#was actually why Dorothy was trying to leave!

[rugessnome]

I finally watched the movie with Judy Garland.

i ...get where some of it is coming from now but... the movie frankly mangled significant elements of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

(and you know. was generally disrespectful to mostly the health and safety—but sometimes also the dignity—of its cast)

[leeloooonfire]

Steve Harrington only wears a bra.

Well, not, only, he's also wearing bright orange swim shorts and a cap backward, too.

The top part, however? Hairy man boobs are prettily covered by a black lace bra with a sparkling strass stone in the middle.

Eddie might be a teeny tiny bit drunk (2 beers after months of abstinence and medication does that to a man), but not drunk enought to imagine Steve Harrington in a bra.

'Uh-', he says eloquently and tries not to stare too much at the other man sitting on what must be Buckley's bed. 'Am I interrupting something?'

Steve, face almost as pink as Erica's favourite shoes, opens his mouth to reply, but Robin, sitting crosslegged in front of him, is faster, 'Oh its just you. Close the door, Eds.'

Eddie isn't sure if she means 'close the door and leave, never talk to us about whatever weird kinky little thing we're doing right now' or 'come in, close the door and shut up'. He hesitates for a moment, studying Steve's pretty flushed face and Robin’s wiggling eyebrows before stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.

His hand is still on the door knob when he turns and finds Robin leaning against Steve’s hairy chest, one of her arms behind his back. She's fumbling with something, frustrated noises escape her closed lips while Steve simply sits still - like a statue. An Adonis statue wearing a bra.

'Fuck', Robin groans loudly, her forehead knocking against Steve's clavicle, his hand patting her head in condolence.

'Not to be judgmental', Eddie starts slowly as he leans against the book case right next to the door, 'But what are you guys doing?'

(Eddie thought Robin's a friend of Dorothy, so why is Steve fucking Harrington sitting dolled up in a delicate bra on her bed and they look like they're ready to make out?!)

When both Steve and Robin send him evil twin looks, he holds both his hands up in surrender, 'Like I said, not gonna judge you, whatever floats your boat or whatever, but what, exactly, is it that you're trying to do here?'

'Practice', Robin grumbles against Steve's chest, tugging behind his back again.

Steve grins, a bit lopsided and goofy, 'She's trying to open the bra with one hand.'

'It's just so much easier on myself,' she says, and now that Eddie knows what's happening, he can make out her hand tugging and fumbling with the hooks behind Steve's back.

'Ah,' Eddie says, again, rather eloquently. 'I should probably leave you to it, then.'

Before he can turn and go, however, Steve says, 'I heard that you're pretty good with your hands, Munson. Bet you can get it off me in no time.'

'Pfff- ' Robin makes, rolling her eyes, 'I wouldn't be so sure he's ever had a bra in his hands.'

And while Robin has flocked him as a raging homosexual as it seems, Eddie heard the rumours about him too: fingers dancing over his guitar, rolling the perfect joints, Eddie the freak Munson knows how to work his fingers. he doesn't hate this rumour at all. It's kind of nice - for his ego and all.

Yes, he hasn't opened a bra before, but he's met this hot goth dude in a corset before, and that's basically a bra with dozens of hooks. He is fairly sure he can open it with one hand and without looking. What he probably shouldn't do is coming too close to Steve Harrington, the man he's had a crush on since they survived the Upside Down together. Not with his naked skin and hairy chest and dark brown nipple peaking through the black lace of the undergarment.

But both Robin and Steve stare at him and Eddie doesn't run anymore - a challenge is a challenge.

'No problem,' he says far more confident than he actually feels and steps closer, one knee on the bed before Robin's even all out of the way.

'No looking,' she says as if she's explaining the rules to a game, 'chest to chest or face in his neck, but you can only use one hand and your eyes have to stay either closed or on him. Seriously no peeking.'

She shuffles out the way to make room for Eddie between Steve's long, also very naked, legs and Eddie swallows quietly before leaning closer.

Steve smells like sunscreen and grass, a bit like the pineapple they ate earlier before the kids left, and sweat. He smells devine and before Eddie can think clearly, he presses his face into Steve's neck. He feels Steve shudder when his damp lips accidentally meet his sun kissed skin and Eddie feels like he's going crazy. What is he doing? Why is he doing it? Even the slightest touch sends shockwaves through his body. God, he's gone so bad for Steve Harrington.

'Ready?' Robin asks, apparently unaware of Eddie's dilemma or the way Steve's pulse is fluttering like a hummingbird right against Eddie's nose. 'Go!'

He sneaks his right arm around Steve, who jumps slightly the moment Eddie's fingertips brush against his shoulder blades. To keep him still, Eddie's left hand reaches for Steve's waist almost automatically. He doesn't try to focus too much on the way goosebumps spread under his fingers and the way Steve literally whines into Eddie's ear. His right hand follows the scratchy lace, nails lightly scratching Steve's skin, until he finds the hooks.

Thumb under the fabric and pointer and middle finger pressing against it, he feels the first hook opening after less than a heartbeat. For a moment, Eddie doesn't want to open the other two and therefore lose any reason to be so close to Steve.

Steve, who has his nose pressed against Eddie's hair and hand curled into Eddie's shirt, slightly tugging as if .... Well, as if to ask for permission to take it off. Eddie doesn't even know when he had the time to grab for the shirt in the first place.

Eddie moves his hand and the second hook opens. He turns his face, brings a bit more space between them to look at Steve. His cheeks are scarlet, lips shiney with spit and when he opens his eyes after mere seconds of Eddie staring at him, he can see that Steve's pupils are dilated, eyes dark with want.

The last hook springs free and without turning his eyes away, Eddie gently brushes the strap off Steve's broad shoulder. Steve quietly whimpers and pushes harder against Eddie's shirt as if to tear it off his body.

'Eddie', he whispers, licking his lips and Eddie just wants everything Steve is ready to offer.

'Ohhh okay, I think I'll leave you two alone', he hears the slightly panicked voice of Robin and then a door opening and closing.

And Eddie leans in...

[nobodysdaydreams]

Been thinking about Galinda and Elphaba’s choices at the end of “Defying Gravity” and how different things might have been, and it makes me so sad because at the end of the day, while it was Elphaba who did the right thing, Galinda’s decision has less to do with her being cowardly or evil, and more to do with her going with what she knows to be a safe/effective strategy.

Galinda doesn’t insult or downplay Elphaba’s concern for the animals. She yells at Elphaba for defying the Wizard because doing so “hurts her cause forever”. Galinda’s whole thing is popularity, playing the system, playing the social game. That’s what she does, that’s the world she knows, that’s what she’s comfortable with. She knows that Elphaba leaving will only lead to her being vilified, even if Elphaba is 100% right. Yes, Galinda loves her popularity and has ambition, but she does it with intention and purpose. Whereas Elphaba, who has never been popular and has no chance of eclipsing the Wizard in that domain (but totally can and already has in terms of her power) is way more comfortable calling him out right here and now. Galinda’s comments about Elphaba’s delusions of grandeur and her not knowing what she’s doing with the book also hold some truth to them as seen in Act 2 when Elphaba’s attempts to fix things with the book have unintended consequences, yet work. There’s some truth to both their perspectives and no perfect and effective and 100% moral solution to this problem. These are two college girls trying their best with the cards they’ve been dealt, and it is not either of their faults what happens: it’s the Wizard’s and Morrible’s. Galinda is not the villain of the story, they are.

Galinda makes mistakes, she does selfish things, for sure, but she’s certainly not evil. I point this out in my analysis of “No One Mourns the Wicked” but the Wicked story, while it is about Galinda and Elphaba and features them as the main characters, isn’t a story of Galinda vs. Elphaba. As Galinda says, despite their different choices, they were friends, and they cared for each other. Wicked is the story of Elphaba vs. the Wizard, as told by Galinda, who was friends with Elphaba and worked for the Wizard. The villagers in the song characterize Galinda goodness itself and sing that “goodness knows what goodness is, goodness knows the wicked die alone” and in the end, Galinda is the only one that does know the truth about the Wizard being the truly Wicked one and Elphaba being wonderful. Galinda also knows in the end, she’s ruling Oz and carrying out Elphaba’s mission to make Oz better for everyone, including the Animals, which is what she believes Elphaba died for. Meanwhile, Galinda knows the Wizard, who was truly Wicked, died/left Oz grieving what he’d lost/what he’s done.

That’s why I have a hard time blaming Galinda or calling her the villain for her choices during “Defying Gravity”. Even though there is tragedy in both Galinda and Elphaba’s endings, their respective strategies pay off for both of them. Elphaba’s stance against the Wizard leads to him being exposed by Dorothy as a fraud and allows Elphaba to help the animals. Whereas Galinda becomes so popular and loved by the people, that they totally accept the Wizard leaving because they have her now, and Galinda is able to take power from Morrible and send her to prison, no questions asked. Now she’s ruling all of Oz and can actually make things better for the Animals. She had to make moral concessions to get there that Elphaba wasn’t willing to, and yes, that was wrong, I’m not saying it isn’t, but Galinda didn’t just do it because she was 100% selfish, she genuinely believed this was the best choice and winning strategy, and given her background, why wouldn’t she? Galinda’s popularity is what has gotten her this far in life despite her lack of ability, and Elphaba was asking her to give all of that up, every bit of power, influence, and protection she had, to become a scorned criminal, and anything Galinda tried to do to bring about positive change would be twisted and manipulated by the Wizard and Morrible. Whereas Galinda was asking Elphaba to let a man who is abusing the Animals (who for many years, were the only friends Elphaba had) use her power for his own evil designs in order to slowly gain more power and influence and make gradual changes and concessions for the sake of the Animals all while there are huge injustices being committed right now that she’d be doing little or nothing to stop.

Given these situations, of course Galinda and Elphaba made the decisions they did at the end of part 1, of course they still hope things work out for one another, of course Galinda smiles to herself with pride when she sees Elphaba flying away (I loved that detail, she so happy to see her get away, it’s so sweet). Neither of them are in a fair position at all, and you can argue that Galinda should have been more willing to take a risk and had a moral obligation to do so, but the fact that she didn’t wasn’t 100% self-motivated and if anyone is to be blamed it’s the grown Animal abusing deadbeat father and professional conman who put her in that position, not the college girl who just wants to support her bestie without losing the only card she had to play.

The unfortunate byproduct of this (and I talk about this in other posts about how powerful Elphaba and Galinda could have been together), is that we will never know if things could have been better if Galinda had gone with Elphaba or if Elphaba had decided to stay. Galinda’s popularity might have been enough to make the students at Shiz, her parents, and her friends question the Wizard’s vilification of her or at least frame her as an impressionable and confused young girl, but would it have been enough for her, a college student, to totally expose the Wizard’s plot and rally all of Oz to her and Elphaba’s side? And had Elphaba chosen to stay, could she have found a way, after the Wizard makes the people see her as “wonderful” to use her magic she still barely understands to secretly protect her Animal friends until she finds a way to stop/expose the Wizard and Morrible? Both sound unlikely, but at the end of the day, we don’t know. You can argue that Elphaba’s choice was more morally correct and Galinda’s was more strategic and effective long term, but we’ll never know what might have been. Though goodness knows, the two of them will probably wonder for the rest of their lives.

[sgtpeppers]

"A dark shadow on an otherwise beautiful record": PR, McCartney and The Beatles' Split.

“No, I wasn’t angry – shit, he’s a good P.R. man, that’s all. He’s about the best in the world, probably. He really does a job. I wasn’t angry. We were all hurt that he didn’t tell us that was what he was going to do.”

(John Lennon in Rolling Stone, 21 Jan 1971)

To cut to the chase, I want to explain why this statement from John, claiming Paul is a good PR man is wrong. Largely thanks to quotes like this from John, Paul gets painted as the Beatle with a good media strategy, the insinuation being of course, that he is disingenuous and inauthentic. I don’t believe this is true in general, but what I really want to focus on, and what John is referencing in that quote, is the publicity around Paul’s 1970 album McCartney, which got all tied up with the news of The Beatles split, and how actually, mistake after mistake was made, rather than it being what John claims - a purposeful move to get more publicity for his album. 

