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#i thin doing fun things with the mask for characters with blind or damaged eyes. is fun
receding-tides · 2 months
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spyvstailor · 6 years
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acapelladitty replied to your post: Welp, I’m officially jobless now…who wants to send...
You’ll get something soon! #SupportSpy2k18 and in terms of fic requests, I will never not be a slut for your Jonathan Crane! So, dealers choice tbh in terms of other characters. I live to see that man put in uncomfortable positions lmao x
Okay...that was weak, but I’ll run with it. Here’s Jon being the hero for once and being wholly uncomfortable in that position. Enjoy!
Being a villain one did not take time to stop and smell the proverbial roses.
It was either you raced around on a mission or you were running for your life from a mistake.
Therefore, Jonathan Crane had to admit that it was indeed very odd of him to be sitting up on top of the old Gotham Brewery, long, lanky legs dangling over the edge, mask raised to the stars above.
It was a blue moon and it was beautiful.
Still sore from a mistake he had made only a few days prior, it had taken all his energy to scale the old brick wall, but it had been worth it.
Below him Wharf Street was dead, not even a nightwalker or a drug dealer to be seen. He could gaze up at the full moon and imagine he was alone, blissful and serene and alone.
A rare smile graced his thin lips and he hummed to himself like a contented cat.
Lights struck the sign beside him and he looked down at the street to find an approaching car.
It was black as night and sleek, expensive.
As he scowled at the disruption, he watched the car as it swerved first from right to left and then back, before pulling off the street and into the rotting parking lot of the brewery, right below his feet.
Sighing, he rest his elbows on his knees and bent over the car below, watching the interloper who emerged from the driver’s side, just as a woman bolted from the passenger side.
She took off for the street again, the man right on her heels.
Catching the woman, the burly older man dragged her back towards the car as she began to scream and shriek, her flashy heels and short skirt told Crane that she was either a professional, a party goer or perhaps simply a highly fashionable woman, but whatever she was, she was much, much younger than the man and much, much smaller.
He threw her against the hood of the car roughly, hard enough that Crane winced.
“Shut up!” The man growled. “Shut the fuck up!”
“Get off me!” The woman hollered, kicking and thrashing under the man’s significant weight.
Sneering Crane watched as the young woman’s skirt was grabbed and shoved up high on her hips, exposing her underpants.
He knew what was coming and it settled uneasily in him.
If he dropped down and offered her aid, he would be...but if he did nothing...
Well, he figured, if anything he could have some fun with the man.
Easing down from his spot, he slipped and dropped to the ground, just as the man tore the young woman’s underwear off.
Crane landed hard on the roof of the car from the fire escape and squatted there for a moment in pain as the wound he had sustained to his side tore open afresh, the makeshift stitches he had given himself pulling and tearing away from his flesh.
The thud was enough to startle the man and he looked up.
Certain his mask was terrifying to the poor woman who was already put through more than enough fear for the night, Crane tilted his head and said, “hold your breath.” He then released one of his fear bombs, letting it roll off the roof of the car and fall between the man’s feet.
Coughing and choking, the man staggered back.
Holding his side with one hand, Crane removed his spare mask with his other, storming through the gas cloud and dropping it over the woman’s head as he passed her.
On the ground, the man struggled to back away from Crane, the fear toxin already overtaking him.
Squatting over him, Crane pressed his mask nose to nose with the man.
“Do you ever wonder what the darkness possesses?” Crane asked him. “Every creak and thud in a dark, shadowy house? The things that dwell in the places where light never touches?”
The man panted, his pupils dilated wide.
“I could kill you,” the Scarecrow whispered. “But you’re already dead.”
Setting off a decent living nightmare in the man’s mind, Crane smirked as the man began to scream. He screamed and screamed and the music of his screams floated in the night.
Under the blue moon his screams were euphoric.
Standing up, Crane reached for his scythe and realized in his rush to prevent any damage to the young woman he had forgotten it up on the rooftop.
So he stood awkwardly, long arms dangling by his sides, watching the woman as she straightened her clothes, still wearing his spare mask.
