Question about the end of the musical Wicked

[Vanyel]

I just saw the musical for the first time this Saturday, and I figure since it is 20 years old the spoiler time is dead and buried.

As I understood it Glinda is telling the story to the Munchkins. Glinda And Elphaba do become friends.

Fiyero doesn't believe that water could hurt Elphaba.

At the end of the musical we see, in shadow, the moment when Dorothy throws the water on Elphaba and Elphaba melting.

But being good friend with Elphaba, wouldn't Glinda know that water wouldn't hurt her friend? So does Glinda know Elphaba is alive and hiding somewhere?

I think she does.

Also I didn't think the musical didn't really redeem Elphaba. She still became the Wicked Witch of the West after all.

Your thoughts.

 

[Mudd]

Yes, Glinda knows that Elphaba survives. She's in on the whole thing.

Also I didn't think the musical didn't really redeem Elphaba. She still became the Wickef Witch of the West after all.

Which means what?

 

[Vanyel]

Which means what?

It means that everything that happened in The Wizard of Oz, happened. Elphaba tried to kill Dorothy to get the slippers back. She kept the flying monkeys, that she made - admittedly accidentally - enslaved and used them to capture Dorothy to kill her to get the slippers. She tried to kill Scarecrow. She tried to kill all of them with the flowers and threatened the Emerald City to hand over Dorothy.

None of that is redeemed.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Who said she needed to be redeemed as a character? If you redeem her, you're pissing on both a classic of children's literature and of American cinema. Wicked gives Elphaba a backstory and makes her more sympathetic, but in the end she still needs to become who she is in The Wizard of Oz. It's similar to the Star Wars prequels — you can play around with all kinds of stuff, you can make Anakin Skywalker a cute kid/teenager, but if it doesn't end with him evil and wheezing inside a shiny black mechanical suit, then you've missed the target, which was to show the audience "How did we get to the beginning of that story you've known and loved since you were a kid?"

 

[Guy Gardener]

It means that everything that happened in The Wizard of Oz, happened. Elphaba tried to kill Dorothy to get the slippers back. She kept the flying monkeys, that she made - admittedly accidentally - enslaved and used them to capture Dorothy to kill her to get the slippers. She tried to kill Scarecrow. She tried to kill all of them with the flowers and threatened the Emerald City to hand over Dorothy.

None of that is redeemed.

8 year olds are morons.

There's a line in the play where they explain that they are manipulating Dorothy, which is easy because she is a dumb kid.

You can't trust Dorothy's interpretation of events.

Elpha didn't do anything wrong, or she may have gone a little to far, but she was trying to save all the talking animals from the nasty human beings.

Dorothy killed The Witches of the East and West, and didn't seek a lick of redemption.

 

[Vanyel]

8 year olds are morons.

There's a line in the play where they explain that they are manipulating Dorothy, which is easy because she is a dumb kid.

You can't trust Dorothy's interpretation of events.

Elpha didn't do anything wrong, or she may have gone a little to far, but she was trying to save all the talking animals from the nasty human beings.

Dorothy killed The Witches of the East and West, and didn't seek a lick of redemption.

To be fair, Dorothy didn't kill The Wicked Witch of the East or West. The tornado dropped the house on Nessarose and Elphaba wasn't hurt by the water.

And Glinda did have to rescue Dorothy and the others from the poppy flowers. Glinda had to be keeping an eye on them, so that would give some authenticity to Dorothy's version of events.

Although, I do prefer this ending to Wizard of Oz

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In any event, Elphaba was wicked. We felt sympathetic for her, but manipulating Dorothy just adds to her wickedness.

 

[Guy Gardener]

To be fair, Dorothy didn't kill The Wicked Witch of the East or West. The tornado dropped the house on Nessarose and Elphaba wasn't hurt by the water.

And Glinda did have to rescue Dorothy and the others from the poppy flowers. Glinda had to be keeping an eye on them, so that would give some authenticity to Dorothy's version of events.

Although, I do prefer this ending to Wizard of Oz

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In any event, Elphaba was wicked. We felt sympathetic for her, but manipulating Dorothy just adds to her wickedness.

She just wanted to fake her death and live happily ever after banging the stuffing out of her Scarecrow.

Besides, it doesn't matter what emotional torture Elphaba inflicted on this kid, because a month later, Aunt Em sent her to an early 20th century nut house, hooking her pigtails up to a dynamo and zapping her peanut, until she didn't know up from down anymore.

 

[Vanyel]

Besides, it doesn't matter what emotional torture Elphaba inflicted on this kid, because a month later, Aunt Em sent her to an early 20th century nut house, hooking her pigtails up to a dynamo and zapping her peanut, until she didn't know up from down anymore.

That is hilarious. Thanks for the laugh. I needed it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm feeling generous.

I'm going to give Oz The Great and Powerful a second chance tomorrow.

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I remember being distinctly underwhelmed.

 

[Gaith]

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[Guy Gardener]

I got through 4 minutes of Oz the Great and Powerful, before I paused and never resumed.

Saw the Wicked movie, looooooong... God help me... But the last 15 minutes was outstanding, and made up for all that mean girls bollocks.