On That Cowboy Shit Again (pls Click For Better Resolution Probably ♡)

An in depth study of Fiyero and Elphaba's first meeting in the Wicked movie

So I've wanted to do an analysis of this scene from the moment I saw it. It's such a great addition to canon and gives such a fascinating insight into both of their personalities and the facades they put on to others. It also gives hints of the fact that both of them are pretty good at breaking down each other's walls.

From the top:

“Woah, Woah there, woah.”

“I did not see her.”

“Yeah, neither did I.”

“You might want to, um”

“Ok.”

“You know,”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry miss, I didn’t see you there, you must have...”

The first impression we get of Fiyero is that he’s kind. Obviously careless enough to hit a girl in the dark, but he immediately slows down and, even before Feldspar has told him to apologise, he’s got down and is about to make his way over.

It’s also important to note we that seeing him talk to a Horse as a friend, when just the scene prior we have seen that a large amount of the population don’t want Animals to talk at all. In fact, this is the only other human we see friends with an Animal in the entire movie, and it sets up immediately the fact that he will agree with Elphaba on her cause.

“...blended with the foliage.”

Here is his first reaction to Elphaba’s greenness. It is the rudest thing that Fiyero says to her all scene, and something that immediately puts Elphaba on the defensive, having heard shit like this all her life, but it’s also very on par with Fiyero and his constant habit of saying dumb shit whenever Elphaba is around (“yeah, or maybe it scratched me or something,” and “well, actually it was, but it wasn’t” come to mind), he’s surprised and he reacts with humour (something we see he does a lot).

It’s interesting to contrast this to his musical comment, “Well maybe the driver saw green and thought it meant go,” which is a lot more pointed and insulting, blaming the situation on her (though to be fair she does wake him up and attack him for what his carriage driver did), Fiyero in the movie reacts dumbly but not maliciously.

“Is this how you go through life? Just running amuck and trampling anyone in your path?”

Elphaba is immediately on the defensive. She’s already stressed about Doctor Dillamond, pissed off about being knocked over and now, as usual, she has met a new person who is insulting her skin tone. So she does what she does best, she puts her walls up and hides behind them.

“No.”

*Feldspar laughs*

Fiyero is shocked by this attack. He’s naturally charming, to the point where he relies on his charm to get him out of situations. So the fact it doesn’t work stuns him a little. This is why Feldspar laughs, because he knows Fiyero and how he normally acts, and it is funny to see him not immediately manage the situation.

“No, sometimes I’m asleep.” *looks at her flirtily*

Fiyero recovers, his walls are back up. He’s over the shock of seeing someone green and how she’s reacted to him, so he goes back to charm by flirting with her. Notice how he is using self derogatory humour, it’s easy charm that he knows how to use – he’s trying to ease the situation by insulting himself and making her laugh. It’s also another way of cultivating his image, Fiyero very deliberately portrays himself as stupid, flirty and lazy (he sings an entire song about it!) and here he is playing it up.

Also, I’m pretty sure this is a reference to their meeting in the musical (where he is actually asleep), which is cute.

*Awkward pause*, “Yeah, alright, alright, here we go. No, I’m not seasick.”

Elphaba, who is not at all used to people flirting with her, but is used to people asking questions and insulting her skin tone – has picked up none of the playful implications and only that he is stupid and lazy, and therefore starts the rant that she’s said 100 times before.

“Neither am I.”

“No. I did not eat grass as a child.”

“Oh you didn’t? I did!”

But Fiyero starts replying! Again, it’s all charm and self derogatory humour, but he’s sensed the unease, he did not come to insult or attack her, and he’s trying to lighten the situation with his usual techniques he uses on everyone – but they are not working.

“And yes, I have always been green.”

“And the defensiveness? Is that a recent development?”

And here we see Fiyero let down his shield a little, and let on that he’s less dumb than he’s acting. Fiyero is remarkably good at understanding people, it’s how he manages to maintain his facade in the first place – and it’s how he ends up being an effective double agent through most of act 2. Fiyero immediately realises that Elphaba is putting on an act too, that she’s not just attacking him because she’s annoyed at him but that there’s something more going on there.

I love it. I love it so much. It’s such a good addition to the musical canon, because all the traits for Fiyero to be like this are already there, and it adds an extra bit of depth to our understanding of why he’s fascinated with Elphaba – because he knows that she’s another person hiding her true self from the world. It’s such a good link to the Lion Cub scene later where Elphaba pretty much calls him out on the same thing.

*Elphaba stares*

*Fiyero tries a smoulder*

“Hm.”

There is a second here where Elphaba realises that she’s been called out. That she’s attacked him when he wasn’t being malicious and it does cause her to retreat slightly.

Fiyero, now in safer territory, puts his walls back up and goes back to flirting. Elphaba, again not used to this at all, doesn’t really understand this and is still in a bad mood about the Animals, so breaks the moment.

