute to the plot, because you can really find some great character insight and actually pretty important to the plot gestures in there. tl;dr 🔥 if you think ygo girls are annoying im turning you into a golf ball and putting you into a sand pit.

[brc-land]

Hết thời tiền rẻ và chịu dư âm Covid, thị trường cho thuê văn phòng lớn nhất thế giới ngày càng nhiều tòa nhà "xác sống"

Sự ra đi của các nhà đầu tư lớn của Trung Quốc, sự gia tăng của hình thức làm việc từ xa khiến thị trường cho thuê văn phòng ở New York biến thành các tòa nhà xác sống.

Thời hoàng kim đã qua

Trong giai đoạn thị trường bất động sản tăng trưởng dưới tác động của lãi suất thấp lịch sử và dòng tiền rẻ, Doug Harmon và nhóm của ông đã tham gia vào một số thương vụ giao dịch kỉ lục của một số tòa nhà văn phòng danh giá ở khu đất vàng ở Manhattan.

Nhưng điều đó đã không còn nữa. Ngày nay, Harmon, chủ tịch bộ phận thị trường vốn của công ty dịch vụ bất động sản Cushman & Wakefield, dành phần lớn thời gian của mình để thực hiện “phân loại”, theo cách nói của ông.

New York, thị trường văn phòng lớn nhất thế giới gần đây đã phải chịu tác động từ sự ra đi các nhà đầu tư lớn từ Trung Quốc, xu hướng gia tăng của mô hình làm việc từ xa trong thời đại Covid-19 và sự sụp đổ kinh tế từ cuộc xung đột Nga-Ukraine.

Những dấu hiệu căng thẳng mới đã xuất hiện trong tuần này. Blackstone, công ty quản lý vốn tư nhân, nói với các nhà đầu tư rằng họ sẽ hạn chế nhà đầu tư rút tiền từ quỹ bất động sản thương mại trị giá 125 tỷ đô la.

Trong khi đó Meta, công ty mẹ của Facebook, sẽ từ bỏ việc thuê khoảng 250.000 feet vuông tại khu phát triển Hudson Yards mới để cắt giảm chi phí.

Meta và các công ty công nghệ khác là một trong những khách hàng lớn cuối cùng của thị trường văn phòng thời kỳ đại dịch ở Manhattan.

Đã có nhiều dự báo về sự sụp đổ của khu vực văn phòng kể từ khi đại dịch bùng phát, điều này đã thúc đẩy xu hướng làm việc từ xa và do đó làm giảm nhu cầu về không gian làm việc.

Giờ đây, ngày càng có nhiều lo ngại rằng việc lãi suất tăng mạnh sẽ tiếp tục gây áp lực tài chính lên nhiều chủ sở hữu và dẫn đến một sự thay đổi lớn trên thị trường. “Nhiều người có chung cảm giác rằng mọi thứ đã đạt đến giới hạn”, Harmon nói.

Thị trường đang xuất hiện ngày càng nhiều các trường hợp vỡ nợ, các tòa nhà văn phòng được chuyển đổi sang mục đích sử dụng khác. Trong khi đó, nhiều người tin rằng sẽ chuẩn bị có một đợt bán tháo với mức giá chiết khấu lớn, có thể là trong quý đầu tiên của năm tới.

Những tòa nhà "zombie"

Theo Kastle Systems, công ty an ninh văn phòng, tỷ lệ lấp đầy trung bình vào các ngày trong tuần tại các văn phòng ở Thành phố New York vẫn ở mức dưới 50%.

Bob Knakal, chủ tịch bộ phận bán hàng đầu tư tại JLL, nhận thấy ngày càng có nhiều tòa nhà văn phòng "zombie" - văn phòng không người ở Manhattan và không có tương lai rõ ràng.

Một phân tích của các giáo sư tại Đại học Columbia và Đại học New York đã ước tính rằng tổng giá trị của các tòa nhà văn phòng ở Mỹ có thể giảm khoảng 500 tỷ đô la - hơn một phần tư - vào năm 2029.

Manus Clancy, một nhà phân tích tại Trepp, chuyên giám sát các tài sản thương mại được đảm bảo bằng thế chấp, đã so sánh tình hình hiện tại với tình cảnh của các trung tâm mua sắm truyền thống phải đối mặt cách đây 5 năm khi triển vọng xấu đi. Nhiều người cuối cùng rơi vào tình trạng phá sản.

