IMAGE

Tsum-Tsum T-shirt, by Disney
WALLPAPER

Untitled
by Grant Gould (for StarWars.com)

FAN ART
by master--burglar
by master--burglar
FAN FICTION
Rush
by Love and Rock Music. (TCW) The first half of "Destroy Malevolence," as Anakin and Padmé make their way towards each other.

P/A SITE
The Anakin and Padmé Gallery

CALENDAR
Desktop Calendar // March/April 2015

 


MISCELLANEOUS : PARALLEL COUPLES

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Couple: Elphaba and Fiyero
From: Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire
Site: N/A

When we are introduced to Darth Vader in ANH, there is little hint of the complex backstory that will ultimately be revealed, that he is actually a tragically misunderstood figure, and the saga's central character and hero.

Wicked takes a similar angle with The Wicked Witch of the West, from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz novel and the corresponding film. In this retelling of the Oz story, the Witch becomes the central figure. We see her life from her mysterious birth, her early childhood in Munchkinland and her days as a promising and passionate (if troubled) university student - followed by her disillusionment and ultimate fall from grace into darkness, and her premature death.

Elphaba Thropp, like Anakin, is born under bizarre circumstances and from early childhood displays signs of an innate ability unusual for children her age - in Anakin's case, the Force; in Elphaba's, magic. In both cases the unusual nature of their conception/lineage seem to be the cause: Anakin was conceived by midi-chlorians and birthed by a human mother, while it is strongly implied that Elphaba was the child of two worlds - her mother was a Munchkinlander magically seduced by a stranger from far beyond the land of Oz, a stranger who would turn out to be the Wizard of Oz himself.

Elphaba is an outcast from the beginning, due to her green skin and unusual abilities. Like Anakin, Elphaba in the novel is plagued through much of her life by the search for a father figure. Anakin struggles to gain the approval of his main father figure, Obi-Wan, unfortunately finding it in another less benevolent form - Palpatine. Elphaba's father - or the man she grew up believing was her father - always favored her beautiful younger sister, and Elphaba desperately craved that approval. (In this telling the ruby slippers were a gift from Elphaba's father to her sister, and this is why she so desperately wants them back from Dorothy Gale.) Elphaba in the stage adaptation of Wicked is blatantly rejected by her father from birth, and thinks she has found possible mentors in her university teacher Madame Morrible and the Wizard of Oz... both whom, as in the novel, she later learns were only interested in her talents to further their own ends.

Anakin desires to free his mother and the other slaves on Tatooine and bring good to the galaxy; Elphaba desires to make Oz an equal place for humans and sentient Animals alike. Betrayals by their mentor figures are what prompt both Elphaba and Anakin to turn against the institutions that shaped them: Anakin the Jedi Order and the Republic; Elphaba the corrupt, bigoted dictatorship of the Wizard.

In the course of their painful journeys, both end up profoundly shaped by a brief - and ultimately bittersweet - romance.

In the musical, Elphaba falls for the charming Vinkus prince Fiyero at university and, though there are hints of mutual feelings, she believes her feelings are unrequited. After Elphaba rejects the Wizard, she is on the run, the entire land of Oz - except for Fiyero and his fiancé, Elphaba's former roommate Glinda - believing due to the Wizard's propaganda that she is a wicked witch, a terrorist. A chance reunion with Fiyero rekindles old sparks, prompting him - now a leader in the Wizard's guard - to turn his back on his station (and fiancé), to run away with Elphaba. The two share a brief blissful time together, knowing their time will be short. Sure enough, Elphaba is lured into a trap trying to save her sister. She is unsuccessful; her sister is killed when a tornado drops Dorothy's house on her, and Fiyero is captured by the Wizard's guards. Elphaba desperately tries every magic spell she knows in attempt to spare Fiyero's life, but believes herself unsuccessful. Having failed in saving everyone she ever loved, upon losing Fiyero Elphaba vows never to do good again, declaring herself "wicked through and through."

Their romance plays out somewhat differently in the novel, but Fiyero's fate is still a significant catalyst in Elphaba's transformation. The two meet at university and, while friends, they do not appear particularly close. Three years after Elphaba rejects the Wizard and disappears into the Emerald City, Fiyero spots her there, and she immediately rebuffs his attempts to get close to her. Concerned, he refuses to be shut out, and Elphaba gradually warms to the his company; the two embark on a passionate, illicit affair. (Fiyero is unhappily married, his arranged wife and children on the other side of Oz.) Elphaba at this point is a member of a very secretive resistance movement, devoted to bringing down the Wizard's regime. Despite Elphaba's entreatings to keep his distance from her, he refuses to leave. Fiyero is brutally murdered by the Wizard's guard, who were seeking Elphaba. At Fiyero's death, Elphaba becomes mute with grief/guilt and joins a mauntery, where she is catatonic for nearly a year. During this blank period she gives birth to hers and Fiyero's son, though Elphaba herself has no memory of it. After, she removes herself and the boy to the distant Vinkus that was Fiyero's home, losing herself further and further in her sorceries, and fruitlessly seeking forgiveness for her part in Fiyero's death. Eventually, as in the original Oz tale, she encounters Dorothy and is killed when - in an ironic contrast to Anakin's fate on Mustafar - Dorothy tosses a bucket of water on her, melting her.

In both book and musical, the ending is bittersweet. In the novel, both lovers die, but their son lives on to continue the story. In the musical, Elphaba fakes her death, and Fiyero does survive, having been transformed into the Scarecrow by Elphaba's earlier attempts to save him. The two are reunited, but as Elphaba will forever be a marked woman, they are forced to live out their days in secret, telling no one of their existence.

 
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