#world state rambling

[armofandruil]

thinking about the fucked up dynamic of a warden who got anora's support at the landsmeet and then executed her father in front of her before declaring her queen. then, after that, she leads her armies into battle in the name of her father's killer, and honors them in a grand ceremony. she continues to see this person as her life goes on, even coming to visit them in the lands they take after slaying her father's accomplice. and she never wavers in her grace towards them.

the drama.... it's so good....

[dittolicous]

i feel like if youre gunna do a modern au for one piece, the strawhats have got to be like. the biggest fuckin weirdos everyone knows. not a single one is a legal law abiding citizen. they dont care about being known or w/e but somehow become influencers slash political advocates all across the world. theyre off the grid yet in the way. no one knows what stunt theyre gunna pull next including themselves. they live in a caravan-trailer situation. half of them have phds and also arrest warrents in 60 countries. theyre career criminals and hashtag career goals. they traveled with a honest to god princess. an ex-politician joined them and now all he does is wear hawaiian shirts, drive bus, and punch facists.

chopper is still a talking reindeer

[allebooklover]

Seeing people hate on bnha’s ending for not being a utopia and claiming that nothing about their society has changed, and I just don’t agree with that.

Even if it’s not perfect, their society did change for the better. Crime still exists, but has gone down to the point that less heroes are needed. There’s less idolization on the pro-heroes career - in Deku’s teenage years the ideal job was pro-hero and only pro-hero, but in the epilogue other career tracks such as healthcare and technology are given equal recognition and value to the pro-hero career track. Therapy used to be viewed as a threat and something to be kept hidden because it is shameful to admit that you needed it, and in Toga’s case used outdated practices that did more harm than help - in the epilogue it’s instead seen as something regular and helpful, and that needing help is nothing to be ashamed about, and more up to date and effective at actually helping others, as seen by the therapy programs Uraraka and co created being talked about on tv. Society is shown (I’m mainly thinking about the old granny and the kid) to be less apathetic to those in need. Things have changed for the better.

It’s not a utopia. Crime still exists. Heroes are still needed. But they’re no longer the sole bandage for the gaping wound that used to be their society. Other people from other careers help serves as bandages too, and all of that ultimately helps society function in a way that benefits everyone better. If utopia is the top of the stairs and the society shown in the story’s beginning is at the bottom of the stairs, the society shown in the epilogue is on the step that is halfway up to the top. Not perfect, but improving, and one that is working on continuing their improvement so that they don’t fall stagnant and backslide back to the bottom of the stairs where they used to be.

(Ngl if I want to be more specific it’s that the beginning of the manga has them in the lower parts of the steps solely because All Might and his Symbol of Peace carried them there, but it’ll muddy the metaphor too much lol)

But anyways. BNHA’s ending does something I find much more interesting than ‘they’ve created a crime-free utopia where everyone is happy’. The ending goes ‘things aren’t perfect but they’re improving, and will continue to improve so long as everyone puts in the effort’. It acknowledges imperfections, and the beauty and importance of small steps that lead up to big changes. It promotes gradual growth as important and crucial, and that’s a message I find much more relatable than a crime-free utopia.

[skrmbrks]

i wish for peace in our lifetime, i wish for love to seep into every crack of this planet, i wish for it to penetrate every heart and soul. i wish for brutality to face its end, i wish for evil to turn to light. i wish for us to create such a place where cruelty cannot resurface. i wish for communities without borders, i wish for human and nature to be reunited by love and protect each other.

[hetalian-veteran]

Imagine we get a new season of Hetalia where we finally get to see Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Wales all animated. As well as an English dub.

In the English dub, the characters sound more or less like you think they would, with accents associated with each country. Ireland and Northern Ireland speak with heavy Irish accents. Wales speaks with a type of Welsh accent.

And then Scotland just sounds exactly like Scrooge McDuck. Quack and all.

