Cinema Starview Presents: Curtain Call, The Last Act
(Alt title: What The Amazing Digital Circus Has Taught Me As A Struggling Twentysomething…)
The Amazing Digital Circus, controversial in all the best ways, has left a lasting impression on animation and the indie scene as a whole. With it being one of the first-ever YouTube-born indie animated releases being shown in theaters for its high-top, drama filled, series finale.
Created by Gooseworx and Glitch Studios, this indie animated series follows 6 humans trapped in a surreal, circus-themed VR world run by a chaotic AI named Caine, who forces them into bizarre adventures as they struggle with their new reality and try to escape. This series going as viral as it did, led it to be the unofficial pioneer into what could be considered, the golden age of independent animation and creators turning their stories from figments of their imaginations they obsess over, to becoming a viable career path.
This series, and Glitch Studios as a whole, have helped in redirecting creatives from going down the pipeline of working for big studios that won’t take your idea seriously, or strip your ideas as a whole, to putting the tools in your hands to make your dreams become a reality. Will it be hard? Of course, everything in life is, but that shouldn’t deter you from making your passion a possibility and not a probability. What I love about this show, is the diverse cast of characters we’ve come to love and adore, how they all fit together perfectly in this liminal plane of existence, while questioning the very reality of their existence in this virtual reality experience. We get introduced to the main character, Pomni, who is a focal point in the story, being the character that drives the majority of the plot, on how to escape the circus. Originally going from an anxious and neurotic character to a character of empathy and compassion for those in need.
All of the characters in this show remind me of different aspects of myself and the human experience overall. Which is interesting, because I believe all of these characters are meant to represent the different struggles we as humans may face in our daily lives. I relate to Ragatha because I too have a toxic relationship with both my parents. I suffer(ed) from emotional neglect and being tossed aside like an old tattered ragdoll from one parental figure. To then become the victim of my other parent, who would berate and fuss at me about the littlest things, never feeling good enough, and becoming a bit of a people pleaser to make up for it.
I relate to Gangle because I myself am an artist that dreams with high ambition, and yet life has consistently played in my face or let me down, causing me to give up on my dreams, even for a few months to a full year. Stuck working at shitty retail/customer service jobs I couldn’t care less about, finding myself succumbing to imposter syndrome and masking how I truly feel to appease others.
I relate to Zooble because I too struggle with body dysmorphia, never feeling at home in this flesh suit I was born in, and to some extent never feeling manly enough to be the male I present myself as. As of lately, I’ve been questioning what my identity is in terms of gender and self-realized concept, and I’m currently trying to figure that out. I love Kinger, because despite all he’s been through, he’s accepted all of it, and his wisdom and experience has made the circus not feel so terrible. Helping others grapple with the reality of what’s happening, while probably being the GOAT amongst all of the characters. So much so, that Pomni has become a second character that is as wise as him, helping others with the tough feelings they try to navigate on a daily basis, adding a layer of empathy that is needed for such a difficult reality they exist in.
And good ole Jax, the jackass bunny we love to hate. Them being a character that was highlighted this entire episode was an interesting narrative choice. The one thing I wish was that we got to explore the character's reaction to his abstraction, maybe even a final group trip where everyone went with Pomni to explore Jax’s mindscape, seeing her for who she was, and learning about her past before The Circus. I’m using an array of pronouns for Jax, because while we know Goosworx confirmed that Jax is a transfem character, it seems as if Jax has tried to subdue that aspect of themselves for YEARS while being in the circus. Even their human counterpart, Lee, is portrayed as masc-presenting, but we know they use “she/her” pronouns.
I can shockingly relate to Jax’s situation of how she came into the circus — running away from home, toxic relationship with her parents, becoming homeless for a bit until she found herself in the circus. Jax is a very complex character that self-sabotages their way through life in fear of ever being judged or ridiculed for expressing the way she feels, something her parents never made her feel comfortable expressing. And that’s a very depressing revelation to face, especially when we saw the fallout in their relationship with Ribbit and how much the guilt of being the person that made Ribbit abstract caused her to restrict herself from ever getting too close with anybody ever again. She reverted to hurting people in the same ways people hurt her in the outside world.
