"they were her dead mother's shoes before they were her dead sister's shoes" hit me like a freight train lmaao

What they should have done to fix the shoes is make them how she gets her powers. Elphaba enchants them so that every time you click your heels together and say something three times it comes true, and then her sister abuses that power and becomes wicked. So elphaba feels guilty both for how her sister died and also forgiving her the power that made her evil, and the reason she wants the shoes back so badly is both them being an item from her family and because she doesn't trust anyone else with that power. And then if you really wanted to tie it all together, she could then give the shoes to glinda so that Glenda now has her own power

i think act 2 could’ve been helped by adding a few more power ballads—

imagine if elpheba sang a song of mourning for nessarose, then glinda tries to join in, and it becomes a dueling composition and then breaks out into a full on argument leading to a magical singing fight scene instead of the silly sparring they had.

what if elpheba sang an angry power ballad as she released the animals from the wizard’s basement?

what if glinda’s change of heart slow song turned into a power anthem as she got her cape and horse ready to meet up with elpheba?

take a page out of steven universe and turn the action scenes and make them double as musical numbers!

The slippers and Nessa's disability had the easiest fix ever: Nessa tells Elphaba she wants to be closer to the one she loves, Boq, because she feels him slipping away. But neither Elphaba nor Nessa fully understand the spell they put on the shoes. Boq comes in and is upset at the idea of magical manipulation and tries to run away; Nessa shrinks his heart and Elphie turns him to tin and he runs away. Later Nessa is devastated and clicks her heels desperately trying to rekindle Boq's love, except the shoes bring her PHYSICALLY closer to him instead. He's in Munchkinland, putting her in the right place to get hit by a house. And now we know why the slippers bring Dorothy home too.

They should have just asked themselves, "what did the shoes do in Wizard of Oz again?"

The campiness of the costume is giving Contrapoints and I have zero complaints

Personally I do see my disability as a problem to be fixed. I’d do anything to be able to walk unaided. And getting rid of the pain permanently would be a dream come true.

Oh yes another video essay about media I have never seen I love it

Much like the stage show, the first movie is stronger, but they ran out of steam by the time of the second act/film. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's chemistry was definitely a huge highlight.

The time skip is the biggest weakness of act 2. A whole lot of telling to get you up to speed rather than showing the character moments that lead them to their choices. One of the rare times an in-between-quel could enhance the story as a whole.

I felt that "I've read the book... once" in my soul.

Also: the new songs are bad because they're, functionally, the same song. Sad, SLOW ballads that don't mean anything. We already know Glinda is a girl in a bubble, give new information. Elphaba begs the animals not to abandon their home and then ends the movie... leaving her home. Give them an angry duet (maybe about Nessa?? Elphie seems to forget her sister but goes pretty hard about her boyfriend??) that makes them reconciling during For Good have more weight.

I cried four separate times at part one and cried once at the trailer for part two. Something went wrong.

I can't get over how good he looks in that dress

You had the brains the whole time but found a heart at the end

Honestly, I think the biggest adaptational problem is what the loss of abstraction does to the timeline. The stage version of act two has always felt like it (plus the intermission) takes place over months if not years, whereas the movie definitely feels like it take place over days or MAYBE weeks. In particular, my brain always added years into both the intermission, and between No Goo d Deed and For Good (I don’t think this actually works with the Wizard of Oz happening in the background but…  *shrugs*). Without those gaps, the sense of scale feels off.

47:24 SHE CAME DOWN IN A BUBBLE DAWG

The Wizard of Oz is actually theorized to be a political allegory about the gold standard, Baum was an activist in the 1890’s. The yellow brick road is the gold standard, the silver shoes are the Free Silver movement, Oz is for ounce, Scarecrow and Tinman are the American farmer and industrial worker, the ultimately powerless Wizard is the president.

this video was cathartic to me as a huge wicked fan who had problems with part two (of both the movie and the stage) but still loves this story to death!!!
wonderful video!! I really do love your style of video that's just you sparring with yourself. it's a fun way to visualize the arguments and feelings you hold within yourself. also you are rocking the glittery corset and tiara!!

1:30 Well, they really planted the tulips… in the shot where the Munchkins are running through the massive field of tulips. The other shots tho? CGI, using that real field as a reference point. I think this came up in the “No CGI is All CGI” series of YouTube videos.

Have I watched anything to do with Wicked? Nope.
Am I still going to watch this video, hand on chin, mumbling ‘I see’, like I understand anything? Yup!

I looovvve the Socratic dialogue set-up used in this video. That really is how it feels to have mixed feelings on a piece of media.

I really like the duality here, embracing what the story and movie do well and what issues they have. You’re absolutely right about the tone being all over the place and an essential issue, but also that the show means so much to people and has so much heart. Great video!