Tin Man Meta (yes, again!)

[jedibuttercup]

Some Notes, Upon Watching Tin Man for the Third Time:

1. When Lylo says he sensed "a glimmer of light on the other side" -- I noticed this time that DG briefly flared with magic after she changed in the cafe! Makes a lot more sense out of Azkadellia's command to "awaken a travel storm [...] find this light and extinguish it" if D.G.'s actually putting out a magical beacon to be found. The dreams must have awakened her magic in preparation for her return to the O.Z.



2. Also, I think Ahamo took her to the Other Side in his balloon when she was five; two of her dreams had the flame spurting thing, and she had pictures of a balloon floating over landscape in her Kansas room.



3. Hmm. D.G.'s robo-dad knew instantly what the Longcoats were, and referred to them by name. They must have had periodic contact with the other side, probably through Ahamo, otherwise they'd have been clueless. Because when D.G.'s parents sent her over, Az had yet to establish her personal police force.



4. I really think Az was pretty damned aware of most of what was going on while she was possessed. That first "conference" argument shown at the beginning? If you listen close, it's something about whether or not "the people of the O.Z. will be taken care of", so she still had a voice in, even after fifteen years. I don't think she was entirely trapped; I think the Sorceress had the wheel, but Az still had a hand on it. Unfortunately, the sorceress was apparently pretty good at convincing Az that her way was the only way to go, probably due to the family's apparent favoritism toward the younger daughter since her birth, etc.



5. Why were Cain's gun and badge in that box under the house? Zero wouldn't have let him hide them there in the middle of the arrest! Did he retire? Except-- when they find out he's a Tin Man, D.G. says "you're a cop?" and he says "was, until Zero found out I was part of the resistance." So, did he like-- flee there with his family, hoping the Longcoats wouldn't track the family down? Would make a lot more sense why they lived across the fields of the Papay from Central City, several years after the Papay had gone feral.



6. Re: zipperheads, "It's what the state does to reeducate criminals"-- just under Az? Or earlier, too?



7. When the Mystic Man tells D.G. to head for "The Northern Island"-- Cain and Glitch must have known what that meant, right after the Wizard mentioned her mother's lavender eyes. And especially after the M.M. makes Cain swear by his word as a Tin Man to protect her. But they don't say anything to D.G. about what that means, re: the old palace. Why? I mean, they don't recognize it later when they see it under all the ice, but they knew where they were supposed to be headed. Why not warn her about her identity or what the place was?



8. What did they offer DeMilo, I wonder, as compensation for his wagon? Because his protestations were clearly for show, and for the neighbors' benefit, probably so the Longcoats wouldn't arrest him after his wagon disappeared. I mean, he stopped mid-rant to tell them how to start it; I don't think he'd have done that simply out of idiocy.



9. When they're inside, Raw says, "Mother waited. Couldn't stay." Huh? We saw later Az and her troops come for Ambrose and the Queen by a lake, in Glitch's memories. The first time I saw this I assumed that was at Finaqua-- but they do call that main palace the Northern ISLAND. Was she really waiting there for the first several years, trying to manage the country from afar, whilst Azkadellia built her power base?



10. Cain clearly already knew what Raw was going to say when he touched the bed in the palace and started wibbling about Bad Things. "Tell her," he says, grim but sympathetic. Guh. What must that first revelation back in the M.M.'s hotel room have been like for him? "ZOMG, this is the dead princess!!!"



11. Toto was there watching at the time? Hm. When Az walked into the replay, and Glitch named her, Cain glanced over at him, but quickly turned back to D.G., looking worried; already super-focused on her. (The more I watch this, the less fatherly his behavior toward her looks.)



12. "I am what you made me", Az says to the Queen-- had the Sorceress really convinced Az of that? Building on the Queen calling her littler daughter "angel" and "my light" all the time, perhaps, plus the rhyme/prophecy-- convincing her she's the unloved "dark" one by nature and not because of the Witch?



