While the Wicked Witch has done wrong things, she is still not the terrible person people claim her to be. Her moral compass is strong. She is kind at heart, and her actions are, if not moral and justified, a result of unfortunate situations she does not have control over.

Elphaba, throughout the story, is consistently advocating for the rights of the animals in Oz. Even before meeting the Wizard and finding out the plan against animals by the Wizard, she frees a lion cub from his cage after Dr. Dillamond is removed from teaching and comes to the Wizard to wish for the freedom of the animals. 

Afterwards, her single goal is to save the animals from tyranny, which she achieves in spades throughout her journey, starting from the very first scene in “Wicked: For Good,” where she freed animals that were forced to make the yellow brick road. After that, she frees the flying monkeys, along with freeing the animals in cages that were kept hidden from her. By the end of the story, the animals of Oz are freer than ever thanks to her actions, directly and indirectly.

She also shows she is a kind person at heart. Although she pushes others away at first, she eventually learns to accept others into her life. Glinda is intentionally mean to her at first, and yet Elphaba is the first one to extend her hand, which leads to an incredibly strong relationship between the two. 

She wishes she was not born because she thinks that her being born caused her sister to develop paraplegia and her mother to die, even when she had no control over those events. 

Her advocacy for the rights of the animals develops from a respect for one of her professors, Dr. Dillamond, and as she hears the stories from the other animals, she gets rid of her wish for the Wizard of Oz to change her green skin in exchange for giving the animals rights. 

You could argue that she is wicked for the various terrible actions she is said to have done–turning Boq into tin and making the monkeys grow wings–but neither of these actions were done out of malice. 

Boq was turned into tin in an attempt to save his life, after his heart began to shrink when Nessarose tried to cast a love spell using the Grimmerie. Though Boq no longer has a heart, he can still live another day. 

The monkeys grew wings the very first time Elphaba read the Grimmerie, and she was unaware of the effects it would have on the monkeys. Along with that, she did not know yet that the effects were irreversible, nor that the Wizard has no power of his own. 

You could still argue that her actions were wrong. Even her good actions were done mainly through means that would have gotten her arrested, but she was not wicked. Her morals were good, her actions were well-intentioned, she is kind to those who are kind to her and to those who are less fortunate. 

She was not looking for power, she was only looking for justice and kindness in others. If wickedness means being immoral, then the Wicked Witch was not wicked.

With the recent release of “Wicked: For Good” audiences are now reconsidering how Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch, was ever labeled as evil in the first place. After all, her main goal was simply to protect the animals, which is hardly the character trait of a villain. The film’s goal is to portray Elphaba as the classic misunderstood hero who only wants to help.

However, after watching the film, I am not convinced. 

The character of Elphaba does have some good traits. Yes, she cares about the animals and she sings very passionately about social injustice, but these things do not make up for all of the terrible things she does throughout the film.

Elphaba’s solutions to problems in the film cause bigger problems for everyone around her. Her attempt to ‘save’ the lion club involves her stealing and then running away, an obviously bad choice. Even though Elphaba technically saved the lion, she left it traumatized and alone in an unfamiliar place filled with predators, leading it to even be afraid of its own shadow. 

Another example of this reckless behavior is when Elphaba is trying to expose the Wizard. Instead of handling the situation rationally, she does it in the most dramatic and destructive way possible. While her message was not objectively evil, she left the people of Munchkin Land fearing for their lives.

Just because Elphaba is in the right technically does not excuse the fact that she constantly makes bad decisions with absolutely no regards for those around her.

And that is just to strangers. Her treatment of her closest friends and classmates is just as bad, if not worse.

While the film tries to portray the connection between Elphaba and Fiero as romantic, that is the farthest thing from the truth. It is impossible to deny that Fiero was, at this moment, Gilinda’s boyfriend. Elphaba’s feelings for Fiero start while they are in the academy training for magic. Does Elphaba face the issue while there is still time to rebuild Glinda’s trust in her? Of course not. That would be too easy. 

Elphaba instead waits until the day of their wedding to act on her feelings about Fiero. Falling in love is one thing, but stealing your best friend’s future husband is another level of evil.

Even if Glinda forgives her later, the whole situation remains ethically questionable at best. 

Elphaba’s intentions might be good, but her actions suggest that calling her ‘wicked’ might not be an insult after all. It might just be an honest description of her. 

In the end, Elphaba was, shockingly, wicked. She does, in fact, live up to her name, the Wicked Witch.