[luckystarchild]

Today I was the Ambassador

I had a migraine and sat in my workplace's storage warehouse for a bit to rest, away from noise and in the dark. Glasses off, phone away, just sitting in a chair with my eyes closed in the quiet. I had taken medication that makes me quite loopy, and it had kicked in a little while prior.

Soon a dude I didn't recognize wandered into the warehouse to take a phone call. Loudly. And when he was done, he called out to me from like 50 feet away, "Sorry, I didn't see you there! Hope I'm not disturbing you!"

And I, politely, because I wasn't sure which of my colleagues this might be, and because I'm generally a friendly person who doesn't shy away from social interaction, replied, "It's all good. I have a migraine and am just resting in a quiet place."

To which he replied, "A migraine? What's that like?"

[Long post below the cut, sorry]

For the next ten minutes he stood over me asking questions. What's it feel like? How do you treat it? What causes it? Why do you get them? How bad does it hurt on a scale of 1-10? I reiterated several times I needed quiet, but the hint went untaken, and he kept asking questions. I still didn't recognize him, but I had my glasses off, so I thought perhaps this was someone new, and I felt I needed to be polite just in case.

Eventually, curiosity assuaged, he said, "You never know what a person's going through. For instance, you told me you had a migraine, and I could've walked away. But I didn't, and I came over here, and now I know all about migraines and how bad they are!"

Me: "Yep, that you do. That's empathy for you."

Him: "Yeah! I could've just told you to shake it off. Like I could've told you it's just a headache. But I didn't!"

I was pretty doped up on my migraine meds and therefore not feeling belligerent, nor particularly sharp, but even through that haze I recognized the multiple points of irony studding the conversation. Alas, I was too doped up to think clearly about how to end the interaction, and I just said something like, "People say that a lot to me, to be honest, and I'm glad you didn't."

Him: "People say that a lot? What do you mean?"

Me: "Well, pain is invisible. Some people don't believe me when I say I have a migraine and need to sit somewhere quiet and dark." (No reaction; nuts.) "Some people don't take a minute to empathize. They just tell me it can't be that bad."

Him: "That's terrible. People really say that to you?"

Me: "Yeah. My mother does every time I tell her I have one."

Him: "Oh wow. Do you have a good relationship with your mother?"

Me: "Oh. Uh. No."

Him: "Wow, really?"

Me: "Really. But I came out as queer a few years back though, so the migraines aren't the reason why."

Him: "What's that mean?"

Me: "Which part?"

Him: "That you came out as queer. What does 'queer' mean? How are you queer? Can you explain it?"

This is where I kind of came back to myself through the medication fog. That was a deeply personal question. Many of the questions had been. I only belatedly realized the level of prying happening (see again: medication) and it occurred to me I still wasn't sure who this person actually was. Did I even want to share this with this person? Blearily I put my glasses back on and looked at him. Really looked.

He was wearing a Trump hat. Blue. "Take America Back," it said. Not being the instantly recognizable red to which I am accustomed, and without the aid of my glasses, I hadn't recognized it for what it was.

I also realized I didn't know this guy. He was not a coworker. But my addlepated brain slowly pieced together that there were contractors in the building working on [some maintenance project or another], and this must be one of them.

Normally I would not reveal anything about my queer identity to a stranger in a Trump hat. People wearing them have chased me shouting threats and obscenities based on presumptions they made based on the cut of my hair and my style of clothing alone. Normally I wouldn't be caught dead revealing anything about my gender or sexuality to a stranger in a Trump hat. But here I was, already deep in it, and in an isolated place, and suffering from pain, and being stared at expectantly by someone whose nature and temperament were yet a mystery to me.

But.

Generally speaking, I can tell when someone is asking a genuinely curious question. It feels markedly different from someone asking a shit-heel question that will lead to eventual antagonism. And this guy was not acting like the latter. He looked at me frankly, and his body language was neutral, and while his questions were blunt, he hadn't raised his voice. So far, he hadn't actually been antagonistic. Just blunt, and insistent, and maybe a little tone-deaf.

