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Published: 2014-09-02 03:17:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 4310; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 0
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Description
Ebenezer Laughton was a thin naturally flexible and double-jointed youth who, along with his brother Ralph was raised by an alcoholic mother who abused them both but took to beating Ebenezer viciously whenever she felt he misbehaved. Feeling guilty afterwards Ebenezer's mother would give him gifts to try and make up for what she had done. Thinking that rewards always followed punishment, Ebenezer began deliberately misbehaving to receive beatings in order to get gifts.
Growing into a socially stunted and awkward young man, the abnormally flexible and agile Ebenezer worked as sideshow "rubber man" dubbing himself Umberto the Uncanny. Winning a spot on a variety television show, Laughton was performing on stage when Iron Man chased a criminal who had robbed the theatre into show. Ebenezer using his Olympic level acrobatic skills subdued the thief as a publicity stunt. As Iron Man hauled away the criminal and thanked Umberto for his help Laughton realized the criminal potential of his abilities and decided to go into crime.
Stealing a flock of trained crows from a fellow performer and stealing a scarecrow costume from a local costume shop he hid and trained the crows to follow simple commands and assist him in his new costumed criminal guise as the Scarecrow. Deciding he needed to hit someone wealthy for his first score he targeted the new luxury apartment of Anthony Stark. Despite successfully robbing the apartment the Scarecrow was tracked down and defeated by Iron Man and sent to prison.
Breaking out of jail Scarecrow resumed robbing high rise apartments with his trained crows and defeated Spider-Man. The Green Goblin offered Scarecrow a position in his criminal organization but the arrogant Scarecrow refused and when next he fought Spider-Man he was defeated and sent back to prison.
Escaping jail yet again Scarecrow took part in an unsuccessful mass super-villain attack on the wedding of Reed and Sue Richards but was quickly defeated by the assembled heroes and guests of the wedding and sent back to jail.
Count Nefaria offered Scarecrow membership in the Nefaria Family of the organized crime syndicate called the Maggia. Accepting the offer Scarecrow was busted out of jail by Nefaria's men and joined the Eel, Porcupine, Plantman and Unicorn disguised as the original X-Men framed them as part of Nefaria's bid to blackmail the US government by holding Washington D.C. hostage underneath an impenetrable dome.
The real X-Men defeated the group which had splintered due to greed and infighting over the ransom money and the dome was destroyed.
Policeman Brian Muldoon disguised as the Cowled Commander later broke Nefaria's group (minus the Unicorn) out of jail and had them spread chaos across the city in order to emphasize the need for a stronger police force. Captain America and Falcon outed Muldoon as the ringleader of the crime wave and defeated the group. Already deranged from the abuses and defeats he had suffered previously this particular defeat sparked Scarecrow's obsessive hatred of Captain America.
Sent to a maximum security prison the Scarecrow quickly escaped but was defeated once again by Captain America, the already unstable Scarecrow was placed in solitary confinement for nearly a year and his mind totally snapped.
Upon escaping, the Scarecrow armed himself with a pitchfork and began a killing spree around the city and stalking people in central park at night, stabbing them to death with the farm tool, sometimes stuffing their corpses with straw and turning them into makeshift scarecrows. Captain America was approached by Laughton's brother Ralph who told the Captain about the abusive childhood Ralph and Ebenezer endured and Ebenezer's increasingly violent behavior, delusions and false memories.
During the final fight Scarecrow suffered a nervous breakdown while being beaten by Captain America and the unstable criminal started sobbing calling the Captain "father" and begging him not to beat him anymore before collapsing on the floor crying.
The Scarecrow was once again arrested and this time imprisoned in the superhuman prison The Vault located in the Colorado Rockies. During the Acts of Vengeance the Vault was a scene of a mass prison break. Escaping his cell the Scarecrow was defeated by Hawkeye and returned to his cell.
Months later during another prison break caused by Venom, Scarecrow, Rhino and Armadillo tried to stop their fellow inmates and convince them to just serve out their time but Venom's allies Klaw and the Controller beat the trio into submission. The Venom mass breakout was stopped by the combined efforts of the Avengers and Freedom Force.
Unable to treat his insanity The Vault transferred Laughton to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Somehow coming into contact with his crows through the barred window of his cell Scarecrow got them to bring him scarecrow masks and a straight razor. Donning his mask and becoming the Scarecrow once again Laughton made a bloody escape from the hospital and resumed his serial killings which he now believed would "free the fear" and "let the fearful things out" of his victims by ripping them open with his pitchfork or razor.
Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) tracked down Scarecrow and during their battle impaled him on his own pitchfork and left him for dead. Scarecrow was rescued by the shadowy organization the Firm, who performed a series of surgeries on Laughton (which unknown to all he was awake through the entire time) giving him the ability to produce pheromones that cause panic and intense fear in his victims and for his body to actually feed off the emotion of fear of his victims enhancing his strength.
Slipping his restraints Laughton slaughtered everyone present in the operating room and escaped once again going on a killing spree across to city to attract the attention of Captain America. Captain America and Ghost Rider both sought out Scarecrow and once again Ghost Rider killed Scarecrow by impaling him on a spiked wrought iron fence.
The Firm once again took Scarecrows body and resurrected him leaving him inside a vault with other mutants and creatures they had created hoping he would lead them as their personal army of fear.
Ghost Rider utterly destroyed the Firm organization and when the FBI opened the vault where they had kept their experiments Scarecrow escaped and using a new pitchfork created by the Firm was able to physically hurt Ghost Rider with it. During the melee but he was shot in the spine and collapsed apparently dead. The creatures that had been inside the Firm's vault with him dragged Ebenezer's body away.
Healing and abandoning the Firm's creatures The Scarecrow made a home for himself in Brooklyn on a patch of poisoned waste ground. Realizing the fear of others fed his strength and continually healed him Scarecrow began abducting victims, bringing them back to his house and torturing them in order to be fed a constant flow of fear to add to his powers. Deciding he wanted to make Ghost Rider fear him the Scarecrow lured the spirit of vengeance to his house which he lined the narrow halls and walls of with his still living victims prevented Ghost Rider from lashing out at him without risking hurting the innocents he protected and avenged.
When Scarecrow demanded Ghost Rider submit to torture or else he would kill another victim Ghost Rider stunned Scarecrow by promising to inflict upon him vengeance a thousand times greater than anything Scarecrow could do. Grabbing the stunned Scarecrow, Ghost Rider crushed and broke the major bones in his body and held him so that they would heal improperly and disjointed angles crippling Scarecrow with immobility and intense constant pain. The police easily capture Scarecrow and sent him to prison.
Transferred to the government research and containment facility/prison known as The Black Hole, the Scarecrow underwent extensive surgery to fix his damaged limbs. The Ghost Rider was also captured and being held in this prison. When he broke free from his cell the Ghost Rider caused a blackout which allowed the now healed Scarecrow to escape and slaughter the surgeons working on him and feeding off their fear.
The mysterious warden of the facility known only as The Spook, armed the subterranean nuclear reactor of the Black Hole and set it to detonate before confronting the Scarecrow without fear and tasked Scarecrow with stopping Ghost Rider from deactivating the core before leaving. Accepting his task the Scarecrow attacked Ghost Rider but the spirit of vengeance managed to overpower Scarecrow and narrowly escaped the prison before it detonated. Scarecrow was consumed by the explosion and vaporized.
Scarecrow's soul was sent to hell where the demon Blackheart sent Ebenezer's bodiless spirit to possess the dead body of Barbara Ketch, the deceased sister of Ghost Rider's human host Daniel. Following a harrowing battle with Ghost Rider, Scarecrow's soul was cast out of Barbara's corpse and once again cast into Hell.
For reasons unrevealed Scarecrow was cast out of hell and sent back to Earth in human form where he resumed his killings but he was captured by the Falcon and sent to The Raft super-prison. Later Scarecrow escaped during a the massive breakout caused by Electro blowing up the prison and he took part in gang beating Spider-Man before escaping.
Scarecrow was then hired by the Chameleon to serve with his team, the Exterminators, seeking vengeance against Spider-Man when his secret identity was made public during the Initiative but he was defeated by Black Cat and like the majority of the world he had his memory of Spider-Man's secret identity erased by Mephisto.
During the Dark Reign event Scarecrow allied himself with The Hood and joined his gang becoming his occult advisor and sent the Hood to Satana for help with his possession by Dormammu. When the Hood's gang was defeated by the Avengers Scarecrow was arrested and sent back to prison where he was passed over for rehabilitation in the Thunderbolts program due to his severe mental illness and unpredictability.
Scarecrow and above listed characters copyright Marvel Comics.
Special thanks to for being the model for the girl that should have stayed out of the park that night.
