#wizard of oz Kansas counterparts

[the-patchwork-girl-of-oz]

1939 Dorothy, to Zeke: I had a dream about your fursona last night.

#wizard of oz 1939 mgm #Dorothy gale #Zeke #hunk hickory and zeke #cowardly lion #wizard of oz farmhands #wizard of oz Kansas counterparts #Judy garland #bert lahr

[tawneybel]

Note: Ten favorite monsters, part seven. Part six. To be clear, do to past confusion, these are not lists of monsters I’d bang. Adult-content creator =/= turned-on 24/7.  ._.  Sometimes I just like to talk about character design and review media I like.

I pretty much like every kind of dragon, from friendly to terrifying. If we’re going off of scary, my favorite’s maybe from The Mists of Avalon. A lot of my fave monsters are literary, but don’t have official art. :(

1. Cat in the Hat from The Cat in the Cat

The Cat in the Hat’s more enjoyable if you view it as demonic horror. There’s a lot of elements I like. Quirky architecture, jokes that go over kids’ heads, goofy magic companion, fun costumes. Yet it’s not a good movie, even by my standards. Audrey Geisel was so disgusted by it, any plans for future live-action adaptations of Theodor’s works were nixed.

I’m kind of glad TCITH was the bad live-action, early ‘00s Seuss movie instead of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Imagine how horrifying they could have made the Grinch.

2-4. “Girly girl” dragons

Barbie As Rapunzel: I have the Penelope plushie, whose design I actually prefer to the movie’s.

Dragon Tales: Before FIM Fluttershy, Cassie was THE shy pink and yellow creature. Dragon Land’s just one of various portal fantasy realms I wanted to visit so badly as a tot. Still do.  

Raya and the Last Dragon: People were way critical of Sisu’s design, calling it Elsa’s scalesona. Like Disney hasn’t reused/referenced old designs, jokingly or not. Not that their human(oid) designs are always unique… But Ghibli gets more leniency in that regard. (Haku’s a great dragon design, btw.)

5. the Moving Finger from Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Horror doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective.

6. Jean Jacket from Nope

Take elements of UFOlogy, meteorology, marine biology, and animal exploitation, then produce the most terrifying movie monster ever.

7. Stuff from The Stuff

Metaphor for frozen yogurt? Diet food craze?

8. Scary Lion from The Teletubbies

A good example of how audio can determine whether something is cute or terrifying. 

9. Wild Things from Where the Wild Things Are

One elementary art class, we got to make our own chimeric Wild Things. Wish I knew where mine was. They’re grotesque, like to party, and actually pretty wholesome.

10. subway station from The Wiz

The Wiz is an interesting localization of The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz. Garland!Dorothy is taken from Kansas to a mostly unfamiliar fantastical land. (I say “mostly,” because some of the Ozians have Kansan counterparts.) Ross!Dorothy is taken from NYC to fantastical NYC.

Originally, I considered using the book Kalidahs ‘cause I love mix-’n’-match critters. Then I watched this scene. That and the Munchkins coming out of graffiti like ghosts out of chalk outlines was oneiric as fuck. Anyway, the station isn’t just a liminal space, but another architectural monster. The train itself never appears, but we see trash bins and columns advance on Dorothy and co. There’s seemingly non-automated gates and prehensile electrical wires. Also, that peddler with his growing marionettes…

Note: The pic for “The Moving Finger” is actually from the show Monsters, but I only found out it was adapted after deciding to include it. Nightmares & Dreamscapes has one of my favorite covers, even if it’s deceptive. No scarecrow stories.

Unfortunately, the last gif can’t convey the awesome liminal horror that is the Ozified Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station. Fun fact, it was also used in The Warriors. 

#Dr. Seuss #dragon #dragons #Barbie #Disney #minors do not interact #Stephen King #monsters #monster #horror #Nope 2022 #Dragon Tales #Maurice Sendak #The Wiz #Oz #Teletubbies #Raya and the Last Dragon #Jean Jacket #Cat in the Hat #Occulonimbus edoequus #The Stuff #Moving Finger #Scary Lion #Where the Wild Things Are #Wild Things #Nope #subway station #Seuss #Nightmares & Dreamscapes #The Stuff 1985

[bpdjennamaroney]

it’s funny that the scarecrow is the love interest in both wicked and the wizard of oz (there was a cut subplot about dorothy being in a relationship with hunk, scarecow’s kansas counterpart, which is why dorothy says “i think i’ll miss you most of all.” this is true btw)

[kwebtv]

Character Actress

Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) Film and television actress. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch, in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film The Wizard of Oz (1939).

A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education.

She appeared in The Phil Silvers Show episode S2E20 Bilko Enters Politics (05 February 1957). During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. She did a stint as a What's My Line? mystery guest on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program. She played Morticia Addams' mother, Hester Frump, in three episodes of The Addams Family. (1965–66; Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down.

In 1962, Hamilton played Leora Scofield, a suffragette who arrives in Laramie, Wyoming, to bolster feminist causes in a territory where women had already obtained the right to vote, in the episode "Beyond Justice" of NBC's Laramie.

Even with her extensive film career, Hamilton took roles in whatever medium she could get if she was free, making her soap opera debut as the nasty Mrs. Sayre on Valiant Lady, who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. For ABC's short-lived radio anthology Theatre-Five, she played a manipulative ailing Aunt Lettie to Joan Lorring as the unhappy niece Maude in "Noose of Pearls". In the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, on which she played Miss Peterson, Simon Gilbey's assistant. She had a small role in the made-for-television film The Night Strangler (1973) and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, who is a friend of the very similar Mary Wickes. In The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976), she portrayed Lynde's housekeeper, reprising the Wicked Witch role, as well as introducing Lynde to the rock group Kiss. 

When she reprised her role as the Wicked Witch in a 1976 episode of Sesame Street, "the show's producers were flooded with letters from parents saying it was too frightening for children." She appeared as herself in three episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, between 1975 and 1976, because Fred Rogers wanted his viewers to recognize the Wicked Witch was just a character and not something to be afraid of. Hamilton continued acting regularly until 1982; her last roles were two guest appearances as veteran journalist Thea Taft (in 1979 and 1982) on Lou Grant.  (Wikipedia)

#Character Actress #TV #Margaret Hamilton

[jamiegeode]

Friendly reminder/possibly informing that after the events of the well known Wizard of Oz story, the scarecrow is overthrown and ends up living with the tin woodman.

Later on a boy named Kip turns out to be the lost princess of Oz and basically magically transitions into her “right” body(biologically female) and says something along the lines of “I promise I’m still myself” to her friends somewhat panicked, and when she’s having trouble saying what she wants to her friend says “only you’re different” and it’s broadly agreed upon as a wise way to put it, because yes she’s the same person as Tip through and through, she’s just seen as a girl instead of a boy now.

In a later book we discover that the cowardly lion has moved out of the forest where he was the king and had previously felt a degree of obligation to be the king of, and moved out with the hungry tiger, another who is considered an outcast because he thinks it’s immoral to eat meat and therefore doesn’t consider himself a ‘good’ tiger similarly to how the cowardly lion says he’s a coward simply because he has fears, so they basically leave their typical societies where the feel misplaced to be misfits together, hanging out between the flamboyant Tinman and shabby Scarecrow’s palace and Ozma’s capitol of Oz. This is the same book in which Dorothy and Ozma meet, before Dorothy goes home to Kansas yet again.

Later on in the books, Dorothy’s family is in debt and Dorothy uses the magical mirror Ozma gave her so that they could talk anytime (and which Ozma spends an allotted time of every day sitting at and watching her counterpart of for Dorothy to facetime her even though Dorothy doesn’t have the time to call Ozma most days) to inform Ozma of this, and Ozma gets Glinda to magically transport Dorothy’s whole family into Oz.

After this, Dorothy and her family live comfortably and are essentially treated as part of the royal family. Dorothy and Ozma are often referred ‘good friends’ and other such terms that might be familiar to y’all. They go on a tour of the country together, visiting old friends and introducing the royal’s in laws- I mean Dorothy’s parents- to various towns and prominent people in Oz.

Anyways, that was a comprehensive list of the characters who I can remember off the top of my head who seem really queer and somewhat openly so-Ozma’s transition was a major plot point and other relationships are discussed somewhat throughout the books I’d read.

Ozma’s character was something I never talked about when I was younger, but whenever I saw my Wizard of Oz books, I’d think of her first and foremost. She’s uncertain about the spell to change her into a girl, especially since unlike the spell from her infancy that made her a boy, this one will be permanent. But she agrees to it in less than twenty minutes, and was totally fine with the idea of helping an all-girl army when, as the boy tip, he was swept up in their midst. She’s eventually quite comfortable with her femininity and her rulership. As someone who never felt comfortable being called a girl, I wondered a few times if someone cast that spell on me as a baby, but I knew that couldn’t be the case because ‘boy’ wasn’t the right word either. Now with a little help from Ozma and a ton of support from a few wonderful people who I’m insanely lucky to know, I’m comfortable with the knowns and unknowns of my identity.

And this is a book series from the 1900s-1910s, guys. I love the way old books are written, and to get that paired with what seems like decent queer rep that my parents will miss if they ever read it, I have to say I love these books. I’m rereading them and it’s giving me assurance that we’ve always been here from a children’s book plus a buttload of those nostalgic childhood feels from when I wasn’t even aware that there are people in the world who might try to knock me down.

Anyways I highly recommend these books to anyone looking for a good comfy fairytale to read, it really is a great story

On the other hand, I forgot about the wheelers. Oh gods oh no please erase them they are so freaking cursed why did he do that nah nu-uh nopity no no I don’t care if they’re harmless there is no greater boogeyman than these I’m scared of the monsters under my bed again.

But other than that it’s a great series, 10 outta 10, 100% do recommend. Just don’t look up a picture of the wheelers trust me here.

#Wizard of Oz #Oz #Ozma #Ozma of Oz #Dorothy #Dorothy Gale #Tin Woodman #Scarecrow #Jack Pumpkinhead #Sawhorse #Cowardly Lion #Hungry Tiger #Trans Ozma #Dorothy is gay and so is everyone else #queer fairytales #wish old mombi could still do the transitioning magic though #but no Glinda was a jerk about it #I hope that’s not seen as bad magic if they ever make a show of some sort #anyway yeah this story is great #and the wheelers have a special place in hell tormenting the worst of the damned #j-me

[vacationship]

Ok I’ve been seeing some version of of course stupids he was going back to Kansas, it was very clearly a Wizard of Oz story (and Mary Poppins story). Well..it was also a Star Wars story. A You’ve Got Mail/Sleepless in Seattle/When Harry Met Sally story—and all the stories those were based on! F*** it was also a f***ing Once story, hate to say it. It’s even a Love Actually story (ensemble cast with more than one will they/won’t they romance and a few other/platonic relationships thrown in). I’ve seen it tracks as a Sense & Sensibility story even if the gal leads didn’t end up with their counterparts yet. It’s a fairytale dark forest everything turns out as it should story. Point is, TL contained multitudes of stories and as all stories do it relied on storytelling tropes to tell its own story… and we didn’t really know where it was going. And antis knew that too, none of us knew for sure where this story was going, that’s why antis were against what they didn’t want to see happen because they knew it could happen. So stop it, stop pretending like we weren’t all following the story.

Separate rant. I also saw someone reacted to a Tedbecca post that it would have been a yawn but went on to say how much they looooved their friendship. Seeing this everywhere, it’s the anti mantra. If the romance would have been such a yawn then why so enamored of the friendship? When I see an amazing friendship I see chemistry, loud or quiet. I see two people who are obviously connected, you just feel it. Same with two romantically paired people who are very right with each other. Romance and friendship are not opposites, it’s often not one or the other, good romances and good friendships aren’t so different when it comes down to chemistry tbh. So if the possible romance is so meh or repellant to you but the friendship is gorgeous to you, why? Just for representation? I agree we could use seeing more meaningful friendships and less silly romances, but we could also use more meaningful romances. It feels like something about the Tedbecca possible romance was repellent to people because of their own tastes and preferences, or they just don’t see it, so fine…but in case you are jumping on the platonic friendship thing because it sounds good to say and it validates your own probably unarticulated and unconscious preferences for the kinds of romantic relationships you want to see, stop it or at least take it elsewhere.

