#also this is strahms dream

[bathroomtrapped]

in ur dreams, baby

[dixxiemaegraphics]

This was only supposed to be a continuation of the art swap post because I left out Strahm in the pig mask… and then I added more. Oops.

[timegays]

Saw au because Augh-

(Ignore the broken arm thing on the first pic that’s only supposed to be on the second.)

Skull means they die in the end

Plus post trap injuries 

Elaboration under the cut!!

I should specify that they are not carbon copies of the characters they are based off kinda just. Parodies? You’ll get it.

Mischa-Adam. Young rapper in college just trying to get big. Photographs things he thinks would be cool album covers. Was put in the bathroom trap because he "wasted his time on a fruitless dream.". Head and neck scars are from when he hit his head on the toilet in that one scene. Yea. He also had a scar from getting shot by Noel. He got out alive tho after Noel came back for him.Doesn't work for jigsaw. Goes to Saint cassian college

ocean- strahm. Detective in the saw case. Grumpy and as stressed as strahm. Just graduated college recently. (Saint cassian college. In fact all the kids went to the same college.. Has the same hole in her throat from the water cube trap. Dies the same way as strahm does.

Constance- Perez. Ocean's partner in the saw case. A bit more anxious about jigsaw but not afraid to take action. Scars from when the doll exploded in her face. Was killed by Ricky I just haven't decided what happens yet <•_•>. Noel- Lawrence. Majoring in law because his parents made him. Was put in the bathroom trap because he "always is a tool for other people and never does anything for himself" Got out after cutting off his leg. Karnak made him an apprentice and he helps Karnak not get caught since he knows the law so well.Went back to save Mischa but Mischa doesn't know he's an apprentice. Lives in the end to continue the jigsaw legacy.

Ricky- Hoffman. Shhh lemme explain. Ricky is a college student working on being a writer. He was very interested in the jigsaw killer. After being enraged by someone stealing and publishing all his work without giving him any kind of recognition he took things a bit to far. He put the person into a copycat trap. (What trap? Idk.). Of course Karnak was not please and tested Ricky the same way hoffman was tested (I’m still deciding if it’s the same or diff test). Ricky the starts working for Karnak by helping him set up blueprints, build, and write the tapes. He kills Constance and Virgil. Noel kills him in the end the same way lawrence did to hoffman. Watched over Ezra when penny disappeared. penny/Jane doe.- Amanda. Went to college for some time while watching over her little brother, Ezra. She was put into the reverse bear trap (which also connected to her neck in the au) for supposedly not appreciating her life. After a  severe head injury when getting out of the trap she lost pretty much all her memories. She doesn’t remember anything about herself including Ezra and her name. Karnak took her in and renamed her Jane. She works as an apprentice by helping with getting the victims and keeping the doll instance/setting it up. 

Karnak- the jigsaw killer himself. Was a rollercoaster builder previously. After one of his coasters went awry and crashed, killing the passengers and injuring him. He was ridden with guilt and a new sense of life. He puts people into traps to make them appreciate what life they have left and to not destroy it like he did. Feels he has control over who lives and dies. Gets killed in the end similarly to John. (Haven’t decided the specifics of all that because he doesn’t have cancer but anyways-)

Virgil- Jill. No. Karnak does not marry the rat. I just wanted to include Virgil because I thought it was funny. Was just a rat in the warehouse before Karnak found him. Karnak became attached to him and personified him after being alone for so long in the warehouse. He knows all of jigsaws secrets and everything that happens. Dies in the end to Ricky’s hands because Ricky kinda began to lose it and blamed Virgil for everything that happened to him for some reason.  Ezra- Daniel. Teen who was living with his sister before she disappeared. Doesn’t know what Karnak did to her. Ricky takes care of him now that his sister is gone. Dedicated to finding out what happened to his sister and what the big deal with the jigsaw killer is. Mischa meets him later on and helps him try to figure it all out. He eventually finds out Penny is alive but she can’t take care of him anymore and barley even remembers him. He now lives with Mischa for the time being.