Related content
Comments: 33
AlexFerrana [2020-09-20 17:12:47 +0000 UTC]
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MJMJR In reply to AlexFerrana [2020-09-21 00:54:01 +0000 UTC]
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AlexFerrana In reply to MJMJR [2020-09-21 00:56:13 +0000 UTC]
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MJMJR In reply to AlexFerrana [2020-09-21 01:00:55 +0000 UTC]
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AlexFerrana In reply to MJMJR [2020-09-21 01:10:27 +0000 UTC]
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DoctorJames24601 [2016-09-19 19:08:27 +0000 UTC]
This is great! Like the detail that went into his costume.
Marvel's Scarecrow is brutally underrated. I've read almost every comic with him now, including the old Tales of Suspense issue 51.
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DoctorJames24601 In reply to DoctorJames24601 [2016-09-20 22:34:52 +0000 UTC]
I still need to read Dark Reign. I've been struggling to find time to read Jim Starlin's "Thanos Redemption" for the longest time! I'll add Dark Reign to my comic bucket list.
Also, Scarecrow was so badass in the 90s Ghost Rider series! I fell in love with him after reading issue 38, when he became the leader of the Firm.
He was pretty freaking demonic.
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MJMJR In reply to DoctorJames24601 [2016-09-20 03:44:19 +0000 UTC]
Thanks so much
Scarecrow's always been a favorite of mine. He had kind of a resurgence in the 90s as a Ghost Rider villain but since then he's been totally underused and only seems to pop up for an issue or two around Halloween or in crowd scenes. I was hoping he was going to be used more during the Dark Reign event with all the other villains but he basically hung around the Hood's gang not doing a hell of a lot except creeping the other bad guys out.
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fletcherc [2014-09-04 11:24:49 +0000 UTC]
Hehe, nice. I think I prefer Marvel's Scarecrow to DC's.
And killing people with a pitchfork is so much more personal than using guns. Also it's interesting that Ebenezer seems to have been in quite a lot of stories so far but I have never seen him. I think. Can be wrong though because I've read all the Dark Reign stuff. Hmmm ...
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MJMJR In reply to fletcherc [2014-09-05 16:33:15 +0000 UTC]
I've always loved Marvel's Scarecrow because he started out as such a generic sort of villain and he became this unpredictable lunatic that can't die. DC Scarecrow is basically a nerd lashing out at the world that abused him and trying to profit from it.
Scarecrow was very much a background character in Dark Reign. He barely showed up except for a few pages in The Hood's comic. If you want I can hook you up with some Scarecrow appearances.
I already uploaded some other stuff you might like into my One drive since you seemed interested in Peter David's work on Spider-Man. I also have every single issue of Enemy Ace uploaded. Not sure if I ever told you about him. He's another character I am dying to draw in action.
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fletcherc In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-07 09:27:32 +0000 UTC]
I just realized that Scarecrow has been around since 64. Wow. And he's a real survivor considering all the brutal stuff he came back from. So yes, which issues do you recommend?
So there's more from Enemy Ace? You sent me War in Heaven 1+2 a few years back and that was an awesome story.
I just checked your OneDrive. Man, you're spoiling me ...
(You wouldn't happen to have the Inhumans Secret Invasion issues? I'd kinda like to see Medusa's reaction after finding out she did the nasty with a Skrull. Yes, I'm evil.)
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MJMJR In reply to fletcherc [2014-09-07 23:24:30 +0000 UTC]
Yeah he was one of the original super villains at Marvel.
Captain America 279-280, Ghost Rider vol 2 # 7 and the one-shot issued Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear. Pretty much any appearance he has after that is in Ghost Rider and he becomes more and more unhinged as the series goes.
Well I uploaded his original comic series and a really good one called War Idyll which is his last appearance.
Sorry I didn't collect any of the Secret Invasion because quite frankly I thought it was shit and hated the entire storyline.
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fletcherc In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-08 06:27:54 +0000 UTC]
Damn! I have Captain America up to 278 and then starting again from 290!!!
Ugh, Ghost Rider. I don't like Ghost Rider. But it wouldn't be the first time I start reading a series because of one of the villains in it so
Downloaded it yesterday. Now I need to find the time to read all that stuff. *sigh*
There have been worse storylines than Secret Invasion I think. I mean look at the disaster that is Original Sin. I'd rather read about Skrull invasions and Norman Osborn saving the day than about all those heroes wetting their pants over their dirty little secrets. And don't even let me get started about what they did to Fury.
Do you have an favourite story arcs?
