#yero

[slut-and-falcon]

Elphaba called Fiyero a scarecrow long before his unfortunate transformation.

It started at Shiz. She experienced him attempting to joke about ‘asserting his dominance’ while doing the ‘T’-pose. And this was being done in response to a bunch of birds (not Birds) following Fiyero since he feeds them in the morning before campus is busy.

(‘Listen Boq! I am simply asserting my dominance *t poses* by controlling the bird population! See how they flock to me!’)

And she responded asking if he was attempting to be ‘asserting his dominance’ over her or a few crows.

(‘Tiggular, please -for the love of the Unnamed God- why are you doing your scarecrow impression? It’s really bad if so because you aren’t even scaring off those crows. Maybe you should show them your last term paper - now that was scary!’)*

*listen Elphaba is a bit of a bitch at times in booksical cannon

After cackling at her own joke, she started jokingly calling him a scarecrow who was really bad at his job.

And that legacy followed him post Shiz.

[stastrodome]

You cared more about me than I cared about myself.

[federer7]

Untitled. For a Definition of The Nude Series (Woman with Peacocks), 2007

Photo: Dimitris Yeros

[gacougnol]

Dimitris Yeros

Small church on the sea 1998

[psikonauti]

Δημήτρης Γέρος (Dimitris Yeros) (Greek,b.1948)

Untitled, 2006

Oils and crayon on paper 

[backscale-pivot-queen]

Lola Yeros, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿

Asian Games Busan 2002

[raven-curls]

X

[melop-sia]

HELLO @elphabaoftheopera ! i hope youre doing well! ive arrived with more lfay thoughts and some analysis!!!!!!!! 🥳

READING THOUGHTS:

im so, so glad i rereading lfay, it is honestly such an awesome fic and the writing so amazing! personally, since this was kind of my first time reading through the entire thing without multiple day breaks, i was definitely able to pick up on less obvious details (which are compiled below!) that made everything so much better!!! i genuinely felt like i was experiencing the story again for the first time, which made me able to appreciate and become engaged with the more emotional scenes and chapters! some of my favourites of these include chapter 23 (i was evidently moved enough to leave a comment mid read 😅😅), chapter 28 and chapter 34.

for sister sunrise, the description of elphaba reflecting over her room for the last time really got me :') the paragraph was written super beautifully and after going through most of the story i reallyy felt the nostalgic and sentimental aspect.!!!! dorothy and the dark was already a pretty emotional last chapter, but in particular fiyeraba saying goodbye to glinda and elphaba reflecting on her relationship with fiyero to get through the dark were some i really appreciated and loved!

aside from that, i loved being able to notice how elphaba went from following the rules to playing by her own since it was written with a pretty clear distinction! despite it, you managed to still write her so in character and i applaud you for it! 😁

i was wondering, was it difficult for you to write each character through all of these emotions and emotional scenes? im super in awe of how well characterised they are, i can't lie my mind started mixing some of the musical and this fic together because of it how accurate it all is!!! 👏

EDIT: i was also wondering, which parallel in lfay is your favourite / was the most fun to write in?

PARALLELS:

i pride myself soo much in picking up on these! i planned to have screenshots of all of them, but unfortunatly because of the image limit ill just have to describe some 😔 nevertheless, i hope you like reading through this segment and id like to thank @mystic-oni for his much appreciated help in finding some of these!

i loved how this parallel really developed from the beginning of their relationship, with the bickering turning cute banter :) 💕

i HAD to include this one, it is so so sweet and the parallels were all incorporated so well and warmed my heart ❤️❤️

along with these, there was also nessa making the same "you look dreadful" comment to elphaba at shiz and at kiamo ko, each in very different tones that made the second time very heartfelt :')

EXTRAS:

as well as parallels, i noted some a few references related to the book 🥳 i also noticed a few things that sounded similar but i wasn't sure were exactly parallels 🧐 but still wanted to include anyway... so here they are 😁!!! some captioned, some not but i hope you enjoy all!

i was super surprised at myself for initally not finding the lyrics snuck into the poem, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless!! also picked up on the mention of sarima from the book during chapter 14!

