#grimmerie

[the-clock-of-the-time-dragon]

Musings on how magic works in the Wicked musical/film(s):

So I've actually never really heard anyone explore in-depth how the powers work in Wicked, because I guess they're both simple AND mysterious enough that most people regard them as self-explanatory. But I think there's actually a lot of interesting things we might learn about the characters and world through observing how and when magic happens in Oz.

So with the Grimmerie, it seems to work by reading people's hearts and granting them an approximation of what they ask for. I've pointed out before how it's kind of a mirror version of what the Wizard does: people come asking for their "heart's desire", and both the Wizard and the Grimmerie want to grant that desire and make people happy. But whereas the Wizard must do this with charlatanry (and in the end, people always end up having to either go and get what they came for themselves, elsewhere, or they already had it all along), the Grimmerie can actually twist reality to give people some version of what they wanted (and didn't already have): but it always comes with some fucked up cost that makes them regret it. It plays into the overarching theme of "what is happiness? Is it getting your heart's desire? What will you give up to get it? Is it worth it?", etc. I think it could even be inferred that every character who ever comes into contact with the book — directly or indirectly — is in a way "cursed" to never obtain true happiness, only a mockery of what they'd imagined happiness to be. This extends to the Wizard, Glinda, Morrible, Elphaba, Nessa, and even Chistery. And the grander the desire, the graver the cost for getting it — Chistery is able to get away with physical pain for his dream of flying, but the human characters all have their dreams come true only in ways they are never able to actually enjoy. I think the reason Elphaba is the only one able to not only read the book but get away with using it repeatedly, is due to her own innate power.

Elphaba's power is very different from that of the Grimmerie. She seems to have the ability to just flat-out REJECT ACCEPTED REALITY. She defies the law of gravity; even TIME (essentially "remembering" things that have yet to happen). Every time we see her use her powers, she does so to STOP what is transpiring, or simply to say NO to what is before her. Making things fall up instead of down, recalling the future instead of the past, reading books that are illegible. It's in keeping with her overall character, being off, or backwards, or at odds with everything around her: crowds part as if repelled when she comes near; her first day of school she's already being told she's going to excel far beyond what any of the other students could ever hope to achieve. The idea of "I clash with everything" isn't just a joke about color coordination, it's quite literally how she interacts with the world, including on a metaphysical level. She distorts and repulses.

The reason she has such a different relationship to the Grimmerie than everyone else who's tried to use it, is precisely because she clashes with everything. More importantly: she rejects both the world as it is, AND the world as she wants it. She denies her own desires for the sake of what she considers more important. She knows that she can have all she ever wanted: but she can't. She won't. She chooses to go AGAINST heart's desire, REJECT happiness — to deny HERSELF. Something that, perhaps, only a child of both Oz and Kansas — of fantasy and reality — is able to do. She's so at odds with the fantasy world she's been born into, so committed to Truth — a world of objective non-fiction — that she actively says no to her own dreams, and can literally disrupt and challenge the basic laws and logics of the story that she's in. She can use the Grimmerie because she uses the same language: negation. You can't reverse the Grimmerie's spells because they ARE reversals — distortions of a twisted nature. But Elphaba can't want what she truly wants in her heart; she rejects it; it's already reversed. To the "what are you willing to give up to get what you want?" question, Elphaba is the only one in Oz who can honestly just reply "NO", and give up her heart's desire of her own accord.

Now, how Morrible's powers work seem to be a lot different from the others. Her abilities aren't derived directly from the Grimmerie (though we know she has at least studied it), and appear to be innate like Elphaba's, but they manifest very differently. But why weather?? I think it pertains to her innate nature. She's a manipulator whose temperament changes like the wind (warm with some and cold with others), capable of clouding the truth or making things clear as she pleases, and acts as if the world revolves around her like a cyclone. She has total control over her powers because her power is control. There might have been a time when her powers were more benign — she says her talent is "encouraging talent", so perhaps we could infer that her true powers are motivating/suggesting things, giving directions, and that whenever she developed into the truly wicked person she is now, that power darkened into coercion/manipulation. So she can direct a cloud to disperse, encourage a wind to blow, or persuade a crowd to become a raging tempest.

