#She mixed up two anime movies about witches

[gothamite-rambler]

Jason read the book Wicked specifically to mess with people

Stephanie (eagerly leaning forward, eyes sparkling): God, I can't wait for this movie to come out already!

Cass smiled softly while nodding in agreement, her enthusiasm matching Stephanie’s.

Cass: After the antics from that actress, I have my doubts. Plus it'll be a two-parter—very strange decision.

Stephanie shrugged, her smile nonchalant as she waved off the concern.

Stephanie: Hey, as long as they can capture the essence of the original story, I’m good. I've been a fan since I was a teen; it was one of the few good memories with my ma. She saved up money for tickets—

Jason (interrupting casually while tossing around a stress ball, smirking): I wonder if they're going to add in the orgy scene. It'd be something to witness. A few people I’ve met would love it, but for the book, I felt like it was pointless to add.

Stephanie and Cass stared at Jason, their expressions a mix of between shock and confusion, unsure how to react to his comment.

Jason (shrugging, unfazed): We’re talking about the book based off that unpopular play, right?

Stephanie (slight growl): Unpopular?

Cass giggled, shaking her head, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Cass: J, you know that we’re referring to the very popular and highly praised musical.

Stephanie (confused, glancing between them): There’s no way you thought we were talking about a book with a— There’s a book?

Cass (nodding, with a grin): It’s what the musical was inspired by.

Jason (smirking, his eyes twinkling with mischief): Obviously, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. A classic. They're making a movie out of the play? So odd.

Jason kept tossing the stress ball around, chuckling dryly at the absurdity of it all.

Stephanie (growing aggressive, fists clenching): You KNOW about the musical! Duke has played the soundtrack in the gym before!

With a sudden movement, Stephanie snatched the ball away, her furrowed brow revealing her annoyance.

Jason (crossing his arms, feigning innocence): I'm not into musicals like you two are, sorry. If there’s a book that came first, I read that. It’s always better than the adaptation.

Stephanie (exasperated, eyes narrowing): You are about to make a curse word slip out! Wicked is one of those cases where it was a billion times better than the book!

Jason (grinning, teasingly): I doubt it. You want to hear more about the animal orgy? I memorized lines.

Cass laughed, shaking her head, clearly enjoying the playful banter. She relished when her brother shared outlandishly disturbing facts, discovering which would elicit the best reactions.

Stephanie (shouting, hands on her hips): NO! Dang, first you ruined the movie It! I did not need to know what those kids did to each other in the tunnels!

Jason (calmly, with a smirk): I will let everyone suffer with that part of the book. I had to read that, and it was lengthy.

Stephanie (disgusted, crossing her arms tightly): Yes! Which is why I didn’t need you to read the entire section to me while we were tied up once!

Cass giggled gleefully as she leaned forward, her chin resting in her palm, elbow comfortably placed on the table, a playful smile illuminating her face.

Cass (playfully): You memorized it?

Jason nodded, a knowing smile on his lips, as Stephanie rolled her eyes in exaggerated frustration.

Stephanie (huffing, mock-seriously): Point is, you weirdo, let me live in my musical version of Wicked with no animal orgies! I will enjoy the film, and no one will ruin that for me!

Cass (with a sly smile, enjoying the tension): Don’t tell her about the book's sequel.

Jason (smirking, raising an eyebrow): Oh, you mean the one where that guy gets assaulted in his sleep?

Stephanie (throwing her hands up in exasperation): You both suck!

With that, Stephanie stormed out while Jason and Cass burst into laughter, high-fiving triumphantly.

[be-gay-find-cryptids]

(Part 1) Film & TV Recommendations for Halloween

1. Over the Garden Wall (Miniseries, 2014)

Over the Garden Wall features two half-brothers, Wirt and Gregory, who have become lost in a mysterious wood called The Unknown and attempt to find their way back home.

...

This beautifully crafted animated miniseries is the best thing to come out of Cartoon Network even after ten years. The unique atmosphere, which blends fairytale charm with Gothic eeriness, perfectly compliments the early 20th-century Americana-styled animation. At just ten episodes, Over the Garden Wall is a short but impactful experience that lingers with you long after it ends. I highly recommend this series.

2. Coraline (Film, 2009)

Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, an 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life.

...

This stop-motion animated film is a deeply unsettling and visually stunning experience. Blending a dark fairytale narrative with otherworldly imagery, it presents itself as a psychological horror for young and older audiences alike. Coraline explores the complex ideas about family, identity, and the dangers of wish fulfillment with grace. I strongly recommend this film.

3. ParaNorman (Film, 2012)

Norman Babcock, a young boy who can communicate with ghosts, is given the task of ending a 300-year-old witch's curse on his Massachusetts town.

...

This heartfelt stop-motion animated film blends humor, horror, and themes of ostracization and acceptance. While blending classic horror movie tropes with a coming-of-age story, it manages to portray strong themes of prejudice by using zombies, witches, and ghoulish imagery. If you're looking for a unique spin on classic B-movie horror, I highly recommend this film.

4. Happy Death Day (Film, 2017)

A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.

...

Happy Death Day is an entertaining mashup of slasher horror and Groundhog Day-style time loop storytelling. This film stands out from all the rest of the horror-comedy franchise due to its emotion, mystery, and character growth. While it doesn't push boundaries for horror, it makes up for its uniqueness that balances humor and suspense. If you're looking for a horror-comedy film, I strongly recommend this one.

5. Jennifer's Body (Film, 2009)

A newly-possessed high-school cheerleader turns into a succubus who kills her male classmates and devours their flesh in order to survive.

...

Though it was sorely misunderstood when it originally came out, it has recently garnered rightful attention for its subversive take on the horror-comedy genre. This film blends teen drama and supernatural horror and uses its genre to touch upon the objectification of women in horror and in reality. Its wit, self-awareness, and social commentary have made it a standout in the horror-comedy genre, and for that, I strongly recommend this film.

6. Sinister: Recut (Film, 2012)

Ellison Oswalt is a struggling true-crime writer whose discovery of snuff films depicting gruesome murders and strange supernatural elements in his new house puts his family in danger.

...

Said to be one of the scariest films ever from a research study, Sinister is a deeply unsettling horror movie that perfectly mixes supernatural elements with psychological tension. The haunting score combined with the grainy, nightmarish footage of the murders results in an unnerving experience that sits with you long after you turn the lights out. Instead of watching the original movie, I strongly recommend this fanedit version of the film. It elevates the movie by removing some of the cheesy jumpscares and awkward dialog. If you're looking for a genuinely haunting movie this Halloween, I recommend this one.

7. 1408 (Film, 2007)

Author Michael Enslin, who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences, checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City.

...

This film excels in building suspense, using minimal special effects, and relying on our main characters' isolation and psychological unraveling to create fear. While this movie isn't as overtly terrifying as other horror films, 1408 offers an eerie, slow-burn experience, blending supernatural elements with personal trauma. The film has two different endings, the theatrical version and the director's cut. I'd suggest watching both to come to the conclusion of your favorite. It's a must-watch for fans of psychological horror, and I strongly recommend this film.

8. Midsommar (Film, 2019)

A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

...

This is a visually stunning and disturbing horror film set against the backdrop of a bright, idyllic Swedish village. The movie stands out for its unique approach to horror, unfolding almost entirely in daylight, creating a sense of unease through its striking visuals, unnerving atmosphere, and slow-building dread. Midsommar is a polarizing piece of media, mixing folk horror with psychological drama, and is filled with symbolism and unsettling imagery. I highly recommend this film if you're looking to be disturbed this Halloween.

9. Skinamarink (Film, 2022)

A young brother and sister wake up during the night to discover that their father is missing and that the windows, doors, and other objects in their house have vanished.

...

Skinamarink is an experimental analog horror film that trades traditional narrative for a surreal, nightmarish atmosphere. Shot in grainy, low-light cinematography, the film immerses you in a disorienting and eerie world where fear of the unknown takes center stage. The film’s strength lies in its ability to evoke childhood fears, using abstract visuals and unsettling sound design to create a sense of dread. However, its unconventional approach may alienate some people who expect a clear plot or resolution. The minimal dialogue and deliberate pacing make Skinamarink more of a mood piece than a traditional horror film, relying on atmosphere over jump scares. For those willing to embrace its experimental nature, Skinamarink offers a haunting and disquieting experience that lingers long after it ends, tapping into primal fears of isolation and helplessness. For all these reasons, I highly recommend that you check out this film.

10. Heck (Short Film, 2020)

A child wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of his mom's television blaring.

...

Heck is a short film that shares a similar atmospheric approach to the creator's feature-length film Skinamarink. Like Skinamarink, it explores the feeling of being trapped in a surreal, dreamlike space. The film's minimalist aesthetic, with grainy visuals and a haunting soundscape, creates a disorienting atmosphere that leaves much to the imagination. It builds tension through its slow pacing, relying on the viewer's discomfort with the unknown rather than traditional horror tropes. For people who thought Skinamarink's runtime was excessive, Heck is a great substitute that captures the same atmosphere of the former. I highly recommend this film to people who have enjoyed Skinamarink's take on horror.

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (5)

Now that we looked at the MGM-continuity of movie and cartoons adaptation, I propose you in those post some adaptations that are either more in line with the original novels or... just not following either the novels or the MGM movie, and just doing their own thing. Since there is a lot of Oz adaptations, for this movie I will stay by American productions, post-1939.

First my three faves, and the rest will be under the cut.

2005's The Muppets' Wizard of Oz

This movie did quite poorly upon its release - and of all the Muppets movies, it is not considered to the best in any way. There is notable use of some old CGI that aged very poorly when it comes to the Wizard's scenes... But, not only does it have one of the most hilarious depiction of the Witches of Oz ever (what do you expect when they are played by Miss Piggy?) and some cool songs - this movie has the honor of being the most book-accurate, book-faithful adaptation of The Wizard of Oz there ever was. (Well outside of Japanese animes I'll talk about later). Yep... this Muppets parody is the closest you can get to experiencing the original novel as a movie. Crazy, right?

2011's The Witches of Oz

Originally it was released as a mini-series in two parts ; and in 2012 it was recut and edited as a single movie known as "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" (but the single-movie version deleted a lot of scenes and segments from the complete mini-series). It tells a sort-of sequel to the Oz books (yes ALL of the Oz books), while mixing it with urban fantasy - as young real-life Dorothy, all grown-up in 2000s Oz, is depicted as the current author of Oz books, only for her to discover the fictional adventures in Oz that were written about her are real, and Oz is coming to New-York to get her...

Now... this mini-series aged VERY badly. The special effects are so cheap, most of the characters are insufferable, the plot is very weak... BUT! BUT this mini-series deserves to get some attention and to be known due to specific elements, such as, the most badass depiction of Langwidere ever ; Christopher Lloyd delightfully playing the Wizard of Oz... And the Wicked Witch of the West! This incarnation of the Witch is without a doubt one of my favorit reimaginings of the character, striking the perfect balance between the character of the original novel and the MGM Wicked Witch. Just in design she is the coolest Wicked Witch of the West there ever was. Too bad the rest of the mini-series is... quite cringe.

2017's Emerald City

Yet another proof of the "Oz curse" that plagues most of Oz adaptations - because the series got cancelled after its first season, leaving the show unfinished.

What is Emerald City? It was an Oz television series from the era of "post-Game of Thrones". Since the success of GoT, every channel and network tried to create its own dark and gritty big-budgeted high fantasy series... And "Emerald City" is what happened when Oz got caught in the trend.

People were very divided on the show (hence why it ended up cancelled) - some people adored its beginning and got tired of it by the end, others hated the first episodes but by the final ones were eagerly awaiting for the next season. On one side, most people agree that it is too much and that the show handled itself in a strange way, everything being a bit crammed-in. This TV show is actually adapting simultaneously THREE different Oz novels (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz), all mixed together in a new, dark, adult iteration of Oz, so yes, that's a LOT.

However the show does work out several very cool and interesting concepts, playing around with both the MGM and the novel heritages. And while the story can get a bit convoluted due to the so-many plots and subplots mixing each other in a complicated way and not giving each other enough time to breath, the visuals are 10/10. There was a real visual effort on this show that makes it entirely worth the watch, if just as an eye-candy. They literaly used GAUDI ARCHITECTURE for the Emerald City, come on, how cool is that?

And also it is one of these shows were several actually working languages were created by experts, so that's always cool. I always stand by fictional linguistics.

Now I'll go a bit quicker for these ones because else it's going to be one LONG post:

In the 1960s, there was one animated show that dominated the Ozian landscape. 1961's Tales of the Wizard of Oz.

One of the early creations of the future Rankin/Bass studios, it is a cartoon that reuses the settng and characters of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"... But not the plot X) Basically Dorothy and Toto end up entering Oz by... by a hole, as if she was Alice. And there she meets her companions and each episode is about them trying to have a wish granted by the Wizard of Oz, or trying to avoid the schemes of the Wicked Witch. So... it is quite a VERY loose adaptation, and the modern cartoon "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" is kind of a modern heir to this old cartoon.

After 114 episodes, there was an animated special created to conclude the show. Called "Return to Oz", it IS actually an adaptation of the plot and events of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"... But happening after all of the events of the cartoon, and thus taking a different direction in terms of set-up.

1969's The Wonderful Land of Oz

This low-budget movie was an adaptation of the second Oz book, "The Marvelous Land of Oz". There's quite a lot of interesting stories surrounding this production - from Judy Garland supposedly having been intended as the narrator, to the background actresses having appeared in nude films created by the movie's director... However the movie tend to be ignored or forgotten compared to the other 60s Land of Oz adaptation...

1960's "The Land of Oz". First episode of the second season of Shirley Temple's Storybook

This was a much more famous adaptation of "The Marvelous Land of Oz", if only because of Shriley Temple's name. Retrospectively, I should have added it in my previous Oz post because this mini-movie takes a lot of visual cues from the MGM's Wizard of Oz, such as the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman being designed after their MGM incarnation, or Glinda's outfit calling for the MGM Glinda's design.

1980's "Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz"

An animated special for Thanksgiving of the year 1980, which is - as the title says - about Dorothy going to celebrate Thanksgiving in Oz. In 1981 it was re-cut to become "Dorothy in the Land of Oz" (with most Thanksgiving references being removed so the animated short could be aired at any time of the year - which is quite a challenge since the special is ALL about Thanksgiving... Dorothy is literaly brought to Oz by a "giant green turkey ballooon", come on!)

1987's Dorothy meets Ozma of Oz

This animated middle-sized movie is an adaptation of the novel "Ozma of Oz", and remained for quite a long time the only adaptation of Ozma of Oz alongside Disney's Return to Oz.

1997's The Oz Kids

A direct-to-video cartoon series that is just what it says. We follow the adventures of the children of the various protagonists of the Oz novels. Dot and Neddie, Dorothy's children ; Bela and Boris the children of the Cowardly Lion ; Tin Boy and Scarecrow Junior ; the son of the Nome King, and more...

2007's Tin Man

Ah, Tin Man! A cult-classic a lot of people remember fondly - especially on Tumblr. This mini-series was part of the long suite of SyFy "dark sci-fi" fantasy reimaginings (2011's Neverland ; 2009's Alice, etc).

Described as an "adult steampunk reimagining" of the Wizard of Oz, it depicts the adventures of DG, a waitress of Kansas, as she gets taken by an interdimensional storm to the otherwordly "Outer Zone", and there befriends a telepathic leonine humanoid, a man who lost half of his brain, and a former cowboy-like law enforcer of the dictature a wicked witch-queen set upon the Outer Zone...

Speaking of steampunk, the last two Oz adaptations I want to talk about are...

2015's Lost in Oz

This animated show was part of Amazon Prime Video early days at producing its own content. Originally it was just a pilot episode released in 2015. Since the pilot episode proved good, it became a three-episodes mini-series in 2016. Since THIS mini-series proved good, it became a full season in 2017. And since this first season proved good, a second season was released in 2018. And then they stopped.

At first it seems that this show is just an "updated" version of The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and her dog Toto gets transported to the Land of Oz, and must find a way to get back home while making friends and all together fighting through the many plots and scehmes dividing the land... Except that this Oz is a more modern and updated Oz filled with magi-tech, and Dorothy's companions are not exactly your traditional band... Turns out Dorothy has to team up with Ojo, here depicted as a "giant Munchkin", and a teenage witch by the name of... West. Yes, she is the (not so) wicked witch "of the west".

And thus starts a quite unique retelling of Oz where the three teenagers must face various threats taken from later Oz books: Langwidere, here West's evil aunt ; the mysterious Crooked Magician ; and Roquat, the Nome King.

And a last steampunk Oz for the road: 2018's "The Steam Engines of Oz". This Canadian animated movie is actually an adaptation of an Oz graphic novel of the same name, by Erik Hendrix and about a modernized Oz set after the events of "The Wonderful Wizard". A young mechanician of the Emerald City, Victoria, is chosen by the Good Witch of the North to help fight the ever-growing expansion and industrialization of the Emerald City, pushed by a Tin Man who became a cruel dictator of Oz...

[eeby-beeby-madoka-fan-blog]

I woke up this morning and the very first thing I did was watch the next Madoka Magica movie trailer, I will now provide an extensive (and probably excessive) analysis. I'm going to be as thorough as I possibly can and that's a warning! <3333

The phone ringing sound effect at the start is the exact same as the one in Akumura's transformation in magia record (april fools one) (side note this is how I found out Devil Homura actually got into magia record, I saw the transformation and I am so mad)

after that IT'S THE LIZARD :DDDDDDD

very happy to see the Homura lizard I think she's important <3

Translating the ear cuff concept art (google translate so probably not too good a translation but bare with me) the jewel attached to the tail is Madoka's power which is neat, the madoka runes also say "Homulilly" if you're wondering.

The new lizard is a similar representation to the purple one, I believe the lizard is a representation of sorts for her love of Madoka (note how it splatters. My theory is that the lizard is Love, that's why Love didn't show up to Homulilly's funeral.)

It's red either to show it's corrupted or because as aforementioned Homura possesses Madoka's power in the gem her ear cuff carries (that's also why I think her eyes were tinged pink in the Devil Homura form)

The lizard turns into a phone so we'll probably have a pretty good excuse to make Homura Touch Tone Telephone amvs/animations, yippee!

A lot of people have pointed this out as a tarot card meaning illusion, fear, subconscious, etc which definitely fits. I want to add on to this scene though: around the centerpiece there's butterflies with pins through them, in her magia record "coolmura" transformation her glasses turn into butterflies so it might be a callback relating to that.

(In that transformation they go into her soul gem, in this scene they're pinned down, something about lizards eating butterflies? And butterflies representing freedom, the butterflies being pinned then definitely matches what she does to Madoka at the end of rebellion.)

The moon symbol halved like that is also used various other times in the series too, in one notable instance she was even sitting under it like she is in next shot

LIZARD AGAIN WOOOOOOOOOOOO LET'S GOOOOOOOO

Homura gets a pretty new outfit and cool lizard chair good for her tbh

Zooming in I can see that 1: Homura's outfit slays even harder than I thought it did (and it's very similar to the one she wears mid witch transformation in rebellion) 2: the chair is supposed to look like her devil homura form and 3: the lizard she's sitting on has the gem eye so it's probably at least related to the ear cuff

Skipping ahead through the montage, there's this girl

Who the HELL is this. Her outfit looks a lot like Homura's, she even uses Homura's bow and arrow, but it also looks like Madoka's? Like some sort of mix between the two. Even weirder, the ribbons she seems to be fighting with look like MAMI'S. What, does the new movie have magical girl fusion? Is this Hitomi somehow? Is it Mami? Or someone new?

Here's what I think: Homura takes the place of Kyubey in turning people into magical girls, this is one of the girls who she made into one. It makes sense for why she was saying "can you accept the risks and responsibilities? Can you fight against the curse of this world?" Maybe, people contact her through the phone asking to become a magical girl and that's what she says to them. This girl also appears right after the phone hangup noise.

Next, there's this scene. Which... is a little concerning.

There's some pretty unfortunate conclusions you could draw here, but look at the digital stuff around her. Is Madoka going to the endless solitude? Remember, to get there you jump off of the radio tower alone. (To be honest, it's been a while since I've seen magia record because I don't really like it, and I haven't seen season 2, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some gaps so if there's anything from magia record that could add to the analysis I'll leave that to the fans of magia record)

Homura looks so pretty oh my god. New headband, also she's carrying an umbrella

she had one in rebellion too but this one's cooler. Also it looks like she wears pants under her skirt now! Getting some fun design changes to shake it up I see.

Kyoko and Mami got pretty slight design changes, Kyoko looks exactly the same so I'm not actually sure if anything changed and Mami's top looks pretty different. Nothing to say about that except, cool!

Sayaka looks pretty majorly different though. She now has a ribbon wrapping all over her face. Probably something about how she knew about Homura being the devil, this might be symbolism for her being silenced. Either way it's also cool.

After that Homura's on this really tall tower, somehow there's more than one of her. If you look at the backdrop you can see the fence on the roof of the school.

Zooming in, the tower is apparently built up of books. Behind Homura there's some nails, they look sorta like the needles in the first scene. Something interesting is she's wearing her usual magical girl outfit, except with the shawl and brooch from the first scene. The Clara doll also sorta looks like a lizard tail.

And that's the trailer! Hope you enjoyed my spiral into insanity, it took me two hours to write this :D

[paperbackribs]

The Gift (5a of 15) (Witch Steve AU)

previous: Chapter 4 Break the Illusion next: Chapter 5 You're Doing That On Purpose (Part B) Content: steddie fic, 1.4K words

Last chapter, Steve and Eddie came to an understanding and formed a deeper start to their friendship. This chapter, Eddie just wants to convince Steve about which film to watch on movie night and Robin's gonna mock Steve about the two of them flirting.

Chapter 5(a) You're Doing That on Purpose

“So, it’s a kid’s film,” Steve pushes the trolley down the aisle to the comedy section.

Eddie makes a sound like a whistling kettle and Steve bites down on a grin. Behind the counter, Robin ignores the both of them as she tries to plait three Twizzlers into a braid.

Despite school being out, Family Video is as empty on a Tuesday afternoon as it typically is, so no customers to judge her odd candy habits. The promo television silently plays Carey Grant's attempt to seduce Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday while Robin unironically plays the Bangle's Manic Monday on their shared boombox. The tinny sound provides a lively chorus to the boys' bickering.

“It’s a cult classic of epic proportions. It’s not just some animated film, Stevie. It tells of the enduring friendship of Frodo and Sam, it’s the journey from the Shire and the almighty and devastating battle of the Balrog.”

“Right,” Steve snaps his fingers absently, “the Shire is burning.”

Eddie eyes him oddly, “You remember that?”

Steve shrugs, “It sounded cool when you said it. I mean, I didn’t know what you were going on about, like the Bolrag too.”

Eddie squints at him, “You’re doing that on purpose.”

Uh, oh, busted. Robin meets his eye from across the room, laughing silently. They have a running bet on how long he can mix up fantasy names in front of the kids before they call him on it and Eddie had busted him within weeks of knowing him.

Steve feigns innocence while he shelves Weird Science onto the fake walnut shelves, the polished lamination suiting the glossy covers of the VHS cases. “I don’t know what you mean. Tell me about the Shire.”

“No, no, no,” Eddie sways into Steve’s right side, tugging on a lock again. He’s almost used to it now. Regardless, Steve bats his hands away, replacing the shock of Eddie's fingers by smoothing his hair back into place.

“You, my friend, pay attention. You know exactly where the kids are at any moment of the day, you listen to little old ladies at the Indy bookstore—”

“She wasn’t old,” Robin calls out. She was hot, he can hear her add silently. He nods at her to acknowledge how right she is. Her fist pumps in answer, she was hot.

Steve had told Robin that Eddie was safe and since then they'd all had a conversation that essentially amounted to each of them nodding in agreement: they were three queers in backwater Hawkins and, damn, wish that they’d known each other sooner.

They'd had the talk in the evening quiet of the local park, the heat of the day faded to a gentle breeze that carried a hint of the earth underneath them.

While Steve and Robin kicked a ball around, Eddie had sat, nestled within the sturdy and gnarled roots of the massive fig tree at the centre of the grassy area, working at the lyrics of a song. Of which, he refused to share with Steve and Robin, only smiling mysteriously when prodded about it.

Despite the black of his cut-off jean shorts and the grotesque skull on his t-shirt, the soft curls of Eddie's hair and his pensive expression as he looked down at his notebook had given Steve the impression of an earth sprite. Delicate and easily startled, ready to disappear into the trunk of the fig tree, never to be seen again.

