Wicked (theatre)/Characters

Elphaba Thropp

Beautiful All Along: Depends on the version.
- In the book it was stated that she had a long pointed chin, a rather mannish jaw, and Fiyero commented that she seemed to have a strange scar near her genitals. And that was before she went utterly insane and stopped sleeping all together, she probably looked like hell by then. Despite this, there are still indications that she's still rather good-looking, in an unconventional way -- her nose, while strong, is described as lovely, and both Galinda and Fiyero tell her she's pretty at separate points. Galinda even goes on about Elphaba's beautiful hair, and says that there's an "exotic" type of beauty about her after a mini-makeover. Elpahaba is described as looking like her mom, but with green skin, at least once in the books.
- In the musical, she only calls Elphaba pretty after "Popular", after she's Galinda-fied her with a flower and better hairstyling. Fiyero in the book refers to her as being "beautiful in her own way", meaning she's not conventionally attractive, and in the musical he finds her beautiful because he's "looking at things differently", which can be taken in multiple ways. The makeup designer flat-out stats that "Elphaba is not ugly -- she's supposed to be beautiful. People just hate her because she's green." Notably, her ensemble changes entirely for the latter part of the play, as she drops the bulky boots, glasses and drab school outfit and switches to a sexy black gown instead.
- This is due to the fact that the musical's aesop is Beautiful All Along, while the book's aesop is more concerned with the validity of having a soul. The Beautiful All Along plot drops dead shortly after Fiyero dies in the book.
Calling the Old Man Out: Defying Gravity in the play. Her role after the same moment in the book as well.
Deadpan Snarker: She gets most of the best lines, in book and play.
Green Skinned Oz Babe
Heroic BSOD: The musical gives her a truly epic breakdown.
- In the book when Fiyero dies Elphaba goes into a coma, takes a vow of silence, and lived in a mauntery for almost a decade.
Hollywood Nerd
Les Yay: With Galinda. At one point in the book, they huddle together in bed, "for protection (Glinda convinces herself)." The two lovingly refer to each other, and Elphaba actually kisses her good-bye and calls her "my sweet" as well.
Inept Mage: Well, things get way out of hand.
Loners Are Freaks: The attitude towards her in college. With more than a little not-so-Fantastic Racism on the side.
Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: In the musical, this is definitely the case. In the novel, this is debatable, especially early-on.
Not Good with People: Type two. She is very snarky, has a hard time expressing her feelings and seems to get along much better with Animals and animals.
Reality Warper: Implied, discussed and exhibited on one occasion. She seems to be able to make things happen unconsciously, without even thinking them.
Rebellious Spirit: In the book, she's almost rebellious for the sake of it -- she insults almost everybody.
Stoic Woobie: Particularly in the book. Where due to water reacting to her skin like acid, she can't even allow herself to cry. This is especially notable during the Doctor Dillamond situation -- all the other girls are beside themselves with grief, while Elphaba remains steely-eyed and in shock.
The Unfavorite: In both book and musical, her father heavily prefers Nessarose.
Well-Intentioned Extremist
- Villain Protagonist: Not in the musical, but the book has her genuinely going insane from all the failures of her life, making her into a very malevolent being by the time Dorothy shows up. She stops sleeping entirely, stalks Dorothy, kills a woman, threatens her former friends and when Dorothy and co. finally get to her castle, she's pretty much fallen into utter desperation. Very sympathetic, yes, but still quite villainous.
  - Knight in Sour Armor(in the musical)
Voice Types: Is a classic, prime example of a mezzo-soprano "Belter". Most Elphaba actresses in the musicals are graded (by the fans) on the quality of: the end notes of "The Wizard and I", the long "Fi-yer-o-o-o-o-o!" in "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, and the end of "Defying Gravity", particularly the final line and the last belted "Ah-aah-ahhhh!"
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Book-verse, Fiyero calls her out on it. She's okay if "accidents" happen when trying to make her point.
The Woobie
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

Galinda Arduenna Upland, Lady Chuffrey

Alpha Bitch: At first. She's more of a Lovable Alpha Bitch afterwards.
Book Dumb: At least, compared to Elphaba. More so in the musical than in the books.
Character Development: In the book Galinda starts of as rather vapid and shallow. But after meeting Elphaba, along with Dillamond's death, she realizes there's much more important things to worry about besides boys and popularity.
The Ditz: In the musical. In the books, she's actually very intelligent and capable.
Heel Realization: In the musical, at the Ozdust Ballroom.
- She has an even bigger one later after inadvertently contributing to Nessarose's death.]]
Inept Mage: Early on she qualifies. She gets better. She's the only one of the girls who actually has a formal education in magic in the books, and is not capable of doing many impressive things with it, though by the standards of Ozian society, she is actually very talented(In the sense that she doesn't accidentally set things on fire).
Large Ham: The role practically calls out for this, especially compared to the more dour and sarcastic Elphaba. The song "Popular" is often the benchmark for any actress playing G(a)linda, as it involves a lot of hopping around, dancing, yodelling, and often bits of improvised comedy unique to that actress. Most later actresses took Kristin Chenoweth's performance and built on it, creating a series of zanier Glindas.
Les Yay: With Elphaba.
Locked Out of the Loop: In the musical.
The Pollyanna: Or she's just really good at acting this role.
Spoiled Sweet
Stepford Smiler: Indicated in the novel Wicked, developed in the sequel, Son of a Witch. The musical makes her a Stepford Smiler at the behest of the state for the sake of keeping the populace blissfully unaware.
That Woman Is Dead: Borderline parody when she changes her name from Galinda to Glinda in the play. Played much more sympathetically in the book.
Voice Types: A soprano -- the role in the musical was written for Kristin Chenoweth. Many notes were added (at her request) to the opening number just so she could hit some high notes.
Word of Gay: From the author and original cast. The book barely tries to hide it when the cuddle together "for protection".
- It helps that she married for money in the book. Though she did genuinely care for him, she had no romantic love for her late husband.