Hồi tháng 7, RXR và Blackstone đã bán khu văn phòng ở địa chỉ 1330 Sixth Avenue với giá 325 triệu đô la, giảm từ con số 400 triệu đô la mà RXR đã trả vào năm 2010.

Năm 2014, Oxford Properties, một công ty đầu tư của Canada, đã trả 575 triệu đô la để giành chiến thắng trong cuộc đấu thầu để giành quyền mua khu văn phòng tại 450 Park Avenue, một toà nhà 33 tầng.

Khu này đã được bán bởi một chủ sở hữu tiếp theo vào tháng tư với giá thấp hơn - 440 triệu USD. “Hiện tại đáng giá bao nhiêu?” một nhà môi giới hỏi. “Ít hơn 440 triệu đô la.”

Nguồn Markettimes

[152glasslippers]

Rant about Kastle

okay well

since you asked

today I'm thinking about how kastle is the epitome of the "I found love when I least expected it" trope

I'm thinking about Karen pushing so hard to find the truth about what happened to Frank's family because of how it felt to lose Kevin and how the very last thing she would have ever thought would happen when she started digging was that she would fall in love with Frank "37 that they know of" Castle but then she agreed to talk to him alone in that hospital room and HOO BOY she blew it

and Frank so sad and so heartbroken and waiting for death, or when he can get back out there and find death, and not wanting to feel anything anymore because his family is gone and he's done, all he is, all he has is a mission now, but then Karen shoves that picture in his face and tells him about ginger snaps and rocketships and hiding in closets and she won't stop searching, won't stop fighting for him, won't let go so now he can't let anything hurt her

(including himself)

and it's the worst thing that could happen to him, caring for someone again, because he's hell bent on spending the rest of his life alone, that's his penance, but even when he stays away from her he can't help seeking her out, GENTLY CARESSING HER NAME IN THE GODDAMN NEWSPAPER

I'm thinking about how six months is a long time and that by the time Frank throws on that stupid fucking blanket and reaches out to Karen again, they each know they're in love with the other, even if they're not saying it, even if they can't admit it because it's too much, too real and too scary to touch, let alone put words to, but they know, they KNOW

and it just, it takes them by surprise, you know? who would have thought Frank could ever fall in love again, who would have thought that the man behind the bulletproof vest would be so goddamn observant, so smart and intuitive, so charming with such a big damn heart and who would have thought that he would actually find room to care

(when so many other people in Karen's life haven't)

I'm thinking about how their love is so big and so powerful that they're willing to risk it all for each other before they've even kissed, before they've done more than share a dozen intense glances and a single hug

I'm thinking about Shining Star on a tape deck and Frank on that damn rooftop and What It Means to Be a Hero and I cannot let that happen to you and Ellison asking Did You Know and Frank diving in front of a bullet for Karen and Karen, get out of here, Karen, you go, go now and hell no, come on and you think you can scare me off that easy and you're not the monster, you never were and Karen helping Frank escape police custody not once but TWICE

like, here are two characters who don't even meet on the comic book page and after just a handful of scenes together, they're the two characters who always, always, come back for each other

today i'm thinking about how I'll never, ever be over it

[uhthor]

it just hurts my heart because karen page would singlehandedly walk on glass to heal all of the wounds she gently touches on frank’s face, she would kiss them better and weave his broken skin back together with the stardust in her tears and she’d do it so unwaveringly, in every situation at any given time. but frank is so adamant on believing that he cannot be the one for her? he is so stubborn in his ways, ironic when he calls karen stubborn, and he won’t admit that deep down loving and peace is what he wants. he feels that he doesn’t have a choice when he does. karen is that choice. he just has to actively choose to take that pathway and he can be granted what he knows he wants. the wars inside of his mind are too ragged and loud for him to concentrate. the demons in his eardrums bang loudly with their cymbals of pain and elemental suffering that frank can’t even register what his heart feels. it’s like they’re disconnected, his head and his heart. he’s been beaten that many times that his body is out of shape and his functions do not align anymore. but when he looks at karen he sees love. and hope, and peace, and happiness. he sees that chance for him to settle with her, for him to get out of this business that he’s so caught up in. but when one fire is dampened, another starts within his mind and he’s back on autopilot. he wants to save everybody he can. he wants to right wrongs, he wants to fix those that can’t be fixed. he’d do everything and anything for someone in that position.

and karen just wants to do that for him.

