I freed the flying monkeys...

This is what I personally don’t like. Here we got some casual ableism… Again. We don’t care that he’s “ruined” we are not that shallow. His sacrifice is actually character development that completes his character arc and its really beautiful that he’s somehow how happier and more greatful to be alive as a scarecrow than he was as a nihilistic depressed handsome prince. Like are partners supposed to abandon their loved ones the minute they have a life altering injury that prevents them from having traditional sex? Relationships are deeper than physical need and function its the unshakeable connection between two people and they have it.

That actually made me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit. Thanks for that. Someone else has discussed the ableism of this view, so I'll just stick to Baby's First Media Literacy lessons.

OK, so first of all, if I fucking loathe it when the female romantic lead is a prize for the protagonist to have won, I also fucking loathe it when it's the himbo hero. And why do I love this show so much? Because Fiyero is the very antithesis of the prize to be won. Even down to his last lines in the show, even as he leads her away.

Fiyero has agency. Fiyero is an insurgent. Fiyero makes this sacrifice willingly not just for Elphaba, but for their shared vision of what the world should be.

But that sacrifice is death. He is expecting death. What has happened to him in its place is horrific. He has been mutilated literally beyond recognition for basically everybody else. And that is what makes their happy ending so powerful.

Because this happened to Boq too and he was out with the flaming torch and pitchfork, but Fiyero is not just understanding of his new body and his new life, he is actively grateful to her for it.

Why?

When he comes to in that cornfield, he has no idea whether he will even see her again, whether she would know him. So this body, this second chance, is not to be used to shag her senseless, you see? It is to be used to bring down the government. It is to be used to create a new heaven and a new earth.

And who could mourn the loss of their former good looks when this floppy bundle of burlap with a head full of straw is so much more successful?

If you can't see that Glinda both couldn't and wouldn't see that bigger picture if the situation were to have been reversed, you not only have no understanding of the characters, I'm genuinely not sure you should be tossing around the word "soulmate" either.

Yes, he's a secondary character to the girls, yes gelphie is good and valid but that doesn't make Fiyero or Fiyeraba any less valid.

Fiyero is Elphaba's reflection, he too is judged on appearances and hates it, he too finds himself placed in the role the fairytale dictates to him despite his best efforts. He and Elphaba's relationship is built on this mutual understanding that they are the only people who see each other for who they really are. "It's not lying it's looking at things another way", is that both of them a different points *because* they are both having to work to break the trauma of how Oz judges them compared to who they really are.

my style does a little cartoon detour sometimes... idk, i don't hate it, but that "i could've done more" feeling hits different lol.