*Feldspar laughs, Fiyero tries to shh him but laughs too.*

*Elphaba notices and stalks off.*

So this is interesting. From context clues, what Feldspar is laughing at earlier and Fiyero’s comment later, it appears he’s laughing at Fiyero, that his easy charm hasn’t worked and he’s found himself on the back foot. Fiyero, bewildered, but still playing up his persona, laughs too. Elphaba sees this and, obviously, immediately takes this as them laughing at her greenness, and therefore any goodwill from what he’s said is gone, and she stalks off.

“I’m off for some more trampling, may we offer you a ride?”

Fiyero, bless him, tries again. He’s seen he’s offended her, though probably hasn’t quite connected exactly why, and tries to make right. So he goes in with more self derogatory humour as well as a genuinely kind offer – it probably isn’t safe for her to walk back in the dark – but the moment has been lost.

“No thanks. Get stuffed.”

Elphaba’s walls are back up again. She might regret the “stuffed” comment by the end of act 2 though...

“Wow, Feldspar, we have just been spurned by a girl.”

“Indeed.”

“Guess there’s a first time for everything.”

Fiyero ends the scene baffled, unsettled, but interested. He plays it off as if he’s normal and also reassembles his walls and defensiveness, again playing into the lazy playboy persona he puts on, ready for his next scene with Galinda.

Analysis of Fiyeraba interactions in the Dancing Through Life/Ozdust Scene

Analysis of Fiyeraba interactions in the Lion Cub Scene in the movie

An In Depth Study of Elphaba and Fiyero in the Train Station Scene

I replayed blessed are the peacemakers the other night and had a radical idea,,

What if Micah coordimated the parley with the o'driscolls, specifically to get Arthur out of the way? He's definitely not above it, and he's definitely clever enough to pull it off.

See like, Dutch aside, I think Micah is jealous of Arthur. Arthur is considered one of the most, if not /the/ most capable members of the gang. They respect his opinion on things and usually follow his lead without much fuss. They invite him to take a load off, sit by the fire and have a drink. The girls invite him to chat. He has an easy camaraderie with the rest of the gang.

Contrast this with Micah, who seems constantly at odds with everyone. Crazy homicidal tendencies aside, he does seem to want a connection with at least some of the gang. He'll sit by the fire and tell a story. He'll try to talk to the women, who brush him off with disdain or scorn. His sense of humor is fucked 9 ways to Sunday, so most of his "jokes" involve blatant sexism/racism, or he's just otherwise cruel (though I think his cruelty is half him lashing out, half him being cruel for the sake of it)

Half of the gangs rejection has to do with him just being a shitty person, but I think Arthur's attitude also plays a big part. Arthur makes no effort to hide his feelings about the man. He doesn't like him, he'd wish he'd get gone, he only tolerates him bc Dutch, ect. And because Arthur doesn't like him, the rest of the gang, subconsciously or not, follows his lead. I say this because you also have a man like Williamson, who is racist and filthy and a drunk, and yet because Arthur doesn't outright hate him, the rest of the gang tolerates him well enough.

And then there's Dutch. If there's anyone's opinion, anyone's esteem Micah truly wants to be held high in, it's Dutch's. And yet again Arthur stands in the way of this, at least in the early chapters. When Dutch wants something done, he sends Arthur. When Dutch wants to take a load off and fool around, he fucks off with Arthur and Hosea. On the rare occasions that Arthur offers his opinions on things, Dutch takes it into consideration, even if he ultimately does whatever he wants anyways. And oh I just know that Micah was stewing over the fact that the gang moved camp to Clemens Point, the place that Arthur and Charles found, instead of Dewberry Creek, the place he suggested.

All in all, Micah is envious of Arthur's place in the gang. He wants that for himself. Ultimately he manipulates his way to Dutch's right hand, but before he got to that point, he may have figured the best way to the top was to simply remove the competition.

So he runs into a few stray Odriscolls and instead of killing them, urges them to pass a message along to Colm. He plants the idea of kidnapping Arthur to lure the gang out, except he was never planning on turning them in, at least not yet. He has them suggest the meeting via Pearson to avoid arousing suspicion, though he throws his weight behind Pearson to make sure everything falls into place.

All so that Arthur when fails to meet them at the fork in the road after the parley, he can convince Dutch that it's fine, he probably saw some pretty buck or damsel in distress and went after it, you know how he is, he'll turn up.

All the while betting on the fact that Colm will eventually get tired of waiting for the rescue and just kill Arthur and be done with it. And with him out of the way, Micah can finally secure some authority within the gang.

The man failure himself

 When Jason Grace wakes up, he's surrounded by friends. He's holding hands with a beautiful girl who says that they're in love, and there’s a boy with a wild grin who says they’re best friends. Jason doesn’t know what’s going on, but he knows he's surrounded by people who care for him and want to help him.

When Percy Jackson wakes up, he's almost completely alone. His only connection is a wolf that seems to be judging his every move as it decides his worth. He's fighting for his life and desperately searching to find a place that would take him in and accept him.

