Chekhov's hula-hoop
PUT SOME RESPECT ON HIS NAME!!!
FLASH WARNING // I think I'm going to die in this house // sister piece to @nebulastars edit
(open pages for better image quality)
the moment I heard elphaba's delivery of "there's a girl i know..." in i'm not that girl i knew i had to draw this comic, i strongly recommend listening to it while you read for the full experience!
this comic is a companion to this piece (which was inspired by glinda's delivery of the same line in the i'm not that girl reprise).
pages 1-4 are from elphie's pov, pages 5-8 are from glinda's.
digital pdf zine in higher quality available here.
prints of individual pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
flower meanings in order of appearance:
Taylor’s underutilization of Ophelia is CRIMINAL. It’s clear she just picked her for the vibes. I do like the continuous theme of drowning in the album (obvs fate of Ophelia, ‘sleeping with the fishes’ in father figure, the cover itself) but she literally could’ve replaced Ophelia with like Rapunzel or smthing and it would’ve worked the same because she doesn’t actually explore Ophelia’s story. Ophelia goes mad primarily because her boyfriend accidentally kills her dad, and in going mad she unlocks a really interesting ability to kind of see the themes of the story before they unfold, but she cannot express this lucidly. She knows Hamlet’s fatal flaw will be his indecision. She is a bridge between the play and the audience. Eventually she either accidentally drowns or kills herself. Shakespeare’s use of madness, particularly in woman, is a really interesting way to examine the kind of societal expectations we have (particularly in term of female sexuality) and what defines madness at all. When Ophelia goes mad, she says the quiet parts out loud. Characters like her also tend to bring out the underlying message of the narrative through foreshadowing, which is really interesting and seems like something Taylor could’ve explored really interestingly given songs like mad woman and Mastermind.