Thursday, June 26, 2014

Twister of Fate... or the Plot

If you're reading this... I am dead.

No, kidding. Obviously, I'm not dead. But that's immediately where my mind goes when I read a sentence starts with "If you're reading this". There's a whole trope about it, even.

Anyway, this post is going up after chapter 18 of The Ghost of Kiamo Ko is up, which is the chapter which changes everything.

So, I thought the time was right to discuss some of the plot changes I made and why I made them. I was originally going to do this in a video, but I eventually decided against it.

There were 3 big changes I made in GoKK from Rebecca, and several smaller changes I made either to fit the new plot caused by the big changes; or just to make the story my own. So, I'm going to talk about those 3 big changes.

WARNING: Spoilers for Rebecca ahead! If you haven't read the book, or seen the movie or seen the musical and you don't want to know what happens, STOP reading this now. 

The thing about Rebecca is that its a gothic novel. Meaning dark, angsty and quite frankly- depressing. Explains a lot, right? And whilst I don't mind gothic literature, changes had to be made to fit Wicked into Rebecca's universe and characters.

1) Rebecca's death:
Rebecca: She is an expert sailor with her own little boat and everything, and she dies in a boating accident.

GoKK: Sarima dies of a long illness. I changed this because of #3 on this list. In hindsight, I probably could have kept it the same, but it's simpler this way.

2) The dinner party:
Rebecca: It's not a dinner party in the novel, but an annual costume ball that Rebecca and Maxim used to host, and Maxim and the new Mrs de Winter are convinced to resurrect it. As the new Mrs de Winter is an artist, she is trying to design a costume. Mrs Danvers finds a draft of a sketch, and suggests that she might be inspired by one of the portraits of de Winter ancestors in the gallery. Specifically, one of Caroline de Winter, a woman all dressed in white with flowing dark hair.
The costume ball arrives, and Mrs de Winter is keeping her costume a secret from Maxim and Frank (AKA Avaric). When she comes downstairs, Maxim reacts badly. Turns out, it was the exact costume Rebecca wore for her last ball before her death.

GoKK: I changed this because obviously, a costume wouldn't work for Elphaba unless she could disguise her skin. And I find that singing works well as a talent for Elphaba because she is a talented singing in the Wicked book, and well... the musical is fairly obvious. LOL.

If you want to see the scene from the 1940 movie, you can see it here.

3) Maxim's revelation:
Rebecca: Much of this is the same as you see in GoKK. They got married, Rebecca revealed herself as a bitch and had numerous affairs. They hated each other, she died and Maxim confesses his love for his new wife.
However- Maxim's confession was very different. Yes, he hated Rebecca and loves his new bride... but (SPOILER) he also killed Rebecca. I KNOW!!! He went down to the boathouse to confront her about her most recent affair (with a gun), she said she was pregnant and it wasn't his- although it would be raised as his- and he was so mad he shot her. (Although in some adaptations, he pushes her and she falls and hits her head and dies that way). And then he put her in the boat, took it out of the bay and sank it.
And that's why he keeps the new Mrs de Winter at a distance.

GoKK: Honestly, no matter the circumstances, I just couldn't see Fiyero committing murder. Or I didn't want him to commit murder, haha.


So that's that. The three big changes I made. Maybe you guys could see it differently. Maybe you really wanted Fiyero to have killed Sarima (like Julia). Thoughts? Comments?


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