As for Glinda: the musical/film(s) kinda implies she doesn't have any powers?? At least not the innate kind that Elphaba and Morrible have. We haven't seen her use any spells (except a simple one that got cut way back in the pre-Broadway tryout run of the musical), her bubble is shown to be mechanical rather than magical, and she's obviously interested in learning sorcery but fails the only time we really see her try to use it, and she doesn't believe she can read the Grimmerie. So whatever magic Glinda possesses has to be developed, and given she has never really been encouraged to do so (whether in school or when she's Glinda the Good), she probably hasn't had much of a chance to become a real witch by the time the story wraps up (although it would be a fun inclusion if the second film shows her using a spell at some point). Also: since magic seems to be related to character's personal qualities or narrative themes, it's actually quite meaningful that Glinda (at the very least) struggles to use it — she's constantly questioning who she is, what she wants, etc., and so whether she possesses a natural power of her own or needs to develop it through training, we might infer that her magic is similarly "unsure" of what it's supposed to do.

Feel free to respond with any thoughts — I just find this aspect of the story really interesting and hopefully this all came together to at least mostly make sense, lol

[ambersadventuresinwonderland]

The Grimmerie arrived!!! Thank you Insight Editions for creating this beautiful piece. 💚🧹🩷🫧

[knightotoc]

Elphaba reading from the Grimmerie with Liir, Nanny, Killyjoy and Chistery at Kiamo Ko, for @florencetheflowerfairy

[upongoblinhill]

𝓞𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓞𝔃

[heathergorse]

A teeny bit of a spoiler for the next Wicked movie, but for any trans people enjoying Wicked as a bit of a trans allegory then the Grimmerie artwork for the transformation spell is caterpillar to butterfly and this is basically everything right now.

(artwork is from the endpapers of the Insight Editions replica Grimmerie journal)

[whaleiumsharkspeare]

My favorite employee of BoxLunch was working there today and it’s always nice to see him and they had a Wicked Grimmerie replica prop notebook that I had to buy because obvi, and he was like “well hey, you shop here so often that you’ve accrued Lunch Money so I can get you a discount” and I’m like omg thank you, favorite employee

[spider-quinn]

Wicked 🫧🧹💚💖

It’s finally here y’all my Wicked x Quinn moodboard 🤩🎉

Please give it a like if you save, reblog, or just like the moodboard🦁

[captain-palestine]

So, apparently, in the Wicked book canon, the Grimmerie is actually The Lesser Key of Solomon (as in King Solomon from the Bible, who may or may not have been a wizard)

Which means the mysterious dead language it’s written in… is probably Arabic

[trainsinanime]

Just watched Wicked again. Notes:

Still great

My favourite weird/wrong/mispronounced word is still "Grimmerie". I love that silly little word so much.

[twelverriver]

LIFE ON MARS????

i have seen like 2 episodes of life on mars HOWEVER i am a REALLY HIGE FAN OF ASHES TO ASHES <333 i keep wanting to start lom and then i'm like.... but alex drake :( and then i Don't djdjd anyway have YOU seen ashes to ashes 👀

[sakurabraches]

post-no good deed crash out elphaba scribbling notes in the margins of the grimmerie but it just turns into a rant about stupid, traitorous, sexy glinda the good and her stupid wand and her stupid, adorable doe eyes

[myfairkatiecat]

How to Undo Spells in the Grimmerie (it's possible now because my friend said so)

**This is intended to work within musical canon, and specifically when relevant movie canon, because that's the version my friend watched.

I was speaking with an irl friend of mine who is just now getting into Wicked after seeing the movie. After listening to the soundtrack, he texted me. The conversation (in a roundabout way with a lot more stuff getting discussed) basically went like this:

Him: So Fiyero never dies and therefore outlives all his friends and that's his existential tragedy.

Me: oh. oh yeah you're so right

Him: Elphaba should un-scarecrow him

Me: spells from the grimmerie can't be reversed

Him: says who, Madame Morrible? Who can barely read the Grimmerie?

