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Wicked

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For the books, see here. For the first part of the film adaptation, see here.


Tropes applying to the musical:

  • Accidental Aesop:
    • Don't release domesticated animals into the countryside and just assume that they'll be able to take care of themselves, especially if they're young. Boq/Tin Man claims that the Cowardly Lion grew up a coward because Elphaba 'didn't let him fight his own battles', but being effectively abandoned in a dark and dangerous forest while still a child might have had more to do with it.
    • Two wrongs don't make a right, and don't involve innocent people within your petty feuds. Glinda is rightly furious at Elphaba for eloping with Fiyero behind her back, but it was her fault that the magic shoes end up on Dorothy's feet. When Elphaba confronts her for stealing shoes from a dead woman and her own sister, Glinda obliviously says, "they're just shoes!" and tries to justify it as revenge for Elphaba taking Fiyero. She realizes her mistake when Elphaba kidnaps Dorothy and is close to murdering her to get the shoes back — Glinda stuck them tightly with magic so Dorothy, who would be more than happy to surrender the shoes, can't get them off. Glinda doesn't exactly apologize, but she tells Elphaba that killing an innocent girl isn't like "Elphie" at all.
  • Accidental Innuendo: From "As Long As You're Mine": "If it turns out it's over too fast..." To the point where we're not sure it was accidental.
  • Actor Shipping: Thanks to the high amount of Homoerotic Subtext in the script, supplemented by their professed adoration of each other in interviews, many fans have shipped original Elphie and Glinda actress Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Ironically, these rumours probably are matched only by the rumours that the two hated each other. While several of the original cast members have confirmed that over time their relationship soured, leading to the exit of Kristin not long after Idina won the Tony (for which both were nominated), both have long since buried the hatchet and confirmed they are friends and enjoy acting together in special events related to Wicked, including a cameo appearance in the movie version.
  • Adaptation Displacement: Part of why fans of the book were so nervous about a movie version of the musical being made is that it would further cement into people's minds that this is the official Wicked story, and people would continue to forget about and ignore the books.
  • Adorkable:
    • Elphaba in the first act of the musical. Oh, she's got a biting tongue alright, but she's also socially awkward and her attempts to interact with people, as well as her mannerisms when excited, come off as rather endearing.
    • Fiyero shows shades of this. Mostly once he starts falling in love with Elphaba. Even moreso in the book, where he's shyer and more soft-spoken.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Once you take in the Word of God that Glinda was in love with Elphaba, it puts quite a few scenes in a new light.
    • Speaking of love... does Boq really love Glinda or is he fascinated by the most pretty and popular girl at Shiz who is way out of his league?
    • Does Fiyero ever have real feelings for Glinda before he starts to fall for Elphaba instead, or is she just a trophy girlfriend to him? And by Act II, does he only love Elphaba, or does he still love Glinda too and only run away with Elphaba because circumstances force him to choose between them? (See Threesome Subtext below.)
    • Who really understands Elphaba better, Glinda or Fiyero? This debate comes up in the fandom's Ship-to-Ship Combat: Gelphie shippers argue that Fiyero only sees Elphaba as a brave, defiant rebel, and doesn't grasp her deep yearning to be loved and accepted the way Glinda does, while Fiyeraba shippers argue that Fiyero understands that Elphaba's need to stay true to herself and her conscience is stronger than her wish for acceptance, which Glinda doesn't comprehend until the end. Of course the third option is that each one understands Elphaba in some ways that the other doesn't, which is why Elphaba loves and needs them both.
    • Melena's affair with the travelling salesman is played ambiguously, as opposed to the book where it was undoubtedly a rape. Melena is clearly more interested in the elixir than him, so it might be an 'honest' affair with the perk of getting high, her trading sexual favours for the drug, or the salesman deliberately getting her addicted in order to take advantage of her.
    • The Wizard of Oz himself is played either as a cunning social manipulator or as a flawed mortal being who had power thrust on him and is doing the best he can. Either way, his remorse at realizing he vilified his daughter and ordered her murder, which apparently succeeded, is genuine.
