Neapolitan: an intimacy/vulnerability (or lack thereof) headcanon.
I know there’s a majority of the fandom that disagrees with me on this, but I’m fairy certain Elphaba is pretty much incapable of intimacy. She grew up having to be thick-skinned, guarded, and sharp to protect herself. Especially after she becomes a fugitive, vulnerability of ANY KIND is an enemy to her. It’s a weakness. She will not let herself get close to anyone, because it’s just a liability she doesn’t need.
This isn’t to say that she doesn’t feel empty or crave intimacy/touch, but she knows she cn’t hav it. SO she has sexual relationships to fill that void. In her mind, sex without connection makes her feel the intimacy she craves without the vulnerability for her or the endangerment of the other that romance comes with.
Anonymous:That’s actually a really interesting question I’ve never gotten before. I don’t haea specific voiceclaim for her, but I definitely have an idea of what it sounds like.
Elphaba’s voice is average-low pitch for a girl. It’s normally harsh but articulate (ie. her consonants are very well pronounced). There’s definitely a sort of growl to her voice.
As for an actual voiceclaim, here’s a few actresses I think sound like, or sort-of like, how I imagine her to:
Willemijn Verkaik (GERMAN) – to me German is the perfect language for Elphaba. Don’t ask why. And Willemijn’s tone and inflections fit her well.
Rachel Tucker (her voice is a bit higher than I imagine, but her growl is EXACTLY what I mean)
Renee Van Wegberg (her tone is perfect)
These suit her voice well to give you an idea of how I imagine it. If I could give you speaking scenes, it’d be better, but youtube is mostly the songs.
inversent-deactivated20151113:No, no, no this isn’t intrusive at all! This is probably gonna turn into an incoherent rant because that’s how my brain works.
In general, I can’t say the only I consider “true to form” is elphaba because I don’t dictate what is ”true to form” for the witch of the west. different people will different opinions, especially on such an infamous character. what I CAN say is that I do believe she is the most dynamic, realistic, and interesting interpretation of the character. the reason elphaba is the “best” in my mind is because she herself, and the version of oz she exists in, is a gray area. she is a three dimensional character. she is not inherently good or evil. she deals with a world of prejudice, religion, political corruption, social class, socioeconomics, races/racism, sexuality, fate/destiny, injustice, and a ton more real life shit. she Is mentally unstable, and yeah, she does a lot of fucked up stuff and I’m not saying she’s a wholly “misunderstood, good character” because I hate people that say that. but she is as far from purely wicked as glinda is from purely good.
that is the world gregory maguire created and that’s what I love. Wicked explores WHY these infamous characters became their archtypes, and the cracks in the initial story. it shows oz as an allegory of real-world corruption. that’s where it really got me.
“People who claim that they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us… It’s people who claim that they’re good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”
strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree ( gag me with a spoon) | strongly disagree
look, I am going to AGAIN reference that I go a lot by book canon, and though I absolutely hardcore ship gelphie, I will never tell you it’s healthy, happily ever after otp. elphaba is very damaged, even early on. yes, in some aspects, it wasn’t abusive. at shiz when they were just friends, the support was a lifeline for elphaba. glinda was the first person who ever really looked her in the eyes, if you get what I mean. but flash forward to the train when things DO go further than friendship. elphaba is volatile, especially in that moment of going to face the wizard, and she has been treated like a second class piece of filth her ENTIRE LIFE. and here’s this girl she has completely muddled feelings for who has been sheltered and privileged her entire life. glinda is NAIVE, I don’t care what anyone alleges she is not sexually experienced, she had a facade. and so elphaba, between her anger and her confused feelings absolutely took advantage of glinda, forced her to do things she wasn’t ready for, coerced her. she most likely took glinda’s virginity (which as a gilikenese woman was pretty darn sacred), gave her feelings of intimacy, and then left her alone on a train home and ran off. everytime afterwards, after their affairs, she treats glinda like dirt, distances herself from her, because she can’t face her own feelings, and she leaves glinda completely attched to a woman she could NEVER have a relationship with, or even admit to having affairs with, which deeply affects glinda for her entire life. it’s ABUSE. and did elphaba really MEAN to abuse her? probably not. but she was a volatile, confused, damaged person. and she damaged another. but of all the people in her life, glinda is 1000% the one elphaba cared the MOST for. but you can quite easily leave scars on those you love the most.
they were never going to run off into the sunset together, their fates went two opposite directions. it can be easily assumed that same sex relationships were not okay in oz, and that even if they were, a privileged girl from the gilliken and a mutation from munchkinland? never gonna happen. they’d have sooner been exiled. their relationship was one of two broken women who cared more than they might’ve realized, it’s not a happy love story, it’s just the way it is.
Anonymous: strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree
look, I don’t mean to be harsh but anyone who doesn’t agree with this is fucking oblivious to the world okay. and as a strong defender of complex characters, I cannot STAND people who flatten characters, screw up their characterization, and just portray them horribly. like I get offended on behalf of the character and the writer who dreamt them up and gave them depth and complexity. so yeah, there are absolutely elsas that are better than other elsas and reginas that are better than reginas. wake up, that’s just how this world works. and it applies to almost everything - not everyone is always the same level.
HAHAHAHAHAHA. ahem. this sort of relates to another unpopular opinion of mine so let’s just group them all together, yes?
