Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-107.167.112.74-20170228120401/@comment-26018514-20170412184337

SomeoneYouUsedToKnow wrote:

...

"Born in a nightmare", can mean many things, personally I think it implies a bad childhood with terrible conditions, but that doesn't mean Marcus was abusive per se.

- (I'm the one) "That was ripped from the earth and exposed to the sun", (Overrun) "By the hate and the beatings defiled by a father".

Here's where semantics make things difficult. The first sentence leaves too much to the imagination, unless he's supposed to be a mole faunus. The second sentence would imply that he was beaten up by his father, but the lack of a coma means his father defiled those beatings.

It's the one closest to implying he was abusive, though it's all from Merc's perspective and thus it's subjective (as in, "Marcus didn't really hate and beat him up as much/often as Merc implied). Just because you believe your parent is abusive it doesn't mean they actually are abusive, at least when thinking straight. And even a nice parent can be hated by their children, and hate twists perception.

And I will assume they don't mean "Defile as in rape", but "Defile as in ruin the appearance and purity of something". Personally I like the interpretation that Marcus killed Mercury's actual parents(or foster parents) and they were the ones who were truly abusive(or perhaps had given up on him and left him disabled in the home), then because Marcus saw fierce intelligence and a will to live in him he took him in as a son and apprentice, built his new legs(or had them built) while perhaps removing bits of the old ones in a more violent fashion than necessary.

In other words, Marcus was somewhat abusive in that he challenged and endangered Merc as much as training him into an assassin required, but gave him freedom he hadn't known and marketable skills, which were better than his other prospects offered.

Granted I think it's too contrived to be the entire actual story, but until we know different that's the headcanon I'm sticking with.