    • In "March Of The Witch Hunters", Boq almost calls Elphaba by name, before simply calling her the witch. Is he doing it because he's a Dirty Coward (ironic considering Lion is there) and doesn't want to associate with her anymore? Or does he consider Elphaba dead with her being wicked enough (in his eyes) to just be "the witch"? Or both? It really depends on the actor.
    • Could Dorothy have been in on Fiyero and Elphaba's plan to fake the latter's death? She's almost always played (as much as shadows will allow) as being surprised and horrified by Elphaba 'melting', but the scheme hinged upon somebody throwing water on Elphaba at exactly the right moment with lots of witnesses, and if Dorothy wasn't involved in the plan they'd be leaving a lot to chance; she might have been too scared of Elphaba to do anything, missed Elphaba when she threw the water or threw it at the wrong moment, if the plan followed how the melting went in the 1939 film then Fiyero ran the risk of being burned up, etc.
    • Does Glinda truly believe that Elphaba is dead at the end of the musical or not, especially since Fiyero mocked the ridiculous idea that water could melt her at the beginning of Act 2? The script is written so that she does, but sometimes the actress can play it so that it's more likely she knows the truth, although even then her grief is genuine since she won't be seeing Elphaba again either way.
      • For that matter, despite Glinda promising not to clear Elphaba's name, did her attempts to persuade the people of Oz that she wasn't all bad have some small effect? They're more subdued during the finale, which could mean that they're considering her words and reconsidering the 'Wicked Witch'.
    • "March Of The Witch Hunters" is supposed to happen after the Wizard sends Dorothy and her friends to kill Elphaba so they can get what they want, but before Dorothy gets captured. However, due to the lack of context and the scene of Elphaba holding Dorothy captive right after, it can come across as if the song happens during the space of time where Dorothy has been kidnapped by Elphaba. With this in mind, the mob seems less fueled by Fantastic Racism and propaganda and more like they are concerned about the fate of Dorothy and want to help her (albeit still fueled by Fantastic Racism and propaganda). Boq specifically goes from being an Ungrateful Bastard who is bent on revenge to a Papa Wolf that wants to save his friend.
    • Is Boq at the end of the play a Tragic Villain who is a Broken Bird and more misguided than anything? Or is he a fascist who has accepted the Fantastic Racism of Elphaba and is Beyond Redemption? While the second one was meant to be canon, it’s easy to see him as the first one. Notably, while he still believes that Elphaba is wicked, not once does he ever mention it’s because of her skin color or helping Animals. Not to mention that "March of The Witch Hunters" can be seen as in response to Dorothy’s kidnapping, making him come across as a Papa Wolf instead (see above).
    • Tying into the last two entries: are the Scarecrow and Tin Man still true friends to Dorothy in the Wicked universe? Or are they just using her to reach Elphaba, Fiyero to protect her and Boq for revenge?
  • Award Snub: It lost the Best Musical Tony to Avenue Q, which didn't have as much longevitynote . Of course, while Wicked has undoubtedly eclipsed Avenue Q commercially, the Tony winner was far more acclaimednote .
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Fiyero is quite controversial in the fandom. One side loves him for what they see as a great romance with Elphaba, love his musical number, and feel like he acts like the Only Sane Man. Another side hates him due to feeling like he is uninteresting, there mostly for a romance they see as forced, and feel like his actions towards Glinda make him unlikeable. There is no middle ground, and it is quite common to see fans fighting over him anytime he is mentioned.
    • Boq, very much so. Some enjoy his Adorkableness in act one and find him charming. Others are put off by him being a Stalker with a Crush to Glinda and find him rather creepy instead. Act Two only makes it worse with the reveal that Nessa became a dictator over Munchkinland to keep Boq with her. Most see this as a Break the Cutie that makes Boq a Broken Bird. Others say he deserved to be enslaved for leading Nessa on, which seems like Karmic Overkill. And then comes "March Of The Witch Hunters". Some see this song as Beyond Redemption for him, since without Elphaba’s intervention, he would have died. Others see him as more of a Tragic Villain who went through a Trauma Conga Line and (much like Elphaba) snapped, particularly since he doesn't actually know that Elphaba only transformed him to save his life and believes she did it out of cruelty. And then there’s the group of people who thought that "March Of The Witch Hunters" was a response to Dorothy’s kidnapping (since Elphaba had decided to be wicked beforehand and the scene where Dorothy is held hostage happens afterwards) and were confused about why Boq was a villain at all.