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MJMJR In reply to fletcherc [2014-09-09 01:20:34 +0000 UTC]
Well if you got all the Enemy Ace stuff and the Spider-Man comics I can delete them and upload some of the Scarecrow stuff. Just give me a while to do it
I didn't mind the concept but they executed it so poorly it was maddening. On top of that they padded it with needless issues show how lots of minor characters got replaced which wasn't interesting or shocking considering we already knew they were Skrulls for months into the crossover. Like the one that made me hit the fucking roof was they wasted an entire Avengers issue on showing how Elektra was replaced by a Skrull even though it had been a year already since her Skrull impostor was found out and killed.
I was disappointed in the ending to Original Sin. I thought Fury deserved better and he should have either died a hero or been de-aged or something. Anything would have been better than what happened.
Name a character or title and I got a few favorite story arcs I love involving them.
Though if we're going company wide events I have to say in no particular order Secret Wars, Secret Wars II, Contest of Champions, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Scourge of the Underworld and Dark Reign. For DC Comics I loved Crisis on Infinite Earths, Underworld Unleashed and Final Night.
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fletcherc In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-09 06:04:16 +0000 UTC]
No sweat. Like I said, I need to find time to read all the other stuff first. And I still have Y The Last Man waiting for me. Gawd, sometimes I wish I was immortal even if it's just so that I have the time to read all the damn comic books I want to read ...
My only complaint with Secret Invasion was the fact how stupid the Skrull were in the end. They pulled off this great stunt, infiltrating every government and military force on the planet, kidnapping and replacing dozens of superheroes and even stealing their powers for their own troops. But they didn't kill anyone. If they had killed all the people who they have replaced then Earth would be part of the Skrull empire by now. I'm of course aware that theirs is the typical plot-induced stupidity because yeah, we can't have all those beloved characters get killed, but still. If I had a horde of shapeshifting aliens to do my evil bidding I would have made sure that there'd be no one left alive who could oppose me.
I didn't like the whole story line much tbh. But what happened to Fury just took the cake. Sometimes I hate Marvel.
Okay, how about Spider-Man, Punisher and Magneto?
Shit, Secret Wars II! I total forgot about that one. It was on my to-read-list ... I think I've read all the other ones except for Scourge of the Underworld. What was that about?
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MJMJR In reply to fletcherc [2014-09-09 15:34:51 +0000 UTC]
Okay cool. I will let you know when I get everything uploaded.
The reason they kept the captives alive was so they could replace any Skrulls that died or failed to pull off their ruse. Essentially they needed the originals to keep making perfect copies of them if they needed them.
Yeah I hated Fury's fate. They should either make him young again or just kill him and be done with it. They keep torturing the character and I find that disrespectful and tedious.
Spider-Man: Deadly Foes of Spider-Man, Lethal Foes of Spider-Man, Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut, Spider-Man vs.Venom, Venom Returns, Carnage, Revenge of the Sinister Six, Return of the Sinister Six, The Death of Jean DeWolff, Kraven's Last Hunt, The Death of Gwen Stacey, The Origin of the Hobgoblin, Hobgoblin Lives, Parallel Lives, The Black Costume Saga, Masques.
Punisher: Circle of Blood, Return to Big Nothing, Welcome Back Frank, Army of One, Business as Usual, Punisher vs Daredevil.
Magneto: Testament, Rogue Nation, Essential X-Men.
Scourge of the Underworld is a collected edition of a story that spanned dozens of different Marvel comics from 1985 until the 1990s about a serial killer dubbed Scourge who starts targeting super villains and successfully murdering them. He appears at random, in disguise, shoots them with explosive bullets and yells out "Justice is Served!" The villains become more and more desperate at finding out who this killer is and the heroes can't seem to catch him or even stop him and as the body count rises the heroes start to piece together a conspiracy that reaches back to the golden age of heroes in the 1940s.
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fletcherc In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-11 13:50:22 +0000 UTC]
Thanks!
But that's still stupid. They could have kept their genetic codes by killing them and then putting them into a giant freezer or something so that they could come back and make more copies for when they needed them. Scientifically they seemed so much more advanced than us so they should have been able to make do with a bunch of cells and the owner's memory stored in a computer database. But maybe I'm giving their scientists too much credit here, I don't know.
They should have given Fury one hell of a comeback after all that Marcus "I'm Nick Jr." Johnson nonsense. To me Original Sin reads like "Well thanks, Nick, for saving our planet a thousand times but now we think you're just a massmurderer so here is your ball and chains now shut up and stay on the moon bye bye."
Ohshitohshitohshit I haven't read any of those Spidey runs yet. So much to read, so little time.