[bringmefoxgloves]

i want to get more into saw/saw blogs b4 X comes out - what r some of ur fave saw blogs

Hi! You caught me at a good time (one where I have energy) so let's see if I can pump this out. I am in no way an authority on the entire Saw fandom so I will only be talking about my little corner of the internet. Please forgive me, my beloved followers, mutuals, and other owners of posts I have loved in this very small fandom-because I may forget some of you. The brain fog sometimes gets the best of me and if I did a full complete list, it would be.... It would be so long. This is in no way in order of best or worst, and sometimes I just have no words for why I love a person's blog.

@turnipoddity - Oh, what an artist! Every single post I see, love it. So excited to see an artist acquiring the Saw brainrot.

@bloodcoveredgf - Luna! Also just all around funny & good posts in addition to the Saw insanities.

@dracofelin - Jay has such good writing, and will make you love the ship of Mark Hoffman/Peter Strahm (coffinshipping).

@thefoulbeast - Simply put, Will's art makes me want to bite my own arm off. If you're interested in the video game Pathologic, his blog is worth a follow for that too.

@bathroomtrapped - I sometimes get the honor of previewing Larry's art mid-construction (because with all those colors and layers, it looks like building a house) and even half finished, it blows my socks off <3

@sawtrapz - Kaz, oh Kaz (!!!), Kaz gets my brain clicking about some of the rarepairs of this fandom and I will always spin your boygirl Adam in my head.

@cl0wnb0yyy - Will is just a great person in the fandom, also if you like Midnight Mass or NBC's Hannibal.

@ispyspookymansion - Kora looms large in the Saw fandom in my mind so it would be impossible to assemble this list without him.

@3razyswfangirl / @kiramillet - Kira's pixel art is amazing!!! Bunny <3

@tibby - Take a look through Tibby's saw meta. You won't be disappointed.

@allegedly-writer - Contrary to Jack's url, Jack can sure damn write! He just posted a fic and guess who it's for <3

@hansy-pansy-art - OUGH another amazing amazing artist. Also currently in a Red Dead Redemption moment, which I love.

@piddgeon - Speaking of RDR.... Mercury! Ah, just. (Chef's kiss) of a human being.

@samwis - Jami, who hears all my most insane horny thoughts who is such a mainstay in my corner of Saw fandom.

@romanromulus - Adam writes fics that will make you scream and cry into your pillow at midnight.

@tapeworrmart - Just. Ough. Art that I dream of one day hanging on my wall.

@vanilladella - a.m.'s art is my discord header. Enough said.

@carouselcometh - Remy is hilarious and also you need to read his series on Ao3.

@onehandkilling / @fatmasc - Shlomo... What do I say? Just go. Follow. Also threw in their fat fashion blog because YES!!!

@angel-trapped - Téa, you absolute legend. Origin of angelshipping (to me) (aka Lindsey Perez/Allison Kerry)

@sawtrapx - Liv, such a fun human being!!!

@starlightsailfish - Star's Saw Warrior Cats makes me dance in excitement.

@iinsawdious - Adrien is the best champion of the Adam & David (Saw 0.5) & Specs (Character from the Insidious franchise, also played by Leigh Whannell) are family hc. I love his enthusiasm!!

@adrianicsea - Adrian! Just. AH!!! Adrian's Sleeping with Ghosts series was perhaps my first introduction (outside of Adam romanromulus) to the sheer brilliance of Saw fandom writers.

@dodddraws - Dodd's art is.... I'm just at a loss for words, scrolling back through his blog. So much nsfw goodness.

@sawvhs - Rar's art is so so so iconic.

Okay I have to cut this list off here, jfc. There's others I should probably put on here but I'm getting tired and sweaty and my hands are hurting. Follow these people, check who they're reblogging from or who is reblogging them, go forth, prosper anon. Welcome to the Saw brainrot.

