More Reasons As To Why Vastra Is The Best Dw Character - Go

Very cool. As a fan of Izuru - honestly mostly due to his cool hair - it always makes me sad that he just disappears post-game, especially since co-existing with Hajime in daily life is such an intriguing concept. What does Izuru look like in his twenties? Thirties? How do the others react to him? Do they know he’s still there? So many questions to explore!

ive always interpreted postgame hajime/izuru as for the most part separate entities but with a degree of fluidity too (some days they can communicate some days they cant, they can very distinctively tell who’s fronting some days and some days they can’t at all, some memories they share and some memories they don’t and some memories may get mixed up between the two etc etc) but ive always liked to think that komaeda, with his freakishly observant nature, teaches himself how to clock which one is which pretty accurately.

hajime doesn’t always tie his tie evenly, izuru always ties it perfect. izuru always sits with either the worst or best posture youve ever seen, hajime is always somewhere in between. only hajime seems to wear casual clothes. if the tie color is any different from the usual green, that’s izuru. izuru styles his hair a bit neater, and if they’re overdue for a trim, izuru’s probably been fronting for a while. hajime likes his coffee fairly dark, izuru likes it with 10 spoonfuls of sugar.

so using this he can also tell when one is masking as the other (usually it’s izuru masking as hajime because he doesn’t want to deal with everyone —save for komaeda —being an ass/generally weird to him unprompted. theyre still working on that. but hajime has his reasons sometimes too). hajime’s tie is a little too perfect today. he’s being slightly quieter than usual. he recoiled when kazuichi leaned in to clap him on the back — but only slightly. no one else would’ve noticed.

sometimes these conflicting tells don’t indicate one pretending to be the other, but a more merged state. distinguishing that tends to have a larger margin of error, but when one masks as the other, usually the tells are consistently towards one or the other, and when they’re more merged then the tells are mixed (wearing casual clothes but having neat hair but having hajime’s posture but having izuru’s sweet tooth for example).

a couple years postgame i think komaeda learns to tell when they’re talking in headspace too, based on the tiny little changes in expression when they zone out. to tell WHAT theyre talking about komaeda definitely needs situational context (ex: if hajime randomly zones out while youre talking to him, izuru’s probably commenting on something you or he said. given enough context, komaeda can even guess what izuru says too), but he can usually at least tell when theyre talking. hajime’s subconscious facial expressions are more obvious then izuru’s, but if izuru’s brows are a little furrowed while he’s zoned out then they’re talking, and if his face is completely neutral then he’s just zoned out.

of course komaeda is wrong sometimes, because things aren’t that simple. but he tends to be freakishly accurate. once he picks up on who’s who that day, he’ll walk up and refer to them by name and get it right first try and no one knows how. sometimes komaeda only needs to see the back of him for a second or two before he can tell (that’s already three things he can observe: hair, posture, and if the back of the tie is tucked under the shirt collar properly. hajime usually forgets to check that). or sometimes he’ll go “does izuru want to add something?” if he can tell they’re talking to each other and everyone is like how could you tell.

the freakish observation is returned on hajime and izuru’s part of course, but it’s different because komaeda is no Ultimate Analyst or anything. it’s just a gay tendency.

Genderbent Skulduggery Pleasant that nobody asked for,

Bonny- beautiful, attractive, one letter away from bony

Legerdemain- in French literally “light of hand”

I'm laicized

Please Toblerone, let them be brothers, let them love each other. Don’t make them hate each other

Maybe we’re the same

Movies with Scarecrow vibes?

Ahhh, thank you so much for sending this! This might be long-winded, as I tend to be, but such is the way of Cranerot!

Naturally, Brian de Palma's Carrie. Aside from the plot and thematic matches almost eerily to Scarecrow: Year One to the point I'd be shocked if it wasn't a direct inspiration, de Palma's camp balanced with heartrending drama and tragedy and a horror where nearly everyone involved is a monster has Crane written all over it. I actually have several tracks from the score on my inspiration playlist for when I'm writing him!

Hellraiser (1987)! Jonathan Crane is so, so, so Cenobite-coded (highly recommend @acapelladitty's Cenobite!Crane AU, incidentally)! An old house filled with secrets, a plucky heroine whose sanity is doubted but who wins the day (at a great cost), and creatures that want to bring you to the height of sensation until the joy is inextricable from the anguish...it very much suits his more sensual reverent speeches/quotes about fear. "We have such sights to show you" could so easily be a Scarecrow quote, and likewise, "Eventually, the victim desires the horror" could very believably be a Pinhead line!