Once the two players had tired themselves out a little, Steve had sat them all down and led the conversation under the shade of the broad leaves above them. The green of it stretching like fingers of a reaching hand, cradling them within its protection.

Steve had been amused at how shocked Eddie was, a near replica of Robin's reaction to his same disclosure last year. But, what was the fluidity of Steve's sexuality in comparison to the liminality he lived in as a Witch? He liked boys and girls and all in between. So, what? He could also make Robin hover by a few inches in the air and that was far more fun to play around with.

The conversation may have been had, but Robin wasn’t about to loudly call out something so damning in public when anyone could walk through the store door at any moment in their small, judgemental lives.

“—and I know you’re getting those names wrong on purpose,” Eddie concludes confidently.

Steve crosses his arms, biceps bulging slightly under his sunflower yellow polo. “So what if I get Bolrag wrong? I don’t want to watch a kid’s movie.”

Robin hums. “Always the babysitter.” Steve points to her in appreciation.

“No kiddies, I promise.” Despite being the same height, Eddie looks up at Steve through his bangs while his dimple deepens charismatically, “Just us big kids. You’re in, right Buckley?”

“Oh yeah,” she smirks at Steve, “it’s actually pretty good. And Eddie says it’s that or Ben Hur.” She makes a face.

“Isn’t that a black and white,” asks Steve teasingly, knowing her preoccupation with older films.

“No, it's colour, but I also don’t want to watch a flick about the boiling animosity of half-naked men for over two hours. Come on, Steve, let’s watch the kid’s movie that’s just under two hours,” she finishes sarcastically.

Eddie’s lips quirk crookedly, “The bonds of men and Hobbits alike are the theme of the night.”

Steve blows out a breath, knowing when he’s defeated. By the widening smile on Eddie’s face, the other boy knows it too and Steve can’t help but smile in response.

He’s aware that it’s been hard for Eddie lately. Beating the rap doesn’t mean squat when Jason Carver and his goons still have it out for him. Though Hop had apparently reigned the parents in so hard that their evil little offspring may have actually listened. Steve suspects that Hop had also pulled off one of his patented 'drive arounds' with the teens, calmly explaining the consequences of their future actions and, in turn, scaring the shit out of them.

The kids had shared about Jason and his guys stirring up trouble at school, but it sounded like it was mostly name-calling at this point. Steve had made Dustin promise to tell him if it got worse, but Eddie hadn’t said anything yet.

Steve pauses to consider before cautiously asking, “And the bonds of Hellfire? Is that staying strong post…” Steve waves his hand in the air as if to convey all that happened over Spring Break, including being hunted down and having your friends threatened by Jason’s vigilante mob.

An easy smile spreads over Eddie’s face, his voice rising as if performing to a larger audience and hands spreading wide like he’s inviting them to step onto his stage. “Hellfire? We are as strong as any dogs of war. For while our bloodshed is confined to the realm of the sorcerous, we still are that happy few, we band of brothers.”

Steve’s not one hundred per cent on what Eddie’s referring to, but he does trust that they’re getting along okay. He doesn’t have that tightness around his eyes and lips he sometimes gets when uncomfortable or avoiding a touchy subject. “And Jason? Is he leaving you alone?”

Eddie blinks for a moment, his wide smile dipping before drawing it back firmly onto his face. “No problems there, Stevie. They can’t do anything and I’m not worried.”

Steve is though, thinking about that brief expression hinting at more. But, he wonders what he’s allowed to question. Or maybe, he is allowed to ask Eddie, who may nevertheless still choose not to privilege Steve with an insight into that busy mind of his.

“All right, then. Since your band of dogs are happy, let’s do the hobos.” He feels a flash of triumph as he hears Eddie’s bark of laughter at Steve continuing the bit. “My place, Friday.”

“Fantastic my lovely, dear liege,” Eddie affects a bow. “I’ll shall bring the brews. My Madam Buckley, farewell.” She sticks her middle finger up at his blown kiss. Eddie leaves, chuckling under his breath, the door’s bell ringing after him.

If you liked anything, please consider leaving a comment over on Ao3 :-) It would make my day!

Taglist

My taglist is always open, so let me know if you want to be added. Likewise, if you want to be removed, let me know. :) If I've missed you, definitely tell me because it's an accident!

@a-gae-af-racoon

@a-lovely-craziness

@aly-reads-alot

@bookworm0690

@cinnamon-mushroomabomination

@ellietheasexylibrarian

@everyrandomthing

@finntheehumaneater

@geekymagicalpotato

@goodolefashionedloverboi

@hallucinatedjosten

@ilikeititspretty

@just-a-tiny-void

@ledleaf

@littlewildflowerkitten

@lostonceandneverfound

@manda-panda-monium

@matchingbatbites

@mightbeasleep

@nburkhardt

@newtstabber

@obliosworld

@oliver-sykes

@platonicbesties4life

@probablyscreamingintothevoid

@rajumat

@scoops-stevie-archive

@spectrum-spectre

@swimmingbirdrunningrock

@tartarusknight

@whackyrach

@bestwifehaver

[goofygooberblog]

Mouthpiece TTCC Headcannons‼️‼️‼️

Staring off strong I think she can fight, if someone were to start a genuine fight with one of her grandkids (or even her coworkers she sees as her grandkids) she would be fighting in second. She can pack a punch and she’s not afraid to put some force behind it either. (She’s been written up because of this). [more under cut]

Belle, her house is full of trinkets, stuff she’s knitted, things her kids/grandkids have got her, her house also always smells like cookies. Even if there are no cookies in sight her house is warm and smells delightful.(This causes like an army of bugs because it’s warm and smells nice.) However if you were to spend the night you couldn’t work the shower because it’s too confusing and has a 50 step tutorial to get it working.

She indulges in sweets sometimes (a lot) so she is constantly giving them away so she doesn’t eat them all. (She has a really big sweet tooth.) Belle even makes toon friendly sweets because arguably toons have such sweet food and candy she loves it. Give her jellybeans and she’s celebrating.

Breaks things so often, like I’m talking about if she holds it, it’s broken. She refuses to hold things for anyone because of this.

Wins at every board game possible, if she plays you’ve already lost because of this she’s banned from company board game night after she beat the Chairman over a game of monopoly.

Belle loooves hallmark movies, if there’s one she’s seen it. She knows the name of everything, character, town, even the names of the rich ceo. She can recite the movies word for word, she can even make the same expressions and she can sound exactly like the actors to the point it’s crazy. People have asked her if she had ADHD but Belle gets confused and just says she really likes the movies. She’s met each actor, writer,crew person,director, and even the animals they use during the movie. She runs the fandom wiki and it’s so detailed and only she runs it. People have been doxed if they try and mess it up.

Because Belle is old people have just assumed she didn’t know what the LGBT community was [Skull emoji] and so she wasn’t invited to pride, so when she showed up Misty wanted to know if she supported. Let’s just say that people know she’s a Bi icon and trans fem.

Following up on that everyone in her family is trans, when Belle was little she got a spell cursed that every family member after her would have the same issue as her (The issue was being assigned a different gender at birth.) and now everyone is trans. (The the wizard who cursed her was Witch Hunter. Suits also have only two things change with sex, your Build how feminine it Masculine it is, and your voice but you can always mix it up so gender and sex are very loose words to suits.

She is afraid of dying, okay real depressing right? So the reason she flies away after you beat her is because Belle is terrified, She has this idea that if she were to explode they couldn’t fix her because her parts are so old. (This fear is totally irrational and she goes to therapy for it.)

I think Belle is a professional yapper. If you put her Benjamin and Flint in a room together they could probably talk for 3 weeks straight. I also think she’s sassy, everything she says does have a purpose and she’s constantly thinking on the correct things to say. One time she ended up reciting an entire Hallmark movie because Benjamin and Flint let her.

She vocal stims, if a phone can make that noise so can she. She’s actually the reason phones ring because she just kept saying “ring ring ring.” When she called people.

Belle loves sappy music if it’s romantic she knows it, she knows the dance to it. Also she’s definitely the queen of telling you she’s met your favorite band in their prime.

She kills it on piano, she can play Rush E at the highest possible tempo ever and she knows every single song without using sheet music, when Belle was younger she always won piano competitions because she was just that good. So when you use a piano drop on her she will target you for trying to break her with her favorite instrument.

Everyone knows Cassie is Belles favorite grandchild and nobody can disagree because Cassie is an angel.

Belle a lady of color, she’s mixed Egyptian and Italian and she loves her cultural foods and she loves her food spicy and flavorful.

———

Belle actually got Flint and Graham together after hinting it. She’s actually the reason most workplace relationships work out, she plays Cupid and valentoons day is her favorite holiday because of this.

I think Misty is still growing, (Despite her being in her early twenties.) but Belle will squeeze her cheeks and tell Misty how how big they’re growing and definitely give her twenty cog bucks as a gift.

She has an advanced vocabulary and she taught Brian words he knows. He often challenges Belle to puzzles and sudoku to better learn words.

Belle and Cosmo are both Italian just Belle is an third generation from an immigrant family and Cosmo is the First generation. Cosmo teaches Belle Italian and they can communicate in it, Cosmo has only come out to the satellite investors and Belle about how he’s Trans masc. Also Belle now tells Cosmo the Hallmark movie scrips in Italian.

Belle was worried about Cathal and Tawney because no suit should be sleeping that much so she genuinely asked if they were depressed, turns out they take their shifts during the night so it appears they are always sleeping. She felt really embarrassed so Belle baked them apology cookies and Tawney and Cathal stick to her like glue. Belle often gives them both super soft blankets she knitted herself so they can sleep comfortably and she is the one who packs Cathal his sandwiches (She has no idea why me needs so many.)

Belle loves giving Buck duck trinkets from the flea market, and Buck reminds her of her grandson with ADHD and so she often is able to keep Buck from overstimulating everyone around him. (Cosmo greatly thanks her for this.)

Belle is a mother figure to Spruce and Chip, she genuinely thinks they are blood related brothers and often treats them like such. They don’t have the heart to say they are just close friends since childhood so they play along. Belle was the first person Chip told about the override and she sticks by his side hugging him and keeping him grounded. (The override never activates when he’s around her because of this.) Belle is very concerned for Spruces help because she only sees him eating trees. She made tree shaped cookies so he would eat them and makes special accommodations to his food so they are all trees.

Belle refuses to leave Flint alone after he somehow exploded her oven and burnt the charcoal-chunk cookies. She watches them like a hawk and is genuinely considering giving Flint a wellness check to see if he has Pyromania. (They do.) She also makes special burnt cookies just for him so They can enjoy.

Belle makes time to see each and every one of Dave’s concerts, (she even convinced him to make a Hallmark play and everyone loved it.) She is his (second) biggest fan right next to Buck. And she always buys Dave flowers and he keeps them in a little vase in his dress room.

Belle and Graham have very different ideas of music but they do have an entire album together of a wonderful blend of Rock and Old-Times music and they even won 6 Grammy awards for the album and they won best songwriters of the year. (Flint is also on the album because them and Graham are inseparable.)

Her head can call people like a telephone so she uses it when she needs to call. And only call she can’t text because it hurts her head (It also burns into her brain.) Unfortunately she can’t whisper so she only has the most important calls in her home. Buck often spam calls her because he’s already told Brian something twenty times. (Belle is very close to blocking him)

If all the managers where put in a room Belle would be able to get everyone working together and having a fun time, she’d make everyone comfortable and that’s why parties at her house during the holidays for this group of managers (And the Satellite Investors.) is exciting and wonderful and everyone often looks forward to the holidays because of this. (Expect when it’s Hallmark movie time and Belle gets to exited over these movies and keeps quoting the most outlandish things ever.) Belle would take the managers on vacations too and separate them into groups to make sure everyone can handle eachother and no fights break out. She also makes sure she only picks trips everyone can enjoy and so far she hasn’t had any complaints (yet.)

I don’t think she swears a lot but when she does. The first time she genuinely got mad was when someone had broke something her deceased mother made her. Let’s just say everyone was shocked but realized it’s better she doesn’t keep her emotions inside all the time. Belle will cuss when she’s singing or just when she’s in extreme shock or anger. She however won’t curse in-front of a kid because she’s a parental figure.(she will freak out if she slips up and the kid won’t stop repeating the word.)

[obsoleteozymandias]

Hello! If you're still doing them, could I please get a Baldur's Gate 3 matchup? I hope you don't have too many, I know that matchup requests tend to pile up very quickly so I apologize if you already have a lot. 

Irl I'm AroAce but I am attracted to fictional characters, so any gender works for me. I am also genderfluid (she/her is fine), autistic and disabled with joint pain, asthma and sensitivity to cold. I'm a professional librarian, witch (and pagan, I write a lot about both things), herbalist/ethnobotanist and athlete. I really enjoy working out and getting big muscles, and I'm thinking about competing in either the Highland Games (at my state's Scottish festival) or the Paralympics. I have to be really careful with my breathing when working out and stuff because of my asthma, but I'm very stubborn so I make it work somehow lol. I'm a really odd mix of athletic and scholarly - I'm a librarian and I love plants, I can name almost any plant I find on the side of the road, but I also really enjoy being strong and impressing people with my muscles. I like to describe myself as an irl Shounen anime protagonist - I'm very spunky and determined, like if I'm going to be a witch or an athlete I'm going to be the best witch or athlete. I'm a little perfectionistic in that way but I also know when I need to take breaks. 

I love plants, I have a myriad of houseplants that I care for very deeply, and I also really enjoy cooking and baking. A big fact about my appearance is that I’m very short, I'm under 5’ (152 cm). I also have really wavy long auburn hair, glasses, big muscles, and I love collecting shirts and clothes that I think are funny. I once bought a really ugly pair of pants because they were called “gamer pants” and I found that hilarious. I'm basically if a girl was also a lame boyfriend and I love it. I'm generally a little confident and I like who I am, but I get anxious and awkward sometimes. People are actually a little surprised by my real chaotic personality because I usually put up a pretty sweethearted demeanor so they get caught off guard by some of my antics. That being said, I genuinely adore taking care of people and I like being nice to others. I’m also both a walking trivia machine and a himbo, so I know tons of facts but can’t figure out how to turn the wifi on lol. I really just do my own thing and I don’t keep up with pop culture or trends, so I’m clueless about most movies and series and things. 

Sorry if this is too long, I got a little too into it lmao! I hope you’re doing well, and thank you!

The AroAce-but-not-for-fictional-hotties (/j I cannot emphasize that enough) army is growing. We will conquer and we will kill. 

== Baldur’s Gate 3 ==>

I match you up with…

Karlach

Pre-relationship:

You and Karlach get on from day one. Your kindness gives her a sense of belonging amidst the morally grey characters in the party, and yet your chaotic tendencies make her laugh like no one else. 

Thus, she’s pretty smitten with you from day 1. 

She also likes that you’re intelligent and strong - you’re everything rolled up in one dorky package that she deeply admires. 

When you wrap up her wounds after she gets injured, you can practially hear her infernal engine exploding with emotion. 

She’ll constantly ask you about the plants you find, amazed you can identify them. She’ll make you bouquets of the nicest flowers she sees, and it’s all so terribly romantic. 

Confession: 

Karlach tells you how she feels point blank, but in a nice, private setting with some flowers for you. She wants you to know how she feels, and she isn’t afraid of that at all. 

Relationship:

You two are a force to be reckoned with on the field. You both knock in goblins’ heads together and look into eachother’s eyes lovingly as you do. 

She likes your penchant for wearing silly clothes. She enjoys that you are so put together and confident, but also that you let yourself be silly and whimsical at the same time. 

She’s always there to help you when you feel awkward, and there to cheer you on while you tear up both the physical and intellectual battlefield.

Y’all are perfect for each other, enough said.

[trialbymagicks]

A Spooktacular Witch’s Brew: The Real Magic of Scary Godmother

It's that spooktacular time of year where the magic and the mundane merge once again for a night of tricks and treats! Just what is it about the Scary Godmother movies that makes them such an enduring cult classic?

The Part Where We Act Like This Is The Inspirational Personal Essay On A Recipe Blog

As someone who has always loved the spooky season and held a fond place in my heart for Halloween, I was drawn to stories – particularly movies – that suited the occasion. To name just a few: the Halloweentown movies, Hocus Pocus, The Little Vampire, Twitches and its sequel, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course Scary Godmother were all top of the very long list.

Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, as I revisit these tales from my childhood I’ve noticed that they seem to share common themes. Families or found families of outcasts celebrating their individuality in an environment that seems hand-crafted for them, often using Halloween as a time to openly hide in plain sight during a merging of two different worlds (the magical and the mundane) and ultimately fighting for their right to coexist when a closed-minded force threatens to destroy them. As I engaged with these stories growing up, I often found myself feeling like I was coming home just as the protagonists did when they embarked on their journeys of self-discovery and acceptance.

My own personal journey with the season has been a bit of a bumpy one. For the majority of my childhood, I adored the idea of getting to dress up as whatever I wanted to be and live out a magical fantasy. Once I reached my teenage years and struggled to understand who or what I was through the extremely confusing “socially-acceptable” lens of my peers, Halloween suddenly became the one day I felt like I could wear a costume and be as weird as I wanted to be because no one could judge me for it. Then depression soon hit me like a sack of bricks and that spark of joy the season had brought me began to wither away, the only saving grace being that I could still watch the movies I’d grown up with and feel at least a little like I was home again in my own skin, though I longed to be a part of those worlds instead. Now, a decent way into my adulthood, I have started to return to my roots and discover an even deeper appreciation for the occasion.

The Recipe For A Halloween Cult Classic

Scary Godmother started out as a hybrid comic-novel book series created by Jill Thompson for her niece as a way of spreading the Halloween joy to readers of all ages in a market that she felt was lacking the material. Two of her original stories were adapted to the screen in 2003 and 2005, both of which received her supervision and guidance during the creative process.

Step 1: For a unique and easily identifiable look, toss two art styles in a blender and pulse until satisfied. Be careful not to over-blend!

Mom says it’s Hannah’s turn with the eyes!

First things first, we have to address the elephant in the room: The mix of CGI models on 2.5D backgrounds is wild to look at and the internet has been abuzz with reviewers, reaction channels, and casual viewers alike commenting on how hauntingly unsettling it is. They point out the soullessness of the eyes on many of the human characters. There have been frantic questions about why the movies weren’t animated in 2D like Jill Thompson’s beautiful storybook illustrations. Was it only because CGI animation is quicker and cheaper to produce?

Luckily for our curious minds, the answers to these questions are simple. This was Jill Thompson’s vision!

The movie designs are accurate adaptations of her original illustrations and in fact the CGI was her decision. When discussing how to approach the style of the movie, she specified that she did not want live-action and she absolutely did not want 2D “because I’m doing 2D. Nobody else should be doing 2D, just me.” (Yes, she really did say in a Comics Bulletin interview that that was her reason. No, I’m not sure I understand it either.)

Perhaps a 2D animated movie would have looked less jarring, but I’ll say it – these movies are extremely charming in a storybook way largely in part due to that animation. The 3D characters perform highly energetic visual gags that often make them look as though they are leaping off the 2D pages of their world. Much like turning the pages of a pop-up book, it looks unreal and quite a bit magical, and may have been what first drew the attention of channel-surfing kids every year.

Step 2: Sprinkle in a Found Family of “weirdo” character types that you enjoy coming back to every year. Go ahead, really make it feel like a home away from home~

I always looked forward to catching this movie on TV every year because there’s something so sweet about Hannah’s found family journey with the inhabitants of The Fright Side. I mean, what Halloween-loving kid wouldn’t be drawn to a whimsical spooktakular adventure into a world of feel-good Halloween vibes? They welcome her into their home and encourage her to be her authentic self the way they live their own lives openly among friends who understand and appreciate them.

The three “broommates” in charge of the monster house are Scary Godmother, Bug-a-boo, and Skully. Their quirky trio truly is the backbone of the group.

Oh my god, they were broommates.

As the monster under the bed, Bug-a-boo is the quintessential misunderstood “looks intimidating on the outside but is a huge softie inside” character. If Boo immediately getting attached to Sully in Monsters Inc. got you right in the heart as a kid, then you’ll understand what makes Hannah’s friendship with Bug-a-boo hit home. She spends the first movie steadily realizing that they share interests and favorite foods, which makes him far less scary and allows her to appreciate his fun-loving nature. When he easily breaks down all the stereotypes Hannah had been taught to believe, it becomes clear that he’s looking out for her more than the guardian she had been told to depend on. To kids who were considered “weird” enough to like monsters, this dynamic feels personal.

Scary Godmother is like the cool aunt who always has her pockets filled with candy for the niblings. She takes a no-nonsense approach to her broommates’ shenanigans, making sure they don’t frighten Hannah too much before she gets the chance to adjust to the new setting, and you just know that if you ever had trouble at home she would be there in a heartbeat to take you in. There’s something about the good witch who can be a little bit bad when the situation calls for it that strikes a personal chord with a lot of misfits.

In the human world, Skully Pettibone is a skeleton in the closet, but in The Fright Side no one is pushing him to stay in any closets! He is out and proud and extremely loud about it. In fact, the first time we see him he’s flamboyantly busting out of the closet with the dramatic flair of a stand-up comedian ready for his grand debut. Somehow, he is both too much and not enough at the same time, so you’re already expecting it by the time he spontaneously breaks out into show tunes.

Oh, and they have the most adorable ghost cat named Boozle who occasionally hacks up scareballs. I love him.

Of course they also have an assortment of friends who have been invited to the party.

The most controversial is undoubtedly Harry the werewolf, a theater kid if you ever saw one. He is like the weird uncle who always shows up intoxicated to family gatherings (or he will be soon after he gets there), believes pajamas count as casual clothes, and has a serious case of the munchies. His fourth wall breaking humor flies over the heads of most everyone in the room and, though these facets of his personality consequently makes him the butt of every joke, he’ll read comics with you, howl at the moon, and make you laugh as he dramatically recites dialogue from your favorite scenes alongside the characters during movie night… even when he overstays his welcome.

Naturally, every band of monster misfits has to include a vampire or three! Orson and his parents are the old-fashioned goth family that gives HOAs nightmares.

Max is the socially awkward Nosferatu out of time with a morbid sense of humor, reminiscing about the olden days of vampire royalty and struggling to adopt already outdated slang in order to fit in with the younger generations. Ruby is the better-adjusted Queen of the Night who finds herself caught between supporting her husband’s preference for tradition and encouraging their son’s individuality. It’s a tough job trying to get them to meet somewhere in the middle, but she has learned to go with the flow. As for Orson, he is the stand-in for every kid whose parents unintentionally embarrass them in front of their friends with cheesy jokes and an awkward amount of affectionate doting.

Step 3: To build the plot, mix 3 parts sugar for your Pure-hearted Hero with 2 parts spice for your Unrelenting Bully and voila! If the Bully gets comeuppance and Good prevails, you’ve done it right! Don’t hold back; make it cheesy!

Did anyone else notice his ears got hairy? His parents let him throw out all but two pairs of clothes they never wash and his friends think he stinks… Just how unkempt IS he?

The premise for the first movie is pretty simple: Jimmy and his friends don’t want to babysit Jimmy’s little cousin while they Trick-or-Treat, so they decide to pull a mean prank to scare her by locking her in the Spook House after filling her head with tales of child-eating monsters. In response to Hannah’s tears, Scary Godmother shows up to whisk her away to The Fright Side and show her that monsters are people too!

While Hannah has the most spooktacular Halloween of her life, the older kids realize that their determination to ruin Hannah’s night caused them to miss out on all the Halloween fun they had hoped to have without her as they spend hours worrying over why they can’t hear her screams of terror from the Spook House.

The comedy lies in the eyeballs!

In the end, Hannah’s new friends help her scare her bullies in return and paint her as the brave hero of their little act, thereby winning over Jimmy’s friends for the sequel and leaving Jimmy with a full year of unresolved psychological trauma that he winds up channeling into a desire to destroy Halloween forever.

Hannah is clearly the glue that holds the entire human world together. Like many young protagonists, her wide-eyed enthusiasm for the holiday and willingness to think of everyone she meets as her friend the instant they’re nice to her is a large part of her charm. It is easy to put yourself in her shoes as she meets the denizens of The Fright Side for the first time or imagine yourself similarly solving the world’s Halloween-related problems with unquenchable optimism. She thinks outside the box and appreciates the charm in the homemade aspect of the holiday that has been overshadowed by the commercialism of the season for too long.

Someone smashed all the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, jeopardizing that farmer’s livelihood? That’s just the mouth for their jack-o-lanterns!