This isn’t a moral judgment on either John or Paul, or me saying Paul is stupid for not doing more. In fact, I think it playing out this way is far more interesting and we can gain a lot of insight about his mindset and relationships from his press activities around this time. 

I’m going to do this chronologically as much as possible, but before we dive in it will be helpful for us to keep a few basic PR strategies and tools in mind to help us understand what’s (or perhaps more importantly, what’s not) happening. So what are some things that make for good public relations? 

A clear, cohesive message. What's the story of the album? There should be key phrases that are repeated throughout press activities, and also allow an easy fall back when faced with questions that haven’t been prepared for. Broadly speaking, you want to highlight the good and ignore the bad, without lying or appearing to hide anything.

A good relationship with the press. Having even a couple of journalists on side can be a huge benefit, it makes for friendlier interviews and more forgiving assessments (which isn’t to say journalists are being fake or can be incentivised, but it’s just human nature that if you make friends, you’re going to have an easier time.) Furthermore, you want a reputation in the industry as someone that’s nice to interview, because journalists can and will talk, and if they’re going to come in with a preconception about you, you want it to be positive. 

Reactive messaging. If something comes out that you don’t want to be out, be prepared. Ideally potential problems have already been planned for. Know which journalists to reach out to, know what the story is, then be prepared to go quiet and leave things alone.

Pre-prepared Q&As or FAQs should answer more questions than they generate. They also shouldn’t require in depth answers - save that for conversations where there’s time for explanations. 

So, let’s start back in 1969. The Paul is dead rumours are in full force and Paul, Linda, Heather and Mary are living up in Scotland, trying to escape the goings-on back in London. 

On 24 October, Paul gives an interview to the BBC dispelling the rumours about his death, which goes out on 26-27 October in two parts. A few days later, Dorothy Bacon and Terrence Spencer from Life Magazine make the trip up to his farm to try and get another interview with him, for a piece they’re also doing about the rumours. 

Paul throws a bucket of dirty water at them, they get pictures, and then realising how this will look if published, Paul gives them an interview and promises to have Linda send them some family shots for the articles. In exchange they get rid of the photos they took earlier in the day.

So the first point here, that hopefully I don't need to spell out, is that you don’t wanna go throwing buckets of water at journalists. Thankfully, Paul did realise this and course corrected, but I can only imagine what the fall out would have been had he hadn’t gone after them. But what’s important for this story is that Paul is fed up with journalists and having to share his private life, he's emotional, and his instinct is to lash out.

The other thing that’s interesting here is a line that goes completely unnoticed. At this point, The Beatles split is not public knowledge. 

The Beatle thing is over. It has been exploded, partly by what we have done, and partly by other people. We are individuals, all different. John married Yoko, I married Linda. We didn’t marry the same girl.

(Paul McCartney in Life Magazine, November, 1969)

This is huge, and it doesn’t get picked up by anyone else. It’s not made a big deal of in the Life article, it’s perhaps the clearest statement we get about the state of The Beatles, and yet it flies under the radar. I’d love to know exactly what the deal is here, but there’s not much we can do about that, but what we should start keeping in mind in this: there is no plan in place around The Beatles split. There is just an agreement to not make it public yet. 

The McCartneys go back to London and Paul starts recording music with his new equipment at home. Later he books studio time when he decides he can make an album out of the songs he’s been working on. 

Some key dates: 

Paul finishes the album on 25 February.

The album is set to release on 17 April.

Ringo’s album get rushed to release two weeks early on 27 March and Let It Be is also supposed to be released in April.

On 31 March John and George send a letter, delivered by Ringo, asking Paul to delay the release of McCartney. Paul refuses and Let It Be gets moved instead. 

Which brings us to April. Prior this, Paul realised that if he’s going to be putting an album out he’s going to have to do some publicity, but the problem is… well, there’s a few; he’s never had to do publicity for a solo album and simply doesn’t have the knowledge, his relationship with Apple has completely deteriorated which includes the people who have been handling this stuff for him in the past, and lastly, he doesn’t want to be dealing with press. Refer back to him and the bucket. 

Thankfully, Peter Brown and Derek Taylor from Apple’s press office, tell him he does need to do something and to an extent, he listens. They select a handful of papers he’ll do interviews with, and Peter Brown puts together a Q&A for Paul to answer, which will go out to journalists in the press kit with their early copy of the album (x).

What I would love to do here is a question by question breakdown of that press kit Q&A but I’m conscious of how long this is already so I won’t… but before we get into that, here are a few more key events: 

7 April: The Eastmans issue a press release with news about Paul’s solo album and his acquisition of the film rights for Rupert The Bear. This is covered mostly by American press on 8 April who speculate that this could mean the end of The Beatles. (An important note here is the lack of communication between the Eastmans and Apple, not knowing what materials each other are providing is not helpful).

9 April: McCartney press kits are sent to journalists. 

9 April: Before Don Short at the Daily Mirror clocks off for the night, he is called by an Apple employee who tells him Paul has definitely quit. 

10 April: The Daily Mirror breaks the news with the headline ‘Paul Is Quitting The Beatles’. 

10 April: After doing interviews all day, Derek Taylor issues a statement regarding The Beatles. It doesn’t say much, which he acknowledges, because there’s not much he can say at this point. Another important note here, is that not even the head of publicity of Apple knew what was going on with The Beatles. There is no communication, and with no communication there can be no plan.

(Paul McCartney Project page that covers all this)

So what happened that made The Beatles split go from speculation to a certainty? It’s all to do with that Q&A. Of course, with the Eastman’s press release people were going to start connecting the dots, but that call Short got from his source isn’t presented as a rumour. 

Now, there’s a lot to say about this Q&A because Paul's answer are so unhelpful and you can feel his attitude. I think the fact this was allowed to go out is a fundamental piece of evidence of Paul’s relationship with Apple at the time. No one wanted to tell him no, and he certainly wasn’t going to give them more than the bare minimum. 

And lets be really clear here. This is a Q&A for his new album. Obviously the state of the Beatles was going to be brought up which is why Peter Brown included the questions, but the number of the questions on that topic and then Paul’s answers, make it really confusing and it’s no wonder this is what press picked up on, rather than just talking about Paul’s album. There are 41 questions in total, and 13 of them are asking him about his relationship to the other Beatles, Apple and Klein. That’s just over a third of the Q&A talking about things that he doesn’t want to be talking about. The fact he didn’t just tell Apple that he wasn’t going to answer some of the questions shows how little forethought went into this on his part. There was a much more concise way to do this, and I do not believe for a second Paul wanted further questions about the state of the Beatles when he’s trying to promote his first solo album. 

And remember what I said at the top, about how if you’re gonna be promoting something in the press you want clear messaging around it? That’s already going be difficult now this Q&A has tied so much of the Beatles split into their messaging, despite Paul actually having a pretty clear idea of what the album’s story is aside from that, but the answers Paul gives to those questions just add further confusion. 

Link to full Q&A.

Q: Were you influenced by John’s adventures with the Plastic Ono Band, and Ringo’s solo LP? A: Sort of, but not really. Q: Will they be so credited: McCartney? A: It’s a bit daft for them to be Lennon-McCartney-credited, so ‘McCartney’ it is. Q: Will the other Beatles receive the first copies? A: Wait and see. Q: Is it true that neither Allen Klein nor ABKCO have been nor will be in any way involved with the production, manufacturing, distribution or promotion of this new album? A: Not if I can help it. Q: Did you miss the other Beatles and George Martin? Was there a moment eg, when you thought ‘wish Ringo was here for this break?” A: No. Q: Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles? A: No. Q: Is this album a rest away from the Beatles or the start of a solo career? A: Time will tell. Being a solo album means it’s the start of a solo career… and not being done with the Beatles means it’s a rest. So it’s both. Q: Is your break from the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal difference or musical ones? A: Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don’t know. Q: Do you see a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again? A: No. Q: What is your relationship with Klein: A: It isn’t – I am not in contact with him, and he does not represent me in any way. Q: What is your relationship with apple? A: It is the office of a company which I part-own with the other three Beatles. I don’t go there because I don’t like the offices or business, especially when I’m on holiday.

So what can we get from this? It’s the start of a solo career for Paul, he doesn’t know if The Beatles break is permanent or temporary, he’s not in contact with Klein and Klein doesn’t represent him, he owns part of Apple but he doesn’t like going there, and he seems very certain that the Lennon-McCartney partnership is over, despite not being sure if The Beatles will play together again or not. 

It’s a mess. It raises further questions. The only reason I can think of for it being so long is Peter Brown trying to cover absolutely everything he could think a journalist would ask, but it’s given Paul far too much scope for muddled answers, and in some cases, factually incorrect ones. He is tied up with Klein whether he likes it or not, because Klein’s tied up with Apple and Paul still has a contract with them. 

It’s no wonder that this becomes the focus of the media narrative, and it makes Paul panic. 

So on 16 April, the day before McCartney was released, Paul sits down with journalist Ray Connolly. And we move from story making, into reactive messaging. There is some thought behind this - Connolly is friendly with The Beatles and had actually already been aware of the split thanks to an off the record chat with John, so he was a good choice. The interview was published in the Evening Standard, a few days after the album had come out. 

And here’s why you want a friendly journalist to talk to, because as the world rushed to say that Paul had broken up the band, Connolly led his article with this: 

Paul McCartney didn’t kill the Beatles. If the group is dead, McCartney might be seen as the last survivor. If he has quit, and he still hasn’t confirmed it, he was the last to go.

(Paul McCartney in the Evening Standard, 21-22 April 1970)

However, the interview is also extremely telling about where Paul’s at emotionally in this moment. 

A few days ago Paul McCartney decided to break his year-long silence and be interviewed. He wanted to clear up the confusion about his relations with the other Beatles and Allen Klein, and to kill the rumours that he was now ‘a hermit living in a cave somewhere with a ten-foot beard’. He wanted to show that he really was a happily married man with ‘a nice family and a good life’. But most of all he wanted to talk, to work things out in conversation, as much, I suspect, for his own benefit as anything.

This is not what you want to be doing with a journalist, you want to have this worked out before the conversation. 

We met for lunch in a Soho businessman’s restaurant. With hardly moments for the hellos, he’d launched into his theme, talking rapidly and intently, and only occasionally allowing Linda to come in as support and verification. He wanted to put it all straight, to show that no one was to blame for what had happened, and when after two and a half hours’ non-stop talking he had cleared up his mind and mine too, he laughed, said he felt better now, got into his car and went home.

This demonstrates the lack of media training he had. It’s a stark difference to the confidence he had doing press with the other Beatles, on his own and with a particular idea to get across he appears nervous and controlling. Long form interviews like this are a marathon, not a sprint, and had he had an advisor or representative that was willing to push back against him, he would have known how to handle this better.

Moreover, an interview of this sort should have been done and published prior to the album coming out, or at least on the day of. Yes, there were always going to be questions about The Beatles tied up with this release, but one long interview like this, that had been properly prepared for, could have gone a long way to keeping the story straight. He also, despite his steamroller-ing of the conversation to begin with, comes across much more balanced about the situation than he does in those Q&A answers, so leading with something like this would have put him on much better footing.

So let's just pause here. What have we got so far? We've got Paul wanting to do as little press as possible, and with a breakdown of communication with his press team resulting in minimal planning and advice. This goes completely against the picture John is trying to paint.

And I’m not done yet. Because now we need to talk about the response to the album which wasn’t what I imagine Paul had wanted. There are two reviews I’m going to focus on here, firstly from Disc & Music Echo, written by Penny Valentine. 

