A Case of Mistaken Identity: The Wicked Witch

As we come to St. Patrick’s Day, it’s good to remember that it’s not easy being green. Especially when you’re constantly compared to one of the most heinous villains of witch-kind: the Wicked Witch of the West. So let’s start with the OG witch. The big baddy of Oz. 

The Wicked Witch of the West

The infamous witch of the original Wizard of Oz, specifically the 1939 movie adaptation, is one of the most devious and evil villains. The movie was released only two years after the Evil Queen appeared in Snow White. 

While the Evil Queen was fueled by vanity, I think it’s safe to say that the Wicked Witch wasn’t concerned with vanity, simply power. She’s known for being petty, vile, and volatile. At least as far as the movie is concerned, her identity is based in the obsessive need to have Dorothy’s slippers. That's what makes her such an iconic villain, even decades later. And that has impacted our view of this green-skinned woman ever since. 

Zelena (Once Upon a Time)

This iteration of the Wicked Witch came onto the scene as the residents of Storybrooke returned to the Enchanted Forest. With their cursed memories available, Snow, Regina, and everyone else immediately equated Zelena with the Witch from the movie. 

And that’s kind of how Zelena was raised in Oz. Because of her magic, her adopted father considered her some wicked curse. When she learned about her half sister and turned green with envy, her appearance only reinforced that belief to the people of Oz. You call someone wicked long enough and they’ll believe that’s all she is. In fact, she began to equate herself with wickedness. “Wicked always wins” may have been her mantra, but that line is filled with shame. It wasn’t until she was treated with love from her mother and her sister that she began to see herself as something other than “wicked”.

Elfaba (Wicked)

Going into the Broadway play, we're meant to compare Elfaba to the original Wicked Witch. Like Zelena, she was treated as a villain because of her magical abilities. Unlike Zelena, Elfaba kept to her values and her priorities in a version of Oz that was full of discriminatory propaganda. Because she wouldn't play the Wizard's game, Elfaba was villainized.

It would have been easy for Elfaba to take on that baggage, like Zelena, and believe she was "wicked". Instead, she was sure enough of herself to be able to recognize the darkness of the world she lived in and rise above it. There are a lot of possible interpretations of "Defying Gravity" and this is one of them. We live in a fallen world and it can be easy to take on who the world says we are. It takes a lot of internal strength to remain a person of integrity when everyone around says to conform. Elfaba literally rose above her haters. She may not have changed Oz, but her influence changed Glinda and Fiyero "for good".

Friday Creature Feature - Chikorita

While I was busy at work a couple weeks ago, my little brother was texting me updates from Pokemon Presents. Like many fans, I was surprised to hear that Chikorita would be one of the starters for the next Legends game. I had already planned on spotlighting the little leaf Pokemon for St. Patrick's Day, but with Kalos expecting Chikorita's arrival this post will be even more timely.

Chikorita is one of the starter Pokemon from the Johto region, given to the player by Professor Elm, though in the Hoenn games (and remakes) they can be a gift from Professor Birch. Pokedex entries from the game tell of Chikorita's leaf emitting a sweet fragrance. I imagine it can lull the enemy Pokemon into a false sense of security--or maybe it could help me decompress after work. The leaf can also be used to sense the temperature and the climate. Like other starter Pokemon, Chikorita evolves by simply leveling up, first into Bayleef and later into Meganium.

In the anime, there are two major appearances for Chikorita. Early during the Johto story arc, Ash and his friends met Casey, an avid and annoying baseball fan, who had received her Chikorita from Professor Elm. Casey and her partner later appeared during the Bug Catching Contest, during which it evolved into Bayleef. Later on during the Johto anime and Pokemon Chronicles, Casey appeared again with her Bayleef already evolved into Meganium. I know plenty of fans have issues with Chikorita and I wouldn't be surprised if this first impression alongside Casey didn't help the matter.

