The Scarecrow and the A-B-Sea Serpent - The Royal Book of Oz, art by John R. Neill (1921)

Some lesser known Ozma (+Dorothy) illustrations from the RPT years.

Wow, I can’t believe kids born in the early 1900s and 1890s are in their 40s now!

ok now i know why you all hate ruth plumly thompson

now that I've finished all of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, I've lost my favorite past time which is to explain to someone the plot of the current book I'm reading just to see the growing horror/confusion in their expression

okay okay hear me out. hatchetfield/ever after high au

i maaaaaayyy have been thinking about this since. the day i saw abstinence camp. in my defense dexven and lautski are the same ship and nobody likes either of these things more than me (/j) so like. rundown of ideas i had (and one piece of inspo from a gc i'm in)

Stephanie Lauter, daughter of the Evil King: Yeah, I'm just fully reusing Raven's backstory here. Steph's born into wickedness and expected to one day inherit her father's throne and oppress her people and possibly curse the future Snow White. Which earns her respectful fear from her fellow "evil" peers, fearful respect from most of her classmates, and dread from herself, because she doesn't want to be anything like her dad, for better or for worse, even if it means risking going poof. Doesn't really help she's just not a good student in the classes assigned to her and her father keeps telling her she'll be a terrible Evil Queen anyway. Would absolutely prefer to write her own destiny. Her current plans involve doing fuck-all as an adult.

Peter Spankoffski, son of one of the Generic Charming Families: More specifically, the ones from Beauty and the Beast. One problem. He wasn't exactly planned. His big brother has already lived out being the beast and a noble lady named Jenny broke Ted's curse yeeeeaaarrrs ago, so Pete's already seen what should be his story play out in real time. And given the assumption that Ted and Jenny's kid would take on one of their roles, Pete's not sure he even has a destiny. Pretty much ostracized by most of his peers for so obviously not having a destiny. He's the only non-villian not inherently scared of Steph, and when they talk it's all like "god, you're so lucky your story isn't a shitshow" "at least you have a story" and eventually they kinda further break destiny by dating because they are literally just Raven and Dexter in another font.

Ruth Fleming, daughter of The Mad Hatter: @mythuzalasheir3 suggested this one to me and I was so inclined to agree. Ruth is so Wonderlandian to me. She's theatrical, she's eccentric and not willing to turn it down, will just say what's on her mind as she sees it. Taking a bit from the books canon, she does sorta resent Steph at first for her father going off-book and poisoning Wonderlandian magic, but after Pete urges her to actually talk to her as they start hanging out more, she sees Steph isn't as scary as she thought and very quickly gets comfortable turning up her madness and speaking Riddlish around her like she does with her other friends. Speaking of which.

Richie Lipschitz, son of the Wizard of Oz: Yes. I really am making Pete the odd one out. Ruth is Wonderlandian, Richie is an (honorary) Ozian. Sue me. This basically stems from how Richie was in charge of taping the prank in the Waylons/putting on the music, so knowing he has special effects know-how, he is going to have a blast doing the hologram head thing in the Emerald City for a few decades. He also plans on introducing pop culture stuff to Oz, too, not just more science. Nerd. I think he's iconic for it.

(Side note: neither Ruth nor Richie can believe that they're just casually best friends with a prince, even though Pete really doesn't want it to be a big deal).

Grace Chasity, daughter of the Temple Woman from The Little Mermaid: Right. History time. If you're not familiar with the original version of TLM, after the mermaid brings the prince back to shore, a girl from a Christian monastery finds the prince, and he believes she saved him instead of the mermaid. And also she and the prince are married by the end. I chose this fully because she's very proud of the fact she already has an immortal soul, and doesn't have to do anything for a happily ever after other than be in the right place at the right time. She does not give a damn about who her prince is as long as they stick to the script. Basically, she's a Royal out of necessity more than anything.

Max Jagerman, son of another Charming Clan: More specifically, he's destined to be the Rapunzel's prince. He's in with Steph because he thinks it's a good idea to be on the good side of all royals in his class. But not Storiless Spankoffski. He does NOT fraternize with people whose existence could poof away a whole story. For as much as he tries to fit the example of Perfect Royals Accepting Their Destiny, he does still have a target of affection not in his story: Grace. Being much more stereotypically Royal than him, she keeps rejecting him due to not being interested and not even part of his story. Doesn't stop him from trying.