I’m not ranting about people who just didn’t see it, have their opinions but not being anti. Or anyone clearly articulating their take. I’m ranting about people actively hating on shippers, using mean and dismissive language and being oh so right about how it turned out because it was so obvious.

#tedbecca #why be anti? #stop ship hate

[witchesoz]

Oz lore: The MGM movie

Now… I did Oz Lore posts for quite a few adaptations of Oz, but I haven’t yet looked into the lore of the most well-known Oz adaptation of all, so known in fact it overshadowed the original book. The 1939 MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz. What can we say about it?

# A key element to the beginning of the movie is of course a color opposition. To manifest visually the greyness and dullness of Kansas, the parts taking place in the “real world” as in sepia, while Oz is colorized (The Great and Powerful would use a similar technique by having its opening in black and white). In a similar way, a parallel is made between the real world and the one of Oz by having the Ozians characters be counterparts to people Dorothy knows in Kansas (the Wicked Witch is her nasty neighbor, her three companions are farmhands helping Uncle Henry…). Because the movie actually decided to turn Oz into an imaginary landscape, a dream-world in Dorothy’s mind after she was badly knocked by the flying window.

# We actually do get to see the Wicked Witch of the East outside of her pair of feet stuck under Dorothy’s house. Indeed, the transformation of Gulch into a witch in the tornado, at the beginning of the movie… Well, given the lyrics of Dorothy’s song afterward and how she believes the Wicked Witch of the West to be the one of the East, it is pretty explicit that this witch Dorothy sees by the window is the one of the East, confirming that the two wicked witches are indeed twins (it also shows that the Wicked Witch of the East is actually foreign to Munchkinland/the East of Oz, but more on that later). We also know by Glinda that, while the Wicked Witch of the East was a wicked oppressor, she was actually not as bad as her sister (or rather her sister was even worse).

# The Wicked Witch of the East is here identified as the Wicked Witch of the West sister, which added a whole new reason for the WWW to hate Dorothy, since she “murdered” her sister. This aspect came to be so iconic it was canon in numerous following Oz adaptations (while in Baum’s book the Wicked Witches were merely colleagues, part of a quarter of wicked witches who took Oz in a coup d’état). Similarly, another major change from the books to the movie is the shoes: in the novel, the Witch of the East wears silver slippers. Since the MGM wanted to use their new Technicolor technique a maximum, they turned the shoes into the bright red Ruby Slippers.

# In a similar way, you can note that this version of Oz dropped the color-code of Baum, to use the Technicolor a maximum.

# The Munchkins deserve a paragraph. They still seem to be the ethnicity inhabiting the East of Oz and like in the novel they are actually child-sized (being played by either dwarfs or child actors). Which becomes quite jarring given that Dorothy is not here a child but a teenage girl. Not confined to the blue Baum gave them, and out of their typical farmer style, they are now wearing an extravagant multicolored fashion. The Munchkins seem to have a great relationship with plants, since on top of the gigantic flowers and bushes planted in their village they include a lot of flowers and flowerpots in their clothing. They are extremely coward, visibly having all hidden from the Witch of the East before Dorothy appeared, and also all lying down in worship when the Witch of the West manifests. A distinct trait of the Munchkins here is their childishness – on top of their size and childish voices, as well as extravagant clothing, their two major guilds are shown to be the Lullaby Guild of ballet dancers and the Lollipop Guild of mischievous little boys (while quite creepy in the final products, first tries and tests revealed that originally the actors were to be given boy voices, before the high-pitched one they were given). Everything here evokes an image of children. Oh yes and finally, if you don’t remember, it is implied that the Munchkins are born into eggs (remember the baby Munchkins we see in the village?).

# Glinda. Oh, sweet Glinda… a famous character but also a famous misadaptation. The MGM movie decided to simplify the novel’s plot by having the two good witches of Oz fused into one same character: Glinda. She has the Good Witch of the North’s long wand (now with a star instead of an Oz symbol) and title of the North Witch, but she also has Glinda’s red hair and royal regalia, plus youth and beauty. As a result this causes plot holes ranging from minor (is there no South witch?) to major (alright so… Glinda deliberately refused to tell Dorothy she could go home with the Ruby Slippers? Cue to the theories saying she is a wicked witch too and played Dorothy to eliminate her rivals). This Glinda has a Disney-princess like pink gown with silver stars all over it (and her wand and crown also have silver stars) – while pink is new, it evokes a faded red, color of Glinda, while the silvery stars were in the design of the North Witch. All over, this version of Glinda has a distinct fairy/good fairy godmother style.

Glinda is also shown using a bubble to appear and disappear – interestingly the bubble takes all sorts of different colors, like a rainbow (a recurring theme of this movie).

# Glinda explains that in Oz, only wicked witches are ugly, while good witches are beautiful. Thus the Wicked Witch’s inhuman appearance would be due to her evilness. However, this is later proven wrong when it turns out the Wicked Witch looks like that simply because it is how her people look like… Glinda is confirmed to be a racist.

# The Ruby Slippers teleport on the feet of Dorothy here. Now there is an ambiguity that is never explained… What happened? Did they teleport on their own because only the one who killed the previous owner can wear the shoes? Or did Glinda actually teleported them on Dorothy to get them away from the clutches of the Wicked Witch? It is unclear what happens here.

# Ah, the Wicked Witch of the West… How not to talk about her? One of the most iconic villains, if not THE most iconic villain of the 20th century. Most of Baum’s characterization was dropped to produce the MGM’s unique villain. They clearly took from the classic wicked witch look, and yet turned it into a being that redefined said archetypal look. The black dress ad cape, the pointy hat, the clawed fingers, the hooked nose and chin, a general ugliness… The true innovation here is to turn the Wicked Witch’s skin entirely green, highlighting even more her evil and horrible nature (since green is one of the evil colors, associated with poison, treachery and the devil/demons) while also using a maximum the Technicolor. It is however quite strange to see that as a result, on a color-code it associates the Wicked Witch to the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz which also appears green-skinned… Anyway.

The Wicked Witch’s role has been considerably expanded in this movie. In the original novel, the four Witches are confined to their respective areas in Oz, barely leaving and if so for a short time (like the Good Witch of the North did), but the Wicked Witch of the West was clearly said to never leave Winkie Country. Here however the Wicked Witch appears twice in the East and flies over the Emerald City. While unable to directly hurt Dorothy at first, she torments her along the way and tries to scare her – she attacks the companions with fireballs, she animates apple trees to attack them, she asks the Emerald City to give her Dorothy… Though interestingly she never tries to directly harm her, merely scare her – until she arrives to her country.

The Wicked Witch is associated with fire, appearing and disappearing in red smoke and columns of fire, while throwing red fireballs at the Scarecrow – which makes sense given her weakness to water. Here, no umbrella, but rather the typical and traditional witch broom, on which she flies – and which can leave trails of black smoke if she wishes. She also uses it as a torch. She cackles a lot, likes to call Dorothy “my pretty”, and doesn’t care about enslaving people, being only hungry for revenge and thirsty for the Ruby Slippers, which she immediately tries to take off Dorothy, using all sorts of psychological torture ranging from the threat of death to hurting Dorothy’s pet. But we’ll see more of that later. Finally, the Witch’s power of “seeing everywhere” thanks to her only eye is also changed here – not only can she see beyond her land (in the novel she only sees in her land) but she also uses for it a huge crystal ball. [In fact, this will be played on in the Muppets Wizard of Oz, which has the Wicked Witch have both a magic eye and a crystal ball – by having a fake eye of crystal that doubles as a magic crystal ball]

# Interestingly, if you look close enough the Yellow Brick Road is mixed with another road, made of red bricks. Many people have theorized and commented about the famous “Red Brick Road”. You might try to look it up, it is fun.

# Here we have no reason for why the Tin Man is alive, no background for the Scarecrow, they just happen to pop up out of nowhere, as if such beings are casual in Oz (and given how the Emerald City is ready to receive them, they are probably casual in Oz). We also do not see the Kalidahs, removed (while in the novel the threats of the East were natural, animals, rivers, etc… here the Wicked Witch makes all the threats).

# In the book, the field of deadly poppies was one of the natural threats of Oz, while here the Wicked Witch clearly puts a spell on the poppies to make them extra-soporific, using a strange red powder and a mortar. Interestingly, the idea of the red powder is found back in another item she owns – a great golden hourglass with dragons on it. This hourglass contains a red sand, similar to the red powder used by her to turn the poppies deadly, and it seems to be a killing device – the Wicked Witch flips it over and leaves Dorothy locked in the room with it, claiming that when all the sand runs out, the girl will be dead. It is unclear how exactly it will work, but clearly this red powder has some deadly effects. [A Powder of Death, which is quite ironic given the Powder of Life in the books?] (Oh yes, and when the Witch throws the hourglass to the ground after Dorothy escapes it explodes in flames and smoke). Many people have pointed out how Glinda mysteriously appearing to make it snow on the poppies is not in the novel – but it is actually from Baum’s mind. Indeed, when Baum adapted his book into a theater play/musical, he had the deadly poppies killed by the Good Witch of the North, who offered her protection to Dorothy and upon seeing the evil flowers try to kill the girl, summoned a massive snowstorm to freeze the plants to death. (You do NOT mess with a Good Witch).

# There is a lot to say about the Emerald City, such as how the Wizard of Oz actually disguises himself as two of the City’s guardians, or how the Emerald City uses a special breed of horse that actually changes color every minute. Oh yes another mention is how the Emerald City fashion has a distinctive “war feel” to it. Indeed, not only do the “nurses” of the City look like military nurses, but many men in the city itself wear Napoleonian general hats, and captain of armies or battleships hats. There is a very distinctive Napoleonian and Victorian feel in their clothing, mixed with a strong Southern USA vibe (such as the ladies, mostly dressed as Southern Belles).

# Interestingly, while the Wicked Witch is seen brandishing the Golden Cap, it is not mentioned anywhere in the movie. Yet it follows pretty strictly the idea of the novel that the Winged Monkeys obey to the Witch once, to catch the intruders in her domain, and then when she dies they immediately rejoice and stop serving her. However, since the movie forgot to mention they were enslaved by her or the cap, it looks like they naturally worked for her.

# In the novel, the West was mostly a vast wasteland of burned fields and abandoned farms. Here, the land of the West (before reaching the gloomy and ominous Witches Castle) is covered in the “Haunted Forest”, a gloomy and terrifying place in a state of perpetual autumn where the trees are crooked in horrific shapes and creepy animals lurk (well mostly creepy birds, since we see owls and vultures with red glowing eyes). The Haunted Forest is the official name of the place and deserves its name, since it is filled with “ghosts”. We do not see them, but an invisible ghost(s) lifts the Tin Man and throws him around when he says he does not believe in ghosts. Beyond the forest is a range of grey, dead mountains and there the massive, obscure, grey and dark Witch’s castle. Note that in the novel, the castle of the Witch was noted to be yellow in color and extremely luxurious, filled with furniture and tapestries showing the Witch’s wealth – and similarly it was very well lit and a bright place, since the Witch was afraid of the dark (the very opposite of what she is in the movie).  

# In the novel, the Witch could not get Dorothy’s shoes because she only took them off at night or when taking her bath, and the two fears of the Witch prevented her from taking them. Here, the Witch literally cannot take them – trying to take the Slippers by force causes bursts of yellow electricity to burn the Witch’s hands. Indeed, the Witch knew that she had to be given the Slippers willingly, however she forgot that one of the spells of the Slippers is that they cannot be taken off the person’s wearing them as long as said person is alive. This is why the Witch needs to kill Dorothy first – but in a subtle and not too violent way. As the Witch says, the shoes have powerful and delicate charms into them, and taking the shoe too brutally could damage their magic.

# Let’s talk about the Winkie guards. They all share the same traits, which are the traits of all Winkies: hooked nose, hooked chin, green skin… Sounds familiar? Yep. The unnatural traits of the Wicked Witch is not because she is deformed, but simply because she belongs to the Winkie ethnicity, the native inhabitants of the West (the way the Munchkins live in the East). Like in the novel however, they are not evil, but rather all hail Dorothy when she kills the Witch, showing that they were enslaved by her. Interestingly, the Winkie Guards have the same outfit as the guard protecting the Wizard of Oz’s throne room/palace, implying it is a standard military outfit in Oz.

