Oh, Okay. I See. You Think This Has Nothing To Do With You. You Go To Your Closet And You Select Out,

My pronouns are she, but not her, because I'll never be her.

Was rewatching Wicked the movie (again) and have thoughts about the hot air balloon escape scene

Initially, I'd thought it was mostly there to 1) be a cool and exciting visual sequence, 2) kind of an action scene, and 3) pad out the film further. Maybe even a bit of symbolism of trying and failing to use the Wizard's own means against him to escape. And I do think it's still all those things, to be clear.

However, I also think it's really interesting from a character standpoint for Glinda, specifically how it sets up her choice to not leave in Defying Gravity.

You have the hot air balloon be Elphaba's plan first, no surprise there, with her immediately getting on and lighting it. Glinda lingers behind (again, no surprise there) and she struggles to take the literal leap required ("It's time to close my eyes and leap") despite Elphaba telling her to: "Quick, jump!" Glinda can't quite believe it: "Jump? Me, jump?"

But Glinda does take the leap, Elphaba help pulling her onto their escape craft. Glinda is the first to directly hit/fight off one of the guards, then Elphaba. And once the girls have a shared glance, they both reach upwards together to urge the balloon to go faster:

Together, we're unlimited.

I could talk more about how Glinda in some ways becomes Elphaba's replacement (more genuine) form of the Wizard throughout the film, i.e. she pins her hopes for acceptance and companionship on the Wizard, but actually receives these things from Glinda ("As half of Oz's favourite team" / "together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been") even before she meets him in-film (her being accepted at school because of Glinda's love and influence), because I think that aspect of the bond is an undercurrent in a lot of ways. The end of the film isn't just being betrayed/abandoned by the Wizard for Elphaba, but also — in a way — by Glinda as well.

But what I think the hot air balloon scene importantly illustrates is that, in it, Glinda was going to leave with Elpabha. They were trying to escape together, and Glinda was clearly hoping they'd make it successfully to the skies.

But of course they don't, the Wizard's palace — the symbol of his power — literally closing in on them, with Elphaba escaping the burning hulk of the balloon first (again, a parallel to the end of the play) and Glinda being the last to leave the balloon. So what's the difference between this escape attempt, wherein Glinda is willing to go, versus Defying Gravity's, where she stays behind?

A few things, I think:

The hot air balloon escape not working is a sobering reminder of how badly things can go

It is, accordingly, a reminder of the Wizard's power

But more importantly, I think, it illustrates the fundamental fact that despite Glinda telling Elphaba that "you can do anything," Glinda never considers the possibility or believes that Elphaba is more powerful than the Wizard.

This is the lynchpin of her choice not to leave in Defying Gravity, of course — Elphaba may have brains and knowledge and heart, but she is not "popular," and social sway/approval is what Glinda believes to be the most powerful thing in the world — but it's also indicated in the hot air balloon scene.

Because Glinda is willing to leave and escape with Elphaba when they are relying on the Wizard's vestiges of power (the balloon). She is not when it is Elphaba's (the broom).

She only trusts that one of them can fly, and so she stays on the ground the second time around.

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Drunk Adaine, My Beloved

I woke up out of a dead sleep to make this and then immediately passed back out

since mrs, ms, and mr are all descended from the latin word magister, i propose the gender neutral version should be mg, short for "mage"

imagine becoming friends with this girl--not like, super close friends, just on friendly terms--who seems destined to become an influencer. she's not one yet but she already has a following at the school you both attend and everybody likes her because she's nice to everyone and pretty funny. one day she starts hanging out with this absolute loser buzzkill sjw and at first you're like, fine, it's a good look to shout out smaller content creators, but then they just never STOP hanging out

one day both of them leave campus to go on a day trip and clearly SOMETHING happens, because right before dinner you get an emergency alert on your phone that her loser friend is on the FBI's most wanted list for animal torture? the popular girl's not answering any of her texts, even from her hot metrosexual boyfriend that she has, and no one hears anything until the next day when she goes Live and announces that she got a really big sponsorship from THE PRESIDENT, no followup on that thing where her bff apparently was a terrorist this whole time

the next few years are really scary because the terrorist keeps evading capture and like, commiting so many atrocities and the details always end up getting leaked. you're terrified in particular because duh, you went to school with that psychopath and apparently she was doing all these terrible things and turning into some freaky three eyed snake when you weren't paying attention. the one spot of joy for everybody's doomscrolling is the popular girl. she does an adread for the government at the start of all her stuff, but the content itself is just like. hauls and GRWMs and makeup tutorials with the occasional day in the life sprinkled in, which is always nice to consume after another horrific news cycle.

she gets engaged to the hot metrosexual boyfriend from school eventually and does an Engagement Reveal bc of course she does, and it's...really weird?? hot metrosexual fiance leaves abruptly halfway through and then the whole thing turns into like. this bizarre apology video, with crying and everything, only she doesn't give specifics or context AT ALL before it's over and she goes back to doing a mukbang with some of her fans and your old principal, who probably got her that government sponsorship. apparently some crazy shit happens to the country after that but you weren't really following it bc you were too busy talking with your friends about what the FUCK was up with that engagement annoucement. you all go back through her history to figure out what problematic thing she might have done but you can't find anything, other than being friendly with the terrorist chick when you were all in school. obviously she couldn't have known about the terrorism back then, so it might just be drama farming. she's a pretty bad actor

except she doesn't post again for a few days, which is worrying since she's ALWAYS followed a super strict upload schedule, but the country is pretty much on fire at that point, so. when she next posts you're pretty excited, because maybe you'll get an explanation for some/any of this, or preferably a sequel drama video

instead she tells you that the terrorist chick is dead, the president is. resigning? leaving? also dead? and he never sponsored any other influencers, which means she's president now, and after she throws your old principal in jail she's gonna teach everybody how to be nice

HOOT GROWL, BABY!!!

It's The Bad Kids from Dropout TV's Dimension 20: Fantasy High!! We love this group of chaos goobers, and so here's a bit of fan art for y'all It was a blast designing all 6 of these great characters, and I rather like how they all turned out :D Hope you all like these low-quality-children

pretty cool, my darling paramour

@dimension20official