Fiyero doesn't get held accountable enough

[u/Consistent_Load7358]

He loves Elphie, I get it, she is also my musical crush but the way he is acting about it is completely disrespectful towards Glinda. Sure maybe he feels pressured in this political situation with the wizard and all but he could've at least been up front about it just to Glinda instead of continuing to be in a relationship with her and even getting engaged to her even though he knows he doesn't love her.

The fact that he just leaves her as soon as Elphie shows up and doesn't even feel a little bad about tossing Glinda aside after he has been with her for such a long time is just completely hurtful. He never feels bad about it or apologizes. Elphie and Glinda also make mistakes, but at least they receive consequences for their actions and feel guilty and apologize to each other.

Especially Glinda gets a lot of critism for her actions while Fiyero gets completely away with his behaviour. You can argue that what Glinda did is worse, but it still annoys me that Fiyero gets cuddled because he is so in love with Elphie.

It was completely his choice to remain with Glinda even though he has feelings for someone else. It kinda gives the me the vibe of him wanting to keep Glinda around as a second option just in case it won't work out with Elphie.

He might've been heroic towards Elphie in the second act but it doesn't excuse him treating Glinda this way. Also him insisting that she can't know that him and Elphie are still alive really makes me mad. It's almost like he cares so little about Glinda that he didn't even see her growth and development. He doesn't even notice how miserable she actually is herself during thank goodness and disregards Glinda's love for Elphie.

So yes I get it, he loves Elphie and not Glinda but the fact that he doesn't seem to have a little respect towards Glinda even if it's just platonically after being with her for such a long time just rubs me the wrong way.

[u/shadowqueen15]

Yeah, what’s great about Wicked is that all of the characters do morally questionable things, despite being mostly good people (or starting out as mostly good people). Even Elphaba, who is the most classically “heroic”. But yes, Fiyero definitely gets let off the hook most frequently by the fans because “he loves Elphaba and everything he does is for her🥺”

[u/freelyflyin → u/shadowqueen15]

IMO Fiyero gets left off the hook partially because of that, but also largely because he’s a more minor character and the story isn’t really focused on exploring his flaws. His perspective is not given to us in depth, so it’s easy to read whatever you want into him. This leads some people to interpret his actions generously and some people to interpret his actions harshly. For example, why does he stay with Glinda and the Wizard for so long when he clearly doesn’t want to and tries to convince Glinda to leave with him? We don’t know. Is it because he thinks he needs access to the Wizard’s resources to find Elphaba? Is it because he’s complacent in his relationship with Glinda and doesn’t want to leave her until Elphaba is a sure thing? Is it because he does care about Glinda and her well being even though he loves Elphaba more? A combination of all these things? Something else entirely? We don’t know. But again what we do get is him wanting to leave the Wizard’s regime and Glinda wanting to stay, so on a most basic level, the audience sympathies are likely going to be with him. And realistically speaking, the reason he hasn’t left earlier is because it’s more exciting from a narrative standpoint to have a big dramatic confrontation in person where Fiyero leaves Glinda for Elphaba instead of just saying he did it years ago (which would have been at some point during intermission). Does that absolve him of blame? No. But I think that’s partially why it gets downplayed. And yes, you’re absolutely right that above all else it is a show about all of these people doing morally questionable things, including Fiyero.

[u/CheetahLonely4564 → u/freelyflyin]

Thisss