I know I already wrote at least two posts dealing with the Wicked love triangle. But now I want to talk just how ironic these two songs actually are. The ironies of these songs is what makes the Wicked love triangle my favorite.
Major Spoilers:
“I’m Not That Girl” happens in the very first act, which is sung by Elphaba. It is a heartbreaking and insightful song about unrequited love and it took me quite a while to know the song is heartbreaking. I first saw Wicked in 2006 and I always knew that “I’m Not That Girl” was a sad song. Even the third viewing, which was in 2013 during the month of February, I still didn’t pick up on it. By that point, I already knew heartbreak was part of the musical world thanks to seeing the Les Mis movie the year before in December. But I didn’t actually accept or even grasp the emotion until March of 2013.
Sometime around 2014 and 2015, I made a connection between “On My Own” and “I’m Not That Girl”. I knew that “On My Own” was a very strong and heartbreaking unrequited love song and realized that “I’m Not That Girl” is also about unrequited love and knew that Elphaba’s unrequited love for Fiyero was not quite as strong as Eponine’s love for Marius. But either way the two songs are unrequited love songs, which makes both heartbreaking songs.
This is the irony of “I’m Not That Girl”. In the scene previously, Elphaba just found out that she loves Fiyero. She noticed a scared lion cub in a cage during class and cast a spell on the class, which didn’t affect Fiyero. They both ran into the woods to free the cub and in that moment, she realized she loves him. It appears as if Elphaba will always have unrequited love for Fiyero and the song is moderately heartbreaking. There is actually no way of knowing how long Elphaba has been in love with Fiyero. The last time I saw Wicked, I began to wonder if Fiyero had a crush on Elphaba without even realizing it. The big fat irony comes from a plot twist in the second act.
In the second act, the unrequited love shifts gears on you. Fiyero hears all of the rude comments about Elphaba and cannot believe Glinda is supporting all of this. He realizes that he loves Elphaba and there is no way of knowing when he fell in love with Elphaba even when there are clues in act one. So because the unrequited love shifted to Glinda, it is a bit ironic to feel heartbroken during “I’m Not That Girl”.
So after all of this mess, Fiyero goes out with Elphaba. So in “As Long As Your’e Mine”, they are officially a couple. This is something you just wouldn’t see coming. All of these plot twists make the love triangle in Wicked so difficult to interpret. Even though “I’m Not That Girl” will always make me feel heartbroken, there is still the irony in the fact that Elphaba will eventually end up with Fiyero, which leads to the irony of “As Long As Your’e Mine”.
This love triangle adds an incredible texture and emotional value to Wicked. This is the only love triangle in the world of musicals that has major plot twists. It does seem like Elphaba will always have unrequited love for Fiyero, but that never has been the case. Her story doesn’t revolve around unrequited love at all. Due to “For Good” being more emotional than the heartbreaking and insightful “I’m Not That Girl”, it shows how much more important the friendship is in Wicked compared to the love triangle.
Meg's Magical Musings 
Loved this post and how you really well-laid-out the whole love triangle situation! Never really thought of it as ironic until now!
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Same, it took a while to see it as ironic. I feel like if I can actually figure out Fiyero, I think I will completely understand this love triangle
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Fiyero can be a tough one to crack because, at least for me, it feels like we never really get to know who he is throughout the span of the show.
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He is starting to become more complex these days after having a better insight into the love triangle. I love him as a character, but honestly have no idea why.
I have spent so much time getting to know Elphaba that I have not spent much time getting to know the other characters.
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For me, I’m kinda confused about what I think of Fiyero. One minute, I think that I understand him, and then the next, there’s a huge character shift. I think that Fiyero puts up a lot of façades and part of what makes him complex is trying to figure out which ones are façades and which ones are the real him
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It actually is surprising that Elphaba even fell in love with him. At first, she thought he was super rude and quite completely annoying and she somehow fell in love with him. I wish I could understand Fiyero better and wish I knew why I love that character
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I think a lot of my love for Fiyero comes from the fact that he was the first character from Wicked that I was ever introduced to. Although, if I knew him in real life, as a person, I’m not sure that I’d get along with him pretty well
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My first character I fell in love with from Wicked was Elphaba and I still see a lot of myself in her. We are both smart, talkative,determined, big-hearted, unique and both believe in equality and staying true to ourselves. Funny how Fiyero is mentioned just now in this post because I am on Pandora now and listening to Dancing Through Life
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Nice! As much as Elphaba is the character I identify with the most in Wicked, if I could play any character in Wicked, it’d be Galinda. I think she’d be so much fun to play!
