#The Wicked Stepsister

[kannemeinelauthor]

La hijastra malvada (The Wicked Stepsister, in Spanish)

Un día, al regresar a casa de la escuela, Abigail se lleva una gran sorpresa al ver a tres extrañas que se están mudando a su hogar. Su padre se ha casado nuevamente y ni siquiera la invitó a su boda; y ahora las dinámicas familiares han cambiado drásticamente. Al tener que vivir con esas nuevas personas, ella estará dispuesta a aceptarlas en su vida, pero, ¿qué hay de que ellas acepten a Abigail…

[mryoyo000]

“Wicked” Book and Musical Thoughts (SPOILERS)

in advance: these are just my personal thoughts—I am not trying to force my opinion on anyone and I welcome any disagreement!

SPOILERS (also long sorry) also for the sake of writing this I actually went back and reread Wicked for the first time in several years.

I think it might be helpful for people to consider that Wicked the book, and Wicked the musical, are not just different in terms of plot and tone, they are ultimately telling two different stories with different goals. If you are having a hard time reconciling the musical/movie to the book or vice versa, this might be one way to look at it.

I think the differences ultimately add up to two entirely different stories. The book is a lot darker, definitely not written for younger audiences, and it also has a very different scope. The musical is about Elphaba, and primarily it’s focused on Elphaba’s relationship with Glinda. The book is attempting to tell a sort of epic scale story (whether or not it succeeds in that) about the times in Oz during Elphaba’s life—and Glinda has significantly less overall prominence and presence than in the musical.

I don’t think you can overestimate the significance of this difference. This might be one of the most fundamental differences between the book and the show/movie—Glinda is central to the musical, but only one among an ensemble in the book. I have critiques about the book which I won’t get into in depth here, but this is NOT one of them and I actually think that, for what the book is trying to be (which is NOT what the musical is trying to be), Glinda’s relative lack of prominence is the right decision. The book goes through a number of perspectives before reaching Elphaba herself, and all of these other voices are among the people in her life who either died and/or became estranged from her. (Elphaba does not become the point of view until she’s reached the point where she starts referring to herself as “the Witch.”) In the book, Glinda functions as one among many of Elphaba’s relationships that fell apart and failed over time—there cannot be a central relationship between them in the book because the book is telling a story about Elphaba losing everyone in her life.

So the book is not trying to be “about” Elphaba and Glinda, and the story it is telling about Elphaba is a lot bleaker than the one that the musical is telling.

Elphaba’s story in the book is about loss, and also about failure. I think this is also one thing that causes the book to be controversial. Elphaba is unable to succeed in the book—for all of her revolutionary sympathies, she is constantly prevented (narratively) from making any actual difference. The sad joke of the book is that the “wicked witch of the west” title wasn’t given to Elphaba even out of spite—it was transferred to her because Nessarose was already being called the wicked witch of the east. Elphaba isn’t even treated as a wicked witch for the most part—she’s seen as an oddity, and she’s more mocked than feared.

for anyone reading this post who is also an ASOIAF reader, I would make comparisons between Elphaba and Catelyn, since in the book Elphaba’s final confrontation with Dorothy shows her at her most broken (she is only called the Witch at this point) after an entire book’s worth of loss, and of seeing all of her hopes never come to fruition.

the tragedy of the musical is that Elphaba was never evil, just misunderstood and labeled by others.

the tragedy of the book is that in the last moments of her life, Elphaba really did become the wicked witch, after a lifetime of being broken down. She was genuinely threatening to kill Dorothy out of paranoia.

It’s a strangely private scene though, because Dorothy is the only person who witnesses Elphaba’s final breakdown. This moment of real “wickedness” is only seen by Dorothy, no one else in the story knows about it, and it ends anyway with Elphaba’s destruction.

There is a lot more to get into as far as differences (Glinda is an entirely different character, so are Boq and Nessarose etc.) but I think I wanted to mainly focus here on Elphaba and also to say that I think the book is at least worth reading to find out how you personally feel about it. last but not least but also not relevant to the post as much, I would say that out of the Gregory Maguire books I’ve read, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is my favorite and I would personally say that I think it’s better than Wicked, both as a book in its own right and as a reworking of a classic story. I would recommend it as an introduction to Maguire’s writing even before Wicked, because it’s a more focused and smaller story and I think it has stronger characterization. It has typically Maguire sardonic dialogue but overall is less cynical than Wicked, so it’s less heavy—no need to slog through fascist dystopia Oz with this one.