Chikorita's other major appearance was when Ash caught his own. Not too long after meeting Casey and her partner, Ash and his friends encountered another Chikorita. Stubborn as she was, Chikorita tried to fight Ash's Charizard, who couldn't be bothered with her. After Ash saved her from Team Rocket, Chikorita started to calm down the stubbornness and was caught by the would-be Pokemon Master. Her stubbornness persisted and manifested at times as jealousy for Ash's closeness with Pikachu. At first she tried to fight for Ash's affection, but she later chilled out the jealousy... though the aggressive affection persisted even after she evolved into Bayleef. She stayed a staple of Ash's team through the end of the Johto League. With how attached she was to Ash, I can't imagine she liked staying behind at Professor Oak's lab with only sporadic appearances as Ash traveled from region to region.

Now the question: Why do people hate Chikorita so much? I've heard the argument that she's the worst choice in Gold/Silver/Crystal based on the gym types, but so was Charmander and he's popular. Maybe it's her obsession and jealousy when it comes to Ash, but I feel like many haters never watched the anime consistently. My daughter loves Chikorita though, so she's okay in my book. Maybe she'll get some love with Pokemon Legends Z-A. At the very least, it's hinted that she'll get a mega evolution. So I think we can look forward to a Kalosian Meganinum and/or Mega Meganium. 

In the meantime, I need to get saving for a Switch 2 so I can play the game.

Green Guys: What I learned from Four Herbacious Heroes

Among other things, legends say the patron saint of Ireland used the shamrock to explain the holy trinity.

Well, in true geek fashion, I made a brief attempt to connect with the origin to our yearly day of green, and then took a wild left turn into one of my favorite fandoms.

Rather than use a shamrock to enlighten and inspire you, I’ll use four walking and talking flora from Chrono Cross. Join me as I dive into one of the last JRPGs from the PS1 era.  

The plot of Cross involves traveling across dimensions. The main character, Serge, gets pulled into another world strikingly similar to his own, with another village just like where he grew up, with alternate versions of his mom and girlfriend, but not him. Yes, Cross did alternate universes before Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and Marvel made them as domestic as forgotten passwords. 

What Cross does with this alternate dimensions theme was delve into both the fun and the deeper existential meaning of choice. When paths stretch out before us, do our choices lead us where we truly desire? These questions weave themselves through wild, whimsical, and dreadful possibilities. This is a fantasy story complete with dragons, mermaids, demi-humans with various animal-human combinations, and also characters created in a lab, grown from the ground, made out of straw, or transformed in an emperor’s new-groove style accident.

Cue the plant people, my modern-day shamrock object lessons.

I give you rules to live by from four Green guys. Or, a straw man, a flower child, a veggie warrior, and a man who loved fungus so much, he became a mushroom.

Lesson #1: Don’t take yourself so seriously.

After Serge has realized he is in a new world, he enters what he expects to be the home of a dedicated fisherman from his village. Instead he finds a man who has given up his boats, fishing nets, and livelihood, and has become obsessed with a cult. Great side-plot for a kids’ game, right? Anyway, if you spoke to the cult-man’s alternate identity in Serge’s home world, and received a shark-tooth item from him, and then present this item to cult-man, he has a moment of doubt about whether his choice to give up his fishing was correct.

Then the idol pinned on his wall speaks. He tells cult-man to quit wasting his time, and introduces himself to Serge as Mojo, because he's ready to get out of cult-man's dingy basement. 

Mojo is an icon, come to life, presumably made from straw, and very unwisely wearing lit candles on his head. Don't they say people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and straw people shouldn't wear candles? He shows a compassionate zest for life and wacky sense of humor. We don’t get much more unique content from Mojo for the rest of the game, but his rubbery movements and bizarre appearance are a reminder to lighten up, and straighten out if an obsession has taken over your life.

Lesson #2: Be confident and don’t let anyone put you down.

Later in the story Serge and his friends meet a scientist. If you collect an item from a nearby swamp and return to this scientist, she rewards you by introducing you to her Frankenstinian creation, a three-foot tall, adorable plant-child straight out of my-little pony. She is named NeoFio, a spunky and sassy lab experiment and pint-size fighter. During battle, several of Neofio’s attacks involve horrifying, long vines shooting out of her cute little poofy sleeves, and throttling the largest enemies. Neofio has one of the cutest looks of all of Cross’s cast, and yet she was created to be a soldier, of sorts. 