13. The whole Finaqua thing-- the Queen sent D.G. to the Northern Island first, and the stories suggest she originally intended to wait there. But she must have set the other bits, about digging into your memories and brightening a place that is dark in the south and so on, up as a safety net in case that didn't work out. Otherwise the secondary quest, including the second set of instructions held by the Mystic Man that he doesn't give D.G. until they're in prison after her journey to the Island, make no kind of sense.



14. And the Grey Gale thing? Must be kept secret among the royal family's adults; and only the exact "line of succession" aka Queens must be buried there, or Az wouldn't have been so "what is the Grey Gale?" about it and she wouldn't have gone to some other (clearly well used) graveyard to dig up D.G.'s child-sized coffin. They probably aren't "the House of Gale" either, as much as fanon already likes to assume so; because really, if that was their last name, the clue would be a lot more obvious.



15. Such an interesting dynamic between Az and Zero. He always has this lascivious smirk on his face while he watches her be evil at people. And she must have some kind of a soft spot for him, too; when she finds out Cain isn't dead and chides him about not being able to put one man in his grave, he's all, "I shot him! Out a window! Into a freezing lake! The man has nine lives!" and she says, quietly, "He's not the only one." BURN. Warning and forgiveness all at the same time. Even after that, though, he's all talk-backy, and she's all reveal-y, with interesting body language between them:



16. "She's heading south." / "My men will blitz the area immediately." / "No, they won't." / "You have them, dead to rights. And you don't want to take her?" / "No. I want her to lead me straight to the Emerald." --> (nods toward viewing tank, he watches) --> "You planted a spy." / "Just keeping an eye on her, as any big sister would. I want you to shadow her. Don't get too close. Can you handle a little restraint, Zero?" *raising eyebrows* If there's some of her in all that, and not just the Witch, then I can understand the fen who see an Az/Zero 'ship.



17. The dream-- D.G. and Az were having it at the same time, judging by Az's clothes in both dream and following scene. Seeing the Witch's face overlaid on Az's in the mirror, brrr. And when she visits her mother with the twig from the Fields of the Papay, and her Mom's asking why she kept her (and her hope) alive and still visits, Az is all, "To see your face the day that hope dies." Something complex really is going on with her control vs. the witch.



18. Toto names the place they're going to as Finaqua before anyone else does-- of course he'd know, but-- I guess he doesn't remember the exact location any more than Cain and Glitch recognized the Northern Island in its new condition. Because of the destruction? I bet there was a missing scene convo there.



19. The Crack in the O.Z.-- related at all to the one in the books that the Tin Man had to chop down a tree for Dorothy's party to traverse? The bit with the story and the trees throwing apples, on the other hand, and the "Oh My" with the bear, were clearly an homage to the movie instead.



20. The exchange at the blue smoke cabin, for future reference: "State your business." / "We mean you no harm. We're travelers of the Realms. Seeking a warm meal and a cold cup of grog." / "Food is scarce this time of year, and the grog has long since been seized." / "The we will leave you in peace. May your hearth be warm." / (relieved) "And your smoke be blue."



21. Moritanium: Mt, 216 on the Ozian periodic table, strong and conducts magical energy



22. When Ralph (the resistance guy, wife Lorraine) tells Cain where Jeb and Adora said they were going "a few months" before, he thanks him; and Ralph says, "We should thank you." Why? Just because Cain and his party are on their way to take down the Sorceress? Or-- does Jeb tell his story everywhere as a motivator, the way he keeps an iron suit in his camp? So he's thanking Cain for being a Resistance hero, now that he recognizes him? Or maybe a bit of both?



23. The maze must be magically self-maintained, or it would have overgrown in the years since Az destroyed Finaqua; after all, it was one of the first places she tore apart looking for the emerald.



24. The emerald must have attained the descriptor "of the Eclipse" after the rhyme/prophecy was invented? Because it does sound pretty capital-M Melodramatic referred to by its full title.



