Sure Tomorrow Jesus Rose From The Dead To Save All Mankind Or Whatever It Is He Did For The Christians

Be careful: nostalgia likes to link arms with fascism.

I've seen a lot of talk about how millennials are especially prone to nostalgia. How technology's rapid evolution left our childhoods as a distinctly different world than our present. How we cling to our childhood hobbies and IPs as a way to heal our inner children, etc etc.

And there's nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia. I still play pokemon games and am in the middle of rewatching Yu Yu Hakusho. You're allowed to love the things you grew up with.

But we need to be careful.

Conservatives, nationalists, and fascists *love* to evoke a ☆mythic☆ idealized past- when men were men, when America was great, upon which to build a fixed and solid identity. Any progress away from this idealized conception of the past is thus decay- corruption and ruin. Nostalgia underpins a fascists worldview and allows them to justify any violence against the forces that would further degrade society away from its perfect past. Protecting the past comes to justify all sorts of things in the present.

We need to be very careful about what we allow our nostalgia to mean to us, what we allow it to excuse or justify.

This is not *just* about Hogwarts Legacy, but Hogwarts Legacy is a good example of it. When you can invoke your nostalgia- that golden beautiful past where you felt safe and special- what are you willing to ignore? What harm are you willing to allow? What will you turn a blind eye to if doing so makes you feel like you've recaptured some of the magic from the past?

Tread carefully, friends. This HP bullshit may have been a test that you passed, but it will not be the last time when our sense of nostalgia may conflict with progress and morals. Always remember that you can love something from the past without letting it dictate the future.

New Crow Time [I'm the artist. Not a repost.]

The Wicked curse:

The actresses will always kiss, whether in character or not.

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."

curses still intact:

jimmy dies first

tango dies in a silly, anticlimactic and pointless way

grian is responsible for his loved ones dying (<- DEBATABLE actually we’ll get back to it)

curses broken:

scott always is the last survivor of his loved ones

tnt minecart traps never work right

grian is responsible for his loved ones dying (<- the jimmy thing is SO INDIRECT compared to prior seasons okay)

proposed new curse:

if impulse makes it to the end, he’s betrayed before he can make it any further.

Cecil Palmer:

✅ has an actual tumblr blog

✅ gay in 2012

✅ was twinkified and sexymanified earlier

✅ canon dilf and wears cat ears to work

✅ was at dashcon

Reigen Arataka:

❌ none of these

I see the "only the winners remember the previous games" and I raise you my own personal theory

The longer the players are in the same, the more they remember.

So yes, the winners do remember the most, but others can remember.

Scar and Grian have the most vivid memory of third life, which later influences how they both act in double life.

Pearl and Scott both remember the most as they died at the same time.

Jimmy does not remember the games. Or not in any of his memories. Sure, he had a headache for a few days after (where he would have gotten shot), felt closer to Scott, and he grew fonder of poppies. He's heard about what happened from others. But he doesn't have any memories. Because he died first every. single. time.

Until secret life.

And finally.

He has some memories of it.

Again, they're not great. He died second. But he can remember something.

He's escatic. This is his chance not to feel like an outsider when they talk about the games.

(and if Lizzie was clumsy and allowed herself to fall because Jimmy had confided in her that he felt inferior because he couldn't remember? ...nobody needs to know.)

.

Once An Accident, Twice A Coincidence, Three Times A Pattern