A Wicked Change

[DhampyrX2]

Ok, I was listening to the Wicked Musical soundtrack and it got me thinking. More specifically, the "No Good Deed" part where Elphaba/the Wicked Witch of the West goes off the deep and and unconciously casts the spell to turn Fiyero into the Scarecrow to save his life without realizing it.

Now in both the book and the musical she has no idea he lives and the Wizard of Oz canon takes place as normal around Elphaba's story. In fact the scene explains why she shifts from being mildly intimidating to outright violent. She's somewhere between turning totally to the Dark Side and being suicidal over the loss of her lover.

But... consider the first part of the song No Good Deed where she is casting her spell while in a trance:

(spoken) Fiyero!
(sung) Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen

Let his flesh not be torn
Let his blood leave no stain
Though they beat him
Let him feel no pain
Let his bones never break
And however they try
To destroy him
Let him never die:
Let him never die:

Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen nahmen
Ah tum ah tum eleka: eleka:

Now consider this, what if the spell worked as it reads? What if instead of making him a living Scarecrow managed to make Fiyero immortal and invulnerable? Well granted, you would have the horror of Dorothy coming across his crucified body that the Gale Force had propped up earlier rather than just meeting a talking scarecrow as he woke up.

But how would this change things as a whole? How would the Wizard and Morrible deal with someone like Fiyero that actually has the political and military connections to challenge them as the Crown Prince of the Vinkus? Heck, how would Elphaba deal with everything?

 

[Prince Charon]

Hmm, that would be a bit of a mess, no? I wonder how different Fiyero will be, without being turned into a scarecrow, and how he'll explain the situation to poor, very traumatised Dorothy.

 

[DhampyrX2]

Hmm, that would be a bit of a mess, no? I wonder how different Fiyero will be, without being turned into a scarecrow, and how he'll explain the situation to poor, very traumatised Dorothy.

Well Fiyero's first concern would be Elphaba herself, obviously, since he had just risked himself to rescue her from the Gale Force. And since he's not a monster I think he would do all he could to steer Dorothy away from the Wizard and especially the Gale Force. I figure he would take Dorothy with him to find Elphie to protect her. Of course, depending on the route they take, that could make for a very interesting encounter with Boq.

After that... well things could take a more serious tone than even the book itself had if Fiyero lived. Not only was he officially the captain of the guard for the Gale Force as a means of finding Elphaba, he is also the Heir Apparent to Oz's most powerful neighbor. No matter how far the average Ozian tends to be up the Wizard's ass, someone would eventually have to answer for the war this would spark. And I don't see anything less than a war breaking out over attempted regicide.

Of course the Wizard (or Morrible at least as the power behind the throne) can easily spin things to make the Vinkus into the bad guys in the eyes of the general citizenry. Oz's human population is ridiculously prejudiced and already looks down their noses at the "Winkies," just like they do to the Animals and the Quadlings to the South.

The real problem would be how to keep Oz wearing its rose-colored glasses in the face of a problem much bigger then the ones that Elphaba was used as a distraction against. At the end of the day, the Animal issue and persecuting Elphaba were ways to divert attention from the fact that life isn't perfect and the Great and Wonderful Oz is not all powerful. A full out war would be a little harder to ignore, even by the most oblivious Ozian.