25. Az could have been firmer with her baby sister, or also run; it wasn't all little D.G.'s fault! I understand why D.G. feels guilty, but she was like five years old, and her sister more like thirteen. Srsly.



26. The workshop was still filled with Ahamo's tools-- but the dolls missing. And Az musing, "You loved that sappy little token of your daughter's love, didn't you? I bet you still have it with you." They must have been made just before Az was possessed-- and he must have snagged them just before they went back to the Northern Island, which can't have been much later, because that was where Az killed D.G. When he was making hurried preparations to leave that week, he must have packed them to have something to remember his daughters by, but couldn't go back to collect his art supplies?



27. What a grief-stricken time that must have been for him and the Queen both. The timeline must have been something like: possession --> D.G. dead --> Queen sacrifices her own magic to revive D.G. --> Queen rushes to Milltown to secretly commission the robo-parents and talk to Father View --> handing D.G. and the finding-gizmo over to Ahamo --> Ahamo floats D.G. over to the Other Side with the robo-parents, then floats back and joins the Realm of the Unwanted --> the Queen holds the funeral while he's gone, talks to the Mystic Man, and runs back to the Northern Island where she holes up with Ambrose and other loyal advisors. At no time could she have been gone long enough to alarm Azkadellia; it must have all happened in a huge hurry.



28. It cracked me up when Glitch tripped approaching the Realm of the Unwanted; "I'm all right!" Very Scarecrow of him.



29. When Cain hugged Jeb the first time, the way Jeb stands there so stiffly-- it reminded me of the first time D.G. tackled Cain for a hug in Azkadellia's prison, and how he stood there with that little puzzled/uncomfortable frown between his brows, and she backed off all embarrassed. Heh. Excellent way of showing how much Cain had already healed emotionally in the last few days of tagging after the princess.



30. It's kind of glossed over, the way they filmed it, but-- Cain, Glitch, and Raw clearly spend a night, a day, and another night in the Rebel camp. DG and Ahamo spend that first night in the sky aboard the balloon-- but they seem to land sometime early the next day. They certainly go into the crypt while it's light. But they don't come out of it UNTIL THE NEXT MORNING, the same morning the three musketeers leave the rebels. Uh. What exactly did Dorothy and D.G. spend an entire night talking about, in there? No wonder Ahamo was so "I'm so proud of you!" when she emerged, he must have been getting pretty damn worried.



31. Cain's hat obsession cracks me up. When he sneaks into the tower the first time in a guard uniform, it's not on his head; but as soon as he finds D.G., he puts it on! Enemies take it to taunt him; and he even throws it at enemies twice to distract them.



32. "After five hundred years, I want this moment to be perfect." If the W.W. is the original Dorothy Gale's opponent, then that gives us an approximate five-to-one ratio of O.Z. annuals to Other Side years, if you figure Dorothy's first slip through from Kansas really was in 1900, the date of the first book.



33. That pep talk conversation, where D.G. retreats into verbal distance and calls him "Mr. Cain" twice instead of just "Cain" as she had been-- agh. She tries to do the emotionally stoic thing he usually does, and he's the one who cracks and wraps her up in a teary hug. And as she's walking away, he looks at her-- and then his gaze drops. To about the level of her ass. *snicker*



34. 1066 - 1418 - 1666 - 1789 - (unpowering, interrupted)


35. 1789 - 1666 - 1418 - 1385 - (full power again)


36. 1208 "the queen's birthday" (to finish the unpowering sequence)



37. Several of those are Significant Dates; 1066 was the Battle of Hastings, for example, and 1789 the American Continental Congress where the Constitution was signed. Anybody recognize the others?



38. It's hard to tell, but I think D.G.'s hands might be glowing a little bit when she grabs that ledge after Az whomps her over the balcony. She really had gotten a bit more control of her magic, like she told Raw when she showed him the tattoo was gone off her palm and gave him the courage speech.



