#oz rewatch

[wawamouse]

Oz Rewatch 3: S5E04: Next Stop Valhalla

Storylines

Jaime tries to kill Guerra and is killed instead; Miguel feels guilty; Alicia Hinden comes to Oz with the dog training program; Augustus, Penders, and Miguel are selected

Miss Sally’s Schoolyard to become Sallycise; Brass confirms to Rebadow he bought the lottery ticket; Martinez hits Brass with a shit cocktail; Gloria tries to get Martinez put in the hospital and then beats him up when he keeps touching her face

Beecher and Schillinger fight during an interaction session; Schillinger antagonises Schibetta;

Peter Marie visits Keller; McClain visits Keller

Winthrop and Guenzel arrive at Oz; Guenzel is taken under Beecher’s wing while Winthrop becomes a prag for the Aryans in Unit B

Frank Urbano arrives at Oz; Beecher asks Pancamo for the Italians help in protecting Guenzel; the Aryans and Italians get into a fight

Gloria tells Ryan he has to tell his mother about his crimes; Ryan breakdances instead; Shupe tells O’Reily that Li going to rape his mom; Ryan and Cyril kill Li

Augustus continues to grieve his mother and ends up breaking his sobriety

Omar annoys Emerald City and Said with his singing, McManus gives him a supply closet to practice in; Redding demands Omar use it to sell drugs; Lalar and Arif complain to Said that he’s neglecting his role as leader; Robson tortures and kills Lalar

Sister: That’s why they gotta stop announcing everything they do in this show, like...

Sister: I feel like [Norma’s] just dead at this point.

Sister: I feel like they’re leading up to him being like a mass shooter or something. Me: You think he’s gonna snap? Sister: He seems like the type...

Sister: …I think being free would making him happy. I mean, [Toby] had that whole vision about being free that did not include [Chris], so I think he’ll be fine.

Sister: You can just tell them anything and they’ll let you through…

Sister: What’s wrong with this guy? What’s he in for? Me: Hate crimes… Murder, officially, I think. Sister: Hate crime? What’s he sniffing people for? Me: He's just a perv...

Sister: …That’s so gross… In my sickened state*, I can’t even summon a bleugh. Me: [Retching noise] Sister: Thanks. (*We got some booster shots yesterday and Sister always gets sick afterward lol)

Sister: When are they going to address that guy whose wife also died? Me: Never. Sister: So why did they introduce her?! To spout off some facts and get shushed by the priest?? Me: Maybe there was originally supposed to be more of a story to it and it go cut. Sister: No, they just wanted to do their little after school special moment and then not deal with it. You know, if any of the Muslims should be having the issues in these episodes, it should be the other guy (Arif), not Mr. Said... Me: They could have issues together. Sister: Yeah. Kill the Nazi helper dude. The one who's egging everything on. Schillinger doesn't even really do stuff on his own anymore. Before, he didn't want to fight and wanted to become a Jesus freak and it was always that guy whispering in his ear. And now look.

Sister: How we know he’s not gonna build a bomb in there? … Oh, I guess they took away all the cleaning supplies…

Stray Thoughts

Sister says Jia Kenmin and Li Chen’s plan to provoke Ryan so they could kill him in self defense was really not thought-out

Sister is convinced that someone is going to die for one of the dogs

Sister believes that killing Robson would get rid of most of the Aryans’ bite since she views him as being the worst out of all the Aryans

Final thoughts

The scene where Robson and what’s his face torture Lalar is the toughest scene to watch in the entire show, imo. And it pisses me off (like, I’m actually getting mad thinking about it right now, lol) that Robson gets more expansion in terms of character as the show progresses, too, because whooooooooo gives a shit about a Nazi?! They still haven’t followed up on Arif’s wife LMAO. Also Urbano gets introduced this episode and they don’t end up doing shit with him, really, either. But let’s learn about this asshole!!

Sister: I feel like they’ve run out of storylines with the Muslims and are just repeating past ones. Wasn’t it [Arif] who was the one complaining about Said’s leadership the last time? And then he couldn’t handle it which caused the whole thing… and now he’s doing it again? Me: I think they just don’t like when Said helps other people. They complained when Said was spending time on Beecher, too… Sister: Yeah, [Arif] is so needy… He’s like “you’re spending too much time with your roommate who you have to stay in a cell with” and also every time he is around, [Said] just wants [Omar] to be quiet anyway…

[siromany]

In my mind's eye you could not put these two in a room together.