I don’t know what he was thinking when he planned this album. Perhaps he is laughing at us all. That’s fine, but it’s a pretty cruel way of doing it… almost a betrayal of all the things we’ve come to expect.

(Disc & Music Echo review, 18 April 1970)

It’s really harsh, but also this is within her right as a journalist. And what should someone do if they’re getting bad reviews? Ignore them. Thank the fans. Thank the people who say nice things. Don’t highlight negative attention, and certainly don’t lash out. 

And look, there’s a lot to be said about Paul, Linda, John and Yoko’s press communications over the 70s, the Melody Maker letters spring to mind, and I’m very aware that I’m looking at this from 2025 when PR is much bigger and better oiled machine, almost to the point of it being quite boring and predictable. I do, however, also think that ‘don’t lash out at journalists who don’t like your work’ is common sense. 

So Paul and Linda writing to Disc & Music Echo is a bit much to my eyes: 

Dear Penny hold your hand out you silly girl I am not being cruel or laughing at you. I am merely enjoying myself. You are wrong about the McCartney album. It is an attempt at something slightly different, it is simple, it is good and even at this moment it is growing on you, love. – Paul and Linda McCartney.

(Paul and Linda's telegram to Disc & Music Echo, 25 April 1970)

It’s condescending, and if you want to plant the seeds of what your album is meant to be, there are much better places and ways to do it. Again this is reactive, showing little to no planning earlier in the year. 

But here’s the thing that actually, completely baffles me. On the same day, in the same paper, another article gets published, this time by Derek Taylor, with the by line reading ‘Derek Taylor, Beatles Press Officer’. This just shouldn't happen. I can’t think of another case where someone’s PR is coming to their rescue in print. That’s not their job, and yes, Taylor used to be a journalist but he’s not anymore. I think this is way more to do with the way the people that have been with the Beatles since the early days are so emotionally wrapped up in this, they weren’t the people that should have been handling this.

(x)

It also shows though, that however much Paul was distancing himself from Apple, there were people still there who loved him. It’s an emotional, beautifully written piece calling for people to leave Paul alone, but also not a good PR move, especially when he’s highlighting a specific journalist. Whether Paul asked Derek to do this, or Derek did it of his own accord, I don’t know, but it looks defensive and if I was a journalist, I’d be rolling my eyes. 

Which brings us to the final part of this, the Rolling Stone review, published on 14 May 1970, nearly a month after the album came out, and largely not about the album at all, but a lot of  focus on Paul’s handling of the situation. 

The review of the actual songs is pretty complimentary, but this is also a personal attack on Paul. 

(Full review)

Unfortunately, there is more to this album than just music. Accompanying the release of McCartney was a mass of external information — all of it coming directly from Paul himself — which casts real doubt on the beautiful picture which the songs create. 

The sheets contain even more assertions about how happy and peaceful Paul and Linda are these days, and some interview statement from Paul concerning his relationship to the Beatles — statements which drip a kind of unsavory vindictiveness.

My problem is that all of the publicity surrounding the record makes it difficult for me to believe that McCartney is what it appears to be. In the special package of information which Paul wanted to include with the album we find startlingly harsh statements.

The lasting effect of this publicity campaign is to cast a dark shadow on an otherwise beautiful record. Listening to it now I cannot help but ask if Paul is really as together as the music indicates, how could he have sunk to such bizarre tactics?

I don't think this needs much commentary. You know something’s gone wrong with your PR when that becomes the focus, rather than the thing you’re actually trying to promote. 

If we return to the four things I listed above, I think we can pretty resolutely lay out what I wanted to do. 

Was there a clear, cohesive message? Around the album itself, sort of, Paul knew what it was. But it got tied up with the news of The Beatles split, the messaging around which was confusing with no one sticking to the same story. He also didn't do enough before the album came out, to get that messaging about his album stuck in people's heads. So overall, no. 

Did he build good relationships with press? No. He threw a bucket at one. He provided confusing press kit material, even to journalists he was friendly with he came across in a manner that was worth noting in an article, he sent a bitchy telegram to a journalist who wrote a bad review, and this all culminated in Rolling Stone spending more time talking about his publicity than his album.  

Did Paul have reactive messaging prepared? Evidently not, and then given the chance to provide some, he came across as panicked to the journalist he was speaking to. 

Did his Q&A provide clear, simple answers to common questions he was likely to get asked? No, it was overly long, asking the same questions in multiple ways and no editing was done to his short, snappy, confusing, and incorrect answers. 

I don’t want to give the idea that Paul, overall, is just shit at PR. (I mean, there's a difference between being a good spokesperson and good at PR but I won't get into that). He’s a highly successful musician who by all accounts, is now extremely good at interviews and making journalists feel at ease. He’s Paul fucking McCartney. But John saying this, in direct reference to this period of press activities is just not true. The album did well for Paul in the charts and sales, yes, but I’d argue that’s despite all this, rather than because of it. 

And it’s also important to reiterate, that Paul simply wasn’t interested in doing a lot of publicity. He wasn’t even sure this was going to be an album when he started writing the songs. He didn’t want people coming to his farm, invading his new family life (and rightly so), he didn’t want to be on TV or the radio every day. That’s why his Q&A is so terse and why he hadn’t put any thought in how he was going to talk about The Beatles. And whilst how he felt is understandable, what he needed were a team around him willing to push back, steer him, and were separate from Apple. That’s the only way, I think, this could have gone differently.

Even then, he probably wouldn’t have listened to them anyway: 

I don’t think I need a manager in the old sense that Brian Epstein was our manager. All I want are paid advisers, who will do what I want them to do. And that’s what I’ve got.

(Paul McCartney in the Evening Standard, 21-22 April 1970)

And that’s really the crux of it all, because you can’t do good with PR with someone who doesn’t want to take advice and thinks they know best. And I love him for it. 

[aquitainequeen]

I've been reading some excellent posts about the character development of Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero and how this dictates who ends up together and who ends up alone at the end of the story, and I thought deeply upon the fact that:

all three of them are on a journey to gain a brain, a heart, and courage.

Elphaba starts the story already deeply intelligent, but while she's very loving toward her sister, she's emotionally closed off and afraid of losing control of her power and hurting people. She grows close to Dr. Dillamond, opens up to and befriends Glinda, develops a crush on Fiyero, and is eventually motivated by her empathy towards the plight of the Animals of Oz. By the end of Act One she gains the courage to take the Grimmerie for herself to boost her power, to defy Morrible and the Wizard and to bear the hatred of all of Oz for years afterwards.

Fiyero starts the story jaded and apathetic, pretending to be unintelligent, self-absorbed and shallow as he finds it's the easiest way to get through life. He even gets a whole song about how life is ultimately meaningless and it's far better never to try and achieve anything. Then it emerges that he's actually quick-witted and empathetic when he helps rescue the Lion Cub and starts to seriously think about the state of Oz. He falls hard for Elphaba to the point that he spends years trying to find her, but while he originally began to date Glinda because they were 'perfect together', he stays with her because he does genuinely care and doesn't want to hurt her. Roughly half way through Act Two and reunited with Elphaba, Fiyero finds his courage; he gives up everything to join her in defying the Wizard and Morrible's regime, saves her life very nearly at the cost of his own, endures brutal torture and a horrific transformation, and immediately sets out to help her once more. And he's potentially the one who comes up with a trick that not only allows them both to be free, safe and together but which eventually liberates Oz.

Glinda starts the story apparently genuinely self-absorbed and shallow, and while intelligent she's also spoiled and sheltered, finding methods to get her own way and move through life without much thought or effort. She wonders why Dr. Dillamond keeps going on about the past and is enrolled in Morrible's sorcery class purely because Elphaba wanted to repay her; while she repents of the way she initially treated Elphaba and comes to consider her a dear friend, she's far less empathetic to the fate of Dillamond and her renaming herself in solidarity with him is mostly to curry favour with Fiyero; she refuses to join Elphaba in her rebellion against the Wizard because she doesn't think it's a fight that can be won and she doesn't want to give up the position she has or the power she could achieve. Throughout Act Two Glinda goes along with the Wizard and Morrible because she doesn't dare risk losing what she's gained, she doesn't think of how she could use her influence to help those whom the regime is targeting and, while she loves Elphaba and Fiyero, she's very quick to turn around and lash out at her friend when Fiyero 'chooses' her and breaks Glinda's heart. It isn't until the eleventh hour that Glinda truly starts thinking about the methods of Morrible and realises she deliberately killed Nessarose, tries to stop the witch-hunt and rushes to save Elphaba from doing something irredeemable by hurting/killing Dorothy. Glinda's cunning in taking advantage of what she's learned about Elphaba's parentage, her courage in manipulating the Wizard into leaving and imprisoning Morrible, finishes what Elphaba started and Fiyero aided. By the end of the musical Glinda is wise, compassionate and courageous-

-but it's too late, because Elphaba and Fiyero are gone.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

"The kid seems scared.

Tip had always been a little nervous. Or at least that was the reality when the two had met.

It was fairly obvious for everyone that met them that the child had not been treated well by their formar guardian and in a way that Elphaba sadly recognized still seemed to afraid of facing the same pain and rejection again.

Still lately the kid seemed more relaxed and open, treating her with the same easiness and earnest they did Jack. More determined to learn than eager to please. Following her around with questions and vibrating with excitement as she turned wooden sticks into dolls and toy swords alike. It made her think of Nessa in a very bittersweet way.

She failed her sister and she would not allow herself to fail another young person she became responsable for.

That's to say Tip's strange turn to the same scared kid she met soon after leaving her behind and being declared and enemy of Oz scared her.

"Miss Elphaba, I have something very serius to tell you."

Maybe they want to leave. They are not in fact different in the same way Elphaba is. Tip is a normal if deeply magical child who just ended up in the care of a horrible woman. Being her aprenticce is actually the only thing turning them into a dangerous and hated figure.

"I understand."

The kid takes a deep breath. Elphaba tries to think on the best words to explain that of course they can leave if they want to and that they can take as many provisions as they need. Tip will never again be a prisioner.

"I don't think I am a boy? Wait no. I know I'm not a boy. Like the idea of it is still a bit scary because it seems like it will be a big deal but I'm fairly sure I'm a girl actually. I just never though about it before but Jack called me she accidentaly and it just makes sense. I am still the same Tip and please let me keep being your aprentice." She says in a single breath.

"What?"

The girl looked scared. "I'm a girl." She says. Than in a smaller voice. "I can try to be a boy if you want?" It does not appear to be something she wants and the fact she still sugests it breaks Elphaba's heart a little.

"Oh! Oh. No, no, that's fine. Do you want to be called something else?"

Her eyes go huge and she stops deep in thought before answring.

"Uh. I guess so, but I'm still thinking on it. I don't mind Tip for now."

"Okay, tell me when it changes?"

"Will do."

"Anything else?"

Tip looks a bit shy for half a second before a excited smile covers her face. "Could you let me borrow a dress?"

Elphaba laughts.

"You are too tiny for my dresses, kid. But I can help you magic one for yourself. "

Her eyes shine. "Cool!"

[...]

"Morrible says you'll marry some prince soon." Dorothy says making a face.

"I don't see why you are soo distraught, my dear, I'm pretty sure she'll find me a great prince." Glinda says with false cheer.

"I doubt it. Princes are all very dull."

"Met many princes did you?" She jokes lightly, trying to find a way to change the subject. She loves the kid dearly and for all it's bleak consequences will always be glad the tornado ended up bringing the girl into her life but she would preffer not to discuss those subjects. Specially not in her own bedroom in a rare moment of relaxation.

"Well no." The girl pouts. "But most boys are dull and I can't imagine liking to marry even the ones that aren't. I guess I just thought you were the same? I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. And I sure hope marriage is unimaginable for you, you are way to young for it."

The girl smiles a tiny bit before frowning.

"I can imagine myself marrying a girl one day."

"Oh!" Is all Glinda says.

