i’ve been thinking of the scratch in the wrong way… I’ve been calling Jane and Karkat’s worlds the ‘scratched’ timelines, as in English has to 'scratch’ a session to mark it for entry. but of course that’s wrong; we don’t have scratched and unscratched sessions, we have sessions pre- and post-scratch. in reality, John and Kankri’s sessions are the ones that got 'scratched’; a 'scratched’ pool game is one you’ve lost, and to 'scratch that’ is something you do when you no longer have need for it. English doesn’t scratch the worlds he intends to enter, he scratches the ones that have outlived their purpose…

to that end, Cronus’ dual scars / two scratches aren’t a sign that he was marked as English’s host like I suggested in the past; they’re a sign that English tried to use him as a host and failed, like a disc put into the wrong player. so malo’s assessment, that Jake hitting his head and receiving brain damage is what 'scratched’ him and - much like the knock on the head Goku received as a child - prevented him from becoming an evil avatar of English, is probably more in line with my assessment of the situation than I initially gave it credit for?