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THE FINAL PROBLEM - part 5 of many - For Tonight. part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4.

This is in the Watson's Sketchbook series!

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Happy birthday Officer Eiffel!

And happy "CHRISTMAS SPECIAL" to everyone else.

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Emma D'Arcy as Romeo in ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

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happy men's day everyoneeeee

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i want more nuance to be entered into the discussion of the green girl sorority and how differently cynthia plays elphaba in comparison to those who came before her because while a lot of people are rightfully like "why was elphaba not black from the beginning" and celebrating that she is now being played by a black woman, i think we need to be careful in just writing off all the elphabas of the past as Random White Girls when the role was championed (and often followed/succeeded) by a jewish woman

the pop culture archetype of the Wicked Witch has deep roots in antisemitism stretching faaaar far back. there is a level of reclamation happening in casting idina menzel, a jewish woman, to play the Misunderstood and Maligned young girl who is branded as exactly that. and stage!Elphaba is also written and acted with jewish stereotypes in mind--she is loud, aggressive, no-nonsense, blunt. she is quick to advocate for herself and shut down the discrimination she faces. all of this is very intentional! her personality is abrasive from years of abuse, and that makes propagandizing her easy. this is literally the thesis statement of the musical--it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed.

cynthia's performance of elphaba is fucking INSPIRED despite going in a completely different direction. she's much more reserved, analytical, one of her key character traits is how well she can read people (see her calling out Galinda as insecure/putting on airs in their first scene together, clocking that Fiyero is using his party guy persona as a shield for his own depression) elphaba's attempts to blend in and make herself smaller all fail simply because of her existence, if not that then because she feels empathy so strongly she often struggles to hold back from acting, protecting.

personality wise, though, cynthia's elphaba is very quiet and closed-off, not at all the bullet-to-the-face that she is in the stage show, and... she still gets propagandized and maligned. though this seems to contradict the other interpretation, it tells of the other end of the spectrum of propaganda, one that black women watching (and many, MANY other marginalized folks) are sure to identify with--it does not matter how "nice," how reserved, how small a black woman makes herself. a racist society will still scrutinize her every action for a way to parse ill intent from it, brand her as an angry black woman who is dangerous and wicked, and write off any humanity she has in the process.

these two very different interpretations tell of the lie of assimilation. the fact of the matter is, when you are marginalized, there is no way to sand down your edges enough to make the people oppressing you "accept" you. that is why wicked is a tragedy at its core. whether loud and aggressive or quiet and unimposing, there is nothing elphaba could have done to make the people of Oz see her as anything other than a scapegoat to blame all their problems on.

so while i definitely appreciate that people are excited for black girl era elphaba, i would encourage us all to still show appreciation for what came before--that was not white girl era elphaba. that was jewish girl era elphaba. two houses, both alike in dignity, two stories both worth being told.

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everyone yipee!! i think tumblr has destroyed the quality but oh well...what ya gonna do! i hope everyone enjoyed the 25 days of daily locked tomb, wont tag everyone but will tag some of the more popular guys

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🎵 it's the most wonderful time of the year 🎵

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has this been done yet

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You ever think about Scully's outfit in Darkness Falls because I do

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sherlock and co spoilers ahead!

somewhere midway this adventure mary's ending became pretty clear to me but I gotta say that I think they really fumbled it. Introducing a character named Marianna at the beginning who was clearly a stand in for both ms. Hudson AND mary morstan, and then making mary morstan a person that once stood john up, and then having him fall for her while the team is a lil suspicious/wary of her and then killing her off was very inconsistent to me. Her presence and then absence throughout the story felt really patchy, from a near constance presence at the beginning to an afterthought in later episodes. Mary Morstan is a weird character to adapt when adapting SH because she just straight up vanishes one day, but it felt like their inconsistencies just matched up with conan doyle's own difficulty. Idk I'm underwhelmed

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Every time you post about Wheel of Time i become so intrigued and so confused about what the heck this series even is about

A group of village children (actually 16-24 y/o) get forcibly adopted by tiny, bisexual, lady gandalf and are poked into saving the world. It takes 14 books because no one listens to lady gandalf. she is always right, but no one listens. she’s also dating the pope, who is in fact a fish disguised as a woman

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Ariana going full lesbian Glinda on main and new wheel of time trailer dropping on the SAME DAY…huuuuge day for annoying people….

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Oh come on lady, you can't deny a man his gaycation

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"Camilla Hect, yet another of devotion's casualties"

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ur gonna be popular

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"Wiping the blood from her mouth, Moiraine crawled out from beneath the tail of the wagon and rose unsteadily to her feet, the sound of a man's laughter in her ears."

— The Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan

Moiraine and whump go well together, Robert Jordan said so