39. Interesting that the Queen realizes first that she's "My Azkadellia" again, but Ahamo moves to hug her first; perhaps because he didn't have to personally deal with her at all when she was possessed until those couple of days there at the very end, and is better able to let it go?

Damn, and such an abrupt ending. I really, really want to know what happens Next. And how the two canons (the original books and Tin Man) connect together. Must reread the Oz books, pronto.
~

Comments

[farononstarwolf.livejournal.com]

1666--Great Fire of London, maybe? I just looked at Wikipedia to see the events of the year...

[jedibuttercup]

Makes sense. Thanks!

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

[blinks]

Wow.

1418 Could be the capture of paris by the Duke of Burgundy. I've got nothing for 1385.

Also, what about Dorothy Gale being queen of Oz?

[jedibuttercup]

They say that she was the first Queen of the line that produced D.G. But they don't say how she got from being "the first slipper" to being Queen. Like, at all.

I've seen fanon suggesting that the O.Z. is totally matriarchal, which I can buy, since they never refer to Ahamo as King, just the Queen's husband and father of the princesses. And therefore that Ozma (who was the canonical princess in the books, and made Dorothy an honorary princess) either (a) didn't have kids, and so passed the rule to her adopted Other-Side sister, or (b) reversed her gender and became Tip again (see book #2 for the backstory on that) and married Dorothy. *lol*

It'll be interesting to see if they actually make a series and answer some of these questions.

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

Wait...

This was a pilot?

[is so far out of the loop]

[jedibuttercup]

I don't think it was intended as a pilot, but it is the best-watched miniseries the SciFi channel has ever produced. And haven't previous ones turned into full-blown series? Um. I seem to have a vague memory of that being the way the new BSG started, for example?

Anyway, I've seen people discussing it off and on, but I don't think anything official has been said yet, either way. *crossing fingers*

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

I can see them thinking about doing a series because it was the most-watched miniseries that Scifi has come up with. I agree that they'll certainly have to explain a bunch of stuff if they do produce a series.

The BSG miniseries was the result of the producers shopping around the idea of a remake series and Scifi wanting to test the water, as it were. So, yeah... BSG was meanth to be a pilot.

[grins]

We'll just have to see now, won't we? :D

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

You mean like "Painkiller Jane"? Pretty sure that was just supposed to be a oneshot movie, and then they made a series out of it. (pretty sure that the BSG miniseries was actually a "pilot," just one they weren't sure would fly, so they made it standalone in a way.)

[jedibuttercup]

I never watched any of Painkiller Jane, but you're probably right.

I'm torn between hoping they do make more, and worried that they'll disappoint me.

However, I'm pretty sure whatever they do, it won't be as much of an upleasant surprise as Return of Oz was the first time I saw it in the late '80s. I was even more canon-obsessed at that age than I am now, if you can believe it. =)

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

Also, wasn't the wicked witch of the west dead at the end of the first book?

It's been forever since I last read them, so I can't remember.

[jedibuttercup]

Dorothy did melt the Wicked Witch of the West. But she was kind of a spiritual entity in the miniseries, given form by the magic; I could buy that when she was dissolved by Dorothy, she sort of became an evil ghost, which the good witches later entrapped somehow in that cave.

It's kind of problematic that Tin Man is both a parallel story to the books and, according to its own text, a sequel; there are two ways to look at everything.

I do wish they'd bothered to connect the dots more explicitly in the miniseries, but hopefully some of this will be in commentary on the DVD edition due out March 11.

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

I could buy that when she was dissolved by Dorothy, she sort of became an evil ghost, which the good witches later entrapped somehow in that cave.

Okay... Makes sense.

I do wish they'd bothered to connect the dots more explicitly in the miniseries, but hopefully some of this will be in commentary on the DVD edition due out March 11.

Wow. That was fast.