How about for the Wicked movie they cast a young version of Elphaba and Glinda to do the Dear Old Shiz to Defying Gravity section and then have Kristen and Idina do No One Mourns The Wicked and Thank Goodness to Finale….. Because the queens have still got it and nobody does For Good like Kristen and Idina
Saving all my love for my favorite musical. Happy 15th anniversary! <3
Because I knew you… I have been changed for good.
Beginning of Act 2 they say how water will melt Elphaba & Fiyero’s like…what? Are you listening to this, people believe anything, blah blah…
And he says this TO GLINDA.
So….does Glinda really believe that Elphie melted/died? Even though she was told to her face that that wouldn’t happen?
Am I missing something?
This concept drives me crazy every time I think about it.
This is an excellent question and one I haven’t explored before so lets dissect the Melting Scene and see if we can find some answers. First things first this is the dialogue:
“What was that?” “Hurry. No one must know you were here. Hide yourself. Hide.” ♪ And Goodness knows the Wicked lives are lonely. Goodness knows the wicked die alone. ♪
Alright. When Elphaba tells her to hide she draws a curtain between them. This is obviously so the audience cannot see the trapdoor under the stage. Also so the actors don’t have to literally throw a bucket of water. Yikes what a mess that’d make on stage.
BUT. It also obstructs Glinda’s view. If we follow the canon that Glinda knew that a bucket of water couldn’t kill Elphaba (as you pointed out: Fiyero mentions it as being stupid) it can still be that Glinda had to hide and didn’t see everything that was going on. She probably had to make out from sounds alone what was going on, so when she hears Elphaba’s scream she suspects the worst.
Canon supports this when the danger is over and Glinda crawls out of her hiding place and she says a soft “Elphie?” but nobody replies. I’d say this is her cue to believe Elphaba is dead. If she wasn’t, she would’ve answered.
Secondly, in the song sung before the melting we have Goodness = Glinda and Wicked = Elphaba (I love it when Glinda actually sees herself as wicked too but that’s an entirely different analysis) so we know that Glinda knows that Elphaba died alone. We can already see so much guilt on Glinda’s part dripping in. She died alone. But Glinda was there. But she was not by Elphaba’s side. She did nothing to stop it.
I would almost call it a day and say the writers found a loophole in their narrative so Glinda believes Elphaba died but didn’t see the cause and thus never knew it was water that did her in. BUT. There’s a glaring contradiction to be found during No One Mourns The Wicked, which in a chronological timeline happens after the melting scene:
Because there’s been so much rumor and speculation (…) let me set the record straight. According to the Time Dragon Clock the melting occurred at the 13th hour. The direct result of a bucket of water thrown by a female child. Yes. The Wicked Witch of the West is dead.
Now this exposition is mostly for the audience to let them know we’re in The Wizard of Oz, but it’s said in-character so we must take it at face value. We can still point out that perhaps the Time Dragon Clock mentioned that the cause of death was a bucket of water as well as the time. After all, it’s like a prophecy thing in the book. We never get to know how Glinda acquired that particular information (following the logic she didn’t actually see how Elphaba died).
But at any rate she now knows the verdict that Elphaba died was by a bucket of water despite knowing this could never be true. Not only did Fiyero point it out in Thank Goodness (making it canon) but she was also roommates with Elphaba. What, did she never see Elphaba walk out of the SHOWER in all that time living together? Drank some fucking water? She’s not allergic in this timeline so she would do those things, right?
In Maguire’s book Elphaba is allergic to water and even though the melting scene is never explicitly mentioned and there are many rumors throughout the book series that Elphaba is in fact not dead. But she also is no longer present so there’s something true to the words when it’s said that Elphaba is dead. The reader and the characters are both second-guessing whether she’s alive or not.
But because Schwartz didn’t want to leave it on the most dire note possible he kept Elphaba alive. By doing this he made the audience aware but not the characters. That’s a tremendous error in the narrative: Glinda would know Elphaba isn’t dead by the information given to her.
She would never mention those findings in NOMTW because it’s through the point of view of the Ozians and she doesn’t want them to go on another witch hunt.
The Finale however, is through the POV of Glinda. So following the logic she:
So when she sings “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better? But because I knew you. Because I knew you I have been changed…” it’s not to mourn Elphaba, it’s to call for her. Glinda knows Elphaba is not dead but gone. And she is so fucking confused why Elphaba wouldn’t just reveal herself to Glinda. MOREOVER. Elphaba answers that call.
So now I somehow have to fucking believe Glinda just accepts that??? That Elphaba is still alive and Glinda stays in her place forever. Even though in the books it’s fucking canon that every single thing Glinda does after Elphaba’s death is to honor her memory. Bitch PLEASE. You cannot under any circumstance make me believe Glinda never went searching for Elphaba after this. Especially after knowing she isn’t actually dead.
Stephen Schwartz, I’d like a fucking word with you!!
It’s been FIFTEEN YEARS and at long last, someone puts forth evidence for our least favorite headcanon: Glinda knows Elphaba is still alive.
Also, while I completely support Glinda desperately searching for Elphaba post-musical, you can also consider this: Glinda doesn’t. She 1) knows that Elphaba isn’t safe in Oz and 2) probably still blames herself for everything (there was that moment, that brief, excruciating moment, when she thought she had witnessed Elphaba’s murder. She still hears her scream, late at night when she doesn’t sleep).
So what if Glinda never searches for Elphaba? She stays in the Emerald City and makes Oz better, fulfills her role of Glinda the Good. And with all that guilt, every time she thinks of leaving, of searching for her, she talks herself out of it, convincing herself that Elphaba didn’t just leave, she left her.
Hey @lily-onher-grave quick question, what the actual fuck………
“Every night after we sang “For Good” we just wanted to kiss”
Caroline and Kara know what tf is up
Can’t wait till I get blocked by the official wicked twitter lmao
this is?? a wedding photo????
@wickedlyqueer posted the official broadway Glinda and Elphaba picture and said it looked like a wedding picture (which it does) and then said in the tags that if you were to put a black and white filter on it it would look like an old timey wedding picture of like grandparents and like I loved that idea
so here you go
Old timey witch wedding💚💕
The “my little random moments of pleasure” series: Short sleeves *sobs*
Catrin!Cas
Some of these pictures are of lava rock, and others are of smokers’ lungs—can you tell us how many of each? Even if you can’t, one thing is for certain. Cigarette smoking can harm nearly every organ in your body.
star wars has such a good sci-fi aesthetic. all the sci-fi these days looks so…… i-pad-esque, y’know? like Apple lived on into the year 3000 and produces everything. but star wars. star wars’ style looks like a microwave you’d find in your uncle’s garage. like the business calculator your mom used. like a SNES. DURABLE. no gloss.
Boys and girls of every age Wouldn’t you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see This, our town of Halloween
