Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Elphaba Thropp (Wicked)

*Elphaba-related spoilers.*

I’d originally planned on doing another Ted Lasso post today, but my brain lives here right now, so here we are. Part of the reason why I’m so much more obsessed with the movie than I was with the original musical is because of the neurodivergent interpretations that leapt out at me. Obviously, I’m looking for that sort of thing now in a way that I wasn’t back then, but that never stopped me from latching onto hella neurodivergent stories without realizing why they spoke to me so deeply (i.e. Pushing Daisies, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Scrubs.) I do think the movie feels more ND to me than the show does, though I’m sure it helps to get the actors’ full performances onscreen instead of just listening to the cast recording. I (briefly) considered holding off on writing about this until Part 2 comes out, but let’s be real—that wasn’t likely to happen. I can always write an update post when that time comes. At any rate, we need to start, naturally, with Elphaba.

It’s true that Elphaba wouldn’t have fit in with her classmates at Shiz no matter what. Being green instantly marks her out as different, and the other students are quick to ostracize her. And it could be argued that Elphaba’s toughness is purely a product of having been laughed at her whole life, going her own way because she doesn’t expect anyone to be on her side. But to me, her portrayal comes across as very autistic.

Green skin aside, one of the first things you learn about Elphaba is that she’s 100% herself. She’s rarely afraid to speak her mind, going toe-to-toe with everyone from Galinda to the Wizard. She doesn’t go along to get along, and I don’t think she can. It’s so antithetical to who she is. She has to contradict, to question, to plant her own flag. When she arrives at Shiz, she knows people are going to gawk at her anyway, so she gets ahead of it, answering all the rude questions they haven’t yet asked. At the extreme end, this quality gets her branded as public enemy number one at the end of the act/movie. While Galinda wants to play politics, Elphaba can’t even pretend to go along with the Wizard and Madame Morrible for the sake of playing a long game—no, she instantly denounces both of them and flies off on her own rather than compromise herself for a second.

This leads us to Elphaba’s intense empathy and passion for justice. Growing up, one of the only people who was kind to her was her nanny, Dulcibear. At Shiz, she in turn stands up for Animals like Dr. Dillamond. Once she learns about the troubling things happening to Animals, she wants to help, and she’s keenly aware of how their treatment is the result of scapegoating. She’s especially distressed to realize that some Animals are losing the ability to speak, because she’s often felt forced to hold her tongue by her father. Elphaba is a character who’s frequently prickly to others, but she’s nothing but kind to Dr. Dillamond.

Anger is a powerful emotion for Elphaba. Again, she doesn’t have it in her to play nice, so her emotions are frequently evident on the surface, but her anger is also a trigger for her magic. While Elphaba is extremely powerful, she can’t control it at this point. In her lessons with Madame Morrible, she struggles to perform magic on command. When she’s upset, however, we see objects begin to rattle or shake as the emotion builds inside her, bursting out dramatically as she’s overwhelmed. I’m reminded a little of Matilda and “Quiet” here, in that I feel a connection between the use of Elphaba’s powers and meltdowns. In Matilda, her powers are born after she’s taken mental refuge from a combination of sensory overload and fury against injustice. For Elphaba, injustice is also a huge factor, along with feeling a strong loss of control.

The last thing I want to talk about with Elphaba is her ability (or struggle therein) to read people’s intentions. As I said, she’s quick to go on the defensive where her appearance is concerned, pushing people away before they can hurt her. But that means she can completely miss when someone isn’t looking down on her. She holds Fiyero at arm’s length for a long time, distrusting his friendly overtures. While she can see through his shallow party-prince routine and see that he doesn’t like the persona he’s taken on, she can’t see that he genuinely likes her. And on the flipside, she falls easily for the Wizard’s song-and-dance, giving him her trust and adoration. This adds to her incensed reaction when she realizes who he really is—she’s of course starkly opposed to his scapegoating of the Animals, but she also hates that he tricked her, making her feel like he cared for her and wanted to help her make a difference.