Something Wicked This Way Comes - The Villain Era Begins!

[Artemis Prime]

Greetings, nerds, and welcome to Villainy 101. Here, we will examine Elphaba's journey from eager student to the Wicked Witch of the West and apply it to our own quest to throw off the shackles of conformity and embrace the glorious villain within! In other words

My plan is to post one song from Wicked each week with a bit of synopsis from the musical (spoiler warning! If that's a problem, let me know and I can put them under a cut.) and some suggestions on how that might apply to our own lives. Those are suggestions only, feel free to take it in a different direction if one appeals to you. Also, not sure how much villainizing I will be doing, kind of feel like 2021/2022 was my "villain era" but I'm happy to facilitate yours and talk through anything that comes up here, as well as just jamming to an absolute banger of a Broadway soundtrack.

 

Speaking of, there's a lot of songs in Wicked, I don't think we're going to hit them all. I've selected 5 from Act 1 to take us through this upcoming challenge, and we can tackle Act 2 next time. So while we collect ourselves during Zero Week and prepare for the official launch, enjoy Dancing Through Life. This is more Fiyero's arc than Elphaba's, so we won't be using it in our villain journey here, but don't forget to take time out between commanding minions and plotting takeovers to enjoy life!

 

 

[Artemis Prime]

I know @Sovalis @Harriet @MezzothePatient and @Everstorm all expressed interest. Anyone else, feel free to jump in and/or tag others who might want to play on the dark side a little.

[Everstorm]

Thank you for setting this up!

[Sovalis]

Amazing! Thanks, AP!! ❤️ 

[TimovieMan]

Don't mind me, I'm just lurking from the shadows... ?

[Artemis Prime]

5 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Don't mind me, I'm just lurking from the shadows... ?

A classic villain move. Off to a good start!

[Heidi]

18 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

don't forget to take time out between commanding minions and plotting takeovers to enjoy life!

Love this!

[Harriet]

19 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

So while we collect ourselves during Zero Week and prepare for the official launch, enjoy Dancing Through Life. This is more Fiyero's arc than Elphaba's, so we won't be using it in our villain journey here, but don't forget to take time out between commanding minions and plotting takeovers to enjoy life!

 

 

He sings that having fewer thoughts makes life easier and less painful, and that we should live an unexamined life, and nothing matters. I suspect this is meant to be an indictment of him. But actually he's in good company, since yogis, buddhists and cognitive behavioural therapists have discovered that overthinking really can make us miserable and meditation, mind body practices and time in nature can reduce overactive thoughts and lead to a happier life. And the stoics did tend to say that nothing matters except what is under our direct control, namely our virtue. So this is actually a philosophically sound approach. An excellent beginning ❤️ 

[Artemis Prime]

5 minutes ago, Harriet said:

He sings that having fewer thoughts makes life easier and less painful, and that we should live an unexamined life, and nothing matters. I suspect this is meant to be an indictment of him. But actually he's in good company, since yogis, buddhists and cognitive behavioural therapists have discovered that overthinking really can make us miserable and meditation, mind body practices and time in nature can reduce overactive thoughts and lead to a happier life.

I would hazard a guess that we tend to be over-thinkers around here and probably could do with a reminder now and then to not make everything so gosh darn complicated. At this stage of his journey, however, I think Fiyero could safely be called an "under-thinker" who could stand to take a good, honest assessment of his life (if only I could direct him over the Chaos Cave on the challenge thread). As in all things, balance.

[TimovieMan]

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

time in nature can reduce overactive thoughts and lead to a happier life

Can confirm, for me at least. My walk around the lake is one of the most calming experiences I have.

 

Part of it is probably also that the mere presence of forest and a freshwater lake is one of the biggest stress relievers for our base prehistoric hunter-gatherer bodies, given the knowledge that food and water are present and not a concern. ?

[Sea-to-sky]

Great idea, count me in. 
kind of started the whole villainy (aka. Setting normal boundary's ?. Recovering people pleaser here) last year, but have a long way to go. 
let me get my black hat and stompy boots 

[AerynLee]

23 hours ago, Harriet said:

buddhists and cognitive behavioural therapists have discovered that overthinking really can make us miserable

I did not come here to be called out like this! ?

[Mad Hatter]

3 hours ago, AerynLee said:

I did not come here to be called out like this! ?

@Harriet is already working on her villainy. ?