When Jason and Percy were switched, they didn't just have their physical selves swapped. They had their lives swapped. Jason got to believe that someone loved him, and Percy got to experience what it was like to have no one.

Do you guys think that Arthur knows how to make flower crowns?

Because I think when Tilly joined the camp, she was already hurt by the people around. She wasn't a child, she was a survivor.

And I think Arthur being in late teens/early twenties, while being a brute and a criminal, somehow he saw that Tilly wasn't happy. And while he would rather be out hunting, he sat down with her. He took her with him around. In those moments, he didn't treat her like a woman, he treated her like a girl. Like a teenage girl that wants to do dumb stuff. That wants to talk about pointless things, about her dreams, about a book she read. Who wanted to annoy her older brother just because. And he gave her that space, to be a younger sister.

And that's why he knows how to make flower crowns, he had to learn for Tilly.

Brothers

Here it is! Finished character line up with designing process breakdown :)

Cowardly Lion

There's little to no description of the Cowardly Lion in the books, so I always imagined him as rather ironically big with thick, dark mane (the darker the mane, the stronger the lion). He's mainly made of soft, delicate curves, which are incorporated into his whiskers and hair as well. I wanted to incorporate bits of 'you had it all along' in Dorothy's friends designs, so classic tail and mane ribbons were not enough. Such big and proud animal has to have at least a bit of courage to wear lace collar. Lions have darker spot on their heads, which I turned into something fitting for a magical land - star. Since lions can be identified by whisker spots, Cowardly Lion's are little hearts.

Dorothy and Toto

I have carefully noted all descriptions of Dorothy's clothing, which is as follows: sunbonnet, gingham dress with white and pale blue, silver shoes, basket with white cloth and apron. The dress should have pockets. Even though the classic illustrations suggest that her hair was blonde, I decided to go with dark brown. It just fits way better. I added lace to the apron and sunbonnet. All garments were inspired by vintage clothes from early 1900s. Toto is based on Scottish Terrier, since he's been described as small, black and hairy, especially around the nose.

From now on beware spoilers for Wicked part 2

Scarecrow

His eyes will kill you. No, but seriously, they're not dark like other characters, because they're painted. He's made mostly of triangular shapes. Straszek's description is the most detailed: painted blue Munchkin's hat (with little bells), head is a small sack, painted face, blue suit of clothes, old boots with blue tops (I have no idea what tops are, I hope I did well), painted ears and padded hands (that's why his hands are too big + he's the only character with four fingers). Now, I didn't stick to the entire description for various reasons (f.ex. painted ears looked weird and blue hat didn't cooperate with cape), but mainly, because I wanted to add something from myself. And here's where the Wicked part 2 spoilers begin. Fiyero is quite tall, so I have abandoned the idea of Munchkin sized Straszek. He's ragged and dirty, because he was beaten. Torns in suit are remnants of Fiyero's wounds with golden straw spilling out instead of blood. If you look closely straw on his left shoulder should look like epaulet. If it doesn't, then it's my fault. The one shoulder cape was made from what was left of his chieftain outfit and it covers a big rip in the suit (which is his 'brainy' feature). Golden ornament depicts wheat and crows. I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't put unnecessary objects on a big hat, so there you have it: wheat & Elphaba's poppy. And last, but not least: straw sticking out of his face forms light facial hair (everyone say 'thank you, Jonathan Bailey').

Oof. That was long.

Tin Woodman

Standing proudly next to his boyfriend, Tin Man was created from hard, square shapes, quite summetrical as opposed to Scarecrow's absolute chaos. He has his little iconic cap and I can't really say a lot about him. The bowtie is his remarkable feature that I could never take away. It was red for a moment (just like Lion's ribbons were royal blue), but all my friends said that he looked like Freddy Fazbear, so I had to take the red away. I'm sorry, Nick. Let your husband housemate be colorful. Anyway! I might have accidentally incorporated some of Dark Cacao Cookie's armor in here, because that's the only armor I had drawn more than once. He's rusty all over and all that crying turned his eyes brown and left rusty tear marks. His jaw is hinged like it was in the books. If I remember correctly it was never stated that Nick Chopper was a Munchkin, but after Wicked turned Boq into Tin Woodman it would be such a waste to not deisgn a character sturdy, yet small. Spring hair is inspired by movie Boq's curly hair (thank you, Ethan Slater). His you 'had it all along' feature is... Less functional than others. The collar around his neck forms a heart.

Sketch page including some notes:

You still here? Wow. Hey, look!

Wicked part 2 looks great!

Guess what bitch discovered Vroid and wanted to make a super effeminate Roman? (It's me, I'm bitch) His hair was a pain to make.

Galinda: I could fix her

Fiyero: yeah? well I could accept her as she is! you don’t like the murder? grow up! the atrocities are part of her, and I’ve decided that they’re funny.

“Don’t arrest me, Arthur 😏”