It seems like Ro and Gov Woodsman, are close after spending so much time together, were Fiyero and Boq friends back when they went to school together? What was their relationship like?
I also was wondering, what was going through Elphaba’s head when she accused Ro of lying about being a construct?
Fiyero and Boq were pretty close friends and roommates. Because Fiyero transferred to Shiz midway through the semester, he had to move into a dorm with someone else. That someone ended up being Boq, whose roommate dropped out after midterms. They weren't as close as Elphaba and Glinda were, but they were in the same general friend circle and rooming with someone strengthens bonds you don't expect. Boq may have been a bit jealous of Fiyero and Fiyero thought Boq needed to loosen up significantly, but they got along fairly well. They'd argue about a bit about cleanliness, but not much else. Fiyero would typically come back from whichever party he was at when Boq would finish his homework, so they'd chat a bit at night. Fiyero could also sleep through Boq's 8am scramble which had been a problem with the Munchkin's former roommate. Fiyero tried to avoid Glinda as a subject with Boq, but he'd ask questions about what it was like growing up in Rush Margins (with Elphaba and Nessa). Boq would ask some questions about Vinkun culture and agriculture.
Ah yes, Elphaba's POV of Chapter 17. For her actual thought process, you have to think back to the WoO timeline:
Elphaba had just lost her sister. Glinda had given the child Nessa's shoes, Elphaba's family' shoes. And she knew it was because Glinda was being petty about Fiyero actually loving her. Then Fiyero is brutally killed. Elphaba saw flashes of visions of it while casting during No Good Deed. She is tired and hurt and absolutely destroyed by Fiyero's death. But the only thing she can change, the only thing she can fix, is to get her family shoes back. They are enchanted with her magic after all. So she goes to get them back only to discover that the little thief somehow managed to conjure up a Scarecrow. Constructs are created with ancient, complicated magic, which means either the girl was far more powerful than she appeared or it was someone else's construct. If so, whose?
Fast forward to Dorothy locked up and Elphaba knows this child has no magic of her own. B- The Tin Man had motive for wanting her dead, the Lion blamed her, but the Scarecrow hadn't been created by the little thief. It had no motive. Morrible couldn't create constructs or she would have already. Glinda definitely could not. Which meant this construct must have been far older. It must have been blown in or uncovered by the storm. But why then would it want her dead. She couldn't understand anything it had done or its motives. It unnerved her. The last magic user before Morrible had died 50 years prior. There was no way that the construct could have existed that long on its own. It shouldn't exist. It did not make sense. And that made it all the more terrifying. Because how could it exist and why did this impossible thing want her dead.
Fast forward again to the start of Chapter 17. This Thing had won her son's trust and acted as if it was normal to exist when it absolutely should not. Did it know? Was it after them? Did it survive off the magic of the witches it killed? Did it know??? And then it- broke down? It wasn't like what she had read about at all, and it was also different than it had been with the little thief. It actually could feel. It had emotions, strong emotions. Newer constructs could mimic emotions and older ones started to feel their own as they gained soul, but this Being was able to feel so deeply and so entirely. It would have to be ancient. Or not a construct at all... Then it said, 'she did this.' Not she created me. She did this. A woman had done something to someone and it resulted in an undying Scarecrow. And then it explained the motivations she never could piece together herself. It had never wanted to kill her. It had helped a child and been swept up with the murderous Tin Man it had tried to help. Because at some point the Scarecrow had been through the same thing. And it kept going. It knew what it was like to be Human, to miss being Human. It mourned whoever had changed it. And then it had the nerve to think she couldn't understand what it was like to feel trapped and mourn someone. And if it was trapped like this for Oz knew how long, then what would happen to her. Liir had somehow linked her to its curse. She would never see Fiyero again. She wouldn't die, wouldn't join him. It was the Scarecrow's fault, its spell's, its witch's. And so, she lashed out, and she hurt Liir, and it took time for her to collect herself again. And there was that cursed Scarecrow talking about being suicidal and mourning and it was Human. So, so very Human. It had to be Human. There wasn't any other explanation for it.
