#ariana after ranting about What Would Have To Happen For Glinda And Elphaba To Be Together In The End: i think about this all the time!

[galindatopland]

ariana grande i want a link to your gelphie fanfiction Now

[snake-eggs]

@she-doesnt-have-the-range FOR REALLLLL!!! The man she picks is a universally coveted man who would elevate her status and who makes it clear right off the bat that he has no actual substance that she has to pay attention to. When he starts thinking, she is bothered by this, and yet deep thought is all her *glinda in one short day voice* "best.... ..... friend?" Elphie does!!! And she loves Elphie for it!

Forgive me for ranting but let's look at the Ozdust scene as a lower-stakes version of what could have happened at the Wizard's Palace: in both situations, Elphaba is ostracized by the masses, and Glinda has the choice to either stand with her or do the socially accepted thing and leave her on her own.

At the Ozdust, she chooses to stand with Elphaba, and she ends up winning over the entire crowd for the both of them. And at the end of the scene, they frolic out of the ballroom together! She leaves Fiyero behind without even a word! And she's thrilled about it! She's singing and prancing around and swinging on chandeliers!

In the palace, she could have done the same! In fact, her gut instinct is to do so; she follows Elphie onto the balloon without hesitation-- her only gripe is with the physical act of jumping, not making a criminal of herself and leaving the life (including Fiyero) she has behind.

But after she's given more time to consider the ramifications, she backs down. It's like if she had actually stopped dancing with Elphie at the Ozdust when her friends told her to back down. What would have happened then? Elphaba would have continued to have been a social outcast, and Glinda would have been sick with herself! But when the stakes are raised, that's exactly what Glinda does! And so, she doesn't get to run away with Elphie, which I think is what would have really made her happy (singing, prancing, swinging on chandeliers, et al.).

I think we can reference the Ozdust scene for an idea of what would have happened if Glinda had chosen to stand by Elphaba in the Palace scene. Glinda wins everyone back at the Ozdust, and they accept Elphie by extension because of that. If she had gone with Elphie at the palace, would it have still paralleled that scene?

Glinda is not a powerful witch. Madame Morrible had no faith in her. We don't see Glinda successfully perform magic at all. So why would she and Elphaba have been "unlimited" together? Precisely because of Glinda's ability to make people love her. She could have been Elphie's wildly flamboyant, one-woman PR department. If Glinda had gone with, Elphie might not have ended up an exile. And yet, it was exactly the fear of exile and the need to have people love her that kept Glinda from going with her. It's such a brilliant instance where her greatest strength is also her greatest weakness.

At a certain point, it doesn't even matter to me whether Glinda was ever actually written to be romantically interested in Elphaba (although for the record, I do believe she was, and it's becoming more and more obvious that Ariana Grande seems to have been playing her with this in mind), because her whole story is centered around the exact kind of social pressure that leads real people to perform comphet.

Because of that pressure, Glinda spends the rest of her life pretending to be someone else, pretending not to love who she truly loves, and as a result, never letting anyone know her true self so she can be loved in a real and deep way.

In a story that's about so flagrantly being yourself at all costs, Glinda is the ultimate cautionary tale. I mean, this woman changes her name-- literally changes her identity-- to something she hates because it will buy her 30 seconds of attention and applause. Where Elphaba learns to let go of the part of her that craves external approval through actually surviving years of loneliness and learning to love herself (with an adoring Glinda's help, of course), Glinda experiences about one minute in the movie where she is not being worshipped by all, and as a result, she never grows past this. Glinda is held hostage by her need to be liked, and to do that, she has to conform to the status quo. She cannot have what she really wants. She has to smile and laugh and pretend to fall in love with high-status men and pretend to celebrate the death of the actual, real love of her life.

anyway, i know that you literally did not ask, and this is me rn but that's my two cents.

no thoughts, head empty, just Glinda flouncing around in the prettiest pink imaginable