gl1tchr

Sorry if this is to many or if you’ve already answered but I’d love to hear more about your Scriddler dynamic!

THANK YOUUU never apologize for letting me ramble, it is your Gift to me

[ 🫀 ] . Who taught them what love is? Did it hurt?

They are both Very guarded people, and I think their relationship is the only time in their adult lives where they feel someone has cared about them without nefarious intentions. Ulterior motives? Absolutely, but they're both so jaded by their experiences that they see everything in the world as highly transactional, so their relationship is quite romantic to them, all things considered. Jonathan was the most accepting of his feelings because he saw it as a pleasant surprise that he even could feel positively predisposed towards someone anymore, but Edward fought it lmao. He was Suspicious of positive feelings, so he retreated really aggressively when he felt it coming on, which did hurt Jon quite a bit because he was growing very fond of him.

[ 📿 ] . What superstition or ritual do they cling to?

Excluding anything Eddie does because of his OCD, they do always go to Jonathan's home for a drink after they finish a job. It started on the night they met as Scarecrow and Riddler and they've kept it up.

[ ✉️ ] . What kind of letter would they write but never send?

Jonathan is a little freak who gets a rush from pushing boundaries or doing emotionally intense things, so I think if he were to write any kind of confrontational, vulnerable, etc. letter, he would send it regardless of how he felt. He'd spend the hours waiting for his letter to arrive and be replied to with a restless leg, jotting down all of the negative physical and mental effects of anxiety he's feeling. Sometimes you're your own best test subject. Edward is the type to get incredibly drunk, write a long apology for some of the things he's done to people, and then tear it up without even rereading it. Like emptying all of his regrets and fears into the recycling bin on a computer.

[ 🧭 ] . Where would they go if they could disappear tomorrow?

Jon has always wanted a secluded wilderness property to be able to escape to, somewhere serene he could study his books and write papers, maybe books of his own. He'd likely choose somewhere like West Virginia, it's got the charm of a Southern state without the trauma lmao. Edward is weird bc he says he doesn't like Gotham, but I don't see him ever wanting to leave either. He left to get his degrees and came back, he didn't HAVE to. If he could disappear, I think he'd just Disappear back into Gotham.

[ 🕸️ ] . Do they have a favourite lie they like to hear?

Me personally I’m not a fan when Riddler is characterized as just being very eccentric and silly but isn’t very intelligent, isn’t an asshole and doesn’t have any narcissist traits, like that is not the riddler I know!!!

Scarecrow for me honestly, is a character who can be characterized a bit differently each time and I won’t really have an issue with it, as it usually works very well. I 100% agree with you about Scarecrow losing some of his flavor when he’s just the Halloween guy. I will be honest though I’m not the hugest fan when Jonathan is just depicted as being a guy with no emotions and feelings and just “a cool scary nonchalant mysterious guy” as I feel he loses some of his charm when he’s depicted as only being that.

Apologies for me yapping

NOOO don't apologize, I want my blog to be a space for people like me who love to overanalyze, who enjoy the essence of character development and writing! That's always the part of fandom I resonate with most, so I wanna foster that.

And if it’s okay, do you have a favorite and last favorite characterization for Scarecrow?

I think it's pretty obvious that my favorite Riddlers, regardless of whether they're Whimsical or Not, tend not to let anyone in and tend to intellectualize their emotions to avoid dealing with them. My favorite Riddlers are emotionally stunted, weary, and in an active battle against their own minds. Arkham Knight, 2022, Zero Year, and BTAS are all peak Riddlers in my heart. They show their anger, their emotional vulnerability, their trauma, and their awareness of their circumstances to remind you that they are doing these things because they want to. A Riddler has to give me the impression that he knows what he's doing is wrong or he starts to feel like the Joker, where he's so criminally mischievous and Marvel Loki-like, where he almost has a distorted sense of morality that helps him justify what he's doing. I think Riddler should always be in mental conflict to convince himself he's just "playing the game" to get ahead, but always fully AWARE he's a criminal

My least favorite Riddler depictions are when he's kinda just turned into a green popsicle stick with a question mark on it. Like the Riddler is THERE and he's doing Riddles and shit, but like - he's just a guy who's hanging out who's a little catty? He's not especially rude or mean, he's not antagonistic, he's just a kind of sarcastic, teasing dude who does Riddles and maybe steals a painting. He gets defanged! Not many Canon depictions do this, I'd say Young Justice comes close by just making him kind of a dweeb, but that's sort of on purpose for the story? But even the most soft-hearted and vulnerable of Eddies like 2022 can show their cruelty and anger, which to me, Riddler has to have if you're writing a Rogue Riddler and not a Reformed Riddler. Different Eddies have Different Violence Levels (like OBD is absolutely going nuclear every time, but BTAS likes to hold off on overt violence for as long as he can because it's messy and ruins HIS fun). Gotham TV Show Eddie has a weird problem where he shows his violence, but the choice to give him DID when Eddie is known for having OCD turns him more into a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde than a Riddler, which just makes for a very weird moral situation with Eddie that's usually reserved for Harvey/Two-Face. It removes some of Eddie's agency in the matter, which is very un-Riddler. Riddler is a force to be reckoned with in any Batman AU he's in and I think if he's just gonna sit off to the side and be snarky he's not really being used to his fullest potential as one of the smartest people Alive. Gotham and Joker's Asylum Riddler are the two canon one's I'd say avoid building your Riddler off of if you want Scott to like it, but I'm also Nobody and not the only person out there, and plenty of people enjoy those Riddlers!

FOR SCARECROW honestly I am much more open and Forgiving because he's a Rogue you can experiment with a lot more I feel like. My favorite Scarecrows are Arkham Knight, Year One, and Absolute, which all lean more in the wickedly spiteful, or otherwise quietly ruthless direction. Crane is a LOT like Eddie in that he feels scorned by society in one way or another, but I would say a key difference between them that makes them distinct characters is the fact that Eddie is in denial about his behavior where Jonathan isn't. Even if the veil is thin as paper, Eddie knows what he's doing is wrong but chooses to believe not that he's a GOOD person, but that he's just doing what he has to do to function in this Intellectually Bankrupt World, almost like survival. Jonathan, in my opinion, should see himself as non-human. This is why I feel like he's a top candidate for being a canonically queer Rogue because I think many queer people, especially southerners, can empathize with feeling like a non-human, and almost embracing that in a way. I think Jonathan does this by becoming the Scarecrow, and he sees THAT as his cathartic, liberating persona, where Jonathan Crane is the mask. A good Jon should be overtly cruel, like how Shadows Jon is openly hostile towards Harley. He is rarely a kind man, but he can absolutely feign politeness and cordiality, like Arkham Knight with the diplomacy, but he's still a Monster.

I do think Scarecrow loses teeth himself when he just kind of becomes The Halloween Guy. I dislike MOST portrayals in The Harley Quinn Show, but Scarecrow is especially egregious. Again, I haven't seen many fanon Scarecrows/Scarecrow headcanons that I feel are just Not Jonathan, but THQS Scarecrow is one of the most confusing Scarecrows ever written. Regardless of if he's got the bag on or not, he's very meek and whipped by Joker, which is Strange and leads back to this weird idea that a lot of writers have that Joker like, RUNS the Rogues Gallery when in reality most other Rogues do NOT want anything to do with him because you can't work with someone that unreliable. Jonathan IS a weak person, especially when he's in Jonathan Mode, because he's forced to confront himself, but when he's just kind of written as a slouchy, grumpy fella instead of a deeply angry, incredibly intelligent tormentor, it feels like a bit of a waste!!