Nessarose Thropp

Church Militant: In the book.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Musical only, as seen below:

"You're going to lose your heart to me, I tell you! Even if I have to...I have to... magic spell you!!!

Cruel Mercy: In the book a Munchkin asks her to enchant a woodsman's ax so that it would kill him when he swings it. She said this would be cruel, so instead she enchants it so it simply cuts off his limbs. And thus the tin woodsman is born.
Dead Little Sister (for Elphaba, but you should know this already)
Disabled Love Interest: In the musical she was a lovely young girl in a wheelchair. Less so in the book, where she was a zealous girl who had functioning legs, but no arms to speak of, which puts a damper on finding love.
Dropped A House On Her: Though it was kind of necessary, since it's a Foregone Conclusion from the original story.
The Fundamentalist
Inept Mage: A truly tragic example in the musical, when she gets her hands on the Grimmerie.
Love Makes You Crazy: And how.
Super Wheelchair: In the musical she eventually ends up with a fancy wheelchair that resembles a throne.
Throwing Off the Disability: Thanks to the magic slippers.
Yandere, at least in the musical, where she is willing to strip the Munchkins of their rights and keep any of them from leaving the country just to keep Boq with her and then curse away his heart when he expresses the desire to leave.

Boq

Adaptation Distillation: He has a whole portion of the book devoted to him, yet is at-best a side character in the musical -- he doesn't even get a whole song to himself, just small bits of other people's songs.
All Love Is Unrequited: Musical only. He loves Galinda, who won't give him the time of day. Nessarose is absolutely smitten with him, but he doesn't feel much more than sympathy for her, which decreases rapidly as time goes on.
Dogged Nice Guy: In the book he pursued Galinda for quite a while during his time in school. But eventually she set the record straight that it would never work out, and he gave up when she became more serious, and he grew up a bit.
Emergency Transformation: He's the musical's version of the Tin Man through this.
The Everyman: In the book, he's basically a defining "this is what normal people are like" character, compared to the snobby Galinda (and her friends), sullen and sarcastic Elphaba, and whacky frat boys Avaric, Crope and Tibbett.
Flanderization: His crush on Galinda he has for a summer or two in college becomes the defining character trait his whole life in the musical.
Happily Married: In the book he winds up living a happy, yet mundane, life as a farmer, father, and husband.
Stalker with a Crush: In the musical -- Glinda's clearly not interested, and he still wants to break up her engagement years after they leave school.

Fiyero

Arranged Marriage: In the book he is arranged to be married when he is in Shiz. He ends up marrying her and having three children with his wife. That doesn't seem to stop him from having some "fun" with Elphaba in the Emerald City, as it's generally a loveless union.
Composite Character: In the Musical he's a mix of Book Fiyero (with his name and position of Prince), while his personality is more along the lines of Avaric (and possibly Crope and Tibbett) taken Up to Eleven
Cool Shades: In his first musical appearance.
The Ditz
Emergency Transformation: He's the musical's version of the Scarecrow through this.
Funny Foreigner: He first comes off as this in the book.
Hidden Depths
Hidden Heart of Gold
Killed Off for Real
Race Lift: He was dark skinned and covered in tattoos in the book. In the musicals, it depends on the actor. There have been Fiyeros of all colors on stage (though few with the tattoos).
Non-Action Guy: Compared to Elphie and even Galinda, he comes off as this.

The Wizard

Adaptational Villainy
Affably Evil: In the musical at least.
Broken Pedestal
Complete Monster: In the book, he claims the moral equivalent of diplomatic immunity, by stating that the rules don't apply to him since he's from another world. Oh, and back home on his world, he's a satanic occultist. who came to Oz for the Grimmerie
Driven to Suicide: Although only suggested in the book. He fails however.
The Faceless: In the musical, in his appearances as the object of Elphaba's mother's affair.
Fantastic Racist
Heel Realization: In the musical.
Villain with Good Publicity
Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the musical, he honestly wants to be "wonderful", but fails miserably. He reaches near Jerkass Woobie levels when he realizes the full extent of his failures.

