WICKED (2024) — Dir. Jon M. Chu

Feature Commentary with Ariana Grande

What I love so much about this song, No One Mourns the Wicked, is how hard it is for Glinda to be there saying these things to these people and celebrating and rejoicifying with them when she's grieving her friend in real time. She's obviously having to do a hard thing here by celebrating what she's singing about while the lyrics are also her trying to spoon feed them the idea that wickedness happened to her. Give her a chance. Even though she's there doing this thing she knows she's supposed to do, rejoicify with them and celebrate this news, the lyrics...she's actually still fighting for her friend, for them to understand. She's giving them a chance. She's holding out a hand saying, but give her a chance...She's actually asking them to humanize her. It kind of is an impossible position to be in for her at this moment...This was really hard to look at. This was not a fun moment to film...Grief can feel different, and it can show up in many different ways. Sometimes it's really emotional. Sometimes it makes you angry. Sometimes it makes you feel numb. But either way, setting your best friend on fire...not good. Not preferred.

I just realized something. Did Fiyero get all dolled up to see Elphaba off before she meets the wizard?

He was wearing the same suit he has on when he first makes an appearance at Shiz.

It likely has some significance to his home country like a royal or official military uniform. The point is, it’s the kind of outfit you wear when trying to make a good impression or doing something very important.

And homeboy made sure to put it back on to see his girl off for her adventure 😍. That along with bringing her favorite flower 🌺 proves intention. He was ready that day.

#he planned every bit of this out #probably rehearsed in front of the mirror #if only g(a)linda weren’t there #so many words left unsaid

i made some jonathan bailey character stickers! i'm testing out my new printer so the holographic print will vary!

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar in WICKED (Part One)

𝐅𝐈𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 ━ 𝑑𝑎𝑦 2. 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔

Today I'm holding space for the idea that in the context of the movie, dancing is a coping mechanism for Fiyero. While caring is a cure and a solution and an answer. I mean it is nothing new, but it needs to be said.

There will be a separate post on Dancing Through Life later today, but for now, we're starting from later. At history class, Fiyero voluntarily steps up to help the lion cub, and they make it all the way to the forest. Shortly after they are safe, and start talking, Elphaba says, "I know my life would be much easier if I didn't care, but—" and Fiyero cuts her off at exactly this point in her sentence. And I think that moment is crucial. Up until now, he’s never interrupted her before—but now he does and not because he’s frustrated with how much she talks, but because of what she’s saying. He doesn’t want to hear her talk about caring. That’s a pain point for him.

Because he knows it’s easier not to care. That’s the story he tells himself.

The lyrics in Dancing Through Life go: "Why think too hard when it's so soothing?" Soothing what? You don’t need to soothe something that doesn’t hurt. Soothing is only necessary when there’s an ache. To me this means he has cared before, and he has been hurt by caring before, and now he's coping with that by dancing through life. He is soothing his pain from secretly caring just too much, by dancing. Not because he doesn't care anymore about anything, but because he can't stop doing it, so he has to keep dancing. Dancing is loud, and visible. If he dances, people don't ask questions about his personality about what he thinks or how he feels. Maybe they haven't been doing it anyway, so he distracts them by doing his little dance, and as soon as they get too close, he pushes them away. But what he believes to be true for now is that caring = painful and dancing = a way to cope with that pain

But Elphaba just saw him care—deeply. She knows he’s capable of it. And she knows how unbearably sad it must be to choose to pretend otherwise. At the same time, she also understands how painful caring can be, she just highlighted is. In that moment, they find common ground.

But Fiyero’s façade—his carefree persona—is what he assumes people value in him most. So the second he realizes Elphaba doesn’t see him that way, he panics. He thinks that if she can see through him, it means she doesn’t want him there. No one has ever appreciated him for anything beyond the image he projects. So if that mask is gone… what’s left? Why would she still want him around, if he's not fun and happy and carefree? So he starts to leave.

And then she proves him wrong.

Not only does she say "she does (want his help)," but she physically holds onto him, keeping him there. The shock on his face (second gif from the bottom) says everything—he never expected someone to want him without the act. And later, when she touches his face so gently, you can see him struggling to process it. This is the most vulnerable he’s ever been, and it terrifies him. Not only that, but Elphaba sees a scar on his face, and sees that he has been hurt, without him noticing it. She reaches out and touches him gently, not really wanting anything, and he just can't bear it.

Her caring for him is not painful, it's soothing.

His Freudian slip a few beats later—"I better get to safety."—isn’t just about physical danger. This doesn’t feel safe. Being seen, being wanted for real, is the opposite of what he’s used to. Caring and being cared for are equally scary, but only the latter seems like a completely new experience for him. However, after feeling it, he finds something so real that he just yearns for it from now on. Yearns to be seen and touched and to be needed for something he did instinctively, without a thought, something he did because it felt right.

That’s why the later scene with Glinda is so important. When she holds his hand, the shot mirrors the moment with Elphaba—but with one key difference. Glinda is pulling him away, back into the world of pretense. But he can’t go back, not after this, and you can see him looking back at where he came from, back to the forest, back to Elphaba, back to being seen. For once, caring was not painful, and someone cared for him as well.

Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar in Wicked (Part One)

Gifs 10/?

Fiyeraba shenanigan from the Fiyeraba chat

Based on this post here

Jonathan Bailey in 'Wicked: Singing Live'

elphaba + smiling 🥰