Someone vandalized all the Halloween costumes and tampered with the candy in the store with no concern whatsoever for the employees whose paychecks might be at risk due to product loss? Just recycle last year’s costumes and make your own treats! Who needs candy anyway?

Someone TP’d the Spook House, littering and making it someone else’s problem to clean up later? That’s not toilet paper, that’s ghost decorations! How thoughtful!

Meanwhile, Jimmy was so traumatized by the experience from the first movie that he became a paranoid Home Alone style shut-in with a vendetta against an entire holiday… and no one was concerned about this. It’s honestly amazing how these human kids overreact to everything and yet their friend having a trauma-induced breakdown wasn’t even a blip on their radar.

He’s hallucinating monsters in his spaghetti, kids. I don’t know what else to tell you. This boy needs therapy.

Jimmy’s gradual descent from casual trespassing and bullying in the first movie to full on vandalism and destruction in the sequel is a character arc with real stakes for more than just the humans. No longer content to simply pick on his cousin, he nearly destroys The Fright Side in his attempt to rid the world of monsters and ruin his friends’ fun. But of course all it takes is an invitation to join the party he tried to crash and a chance to meet the source of his nightmares in a less scary setting to heal his mental and emotional scarring, thereby officially welcoming him back into the friend group and ending the story on a happy note.

Step 4: Bind it all together with an “anything goes” magic system and you’re done!

As the resident witch, Scary Godmother is the primary magic user of the movies and she can do whatever the plot calls for – or whatever looks the coolest to impress the children watching. The way she uses her magic can be boiled down to a few basics: flight, teleportation, levitation, telekinesis, materialization and dematerialization, and some classic illusions.

Her preferred methods of travel appear to be flying on her broomstick for long distances, teleportation for snappy appearances, and using her wings to fly around the house when walking just won’t do. She often uses telekinesis to move objects and get the house ready for Halloween or to levitate a particularly lazy werewolf out of bed.

She will materialize a spider web handkerchief to dry Hannah’s tears and one of her favorite tricks is materializing decorations on a whim for the house parties, but she summons all manner of items when needed and dispels them just as quickly once they have served their purpose. Only once or twice does she ever chant a spell while doing so, most likely for dramatic effect, so it’s safe to presume her magic doesn’t require it.

Perhaps she is at her most terrifying when she summons ethereal skeletal arms that shoot out from her hands to do her bidding against pests or when she uses her illusion magic to appear to melt her whole body into a puddle a la the Wicked Witch of the West. But most of her illusions are beautiful spectacles like releasing colorful trails of magic from her hands or hat to light up the darkness.

The Fright Side itself is a highly magical place with a mostly whimsical take on the concept of a magic system. According to Scary Godmother, it is responsible for such tasks as changing the color of the leaves each season, painting the clouds into the sky, and knitting spider webs. And you don’t need a magic broom to travel there either, since there is a magic key that creates a portal to The Fright Side when used on any door. But the most interesting detail is the thread that holds it all together.

You may be familiar with the concept of certain monsters or nonhuman entities that only exist if enough people believe in them. Or how about the idea that these entities’ power is determined by how many people believe in them? The Fright Side seems to work in a similar way. As seen in The Revenge of Jimmy, its magic is directly linked to how much Halloween spirit exists in the human world – particularly this one town where the main characters live, for plot reasons – because if the holiday was ever retired, not only would Scary Godmother lose her magic and the monsters become their human world counterparts… the magical world around them would disappear into the void altogether.

Final Food For Thought

So, with all that in mind, I really do have to wonder…

The magic calendar showed us that, if humans stopped celebrating Halloween or believing in it, October 31st would cease to exist at all and The Fright Side would disappear. But if the hard work of Scary Godmother and The Fright Side are responsible for such basic things as clouds in the sky and the changing seasons, how would that even work? Would what humans call science suddenly take over again to fill the gap in the universe? Or maybe what humans call science is the same thing as the magic used by The Fright Side to perform those tasks and nothing would change at all.

That’s not even addressing the fact that the complete erasure of October 31st would somehow transition the human world to a 364-day calendar. When it comes to the universe, there is usually a give and take, so would February 29th become a permanent day in the calendar to replace it and February 30th be declared a new Leap Year day to even things out?

These and many more are not questions we are meant to ask as casual viewers of the movies, but it sure is fun to think about!

Note: This article was originally posted on WordPress on October 31, 2022.

[hello-nichya-here]

Do you think politics should be kept out of fictional stories, or just from satires like The Addams Family?

Before I get to The Addams Family mixing with politics or not, let me clarify one thing: there's a difference between an artist adding political commentary to their work, and a big corporation like Netflix doing things like adding random political slogans to a character's dialogue to sell their product as "woke."

To make my point clearer, let me compare two properties BY Netflix.

First we have the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners. It is a dystopia in which the people in charge have so much power, they can get away with OPENLY treating human life as absolutely disposable in every way because all that matters is that they keep making money, and the characters are just trying to make a living, their own way, so the system won't crush them like bugs.

The politics is part of the world building, and it is presented through us as just another part of the narrative - the challenges the characters face, and the consequences of them getting their way, or failing miserably.

Meanwhile, there were the random “woke” moments in Wednesday. A guy saves her life in the first episode. This leads to her being rude to him and asking if he saved her because women are all fragile damsels in distress that need a man to help them. 

Wednesday had no idea who this guy was. She had no reason to believe he was sexist. He did not condescend to her in any. All did was help her out, and then explain to her what happened when she woke up at the infirmary. 

Now, about your actual question: politics are, unfortunatelly, a part of life, so naturally that is reflected in fiction, and to pretend that political messages haven’t been a part of a ton of great shows, movies, and books is not just silly, is downright stupid. However, like anything in the writting process, it has to be done right - and what is right for one story, is completely wrong for another.

This wasn’t a “strong female character telling the patriarchy to fuck off”, it was a character spewing out cheap “empowering” lines to make the internet call her a feminist icon - and thus keep their Netflix account, praise the show, and recommend it to others for having said “feminist icon.” It is the equivalent of writing a scene with Wednesday’s roomate telling her - or rather, the audience - that she loves Netflix because it has all the best shows and movies she could ever want to watch.

This is as "bold" as Disney announcing it's 50th first gay character, which will get three seconds of screentime. It's not the writers sending a message to the audience, it's fake activism in it's laziest form.

Avatar The Last Airbender and A Song Of Ice And Fire are both stories that have among their themes grief, trauma, and the horros of war. Both could have key characters meeting a duel, but only Avatar could get away with making said duel a parody of a wresteling match, including an obvious stand in for The Rock, because it was a kid’s how and comedy was a big part of it. Both could have characters getting hurt or even dying, but only ASOIAF could show/describe these scenes, because it is aimed at adults and has a much darker, and straight up brutal tone.

The Addams Family is satire. That genre is PERFECT for the best kind of political commentary: the kind that is made through witty and/or silly jokes.

However, for said jokes to feel natural in the story, they have to be true to the essence of the characters - and the Addams’s main trait is that they’re weird, sometimes scary people.

To give you an exemple, in the first movie, we have a scene of Morticia proudly telling her daughter’s teacher that one of their relatives danced naked in the town’s square, enslaved a minister, and was burned as a witch. Morticia then says that she told her daughter that she is not only allowed to do the same, but is actually encouraged to, but only after she goes to college to get a proper education. This shows the Addams have exactly zero problem with women that were demonized through history because they were sinful, lustful, evil witches, and all that great stuff.

However, the same movie also mentions how they did the Mamuska, a traditional dance of their family, in honor of Jack The Ripper - a serial killer who violently murdered sex-workers. 

This could look like a contradiction, but it isn’t, because the Addams’s whole deal is celebrating EVERYTHING that regular people find creepy, distasteful, sinful, inappropriate, morbid, vile, scary, etc.

Another exemple would in the sequel, Addams Family Vallues, in which Gomez and Morticia are listing all the “baby names” they thought of before finding the correct one - and among the options were both Lucifer and Mao.

Now, obviously this is the writers pointing out that Mao, the dictator that ruled China with an iron fist for years, was such a horrible person, he could be compared to the actual devil. But it also means that the Addams are not only okay with the guy, they actually considered naming their son after him. The movie is bashing Mao, but Gomez and Morticia are praising him for his terrible actions as a dictator - while the fact that he was a communist dictator is irrelevant, because the Addams are not communists. The joke is political, the characters are not.

And the super racist thanksgiving play Wednesday ruins in that same movie? She only did that because she was forced to participate in it, and she was sick of their fake, imposed happiness, that went as far as pretending that a massacre was actually a friendly dinner between the “civilized” europens and the “savage” natives. The scene was political, but the character was just doing something she knew would horrify and anger her enemies.

Even in THE tamest version of the Addams Family, the TV series of the 60s that had to drop nearly all of the dark humor, that element wasn’t lost.

There is an episode in which Gomez is supporting a politician. When Morticia asks him why in the world would he vote for a guy who is promising to destroy all the swamps when the Addams all like swamps, Gomez says that this is exactly why he is voting for him: is a campain promise, and everyone knows those are exactly what the guy will NOT do if he is elected.

But Gomez is still super friendly to the guy (the Addams way, which creeps him out), and there is no tension about how the other candidates are horrible and thus this guy is the good one, or at least the lesser of the evils they get to chose from. It is not taken seriously AT ALL. It’s just another excuse to have the Addams freaking the normies out.

The show was also praised for being one of the few family series that had the parents being actually happy together and in love, and taking good care of their kids. This was 100% because of the satire element, showing that the people who didn’t conform to what the traditional american family should be like were one of the few american families that were actually happy - but the Addams never point that out to us. Because it isn’t an act of rebellion on their part, at least not intentionally, they’re just living their lives.

They are NOT like us, so our ideas of politics could NEVER apply to them, because they simply can’t relate to it. That doesn’t mean the writers can’t add political commentary to the story - it just means they have to actually be competent at ballancing “these are my beliefs” and “this is what feels natural for the characters to do”

[dankusner]

‘Wicked: Part I’ review: Off to see the wizard, in fits and starts — but

Actor Cynthia Erivo tops the list of reasons the first part of a two-part film adaptation of the musical “Wicked” likely will extend the good fortune that has paved this story’s road from the beginning.

It’s quite a zigzag lineage:

From L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” adventures to MGM’s 1939 movie musical to Gregory Maguire’s increasingly raunchy quartet of “Wicked” bestsellers to the more acceptably edgy 2003 Broadway musical smasheroo.

The movie is directed by Jon M. Chu in a style appropriate to the material.

In other words, it’s filmed every which way.

It accommodates a little camp, a lot of “Wizard of Oz” throwbacks and plenty of Easter eggs.

“Wicked’s” insurrectionist spirit, animal-rights activism and larger anti-fascist allegory all inform the actions of two formidable female roles at the center.

The witches-in-training are buoyed by duets and power ballads, courtesy of composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, no longer best known for “Godspell” since “Wicked” came along.

Chu, who also made “Crazy Rich Asians,” “In the Heights” and the two standout “Step Up” dance movies, knows enough to get out of the way whenever Erivo takes over as Elphaba.

Erivo is aces, as we’ve known for a while now.

A huge talent in a time of triple-threat scarcity, she pours everything she has vocally and dramatically into getting this thing in the air, for at least some of its 161 minutes.

The official title is “Wicked: Part I,” and it covers Act 1 of the two-act musical’s narrative.

“Wicked: Part II” arrives on Nov. 21, 2025.

Consider the entire five hours of Chu’s two-part “Wicked” as the bonus-materials screen edition of the show, with a 364-day intermission.

Ariana Grande is good, too, as Glinda, the pampered entry-level witch and social clique bait of Shiz University, both repelled by and attracted to the intriguing magnetism and enviable sorcery of her green-toned roommate.

The emotional bond between her and Elphaba, the latter having known only cruel ostracization her entire life, emerges from a place of mutual loathing, spiced with a hint or three of sexual attraction.

(In the books, author Maguire is less coy about the multidirectional intimate lives of his characters.)

What made the Broadway “Wicked” fly was pretty simple, in the end:

A story about young women navigating a variety of social terrors and teaming up to combat a heartless patriarchy, with songs.

The Elphaba-Glinda dynamic was always the glue holding the show together.

The challenge comes in reconciling the material’s potentially irreconcilable internal differences.

“Wicked” is a show trying to give everybody a great time while activating a story about a terrible time.

It’s a dystopian tale hinging on a charlatan leader determined to hold onto power by putting his appointed scapegoats in cages (real goats, in some cases, among the talking animals under attack) while demonizing Elphaba, a powerful woman of color.

And while “Wicked” may be timely some times more than others, it’s also a mite heavy-handed.

Winnie Holzman wrote the stage version’s book and worked on the screenplay with Dana Fox (a co-writer on “Cruella”).

Because they have plenty of time and only an act’s worth of structure to deal with, the writers pull a few strands from Maguire’s books; expand the interaction between Elphaba and her favored, not-green sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), also attending Shiz; depict Elphaba’s tutoring sessions in some detail with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh); and generally air out the pace of things.

That’s a mixed blessing.

The movie feels alternately hectic and languid, and while it’s fun to see Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, he and Yeoh manage gravitas of differing varieties without much urgency.

“Wicked” gets its design act together once Elphaba and Glinda board a nifty steampunk train to Oz;

up until that point, director Chu often struggles for momentum.

In the much-loved tune “Popular,” for example, there’s no real build to the staging, just a lot of extra beats for mild comic shtick.

Elsewhere, Chu and his digital-effects army go nuts, turning Elphaba’s misbegotten spell on the Storm Trooper simian brigade into a protracted exercise in bloodless body-horror anguish.

It was like that on stage, too, but shorter.

I appreciate the degree to which production designer Nathan Crowley has built a lot of what we see on screen, from the mushroom huts of Munchkinland (with a touch of “The Wicker Man”) to the express train to Oz. But

did the open-air Shiz University campus really need to look like a 1990s outdoor shopping mall somewhere in San Diego?

Little of this will matter to the fan base unless they’re design majors. When Erivo and, at her best, Grande grab hold of their showcase numbers, all is well, or well enough.

But a film musical’s visual language and blending of tones has a direct relationship to the quality of the result.

How could it be otherwise?

Yet it’s a fact — a stage-to-screen adaptation’s actual quality has nothing to do with its popularity.

Take “Les Miserables,” a comparably sized musical phenom on stage, turned into a hugely successful film in 2012.

Aesthetically “Les Miz” and “Wicked” have little in common, since “Les Miz” was filmed halfway up the nostrils of its leading characters, for gritty realism, while Chu’s “Wicked” sticks as it must (to quote a lyric from the 1971 “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”) to pure imagination.

Too often, though, the magic in “Wicked” remains stubbornly unmagical.

And whenever Erivo isn’t around to make us believe, and take the mechanics of “Wicked” to heart, “Part I” reveals what’s behind the curtain, an adequate set-up for next November’s second act.

“Wicked: Part I” — 2 stars (out of 4)

The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz The untold story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel

By Evan I. Schwartz WitchesOfOz-v1.jpg Every living generation has been petrified by The Wizard of Oz. Early in the 1939 film, a cranky neighbor riding her bicycle through a tornado suddenly transforms into a witch. She soars off on her broomstick, tilting her head back and screaming with laughter as her cloak billows out behind her.

The 1900 book by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, inspired the film’s theme of good and evil sorcery. All the witches in the story have magical powers. They can fly, materialize at will, and see all things far and near. But while the Witches of the North and South are kind and supportive, the Witches of the East and West are seen as evil. “Remember that the Witch is Wicked—tremendously Wicked—and ought to be killed,” the Great Oz bellows to Dorothy as she heads off to the west.

The backstories of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good are the subject of the upcoming movie Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 stage musical. The witch, who is unnamed in The Wizard of Oz, has a name in Wicked: Elphaba, an homage to the initials of L. Frank Baum. (His first name, which he rarely used, was Lyman.) But the real-life backstory of the witches of Oz is just as fascinating. It involves a hidden hero of the 19th-century women’s rights movement and the most powerful woman in Baum’s life: his mother-in-law, Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage.

It was likely at Gage’s urging that Baum began submitting his poems and stories to magazines. Gage even suggested putting a cyclone in a children’s story. But she was a notable figure in her own right. As one of the three principal leaders of the women’s rights movement, along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage was known for her radical views and confrontational approach. At the Statue of Liberty’s unveiling in 1886, she showed up on a cattle barge with a megaphone, shouting that it was “a gigantic lie, a travesty and a mockery” to portray liberty as a woman when actual American women had so few rights.

After male critics branded Gage as satanic and a heretic, she became an expert on the subject of witch hunts. Her 1893 manifesto Woman, Church and State chronicled the five centuries between 1300 and 1800 when tens of thousands of human beings, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and put to death by fire, hanging, torture, drowning or stoning. In one gruesome scene, she described 400 women burning at once in a French public square “for a crime which never existed save in the imagination of those persecutors and which grew in their imagination from a false belief in woman’s extraordinary wickedness.”

Moment of Metamorphosis In a still image from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy looks out the window to see her meddling neighbor transformed into the cackling Wicked Witch of the West. LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Gage died two years before the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a story that produced the most enduring image of female wickedness in American history. But Baum also introduced the world to a different kind of witch. It was the beautiful and benevolent Glinda, likely inspired by Matilda herself, who showed Dorothy that she always held the power to return home.

Born March 24, 1826, Gage grew up as Matilda Joslyn north of Syracuse, New York, the only child of Helen Leslie and Hezekiah Joslyn, the town physician. The couple gave their daughter an unusual middle name, Electa—a Greek word that meant “elected” or “chosen one.”

Hezekiah Joslyn was a freethinker who taught his daughter that wisdom comes through one’s experiences. Freethinkers of 17th-century Europe challenged church authority, demanding the end of medieval witch hunts. Many of those backing the American Revolution also called themselves freethinkers, including Thomas Paine, whose 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, helped instigate independence from England.

Gage’s parents were staunch abolitionists whose home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Escaped enslaved people hid under the floorboards of the kitchen. Gage was home-schooled in Greek, mathematics and physiology. At age 15, she set off for the Clinton Liberal Institute, a boarding school that promised an education free of religious dogma. At 18, she married Henry Gage, a merchant and store owner, and they settled in the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville, where three of their four children were born in the 1840s. Their youngest daughter, Maud, arrived in 1861.

Haunted by injustice, Gage only grew fiercer in her thinking. She was furious at an America failing to live up to the ideal of liberty for all expressed in the Declaration of Independence. She was unable to leave her children at home to travel 60 miles to the inaugural 1848 National Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. But by 1852, when the third convention came to city hall in Syracuse, she was ready to speak her mind to the crowd of 2,000. “There will be a long moral warfare before the citadel yields,” Gage proclaimed. “In the meantime, let us take possession of the outposts. … Fear not any attempt to frown down the revolution.”

Afterward, Gage found herself locked in a war of words with religious leaders. One local minister called the convention “satanic,” while another denounced the women as “infidels.”

After the Civil War, the leaders of the movement formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, with Stanton as president, Anthony as secretary and Gage as chair of the executive committee. On Election Day, 1872, Anthony was arrested and jailed for voting. Gage was by her friend’s side for the trial in Rochester. The judge was “a small-brained, pale-faced, prim-looking man,” Gage wrote. “With remarkable forethought, he had penned his decision before hearing” the case. The resulting publicity made Susan B. Anthony a household name.

In 1876, a six-month celebration of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence attracted nearly ten million Americans—roughly a quarter of the entire U.S. population­—to Philadelphia. The activists petitioned President Grant to make a declaration of their own at the opening ceremony. The request was denied. That wouldn’t stop the suffragists.

At the ceremony, Anthony, Gage and three other leaders lurked behind the press section. Gage clutched a three-foot scroll and marched through the crowd of 150,000 people toward the podium. She passed the document to Anthony, who then placed it into the hands of the master of ceremonies, announcing: “We present to you this Declaration of the Rights of the Women Citizens of the United States.” Before the guards could catch them, the suffragists quickly handed out printed copies of the declaration to the reporters in the crowd:

“The women of the United States, denied for one hundred years the only means of self-government—the ballot—are political slaves, with greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution, than the men of 1776. … We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.”

Afterward, the women decided to record their struggles in a book, which eventually ballooned to comprise six volumes. The mammoth undertaking took a decade to finish. Most of the labor was split between Stanton and Gage, who completed the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, in 1881.

The Wonderful Illustrators of Oz Artist William Denslow shared the copyright for the first Oz book and was crucial to its success. As Denslow later said, he had to “work out and invent characters, costumes and a multitude of other details.” But he and Baum soon fell out. Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo The book’s publication coincided with Maud Gage’s freshman year at Cornell, the first Ivy League university to become coeducational. Maud resided in the female dormitory, Sage College, a magnificent brick building that still stands on the Ithaca, New York, campus. One Saturday evening in February 1881, the young women of Sage were treated to a lecture by Maud’s mother on the subject of women’s suffrage. “A large audience greeted Mrs. Gage on Saturday evening,” reported the Cornell Daily Sun. “Her discourse was well received.”

Still, Maud had a difficult time at school, left out of social clubs and mocked by college boys. “Her name is Gage and she is lively,” her schoolmate Jessie Mary Boulton wrote home in a letter. “A girl scarcely dares look sideways here. I came to the conclusion long ago that Cornell is no place for lively girls.” When Boulton co-founded a new chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, the first sorority on an Ivy League campus, Maud was not on the membership rolls. Boulton also joined the Lawn Tennis Club for ladies, again without Maud.

But fate would have its way: The 20-year-old student shared her room with a girl from Syracuse named Josie Baum, who introduced Maud to her cousin Frank, a 25-year-old bachelor, at a family party on Christmas Eve. At the time, Frank Baum was a failed chicken farmer who was writing and starring in his own touring stage plays. The two hit it off, and after a proper period of Victorian-era courtship, Baum proposed marriage.

At first, Gage called her daughter “a darned fool” for wanting to drop out of college to marry this itinerant playwright and actor, a most disreputable profession. Yet a wedding date was set for November 1882. With a string quartet playing, the wedding took place at the Greek Revival home of the Gage family. “The promises required of the bride were precisely the same as those required of the groom,” noted a local newspaper, in apparent surprise. (At the time, it was standard for the bride, but not the groom, to promise to “love and obey.”)

Now a designated New York State commemorative landmark owned and operated by the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, the Gage House serves as a museum and dialogue center hosting programs on social justice led by progressive scholars and activists. One of its advisory board members, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, called Gage “the woman who was ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.”

After the September 1884 death of her gentle and solemn husband Henry—an inspiration for the character of Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz—Gage threw herself even more fully into her work. Among many other projects, she’d been collaborating with Anthony and Stanton on the first two volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage. In the mid-1880s, though, Anthony came into some money and took over the rights to the series herself, paying Gage and Stanton for their shares.

The Wonderful Illustrators of Oz John Rea Neill took over the imaginative visuals in book two. Buyenlarge/Getty Images Meanwhile, Gage was increasingly frustrated by the more conservative leanings of her fellow suffragist leaders. Anthony, in particular, had strong ties with the temperance movement, which blamed alcohol for the bad behavior of men but also had an overtly religious vision for national politics.

Gage disapproved of the alliance between the women’s suffrage movement and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which began in 1874. In 1890, Gage left the National Woman Suffrage Association and founded the Woman’s National Liberal Union, which fought for the separation of church and state and drew attention to the religious subjugation of women.

As for the young Baums, Frank and Maud rented a house in Syracuse and had the first of their four sons. The new dad brought in steady money as the superintendent and sales manager for Baum’s (pronounced Bom’s) Castorine Company, a family business that created lubricants for buggies and machinery, a firm that still operates out of Rome, New York. Despite the outfit’s success, Baum grew bored. Yet he would never forget his days selling cans of oil, making the item a must-have for the Tin Woodman, who always needs a few drips to avoid rust.

Over the Rainbow In the 1939 film, the Kansas scenes are sepia-toned, but the Oz scenes were filmed using a new process called three-strip Technicolor. World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Gage corresponded regularly with her son and two other daughters who had settled in the Dakota Territory, joining half a million other Easterners catching “Western fever.” As Baum heard about their lives, he yearned for a more adventurous one. Relocating with his family in 1888 to the new “Hub City” of Aberdeen, in what became South Dakota, he established a novelty shop on its main street called Baum’s Bazaar. The store failed in just 15 months, as Baum misjudged the clientele, focusing on frivolous toys and games and impractical items like parasols and fancy wicker. “Frank had let his tastes run riot,” wrote sister-in-law Helen, who picked up the leftover inventory for $772.54 but turned her family’s store, renamed Gage’s Bazaar, into a success by selling things people actually needed.

