[ SECRET POST #2273 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2273 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 117 secrets from Secret Submission Post #325.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ], [ 1 2 3 - trolls ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[erinptah]

+1000

And even if WWoO had been billed as a clever subversion...the whole point of the Wizard in the original story is to subvert the trope of "the wise old powerful man will reward us if we complete the quest." (See: every fairy tale in which the King rewards the hero with wealth/power/his daughter's hand.) The surprise twist ending is that he's a sham, and our heroes were braver, cleverer, and more worthy than him all along.

Writing a story in which the Wizard actually was a brave, clever, and worthy hero isn't a subversion, it's an un-subversion. It's saying "but what if, instead of turning a cliche on its head, we just wrote the original cliche? Wouldn't that be a fascinating twist?" No. No, it wouldn't.

[truxillogical]

It's saying "but what if, instead of turning a cliche on its head, we just wrote the original cliche? Wouldn't that be a fascinating twist?" No. No, it wouldn't.

This. This is exactly everything.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a perfect breakdown.

[othellia]

This. I was going to say it's the difference between changes to make a subversion vs changes to make a straight-up action flick, but this is better.

[(Anonymous)]

This comment and the one above it are perfect. I hadn't thought of the Wizard as a subversion of a classic trope, but he clearly is. In fact, it turns out that they really don't need the supposed "wise" old sage/leader's validation/approval, though they yearn for it anyway. Undoing the subversion just makes the story boring, as you pointed out.

Another subversion is that the real wise sage is Glinda, a witch, subverting the typical wicked witch (also present in the story, though), which had become a very solid trope by that time. The balance of good and evil is in the witches, not the Wizard.