This was originally posted as a Facebook post.
July 9, 2025
In the Wicked film (and the original Broadway show), there is a line at the beginning of Defying Gravity that has been rattling around in my mind for a while now.
Glinda says to Elphaba, “Just say you’re sorry.”
Glinda says this, moments after Madame Morrible declares Elphaba as a Wicked Witch to all of Oz.
As I have pondered on this, I have realized a few things.
1. Glinda honestly believes what she says. This is a girl who knows how to act to get her way. And she rarely doesn’t get her way. She thinks that a simple apology will make everything okay again.
2. Elphaba knows that this would never work. She has lived her entire life as a rare oddity, not even qualified to be considered a minority. She is the only one of her kind, and in her heart, she knows that she will never meet anyone else like her. Elphaba knows that an apology from herself is never enough and she is done apologizing for being herself.
3. At the end of Defying Gravity, Madame Morrible waves off the guards who are holding Glinda. Madame Morrible offers her arms to Glinda and Glinda accepts her hug and hugs her back. Madame Morrible has never been nice or believed in Glinda, but she “welcomes” her with open arms. Glinda believes that Madame Morrible is actually concerned about her.
My thoughts now:
May 20, 2026
This was in between the film releases of Wicked Part One and Wicked For Good. So, at the time I still fully believed I was 100% Elphaba. I had no idea of the additions in For Good, about Glinda’s past, or heard her new song, The Girl in the Bubble.
Defying Gravity is Elphaba’s very empowering anthem, her decision to stop apologizing, to stop attempting to live up to expectations that, no matter how much she wants, will never be enough for those who set them. The song ends with her epic battle cry.
In a beautiful parallel, The Girl in the Bubble is very much the same. Glinda too realizes that she can’t keep apologizing, to Fiyero, to Elphaba, to herself. She sees that no matter what people believe about her, she knows she doesn’t have magic, even though she deeply wishes she did. The “perfect” life she has, hasn’t made her happy, and she can’t live up to the expectations that those around her demand and it terrifies her. Despite this, she too, makes the choice to courageously moves forward.
This is one of those things that I definitely connect with Glinda on. There are expectations, even now, in my life that I am still attempting to live up to, only because I am afraid. Who am I, really, when I let go of those expectations, when I stop caring about how everyone else perceives me, and actually listen to my own heart?
The only way to find out is to follow through, an equally empowering and terrifying choice.
Leave a Reply