When a lot of people think of Rafael Barba, they tend to think of his sassiness and courtroom badassery–with good reason. Those are some of my favorite things about him. But I think we sometimes underestimate his capability for kindness and empathy. One of my favorite things about Barba is the complexity of his character. There are layers to him. He’s not just a snarky, proud lawyer. It’s inferred that he has potentially suffered abuse (or perhaps watched his mother suffer) at the hand of his father. He’s also seen plenty of awful things from his time as prosecutor. He understands suffering and can empathize with the victims. He shows this in his interactions with certain victims or families of victims, and it becomes more apparent as time goes on. He gets a bad rap for being a realist on the cases that are tougher to prove– demanding more evidence, not automatically taking the victim’s word, etc.– but when push comes to shove, he is 100% in the corner of his victim. Scenes like this prove it, and I absolutely love them for that reason.
SVU addict 