So, perhaps against my better judgement, I said: "Well, in my case, both my gender and my sexuality inform my choice of the word 'queer' as a personal label. I'm bisexual and nonbinary. 'Queer' covers both gender and sexuality, and for me it feels comfortable to use as an umbrella term." Realizing I did not want to arm this person with a word he shouldn't have carte blanche to use, I added: "But some people in the LGBTQIA community don't like the word 'queer,' so I wouldn't use it to describe a person unless you know that's the term they prefer. The word was once used as a slur, but some of us have reclaimed it, and I'm one of those people."

Him: "OK." A beat. "What's 'nonbinary' mean?"

So I explained. And it took a long time, because (as I soon learned, and expected from the outset) he did not know the difference between sex and gender, nor that male/female are used to describe sex, and that man/woman and male/female are not actually interchangeable terms when discussing gender and sex. He didn't not know there was something called a gender binary, nor that anyone could exist outside it. He didn't know what 'cisgender' meant (he had never heard the term). He didn't know that your sexuality and you gender exist independently of each other. He didn't know the words he could use to describe himself, if he were so inclined.

There was... a lot to cover.

Me: "So, I'm to assume you are a cisgender man."

Him: "I don't know what that means."

Me: "It means you were assigned male at birth and told you were a boy by a doctor/your family, and as an adult, you identity as a man. The identity you were assigned and the one you feel fits you best is the same. It's never changed."

Him: "Yeah! That's right!"

Me: "May I assume you're heterosexual?"

Him: "What does that mean?"

Like I said: There was a lot to cover.

And cover it I did. I was patient. He had some trouble with the lingo, of course, since it was all so new. He got words mixed up, and I fear there were parts I didn't explain properly. I wasn't exactly prepared to have the discussion that day, and I was in pain besides. I spent the entire time on tenterhooks, carefully waiting for any hints of antagonism or mockery in case I needed to fish or cut bait.

No mockery came. He got a little frustrated, I think, when he messed up some words, but he never snapped, or argued, or tried to tell me I was wrong about any of it. He just seemed curious.

"But what does nonbinary feel like?" he wanted to know. "Does it feel weird? Do you walk around feeling weird all the time?"

Me: "Kind of, yeah! Ever since I was a little kid, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable around girls, or around boys. Neither label fit me."

And he listened as I relayed a few anecdotes illustrating how that felt. And when I mentioned that my parents never really understood me as a kid, his brow furrowed.

Him: "They didn't get it?"

Me: "No. My parents were cattle ranchers."

Wide eyes. WIDE eyes. And that reaction cemented a hunch that had been growing in me since we started talking.

I live in Texas. I grew up here. I know how people think, even the ones I disagree with. To me, this guy seemed the type who might vote a certain way due to the influence of those around him, but one who doesn't know much about politics or anything outside his family or in-group. The one whose family "always votes Republican" but has never actually bothered to look up how a tariff works—and I know the type. I know how to work with someone like that. You have to find in-roads to empathy with these folks. Speak their language. If no one has actually fed them damaging misinformation (and it did not appear that anyone had!), there's an opportunity there to do some good.

Thus, sensing we were at the point of terminology overload anyway, I changed tactics. It was time for emotion, and personal experience, and giving him a touch-point for empathy. He was from this state, and the reaction to my folks being cattle ranchers was telling. So I leaned into that, hard.

Me: "We lived in the middle of nowhere, and my folks don't get it at all. There was nothing in my upbringing to really influence this. We were Baptists, on a ranch, in Texas. I didn't know a single gay or transgender person, but here I am."

Him: "So your parents didn't know anything about it at all."

Me: "Nope."

Him: "It was all you, and from when you were a kid!"

Me: "Yeah! They were absolutely baffled when I started telling them I didn't feel like a boy or a girl. It was just how I felt, and they didn't understand for a second."

Him: "Wow. WOW. It really was just a part of you, huh?"

