History Characters / MCUFrankCastle

* CelebrityParadox: ''Series/TheSopranos'' has been mentioned in ''Series/Hawkeye2021'' and ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw''. Creator/JonBernthal played Johnny Soprano in ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark''.

* DropTheHammer: Six months after killing all the gangs involved in his family's death, he retired from vigilantism and got a job as a construction worker. Castle used a sledgehammer for his job and would often work late into the night hammering down concrete walls by himself, quickly earning him the ire of some of his coworkers. Castle would later use his sledgehammer to rescue Donny Chavez from Lance and his lackeys.

* StrongAndSkilled: In terms of human qualities, he is this as he is a trained Marine and is very strong. He can usually overpower and slam grown men like ragdolls and is very pragmatic and brutal with his skill and is very well-trained in Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian JiuJitsu, Karate, Krav Maga, Aikido, Judo, Wrestling and Taekwondo. This makes Frank an incredibly great fighter as he is shown to be able to take out multiple opponents, sometimes at the same time, and is quite literally a OneManArmy.

* StrongAndSkilled: In terms of human qualities, he is this as he is a trained Marine and is very strong. He can usually overpower and slam grown men like ragdolls and is very pragmatic and brutal with his skill. This makes Frank an incredibly great fighter as he is shown to be able to take out multiple opponents, sometimes at the same time, and is quite literally a OneManArmy.

A former Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, Frank Castle is now a vigilante waging a one-man war on crime to avenge the death of his family.

!!''[[Characters/ThePunisherFrankCastle Lt. Frank Castle, US Marine Corps]] / ComicBook/ThePunisher''

* GutturalGrowler: His voice is always very growling and intimidating.

* HairTriggerTemper: Frank is portrayed in the series as having Extreme Emotional Disturbance as a result of a bullet that had been lodged in his brain. As such, he's not TheStoic he was in the comics, being generally ''much'' more prone to just going on a literal RoaringRampageOfRevenge, complete with actual roaring.

* CatchPhrase: [[{{Touche}} "Fair enough."]] One of Frank's go-to lines, whether ironic or sincere, and occasionally used as a PreMortemOneLiner. It tends to make him sound more reasonable than he is, since he won't be talked out of his crusade, but has no real expectation of others' praise or understanding. Which ties into the show's other catch phrase, "Do what you gotta do." Billy and Frank exchange both lines a few times over the first season.

!!''Lt. Frank Castle, US Marine Corps / ComicBook/ThePunisher''

** Frank is also [[TheAtoner more remorseful]] about the war crimes he committed during his military service as compared to the Ennis version, [[spoiler:likely because he unknowingly helped traffic heroin and personally executed innocent civilians as a pawn of a corrupt CIA agent.]]
* AgonyOfTheFeet: [[spoiler:Finn takes a power drill to his left foot while torturing him.]]

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Among many other shady things he did for Rawlins, he was the one who executed Ahmad Zubair, Dinah's partner in Afghanistan.]] This is one of the main reasons he goes after the man.

* BandOfBrothers: Frank considers the Marines who served alongside him as his second family, even going so far to admit that there were indeed times he thought he'd rather be fighting with them out there on the battlefield rather than being with his own children. [[spoiler:Which is why his relationship with [[BigBadFriend Billy Russo]] deteriorates as badly as it does, when Frank discovers Russo's role in the death of his actual family.]]

** Also, do not call him [[YoureInsane insane]]. [[spoiler:The first time he visibly loses his cool in ''Daredevil'' is when Matt calls him "a nutjob" which leads to Frank punching him in the face, knocking him out.]] This makes defending Frank in his trial much more difficult for Foggy and Matt. He refused insanity and PTSD as a defense. In the latter case, Frank obviously has a much better understanding of what Post-Traumatic Stress really is than the average Hollywood character (or writer), and he makes it clear that it'd be an insult to people who genuinely suffer from it.

* BloodKnight: It's clear he derives satisfaction from violence, but ''only'' when it's applied to people he believes genuinely deserve it. When he hurts innocents, he's immediately remorseful. [[spoiler:Even when he invades Colonel Bennett's base, to get information on the men who got his family killed, he admits to David beforehand that he feels genuinely nervous at the idea of hurting another soldier. And in fact, when one soldier does confront him in the tunnels, Frank tries as long as possible to talk the soldier into letting him go and only nonfatally shoots the soldier when this fails.]]

