#cauldronofmorning

[moistvonlipwig]

Can I join you in the Glinda defending/bullying? Saw a take earlier that said “Gelphie is doomed yuri because one is anti fascist and the other isn’t” which yes! True! And then tags were like “which is why Fiyero is better for Elphaba”. Fiyero is comphet personified come on.

also (assuming we are talking about the musical/movie) fiyero joined the gale force which are the violent regime-enforcing cops LOL. he cared about elphaba not her cause!! in the first movie i thought maybe he was down with the animals because they gave him a talking horse and he did leap into action to save brrr but just like in the musical he puts himself in a role that oppresses the animals because he thinks it'll help him keep elphaba safe which is exactly what glinda does lol he just likes it less which means it's less of a sacrifice for him to leave. and in the end glinda changed and is going to dedicate her life to changing oz and fighting for elphaba's cause so.......idk man who ends up embodying elphaba's legacy better? i think wicked's political messaging is, um, not super incisive overall, but one thing it does say that truly resonates with me is that it's never too late. you can actually start doing the right thing tomorrow. (and with good behavior -- who knows?) like something i appreciate about gelphie is that yes there is a strong doomed yuri element to it but also they do meaningfully change each other and there is hope at the end of the story too specifically because of how they've changed each other.

but going back to the fiyero/glinda comparison, i just think comparing them is so fundamentally fruitless because -- as this post says quite well -- there is, in fact, no love triangle in the text that elphaba is the center of. elphaba is not choosing between glinda and fiyero. the textual love triangle has fiyero at its center. the musical/movie does not consider glinda a serious romantic option for elphaba. now ofc it does seem that some of the people working on the movie were gelphiepilled, ariana most loudly and explicitly, and the movie has a certain hays code-ian slay in how it seems so disinterested in fiyeraba and inserts certain homoerotic scenes while keeping elphaba and glinda ostensibly separate -- e.g. the door scene (and i have thoughts on the last shot also wrt this aspect which i want to make a separate post about...) but the text of the movie still only sees elphaba and glinda as friends, and their friendship is the focus of the story. wicked the musicalmovie is simply not a story about fiyero being better for elphaba than glinda, it is a story about elphaba and glinda and their complex friendship and how they love each other through it all despite fiyero inter alia being a source of conflict. fiyero is somewhat of a foil for glinda but he's not a particularly effective one because he's so thinly-drawn as a character; jonny makes him charming but he can't make him interesting. fiyero is and has always been, in the words of gregory maguire, "boy fluff." comparing him to glinda to smugly assert that he is better for elphaba simply misses the point of both their characters and of the story as a whole, and also seriously misses the fact that the musical was written in the early 2000s and it shows.

[kimwexlers-brownhair]

Tagged by the glorious @cauldronofmorning. Thanks, friendo!

Fave color: Purple

Last song: Caro Nome performed by Kerstin Avemo

Last book: Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. Not bad for an expanded creepypasta!

Last movie: Sunset Boulevard for the umpteenth time. Gloria Swanson does this wonderful thing with her hands where they become talons.

Last TV show: Desperate Housewives. I skipped a couple seasons and shouldn't have. Mike has amnesia now? Really?

Sweet/savory/spicy: Man, it really depends on so much -- time of day, how I'm feeling, etc. Probably savory if I had to pick just one, followed by spicy, then sweet.

Relationship Status: Dwelling under the opera house with a dummy of my beloved.

Last thing I googled: A picture of Anna O'Byrne for drawing reference.

Looking forward to: Taking a nap after work today.

Current obsessions: Meg Giry (as always) and Joker/Vicki from 1989, hence La Chauve-Souris.

I hereby tag: @thewildwestpyro @whitegownsandflowercrowns @spacecolumbo @rumpletrumple @richeeduvie @escailyyy...I don't know how many people I'm supposed to tag lol, go crazy followers!!

[wulfhalls]

I haven’t managed to see Nosferatu yet, but I’ve seen a couple of reviews that say its “too much” of a gothic horror and/or would have been better campy and all that just makes me want to see it more

we licherally already have camp nosferatu: dracula (1992)??? I personally love that nosferatu 2024 takes itself dead serious. it's dark heavy subject matter so u get a dark heavy film.

[iinsistuous]

Deedennis for the ship meme

💜🌹💞

when i learned that they were initially supposed to fuck in "the gang misses the boat" but RCG decided not to go with that plotline i was heartbroken </3 they are mentally ill codependent freak twins and no one can take that away from them

also the fandom hating dd shippers is very funny to me, them being canonically incestuous would not even be in the top 20 worst things they've ever done