[marc--chilton]

had a dream that was like nothing but strahm thinking about jumping off a parking garage because he realized he was attracted to hoffman. like the idea pissed him off so much it was the only thing he could think to do he was so fucking mad. also it was omegaverse and he was an omega it had nothing to do with the dream but it was in the back of the mind at all times

[chainsawgirlfriend]

Slenderverse entries I’ve consumed. Feel free to DM me if you’re also consuming obscure content in our lords year of 2024, I feel like dead fandom Copernicus

The big ones

DarkHarvest00

Marble Hornets

TribeTwelve

EverymanHYBRID

The others

The Angel’s Game (+ UnwillingWatcher, Razveeg)

Apple of Our Eye

Beyond the Neon

compileTRUTH

The blogs

A Rainbow Life (finished)

Dreams In Darkness

Seeking Truth - >:T Zeke Strahm hatedom btw

The Tutorial

Watch This City Burn

I’m going in chronological order and am only up to Dec 2010, so I haven’t started on MLAnderson, Whispered Faith, and so on yet. I still need to see if Just Another Fool is on the Wayback Machine, and I need to track down the tweets and blog posts of The Big Ones.

My fave obscure entries are Dreams In Darkness and Beyond the Neon. I think my main bias to Neon is that the main character reminds me of one of my OCs terribly, and so I could watch him do anything ever. Idrk if it’s Good by normal definitions, I’m just like. Haha this is what Blorbo from My Brain would also do.

My least favorites are Seeking Truth, and I really hope compileTRUTH picks up soon, cuz I like the character Cairo but the formatting of the show is difficult for me to engage with.

If you know any other series - send me an ask or dm me. I wanna know. My new years goal this year is that I will learn enough to become haunted by Slenderman.

[sjweminem]

FUCK that post reminded me of the hoffstrahm dream i had last night ok just. hear me out. and also talk to me about it. if you even care. but anyways it was academy ftm hoffman/professor strahm AU and it was the first time they got together w hoffman straddling strahm's lap and hoffman pulled off his shirt and undid his binder which blew strahm's mind even more than it already was and he didn't miss a beat before groping and sucking his tits all while calling him good/pretty boy and then. well. they Fucked. and it was good.

[saintofdaggers]

im curious what you think strahms gay awakening was? :o

omg hi! just so you know I'm kissing you on the mouth for this ask. or holding your hand if you're not into that. (I'm kidding ofc but I almost never get Saw asks and I love that one unhinged FBI agent a ridiculous amount so seeing this in my inbox made my morning)

anyway! that's a really interesting question. canon doesn't give us a lot of backstory on Strahm, so it's difficult for me to try and pin down the age at which someone as antisocial and bitchy as him would be comfortable with admitting something like that to himself. I've always seen him as bi and divorced because we know that there's something in the water in Saw City that makes every single marriage and romance dysfunctional as hell, so I think the most realistic scenario would be him trying to repress those urges for as long as he could because he was married to a woman, but something breaking the dam eventually. maybe a hot guy he was questioning was giving him attitude and he kept thinking of different methods to shut him up until he reached a thought that made him lose his temper and storm out of the room, and then he just couldn't ignore those needs anymore after that. or maybe one day he just woke up from his latest wet dream about men after years of denying those thoughts when he was awake and he was like "Christ. fine. I guess I swing that way too." and I imagine his marriage would suffer from all this going on because he's not the type of guy who has the emotional intelligence to handle it well.

the less realistic and very AU, but 100% funniest scenario would be Hoffman being the one who annoys Strahm into realizing that he's into guys. I think Strahm would have figured it out by the time he reached the age at which he meets Hoffman, but can you imagine him having perfectly fine and normal and not at all homosexual thoughts about that incompetent idiot detective with lips like That for who knows how long. until his imagination goes a little too far and he just goes "...oh. oh, no." (for bonus funny, also imagine Hoffman finding out because he would be absolutely insufferable about it and never, ever let it go that he's the one who flipped the gay switch in Strahm's brain, and Strahm would hate that so much)

[3llisarts]

Top 9 Characters I loved in 2023!

I was tagged by the lovely @noodlecupcakes ! < 3 and I tag @disney-dreams-25 and @roseofdarkness0 Let's get to it!!

