Why is he such a fucking asshole?

>>88923319
Because Garth Ennis can't write for shit.

>>88923319
He went through some serious shit.

>>88923319
Might have something to do with the love of his life suffering a horrible death in front of him.

>>88923506
That's not an excuse to kick a man in the groin for no real reason over and over

If a woman is attracted to a man as bad as Billy, then fuck it, she deserved to die

>>88923528
>That's not an excuse to kick a man in the groin for no real reason over and over

Are you saying he didn't deserve it?

>>88923319
>>88923528
Monkey we know it's you, you can stop posting now.

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>>88923319
A mixture of a terrible upbringing; a penchant for violence, warfare and sneaky shit in general; and the gruesome and traumatic death of the one person that steered him away from all that. His mini explains it all quite neatly.

>>88923528
Billy was well on his way to being a normal, functioning member of society in a stable relationship with a loving wife until HEENNNNHHH fucked it all up.

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>>88923319
Got it from his dad, but his brother, his wee brother was the one that always stopped him, he could never hurt him.

>>88923506
No, the whole point of his flashback arc was that he was a shithead before his wife got killed. Note how different Hughie's response to the love of his life's death, though that one was somewhat less miserable. He often reacts violently to things when pushed, but it's always an immediate, quickly regretted sort of violence. He's just some guy who gets put through a lot of shit.

Billy, meanwhile, has his entire life arranged to make him a next level asshole. He lives and breathes that life style. The whole character is a different twist on the Punisher. The Punisher had a particular set of skills that made him who he was, but Billy's story is more about what kind of life he had and what kind of person he was that makes him into something like the Punisher. Though in many ways worse, since he's got an actual idea on how to "end" his war and wants to carry it out despite knowing it'll kill kids just because they might be a problem in the future. Something the Punisher at least doesn't do. On the other hand, it might just be a result of the series actually having a conclusion, and not being a typical open ended cape story.

>>88925024
Yeah his wife almost pulled him out of the spiral of violence his life was but in the end even her love wasn't enough to stop Butcher from being Butcher after she was gone.

>>88923319

He's an Ennis protag.

>>88925024
Butcher partially made it as far as he did because those around him encouraged his vicious obsession to make use of him which in turn bit them in the ass because they enabled a monster to get his hands on all he needed for a genocide.

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>>88925024
I think the other big difference between Butcher and Punisher is that the former accepted the deal the latter didn't: to join the government and use their resources to take his personal crusade to another level. Castle didn't take it because he couldn't turn a blind eye to where the funding was coming from or who they would've asked him to kill. But Butcher doesn't have those qualms. His is a very goal-oriented war, with a clear endgame that he'll use any resource given or available to reach.
Butcher is what happens when you get a Frank Castle with no scruples left, who is more than happy to shake hands with the devil if it'll get him what he needs.

>>88923319
Because Ennis thinks that shit is deep.

>>88923319
Inherited a lot of anger issues from his dad's side.

Was physically abused a lot as a kid, watched his mom get physically abused a lot. Emotionally abused a lot as well.

Joined the military at a young age and was nearly killed in a last ditch suicidal charge.

Became an alcoholic which exacerbated his other problems.

Finally was able to get past these issues by finding love.

Love of his life is, secretly, brutally raped and impregnated by a super hero. Causing her to drift away from him until she is killed horribly by the baby, and Butcher is forced to kill the superbaby to survive.

Not a day after this event he gets recruited by some super black-ops shit to fight people, exposing him to all the violent tendencies he tried to get away from.


He kinda had a fucked up life.

>>88923319
He just wanted a little brother.

>>88925540
>Causing her to drift away from him
This is a big part of it. I think it's telling the diary cuts off and Butcher begins to flip out when he reads the part about how miserable she feels and how she doesn't believe Butcher could ever love her if he found out. The love of his life died thinking he'd hate her and that broke him.