The sun slowly rose over the Emerald City as the morning dew fell on nearby trees. Glinda was seen addressing the Ozians of Emerald City. "Good people of Oz, I have a message from the great Wizard himself. 'With little more than pluck and belief, we made the impossible happen. As your Wizard, I hereby decree the land of Oz will forever be free!'" The Ozians cheered as Glinda then continued. "I will return to my mortal form shortly when in recess. However, should one seek my guidance, you must address me at the imperial throne room and when I am in my exterior form. I miss you all and I look forward to see you all soon."
The crowd erupted into cheer and celebration again. The Land of Oz was now free.
The following morning, the Wizard was installed as ruler of the Emerald City. One of his first actions he took as its leader was freeing all of its political prisoners. This included Gemmelharf. The Wizard freed him himself and they both shook hands.
"Thank you, Wizard. You are a kind man", was Gemmelharf's humble reply.
The Wizard smiled at him. "Now you are free to live in the Emerald City again."
Over the next several months, the Wizard settled into his new role. He swiftly passed numerous decrees that banned discrimination against talking Animals and allowed all sentient beings throughout Oz to become involved in politics. He abolished servitude at the palace. Those who worked at the palace were now paid civil staffers and, as a prerequisite to employment, had to sit for an examination. Additionally, the Wizard appointed Finley as his chief of staff, who was in charge of all administrative operations throughout the Land of Oz. In fact, Finley was the first talking Animal to ever serve in a political position in Ozian history.
However, cracks would begin appear in his professional relationship with Glinda. While Glinda would repeatedly tell the Wizard that she had no interest in serving as an "Ozma", there would be numerous power struggles between the two. For one, the Wizard thought about pardoning Gayelette, Singra and Mombi, which would have allowed them to return to the Emerald City, but this was met with determined resistant from Glinda, who threatened to resign as his advisor if he went through with his pardons. As a result, he declined to pardon them.
While the Wizard was seen as the Emerald City's de facto ruler, many of his most important decisions needed Glinda's permission. She was incredibly popular among the Ozian people. The Wizard knew that Glinda was admired and respected throughout the land, and as such, he would not render important decisions without her prior approval. In many aspects, it was Glinda who was the real leader of Oz, even though she would spend most of her time at her castle in Quadling Country.
Additional conflicts and tensions would again arise between Glinda and the Wizard within the first year of his rule. One month after Theodora flew off on her broomstick away from the Emerald City, Glinda drafted a proclamation that Theodora should now be known among all Ozians as the Wicked Witch of the West, that she was banished from the Emerald City forever and that anyone who associates, aids or contacts her would also be permanently banished as well.
The Wizard was furious when Glinda gave this to him. He flatly refused to endorse such a proclamation. While Glinda remained calm and collected during their tense exchanges, the Wizard screamed at her in anger, his language filled with expletives and his voice packed with rage. He went so far as to suggest that if she proceeded with her proclamation, that she should immediately resign from her position as his adviser. As a result, Glinda relented.
And without the Wizard's endorsement, Theodora was free to return to the Emerald City and anyone throughout Oz could still communicate with her. However, word traveled fast among the Ozian population that she was indeed the "Wicked Witch of the West" and that she was to be avoided at all cost. According to the court of Ozian opinion, if not by official decree, Theodora was still labeled a wicked witch and shunned by Ozian society.
Evanora would meet the same fate. Because Evanora had settled on the unclaimed Munchkin Country, she was now officially known throughout the land as the "Wicked Witch of the East".
However, the Wizard's biggest test would arrive in the ensuing months after Evanora and Theodora left the Emerald City.
One night, as the Wizard laid on his bed, he remembered the flower that Theodora gave him. He had put that flower in his drawer by the bed the day following Theodora's departure from the Emerald City. He opened the drawer and he saw it, still shining a bright crimson red. It was beautiful. When looking at this gift, the Wizard began to miss Theodora dearly.