ANOTHER EDIT: another reference i got after watching wicked again was elphaba's book "discord and discontent" was mentioned by dr dillamond (can't recall in what way though 🥲)!

i noticed elphie celebrating in a similar way at going to shiz and getting into the sorcery seminar, she makes me so :))) SHE IS SO HOPEFUL AND DESERVES EVERYTHING!!!! i absolutely adore how you wrote her so excited and youthful during the act 1 chapters 🥺💕💕

fiyero having the same reaction to elphaba's temper from two different "lives" 💞 i can't help but love this little detail! i also picked up on how fiyero jokes about seeing the present in chapter 20 in comparison to him being sincere about it in the epilogue! super super subtle but one of my favourites !! there was also when elphaba sarcastically suggested enjoying the ocean in ev to considering in the last chapter, i laughed when i first read it and i still do when i think about it :)))

EXTRAS

nearing the last few chapters, i maaayyyy have impulsively made a LFaY chapter naming quiz 😇 it is linked below, i hope you have fun with it!

FINAL REGARDS

overall, im so glad i took the time to read over this outstanding fic, i don't think i could ever get tired of your writing!! ❤️❤️ i look forward to seeing more of your work, and im very excited to hear that there may be new works coming!!!!! however long that takes, i can't wait to be here yet again in support! :)))

[slut-and-falcon]

Fiyero gets migraines like a lot. And previously to and at Shiz, he had a major reputation as a partied and then crashing hard. And yes while he did party and drink from time to time, his infamous ‘hangovers’ were actually bad migraines in which he couldn’t get out of bed.

And he wears the sunglasses because light sensitivity related to the migraines along with hiding his blood shoot eyes- because he used 🍃recreationally and for pain management.

Post the events of No Good Deed, and after Elphaba turns him back to human and they leave Oz/hide in the Vinkus, they get worse due to both the physical and mental trauma. And Elphaba is one of those ppl whose never even had a headache before (in this very specific headcannon, the canon implies head trauma, like a lot of it), so she tries to be understanding but truly cannot grasp what he’s feeling. And her confidence issues are such that she refuses to try to do anything neurological with magic- and this drives a large wedge between them. Why wouldn’t Elphaba help him feel better? Can’t Fiyero understand how dangerous and maybe not even possible what he is asking if for is?

They express their frustration separately to a magical neighbor, and she sided with Elphaba that neuro magic is far too dangerous to use due to the lack of knowledge on it, but she does provide alot of coping tools and skills to help alleviate pain - she instructs Elphaba on how to add magnesium to their diet, how to make ginger ‘candies’ and how ginger, citrus, and peppermint fight inflammation. She also teaches her about magically made ice and heat backs, charmed red tinted sunglasses that change their tint as needed.

Elphaba then consults various biological and medical books and studied muscle tension, the nervous system, and acupressure. She also studied nutrition triggers, learns how to track the weather for migraine triggers, and makes a note to keep Fiyero extra hydrated.

And Elphaba being the ever practical person she is writes this all down, and gives it to Fiyero as a gift, explaining that she’s upset that he’s in pain and she can’t do much to completely get rid of it. But, she said, here is a book worth of information that *IS* going to help you feel better.

I just the love the idea of them trying to help each other even if not in ‘traditional’ ways, or how the other would expect. I’m my eyes, there’s nothing more that says ‘I love and care about you’ than a partner taking the integrity to do the mental load of the health for the other when they are in need of it, and doing so without being asked.