Send me an incest/incest-adjacent ship and I'll answer you with these emojis

[septembersghost]

that post about BCS appealing more to women made me think, and it's interesting that Walter and Jimmy are both cringefail pathetic, and don't get me wrong Walter's whole self justifying toxic macho thing is fascinating, but Jimmy is almost more... accessibly pathetic? he's emotional, got big sad blue eyes, wanted his brother to like him, lbr a total bottom with Kim, and even the vanity is treated more sympathetic than in Breaking Bad where it was essentially flamboyance helps with the sleaze. This isn't even me saying he's better than Walter, there's a whole laundry list of flaws, it's just amusing that I can't think of anyone calling Heisenberg their pathetic bb girl

editing this to say i was writing back to you last night and didn't have time to finish it, so i saved this as a draft, and now i'm like 100000x more deranged about the contrasts between jimmy and walt than i was before, because jimmy was PREPARED TO DIE FOR HIS WIFE. walt presses on with his, "everything i do, i do for my family" (despite us knowing this becomes a falsehood of an excuse), but the pure act of selfless love jimmy exhibited for kim is true.

it definitely comes down to endearment - walt is a fascinating character, but innately unlikable from the start, whereas jimmy is lovable. walt's pathetic qualities curdle into cruelty and control, he's not cringefail in a way where we want to bring him in from the rain in a cardboard box lol but there's something about jimmy, some spark of heart or goodness, where we want better for him even though we KNOW where he's headed. accessible is a great word for it, there's something in him that we get, even when his actions are immoral or destructive.

i'm trying to remember if i just wrote about this recently or if i only thought about it in my head...there's a scene in salud when flynn comes over to see walt, and it's his birthday, and walt and jesse have just gotten into an ugly, brutal fight. walt is beat up and miserable and completely out of it, and accidentally calls flynn "jesse," and then the next day when he's a bit more clear, he talks about his experience seeing his father sick when he was a child. it's an amazing, haunting scene and i don't think it gets talked about enough. bryan's performance gets praised for the big meme moments - the "i am the one who knocks" speech, "you're goddamn right," "i suggest you tread lightly," even the breakdown in crawl space, but the monologue he has in salud is one of my favorite bits of his acting in the entire show. he's quiet. he's introspective. and he talks about these terrible memories of seeing his father wasting away from illness, the caustic smell of the hospital chemicals, the sound of his breath rattling like an empty spray paint can. and he tells flynn this formative memory, this huge, revealing part of himself, and it speaks so deeply to the response he's had to his cancer, his fear of his illness, his loathing of looking weak. his father wasn't there to, as gus once said, provide. he only remembers being afraid and seeing frailty. it's just a gutwrenchingly human scene. he says to his son that he doesn't want him to remember him like that. but then flynn says, "remembering you that way wouldn't be so bad. the bad way to remember you would be the way you've been this whole last year. at least last night you were...you were real." it's heartbreaking because all he WANTS is for his dad to let him in and be honest with him, even if that means ugly crying. the emotional vulnerability matters. but walt just...seals back up. walt cannot abide being seen in weakness. and that hubris destroys everything. the narrative knows walt is pathetic, but walt cannot face that himself.

by design, bcs recognizes jimmy's more pathetic qualities, but never needs the veneer of the power or masculinity. even when jimmy tries posturing, it's ineffective. the narrative knows, but SO DOES JIMMY. the "lightning bolts shoot from my fingertips!" scene has howard walking angrily away from him with zero reactions, and ends with jimmy panting and defeated because he's aware he was lashing out in guilt and fear after having to defend lalo, after seeing grieving family members in court. when jimmy gets mad at kim and kim says, "jimmy, you are always down," he doesn't respond with a counterargument, he just sort of collapses inwardly, and starts packing his things (in his metaphorical little rucksack) until she comes to him and softens and offers support. it's not bad to see jimmy weak or very emotional or afraid or frustrated or downtrodden because it's REAL. and we can empathize with those flaws when they're honest.

heisenberg and saul goodman are both grandiose personas, but used for very different reasons and ends. they're both their worst selves writ large, but where heisenberg feels like an extension of walt's obsessive ego, saul, even in his scumminess and vanity, is a shroud for the vulnerability of jimmy's heart - and because we know that exists in him, we respond to his faults more compassionately. in fandom parlance, jimmy's meow meowness, his lovable qualities, are possible because of that genuineness we've felt. we know he can do better, we wish he would. walt's metastatic decay doesn't allow for that. it allows for such great counterpoints between the themes of both their arcs.

[nonsensegnomes]

What Gordon Smith said about Mike being pissed off with Saul because he knows Jimmy’s just trying to prove his brother right about him, kills me completely

wow yeah i knowwwwww, that scene in s4 when jimmy calls him up about the hummel scheme & mike just cuts completely through his bullshit and goes no but i'm sorry about your brother.... absolutely Deranged!! bc you know it means he was not taken in by the saul persona for one second, even in brba & even when he's threatening to break his legs – he's still seeing the pathetic little lawyer who used argue with him about stickers!!!!

