I love ALL eras of boreo/decklikovsky EQUALLY, and I will FIGHT for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
Las Vegas era? Brilliant - the inexplicable teenage love and lust for each other (terrifying and amazing) - caring for someone because they’re the only person in the universe who cares for you, getting drunk and high and altogether plastered together because you’re so traumatized and lonely that you don’t know how to bond with people in any different way and hey, you both like it (a little too much in fact) so why not?? It’s DELICIOUS. this part of the book was just written too well to be put down as “unfortunate” or “less than”. It’s so so so sad and raw and angry and vulgar and and and
And you couldn’t even have post-Vegas New York, Antwerp & Amsterdam without it!! Where would the tension, the longing, the shock of seeing your - best friend? ex best friend? The guy you hate so much because you love him even more ??? Where would all of that come from without such a complex, tangled backstory???? There’s no one without the other!!!!!!
My brain just has this moment, the first and only proper moment Scarecrow enters the fray in the first Arkham Files fic, where it's just Jason and Cass in the warehouse, Cass is POV, they can hear Bruce hyperventilating behind them, suffering from acute fear toxin poisoning, and then this ragged, patchwork facsimile of a man drops from the catwalks, a rusty scythe slung over one shoulder, arms almost too limp, walking in a shambling half-step, and Cass comes to the realization that this man's movements are perfectly controlled, and she is having a sinking, dreadful feeling of familiarity.
Murder is tangential to Tom Riddle/Voldemort's characterization imo, it's more important that he is extremely intelligent, hypercompetent, overpowered, dramatic but practical, and has some kind of personality disorder.