[deeplyshalllow]

My Wicked BFF and I on the new trailer

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #122 - Essex Girls

[gacougnol]

Dimitris Yeros

Window of the old thermal bath 1998

[psikonauti]

Δημήτρης Γέρος (Dimitris Yeros) (Greek,b.1948)

Nude With Snails, 1995

[not-quitenormal]

Yero the Hero

~*~*~*~

Fiyero with dark skin and tattoos just feels right, ya know? Also, my brain went "what if the Vinkus had a natural pigment for making ink shimmer" and then the tattoos took shape from there. 🥰

[avinkusprince]

so the wicked movie audio leaks........... honestly, she sounded good and the set looked fun. weirdly giving me a bit more hope for it.

[elphabaoftheopera]

rereading lfay chapter one! was missing the fic so hard and couldn't help going back to it after getting more hyped about seeing wicked later this year :')

have any other little facts about lfay? maybe some specific unfound parallels to point out? did you intend to make elphaba left handed in the promo photo for the fic?

ps. congrats on the greg awards :))) 🎉🎉

Oh my gosh hi!!!! It's so good to hear from you! Thank you for letting me know that you're rereading, this message made my heart so happy. I'm so excited you get to see Wicked again this year! I just bought my tickets to see the tour again in a few months.

I'm actually so excited you asked about behind the scenes facts, I have a bunch of behind the scenes stuff that I haven't shared.And thank you about the awards, I was super flattered to be nominated/voted for in all of those categories!

Cover Art

As for the cover art, I've always had the head canon that Elphaba is left handed or ambidextrous. However, the real reason I made her left handed was because the cover art is actually a photo of my real hand painted green. I'm right handed, so it was easier to paint my left hand and take the picture with my right. I got black press on nails and everything. The "Love Fae and Yero" letter was paper I stained with tea and I hand wrote the title. I like to craft so I figured that was easier/more fun than photoshopping. It took many tries to find a good angle for the pic and I have a whole folder of the pics that didn't work as well.

Please let me know your thoughts if you continue to reread, and ask any questions you like. Thank you for giving me the permission to info dump about my story!!!!

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Love, Fae & Yero"

References to source materials

The original characters were homages to famous pen pal stories (in name only, not in personality).

Amalia- Named for Amalia Balash from Parfumerie (1937 Play) and She Loves Me (1963 Musical) Vicar Mathias Popkin- Named for “Mathias Popkin”, the fictional name given to Klara’s anonymous suitor in The Shop Around the Corner (1940 Film) He is also intended to be the same “Owl in Munchkin Rock, a vicar with a thriving flock, forbidden to preach” from “Something Bad”. Lieutenant Jozsef Fox- Named for Joe Fox from You’ve Got Mail (1998 Film) Jerusha Pendleton- Named for Jerusha Abbott and Jervis Pendleton Daddy Long Legs (2009 Musical) Miss Garland- Named for Judy Garland who starred in In The Good Old Summertime (1949 Film) and of course The Wizard of Oz (1939 Film)

There were also some lines inspired by these stories. Elphaba says "I wanted it to be you so badly" in Chapter 17: See How Bright which is a line from "You've Got Mail", Glinda and Elphaba visit a Parfumerie, the last line of Chapter 14 is a nod to "She Loves Me", and Glinda says she got the dress for Elphaba at "The Shop Around the Corner". All of the references to them meeting at "eight o'clock" is a nod to the song "Tonight at Eight" from She Loves Me. Elphaba also says "Will he like me when we meet" in Chapter 11, a line and song from She Loves Me. There's likely more I can't think of right now.

In (almost) all of the versions of the pen pal story the girl waits for the guy at a cafe with a rose in a book so he knows it's her, so that scene in Chapter 11 is a nod to that as well. Except in those versions the guy *does* find out it's her but doesn't tell her he's the pen pal right away. I did consider keeping this story more true to that model (meaning Fiyero would realize Elphaba is the pen pal but wouldn't reveal it) but I'd already gotten the idea to have Glinda reveal it at the Ozdust and I didn't want to change that.

