#or maybe i forgot

[nakathemoth]

gayass

[vaniliens]

I WASN'T ON COPIUM OR ANYTHING ????????????????

[qiinamii]

one braincell transfer (divided by four)

[sporesigil]

heartless?

[kiisaes]

teenage rite of passage: bad haircut

[raredrop]

noticing details on a character i havent before

[o-wild-west-wind]

While I’m still a bit bummed that they didn’t go with a more book-aligned POC Fiyero for the Wicked movie, I’ve been thinking (heheh) about how his being white highlights the really interesting foil relationship between him and Glinda (and, in many ways, the audience yourself).

At its core, Wicked is a cautionary tale about propaganda, (literal) scapegoating, and what it means to uphold the status quo. The audience is watching through Glinda’s eyes—it is through her, arguably the most beautifully tragic character of the show, that we learn how lonely life becomes when you forfeit your values in favor of systemic power and likability (“No One Mourns the Wicked” is, in many ways, about HER).

Now, this is where Fiyero’s whiteness can get interesting—if you consider him and Glinda to share roughly equal footing at the beginning in terms of privilege/how much they have to lose (applying our real-world lens of race and power here, where whiteness is the apex), his storyline essentially represents what could have happened if Glinda had made the brave (and arguably wise and loving, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down 👀) choice to go with Elphaba and fight the good fight (this is also why I feel like a queer reading of G&E’s relationship is almost implicit to the story, but I digress).

As the POC/marginalized allegory, Elphaba has much less of a real choice in her curtain-pulled-back turning point. But Fiyero and Glinda—both representing privilege—get to choose. So in Act II, we see the consequences of both the choice to stay (Glinda) and to go (Fiyero). In Fiyero’s case, his ultimate rejection of his own power, privilege, and even beauty leads to immense physical loss—including his own body—but that is then compared to the loss of love, community, and identity that we see Glinda left with by the end. And this brings us to the question that the audience is left grappling with: in an unjust system where loss is inevitable (a.k.a. our own world, as the Wizard himself represents), which of these things are YOU more willing to give up?

It’s important that Glinda is an empathetic character because, in reality, most people are going to be Glindas (obvi this is nuanced among us Elphabas of marginalized identities, but I’d still argue that there’s some level of Glinda in us all)—and it’s important to be rattled by the end of the show when you realize that she is the one who has the sad ending. But it’s also so important that Fiyero is empathetic (which I’m SO glad this movie leaned into)—because he’s ultimately who Glinda—and thus we, as the audience—should have been.

And especially given the state of US politics right now…this is just all more relevant than ever.

[count-pudding]

Knights and silly sketches

[sceebybeeby]

if julia is allowed to have the animatronics be in the thumbnail i get to put them in my piece

[noornight]

Long distance besties. This definitely happened after the third movie (source: trust me bro)

Based on this

[candyje11yfish]

[wip] shooting star frye!!! i Looove spacey stuff!!!!

[chiangyorange]

the chain but on a scale of who says hooray yippee and wahoo

is this anything.

[linterteatime]

Spiders, Bugs and the ghost of...a bug

More gijinkas here!

[angstflavoured]

I'm sorry, brother. I'm sorry I let you down.

[artsymeeshee]

Took the small motivation I had to complete another page! Just a small side note, but twinstinct has been @renconner and I’s shared idea which sparked the start of this comic. And also it’s finally known why it’s called Instinct. You can also read her fic that gives a bit more backstory to our idea.

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[mebis-art-dump]

RW art month day 8: The Rot