The Lords in Black, the heads of Ever After High: Everyone has a destiny. They're here to run the school and enforce them, and also dictate the destinies of the more ambiguous cases like Charming Number Twenty-Seven or "how do we find a replacement for a character who is dead." They say there's a spider in the basement but don't even worry about it, they'll take care of it eventually.

Webby, the Weaver in the Basement: Basically taking the place of Giles Grimm, her brothers have let her have less and less involvement with destinies over the years, so she's spinning up happier endings that hopefully won't go poof in solitude. Would definitely encourage Steph to follow her heart instead of her destiny.

Henery Hidgens as the Magic Botany teacher, and also former Jack of Jack the Giant Slayer fame: man I just think this would be funny

LIZZIE HEARTS content description below

Teacup, pencils, pen, gloves, wallet with a pic of kitty’s eye, sewing kit, lollipops, card with her mom on it. A perfume holder with 4 scents, “7:30”, “Loose change” “lick” and “Starshaped” what do you think they smell like ????? Idk. The clam’s pearls are lotion. A croquet ball. The colorful book is for school work. The red book is for fashion designs. The two pens next to it are what she uses to write they’re from wonderland. With a small clay ink container(not from wonderland.) Vodka shaped like an atomically correct heart. On the far left are cards her mother made for her with pieces of advice and the one on the top says “it is better to be gloved than bearded and better to be feareded than loved.” Which is cannon from “a wonderland world.”

Makeup: the two gold vials are lip stains in dark red and dark burgundy. We have a black mascara with a rabbit on it. And a dark brown lip liner with the Cheshire Cat ontop. A maroon blush with a clock with mushrooms and a bunny on it. Her brushes are chess pieces. And her comb is made out of bone and is a heart, her eyeshadow and foundation are basically like paint. With names like rubber duck, old tooth, fresh paint, scab, cirrus, storm, oz, royal tears, tea bag, tranquil, lavender dust, hamster holiday, berry, gem, feline, pig kiss, blushy widow. All makeup is custom made for Lizzie, she made the pallet herself though.

Her phone with a white rabbit sticker, strawberry, grey gloves, star, lips, lady bug, heart, a paper that says “home is not what you miss but the people there.” And a red bow with a gold chain.

This genuinely took 12 hours to draw and then I went to bed at 4 am and woke up at 4 pm…. PLEASE enjoy this has been my life for 24 hours.

2024 Best Musical World Cup Alphabetized List

Listed below is the 128 musicals that have qualified for the 2024 Best Musical World Cup Bracket.

& Juliet 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee 35MM: A Musical Exhibition A Chorus Line A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder A Little Night Music A Strange Loop American Idiot Amélie Anastasia Annie Annie Get Your Gun Assassins Avenue Q Bare: A Pop Opera Beauty and the Beast Beetlejuice Billy Elliot the Musical Bonnie and Clyde Bring it On Cabaret Camelot Carrie Cats Chess Chicago Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Come From Away Company Death Note: The Musical Dreamgirls Elisabeth Evita Falsettos Fiddler on the Roof Firebringer Frankenstein: A New Musical Fun Home Funny Girl Ghost Quartet Godspell Grease Guys and Dolls Hadestown Hair Hairspray Hamilton Heathers Hedwig and the Angry Inch Hello, Dolly! Holy Musical B@man! How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying In The Heights Into the Woods Jekyll and Hyde Jesus Christ Superstar Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Kinky Boots La Cage aux Folles Legally Blonde Les Misérables Little Shop of Horrors Little Women Man of La Mancha Mary Poppins Matilda Mean Girls Merrily We Roll Along Monty Python's Spamalot Moulin Rouge My Fair Lady Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Nerdy Prudes Must Die Newsies Next to Normal Oliver Once Once on this Island Parade Pippin Ragtime Rebecca Rent Ride the Cyclone School of Rock Seussical Shrek the Musical Singin' in the Rain Six Something Rotten Spies Are Forever SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical Spring Awakening Starlight Express Starry Starship Sunday in the Park with George Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweet Charity Tanz der Vampire / Dance of the Vampires The Addams Family The Book of Mormon The Color Purple The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals The Hunchback of Notre Dame The King and I The Last Five Years The Lightning Thief The Lion King The Music Man The Phantom of the Opera The Prince of Egypt The Producers The Rocky Horror Show The Secret Garden The Sound of Music The Trail to Oregon! The Wiz The Wizard of Oz (1987) Tick Tick Boom Tuck Everlasting Twisted: The Untold Story of A Royal Vizier Urinetown Waitress West Side Story Wicked You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns

My favourite book in elementary school (and I still like it today)

In my last book post I wrote that I first heard of Anne of Green Gables when the girl who bullied me in elementary school presented it as her favourite book. So I thought I might show you the book I held my presentation about.

Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns (The Life of Gritta, High Countess of Ratsareathomewithus) is a fairy-tale-novel by Gisela von Arnim. It was written in the 1840s but only rediscovered and published in the 20th century. It was adapted as a screenplay and simplified children's book by GDR author Christa Kożik. This was the version I read aged eight and loved to pieces. I also saw the film once, but I didn't love it as much as the book. It has some very good songs, I remember.

The story is about Gritta, a girl countess who lives with her father, an inventor, at their run-down castle some time in the 18th century. She loves to read and she's friends with the Queen of the rats which populate the castle in abundance. One day a runaway spoiled noblewoman takes refuge with them and Gritta's father falls head over heels in love with her. They marry and Gritta is sent to a horrid convent school. There she discovers a plot: Young girls are sent to the convent. Once they're there, the nuns find ways to grab their inheritance and keep the girls locked away. This was the fate her stepmother ran away from. Together with ten of her friends Gritta escapes from the convent.

Here the two versions take slightly different paths. In the modern one, the girls live at an abandoned farm for one summer until they return to their homes. Gritta proceeds to the capital city, where she finds her family again. They've lost their remaining money and have gone to sell an invention to the king: A catapult throne that will save him in case of revolution. A twist that you rarely meet and I really loved: Poverty and the birth of a son have turned Gritta's spoiled stepmother into quite a responsible and likeable person and she apologizes for her behaviour. Gritta had already met the king's son while she was on the run. He smuggles her into the palace of his naive and gluttonous father. There she reveals to him the doings of the corrupt royal advisor, who is also at the bottom of the convent's plot.

While this was a quick summary of the simplified version, the original runs absolutely wild. After the girls escape the convent, they go on an adventurous journey, which becomes increasingly fantastical. Some episodes seem prototypical of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Finally they get shipwrecked and build up a new life. But their "lonely island" is in fact a valley near the capital. Here the story in which Gritta reunites with her family and saves the kingdom comes back in. In the end the girls set up an alternative convent according to their own rules. Except for Gritta, who in this version actually marries the prince and refurbishes the kingdom, but of course stays their friend.

I think if I'd read this as a child I would have loved that the focus stays on Gritta's girl-gang. They have so many more adventures here. I always thought the modernized story dismissed them too quickly. Not sure what I would have made of the fanciful nature of their adventures. One of my favourite characters today is Wildebeere (Wildberry), one of the girls, who starts out as a botanist, but is later adopted by wood-elves and becomes a sort of forest spirit. And I'd certainly have struggled with the over-the-top 19th century language. Though that makes up the poetry of it.

I've kinda outgrown the modernized version today. As a historian I can't help noticing the GDR mindframe. Indeed the original was written before the 1848 revolution and pokes some acid fun at absolutist monarchy, aristocracy and the church. That's the most likely reason it wasn't published. But the adaptation presents the messages rather bluntly - to children who don't have the foggiest idea what were the problems in 1848.

On a related note, I feel today that the modern book made Gritta a bit too sassy. She's much more gentle in the old one and as so often this clashes in scenes where she's supposed to be insecure. Some scenes actually get funnier with her acting all demure, like the one where she locks the king in a cupboard. Also, I'm all for the concept of becoming an independent spirit through reading. But as a book-historian I can tell that you don't become a cheeky kid by reading a library full of 18th-century books.

What also fascinates me today is the story how Gritta was rediscovered in the archives in the 20th century. The manuscript had been scattered over several bequests and wrongly attributed to Gisela's famous mother Bettine von Arnim. I kinda envy the guy who pieced it together. But I should be content with my lot, because that's exactly the sort of thing I'm doing in my PhD project right now.

