Glindaaaaaaaaaaaa

It is a bit wild how in the very limited time that Fiyero and Elphaba are working together he manages to kinda steamroll her four times. Like he just goes ahead with whatever reckless, half-baked plan he's thought up without consulting her and she has to roll with it. Seriously go back and watch it, with the exception of the melting which is a little more thought out and done via letter, these scenes are all Fiyero coming in guns-a-blazing followed by him telling Elphaba that she needs to go right now, no time for discussion (This goes for both the movie and the musical). And yes, all four instances (the lion cub scene, the Wizard's throne room, the cornfield, the melting) there's some kind of time pressure and some reason Elphaba might not be able to deal with the situation herself, but that's because someone chose to write it that way. I'm not even saying this to dunk on Fiyero, I think it's just...kind of a bad writing decision. It's bad for Elphaba's character because it undermines her strength and independence, and it's bad for Fiyero's character because he keeps doing it instead of it being something he grows past.

'[blank] is the real villain of Wicked' takes always strike me as needlessly contrarian because Wicked (the musical/movie) has a very straightforward villain in the Wizard. There's a sliding scale of how contrarian they are which imo goes from Morrible to Dorothy. Morrible is definitely a villain, and some people hold the headcanon that she has her own agenda and/or is manipulating the Wizard. This is a fine idea to explore but it's not part of canon and can sometimes come off as blaming a woman for a man's actions so it's not my favourite. Dorothy on the other hand is a level of mental gymnastics which will lead me to assume that you're acting in bad faith, because for my own sanity I'd like to think that your comprehension skills are better than that. Glinda and Nessa fall somewhere in the middle because although there are a lot of fair points to be made as to things they did wrong, calling them the villain of the story over it usually comes from poor comprehension and/or misogyny. And to that point, all of the characters I've seen this claim made about are women. I have never seen anybody make the claim that 'Frex is the real villain' for instance, and although that'd still be wrong it would be easier to make a case for than Dorothy.

For all that you can make fun of Elphaba for being kinda spineless when it comes to Glinda, maybe there's something beautiful in the fact that she really does love her unconditionally. Despite all her faults and all her mistakes, she still sees her for who she can be, she still believes in her and she still loves her. And considering how Glinda's spent her whole life surrounded by people who only love her for the facade she puts on for them, who think they adore her when they barely know her, that's got to mean the world.

There are a number of lines and scenes in Wicked that are clearly framed as lighthearted and comedic, and that certain people love to take 100% seriously in service of winning an argument and it frustrates me to no end. I refuse to believe you are actually this dense. Every single time I have seen the scenes in question play out in a theatre or a cinema, the audience laughs. Not just a few people laughing awkwardly because they're uncomfortable or a handful of people who get the joke because it's very advanced comedy™. Everyone. Because it's obvious. And if you do this and you know which lines and which scenes I'm talking about without my pointing them out, then you've proven my point. You do know that they're meant to be comedic. Stop treating media analysis like a fight you have to win by any means necessary because it makes you do really intellectually dishonest shit like this.