[arataka-reigen]

hello!! i saw the tags on your pinned post abt how shoujo wasn't just romance and it got me curious bc i've read some nice shoujo but really dislike romance-heavy plots. are there any shoujos you like that don't have much or any romance in them? ty and i hope you have a good day! 💛

Oh, there are lots of mangas that are classified as shoujo and don't have romance!!

I am just now beginning my journey through shoujo as well, so I don't have a lot of recommendations for stuff I actually read, but the ones I did read or watch so far are:

Natsume Yuujinchou and basically anything else by its author, Yuki Midorikawa. Sometimes, her works do include romance, but the focus is almost always in the interpersonal relationships and the difficulties her characters go through in life. NatsuYuu is about an orphan boy who can see yokai, and for that reason he acts in "weird" ways and his foster families dislike him, so he keeps going from family to family. The story is about how he finds a good family who accepts and loves him, makes friends, and learns to make friends even with yokais.

There are currently 6 anime seasons out, and a 7th season is on its way, so you can either read the manga or watch the anime.

Akatsuki no Yona - i mean, this one does include romance, but i'll still put it on the list because as far as the anime went the focus is heavy on Yona's actual journey to gather the dragons of legend to be able to recover the kingdom that was stolen from her. It shows how Yona goes from a sheltered spoiled girl to a person befitting the title of dragon king.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom - this one is the og villainess isekai and it truly deserves the hype. It is about a girl who wakes up in the child body of the villainess of her favorite otome game. She remembers that the villainess' fate in the game was always either death or exile, so she tries her hardest to change her fate. This one is classified as a reverse harem, but the main character is pretty oblivious and worries more about farming and eating sweets and generally being the best girl ever than actually worrying about romance. Aro ace queen tbh. And her harem is just happy to be with her and be dragged along for her stupid adventures. Plus, the female members of her harem are taken seriously as well, Mary is a raging lesbian and it is not subtext. I mean, it is a shoujo, so of course the female characters would be important lol.

Usagi Drop - listen to me. You will absolutely not look for anything related to this manga. If you like the premise you can watch the anime. But, please, do not look for the manga. You will only be extremely disappointed by it. That being said, I recommend the anime. It is about a man who returns home for his grandfather's funeral and then finds out his grandfather had an illegitimate daughter who has now become an orphan. He ends up having to take care of her because the rest of the family considers her a shame to the family.

Now, for the stuff I havent seen yet, I'll just write some that are on my "plan to read" list and put their genres next to their names so you can check it out if you think the genre's sound interesting:

7 Seeds (drama, horror, psychological, sci fi, survival)

Requiem of the Rose King (drama, historical, supernatural, gender identity)

Basara (drama, fantasy, adventure) (i think this one has romance, but from what i've heard, the main character's story is a lot deeper as she takes her brother's identity in order to fight against the king who killed her brother, it is pretty famous and considered a classic)

Ghost Hunt (horror, mystery, psychological, supernatural)

Helter Skelter (horror, psychological)

My Stepmother and Stepsisters aren't Wicked (comedy, historical, slice of life)

Ikoku Nikki (drama) (this one is the one i'm currently most interested on, i hear it's about a distant woman who's never had a good relationship with her sister and now has to take care of her teenage niece because her sister died)

Itsuwari no Freya (crossdressing, historical)

Limit (drama, psychological, school) (this one sounds incredible tbh, on a field trip their bus gets into an accident and only 5 girls remain, having to learn to survive and trying to assert themselves over one another because they hate each other.)

Machida-kun no sekai (school)

Mitarai-ke, Enjou suru (drama) (the main character wants to infiltrate the household of the family who blamed her mother for a fire, in order to prove her mother's innocence)

Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You (comedy)

Uramichi Oniisan (comedy, showbiz, workplace)

Usotoki Rhetoric (mystery, historical)

Don't Call It Mystery (mystery)

If anyone has more things to recommend I would also love to hear about it!!