Does any of this excuse Jax’s character flaws? No, and she deserves the outcome of what happened to her, but there can be grace held for what she went through and how that led up to the person she became whilst in the circus. I hope Jax/Lee is living a better life in the outside world and finds the security and courage to embrace who she really is on the inside.
Speaking of, I think it was so dope to see all of the Circusmates and their human counterparts continuing with their lives beyond what the circumstances were. Pomni/Abby still does accounting and does YouTube on the side, Ragatha/Suzie seems to be a successful equestrian rider and farmer, Jax/Lee is a delivery driver, Gangle/Zoey is a designer now, Zooble/Riley runs their own bar called “The Triangle”, and Kinger/Grant lives a happy life with his wife Queenie/Destiny and their kids Anne and Sam.
If there’s anything you can take away from The Amazing Digital Circus, as a twentysomething, it’s that nothing in this life remains forever. Sometimes you have to be ok with certain outcomes and learn to be content with them, while also finding meaning in the life you are currently living. People move on, life goes on, and what remains as a temporary situation for some can be a permanent reality for others. Their human counterparts are out living a life they always wanted, meanwhile their digital counterparts are in the circus forever, unless they abstract, which is always likely. The best they can do is just continue living and growing despite the odds of their circumstances… and I think that’s a bittersweet, yet perfect message to incorporate in our lives, however the cards may fall.
It’s been a few years since the events of Euphoria S2 happened, and while it may have been a bit of a timeskip, these characters have evolved in ways not even I could’ve imagined. And yet, it makes so much sense where they ended up.
We open with Rue driving and later trekking in the deserts of Mexico, catching up with where she’s been all these years. Instead of her doing drugs, she’s now selling them. She worked at a smoke shop for a bit, but got entangled by Laurie and her crew again, after not being able to pay off her debts. So, Laurie is now making her pay off her debts by making her a drug dealer. We learn that Fezco (RIP Angus) has been sent to prison for 30 years, and we have no idea where Ashtray is or if he lived after last seasons finale. Faye is also apart of these shenanigans, and during a smuggle mission, both her and Rue had to swallow golf ball sized balloons filled with fent. They passed through border patrol, with only a mild release of farting on the way, until they had to defecate all of the balloons they had to swallow back at Laurie’s place.
Mind you, drug dealers have a very shady, dirty practice of how they make their money. And no shade, that’s fine and all, get it how you live it henny — but the concept of using lube to swallow balloons filled with FENT is beyond dangerous. Not to mention, the scene where Rue and Faye have to get the drugs out of their system, involving a strainer and a dog EATING SHIT OUT OF FAYE’S ASS???!!! I’m sorry WHAT??? Red Flag No.1 for Sam’s fetishes being shown to millions of viewers. In future instances, I’ll be using “🚩” to highlight these events.
The second B plot of the episode, we see how some of the other characters are living their lives. Lexi is an assistant for a screenwriter in Hollywood, while Maddy is a talent manager for a young actor, Dylan, who stars in a show called LA Nights. We get a small mention of Jules being a sugar baby, and then we get into the lovely hell of a high school peaked relationship between Cassie and Nate. Cassie is a future housewife that wants to be an influencer and OnlyFans model, and Nate took over his dad’s construction company.
Nate and Cassie are getting married soon. And sadly I hate that this is going to be the B-side story to Rue’s A-side main story. Nate and Cassie are not interesting enough as a couple to deserve this kind of limelight. Not only is Nate like a mess in hisself, we see he’s slightly more calmer than what he used to be. Cassie on the other hand has only gotten worse as the years go on. In reality, I’m finding it hard to really understand where the measurements of Cassie as a character ends and where Sydney Sweeney’s persona as an actress begins. Cassie mentions how she wants to have this luxurious wedding with $50k flowers is so funny, because she follows this up by saying she doesn’t want to have a “ghetto wedding”… girl wtf do you know about ghetto?? Chile bye.
