Who wants to read my disturbingly longwinded hyper specific essay about the lighting in Wicked and how it sets up the dynamics in each of Elphaba’s relationships with all the other characters?
Just kidding, no one does because that’s an insane way to spend your time, but also I already wrote it and I’m my own target audience anyway so it’s…y’know, it’s here, it’s fine. I will read it to myself.
So at this point I think we (me) have all seen Jon Chu talking about the “truth is in the dark/lies are in the light” approach they took when it came to the lighting in Wicked. And obviously that’s not a hard-and-fast rule, sometimes it’s circumstantial, there always needs to be a light source, sometimes the curtains really are just blue - plus I do think there’s something to be said for death of the author/director, and you should always take several grains of salt when it comes to word-of-god interpretations without any further contextual analysis, art doesn’t happen in a vacuum etc…
BUT - the “truth is in the darkness/lies are in the light” is such a specific and identifiable approach I thought it’d be fun to do a rewatch of both movies with that framing in mind because I’m a normal person with normal interests - and what I found was that it’s not even just a simple case of dark=truth/light=lies, it’s that they use that lighting spectrum to establish or develop Elphaba’s relationships and inform what they signify to her and how she grows as a character.
And I got excited. As I do. So. Here. If you have quite literally nothing better to do with your time:
Starting off with the Goat himself, Dr. Dillamond. It is all about the shadows with this guy.
Context first.
Dr. Dillamond is our sort of keeper of truth character - he’s our first introduction to the idea that there is a very targeted attack being made on the Animals that isn’t apparent to the average human because, frankly, it doesn’t affect them and it’s more comfortable to not acknowledge it - and to that end, it’s not a safe topic for Animals to discuss openly, even amongst themselves.
We can assume Elphaba has at least some awareness of class inequality when it comes to the Animals - when you think about all the Animals we meet throughout both movies, there’s Dulcibear who served as Elphaba and Nessa’s nanny, there’s Feldspur who serves as chauffeur to Fiyero, there’s the Fox and Bats who serve as attendants to Glinda, there’s the Monkeys who serve as the Emerald Guard for the Wizard…generally speaking, if you see an Animal, even one who is treated well or employed by one of the “good guys” they are noticeably in a second-class position of servitude in relation to their human counterparts.
Dr. Dillamond is the only real exception to the second-class rule given his position as professor at this prestigious university. He states himself that he is one of the last, during a lecture which takes place in total darkness, the only light source being from the projector displaying the history he’s trying to teach.
As previously mentioned - the truth of what’s currently happening to the Animals is not a safe subject to discuss openly, it can only be communicated in hiding - so in Something Bad, they rely almost entirely on shadows to create a visual to go along with what Dr. Dillamond is telling his colleagues. It’s literally darkness hiding in the light, revealing the truth obscured by lies - something Elphaba witnesses while hiding in shadow herself.
Elphaba’s relationship with Dr. Dillamond is one of trust and kinship - Elphaba has always been treated as an outsider, so she identifies with a lot of his struggles - but she’s still human, and quite a bit of privilege is inherently afforded her because of that. The use of shadows creates this sort of shared space between her and Dr. Dillamond - an exchange of the things they have in common despite their obvious differences, and an invitation to be open with each other and show that they can trust each other with the truth.
WHILE I’M ON THE SUBJECT OF SHADOWS
Let’s talk the Wizard.
And by “shadows” - I actually mean the opposite! We’re talking SILHOUETTES babey! (no one is as excited about this as i am, i need to calm down)
Fucking delightful to me on this rewatch to discover that they set up an inverse between Dr. Dillamond and the Wizard by having one use shadows, and one use silhouettes in their respective expository songs (Something Bad for Dilly, Sentimental Man for Oscar).
Both shadows and silhouettes play with the concept of a dark shape being brought into stark focus by a direct light source, but they differ based on perspective, and the positioning of the object in question with regards to the light.
SO! Visualization time - say you’re lookin at an object in front of a wall - let’s make it simple and say that object is a chair. And next to you, you’ve got a light (the lies) shining directly on the chair. If all you’re looking at is the chair, you’re only going to see what the light (the lies) are shining directly on. BUT! If you look at the wall behind the chair, you’ll see the shadow that’s been cast - ie the darkness, ie the truth hidden behind the lies. Hence - Dr. Dillamond’s use of shadows in Something Bad.
