I Loved the Wedding of Fiyero and Glinda
Among the complaints about the second half of the Wicked stage musical is how it handles the romance. Specifically, the love triangle between Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero. I’ve read the synopsis online and seen clips, so I’m not the best authority on the matter. However, even I can tell that Act II used up too much time on the romance. It’s a big reason why I think it was a good idea to split the story up, as it gives everyone greater agency in what happens. Especially when it comes to the Wedding of Glinda and Fiyero.
In the original musical, the plot of Fiyero and Glinda’s never had the chance to stretch its legs. The movie fixes all that by having it be the driving force behind a good third of the film. Part of the reason why Elphaba comes out of hiding is hearing that her best friend and the guy they both love are getting married. That leads to the Wizard and Glinda making one last overture to talk Elphaba into joining their side, to the tune of the toe-tapping vaudeville number “Wonderful.” That had to have been one of my favorite songs in the movie. But because the Wizard didn’t think of freeing all the Animals, that leads to a stampede, the wedding crashed, and Fiyero deciding to run off with Elphaba.
The look of absolute betrayal that Ariana gives the two as Glinda is amazing. She really thought they were cheating on her, when we know it wasn’t like that. It leads to Glind making a knee-jerk comment that will ultimately seal everyone’s fates. I’ve seen how runaway emotions make people do things they regret, but I think that Wicked: For Good manages to make it as believable as possible. As for Elphaba and Figeryo’s scandalociously romantic night… it was alright. I’m not really interested in the romantic aspects of Wicked, but it could lay the ground for something unprecedented.
But now it’s time to get into The Wizard of Oz!
Dorothy Still Doesn’t Have Much of a Role
If you haven’t seen the stage version of Wicked, you should know now that despite it inevitably intersecting with The Wizard of Oz, that more or less happens offstage. The Wizard of Oz is Dorothy’s own story, and Wicked is the story of Elphaba and Glinda. We never even see Dorothy in person in the stage version. Some people see this is as a good thing, as they feel Dorothy would take too much attention away. On the other hand, I’ve seen a fanfic where Dorothy plays a bigger role in the story, so there are some fans who wish that would happen. So when people started seeing Dorothy in the trailers for Wicked: For Good, that got everyone talking. Maybe Dorothy was going to play a bigger role this time around instead of being this unknowing pawn in everything that’s happening.
Those hopes…are not fulfilled.
Much like in the source material, Dorothy Gale is all but a non-factor in the story of Wicked. She does physically appear on screen, but we never get a chance to see her face. The closest we get is when she’s running past Glinda’s hiding spot when the bucket of water is thrown. Beyond that, though, she’s more or less a MacGuffin person. Which I think was a mistake, because it would be interesting to see how Dorothy reacts to learning about Elphaba and everything that’s happened to her. Would she feel bad for her? Would she believe the lies about her because she doesn’t know better? Better still, maybe Elphaba could have told her the truth and gotten her in on what she does next. It would’ve been an improvment on the story, if you ask me. Instead, that sadly remains the realm of fanfiction.
That Twister Was Scary!
I will say this, though. Wicked: For Good manages to up the fear factor of the twister. Tornadoes are one of my greatest fears in life, so much so that I’ve vowed to never travel through Tornado Alley during tornado season whatsoever. So, you can imagine just how scary it was seeing the twister in the OG 1939 film. But despite how scary it is, there’s still a sense of whimsy when you see a man in a rowboat going past. That whimsy is nowhere to be found when Madame Morrible has it barreling towards Munchkinland. I’m not even sure if she intended for the tornado to take Nessarose out, or if she deliberately used it to isekai Dorothy from Kansas. If it’s the former, that makes Dorothy and Toto random bystanders that almost got killed. If it’s the latter, then the implication is that Morrible was powerful enough to affect the weather on Earth, while Oz is implied to exist in another dimension. That’s pure nightmare fuel!
What makes it even worse, though, is that this marks a first in Ozian lore. In every other version, we never see the Wicked Witch of the East’s death. In Wicked: For Good, we get to see Nessa’s final moments as the Gale house comes barrelling towards her. She may not have been a good person, but she didn’t deserve to die like that!
And with that, we get to the finale. Which I am just going to spoil for you if you don’t already know.
