A/N: A little Rant. Credits to gifs owners
Ok, can we just stop for one second and think that Billy wasnāt like that when he first met Frank?
They fought together for years, always having each otherās backs. Billy doesnāt seems to be the kind of man that just offer to die for someone. He offered going with Frank to try to kill the target. He in that moment didnāt have anything else to lose. For them it was obvious that they would die in that moment.
Him, a guy who never had anything, starts to become important, starts to have something that he cared about. He was having new things in his life.
Billy was a boy from a broken home. His mother was drug addict. She preffered to leave her son in a box in the fire station, since she didnāt cared about him. He wasnāt adopted, and grew up in the foster care system. In there he saw himself becoming attached to a man, someone who he wanted to look up to. Billy was betrayed by the same person he looked up to, the only person he ever trusted. He was almost killed by attempted of sexual molest at age of eleven, for Godās sake.
He has this need of acception. And this need ends up being a huge part of the problem. He was accepted by Frank, but not completely, knowing that Frank would always choose his family over him in any circumstancies.
Agent Orange took advantage of this. Knowing Billyās past was easy to manipulate him. AO offered him something, promising that Billy could have everything he never had. He could have people looking up to him.
Billy accepted, because he never had anything in his life. He could have people who would risk their lifes for him. People who admired him. He could have people acceptence.
AO and Ray Schoonover lied to Billy, saying that Castle was the source of the leak, they said that Frank had decided to assassinate him. Billy strongly refused to be involved with the shooting, but didnāt do anything to stop it, because he was scared. He was scared that his only family could never forgive him. He was scared to lose everything he had.
Billy preffered to save his own head, and with that started to become selfish, egocentric and materialist. AO took advantage again, puting Billy as responsible to train people on his favour.
Then everything else is explained in the series.
My personal thought is that Billy was in fact friends with Frank Castle. And HE DID considered Frank part of his family. Like he say many times in the show, including when he didnāt remember anything.
āHeās my brotherā Billy said to Krista
This explains his breakdown about Frank in season 2. He said that Frank was his best friend. His best friend that he didnāt remember betrayed. And he couldnāt understand why he did that to him.
Billy Russo was an easy taget to manipulate because of his life. His personal desire to be accepted, to have things that he never could be able to.
He was one of these people who suffered in his early life, this kind of suffering isnāt easy. Bad people manipulate good broken ones for their own privilege.
But life didnāt make him this way. It was the people who he thought that could help him. And he was wrong.
A/N: I am not saying that everything what he did after is tolerable and can be forgiven just for this reasons. Iām saying that he did have a tough life. Iām saying that he cared about Frank. Iām saying that if he had a good influence in his life he could be better.