Around the time Baum closed the store in December 1889, Matilda Gage blew in from the East to visit. She’d stay with the Baums every winter for the rest of her life. By early spring, Gage decided that she’d be remaining for the rest of the year. She and her band of suffragists convinced legislators to hold a referendum in the new state of South Dakota on the right to vote for women.

Movers and Shakers Delegates came to Washington, D.C., from nine different countries for the first meeting of the International Council of Women in 1888. A portrait of conference leaders shows Gage seated, second from right. Susan B. Anthony is seated second from left, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton is seated fourth from left. LOC / Corbis / VCG via Getty Images Baum put his remaining cash into another distressed business, buying the weakest newspaper in a town that had several bigger ones. His first editorials for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer were high-minded. “The key to the success of our country is tolerance,” he wrote. “The ‘live and let live’ policy of the Americans has excited the admiration of the world.” Volunteering as secretary of Aberdeen’s Women’s Suffrage Society, Baum argued that a law giving women the vote was more likely out there, as the West was new and open-minded. Gage barnstormed the state as Baum published editorials: “We are engaged in an equal struggle,” Baum wrote. In the West, he added, “a woman delights in being useful; a young lady’s highest ambition is to become a bread-winner.”

This inclusive spirit was often found in Baum’s early editorials. But on November 4, 1890, everything he advocated was shot down in the election. Baum had written a clever poem endorsing the town of Huron as the new state’s capital. The voters chose Pierre. And at the end of the day, the male voters of South Dakota broke 2 to 1 against the right of women to vote. Aberdeen had also just faced a drought and massive crop failure that crushed its economy. Failing farmers and merchants were heading back East or on to other boomtowns out West, leaving Baum with worthless credit slips and unpaid expenses.

That drought was felt even more harshly 150 miles away at Standing Rock, the Sioux reservation, where the community of several thousand began to suffer from starvation. As part of a well-documented propaganda campaign fueled by the U.S. military, newswire reports warned that an uprising and massacre of the people of Aberdeen was coming. At first Baum tried keeping his readers cool and sensible about this “false and senseless scare.” On November 29, he wrote: “According to the popular rumor, the Indians were expected to drop in on us any day the last week. But as our scalps are still in healthy condition, it is needless for us to remark that we are yet alive.”

Baum lambasted his rival newspapers for printing the worst of the propaganda and racism in order to sell newspapers. “Probably papers who have so injured the state by their flashy headlines of Indian uprisings did not think of the results of such action beyond the extra sale of a few copies of their sheets,” Baum continued in his November 29 editorial.

When U.S. officials ordered the arrest of Chief Sitting Bull in mid-December, newspapers all over the country reported that violence was likely to break out. Baum got caught up in the issue. “A man in the East can read the papers and light a cigar and say there is no danger,” he wrote, “but put that man and his family on the east bank of the Missouri, opposite Sitting Bull’s camp … he will draw a different picture.”

After police invaded Sitting Bull’s camp on December 15 and shot him as he was trying to escape, wire reports went out far and wide, and Baum printed the headline on December 20: “Expect an Attack at Any Moment. Sitting Bull’s Death to Be Avenged by a Massacre of Whites in the Near Future.” In this same issue, Baum printed his first of two racist editorials. Dehumanizing the Native Americans as “whining curs” and “miserable wretches,” he called for “the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.” On December 29, as many as 300 Sioux men, women and children camping by a creek called Wounded Knee were shot dead by U.S. soldiers. Baum’s editorials put him on the wrong side of history.

There’s no known written record of Gage’s response to this incident. She was living with the Baums at the time, so any exchanges she had with Frank would have happened face-to-face. But his editorials were certainly at odds with her own views. She had the utmost respect for Indigenous communities. After paying several visits to an Iroquois Confederation north of Syracuse, she had concluded that the sexes there were “nearly equal,” and “never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher.” In 1893, she would become an honorary member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation and, at the ceremony, receive the name of Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi, roughly translated as She Who Holds the Sky.

By January 1891, Baum seemed to have lost almost everything, including his integrity. His newspaper business collapsed. At the age of 34, he had no job, no career, no prospects, only a damaged reputation.

That spring, the Baum family moved to Chicago, where Frank got a job working for the city’s Evening Post. In this new chapter of his life, he accompanied his mother-in-law to lectures, séances and other gatherings. In September 1892, he became a member of a group called the Theosophical Society. Founded in New York City, the society was led by the Russian mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky. Matilda, a freethinker like her father, had joined the society at a conference in Rochester, New York, in March 1885. The brew of Theosophical beliefs appealed to Gage—the ancient wisdom of Hinduism and Buddhism, combined with other mystical ideas like mediumship and telepathy—and all of it with an emphasis on universal human rights and living a life of nonviolence in both word and deed. A mission statement published by the group’s founders in 1882 defined Theosophy as “a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed or color.” Gage called Theosophy the “crown blessing” of her life.

Baum was especially interested in Theosophy’s description of the astral plane, a world of emotion and illusion where one’s “astral body” could go for a supernatural experience reached through mental powers. An 1895 book called The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena would become so popular in the family that three copies would circulate among the Baum and Gage households.

In 1893, Gage published Woman, Church and State, her most influential work. Gage called it “a book with a revolution in it.” The 450-page volume put forth the provocative view that church and state had been suppressing women for centuries. The book was banned by her nemesis, Anthony Comstock, a U.S. postal inspector and the secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, who called it “salacious” and declared he would bring criminal proceedings against any person who placed it in a public school or sent it through the U.S. mail.

Gage cited passages from the King James Bible, such as “though shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), showing the link between the preaching of religion and accusations of witchcraft. She traced this misogyny back to the Garden of Eden with the tale of Eve, the trickster serpent and the forbidden fruit. “A system of religion was adopted which taught the greater sinfulness of women,” she asserted, “and the persecution for witchcraft became chiefly directed against women.”

As this view gained traction within the church, Gage wrote, “a witch was held to be a woman who had deliberately sold herself to the evil one.” Anything could be used as evidence of witchcraft—possessing rare knowledge, having an unusual “witch mark,” suffering from mental illness, owning black cats, the use of herbs for healing, performing black magic, or having an ability to float or swim. But “those condemned as sorcerers and witches, as ‘heretics,’ were in reality the most advanced thinkers of the christian ages,” Gage wrote.

She was especially moved by an 1883 gathering in Salem, Massachusetts, for descendants of Rebecca Nurse, one of the best-known women put to death in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Nurse was a 70-year-old woman with eight children and, as Gage wrote, “a church member of unsullied reputation and devout habit; but all these considerations did not prevent her accusation … and she was hung by the neck till she was dead.”

Gage was promoting her new book when she visited the 1893 Columbian Exposition, a spectacular world’s fair in Chicago. Her son-in-law was covering the sprawling event as a reporter, and he wrote about the light pouring through the walls of windows of the white buildings, so bright that people purchased colored eyeshades from vendors. This detail would later reappear in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where all the residents of the Emerald City wear green eyeshades. “Because if you did not wear spectacles the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would blind you,” Baum would write in the novel. Indeed, the Oz novel’s illustrations would be sketched by William Wallace Denslow, who was drawing splendorous images of the fair’s fanciful architecture for another Chicago paper.

One day, Gage visited the exposition’s Woman’s Building and encountered statues immortalizing her old colleagues Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Seeing the statues only increased her ire at her old colleagues for aligning with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She also felt undervalued as a writer, and she harbored suspicions that Anthony had taken funds from a joint account to pay her own exorbitant travel expenses. “They have stabbed me in reputation, and Susan, at least, has stolen money from me,” she wrote in a July 1893 letter to her son, Thomas. “They are traitors, also, to woman’s highest needs.”

Lady Liberty A military salute at the Statue of Liberty’s 1886 dedication. From a nearby barge, Gage shouted through a megaphone about the lack of liberty for American women. Library of Congress Gage herself was falling into poverty. The cost of publishing and promoting her new book had exceeded its earnings, and she was now in debt. “I like an active life and one with freedom from money troubles,” Gage wrote. “I like to be independent in every way. But fate or Karma is against me.”

In February of 1895, Gage came across a writing contest in the children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion offering a prize of $500 for the best original story. The rich sum (equivalent to more than $18,000 today) seized her attention, and she considered her daughter Helen and son-in-law Frank the family’s best writers. While there are no known records of her in-person conversations with Frank, she likely shared the same ideas she sent Helen in a letter. “Keep in mind it is not a child’s paper but a paper for youth and the older members of the family,” she wrote. “The moral tone and literary character of these stories must be exceptional.”

She encouraged them to write “not narration or passages from history, but stories,” which she defined as tales with “a dramatic arc from the beginning to the end.” Gage went so far as to suggest a topic: “If you could get up a series of adventures or a Dakota blizzard adventure where a heroic teacher saves children’s lives.” Or, she added, “bring in a cyclone,” perhaps recalling a true twister story of a house rising off its foundation that Helen had written in the Syracuse Weekly Express in 1887. Above all, Gage added, create “fiction which comes with a moral, without however any attempt to sermonize.”

There’s no evidence that Baum entered that particular contest, but around that time, he began a new routine. He’d moved on to a new day job as a traveling salesmen of fine china for Pitkin & Brooks. Every evening, especially when he was away at hotels, he’d write down ideas in a journal. Soon, Baum began submitting his tales and poems to newspapers and magazines. At first, Baum kept track of his rejection letters in a journal called his “Record of Failure,” a title that could have described his whole business career, too.

But in early 1896, Baum started receiving acceptance letters for his short stories. In January 1896, the Chicago Times-Herald published a story of his titled “Who Called Perry?” In February, the same paper published his story “Yesterday at the Exposition,” which imagined a world’s fair in Chicago nearly 200 years in the future. His first national magazine story was called “The Extravagance of Dan” and published in the National magazine in May 1897.

Devastation at Wounded Knee Sioux bodies wrapped in blankets at Chief Spotted Elk’s camp, soon after the U.S. Army killed as many as 300 Sioux. Baum’s editorials were part of the wave of fearmongering surrounding the massacre. Trager and Kuhn, LOC Once his submissions started getting accepted, the stories kept coming, typically turning real life into the poetic. With both earnings and confidence rising, Baum expanded his vision to two successful books for children, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), a collection of short stories based on traditional nursery rhymes, and Father Goose: His Book (1899), a series of original nonsense poems. In October 1899, he got a story called “Aunt Hulda’s Good Time” into the magazine first suggested by his mother-in-law, the prestigious Youth’s Companion.

For the first time, the Baums were able to afford a stately home, a Victorian on Humboldt Boulevard wired with electric lights and featuring a covered front porch where Baum would tell stories to his sons and the neighborhood children. He maintained a close relationship with his mother-in-law. “Frank came in and kissed me goodbye, as he always does,” wrote Gage. “He is very kind to me.”

Gage was staying with the Baums in Chicago when she was confined to bed with pain in her lungs, throat and stomach. “We all must die, and I pray to go quickly when I leave,” she wrote in an 1897 letter. “I would a thousand times prefer Black Death to long-term paralysis. … The real suffering comes from lack of knowledge of real things—the spiritual.”

In Washington, D.C., thousands of activists were gathering for a convention to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls conference. Unable to attend, Gage penned a final speech that was read aloud at the convention by a friend. Gage proclaimed what she called “the femininity of the divine” and shared her belief that one day “the feminine will soon be fully restored to its rightful place in creation.”

Gage also wrote messages to her loved ones and colleagues as part of her last will and testament. “I am one of those that are set for the redeeming of the Earth,” Gage wrote to Baum. “I am to live on the plane that shall be above all things that dishearten. … When I receive instructions from those who are in the Invisible, I will receive them willingly, with a desire to put them into practice to the extent of my spirit light and potency.”

Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage died on March 18, 1898. Her four-paragraph obituary in the New York Times reported her death was caused by “apoplexy,” an old medical term for a stroke but also meaning a state of extreme rage.

Following a small ceremony for her mother in Chicago, Maud left her husband behind with their four sons and transported the urn of her mother’s remains east, to be interred by the old house in Fayetteville alongside her father’s grave.

And Toto, Too During the 1910s, the Baums lived in Hollywood—in a house called Ozcot, with a dog named Toto. Baum designed an emerald- green lighting system for the dining room. Courtesy of Matilda Joslyn Gage Center This is when the magic happened. The story “moved right in and took possession,” Baum later said. The inspiration came at the twilight of a winter’s day when he saw his sons and their friends returning home from playing in the snow. “It came to me right out of the blue,” he said. “I shooed the children away.” Word paintings came out through his pencil onto scraps of paper: A gray prairie. A terrifying twister. A mystical land ruled by both good and wicked witches. A trio of comical characters who join a girl on her quest, a journey to a magical city of emeralds controlled by a mysterious wizard. “The story really seemed to write itself,” he told his publisher. Yet at first, Baum hadn’t settled on a name for his main character.

In June 1898, Maud’s brother and wife welcomed a girl they named Dorothy. Maud enjoyed visiting them in Bloomington, Illinois, that summer, but the baby became ill and started running fevers. On November 11, only 5 months old, Dorothy Louise Gage died. She was “a perfectly beautiful baby,” Maud mourned. “I could have taken her for my very own and loved her devotedly.” In Baum’s writings, the girl from Kansas took on the name Dorothy, with a last name, Gale, that was perhaps a double reference to the gale-force cyclone and the family name of Gage.

His mother-in-law also lived on through the story. She’d believed strongly in mental manifestation, insisting that people could accomplish anything through the power of their minds. When Helen’s daughter Leslie fell ill in 1895, Gage had prescribed positive thought energy: “Take five minutes three or four times a day to think of health and when you go to bed at night keep saying to yourself ‘I am well.’ Grandma knows by experience that a great deal of good comes from concentration of thought.” As a woman who spent her whole life urging women to have confidence in themselves, Gage would have been pleased to see her views taking on a central role in the story of Oz. Dorothy’s silver shoes (in the movie ruby slippers) are not magical in themselves. It’s only after a lesson from Glinda on the power of thought that their magic can work. As the good witch Glinda tells Dorothy: “All you have to do is to knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you wherever you wish to go.”

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‘Wicked’: Witches Get Stuff Done. Also Cynthia Erivo Is God

It was a wonderful day in Oz when the Wicked Witch of the West died, or so you’d think from the celebratory mood of the residents of Munchkinland.

Every man, woman and child were whooping with joy, crying tears of relief, tearing down terrifying posters of the green-hued tyrant like they’d been liberated from the second coming of Stalin.

Thank god that a young woman from the exotic, faraway paradise known as “Kansas” found that lethal bucket of H2O!

Rejoice, you petite friends of Dorothy.

The reign of terror had finally come to end.

Yet there was one voice that did not add to the deafening chorus of “Ding dong!”

Her name was Glinda, and in terms of witches, she was very much on the good side.

Descending upon the throng in her giant pink bubble, the sorceress with the kind heart and three-octave range agreed that a new day was dawning in Oz.

So why the slight tinge of sorrow in her announcement?

A voice from the crowd spoke up:

Didn’t you know her, Glinda?

Is it true you were her [gasp] friend?!

Well, ok, yes, the good witch admitted.

She did room with her at school, so very, very long ago.

And the lady in the tall, pointy black hat wasn’t always so, y’know, wicked.

But perhaps this is a backstory best told in song….

When author Gregory Maguire first suggested in his 1995 novel Wicked that the enemy of Dorothy, so memorably depicted in The Wizard of Oz, might not have been a villain so much as a victim, it was a clever stab at a revisionist I.P. history.

Not until Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s juggernaut of a musical entered, stage left, onto Broadway eight years later did the idea that maybe, just maybe, we’ve completely misjudged this iconic character enter the mainstream.

Now, in a world where virtually every theater kid can belt out a passable version of “Popular,” more folks know Oz’s Public Enemy No. 1 as a gravity-defying antihero than a monster with Margaret Hamilton’s cackle.

Fans have been patiently waiting for the screen version of Wicked for decades now, and it’s safe to say that their faith will be rewarded.

It’s also obvious that as much as this is still a tale of two witches, each blessed with equally beautiful voices, there’s a very clear standout here that’s lifting this occasionally leaden jazz-hands-extravaganza up to higher ground.

From the moment Elphaba entered the world, the tiny, green-skinned baby was viewed as a freak.

Yet even as a child (Karis Musangole), she displayed wit, intelligence, empathy, and supernatural talents that suggested was different in more ways than one.

Still, the college-age Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is merely a chaperone for her younger paraplegic sister/apple of dad’s eye, Nessarose (Marissa Bode).

When the family arrives at Shiz University to drop Nessa off, however, Elphaba’s impulsive, angry use of her gifts attracts the attention of the institution’s expert in magic, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).

She senses an alpha witch in the making.

So even though Elphaba is not officially enrolled, Morrible wants to train her.

All she needs is a place to stay.

Luckily, some try-hard newbie in pink has been bragging about how she has a single suite.

Bingo!

They can be roommates.

Never mind that Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba hate each other, and the last thing this entitled goody-two-glitter-shoes wants is some outsider outshining her and living in her space.

“Something’s wrong,” Glinda trills, concerned. “I didn’t get my way.”

The two have to make the best of a horrible situation, and the frenemy dynamic is already well-established before the good witch’s human-sideye sidekicks, played by Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James, purposefully unload a humiliating black hat on Elphaba.

Eventually, the super-popular Glinda decides to give her roomie an unsolicited makeover.

[Editor’s note: Don’t be offended by her frank analysis, just think of it as a personality dialysis.]

She also helps turn Elphaba’s Elaine-Benes-at-a-wedding dance during a school function into the hottest new foxtrot in Oz.

Soon, the pair are inseparable.

Meanwhile, over in Emerald City:

The Wizard — you remember him, all-powerful dictator, really just a blustery grifter, pay no attention to him when he’s behind the curtain — has heard there’s a student over at Shiz who has the potential to read a rare spellbook and turn it into a weapon.

Elphaba is invited for a personal visit.

She takes Glinda along for the trip.

And once both witches-in-training are in the presence of His Wizardness (Jeff Goldblum), it becomes apparent that they each have to make a choice about what side of the rainbow they will respectively end up on.

Jonathan Bailey in ‘Wicked.’ Giles Keyte/Universal Picturesnormal

There are, of course, a number of other factors happening over, under and through Wicked‘s main good-vs.-bad plotline, including the arrival of a handsome party-boy prince named Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) who causes a hormonal uproar at school;

Nessarose falling for a suitor (Ethan Slater), who has eyes for Glinda;

and bigotry against talking animals, including Peter Dinklage’s scholarly goat, that eventually devolves to mass deportation and is as allegorically heavy-handed as it is eerily, nightmarishly timely.

Director Jon M. Chu has dabbled in everything from mid-level franchise entries (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) to crowd-pleasing rom-coms (Crazy Rich Asians), but he has a thing for musicals, with both two Step Up movies and a dizzying take on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights under his belt.

The bigger set pieces seem to be a better fit for his more-is-more sensibility, which is why a comparatively minor showstopper like “Dancing Through Life” gets an acrobatic, Busby Berkeley-style staging, complete with rotating ladder wheels, and a mostly solo hit like “Popular” feels like it’s over before it’s really begun.

Not that you really need elaborate bells and whistles for that number — it’s all about who’s singing it and if they’re nailing the right wink-nudge spin of the lyrics, which is why you cast Ariana Grande.

The singer has made no secret that she’s been pining to play this role for close to a decade, and you get the sense that she shares Glinda’s need to prove herself, if not the character’s grating self-centeredness.

If Grande occasionally seems a little stiff doing the physical comedy bits and relies on the 1939’s version’s fluttering high notes as a punch line a tad too much, she’s completely at home belting out a theater-kid perennial like this one.

The woman has incomparable pipes.

She’s also a charitable screen partner, knowing when to goose scenes with Erivo for effect and when to cede the spotlight so her counterpart can shine that much brighter.

They’re an extremely complimentary team.

Just not exactly, shall we say, an equal one.

This is the part where we risk damning the bulk of Wicked with faint praise in favor of lavishing over-the-moon accolades on one performer in particular.

And to be sure, this high-fidelity screen adaptation has its perks outside of a single above-the-title star.

Witches get stuff done.

There are Easter eggs for both longtime fans of classic film and the original-cast run, and though IMDb may have already given away the “secret” cameos, we’ll just say that there’s a nice passing of the torch here. It has the sort of manic, let’s-put-on-a-show energy that makes for good musical theater, even if it never gets close to Freed-Unit levels of inspiration and verve that you associate with the golden age of screen musicals.

The powers that be have dropped the “Part 1” from the title, but it’s still been bifurcated, for better or worse, so prepare to end on a cliffhanger and report back to the theater next November for Part 2.

The first chapter may feel stronger as part of a whole rather than an opening half.

But much like the story within the movie itself, there’s someone who clearly has something extra-special she’s bringing to the party, and draws you deep into Wicked‘s emotional orbit regardless of whether or not you know the lyrics to “I’m Not That Girl” by heart.

Cynthia Erivo has already established herself as a singer, a stage performer and a screen presence extraordinaire, whether she’s a supporting-role dynamo or the best part of an otherwise so-so project.

What she’s doing here with Elphaba is, quite simply, magical.

Erivo can go big, filling up a frame with sound and fury when needed.

But she can also give you so much by simply moving her eyes, slightly adjusting her jaw, tilting her head back in a way that suggests pride, or unexpected joy, or a rage that’s on the verge of spilling over.

It’s hard to think of a recent turn in a big look-at-me studio movie, much less a brash movie musical, that manages to be so simultaneously buoyant and grounding.

It’s not so much that Wicked doesn’t rise to meet her.

It’s more like Erivo keeps soaring higher and higher above it.

This is why it makes a cockeyed sense to break Wicked into two distinct parts, even if a year-long intermission will likely break whatever spell the film casts on those who aren’t already true believers.

But it also means we end with “Defying Gravity,” the Act 1 swan song that separates the musical-theater dilettantes from the legends.

(Had the O.G. wicked witch Idina Menzel not recorded “Let It Go,” this would be the first thing you’d bring up in terms of her go-for-broke chops.)

In so many ways, Erivo seems built to take on a song like this, not just in terms of hitting the notes but showing the way the song takes the character’s arc to the next logical step.

It is not just the song in which Elphaba breaks bad, but the one in which she finally breaks free.

And when Erivo nails that moment and rides into Oz’s history books on a broomstick, for a split second you feel like there’s no place you’d rather be than riding alongside her.

Not even home.

An illustration of the characters in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and their author

A Critic at Large

The Man Behind the Curtain

L. Frank Baum and the winding road to “The Wizard of Oz.” By John Updike

When “The Wizard of Oz” premièred, in the summer of 1939, The New Yorker’s film critic was unimpressed.

The movie “displays no trace of imagination, good taste, or ingenuity,” Russell Maloney wrote; it was, in short, a “stinkeroo.”

But audiences disagreed, and, in the intervening decades, the movie has largely eclipsed its source material, a children’s book written by a former travelling china salesman named L. Frank Baum.

In 2000, when the book turned a hundred, John Updike revisited the story and its author, whose path to success was almost as winding as the yellow brick road.

Baum’s literary inventions have extended deep into this century, albeit with new plots and characters.

Friday marks the arrival in theatres of “Wicked,” a musical prequel based on Gregory Maguire’s book of the same name, which is mentioned briefly in Updike’s article as an example of contemporary output by “Oz-besotted children now aged into postmodern creators.”

Baum might not have minded such acts of reinterpretation: during his lifetime, he churned out numerous sequels, along with a silent film and an operetta based on his work.

Writers including Gore Vidal and Salman Rushdie later saw metaphors for their own experiences in the original story; another enthusiast ranked it alongside “Moby-Dick” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as one of the “great classic quests in American literature.”

Updike isn’t prepared to go that far, but he finds examples of Baum injecting more imagination into the world around him (the Midwest city that inspired the Emerald City), and of others who improved upon his vision (the initial color of Dorothy’s ruby slippers).

The story’s impact on pop culture remains undeniable—but perhaps not, Updike argues, for the reasons Baum would have anticipated.

“It is hard to read Baum’s later Oz books,” he observes, without seeing “a writer who only dimly understands his own masterpiece.

Celebrating the Centennial of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”

A hundred years after the book’s publication, the movie adaptation is the main road to Oz.

A hundred years ago, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” by L. Frank Baum, was published by the soon-to-be-defunct Chicago-based firm of George M. Hill.

The Library of Congress is hosting a commemorative exhibition, and Norton has brought out a centennial edition of “The Annotated Wizard of Oz,” edited and annotated by Michael Patrick Hearn ($39.95).