[karenpage]

There’s a lot to unpack with the kastle episode, so this is my best attempts to articulate my thoughts regarding it. There are, of course, spoilers below the cut but I tried to keep my discussion to only that of Karen and Frank’s interaction (with mentions of the first episode for obvious reasons). This is just my take away, I’ll write more about the season as a whole at a later point.

But yes. The Punisher season 2, episode 11: The Abyss.

Okay. First and Foremost, you can tell the writers were strapped for time, that they might’ve had a larger role for Karen/Deb if she wasn’t busy filming dds3, which sort of makes me bitter because by and far Lightfoot has treated her character better when she’s on screen in the Punisher, but I digress.

We open up on Frank, beaten 99% to death which isn’t new to any long time fan of the show- but there’s something different. Something broken in him that we haven’t seen before and I’ll be the first to admit, it’s as unsettling as it is upsetting. Watching Frank, who has persisted through the worst of the worst, who has conquered unimaginable hurt and grief, be so willing to give up.. Ready to die in way that’s more a sense of him deserving it, rather than a byproduct of the life he’s chosen to live.

It’s all over the news, the radio announcing ‘the Punisher in police custody at the hospital’, and then we cut to Karen toting the sixth amendment and strong-arming her way past the heavy police protection surrounding Frank.

A direct, obvious, and intentional parallel to when they first met.

Frank’s tied to the bed, the setup is similar to that of dds2, visually. But Karen pulls a chair up to his bedside and she waits.

We don’t have any context for time, as for how long she’s there while he’s unconscious but something I’ve read in 10,000 fanfics winded me the moment he woke up. He was having a nightmare, saw the same vision he’d seen of Maria and the kids and then heard a hail of gunfire and screamed when he woke. Karen was there. Soothing him. Comforting him. And she grabbed his hand with both of hers.

Two hands.

It’s hard to watch as Frank relives their deaths, talks, at length about the day his family died and major kudos to Jon Bernthal, yet again, delivering a monologue that ripped my heart out and spat on it (not dissimilar to the speech at the graveyard in dds2 eps4), but Karen’s there every step of the way. She’s quiet, and supportive, and everything he needed in that moment because Frank’s grappling with something big and ugly.

He thinks he accidentally killed some women in a shoot-out with Billy Russo and his gang, they were innocent bystanders, and that circles back to what he’d been dreaming about. About his entire identity as the Punisher, and why he feels like he deserves to die.

‘Now I’m the monster’, GOD, let’s be real for one second. Kastle notwithstanding? That Shit HURTED the emotions evoked with a single sentence, with tears in his eyes and a trembling lip. I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Recover.

But Karen outright refuses to believe that. Denies that Frank deserves to die and she knows something’s up. Because Karen’s pursuit of the truth continues to be a cornerstone in their relationship. There’s some uh … Questionable Writing that I think they meant to use as comic relief but it just came across as gross (like some scenes in the season, the implied humor falls flat in the face of glaring and problematic issues), but, the effect is that she and Madani discover that it was meant to look like Frank killed those women, but Billy had executed them beforehand.

He wanted Frank to suffer. He knew that that’s a wound he’d struggle to heal from when they could only do so much damage to him physically (without killing him, and Billy didn’t want that).

Now, at this point, Frank’s TRIED to have a ‘normal life’ (time to segue into that real quick, because I have to break down episode one even if I’d rather claw out my eyes). Now, I firmly believe that he was doing what he did, behaving as he had because he doesn’t know how to heal. Frank’s never had the after. He says so himself in the end of season one. He’s scared. Where does he go? How does he navigate a life that no longer resembles his own? That’s a lot for a person to do by himself but Frank is headstrong, stubborn, and so he does it anyway.

