Saying Fiyero is the male!Glinda is truly crazy to me because, I’m sorry:
Doesn’t Galinda have an immediate aversion to the green girl upon first meeting where Fiyero doesn’t?
Doesn’t Galinda immediately aid the ostracizing of Elphaba where Fiyero doesn’t?
Does Elphaba’s vulnerability change Galinda in the ways it does Fiyero? …yes it does and I’ll give you that one 😊
Isn’t Galinda’s first instinct in “helping” Elphie, to change her into a sort of version of Galinda herself and Fiyero insists that’s not necessary?
Isn’t Fiyero willing to take real action to aid an Animal that is being oppressed where Galinda would simply make an empty gesture?
Wouldn’t Fiyero abandon his entire way of life for Elphaba where Glinda would leave Elphaba out to dry to maintain her own comfortable life? (Sorry, that might be wording it harshly, but yk what I mean)
(Read the whole of both below statements before you get mad at me please 🙏: they’re both (all) flawed 🙃)
G(a)linda is attention-seeking, manipulative, and naive. She is able to cultivate positive reactions to get what she wants from people by cleverly making it seem like their own idea. She uses this ability to ever grow her own status, until she manages to finally spin it to something, that while still advantages for herself, also happens to run in the same direction of what her friend wanted. When we first meet her, she is a character that has a clear idea of who she is and what she wants in life. Only to meet this person that challenges those ideas and wants. She doesn’t know how to or is unable to or just refuses to move too far from those initial ideas quickly enough, until it’s too late.
Fiyero is self-loathing, deceptive, and isolated. He is able to cultivate positive reactions from people by being exactly what they expect him to be, and selling it as who he really is. He uses this ability to coast through life, until he realizes he can use it to aid and protect his friend. He keeps the ruse up until the opportunity to abandon such masks, and run off with Elphaba, presents itself. When we first meet him, he is a character that has an idea of who he is supposed to be but doesn’t really know what he wants in life, only to meet this person that inspires new ideas and new wants. He isnt sure how to get these things exactly, which makes his progress a bit slow, but he is able to change before it’s too late.
They are not as perfect as they seem, and Elphaba does inspire them both to change (For Good 🤪) but they are NOT, and never were, the same.
