Reread wicked again. I love the musical with all my heart but the book has something really special to it. It goes against the whole chosen-one trope and instead details the lives of children, students, adults moving through the world while facism rises around them. And like regardless of what their views are- theyβre pretty powerless to stop it. They can only experience it.
I understand that this may make the plot seem slow or oddly paced but itβs not really about the heroβs journey, itβs about ordinary peopleβs lives. Elphaba is NOT the hero, or even the anti-hero. We might agree with her morals over other characters but she actually accomplishes very little. Almost every moral crusade she undertakes fails. She dies as just one of the many symbols of the resistance. The most productive rebellions we hear about comes from the Vinkus allyships and that happens in the background. Even the succession of munchkinland is a controversial event for its citizens.
Wicked isnβt a book about good saving the day, or about compassion unifying the country.
At the end of the book, Elphaba and Glinda are divided by morals, Fiyero died for a cause he was never that much a part of, and Boq and the others have retreated into the background to protect their own. The wizard leaves yes, but he leaves behind a society in political turmoil. Munchkinland is facing re-annexation, the Vinkus is under attack, the Animals and the Quadlings have been shoved almost out of existence. The wizard canβt even be called the true Villain because his leaving doesnβt miraculously turn society back to βgoodβ.
Wicked is about how radicalism and facism can very quickly become the norm for a society through a series of tiny and almost ignorable steps for those not directly affected. Itβs about waking up and realizing that all of a sudden you canβt remember the last time you saw an Animal walking free through the city.
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