"I told Aunt Em once she told me to never say it again, she told me I was too young. But I'm ten now and I feel the same. " Dorothy rarely talks about home, sometimes Glinda tricks herself into beliving it is because her the kid just loves Oz better, that she forgot all about it, but she knows deep down that Dorothy will always miss Kansas, always miss her uncle and aunt and Toto, she just accepted home as a place she'll never return to. In the good days Glinda knows Dorothy would also miss Oz, would miss her munchkin friends and mostly would miss being Glinda's apprentice. In the better days she thinks about bringing Dorothy's family here. After all Kansas always seems sad and hungry. "Girls don't marry each other in Kansas." She continues. "But I though maybe they did here. "

"I think they do everywhere, Dorothy, is just some people pretend they don't because the different scares them."

"Like the Wizard and the animals?"

Glinda had only recently convinced Dorothy to only speak her very dangerous beliefs on the Wizard in private and even there she sometimes corrected the kid. But right now it felt too much like liying to Elphaba she couldn't do it, not when she knew Dorothy to be right.

"Yeah. Just like that."

And after a second she adds.

"Between us, I would also like to marry a woman".

Dorothy smiles, just a little bit.

[...]

She knows she should not be here.

But it's fun, she likes the dancing and the food and the small chance of going back home with something that can actually help Elphie. Maybe a magical item or even just some usefull information.

Besides the girl she is talking to is very pretty and fun and smart and she is not open about it but she's definitivaly not the biggest fan of the Wizard either. Oh and a great dancer.

"I'm sorry" the girl says "but I think I did not catch your name?"

Now it's the moment to say something clever like 'i never gave it to you' or maybe just invent some fake name. She can't say her name. It's too easy of a conection to make. But she doesn't need to lie. After all it was never really her name. And she has a name now. Has had it for days and just keept it a secret in some weird form of fear. But it felt like time. She would tell it to Elphie and Jack when she went back.

"Ozma. I'm Ozma. What's yours?"

[...]

Dorothy had never had so much fun at a party before. Her new friend was the most beutifull girl she ever met and the funniest and cleverest and it had never felt so easy to talk to someone before. In fact the only thing Ozma didn't appear to be was a good dancer but Glinda had teached Dorothy well and she found herself leading the other girl steps into the best dance she ever had.

She noticed Ozma did not gave any surname but it was not her place to pry. She just hoped to mert the girl again.

"Dorothy." She says and takes the hand. For a second she considers continuing in the way she was instructed to (Dorothy Upland at your pleasure and a kiss to the hand) but while she loves Glinda that's not really her. And she somehow trusts Ozma enough to be honest. "Dorothy Gale." She shakes the hand just like Uncle Henry used to.

[artz16]

So, post the first “Dorothy meets Fiyero/ Scarecrow first AU,” I bring forth the continuation:

Scarecrow accidentally finds Ozma

Scarecrow and Dorothy are in Gilikin Country to find her food and hopefully find someone who can help him out in finding Dorothy a legitimate way home. They come across a small farm with no one really in sight but decide trying their luck is best. They knock and get greeted by a boy who appears to be Dorothy’s age. He’s a bit nervous but he’s warms up soon enough and introduces himself as Tip

Scarecrow: Heya, kiddo. Uuuh…any of your parents or guardians here?

Tip: Nope, you actually just missed my…guardian, Mombi. She won’t be here for a couple days now

Scarecrow: Uuuh….Okay. Is anyone here to watch you?

Tip: Nope. Just me. She sometimes brings me but I gotta stay as punishment for misbehaving

Cue the big red flags for Scarecrow as he’s come across yet another kid left by themselves. Tip kindly lets them in and he and Dorothy chat, appearing to be getting along already. Scarecrow is still concerned about Tip’s situation

Scarecrow: S-Say, Tip. You got any food to spare? We’ve been traveling and we don’t have much for Dorothy

Tip: Umm…Sorry, no. There’s not even much for me really

Scarecrow internally: Why didn’t the lady bring you then if you won’t be able eat for the next two days?!

Scarecrow: Geez…does this lady even like you?

Tip: Nope. She’s a pretty mean old woman. She expresses how annoying I am every day. To her, I’m pretty much just her servant and she’ll get angry if I don’t do chores how she liked it or try to do something fun instead. She even told me once she’d do better with me as a statue than a living boy

Scarecrow, internally:…Who gave this lady a child?!?!?!

Tip: Mr. Scarecrow?

Dorothy: You okay, Scarecrow?

Scarecrow: S-Say kid, ever had thoughts of just running away?

Tip: Yeah, of course. I have no place to really go to though and I don’t know anyone who won’t mind taking me in

Scarecrow: Well, congratulations. I’m that anyone. You’re coming with us. I ain’t leaving you here for that old lady to mistreat

Tip: Yay!

So Tip packs his things and meets them at the door but there are some strange letters poking out his bag as he makes sure he has everything. The scarecrow and girl notice

Dorothy: What’s all that, Tip!?

Tip: Just some old letters I found in Mombi’s room. Figured I’d take some things from her as payback and found em in her drawers. Figured I’d just take em too since they looked important since the drawer was locked

Scarecrow: May I have a look?

Tip: Sure

Scarecrow has a look and takes special notice that the Wizard appears to be the one who wrote them and the words he has written down…

“It’s a deal then”

“Just promise me you’ll keep her safe while in hiding”

“I’ll deliver the princess to you at midnight”

He remembers when he heard the news of the baby Princess of Oz going missing and never being found and starts to put pieces together, especially when looking back at Tip

Scarecrow: S-Say, Tip…how exactly did you end up with Mombi?

Tip: I dunno. I asked a bit before and she just said they couldn’t take care of me and gave me up as a baby

Scarecrow: Okay…has there ever been a girl in this house?

Tip: Nope. Just me and Mombi. Why?

Scarecrow: Just wanted to know

Scarecrow internally: Because this means only one thing!

And now Scarecrow not only has the girl from another realm who has his girlfriend’s sister’s shoes, but now has discovered what truly happened to the missing princess along with having the kid in his custody

Good luck with that, Fiyero. At least this’ll be a fun story to tell Elphaba

[isa-ghost]

Hey Isa, you wouldn't happen to have any head cannons back there would you?

Also, I hope you're doing well

Yeah hold on lemme check in the back *glass breaking* *metal clanging* *vine boom* *BRUH.mp4* *more glass breaking* *cartoon boink* *high pitched scream* *Taco Bell dong*

Okay got em here ya go

Phil headcanons masterlist

Quesadilla Island gave him SUCH a taste for Latin food and he can't fucking just Get That when he's home in the Hardcore world. Can you imagine him asking Rose to open a portal to another world for a 2am Taco Bell run. That's not even real/good Latin food but can you imagine.

Actually that's another thing he misses, Rose doesn't communicate with him directly when he's home. I don't have an idea of what the reasoning is for that but :(

Goddess of Death likes to tease him about his perching. She makes him so self-aware of it and he hates it but in that "god fucking damn it Kristin. I'm doing it again" way.

Ender King is just a bitch. Phil was scared of him on Quesadilla Island because there was no control or way of predicting what he'd do there. Or why. Or how. Phil generally isn't scared of a long-dead bitch baby. No, there's a hardcore deity we haven't met yet that he's scared of. And if Apollo doesn't dodgeball me on this the day Phil does a new build to introduce one of the two we haven't met yet, I might make a fan deity.

👆🏻 I mentioned this on stream Friday 9/6, I'm already cooking on the fan deity LMAO.

As a chronic overthinker who's way too insistent on constantly mentally firing on all cylinders in order to survive, this dumbass frequently forgets that taking walks (or more commonly: flights) help him unwind and actually organize his thoughts. He's so bad at walking away for a bit and returning to something with fresh eyes and a clear head. And then he remembers to do that finally and is like 🤯 about it.

Honestly, the same could be said for his emotions. I might have made a hc to this effect before, but he has such a bad habit of clinging to distractions or stubbornly trucking on from things instead of just letting himself Sit with his emotions, processing them and letting them just exist and then pass. He's a very proactive coper, but sometimes action isn't the answer and that's something he hasn't quite learned yet (Rose is trying to teach him this). He absolutely fucking hates doing it, but sometimes the best solution for him really is to just. Sit and cry it out, or seethe, or ride out the panic attack. Whatever it is.

Sitting in the warm sunshine, the sounds of leaves rustling in the wind, and the sight of flower pedals floating in the air fill him with deep, somber nostalgia for comfortably sitting and chatting with Chayanne & Lullah. Watching sunsets too. This is one of few times he'll actually do something to the effect of the previous hc and just let himself sit and Feel. He just can't do it alone, he needs the Murder to sit with him & chat.

Some things he'll do when he actually let's himself sit somewhere & vibe: chat with the Murder, fish, sketch something he sees (often Dorothy), organize his inventory (rarely).

Nowadays he also sketches things of Chayanne & Lullah, sometimes Missa, occasionally Techno. He also really likes doodling random emblems and sigils, often meant for the gods (minus EK) or Techno.

Btw he still gets paranoid about resource gathering, inventory management, and collecting cool stuff ever since his possession. :) Even now that he's back in the Hardcore world, where it's ironically more unlikely that Ender King can/will hurt him, he gets anxious about over-indulging his crow brain.

He's not ALWAYS treating the Murder like it's on sight. Sometimes he'll sit and preen their feathers (or his own while they do their own), he has a massive feeder full of any treat a crow would find yummy imaginable, and half the time they go on those walks/flights he should take to de-stress more often, it's for them because they're the little shits that love to travel so much. He's an explorer and historian/archivist, sure, but he tends to stick to the structures of the gods that he's discovered.

Which btw calling back to that Deep Dark Deity, if they end up existing in canon (and if not, this will be canon for my AU or whatever), he hasn't met/discovered them or their structures yet bc he's too cautious to explore the Deep Dark thoroughly. :)

Honestly this feels like a low-hanging fruit hc that I'm sure tons of people have, but Phil desperately wants to bring Missa to the Hardcore world some day to show him the builds and teach him about the gods.

When he got back to the Hardcore world after QSMP, he took some time to recover emotionally and then anxiously visited Endlantis to add some,, security to the cave Ender King's corpse is sealed in. Will it work? Probably not. But it makes him feel safer.

He has a journal/scrapbook type thing documenting everything he sees & learns about the deities and their associates (ex: He & She). He wishes he could've brought it with him to Quesadilla Island so he could've taught Chayanne & Lullah more about them in detail. But they're somewhere in the world with him now, so he's sure they've learned more over the last 4 months. :)

[have-i-become-your-magician]

I’m putting this under read more because it’ll have pictures but I was trying to piece together how a certain scene we see at the start of the game connects to what we learn about what we see happen right after they went inside the mansion

So, I think Noel genuinely had no idea Claire even died until he comes across her in “in-between life and death dimension people call hell” at the very start of the game for a few reasons.

1-) It is established that the place Claire ends up everytime she dies in her loops is actually just the “hell” demons reside. When you play as Noel, you can see the door leading to that space.

Which means her ending up in ‘hell’ wasn’t just a one time thing that happened in Sirius’ route- it was just a case where we saw more of what happened after she died and/or she just didn’t land on her usual spot we see her being at as a player.

2-) We also know Dorothy and Fiona are in the mansion as low level can’t keep their shape haters despite not having a hatred for humanity, as it’s established that rarely people who don’t hate humans end up in “hell” as well.

3-) We also do know haters get to re-experience their deaths daily, and it’s heavily implied that it’s not only demons who can keep full human forms/ones “higher level” enough to be able to leave high magic concentration areas that end up re-experiencing their deaths given Sheila’s initial appearance in the game being similar to Charlotte and Lime re-experiencing their deaths.

4-) We end up in exact space from the start of the game when Lime wants to fuck with Noel further and sends Sirius and Claire to him when she loses against Sirius on Sirius’ main route, with Claire even remembering that place. If the space itself didn’t matter, we would never see it as a space that exists and demon form Noel resides in again when he’s in “hell” after initial start of the game.