John Seed - Far Cry 5 (My FC5 bb- i love HIIIIIIIm)

2. William Afton - Five Nights at Freddy's movie (Gah damn need i say more-)

3. Vaas Montenegro - Far Cry 3 (*Low whistling*)

4. Dylan Gould - Transformers DOTM (*Chef's kiss*)

5. Negan - TWD (I rlly need to do some rewatching...)

6. Eric Newlon - Thanksgiving movie (NEED I SAY-)

7. Frank Castle (he bby tho)

8. Steve McGarrett from Hawaii Five-O (He's new but, dayum-)

9. Peter Strahm from Saw (also new- but like i said. DAMNN-)

I'm so gay ya'll-

[agentperezbian]

tell us your top 5 Saw traps and top 5 fictional characters for the ask game <3

Top 5 Saw traps, with 1 being my favorite:

5. Eyeball Vacuum. This one shot up pretty high in my personal ranking even though it's a dream sequence, purely because of the atmosphere of the scene. I love the way it's shot, I love John's tape speech full of jokes, I love the way this scene really makes the VIEWER feel trapped and suffocated. It's just so well done in my opinion and it's my favorite in Saw X for sure. Also the music is so good.

4. Water Cube. I just think the practical effects are neat. They really made Scott Patterson do all that. They pourt wader on him. The visual of Strahm's head in the box in the darkness is so cool to me and I just love that he "cheats" the trap depending on where you stand on Hoffman leaving the pen there on purpose. I think players should be allowed to cheat more in Saw it's enriching (for me.)

3. Shotgun Collar. There's yuri. There's tension. Lynn's trap is such a fun one even if it's totally not rigged in her favor. I really like the traps where they aren't just some 60 second one-and-done. And if Lynn had survived this one, her scars would be more mental than physical. Much like Amanda really! Cut a guy open to stop your head from exploding, sounds a lot like Mandy's trap but with a lot more work involved.

2. SHOTGUN CAROUSEL <3 It's the fun, it's the whimsy, it's making the guy who chooses who lives and dies... do that. It's the tension between William Easton and his employees. It's the realization of the last guy to die when the second woman is saved. Shotgun carousel I love you forever.

1. The bathroom. The original. Classic. Simple. Sexy. I like slow burn traps which is why the carousel is so high. I need everyone involved to truly absorb the situation they're in and eat each other alive trying to get out. Or maybe... they fall in love. Anything can happen in these kinds of traps. Beautiful. They got married on that disgusting tile.

Top 5 fictional characters:

5. Aerith. FFVII.

4. Roxas. Kingdom Hearts.

3. Amanda Young. Saw.

2. Lightning Farron. FFXIII.

1. Cloud Strife. FFVII.

I was going to write long explanations for why they're all my favorite but I've already written too much. My favorite characters can rotate and change sometimes, but Cloud gets the top spot considering he's the character that got me into FF as a series. Roxas has taken Axel's place as my favorite KH character, and Aerith and Tifa are always fighting for my favorite female FFVII character but right now I'm feeling Aerith. Lightning is of course a close second to Cloud. And Amanda my beloved.

[wolfsbanesbite]

🍓🍄🔪❄️

1. What got me into writing fanfiction?

Uh....it's Leafpool x Crowfeather in Warrior Cats since I didn't know ff existed until 2009. Then my tiny mind was blown by the idea of extra stories of my favourite books/shows. I remember writing stuff about Leaf x Crow in my notebook. But also I used to write my own little stories as a ten year old based on the my secret unicorn/Stardust series by Linda Chapman but back then I didn't know ff was a thing. My early work was TERRIBLE. But I gained confidence over the years.

2. Favourite headcanon?

Hmmm I actually don't have one for any of my ships atm sadly :( but I know you like Saw so I could say I'd love to explore a Hoffman/Strahm type relationship for Simi. I guess the headcanon is the glass coffin trap Kimi would immediately climb in with Sebastian. No hesitation. He knows what Seb is doing and doesn't care anyway.