Anywho, Rue finds her way to her next mission and we see she has to deal drugs to a guy named Alamo. He’s essentially a pimp from the looks of it and his whole thing and business is about selling what sells best. The glorious conch that blooms… aka P00SAY. He said a line that really gave me 🚩from Sam, when him and Rue were getting to know each other, saying “You must run them b*tches like a n*gga”. Samuel Levinson, you are the only writer in this show, the hell are you thinking you can write something like that? Either way, this exchange plus further events end up being the start of a budding relationship between Alamo and Rue after he nearly tries to shoot her testing her faith.
There also is a heavy amount of imagery and depictions of religion this season, that’a far more on the nose in-comparison to the last few seasons. After Rue met that nice rural farm family in Jerusalem, TX, to Rue talking to Lexi and Ali about wanting to take her faith seriously, we see that Rue is trying to find her place in the grand scheme of what is going on in her life. Trying to turn her life around for the better. But like Lexi said, and even the realities of the world we live in. It’s one thing to be a believer, but it’s another thing to become a Christian when all they’ve done is either be judgmental or hurt people based on their beliefs. The way that Rue’s life has gone, there’s always room for second chances, but the answer is truly which master will she serve?
The Ghetto Wedding
Episode 2 was wild, but a bit of a bore. Rue is successfully working at a strip club being the house mother to all the girls, she gets into a fling with a girl named Angel. We also see more of Nate and Cassie’s ku klux ass relationship that nobody cares about (more to come on that). We finally see more Maddy and Jules!!! Like AAAAHAHHAHAH I love my gorgeous girls, especially Maddy this episode. Working so hard to get a piece of the American Pie that they tell us about, when in reality it’s all a scam. I want so much more of Maddy’s character, but given what we’re dealt with there’s no saving her. As for Jules, she’s a penthouse doll living a lavish life with an art degree, sure she has a sugar daddy, but she’s living a better life than her peers. I think her and Rue are just meant to be with each other, they are star-crossed lovers that weren’t meant for each other at first, but after so many years things change, so who knows, we’ll just have to wait and see. This episode racked us up to 7 points for the Sam Levinson needs to be in jail red flag counter. From Faye getting banged in front of a N*** flag, a pig shitting in Laurie’s house, the amount of N words being flung around by inbreds and Angel— anywho let’s talk about the wedding of the week.
We open episode 3 with a flashback of everything Jules has been through. She attended an art school struggling to achieve her dreams with her roommate Vivian at the time, until Viv introduced her to the world of sugar babying. Jules had many clients, but there was one, a cosmetic surgeon who became her permanent client, and she became his new muse. 🚩 for the bondage kink that happened with the surgeon using plastic wrap on Jules. Nothing super eventful happened with Rue’s story aside from seeing Rosalia’s character dancing while wearing a neckbrace lmfaoo. Rue’s selling guns to clients, Alamo has it out for Laurie still and has plans to kill her bird after the pig thing… which we see the pig again running amuck in the club, peeing everywhere 🚩and Alamo kills it.
Rue invites Jules as her plus one to Nate and Cassie’s eloption, and ohh my lordt does Jules look amazing!!! Maddy looks phenomenal as always!!! I loved their shady moments in between talking about the wedding, Cassie and Nate. We saw Cal and Jules talk about his perverted tendencies and how he got busted for his pedophilia. The real drama started when Naz confronted Nate during the reception about how he owes him money… Nate has been doing shady business behind Cassie’s back, which could threaten both their lives, and yet all Cassie cared about was her wedding and becoming poor. For some reason, they hired a James Brown impersonator and they all started rapping “Get Low” by Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz, which was like the most unseasoned thing I’ve seen in a few months. Skipping to the end of the episode, we see Nate get his ass beat DOWNN by one of Naz’s henchmen, Cassie cries as usual, and Nate ends up getting his pinky toe cut off which was wilddd.
Kitty Snitches
Episode 4 opens right where episode 3 ended with Rue under custody. She ends up working with the police to begin snitching on Laurie’s crew and her illegal drug activities.
Nate and Cassie are looking like a miserable couple already. Still hate how ugly their house is, but in terms of the plan to pay back Naz, Cassie begins working with Maddy and pawns her wedding ring to rent an apartment across from Lexi’s complex. She’s trying to start elevate her OnlyFans/influencer career with Maddy’s help, it’s weird seeing Maddy and Cassie working together after everything in season 2. Still hoping it fails terribly for Cassie though.