  • Broken Aesop:
    • Wicked's primary question, "what makes one wicked?", and all the messages that go with it, end up mildly broken due to the Lighter and Softer adaptation. For all of Elphaba's problems, in the musical, she is never truly wicked, so the musings seem kind of pointless. Also, the (admittedly depressing) Aesop of "No good deed going unpunished" is broken by Elphaba getting a happy ending with Fiyero, in contrast to the extreme Downer Ending of the novel. Of course, the lesson that "people have wickedness thrust upon them" works because Elphaba didn't do anything specifically wicked to be declared the Wicked Witch.
    • A retroactive example. When Boq becomes the tin man, he quite literally becomes heartless and seeks revenge on Elphaba for making him tin (when it was to save his life). Yet the original book’s message was that despite having no physical heart, the tin man was still the most kind and compassionate out of the friends. Especially odd since Elphaba and Fiyero don’t get the same treatment (Elphaba hopes the wizard’s power will help her rise to the top but eventually learns that her own extremely powerful magic is all she needs, and it’s all but stated that Fiyero came up with the plan to meet Elphaba as a scarecrow, when he should literally be “brainless”). Then again, he seems to have no idea it saved his life and his status as being “heartless” can be seen as more literal this time.
  • Broken Base: Which Elphaba is the best? Safe to say that the fandom is heavily divided on the subject.
  • Canon Defilement: Just like Wicked the book is to the original movie and Oz novels, so is this in turn to that book. Some don't like it while others prefer the changes.
    • Some have gone so far to say that the musical may unintentionally evoke Condescending Compassion for the original story. The musical and movie especially love homages to the original book and 1939 film, but it doesn't change the fact that Dorothy is nothing more than a patsy and there's a good chance her friends on her journey were using her the whole time, and some people say that fans and the musical itself may - possibly even unconsciously - treat the original Wizard of Oz as nothing more than a basic children's story teaching children 'basic right and wrong' and Wicked as better for being more 'complex' and 'grown up'.
      • This might possibly be the result of the novel the musical is based on not being very interested in a retelling or 'true' prequel to The Wizard of Oz and instead being a speculative story that happens to be set in Oz and is really very dark in tone. The musical is more interested in the original Wizard of Oz story, but basing it on something like the novel results in a strange musical and movie that might like to pretend it likes the book and the 1939 film, but comes off as patronizing at best and outright snubbing at worst.
      • Not helping may be the movie's popularity, especially with young children, which may reinforce the idea that this is the 'real' story of The Wizard of Oz in many people's heads and have them not looked at as two separate stories.
  • Captain Obvious Reveal:
    • Given all the times Fiyero makes explicit mentions of himself or others being brainless it's not much of a shock that he becomes The Scarecrow, especially since we already see the origins of Dorothy's other two companions by the time this is made clear.
    • The repeated foreshadowing in "Sentimental Man" of the Wizard describing himself as a father figure makes it easy to deduce that he is Elphaba's biological father — even more so if you recognize the voice of the potion seller.
  • Critical Dissonance: The musical received a lukewarm reception at best from critics, but has since gone on to become one of the most successful and beloved productions by theatergoers.
  • Die for Our Ship: Fiyero is often villainized by Elphaba/Glinda shippers due to him being Elphaba's main love interest. A lot of fics turn him into a self-centered jerk or flat-out abusive boyfriend who doesn't deserve Elphaba. While he starts off somewhat mean, a lot of these shippers tend to ignore his character development and the fact that his self centered shallowness is all just an act for the sake of their ship.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: A lot of fanfiction and fan art has Glinda being the one to run away with Elphaba at the end instead of Fiyero, who these fans have take over Oz in Glinda's place.
  • Fanon:
    • Most fans agree that Elphaba and Glinda are bisexual, despite them only showing interest in men in canon. It helps that the two have a lot of Ho Yay.
    • Most fans believe that Glinda was never truly interested in Fiyero and was using him to fill the hole that not being able to confess to Elphaba caused. Rather, whether Fiyero figures this out depends on the fan work and if the fic portrays him in a positive or negative light.