No need to tell you that many have pointed out how the Witch enslaving her own kind could be read as a commentary on how Hitler and Mussolini were “enslaving” their own people too (remember this movie was released when World War II broke out). This is an interesting interpretation, though just as many people pointed out how the Wicked Witch could be interpreted as an anti-Semitic character and thus the movie might be interpreted in favor of Hitler and co. There is a lot of historical debates around this piece.

# In the novel, the Wizard asks the heroes to kill the Witch. In this movie, he simply asks them to get the broom of the Witch and nothing more, killing her was a happy accident.

- - - - -

Thre is much more to say about this movie, of couse, but I try to limit myself to the basic lore content

#oz lore #the wizard of oz #mgm movie #munchkins #the wicked witch of the west #ruby slippers

[neopoliitan]

Theory: RWBY’s Oz allusions are played in reverse.

So by now we’re all familiar with the fact that RWBY has multiple characters based on or inspired by characters from L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels - specifically those seeming to have close ties to Ozpin and the old guard. There’s always been a sort of general idea of how each character ties into their allusion, but I’m going to attempt to convince the reader that RWBY’s Oz characters are specifically designed as an inverse or reverse of their Oz counterpart.

Let’s start with someone simple.

Professor Ozpin & The Wizard of Oz

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is what they say about the Wizard in the Oz books. In the source material, the main cast spend their adventure assuming that the Wizard is a grand magician who can solve all of their problems. As it turns out, he’s little more than a con man who can put on a decent show. 

Contrast with Professor Ozpin; while the main four cast members assume he’s just another huntsman, it’s revealed he is an extremely powerful Wizard who has reincarnated potentially thousands of times. He takes the Wizard’s concept and reverses the steps.

Leonardo Lionheart & The Cowardly Lion

Leonardo is one you have to read between the lines for. Despite his role on-screen being portrayed as a one-note coward, he remarks that he’s ‘not the fighter he used to be’, Ozpin speaks somewhat fondly of him in Volume 6 and he was trusted with the protection of a vault.

The Cowardly Lion is, well, cowardly, and at the end of his story ‘gains’ his courage by finding out he had it all along. In contrast, Leonardo seems to be a man who had courage, but lost it at the end of his story.

James Ironwood & The Tin Woodman

Ironwood is a very clear cut case. Characters like Watts remark that his heart has cost him his mind. He’s open, welcoming and apologetic at the start of volume 7. In volumes 2 and 3 he praises Ruby for going after Cinder alone at the dance and tells the students no one will fault them if they leave during the Fall of Beacon. All symptoms of a man who tries his best to care.

But after the fall of Beacon, James’ fixation on finding a solution sees pieces fall apart around him. He’s constantly backed into a corner by Salem and paranoia, and both figuratively and literally cuts himself off to find some small amount of victory, be able to assure himself that he definitely saved someone.

The Tin Man has no heart and ‘gains’ one. James Ironwood had a big heart, but he’s losing it.

Qrow Branwen & The Scarecrow

Qrow Branwen is initially presented as Ozpin’s most trusted lieutenant, to the point he has been granted a small amount of magic with which he can perform scouting missions. But as it turns out, Qrow was kept in the dark to a lot of Ozpin’s history, and the fact he had no plan to defeat Salem, and is shattered by the realisation.

The scarecrow, meanwhile, hopes the Wizard can give him a brain. If we assume the brain is reflective of knowledge, well - the Scarecrow gains it, while Qrow founds out that he knew nothing.

Of course, it’s also worth considering that Qrow’s mental state as of late volume 7 and volume 8 may be reflective of the Scarecrow losing his mind.

Oscar Pine & Tip AKA Ozma

With Oscar, you’re going to have to take my word for how he ties into the Oz lore, as even though he’s been around for five volumes Word of God still hasn’t come out and given us an allusion for him.

In my mind, he’s reflective of Tip, a young boy who lives alone on a farm with a witch-like woman named Mombi. As it turns out, Tip is actually Princess Ozma - kidnapped by Mombi and turned into a lowly farmboy so she could not ascend to the throne of Oz.

So Tip’s true form is Ozma, and Tip was merely a deception. 

Meanwhile, Oscar Pine is a young boy who lives alone with his aunt on a farm, but the responsibility of becoming Ozma’s next incarnation is thrust upon him and he resists.

In Oz, the identity of Tip is thrust upon Ozma. In RWBY, the identity of Ozma is thrust upon Oscar. In Oz, Ozma was always the true form of the character; in RWBY, the farmboy is his real self.

And if we’re going backwards... Ozma was forced to become Tip, then became Ozma again. Might Oscar be forced to become Ozma, then regain himself later? We can only hope.

Salem & the Wicked Witch of the West

I can sum this one up extremely simply;

Water is what killed the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of the story. Water is what cursed Salem to never die at the beginning of the story. What this means for her is hard to say, but how the Wicked Witch began may give us a clue on how Salem might end (but who knows).

Professor Theodore & Dorothy

So here’s the skippy - we don’t know nearly enough about Theodore other than his garish wardrobe being an extremely heavy handed reference to Dorothy, but we can still do a bit of exploring for funsies.

So Dorothy’s character arc in Oz is that she wants to get home to Kansas. “There’s no place like home” and all that. If Theodore’s arc is played backwards, it’s possible he may want to leave Vacuo - that might add reasoning to him constantly challenging people to beat him in a fight and take his role as headmaster - he wants to get out of there.

There’s a little more about Theodore that I might write about, specifically regarding that despite it all he may not actually allude to Dorothy and the similarities are a complete misdirect - but that will have to wait till another post.

For now, take what this post has told you into consideration (and also give me the benefit of the doubt because there’s probably a lot of confirmation bias), and go forth into the end of Volume 8 wondering if that Tin Man is going to lose even more of his heart.

While you’re here - maybe check out my RWBY fancomic, Team RAIN, too!

#rwby #rwby theory #rwby discussion #theory #rwby8 #rwby volume 8 #rwby vol8 #rwby volume8 #salem #james ironwood #ozpin #leonardo lionheart #oscar pine #qrow branwen #professor theodore

[tsarisfanfiction]

Long Way From Home: Chapter 8

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Family/Friendship Characters: Scott, Tracy Family

I’m back!  Including this one, I’ve now got another five chapters written so we’ll be doing weekly updates again at least for the month of February.  For those that haven’t been subjected to my chatting about it in discord or DMs, I write this particular fic in chunks that could almost be called arcs, before chopping it up into chapters, hence the sudden backlog.  This section was only supposed to fill a small moment, not be an entire arc, but the boys disagreed with me on that so here we are.

Therefore, we have more playing around with the differences between the universes - particularly fashion, the TOS ideas of which are loosely based on the 1960s - a couple of familiar namedrops, and there’s a warning for a panic attack in this chapter, so watch out for that if it might give you trouble!  I also know basically zero about Auckland, New Zealand, or correct communications between planes and airports, so sorry if there’s any inconsistencies here.  Let’s just call it future advancements and an alternative universe!

<<<Chapter 7

The coastline of New Zealand looked more or less the same as Scott was used to when they finally arrived.  The analogue dial of Other-Scott’s watch continued to taunt him, but if he had to guess, the journey had taken somewhere between one and two hours, and had largely passed in silence.  Whether that was because Other-Gordon needed to concentrate on piloting, or simply because he was still holding up his promise of no more questions, Scott wasn’t sure, but he appreciated it regardless.

Being a passenger instead of the pilot was always an odd situation, and more than once he’d caught himself trying to shift imaginary controls in response to the clouds and air streams they passed through.  If Other-Gordon had noticed, he hadn’t commented.

“Tango Alpha Ladybird to Auckland Air Traffic Control, requesting permission to land, over.”  Beneath them, the city sprawled almost coast to coast, and Scott peered down, looking for familiar landmarks.  Some of them were there, some of them were not.  As low as they were flying – heading for the airport, no doubt – the Sky Tower should have been easily visible, but its distinctive shape was absent.

It shouldn’t have surprised him.  Sky Tower was a telecommunications tower, and he’d already discovered that this universe didn’t use the same type of technology that he was used to, so its lack of presence made sense.  But it had always been there, built sometime before the millennium and a major aspect of Auckland’s skyline.  He’d flown past it many times, and even used it as an unofficial navigation point.

For it to be not there, either destroyed or never existed in the first place, reminded him that no matter how familiar some things might be, he really wasn’t home.

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, was a line famously quoted from an old movie.  Scott had a bit of a soft spot for the Wizard of Oz – old fantasy films in general – but he’d never imagined he’d ever be playing the part of Dorothy.

At least Dorothy still had Toto, he mused sadly.  If only he’d taken Mini-MAX with him on that mission, then maybe he wouldn’t be entirely alone… if Mini-MAX would even have been able to operate without a network to link into.  Most likely, he’d have had nothing but the inactive husk of the small bot. Scott wasn’t sure if that would have been better or worse.

“Auckland Air Traffic Control to Tango Alpha Ladybird, clearance granted for runway four-bravo, over,” the radio crackled, yanking him back to the present.

“Tango Alpha Ladybird to Auckland Air Traffic Control, copy that, over,” Other-Gordon acknowledged.  Scott watched him adjust their angle of approach accordingly and kept his mouth shut as the landing gear engaged and they gently touched down onto the tarmac scant minutes later.  Other-Gordon visibly relaxed as soon as they were safely down, taxiing his way carefully over to a hangar emblazoned with a large T.A.  As they entered, Scott could see several planes inside of various sizes and designs.

The one thing they had in common was the T.A. on their tails, identical to the letters on the hangar, and Scott found himself wondering what it stood for.  Other-Gordon had used the same two letters as a callsign, and he eyed the nearest plane – a much larger one than the Ladybird – as Gordon rolled them to a gentle stop.

“What does T.A. stand for?” he asked, suspecting that Other-Scott would know that and having no wish to get caught out and face awkward conversations. This was the sort of information he’d tried to get out of his doppelgänger, but either he’d thought he would already know, or it was so basic he forgot about it.

The incredulous look he got from Other-Gordon as the man paused his post-flight checks suggested it was the former.

“Tracy Aerospace,” he said.  “Dad’s company.  Doesn’t it exist in your universe?  I thought you said you were a billionaire!”

“I am,” Scott grumbled, “and it does, but it’s Tracy Industries.”

“Right,” Other-Gordon said, going back to the post-flight checks.  “Rule number one: no talking.”

“Wha-”

“You look like Scott but you don’t sound like my brother and that’s something folks’ll notice, especially around here.  The fellas on the ground know Scott well, so you’ve lost your voice.  That’s the story.”

That made sense, but how was Scott supposed to tell Other-Gordon what he was looking for if he wasn’t allowed to talk?  He asked as such as the younger man finished up the last of the checks and undid his harness.

The aquanaut just shrugged.  “What are you after?  Underpants… what else?”

Scott chose to ignore the not so subtle dig; it was getting old, but no doubt Other-Gordon wouldn’t let it go until he’d got changed, and likely not even then.

“Casual shirts, jeans and sneakers.”  He repeated the list he’d given Other-Scott earlier and watched Other-Gordon’s face at the word ‘jeans’.  He didn’t look particularly pleased, but Scott wasn’t going to back down on those.  “Should probably pick up a hoodie or two as well.  Pyjamas and shoes, too.”

“There is no way Scott said yes to a hoodie,” Other-Gordon frowned. “Hoodie and jeans?  Those are workshop clothes; do you fellas really wear those?” Scott bristled, and he raised his hands. “Look, I am all for getting items that’ll make Scott go crazy, but I don’t want to be murdered in my sleep because the media thinks he’s gone cuckoo, so give me a minute to come up with a reason that won’t wreck his public image for the next decade.”

Scott frowned, but before he could say anything else, Other-Gordon grinned and pushed at his wrist watch.  There was a dial tone for several moments before the string of numbers was replaced by Other-Scott’s face.  The other man looked concerned and a little suspicious.  Scott supposed he hadn’t been expecting the call, and an unexpected call from a younger brother was definitely cause for concern – especially when it was a Gordon.