PTSD (especially recurring, horrific trauma) can make people act… differently to say the least. One of the things associated with losing children, losing family, is that there’s no measure on how to cope with it. Frank saw a chance to feel normal and he took it, but he did himself (and Beth) a disservice. He’s a damaged man, and he was bound to bring all that accompanies it, to her doorstep. I’m not a fan of episode one but, surprisingly, it’s not that Frank hooks up with someone. Not that Frank tries to ground himself in a stranger, carve out a bit of an after. Which, again, people with PTSD don’t know how to open up to the people closest to them because they have the most to lose. If that person/those people can’t see through the fog of his struggle, the loss of them would be catastrophic. It’s infinitely easier to do that with a stranger. You have nothing to lose if they walk away.

My issue was him having sex with a woman named Beth, (his late wife being Maria Elizabeth) and that in the sex scenes they CONSTANTLY hone in on the wedding ring he’s wearing around his neck and he has flashbacks and it’s strange and mildly upsetting? It feels a bit like they were trying to show that Frank’s projecting (which he is) but they went about it all wrong from a narrative standpoint. And then, again, she gets shot - at least she doesn’t die, that would’ve solidified all of my fears - but that pain, that visual is still a raw wound for Frank and it’s what sets him back on the path of being the Punisher, with Amy by his side.

OKAY. BACK TO KASTLE. I have some issues with the scenes, but, again, I think it’s more based on the storytelling (which I’ll address at the end, independently), overall I just.. I love them deeply and profoundly but it definitely hurt to see Karen admit her feelings (again) and be rebuffed (again). NOT because Frank doesn’t feel the same way, not because, in an ideal world, Frank wouldn’t want to be with Karen. But because he doesn’t think he deserves it. He doesn’t think he gets to have a happy ending, period, which is stereotypical of a protagonist in the middle of their hero’s journey (we saw the same shit with Matt Murdock).

Karen straight up said she doesn’t want Matt. That she wants Frank (even if that means wanting and loving the Punisher too - which is new. Karen can’t deny who he is and I don’t think she’s trying to any longer). She told him to give loving someone other than a war, a chance (her. Love her, Frank. Choose her.) and watching her open herself up… pour out the contents of her heart only for him to give nothing (in that moment) in return??? That Shit Hurted 2.0. BUT, him saying ‘he doesn’t want that’, in reference to life with her, where they try together. Is just a continuation of the same thread they’ve shared from the get-go.

Frank continuing to push away the people he cares about most (Curtis, Karen, hell even Madani in the end), while they hold onto him tighter for it. That’s a pretty poignant and reoccurring theme in Marvel’s Netflix; that the heroes detach themselves. Think they don’t get a life like everybody else, and then have to get slapped in the face by the persistence of the people that love them.

He thanks her. That she waited by his bedside for him to wake up and was there for him when he did. He thanks her and there’s something broken in that, too. Like it’s him trying to say goodbye but he can’t find the words just right.

So Karen tells him to show her. AND MY HEART ! FUCKING ! STOPPED ! My gut knew we wouldn’t get a kiss, but this was clearly intended to be one, and Amy’s interruption is a semi-colon. It’s not their end. Just the middle. Which leads me to believe that, should we get a season three, Karen will continue to play a significant part in Frank’s life and they’ll take advantage of the fact that she’s no longer filming Daredevil, and her availability won’t be nearly as limited. Lightfoot and Jon both confirmed that they’d want more and more of her, always.

My take away: They are in love. They confessed it. It was as heartfelt and sad, as beautiful and ugly, as any of their scenes have ever been (And likely will be), but it didn’t feel like an end because it wasn’t. It’s ‘not right now’, if Frank had kissed her, if they’d pushed through and tried to be together then, it just wouldn’t work.

He’s in the middle of his story. That means there’s growth and learning yet to come and Karen deserves more than where he’s at, now. (Doesn’t stop me from writing a fuck ton of fanfic about it, though). He has to learn how to co-exist with the two halves of himself, and that’s something that needs to be done without throwing romance into the mix (but he really shouldn’t be alone, he should get help, and I really fucking hope they touch on that in season 3).

Karen’s also a big girl. She can make her choices and is fully aware of what they mean. I didn’t like that she was hurt, again, by someone she loves, again, and at the end of the day, Karen Page deserves to be loved deeply and entirely and Frank just can’t be that person right now. That doesn’t mean never (what’s the point of telling their story if it ended like that? Lightfoot might be on thin fucking ice but he wouldn’t do Karen OR Frank dirty like that).