Hearn, we learn from a preface by Martin Gardner, became a Baum expert while he was an English major at Bard College, and put forward an annotated “Wizard” when he was only twenty years old.

Gardner, the polymathic compiler of “The Annotated Alice” (1960) and “More Annotated Alice” (1990), had been invited to do the same, in 1970, for Baum’s fable; disclaiming competence, he recommended the young Bard Baumist to Clarkson N. Potter, who published Hearn’s tome in 1973.

In the years since, Hearn has produced annotated versions of Charles Dickens’s “Christmas Carol” and Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” added to the vast tracts of Baum scholarship, co-authored a biography of W. W. Denslow, the “Wizard” ’s illustrator, and labored at a still unpublished “definitive biography” of Baum.

Presumably, he and Norton have been patiently waiting, with fresh slews of annotation and illustration, for the centennial (which is also that of Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie,” Conrad’s “Lord Jim,” Colette’s first Claudine novel, and Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams”) to roll around.

It is not hard to imagine why Gardner ducked the original assignment.

The two “Alice” books are more literate, intricate, and modernist than Baum’s “Wonderful Wizard,” and Lewis Carroll’s mind, laden with mathematical lore, chess moves, semantic puzzles, and the riddles of Victorian religion, was more susceptible to explication, at least by the like-minded Gardner.

But Baum, Hearn shows in his introduction, was a complicated character, too—a Theosophist, an expert on poultry, a stagestruck actor and singer, a fine amateur photographer, an inventive household tinkerer, a travelling china salesman, and, only by a final shift, a children’s writer.

He was forty-four when “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was published.

His prior bibliography included a directory of stamp dealers, a treatise on the mating and management of Hamburg chickens, a definitive work entitled “The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors” (also celebrating its centennial), and a few small volumes for children.

Baum’s life (1856-1919) reflects the economic and ideological adventurism of his America.

Hearn tells us that his father, Benjamin Ward Baum, “followed nearly as many careers as his son would. He was building a barrel factory in Chittenango [New York] when the boy was born, but made a fortune in the infant Pennsylvania oil industry only a few years later.”

Lyman Frank, one of nine children, of whom five survived into adulthood, was raised on a luxurious estate in Syracuse and educated by English tutors.

He was a dreamy reader of a boy.

He lasted only two years at Peekskill Military School, and went on to Syracuse Classical School, without, apparently, graduating.

He married the twenty-year-old Maud Gage when he was twenty-six and, grown into a lanky man with a large mustache, was touring as the star of a musical melodrama, “The Maid of Arran,” which he had written—book, lyrics, and music.

His mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Gage, was a prominent feminist and a keen Theosophist;

she had not wanted her daughter to leave Cornell to marry an actor.

But Maud did anyway, and when she became pregnant Frank left the theatre.

With his uncle, Adam Baum, he established Baum’s Castorine Company, marketing an axle grease invented by his brother Benjamin and still, in this slippery world, being manufactured.

Maud’s sisters and brother had all settled in the Dakota Territory;

in 1888 Frank moved with his family to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he opened a variety store, Baum’s Bazaar.

Drought and depression caused the store to fail; in 1890 Baum took over a weekly newspaper, calling it the Saturday Pioneer, and by 1891 it, too, was failing.

He found employment in Chicago, first as a reporter and then as a travelling salesman with the wholesale china-and-glassware firm of Pitkin & Brooks.

The two-and-a-half-year Dakota interval gave him, however, the Plains flavor crucial to the myth of Dorothy and the Wizard;

gray desolation and hardscrabble rural survival compose the negative of which Oz is the colorful print.

In Baum’s Kansas, “even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.”

Chicago’s spectacular White City, built of plaster and cement for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on the lakeside marshes, gave both Baum and his illustrator, Denslow, the glitz and scale, but not the tint, of Oz’s Emerald City.

A contemporary writer, Frances Hodgson Burnett, likened the White City to the City Beautiful in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and wrote:

Endless chains of jewels seemed strung and wound about it.

The Palace of Flowers held up a great crystal of light glowing against the dark blue of the sky, towers and domes were crowned and diademed, thousands of jewels hung among the masses of leaves, or reflected themselves, sparkling in the darkness of the lagoons, fountains of molten jewels sprung up, and flamed and changed.

Woven of electric illusion (newly feasible, thanks to the Wizard of Menlo Park) and quickly an abandoned ruin, the White City fed into Baum’s book a melancholy undertone of insubstantiality.

A Bobbs-Merrill press release in 1903 claimed that the name Oz came from the “O-Z” drawer of the author’s filing cabinet, but the name resonates with a Shelley poem known to most Victorians:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains.

A note of hollowness, of dazzling fraud, of frontier fustian and quackery taints the Wizard in the first of the many Oz books, before a plethora of wonders turns him into a real sorcerer.

In the M-G-M movie, the seekers along the yellow brick road rapturously sing, “The Wizard of Oz is one because . . . because of the wonderful things he does”; then it turns out that what he does is concoct visual hokum with a crank and escape in a mismanaged hot-air balloon.

But Baum, who turned to editing and writing as a way of spending more time with his four young sons, proved to be an authentic wizard as a children’s author.

He had made the acquaintance of William Wallace Denslow, a footloose artist from Philadelphia who had come to Chicago for the Exposition;

the two had definite and ambitious ideas about what children’s books should look like, and paid for the color plates of their first collaboration, a book of Baum’s verses called “Father Goose, His Book.”

The book attracted praise from Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Admiral George Dewey and, Hearn says, “became the best-selling picture book of 1900.”

That year saw the publication of no fewer than five titles by Baum, of which the “Wizard” was the last.

Hill was overwhelmed by orders, and went back to press four times, for a total of ninety thousand copies.

The Minneapolis Journal called it, in November, “the best children’s story-book of the century”—high praise if the nineteenth century was meant, more modest if the infant twentieth.

In 1902, the George M. Hill Company went bankrupt, in spite of Baum’s success, and the rights to the “Wizard” were placed in the crasser hands of Bobbs-Merrill;

meanwhile, Baum and Denslow parted, each taking the Oz characters with him, since their contract provided for separate ownership of text and illustrations.

That same year saw the opening, at Chicago’s Grand Opera House, of “The Wizard of Oz,” a “musical extravaganza” created by Julian Mitchell, who was later to mastermind “The Ziegfeld Follies.”

Mitchell had scrawled “No Good” across Baum’s script for a five-act operetta closely based on his tale, and substituted a vaudevillian hodgepodge that capped its Chicago success with a year-and-a-half run on Broadway and a road career that lasted, off and on, until 1911.

The extravaganza increased Baum’s wealth, but it also encouraged his tropism toward the theatrical.

His first sequel to the “Wizard,” “The Marvelous Land of Oz,” in 1904, was designed to be the basis of another extravaganza, featuring the vaudeville performers David C. Montgomery and Fred A. Stone, who had played the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow in the Mitchell production.

The book was dedicated to them and loaded with patter and puns suitable to their routines.

It sold as a book but failed as a musical called “The Woggle-Bug,” with lyrics by Baum and without, in the end, Montgomery and Stone.

Anticipating the piggyback publicity system perfected by Walt Disney, Baum promoted this unfortunate production with a “Woggle-Bug Contest” in a Sunday comic page, drawn by Walt McDougall and titled “Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz.”

Despite frail health (angina, gallstones, inflamed appendix), Baum was a whirlwind of activity until his death, at the age of sixty-two.

Along with thirteen Oz sequels, he wrote a teen-age-oriented “Aunt Jane’s Nieces” series under the name Edith Van Dyne, young people’s books under four other pseudonyms, an adult novel published anonymously, and many unpublished plays.

Splendidly dressed in a white frock coat with silk lapels, he toured with film-and-slide presentations called “The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays.”

A reviewer in the Chicago Tribune wrote that “his ability to hold a large audience’s attention during two hours of tenuous entertainment was amply demonstrated”; these early electronic productions were expensive, however, and by 1911 had helped bankrupt him.

Thriftily moving his California winter residence from the Hotel del Coronado to a “handsome bungalow he christened Ozcot,” in Hollywood, Baum found himself surrounded by the burgeoning movie industry without being able to tap into it profitably.

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, with Baum as president, produced some silent films, beginning with “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” in 1914, but, dismissed as “kiddie shows,” they fell short at the box office.

In 1925, six years after Baum’s death, a movie of “The Wizard of Oz” was released; according to Hearn in one of his sterner moods, it was “totally lacking the magic of Baum’s book” (though a Laurel-less Oliver Hardy played the Tin Woodman), and “had a dreadful script, written in part by the author’s son Frank J. Baum.”

It was M-G-M’s 1939 adaptation, of course, that hit the jackpot: the three-million-dollar film showed no profit on its original release, but it became a staple of postwar television.

A hundred years after the “Wizard” ’s publication, the movie is the main road into Oz.

Oz had very quickly become zoned for commercial activity, and there is something depressing about the chronicle of its exploitation, a chronicle that Hearn caps with a compendious footnote taking us up through the all-black “Wiz” (stage 1975, movie 1978) and the dead-on-arrival Disney “Return to Oz” (1985).

And then there is the upcoming television series “Lost in Oz,” produced by Tim Burton.

It is hard to read Baum’s later Oz books without feeling the exploitation in progress, by a writer who only dimly understands his own masterpiece.

After his death, the series was extended by Ruth Plumly Thompson, who between 1921 and 1939 added nineteen titles;

then, briefly, by John R. Neill, whose spidery, often insipid drawings illustrate all the Oz books but the first; by Jack Snow, a “minor science fiction writer”; by Rachel Cosgrove; by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner; and even by Baum’s son, who legally battled his mother for the precious trademark “Oz.”

And, Hearn indefatigably tells us, “of late there has grown up a peculiar literary sub-genre of adult novels drawing on the Oz mythology,” such as Geoff Ryman’s “Was” (1992) and Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” (1995)—the products, presumably, of Oz-besotted children now aged into postmodern creators freed from fear of copyright infringement.

The potent images of the “Wizard” do cry out for extension and elaboration.

The M-G-M motion picture improves upon the book in a number of ways.

It eliminates, for example, the all too Aesopian (and, prior to computer graphics, probably unfilmable) episode wherein the Queen of the mice and her many minions transport the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy bed where he has fallen asleep;

instead, it retrieves from the 1902 musical the effective stage business that had a sudden snowstorm annul the spell of the poppies.

The movie weeds out a number of extravagant beasts and the especially artificial episode of “the Dainty China Country” so quaintly planted on the path to the witch’s lair.

The scenario amplifies the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, showing her as the source of all the obstacles in the pilgrims’ path, as she watches them on the private television of her crystal ball.

In the book, she is a relatively passive presence, easily doused

(“I never thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds. Look out—here I go!”), compared with the cackling greenfaced film presence of Margaret Hamilton, who dies mourning her “beautiful wickedness!”

Once she is dead, the film picks up speed;

after the Wizard’s unmasking and his unplanned departure, it is virtually over, where Baum’s tale dilly-dallies through further complications on the way to the Good Witch of the South, with fresh humanoid gadgetry like Fighting Trees and armless Hammer-Heads and a mechanical plot dependency on the Golden Cap and its three-wish control of the Winged Monkeys.

As a writer, Baum rarely knew when to quit, unfurling marvel after marvel while the human content—a content shaped by nonmagical limitations—leaked away.

He did not quite grasp that his “Wizard” concerns our ability to survive disillusion; miracles are humbug.

The Hollywood film begins with the human, gray Kansas and, unlike the book, plants on that drab land all the actors who will dominate Oz—the three farmhands, the wicked Almira Gulch on her bicycle, Professor Marvel in his flimsy van.

They are Kansans, and Dorothy returns to them.

Hearn calls it “unforgivable” that the M-G-M movie cast Oz as a dream;

but Dorothy on awakening protests, “It wasn’t a dream.”

It was an alternative reality, an inner depiction of how we grow.

As Jerome Charyn observes in his excellent “Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture” (1989), “The whole film was about metamorphosis.”

Judy Garland, who was sixteen and noticeably buxom in the role of Baum’s pre-pubescent Dorothy, was “a woman who seemed to flower from an ordinary little girl.”

Growth is metamorphosis, and self-understanding is growth.

The Scarecrow already has brains, the Tin Woodman is sentimental to a fault, the Lion has courage enough, but until the Wizard bestows external evidences (in the movie more wittily than in the book) they feel deficient.

Dorothy, capable and clear-sighted from the start, needs only to accept the grayness of home as a precious color, and to wish to return as ardently as she wished to escape “Over the Rainbow”—the movie’s grand theme song, nearly removed from the final cut.

Like Charyn and Salman Rushdie (who has extolled the “Wizard” as “a parable of the migrant condition”), I belong to the generation more affected by the movie than by the book.

For the testimony of one who read all the Oz books with adolescent credulity and delight, Gore Vidal’s long essay of 1977, printed in two parts in The New York Review of Books, is impressive and peppery.

He sees Baum as a protester against the violence of the rising American empire and “the iron Puritan order.”

It is true that an undercurrent of dissidence in the Oz books seems to have antagonized some librarians and critics;

the director of the Detroit Library System, Ralph Ulveling, in 1957 pronounced them guilty of “negativism” and “a cowardly approach to life.”

Baum, in his introduction to the “Wizard,” strikes a challenging note; he deplores the “horrible and blood-curdling” incidents contained in “the old-time fairy tale” and promises his readers “a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.”

American Theosophy, to which Baum had been introduced by his formidable mother-in-law, mixed spiritualism and Buddhist and Hindu beliefs with a meliorism that rejected the darker, Devil-acknowledging side of Christianity.

“God is Nature, and Nature God,” Baum said; yet he also professed an animistic vision in which every bit of wood, every drop of liquid, every grain of sand or portion of rock has its myriads of inhabitants. . . . These invisible and vapory beings are known as Elementals. . . . They are soulless, but immortal; frequently possessed of extraordinary intelligence, and again remarkably stupid.

Madame H. P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, in her book “Isis Unveiled” (1878) wrote of these Elementals as “the creatures evolved in the four kingdoms of earth, air, fire, and water, and called by the kabalists gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines.”

This giddying, virtually bacterial multitudinousness came to characterize Oz as sequels multiplied its regions and its strange and magical tribes; but the “Wizard” itself presents an uncluttered cosmogony, drawn in bright blunt tints.

According to Theosophy, our astral bodies come in distinct colors, and so do the regions of Oz, with their inhabitants.

As Vidal points out, Oz exists in orderly patches like the extensive gardens that Baum remembered from his childhood home, and which he recreated in the geometrical plots of his garden at Ozcot.

The evils of capitalism, whose rewards proved so fickle for Baum, are absent from his alternative world.

Enemies of socialism find in “The Emerald City” this much quoted passage:

There were no poor people . . . because there was no such thing as money, and all property of every sort belonged to the Ruler.

The people were her children, and she [Princess Ozma] cared for them.

Each person was given freely by his neighbors whatever he required for his use, which is as much as anyone may reasonably desire.

But the proletariat does not rule; rather, it is ruled in a mock-medieval manner, by benevolent tyrants more often than not female, in keeping, perhaps, with the feminist tendencies of Theosophy and Matilda Gage’s militant suffragism.

Baum’s rulers have a parental absolutism:

Glinda is the ideal, ever-resourceful mother and the Wizard a typically bumbling father in Oz’s sitcom as Baum first conceived it.

Though he supported the populist William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and 1900, and the literature of the late nineteenth century abounds in literary Utopias, Oz is too unearthly to carry much political punch.

It is constructed not of revolutionary intent but of wishful thinking.

What earthiness the “Wizard” does have derives in considerable part from Denslow’s sturdy, antic illustrations.

Denslow, we learn in Hearn’s “Annotated Wizard,” sometimes operated independently of the text: he drew a bear where Baum mentions a tiger, crowns the Lion before the author does, dresses Dorothy in her old gingham frock when Baum still has her in her Emerald City silks, and consistently omits (as does the movie) the “round, shining mark” that the Good Witch of the North plants, as protection, on her forehead with a kiss.

A centennial is a time for praise, but this reader is inclined to accept the invitation to argue with Hearn when he states, “Arguably there have been three great classic quests in American literature, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick; or The Whale (1851), Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1883), and L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).” Whatever their flaws of carelessness or aesthetic miscalculation, the first two titles were gloriously written, in the ambition of telling all the truth, “heart-aches and nightmares” included.

The “Wizard” is relatively a lucky bauble, in the flat clear style of a man giving dictation.

Nor does it seem to me true that “Uncle Henry and Aunt Em have come to symbolize the stern American farmer and his wife as much as the couple in Grant Wood’s famous painting American Gothic have.”

Hearn has been too long peering through the magnifying glass of The Baum Bugle, the triquarterly publication of the International Wizard of Oz Club, “founded in 1957 by thirteen-year-old Justin G. Schiller.”

In the course of his devotedly researched footnotes, Hearn sometimes nods into critical banality: “Much of the charm and wit of The Wizard of Oz relies on Baum’s irony and amusing incongruity”; the Cowardly Lion “proves Ernest Hemingway’s dictum that courage is grace under pressure.”

A juster analogy, drawn by Hearn more than once, is with “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” another few-frills picaresque search story by an author in his forties with a habit of public performance (Bunyan was a preacher).

The “Wizard” is a “Pilgrim’s Progress” emptied of religion, except for the Theosophist inkling that there are many universes.

At a time when children’s literature was still drenched in what Hearn calls “the putrid Puritan morality of the Sunday schools,” Baum produced a refreshingly agnostic fantasy.

The witches are too comically wicked to be evil.

The humbug Wizard, accused by Dorothy of being “a very bad man,” protests, “I’m really a very good man; but I’m a very bad Wizard, I must admit.”

In another bold stroke of American simplification, Baum invented escapism without escape.

Dorothy opts to forsake Oz; gray, windswept Kansas is reinstated (less thumpingly than in the movie) as the seat of lasting, familial happiness.

Indeed, as a practical matter it is easier to color with contentment the place where we are than to find a Technicolor paradise.

Denslow’s last drawing shows the return with more exuberance than Baum’s prose manages.

In her hurry, little Dorothy runs so hard that her silver shoes, Baum’s less photogenic original of M-G-M’s glistening ruby slippers, are flying off; we feel her rounding the bases (Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion) to home plate.

“Oz Is Us.”

On Rereading the Oz Books Gore Vidal October 13, 1977

In the preface to The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum says that he would like to create modern fairy tales by departing from Grimm and Andersen and “all the horrible and blood-curdling incident devised” by such authors “to point a fearsome moral.”

Baum then makes the disingenuous point that “Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wondertales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.”

Yet there is a certain amount of explicit as well as implicit moralizing in the Oz books;

there are also “disagreeable incidents,” and people do, somehow, die even though death and illness are not supposed to exist in Oz.

I have reread the Oz books in the order in which they were written.

Some things are as I remember.

Others strike me as being entirely new.

I was struck by the unevenness of style not only from book to book but, sometimes, from page to page.

The jaggedness can be explained by the fact that the man who was writing fourteen Oz books was writing forty-eight other books at the same time.

Arguably, The Wizard of Oz is the best of the lot.

After all, the first book is the one in which Oz was invented.

Yet, as a child, I preferred The Emerald City, Rinkitink, and The Lost Princess to The Wizard.

Now I find that all of the books tend to flow together in a single narrative, with occasional bad patches.

In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy is about six years old.

In the later books she seems to be ten or eleven.

Baum locates her swiftly and efficiently in the first sentence of the series.

“Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.”

The landscape would have confirmed John Ruskin’s dark view of American scenery (he died the year that The Wizard of Oz was published).

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side.

Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached the edge of the sky in all directions.

This is the plain American style at its best.

Like most of Baum’s central characters Dorothy lacks the regulation father and mother.

Some commentators have made, I think, too much of Baum’s parentless children.

The author’s motive seems to me to be not only obvious but sensible.

A child separated from loving parents for any length of time is going to be distressed, even in a magic story.

But aunts and uncles need not be taken too seriously.

In the first four pages Baum demonstrates the drabness of Dorothy’s life;

the next two pages are devoted to the cyclone that lifts the house into the air and hurls it to Oz.

Newspaper accounts of recent cyclones had obviously impressed Baum.

Alone in the house (except for Toto, a Cairn terrier), Dorothy is established as a sensible girl who is not going to worry unduly about events that she cannot control.

The house crosses the Deadly Desert and lands on top of the Wicked Witch of the West who promptly dries up and dies.

Right off, Baum breaks his own rule that no one ever dies in Oz.

I used to spend a good deal of time worrying about the numerous inconsistencies in the sacred texts.

From time to time, Baum himself would try to rationalize errors but he was far too quick and careless a writer ever to create the absolutely logical mad worlds that Lewis Carroll or E. Nesbit did.

Dorothy is acclaimed by the Munchkins as a good witch who has managed to free them from the Wicked Witch.

They advise her to go to the Emerald City and try to see the famous Wizard;

he alone would have the power to grant her dearest wish, which is to go home to Kansas.

Why she wanted to go back was never clear to me.

Or, finally, to Baum:

eventually, he moves Dorothy (with aunt and uncle) to Oz.

Along the way to the Emerald City, Dorothy meets a live Scarecrow in search of brains, a Tin Woodman in search of a heart, a Cowardly Lion in search of courage.

Each new character furthers the plot.

Each is essentially a humor.

Each, when he speaks, strikes the same simple, satisfying note.

Together they undergo adventures.

In sharp contrast to gray flat Kansas, Oz seems to blaze with color.

Yet the Emerald City is a bit of a fraud.

Everyone is obliged to wear green glasses in order to make the city appear emerald-green.

The Wizard says that he will help them if they destroy yet another wicked witch.

They do.

Only to find out that the Wizard is a fake who arrived by balloon from the States, where he had been a magician in a circus.

Although a fraud, the Wizard is a good psychologist.

He gives the Scarecrow bran for brains, the Tin Woodman a red velvet heart, the Cowardly Lion a special courage syrup.

Each has now become what he wanted to be (and was all along).

The Wizard’s response to their delight is glum: ” ‘How can I help being a humbug,’ he said, ‘when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done? It was easy to make the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Woodman happy, because they imagined I could do anything.

But it will take more than imagination to carry Dorothy back to Kansas, and I’m sure I don’t know how it can be done.’ ”

When the Wizard arranges a balloon to take Dorothy and himself back home, the balloon takes off without Dorothy.

Finally, she is sent home through the intervention of magic, and the good witch Glinda.

The style of the first book is straightforward, even formal.

There are almost no contractions.

Dorothy speaks not at all the way a grownup might think a child should speak but like a sensible somewhat literal person.

There are occasional Germanisms (did Baum’s father speak German?): ” ‘What is that little animal you are so tender of?’ ”

Throughout all the books there is a fascination with jewelry and elaborate costumes.

Baum never got over his love of theater.

In this he resembled his favorite author Charles Reade, of whom The Dictionary of National Biography tells us:

“At his best Reade was an admirable storyteller, full of resource and capacity to excite terror and pity; but his ambition to excel as a dramatist militated against his success as a novelist, and nearly all his work is disfigured by a striving after theatrical effect.”

Baum’s passion for the theater and, later, the movies not only wasted his time but, worse, it had a noticeably bad effect on his prose style.

Because The Wizard of Oz was the most successful children’s book of the 1900 Christmas season (in its first two years of publication, the book sold ninety thousand copies), Baum was immediately inspired to dramatize the story.

Much “improved” by other hands, the musical comedy opened in Chicago (June 16, 1902) and was a success.

After a year and a half on Broadway, the show toured off and on until 1911.

Over the years Baum was to spend a good deal of time trying to make plays and films based on the Oz characters.

Except for the first, none was a success.

Since two popular vaudevillians had made quite a splash as the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow in the musical version of the Wizard, Baum decided that a sequel was in order…for the stage.

But rather than write directly for the theater, he chose to write a second Oz book, without Dorothy or the Wizard.

In an Author’s Note to The Marvelous Land of Oz, Baum somewhat craftily says that he has been getting all sorts of letters from children asking him “to ‘write something more’ about the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.”

In 1904 the sequel was published, with a dedication to the two vaudevillians.

A subsequent musical comedy called The Woggle-Bug was then produced; and failed.

That, for the time being, was that.

But the idiocies of popular theater had begun to infect Baum’s prose.

The Wizard of Oz is chastely written.

The Land of Oz is not.

Baum riots in dull word play.

There are endless bad puns, of the sort favored by popular comedians.