“Hey there, Scott!” Other-Gordon chirped in a tone that immediately had Scott on edge, even though it wasn’t aimed at him.  The faux-innocent, sing-song voice meant trouble, and he felt slightly guilty for whatever chaos was about to fall Other-Scott’s way.

Other-Scott dropped all pretence of concern and frowned at him in full-blown suspicion.

“You’ve only just arrived,” he said slowly.  “You can’t have got in trouble already.”

“You underestimate me, brother dear,” Other-Gordon scoffed, before pulling a sickly-sweet grin onto his face.  Other-Scott’s expression went from suspicious to mildly horrified, and Scott couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Gordon,” he warned, loud enough for the watch to pick him up.  While he was all up for pranks, he couldn’t quite bring himself to let his counterpart be on the receiving end of one he was involved in.  It felt uncomfortably like pranking himself.

Other-Gordon huffed.  “You’re no fun,” he sulked, before turning back to the watch.  Other-Scott, Scott was pleased to see, had lost the look of horror and was back in the realms of confusion.  “Say, Scott, how do you feel about being a trend-setter?”

And the look of horror was straight back.

“What?” Other-Scott demanded.  “Setting what trend?  I’m not a fashion icon, Gordon!  Set your own trends.”

Other-Gordon hummed thoughtfully.  “That’s a fine plan, Scott, except anything I buy will be too small for him to wear, which somewhat defeats the objective.”

Other-Scott made a noise of frustration.  “I told you, Gordon.  Anything that ends up in the media is your fault.”

“Did you say that knowing your clone here wants hoodies?” Other-Gordon asked, eyebrow raised.  Other-Scott choked.  “Because he does and I know better than to try and talk him out of it.”

“Hoodies?” Other-Scott looked bordering on mortified.  “Dad would kill me.”  Something that could be guilt coiled in Scott’s gut; no matter what his feelings were about Not-Dad’s existence, the idea of Other-Scott getting in trouble with him on his behalf didn’t settle well.  Other-Scott shook his head.  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, Gordon, but what’s your plan?”

“I figured we could pass it off as experimentation,” Other-Gordon shrugged. “But you’re not well known for that so it would cause a stir.”

“You’re right about that,” Other-Scott mused, and Scott shook his head.

“I guess I don’t need one,” he offered reluctantly – he wanted one, but there was mildly inconveniencing someone and there was ruining someone’s reputation.

“No.”  Other-Scott shook his head firmly.  “We’ll make this work.”

“Well, it’s your funeral,” Other-Gordon muttered, before a grin slowly spread across his face.  “You know, fellas, I think I’ve got it!”

“Do I want to know?” Other-Scott asked dubiously.

“It’s simple,” Other-Gordon continued as though his older brother hadn’t spoken.  “We all know you wouldn’t willingly wear one, so we make it unwilling.  Scott, you lost a bet.”

Other-Scott ran a hand through his hair.  “I suppose that would work,” he conceded reluctantly.  Scott could see the logic – short term embarrassment at the hands of a younger sibling would barely interest the media, but still explained why he was still in possession of a so-called workman’s outfit. “But I’m insisting on custom made. You are not coming back with some cheap off the shelf monstrosity.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” Other-Gordon chirped in a tone that said he had been considering doing exactly that.  “We should start moving now, though.  Jones is coming over and I think he wants to know why we haven’t left the cockpit yet.”

“I can’t say I’m in a hurry to have you wrecking my reputation but you probably shouldn’t make Jones suspicious,” Other-Scott sighed.  “Hey, wait – what is this bet I’ve supposedly lost, Gordon?”

“If you don’t know, Dad can’t yell at you for it later,” Other-Gordon grinned back at him.

“Gordon.”

“What, don’t you trust me?” the ginger asked, pulling a face of fake hurt. Other-Scott scowled at him.

“With my life, yes.  Not with my dignity.”  Scott could relate to that.

“We’ll see you later, Scott.”  Other-Gordon didn’t bother responding to the veiled accusation before signing off, returning the watch to actually looking like a watch just as a young man crossed the distance between the neighbouring plane and the Ladybird. “Here we go, remember you’ve lost your voice and let me do all the talking.”

Scott had a sinking feeling that was going to be easier said than done, but obediently followed the other man out of the cockpit just in time for the man on the ground to stride over to them.

“Gordon Tracy, is that you piloting a plane?” said man called, shaking his head in amazement.  “Why, I couldn’t believe my ears when they told me it was you of all people coming in to land that red beauty of yours!”

“Gee, laugh it up why don’t you, Jones,” Other-Gordon commented dryly.  “I didn’t fly all the way here with the worst backseat pilot in the world to get flack from you, too, fella.”

The man – Jones – squinted at Scott and for a heart-stopping moment he thought the man had realised he wasn’t this universe’s Scott, before he burst out laughing.  “Scott Tracy letting someone else pilot?  Now I’ve really seen it all.  Say, how you been, old chap?”  He stuck out his hand and feeling rather like a deer in headlights, Scott took it for a firm shake.

“Ah, Scott’s not so good,” Other-Gordon intervened before the silence stretched long enough to be awkward.  “He’s only gone and lost his voice, but there’s shopping to be done so yours truly got the short straw.”  The ginger gave a theatrical wince.  “Turns out not having a voice doesn’t stop a fella from backseat piloting like crazy.  He insisted on checking over all my post-flight checks!  I ask you; you’d think he didn’t trust me with a plane.”

Scott shot him a look.  While no doubt if Other-Scott had really lost his voice that all sounded perfectly feasible, he thought the ginger was laying it on a little thick.  Other-Gordon caught the look and rolled his eyes.

“Well Mr Just Because I Can’t Talk Doesn’t Mean I Won’t Be A Pain here seems like he wants to get this over and done with,” he told Jones.  Not strictly inaccurate, Scott supposed, although that hadn’t been what he’d meant.  Other-Gordon lowered his voice.  “Truth be told, he doesn’t want to be here; lost a bet and doesn’t like the forfeit.”

Scott put a warning hand on his shoulder and Other-Gordon laughed.  Jones joined in politely, almost as though he wasn’t certain what the joke was, or if he should be responding to it.

“I’d say that means ‘hurry it up, oh favourite brother of mine’,” Other-Gordon translated.  “Lock her down for me, would you?  There’s a good man.”

“Yessir,” Jones agreed.  “Your usual car’s been prepared for you.  Mr Tracy said you didn’t want a chauffeur today?”  A chauffeur?  No, Scott absolutely didn’t want one of those – it was bad enough being piloted by a brother, or brother from another universe, as it happened.

“Not today, Jones,” Other-Gordon confirmed.  “I wouldn’t inflict Scott in this mood on anyone,” he winked, and the man gave another awkward chuckle.  “I’ll handle it all today.”  Scott jammed his hands in his pockets impatiently.  “See you around, Jones.”

“Likewise, Gordon, Scott.”  The man nodded at both of them and Other-Gordon led the way through the hangar unerringly to where a classic vintage-looking convertible was waiting for them.  With the roof down, he could see it was a right-hand drive – of course, New Zealand drove on the left; at least that was the same – so without prompting he let himself in to the front left seat and tried not to be too obvious about staring.

Plane controls might have been the same, but cars apparently weren’t. If push came to shove, he could probably figure it out – the car was at least an automatic, not stick-shift – but he was quite content to let Other-Gordon take the wheel.  Hopefully he wasn’t quite as chaotic as his Gordon behind the wheel.

He wasn’t.  At least, not by Scott’s standards.  He was, however, still the fastest car on the road, overtaking other cars with manoeuvres just shy of being classified as swerves, with a delighted grin on his face.  That, at least, was typically Gordon, and the ache that blossomed in his chest whenever any of the Other-Tracy family did something that reminded him of their counterparts – his Tracy family – made itself known again.  Scott fought the instinct to clutch at his chest, instead clinging to the door with a grip far too tight for the situation.

Behind amber-tinted shades, equally amber eyes glanced over at his death grip, but Other-Gordon said nothing.  Scott wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not – the younger man knew enough to know that these speeds wouldn’t phase him in the slightest, which meant he was drawing his own conclusions.  Scott had no idea what those conclusions might be, and any desire to ask was quashed by the knowledge that that would open the topic up for conversation.

He’d chosen Other-Gordon to avoid more of that sort of conversation.

“What are we getting first?” he asked, turning his head away from the streets to look at Other-Gordon.  With the wind whistling past their ears, the natural inclination was to raise his voice but he consciously kept his voice at normal levels.  Other-Gordon should still be able to hear him, if with a bit of difficulty.

The ginger sent him an assessing look before the grin was back, and that look was too much like Gordon’s devilish grin for Scott to not know what he was going to say, despite the man not being his Gordon.

“You can’t stay in the same underpants forever!”

Scott groaned, the hand not gripping the door catching his face – ow, he forgot about the shades.  He left it there, acutely aware that with any Gordon around in a non-professional setting, the facepalm was never far away.

“Okay, new underpants.  Then what?”

Other-Gordon laughed, looping them around another car as the bulk of the city approached, before settling into something that seemed like he might, vaguely, be taking the excursion seriously.  Whether that was due to Other-Scott’s threats – which he did seem to be wary of – or because he was actually mindful of Scott’s own wishes, he had no idea. If he had to guess, probably the former. Scott wished his Gordon respected his threats against causing chaos.

Then again, he’d never had a doppelgänger, let alone one subsequently left in the hands of his prank-loving brother.

“Francois Lemaire has a new men’s range out,” he shrugged.  “Might as well start there.”

“Lemaire?” Scott asked, his voice strangled.  Other-Gordon gave him a sharp look.

“He’s Tin-Tin’s favourite designer,” the younger man said.  “She suggested him.”

Lemaire?  Designer?  Admittedly, Scott didn’t know what the rich airhead did when he wasn’t throwing himself in mortal danger and complaining loudly when they had to rescue him from his own stupidity, but he found it hard to believe that between birthday parties in the Mariana Trench and throwing himself into the coma of a comet he was designing clothes.

“Problem?” Other-Gordon asked, and Scott realised he was scowling. Taking a deep breath, he forced his expression to smooth out again.

“He won’t be there, will he?” he asked.  “If he’s anything like the Lemaire I know, there is a high chance I’ll be losing my temper.”

“What’s wrong with Lemaire?”  Other-Gordon actually sounded confused, which was enough for Scott to cling to the hope that maybe, maybe, the man wasn’t such an idiot here.

“Birthday party in the Mariana Trench,” he groaned.  “Flying into a comet.  Hunting mermaids.”  And that was just the tip of the iceberg.  “He calls us International Babysitting Service now.”

The hiss Other-Gordon let out implied the other man found that all as ridiculous – and insulting – as Scott did.  “I guess that fella’s not your favourite human,” he observed.  “We’ve not had those sorts of problems with him.” That was a relief.  “I doubt he’ll be here, though.  Fella lives in France.”

That was another relief, although Scott wasn’t going to relax entirely until they were done with the man’s shop.  It would be just his luck that this universe’s Lemaire would be dropping by for a visit when he was there, and that was not a meeting he wanted.

“Then we might as well see if his range contains anything I want to wear,” he shrugged, realising that he hadn’t actually agreed or disagreed with Other-Gordon’s suggestion.  The younger man groaned as he pulled into a parking lot tucked behind a large building emblazoned with Lemaire.

“You’re not going to be too fussy, are you?” he asked.  Scott detected a tone of dread behind what was clearly supposed to be a rhetorical question.

“Not if they have decent clothes,” he answered, and Other-Gordon made another disgruntled noise as he killed the ignition.

“Sure.  Now, remember: you’re my brother, you’ve lost your voice, I’m doing all the talking.” Scott rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement.  “Underpants, shirts, jeans, pyjamas, shoes and a custom hoodie.” Other-Gordon still didn’t seem too happy about some of those things, even with Other-Scott’s blessing, reluctant though it had been.  “Am I forgetting anything?”

Scott shook his head and Other-Gordon jumped out of the car, casually circling around to open Scott’s door before he realised the lever needed to be pulled, not pushed.  What happened to doors opening at the touch of a button?  He was really starting to miss familiar technology.

