Hey so I just went to see Wicked part II. Bear in mind that I haven't seen the original musical. Like you, I was disappointed. I was surprised at what I felt was a lack of political message. I thought the first one set up nicely the rise of fascism, and in part II... How is this resolved? The people go from celebrating the death of the witch to welcoming back animals and munchkin without question?? There's no revolution. And I didn't get the purpose of Elphaba's discourse about the people needing an evil figure so they can accept Glinda as the good one, and her not wanting Glinda to redeem her. And of course, there's the uncomfortable subtext of a woman of colour sacrificing herself for a white person.
All this bothered me, but my friend had another opinion, saying that for her it was all intentional, albeit cynical - that it's not meant to be a victory or a revolution, that the people, basically, is shown as gullible and willing to accept whatever rulers (through media/propaganda) will feed them. And in the end, Elphaba chooses exile despite No Place Like Home, because there really is no place for her in Oz, so she'll look for her freedom elsewhere. She sacrifices this to preserve her integrity, and also her relationship to Fiyero, whereas Glinda is the opposite: she sacrifices her relationship to Elphaba because she has the opportunity to become a better ruler in a system that couldn't really be changed.
Another friend wondered if the backlash against the first film and the situation in the US meant they weren't as free as for the first one and had to "sanitize" the movie. (We're not from the US so, this was very hypothetical)
Anyway, I still feel it wasn't as well written as the first one in terms of characters motivation and political metaphors, but it seems I might have been mistaken about the original intent of the story. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, as someone who knows the original story much better! :)
Wicked never really had a strong political message in the musical form, and puts its focus far more on the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda.
That said, I agree with your first friend re: the intent of the story. I also think that you have to dig a lot harder to get there because of the way the story was told in the second movie... and I would argue that it has (or should have had, in the movie) a lot more to do with the preservation of her life vs. just her integrity. She was being hunted. She was about to be killed. This was an escalation of targeted violence against her and everything she was fighting for.
Somehow, the movie completely bungled this point.
When I think about the sins of the second movie, one of the things I keep going back to is that Acts I and II are meant to be taken in together, as a whole, all at once.
Here's what that means. You have it fresh in your mind where the story ends: with Glinda announcing the Wicked Witch's death, and a mob screaming about the righteousness about it. This is a tragedy. You know that from the beginning. You never, ever forget it. The only question is - in what way?
I call them the mob because that's what the chorus is in Wicked the stage play - and they're used to enormous effect, especially in Act II.
"Thank Goodness" (the first song of Act II, into which you're thrust without warning in the stage play) was one of the songs that was so egregiously split in half in the movie, with entire new songs and long minutes of dialogue between its butchered parts. The effect is that the song loses enormous power - particularly when it comes to the developing strength of the mob mentality brewing in the citizens of Oz.
"The March of the Witch Hunters" was another song that was even more egregiously split into two or three parts, with Glinda's new, completely unnecessary song "The Girl in the Bubble" inserted between those parts. Again, you lose an enormous amount of building power, and the focus on the urgency of the mob essentially dissipates into thin air.
This means that the moment before "For Good" is a mess in the movie. The entire point of this moment in the stage play is that Glinda and Elphaba are mutually terrified for each other's lives, because of the mob that is marching with uncontrollable and literally murderous intent. Watch any bootleg of the musical when these key lines occur:
GLINDA: I'll tell them, I'll tell everyone the truth!
ELPHABA: No! They'll only turn against you!
GLINDA: I don't care!
ELPHABA: Well, I do!
They're frantic for each other. Elphaba's morosely-delivered line in the movie you called out, "they need someone to be wicked so you can be good" - is a John M Chu addition, and a terrible one. I literally cannot think of a worse thing to say at this moment. Not only does this carry uncomfortable connotations of "I'm sacrificing myself for you" that you pointed out, but also... this moment isn't about fucking self-reflection. Time is hurtling forward! The mob is almost here! The chips are fucking down, the house is on fire, everything is wrecked beyond belief, there is no going back! They're left trying to salvage each other's lives, and because of this, they reaffirm their friendship in "For Good".
All this leads to the "Finale". In the final moments of the play, there's Glinda in her bubble, addressing the mob, having just declared her intentions truly try to be "Glinda the Good" (cut from the movie, for reasons unknown?) Then, thinking of Elphaba, she begins to sing: "Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" Elphaba, "hearing" her, steps forward to sing with her - only for the mob to literally cut them off and drown them out with the screaming reminder that "No one mourns the wicked!"
These, importantly, are the final words of the play... in the mouth of the mob. A mob who had been neutered by this point in the movie in a frankly unbelievable manner, and who don't sing these words at all. The words are sung, yes, but by people unknown and unseen, and in a way that is meant to be an afterthought.
There are certainly no Animals coming back.
The stage play is not a story about political revolution: it's a story about being beaten down by a fascist regime, and having to figure out how to operate within a broken system and society. It's not a happy ending. It's barely even a hopeful one. This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy.
There's unfortunately a lot more to say here, all of it negative, and none of which I really have the stomach for. But the gist of my feelings are: there were a lot of small changes and additions. Any of these changes/additions taken individually wouldn't have been awful. Taken altogether, however, they amount to an Act II that has been actually pretty drastically changed in form and substance, and in my view, manages to miss the point of the story itself.
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