5-) Noel’s text there is asking Claire why she’s there with what seems more like confusion when she walks towards where he is at the very start of the game, as what he’s saying is “...Claire, why are you here?” (”...Kurea nande koko ni?” if you shift uppercase letters one letter back in Japanese as I’m using screenshots from an older build before VGPerson updated it to Caesar cipher -1 in English too) while you’d expect him to give a more emotionally charged reaction/appear in the mansion if he witnessed the original murder at all.

So what I think happened is

Ashe figures out what was going on and kills Claire as we know, with likely hitting her on the head like we see him try in Wilardo’s route as there is what seems like blood on her face

With the bloody spots we see in Dorothy’s room implying he killed Sirius before learning the info he needed to target Claire too.

Claire ends up in “hell” as that’s just where she ends up going when she dies, whether it’s because of the contract she is unwillingly part of or some other reason, she ends up in this specific place most likely thanks to Lime as she is the one who sends her and Sirius here so they come across monster form Noel in Sirius’ route too.

She feels her head hurt because she’s having her first experience of reliving her death as a new resident of “hell”.

Noel comes across her after that and asks with confusion and horror why Claire is here.

Noel turns back to his human form (as we see he leaves blood when he changes forms, be it his bloody clothing on Ashe’s route when he turned and got away when Ashe and Wilardo saw him escape from the broken window, and when his body no longer can maintain full human form we also see he has blood coming out around “eyes” that shows up on his skin) and asks Rouge to go back.

And cue the day 1 title card as Claire is confused and disoriented at the door, wondering what was that.

I think that would also make more sense with how clueless he is over what killed Claire and how, beyond memory tampering given the rules for the loop of course, though overtime he figures out that things like Claire’s diary make her a clear target given how Wilardo and Ashe are always asking around about the Witch’s Heart.

[pretty-idol-hell]

Idol Land PriPara 11

The final battle...

Oh yes. Before I begin my post this time, to save me yet another round of asks, this episode and all the previous ones are viewable for free in the movie theater on the Idol Land PriPara app. Please download Idol Land PriPara. It's in your app store. Please.

And now...

NEW CUT IN THE OPENING OMG OMG POLOLO IS HAPPY NOW possibly only one episode left this season (maybe ever) and they still threw this in there GEEZ.... so much love in this show.

(Wait is her accessory the wrong color uguu...)

The episode begins right where we left off of course! Amari has challenged Mario to a duel. If he wins, she'll join (or c...combine??) with him and he can do whatever he wants, and if she wins, he can never show himself in front of her again. Mario solemnly agrees.

After the opening, Mario is laughing and making fun of Amari for how serious she was in challenging him. But he also quietly asks, "Do you really want to erase me?" Well, whatever, Mario is glad Amari is finally acknowledging him head on. He agrees again and asks if they are gonna just punch each other or what.

No sooner than Amari answers with "What!? We're idols, of course we are gonna perform!" a stage rises from the ground with the Hysteric Bunny and Fullmetal Rabbit logos on it, and everyone is instantly transported.

This includes WITH and Dark Nightmare, who now have their goat costumes removed. Koyoi and Shogo acknowledge this duel will determine Yui's fate as well.

Everyone questions what has caused the stage to form (it's GaarmageddonMi's doing if you ask them), but Janice, still powerless, suggests the system itself desires Amari and Mario finally settle things. The future of PriPara (Amari's kirakira vs. Mario's dark power) is in the balance.

In Amari's dressing room, Amari vows to protect PriPara, and everyone says they believe in her. They all turn to leave, except for Laala. She turns back to Amari, and begins a very important conversation.

Laala asks Amari, "Amari, do you really hate yourself? Why?"

She's of course referring to the previous episode, when she heard Amari yell that out in a moment of weakness.

Amari states that since junior high school she'd always felt left out everywhere she went, but since finding PriPara she was happy she finally thought she had friends and felt like she belonged. But then Mario appeared and started ruining everything, and it was all her fault. Mario is the version of herself from the past that she hates, so she has to defeat him.

"Do you have to?" asks Laala.

Laala doesn't like that Amari hates herself, because well, Laala likes Amari. But if Amari doesn't like herself, "Is this a love triangle!?"

"There is love inside hate", Laala tells Amari.

Laala doesn't quite remember where she heard that, but she's decided that it must mean hate is actually love. As Amari is trying to comprehend this for herself, Laala suddenly hugs her.

"I love you, Amari-chan!"

Laala turns to go, smiling and waving back at Amari as she leaves her alone with her thoughts.

Back at the stage, the tournament is ready to begin...

Janice needs a seatbelt to ride the stage.

Amari and Mario stare at each other from across the stage. Mario is grinning but he has noticeable bags under his eyes. They decide the winner is the person who can take over the audience (with kirakira or dark power). (A large portion of the audience is already being controlled by Mario, as "whatever" zombies.)

Without any discussion of who will go first, Mario begins. After his performance, a lot more of the crowd is converted, including Fuwari, Mikan, Ajimi, Dorothy... (Shion notes that Dorothy rolling on the floor saying "whatever" isn't that different than usual.)

Amari begins her performance, and she actually sings the second verse of Chaotic Hurricane (!!!) the entire time wishing Mario would just disappear. DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR.

Amari's performance starts to shatter Mario's dark keys, bringing most of the audience back to normal.

Pleased with her performance, Amari looks up to find that what she wished for is actually coming true. Mario really is disappearing. Distressed, he shouts that he won't let himself disappear. He desperately asks Amari again, "Do you really want to erase me!?"

Amari is genuinely shocked and just stares as she seems to realize for the first time that what she's doing is basically killing him. Mario stops disappearing.

"That's right, you're not really going to erase me. Are you, Amari?"

But now that Mario is stable again, the duel resumes. They walk towards each other where they meet at the center of the stage. A third Making Drama begins where they immediately clash.

MAN I love the Making Drama battles Idol Land introduced. It definitely feels inspired by the battles in King of Prism.

As the battle takes place, you can hear a new song playing in the background. A duet between Amari and Mario.

The Making Drama ends without a clear winner. Amari knows she has to save PriPara, but something is holding her back. She remembers her earlier conversation with Laala.

"REMEMBER!" shouts Mario. "Remember your TRUE SELF!"

Amari thinks back again to her junior high self, the day she created Mario. But, overcome with embarrassment, she screams as loud as she can:

"DISAPPEAR!"

As Amari's scream creates shockwaves over the stage, Mario begins to disappear again. But this time faster than ever. He falls to the ground, half gone already.

Laala shouts, just loud enough to reach Amari:

"You can't erase him!"

And then Amari remembers. Further back, to when she was in elementary school and dreaming about being an idol. Then getting older, meeting Laala, and all the lessons she learned as we remember all the character development she's had gradually over the series episode by episode (damn this was such a good show...) up until the present episode when Laala told her "hate is love".

Amari realizes everything is connected, and the version of herself she loves and the version of herself she hates are both what make her whole.

"Don't disappear! Don't disappear, don't disappear, don't disappear!!" Amari cries as she runs to embrace Mario. Mario weakly says how he's always loved her spirit (I think).

But, just when it seems like he's too far gone...

Mario is solid once more.

"So, you need me after all, huh?"

"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" Amari yells, lunging at him without hesitation.

And actually punching him square in the face. Turns out that throwaway line from the beginning... not a joke haha! But well, since Mario is herself, Amari sees no need to hold back, after all.

"There, I won," she says as Mario is knocked to the ground and all the other characters just kind of stare into space not quite knowing what to make of this.

(Except Dorothy. Judging by her face, she's like YEAH! Give it to him.)

(I actually only noticed this on my third rewatch of this scene. Love these reaction shots where only one character has a different expression. Also feels like a callback to King of Prism haha...)

"You fight dirty!" Mario yells as he gets up and they both lunge at each other again. But instead of punching each other, this time, each sticks their key in the other's mic.

And then well.......

THIS

HAPPENS

um

There is probably a lot that could be said about

this

a lot of analyzing

Honestly though, thinking from the Japanese perspective I'm not totally sure what might be intended by this, so.

Let me just say.

Whatever this is

I like it.

Wow honestly

Even though they threw around the word "combine" a lot I was not. I was not taking it seriously. Like AT ALL.

Until now obviously.

Well also we know why Amari and Mario have the same birthday I guess.

The stage is destroyed and everyone is blown around as the Amari/Mario duet plays again (or is this a different one?) as ... let's call them "Amario", takes to the sky, literally grabbing the fallen key and putting it into the Yumeme in the sky.

Edit: Checked the credits before posting. Two songs are listed with a similar name, and I guess the combined version of them is called "Amarion" officially, according to the titles. CD release WHEN??? Anyway.

It seems Amari is the most in control here, and Mario is just kinda coming along for the ride ("whatever") as she borrows his power, but he seems to be enjoying himself all the same. They have trouble turning the key, actually bursting into flames in the process, and Meganii suggests it's because Mario's dark power reacting to the kirakira. But, eventually they are able to overcome it and the key turns.

But, Amarion is then sent rocketing back down to the ground, still burning in flames. As they fall, Amari thinks that she'll have to leave PriPara after this, for all the trouble she's caused. In the end, she's still left out. "Whatever......"

Mario asks her (in their head) if she really likes PriPara that much, and Amari says yes.

"Well, guess I've got no choice then," says Mario.

Mario separates from Amari so that he's the only one burning now.

Amari tries to reach out to him, but with a last "Whatever..." Mario allows himself to burn away... into nothing...

Amari yells for Mario as she falls, only to be caught safely in Pololo's hands.

And back in the sky, from the Yumeme, finally falls... Yui.

Yui's normal self somehow falls through the Yumeme, is converted into a beam of rainbow light, and emerges from Takki as her full idol self.

The Yumeme power is so strong everyone gets yumeme, even Shogo.

Gaze upon yumeme Shogo.

The yumeme spread to Amari and Pololo as well, as Pololo converts more bugs (the last?) into happy flowers.

The others wave up to Amari as she sits cupped in Pololo's hands and Amari waves back. But Amari then looks up to the sky.

"Mario..."

The Amari/Mario duet plays over the credits.

So.... I guess........ I.........

I guess first I... I will

I'll get my game predictions out of the way um

Obviously I think Yui will be added soon.

It's also high time they added Believe My Dream I guess? If we have to get an older song?

And um. I said there wouldn't be a gatcha for the last episode and I was wrong so. There may be a gatcha for this one. I think we may actually be getting that crazy half Mario half Amari coord. It's clearly a cyalume that we only got to see lit up. So, much like the Evergold team SCRs, we'll probably see the unlit version for the first (only?) time when it is added to the game. I'm looking forward to it. I just wow.

So.

My thoughts on this episode. Yes. My thoughts?

I guess anyone still reading this for some reason might want to know.

.........................

When I was in Japan at the beginning of this month, I visited Prism Stone Tokyo Station several times. And on my last visit, I decided to buy an Amari plush doll.

I took her down from the shelf I had placed her on in my house upon unpacking, so that she could sit with me here right now as I rewatch the episode and write this post. So I could hold her, hug her, and poke her as necessary.

....During the time I was in Japan, I was of course sitting on the cliffhanger from the last episode. I was already having a lot of emotions about Amari and Mario and... for a brief moment, I considered buying Mario too after I decided I was getting Amari. I did think that maybe, just maybe, I might regret not buying him based on what might happen in the next episode. But, still, I decided against it.

I do regret it.

She's literally without her other half. Amari, I'm so sorry...

I shouldn't be that upset about this but I kind of am.

This episode had a very important message.

It's hard to accept some things about yourself.

It's hard to look back.

But your awkward past. Your cringe OCs.

The imaginary anime boyfriend you made when you were in middle school that also may or may not be you sort of experimenting with yourself as the opposite gender???