There is also that true period horror: the baby-talking ingenue, a character who lasted well into our day in the menacing shapes of Fanny (Baby Snooks) Brice and the early Ginger Rogers.

Dorothy, who talked plainly and to the point in The Wizard, talks (when she reappears in the third book) with a cuteness hard to bear.

Fortunately, Baum’s show-biz phase wore off and in later volumes Dorothy’s speech improves.

Despite stylistic lapses, The Land of Oz is one of the most unusual and interesting books of the series.

In fact, it is so unusual that after the Shirley Temple television adaptation of the book in 1960, PTA circles were in a state of crisis.

The problem that knitted then and, I am told, knits even today many a maternal brow is Sexual Role.

Sexual Role makes the world go round.

It is what makes the man go to the office or to the factory where he works hard while the wife fulfills her Sexual Role by homemaking and consuming and bringing up boys to be real boys and girls to be real girls, a cycle that must continue unchanged and unquestioned until the last car comes off Detroit’s last assembly line and the last all-American sun vanishes behind a terminal dioxin haze.

Certainly the denouement of The Land of Oz is troubling for those who have heard of Freud.

A boy, Tip, is held in thrall by a wicked witch named Mombi.

One day she gets hold of an elixir that makes the inanimate live.

Tip uses this magical powder to bring to life a homemade figure with a jack-o-lantern head:

Jack Pumpkinhead, who turns out to be a comic of the Ed Wynn-Simple Simon school. "‘Now that is a very interesting history,’ said Jack, well pleased; ‘and I understand it perfectly—all but the explanation.’ ”

Tip and Jack Pumpkinhead escape from Mombi, aboard a brought-to-life sawhorse.

They then meet the stars of the show (and a show it is), the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.

As a central character neither is very effective.

In fact, each has a tendency to sententiousness; and there are nowhere near enough jokes.

The Scarecrow goes on about his brains; the Tin Woodman about his heart.

But then it is the limitation as well as the charm of made-up fairy-tale creatures to embody to the point of absurdity a single quality of humor.

There is one genuinely funny sketch. When the Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead meet, they decide that since each comes from a different country, ” ‘We must,’ ” says the Scarecrow, ” ‘have an interpreter.’

” ‘What is an interpreter?’ asked Jack.

” ‘A person who understands both my language and your own….’ ” And so on. Well, maybe this is not so funny.

The Scarecrow (who had taken the vanished Wizard’s place as ruler of Oz) is overthrown by a “revolting” army of girls (great excuse for a leggy chorus).

This long and rather heavy satire on the suffragettes was plainly more suitable for a Broadway show than for a children’s story.

The girl leader, Jinjur, is an unexpectedly engaging character.

She belongs to the Bismarckian Realpolitik school.

She is accused of treason for having usurped the Scarecrow’s throne.

” ‘The throne belongs to whoever is able to take it,’ answered Jinjur as she slowly ate another caramel. ‘I have taken it, as you see; so just now I am the Queen, and all who oppose me are guilty of treason….’ ”

This is the old children’s game I-am-the-King-of-the-castle, a.k.a. human history.

Among the new characters met in this story are the Woggle-Bug, a highly magnified insect who has escaped from a classroom exhibition and (still magnified) ranges about the countryside.

A parody of an American academic, he is addicted to horrendous puns on the grounds that ” ‘a joke derived from a play upon words is considered among educated people to be eminently proper.’ ” Anna livia plurabelle.

There is a struggle between Jinjur and the legitimate forces of the Scarecrow.

The Scarecrow’s faction wins and the girls are sent away to be homemakers and consumers.

In passing, the Scarecrow observes, ” ‘I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.’ ”

To which the Tin Woodman replies, ” ‘Spoken like a philosopher!’ ”

To which the current editor Martin Gardner responds, with true democratic wrath,

“This despicable view, indeed defended by many philosophers, had earlier been countered by the Tin Woodman,” etc.

But the view is not at all despicable.

For one thing, it would be the normal view of an odd magical creature who cannot die.

For another, Baum was simply echoing those neo-Darwinians who dominated most American thinking for at least a century.

It testifies to Baum’s sweetness of character that unlike most writers of his day he seldom makes fun of the poor or weak or unfortunate.

Also, the Scarecrow’s “despicable” remarks can be interpreted as meaning that although unorthodox dreamers are despised by the ordinary, their dreams are apt to prevail in the end and become reality.

Glinda the Good Sorceress is a kindly mother figure to the various children who visit or live in Oz, and it is she who often ties up the loose ends when the story bogs down.

In The Land of Oz Glinda has not a loose end but something on the order of a hangman’s rope to knot.

Apparently the rightful ruler of Oz is Princess Ozma.

As a baby, Ozma was changed by Mombi into the boy Tip.

Now Tip must be restored to his true identity.

The PTA went, as it were, into plenary session. What effect would a book like this have on a boy’s sense of himself as a future man, breadwinner and father to more of same? Would he want, awful thought, to be a Girl? Even Baum’s Tip is alarmed when told who he is. ” ‘I!’ cried Tip, in amazement. ‘Why I’m no Princess Ozma—I’m not a girl!’ ” Glinda tells him that indeed he was—and really is. Tip is understandably grumpy. Finally, he says to Glinda, ” ‘I might try it for awhile,—just to see how it seems, you know. But if I don’t like being a girl you must promise to change me into a boy again.’ ” Glinda says that this is not in the cards. Glumly, Tip agrees to the restoration. Tip becomes the beautiful Ozma, who hopes that ” ‘none of you will care less for me than you did before. I’m just the same Tip, you know; only—only—’ “

“Only you’re different!” said the Pumpkinhead; and everyone thought it was the wisest speech he had ever made.

Essentially, Baum’s human protagonists are neither male nor female but children, a separate category in his view if not in that of our latter-day sexists. Baum’s use of sex changes was common to the popular theater of his day, which, in turn, derived from the Elizabethan era when boys played girls whom the plot often required to pretend to be boys. In Baum’s The Enchanted Island of Yew a fairy (female) becomes a knight (male) in order to have adventures. In The Emerald City the hideous Phanfasm leader turns himself into a beautiful woman. When John Dough and the Cherub (1906) was published, the sex of the five-year-old cherub was never mentioned in the text; the publishers then launched a national ad campaign: “Is the cherub boy or girl? $500 for the best answers.” In those innocent times Tip’s metamorphosis as Ozma was nothing more than a classic coup de théâtre of the sort that even now requires the boy Peter Pan to be played on stage by a mature woman.

Today of course any sort of sexual metamorphosis causes distress. Although Raylyn Moore in her plot précis of The Enchanted Island of Yew (in her book Wonderful Wizard Marvelous Land) does make one confusing reference to the protagonist as “he (she),” she omits entirely the Tip/Ozma transformation which is the whole point to The Land of Oz, while the plot as given by the publisher Reilly & Lee says only that “the book ends with an amazing surprise, and from that moment on Ozma is princess of all Oz.” But, surely, for a pre-pube there is not much difference between a boy and a girl protagonist. After all, the central fact of the pre-pube’s existence is not being male or female but being a child, much the hardest of all roles to play. During and after puberty, there is a tendency to want a central character like oneself (my favorite Oz book was R.P. Thompson’s Speedy in Oz, whose eleven- or twelve-year-old hero could have been, I thought, me). Nevertheless, what matters most even to an adolescent is not the gender of the main character who experiences adventures but the adventures themselves, and the magic, and the jokes, and the pictures.

Dorothy is a perfectly acceptable central character for a boy to read about. She asks the right questions. She is not sappy (as Ozma can sometimes be). She is straight to the point and a bit aggressive. Yet the Dorothy who returns to the series in the third book, Ozma of Oz (1907), is somewhat different from the original Dorothy. She is older and her conversation is full of cute contractions that must have doubled up audiences in Sioux City but were pretty hard going for at least one child forty years ago.

To get Dorothy back to Oz there is the by now obligatory natural disaster. The book opens with Dorothy and her uncle on board a ship to Australia. During a storm she is swept overboard. Marius Bewley has noted that this opening chapter “is so close to Crane’s (‘The Open Boat’) in theme, imagery and technique that it is difficult to imagine, on comparing the two in detail, that the similarity is wholly, or even largely accidental.”

Dorothy is accompanied by a yellow chicken named Bill. As they are now in magic country, the chicken talks.

Since the chicken is a hen, Dorothy renames her Billina.

The chicken is fussy and self-absorbed; she is also something of an overachiever:

” ‘How is my grammar?’ asked the yellow hen anxiously.”

Rather better than Dorothy’s, whose dialogue is marred by such Baby Snooksisms as ” ‘zactly,” “auto’biles,” ” ‘lieve,”

” ‘splain.”

Dorothy and Billina come ashore in Ev, a magic country on the other side of the Deadly Desert that separates Oz from the real world (what separates such magical kingdoms as Ix and Ev from our realer world is never made plain).

In any case, the formula has now been established.

Cyclone or storm at sea or earthquake ends not in death for child and animal companion but translation to a magic land.

Then, one by one, strange new characters join the travelers.

In this story the first addition is Tik-Tok, a clockwork robot (sixteen years later the word “robot” was coined).

He has run down.

They wind him up.

Next they meet Princess Languidere.

She is deeply narcissistic, a trait not much admired by Baum (had he been traumatized by all those actresses and actors he had known on tour?).

Instead of changing clothes, hair, makeup, the Princess changes heads from her collection.

I found the changing of heads fascinating.

And puzzling: since the brains in each head varied, would Languidere still be herself when she put on a new head or would she become someone else?

Thus Baum made logicians of his readers.

The Princess is about to add Dorothy’s head to her collection when the marines arrive in the form of Ozma and retinue, who have crossed the Deadly Desert on a magic carpet (cheating, I thought at the time, either a desert is impassible or it is not).

Dorothy and Ozma meet, and Dorothy, “as soon as she heard the sweet voice of the girlish ruler of Oz knew that she would learn to love her dearly.” That sort of thing I tended to skip.

The principal villain of the Oz canon is now encountered:

the Nome King (Baum thought the “g” in front of “nome” too difficult for children…how did he think they spelled and pronounced “gnaw”?).

Roquat of the Rock lived deep beneath the earth, presiding over his legions of hard-working nomes (first cousins to George Macdonald’s goblins).

I was always happy when Baum took us below ground, and showed us fantastic caverns strewn with precious stones where scurrying nomes did their best to please the bad-tempered Roquat, whose ” ‘laugh,’ ” one admirer points out, ” ‘is worse than another man’s frown.’ ”

Ozma and company are transformed into bric-a-brac by Roquat’s magic.

But Dorothy and Billina outwit Roquat (nomes fear fresh eggs).

Ozma and all the other victims of the nome king are restored to their former selves, and Dorothy is given an opportunity to ham it up:

“Royal Ozma, and you, Queen of Ev, I welcome you and your people back to the land of the living. Billina has saved you from your troubles, and now we will leave this drea’ful place, and return to Ev as soon as poss’ble.”

While the child spoke they could all see that she wore the magic belt, and a great cheer went up from all her friends….

Baum knew that nothing so pleases a child as a situation where, for once, the child is in the driver’s seat and able to dominate adults.

Dorothy’s will to power is a continuing force in the series and as a type she is still with us in such popular works as Peanuts, where she continues her steely progress toward total dominion in the guise of the relentless Lucy.

Back in the Emerald City, Ozma shows Dorothy her magic picture in which she can see what is happening anywhere in the world.

If Dorothy ever wants to visit Oz, all she has to do is make a certain signal and Ozma will transport her from Kansas to Oz.

Although this simplified transportation considerably, Baum must have known even then that half the charm of the Oz stories was the scary trip of an ordinary American child from USA to Oz. As a result, in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908), another natural catastrophe is used to bring Dorothy back to Oz; the long missing Wizard, too.

Something like the San Francisco earthquake happens.

Accompanied by a dim boy called Zeb and a dull horse called Jim, Dorothy falls deep into the earth.

This catastrophe really got to Dorothy and “for a few moments the little girl lost consciousness. Zeb, being a boy, did not faint, but he was badly frightened….”

That is Baum’s one effort to give some sort of points to a boy.

He promptly forgets about Zeb, and Dorothy is back in the saddle, running things.

She is aided by the Wizard, who joins them in his balloon.

Deep beneath the earth are magical countries (inspired by Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth 1864?

Did Verne or Baum inspire Burroughs’s Pellucidar 1923?).

In a country that contains vegetable people, a positively Golden Bough note is sounded by the ruling Prince:

” ‘One of the most unpleasant things about our vegetable lives [is] that while we are in our full prime we must give way to another, and be covered up in the ground to sprout and grow and give birth to other people.’ ”

But then according to the various biographies, Baum was interested in Hinduism, and the notion of karma.

After a number of adventures Dorothy gestures to Ozma (she certainly took her time about it, I thought) and they are all transported to the Emerald City where the usual party is given for them, carefully described in a small-town newspaper style of the Social-Notes-from-all-over variety.

The Road to Oz (1909) is the mixture as before.

In Kansas, Dorothy meets the Shaggy Man; he is a tramp of the sort that haunted the American countryside after the Civil War when unemployed veterans and men ruined by the depressions of the 1870s took to the road where they lived and died, no doubt, brutishly.

The Shaggy Man asks her for directions.

Exasperated by the tramp’s slowness to figure out her instructions, she says:

” ‘You’re so stupid. Wait a minute till I run in the house and get my sun-bonnet.’ ” Dorothy is easily “provoked.”

” ‘My, but you’re clumsy!’ said the little girl.”

She gives him a “severe look.” Then ” ‘Come on,’ she commanded.”

She then leads him to the wrong, i.e., the magical, road to Oz.

With The Emerald City of Oz (1910) Baum is back in form.

He has had to face up to the fact that Dorothy’s trips from the USA to Oz are getting not only contrived, but pointless.

If she likes Oz so much, why doesn’t she settle there?

But if she does, what will happen to her uncle and aunt?

Fortunately, a banker is about to foreclose the mortgage on Uncle Henry’s farm.

Dorothy will have to go to work, says Aunt Em, stricken.

” ‘You might do housework for someone, dear, you are so handy; or perhaps you could be a nursemaid to little children.’ ”

Dorothy is having none of this.

“Dorothy smiled. ‘Wouldn’t it be funny,’ she said, ‘for me to do housework in Kansas, when I’m a Princess in the Land of Oz?’ ”

The old people buy this one with surprisingly little fuss.

It is decided that Dorothy will signal Ozma, and depart for the Emerald City.

Although Baum’s powers of invention seldom flagged, he had no great skill at plot-making.

Solutions to problems are arrived at either through improbable coincidence or by bringing in, literally, some god (usually Glinda) from the machine to set things right.

Since the narratives are swift and the conversations sprightly and the invented characters are both homely and amusing (animated paper dolls, jigsaw puzzles, pastry, cutlery, china, etc.), the stories never lack momentum.

Yet there was always a certain danger that the narrative would flatten out into a series of predictable turns.

In The Emerald City, Baum sets in motion two simultaneous plots.

The Nome King Roquat decides to conquer Oz. Counterpoint to his shenanigans are Dorothy’s travels through Oz with her uncle and aunt (Ozma has given them asylum).

Once again, the child’s situation vis à vis the adult is reversed.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said to them. “You are now in the Land of Oz, where you are to live always, and be comfer’ble an’ happy. You’ll never have to worry over anything again, ’cause there won’t be anything to worry about. And you owe it all to the kindness of my friend Princess Ozma.”

And never forget it, one hears her mutter to herself.

But while the innocents are abroad in Oz, dark clouds are gathering.

Roquat is on the march. I must say that the Nome King has never been more (to me) attractive as a character than in this book.

For one thing, the bad temper is almost permanently out of control. It is even beginning to worry the king himself: ” ‘To be angry once in a while is really good fun, because it makes others so miserable.

But to be angry morning, noon and night, as I am, grows monotonous and prevents my gaining any other pleasure in life.’ ”

Rejecting the offer of the usual anodyne, a “glass of melted silver,” Roquat decides to put together an alliance of all the wicked magic figures in order to conquer Oz.

He looks among his nomes for an ideal general.

He finds him: ” ‘I hate good people…. That is why I am so fond of your Majesty.’ ”

Later the General enlists new allies with the straightforward pitch: ”

‘Permit me to call your attention to the exquisite joy of making the happy unhappy,’ said he at last. ‘Consider the pleasure of destroying innocent and harmless people.’ ” This argument proves irresistible.

The nomes and their allies make a tunnel beneath the Deadly Desert (but surely its Deadliness must go deeper than they could burrow?).

Ozma watches all of them on her magic picture.

She is moderately alarmed. ” ‘But I do not wish to fight,’ declared Ozma, firmly.”

She takes an extremely high and moral American line; one that Woodrow Wilson echoed a few years later when he declared that the United States “is too proud to fight” powerful Germany (as opposed to weak Mexico where Wilson had swallowed his pride just long enough for us to launch an invasion).

” ‘Because the Nome King intends to do evil is no excuse for my doing the same.’ ”

Ozma has deep thoughts on the nature of evil; ” ‘I must not blame King Roquat too severely, for he is a Nome and his nature is not so gentle as my own.’ ” Luckily, Ozite cunning carries the day.

Baum’s nicest conceit in The Emerald City is Rigamarole Town.

Or, as a local boy puts it,

“if you have traveled very much you will have noticed that every town differs from every other town in one way or another and so by observing the methods of the people and the way they live as well as the style of their dwelling places,” etc.

Dorothy and her party are duly impressed by the boy’s endless commentary.

He is matched almost immediately by a woman who tells them, apropos nothing:

“It is the easiest thing in the world for a person to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when a question that is asked for the purpose of gaining information or satisfying the curiosity of the one who has given expression to the inquiry has attracted the attention of an individual who may be competent either from personal experience or the experience of others,”

etc.

A member of Dorothy’s party remarks that if those people wrote books ” ‘it would take a whole library to say the cow jumped over the moon.’ ”

So it would.

And so it does.

The Shaggy Man decides that there is a lot to be said for the way that the people of Oz encourage these people to live together in one town “while Uncle Sam lets [them] roam around wild and free, to torture innocent people.’ ”

Many enthusiasts of the Oz books (among them Ray Bradbury and Russel B. Nye) point with democratic pride to the fact that there is a total absence, according to Mr. Nye, of any “whisper of class consciousness in Oz (as there is in Alice’s Wonderland).”

Yet Martin Gardner has already noted one example of Baum’s “despicable” elitism.

Later (Emerald City), Baum appears to back away from the view that some people are better or more special than others.

“It seems unfortunate that strong people are usually so disagreeable and overbearing that no one cares for them. In fact, to be different from your fellow creatures is always a misfortune.”

But I don’t think that Baum believed a word of this.

If he did, he would have been not L. Frank Baum, creator of the special and magical world of Oz, but Horatio Alger, celebrator of pluck and luck, thrift and drift, money.

The dreamy boy with the bad heart at a hated military school was as conscious as any Herman Hesse youth that he was splendidly different from others, and in The Lost Princess of Oz Baum reasserts the Scarecrow’s position: ” ‘To be individual, my friends,’ ” (the Cowardly Lion is holding forth) ” ‘to be different from others, is the only way to become distinguished from the common herd.’ ”

Inevitably, Baum moved from Chicago to California.

Inevitably, he settled in the village of Hollywood in 1909.

Inevitably, he made silent films, based on the Oz books.

Not so inevitably, he failed for a number of reasons that he could not have foretold.

Nevertheless, he put together a half dozen films that (as far as special effects went) were said to be ahead of their time.

By 1913 he had returned, somewhat grimly, to writing Oz books, putting Dorothy firmly on ice until the last book of the series.

The final Oz books are among the most interesting.

After a gall bladder operation, Baum took to his bed where the last work was done.

Yet Baum’s imagination seems to have been more than usually inspired despite physical pain, and the darkness at hand.

The Lost Princess of Oz (1917) is one of the best of the series.

The beginning is splendidly straightforward.

“There could be no doubt of the fact: Princess Ozma, the lovely girl ruler of the Fairyland of Oz, was lost. She had completely disappeared.”

Glinda’s magical paraphernalia had also vanished.

The search for Ozma involves most of the Oz principals, including Dorothy.

The villain Ugu (who had kidnapped and and transformed Ozma) is a most satisfactory character.

“A curious thing about Ugu the Shoemaker was that he didn’t suspect, in the least, that he was wicked. He wanted to be powerful and great and he hoped to make himself master of all the Land of Oz, that he might compel everyone in that fairy country to obey him.

His ambition blinded him to the rights of others and he imagined anyone else would act just as he did if anyone else happened to be as clever as himself.” That just about says it all.

In The Tin Woodman (1918) a boy named Woot is curious to know what happened to the girl that the Tin Woodman had intended to marry when he was flesh and blood.

(Enchanted by a witch, he kept hacking off his own limbs; replacements in tin were provided by a magical smith. Eventually, he was all tin, and so no longer a suitable husband for a flesh and blood girl; he moved away.)

Woot, the Tin Woodman, and the Scarecrow (the last two are rather like an old married couple, chatting in a desultory way about the past) set out to find the girl.

To their astonishment, they meet another tin man.

He, too, had courted the girl.

He, too, had been enchanted by the witch; had chopped himself to bits; had been reconstituted by the same magical smith.

The two tin men wonder what has happened to the girl.

They also wonder what happened to their original imperishable pieces.

In due course, the Tin Woodman is confronted by his original head.

I have never forgotten how amazed I was not only by Baum’s startling invention but by the drawing of the Tin Woodman staring into the cupboard where sits his old head.

The Tin Woodman is amazed, too.

But the original head is simply bored, and snippy. When asked ” ‘What relation are we?’ ” The head replies, ” ‘Don’t ask me…. For my part, I’m not anxious to claim relationship with any common, manufactured article, like you.

You may be all right in your class, but your class isn’t my class.’ ”

When the Tin Woodman asks the head what it thinks about inside the cupboard, he is told,

“Nothing…. A little reflection will convince you that I have had nothing to think about, except the boards on the inside of the cupboard door, and it didn’t take me long to think everything about those boards that could be thought of. Then, of course, I quit thinking.”

“And are you happy?”

“Happy? What’s that?”

There is a further surprise when the Tin Woodman discovers that his old girl friend has married a creature made up of various human parts assembled from him and from the other man of tin.

The result is a most divided and unsatisfactory man, and for the child reader a fascinating problem in the nature of identity.

In Baum’s last Oz book, Glinda of Oz (posthumously published in 1920), magic is pretty much replaced by complex machinery.

There is a domed island that can sink beneath the waters of a lake at the mention of a secret word, but though the word is magic, the details of how the island rises and sinks are straight out of Popular Mechanics.

Ozma and Dorothy are trapped beneath the water of the lake by yet another narcissistic princess, Coo-eeh-oh.

By the time Glinda comes to the rescue, Coo-eeh-oh has been turned into a proud and vapid swan.

This book is very much a last round-up (Baum may not have written all of it).

Certainly there are some uncharacteristic sermons in favor of the Protestant work ethic:

“Dorothy wished in her kindly, innocent heart, that all men and women could be fairies with silver wands, and satisfy all their needs without so much work and worry….” Ozma fields that one as briskly as the Librarian of Detroit could want:

“No, no, Dorothy, that wouldn’t do at all. Instead of happiness your plan would bring weariness…. There would be no eager striving to obtain the difficult…. There would be nothing to do, you see, and no interest in life and in our fellow creatures.”

But Dorothy is not so easily convinced.

She notes that Ozma is a magical creature, and she is happy.

But only, says Ozma, with grinding sweetness, ” ‘because I can use my fairy powers to make others happy.’ ”

Then Ozma makes the sensible point that although she has magical powers, others like Glinda have even greater powers than she and so ” ‘there still are things in both nature and in wit for me to marvel at.’ ”

In Dorothy’s last appearance as heroine, she saves the day.

She guesses, correctly, that the magic word is the wicked Coo-eeh-oh’s name.

Incidentally, as far as I know, not a single Oz commentator has noted that Coo-eeh-oh is the traditional cry of the hog-caller.

The book ends with a stern admonishment, ” ‘it is always wise to do one’s duty, however unpleasant that duty may seem to be.’ ”

Although it is unlikely that Baum would have found Ruskin’s aesthetics of much interest, he might well have liked his political writings, particularly Munera Pulveris and Fors.

Ruskin’s protégé William Morris would have approved of Oz, where

Everyone worked half the time and played half the time, and the people enjoyed the work as much as they did the play…. There were no cruel overseers set to watch them, and no one to rebuke them and find fault with them.

So each one was proud to do all he could for his friends and neighbors, and was glad when they would accept the things he produced.