Jules gets a gig to paint for a Lexi’s boss, but she ends up painting an explicit painting of trans women running around nude while on a picnic… yeahh that’s not family friendly at all. They didn’t really do much with her character after that scene kinda sucks. Maddy ends up taking Cassie to an influencer party that a guy Brandon is attending to intermingle with some of the guests, she ends up doing a line with him and another girl. Meanwhile, Rue ends up witnessing Angel’s replacement Kitty doing a private dance on camera for a few guys, that turns ugly when they end up having sex with her. Rosalia’s character Magic (I only just learned her name) eavesdrops over the conversation and tells it to the club owner, which causes an argument between Rue and her for almost blowing her cover. All the while Laurie’s crew raids the club, killing the club owner and robbing their safe. Thankfully, Rue notices one of the suspects in the getaway car is Faye, because you definitely can’t miss those big lips anywhere.
Stand Still Little Piggy
There’s been a lot thats transpired over episodes 5 and 6, also I kinda stopped doing the whole “🚩“ thing because at this point, there’s too many to count. We get a flashback of Alamo’s life as a kid and how his mom swindled a man she was dating, causing him to never want to get screwed over by a woman in his life. The biggest part of the episode is the ongoing feud/war between Laurie and Alamo’s crews after Laurie’s crew stole from his strip club as he plans his attack to get his stuff back. Rue still finding herself in the midst of all of this mess almost gets her head knocked off, body deep in the ground, when Alamo and his crew begin to think she’s a traitor working double sides because of the night her and Magic witnessed everything happening. Rue is sent on a mission to try and retrieve Alamo’s stuff in the midst of Alamo and Laurie working together. Rue is going through a lot, she visits a church and calls her mom trying to receive redemption for all of the bad things she did. Later on, on her way to Laurie’s, Rue ends up almost dying again after nearly running into a truck. And somehow a Joshua Tree catches on fire, which Rue views as an answer from God for her divine retribution.
Also, her and Jules aren’t doing well at all, they had a major fight. I really hate the way Jules’ character is being treated and how she’s been on a stagnant decline in terms of character growth.
On the other end, Cassie is starting to feel her ultimate fantasy (and no I don’t mean the Barberella one from earlier in the episode). Cassie almost tries to leave Maddy as her manager, once she begins to see the major success she could have if she joined an influencer house. Thankfully, Maddy thinks 5 steps ahead of Cassie and made sure that didn’t happen by bribing her to sign a contract in return to be on a show with one of the actors her boss manages. Lexi ends up helping her get the gig unintentionally with Maddy threatening her, and Cassie gets the role. Cassie is a pretty good actress nevertheless and ends up really showing her chops with her improv/trauma acting her first day on set with Dylan. She ends up deleting her OnlyFans account, but will she end up regretting this? I ask that because she ends up receiving Nate’s finger as a package in the mail. Speaking of Nate, he ends up getting another body part removed after not repaying his debts, even though Cassie has been sending him the money to do so amidst all of her sex work shows going overtime. Nate needs to really get it together, but I’m surprised he isn’t dead yet.
As for Maddy’s story, she ends up being introduced to Alamo while hanging out with Rue at a café and they end up chatting about what Maddy wants to do with her business. They end up networking and collaborating on a joint venture, where Maddy chose two of Alamo’s girls, Kitty and Magic, to join her in becoming online sexual fantasies with Cassie. Maddy is about just as much of a pimp as Alamo, which is why they seem to get a long so well.
Rain or Shine, We Trust on God’s Time
We head into the penultimate episode with a background story on Ali, his past with his addiction and drug use, the tough relationship he had with his wife and daughters, to getting off drugs and becoming a sponsor for other addicts. He lost so many people that were fellow addicts on their recovering journey, dealing with so much pain I’m surprised he stayed clean for so long.
Rue visits Lexi to share with her about her religious revelations ever since she started trying to live right. Seeing so much that’s transpired from working with Laurie’s N*** crew of supremacist drugpins to Alamo’s dirty sex trafficking ring and gun/drug deals. All of this causes Lexi to be extremely judgemental towards Rue and her beliefs + her working in cahoots with the DEA to bust Laurie. Lexi is a very pretentious and judgemental person, while yes her views aren’t wrong, it is sad knowing how Rue can’t even come to her longtime friend for solace.