* CatchPhrase: [[{{Touche}} "Fair enough."]] One of Frank's go-to lines, whether ironic or sincere, and occasionally used as a PreMortemOneLiner. It tends to make him sound more reasonable than he is, since he won't be talked out of his crusade, but has no real expectation of others' praise or understanding. Which ties into the show's other catch phrase, "Do what you gotta do." [[spoiler:Billy and Frank exchange both lines a few times over the first season.]]

* ChekhovsGun: He's a fan of Music/EarthWindAndFire. It's how he alerts [[spoiler:Karen to his presence after she's been taken hostage by Schoonover]].

* DiscOneFinalBoss: He was hyped as the main antagonist of ''Daredevil'' Season 2, but he only fills that role for the first four episodes. Afterwards, [[spoiler:the Blacksmith and the Hand]] take over and Frank becomes a more neutral character for ''Daredevil'', then the lead protagonist of his own show.
* DisneyDeath: A drug smuggling ship explodes with him still aboard. [[spoiler:Naturally, he's still alive.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the first season of ''The Punisher'', Frank's managed to kill everyone who had anything to do with his family's death and appears to be making his first real steps at growing into a relatively healthier individual by attending PTSD therapy sessions. Plus, he's officially legally dead as far as the law is concerned, so he's now completely free to start a new life as Pete Castiglione. And he does...until Season 2.]]
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: A former Force Recon Marine [[spoiler:and member of an illegal CIA-sanctioned joint taskforce composed of personnel from different Special Forces units. Of course, the unit’s trigger-pullers were told that everything they did was cleared by the President and authorized by Congress, though some of them started having doubts about that before it was over.]]
* EnemyMine: He has no love for Wilson Fisk, but he takes the man's offer simply to find out information about who was behind his family's death. [[spoiler:Once that's done, Fisk tries to have him killed, which naturally doesn't pan out well.]]

** Even before the loss of his family, he had a ''serious'' hatred for [[TheSociopath William]] [[{{Sadist}} Rawlins]] and power-hungry leaders like him. [[spoiler:When his platoon comes back from a particularly devestating mission that got most of their friends killed and the remaining permenently injured or traumatized, the only thing Rawlins had to say to them was a bored and unimpressed "did you complete the assignment?". Frank was so disgusted and enraged that he attacked Rawlins on the spot, [[EyeScream costing him his eye]]. The only reason he didn't kill him was because Billy pulled him off him.]]

** Much like in the comics, Frank has a very firm NeverHurtAnInnocent rule. [[spoiler:When Billy Russo and Krista Dumont manipulate him into believing he's killed a room full of innocent people, he has a ''severe'' mental breakdown and seriously considers turning himself in and spending the rest of his life in prison.]]
* EtTuBrute: When Micro brings up the possibility of [[spoiler:Billy Russo]] being involved in some way with the death of Frank's family, Frank calmly refutes his theories while insistently declaring that [[spoiler:Russo]] is family to him. [[spoiler:Sure enough, when Frank discovers that yes, Russo indeed had a major hand in the death of his family, it hits him hard.]]

* GeniusBruiser: Frank isn't just a crack shot and terrifying close quarters combatant; he's also a gifted tactician who can plan and execute complex missions all by himself. As a veteran of the Marine Corps and [[spoiler:a CIA black ops unit]], military strategy and covert operations are second nature to him. While not nearly as technically proficient as David, he also deduces pretty quickly that he was using gait recognition to track him, so he forms a limp trying to throw David off the trail. Finally, he seems to have a pretty solid grasp of psychology, able to predict how his targets will react with startling accuracy.

* HeroAntagonist: Serves as one of Matt's main adversaries in Season 2 of ''Daredevil'', despite being an AntiHero who only targets violent criminals, though [[spoiler:the Hand]] serve as the BigBad for Season 2.
* HeroesLoveDogs: He adopts a dog the Irish Mob had been using for fights, [[spoiler:after murdering its previous owners. Finn manages to (apparently) get Frank to confess where he hid some stolen money by threatening to kill it.]]

* HopeIsScary: He comes to this realization at the end of Season 1 of ''The Punisher'' [[spoiler:after completing his revenge on Rawlins and Russo. As he shared with Curtis's veteran support group, he's scared that he has to find a reason to live other than having a [[BloodKnight war to fight]] or obtaining [[CrusadingWidower vengeance for his family.]]]]
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: For all it's worth, when it comes to friends or his family, Frank can sometimes be very gullible. He has such utmost trust in [[spoiler:Billy Russo]] that he never realizes until it's too late that [[spoiler:Russo is in league with Rawlins,]] and he is easily tricked into being used by Fisk to get rid of Dutton.

* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: [[spoiler: What ultimately becomes of Frank and Karen's shared feelings for each other. Karen wants Frank to find an ''end'' to his war and Frank could never allow Karen to get hurt.]]

** While he's brutal and rude at times, Frank isn't wrong about how his trauma and [[WarIsHell experiences]] differ from [[TheCowl Matt's]]. Matt has a SecretIdentity and can hide behind a mask in order to deflect criticism and blame on his other self in theory, while for soldiers like Frank, it ''is'' him, not a false identity, that's hurting people, forcing him to live with his actions every day. [[spoiler:It becomes HarsherInHindsight when it is revealed that Frank's face was covered when he shot Ahmed Zubair dead after watching him be tortured for hours, an experience that clearly broke him.]]

* KnightOfCerebus: While ''Daredevil'' was already violent, the arrival of the Punisher makes the show BloodierAndGorier and Castle's ramifications causes some of Matt Murdock's worse turmoil, [[spoiler:leading to Nelson & Murdock to shut down, and Matt progressively driving his friends away from him.]]
* LightningBruiser: Matt found him surprisingly fast, [[spoiler:and knocked Matt on his ass after one good punch.]]

** In his solo series, Frank takes absolutely ludicrous amounts of damage and fights on. The last three episodes take place more-or-less continuously, and in that time, Frank is [[spoiler: [[LongList shot in the head, beaten nearly to the brink of death, has a punctured lung, shot several times in a bulletproof vest, and stabbed six or seven times]]]] and he does. Not. Stop.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: In order to truly break Frank in Season 2 of ''The Punisher'', Russo deceives Frank into believing he accidentally shot and killed innocent women behind a wall when he thought he was getting Russo. Frank breaks down almost immediately and doesn't even bother fighting back when the cops arrive to arrest him.]]

* NotMeThisTime: [[spoiler:The murders that happen in between when he escapes prison and when he fakes his death on the boat, are in fact the work of Schoonover and Rawlins's assassins.]]

** Frank takes on [[spoiler: over thirty of Billy Russo's heavily-armed professional mercenaries singlehandedly in a single protracted engagement, and kills all of them.]] It's telling that the main issue with taking down Agent Orange isn't actually killing him, but just ''finding'' him.

* ParentalFavoritism: Frank was more attached to his daughter. Not to say that he didn't love his son, but it's easy to tell which child he was closer to. His daughter was sweet as anything, and a balm for his psyche, increasingly tormented by his actions in Kandahar. His son, however, idolized him for reasons that were beginning to disturb him; the first time he came home, he was a little weirded out by how his son had painted a giant artist-grade mural of a Marine on the wall of the house because he remembered how Frank once said, "Marines scare bad guys." The second time he got mad at a racist remark that Frank went overseas to "kill lots of Hajjis." [[spoiler:Especially since he ''was'' doing exactly that in Kandahar, and was starting to realize the whole thing was illegal as hell.]]

** In ''.380'', [[spoiler:he actually refuses to accept Matt's help, even after Matt suggests that just once, he's going to do things Castle's way, saying that there would be no going back if Matt did so. Despite his dim view of a no-kill rule, he seems to have come to respect Matt's choice to hold himself to it]].

* RedemptionRejection: [[spoiler:Kills Billy by the finale of Season 2, just as Billy attempts to apologize for "whatever he did" to Frank's family. The fact that Frank shoots Billy in the chest literally ''just'' as Billy tries to say the word "sorry," implies that Frank deliberately killed him before the guy could properly make out the rest of his apology]].

* SadisticChoice: As a MythologyGag to [[ComicBook/ThePunisherWelcomeBackFrank the comic the scene was based off of]], The Punisher is out to snipe Grotto. Daredevil attempts to stop him, insisting that Grotto deserves a second chance at rebuilding his life. Castle manages to incapacitate Matt and bind him up with a gun with one bullet in his hands pointed at Castle's own head. Frank then has Grotto at gun point after Grotto admits to Murdock all the people he killed (including an elderly lady) and Castle is set to kill Grotto. Supposedly, the only way Daredevil could stop The Punisher's vigilante justice would be to violate his own ideals by fatally shooting Frank himself or let Grotto die. Matt [[spoiler:chooses to pull the trigger, at his own chain, freeing him. But it's too late as Castle had already shot Grotto in the stomach]].