That's... that's all you.

And that's OK.

Because Laala loves you.

But really though.

This episode left me with this terrible, hollow, lonely feeling that I can't or rather won't go into full detail about here. I'm sitting here, playing with Amari's bunny ears as I rewatch scenes from this episode over and over again to edit and add details to this post

and missing a person who doesn't exist.

But in my case, I think he is too far gone. I deleted that novel. It felt right, at the time.

I'm sorry.

[noel-levine-fan]

noel & dorothy parallels (2)

so i made a post before about noel and dorothy parallels but since playing sirius's story which is the bulk of dorothy's content i actually have a lot more to say about that so i thought i'd remake the post!

warning: kinda long

worth noting: im starting with less specific parallels and then diving into the more specific ones, so the first few here are a bit weaker

noel and dorothy both feel somewhat responsible for others. dorothy felt like she "failed" to protect fiona, as well as feeling very responsible for claire and sirius. and noel... well he obviously feels responsible for claire's life, but we know he also in part blames himself for pretty much all of the murders nicholas did, even the ones that didn't involve him at all. this is a broad enough thing that i usually wouldn't point out as a parallel, but there's a lot there besides just that, so i thought i'd include that. to be fair, all the people dorothy feels responsible for are her kids - which, i'm not a parent, but it'd assume that's not an uncommon feeling, versus noel who doesn't have nearly as much of a reason to feel responsible for others

dorothy and noel are both associated with rouge, and it is true that noel is only associated with rouge because he has dorothy's witch's heart, but besides that, their dynamics play out pretty similarly. there's a scene where dorothy is deliberating on what to do - whether to stay in the mansion so she can protect claire if claire comes home, or to leave the mansion with sirius so that sirius won't have to be alone (she wants sirius to run far away because she just found out they're going to murder her in a few days). rouge tells dorothy to stop deliberating, to just make a choice and stop being indecisive, otherwise it'll be a bad outcome for everyone. this is pretty much exactly what happens with noel too - "it's either claire or them! just make a choice already!" - same thing. and dorothy and noel both have the same response - "i like to hope there can be a happy ending for everyone." the dialogue here felt so similar to the dialogue with noel that I'm somewhat convinced this was intentional

here's something that's like - okay, this one is speculation, but bear with me - i always found it odd that dorothy seemed surprised to have a granddaughter. like, if she's spoken to fiona at all since she got pregnant 12 years ago, she'd know that, right? they wouldn't meet and fiona just... not tell her. it implies to me they haven't seen each other since fiona got pregnant. now, they don't seem to be on bad terms before fiona's pregnancy - when charlotte approaches fiona, she's like "aw man, did my mom sign me up for this?" in a rather lighthearted way that indicates to me that there isn't anything imminently wrong between them. when trying to come up with why they wouldn't talk for 12 years, i thought... what if dorothy stopped talking to her because she was worried? dorothy would not be declared the ringleader of witches until just before the massacre, but it's possible she was still seen as a witch. maybe she worried associating with fiona would be dangerous for her. again - total speculation, but it's the most likely reason as far as I can see. if that is the case, it reflects how noel also purposely chose not to talk to someone for 12 years - he chose not to talk to sirius. if my speculation is true, they would have both isolated themselves from someone they cared about for over a decade.

they both have stolen the witch's hearts of a person just killed by nicholas to keep others from using it for harm. noel did to dorothy what dorothy did to fiona. dorothy took it from fiona while she was being horribly murdered because she couldn't stop fiona from being killed by nicholas but couldn't have anyone get their hands on it, noel took it from dorothy after she died to nicholas because he couldn't have anyone get their hands on it. the exact same thing. while we never see her say anything like this, considering she didn't use the witch's heart until she felt she had to, she probably thought something like "i'm not going to use it" when she first got it. noel is the same way - he was very adamant about not wanting to use it, and seemed upset even at the idea. yet, both ultimately caved when they had to use it for claire's sake.

speaking of which - both use the witch's heart for claire's safety, and care about her deeply. and in both cases, the heart being used was that of claire's previous guardian who died to nicholas. dorothy used the heart of her mother, who protected claire by making her stay home, only to be killed brutally, and noel used the heart of her grandmother, who protected claire with that wish from fiona, only to also die to nicholas.

also speaking of which, in regards to the wish dorothy made, both think it's better for claire to forget. they think that what claire went through was painful and that it's best for her to live without all that - though in both cases it feels in part motivated by guilt, like - "she doesn't need to remember me - I couldn't do enough for her anyway"

both insistences of "it's fine if she doesn't remember me, she shouldn't remember" (either by erasing her memories or insisting the memory erasure maintain) end up kind of negatively affecting sirius. in dorothy's case, sirius believes claire just abandoned him. in noel's case, it causes him a lot of conflict where he wants to tell claire about everything but won't - to be fair, that's not entirely noel's fault, he's also just emotionally constipated, but he is frustrated at points with this.

both saved sirius from being killed by nicholas. dorothy in the witch hunt, and noel when he came into the massacre as a monster just before nicholas was about to shoot him. similarly, both saved sirius's life after the death of his current guardian, dorothy after his parents died and noel after dorothy died.

both became the "monster" of the mansion on purpose - dorothy was the monster in the sense that she was "the horrid witch that killed everyone" - and that she gave that iconic speech about how she was an evil witch an all that to keep people away from the mansion so they wouldn't harm sirius. noel became a literal monster, but not just a monster, a monster known to the public, because he would enter the mansion as a monster to scare people away and create a reputation that you shouldn't come here, there's a monster - pretty much exactly what dorothy did, but one of them is only a figurative monster, the other is a literal one. either way, the point is to scare the public away from coming - so that they won't harm sirius. and both neither actually want to hurt anyone - dorothy obviously wasn't actually a witch that would "kill you on the spot," she made an empty threat she knew people would find scary enough to stay away from the mansion (and by extension sirius). if nicholas had already declared her a monster, why not use that to her advantage? noel similarly, was never actually going to hurt anyone - but he knew his appearance was frightening and it'd make people want to stay away just by looking at him. again - if they find you scary, why not use that to your advantage? use it to keep sirius safe?

it's actually kind of crazy how much they have in common. it's not drawn direct attention to (except for maybe the scene where dorothy is like "I want a happy ending for everyone" that one almost feels on-the-nose) but when you think about it there's just So Much There. and that's so interesting, right? it feels like yet another example of the cycle of tragedy that repeats itself. both people trying the same things, making the same mistakes... and it's interesting.

it's especially interesting to think about sirius's hate of "the monster," who in many ways did for him what dorothy also did for him. of course like - we know why he hates "the monster," and i get it - but there's some irony in him hating the monster for dorothy's sake when the specific actions taken by the monster were actions also taken by Dorothy - but in the moments where he wonders where "the monster" was dorothy, it's... IT'S JUST SO INTERESTING. CAN YOU SEE HOW THIS IS EATING AWAY AT MY POOR LITTLE SIRINOEL BRAIN.

[slamamanderb]

【アークナイツ/Arknights】Something just like this【Rhine Labs/ライン生命】

not sure how i missed it for so long but i just found this gem recently and I'm obsessed with it. Like, Rhine Lab to Rhodes Island (and back to Rhine in Dorothy's Vision) makes for a cool story full of intrigue... but only if you take it from Saria's or Silence's point of view.

For Ifrit, it's just a story of trying to keep her head above water while watching her surrogate family get ripped apart again and again. The flashbacks hit hard because Ifrit only really has two realities that we've been able to see;

First, when she was being 'treated' [experimented on] at Rhine. Her value to her 'family' was basically defined by how much physical abuse she could withstand. She was a Good Girl when she could survive greater and greater doses of literal poison. She was a disappointment when she didn't want to hurt anymore. But this is really the only time that she could exist with both Saria and Silence caring for her together. Life was busy and painful and exhausting, but it was life with two genuinely caring parental figures that she loved.

The second is after she was rescued to Rhodes Island. At RI, Ifrit got actual medical treatment, both in terms of attempting to alleviate her condition and of treating her like a human with feelings. She was accepted into a community of people who maybe didn't know the specifics of her situation, but understood and empathized with her in general. However, she lost something in her escape; she lost Saria. What's worse, she started getting signals from Silence that losing Saria was a good thing, but without an explanation of why. It's hard to imagine that Ifrit didn't internalize it as her fault that Saria was gone.

Ifrit wouldn't have understood anything about Rhine politics or its academic prestige. She doesn't give two shits about Rhodes Island trying to remake Terra in Theresa's image. She's just a girl who wants to live her life and love something akin to a family. And she would know that she had traded her and Silence's relationship with Saria for a life with less physical pain. She had traded her family, willingly or not, for being poked with moderately less painful needles. But maybe, if she was stronger, Saria wouldn't have had to leave. If only she'd endured better. If she hadn't lost control. Maybe it really is her fault that Saria left.

[She's] not looking for somebody / With some superhuman gifts / Some superhero / Some fairytale bliss / Just something [she] can turn to / Somebody [she] can miss / [She] want[s] something just like this

[dr-futbol-blog]

Sanctuary, Pt. 5

Chaya leaves them to go "consult" the deity with her Abbots. I'll draw your attention to the fact that Sheppard doesn't turn to watch her go but she looks at him as she leaves. Getting "one last look" at someone leaving is a sign of attraction. Ford, for example, glances at her as she goes. While she gets in a last look at Sheppard as she gets up the stairs, he is paying her no attention. He dismissed her with a "Thank you!" and after that, his attention was solely on McKay.

There are also no barriers between them. They're mirroring each other. Their hands are almost goddamn touching. I mean, good God. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of Athar...

The team have a private discussion:

McKay: "What Athar provides for you?" What, are you buying into this? Sheppard: Rodney… what religious people don't take their religion seriously? McKay: We didn't imagine that weapon, Major. We saw it with our own eyes, and we saw what it was capable of. Sheppard: Yes, we did.

A few notes. McKay continues to seek Sheppard to connect with him. Because he doesn't understand what Sheppard is doing, he's getting increasingly agitated. He senses that something isn't right. Yes, there's likely an element of jealousy to his behaviour but it isn't purely motivated by that. The weapon, the potential Ancient technology, isn't his main concern. He doesn't know why Sheppard is acting off but he feels the need to protect him. He is doing that by reason and rational arguments, his weapons of choice.

It seems like Sheppard is defending Chaya with the comment about religion, like we've seen him side with Rodney against other people before. But that's not really what happens. Yes, he's trying to get McKay to ease up a little bit because -- and we'll see this even better later on -- McKay's entirely valid points delivered in an unnecessarily abrasive manner are getting in the way of the angle he's working. He's trying to accomplish something, he's trying to get something from these people, and while McKay is not wrong in his observations or inaccurate with his comments, they're not helping. No, he's not buying into it but this isn't a time for debate, this is a time for telling these simple folks what ever they need to hear that will benefit the expedition, not to mention everyone else in the galaxy. Sheppard is playing a high stakes game, here.

But at the same time, he's telling Rodney that he agrees. He doesn't put much in stock with religion. He's letting Rodney know that he's not religious himself, shares his skepticism, thinks it's a charade. Religious people take their religion seriously, he's not one of them. He's with you on this, Rodney. But this isn't the time to be having this discussion. He's willing to sit through tea ceremonies and chanting if that can save his people, give all the people sanctuary.

He also agrees with McKay's observations and deductive reasoning concerning the nature of the thing that saved them from the wraith. He respects McKay's insight. He always has. But calling a person that's lying to them for some reason a liar to their lying face isn't going to get them what they need. Sheppard needs McKay to go along with this for the moment. He's even using his name, Rodney, giving him that connection he has been seeking and that he's been keeping from him to protect both of them from deleterious intimacy because he needs this that much. Needs for this planet to actually be the sanctuary he hopes it can be.

They continue:

Sheppard: All right, let's just see what Athar has to stay. McKay: So, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," hm? Sheppard: Exactly.