Me: "Yup."

Him: "It's just how you felt inside. Wow!"

I realize these transcriptions, if read looking for sarcasm, could seem disingenuous. But he sounded sincere. He sounded utterly, painfully sincere. He looked surprised, and baffled, but also rather excited. Like he'd learned something new and was happy about that.

We chatted about a few more subjects after that: he wanted to know what transgender means, and why transgender people feel the way they do, sometimes without having the language to accurately convey his questions. But I listened, and I tried my best to educate. I stressed that gender is something people feel, and it can be hard to understand, but that it's up to an individual to know who they are best. And he nodded along, and never once argued, and asked questions frequently along the way.

We get tired, though, all of us. I was tired, and even though he was still asking questions, I think he was reaching information fatigue as well. So eventually I walked back to something we'd discussed before that I thought he could feel good about. End on a happy note. That feeling would hopefully stick once we parted ways, and color the memory thereafter.

"Y'know, you mentioned empathy earlier," I said. "Walking in another person's shoes."

Him: "Yeah!"

Me: "I think it's OK to admit we don't always understand exactly what a person feels, or why they feel it. It's OK to say you don't really get it. But if someone is living their best life, and they're not hurting anyone, it seems like we should just let them live it. That's what we'd want for ourselves, right?

Him: "Yeah, I agree with that!"

Me: "Transgender people are less than 1% of the world's population, too. So when you see people getting really mad over transgender people, it's like...why are they so mad? We're just living our lives. Don't they have bigger issues to worry about?"

Him: "Oh yeah. Much bigger. You're right!"

The conversation ended after that; maybe a few more light remarks, but nothing worth noting. I invited him to ask more questions if he had them and if he saw me in the building again. He said he would, and he thanked me, and we parted ways.

I relayed the conversation to a friend not long later. They stared at me for a second before asking, "Why in the world didn't you just walk away?"

And the honest answer, at first, was that my migraine made thinking clearly too difficult! But once I focused up, I made the decision to continue the conversation.

My reason for staying will probably resonate with folks from various groups: I stayed because in that moment, I had become the Ambassador.

When encountering a person who seems to have never met anyone from your group, and they realize you are a part of that fabled minority, you are placed (whether consciously or unconsciously ) atop a pedestal. In that moment, you are not an individual. Like it or not, you have become the spokesperson, the mouthpiece, the Ambassador of your entire social group. Anything you say can and will be used against your entire social group by whoever has elected you the Ambassador. If you react poorly, or yell, or scream, that person may leave the interaction thinking everyone in your group will yell, or scream, or react poorly to them. If they deem you, the Ambassador, unreasonable or rude, they may think everyone in your group is unreasonable and rude. And they may carry that opinion with them into the world, and they may inflict that opinion onto someone else.

This is unfair, of course. It's awful. Because these questions are invasive, and personal, and uncomfortable. Reacting poorly would be totally reasonable when asked something so deeply personal. Boundaries are healthy, and if you don't feel safe enough to discuss your gender/sexuality with a stranger in a Trump hat, you should absolutely walk away. Your feelings come first.

I'm lucky, though. I have an accepting workplace, and people who love me exactly as I am, and a support system. My state is a terrible place for queer folks, but given the above, I have some insulation from the worst of it. I'm also gregarious, and I've had some training talking to people off the cuff. If there's anyone who can manage playing the role of Ambassador for the afternoon, it's me. I have the spoons, so to speak. I can be the Lorax for half an hour, and I can try (try!) to give the random dude in the warehouse a quick education on my community.

He's just one guy. But he may know others. And if you can get through to even one unlikely person, why not make the time to take that chance?

So that's what I did today. He might not remember the terms we discussed, or the finer details on gender expression, nor the difference between sex and gender. But I hope the man in the Trump hat remembers the queer person who spoke calmly, and treated him kindly, and didn't get upset when asked invasive personal questions. And maybe (just maybe), I hope in my optimistic little heart that if someone else in a Trump hat tells him transgender people are a scourge, he might remember me, the queer kid who wasn't indoctrinated and came from the same Texas roots he did, and say, "I dunno. They're just out there living their best lives. That's what we want for ourselves, right?"