    • It’s universally accepted that Fiyero and Boq had a more hostile relationship (openly or more thinly veiled) than in the original books, either due to their opposing views on Elphaba, a leftover of their petty rivalry in act one, or both. Seriously, find one fanfic that doesn’t involve the two butting heads on their journey with Dorothy.
    • Almost every fan agrees that while Fiyero kept his identity a secret, Boq told Dorothy, Fiyero and Lion the truth, or at least an abridged version of it. Although whether or not he’s ignorant but chooses to Accentuate the Negative about Elphaba or if he genuinely believes that she’s wicked Depends On The Writer.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite Elphaba being canonically paired with Fiyero and running away with him in the end, most fans prefer to pair with Glinda, due to the pair's friendship being the heart of the play and feeling like they have better chemistry. It certainly helps that both the original book's author and several cast members have said that they feel like Elphaba and Glinda are in love with each other and could have ended up together if things had played out differently.
  • Foe Yay Shipping:
    • Elphaba and Glinda start out as rivals and are on opposite sides for most of Act 2, but people still ship them when they are opposing each other. Their duet "What Is This Feeling?", which has the added benefit of having lyrics that make it sound exactly like a Silly Love Song, except for the fact that it's about two people absolutely hating each other, doesn't hurt either.
    • A retroactive, more meta example but the musical does this with The Wicked Witch Of The West and Scarecrow once it's revealed that Fiyero became the Scarecrow from the original Oz books. Elphaba doesn't learn that Fiyero is even alive until she kidnaps Dorothy, and she antagonized the group of friends beforehand. Although it’s one sided as it’s implied that Fiyero didn’t see Elphaba as an enemy even then.
    • While Fiyero and Boq’s relationship in Act Two is unclear, it’s not an inaccurate assumption to say they were likely enemies because of their views on Elphaba. Not that it has stopped fans from shipping them. Especially (or specifically) since Scarecrow and Tin man had a ton of Ho Yay in the original books.
  • Genius Bonus: Fiyero's line "learn to live the unexamined life" is a reference to Socrates's dictum "The unexamined life is not worth living."
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: "Popular" is about how Galinda plans to make Elphaba popular. Well Elphaba certainly became popular to fans of the play.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Thanks to Idina Menzel's later role as the voice of Queen Elsa in Frozen, quite a lot of things about Elphaba suddenly seem even more interesting.
      • In Wicked, Elphaba is a misunderstood older sibling, has magical powers, has a dramatic "I Am Becoming" Song ("Defying Gravity"), and stars alongside a blonde-haired actress whose first name is Kristin. In Frozen, Queen Elsa is a misunderstood older sibling, has magical powers, has a dramatic "I Am Becoming" Song ("Let it Go"), and starring alongside a blonde-haired actress whose first name is Kristen. Coincidence? Well, maybe, but that doesn't stop it from being both hilarious and awesome.
      • It's not just Idina Menzel, but also applies to Caissie Levy, the first actress to play Elsa in the Broadway musical adaptation; Caroline Bowman, who originated the role of Elsa on the North American tour; and Willemijn Verkaik, who played Elsa for the back half of the Hamburg production. Incidentally, Patti Murin, who plays Anna, was Glinda in the first national tour of Wicked.
      • When Glinda confronts Elphaba near the end and says "I mean they're just shoes... let it go!". Try to hear that now without mentally playing "Let It Go" in your head. In fact, Savannah Stevenson at one point sang a few seconds of "Let It Go" during that scene. It certainly helps bring some levity to an otherwise quite sad scene.
      • One part of "No Good Deed" goes, Is that all good deeds are/When looked at with an ice-cold eye.
      • Although definitely the more popular show, it lost the Best Musical Tony to Avenue Q... At least over a decade later, Idina Menzel ended up working with the composers of Avenue Q on Frozen, which has a hugely popular song that is what "Defying Gravity" has been for Wicked (and won Best Original Song at the Oscars to boot).
      • In "What Is This Feeling?", Elphaba pins Galinda's personality down to one word: "Blonde". What is Elsa? A blonde.
