Work Text:
DEAN
Sam swore it was totally for the sake of research that we fired up his laptop and watched some bootleg of the Wicked musical, but I’m pretty sure he just wanted an excuse to get me watching another girly stage show. But I have to admit, after Charlie went MIA into that freaky Oz dimension, it couldn’t hurt to see more of the story. I mean, the movie I saw as a kid had more truth to it than I ever expected so, what the hell, right?
I didn’t know what to expect. The idea that the wicked witch wasn’t so wicked at some point sounded pretty lame. A witch is a witch is a witch, and I’ve had my fill of coming face to face with witches and none of their origin stories would have made a difference to me. I guess, sometimes real life really ruins fairytales. It’s why I never gave a shit about them growing up. But I do remember watching the Wizard of Oz at some point when I was a kid. I think I remember Sammy liking it, but I couldn’t tell what he thought of Wicked. He was sitting cross-armed with his trap zipped, kind of moody the whole time, like I was the one forcing him to watch this thing and not the other way around.
Anyway, the scarecrow was always my favorite in the old movie so it kind of blew my mind when that Fiyero guy turned out to be the scarecrow. Fiyero was pretty cool, swooping from school to school, charming the girls with that carefree swagger. I mean, my life was no dance, but his attitude kinda reminded me of a hey-day or two I had in school. Girls loved me! I may not have finished, but I think I make my contribution to this world regardless, like the scarecrow. It’s a sacrifice, ya know? But in the end things are better for everybody because of it. At least you have to kind of believe that in order to keep doing what you’re doing.
When it was over, I still couldn’t figure out how much of the story had any truth to it or if I had just wasted three hours of my life. But I did have that “Popular” song stuck in my head for a goddamn week.
---
CROWLEY
I can’t believe the Winchesters actually took my suggestion to watch that bloody musical but the least they could have done was include me as they did it, but in classic Winchester fashion those lumberjacks left me down here, rotting away in the dungeon. I think Feathers even got to watch it and we all know there’s not a chance in Heaven or Hell he understood a moment of it.
I could only just hear show tunes echoing down the hallway. I’d know the sound anywhere. I quite like that one. It plays so delicately with the motivations of the “good” and the motivations of the “bad,” but when all is said and done everything’s a bit muddled. Love when that happens. Makes you goodies wonder what you’re really about.
Take little Galinda in that fluffy pink monstrosity she calls a dress. She’s considered the good witch, and yet her take on popularity helped her garner control of her entire school. Then she used that power to get just what she wanted, over and over. She’s polished and shiny with charisma that draws in followers. How do you think I run Hell?
Course, in the end, she was weak. She couldn’t enjoy her success. She was so close, too. Her and Madame Morrible were cut from the same cloth, both using tools at their disposal to get what they wanted, even and especially people.
Then Galinda had to go and ruin it all with that heartfelt best-friends-forever duet at the end. Such a shame. She could have almost been truly happy if she was more like me.
---
CAS
I don’t understand the purpose of singing when talking is clearly the more practical form of communication.
---
SAM
It’s not that I didn’t like it, I did. It was really well done. I appreciate the production value, the costumes, the lighting, the special effects, the moving set pieces. I mean, I bet seeing it for real would be pretty amazing. It just --I don’t know-- it was really sad. It made me sad right from the start.
Elphaba’s first song, “The Wizard and I,” was so…?
She’s got her hopes up so high but we know how it’s going to play out. There are lines throughout that just really hit me, one is something like, “And this gift or this curse I have inside/Maybe at least we’ll know why,” and it’s so clear she looks at meeting the Wizard and getting validation through him as a way to finally earn approval from those around her. And maybe it’s not even just that, but it’s also a way to prove something to herself, that she’s not just a freak with powers she never wanted, but that it could be gift, a positive thing, that can be used to accomplish something good. Then maybe her dad and her sister will be proud instead of looking at her like she’s some kind of disappointment. And maybe she can look at herself and feel pride instead of disgust.
She was born green, you know? She was different from everyone else, she had these magical powers she couldn’t explain. It freaked people out. It especially freaked her sister and her dad out, but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t choose all of that. But she believed if she did something great with these powers she never asked for, she might finally be worthy of respect.
But next thing we know, Elphaba’s being looked at as a charity case by the entire student body while everyone builds Galinda up like she’s a saint for putting up with her. But really, Elphaba is a cool person. She’s smart and passionate about what she believes in. She wants to make a difference. But no one can see that because of their preconceptions and it sucks. It’s not fair.
So as a viewer, you go on hoping that somehow something’s gonna give, that maybe she really can parlay her powers into something that’s good, like she sings to her sister, Nessa Rose, “Finally from these powers, something good.” But of course that doesn’t happen, because Madam Morrible and The Wizard take advantage of Elphaba’s desire to change the world for the better and use her like a tool in their own screwed up political plot. It made me kind of sick to know Morrible and the Wizard preyed on this and used it just to gain power.
When she finds out that they were corrupt, she has this moment of clarity where she realizes she has to change the way she sees things. She has to stop being worried about trying to change things she can’t control and start taking charge of what she can. When the Wizard showed his true colors, crap got real. Understanding how truly terrible the world is transformed her.
“No Good Deed” really hit home, I guess. It sucked having to watch her give into what everyone always told her she was, that she was wicked, when we know she wasn’t really a bad person. Not ever. She only did what she thought was right and fell victim to those creeps who took advantage of that. During that song, she is trying everything she can think of to help those she loves, but it all gets screwed up. She lists all her tries and her failures and it completely breaks her. She starts questioning her own intentions, wondering ‘did I really mean to go down this road for the right reasons in the first place or what?’
It’s awful. She almost believes all these awful things people have thought of her her whole life. Such a low point. Such a low, low point. It’s heartbreaking. There’s a literal witch hunt where her own schoolmates blame her for things she didn’t even really do. She’s so utterly alone.
In the end, Elphaba actually has to become the image of wickedness everyone always accused her of already being in order to overthrow the Wizard and actually restore peace to Oz. She takes this curse, this fucked up, crappy perception everyone has of who she is, and uses it to do good and set things right. She sacrificed everything and became the bad guy, as far as Oz knew, so that the good she wanted to establish in Oz would actually happen.
And to top it all off, Elphaba would never get to reap those benefits, she would never get to live in the world she saved, because she basically banished herself from it! It’s just depressing. She achieved what she always wanted but everyone will always think she’s just some wicked witch. They’ll never know all the good she did, not even Galinda can know.
At least she has Fiyero.
I swear I don’t dislike it. I think it’s deep. I just… I didn’t really like the way it made me feel in the end.