Toastthief - Toast Thief

Arthur: He tossed a few drinks together, poured it out, and made you drink it? How was it?

Albert: Disgusting.

Bartender: That’s not what you said.

Albert: No, because you were there.

Bartender: Well, I’m here now.

Albert: *gesturing to Arthur* But I’m next to my big man.

Do the gale force soldiers witness Fiyero’s transformation? Or do they leave him tied up and come back for Torture part 2: For Bad in the morning/after a coffee break then panic because

a. someone’s obviously used the clothes of their mostly dead ex-captain to make a creepy scarecrow decoy, suggesting the real Fiyero has miraculously escaped in his underwear,

b. they believe they’ve forgotten where they put him, because there are so many other scarecrows (a frankly ridiculous amount!) already in that cornfield, Fiyero’s body blends right in and it takes all day to check them all and come up unnervingly empty. (Oops! All scarecrows!) Prompting the soldiers to check them all again and again “How could you forget?” “Why did you have to tie a sack over his very recognisable face?” “You told me to?!” “Stop gaslighting me!” Etc

c. free space

d. they did see the transformation and it terrified them so much they scarpered to the nearest pub and drank to forget

a.a. they assume Elphaba has taken their dead guy, wholesale, “What do you even do with a dead prince?” “Bury him I guess,” “Use his bones for evil spells,” “I would put the dead prince in an ornately crafted glass coffin in the woods, so that the Winkies and woodland Animals can pay their respects and gaze upon his beautiful face.” … “Except we beat his face up.” “Yeah we beat his face up.”

I’m suffering the thought equivalent of zoomies I’m so so sorry

Loolll Firstly I got a good chuckle out of Torture part 2: For Bad, so thank you for that!

Honestly I've always thought option D - that they did see his transformation for several reasons:

They're supposed to torture Fiyero "until he tells us where the witch went" and (despite the fact that they do know where Elphaba is by March of the Witch Hunters - I think she's beyond being subtle at that point, and she does have good defences) I just can't believe Fiyero would ever tell them, he'd die first. So I do not think they are done with the torturing when he's transformed.

You have to remember that these are Fiyero's men. Guards who have worked under Fiyero, probably considered him a friend, and all along he has been betraying them and working for the Witch. They are probably not the most pleasant people in the first place and they are angry. I don't think any of them are giving up for a coffee break until he's done what they want and is dead

I actually think she casts the spell pretty fast? Like wishing for his flesh not to be torn and to not be feeling pain when he's beaten, is going to be pretty redundant more than 10 minutes after Fiyero has been captured (like it's obviously long enough for there to be some possibility for him to be "already dead or bleeding" but there's also a chance of his survival)? I imagine she got to the nearest safe place and cast. And Elphaba doesn't even cast the spell for that long before giving up and falling into despair so yeah, I imagine the men see it

They would want the body. There's a lot of power displaying tortured Fiyero to Oz whether it be "look what the Witch did to our beloved Prince" or "look what happens to traitors" it sends a message to the Ozians. I can't imagine them going without it if they can help it (and the fact they do come back empty handed and presumably lie about what happened to Morrible, can't have impressed her much)

Why doesn't the scarecrow get caught later then? I imagine the guards still don't necessarily know he's turned into a scarecrow - I imagine they ran away the moment the freaky magic started happening (and again, lied about the success of their murder when questioned by their superiors). There's also a non zero chance that, when they were taking a stiff drink after it all, Elphaba all "no good deed will i do again" returned to the field, found no Fiyero and the guards drinking (she presumes in celebration) and just burnt them all to death.

Thanks for the question! It was fun to specuate!

Darling, struggling to keep upright in 1 inch heels: Uh, yeah, no, I don't think heels are for me.

Daring, drinking a Frappuchino and strutting flawlessly in sparkly 8 inch heels: WEAK

Werewolf Janus: *in wolf form utterly soaked by river water, locks eyes with the others* Witch Logan: Janus, please don't- Fey Roman: What? Oh NO! Vampire Virgil *grabs Patton and pulls him behind his umbrella*: DON'T! Fey Remus *full on T-posing*: Take me! Werewolf Janus: *full on body shake sending the water flying, drenching everyone but Virgil and Patton* Fey Roman: MY HAIR! AAAAAAAAAAAAH! Witch Logan: Good job... you've now soaked us all. Werewolf Janus: *satisfied huff*

Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero: a deleted scene in Wicked of the news and anticipated exciting arrival of the Winkie Prince himself to Shiz University💙😍

I’m thinking about Wicked tonight, specifically why Elphaba ends up with Fiyero instead of Glinda in the musical despite Elphaba and Glinda having the more well-rounded relationship.