[thelreads]

GUNGNIR MVP SHIPPING THE MILFS TOGETHER

[professionallydeadinside]

she is three apples tall.........

[chavisory]

It's curious to me that we haven't seen more discussion of both Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister as Gregory Maguire stories where you have to get that both sisters are disabled...

[llama-aesthetics]

Ruby Step Sister 💘

The granddaughter of one of Cinderella's step sisters, Ruby was raised in a loving, but often judgmental household. She would be criticized for every little action, from her appearance to her manners, and her family would judge and compare her to her cousins.

Despite her seemingly selfish nature, Ruby is a romantic at heart, and dreams of meeting her One True Prince. And while Hawk may fit many girls dream of an ideal prince, Ruby is also a good judge of character and won't settle for anyone less than perfect.

[princess-ibri]

How do Anasasia, Drizella and their mother live out the rest of their lives when Cinderella left and did any of them make ammends with her?

Well, Anastasia for sure ends up with the Baker and becomes friends with Cinderella after Cinderella 3/the timeline gets back on track. They eventually have the Canon Descendants version of Anthony. She and Cinderella actually become real friends after all the drama.

Drizella per my Canon Descendants ends up with the Grand Duke xD per the instructions of the King as a reward to her after she (much more reluctantly then Anastasia but still) has her own redemption arc. They have the Canon Descendants versions of Dizzy and her sisters. It's not precisely a happy marriage, but Drizella gets to be rich and titled and the Duke got a new estate and he does love his daughters so it evens out. She doesn't really hangout with Anastasia or Cinderella though, its a relationship that works better as long distance.

Lady Tremaine likely finally has her Disney Villain Fall Off of Something Tall on her final attempt to get revenge on Cinderella in whatever scheme Drizella has her semi-redemption arc in, which I'm still working out an idea for xD Though it very likely involves the ghost in the castle crypts...

Anyway here's a link to the Canon Descendants Cinderella kids

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1D, MATCH 15 OUT OF 16!

*I found two titles for this webcomic, the first 'A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom' and the second 'I Raised Cinderella Preciously'. Both of them did not fit in the limited characters of the poll option, so I wrote a note here. Any fans of the series feel free to correct me if I made any mistake.

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Ashley:

She is beauty she isn't grace and she just wants guys to stop hitting on her for her looks

Cinciarell:

[No Propaganda Submitted]

[jimmythejiver]

I don't have the citations and receipts to prove it, but I swear most creative decisions in the post-Eisner era of Disney has been fueled by the fact that their biggest rival Universal owned the rights to Wicked.

Think about the fact that they had Stephen Schwartz on Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame during the Renaissance and got him for their send up Enchanted with Idina Menzel in the cast) which like Tangled and Frozen would not be what they are without Wicked, from the stupid titling scheme to initially hiring Kristen Chenoweth as Rapunzel before replacing her with Mandy Moore and ultimately hiring Idina Menzel (again) for Elsa and deciding she ain't so bad after all and hell let's delete Kai and invent Anna the plucky contrast to her to really drive it home.

How about the fact that they bought and made a meh adaptation of Into The Woods, the original 'Kind is not Good' fairytale subversion broadway show. The okay that was a thing Maleficent movies where the king rips off her wings and Mal was misunderstood she was Briar Rose's real protector, see.

The fact that they sure love to market their villains, but boy do they not like to make new ones that aren't corrupted forces of nature that need their heart back to be good again or c.e.o.'s who gave us utopia only to find out he killing the planet oopsies or deceptive seemingly trustworthy Wizard-like authority figures who will stab you in the back in their best interest. A villain is either a twist to be subverted or is the hero you followed along, see. Something tells me the Mufasa movie is their half-apology or reasoning for why Scar is like that when the new Aladdin and Little Mermaid did shit for Jafar or Ursula but make them bland because they didn't have time to bake another uwu, babied misunderstood anti-villain so they made sure they can't chew the scenery or have too big of personalities to latch onto by children either, that be irresponsible.