    • The German-language productions deliver some gems.
      • Fiyero swings into the scene on a vine in a cornfield. Two years prior to assuming the role for Wicked Oberhausen, Anton Zetterholm originated the titular role in Tarzan the musical in Hamburg. His predecessor in Wicked Stuttgart (2008), Mark Seibert, also auditioned for the role of Tarzan and lost.
      • Willemijn Verkaik (incidentally, the Dutch and German voice for Elsa, and has played Elphaba in the English, German, and Dutch-language productions) made her premiere as Elphaba alongside Mark Seibert's Fiyero in Stuttgart. Her last show in Oberhausen was played with Anton Zetterholm as Fiyero.
      • The German-language, and European in general, theatre scene is tiny, leading to Fiyero going on to play either Elphabas' lover or son in Elisabeth. Just using the actors named above: Mark Seibert went on to play Death, and Anton Zetterholm Rudolf, opposite Roberta Valentini's Sisi. Willemijn Verkaik did play Sisi, but only in Switzerland.
  • Hollywood Homely: Green skin paint is far from enough to make most Elphaba actresses look bad. Even beyond the skin paint, the makeup for Elphaba plays this straight. In Act I, when Elphaba is a dowdy student, her face is made up to look plain and severe — the equivalent of "no-makeup makeup" on a normal skin tone. In Act II, her makeup is noticeably more glam.
  • Hype Backlash: Despite its enormous success, many have come out calling it underwhelming and cliche. The show has also been pointed to as a negative influence on the future of musical theatre, with it being argued it popularized the emphasis on belting over more intricate character driven songs, as well as the over reliance on making stories out of famous IPs rather than more original works.
  • Informed Wrongness: In Act Two Boq is depicted as having undergone a Face–Heel Turn, buying into the Wizard's propaganda and believing Elphaba to be evil, and once he becomes the Tin Man he turns murderous and joins the quest to hunt her down and kill her. However, his changed attitude towards Elphaba does make sense; he and his fellow Munchkins have been enslaved by Nessarose, so he wouldn't be very kindly disposed to her sister even without the propaganda, and far from being an Ungrateful Bastard he doesn't know that Elphaba transformed him to save his life.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • The Wizard, who never had a family and was never really loved on Earth, and just wants to make up for that in Oz, only for it to cost him an actual chance at a family, namely with his daughter Elphaba.
    • Elphaba becomes this in Act Two. Even before No Good Deed, she antagonizes Dorothy, calling her a “wretched little farm girl” for “stealing the ruby slippers” when they landed on her feet on their own and she has no idea of their importance. After she decides to be wicked after her Trauma Conga Line, she eventually kidnaps Dorothy, mocks her crying and it’s even implied that she would kill her if Dorothy didn’t take the shoes off (which she would be glad to but can’t because of a spell). Dorothy’s only real crime is being an Unwitting Pawn in both the wizard’s and Glinda’s game and Elphaba was all too willing to take it out on her. Thankfully she’s pulled out of it when she learns Fiyero is alive.
  • LGBT+ Periphery Demographic: Elphaba and Glinda have both become lesbian/bisexual icons due to their subtext-heavy relationship. Even the official Twitter for the play gets in on it during Pride Month. Also, this is a piece of Oz media.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Wizard in the musical adaptation serves as a figurehead and icon for the people of Oz. Being a genuinely paternal figure to Oz, he tries to unite them by presenting them with an enemy. He begins robbing the sentient animals of Oz of their voices and their sentience. When his to-be protege, the magical Elphaba, challenges him on what he does, he declares her an enemy of the state, making her "the enemy" to unite Oz. When she returns, he nearly convinces her to join him again, explaining that his lies are for the good of his people. Using his charisma and resources, he convinces Dorothy and her party to kill Elphaba. With Elphaba driven out and forced to fake her own death, the Wizard finds himself successful, only to leave Oz upon realizing that, in fact, Elphaba was his own daughter.
  • Memetic Mutation: A lot of Broadway comedies that came out post-Wicked note  parody Elphaba's iconic riff at the end of "Defying Gravity". It was to the point where it was used in commercials for the film adaptation.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • In the musical, Morrible crosses it by sending the cyclone after Nessarose, resulting in her being crushed by Dorothy's house.