You could chalk it up to the writers wanting a heteronormative ending (and I’m certain that’s part of it) or the fact that Elphaba and Fiyero had a love affair in the book. But I think there’s a bit more nuance to it.

The whole point of Glinda’s character is that she upholds the status quo of Oz. No matter how much she loves Elphaba or sympathizes with the plight of the Animals, she will always align herself with the current system and those in power. And as long as that remains the case, a relationship between her and Elphaba is futile because Elphaba will not give up her cause.

Elphaba and Glinda represent to different ends of a spectrum. Elphaba resists the oppressive forces in Oz, while Glinda upholds them. But Fiyero is somewhere in the middle. He starts out privileged and carefree like Glinda, but quickly turns to Elphaba’s side. He does become Captain of the Guard, but only to find Elphaba and help her evade arrest.

And therein lies the difference between Glinda and Fiyero as love interests to Elphaba. Glinda would never sacrifice her title as “the Good Witch” and all her power granted from the Wizard, even if it meant helping Elphaba. Fiyero, on the other hand, does give up his privilege, his title, and even his human form for Elphaba. Glinda clings to what the status quo gives her, while Fiyero ultimately rejects it.

Yes, the writing around Elphaba and Fiyero’s romance is a bit rushed and doesn’t have the same gradual development that Elphaba and Glinda have. And yes, I have no doubt heteronormativity played a role in giving Elphaba a male love interest in the end. But I see a lot of people write off Fiyero and his relationship with Elphaba and I just don’t agree.

Why does Elphaba end up with Fiyero instead of Glinda? Because Fiyero makes the sacrifices that Glinda wasn’t willing to.

double agent fiyero headcanons bc i need it

(pre captain) feldspar is his informant — fiyero constructs an elaborate story about how riding him will “teach him his place” and make him forget how to speak. feldspar is “imprisoned” in a stable that only fiyero has the key to — when he goes on these rides, he tells feldspar all the information he’s gathered about where Animal raids are going to take place. geldspar then takes the info to another informant, who notifies the Animal community

the wizard’s personal guard, which fiyero leads, is a personal protection service, almost like an elite emerald city police force. the wizard uses men in lower positions to do the grunt work of actually removing Animal settlements

* fiyero distributes these orders, but always slowly enough that the settlement is able to escape

he is the one that is in charge of imprisonment — whenever an Animal is arrested, he makes sure that he intercepts them before they’re taken to the wizard himself. when he “interrogates” them, he reveals that he’s an inside agent. before the engagement ball, which he knew would draw the majority of the skilled guards away, he unlocked all the cells so the animals could escape. this was blamed on elphaba when she arrived, but was actually orchestrated by feldspar

he refuses to be told elphaba’s location — if he’s discovered and tortured (lmao ironic) he cant put her in danger

he does however smuggle supplies out of the palace for her, and has definitely given feldspar a bunch of poppies to deliver on several occasions

the flying monkeys are his biggest regret — he cannot free them because it would immediately reveal him and the guilt absolutely eats him up

he has successfully redirected the Gale Force to be primarily concerned with finding elphaba, keeping them away from Animals

if a particularly sociopathic guard joins the Force, he ensures that they are assigned to the wizard’s personal guard instead of being on the field

Guys I desperately need you to hear me out, I can’t stop thinking about this.

So, My Little Pony. Canterlot Wedding. You know this episode, you probably know it even if you don’t watch the show, it’s the one with the banger. Yeah that one. Do it but make it Sanders Sides.

Roman is Shining Armor. Janus is Chrysalis. Remus is Twilight. Patton is Cadence. That is all.

She’s back at it again with another fashion lineup, this time featuring our dashing Prince Roman! A good boy who deserves a bit of love, especially following recent episodes

[More fashion sides: Janus Virgil Logan Remus Patton]

Something I think about a lot is how Dutch managed to turn Arthur into this perfect and dependable killer/enforcer.. Like, I know Dutch basically saved him and therefore could use Arthur's gratefulness as a manipulative tool, but still - how did he manage to shape a teenage Arthur so precisely into what he needed him to be? (I never really questioned this before, but I've been working with/teaching teenagers lately and it's so fucking hard to get them to do basically ANYTHING??)