Two Scarecrow’s peered at each other in the night, one panting heavily from her fight, the other calmly eyeing her, trying to decide whether he should just knock her out as well or get her home safely as the gas around them settled and dispersed.
After a minute, the woman gathered up enough courage to turn and run, but she only took two steps, before stopping.
Crane watched her steadily as she turned around again.
“Thank you,” she breathed, moving back towards him a little hesitantly.
For a moment he worried she was about to do something unwelcome, as she stepped in uncomfortably close to him.
But instead, she looked down at the man Crane was standing over, who had stopped screaming and was whimpering. For a moment a look of pity passed over her face, before she frowned.
She kicked the man hard in the ribs.
“You fucker!” She spat.
Crane stepped back and watched as she got in two more good kicks, before she stepped back.
Again she eyed him warily, before she reached up to remove his spare mask.
She offered it to him.
“Take his car home,” Crane said, ignoring the offered mask. “He won’t report it stolen, little mouse. Otherwise he would have to explain how a small thing like you stole a car from such a beast of a man.”
She nodded firmly.
“Beware of wolves,” he cautioned her. “And keep the mask.”
Hurrying around to the driver’s side of the running vehicle, she paused and peered over the dented roof at him. “I work as a research assistant at the university, Dr. Crane...I’ve heard about you.”
Jonathan paused for a moment, startled, before he said, “leave the car a block from your home, wipe anyplace you may have left fingerprints down. If anything it will be a random stolen vehicle.”
“I’ll tell everyone I know what you did here for me,” she breathed.
He angled his head sharply to the right and peered at him with his good eye. Without his glasses in his mask he was pretty much blind on his right. “You won’t.”
“But you’re a hero,” she whispered urgently.
He winced and considered gassing her, maybe altering her memories enough for her to forget that kind of decision.
“You disrupted my night,” he stated clearly. “Do not mistake my desire for peace and calm an urge to protect and serve. Now go home before I sincerely begin to regret my actions tonight.”
The young woman ducked into the car and after a few seconds, it was throwing gravel as she tore off, heading home, leaving Jonathan Crane and his victim to the blue moon.
He turned back to the man and squatted down to continue his torment, enjoying the screams he managed to work from the would be violators throat.
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screechthemighty · 7 years
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“cut man” is the best daredevil episode, part one
Seriously, y’all, this is my favorite episode of Daredevil ever. My favorite. I have so much to say that this post is going to have a part two. That’s how much I love it. Here’s the first batch of my thoughts. Be warned, it’s a big batch. Again, here are the ground rules for these meta posts. Strap yourselves in.
This post is primarily going to focus on Matt’s interactions with Claire, because I think they set a baseline for how Matt acts in his natural state--not as charming Matt, not as Matt who is more himself but keeping parts of himself contained, not as Daredevil, but as Matt. It can be difficult to tell early on, because he is still keeping secrets, deflecting from her, etc., but there are contrasts between his behavior with her and his behavior with, say, Karen.
The way he talks to her is the first big clue. He’s very soft-spoken as he does, with none of the usual “get down to business” surety he shows when he’s lawyering or the obvious confidence he exhibits when being charming. It’s more akin to how he spoke to Karen when he promised he’d keep her safe, or when he was discussing his blindness with her--both moments of real vulnerability. It’s especially obvious when he asks what Claire’s name is, and when he thanks her for her help (especially that one, also it’s really hard to keep my shipper goggles off for that moment. It’s so hard, you guys).
There’s also the funny moments of honesty he exhibits when talking with her. He openly admits to where he screwed up, the fact that he was careless, all of that. Again, there’s less of the surety he exhibited in the police station. He’s not trying to seem like a big, tough, scary superhero who has everything under wraps. He’s a guy who’s in a lot of pain and knows why and is fine admitting to it. Only because it’s physical pain, though. Matt’s far more open about his physical pain than his emotional pain (even when he’s lying about his physical pain). It’s really depressing.
