#bastinda

[chibe-bob]

[witchesoz]

Ozian Witches: The Wicked Witch of the West (3)

To complete the trilogy: a selection of alternate designs for the book-version of the Wicked Witch of the West! Taken from various illustrated versions of the original Wizard of Oz novel.

With also some alternate illustrations depicting Bastinda, the Western Witch from Volkov's "Magic Land"

[my-beautiful-wickedness]

Favourite characters (121/?)

Bastinda/The Witch of Violet Land - The Wizard of the Emerald City. The Yellow Brick Road (2025) Бастинда/Ведьма Фиолетовой Страны - Волшебник Изумрудного города. Дорога из жёлтого кирпича (2025)

[melongeno]

Person: I'm just watch the wizard of oz (1939), that's so cool. Hey guys, what is your ship?

Once upon a time fan's: wicked witch and dorothy

Person: cool

Oz the great and powerful fan's: wicked witch and wizard

Person: that weird...

Wicked fan's: wicked witch and the dcarecrow

Person: okayyyyy... WAIT, WHAT!??

***

Bonus

Person: I'm ship wicked witch with glinda

Ouat, oz and wicked fan's: WE TOO

[witchesoz]

The Wicked Witches of the West (10)

Speaking of "alternate" Witches of the West, adaptations that shifted away from the book-character until they became their own thing... There's one more to add, after the MGM green-skin witch and The Wiz Evillene. After the Hollywoodian Witch of the West and the Afro-American Witch of the West, we need to talk a bit about the Soviet Witch of the West... Aka Bastinda, ruler of the Purple Country.

It is well known that Alexander Volkov, when translating Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into the Russian "The Wizard of Emerald City" was... quite imaginative. Ranging from loose translations to entire rewrites passing by the addition of chapters not there before... However with the Wicked Witch of the West, Volkov stayed quite close to the depiction of umbrella-holding hag - just "expanding" her lore to add various details (her weakness to water is talked about more, she has a NAME) or shifting things to fit the new "Magic Land" setting (the yellow of the Winkies being replaced by the purple of the "Violet Country").

(I especially LOVE this drawing, which mixes the original design for Baum's witch with the Walter Crane famous illustrations for the Fairy of the Desert in "The Yellow Dwarf")

In terms of adaptations, I know of four major "appearances" to note. (And since the post is getting a bit long I'll put these under a cut)

These pictures from an animated piece of (to me unknown date, I unfortunately do not have a lot of info about where they come from)

There is the 70s puppet-animation TV show in which Bastinda appears as this tall, skeletal, beaked-nose woman with large round glasses.

You have the 1994 live-action adaptation where Bastinda is given a "regal evil queen" design reminiscent of other classical witch-queens like those of Disney (Snow-White's Evil Queen, Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent, Enchanted's Narissa)

And finally the upcoming 2025 live-action adaptation, where Bastinda's design seems to be "evil Catholic church", from her palace having a Gothic cathedral feel to her outfit looking like the one of some sort of satanic bishop.

[my-beautiful-wickedness]

Svetlana Khodchenkova as Bastinda, the Witch of Violet Land Aleksandra Bogdanova as Villina, the Sorceress of Yellow Land Vasilina Makovtseva as Gingema, the Witch of Blue Land

[witchesoz]

I am definitively out of the loop when it comes to the deep lore of Volkov's Magic Land, I only know of some basics and I need to go read more of it... So maybe this explains why I am missing something here - but I recently got high-resolution versions of the character posters for the upcoming Russian Wicked I mean part 1 of the "Wizard of the Emerald City" live-action adaptation. When looking at the one of Gingema, I noticed how her headwear has a strange symbol, of something that are either two swords with their blades fused or a sword ending in a cross, surrounded by swirling snakes? It reminds a bit of a fantasy version of the caduceus.

Given their Bastinda's design gave a lot of "evil bishop/Satanic pope/malevolent Church" vibes, I thought "Okay, so with Gingema they go with more of an esoteric/occultist look", with this symbol reminding me of, you know, the usual mix of Hermetics, tarot symbology, alchemical signs, etc... But then I looked at Villina's character poster and I noticed...

See the various symbols on her dress? There's a sort of Holy Mary design here as she is a younger version of the North witch, with this diadem of sunrays and stars, and she literaly has a heart shooting fire and surrounded by light rays on her chest (and for those of you who know your Christian symbols, you know what it is). But she also has many symbols evoking the one on Gingema's head-wear, though different... the intertwined fruit-trees on her stomach, the sword with a wavy blade on one her shoulders, and a staff wrapped in something on her other shoulder... As someone obsessed with costumes I can't help but wonder if there's a clear connection here, and what's the deeper meaning.

I don't see any similar symbol on Bastinda's poster, but her ring does seem to have a swirly shape that might echo the same symbol...

Maybe there is a cultural reference I am completly missing? Why are there esoterico-Christian symbols all over the witches? Why are they wearing caduceus-sword-crosses? Is it just meant to be random fantasy symbols or is there something deeper in there? Is Volkov's Magic Land becoming a new Narnia?

We'll see...

[my-beautiful-wickedness]

Bastinda's castle