#Gnawed

[postpunkindustrial]

Gnawed - Field Drift

Halloween Season: Dark Ambient

[testure-1988]

[sointuina]

feeling extremely normal about these two

[thethcministry]

[mintaii]

a little post act 1 drawing...

[uisceb]

Okay I want to talk about this moment between Morrible and Glinda for a sec because it adds such a wonderfully sinister layer to a scene that is otherwise a triumphant defining moment for Elphaba, and it sets up the dynamics for Part 2 so perfectly.

At this point, we are in the thick of “Defying Gravity.” Everyone’s attention is on Elphaba - and rightfully so, she’s up there declaring war on the Wizard, displaying incredible feats of magic, of course everyone’s attention is on her.

…Everyone, except Morrible.

Morrible has realized that Plan A was a bust, but rather than panicking, she’s already worked over Plans B through Z in her head and has realized that Glinda, not Elphaba, is actually the key figure here. Glinda is actually the best thing that could have happened to them.

Mind you, Morrible hates Glinda. She thinks Glinda is vapid and attention-seeking and completely without talent. It would be extremely easy for her to brand Glinda as an accomplice to Elphaba, have the guards drag her off, imprison her, never have to deal with her again, nice and neat.

Instead, while everyone else is focused on Elphaba, Morrible only has eyes for Glinda. She zeroes in on her, releases her, and comforts her, because she understands what no one else understands, which is that yes, that’s great that the Wizard now has an enemy to unify his people against, but they also need a symbol of hope, something that is the exact antithesis to Elphaba, something to keep everyone at extremes. 

The Wizard himself can’t really be a symbol of hope, because the key to his success is that he remains shrouded in mystery, and yes people think he’s wonderful, but there’s a level of uncertainty and intimidation to him. He is Oz the Great and Terrible, and everyone’s preeeeeetty sure he’s a good guy, but if you have someone like Elphaba out there - who Morrible knows from experience is very smart, very articulate, and has her own sort of magnetism - there’s a potential that she could turn at least enough people against the Wizard to make things very inconvenient.

So what they need, now that they have an enemy, is to have an equally magnetic figurehead representing the Wizard who embodies all these one-dimensional ideas of goodness, someone for the public to adore and fawn over so the association between Wizard and Goodness is crystal clear.

And by bringing Glinda along, Elphaba has unknowingly served that figurehead up on a platter.

Glinda is everything Elphaba isn’t, from personality, to appearance - Morrible has already set Elphaba up by calling her green skin an “outward manifestorium of her twisted nature,” which paves the way for Glinda, who is the perfect conventional beauty, to be an “outward manifestorium” of pure goodness. 

Morrible realizes they need these two lightning rods of Absolute Evil and Absolute Good in order to manipulate people - fear alone isn’t enough; the only way to effectively radicalize the populace is to make sure there is no gray area whatsoever, no room for question: you're either good, or you’re evil. And the Wizard alone isn’t a strong enough representation of “goodness” when by virtue of existing, he has to remain in the shadows. Glinda on the other hand? With her looks and her charm and her openness and her ability to expertly win over a crowd? Perfect for the role.

Now the tricky part for Morrible is taking into consideration that Glinda and Elphaba love each other. But we also know from earlier scenes that Morrible is a master at manipulating emotions. Right from the start when Elphaba is having trouble with her magic, Morrible casually brings up the “Animals should be seen and not heard” disturbance from class, spoon-feeding her just enough to get Elphaba upset, triggering her magic, after which Morrible makes sure to give her assurance and praise to keep Elphaba optimistic about her power.

She’s also aware that Glinda does have quite a bit of influence over Elphaba, because when Elphaba flees, Morrible immediately tasks her with winning her over, rather than simply relying on the guards or even going after Elphaba herself. She knows if anyone has a chance at roping Elphaba back in, it's Glinda.

Obviously, Glinda isn’t successful in getting her back, but while this puts a dent in Morrible’s plans to get control of Elphaba, it does give her an extra weak spot to exploit in Glinda.

So now, at the height of “Defying Gravity” when Elphaba has officially taken her stand against them, Morrible sees Glinda, and Glinda is at her most vulnerable, her most emotionally fragile. Not only is she heartbroken and in shock, she’s also just witnessed in real time exactly how easy it is to turn an entire nation against someone. She’s scared, she’s powerless. She’s just lost the love of her life her only friend, she has no one to turn to - Morrible has definitely picked up on the fact that even though Glinda has countless people who fawn over her, none of them can be considered a true friend except for Elphaba, which means Glinda is completely isolated. Glinda also has a very limited understanding of the bigger picture of what the Wizard is trying to accomplish, and because she’s never been a victim of the system the way Elphaba has, she is still desperately clinging to the idea that everything will be okay as long as she plays by the rules of the people in power.

She has been perfectly primed for Morrible to begin manipulating, not through violence or intimidation, but by offering her comfort when no one else would - when not even Glinda’s only friend would - when no one else is even paying attention to Glinda, because they have the very real and present threat of Elphaba quite literally hanging over them. In this moment, Morrible chooses Glinda, which Glinda has been striving for since the beginning. Elphaba has chosen her principles, the Wizard has chosen his enemy, but Morrible has chosen Glinda, and in this moment of being so alone and so afraid and so betrayed, that makes all the difference.