Maybe he could persuade Other-Gordon to let him pilot back to the island.

First, though, he had to get through this shopping trip so he could stop having to borrow Other-Scott’s clothes.  Stepping out of the car, he followed Other-Gordon into the shop.

It was exactly the sort of ordered chaos Scott expected from clothes shopping.  Mannequins flanked the entrance, decked out in what was presumably the latest fashions but looked totally bizarre to Scott, while a woman decked out in equally outrageous clothes – not Gordon-outrageous, but so much fabric outrageous – bustled forwards to greet them.  Behind her, equally awfully dressed men and women were guiding around customers who just screamed ‘I’m rich’.

Scott was immediately reminded exactly why he did as much clothes shopping as he could get away with online.

“Monsieur Tracy, Monsieur Tracy,” the woman greeted them.  “My name is Madeleine; how may I be of assistance today?”

Automatically, Scott opened his mouth to answer, but Other-Gordon jumped in before he managed to make a sound.  “Scott’s looking for a new wardrobe,” he said smoothly, drawing the woman’s attention to him and away from Scott, who inwardly scolded himself for forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to talk.  “Could we see your shirt selection?”

“Of course, Monsieur,” Madeleine replied.  “If you would follow me?”  She posed it as a question but began to walk further into the shop without waiting for a reply.  Scott and Other-Gordon stepped forwards at the same time, following the woman through a maze of clothes and other customers before arriving in a booth lined with lavish couches.  “Please, take a seat.”  Madeleine gestured to one of the couches and Scott took the invitation.  Other-Gordon settled down beside him and immediately reached out for what appeared to be a physical, gloss-paper, brochure on the table. He flipped through it for a moment before passing it over.

Scott accepted it and saw that Other-Gordon had already opened it to the shirts for him.

“Did Monsieur have a particular style in mind?” Madeleine asked after a moment. Not knowing the jargon as well as perhaps Grandma would have liked, and unable to speak without inviting awkward questions anyway, Scott shrugged.

“You’ll have to forgive my brother,” Other-Gordon jumped in before she could take offence.  “The fella’s lost his voice.”

“Oh,” she gasped softly.  “My apologies, Monsieur Tracy.”

Scott shot her a reassuring smile even as Other-Gordon waved off her apology. “Don’t worry about it.  I’m here to work as a translator.”

Leaving Other-Gordon to keep the woman occupied in conversation, Scott leant back and flicked through the brochure, eyeing the various outrageous shirts – apparently this universe’s Lemaire liked to design clothes with far too much excess fabric – before finally locating something that looked simple enough.  He’d still have to roll the sleeves up and worry at the collar until it sat comfortably, but it definitely looked like something he could wear comfortably enough.

He prodded Other-Gordon in the ribs; sharp amber eyes snapped over to him, wide in surprise for a split second before narrowing.

“You found something?” the younger man asked, after a pause that felt just a little too long.  Scott nodded, belatedly realising he had no idea if that sort of thing was acceptable sibling behaviour in this universe.  Realising he couldn’t clarify anything while he was pretending to have lost his voice, he pushed the thought aside to deal with later, and prodded at the picture on the page.

Madeleine made a motion to look over, and Scott swivelled the brochure so that she could see the one he’d chosen.

“A wonderful choice, Monsieur Tracy,” she beamed, while Other-Gordon made a sound that could be amused.  He didn’t say whatever it was he was thinking, though, instead joining in the conversation when the woman asked how many and pulled out another brochure of fabrics and patterns.

“I dare say a few wouldn’t go amiss,” Other-Gordon told her – although Scott suspected it was a prod at him as well.  He zoned out the rest of the conversation as he stared at the ridiculous variety of colours and tried to find the sensible blues.  He had no desire to adopt Gordon’s sense of fashion, or John’s for that matter.

He suspected John might quite like some of the horrors he was hurriedly passing by.  He’d never understood his immediate brother’s taste in clothes.

Finally, a nice plain blue, not too far off his favourite shirt at home, caught his eye, and after inspecting it to make sure there weren’t any hidden patterns he tapped at the glossy paper to draw their attention.

“The fella likes blue,” Other-Gordon shrugged at Madeleine as she pulled out a notepad and pen from somewhere and started scribbling down.  “But Scott, are you really only going to get the one design? That’s a lot of identical shirts.”

Regretting zoning out the conversation about exactly how many Other-Gordon had decided he would be getting, Scott instead raised an eyebrow at him, a look his younger brothers all knew meant don’t try me.  From the grin Other-Gordon gave him, he understood exactly what it meant, but was also as unimpressed by the warning as Gordon ever was.  With some reluctance, because yes, variety was nice and he suspected Other-Gordon was actually telling him that buying many identical shirts was not an Other-Scott-like thing to do, he returned to the sample images and tried to find some others that didn’t look like something John would wear – or worse, something not even Gordon or John would be caught dead in.

Fashion was ridiculous here.

He was certain his choices were being memorised by the too-sharp ginger next to him as he dug out the designs he was willing to wear and had them scribbled down by an eager to please Madeleine, no doubt being added to whatever mental databank Other-Gordon was compiling about him.  Maybe it would be worth dragging the differences between him and Other-Scott out of the aquanaut at some point on the flight back, if only to try and get a better understanding of what he was – temporarily, he hoped – going to be dealing with.

None of his training – Air Force, International Rescue or business – had ever covered what to do when faced with a doppelgänger of himself that wasn’t the Hood in disguise, and while Not-Dad was proving to be a problem, he didn’t have any plans to alienate the family.  They were his only way home; that, he knew for certain.

“Will that be all, Monsieur Tracy?” Madeleine asked when he finally decided there was nothing else he could even consider wearing and shut the samples brochure.  He wasn’t sure how many he’d selected in the end, but there was a satisfied look on Other-Gordon’s face, so he decided to call that torment to a close and nodded. Beaming what had to be a fake customer pleasing smile, she elegantly made her way to her feet, apparently not impeded by the ridiculousness of her dress.  “Then if you’d like to follow me to the fitting rooms?”

What.

Fitting rooms?

Had some formal clothes snuck into his selection or something?

Other-Gordon nudged him seemingly accidentally as he stood up.  Scott assumed that was another signal to just go along with it.  Reluctantly, he found his way to his feet and followed Madeleine’s swirl of fabric, raising an eyebrow at Other-Gordon when the other man followed.  He got a grin in return.

At least someone was having fun.  Scott missed online shopping.  He really hoped he wasn’t going to have to go through this rigmarole for every item they were buying.

The fitting room really should be called a fitting chamber.  It was at least as big as his bedroom at home, if not bigger, with plush seats and an area designed to be screened off, presumably for changing.  Hopefully, it wouldn’t be unusual for Other-Scott to use the curtains, because Scott was well aware how many scars he had from rescues, and while Other-Gordon had already briefly seen him shirtless he wasn’t sure Madeleine would be expecting that many scars on a lazy billionaire’s son.

“Please, make yourself comfortable while I collect the shirts,” the woman said, gesturing to the chairs.  “I will only be a few moments.”

Then she was gone, and it was just the two of them in the room.

“You don’t get your clothes fitted?” Other-Gordon asked, quietly, a beat after the door slid shut.  Scott took that as an indication that no-one would hear him if he spoke, and leaned forwards with a sigh.

“I normally shop online,” he grumbled.  “Much less hassle.”

“On… Line?”  Other-Gordon parroted the word with clear confusion in his voice, and Scott rolled his eyes, half at the other man, half at the world in general.  He should have known that would be another difference.

“Different technology,” he dismissed.  “You’re not telling me I have to go through this for everything, are you?”

“You’re getting a custom hoodie,” Other-Gordon reminded him.  “And designer jeans.”  Scott groaned.  “But they won’t measure you for underwear.”

“You’re never going to drop that, are you?”  It was so old it was ancient at this point, but from the grin on Other-Gordon’s face, that clearly didn’t matter to him.  Amber eyes flashed with amusement before turning serious.

“Don’t forget the curtain,” he warned.  “Scott’s scars aren’t the same as yours.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” Scott assured him.  He probably shouldn’t be surprised that Other-Gordon had gleaned that from when he’d borrowed Other-Scott’s clothes, but hearing a comparison still startled him.  “I-”

The door slid open and he cut himself off.

“Sorry for the wait, Monsieur Tracy,” Madeleine greeted, an entire hangar of shirts trailing behind her on wheels.  “According to your previous custom, these should be of an approximate fit.”

Previous-?  Other-Scott also shopped there?  He supposed that made sense, even if he suddenly felt the pressure to absolutely not slip up, because Madeleine probably knew Other-Scott.  That might have been useful to know earlier.

There was a lot he hadn’t been told before this trip, and he was starting to wish they’d spent a little more time talking before leaving the island. The sensation of being out of his depth was starting to make itself known again from where it had settled in the relative familiarity of the flight over.

“All looks that way,” Other-Gordon said suddenly, and Scott realised he hadn’t given any sort of response.  He really had to get his head in the game.  “So, which one first, Scott?”

Resisting the instinct to take a deep breath in front of Madeleine, he stood and gestured at the blue one he’d picked out first from the catalogue.  She took it off the hangar for him with a large smile.

“Take your time, Monsieur Tracy,” she told him.  “Come out when you’re ready.”

Scott barely made it to the curtained off area, drawing the thick material across and shutting himself away from the other two, before slumping against the wall and taking a deep breath.  Now was not a good time to get overwhelmed.  If it was just Other-Gordon-

No, he’d done more than enough breaking down in front of other people already. He took another deep breath, looking down at the shirt gripped in his hands.  His hands were trembling, the bandages over his knuckles suddenly stark against his skin.  Visible. How was he supposed to explain away bandaged knuckles when he was pretending to be a lazy billionaire’s son? Madeleine must have spotted it.

He tore his gaze away from the fabric and instead looked up at the ceiling, feeling the hat on his head dig in awkwardly as his head leant against the wall. More deep breaths, each shakier than the last, and somewhere in the back of his mind he realised he was headed for a full panic attack.

No.  He couldn’t do that.  Not with Madeleine a single curtain away.  Other-Scott had an image to maintain and he couldn’t ruin it.  He had to-

“Is everything alright, Monsieur Tracy?”  Madeleine’s voice was close, too close.  She could probably hear his messed up breathing, knew something was wrong, knew he was falling apart the other side of the suddenly too-thin curtain, and-

“I’ll check on him,” Other-Gordon said.  “Scott?  I’m coming in.”

He’d slipped around the curtain before Scott registered his words, amber eyes falling on him and widening for a split second.  Then, like a switch had been flicked, his whole demeanour changed. It wasn’t the jovial man that had been teasing for most of their time away from the island, but nor was it the sharp, military-like edge he’d held when he was being serious.

Instead it was calm, reassuring, and with slow, obvious movements the shorter man was taking the shirt from his hands, folding the fabric over one arm. “Sit,” he instructed, quietly.

This was his International Rescue façade, Scott realised dimly as he sank down onto a stool he hadn’t even registered was there.  Other-Gordon crouched down in front of him, gently removing the shades he’d forgotten he was wearing and making firm eye contact.

“Breathe in,” he said, voice still low.  “Do you want me to count you?”

Scott took in another breath, inwardly wincing at how shaky it was, before exhaling again.  Slowly, deliberately choreographing his movements, Other-Gordon rested a single hand on his knee.  The touch was light, but grounding, and Scott’s next attempt at a deep breath was markedly less shaky.  Another, and then another, with Other-Gordon almost silently guiding him with words too quiet to be heard the other side of the curtain.

Once he had enough of a grip of himself that panic felt no longer imminent, he leant back, tension bleeding from his shoulders.

“Better?” Other-Gordon asked, and he nodded, opening his mouth to speak before a raised eyebrow reminded him otherwise.  “Should we call it?  You can come back-”

“No,” Scott cut him off, clamping his mouth shut when he realised his mistake. He shook his head.  If they left now, he’d have to come back later, and he wasn’t sure he could do that.  He certainly didn’t want to have to face Not-Dad and tell him they didn’t finish because he panicked.  Better to get it over and done with now.

Other-Gordon eyed him dubiously for a moment before sighing and pulling himself to his feet.  “If you say so,” he said.  “Let me give you a hand.”