The following day, as the Wizard was attending various meetings throughout the palace, he received a phone call, which went to his voicemail. Upon hearing this message, it was from Theodora. Her voice was as sugary and sweet as he remembered it.
Hi Wizard, I've been thinking about you recently. Can you call me back?
The Wizard listened to this brief voicemail twice more. He even asked Finley to listen to it as well. Many thoughts were racing through the Wizard's mind. Here was his chance to get back the one woman in his life, after his ex-wife's passing, who meant so much to him. The Wizard began to think of all the great qualities he missed about Theodora, such as her bright smile, her giggling laughter, her beautiful eyes and her warm, innocent and child-like personality. To the Wizard, so much seemed at stake—one wrong step and he might lose her again forever. Theodora had helped him when he arrived at Oz and she had been tragically subsumed in Evanora's manipulations. Theodora was a victim, too. Shouldn't he at least give her the benefit of the doubt? Shouldn't he at least have a phone conversation with her?
The Wizard then found contradictory songs coming to his head. One song was about leaving someone who was mentally unbalanced, while the other song was full of sorrow and regret about how a person treated someone they loved. Why was the Wizard thinking of these contradictory songs? Why was he thinking about exorcising a tormented love affair after getting a mystifying call from a girl he greatly cared about, however brief it was? The Wizard then realized it was the same state of mind Theodora evoked in him as did his ex-wife—the anxieties that a wrong move on the Wizard's part could be fatal, the agony of indecisiveness and the paralysis of not knowing the right answer or response. It was all the same reactions, which was why the Wizard allowed his ex-wife to control and abuse him until he sought therapy with Dr. Gale.
Despite this, his relationship with Theodora haunted him. Her departure from the Emerald City left a large hole in his psyche as did the death of his ex-wife, even though the Wizard knew beforehand his marriage had not been working out. With Theodora, it all seemed so much worse. To lose someone who was psychically present in his mind, but not physically available, was unbelievable. The harm it caused, if there was any resolution, could never be fully healed.
The Wizard did care for Theodora. That much he knew. And for the next several days, he agonized over what to do. He spoke with Finley and he even spoke with Knuck, who had known Theodora since he was a child. Both advisers could not tell the Wizard what to do. Despite the shocking behavior that Theodora exhibited before and after he arrived at Oz, the Wizard missed her so intensely and terribly. As such, he began to put the best possible spin on her five second voicemail. The Wizard spoke out loud in his bedroom as he contemplated what course of action to take.
Maybe she felt sorry for how she behaved and she wanted to reform? Maybe she reflected on her time away and wanted to change? Maybe she felt all of the things that I had hoped she felt, such as true and genuine empathy and compassion, and she couldn't put them into words? Maybe she really did change?
Then, as the days passed, the Wizard began to see the message for what it truly was: a presumptuous, entitled and self-absorbed person who did not convey any sort of apology or remorse. From a person who had him imprisoned as a form of manipulation to someone who attacked innocent Quadling families, there was no empathy or regret in her voice. There were no misgivings for what she did to the Wizard or how she terrorized other Ozians. It slowly dawned on the Wizard that the Theodora he wanted back in his life-the kind and innocently sweet girl he met on the road while traveling to the Emerald City that bright sunny day-was a one-dimensional caricature of her persona that existed at one brief point in time. It was a fantasy the Wizard constructed of her before he knew all aspects of her personality.
After days of excruciating thought and harrowing deliberations, the Wizard decided not to call Theodora back. It was one of the toughest decisions he had to make.
The Wizard opened his dress drawer again and saw the red flower, shining brightly and radiantly. He held the flower once more, but because he could not separate the gift from the gift giver, he placed it in his drawer once more. He closed the drawer as an act of defiance. He could not look at the gift, for the memories of what happened were too raw for the Wizard. He wanted to love Theodora. He wanted to be there for her, but his gut told him that those fantasies would never happen.
