Fiyero’s depression and how it effects his entire arc
So you hear a lot of “Fiyero is just a male Glinda” or “he has no purpose other than being a love interest for elphaba with zero personality” ect.
Neither of these things are true, if you look beyond the surface you will see a character that is completely lost. Lost in life, lost his purpose, lost his sense of self and his way forward and covers all that up with well… this
Because this is fun, this is what people expect from a spoiled carefree prince and if he can’t make himself happy he might as well lean in and give the people want they want. How many times has he done this? How many schools has been kicked out of? Before he reached the point where he knew no one would see or question the turmoil going on with him even when its incredibly disruptive and he arrives at Shiz basically shouting his depression and nihilism at everyone because he knows no one is going to listen to the lyrics he’s singing, he knows no one really cares…
Elphaba hears him loud and clear because she’s not looking at the ridiculous display, she’s listening to what he’s really saying, doing to others what she wishes people would do for her and finding the least likely person to be struggling.
Though its never explicitly stated why Fiyero is the way he is Jonathan Bailey has gone on record with some insights into how he played him:
“He’s deeply unnerved by stillness and adhering to rules and structure. That is probably a sign of someone who’s never really experienced love. When you see someone causing that sort of disturbance, it’s usually because they’ve never felt seen. His fluidity, ease, and elasticity speak to his ability to maneuver and avoid. He’s quite avoidant. He has these bright, shining moments with everyone but never really allows the other person to land it with him.”
That can be read as someone who had a very lonely childhood where his needs where never met, where he was likely raised by staff not family, and the family he had likely had sky high expectations, and expected results he could not reach so he gave up trying.
So here is a man that masks these insecurities under layers of superficial charm, charisma, and arrogance but deep down probably considers himself pretty useless, or a complete failure someone that can offer nothing but shallow beauty to others but has no real value other than that.
Now before we get into the scene that defines Elphaba and Fiyero’s relationship, I’d like to point out an interesting quality he has, that he doesn’t realize he has, that will go on to define his characters actions anytime he’s not shown or eyes are off of him for the rest of his arc- when eyes are on him he plays the part people expect, the second eyes are off him is when he snaps into action and does the right thing without thinking, this will establish what happens during his arc when he’s not on screen later…
So now we’ve arrived at Elphaba and Fiyero in the woods. I really do believe this sequence is the one that changed everything for him. Its subtle, but its monumental for his character.
She read him like a book, called out all his BS, and all that superficial charm and arrogance just falls on its face instantly. Suddenly the real Fiyero is standing there before her, raw, insecure, vulnerable and exposed. To him its ugly, its shameful, its inadequate, something he hides deep and assuming she has to hate it as much as he does and would never want his help like this, he pulls away, but then she catches his hand and tells him she does- that this is the version of Fiyero she WANTS- the real ‘broken’ one, the one that cares, the one that’s flawed and far from perfect but genuine. I believe in that moment he found his life purpose again.
That’s the thing with people suffering from depression, it takes your personality, your interests, your purpose, your self esteem, and leaves you a shell of a person that cannot see a way forward or out of the pit you’ve dug themselves into and most wish that someone would send them a lifeline or give them a sense of purpose to find themselves again and that’s exactly what Elphaba did for Fiyero.
Its also why I always take issue when people say ‘he has no personality outside of Elphaba,’ ‘no hopes or dreams other than being her ride or die’ …. Like yeah, that’s what depression does to someone and he’s only just started to be rebuilt before the one person who changed his life is taken from him again. Now he’s left searching for his lifeline as she’s been made public enemy #1 and he’s stuck trying to get back to her anyway he can.
In that time between the movies where only headcannon and bias exist, its difficult to say how things went down between Glinda and Fiyero, but what you can see of him at the beginning of For Good is that’s he’s completely regressed without Elphaba- he’s doing for Glinda exactly what he did for the students in the library at Shiz- going through the motions and fulfilling expectations she and the people of Oz want and expect out of him while being absolutely miserable while losing the part of himself he gained back with Elphaba.
His arc in the second movie is just sacrifice after sacrifice for the one person he loves and believes in: his morals, his freedom, his safety, his status, his title, his comfort and wealth, his life, his looks, his body, his friends, his home just to be with the person that saved his life in more ways then the obvious one. You see him finally reuniting with her when everything is said and done, and yeah, he’s still insecure and self conscious, but it also seems like a massive weight has been lifted off his shoulders. That he can leave ‘Fiyero the prince’ behind and just be his flawed self again with the one person that always loved and valued that side of him.
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