Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Fiyero Tigelaar (Wicked)

*Fiyero-related spoilers.*

This is the last of my Wicked-related Neurodivergent Alley posts. For me, Fiyero’s neurodivergent coding is more vibes-based than anything else, but if you take an ND reading of the character (ADHD in this case,) it opens his portrayal up in interesting ways, and it’s a big part of the reason why Fiyero works so much better for me in the movie than in the stage show. (Book Fiyero, by the way, is so different that he’s effectively a separate character, so I won’t be drawing from the book at all.)

To me, Fiyero reads as ADHD—after the film, I discovered that Jonathan Bailey has ADHD as well, so I’m totally taking that as confirmation. And to be sure, a lot of my interpretation comes from Bailey’s performance. There’s less to specifically put my finger on compared to Elphaba or Galinda. It’s a total vibe, slightly ineffable but definitely there. It’s in the way he carries himself, the way he moves and interacts with other characters onscreen.

So if we start from the premise that Fiyero is ADHD, his textual portrayal resonates differently. Like Galinda, he’s a skilled masker—when the two of them flirt with each other, it feels like you're watching a play, two master performers "yes and-ing" their way through a relationship that looks good on paper. But while Galinda’s very deliberate mask feels like an artificial version of neurotypicality, Fiyero’s looks different. It’s not as brittly maintained, for one thing. And for another, it’s less about hiding ADHD traits and more about presenting them in an “acceptable” package. Plenty of ADHDers do this by taking on the mantle of the “class clown.” For Fiyero, he’s the fun-loving party prince whose job is to make everybody happy.

And it is kind of a job for him. When Fiyero arrives at Shiz, he puts on a whole-ass performance, declaring, “Once again, the responsibility to corrupt my fellow students falls to me.” In the past, “Dancing Through Life” has struck me as a shallow, rather self-absorbed song, the bored prince seeking pleasure and creating fun for his own enjoyment. But in the movie, the song is so outward-facing. It’s Fiyero putting on a show for his new classmates, teaching them about his philosophy and creating fun for their enjoyment. It’s much more of an act, and he does it for them. As he stirs up chaos in the library, dancing on books and flirting his way through the student body, he’s giving the people what they want.

Part of that act, specifically, is about playing dumb. And again, when you view it through an ADHD lens, that resonates differently. It hits harder when Fiyero mentions that he’s been kicked out of multiple schools, when he calls himself “brainless” and “thoughtless.” We don’t see much of him actually in class, but if academics are hard for him, it might feel easier to lower people’s expectations out of the gate, to play the part of the careless himbo rather than admit to any struggles.

In truth, though, Fiyero isn’t dumb. He’s quick-witted, someone who has a response to nearly everything—we can tell when Elphaba starts to get under his skin, because it’s in conversations with her that he loses his well-practiced composure. He’s observant too, a shrewd judge of character. Not long after he meets Galinda, there’s a “game recognize game” moment where he acknowledges her skill as a performer. And he has Elphaba’s number pretty immediately after meeting her as well, noting how she starts out on the defensive to push people away. I can definitely buy him as a guy whose wheels are always turning, even though he pretends he’s not.

Elphaba is the one who clocks him—the heart of all these relationships is basically the characters recognizing the parts that the others hide from everyone else. She sees, not just that Fiyero is putting on an act, but that it makes him unhappy.

Like Galinda, Fiyero has created his mask so effectively that he’s gotten trapped in it. But another important difference between them is that I think Fiyero is much more aware of it than Galinda is. As hard as Galinda works to maintain the image she projects, I'm not sure if she entirely realizes that it isn't the real her. Fiyero definitely knows it, which fuels his depression. Even in “Dancing Through Life,” his fun, breezy performance distracts from the deeper thoughts he's revealing in the lyrics: “Why think too hard when it’s so soothing / Dancing through life?” “Woes are fleeting, blows are glancing / When you’re dancing through life.”

This brings me to a final difference between them. Both are drawn to Elphaba, and she makes both of them want to show her more of their true selves. But while Glinda is still stuck in her performance, retreating when Elphaba offers her a chance to break out of it, Fiyero is more ready to cast aside the persona that’s kept him safe. Although he hasn’t fully escaped it yet, the threads holding him back are a lot more tenuous.