However, for the Wizard, his time with Theodora did not end with their last fated meeting. Since the positive memories of the time spent with her were burned into his very being and had been so precious to him, he wanted those memories to live again, even if it was only in his mind. And even though she had only touched him briefly, the Wizard went through a deliberate process of remembering every positive attribute of her. For the Wizard, love and meaning were found in the most unlikely of places, even if those attributes were attributed to someone who was deemed "wicked" by the Ozian populace and one who ultimately disappointed him and let him down. Instead of mourning over his loss and thinking about what might have been had only Theodora made different life choices, he started to celebrate its ultimate meaning. His feelings and love for Theodora were real and genuine. And since the love was real, it was the Wizard's forever, even if Theodora's perhaps never truly shared that pureness of heart or was using those shared feelings for ulterior motives of her own.
And even though the Wizard believed that Theodora would never return to him, he knew that the authentic core of love that they shared together was eternal, even if it was marred by the imperfect, the obsessive and the selfish nature of the human condition. But, for the Wizard, remembering her was not easy. On many occasions, he would fight through his despair, his heartache and his depression, which was present on some days more than others.
Another year would go by before the Wizard would open his bedroom drawer and see the red flower again, shining its bright red crimson like it had never aged at all. Instead of the sorrow, anger and depression that would enter the Wizard's mind, they were now replaced by a new emotion, welcome but unbidden: appreciation. The flower now represented a true and genuine act of kindness and love. The Wizard viewed the gift as being understood by a unique person he would never find again. He knew that Theodora would never be replaced, and that the love and its tender acts of reciprocity they shared together were precious and real.
In the Wizard's mind, Theodora was a kind-hearted, compassionate, sweet and innocent girl who loved him. She was also a cruel, chaotic and tormented woman who terrorized the Ozian countryside, imprisoning those who disagreed with her sister's draconian rule and whose capricious personality manipulated those around her for personal gain. But the Wizard retained all of the positives that Theodora had given him and all of her unloving, wicked actions would not wrest that away. He began to recall the relationship he had with her not with sadness, anger, regret or longing, but with happiness and gratitude.
As he adoringly gazed at the red flower, the gift that she gave him nearly two years prior, he softly whispered the words he was always searching for, but now had only finally found. "Thank you, Theodora. For everything." The Wizard left the flower on top of his dresser and walked out of his chambers.
To the Wizard, Theodora had forever been woven into the fabric of his being. For him, she was now a three-dimensional memory that burned bright, in both the light of goodness and in the dark of wickedness.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For those of you who are content with how the Disney movie played out, by and large this would be the end of the story. More information about a potential sequel to this story is also below.
First, I tweaked several important plot devices in this story. For one, Theodora's "transformation" is not a single event, but a multitude of events. This still keeps her as a character with a tragic backstory. However, this tragic backstory is not attributed to a singular action by a single person. As a result, her story is incredibly more complex with many moving parts.
I left out China Girl from the story. While I felt she was a fun addition to the movie because she brought entertainment value (especially for young girls), I felt she added little value as to the plot itself. The only notable thing she did in the movie was bring Glinda her wand. But if we are to stay true to the source material, would Glinda ever be intentionally captured? Would she ever need someone to save her? Probably not.
Let's talk about a potential sequel to the 2013 movie. One reason why I believe Disney has not yet made a sequel to Oz: The Great and Powerful is due to potential problems in the plot. How can you make a two-hour movie in between a 20-year window when the audience knows that none of its principal villains will die? This was true in the 2013 movie (both witches survived), yet the directors had at least a plot to work with. They wanted to tell the audience how Oscar became the Wizard of Oz and how the Wicked Witch of the West became who she was.
What now? Where does Sam Raimi (or another director who takes over) go from here?
The above is only my opinion and not something that has been endorsed by Disney.
Regarding sequel ideas, a movie director has several options if they choose to make a sequel to the 2013 film. These sequel ideas would follow everything that happened in the first film (not my story arc).
First idea: wracked with guilt over what happened in the first film, Oscar mysteriously goes back in time. He wakes up after the storm when his hot air balloon lands in Oz. He remembers everything that happened in the first film and this time can make choices that affect the plot differently.