CONVERSELY - WITH SILHOUETTES, if we take that same chair, but now the light is coming from directly behind it with you in front, we’re technically looking at the chair, but we’re also looking directly into the light (the lies), so the shape we’re seeing, while technically dark, is all about obscurity rather than revelation.
SO LET’S GO BACK TO SENTIMENTAL MAN! Where Something Bad is using shadows to portray Dr. Dillamond’s truth about what’s happening to the Animals, Sentimental Man is using a silhouette of the Wizard himself - trick-of-the-light showmanship, literally casting himself in a certain light, so all Elphaba can see of him is the endearing little tale he’s spinning about being just the most lovable relatable little guy - a cutout caricature of himself with the rest obscured by light.
See this:
vs this:
Simple version - shadows are the truth hiding behind the lie, silhouettes are the lies configured in a way to resemble the truth.
WHICH IS VERY FUN TO ME!
BUT ALSO WHILE I’M HERE - what’s interesting is that beyond Sentimental Man, the lighting in the rest of the scenes solely between Elphaba and the Wizard is actually pretty neutral! And I think that’s important, because post-Sentimental Man, Elphaba is no longer operating under the illusion that the Wizard is a good person OR a powerful person - she’s seen him for what he truly is: just a man. She and the Wizard are titans by title only, and the more neutral lighting between them after Sentimental Man reflects that.
Anyway VERY excited about the use of shadows vs silhouettes when it comes to Dr. Dillamond and the Wizard - really fun juxtaposition given that they both serve as idol/mentor/father figures to Elphaba at varying points throughout the story.
SPEAKING OF HORRIBLE ROLE MODELS
Morbs.
Now Morrible’s lighting situation is a little less precise. On the whole - up until the Big Reveal in Act 1 that she’s actually evil - her scenes with Elphaba are typically in the daylight. What’s interesting about her lighting in relation to Elphaba is that it seems to want to highlight Elphaba herself, with an emphasis on the idea that Only Morrible is capable of bringing Elphaba into the light.
The best visual for this is the impending storm just after Elphaba has received the summons to meet the Wizard. Clouds start rollin in, but Morrible uses her magic to disperse the darkness and bring the sun back to shine on Elphaba.
Obviously a major point of this scene is to foreshadow Morrible bringing about the cyclone that kills Nessa and brings Dorothy to Oz - plus a nod to the idea that Elphaba might melt in the rain - but purely from a lighting standpoint, Morrible tampering with the natural phenomenon of a rainstorm in order to make the sun shine on Elphaba, her chosen protégée, creating an unnatural but benevolent-looking lightness surrounding her to keep her enthralled…excellent work, Morbs, you complete fucking psychopath.
SPEAKING OF THINGS KILLING NESSA
Here’s Nessa.
I’ll be honest, given that Nessa is such an important person to Elphaba, their lighting situation doesn’t stand out a whole lot unfortunately. In Act 1, it’s mostly neutral lighting - and potentially this is simply because it’s an already-established relationship for them, rather than a new dynamic being set up with someone Elphaba has never met before.
That said, I think it’s fair to say the lighting is quite a bit darker in their final scene together in the lead-up to Boq’s transformation; much of the lighting actually comes from the shoes themselves, drawing starker attention to this very fraught dynamic between them.
This scene is the first time we’re seeing Nessa, who has always been very proud and fought to assert herself despite people trying to infantilize her - showing an uglier, more wounded side that’s willing to take the hit to her dignity if it means keeping Boq - and it’s also a moment for Elphaba to show a more desperate fixation on needing to prove she can do something good with her magic, since up until now she’s only managed to cause harm.
Other than this scene though, I’m gonna say they didn’t do a ton of interesting things with the lighting for Nessa in regards to Elphaba, which is kind of a bummer, but that’s my eternal grievance with Wicked in general is the lack of Nessa/Thropp sister development. #personal
SO NOW LET’S GET INTO IT with Fiyero and Glinda, sort of inarguably Elphaba’s most significant relationships in the story.
And just like I think there’s an intentional inverse to the shadow/silhouette lighting for Dr. Dillamond and the Wizard that’s meant to be compared and contrasted, I VERY firmly believe the lighting for Fiyero and Glinda is meant to be compared and contrasted as well.
So! FIYERO TIME!