Also hi I'm trying out Sai 2 now and what better way to exercise in a new program than shitpost

[caccry]

A WEREWOLF (in love)

[ishhbowl]

was thinking abt my fav classic lit yaoi again and decided to redraw an old piece

[bestworstcase]

what ruby says: are we supposed to be mourning jaune’s make-believe friends?

what she means: jaune labeled all the paper pleasers with the names of his friends and then abused them for years, ignoring everything they told him about what they wanted because he decided they needed to be protected from themselves because they were too stupid and crazy to really mean what they said. (<- ruby knows exactly how that feels.) the paper pleasers were not his friends, he didn’t care about them—they were props to make him feel better. they were real people whom jaune treated like toys to play pretend about saving his real friends. the make-believe hero. and ruby’s supposed to feel sorry for him now? because his little toys finally broke free?

what wby+j probably hear: ruby thinks it’s stupid to care about the paper pleasers because afterans aren’t real people.

what salem says: none of that matters anymore! why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could replace them with what they could never be?

what she means: the brothers never had the right to massacre humankind, and now that they have abandoned remnant, abdicated their responsibility as its creators, and sworn not to return until they’re summoned, nothing they say matters at all. these humans did nothing wrong and the gods gave them nothing and deserve nothing in return; trying to ‘redeem’ these humans is a waste of time because there is nothing to redeem. the only person alive who needs redemption before the gods is salem herself, and she doesn’t want it—because to redeem herself is to justify what the brothers did, to say that the slaughter of the whole planet and the millions of years she spent in solitude were good and just and fair, and she knows that isn’t true. the gods want humans to grovel for forgiveness? the gods can burn.

what ozma probably hears: salem wants to kill everybody because she doesn’t think these humans are real people.

[jadelotusflower]

Rewatch: Return to Oz (1985)

I've been on a bit of an Oz kick recently, revisiting the original Baum books and of course anticipating Wicked coming out later this year (which I'm managing expectations for to avoid disappointment).

Return to Oz was a staple (and nightmare fuel) for many a millennial childhood, at the tail end of the "dark fantasy" era popularised by The Neverending Story and The Dark Crystal, the antithesis of the Technicolour, musical world of MGM's The Wizard of Oz - a dystopian future that reflects the fracturing of Dorothy's mind and her inability to reconcile the trauma of her previous Kansas-Oz journey.

Return lives in a sort of mirror world to the 1939 film, taking elements such as the ruby slippers (for which Disney had to pay MGM a hefty fee), but returning to the original illustrations for the character designs, and drawing inspiration from Baum's novels but not explicitly adapting them. It also returns Dorothy to a child rather than Garland's quasi-teenager, which is important as I feel Baum (an advocate of women's suffrage) had a keen interest in the empowerment of girls as the heroes of their own stories.

To evoke that other turn of the century fantasy classic, Dorothy is to early modern American folklore as Alice is to English, and if The Wizard of Oz is Wonderland, Return to Oz is Through the Looking Glass. In fact Return relies heavily on the mirror motif, not only literally, in the mirror that entraps Ozma, but Ozma herself as a mirror to Dorothy. Return also takes the Kansas/Oz dichotomy from the film in reflecting people Dorothy knows in Kansas to characters of Oz (a concept not found in the books), but while in Wizard it’s Dorothy’s trio of friends that are personified in the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion, in Return it is her trio of antagonists from Kansas who appear in Oz - the Dr Worley/The Nome King, Nurse Wilson/Mombi, and the Orderly/Wheeler.

Her Oz friends in Return are instead pulled from inanimate objects - Ozma gives her a pumpkin that personifies in Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik-Tok resembles the "Electrical Therapy" machine with the face, and the gump...well, I guess they forgot about that one.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Fairuza Balk was just 11 but has a compelling screen presence - her Dorothy is troubled and serious, befitting the overall darker tone of the film. While she would go on to embody "witchy" energy in later roles, here there's a world-weariness yet innate strength to her Dorothy.

Aunt Em helpfully tells us it's been six months since the tornado and Dorothy can't sleep. Her body may be back in Kansas, but her mind remains in Oz.

