I'm not Skank. That's Skank over there.
Skank's dead.
shareI always felt a little bad for Skank. Not because he was a good person - he participated in the same heinous crimes as the others - but more because he just seemed dumb and scared. If he ran with a different crowd, he'd have just followed along and probably not done such horrible things. So, while he still was part of the evil, I think he could've had a different path in life. Very different situation for the other characters. Top Dollar, Tin-Tin, Funboy, and T-Bird seemed like they could've been raised by Jesuits away from humanity and they'd still have wound up burning down the monastery, stealing any silver/gold holy relics, and using the monks' gardens to grow opium.
shareSkank was the scariest of the bunch. The regular. The sheep. The man that could be made to do anything. He was all of us. He had no Will. He helped them be strong. He would try harder, and go longer, just to prove himself to nobody that would care. The Skanks of the world, are what unmake society.
Skank's dying words are so on point. "I'm not Skank. That's Skank over there. Skank's dead." His fervent eyes don't lie. He believes what he's saying. He's already mentally shuffled his mortal coil. Disassociated himself from any of his actions that led him to his fate. He is at this moment a lost soul in Eric Draven's hands. And the Crow discards him like so much trash, not even worthy of retribution.
You're right, in a way. Skank as an individual wasn't scary, but the idea of "the Skanks of the world" is quite a sobering thought. As opposed to "the skanks of the world," which depends on your view on sex work...
But the cure for people who just want a place to fit in and will do anything to get there is to find them and care for them. Give them a good group to belong to and the T-Birds of the world can't scoop them up and warp them.
To me, T-Bird is/represents the worst of the group. Even more than Top Dollar... In the film, Top Dollar is pure evil incarnate. He (and his creepy sister) is devil-like. He wants carnage for its own sake. He revels in it and seeks it out. That guy doesn't really exist.
T-Bird, though, or his ilk, can be found in real life and is already pretty evil. He might not be Satanic, but he is hellish. He warps, twists, destroys, and leads others (like Skank) to destruction. T-Bird always seemed the worst of it, to me. He felt like a real person in the worst way.
you're right in every way. Top Dollar is definitely Satan, or a priest, however you want to like it. But T-Bird is the true believer. The acolyte. The mortal who thinks he will find rank in Hell by fulfilling demonic deeds on Earth. Skank is a manipulated minion. (But as I say, they are legion.) I had a band in the 90s and we had a legion of Skanks pushing our cause, carrying our amps, placing our posters. Stephen King sorts employ these en masse in their apocalyptic fiction.
"I knew I knew you, I knew I knew you. But you ain't you. You can't be you. We put you through the window." He says this, but he's also not surprised. This is a man who has already seen some shit. He expected some shit. And is maybe not surprised that perhaps promises haven't been fulfilled. He sounds like a man damned, accepting his fate. He doesn't struggle when the Crow shows up. He just... accepts it. He knows. "Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is.." He becomes almost as a child again. Powerless, he accepts his fate. Like a good Catholic.
See, and giving the "legion of Skanks" a cause like a band seems healthy to me. That's a positive place to channel their energy, as opposed to joining gangs and committing crimes.
I agree with you 100% on T-Bird's demise. Yeah, he isn't surprised. I get the feeling that he was just evil enough to be trusted with some of the bizarre stuff Top Dollar and Myca got up to, which is why he knows that this was a possibility. He knew.
I've always found T-Bird's final monologue - everything you're citing, especially "Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is" - to be particularly disturbing. It's kinda scary and uncanny and unsettling because here's this "fire-it-up" gang goon just going limp and kinda quietly freaking out behind the eyes, but just accepting it. It's like a child, as you said, and his inability to change his fate anymore - that's a profound commentary on paths in life. It's also just horrifying. This guy going, "Oh, I guess I'm going to Hell now," and just going quietly...