From Elphaba’s arrival at Shiz University, where she’s an angry, brilliant outsider caring fiercely for her fragile sister Nessarose, to the end of the story, Wicked follows how truth becomes twisted into legend: at school, Elphaba clashes with the popular, approval-seeking Glinda, but they slowly form a real friendship; Elphaba’s natural magic draws the attention of Madame Morrible and the seemingly benevolent Wizard of Oz, while the silencing and imprisonment of talking Animals—embodied by the gentle professor Dr Dillamond—awakens Elphaba’s moral fire; when Elphaba and Glinda meet the Wizard, Elphaba learns he is a powerless fraud using fear to rule Oz, and when she refuses to help him, she is branded “wicked,” escapes, and publicly defies him, while Glinda stays behind, choosing safety and status; years later, Oz is tightly controlled, Elphaba is hunted as a villain despite secretly fighting injustice, Glinda becomes the beloved public face of goodness, Fiyero—once carefree—falls deeply in love with Elphaba and risks everything to help her, Boq is tragically transformed into the Tin Man, and Nessarose becomes a cruel ruler whose accidental death under Dorothy’s house further blackens Elphaba’s name; Fiyero is captured and seemingly killed but is magically transformed into the Scarecrow, Dorothy confronts Elphaba over the silver shoes, and in the climactic moment Elphaba fakes her own death by “melting,” allowing Oz to believe the lie; in truth, Elphaba survives and escapes with Fiyero to live freely, while Glinda finally exposes the Wizard, banishes him, imprisons Morrible, and accepts the lonely responsibility of ruling Oz honestly—ending with both women changed forever, one remembered as wicked, the other as good, even though the audience knows the truth was always far more complicated. Glinda’s story in Wicked is about a girl who begins by wanting love and admiration and ends by choosing truth and responsibility: when she arrives at Shiz University as Galinda, she is bubbly, charming, privileged, and deeply focused on being liked, believing that popularity equals goodness, and although she looks shallow, she genuinely wants harmony and avoids conflict because she’s terrified of rejection; forced to room with Elphaba, she initially mocks and misunderstands her, but guilt and growing affection turn their rivalry into a real friendship, and through Elphaba she begins to see injustice in Oz—especially the cruelty toward the Animals—even if she isn’t yet brave enough to confront it; when they meet the Wizard, Glinda understands the truth but chooses safety, staying behind to become the public symbol of “goodness” while Elphaba takes the blame, a decision that haunts her as she rises to power, loses Fiyero, and lives in constant performance; by the end, after Elphaba’s staged death, Glinda finally acts with courage, exposing the Wizard as a fraud, imprisoning Madame Morrible, and accepting leadership without illusion, knowing she will be loved but lonely, changed forever by her friendship with the woman history will never forgive.