The Purple Ones Must Stick Together.

A begrudging Happy Valentine's to you all! Stay safe out there, my fellow aromantics ...

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!

I often feel as though I am the only one who enjoyed the Dark Swan arc. Perhaps this is because I am a goth, and thus much prefer when characters ‘go goth’ (or really, just wear black and have cool hair), as opposed to their normal look…

Not saying that I dislike regular Emma - I love her so much - but her little ten episode goth phase was very nice.

Also, she was so dramatic! Her entrance at Granny’s was very reminiscent of 30s black and white horror film villains - very Bela Lugosi with the lighting. Or perhaps Morticia Addams, seeing as it was in colour…

dark swan text posts

I need people to stop making Primo nice. The dude is unhinged and evil and terrible and THAT'S WHY I LOVE HIM.

Any smut involving the man should include him killing the other person like a preying mantis.

His first suggestion to his brothers when they come to him for advice is to sell their soul to the Devil even further to make the issue go away. The next suggestion is murder.

He eats nosey reporters who stray too close to the Ministry. He hunts people for sport.

The reason Imperator had him specifically killed was NOT because she was worried about him getting up in arms about Copia's assention, it was because they were running out of cover-up money for his numerous crimes

Nihil should be baffled as to how he produced such offspring.

Hello? Is anyone out here? Can anyone here me? Where is my crazy evil old man?

ratched spoilers //

the show gave me a comp het storyline in a character played by someone over 45 which is my biggest weakness. if i think too hard about it i have to go and have a nap or get hysterical

I miss these two…

You know what I can't stop thinking about?

How long did Hawkmoth intend on leaving his face in her palm? Like, she obviously pulled away first. GABE, HOW LONG WERE YOU PLANNING ON SOAKING IN THE LOVING WARMTH OF HER TOUCH !?

Sometimes I like to tell myself that he was surprised at how fast she pulled away.

When we look at it frame by frame:

You can clearly see that he

a) has his eyes closed the whole time. An indicator of being in the moment and sternly concentrating on it

b) even though Mayura is pulling away and forces him to loosen his hold on her, his head remains in the same position

(Don't get me started on how he continues to hold her even though she signalled that she could stand on her own. And her hand above his heart better be some serious foreshadowing)

Nathalie, darling, I love you. But do you even know what chance you might have missed there!? He MELTED into you! Unconsciously starved of physical attention and you pull away so soon 🙃

god but they look so related rn

I love this art, and I love the new album! So gorgeous! I love the line work. It looks so similar to the official art in the cd books.

Peacefield took me a second, but it’s fine because so did Lachryma- and I love that song so much! So Peacefield until Satanized is great, but the next two are kind of hit or miss for me. Cenotaph until the end is incredible and fabulous. I knew I would adore ‘marks of the evil one’ just from the title😂. I am so excited for my cd to arrive!

happy skeleta day 💜

Random Shigaraki Headcanon Alert!

Tomura Shigaraki doesn't just use newspapers to check for hero news. I think he also does the daily crossword puzzles religiously.

He's pretty good at them in general, but of course there are occasional times he gets stuck and reads the clues out loud. Kurogiri will offer his own insights and guesses, or even just be a soundboard to bounce ideas off of.

Shigaraki: The edge of a path...

Kurogiri: A sidewalk, perhaps?

Shigaraki: No, it doesn't work with 15 down...

It's a bit of an unconscious bonding session for them, but even then it's mostly a solitary activity for Shigaraki.

As more people join the League, frequent the bar at all hours of the day - including Shigaraki's crossword hour - the more of a group activity it becomes.

Toga and Twice lean over his shoulders and throw their best (ridiculous) guesses or heckles his way. Although, Toga as a teenager is able to point out some of the more ultra-modern pop culture references that go a bit over even Shigaraki's head. Twice knows a lot about sports teams and old syndicated tv shows.

Compress also usually takes a peak, he's actually pretty helpful though, especially with the theater and classical literature clues. Although he's a bit show-boaty about it.

Spinner, sitting at the bar right next to Shigaraki, is also pretty good, but very self-conscious about his guesses. Usually just mutters his answers under his breath and gets really embarrassed when they're correct and the rest of the League praises him for it.

Dabi of course gripes about it all being a waste of time...

...all while piping in to solve that one 13 letter word that's had them all stumped for the last twenty minutes.

Shigaraki insists at first that they're all being way too loud, they're all too obnoxious, he misses when he was able to do these puzzles alone in peace.

But slowly, as the days pass, he stops complaining. Stops working on them at whatever open hour he desires, and starts waiting until the bar is full to turn to the games page.

pls bring back these quizzes, we need to make sure tobias still has braincells