Emilyh1983 - Em’s Trash Bin

Let kids be kids without projecting your weird cis and straight fantasies onto them

I've just realized Jimmy has had the most funerals out of anyone of the life series I think. Scott gave him a grave in 3rd life, in Double life there was a ceremony held (even if it was to make fun of him) and he was buried next to Tango + the warden. And now in Limited Life he's been given a grave right next to Judge Judy and executioner.

The only time he was never given a grave was in last life when the southlands were mostly broken up and grian went off chasing after mumbo right afterwards. Rarely does anyone in the life series get a gravestone, get to be buried. I guess it's at least one nice thing about being first out, everything is still on the verge of friendliness and there's time to bury the dead.

One thing I love love love love *love* about the Owl House finale is that they gave Luz's titan form such an evil-coded color palette, and design in general.

I mean, think about it. Blacked-out eyes, a black outfit with bone motifs, eyeliner, fangs, and magic that's either the orange-red of fire or the classic black-with-purple-outline meant to show darkness? In any other show that would be some "evil form" of a protagonist, a dark mirror or something, but in the Owl House she gets to be the good guy while *still* looking dark and edgy. And I can't thank the creators enough for that.

Hell, that's kind of tied into the show's themes, right? I know Belos got all disgusting and goopy by the end, but the Emperor's Coven were all about the stereotypical good-guy colors of white and gold. And even Belos's goop form is the dark green and sky blue that matches Earth more than the isles. But the good side is the one that made a deal with the devil to come back from the dead, blasting the self-righteous witch-hunter to bits with void and fire.

This show is so good, guys. It's incredible.

Okay I want to talk about this moment between Morrible and Glinda for a sec because it adds such a wonderfully sinister layer to a scene that is otherwise a triumphant defining moment for Elphaba, and it sets up the dynamics for Part 2 so perfectly.

At this point, we are in the thick of “Defying Gravity.” Everyone’s attention is on Elphaba - and rightfully so, she’s up there declaring war on the Wizard, displaying incredible feats of magic, of course everyone’s attention is on her.

…Everyone, except Morrible.

Morrible has realized that Plan A was a bust, but rather than panicking, she’s already worked over Plans B through Z in her head and has realized that Glinda, not Elphaba, is actually the key figure here. Glinda is actually the best thing that could have happened to them.

Mind you, Morrible hates Glinda. She thinks Glinda is vapid and attention-seeking and completely without talent. It would be extremely easy for her to brand Glinda as an accomplice to Elphaba, have the guards drag her off, imprison her, never have to deal with her again, nice and neat.

Instead, while everyone else is focused on Elphaba, Morrible only has eyes for Glinda. She zeroes in on her, releases her, and comforts her, because she understands what no one else understands, which is that yes, that’s great that the Wizard now has an enemy to unify his people against, but they also need a symbol of hope, something that is the exact antithesis to Elphaba, something to keep everyone at extremes. 

The Wizard himself can’t really be a symbol of hope, because the key to his success is that he remains shrouded in mystery, and yes people think he’s wonderful, but there’s a level of uncertainty and intimidation to him. He is Oz the Great and Terrible, and everyone’s preeeeeetty sure he’s a good guy, but if you have someone like Elphaba out there - who Morrible knows from experience is very smart, very articulate, and has her own sort of magnetism - there’s a potential that she could turn at least enough people against the Wizard to make things very inconvenient.

So what they need, now that they have an enemy, is to have an equally magnetic figurehead representing the Wizard who embodies all these one-dimensional ideas of goodness, someone for the public to adore and fawn over so the association between Wizard and Goodness is crystal clear.

And by bringing Glinda along, Elphaba has unknowingly served that figurehead up on a platter.

Glinda is everything Elphaba isn’t, from personality, to appearance - Morrible has already set Elphaba up by calling her green skin an “outward manifestorium of her twisted nature,” which paves the way for Glinda, who is the perfect conventional beauty, to be an “outward manifestorium” of pure goodness. 

Morrible realizes they need these two lightning rods of Absolute Evil and Absolute Good in order to manipulate people - fear alone isn’t enough; the only way to effectively radicalize the populace is to make sure there is no gray area whatsoever, no room for question: you're either good, or you’re evil. And the Wizard alone isn’t a strong enough representation of “goodness” when by virtue of existing, he has to remain in the shadows. Glinda on the other hand? With her looks and her charm and her openness and her ability to expertly win over a crowd? Perfect for the role.

Now the tricky part for Morrible is taking into consideration that Glinda and Elphaba love each other. But we also know from earlier scenes that Morrible is a master at manipulating emotions. Right from the start when Elphaba is having trouble with her magic, Morrible casually brings up the “Animals should be seen and not heard” disturbance from class, spoon-feeding her just enough to get Elphaba upset, triggering her magic, after which Morrible makes sure to give her assurance and praise to keep Elphaba optimistic about her power.