Disney wants Elphaba and they're mad they don't have the special sauce that Broadway somehow wrangled out of a confusing book full of misdirection that pleased no one but the author and people who hate the Judy Garland film and would never read Frank L. Baum anyway to understand these characters are just different from that film and the shoes were not the Wicked Witch's birthright she wanted their power, it was not that deep, but so much of Maguire's decisions don't work once you account for Baum's that never accounted for the future MGM's art and costuming department, casting and script consolidations, but all Disney sees is, 'That Judy Garland movie should've been ours and fuck these people making sequels and prequels, those should've been ours.'

We see the root of this problem that existed before Eisner took over with Return to Oz under Ron Miller. As a company they've never forgiven anyone for having piece of the Oz pie. Oh, post-Eisner they swung their dick again and made that forgettable James Franco prequel, I almost forgot! A warning to Universal who guarded Wicked's movie rights for decades and the anger they have that Warner Bros. still owns the rights to the Judy Garland film while all of Baum's books are in the public domain before Eisner's lawyers could lobby with Senator Bono to extend copyright law in the 90's.

Eisner cooperated with Warner Bros. to license an Oz sequence with an advance for it's time Wicked Witch animatronic in the Great Movie Ride, in fact a majority of the films i. Thatbride came from WB's vault. Bob Iger let that ride get scrapped for Pirates of the Carribean's update for Red. You know what else Eisner didn't do that Bob Iger did? Not make a stupid Cruella prequel to explain why she's so misunderstood, just a straight live action remake of the cartoon and Jungle Book that was boring, and not a whole lot of these were as churned out in his era as there was bad sequels to the cartoons, but oops Iger's doing that too.

Real point is Wicked the musical premiered in 2003, Eisner stepped down in 2005. Eisner and his people couldn't figure out the Snow Queen as anything but a romantic comedy co-starring a villain love interest because he forgot Ariel existed as a misunderstood and manipulated hero who could have served as a template for another similar Andersen character. Under Iger's people they casted og Elphaba and decided halfway they needed to not make her a villain after all. Coincidence? I think not!

[myucornerorg]

After reading a couple nonfiction books from the library (one being the "clean living" book seen in the first pic), I decided to read some of the mangas downloaded to my Kindle.

The first one I read was Magilumiere: Magical Girls Inc, which I already posted about. As for the others in the first pic, I actually finished The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash first after Magilumiere, but since I finished it and My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren't Wicked on the same day, Goodreads listed them weird. Then yesterday I started the manga in the second pic, My [Repair] Skill Became a Versatile Cheat, So I Think I'll Open a Weapons Shop.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is one of those "reincarnated with a past life's memories in a fantasy world" kind of fantasy stories, which I think is an Isekai subgenre?? Usually it's used with "reincarnated as a villainess" stories, though, and this doesn't seem to be that kind of story (unlike other similar stories, we're not told where the main character, Ivy, came from or how she got reincarnated into this world at the beginning - only that she has memories of a past life...so that already is different). Anyway, in this story Ivy gets ostracized when she's identified as a "starless," basically someone who has magic but at a zero-star level, which makes her magic so weak she's basically useless. Even her own family rejects her, and later the kind fortune-teller who helped her learn how to survive in the forest dies because the village chief heard she associated with a "starless" and refused to provide her with the healing potion she needed. After this, she takes off, using the survival skills and basic magic bags the fortune teller provided her with to get by. Having no money at first, she's forced to salvage through town dumps for resources, or eat whatever animals she can capture with traps (she does have a monster taming ability, as the title suggests, but hers is so weak she can only tame super weak monsters). She eventually manages to make some money from selling field mice she captured, and even snakes in one chapter (those she sells to the apothecary). A few chapters in, she encounters a super weak slime that even she, with her weak power, can tame. After naming her Sora, they set off together, and Sora ends up being more useful than Ivy expected, since it can absorb both organic and inorganic matter (most slimes in this world can only do one or the other). It may even be able to heal, if the ending of the volume is any indication. (According to the bonus short story, though, Sora is not very good with directions lol).