Anticipating the wrath of the Librarian of Detroit, who in 1957 found the Oz books to have a “cowardly approach to life,” Baum adds, slyly, “I do not suppose such an arrangement would be practical with us….”

Yet Baum has done no more than to revive in his own terms the original Arcadian dream of America.

Or, as Marius Bewley noted, “the tension between technology and pastoralism is one of the things that the Oz books are about, whether Baum was aware of it or not.”

I think that Baum was very much aware of this tension.

In Oz he presents the pastoral dream of Jefferson (the slaves have been replaced by magic and good will); and into this Eden he introduces forbidden knowledge in the form of black magic (the machine) which good magic (the values of the pastoral society) must overwhelm.

It is Bewley’s view that because “The Ozites are much aware of the scientific nature of magic,” Ozma wisely limited the practice of magic.

As a result, controlled magic enhances the society just as controlled industrialization could enhance (and perhaps even salvage) a society like ours.

Unfortunately, the Nome King has governed the United States for more than a century; and he shows no sign of wanting to abdicate.

Meanwhile, the life of the many is definitely nome-ish and the environment has been, perhaps, irreparably damaged. To the extent that Baum makes his readers aware that our country’s “practical” arrangements are inferior to those of Oz, he is a truly subversive writer and it is no wonder that the Librarian of Detroit finds him cowardly and negative, because, of course, he is brave and affirmative.

But then the United States has always been a Rigamarole land where adjectives tend to mean their opposite, when they mean at all.

Despite the Librarian of Detroit’s efforts to suppress magical alternative worlds, the Oz books continue to exert their spell.

“You do not educate a man by telling him what he knew not,” wrote John Ruskin, “but by making him what he was not.”

In Ruskin’s high sense, Baum was a true educator, and those who read his Oz books are often made what they were not—imaginative, tolerant, alert to wonders, life.

“Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Offer Nostalgic, Half-Satisfying Showdowns

One of the movie industry’s many recent laments is that 2024 has given us no Barbenheimer—no box-office showdown between two thrillingly brainy blockbusters, cemented together in the cultural imagination and in the commercial stratosphere.

And yet, just in time for Thanksgiving, here come two wishfully galumphing epics, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II.”

One is a revisionist fantasy of Oz, the other a revisionist history of Rome, and both are chockablock with political conspiracies, authoritarian abuses, and foul-tempered monkeys, none of which adds up to a full-blown phenomenon.

If “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” struck blows for risk and originality in Hollywood, the slickly refurbished wares of “Wadiator”—or, if you prefer, “Glicked”—suggest a safe retreat to known quantities.

Choose your own adventure, but, whether it leads to the Colosseum or to the Emerald City, you’ve surely been there before.

In “Wicked”—or, as it appears onscreen, “Wicked: Part I”—that familiarity is entirely the point.

The movie, directed by Jon M. Chu with some of the whirligig showmanship he brought to “In the Heights” (2021) and “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018), kicks off a two-part adaptation of a hit Broadway musical, which was itself loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

All yellow brick roads lead back to L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” though the classic 1939 film adaptation exerts the mightiest influence, having immortalized the Wicked Witch as a green-skinned, broomstick-riding cackler—played by Margaret Hamilton, in one of the most primally terrifying movie-villain performances.

Evil this delectable can no longer be simply savored;

it must be deconstructed, and lucratively prequelized, in the manner of sympathetic villain origin stories like “Maleficent,” “Joker,” and “Cruella.”

It makes sense that “Wicked,” a forerunner of this trend on the page and the stage, has now found its place on the screen, where the story can shoulder its full weight in cinematic Baumbast.

And so the real Wicked Witch steps out from behind the curtain—and, lo, she is Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), an intellectually gifted, morally courageous, and grievously misunderstood outcast, whose only crime is having been born with a complexion of chlorophyll.

Much of “Part I,” scripted by Winnie Holzman (who wrote the book for the musical) and Dana Fox, unfolds at the ill-named Shiz University—Hogwarts with Munchkins—where Elphaba arrives as a caregiver for her newly enrolled sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who has a disability.

But Elphaba’s irrepressible talents catch the attention of the school’s headmistress, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), prompting a rivalry with Galinda (Ariana Grande, billed as Ariana Grande-Butera), a shallow, self-absorbed classmate who will eventually become Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

Elphaba and Galinda are forced to be roommates, and they go together like asparagus and bubble gum.

But Galinda is more than just a walking dumb-blonde joke: she’s the secret seriocomic weapon of “Wicked,” and Grande balances her delightful queen-bee insouciance with a porcelain vulnerability worthy of Baum’s own China Princess.

Beneath every exaggerated hair toss, she unleashes a poignant frisson of panic.

When the two witches finally set their differences aside (cue “Popular,” the deftest and funniest of Stephen Schwartz’s songs), Galinda’s joy is unfeigned; her friendship with “Elphie” fills a real void.

Erivo makes you believe it.

Her coolly magnetic stare is her onscreen superpower, and here it serves to modulate the narrative clutter swirling around her.

As a fastidiously retconned “Wizard of Oz” prequel, “Wicked” has its puzzle-box pleasures:

the uninitiated can muse over the narrative significance of, say, a terrified lion cub, a bicycle basket, or a hunky prince (an assured Jonathan Bailey) who foretells his future with the lyric “Life is painless / for the brainless.”

As a parable of political radicalization, however, the movie soon turns lumbering and obvious.

Oz is in the grip of creeping totalitarianism, and the more Elphaba grasps the stakes, the more pointed the hats she has to wear become:

she’s a feminist crusader, an animal-welfare activist, and, in time, a full-blown resistance leader, with the not so wonderful Wizard of Oz (a well-cast Jeff Goldblum) as her target.

Given the story’s insistence on not judging a witch by her color, is it churlish to say that I wish “Wicked: Part I” looked better?

(And also that, at two hours and forty minutes, there were less of it to look at?)

The visual bar here is admittedly high;

no new movie can be expected to match the dazzling Technicolor brilliance of “The Wizard of Oz,” a picture I’ve seen so many times that even its flaws feel like old friends:

the lopped-off lines, the mismatched edits, the shot in which Hamilton’s Witch, about to vanish in a poof of smoke, misses her mark by a second or two.

These imperfections, far from diminishing the experience, give the older film a material weight, a conviction about its own magic, for which the pristine digital surfaces of “Wicked” can conjure no equivalent.

It’s not easy being green screen, but, even so, there is little in this movie’s muted palette and washed-out backlighting to make you muse, even for a second, “What a world, what a world.”

Near the end, though, “Wicked” does surge to a kind of life.

The climax is protracted but darkly thrilling:

ugly secrets spill into the open, winged monkeys screech and scatter, and Elphaba comes into full possession of her powers.

“It’s time to try defying gravity,” she belts to the skies, and the film shrewdly follows suit, with a vertiginous airborne number that doesn’t just feel like Oz—it feels like Vegas.

You’d want to see it projected onto the Sphere, perhaps with Elphaba soaring on a rhinestone-studded broomstick and then leaving the MGM Grand—sorry, the Emerald City—in the dust.

“Part II” looms next year; until then, Elphie has left the building.

The lesson of “Wicked,” should you happen to miss it, is that the appearance of villainy can be deceiving.

“Gladiator II,” in its own punchy, stabby, neck-chomping way, upholds the same principle. Directed by Ridley Scott, nearly a quarter century after he steered the first “Gladiator” (2000) to smash returns and Oscar glory, this is the sword-and-sandal epic as both sequel and shell game. Clean good-vs.-evil demarcations are a thing of the past, and motives and alliances can be murderously tricky to suss out. The hero, at least, is no mystery: he is Lucius (Paul Mescal), a fierce young warrior of Numidia, who, after experiencing crushing defeat and tragic personal loss, is hauled off to Rome as a prisoner of war. Soon he will be a gladiator in the Colosseum, where a bloody quest for vengeance begins.

But vengeance against whom? Is his enemy Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), the general who inflicted his particular agony—or do Pascal’s soft eyes and grave sighs signal us to look elsewhere? Perhaps Lucius should blame the emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), monstrous twin tyrants who have sent the empire spiralling into decadence. And what of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a wily slaveowner who casts Lucius into the arena, recognizing a total killer when he sees one? What’s his long game?

After a while, it barely seems to matter, and “Gladiator II,” following a propulsive opening stretch, recedes into the long shadow of its predecessor. If the first “Gladiator” still retains much of its visceral and emotional force, that’s because it serves us our revenge-thriller poison straight; to see the mighty general Maximus (Russell Crowe) smack down the unambiguously loathsome emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) remains an irreducible pleasure. As “Gladiator II” opens, Maximus has been dead for sixteen years, and, though his fighting spirit becomes a guiding light of sorts for Lucius, their bond never feels more than circumstantial. The lead role is a stretch for Mescal, but a good one. After the art-house melancholy of “All of Us Strangers” and “Aftersun,” he tears into Lucius’s red-meat physicality with voracious fury, as if it were his first and possibly last meal; all the sadder, then, when that fury suddenly evaporates in the face of narrative expedience.

Even so, we are not not entertained. There is, for one, the invigorating if empty-calorie flash of Denzel Washington, who will play Othello on Broadway next year, and who might have seen, in the warrior-whisperer role of Macrinus, an opportunity to channel his inner Iago. The arena battles have an agreeably batshit, can-you-top-this conceptual absurdity; you won’t soon forget a scene in which Lucius fends off a deranged baboon, or when the Colosseum is reconfigured into a kind of third-century Sea World, complete with snapping sharks. In planting us squarely in the splash zone, Scott and his collaborators pander so unabashedly to our bloodlust that it rings all the more hollow when “Gladiator II” suddenly fancies itself a civics lesson, entreating its characters to mourn their failing empire and dream of its glorious rebirth. We get it, we get it: there’s no place like Rome. ♦

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande make movie magic

As one might say in Oz, “Wicked” is thrillifying in its melodiousness even if overlongical and ponderrific.

Even with a few missteps, it’s easy to get swept up in director Jon M. Chu’s colorful spectacle (in theaters Friday), adapted from the popular Broadway musical (based on the Gregory Maguire book) and a revelatory prequel to “The Wizard of Oz.”

The song-filled character study of the Wicked Witch of the West’s early years ekes out great performances from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande that’ll wow musical theater kids and old-school “Oz” fans alike.

And while it hasn’t been marketed as such, this “Wicked” is the first of a two-part epic that — unlike, say, “Dune” — at least pulls off a truly soaring closing cliffhanger.

‘Wicked’

Star rating: ★★★☆

Actually, “Wicked” begins with an ending:

The Wicked Witch is no more, melted in a puddle of water, while Dorothy and pals ease on down the yellow brick road.

After the well-known events of “The Wizard of Oz,” the Munchkins are celebrating the villain’s death when Glinda the Good Witch (Grande) shows up in a flying bubble and is interrogated about her own connections to the dead baddie.

She explains that the green-skinned menace was named Elphaba (Erivo) and that they went to Shiz University together.

Glinda, a self-centered mean girl, almost immediately butts heads with the reserved but confident Elphaba, who is tasked to watch over her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) at school.

In a tense moment where a faculty member attempts to move Nessarose’s wheelchair, a protective Elphaba showcases her considerable (but raw) magical ability, which puts her on the radar of professor Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) as well as sorcerer wannabe Glinda.

Elphaba and Glinda become roommates and their mutual loathing fuels the lively duet “What Is This Feeling?”

But following a couple acts of kindness and a practical joke gone wrong, not to mention a quasi-love triangle with charmingly rogueish Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), Elphaba and Glinda grow to be best friends.

When Elphaba gets the chance to meet the enigmatic Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum, toning down his usual quirkiness), the duo heads to the Emerald City, where Elphaba learns that Oz isn’t as great and wonderful as it looks, and she embraces her power but also makes enemies.

Erivo is often the best part of whatever she’s in, from “Widows” to “Harriet,” and she stuns in a role that runs a gamut of emotions.

Elphaba maintains a smirking facade to hide her inner vulnerability but also revels in what she can do even in the most dangerous of circumstances.

(And, hoo boy, she nails the money notes of signature showstopper “Defying Gravity.”)

While Grande is known as a singer – and doesn’t disappoint in that area – anyone who watched her kid sitcoms “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat” can attest to her subtle comic timing, which she utilizes in several scenes (and her big number “Popular”) with hair-whipping, doe-eyed zest.

The enchanting pair keeps “Wicked” watchable as many scenes drone on or feel stretched and overcooked.

Chu’s movie lasts two hours and 41 minutes – almost the same runtime as the entire Broadway production (with intermission), even though it only covers the stage musical’s first act.

You feel it, too, especially in an extended opening bit about the Wicked Witch’s demise and a busy “Defying Gravity” sequence that clocks in at a good 15 minutes.

The latter still gets the job done, but some judicious editing would have gone a long way.

At the same time, other aspects could have used more depth, such as character development and a key animal rights subplot. (Those monkeys didn’t always fly, FYI.)

“Wicked” does stick mostly to the musical script, maybe for the best considering the show’s protective fandom.

There are nifty “Wizard of Oz” Easter eggs, including musical cues and character footwear, and clever dialogue that hints at what’s to come in the story.

Plus, Chu really immerses you in the fantasy, with awesome production design, wellchoreographed song-and-dance numbers and folks throwing oddball words like “scandalocious” in conversation.

The movie musical is both superfluous and splendiferous, yet it casts a bighearted spell that you’d have to be wicked not to appreciate at least a little

Once it gains speed, ‘Wicked’ soars

‘Wicked doesn’t need a movie adaptation to be relevant — it’s already a cultural phenomenon, even before the behemoth two-part film adaptation hits theaters.

The beloved Tony-winning Broadway musical is adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a revisionist history of Frank L. Baum’s 1900 fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , and that book’s iconic 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz .

This new film comes heaped high with a century’s worth of heritage, in the traditions of literature, screen and stage.

While Dorothy’s tornado-twirl into Technicolor is burned into our collective consciousness, so, too, is the massive note sung at the end of Act One, by the witch at the center of Wicked , Elphaba, in the show’s signature song, “Defying Gravity,” written by Stephen Schwartz (who wrote all the music and lyrics for the show).

Director Jon M. Chu’s oversized movie adaptation takes every second of its two hours and 40 minutes to build up to that one note.

The battle cry that emerges from Elphaba (played by the Tony-winning, Oscar-nominated Cynthia Erivo) is a moment in which the anti-tyrannical ethos of the film snaps into sharp focus with such crystal clarity that it’s breathtaking.

It’s just the preceding rising action that feels a bit underwhelming.

Wicked seeks to understand the Wicked Witch of the West, and the movie starts off when a denizen of Munchkinland dares to ask Glinda the Good Witch (Ariana Grande), “Is it true you were friends with her?” inspiring a flashback to their days at Shiz University, where the pair met.

Elphaba, rejected by her father since birth because of her green skin, follows her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) to the school and accidentally unleashes some rough, untrained powers, catching the eye of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).

She’s forced to bunk up with pretty, popular, pink-obsessed Galinda (the first iteration of the Good Witch’s name), and though they are at odds at first, Galinda can’t resist a makeover or the intriguing powers of her new pal.

It’s essentially a high school musical, with more magic — but not enough movie magic.

The script has got to get Elphaba and Galinda to Oz to meet the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), and hone Elphaba’s motivation for eventually defying the wizard (and gravity), which is wrapped up in a rushed subplot.

Elphaba sings emphatically about wanting to meet the Wizard, but why she cares so much is a bit underbaked.

Grande is delightful as Galinda, showing off her comedic gifts and superb voice.

She’s all big brown eyes and a pout, which she puts to marvelous use in her performance as the petulant princess of Shiz.

But her character turns are also quite flat, and the world-building here could have been so much sharper and funnier.

Bowen Yang does heroic work with a few ad libs and reactions as Galinda’s pal Pfannee, and Jonathan Bailey is terrific as the dashing prince Fiyero, but the setting doesn’t feel well-rounded on the screen.

Still, Wicked will delight fans of the stage production as a faithful adaptation that is at once playful but reverent.

With another installment on the way, a gargantuan press tour and over 100 years of cultural baggage, Wicked is already too big to fail.

But the weight of expectations is a heavy thing to bear, and they bog down this capable movie version on its way to liftoff.

The film struggles to take flight, but when it does, it is undeniably moving.

ARLINGTON

Step inside the world of Oz at ‘Wicked’ costume exhibit

Glinda and Elphaba’s iconic outfits among pieces to be displayed

The magical land of Oz is soon coming to North Texas.

Costumes from the film Wicked , which premiered Friday, will be on display at the Arlington Museum of Art from Jan. 15 to April 27.

The free exhibition, Wicked Threads: The Artistry of Costume in Oz , will include Glinda the Good’s bubble dress (a pink, Cinderella-esque gown) and the costume that Elphaba, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West, wears during her performance of “Defying Gravity.”

“Costuming and filmmaking is an exciting form of visual art and storytelling. The AMA is always excited to showcase the work of these artists, especially in our free community gallery spaces,” Kendall Quirk, the director of exhibitions at the Arlington Museum of Art, said in a press release Friday.

“We hope to see emerging designers, filmmakers, and other visual artists come to enjoy these costumes from such a universal story.”

The blockbuster film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, in an adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, has had a splashy debut.

During previews, it earned over $19 million at the box office, and it is projected to bring in $120 million to $140 million in the United States and Canada on opening weekend, according to Boxoffice Pro.

In a pre-show advisory, the movie chain AMC has issued fans a reminder of the golden rule of theater etiquette: silence. At early screenings of the film, there have been reports of sing-a-longs — to mixed reactions.

Elsewhere in the nexus of North Texas and the Oz universe, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions has put up for sale the Wicked Witch’s hat and a pair of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from 1939’s Wizard of Oz .

The slippers in the Dec. 7 auction were previously stolen from a Minnesota museum in 2005, before being recovered by FBI investigators in 2018.

Movie review: 'Wicked' soars thanks to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

Rejoicify, Ozians!

The "Wicked" movie, opening Friday, is splendiferous.

Wonderific.

Magnifical, even.

"Wicked" was always destined for the big screen.

The extravagant musical about the friendship between Elphaba, a green-skinned outcast, and Glinda, a popular girl with a penchant for pink, is a cultural phenomenon.

After two decades, it remains one of Broadway's most popular shows.

Multiple productions have been playing around the world for years.

It has been referenced in anime series, sitcoms and other musicals.

That history has cultivated a community of diehard fans that reveres the show as much as Judy Garland's ruby red slippers.

They can recite every line and sing every lyric.

During a weekend screening in Houston, they showed up in witch hats, green clothes and one in full Glinda gear with a crown and wand.

"Wicked" takes flight from its first moment and never touches the ground.

The film is a gorgeous expansion of the stage musical, itself a loose adaptation of Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel. "Wicked Part Two" will pick up the story in 2025.

Unless you've been under a house, the plot of "Wicked" is familiar.

In a pre-Dorothy Oz, the green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) follows her wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose to Shiz University.

In a moment of first-day panic, Elphaba unleashes a powerful display of magic that impresses headmistress Madame Morrible, played by a wonderfully imperious Michelle Yeoh.

To make room at the school for Elphaba, who was just there to see her sister off, Madame Morrible suggests she room with the pretty, popular and appalled Glinda (Ariana Grande).

The pair is instantly at odds but soon develop a genuine friendship that changes them both — for good.

As the story's unlikely besties, Erivo and Grande are shockingly spectacular.

Shocking because they're both stepping into monumental roles shaped by decades of fan expectations and a storied Broadway legacy.

The masterful screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox allows the actresses to fully ground their characters and fill them in with color and shading.

They have a real, palpable chemistry that is essential for the story to work. It's showcased beautifully during rivalrous duet "What Is This Feeling?" and a transformative scene in the Ozdust Ballroom that communicates its power with almost no dialogue.

Erivo, a Tony winner for "The Color Purple," makes Elphaba completely her own.

She plays up the character's wry sense of humor and makes her green skin less a novelty point and more an extension of her identity.

She's beautifully subtle during "I'm Not That Girl." And her performance of "Defying Gravity" does exactly that — soars to the heavens and releases the weight of her doubt, transforming it into a moment of liberation.

Grande is a revelation.

Though she's no stranger to acting, her work here is transcendent.

She gives a truly magnetic performance that tempers Galinda's cartoonishness with a genuine pathos.

You feel her transformation as much as Elphaba's. Grande's performance of "Popular" feels new and still honors the campy genius of Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role on Broadway.

Onstage, act one sometimes feels like a buildup to "Defying Gravity."

But director Jon M. Chu ("Crazy Rich Asians") makes sure every song in the film looks and feels equally important.

The film looks and moves beautifully, from Glinda's bubble of silence and the Shiz University campus to the wonderfully garish Emerald City.

The supporting players in the "Wicked"-verse include Jeff Goldblum as a wonderfully smarmy Wizard;

Jonathan Bailey as the alternately suave and sardonic Fiyero;

and Ethan Slater, all bumbling, nervous energy as the long-suffering Boq, a Munchkin in love with Glinda.

"Saturday Night Live" regular Bowen Yang is very Bowen Yang as Pfannee, one of Glinda's college minions.

Behind the emerald facade, "Wicked" touches on bigger themes that feel more relevant than ever: fascism, social injustice and the corrupting influence of power.

It explores the danger of silencing dissenting voices and scapegoating, where innocents are blamed for societal ills to maintain control.

Screenwriters Holzman and Fox refine those ideas and integrate them more naturally into the story.

That ability to be profound, poetic and pop-u-lar is the true magic of "Wicked."

[xoteajays]

I just assumed you were taking a break from talking.. Since I never do expect anyone to reply right away, or replying back as often either, so I thought you just wanted a break to do other things for yourself. And that is fine too. I never rush people into replying back every time at all either. The only reasons why I reply back right away is either so I don't forget to reply, or because I actually have energy to reply to someone. But depression is completely different because I probably won't reply, at least until after the depression is over. And being an introvert, I'm a person who is always social either. So it depends on how social I am.

~

You would think our devices would be used to how we spell the words by now. Like names. I know that I'm spelling the names right but then autocorrect keeps changing the names. Or the curse words. Dick and fuck are always changed to duck, cunt is can't, twat is that, shit is sit.. And basically so many other words get changed too. My device really should be used to my words, my cursing, and every other words too.

Spellcheck is one thing, but autocorrect is completely different for us just because spellcheck tells you the word is spelled wrong. And then autocorrect just changes the word without you realizing it lot of times as it is. That shouldn't really annoy me. But it completely annoys me.

~

Ironic how I have mixed feelings about snakes, yet I have two - maybe three - original characters with snakes as their animal motifs though.

Then I might not mind seeing pictures of animals then, it you actually wanted to send some pictures anyway. That's entirely up to you when it comes to that. I'm only just against any violent pictures of animals.

I know Japan has beetles. At least I see a lot of beetles in shows, even movies - including anime and manga - in Japanese cultures. But I am too knowledgeable about animals and insects that I can't comment.. I knew they had beetles though. But just different beetles in Australia.

The simple fact that grubs looks like maggots is skeeving me out.

~

Yes. Only High&Low characters at the moment... Watching any horror genres, I realized there are a lot of female characters who do have the witchy styled aesthetic. Amongst some people I know personally too.

And... y'know... Talking about superstitions, like black cats, even really made me think of witches. Which made me think of the witchy styles.

So that wasn't a random question. At least not for me anyway.

Rocky is definitely open minded to every type of woman, he's not one to discriminate against women. Nothing against looks, personality, or style. So I feel like Rocky might be excluded from certain questions.

I keep imagining women having a more edgy style to their look, when it comes to Cobra and Hyuga. And maybe the Amamiya brothers too. And maybe the Mugen guys now that I think about it. But.. Any styles from witchy, punk, biker and maybe even goth for some of these men might work. Unless they're into the cute preppy or tomboy type girls.

~

I have just about every season where I live. And even though we really have every season... I can see that our seasons are too bad compared to other states and even countries too. Like our winters, are never like in Alaska. Our summers can be really hot, but nowhere near humid as it is in other areas. Like with how humid the weather is in Arizona too.

So our weather can be extreme but never that extreme either... Which I am grateful for. If it's too hot or too cold, then I just stay in the house as it is. Simple as that. You've never experienced snow? You may even hate blizzards. We've had a few blizzards last year, a few feet of snow.

I never left my house. When it comes to stormy weather.. I would stay in my house, wrapped up in blankets, possibly snacks if I'm hungry in that moment while binge watching shows or movies. And sometimes my dog may join me to, if she is actually being affectionate enough to be cuddling with me. So she's only affectionate when she wants to be with other people. Oh! And candles too. It's very atmospheric for me.