Second idea: the apple that Theodora ate wears off and she reverts back to her normal appearance. Now faced with growing resentment and discrimination among the Ozian populace, Theodora tries to readjust to Ozian society. The Wicked Witch of the East, however, will stop at nothing to get her revenge on the Wizard and Glinda and keep Theodora "wicked."
Third idea: A witch war continues between Glinda on one side and Evanora/Theodora on the other side (probably the worst out of all three potential plot ideas.)
If the director wants to stay true to the 1939 movie, none of the above ideas really work out, except for the third idea. But how will the third idea make a second movie worthwhile? There needs to be emotions and themes the audience can relate to, not just battles or another war. The Wizard of Oz books, the 1939 film and Wicked were never about fighting for the sake of it, but real themes audience members could resonate with and understand.
I believe if a sequel is made, the 2013 film should act as a "reboot" to the Wizard of Oz franchise with a set trilogy. This could include Dorothy in the final film, but if a director does try to make a reboot to the 1939 Wizard of Oz in the final film, he or she will have a near impossible mountain to climb. This is why I believe a remake to the 1939 Wizard of Oz film should be abandoned and the trilogy, if Dorothy is to be included, should forge its own path. Wicked is but one example of how a work can stay true to canon while being original. The difference is that Gregory Maguire interprets important events differently (ex: the "Wicked Witch" doesn't die, but actually fakes her own death). There is also a plethora of fanfiction writers on here who use similar motifs while staying true to Baum's work.
And for those who think a sequel will never be made, remember this: a sequel to Avatar is finally being made after a 12-year hiatus. Just because a sequel hasn't been made following the 2013 movie doesn't mean that it will never happen.
However, if a sequel is made by Disney, it better be good. And the plot better not be about the Wizard and Glinda having a baby girl.
Finally, let's discuss a potential sequel to this work. As mentioned above, I *did* start writing a potential sequel (work in progress), so if you want to read more, please let me know in your review! If I get enough demand for a sequel, I will publish it on here.
And let me be clear: if I get requests for a sequel, I *will* publish one. This is a promise.
In a sequel, there would be even more backstory to the witches. King Pastoria and Queen Lurline would be introduced as characters with dialogue through flashbacks. The Wizard would also have additional backstories. I would introduce Locasta as a character and Dr. Gale would play a more prominent role in several chapters, especially with one of the main characters.
I thought about introducing the Nome King as the principal villain, but I scrapped that idea. The story will again center around the Wizard and Theodora because there is more than enough material from this book to continue writing about their complicated relationship. I know many fans were disappointed with the way Theodora was treated in the movie. I can't promise you that the sequel will have a "happy ending" for her. I have not decided how the sequel will end. However, I can promise you that if I publish the sequel, I will do my best to make it an interesting read.
Evanora will also play a role in the sequel. Nimmie Aimee will be introduced along with Nick Chopper.
Since Disney has not made any movies covering this 20-year period, everything and anything will be on the table.
This whole idea started in 2020 just before the COVID Pandemic. I had recently seen the 2013 movie and thought about how Disney could have made it better. Then in February 2021, the weather was cold and due to the ongoing pandemic, most things in my area were closed. I began to use writing as a means to cope with this stress. I started writing the middle of the story (chapter 9 was the very first chapter I wrote), which then turned into several chapters. Then it took on a life of its own. Before I knew it, I had a short novel.
It took me about four weeks to write this. At first, I just wanted to keep all of this to myself. Then I thought it wouldn't hurt to post this on a fanfiction site. I had lurked here for the past year while reading different stories. I decided to add mine to the mix.
This is the very first story of novel length I ever wrote. And of course, if you want to take anything I wrote and expand on it, either through written or visual work, then by all means you are free to do so. I seek no commercial gain through writing this story.
I hope you liked this novel. Thank you for reading. And if you want me to complete and post a sequel, please let me know in the reviews!