The Punisher was written in three parts, the beginning, the middle, and the end (much like every other story, ever). Middle installments tend to be the most poorly received, which isn’t an issue in film franchises because of the revenue stream attached, but it DOES mean shows struggle in their Sophomore years. I like to use ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ as a point of reference, because it was almost universally hated upon release, and is now a cherished part of a dynastic film franchise. People cannot tell a story, or understand it, with only two acts of a three-part play so it can come off strangely, or the general tone can feel ‘off’, because there isn’t active resolution and we’re left with just as many questions as we entered with.

Ultimately, we need a season three to see how this plays out, (we DESERVE one, and a kiss, goddammit), but if this is where it ends. If this is the last time we see Karen and Frank, at least it’s ended knowing they’re in love, that it’s an indisputable fact of canon that cannot be ignored. Whatever that means going forward, we as a fan base can figure out in our own writing, conjecture, and in the beauty of all they’ve shared up until this point.

I am so profoundly happy with what we got, the tone of the season and everything else notwithstanding. I have issues, yes, of course, I do, but I’ve waited well over a year to see them share a screen and this is what my sleep-deprived brain could make of it.

Thank you all for reading, xo.

[glycerineclown]

THE PUNISHER SPOILERS! QUOTES FROM THE PUNISHER 2x11 WITHIN!

over the past two seasons of the punisher, i have never been shocked by frank and karen’s declarations of love, no matter how indirect or implied. there’s a fucking reason why i’ve written karen saying “i love you” so often, and so early on in any kind of romantic relationship with frank. 

usually people try to play it cool for quite a while when they’re dating and getting to know somebody, y’know. they hold back all of that shit out of fear. fear that it’s not reciprocated, that it’ll scare the other off, that it’s too soon. but god. frank and karen know each other completely, maybe not in the day-to-day sense, they haven’t spent enough time together, but they know all the most important things, all the secrets kept, all the dark sides. their trust is so real.

karen wants a future for him, so badly. and she wants to be in it. the audience roots for them because they want a future for him too. they see how much lighter, how open he is when he’s with her. 

karen can just stand in front of him and say these things:

“believe it or not, i actually care what happens to you.”

“i want there to be an after for you.”

“that doesn’t change how i feel about you.”

“you and i, we could figure this out together. [...] you could choose to love someone else instead of another war.”

she’s always pushing him on this. in their moments together, she’s always finding ways to tell him she loves him. it’s just the truth. she has no trouble with this, not when it’s frank. he can recreate the plot of toto’s africa but he’s not outright with it to her face because he knows she’d throw everything away for him. he can be with her at his most vulnerable, and that must scare the shit out of him, too. any step in their relationship could literally mean life or death. they don’t have time for fuckin’ games. if they’re in, they’re in. no fuckin’ around. there’s absolutely nothing casual about it. 

frank castle knows that if he gives in to karen page, there is no going back. they’ll be together until one or both of them is dead. and taking that risk isn’t fathomable for him. his heart can’t take the thought of losing her.

“i know you. you’re brave. you’re strong. but you are so goddamn stubborn and you will throw everything away for me, and i cannot let that happen.”

but he also really wants to make out with her. 

anyways if we don’t get a s3 leave me here to die while i write it myself

[hipsterfrankcastle]

imagine if karen’s only in one ep but curtis brings up what happened with fisk and asks if frank saw any of it on the tv, imagine amy teases frank about the way he lives like a monk and he gets all blush-y and when she prods him and asks if he has a girlfriend he tells her to go do the dishes imagine he and dinah go for a drink in some grotty bar and sit there not talking until she finally asks how after karen and he has to get up to leave because he doesn’t KNOW how karen is, imagine a little moment where he picks up the bulletin in a diner and automatically looks for her by-line, pure force of habit, imagine the waitress asks him if he wants coffee and it’s obvious that he’s thinking about that first talk in the diner, imagine there’s white flowers on the windowsill there and his gaze settles on them for a moment until Dinah or Curtis or whoever calls and the plot moves forward, imagine when karen finally turns up and he hugs her so quickly and so hard because it’s all he can think to do imagine that IMAGINE!!! GOD !

[w00wzerz]

This Is It! My Wig Is Non Exsistant! Kastle Has Been Acknowledged And I Am Freaking Out!!!!!