Neofio is a great example of that thing a lot of writers love to do, subvert your expectations by making cute characters capable of massive feats of strength. Our natural tendency is to underestimate things that are adorable, or small. Neofio is a reminder things are not always as they seem.

Lesson #3: The cave you fear may hold the treasure you seek.

Turnip is a philosopher, warrior, and existential pontificator, residing firmly on the opposite end of the spectrum from Mojo, and verbally much more flowery than Neofio.

Turnip is recruited to the party near the site of a devastating fire. The first stage of recruiting him is to cool down a hot patch of ground near the site. Then, later the player puts a dog-like character in their party, who then digs in that spot. Turnip hops straight out of the ground, and joins with you.

Many of the playable characters in the game are made unique through a novel piece of code in the game that gives them a unique accent. Turnip uses formal language we might recognize from the bible, with ‘thees’, ‘thous’, ‘doths’ and ‘doests’. He also has a tendency to contemplate the origin of his existence in his very few pieces of dialogue unique to him. His need to probe with the deep questions of life may not lead to warm and fuzzy answers, but reveals a grit and intellectual strength we would expect about as much as a toddler in a flower suit destroying a full grown man with horrific plant power. I find myself rooting for turnip, with his adorable little cape, sword, and fancy grammar.

Lesson #4: Learn what you’ve got before it’s gone.

In Serge’s home world, there is a sick man being tended to by his daughter. In another world, this man neglects and takes advantage of his daughter, leaving her to manage their family business alone while he forages for mushrooms. Serge happens to find the mushroom later in the game, and present to him. Unfortunately, the man eats the mushroom, and it transforms him, you’ll never believe this, into a mushroom. 

Funguy initially joins the party out of spite, hoping to make sure they help him to find a cure for his condition.

But later when Funguy sees that his daughter no longer recognizes him, and the choice to return home has been taken from him indefinitely, the tone of his quest changes. Funguy becomes a wayward father hoping to regain the daughter and life he has lost.

Chrono Cross was a game that received heavy criticism for breaking the mold set by its predecessor, Chrono Trigger. The core fanbase of Trigger grew so loyal, they saw the bold changes and new direction of Cross as total misjudgments, and frank failures.

One of these changes was the creation of numerous playable characters, some with side-quests and deep, emotional back stories. Others, like our four herbaceous heroes, had mere hints of background and character development. The fun of collecting over forty playable characters is often overshadowed in the community’s commentary about the lack of depth in these many characters.

However, what I do find in the many minor playable characters is a sense of possibility and fun. Despite four fellow flora joining the party, their concepts and extant back story are widely diverse, and even their mannerisms, in the form of character art, accents, and a unique content indicate care and intention from the game developers. The art, battle design, music, and writing of Chrono Cross show huge amounts of experimentation and talent. 

It was probably never intended for all 40+ playable characters to have the same level of back story as, say, certain playable characters like Karsh, whose side-quest is truly epic and deserves a game of its own, or the maddeningly difficult side quest to recruit, Skelly, a circus clown who you gather together, bone by bone. The minor and perhaps less impactful characters do more than just add fluff to the game. They accentuate the themes of deep introspection, fun, and human frailty. They are the extra flourishes on an already masterful symphony of story and exquisite gameplay that is about branching paths of agency and diverse individuals with an endless array of expression and life stories.

Remember, don't take yourself so seriously, be confident, the cave you fear holds the treasure you seek, and learn what you've got before it's gone. Do these four things (I know the third isn't something you do, necessarily, but you'll figure it out) and all your problems will be solved. Pretty sure that's how written advice works. Isn't the internet great?

Hopefully, if you ever try Chrono Cross, the remastered version released last year, or the mobile spinoff game, Another Eden, written by the same artist who wrote for Trigger and Cross, you’ll see why I love this game so much, and why even four of the silliest and most bizarre characters deserved a blog post that went way longer than I ever expected it to go. 

Take care! And Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

My Cabbages!