Something I think is interesting about his whole deal with Claire is the fact that he is more immediately honest with her than he is with others, in part because the jig is up on a lot of things. He can’t say he wasn’t in a fight, or that he isn’t blind--those are undeniable facts. So, he tells her the truth, or as much of it as he feels comfortable telling. In my mind, this parallels the way Matt does finally open up to Foggy when Foggy finds him bleeding on the floor in “Nelson v. Murdock” (oh BOY the analysis of that episode is going to be fun). Matt might be fine with lying, but he also seems to know when he can’t lie anymore. It’s rare that he keeps trying to lie his way out of a situation when there’s nowhere for him to go. The only exception to this is with Karen, whom he constantly tells lies and half-truths to. It’s possible that this is because she has yet to really back him into a corner yet. Both Claire and Foggy found Matt in compromising situations (harder to back out of, easier to just be honest), while Karen doesn’t really until season 2, and even when she does it’s nothing that really screams “Daredevil” or anything like that. It’s also possible that it’s because she gives him an out that Claire and Foggy don’t. They want answers; she is (for the most part) content to let Matt tell the truth on his own terms. It’s an interesting detail, and I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye out for it as the episodes go on.
On a final note with his behavior around Claire, he trusts her enough to try and find her again after he saves the kid (while we don’t see it, that is his intent in asking where she’s going to stay, and I don’t doubt that he found her again after he was done). This is an interesting parallel to him letting Karen stay at his place, despite them having just met and him (as I theorized in my last post), probably not completely trusting her. But he trusts her enough, and he trusts Claire enough. It’s easy and very true to say that Matt doesn’t let people in, but I don’t think it’s the complete truth. Matt lets people in all the time. He let Karen into his life in that moment because he felt some emotional connection with her and wanted to help her. He lets Claire in--lets her see him vulnerable, again--because she’s proven herself to be trustworthy, even kind (which I think is a big deal in light of his comment last episode about wishing he could find even one innocent soul--how big a deal must kindness be for him?). He just doesn’t let people all the way in. When he does, he seems to be most comfortable doing so by degrees--as we’ll see in his relationship with Claire (which doesn’t get enough love in my opinion, and I’ll fight about it).
Another thing that comes to the forefront in this episode is Matt’s connection with children or young adults. Remember how in my assorted notes for last time I indicate that I thought the way the kid cried out for his father when Matt was listening on the roof parallels the way Matt cries out “Dad? Daddy?” after Jack is shot? I was right. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this episode. There’s some really good meta someone wrote about the subject, also tying it into Jessica Jones, so I’ll just leave it here and add that I co-sign it wholeheartedly. There’s another detail from this episode that ties into the theme of Matt’s own childhood trauma making him empathetic towards people younger than him: his reaction to hearing Santino on the stairs. “Oh, no. He’s young. He’s scared.” He knows that sound, he recognizes it, and he sounds like he’s dreading the fact that he might’ve scared a kid. That also ties in to the way he--who had been really stressed about someone possibly seeing his face earlier in the episode--immediately takes off his mask so he won’t scare the kid he rescues. It’s the best, but it breaks my heart.
There’s also the connection to Matt’s repeated mantra of not being afraid, of always getting up, no matter what. I’ll talk about that more in the upcoming Jack Murdock post (AKA the Pain Post), but there’s an interesting moment here that isn’t super directly tied into Jack, so I’ll talk about it here, too. The show cuts from Matt telling Claire that she can’t give into the fear to a moment of him as a child reading that Thurgood Marshall quote we’ve all come to know and love. For me, that says something about how long Matt has clung to this concept of fearlessness--since he was ten, at the youngest, which is about 2/3 of his life at this point. With everything else going on in his life--being a blind orphan, abandoned by people who are supposed to care about him, struggling with depression and trying to find his place, it might’ve been one of the only things giving him any comfort.
