I think Castle is a well-rounded character, actually. Sure, there are some things in his back story that we have yet to find out about, but he’s a well developed character nonetheless. When things are done at the precinct, we go home with Castle, no one else. We get to see his family life, the every day type problems that he has to deal with, how he reacts to the most diverse things. That’s how you get to know a character best. What I mean is: we know pretty darn well who Castle is despite not knowing all the facts about him. We as the audience got to know and love him fairly quickly thanks to the fact that this is mostly his POV.I find that most people in the fandom are fascinated with Kate Beckett and develop this kind of tunnel vision where the other characters are shoved aside, particularly the show’s namesake- Castle. Personally I think Castle is an interesting (and undervalued) character. Maybe it’s just me and I’m insane (it’s entirely possible), but I think Castle has a lot going on underneath the surface. The idiom “still waters run deep” comes to mind when I think of Castle. On the surface he seems very superficial: an immature jackass with Peter Pan Syndrome who has spent his adult life chasing after bimbos, but I think that there is a lot more going on underneath that façade. Kate Beckett’s trauma is out there for everyone to see. They may not know exactly what happened to her, but she has a chip on her shoulder and it’s visible for anyone willing to look. Richard Castle on the other hand seems to hide behind this mask of superficiality and childishness and is taken at face value. Castle has a pattern of behavior that is traceable throughout the entire series. I think Castle has deep seated abandonment issues and I will attempt to explain my reasoning.
- He never knew his father. While he doesn’t seem to care outwardly in 4x16 he’s visibly distressed when it is implied that his father is in the CIA and later he questions Danberg about his father. Even if we go on the assumption that Castle’s interest in his father is only due to curiosity, growing up without a male role model has psychological impact on a developing child. Watching his mother work hard to support them and being forced to rely on nannies to care for her son would have an impact on his psyche.
- When he perceives himself as being rejected he immediately jumps to a blonde: Gina in 2x24 and Jacinda in 4x20. Castle has been hurt by intelligent brunettes (Examples: Kyra Blaine 2x12 and Sophia Turner 4x16) and seems to have sought out the exact opposite afterwards (He married Meredith after his relationship with Kyra and then Gina after Sophia). When rejected by Kate Beckett (yet another intelligent brunette- this seems to be his actual type, not blonde bimbos) he finds solace in Gina -2x24- and then Jacinda -4x20-.
I have more thoughts on this, but I honestly don’t expect anyone to read this rambling, near incomprehensible diatribe. If anyone did read through this I apologize for my lack of writing ability and thank you for actually listening to the ramblings of an obsessed fan.
I love your post and I agree with a lot of this. I think both Castle and Beckett have a lot of issues, they just deal with them differently. While Castle just tries to love and enjoy life no matter what happens to him, Beckett can’t, but that doesn’t mean his issues aren’t there. He just doesn’t want to be haunted by them. Of course you can only do that for so long.
I think the reason people tend to focus on Kate’s issues is because we clearly see they’re there, but she doesn’t say anything. That makes you wanna know more. Castle is a lot better at hiding that something’s bothering him in the first place, so you’re quick to miss it.
It’s hard to tell just how much growing up father-less has affected him. Or how much it still bothers him. I think he sort of made peace with it all his life in the sense that he’ll probably never find out who he is, anyway, so why get upset, right? And he never really understood what he was missing out on. There was a certain wistful look on his face when Alexis went all daddy on him and wanted to play baseball. So, I think if Castle realized what he was missing out on, it’d haunt him a lot more.
My point is, if he feels there’s a possibility he could find his dad, being father-less becomes very real to him and he cares. Otherwise a father is just an abstract concept to him. His face when Sophia mentioned his father said it all. It knocked the wind out of him. And the reason I think he didn’t pursue the CIA thing is because he’s afraid Sophia lied.
I’m not sure if Castle has abandonment issues per se. I think him turning towards the nearest blonde whenever he’s hurt is just his defense mechanism. It’s like, “You think you hurt me? Well, let me show that you do NOT have power over me and how I am NOT hurt because of you”. Because Castle loves to be “fine”. He doesn’t want to be hurt, so he just switches his feelings off.
