I HAVE THOUGHTS ON GHOSTBLADE AND HIS WHOLE FATHER DEAL!
Ghostblade's entire father arc makes me really upset on his behalf (because it was written so well.) An I feel like people are missing some crucial factors here that disabled and neurodivergent people have to deal with all the time.
Ghostblade is not some deadbeat parent figure whose job was more important than family. He didn't leave them, he didn't emotionally cut them off, he had fatherhood taken away from him for things out of his control. More importantly, he was then made to feel like it was "for the child's own well being" because he wasn't good enough. If he really was some deadbeat or work was more important, he wouldn't have tried so hard.
It's established that he grew up with horrific sensory issues that kept him from connecting with people for most of his young life right? So he meets this girl right:
Who's kinda like him and he doesn't feel so alone right. They don't talk physically, but they text. They enjoy one another's company. They both are weirdos but the same flavor of weirdo. They get fucking MARRIED. The baby might have been an accident, but the rest of their lives together wasn't. She knew who he was. An what their life was like.
So then she drops the bombshell right. They're pregnant. An she kinda drops it from a confrontational perspective. So Ghostblade panics cause valid and that's a normal human response. Now he's trying to figure out what they're going to do, he can't TALK to her physically. An she takes this as some kind of sign that he's unfit to parent a child. That he doesn't want the baby, or her and that she's better off leaving.
I bring this up because panic is a valid response no matter what your life looks like. That and both his inability to talk and his panic attack got in the way. My biggest issue is that she knows who he is. Not in the hero way, but as a person. She freaks out on him and acts like this is some example of his inability to function. It's not just a one time response either. This persists and she CONTINUES to keep him away from his daughter even when he shows her otherwise.
People do this to neurodivergents all the fucking time too. People treat anyone with a disability like they are evil for even trying to he a parent. With no regard for circumstances or actual effort being put it. An it doesn't stop at dirty looks, its like straight up actionable things to take away their children. Blind parents, deaf parents, queer parents, (which isn't a disability but another form of being DIFFERENT that people discriminate against) even just autistic parents.
An it wrecks his confidence. A woman who previously made him feel normal and safe, is now using those same traits they SHARED as proof that he's a bad person who can't raise a child. It makes him feel bad and like he really can't be a parent.
But even then, despite his reservations and his fears he still reaches out. His stalking and the way he does it proves that if given the chance he would have been a plenty capable father. He puts himself in environments that tests his sensory issues. Completely and soley for his daughter. He reaches out in the ways he can to learn what she loves and to absorb her life even though he can't interact with her.
But he's still pushed away despite visible and clear proof of his efforts. I understand why he is the way he is. But I'm still so fucked up at the idea of how much he lost for ableist bullshit. Literally just imagine how good a father he could have been.