[Jarric]

Well this seems interesting...

 

[MezzothePatient]

Ready to  get things done in style and channel some Emma Frost inspired vibes ?

 

[RES]

On 9/4/2024 at 11:19 AM, Artemis Prime said:

I would hazard a guess that we tend to be over-thinkers around here and probably could do with a reminder now and then to not make everything so gosh darn complicated.

Guilty as charged!

 

Hi, my name is RES and I'm a people pleaser who wants to be in recovery but can't seem to get her act together enough to figure out how to do this  very intrigued by this villain era  

[Harriet]

23 hours ago, AerynLee said:

I did not come here to be called out like this! ?

 

Ah, but AerynLee, is it not said that the concept of self is merely the mind's maladaptation to an uncontrollable world? If there is no ego, there is no self to be called out. There is only my voice, neither sweet not bitter, making vibrations that fall coincidentally on material ears that exist with or without the imagined self, with or without judgement. 

Just be your ears, and you will be freed from shame. 

[Sepherina]

Hmmm.   How do villains extract cute things from their spot in bed?  Especially when they also want belly rubs

[Artemis Prime]

7 hours ago, Sepherina said:

Hmmm.   How do villains extract cute things from their spot in bed?  Especially when they also want belly rubs

I think you're just out of luck there, Seph. Withholding belly rubs is a level of villainy to which even we refuse to stoop.

[Artemis Prime]

All righty, class, time for the first lesson. And where else would we begin but the beginning, the opening number to Wicked, "No One Mourns the Wicked." I found a fun little animatic that might help follow who's who, especially with the little flashback in the middle.

 

 

Synopsis:

Disclaimer: I haven't actually seen Wicked in...oh, gosh, coming up on 13 years. I think I remember it all pretty well, but I might be off on some of the particulars. It shouldn't really matter for our purposes here, but feel free to correct me if you know something that I don't.

Wicked opens with a framing device that picks up at the end of the Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the West has just been defeated by Dorothy, and the citizens of Oz are celebrating the demise of the dreaded villain. It gets cut off in this recording, but at the end of this song, someone asks Glinda, "It is true that you were her friend?" and the bulk of the musical is then Glinda recounting the story of Elphaba's life. But for now, we stick with the opening number.

 

Applied Villainy

For all the fun trappings of villainy surrounding this group effort, this is serious work we propose to be about, and so your assignments (Suggested Assignments, of course, you are always more than welcome to go off on some self-directed work if you feel it will be beneficial) for this first week are a bit somber in nature.

 

No One Mourns the Wicked 

I remember hearing this song for the first time in a high school drama club meeting, and my best friend and I thought it was hilarious. Out of context, lines like "Like a froggy ferny cabbage, the baby is unnaturally green" are pretty comical. But now that I have the full story, plus a couple decades worth of life tacked on, it's pretty horrifying the way they are celebrating Elphaba's death. But the fact is, when you decide to prioritize your own needs, the people who were benefitting from your self-neglect may consider you a villain. Sometimes I have set boundaries with people expecting them to react badly and been pleasantly surprised to discover that they support me taking care of myself. I sincerely hope you all have people like that in your life as well. But not everyone has that response. I certainly hope they don't go as far as singing about your untimely demise, but an important preparatory step in setting boundaries and prioritizing yourself is accepting that some people in your life may not be supportive.

 

Mourning is Allowed
Change can be hard. When choosing to prioritize your health and wellbeing, you might need to make difficult choices. You might have to terminate unhealthy relationships. You might have to cut back on hanging out with people or in places that encourage you to engage in unhealthy behaviors yourself. You are allowed to mourn these changes. When I left the church I had grown up in, I grieved. And I feel like a lot of the people in my life reacted one of two ways: 1)This was not a good place for me by the time I left, so why am I mourning it? or, 2) It was my choice to leave, so if I am grieved by that, why don't I just stay? It is incredibly hard to mourn when it feels like you have to hide it. When I met a woman who saw my grief, bore witness to it, and gave me space and support to feel it, it was an incredibly important step in my ability to process it. So I am here to tell you that just because change is for the better doesn't mean you aren't allowed to mourn it. And part 2, just because you are the one who initiated the change doesn't mean you aren't allowed to mourn it.