3. Dream fic and who I'd have to write it.

Oh damn. Well I love my werewolf stories but there's so many good writers to choose for that...so I'm gonna go for my ultimate craving. A D/s Simi AU with collaring written by @f1-disaster-bi 🤣❤️

[visceravalentines]

Ok u know what, I’m coming back with another ask from the fic writer ask game but this one is self-serving bc I’m strugglin to come up with a title for this Amanda fic I’m workin on and I need to know how the hell u do it. “11. How do you come up with your fic titles?”

omg ace!! what a good question. sometimes it's really hard and everything sounds like ur the next tara gilesbie.

looking back at my own fic titles, i really favor one or two words, or even a phrase, that sum up basically the heart of the fic but are maybe a little tongue-in-cheek. fever dreams--it's a heat wave, and everything is kind of delirious, and you do in fact have some dreams. solicitation--the crime you are trying to nail him for, but instead, he nails you. a goddamn break--something strahm needs at the beginning of the fic, and something he needs even more by the end. i guess i kind of just ask myself......what even is this. what is going on here.

i also really love titles that are referenced within the work itself (bo says southern men are either gentlemen or scoundrels in a gentleman and a scoundrel), or titles that are references to something else even if that thing doesn't really correlate (needful things is a reference to the stephen king book, even tho it has nothing to do with that).

when all else fails..........song title or lyrics. lol

[barkhoffman]

Feederism is MY kink and I’m gonna infect the Saw fandom with it. I’m already the #1 fat and hairy bear Mark Hoffman truther and now I will evolve

I think Mark is both a feeder and a feedee. He enjoys the process of cooking/providing for his sub, watching them gorge themselves on his food and rubbing their swollen and achy tummies. He’s an older brother and with how he reacted to Angelina’s death, I think he’s got some pretty strong caretaker instincts so being able to feed someone hits the perfect spot for him. And if after the meal, his sub is soft, round and a little in that dream-like state and wants to suck on something else? Well who is he to deny them~

(Could you imagine Hoffman cooing down at his sub (Strahm) to finish the plate and showering him in praise when the other man finally licks it clean? I could swoon)

On the flip side, I think he would absolutely adore being pampered. Rip Saw 7 ending Mark Hoffman, he would’ve loved to be fed a 7 course meal by hand while sitting pretty at his Doms feet. He would get little head pats every time he takes food gently (no teeth/nipping) and sucks his Doms fingers. His already soft fluffy tummy would get bigger with each bite until he has to go lay down on the couch or else his cramps would kill him. He’d be so full and satisfied and happy 🥰🥰🥰

(I also think Strahm would get a kick out of the control he has over Hoffmans body. Like being able to put anything down in front of the detective and he eats it without question, that kind of trust could go to a man’s head)

Thanks for coming to my dinner party :>

gotta admit anon, I've never really been into feederism, but the way you described it is tres appealing honhonhon

especially subby post-3D Hoffman... wow... someone needs to tame that boy... Lawrence shoulda kept him and not locked him in the corpse bathroom to die

quick question how do you feel about the Hannibal show btw

[adrianicsea]

saw character etymologies... 2!

hello again! yesterday i started a post exploring the etymology of several major characters in the saw franchise, but ended up cutting it short bc it wouldn’t let me add any more images to the post. (perhaps that was for the best, since that post was getting long anyways). in any case, there were more characters i wanted to talk about, so we’ll get into that now!

this post covers the matthews family, the denlon family, the hoffman/alcomb family, strahm, and perez.

for my first post— covering adam, the gordon family, the kramer family (including amanda), zep, tapp, and sing, click here.

since we’ve been roughly looking at these characters in the order we meet them in the movies, we’ll start with the matthews family. i wasn’t originally going to talk about eric because i don’t like him, but i suppose he is a major character, so for the sake of completionism, here he is.

eric has its origins in old norse, and its component sounds/syllables translate to “always” and “ruler.” thus, eric has variably been translated as “forever ruler,” “eternal power,” or variations thereupon. being a norse name, we don’t have a christian or biblical analogue to compare this time! eric matthews is a very angry, control-oriented person, so you could try and make some connections there. personally, i see parallels between such a high-status, kingly name and the central conflict between eric and john in saw 2. what happens when you pit an eternal ruler (one explicitly and implicitly Not in the bible) against someone graced by god?

matthews, on the other hand, has some very obvious biblical connections! the name itself comes from greek, but the GREEK in turn borrows from the hebrew name mattiyahu, which means “gift of god.” the bible contains a matthew, who was one of jesus’ apostles and who wrote the first gospel. one could argue that john didn’t actually want eric to fail his test, since eric’s test centers around fatherhood and that’s obviously such a sore subject for john. if you take that reading, perhaps eric was meant to win his test and spread the “gospel of jigsaw” — if not as an apprentice, then certainly as a survivor.