Out of all the tragic characters in Avatar the Last Airbender, there is on who is the most dire, the Cabbage Merchant. He is the one character that fans can’t forget. He only appears in only a handful of episodes, but his memorable catchphrase while hilarious mishaps happen will never be forgotten. In this post we will explore the Cabbage Merchant’s funniest moments. 

This character is more than a typical merchant, he is The Cabbage Merchant. The only man in the series to sell such priceless vegetables. He travels faster than Aang and the gang to new cities, where is prized possessions will ultimately be destroyed. As you recall his catchphrase “My cabbages!” has such fervor that it’s hard not to laugh at. Whether he’s being trampled by a herd of bison or chased by the Fire Nation soldiers, his first concern is always his precious cabbages.

What truly makes the Cabbage Merchant truly funny is his incredible bad luck. He’s like a walking disaster, always in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter where the Cabbage Merchant goes, Aang and his allies show up. Of course with these two together chaos ensues, and the Cabbage Merchant ends up getting caught in the middle. His poor cabbages are destroyed, and he's left creaming “My cabbages!”

I thought that the Cabbage Merchant had bad luck just with Aang and his team, but I was wrong. In one episode he was trying to sell his cabbages in Omashu, only to find that the city has been taken over by the Fire Nation. He tried to escape, but he was caught by the Fire Nation. Just as things couldn’t get any worse, the city’s pet bear, who proceeded to wreak havoc to the enemy and his cabbages. . . It’s a pure gold scene seeing the Cabbage Merchant’s expression of horror and disbelief on what is occurring with his cabbages.

u/ipwnpickles

Even though the Cabbage Merchant has one memorable line, it doesn’t make him a one-dimensional character. Most of the time he is shown to be comedic, but he was also shown to have sympathy. . . towards his cabbages. He’s cabbages were his livelihood, and he takes their destruction very seriously. In one episode, he even breaks down in tears when his cabbages are ruined yet again. It’s a touching moment that shows that even the funniest characters can have depth.

 

coffeebending

In the first episode where the Cabbage Merchant is introduced we learn the value he has for his precious cabbages. When Aang and his posse destroy his cabbages for the first time and face trail the Cabbage Merchant wants retribution. To him the only justice is "Off with their heads, one for each cabbage". Yes, the Cabbage Merchant wants the Avatars head for destroying his cabbages. To be fair he doesn't know that Aang is the Avatar at this moment, but we all know it doesn't matter who destroyed his cabbages because a cabbage his priceless to him.

Remember: “My Cabbages!”

6 Times You were Disgust from Inside Out

When you think of Pixar's Inside Out, thoughts probably come to mind about Sadness or Bing Bong (or that gum commercial). And while it is a sweet, heartwarming (and heartbreaking) story of a girl, depression, and the death of her imaginary friend (seriously, Bing Bong disappearing made me cry). It's also the story of the three emotions who got left behind at HQ. And with St. Patrick's Day coming up this week, I wanted to take about one of those three: Disgust. Here are six ways Disgust is the most relatable of the emotions.

If you're being actually immature or offensive, yeah, you should get your act together. But if you just enjoy kid stuff, I will direct you to one of my previous blog posts. 

Sometimes my face just speaks for itself when I'm having a bad mental health day.

Anytime someone talks about a new diet plan or a weird trendy food that's supposed to be good for you.

Some smells (and people) should stay at home.

I'm not a fashion guru, but I enjoy an outfit that makes me feel good.

I start seeing patients at 7AM on Monday mornings... that's too early for my brain.

It's Not Easy being Green

Continuing with our green theme, I want to expand on the idea that Mike wrote about in his Sailor Jupiter post-why are so many villains associated with the color green? 

Well, it depends on the villain. 

The Fires of Envy

When Maleficent unleashes her fury her flames are green. When Scar sings about how he's going to usurp Mufasa the flames around him are a bright lime green. The phylactery (Horcrux to you non-Dungeons and Dragons fans) held by Rasputin in Anastasia pulses with an eldrich green, despite being from hell itself where you think it would glow red. In the case of these charming despots and monsters green is symbolizing the burning envy they feel for the heroes and the world around them. When they need to show that they want what someone else has, they take a match to some copper sulfate and let it burn (Yes that's the actual chemical that can make a fire turn green-try it sometime!)