Since you mentioned it in The Most Poetical Topic, Night of the Hunter (1955) as a Southern noir quasi-folktale thriller absolutely suits the more charming, insidious iterations of Crane, in atmosphere, setting, antagonist, and in the themes of corrupted religion. The themes of childhood fears and defeating your demons while also struggling with their humanity both suit different phases of Jonathan Crane in his life, and the responses to and from the people he knows and terrorizes.

On the note of the South, O Brother Where Art Thou provides heavy atmosphere that give off Crane vibes, bringing a mythic epic to the setting of his backstory, with the music and monsters therein giving a good feel of everything that built the man and the monster.

Also naturally, many a mad scientist movie! The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari gives us a corrupt asylum director who torments his patients until he eventually becomes one of them, and Re-Animator gives us an actual former Scarecrow actor, Jeffrey Combs, in a very Crane-like role when it comes to being penalized in academica for horrific and unethical experiments. (It's even set in the original Arkham for which Gotham's is named!!) The Fly isn't quite as on point, but it does still give those vibes as well. And although the degree of 'madness' when he plays him is debatable, any of Cushing's roles as any member of the Frankenstein family come to mind since he's very much an old school!Crane figure.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): yes, yes, 'look out for Mr. Pricky-Fingers', in the words of Codotverse!Scarecrow, but fear gauntlets/needles gloves aside, Freddy is the boogeyman who is literally fed on fears, and he much better gives the feel of a distinctly Scarecrowish tormentor than, say, your average Pennywise or other. Nancy's speech to him at the end is highly reminiscent of those who've managed to successfully stand up to Crane over the years, too.

Halloween (1978): On the note of boogeymen, and other than the "one good scare" quote you yourself have mentioned, I imagine Scarecrow to move and function a lot like Michael Meyers; slow, creeping, inevitable. Every kid in Gotham City thinks this place is haunted. They might be right!

For the pure fanservice of it/JonBecky vibes, let's say both the Lon Chaney and Charles Dance Phantom of the Operas, Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Shape of Water, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir inspire how I conceive of the more romantic side of our beloved Scarecrow. I'll throw in Silence of the Lambs as well, since that gives us an incarcerated evil psychiatrist meeting his match in an intrepid young woman involved with the law who he forces to face her formative traumas, but who manages to come out on top despite his machinations.

A few Hitchcocks, honestly! The Birds is outright referenced in Year One and definitely gives life to the visceral horrors he underwent in the old Keeny chapel, whereas Vertigo more in atmosphere and obsession captures a lot of torment he experiences. I also do see shades of crane even in Norman Bates' "private traps" speech!

Thanks so much for sending this along!

Elphaba not realizing the witch hat wasn't actually a good hat, and just wearing it because Galinda told her to one time when they were teenagers

Haven't spoke to her for like two years? Gotta wear the hat anyway.

Haven't seen anyone else wear smth like that? Probably just wear it anyway, she's good at that kinda stuff.

Galinda hates you? Well she doesn't hate the hat, stick that on.

I agree. I love Hordak, but can accept that he did terrible things and should help rebuild what he destroyed - eg. assist with Beast Island like in canon.

What I cannot stand is when people let Catra get off scott-free because of her trauma, only to damn Hordak for the same reasons! If Hordak goes free, then of course so does Catra - that’s fair. But if Catra is immediately accepted into the rebellion with only a couple of glares, but Hordak supposedly deserves to burn in Etherian Hell, you have a case of favouritism.

I don’t even hate Catra! I can enjoy her quips and believe her to be fun. But I do draw the line at calling her a ‘girlboss’ when she exploits his disabilities while she manipulates him. While this is typical villain behaviour, no one seems to be able to critique her actions while liking her - she’s a traumatised child (unless she’s being hot, in which case she’s most certainly an adult), incapable of intentionally causing harm, no matter how gleefully she does it.

The fact that the writers take Hordak’s trauma and give it to Catra to illustrate its horrific consequences - which Catra fans will use to enable her - while condemning Hordak, is so very frustrating.

It is a bizarre way to view the show, considering how similar the two characters are.

Starting from now on, everytime someone says they can’t forgive Hordak and his background is no excuse, I will be like

“Oh so you think Catra has to suffer for her crimes too, right?”

Or even “Oh so you must want Catra to apologize for the things she said while chipped, right?”

Because I still can’t believe there are people in the fandom who completely excuse Catra’s actions but the moment Hordak does the same thing he has to suffer and doesn’t deserve redemption.

Manderlay in Flammen  Rebecca (Vienna 2022)

Exactly. Regina just didn’t give him a first name. Gold has no friends, and is only a landlord, so she didn’t think he’d need one.

Sorry I didn't get this posted on the 12th, I was having a lot of computer issues and wasn't able to be around as much as I wanted to be. Have it now (as well as a bonus Neal one) as a Valentine's Day treat!

🏳️‍🌈Happy Pride Month🏳️‍🌈