We also get kind of a parallel shot too - Elphaba really sealed her fate the second her hand closed around the broom. But here, Glinda seals her fate when she gives in and reciprocates Morrible’s hold on her.

THIS is the moment that sets us up for Part 2, with Elphaba and Glinda as our lightning rods for Absolute Evil and Absolute Good, but more to the point, it makes it clear that they’ve BOTH been used, they’ve BOTH played right into these respective roles Morrible and the Wizard need in order to be successful - even if it wasn’t how Morrible originally planned for things to go.

I just love it, because “Defying Gravity” is Elphaba’s song - it’s triumphant, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s everything a defining moment should be for a character. But by injecting this little moment between Morrible and Glinda into the scene, we also get an underlying current of dread because we know we’re about to see the consequences of Elphaba’s defiance versus Glinda’s compliance and how both serve to benefit the Wizard/Morrible’s propaganda.

TL;DR - when I said "I want to talk about this scene between Morrible and Glinda for a sec" I clearly meant "I'm gonna write a whole essay. Like a nerd."

[thankstothe]

okey-doke 🥺

[kelin-is-writing]

HELLO???? PRO-HERO TOUYA???? I’M FOLDING SO BAD—?????

[mercuryflan]

“Checkmate dance”

Just them walking around after one of their adventures.

[iheartsteve0704]

trying to be normal about the fact that people think 1) señor scratchy was a gift from Rio or 2) Agatha named him señor scratchy because it reminded her of the two people she loved the most (her son and her Spanish speaking WIFE)

[muutosarchive]

' i don't like these people . but i like you . . ' from shinji to a muse of your choice!

🍒 @gnawed . too lazy to find the meme

christopher inhales through his long nose . . . for every inch of the werewolf's expression screams wariness. hackles raised, so to speak. . . . the slight narrowing of brows that slightly shroud his hooded eyes, the gentle clench of his jaw -- all the way to the way his chin raises as soft blues flicker over the gentleman. the words seemed quite interesting . . . though with his hands tugging on the lapels of his suit, he tries to play it off readily as the other speaking of the other patrons at the casino.

"oh, really?" the german born swallows hard, chin coming downward.

"that's strange . . . people, ah -- usually don't like the owner of their favorite casino." he says, very soft spoken as usual. " sometimes they think we are . . . stealing from them." his lips part. heavily accented, &. deep voice teetering off in a chuckle, born out of more nervousness than anything. his cadence &. flow of speech reliant on how well he remembers his english on a day to day. however he shifts &. looks around the landscape of slots. "i am glad you don't feel that way."

[prsrott]

@gnawed / CONT.

[   ...   ]     𝐇𝐄  𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃  𝐓𝐎  𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒  the  laugh,   he  really  did.   only  for  it  to  end  in  utter  failure.   mocking  smirk  meets  a  mocking  laugh,   venom  dropping  off  his  tongue  reminiscent  of  a  viper  stalking  its  prey.   are  kids  always  this  fucking  edgy  these  days   ?   he  thought  they  left  this  phase  back  in  '07  with  the  skinny  jeans  and  shitty  haircuts.   “   oooh   —   i'm  so  scared.   angry  white  boy's  coming  to  get  me,   ”   holding  his  hands  in  the  air  in  mock  surrender,   efforts  to  hide  his  chuckle  persists  in  failure.   “   calm  the  fuck  down,   kid.   am  not  here  for  you,   ”   bigger  fish  to  fry,   he  almost  says.   but  something  tells  him  that  the  kid  in  question  doesn't  know  what  said  bigger  fish  even  is.   “   y'seen  weird  shit  going  around  or  what   ?   ”

꩜ THE DISRESPECT STINGS, nathan is admittedly taken-aback for a second, a harsh blow to a fine china pistol, all show, not much use beyond the eventual breakage — ( this shit works on teens in your school, but not adults visiting grounds, dumbass. ) as this nobody speaks, his fists readily ball up inside his jacket sleeves, nails splitting skin in deep seeded embarrassment. this was stupid. the cracks show almost immediately. pathetic. decidedly, he glosses over the ‘ angry white boy ’ comment, for the betterment of his own unsteady self image.

“ … what, what the fuck are you here for ? ” the stutter, a pang of seething rage consumes his throat momentarily, winding him of his words, his feet are no longer so stable on this so-called ‘ home turf. ’ then, he just has to ask … “ weird shit ? ( FUCK. is this some fbi agent undercover ? nathan’s hands clam up & suddenly the vice grip is lost. surely, it can’t be. ) um, no. no. just … y’know. as i said. alcoholic headmaster during work hours. really above the board stuff. ” a chuckle, nervous, revealing, let alone his now skittish body language. so, naturally, he promptly turns to leave …

[resvarie]

boothilly

[lacquerheadd]

pov: you glance over during training in camp