Actually this book relates to the McCarrics in two very peculiar ways: For one thing, Gisela von Arnim was the great-granddaughter of Sophie von la Roche, after whom I named Marianne's family.

Then, according to my mother, my first two stories ever were two endless nonsensical serials I always updated her on, aged around three. The first was called The Lady of the Rats' Castle. Sadly I don't remember anything about it and my mother says it didn't have any rememberable plot. Possibly she bought me Gritta because of it.

The other was called The very Elegant Scottish Girl. I remember I started this one because I loved my red tartan skirt and my father had told me that in Scotland everyone is always dressed in tartan, even the men! So I thought this country must be the epicentre of nobility and elegance. I just love that these two titles still reflect my literary activities to the present day.

i know i’m cranky about fanon allusion readings literally all the time but i NEED people to actually read the marvelous land of oz. please. for the love of fuck.

the wizard leaves oz forever, leaving the scarecrow to rule in his stead. general jinjur usurps the wizard and spends most of the book occupying the conquered emerald city in search of the royal crown. ozma is cursed to live as a boy; he is accompanied by jack pumpkinhead, his creation/“son” who spends much of the book fretting about his own death—his head, a pumpkin, is doomed to rot—and both are guided by the scarecrow. the woggle bug is both cursed and blessed by knowledge learned from a professor who irrevocably transformed him. glinda is searching for ozma and she chases the bad sorceress mombi to the ends of oz to bring her to account and force her to tell the truth and relinquish her power not just over ozma but by extension all of oz. the tin man has become a vain emperor. there is no dorothy; she’s in kansas.

the allusion is extraordinarily straightforward. it screams off the page. mombi is the god of light; ozma is ozma/tippetarius, ozpin is the wizard, oscar is the pumpkinhead (HIS COLOR IS ORANGE. PLEASE–), qrow is the scarecrow, ironwood is the tin man, leo is the soldier with green whiskers who lets the rebels into the emerald city out of cowardice, raven is the woggle-bug burdened by knowledge (and the only one who can use the silver wishing pill to transport everyone back home, which is to say she knows the truth about summer and i firmly believe still has that bond), summer is general jinjur searching for the crown, and salem is glinda.

(glynda goodwitch is a red herring. she’s purple—the good witch of the north, named glynda perhaps as a nod to the popular conflation of these two separate characters into one and chiefly to misdirect away from the real glinda—most ancient and formidable sorceress in all the world, whose color is red.)

it’s ✨simple✨

I love how whenever there’s a group illustration Dorothy is always situated next to the Scarecrow while Ozma is with the Tin Woodman. We already know that Dorothy is close with the Scarecrow but we don’t often see Ozma with the Tin Woodman, mainly bc he’s usually busy with stuff. So the fact that she’s usually with him in group situations indicates that, for as close as she is with the Scarecrow, Ozma holds some preference towards Nick.

I’m just sayin’, the fact that L Frank Baum was called the “Royal historian of Oz” and the books were supposedly him receiving info from Dorothy and recording it himself says a lot about the characters in his books who were “best friends”

Any bets that Asmodeus was the one keeping Blitz and Fizz from communicating with each other?

No, Oz wants them to communicate, so it’s not Asmodeus. He’s not like that, when he miscommunicates it’s because he is oblivious but not malicious. And what’s more, he actually reunited them in the previous episode. The first royal demon to do so actually. He’s ok in my book..at least regarding that. 💙

It’s 100% Cash who did it, he’s been between them all along. And he’s known to be manipulative. Mammon is pretty much foreshadowing how Cash behaved, especially with the twins being there. One of their names ‘Glitz’ literally rhymes with ‘Blitz’ also.

Hello! May I ask if you have any headcanons for Fischl, Albedo, or Kaeya? Or thoughts about them in general?

Either way it’s quite fun to read your posts on Childe’s personality✨

Hello! ^^ Thank you for the ask and for the kind words! These guys are among my favorite characters and I mostly have incoherent shouting.

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My main Fischl headcanon is that Oz is not an electro construct but an instance of true creation magic, similar to what Gold did and Narcissenkreuz Ordo tried to replicate.