Envy burns. It consumes. It is a need for something that must either end in the obtaining of it or the destruction of both. Green fire here works well for the analogy since it too burns and gives the audience a decent visual representation of the villain's inner feelings. Let's take Maleficent for example. Her motivation for being the Dame of all Evil is a bit unclear at first glance. She's not invited to a party so she's going to tear the kingdom apart over it (And yes, we're going with the animated Sleeping Beauty here because Maleficent' s intentions in Maleficent are this whole other thing)? If we take her green flames into account we get a far clearer picture of her issue: She wants to be acknowledged as an equal. She's obviously powerful, probably more powerful than the gender reversed Three Stooges we're supposed to like, and yet she doesn't even get a token invite to the party. That's not only rude that's just hurtful. Maybe if she was invited Aurora would've been blessed with something useful, like a personality or basic common sense. Either way she's envious of those who were invited and acknowledged as equals without question. She deserves a seat at the table and is ticked that she didn't get it. 

The Color of Money

Accompanying envy is greed, its lovely wife and business partner. While envy is for something that someone has, greed is a bit less specific in the intention. Greed is what Ursula has when her weird watery smoky hands reach out for Ariel's voice. Greed motivates the Shadow Man as he turns his friends from the other side onto changing Prince Naveen into a frog. Greed  is the look in Lady Tremaine's emerald eyes as she looks at her daughters and imagines manipulating them onto the throne with the Prince instead of her far more qualified and deserving stepdaughter, Cinderella. The villains want something, and while certain characters may have what they want they aren't as concerned with the person as they are with the power they wield, or the person is just a stepping stone to their true goal. 

Take Ursula, who we know has an obvious beef with Triton (In the play they're brother and sister and there was this whole inheritance dispute thing but we'll go with the movie for clarity sake though totally listen to the play's soundtrack). Ursula isn't jealous of Ariel, she doesn't want to be Ariel. She's a bit more jealous of Triton, but her real goal is to take what she feels she deserves, the triton. Ariel and her father are just stepping stones to getting her hands on it, especially since the first thing she does with it is start causing widespread mayhem throughout the harbor. She could've easily killed Ariel and Triton, but just toyed with them because her ultimate goal was momentarily accomplished. 

Horrifying Power

Now we've got to talk about Bruno (You see what I did there?). His future sight is seen as green energy swirling through sand, while his eyes glow green just like a villains. If you didn't know who he was or what the plot of the movie was you could easily see his color scheme and mistake him for a villain, but instead he's not. The green here indicates that his power is dangerous magic, something that isn't fun or playful like growing flowers or making healing empanadas. It's gazing into the shifting future and trying to interpret fragments of signs before they happen. 

Here green indicates dangerous power, similarly to Maleficent' s flames and Ursula's smoky hand trick. Another more interesting example is Cruella De Vil, in the animated 101 Dalmatians. When she walks into the Darlings home she's seen smoking a cigarette with green smoke drifting around her. The smoke is sickly and is different from when Roger smokes his pipe-which has black and grey smoke. Hers is the indication that her presence is something foreign, something so different to the Darlings that she obviously doesn't belong. Even her cigarette can't behave like everyone else's because she is not like anyone else around her, especially in morale, and that makes her scary. 

Visual Shorthand

A quick technical note about why green is used so often has to do with coding. It was mentioned before that green has the connotations with greed, sickness and envy, and that's something that most Western audiences would know when they walk into the theater. Films have only so long to get across different ideas, character motivations, ideals, plot elements etc. and will often rely on visual clues to help the audience know who everyone is without having to go into a lengthy backstory if they don't need to. Is your villain envious or greedy? Give them something green to show that off, preferably flames because they look cool, especially in a dark lair or at night when they're doing evil deeds. Need to show that the magic is otherworldly and powerful? Color it lime green like the entire thing is sponsored by Cricket, that'll show that what the characters are messing with isn't of this world. 

Green: It's not just for leprechauns. 

-JOE