| “ | Or is it just that the world unwraps itself to you, again and again, as soon as you are ready to see it anew? | ” |
| — Fiyero, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West | ||
Fiyero Tigelaar is Elphaba's love interest. He is an Arjiki prince from the Vinkus (or Winkie Country), who attends Shiz University. His family reside at Kiamo Ko as well, a castle which Elphaba later goes to live her final days.
Life
Fiyero is the only son and heir of Marilott Tigelaar, Prince of the Arjikis, and Baxiana of Upper Fanarra. At the age of seven, he was married to a tribeswoman named Sarima, though he would not take up full marital duties until he was 20. Like all Arjikis, he is ochre-skinned[1] and wears blue markings. At the age of 18, he enrolls at Ozma Towers in Shiz. When he first arrived in Shiz, Fiyero was chased by enchanted antlers in Professor Nikidik's class and was spared when Crope and Tibbett came to his rescue. Boq, who narrates the section, says that Fiyero was the only Vinkus student he had ever seen before, but Boq did note that Fiyero's eyes were intelligent. Fiyero was then added as a member of the charmed circle, a group of friends including Elphaba, Glinda, Boq, Nessarose, Avaric, and Crope and Tibett.
Between graduating college and meeting Elphaba again, he has become Prince of Arjikis and has three children: Irji , Manek and Nor. On a trip to the Emerald City he sees Elphaba and the two catch up and begin having an affair. He meets an early demise when he is brutally murdered by The Wizard's Gale Force secret police, presumably because he is affiliated with Elphaba, who was working as a member of the resistance. Fiyero's death affects Elphaba deeply, leaving her stricken with grief leading her to slip into a coma. Fiyero also leaves her pregnant with a son, Liir, though Elphaba would never know this for certain since she was in the coma while in childbirth with the child. She is left haunted by a sense of guilt and failure that eventually drives her to seek out Fiyero's widow and children in the isolated Vinkus castle, Kiamo Ko. Before her accidental death by Dorothy she, going insane from insomnia and paranoia, begins to think that Fiyero might not have died, but rather was alive in disguise as the Scarecrow.
Susen Hilferty's sketch of Fiyero's Dancing Though Life costume.
Getting excited thinking that he was headed her way, she eagerly sent out many of her "workers" to pull off the face of the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz to reveal Fiyero. But when they do he is revealed to be made of nothing but straw. Fiyero's lineage survives in Liir, and Liir's daughter, Rain.
Book to Musical Differences
Jorge Lau as Fiyero with Ana Cecilia Anzaldua as Elphaba in Wicked Mexico
In the musical, the character has no tattoos (simply because the small designs did not translate well to the stage) and never married, but he is engaged (rather reluctantly) to Glinda. He is at first a careless, happy-go-lucky, kid who cares little about school and is involved in a romantic relationship with G(a)linda Upland where he has no romantic feelings for her in the book, even though Sarima suspected that he was having a love affair with Galinda. Most of his happy-go-lucky attitude was originally part of Avaric's personality. However, when he meets Elphaba, he begins to understand that there is more to life than having fun and never thinking where in the book, he has little interaction with Elphaba at Shiz. With this discovery, he realizes his true feelings for Elphaba, and saves her from the Wizard's Gaurds. He is held hostage and tortured (offstage). Fiyero is then transformed unwittingly into the Scarecrow by Elphaba even though he was killed by the Gale Force in the novel. He helps Elphaba stage her death and runs away with her out of Oz to start a new life, where they both die in the book (though in the end Elphaba's death is questionable). Fiyero is the vehicle that makes a successful conclusion of the musical possible by helping Elphaba escape from Oz that isn't present in the book. In the musical Fiyero does not officially die.
Songs
Nobert Leo Butz in the San Francisco Try-Outs
Solos (In A Duet)
- As Long As You're Mine (Elphaba)
Solos (In A Group Number)
- Dancing Through Life (Glinda, Boq, Nessarose, Elphaba, and Students of Shiz)
- Thank Goodness (Glinda, Madame Morrible, and the Ozian Citizens)
Trivia
- Fiyero's ethnicity is never actually mentioned, he is simply referred to being dark, or ochre in colour, which could mean he has an African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Romani or Indian appearence.
- The blue diamond facial tattoos Fiyero has in the novel aren't actually tattoos. Avaric mentions that it's paint[2] and when Fiyero first discovers Elphaba's scar, he originally thought that his diamonds had rubbed off onto her skin.[3] Brrr mentions in "A Lion Among Men' that Fiyero had blue diamonds painted onto his skin.[4]