I am back from my Kastle Hiatus and thousands of kastle metas and fictions are coming your way! Feel free to spam me with ideas

[geraltcirilla]

My top Kastle scene to this day is the diner scene from Daredevil 2x11. There was just something about it.... They’re on the run, their lives are in danger, the diner has this old-school noir feel to it, the air is tinged with fear, paranoia and curiosity, and there’s a raw open honesty between Frank and Karen and they truly see one another.

Karen sees Frank: A glimpse into what his home life was like and his Pre-Punisher self,  his relationship with his wife, his passion, admiration, and enthusiasm for love (he’s a romantic), and also his most violent self when he brutally murders the two thugs sent to kill Karen in a long drawn-out sequence. In this ten minute scene Karen sees his softest self and his hardest self, when almost anyone who knows him only ever sees one or the other. And he’s not afraid to show her.

And Frank sees Karen: He sees her completely on-edge from her fear from being hunted down and (she’s constantly canvasing the area and jumping at the slightest noise), he sees there’s a darker side to her through their conversation of her past and the implication of a .380, he sees her humorous and snarky side with her jokes, he sees her open honesty and devotion with her line “Because I believe you” (putting everything on the line, her life and reputation, to give Frank a chance to take down the Blacksmith because she has faith in him), and he sees her insecurities in her relationships and with Matt in particular for being hurt and used.

It’s the only scene I can think of in which there is a total equal share of screen-time devoted to character for them to reveal something to the other. Both characters leave that scene knowing the other person better, and perhaps more honestly than anyone else has ever known them. It might be on Daredevil, “Karen’s show”, but the writers care deeply about sharing Frank’s story as well. You can tell the writers want these two characters to connect on a deeper level.

I’d really love another scene like this on The Punisher. As much as I love all of Kastle’s scenes there, there isn’t an equal share of information or acknowledgement that the diner scene had.

[the-shining-river]

Kastle

No but seriously, the speed with which those two fall for each other is plain ridiculous. Like, yes, they had this connection in DD s02, and there was trust, and this brutal kind of raw honesty that they demanded from each other, but there was also all that active murdering going on and what not.

And now almost a year has passed, Matt is recently presumed killed by a building, Foggy has moved up in life for a while now, and Karen seems lonely but keeps doing her thing, and then Frank shows up and--says he wanted to say hi but acknowledges she might be angry with him? and asks about the gun in her bag as a way to remind her that she has all the power in this situation? and is proud of her for it? and the way they just keep wanting to smile at each other?? Despite Frank’s problems, it feels like such a novel, light-hearted side of him, I don’t think Karen ever got a chance to see it before? A timidly smiling Frank?? (my heart, ugh)

And of course she’s hesitant, but he keeps his distance as non-threatening as possible, and she dares tease him for his hipster looks (a bruise-free Frank is something novel too), and he goes and jokes right back. And then she asks, because she has to, because that’s what she said would make him dead to her before, and Frank answers honestly that his ‘business’ is finished, so this huge problem is not dividing them anymore. And that’s when she loses her shoes and drops her guard for a moment and really looks at him.

“I need to know if you said anything.” “God no. No. Frank, you should know me better than that.”

*Screechinggg* How? Why? When would he have learned that about Karen? From how she kept chasing the truth about his family, from how she lied to cops for him? Point is, Karen thought Frank knew her like that.

Frank asks for her help so nicely -- meaning he came to her for her competence, and I don’t think that’s something Karen experiences very often, being often dismissed as that cute, leggy blonde (with an attitude) (I think), and this time he lets helping him be her own free decision, instead of that time he used her as bait in the diner.

And it’s already a bit much, this role reversal, and this lack of active murdering standing between them, and him looking good-- Karen needs to sit and drink some beer as she already lets tiny smiles escape while she asks her sensible investigator questions, and then he just kills her with those flowers and that smile.

And Karen kills Frank right back with how easy it is to talk to her, to get her help -- no manipulation, no quid pro quo bullshit, nothing.

“Okay.” “Okay.”

Frank puts the roses on the coffee table and steps back again, giving her space so she’d feel safe with the dead man, the murderer, and then Karen just crosses that distance again, with a HUG. When was the last time someone brought flowers for Karen Page? (even if rationalizing it as a means of communication) When was the last time someone hugged Frank Castle? And it’s such a tight, good, heartfelt hug, my gods. And considering the grand total of their previous physical interaction consists of one (1) instance of Frank bodily shielding her from bullets??? I’m ded.