Give-?  The blue fabric still draped over the aquanaut’s arm caught his eye.  Oh yes, he was supposed to have been putting it on. He didn’t want help getting changed, and certainly didn’t need it, but there was a look in amber eyes that said quite plainly that Other-Gordon wasn’t going anywhere.

Then again, if their roles were reversed, Scott wouldn’t be going anywhere either.

Deciding the best route was to ignore him as best he could, Scott shrugged the waistcoat off, before plucking at the buttons on the shirt he was wearing. To his credit, Other-Gordon didn’t try to actively help, only taking the clothes once he’d removed them and holding out the blue shirt for him to take.

“Monsieurs?” Madeleine called just as he was fastening the last button. “Is there a problem?”

Other-Gordon pressed the sunglasses into his hands and readjusted the hat on his head before slipping back outside.

“Nothing to be worried about,” he assured her.  “Whatever he’s caught that’s gone and taken his voice gives him dizzy moments, too.  Fella just had a spell, but it’s passed now.”

So now he was ill instead of just having lost his voice?  Scott wanted to be amused, but in reality he just felt thankful that Other-Gordon was quick at thinking on his feet.

“Oh, I understand,” she said.  Scott hurried to put the sunglasses back on and took one last deep breath before pushing the curtain back.  “Monsieur Tracy, we can hold the items for you if you’d rather come back at a later date?”

Remembering in time not to talk, Scott waved her off with a small grin. It was forced; smiling wasn’t something he felt like doing but the last thing he wanted was to have to come back.

“He’ll be fine,” Other-Gordon assured her.  “This won’t take long, will it?”

“Oh, not at all,” Madeleine hurried to promise, and Scott’s grin felt just a little less forced at that.  “If you would stand here…”  She gestured to a small step and Scott obeyed, watching as she bustled around him with pins, tugging at the fabric until it lay flat across his shoulders and hung just right.  Compared to some fittings he’d had, it certainly didn’t feel like it took too long; after what had to have been only a few minutes, she was nodding her approval and handing him the next shirt to put on.

Other-Gordon followed him behind the curtain this time, not giving him the opportunity to refuse the company.  Scott got the feeling he wouldn’t be letting him out of his sight again until they were back on the island, but where before he might have bristled at the lack of privacy, now he found himself reassured by the other man’s presence.  If nothing else, it helped keep his mind on the task at hand as he peeled the pin-infested shirt away from his body gingerly and accepted the new one while Other-Gordon hung the first on a hangar.

The rest of the fitting went in much the same fashion, Madeleine working quickly but efficiently and Other-Gordon shadowing him in a way that should have been bothersome but was somehow comforting, and before long all of the shirts – eleven, apparently – were stuck through with pins and back on the rail.

“Is there anything else you would like to order, Monsieur Tracy?” the woman asked once Scott was once again dressed in Other-Scott’s borrowed clothes. She was clearly addressing him, but her eyes were on Other-Gordon, much to Scott’s relief.  While he knew what he wanted, he didn’t know where he could get them.  For that, he was reliant on the other man.

“Not today,” Other-Gordon answered.  “When will they be ready to collect?”

“For you, we will have them done by Tuesday,” she replied.  Scott realised he had no idea what the day was.

“Perfect,” Other-Gordon grinned, before fishing out a card from his pocket and handing it to her.  She beamed and scurried off, presumably to take the payment.

Scott had absolutely no idea how much that had just come to.

Whatever the damage was, Other-Gordon seemed entirely fine with it, keeping his grin on his face as she returned with the card and a paper receipt, so Scott assumed it was within expectations.

Other-Gordon and Madeleine finalised arrangements for the shirts to be collected on Tuesday, leaving Scott with the sinking feeling he’d likely be stuck borrowing Other-Scott’s clothes for however many days away that was, before bidding farewell.  Following suit, Scott offered his own nod of thanks and farewell before finding himself being subtly guided back out of the shop and towards the car by the ginger.

Chapter 9>>>

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #tsari writes fanfiction #scott tracy #long way from home #gordon tracy

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

The Wizard of Oz: The Story

At first glance, the plot of The Wizard of Oz seems pretty simple and chock full of clichés.  A girl from Kansas and her dog find themselves in a wonderful land, and meet a Cowardly Lion, a Tin Man, and a Scarecrow, traveling on a feel-good journey to find the titular Wizard of Oz, the only person who can send Dorothy home.

Pretty straightforward and obvious, right?

Well, there’s a bit more to it than that.  (Spoilers below, so on the off chance you haven’t seen the movie, go check it out and come back when you’ve seen it!)

Here’s the setup:

The film opens with Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) and Toto running along a road in the dull, brown land of Kansas.  They are running just ahead of their bike-riding, witch-like neighbor, Ms. Gulch, who is trying to have Toto put down for biting her.

Dorothy, in an understandable panic, tries to tell her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry (who she lives with) about the situation, but they blow her off.  She turns for advice instead to three farm hands, who express sympathy and interest in the problem.  It is here where Aunt Em tells Dorothy to find somewhere where she won’t get into trouble, and here where Dorothy sings the most famous song in all of cinema.

Now, we’re already looking at quite a lot of setup that will be hugely important later.

First, the templates for the future characters of Oz.  Ms. Gulch and the three farmhands are introduced immediately with clear personality traits that will be echoed in their Oz counterparts later on.  Ms. Gulch is appropriately antagonistic and witch like.  The three farm hands quietly display the traits upon which their dopplegangers will be fixated: brains, heart, and courage.

Then there’s that song.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow, while being a song with seemingly little to do with the story has a lot to do with Dorothy’s character.  Feeling pushed aside, ignored, and helpless, Dorothy’s famous song is a window into her desires: leaving and finding a place where her dreams will come true.

Long story short, there’s a lot of foreshadowing in this scene.

Ms. Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) arrives on the scene with a sheriff’s order to put Toto down.  When her aunt and uncle do nothing to stop it, Dorothy takes Toto and attempts to run away from home.

She doesn’t get far.

She is stopped in her tracks by a kind, traveling con-artist fortune teller (Frank Morgan).  The fortune teller, by looking through Dorothy’s things to surmise enough about her situation, uses his crystal ball to cause Dorothy to believe that her aunt is in serious trouble.  Worried, Dorothy races home just in time for a cyclone to strike, knocking her on the head and carrying her, Toto, and the house, into the skies, along with Ms. Gulch, who transforms into a witch aboard a broomstick.

When the house lands, it’s in an entirely different place. Gone are the brown-grey tones of Kansas, replaced with bright color and vivid imagery of Munchkin land.  Dorothy emerges from the house to be greeted and hailed as a hero by both the Munchkins and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Dorothy has slain the Wicked Witch of the East when her house fell atop her, and freed the inhabitants of Munchkin land.  Cue song.

Dorothy is understandably confused, especially when the dead witch’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the West (Also Margaret Hamilton) turns up to claim the powerful ruby slippers that belonged to her sibling and are currently sticking out from underneath the house.  

Glinda transports the slippers onto Dorothy’s feet instead, enraging the Wicked Witch of the West, and causing her to swear vengeance for her sister.  Not powerful enough to hurt Dorothy in the presence of Glinda the Good, the Wicked Witch vanishes in a flash-bang of smoke.

All Dorothy wants is to get home.

Glinda assures her that she can get home by going to see the most Powerful Being in All of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz of the Emerald City.  She can do this, of course, by following the Yellow Brick Road.

Cue another song as Dorothy skips her way out of town, down the road, and towards her goal: getting home.

Already we’re seeing some irony here.  Not fifteen minutes ago, Dorothy’s goal was to get Somewhere Over the Rainbow, to be in a magical place. Oz is as magical as they come, and Dorothy was immediately beloved and befriended, and yet, worried for her family (especially her aunt) the goal seems to have flipped; now her desire is to return home.  This is unusual for both a fantasy movie and a coming of age story, and The Wizard of Oz is both.

Even stranger, throughout the story, Dorothy never wavers from this goal, leading directly to the lesson at the end.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Dorothy comes to a fork in the Yellow Brick Road by a cornfield, where she meets an unusual figure: a scarecrow (Ray Bolger), stuck on a pole. Dorothy immediately goes to his aid, helping him down and listening to his woes: he has no brain, which he explains through song.  (Aren’t musicals wonderful?)

Dorothy has a solution.  She suggests that he joins her, so that he may ask this Wonderful Wizard for some brains.  He agrees, and they continue along into a grove of apple-trees.  Dorothy, being hungry, goes to pick an apple, only to realize that the trees are alive, and aren’t happy about having their children ripped from them and eaten in front of them.

They don’t word it like that, but that’s the gist of it.

The Brainless Scarecrow takes action, enraging the trees to instead pelt them with the apples, no doubt breaking the hearts of several parents who witnessed their children used as ammunition.

Mission accomplished, Dorothy moves to collect the apples when she stumbles on something else interesting: a man made of tin, rusted nearly solid.

Sensing another opportunity to help, Dorothy uses an oilcan to restore mobility to the Tin-Man (Jack Haley), who thanks them and expresses his own problem: he has no heart, and this just about moves him to tears.

It moves him to song, anyway.

In the end, Dorothy suggests that the Tin Man join them in their journey to Oz, so that he may ask the Wizard for a heart, and he agrees.  The Wicked Witch appears again, this time as a more sincere threat, revealed through a demonstration of her fireball-hurling abilities.  She disappears in another puff of smoke, and the Scarecrow reveals that fire is his only fear, as it is the only thing that can truly destroy him.

The group continues on into a deep forest, full of ‘lions and tigers and bears’ (oh my!), and are suddenly jumped by a Lion (Bert Lahr). They scatter in terror before his might, all except for little Toto.  Faced with this challenge of a tiny dog, the Lion pounces after him, to the outrage of Dorothy, who viciously slaps the Lion on the nose and scolds him. The fierce Lion responds to this attack by bursting into tears.

The Lion explains, in a song, that what he wants most in life is courage, sealing out our rule of three.  He too joins the group in the desperate hope that the Wizard will give him the courage he desires, and the three emerge from the forest, across a field of poppies.  There is a brief and pointless attack by the Witch, deflected by Deux Ex Glinda, and the group merrily makes their way to the Emerald City.

The guy at the gate briefly stops them, but lets them in after seeing Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers and hearing that they know Glinda the Good.  Cue another song, this time describing the joy it is to live in Oz, however they are cut short by the main conflict kicking into high gear: The broomstick-riding Wicked Witch of the West blazes a smoke trail in the sky that says simply: Surrender Dorothy.

The lack of comma is a little confusing as to whether Dorothy is to surrender, or if the people of the Emerald City are supposed to surrender her, but either way, the idea comes across pretty clearly.  In the face of this danger, the message returns from the mighty and wise Wizard of Oz: he won’t see them, due to the danger Dorothy has brought.

In desperation, Dorothy starts to cry, mourning her situation, which, despite three new friends, is pretty bleak.  Her outburst convinces the Wizard’s guard to let them in, where they meet the famed Wizard.

He’s pretty scary, all right.  He insults the group for a few minutes as the group stutters out what they want (a brain, a heart, a home, the nerve), and then lays down his deal: He’ll give them what they want if they bring back the Wicked Witch of the West’s broomstick.  

Left with no other option, Dorothy and Co. head into the forest after the witch, and here I want us to pause for a moment and look at where we are in the story.

For one thing, this is kind of a weird structure for a movie. The setup is fine, a girl finding themselves in a magical world is a normal fantasy format.  The main antagonist was introduced quite some time ago, but she hasn’t really been too much of a threat until now.  We got a few reminders to let us know she’s still in the movie, but we’re really just now getting to see the main ‘conflict’, Dorothy vs. the Witch, and we’re really close to the end of the movie.

It almost seems like we’re just now entering third act climax after a very long first act of rising tension/inciting incident.  It feels as though we’ve skipped right over a second act. The quest to defeat the witch, which in other stories would be starting at the end of the first act, is at the beginning of the third.

The ‘quest’ wasn’t even for Dorothy’s own sake.  She’s doing this because the Wizard is giving her no other choice.  Dorothy isn’t a fantasy hero in the normal sense.  She just wants to get home, and there’s no sense of ‘good vs. evil’ struggle in this film.