By and large, his scenes solely with Elphaba take place in the dark, right from their very first encounter onward. I’m actually gonna give just a quick visual lineup for reference so you see what I’m talking about (sorry I had to make them tiny, didn't realize tumblr had an image limit):
There’s an honest simplicity to their relationship - for Fiyero, Elphaba is truth; she’s the first to call him out on his bullshit, she’s the first to believe he’s capable of being more than just the dancing-through-life guy, she’s the first to say Hey I think you’re actually kinda depressed and you should probably work on being a better person.
That particular conversation happens at twilight, literally a changing of the light, signifying a change in Fiyero - he’s just witnessed not only Elphaba’s magic, but Elphaba’s fierce conviction in getting the Lion cub to safety. For once, he’s looking at someone who's unafraid of being their complete, earnest self, heart on her sleeve, angry but quick to put others before herself at the risk of her own safety and reputation. Fiyero has clearly never experienced that before, and it does trigger him to start wondering if maybe he’s capable of the same.
That said, Fiyero’s relationship with Elphaba herself is really his only guidance. In Act 2, he ingratiates himself into the Wizard’s employ and becomes the face of his military surveillance presence across Oz and in doing so propagates both the Wizard’s unchecked authority and the warped narrative of the Witch - but it’s all done with the sole purpose of finding Elphaba, and, ideally, ensuring her safety.
Truth is in the darkness, but for Fiyero, I think it’s fair to say that darkness is also tunnel vision. As a prince, and having put himself in the Wizard’s employ, he’s in a prime position to carry out Elphaba’s vision in secret - but he doesn’t. He does nothing to help the Animals, he does nothing to expose the Wizard, he does nothing to defend the Witch’s reputation - his one and only aim is to find Elphaba, make sure she’s safe, and whisk her off to his summer palace. The darkness of Elphaba as his true north sets him up as the perfect devoted love interest who will follow her to the ends of the earth no matter what, but not someone who will act independently without her influence.
For Elphaba, the darkness is simpler - she can be angry, or self righteous, or just…green - and Fiyero accepts it all. He misunderstands a lot (the Ozdust, for example, projecting himself and thinking Elphaba doesn’t care what other people think when in fact the opposite is true) but Elphaba can be very comfortable in the knowledge that if she lashes out, if she has a strong opinion, if she gets angry, Fiyero will weather it without flinching. That darkness is a consistent level of acceptance and security between them.
Back to the Lion cub rescue scene, Elphaba’s magic chooses to spare Fiyero because she’s seen both the carefree, rule-breaking Fiyero, but also the Fiyero who genuinely isn’t bothered by her appearance or social standing, making him the ideal ally to rescue the cub even though she’s had very little prior interaction with him.
An important thing to note when they’re in the woods with the cub, is that Elphaba’s just had the Ozdust/Popular scenes with Galinda, who accidentally revealed that she’s fabricated most of her existence because that’s the only way to survive the world. So Elphaba’s looking at Fiyero and thinking, You’ve probably done something similar - maybe I judged you too quickly. That, in combination with Fiyero’s easy acceptance of her appearance and willingness to help her with the cub, allows Elphaba to see through the careless affect Fiyero puts on, and then call him on it. Hence the twilit lighting of the Lion cub scene - both she and Fiyero are quite literally seeing each other in a different light, and Fiyero is actually seeing himself in a different light because of Elphaba.
As previously mentioned however, his development stagnates there: unless Elphaba herself is directly involved, he doesn’t act.
Now what is SUPREMELY INTERESTING TO ME, is the fact that all of Elphaba and Fiyero’s scenes are in the dark/mostly-dark EXCEPT their final scene, in which they are both walking directly into the light.
That is a HUGE change. WAY too huge of a change to brush off as either incidental, or simple "the lovers walk off into the sunset together" happy ending.
So! Couple ways to interpret it!
One - you’ve got your traditional interpretation of Hope: Elphaba and Fiyero walking into a brighter future, leaving the darkness of a lifetime of strife behind.
Wicked being a tragedy, I’m gonna say that’s a pretty generous interpretation of that shot. Not necessarily inaccurate! I think there are layers! And I think "lovers walking off into the sunset together" is part of it! But the Pure Hope angle is definitely generous given the nature of the story itself.
Now if we want to talk specifically about Jon Chu’s truth/lies lighting approach, it brings a very different weight to things to see Elphaba and Fiyero, who up until this point have always been in the dark, walking into the light.