    • Meanwhile, Nessarose crosses it either by ripping out Boq's heart in an attempt to gain his love, or by acting like an Ungrateful Bastard when Elphaba manages to save him.
    • As for Boq, it's his riding out to kill "the witch" when he knows very well that if not for Elphaba he would be dead. His reaction is a stark contrast to Fiyero's gratitude, where he thanks Elphaba for saving his life by turning him into a scarecrow.note 
  • Narm: The idea of the fate of Oz being changed, with political power being moved and manipulated, and the entire plot hinging on... a petty Love Triangle that was started in college can come across as this for some people.
  • Narm Charm: By themselves, the song's lyrics are rather cheesy (especially the casual use of Perfectly Cromulent Words as per the worldbuilding), but in the context of the story, combined with the amazing vocals and score, not to mention the performance itself, they manage to become Awesome Music.
  • One True Threesome: In the musical, things would never have turned into quite the tragedy it did if only Elphaba/Fiyero/Glinda had been a thing. There's enough subtext on all ends for someone to make a case for it too, but as usual they all suffer due to Poor Communication Kills.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Deedee Magno Hall played Nessarose in the 2006-2008 national tour. She would later become more well-known as the voice of Pearl from Steven Universe.
  • Ship Mates: Those who ship Gelphie (Glinda/Elphaba) usually ship Fiyerboq (Fiyero/Boq), sometimes as a way to Pair the Spares. Of course others mostly ship them because Fiyero becomes the scarecrow and Boq becomes the tin man. The two in the original series famously have enough Ho Yay to rival Glinda and Elphaba.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: It exists within the book fandom but it's more common in the musical fandom. Gelphie (Glinda/Elphaba) vs Fiyeraba (Fiyero/Elphaba) is the most common by far.
  • Signature Scene: The ending of "Defying Gravity", where Elphaba evades the Emerald City guards by taking flight and belting out her battle cry as her long cloak envelops the stage.
  • Signature Song: The musical has quite a few well-known numbers, but none approach "Defying Gravity" in fame or notoriety. In fact, if someone is generally unfamiliar with musical theater, there's a high chance that "Defying Gravity" is one of the only "musical songs" they are familiar with.
  • Spiritual Successor: There have been at least five movies made by Disney that have some strong parallels to the story, which were all released before the musical's actual film version:
    • Maleficent is basically Wicked with the titular character and the Moors Kingdom as stand-ins for Elphaba and the Land of Oz. The screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, actually wrote the screenplay of a Wicked movie abandoned in favor of the Broadway musical.
    • Oz the Great and Powerful, just like Wicked, is also an origin story for an important character in the Oz mythos, in this case Oscar Diggs, though we do see the birth of the Wicked Witch of the West. Just not how you'd expect it.
    • Frozen (2013) is a big-budget Animated Adaptation of Wicked with even Idina Menzel starring as an emotionally conflicted sorceress who lives alone in a castle.
    • Cruella also reveals the backstory of a famous villainess and gives her Adaptational Sympathy. One of the screenwriters, Dana Fox, went on to help write the Wicked movie adaptations.
    • Wish (2023) has its heroine Asha live in a seeming utopia overseen by a powerful, flashy wizard who considers making her his apprentice until she learns that he is hoarding most of the wishes of his adoring people and only magically granting (in a lottery system) ones that don't have any potential to threaten his rule, and objects to this, earning his enmity. When she ends up with a star's magic on her side and sets out to free the kingdom's wishes, he claims to his people that she is a traitor and encourages her capture. (Interestingly, said star magic grants animals sentience and speech, inverting how the Wizard's acts rob Talking Animals of such.)
  • Squick: As explained in the Stephen Schwartz biography book, Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked, in the song "For Good," the line "You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart" was originally written as "footprint on my heart" but changed because it was felt that the former would be this. His wife, Carole, was the first person he presented the song too and she said "It's just icky, it's like someone stepping on my heart."