also always so wild to me when i remember that mike and chuck actually met, like what is mike's TAKE on that whole clusterfuck!!! soooooo fascinating to me that they basically have opposite approaches to their family members dying: mike defines himself by matty's death & getting revenge (perhaps even moreso because he blames himself for it), whereas jimmy immediately starts eliminating every reaction and emotion he could possibly have to what chuck did bc he's experiencing similar amounts of anger & guilt but there's no one he can take it out on but himself – and chuck, who's gone

like imo jimmy is so so transparent about how he's (not) dealing with chuck's death but mike is one of the ONLY ones to call him on it! he even tells him that the scam shouldn't be jimmy's type of job any more than it's his – and then of course hard cut to s5 & the next time they work together is when jimmy's gotten himself in soooo far over his head w/ lalo 🙃

kinda an interesting parallel to his relationship with nacho; mike warns hin every time he tries to solve his salamanca problem that he's only going to make it worse + then lalo escalates the stakes so much mike can't help him any more 💀 but like as more clever people have pointed out, mike admires nacho for working so hard to ensure his dad doesn't have to take the bribe that mike feels so guilty for forcing matty to take

whereas with JIMMY what's so so fun is that mike actually sees him at his best in the first scheme they ever pull together (the kettlemans) – and then watches him deteriorate into the worst version of himself over the course of the show. like, he had a million dollars in cash right there in front of him! no one would know he took it!! but he makes the most moral choice he'll make for the entire show (apart from saul gone, i suppose) and gives it back to fix the kettlemans' mess – not to make chuck proud of him or to help kim (well it does a little but that's not Why he's doing it per se) or to assuage his guilt but just cause it's the right thing to do!!! he even returns the bribe, just like mike so desperately wishes he could've done! if you were mike & this guy you watched undo the same mistake you're most ashamed of came up to you like a week later talking about how he regrets not making that mistake, OF COURSE you'd do your best to stop him from pursuing this life & go a little insane when you couldn't!!!!!

anyway. uh. what was the question? oh yeah i think mike sees this version of his younger self who COULD have chosen better but ALLOWS himself not to, bc he's Doomed By The Narrative (chuck's voice in his head) to never be anything better than slippin' jimmy + i think it undermines the story he's been telling himself about that one defining moment that doomed him (because the reality is you CAN choose better! at any time you can make the right choice & face up to the consequences!! maybe you can't escape the past but you can walk off of the bad choice road! if it sucks hit da bricks!!!) + i think by brba all he sees when he looks at saul is a cloud of Contempt & Pity, so no fucking wonder he ended up trying to break his legs 🙃

[ssaalexblake]

Everyone is so delighted about RTD bringing Murray Gold back, and like I love The Shepherd Boy as much as anyone, but what happened to “we want someone new”? I’m not surprised bbc are such cowards but I am saddened about everyone taking the nostalgia bait I guess

can't claim to be surprised they replaced a black man with a white guy who'd already done the job once already t b h

*eye emoji*

Sounds weirdly familiar, actually...

[alpineshepherdbadboy]

It really is so fascinating though, because even aside the flashier colors and the whole kink thing (Rhea and Bob please), Saul Goodman becomes a comfort to Kim when she’s imploding. But when she’s willing to shoot an innocent man for all she knows to save her husband’s life, it stops being comforting and Rhea calling a nameless faceless person on the street who could have been big, I just think that she’s gone to Gene long before now-Saul ever got any self awareness back

it took me so long to answer this ask because i wasn't sure how. i haven't quite figured that out yet, but maybe if i just start typing i'll find a point. . .

i think you're absolutely right. i think that it's also important to remember that she fell in love with jimmy mcgill, not saul goodman, because saul goodman is not a real person. whenever kim and jimmy talked about creating the saul goodman persona, it was like they were talking about how to build themselves the perfect suit of armor. jimmy never won chuck's respect? well, good news! saul goodman doesn't care about bullshit like "respectability!" kim was raised by a neglectful parent(s) who shirked all accountability? good news again! as a goodman, kim gets to be the one who doesn't care about consequences for once!

"saul goodman" was supposed to protect them from the very things that have wounded them their whole lives. but of course, it didn't just protect them, it also hurt everyone around them. and now, i think, we're witnessing our final "sunk costs" moments. jimmy still believes in the fallacy. he's sticking with saul goodman because he's already lost so much to create the goodman persona. why stop now? if he just keeps playing for long enough, he could still win. maybe he thinks saul goodman can still protect him against chuck, against lalo, against the voice in his head. maybe he thinks saul goodman will bring kim back.

kim, on the other hand, has seen the sunk-cost fallacy for what it is: a fallacy. she's cut her losses and left the table. i think they'll find their way back to one another, but they won't make it if they keep playing that same game.

at this point in the broadcast, i'm just free-associating, but i'm gonna keep going. talking about the sunk-costs fallacy as a throughline in the mcwexler story has made me realize how pertinent it is to the story as a whole. ("fun and games" did a superb job of connecting the lawyer + cartel storylines). on the one hand, you have characters who subscribe to the "winner takes it all" mentality, characters like jimmy, chuck, mike, and gus who will keep playing and playing and playing, even when there's no end in sight. then on the other hand, you have characters like kim and nacho, who finally realize they don't have to keep playing-- they can just leave the table. (in conclusion: i think i finally understand that stupid fucking poker chip nacho used to fiddle with).