(part 2) I guess what I’m trying to get at is: Teenagers are so different from children, and I think teaching/influencing them is a LOT harder? (let alone shaping them into violent right-hand thugs, looking at you Dutch) Or maybe teenage Arthur was already like that so Dutch just had to use that rather than change or manipulate him? I just find it so hard to believe this whole thing worked out as well as it did…(I meant to ask for your thoughts on this but instead I just rambled, I’m so sorry)~~~~~~~~~~No need to apologize, Nonny.  <3  If I remember the phrase right, Arthur is described in his official bio at the point Dutch and Hosea took him in as “the life of a criminal is all he’s ever known”, “living on the streets ever since losing his parents at an early age”, and “particularly angry and damaged”/”seemingly a lost cause who responded well to some structure and mentoring”.We also know he barely remembers his mother, he watched his father die, his dad was a criminal, and he remembers his father with absolutely no fondness.  We see he’s overly anxious to please Dutch, to the point all Dutch has to do is issue a casual challenge implying Arthur’s doubting him or not measuring up, and Arthur scrambles frantically to fix that.  So what I’m thinking we have here is a kid who grew up suffering both psychological and physical abuse from his father, who was probably forced into learning criminal talents early (pickpocketing, in my headcanon).  He learned very young that he had no worth as a person, and the only value he had was to produce results.  He seems to have loathed his father so I doubt he worried about winning Lyle’s love, but he recognized that succeeding meant approval, at least insofar as probably being abused less.His father dies.  Arthur’s left living on the streets for several years, probably in a big city that he could so utterly disappear.  The message that he has no worth is further reinforced.  He’s alone, scared, fighting to survive, and there’s no Sister Calderon or anyone else to save him or tell him he’s worth saving.  Given the need to fight for food, sleeping space, safety, etc. against other street kids, he certainly lived in an environment of heightened aggression and anger and violence here.  He’s living the life of Dutch’s social Darwinism: the (violently) strong survive, the weak perish.So you’ve got a kid with shitty self-image, a history of abuse, and a lot of capacity for anger and violence.  Then Dutch and Hosea take him in at fourteen and things change.  He’s given a place to belong.  Clothes that fit and aren’t ragged.  A safe place to sleep.  Enough food to eat.  He learns to read and write.And Dutch isn’t hitting him, so Arthur assumes this new father figure is how it’s supposed to be.  But he’s missing the other facet: the psychological abuse.  The same produce results or you’re worthless to me mentality he likely got from his father, but Dutch is far cleverer than Lyle Morgan in it.  He gaslights.  He manipulates. He alternately flatters and praises, and then insults and questions, so that Arthur’s left always hungry for earning that love and approval again.You’ve got a pissed off teenager, and given Arthur’s got plenty of sarcasm I imagine he was, as I have Hosea put it fondly, “a smart mouthed little shit”.  But he’s also a scared boy who’s been repeatedly taught he’s dispensable trash.  He’s started to like this life he has and its comforts and security compared to the bleak hell he had before, started to become comfortable in it.  He’s terrified that if he screws up, if he gives Dutch reason to not value him anymore, he’ll be thrown away again.  So yeah, he’s going to jump through every hoop Dutch presents him eagerly, and even be trying to anticipate the man’s needs and wants if possible.  Because in his mind his place in this family, his continued survival, absolutely depends on this man still finding value in him.  The question of having worth as an intrinsic right as a human being doesn’t even register with him.  All he can see is constantly proving his having external value.  So he doesn’t have the luxury of typical teenage defiance and sometimes telling his self-proclaimed dad to go get fucked as part of the pursuit of discovering and asserting his own identity.  Because honestly, Arthur doesn’t have much in the way of his own identity.Given the emotional damage he’d already suffered, and the fact he’s being further abused and taken advantage of, that’s the status quo for the next 22 years.  Arthur doesn’t ever really get the chance to grow beyond that blind loyalty and eagerness to please and be regarded as valuable, and really form his own identity and principles, until the 1899 crisis forces him to do so.So if Dutch wants to teach Arthur to shoot, wants him to learn to rob a stagecoach, wants him to go teach someone a “lesson” with his fists?  It’s absolutely “Yes, Dad, I’ve got this.”  Anything at all to make Dutch happy and make himself more valuable to the man.  He’ll work until he drops to become the best man for the job, the one Dutch absolutely can’t do without.  If he protests at all, it’s a token grumble, but he’ll give in readily and go do it, because he prides himself on being able to get the job done.  Dutch clearly only values his brutal and violent skills–it’s Hosea who encourages other things in Arthur.I also think this is part of why Dutch openly favored and identified more with John as his clear “golden boy” while relegating Arthur to being the gang workhorse.  Arthur’s snarky defiance largely died down and transformed into awkward gratitude and absolute loyalty when he realized he could stay.  John stayed something of a cocky brat.  Arthur is far more versatile and useful, but Dutch enjoys John’s “unbroken spirit”–so long as he doesn’t question too much.