The film doesn't really pick a lane between the "it was all a dream" of the 1939 film and the "Oz is an actual place" of the books, leaving it for the viewer to decide. We are told the old house was "lost" but that can suit either interpretation, same with the OZ key being either delivered by shooting star or the key to the old house (as Em posits). Dorothy's inability to sleep is either unresolved trauma from the tornado, or longing to return to her friends in Oz and/or sensing that there is trouble in Oz.

I'm much more sympathetic to Em as an adult - she has a husband unable or unwilling to finish building the new house, Dorothy won't stop rabbiting on about nonsense rather than helping with chores, and she has to borrow money from her sister to pay for medical treatment to try and cure Dorothy's insomnia.

Justice for Aunt Em! Played with grace by three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie (for The Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God respectively).

Poor Toto doesn't get to come on this adventure, but hey, he's still around, guess Mrs Gulch didn't make good on her threat to have him destroyed (or she died in the tornado, which is probably likely given the Witch's fate).

Just a guy patronizing a child that the machine intended to surge electricity through her brain is perfectly safe because it has a face.

But there is a face in the machine - Ozma, stuck in the glass.

Nicol Williamson is our villain, with a fantastic voice. Mostly known for theatre and Shakespeare, you may remember him as Merlin from that other dark fantasy classic Excalibur, or as Little John from Robin and Marian.

Jean Marsh is our witch, complete with black gown and pointed sleeves - to continue our fantasy bingo she was Queen Bavmorda in Willow (which I've actually never seen) and Rose in the original Upstairs Downstairs (which I've never seen either). She'll always be creepy Mombi to me.

We see Ozma in the glass again before she appears in Dorothy's room, ethereal barefoot child gifting her a carved pumpkin because "it's Halloween soon". Okay, whatever you have to do to get there.

On that note, the screenplay was written by Gill Dennis (who would go on to co-write Walk the Line) and Walter Murch, who also directed. Murch was film school friends with George Lucas, and they wrote THX-1138 together - Lucas has a "special thanks" credit on this film. Murch worked steadily in sound design and editing (nominated for 10 Oscars with 4 wins), but after Return was a box office failure he never directed another film, which is a real shame.

Dorothy "combs" the pumpkins hair, which I find very charming.

The growing tension of Dorothy's isolation, being strapped to the gurney, the squeaking wheels, the far-off screaming: this is a horror film for children.

My sister and I used to re-create Ozma and Dorothy's escape on our grandmother's porch all the time.

Because we’re in a mirror, the streaming river of Kansas becomes the deadly desert of Oz - water, of course, also being a mirror and common pathway/doorway between worlds.

Billina the hen also appears, because Dorothy needs an animal companion, who can now talk because she is in Oz. The question is whether Toto could also talk, as all animals can in Oz, and simply chose not to (iirc in the books he didn't because he could "make himself understood" without words or something). The chicken puppetry is really quite good, I'll always prefer puppets/animatronics over cgi.

The voice of Billina is provided by Denise Bryer, who was the "junk lady" in Labyrinth (have we got that bingo yet?).

Another reflection - the packed lunch that was taken from Dorothy at the sanitarium in Kansas is returned to her in the form of a lunch pail tree in Oz, which leans towards the reading that Oz is a projection of Dorothy's mind as a way to cope and resolve/repair the traumas of her Kansas life.

Dorothy comes across her old house that is seemingly not in Munchkinland, the broken remains of the yellow brick road nearby. How much time has passed in Oz? Since everyone was turned to stone it could be hundreds of years and we're in a Narnia situation - at least long enough for a forest to grow where there once was a munchkin town square.

Glinda is conspicuous by her absence - probably because the plot couldn't happen if she was around.

Also absent are any stone munchkins which has very dark implications - the Emerald City still has ruins and stone inhabitants, but Munchkinland has been completely obliterated.

lol, Dorothy runs to the Emerald City in literally minutes, a journey that previously took half a film.

Sleep well, kids!

If we go with the interpretation that Oz is a manifestation of Dorothy's mind (maladaptive daydreaming?), it is interesting how she projects people and objects from her real life into her fantasy life - obviously her threats in the sanitarium become the villains, but the Electric Shock machine becomes Tik-Tok, her erstwhile protector. In this, she transforms a threat into an ally, and yet much is made that he isn't, and cannot be, "alive."