The sorcery is inspired by The Wizard of Oz. 

The magic I decided to incorporate into the story, primarily teleportation and crystal balls, were inspired by The Wicked Witch of the West’s magic in the movie. When The Wicked Witch of the West first enters she has a red cloud of smoke but when she exits there is fire. Then of course, there is her crystal ball she uses to spy on people.

The Epilogue: The Badlands

My decision to have Elphaba and Fiyero go to the Badlands was largely inspired by earlier drafts of the musical. 

In the San Francisco Tryout Elphaba has a conversation with Nessa during WWOTE about the Badlands. They call it “the bleakest most Ozforsaken place you can imagine” and how no one ever returns from there, and Elphaba says she could because she could fly. She said Animals fled to the Badlands and were so frightened they forgot how to speak.

I was also inspired by this passage in Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz by Carol de Giere about an ending in which Elphaba and Fiyero run into Doctor Dillamond in The Badlands and Elphaba helps him speak.

“It was to take place on a scruffy farm in an isolated area of Oz called the Badlands.” (p. 309)

“He [Stephen Schwartz] liked the down-to-earth feel of having her use natural healing abilities rather than magic. Dr. Dillamond then bleated with difficulty: “El-pha-baaaa.” 

“On some emotional and philosophical level, it was why I wanted to tell the story,” Schwartz later revealed about the last scene where Elphaba tries to heal the Animals who have fled to the Badlands. “It’s the fact that it’s completely anonymous and she’ll never get any credit or public affection for it, but she does it anyway.” (p. 310)

I felt the line about staying anonymous was particularly fitting, so I wanted to loosely incorporate his original vision into the epilogue.

Additionally, some other plot points/dialogue were taken from the San Francisco Try Out, particularly in Nessa and Elphaba's talk in Chapter 28: Sister Sunrise. Elphaba says "So it's you they're talking about, I thought it was another lie about me" and Nessa says "not everything's about you". Fiyero also originally had a line in the Lion Cub scene where he says "you cared about the cub so much it changed everything, what's it like to care about something that much?" which I used as well in Chapter 10: Fair Weather Friends.

It was really cool to see the different versions/drafts that didn't make the cut and use them for this mishmash of different canons.

The story was originally going to be *much* shorter.

I didn’t originally plan to set Elphaba off down The Wizard path. It was just going to be a Shiz-era story and I considered ending it after “An OzDust Do-Over”. I also considered ending it after “She’s Off To See The Wizard” on an ambiguous note, and then maybe continue in a sequel. Then ideas like the sonnet, cave, and trapdoor started coming to me and I realized I had to continue it through. As a writer, I usually tend to make a story darker/more dramatic than I originally set out to do lol.

Lost chapter

There is a “lost” chapter of LFAY that was originally between Chapter 19 “An Honest Go” and Chapter 20 “Out Loud” in which Elphaba helps Fiyero through his test anxiety. It was ultimately cut because it wasn’t serving the grander plot, but the current plan is to use a lot of the dialogue I wrote in a different story I have in mind. It still exists in my draft folder.

Parallels

As for parallels I'm sure there is many that I wrote and forgot about, I may have to reread myself. But one that I particularly like is a parallel between Chapter 17: See How Bright and Chapter 34: Dorothy and the Darkness. It repeats the line : "Fiyero had come…and he’d brought the light back with him."

Elphaba also says "Follow me, Yero?" to which Fiyero responds "Anywhere" three times. Once in the museum in Chapter 19: An Honest Go, once as they're heading into the seedy market in Chapter 27: Mockbeggar Market and once before they're about to leave Oz in Chapter 34: Dorothy and the Darkness.

I'm positive there are more I'm not thinking of, I really went off on the parallels. 😅 Let me know if you ever catch any more!

Bonus: I got bored once and created them on Sims...

Thank you again for reaching out, please do so again if you have other thoughts/questions!