One interpretation is the reality of what they’ve chosen - both are living as dead, forging a future where they will forever have to live a lie if they want to survive. Interesting narrative choice for Fiyero, who has always lived a lie and has only managed to evolve past that where Elphaba herself is concerned - and Elphaba, who has always refused to live a lie, now succumbing to the practicality of it, both of them committing to a future where lying or hiding is a necessity. Worth noting - in the shot above we get both shadow and silhouette at the same time.
Some people have also mentioned queer/comphet interpretations as well, which I have a lil affinity for, though I am gonna hazard a guess that probably wasn't Jon Chu's intention. Still very intrigued by it though.
There’s also the simpler interpretation which is that of aesthetic - the harsh light emphasizes the barrenness of the the Impassable Desert and the choice they’ve made - and honestly, it’s just a great visual, I love the set design there.
Personally, I think it’s probably some combo of all of the above. But if we’re taking Jon Chu’s approach to lighting as intentionally as possible - it really is worth addressing the fact that Elphaba and Fiyero are walking into the light at the end, when every scene between them up until then has been in the dark.
AND it’s not just light in this scene - the light is intense enough that Elphaba literally has to shield her eyes from it, and turn toward the darker sky behind for a brief moment of relief.
And in that darkness, even across this expanse of time and space, is Glinda.
The two of them share a moment just them, in the sanctuary of this small moment of darkness, before Elphaba turns again toward the light to join Fiyero.
So with that said…LET’S TALK GLINDA.
Lighting-wise? The. Exact. Opposite. Of. Fiyero.
Where Fiyero’s first scene with Elphaba is in total darkness, Glinda’s first scene with Elphaba is in broad daylight. High noon. That sun could not be shining brighter, the light could not be lighting lighter.
FANTASTIC way to set that dynamic up, because this is our first introduction to both of them, when they’re at their most guarded. Galinda is at her most insufferably performative and self-aggrandizing; Elphaba is at her most rigid, dismissive, and judgmental. Every aspect about their meeting is this kind of battle of the facade - and yes, I am counting Elphaba’s attitude as a facade even though she’s technically being honest in the words she’s saying.
See this is something I love about Elphaba: she never lies - she’s INCAPABLE of lying - BUT she armors herself so heavily against the cruelty of others, she ends up cutting off her own sense of self and ability to open up to anyone, creating this defensive persona that ends up coming across as callous, arrogant, and intolerant.
Of course as we get to know her, we learn that she’s this very soft-hearted, loving person with a strong sense of morality, who has all these starry-eyed dreams of meeting the Wizard and making the world a better place and finding some sense of purpose in her magic. Worth noting, she also very much longs for a sense of normalcy in her outward appearance, and truly does want to be accepted by her peers.
Obviously she’d throw herself out the window before admitting that there’s a part of her that yearns for acceptance from people who have only ever treated her as sub-human - there’s a level of shame in her desire to be accepted and loved. So, she armors herself against it, and presents a front which, while not a lie, is definitely not an accurate depiction of who she really is.
So that’s facade number one in this bright as fuck first meeting between the two leads.
Facade number two is Galinda, and her obsession with needing the entire world to think she’s perfect. Like Elphaba, her facade has been in the works since she was a child - we see this in the baby-Galinda scene in Act 2 when she’s incapable of doing magic in front of her friends, but when one of them assumes she made the rainbow appear, she allows them to believe it.
The point of that scene isn't to suggest some Secret Tragic Backstory - it's there very specifically to illustrate the beginning of Galinda's belief that her entire existence hinges on what others think of her. She’s just failed to do the one thing she’s ever truly wanted to accomplish for herself, and is told by Mama Upland it doesn’t matter, no need to work for anything, they all love you, as long as they love you everything will turn out perfectly. Now smile. (worth a mention - Morrible actually fosters a similar sentiment for adult-Glinda, just with a crueler twist)
But Mama Upland actually has good intentions when she says that! Unfortunately, baby-Galinda’s takeaway from that moment is They only love you because they THINK you made the rainbow appear, they love you because you tricked them into believing you’re flawless, and if they ever find out that you’re actually a fraud, that love will go away, and you’ll have nothing, not even the magic you’d work yourself to the bone to be able to have.
Simpler still: you’re only as good as the last lie you told, so make sure that lie lasts, no matter the cost.
Addendum: make sure you believe the lie, too. And smile.
