We open with history, which gives us a good sense of how much that history will impact the present-day events. We also open on a battlefield, which sets the story of what-will-be pretty damn emphatically. And we open with Ichabod Crane, the revolutionary soldier, no more a schoolteacher who's scared of his own shadow than anyone else on that field. Sure, he flinches at gunshots. That's what you do when people are shooting at you. So right away we've established some points of congruity but also some significant points of discrepancy between this and the story we (all? what do they teach them in schools these days, anyway) grew up with. I can't venture a guess offhand as to why Crane is checking pulses on the redcoats aside from ensuring that they're really dead and can't be used as POWs; there's nothing to imply he's a medic in any case. More common battlefield practice would be an extra stab or slice to ensure they're dead and not going to attack you, but I suppose that would conflict with our image of Ichabod as Our Hero. Oh, and here comes the Horseman. Who is not at the moment headless, but he is indeed faceless, wearing something that looks like a reject from Man in the Iron Mask. (K: Or any Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie.) Oh goodie. That's always a positive sign, doncha know. Combat! Combat combat and there's something even now about the Horseman's attitude and body language pointed toward Crane that suggests familiarity or at least recognition, meaning that yes, Ichy, you're the target. Judging by the shout from one of his compatriots, safe money is that they expected this on some level, even if it's just Murphy's Law level. (Why nobody has introduced Crane to Murphy's Law onscreen, I do not know. I think he'd get a kick out of it.) So we have the Horseman taking one shot somewhere in the torso, Crane taking an axe to the chest and that is not something you recover from on an 18th century battlefield, generally speaking, and oh, there goes the head.