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I would want to be Elphaba. I am now starting to remember some of the spoken lines. During my fourth viewing, I remember in the scene just before “I’m Not That Girl”, I remember something that Fiyero said to Elphaba around the lines of “do you ever let anyone else talk”. Just because of that line, I found a new thing that the two of us have in common. I admire Elphaba’s courage and strength. While I identify with her so much, there are several things we don’t have in common
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I’d want to be Galinda because it’d be so much fun to play someone who is so unlike me. The only thing I really have in common with Galinda is that she’s always really excited about stuff and I’m also generally excited about stuff too. Speaking lines in Wicked aren’t ad prevalent in my mind but they always make me smile when I actually go to see the show
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Boy the Glinda I saw during the fourth viewing was absolutely hilarious. Glinda and I have things in common two. We both are hilarious and both are popular. Everyone knows me at my school and I don’t know how they know me. I am not as girly girl as Glinda, but I have bits of that nature
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I think that the reason why people know me are more like the reasons everyone knows Elphie. I guess that what I mean is that I’m not popular per-say but people know me as a history geek and someone to consult when it comes to historical accuracy and primary/secondary source reading. So I suppose that it’s more like I’ve got a label on my forehead than actually being popular (Why on earth is writing what I do??? I’m horrible with descriptions!) I think that outwardly, I’m more of a Galinda because in high school, I was that kid who literally skipped to class in the mornings but emotionally and ethically, I’m more similar to Elphaba
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A lot of people know me because I have quite an infectious personality and someone once told me that I help bring light to the Campus. Many people who know me know that a Les Mis Freak. I am not popular in the same way that Glinda is popular.
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I think there are varying levels of popular. I’m the sort of person who cracks jokes but they’re not necessarily traditionally funny. My humor is largely sarcastic and based off of quick quips. I guess that’s called wit? I don’t know. So I guess that I’m funny in the way that Elphaba is funny. But at the same time, I think that I’m also a bit like Fiyero in that I believe that sometimes people have just got to kick back and relax. Wow… now I’m feeling like I’m going through an identity crisis! Now I don’t even know which one I’m most like!
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I love this post, “I’m Not that Girl” is one of my favorite songs from Wicked, and I like how you pointed out the irony of it, I haven’t really noticed that part before. For me, I’ve always seen that song as heartbreaking but beautiful. It’s very sad at that point because Elphaba finds out that she’s falling for Fiyero, but because she knows how much Glinda loves him, she’s actually making up her mind not to pursue him and steal him away from her best friend, and she’s trying to convince herself that she and Fiyero will never be able to be together. One of my favorite lines from the song is “Don’t wish, don’t start, wishing only wounds the heart” — I don’t know why, but emotionally it hit me really hard.
And the reprise is also really sad, maybe even sadder than the first version. Because Glinda has gotten so close to him and thinks that Fiyero actually really loves her, but then Elphaba shows up and he dumps her for Elphie immediately. I just find it really sad, because Glinda was hurt, angry, and heartbroken but just like Elphaba, she was trying to convince herself not to steal Fiyero back. And I think it’s beautiful in the sense that Elphaba and Glinda had such a close relationship that they were determined not to let a boy get between them, and they were willing to sacrifice that for each other.
But in all honesty, I don’t care much for Fiyero as a person. 😛 He’s not very nice or admirable.
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Love the analysis you put about that song. The thing that is the most confusing about the love triangle is Fiyero. I understand why he dumped Glinda, but I don’t think he would have started going out with Elphaba if he didn’t already develop feelings for her before. I am beginning to wonder did Fiyero already have developed feelings for Elphaba previously to the opening of act 2. The last time I saw Wicked, I found myself noticing clues in the first act which can point to that fact. Previously to “I’m Not That Girl”, it appears as if maybe he has, but not noticed it yet. Than after that scene, he couldn’t stop thinking of that lion cub incident. Due to the major love triangle plot twist, my favorite love triangle is in this musical
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I have a feeling he already liked her by the Lion Cub scene, not to mention how he brought flowers for her at the train station and pretty much ignored Glinda (much to her dismay!). I think during the time during Act I and Act II he was still thinking of Elphaba but because Glinda was so in love with him he kinda just went along with it since he thought Elphaba was gone. From Thank Goodness, his reasoning for being with Glinda seems to be that it makes her happy.
I’ve read some fanfictions that explain the reason why Fiyero became the Captain of the Gale Force was so that he could search for Elphaba, which sort of makes sense.
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I was beginning to think the same thing. But I don’t think he even realized it yet. The biggest hint at that was when he gave Elphaba flowers at the train station
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Wicked has always been my favourite musical especially these two songs 🙂 this blog post perfectly explains the love triangle and the irony of the unrequited love which is one of my favourite parts of the show 🙂 I also love the last line which talks about friendship because that’s so important in the show!!
gracethoroughgoodbeauty | I’m a London based 19 year old who happens to have a blog about my favourite things which include: beauty, musicals, travel and lots more ❤️
https://gracethoroughgoodbeauty.wordpress.com/
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Because I am a massive musical fan, I am always asked what my favorite musical is and I sort of freeze up a bit. I have two musicals tied with that #1 spot and Wicked is one of them and Les Mis is the other. I tend to respond by calling Wicked my favorite musical comedy
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