So where are we in the story?  Where we are right now is a scared, but determined, little girl doing whatever it takes to get home, with three friends and her dog at her side, marching into the woods to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, a powerful woman who’s been trying to get at her this whole movie.

The Witch’s horde of flying monkeys arrives in the forest, carrying Dorothy and Toto off, mauling the Scarecrow, and subduing the Lion and Tin Man.

Once in the Witch’s castle, threatened with her dog’s death, Dorothy agrees to let the Witch have the slippers, but wouldn’t you know it, the slippers won’t come off her feet.  Enraged, the Witch locks Dorothy in a tower with an hourglass that is counting down time until the Witch kills her.  (The reason she didn’t do it right away is that ‘these things must be done delicately’.  Maybe she needed a spell or something to do it with the Ruby Slippers on her.)  During her imprisonment, she is shown images of her aunt, worriedly calling out for her.

Meanwhile, Toto gets away and rushes to fetch help: the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion.  After putting the Scarecrow back together and surmising what must have happened, the trio immediately decide to go rescue Dorothy.

In a display of brainlessness, heartlessness, and gutlessness, they sneak into the Witch’s castle to save their friend, beating up three guards and taking their uniforms in the process.  Seconds before the hourglass runs out, the Tin Man finally gets to use his axe and chops down the door to the room Dorothy is locked inside. Their reunion is cut short, however, by the Witch and her guards, who, after a brief chase, manage to corner them.

The Witch gleefully informs Dorothy that the Witch intends to kill them all, one by one, saving Dorothy for last.  Making good on her promise, she sets the Scarecrow on fire, which, as previously stated, is the one thing that can really kill him.

Horrified, Dorothy grabs a nearby Deus Ex Bucket of Water and douses the Scarecrow, putting him out and saving his life.  In the process, the Witch gets soaked too, and let’s be honest, you all know what happens next.

“You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness…”

So the Witch vaporizes away, leaving Dorothy and Co. stunned and surrounded by the Witch’s guards, who thank Dorothy profusely for murdering their leader.  They gladly give them the broomstick they were sent after, and the gang immediately heads back to the Emerald City, full of joy and confidence.

Once they arrive back in the Wizard’s presence, however, he immediately begins wavering on his deal, telling them to come back tomorrow.

Dorothy, having recently (if accidently) vanquished the most feared person in all of Oz, is having none of it.  She stands up to the Wizard and is just setting in on giving him a piece of her mind before Toto rushes to an ignored corner of the room, pulling back a concealing fabric and revealing a scared little man behind the curtain, working frantically at his machinery in an attempt to draw their attention away from him.

The man (also Frank Morgan) admits the truth: he is the Wizard of Oz, and has no wonderful powers whatsoever, but he does stave off their anger with a few items from our world, where he is apparently from.  To the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, he bestows gifts that officially grant them the traits they were ‘lacking’.

A diploma, medal, or clock won’t get Dorothy home, however, but the Wizard has an idea.  He arrived in Oz several years ago by a decidedly less fantastic way than Dorothy had: he had come by hot air balloon, and it just so happens that it is in perfect condition.  The Wizard decides that it is time for him to go home as well, and offers to take Dorothy with him.  Of course she accepts.

However, while the departure is taking place, there is a scuffle involving Toto and a cat, and the balloon takes off with the Wizard, but not Dorothy.  The girl is now in complete despair about ever getting back to Kansas, and even though she’d be welcome in the Emerald City, she’s coming to the realization that there’s no place like home.

Cue Deus Ex Glinda.

The Good Witch arrives in their midst and tells Dorothy something that probably would have been helpful before if not for The Plot: The Ruby Slippers that Dorothy has been wearing could have taken her home any time she wanted, simply by clicking her heels and saying ‘There’s no place like home’.

(I wish I had a pair of those.  That’d make social gatherings much less uncomfortable.)

Dorothy tearfully wishes her friends goodbye and with Toto in tow, follows Glinda’s instructions and wakes up in familiar, gray Kansas, surrounded by her aunt, uncle, farmhands, and Professor Marvel.  It was all Just A Dream.

Contrived?  Maybe. Or maybe not.

A lot of people have quite a few problems with the ending of the Wizard of Oz (besides the Scarecrow’s math slipup, which we aren’t addressing today).  For example, if Glinda knew the slippers did that this whole time, why send Dorothy on this dangerous adventure and have her murder a Witch?

(Or maybe it was Manslaughter.  It was accidental, after all.)

For a while, I subscribed to the theory of it just being an easy way to end the story.  In the original book, the Good Witch who sends Dorothy off and the Good Witch who helps her get home are two different people.  I just assumed that the scriptwriters just crammed them into one person, didn’t realize the Adaptation Induced Plothole, and just hoped no one would notice.  (I didn’t like this movie for much of my childhood, and I was rather cynical towards it.)

However, when I watched it again, I had another thought.

First off, this entire adventure was a dream, and if we can accept talking lions, scarecrows, and men made out of tin, we can sure as heck accept the fact that Dorothy’s subconscious wasn’t thinking of a plot-sensible way to get home.

Secondly, and more important thematically, this way home matters to Dorothy’s journey.  In the beginning of the first act, we see Dorothy’s desperation to be elsewhere, somewhere where her dreams come true, somewhere brighter and Better than Kansas. And then she gets her wish.

For any other fantasy hero, this would be amazing.  She immediately is hailed as a hero and makes three good friends, defeats a villain, and has the opportunity to stay behind in this magical land where she has learned so much.  But what does Dorothy say at the end?

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, l won’t look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn’t there I never really lost it to begin with.”

Right from the beginning, as we’ve mentioned, all she wants is to go back home, to be with her family and friends, and to be content with the life she had.  Her ‘Hero’s Journey’ isn’t learning to strike out on her own and be Independent.  Her ‘Hero’s Journey’ is gaining the same things her friends did: brains, heart, and courage.

She proves her own intelligence, her own caring, and most importantly, her own bravery.  She learns agency.  In the beginning of the story, she is helpless, running away from her life because the adults in her life are unable to help her.  The story of Dorothy is of being able to affect where you are in life, not by escaping, but by dealing with your problems yourself.

By initially going to the Wizard to be sent home and finding out she had the ability to do it herself, Dorothy realizes that she has power and agency in her own life, and that she can’t, and shouldn’t, totally rely on others to fix her problems.  So in a way, it makes sense that she had to go through all of that before she could go home.

By the same token, she’s also learned that she belongs with her family at the moment.  Dorothy is still a child, and does spend a good deal of the movie worrying especially about her aunt.  Where she begins the movie feeling swept aside by her family, Dorothy realizes how much she cares about and needs family and friends in her life.  She has learned to be self-sufficient, but not alone.

That’s a pretty good message for a kid, and indeed, for people of all ages.  With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense that people have kept coming back to this film for its heartwarming story.  There’s a reason this movie is a classic, after all.

In the upcoming articles, we’ll be taking a look at some more of the fascinating facets that make up The Wizard of Oz, so please, stay tuned for next time!  Thank you all so much for reading and feel free to message me with your own thoughts. I hope to ‘see’ you in the next article!

#The Wizard of Oz #The Wizard of Oz 1939 #1939 #30s #Film #Movies #Fantasy #Adventure #PG #Judy Garland #Margaret Hamilton #Frank Morgan #Ray Bolger #Jack Haley #Bert Lahr #Billie Burke #Victor Fleming

[the-patchwork-girl-of-oz]

Redraw if one of my first digital chopper sibs au drawings to see if I improved.:)

Both are drawn on an iPhone with my finger on ibis paint :)

Haha inconsistent art style go brrr

Also I think it was a couple months ago and I keep forgetting to bring it up, but I think one of my friends suggested Hickory be taller than his siblings because of Gilikan grandparents, and I personally think the unusually tall munchkin trope is a bit overused but I like this one, because it makes sense and Jack Haley was like 5’10.

#sorry if Hickory’s not 100% accurate hehe I tried 😅 #wicked #wicked the musical #boq bfeeson #boq #boq chopper #boq bfeeson chopper #wizard of oz 1939 mgm #jack haley #hunk hickory and zeke #hickory chopper #hickory bfeeson? #hickory bfeeson chopper #wizard of oz farmhands #wizard of oz kansas counterparts #chopper siblings au #@just some guy at shiz #art

[babycharmander]

With Disney Plus now released, a lot of people have access to much of Disney's content that they've never seen before, be it 90s cartoons they were born too late to see, Pixar shorts they missed, or obscure movies they hadn't known existed until they saw their titles listed among Disney Plus's catalogue of films.

Because of this, a lot of people now have access to my favorite movie of all time, Return to Oz. So now I would like to present you...

Reasons Why You Should Watch Return to Oz

It's about Dorothy, six months after she comes home from her adventures in Oz. While she loves Oz, the tornado and some of her experiences she had there left her with a form of PTSD. In particular, she experiences terrible insomnia, as well as a feeling that things are not right in Oz. Her aunt and uncle are at a loss for what to do, finally turning to "modern medicine"--which is to say, shock therapy. She manages to escape this, and eventually finds her way back to Oz, only to find that indeed, things aren't well there. Her friends are missing, most of Oz's citizens were turned to stone, and she must band together with a group of new friends to find out what has happened to Oz, how she can save it, and how she can get back home again.

It's a charming 80s fantasy movie, that has just about everything you can expect from hearing the term "80s fantasy movie" (well, minus any amount of crudeness--there's no swearing or violence or off-color jokes here).

As far as English adaptations of Baum's books go, it's quite possibly the closest in spirit to Baum's original Oz series. (And, yes, I do mean series--for those unaware, the original Wizard of Oz was not a standalone book, but the first of fourteen Oz novels Baum himself wrote--a series that was later expanded to forty novels by other authors, and even more after that.)

It features (mostly) incredible practical effects (among the occasional cheesy 80s effect), including puppetry by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Brian Henson (one of Jim Henson's children) voices and puppets one of the major characters in the film (and my personal favorite character), Jack Pumpkinhead.

This is Fairuza Balk's first film appearance! (I... admittedly have seen no other movies she's been in, but some people like this actress, so here you go.)

A really fantastic soundtrack, with two of my favorite tracks being The Flight of the Gump, and The Return to Oz Rag March. (I'd link them, but Tumblr, being the way it is, probably wouldn't let this post show up in any tags, so go ahead and check them out on Youtube if you're interested.) On top of that, it also features the sort of music that uses different instruments to represent each character (Peter and the Wolf style, if you're familiar with that). Listen closely when different characters interact, and you'll hear their themes mix together!

A dark, but truly wonderful and heartfelt story. It also doesn't pull punches in terms of scariness or the seriousness of some of its situations (particularly the shock therapy clinic), and the villains can be quite terrifying at times and still give me chills to this day.

Genuinely sweet, wonderful characters: Dorothy's sarcastic pet chicken Billina, Tik-Tok (a robot who runs on clockwork and claims to not experience emotions), Jack Pumpkinhead (an incredibly tall but childlike scarecrow who just wants to find his mother), and the Gump (a reanimated hunting trophy--it's nicer than it sounds). And... of course, Dorothy herself--probably my favorite depiction of the character, and how I always imagine her to look when I read the books.

Some really emotional scenes that I don't want to spoil for you.

Scenes that truly show the people who worked on this film absolutely love Oz and Baum's books.

this is overall such a good movie and I love it so so so so much

Now... all that having been said, let me go into...

Things to Keep in Mind BEFORE You Watch Return to Oz

THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL TO THE JUDY GARLAND MUSICAL. I don't care what you've heard about this movie or what people have told you about it--it is not a sequel. It has a handful of references to the musical--nods to character echoes (characters seeming to appear in both Kansas and Oz) and use of the Ruby Slippers rather than Silver Slippers--but it is not a true sequel by any means.

It... it doesn't look like the cover Disney made for it in recent releases. i have no idea why the cover looks like that. it's awful. why does it look like that.

Dorothy is actually a child in this. For some reason Dorothy is older in the Judy Garland musical for whatever reason, but in this one, she's closer to the actual age she's supposed to be in the books! So no, she didn't "de-age" or anything.