  • Strawman Has a Point: Boq claiming that Elphaba was the reason Lion is so cowardly (not letting him "fight his own battles when he was young") is meant to be another case of the Wizard's propaganda against her. But this may be the one truth out of this. Both Elphaba and Fiyero knew that Lion was a Talking Animal yet decided to free him in the forest, as opposed to trying to find some other Animals to take care of him. This makes him a Wild Child by Oz's standards. It's likely that being left in a dangerous forest, which isn't really the best place for a lion cub to be raised, with no one to protect him (we don't even know if he was Raised by Wolves or not) really is the reason he's so scared of everything.
  • Tear Dryer: The ending leads to the inevitable. Elphaba is melted after being doused by a bucket of water thrown by Dorothy. As Glinda sobs over the death of her best friend, the "Scarecrow" stumbles onto the scene, opens up a trap-door, and a very much alive Elphaba pops up and is reunited with Fiyero.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While the two leading ladies both get a big showcase, it's been noted by some that their supporting cast are sidelined with fairly thankless roles.
    • Perhaps the worst case of this is the Wizard. His character is actually pretty interesting, what with his kind hearted nature and wanting to please people whose expectations were thrust upon him causing him to do evil and buy into his own hype. Unfortunately, he's mostly Out of Focus throughout the show and only has three scenes in the story. And then there's his final scene, where he learns he's Elphaba's father, and mournfully allows himself to be exiled. On paper this sounds like a huge moment, but the sparse dialogue and use of music makes the moment fly by making this major development feel quite rushed.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • After Act 1, Elphaba is said to have been liberating the talking animals in Oz. None of this is shown in action but only through dialogues. The one time she is shown to do it explicitly with the Flying Monkeys immediately ended in failure. In fact, the whole Animal oppression plot is brushed aside for more focus on the Love Triangle between Elphaba, Fiyero and Glinda.
    • The whole plot of The Wizard of Oz is rushed through in the latter half of Act 2 and mostly offstage, so the show jumps straight from "No Good Deed" to "March of the Witch Hunters" without giving the audience a chance to see Elphaba actually being wicked or reacting to the quest of Dorothy and her companions. While the musical's writers had valid reasons for not showing the heroes on stage proper other than the Tin Man and (very briefly) the Scarecrow, as they felt Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion were too iconic and would distract the audience from the story, and they obviously wanted to keep the Scarecrow's true identity a secret until the final scene, there's a missed opportunity for a few more scenes akin to the Catfight/Cornfield, that would explore what happens when Dorothy and her friends have just left or are about to arrive. In particular, seeing the Wizard and Morrible deciding to use Dorothy to try and kill Elphaba could have solved the previously mentioned issue of the Wizard being Out of Focus.
    • It would have been interesting to see the relationship between Dorothy and Fiyero, Boq and the now grown up Lion. While they could have gotten an Adaptation Relationship Overhaul since Dorothy was an in universe Scrappy in The Wicked Years, them being True Companions would be much more heartwarming and, quite frankly, hilarious. We could have even gotten more character development with the Canon Character All Along reveals; Fiyero could be torn between Elphaba and Dorothy and whether or not he chose to be a Love Interest or a Papa Wolf, and Boq could have been more of a Tragic Villain, showing that he actually does care for Dorothy and his friends, despite his bitterness towards Elphaba. Averted in some overseas productions, where Dorothy is not The Faceless and actually has a few lines and something fans hope will be explored in Wicked: For Good due to the inevitable Adaptation Expansion.
  • Threesome Subtext: Despite the show primarily going at a love triangle angle regarding Elphaba and Glinda's relationship with Fiyero, particularly as if Fiyero's relationship with Glinda was false and his love for Elphaba is real, there's some pretty strong subtext for genuine feelings among all three of them.
    • Apart from the fact that Fiyero is at one point engaged to Glinda but then later runs away with Elphaba, the entire story is drenched in Ho Yay between Elphaba and Glinda, with even their initial hatred of each other feeling much like Belligerent Sexual Tension.