1. in my interpretation (although this draws HEAVILY from book canon), elphaba may not have ever truly loved fiyero. in her time in the corn exchange she was betrayed, lonely, and felt like she needed to be the STRONG ONE all the time. when fiyero showed up falling all over her, she allowed him to comfort her in a time of extreme stress, and yeah, he was good in bed, and she slept with him in the middle of her sleepless so she could feel something, anything. and yes, his death is INCREDIBLY TRAUMATIZING because this is yet another death that she associates to her hand. she has caused so much pain, and not achieved her initial goals. of course it will drive her mad. however, you have to remember that she constantly distanced herself from fiyero, didn’t allow him to touch her or see her naked in the daylight, and consistently told him to leave her. she had her moments of selfish weakness, but she wasn’t as emotionally attached to him as romance goes. she just wasn’t. elphaba, arguably, never really ever fell in love. she had a sexual relationship with fiyero to fill a need, and a close emotional relationship with glinda that was honestly much more complex than hers with fiyero.
2. first of all, in my portrayal of elphaba (once again, drawing from book canon), elphaba really does die after the water is thrown over her. it is COMPLETELY CLEAR in gregory maguire’s novel that she IS allergic to water. is it possible a piece of her/ghost/some entity remains? YES, but she doesn’t fake her death - it is genuine. HOWEVER, assuming we’re going by musical canon and she is, in fact, alive, things would not have been 100% fine. first of all, where the everloving fuck are they gonna go? a green witch and a personified scarecrow just hopping realms willy nilly? yeah, that’ll go over well. second, fiyero is NOT going to magically turn human again, as I’ve seen the idea of floating around. I mean my god are you stupid? the spell kept him from being brutally tortured and murdered. if for some reason he DID turn human again, all his wounds would’ve still been sustained, which as a scarecrow is fine, but as a human, he’d be dead as a doornail. third, relating to above, elphaba would be dealing with IMMENSE greif, and remaining mental trauma, schizophrenia, and insomnia. just because she’s leaving oz doesn’t mean her downward spiral is magically reversed, and knowing her harsh feelings and tendencies towards fiyero, I imagine she’d grow tired of being with him alone after awhile. besides the fact that he’s a scarecrow created in a fit of rage and sorcery, who’s to say he wouldn’t soon collapse and die. after all, we see her spells in act one eventually wear off (note: the lion cup scene). fiyero most likely wouldn’t survive very long.
to be honest the whole NOTION is utterly stupid so I elect to ignore those who view it that way. *mic drOP*
in my interpretation/canon of elphaba she is allergic to water, which means yes, in the end of canon she really is dead (although her ability to reappear in some form is debatable). however I portray her allergy very specifically. first of all, she can still have tea/soup/bodily fluids/watery foods/etc and they won’t hurt her. this is because the allergy is not simply an allergy to water but an allergy to purity. water itself - rainwater, lakewater, well-water, tears. water in its pure form is purity, and elphaba, who is a sin, a witch, and a child of multiple dimensions cannot touch what is pure and thus it burns her skin as an outward mark of her allergy. this is usually minor, depending on amount. a small couple drops, tears, etc, they’ll leave blackish burn marks similar to if you held a match against normal skin, it will leave a visible burn but it won’t kill her.
I do not fully subscribe to her “melting”. she is killed by the water thrown on her by dorothy, but she doesn’t just melt away. she more exactly dies the way humans lit on fire would die, from the burns eating away at her flesh and etc. (gross I know). The reason she fully disappears is mostly because she’s magic, y’know, and her souless corpse sort of disintegrates into ash. she is burned alive, by water, but in some ways (the way Gregory Maguire WROTE IT), it is elphaba’s body finally forgiving her consciousness for its actions.
bless you. okAY SO THE THING WITH THE BEES. most of you have probably realized the art in my icon is elphie with bees and half of you who have seen the musical but not the read the book might be going wHAT THE FUCK. let me clear that up. in book canon, while on a caravan into the vinkus region the chef aboard the caravan gets into an argument with elphaba about whether or not the meat he uses is animal or Animal (if you’re unclear on what this means look it up on wicked’s wiki bc it’s kinda complicated). his disregard leaves her visibly angry, but she says nothing else. the following morning the chef is found stung too death by a swarm of Bees. everyone suggests that it’s her doing, but elphaba will acknowledge nothing.
what I love about this is that it IS ambiguous. it’s possible she entreated the Bees to kill him, it’s possible hey did it on their own, it’s possible that she did it without even knowing. but it brings up much in her character,, including her blatantly not denying accusations that she’s clearly a witch, that she should be feared. this doesn’t phase her anymore, she no longer fights back. it also suggests the power that she rarely shows, the power she may or may not fully understand or control, but that lives in her passion and emotion and sometimes, hatred. she’s definitely a character of, somewhat brutal, poetic justice.
my interpretation of elphaba is chaotic neutral. the thing is, she is definitely not seeking good (even if she may claim that early in life). however, she isn’t necessarily seeking generalized pain of others and is not remorseless. chaotic neutrals are most likely anarchists, which is elphie on so many levels. she seeks vengeance on those she believes have done wrong, acts without thought of whether or not it’s inherently good, but doesn’t recklessly kill. she is not, however, adverse to killing and violence when used to get her message across.