next we have daniel, who i am considerably happier to talk about!

daniel is another name that has its roots in hebrew, and it means “god is my judge.” it’s not hard to make the connection between that meaning and danny’s test in saw 2! the bible also featured a daniel, who among other things, had prophetic dreams and was famously thrown into a lions’ den (and emerged unharmed) in order to have his faith proven. i don’t really think there’s much of a connection with the dream thing, but i don’t think it’s a stretch at all to compare the nerve gas house to a lions’ den.

arguably, i think matthews’ meaning as “gift of god” has more resonance for daniel than it does for eric. we very often see children referred to as gifts, and given the whole father/child dynamic and tensions at play in saw 2, this name meaning adds a really nice extra level to things!

(since we briefly touched on allison kerry along with alison gordon on my last post, we’ll talk about daniel rigg here, too. the last name riggs is old english, and originally meant “ridge.” like tapp and sing, the name “rigg” also has police connotations— like rigging a case, rigging evidence, or rigging a jury.)

anyways! saw 2 doesn’t introduce a ton of characters who stick around, so we’ll move on to the denlon family next.

lynn is most commonly understood as being gaelic or welsh in origin, which is a first for the saw characters we’ve looked at! it means “lake,” “waterfall,” or “pool.” admittedly, this isn’t a name that has easy, immediate connections to the character, the way that so many others we’ve seen have been. water is often associated with a “feminine” energy in many cultures (including in ireland, where this name finds its origin), and it’s also seen as a quiet, introspective, and yet insistent and unyielding element. while a lake or pool might be seen as soothing, relaxing, contemplative places, a waterfall is a classic symbol of the strength and awe of nature. you could draw parallels between all of those connotations and lynn’s characterization as someone who’s both a quiet, compassionate caretaker figure and an iron-willed doctor and grieving parent, just doing her best to survive.

denlon was a little harder to find, as it’s one of those uncommon different spellings/variations of a name. the closest matches i found were denton and donlon. of these, denton is english and simply referred to people who lived in the place also called denton. donlon, however, is ALSO gaelic, and is a modernization/anglicization of the gaelic “o’domhnallain,” which means “male descendant of domhnall.” the irish o’donnellans were a noble bardic clan in ancient ireland, so maybe you could draw a connection between that and some of the other noble/high status names we’ve seen for characters like lawrence and alison. mostly, tbh, i’m just surprised at how irish lynn’s name turned out to be!

as i mentioned before, denlon was originally amanda’s last name in the saw 1 screenplay, and as far as i know, nobody’s ever said why it was changed to young. but after looking at both names, i think that young is a MUCH more fitting surname for amanda, given her personality and her character arc.

next up, we have slow-ass jeff. it’s a shame jeff sucks so bad, because angus macfayden is a VERY fun actor to watch— if any of y’all are so inclined, i’d recommend the 1999 movie cradle will rock, which features him as orson welles alongside detestable blond fiend cary elwes as a VERY camp and VERY gay john houseman. but i digress! y’all are here for names.

we’ll assume that jeff is short for jeffrey, mostly because if it’s short for jerfferson, that would only mean “son of jeffrey.” jeffrey has origins in english, french, and germanic, and all of them kind of comingled and blended over the centuries so it’s a bit unclear where it first started. in any case, the most common meaning for the name is “divine peace.” like amanda’s name, this is a very deliciously cruel and ironic name— peace is the one thing jeff can never have, and the one thing he repeatedly denies himself by dwelling on revenge and the loss of his son.

jeff has also been seen with the last name reinhart— most likely, this was done during the lead-up to saw 3’s release to hide the twist that he and lynn are married. reinhart has appeared in more different spellings and in more different countries than you can shake a stick at, but the most commonly accepted origin for it is early germanic, where it was a compound name meaning “brave, hardy counsel.” during this time period, there were also a great many stories about a fox named reinhart (or a variation of it,) which proved so popular that the french started using the word “renard” to refer to foxes in the 13th century— so we can also consider this name to have connotations of being sly, cunning, or sneaky. unfortunately, jeff is none of these things— foolhardy, maybe, but not cunning or particularly brave. irony!