Rue goes to visit Ali in talks of her final mission, in hopes to finally break free from this cycle and runaway, but Ali has another idea to help save her and her mom from this very risky situation Rue has found herself in. But as Rue does, she decides to take the hard road and go visit Laurie instead. This obviously doesn’t go well with Rue making a deal with these rednecks in blood to shoot Alamo when he comes. Rue gets locked inside a bedroom until the morning comes, but Faye frees her so they can get Alamo’s stuff from the safe. Them sneaking out together had to have been the loudest part of the episode… and when they went to the safe, Rue’s key didn’t work, so Faye grabs the key her boyfriend, Wayne, owns. They open the safe and to their surprise, there’s no money, only ID’s of random women (including Angel). Faye gets upset feeling betrayed and yells out Wayne’s name.
We move onto Cassie and Maddy’s story with Cassie dealing with the reprecussions of deleting her OnlyFans and Nate’s ongoing dismemberment for the money he owes Naz. Naz even goes as far as to call Cassie about how she can get him the money her husband owes. All the while, we find out that Cassie wasn’t allowed to move on with her acting dreams because of her OnlyFans career. It was a stupid decision on her end to delete her main income in hopes of a dream that barely took flight. In turn this caused Maddy to get fired from her job, and as Queen Maddy does she goes over to Cassie’s to check her about the bullshit she keeps finding herself in. Maddy sets Cassie up with a paparazzi outing with Dylan. Cassie and Dylan have sex, and it ends up going insanely viral after she posts about it.
With the steady growth in her new OnlyFans account, she ends up going back to content creation, but not without a visit and threat from Naz. She gets bodyslammed through a glass table, gagged and tied up by Naz’s henchmen. He tells her that she has only 72hrs to get the remaining money for him or else… but in reality Nate’s actually been buried alive with not long to live. Especially now that there’s a rattlesnack. Cassie needs help getting the money, so she contacts Maddy to see what she can do. Maddy goes to Alamo and ends up having to succumb to him in order to get the million dollars. Her and Alamo go to meet Naz and Cassie on the construction site where Nate is buried, and after being swindled, Alamo shoots and kills Naz. They end up getting Nate out, but to what surprise? He’s already dead after the snake bit him and poisoned him with his venom. When you realize that Maddy did all of this and is now in debt with Alamo is crazy…
And now… we’re at the final countdown. Rue manages to get away by using a metal rod to hit Wayne on the leg after Faye wakes him up, she then punches Faye in the face and starts running for her life with the bag of ID’s. Wayne chases her, shooting and missing with every shot until she escapes. Almost home free, one of the other hicks comes in riding a horse with a lasso manages to get Rue and drag her back to the house, but thankfully with help from G, he shoots and injures the guy so Rue gets free. Both Rue and G, high on adrenaline drive off managing a huge win for Alamo. Rue stays with Ali for a bit, and while we think things are on the up and up, we find out she ends up overdosing on the “percocets”/fentanyl that Alamo gave her. There’s a quick scene where we see Jules painting a picture of Rue while she’s stuck in her penthouse with her sugar daddy. Honestly, as a Rules truther, them not mending things and getting back together will always not sit right with me. WE WERE FUCKING ROBBED!!!!
We continue with the storyline of Big Eddy and Mitch transporting the girls and the drugs, but the DEA ends up busting them. Wayne and Faye manage to escape before it all goes down, everybody gets arrested meanwhile Laurie hangs herself on the top of the house. Turns out Alamo had a second trick up his sleeve, he had Bishop on stand by and they switched the trucks with the drugs inside.
We see Maddy and Cassie, in deep distress and shambles, at a café trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their life now. Maddy ends up putting Cassie onto the business of helping her with the girls while also continuing her OnlyFans career, as well as getting … . Now living with each other, Maddy heads out to go see Alamo. Lexi and Cassie end up talking about Rue’s death and how Rue left a bible at Lexi’s apartment, she started reading it and began gaining new insights and epiphany’s from her first read through, but her biggest takeaway is acceptance and learning that this wasn’t her fault.