Many of the elements of this film - Billina, the Wheelers, Tik-Tok, the Nome King, and the princess with a hundred heads - came from Ozma of Oz, while Ozma herself, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the witch Mombi (combined in this film with Princess Langwidere) originate in the earlier The Marvellous Land of Oz, with a different backstory.

Oh to be a wicked witch, playing a mandolin, in a gilded, mirrored palace.

I enjoy this costume! Reflective of the high structured sleeves of nurse but sharp to emphasise the danger Mombi poses, and with the same mechanical accents/coloiur scheme as the Wheelers

Those cabinets full of heads are still so creepy. The way they watch Dorothy - are they alive and aware the whole time? Horrifying.

Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced by a young Brian Henson (who also acted as puppeteer).

I always used to fast-forward the scene where Dorothy steals the key and gets chased by headless Mombi as a kid, it was just too tense.

I mean maybe this isn't scary to kids today, but it sure freaked the fuck out of me. Especially with all of those heads screaming in their cabinets.

But how exactly was zombie Mombi snoring without a head?

Interesting that the cabinet with Mombi's original head is the only one without transparent glass, but instead has a mirror. Her original head is also kept in cabinet 31, which was Dorothy's room in the sanitarium. As a kid I was always dead set that Oz was real and Dorothy really went there, but now I'm leaning more towards Oz as a manifestation, or at least a world directly influenced and constantly adapting based on Dorothy's experiences. Was she unable to sleep in Kansas because she knew Oz was in trouble, or was Oz in trouble because of her mental discord?

"If his brain's run down, how can he talk?" "It happens to people all the time Jack!" is a nice callback to "Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don't they?"

In which we strain the metaphor.

But all these mirrors also serve a story purpose as well as a metaphorical one - the mirror world is where Mombi has trapped Ozma, so she can look on every surface and see her victory. The mirror is also a connection with the real world, and how Ozma can reach Dorothy and draw her back to Oz. Mirrors are reflections, but they are also doorways, as we see in this very scene as Ozma directs Dorothy to the right passage to get back up to the tower.

We also get another Dorothy/Ozma parallel, in which she becomes a surrogate mother to Jack in place of Ozma, his creator.

There's almost some social commentary in the Nome King's grievances: "All the previous stones in the world are made here in my underground dominions...so imagine how I feel when someone from the world above digs down and steals my treasures? All those emeralds in the Emerald City really belong to me. I was just taking back what was mine to begin with." But of course he didn't just take back the emeralds, he turned the populace to stone or into inanimate objects so that does undercut his point a bit.

Her descent visually recalls (deliberate or not) Alice's fall down the rabbit hole in Wonderland. The VFX are pretty rough though.

Dorothy points out that he has so much, implying perhaps he could share, and the Nome King retorts "that's not the point." It is the point in later books, where under Ozma's leadership the Emerald City is essentially a utopian communal living society.

She also points out that the Scarecrow didn't take the emeralds rather they were there when he was made king, but the film is uninterested in exploring the culpability around generational wealth and repatriation of cultural property.

But it's interesting how much the Oz story revolves around powerful objects and theft and/or appropriation of them. Glinda steals the Witch of the East's ruby slippers and gives them to Dorothy, who then steals the Witch of the West's broom to give to the Wizard, Mombi steals Ozma, someone stole the emeralds from the Nome King, who steals them back, Mombi steals heads, Dorothy steals the Powder of Life, etc etc

At this point the Nome King is merely a face in the stone, but when he comforts Dorothy he starts to takes a more humanoid rock form, with a hand to reach out to her.

Is his sympathy genuine or feigned? I'm going with the latter, since he manipulates her into playing the "guessing game" to try and get the Scarecrow back.

Worst production of Starlight Express ever.

When I was a kid I always wanted to try the limestone pie and hot silver drink, but now it looks super gross.

The Gump chose…poorly.

The Nome King making points again - Dorothy and co didn't ask what would happen if they got it wrong, even Tik-Tok only brings it up after the Gump has already gone in. But they press on in order of most expendable, Jack (with Billina hiding in his head) and then Tik-Tok.

As each get turned into ornaments, we see the Nome King become more and more humanised in his rock form - a nice subtle indication that his motives aren't purely spite and he gains power from turning living (or living-adjacent) things into inanimate objects, the opposite (mirror) of Dorothy's power in turning inanimate objects into living things in the journey from Kansas to Oz. If Dorothy had chosen wrong too, he says he would have become completely human - would he have been able to access the path to the human world? Was his goal to eliminate Oz, the fantasy world, in favour of the human world, much like Worley was obsessed with harnessing electricity and the "modern" world?