She’s also aware that Glinda does have quite a bit of influence over Elphaba, because when Elphaba flees, Morrible immediately tasks her with winning her over, rather than simply relying on the guards or even going after Elphaba herself. She knows if anyone has a chance at roping Elphaba back in, it's Glinda.

Obviously, Glinda isn’t successful in getting her back, but while this puts a dent in Morrible’s plans to get control of Elphaba, it does give her an extra weak spot to exploit in Glinda.

So now, at the height of “Defying Gravity” when Elphaba has officially taken her stand against them, Morrible sees Glinda, and Glinda is at her most vulnerable, her most emotionally fragile. Not only is she heartbroken and in shock, she’s also just witnessed in real time exactly how easy it is to turn an entire nation against someone. She’s scared, she’s powerless. She’s just lost the love of her life her only friend, she has no one to turn to - Morrible has definitely picked up on the fact that even though Glinda has countless people who fawn over her, none of them can be considered a true friend except for Elphaba, which means Glinda is completely isolated. Glinda also has a very limited understanding of the bigger picture of what the Wizard is trying to accomplish, and because she’s never been a victim of the system the way Elphaba has, she is still desperately clinging to the idea that everything will be okay as long as she plays by the rules of the people in power.

She has been perfectly primed for Morrible to begin manipulating, not through violence or intimidation, but by offering her comfort when no one else would - when not even Glinda’s only friend would - when no one else is even paying attention to Glinda, because they have the very real and present threat of Elphaba quite literally hanging over them. In this moment, Morrible chooses Glinda, which Glinda has been striving for since the beginning. Elphaba has chosen her principles, the Wizard has chosen his enemy, but Morrible has chosen Glinda, and in this moment of being so alone and so afraid and so betrayed, that makes all the difference.

We also get kind of a parallel shot too - Elphaba really sealed her fate the second her hand closed around the broom. But here, Glinda seals her fate when she gives in and reciprocates Morrible’s hold on her.

THIS is the moment that sets us up for Part 2, with Elphaba and Glinda as our lightning rods for Absolute Evil and Absolute Good, but more to the point, it makes it clear that they’ve BOTH been used, they’ve BOTH played right into these respective roles Morrible and the Wizard need in order to be successful - even if it wasn’t how Morrible originally planned for things to go.

I just love it, because “Defying Gravity” is Elphaba’s song - it’s triumphant, and it’s heartbreaking, and it’s everything a defining moment should be for a character. But by injecting this little moment between Morrible and Glinda into the scene, we also get an underlying current of dread because we know we’re about to see the consequences of Elphaba’s defiance versus Glinda’s compliance and how both serve to benefit the Wizard/Morrible’s propaganda.

TL;DR - when I said "I want to talk about this scene between Morrible and Glinda for a sec" I clearly meant "I'm gonna write a whole essay. Like a nerd."

After abuelo has gone upstairs, Tallulah sits in bed and runs her fingers over hew new flute.

Abuelo has made their new room cozy. The walls are strong and safe, made of purple stone and reinforced. The lights are calm and welcoming, and Chayanne and her share a room now. They’d shared before, but this is different. This is permanent, according to abuelo. At least until her papa comes back. 

Across the room, she can make out Chayanne in the dimness. They’re supposed to be asleep, and abuelo had left them a nightlight because he figured the dark would scare them. He’d been right. He’s smart like that, abuelo is. The quiet type of smart, hiding it underneath a loud laugh and chaotic nature. She can hear him upstairs now- he should be sleeping too, she thinks, but instead he’s rattling around in the chests above them. It’s comforting. She can hear the steady whirring of a grindstone and metal being sharpened to a point, and it makes her feel safe.

Not safe enough, though. She shifts, and across the room, so does Chayanne.

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Hi ranchers community ............... i am thinking about them

it’s just. in the end it’s about family. it’s about Camila pulling Eda into a hug because she took care of her baby. it’s about Hunter thinking he has no one looking for him only to find Darius over his shoulder. it’s about King’s dad telling Luz to tell King he loafs him. (it’s about Caleb falling in love with Evelyn, Philip betraying him for it.) it’s about Gus and Amity and Willow finding their dads. Vee graduating alongside Luz. The Collector being a lonely kid who was abandoned. 

Luz having her quinceañera on the Boiling Isles with everyone she loves around her. This show is about family. 

firefox just started doing this too so remember kids if you want to stream things like netflix or hulu over discord without the video being blacked out you just have to disable hardware acceleration in your browser settings!