Blinkie: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 19:58, 11 February 2023
“Blinkie” was the nickname by which one of the Wicked Witches of the Land of Oz was usually known in the modern era. She owed this nickname to her missing left eye.
Description
Physical appearance
Blinkie was a skinny old woman with a pointed, hooked chin and very short grayish hair. She wore a black eye-patch over her left eye socket, and her good right eye was yellow and slightly feline-looking. She usually wore a dark lavender dress and a pointed witch's-hat with a large red ribbon tied around it. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz)
Biography
In one universe, “Blinkie” was formerly the Wicked Witch of the South, and was served by three Imps known as Olite, Udent and Ertinent. However, she was eventually forced to go into exile in Jinxland, a remote, mountainous area of the Land of Oz's southern region of Quadling Country. Even there, she continued to use her magical powers to ill purposes, until she was stopped by the Scarecrow, Cap'n Bill, Trot, Button-Bright and the Orks, who tricked her into drinking a shrinking potion, then gave her an antidote which also sealed away her magical powers. Some time later, the imps, who had ceased to obey her, got into trouble all on their own, drawing the ire of the Wizard of Oz and Ozma and being transformed into buttons.
However, after many years, the enchantment on the Imps faded. The three wasted no time in using their current position within the Emerald Palace to steal Dorothy Gale's Magic Belt. They also disassembled the Red Wagon and, to cover their tracks, additionally stole Ozma's Magic Picture and then, travelling to Glinda's palace, the Great Book of Records. With all these artefacts in hand, they travelled through Munchkin Country, crossing paths with the Phonograph, and finally back to Jinxland in Quadling Country, where they delivered the stolen artefacts to Blinkie. Blinkie sent the Imps to steal the Powder of Life while she used the Belt to create an army's worth of imp-statues which she hoped to animate using the Powder.
Before she could do so, however, Ozma and a great number of her friends, travelling in Acquaintanceship-982's Fog Ship, discovered what had happened and began to follow the imps' trail. Keeping tabs on them thanks to the Picture and Book, Blinkie tried sending three kalidahs after them, but, after the Ozites shook off the creatures, she instead decided to draw them to her using a magical gust of wind and deal with them in person. As she was gloating about her evil plan, Acquaintanceship told the Phonograph to distract her while he tried to shoot her with a Cupid Arrow; he missed his shot, instead knocking the bottle of Powder of Life out of her hand. Taking his chance, Acquaintanceship grabbed the bottle and ran off with it into his Fog Ship, but Blinkie (who had yet to realise he had the Powder and thought he was just escaping) used the Belt to cause him to crash into the forest. Meanwhile, Blinkie turned nearly all of the other Ozites into various decorative objects using the Belt, although she missed Dorothy, who hid behind a rock.
Acquaintanceship was unharmed, but the Ship was down. Out of other options, he used some of the Powder of Life to attempt to repair his Ship, with the effect of bringing it to life as a sentient entity. Startled, he dropped the rest of the Powder onto his bow and arrows, which similarly came to life. Together, they returned to Jinxland and managed to romanticise Blinkie, who, with all her vengefulness and need for domination washed away, subsequently apologised to everyone, reversed the transformations, and returned the magical items. As she put her Magic Belt back on, Dorothy good-naturedly advised Blinkie to petition Ozma to have her magic powers returned to her and to apply to become one of Ozma's royal magic-makers. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz)
Behind the scenes
The Wicked Witch Blinkie originated in 1915's The Scarecrow of Oz, an Oz novel by L. Frank Baum, meaning she is now in the public domain. The book was adapted from a 1914 silent film written by Baum, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, which took place in a distinct continuity from Baum's book, and where the antagonist was called “Mombi” but had an appearance closely based on the illustrations of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thus, it is a composite of Baum's two previous Wicked Witch antagonists who was reintroduced into the books under the name of “Blinkie”.
Because Jinxland (where Blinkie is initially found in Baum's works) is part of the southern Quadling Country, Blinkie is sometimes speculated to be the otherwise-unseen “Wicked Witch of the South” whose tyrannical rule over the Quadlings was replaced by Glinda's tenure as “Good Witch of the South” — as echoed in The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz where she is explicitly referred to as the Wicked Witch of the South. However, this is never actually stated in Baum's works, which only describe Blinkie as a “Wicked Witch” without specifying a particular domain. If she is not Blinkie, then, with the Wicked Witches of the East and West playing a part in the original book and Mombi being identified as the Wicked Witch of the North, the Wicked Witch of the South would remain the only off-screen Wicked Witch of the four cardinal wicked witches recorded in Baum's works.