Again, Sheppard acknowledges McKay's point. There is a man behind the curtain that he's ignoring for now.

Here, McKay makes a reference to the Wizard of Oz. I'm going to write more about this later as this is by no means to only reference to the Wizard of Oz made in the show but suffice it to say that "Friends of Dorothy" is a well-known euphemism for gay men. There might be an allusion to the story in the Cowardly Lion that is actually courageous (McKay), the heartless Tin Woodman that is actually compassionate (both of them? Weir?), and the brainless Scarecrow that actually has "first rate" ideas (Sheppard). I mean, the easy thing would be to cast the four members of the team in these roles but it doesn't quite work, not in this episode. In this particular episode we might also interpret them as the intelligent one acting thoughtless and the compassionate one acting heartless.

Chaya is also very much wearing a blue and white dress. You know, like Dorothy's blue and white gingham, which makes the Munchkins believe she is a friendly witch since blue is the Munchkin national color and white is the color of witches. She's not Dorothy, she doesn't have the red slippers. But she sure is disguising herself as a good witch here.

And it should be iterated that McKay is actually right about her. McKay has her number from the start. As an audience, we are asked to sympathize with her but nothing McKay says at any point is inaccurate. And it also seems like Sheppard actually either agrees with McKay or at least trusts his judgement. Sheppard's issue is not that he somehow wants to give her the benefit of the doubt because he's so smitten by her or that he's overrun by emotion and hence disregards McKay's advice. It's that there's something she has that Sheppard desperately wants, and that is sanctuary. A place of protection for all the people he has personally put into mortal danger in this galaxy, McKay being at the very forefront of that list.

But given that by this reference and her dress we are invited to connect her to Dorothy, it is interesting that Sheppard forms a friendship of a kind with Chaya by the end of the episode (and indeed, they are much alike in their need to protect their people and their largely self-imposed isolation). And we also see McKay desperately yearn for her friendship, for her teaching.

Once the team are left to their own devices we see Sheppard do something that we rarely if ever see him do. He relaxes. He lays down on the bench to await the "deity's" verdict. We might think that he's just exhausted by the long, long journey they had to walk there (but McKay isn't showing any signs of exhaustion here). We might think that he's just so comfortable here, what with having met their lovely host and had her tea. But again, this episode is about the concept of sanctuary. We see Sheppard relax here, which he rarely does, because he feels safe. This planet has been untouched by the wraith for thousands of years, they have some kind of weapon capable of neutralizing them, they have space in their paradise for people to find safety from "the culling that he already begun."

This planet represents to Sheppard an opportunity to fix his mistake. He has a lot riding on this thing working out for them. So, yes. He feels safe. He feels relaxed. He's here where nothing can hurt him, and his team are here with him. Rodney is here, and nothing can hurt him here either. We don't often see him like this because he doesn't often get to feel like this. And that has nothing to do with Chaya. She's just some primitive country bumpkin cleric he has to talk into letting them make use of this opportunity, and if there's one thing he can do, it's to talk people into doing what he wants.

And McKay, well. He's not feeling quite as relaxed. But he sure is attuned to Sheppard's physical presence. Sheppard gets down, he automatically goes down with him. He also does this thing with his hand, tightening a fist, that he's done previously and always connected to Sheppard's presence. Nervousness? Yes, he's chronically nervous. Uncertainty? For sure the situation is agitating him. But if he was turned on here and doing that to distract himself from thoughts of that nature, I wouldn't blame him. If Sheppard was looking at what he's packing earlier, he's focused on the Major's ordnance here. This isn't a platonic bromance. Those two desire one another.

Continued in Pt. 6

[jamiesfootball]

I’ve been twirling it around in my head how Ted and Jamie had similar but opposite movies assigned to them, both revolving around the concepts of dreaming and waking up, but which are very very different in execution. Like literally so different, that that’s the only common thread they have.

Ted, son of Dorothy, with the Wizard of Oz. Leaving the tornado back home in Kansas and traveling to another world where he builds relationships with people trying to discover the magic in themselves. Something about a road (but also something about quoting Robert Frost’s ‘the road not taken’). Crossing through the Dark Forest. Making his way to the Emerald (Man) City. And we know the point of Oz is that eventually you can not stay in the dream. The shoes you’ve found and worn will carry you back home - you’ve had the power within you this whole time. But it also begs the question: has Ted met the man behind the curtain yet? Or is that man meant to be the reflection of himself, the person - the dad and husband - he always assumed he’d be? Wizard of Oz is ostensibly a story about growth and questioning your belief in the role you’ve been assigned and when you’re ready, seeing who you really are and what the world really is. You had the power all along. The dream is a wonderful place, but it’s closing time and you want to go home. You want to go home.

“There’s no place like home.”

In Nightmare on Elm Street you are never safe in your home. Freddy Krueger hurt and sexually abused kids when he was alive (in the waking world), and after he died preyed on kids when they were asleep (in the dream world). And even when they were awake, the kids were always afraid that Freddy was after them. Jamie is literally afraid of his own Freddy Krueger. There are no magic shoes. There is no exploration of self, no growth, no learning - there is just constant, exhausting vigilance. The only way to kill Freddy Krueger is with fire, and even then he keeps coming back. And that’s the note that every Freddy Krueger movie leaves on. The idea and hope that maybe you’re safe. Maybe this time. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. So you try to enjoy that possibility as hard as you can, as much you can, but it’s forced, because you know deep inside that you can’t truly know that if you’re safe ever again. Because it’s the hope that kills you.

So Ted. Sweet Ted. Amazing Ted with his red heels and his beloved witches and his strange but wonderful companions and his flying monkeys. Ted probably feels like he is wrapping up in Oz, ready to face the wreckage of the tornado head on. He’s ready to leave the dream. And he thinks as he’s talking to a Jamie from his world, a Jamie that has grown so much and who’s so strong and smart and kind, a kid who’s so so brave. Because that’s what Ted has seen. That’s the role he’s played. From his viewpoint, this is how the movie goes.

But that’s not Jamie’s viewpoint. Jamie may have wandered into Ted’s play, but to him if he ever fit in, it was only because he was pretending. Because he was stopping himself from being a prick. Everyone else is great and does great things - it’s Jamie who needs to try harder. Ted’s dream was a great place to hide for a while, but Jamie was never waiting for the slippers; he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. You can’t hide from him. You can’t escape him. And he can even get you in your dreams.

Which is why there’s a point in every Freddy Krueger movie when the victim says they’ve had enough of hiding, and they take some sleeping pills, and they decide to face him head on.

So Ted thinks he’s ready to leave Oz behind and that everyone in Oz will be fine once he’s gone, when actually what he’s accidentally done is given Jamie an idea: to wade into the Dark Forest and confront Freddy Krueger head on. Jamie doesn’t h

Ted and Jamie are talking, but they’re not in the same movie. They’re not in the same genre. They’re both at the end of their movies, ready to face the bad guy, so they think they’re having the same conversation. But they’re not.

And once again I’ve typed so far that I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but there’s definitely. More story there. A climax that hasn’t happened. Another story to explore. Because what becomes of the companions after Dorothy leaves Oz? Even if Jamie defeats Freddy, will he survive to the end of his own movie? Does he make it to the sequel?

Will Roy Kent get to fight his dad like Jason Vorhees? Does he already own a machete, and does he borrow the hockey mask from Van Damme?

Now I’ll just pivot down a different somewhat related path (road):

Shoes.

Isaac literally told Keeley he just wanted to do something with shoes. Something about the shoes. Something about Jamie burning the shoes his mum got him. Something about all the football lads fighting over what kind of shoes they’re allowed to wear, and Dani hating mourning shoes and stealing Rebecca’s soft bright cozy ones that she never wears. Jamie being stuck in his socks at the locker room at Wembley. Roy wearing his colorful socks with the yoga mums. Keeley wearing shoes that out her on eye level with everyone else. Trent’s leopard shoes. All these people in Oz with their fucking shoes or lack thereof.

Dreams!

And shoes!

[bestworstcase]

Wait could you go more into Salem being glinda? (<- person who is bad at allegories but loves your metas)

ok!!

step one is to clear out everything you’ve ever read about rwby’s ozian allusion from your brain because this fandom keeps trying to make it about the wizard of oz and it’s… nnnot about the wizard of oz. the book we’re going to be talking about as the primary text of reference is the second oz book, ‘the marvelous land of oz,’ which is about what happens after dorothy and the wizard go home.

the reason nobody can figure out who rwby’s “dorothy” is is… there is no dorothy. she’s in kansas and not really relevant to this story except insofar as her journey through oz resulted in the wizard’s departure and the end of the wicked witches of the east and west. she’s The Backstory. and—actually as i write this there, um, there IS a dorothy and now i have to go stare at a wall for a little while. 

…

we’ll get there.

context:

at the end of the first oz book, ‘the wonderful wizard of oz,’ the wizard leaves and glinda, the good witch of the south, tells dorothy how to return home to kansas with the glass slippers (which fall off her feet and are lost forever whilst carrying dorothy home)

(the classic film makes something of a mess by combining glinda and the good witch of the north into a composite character, creating the problem of why glinda would not simply tell dorothy how to use the slippers right away. in the book, the good witch of the north sends dorothy to the wizard, who is secretly a fraud, and after he inadvertently leaves dorothy behind she is advised to travel south to consult with glinda instead.)

now, the wizard was the ruler of oz, so his departure created a political problem that he attempted to solve by appointing the scarecrow to rule in his absence. that choice is what ‘marvelous land’ is chiefly about because, you see, before the wizard came along, oz was ruled by a king named pastoria, who had an infant daughter named ozma. then the wizard deposed pastoria, and princess ozma disappeared.

the book’s protagonist is a boy named tippetarius (tip) who’s been raised all his life by the bad witch mombi. tip is in fact ozma, stolen by mombi and transformed into a boy to secure the wizard on the throne of oz. he has no idea; he just knows that mombi isn’t very nice to him and he wants to leave. 

when he runs away, he takes with him jack pumpkinhead—a fellow tip made by carving a jack-o-lantern head for a wooden man, animated by mombi’s magic. their relationship is quasi-parental (jack calls tip “father” but tip is, you know, a boy and not especially fatherly). they’re joined by a living saw horse en route to the emerald city. the trio is briefly separated, with jack and the horse rushing ahead and being received by the scarecrow while tip is waylaid and meets general jinjur, who is leading an army of revolt to the emerald city to overthrow the scarecrow.

that happens. jinjur wins more or less by default because the soldier with green whiskers, who guards the emerald city’s gate, is too cowardly to fight them and simply lets them into the city. the scarecrow flees, along with tip, the sawhorse, and jack. this motley crew heads west to winkie country, once the domain of the wicked witch of the west, now ruled by nick chopper—the tin man. en route to winkie country, the scarecrow mentions to jack that pumpkins rot and jack spends the remainder of the story in a state of ever-present existential dread over his imminent decay. 

anyway, nick accompanies them back to the emerald city, along with the woggle-bug—a very large, knowledgeable bug whom none of them like particularly and whose backstory involves transformation by a professor, an incident about which the woggle-bug has ambivalent feelings—whom they meet along the way. they’re hindered by various illusory traps mombi throws at them because she’s trying to get tip back under control.

reclaiming the emerald city from jinjur does not Go Well. they’re forced to flee again, briefly end up stranded in an inhospitable place on the far side of the desert and attacked by birds. the woggle bug saves them by using a silver wishing pill to repair their means of transportation so that they can reach glinda’s home, in southern quadling country. 

they want glinda to help them restore the scarecrow to the throne of oz. glinda has other plans, because she’s spent all this time trying to find ozma and set right the wizard’s various injustices. she’s narrowed it down to mombi as the culprit, and upon learning that the witch has hidden herself in the emerald city, she… um, immediately lays siege to the emerald city to “starve it into submission” and flush mombi out, then chases her to the impassable desert at the edge of oz, ties a rope around her neck to silence her magical powers, and bodily drags her back to the emerald city to account for her wrongdoing on pain of death:

Glinda had been carefully considering what to do, and now she turned to Mombi and said: "You will gain nothing, I assure you, by thus defying us. For I am determined to learn the truth about the girl Ozma, and unless you tell me all that you know, I will certainly put you to death." "Oh, no! Don't do that!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman. "It would be an awful thing to kill anyone—even old Mombi!" "But it is merely a threat," returned Glinda. "I shall not put Mombi to death, because she will prefer to tell me the truth." "Oh, I see!" said the Tin Man, much relieved. "Suppose I tell you all that you wish to know,". said Mombi, speaking so suddenly that she startled them all. "What will you do with me then?" "In that case," replied Glinda, "I shall merely ask you to drink a powerful draught which will cause you to forget all the magic you have ever learned." "Then I would become a helpless old woman!" "But you would be alive," suggested the Pumpkinhead, consolingly. […] "You may make your choice," Glinda said to old Mombi, "between death if you remain silent, and the loss of your magical powers if you tell me the truth. But I think you will prefer to live." Mombi cast an uneasy glance at the Sorceress, and saw that she was in earnest, and not to be trifled with.

thus mombi is forced to tell the truth, remove the curse she placed on tippetarius (turning him back into ozma), and take glinda’s potion to strip all of her magical power away. 

folds hands. 

here are some facts about glinda:

she rules over quadling country—in the oz books, the cardinal kingdoms are all color-coded; northern gillikin country is purple, eastern munchkinland is blue, western winkie country is yellow, and quadling country? red. (glynda goodwitch’s purple is the first hint that she is not glinda, but rather the good witch of the north who believes in the wizard’s power. her absolute faith in ozpin is the second hint.)

glinda is, despite her youthful appearance, implied to be thousands of years old, and by any measure the most powerful sorceress in all of oz. 

in demeanor, she is always calm and collected and resolutely truthful; so great is her dedication to the truth that she has no power over mombi’s magical deception and illusions, hence the need to force mombi to undo her own curse. she always knows when she’s lied to, but she can be fooled (fleetingly) by powerful illusions. and she can be utterly ruthless in pursuit of what she believes is right for oz. 

she, as noted in the last post, is responsible for freeing the flying monkeys from their enslavement by the golden cap. 

now!

the allusions rwby is making to ‘marvelous land’ are really very straightforward—much like cinder and cinderella or salem and maiden-in-tower stories. it is impossible to read the book with rwby in mind and not see the connections:

the god of light is mombi.

ozma is ozma; as ozpin, he has become the wizard (complicit in his own cursed imprisonment), and within oscar he’s tippetarius (a boy who’s lost his true self).

oscar is jack pumpkinhead, ozma’s heir (thus, symbolically, his “son”), brought to life at least symbolically by light’s power (he’s in the story at all because he’s ozma’s vessel), and preoccupied with existential dread inspired by the looming immediacy of his spiritual death.

qrow is the scarecrow, left to carry the symbol of ozpin’s authority in ozpin’s absence and forced to flee beacon, the “emerald city,” by

summer rose, who is general jinjur, holding beacon academy while she searches for the crown. (jinjur spends a considerable portion of the story trying to get the royal crown.)

lionheart is the soldier with green whiskers: not the fearful but truly courageous lion, but the cowardly old soldier who all but hands jinjur the keys to the city in his terror. 

ironwood is the tin man, ruling over a land once subjugated by the wizard’s bitter enemy (pre-war, fascist mantle) now remade into a shining and prosperous kingdom under the command of the wizard’s ally (atlas)—and it is he who gives sanctuary to the scarecrow and tip’s party after the emerald city falls, and he who leads the failed first attempt to take the city back by force. 

vacuo is the nest of jackdaws where the party ends up stranded, far from oz—they cross a desert to get there and i suspect the point of theodore is to signal that vacuo isn’t “in” oz but rather standing in for the deserts and the lands beyond. because dorothy is in kansas, you see. (he’s not the Real Dorothy, though, we’ll get there momentarily).

the woggle-bug is raven, the maiden of knowledge who knows the secret that will bridge the impassable divide between vacuo and salem; her knowledge of what summer did is the silver wishing pill which, incidentally, poisons tip when he tries to use it. 

and salem is, of course, glinda: ancient and aloof and coldly ruthless in her pursuit of the truth, searching for ozma (<- note the congruence here with rapunzel searching for her prince in the wasteland!) and ready to GO TO WAR to bring the god of light to account for what he’s done. i really must emphasize the GOING TO WAR bit: the glinda of the books is not the soft, mistily benevolent lady the classic film makes of her. she has an extremely well-disciplined standing army which she marches on the emerald city with the explicit intention of delivering a siege to “starve it into submission.” mombi looks this woman in the eye, sees death staring back at her, and surrenders with a whimper. glinda is ruthless.

so it isn’t even “glinda would go to war if she thought it necessary” it’s that glinda does in fact go to war and rwby is, with salem, taking glinda’s decision to go to war to achieve her ends very seriously and putting that in a context where salem isn’t revered as a protector and loved by all. the only difference between salem and glinda is that glinda is beloved by the people of oz!

but i also promised you dorothy. so:

allow me to direct your attention back to what glinda does to mombi after ozma’s curse is lifted. mombi is made to drink a potion that causes her to forget all the magic she’s ever learned, leaving her to live as an ordinary old woman—but she is not left alone to suffer afterwards, because ozma makes arrangements to provide for her indefinitely.

this is, of course, what’s in store for the god of light. he’s going to ascend—that’s obvious—and the fairytale ‘the two brothers’ hints quite strongly that he’ll come back as a man (i’d wager a faunus specifically), leaving his power and memories of divinity behind and given a peaceful life in return. mombi’s resolution in ‘marvelous land’ offers a direct 1:1 comparison to ascension. 

but what about the god of darkness?

he’s– he’s dorothy.

dorothy doesn’t appear in ‘marvelous land’ and she has no presence in the book whatsoever except as one of the two characters whose departure at the end of the last book created the circumstances that allow this story to occur: it is dorothy’s adventure that convinces the wizard to leave oz, and then she leaves too. the wizard—through mombi, the real power behind his throne—retains his influence and authority over the land of oz until she is forced to undo her wrongs, but dorothy is simply… gone. she went home, she’s remembered fondly by her friends, she has nothing whatsoever to do with this story, and the silver shoes that bore her home at the end of the last book fell from her feet and were lost forever. 

(she does eventually make it back to oz, in a roundabout way, by accident. but for rwby’s purposes, and within the context of ‘marvelous land’ taken in isolation, dorothy is Gone Forever.)

afterans refer to the tree as home; they think of ascension as returning home to rest and find renewal after a long journey through the world outside. at the end of her journey through oz, she asks glinda to send her home, and glinda tells her:

“The Silver Shoes," said the Good Witch, "have wonderful powers. And one of the most curious things about them is that they can carry you to any place in the world in three steps, and each step will be made in the wink of an eye. 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.”

and, as i noted, the shoes carry her home but are lost in the process, never to be found again. 

glinda teaches dorothy how to go home. likewise, salem is a repetition of jabber—the argument between the brothers comes full circle—and through this experience dark realizes that he needs to “go home,” i.e. ascend. he’s been trapped in this same disagreement for thousands of years and nothing has changed; nothing will change unless he tries something new. he shatters the moon on his way out and, unlike his brother, there’s nothing to suggest he’s still present in this world or relevant to this story as anything but backstory… because he ascended and became something new.

(the spirits in the relics.)

(which in terms of the ozian narrative, represent the golden cap, which glinda receives from dorothy before she gives it to the king of the flying monkeys to set them all free, so the symbolic through line between dark-as-dorothy becoming the spirits-as-flying-monkeys through his and their relation to salem is relatively straightforward.)

anyway, behold.

toto.

[ultimate-shipper-blog]

Snippets of my 4th wall fic:

Jo was literally so confused. She was walking her dog around the neighborhood when her dog started barking and ran off into the woods dragging Joanna with him.

"PETE NO!"

He leads her to a clearing in the woods where there's a guy in a very strange cosplay. I guess it wasn't weird for people to cosplay in public but they are in the woods.

Pete runs up to the guy and jumps all over him. He's wearing a hellfire shirt and ripped jeans. She's seen better at hot topic.

She runs up to them embarrassed.

"Pete! Get off of him! I'm sorry dude I don't know what's gotten into him."

The guy gives her a strange look and starts to walk away. She still feels bad and decides to test her luck with the stranger.

"Woah Munson, cool gay pride shirt!"

The guy spins around glares at her. "What?"

"Oh sorry dude, it's this meme that came out when- WAIT actually I'm not sorry. Don't be homophobic in 2024 this is getting ridiculous, grow up."

"WHAT" random guy yells.

"Yeah dude times are changing keep up. Anyway...I'm gonna go." She should've known better than to talk to strangers in the woods. As soon as she starts walking he follows her. She starts sprinting until she's out of breathe, he's gaining on her.

"Wait!" He's yelling. "How did you know?! WAIT PLEASE!!"

He finally catches her and she falls onto her back covered in leaves.

She's hyperventilating and trying to get away from him. "Know what?!"

He's trying to stop her from struggling.

"Will you just- uh quit it- my name how did you know my name?"

"I didn't!"

"You did!"

"No! I called you Munson that's not your name!"

"Yes! It is!"

She stops struggling and finally focuses on him. He looks different than the actor obviously, but still distinct.

"No way." He eyes widen. "Eddie?"

"Yeah." He gets off her and puts some distance between them. "Do I know you?"

-------

She's walking around with Eddie trying to reach her house. She's trying not to freak out and she thinks she's doing moderately well.

There's a car behind them that keeps beeping until it pulls up next to them.

"Joanna." Ugh. Him.

"Hello Thomas."

"Jo! Don't call me that!"

"What do you want Tom."

"I'm just curious who your new friend is? You don't normally hang out with strange guys."

She stares at him until she's squinting. Then grabs Eddie's arm and walks in the opposite direction, flipping Tom off.

Eddie is laughing at her but he looks confused.

"That was cool kid, who is that guy?"

"First of all I'm a year younger than you so you can stop with that. Secondly, Tom is my neighbor. We were really close best friends until a couple of years ago. He changed. I changed. So is life. He still keeps an eye on me and definitely will snitch to my mom about this. I wouldn't worry about it. Hopefully we'll find a way to get you back to your dimension before dinner."

-----

She walks into family video listening to the chime of the bells drown out the loud thoughts in her brain.

Robin, or who she assumes is Robin is popping her gum when she spots her.

"Hi welcome to family video let me know if I can help you," she drones on, bored.

Eddie is behind her, still not understanding why this stop is important.

Jo is happy she runs up to Robin, definitely freaking her out.

"Hi!" Man could she be any louder.

"Hi?"

"Are you a friend of Dorothy?"

Eddie sputters behind her while Robin turns pale.

"W-What?"

"Oh! Don't worry! I am too!"

Eddie is freaking out behind her waving his arms and making sound effects.

"Jo! You can't just-"

"Oh relax, I just wanted to see if what transferred into canon was real."

Robin hasn't blinked.

"Um," Jo waves her hand in front of Robin's face trying to gage a reaction.

"Is he here?"

"Is who here?"

She giggles. It's exactly like the script.

---

Hi! This is the fic I was talking about in my previous post :) I'll be writing a couple of new ones, some oneshots, hopefully this one is at least a couple of chapters I can see it turning into something big. This is purely fun and is what I think would happen if we could interact w characters. This will definitely be rewritten differently in the actual chapters.

Comment if you like this and think I should continue!

This fic was also inspired by the Eddie cosplayer who made direct eye contact with me during a Journey song playing at 80s night. Creepy. Wig was TERRIBLE.