    • Even though Fiyero later 'chooses' Elphaba, it should be noted he originally tried to get Glinda to run away with him so they could search for Elphaba together, before realizing that she wasn't willing to go along with it. He's clearly disappointed by this realization, especially given that up until that point they'd been commiserating over how awful it was to have to listen to other people badmouth Elphaba. This produces an arguable impression that if it were up to Fiyero they really would all be together, but if Glinda's going to stubbornly stick with what he's come to see as an unbearable environment, he'll settle for running away with just Elphaba. Likewise, Glinda's reprise of "I'm Not That Girl" could be interpreted as her being broken hearted not just because Fiyero left with Elphaba, but because they both left her behind.
    • Almost immediately after Fiyero and Elphaba affirm their love for each other (with a song that suggests that they engaged in coitus), Fiyero expresses his hope that Elphaba and Glinda make up with each other someday, and he starts to say "and we'll all..." before being interrupted.
    • Even though Fiyero points a rifle at Glinda in order to help Elphaba escape from some guards, Glinda voices that she's aware he never intended to actually harm her, and Fiyero apologizes for everything that's happened between them. When the guards take Fiyero away with the intention of punishing him, Glinda screams out for him, which is followed by a scene change where Elphaba, too, is screaming his name out of fear of what may be happening to him.
    • At the end of the story, when Elphaba and Fiyero are preparing to flee Oz, they share a moment of sadness and regret over the fact they can't tell Glinda they're alive and that they'll probably never see her again.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Boq can be this. His part in "March Of The Witch Hunters" is supposed to be him succumbing to the propaganda of Elphaba being a wicked witch, becoming no better than the Wizard and Morrible. He denies saying her name, either out of fear of being associated with her or hatred, declaring Elphaba no more, which is meant to paint him as selfish and cowardly. But when one looks at things from his perspective, it makes sense why he'd behave like this. He and the rest of the Munchkins had been living in effective slavery for years under the tyrannical rule of Nessa, who became infatuated with him simply because he was nice to her in college, so he has no reason not to doubt Elphaba's claims of innocence when he's seen the same thing happen to Nessa firsthand. Then when Nessa is magically given the ability to walk and he sees no need to stay with her any longer, he tries to leave and be with Glinda, only for Nessa to attempt to "magic spell" him into loving her, which causes his heart to shrivel up. When Elphaba saves his life by transforming him into the Tin Man, he reacts in horror and fear, and is later shown leading the mob against her; but while this might make him seem like an Ungrateful Bastard, several productions show that the process of turning into the Tin Man is horrifically painful and imply that Boq has Gone Mad from the Revelation of what he's endured, and he isn't aware of the fact that Elphaba only did it to save him from dying — he wakes up in his new body after Elphaba leaves, understandably freaks out and runs away, all while Nessa is screaming that it's her sister's fault — so as far as he knows, Elphaba decided to add to Nessa's torture by transforming him on a cruel whim. With all of that, it's hardly surprising that he isn't 'grateful'. Later on, if one thinks that "March of The Witch Hunters" takes place when Elphaba has captured Dorothy (see Alternative Character Interpretation above) and (unless this has been Adapted Out, which there's no indication that it has) threatened to kill her unless Dorothy gives her the shoes, Boq comes across less like someone who jumped to conclusions and turned bloodthirsty, wanting to kill someone who's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, and more of a Papa Wolf who wants to save a little girl (who he's come to care for and who just wants to go home) from someone he once knew who, at this point of the story, has snapped and Would Hurt a Child. In addition, the musical attempts to tie itself to the 1939 movie through some changes and Shout Outs, and in the movie when the Wicked Witch dies, the Tin Man has a look of horror and looks like he's about to cry. In the context of the movie, it's supposed to show the Tin Man is so caring that he couldn't bear to see the Wicked Witch die. With the context of the musical, it gives the impression that Boq, for all his boasts of taking satisfaction with heartlessly killing Elphaba, felt nothing but sympathy for her at her (apparent) death and possibly had a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • Writer Cop Out: Somewhat. In the book, as in the original movie, Elphaba dies after Dorothy throws water on her. Apparently wanting a more family-friendly ending for the musical, it turns out that she was Faking the Dead. However, as mentioned on the main page, it's still a Bittersweet Ending in that she and Fiyero can never return to Oz nor tell Glinda that they're alive and well due to the risk of them being discovered and for Glinda to be found harboring a criminal and a traitor and it ties into the Broken Aesop as mentioned above.
  • The Woobie:

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