#fellow ozians

[donovan-villa]

You can do anything... Defy them all...

[bioswear]

Fellow Ozians!

Oh my goodness, I am seriously so excited at having just met three fellow Wicked/Musical lovers. 

You are all rad. If anyone else likes musical/theater/Wicked, let me know. We can have long conversations if you so wish to. 

[eggplantsplit]

My Take on Gelphie-Shipping

(Attention people who haven't read or seen Wicked: Spoilers ahead! Don't say I didn't warn you!)

As a devout fan of Wicked (both book and musical), I feel like I should voice my opinion on how I understood Elphaba's and Glinda's relationship. The author of the book, Gregory MaGuire, has confirmed on numerous occassions that he intended "Wicked" to be Elphaba's and Glinda's love story, so we know there's a little something something in there. However, as a reader, I never quite saw a romantic flame between the two. Now, don't get me wrong. There was some obvious sexual frustration going on, but still, I never saw a blossoming romance between them.

As the part of the book pertaining to their school days at Shiz was told from Glinda's (or should I say Galinda's?) perspective, I saw some way homosexual leanings towards Elphaba on Glinda's part. And I mean, look at Glinda's lifestyle: upward-yearning middle class woman from a respectable (though diluted) family line in Pertha Hills, Gillikin, we can totally see how she would opt for the security of marrying a well-off man like Sir Chuffrey, for money and status rather than for love. In my humble opinion, Glinda, in the book, was most definitely in love with Elphie.

In regards to Elphaba, though, I never saw her as in love with Glinda. She certainly loved her, and as Nanny said, she was devoted to her. But only as friends, as soulmates not through sex and sexuality, but through friendship, the closest kind. Besides all that, I have one thing to say: Fiyero. Oh, Fiyero. Their's was a brief union, a short affair, but passionate, and love-filled. They were only together for less than 3 months, but they were in love. Fiyero taught Elphaba how to love herself as an individual, a lesson she desperately needed to learn at the time (I mean, I think we can all think of their argument about martyrs and 'real and realer people', and in regards to her sense of identity). And Elphaba showed Fiyero what true love was, not just marriage, like his relationship with Sarima. But, the real reason I know for a fact that Elphaba was only ever really in love with Fiyero was simply this: the rest of her life. I mean, she, a staunchly agnostic, anti-religious woman joined a convent of maunts, and lived with them for 7 years! She needed to recover from the horror and shock of losing Fiyero, and she was even essentially comatose for 2 years from shock. And then, she moved to the wildlands of the Vinkus, to the castle of Kiamo Ko, solely for the opportunity to clear her conscious after losing him in the way she did. She was literally driven mad by her missing him, I mean, just think of how she reacted to the Scarecrow. Totally nuts (which was, after all, a result of her sleep-deprived state, but grief played its role as well), all due to the loss of her one true love so early in her life (she was like 22 after all!).

So, that's the book. But, now the musical. In the musical, many people, including many of the actors, have stated that they felt that the musical was a love story between Glinda and Elphaba. I, on the other hand, feel differently. The broad point of the whole musical is the strength of friendship, and how it bonds us to people who we least expect. Now, that doesn't in and of itself mean that Elphie and Glinda couldn't have been in love in the musical, I'm just stating it for the record. Elphie and Glinda initially hated each other (duh, there was a whole musical number about it), but after Glinda gives Elphaba the hat, she feels differently about her blondie roommate. Then, after Elphaba sticks her neck out for Glinda with Madame Horrible Morrible, she feels bad about pranking Elphie at the Ozdust Ballroom. Their friendship is put on hold when Elphaba learns about how evil the Wizard is, and needs to rebel. Then, there's the misunderstanding about Elphie's and Fiyero's relationship. Hurt, Glinda inadvertantly inspires Morrible and the Wizard to use the murder of Nessarose (Morrible dropped a fucking house on top of poor Nessa, what a twat) to lure Elphaba into a trap. Fiyero sacrifices himself to save her, and she runs of thinking that Glinda purposely planned Nessa's death (you know, come to think of it, I don't think Glinda was ever able to explain herself to Elphaba about that… Omg!) to use as a trap. Then they sing "For Good", all our hearts melted, and then so did Elphie. Glinda went on to do what Elphaba never could and depose the Wizard, imprison Morrible, and undo what Oz did to the Animals. Fiyero and Elphaba then leave Oz permanently, leaving Glinda thinking they both had died, for their own safety. But, overall, I saw this musical as an inspiring story of friendship and the love that exists between two best friends, not a love story.

If you have thoughts, I fucking adore discussions about this topic, to message me or reply! Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading, and Ozspeed to you all!

[ccolfer]