My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren't Wicked is, as you might guess from the title, a take on the classic Cinderella story. Except in this case the Cinderella character, Miya, is the illegitimate child of a rich man, and that man's wife and daughters (the titular stepmother and stepsisters) take her in when her mother dies. But while she expects them to be really mean, they're actually really nice! But the mother is still stern and intimidating, and the daughters are spoiled and always trying to one-up each other, so their kindness kind of comes across in a comedic tsundere sort of way. Miya constantly worries that she's offended them, only for them to respond completely positively, no matter what happens. It is funny, but at the same time I feel like such a gag might get old after a while. Not sure though.

As for the last one, My [Repair] Skill Became a Versatile Cheat, So I Think I'll Open a Weapons Shop, like I said, I just started reading it. It's a fantasy about dungeon exploration, much like the Delicious in Dungeon series I've been watching on Netflix recently. But this one obviously has a different story. The main character, Luke, is a seasoned adventurer with 15 years of experience under his belt, but since his only skill is [Repair], a skill which has next to no usage in combat, he's still an E-rank adventurer (the lowest rank that is allowed to do dungeon raids). He finally got recruited by a powerful hero to join his dungeon raiding party, only to be treated as their pack mule and ultimately betrayed by the hero over a relatively minor issue (that doesn't even seem to be his fault). Left by his former party mates in the dungeon to die, he resolves to at least find a way out, even if all he has is his [Repair] skill and an old sword the hero gave him out of pity. Fortunately for him, he's able to make his [Repair] skill evolve seemingly subconsciously (hence the "cheat" part of the title, I guess), which, combined with finding a shortcut by punching a hole in a rock wall with his sword (something even the hero in his party couldn't do), allows him to finally escape after 2 weeks. He then helps save a samurai girl named Sakura who is cornered by a dragon by lending her his sword, and then using his [Repair] skill to heal her (he's not sure he can at first, since the skill doesn't usually work on living things, so when he succeeds he's as surprised as anyone - also doing so DOES make him pass out for half a day, so he's not crazy OP, like heroes in these stories often are). After making it to the settlement where Sakura and her friend Sylvia (daughter of the local innkeeper) are living, he decides to take a break from adventuring (at his level, he can't re-enter the dungeon he came from by himself anyway, as adventurers can only enter dungeons that are at their level or below, unless they're in a party with a leader of the right level, which Luke was before) and use his [Repair] skill to open a weapons shop, since the town doesn't have one currently (probably because the forest where Luke found Sakura and Sylvia just recently got classified as a dungeon). And, as far as I've read, this seems to go well (the fact that he helped kill a dragon certainly helps bring in customers). He does get into a bit of trouble with some local knights, though, because the members of his former party have gone missing, and since he got out alone, he's a prime suspect behind their disappearance. Also, he harvested mithril from the wall he broke, which only certain people are allowed to harvest (though to be fair he didn't know it was mithril, so he gets a pass there, though the knights still make him replicate how he broke the wall as proof of his story). And that's about where I'm at in the story.

Definitely enjoying my reads so far!

[lauraagrace]

I recently passed on this super cute josei series to a friend, but I wanted to share it here too because this manga is SO cute! 🥹

If you're looking for a VERY fun twist on Cinderella that has a lot of humor and slice-of-life, I would highly recommend checking this out! 🤩

[engshoujosei]

My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren't Wicked

Volume 1 releases in English on May 2nd, 2023. Ongoing.

Licensed by Seven Seas

Fairy tale tropes are turned on their heads in this award-winning and comedic reimagining of the classic Cinderella story! Miya is the illegitimate child of a prominent family. When her mother dies and her father's estate agrees to take her in, she's convinced she knows what awaits her in her new home: a life of servitude and misery at the hands of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Yet when she finally meets the women she expects to treat her like dirt, they actually end up being...sweet?! A hilarious and heartfelt comedy that's sure to put a smile on your face!

Status in Country of Origin 

4 Volumes (Ongoing)

Tags:

Appearance Different from Personality

Family

Stepmother/s

Stepsister/s

[faline-cat444]

Average Tuesday expectations

[thelreads]

Lady please can you be loveable without looking like an evil tyrant?

[professionallydeadinside]

SHE'S SO CUTEEEEEEE