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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drammattex" data-source="post: 5357228" data-attributes="member: 55363">Thanks, Scribble!!!I didn't do the MM3 scarecrow, and I wish I knew who did. It could have been another freelancer or a WotC designer. And I think you're spot on about the fear thing--it's been the scarecrow's schtick for time out of mind. Looking over the MM3 scarecrow, it seemed to suggest fear, i.e. "horrid gaze" power and the "scarecrow haunter" that rips out your heart. I also recalled the old Ravenloft versions of the scarecrow from the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium appendix (requiring a digging expedition through my gaming shelf), and the gorgeous Elmore painting that Claudio posted. Truth be told, I wanted to open up options for introducing scarecrow companion characters and NPCs, and was at great pains to try to both keep them the fear-oriented constructs by which the MM3 designer (and previous versions) had established them AND figure out a way to let them be like the most famous of scarecrow in literature, Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne's Feathertop--the earliest reference I found to a scarecrow character in literature. Sure those "friendly scarecrow" elements only get some brief mention in the article, but I tell ya--I spent a lot of time sweating over trying to reconcile the disparate "I'm here to rip your heart out" terror and "I'm the fey version of C-3PO" elements to make them seem plausible and cohesive.  The implement section is a nod to Feathertop. The first clause of the first sentence of the Exploration and Synthesis section is a nod to the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. "Although the sackcloth head of an ordinary scarecrow lacks a proper brain..."As for the scarecrow villain from Batman, I think he just fulfills the archetype. While I was working on the article, in my attempt to heighten and honor the MM3 scarecrow designer's  concept by hammering the fear theme into the fracking ground, I remember feeling grateful that Cillian Murphy's portrayal of a scarecrow character from Batman Begins would support that choice in the collective consciousness. Man, Murphy does great films. 28 Days Later, Batman Begins, Sunshine, Inception... Ok, I'm rambling. @ Zaukrie: You know all this WotC design is just a ploy to get something immortalized in plastic without having to build a warband and compete in the nationals, right? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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