It can be hard for women on television, and as a woman who enjoys TV a lot, seeing the abuse of women in fictional worlds is hard to grapple with. Tonight, on Emerald City, the writers put nearly every female character through a world of pain.
First, Lucas sets out to kill Dorothy under the instruction of Glinda. It’s brutal, and upsetting to watch, especially after they were lovers. I did like that Toto attacked him, that dog doesn’t get enough screen time. Later, a determined Dorothy goes to the Prison of the Abject to release the imprisoned witches. West beat her to it. So, Dorothy does the next best thing and activates the stone giants. Even though Dorothy should be the main character, she is not the most compelling.
Who is compelling? Tip. As always, her storyline has intrigued me. She deals with transgender feelings in this magical world. A woman manipulated her for her entire life to think she was a boy, but she was born a girl. Now, with magic, she returns to being a boy, who she really wants to be.
At first, West resists the change. She calls the transformation “petty,” to which Tip responds, “This isn’t petty; this is me.” I love that the writers are trying to bring an issue relevant to real life into their show, but I don’t like what happens at the end of the episode for Tip.
The witches West recruits do not believe that Tip is the princess, and she has to use a lot of magic to prove it to them. This includes transforming back to a girl. I hope they believe her enough to allow her to return to her true self. Even using pronouns for this show is difficult because I don’t know what Tip will choose in the end.
Next to the mysterious Lady Ev, who tries to form a strong resistance against the Wizard, and fails. Lady Ev has the worst fate out of all the women this week. Not only does the Wizard kill her guards, but he also enters her room and hits her! So very uncalled for, I don’t really understand why the writers put this in at all.
Then, while she tries to give her life up to save her kingdom, Jack tries to be a hero and shoot the Wizard, but misses and shoots her instead. We finally learn why Lady Ev wears her masks: she’s a robot Jane created for the king. It’s a sad truth, but what’s sadder is that it is just fuel for Jack. He’s angry and I’ve never liked it when writers use the death of any character just to push the plot of another. Maybe next week he will find some compassion for her.
“The Villain That’s Become” really missed the mark for me this week. There were some good parts, but the overbearing mistreatment of its female characters was just too much for me.
My favorite line from the episode comes from West, on her reputation: “In certain circles I was known as The Wicked Witch of the West.”
(Photo by: David Lukacs/NBC)
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I am a woman myself and don’t think this was all uncalled for. Woman and Men both are capable of receiving and treating others violently.So it should really not be a point in this series to trigger anyone.
First of all let us look at the incident with Lucas/Dorothy:
We all knew it would end like this. I certainly knew one of them was going to get seriously hurt/injured since the start,and since Dorothy has plot armor it was crystal clear what would happen to Lucas one way or another. It should have been clear to you the moment Glinda showed up and manipulated him.
Also,”abusing” poor Dorothy in a fight was allright but her nearly killing Glinda was ok,cause that was NO abuse/violence? That is really one sided.
I agree with you about Toto,I always think he deserves more cuddles and screen time.
I also agree with you about West and Tip. West is the audience favorite. And that is for a reason. She is the most compelling character in this. Tip too. Their storyline is by far the best.
I found Dorothy kinda bland since the beginning,also not very compelling,same with the Wizard,they don’t really interest me.
Oh,Lady Ev.
You realize he hit her so the mask would get shattered, and she would feel even more exposed?
It was a dominant power move. She was in no position to defy him but she did(which shows how strong of a character she is and not as you put it she failed,because at the end she didn’t,she told her people never to surrender) and we all now the Wizards massive ego,so it was the most logical reaction for him to hit her square in the face and humilate her.
I don’t think there was mistreatment at all. This show is drama. The characters and the audience feed off that. You wanna see Dorothy chill cool and fine with Glinda deciding they don’t need love to be happy and are indepent women?
Well. That is not how this works. When you love ,there is hate, there is anger ,there is pain. Always.
So. Of course it had a showdown close at the climax and the final episode.
Every character needs a tied end.
So did Lucas. So do the others. Otherwise it is just lazy.
You are upset how this show treats women?
Woman or man, we all have ups and downs and we all get mistreated. There is no difference.
That said, it was even brave to get a woman hit in the face because of the people who call the writers abusive asses. Not that I ever would vouch for violence of any kind in real life.
Hey, thanks so much for your comment! I really appreciated reading your perspective on this episode. I agree with you in respect to the show needing drama, and Emerald City’s faults against women are no where near some other shows (ahem, GoT), so it could be much worse. I wonder, what did you think of the season finale? Please let me know!