The characters were made to look like the original illustrations from the books. So if you don't want to be startled by how different, say, the Scarecrow looks from his counterpart in the musical, check out the John R. Neil illustrations of the characters and you'll get a good idea for what to expect in this movie. (Exceptions being Tik-Tok the clockwork man (who was given a mild redesign to make his costume even possible), and the Nome King and his Nomes (who were interpreted completely differently from how they appear in the books.)

This movie GETS DARK. Get ready for depictions of shock therapy, as well as some genuinely creepy (and book-canon) creatures. If you're thinking of watching this movie with kids, be aware that this does get genuinely scary, so if they're the kind of kids who get nightmares from scary things in movies... maybe wait a few years before showing them this. (On the other hand, I saw this movie when I was pretty young and did fine--I still loved it in spite of the fact that it scared me, so it's hard to say for sure.)

That said... while it's dark, it's (arguably) not a horror movie. I have seen some fans argue how this could be considered a horror/fantasy movie, but IMO, don't go into it expecting a horror movie, since I've seen that shade people's perceptions of the film in bad ways.

Oz is not a dream here. While, again, it does indeed have nods to the way the original musical was done, unlike the musical, Oz is not a dream, as is proven in a few moments in the film.

I... think that's just about everything. If anyone thinks of something I missed here, please let me know.

This is genuinely my most favorite movie of all time, but it's also a very commonly misunderstood movie, so I wanted to write this post in favor of it, and encouraging others to give it a try (with the right mindset).

#return to oz #disney plus #wizard of oz #disney+ #long post #SORRY I HAD TO WRITE THIS #there are so many misconceptions about this movie #I wanted to write this so that folks can go into this movie with a proper mindset so they can actually enjoy it #this is my favorite movie ever it means so much to me

[violettranslations]

Callus of Contrition (痛悔のカルス)

永遠を誓ったあなたも とっくに土に還り あめ玉ほどのカルスを 眺めるサナトリアム Even you, who vowed eternity, returned to the earth long ago. The sanatorium gazes at a callus¹ shaped almost like a ball of candy.² ほてる肉薄花序も とっくに凍えかたまり 珠のようなセルロースも ミス•ガルチの SHOW-BOOTH Even this thin-sliced, flushing inflorescence¹ froze into a lump long ago. Even this cellulose,¹ round like a pearl, is Miss Gulch’s³ SHOW-BOOTH. ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. どこを切っても 血が出ないんだ 来た道だからいけるって そう思ったんだ なにをしても負い目が 消えないんだ 行く道が独りなのは 辛かったんだ No matter where I cut, blood doesn’t come out. It’s the way I came, so of course I can go back that way. That’s what I had thought. No matter what I do, this feeling of indebtedness won’t go away. Walking this path alone was excruciating. 咎と生きる覚悟も とっくに花弁と落ちて BB弾ほどのミームを 摘み取る死亡戦略 赤い仏炎苞も とっくに臭いが移り 溶けた雪もいつしか ドブに染まる私の贖罪 Even this resolve to live with my sins scattered with the flower petals long ago. This death strategy plucks off memes almost like BB pellets. Even this red Buddha flame bract¹ changed its smell long ago. Even this melted snow will, before we know it, turn slush-brown. That is my atonement. ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね ほんとごめんね I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry. 首を吊っても 苦しくないんだ もうここから出てこないよ 愛しているから Even though I hang myself, it doesn’t hurt. I won’t leave here anymore. Because I truly love you. なにをしても負い目が 消えないんだ 行く道が独りなのは 辛かったんだ No matter what I do, this feeling of indebtedness won’t go away. Walking this path alone was excruciating. どこを切っても 血が出ないんだ 来た道だからいけるって そう思ったんだ なにをしても負い目が 消えないんだ 行く道が独りなのは 辛かったんだ No matter where I cut, blood doesn’t come out. It’s the way I came, so of course I can go back that way. That’s what I had thought. No matter what I do, this feeling of indebtedness won’t go away. Walking this path alone was excruciating. ¹These are all plant terms, a theme of this song: callus, inflorescence, cellulose, Buddha flame bract. ²What’s referenced here is あめ玉 “amedama,” a type of Japanese round candy. ³Miss Gulch is the Kansas counterpart to the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

#Callus of Contrition #Hatsune Miku #KSNK #VOCALOID

[bluebeardsfinalgirl]

Out of curiosity after seeing your tags on the midsommar/wizard of oz post, I tried to research what you meant by Elphaba not being the Wicked Witch’s name. Does she have another name in the original books? Or is she just unnamed and people have just picked up on calling her Elphaba because of Wicked?

the name elphaba was made up for wicked as a reference to l. frank buam (“elle-fuh-buh”). it’s not her her name in the original book or film. in the film she never had a name in oz, but her kansas counterpart was named almira gulch. it’s one of my biggest pet peeves when ppl call non-wicked versions of the wicked witch as elphaba lmao so basically, unless ur specifically talking about the character from wicked maybe don’t call her elphaba bc it’s Not Her Name

#publishing so other ppl can Know #answered

[anhed-nia]

STILL NOT BLOGTOBER EVEN THOUGH I ONLY GOT ONE LEFT FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: CAM (2018)

I've been chewing on this for a couple of days, and I think I just have to resign myself to the fact that it's ok for me to fire off some immediate reactions, and then come back later on when I'm feeling more smarterer.

I really liked this a lot, even though there is no good reason why that should be. On paper, it hits my every "off" switch. Movies about sexy girls being sexy? Usually bad. Movies about the internet? Usually bad. And I even realized for the first time, going into CAM, that I usually dislike movies about doppelgängers. Even when they're decent, they're typically predicated on a predictable Ego versus Id concept that is as pretentious as it is transparent. These movies, in which someone's life is imperiled by a superior and corrupt other-self, often have the same problems as time travel stories--which I also hate--which hinge on a bunch of obvious "twists", and logistical acrobatics that don't even work very well. So all that said, I'm very grateful for the well-earned word of mouth that CAM has generated, because without it, I never would have rushed out to see a movie about a chick who is professionally hot, using the internet, and being threatened by an even more seductive version of herself. Sometimes it is wonderful to be wrong.

In CAM, the appealing and somewhat uncanny Madeline Brewer plays Alice, a cam girl who discovers that her feed has been taken over by a separate version of herself who is exponentially more successful than she had ever been before, despite her fiercest efforts. Alice launches a down-the-rabbit-hole investigation into who or what this twin could possibly be, ending with a horrific genre-bending discovery that will require all of her wits to confront. The less said about the details the better, as the movie is much more than the sum of its parts.

What sounds like a pandering, uncinematic proposal is made into a stylish, absorbing, relentlessly tense thriller by director Daniel Goldhaber and his creative partner, co-director and first time screenwriter Isa Mazzei. Mazzei, a cam girl herself, has taken the tired old id monster trope of the doppelgänger, and used it to stage a sober argument about the conflict between public success and personal boundaries. Alice's career seems to remain middling in part because of her insistence on standards of personal dignity; she refuses to deliver fake orgasms or fake "I love yous" during her performances, maintaining a sense of authenticity without giving away any more of herself than she chooses. Alice's double, Lola_Lola, is not constructed as a dangerous femme fatale whose self-indulgence throws Alice's polite hypocrisy into relief--which is usually what happens in this kind of tale--but rather as a distillation of Alice's ambition as a performer. Lola has no private life to protect, and needs only public adulation to survive, so she shatters all of Alice's rules in order to succeed on a level that no other cam girl can touch. Alice's war with her public self says a lot about everything from competitive feminine pageantry, to the average citizen's use of social media, and Goldhaber and Mazzei's intelligence and sincerity prevent CAM from sinking to the level of a PSA on self-esteem and internet addiction--which it could have easily become.

One of my favorite parts of CAM is the most contentious. At the very end, once Alice has vanquished her counterpart, she creates a brand new account with her old host site, starting her career over from scratch. A lot of viewers have seen this as an unjustifiable "Don't go back for the cat!" moment, but I find it very gratifying. Earlier this year, I saw a movie called CONCUSSION about a stifled suburban mom who starts a new chapter as a lesbian escort. She's good at it, as it turns out, and it boosts her self-confidence, helping her identify and nurture strengths that she didn't know she had. But, of course, because very few movies can resist the gravitational pull back toward status quo, she clunkily makes her way back toward monogamous civilian life. A lot of movies about unique individuals have this problem--even GHOST WORLD, which I adore, pulls the suspicious trick of making us fall in love with Enid's eccentricities, before concluding that the very things that make her so special are actually symptoms of her stuntedness, that she will have to be cured of in order to mature. It makes me think of John Waters' childhood memories of watching his favorite movie, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and crying hysterically because of Dorothy's incomprehensible choice to return to Kansas, "to that awful black-and-white farm, with that aunt who was dressed badly, with smelly farm animals around, when she could live with winged monkeys and magic shoes and gay lions. I didn't get it." Many movies seem to obey a basic mandate to return everything to normal--perhaps to reassure audiences that our mundane existence is still worth something?--and I am happy to report that CAM is not one of these movies. Actually, it is critical that CAM allows Alice to continue her career as a sex worker. Otherwise, we wind up with the insulting, moralizing conclusion that Alice's big mistake was owning and enjoying her own sexuality, and that the lesson here is that she should retreat to some quiet, humble existence in which she isn't "asking for it". Maybe her decision to start over is a little confusing, emotionally, but morally, it is the right thing to do.

#CAM #2018 #blogtober #isa mazzei #daniel goldhaber #horror #thriller #cyberpunk #doppleganger #madeline brewer #internet scare #science fiction #sci-fi

[funkymbtifiction]

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy Gale [ESFJ]

UNOFFICIAL TYPING BY: anonymous

Functional Order: Fe-Si-Ne-Ti

Judging Functional Axis:

Extroverted Feeling (Fe) / Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Throughout her adventure, Dorothy wears her emotions on her sleeves at all times. Even when she is alone, she speaks her thoughts out loud or at the very least converses with her dog. When she meets new people, she is very quick to engage with them and listen to their plights then subsequently feels the need to help them at all costs, often putting their needs ahead of her own. She is a very personable girl who even feels bad and apologizes when she accidentally kills two wicked witches. She barely knows her three new found friends but feels an innate amount of sympathy for them, completely shaming the “Wizard” when she finds out all of them have been duped. She doesn’t seem to question people’s motives however, simply seeing people and things as good or bad and if they appear good, she will want to help at all costs, no questions asked. But someone with a more selfish agenda can easily manipulate her (inferior Ti). 

Perceiving Functional Axis:

Introverted Sensing (Si) / Extroverted Intuition (Ne)

A simple, humble country girl, Kansas is essentially everything to Dorothy and she is desperate to go back there, quickly shunning the wonders of Oz and looking for ways to go back home. Though understandable, she approaches everything with apprehension and at the end of her adventure she’s able to match her alleged imaginary friends to their real life counterparts. She mostly plays by the residents of Oz’s rules. Someone tells her she needs to retrieve the witch’s broom to get back home? Okay, she’ll do it. But Dorothy does have a strong streak of curiosity though. As mentioned, she wants to know about people’s stories and figure out how she can be of help.Though her friends all have crazy stories of missing…..body parts, she immediately embraces it, tells them with great glee what their lives would be like if they all retrieved what they are respectively missing and joins in the adventure, because why not? Better than just staying here and waiting for rescue, something’s bound to give if she explores this strange land. 

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

House Traits: hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play.

Dorothy is very unassuming and sees herself as equal to everyone in Oz. She believes in the end that everyone should get their respective due and she has no trouble mustering the work and effort in making that happen, showing her as a very natural team player. 

Enneagram: 2w1 social

Dorothy’s natural focus is helping people. So much so, that she puts even her own plans of getting back home on the back burner just to be a service to others. She is highly socially-conscious but also expects other people’s support in return. It doesn’t take her much convincing to lead her down her adventure and once she sets her sight on something, she’s in for the long haul. She also in some instances has a streak of assertiveness, putting people back in their place when she feels they are out of line. 

#c: esfj #esfj #mbti #f: esfj #the wizard of oz #dorothy gale #submission #2w1 #esfj x 2w1 #c: 2w1 #enneagram 2 #enneagram #2w1 so #character typing