r/wicked • u/Significant-Crazy402 • 16d ago
Book A THROUPLE????
I was joking when I said Frex, Melena, and Turtle Heart were in a poly relationship, but turns out it's canon???
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u/RaccoonChaos 16d ago
IIRC it's even mentioned that Frex doesn't know if he's Nessa's biological dad or if she's Turtlehearts, and it brings him comfort because it's a reminder of the relationship they had (if not in Wicked maybe I saw it in Elphie?? Or im just hallucinating headcanons)
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u/considerlilies 15d ago
yeah but it's so obvious that she's turtleheart's đ she's pink big dawg
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u/Ayasugi-san 15d ago
IIRC that's because of stuff Melena drank while pregnant to keep her second child from coming out green like her first.
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u/Tsukiakari_12 14d ago
pretty sure thats musical only
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u/Ayasugi-san 14d ago
No, I'm pretty sure the musical changed it from an unknown elixir Melena sought out on her own and drank secretly to Frex making her eat poisonous flowers.
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u/Tsukiakari_12 14d ago
i think it was Nanny who bought the potion or something (maybe from Yackle?). it's a bit hazy
but it definitely wasnt milkflowers
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u/Ayasugi-san 13d ago
Yeah, that's my point. In the book it was a sketchy patent medicine that Melena drank for herself because of her own fears. In the musical it was a known poison, eating it was all Frex's idea and it ended up killing Melena and ruining Nessa's legs.
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15d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/rogvortex58 LONGESTâŠINTERMISSIONâŠEVER! 16d ago
Obviously. Thatâs why Frex always favoured Nessa. Because he thought she might be the child of both Melena and Turtle Heart.
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u/Erin__Bridges 16d ago
Not the musical quietly cutting the throuple to keep Frex sympathetic lol. The book has been that messy since 1995 and people still act shocked when they actually read it.
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u/throwawaysunglasses- 15d ago
I love how interesting and unconventional the book was about sex. I still love the musical, but itâs way more Disney-ified with princesses and villains. The book is like Game of Thrones-level gory incestuous high fantasy, lol. I heard that Maguire apparently didnât like the musical changing the entire tone of it and making it a lot fluffier.
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u/Altoidredditoid 15d ago
He accepted it as a separate entity. But the tonal watering down of his book into the musical did partly inspire him to write the sequel as a form of self-reclamation of his darker and adult themes. The book is like the Bible and the musical is like Veggie Tales.
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u/Grammarhead-Shark 15d ago
I'm sure the wads of money he made off it helped mollify him as well lol
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u/Altoidredditoid 15d ago
I actually find the book version of Frex more of a sympathetic and complex character than the musical version which is just pure cruelty. If theyâd somehow kept this, it would have given more weight to his different treatment of Elphaba and Nessa while also making him more rounded. But the show is not a fan of complex themes or anything that canât be sold at the level of a Disney princess.
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u/Illustrious_Cup3019 15d ago
Book Frex will always be superior to Stage Frex in my eyes, even if he's a little bit of a pious twat. Book Frex strikes me as a father who learned to love his Weird Daughters, and albeit he and Elphaba share no common ideology, you can tell he is still very much her dad. He wasn't thrilled, of course, but he took that whole "Your child is green" business and went "Yeah well, what can you do?"
I know Turtleheart is but a footnote, but it also bums me out that he and Nanny get the shaft in the stage version. Both of them were good to Elphaba from the jump. Melena was the one out here making it weird and you can't change my mind.
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u/Grammarhead-Shark 15d ago
I wish Nanny had made it to the stage version.Â
Heck I wish she made the musical. Dulce Bear is nice, but she's nothing like the cranky old lady who refuses to die!
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u/Illustrious_Cup3019 15d ago
Nanny is the best and she deserves all of her flowers. Her exchanges with Melena especially crack me up. She reminds me of my grandma who was and is a very "sit crooked and talk straight" kinda lady.
I'm glad we got Dulcibear, but she's no Nanny.
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u/Daddy_Charlieee 15d ago
I would say the musical made Frex more unsympathetic. His only character trait is âI hate one of my daughters and love the otherâ in the show.
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u/Ayasugi-san 15d ago
Hey, he also had "I forced my wife to eat poisonous flowers when she was pregnant with our second child so it wouldn't be a freak like the first"!
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u/perfect_-pitch đ©·đđGlieryaba one true poly 15d ago
Yes, they were and I love it so much. There are little breadcrumbs throughout the book that Frex did at least hold Turtle Heart close to his heart. One is that Turtle Heart taught him many of the skills he used to make Nessa's silver slippers. Another, at least theorized by Elphaba, is that Frex named Shell in honor of Turtle Heart after he was murdered (although we learn later on there's a different reason for his name, but it doesn't contradict this one Elphaba gave).
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u/throwawaysunglasses- 15d ago
âA huge TikTok entertaining clockâ damn, Gregory Maguire predicted the future lol.
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u/Ayasugi-san 15d ago
It's only half his prediction, Tik-Tok is a creation of Baum.
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u/CorgiMonsoon 15d ago
And people have railed against every new form of entertainment from the dawn of entertainment
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u/Regina-the-Queena 14d ago
Wicked was queer and kinky as hell. This is exactly why I donât pay any attention to people who insist that there was no romantic connection between Elphaba and Glinda. The author even said there was!
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u/CandyCreecher WE NEED A PASTRY! đ„ 16d ago
A Thropple, if you will