Madame Morrible

Fantastic Racist
Expy: Suspiciously similar to Professor Umbridge. Granted, both the book and the musical come out prior to the release of Order of the Phoenix, so the similarities are merely coincidental.
Large Ham
In the musical, The Woman Behind The Man
Moral Event Horizon: In the musical, sending the cyclone after Nessarose.
- In the book, murdering Dr. Dillamond.
Sadist Teacher: To Galinda, and anyone else she deems as unworthy.
Voice Types: Like most older female characters, she's an alto.

Professor Dillamond

Cool Teacher: Well, Elphaba thinks so anyway...
Talking Animal
Mentor Occupational Hazard
Satellite Character: Despite mattering heavily into the plots of both book and musical (indeed; most of either story would have never happened without him), he actually doesn't appear a whole lot, and instead revolves around Elphaba. Characters spend more time talking about him in absentia in the book, and he's only in one song in the play, and three scenes altogether.
Verbal Tic: A truly disturbing instance in the musical.

Dorothy

Bratty Half-Pint: Some fans see her as this.
Clingy MacGuffin: After being more or less conned into taking Nessarose's shoes, Dorothy finds that she can't take them off, even when she wants to give them to Elphaba.
The Dog Bites Back: In the fourth book.
Good Is Boring: Liir's crush on her didn't last very long after leaving Kiamo Ko. He found that nice girls raised on a farm don't make for particularly interesting people.
- Not only that, but he finds there is something rather fake about all her goodness. Something that is reprised on by several characters. But then again, it never really comes up.
Hero Antagonist: In the book, Elphaba's dress caught fire prior to the fateful bucket of water. Dorothy had just been trying to help put it out.
Naive Everygirl: Dorothy doesn't really understand the complicated politics of Oz, which makes her a perfect Unwitting Pawn for the Wizard.
She Who Must Not Be Seen: In the musical. The most we get is a silhouette.
Took A Level In Badass: In the fourth book.
Unwitting Pawn: As mentioned above.
What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: In the book Boq is fascinated that "Dorothy" means "gift of the gods" and the ruler (president) of her land at the time was named "Theodore", which means "God of gifts".
The Woobie: Elphaba obviously had a rotten childhood, but A Lion Among Men reveals that life hasn't exactly been a picnic for Dorothy either. Going from having your parents drowned in a freak storm at sea to being stuck in an orphanage to adopted by a farm couple who imply that she wasn't exactly what they wanted to having an aunt who suffers from sciatica and generally seems to be pretty bad-tempered would make anyone want to go over the rainbow after a while. In the last book, she is sentenced to death for the murder of Elphaba and Nessarose in a show trial in Munchkinland.

Liir

Bi the Way: He is in the center of a Love Triangle with a man and a woman. Who may have fallen in love with each other, too, or died separately.
Contemplate Our Navels: He does a lot of this.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Even after he finds out that he's the only one capable of riding the broom, the narrative still won't shut up about how unspecial he is.
Non-Action Guy / Action Survivor: Does surprisingly little, compared to his mom. He's more the type of guy stuff just happens to.
- That said, he certainly accomplishes quite a lot more than his mother, including missions he inherited from her failures.
Progressively Prettier: He is described as being fat in the first book, but second book onwards has him losing the weight and becoming lean, pale and dark-haired. Possibly justified in that he spent some time in the army and may have gotten into better shape during that time.
The Scrappy: Gets a lot of flak for not being as compelling a character as Elphaba and having a lot of Common Mary Sue Traits.
Rape Is Love: Liir found out his virginity was taken from him while in a coma, from a nun. And she's pregnant. So he has no choice but to take her with him. At least until she gets tired of him.

Yackle

Born as an Adult
Cool Old Lady
Never Mess with Granny
Stealth Mentor
Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Inverted. She looks ancient, but she was born old and pruny, she did live Elphaba's entire lifespan and beyond though.
Younger Than They Look

Brr, The Cowardly Lion

Character Development: Bordering on Dynamic Character. He is very different in all periods of his life from what he was at the start of his life, through his journey with Dorothy, integration with human society, etc. etc. All this from a character who doesn't really move the plotline at all. although he ends the novels as ruler of Oz
Deadpan Snarker
The Quisling: Sided with the humans during the subjugation of Animals. Regrets it. Sort of.
Intrepid Reporter: Kinda

Shell Thropp

A God Am I: In the fourth book.
Big Bad: Seems to be, if we take the four books as one story. Made confusing due to the above.
Chekhov's Gunman
Who Is This Guy Again?: He was only mentioned a handful of times in the first book, and completely cut out of the musical. Causing lots of people reading the second book to double take when remembering that yes, Elphaba had a brother.

Avaric

Composite Character: Makes up part of the "Fiyero" character in the musical.
Satellite Character: Really takes the role of "Boq's popular friend", and doesn't really matter a whole lot to the story.

Crope and Tibbett

Ambiguously Gay: They apparently tease Boq endlessly, but stop if he gets too upset about it.
Satellite Character: Both are essentially just there as Boq's schoolchums, though one later dies, and becomes rather important, as he's the one that snaps Elphaba out of a long funk.