Ali pays the Silver Slipper a visit to confront Alamo. They have an old-fashioned showdown, and Ali shoots Alamo to death with his shot gun. Thankfully, Bishop sabotaged him and now Maddy is out of debt from Alamo FOREVER!! Ali then goes to pay a visit to the nice family that let Rue stay with them for a bit in Jerusalem, TX. A beautiful sequence with a beautiful final parting goodbye from Rue.
Conclusion
This season was a huge clusterfuck of so much mess and wild instances that took place. There’s no way of knowing what you were going to expect from its turbulent beginning to its euphoric and saddening end. Characters took massive shifts and turns, the plot felt a bit messy, but the overall story with Rue was so fun to watch. As much as I can diss Sam Levinson for not having a writer’s room, and inconsistent character flaws, he did what he initially always wanted to do, to tell an honest and true story of addiction.
Addiction is a feeling you can’t fight, like emotions and water, it wanes and flows, comes and goes as the days past. It can become tolerable, but it never goes away. In the end, we learn from this show and its characters, that not everybody gets a happy ending. Not everyone lives a dream life after the horrors of high school. Life goes on, and you just have to try and push through in hopes that you can make something of yourself and the cards you’ve been dealt.
In God We Trust, Rue. Thank you for being a constant in our lives for 7 years, when life felt a bit normal in 2019 to now.
So, I’ll likely hold off on my review of the Aang movie until October, but I have watched it and I have A LOT of thoughts, that its gonna take me a rewatch or two to fully piece together how I feel.
But if you wanna know my current thoughts here’s how I’ve felt about everything prior to the leaks. » The Legend of Aang: A Journey of Reroutes and Delays
Now, to say this is to say… I think the movie is okay at best. The writing essentially treads over things we’ve already seen from Korra’s time, just a lot more redundant in a way.
The only highlight is to see the uniqueness of what airbending can do, the past Avatar reveal is gorgeous but far too OP in-universe, and the beautiful fluidity of art direction. This movie deserved to have been in theaters — Paramount needs to be investigated for how much stuff leaks from their camp and how often it happens. From the Sandy Cheeks movie, Loud House movie, Paw Patrol movie, it’s all too much.
All in all, I can’t wait for its official release so that I can actively talk about it, but beware of major spoilers!!
I don’t know much about the PJO lore, but watching the series always gets me re-invested in my fascination of greek mythology and the stories they tell.
But I wanna be the first to claim THIS IS A CLARISSE LA RUE STAN ACCOUNT!!! SHE IS THE BADDEST TO EVER DO IT, QUEEN OF WAR AND CARNAGE, LEADER OF HALF-BLOODS, AND NO DISRESPECT WILL BE TOLERATED!!! Clarisse is my Korra variant for this show and I love her for it.
She served. She devoured. Clarisse is QUEEN and I need more of her in season 3!!!
I’m so invested to see the dynamic between Thalia and Percy knowing that she’s the likely child to bring Olympus down, and to see how he’ll try to stop her. Granted I never read the books, but that’s where this story is seemingly about to go.
Annabeth’s character keeps getting better and better and seeing the relationship she and Percy have is beautiful. It’s gonna be crushing to see her have to choose a side and likely betray Thalia (if what I’m theorizing about Thalia’s character is correct).
Cinema Starview Presents: To Be Changed, For Good… Wicked
For Good felt like the bittersweet saccharin of a sweet treat. It's hard to really give this movie any bad criticism, because if you know the story of The Wizard of Oz, then you know that not everything has a good ending. Not everyone will be united, people will go their separate ways, and sometimes there won’t always be a happily ever after for everyone.
Read Part One: No One Mourns The Wicked
The movie starts years after the event of Elphaba rebelling against The Wizard and choosing to do her own thing, to liberate Oz from the lies of The Wizard, and help the animals regain their freedom — she intervened and halted the many plans of what the capital had been doing. At the same time, Glinda was a martyr of hope, and peace for the land, merely being used as a distraction from what was really going on.
