Some Obscure Crossover Humor. . . .

[ethelflaed.livejournal.com]

(I sincerely doubt this joke has been made before. . .but if it has, I apologize.)

Some of you have probably heard of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a book by Charles Dickens. He died halfway through writing it, so there are a lot of questions that surround the text: whether or not a certain character is dead, who killed him/tried to kill him and why and how, and so forth. One of the questions that is most interesting is the identity of a particular character, a certain Mr. Datchery. His description is as follows:

At about this time a strange appeared in Cloisterham; a white-haired personage with black eyebrows. Being buttoned up in a tightish blue surtout, with a buff waistcoat and grey trousers, he had something of a military air. . . .

Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered the identity of Mr. Datchery. Consider:

Exhibit A: The Clothes Make the Man
First, let us deal with his clothing. A surtout is "a frock coat whose collar descended below the top of the waistcoat and with tails reaching above the knee. It was worn tightly buttoned beneath the collar to show off the figure." So, if we make a few allowances for art style. . .doesn't that sound a lot like this?



And if we disregard the waistcoat, those are grey trousers, plainly. True: that might be due only to the shading of that particular shot, but there are few other points in The Mystery of Edwin Drood when Dickens accidentally writes "grey" for "white," so either way, the trousers stand.
Conclusion: Mytho is wearing Mr. Datchery's clothes.

Exhibit B: He Hath a Lovely Face
Mr. Datchery has white hair, but - curiously - Mr. Datchery never struck me as a particularly old man. In fact, he struck me as a youngish character. So we have a young man with white hair. Actually, it's more than that. . .we have a young man with white hair and black eyebrows. Kind of like. . .Mytho!


Conclusion: Mytho has Mr. Datchery's face.

Exhibit C: Here It Seems the Author Died
Mr. Datchery is a mysterious character, in part because we know very little about his past, but also because he only appears in two chapters. Why? Because the author died before finishing the work. Who else do we know of who is a mysterious character in part because his author died before finishing his book?


Conclusion: Mytho is living Mr. Datchery's life. Also, Drosselmeyer is Charles Dickens. (I would have thought he'd be Hans Christian Andersen, but oh well. . . .)

Summing Up the Evidence: These Things We Hold to Be Self-Evident
So we have:

Mytho, who. . .
. . .is mysterious.
. . .is a character in an unfinished book.
. . .is white haired.
. . .and has dark eyebrows.
. . .wears a blue coat.
. . .wears white/grey trousers.

(and)

Mr. Datchery, who. . .
. . .is mysterious.
. . .is a character in an unfinished book.
. . .is white haired.
. . .and has black eyebrows.
. . .wears a blue coat.
. . .wears white/grey trousers.

Conclusion: One Face, One Voice, One Habit, And. . . .



(goes back to lurking)

-Ethelflaed-