I can only hope I read him right. I can only hope he was truly listening. But even if I was wrong in that, I'm still glad I took that chance. Big things have small beginnings, as they say, and it never hurts to be kind.

(The only lesson I didn't teach him was to be careful asking such invasive questions, but given this all started over a migraine, I don't think I would've had much luck on that front, anyway. Haha!)

[swemtpotamtam]

I am honestly so tired of the world being so fucking complacent with ruzzia's bs

Like, hello?? ruschist pigs have been killing us, killing civillians, bombing cities and villages, erasing our culture and our language, treating our POWs like utter garbage in their prisons (meanwhile ruzzian POWs are treated super well in our prisons), torture our soldiers and civillians

They attack our cities with missiles that have western components, meanwhile we are not allowed to strike back and defend ourselves with western weapons

That is so fucking ass backwards, it's like telling a victim of SA to just let it go or let the r*pist do what they wanna do because if you fight back you will be escalating the situation and it's better to just grit your teeth and get defiled in silence

Very fucking cool of the world to just sit idly on its ass while a whole fucking nation is getting genocided

People need to open their fucking eyes and act

[flight-of-icarus]

Me spreading propaganda for everyone to read Absolute Superman 🌀🌀🌀

(There is something about this version of superman that really struck me and had such a big impact on my brain)

[merry-fagoland]

traveler as a "Witness"

[lizzybeeee]

Just my opinion, but if your Order is bringing back a species who is the literal icon of your entire existence you may want to name them something a little less 'How to Train Your Dragon'. Because I hear the rest of these griffon names and they're on the same level as Hagrid naming a hippogriff 'Buckbeak' or literally any of the dragons from HTTYD.

Beaktooth? Stormwing? Rumptail?

They're a new hope of your Order! This little sliver of the past that was protected through the ages and somehow managed to live despite all the odds! I can see them being pet names from trainers but...I dunno, I think there should be more to it than a cute name because of how significant it is?

Personally, I think it would be cooler (and way more fitting!) to name some of them after notable Grey Wardens as some recognition of their sacrifice and enduring legacy after all these ages. And not just a 'choose your birth month + day' and that's your griffon name combo.

Anyway, this is just some brainstorming :)

Warden's Who Killed Archdemons:

The Warden who killed Dumat is unknown but it happened at the Silent Plains in the Anders -> my suggestion is to name one 'Aria' after the Felicidus Aria or the Silent Plains Rose. The only plant to grow there a thousand years later, in honour of whomever made the blow.

Corin - the Hero of the Second blight who killed the Archdemon Zazikel.

The Warden who killed Toth is not named (but we can grab his sword that was split into three pieces and became three daggers - the Thorn of the Dead Gods) -> just give him a name. Possibly make him a surface dwarf? (we have a human in Corin and an elf in Garahel, after all. It would explain why he was buried at Weisshaupt too.)

Garahel - the Hero of the Fourth Blight who killed Andoral.

The Fifth Blight

The Hero of Ferelden - a griffon named after the Warden, regardless if they make the killing blow. (have them always off screen of just cut off when someone says their name lmao).

Alistair/Adalla - the warden who slays Urthurmiel can also be Alistair or Loghain. Alistair...for Alistair. I was torn on Loghain and whether or not they'd name a griffon after him, all things considered. Instead I chose the name of his childhood mabari (assume that Anora suggested the name). I feel it suits better than using his name - and I think Loghain would prefer it too.

Here Lies the Abyss

Alistair, Stroud, or Hawke - name a griffon after whomever sacrificed their lives at the battle of Adamant!

Again, uncertain about Loghain, but I believe that after a decade of service to the Warden's it's far more understandable that they would name a griffon after him. A true testament that you can join the Warden's from the lowest of lowest points and still make something of yourself.

