MOMENT 3: Morrible's first verse. Fiyero reorients himself back to playing supportive spouse. Glinda watches Morrible like a hawk, only relaxing when it seems they'll stick to the script after all. Fiyero catches the heavy editorializing halfway through but, seeing Glinda's non-reaction, settles for a sotto voce protest after Morrible pauses for breath.
i remember being caught off guard when i first watched this. Ryan's Fiyero is such an obstinate fuckboy when things don't go his way; he is among the least impressed and most angry Fiyeros during the "surprised?" "yes!" exchange right before this. but he pulls himself back together remarkably quickly, to the point he's returned to nodding "yes Glinda is the greatest actually" as Morrible launches into her speech.
which is the part that stands out most: every Fiyero has to calm down because the script says so, but most Fiyeros play it either like they've gone back to factory neutral or like they're barely restraining themselves from throwing a confused tantrum. in both cases the implication is they're still too floored by the engagement to support Glinda anymore, and i expected Ryan's Fiyero to similarly hold a grudge. he has perfectly legitimate reasons to do so--what happened was a SERIOUS breech of trust--but he...doesn't. his calming down process doesn't involve getting some space from Glinda but going right back to Glinda-and-Fiyero, the perfect team.
and like. obviously this is because Glinda called him "handsome" and he's so chuffed that being mad at her is impossible, but damn if it doesn't give me feelings anyway. he was so upset when the engagement was sprung on him, but he has enough faith in Glinda that he's willing to wait and hear her out, and in the meantime he's going to keep taking her cue in their united front against Morrible. this degree of instinctual trust speaks volumes about how much comfortable intimacy they have with each other, and how fraught their lives have been in the past five years. Glinda and Fiyero have each other's backs because they know and love each other; Glinda and Fiyero have each other's backs because they know they can't rely on anybody else.
i'm not sure if anything can be extrapolated here about how TGs should work in general. most Fiyero-Glinda dynamics during Thank Goodness play out like a slow motion car crash, where Fiyero's belief in Glinda gets eroded verse by verse. which is perfectly fine; that's the way it was intended to play out, and as i said before i count it as a win any time Glinda and Fiyero have a legible relationship at all. that Ryan and Katie were so unique and textured with it is icing on the cake. really exquisite icing, mind: to make the audience believe for a moment that even Glinda and Fiyero might make it work.