 

I didn't really expect this experiment to start with so much talk of grief and mourning, but I suppose most villains have a tragic backstory somewhere. You are under no obligation to share yours here, but you are welcome to if you wish. Whatever you are turning away from in your turn towards villainy, it's okay to be sad to see it go. 

[Sepherina]

Thank you AP for this.  It really hits home on so many levels.  

[RES]

I think I saw Wicked, TBH I'm not really sure? I know I wanted to see it when it was touring but never got the chance.

10 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I didn't really expect this experiment to start with so much talk of grief and mourning, but I suppose most villains have a tragic backstory somewhere. You are under no obligation to share yours here, but you are welcome to if you wish. Whatever you are turning away from in your turn towards villainy, it's okay to be sad to see it go. 

This could not be more timely...I'm turning away from being a doormat, from doing for others before I do for myself, not having proper boundaries, and settling for less than I deserve. I am worthy, someone not treating me as such is not a challenge for me to prove that i am!

While the changes that occurred in my turn to villainy were not my choosing, I am choosing to embrace these changes while mourning the demise of what I thought the future held. I need to remind myself what healthy boundaries are and how to effectively enforce them. I also need to find healthier ways of coping in this mourning period.

 

[Sovalis]

My first Villain Era was when I decided to file for divorce. As far as putting yourself first, I am not sure there are too many actions that upend the apple cart more than that one. It was one of the hardest - and to this day, best - decisions I ever made. But people were mad, hurt, confused. And so was I. I didn’t want to be married to that person anymore, but I still grieved the life that we were supposed to have had together and that wasn’t something most people I talked to thought I was entitled to. It was a weird time and place to negotiate. My divorce took seven years to process (!!!) and it was exhausting. But! I learned sooooooooo much about what I wanted from life and how to get it and who to share that time and space with. Very worthwhile lessons. I still sometimes think of some of the people who drifted or cut ties, but on the whole my network is so much healthier and more vibrant now. I don’t really miss them so much as I occasionally wonder what they are up to, and then I let the thought drift. I wish them well. That is enough.

 

My now-husband is my yardstick for Villain Eras, because I was hip deep in one when he decided he wanted to be with me. I was behaving as absolutely selfishly as I could conceive of - for the first time in my life (year six of the divorce) I was finally able to put what I wanted in the forefront almost 100% of the time. It was terrifying. I thought it made me unlovable and that no one would want to be with me, but part of me knew (and my therapist affirmed) that this was necessary.  And Dave came along and took his front row seat at my dog and pony show and said “Looks pretty normal to me”. I’ve backslid a bit in the last ~10 years because I still tend to put other people first (even potential other people, or other people’s potentials), which brings me around to this round of Villainy. I don’t think I will lose friends over this round (going to the gym is far less world shattering than leaving a marriage), but it is doing the same kind of work to put myself first, to practice that “selfishness” that isn’t selfishness, but is more self-preservation and investment. 

 

Super grateful that you’re putting this together for us, AP. ❤️ 

 

[Artemis Prime]

10 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I don’t think I will lose friends over this round (going to the gym is far less world shattering than leaving a marriage), but it is doing the same kind of work to put myself first, to practice that “selfishness” that isn’t selfishness, but is more self-preservation and investment. 

Yes, this is a fair point. We're all in different stages of villainy, and not everything we do here is really going to be that contentious or divisive. 

 

It is still wise, however, to start any new endeavor with an acknowledgement that there will be a cost, even if it isn't a "major" thing. Maybe you're giving up a half hour of gaming time for better sleep. Maybe you're giving up your sugar hit in the afternoon for something with less calories or caffeine. Maybe you're giving up an extra snooze to get a morning workout in.  And maybe some of that stuff is important to you, even if to other people it seems like a small thing. And yeah, probably no one is going to label you a villain for any of this stuff, but there's an excellent chance they're going to push back, telling you there's time for "one more mission" or insisting you have to go on your normal afternoon coffee run. If it's helpful for not giving into them, feel free to frame them as the munchkins singing "No One Mourns the Wicked" and channel your inner villain to refuse to agree with them.

[Jarric]

This is some really interesting stuff to think on. I'm looking at a potential change of job (after having decided to stop looking, one of the places I previously interviewed at want to speak to me again), and that would be a fairly major life change. It's a change that would loae me friends, though I'd like to think they'll all wish me well I will certainly lose touch with some of them in the end, and that's something that I need to learn to accept if I do jump.