Show Notes: The Oscar for Best Masking Goes To...

On Wicked, "cringe," and the crime of being earnest

What Happened:

Wicked: For Good got zero Oscar nominations. Last year, the first film got ten nominations and won two awards. Same crew, same vision, filmed concurrently. What changed? The promotional tours.

The Problem:

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande let us see how deeply this work transformed them. They cried in interviews. They dressed in greens and pinks as personal choices, not costumes. Anonymous reports said voters were "creeped out" by their intensity.

Why ADHDers Get It:

This is exactly what ADHD looks like when it finds something worth loving. We hyperfixate. We let it consume us. We don't do casual or detached. When something clicks, we let it change us completely.

I've seen the first movie 102 times, the second 43 times. I sit in theaters with an Elphaba squishmallow I sprayed with perfume that smells like her. To the world, that's "cringe." To us, it feels alive.

The Pattern:

You spend your whole life being told to tone it down, care less visibly, stop being so intense. When you finally find something worth being intense about, the world punishes you for it.

The Academy gave sixteen nominations to Sinners instead. Vampires are safe. The witches ask you to feel everything.

The Irony:

While nominations were announced, Cynthia was in London starring in a one woman Dracula. She's playing the vampire the Academy chose over her witch. She's limitless.

The Takeaway:

Let them keep their trophies. We'll stay with the witches. We'll keep showing up with our whole unmasked hearts.

The wizard's power always fades. But the girl who refuses to mask? She becomes a legend. ♥️

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