#like.. wouild that even happen??? would ray ever really do that if it werent for df getting cancelled?????

[jasperandhenryslovechild]

dude i gen can't stop thinking about how shit everything went for ray throughout henry danger / danger force because JESUS CHRIST IS THAT MAN A WRECK. i love it so much it makes him such a good character but GOD....

like. he's always been a narcissistic, irresponsible, self absorbed man child and he has blatantly ADMITTED IT by the end of hd. but at first? at first it wasn't as bad. like we see in episodes like the indestructible henry 2 parter that ray did have some sense of that this was too dangerous for henry (ie: "youre just a kid! what right do I have to take you around with me and put you in all kinds of dangerous situations?"). we see him be genuinely concerned for his safety and well-being but, at the same time, episodes like tears of a jolly beetle (where ray sends henry to fight crime alone for days after being hired less than like what, 2 weeks ago? maybe a month??) show his negligence and lack of awareness about how this could be affecting henry

as henry grows older and matures more, so do the class of crimes he has to get through— as would be expected, but at the same time, that fact is putting more stress on him and therefore he can't really pursue an education because of being constantly at the man cave right? and ray doesn't see it at all. he doesn't notice a decrease in school stories from henry, etc, because he himself never had to worry about school. he didn't even go and he turned out fine, why wouldn't henry? and as henry grows and matures, ray feels less responsible to take the upper hand and protect the kid because he can protect himself— his responsibility for him dwindles and he finds himself "putting henry through all kinds of dangerous (and irresponsible/lwk stupid) situations" anyway (ex s4 ep 2 henry's birthday, when ray mentions he took like a week off to go ride every rollercoaster in texas but did not let henry take his birthday off, or s5 ep 33 rumblr when ray falls into a sort of depressive episode over not having any new criminals to fight and letting henry & team danger take on the responsibility of pulling him out of it). almost constantly throughout both shows, the kids take care of him rather him take care of them.

and sure, it's genuinely all because of his upbringing. like s1 ep 17, caved in, shows us how neglected ray was as a child. he had a lack of knowledge in things kids did because he never got to be a kid himself due to his forced crime fighting career. he's too into his head to realize that's genuinely the exact same thing he's doing to henry— at a young, fundamental age in his life, he too is pulling a kid out of basic education and fun teen stuff to get him to instead fight crime for him. because of this, he loses the chance at a life beyond it. what seperates him and ray in a way that i don't think ray would ever truly grasp is that, unlike him, henry actually cares about what he's lost. he knows its weight and wants it back. ray never has. ray has never seen a reason to change the way he is because he refuses to pick up any answer dropped in front of him.

when henry ends up quitting (and everyone goes with him) ray loses a support system. he's too fucking fragile to have adult friends beyond schwoz for whatever reason, so the one place he had for people to actually care about him or listen to him was team danger. and now, that duty's passed onto danger force because they're the ones who are gonna have to stick with him now.

and then, at the end of danger force, ray hits his midlife crisis a bit early, marries his ex sidekicks wife that he met like 9 episodes ago, buys a boat, retires, and never comes back. like. WHAT?? without even giving df any proper warning before like what, the 2nd to last episode? are they even trained to handle all this on their own? will they be fine? and like, did you think about anybody outside of yourself before making this choice.

NO!

no, because that's the entire point of him as a character— he is aware, but he is still in denial. he still refuses to change because everything has worked out just fine for him thus far. he's never had a normal life— he's never owned his own house, he's never had a normal job, he's never had anything outside of what his father and the government have molded up for him so he believes that is all he is and can be. retiring is a realization that he can finally sever those ropes and become something like normal, but not quite. retiring is ray manchester's form of closure from all the things his capitan man alter ego have kept him from in the past.

ray, inherently, is not a good or bad character. he does good things, but he is irresponsible with how he goes about it. he cares about people, but above that cares about himself. i think that makes for SUCH a GOOD FUCKING CHARACTER. he is supposed to be this hero character archetype— loving, kind, strong— and while he is all those things, he's also got fundamental flaws that he cannot see or change that set him apart from that. he wrecked the lives of his sidekicks because he didn't have a concept of what should and shouldn't take priority when it came down to training them. when he had to take responsibility for how they turned out because of it, either they fled or he did. he always ran or found a way out of having to think about the affects of his actions— and that's probably most likely kept him up at night.

like jesus christ his character evolution is less of an evolution and more of a devolution/j

but that's what i LOVE about him. ray is not normal and never will be! #! #!

thank you for coming to that unexpectedly long rant i only expected to write like 2 paragraphs and then i just kept going