I have read some of the Punishers and none of the Magnetos. But since I know that your recommendations are always spot on I think I will have a look at all of those titles if I can find them.
Ah Scourge! Now I remember him. He killed Zemo once, didn't he? In his hideout in South America or Mexico or where ever that was? No wait, that Scourge turned out to be Jack Monroe. Or maybe I'm wrong
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MJMJR In reply to fletcherc [2014-09-12 15:16:49 +0000 UTC]
no problem
I never said it was a good reason Honestly Secret Invasion was sort of like Marvel's warped mini version of Crisis on Infinite Earths where they get to reset a bunch of characters back to being themselves after some changes some writers did failed and it was to bring back a few characters that were dead like Mockingbird with one giant blanket explanation. That person was acting like an asshole because they were a Skrull, that person didn't die it was a stinking Skrull...
For the past few years they've done shit like this. The mass prison breakout that reformed the Avengers a few years ago was an excuse to reform that team and reintroduce a shitload of long thought dead villains back into the MU with no fuss.
Same with Dark Reign. Hood brings back a dozen Scourge victims to battle the Punisher and the ones that survived it are still kicking around... well except the one guy. Venom ripped him apart after he ran over a mother and her daughter... but still enough of them are alive to matter.
Honestly who knows. Maybe after the Red Skull clone Sixus Event is over they will do something with Nick again. Personally I think Nick Jr is cool but I also don't give a shit enough about him to keep buying Secret Avengers or whatever that title is with him and Coulson leading an Avengers team because it reads like a shitty version of DCs Suicide Squad rather than a real Avengers title.
Oh, I also recalled for Magneto – Avengers: Nights of Wundagore, Avengers: Vision & The Scarlet Witch, Avengers: Vision and Scarlet Witch - A Year in the Life, Avengers: Darker than Scarlet, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade.
And another great Spider-Man one is Spirits of Venom. Beautiful art and lots of craziness with Ghost Rider( Danny Ketch), Johnny Blaze, Venom, Spider-Man in the sewers beneath New York City. It's kind of the precursor to Maximum Carnage.
Thank you I’m not sure how much luck you’ll have finding some of these since I think some are out of print but if you search around enough you’ll probably find a copy.
Yes, Jack Monroe was a Scourge in the original run of Thunderbolts but he wasn’t an official Scourge linked to the original. Many of his methods were based on the original Scourge. All of the original Scourge issues have been collected in a book called Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld. Your boy Red Skull pops up in it a few times along with many other heroes and villains and not all of them make it out alive.
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donatien1740 [2014-09-03 08:38:37 +0000 UTC]
And once again I learned a thing or two ... especially that MARVEL has also a Scarecrow.
But isn't it a bit to early for a Halloween picture?
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MJMJR In reply to donatien1740 [2014-09-04 03:37:34 +0000 UTC]
Apparently everybody has a scarecrow. Marvel also has a supernatural one called The Straw Man. He's some sort of spirit that that is trapped inside a painting of a maniacal looking scarecrow. It take the form of the scarecrow in the painting and goes after evil people who come into contact with the painting. It doesn't talk, it just laughs constantly like an insane person and usually does something horrible to his victims.
It's never too early for Halloween
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MJMJR In reply to PaddysDemon [2014-09-03 03:24:05 +0000 UTC]
I know, you would tackle him and hug him
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PaddysDemon In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-06 20:35:55 +0000 UTC]
hehe I wound while that girl looks on horrified
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MJMJR In reply to PaddysDemon [2014-09-06 23:54:01 +0000 UTC]
Kelly would be like," Should... I... call the police? And which one should I report? ... fuck it I'm running."
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PaddysDemon In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-10 20:20:03 +0000 UTC]
XD hehe my baby id yell while cuddling him
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MJMJR In reply to PaddysDemon [2014-09-11 03:10:05 +0000 UTC]
and he'd be yelling, "Mommy no! I have to open the pretty blue package!"
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TheOracleDragon [2014-09-02 03:21:14 +0000 UTC]
Beautiful work on this and the details are fully sound, the read was entertaining and great to know facts as well. Lovely work, Wonder!
Coloring and details are so much win.
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MJMJR In reply to TheOracleDragon [2014-09-02 03:58:09 +0000 UTC]
Thank you! I've been wanting to do a piece with this character for a long time so I really appreciate the compliments
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TheOracleDragon In reply to MJMJR [2014-09-02 04:41:01 +0000 UTC]
Welcome greatly, keep on making great works and it's always good learning about characters I only know by name
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