we’ll take a quick look at dylan and corbett now, and hopefully you’ll all forgive me for not having pictures of either of them handy. dylan is... another welsh name! holy shit! it means “son of the sea” or “born from the ocean,” which adds a lot of REALLY nice resonance with lynn’s name also referring to water. as for corbett, it’s most commonly seen as a last name, not a first one. it has its origin in old english, drawing from the same root term as corvus to give us the meaning “raven.” ravens are often seen as bad omens or harbingers of death, and they appear as companion animals to deities of death and war in MANY celtic religions— the irish goddess an morrígan, for example. but as cool as all of THAT is, corbett is the name of leigh whannell’s wife, which is probably why corbett denlon has the name that she does. still, the thematic resonance is very strong, so i guess it’s a happy accident!

with the denlon family out of the way, it’s time for the bastard men and their sister figures. i’m pretty excited to talk about them tbh!

sorry (or am i?) for using this photo of hoffman but it’s so fucking funny i couldn’t resist.

his first name is mark, which is commonly understood to be latin-rooted and to mean “warlike.” this meaning derives itself from mars, the name of the roman god of war. there’s also a mark in the bible— he’s one of jesus’ apostles, and the writer of the second gospel. some sources contend that mark was also the apostle who witnessed judas’ betrayal of jesus in the garden of gethesmane, just before jesus was arrested and subsequently crucified. all of that being said, this website also explores mark as a name meaning or relating to “hammer,” and posits that the mark in the bible was jewish, and probably related to the maccabees. maccabee comes from a hebrew word ALSO meaning hammer, and famously, the maccabees were the jewish heroes who fought against the persians— chanukah emerged as a holiday to celebrate the maccabees’ victory against the persians after being pinned down inside a temple for eight days!

in either case, the name mark clearly has a strong, ferocious, warlike connotation to it, which suits hoffman’s violent disposition and his increasingly brutal tactics/worldview over the course of the series. i don’t really feel qualified to speak too much on any possible maccabee connections, as i’m a gentile, but the idea that the biblical mark saw judas’ betrayal of jesus could serve as a parallel of hoffman knowing/learning about amanda’s involvement with gideon’s death, i suppose.

in at least one earlier draft of the movies, hoffman’s first name was alexander. this is a greek name that means “defender of men,” and it’s also got connotations of war and conquering to it— alexander the great, anyone? there’s a handful of alexanders in the bible, too, but none of them are particularly notable. had they kept this name, it would have been a nice bit of irony, or a meditation on whether hoffman is fulfilling or failing his duties as a defender of men by being a jigsaw apprentice.

hoffman, the surname, is germanic. historically, a hoffman was simply a farmer who OWNED their own farmland, as opposed to working the land of a feudal lord. i’ve seen one website give hoffman as meaning “unexpected king,” but i’ve not seen that corroborated ANYWHERE else, so i’m a little hesitant to consider that one too strongly. even still, there’s a sort of agency and self-determinism in the name hoffman that we see reflected in mark’s assumption of the jigsaw mantle!

i unfortunately don’t have a picture for hoffman’s departed sister angelina alcomb either, but we’ll be brief with her. you (hopefully) won’t be surprised to learn that angelina simply means angel. we never see angie alive in the movies, so that fits, but it also reflects her innocence, the senselessness of her death, and that she was a positive influence/force in hoffman’s life. as for alcomb, that’s another name that’s been spelled differently, so it’s a bit harder to point to a concrete source. halcomb and lacomb both refer to places in england, while acomb refers to “a gathering place at the oaks.” oak trees have long been associated with age, wisdom, longevity, and protection, and are sometimes understood as a “tree of life.” again, these associations all suggest angie’s position as a protective, positive force in hoffman’s life— one that he suffers and falls without.

angie also has her own early-draft name; in her case, it was laura. this name refers to the bay laurel plant, which we’ve already discussed in the previous post as pertaining to lawrence. i couldn’t tell you why mark and angie’s names were changed, but in angie’s case, i do think it was the right choice.