So these are the defenses Elphaba and Galinda are armored with in their first meeting - it’s no fucking wonder the lighting is as bright as humanly possible - neither of them has ever let anyone see the real them before. But here comes Elphaba with a wrecking ball to expose Galinda’s facade in front of everyone after Galinda tries to use her to decorate her stupid flashy facade.
From then on they are LOCKED on getting under each other’s armor.
For once in her life, someone is looking at Elphaba and hating her not for being a horrifying green monster, but for being just a human, while Galinda is being hated for the first time ever and being accused of being just a human. They cannot stop picking and scratching, trying to figure each other out, like What is it about you, what gives you the right to look me in the eye and not see me the way other people see me, how can you possibly not be fooled by this persona I’ve perfected - but with that much clawing away at each other’s armor, inevitably they end up digging too deep and hitting something real and vulnerable, and accidentally end up truly humanizing each other.
This brings us to their first scene in the dark together (you can make an argument for WITF, which interestingly is dark only in the beginning; the truth is in the questioning rather than in the answer, do with that as you will) - but ANYWAY, the first FULL scene in the dark is the Ozdust Duet.
The spare lighting they do use focuses on specific color schemes - most notably, it makes Galinda’s skin appear green for a moment after she’s turned away from Pfannee and Shenshen’s bid for her to act fucking normal, choosing instead to stand before Elphaba. That moment of green-skin lighting in the dark is Galinda stepping outside herself for the first time and realizing the damage she’s done, but it’s also Elphaba looking at Galinda and seeing this moment of green skin, both of them reflected in each other. It’s a change of perspective, a change of intention, an attempt on both their parts to meet each other unarmored.
AND FROM THEREON IN - motherfucker, when I tell you in Every Single Scene, the lighting between Elphaba and Glinda is never the same. Ever. And this is where I think it gets SUPER interesting comparing and contrasting with Fiyero.
Where Elphaba and Fiyero’s lighting is a constant dark to emphasize the simple honesty of Fiyero’s single-minded devotion to Elphaba, the lighting between Elphaba and Glinda emphasizes all the ways in which they are CONSTANTLY challenging and changing each other. There is no insta-change for them, it’s incremental, it’s clumsy, it’s inconsistent, it’s riddled with complications that are both outside their control, and also very much in their control. So when it comes to lighting, we’re working with the whole spectrum of light and dark and color and monochrome and natural light and artificial light and refraction and shadow.
Like just - look, okay, I’m gonna give a quick rundown so you see what I’m talking about. So! Post-Ozdust Duet, here’s the lighting in each (major) individual scene between the girls:
POPULAR
Really fun lighting with this one! Because it is fairly well-lit, and depending on the shot, the light source is either natural light coming through the windows, OR it’s from the hyper-intense dressing-room-esque lights Galinda has at her mirrors and dressers!
At this point in their friendship, they’re cautiously letting down their defenses - and what Galinda has learned is that Elphaba! Is! So! Vulnerable! On top of everything else, she’s just learned that Elphaba thinks she’s to blame for her mother’s death and Nessa’s inability to walk. She’s horrified. She wants to make Elphaba invincible again, so she’s gonna teach her to put on the EXACT armor Galinda herself has always worn.
The lighting is SUCH an interesting choice here because Galinda is just blissfully telling Elphaba that she’s fabricated almost her entire existence and that’s the only way to succeed in life and here’s how you do it just like me - I’m gonna make the world love you the way they love me, because I love you, so if they see you the way I see you, they’ll love you, and everything will be GREAT, this is a very healthy way to live! It’s SO misguided, but it comes from such a genuine place, so it plays with half-light and veiled light and vanity-light. Very delightful combination of sincerity and self-destructive masking at the same time.
So Galinda waxes stupid poetic about how to fake it until you make it, but when she finally stops talking for five seconds and actually looks at Elphaba with her own two eyes instead of with the eyes of the imaginary audience she always has in her head, the primary light source is natural light coming from outside and she surprises them both with the unfiltered realization, “you’re beautiful.”
She didn’t start that way! That’s very important! Galinda had an agenda in the beginning! But finally in this shot where a mirror isn’t lit up by a thousand dressing room lights, where the primary lighting is natural, a literal dawning of realization is happening.