So the season of autumn is different becoming cooler weathers now.

~

I don't think that I've ever tried dating sites? Or apps? Not that I could think of. I rarely ever have pictures of myself on any accounts... Either because there is rarely any decent pictures of me when I take selfies - since I'm not that good with selfie pictures, or because pictures that's been taken by someone else is always a horrible picture of me that I'd deliberately see online. I have to complain until they actually delete all pictures of me. It's not a joke. I hate when people take pictures of me.

And conversation is also another problem of mine.. I rarely start some conversations with people, I hate small talk - I prefer the conversation (about common things) over small talk. I have no interest in small talk at all. And if I have no interesting in talking, I would never reply back.

So there's that.

At least some people know you're out? So that's a start... I am no help with this. So I can't comment. At least some people know about you.

~

I have so many mixed feelings about my family, including my parents, and.. If I am being honest... I feel like most of my feelings are negative than positive. I'm a very resentful person. I admit that. Especially with my mother of all people. I have mixed feelings for her as it is. Like I do know she does everything to and for me because she cares about me in her own demented way. I know she was abused as a child so I have known that is her reason for being overly protective over me. And the reason why she rarely ever lets me leave the house on my own either, which is also another reason why I rarely bother leaving the house for myself anyway. I'm a grown woman who is still treated like a child just because of my size. I feel like she is the reason why I don't have a very normal life in the sense of having friends, dating, and anything else in this situation. If you read The Devouring Mother archetype. That's the actual definition of my mother. My mother and I are opposites in a lot of ways, in any and every way known to people who actually know us.

So my experience with my mother is kind of similar to your own too.

My mother never wants to let me leave the house, so I doubt that she would ever let me leave the country alone. And from what she did see of the movie Hostile.. She is afraid that would happen to me. Which is another reason why she's very protective of me. A smothering mother is the type of mother she is. I blame her for not having a normal life.

And besides... I think the other reason is because if I attempted going to another country. Besides money. Is that the countries I would want to visit, I might have to learn their language to communicate with any people there. And I also heard they're not always so kind to foreigners either. Depending on where you travel. And even different rules, laws, and regulations in every country as it is so I could be worried about it.

Don't forget tourist traps in some countries too.

I have been to some amusement parks in my life, not including pricey places like Disneyland. It's noisy, it's crowded. So much of everything.

Personally I think amusement parks are overrated in my opinion.

~

Okay. So I hate mentioning anything considered political.. I'm not one to mention it because the reason why I'm social media is to avoid any politics to the best of my ability. I use my exist reality, just not relive it either. But one pet peeve I have is that I follow celebrities... And this is not about their political opinions. Not at all. So if I celebrity is actually posting online (pictures that has nothing to do with politics in no way at all), then why the fuck do people political comments. And this is so the main reason why I never read comments including the other main being too many arguments and stupid commentary in the comments too. Another reason why I can not ever tolerate opinions from people.

~

Oh! You did say that before. But yeah.. You'll find out if there might be one season, depending on the finale. You'll find out in a couple weeks.

And you'll have Squid Games coming up in a few weeks.. So there is a chance you might end up seeing more of him. Unless he dies though.

Really? I liked It Follows. That was just one of the better movies I have seen in a while.. And horror movies have become so disappointing for me now. Smile was the most recent horror movie that I actually liked.

There might be more. But I can't think of any more shows and movies at the moment.. I just woke up so my mind isn't actually thinking yet.

The Terrifier was okay.. Just okay. I really feel like people overly hyped the movies. Those movies were actually more gross than scary to me.

So ew.

And exactly! Despite not every Saw movie having the best plot, they'll make an attempt to have a plot in some way or another. If they're able to. But I don't remember past the third movie since I really only watch the first three movies, I've never actually liked the movies after that.

You need to watch more anime. If you do watch more anime, I may be able to recommend some series to you. But it depends on everything.

I love Death Note, Deadman Wonderland and Kakegurui. And... Based who I am. If you ever combine the personalities and mannerisms of L, Near with the height and style of Misa. Then that's me! Even though I know it was never explicitly stated, L and Near are completely perfect examples of autism. At least for me. And! I'm not saying that because they are popular characters either (since people seem to assume that about me). But that might give you some perceptive on having one of my characters being autistic. If and when I actually write my stories.

I might have even watched one or two episodes of Shiki, but that was a lot time ago that I can't comment on that series. So no comments.

I heard of Corpse Party. I never watched the anime, and I think there's even a video game too? I never watched, played, or anything with this series. So I can't comment about this show either. So there's that too.

I know of Zom100. I've only see the trailers for both versions but I just haven't watched it yet. Maybe I will. But no promises about it though.

I don't think that I've ever heard of Happy Sugar Life, Darwin's Game, High Rise Invasion or Vampire In The Garden. No comments over any of these series either. And I would've recommended Tokyo Ghoul. But the anime doesn't live up to the manga though, they leave some plots out of the anime. So it's like this watered down version of the manga.

But I will really recommend Hellsing: Ultimate if you haven't seen it.. It is one of my favorite Dracula series. If you're interested, that's a series for you. Oh! And one of my favorite underrated series is Red Garden if you never watched it. If you do decide to watch it, I'd recommend you watching in English (since I don't know your language preferences for anime) since the series takes place in New York. Actually... I've always wanted to write a story with a similar concept of Red Garden, but just not sure for which fandom if it would be for another fandom. Anyway.

- 💋

i do a lot of writing on my ipad and even on there, autocorrect is messing with me. like, by this point, it should recognise the capitalisation of specific names that i’ve typed a hundred times. at least i’ve finally gotten in the habit of editing my fics, but there’s so many older ones with minor little autocorrect mistakes. bleugh.

~

i can see the mental line from superstitions to black cats to witches. my brain works like that too. just connecting two things that might not seem related until all the little bits are laid out.

i think a witchy style would really fit against rocky. like both of them having very, clear defined styles and aesthetics. also the obvious ‘opposite’s attract, yin yang, black and white’ thing.

i think it depends in the kind of aesthetic you’re working for the ship. like i can see cobra and hyuga being into punk-y, ‘baddass’ chic, tomboy-ish styled girls for a duo kickass couple. but i can also see them liking cuter styled girls, for the opposite’s dynamic. i think yui is a lil bit of a mix of both, she’s got a pretty mixed style but has some ‘cuter’ personality aspects, like her collection of cute stuffs.

~

it’s too hot for snow in the northern parts of australia. i think maybe tasmania gets some snow but idk. i think there’s snow in canberra?

~

i haven’t heard anything about a second season so it might just be limited series, one and done. but so long as i get my ha joon content, it’s all good. i might end up rewatching midnight actually. for halloween!

he was supposed to have died in the first season, but apparently that might not be so. he got shot in the shoulder by his brother and fell into the ocean, but his fate was left ambiguous.

i just thought it was a bit boring. i haven’t seen it in a while, but i was just kinda. bored with. i like the lead actress tho, she’s pretty. have you seen revenge, the movie from 2017?

i’d started watching death note with my brother back in the early 00s, but we’d never ended up getting very far in it. it was back when blockbusters (aa video rental shops, i do miss u) were still around.

corpse party was a game first iirc, and then the anime was based on it. i remember watching a playthrough of the game back years ago. it was like one of The games that got me into indie horror rpgs. both the game and anime are pretty gory, but entertaining. apparently there’s a couple live action movies but i havent seen those.

darwin’s game, high rise invasion, and vampire in the garden are all on netflix. darwin’s game and high rise invasion are a bit like alice in borderland, in a death games survival type way. vampire in the garden is more dark fantasy as opposed to straight horror, but it’s very visually pretty. i don’t remember who recommended happy sugar life to me, but it’s a psych horror iirc?

red garden looks interesting, i’ll put it on my list! i usually prefer watching subbed anime, just because sometimes dubs are bad. but also one of my favourite childhood animes is digimon adventures so. i can’t talk that much crap on dubs ahshdjdl i’ll send you a vid of the digimon movie dub being What It Is. it’s so funny now, but i didn’t notice how weird it was when i was a kid. it explains everything about why my sense of humour is fucked.

[amberduan-ual]

Interim Crit Project B (4/5/23)

My concept art project idea pretty much started from one character design which I then developed a world around.

I've always loved birds, especially birds of prey like eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, etc so I wanted to design a character that was based on one. I took an image of a harpy eagle and incorporated characteristics of the bird with medieval fantasy armor. I wanted the armor to have pieces and flourishes resembling feathers, and the knight to have a cape like a feathered tail. The gauntlets are sharp to imitate the talons of an eagle and the overall silhouette is pointed. I kept shape language in mind and wanted the character to have a triangle shape to emphasize her dangerous nature as a warrior.

I think I ended up choosing a fantasy inspired genre because I've been reading a lot of fantasy books in the past few months. I used to be a really avid reader through elementary and middle school, and my favorite genre back then was anything to do with dragons and talking animals. One of my favorite franchises ever is How to Train Your Dragon, both the book series and movie trilogy. I fell off reading books when I started high school because the internet was much more accessible by then, but for 2023 I decided to get back into it!

So far my 2023 Goodreads challenge has had a pretty considerable ratio of fantasy books, specifically the Locked Tomb series starting from Gideon the Ninth. The Locked Tomb is a bit of a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, but knight cavaliers and necromancer sorcerers are pretty central to the story, which definitely led to the knight decision.

From the character design, I started thinking about what kind of world this knight could inhabit and why would her armor be so heavily inspired by birds. The two main influences that I combined to create the world this character design by Airi Pan and the Great Eagles from Lord of the Rings.

I love the idea of taking any animal and having it become a knight's trusty mount, and the Great Eagles already set precedent for large birds that can be ridden, so I decided to create a world based on the concept of eagle knights.

I started gathering references for the influences that I want to go into the world, from fantasy medieval knights to birds of prey, to treehouses and bird nests. I took notes on areas that could be fleshed out for worldbuilding purposes, thinking about different classes of knights and their different bird mounts.

Next, I also created a reference board of visual development art. I wanted to have a lot of different types of concept art to reference and prompt me to think of different aspects of worldbuilding. Two manga titles that really inspire me are Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama and Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui. Both are manga series written and illustrated by women, and are set in incredibly lush fantasy worlds.

I was inspired to start reading Witch Hat Atelier after hearing that it has great representation of disability and darker skinned characters, which is really rare for both the fantasy genre and Japanese manga. The character designs in Witch Hat Atelier are gorgeous and fantastically diverse, yet cohesive in a way that I really appreciate.

I picked up Dungeon Meshi after watching this amazing breakdown video on character design in the series. Ryoko includes extras in some of the volumes which demonstrate her great attention to detail in character design. Her character portrait lineups show diversity in their facial features and physical makeup, and she also makes sure that even when her characters have swapped costumes, they're still distinguishable from each other. There's a large range in body shape and size in the cast, even for women, whom Ryoko isn't afraid to design outside of the typical beauty ideals.

Besides character art though, I also have environment designs and creature designs in my reference board. I think it's important to have sheets that describe the detail of specific environmental details in a technical way, but also more rendered paintings that establish the mood and atmosphere of a world.

[warm-like-autumn]

Samantha Archembeau is an optimist, a ray of sunshine if you will. She comes from a family of witches from Paris, her parents have always told her stories from their time as students at Phantasma High, she would read stories about witches and other supernaturals and spent time in her aunt’s Magic Supplies shop, where her aunt would teach her a lot of things about witchcraft. It was when Samantha saw a parade made by illusionist witches led by the famous member of the magic council, Michelle Wonder, who became her idol.This inspired her to become a master in illusions, as illusion spells could give the world more colour, and required a lot of artistic knowledge to master.

               However, being a student at Phantasma High was less than stellar, as magic is slowly is slowly losing its purpose in society, and a lot of people become witches out of obligation rather because that’s what they truly enjoy.Samantha won’t lets this get her down and tries to see the full part of the glass.Now that she is in Senior Year, she is trying to make the best of the time she has left in highschool, enjoy every second and have fun.But deep down she dreamed that things would be more exciting, that she would have a grand adventure…

                        And her wish came true, well, somewhat. She is the superhero Sunrise, and she is trying to solve the mystery of the strange event that happened at the school library during midnight. This leads her down a rabbit hole and discovers the world like she has never seen it before, full of mysteries, villains and secret agents.

                     Samantha is a huge fan of cartoons and magical girl and shonen anime. She enjoys cosplaying and drawing, her art style is colorful and dynamic, a mix between the movies and shows that inspire her.She also is a roller skater. She, more than anything likes meeting new people, making friends, even though she wouldn't admit it, Samantha is afraid that she annoys people, that she is a burden and deep down just wants to be reassured that everything is OK, that her presence is not annoying.And that's where Gail comes in, as with his kind eyes and unbridled patience, Samantha feels safe and comfortable around him. 

Gail Williams is socially awkward and deeply insecure, there is no other way to put it.He is a student at Roundtable Academy, so you know the drill, he pressure the school puts on the students and its competitive nature have turned Gail into a people pleaser, a pessimistic soul who doesn't see purpose in dreaming of something better, but still wants to see those he cares for happy. 

                        He moved with his romanian mother in London, after his father’s death, to go to the same school he studied to, but also because his mother wanted a scenery change, a fresh start after that tragedy.He met Samantha in freshman year, in a very awkward way, they briefly knew each other, from the many times Roundtable Academy and Phantasma High would do collaborative events.But the moment their friendship truly started to form was when the two of them started going to the anime club taking place at the “Books’ World”, since then the two of them have been inseparable.

                        Now Gail is a senior in highschool, regretting how stale things have been in his life, wondering if the promise of the great high school experience was ever true.He is stressed about college, about graduating, about what comes next.All of these things are frustrating him, but he doesn’t show it. Gail enjoys drawing, creating characters, thinking about their world and their stories, reading comic books and playing the guitar.Gail is reserved and finds it difficult to open up to people, but he is surprisingly talkative with the friends he already has, especially Samantha.He is soft spoken and always tries to help out his friends, even if he himself needs help…

[michimonie]

Witch Hazel's Pumpkin Pie

(Disney Recipes: From Animation to Inspiration)

Left Page

"In the short movie Trick or Treat (1952), lovable wacky Witch Hazel joins up with Huey, Dewey, and Louie to play a few tricks on their crotchety uncle Donald. She uses her knowledge of magic to conjure up a potion able to bring pumpkin masks terrifyingly to life and turns solid fence posts into ghosts. If you ask us, she should have used her spells in the kitchen to prepare special treats for Halloween. Try working a little of your own magic with this zippy version of a classic autumnal dessert: all you need is an open mind and willingness to try something new. Be daring and see whether your guests reward you with a trick or treat."

"Trick or treat for Halloween, better give a treat that's good to eat, if you gonna keep life serene! Kids! The stuff's looooaded!"

Right Page

HOW TO MAKE IT

8 Servings 2 Hours Preparation Time

INGREDIENTS

PIECRUST

8 ounces - flour 1/4 teaspoon - salt 1 teaspoon - New Mexico chili powder 4 tablespoons - butter 3 tablespoons - ice water

FILLING

4 ounces - cream cheese, room temperature 3 tablespoons - finely chopped candied gingerroot 15 ounces - candied pumpkin puree 14 ounces - canned condensed sweetened milk 2 - eggs, separated 1/4 teaspoon - ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon - ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon - ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon - salt

TOPPING

2 tablespoons - flour 2 ounces - brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon - finely ground black pepper 2 tablespoons - butter 4 ounces - hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

PIECRUST

Place flour, salt, and chili powder in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse once or twice to combine. Add butter, pulsing on and off until mixture resembles small peas.

Sprinkle in cold water and pulse 3-4 times until mixture forms a ball. Remove and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

When chilled, roll out to 1/4-inch thickness, about 10 inches in diameter. Roll onto rolling pin, then fit into pie pan, and uniformly finish edges. Refrigerate until needed. This may be done a day or two in advance.

FILLING

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (Fahrenheit). Prick bottom of shell with a fork to prevent it from rising during baking.

Blind bake shell for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned; then allow to cool. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese with candied ginger, then spread on prebaked piecrust, being careful not to break crust.

In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.

In a separate large bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Fold into pumpkin mixture and pour filling into piecrust. Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven.

TOPPING

While pie is baking, prepare topping. In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and black pepper. Blend in cold butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Mix in chopped hazelnuts. Sprinkle topping over pie after baking for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake for an additional 40 minutes, or until set.

VARIATIONS

Other nuts may be used in the topping, or, if you prefer, removed completely. Substitute black pepper in the crust with ground cardamom for a sweeter, milder topping.

MENU IDEAS

Try a bowl of "Cookie's Special Chili" and come cold "Heroes' Herculade" to drink before a slice of this pie.

WHAT CHILDREN CAN DO

Little hands can combine cream cheese with candied ginger, and mix ingredients for the topping.

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[syachihoblog]

☆ちゆちゆブログ☆《ちゆたん》

2018-01-26

Konnichiyu ฅ۶•ﻌ•♡ I turned 20! I’m an adult Chi~yu~ \( ˆoˆ )/ ❤︎Chiyu Birthday❤︎~I’m not a kid anymore!~ A lot of people came to see me! Thank you so much!!!

I packed in a lot of things I wanted to do and the hour and a half went by in the blink of an eye!

① First, a lyrics change to “kissy-men” Chiyu-tan♪Chiyu-tan♪Kyou wa Chiyu-tan♪ [”Chiyu birthday, Chiyu birthday, today is Chiyu birthday”] It was fun~(*´▽｀*)

② Tenkasu Trio’s “Eien no Trinity” I had planned on doing it from the start, but then I heard about Momoka’s graduation* and I wanted to sing it to the best of my ability. I really love this song, and Tenkasu Trio is eternal!! I had a text exchange with Hinata saying we should sing it together, too!♪

�� ANGERME (S/mileage) Medley♪ “Yume Miru 15 (20)” “Uchouten LOVE” “○○Ganbaranakutemo Ee Nen De!!” “Sukichan" “aMa no jaku” My sister said my choices are divine, so I was happy! lol

④ YUI ”Happy Birthday to you you” →Chiyu acoustic guitar x Conan acoustic guitar YUI songs were the reason Chiyu started playing guitar ♡ I was also happy that everyone could sing along!

⑤ Team Syachihoko’s “Lace no Curtain wo Yurashita” →Chiyu acoustic guitar x Conan keyboard This was a song I picked as a challenge! I wonder how I did?

⑥ SEKAI NO OWARI “RAIN” →Conan keyboard The keyboard section is intense, so it felt good to sing to it~! I love SekaOwa songs so much! It made me remember “Mary and the Witch’s Delivery Service”~♪ Everyone should watch it❤︎

⑦ Takahashi Yuu “Ashita wa Kitto Ii Hi ni Naru” →Chiyu acoustic guitar x Conan acoustic guitar I picked this song so that everyone would feel happiness every day, including tomorrow! Thanks for keeping the beat for me♡

⑧ Team Syachihoko “Jirijiri Natsu Katsu Iinkai” I like this song! It’s fun♪

⑨ Team Syachihoko “Dera Disco” Ii ne ii ne♪ Chiyuri!***←I laughed~(〃ﾉωﾉ)♡

Thank you for the encore call, too! I was also happy to receive a video message from Honoka and Nao, and then to my surprise Yuzuki and Haru came on stage♪ I was super happy~\( ˆoˆ )/ Thanks for the cute cake♡

Also, ⑩ Chiyu’s solo song “Naite nanka Inai yo” Chiyu acoustic guitar x Conan keyboard

Conan played for me quite a bit, thank you so much! Please collaborate with me again♪ I also got to sing a song that I wrote at the end! I forgot to switch the guitar I was playing so I ended up a bit wobbly at first, but everyone listened the who~le way through and that made me happy!!! My handwriting is super messy, but I’ll post this for you! lolol

So this is how I started my 20th year! I can still see many challenges ahead of me, but I want to clear each one and challenge different things and become a super adult Chi~yu~! To those who couldn’t come to the show thank you for your celebratory messages! The people who put up posters around town, the different shops who put them up, I felt so much love from all of you ♡ For people to be this kind to me, to put their all into a unifying force, to always be supporting me, you’ll always be close to my heart ♡ Meeting all of you, the fans, has been my greatest treasure! Please keep taking care of me♪

I’ll be posting the pictures of the flowers you sent me on Insta \( ˆoˆ )/ Take a screenshot♪ ☆Chi~yu☆

[billiewena]

If you’re for feeling tempted to watch the Supernatural prequel because of the new diverse character announcements, I’m here to remind you that there are other fantasy/sci-fi/horror TV shows that not only have diversity (but are even led with it!)

“I want to watch a monster-hunting show led by a powerful woman!”

Wynonna Earp (SyFy): two sisters, one a wise-cracking but badass hunter of the undead and the other a more serious but sweeter girl with mysterious monster origins, are reunited after years apart. Basically, it’s Supernatural but funnier (and gayer!)

Van Helsing (SyFy): a re-imagining of the vampire hunting icon that follows his descendant Vanessa Helsing, 

Warrior Nun (Netflix): A girl comes back from the dead and learns she’s part of a secret order of demon-hunting nuns. 

Lost Girl (SyFy): Bisexual succubus Bo and her human best friend Kenzi become private investigators of the world of the “fae”, supernatural beings that range from fairies to wolves to sirens and succubi like Bo.

“I want to watch a show about Asian characters in the world of fantasy and monsters!”

Okay well, first off, I also cannot begin to tell you about how many amazing non-American supernatural shows are out there if you’re willing to read subtitles. A couple of my personal favorites are Black (a Korean horror/fantasy/mystery show about reapers and a woman who can see when people will die, Netflix) and All of Us Are Dead (a new action-fantasy drama about high schoolers battling a zombie invasion, Netflix) and I would love to hear people rec their faves, too! A few that don’t need subtitles though…

Shadow & Bone (Netflix): A well-received adaptation of the high fantasy book series, with a diverse writing staff and cast including half-Chinese Jessie Mei Lei as the lead. Fan-favorite characters from the sequels such as Inej and Jesper (a South Asian woman and a mixed-race bisexual man respectively) also got integrated into the series early and become prevalent characters in the books’ spinoffs.

Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu): a darker, teen superhero show with the found family themes you always wanted from their movies. Its highlight is easily Nico Minoru, a Japanese-American and queer sorceress who learns her and her friends' parents are part of a super-villain organization

Wu Assassins (Netflix): a Chinese-Indonesian man in San Francisco discovers he has magical origins and has to fight to keep his family’s power out of the wrong hands

Teen Wolf (MTV/Amazon Prime): While only part of the cast for Season 3-5, the show’s introduction of Japanese-Korean Kitsune Kira Yukimara and her mysterious family led to the shows’ most well-received storyline and arc. She teams up with troubled teen werewolf Scott McCall and his pack to fight an evil creature tormenting the town.

And of course Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel Legend of Korra (Nickelodeon/Amazin Prime): AMAZING animated shows with all-Asian characters and original fantasy world inspired by multiple East Asian and South Asian countries. They may be kids’ shows but they deal with a lot of heavy and mature themes that make it enjoyable for any age. 

“I want to watch a genre show with a Latino lead (bonus points if queer!)”

What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu): a horror-comedy TV spinoff of Taika Waiti’s iconic and hilarious vampire mockumentary film, with racially diverse writers and cast and basically all LGBT lead characters. The true heart of the show is the queer, Mesztizo and Mexican human character Guillermo (whose identity isn’t hypersexualized like some of the vampires characters’ more fluid bisexuality/pansexuality are)

The Owl House (Disney): yes, another animated kids’ show, but I cannot recommend this fantasy series enough especially to any former "Harry Potter" fans. It’s led by a teenage, Latina human who discovers witches and a secret world of magic and is eager to learn so she can be a part of it. Luz is also bisexual, and her relationship with another young witch has been one of the most talked about storylines of the show.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Showtime): a horror-drama spinoff of Penny Dreadful set in Los Angeles in the 1930s that tackles both Mexican-American tensions and folklore with characters connected in a conflict between the angel Santa Muerte and demoness Magda.

Roswell, New Mexico (The CW/Netflix): While I’m hesitant to recommend any CW show, this remake of the 90’s sci-fi drama/romance (which infamously whitewashed characters from the books) ingrains diversity into the cast and plot, with the Mexican-American lead’s immigrant family dealing with real-life racial tension in New Mexico in addition to the show’s original storyline of immigrant aliens adjusting from life on a whole other planet.

p.s. adding to this list is not only okay but highly encouraged!