It's revealed that Chekhov's ruby slippers that Dorothy earlier told Dr Worley had fallen off on her way back to Kansas the first time were found by the Nome King, and their power enabled him to conquer the Emerald City.

It's unclear whether the rubies were first mined from the Nome King's caverns, but Dorothy really can't complain given the shoes were magicked off the feet of a dead woman and onto her own.

I'm actually surprised that they kept the ruby slippers in given the license fee they had to pay, since nothing really turns on their inclusion, other than the Nome King's offer to send her home with them, allowing Dorothy the choice between her own safety and the lives of her friends, of course the parallel to Worley offering the ECT to wipe her mind of Oz. I do like the callback, but it didn't need to be the ruby slippers rather than some other power the Nome King had.

Hee, the Nome King's little stone feet kicking out of his stone robe with the ruby slippers is so camp.

It is interesting through to think about the chain of events - Dorothy, eager to get back home, lets go of the ruby slippers, they fall into the Nome King's hands, he uses them to conquer Oz and install Mombi, who has imprisoned Ozma in the mirror (at some point long in the past). The fracturing of Oz influences Dorothy's mental state which drives her to Worley, where Ozma is able to contact her through the mirror world and bring her back to Oz, depose the Nome King/Mombi, and restore Ozma to her throne. It's quite neat writing.

There's an interesting green/red dichotomy - red seems to represent the witch's power, the ruby slippers that originally belonged to the Witch of the East, Mombi's ruby key, fire/red smoke being used by the Witch of the West, and even pink was the colour associated with Glinda in the 1939 film, while green represents Oz in the ornaments they turn into, the Emerald City, the Gump is green, etc. Both rubies and emeralds are present in the Nome King's costuming, perhaps indicating that the raw items did come from his dominions.

When Dorothy chooses correctly, the Nome King reverts to his claymation rock form, and the room turns red. I don't think it's explicitly green=good and red=bad (the Witch of the West had green screen after all), but both are associated with power.

I always used to fast forward this sequence as well. The Nomes coming out of the walls? *shudder*

The Nome King, felled by a classic egg poisoning.

Dorothy liberates the ruby slippers from another dead body, lol.

At the celebration in Oz, the costuming does lean heavily into either red or green - so maybe that was just standard complementary colour palette and I'm reading too much into things.

We get a nice long pan over the mirrored ceiling of the parade, just to really hit the point home.

Oh hey, the Wheelers are here too! All is forgiven I guess? Except Mombi, she gets to be paraded about in her cage by the woman whose heads she stole. Hey, at least she's able to smirk about her villainy.

Dorothy turns down queenship of Oz but wishes she "could be in both places at the same time" - the ruby slippers grant her wish and Ozma is released from the mirror.

Ozma's backstory: "Her father was king of Oz before the Wizard came. Ozma grew up as Mombi's slave, but when the Nome King promised Mombi thirty beautiful heads if she kept Ozma a secret, she enchanted her into the mirror." The first part is the much the same in the book, although there we get some interesting gender-bending stuff where Mombi transforms her into a boy name Tip and she doesn't discover her true nature until much later.

Dorothy gives Ozma the ruby slippers, combining the power of green and red (I'm just going with it now), therefore healing the kingdom of Oz from the discord first created when the Wizard arrived (in the book he was the one who gave baby Ozma to Mombi), and drawing Ozma's real world counterpart Dorothy to fix it by deposing the Wicked Witches and then the Nome King. But with Ozma returned, there is no need for Dorothy to remain in Oz, the two sides of herself are split and no longer warring inside her.

Billina however remains, to be Ozma's animal counterpart to Dorothy's Toto.

As a kid I coveted this gown, and I still kind of dig the headdress. Well, the OZ circlet anyway.

I also acted out the pulling Ozma from the mirror scene many times.

Although kind of a bitch move on Ozma's part to send Dorothy back before she could give her proper goodbyes. It's like, off you pop, thanks for freeing me but this is my kingdom now.

Dorothy wakes up beside the river (with a close up of a reflective pool of water/Dorothy's eye), and again, this could either be her actually returned by Ozma, or her simply waking from her delirium.