DEFYING GRAVITY
Largely in the dark, this one! It’s darkest in the beginning as Elphaba takes a deep breath and settles into this new truth, committing herself to an unflinching look at the world as it really is as opposed to the fantasy world the Wizard tried to sell her. Glinda reaches for her hand in the dark, and as is so often the case with them, the intentions are true, but they fall short when compared to the reality of the world outside them. We’re looking at these two very different girls who love each other dearly but are realizing that love isn’t enough - Glinda is unwilling to relinquish the safety of a world that loves her for the mask she’s perfected, and Elphaba is unwilling to compromise her stark morality and - not for nothing - her pride.
The scene takes place at dusk - darkness is falling quickly, no stopping it. Elphaba and Glinda are frantically trying to understand each other, trying to force a real answer out of each other - how could you possibly compromise what I know you know is right for your own comfort - how could you possibly burn the one bridge that could’ve supported your grander goals - how can you not see what you’re sacrificing by staying - how can you not see what you’re sacrificing by leaving.
It’s a struggle, but ultimately they come to a place of acceptance. They’re two very different people, with very different experiences, and very different ties to the world - surely that’s not enough to destroy what they have - so this is a parting of the ways, that doesn’t mean it’s the end, this could all turn out eventually, you once said look it’s tomorrow, so there’s still tomorrow.
There’s sorrow in their parting, but no bitterness.
Not yet.
The sun plunges, Elphaba ascends, and Glinda is led into the false security of the Palace, neither of them realizing that in parting ways, they’ve both been set up as pawns for the regime.
BALCONY/BOUDOIR SCENE
The first time we see them reunite since Defying Gravity, it’s on Glinda’s balcony, in complete darkness, and at first they’re only capable of saying each other’s names - Elphaba, devastatingly, calls Glinda “Galinda.”
It’s a very brief but intense moment in the dark, then Glinda quickly ushers Elphaba inside to The Boudoir - and now we’re fully illuminated again as Elphaba steps into the inner sanctum of every lie Glinda has spun for herself to keep herself afloat in denial so she doesn’t have to deal with the guilt or shame of the decisions she’s made.
The energy is by turn stilted and intense between them - Elphaba makes a point of separating them, putting up her defenses despite being the one to seek Glinda out in the first place. So much of the scene is spent with them just looking at each other. They go from outside city-dark to highly-curated interior lighting, both of them trying to get a handle on where they stand with regards to each other - are they still allowed to love each other, are they allowed to be angry with each other, what does it mean that you left, what does it mean that you stayed behind, what does it mean that you came back, what does it mean that you let me in?
WONDERFUL
Building off the uncertainty of the Balcony/Boudoir scene, we get the INSANE lighting of Wonderful, which pitches very tumultuously from dark to spinning lights of color and back again. When the Wizard is the main speaker, the lighting is neutral - but when it’s just Elphaba and Glinda, or when Glinda is the one making the appeal, we get the darkness of the broom swing scene and the alternating lights that give Elphaba’s skin a pink glow and Glinda’s a green glow, followed by the rainbow lights in the final section.
I know including Glinda in Wonderful is kind of divisive for some - personally, I think it was necessary for the movie version. In the stage version you can get away with musical-logic where a ragtime ditty with the Wizard would be enough to sweep Elphaba up in the fantasy that maybe this could work - but in the movie version, they did such a good job establishing just how deep Elphaba’s feelings of hatred and betrayal are for the Wizard, that musical-logic ragtime ditty just wouldn’t quite cut it.
Bringing Glinda in as part of that to me is what sells that scene in the movie version. Glinda here is the ultimate lure for Elphaba - not just because Elphaba loves her, but because of what Glinda represents to her: the first brief time in her life when someone looked at her and saw her simply as human, someone beautiful and vulnerable and worth loving, someone who could change the world for the better.
The final part of Wonderful is the complete spectrum of color spinning around them. It makes several callbacks to the Ozdust Duet - not just the dance itself, but the lighting, illuminating different skin tones for both of them - but unlike the broom swing, it does’t limit itself to just pink and green.
This is Elphaba grasping at what could have been and what could be if she gives in - seeing this person she loves so much being completely entrenched with her sworn enemy - but it’s her, it’s Galinda, so maybe it’s not all bad - and between the two of them that feeling of Thank god I have you back, and Holy shit I’ve really lost you haven’t I, and I wish we could go back to the way things were, and It’s far too late to turn back now - they’re spinning around each other, the colors are spinning around them, but the shot still slows to allow Elphaba to look at Glinda and see her laughing like she did when she was Galinda, every color passing over her in rapid succession.
