Yoinked

Highly emotional about Skug's reaction to the empty world in Theatre Of Shadows.

Like. This is a man who has spent hundreds of years stripped bare like an exposed nerve to sensory input. He can't close his eyes. He can't put his fingers in his ears. He can't sleep. He's "learned to" sort-of sleep by meditating, but he has no way to fully turn off to the world around him.

He's also massively ADHD-coded, a condition associated with sensory processing issues - specifically, hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli, leading to sensory overload.

Add to that, that Necromancers all seem to have a heightened sort of sensory perception - they can all sense the echoes of negative emotions like fear, despair and misery. At a certain power level - which Melancholia reaches in DB - their entire way of processing sensory stimuli, the way they see the world, changes.

Skug is a natural Necromancer. He developed his abilities long before he joined the Temple as Lord Vile, and Vile very quickly outpaced the most advanced teacher they had for him. So he's probably had very little - if any - training in how to deal with those added sensitivities or tune them out. As a dead person commanding death magic - and someone so powerful he can use highly unstable Necromancy without his channelling object - he's probably more sensitive to these things than your average Necromancer.

So in Vile, you have an immensely traumatised torture survivor who's lost all human ways to cope with his pain (he can't comfort eat, he can't get drunk, he can't lose himself in sex, he can't sleep, he's lost his loved ones, he has no way of recovering at all), who's also already hypersensitive to how bright and noisy and Too Much the world is, and now has no way of disconnecting from all that stress, while his senses have been dialled up to 11.

So? Those random, pointless little solo expeditions into dead universes? Were actually probably a desperate man's last resort in trying to decompress, to find somewhere he could get some fucking peace and quiet. Somewhere to just make all the lights and the noise and the emotions that aren't his go away, to make it stop. The only outlet he had, to escape a world that was still hurting him. The only place he could relax.

Anyway vile needs rainymood.com and a lie down in a nice dark room thanks for coming to my ted talk

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!

@anewp0tat0 and @missgrelle recognized the ones for Ron and Sebastian/Grell respectively and they inspired me to finish the rest

Always fascinated by this.

Love the effect of friendship and love on behaviour, especially that of villains or otherwise morally grey characters. This also suggests that the fundamental difference between Lord Vile and Skulduggery is love - love is what created Vile (Skulduggery losing his family and being consumed by rage) and love is what killed him too (Val’s companionship and love of Skul allowing him to move on and improve himself.)

I adore this duo so much - platonic soulmates for the win!

I’m a little obsessed with Skulduggery telling alt Vile that he’s the superior one in DotL because it’s such a fascinating trope subversion.

The typical trope is that a character who is a morally good person is faced with an alternate version of themselves who is stronger, but also evil. Then said character must battle with whether or not they value being strong or being good more.

And this is why I love Skulduggery here so much. He has spent nearly his whole life being the despicable one. He’s cruel. He’s strong and he bullies those weaker than him. Even if he is clever, he is ultimately a brute who’s spent so long being used as a weapon that he’s come to love it. He’s been strong his whole life, he doesn’t want to be strong anymore. He wants to be good in order to please Valkyrie.

And finally, he is faced with a version of himself who is even stronger than him, but also a worse person. He is finally the better person, even if that makes him weaker. He’s happy to be the good one. Even if it means getting literally dragged off and tortured, he gets to know that he’s not as awful as he could be. It is no moral battle for him, it is finally being able to claim moral victory.

And he’s never really worried, even when they take him away to be tortured. Because Vile is alone, there’s nobody in the world who loves him. Skulduggery, on the other hand, has someone who’d burn the world down for him. He doesn’t need to be stronger because he has someone he can rely on. And that’s how he gets away with claiming superiority to Vile. His growth as a character over the series has resulted in there being someone who will break him out.

Anyways, subversion of annoying tropes for the win. Skulduggery’s relationship with Vile fascinates me.

More reasons as to why Vastra is the best dw character - go

Yippieee! I get to be annoying about how amazing she is!

She is essentially Sherlock Holmes, her cases are plagiarised BY Doyle in universe, and she famously HATES comparisons to Sherlock Holmes XD

She has a fantastic moral compass and it's called Jenny Flint.

She is a mirror to the Doctor only in way hotter.

She has canonically tried to eat a rooster early in the morning despite knowing she shouldn't eat raw chicken.

She is simultaneously a brilliant fighter and lethal as fuck, and also scared of furniture attacking her.

She introduced herself with "I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time and this is my wife" in Victorian London probably just because she thinks it'd be funny, get yourself someone who does it like her.

She is physically incapable of not flirting with her wife every five seconds.

Tongue.

She can wield two blades at once and has (probably!? I think this is pretty much supported by canon) taught her wife how to fight.

She has defeated Cybermen in 13th century Japan once.

She has broken into multiple banks, stunned the people there, and just walked out the front door.

When needing to talk to Clara, she not only sent a letter with a drug candle through time, she also considered that Clara would find the candle icky and therefore laced the paper with a drug as well. (That woman probably has a drug cartel somewhere)

She once had a 48 page Christmas plan for her wife and has consulted local children for research purposes into Christmas.