But the real world counterparts have met the same fate as their Oz reflections - Worley died in the fire and Wilson is carried off in a police cart.

Henry, after the shock of almost losing Dorothy, is motivated to finish building the house, and Dorothy is able to look back fondly at Oz through her reflection, but has learned to keep it a secret and not let it consume her life.

Her trauma is resolved, Oz is at peace; Dorothy and Ozma can live contentedly in parallel, with a connection between both worlds.

This is also a nice callback to the books, where Ozma would check in on Dorothy once a day through her magic mirror to see if she needed her assistance.

Maybe it's just my nostalgia goggles, but this film really holds up for me! Yes the effects are a little dated and it's on the darker side for kid's fare, but overall the story and acting is strong, there's meaty subtext around the importance - but necessary limits - of fantasy as escapism, it unequivocally centers girls/women as the heart of the story with their own agency and harnessing their own power. It's well worth the rewatch.

What do you think? Am I blinded by nostalgia? Reading way too much into a kids movie? Am I just rambling into the void here?

[spn-rewatch-ventzone]

So crazy that the Supernatural writers were like, “You know what this show needs? A Wizard of Oz crossover. And let’s make it gay.”

Good for Charlie at least

[tricoufamily]

random man 2

[book--wyrm]

you know what would be so fucked

if sofia had been the one to run the iceburg lounge before she got sent to arkham and oswald took over

[wawamouse]

Oz Rewatch 3: S5E03: Dream a Little Dream of Me

Storylines

Miguel gets out of the hospital, scores are settled according to Morales; Jaime Velez wants to join Miguel; Miguel tells him to kill Chico

Rebadow wants Brass to buy a lottery ticket for him

Brass talks to McManus

Jia Kenmin returns to Oz; has an interaction session with Cyril; Li Chen arrives at Oz; tension with O’Reilys

Redding and Morales make a deal

Schibetta wants to take revenge and move against the Aryans; Said refuses to held; Peter confronts the Aryans alone as it raped again

Penders tries to cash in on a favor from Glynn and is rebuffed

Keller returns to Oz and is placed in PC; Keller is being investigated for the college kid killings

Said continues to struggle with anger; interaction session with Schillinger; Said tells Omar not to talk to Poet; Said catches Omar buying drugs from Poet; expressing an interest in singing, Omar gets a singing lesson

Sister Pete group counseling, Augustus sad about divorce

Bikers go to kill Cloutier but are stopped; Cloutier appears to Hoyt as a vision and tells him to kill Kirk; Hoyt stakes him in the stomach with a cross; Cloutier vanishes; Hoyt confesses to several murders

Sister: I hate his tattoo so much. Me: Yeah, and that’s a real one, too.

Sister: Why would your guy not be happy about scores being settled? Me: ‘Cause he just wants to bother Miguel, that’s why. Sister: Why doesn’t he go fight the white guys? Me: ‘Cause he just wants to bother Miguel. Sister: It doesn’t make sense… Me: He just wants to bother Miguel.

Sister: No, not that! It’s going to be too dangerous— Miguel: Kill Guerra. Sister: SEE, I told you! …Who’s Guerra? Is that your guy Me: 😑 He’s not my guy… Sister: What, he belongs to the streets? Me: 😑

Sister: I think he’s going to buy the lottery ticket and win and then he’s going to keep it for himself.

Me: He’s doing that Asian bullshitting thing right now, don’t you think? Sister: Totally… Pretending he reflected, LOL… Playing the Buddhist angle...

Sister: “Li Chen”? How lazy can you be? (It's a pretty generic name)

Sister: Jia Kenmin… why’s his name like that? Me: Yeah, it’s kind of old-fashioned. It’s like Daddy’s generation of names… Sister: No, I mean, they say it the Chinese way… Me: Oh, I know! I was literally wondering about that the other day!

Sister: His hair looks so bad. Me: Yeah, the length really accentuates his hairline in a bad way. Sister: It’s medieval squire length…. Me: It’s not doing him any favors… It looks good short, though. Sister: It’s not short, though, is it?

Sister: Not the butt pop… His booty muscles… Me: His butt’s definitely up there in the rankings…

Me: I wonder what determines whether they use the sinks here or their cells. Sister: Yeah, I’d just use the one in my cell. Especially because that guy (Augustus/Narrator) said that you could get shanked in the shower if you turn your back.