Lighting-wise it manages to be all-encompassing for every conflicted feeling the two of them have for each other - but that frenetic inconsistency also makes it clear, while there’s genuine intention from Glinda in the idea of If you join us you’ll be safe please just come back to me - there’s also a level of deceit, an agenda, an attempt to lure Elphaba away from what she knows is the truth.
CATFIGHT
OH AND WE’RE BACK TO BROAD DAYLIGHT!
Last time we saw these two, it was a big kerfuffle with the whole cast, and Fiyero left with Elphaba.
Also Nessa’s dead. If you even care.
THINGS ARE A MITE BIT TENSE BETWEEN THE GIRLS RIGHT NOW.
At this point, Elphaba is starting to embrace the Witch persona, and Glinda has fully embraced the Glinda the Good persona, so we’re back to their very first scene together at Shiz, armored the fuck up, battle of the broken facades - we’re fighting over a man, but actually we’re fighting over your decision to abandon me, but actually we’re fighting over your ridiculous wand, but actually we're fighting over your stupid laugh, but actually we’re fighting over the fact that we can never seem to see eye-to-eye, and that we love each other too much to hate each other, and that we want to beat the living crap out of each other, and there’s a weird level of horniness to it, and there’s too much shame and bitterness and resentment to make sense of anything - not to mention Glinda set this whole scene with the hopes that she would be able to catch Elphaba and confront her about it all unfiltered-
The girls are back to broad daylight and it is UGLY.
FOR GOOD
Hello darkness my old friend.
They’ve both just suffered a shared loss, Glinda has just realized she has no real power and that no matter what she tells herself she is a part of this great evil, and Elphaba has realized all her efforts were futile and all she’s managed to accomplish with her rebellion was to cause more destruction to the people she loves most.
Glinda, however, has found a burst of determination in the understanding of her own complicity, and gallops through the dark of night to reach Elphaba and protect her, to sacrifice her life for her like Fiyero did if that’s what it takes.
The whole For Good scene takes place in relative darkness, lit only by moonlight and torchlight. Both of them are finally reconciling both the good and bad of themselves, and the good and bad of each other, and when it all comes down to it, all that’s left between them is that they love each other, even still, and they trust each other to do what’s right for Oz.
Their final scene where they’re together in real time is in total darkness save for the flicker of a torch behind Elphaba, and in that darkness they both profess their love for each other.
Like are you listening to me.
THE DARKEST. DARKNESS.
Their first scene together is in the BRIGHTEST bright, their final scene is in the DARKEST dark. It’s taken them a whole two fuckin movies to get there, but we’ve been there every step of the way to witness that development, through pretty much every possible lighting configuration, and what it ends with, is pure darkness, pure truth, I love you, I love you too.
That blonde motherfucker means literally everything to Elphaba - the good, the bad, all the mess in between.
AND JUST IN CASE YOU WERE HOPEFUL THAT I FINALLY TIRED MYSELF OUT - I DIDN’T! THERE’S MORE!
Because after the darkest-dark I love you’s, we obviously have Elphaba faking her own death, so we’re locked in that closet with Glinda, who’s in total darkness save for the light coming through a crack in the door and shining directly into her eye. She’s wrapped in the truth of their love for each other, but the lie of Elphaba’s death - this thing Glinda has come to fear more than anything else in the world, with the knowledge that she had a hand in it - is all she can see.
AND NOW
FINALLY
We come to the pièce de résistance. To Me.
While the closeted I love you scene is their last scene together in real time, and the looking toward each other across the darkness of space and time is their last distant farewell scene, their final shot together? The final shot of the whole movie????
This one.
This shit right here. This is it. The last thing Elphaba pictures before the credits roll isn’t the brightness of first meeting Glinda or the darkness of telling her she loves her, it’s this memory, which takes place shortly after the Ozdust when they’ve just become friends. Rather than fixed lighting, it’s golden hour. The sun is setting behind them, light is giving way to dark, defensive facades are crumbling to the humanity beneath, lies are melting away into the truth. The last image Elphaba holds of Glinda is one of subtle change caught in a moment of softness.
Like shut UP, this is the most ridiculously specific use of lighting EVER everyone working on these movies was having the time of their LIVES gettin to be this fully nerded out - “nerded out” being something I would know nothing about, as evidenced by the essay above.
Anyway if anyone actually did read this thing all the way through, you have my utmost sympathies, I have nothing to offer you to make up for it. Have a lovely rest of the day.