And sure, things start to get complicated again soon enough, with Frank wanting to go after Micro, and Karen unhappy that he’s contemplating killing people again, but this here, this felt like such a SOLID new beginning for them. The physical freedom and the respect/consideration and the more equal footing. On top of that honesty and sense of connection they had built before, the inevitability of this collision is SO beautiful to watch ;___;

[queensofthekastle]

Ok but Frank's fucking face when Karen pulls away in the elevator. He's so done in that moment, so tired, so finished, he's spent almost every last ounce of himself on getting her out safe and he looks like he could just stay in her arms forever but Karen, oh, razor sharp and bleeding hearted Karen, she knows it's now her turn to make sure that he gets out safe before he runs out of momentum and time. But Frank isn't processing all that in the moment, and when she first tells him to go, his eyes are so tragic.

[therewas-a-girl]

At three am last night I kept thinking about that hug in Karen’s house. And my brain jumped from that to how Frank is a natural caregiver. How he’s been isolated from human contact a while and hes not fluent in it anymore , but hasn't forgotten it. He doesn't reach out, but you can see how he still deeply needs to make sure that the people he cares about have the things that they need.

And how he goes from being surprised at that hug to giving into it, accepting the comfort given (because it’s Karen and because she needed it, and Frank  understands that). 

Which then brought me to that cheek kiss. 

And how - even after some time had gone by - he responded to her hug, (the meaning of it, its language, the nature of her reaching to him like that) with a display of physical affection of his own. (same meaning, same language). More sedate thank hers, sure. Tentative, but its still a gesture that mirrored hers. Or tried to. 

He reached out to her in a way he hadn’t practiced for a long time, but he did it, because it was her language. 

Thing is tho, its his too. But he’s just been away from any tenderness like that for so long that his first tries at it are gonna seem a bit halting. A bit awkward. But its there.

And it also made me think of this quote:

"Tell me now about entanglement. Einstein's spooky action at a distance. Is it related to quantum theory?

"Hm. No I mean, it's not a Theory; it's proven. When you separate an entwined particle and you move both parts away from the other, even at opposite ends of the universe, if you alter or affect one, the other will be identically altered or affected.”

"Spooky. Even at opposite ends of the universe?”

"Yeah.”

- and how the way Karen and Frank communicate seems to mirror it.

[silencefromafar]

I have so many thoughts about Karen and Frank and the depth of their connection and how The Punisher cemented all the necessary foundations for them to develop it further that this will probably turn into an essay. So get ready ‘cause this is gonna be a hell of a ride with lots about Frank and Karen’s psyche, their previous relationships, how they feel about each other and where their relationship might be right now and what might come next:

Let’s start with the diner scene on season 2 of Daredevil, ok? That conversation is central to understanding Frank’s character and Karen’s relationship with Matt. The first time I watched DD season 2 I was still onboard the Karen/Matt ship and Frank’s speech about ‘people that can hurt you’ unsettled me. Tbh I don’t know what exactly the writers meant to achieve with that scene. I have seen lots of people stating that the writers have set Karen/Matt to be an ‘endgame’ pairing since the beginning but, well, if they intended for this speech to reassert that Karen loves Matt like crazy, boy… it backfired. Because no matter how much I tried to fit Karen and Matt into this kind of deep love and trust that Frank describes, I couldn’t. So there are two things we can get from this scene: 1) although there is a lot of affection and care between the two of them, I think Karen had to realize that her relationship with Matt falls really short of what Frank describes; 2) it reasserts in words an important aspect of Frank’s character, that being how deep his connection to his loved ones goes, how intensely he feels and how he experiences such relationships:

“People that can really hurt you are the ones close enough to do it. People that get inside you and tear you apart. Make you feel like you’re never gonna recover”