Anyway we went back and forth about this for a little while and landed on: you can't undo a spell from the Grimmerie, as in, take back the magic. However, there are counterspells. Madame Morrible does not know about these because she can barely read the book, Elphaba does not know about them because no one taught her about them, and Magical Wise One Kristin and Magical Wise One Idina are little trolls who write spells with hyperspecific wording to get people to accidentally turn their boyfriends into scarecrows and therefore also trolled people by telling them they can't reverse the spells just because it was technically true. What they failed to mention is that you just have to use a new spell: a counterspell. Therefore, the misinformation that you have to live with the consequences of every single Grimmerie spell has been passed down through generations of sorcerers, while Magical Wise One Kristin and Magical Wise One Idina giggle in their graves.

Which is something Magical Wise One Kristin and Magical Wise One Idina would do, anyway.

So here's my friend's step by step guide to how he created a counterspell for the one Elphaba used to accidentally turn him into a scarecrow, which would therefore turn him back into Fiyero. Enjoy.

So yeah! Will be referencing this method for fanfic purposes! Because I think the idea that there's a secret loophole in the "no reversing spells" rule as simple as "perform the secret counterspell" makes for great fanfiction material.

Everyone say thank you Katie's irl friend

Okay, now you can go about your days. Thanks for stopping by, Wicked fandom

[ambersadventuresinwonderland]

How beautiful is this Wicked movie green elixir bottle replica?!? 💚🧹🩷🫧

[mari-thesapphic-lady]

A friend of mine wants to make a fic where Glinda has a child with Elphie (after Elphaba's so so so sad death, act II, who knows knows) with a Grimmerie spell. So far, so good, everything normal.

But she started wondering about the types of spells that would have in the Grimmerie, and I got to thinking. I keep thinking.

Honestly, there isn't a single time travel spell inside The Grimmerie?

Like, it's The Grimmerie, y'know? Also known as the Ancient Book of Thaumaturgy and Enchantments? I mean, it's a tome containing a collection of spells written in an Ozian language that has been lost to time, and only those with magical talent are able to read the Grimmerie.

THIS BOOK'S EXTREMELY FUCKING POWERFUL.

There must be so many spells in there that they go as far as the eye can't reach.

And you're telling me there isn't a SINGLE ONE time travel spell?

I don't know if there's one, but I need a fic where Galinda goes back in time, or she has to warn her past self about the terrible things that will happen if she doesn't get on that damn broom with Elphaba, or she herself goes back in time and tries to fix things from the point in the timeline where she ended up.

I just NEED a fanfic that deals with this plot.

[imaginemnu]

Ok, so like, in the Cameo scene with kristen and Idina, they talk/sing about a prophesy. Which we know is used by Morrible and the wizard to manipulate Oz and rule it, but its obviously talking about Elphaba since she's the only one who can actually read it, plus its reaction to her.

So what if the prophesy had come with a little extra information? Something like how that wizard would also be green. Like yeah, maybe morrible and the wizard would still find a way to be in power, but it would only be because the ozians are waiting for their green wizard.

Cue Elphaba's birth, then. The prophesy is already widely known so every one and their grandmother is looking out for a green person. The wizard and morrible also send out guards to report any green people seen, whether to kill or control, as long as they stay in power. So now they find out a green baby has been born, because you can't tell me governor thrrop wouldn't throw a parade to announce how his wife has given birth to the great long awaited wizard.

This could actually change alot of things, one being Elphaba's mother doesn't die, because Frex isn't put off by Elphaba's greenness so he doesn't make her eat milk flowers.

This means Elphaba grows up preparing to be, if not already, Oz's ruler. Though i feel like morrible would find a way to latch on to her.

The reason she is saved and not killed could be because the wizard finds out she's his daughter, something that Elphaba's mother makes him promise to keep a secret, so maybe he stays because of that too.

But we'd still need a villain so morrible would have to play a long game to overthrow Elphaba from the throne. And perharps this is where Galinda and shiz come in.

Now i just thought of how morrible would kill the wizard because he would never actually let her hurt his daughter, but she'd have to do it without Elphaba knowing. She could blame the animals for it, or maybe Galinda would be blamed and the angst from that would keep me up at night for weeks.

[whaleiumsharkspeare]

My Wicked Grimmerie replica prop notebook from BoxLunch!