HAVE YOU SEEN HER SHE'S GORGEOUS.

Can hypnotise people and extract information out of them that way.

Is filthy rich (because she has robbed multiple banks) and has little care for money (or doesn't understand it much, which is also fair).

Has committed acts of vandalism by smearing on maps in a library and then claimed that it isn't vandalism "to an inquiring mind".

Got high on drugs when she thought her wife was dead, built a nuke, and nearly set the world aflame because what's the point anyway - immediately stopped all that the second her wife looked her in the eye.

She's part of the sweetest, most chaotic little found family in all of Doctor Who and honestly that's beautiful.

Feel free to ask for elaboration on any of these, and those were just the ones I could come up with off the top of my head XD But as you can see, she is the best, and so is her wife actually

Undertaker Reveal Take Two 4/?

Bonus:

Cowbell ghoul!?! I was literally joking this morning about brining them back! Success.

Monstrance clock, my beloved!

I’m so excited for the new album!!! And I can’t wait to see more videos and photos on the instagram. I can’t wait to see Perry smile more!🖤🖤🖤

Freaking out about the Skeletour show in Glasgow

Peacefield is a Banger

The new stage is phenomenal, it just keeps getting BIGGER. first the curtain with giant rips in then the new stage with stone plinths for the ghouls and lights everywhere including under the drum riser. Then the stony walls fell down to reveal the usual stained glass windows and then the stone archways fell down and nearly took out Mountain. Then it was revealed that it was actually a massive LED screen

I got so excited that they were playing Majesty that I didn't immediately notice he was FUCKING FLYING. My sister was like omg flying and I was like omg Majesty and then we were both like OMG HIS MAJESTY

I started noticing the double kick drum during Ritual and after. I don't know enough about drums to say what was different it just was more idk

We were in the gods so we couldn't fully appreciate the GIANT MOVING truss grucifix of moving lights but she's a work of art. We could see the labels in the trucks as we left and they had a whole truck just for floor lights (the under drum riser lights are gorgeous) and they had at least 3 more for lights. No idea how to pack a giant moving rus

Lost my shit when they started playing Umbra I've been waiting fucking months to hear more than the opening bars!! I cannot wait to hear it again properly (it's only 9 days not that I'm counting)

Fucking cowbell ghoul is back for Umbra did not see that coming

Monstrance Clock is back too I didn't see that coming either and I'm so happy!!!! And the little smirk he did when he got to say "conclusively, I give you Monstrance Clock" for the second time in years, knowing we were about to lose our collective shit, was yet another wonder of no mask papa

We got sad about it ending and he was "you can go out and tell everyone about the amazing time that you had. Or at least you can tell everyone about the amazing time that I had"

He got his I/we/they/him mixed up which is always funny like "back at the assembly where we, no they, well I suppose I'm part of it now so we, and I thought, no they thought-"

He name dropped The Cathouse but didn't know if it was still running and then was like "I know a lot about the past, but I don't know much about the future" and then straight into The Future is a Foreign Land. Musical theatre levels of speech into song and he said "this is a song my dad used to sing to me" and they changed it to 2034 (I had wondered if they were going to change it to 2025 and have a new rhyme but that works)

There was a delay letting people in and my theatre brain wants to know what technical issue stopped them opening the house?? Was he stuck in the air?? Was the moving grucifix of moving lights refusing to move?? Did the LED screen decide not today satan ??

I love this band so much. Just watched RHRN yesterday and loved it.

The band Ghost is so fucking funny to me. Their frontman currently looks like this:

Or some version of a horny goth clown, but the guy underneath it has got the wettest saddest eyes I've ever seen. Just look at him:

This man admits to being very sensitive and cries at the drop of a hat.

He has a wife and kids.

He wears the costume because he doesn't like the way he looks on stage as a rockstar.

He treats the audience like his children. They're officially called the children of Ghost for that and also because of the play on "children of god."

The band literally fucks around on stage while riffing this badass music. They go through physical comedy skits every concert like the three stooges. For example:

Two demons throw guitar picks at each other when they get angy.

One guy grinds and licks the stage like a cat in heat.

One of them shakes their tits at goth clown man and scares him shitless.

One of them twirls goth clown man like a ballerina as he dances by them.

Several of them slap goth clown's ass when he waddles by.

He created the band to make people happy, to celebrate being a fucking weirdo because he always felt left out, and to make fun of Christianity because it makes people feel bad. He lost his older brother, and it tore him up so bad that the music he made as a result launched him into a worldwide music career.

This man ends every concert "ritual" with three things:

1. Be nice to each other

2. Help each other

3. Go fuck yourself

(Literally and figuratively)

Their music is 70% "fuck me I'm so horny", 10% "I love you so much" and 20% "ethereal badass metal".

Look at how much fun he's having, dude.

It's literally just a rock band filled with the nicest people on earth wearing costumes like a Shakespearean play. And all they do is make up funny little lore stories and serve cunt.

Gif by @conjuring-ghouls

I wasn’t going to reblog, but it was too cute to ignore. I love this film, and Frollo’s stupid hat.

Peepaw and the ghouls 🫶🏻