Me: I wonder if they only did this singing plot line for him because the actor was in The Five Heartbeats… Sister: What’s that? Me: It’s a mini-series about like this fictional motown group… The guy who played Jefferson Keane is also in it. Sister: Oh, then they definitely did it because of that.

Sister: Why would they put him here to guard a civilian? What’s he gonna do if a prisoner gets agitated? Hobble over? He should be on desk duty. Me: He didn’t want to be on desk duty. Sister: So? They need to put him on it anyway. And if he quits because he hates sitting at a desk too much, then their problems are solved anyway. They don’t have to worry about a liability and they don’t got to pay anything, either, ‘cause he quit himself…

Sister: She gets way too involved with her patients, man…

Sister: He’s risen and he’s hiding in the laundry room.

Stray Thoughts

The apparent gang tattoo on Jia Kenmin’s hand just says “blood” btw

Sister: The have the guy in the wheelchair talking about his wife again and still nothing from the Muslim guy whose wife was also on the bus…

[casuallycryingoverbooks]

I’m watching the episode of Buffy where they find out Oz is a werewolf and its got me wondering what would happen if a werewolf bit a vampire. Like, if a vampire bit a werewolf nothing would happen because they would also need to drink the vamps blood

WAIT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY BIT EACHOTHER

[all-too-unwell-13]

"not in kansas anymore."

"no, duh, we left kansas four days ago."

like ok percy, take her to the cinema RIGHT NOW. please and thank you x

[cyrano2021dirjoewright]

:(

[aquateenpatrolsomethingshowshow]

OH MY GOD ITS THE WATCH

[ozimagines]

Hello, this is another weird one: but a "dating would include" between Enrique Morales and Alonzo Torquemada? Personally I thought that it was an absolute crime that those two did not get any screen time together, which is probably where this is thought came from... But maybe it starts out as a power struggle for El Norte and then becomes an uneasy truce/alliance and then develops from there??? You could make it as toxic or as fluffy as you wanted if you were interested. Thank you for everything that you have written so far!!

Stop. Literally stop being more creative than I am. 😭❤️ Because absolutely I’m interested! Both of them are like the sly, genial evil that makes them such interesting characters. Plus both are flirty Doms😭😂 So, to make a long story short (too late!) yes, I’m writing the HELL out of this piece.

Enrique Morales dating Alonzo Torquemada would include… (1/?) First Meeting

Morales wasn’t killed at this point. They found out it was nurse Grace ahead of time and fired and prosecuted her.

Morales was relieved to say the least.

He gets out of the hospital only to find there’s a new head of the gays. Interesting. It had pretty much been Fiona since he’d been there.

They weren’t really a force he concerned himself with.

(Not that he hadn’t flirted with Fiona a bit. Could anyone blame him? There weren’t any women in Oz AND her contour game is crazy.)

He got the news from Chico, embarrassed and quiet since he’d gotten out. But that little brush with death gave him new perspective, so in the meantime, Chico lived.

Chico briefed him on the changes.

“And then there’s this new guy. Torquemada.”

“Latino? He joining El Norte?”

“Nah, he’s not one of us. He’s new leader of the gays.”

Morales made a note, but said it didn’t really concern them.

“It will. He’s already made deals with Chucky about moving D-Tabs.”

He explained Destiny in detail. Said he tried it and it rocked. More than heroin.

Now the is was interesting.

“Set up a meeting. I’ll give him the rundown of how things work around here.”

“Chucky too?”

“If I’m not at his, why should he be at mine?”

Chico nodded and made the necessary arrangements.

Later, in the classroom, Torquemada got there fashionably late. Morales knew better. It was a power move.

“Sorry about the tardiness, but fashion statements don’t make themselves.”

Morales nodded but said nothing. He stood with a good natured smile.

“Enrique Morales, leader of El Norte. Please, sit.” They both did, and Enrique added. “I do appreciate the suit. It makes a statement.”

Torquemada raised an eyebrow but stayed smiling. You had to. He knew both their smiles were fake. Knew Morales knew that too.

He was already different than the other leaders in Oz. Chucky told him to cut the fag shit immediately. Vern called him a fairy. Burr didn’t acknowledge him.

Alonzo knew he wasn’t your typical drug overlord, but he used his differences to his advantage. Never wasn’t himself.

“And what statement would that be?”