Girl just accidentaly performed a godlike feat because she was lonely and bored. She does that.

Other than that, all my previous headcanons have been covered in the last year summer event. She's talented, kind, observant, a bit too sensitive for the everyday world and brave af (not the "rush into danger" brave, the "I can look at myself closely and admit I was wrong" brave).

Lil sis is majestic. And she got all the important stuff right. If she wants to roleplay through life then I see no problem.

(it's so often shown how caring she is! during Unreconciled Stars she's one of the first to arrive in the disaster zone. and she regularly invites Mona for dinner because she knows Mona keeps spending all her earnings on books instead of food.

she just... helps others. all the time.)

Also Bennett absolutely has a crush on her.

Also sitting in a garden watching a play is THE shit (even more so in real lfe) and I loved that summer event.

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With Albedo it's weird in the sense that there's a lot of going on with him but we either have obvious things (him being Gold's creation) or things we can't really connect with anything yet. I wonder if him being a potential danger to Monstadt will be subverted.

I also hope that him not getting a winter event this year means Hoyo are cooking something else. They usually do that when a character doesn't appear for a while.

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For Kaeya I would need a week and multiple posts.

Do you know that his surname, Alberich, means 'king of elves' in Old High German?

(which in Old French slowly became Alberon and then Auberon. so not just a king of elves, the king of elves)

Which is incredibly bizarre because he's a descendant of the regent family, not the royal family. Why were they called Alberichs?

Also In The Song of the Nibelungs (which for me rhymes thematically with The Ballad of the Fjords spear lore) Alberich is the dwarf/dark elf (svartálfar) who guards the treasure of Nibelungs.

(actually I should write a detailed post about it. hold my beer)

A smaller thing: it also makes me sad how his EN VA makes him sound slightly sadistic while in CN he's more of the "teasing older buddy/coworker" type (and later in the story we learn he's incredibly kind). He's just so beautifully voiced in the Chinese version and none ot the translations do him justice.

girl who has only seen the hunchback of notre dame: getting a lot of hunchback of notredame vibes from this

(au details⬇️)

elphie and nessa live alone in the colwen grounds cathedral. their parents have been dead for awhile, but frex would say that elphaba is a monster who's only less monstrous because she got to hold nessa as a baby who is "holy".

over the years elphaba stays locked at the bell tower because of this. nessa went to school (shiz) and learned magic; glinda was a classmate of hers.

elphaba studied magic from nessa's books at home but didn't tell her, and she might be even better than her or glinda. she enchanted the gargoyles (named chistery, malky and killjoy) so she could have someone to talk to, but it's a secret.

nessa, the very virtuous minister of justice of nest hardings, HATES pleasure faithers, hates fun, hates the dragon clock. she blames them for inciting the crowd to kill frexspar or something plus they pose a threat to her unionist values.

still, they come to town every year, especially for the festival of fools, to which she's forced to attend "as an unelected official". she advises elphaba (who wanted to go) to stay in, "because they'll kill you too; the world is wicked".

the dragon clock is operated by boq (this was a dwarf in the novel, but i wanted a role for boq and he's short enough) and this dancer from vinkus who tags along with his old goat. (like nessa, this fiyero is a musical+book fusion as i want him to have the "fun :D" personality on together with his brave, compassionate nature)

meanwhile, captain glinda returns from war (vs emerald city / royal oz since munchkinland is still struggling to be independent), summoned by nessa, who "disposed" of her previous captain nick chopper('s limbs) because he wasn't... cutting it (heh)

"what? you've called me to arrest drunk people and puppets?!" "this is the real war, captain" *crushes ants with her silver shoe*.

nessa asks glinda to be her "back support" at the festival since she doesn't want to bring elphaba. surprise surprise elphaba goes anyway and gets in trouble because the green is, indeed, not paint.

etc. i ended up not taking this story too seriously as i didn't care much for the quasi-esme-phoebus triangle, and tbh all i wanted to see is frollo!nessa being consumed by "the fires of hell". since i think that's close to what you get if you combine her book self (godliness-obsessed but ignoring her own corruption) and musical self (forcing guy who doesn't want to be with her, to be with her, using her power(s)). just a thought exercise of whether she'd be as destructive if she were in love in the novel, except i gave boq a break.