For the first film: Why did Eric and Shelly's apartment still have police tape over the front door one year later? Police investigation of the scene should be long since done. I can understand there being no interest in fixing the place up and renting it out again, but over the course of the year there hadn't even been a single prospective squatter or looter who would have torn the tapes off?
As far as squatters go the whole reason they were murdered was for resisting Top Dollar's attempts to remove everyone from the area. It's reasonable then that no one would have returned to live there, even illegally. However the tape should have still been removed after the scene was opened at the conclusion of the police investigation.
They lived in the extreme slums. What makes you think there 'was' a police investigation? They showed up to put up tape, dragged out the bodies, never came back.
Considering that Eric has scars from the assault, but no incision in the chest that typically would be done for an autopsy, it's not too far to suggest that the investigation was squashed (this was the explanation as to why Albrecht was busted down to "beat cop", because he wanted to continue to investigate, but clearly someone didn't because it dead-ended with Shelly dying).
Related to the above, how did Gabriel the cat survive the entire year, with no visible changes? The police apparently didn't notice him during their investigation, and Sarah thought he'd died, so there was no one to feed or take care of him. It's possible he travelled outside to hunt via the window? But when Eric comes back, he finds his same friendly, plump, pristine white, long-haired cat, rather than the underfed, terribly matted, semi-feral Gabriel more likely would have had to become.
Maybe the crow wasn't the only magical animal. Gabriel is an all white cat and didn't seem bothered when his long dead owner returned. I'd always assumed that Gabriel was supposed to be an angel or something along those lines but that it was scrapped or not given that much emphasis.
Second that. The name Gabriel and the pristine whiteness of the cat certainly imply something along these lines.
I think it's simply the case of Gabriel surviving as an alley cat and not looking gross because Beauty Is Never Tarnished. Gabriel does nothing in the plot to imply that he's a divine being.
How did a couple living in such a slum afford a purebred Persian cat (perhaps he was adopted after a richer friend could not longer keep him for some reason)?
Having worked at an animal shelter, I can tell you that people do abandon and surrender purebreds, usually because their care turns out to be more expensive than anticipated (purebreds tend to have a lot of health issues)/
As the Crow (the bird, I mean) was seemingly killed, or better yet, injured, Eric not only lost his regenerative abilities, but also began bleeding from his injuries. Does the Crow's absence mean that Eric is alive once more (animation via vulnerability), or just suffered loss of his power?
In the deleted scene with the Skull Cowboy, Eric actually lost his powers when he killed Skank. Even ignoring that, as the next two films show, the Crow can't really be killed and it just weakens the person it returned.
Related to the above, in a deleted scene, Funboy attacked Eric with a razor, and Eric not only felt these attacks, but they didn't heal and Eric had to tape them up. Huh?
As I recall, expelling the heroin from Shelly's mother sapped his power, preventing his recent injuries from regenerating. All the scenes establishing this were cut, so all the remains is the tape on his hands afterwards.
T-Bird reports to Top Dollar that Eric killed Tin-Tin by stabbing him in all his vital organs "in alphabetical order." How could he know what order each organ was stabbed in? Was he hanging around watching (I always presumed that this was a metaphorical embellishment for poetic emphasis. Like one might say "from A to Z" or "six ways to Sunday")?
Yes, it's just a morbid joke by the cop.
I understand the rationale behind most of the deaths (T-Bird - arson, Funboy - drug overdose, Tin Tin - multiple knife stabs, Myca - eyes gouged out), but what I sometimes don't understand is how "remembering" Shelly's death is the appropriate death for Top Dollar.
Top Dollar is the one who bears the ultimate responsibility for all the events of the film. As he tells Eric, he cleared their building. Everyone else that Eric killed was one of his subordinates, in one way or another.
Additional point: Top Dollar always ordered the illegal tenant evictions, which his men would then carry out, but it's not stated that he himself ever personally took part in such actions. Which means he wouldn't have seen the suffering of his gang's victims firsthand (though, knowing him, it's likely he wouldn't have cared even if he had). So Eric's Mind Rape of him was him getting to feel the same kind of pain he was responsible for dishing out.
In the movie, Eric's coffin has apparently been buried about two inches below the ground. It's amazing natural erosion didn't expose it.
Given that his grave is completely undisturbed at the end of the movie as though he had never left it, this can probably be chalked up as 'things are not what they seem'.
In addition to the above, Eric's grave wasn't buried in two inches of dirt as the OP implies. Brandon Lee was 6 foot tall, so the casket that Eric was in also had to be 6 foot tall. Considering the lid is pushed up and only two feet are sticking out higher than the ground, that means that the remaining 4 feet of the lid is hidden under the dirt. That means the grave is, appropriately, six feet under the ground.
Who pawns a whole bunch of barrels of gasoline? In the comics, it was just a kerosene generator and a spare gallon of fuel that Eric jerry-rigged into a bomb.
Stolen merchandise that T-Bird or some other gang got during a robbery?
Considering the Crapsack World of the city as depicted in both the comic and the film, it could very well be that some junkie syphoned the gas out of parked cars to sell to Gideon to get money for drugs. Junkies often are willing to do whatever it takes to get a fix, even stealing things that aren't bolted down. Considering Gideon knows Tin-Tin and T-Bird, it's likely that Gideon bought the gas for cheap and had plans on selling it to T-Bird the next time he came by (especially since Devil's Night was soon. And T-Bird is a known arsonist. Gideon may have decided he could probably unload the gas off onto him for Devil's Night. But, Gideon had the unfortunate luck of being the one who had Shelly's ring, and a Crow came rapping at his chamber door).
What on Earth does Maya have tattooed on her back? We only see it briefly when she’s showering, but it’s near-impossible to tell what it is. The best guess I can come up with is some kind of crayfish, but who gets a tattoo of a crayfish?
I guess the same kind of person who's in an incestuous relationship with their half-brother and lists 'cutting out people's eyes' as a hobby.
Near as I can tell from a paused shot, it appears to be a somewhat stylized crow with a what looks like some sort of tramp stamp further below it.