“Masculine power, feminine rage.” Morales said aloud. “It’s different. Contemporary. Me, I’m more traditional.”

“I’ve found the traditional way of doing things to be… restrictive.”

“Meaning?”

“That innovation is the future. That ways have to change to improve.”

Morales quirked his brow. It was bold.

“And what improvements need to be made here?”

Alonzo knew it was a dangerous question to answer, but he thrived on the danger, so he continued, making sure to choose his words wisely.

“Though your enterprise can move street drugs under the radar, we have to look to the future. Synthetics. Lab made, lab controlled. More accurate high, more accurate pricing.”

Morales thought for a second.

“And your designer drug of choice is this Destiny thing, huh?”

Torquemada bristles but his it all with a sly smile.

“¿Quieres festar?” He unsheathed a tiny bottle of green pills.

Morales’ eye twitched. So that’s the kind of dealer he was. First taste is free.

“No, gracias. I never touch my own product.”

Torquemada smiled genuinely. Morales was smart, that much was clear. A born business man. Torquemada held his hands up in defeat, and out the pills away.

“I can respect that.”

“And that’s what it’s all about, right? Respect. You respect our thing. We respect yours.”

“Respect.” Torquemada replied with a smile. “Can’t work without it.” He took in Enrique for a second, really letting his presence wash over Alonzo. “I don’t believe I properly introduced myself. I’m Alonzo. Torquemada. King of the night.”

Morales nodded genially.

“Pleasure, Alonzo.”

“No no, Mr. Enrique. The pleasure’s all mine.” He tutted, and crossed his legs. “You’re already the most stylish of the leaders I’ve met.”

“I try.”

They hammered out some of the details. Who would sell what and where.

“There is another concern of mine, perhaps you could help me. My foot soldiers, while capable and loyal, are not your typical dealers. And the other guys know that and refuse to buy from my team. Maybe some of your boys could lend their… credibility.”

Morales said as long as they received a percentage of the proceeds, then it shouldn’t be a problem. He listed off some men who he’d be willing to spare. Torquemada was grinning ear to ear. Morales asked why.

“It’s like you said. It’s all about respect. I expected to walk away with a business partner today, I won’t lie, but there’s something more here. An alliance of sorts.” He calculated the risk and then added; “I’m especially honored it’s with someone muy guapo.”

Morales stuttered internally but never let it show. He accepted the compliment and it was Torquemada’s turn to stutter step. He’d expected a little reaction. Fine, he’d have to dial it up. He found you could really tell who a man was when he was being flirted with by another man.

“It was a pleasure meeting with you, Alfonzo. How’s that old saying go? Think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“Likewise, chulo.” Alonzo prodded, and again, Enrique said nothing. Just smiled that genial, sly, secretive smile and went to his lieutenant.

Chico was still antsy around him; waiting for the revenge. Morales didn’t have any planned, but he did like that his lieutenant was so afraid by the mere idea of something.

He looked himself over in the mirror. Always admired his good looks, even if the other guys were too hetero to ever admit it. Torquemada was different. He wasn’t straight, sure, but that wasn’t where the differences ended.

There was a kind of unsettling togetherness about him. Like he was ten steps ahead. Usually the genial evil was his forte. That creepy calm before the storm.

But where Enrique was a quiet storm, Torquemada was a thunderstorm of rainbows and smiles and drugs and threats.

He smiled a little.

Innovation. Sure. He could go along with that…

[wikiangela]

Comfort character tag game

tagged by @steadfastsaturnsrings @underwater-ninja-13 @hoodie-buck @jeeyuns @disasterbuckdiaz @giddyupbuck @pirrusstuff @jamespearce9-1-1 @theotherbuckley @thewolvesof1998 @jesuisici33 @exhuastedpigeon thank youuu 💖💖💖

Rules: list your top 5 comfort characters and include a gif of each!

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Eddie Diaz, loml 💗💗

2. Emily Prentiss, also loml 💗🥵

3. Jennifer "JJ" Jereau 👑

4. Piper Halliwell 👑👑👑

5. Tara Maclay

___

no pressure tagging: @malewifediaz @spagheddiediaz @hippolotamus @911onabc @eddiebabygirldiaz @daffi-990 @housewifebuck @lover-of-mine @loserdiaz @monsterrae1 @thebravebitch @wildlife4life @spotsandsocks @lucydonato @andrewblur @arthursdent and whoever else wants to do it