* SecretKeeper: Heavily implied to know Matt is Daredevil when he meets Matt Murdock out of costume. He also probably [[spoiler:got a good look at him in the Season 2 finale]].

* ShellShockedVeteran: [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the man himself, and in detail. While Frank is clearly suffering severe mental trauma, Frank says that he "never had a problem" with killing, in combat or otherwise. When Karen tries to suggest using PTSD as a defense, he promptly clarifies for her that whatever happened to him psychologically, his tours in the Middle East had nothing to do with it; he knows men that ''did'' crack, has nothing but sympathy for them, and refuses to cheapen their sacrifices by claiming PTSD when it is explicitly not true. Instead, it's entirely the death of his family after he returned from war that drives him now, [[spoiler:to the point that despite knowing members of his unit committed war crimes, he never thinks of targeting them until ''after'' it comes to light that they were involved in killing his family and trying to kill him]].

** Subverted to a degree later as his series shows his tours did affect him, Frank is mostly in denial that [[spoiler: his participation in the CIA's torture project broke him emotionally, although that [[ExactWords wasn't technically on the battlefield]]]], and the loss of his wife and children made the existing damage much, much worse. Frank's recurring nightmares indicate just how much he blames himself for their deaths.

* SirSwearsALot: To the point that the trial judge has to tell him to watch his language [[spoiler:when he testifies in his own case.]] He also drops the only F-bomb in the second season of ''Daredevil'', which was also the first example in the MCU where it is clearly audible[[note]]not [[SoundEffectBleep bleeped out]] or [[CurseCutShort cut off]][[/note]].

* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:Foggy and Matt's first plan to reduce his sentence through a plea deal is dependent on him pleading guilty. He pretends to agree, then pleads not guilty, sending his case to court. Then, their plan to win his case in court is dependent on proving that he is suffering from Extreme Emotional Disturbance and that the deaths of his family were covered up. Elektra then shows up and sabotages the trial by threatening the medical examiner and rendering his testimony useless. Then Frank throws his own defense and gets himself indicted by a mad outburst about how he likes killing criminals. Of course, [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse Fisk had been propositioning him from behind bars]].]]

* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:Tells Karen that he's 'already dead' before he kills The Blacksmith. And at the end of Season 2 of ''Daredevil'', he burns down his family home, destroying every last piece of his old life and embracing his Punisher persona completely. That is, until he takes out the last of the Irish, at which point he retires and tries to rebuild his life while staying solely in touch with Curtis Hoyle. It doesn’t work in any sense, as he still loves and misses his family and is tormented by nearly-nightly nightmares about their deaths.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: When Frank wants to take someone down, he makes extra sure that they won't get back up. Such as when he practically mauls [[spoiler: William Rawlins]] once he finally gets him hands on him.

** Also survives [[spoiler: Billy Russo winging him in the head, but since it doesn't hit his brain, only his skull, this may not count.]]

* TraumaCongaLine: Frank has seen some shit. [[spoiler:Conscripted into what was effectively a death squad, led into a trap due to faulty intelligence (that he had every reason to believe was bad, but was shouted down by Rawlins when he raised his concerns) that very nearly got his entire squad killed, forced to take part in numerous illegal detentions and extrajudicial interrogations and executions (at least one of which he personally carried out), saw his entire family murdered right in front of him in a botched sting, had one of the parties responsible for the botched sting conspire to have him executed to save her own ass, learned that a CO he deeply respected personally planned the shootout to kill Frank, and then learned that not only was his best friend one of the main conspirators in the heroin smuggling operation that funded Cerberus, but personally knew about the upcoming assassination and said nothing even though he had been with Frank and his family on their day out just hours before]] - it's not any one thing that broke the man, but a ''long'' string of them.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler:He and Billy Russo, by way of AdaptationOriginConnection, were best friends when they both served as marines in Afghanistan, to the point where Frank regarded Russo as part of his family. And then Russo became an active player in Operation Cerberus and allied with the people who had Frank's family killed.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: He ''really'' doesn't like kids getting hurt. [[spoiler:The pawnshop owner should've watched his words when [[TooDumbToLive he admitted having child pornography in Frank's earshot]].]] Makes a lot of sense since he [[PapaWolf was a father himself at one point before he]] [[OutlivingOnesOffspring lost his son and daughter.]]
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: In his first two fights with Daredevil and in the prison fight later in the same series, we see him employ several take-downs such as chokeslams and suplexes. In his own series, he uses a bodyslam on [[spoiler:Billy Russo]] and spears Carson Wolf, then hip-throws him onto a table.