For Good’ Obsessed With Clock Ticks?

Both Wicked And its new sequel, for goodis littered with “Oz-isms” – words thrown in occasionally here and there to make the Land of Oz interrogate our own reality, like “passionate,” “ecstatic,” or “brave,” etc. but there is such a for good Over and over again, to the point of awkwardness, everyone tells each other that they will do something “within the clock ticking.”

for good There’s already a strange relationship with time, given that the film (and even the creative team during its press tour) is vague about how much time has actually passed between the events of the film – Madame Morrible writes in the beginning that there have been “12 tide turns” since Elphaba stole the Grimmerie, but we’re never given any indication of what time frame the tide turn is in – or the passage of time in the film. How is meaning connected with events Wizard of Oz In the background (as with music, it’s best not to think about it at all).

But it’s a “ticking clock” that comes up again and again for goodThe characters are repeatedly telling each other to wait for the clock to tick, or they’ll get back to the clock ticking, or they only have the clock ticking, This is especially odd, given that Oz has “just a second” as a turn of phrase – that’s exactly what Glinda says when she has to pop her bubble to hear the Munchkins talking to her, WickedThe clock is opening, so the clock’s ticking should amount to a minute or two, but construction isn’t necessarily the issue; The point is that it is used many times for goodIncluding adapting a moment used in the stage show during Elphaba and Glinda’s catfight.

rest of Wicked‘Oz-isms become background noise, which is why they’re so effective – they’re not particularly irritating to our ears, the way repeated use of “clock ticks” is. But there’s another reason too… because neither the musical nor its film adaptation actually uses a key element from Gregory Maguire’s original novel, Clock of the Time Dragon.

In Maguire’s version Wicked (Which in many ways is completely different from musical events), the clock is an important part of Ozian culture, which also has spiritual significance. A traveling mechanical puppet theater, the clock is a large tower-like object that travels through different areas of Oz, presenting shows that make people begin to believe that they are actually capable of making predictions. Elphaba has a particularly significant connection to the show, as it is revealed in the book that she is actually born in the clock; One of its shows attempts to uncover the nature of her true parents and the sickening deaths of several characters. Wicked and its sequel novels are foretold by the Time Dragon, which eventually becomes a place of safekeeping for the Grimmerie.

But the watch was never really brought up that much in the musical or film adaptations. The music is at least slightly more involved with this, as the production is staged with the Time Dragon hanging over the stage, whose clock face forms a key piece throughout the background, but this is set as a sign of its importance in the original book rather than as a key plot point. Meanwhile, the films go even further: Glinda mentions the clock inside. WickedIt starts off when she describes the time of Elphaba’s melting, and Shige University has an elaborate clock whose design features a dragon motif as a sign, but that’s about it.

The fact that the Time Dragon’s clock is very unimportant to both Wicked musical or Wicked The film adaptation faithfully recreates the repeated use of “the clock ticks”. for good All strangers—intentionally or otherwise—nod.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.