Other Notable Wardens

Duncan - the man who worked so hard to establish the Wardens in Ferelden after 200 years of exile. The same man who recruited the Hero of Ferelden/Alistair, who led the Warden's at Ostagar.

Riordan - in honor of his sacrifice at the Battle of Denerim in the Fifth Blight -> in all versions of the FIfth Blight (codex entries, dialogue etc...) Poor Riordan is always left out. It would be nice to acknowledge him - the man crippled Urthurmiel, after all!

Isseya - they did you so dirty in DATV. Let her fly high in the sky once more ;_;

Neriah - Corin's lover, who sacrificed her life and allowed him to kill Zazikel. (they can be together again! As griffons!)

Non-Warden's / Acknowledgements

Moroc - a dwarven paragon, present at the founding of the Grey Warden's -> thanks to him a dwarf does not lose their caste if they join the Grey Wardens.

Assan - or another Dalish name. An acknowledgement of the Dalish's part in fighting the Blights. (We already have humans, city elves, mages, and dwarves represented.)

That's 12 names (13 if Loghain or Alistair slew the archdemon) and all I can come up with. The last one can be Bob or something.

[jellyjamheadobb]

sorry I’ve been gone in and out more than usual

the US is a very, very scary place to be for Latinos right now. Donald Orange-Bitch Trump has been scouring every state, county, and city for immigrants. not even immigrants, every fucking non white person is in danger right now. Every. Fucking. One of Us. He is detaining our people, deporting our citizens who’ve worked so hard to make a life for themselves and their loved ones. He is planning on taking the deported to containment camps (I’m not joking look it up). This man, this MONSTER, is planning to create a genocide of our stolen people. We need to make our stand, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from. Please, if you have any loved ones in the US right now who are not with legal documents LET THEM KNOW. The ICE (Immigrant and Customs Enforcement) cannot legally invade your home without a warrant. DO NOT LET THEM TAKE YOU. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.

I’m planning on taking an old shirt and doing this to it, I’ll let yall know how that goes. Stay safe, everyone.

[sigfost-hold]

[Champion of Kirkwall, Bautista Hawke]

Reintroducing my silly Hawke for my current world state. He's a mage and his specializations are Spirit Healer and Blood Mage (that's later in Act 3 and late Act 2). He's also romancing Anders, he does help around his clinic. Bautista is very friendly and a ray of sunshine, he's very enthusiastic about magic and the fade. He is very sweet and would do anything and everything for his friends and family.

[emiplayzmc]

Okay so like

Glisten was a DHMIS OC before Dandy's World was a thing, right?

HC'ing that Glisten's 'teacher' role would've been something along the lines of friendship / fitting in for the gang? Something similar to a mix of the Love episode from the webseries and Jobs and Family from the TV show (Having a community of people who care about you + fitting into an environment or mold or dynamic) - a whole bunch of Yada Yada about 'this stuff makes you likeable and this stuff doesn't!!!' and 'look at all of MY friends, aren't I popular, isn't it fun being liked by people?? Don't you want to fit in with us??'

I'm uh. NOT REALLY GOOD WITH GORE PLACEMENT SO IDK WHERE IT WOULD FIT INTO THE EPISODE IF IT WOULD EXIST?? There's almost always some gore element to the episodes- But yeah basically he is the epitome of toxic friendships / being toxic to yourself by forcing yourself into a little perfect box so that others like you. And then a lot of his Oh Shoot™️ moment that most Teachers seem to have would be breaking down from that 'perfect little box' in front of the main cast.

Anywayyyys. Red Guy is unintentionally the most popular of the bunch, Duck is constantly peeved that people aren't 'respecting' him by being his friend and is trying to steal Red's thunder, and Yellow is just. Barely even trying to fit in the whole time, he mainly wants to do his own thing.