Next question would be how much Meredith cheating has affected him. Chances are it was a lot. Remember how he told that Brandon kid in 1x02 (I hate that kid!) how he was dumped by someone and he “drank every meal for a week” when he “didn’t even like her”? Now imagine he finds his wife cheating on him (let’s assume he at least liked Meredith), I think he was pretty damaged after that. I think we’ll see just how much it still affects him the second someone tries to steal Kate away. My guess is that if Josh or Demming came back and put the moves on Kate? Castle would go batshit crazy. Think Ross sending a barbershop quartet to Rachel’s office. I think he’d be insanely jealous even if Kate didn’t really do anything. Think his reaction in 5x02:
KATE: Castle, I have 12 missed phone calls from Chip the sportscaster, because he thinks that I’m single, but that doesn’t mean that I’m gonna let him mount me in his Speedos just to prove it.
CASTLE: You didn’t tell me he called…
KATE: Really? You’re gonna play the jealousy card now?I mean, Castle hated that guy. Imagine it was an actual ex-boyfriend hitting on Kate now. Yeah. He’d definitely go batshit crazy.
I like that we have yet to learn quite a few things about Castle. And I like that Marlowe doesn’t wanna go there until he’s 100% happy with it.
It’s safe to say that Caskett wise, things will go downhill from, say, 5x15 on. Just a guess, not a spoiler. It won’t be smooth sailing. And when that happens, we’ll definitely see nuances of both these characters we haven’t seen before.
Can’t wait.
Agree with all of this. I think fandom’s fascination with Beckett’s story/history is also due in part to the writers spending so many epsiodes on it and allowing us to watch how her character has unfolded. How many episodes have been focussed primarily on Castle’s backstory? None, to my remembrance. What we know of his life before he met Kate is through offhand comments made by him and the other characters. The writers haven’t allowed us to invest in his history because they haven’t laid it out for us like Kate’s.
I desperately want some refocussing done onto him as a fully fleshed-out character and not just a foil to react to whatever Kate is going through.
Oh yeah, I agree with a lot of this. Perversely, Castle is harder to crack because he has mastered the skill of sloughing off his personal hurts and redirecting attention. Even from the episode “Vampire Weekend” (2.06) when Beckett pokes around for the reason behind his fascination for the macabre, Castle feeds her a story and promptly makes it a practical joke. Personally, I think there’s some truth to the story he tells. The point though is that Castle is a walking contradiction. He’s comes off as a “what you is what you get” kind of guy, which is true to an extent, but there’s a lot of issues that I think HE hasn’t yet dealt with.
Perhaps that’s why we haven’t seen his issues come up during the show. We all know Beckett’s story because Castle is there to pull it out of her. But who do we have to pull out Castle’s thread? Hopefully, Beckett will start poking some more and we’ll get some more back-story.
On a similar note, there is one point I want to make with regard to the difficulty of fleshing out Castle even though he’s the show’s namesake. In many ways, the show is told through Castle’s eyes. Yes, there are moments when we see events outside of his purview, but for the most part, the reason we see more of Beckett revealed and less of Castle himself is because Castle is the one doing the discovering. In a way, it’s not surprising at all that Beckett’s development is seen more clearly. She’s the hero-figure in the series, not Castle, and I mean this in the archetypal sense. In Season 3, they touched upon this. Castle is the sidekick. This is a neat little twist on convention because Castle is the main protagonist, but he isn’t the hero.
I think it’s a good time to start transitioning Castle into position to undertake his own heroic journey (Beckett’s is her quest for her mother’s murderer). Since Marlowe is still in the process of figuring out how to unfold the story-line with Castle’s dad, I think that this transition will happen—and indeed, it’s already begun to some extent—with 3XK.
He hasn’t really had a dark arc, that I agree with. I think this is partly due to the fact that Castle just isn’t a dark character - he loves to enjoy life - but also because Marlowe wanted to save a lot of potential Castle drama for the time Caskett entered a relationship. Like the much anticipated reveal why his marriages ended, for example. Marriage WILL be a topic to come up sooner or later. Marlowe hinted that Castle might be scared of getting married again. My guess is that his fear, and thus his past, will come up at a time when it NEEDS to be discussed, when it’s a crucial point in Castle and Beckett’s relationship. Like, she’s practically waiting for him to propose but she senses he’s reluctant to take that step. I just don’t think Marlowe will just throw a conversation like this in. He’ll wanna make it big and meaningful. And he’ll wanna pick the right time.
Same goes for the dad storyline, which I’m sure will be a big part of the last quarter of the season.
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Castle as a Character. AKA Insomnia at its finest
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