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Emerald City: Favorite Scenes
Meeting Mistress East
East actually lived longer in this version than in the musical.
Mostly I liked the cinematics of her scene. Her dress is amazing, the way they filmed it was luscious. I'm actually sad we didn't get to see more of Merciful and Stern.
1x07 - They Came First
The upside house scene. This is the first time we see that maybe Dorothy isn't all goodness. She's determined to go home, regardless of who it hurts, including Lucas and Sylvie. She attempts to sneak out in the middle of the night, but Sylvie stops her and uses her magic to make the entire house roll to keep them inside. She's basically forcing the adults to settle their issues.
It makes Dorothy realize that she doesn't have to leave Lucas and Sylvie in Oz when she leaves. She could take them with her.
I liked both the unexpected use of magic and the emotional beats are this moment for Dorothy.
1x09 - The Villain That's Become
Langwidere's reveal. There have been some twists that I've known were coming because of familiarity with the books. This is not one of them. In the books, Lady Ev has different heads, and she switches her heads depending on her mood, like jewelry. So when the show had her switching face masks instead, I thought that was a clever way to do something similar without going quite as far into the realm of the bizarre.
And while I think that is part of it, the reveal about her true nature was a total shock. And it's what truly makes Jack into the Tin Man, pushing him to question his own validity and existence.
Tip's transformation into Ozma. It's such a strange and powerful moment. Tip wants to remain and be accepted as a boy, but the witches do not accept that Tip is Ozma because he's the wrong gender. So Tip uses their newly acquired ability to change. And once the witches see Ozma, they believe. It's rarely so important that someone be a woman leader.
Tip's whole case is a maze of identity issues. Ozma was forced into a boy's body and held that way by magic, magic that rendered him ill. Mombi's version of Munchausen. But it was the only body he knew and the only identity he knew. So when the magical abuse stopped, Tip's body became female. But his mind didn't. So the only thing he wanted was to get it back. There's a layer of complication, I think, caused by the fact that gender switch was done to an infant and not a naturally developing desire.








I wonder how Tip's identity would have developed if he'd been allowed to grow up normally. It's interesting how when he first accesses magic, it "finds" the male form for him.
I read that as manifesting his strongest desire. And certainly we fight with all we have to maintain our self-identity.
It's a real nature/nurture question that we'll never have an answer to.
I do wonder if being forced to be Ozma to lead the army will cause Tip's identity to shift or whether it's set now and being Ozma will always be a mask he wears for political effect. I would imagine it's set, but who knows?