I’ve seen some people discuss the fact that show!Matt seems to be less funny than comics!Matt, that comics!Matt cracks more jokes and they wish they would implement that character trait in the show. While I agree that show!Matt is less prone to out and out jokes (he makes fewer blind jokes than comics!Matt, for instance), I disagree in thinking that he is any less funny than in the comics. In fact, he can be freaking hilarious at times. It’s just a very dry, sarcastic kind of humor that can be hard to pick up on (especially when he’s in Charming Matt mode, where everything he says is done with the express intent of Maximum Charm). But I’ve decided to start compiling some specific instances of Matt’s sarcasm and jokes, just to prove that this grim boy still has a sense of humor. (Quotes by others in the conversation will be in italics.)
“Maybe I can help clean the place up a bit.” “...is this place messy?”
“...so you’re either blind, or in way worse shape than I thought.” “Do I have to pick one?”
“Yeah, well, you’re catching me on an off night.” He says as he lies bleeding on the couch of a total stranger.
There are some moments in his dialogue that do remind me of the Waid run, particularly how Matt constantly takes potshots at people in his internal monologue. Example in this episode: “You’ll smell him soon enough. He really likes that cologne.”
“Hold still. I might do some serious damage if you squirm.” Matt, you are about to stab this man in the eye socket, now is not the time for sarcasm.
“Add to that, he can take an incredible amount of punishment without one damn complaint.” “The last part’s the Catholicism.” This is still, to this day, my FAVORITE LINE in all of Daredevil--nay, in all of the Marvel Netflix universe--and the line that completely sold me on the show and Matt as a character. I love this episode so much.
Assorted observations:
“They’ll kill everyone in the hospital to get to me.” Another example of Matt’s catastrophic thinking, perhaps? While the Russians are shown to be ruthless and willing to do some messed up shit to get to Matt, their behavior up until Anatoly’s death later on isn’t exactly that level of “shoot-em-up.” But Matt really does seem to believe that he’d go that far.
Something I noticed on my first watch and continue to latch onto with every rewatch is the way the sounds of the city filters in as pre-blindness Baby!Matt sits at the table and waits for Jack Murdock to come home. Proof of a previously existing sensory processing condition, perhaps? I know that the walls in those places can be thin, and that cities are loud (it’s why I personally can’t stand them). But it could also mean something deeper, especially if you subscribe to the autistic!Matt headcanons.
Matt ends up in that dumpster with 2 or three broken ribs, a probable concussion, multiple slashes, and a stab wound serious enough that it causes air to become trapped in his chest, nearly collapsing his lung. He walks out of Claire’s apartment with all of those injuries, and goes on to kick the asses of seven to eight bad guys, some of whom were armed with guns. I say this both to point out that Claire is a hell of a nurse if she can patch him up that well, and also to point out that Matthew Murdock is a force of nature whose stubbornness and drive surpasses that of almost any other Marvel character. Seriously, YOUR FAVE COULD NEVER.
Matt’s treatment of his blindness is definitely interesting. There are times when he seems at peace with it--in this episode, the “There are other ways to see” moment--but his conversation with Karen in the first episode implies a sense of discontent with it that not even having badass supersenses can erase. It’s not something that gets explored too often, even in the show, and I’m of the personal opinion that the time he talks to Karen about wanting to see the sky again might be the only time he’s completely honest about it. Every other time, he seems to be emphasizing the positive traits (sometimes to the point of erasing his own blindness...but we’ll get to that in season 2), possibly to avoid pity. I can see that being a motivation for him.
Foggy asking Karen if she wants to talk about what’s bothering her and adding that “’leave it alone’ is not my strong suit” is a great moment between the two of them, but is also interesting in light of his relationship with Matt--Matt, who is notoriously bad at talking about how he feels about anything. How many times did he ask Matt that same thing? How much did he have to persist to get Matt to open up about anything? Did he ever get Matt to open up about anything? I wish we had more college flashbacks between the two of them. Also, I love Foggy.
The matter of whether or not Matt enjoys this pops up at the end of this episode. I won’t be really discussing that until “Nelson v. Murdock”, since it’s an issue that comes to the forefront there, but it’s telling that Matt responds to the statement by stopping, having  a quiet moment, and then leaving. It’s a question that I don’t think even he has an answer to right now--probably because he’s too afraid to think about the answer (especially in light of his obvious discomfort at talking about his anger issues in the first episode).
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