And then that probably gets him sucked into seeing Glisten's REALLY BAD Oh Shoot™️ mental break moment from questioning why and how Yellow is still perfectly happy doing his own thing and just liking his own little group of the ✨️Three Of Us✨️ instead of a huge group of 'friends,' and then questioning why he himself is even doing all of that acting for a group of people in the first place (maybe in the episode his group of 'friends' are the ones who get attached to Red and ditch him? As a show and tell for how these types of people are just. Awful. And they latch onto Red because he's the latest thing that's caught their eyes and Glisten is old news. Just a dusty mirror. And for the rest of the episode after this happens, he's trying to get himself back to being the star of the show and potentially attempting to recruit Yellow to help him do it).

Anyways there's some brainrot for all of us fine Dandy's World / Don't Hug Me I'm Scared fans on this fine Thursday the 12th, because I have been thinking about this non-stop since I found out about this fact.

^ Art from Qwel about what Glisten would've looked like in DHMIS. Put him with the butterfly and the lamp in the Skittles Squad /lh /silly. Would've loved to know what he would've been as a teacher if he'd have stayed on the DHMIS OC route.

[crows-of-buckets]

Ohhh man I forgot how good coles companion quest is. It really captures the way Solas views the world and the fade? He clings onto his spirit nature because it is a remnant of the time before the Veil. His nature cannot be changed because natures do not change, or at least that's how Solas knows the world to be. That's why he doesn't stop in his plan, even when he's friendly with an Inquisitor: he is pride. Pride does not step down and admit he is wrong. Pride does not change his nature. Meanwhile Varric has to believe in change. In the way humanity prevails. Hes seen first hand so many times how people change, grow, for better or for worse. Idk if I'm wording it right but this quest does such a good job of characterizing then both, and it really reminded me why it is Varric trying to talk Solas down in the dav trailer

[hetalian-veteran]

Hetalia Headcanon #18

America and Ireland actually have a very positive relationship.

Their dynamic is best described as what happens when you and that one cousin who shares your crazy, manic energy link up at a family reunion. Their combined energies result in some of the wackiest hijinks of all time, making them a force to be reckoned with.

[welcometogrouchland]

Oz brainrot struck again. Imagine for a minute we are fusing wicked the musical canon w/ 1939 movie canon and maybe some book canon for flavour. Elphaba could've avoided the whole melting situation w/ Dorothy and co by simply monologuing at them doofenshmirtz style. And while I can't recall if Fiyero/scarecrow and Bok/the tinman have their memories in tact (I think it's different between wicked the book and wicked the musical???), imagine for a second they do. You are 11 year old Dorothy Gale.

What do you do with all that information?

You're not going to kill the witch anymore you think bc you're pretty sure the wizard is using you as a puppet in a fascist police state. You could go to Glinda bc she was tight w/ your captor/new ally(?) at one point but she also seems to be deeply suckered in by said fascist police state. Could you change her mind? It seems like she mostly has a complex about social standing and individuality, maybe now that there's more of you she'll help you kill the wizard? Make it a girls trip!

...But do you even want to kill the wizard?? You're 11! you don't really want to kill anyone! but the mean green lady seems VERY adamant about that route. Also circling back to the comically sad life of said mean green lady- not only has she shagged one of your travelling companions (WHO USED TO BE A MAN????) but one of your OTHER travelling companions (also used to be a man but that's less surprising maybe) is her ex-brother-in- law who probably teamed up with you only bc he seemed to have hated his bitch wife (rude??) and his in-laws and your OTHER other travelling companion was rescued by the mean green lady as a baby and is also a part of an oppressed ethnic class in this world. And is a lion. Supposedly there was always a lion but who could trust any of these sickos with information at this point?

You are Dorothy Gale, you're 11 years old and trapped in an unfamiliar world and have come to the frightening realisation that you are the only adult in this fuck ass evil castle and potentially in all the land.

You're asking Aunt Em for a raise after all this. You weren't paid before. But you will be asking for a raise.