now that we’ve gotten through hoffman and his sister, let’s look at their shadow reflections!!

god i fucking love strahm. he’s so fucked up and swagless. his eye bags ❤️

peter has its origins in greek, where it means “stone.” peter is also the name of one of the biblical apostles, who was famously very devout— and who, just as famously, denied having known jesus three times after his crucifixion. peter was later crucified himself, though he insisted on being crucified upside down so as not to assume the same role/importance as jesus. this led to his sainthood, and as a saint, saint peter’s patronage includes fishermen, sailors, shipbuilders, locksmiths, builders, and stonemasons. saint peter is also famously attributed as a sort of bouncer/gatekeeper for heaven, as he holds “the keys to heaven.”

there’s a lot there! a stone is something we consider very sturdy, stable, and unmoving, and we see that in strahm’s unwavering dedication to solving the jigsaw case. you might also notice a lot of naval/water associations with saint peter— that connects to strahm, too, we we’ll see in just a moment. personally, i’m not sure right now how else to connect the biblical/saint peter to strahm, but i’d love to hear from you guys on that!!

a quick note: though we never see it in canon, there IS a profile/“stat sheet” made for strahm that lists his middle name as david. we won’t rehash david’s etymology again, since we talked about it with tapp yesterday. i just thought it was interesting to mention!

if you’ve been kicking around the saw fandom much, you may have seen that in an earlier version of saw 4, strahm is instead spelled as straum. this is, in fact, the most common spelling of the surname! it’s a swedish word/name and simply means “stream.” taken on its own, it doesn’t seem to mean much— but then you remember that peter means stone. what happens when you drop a stone into water? it sinks... you might even say it drowns. this parallels BEAUTIFULLY, not only with strahm’s near-death in the water cube, but with his sinking into obsession with discovering the truth of the jigsaw case.

finally, we’ll round things out with perez, the angelina to peter’s hoffman!

lindsey has a few slightly different meanings, depending on which origin you pull from. it can variably mean “linden tree by the water” or “island of linden trees,” neither of which are too different from each other. linden trees are known for their heart shaped leaves and are used to make a variety of medicines and other natural remedies. symbolically, linden trees are associated with love/healing, luck/prosperity, and truth/justice. i think all of these associations work for perez, particularly the truth and justice association! you could also draw connections to her bond with strahm, or with her truly terrible luck over the course of the movies.

perez, while we may think of it as a spanish name today, actually ALSO has its roots in hebrew, where it means “breach” or “breakthrough.” very fitting for a detective! additionally, and this was a shock for me to learn— perez is often seen/used as another form of the english peter. i don’t really think i need to say anything further about that!

AND with that, that wraps up my saw etymology series! if there’s any other characters y’all REALLY want me to look at, i will, but these two posts pretty much cover all of the characters that i have any personal investment or interest in. in any case, i hope you all enjoyed these and found them helpful/interesting :) please feel free to discuss any of this stuff with me too!!!

[tibby]

had a dream that i was working as a barista on the beach in the saw universe but i was also secretly an apprentice and peter strahm was a regular at my coffee shop and would always order a long black (that’s just a plain black coffee) and he came to order it like “this is my last day here they’re sending me back to washington” and i was like damn that sucks :/ and wrote CLOWN on his coffee lid. and then he just walked on the beach in his nice shoes and dress pants and tie and button down with the sleeves rolled up looking all depressed and mad as he drank his coffee. which sounds accurate to be honest. and then i went to tell hoffman the news but he was already writing strahm an angry misspelled email about it. about the leaving not the coffee on the beach thing. anyway i think there might be something wrong with me.

[doomednarrative]

I HAD A DREAM that there was a new saw movie and in it strahm was alive and in hoffman's house and when hoffman showed up he said "babe this has got to stop" and fsr keanu reeves was also in this movie as like. a vigilante. there was also a new hostel film but idr wjat that one was abt.

SFAJHSASAAS LMAO IM DYING You're the second person to tell me they've had a Saw related dream about these two thats fuckin hilarious