As for the others, Fiyero became an appointed leader in the guard, and was unaware of the upcoming arranged marriage to Glinda (all because of Madam Morrible). Nessarose became a distrustful changed person, appointing herself as mayor after the passing of her horrible, bigoted father, over Munchkinland. Nessa and Boq’s relationship became rocky, she became possessive over him, essentially trapping him in that relationship when he never truly loved her. Quite the parallel with Glinda and her relationship with Fiyero, when he always loved Elphaba. It’s quite the love triangle — or pentagon I should say.
Madam Morrible showcases her even more wicked ways, being the puppetmaster and keeping the strings on Glinda. You can see the turmoil Glinda faces throughout this film. When you think about it, the first film dealt with many racial undertones of society's bigoted attitudes and how people ostracized Elphaba for being who she was, and how Glinda, at the time, contributed but changed her ways as the film progressed. And now we see the tides switch, as Glinda deals with her own turmoil of wanting to be there for Elphaba, helping her escape and protecting her, all the while trying to be a mascot and symbol of hope for Oz.
Glinda is an example of what happens when people want to be a part of a resistance and fight the good fight, yet they also want the access and privileges that come with the opposing side. It doesn’t help that she has Morrible as the devil on her shoulder, stringing her along to continue this ongoing war of Oz vs Elphaba. It only took the appearance of a random girl, Dorothy, and her band of unfortunate former allies of Glinda and Elphaba to change the tide. Morrible causing a tornado that brings Dorothy to Oz, killing Nessarose in the process, causes a shift in dynamics. Elphaba wants revenge for the killing of her sister, so she stops at nothing to get Dorothy and her allies. Even so much so to sacrifice herself, knowing things wouldn’t get better, she and Glinda share one last reconciliation before she vanishes… for good. Fiyero in his new form, finds her, and they run away together.
The biggest revelation is finding out that The Wizard is actually the man her mother had a secret affair with, meaning Elphie and The Wizard's connection is something much deeper, and more sadder. Glinda finding out this revelation, delivers it right to the con artist himself, causing him to face his demons and sending him leaving right out of Oz along with Dorothy. And Morrible, she meets her fate as well, being imprisoned for her crimes. Leading to Glinda taking on her role as Glinda the Good officially, earning her title by bringing the animals back into Oz.
My honest critique, I believe this movie and the first one should’ve been a full 3-4 hour film, not separated into two parts. It would’ve left people more satisfied, and not have had people debating which movie is better, especially when so much of the fluff comes from the romanticization of Elphaba and Glinda’s youth in school together. There’s a deeper message within a lot of the film, exploring how society creates narratives to demonize those of us who are marginalized, those who challenge the status quo, and refuse to operate within it. And that’s what makes both films so important that I honestly don’t think they should’ve been split in two.
I find it appalling that this second part was snubbed so badly at The Oscars this year, and that neither Ariana Grande nor Cynthia Erivo garnered their just-deserved flowers and praise for playing such dynamic pop cultural icons, showcasing a story of how loose the terms “good” and “evil” are. When films like One Battle After Another try to showcase messages like retaliation against oppression, all the while being a white man’s smut fantasy over a black woman, and the conceiving of a biracial daughter, I think this film does a better job at telling a story as beautifully strong and enriching, but is not nearly as appreciated as OBAA.
No one mourns the wicked, and no one mourns a story of true liberation done in pastel pinks and forest greens. The story of a friendship between two women forced into opposing sides by the corruptness of a society that wants to pull the strings, causing a social divide amongst those who don’t conform. And that is why Wicked deserved more than what it’s been given.
I’m so pissed off that the gamers have been eliminated so early. I love Rob and his podcast, but he did it to himself gaming so hard by reading the room so effectively that he knew what was going on, which ended in his murder. Tiffany… Big Mama Tiff, you will be avenged because Colton’s tall big linebacker ass had no business putting you on the spot and he couldn’t handle the fire. Tiff is just a natural strategist and she plays the role VERY well.
These people can’t read a room, even if there was letters on the wall, and thankfully The Traitors are on one accord this season. They have a high likelihood of going all the way so long as Candiace and Lisa don’t shoot themselves in the foot.
All I know is, I’m glad Michael is gone (man he’s annoying and LOUD), I NEED Colton and Ron gone next.