This quote is the problem. We’re told, even by Frank himself, that Karen loves Matt. Ok. But when you try to fit their relationship to what Frank just said, it doesn’t work? This part bothered me so much and I finally understand why: Karen never opened herself up to Matt and Matt never got close enough to Karen to get inside her - actually he never really tried. Matt’s betrayal hurt Karen, but it didn’t tear her apart. Karen never let Matt see her whole self and Matt on the other hand was comfortable enough with the idea that he made of sweet, pure and compassionate Karen. We’re told that they love each other but we’re never shown that love, instead we got a couple cutesy dates that were hella sweet and all, while Matt’s deeper and most significant shown interactions were with Elektra (I have my theories about why the writers might have chosen to do that but it still doesn’t bode well for Karen’s romance with Matt). The kind of closeness that Frank speaks about is not physical and it goes beyond the nature of one’s feelings, it’s the kind of closeness that happens when you open up to someone so completely that they get to see what’s really inside, all the pretty and all the ugly. They get to know so much that you become vulnerable. It requires a high level of trust and honesty, which her relationship with Matt severely lacks. And do you know who’s the only character with whom Karen gets closer to having this kind of closeness? Yep, Frank Castle himself. Oh, the irony.

That connection that no one knows how to describe was already there in DDs2 and The Punisher cemented it. And it all coalesces in episode 10, particularly in that damned Elevator Scene™ and The Kiss That Didn’t Happen™ (yes, it was a kiss that didn’t happen kids and no, that’s not how you look at your sibling). The whole situation with Lewis and the fake hostage stunt show not only that they have an insane level of trust but also how much they know and understand each other. And if all the instances in which they protect each other in any capacity aren’t enough, we have a moment of such tender care inside the elevator that I can’t even describe it, there’s just so much going on there. That’s how you set up a relationship, kids. That, right there, is potential endgame material. We’re told that the connection is there, and we are shown the connection beyond what any of the other characters even got to see. 

And when you put everything in perspective, them not kissing is just right. Because they’re not ready yet. Frank still needs to finish his revenge, complete his grieving and come to terms with his loss. Karen on the other hand needs time to process this and deal with her feelings of abandonment. But if we know something about Frank Castle is that he doesn’t do things in half. It’s the essence of his character (‘whole measure’ and all that). So I guess Karen being unsure and even slightly hesitant if it ever comes to that might be reasonable because this is something that she didn’t get to experience before and her being so used to preserving herself might have some weight here. While Karen hates being alone and craves connection and closeness she’s also a bit scared of it. And taking into consideration what he tells Sarah about allowing oneself to feel, I think he wouldn’t try to negate his feelings for Karen. So, if Frank ever commits himself to a relationship with Karen, we all can be damn’ sure that he won’t be leaving unless she wants him to. And he will enter it head on, no holds barred. Frank already made himself vulnerable to her (as we can see in the elevator scene), now it’s up to her to feel prepared to let Frank in. Because he already sees her as whole and is close enough to be in range to do serious damage.

[hipsterfrankcastle]

today im thinking about

how when karen’s dad told her to go it was in their family diner. and how when frank told her to stay away from him - it was in a diner too. and how that moment must have hurt, how karen is just mired in this space that provided a backdrop for so much misery when she was a child/teenager (her mom getting sick, her family falling apart, kevin dying and her dad throwing her out). that must have stuck with her, right? a pan clatters in the background and she jumps halfway out of her skin - because she’s nervous, sure, but also because she hears that sound and it takes her right back to her dad and that diner and all that sadness. and frank just adds another layer of betrayal and sadness on top of all that, in this space that’s weirdly sacred and tainted at the same time.

so when frank comes back to karen to ask for her help, he makes sure to do it right. he could have so easily tracked her down anywhere - hung around outside the bulletin, dropped in on her local coffee place. instead, he goes to the street near her apartment building. doesn’t come in through the fire escape, doesn’t wait by the doorway to ambush her - he reveals himself to her gently. quietly. he gives her the option to turn him away - doesn’t say i need your help, just asks if they can talk. and they go to her apartment - her space. she has the upper hand; acting as host, offering him a drink. she’s in control. and even the method he gives her to stay in contact - the flowers for the windowsill - is so unobtrusive. he could have made it difficult, said here’s the number for my burner phone, i might pick up but i might not. but instead he gives her control again. tells her to leave the flowers out: he’ll come when she wants him to. 

everything frank does in that reunion, from his demeanour to the way he hovers in the doorway when they come in, waiting for karen to take the lead, to set the tone - it’s like an apology for everything that’s gone before.